# Ret-H@CKer

Bottom line: Despite rumors saying otherwise, AMD and Scott Herkelman have publicly put the matter to rest. AMD will transition to support custom Navi-based AIB graphics cards, but reference designs will still be offered through AMD.com and any partners that want to keep offering them. Recent rumors inspired headlines and stories across the web insisting that AMD had killed off its reference design Radeon RX 5700-series GPUs. The rumors seem to stem from an unsubstantiated report by French website Cowcatland, where the publication claimed AMD was going end-of-life status with its RX 5700 and RX 5700 XT reference models. However, AMD has confirmed they are not pulling its reference designs after only a month on the market. In statements to both Tom's Hardware and PCWorld, AMD clarified the matter. “We expect there will continue to be strong supply of Radeon RX 5700 series graphics cards in the market, with multiple designs starting to arrive from our AIB partners. As is standard practice, once the inventory of the AMD reference cards has been sold, AMD will continue to support new partner designs with Radeon RX 5700 series reference design kit.” So, while it is true that AMD is going to allow AIB partner cards to saturate the retail channels going forward -- which is normal --AMD's reference cards will still exist and remain available. That's also a point that AMD's Scott Herkelman reinforced on Twitter. While many enthusiasts likely won't miss the reference cards with the blower style cooler, those cards are important to liquid cooling aficionados. Water blocks for GPUs are usually based on reference boards, such as the one from EKWB used in our Radeon RX 5700 XT overclocking testing.

A weakness in one common open source software for genomic analysis left DNA-based medical diagnostics vulnerable to cyberattacks. Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories identified the weakness and notified the software developers, who issued a patch to fix the problem. The issue has also been fixed in the latest release of the software. While no attack from this vulnerability is known, the National Institutes of Standards and Technology recently described it in a note to software developers, genomics researchers and network administrators. The discovery reveals that protecting genomic information involves more than safe storage of an individual's genetic information. The cybersecurity of computer systems analyzing genetic data is also crucial, said Corey Hudson, a bioinformatics researcher at Sandia who helped uncover the issue. Personalized medicine -- the process of using a patient's genetic information to guide medical treatment -- involves two steps: sequencing the entire genetic content from a patient's cells and comparing that sequence to a standardized human genome. Through that comparison, doctors identify specific genetic changes in a patient that are linked to disease. Genome sequencing starts with cutting and replicating a person's genetic information into millions of small pieces. Then a machine reads each piece numerous times and transforms images of the pieces into sequences of building blocks, commonly represented by the letters A, T, C and G. Finally, software collects those sequences and matches each snippet to its place on a standardized human genome sequence. One matching program used widely by personalized genomics researchers is called Burrows-Wheeler Aligner (BWA). Sandia researchers studying the cybersecurity of this program found a weak spot when the program imports the standardized genome from government servers. The standardized genome sequence traveled over insecure channels, which created the opportunity for a common cyberattack called a "man-in-the-middle." In this attack, an adversary or a hacker could intercept the standard genome sequence and then transmit it to a BWA user along with a malicious program that alters genetic information obtained from sequencing. The malware could then change a patient's raw genetic data during genome mapping, making the final analysis incorrect without anyone knowing it. Practically, this means doctors may prescribe a drug based on the genetic analysis that, had they had the correct information, they would have known would be ineffective or toxic to a patient. Forensic labs and genome sequencing companies that also use this mapping software were also temporarily vulnerable to having results maliciously altered in the same way. Information from direct-to-consumer genetic tests was not affected by this vulnerability because these tests use a different sequencing method than whole genome sequencing, Hudson said. Security cybersleuths To find this vulnerability, Hudson and his cybersecurity colleagues at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign used a platform developed by Sandia called Emulytics to simulate the process of genome mapping. First, they imported genetic information simulated to resemble that from a sequencer. Then they had two servers send information to Emulytics. One provided a standard genome sequence and the other acted as the "man-in-the-middle" interceptor. The researchers mapped the sequencing results and compared results with and without an attack to see how the attack changed the final sequence. "Once we discovered that this attack could change a patient's genetic information, we followed responsible disclosure," Hudson said. The researchers contacted the open source developers, who then issued a patch to fix the problem. They also contacted public agencies, including cybersecurity experts at the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team, so they could more widely distribute information about this issue. The research, funded by Sandia's Laboratory Directed Research and Development program, continues testing other genome mapping software for security weaknesses. Differences between each program mean the researchers might find a similar, but not identical, issue in other programs, Hudson said. Along with installing the latest version of BWA, Hudson and his colleagues recommend other "cyberhygiene" strategies to secure genomic information, including transmitting data over encrypted channels and using software that protects sequencing data from being changed. They also encourage security researchers who routinely analyze open source software for weaknesses to look at genomics programs. This practice is common in industrial control systems in the energy grid and software used in critical infrastructure, Hudson said, but would be a new area for genomics security. "Our goal is to make systems safer for people who use them by helping to develop best practices," he said.

