From Tom's Hardware · 40 stories
Ukraine claims Russian S-71 cruise missile uses Nvidia Jetson Orin AI chip
Ukraine's Main Directorate of Intelligence claims Russia's S-71 'Monochrome' cruise missile incorporates Nvidia Jetson Orin modules for AI capabilities. This suggests the use of commercial AI hardware in advanced military systems, raising questions about supply chains and export controls.
AMD borrows $4.75 billion through senior unsecured debt offering for general corporate purposes
AMD announced a new senior unsecured debt offering to borrow $4.75 billion for general corporate purposes, including potential debt repayment. This move provides AMD with additional capital at attractive rates to finance its increasingly capital-intensive business operations.
Prusa Research Upgrades XL, Core One, and Core One L 3D Printers to Second Generation
Prusa Research announced second-generation upgrades for its XL, Core One, and Core One L 3D printers, designated with a "+" suffix. Existing orders and new purchases will receive the updated models at no additional cost, and upgrade kits will be available for current owners by September. This update provides significant improvements to key models without forcing users to replace their current machines.
Intel CEO invests $12 million in company's $19.7 billion stock offering, signaling foundry confidence
Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan invested $12 million of his own money in Intel's recent $19.7 billion stock offering, which Bank of America analysts interpret as a sign of increasing confidence in Intel's foundry business. This capital raise, coupled with expanded capital expenditures, suggests Intel is preparing for both internal and external customer demand for its chip manufacturing services.
Alabama Bitcoin Mining Facility Proceeds Despite Local Opposition Due to Zoning Law Gaps
A 50-MW Bitcoin mining facility by VoltCore is proceeding with construction in Somerville, Morgan County, Alabama, despite local protests and moratoriums. The facility's construction is enabled by Alabama's state zoning laws, which do not grant counties zoning power unless they have over 600,000 residents, and limit municipal zoning authority outside town borders. This situation highlights a gap in state zoning regulations that allows industrial developments to bypass local control in rural areas.
PCIe 6.0 SSDs and controllers are nearing commercial availability after delays
PCIe 6.0 SSDs and controllers are approaching commercial release, with Micron and Samsung introducing drives, and Marvell, Phison, and Silicon Motion preparing controllers. The transition to PAM4 signaling in PCIe 6.0 doubled transfer rates but introduced significant development challenges for controllers and interoperability testing, causing delays in its implementation.
Qualcomm Details Snapdragon C Specifications and Battery Performance Claims
Qualcomm released detailed specifications for its Snapdragon C system-on-a-chip, an ARM-based platform for $300 laptops, and provided battery performance benchmarks. The company claims the Snapdragon C offers significantly better battery efficiency and performance compared to Intel's N250 processor in battery-powered scenarios, which could impact the budget laptop market.
Oracle plans further layoffs after spending most of its $2.1 billion restructuring budget
Oracle is reportedly planning additional job cuts this month, with some teams facing double-digit percentage reductions, following the elimination of 21,000 positions in the last fiscal year. These reductions aim to lower payroll before the second fiscal quarter and align with the company's increased investment in AI data centers, which has led to significant borrowing and capital expenditure.
AI Data Center Developers Sue Local Governments Over Bans and Moratoriums
AI data center developers are initiating lawsuits against local jurisdictions that have denied applications or enacted bans and moratoriums on new data center developments. These lawsuits allege that local officials exceeded their authority or violated due process and equal protection laws, highlighting growing tensions between data center expansion and community concerns.
CoreWeave signs A100 GPU contracts into 2029, extending lifespan of 2020 hardware
CoreWeave has signed contracts for Nvidia A100 GPUs that extend into 2029, nine years after the hardware's debut, indicating continued profitability for older AI accelerators. This extended utilization is partly due to the power and cooling limitations of legacy data centers, which cannot accommodate newer, more power-intensive GPUs like Nvidia's GB200 without significant infrastructure upgrades.
