ROCCAT KIRO Gaming Mouse Review
Roccat Kiro Gaming Mouse
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Hardware Roundup: Friday, April 22, 2016, Edition
Friday is here, bringing with it the weekend and some items for you to check out. There is a review of the AZIO MGK 1 RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard, which has Kailh Blue switches and RGB backlighting for a custom look to match whatever mood you're feeling. If you're planning to pick up the new Ashes of the Singularity RTS game and curious how it performs, we have a performance review that should cover you nicely. For some console gaming on the PC, both PS4 Remote Play and Xbox One Streaming offer the option, and this article examines what the differences are between the two. Ending things for today is a new case mod that is extremely slick and packed to the brim with hardware and water cooling gear.
Keyboards/Mice
AZIO MGK 1 RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard @ ThinkComputers
Gaming
Ashes of the Singularity Performance Video Card @ Madshrimps
Console Gaming on the PC: PS4 Remote Play vs. Xbox One Streaming @ PC Perspective
Miscellany
Case Mod Friday: Project SEVEN @ ThinkComputers
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On-Chip RF Circulator Created That Could Double Wi-Fi Speeds
Wireless communication is something many of us rely on today for connecting or various devices to the Internet, so there is a constant drive to increase wireless speeds. One way to achieve this is to build systems that allow for the simultaneous transmission and reception of signals, but achieving this is somewhat difficult with a single antenna. Researchers at the Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science though have built an on-chip solution that could bring full duplexing and doubled speeds to devices like our phones.
Currently many devices use half-duplexing to connect to a Wi-Fi network, which means that while one antenna is sending and receiving all of the information, it is not doing so at the same time. This is because the electronic structures used exhibit Lorentz Reciprocity; electromagnetic waves travel in both directions at the same time. One way to overcome this issue requires using magnetic materials to create a radio frequency circulator. When the material is exposed to an external magnetic field, reciprocity is lost, allowing the incoming and outgoing signals to be separated. Such circulators cannot be integrated into silicon chips though, and even then they are rather large for using in something like a phone. To solve this problem, the Columbia researchers created a new, electronic circulator that is highly miniaturized and uses a set of capacitors to replicate the non-reciprocal twist the magnetic circulators produce.
The researchers have already demonstrated this new circulator design by building a prototype of their full-duplex system that also features an echo-cancelling receiver. By integrating the circulator into the same chip as the rest of the radio, it should be possible to keep the size of the system and the cost down, allowing for full-duplex communications and potentially doubling network capacity.
Source: Columbia University
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Intel Broadwell-E CPUs Available for Pre-Order
We first covered the upcoming line of High End Desktop (HEDT) processors from Intel late last year, with news that the processors would fall under the Broadwell-E lineup and use the X99 chipset. As previously announced, Intel will have four models available at launch, the i7-6950X, i7-6900K, i7-6850K, and i7-6800K. NCIX US has now become the first retailer to accept pre-orders for the chips, which have an expected release of the second quarter of this year. NCIX has current prices set at $2349.99 for the i7-6950X, $1495.99 for the i7-6900K, $889.99 for the i7-6850K, and $629.99 for the i7-6800K. Anandtech has re-seller specific prices listed at $1609.37 for the i7-6950X, $1024.70 for the i7-6900K, $602.11 for the i7-6850K, and $422.60 for the i7-6800K. The article notes that pricing scheme is not yet final and prices could go up or down.
Source: WCCF Tech
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Thermaltake Announces Collaboration with Mathieu Heredia
Thermaltake is working on a design collaboration project with Mathieu Heredia, co-owner of Watermod France and the second place finisher in the 2015 Thermaltake CaseMOD Invitational Season 2. The project is known as "The Tower," borrowing its name from Heredia's entry into the contest. Thermaltake President and CEO Kenny Lin described the partnership stating, "Today, it gives me great pleasure to announce our strategic cooperation with Mathieu by turning his “Tower” creation from a concept, a casemod, to mass production. We complement each other. We share the same values and we believe in Excellent Quality, Unique Design, Diverse Combinations and Boundless Creativity to provide a high performance PC product for every enthusiast."
