• Rambus has announced 3.2Gbps HBM2E memory and a matching controller.  (AnandTech)
  
  Which would be more impressive if Samsung hadn't already announced 5Gbps HBM2E.
  
  
  
• Buffalo have a ruggedized miniature external SSD, with capacities up to 960GB.  (AnandTech)
  
  It has, for some reason, a USB 3.0 micro-B port.  You know, the horrible one used by cheap external hard drives.  $210 for the largest size.
  
  
  
• A side-channel attack has been discovered that affects most AMD CPUs released in the past 9 years.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  I had a quick skim through the paper and it seems to be legitimate, though notes on mitigation and the fact that this was disclosed to AMD last year suggest that it may already have been patched.  The flaw involves L1 cache address prediction, and changing the prediction mode or simply turning it off fixes the problem.
  
  It affects all Bulldozer chips and Zen 1 and 2, but not the Bobcat family (as used in the Xbox One and Playstation 4).
  
  
  
• Not wanting to be left out, an unfixable and undetectable vulnerability has been found in all recent Intel processors.  (TechReport)
  
  It's a bug in the ROM - not flash, but mask-programmed ROM - in the secure enclave thingy within the processor that is supposed to provide certain guaranteed secure services.
  
  It doesn't seem that this can be compromised remotely, but if someone gets physical access to a server they could potentially use it to plant a completely invisible rootkit.
  
  
  
• TechDirt seems to have sobered up but New York is drunk.  (TechDirt)
  
  A property owner was fined millions of dollars for...  Painting over graffiti.
  
  
  
• South by Southwest has been cancelled.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  And nothing of value was lost.
  
  
  
• A sequel to the well-received Pathfinder: Kingmaker is currently Kickstartering.  (Kickstarter)
  
  Pathfinder is an adaptation of the core rules of Dungeons and Dragons 3rd-ish Edition, which were released under the Open Gaming License some years ago.  The campaign setting is different and original, but the gameplay is familiar.
  
  Pathfinder: Kingmaker is an old-school isometric single-player party-based RPG for Windows, Mac, and Linux, and apparently coming soon to consoles.
  
  The Kickstarter for the new game is nearly over, with just three days left, but never fear: It has not only been funded but has met 14 stretch goals, ranging from dismemberment animations to hiring a full symphony orchestra to record the soundtrack.
  
  This is what Kickstarter is good for.  I love seeing this.
  
  I have at least two copies of Kingmaker (I backed it on Kickstarter and it was just in the February Humble Bundle) but haven't played it.

Posted by: cxt217 at Sunday, March 08 2020 03:05 AM (LMsTt)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sunday, March 08 2020 07:16 PM (PiXy!)

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