South Korea has said it will take Japan off its favoured trade partners' list. The move is a tit-for-tat response to Japan's decision earlier this month to do the same to South Korea. Industry Minister Sung Yun-mo said Japan would be placed on a newly created restrictive trade list instead. Long-running bilateral tensions were inflamed last year by South Korean court rulings ordering Japanese firms to pay compensation to Koreans over forced labour during World War Two. The legal decisions drew condemnation from Japan, which argues the dispute was settled in 1965 when diplomatic ties were normalised between the neighbouring countries. The two nations share a complicated history that includes Japanese colonial rule of Korea from 1910 until the defeat of Japan in 1945. The trade spat, which includes curbs on tech supplies, has sparked fears over risks to the global electronics sector. How an Asian trade row could hit electronics supplies In July, Japan tightened rules on the export of materials crucial for South Korean tech manufacturers. Those restrictions, on products needed to make display panels and memory chips, have worried Seoul over the risks to its already slowing economy. Both countries have accused each other of inadequate export controls. Japan will now be placed in a new category of countries that have not run their export control systems in line with international principles. A senior South Korean trade ministry official, Park Tae-sung, accused Japan of inappropriate trade practices, but gave no details.

A shooting at a mosque in Norway is being investigated as a possible act of terrorism, police say. A gunman opened fire on the Al-Noor Islamic Centre, on the outskirts of the capital Oslo, on Saturday. One person in the mosque managed to overpower the gunman, suffering "minor injuries" in the process. Later, a woman was found dead at the house of the suspect. Police confirmed that the woman was related to the suspect. Acting chief of the police operation Rune Skjold said that the suspect, described as a "Norwegian man", had been known to police before the incident but could not be described as someone with a "criminal background". Mr Skjold said that the man appeared to hold "far-right" and "anti-immigrant" views and had expressed sympathy for Vidkun Quisling, the leader of Norway's collaborationist government during the Nazi occupation. The suspect is appeared to have acted on his own. The head of the mosque said only three people had been inside at the time of the attack. One person injured in Norway mosque shooting Norway publishes report into response to the 22 July killings The mosque's director told local media that the victim was a 75-year-old member of the congregation. Irfan Mushtaq told local channel TV2 that the attacker had "carried two shotgun-like weapons and a pistol". "He broke through a glass door and fired shots," he added. The mosque had previously implemented extra security measures after a gunman killed 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand earlier this year.

