Asus' new Ascent GX10 brings AI supercomputing power directly to developers
Promises 1000 TOPS of AI processing and can handle models up to 200 billion parameters
It's cheaper than Nvidia DGX Spark, with less storage but similar performance
AI development is getting ever more demanding, and Asus wants to bring high-performance computing straight to the desks of developers, researchers, and data scientists with the Ascent GX10, a compact AI supercomputer powered by Nvidia’s Grace Blackwell GB10 Superchip.
Asus’s rival to Nvidia’s DGX Spark (previously Project Digits) is designed to handle local AI workloads, making it easier to prototype, fine-tune, and run impressively large models without relying entirely on cloud or data center resources.
The Ascent GX10 comes with 128GB of unified memory, and the Blackwell GPU with fifth-generation Tensor Cores and FP4 precision support means it can deliver up to 1000 TOPS of AI processing power. It also includes a 20-core Grace Arm CPU, which speeds up data processing and orchestration for AI inferencing and model tuning. Asus says it will allow developers to work with AI models of up to 200 billion parameters without running into major bottlenecks.
Powerful yet compact
“AI is transforming every industry, and the Asus Ascent GX10 is designed to bring this transformative power to every developer’s fingertips,” said KuoWei Chao, General Manager of Asus IoT and NUC Business Group.
“By integrating the Nvidia Grace Blackwell Superchip, we are providing a powerful yet compact tool that enables developers, data scientists, and AI researchers to innovate and push the boundaries of AI right from their desks.”
Asus has built the GX10 with NVLink-C2C, which provides more than five times the bandwidth of PCIe 5.0, allowing the CPU and GPU to share memory efficiently, improving performance across AI workloads.
The system also comes with an integrated ConnectX network interface, so two GX10 units can be linked together to handle even larger models, such as Llama 3.1 with 405 billion parameters.
Asus says the Ascent GX10 will be available for pre-order in Q2 2025. Pricing details have not yet been confirmed by Asus, but Nvidia says it will cost $2999 and come with 1TB of storage.
In comparison, Nvidia’s own DGX Spark is a thousand dollars more ($3999) and comes with 4TB of storage.
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HP ZBook Fury G1i is a powerful 18-inch mobile workstation
It's powered by up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX and next-gen Nvidia RTX graphics
There's also a 16-inch model available with same high-end specs and features
It’s a personal preference, but I’ve always liked laptops with bigger screens. That means 16-inches for me, but HP thinks 18-inch laptops are what professionals should be aiming for if they are looking to replace their desktop PCs and get a solid productivity boost.
Billed as the world’s most powerful 18-inch mobile workstation, the HP ZBook Fury G1i 18” still manages to fit into a 17-inch backpack.
That extra 2-inches gives you roughly 30% more space to work with, which can come in handy when handling complex datasets, editing high-resolution media, or working across multiple windows.
Three-fan cooling
HP is pitching the laptop at developers and data scientists who need to train and run LLMs directly on the machine.
The Fury G1i 18” runs on Intel’s latest Core Ultra processors, up to the top-end Core Ultra 9 285HX, with peak speeds of 5.5GHz. These chips also include an NPU with up to 13 TOPS of AI performance. HP says the machine will support next-gen Nvidia RTX GPUs.
There’s support for up to 192GB of DDR5 memory and up to 16TB of PCIe Gen5 NVMe storage. Connectivity includes Thunderbolt 5, HDMI 2.1, USB-A ports, an SD card slot, and Ethernet.
The 18-inch display has a WQXGA (2560x1600) resolution, coupled with a fast 165Hz refresh rate, trading pixel density for smoother motion. Thermal performance is handled by a redesigned three-fan cooling system, along with HP’s Vaporforce tech, allowing up to 200W TDP without throttling under sustained load.
Other features include a spill-resistant RGB-backlit keyboard, four Poly Studio speakers, dual-array microphones, and an optional IR camera for facial login.
The Fury G1i is also available in a 16-inch model for anyone who feels 18-inches is too big to lug around. Pricing and availability details for both models is expected shortly.
