Tiny Corp. CEO Expresses "70% Confidence" in AMD Open-Sourcing Certain GPU Firmware

Lately Tiny Corp. CEO—George Hotz—has used his company's social media account to publicly criticize AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX GPU firmware. The creator of Tinybox, a pre-orderable $15,000 AI compute cluster, has not selected "traditional" hardware for his systems—it is possible that AMD's Instinct MI300X accelerator is quite difficult to acquire, especially for a young startup operation. The decision to utilize gaming-oriented XFX-branded RDNA 3.0 GPUs instead of purpose-built CDNA 3.0 platforms—for local model training and AI inference—is certainly a peculiar one. Hotz and his colleagues have encountered roadblocks in the development of their Tinybox system—recently, public attention was drawn to an "LLVM spilling bug." AMD President/CEO/Chair, Dr. Lisa Su, swiftly stepped in and promised a "good solution." Earlier in the week, Tiny Corp. reported satisfaction with a delivery of fixes—courtesy of Team Red's software engineering department. They also disclosed that they would be discussing matters with AMD directly, regarding the possibility of open-sourcing Radeon GPU MES firmware.

Subsequently, Hotz documented his interactions with Team Red representatives—he expressed 70% confidence in AMD approving open-sourcing certain bits of firmware in a week's time: "Call went pretty well. We are gating the commitment to 6x Radeon RX 7900 XTX on a public release of a roadmap to get the firmware open source. (and obviously the MLPerf training bug being fixed). We aren't open source purists, it doesn't matter to us if the HDCP stuff is open for example. But we need the scheduler and the memory hierarchy management to be open. This is what it takes to push the performance of neural networks. The Groq 500 T/s mixtral demo should be possible on a tinybox, but it requires god tier software and deep integration with the scheduler. We also advised that the build process for amdgpu-dkms should be more open. While the driver itself is open, we haven't found it easy to rebuild and install. Easy REPL cycle is a key driver for community open source. We want the firmware to be easy to rebuild and install also." Prior to this week's co-operations, Tiny Corp. hinted that it could move on from utilizing Radeon RX 7900 XTX, in favor of Intel Alchemist graphics hardware—if AMD's decision making does not favor them, Hotz & Co. could pivot to builds including Acer Predator BiFrost Arc A770 16 GB OC cards.


https://www.techpowerup.com/320126/tiny-...u-firmware

Wieland Pumpless AIO CPU Cooler Tested

Wieland AIO CPU cooler is a prototype closed-loop liquid CPU cooler that lacks a pump, or any form of active coolant flow between the heat-source (the CPU block), and the sink (the radiator). The cooler works on the principle of thermosiphon, where the temperature differential between the source and sink cause coolant flow. This is essentially how solar water heaters work, as they drive coolant (water) between the heating panels and a storage tank. It's not like the cooler is without any moving parts, the radiator still needs ventilation from fans.

Der8auer tested a prototype Wieland cooler, and compared its cooling performance to that of a typical 240 mm AIO CLC (with a pump), on a machine with an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X processor with a 170 W TDP. During a 20-minute Cinebench R23 multithreaded stress test, the 240 mm AIO held temperatures to around 70 °C, while the Wieland AIO managed 78 °C. The power draw with the regular 240 mm AIO was higher, as the processor probably utilized the lower temperature to hold onto higher boost frequencies.


https://www.techpowerup.com/319892/wiela...ler-tested

LG Reveals Full Specifications and Pricing for the 4K UltraGear 32GS95UE-B OLED Moni

Just before Christmas, LG unveiled the UltraGear 32GS95UE-B OLED gaming monitor with what the company is calling Dual-Hz, which allows for different refresh rates at different resolutions. In this case, 240 Hz at 4K and 480 Hz at 1080p. However, LG only provided basic specs and didn't reveal pricing back then, both of which now have been revealed. The 31.5-inch OLED panel used doesn't really stand out from the crowd with a typical brightness of 275 cd/m², a color depth of 1.07 billion colors (10-bit panel), a contrast ratio of 1.5 million to one a gray to gray response time of 0.03 ms and DisplayHDR True Black 400 certification.

