Unusual patterns in federal student aid data led the Justice Department to charge five people and seize more than $750,000 in cryptocurrency tied to a network associated with Kenyan nationals. The charges are the first results of a broader federal effort, which the department calls Operation Ghostbusters, to crack down......
Intel’s next budget laptop chip may have no performance cores at all
Intel's current entry-level N-series chips also skip performance cores, and Moon Lake would bring that approach to the company's newer tile-based design. If the leak holds, it would be the next generation of the N-series processors found in many budget machines. Intel has not confirmed the specs. Read Entire Article
The solar system may have a sixth dwarf planet, hidden against the Milky Way
For now, the object announced by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory team earlier this week only goes by its provisional designation, 2026 ED138. It currently sits about 46 astronomical units from the Sun. Pluto, by comparison, averages around 40. Read Entire Article
Europe and Canada team up in AI computing alliance that doesn’t depend on Washington
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recently confirmed that Canada is joining Europe's network of supercomputers, which is run by the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking. Canada will become an active part of the public-private network of high-performance computing (HPC) systems, and both sides should gain something from the arrangement, at......
Microsoft’s DirectX update could slash ray tracing memory by up to 90 percent
Microsoft detailed Clustered Geometry and a companion feature called Partitioned TLAS on its DirectX developer blog this week, describing the pair as the biggest change to DirectX Raytracing since the API arrived in 2018. Read Entire Article
Sam Altman says it’s “terrible” for RAM to sit inside PCs instead of data centers
In an interview on the YouTube channel Cheeky Pint, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman argued that it's more efficient to direct the world's tightening supply of memory to AI data centers than to local devices. The comments drew immediate backlash as hardware prices continue to climb. Read Entire Article
Intel stock plunges nearly 30%, its worst day in 52 years
Oddly enough, the quarter itself went well. Intel beat Wall Street's earnings estimates. Its data center revenue jumped nearly 80% from a year earlier to $7.3 billion, too. But its forecast for the last three months of the year landed well short: analysts had penciled in about $17 billion in......
This smart screwdriver uses a camera and AI to identify screws and set torque automatically
Hong Kong-based Arrowmax recently launched a Kickstarter campaign for what it calls the world's first AI-powered electric screwdriver, and funded it almost immediately. Starting at around $80, with shipments planned to begin in April 2027, the device aims to streamline the entire process of selecting a bit and driving a...
The AI hardware crunch has reached the humble circuit board
While planning their 2027 lineups, executives at HP and Dell have started worrying about whether they'll get enough boards, Nikkei Asia reports. Even with PC shipments possibly sliding again next year, one manager at an American PC maker said the company still can't get enough of them. Read Entire Article
Fujifilm pours $64 million into magnetic tape production as AI storage demand surges
Fujifilm recently announced a significant new investment in its magnetic tape manufacturing operations. The Japanese giant will spend 10 billion yen, or around $64 million, to expand production capacity at its Kanagawa Factory in the city of Odawara. The site manufactures magnetic tapes for data storage workloads, and the IT......