The Hot Take: All I have to say is YES!
A new class-action lawsuit filed in California accuses SK hynix, Samsung, and Micron of coordinating DRAM production to artificially restrict supply and maintain elevated prices for consumer memory products.
Read the full articleThe Hot Take: About time. I've been saying they should have one for a while.
The big story in computing these days is how an ongoing shortage of RAM (dubbed RAMageddon or the RAMpocalypse) has led to massive increases in hardware costs. The conventional explanation of the situation has been that shortages have been driven by the widespread construction of AI data centers. However, a new lawsuit (Garciaguirre et al. v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., et al.) filed against RAM manufacturers Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron, alleges that these companies are exploiting market conditions to artificially inflate prices.
Read the full articleThe Hot Take: Slowly Windows becoming more and more Linux.
Microsoft has shot down the idea that WSL 3 is on the way. The articles that have been calling it WSL 3 mixed up a different feature, WSL Containers, which the company showed at Build 2026 and is now days away from shipping. The correction came straight from the team that builds Windows Subsystem for Linux. TL; DR: WSL 3 does not exist. WSL Containers does, and it shows up in less than a week. Microsoft has officially denied that WSL 3 exists. Craig Loewen, the Product Manager at Microsoft responsible for the Windows Subsystem for Linux, posted on X to clear up: âAs a PSA, there is no such thing as WSL 3! Iâve seen some articles talking about it, and itâs not currently a thing.â Loewen was addressing a wave of articles that misidentified a different announcement. The confusion started from Microsoft Build 2026, where the company announced WSL Containers, a new built-in feature that lets you create, run, and interact with Linux containers directly on Windows without third-party tools like Docker Desktop. Popular publications reported this as WSL 3, partly because the abbreviation WSLc was floating around. According to Loewen, WSL Containers is not a versioned successor to WSL 2. It is a new capability built on top of the existing WSL infrastructure. He also confirmed it will be available in just a week or so from his post on June 23, 2026. What is WSL, and what are WSL Containers If you are not a developer, hereâs a quick primer. WSL stands for Windows Subsystem for Linux, and it is a feature built into Windows that lets you run Linux environments directly inside Windows, without the need to dual-boot into a separate OS or set up a full VM. However, a container is a lightweight, isolated environment that packages an application along with everything it needs to run, including dependencies, libraries, and configuration. Unlike a VM, a container does not simulate an entire operating system. It shares the host OS kernel but keeps its own file system and process space. The advantage is that containers are faster to start, easier to share, and portable across machines. WSL Containers brings this container functionality directly into WSL itself. WSL Containers vs WSL 1 and WSL 2: what is different WSL Containers is not a version number. It is a new layer of capability on top of WSLâs existing virtual machine infrastructure. WSL 1 launched in August 2016 as a translation layer that converted Linux system calls into Windows ones. There wasnât any real Linux kernel, so containers were a non-starter. WSL 2 arrived in preview in May 2019 with a full Linux kernel running inside a lightweight managed VM, which made Docker Desktop possible. WSL 1 (2016) WSL 2 (2019) WSL Containers (2026) Primary purpose Run Linux command-line tools on Windows Run a full Linux OS inside Windows Run isolated Linux containers natively on Windows Engine Translation layer, no real Linux kernel Real Linux kernel in a lightweight Hyper-V VM Dedicated Hyper-V engine built for OCI containers Container support No Yes, but needs Docker Desktop Yes, natively via wslc.exe Control surface Windows Command Prompt or Linux terminal Linux terminal inside a distro (e.g., Ubuntu) wslc CLI from any Windows terminal So, what problem is WSL Containers solving? In case you didnât know it already, developers who wanted Linux containers on Windows used Docker Desktop, which uses WSL 2 as its backend on Windows 11. Docker Desktop works well, but it comes with per-seat licensing costs for larger teams and needs a complex setup that IT administrators in enterprise environments have to manage separately. WSL Containers removes the need for Docker Containers can now be