Last September, AMD leadership publicly revealed UDNA—an "unforking" of previously separate enterprise and commercial GPU branches. Not long after this announcement, TechPowerUp's resident Serbian correspondent—AleksandarK—sat down with Team Red's Andrej Zdravkovic. The Chief Software Officer (and SVP) stated that a fair chunk of UDNA-related development work would be done by local engineers. Zdravkovic discussed this technology's eventual deployment in futuristic "AI PCs," but gamers have been salivating at the prospect of a proper successor to RDNA 4. A next-gen graphics architecture seeker—MrMPFR—has combed through official documents for any sign of UDNA preview material. The noted /Hardware subreddit member managed to distill their initial (very long) set of findings into an "easily digestible overview." They stated that this was just a small case of: "reporting and a little analysis on AMD's publicly available US patents filings," and other public-facing resources/archives.

Gleaned information included: "finalized architectural characteristics in future RDNA generations, AMD DXR IHV stacks (driver agnostic), and AMD sponsored titles. But please take everything with a grain of salt given my lack of professional expertise and experience with Real-time ray tracing (RTRT)". MrMPFR believes that Team Red started picking up former NVIDIA and Intel engineering talent, back in 2022/2023. In addition, a lot of new hires were apparently sourced from academic institutions. In theory, these newer team members have not had the time to make major inroads—in terms of getting finalized products out into the wild. MrMPFR reckons that noticeable contributions will accelerate AMD's making of "RDNA 6+/UDNA 2+," and beyond. Early 2025 leaks have pointed to the company collaborating with Sony; their "PlayStation 6" console is tipped to be powered by some fork of Team Red's "UDNA" graphics technology.

We're excited to present IBM Granite 4.0 Tiny Preview, a preliminary version of the smallest model in the upcoming Granite 4.0 family of language models, to the open source community. Granite 4.0 Tiny Preview is extremely compact and compute efficient: at FP8 precision, several concurrent sessions performing long context (128K) tasks can be run on consumer grade hardware, including GPUs commonly available for under $350 USD. Though the model is only partially trained—it has only seen 2.5T of a planned 15T or more training tokens—it already offers performance rivaling that of IBM Granite 3.3 2B Instruct despite fewer active parameters and a roughly 72% reduction in memory requirements. We anticipate Granite 4.0 Tiny's performance to be on par with that of Granite 3.3 8B Instruct by the time it has completed training and post-training.

As its name suggests, Granite 4.0 Tiny will be among the smallest offerings in the Granite 4.0 model family. It will be officially released this summer as part of a model lineup that also includes Granite 4.0 Small and Granite 4.0 Medium. Granite 4.0 continues IBM's firm commitment to making efficiency and practicality the cornerstone of its enterprise LLM development. This preliminary version of Granite 4.0 Tiny is now available on Hugging Face—though we do not yet recommend the preview version for enterprise use—under a standard Apache 2.0 license. Our intent is to allow even GPU-poor developers to experiment and tinker with the model on consumer-grade GPUs. The model's novel architecture is pending support in Hugging Face transformers and vLLM, which we anticipate will be completed shortly for both projects. Official support to run this model locally through platform partners including Ollama and LMStudio is expected in time for the full model release later this summer.

A series of April leaks have suggested that Apple's mixed reality headset engineering team is concocting two distinct next-gen solutions. Mid-month, leakers shared alleged early shots of "Vision Air"-related connectors and external parts—hinting at a potential dark blue colorway. Combined with a selection of fairly legitimate-sounding predictions from a notorious industry watcher, so-called Vision Pro sequels are on the way. Apple's Chinese manufacturing partners are reportedly deep into mass production of crucial "Vision Pro 2" components. Mark Gurman's "Power On" newsletter has provided plenty of inside knowledge stories over the past couple of months—his latest article included a section dedicated to fresh VR/AR insights: "I reported earlier this month that Apple is full steam ahead on two new successors to the Vision Pro (2023): a lighter version at a cheaper price point, and a Mac-tethered model aimed at applications that need maximum responsiveness."

