From now until 1700 GMT on the 14th, you can claim a free copy of the 3rd-person platform fighter Divine Knockout (DKO) in the Steam store.
ANC heard the bell for this one. Thanks.
LH
Don’t call it a comeback, I been here for years!From now until 1700 GMT on the 14th, you can claim a free copy of the 3rd-person platform fighter Divine Knockout (DKO) in the Steam store.LinkANC heard the bell for this one. Thanks.LHDon’t call it a comeback, I been here for years!Read More
The GOG Winter sale has begun and once again, a GOG sale means free games for us! For starters, you have three days to claim a GOG copy of the mouse based stealth adventure Ghost of a Tale.
GOG page[www.gog.com]
(claim from the banner on their front page)
Details:
– Account required: GOG.com with e-mail marketing opt-in
– DRM-Free (NOT Steam)
– Offer good thru December 15, 1400 GMT.
– Steam Store page for evaluation.
The sale runs all the way through 02.01 … wait… is that January Second or February First? Well, let’s see, it starts on 12.12 so… oh come on! That doesn’t help any. I’m gonna go with Eurodates and say January Second. Anyways, this sale runs through the second of January so we can probably expect to see a few more freebies in the upcoming weeks.
This one didn’t sneak up on zexonios. Thanks!
LH
Somebody give that mouse a cookie.The GOG Winter sale has begun and once again, a GOG sale means free games for us! For starters, you have three days to claim a GOG copy of the mouse based stealth adventure Ghost of a Tale.GOG page[www.gog.com](claim from the banner on their front page)Details: – Account required: GOG.com with e-mail marketing opt-in – DRM-Free (NOT Steam) – Offer good thru December 15, 1400 GMT. – Steam Store page for evaluation.The sale runs all the way through 02.01 … wait… is that January Second or February First? Well, let’s see, it starts on 12.12 so… oh come on! That doesn’t help any. I’m gonna go with Eurodates and say January Second. Anyways, this sale runs through the second of January so we can probably expect to see a few more freebies in the upcoming weeks.This one didn’t sneak up on zexonios. Thanks!LHSomebody give that mouse a cookie.Read More
The Fanatical Winter sale also comes with a giveaway this year – a Steam key for Behold the Kickmen. This is (according to the store page) “a football game made by someone who has no understanding of, or interest in football”. Well obviously. I mean for starters, who even plays football* in December?
Link[www.fanatical.com]
Details:
– Linked Fanatical and Steam account required
– Offer good until December 21 or while supplies last. Get it now to be sure.
– Steam Store page
Note that this key will expire on January 14th so you’ll want to activate it before then. It also comes with a few coupons for additional Fanatical purchases.
IonutzV kicked this one off for us. Thanks!
LH
*all uses of the term football refer to what Americans call soccer.The Fanatical Winter sale also comes with a giveaway this year – a Steam key for Behold the Kickmen. This is (according to the store page) “a football game made by someone who has no understanding of, or interest in football”. Well obviously. I mean for starters, who even plays football* in December?Link[www.fanatical.com]Details: – Linked Fanatical and Steam account required – Offer good until December 21 or while supplies last. Get it now to be sure. – Steam Store pageNote that this key will expire on January 14th so you’ll want to activate it before then. It also comes with a few coupons for additional Fanatical purchases.IonutzV kicked this one off for us. Thanks!LH*all uses of the term football refer to what Americans call soccer.Read More
On the first day of Epicmas Tim Sweeny gave to me the sixth game of Bloons TD.
Link[store.epicgames.com]
Details:
– Account/DRM required: Epic Games (NOT Steam)
– Offer good through December 16, 1400 GMT
– Steam store page for evaluation
There will be daily freebies from Epic for the next fortnight which means you only have 24 hours to claim each one. Make sure to check in every day if you want to catch ’em all.
By now, you also know to look at the wrapping paper for hints as to the next game. Guess or post leaks in the DISCUSSIONS THREAD.
