Hasta La Gadget!

The winter months can be a tough time for keeping up with health and wellbeing as colder, darker weather sets in. For anyone looking for a gadget to help them manage their sleep, activity and other health stats, now could be the right time to look into a wearable. The basic finishes of the Oura Ring Gen 3 are on sale for $249 ahead of Black Friday. That’s a $50 savings for the black or silver finish, which is the biggest discount we’ve seen to date on this wearable. You can also snag the luxe finishes for less than usual right now. The brushed titanium and stealth materials are on sale for $279, down from the usual of $349, while the gold and rose gold options are selling for $349 instead of their typical $449 price tag.

The company did just release the Oura Ring Gen 4, so this deal won’t give you the most cutting edge developments in sensors and design. But for someone who wants a less intrusive approach to a wearable, the Gen 3 still has a lot to offer. Our review by Daniel Cooper pointed out that the Oura Ring offers impressively accurate readings even though all its sensors are packed into a much smaller form factor than a smartwatch. While he felt the design of the ring is a little bulky, in practice it was easy to forget that he had it on.

Keep in mind that unless you’re upgrading from another Oura product, you’ll want to buy the size guide to make sure your new ring fits correctly. When you do buy a sizing kit for the Gen 3, you’ll get $10 towards the purchase of the actual wearable.

Check out all of the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals here.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-oura-ring-gen-3-drops-to-a-record-low-of-249-for-black-friday-195248032.html?src=rss

If you tried to get some flight time in Flight Simulator 2024 today only to find yourself staring at a loading screen, you’re not alone. The official X page for Microsoft’s flight sim @MSFS_Support posted an update that several users are reporting “long initial loading times.” Not exactly the debut anyone was hoping for.

The post blames the game’s slowdown on the large number of server requests trying to log into the game at once — maybe something Microsoft should have expected. The post also recommends rebooting your computer or console if the initial load makes it past 90 percent mark and then stalls out. If it’s under 90 percent and still loading, Microsoft advises “waiting to allow the loading to proceed as normal.” Our own Kris Holt has been stuck looking at the very same loading screen for around 45 minutes.

Xbox launched Flight Simulator 2024 and added it to its Game Pass Ultimate catalog for PC, Xbox Series X/S and the cloud today following a technical alpha test in October for the PC version. Microsoft recommends running the game on PCs with an AMD Ryzen 7 2700X CPU, a Radeon RX 5700 XT GPU, 8 GB of VRAM, 32 GB of RAM and 50 GB of storage space.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/microsofts-flight-simulator-2024-launch-day-users-seeing-long-loading-times-203805287.html?src=rss

ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) has unveiled the ROG Phone 9 series, featuring the ROG Phone 9 and ROG Phone 9 Pro, designed to deliver a premium gaming experience. Powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Mobile Platform and supported by the advanced ROG GameCool 9 cooling system, these devices ensure top-tier performance for mobile gaming enthusiasts.

A standout feature of the series is the AniMe Vision mini-LED display, allowing for customizable animations and a blend of futuristic aesthetics and functionality. The ROG Phone 9 Pro expands on this with 648 programmable LEDs and exclusive gaming visuals through AniMe Play. Both models boast a sleek matte design with fingerprint-resistant crystalized nano-textures.

The phones include advanced AI-driven gaming features, such as X Sense 3.0 for automated in-game actions, X Capture 2.0 for recording key moments, and AI Noise Cancellation for clear communication.

With a 6.78-inch E6 AMOLED display offering adaptive refresh rates up to 185Hz, alongside a robust triple-camera system, the ROG Phone 9 series ensures a smooth visual experience for gaming, streaming, and photography.

Console-like controls are central to the series, featuring the AirTrigger system for precise touch gestures and compatibility with the AeroActive Cooler X Pro and ROG Tessen controller for enhanced gameplay. The AeroActive Cooler X Pro also integrates a subwoofer for immersive sound.

ROG Phone 9

ROG Phone 9 Pro

Specs

Availability and Price

The ROG Phone 9 series will be available in early 2025, with prices ranging from $999.99 to $1,499.99 depending on the model and configuration. Accessories like the AeroActive Cooler X Pro are priced at $119.99, further elevating the gaming experience. This launch reaffirms ASUS ROG’s commitment to innovation in mobile gaming.

ASUS Unveils ROG Phone 9 Series: Cutting-Edge Gaming Phones

, original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

At Supercomputing 2024 (SC24), Enfabrica Corporation unveiled a milestone in AI data center networking: the Accelerated Compute Fabric (ACF) SuperNIC chip. This 3.2 Terabit-per-second (Tbps) Network Interface Card (NIC) SoC redefines large-scale AI and machine learning (ML) operations by enabling massive scalability, supporting clusters of over 500,000 GPUs. Enfabrica also raised $115 million in funding and is expected to release its (ACF) SuperNIC chip in Q1 2025.

