Qualtrics` 2025 report reveals that 80% of New Zealand consumers distrust local companies` use of AI, marking a significant decline in comfort with the technology. Read...

Shivaun Raff and her husband, Adam, describe their long court battle with technology giant Google. Read...

Researchers in Queensland believe they have made a major breakthrough in the quest to detect synthetic EPO more easily and effectively. Read...

Intel’s latest Arrow Lake processor for desktop PCs fuses its “Meteor Lake” and “Lunar Lake” architectures together, carrying over Meteor Lake’s NPU and Lunar Lake’s abandonment of hyperthreading. Yes, hyperthreading has been banned from Intel’s desktop chips, based on a similar rationale for excluding the feature from Lunar Lake. Arrow Lake, also known as its Core Ultra 200S processor lineup, is Intel’s first “disaggregated” desktop processor, built on tiles, meaning each part of the chip is individually fabricated on a different process. In a twist, Intel unveiled a deep dive into the architecture of Lunar Lake and the models, prices, and performance of the Core Ultra 200S processor. A key omission? Hyperthreading, which also was not part of Intel’s Lunar Lake mobile processor. The story of Arrow Lake is a simple one: More performance and yet substantially less power than the 14th-generation Core chips. And to get there, Intel executives said they applied the same thinking to both Lunar Lake and its next-gen desktop counterpart: Make its cores as efficient as possible, both for power and for space. Update: Intel’s Arrow Lake processors have now launched. How did the efficiency and performance claims stack up? Find out in Core Ultra 9 285K tested: 10 must-know facts about Intel’s radically new CPUs. Gordon Mah Ung also dived deeper into the 285K’s performance in productivity workloads in the deep-dive video below: What is hyperthreading? Hyperthreading (also known as simultaneous multi-threading) is a fairly simple concept: While each processor core is designed to execute one instruction thread, hyperthreading creates a second “virtual” processor inside the single processor core. With hyperthreading, the idea is that the individual processor core is always executing instructions on at least one of the two cores, keeping it in operation the whole time. The last thing enthusiasts want is a CPU core sitting idle when it could be performing useful work. Intel The problem is that the second core is a virtual core, and not a “true” second physical core. That can lead to some contention of resources and additional overhead, enough that the question of whether to leave hyperthreading on or off while gaming has been a source of debate for years. Intel, meanwhile, has gone back and forth on the feature: Some of Intel’s 9th-, 10th-, and 11th-gen Core processors have excluded hyperthreading, such as the Core i7-9700K, and Intel’s Atom chips never used it. Most of Intel’s Core chips do, however. AMD has pretty consistently used hyperthreading, however, and still does. The question has always been: Does hyperthreading deliver a performance increase that surpasses the toll it takes in terms of system latency, the controller die cost, and the power hyperthreading consumes? In Lunar Lake, the answer was “no,” and that has carried over to Intel’s latest desktop chips, too. In part, that’s because Arrow Lake cribs heavily from Lunar Lake, with the same Lion Cove performance cores and the same Skymont efficiency cores that appear in Lunar Lake. Robert Hallock, a vice president and general manager of client AI and technical marketing for Intel, said that Intel basically comes out ahead in terms of power and performance by not using hyperthreading. Arrow Lake includes both desktop and mobile processors, and Hallock was being asked about the desktop implementation of hyperthreading. But it sounds like Hallock’s response applies to both desktop and mobile chips. “It’s a combination of a couple things, actually,” Hallock told reporters. “First, we knew that we can actually save the wattage for hyperthreading by not including it on the product, and you see that we’re still coming out net ahead by roughly 15, 20 percent in [multicore performance] without it. So we’re able to bump up efficiency and still hit our goals in overall compute performance. “The other thing that I would say is, you know, these are the same designs as leveraged from Lunar Lake,” Hallock added. “We took those cores, those designs, and were able to immediately integrate them because of [Intel’s] Foveros [technology]. So that’s the kind of one-two punch that influenced our decision: speed to market and maximizing performance per watt.” Will hyperthreading ever return? It’s possible it could. But it would have to justify itself in terms of performance, power, and die space, and it appears right now that it isn’t making the cut. Editor’s note: This article originally published on October 10, but was updated to include links to Core Ultra 200S review materials. Read...