AMD targets Nvidia’s Blackwell with upcoming Instinct MI355X accelerator
Oracle plans massive 30,000-unit MI355X cluster for high-performance AI workloads
That’s in addition to Stargate, Oracle’s 64,000-GPU Nvidia GB200 cluster
While AI darling Nvidia continues to dominate the AI accelerator market, with a share of over 90%, its closest rival, AMD, is hoping to challenge the Blackwell lineup with its new Instinct MI355X series of GPUs.
The MI355X, now expected to arrive by mid-2025, is manufactured on TSMC’s 3nm node and built on AMD's new CDNA 4 architecture. It will feature 288GB of HBM3E memory, bandwidth of up to 8TB/sec, and support for FP6 and FP4 low-precision computing, positioning it as a strong rival to Nvidia’s Blackwell B100 and B200.
In 2024, we reported on a number of big wins for AMD, which included shipping thousands of its MI300X AI accelerators to Vultr, a leading privately-held cloud computing platform, and to Oracle. Now, the latter has announced plans to build a cluster of 30,000 MI355X AI accelerators.
Stargate
This latest news was revealed during Oracle’s recent Q2 2025 earnings call, where Larry Ellison, Chairman and Chief Technology Officer, told investors, “In Q3, we signed a multi-billion dollar contract with AMD to build a cluster of 30,000 of their latest MI355X GPUs.”
Although he didn’t go into further detail beyond that, Ellison did talk about Project Stargate, saying, “We are in the process of building a gigantic 64,000 GPU liquid-cooled Nvidia GB200 cluster for AI training.”
He later added, “Stargate looks to be the biggest AI training project out there, and we expect that will allow us to grow our RPO even higher in the coming quarters. And we do expect our first large Stargate contract fairly soon.”
When questioned further about Stargate by a Deutsche Bank analyst, Ellison gave a reply that could just as easily apply to the cluster of MI355X AI accelerators Oracle is planning to build.
"The capability we have is to build these huge AI clusters with technology that actually runs faster and more economically than our competitors. So it really is a technology advantage we have over them. If you run faster and you pay by the hour, you cost less. So that technology advantage translates to an economic advantage which allows us to win a lot of these huge deals,” he said.
Ellison also touched on Oracle’s data center strategy, saying, “So, we can start our data centers smaller than our competitors and then we grow based on demand. Building these data centers is expensive, and they’re really expensive if they’re not full or at least half full. So we tend to start small and then add capacity as demand arises.”
Kioxia launches 122.88TB SSD with PCIe Gen5 and dual-port support
The LC9 Series NVMe SSD is designed for AI workloads and hyperscale storage
The new drive comes in a compact 2.5-inch form factor
After nearly seven years at the top, Nimbus Data’s massive Exadrive 100TB 2.5-inch SSD has been dethroned by Kioxia, which has unveiled a new 122.88TB model that not only offers a higher storage capacity but also supports PCIe Gen5, a first for this category.
Several companies have previously announced 120TB-class SSDs, including Solidigm, but Kioxia's LC9 Series 122.88TB NVMe SSD stands out by pairing its ultra-high capacity with a compact 2.5-inch form factor and a next-gen interface with dual-port capability for fault tolerance or connectivity to multiple compute systems.
"AI workloads are stretching the capabilities of data storage, asking for larger capacities and swifter access to the extensive datasets found in today's data lakes, and Kioxia is ready to offer the necessary advanced technologies including 2 Tb QLC BiCS FLASH generation 8 of 3D flash memory, CBA and the complimenting AiSAQ," said Axel Störmann, VP & Chief Technology Officer for SSD and Embedded Memory products at Kioxia Europe GmbH.
Supporting AI system developers' needs
The 122.88TB SSD is aimed at hyperscale storage systems, AI workloads, and other data-intensive applications that rely on capacity and speed. There’s no word on availability or pricing yet, but the company does plan to showcase the new drive at "various upcoming conferences".
"This new LC9 Series NVMe SSD is an instrumental Kioxia product expansion that will support AI system developers' needs for high-capacity storage, high performance, and energy efficiency for applications such as AI model training, inference, and Retrieval-Augmented Generation on a vaster scale," Störmann said.