Addressing AI Networking Challenges

As AI models grow increasingly large and sophisticated, data centers face mounting pressures to connect large numbers of specialized processing units, such as GPUs. These GPUs are crucial for high-speed computation in training and inference but are often left idle due to inefficient data movement across existing network architectures. The challenge lies in effectively interconnecting thousands of GPUs to ensure optimal data transfer without bottlenecks or performance degradation.

Traditional networking approaches can link approximately 100,000 AI computing chips in a data center before inefficiencies and slowdowns become significant. According to Enfabrica’s CEO, Rochan Sankar, the company’s new technology supports up to 500,000 chips in a single AI/ML system, enabling larger and more reliable AI model computations. By overcoming the constraints of conventional NIC designs, Enfabrica’s ACF SuperNIC maximizes GPU utilization and minimizes downtime.

Key Innovations in the ACF SuperNIC

The ACF SuperNIC boasts several industry-first features tailored to modern AI data center needs:

1. High-Bandwidth, Multi-Port Connectivity: The ACF SuperNIC delivers multi-port 800-Gigabit Ethernet to GPU servers, quadrupling the bandwidth compared to other GPU-attached NICs. This setup provides unprecedented throughput and enhances multipath resiliency, ensuring robust communication across AI clusters.
2. Efficient Two-Tier Network Design: With a high-radix configuration of 32 network ports and up to 160 PCIe lanes, the ACF SuperNIC simplifies the overall architecture of AI data centers. This efficiency allows operators to construct massive clusters using fewer tiers, reducing latency and improving data transfer efficiency across GPUs.
3. Scaling Up and Scaling Out: The Enfabrica ACF SuperNIC, with its high-radix, high-bandwidth, and concurrent PCIe/Ethernet multipathing and data mover capabilities, can uniquely scale up and scale out four to eight latest-generation GPUs per server system. This significantly increases AI clusters’ performance, scale, and resiliency, ensuring optimal resource utilization and network efficiency.
4. Integrated PCIe Interface: The chip supports 128 to 160 PCIe lanes, delivering speeds over 5 Tbps. This design allows multiple GPUs to connect to a single CPU while maintaining high-speed communication with data center spine switches. The result is a more efficient and flexible layout that supports large-scale AI workloads.
5. Resilient Message Multipathing (RMM): Enfabrica’s proprietary RMM technology boosts the reliability of AI clusters. By mitigating the impact of network link failures or flaps, RMM prevents job stalls, ensuring smoother and more efficient AI training processes. Sankar notes the importance of this feature, especially in large setups where links to switches failures become frequent.
6. Software-Defined RDMA Networking: This unique feature empowers data center operators with full-stack programmability and debuggability, bringing the benefits of software-defined networking (SDN) into Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) setups. It allows customization of the transport layer, which can optimize cloud-scale network topologies without sacrificing performance.

Enhanced Resiliency and Efficiency

Traditional systems often require one-to-one connections between GPUs and various components, such as PCIe switches and RDMA NICs. However, as the number of GPUs in a system increases, the risk of links to switches failures grows, with potential disruptions occurring as often as every 23 minutes in setups with over 100,000 GPUs, according to Shankar. 

The ACF SuperNIC addresses this issue by enabling multiple connections from GPUs to switches. This redundancy minimizes the impact of individual component failures, boosting system uptime and reliability.

The SuperNIC also introduces the Collective Memory Zoning feature, which supports zero-copy data transfers and optimizes host memory management. By reducing latency and enhancing memory efficiency, this technology maximizes the floating-point operations per second (FLOPs) utilization of GPU server fleets.

Scalability and Operational Benefits

The ACF SuperNIC’s design is not only about scale but also about operational efficiency. It provides a software stack that integrates with standard communication, existing interfaces, and RDMA networking operations. This compatibility ensures efficient deployment across diverse AI compute environments composed of GPUs and accelerators (AI chips) from different vendors. Data center operators benefit from streamlined networking infrastructure, reducing complexity and enhancing the flexibility of their AI data centers.

Availability and Future Prospects

Enfabrica’s ACF SuperNIC will be available in limited quantities in Q1 2025, with both the chips and pilot systems now open for orders through Enfabrica and selected partners. As AI models demand higher performance and larger scales, Enfabrica’s innovative approach could play a pivotal role in shaping the next generation of AI data centers designed to support Frontier AI models.

