Hacker News with Generative AI: Hardware

Jony Ive's AI Product 'Third Core Device' After MacBook and iPhone (macrumors.com)
Details have leaked about the device that OpenAI is developing with former Apple designer Jony Ive. OpenAI is acquiring io, the hardware-based AI startup co-created by Jony Ive, and the first product is one of a family of devices the company intends to launch.

Artificial Intelligence, Hardware, Apple, Design, Startups

3 points by retskrad 16 hours ago | 2 comments

Cherry Leads the Revolution from Mechanical to Smart Switches (cherry.de)
Auerbach, May 20, 2025 — CHERRY will be opening a bold new chapter at COMPUTEX 2025, a leading computer technology trade show held annually in Taipei. The company will debut its IK inductive switch, a preview of the MK magnetic switch platform, and the latest additions to its legendary MX mechanical switch family – MX Honey, MX Blossom, and MX Falcon.

Computer Technology, Hardware, New Releases, Switches

10 points by ksec 22 hours ago | 0 comments

Oodle 2.9.14 and Intel 13th/14th gen CPUs (wordpress.com)
There’s a hardware problem affecting Intel 13th/14th gen CPUs, mostly desktop ones. This made the rounds through the press last year and has been on forums etc. for much longer than that. For months, we thought this was a rare bug in the decoder, but from stats in Epic’s crash reports for Fortnite (as well as stats for other Unreal Engine and Oodle licensees) it was fairly striking that this issue really seemed to affect only some CPUs.

Hardware, Software, Gaming, Bugs, Performance

14 points by matt_d 1 day ago | 1 comments

AT&T Unix PC Reference Manual (1986) (archive.org)
From the bitsavers.org collection, a scanned-in computer-related document.att :: 3b1 :: hardware :: 999-300-1891S UNIX PC Reference Manual 1986

Unix, Hardware, Computer History, Manuals, Archives

8 points by caned 1 day ago | 0 comments

The IBM Enhanced Keyboard turns 40 (sharktastica.co.uk)
On this day, in 1985, IBM announced the 7531 and 7532 Industrial Computers. Two AT-derived computers that were "designed for information-handling applications in industrial plant floor environments". The announcement letters only lightly touched on their keyboards, noting their bidirectional serial interface, mode indicators and separated typewriter and numeric keypad sections - all inherent to any AT-based keyboard. But this keyboard was actually so much more than what was led on. IBM worked to enhance them, aptly calling them... the Enhanced Keyboard.

Hardware, History, IBM, Computers

13 points by tart-lemonade 1 day ago | 1 comments

ITXPlus: A ITX Sized Macintosh Plus Logicboard Reproduction (68kmla.org)
ITXPlus is a Mini-ITX sized Macintosh Plus logicboard clone that can be be assembled to a working state with no original parts and is intended for new build systems in modern cases

Retro Computing, Hardware, DIY, Macintosh, Computers

123 points by zdw 2 days ago | 31 comments

Intel Arc Pro B50 and B60 for Lower Cost Pro GPUs (servethehome.com)
This week at Computex 2025, we got to see the Intel Arc Pro B50 and B60 GPUs. These are lower cost and lower power GPUs with what Intel hopes to be a major key differentiator: memory capacity. In the next room over, we saw the Intel 18A Panther Lake system running.

Graphics Cards, Intel, Computex, Hardware

11 points by pqtyw 2 days ago | 0 comments

KVMs with DisplayPort and USB over USB-C (rubenerd.com)
I have a setup at my home office with two computers: a MacBook Air, and my FreeBSD work desktop. These are connected to a Dell 4K monitor in two ways:

Hardware, Desktops, Monitors, KVM Switches, USB-C

9 points by mikece 2 days ago | 0 comments

Sloppy software is why you think you need new hardware (neowin.net)
There's something oddly disappointing about using modern computers.

Software, Hardware, User Experience

3 points by xemane 2 days ago | 0 comments

Intel Unveils New GPUs for AI and Workstations (intel.com)
TAIPEI, Taiwan, May 19, 2025 – Today at Computex 2025, Intel unveils a new lineup of graphics processing units (GPUs) and AI accelerators designed for professionals and developers.

AI, Hardware, Computing, Professional Tools

4 points by tosh 3 days ago | 0 comments

Intel bets you'll stack cheap GPUs to avoid spending top dollar on Nvidia Pros (theregister.com)
Computex When it comes to AI accelerators, Intel isn't very competitive, and its newly announced Battlemage workstation cards don't do much to change that. But at least they're cheap. Really cheap.

AI, Hardware, Competitive Landscape, Cost

9 points by rntn 3 days ago | 0 comments

A handy metric is needed for gauging if GPUs are being used optimally (theregister.com)
GPU accelerators used in AI processing are costly items, so making sure you get the best usage out of them ought to be a priority, yet the industry lacks an effective way of measuring this, says the Uptime Institute.

GPU Optimization, Artificial Intelligence, Hardware, Performance Measurement

8 points by cyberhost 3 days ago | 2 comments

Entrysign: Create Your Own x86 Microcode for Fun and Profit (OffensiveCon25) (youtube.com)

Microcode, Security, Programming, OffensiveCon25, Hardware

5 points by nspaced 3 days ago | 0 comments

Mecha: Portable Linux Computing (mecha.so)
Mecha provides computing hardware backed with extensive software support that promises no limits to what you can build.

