TECH

Majorana 2: Microsoft's quantum chip made with the help of AI, but doesn't overcome scientists' distrust

Microsoft revealed on Tuesday (2) the second generation of its quantum chip in an attempt to overcome the questions from the scientific community that arose in the previous work. With Majorana 2, the giant claims to have improved the processor's stability with the help of artificial intelligence (AI), but many of the doubts surrounding the research remain.

When it launched Majorana 1 last year, Microsoft drew attention by stating that it had created qubits from a quasiparticle called Majorana fermions. In theory, these particles keep the chip stable by exhibiting topological properties, a term borrowed from mathematics that indicates materials that deform but maintain their properties. Thus, the company is betting on topological qubits to protect the quantum state of the processor.

In quantum computing, information is stored and processed by qubits, or quantum bits. Unlike classical computing in PCs and smartphones, where a bit can be processed as either 0 or 1, a qubit expresses both 0 and 1 simultaneously through a phenomenon called superposition. However, qubits are very unstable, and the major race in the field is to develop error-free devices—among the big names, Microsoft is the only one betting on topological qubits.

By applying recent advances in agentic AI specifically designed to accelerate the scientific process and collaboration, Microsoft's quantum computing team is overcoming reliability, speed, and scale barriers that have limited the application of quantum computing to real-world scenarios.

For example, the qubits in the new chip can maintain their quantum state for a thousand times longer than the first generation, enabling more reliable computations. While other common approaches measure the "lifetime" of a qubit in microseconds, Majorana 2 offers an average time of 20 seconds, with cases lasting up to a minute. This improvement is roughly comparable to inventing a cell phone battery that, instead of lasting a day, could last almost three years on a single charge.

This exceptional reliability, coupled with high speed (operations in a microsecond) and the small size of the qubits (1/100th of a millimeter), has put the team on track to achieve a scalable and commercially viable quantum computer by 2029. According to the company, this machine could solve complex problems in areas such as global health, the food chain, sustainability, and energy production.

“We need to make improvements every year that bring us closer to delivering a computer that we believe has enormous commercial and social value,” said Chetan Nayak, a Microsoft technical fellow. “We need to follow this roadmap, but where are we compared to last year? A thousand times better.”

DARPA Oversight... Microsoft has not made all the technical details of Majorana 2 public. Instead, it has fully shared its data with the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which evaluates the project weekly. "We've exposed all our data to them, everything," said Zulfi Alam, a Microsoft researcher, in a teleconference with journalists. According to him, handing over the information to competitors or laboratories would not make commercial sense.

"Agency-driven artificial intelligence has permeated almost everything we do — it has become a very natural part of our workflow," said Nayak.

The decision to seek external validation comes after a delicate episode. The launch of the first Majorana, a year ago, was the target of criticism – researchers questioned the evidence presented by Microsoft. In addition, previous quantum studies supported by the company were retracted. Now, Microsoft's bet is that the combination of technical advances and DARPA's endorsement will help consolidate its position.

Quantum computing promises to revolutionize sectors such as finance, medicine, and cryptography, solving problems that are beyond the capabilities of classical computers. Microsoft believes that its unique approach with topological qubits will give it an advantage in the race to build the first truly useful quantum machine. Majorana 2 represents the latest – and, according to the company, most solid – step in that direction.

However, the company has never been able to prove that it has found Majorana fermions. The scientific article published in the journal Nature that was supposed to prove the existence of the particle contained the following message from the editors: “The editorial team would like to emphasize that the results of this manuscript do not represent evidence of the presence of Majorana zero modes in the reported devices. The work was published to present a device architecture that may allow fusion experiments using future Majorana zero modes.”

With Majorana II, Microsoft says it has extended the topological state time of qubits from 12 milliseconds to up to 20 seconds, improving the stability period by more than a thousand times, which allows for quantum operations. The company said that in some tests it was possible to exceed the one-minute mark.

According to Microsoft, this was possible by changing some of the materials used in the chip's construction, replacing aluminum with lead, and using a combination of indium arsenide and indium arsenide antimonide in the active semiconductor region. Thus, the company stated that it expects to have a functional, error-free quantum computer by 2029—the same year that IBM expects to have the Starling processor operational, which promises to have 200 logical qubits and be capable of solving more than 100 million quantum operations.

Microsoft said the breakthrough was made possible by integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into the research process through a new scientific platform called Microsoft Discovery. The algorithms tested combinations of materials, different voltages, and their potential consequences for the entire project.

“The use of agentic AI to automate measurements was a game-changer. It does some calculations and starts asking: ‘What is the lowest point where everything still works properly?’ And it manages to perform all these voltage adjustments in parallel, something a human being cannot do. Because of how our minds work, we tend to work in a more linear way,” stated Chetan Nayak, a Microsoft researcher on the project.