KOCHI: SunTec Business Solutions, a revenue management and customer experience orchestration solutions provider, has launched its operations in Melbourne, increasing its focus on the Australia and New Zealand markets. SunTec’s expansion comes at a time when many large banks in Australia and New Zealand are embracing customer centric transformation, to stay ahead of the competition. The company is betting on its solution Xelerate® Digital Core for banks to accelerate their digital transformation, to stay ahead of the competition. The company is betting on its solution Xelerate® Digital Core for banks to accelerate their digital transformation journey, without having to replace their functionally stable legacy core systems. Nanda Kumar, CEO of SunTec, said, “ Australia and New Zealand bear strategic significance in our growth plans. Setting up operations in Australia is a logical next step as it allows us to be close to our customers, strengthen our support and demonstrate our commitment to the region”. On one hand banks are battling legacy issues while on the other, they are looking for technologies that can help them to quickly connect with the fintech ecosystem, create innovative products and own the customer experience. Xelerate® Digital Core ticks all oxes and simplifies the process by providing an intelligent and flexible middle layer that helps banks embrace a progressive digital transformation strategy, he said. SunTec is headquartered in India and has operations in USA, UK, Germany, Singapore and UAE. The Australia and New Zealand operations, which were being handled by the Singapore office will now be managed directly by the Melbourne office. A gamut of human expression, from joyous whoops to irate snarls, is now fodder for chat bots. Powered by Artificial Intelligence, these chat bots are detecting consumer sentiment and tone using their platforms and building a repository of oft-used exclamations to mark out an angry or pleased customer. This has become particularly important in a digital age where brands slipping in customer service standards stare at severe censure in social media. A chat bot breaks down a user’s sentence into si .. Read more at: //economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/70391460.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

Gigabyte's forthcoming custom Radeon RX 5700 XT Gaming OC 8G gaming graphics card has gone up on Amazon for $419.99. The card is currently listed as "temporarily out of stock," but you can still pre-order the component. As spotted by PCWorld's Brad Chacos, Amazon listed the Radeon RX 5700 XT Gaming OC 8G for $419.99, which may or may not be just a placeholder. If the price tag is accurate, the Gigabyte graphics card is priced pretty well, since it only commands a $20 difference over the reference Radeon RX 5700 XT. The Gigabyte Radeon RX 5700 XT Gaming OC 8G (GV-R57XTGAMING OC-8GD) utilizes the same beefy WindForce 3X cooling solution that's practically present on every one of Gigabyte's Gaming series graphics cards. According to the Amazon listing, this iteration measures 279.4 x 114.3 x 50.8mm. So, we're basically looking at a 2.5-slot design. The familiar plastic shroud is painted in matte black with grey accents. The only RGB element on the graphics card is the Gigabyte logo on the side. It also has a cool matching metal backplate. Assuming Gigabyte didn't touch the WindForce 3X cooler, there should be four composite copper heatpipes under the hood and a considerable heatsink that cools the GPU, memory and MOSFETs. The Radeon RX 5700 XT Gaming OC 8G relies on three 80mm cooling fans to keep the graphics card running cool. They come with Gigabyte's patented Alternate Spinning feature, which makes the middle fan spins in a clockwise direction while the other two spin counterclockwise. Gigabyte claims this helps reduce turbulence between the three fans and improve airflow pressure. The fans also feature the brand's 3D Active Fan technology that only turns them on when the GPU temperature exceeds a certain threshold. As the graphics card's name implies, it comes with a factory overclock. Sadly, Amazon hasn't listed the operating clocks. However, an overclock between 5-10% seems rather reasonable. For one, the Radeon RX 5700 XT Gaming OC 8G isn't Gigabyte's top model, so we don't expect to have a crazy overclock. Additionally, it has one 8-pin and one 6-pin PCIe power connectors, which implies its operating clocks probably won't stray too far off from a vanilla AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT.