He continued: "all signs point to the lighter model arriving between the end of this year and the first half of 2026. Despite the first version selling poorly, the company isn't abandoning ship here. The main uncertainty is whether the lighter version will be considered a replacement for the Vision Pro or a cheaper alternative." In theory, Apple could test "more mainstream" gaming waters with an initial rollout of the claimed cheaper + lightweight "Vision Air" model—perhaps set to do battle with readily available rival devices; e.g. Meta's dominant Quest 3 range. A full-blown Vision Pro follow-up could launch later on in 2026—likely reserved for upper-crust customers, with an increased focus on productivity applications.

Since its summer 2023 launch, Apple's pricey Vision Pro mixed reality headset has not exactly attracted a mainstream audience. Roughly a year later, rumors of a (then) recently canceled successor appeared online—insiders posited that company engineers had pivoted onto the development of a cheaper alternative model. Vision Pro "Version 1.0" arrived with an intimidating $3499 price tag; thus eliminating interest from a wide swath of potential AR/VR headset enthusiast customers. Industry insiders reckon that Apple had "abruptly reduced production" of the current-gen model last October, with further whispers suggesting a complete cessation of manufacturing activities by the end of 2024. Yesterday, an ITHome article cited compelling claims made by supply chain insiders—the initiation of mass production for a speculated second generation "Apple XR/Vision Pro" device.

The online report stated that: "multiple independent sources (have) confirmed that the panels, shells and other key components of the second-generation Apple XR headset are already in production." Very specific leaked information indicates Lens Technology being the exclusive supplier of glass panel pieces, and Changying Precision tasked with the making of the next-gen model's casing. Additionally, several contract circuit manufacturers are supposedly "rushing to complete orders." Secretive figures posit that Apple will release its sequel mixed reality headset later on in 2025. Differing "expert opinions" have not determined whether this incoming set of fancy goggles will be the predicted "cheaper" model, or a proper "M5 SoC-powered" successor.

Mark Gurman—Bloomberg's resident soothsayer of Apple inside track info—has disclosed predictive outlooks for next-generation M5 chip-based MacBooks. Early last month, we experienced the launch of the Northern Californian company's M4 MacBook Air series—starting at $999; also available in a refreshing metallic blue finish. The latest iteration of Apple's signature "extra slim" notebook family arrived with decent performance figures. As per usual, press and community attention has turned to a potential successor. Gurman's (March 30) Power On newsletter posited that engineers are already working on M5-powered super slim sequels—he believes that these offerings will arrive early next year, potentially reusing the current generation's 15-inch and 13-inch fanless chassis designs.

In a mid-February predictive report, Gurman theorized that Apple was planning a major overhaul of the MacBook Pro design. A radical reimagining of the long-running notebook series—that reportedly utilizes M6 chipsets and OLED panels—is a distant prospect; perhaps later on in 2026. The Cupertino-headquartered megacorp is expected to stick with its traditional release cadence, so 2025's "M5" refresh of MacBook Pro models could trickle out by October. Insiders believe that Apple will reuse existing MacBook Pro shells—the last major redesign occurred back in 2021. According to early February reportage, mass production of the much-rumored M5 chip started at some point earlier in the year. Industry moles posit that a 3 nm (N3P) node process was on the order books, chez TSMC foundries.

Digital Chat Station (DCS)—a tenured leaker of Qualcomm pre-release information—has shared new "Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2" chipset details. Earlier today, their Weibo feed was updated with a couple of technological predictions. The announced smartphone chip's "SM8850" identifier was disclosed once again, along with the repeated claim that Qualcomm has selected a 3 nm "N3P" node process. Industry watchdogs expect to see the San Diego-headquartered fabless semiconductor designer introduce its next-generation flagship smartphone SoC in October. The current-gen Snapdragon 8 Elite platform was unveiled last Fall; sporting cutting-edge "Oryon" (aka Phoenix) processor cores and an integrated Adreno 830 graphics solution. DCS reckons that the natural successor will reuse a familiar "2 + 6" core configuration; comprised of two prime "big performance" units, and six "normal" performance-tuned units. An Adreno 840 iGPU was listed as DCS's final point of conjecture.