Despite this, doubts about topological qubits remain, as explained by Ivan Oliveira, a researcher at the Brazilian Center for Physics Research:

— This is already the second version of a quantum chip they've released without a clear demonstration of the implementation of any protocol. Until this is done (execution of logical switches of 1 and 2 qubits, small algorithms, such as entanglement, etc.), the community will remain suspicious. The Majorana fermion has not even been experimentally demonstrated beyond doubt, which requires the reproduction of experiments by several. In other words, there are doubts even about the existence of this particle.

In an interview with Science magazine, Sergey Frolov, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh (USA) who is critical of Microsoft, stated: “The Microsoft Quantum project follows a persistent pattern of unreliable claims, so the new claims are not surprising.”

The rush to develop quantum computing is explained from an economic perspective. If these machines become a reality, they could profoundly alter various sectors, such as materials research, medicine, logistics, energy, and the financial market. At the end of May, the Trump administration announced that it would grant $2 billion in subsidies to nine quantum computing companies, including equity stakes from the US government—IBM will receive half of the amount.

According to the investment bank Jefferies, the quantum market could become a $198 billion opportunity by 2040. The consulting firm McKinsey estimates that four sectors (chemical industry, science, finance, and mobility) could see an increase of $2 trillion by 2035 as a result of these technologies.

— Microsoft is putting its neck on the chopping block. It's hard to believe that a company with its reputation would be bluffing. If it proves the existence of the Majorana fermion, and even uses this particle in a real quantum chip, it will probably win the Nobel Prize in Physics. In other words, there are only two paths for them: glory or ruin — says Oliveira.

TECH

Ultra-thin semiconductors overcome performance limits with localized thick-contact design

As semiconductor chips become increasingly thinner, the components inside chips are locked in a fierce race to achieve the ultimate ultra-thin state. However, this has presented a structural limitation: the thinner the device, the harder it is for electricity to flow.

Recently, a research team at POSTECH (Pohang University of Science and Technology) successfully resolved this issue through a simple yet innovative approach: "thickening only the necessary parts."

The research team, led by Professor Byoung Hun Lee from POSTECH's Department of Electrical Engineering and the Department of Semiconductor Engineering, has developed a technology that dramatically lowers contact resistance by redesigning the metal-semiconductor contact structure in ultra-thin tellurium (Te) transistors.

Why ultra-thin chips face limits...With the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing, the volume of data that semiconductors must process is surging. Consequently, the time and energy loss occurring between the "logic" (which handles computations) and "memory" (which stores data) have been identified as a major bottleneck.

To address this, 3D integrated structures that stack logic and memory vertically are gaining significant traction as a next-generation technology. Fabricating these structures requires devices that can operate stably even at temperatures below 400°C.

Tellurium (Te) is highly regarded as a strong candidate for semiconductor channel material due to its high charge mobility, room-temperature stability, and low-temperature processability. However, its narrow band gap makes it prone to "leakage current," where current leaks even when the transistor is turned off. To minimize this, the channel must be fabricated to an ultra-thin thickness of under 5 nanometers (nm) to precisely control electron transport.

Schematic of the tellurium transistor employing a raised source/drain structure, and the improved transfer characteristics resulting from reduced contact resistance (demonstrating an over 17-fold increase in on-state current). Credit: POSTECH

The thin-channel performance dilemma...The dilemma arises because when the channel becomes too thin, electron transport across the interface between the metal electrode and the semiconductor becomes severely restricted. A Schottky barrier—an energy barrier that electrons must cross between the metal and semiconductor—grows larger as the channel gets thinner.

Ultimately, while researchers could reduce leakage current, doing so simultaneously increased contact resistance, significantly degrading device performance.

Thickening only where it matters...To overcome this, the POSTECH team applied the "Raised Source and Drain (RSD)" structure, a technique conventionally used in silicon processes. The core idea is to deposit additional tellurium to thicken only the areas directly in contact with the electrodes where the current enters and exits (the source and drain).

By keeping the current-flowing channel at a thin 4 nm to suppress leakage current while adding extra tellurium to the sections in contact with the metal electrodes, the team allowed the current to flow with significantly improved efficiency.

Results, scalability, and future impact...Experimental results demonstrated that devices utilizing this structure experienced a dramatic 50-fold reduction in contact resistance, dropping from 97.5 kΩ·μm to 1.7 kΩ·μm. Furthermore, in an extreme environment of -196°C, the on-state current when the device was fully turned on increased by more than 17 times.

