Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), the nation’s leading PC vendor, yesterday launched its first dual-screen gaming laptop powered by Intel Corp’s latest central processing units (CPUs).
The PC manufacturer’s announcement closely followed the US chipmaker’s unveiling of its 10th Generation Core H-series, the fastest commercial mobile processors with speeds of up to 5 gigahertz.
Although Asustek’s Zephyrus Duo 15, the highlight of its Republic of Gamers line, is not the company’s first laptop with two screens, it is its first designed specifically for gaming.
Nestled between the primary display panel and the keyboard, the secondary display, which Asustek calls the ScreenPad Plus, is angled for better viewing and cooling when the laptop is unfolded, it said.
The ScreenPad Plus can be used to expand the main display for a more immersive experience, or it can serve as a multi-tasking tool to display real-time gaming statistics or for streaming content while playing a game on the primary display, the company said.
Asustek said it is working with video game developers to adapt game interfaces to fit the secondary panel.
The Zephyrus Duo 15, which is to go on sale next month, is equipped with Nvidia Corp’s newest graphics processing units (GPUs) — GeForce RTX 2080 Super — based on the company’s Turing architecture.
Industry peer Acer Inc (宏碁) yesterday revealed its premium Predator Triton 500 laptop, as well as a mid-range Nitro 5 unit, both of which are to be released next month.
The laptops also feature Intel’s new CPUs and the latest RTX GPUs from Nvidia.
New Taipei City-based gaming PC specialist Micro-Star International Co (MSI, 微星科技) also announced that its new gaming laptops — GS66 and GE66 — are outfitted with Intel’s H-Series processors and Nvidia’s latest GPUs.
MSI, which has recently set its sights on the growing content creation market, has further equipped its Creator 17 laptop, the first on the market to feature a mini LED display, with Intel and Nvidia’s new chips.
Its new offerings are to hit global markets later this month.
Meanwhile, PC maker Gigabyte Technology Co Ltd (技嘉) yesterday introduced new laptops from its gaming AORUS product line, as well as its content creation series AERO.
Gigabyte’s newest arrivals — AORUS 15G, 17G and 17X, and AERO 15 and 17 — all feature Intel and Nvidia’s latest chips and are already available for pre-order, with shipping to start on April 15.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day