Western Digital has today presented its latest effort to catch up with traditional QLC NAND Flash SSDs by improving its HDD offerings. With the latest High-Bandwidth HDDs, Western Digital has implemented two new technologies in a classical multi-platter HDD design. The first innovation comes in a form of High Bandwidth Drive Technology, which enables double the I/O bandwidth with a path to 8x the current bandwidth in the future. It relies on simultaneous reading and writing from multiple heads on multiple tracks, which is already in customer hands for validation. The second one is Dual Pivot Technology that introduces a second set of independent actuators on a separate pivot, which will not scarify drive capacity unlike older dual actuator designs.

Using Dual Pivot Technology, HDDs can pack more drive platters in a standard 3.5-inch body for higher capacities, and the performance grows by an additional 2x, which is 4x I/O bandwidth compared to today's drives. This technology will pave the way for 100 TB HDDs, that offer speeds comparable to QLC SSDs, at much better price/performance ratio and better data retention, prompting the massive boom of HDD development. Western Digital's drives with High Bandwidth Drive Technology are already shipping to customers, while drives with Dual Pivot Technology are in development in Western Digital's labs and are scheduled to become available in 2028, with early customer sampling probably much sooner.

According to Chinese Board Channels, a reliable source of GPU news, AMD's add-in board (AIB) partners are preparing for another round of GPU price increases. They also seem to be shifting their product focus toward 8 GB Radeon models. After distributors implemented a 5-10% price adjustment in January, another increase is reportedly planned for February or March, though the exact percentage is not yet known. Board Channels also reports that AMD is expected to prioritize stocking 8 GB SKUs such as the Radeon RX 9060 XT 8 GB and the older RDNA 3-based RX 7650 GRE, rather than the 16 GB SKUs like the Radeon RX 9070 XT. This shift is due to a shortage of GDDR6 memory, which is reducing the profit margins for AIBs without a significant price increase.

Distributors reportedly stocked up after January's price increase, which could lead to uneven availability if resellers hold onto inventory in anticipation of another adjustment. With DRAM prices having risen sharply in recent months, manufacturers are reassessing which memory configurations to produce, favoring 8 GB variants because they are cheaper to manufacture. This shift might also cause some 16 GB parts to become more expensive, narrowing the price gap between AMD and NVIDIA in the midrange market. The earliest effects of these changes are expected to be seen in mainland China, where partners may allocate more volume to 8 GB cards and reduce the output of certain 16 GB GRE and non-GRE models. We are yet to see how it reflects on the Western stores and pricing imposed by retailers like Amazon, Newegg, and others.

Mozilla's plans to make Firefox "a modern AI browser" have fallen flat on its face. When Anthony Enzor-DeMeo took over the Mozilla the new CEO, he announced plans to make the browser a modernized version of AI-first browsing experience. However, massive community backslash has resulted in the CEO quickly apologizing to the community and promising a killswitch. In the upcoming Firefox version 148, scheduled for a release on February 24, there will be an option to turn off AI features in the browser individually, or all at once. This includes AI-assisted translations, alt text in PDFs, AI-enhanced tab grouping, link previews, and an AI chatbot in the sidebar. Users can choose which features to enable or disable, and those who prefer not to use any AI functions can turn them off entirely with a single switch. This setting will persist even after future updates, ensuring that users who opt out will not encounter generative AI features.

Mozilla is fulfilling its earlier promise to implement an AI killswitch, an option increasingly sought after by many users. While some enjoy a web experience assisted by AI, many do not. Having an option to individually turn off specific features, or all at once, is the perfect solution. Interestingly, this is not the first time we are seeing features from companies that are marked as new updates, but instead delivering a shield from all the "AI enhancements." Users are clearly expressing a frustration of AI everywhere approach, and Mozilla is aiming to position Firefox right where the community wants it to be. For Firefox Nightly users, the feature is available right away. However, for Firefox stable, users must wait a few days until February 24 to install Firefox 148.

Intel's upcoming "Arrow Lake Refresh" are weeks away from the final release, but new listing suggests that there might be more SKUs getting a refresh makeover than we initially thought. In the latest listing by a Romanian retailer, there is a new SKU called Core Ultra 5 250KF Plus, with a code number BX80768250KF. The SKU is supposed to be the first version of the ARLR family with a "KF" mark, meaning that there won't be an integrated GPU in this processor Instead, only the CPU is provided, meaning that a GPU is mandatory, much like the previous KF SKUs. In the listing there is a mention of 4.2 GHz frequency, which aligns with the previously rumored Core Ultra 5 250K Plus and its P-core base speed of 4.2 GHz. This means that other specifications will remain similar to the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus, like the E-Core base speed of 3.5 GHz, E-Core turbo of 4.7 GHz, and P-Core boost frequency of 5.3 GHz. The only difference will be the lack of iGPU, as it has been a case with previous KF SKUs.