The team effectively succeeded in simultaneously achieving both low resistance and high performance within an ultra-thin structure. Notably, this technology can be implemented through a large-area, low-temperature deposition process known as sputtering, ensuring the high scalability required for actual semiconductor mass production.

"We have broken through the chronic dilemma of ultra-thin semiconductors—where thinner channels traditionally resulted in higher resistance—with a novel band engineering approach called 'localized thickness control,'" said Professor Byoung Hun Lee of POSTECH.

"We expect this to become a core platform technology that can be widely applied not only to tellurium but also to enhancing the performance of various 2D and ultra-thin semiconductor devices, ultimately accelerating the realization of next-generation 3D integrated circuits."

Provided by Pohang University of Science and Technology

DOSSIER

TECH

Nokia resurrected, riding the wave of AI

All of them were stars of the dot-com era before fading into the background with the bursting of the bubble and the emergence of a new generation of tech darlings. But Dell Technologies, Nokia, and Lenovo are back in full force, thanks to the relentless boom in spending on artificial intelligence.

The race to build AI infrastructure has led to a dizzying increase in demand for everything from computer servers to storage components, networking equipment, and even old chips. This has resulted in a frenetic rise in stocks worldwide with any kind of exposure to these areas.

The latest wave has taken iconic tech names from the 1990s, including many of the so-called "Four Horsemen"—a group considered the equivalent of the Magnificent Seven at the time.

In addition to Dell, Nokia, and Lenovo, other dot-com era stars that have returned to shine this year include Micron, Intel, Texas Instruments, and Cisco. In total, these seven stocks have surged by an average of 158% by 2026, adding a combined market value of $1.7 trillion.

“About six months ago, we started to realize that the expansion of AI infrastructure is really expanding, and there’s a huge supply shortage, especially in the more basic hardware sector, where capacity growth has been very limited in recent years,” said Yan Taw Boon, portfolio manager at Neuberger Berman. “But demand is skyrocketing — from ‘boring’ CPUs to networks, passive components, storage, and memory.”

From manufacturers of cell phones considered outdated to a reinvented producer of chips for calculators, these are some of the “retro” tech stocks that are making an impressive comeback:

Dell shares surged 33% on Friday, the biggest single-day gain in history, after the hardware maker — best known for its personal computer business — released results showing growing demand for its AI servers.

The surge may recall Dell's heyday, when its stock soared more than 200% for three consecutive years in the late 1990s. But after the company lost more than 80% of its value in the wake of the dot-com bubble burst, it was taken private in 2013. Dell returned to the capital markets in late 2018 and is now worth $125 billion more than its peak valuation of $148 billion in March 2000.

The exceptionally strong results demonstrate that Dell is “the latest tech company once seen as an industry dinosaur to rediscover a new reason for existing as an artificial intelligence powerhouse,” said Emmanuel Valavanis of Forte Securities.

Lenovo gained global prominence by acquiring the personal computer division of International Business Machines (IBM) in 2005. The acquisition secured the rights to the iconic ThinkPad line of business notebooks and laid the groundwork for the company to eventually become the world's largest PC manufacturer.

Although the personal computer industry has faced a structural decline for years, Lenovo's bet on artificial intelligence products and services helped the Chinese hardware company register 20% revenue growth last year. Currently, almost 40% of its total sales come from these AI-related businesses.

Lenovo's shares rose 105% in May, reaching an all-time high and recording its best month in over 25 years. This year, its shares are the best performers on the benchmark Hang Seng Index, accumulating a 159% increase and providing investors with a return more than three times that of the second most profitable stock on the index.

Nokia...Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) got off to a strong start in 2026, presenting first-quarter results on April 23 that demonstrated accelerated momentum in artificial intelligence infrastructure and led the Finnish telecommunications equipment manufacturer to significantly raise its full-year growth expectations in its Network Infrastructure business. The company's shares rose 11.87% in pre-market trading to $11.03, reflecting investor enthusiasm for Nokia's positioning in the AI ​​expansion cycle.

The presentation revealed net sales of €4.5 billion, representing 4% year-over-year growth on a constant currency and portfolio basis, while comparable operating margins expanded 200 basis points to 6.2%. Most significantly, Nokia's AI and Cloud segment recorded 49% sales growth and captured €1.0 billion in orders during the quarter, leading management to revise its addressable market assumptions and raise projections in key business segments. Quarterly Performance Highlights...Nokia's Q1 2026 results demonstrated broad operational improvement, with gross margins expanding 320 basis points year-over-year to 45.5%—a reflection of improved product mix and operational discipline. The company generated €0.6 billion in free cash flow during the quarter and maintained a solid net cash position of €3.8 billion after paying €0.2 billion in dividends.