As far as connectivity goes, some of you will be disappointed, as the 32GS95UE-B only sports DisplayPort 1.4 as well as HDMI 2.1. There isn't even a USB Type-C port on this monitor, instead a USB Type-B input and standard USB-A outputs, as well as a headphone output is all you get. LG has also kitted out the 32GS95UE-B with what the company called Pixel Sound speakers, i.e. the speakers are hidden behind the display panel. Both FreeSync Premium Pro and G-Sync compatibility is included, as well all the usual gaming features you'd expect. LG also includes a stand that supports tilt, height, swivel and pivot adjustments. In the US, the 32GS95UE-B comes with a two-year warranty, a US$1399.99 price tag and a mid-April shipping date.


https://www.techpowerup.com/319878/lg-re...ed-monitor

Tell me 4 different jokes that are based on technology.

This Week in Gaming (Week 10)

Welcome to the month of March, which we kick off with some American play fighting and although this is the biggest release this week, it's not what we'd call a AAA release. We obviously have a range of other games for you as well, ranging from a morally ambiguous RPG to a muddy driving game followed by a physiological horror title, a very Finnish adventure and nine days of preparation.

WWE 2K24 / This week's major release / Friday 8 March
WWE 2K24 boasts a star-studded roster featuring WWE Legends like "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, Undertaker, and Andre the Giant, alongside current WWE Superstars like "The American Nightmare" Cody Rhodes, John Cena, Rhea Ripley, and Roman Reigns, whose larger-than-life entrances and signature moves are heightened by ultra-realistic graphics. WrestleMania is the biggest event in sports entertainment, where Superstars become WWE Legends. Experience a gripping retelling of WrestleMania's greatest moments in 2K Showcase of the Immortals, where you can relive a collection of some of the most unforgettable, career-defining matches. Steam Link Read full story


https://www.techpowerup.com/319876/this-...ng-week-10

Intel Launches Core Ultra vPro Processors for Commercial Notebooks

Intel today launched Core Ultra vPro line of mobile processors for commercial notebooks. These chips are based on the "Meteor Lake" silicon, but come with the exhaustive vPro Enterprise or vPro Essentials set of features that let large organizations manage notebooks and other devices they hand out to their personnel. The processor models themselves align with the regular Core Ultra chips the company launched in December for the consumer notebook segment; but with the added vPro brand extension. Notebooks with Core Ultra vPro processors will be available in the commercial notebook channels open to large organizations ordering from OEMs to their exact specs in large enough volumes.

Among the vPro Enterprise features are the popular Intel Active Management tech, which allows remote administration of devices; Remote Platform Erase; Unique Platform ID, Service Record, and platform features such as VT-D, System Resources Defence, total memory encryption, Threat Detection Technology, CFET, and a hardware-based firmware authentication mechanism. All current Core Ultra 5, Core Ultra 7, and Core Ultra 9 processor models have vPro variants, with identical clock speeds, core-configurations, cache sizes, and performance levels to their consumer notebook siblings.


https://www.techpowerup.com/319695/intel...-notebooks

(PR) OWC Unveils Ultra-Fast USB4 CFexpress 4.0 Type B Card Reader

Other World Computing—the leading end-to-end ecosystem solution provider of computer hardware, accessories, and software for both consumers and professionals—today introduced the new time redefining Atlas USB4 CFexpress Type B memory card reader at CP+ Camera & Photo Imaging Show in Yokohama, Japan. While conventional USB-C (10 Gb/s) readers are fast, users of the OWC Atlas USB4 CFexpress 4.0 Type B Card Reader are in for a transformative experience, witnessing time savings that not only redefine work processes but also freeing up more time for other passions and projects.

