Latest Tech News

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• 10th year of the awards sees a record 9,000+ entries
• 45 shortlisted finalists on display in Gallery@Oxo in London, 11-15 December
• Italian photographer Milko Marchetti scoops top award

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The Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards 2024 has unveiled this year's winners, selected from over 9,000 images of animals captured in a variety of entertaining situations and expressions – the most in the contest's 10-year history. Italian photographer Milko Marchetti scooped the overall winner award with their perfectly-timed image of a red squirrel seemingly stuck in a tree (see below).

Milko wins a safari trip to the Maasai Mara game reserve in Kenya, while Nikon's Young photographer category winner, Kingston Tam, walks away with a Nikon Z8 mirrorless camera and 24-120mm zoom lens for their closeup image of a frog.

There were 45 shortlisted finalists in all, and TechRadar got to see the images at the awards evening in London. The exhibition runs from 11-15 December in the Gallery@Oxo in London, and entry is free.

If you're not in or visiting the UK, all of 2024's finalists can be seen on the Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards website, and you'll find the category award winners below – try not to smile!

Overall winner – Milko Marchetti

Stuck squirrel, Milko Marchetti. (Image credit: © Milko Marchetti)

Milko's photograph of a red squirrel was taken in 2022 in the Podere Pantaleone park in Bagnacavallo, Ravenna, Italy. Milko uses a hide during the months that the park is closed to the public – his access is granted in exchange for his photos. Sitings of such squirrels are generally rare in Italy, but in the park they are more confident.

Milko says, “Nature photography has been my passion, ever since I was a boy, and I’ve always put all my free time and energy into it. I think that nature offers so much beauty and variety, and with a camera, the photographer has this ability, this superpower to freeze a moment and make it last forever in the form of a photograph. The emotion I experience at the moment when I click the camera button is pure adrenaline, and my hope is always to be able to convey at least one natural emotion through my photography. It seems it really worked this time!”

Category winners

Nikon young photographer category winner – Kingston Tam

Awkward smiley frog, Kingston Tam (Image credit: © Kingston Tam)

People's choice category winner – Tapani Linnanmäki

Shake ruffle rattle and roll, Tapani Linnanmäki (Image credit: © Tapani Linnanmaki)

Insect category winner – Jose Miguel Gallego Molina

Mantis Flamenca, Jose Miguel Gallego Molina (Image credit: © Jose Miguel Gallego Molina)

Reptile category winner – Eberhard Ehmke

Frog in a balloon, Eberhard Ehmke (Image credit: © Eberhard Ehmke)

Bird category winner – Damyan Petkov

Whiskered Tern crash on landing, Damyan Petkov (Image credit: © Damyan Petkov)

Fish & other aquatic animal category winner – Przemyslaw Jakubczyk

Unexpected role swap, Przemyslaw Jakubczyk (Image credit: © Przemyslaw Jakubczyk)

Nikon junior photographer category winner – Sarthak Ranganadhan

Smooching owlets, Sarthak Ranganadhan (Image credit: © Sarthak Ranganadhan)

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Latest Tech News

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• Blumind debuts ultra-efficient analog AI chip, achieving 10 nJ/inference
• Targeting wearables, healthcare, automotive, and always-on AI
• Scaling for larger models, aiming for 1000 TOPS/W performance

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Blumind, an analog AI chip startup, has showcased a chip designed for low-power applications achieving an impressive 10 nJ per inference, setting the stage for the company’s ambition to scale analog computing to new heights.

The company showed off its test silicon for ultra-efficient keyword spotting chip at Electronica 2024, where co-founder Niraj Mathur told EE Times, “What’s been particularly gratifying is that over the last year, there’s been more pull than us pushing."

"People have been coming to us specifically asking for analog AI solutions because they believe something new needs to happen.”

1000 TOPS/W is within reach

Blumind has already seen interest from wearable, automotive, and healthcare sectors. One of the examples the company gave was for a tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) capable of analyzing road conditions.