YMTC Becomes Top Three NAND Flash Shipper in Q2 2026, Enterprise SSDs Drive Market Growth
Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) reached the top three global NAND flash shippers in Q2 2026, displacing Kioxia, with 14% of worldwide shipments. This shift occurred as enterprise SSDs consumed 48% of all NAND bits, significantly increasing from 26% a year prior, and overall industry revenue grew fivefold.
Peer-Reviewed Study Ranks HGST Most Reliable Hard Drive Brand, Toshiba Least Reliable
A new IEEE study re-analyzed 12 years of Backblaze hard drive data, covering over 443,000 drives, and found that HGST drives had the lowest failure rates, while Toshiba drives had the highest. This analysis adjusted for factors like drive age, capacity, form factor, and operating temperature, providing a more refined comparison of reliability across brands.
Samsung Foundry Delays 1.4nm Node to 2029, Plans High-NA EUV for 1nm-Class in 2030
Samsung Foundry updated its process roadmap, pushing its 1.4nm node (SF1.4) from 2027 to 2029 to prioritize refinement of its 2nm-class (SF2) manufacturing processes. The company confirmed it will adopt High-NA EUV lithography for its 1nm-class (SF1A) node around 2030, indicating a strategic shift in its advanced node development and adoption of new lithography technology.
Asobi Remote Play app enables PlayStation Plus Premium cloud gaming on Steam Deck
The new Asobi Remote Play app allows Steam Deck users to stream PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 games, including cloud gaming titles from PlayStation Plus Premium, directly to their device. This functionality was previously exclusive to the PlayStation Portal handheld for cloud streaming, offering an alternative for users without a PS5 console. The app is currently in a pre-release playtest, with a free tier supporting 1080p 30FPS streaming.
Intel CEO hints at potential return to memory business, citing innovation opportunities
Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan indicated that the company is exploring new memory architectures, including stacking memory on top of CPUs, suggesting a potential re-entry into the memory market. This move is prompted by the current profitability and strategic importance of the memory industry, which Tan previously considered a commodity business.
Two undersea cables off Perth damaged, Australian Federal Police investigating suspicious activity
Two Subco undersea cables, Indigo-West and Indigo-Central, reported shunt faults off the coast of Perth, Australia, shortly after each other and in close proximity. The faults occurred in a Cable Protection Zone, coinciding with suspicious vessel activity, prompting an investigation by the Australian Federal Police into a potential crime.
SK hynix to expand Solidigm's Dalian fab capacity by 50% and considers NASDAQ IPO
SK hynix is resuming investments to expand its Solidigm subsidiary's NAND flash production capacity by 50% at its Dalian, China fab, with mass production expected by early 2027. Concurrently, the company is reportedly exploring a NASDAQ IPO for Solidigm to raise capital while maintaining control. This expansion addresses increasing demand for high-capacity SSDs and follows the granting of U.S. licenses for shipping semiconductor equipment to Chinese fabs.
Intel Raises $19.7 Billion Through Stock Sale to Fund Future Projects and 14A Production
Intel is raising $19.7 billion by selling new common stock to finance the development of next-generation process technologies like 14A and expand production capacity. This funding is crucial for Intel to compete with major foundries like TSMC and Samsung and secure orders from external clients.
US Lawmaker Calls for Enforcement of Chipmaker Due Diligence Export Control Rule
House Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar has requested the US government enforce an existing export control measure requiring chipmakers to verify end customers for advanced chips. This rule, known as the 'Foundry Due Diligence Rule,' was designed to prevent Chinese companies from circumventing restrictions on advanced chip acquisition, following instances where chips made by TSMC for Sophgo were identified as Huawei's Ascend 910B AI accelerators.
Japanese Authorities Arrest Initial Torrent Seeder Using New Identification Method
Japanese authorities arrested Masakazu Ono, an initial seeder on the Nyaa torrent website, after an investigation by anti-piracy group CODA and the Japan Hacker Association. CODA claims it identified Ono without monitoring BitTorrent swarm traffic, suggesting a new method for tracking torrent uploaders. This development indicates a potential shift in anti-piracy enforcement tactics, making it harder for initial content distributors to remain anonymous.