Reporting on the new SSD, ServeTheHome notes, “This is a hot segment of the market, and it is great to see Kioxia joining. As AI clusters get larger, the shared storage tier is usually measured in Exabytes. Teams have found that replacing hard drives with SSDs often reduces power, footprint, and TCO compared to running hybrid arrays. Moving from lower-capacity drives to the 122.88TB capacity in a 2.5-inch drive form factor really highlights the advantage of flash in these systems.”
The EU is officially out of control. It's now demanding that Apple break down the competitive advantage it's built with attractive features like AirPlay and AirDrop and essentially open them up to the competition. Thereby stripping Apple – bit by bit – of its competitive advantage.
Ever since the EU first implemented its Digital Markets Act, it's treated Apple like a global monopoly or rather a disrespectful child that deserves to spend time in a corner.
I know many cheer these changes. Why should Apple force people to use its App Store or its now retired lightning cable?
Apple has complied but also warned about the dangers of such compliance. When the EU forced sideloading, Apple promised, "the risks will increase." If we haven't seen that happen, it may be because the majority of iPhone owners are still using the trusted and well-regarded App Store.
I consider this a change no one, save the EU and some software companies that pressed the issue, wanted.
In the case of USB-C, I've long believed Apple was heading in that direction anyway but the threat of fines forced Apple's hand and made it accelerate its plans.
Open sesame
Now, though, we have the EU demanding that Apple open up nine core iOS features, including push notifications for non-Apple smartwatches, seamless pairing between non-Apple headphones and Apple devices, and AirPlay and AirDrop. In the last instance, the EU is demanding Apple open iOS up to third-party solutions and ensure they work as well as native software.
Naturally, Apple is not happy and shared this comment with TechRadar:
"Today’s decisions wrap us in red tape, slowing down Apple’s ability to innovate for users in Europe and forcing us to give away our new features for free to companies who don’t have to play by the same rules. It’s bad for our products and for our European users. We will continue to work with the European Commission to help them understand our concerns on behalf of our users."
As I'm sure you can gather from the tone, Apple is fed up. This constant stream of EU enforcements, all designed to diminish Apple and hoist up competitors, is ridiculous and increasingly unfair.
Let's zero in on AirDrop as an example.
Drop it like it's hot
(Image credit: TechRadar)
AirDrop, which lets you quickly share files, photos, and videos between iPhones and other Apple ecosystem devices, arrived more than a decade ago on iOS 7. It was a transformative and brilliant bit of programming that instantly opened up an ad-hoc network between, say, a pair of iPhones. It did require some learning. Open AirDrop settings on phones could result in you unexpectedly receiving an illicit photo (yes, it happened to me once and it was terrible). Apple has since vastly improved AirDrop controls.
Not a lot of people used it at first, but every time I went to a party where I was often taking pictures, I would grab the host and quickly drop the photos onto their phones. They were usually shocked and deeply appreciative.
There was, for years, nothing quite like it on the Android side until Samsung unveiled Quick Share and Google launched Nearby in 2020. The two later merged to become just Quick Share.
There's no doubt Apple's success with AirDrop spurred the development of Quick Share and isn't that exactly how competition is supposed to work? You don't look at one company's successful deployment of technology and then demand that they make it possible for you to deploy a copycat app, and on the successful company's platform no less.
There's no doubt Apple's success with AirDrop spurred the development of Quick Share and isn't that exactly how competition is supposed to work?
But this is what the EU is demanding of Apple. It must make it possible for competitors to compete with Apple on its own platform, and why? Because apparently, they cannot do it without the EU's help.
I actually do not think that's true. Google and Samsung, for instance, are not stepping up to say they do not need this help because it serves them no purpose to do so. If the EU wants to slap Apple, let them. It certainly doesn't harm any of these competitors (until they fall under the EU's watchful gaze).
In the EU's world, there is no difference between competitors. They want a level playing field, even if at an innovation level, one company is outperforming the other.