Everybody wants an OLED monitor, including yours truly. Now that the display tech is ubiquitous on phones, it’s getting far more common in TVs, laptops, and tablets, too. But OLED tech has some obvious drawbacks, none more so than its high price. TCL says its newest manufacturing process will help alleviate some OLED pain points, including price, brightness, and power draw. During the Omdia Korea Display Conference last week, TCL’s Chief of the Technology Planning Center expounded on the company’s new “inkjet-printed” OLED display tech. As reported by FlatPanelsHD.com, this manufacturing process can create display panels with a 50 percent reduction in light loss from internal reflections, lower energy usage, and a much longer lifespan — and all of that comes with a 20 percent reduction in manufacturing cost. TCL showed off prototype versions of these new panels at the conference, including a conventional 8K OLED television, a 14-inch laptop screen, and a 31-inch “dome-shaped OLED” with 4K resolution. Company representatives said that it would be ready to begin limited production with this new technique by the end of this year, targeting “medium-sized OLED displays” for new products in 2025. (That means OLED laptop panels and monitors.) While the presentation was certainly optimistic and self-serving, TCL isn’t just blowing smoke. The inkjet printing technique, as opposed to the older evaporative stencil manufacturing system, has been in the news for the last year or so. The printing system is already used to deposit the encapsulation layer in most OLEDs right now, but expanding it into the emitters and other stack materials is the potential game changer, according to OLED-info.com. That’s great news if you’re hoping for more competition in the OLED space. While it’s currently pretty easy to find OLED monitors, the panels are still only coming from a small collection of manufacturers, chiefly LG and Samsung. That’s why so many of those monitors seem to have nearly identical specs — they’re using a lot of the same panels from the same places. With TCL targeting the market via new tech, it’ll give manufacturers more options at lower prices. That should result in more choices for consumers, including cheaper monitor options. I’d expect that a lot of companies like Dell, Asus, and Corsair are eyeing their options for new OLED laptop panels and monitors in 2025, so it’s entirely possible that we’ll see these panels in a lot of new products reaching consumers in the latter half of next year. Read...

Intel’s new desktop CPUs are radically different than the Intel CPUs you’re used to. Today marks the launch of Arrow Lake, the company’s latest architecture for desktop processors, formally sold as the Core Ultra 200S Series. According to Intel’s claims, this batch of Core chips is faster and far more power efficient than last-gen Raptor Lake CPUs, while still beating out the competition. However, Arrow Lake isn’t notable just for what it does, but also for what it is. As the first set of desktop x86 processors shipped but not fabricated by Intel, TSMC’s involvement in their production is but one new standout aspect. Intel has reworked its chip design, too—and the overhaul comes with some quirks, as we discovered during our testing. For a deeper dive into productivity benchmarks, check out Gordon’s video review of the Core Ultra 9 285K below. Here, let’s dig into the top ten things you should know about Intel’s Core Ultra 200S CPUs, after extensive testing of the flagship Core Ultra 9 285K. New names for a new era Alex Estevez / Foundry Last year, Intel retooled its naming system for Core processors, bidding farewell to the “i” designator before 3, 5, 7, and 9, and dropping the reference to the generation. It also squeezed in the word “Ultra” for CPUs containing Arc graphics and a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) for AI-based tasks, as well as reset the numbering system to start in the hundreds. This change first rolled out to laptops with Meteor Lake CPUs in late 2023. Arrow Lake’s release is the first time we’re seeing the new names on desktop—a big shift after a decade-plus of the old style of names. Intel also opted to begin Arrow Lake’s numbering in the 200 range, despite being the first on desktop—likely so that laptop and desktop architectures from the same year match. (Lunar Lake, which just began shipping in laptops in September 2024, labels its processors with numbers in the 200 range as well.) Intel These are the five CPUs in the new Core Ultra 200S series, which includes two variants without integrated graphics, as denoted by the “F” designator (that convention is still the same as before): Intel Core Ultra 9 285K: 24 cores (8 P-cores, 16 E-cores, 5.7GHz max); 4 GPU cores, 13 TOPS NPU, $589 Intel Core Ultra 9 265K: 