Interestingly, the Romanian retailer is also listing the Core Ultra 250K Plus (BX80768250K) and Core Ultra 270K Plus (BX80768270K), while the flagship Ultra 9 290K Plus is not yet listed. This doesn't necessarily mean the SKU won't exist, but rather that this preliminary listing is incomplete for now. For the Core Ultra 5 250KF Plus, the retailer listed it at 1,049 Romanian Leu, which is about $243. As previous leaks suggest a March or April release of the ARLR family, we can expect the information and listings to intensify in the coming weeks. Some early benchmark runs also point to a 10% performance boost in flagship SKUs with the new refresh, so we have to wait and see how these mid-range chips perform in more testing.

Nintendo's return to the modern handheld gaming market has proven to be a record-breaking success. The company has reportedly sold 155 million Switch units worldwide since its initial launch. The latest Nintendo Switch 2 has sold 17.37 million units since its release in June 2025. During the holiday quarter, shipments reached 7.01 million units globally, while the original Switch sold 1.36 million units in the same period. Combined lifetime shipments for the Switch family now stands at 155.37 million units, surpassing the Nintendo DS total of 154.02 million, making it Nintendo's best-selling console ever.

Regarding software for these record-breaking units, sales for the new console are also strong, with 37.93 million Switch 2 titles sold to date, largely driven by first-party games. Mario Kart World has reached 14.03 million copies, Donkey Kong Bananza 4.25 million, and Pokémon Legends: ZA 3.89 million. Kirby Air Riders, released in November, has sold 1.76 million units. The older Switch remains commercially relevant, with cumulative software sales of 108.93 million this quarter. Long-running catalog titles such as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, now at 70.59 million copies, and Super Mario Party Jamboree at 9.41 million, continue to sell well, aided by backward compatibility.

OCBASE has updated its OCCT tool to include overclocking support for Intel's latest Xeon 600 "Granite Rapids-WS" workstation processors, designed for precise tuning of Intel's best HEDT offering. While OCCT is traditionally known for hardware stability testing, OCBASE aims to transform it into a universal platform that combines fine-tuning, including overclocking, with stability testing in a single application. The company has worked with Intel to create a special skin for the OCCT tool, featuring an Intel-like blue and white theme. Besides the visual makeover, lots of under the hood changes follow.

For instance, Intel's flagship Xeon 698X, with 86 cores and 172 threads and 336 MB of L3 cache, can be overclocked from the application UI. The processor operates at a 2.0 GHz base clock and can boost up to 4.8 GHz with Turbo Boost Max 3.0 or 4.6 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0. Intel confirms that the 698X is fully unlocked, which is unusual for the Xeon processor family. With OCCT, users can now make per-core clock adjustments and live parameter edits while running continuous stress tests. Currently in a closed beta program, the public release is expected within weeks and will include Linux compatibility.

Chinese company Loongson has been developing custom processors based on the LoongArch instruction set, a new design initiated in 2020. Phoronix reviewed the company's 3B6000 processor, which has 12 cores supporting simultaneous multithreading (SMT2), resulting in 24 threads. The platform is compatible with DDR4 memory, with a controller targeting speeds up to 3,200 MT/s and ECC support, and the CPU runs at 2.4/2.5 GHz base frequency. In testing, the 3B6000 processor achieved about one-third the performance of the AMD Ryzen 5 9600X in aggregate benchmark testing. However, it outperformed the Raspberry Pi 500+ by a factor of 2.5, placing it between single-board computers and entry-level desktop systems.

For testing, Phoronix used the 3B6000x1-7A2000x1-EVB evaluation board, which appears dated compared to current motherboard designs, especially in terms of component selection and the cooling solution for the chipset. Expansion options include two PCIe x16 slots, one PCIe x4 slot, an M.2 connector, and four SATA ports. The integrated graphics unit supports both HDMI and VGA outputs. While the LoongArch64 architecture represents China's effort to develop an independent instruction set with the ability to tune features like security and specialized workloads, these benchmarks suggest the hardware execution still lags several generations behind x86-64 designs from AMD and Intel. Significant, multifold improvements are needed before it can match the performance of Western CPU makers.