Enfabrica 3.2 Tbps ACF SuperNIC Chip: Boosting AI Data Center Performance And Reliability For Massive AI Cluster Scale

, original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

At CEATEC 2024, Japan Display Inc. (JDI) introduced ZINNSIA, a sensor interface technology that has the potential to change how everyday materials can be turned into interactive touch-sensitive surfaces. Originally unveiled in June, the ZINNSIA sensor was showcased at CEATEC with a series of demonstrations designed to illustrate the vast potential for integrating sensor functionality into a wide array of materials, ranging from wood and marble to fabric and leather.

ZINNSIA is a highly adaptable sensing solution that can detect motion even through thick and irregular surfaces. This innovative technology paves the way for seamless and unobtrusive sensing experiences. Its core feature lies in its ability to transform materials that were once considered unfeasible for capacitive sensing into functional touch interfaces, granting designers a new level of creative freedom.

How ZINNSIA Works

The core of ZINNSIA’s functionality is a sensing mat placed behind the target material or object. This mat transforms the surface into a capacitive touch sensor capable of detecting movements without the need for direct contact. Even hovering a hand or a finger above the material can trigger a response. Unlike other technologies turning objects into touch interfaces, such as depth cameras,  ZINNSIA is more reliable and efficient, maintaining its sensitivity through thicker and uneven materials. The precision of JDI’s capacitive sensor sets it apart, even when dealing with objects of complex or irregular shapes.

Demonstrations at CEATEC 2024

JDI’s exhibit showcased the versatility of ZINNSIA through several live demonstrations, each highlighting the different ways the technology can be used across diverse applications. Here are some of the highlights from the event:

Lighting Control Using

Lighting Control with Different Types Of Materials

One of the most interactive parts of JDI’s booth featured six different materials, all of which could be used to control a light. By merely hovering a hand over these surfaces, visitors could switch the light on or off and adjust its intensity. The demonstration underlined the ability of ZINNSIA to work through a variety of surfaces without requiring any physical contact, emphasizing its potential for smart home applications where aesthetics and seamless integration are important.

Thick Wood Board Sensing

A standout demonstration involved a thick wooden board. Despite the material’s density, the ZINNSIA sensor could accurately detect hand positions and movements from up to 10 centimeters above the surface. A JDI representative explained that ZINNSIA could adapt to different material shapes, transforming them into functional remote controls. This capability indicates a future where wooden furniture, for example, could be embedded with hidden controls for home automation.

Interactive Furry Object For Kids

Another intriguing use case shown at CEATEC revolved around a furry object that simulated an interactive stuffed toy. This setup suggested the potential for ZINNSIA to be integrated into children’s toys, allowing them to respond to different types of touch and motion. Although the CEATEC team did not personally experience this demo, it featured a display of a digital cat face that reacted on a laptop screen. By interacting with a soft, blue, furry object, visitors could make the virtual cat respond with various animations, demonstrating how the technology could enhance the sensory experience of toys and make them more engaging for children.

House Plant Becomes A Touch Panel

One of the most imaginative and playful demos featured a house plant that produced sounds when its leaves were touched. ZINNSIA technology leveraged the natural fluctuations in electric potential that occur when plant leaves are touched. These slight variations were conducted through the roots to the plant pot, where a flexible printed circuit (FPC) substrate detected the signal.

Here’s how the setup worked:

1. An FPC substrate, using the same capacitive touchscreen method as found in smartphones, was positioned beneath the plant pot.
2. This substrate was connected to a PC via a cable, which processed the signals generated when the leaves were touched.
3. The slight changes in electric potential caused by the vibrations when touching the leaves were transmitted to the PC, prompting an app to play back preset sounds. Even though there was a gap between the leaves and the bottom of the pot, ZINNSIA’s high sensitivity allowed the plant to function like a touch panel.

The audio output included cheerful phrases like “Konnichiwa” (hello) and “Yokoso” (welcome), and the demo demonstrated how even houseplants could be used as interactive switches. JDI representative noted that the output action could be customized beyond sound, potentially enabling lights or other devices to be controlled through plant interactions.

Applications For Education

ZINNSIA’s potential in educational settings was highlighted through interactive demos designed to make learning engaging and immersive for children. One featured a poster of the solar system, where kids could touch different planets and celestial bodies to receive detailed information displayed on a connected monitor. This hands-on approach transforms a simple educational poster into an interactive learning tool, making complex concepts more accessible and memorable for young learners.

Another educational demo showcased a poster aimed at teaching English vocabulary. The poster displayed various images of everyday objects, fruits, and animals. By pointing at any image, the connected monitor would pronounce the word, helping children learn pronunciation and word association in an engaging, tactile manner. These applications underscore ZINNSIA’s potential to revolutionize educational materials, turning them into interactive resources that can captivate and educate simultaneously.

Japan Display’s ZINNSIA Technology: Transforming Everyday Materials into Interactive Sensors

, original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.