Topps Blog: March 2022

Thursday, 31 March 2022

Paramount Announces ‘Demastered Edition’ of Star Trek Deep Space Nine, Voyager

Paramount announced today that it intends to release new versions of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager on physical media this year. While fans have pushed for a new version of the show for years, Paramount’s new effort may not be quite what they had in mind. We aren’t getting the restored master source and new CGI that fans have begged for. We aren’t even getting an AI upscaled version of the show that I discussed earlier this week, even though even an AI upscale with professional color grading would still beat the crap out of the original DVD release.

In lieu of these options, Paramount has announced a new, “Demastered Edition” of Star Trek Deep Space Nine and Star Trek Voyager. Instead of using Blu-ray or even DVD, these new editions of the seminal science fiction shows will only be available on VHS. ExtremeTech has obtained exclusive footage of these “episodes” and embedded it below.

Blame the TNG Blu-ray

It’s a well-known fact that the Powers That Be were unhappy with sales of the TNG Blu-ray remaster when it was released 10 or so years ago. Paramount’s decision to pivot towards, shall we say, alternate forms of physical media with this release is driven by the belief that TNG-era Star Trek fans occupy a unique nexus. Specifically, they like old TV, they’re nostalgic for the past, and they’re rich enough to spend money on collectables of dubious value.

In and of itself, this isn’t an insane hypothesis. Sales of vinyl records have been rising for the past few years. VHS sales on eBay are growing, while sales of DVD and Blu-ray products are reportedly falling year-on-year. Paramount has seen this trend and wants to take advantage of it. Furthermore, the company has its own theory on why the TNG Blu-ray release didn’t sell well. The problem, according to Paramount executive and self-proclaimed devoted Star Trek fan Moore Moonves, is that Star Trek: The Next Generation looked too good compared to what fans were used to.

“Our focus groups concluded that what fans want is something that matches the quality of what they grew up on,” Moonves told us. “If you watched Deep Space Nine or Voyager during their initial runs, you almost certainly watched it on an old-fashioned CRT or VHS tape. People don’t want to see Star Trek in HD. It scares them. It’s jarring and unfamiliar. Admit it, Data’s eyes look f—— weird in some of those remastered TNG episodes.”

The man has a point.

When I pointed out that the entire point of a remaster was to watch the show in higher quality and that fans might feel shortchanged, Moonves bristled.

“I resent the implication that we care less about Deep Space Nine and Voyager than we do about The Next Generation,” he shot back. “When we remastered TNG, we spared no expense. We rescanned the film and carefully color-graded each season, episode-by-episode. We hired a team of professionals and brought in original members of the special effects team to oversee the work.”

“When we decided to de-master Deep Space Nine and Voyager we knew we owed these shows no less dedication Our crack team of Fiverr employees canvassed garage sales for weeks, all across the United States, until we found a pristine set of both series on VHS still in shrinkwrap. When the owner told me he’d put them on a shelf in his garage 20 years ago and forgotten about them, I knew we had found the kind of collector I could bond with.”

The Full VCR Experience

According to members of the restoration team we met with, the new de-mastered editions aren’t just some old VCR tapes a hapless contractor found sitting on a shelf last year. Paramount has gone to great pains to make certain each boxed set will replicate an authentic VHS experience. The company has used AI to process the found footage, creating a unique blend of errors, artifacts, and problems for each and every copy. No two copies of any single episode in the upcoming Deep Space Nine and Voyager de-release will look the same between boxed sets.

But the fun doesn’t stop there, Dear Reader. In order to truly replicate the “Full VCR Experience”, various key scenes in every collection have been overwritten by random football games, other TV shows, and late-night infomercials, invariably injected at the worst possible time. According to RJ Fletcher, the Paramount executive tapped to oversee this painstaking restoration, this sometimes creates a “unique fusion” of classic TNG-era Star Trek and late-90s pop culture.

Paramount Executive RJ Fletcher, calmly fielding our questions.

We managed to smuggle footage of this new, ‘De-Mastered Edition’ of the show out of the studio at no small risk to ourselves. Some of you may find what you are about to see… disturbing. We recommend watching to the end of both.

Rest assured, the Doctor is not the only person glancing around in shock and alarm. And as for Deep Space Nine?

I remember begging my parents to buy a new VCR tape so I could record “Way of the Warrior” in Standard Play (SP). After my parents had gone to bed that night, I got back up and watched the battle sequence again four or five times. I think I might have ignited if my copy of the episode had gotten ruined this way. But — not wanting to jump to any conclusions — we decided to consult the cast of the TV shows.

“I think it’s a wonderful idea to re-release Voyager,” said Robert Picardo, who played the iconic holographic Doctor on the TV series, “But I’m not sure this is the way anyone wants to see it — or me, for that matter. I look like a mangey Vidiian.”

“Also,” he added, “Who are you people, and what are you doing in my house?”

Pricing and Availability

Paramount expects the demaster to be available by Star Trek Day on September 8, 2022. If this release proves popular, the company may consider other niche markets and products. Plans are reportedly in the works to re-issue Star Trek: The Animated Series on a tranche of recently-discovered LaserDiscs manufactured at the Sony DADC factory in Terre Haute. If that proves popular, Paramount may consider releasing TOS on Betamax.

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Confirmed: Pluto Has Gigantic Cryovolcanoes As Tall As the Himalayas

Ever since New Horizons first beamed back its beauty shots of Pluto in 2015, we’ve been poring over the data. Now, planetary scientists have reported evidence confirming the presence of cryovolcanoes on Pluto. The cryovolcanic region borders the southwest aspect of Sputnik Planitia, a brightly reflective, heart-shaped plateau of nitrogen ice.

At up to 7km tall, these enormous mountains of ice are in the height class of the tallest peaks on Earth. Only the Himalayas and Karakoram reach higher. But unlike the craggy peaks of the Himalayas, these cryovolcanoes are like a frozen version of Hawaii’s shield volcanoes. Their shape and mass are like Mauna Loa, with the largest measuring up to 100km wide at the base.