built, run, and deployed directly from Windows using wslc.exe, without installing Docker Desktop or any other third-party tool. The command syntax closely mirrors Docker, so developers do not face a steep relearning curve. WSL Containers also supports GPU passthrough via the Container Device Interface, which means you can run GPU-accelerated workloads like CUDA-based machine learning pipelines inside a Linux container on your Windows GPU drivers. For enterprise IT administrators, the feature integrates into the existing Windows management infrastructure. Policy-based enablement through Group Policy or MDM controls, which containers can run and where images can be sourced from. Administrators can see running containers through standard Windows auditing tools, which is something Docker Desktop did not offer natively. Microsoft announced WSL Containers at Build 2026 At Build 2026 on June 2, Microsoft positioned WSL Containers as a core part of its developer-optimized Windows 11 story. The official announcement, published by Executive Vice President Pavan Davuluri, described it as âa built-in way to create, run and interact with Linux containers on Windows.â https://www.windowslatest.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/WSL-containers.mp4 WSL Containers has two components: The first is the exe CLI, which lets developers build, run, and deploy Linux containers directly from the command line, out of the box. The second is the WSL Container API, which allows Windows application developers to use Linux containers programmatically as part of app logic, covering scenarios like running local AI workloads, container-based testing pipelines, and Linux-based data processing from within native Windows apps. Build 2026 also had a few other Linux tools for Windows 11. Coreutils for Windows is now generally available, bringing over 75 familiar Linux command-line utilities like ls, grep, cp, and mv natively to Windows without WSL or a VM. Built on the open-source uutils project in Rust, these commands run directly on Windows, which means scripts that use them work without modification. The Intelligent Terminal, an experimental feature that brings context-aware AI assistance directly into the terminal, was also previewed at the same event. Why Microsoft keeps investing in Linux on Windows Microsoftâs investments in WSL and Linux tooling are not altruistic. The company knows that if Windows becomes the easiest place to run Linux workloads, developers have fewer reasons to switch to macOS or a native Linux setup. We wrote about this when Microsoft outlined plans to upgrade WSL with faster file access, better networking, and easier setup. Modern software development is overwhelmingly Linux-first. Build pipelines run on Linux. Cloud infrastructure runs on Linux. AI frameworks like PyTorch, TensorFlow, llama.cpp, and Ollama are built and optimized for Linux environments. Developers working on Windows have historically had to either fight their tools or maintain a separate Linux environment alongside their Windows machine. With WSL 2 handling Linux kernel compatibility and WSL Containers eliminating the need for Docker Desktop, Microsoft is trying to remove every reason a developer might have to reach for a different platform. Coreutils on top of that means even the command-line muscle memory that belongs to macOS and Linux now works on Windows out of the box. Itâs good news for developers. Each iteration of WSL has consistently improved the experience. Iâm also a fan of how WSL Containers arrive as a routine WSL update, available to every Windows 11 user without a major OS upgrade. The post Microsoft denies WSL 3 exists, reveals Windows 11âs WSL Containers ship next week appeared first on Windows Latest
Read the full articleThe Hot Take: Interesting, Risc-V shop from rockstar architect Jim Keller.
Jim Keller isn't bothered by Cerebras's recent IPO and says that he welcomes it, but Tenstorrent will still beat them on everything. Tenstorrent CEO, Jim Keller, Signals Deal With Intel or Qualcomm While Promising To Beat Cerebras "on everything" Tenstorrent recently introduced its latest BlackHole Galaxy server, a system with which it can disrupt the entire AI segment, with performance levels that crush the competition. We covered the announcement last month when the company demoed its Blackhole server undercutting a NVIDIA GB300 with up to five times better TCO. Keller Accepts The Challenge To Beat NVIDIA, Cerebras & Others At [âŚ]Read full article at https://wccftech.com/jim-keller-cerebras-ipo-was-helpful-tenstorrent-to-beat-them-on-everything/
Read the full articleThe Hot Take: I just hear Tim Allen in my head from tool time.
