Tag Archives: next-gen

Business, Comes Next, Computer Chips, Financial, Gaming, Notebooks, Science, Security, TechNews

Competition for SSD

Competition for SSD: 1.4 petabytes of data on future magnetic tape

Tape storage technology seemed to be falling short of expectations recently. Now it looks like it’s catching up again – thanks to a new material.

Linear Tape Open (LTO) first appeared on the market in 2000. At that time, the storage media that recorded data as encoded tracks on magnetic tape still had a capacity of 200 gigabytes.

The tapes have now reached their ninth generation and are currently able to record data volumes of 18 terabytes (uncompressed). The technology is a cost-effective way, especially for companies, to preserve critical data reliably and durably.

Image: Data Storage, Free Stock Picture, MorgueFile.com.
Image: Data Storage, Free Stock Picture, MorgueFile.com.

LTO09 still fell short of expectations

But what sounds like an incredible amount of storage space was initially a disappointment. LTO09 was originally supposed to offer 24 terabytes of space, but could not meet these expectations.

According to a new roadmap presented by the developers IBM, HPE and Quantum at the beginning of September, it should be possible to store a whopping 1,440 terabytes (1.4 petabytes) from the 14th generation, which is expected to appear in 2033/34.

Magnetic storage tapes: New material creates new possibilities

According to Heise Online , this is made possible by coating the magnetic tapes with strontium ferrite (SrFe) instead of barium ferrite (BaFe), which has been used up until now. The first prototypes have already been developed and tested by Fujifilm. The new material is to be used from LTO13.

In contrast to SSD hard drives, whose maximum capacity is currently around 100 terabytes, LTO is also significantly cheaper. While the most expensive SSD medium with a price of 40,000 US dollars causes costs of 2.5 dollars per gigabyte, LTO are only 0.01 dollars per gigabyte.

According to Sam Werner, IBM vice president of storage product management, LTO “provides organizations with a sustainable, reliable and cost-effective solution to protect and store their critical business data.”

Business, Comes Next, Computer Chips, Gaming, Streaming, TechNews

Nvidia GeForce Now adds mobile touch controls to a new collection of games

Nvidia has expanded the list of titles available on its cloud gaming platform that work with touch controls.

GeForce Now has already offered some onscreen controls for mobile gamers – notably for Fortnite and Genshin Impact. This list is now expanding to include a number of games that work without a joypad on phones and tablets.

These include Trine 2, Slay the Spire, and Dota Underlords. There are also some games that only work with touch controls on the tablet, including Shadowrun Returns, Talisman: Digital Edition, and Magic: The Gathering Arena.

Image: Video Game, Free Stock Picture, MorgueFile.com.
Image: Video Game, Free Stock Picture, MorgueFile.com.

The full list of touch-enabled games:

Mobile and tablet

  • Dota Underlords (Steam)
  • Fortnite (Epic Games)
  • Genshin Impact (HoYoverse)
  • Into the Breach (Steam und Epic Games)
  • Papers, Please (Steam)
  • Slay the Spire (Steam)
  • Tabletop Simulator (Steam)
  • Trine 2: Complete Story (Steam)

Tablet only

  • Bridge Constructor Portal (Steam)
  • Door Kickers (Steam)
  • Magic: The Gathering Arena (Wizards.com und Epic Games)
  • March of the Empires (Steam)
  • Monster Train (Steam)
  • Shadowrun Returns (Steam and Epic Games)
  • Talisman: Digital Edition (Steam)

Nvidia’s GeForce Now works with your own games purchased from various supported digital stores such as Steam and Epic Games Store. Some, like Fortnite, are free to play.

The GeForce Now app for Android also now has a new Mobile Touch Controls row where you can find supported games. The Android app now also includes Apaptive VSync support for select games to improve performance.

Business, Computer Chips, Crypto, Financial, Science, Security, TechNews

Hacker Attacks on Crypto Protocols: Nearly $500M in Damage Last Quarter

Image: Hacker, Free Stock Picture, MorgueFile.com.

As the company Atlas VPN has found, hacker attacks have been particularly successful in recent months. Chainalysis had already warned of a record month.

Although the cryptocurrency sector is now much better regulated and more and more investors are taking the necessary steps to increase security – such as storing their own coins in hardware wallets – hacker attacks are still a big issue in the cryptocurrency sector, albeit only in relation to the volume traded affect a fraction of the sector.

In one quarter, hackers cause almost half a billion dollars in damage

According to Atlas VPN data , in the third quarter of 2022, criminals stole around $483 million worth of cryptocurrencies through targeted attacks. The number of hacks fell by 43 percent compared to the second quarter. In the first quarter, the damage amounted to around 1.3 billion US dollars.

Even if the damage appears large in absolute numbers and was certainly significant for those affected, in relation to the size of the crypto sector with a value of around $970 billion according to CoinMarketCap, it is not quite as dramatic as it might seem at first glance.

