Video game release dates are more a suggestion than a promise these days, and understandably so. Making games is hard and audiences have never been busier and more fickle. Still, it’s disappointing when you find out that sci-fi shooter or fantasy adventure you’ve been waiting for won’t be out any time soon, and a lot…
I am working with UE5 and want to do simulations using Lidar Point Clouds Plugin. i am building a plugin but am pretty new to C++. I want to detect points of a Pointcloudactor that overlap with Staticmeshactors and then color them. I want to build a node that allows those 2 types of inputs, but i cant get to set the input for the Pointcloudactor. Is there any possibility to see the C++ code of the UE5 plugin to use thei method?
Hope you understood my english.
The Xbox Games Showcase 2024 showed players everywhere that they have a ton of games to look forward to. Fans of Activision, Bethesda, Blizzard, Xbox Game Studios, or the countless partners building for Xbox were treated to a peek at what’s coming for their favorite franchises and new games alike.
Players can look forward to incredible returns to beloved series with Gears of War: E-Day and Doom: The Dark Ages, fresh looks at the likes of State of Decay 3, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Perfect Dark,and South of Midnight, a reveal for Starfield: Shattered Space, and much more. The show even extended to Azeroth, with the release date reveal of The War Within, the next expansion for World of Warcraft.
And from our partners, there was a world-first look at gameplay from Assassin’s Creed Shadows, an introduction to your future party members in the greatly anticipated Dragon Age: The Veilguard, an exciting look at the return of Big Boss in Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater, not to mention some incredible debuts with the likes of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Atomfall, and Winter Burrow, among many others.
Plus, we brought you a first reveal of new Xbox hardware with the announcement of three new Xbox Series X|S console options joining our current lineup this holiday, featuring the same speed and performance with more design, storage, and price options to fit your needs.
And on top of all that, we also brought the gameplay reveal of a brand-new Call of Duty game with Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 – and we’re following it up with Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Direct, offering you an enormous deep-dive into the game. If you can’t tune in live, make sure to check back for a full rundown of what was announced in the second part of our enormous double feature.
This is far from everything we have to show you – all this week, the Official Xbox Podcast will air podcasts from Monday, June 10th, featuring discussions with developers and even deeper looks at some of the exciting games from the show. It all starts tomorrow with an extended gameplay look at Avowed, on Xbox’s YouTube channel and podcast services, followed by Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater on Tuesday. If reading’s more your speed, every episode will be detailed in an Xbox Wire post breaking down what was revealed.
But that’s all still to come. For the time being, here’s every single announcement and reveal from Xbox Games Showcase 2024:
Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, Steam and cloud, or play it day one with Game Pass
World’s Edge – the award-winning studio behind the Age of Empires franchise – showcased a trailer of truly mythical proportions: with a first look at gameplay from the upcoming Age of Mythology: Retold.
Age of Mythology: Retold will combine the best elements of the beloved Age of Mythology (2002) with modern real-time strategy design, visuals and gameplay. The newly premiered trailer at Xbox Showcase 2024 revealed the first gameplay footage, showing off exciting action and divine powers, as well as some newly redesigned deity portraits. The World’s Edge team also confirmed the launch date for Age of Mythology: Retold – September 4, 2024 – and that this will be the first title in the Age of Empires franchise to ship on both PC and console at launch.
Age of Mythology: Retold is available to pre-order now.
Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, Steam and cloud, or play it day one with Game Pass
This year, brace yourself for an expedition into the uncharted wilds of the Living Lands in Obsidian Entertainment’s Avowed. In a brand-new story trailer, we learned more about the incredible journey we’ll be taking later this year, and met Giatta, one of the game’s four companions. As an envoy of the Aedyran Empire, you’re tasked with stopping the Dreamscourge, a mysterious blight wreaking havoc on the tumultuous frontier. Your soul hangs in the balance as you navigate the chaos of the Living Lands and embrace its wonders. Prepare for an expedition into the perilous, captivating, and utterly bizarre unknown where you will forge your destiny and shape the fate of the frontier.
Avowed will be released in 2024 – and you can learn more about the game’s story on Xbox Wire right now.
Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC, Steam, Battle.net, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, or play it day one with Game Pass
It’s official: Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, the latest addition to the popular Call of Duty franchise, is set to arrive on October 25. Developed by Treyarch and Raven Software, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is a spy action thriller where nothing is as what it seems. In this mind-bending narrative set in the early 1990s, a shadowy force has infiltrated the U.S. government and players will be forced to go rogue for the first time.