Intel is expected to push the boundaries on power draw with its upcoming Nova Lake series processors, which will rival the best CPUs. According to newly leaked information, the flagship 52-core desktop variant is expected to feature a dual-compute tile architecture with a massive PL2 limit of 474W. The information was shared by LC Tech Leaks and confirmed by Jaykihn, who has a pretty solid track record with Intel hardware.PL2, or Power Limit 2, represents the maximum power a CPU can draw during short boost periods. That said, a PL2 target of 474W remains quite demanding, although a previous rumor suggests Intel may also have a PL4 emergency power limit over 700W. It is important to note that these power limits may only apply to the top-end models with the dual-tile architecture.Additionally, the leak also sheds light on the upcoming platform, including the previously rumored LGA1954 socket. We already know that Nova Lake-S will require a new generation of motherboards. Motherboard vendors are expected to classify their boards by sustained PL1 power levels, with configurations for 35W, 65W, 125W, and 175W CPUs. Enthusiast-grade motherboards, likely the Z990 series, are also rumored to feature three EPS 8-pin CPU power connectors instead of the traditional two. While vendors will have the option to include a third connector, its primary purpose would be to support extreme overclocking and would not affect the CPU's rated performance profile.The upcoming Nova Lake-S lineup is expected to carry the âCore Ultra 400Sâ moniker and will be Intel's biggest desktop CPU overhaul in years. Weâve previously reported leaked specifications indicating configurations ranging from 6 to 52 cores, with support for DDR5-8000 memory. The flagship 52-core model is expected to feature 16 performance cores, 32 efficiency cores, and a new Big Last Level Cache (bLLC) design to take on AMD's 3D V-Cache gaming dominance. The company is also rumored to introduce integrated Xe3 graphics, Thunderbolt 5, PCIe 5.0 connectivity, and an upgraded NPU for AI workloads.While these specifications are unconfirmed, it is clear that Intel is targeting substantial gains in gaming, multi-threaded performance, and overall platform capabilities with its next-gen processors.
Read the full articleThe Hot Take: We'll see how long before they go to Intel because TSMC is filled up in Arizona FABs.
Nvidia will stay TSMCâs biggest customer in 2027, but AMDâs EPYC Venice could pinch the CPU bragging rights. TSMC is seeing rising demand for 2.5D advanced packaging as CPUs become more important in the agentic AI bunfight. Apparently, GPUs alone are no longer enough to feed the machine. Morgan Stanley reckons Nvidia will remain TSMCâs largest CoWoS customer in 2027. TSMC is expected to reach wafer capacity of 200,000 wafers a month that year. Nvidia is using TSMCâs CoWoS packaging for two main product families. CoWoS-L is for AI GPUs such as Blackwell and Rubin, while CoWoS-R is for Vera CPUs. CoWoS-L capacity is expected to hit about 910,000 units, up 40 per cent year on year. Vera shipments are expected to double, which would help Nvidia lift data centre revenue by 52 per cent. Morgan Stanley said:âNvidia uses TSMCâs CoWoS-L as the single source for all its AI GPU products (e.g. Blackwell and Rubin). Its 2027 CoWoS-L consumption could reach ~910k, up ~40 per cent year on year. Strong CoWoS-R bookings by Nvidia suggest room for AI GPM products (such as doubling). Taken together, we estimate Nvidiaâs 2027 forecast for Nvidiaâs data centre revenue to rise 52 per cent year on year.â Nvidia has been pivoting harder into CPUs to claw back China revenue after GPU restrictions. Several customers have shown interest in Vera CPUs. The company has hand-delivered the first Vera CPUs to Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceX and Oracle. Nothing says âagentic AI eraâ like an expensive chip being passed around the usual suspects. The problem for Nvidia is that AMD is not politely standing at the back. Its next-generation EPYC Venice platform is already in volume production at TSMC. Venice is based on AMDâs upcoming Zen 6 architecture and is expected to deliver better performance and efficiency. It targets both AI and HPC, while Vera is being pitched squarely at agentic AI. Morgan Stanley projects Nvidiaâs Vera CPUs could reach 5.75 million units by 2027. AMDâs EPYC Venice, though, could reach 6.75 million units in 2027. That is 17 per cent more than Vera and 5.4 times its expected 2026 volume. âBased on our CoWoS consumption forecasts, Nvidiaâs 5nm Vera CPU could grow to 5.75mn units in 2027, while AMDâs 2nm Venice CPU may reach 6.75mn units in 2027 vs. ~1.25mn in 2026,â the beancounters said. AMD has another advantage on paper, with Venice using TSMCâs advanced 2-nanometre process. Vera is based on a 3-nanometre process. The real headache for both companies may not be each other. It is custom silicon, where the cloud crowd is deciding that buying chips off the shelf is for the riffraff. OpenAI, Google, Amazon and others are either talking up custom chips or already building them. That turns the AI supply chain into a fight between outside suppliers and in-house silicon vanity projects.