The incoming "Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2" chipset was mentioned in the same sentence as rumored "Pegasus" cores (Phoenix's sequel)—slightly far-fetched rumors from 2024 suggested Qualcomm's upgraded processor architecture being tested at maximum frequencies of 5.0 GHz (on performance cores). As pointed out by Wccftech, Gen 1's performance cores run at 4.47 GHz (by default). In today's follow-up post, DCS claimed that Qualcomm's: "self-developed CPU architecture is now in the second generation, with a performance setting of over 380 W+." Industry watchdogs reckon that the "Snapdragon 8 Elite 2" chip will be capable of recording 3.8+ million point tallies in AnTuTu V10 gauntlets, thanks to the alleged utilization of ArmV9 architecture. DCS theorized that the speculated "SM8850" SoC will support ARM's Scalable Matrix Extension 1 (SME 1) and Scalable Vector Extension 2 (SVE2) instruction sets.

Blades of Fire takes place in an age of petrified steel. An all-powerful witch queen's spell turns all the world's steel into stone, apart from that wielded by an army of brainwashed minions who once served her father. This one small technological twist changes everything for this unique fantasy world. Granted a legendary hammer, Aran de Lira is the only one who can forge new weapons and fight back, becoming an unwilling hero on an unlikely quest. MercurySteam's much-anticipated follow-up to Metroid Dread, Blades of Fire is a brand-new IP that aims to reforge the action adventure genre with strategic combat, the debut of a rich sword-and-sorcery fantasy world, and a deep weapon forging system that hopes to deliver unlimited customization. Each weapon you forge is one-of-a-kind, ready to carve out its own destiny. You don't build a character—you build an arsenal. We recently played the opening stages of Blades of Fire and spoke to the team about how they're reforging the action adventure and making players think about weapons from a fresh perspective.

Closing the circle
It was a long path to get here for Enric Alvarez, MercurySteam Co-Founder, CEO, and Game Director. Just as the age of iron and steel was preceded by 2,000 long years of the Bronze Age, Blades of Fire is the culmination of a 24-year journey, a period the Madrid-based studio spent sharpening their skills and burnishing a prestigious reputation. In 2001, the founding members of MercurySteam worked at Rebel Act. The studio only released one game: Blade of Darkness, a PC cult classic sometimes regarded as a precursor to the Souls games for its minimalist storytelling, challenging stamina-driven combat, and a dark fantasy world beyond redemption. The influence of Conan and The Lord of the Rings (pre-Peter Jackson adaptations, as The Fellowship of the Ring came out that December) was strong, pairing exhilarating sword-and-board action with epic grandeur. Perhaps too ahead of its time, Rebel Act closed its doors after Blade of Darkness failed to find a sufficient audience.

In an exclusive report, Windows Central has claimed that Microsoft is collaborating with an unnamed "PC gaming OEM" on an Xbox handheld console. Jez Corden has heard from several insiders; they reckon that a "later in 2025" launch is possible, if development goes smoothly enough. A leak from Winter 2024 indicated that Microsoft's gaming division was "targeting a handheld gaming experience," but Phil Spencer has freely disclosed his ambitions for his team's portable project. Last November, he confirmed that something was in pipeline—with a view to take on very visible competition: Steam Deck, ASUS ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go. The latest Windows Central investigative piece divulges some unprecedented details about: "codename 'Keenan,' this gaming handheld will look unmistakably 'Xbox' we're told, complete with an official Xbox guide button, and Xbox design sensibilities. Given that this is a partner device, similar to Lenovo's SteamOS partnership with Valve, I expect this handheld to be more PC-oriented. Keenan is almost definitely running full Windows, putting the Microsoft Store and PC Game Pass front and center, alongside the ability to install things like Steam."

Based on inside track knowledge, Corden anticipates operating system innovations: "I expect the handheld will test new Windows 11 'device aware' capabilities, while reducing third-party OEM bloatware that are typical of devices like the Lenovo Legion Go and ASUS ROG Ally. I expect Microsoft will leverage widgets on the Xbox Game Bar on PC for controlling things like TDP and fan speed, while hopefully having a more streamlined OS experience for controller use. Of course, existing PC gaming OEMs will benefit from these efforts as well—but the research will also help with Microsoft's further-out plans." Almost a month and a half ago, Spencer outlined a sort of wishlist for "innovative" future Xbox hardware—given that Sony is rumored to be devising a "standalone PlayStation handheld," he was likely envisioning next-gen home consoles. Windows Central's sources have provided additional insights into potential Xbox Series X|S successors.