The AI ​​and Cloud segment emerged as the performance highlight, with its 49% growth rate now representing 8% of the company's total sales. Order capture of €1.0 billion from this segment in Q1 alone provided visibility of sustained momentum and catalyzed Nokia's decision to raise its assumptions for the full year.

AI Supercycle Accelerating Addressable Market...Nokia's presentation highlighted a fundamental shift in its market opportunity, driven by what CEO Justin Hotard characterized as an "AI supercycle." The company now projects its total addressable market will expand from €101 billion in 2025 to €126 billion by 2028, representing a compound annual growth rate of 8%.

Nokia suffered two major setbacks in the 2000s: first, the telecommunications boom that eventually turned into a collapse; then, its mobile phone business was deeply affected by the rise of smartphones. From a peak market value of €300 billion (US$349 billion), its shares fell by as much as 98% by 2012.

After selling its mobile phone division to Microsoft in 2014, Nokia reinvented itself by focusing on the less glamorous business of telecommunications network equipment. Its most recent revival was driven by the acquisition of Infinera, an American optical networking specialist, in 2025, just as AI-focused data centers began to increase the demand for faster connections between computing clusters.

Shares of the Finnish company have already surged more than 124% this year, making it the fourth best performer in the STOXX Europe 600 index. Even so, the stock remains about 80% below its all-time high from the dot-com bubble era.

Few companies better symbolize the resurgence of traditional technology stocks than Cisco, the network equipment manufacturer that was one of the biggest symbols of the dot-com bubble and briefly became the most valuable company in the world in 2000.

The company reinvented itself, migrating from traditional networks to artificial intelligence infrastructure. Its success in the AI ​​era was evident in the results released earlier this month, which included a strong revenue forecast for the fourth fiscal quarter and a plan to reduce staff to accelerate its AI-focused transformation.

These results represented further evidence that growth trends are strengthening, reinforcing the acceleration in AI-related demand observed last year. This movement helped the stock return to record levels, finally surpassing the peak reached in March 2000.

Network Infrastructure: Optical Networks Leading Growth...Nokia's Network Infrastructure segment recorded 6% year-over-year sales growth to approximately €1.9 billion, with performance heavily driven by Optical Networks, which surged 20% to €821 million. This strength reflects Nokia's strategic positioning for AI-driven data center interconnection and cloud infrastructure expansion.

While Optical Networks thrived, IP Networks grew a modest 3% to €626 million, and Fixed Networks fell 13% to €383 million as Nokia continues strategic portfolio adjustments in this sub-segment. Overall segment gross margins expanded 150 basis points to 43.4%, although operating margins fell 30 basis points to 6.7% due to investment in growth initiatives.

Nokia's competitive positioning in optical networks received a significant boost with product launches at the OFC conference. The company introduced a new architecture featuring four coherent optical building blocks powering 13 application-optimized solutions, promising customers up to 70% reductions in total cost of ownership.

The new approach replaces Nokia's previous two-engine-per-generation strategy with four specialized DSPs—Ontario, Huron, Superior, and Pacific—each optimized for different distance and capacity requirements ranging from 60 km to 15,000 km transmission distances. This modular architecture allows Nokia to serve diverse customer applications more efficiently, reducing development costs and time to market.

Mobile Infrastructure: AI-RAN momentum gaining traction...Nokia's Mobile Infrastructure segment delivered 3% year-over-year growth to approximately €2.5 billion, with significantly improved profitability metrics. Gross margins expanded substantially by 430 basis points to 48.5%, while operating margins increased by 380 basis points to 8.9%—demonstrating the impact of cost discipline and a favorable product mix.

Nokia's balance sheet remained solid with €3.8 billion in net cash at the end of the quarter, up from €3.4 billion at the end of Q4 2025. The generation of €0.6 billion in free cash flow was primarily driven by working capital seasonality.

The working capital contribution of €530 million was broken down into €220 million from receivables improvements, partially offset by €150 million from inventory accrual, and supported by €460 million from increased liabilities. The company paid out €200 million in dividends while also funding capital expenditures, cash taxes, and restructuring activities.

Looking ahead, Nokia maintained its full-year 2026 comparable operating profit forecast of €2.0 billion to €2.5 billion, with management indicating that current performance is tracking "slightly above the midpoint" of that range.

Specifically for Q2, Nokia expects sequential net sales growth of 5-9% and comparable operating profit representing 12-16% of the full-year total—implying Q2 operating profit in the range of €240-400 million. The company also updated its comparable financial income and expense assumption to a positive €150-250 million for the full year.