This perspective view shows the region containing the largest cryovolcanoes on Pluto.

Perspective view of the cryovolcanic region on Pluto. At center, Wright Mons and its massive caldera. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/Isaac Herrera/Kelsi Singer

NASA had already been eyeing Wright Mons, one of the largest cryovolcanoes identified in the new research. If confirmed, the agency said, “it would be the largest such feature discovered in the outer solar system.”

The researchers identified the cryovolcanoes while looking at a region of Pluto’s surface that was remarkably free of impact craters. The ice there, according to the report, may be less than 200 million years old. Stranger still, scans indicate that it’s water ice.

“The combination of these features being geologically recent, covering a vast area and most likely being made of water ice is surprising because it requires more internal heat than we thought Pluto would have at this stage of its history,” said lead author Kelsi Singer. (Read the open-access report in Nature Communications.)

‘A horrible Slurpee’

For ice volcanoes to work, they need cryolava. But, the report observes, “At these low temperatures pure water ice should generally form an immobile bedrock.” A world as small as Pluto should have long since frozen solid.

Pluto, as seen by New Horizons in 2015

However, the composition of Pluto’s ice is as varied as the colors of its surface. Ammonia, salts and other antifreezes in the cryolava slush might have given it a consistency not unlike a horrible Slurpee. (Try our new hit flavor, “Demoted Planet” – Ed)

As for the shape of the volcanic domes, Pluto’s surface temperature hovers between 35 and 60 K. Instead of piling up into a cone with a caldera, the cryolava would slump across Pluto’s icy surface, says the report. At the same time, Dr. Singer believes, there are whole “colonies” of these cryovolcanoes. Any slush that spilled out onto the surface would have immediately hardened into a dome. A porous region of ice could allow an upwelling of cryolava through many different apertures, some larger, some smaller. That could explain the “hummocks” we see.

The presence of these cryovolcanoes, the researchers say, suggests that there is more activity on Pluto than meets the eye. “The existence of these massive features suggests Pluto’s interior structure and evolution allows for either enhanced retention of heat or more heat overall than was anticipated before New Horizons, which permitted mobilization of water-ice-rich materials late in Pluto’s history,” the researchers wrote in their report.

As for life in the frozen reaches of the outer solar system, the jury’s still out. “I think that it is a little more promising, and that there might be some heat and liquid, potentially liquid water closer to the surface,” Singer said. “But there’s still some big challenges for poor microbes that want to live on Pluto.”

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FTC Sues Intuit Over Claim That TurboTax is Free

(Photo: Intuit)
Ah, tax season: an approximately three-month chunk of the year in which we all bite our nails in front of an accountant or our computer, awaiting our financial fate. For those of us who go the DIY route, software like Intuit’s TurboTax claim to make our lives a little easier—but are their claims actually true?

Perhaps not. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has taken issue with Intuit’s advertising of TurboTax, specifically with the way the software is marketed as “free.” In a lawsuit filed Monday, the FTC claimed TurboTax traps customers with its deceptive advertising and pushes them toward paid products, even when some of those customers would have qualified for the actual zero-cost Free File option reserved for those with low to moderate income.

“For many [users], Intuit tells them, after they have invested time and effort gathering and inputting into TurboTax their sensitive personal and financial information to prepare their tax returns, that they cannot continue for free; they will need to upgrade to a paid TurboTax service to complete and file their taxes,” the complaint reads. Those who have income other than W-2 income (which includes business owners, rideshare and delivery drivers, and—ahem—freelancers, among others) are forced to pay extra for self-employment filing. The same goes for those who own a farm, received a state refund the year prior, or have recently sold a home.

(Image: Intuit)

According to the FTC, any fine print currently attached to TurboTax’s advertising is insufficient as it relates to preventing customer deception. End-of-commercial disclaimers often state “that the offer is limited to consumers with ‘simple tax returns’ or ‘simple US returns only.’” But the lawsuit notes that these disclaimers often blend into the background image and are only on screen for a few seconds. They’re also not voiced aloud, which is problematic for those who aren’t monitoring the screen.

Intuit has already responded by saying the FTC’s accusations are inaccurate and unfounded, and that the company will fight the lawsuit in court. Intuit’s main point of defense seems to be that TurboTax and its other products are in compliance with IRS requirements. But compliance with one government agency doesn’t preclude issues with another, and the FTC has always required that “claims in advertisements must be truthful” and not “deceptive or unfair.” For a company whose TV commercials mostly consist of the word “free” (as the FTC’s complaint points out), this may be a problem.

While the FTC and Intuit battle it out in court, the FTC has submitted a proposed order asking a judge to require that Intuit stop “disseminating the deceptive claim that consumers can file their taxes for free using TurboTax.” If approved, the temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction would force Intuit to pivot its advertising strategy, at least until the lawsuit has reached a conclusion.

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Motorola Becomes Third-Largest Smartphone Vendor in the US

Motorola invented the cell phone, but it fell behind during the early smartphone era. The Google acquisition probably saved it, but it continued to slide under the ownership of Lenovo. Until LG stumbled, that is. New data from Counterpoint Research shows Motorola has risen in the ranks to become the third-largest smartphone maker in the US. It’s a distant third-place finish, but that’s still impressive.

Counterpoint’s data runs through the end of 2021, showing Moto steadily gaining market share month after month throughout 2021. Not coincidentally, that’s just when LG began quietly spinning down its mobile division. The first rumors of LG’s exit percolated in early 2021, and by April it was official. And wouldn’t you know it, that’s when Counterpoint says Motorola captured the top spot.