20 cores (8 P-cores, 12 E-cores, 5.5GHz max); 4 GPU cores, 13 TOPS NPU, $394 Intel Core Ultra 9 265KF: 20 cores (8 P-cores, 12 E-cores, 5.5GHz max); 0 GPU cores, 13 TOPS NPU, $379 Intel Core Ultra 9 245K: 14 cores (6 P-cores, 8 E-cores, 5.2GHz max); 4 GPU cores, 13 TOPS NPU, $309 Intel Core Ultra 9 245KF: 14 cores (6 P-cores, 8 E-cores, 5.2GHz max); 0 GPU cores, 13 TOPS NPU, $294 Hyperthreading is dead (again) Intel introduced the masses to hyperthreading, its technology that allows a CPU core to run two threads (that is, set of instructions) simultaneously, rather than the default of just one per physical core. But in more recent years, the company has flirted with killing it off. For Arrow Lake, the feature’s gone overboard once again. As Intel explained recently, it dropped hyperthreading as part of efforts to improve power and space efficiency in Arrow Lake—that is, how much power a chip uses, and what can be fit into each processor’s package. So the core counts you see for Core Ultra 200S processors are what you get—no additional threads. That said, the number of Lion Cove performance cores (aka P-cores), and Skymont efficiency cores (aka E-cores) packed into Arrow Lake aren’t stingy. The top Core Ultra 9 285K chip still boasts 24 cores overall, with 8 P-cores and 16 E-cores. Performance gains for content creators Arrow Lake’s performance will be a touchy subject among chip enthusiasts, who’ve become accustomed to huge gains over the last couple of years. But that was possible due to high power ceilings—recent flagship processors essentially came overclocked as the default. In contrast, a key attribute of the Core Ultra 200S lineup is power efficiency, which Intel emphasizes as a selling point. With this change, Arrow Lake provides creatives improved performance, but the gains aren’t spectacular enough to compel most Core i9-14900K owners to upgrade just yet. Across our rendering and encoding benchmarks, the Core Ultra 9 285K consistently pulled ahead of last generation’s 14900K flagship, with improvements ranging between 2 to 21 percent depending on the task. It also mostly edged ahead of the Ryzen 9 9950X. The one exception: It trailed slightly behind both older CPUs in DaVinci Resolve. But gaming is less of a win Gamers love to see new CPUs crush the existing competition—and for those in that crowd, the Core Ultra 9 285K may seem disappointing. It’s a chip that trails behind the 14900K and 9950X in some games, holds about equal with them in others, and edges them out in yet others. In our small selection of gaming benchmarks, the 285K generally held even with the 14900K, but often trailed by a double-digit margin behind AMD’s Ryzen 9 9950X. In Cyberpunk 2077, the 9950X kept a cushy 18 percent lead over the 285K, with similar performance in F1 2023 and Rainbow Six Siege. The 285K only held its own in 3DMark’s Steel Nomad, a synthetic gaming benchmark that simulates a more system-intensive game at 4K resolution. Even when paired with faster, more performant CU-DIMM memory (instead of DDR5), gaming performance doesn’t dramatically improve—in F1 2023, we saw a rise to 410 frames per second, or about a 7 percent increase. That narrows the gap between the 285K and 9950X, but the latter still comes out on top. By no means is the 285K a bad chip for gaming—but it won’t blow anyone’s socks off. So while Intel has been open about Arrow Lake’s gaming performance, the internet pitchforks will likely be out in force. Power efficiency is improved, but… As for the reason that Arrow Lake’s smaller performance gains—Intel claims its new chips match 14th-gen Raptor Lake-R’s performance at half the power, but you may not see quite such a dramatic improvement. Compared to the 14900K, our tests showed a 17 percent decrease in power consumption during our Handbrake AV1 benchmark (a difference of 65 watts). Similarly, during Cinebench 2024’s single-core benchmark, energy use dropped by about 16 percent (a difference of 22 watts). At idle, the 285K’s power draw actually increased slightly, nudging up about 3 percent (about 2.5 watts). These three benchmarks cover the general spectrum of usual PC behavior. The 285K fares better against AMD’s best, with a 4 percent decrease in power consumption in Handbrake, an almost 25 percent decrease in Cinebench 2024, and a roughly 28 percent decrease at idle compared to the 9950X. Overall, Intel’s improvements give it an edge if you’re worried about heat or your power bill. But the story doesn’t end there. Turns out, when you dig into power draw, these new chips reveal an unexpected peculiarity. …Windows optimizations may be a work in progress Desktop users don’t often pay much mind to Windows power settings—they’re less relevant when you’re plugged into a wall all the time. At least, that’s the case normally. However, being