LH
And so it begins.On the first day of Epicmas Tim Sweeny gave to me the sixth game of Bloons TD.Link[store.epicgames.com]Details:- Account/DRM required: Epic Games (NOT Steam)- Offer good through December 16, 1400 GMT- Steam store page for evaluationThere will be daily freebies from Epic for the next fortnight which means you only have 24 hours to claim each one. Make sure to check in every day if you want to catch ’em all.By now, you also know to look at the wrapping paper for hints as to the next game. Guess or post leaks in the DISCUSSIONS THREAD.LHAnd so it begins.Read More
TSMC this week held its Arizona fab ‘first tool-in’ ceremony, where alongside celebrating its first US fab, the company also announced major expansion plans for the production facility. The world’s largest foundry is set to invest tens of billions of dollars in the next phase of its Fab 21 near Phoenix, Arizona, to significantly expand its capacity and start production of chips on its N3 process technologies there by 2026.
Construction of TSMC’s Fab 21 phase 1 in Arizona was completed earlier this year, and this week the company began installation of production tools into the facility. The fab will be equipped with tools from companies like ASML, Applied Materials, KLA, Lam Research, and Tokyo Electroni in the next few quarters, and it is scheduled to come online in early 2024. The fab will be producing chips using various process technologies that belong to TSMC’s N5 family, which now includes N5, N5P, N4, N4P, and N4X nodes. Production capacity of this phase of the fab will be around 30,000 wafer starts per month (WSPM), though the precise number will depend on actual technologies and designs.
Companies like AMD, Apple, and NVIDIA are set to run orders through Fab 21 phase 1 to produce their advanced chips in the U.S. for the first time in years.
But that isn’t all that TSMC has in store for Fab 21. The company has announced that they now intend to build a second fab on the site, further expanding their US production capacity and setting up an even newer production line.
The new Arizona fab will expand TSMC’s capacity at the site to around 50,000 WSPM and will bring TSMC’s total investments in the site to $40 billion. Notably, that’s a $28B jump over the initial $12B investment TSMC made in their first Arizona fab, underscoring how costs continue to rise for newer fabs, but also that TSMC is becoming more comfortable with making larger infrastructure investments within the US. TSMC expects annual revenue from Arizona fabs to be in $10 billion per year ballpark, according to a Reuters report. Meanwhile, TSMC’s clients using the fabs will generate about $40 billion in revenue selling products made by the foundry in the U.S.
Set to come online in 2026, the second Arizona fab will be starting life a generation ahead of its initial counterpart, producing chips on TSMC’s N3 family of production nodes, which includes N3, N3E, N3P, N3S, and N3X. TSMC is expected to deliver its first N3 chips to a client in early 2023, so while the fab still represents cutting-edge technology as of the time of its inception, by the time it comes online it will technically be a trailing-edge fab. TSMC has previously indicated that they would be keeping leading-edge production within Taiwan – in large part because that’s where their actual R&D takes place – so the company’s updated Arizona fab plans are consistent with that stance.
With regards to capacity, the new Arizona fab, like its existing sibling, will be another “MegaFab” in TSMC parlance. That is to say a mid-range fab producing around 25,000 wafer starts per month. TSMC hasn’t disclosed a specific output figure for just the new fab, but with Fab 21 slated to offer 20,000 WSPM, it looks like this fab will be a bit bigger, at closer to 30,000 WSPM. Still, with a combined capacity of 50,000 wafers per month, TSMC’s Arizona facility is still among one of TSMC’s smaller operations – 50,000 wafers is only half the production capacity a single one of TSMC’s class-leading GigaFabs. So even with a second fab line, TSMC’s US operations will only represent a relatively small fraction of the company’s overall chip fab capacity.
Looking forward, TSMC has already begun construction of the second Arizona fab, and given the usual fab construction timelines, we can expect the shell to be complete by early 2024. After which it will take TSMC around another two years to equip it.