Intel's next desktop "Arrow Lake Refresh" CPU upgrade is inching closer to reality. The Core Ultra 9 290K Plus has been spotted in a new Geekbench run, adding to the evidence that the "Arrow Lake Refresh" will indeed offer a meaningful performance improvements over its predecessors. The test system used an ASUS ROG Strix Z890-E Gaming Wi-Fi board with 64 GB of DDR5-6800 memory. The processor achieved scores of 3,535 in the single-core test and 25,106 in the multicore test. Compared to the Core Ultra 9 285K's typical scores of around 3,200 and 22,560, this represents improvements of approximately 10.5% and 11.3%, respectively. These results place the 290K Plus at the top of Intel's consumer CPU rankings in Geekbench's database. An earlier leak on different hardware showed slightly lower results, suggesting that this newer test run benefits from better optimization rather than just faster memory.

The 290K Plus SKU keeps the same 24-core layout as its predecessor with 8 P-Cores and 16 E-Cores, plus identical power limits of PL1 of 125 W and PL2 of 250 W. The gains come from higher clock speeds. According to rumors, the efficiency cores now boost to 4.8 GHz, up 200 MHz, while the performance cores get an extra 100 MHz on both turbo and thermal velocity boost. The benchmark registered the chip running at 5.7 GHz during testing. Intel has confirmed the ARLR is coming but has stayed quiet on specific models and dates. Leaks suggest a March or April release, and since these chips use the same LGA 1851 socket, they should work as drop-in upgrades for current Z890 motherboards. As with any pre-release numbers, may not reflect final CPU performance, so final performance data and gaming results that come from third-party reviews will show the real-world situation.

Arm Flexible Access is evolving, unlocking broader startup eligibility, expanded edge AI capabilities, and a more flexible way to design, test, and bring silicon to market. Innovation in silicon design thrives on iteration. For startups and established design teams alike, the ability to explore, test, and refine without financial friction is essential. That's why Arm Flexible Access is evolving to make that journey even easier.

Arm Flexible Access already offers up-front, low-cost or no-cost access to a wide portfolio of Arm technology, tools, and training. This "try before you buy" model allows teams to build and test designs freely, only paying licensing fees for the technologies used in production silicon. It's helped launch over 400 chips across more than 100 companies.

Intel is reportedly mandating OEM integrators of the latest "Panther Lake" SoCs to use LPDDR5X memory starting at 7,467 MT/s and beyond, with an interesting software differentiator between adequate speeds or those below. According to Golden Pig Upgrade, LDDR5X memory running below the 7,467 MT/s threshold will force the software to display a generic mark of "Intel (R) Graphics," while configurations with that exact memory speed or higher will display the full name of "Intel (R) Arc (TM) Graphics B390" or "Intel (R) Arc (TM) Graphics B370" marking in Windows 11 Task Manager. Reportedly, Intel is doing this to stop OEMs from cutting corners with their "Panther Lake" laptop configurations, where they could bundle a lower-speed LDDR5X memory out of the Intel specification.

Without the required memory, Intel's Arc B390/B370 iGPUs would likely be left starving for bandwidth, as the whole SoC is being powered by that memory. At higher speeds, memory can do the data transfer faster, resulting in a boost of the overall system performance, and most importantly, the frame rate that these chips can push out. Especially for single-package systems like "Panther Lake" is, faster memory is a great way to get extra performance boost. Intel's flagship SKUs are advertised as capable of running with LPDDR5X memory at speeds up to 9,600 MT/s, which is just below the point where LPDDR5X technology tops out at 10,700 MT/s. Interestingly, there are lots of options from Intel's OEM partners that integrate top-end memory, which is a positive sign for the ecosystem.

Intel XeSS 3 with multi-frame generation (MFG) is expected to be available this month for the Arc B580 "Battlemage" graphics cards. However, some Redditors suggest there's a workaround to enable XeSS 3 and gain the FPS boost from MFG through a simple file swap. Gamers using Intel's Arc B580 have discovered that by installing Intel's driver package for "Panther Lake"—which includes XeSS 3 with MFG—and renaming certain dynamic link libraries, the drivers for Arc B580 can use libraries intended for Arc B390 and Arc B370 integrated graphics. The process is straightforward, allowing gamers to download, extract, rename, and activate XeSS 3 on their non-PTL systems without issues. This raises the question of why Intel chose not to officially support the discrete "Battlemage" GPUs for XeSS 3 on the new driver release day. Possible reasons could include marketing strategies or additional beta-testing before the official release.Here is a complete step-by-step solution.