Source: Press Release
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Data Compression Used to Detect Quantum Entanglement
The next time you archive some files and compress them, you might think about the process a little differently. Researchers at the National University of Singapore have discovered a common compression algorithm can be used to detect quantum entanglement. What makes this discovery so interesting is that it does not rely on heavily on an assumption that the measured particles are independent and identically distributed.
If you measure the property of a particle and then measure the same property of another particle, in classical mechanics there is no reason for them to match but pure chance. In quantum mechanics though, the two particles can be entangled, such that the results will match each other. This follows from Bell's theorem, which is applied to test if particles are in fact entangled. The catch is that the theorem is derived for testing pairs of particles, but many pairs have to be measured and the probabilities they are entangled calculated. This is where the researchers' discovery comes into play because instead of calculating probabilities, the measurements can be fed into the open-source Lempel-Ziv-Markov chain algorithm (LZMA) to get their normalized compression difference. Compression algorithms work by finding patterns in data and encoding them more efficiently, and in this case they also find correlations from quantum entanglement. If the data is classical, the normalized compression difference must be less than zero, but with quantum mechanics it can reach 0.24.
When tested, this approach returned a value of 0.0494 ± 0.0076, which shows the data did cross the classical-quantum boundary. It is below the 0.24 theoretical maximum because the quantum states cannot be created and measured perfectly, and the compression algorithm is not ideal.
Source: Center for Quantum Technologies at the National University of Singapore
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Corsair Unveils New RAPIDFIRE Keyboards With Cherry MX Speed Switches
Corsair is well known for its cases, power supplies, RAM, and host of other PC products, with today's focus being on its keyboard line. Three new entries are introduced with a new piece of technology to set them apart, as each keyboard benefits from the Cherry MX Speed switch. This new switch has an actuation distance of just 1.2mm, 40% shorter than other Cherry MX switches. It lets the new keyboards register presses that much faster, which is why Corsair has dubbed the new line RAPIDFIRE. The Corsair K70 RGB RAPIDFIRE, K65 RGB RAPIDFIRE, and K70 RAPIDFIRE all receive the new Cherry MX Speed switch giving them the short actuation distance and a 45g actuation force, so a light press is all that's needed.
Both K70s are a full keyboard design, while the K65 is a tenkeyless model, so it's more compact for anyone desiring a small keyboard. All three benefit from full key rollover on USB and a 100% anti-ghosting design to register every key press. Each one comes with contoured and textured keys for FPS and MOBA layouts, with the spacebar also featuring a textured design. A key-puller is included to swap out the textured keys for regular ones or any others you might want to use, or to just make cleaning easier. A USB 2.0 passthrough is included on all three to connect a mouse, headset, or other device, while dedicated media controls mean adjusting volume or changing tracks doesn't require an awkward finger combination to pull off. The soft-touch wrist rest easily attaches or detaches for support during marathon gaming sessions.
The Corsair RAPIDFIRE keyboards are available today, with the K70 RGB priced at $169.99, the K65 RGB at $139.99, and the K70 at $129.99. All feature a two-year warranty and Corsair support.
Source: Press Release
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Record-Breaking Single Atom Magnet Created
While many of us may be transitioning to solid state data storage for greater read and write speeds, magnetic storage devices still have great data density. That density may be hitting new highs in the future as researchers at EPFL have demonstrated single-atom magnets that remain stable at a new record-high temperature of 40 K.
Magnetism is the result of the spin of electrons, which is a quantum mechanical property but works on the macroscale when the spins of many electrons line up. In a single atom though, the spin of an electron can be easily flipped by the environment, with magnetic remanence describing how well a magnet remains magnetized. The researchers were able to build prototype single-atom magnets using holmium atoms that were placed in ultrathin films of magnesium oxide. The electronic structure of the holmium atoms protect their magnetic fields from flipping, and at 40 K, the magnetic remanence is stable. Previous magnets consisting of three to twelve atoms have required even lower temperatures or poorer remanence where the holmium magnets are stable.
While 40 K is a bit too low for many practical uses, this still sets the record for smallest and most stable single-atom magnet, the ultimate goal for miniaturized data storage. Hopefully we will see this record broken before long.
Source: Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
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