Nokia projects a comparable operating profit free cash flow conversion of 55-75% by 2026, with capital expenditures of €900-1 billion and cash tax outflows of approximately €500 million. The comparable income tax rate is expected to be 26-27%.

mundophone

DIGITAL LIFE

A retention-aware system turns a computer's storage chip into a cybersecurity shield

Hackers are ruthless. They can take control of your computer, delete files and disappear without a trace. However, FIU cybersecurity researcher Weidong Zhu has discovered a way to transform a computer's storage chip into an additional tool for cyber defense. Working with collaborators at the University of Florida, Zhu created a system that makes data on these chips last longer—extending the lifespan of your files in the critical window after your computer is compromised. The work is published in the journal Proceedings of the 2025 ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security.

"Our system extends recoverable data history up to 126 days," said Zhu, an assistant professor at FIU's Knight Foundation School of Computing & Information Sciences whose work is part of the Center for Integrated Security, Privacy, and Trustworthy AI (CIERTA). "Even if your computer is infected, your data can survive on your drive."

Storage chips, known as solid-state drives (SSDs), have intrigued cybersecurity researchers for years. As hardware—not software—they offer unique safety benefits during an attack.

"Think of it like a vault inside a bank," Zhu said. "The bank [operating system] might get robbed, but if the vault [SSD controller] has its own independent lock and its own security guard, the robbers can't crack it just because they got past the front door."

However, turning that security potential into real-world value has proven difficult.

Repurposing a solid-state drive to do both defense and storage is tricky. Defense improvements can burden the SSDs, slowing them down and reducing performance. Without solving that problem, the chips aren't practical for cybersecurity.

"This is the problem we have solved, helping to clear the way for storage devices to become a major asset in the fight against hackers," Zhu said.

Current SSDs blindly perform what engineers call "garbage collection": They have no awareness of when data has been deleted, making them poor custodians of the files most likely to have been targeted in an attack.

To understand why that matters, think of the data on your computer as living across different worlds.

In the first world lives everything you use: your documents, your photos, your apps. Then, there's a world of oblivion: data there is gone forever, overwritten at the hardware level, irrecoverable by anyone.

But there is a second world in between the two. Call it the In-Between (Stranger Things fans, this one's for you): a kind of purgatory where files go after you delete them, but before the chip permanently erases them to free up space. Here, your deleted files aren't quite gone. They've lost their names and file types to conserve room on the chip, but they still exist in fragments.

This is the world that fascinates Zhu. If an attacker deletes or encrypts your files, you could reach into the In-Between and pull your data back out before it disappears forever. The problem is that today's SSDs manage the In-Between carelessly.

When the chip fills up past a certain threshold, it clears out deleted data to make room for new files. But it makes that decision based on efficiency alone: which data looks the most fragmented, and which takes up the most space. It has no awareness of how recently files were deleted.

That is a serious problem if your computer has just suffered a ransomware attack. The files you most urgently need to recover—the ones deleted yesterday, or an hour ago—could be swept away first, while unimportant files that have been sitting untouched for weeks survive.

Zhu's system fixes this. By sequencing deleted data chronologically as it enters the chip so its position reflects its age, the SSD gains the ability to identify which files have been sitting in the In-Between the longest. The new rule for garbage collection becomes simple: the oldest deleted data goes first. More recently deleted files that are the most likely to matter stay protected as long as possible.

The research shows that the approach improves the data protection window by at least 60% while introducing minimal performance overhead. In other words, the system makes SSDs practical for both defense and storage.

Today, Zhu is in talks with industry leaders on how to implement the system at scale.

"Hackers are powerful. But the storage device itself can be the last line of defense for your data. This is a new area, and we are just beginning," Zhu says.

A retention-aware system is a breakthrough cybersecurity approach that transforms standard SSDs into ransomware shields. By chronologically sequencing deleted data as it enters the drive, the system ensures that when hackers overwrite files, unimportant data is deleted first. This protects your recently deleted, critical files and improves data protection windows by over 60%

How the system rotects your data...This approach tackles a major flaw in traditional solid-state drives: they usually have no awareness of how recently files were deleted, making recovering files from a ransomware attack difficult.

Chronological sequencing: The system structures deleted data based on its exact age.Intelligent 

Garbage collection: When the SSD needs to clear space, it follows a new rule: the oldest deleted data goes first.

Protection window: More recently deleted files—which are exactly the ones you desperately need to recover after an attack—are left protected for as long as possible.

Key hardware & storage security innovations...Hardware manufacturers and researchers are continuously introducing native storage-level defenses to make hardware the ultimate line of defense against modern threats:

Hardware-based ransomware defenses: Innovative architecture natively logs data transactions within the drive pipeline, preventing attackers from tampering with logs or obfuscating file changes at the OS level.