Last Wednesday (February 12), an intriguing filing appeared online—the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) has received multiple registrations of NVIDIA GPUs; courtesy of OEM Global Technologies Ltd. The parent company of ZOTAC Technology Limited has registered a wide span of Team Green SKUs, going back many generations to 2014's GeForce GT 710 "Kepler 2.0" design. When ignoring everything south of the latest "Blackwell" GPU lineup, harukaze5719 noticed three lower-end additions. The rumor mill has NVIDIA launching its more budget-friendly GeForce RTX 5060 Ti and RTX 5060 (non-Ti) models at some point next month.

Board partner supply chain insiders believe that Team Green is clearing the current-gen flock; thus making way for lower-end "Blackwell" GPUs, but the newly-discovered registration of a GeForce RTX 5050 SKU has raised watchdog eyebrows. A rumored entry-level RTX 5050 Mobile variant turned up last December, but we have not heard much about a discrete desktop equivalent in 2025. NVIDIA had plans for a GeForce RTX 4050 model, but desktop "Ada Lovelace" AD107 GPU-based products did not emerge into existence. The latest ECC filing suggests that a next-gen successor could be on the way. Industry soothsayers predict a sub-$300 price point for alleged GeForce RTX 5050 8 GB graphics cards—potentially lined up for battle with Intel's current-gen B580 and B570 offerings.

The Powerbeats Pro 2 from Beats are officially here, commanding a premium $250 price tag. The earbuds feature ANC and transparency modes, along with a custom acoustic architecture with dual-layer drivers. Sound quality is difficult to determine without actually trying the buds on, but the Powerbeats Pro from 2019 were met with mostly positive reviews, which sure does indicate that its successors will likely live up to expectations. The earbuds boast Apple's H2 chip, which is the exact same SiP found in the AirPods Pro 2, and therefore, sport spatial audio support with dynamic head tracking when used with the Apple Vision Pro. A heart rate sensor is also present, which makes sense considering the earbuds are primarily targeted at fitness enthusiasts.

The charging case has shrunk, and can juice up the earbuds over three times. With ANC on, the Powerbeats Pro 2 can be used for 8 hours, and with ANC off, the usage time goes up by two hours. Unlike AirPods, the Powerbeats Pro 2 should function well with Android devices, thanks to the Beats app. The USB-C port replaces the previous lightning connector, and the IPX4 rating indicates sweat resistance. Thankfully, physical buttons are present, allowing for volume, playback, voice assistant, and ANC controls without having to resort to any gesture-induced guess work. Beats also claims that the earbuds are 20% lighter than before, which is certainly welcome news. A total of five tip sizes are provided with the earbuds, which should resolve the majority comfort issues for most people.

Intel experienced another leadership setback on Monday when Justin Hotard, who led its Data Center and AI (DCAI) division said he was leaving to become Nokia's CEO. Hotard joined Intel in early 2024 and worked there for just over a year. He will take over from Pekka Lundmark at Nokia on April 1. In his short time at Intel, Hotard oversaw the release of Intel's Sierra Forest E-core and Granite Rapids P-core Xeon 6 platforms. These helped Intel catch up to AMD in core count for the first time since 2017. Intel has temporarily appointed Karin Eibschitz Segal, an 18-year company veteran and co-CEO at Intel Israel, as the interim chief of DCAI.

However, Justin Hotard's exit comes as the DCAI division faces several problems. Not long ago, Intel said it would push back the launch of its next-generation Clearwater Forest Xeons to the first half of 2026 blaming low demand. The company also scrapped its Falcon Shores accelerators to focus on a future rack-scale platform called Jaguar Shores. These setbacks came after Intel fellow Sailesh Kottapalli left for Qualcomm last month. Kottapalli had worked at Intel for 28 years and played a key role in developing many Xeon server processors.

Mid-way through January, insider sources reckoned that AMD's China-exclusive Radeon RX 6750 GRE 10 GB GPU was on the way out—a rumored successor was seemingly in line to replace this popular budget-friendly RDNA 2-based model. According to VideoCardz, Team Red's latest "Golden Rabbit Edition" design has launched—exclusively for a China-based buying audience. Team Red and its local board partners have produced a plethora of Radeon RX 7650 GRE 8 GB custom models—reports suggest that a reference model (MBA) does not exist. Several manufacturers have models readied for launch, including: ASRock, ASUS, PowerColor, Sapphire, Yeston and VASTARMOR. Official MSRP for the region is 2099 yuan (~$289 USD). In the West, original launch pricing for the Radeon RX 7600 was $269. The fancier Radeon RX 7600 XT was priced at $329 on day one.