a curious bunch, we checked the 285K’s power consumption on different Windows 11 power plans. And oddly, the 285K’s performance dropped on the Balanced and Power Saver plans. In our Cinebench 2024 single-core test, the 285K slowed down notably while completing its task, stretching out to 30 minutes on the Balanced plan. In contrast, the 14900K and 9950X finished with more usual times—meaning we could start those chips’ benchmarks later than the 285K (15 minutes into the 285K’s run) and still see them complete the task faster. The resulting score showed a 55 percent decrease in performance compared to the 14900K and 9950X on the same Balanced power plan. The difference was even higher on the Power Saver plan, with a 67 percent drop.  Meanwhile, on High Performance settings, the 285K actually outperformed its predecessor by about 5 percent, and the 9950X by about 2 percent. This outcome is all the more puzzling, given that our power draw measurements showed little energy savings across the various power plans. Does this mean Intel’s new chip could be nerfed by your power settings? For the moment, likely yes, especially since the Balanced power plan is the Windows default. Time will tell if this behavior can and will be fixed via better Windows optimization. Intel revamped its processor design Intel Growing pains with a new chip design aren’t too surprising—Arrow Lake is considerably different compared to 14th-gen Raptor Lake-R. Until now, Intel released monolithic processors for desktop; everything related to the CPU existed on a single die. But starting with Arrow Lake, Intel has switched to a chiplet design, a move that rival AMD made years ago. Intel calls Arrow Lake a “disaggregated” processor, in which separate chiplets (“tiles”) for different functions are linked together as a single package. If you pull off the lid of an Arrow Lake processor, you’ll find compute, GPU, SOC, and I/O tiles, along with a “filler” and “base” tile for stability. Intel’s Foveros technology connects them all together. Each of these chiplets are fabricated (produced) on different processes—you can read more details about them in our initial overview of Arrow Lake. For chip nerds, this change in approach represents a huge shift for Intel, which had previously championed a single die as better performing. For most home users, however, what matters more is how Intel had to juggle the layout of the package. You’ll need a new motherboard Intel Arrow Lake requires a new socket—LGA 1851—and accordingly, that means it won’t be compatible with existing LGA 1700 boards.  The first chipset to be announced is the Z890, which supports up to 192GB of DDR5-6400 memory (up to 48GB per DIMM). You can use more common SO-DIMMs, but the newer CU-DIMM memory modules work as well. Intel says that if you enable XMP for faster RAM speeds, DDR5-8000 will be the ideal.  For connectivity, Intel’s 800 series chipsets offer up to 24 PCI-e 4.0 lanes, as well as 10 USB 3.2, 14 USB 2.0, and 8 SATA 3.0 connections. Combined with an Arrow Lake CPU, you’ll get up to 48 PCIe lanes, with 20 of them PCIe 5.0. Thunderbolt 4 and Thunderbolt 5 integration are also features, as are technologies like Thunderbolt Share (which lets you share screens, peripherals, storage, and files with another PC), Intel Killer Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, and 2.5Gbps ethernet (depending on configuration). DDR5 RAM & existing coolers still work IDG While you can pair Arrow Lake with CU-DIMM memory, it doesn’t mean you must. DDR5 RAM will still work with a Core Ultra 200S processor, and as we’ve seen above, you’re not losing that much of a performance boost. In fact, with general availability for CU-DIMM memory not slated to heat up until early next year, if you buy into Arrow Lake now, your option really will be only DDR5 memory. As for coolers—if you already have a cooler compatible with 13th or 14th generation processors, they should still work with Arrow Lake. However, Intel says you’ll likely new mounting hardware to achieve the correct pressure for optimal cooling. No upgrades to AI capabilities on desktop Intel If you were hoping that the launch of Arrow Lake meant desktop access to generative AI and the divisive Recall feature in Windows 11, prepare yourself for disappointment. These new processors incorporate an older NPU into the package, which only provides 13 TOPS of computational performance, well below the minimum of 40 TOPS Microsoft requires to unlock Windows 11’s Copilot+ AI features. Why? Decisions were made to keep gamers happy—as they’re one of the primary groups of buyers for desktop chips. You can read more about Intel’s approach in our rundown of Arrow Lake’s AI capabilities, but know that systems with these chips will still likely be marketed as AI PCs. Read...