Five people were killed and three injured following a rocket explosion on an Arctic naval test range in Russia on Thursday, state nuclear company Rosatom confirmed. Rosatom said the accident occurred during tests on a liquid propellant rocket engine. The three injured staff members suffered serious burns in the accident. Authorities had previously said that two people died and six were injured in the blast at the site in Nyonoksa. The company told Russian media that its engineering and technical team had been working on the "isotope power source" for the propulsion system. The Nyonoksa site carries out tests for virtually every missile system used by the Russian navy, including sea-launched intercontinental ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and anti-aircraft missiles. Authorities in Severodvinsk, 47km (29 miles) east of Nyonoksa said that radiation levels shortly after the blast were higher than normal for about 40 minutes but returned to normal. Locals have rushed to buy medical iodine, with pharmacies' stocks of iodine reported to be running out in the cities of Arkhangelsk and Severodvinsk. The rush for iodine was reported earlier by a news website for the Arkhangelsk region, 29.ru. Low-level radiation spike It also said medics who evacuated the injured at Nyonoksa wore chemical and nuclear protection suits. There was a rush on iodine stocks during the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine, which sent a huge plume of radiation across Europe. Huge arms dump fire extinguished in Siberia Russian cruise missile hits flats Norway finds big radiation leak from Russian sub On Thursday the Severodvinsk administration reported a 40-minute spike in radiation, which reached 2 microsieverts per hour, then fell back to the normal 0.11 microsieverts. Both levels are too small to cause radiation sickness. The administration has now deleted its statement online about the spike. The BBC asked officials there why, and they said "because this incident comes under the authority of the defence ministry". The defence ministry insisted that "there have been no harmful chemicals released into the atmosphere, the radiation levels are normal". Ammunition dump blaze It is the second accident involving Russia's military this week. On Monday, one person was killed and eight others were injured in a blaze at an ammunition dump in Siberia. Flying munitions damaged a school and a kindergarten in the area. More than 9,500 people were evacuated.

An Intel product brochure, hosted at IT provider Softline's Russian website, seemingly reveals the chipmaker's upcoming Quartz Canyon NUC (next unit of computing) that targets workstation users, content creators, CAD professionals and business users By the images alone, the Quartz Canyon looks bigger than the NUCs we're accustomed to, which makes sense, since it'll reportedly feature support for one discrete graphics card. On the processor side, Intel will allegedly offer the Quartz Canyon with an octa-core Xeon E chip or 9th Generation Core i7 vPro chip. Although the listing didn't specify the processor's exact model, we can think of a few candidates that fit the description: Model | Cores / Threads | Base / Boost (GHz) | Cache (MB) | TDP (W) Intel Xeon E-2288G | 8 / 16 | 3.7 / 5.0 | 16 | 95 Intel Xeon E-2278G | 8 / 16 | 3.4 / 5.0 | 16 | 80 Intel Xeon E-2278GE | 8 / 16 | 3.3 / 4.7 | 16 | 80 Intel Xeon E-2278GEL | 8 / 16 | 2.0 / 3.9 | 16 | 35 Intel Xeon E-2286M | 8 / 16 | 2.5 / 5.0 | 16 | 45 Intel Core i7-9700K | 8 / 8 | 3.6 / 4.9 | 12 | 95 Intel Core i7-9700 | 8 / 8 | 3.0 / 4.7 | 12 | 65 If we look at the Xeon E family first, there are five chips that come with eight cores and 16 threads. The Xeon E-2288G, which is rated with a 95W TDP (thermal design power), is the highest-end part. It comes with a 3.7 GHz base clock and 5 GHz boost clock. The Xeon E-2278G holds the second position with a 3.4 GHz base clock and 5 GHz boost clock. For comparison, on the mainstream side the i7-9700K, i7-9700 and i7-9700T are the only 9th-Generation Core i7 chips that come with eight cores. The i7-9700K is the fastest of the trio. The Quartz Canyon NUC will support EEC (error-correcting code) DDR4 memory modules and Intel Optane drives. The device also has dual Thunderbolt and Ethernet ports, plus an Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 adapter onboard that provides a wireless connection to the Internet with a maximum speed of 2.4 Gbps. Quartz Canyon has a 500W internal power supply. The leaked brochure doesn't mention when the Quartz Canyon NUC will be available. But since the document is dated April 24, we don't expect to see the NUC until perhaps the last quarter of 2019 or early 2020.