Ecosystem FTW
Apple has built a fantastic ecosystem that pays significant benefits to those who live inside of it. Yes, that does in a way define which smartwatch and earbuds I use. But, for more than 20 years, it had no impact on the laptop I carried. I was a dyed-in-the-wool Windows fan and even though I used an iPhone and AirPods, and I wore an Apple Watch, I saw no need to switch to a MacBook.
When I did make the switch, it was to see if I liked the macOS experience better than Windows (spoiler alert: I did), and, yes it turns out that there were instant benefits to the switch, like AirDrop access to files on my iPhone and iPad.
Everything is easier when you have all Apple products but that's not an unfair advantage, it's engineering and excellence. The EU would like to wipe that out and make Apple as average as possible so it's fair for everyone. But that's not fair to Apple and, honestly, not to you, the Apple user, either. You pay a premium for the best programming, the best products, and the best interoperability.
Everything is easier when you have all Apple products but that's not an unfair advantage, it's engineering and excellence.
You won't get that by mixing and matching some from Apple and some from, for instance, Samsung, even if the EU wants you to. I love many Samsung, Google, OnePlus, and Microsoft products and there is nothing wrong with a non-homogenous setup. There should not, however, be an issue with all-Apple-all-the-time.
The EU needs to step back and get out of the way of smart technology and only act when consumers are being harmed. There was no harm here, just some small companies whining because they weren't winning.
You might think this is an EU-only issue but remember that what starts in Europe usually flies over the Atlantic to the US and eventually all global markets. Put another way, when the EU sneezes, we all catch a cold.
Google Messages is improving its message-deleting features
You'll soon be able to delete a message for everyone
We now have screenshots showing how the feature works
It's not a great feeling, sending a text and then regretting it – instantly, the next morning, or any time in between – and Google Messages looks set to give users a safety net with the ability to remotely delete messages for everyone in a conversation.
This was first spotted last month, but now the folks at Android Authority have actually managed to get it working. This is based on some code digging done in the latest version of Google Messages for Android.
While the feature isn't live for everyone yet, the Android Authority team tweaked the app to get it to display some of the functionality. Deleting a text brings up a dialog asking if you just want to wipe your local copy of it or erase it for all recipients.
If an image is wiped, that brings up a "Message deleted" placeholder in the conversation for everyone who's participating. It seems as though there's a 15-minute window for deleting – so you'll need to be relatively quick.
Bring it back
This is how Google Messages will let you remotely delete RCS messages for everyone ✅ Detail and more screenshots - https://ift.tt/205fQxi #Android pic.twitter.com/cKHvqe1tmrMarch 19, 2025
The upgrade comes courtesy of RCS Universal Profile v2.7, which Google Messages is in the process of adding support for. The remote delete feature may not be available for devices with older software installed – so bear that in mind for your text chats.
Up until now, deleting a text only removed the message on your own phone. Once it had been delivered and downloaded on the recipient's device(s), there was nothing you could do to bring it back.
That will change when this update finally rolls out in full, though it's not clear exactly when that will be. Considering Android Authority has been able to access some of the screens that show the feature working, it shouldn't be too long now.
Support for this feature varies in other apps: WhatsApp lets you delete sent messages for all recipients, while iMessage lets you delete sent messages, but only your local copy (though you can unsend messages within a two-minute window).
Microsoft & Oracle absent from nuclear pledge signed by Amazon, Meta, and Google
It aims to triple nuclear capacity by 2050 to support global energy needs
Nuclear seen as key to powering AI-driven data centers with clean energy
Even through Microsoft is seriously exploring nuclear energy as a way to power its data centers – even signing a deal in 2024 to purchase energy from the restarted Three Mile Island (TMI) nuclear plant - it is notably absent from a new Large Energy Users Pledge that supports the global expansion of nuclear capacity.
That pledge has attracted major signatories such as Amazon, Meta, and Google, but neither Microsoft nor Oracle, which is also exploring nuclear energy, are on the list.
Led by the World Nuclear Association, the pledge was first introduced at the World Nuclear Symposium in September 2023, and has gained backing from 14 major global banks and financial institutions, 140 nuclear industry companies, and 31 countries.