In addition to a compelling new campaign, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 features new innovations like Omnimovement, giving players the ability to sprint, slide, and dive in any direction and move like a Black Ops action hero across all game modes. Including the return of Classic Prestige, Theater Mode, and of course Round-Based Zombies, there’s something for everyone.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 launches on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and PC on October 25. Play it day one on select Xbox Game Pass plans (Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass PC, Game Pass Console).
Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, Steam, PlayStation 5, or play it day one with Game Pass
Revealed worldwide today, Doom: The Dark Ages heralds the return of the unstoppable Doom Slayer in this upcoming single-player, dark fantasy action FPS from the legendary id Software.
The prequel to Doom (2016), Doom: The Dark Ages puts players behind the visor of the mighty Slayer as they battle demonic hordes in grounded, hard-hitting combat inside an epic, cinematic tale of gods, kings and monsters. Supplementing his superhuman skills and over-the-top arsenal, the Slayer will also call upon his colossal Atlan mech to brawl with titanic beasts and retake the skies aboard his ferocious steed: a jet-fueled, cybernetic war dragon.
Don your Shotgun, Shield Saw and Flail and charge headfirst into battle in 2025 when Doom: The Dark Ages arrives on Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Series X|S and PC. Add Doom: The Dark Ages to your wishlist via the Microsoft Store.
Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and Steam, or play it day one with Xbox Game Pass
What does it mean to be a hero? In last year’s trailer, that question was answered by Dave, a gardener-turned-giant with a chip on his shoulder. This year, we get a much darker take from Humphry, played by the British comedy actor Matt King. Humphry was once Albion’s greatest Hero, but those glory days are long gone. In Fable, Humphry will be forced out of retirement when a mysterious figure from his past threatens the very existence of Albion.
Playground Games also confirmed its collaboration with Eidos Montreal, who will be supporting the ongoing development of Fable, which will be coming to players in 2025. For Wishlist and more, visit xbox.com/fable.
Gears of War: E-Day is the next mainline game in the Gears of War universe, set during the pivotal Emergence Day. Fourteen years before Gears of War, war heroes Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago return home to face a new nightmare: the Locust Horde. These subterranean monsters, grotesque and relentless, erupt from below, laying siege on humanity itself.
In the announce trailer for the series’ next major installment, The Coalition has teamed up with Blur Studio to forge a visually stunning trailer using in-game assets in Unreal Engine 5. It features a new instrumental version of ‘Mad World,’ originally performed by Gary Jules for the iconic 2006 commercial, now brilliantly reimagined by the game’s composer Adam Lastiwka. The trailer made its debut in 4K resolution and 30 FPS with 5.1 stereo sound. These specs, optimized for streaming, do not represent the final game’s performance.
Find out more in our conversation with the developers on Xbox Wire.
Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, Steam, or play it day one on Game Pass
Become the famous archaeologist and face off against sinister forces as you fight to uncover the truth behind one of history’s greatest mysteries in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Brand new gameplay and a scene from a pivotal moment in the game were debuted during the Xbox Showcase. An intercepted message sends Indy and Gina to the Himalayas where their treacherous trek through the mountains leads them to a startling discovery.
Play Indiana Jones and the Great Circle day one on Game Pass when it launches later this year on Xbox Series X|S and PC.
Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, Steam, cloud, or play it day one with Xbox Game Pass
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is the next installment in the Microsoft Flight Simulator franchise. It is the most ambitious consumer flight simulator ever undertaken. It features the largest, most diverse and detailed fleet of aircraft, the most complete representation of airports and air traffic, and the most visually stunning rendition of Earth ever created.
This brand-new simulator is designed to take advantage of the latest technologies in simulation, cloud, machine learning, graphics and gaming. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 goes beyond merely operating the aircraft; it will allow simmers to pursue their dream of an aviation career.
With features like aerial firefighting, search and rescue, commercial flights, remote cargo ops, VIP charter service, air racing, and more, simmers will not only be experiencing the joy of flight, but also dive into the pilot career they always dreamed of. The sky is calling! Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 takes off on PC and Xbox Series X|S on November 19, and will be available with Game Pass on console, PC, and cloud on day one.
Today, we got a first look at gameplay from Perfect Dark, The Initiative’s highly anticipated reboot of the secret agent series featuring the iconic Joanna Dark.