Demonstrators have gathered at Hong Kong's airport, marking the start of three days of unauthorised rallies in the Chinese territory. Activists dressed in black sat in the arrivals hall waving banners to raise awareness among international visitors. Protests have gripped Hong Kong for weeks, beginning with anger at an extradition bill and morphing into demands for greater freedoms. The former British colony is part of China but enjoys more autonomy. It has a free press and judicial independence under the "one country, two systems" approach - freedoms activists fear are being increasingly eroded. The background you need on the Hong Kong protests Were triads involved in Hong Kong violence? They have called for an independent inquiry into alleged police brutality during the protests, the complete withdrawal of the controversial extradition bill, and the resignation of Hong Kong's leader Carrie Lam. Beijing has warned demonstrators not to "play with fire" or to "underestimate the firm resolve [of] the central government". What's happening at the airport? Demonstrators plan to stay at the airport throughout the weekend. They are waving banners written in different languages denouncing Carrie Lam and the police, and handing out leaflets with artwork explaining the recent protests. Authorities are so far tolerating the peaceful rally, which have not overly disrupted passengers. There are as yet no police at the scene. "It will be a peaceful protest as long as the police do not show up," one demonstrator told Reuters news agency. Fake boarding passes saying "HK to freedom" appeared on social media to promote the rally. Hong Kong's Airport Authority said it would "operate normally" despite the planned demonstrations. A demonstration at the airport on 26 July with thousands of Hong Kongers - including flight staff - took place without violence. On Thursday, the US became the latest country to issue a travel warning for the territory. It came on the same day a state department spokeswoman denounced China as a "thuggish regime" after a state newspaper published the name and photo of a US diplomat allegedly talking to activists. "That is not how a responsible nation would behave," Morgan Ortagus told reporters. How is the Chinese government reacting? On Friday, authorities confirmed that former deputy police commissioner Alan Lau has been brought out of retirement to help handle protests in the territory. The commander previously oversaw Hong Kong's pro-democracy rallies in 2014. Young and unhappy in Hong Kong Beijing's struggle to win Hong Kong's young hearts Beijing has issued increasingly stern warnings about the continuing demonstrations, and the military recently released a video showing them The footage - believed to have been filmed in the territory - shows heavily armed troops descending from helicopters and shooting their way through the streets and into people's homes. Why are there protests in Hong Kong? Demonstrations began in opposition against a proposed extradition bill, which would have allowed suspected criminals to be sent to mainland China for trial. Critics said it would undermine Hong Kong's legal freedoms, and could be used to silence critics. Police were then accused of using excessive force against protesters. Even though Hong Kong authorities agreed to suspend the bill, demonstrations continued, with calls for it to be fully withdrawn and for an independent investigation into police actions. Protests have become increasingly confrontational. On Monday, Ms Lam gave her first media address in two weeks, warning that Hong Kong was "on the verge of a very dangerous situation". She also accused activists of using the extradition bill as a cover for their real goal, which was to "destroy Hong Kong".