Around-the-clock clean energy
Its purpose is to drive home nuclear energy’s “essential role in enhancing energy security, resiliency and providing continuous clean energy,” and sets a target to triple global nuclear capacity by 2050.
Nuclear power currently supplies about 9% of the world’s electricity via 439 reactors.
The call to action goes beyond traditional energy applications. It also outlines nuclear's potential to serve high-demand sectors like data centers, where the rise of artificial intelligence has led to soaring energy needs.
While it typically takes at least five years to construct an atomic plant, micro nuclear reactors, expected to be available by the early 2030s, could be a quicker, cheaper solution for powering large-scale computing operations.
"We are proud to sign a pledge in support of tripling nuclear capacity by 2050, as nuclear power will be pivotal in building a reliable, secure, and sustainable energy future," said Lucia Tian, Google’s Head of Clean Energy & Decarbonization Technologies.
"Google will continue to work alongside our partners to accelerate the commercialization of advanced nuclear technologies that can provide the around-the-clock clean energy necessary to meet growing electricity demand around the world."
That message was echoed by Urvi Parekh, Head of Global Energy at Meta. “As global economies expand, the need for a reliable, clean, and resilient energy supply is paramount. Nuclear energy, with its ability to provide continuous power, can help meet this rising demand. We’re excited to join alongside this multi-organizational effort with the Tripling Nuclear Pledge to reiterate our commitment to nuclear energy.”
Brandon Oyer, Head of Americas Energy and Water for AWS, emphasized the urgency of scaling nuclear power. “Accelerating nuclear energy development will be critical to strengthening our nation’s security, meeting future energy demands, and addressing climate change. Amazon supports the World Nuclear Association’s pledge, and is proud to have invested more than $1 billion over the last year in nuclear energy projects and technologies, which is part of our broader Climate Pledge commitment to be net-zero carbon by 2040.”
You can view the Large Energy Users Pledge, which is signed by Meta, Amazon, Google and ten other companies, with a statement of support by Siemens Energy, here (PDF).
Nvidia has taken the world a step closer to smart, humanoid robots with the launch of its latest advanced AI model.
At its Nvidia GTC 2025 event, the company revealed Isaac GROOT N1, which it says is, "the world’s first open Humanoid Robot foundation model", alongside several other important development tools.
Nvidia says its tools, which are available now, will make developing smarter and more functional robots easier than ever, along with allowing them to have more humanoid reasoning and skills - which doesn't sound terrifying at all.
Isaac GROOT N1
“The age of generalist robotics is here,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “With NVIDIA Isaac GR00T N1 and new data-generation and robot-learning frameworks, robotics developers everywhere will open the next frontier in the age of AI.”
The company says its robotics work can help fill a shortfall of more than 50 million caused by a global labor shortage.
Nvidia says Isaac GROOT N1, which can be trained on real or synthetic data, can "easily" master tasks such as grasping, moving objects with either a single or multiple arms, and moving items from one arm to the other - but can also carry out multi-step tasks which combine a number of general skills.
The model is built across a dual-system architecture inspired by the principles of human cognition, with “System 1” is a fast-thinking action model, mirroring human reflexes or intuition, whereas “System 2” is a slow-thinking model for "deliberate, methodical decision-making."
Powered by a vision language model, System 2 is able to consider and analyze its environment, and the instructions it was given, to plan actions - which are then translated by System 1 into precise, continuous robot movements.
Among the other tools being released are a range of simulation frameworks and blueprints such as the NVIDIA Isaac GR00T Blueprint for generating synthetic data, which help generate large, detailed synthetic data sets needed for robot development which would be prohibitively expensive to gather in real life.
There is also Newton, an open source physics engine, created alongside Google DeepMind and Disney Research, which Nvidia says is purpose-built for developing robots.
Huang was joined on stage by Star Wars-inspired BDX droids during his GTC keynote, showing the possibilities of the technology in theme parks or other entertainment locations.