The customer needed this to offer, “extreme power efficiency because it’s sitting in the tire, it’s got to last the lifetime of the tire, you don’t want to open up the tire to change the battery,” Mathur explained. Another potential use involved detecting heart signals through a pacemaker sensor powered by energy harvested from muscle movement, requiring only a few hundred nanoWatts of power.

The startup’s first product, an analog keyword spotting chip, is set for volume production in 2025. It will be available as both a standalone chip and a chiplet that integrates into microcontroller unit packages. “Chiplets are the other avenue of integration for our customers,” Mathur said in his interview with EE Times. This approach allows Blumind’s technology to complement fully programmable MCUs, focusing on always-on AI tasks.

Looking ahead, Blumind aims to scale its analog architecture for applications requiring much larger models, such as vision CNNs and eventually gigabit-sized small language models (SLMs). Mathur said the company’s goal of achieving 1000 TOPS/W is within reach, emphasizing the potential of analog-first, multi-die solutions.

Despite his company’s ambitious roadmap, Mathur stressed the importance of a pragmatic approach. “No-one has really brought analog compute to high volume production and delivered on its promise. We want to be the first to do that, but we want to walk before we try and run,” he said.

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Latest Tech News

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• Biomemory's DNA-based solutions address data storage issues
• DNA storage is compact, durable, environmentally friendly
• $18M funding supports product development and industry partnerships

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Biomemory, a French startup established in 2021, has long been working to develop DNA-based data storage technology.

It was the first company to make a DNA storage device available to the general public, marking an early step in commercializing this technology. Biomemory's approach involves encoding digital data within synthesized DNA strands by translating the DNA bases - A, C, G, and T - into binary code. Data can then be retrieved by sequencing the DNA and converting it back into binary.

DNA storage is viewed as a potential solution to the growing global demand for storage, driven by increasing data generation. It is estimated that by 2025, humanity will produce 175 zettabytes of data, a figure that challenges the capacity and sustainability of existing storage methods. DNA’s compact and durable nature offers an alternative that could reduce spatial and environmental footprints while providing long-term stability.

Funding secured

A number of startups have entered the DNA storage space in recent years, including Catalog, Ansa Biotechnologies, and Iridia in the United States, as well as Helixworks, DNA Script, and BioSistemika in Europe. Biomemory is focusing on creating end-to-end solutions for data centers, using bio-sourced DNA fragments that are designed to last for thousands of years without requiring energy for maintenance.

To further its efforts, Biomemory recently secured $18 million in Series A funding.

“This investment marks a pivotal moment for Biomemory and the future of data storage,” said Erfane Arwani, CEO and Co-founder of the startup. “With our DNA storage technology, we’re not just addressing today’s data challenges - we’re building solutions that will sustain the ecosystem for the next century and beyond. By sharing this value with our partners and collaborators, we aim to collectively advance the sector and foster a thriving data storage ecosystem.”

Biomemory intends to use the funds to develop its first-generation data storage appliance, optimize biotech processes, and quicken commercialization. Additional goals include forming partnerships with industry players and cloud providers and recruiting experts in molecular biology and engineering.

The technology offers the potential to store all of humanity’s data in a single data center rack and Biomemory plans to scale its molecular storage solutions to exabyte capacity by 2030, listing sustainability and durability as its key priorities.

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Latest Tech News

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• Valve could be making a streaming box
• Hints found in the Steam Deck code
• No indications of a launch date yet

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It might be five years since the Nvidia Shield last had a refresh – see our Nvidia Shield (2019) review for details – but the device remains one of the best streaming boxes in the business. We're now hearing it may get a new competitor, courtesy of Valve.

As per a Reddit thread analyzing changes to the Steam Deck code (via XDA Developers), it looks as though the software used on the portable console could soon be adapted to run on a streaming box connected to a television.

You'd then have a lightweight, versatile device that could both play games and stream video and audio to the big screen – much like the Nvidia Shield does. This is mostly speculation at this point, but we could definitely see it happening.

There are references in the code to an AMD 8540U processor, though this may only be referring to a prototype device, so the configuration could change. That would certainly offer more power than the current Steam Deck specs.