The Atlas USB4 CFexpress Type B card reader can slash minutes from transfers, and when paired with OWC Atlas CFA 4.0 memory cards, users can achieve real-world transfer speeds of over 3300 MB/s which translates into valuable time savings in managing data and backing it up during, or after, a shoot. The compact design of the Atlas USB4 card reader makes it an ideal travel companion, able to seamlessly fit into any camera bag. The sturdy aluminium enclosure houses cutting-edge technology like a highly effective new heat sink to prevent thermal throttling and ensure fast, reliable transfers and an innovative Innergize switch enabling users to fully leverage the capabilities of OWC Innergize software while it can boost USB 3.2 transfer rates by over 30% compared to previous generation of USB 3.2 products. Read full story


https://www.techpowerup.com/319479/owc-u...ard-reader

Sora by OpenAI is the Text-to-Video AI Model Beyond Our Wildest Imagination

Sam Altman of OpenAI just unveiled Sora, the all new speech-to-video AI model that exactly the way science fiction would want such a thing to work—imagine fluid, photorealistic, true-color video clips based entirely on text prompts. Sora is generative AI on an exponentially higher scale than Dall-E, and presumably requires an enormously higher amount of compute power. But to those that can afford to rent out a large hardware instance, this means the power to create a video of just about anything. Everything democratizes with time, and in a few years, Sora could become the greatest tool for independent content creators, as they could draw up entire worlds using just prompts and green screens. Sora strapped to a mixed reality headset such as the Apple Vision Pro, is basically a Holodeck.


https://www.techpowerup.com/319139/sora-...magination

NVIDIA to Create AI Semi-custom Chip Business Unit

NVIDIA is reportedly working to set up a new business unit focused on designing semi-custom chips for some of its largest data-center customers, Reuters reports. NVIDIA dominates the AI HPC processor market, although even its biggest customers are having to shop from its general lineup of A100 series and H100 series HPC processors. There are reports of some of these customers venturing out of the NVIDIA fold, wanting to develop their own AI processor designs. It is to cater to exactly this segment that NVIDIA is setting up the new unit.

A semi-custom chip isn't just a bespoke chip designed to a customer's specifications. It is co-developed by NVIDIA and its customer, using mainly NVIDIA IP blocks, but also integrating some third-party IP blocks the customer may want; and more importantly, approach semiconductor fabrication companies such as TSMC, Samsung, or Intel Foundry Services as separate entities from NVIDIA for their wafer allocation. For example, a company like Google may have a certain amount of wafer pre-allocation with TSMC (eg: for its Tensor SoCs powering the Pixel smartphones), which it may want to tap into for a semi-custom AI HPC processor for its cloud business. NVIDIA assesses a $30 billion TAM for this specific business unit—that's all its current customers wanting to pursue their own AI processor projects, who will now be motivated to stick to NVIDIA.


https://www.techpowerup.com/318976/nvidi...iness-unit

(PR) SK hynix Unveils Roadmap for Use of Recycled Materials

SK hynix announced today that it has established a roadmap to actively utilize recycled and renewable materials in production, marking the first case that a semiconductor company lays out such mid- to long-term plan. "In order to achieve Net Zero, or Carbon Neutrality, establishing a circular economy system centered on resource recycling has become an important task for countries and companies around the world," SK hynix said. "In line with this trend, we have decided to preemptively establish and faithfully implement the goal of increasing the use of recycled materials in stages."

Through this roadmap, SK hynix aims to raise the proportion of recycled materials used in the products currently manufactured by the company to 25% by 2025 and more than 30% (based on weight) by 2030. As part of the plan, SK hynix will start with essential metals for semiconductor production, such as copper, tin, and gold, and replace them with recycled materials. Industry experts point out that metal materials are the most effective when it comes to resource circulation as they account for a large proportion of the weight of finished memory products and are difficult to replace with other materials. Read full story


https://www.techpowerup.com/318767/sk-hy...-materials