Tech

Windows 11 is much more than a new theme slapped onto Windows 10

Enlarge / The latest Windows focuses heavily on improved task management, prettier UI, and a much more ambitious Microsoft Store. (credit: Microsoft) Earlier this morning, we got our first official look at Windows 11 by way of Microsoft’s What’s New For Windows event. The new OS offers several significant, functional changes to what we’ve become […]

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SiFive’s brand-new P550 is one of the world’s fastest RISC-V CPUs

Enlarge / SiFive’s “Essential” family is stripped down to the minimal configurations and performance necessary for standard microcontroller duty. “Intelligence” adds AI/ML acceleration, and the new “Performance” family offers just what it says on the tin. (credit: SiFive) Today, RISC-V CPU design company SiFive launched a new processor family with two core designs: P270 (a […]

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These macOS Monterey features won’t work on Intel Macs

The back of the 24-inch iMac. [credit: Samuel Axon ] A page on Apple’s website has revealed that several features of macOS Monterey, the new version of the software that runs on Macs, won’t work on legacy Macs with Intel processors. Rather, those features will require the Apple-designed M1 chip (or presumably its upcoming successors) […]

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Here’s why TSMC and Intel keep building foundries in the Arizona desert

Enlarge / In 2020, Intel partnered with the National Forest Foundation in Phase III of a project replacing invasive Arundo and Tamarix weed species with native flora and revegetating burned-off areas. This phase of the project aims to restore 79 million gallons of fresh water per year. (credit: Intel) Two of the world’s leading chip […]

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Intel’s Optane H20 is the latest attempt at “hybrid” laptop storage

Enlarge / The new Intel H20 looks like a standard NVMe SSD—but it packs both slow QLC NAND and ultra-fast Optane into separate chips on the same M.2 drive. (credit: Intel) Intel’s got a new consumer-targeted storage product, called Optane H20—as in H twenty, not water. The new device is an M.2 2280 format drive, […]

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TSMC is considering a 3 nm foundry in Arizona

Enlarge / In a few years, Phoenix residents will be seeing a lot more of this logo. (credit: SOPA Images) Reuters reports that TSMC—Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the chip foundry making advanced processors for Apple, AMD, and Qualcomm—is beefing up its plans to build factories in Arizona while turning away from an advanced plant in […]

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Intel claims its new Tiger Lake-H CPUs for laptops beat AMD’s Ryzen 5000

Enlarge / Intel’s new Core i9-11980HK leads the 11th-gen laptop CPU lineup. (credit: Intel) Intel today announced 10 new 11th-generation CPUs for high-performance laptops like those made for gamers or content creators. Built on the 10nm SuperFin process, the new chips are in the Core i9, Core i7, Core i5, and Xeon families, and they […]