Roughly a year ago, AMD decided against releasing its (RDNA 3) Radeon RX 7600 XT 16 GB GPU in China. Their Radeon RX 7600 (non-XT) 8 GB model did make it to China, but it was largely overshadowed by older tech—mainly Team Red's compellingly priced Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB and 10 GB cards. Spec-wise, the Radeon RX 7650 GRE sits somewhere in-between its two "Hotpink Bonefish" Navi 33 siblings. All three cards share the same number of compute units (32 CUs), but differ in terms of boost clocks and thermal design power ratings. The GRE features a max. boost clock speed of 2695 MHz and a board TDP of 170 W—just a nudge over the Radeon RX 7600's 2655 MHz boost capability and 165 W board power rating. Both cards are frugal enough to rely on a single 8-pin power connector. By contrast, the hungrier 190 W TDP-rated Radeon RX 7600 XT sports two 8-pin inputs—this GPU can boost up to 2755 MHz. VideoCardz has kindly assembled a comparison chart (see below).

Intel's relatively new lineup of Arc B-series "Battlemage" desktop graphics cards consists of B580 and B570 GPUs—these affordable models have been warmly welcomed by reviewers and customers alike. PC hardware enthusiasts—with larger wallets—will be pondering over possible future launches of mid-tier or higher-end SKUs. Industry insiders have not picked up on much chatter regarding possible successors to Team Blue's mid-range Arc "Alchemist" A770 and A750 GPUs. The speculation machine has been fired up again, following the appearance of three new "Battlemage" PC IDs. Intel's Linux kernel has been updated with these new additions—as discovered by Tomasz Gawroński (aka GawroskiT), earlier today.

A brief sentence outlines "3 new PCI IDs for BMG," with no further or follow-up information included. Several industry watchdogs believe that Intel's graphics hardware division has moved on from creating new Xe2 "Battlemage" products—Team Blue representatives have officially admitted that their Xe3 "Celestial" architecture is complete, and its engineers have already started work on the Xe4 "Druid" GPU IP. Instead, the three new identifiers could be linked to a late December leak. At the time, Quantum Bits claimed that Arc B580 variants with larger pools of VRAM were in the pipeline—these "Arc Pro" cards are supposedly workstation-oriented models. Insiders reckon that a product launch is planned for later in 2025.

During Barclays 22nd Annual Global Technology Conference, Intel was a guest and two of the interim company co-CEOs Michelle Johnston Holthaus and David Zinsner gave a little update on the state of affairs at Intel. One of the most interesting aspects of the talk was Intel's upcoming "Panther Lake" processor—a direct successor to Intel Core Ultra 200S "Arrow Lake-H" mobile processors. The company confirmed that Panther Lake would utilize an Intel 18A node and that a few select customers have powered on Panther Lake on the E0 engineering sample chip. "Now we are using Intel Foundry for Panther Lake, which is our 2025 product, which will land on 18A. And this is the first time that we're customer zero in a long time on an Intel process," said interim co-CEO Michelle Johnston Holthaus, adding, "But just to give some assurances, on Panther Lake, we have our ES0 samples out with customers. We have eight customers that have powered on, which gives you just kind of an idea that the health of the silicon is good and the health of the Foundry is good."

While we don't know what ES0 means for Intel internally, we can assume that it is one of the first engineering samples on the 18A. The "ES" moniker usually refers to engineering samples, and zero after it could be the first design iteration. For reference, Intel's "Panther Lake-H" will reportedly have up to 18 cores: 6 P-cores, 8 E-cores, and 4 LP cores. The design brings back low-power island E-cores in the SoC tile. The P-cores use "Cougar Cove," which should have a higher IPC than "Lion Cove," while keeping the existing "Skymont" E-cores. The SoC tile may move from Arrow Lake's 6 nm to a newer process to fit the LP cores and an updated NPU. The iGPU is said to use the Xe3 "Celestial" architecture. With Arrow Lake-H launching in early 2025, Panther Lake-H likely won't arrive until 2026.

It's been public knowledge for a while now that Lenovo is planning an imminent successor to its Legion Go handheld that has proven rather popular among handheld gamers. Previous leaks and rumors indicated that the Legion Go S 8ARP1, as it will apparently be named, will be a more affordable version of the current Legion Go. Now, thanks to Roland Quandt, Windows Central, and WinFuture, more details about the upcoming Legion Go S have leaked, including images of the device, supposed specifications, and a potential price.