If you’re buying a new GPU (graphics processing unit), you should definitely have an understanding of how it all works. Although the terms GPU and graphics card are often used interchangeably, technically speaking, they’re not the same thing. We’ll go over all the technical information and break it down in an easily digestible way for you. Read on to learn more. Further reading: 4 things to consider before buying a GPU A typical graphics card contains a GPU die (chip) soldered onto the circuit board and surrounded by memory modules. This is built into a heat sink, cover, and fan, creating the actual graphics card. Companies like AMD and Nvidia use multiple GPU dies in each generation to create different models and customize the specifications as needed. The GPU die designation often follows a system where a lower number on the spec sheet indicates a larger and more powerful die. For example, Nvidia’s AD102 GPU utilizes the flagship RTX 4090 graphics card while the RTX 4080 and RTX 4080 Super use the AD103 GPU. Newer GPUs utilize smaller manufacturing processes to offer more performance in the same physical space. Strictly speaking, GPU is only the name for the graphics processor (here from AMD). Only with other components does it become a graphics card. IDG The computing units on a GPU are often referred to as cores. However, this is misleading, as the cores of a GPU do not correspond to the physical cores of a CPU. GPUs have thousands of small cores or processing elements, which are grouped into clusters and then into compute units. These compute units are labelled differently by each GPU manufacturer–compute units (AMD), Xe cores (Intel), and stream multiprocessors (Nvidia). Faster GPUs have more Cuda cores (Nvidia) or stream processors (AMD) than slower models. However, these specifications are only comparable within the same generation and the same manufacturer. VRAM (video RAM) is a specification that almost every PC user is familiar with. VRAM is the memory on a graphics card that is available to hold the so-called frame buffer, texture information, and other graphical data. If your game settings and video resolution utilize the entire VRAM of your GPU, this can lead to graphics errors and a drop in performance. In addition to the size of the VRAM, other specifications are also decisive such as the memory type (e.g. GDDR6 or GDDR6X), the memory bus width (384, 256 or 128 bits), or the memory bandwidth (in GB/s). Graphics cards are complex units with many technical specifications. To be able to compare them, it helps to familiarize yourself with GPU terminology.IDG Just like a CPU, a graphics processor also has a clock rate both for the GPU core and the memory. The core clock rate indicates how quickly the GPU can process instructions. The memory clock rate, on the other hand, determines how fast the memory (VRAM) can send data to or receive data from the GPU. In general, the following applies: The higher the core clock rate and the memory clock rate of a graphics card, the higher the performance. You can also change the core clock rate and the memory clock rate–this is known as overclocking. Just like a CPU, a GPU has a maximum power consumption, which is referred to as TGP (Total Graphics Power). The TGP value indicates the maximum power that a graphics card may consume during operation and is measured in watts. TGP is an indicator of how power-hungry your graphics card is and also provides information about the expected temperature of the GPU during gaming or other GPU-intensive tasks. FP32 or Floating-Point Single Precision is a mathematical method for measuring the theoretical performance of a GPU. It indicates how many floating-point operations a GPU can perform in one second and is measured in TFLOPS. FP32 is useful for comparing different GPUs, even across generations, although the method does not cover all aspects of performance. Other specifications such as the supported PCIe generation and compatibility with graphical APIs such as DirectX, Vulkan, and Open GL can also be important, especially for designers or developers. Software features such as Nvidia’s DLSS, AMD’s FSR, and Intel’s XeSS differ in performance and gaming support. You should therefore check which upscaling technology and version your GPU supports. The graphics memory (shown here in green) of a graphics card is located in the immediate vicinity of the die to avoid delays in communication. IDG When buying a new GPU, you should always consult real-world tests and benchmarks from reputable sources to make an informed decision. Check the performance figures in the games and applications you intend to use. You should consider checking out Reddit posts, YouTube benchmarks, and reviews from trustworthy publications. Read...