Ethereum, Polkadot and BNB Chain particularly affected

The hacks primarily affected the Ethereum network. A total of 11 attacks on Ethereum blockchain-based protocols caused $348 million in damage. However, considering that most protocols run on Ethereum, this is not surprising. For Polkadot, it was $52 million in just two attacks. While projects on the BNB chain have been attacked 13 times, the damage amounts to only $28 million.

It is important here that the blockchains themselves are not attacked. Instead, it is mainly smart contracts in the DeFi area that cause security gaps.

This quarter could be a record

Chainalysis also deals primarily with the damage caused by cybercrime in the cryptocurrency sector. The figures determined by Atlas VPN for the third quarter correspond to the information from Chainalysis, which expects a record month for October. As Chainalysis announced on October 12, eleven hacker attacks with damage totaling $718 million had already been registered by then.

If the trend of the month continues, the fourth quarter is likely to be the most momentous for the cryptocurrency sector. The BNB chain hack caused a stir this month , in which at least no funds were stolen from other users. Instead, the attackers created over $100 million worth of coins out of thin air.

Comes Next, Gaming

CD Projekt Red is working on new Witcher trilogy and Cyberpunk 2077 Sequel

New Witcher trilogy and Cyberpunk 2077 Sequel are coming.

Image: Programming, Free Stock Picture, MorgueFile.com.
Image: Programming, Free Stock Picture, MorgueFile.com.

CD Projekt Red have announced on Twitter that they are working on several new games, including a new Witcher trilogy and Cyberpunk 2077 sequel and a new IP codenamed Hadar.

It looks like there are several projects in the works for fans to look forward to.

New Witcher trilogy

It’s been a long time since The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt was first released, but we’ve known for a while that CD Projekt Red had plans for a new Witcher game after they finished Cyberpunk 2077. In fact, this isn’t even the first time we’ve heard that a new trilogy is in the works .

However, now we have further confirmation of the plans and more details on them as well.

CD Projekt Red has said that the first installment in the series will be codenamed Polaris and aim to be a new triple-A RPG title. Other Witcher games are also in the works, including Canis Majoris – also a full-fledged Witcher game being developed by a different studio.

Meanwhile, CD Projekt Red’s The Molasses Flood studio is working on a bold foray into The Witcher universe , codenamed Sirius , that will feature both a multiplayer experience and a single-player story.

So let us look forward for a new Witcher trilogy and Cyberpunk 2077 sequel!

Computer Chips, Science, TechNews

iPhone 14 Pro chip bigger despite smaller transistors

Image: Circuit Board, Free Stock Picture, MorgueFile.com.
Closeup of old circuit board. Image: Circuit Board, Free Stock Picture, MorgueFile.com.

Small changes to caches and processor cores, this is how a preliminary analysis of the A16 silicon chip  from Angstronomics can be summarized. Although there is still no high-resolution image of the die, there is a video in which some details can already be seen. Since various components such as caches, processors and GPU form unique patterns on the die, they can be identified and at least roughly measured.

The operator of Angstronomics, who publishes under the pseudonym Skyjuice, comes to the conclusion that Apple has reduced the L3 or system level cache (SLC) in the A16 compared to the predecessor A15. Compared to the 4 MB L2 cache of the Efficiency CPU cluster made of Sawtooth cores, each of the two SLC blocks occupies about three times the area, so it should hold 12 MB – the SRAM memory cells need the same regardless of the cache hierarchy lots of space.

This means that the SLC of the A16, at 24 MB, is a quarter smaller than that of the A15, which has 32 MB. However, Apple has given the performance cores named Everest a third more L2 cache: the area here suggests that each of the two blocks holds 8 MB, while the A15 had a total of 12 MB.

One can only speculate about the reason for the reduction of the size of the SLC: Angronomics brings the higher data rate of the memory into play as a possible reason: LPDDR5-6400 is used for the first time in the A16. Optimizations are also conceivable, since the L2 cache of the P-cores was enlarged at the same time. Many factors play a role in the dimension of caches, including the micro architecture of the processors – it is very likely that there was not a single decisive argument for the redistribution.

Changes to processor cores

There are also small changes in the processor cores: they are arranged differently on the die, and Apple has also revised their structure. Both the Everest and Sawtooth (P/E) cores also appear to be slightly larger than their Avalanche and Blizzard predecessors. The neural and graphics processing units (NPU and GPU), on the other hand, seem to be quite unchanged. However, they are hardly recognizable in the Angtronomics image.

However, the NPU is only eight percent faster than the A15. This is part of the switch from the supplier TSMC from the N5 to the N4 process and the expected increase in speed of ten percent as a result. Major changes are therefore unlikely. The higher switching speed of the transistors in N4 should also play a role in the GPU, which also benefits from the larger memory bandwidth. Together, both could almost explain the measured 28 percent increase in speed .

Bigger chip despite (slightly) smaller transistors

With N4, TSMC refers to a further development of the N5 manufacturing process, with which Apple’s A15 is manufactured. According to TSMC, this increases the integration density by six percent, and the number of transistors also increases by six percent – ​​16 billion in the A16, 15 billion in the A15. Theoretically, the dies of A15 and A16 could be the same size.