Read the full articleThe Hot Take: Impressive size reduction.
The âbigâ Windows 11 update for the year 2026, aka Windows 11 26H2, is arriving this fall as a mere 174KB enablement package for anyone already running Windows 11 24H2 or 25H2. For context, upgrading from 23H2 to 26H2 requires close to 6.5GB (not a typo). Windows 11 update, depending on which version you are on, can weigh either 174 kilobytes or roughly 6.5 gigabytes. The reason is the shared servicing branch model. With Microsoft now force-installing Windows 11 25H2 on all eligible Home and Pro PCs ahead of the 26H2 launch, weâll tell you why going from 25H2 to 26H2 is easier than ever. Windows 11 26H2 is a 174KB enablement package for only devices on 24H2 and 25H2 Why Windows 11 24H2 was such a big upgrade Windows 11 24H2, released in October 2024, was a full operating system replacement. Microsoft calls this an âOS swap.â When you upgrade from a version on a different source code branch, Windows pulls down a completely new OS image, installs it on top of the existing system, migrates your settings and data, and boots into it. It is the same process Windows has used for decades. Â The package for that kind of upgrade consists of two major components. There is the base 24H2 image, which is 5.3GB, and the final cumulative update payload that brings it up to the 25H2 level, which adds another 887MB. If you were coming from Windows 11 23H2, the complete upgrade process meant downloading close to 6.5GB of data, followed by the familiar sequence of spinning progress rings and multiple restarts. The 23H2 to 24H2 jump was large for a specific reason: these two versions do not share the same source code branch. Windows 11 23H2 came from the 22H2/23H2 branch, while 24H2 introduced an entirely new branch. Every time Microsoft creates a new branch, upgrading between them requires a full OS swap, no matter how similar the two versions look. Graphical representation of the source code branches for Windows 11. Source: Microsoft What the Windows shared servicing branch really means Starting with Windows 10 version 1909, Microsoft began experimenting with something different. Instead of forking a new branch for each annual release, the company kept the same source code and quietly staged the next versionâs features through regular monthly Patch Tuesday updates, in a disabled state. When the time came to release the new version, a small âenablement packageâ simply flipped a switch to turn those features on. Source: Microsoft Windows 11 24H2, 25H2, and 26H2 all share the same source code branch, codenamed Germanium internally. Every month, when your PC installs a Patch Tuesday update, it is receiving security patches as well as the dormant code for the next version of Windows. By the time Microsoft officially releases 26H2, every device running 24H2 or 25H2 will already have the feature code sitting on it, disabled, and waiting. Because all three versions share the same source code, the same security fixes, and the same regression testing baseline, the only differences between 24H2, 25H2, and 26H2 is which features have been switched on, with newer features reserved for the newer version. Why 26H2 is just 174KB and how the enablement package works Once your device is on 24H2 or 25H2 and has received recent cumulative updates, the 26H2 feature code is already present. The upgrade to 26H2 works like this: the disabled feature flags on your device are changed to enabled, the device restarts, the new features become active, and the build number moves from 26200 to 26300. The package responsible for all of that weighs 174KB. The four stages of an update from one version to another. Source: Microsoft Even the screenshots I add to these articles are larger! The entire process takes only minutes and requires one restart, compared to the extended installation sequence of a traditional feature update. Microsoft confirmed these numbers in a June 2026 whitepaper on the shared servicing model. For the 25H2 upgrade as a reference point, the enablement package was 174KB against a full 25H2 feature update of close to 6.5GB, which is about three-thousandths of one percent of the full package size. The 26H2 enablement package follows the same pattern and the same figure. For organizations managing hundreds or thousands of PCs, the benefit is far more