Nvidia first launched Project GROOT ("Generalist Robot 00 Technology") at GTC 2024, primarily focusing on industrial use cases, which could learn and become smarter by watching human behaviour, understanding natural language and emulating movements, allowing them to quickly learn coordination, dexterity and other skills in order to navigate, adapt and interact with the real world.
from Latest from TechRadar US in News,opinion https://ift.tt/ZjcuSKr
Amazon is turning off the ability to process voice requests locally. It's a seemingly major privacy pivot and one that some Alexa users might not appreciate. However, this change affects exactly three Echo devices and only if you actively enabled Do Not Send Voice Recordings in the Alexa app settings.
Right. It's potentially not that big of a deal and, to be fair, the level of artificial intelligence Alexa+ is promising, let alone the models it'll be using, all but precludes local processing. It's pretty much what Daniel Rausch, Amazon's VP of Alexa and Echo, told us when he explained that these queries would be encrypted, sent to the cloud, and then processed by Amazon's and partner Antrhopic's AI models at servers far, far away.
That's what's happening, but let's unpack the general freakout.
Amazon has since cleaned up its data act with encryption and, with this latest update, promises to delete your recordings from its servers.
A change for the few
(Image credit: Future)
This latest change, though, sounded like a step back because it takes away a consumer control, one that some might've been using to keep their voice data off Amazon's servers.
However, the vast majority of Echo devices out there aren't even capable of on-device voice processing, which is why most of them didn't even have this control.
A few years ago, Amazon published a technical paper on its efforts to bring "On-device speech processing" to Echo devices. They were doing so to put "processing on the edge," and reduce latency and bandwidth consumption.
Turns out it wasn't easy – Amazon described it as a massive undertaking. The goal was to put automatic speech recognition, whisper detection, and speech identification locally on a tiny, relatively low-powered smart speaker system. Quite a trick, considering that in the cloud, each process ran "on separate server nodes with their own powerful processors."
The paper goes into significant detail, but suffice it to say that Amazon developers used a lot of compression to get Alexa's relatively small AI models to work on local hardware.
It was always the cloud
In the end, the on-device audio processing was only available on those three Echo models, but there is a wrinkle here.
The specific feature Amazon is disabling, "Do Not Send Voice Recordings," never precluded your prompts from being handled in the Amazon cloud.
The processing power that these few Echos had was not to handle the full Alexa query locally. Instead, the silicon was used to recognize the wake word ("Alexa"), record the voice prompt, use voice recognition to make a text transcription of the prompt, and send that text to Amazon's cloud, where the AI acts on it and sends a response.
The local audio is then deleted.
Big models need cloud-based power
(Image credit: Amazon)
Granted, this is likely how everyone would want their Echo and Alexa experience to work. Amazon gets the text it needs but not the audio.
But that's not how the Alexa experience works for most Echo owners. I don't know how many people own those particular Echo models, but there are almost two dozen different Echo devices, and this affects just three of them.
Even if those are the most popular Echos, the change only affects people who dug into Alexa settings to enable "Do Not Send Voice Recordings." Most consumers are not making those kinds of adjustments.
This brings us back to why Amazon is doing this. Alexa+ is a far smarter and more powerful AI with generative, conversational capabilities. Its ability to understand your intentions may hinge not only on what you say, but your tone of voice.
It's true that even though your voice data will be encrypted in transit, it surely has to be decrypted in the cloud for Alexa's various models to interpret and act on it. Amazon is promising safety and security, and to be fair, when you talk to ChatGPT Voice and Gemini Live, their cloud systems are listening to your voice, too.
When we asked Amazon about the change, here's what they told us:
“The Alexa experience is designed to protect our customers’ privacy and keep their data secure, and that’s not changing. We’re focusing on the privacy tools and controls that our customers use most and work well with generative AI experiences that rely on the processing power of Amazon’s secure cloud. Customers can continue to choose from a robust set of tools and controls, including the option to not save their voice recordings at all. We’ll continue learning from customer feedback, and building privacy features on their behalf.”
For as long as the most impactful models remain too big for local hardware, this will be the reality of our Generative AI experience. Amazon is simply falling into line in preparation for Alexa+.
It's not great news, but also not the disaster and privacy and data safety nightmare it's made out to be.
