Intel Foundry got ASML's second-generation High-NA EUV lithography machine running at its fab and became the first outfit to move from Low-NA tech to the new hotness for its 14A process node. The TWINSCAN EXE:5200B can crank out 175 wafers per hour stock, but Intel wants to tune it past 200 wafers hourly while hitting overlay precision down to 0.7 nanometers for stacking chip layers.
The company already blasted through over 30,000 wafers in one quarter on the earlier High-NA scanner and cut a specific manufacturing layer from 40 steps down to under 10. Customers got their hands on the 14A development kit and seem hyped about the yield numbers that beat what 18A pulled off at the same stage.
Volume production kicks off in a couple of...
AAEON rolled out the BOXER-6648-ARS fanless box PC powered by Intel Core Ultra Series 2 chips that can pack up to 24 cores and 36 TOPs of AI grunt through the new integrated CPU-GPU-NPU setup. The thing comes in two flavors based on either the H810 or Q870 chipset, and it handles everything from Core Ultra 9 down to Core Ultra 5 processors, depending on what kind of horsepower you need for industrial automation stuff.
The box rocks six serial ports for legacy gear, an 8-bit digital I/O block, and triple Ethernet with two 2.5 gig ports plus a standard gigabit connection. USB ports differ between models, with the H810 getting four USB 3.2 and four USB 2.0 versus the Q870 scoring six faster USB 3.2 ports. Storage maxes at 96 gigs of DDR5...
Intel shuffled its executive deck after its CTO bailed a few weeks back, and Pushkar Ranade got bumped up to interim chief technology officer. The dude spent over ten years at the company grinding through chip node development from 65nm down to 7nm stuff, and he is supposed to help CEO Lip-Bu Tan figure out where to take quantum computing and fancy interconnect tech while holding down the newly formed CTO office.
Robin Colwell took over senior government affairs to handle worldwide policy wonk schmoozing, and Annie Shea Weckesser landed the chief marketing gig, where she gets to smash together corporate reputation work with brand strategy under one roof. The CEO basically said all three bring the specialized brainpower Intel needs to...
GIGABYTE dropped the AORUS PRIME 5 prebuilt that stuffs an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 into one box with 32 GB of RGB memory and a 2TB SSD. The whole rig uses their in-house parts from top to bottom, and they are pushing the fact that everything comes from the same brand for stability reasons.
The cooling setup uses new Hawk Fans that supposedly crank air pressure by 89 percent and airflow by 42 percent compared to whatever they had before. The chassis rocks an 80 percent mesh front panel with extra side vents that double as RGB light shows, and liquid cooling handles the CPU while the case pushes air around the GPU.
Samsung shut down rumors about ditching SATA SSDs after people started freaking out over claims the company was converting production lines to handle the massive DRAM shortage hitting the industry. A spokesperson told a tech outlet the whole thing was bogus, and the brand has no plans to bail on SATA or other drive formats despite Micron pulling out of consumer stuff with their Crucial brand recently.
The DRAM mess might actually chill out faster than everyone thinks. Sapphire's PR manager dropped some optimism during an interview, saying the pain should ease up within six to eight months as supply catches up or the datacenter boom slows down. Prices might stay higher than before, but the wild spikes should settle once manufacturing...
Minisforum launched the BD895i SE with an AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX soldered straight onto a Mini-ITX board that keeps the same tiny footprint as their older model. The chip packs 16 cores running at 5.4 GHz max with Radeon 610M graphics for display duties, and the whole thing targets small form factor rigs that need actual horsepower for rendering or virtual machines without taking up desk space.
The board handles 96 gigs of DDR5 through SO-DIMM slots, throws in a full PCIe 5.0 x16 slot for proper GPUs, and gives you dual M.2 slots for NVMe drives. Rear panel sports USB-C with DisplayPort passthrough, HDMI 2.1, 2.5 gig Ethernet, and the usual audio jacks. Ships with a tower cooler that takes 120mm fans you supply yourself.
Going for 425...
Samsung shot down rumors about killing off their SATA SSD lineup after some tech YouTuber started spreading claims that the company was ditching the older drive format for higher-margin NVMe products. Korean outlet NEWSIS hit up Samsung directly, and the electronics giant confirmed they are still making SATA drives with no plans to bail on the format.
The speculation blew up on social media despite major tech sites skipping the story because nobody could verify it. SATA SSDs still move units across business computers, industrial gear, and older systems that can't run PCIe interfaces, so demand stays steady even though NVMe dominates performance builds.
Samsung basically told everyone to chill and stop believing random YouTube channels...
JONSBO dropped the D401 Black mid-tower case with an external skeleton frame that ditches the usual box look for dark grey metalwork. The thing rocks dual tempered glass panels up front and on the left to show off your RGB nightmare, while perforated top and bottom sections plus side vents keep air moving through the build.
Cooling setup handles three 120mm fans or dual 140mm units on top, three more 120s on the side panel, and radiators max out at 360mm if you are going liquid. Storage gets one convertible bay for either 2.5-inch SSDs or 3.5-inch drives, plus two extra 2.5-inch slots. GPU clearance hits 439mm, CPU coolers fit up to 169mm tall, and PSUs work up to 200mm deep.
The exoskeleton frame cuts down on internal clutter during...
Ariana Resources finished more than half the drilling work at their Dokwe Gold Project in Zimbabwe, and the early data is backing up what their geological models predicted about where the gold sits. The company just locked down 5.31 million from Hong Kong Xinhai Mining Services to run metallurgical tests and wrap up a feasibility study for the site that holds over a million ounces of gold worth close to 4 billion at current prices.
They knocked out 15 holes out of a planned 26-hole program, covering 2,411 meters across multiple target zones. The team is using portable XRF scanners and rapid gold-screening tech to adjust their drilling strategy on the fly based on what they are finding in real time.
Managing director Kerim Sener said...