Hardware, Linux, Software

15 points by handfuloflight 3 days ago | 3 comments

Linux on Chuwi MiniBook X N150 TwinLake 2-in-1, 10" 2K, 12GB RAM, Intel TXT (taoofmac.com)
The netbook era has come and gone, but I am one of the many people who miss small form factor laptops (12” or smaller), and I’ve found it somewhat frustrating that they’ve been nowhere to be found in mainstream offerings.

Linux, Laptops, Mini PCs, Hardware, Reviews

7 points by transpute 3 days ago | 0 comments

Telum II at Hot Chips 2024: Mainframe with a Unique Caching Strategy (chipsandcheese.com)
Mainframes still play a vital role in today, providing extremely high uptime and low latency for financial transactions.

Mainframes, Hardware, Caching, Semiconductors, Hot Chips

137 points by rbanffy 4 days ago | 66 comments

Seagate claims spinning disks beat SSDs on carbon footprint (blocksandfiles.com)
A Seagate Decarbonizing Data report says energy usage is a top concern for more than half of business leaders and better use of disks is a wise datacenter choice.

Data Centers, Sustainability, Hardware, Storage

50 points by rbanffy 4 days ago | 71 comments

A lost decade chasing distributed architectures for data analytics? (duckdb.org)
TL;DR: We benchmark DuckDB on a 2012 MacBook Pro to decide: did we lose a decade chasing distributed architectures for data analytics?

Data Analytics, Distributed Systems, Benchmarks, Performance, Hardware

207 points by andreasha 4 days ago | 102 comments

Effort and Challenges in Building Embedded Audio DSP Software Across Platforms (switchboard.audio)
Embedded audio DSP development is notoriously time-consuming and complex, especially when firmware needs to be tuned for high-quality audio and reused on multiple hardware platforms or in different form-factors.

Embedded Systems, Audio Engineering, Software Development, Hardware

20 points by pabs3 4 days ago | 6 comments

Taito-tastic: Kiki Kaikai and its Hardware (nicole.express)
So some concepts got stuck in my head early on when looking into hardware that just don’t hold. One of these was that the Neo Geo was unique because of its heavy use of sprites where other systems would use tilemaps. But that’s not unique to the Neo Geo: ADK was just upgrading their Alpha68k family, which all used the same system. Epoch and NEC’s µPD777 did the same thing in the 1970’s for home gamers. And now Taito.

Retro Gaming, Hardware, Video Games, History

46 points by ingve 5 days ago | 3 comments

Cheap mini PCs have gotten good (world.hey.com)
For the past week, I've been working off the Minisforum UM870. A tiny mini PC with an 8-core/16-thread AMD 8745H CPU, which retails for $343 (or €379) as a bare-bone unit, and stays below $550, even after adding 48GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. I'm shocked to report that I really don't need more than this!

Mini PCs, Hardware, Technology, Reviews

16 points by tosh 5 days ago | 4 comments

Intel's Lunar Lake intricacies revealed in new high-resolution die shots (tomshardware.com)

Intel, Processors, Hardware, Technology, Computer Architecture

4 points by rbanffy 6 days ago | 0 comments

Wacom drawing tablets track the name of every application you open (2020) (robertheaton.com)
I have a Wacom drawing tablet. I use it to draw cover illustrations for my blog posts, such as this one:

Privacy, Software, Hardware, Digital Art

108 points by dvrp 6 days ago | 52 comments

Toshiba says Europe doesn't need 24TB HDDs, witholds beefy models from region (tomshardware.com)

Hardware, Storage, Europe, Toshiba

26 points by taubek 6 days ago | 13 comments

Show HN: I built a knife steel comparison tool (knife.day)
Browse our comprehensive collection of knife steel comparisons. We currently have 150 detailed comparisons available, with 147 featuring detailed comparison charts.

Tools, Knife Making, Hardware, Software, Comparison

145 points by p-s-v 6 days ago | 84 comments

Palette lighting tricks on the Nintendo 64 (30fps.net)
This article is a continuation to my Bluesky thread from April.

Gaming, Nintendo, Retro Gaming, Hardware

223 points by ibobev 6 days ago | 55 comments

A brief history of Mac architecture transitions (eclecticlight.co)
Macs have undergone three major hardware architectural transitions over the last 41 years, and it may well be that this year sees the completion of the last of those. I’ve previously given a brief account of those changes in CPUs; this article summarises when and how those transitions have taken place.

Mac, History, Hardware, Architecture, Technology

6 points by ingve 6 days ago | 1 comments

DeepSeek-V3: Scaling Challenges and Reflections on Hardware for AI Architectures (arxiv.org)
The rapid scaling of large language models (LLMs) has unveiled critical limitations in current hardware architectures, including constraints in memory capacity, computational efficiency, and interconnection bandwidth.

Generative AI, Hardware, Scaling

4 points by nsoonhui 6 days ago | 0 comments

Show HN: Merliot – plugging physical devices into LLMs (github.com/merliot)
Merliot Hub is an AI-integrated device hub.

Artificial Intelligence, Hardware

81 points by sfeldma 6 days ago | 24 comments

Raspberry Pi Reduces Prices on 4GB and 8GB Compute Module 4 (linuxgizmos.com)
This month, Raspberry Pi announced a price reduction for two of its most widely used Compute Module 4 variants. As of May 1, 2025, the 4GB RAM version is now $5 cheaper, while the 8GB RAM version has been reduced by $10. These discounts apply to standard temperature models purchased through Raspberry Pi Approved Resellers.

Raspberry Pi, Hardware, Pricing, Computing

10 points by teleforce 6 days ago | 0 comments