By the time LG dropped its Android phone division, it hadn’t had a hit flagship in years. However, it was still in a strong third-place position thanks to its budget phones, which were popular with carriers. It just so happens that Motorola began focusing much more on the budget segment last year — it didn’t even release a true flagship phone in 2021, and it’s been about 18 months since it released a foldable Razr.

According to Counterpoint, Moto’s newfound success is thanks to devices like the Moto G Stylus, Moto G Power, and Moto G Pure, all of which are priced at $300 or less. Carriers also value Moto for its low return rates and ability to ramp up production volume quickly. This has boosted Motorola to a respectable 10 percent of the US market, which has healthier margins than many larger markets in the developing world.

Samsung has more than double Moto’s market share at 22 percent, holding steady throughout 2021. Apple doesn’t license its software to OEMs, so it has the entirety of the iOS market at 58 percent. Motorola isn’t likely to put a dent in that anytime soon, but it could continue this new growth by bringing more desirable flagship phones to the market to compete with the Galaxy S and iPhone lines. Motorola just released its first flagship phone since 2020, a new version of the Edge+. However, its $1,000 price tag is still a tough sell when you can get a high-end Samsung or Apple phone for a bit less.

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You Can Now Try Chicken-Free Egg Whites in the US

(Photo The EVERY Company) When it comes to egg white substitutes, one Californian technology company may have come as close to the “real thing” as it gets.

The Every Company (formerly called Clara Foods) announced back in October that it had successfully created “the world’s first animal-free, nature-equivalent egg protein,” called ClearEgg. Now ClearEgg is something you can actually try for yourself. Every has announced a partnership with Chantal Guillon, a popular San Francisco confectionery, to use ClearEgg in a line of vegan French macarons.

ClearEgg is Every’s third animal-free product. First was the company’s animal-free pepsin (a pig-derived digestive enzyme used in pharmaceuticals). That was followed by a flavorless protein powder made to be added to virtually anything. ClearEgg is the first egg white to be lab-made with engineered yeast, which is responsible for forming the protein that makes up the actual product. Though Every hasn’t shared the combination of proteins it uses to create ClearEgg, ovalbumin (the main protein in standard egg whites) is likely involved.

(Photo: Chantal Guillon)

Egg white substitutes have been around for a while now, but they’re just that: substitutes. While bartenders may opt to use aquafaba (the liquid in a can of chickpeas) in shaken cocktails and bakers may choose cream of tartar or flax seeds when making sweet treats, each of these alternatives are ultimately made up of different proteins, meaning they may not offer the same benefits as real egg whites. Though ClearEgg comes as a powder that must be mixed with water, the end result is a gelatinous clear mixture that whips and bakes just like the whites from an actual egg. Every also says ClearEgg’s “optical clarity” and “more neutral sensory profile” make it highly versatile. After all, a clear, tasteless liquid is far easier to use in a beloved recipe than something containing its own color or flavor.

While trivial to some, ClearEgg’s similarity to real eggs is important. Those who are turned off by the appearance of egg whites may find substitutes acceptable or preferable. However, those who do like egg whites may be more likely to try an animal-free version if their level of familiarity isn’t significantly challenged. (The same goes for meat substitutes like Impossible or Beyond meat, which look, feel, cook, and even sometimes bleed like the real thing. We’ve come a long way.) As a bonus, Every says it will comply with label requirements to be considered kosher, halal, and animal-free. This makes the product capable of suiting a wider range of customer needs. ClearEgg’s packaging does indicate the product contains egg allergens.

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Intel Flashes Discrete Desktop GPU in Arc Launch Footage

Intel officially launched its Arc family of graphics solutions yesterday. We say “solutions” instead of “cards” because the first chips to arrive will be mobile GPUs. The launch info consisted of a ton of slides and explainers, as well as a 20 minute video presentation. At the very end of the video Intel pulled a Steve Jobs, adding “one more thing.” That one thing just happens to be what a lot of gamers are actually waiting for: Intel’s discrete desktop gaming card.

In what is now a common reveal tactic, the video shows the card being “built” with an animated 3D rendering. We see the Intel die mounted to the PCB, the cooling assembly getting attached, and finally a shroud appears over the card. The tagline reads, “Limited Edition Graphics Coming Summer 2022.” Despite it not being an actual real GPU, but a rendering of one, we can still draw several interesting conclusions.

Though the GPU in the video looks somewhat generic and like a reference design, its design elicits a pressing question: where are the power connectors? The video shows a 360 degree flyby around the card, and unless we’re missing something, there’s nowhere to plug in a power cable (or two). That would mean the card is drawing all its power from the PCIe slot, which only offers 75W. If that’s the case, that would mean this is an entry-level GPU, and not the fire-breathing 1440p gaming card fans were hoping for. It might just be that Intel left it out to give the card a cleaner look though. In February photos of a strikingly similar Intel GPU leaked, and it sported one six-pin and one eight-pin power connector. The leaked GPU even had a gap next to the six-pin connector, just in case an eight-pin connector might be needed on an upgraded model.

The previously leaked GPU photos look suspiciously like the one in the video. (Image: Videocardz)

The second question is equally pertinent: why is it a Limited Edition? Back in January PC Gamer penned an open letter to Intel’s Arc team begging them to help solve the GPU crisis. With the ongoing chip shortage and GPU pricing out of whack for years, it was Intel’s time to shine. It could come into the market with an abundance of moderately-priced and powerful GPUs, and begin printing money. Surprisingly, Intel’s CEO Pat Gelsinger replied, saying, “We are on it.” Intel graphics guru Raja Koduri also replied, stating Intel is aware of the situation and wants to get millions of Arc GPUs into gamers’ hands. If that is the case, then why show off your GPU for the first time, but label it Limited Edition? You were supposed to beat them Intel, not join them!