Nicknames can be found in many areas. Initially, they were mainly used by the military and secret services, and author pseudonyms have also been used in literature for a long time. However, such code names are also widespread in the IT industry, where projects and products are often given imaginary names during the development phase. Here too, the purpose can be to keep important new developments secret from the competition and the public. However, if a certain term is used within the company, everyone involved knows exactly what it is all about. But IT terms do not always remain within a closed circle of participants — or should not. After all, unambiguous terms are particularly helpful when searching the internet for information, products, drivers, firmware, and much more. Here’s an example: When Microsoft released the first of this year’s two major feature updates for Windows 11 in the spring, it had a unique KB number like any other update. If you wanted to know something about the feature update, you would have had to know the seven-digit KB number. The term “Moment 5” was much quicker. Although Microsoft itself never used it, it was clearly assigned to this update in the specialized press and on the internet. Each Android version stands for a delicious dessert Would you have known? Google used “KitKat” to refer to Android version 4.4 in 2013. Version 9 of the smartphone operating system was simply called “Pie” five years later. IDG Sometimes codenames take on a life of their own: When Google introduced its smartphone operating system over 15 years ago, the company gave the first version, Android 1.0, the nickname “Angel Cake.” Naming subsequent versions after desserts became so popular that there was always speculation about what the next version would be called long before it was released. After all, that’s more exciting than a simple numbering system. After the current 15 version (“Vanilla Ice Cream”), Android 16 will start with the letter W next year, but nothing more is known at the moment. Things will get really interesting with Android 19, when all the first letters of the alphabet have already been used. As nice as the naming with desserts is, there are different levels and sub-versions below the main versions of Android. Among other things, these are important for equipping a smartphone with a specific custom ROM. In other words, an unofficial operating system version that does not originate from the device manufacturer, but which must match the respective smartphone model exactly. While some initially unofficial designations have developed a life of their own over time, the exact opposite is also true. You only learn the story behind them by chance. This is what happened to the author with an initially inconspicuous product name. We resolve this at the end of the article. Operating system: The code names behind Windows, Mac OS & Linux For a while, Windows 10 versions were named after these metals. Because Chrome was already occupied by Google, Microsoft chose the fictitious “Vibranium” from Marvel Comics instead. Foundry Many Windows versions also had and still have project names, but Microsoft does not have a system comparable to Android. Moreover, hardly anyone paid attention to the codes. “Chicago” stood for Windows 95, “Memphis” for Windows 98, “Whistler” for XP, and “Longhorn” for Vista. Whistler has been known as the venue for skiing competitions since the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. The fact that Longhorn refers to the Longhorn Bar in the Whistler ski resort falls into the category of useless knowledge. Incidentally, Windows 7 was also called “Windows 7” internally — not very original. “Redstone” for Windows 10 also became known to a wider public because the term remained unchanged for years. The different versions could only be distinguished by four-digit numbers: The first two digits stood for the year, the last for the month of release. Version 1709, for example, was from September 2017. From 2019, Microsoft changed the nomenclature again and each version was given a suffix such as 19H1, 19H2, and so on for the first or second half of a year. At the same time, each version was again given an unofficial name, this time according to chemical elements. However, because chromium follows titanium and vanadium in the periodic table and the name had long since been taken by Google, Microsoft switched to the fictitious metal “Vibranium” from the Marvel comics. The new code-name “Sun Valley” was introduced with Windows 11. If you want to shine at the regulars’ table: “Hudson Valley” is the name of the next version of Windows. A final note on Windows: While the U.S. Apollo space program will not be forgotten, not least thanks to the successful moon landing over 50 years ago, Windows Phone 8 is a different story, despite the identical code name. Apple assigns code names to almost all of its devices, programs, and services, and this also applies to the versions of iOS and Mac OS. Wikipedia documents the terms in detail, but only one should be pointed out here: Mac OS X 10.2 — initially only called “Jaguar” internally — is the last version of Mac OS without an official additional name. From version 10.3 (“Panther”) to 10.8 (“Mountain Lion”), the feline predators became a formal part of the name. Since version 10.9, they have been natural landmarks from California. Each Linux distribution of Ubuntu has an individual name in addition to the version number. The current version is called “Noble Numbat” and comes with a mascot. IDG The Ubuntu versions stand out among the various Linux distributions. Each version number has a code name consisting of an adjective and an animal name with the same initial letters: Currently, version 24.04 LTS bears the addition “Noble Numbat.” And what about Chrome OS? As Google