A giant parrot that roamed New Zealand about 19 million years ago had a height of 1m (3ft 2in) - more than half the average height of a human, a new study has found. The remains of the parrot were found near St Bathans in New Zealand's southern Otago region. Given its size, the parrot is believed to have been flightless and carnivorous, unlike most birds today. A study of the bird was published on Tuesday in the journal Biology Letters. Weighing just over one stone (7kg), the bird would have been two times heavier than the kākāpo, previously the largest known parrot. "There are no other giant parrots in the world," Professor Trevor Worthy, a palaeontologist at Flinders University in Australia and lead author of the study, told the BBC. "Finding one is very significant." Bird family tree shaken by fossil discovery Baby bird fossil is 'rarest of the rare' How birds got their beaks Palaeontologists have dubbed the new species Heracles inexpectatus in recognition of its unusual size and strength. The bones - initially believed to belong to an eagle or duck - were kept in storage for 11 years until earlier this year, when a team of palaeontologists reanalysed them. Prof Worthy said one of his students came across the parrot's bones by chance in his laboratory during a research project. The parrot's beak would have been so big, Mike Archer of the University of NSW Palaeontology said, it "could crack wide open anything it fancied". The professor told AFP news agency the parrot "may well have dined on more than conventional parrot foods, perhaps even other parrots". However, because the parrot had no predators, it is unlikely that it was aggressive, Prof Worthy told the BBC. "It probably sat on the ground, walked around and ate seeds and nuts, mostly," he said. Paul Scofield, the senior curator of natural history at Canterbury Museum, told AFP that researchers were "putting our money on it being flightless". The discovery of large birds is not uncommon in New Zealand, once home to the moa, a now-extinct species whose height reached an estimated 3.6m (11ft 8in). St Bathans, where the giant parrot's leg bones were excavated, is an area known for its abundance of fossils from the Miocene epoch, which extended from 23 million to 5.3 million years ago. "But until now, no-one has ever found an extinct giant parrot - anywhere," Prof Worthy told AFP. "We have been excavating these fossil deposits for 20 years, and each year reveals new birds and other animals... no doubt there are many more unexpected species yet to be discovered in this most interesting deposit."

China has issued a strong warning to Hong Kong's protesters, saying their attempts "to play with fire will only backfire". A spokesman for China's top policy office on Hong Kong told protesters not to "underestimate the firm resolve [of] the central government". Hong Kong has seen nine consecutive weeks of anti-government protests. On Monday, a call for a general strike caused severe disruption, and more than 200 flights were cancelled. Protesters want an independent inquiry into alleged police brutality, the complete withdrawal of a controversial extradition bill, and the resignation of Hong Kong's leader Carrie Lam. The demonstrations have frequently ended in violent clashes with police. They are seen as a challenge to Beijing's authority in the territory - and a reflection of how many Hong Kongers fear that their freedoms are being eroded. The former British colony is part of China but enjoys unique freedoms not seen on the mainland. What did China say, and why is it significant? The "radical demonstrations" have pushed Hong Kong "to the verge of a very dangerous situation", said Yang Guang, a spokesman for the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office (HKMAO). He warned the protesters not to "mistake restraint for weakness". Attempts to force Ms Lam to resign "will lead nowhere", he said, adding that the protests had had a "serious impact" on Hong Kong's economy. It is one of the strongest warnings Beijing has issued over the protests so far. The HKMAO rarely holds news conferences on Hong Kong - but this is its second briefing in two weeks. Mr Yang said that "radical and violent" forces were at the forefront of the protests, while "some misled but well intentioned" citizens were caught in the middle. The background you need on the Hong Kong protests Were triads involved in Hong Kong violence? Watch: 'Why we stormed the parliament' He accused Western "anti-China forces" and "meddling hands behind the scene" of instigating unrest. As examples, he cited US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who called the protests "a beautiful sight to behold", and the UK's then-foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt who urged an investigation into the use of force by Hong Kong police. However, a pro-democracy politician, Lam Cheuk-ting, told the BBC there were no "external forces" behind the protests. "It is not a movement organised by any overseas government but the Hong Kong people voluntarily," he said. Observers say the protests have largely appeared leaderless and unpredictable, involving "flash mob" style civil disobedience and voting through social media apps While China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) has troops stationed in Hong Kong, they are not expected to interfere in local issues - although the law does permit Hong Kong's government to request their assistance for maintaining public order, or disaster relief. During the news conference, Mr Yang was asked whether the Chinese military could get involved - but said Beijing was confident that Hong Kong police could restore order. Last week, China's army in Hong Kong prompted unease by posting a video of soldiers conducting anti-riot drills on the Chinese social media network Weibo. What are the protests about? The rallies began with fears over a proposed bill that would allow suspected criminals to be sent to mainland China to face trial. Critics said it would undermine Hong Kong's judicial independence and could be used to target those who spoke out against the Chinese government. The row intensified as police were accused of using excessive force on protesters. Though the bill has now been suspended, demonstrators want it fully withdrawn - and have also been expressing their anger at the police, and demanding an amnesty for protesters accused of rioting. The protesters have become more confrontational in recent weeks, with demonstrators arguing that the government has not responded to peaceful rallies. A city-wide strike on Monday crippled transport services and brought the city to a standstill. About 250 flights were cancelled as airport and airline staff joined the strike. Protests later took place in several districts, with police firing tear gas at demonstrators who rallied into the night, setting fires and besieging police stations. In one district with a reputation for pro-Beijing sympathies, men wielding long poles clashed with demonstrators before falling back. Police said 148 people, aged between 13 and 63, were arrested during Monday's protests. On Monday, Ms Lam gave her first media address in two weeks, warned that Hong Kong was "on the verge of a very dangerous situation". She also accused activists of using the extradition bill as a cover for their real goal, which was to "destroy Hong Kong".