Active physical shielding: Storage chips (like embedded FerriSSDs) use hidden eFuses and physical anti-tamper shields that trigger emergency rapid-erase sequences if hardware interference or physical tampering is detected.

Real-time encryption: Self-encrypting drives (SEDs) use processors to automatically encrypt data at the hardware level, keeping data secure at rest before the host operating system even gets involved.

Provided by Florida International University

TECH

Nvidia DLSS 4.5 Ray Reconstruction: these games support it from day 1

Nvidia has unveiled DLSS 4.5 Ray Reconstruction, bringing a new AI model that Team Green claims improves ray-traced image quality with cleaner visuals, more accurate lighting, and reduced ghosting on all GeForce RTX GPUs. It will become fully available "in August", with 27 games set to have support for the tech.

Nvidia has announced DLSS 4.5 Ray Reconstruction, a major upgrade to its AI-powered ray tracing pipeline that promises noticeably better image quality across all GeForce RTX GPUs. Building on the DLSS 4.5 suite introduced earlier this year, the update adds a second-generation transformer model designed to improve how ray-traced and path-traced scenes are reconstructed.

Unlike traditional denoisers that rely on hand-tuned algorithms, DLSS Ray Reconstruction uses an AI model trained on Nvidia supercomputers to generate cleaner, more accurate pixels in areas where rays were not sampled.

The biggest change comes from a new transformer model that acts as both a denoiser and image reconstruction system. Nvidia says the updated model delivers 35 per cent more compute capability and processes 20 per cent more parameters while maintaining performance levels similar to its predecessor. The company claims this translates into improved lighting accuracy, better temporal stability, reduced ghosting, and clearer motion in demanding ray-traced workloads. Upscaling routines have supposedly received an improvement as well.

The technical advancement relies on a direct evolution of DLSS 4.5 Super Resolution. Therefore, the current model presents greater spatial awareness in each scene and makes better use of the motion data from the graphics engine. In addition, Nvidia trained the AI ​​on an expanded database to bring the visual reconstruction closer to reality. In short, these changes ensure better lighting accuracy and temporal stability. Similarly, the new tool offers developers refined control over temporal accumulation to precisely adjust images.

NVIDIA also demonstrated advancements in Alan Wake 2, specifically in the representation of CRT televisions. In the classic static scene, noise lines are now displayed individually more sharply, eliminating unwanted blurring. When it launches in August, DLSS 4.5 Ray Reconstruction will be compatible with an initial list of 27 games for all RTX hardware owners.

Despite the new update, the absence of DLSS 5 was felt during the conference. The technology was originally mentioned at GTC 2026, sparking mixed reactions in the community due to the impact of artificial intelligence on image fidelity. To date, no details have been provided regarding a possible postponement or reformulation of the project, with the manufacturer maintaining its current focus on optimizing the DLSS 4 line.

Supported games, per the launch article:

Alan Wake 2

Enlisted

Neverness to Everness

Avatar Frontiers of Pandora

Everspace 2

Portal with RTX

Backrooms: Escape Together

F1 25

Pragmata

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7

FBC: Firebreak

Resident Evil Requiem

Crimson Desert

Half-Life 2 with RTX

Samson

Cyberpunk 2077

Hogwarts Legacy

Star Wars Outlaws

Death Relives

Incursion Red River

Subliminal

Directive 8020

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

Sword of Justice

DOOM: The Dark Ages

Naraka: Bladepoint

The First Descendant

DLSS 4.5 Ray Reconstruction also benefits from a significantly expanded training dataset. According to Nvidia, the larger dataset allows the model to better identify and utilise the most accurate game-engine data, helping reconstruct scenes closer to their intended appearance. Developers will also gain finer control over temporal accumulation, enabling more precise tuning for specific visual effects and rendering scenarios. However, it is interesting that Nvidia made no mention of DLSS 5, which was expected to hit the show floor at Computex. Has its development been called off or is Nvidia cooking something else? Only time will tell.

Moving on, Nvidia showcased the improvements in several titles. In Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, the new model reportedly reduces snow ghosting while producing cleaner particle effects. Pragmata benefits from more responsive lighting effects and fewer visual artefacts, while Alan Wake 2 shows improved stability and clarity in scenes featuring CRT static.

The feature will launch in August through the Nvidia app and will support all GeForce RTX GPUs.

