The Hot Take: Ouch!
Longtime Slashdot reader Dotnaught shares a report from The Register: For the past 90 days, Microsoft has been quietly patching a firmware flaw in Surface devices that allowed the hardware to be bricked with a single packet, though only for those who have disabled Secure Core and Secure Boot. And the company's Copilot AI software inadvertently helped identify the faulty firmware.
According to Jack Darcy, a security researcher based in Australia, his instance of Microsoft Copilot stumbled across the bug after being asked to adjust the screen backlighting on a Surface device. The Copilot-conjured Python script ended up rendering the researcher's laptop inoperable by overwriting the embedded controller firmware. "Copilot autonomously created and executed four progressively aggressive Python scripts during a probe for backlight control values that sent raw SSAM ioctl commands (SSAM_CDEV_REQUEST = 0xC028A501) directly to the SAM microcontroller through the SAM software path," Darcy explained to The Register.
[...] "We appreciate the work of Jack Darcy and The Register for reporting this issue under a coordinated vulnerability disclosure," a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement. "Our investigation found that a deprecated UEFI interface could trigger a boot loop on some devices. To trigger this loop, the user must have administrator privileges and have already disabled the Secure Boot security feature. We have released updates to address the issue for most impacted devices."
That means managed devices are not at risk. But those using Linux, or Windows users who have disabled Secure Core and Secure Boot for gaming, or who use custom Windows drivers, or who have USB boot enabled, may still be vulnerable if their systems haven't received the update. We're uncertain about the range of Surface devices affected. Our source said it appears to be all of them (Surface Laptops 3-6, Surface Book 1-3) except for Surface Go models. ARM variants, however, have not been tested. The report notes that Microsoft is planning to move the Surface stack to a more secure architecture based on Rust code.
"Our most recent Surface for Business hardware features a major architectural shift in terms of improved reliability and security that spans our embedded controller, UEFI, but also some of our drivers," said David Abzarian, chief architect for Microsoft Surface. "We're investing in the most secure foundation for a PC by building our embedded controller firmware from the ground up in Rust (as part of leveraging and contributing to the Open Device Partnership (ODP)) in addition to a rewrite of the UEFI DXE Core in Rust; these projects are known as Secure EC and Project Patina respectively."
"We're also not only shipping some of our drivers written in Rust, but also helping co-develop the framework Windows Drivers in Rust (WDR) to help enable a broad set of partners in the Windows ecosystem to capitalize on these benefits. I will also note that all of these efforts are open-source promoting one of our key security principles around transparency."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Read the full article
The Hot Take: Sub 1000 notebook competition is getting heated.
Intel today unveiled its "Project Firefly" initiative in China, which aims to bring the supply chain together to allow cost-effective & standardized Wildcat Lake laptop designs. Intel Wants A Coherent Design & Pricing Structure Across Its Wildcat Lake Laptops & That's Exactly What "Project Firefly" Aims To Ensure Intel hosted an event today in China where the company formally launched its Core Series 3 SoCs for laptops, codenamed Wildcat Lake. These SoCs aim to bring better value and a unified design across a range of mainstream and entry-level PCs, which we are already seeing on the market. Announced by Intel's […]Read full article at https://wccftech.com/intel-drags-partners-into-a-unified-wildcat-lake-blueprint-as-project-firefly-standardizes-laptop-designs-to-tackle-macbook-neo/
Read the full article
The Hot Take: Apple to me is starting to look better and better I hate to say it.
It wouldn't be Google if it did not somehow try to hobble its Tensor-class chips. And, this unfortunate trend appears all set to continue with the upcoming Tensor G6 SoC, which is quite likely to sport a GPU that launched all the way back in 2021! A new leak indicates that the Google Tensor G6 chip will sport the PowerVR CXT-48-1536 GPU that debuted in 2021 As our readers would be well aware, we had ripped into Google a few months back for using generations-old ARM CPU cores within the Tensor G5 chip. Thankfully, as per recent leaks, Google has […]Read full article at https://wccftech.com/google-tensor-g6-chip-likely-to-launch-with-an-ancient-gpu-that-debuted-around-5-years-back/
Read the full article
The Hot Take: Mid-range is the target and your new standard.
We already knew the NVIDIA N1 was a thing; NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang told the world straight up that his company was working with Mediatek on SoCs for AI PCs, and he also confirmed that the N1 and the GB10 Superchip in the DGX Spark are one and the same. However, this is the first time we've really seen anything like an end-user device sporting
Read the full article
The Hot Take: Seems like theses new "Solid-state" batteries are some goal for something other than battery life. I can understand with lit-ion being unstable in extreme head, makes sense. I doubt its just for mobile though.
Battery tech is moving rapidly forward. We have a new milestone and a potential candidate to replace good old lithium-ion batteries.
Read the full article
The Hot Take: You will get mid-range only and love it.... Probably all while renting it I assume.
Nvidia wants a slice of every laptop sold, not just the ones with a chunky discrete GPU.
The firm is lining up “exclusive” laptop system-on-chips for consumers this year, barging into a market long owned by Intel and AMD while trying to cash in on the AI PC hype.