Those details aside, it looks like a fairly pedestrian GPU. It has three DisplayPort and one HDMI connector. The dual fans are interesting in that they show the card doesn’t feature a blower fan, which a lot of people don’t like. It looks like there’s four heat pipes attached to an aluminum heatsink, so all in all, pretty normal stuff here. There’s nothing about it that screams “high performance” like the rumors suggest, but hopefully it’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Also, what might be playing out is Intel is adopting the same rollout strategy on both desktop and mobile. In its announcement today, its low-end mobile chip is available now, with the more powerful chips coming later. Intel might do the same on desktop, launching a “limited edition” entry-level GPU to get its ecosystem in place. It might also need time to polish its software and drivers. Then, right around the time AMD and Nvidia drop their next-gen GPUs, Intel enters the game with the big boys. That’s just speculation though, so we’ll have to wait and see what Intel’s plans are later this summer.

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Microsoft Adds One-Click Default Browser Change to Windows 11

They’ve finally done it, those crazy-you-know-whats. Microsoft has finally fixed a very shortsighted design decision in Windows 11. The change finally allows people to change their default browser with just one click. It’s a simple fix, and should have never been required in the first place, but we’re grateful Microsoft is listening to its customers.

In order to gain access to this newfound power, simply update your Windows 11 PC and look for a fix titled KB5011563. Prior to this patch, you could still “change” your default browser from Edge to whatever you like, but it didn’t really change. I personally experienced this recently after a reinstall of Windows 11. I downloaded Chrome, and when opening it for the first time was prompted to change it to my default browser. I clicked in the affirmative, but it didn’t change the associations for all the file types browsers use. You can see the results of my pre-patch situation below.

In what world does that reflect a new default browser? Previously, after you “changed” the default browser you still had to manually change a raft of file associations. The most important were .htm and .html, which Microsoft defended by saying it was offering customers choice and flexibility. Sure, we all like having choice, but not like this. I’ve already made a choice Microsoft, now finish the dang job! Sorry, but that felt good to get off my chest.

Once you’ve downloaded the update and your PC has rebooted, you will now see something glorious. Just navigate to Settings -> Apps -> Default Apps and try changing any browser to the default. As soon as you click the button you’ll witness the .htm and .html file associations change instantly. We experimented by clicking on Firefox and changing it to our default.

It should be noted that this won’t change every file association that might be related to a browser. You’ll still see Edge as the default for .pdf and .ftp, for example, but those are easy to switch if you’re so inclined. Besides, don’t people just use an FTP app anyway? Do people still use FTP when we have cloud storage providers like Dropbox? We digress.

This change by Microsoft is certainly welcome, and marks the successful transition from a preview build feature to the real world. This tweak was first reported in December of 2021, so it took roughly three months to proliferate into customer’s hands. It is one of the first features we’ve seen that was tested in a preview build actually made it out of the lab. Hopefully the same will be true of tabbed Explorer windows, and not the ones with built-in ads please.

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Wednesday, 30 March 2022

Geothermal Plants Could Be a Future Source of Lithium

(Photo: Mika Baumeister/Unsplash) Just in time for a global push to move away from fossil fuels, geologists and energy policy experts are recognizing geothermal plants’ ability to provide multiple forms of clean energy. Among them is lithium—an essential element of the batteries that power electric cars, energy storage systems, handheld electronics, and household appliances, among other things we’ve come to love and rely on.

Gas prices are skyrocketing and international tensions are rising, and as the Russia-Ukraine conflict continues, many are beginning to understand the increasingly dire need to reduce the world’s reliance on imports like fossil fuels. While solar and wind energy are often environmental activists’ top priorities, geothermal plants have proven themselves the underdog of the clean energy debacle. Unlike solar and wind, geothermal plants can produce a constant stream of energy; now, they may also be able to offer a level of mineral security to the US and its allies that other clean energy plants cannot.

Geothermal plants produce geothermal energy right at the site, but lithium, like fuel, has historically been a major US import. (Much of the nation’s supply comes from China, Russia, Argentina, and Chile, with only one lithium plant currently in operation in the US.) If the US truly wants to back away from its reliance on other countries for energy, it will be required to seek those resources from within, and geothermal plants may be able to help.

California’s largest lake, the Salton Sea. (Photo: Tuxyso/Wikimedia Commons)

We seem to be in luck, though: inland California’s Salton Sea has been found to contain massive amounts of lithium. The Salton Sea’s 11 existing geothermal plants already do the work of extracting brine from deep underground and boiling it to produce steam. The leftover liquid concentrate is simply a byproduct of the geothermal energy production process. As it turns out, remaining brines from the Salton Sea contain high concentrations of dissolved solids that may be able to supply more lithium than the US needs.

Operators at the Salton Sea geothermal field are developing pilot plants to test the feasibility of extracting lithium from the brines. Geologist Michael McKibben and energy policy expert Bryant Jones say that if the pilot plants are successful, the Salton Sea’s existing plants will be capable of producing 20,000 tons—or $5 billion worth—of lithium metal per year. This is enough lithium to cover 10 times the current US demand.

Though this is just the beginning of the Salton Sea’s journey toward fulfilling the country’s lithium needs, it dovetails with some promising policy updates. California’s Public Utilities Commission just enacted the Preferred System Plan back in February, prioritizing the development of 25,500 megawatts total in new supply-side renewables (including 1,160 megawatts of new geothermal electricity). If there were ever a time for California policymakers to bite, this might be it.

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Intel Officially Launches New Arc 3, Arc 5, and Arc 7 A-Series Mobile Graphics

Today has been a long time coming. When Intel announced it was getting into the graphics business a few years ago, interest was high across the industry. It’s been nearly two decades since we had a third player in the graphics industry and even longer since we had a third player with deep pockets and funding to match the major players. Today, Intel is sharing new details on its Xe line of products and officially launching these new GPUs. Parts will debut for the lower-end mobile family first before higher-end solutions are available later this summer.