According to the leaks, the new affordable handheld gaming PC will feature some substantial hardware changes, including a slightly smaller eight-inch display, this time with a much lower 1920 × 1200p resolution and a slightly lower 120 Hz refresh rate. Gone, too, are the Nintendo Switch-style detachable controllers, with the Legion Go S instead featuring a white unibody design. What's more interesting than the leaked images of the Legion Go S or the hardware changes—detachable controllers or not, the Legion Go is still intended to be used as a handheld—is the new AMD APU that will seemingly power the Go S. The as-yet unannounced AMD Ryzen Z2G looks like it will be an odd core configuration featuring an AMD Radeon 680M iGPU and Zen 3+ cores. Ultimately, the APU seems like it will put the Legion Go S somewhere between the current-generation Legion Go and devices featuring the AMD Ryzen Z1 (non-extreme), which is a good place to be if Lenovo hopes to compete with the likes of the Steam Deck OLED, which will seemingly cost around the same as the Legion Go S, depending on which region you are in.

The search for a new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Intel has begun following Pat Gelsinger's departure on Monday. And it is not exactly an easy role to be filled. The tech giant's board is primarily considering external candidates to lead the company through one of its most challenging periods. Among the potential successors is Lip-Bu Tan, a former Intel board member and semiconductor industry veteran. Tan, who previously served as CEO of Cadence Design, left Intel's board in August 2023 after disagreements with Gelsinger over the company's strategic direction. Despite these past tensions, Intel's board has reportedly recently approached Tan to gauge his interest in the position. The search for new leadership is extremely difficult, considering the requirements and massive problems the new CEO would face.

Coming at a critical moment for Intel, which has experienced significant financial challenges under Gelsinger's tenure, the new CEO would need to get the Foundry business to pick up and maintain a solid product roadmap. The company's revenue dropped to $54 billion in 2023, marking a nearly one-third decline since Gelsinger took the helm in 2021. Analysts project Intel's first annual net loss since 1986 this year, with long-term signs of recovery. Gelsinger's exit, which came after the board presented him with the option to retire or be removed, reflects growing impatience with the pace of his ambitious turnaround strategy. The company has appointed CFO David Zinsner and senior executive Michelle Johnston Holthaus as interim co-CEOs while the search committee works to identify a permanent replacement.

Phanteks took the Computex 2024 show by force, showing off several new and improved cases, including the new Evolv X², the Eclipse G400A and G400N, which are successors to the P400 line, upgraded NV5 MKII and NV9 MKII cases, and the new Enthoo Pro II Server Edition XL case for the server market.

The star of the show is definitely the new Evolv X², a case that Phanteks says is redefined to fit modern consumer needs. It certainly has the modern and refined aesthetic to appeal to the wider audience, with brushed aluminium interior panels and full front to side glass panel. Some of the key features include integrated cable management, key fan positions to cool down and show off most hardware components, as well as support for rear-connector mainboard, something that most modern motherboards will have.

Intel is quietly working on second generation Arc GPUs—we have not heard much about Xe2 "Battlemage" since CES 2024. Back in January, Tom "TAP" Petersen—an Intel fellow and marketing guru—casually revealed during an interview conducted by PC World: "I'd say about 30% of our engineers are working on Battlemage, mostly on the software side because our hardware team is on the next thing (Celestial)...Battlemage has already has its first silicon in the labs which is very exciting and there's more good news coming which I can't talk about right now." Intel appears to be targeting a loose late 2024 launch window; Petersen stated that he would like to see second generation products arrive at retail before CES 2025's commencement. The SiSoftware Sandra database was updated around mid-March with two very intriguing new Intel GPU entries—test systems (built on an ASUS PRIME Z790-P WIFI mainboard) were spotted running graphics solutions "equipped with 20 Xe-Core (160 EU) and 24 Xe-Cores (160 EU)."

