Summary of the week of May 18, 2020

[cobito]

Nvidia's lighting advances

The developer has published a paper explaining a new lighting technique that allows for real-time rendering of scenes with thousands of flat light sources (instead of point sources).

A Core i4 spotted

The video (in Chinese) shows the identification of a Core i5-4210M as a Core i4-4210M due to a processor failure.

Base frequency boost

Asrock has revealed information about its new technology that allows for raising the base frequency of the processor in the 300 and 400 models.

Firefox will abandon Flash support in December

Mozilla and Adobe have agreed to put the final nail in the coffin of one of the most famous programs from the early years of mass Internet.

Audacity 2.4.0 comes with spectral erasure

The new version of the audio editor comes with some interesting visual and functional features. For one, a spectrogram is now displayed alongside the waveform. For another, using the new visualization, it is possible to erase portions of the audio spectrum.

TSMC stops supplying chips to Huawei

The Taiwanese manufacturer will no longer be able to sell its semiconductors to its second-largest customer due to US restrictions.

The number of transistors is another useless measure

Just as has been happening with the width of transistor gates, the number of these elements is useless when it comes to measuring the performance of a processor. As with many other issues, what matters is not how many there are but how they are used.

Core i5-9600K

Namiga brings us a 2018 processor with 6 Coffee Lake cores without HT. A while ago, they also uploaded the 9600KF, which on paper is identical except that the model ending in F does not come with integrated graphics. As for performance, the numbers dance a bit due to typical deviations of background loads with differences that are imperceptible at 1.2% in single-thread and 0.5% in multi-thread. In essence, they are the same processor.

Zen 3 will work on X470 and B450 motherboards

A few days ago, it was announced that AMD's new architecture needed a 500-series chipset. AMD has since backtracked and lowered the requirements.

The improvements that DDR5 will bring

Compared to DDR4, the new RAM will have an operating frequency almost 3 times higher, four times more capacity, will allow up to 32 modules to be mounted, the operating voltage will be reduced to 1.1V (from the current 1.2), and will come with other features that will improve speeds regardless of frequency and latency.

All the details of Ampere A100

Nvidia has published a white paper detailing its new Ampere A100 architecture.

DirectX for the Windows Subsystem for Linux

The people at Microsoft are working on bringing the API to WSL (a reverse Wine). DirectX will remain closed-source.

Analysis of the Core i9-10900K, i7-10700K, i5-10600K, and i5-10500K

Numerous reviews of the new Comet Lake have appeared. This architecture comes with models up to 10 cores, support for DDR4-2933 in the high-end range and DDR4-2666 in the mid/low range, and the debut of the LGA 1200 socket.

The new Windows terminal

It comes with tabs, sub-window division, zoom improvements, the possibility of using a translucent background, and, in general, all those features that have been the norm in practically all Linux consoles for more than a decade.

EA releases the source code for Command & Conquer

Specifically, the dynamic libraries of the Command & Conquer Remastered Collection, which will allow for the creation of mods with more possibilities and in a simpler way. Nothing is said about the art involved in the game, so as usual with these types of announcements, the resources are likely still protected under copyright.

SD Express 8.0 reaches 4GB/s

The new standard for flash memory cards doubles the transfer rate. In reality, it will be rare to see commercial readers with this version since the high transfer rates are mainly used in the world of photography and video.

Samsung competes with TSMC

The consumer electronics manufacturer is going to spend 116 billion to try to catch up with the semiconductor manufacturer, which will soon begin production of its 5nm chips.

The case of the patent troll against Gnome is resolved

Rothschild Patent Imaging, LLC sued Gnome over the Shotwell photo viewing program. The problem was that Gnome's program allows for receiving photos through some kind of radiofrequency system (content of patent US9936086B2), such as Wifi. It seems that they have finally reached an amicable agreement.