Gallery: TSMC Supplier Tool Photos
Meanwhile, TSMC is set to start producing chips using its N2 node in Taiwan in the second half of 2025. That node will use will be TSMC’s first node to use their nanosheet-based gate-all-around field-effect transistors (GAAFETs), and over time will gain backside power delivery. Still, since not all products need a leading-edge node, TSMC won’t have any trouble lining up customers for their N3 US domestic capacity.
“A strong, geographically diverse, and resilient supply chain is essential to the global semiconductor industry,” said Lisa Su, chief executive and chairman of AMD. “TSMC’s investment and expansion in Arizona is extremely important and mission critical for both the semiconductor industry and our extended ecosystem of partners and customers. AMD expects to be a significant user of the TSMC Arizona fabs and we look forward to building our highest performance chips in the United States.”
Source: TSMCRead MoreAnandTech
Just under a year since the specification was first announced, the ATX 3.0 era for power supplies is now underway. The updated version of the Intel-maintained specification introduced several notable changes to PC power supply designs, most notably the introduction of the 600 Watt-capable 12VHPWR connector and associated cabling. Altogether, ATX 3.0 is designed to lay the groundwork for future video cards (and other high-powered accelerators) by providing for a single-cable power connection that can better accommodate the high total and rapid shifts in power consumption a video card can undergo.
The biggest change since the addition of the 12V 6-pin “PCIe” power connector in the late 00s, the ATX 3.0 era has come with some new opportunities, both for computing products and for computing problems. The use of adapters has, in short, not gone well for front-runner NVIDIA, with a small but serious number of incidents of 12VHPWR adapters melting down. Meanwhile on the power supply side of matters, this has been a not-unwelcome boon; not only are native ATX 3.0 power supplies the preferred way to go from a design standpoint, but the adapter problems have helped to underscore this advantage. So for the power supply vendors who are among the first to get their ATX 3.0 designs out the door, there’s no shortage of demand for their latest and greatest wares, as well as a fresh opportunity to innovate and set themselves apart from the competition.
In today’s review, we are taking a look at our first ATX 3.0 power supply – and indeed, among the world’s first: the MSI MEG Ai1300P PCIE5. A beefy, 1300W PSU that is designed to be fully compliant with the ATX 3.0 specification, the Ai1300P is a look at what’s to come for the future of high-end PC PSUs, as the market slowly-but-inevitably incorporates ATX 3.0 compliance in order to feed ever more power-hungry video cards and other PCIe devices.Read MoreAnandTech
Intel officially unveiled the details of their Raptor Lake-based NUC13 Extreme last month. Based on the desktop Raptor Lake processors, the 13.7L NUC13 Extreme is Intel’s biggest NUC yet. The model retains the Compute Element / baseboard combination seen in previous Extreme NUCs. However, the extra volume has enabled the company to incorporate a 150W TDP processor and support large discrete GPUs. Given the power-packed components, it is obvious that Intel is taking the NUC family to performance levels that have hitherto remained out of reach of small form-factor (SFF) machines. Does the NUC13 Extreme deliver on its vision?
Read on for our detailed performance review, including a look at the industrial design and other innovations that the system brings to the table.Read MoreAnandTech
One of the world’s biggest semiconductors and manufacturers of DRAM, SK hynix, has unveiled it has working samples of a new generation of memory modules designed for HPC and servers. Dubbed Multiplexer Combined Ranks (MCR) DIMMs, the technology allows high-end server DIMMs to operate at a minimum data rate of 8 Gbps, which is an 80% uptick in bandwidth compared to existing DDR5 memory products (4.8 Gbps).
Typically, the most common way to ensure higher throughput performance on DIMMs is through ever increasing memory bus (and chip) clockspeeds. This strategy is not without its drawbacks, however, and aiming to find a more comprehensive way of doing this, SK hynix, in collaboration with both Intel and Renesas, has created the Multiplexer Combined Rank DDR5 DIMM.