Beyond gaming, Blender 5.3 will integrate DLSS 4.5 Ray Reconstruction as a viewport denoiser later this year. Nvidia also confirmed that multiple games are receiving broader DLSS 4.5 support, including Marvel Rivals, Phantom Blade Zero, Squad, Gothic 1 Remake, Cinder City, Duet Night Abyss and Where Winds Meet.

mundophone

TECH

piBrick Pocket-CM5: Raspberry Pi handheld with keyboard and AMOLED unveiled

A new handheld comes with a keyboard and should be particularly versatile thanks to support for desktop operating systems. The piBrick is based on the Raspberry Pi in an especially compact and slim form factor.

The Raspberry Pi is a versatile single-board computer that is also offered in various model versions, including as a particularly flat Compute Module that lacks conventional ports and is therefore usually operated with a dedicated PCB, or carrier board. The piBrick Pocket-CM5 is a new DIY handheld PC based on the Raspberry Pi CM5 that users can build themselves and that is available under the GPL 3.0 license.

In addition to the Raspberry Pi CM5, suitably adapted PCBs are also required. These are provided as templates and can then be manufactured by a suitable supplier. A BBQ20 keyboard is used, which is intended to allow relatively fast text input. This keyboard also includes a trackpad. A 3.92-inch AMOLED display is installed, which can process up to five touch inputs at the same time and is connected via MIPI-DSI. The resolution is relatively high at 1080 x 1240 pixels, which could have a positive effect on interface usability. Even so, the 560-nit display is still significantly smaller than that of a smartphone. Video outputs are available.

There is also a rotary control on the side, along with five buttons. A 5,000mAh battery is used, which means the system can also be used on the go. Stereo speakers and a microphone are included, and there is also a headphone jack. An SSD can be installed, while a microSD card can also be used depending on the Raspberry Pi CM5 model version. Sensors and actuators can be connected via GPIO. The parts are listed at around $172, although this is likely to depend heavily on the specific Raspberry Pi version used.

Description...piBrick Pocket-CM5 is a smartphone-sized handheld PC powered by the Raspberry Pi CM5, featuring a 3.92" AMOLED touch display and a QWERTY keyboard+trackpad from BBQ20.

This pocket computer is compact enough for mobile use, yet powerful and versatile for everyday computing. With its wide range of ports, it can be connected to a desktop setup and used as a full desktop computer.

piBrick Pocket-CM5 is an Open Source Hardware.

piBrick Pocket-CM5 is a great tool for engineers, sysadmins, and hackers.

The built-in QWERTY keyboard can function as an external USB keyboard and mouse — simply plug it into another computer or server and use it as a USB-HID device.

It runs a full Linux desktop with unlimited system administration and hacking tools, making it a compact yet complete on-site tool for your work.

There are many possible use cases for this device. It’s a building block — your creativity is the only limit.

This device was designed for manufacturing at JLCPCB, including component selection, design rules, and overall manufacturability. Anyone can easily order and assemble it through JLCPCB.

Specifications:

CORE: Raspberry Pi CM5

Dimensions: 80 × 145 × 19.6 mm

Display

3.92 Inch AMOLED Display

1080x1240 pixels @ 90Hz Refresh Rate

16M Colors

560 Nits

Capacitive Multitouch up to 5 Fingers (OnCell Touchscreen)

MIPI DSI Interface

Asahi Tempered Glass (Custom Design for piBrick)

Display Output: Full-size HDMI + micro-HDMI

USB:

1× USB 3 Type-A

1× USB 3 Type-C

1× USB 2 Type-C

1× USB 2 Type-A

1x USB 2 for Internal Add On

Battery: 5000mAh LiPo Battery

HID:

BBQ20 QWERTY keyboard with integrated trackpad as mouse

Side rotary encoders with push switch

5x Side User Buttons

Audio:

Internal Sound Card with Amplifier

Internal Stereo speaker

Microphone from BBQ20 Keyboard

3.5mm audio jack for headphone

Accelerometer sensor

Front camera (Raspberry Pi MIPI/CSI camera)

Storage

Internal CM5 eMMC or Micro SD

M.2 NVMe Connector for SSD

Expansion Connector

Internal USB 2.0

I2C Connector

GPIO Extension Connector

User RGB LED, and Keyboard Layout RGB Indicator

Body: Open Source 3D printable frame & casing

Reproducable...The main PCB and Flex-PCB are easily reproducible at JLCPCB. You can open the project in EasyEDA Pro and simply click Order PCB. Everything is already configured for JLCPCB — you only need to adjust anything you feel is necessary.

Here are some optional tips for ordering:

-Make sure you use the default JLCPCB stack-up: JLC04161H-7628 (or just leave Specify Stackup set to No).

-The board already includes a 5×5 mm rectangular silkscreen area for the JLCPCB 2D barcode. Choose 2D Barcode (Serial Number), select 5×5 mm size, and Specify Position.