HDMI and Android

The Valve Steam Deck (Image credit: Valve)

According to the tipster who spotted the code change, extra support for HDMI control is being added – and the changes match some of the code seen on ChromeOS devices, suggesting support for both Android and web apps.

Apart from that, there are no real details about what could be coming. We don't know anything in terms of dimensions or pricing, and there's no indication here about how long it's going to be before the product is announced (if it ever is).

Go all the way back to our Nvidia Shield (2015) review, and you'll see that it's always been an impressively versatile device. It's earned itself a relatively small but loyal group of users, though we haven't seen any signs that we'll ever get a new model.

What we did get a couple of months ago was the first software update for the Nvidia Shield in a year – though it was intended to squash some outstanding bugs on the streaming box, rather than add any new features.

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Latest Tech News

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• Nvidia’s Project Denver began as x86 but transitioned to Arm
• Insider reports legal constraints drove Nvidia's pivot
• The Arm-based Project Denver CPU debuted in 2011

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During a technical session at the recent SC24 event, Dave Ditzel, founder of Esperanto Technologies, offered some fascinating insights into Nvidia’s early server processor efforts.

According to HPCwire, Ditzel, who was previously CEO of Transmeta, revealed that Nvidia’s first server CPU, Project Denver, initially started as an x86 CPU but transitioned to Arm due to legal constraints.

Ditzel says Nvidia’s shift to Arm was influenced by its licensing of Transmeta’s Tokamak technology, which could translate x86 code into a RISC instruction set.

Failed attempt to acquire Arm

IAs he explained, “Nvidia brought out a product called Denver. It was actually that same design. It originally started as an x86 [CPU], but through certain legal issues, had to turn itself into an Arm CPU.”

This decision, he said, laid the foundation for Nvidia’s alignment with Arm architecture. Tokamak, developed by Transmeta, was intended to be its third-generation x86 chip following the Crusoe and Efficeon processors. However, the project was never officially launched and was instead licensed to companies like Intel and Nvidia.

ntel, despite acquiring the design, did not announce a product based on it either. “You can guess as to all the reasons why or buy me a beer sometime,” Ditzel said.

Nvidia officially introduced Project Denver as an Arm-based CPU in 2011, later integrating it into its Tegra lineup. HPCwire reports that while there was initial enthusiasm around Arm servers, adoption was limited by challenges in the software ecosystem. Nvidia has since developed its Grace CPU and abandoned its attempt to acquire Arm after regulatory opposition.

Ditzel founded chip design firm Esperanto about seven years ago and because of his previous bad experiences with licensing x86, he opted for RISC-V because it was cheap and there were no legal concerns to get bogged down by.

“At least we have a playground where we can test some new things out, and some lawyer is not going to be ringing your bell,” Ditzel said.

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Latest Tech News

Update: On December 6, 2024, the European Pirate Party reported that the European Council Committee stopped the proposal (yet again) as more governments joined the list of countries against it. We made some edits to the page to reflect this.

The EU proposal to scan all your private communications to halt the spread of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) is back on regulators' agenda – but keeps being rejected.

What's been deemed by critics as Chat Control has seen many twists and turns since the European Commission presented the first version of the draft bill in May 2022. The latest development came in October 2024, when a last-minute decision by the Netherlands to abstain from the vote prompted the Hungarian Council Presidency to remove the matter from the planned discussion.

Now, about two months later, the controversial proposal has returned to the topics the EU Council discussed on December 4, 2024. On Friday, December 6, however, the European Council Committee stopped the proposal (yet again) as more governments joined the list of countries against it.

What is the EU CSAM scan bill?

As mentioned, lawmakers have implemented some changes to the EU CSAM bill amid growing criticism from the privacy, tech, and political benches.

Initially, the plan was to require messaging services and email providers to scan all your messages on the lookout for illegal material – no matter if these were encrypted, like WhatsApp or Signal chats, for example, to ensure that communications remain private between the sender and receiver.