If you're tired of seeing Microsoft's AI features like Copilot, agentic workloads, and Recall forced into their products, you're not alone. Microsoft has finally confirmed that it will be stepping back from its "AI everywhere" strategy. According to an exclusive report by Windows Central, the internal Windows 11 teams at Microsoft are now focusing on reducing forced AI integration. Instead, they aim to address what truly matters to consumers, such as fixing the bug-prone operating system and enhancing core features for a smoother user experience. The integration of Copilot into basic apps like Notepad and Paint is reportedly under review, and Microsoft may remove these features to restore the basic functionality users have come to appreciate. This includes features like basic text formatting and tables in Notepad, which are nice additions to a core application.

Additionally, forcing Copilot AI button in every application has been paused, as there has been very little interest from users in actually using these features. TechPowerUp Forums has been a constant source of criticism for Microsoft's forced AI integration, among the remaining large crowd of PC enthusiasts who have been fighting the "AI everywhere" approach for a while. Microsoft's telemetry records usage of these AI buttons and additions, likely showing that only a few percent of Windows 11 users are actually interested in having AI access every application layer, especially with the recent ambition to shape Windows 11 into "agentic OS." The company confirmed that these features are a security nightmare to maintain, so thankfully these efforts are now cancelled.

The AI arms race is now in full swing, and corporate espionage is reaching levels beyond what we previously imagined. According to the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), former Google software engineer Linwei Ding has been convicted of economic espionage and theft of confidential AI technology, specifically related to Google Tensor Processing Units (TPUs). An FBI investigation revealed that the ex-Googler was suspected of stealing information about the entire infrastructure surrounding TPUs, including chip architecture, external connectivity, and more. The DOJ concluded that Linwei Ding was acting for the benefit of the People's Republic of China (PRC), with the primary goal of stealing sensitive intellectual property that Google has spent years and billions of US Dollars developing. Naturally, Google collaborated with the FBI to protect its intellectual property and found the former employee guilty of stealing as many as two thousand pages of confidential information.

U.S. Department of JusticeThe trade secrets contained detailed information about the architecture and functionality of Google's custom Tensor Processing Unit chips and systems and Google's Graphics Processing Unit systems, the software that allows the chips to communicate and execute tasks, and the software that orchestrates thousands of chips into a supercomputer capable of training and executing cutting-edge AI workloads. The trade secrets also pertained to Google's custom-designed SmartNIC, a type of network interface card used to facilitate high speed communication within Google's AI supercomputers and cloud networking products.

NVIDIA briefly updated its online marketplace with the latest stock of GeForce RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 Founders Edition SKUs, available at MSRP pricing. However, the entire stock was depleted in just minutes after the initial listing, suggesting that gamers have been trying to get their hands on MSRP-priced GeForce RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 GPUs but were able to do so only for a few minutes as the listing disappeared shortly thereafter. The flagship GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition was listed at its Euro-designated MSRP of €2,099, while the high-end GeForce RTX 5080 Founders Edition GPU was listed at its €1,059 MSRP. Both GPUs were listed at 10:01 am, but the RTX 5090 FE was gone by 10:08 am, just seven minutes after listing. For the RTX 5080 FE, the listing disappeared at 10:20 am when the stock was gone. The mid-range RTX 5070 FE was also listed but stayed online for a few hours before disappearing.

For buyers interested in purchasing these GPUs at MSRPs, there is virtually no option besides the NVIDIA Marketplace. Any third-party storefronts, where NVIDIA's official AICs are listing these GPUs, are posting listings that go well above €3,000. The card rarely dips below that price, and the median price listing, according to ComputerBase, suggests that the number now floats at €3,566. Any listing near MSRP is a definite premium for gamers who want to get their hands on an already expensive GPU, meaning that they don't have to pay for inflated pricing caused by the GDDR7 memory shortage and NVIDIA's current production tactics. There haven't been any NVIDIA Marketplace updates since the beginning of December, meaning that nearly two full months have passed since the last "drop."

Believe it or not, NVIDIA launched its first SHIELD TV in 2015, marking nearly a decade of continuous support for the platform. In an interview with Ars Technica, Andrew Bell, NVIDIA's senior VP of hardware engineering, reassured the company's loyal fan base that they have no plans to abandon the SHIELD TV anytime soon, promising ongoing updates in the years to come. Bell expressed frustration with the limited updates typically provided for phones and tablets, saying, "Early on when we were building SHIELD TV, we decided we were going to support it for a long time." He recalled a conversation with CEO Jensen Huang about the duration of support, to which Huang responded, "For as long as we shall live."