The basic building block of the chip is the Xe core. The Xe Core replaces the EUs as Intel’s fundamental “unit” of graphics computing. Each features 16 256-bit vector engines and 16 1024-bit matrix engines for hardware math. This XMX Matrix Engine can perform 128 FP16/BF16 operations per clock, 256 INT8 operations, or 512 INT4/INT2 operations per clock. GPU manufacturers have been steadily adding the ability to run limited precision workloads at high speed as a means of improving neural net power efficiency and increasing overall performance.

When GPGPU workloads launched, single-precision and double-precision FP32 and FP64 calculations were the major facets that we talked about. While these remain important for some workloads, data types like BF16 and INT8 have become more important in recent years.

If you use a standard multiply-accumulate, Xe can perform up to 16 ops/clock. DP4a boosts that to 64 ops/clock (DP4a is essential to Intel technologies like XeSS for AI-boosted upscaling). With XMX, the same chip can perform up to 64 operations / clock when using INT8. The GPU is capable of co-issuing floating point, integer, and matrix workloads simultaneously.

Media Decode Engine, New Features

Intel’s new media decode engine has some capabilities we haven’t seen in-market before. Arc GPUs will be the first cards with AV1 hardware encode support, with support for up to 8K / 12-bit HDR hardware decoding and up to 8K / 10-bit HDR encoding. Display connection technology is limited to HDMI 2.0b and DP 1.4a, though Intel does note that its hardware is DisplayPort “2.010G ready,” implying that manufacturers might be able to update support post-launch? This bit was unclear.

This iteration of Intel’s graphics chip can support up to 2x 8K60 displays, 4x 4K120 displays, or up to one 1080p or 1440p monitor running at up to 360Hz. Apart from AV1 support, this is pretty standard stuff. Intel, for example, also supports Adaptive Sync. That’s the generic term for the FreeSync and G-Sync technologies AMD and Nvidia already field. But it also supports two new technologies — Speed Sync and Smooth Sync. Both are meant to combat tearing, but they do it differently. Speed Sync delivers frames more quickly, supposedly reducing latency. Smooth Shift, meanwhile, blurs torn frames together to avoid the characteristic jagged edge of a V-Sync tear.

Smooth Sync’s schtick is that it blurs this boundary and shifts the frame location, avoiding the appearance of tearing altogether. Tearing isn’t a problem for most games or gamers these days, but if you are an e-sports player gaming with V-Sync off, Intel thinks these features might help slice a bit of latency off your game.

Overall, these are nifty features. It’s not clear what the total impact of them will be on anyone’s median gaming experience, but more developments that prevent tearing and reduce latency are good things.

Product Lineup

Here’s the Xe mobile product family. There will be three families of cards and five SKUs — two Arc 3, one Arc 5, and two Arc 7.

One thing that sticks out about these cards is their relatively small buses. AMD compensates for small memory buses by using large L3 caches. Intel doesn’t seem to think it needs to take this step. The low VRAM on lower-end solutions also means these cards are unlikely to get much use out of their ray tracing capabilities. The Arc 5 is better positioned, but we’re awful curious about how fast the GDDR6 is on these GPUs. Fast VRAM with a narrow memory bus has been a viable strategy before. The desktop versions that eventually debut might also have better specs.

Intel is claiming that the Arc 3 can offer up to 2x the performance of its current integrated Xe graphics. While that’s not going to challenge high-end cards from Nvidia or AMD it might be enough to give them a plausible lower-end part. Intel is broadly thought to have gotten into graphics partly because it wanted to absorb more of the available margin on notebooks, so a relatively cheap dGPU with good performance characteristics is a smart way to do it.

Intel Deep Link

Intel is also debuting some new technologies related to CPU-GPU sharing. Some of these we’ve seen before, but a few of them are genuinely new. First up is a feature called Dynamic Power Sharing. As the name implies, this allows the system to split power allocation between the CPU and GPU depending on which component needs more power in any given moment. AMD has a similar system in Ryzen.

Hyper Encode, Intel’s second feature, is an interesting one. It allows the system to leverage all of the graphics processors in the chassis to handle GPU workloads. If you’re encoding with Intel’s OpenVPL API, which is part of OpenVINO, a software designer can write code that will spread encoding across both the dGPU and iGPU. This is a smart way to make use of iGPU silicon in systems with discrete cards.

Intel’s Hyper Compute offers the same capability, but applied to content creation workloads. This would be potentially useful for content creators or AI upscalers.

Intel expects overall hardware availability for Arc 3 chips to begin more-or-less now, with higher-end cards coming later this year. The company is tiptoeing its way into the graphics market, but this is probably a smart strategy. It doesn’t have the same brand cachet as Nvidia or even AMD, and it doesn’t have a track record of high-end parts in this market. Intel’s first-gen products don’t have to be barn burners in order to compete, especially not in the current market. They just need to offer reasonably good price/performance and competitive feature sets. So far, it looks like Intel is delivering, though the relatively limited memory buses on these cards do raise some concerns. We’ll see how much they impact performance when silicon becomes available.

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Next-Gen PCIe 5.0 SSDs to Run Hot, May Require Cooling

SSDs that use the latest PCI Express 5.0 interface are expected to begin appearing sometime in 2022 (and beyond). That’s good news for fans of fast storage, as they offer double the throughput compared to PCIe 4.0. That means we’ll be seeing SSDs that can transfer data at a blazing 12GB/s, or thereabouts. The bad news is this new level of performance includes some heat-related concerns. After all, more speed equals more power, and more heat. This means that the next generation of SSDs will likely require cooling, which has never been the case previously.