In the near future, Earth is struck by a series of global disasters, bringing ecosystems around the world to the verge of collapse. In the all-new Perfect Dark game, you experience the journey of Joanna Dark, dataDyne’s elite agent, as she hunts down the world’s most wanted criminal, Daniel Carrington, to uncover the mysteries behind the technological breakthroughs that could threaten the lives of millions of people.
The new trailer showed us Joanna’s descent into the game’s Cairo setting, offered us a glimpse at the mysteries behind this near-future ecological sci-fi story, and introduced us to a game that blends fluid traversal, gadgets, close-quarters combat, gunplay, stealth, and more to create the ultimate secret agent experience.
Want to know more? Read our exclusive explainer article on Xbox Wire now.
Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, Steam, cloud, or play it on day one with Xbox Game Pass
South of Midnight – the beautiful third-person action-adventure game from We Happy Few creators Compulsion Games – showed off its first gameplay trailer during the show, ahead of its launch in 2025. We meet Hazel and her newly-revealed companion, Catfish, as they travel through a flooded area inspired by the Mississippi Delta – and quickly find themselves facing down one of the game’s monster Kings. Meet Two-Toed Tom, a gigantic albino alligator with a powerful hunger, and even his own theme song.
The trailer offers a look at combat and traversal, showing off Hazel’s magical weaving powers, and gives us a taste of the game’s darkly gorgeous Deep South setting. We were lucky enough to sit down with South of Midnight’s developers and dive even deeper on the game – check out our exclusive interview on Xbox Wire.
Today at Xbox Games Showcase, Undead Labs revealed a new trailer for State of Decay 3, giving us a closer look at the ambitious open world zombie survival game. This follow-up to fan-favorite State of Decay 2 represents a huge leap forward for the series and the studio.
In State of Decay 3, the game’s world is now years into the apocalypse, with an evolving zombie threat taking over the landscape. You must fight back and reclaim lost ground, carving out a life for your community of survivalist homesteaders. Fans of the series might pick up on nods to some franchise staples in the new trailer: brutal combat; cooperatively battling back threats to the survivor group; permadeath; opening a car door on a zombie while speeding down the road. But the more you watch it, the more you can see hints at how State of Decay 3 will be the most ambitious game Undead Labs has ever envisioned. To learn more, check out Xbox Wire’s exclusive interview feature.
Xbox Series X|S (see developer website for other platforms)
Assassin’s Creed Shadows launches on November 15 for Xbox Series X|S, giving players a chance to explore 16th Century Japan as Naoe, an adept shinobi from the province of Iga; and Yasuke, a powerful samurai and Assassin’s Creed’s first fully playable historical figure. Today’s gameplay trailer gave fans their first glimpse at what’s new in Assassin’s Creed Shadows – we saw how the two protagonists, Yasuke and Naoe will differ (and complement one another) in equipment and abilities, as well as the game’s wider world, and Shadows’ changing seasons. Stay tuned for a full gameplay walkthrough reveal tomorrow during Ubisoft Forward (starting at 12pm PT / 3pm ET / 8pm UK).
Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC, or play it day one with Game Pass (see developer website for other platforms)
Set in the rolling British countryside with idyllic pubs, quaint villages, and red phone boxes, it soon becomes clear that things are far from normal. Created by Rebellion, the makers of the much-loved Sniper Elite and Zombie Army franchises, Atomfall is inspired by a real-world nuclear disaster that occurred in northern England in 1957. The game follows a fictional storyline where you find yourself in the quarantine zone five years after the event.
Explore the countryside, villages, and settlements and meet odd people, wicked cults, rogue government agencies and others along the way. Explore this open world adventure and seek out the truth at your own pace. A single player, survival-action game, Atomfall blends post-war Britain with Cold War paranoia, folk horror, and elements of classic British sci-fi to create an immersive and thrilling gameplay experience.
Atomfall will launch in 2025, coming to Game Pass on day one. It will also be available on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and PC. The studio will be revealing more about Atomfall soon.
Xbox Series X|S, or play it day one with Game Pass (see developer website for other platforms)
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is an upcoming reactive turn-based RPG that will transport you to a beautiful, surrealist new world inspired by France’s La Belle Epoque – a period famous for its stunning and lavish contributions to the country’s world-renowned culture of art.