As NVIDIA enters the second decade of supporting the SHIELD TV, they continue to produce the 2019 version, featuring the NVIDIA Tegra X1+ processor, 3 GB of RAM, and 16 GB of storage. There was once talk within the gaming community and among NVIDIA engineers about venturing into making a gaming console. "Pretty much everybody who worked at NVIDIA in the early days really wanted to make a game console," Bell confirmed. However, the complexity of building a console, which requires not just a GPU but also a CPU, an OS, games, and a user interface, deterred the company from pursuing this path.

Microsoft is actively working to repair the broken trust it has created within the Windows community. Sources close to The Verge report that the Redmond giant is focusing on enhancing the core functionality of the Windows 11 operating system and its underlying services. These have become so problematic that each new update introduces a slew of issues, disrupting many systems and undermining the confidence of PC enthusiasts. Through a process known as "swarming," Microsoft is deploying its massive engineering resources to address these problems swiftly, aiming to make Windows 11 a benchmark for performance and stability. However, this is a challenging task, as trust has significantly eroded in recent months due to the consistent issues with Windows 11. Pavan Davuluri, president of Windows and devices, has commented for The Verge:

The feedback we're receiving from our community of passionate customers and Windows Insiders has been clear. We need to improve Windows in ways that are meaningful for people. This year you will see us focus on addressing pain points we hear consistently from customers: improving system performance, reliability, and the overall experience of Windows.

Qualcomm and AMD are reportedly considering the integration of SOCAMM2 memory into their AI product lines to enhance memory capacity and speed. Following NVIDIA's "Vera" CPU, which features LPDDR5X memory on the SOCAMM factor, offering 1.2 TB/s of memory bandwidth and supporting up to 1.5 TB of LPDDR5X memory, Qualcomm and AMD aim to pursue a similar strategy to achieve high-speed, high-capacity AI systems. These systems require fast memory close to AI accelerators, and SOCAMM can complement the extensive HBM memory on the accelerators. It acts as a fast memory pool with sufficient capacity to store entire models in memory, reducing the need for data transfer to SSD flash storage.

NVIDIA's SOCAMM approach involves surrounding the CPU with multiple SOCAMM modules, a strategy Qualcomm and AMD are expected to adopt in their AI solutions. AMD's Instinct MI accelerators, paired with EPYC CPUs, might be the next candidates for this integration, or AMD may develop a completely new system. Qualcomm already offers AI solutions like the AI200 and AI250 inference accelerators, which include up to 768 GB of LPDDR5 per card. These could soon be complemented by SOCAMM, allowing for standardized memory expansion based on the SOCAMM standard rather than soldering individual memory modules. This approach would enable manufacturers to offer various system versions and solutions by simply adding or removing SOCAMM modules, without the need for extensive PCB soldering work.

Linux gamers may have a reason to celebrate. A new collaborative initiative, the Open Gaming Collective (OGC), is being launched to enhance support for Linux-based gaming. The OGC aims to establish a unified set of software components that will become the standard across various Linux distributions within the gaming community. Founded by ASUS's Linux division, Universal Blue / Bazzite, ChimeraOS, Nobara, Playtron, Fyra Labs, PikaOS, and ShadowBlip, the OGC team is focused on a universal goal of bringing Linux gamers a better experience. The basic concept involves all members contributing software updates across the stack and standardizing certain areas to improve game and device compatibility. The newest collective aims to make gaming on Linux much smoother, similar to what Valve did with its SteamOS and Proton compatibility layer.

Shared Technical Pillars
OGC focuses on the foundational layers of the Linux gaming stack. We host shared components, agreed upon by the members, for all to use, with an "Upstream First" philosophy. Some of the projects we have in mind:

• The OGC Kernel—a shared gaming-focused kernel
• A downstream fork of Gamescope that expands hardware support to more devices

Microsoft reported its earnings for the fourth quarter of 2025, ending December 31. During the earnings call, Microsoft highlighted that its Windows 11 operating system is achieving goals faster than its predecessor, Windows 10. As of today, Windows 11 has officially reached one billion global users. It took the new Windows OS just 1,576 days to reach this milestone, compared to the 1,706 days it took Windows 10. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stated that this is a significant milestone for the Windows operating system, which is now expanding more rapidly than during the days of Windows 10. With the recent end-of-life for Windows 10, many users and enterprises are looking to upgrade from their aging systems, and the logical choice for the next build is Windows 11.