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July this year was the warmest month ever recorded worldwide, satellite data has confirmed. The assessment was carried out by researchers at the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). Scientists say it's the latest sign that Earth is experiencing unprecedented warming. Scorching heatwaves saw records tumble across Europe last month, with unusually high temperatures within the Arctic Circle as well. Globally, July 2019 was marginally warmer - by 0.04 degrees Celsius (0.072 Fahrenheit) - than the previous hottest month on record, July 2016. July was 'marginally' world's warmest month ever Interactive tool: How much warmer is your city? Select from 1,000 major cities around the world However, it's notable that the 2016 record followed a strong El Niño weather event, which boosts average global temperatures beyond the impact of global warming alone. The new July mark follows on from a global record for June, which was confirmed by data from several different agencies. According to Copernicus, every month this year ranks among the four warmest on record for the month in question. While researchers can't directly link these new high marks to climate change, there is a wide sense among scientists that emissions of carbon dioxide from human activities are altering background temperatures and making new records more likely.

> Opponent's nickname: @russ > Theme (must be an image): > Work Type: Avatar > Size & Texts: 150x250 Humilates > How many votes?: 20vote > Work time: 24 hrs ?

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Why it matters: Data might be all the rage these days, but apparently, Intel didn’t get the memo. Since 2015 Intel and their Omni-Path architecture have competed with Mellanox for dominance in datacenter networking, with Intel capturing 10% of the top 500 supercomputers and Mellanox 25%. Until recently speeds were capped at 100Gbps, but Mellanox has upped the ante with 200Gbps, and Intel would rather back down than compete. Despite Omni-Path continuing to be a po[CENSORED]r solution – according to Intel, at least – several of Intel’s largest customers told CRN that Intel will be ending production of OPA100 (Omni-Path Architecture 100Gbps) soon, and only manufacturing on request. Intel’s Jennifer Huffstetler, vice president for datacenter affairs, has confirmed that OPA200 has been discarded but is vague on the future of OPA100 and any potential replacements. Omni-Path is a competing solution to Ethernet and InfiniBand, though Intel sells products using all three standards. Mellanox, recently purchased by Nvidia and one Intel’s main competitor, uses InfiniBand and Ethernet. Intel sells PCIe cards, 48-port network switches and cables employing Omni-Path for up to 100Gbps. Mellanox sells the same round of products operating at up to 200Gbps for ethernet and InfiniBand standards, though their switches only operate up to 40 ports. While Intel’s exit from the market seems worrying (we’ve all seen what happens when Nvidia gets a monopoly), it could be a sign that they’re doubling down on their InfiniBand and ethernet products. Presently, they have their 100G optical transceiver which operates at 100Gbps for all three standards using an ethernet port and in April they demoed a version operating at 400Gbps. “We are evaluating options for extending the capabilities for high-performance ethernet switches that we can expand the ability to meet the growing needs of HPC and AI. More to come.” According to Top 500 (which analyzes the top 500 supercomputers), ethernet is used by 54% of systems, but those systems comprise only 25% of the cumulative performance. InfiniBand punches well above its weight, used in 25% of systems but controlling 38% of the performance. If Intel truly wants to use ethernet, they’ll have to double down on their photonics magic to edge out Mellanox.

Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a high-throughput computational method to design new materials for next generation solar cells and LEDs. Their approach generated 13 new material candidates for solar cells and 23 new candidates for LEDs. Calculations predicted that these materials, called hybrid halide semiconductors, would be stable and exhibit excellent optoelectronic properties. The team published their findings on May 22, 2019 in the journal Energy & Environmental Science. Hybrid halide semiconductors are materials that consist of an inorganic framework housing organic cations. They show unique material properties that are not found in organic or inorganic materials alone. A subclass of these materials, called hybrid halide perovskites, have attracted a lot of attention as promising materials for next generation solar cells and LED devices because of their exceptional optoelectronic properties and inexpensive fabrication costs. However, hybrid perovskites are not very stable and contain lead, making them unsuitable for commercial devices. Seeking alternatives to perovskites, a team of researchers led by Kesong Yang, a nanoengineering professor at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, used computational tools, data mining and data screening techniques to discover new hybrid halide materials beyond perovskites that are stable and lead-free. "We are looking past perovskite structures to find a new space to design hybrid semiconductor materials for optoelectronics." Yang said. Yang's team started by going through the two largest quantum materials databases, AFLOW and The Materials Project, and analyzing all compounds that were similar in chemical composition to lead halide perovskites. Then they extracted 24 prototype structures to use as templates for generating hybrid organic-inorganic materials structures. Next, they performed high-throughput quantum mechanics calculations on the prototype structures to build a comprehensive quantum materials repository containing 4,507 hypothetical hybrid halide compounds. Using efficient data mining and data screening algorithms, Yang's team rapidly identified 13 candidates for solar cell materials and 23 candidates for LEDs out of all the hypothetical compounds. "A high-throughput study of organic-inorganic hybrid materials is not trivial," Yang said. It took several years to develop a complete software framework equipped with data generation, data mining and data screening algorithms for hybrid halide materials. It also took his team a great deal of effort to make the software framework work seamlessly with the software they used for high-throughput calculations. "Compared to other computational design approaches, we have explored a significantly large structural and chemical space to identify novel halide semiconductor materials," said Yuheng Li, a nanoengineering PhD candidate in Yang's group and the first author of the study. This work could also inspire a new wave of experimental efforts to validate computationally predicted materials, Li said. Moving forward, Yang and his team are using their high-throughput approach to discover new solar cell and LED materials from other types of crystal structures. They are also developing new data mining modules to discover other types of functional materials for energy conversion, optoelectronic and spintronic applications. Behind the scenes: SDSC's 'Comet' supercomputer powers the research Yang attributes much of his project's success to the utilization of the Comet supercomputer at UC San Diego's San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC). "Our large-scale quantum mechanics calculations required a large number of computational resources," he explained. "Since 2016, we have been awarded with computing time -- some 3.46 million core-hours on Comet, which made the project possible." While Comet powered the simulations in this study, Yang said that SDSC staff also played a crucial role in his research. Ron Hawkins, SDSC's director of industry relations, and Jerry Greenberg, a computational research specialist with the Center, ensured that adequate support was provided to Yang and his team. The researchers especially relied on the SDSC staff for the study's compilation and installation of computational codes on Comet, which is funded by the National Science Foundation. Yang, who was connected with SDSC via the Center's Triton Shared Computing Cluster (TSCC) campus cluster at UC San Diego, said that Comet not only saved them time. "The value of these awarded computing resources is about $115,600, which also saved our project a great deal of money." This work was supported by the Global Research Outreach (GRO) Program of Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (award number 20164974) and the National Science Foundation (ACI-1550404). The ab-initio molecular dynamics calculations used computational resources supplied by the Department of Defense High Performance Computing Modernization Program (HPCMP).