releases a new version of its laptop operating system every few weeks, it dispenses with any additions and simply numbers them consecutively. CPU names from AMD and Intel You have probably already come across the word “Lake” in connection with Intel’s PC processors. It is preceded by the name of a real lake. Each of these terms stands for a processor generation, production technology, and more. This and all other information can of course also be looked up via the exact model designation for each CPU, for example Core i5-12600KF. The family names of the processor generations from AMD and Intel are extremely helpful for many purposes and are therefore also commonly used on the internet and even by the manufacturers.IDG However, Intel — and the same also applies to AMD — offers a processor range that is almost impossible to keep track of and does not always name the individual models logically. Even experts sometimes find it difficult to keep track. The designations for an entire CPU generation make it easier. These are now so common that it is better to speak of family names rather than code names. Even Intel uses them in its extensive product database. These terms are useful for several reasons. Each CPU generation fulfills certain standards and specifications: These include the Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, PCI Express, HDMI, Thunderbolt, RAM generations, and more. Because every processor determines far more than just computing power, the decision in favor of one generation or another is also important when buying a notebook or PC. The same applies when upgrading and replacing the motherboard or processor. And because a Google search with a phrase like “Tiger Lake” or “Raptor Lake” leads to clear results much more quickly than with numbers and generations, the terms have taken on a life of their own here too. Without them, it would also be much more difficult to find out about the development of the latest processor generation on the internet. The individual generations of CPUs from AMD and Intel have “family names” that have long since taken on a life of their own. IDG Detailed lists with the code or family names of the common x86 CPUs for PCs can be found on Wikipedia: here for AMD, here for Intel. The CPU-Z and Hwinfo tools also show the terms for the hardware used. Surprise model names for the Google Chromecast We owe you the resolution of the completely inconspicuous product name mentioned at the beginning. After the author replaced his old Chromecast player from Google with the current 4K model after many years, the question arose: What to do with the old one? First of all, he needed to know exactly which model it was. The model number NC2-6A5 printed on it quickly made it clear that it was a second-generation Chromecast, released in 2015. The second version of the Google Chromecast (left) bears the model number NC2-6A5 — a hidden reference to the Enterprise NCC-1701 from “Star Trek” (right).IDG At the same time, however, the corresponding Wikipedia entry caused some astonishment: “The model number NC2-6A5 of the second Chromecast generation is a reference to the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 from ‘Star Trek’. The ‘NC2’ can also be read as ‘NCC’, while the hexadecimal number ‘6A5’ corresponds to ‘1701’ in the decimal system.” Wow! Who comes up with something like that, and how do you enforce it at a global corporation like Google? The model number of the first Chromecast stick makes it clear that the numbers were not chosen at random: Here, H2G2-42 refers to the novel The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. This example shows that it’s a shame that such hidden messages are so rarely used — or that we so rarely hear about them. Because the research for this article also makes this clear: Although there are certainly similar examples, ultimately you are looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack. The almost 1,500 entries on the Wikipedia page “List of computer technology code names” also help. Big IT names and what lies behind them Some company and product names are shrouded in myth. There are often two or more ways of telling where the term comes from, how it came about and what it could mean. Here you can find out more about the origins of well-known IT brand names. Apple: The origin is somewhat controversial. Was it the fruit diet of company founder Steve Jobs on an apple farm? Or was it the friendly sound of the term in English? Or was the new company in the phone book simply meant to precede Atari, an important computer manufacturer at the time? Amazon: Allegedly, founder Jeff Bezos wanted to call his company “Cadabra.” However, because that sounded like “cadaver,” he and his lawyer agreed on a catchy term — with an A, of course, because of the telephone directory. Incidentally, the arrow was only added to the logo in 2000, by which time the online retailer already had (almost) everything in its range: “from A to Z”. Ebay: Initially, the online auction house was much more appropriately called “Auction Web,” but the company founder later incorporated it into his consulting company “Echo Bay.” As the domain echobay.com was already taken and ebay.com was still available, the new name was quickly decided on — one of several versions of its creation. Fritz: In two years’ time, Fritzbox manufacturer AVM will be celebrating its 40th anniversary. With the product name “Fritz,” the Berlin-based company wanted to express its German origins at the time. Google: It’s hard to believe that the company name was the result of a typo. The original plan was to use “Googolplex” to express a gigantic number. When searching for the URL availability, co-founder Larry Page is said to have mistyped and entered “Google” instead of “Googol” — the URL was still available. Read...