than the download size. They can considerably reduce compatibility testing to only the newly enabled features instead of testing the entire application and hardware stack, because technically, the OS code has not changed. Microsoftâs guidance is that IT teams can treat a 24H2-to-26H2 upgrade the same way they would treat a monthly quality update. Why upgrading from 23H2 still requires the full 6.5GB download Not every Windows 11 version qualifies for the enablement package, though. Windows 11 23H2 is on the 22H2/23H2 branch, which is a completely separate code repository from the 24H2/25H2/26H2 branch. There is no shared foundation, so there is no staged code to activate. A device on 23H2 still needs the traditional OS swap to reach 26H2. How to update from one version of Windows to another depends on their branches. Source: Microsoft Windows 11 23H2 already reached end-of-life for Home and Pro users in November 2025, so most devices that were on it have already been moved up, either to 24H2 or directly to 25H2. If your PC is somehow still on 23H2, the upgrade to 26H2 will come as a full feature update, and not an enablement package. As expected, Windows 11 21H2 and 22H2 are on their own earlier branches and have been out of support for some time. Devices that lingered on those versions would have needed a full OS swap to reach any version in the current 24H2/25H2/26H2 branch. What about Windows 11 26H1, and why is it different? You may have seen news about Windows 11 26H1 and wondered where it fits. The short answer is that it does not apply to your existing PC. Windows 11 26H1 is exclusively for devices with next-generation silicon, specifically the Snapdragon X2 and potentially upcoming ARM-based chips. It is built on a completely different platform branch called Bromine, not Germanium. Source: Lenovo Because 26H1 and 26H2 are on different internal platforms, devices running 26H1 cannot upgrade to 26H2. Microsoft has confirmed that those devices will follow a separate path to a future Windows release. It is a version number that is higher than 26H2 on paper but represents a different OS lineage. For the vast majority of users on Intel and AMD hardware, 26H1 holds no relevance. The update you will see this fall is 26H2, and it will be a 174KB enablement package if you are already on 24H2 or 25H2. If you want a hands-on look at what 26H1 is like in practice, we covered it separately. .NET Framework 3.5 is unavailable in Windows 11 26H1 When to expect Windows 11 26H2 and how to get it Microsoft has confirmed Windows 11 26H2 for a fall 2026 release with no changes to hardware requirements. Any device running 24H2 or 25H2 today is already eligible. Based on previous release patterns, October is the most likely target, though Microsoft has not confirmed a specific date. When it arrives, devices on 24H2 and 25H2 will receive the update through Windows Update automatically over time, or you can check manually by going to Settings > Windows Update > Check for updates. The install will take a few minutes and one restart. The support lifecycle will reset as well, with 24 months for Home and Pro editions and 36 months for Enterprise and Education editions from the general availability date. The enablement package also explains why Microsoft is aggressively pushing 25H2 to all eligible consumer PCs now, ahead of the 26H2 launch. Getting every device onto the shared branch means that when 26H2 arrives, the update path for the largest possible set of users is the 174KB package, and not 6.5GB. The post Windows 11 26H2 is just 174KB, which is 0.003 % of 24H2âs size. Hereâs how appeared first on Windows Latest
Read the full articleThe Hot Take: Yeah seemed inevitable.
OnePlus is likely ceasing to exist as we know it.
Read the full articleThe Hot Take: Nice to see they can break that barrier.
IBM says it has created the world's first known chip tech below 1 nanometre - but it will be some time before it's ready for production.
Read the full articleThe Hot Take: Would be nice if BT gets Hi-Res audio sooner....
Microsoft has released the optional Windows 11 June 2026 update, KB5095093, bringing a substantial collection of Bluetooth improvements aimed at improving wireless audio quality, device compatibility and overall connection reliability.
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