Some images demonstrating one of the rarest x86 CPUs still running have been shared online. We thank CPU collector and silicon lover,konkretor,for this particular retro tech flashback. However, it is probably fair to say that the highlighted Rise mP6 266 wins more points for obscurity than nostalgia. Though already a keen PC builder and tinkerer in 1998, I don’t recall seeing, hearing, or reading anything about this Super Socket 7 and MMX instruction set compatible processor at the time....

TSMC and GlobalFoundries have finalized CHIPS and Science Act funding agreements with the U.S. government to support their fab projects in America, reportsBloomberg. These will be the first two major foundries to receive actual money under the CHIPS and Science Act, which marks a significant step forward both for the bill and the companies — and it comes just months before President-elect Donald Trump’s second administration begins, which creates uncertainty for chipmakers that were negotiating with President Joe Biden’s administration....

Are you trying to get a new TV but confused about which display to choose in terms of your budget? Are different abbreviations we see likeUHD, OLED, or QLEDscaring you? Yes, abbreviations like these can make us more insecure about choosing the wrong monitor. It’s like the TV/Monitor industry is purposefully making things more complicated. But, please do not get confused. Once you understand what these abbreviations mean, they will be with you for life....

We finally have some reputable data about the expected performance penalty for Nvidia’s defective RTX 50 series GPUs, thanks toGamers Nexus. The YouTube channel’s Steve Burke put up a bounty for Blackwell cards with missing ROPs. Burke offered a $500 bonus on top of the price on the receipt while covering both shipping and taxes. He successfully managed to procure a defective RTX 5080 Founders Edition in exchange for a Zotac equivalent with all its ROPs operational....

Dellis giving some of its Alienware gaming PCs (or one, at least) additional flexibility by enabling compatibility with third-party motherboards. The system maker has provided a new AlienFX board cable conversion kit for its flagshipAlienware Area-51gaming desktop, which provides all the necessary equipment to swap out the Area-51’s built-in motherboard with a third-party ATX or Micro-ATX motherboard. The kit can be bought at Dell’sonline store for $34.99. The kit comes with a 4-pin power switch wiring cable, fan power bridge wiring cable, USB dongle extension, and a bag of three nuts....

Despite having a blanket ban on cryptocurrencies, many investors in mainland China were able to earn significant profits, making them achieve some of the biggest gains in the global cryptocurrency market. The analysis was done by a New York-based blockchain research firm called Chainalysis andreported by SCMP. A new survey indicates that Chinese cryptocurrency investors earned US$ 1.15 billion in profits during 2023, making themselves the fourth biggest cryptocurrency earners, behind those in the USA, UK, and Vietnam....

RobSmithDevhas been posting videos on his floppy disk cleaner for some time, and most recently compiled them and a brief blog post recap into aHackadayproject page, including brief recaps and past YouTube videos detailing the process of building, iterating upon, and exhaustive testing of this floppy disk cleaner. He calls it the “Crazy Disco Disk Cleaning Machine” due to the flashing lights and extravagant color scheme, and it’s being built on the housing of an old speaker with the help of twoArduinocontrol boards....

OpenAI and Elon Musk have agreed to accelerate theirlegal dispute regarding OpenAI’s transition to a for-profit model, according toReuters. The trial is set for December. A recent court decision denied Musk’s attempt to halt this transition but allowed the case to proceed. Meanwhile, the parties have postponed deciding whether the case will be settled by a judge or a jury. According to a filing in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, both parties have chosen to postpone the decision on whether the expedited case will be resolved by a judge or a jury....

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, said his company was procuring artificial intelligence (AI) processors worth billions of dollars for its artificial intelligence training workloads. Nvidia’s AI GPUs are on the top of Musk’s list, but they are followed by the company’s own Dojo processors and hardware from AMD, which already supplies Tesla system-on-chips for infotainment. “ADojo Supercomputer[is worth] $500 [million], while a large sum of money, [it] is only equivalent to a 100,000-unit H100 system from Nvidia,” Elon Musk, chief executive of Twitter, said in anX post....

Memory manufacturer G.Skill just announced two new high-capacity memory modules overclocked to DDR5-6000 CL32 and DDR5-6400 CL36. Previously, high-performance memory kits were limited to smaller modules. For example, DDR5-6400 is limited to 48GB per module, while the current fastest commercially available memory kit, the Adata XPG Lancer DDR5-9200, is only available in 24GB module configurations. That’s because larger capacities at these speeds often come with instability; that’s why ultra-fast memory is frequently smaller than other available options....

Geekomsays that it will launch the Geekom QS1, Geekom A9 Max, and Geekom IT15 in Las Vegas, all of which are powered by the latest chips, as well as show off its recently launched Geekom A6, which is its contender for the sub-$500 market. Mini-PC maker Geekom is set to reveal new models powered by the latest chips atCES2025. These devices would include some of the most powerful next-generation processors from Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm, giving users the freedom to choose between Team Blue or Team Red if they want an x86 chip or maybe be a bit more adventurous and go for a Snapdragon X Elite-powered desktop....

If you own a graphics card from NVIDIA, you are certainly familiar with Geforce Experience and the integrated overlay feature. The overlay feature is widely used in-game for taking screenshots, recording gameplay, viewing frame rate, streaming, and doing instant replays. However, this convenient tool can sometimes be unresponsive and not work. There might be multiple reasons why the Geforce overlay stops working. You may not have enabled the feature itself or other programs may be interfering with it....

The Tianbao Gem12 Mini PC, with AMD Ryzen Hawk Point APU option, launched on JD.com on March 1, reportsITHome.Among other features, this Mini PC has a nifty little built-in screen with a fingerprint reader, plus configuration options including various mobile Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 9 CPUs. The most attractively powerful of the available CPU options is the newestRyzen 7 8845HS, which is basically a higher-power version of the Ryzen 7 8840U and 7840U that we’ve seen become commonplace in other Mini PCs andhandheld gaming PCsalike thanks to the built-inRadeon 780M— one of the best 720p/1080p iGPUs on the market, thoughIntel’s competitionis definitely heating up....