In a a blog post from SSD controller company Phison, its CTO discusses the hurdles it’s facing with the heat generated by PCIe 5.0 SSDs. According to Sebastien Jean, Phison’s Chief Technical Officer, the company plans for its nex-gen SSDs to have the same thermal envelope as current drives. Jean says there are several strategies it can employ to achieve that goal. The most effective strategy is as old as time itself; moving to a smaller manufacturing node for increased efficiency. As an example, Jean describes moving from a 16nm node to 7nm. Another effective tool is reducing the number of lanes the SSD uses. In the past, more lanes was always better, but he says with PCIe 5.0 that’s not the case anymore. “In practical terms, you no longer need eight channels to saturate the Gen4 and even Gen5 PCIe interface. You can potentially saturate the host interface with four NAND channels,” he said. This reduction in NAND channels could result in up to 30 percent less power draw on the SSD.

Some PCIe 4.0 SSDs already include rather beefy cooling solutions. (Image: Corsair)

One of the more interesting bits of information in the post relates to how an SSD dissipates heat. Jean says it does most of it by simply being bolted to the M.2 slot on the motherboard. (A modern SSD is installed by being pushed into an M.2 slot, then screwed down to the motherboard via a tiny screw and standoff.) Jean says removing heat is all about the conduction path, stating, “believe it or not, the little [M.2] connector that plugs into the board. Not super efficient, but it still contributes.” He also says the metal screw is responsible for 70 percent of the thermal conduction path. Despite this, some motherboard manufacturers have switched from metal screws to nylon fasteners. Though this solution is cheaper, it makes cooling the SSD more difficult. The other way SSDs dissipate heat is through convection. The SSD warms up and passes its heat to the air around it. This is where heatsinks, and eventually fans, come into play.

Jean says although the company is doing everything it can to reduce power consumption, it’s inevitable that future drives will require more advanced cooling. He likens the situation to GPUs, which first arrived with naked chips on a PCB. Next, they had heatsinks on some of the modules before eventually moving to active cooling with a fan. This is different than passive cooling, which only uses a heatsink. Thus far even PCIe 4.0 drives have managed being naked or with a thin heatsink, provided there’s good airflow inside one’s case. That won’t be the case for the next generation though. “I would expect to see heatsinks for Gen5,” he said. “But eventually we’ll need to have a fan that’s pushing air right over the heatsink, too.” We should point out that after this blog post came out Jean issued a correction to it, noting he was referring to enterprise drives only. He clarified that the company’s client SSDs will have the usual low-profile heatsink we see in current drives.

If you’re already starting to fret about how you’re going to cool your next 600W GPU along with your SSD, you can relax. Though PCIe 5.0 SSDs are supposed to arrive this year, all signs point to 2023 and maybe even 2024. Several of these drives have been announced, but they are all enterprise drives. Also, the only PCIe Gen 5 platform currently available is Intel’s Alder Lake. AMD’s upcoming AM5 platform will offer PCIe Gen 5 too, but that won’t be out until later this year.

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Nvidia’s RTX 3090 Ti Finally Launches at $2,000 and Up

Nvidia has officially launched its Ampere flagship GPU, the RTX 3090 Ti. It replaces the RTX 3090 in Nvidia’s product stack, and will be remembered as the most massive GPU ever made — until it’s presumably usurped by the RTX 4090 later this year.

Compared to the RTX 3090, the Ti version has more of everything: higher clocks, faster memory, and more CUDA cores. It even includes a higher price tag, with a base price $500 higher than the 3090’s at $2,000. We’re not sure what’s more shocking; a $2,000 GPU or the fact that we’re not even phased by it at this point. As a Ti variant it’s about nine percent faster than the RTX 3090, depending on the workload.

There will be a Founder’s Edition (FE) of the card as well as boards from its partners. We can assume the FE card will cost $2,000 while partner boards go a bit beyond that. The reason is partners add RGB lights and overclocking, as well as other features. For example, both the EVGA FTW3 Ultra Gaming and the MSI Suprim X versions are $2,199. Cards like the EVGA version even include a new anti-sag technology that’s quite revolutionary: an eLeash. GPU sag is a real thing, especially on a card that weighs as much as a chihuahua. However, instead of supporting the card from below EVGA has designed a leash that grips it from above. You attach the leash to a fan at the top of your case (or an empty fan outlet) and string it to the GPU, so it’s suspended inside the chassis.

The RTX 3090 Ti is to thicc is has to be leashed to your case. (Image: EVGA)

One new and interesting feature of the RTX 3090 Ti is it’s the first GPU to sport the all-new 16-pin power connector. This is a PCIe 4.0 GPU, but it is rocking the next-gen power connector already. Since this is a 450W GPU, boards include an adapter cable. You have to plug in three 8-pin connectors to it, which sounds messy but it’s clearly superior to attaching three cables to the card itself. If that sounds crazy, the EVGA Kingpin version sports dual 16-pin connectors, so you’ll need six 8-pin connectors. The reason for the cable’s inclusion is a bit of a mystery, but one theory is it’s a trial balloon for the upcoming RTX 40-series cards. Igor’s Labs says the GA102 die in the 3090 Ti is pin compatible with the next-gen AD102 die, and the PCB will be the same as well. This means the 3090 Ti could just be a test run for the company’s next-gen GPUs. Still, it remains to be seen if these 3.5 slot coolers will be sufficient for a 40-series GPU at 600W.

EVGA’s card includes a three-into-one 16-pin power cable. (Image: EVGA)

Overall though, the RTX 3090 Ti is the most powerful GPU ever made, no doubt. It’s tempting to poke fun at it due to its pricing and such, but it does deliver on its claim of being the BFGPU. TechPowerUP reviewed several variants and was impressed by all of them. As a random sample, the MSI version was 10 percent faster than the RTX 3090, and 25 percent faster than the RTX 3080. Gamer’s Nexus wasn’t in such a charitable mood though, calling the GPU a “cash grab” and adding it was a “hard pass” unless you need it for content creation. That is the one area Nvidia is targeting with this GPU, because as we all know, gamers don’t need 24GB of fast GDDR6X VRAM. (I could sure use it – Ed)

For now, the title of “fastest GPU on earth” is firmly in Nvidia’s court. How long that will hold is anyone’s guess though, as AMD is rumored to be launching an upgraded RX 6950 XT flagship GPU in April. AMD will reportedly be adding faster memory to the GPU and bumping clocks, essentially mirroring Nvidia’s effort. The RX 6950 XT will still be a 7nm card though, unlike the RX 6500 XT which was a 6nm GPU. Both GPUs represent a swan song for their current architectures, with both companies expected to release their next-gen GPUs in the latter half of 2022.

