Author: batteryforpc

AMD’s patent which was filed all the way back in February of this year seems to suggest that for either an upcoming update or upcoming graphics card, VRS or Variable Rate Shading, would be implemented. Variable Rate Shading is a technique already in use by Nvidia in its graphics cards, VRS allows the GPU to spend more of its focus to the more complex/action orientated part of the screen, by saving resources on the less complex parts of the screen. The technique has helped Nvidia stay ahead of the AMD when it comes to raw performance.

AMD’s new graphics cards could come with VRS (Variable Rate Shading) to help them beat Nvidia’s overwhelming odds in the GPU market.

While there has been no confirmation from AMD revolving around this issue, to be able to use VRS would most definitely shorten the gap between their GPUs and NVIDIA.

The RX Vega 64 is the GPU that I currently have in my system and it uses much more power than the NVIDIA counterpart because it isn’t able to take advantage of VRS to only spend power on the more complex part of the screen. This is also one of the reasons that AMDs Graphics cards are usually more power-hungry than their NVIDIA counterparts.

While AMD has been historically lagging behind NVIDIA in the GPU market and Intel in the CPU market, AMD seemingly kicked everything into high gear to surpass its long known rivals, first, AMD has been going toe to toe with Intel. AMD might be planning to use VRS to like it used the Zen Architecture with Intel.

It was theorized that Variable Rate Shading would be present in the now released NAVI GPUs the RX 5xxx series. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like this was added to them in time for their release and where this is the most apparent is in the Virtual Reality, where any place the GPU can save some memory it should, and without VRS the GPU is rendering the entire shading at full aspect rather than saving power on the background.

If AMD plans to incorporate this into their upcoming GPUs then they might be able to steal the top spot away from NVIDIA’s claim that they are the best GPU manufacturer out there.

watchOS 6 has been available for over a month…but only for the Apple Watch Series 3, Series 4, and Series 5. If you have an older Apple Watch Series 1 or Series 2, you’re still waiting on that watchOS 6 update. Here’s what we know about when it might be released.

What does watchOS 6 include?

In case you missed it, watchOS 6 includes several notable new features for the Apple Watch. A range of new watch faces are arriving with watchOS 6, but those unfortunately aren’t supported with Apple Watch Series 1 and Series 2.

For all Apple Watch models, watchOS 6 brings several new first-party apps to the device, including apps for the Calculator, Voice Memos, and Audiobooks.

watchOS 6 also marks the introduction of a dedicated App Store for Apple Watch apps. Users will be able to search, discover, and download apps directly from their watch, making the device less reliant on iPhone. Furthermore, developers will also be able to release applications that are completely independent of iPhone.

watchOS 6 also includes new health and fitness features, inlacing something called “Trends” to see how your activity compares over time as well as Highlights and Favorites.

When will watchOS 6 be released for Apple Watch Series 1 and Series 2?

If you’ve been waiting eagerly for watchOS 6 on an older Apple Watch, the wait will likely soon be over. Apple itself has only said that watchOS 6 will be available for Apple Watch Series 1 and Series 2 sometime this fall, but the writing is on the wall.

The Series 1 and Series 2 are both included in the watchOS 6.1 beta. This is notable because the two devices were left out of watchOS 6 release last month. This implies that watchOS 6.1 will be the first public version of watchOS 6 to support Apple Watch Series 1 and Series 2.

watchOS 6.1 is currently in developer beta testing, with Apple having just released the fifth beta this week. For comparison’s sake, watchOS 5.1 went through five developer betas before it was released to the public in October of last year.

Are you still using an Apple Watch Series 1 or Series 2? What watchOS 6 feature are you most excited to try? Let us know down in the comments!

Here’s an interesting Chrome OS change coming up considering that I now use a Chromebook with 16 GB of RAM: A new code commit will change how memory is allocated to the Linux environment on Chromebooks with more than 4 GB of RAM. Those devices will see more memory provided to the Linux container…. a lot more, as it stands now.

The code commit description says it all and I was surprised to see that if you have more than 4 GB of memory in your Chromebook, all but 1 GB of it will go towards Linux.

I understand the specific reason noted above that would require this memory allocation change. But it seems a bit excessive when it comes to running Linux on a Chromebook with more than 4 GB of memory. Or rather, it seems like leaving just a single GB of RAM to run Chrome OS on such a device feels too limiting.

What I’d prefer to see (if anyone on the Chromium team cares about my opinion!) is a memory allocation slider in the Linux settings within Chrome OS. This way, I could choose to allocate, for example, 4 GB of memory to Chrome OS and 12 GB to the Linux container on my Acer Chromebook Spin 13 with 16 GB of memory, prior to starting up a new Linux container.