All components are compatible with Economic Assembly. Extended parts cost slightly more but are still cheaper than Standard.

For better cost efficiency, it’s recommended to order 10 pcs. Group-ordering for multiple people is often the most affordable approach.

Project on EasyEda Pro...For the best PCB and schematic appearance, please install the Roboto Condensed and Roboto Condensed Bold fonts first.

You may modify and reproduce the design as you like, but please keep the license intact.

Always follow the design rules and run DRC checks before manufacturing.

 

by mundophone

DIGITAL LIFE

Your printer is your spy

Tiny, almost invisible dots can hide surprising information about your documents. The technology has been around for decades and remains surrounded by controversy.

For most people, printing a document is a mundane everyday gesture. One click, a few sheets, and that's it. But what millions of users don't realize is that many modern printers discreetly add a kind of invisible mark to each printed page. The detail went unnoticed for decades and, even today, remains unknown even to those who use these devices daily. The problem is that this "secret signature" can reveal much more than it seems.

For years, they were right before everyone's eyes without attracting attention. They are tiny yellow dots distributed throughout the printed sheets, practically impossible to see without specific equipment.

Known as Machine Identification Codes (MIC), or simply "tracking points," these patterns function as a kind of invisible fingerprint left by the printer on each document produced.

According to investigations by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the technology began to be developed in the 1980s by manufacturers such as Xerox and Canon. The initial objective was to combat counterfeit money, allowing the identification of which equipment had been used to produce illegal copies.

For a long time, the system remained practically secret.

The public only began to discover its existence in 2004, when authorities in the Netherlands used these codes to track counterfeiters who had produced documents using a color laser printer.

Shortly afterward, EFF researchers managed to decipher some of these hidden patterns and revealed something unsettling: the dots could store information such as the printer's serial number, as well as the exact date and time of printing.

In other words, each printed sheet could silently carry information capable of identifying its origin.

How these codes work in practice...The dots are extremely small. Some measure only 0.025 millimeters, according to studies conducted by the Technical University of Dresden, in Germany.

They appear repeated in specific patterns throughout the entire page. The choice of the color yellow was no accident: on white paper, it becomes almost invisible to the human eye.

The image above shows an example of printer tracking (also known as printer steganography or machine identification code)

Many printers use this type of watermarking and according to Wikipedia it was developed by Canon and Xerox in the mid-1980s but it was kept secret until 2004. According to Xerox, the main motivation behind this watermarking technique was to assure that their printers won’t be used to counterfeit money. In 2004 Dutch authorities were using this to track down the counterfeiters who had used Canon printers and this hidden property became public. Also, there are rumors that all major manufacturers of color laser printers entered a secret agreement with governments to ensure that the output of those printers is forensically traceable.

Here, you can see how MIC looks on the paper. Every row has a certain number value, and every column has its data purpose in this yellow dots matrix.

To detect these hidden codes, it is usually necessary to use high-resolution scanners, digital color inversion, or ultraviolet light. In some cases, researchers also use digital microscopes and special magnifying glasses to visualize the patterns.

Experts analyzed more than a hundred printer models manufactured by different companies and discovered that a large portion of modern color laser printers use some type of similar tracking system.

Interestingly, inkjet printers do not always employ exactly the same mechanism, although they may use other internal identification methods.

Researchers have even developed tools capable of identifying, analyzing, and even masking these invisible patterns by adding new points over the originals.

In practice, most people would never notice its presence without technological assistance.

This has opened up a huge debate involving privacy, security, and technological transparency.

The main problem pointed out by experts is not only the existence of these codes, but the lack of information offered to users.

According to researchers and digital privacy advocacy organizations, manufacturers rarely clearly explain that many printers insert invisible tracking systems into the documents they produce.

For critics, this creates a delicate scenario.

While the codes can help authorities combat crimes such as forgery, they could also be used to identify whistleblowers, track leaked documents, or discover the origin of confidential information.

In corporate, journalistic, or political environments, this raises important concerns about anonymity and the protection of sources.

The BBC itself has highlighted that the topic has been controversial for years precisely because millions of people continue to print documents without knowing that each page may carry an invisible mark linked to the equipment used.

Perhaps the most impressive thing is that this technology has existed for over four decades without ever becoming widely known to the public.

The invisible detail that few imagined existed...The discovery of these codes changed the way experts view something seemingly simple like printing a sheet of paper.

What seemed like just a mechanical process has come to be seen as a silent digital identification system embedded in the physical world.

And although the official justification continues to be security and combating counterfeiting, the debate about privacy is far from over.

Today, while millions of documents continue to be printed daily around the world, a huge number of people don't even imagine that each page can carry a kind of invisible trace left by the printer itself.

mundophone