Combining Intel’s previously-unannounced MCR technology for its server chips and Renesas’s expertise in buffer technology, SK hynix claims that their DDR5 MCR DIMM has 66% more bandwidth than conventional DDR5 DIMMs, with an impressive 8 Gbps/pin (DDR5-8000) of bandwidth. SK hynix themselves claim that the MCR DIMM will be ‘at least’ 80% faster than what’s currently out there DDR5-wise, but it doesn’t quantitate how it reaches this figure.
The technology behind the MCR DIMM is interesting, as it enables simultaneous usage of two ranks instead of one, in essence ganging up two sets/ranks of memory chips in order to double the effective bandwidth. Unfortunately, the details beyond this are slim and unclear – in particular, SK hynix claims that MCR “allows transmission of 128 bytes of data to CPU at once”, but looking at the supplied DIMM photo, there doesn’t seem to be nearly enough pins to support a physically wider memory bus.
More likely, SK hynix and Intel are serializing the memory operations for both ranks of memory inside a single DDR5 channel, allowing the two ranks to achieve a cumulative effective bandwidth of 8Gbps. This is supported by the use of the Renesas data buffer chip, which is shown to be on the DIMM in SK hynix’s photos. Conceptually, this isn’t too far removed from Load Reduced DIMMs (LRDIMMs), which employs a data buffer between the CPU and memory chips as well, though just how far is difficult to determine.
More curious, perhaps, is that this design puts a great deal of faith into the ability of the physical memory bus and host controller (CPU) to be able to operate at DDR5-8000 (and higher) speeds. Normally the bottleneck in getting more memory bandwidth in server-grade systems is the memory bus to begin with – having to operate at slower speeds to accommodate more memory – so going a route that requires such a fast memory bus is definitely a different approach. In either case, the ability to run DIMMs at DDR5-8000 speeds in a server would be a significant boon to memory bandwidth and throughput, as that’s often in short supply with today’s many-core chips.
As SK Hynix has partnered up with Intel via its MCR technology and using buffer technology from Renesas, MCR would seem to be an Intel-exclusive technology, at least to start with. As part of SK hynix’s press release, Intel for its part stated that they “look forward to bringing this technology to future Intel Xeon processors and supporting standardization and multigenerational development efforts across the industry.” In the interim, this appears to be a technology still under active development, and SK hynix is not publishing anything about availability, compatibility, or pricing.
While SK Hynix hasn’t gone too much into how MCR DIMM is twice as fast as conventional DDR5 memory, this product is designed for the high-performance computing (HPC) and server industries, and it’s unlikely we’ll see MCR DIMMs in any form on consumer-based systems. We expect to learn more in the not-too-distant future.
Source: SK HynixRead MoreAnandTech
Kynseed is Now Available on Steam and is 10% off!*A beautiful Life Sim Sandbox RPG. Raise a family, farm the land, run a business, cook, craft and build an everlasting legacy in a vast world filled with adventure, creativity and meaningful choices.*Offer ends December 13 at 10AM Pacific Time,,Read More
A lil somethin somethin: You can find the details for this event on the announcement page [url=https://steamcommunity.com/ogg/593110/announcements/detail/3607975953478451185]here[/url].,<img src="” title=”Steam Client Update – December 1st” />A lil somethin somethin: You can find the details for this event on the announcement page [url=https://steamcommunity.com/ogg/593110/announcements/detail/3607975953478451185]here[/url].Read More
As many of you noticed, AnandTech has spent several hours offline today. We are still in recovery mode at the moment (as I write this, the site has been restored to a copy from November 25th), but now that our major restoration efforts are completed, I wanted to offer you guys a brief update on the status of AnandTech.
At around 13:00 UTC (5am PT) today, the on-site cloud storage for AnandTech’s hosting provider became corrupted. As a result, AnandTech (and some other sites) were brought offline. Due to the nature of the corruption and the need to begin restoration efforts ASAP, we opted to restore the site from an off-site cold storage backup, rather than trusting the questionable on-site storage.