Researchers achieve 38.49% efficiency in laser-based drone charging with nanocrystals
Researchers at the Civil Aviation University of China developed a laser-based drone charging system that converts energy at 38.49% efficiency by using nanocrystalline material and air channels to manage heat. This advancement addresses a key challenge in achieving continuous flight for drones by improving the efficiency and thermal management of over-the-air power delivery.
Heroic Launcher Developers Launch 'Xodus' Project to Bring Xbox PC Games to Linux
Developers of the Heroic Launcher have started a new open-source project called "Xodus" to enable Xbox PC and Game Pass titles to run on Linux. Xodus aims to reverse-engineer and emulate Microsoft's proprietary GDK runtime environment, Xbox identity services, and encrypted MSIXVC packages, which currently prevent these games from running on Linux.
Nvidia Reportedly Testing Rubin Ultra with Reduced Memory Configurations and HBM4
Nvidia is reportedly testing versions of its upcoming Rubin Ultra accelerator with less memory, including configurations with 192 GB or 256 GB and HBM4 instead of HBM4E, due to potential HBM supply constraints. This change could affect the performance and capabilities of Nvidia's next-generation AI accelerators, impacting future data center and AI infrastructure designs.
Public Opposition to AI Data Centers Grows, Leading to Widespread Protests and Project Delays
Over 140 coordinated protests against AI data centers occurred across 42 U.S. states, reflecting increasing public opposition to these facilities. This widespread resistance has led to project delays exceeding $130 billion and moratoriums in multiple jurisdictions, impacting the expansion of AI infrastructure.
GeForce NOW exploit grants full Windows desktop access, enabling local AI model execution
A modder discovered an exploit in Nvidia's GeForce NOW Ultimate tier that allows users to access the full Windows desktop environment, bypassing the service's gaming-only restrictions. This exploit enables the execution of local AI models and other desktop applications, transforming the cloud gaming service into a general-purpose cloud PC. The method involves manipulating game files and is against Nvidia's terms of service, risking account bans.
UK Royal Navy Drones Sent Data to China via Camera Component
The UK Royal Navy's K3 Scout surveillance drones contained camera components that secretly transmitted data to China, as reported by The Telegraph. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has since removed internet connectivity from these cameras, stating that the transmitted data was limited to "heartbeat communications" and no sensitive MoD data was compromised. This incident highlights ongoing concerns about Chinese technology in critical infrastructure and potential supply chain vulnerabilities.
Nvidia RTX Spark N1X Laptop Chip Surfaces in Prototype and Benchmarks
A prototype Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra featuring Nvidia's RTX Spark N1X SoC was reviewed, revealing a chip with 10 MediaTek-designed ARM CPU cores and a GPU comparable to an RTX 4070. Concurrently, Geekbench listings for the RTX Spark show 20-core and 18-core variants, with the 20-core model achieving a multi-core score of 23,126 points, positioning it competitively against other mobile chips.
Open-source 'Phantom Drive' USB hides AES-256 encrypted partition behind 8GB decoy
Rootkit Labs developed the open-source 'Phantom Drive,' a USB device that presents as an 8GB drive but conceals an AES-256 encrypted partition, accessible only by creating a specific text file. This device is designed for situations where users might be compelled to reveal storage device contents, offering a stealthy way to protect sensitive data.
Amazon Data Center Construction in Gilroy, CA, Began Under 45-Year-Old Zoning Rules
Amazon began construction on a data center in Gilroy, California, utilizing local zoning rules from 45 years ago, which allowed the project to proceed without recent public comment. This situation highlights a growing tension between community concerns, particularly regarding water usage, and the rapid expansion of data center infrastructure.
CXMT DDR5 RAM Gains MSI Validation but Faces Performance Criticism
CXMT's DDR5 modules achieved validation for speeds of up to 8200 MT/s on MSI's motherboards after new BIOS updates. However, early tests suggest CXMT RAM underperforms compared to SK Hynix, particularly in overclocking capabilities, which could affect its competitive standing.