Lawmakers suggested employing what's known as client side-scanning, a technique that experts, including some of the best VPN providers and messaging apps, have long warned against as it cannot be executed without breaking encryption protection. Even the UK halted this requirement under its Online Safety Act until "it's technically feasible to do so."

Fast-forward to June 2024, the second version of the EU proposal aims to target shared photos, videos, and URLs instead of text and audio messages upon users' permission. There's a caveat, though – you must consent to the shared material being scanned before being encrypted to keep using the functionality.

This wording made privacy experts furious, with Meredith Whittaker, President of the Signal Foundation, labeling this so-called 'upload moderation' as a "rhetorical game" instead.

📣Official statement: the new EU chat controls proposal for mass scanning is the same old surveillance with new branding.Whether you call it a backdoor, a front door, or “upload moderation” it undermines encryption & creates significant vulnerabilitieshttps://t.co/g0xNNKqquA pic.twitter.com/3L1hqbBRgqJune 17, 2024

In September, another version was leaked by Politico. Communications providers would be free to decide whether or not to use artificial intelligence to flag images and text chats as suspicious. These companies, however, would be required by law to scan all user chats and report when they found illegal content.

As per the European Pirate Party's data before the December 6 meeting, the greater majority of countries have already expressed their support for the new proposal. Even nations like France, who previously were among the opposed governments, have now joined the in-favor list.

At that time, only a few EU members remained either undecided (Italy, Portugal, and Finland) or against (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Poland, and Slovenia).

A day before the voting (December 5, Patrick Breyer from the European Pirate Party reported that "unconfirmed rumors" claimed an unnamed critical government could join the countries backing up the proposal on Friday.

This, however, didn't happen as Finland voted against it during today's meeting, despite both Italy and Portugal reportedly passing from undecided to "in favor."

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Latest Tech News

As 2025 approaches and 'New Year, new you' pressures build for those of us not keen on jogging or hitting the gym, you should know that there’s an awesome alternative to traditional fitness with Quell, one of my favorite workout apps of 2024. And today’s big announcement is that the gamified routines it offers are finally coming to Meta Quest headsets in January 2025.

For those of you that missed Quell at launch, it was originally a PC fitness platform. You’d use the controllers to punch your way through its fantasy adventure game Shardfall while wearing resistance bands that make it tougher than typical shadow boxing. The full-body HIT sessions felt intense, yet Shardfall did an excellent job of keeping me motivated by contextualizing my actions – I wasn’t just doing another rep for the sake of it, I was throwing another punch because I needed to defeat the monster in my way.

VR players can soon try this experience using a Meta Quest headset – sans the resistance bands unless they choose to buy some. That’s because Shardfall is coming to Quest as Shardfall: FitQuest VR for $19.99 / £14.99 at Meta.com, and I’m pretty darn excited about it.

Shardfall will be at home in VR

Quell is great, but it'll be right at home in VR (Image credit: Quell)

The Quell hardware system costs $199 / £189 while the software subscription to access Shardfall (and future game releases) only costs $4.99 / £4.99 a month or $39.99 / £39.99 a year which I feel is a pretty good price for the kit when compared to other fitness gear or a gym membership, but it is an added expense that people might not be willing to pay for a system that can only be used with Quell games.

As a $19.99 / £14.99 add-on to your existing VR headset, Shardfall in VR is a much easier sell, and I strongly recommend everyone give it a try at launch. The combat exercises are an engaging boxing sim that does well to incorporate a full-body routine with ducks and jumps to dodge certain attacks and hazards, and it also includes jogging sections between fights that get your heart rate up.

It'll be a shame to lose the resistance bands, but again that could aid Shardfall’s accessibility as its exercises will be a little less challenging – though I expect the full-body routines will still give you a decent workout without them.

When the VR version launches I’ll certainly be there to give it a go, and if you’re looking for a more interesting way to kickstart your 2025 fitness schedule I recommend you join me.

