Apple has announced new 14- and 16-inch iterations of its MacBook Pro laptops, featuring Apple’s next-generation silicon. The M2 Pro and M2 Max chips turn the MacBook Pro into a portable workstation, able to tackle demanding tasks like effects rendering and color grading. Apple is promising up to 22 hours of battery life, the most ever in a Mac. The smaller model starts at $1,999, while entry level for the 16-inch is $2,499. Pre-orders began last week and delivery starts tomorrow. Apple is also releasing an updated Mac mini with M2 ($599) or M2 Pro ($1,299) chips. Continue reading Apple Debuts MacBook Pros with M2 Pro and M2 Max Chips

The Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 is a 1000R curved 57-inch gaming monitor that uses quantum mini-LED technology for pixel resolution of 7,680 × 2,160 at 32:9. Announced in November as the first monitor with DisplayPort 2.1 support, it has 240Hz refresh rate and connects with the Samsung Gaming Hub for cloud gaming. Samsung, which is calling the Neo G9 “the world’s first single monitor with dual ultra-high-definition resolution,” says it will ship later this year and did not announce pricing. The company also announced the 49-inch Odyssey OLED G9. Continue reading CES: Samsung Neo G9 Curved Gaming Monitor Wows Crowd

At CES 2023, Asus refreshed this year’s models of its popular ROG Zephyrus gaming laptops. The new flagship M16 comes tricked out with 13th Gen Intel i9 and Nvidia RTX 4090 graphics. The RTX 4080 variant starts at $3,900. Also arriving in the first quarter of 2023 are updates on the G14 and ROG Zephyrus Duo 16, with options including AMD Ryzen 9 Zen 4 or 13th Gen Intel processors and Nvidia GeForce RTX 40 Series GPUs. On the display front Asus offers the ROG Nebula, powered by mini-LED powered Nebula HDRs. Next-gen cooling rounds out the package. Continue reading CES: Asus Upgrades Popular ROG Zephyrus Gaming Laptops

Nvidia announced during CES this week that it plans to roll out its RTX Video Super Resolution feature in February for web video content viewed through Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge browsers. The company promises AI upscaling up to 4K quality, but the feature requires a PC running a Nvidia 30- or 40-series GPU. The technology — which can upscale video with resolution between 360p and 1440p, including 1080p, and up to a 144Hz frame rate — has already been available on Nvidia Shield TV and Shield TV Pro streaming media players. However, introducing browser support should significantly increase its audience. Continue reading CES: Nvidia’s AI Upscaling Tech to Tackle Blurry Web Video

At Nvidia’s CES 2023 keynote, executives revealed new products and innovations in laptops, gaming, the omniverse, robotics and auto technology. Nvidia senior vice president of gaming Jeff Fisher focused on the company’s AI developments, emphasizing that, “AI will define the future of computing,” and adding that “this has influenced much” of what the company is showing at CES. He highlighted the company’s “new era of laptop computing,” powered by its Ada Lovelace architecture, GeForce RTX 40 Series GPUs and new 5th generation Max-Q technologies with DLSS 3 for quadrupled speed. Continue reading CES: Nvidia Intros AI Impact on Gaming, Omniverse, Laptops

In the wake of overwhelming public response to recent offerings DALL-E 2 and ChatGPT, OpenAI this week introduced Point-E, a text-to-3D model generator that is garnering positive feedback. Faster and less resource intensive than comparable systems, it’s still in the early stages and prone to occasional disjointed results but has advanced the proposition. Using a single Nvidia V100 GPU, Point-E can create a 3D model in under two minutes, generating “point clouds” — data sets representing a 3D shape. Point clouds compute more easily than the wire-fame meshes traditionally used to model 3D objects. Continue reading OpenAI’s Point-E Offers a New Take on Text-to-3D Modeling

Apple revealed its highly anticipated 5G-capable phones this week during its annual September product event. While all four models — including the iPhone 14 and larger iPhone 14 Plus — offer improved cameras and new safety features, the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max are the first to utilize Apple’s new A16 Bionic chip, built on the new 4-nanometer process. Apple calls it “the fastest chip in a smartphone.” All four models have satellite connectivity to send emergency messages in areas without cell coverage. The company also debuted the Apple Watch Ultra, aimed at high-performance athletes, and the AirPods Pro. Continue reading Apple Unveils New iPhone Line, Watch Ultra and AirPods Pro