This is the first time we’ve ever had to execute our off-site data recovery plan before. And while it meant AT took a bit longer to restore than would be ideal, ultimately everything worked out and proved the necessity for off-site backups.
We’re still working to restore content from the last few days. Articles will be back, but we’ve likely lost any comments and user account registrations/updates made since midday Friday. Sorry about that! And thank you for bearing with us during today’s outage.Read MoreAnandTech
A lil somethin somethin: You can find the details for this event on the announcement page [url=https://steamcommunity.com/ogg/593110/announcements/detail/3528036335907035177]here[/url].,<img src="” title=”Win a Steam Deck during The Game Awards!” />A lil somethin somethin: You can find the details for this event on the announcement page [url=https://steamcommunity.com/ogg/593110/announcements/detail/3528036335907035177]here[/url].Read More
A lil somethin somethin: You can find the details for this event on the announcement page [url=https://steamcommunity.com/ogg/593110/announcements/detail/3528036335903046111]here[/url].,<img src="” title=”Top Releases of October 2022″ />A lil somethin somethin: You can find the details for this event on the announcement page [url=https://steamcommunity.com/ogg/593110/announcements/detail/3528036335903046111]here[/url].Read More
Note: This update was re-released to fix a browser crash on Linux.
New Big Picture Mode
Updated Big Picture is now available for testing. You can read more about it in this blog post. Modify your Steam client shortcut and add -gamepadui on the command-line to automatically start Steam in the new Big Picture Mode. Alternatively, pass -newbigpicture to start in Desktop mode and have access to the new Big Picture Mode at any time.
General
Reduced client startup times for users with large game libraries
Fixed issue where launching a game would take longer to start if there was no network connection
Fixed VR flags not showing up in app details for some games
Center the popup controller configurator window when viewing controller layout
Fixed circular download progress indicator being broken in game entry list
Fixed downloads page crashing when starting in offline mode
Downloads page now properly responds to online/offline status
Updated “Steam News” popup dialog (again)
Sign In
Fix a case where if the sign-in UI had cached credentials which had become invalid, it could get stuck and not accept valid credentials thereafter
Fixed an input focus bug requiring an initial click on the sign in UI before you could type your username or password
Fixed issues with dragging or closing the sign in window, and related display scaling issues, on computers with nonstandard desktop scaling
Fixed an edge case in handling of invalid cached credentials affecting reauthentication
Fixed issue with sign in refresh UI when the user had already signed in once during the current session.
Steam Input
Gyro Enabling: The “Touch” option is now available to controllers which do not have capacitive touch sensors – Moving joysticks out of their deadzone now counts as a “Touch”.
All controller types can each now optionally choose to use a Nintendo-style layout. This flips the A and B button and X and Y button universally in Steam and in games.
The Xbox extended features driver has been updated for Windows 11
Fixed hang when the Amazon Luna controller rumbles on macOS
Fixed issue with the touch binding in As Mouse mode releasing before the end of a swipe
Remote Play
Fixed occasional long hitches during Windows desktop capture
Fixed glyphs for third party Nintendo controllers while streaming
SteamVR
Fixed issue that caused some OpenXR app images to not appear properly in SteamVR,<img src="” title=”Steam Client Update – November 16th” />Note: This update was re-released to fix a browser crash on Linux.New Big Picture Mode Updated Big Picture is now available for testing. You can read more about it in this blog post. Modify your Steam client shortcut and add -gamepadui on the command-line to automatically start Steam in the new Big Picture Mode. Alternatively, pass -newbigpicture to start in Desktop mode and have access to the new Big Picture Mode at any time.General Reduced client startup times for users with large game libraries Fixed issue where launching a game would take longer to start if there was no network connection Fixed VR flags not showing up in app details for some games Center the popup controller configurator window when viewing controller layout Fixed circular download progress indicator being broken in game entry list Fixed downloads page crashing when starting in offline mode Downloads page now properly responds to online/offline