Windows 11 has been on the market since October 5, 2021. In the tech space, that is a long time for any software product. Over time, it evolved from a slight reskin of the Windows 10 OS into a completely different user experience with more modern layouts and a modernized UI, but it also came with a slew of issues. As Microsoft has tried to integrate everything into a singular OS, issues became common with updates, causing random bugs and system crashes. Nowadays, it is popular to criticize Windows 11, but despite its buggy nature, the success and market penetration speak for themselves. Microsoft plans to keep Windows 11 as a long-running version, so it might be a while before we see a Windows 12 or anything similar.

Microsoft just reported its Q4 2025 results, providing some interesting insights into its gaming ventures. The company's overall quarterly revenue increased by an impressive 17% compared to the same period last year, reaching $81.3 billion. This growth is primarily driven by the strong performance of the cloud sector. However, Microsoft's gaming divisions are experiencing challenges with declining revenue. In its Xbox unit, hardware revenue decreased by 32% year-over-year, significantly impacting the business. The overall Xbox division saw a 9% decline, while Xbox content and services dropped by 5%. The services section, which includes the Game Pass subscription, is the only area not experiencing a steep decline. By recently rising Game Pass subscription prices, Microsoft aims to offset some of the hardware losses.

An interesting detail from the earnings report is the Windows OEM and Devices sector, which reported a modest growth of 1%. This is minor considering the Windows 10 end-of-life, which was expected to boost this sector significantly. Windows itself reported a 5% growth, but this is only a slight increase compared to what Microsoft anticipated from OEMs purchasing Windows license keys for Windows 11, as well as a major consumer upgrade spree to Windows 11 devices. With Xbox revenue declining significantly year-over-year for several years, it is becoming less of a priority for the company, which now derives substantial revenue from Microsoft Azure and 365 Commercial subscriptions.

Linux users with Intel's newer graphics hardware have experienced an unexpected performance boost and critical stability improvements with the latest Mesa 26.1 driver updates. Francisco Jerez, an engineer working on Intel's open-source graphics stack, successfully merged 18 patches aimed at addressing persistent video corruption issues affecting both "Alchemist" DG2 discrete and integrated GPUs on "Meteor Lake" SoC. The primary goal was to resolve visual artifacts and rendering errors that had long troubled these platforms. However, preliminary testing revealed significant performance improvements in various gaming scenarios, with one benchmark showing gains as high as 2.6x the original frame rate.

This notable example came from testing NBA 2K23 at 4K resolution with maximum settings using DirectX 11, where the optimization resulted in a 260% improvement on the "Alchemist" graphics hardware. The patch series required about four months of development since its initial submission in September 2024, showing that there is a massive and hidden layer of complexity involved in correcting these low-level rendering issues without introducing new instabilities. The documented performance data currently comes from a single game trace, leaving questions about the extent to which other titles might benefit from similar optimizations. These changes affect only Linux systems using the Mesa driver, and Windows-based systems have not yet been tested. Nonetheless, this development is a positive sign that Intel continues to optimize even older GPU generations.

Google's return to the desktop has been now cemented with the latest leak of the so-called "Aluminium OS." Accidentally shared by Google, 9to5Google managed to capture some screen recordings of this new creation that Google has been developing behind the scenes. A recent submission to the Google Issue Tracker revealed a Chrome Incognito bug, complete with video evidence from a system running Aluminium OS. Before the video was removed, 9to5Google obtained recordings showing a new Android-powered PC operating system. Running on the latest Android 16 platform, the system is being internally tested on an HP Elite Dragonfly 13.5 Chromebook laptop equipped with 12th Generation Intel "Alder Lake-U" Core processors. As a test unit, this marks a significant shift from the Android OS used on mobile Arm-based systems, as Aluminium OS now operates smoothly on x86 architecture.

Pictured is the new operating system in all its glory. The desktop design resembles a blend of macOS aesthetics and elements from the Gnome desktop environment typical of Linux distributions. It features a taskbar at the bottom, centrally positioned like in the default version of Windows 11. The battery status and Wi-Fi icons are located in the top right corner, alongside a Gemini button for easy AI access. In September 2025, at Qualcomm's 10th annual Snapdragon Summit, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon and Google's head of platforms and devices, Rick Osterloh, discussed this new operating system. Google plans to merge its ChromeOS and Android for PC projects into a single branch, resulting in an Android for PC version called "Aluminium OS." This new OS will incorporate Google's advanced AI technologies from Gemini, running on more powerful mobile designs powered by the latest x86 architecture. It will feature processors with capable NPUs, allowing Google's open-source Gemma models to run locally without any issues.