The pitch is that Nvidia has ignored the huge integrated CPU-and-GPU segment, even though it ships bucketloads of graphics chips for gaming and workstations.
Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang said: “There’s 150 million laptops sold per year, and Nvidia’s market largely targets gaming and workstation markets where discrete GPUs are used. And we’re very successful there. There’s an entire segment of the market where the CPU and the GPU are integrated. And that segment has been largely unaddressed by Nvidia today.”
He said that entire segment of the market is quite rich, large, and underserved today, with state-of-the-art, world-class GPUs like Nvidia’s.
The big idea leans hard on on-device AI, with CPU vendors repackaging product lines around NPUs such as Intel’s NPU and AMD XDNA, and Nvidia fancies itself as the obvious third wheel.
It is pushing the envelope by pairing silicon with software, dropping its open-source model stack, Nemotron, alongside laptop SoCs to ride the edge AI frenzy.
If Nvidia stuffs enough consumer machines with its own silicon, it can bake “on-device AI” features in as defaults and grab a bigger cut of whatever edge AI turns into.
This would give Nvidia an edge that Intel and AMD “cannot achieve”, because they are not building foundation models, they are just selling the compute.
If edge AI really does hit the predicted $160 billion valuation by 2030, then Nvidia could be on to something.
On the silicon side, the rumour mill says Nvidia is building ARM-based laptop chips with MediaTek, following the shape of its GB10 SuperChip used in the DGX Spark mini-AI supercomputer.
The Nvidia and MediaTek pairing is not new, since they have already collaborated in automotive via the “Dimensity Auto” line with RTX GPU IP bolted in.
Two consumer SKUs are expected, codenamed “N1X” and “N1”, with the latter pitched as the weaker of the two, and both have appeared on public benchmarks.
The architecture is tipped to use “ARM foundations” because power efficiency matters in laptops and MediaTek lives on ARM anyway.
There is speculation that Nvidia could co-design ARM IP to stand out from other ARM laptop plays, such as the Fruity Cargo Cult Apple and Qualcomm.
If Nvidia follows the GB10 pattern, it could use ARM v9.2, but that is still guesswork.
Process rumours point to TSMC 3nm, and the leaked CPU numbers for the bigger N1X suggest a 20-core cluster at 2.81GHz base with a 4GHz boost.
The weaker N1 is expected to land in eight or 12-core setups.
In graphics, the integrated RTX chunk is expected to be Blackwell-based, and early chatter claims a 6,144-CUDA-core layout with 48 SMs.
Despite that headline figure, it is still a mobile part, with leaks suggesting up to 120W TDP, putting it in the same power bracket as AMD Strix Halo and Intel Lunar Lake.
The Geekbench OpenCL numbers being waved around put “Nvidia N1X (6144 Cores)” at 46,361, miles behind “RTX 5070 Desktop (6144 Cores)” at 185,269.
Memory support is expected to include LPDDR5X, with up to one petaflop of FP4 AI compute.
Nvidia is even rumoured to be eyeing handhelds later, since it cannot resist chasing the whole gaming market once it smells blood.
It is not stopping at ARM, either, since it is said to be working on an x86 laptop chip through its partnership with Intel, which would give it a foot in both camps.
That ambition runs straight into supply reality, with DRAM tight and TSMC capacity reportedly fully booked, so consumer dreams may lose to data centre margins.
The expectation is that if the N1X and N1 show up at Computex in early June 2026, early availability may be limited due to a stretched supply chain.
Dell and Lenovo are said to be gearing up for designs, hinting that OEMs are curious, even as they brace for pricing and volume drama.
Pricing is still foggy, but the piece puts the N1X laptops in a rough $1,500 to $2,000 range, depending on configuration.
Read the full article
The Hot Take: Nice, maybe they can start competing with Apple SoCs.
A pair of leaked model numbers hints at something major coming from Qualcomm's next generation.
Read the full article
The Hot Take: Physical keyboard are back in style apparently.
Phones with physical keyboards are making a comeback as evidenced by the strong demand for the Titan 2 Elite.
Read the full article
The Hot Take: Playing catch up?
While Android smartphones have been offering large 200MP sensors for some time, Apple has yet to introduce a similar sensor on the iPhone. That could change soon, according to a new rumor.
In a post on Weibo, tipster Digital Chat Station, citing supply chain sources, claims that Apple is testing a large 200MP sensor for a future iPhone.
The iPhone 17 Pro Max has a triple 48MP camera setup
According to the tipster, Apple is evaluating a 1/1.12-inch sensor, a similar unit expected to debut on the upcoming Oppo Find X9 Ultra, which is rumored to feature dual 200MP cameras. The sensor...
Read the full article
The Hot Take: Interesting, suddenly intel is back in style again? Let's see where this goes.
Razer has taken the wraps off its Blade 16 for 2026, and it's a significant refresh that now builds on Intel's Core Ultra Series 3 "Panther Lake" chips. Here's what you need to know (and where you can buy it today).
Read the full article