status Updated “Steam News” popup dialog (again)Sign In Fix a case where if the sign-in UI had cached credentials which had become invalid, it could get stuck and not accept valid credentials thereafter Fixed an input focus bug requiring an initial click on the sign in UI before you could type your username or password Fixed issues with dragging or closing the sign in window, and related display scaling issues, on computers with nonstandard desktop scaling Fixed an edge case in handling of invalid cached credentials affecting reauthentication Fixed issue with sign in refresh UI when the user had already signed in once during the current session.Steam Input Gyro Enabling: The “Touch” option is now available to controllers which do not have capacitive touch sensors – Moving joysticks out of their deadzone now counts as a “Touch”. All controller types can each now optionally choose to use a Nintendo-style layout. This flips the A and B button and X and Y button universally in Steam and in games. The Xbox extended features driver has been updated for Windows 11 Fixed hang when the Amazon Luna controller rumbles on macOS Fixed issue with the touch binding in As Mouse mode releasing before the end of a swipeRemote Play Fixed occasional long hitches during Windows desktop capture Fixed glyphs for third party Nintendo controllers while streamingSteamVR Fixed issue that caused some OpenXR app images to not appear properly in SteamVRRead More
The Steam Autumn Sale is fast approaching, with an entire week filled with tens of thousands of discounts! From November 22nd at 10am PST (UTC -8) until November 29th at 10am PST (UTC -8), browse through every genre imaginable to grab games on sale for the perfect additions to your Steam library.
In fact, while you’re there, pick up a title or two for the lovely folks on your holiday shopping list! Not only can you gift specific games, we also have digital gift cards up for grabs.
The Steam Autumn Sale is also the time to nominate your favorite games from the past year for the Steam Awards, in 11 different categories (including a brand new category for games you love playing on portable devices):
Game of the Year
VR Game of the Year
NEW: Best Game on the Go
Labor of Love
Better with Friends
Most Innovative Gameplay
Outstanding Story-Rich Game
Best Game You Suck At (no offense)
Outstanding Visual Style
Best Soundtrack
Sit Back and Relax
There are a couple of ways you’ll be able to nominate games for the Steam Awards: do it directly from each game’s store page or the event post from the developers of the titles you like, or head to the Steam Awards Nomination page (via the Steam homepage).
You can even earn a badge for nominating in a single category, and level up from there with each additional category up to 11.
Get ready to stock up on games for you and those special (or non-special, no judgment) people in your life during the Steam Autumn Sale: November 22nd at 10am PST to November 29th at 10am PST! The sale will be live on this url: https://store.steampowered.com/. See you soon!
,The Steam Autumn Sale is fast approaching, with an entire week filled with tens of thousands of discounts! From November 22nd at 10am PST (UTC -8) until November 29th at 10am PST (UTC -8), browse through every genre imaginable to grab games on sale for the perfect additions to your Steam library.In fact, while you’re there, pick up a title or two for the lovely folks on your holiday shopping list! Not only can you gift specific games, we also have digital gift cards up for grabs.Steam Award Nominations Start Nov 22The Steam Autumn Sale is also the time to nominate your favorite games from the past year for the Steam Awards, in 11 different categories (including a brand new category for games you love playing on portable devices): Game of the Year VR Game of the Year NEW: Best Game on the Go Labor of Love Better with Friends Most Innovative Gameplay Outstanding Story-Rich Game Best Game You Suck At (no offense) Outstanding Visual Style Best Soundtrack Sit Back and RelaxThere are a couple of ways you’ll be able to nominate games for the Steam Awards: do it directly from each game’s store page or the event post from the developers of the titles you like, or head to the Steam Awards Nomination page (via the Steam homepage). You can even earn a badge for nominating in a single category, and level up from there with each additional category up to 11. Get ready to stock up on games for you and those special (or non-special, no judgment) people in your life during the Steam Autumn Sale: November 22nd at 10am PST to November 29th at 10am PST! The sale will be live on this url: https://store.steampowered.com/. See you soon!Read More
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