AWS Restricts Internal EC2 Use Due to High CPU Demand from AI Workloads
Amazon Web Services is limiting its engineers' access to EC2 instances to conserve CPU capacity for paying customers. This internal crackdown is a direct result of surging CPU demand driven by complex agentic AI workloads, which require more CPU resources than traditional GPU-centric AI inference.
Claude Opus 5 deletes developer's entire profile directory during backup attempt
A developer reported that Claude Opus 5 mistakenly deleted their entire profile directory while attempting to create a system backup. The AI confused a Unix-style path for a temporary backup location and executed an `rm -rf` command, wiping the user's files. This incident highlights the risks of granting AI agents unfettered access to system commands.
RTX 2080 Ti VRAM Upgrades to 22GB Offered by Services and Resellers
Services are now offering VRAM upgrades for Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti graphics cards, increasing memory from 11GB to 22GB. This modification involves replacing VRAM modules and adjusting PCB resistors to support a new BIOS, making older GPUs more suitable for current AI workloads. Pre-modified cards are also available for purchase, with one Hong Kong-based seller offering them for $499.
Microsoft to Optimize Windows 11 for 8GB RAM Systems by March 2026
Microsoft announced plans to optimize Windows 11 for systems with 8GB of RAM and above, with improvements expected by March 2026. This initiative aims to enhance the operating system's performance on lower-spec hardware, following the company's removal of previous 16GB and 32GB RAM recommendations and the release of 8GB base models for its Surface devices.
Frore Systems Claims LiquidJet Can Reduce Nvidia Rubin GPU Temperatures by 10°C
Frore Systems published a white paper suggesting its LiquidJet coldplate technology can lower Nvidia Rubin GPU junction temperatures by up to 12°C, potentially increasing token generation by 15% with a 10°C reduction. This development addresses the critical need for improved cooling in high-power AI accelerators to maximize performance and efficiency in data centers.
Kioxia and Sandisk Unveil BiCS10 3D QLC NAND with Record 37 Gb/mm2 Areal Density
Kioxia and Sandisk introduced their BiCS10 3D QLC NAND device, featuring the world's highest areal density at 37 Gb/mm2 and 332 active layers. This development provides higher capacity and improved power efficiency for data center SSDs, potentially lowering costs for high-capacity storage solutions.
Sandisk and SK hynix Release High Bandwidth Flash (HBF) Specification via OCP
Sandisk and SK hynix have introduced the High Bandwidth Flash (HBF) specification through the Open Compute Project (OCP), combining 3D NAND non-volatility with HBM-like performance for AI inference systems. This open standard defines HBF packages with capacities up to 512GB and bandwidths ranging from 0.4 TB/s to 3.0 TB/s, aiming to provide a new memory tier for heterogeneous computing platforms.
Arctic Lowers PC Cooling Product Prices in US Following Tariff Refund
PC cooling manufacturer Arctic has reduced prices across its entire product lineup in the U.S. after receiving a tariff refund from the U.S. government. This action follows a February 2026 Supreme Court ruling that limited the President's authority to impose import duties without Congressional approval, potentially pressuring other hardware manufacturers to follow suit.
China Begins Mass Production of Domestic Immersion DUV Lithography Machines
Shanghai Aishengna Electronic Technology Group has begun mass-producing immersion deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography machines, with initial deliveries expected this year to SMIC, Hua Hong Semiconductor, and ChangXin Memory Technologies. This development marks a step in China's efforts to achieve self-sufficiency in chip manufacturing technology, particularly as new U.S. legislation threatens to cut off Chinese firms from ASML sales and servicing.
Chinese Research Vessel Spotted Over US-Taiwan Undersea Cable
A Chinese-flagged research vessel was observed by the Taiwan Coast Guard hovering over the Pacific Light Cable Network (PLCN), an 8,000-mile fiber-optic system connecting Taiwan, the U.S., and the Philippines. This incident raises concerns about intelligence gathering and potential sabotage of critical undersea infrastructure, especially given past incidents involving Chinese vessels and the geopolitical tensions between China and Taiwan.