Technology

  When AMD announced its Ryzen 5000 CPUs, it introduced a feature it dubbed Smart Access Memory, known more generally across the industry as Resizable BAR. Resizable BAR allows a CPU to access more than 256MB of GPU memory at any given time. The feature can boost game performance on …

  Every few years, the FCC considers whether or not the current minimum standard for US broadband service needs to be redefined or not, and what those changes ought to be. Four US senators — Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Angus King (I-Maine), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) — have …

  When Samsung, NXP, and Infineon announced they were shutting down their factories in Austin, TX to help the state manage its electrical shortage, the shutdowns were expected to be brief. There’s no word on whether or not Infineon has restarted, but both Samsung and NXP are still offline, 15 …

  According to a new report, cryptocurrency miners aren’t just buying up desktop PC GPUs — they’ve started hoovering up gaming laptops as well. This has kept gaming laptop sales high through Q1 when normally the market would have cooled off by now. This information comes courtesy of DigiTimes, via …

  Apple urged iPhone owners to install the latest update to iOS last month, but that in and of itself wasn’t unusual. What was unusual was the reason for the update. Apple rolled out iOS 14.4 to plug a security hole that online criminals were actively exploiting. Now, that vulnerability …

  Intel has announced the end of its Performance Tuning Protection Plan (PTPP). An end-user who previously bought a PTPP from Intel was guaranteed a one-time replacement CPU if they fried their chip by overclocking it, provided the chip was still within warranty. The program has existed since the Sandy …

  A new report indicates TSMC’s 3nm process node is still on track, with plans to move into risk production in 2021. Apple is said to have already locked in most of TSMC’s early 3nm capacity. Multiple sites are repeating the idea that this represents an acceleration of TSMC’s previous …

  Plenty of solutions exist for flying a drone while looking through an AR or VR headset (we reviewed the Epson Moverio when it came out). But until now, they have all involved compromises in video and control latency — unless you cobbled together your own as a DIY. DJI …

  User-expandable, customizable laptops have been a holy grail of computing for a long time, but they’ve remained more fiction than reality. Intel’s NUC laptop line offers some limited customization, but concepts like I/O flexibility have remained just that — concepts. A new startup named Framework argues it can change …

  Facebook’s internal RD group, NPE Team, is today launching its next experimental app, called BARS. The app makes it possible for rappers to create and share their raps using professionally created beats, and is the NPE Team’s second launch in the music space following its recent public debut of …