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Tuesday, 29 March 2022

SpaceX Ending Production of Dragon Crew Capsule

SpaceX is the only entity with the capability to fly astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS), but it’s wrapping up production of the vessel that makes it possible. Following a Reuters report, Elon Musk’s spaceflight company has confirmed that it will cap its fleet of Crew Dragon spacecraft at four, freeing up resources to work on the upcoming Starship that could eventually take over from the Falcon 9 and Dragon.

The Crew Dragon was based on the flight-proven cargo version of the same vehicle. SpaceX conducted numerous uncrewed launches with this configuration before it sent its first astronauts up in a Dragon in 2020. NASA initially purchased six crewed launches from SpaceX as part of the Commercial Crew Program, but it recently added three more. In all, Dragon has launched with human passengers five times, including the first-ever civilian-only mission in 2021.

SpaceX isn’t moving on from the Dragon anytime soon—Musk and co simply feel they have enough. It will be able to fulfill its NASA contract with just four capsules because they’re reusable, just like the Falcon 9’s first stage. The company will continue manufacturing the parts necessary to refurbish Dragon capsules after each mission. The vessels are designed to be spaceworthy for ten launches with a tune-up in between. SpaceX could fly dozens more Dragon missions before it had to think about building another. This does, however, add some urgency to the Starship program.

Starship is still in the prototype phase, but the clock is ticking. (Photo: SpaceX)

After a good deal of early progress, work on Starship has slowed in recent months due to engine design changes and regulatory hurdles. So far, Starship has only conducted a single high-altitude takeoff and landing. The Super Heavy first stage, which is required for launching from Earth, hasn’t flown at all. According to SpaceX, the plan is to transition all flight operations to Starship when it’s ready. This vehicle has the ability to carry large payloads to the outer solar system, as well as provide rapid transport around the globe. It’s also the core of Musk’s pie-in-the-sky Mars colonization plans.

As SpaceX wraps up production of its NASA-approved crewed spacecraft, the agency’s other Commercial Crew partner has barely gotten off the ground. Boeing was expected to fly the CST-100 Starliner before Dragon was ready, but a series of hardware and software failures have delayed launch testing since 2019. The next uncrewed test of Starliner is expected no earlier than May of this year. In the meantime, SpaceX’s fleet of three (soon to be four) Dragons remains the sole way for NASA to reach the ISS.

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Unity’s New Demo Shows Off Hyper-Realistic Digital Woman

Unity Technologies released a new “cinematic teaser” last week showing just how detailed graphics can be that are made with its platform. The company makes the cross-platform game development engine named Unity.

The demo, called “Enemies,” opens on a woman sitting behind a desk at the center of a lavish, light-filled room. As the “camera” creeps closer to the woman, the floor surrounding her desk opens. It reveals a complex gear system that looks like something straight out of the steampunk subgenre. Sunlight reflects off of the surface of the desk and her hair as she considers her next move in a game of chess. Despite her focus, the pieces have mainly been toppled.

To the untrained eye, the demo looks like it could be a trailer for a live-action movie. Only as the woman’s background transitions to outer space does it become obvious there’s some sort of digital trickery involved. Even then, the level of detail in the woman’s skin and hair begs the viewer to believe she’s real. The woman’s lips move like a real person’s, and the bishop in her hand smolders under a lifelike flame.

This isn’t the first time Unity has tried its hand at creating a realistic virtual person. When the company released its nearly 8-minute short “The Heretic” in 2020, it was to show off its ability to create natural-looking human characters. This was made possible with Unity’s High Definition Rendering Pipeline and VFX Graph. Since then, Unity says it has introduced an improved 4D pipeline, a Skin Attachment system allowing for high-density meshes like peach fuzz, more realistic eyes, a brand-new skin shader, and tension tech that facilitates easier blood flow simulation and wrinkle maps. Unity’s Webby award-winning Demo and R&D teams also collaborated to create a new system for creating and rendering strand-based hair specifically for “Enemies” and plans on releasing this system after it’s been validated with Weta Barbershop.

Unity played “Enemies” at the Game Developers Conference late last week. While many improvements used to create “Enemies” are already a part of Unity 2021.2, Unity plans for features like its new hair system to become available alongside an updated Digital Human 2.0 package in Q2 of this year.

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Completely Paralyzed ALS Patient Uses Brain Implant to Communicate With Words

(Photo: Wyss Center for Bio Neuroengineering) A completely paralyzed amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patient has successfully used a novel brain implant to communicate.

The patient, a 34-year-old man living in Germany, is the first to be able to communicate without any voluntary muscle movement. He first consented to receiving the experimental implant back in March 2019, when he’d lost the ability to walk or talk but could still communicate with his eyes. Since losing the ability to fix his gaze shortly afterward, the patient has been unable to “talk” to family or caregivers.

To make this possible, a team of neuroscientists at the Wyss Center for Bio and Neuroengineering in Geneva, Switzerland pioneered a brain-computer interface with a chip that can be fitted to a patient’s motor cortex. The BCI’s 64 electrodes detect impulses that would otherwise be intended to prompt voluntary muscle movement. These impulses are then sent to a computer with a neural signal processor and decoder application, which can translate each impulse into a “yes” or “no” signal.

According to the study published in the journal Nature Communications last week, the patient underwent extensive training three months after implantation in order to learn how to use the BCI system. The patient learned over time to modulate his neural firing rate using audio feedback; once this was accomplished, he could begin selecting letters to “free spell” and express his thoughts and wishes.

