Tangle Tech

High on the fumes of lithium-ion battery production, Renault is continuing its trip down memory lane with the unveiling of the Renault 4 E-Tech at the Paris motor show. This retro-inspired crossover is just as nostalgic as the recently released Renault 5 but with added roominess and a workhorse demeanor. The original Renault 4 of the 1960s was immediately embraced in its home country, as it was used to ferry everything from people to livestock in a robust, reliable package. Like the liberating Renault 5, the R4 sold in its millions. This new-fangled all-electric version isn’t exactly faithful to the design language of its forefather but instead opts to offer a few subtle nods to the past. For example, there’s a modern take on the original car’s vertical grille and the cheeky rear quarter windows. Around the back, there’s a more obvious play on the original R4 in the shape of the taillights, while the designers have even added plastic shrouding to the rear bumper, evoking the metal

Cybersecurity researchers from Microsoft have warned the effectiveness of a cyberattack method called Kerberoasting is growing. To help businesses engage their defenses against this attack, the company published a new blog , explaining the methodology, the risks involved, and protection guidance. According to Microsoft, the technique has grown more effective lately because hackers are increasingly using GPUs to accelerate password cracking. GPUs making attacks potent The blog, published by Microsoft’s Vice President of Enterprise and OS Security, David Weston, notes Kerberoasting is a cyberattack that targets the Kerberos authentication protocol, and which allows threat actors to steal Active Directory credentials. Kerberos is a network authentication protocol that uses secret-key cryptography to allow secure authentication of users and services over unsecured networks, such as the internet. Active Directory, on the other hand, is a directory service developed for Windows domain

As computing shifts from single-chip processors to multi-chip systems, traditional communication methods, such as Network-on-Chip (NoC) and Network-in-Package (NiP), are becoming less efficient. To address these limitations, scientists are exploring terahertz frequencies for high-speed data transfer, despite the challenge of noise interference, which complicates data decoding. A research team from universities in Australia and the US has been studying wireless communication at the chip level and looking at ways to reduce noise. By applying Floquet engineering, a quantum technique that manipulates electron behavior, they found they were able to improve terahertz signal detection. When implemented in a two-dimensional semiconductor quantum well (2DSQW), the approach successfully mitigated noise and boosted signal clarity. The team’s findings suggest that this method could pave the way for more effective and reliable wireless communication between chiplets, offering a potential solutio

Monitor maker Unitcom has released the iiyama PC, featuring a 14-inch or 16-inch design and plenty of other attractive features. The iiyama PC comes with Intel's Core Ultra Series 2 processors, known as Lunar Lake, and the body of the laptop uses magnesium alloy to make the device lightweight without sacrificing sturdiness. Thanks to the alloy, the 14-inch version of the iiyama PC can weigh less than 1kg, which is extremely light for a laptop. For comparison, the 14-inch MacBook Pro weighs in at 1.55kg with the lightest M3 chipset. iiyama PC - an unexpected surprise (Image credit: Unitcom) Anyone who has looked to travel with a laptop knows that weight is basically the most important consideration, and the iiyama excels in this regard. There is also Wi-Fi 7 and support for Microsoft's new Copilot+ PC initiative, which requires the laptop to use newer Intel chips to unlock various AI features within Windows and its associated apps. There's also a 5MP webcam

AMD has announced the Radeon PRO V710 , a new GPU designed for access via Microsoft Azure, the exclusive cloud partner, as part of the company's family of visual cloud GPUs. The V710 is available today in private preview, but anyone hoping to use it for a home PC setup will be disappointed, as the V710 features a single-slot design and passive cooling. AMD built the V710 on the Navi 32 architecture, and there are 54 Compute Units, alongside 28GB of VRAM, 448 GB/s memory transfer rate, and 54MB of L3 AMD Infinity Cache tech. The company says the V710 is ideal for small to medium machine learning inference workloads and small model training via its open-source AMD ROCm software, which seeks to compete with Nvidia's CUDA. The best AMD graphics card : top GPUs from Team Red The best data center GPU? "With support for hardware virtualization implemented in compliance with the PCI Express SR-IOV standard, instances based on the Radeon PRO V710 can provide robust

The Insta360 Ace Pro from November 2023 remains the most powerful action camera we've tested, but that looks likely to change soon – according to some leaked marketing materials that spill the beans on a new Ace Pro 2. As always, the source of these leaks is the reliable @Quadro_News on X (formerly Twitter, below), who's posted some useful slides that give us an idea of what to expect from Insta360's flagship GoPro rival. Previous leaks had already told us that the Ace Pro 2 is likely to have a 1/1.3-inch main sensor (this time with a 50MP resolution, rather than 48MP). But it seems that the new action cam will pair its 5nm AI chip with some new silicon called the 'Pro Imaging Chip'. Exactly what the latter does isn't clear, but from the other slides it will seemingly boost software features like PureVideo, which primarily handles low-light performance. From a slide of leaked specs, it seems the Ace Pro 2 will now be able to shoot Active HDR footage at 4K

The US restrictions on exporting advanced hardware have severely impacted the AI ambitions of many Chinese firms, limiting their access to powerful chips necessary for training large-scale AI models and handling complex computations. Companies like ByteDance and Alibaba, which rely on high-end processors for their AI operations, have been forced to turn to lower-spec GPUs like Nvidia’s H20 or seek domestic alternatives. However, not all Chinese firms are equally affected by the US clampdown. Huawei, which has been developing its own AI chipsets like the Ascend 910B, and the Ascend 910C (which the company has just begun sampling) has been enjoying some success positioning itself as a domestic alternative to Nvidia. During his keynote speech at the recent Huawei Connect 2024 event, the company’s deputy chairman, Eric Xu Zhijun, outlined the company’s strategy of building AI systems “that are accessible to every person, home, and organization” and announced plans to heavily invest in A