Michael/miktdt commented on the freshly discovered database entries: "some smaller versions are on Sisoft...I guess they are coming. Single-float GP Compute looks quite good for just 160 VE/192 VE. Doesn't tell much about the release though, I guess anything between Q4 2024 and Q2 2025 is a possibility." Both models seem to sport 11.6 GB VRAM capacities—likely 12 GB—and 8 MB of L2 cache. Wccftech has guesstimated potential 192-bit memory bandwidth for these speculative lower-level GPUs. Team Blue has a bit more tweaking to do—based on leaked figures—but time is on their side: "the performance per core for Alchemist currently sits an average of 16% faster than the alleged Battlemage GPU which isn't a big deal since driver-level optimizations and final silicon can give a huge boost when the retail products come out."

Mobile tech tipster, Revegnus, has highlighted an interesting Samsung presentation slide—according to machine translation, the company's electronics division is already responding to an anticipated growth of "client-side large language model" service development. This market trend will demand improved Universal Flash Storage (UFS) interface speeds—Samsung engineers are currently engaged in: "developing a new product that uses UFS 4.0 technology, but increases the number of channels from the current 2 to 4." The upcoming "more advanced" UFS 4.0 storage chips could be beefy enough to be utilized alongside next-gen mobile processors in 2025. For example; ARM is gearing up "Blackhawk," the Cortex-X4's successor—industry watchdogs reckon that the semiconductor firm's new core is designed to deliver "great Large Language Model (LLM) performance" on future smartphones. Samsung's roadmap outlines another major R&D goal, but this prospect is far off from finalization—their chart reveals an anticipated 2027 rollout. The slide's body of text included a brief teaser: "at the same time, we are also actively participating in discussions on the UFS 5.0 standard."

Seasonic introduced a new 12V-2x6 modular PSU cable model late last year—at the time, interested parties were also invited to Beta test early examples. Finalized versions have been introduced, via a freshly uploaded YouTube video (see below) and a dedicated product page. The "H++" connector standard—part of a new ATX 3.1 specification—is expected to replace the troubled "H+" 12VHWPR design. The PC hardware community has engaged in long-running debates about the development and rollout of a danger/peril-free alternative. PCI-SIG drafted the 12V-2x6 design last summer.

Seasonic's introductory section stated: "with the arrival of the new ATX 3 / PCIe 5.0 specifications, some graphic cards will now be powered by the new 12V-2x6 connector. Offering up to 600 W of power, the Seasonic native 12V-2x6 cable has been crafted with high quality materials, such as high current terminal connectors and 16 AWG wires to ensure the highest performance and safety in usage." The new cables are compatible with Seasonic's current ATX 3.0 power supply unit range—including "PRIME TX, PRIME PX, VERTEX GX, PX, GX White and Sakura, FOCUS GX and GX White" models. Owners of older Seasonic ATX 2.0 PSUs are best served with an optional 2x8-pin to 12V-2x6 adapter cable—although 650 W rated and single PCIe connector-equipped units are not supported at all. Two native cable models, and a non-native variant are advertised in the manufacturer's video.

Paradox Interactive and Double Eleven have announced Prison Architect 2, the 3D successor to their prison management simulator. The game offers deeper simulation, greater player control, an inhabitant behavior system and creative options to define the next generation of management gameplay. Prison Architect 2 launches on March 26 on Steam, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5 for a suggested retail price of $39.99 / £34.99 / €39.99. Enterprising Architects can pre-order Prison Architect 2 on PC today.

Prison Architect 2 offers advanced simulation systems, enabling players to construct intricate compounds with a high degree of creative freedom in a 3D environment. From building elaborate structures to managing inmates' needs while maintaining the facility's financial stability, Prison Architect 2 expands gameplay and creative tools across the board, for an engaging sandbox experience. The game also introduces a connection system between the prisoners, who will make friends or enemies with each other, impacting who they will hang out, partner or fight with. Prison Architect 2 brings prison construction and management gameplay to a new level by entering the third dimension and bringing deeper simulation than ever before.

Valve has not kept the prospect of a Steam Deck successor very secret—their Proton-based handheld gaming system will eventually become a "multi-generational product." Gabe Newell (going back to early 2022) outlined some initial ambitions for the second iteration, with a teaser: "what are the capabilities that mobile gives us, above and beyond what you would get in a traditional desktop or laptop gaming environment?" One of the project's main architects, Pierre-Loup Griffais, has discussed the prospect of a "Steam Deck 2" with The Verge and CNBC—his team's progress hinges on striking an optimal balance between performance and power efficiency (on battery). The follow-up is not arriving any time soon, despite rival companies preparing alternative portable gaming experiences—Griffais said: "I don't anticipate such a leap to be possible in the next couple of years."