NVIDIA has released its latest GeForce Game Ready driver, version 591.86 WHQL, which includes day-one support for the ARC Raiders: Headwind Update. This driver also provides initial support for the newly launched PvP shooter, Highguard, and updates compatibility for the strategy RPG, Arknights: Endfield. Players of Arknights: Endfield can take advantage of DLSS 4 Multi Frame Generation on RTX 50 series cards. NVIDIA claims that gamers can expect approximately triple the performance at 4K with maxed settings or reach the game's 480 FPS cap at lower resolutions. The game's developers, HYPERGRYPH, are also working to integrate native DLSS support in a future update. NVIDIA has resolved the issue of artifacts appearing during gameplay in Total War: Three Kingdoms. Additionally, this driver addresses problems with SDR content when Windows Automatic Color Management is enabled, ensuring accurate SDR color management, and ASUS G14 laptop freezes have been fixed.DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 591.86 WHQL

Lightmatter, the leader in photonic (super)computing, today announced a foundational advancement in laser architecture: Very Large Scale Photonics (VLSP). Embodied in the Guide light engine, this breakthrough creates the industry's most integrated laser platform supporting unprecedented bandwidths—moving laser manufacturing from manual assembly lines toward foundry production. VLSP technology leverages large-scale photonic integration to overcome power-scaling limitations, enabling the photonic interconnect roadmap for AI with an initial 8X increase in optical bandwidth density, unprecedented deployment scalability, and wavelength stability.

Just as Lightmatter's Passage photonic interconnects have shattered shoreline bandwidth limitations with their unique 3D architecture, the company's new Guide light engine represents a giant leap forward in laser technology. The largest AI clusters in hyperscale data centers now depend on connectivity that is fundamentally constrained by bandwidth density—limited not only by I/O at the chip edges but also by the fact that even the most advanced photonic interconnects are only as capable as the laser technology that powers them.

Intel has updated the retail packaging for its flagship Core Ultra 9 285K "Arrow Lake-S" desktop processor, as detailed in a recent product change notice (PCN). Initially reported by @momomo_us, the PCN indicates that the previous packaging, which featured visuals suggesting a rock-like product inside, will be replaced by a plain, dark box displaying only the product name on the front. Intel explains that this change will alter the packaging's appearance and reduce its dimensions, thereby improving pallet density. The primary objective is to optimize pallet density, allowing Intel to ship more CPUs at a lower cost.

The old packaging measured 165x150x64 mm, with a volume of approximately 1.58 liters, while the new packaging measures 116x101x44 mm, totaling about 0.55 liters. This represents a reduction of roughly 65%, enabling Intel to package significantly more units in its parcels. It's important to note this PCN for consumers who have seen unboxing videos of these CPUs online, as they might now encounter a different box at retail stores, helping to prevent any potential confusion. Finally, Intel notes that its Material Master (MM) number won't be changing with this box "rebrand."

NVIDIA has improved its FrameView application to measure frame rates of up to 800+ FPS. For those unfamiliar, NVIDIA FrameView is designed to accurately assess frame rates, frame times, power consumption, and performance-per-watt across various GPUs. The latest version, 1.7, now claims to measure parameters at an impressive 800+ frames per second. This is achievable in a few scenarios, such as running Counter Strike: 2 on a GeForce RTX 5090 GPU at 1080p resolution. Nonetheless, the option is now available. FrameView v1.7 is fully customizable, allowing for custom positioning. The software includes presets to control which performance metrics appear on your screen, and you can adjust the font size to suit your setup. If the text blends into the game background, you can enable a black backdrop for better readability. The update also adds toggles for technical readouts like "Full Screen Status", "Tearing", and "V-Sync."For more information, head over to NVIDIA's website.

NVIDIA recently released its "Vera" CPUs as standalone SoCs available to third parties, positioning them to compete with Intel's Xeon and AMD's EPYC processors. However, the "Vera" generation appears optimized specifically for NVIDIA GPUs, as the SoC contains a hardware bug that triggers errors when paired with non-NVIDIA graphics cards or accelerators. While CPUs traditionally function as general-purpose devices capable of connecting any third-party accelerator to the host platform, this does not appear to hold true for "Vera." Specifically, AMD GPUs and other third-party accelerators may cause issues, as the "Vera" CPU generation suffers from a major hardware flaw that prevents reliable operation and system installation. The issue stems from how the PCIe controllers in "Vera" CPUs generate memory addresses.