The technology sector now has serious questions to answer about how it allowed his alleged behavioural problems to fester. Read...

Vivaldi is launching Vivaldi 7.0 today, an updated version of its free Windows browser that adds a new interface on top of a new Dashboard, which is a centralized interface for managing your digital life. And it purposes avoids using AI to do so. Vivaldi has been one of the browsers I’ve used for several years, in part because of the exceptional flexibility the browser offers. Vivaldi is especially information-dense, placing visible access to a number of bookmarks, feeds, and emails all within a tight space. My colleague Michael Crider has his own reasons for switching from Chrome to Vivaldi, but both of us are sticking with the browser. In one sense, the new Dashboard feels like some of the efforts at “new tab” pages that browsers have added, where you can take what is essentially a blank page and add customized information to it. The Dashboard, or Start page, allows you to place some of the information Vivaldi typically reserves for its sidebars — calendar, feeds, Instagram, email, and so on — and center them on the page. Vivaldi intends for you to be able to organize the Dashboard with various feeds and widgets. We’d choose another technology news provider, naturally.Vivaldi “We have the feeder built in, but in this case, this is more visible,” said Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner, the chief executive of Vivaldi, describing the new Dashboard in an interview. “It’s easily accessible, and you can quickly see if something has changed. And similarly, in the same view, you could have some bookmarks, potentially whatever you have on your agenda, and just about anything else that you’d like to put in there.” Vivaldi anticipates that users will start filling the space with web widgets, von Tetzchner added. Vivaldi’s update was designed to give users something new to look at, but von Tetzchner said that he’s very conscious that users sometimes prefer the opposite. Floating tabs are a small visual change to VIvaldi 7.Vivaldi “I think, obviously, when you’re building software, you would like to see freshness, and that’s what we’re going for this time,” von Tetzchner said. “It’s that’s not something we do very many times, because we know our users are conservative, and I’m sure there will be someone that doesn’t like the fact that you have more space and a [different] structure and the like. And as with anything in Vivaldi, you can have it just the way you want it.” “People have different ideas of the way things should be done, so you can tailor it to your liking, including the way it used to be,” von Tetzchner added. Tucked inside the Vivaldi 7 update are new floating tabs, updated icons, instant synchronization of tabs, bookmarks and settings across mobile and desktop, and a feature that includes the ability to instantly jump to the last email you read. A deliberately light approach to AI One buzzword that does not appear in the update, however, is “AI.” While there have been AI-adjacent features that Vivaldi has built in, like translation, von Tetzchner said that AI isn’t a priority. One of the nice features Vivaldi includes is an RSS feed reader. It’s receiving a slight visual revamp in Vivaldi 7.Vivaldi “We don’t see AI as something that our users are asking for,” von Tetzchner said. “Rather the opposite. I think a lot of people are reacting to force-fed AI. I mean, obviously what Microsoft did with Recall is a great example of that. I think most people would agree that the idea of having a screenshot of your screen every five seconds gives you pause, right? And then the question is, is the functionality that you’re getting in return actually worth it? “If they want to use AI, they can, they can go to the AI services, but they don’t want it to be in the browser,” von Tetzchner added. “And I think the fact that it’s being pushed so heavily indicates that there’s more to it than just wanting to kind of give you a nice little feature. If the feature is so great, you don’t have to push it that hard.” You can download Vivaldi 7.0 here. Read...