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Latest Tech News

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• Azure Integrated HSM boosts security with cryptographic key protection
• Reduces latency and scales better than network-attached HSMs
• Keys stay isolated, ensuring tamper-resistant, in-use protection

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Microsoft has introduced a new hardware security module designed to boost cloud security by enabling cryptographic key protection directly within server environments. 

Azure Integrated HSM addresses latency and scalability challenges often associated with traditional network-attached HSMs while adhering to FIPS 140-3 Level 3 security requirements.

The new hardware module provides locally attached cryptographic services for encryption, decryption, signing, and verification. Keys remain isolated from software, including guest and host systems, ensuring strong physical and logical tamper protection. Unlike traditional HSMs, which introduce network latency or require key release to local environments, Azure Integrated HSM securely retains keys within the module for continuous in-use protection.

Coming to all new Microsoft data center servers

"As part of our systems approach in optimizing every layer in our infrastructure, security is a key priority, and we are designing our infrastructure hardware with multiple layers of defense with dedicated innovations to ensure robust protection for Microsoft and for our customers," noted Mark Russinovich, Microsoft’s CTO for Azure.

The module is designed to integrate seamlessly with both confidential and general-purpose virtual machines and containers, providing dedicated, secure partitions for each workload. These partitions are hardware-isolated, allowing workloads to access keys only through controlled oracle functions. This design boosts security and reduces latency with node-integrated connections and cryptographic hardware accelerators.

Azure Integrated HSM will be installed in all new servers across Microsoft data centers starting next year, bolstering protection across Azure’s hardware fleet. This deployment is part of the Secure Future Initiative, which also includes Adams Bridge quantum-resilient accelerator and Caliptra 2.0 silicon root of trust.

“By integrating advanced hardware security features such as the silicon root of trust and secure control modules, we are providing the foundation for the trust and security that Azure delivers to our customers,” Russinovich said. “We are committed to continuously enhancing our cloud hardware security capabilities to meet the evolving needs of our customers.”

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Latest Tech News

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• SemiQon announces first CMOS transistor for cryogenic conditions
• Engineered for extreme cold: operates efficiently at 1 Kelvin
• Transistor reduces heat dissipation 1,000x, consumes 0.1% usual power

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Heat is widely recognized as the enemy of sensitive electronic components, but ultra-low temperatures can also pose serious performance challenges.

Now, SemiQon, a Finland-based company focused on quantum computing hardware, has announced the development of what it describes as the first CMOS transistor fully optimized for cryogenic conditions.

The transistor is engineered to function effectively at temperatures as low as 1 Kelvin (-272.15°C or -457.87°F), just 1 degree above absolute zero, where most quantum computers operate. According to the company, this innovation addresses key challenges in scaling quantum computers while also being compatible with existing CMOS manufacturing processes, requiring no new infrastructure.

Space-borne applications

SemiQon says its transistor reduces heat dissipation by 1,000 times compared to conventional room-temperature transistors and consumes only 0.1% of the power. This allows control and readout electronics to be located inside a cryostat with the processors, eliminating heat dissipation problems that could disrupt the system. SemiQon believes this solution simplifies the growing complexity of managing quantum processors as their scale increases.

“It was clear to us and others in the scientific community, that a transistor which can operate efficiently at ultra-low temperatures would offer substantial value to users in the advanced computing sector and wherever these devices are required to function in cryogenic conditions,” said Himadri Majumdar, CEO and Co-Founder of SemiQon.

“Our company is just 2 years old, and already we’ve delivered something which the world has never seen before. Our cryo-CMOS transistor will provide considerable advantages to users both in terms of CapEx and OpEx, as well as by enhancing the functionality of their hardware. This could potentially accelerate the development of quantum technologies, or even enable a new era of cryogenic electronics.”

The transistor’s potential extends beyond quantum computing to high-performance computing and space-borne applications. SemiQon also highlights its impact on energy efficiency, noting that cooling costs for data centers are projected to grow significantly in the coming years.

SemiQon says it expects to deliver its first cryo-optimized CMOS transistors to customers in 2025. A short technical paper on the new transistor can be found on the arXiv pre-print server.

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