Steam Deck, in its current form, seems to be the main priority for the immediate future. Griffais was a keynote speaker at Tokyo Game Show 2023, so communicated with Verge via email: "It's important to us that the Deck offers a fixed performance target for developers, and that the message to customers is simple, where every Deck can play the same games. As such, changing the performance level is not something we are taking lightly, and we only want to do so when there is a significant enough increase to be had...but we're still closely monitoring innovations in architectures and fabrication processes to see where things are going." Griffais re-confirmed this stance in an interview with CNBC (at TGS 2023)—Valve wants more gamers to adopt the platform before a push into next-gen—with improved user interfaces, more development partners and an ironing out of supply chain issues: "We're looking at this performance target that we have as a stable target for a couple years."

In the weeks leading up to Gamescom 2023 all sorts of Nintendo-related rumors started to spew forth—the boldest being a public unveiling of their much anticipated Switch successor during the conference segment. This did not transpire—of course—with Nintendo choosing to showcase existing games and hardware on the trade fair floor in Germany. Post-event murmurs proposed another highly unlikely circumstance—claims posted to social media and on forums pointed to a top secret demo session of "Switch 2" hardware occurring "behind closed doors" at Gamescom, with an elite set of development teams in attendance. These rumblings were largely dismissed due to unsubstantiated information coming from less than reliable sources.

Eurogamer and Video Games Chronicles (VGC) reached out to their cadre of industry insiders to find out more—newly published articles seem to align with recent leaks. The former understands that: "Developer presentations for Switch 2 took place behind closed doors, with partners shown tech demos of how well the system is designed to run. One Switch 2 demo is a souped up version of Switch launch title Zelda: Breath of the Wild, designed to hit the Switch 2's beefier target specs. (To be clear, though - this is just a tech demo. There's no suggestion the game will be re-released." An insider familiar with the games industry in Spain alleged, a few months ago, that Switch 2 development kits had been delivered to a notable local development partner.

Logitech International announced today that Bracken Darrell, president and chief executive officer (CEO), will be departing the Company to pursue another opportunity. Darrell's resignation as president, CEO, and as a member of Logitech's board of directors is effective today, but he will remain with the company over the coming month to ensure a seamless transition. In line with the board's established succession planning process, board member Guy Gecht will step into the role of interim CEO while a global search of internal and external candidates is conducted.

"As an experienced CEO, and member of Logitech's board since 2019, Guy has a deep understanding of Logitech and its strategy, and is well-placed as interim CEO to oversee the continued execution of the company's strategy," said Wendy Becker, Logitech's chairperson of the board. "We thank Bracken for his leadership during an exciting era of transformation at Logitech. Over his ten years as CEO, Bracken oversaw a period of consistent growth and helped to transform Logitech into an award-winning design company known for its unparalleled product innovation. We wish him well in the future and look forward to identifying his successor."

Earlier today Nintendo released its financial/earning reports for the fiscal year ending March 2023, and company president Shuntaro Furukawa has briefed investors about sales forecasts, according to a report published by Bloomberg. Furukawa-san predicts that the Switch gaming console will only sell 15 million units over the next fiscal year - sales have been slowing down for a while according to Nintendo's figures, with almost 18 million units purchased throughout 2022-23. The numbers are still very impressive when you consider that Nintendo's flagship gaming platform has been on the market for just over six years - across that span of time, total unit sales have hit the 125.62 million mark.

Furukawa also informed shareholders about the prospect of a Switch console successor arriving within the next fiscal period - Bloomberg's article brings the bad news at this point - it seems that Nintendo is not anticipating a new hardware launch within that time frame. Nintendo's software release schedule - especially in regards to first party titles - looks very threadbare for the rest of the year. The much anticipated Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrives on Friday (May 12) followed by Pikmin 4 in July, but things look to be quiet after that - unless Nintendo has a few surprises lined up for June's preview event season. Rumors of a next generation Switch have been doing the rounds since 2020, back then a "Pro" model was often touted - fans later found out that Nintendo had simply refreshed the system with an OLED panel, some tweaks to chipset efficiency, and updated the docking system to modern output standards - this premium model hit the market in late 2021.