(Image: Wyss Center for Bio Neuroengineering/ Nature Communications)

The first thing the patient spelled out was a thank you message to the lead neurobiologist on the project, Niels Birbaumer. Within a matter of weeks, the patient was asking for a beer, to listen to Tool, to have his head propped up in the presence of company, and to watch a Disney movie on Amazon with his son. He even provided suggestions on how to improve the BCI system, asking that the scientists add a bank of phrases to select from and “turn on word recognition.”

“One time when I was there, he said, ‘thank you for everything, sister,’” research co-lead Dr. Ujwal Chaudhary told The Guardian, adding that the patient’s sister is one of his caregivers. “It was an emotional moment.”

The neuroscientists say this is the first time a paralyzed patient in a “locked-in state” (meaning they have lost all voluntary muscle control) has been able to freely communicate with caregivers or loved ones. The BCI system can be used in the patient’s own home via remote connection with a laptop. As of now, the patient is capable of forming words and sentences at a rate of approximately one character per minute. “If you have a choice of no communication, and a communication of one character per minute, the choice is very obvious,” Chaudhary said.

The team is currently seeking $500,000 in funding to offer implants to others with ALS over the next two years.

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Okra Can Be Used to Remove Plastic Waste From Water

(Photo: Sandip Kalal/Unsplash) Your favorite side dish can help you do more than load up on vitamins. Researchers have found that okra, a tubular edible pod included in many cuisines around the world, can help remove microplastics from wastewater.

Dr. Rajani Srinivasan of Tarleton State University in Texas led a team of researchers in investigating the uses of gooey plant extracts, such as those from okra, aloe vera, and various cacti, for wastewater cleanup. Having previously studied the plant extract-aided removal of textile-based pollutants and microorganisms from wastewater, Srinivasan thought to explore using those same extracts to wrangle microplastics, which have been the subject of increasing global concern in recent years.

While some floating microplastics can be skimmed off the surface of water during treatment, others are too heavy or too small to be effectively removed this way. Those remaining are often captured by flocculants, a class of sticky chemical made to attract plastics and clump together. These clumps sink to the bottom of the water, making collection far easier. But Srinivasan noted many flocculants themselves are toxic, which defeats the purpose of treating the water in the first place—with the removal of one pollutant, another is added in its place.

Meanwhile, okra, aloe, cacti, fenugreek, and psyllium contain polysaccharide extracts seemingly capable of doing a commercial flocculant’s job. The researchers added polysaccharide compounds from the plants into water samples polluted with microplastics, then examined microscope images of the clumped microplastics before and after each addition. A combination of okra and fenugreek compounds proved most effective in ocean water, while okra and tamarind paired best during freshwater cleanups. All of the plants’ polysaccharide compounds worked just as well as the commercial-grade flocculants typically used to remove microplastics, while some worked even better.

Though Srinivasan and her team plan on continuing to experiment with various combinations of plant-derived flocculants in microplastic removal, they hope to scale their process and implement it in real-world settings and even on an industrial scale. The researchers say no additional equipment is needed to begin using plant-based flocculants like okra polysaccharide in wastewater treatment. “The whole treatment method with the nontoxic materials uses the same infrastructure,” Srinivasan said while presenting her team’s findings Wednesday at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS). “We don’t have to build something new to incorporate these materials for water treatment purposes.”

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Asus to Lower Nvidia GPU Prices up to 25 Percent

There’s been a drumbeat of news lately about GPU prices slowly falling back to earth. The cause of this decline has been somewhat hard to pinpoint, as it’s the result of several factors. Now however, Asus has announced it will be lowering Nvidia GPU prices across the board. This confirms what we all hoped would be true: this is actually happening, and not some kind of supply chain anomaly.

According to Tom’s Hardware, Asus will begin lowering prices on its Nvidia GPUs starting on April 1st. Now, we know what you’re thinking given the target date. It’s all ruse, and it’s definitely not funny. We thought the same thing, but it does appear to be legit. The reductions will be “up to 25 percent,” though, so that could mean a lot of things. For example, the RTX 3050 could get a 25 percent price cut, while the rest get five percent. For now, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens in the real world once it goes into effect.

Another promising sign – EVGA GPUs actually available for purchase.

Asus says the reason for the cut is the recent rollback on import tariffs from China. As you may recall, in January 2021 the United States imposed import tariffs on a wide range of items made in China. This included printed circuit boards (PCB), which impacted GPU and motherboard pricing. The tariffs ranged from 7.5 to 25 percent on a wide range of goods, and came at a time when GPUs were already impossible to find. If this is the case, then it’s not clear why Asus only mentioned Nvidia cards in its statement as it also sells AMD GPUs.

An Asus rep confirmed the news to Tom’s Hardware, stating, “As a result of the latest tariff lift on Chinese imports from the Office of the United States Trade Representative, Gamers and PC enthusiasts will see lower prices on ASUS GeForce RTX 30-series graphic cards starting on April 1st, 2022.” The rep stated the price cut would apply to RTX 3050, 3060, 3070, 3080 and 3090 graphics cards. It’s unclear if the rep was just using general terms though, but it’s notable they didn’t list any “Ti” variants. It’s also not clear if the RTX 3080 is the original 10GB card, or the updated 12GB version.

Asus’ announcement follows several months of precipitous declines in GPU prices. They are still above MSRP in most situations, and midrange cards are still difficult to find though. Higher-end GPUs like the RTX 3080 and 3090 are finally available at close to MSRP. Looking at the trends, along with Asus’ announcement, we might have GPUs available at MSRP soon. Of course, that’ll be just in time to buy one before almost instantly regretting it when the 40-series GPUs launch in Q3. Normally there’s not a huge performance delta from one architecture generation to the next. That might not be the case this time though. A ton of rumors have all indicated Nvidia’s next-gen will be absolute monster GPUs, including a 600W flagship part.

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