US chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices said on Friday it will invest around $400 million in India over the next five years and will build its largest design center in the tech hub of Bengaluru. AMD’s announcement was made by its Chief Technology Officer Mark Papermaster at an annual semiconductor conference that started Friday in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat. Other speakers at the flagship event include Foxconn Chairman Young Liu and Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra. Despite being a late entrant, the Modi government has been courting investments into India’s nascent chip sector to establish its credentials as a chipmaking hub. AMD said it will open its new design centre campus in Bengaluru by end of this year and create 3,000 new engineering roles within five years. “Our India teams will continue to play a pivotal role in delivering the high-performance and adaptive solutions that support AMD customers worldwide,” Papermaster said. The new 500,000-square-foot (55,5...
Xbox Series X Gameplay showcase reveals trailers of 22 games
Microsoft has just held the showcase of games that will be coming to the upcoming Xbox Series X. And it showcased trailers for as many as 22 games that are coming to the next generation console. The cream of the crop is definitely Halo Infinite which is the flagship title from Microsoft. It is a first-person shooter game developed by 343 Industries and SkyBox Labs. It brings back Master Chief to the Halo universe and it will apparently be, “his greatest adventure yet to save humanity.”
“The strategy the team has focused on has been to allow our fans to play the games they love wherever they want to play them,” said Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood in an interview to Bloomberg. As for the other games showcased, here’s a list.
Games showcased
– Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
– Bright Memory Infinite
– Call of the Sea
– Chivalry 2
– Chorvs or Chorus
– Cyberpunk 2077
– Destiny 2
– DiRT 5
– FIFA 21
– Gears 5
– Halo Infinite
– Hitman 3
– Madden NFL 21
– Marvel’s Avengers
– Outriders
– Scarlet Nexus
– Scorn
– Second Extinction
– The Ascent
– The Medium
– Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2
The showcase also confirmed that Forza Motorsport 4 is being optiomized for Series X. It will come with better graphics as well as faster performance. Besides this Dragon Quest XI has also been confirmed for Xbox Series X.
Microsoft is using an 8 core AMD Zen 2 CPU and an RDNA 2-class GPU in the new console. Each cores of the CPU is clocked at 3.8GHz each while the GPU with 12 teraflops and 52 compute units is clocked at 1.825GHz each. The console itself will be 301mm tall and 151 mm in depth and width.
Microsoft mentions that it is using two mainboards on the Xbox Series X to ensure that the compact design. In terms of cooling, Microsoft is using a 130mm fan on the top of the unit. This will be drawing in cool air from the bottom and pushing it out from the top. As for the system, the devs will be splitting 16GB total memory with 10GB for fast GPU optimal memory, 3.5GB for standard memory, and 2.5GB for the OS. Microsoft is adding support for a new 1TB expansion cards in the rear panel. Besides this there will be support for USB 3.2 external HDD and it also has a 4K Blu-ray drive.
Microsoft says that the target performance for the Xbox Series X is overall performance at 4K 60fps, with up to 120fps. But the biggest improvement probably is the addition of an SSD which will cut short the loading times on the console. It shared a tech video of the loading time on the console which shows State of Decay 2 loading up 40 seconds quicker than on the Xbox One X. Xbox is using a new ‘Xbox Velocity Architecture’ which apparently improves the ability of the hardware and software to stream assets. For example this would mean that open world games will be able to load the world quicker in a more dynamic manner.
The use of SSD will also be helping resume games quicker than before. To this effect the devs have shared another tech video showing how multiple games can be switched to on the fly. The game states will be stored on the SSD and players can return to them any time they want. Microsoft has added Ray Tracing capabilities to the new console as well which enables more realistic lighting, shadows and effects in the games.
Microsoft writes that the next generation of consoles will support 8K gaming with frame rates up to 120FPS. It has also partnered up with HDMI forum and TV manufacturers to bring Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) and Variable Refresh Rate (VRR). This is part of the HDMI 2.1 support. As for the Xbox controller, courtesy to all these features it will have less latency now. The controller now uses USB-C connections with AA batteries, and supports Bluetooth Low Energy. It features a share button to share clips and screenshots to friends.
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