Nvidia has issued a software update for its formidable NeMo Megatron giant language training model, increasing efficiency and speed. Barely a year since Nvidia unveiled Megatron, this latest improvement further leverages the transformer engine architecture that has become synonymous with deep learning since Google introduced the concept in 2017. New features result in what Nvidia says is a 5x reduction in memory requirements and up to a 30 percent gain in speed for models as large as 1 trillion parameters, making NeMo Megatron better at handling transformer tasks across the entire stack. Continue reading Nvidia Turbo Charges NeMo Megatron Large Training Model

The graphics processor unit drought may be over as retailers report inventory is plentiful with prices returning to pre-scarcity norms. Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 Ti’s that were marked up to nearly double the MSRP on sites like eBay are now available for approximately their intended $2,300 price. “GPU prices continue to drop on a monthly basis,” reports Tom’s Hardware, attributing the favorable conditions in part to the cryptocurrency crash, which has “resulted in more mining firms shutting down,” selling off hardware and not competing for new units. The easing of COVID-19 supply chain bottlenecks is another mitigating factor. Continue reading Replenished GPU Inventory Results in Return to MSRP Pricing

Apple says its new M1 Ultra chip will give Nvidia’s RTX 3090 — currently the fastest processor on the market — a run for its money. Introduced last week as the power inside the new Mac Studio desktop, the M1 Ultra has a unique architecture, dubbed UltraFusion, which connects two M1 Max chips for an SoC with 114 billion transistors, the most ever in a personal computer chip, according to the company. “M1 Ultra is another game-changer for Apple silicon that once again will shock the PC industry,” said Apple senior vice president of hardware technologies Johny Srouji. Continue reading Apple’s M1 Ultra Is Power and Performance ‘Game Changer’

Intel chief executive Pat Gelsinger revealed it may take two years to ramp up chip production, while Advanced Micro Devices chief executive Lisa Su noted that her company is prioritizing high-end chips found in a PlayStation 5 game console or Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card over “lower-powered parts.” The auto manufacturing sector has been hit hard by the semiconductor shortage — with some indicating no end in sight. At John Deere, chief technology officer Jahmy Hindman said that he expects “we’re into this for the next 12 to 18 months.”  Continue reading Chip Shortage Continues to Have an Impact Across Industries

During this week’s CES 2021, Deloitte Consulting principal Dan Littman led an inquiry into how the 5G rollout fared in 2020, with AT&T Business chief executive Anne Chow and Qualcomm Technologies senior vice president of engineering Alejandro Holcman. “5G is a new-generation wireless technology filled with complexity of technology, ecosystems and government requirements,” said Littman. “And 2020 made everything a little more challenging.” He asked Chow and Holcman to describe how 5G has been challenged and/or accelerated during the year. Continue reading CES: Acceleration of Technology, Adoption in 5G’s First Year

Cerebras Systems and its partner, the Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), revealed that its CS-1 system, featuring a single massive chip that features an innovative design, is 10,000+ times faster than a graphics processing unit (GPU). The CS-1, built around Cerebas’ Wafer-Scale Engine (WSE) and its 400,000 AI cores, was first announced in November 2019. The partnership between the Energy Department and Cerebras includes deployments with the Argonne National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Continue reading The Cerebras CS-1 Chip Is 10,000 Times Faster Than a GPU

At the company’s second virtual tech product reveal, Apple chief executive Tim Cook debuted four iPhone 12 models that are capable of connecting with 5G networks. Prices for the new phones begin at $699 for the least expensive 5.4-inch iPhone 12 Mini up to the $999 iPhone 12 Pro and $1,099 12 Pro Max. Oscar-winning cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki made a short movie with the iPhone 12 Pro, which Apple touts is “the first and only device that enables you to capture, edit, watch, and share Dolby Vision video.” Continue reading Apple Touts iPhone 12 Pro as an All-in-One Filmmaking Tool

Data center and colocation provider Equinix is inviting companies to test-drive the NVIDIA DGX A100 system at its International Business Exchange (IBX) data center in Los Angeles (the company currently has more than 200 IBX centers in 52 markets). This site is currently the only place in the world where companies can take advantage of the DGX A100 to test drive their AI equipment. According to the Equinix testbed landing page, “The test drive solution brings together industry-leading AI hardware from NVIDIA and NetApp alongside best-in-class software technology from Core Scientific, all directly connected on Platform Equinix.” Continue reading Equinix Invites Companies to Test-Drive AI System at LA IBX