Under certain conditions, they produce invalid addresses that disrupt reliable communication with third-party accelerators. This occurs during PCIe Memory-Mapped I/O (MMIO) write operations when the CPU attempts to write with partial byte enable to MMIO regions. The issue intensifies particularly when these regions are mapped using Arm's Normal Non-Cacheable memory attribute "MT_NORMAL_NC," creating significant compatibility problems. Because Arm employs more relaxed memory ordering for normal non-cacheable attributes, this can trigger the erratum, resulting in erroneous address generation, data corruption, and even PCIe device failure during DMA-intensive workloads such as AI training or large-scale HPC simulations. NVIDIA GPUs are co-designed with "Vera" CPUs in mind and its specific memory ordering, so no issues are present when the two are running together.

Intel has released its latest 32.0.101.8425 and 32.0.101.8362 WHQL drivers as launch drivers for the new Core Ultra Series 3 "Panther Lake" processors, featuring Arc B390 and Arc B370 integrated graphics. Alongside day-one support for these iGPUs, the latest GPU drivers introduce Intel's XeSS 3 multi-frame generation technology, which can insert up to three generated frames between two rendered frames to boost FPS by a 3:1 ratio of generated to rendered frames. Intel promises a significant performance boost for its Arc B390 and Arc B370 iGPUs on "Panther Lake," making these SoCs ideal for handheld gaming devices. In addition to new features, these drivers fix issues such as game crashes found in the demo version of Capcom's PRAGMATA SKETCHBOOK running DirectX 12. Some issues persist, which you can find in the logs below.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.8362 WHQL

AMD has introduced a new low-latency video decode solution for Radeon GPUs on Linux with the RadeonSI Gallium3D driver as part of the Mesa 26.1 release. This Linux patch, utilizing Video Core Next (VCN), is designed to maximize the performance of AMD Radeon hardware-accelerated multimedia decode and encode. The patch aims to deliver a high-performance decoding kernel that reduces video decoding latency, although it requires more power consumption from the GPU, trading off some efficiency.

For users of the RadeonSI Gallium3D driver, this option can be enabled with the AMD_DEBUG=lowlatencydec environment variable. By default, this option is turned off due to its more aggressive power profile. The default setting is a higher-latency mode, which is more power-efficient. This distinction is particularly important for AMD laptops running Radeon GPUs on Linux, as they must balance performance and efficiency. While desktop users might benefit from having the new low-latency mode enabled by default, laptop users will need to consider the trade-off between reduced battery life and faster video decoding.

NVIDIA's integration of AI systems now extends beyond GPUs with generic Arm CPUs. The company is introducing its high-performance "Vera" CPUs as a standalone product, marking its first entry as a competitor to Intel Xeon and AMD EPYC server-grade CPUs. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang confirmed this new venture in an interview with Bloomberg, stating, "For the very first time, we're going to be offering Vera CPUs. Vera is such an incredible CPU. We're going to offer Vera CPUs as a standalone part of the infrastructure. You can now run your computing stack not only on NVIDIA GPUs but also on NVIDIA CPUs. Vera is completely revolutionary... Coreweave will have to act quickly if they want to be the first to implement Vera CPUs. We haven't announced any of our CPU design wins yet, but there will be many."

The "Vera" CPU is equipped with 88 custom Armv9.2 "Olympus" cores that utilize Spatial Multithreading technology, allowing it to handle 176 threads through physical resource partitioning. These custom cores support native FP8 processing, enabling some AI workloads to be executed directly on the CPU with 6x128-bit SVE2 implementation. The chip offers 1.2 TB/s of memory bandwidth and supports up to 1.5 TB of LPDDR5X memory, making it ideal for memory-intensive computing tasks. However, with the CPU now being offered as a standalone solution, it is unclear whether there will be any classic memory options like DDR5 RDIMMs, or if the CPU will rely solely on SOCAMM LPDDR5X. A second-generation Scalable Coherency Fabric provides 3.4 TB/s of bisection bandwidth, connecting the cores across a unified monolithic die and eliminating the latency issues common in chiplet architectures. Additionally, NVIDIA has integrated a second-generation NVLink Chip-to-Chip technology, delivering up to 1.8 TB/s of coherent bandwidth for external "Rubin" GPUs.