I suppose if you’re coding in Linux, you could just open up the Chromium browser, rather than use Chrome OS to read and search for development documentation.

Even so, the idea for Project Crostini as I understand it is to provide access to Linux apps within the Chrome OS platform, as in using both software platforms simultaneously. Leaving Chrome OS with a single GB of RAM, in this case, feels like it could be a bit detrimental when it comes to performance.

There’s no associated bug to file feedback on this feature change, so until there is one, there’s no way to let the Chromium team how you may feel about this. But I’m sure you’ll sound off in the comments here!

As far as timing, without an associated bug, it’s difficult to say when this change will go live on the Stable Channel. Given that the feature freeze for Chrome OS 79 passed on October 4, my educated guess is that this will be a Chrome OS 80 deliverable. However, I’ll check and confirm when the next version or two of the Stable Channel arrives.

Micron’s consumer brand Crucial is entering the portable SSD market with the new Crucial X8 Portable SSD. The X8 has a USB-C 10Gb/s (USB 3.1 Gen 2) connection and internally uses a NVMe SSD based on the Crucial P1 with QLC NAND flash. The Crucial X8 is intended for general-purpose consumer storage workloads that are mostly read-intensive; even though it can handle up to ~1GB/s read speeds, the use of QLC NAND means it cannot sustain high write speeds for long and videographers would be disappointed. Instead, Crucial is touting the X8 for transferring or backing up files and photos, or for expanding the storage of a video game console.

The SSD inside the X8 is based on the same hardware as the Crucial P1, but with some firmware tweaks to optimize for the expected use cases of external storage rather than as an internal OS drive. The USB to NVMe bridge chip is the ASMedia 2362. Crucial has worked with ASMedia to ensure that all the idle power management features are working behind the bridge, but the peak power draw of the whole drive still requires a USB host port that can supply 5V at up to 1.5A. The case is a combination of aluminum and plastic, and is rated to survive drops onto the floor but is not ruggedized with any water resistance or dust proof rating.

The Crucial X8 is available in 500GB and 1TB capacities. It is supplied with a USB-C to USB-C cable and a USB-C to USB-A adapter. The warranty period is only 3 years compared to the Crucial P1 SSD’s 5 year warranty, and the X8 doesn’t come with an official write endurance rating. MSRPs for the X8 are substantially higher than current prices for the P1 SSD, but are in line with MSRPs for other high-end portable SSDs: $189.99 for the 1TB and $119.99 for the 500GB model. We expect street prices to be quite a bit lower, since the P1 is currently retailing for around $96 and $67, and USB to NVMe enclosures for a DIY portable SSD are about $25.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Idaho-based memory chipmaker Micron Technology <MU.O> on Thursday challenged rival Intel Corp <INTC.O> with a new line of hard drives aimed at data centers, just as the two companies are on the cusp of formally ending a joint venture of more than a decade that developed the technology.

Micron and Intel worked together starting in 2006 to bring to market what is called 3D cross-point memory technology. The technology uses three-dimensional features on storage chips to make them faster.

Micron said a year ago that it would buy out Intel’s share of the joint venture, called IM Flash Technologies, for $1.5 billion (£1.17 billion)

in cash and the assumption of $1 billion of Intel’s share of the venture’s debt. The deal will close this month, leaving Micron in full control of a factory built in Utah to make the chips.

Hard drives made with the new chips are faster than previous solid-state drives. That has captured the interest of data center owners carrying out computing jobs like deep learning, where artificial intelligence software ingests huge amounts of data to learn new tasks.

Intel released a second generation of its version of the technology earlier this year. Micron is now jumping into the market, testing it with what a handful of customers.

“This is just the very, very beginning,” Micron Chief Executive Sanjay Mehrotra told Reuters at a launch event in San Francisco. “These kinds of technologies do take multiple years before are they broadly deployed.”

Micron launched its Intel competitor Thursday, a device it calls X100. The device itself is a hard drive that can be plugged directly into a server, and Micron claims it is faster than its rival due in part to a piece of technology called a controller that take instructions from the server’s computing brain about which data to read or write on the hard drive.

Micron developed the controllers internally and is hoping they will set its products apart in the memory market, where supply and demand dynamics can produce dramatic shifts in prices.

Mehrotra’s strategy since taking over as chief executive in 2017 has been to increase the number of storage products that include technologies beyond just commodity memory chips. About half of the company’s storage revenue now comes from such products, versus 20% when he arrived, he said.

“This is hugely attractive,” Mehrotra said of differentiating features. “We are making strong progress there.”