As a member of the Expeditioners, who are embarking on an impossible quest to end the Paintress’ cycle of death, you’ll journey through a vast and beautiful fantasy world where you’ll battle deadly adversaries, befriend fabled creatures, and discover traces of those who came before. You can wish list the game today on the Xbox Store and follow @Expedition33 on X (formally Twitter) to stay up to date.
Xbox Series X|S (see developer website for other platforms)
BioWare and Electronic Arts revealed a new trailer for Dragon Age: The Veilguard, where we meet your team of seven companions, each with their own rich story to discover and shape. Together, you will become The Veilguard.
Expanding upon the Dragon Age stories, worlds and characters from previous games, players will enter a vibrant land of rugged wilderness, treacherous labyrinths, and glittering cities – steeped in conflict and secret magics. Together with your companions, you will challenge a pair of corrupt ancient gods, who have broken free from centuries of darkness and are hellbent on destroying the world. Thedas needs someone they can count on, and that person is you. Rise as Rook, Dragon Age’s newest hero. Be who you want to be and play how you want to play as you fight to stop the gods from blighting the world. Find out more on Xbox Wire.
Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC, or play it day one with Game Pass (see developer website for other platforms)
The long-awaited return from Ashen developer A44 is almost here – during the show, we announced that Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn will arrive on July 18. Set in the beleaguered world of Kian, you’ll guide Nor Vanek, a Flintlock weapons expert, on a quest to kill the rampaging gods that have invaded her world.
Blending classic Souls mechanics with a brutal, fast-paced combat system, Nor can use a combination of axe combat, flintlock weaponry, and magic, creating devastating combos – but you’ll need skill to survive. Pre-orders are open now, and a deluxe edition offers alternative outfits and weapon customization options.
Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC (see developer website for other platforms)
Looking for a new competitive FPS? FragPunk is a frantic, squad-based, 5v5 hero shooter where you set the rules of engagement for every new round by activating power-up cards. With its debut at Xbox Games Showcase 2024, FragPunk rocks the hero shooter genre with fast-paced combat and a plethora of synergies and counterplays between over 70 shard cards, 10 heroes, 14 weapons and 4 maps!
Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC (see developer website for other platforms)
Life Is Strange: Double Exposure isn’t just a return for the beloved narrative adventure series, but a return for its original star, Max Caulfield. Several years after we guided her through Arcadia Bay, Double Exposure sees Max return later in her life, now an artist-in-residence at the prestigious Caledon University.
Unfortunately, calamity is never far away – Max’s friend Safi is killed, and we’ll be plunged into a full-on murder-mystery, with a supernatural twist. Max’s original power to rewind time has morphed into the ability to entirely Shift timelines, and we’ll be exploring two parallel realities – one where Safi is safe and well, and the other in the wake of her death – in order to discover the identity of her killer. Life Is Strange: Double Exposure arrives on October 29, and those who pre-order the Ultimate Edition will be able to play the first two chapters from October 15.
Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC (see developer website for other platforms)
Mecha Break is a multiplayer mech-based shooter that allows players to choose from a variety of mechs, customize their appearances, and battle colossal war machines on treacherous terrain.
Prepare for adrenaline-pumping battles, lightning-fast maneuvers, and explosive firepower. Mecha Break’s Xbox Closed Beta will be coming to Xbox Series X in August 2024, and will be available to all players in 2025. Mecha Break features customizable mechs, player-created mech pilots, a wide array of mech and weapon types, and three distinct game modes — a 6v6 Battlefield mode, 3v3 Arena mode, and up to 60-player PvEvP mode — to put players in the pilot seat and create the ultimate mech showdown experience. Discover an array of attacker, brawler, defender, sniper, and support mechs, each with unique playstyles and toolsets. Players can personalize each mech with custom full-body paint jobs and upgrade attachments, enhancing their stats to suit their chosen playstyle.
For the upcoming August Closed Beta Test on Xbox Series X, the highlight game mode will be the 6v6 Battlefield mode. Work together with your team and engage in intense aerial and ground combat as you fight for the objective.
Xbox Series X|S (see developer website for other platforms)
Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater creates a deeply immersive world with enhanced visuals and sounds, using the full potential of Unreal Engine 5 while keeping legacy controls and voice lines from the original title intact. A new third-person camera and control layout offers players an intuitive introduction to the beginning of the Metal Gear Solid saga as they step into the boots of Snake in a high-stakes, espionage thriller.
Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC, cloud, or play it day one with Game Pass (see developer website for other platforms)
From Beethoven & Dinosaur, award-winning developers of The Artful Escape, comes Mixtape. On their last night of high school, three friends embark on one more adventure together. En route to their final party together, a perfectly-curated playlist draws them into dreamlike reenactments of their formative memories together.
Immerse yourself in the teenage wasteland, playing through a variety of narrative vignettes exploring the pivotal moments that shaped them. The story is delivered through a mixtape of comedic, joyful gameplay, from skateboarding and flying to taking photos after hours at an abandoned theme park, and much more. It’s the greatest hits of teenage friendship, from the first kiss to the last dance. Similar to games like What Remains of Edith Finch, Mixtape ties its narrative to a unique, vignette-driven structure that emphasizes variety, surprise, and comedy in its gameplay.
Featuring music from DEVO, Roxy Music, Lush, The Smashing Pumpkins, Iggy Pop, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Joy Division, and more. Mixtape effectively blends gameplay, narrative, and music. Join the crew on their last night together as they experience a mixtape of memories, set to the soundtrack of a generation.
Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, or play it day one with Game Pass (see developer website for other platforms)
The new trailer for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is here. Packed with brand-new reveals, this trailer showcases the array of experiences awaiting players, from locations to encounters with mutants and archanomalies. And hubs! Places to have some well-deserved rest and prepare your body and gear for the next intense mission.
In-game footage is mixed with narrative snippets, highlighting the prominence of the non-linear storyline in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl. The Time of Opportunities trailer is aptly named, reflecting the boundless potential that awaits within this unforgiving landscape. How will you see the Zone? And how will She remember you?
This time, you’ll hear much more of the Ukrainian voiceover. Being a Ukrainian company, GSC Game World knows that many fans are eager to experience the game in Ukrainian with subtitles of their choice. The trailer is aimed to provide a better understanding of what this experience will feel like. The Time of Opportunities trailer kicks off a series of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 showcases throughout this summer. Please stay tuned for additional announcements.
Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC, or play it day one with Game Pass (see developer website for other platforms)
Build your dream burrow and explore a charming, snow-coated open world in Winter Burrow, a cozy woodland survival game. As a tiny mouse, spend your days adventuring through brisk environments as you search for your lost aunty, and collect up resources to restore your childhood burrow.
Winter Burrow merges comfy, cozy game elements with challenging yet approachable survival merchanics. Spend time in your burrow, crafting cute decorations to make your surroundings feel homely, knit cozy clothing to stay warm in the cold weather, and make sure you’re prepared for those big days of foraging in the forests. To stay up to date on all things Winter Burrow, wishlist the game on the Xbox Store and follow Winter Burrow on Twitter.
Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, or play it day one with Game Pass (see developer website for other platforms)
Step into the dark and tumultuous land of Shu in Wuchang: Fallen Feathers. This soulslike action-RPG launches day one on Xbox Series X|S and immerses players in the dark late Ming Dynasty, a period rife with warring factions and a mysterious illness turning humans into monstrous creatures. You are Wuchang, a pirate warrior struck by amnesia and afflicted by Ornithropy, a horrific disease but the source of immense power. As you explore the depths of Shu, you’ll enhance your arsenal, master new skills harvested from fallen foes, and evolve your fighting style by sacrificing Red Mercury.
Battle against grotesque abominations, drawing on ancient lore to challenge the creeping darkness that threatens the humanity that remains. As you piece together Wuchang’s lost memories, your choices will lead you to one of several endings—each determined by the choices made, secrets unearthed and the allies you choose to trust. Will you reveal the truths of Wuchang’s curse and bring peace to Shu, or will you succumb to the encroaching horrors? The fate of the land rests in your hands. Nothing is Forever.
Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC, PC via Battle.net, Steam, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4
Prepare yourself for the next chapter of Diablo IV from Blizzard Entertainment: Vessel of Hatred, the game’s first expansion, emerges on October 8.
Unleash the power of the Spiritborn, a new class that harnesses the mystical spirits of the jungle for swift and devastating attacks. The hunt for Neyrelle begins anew as she strives to thwart Mephisto’s sinister plot. Dive into the jungle region of Nahantu, where new Dungeons, Strongholds, and enemies await, along with a new PvE co-op activity where you can team up to take down challenges for promising rewards. Plus, recruit new Mercenaries to aid you in your quest, grow in power as they progress, and help you in combat with their unique abilities.
Embrace the shadows on October 8! Vessel of Hatred is set to redefine your journey through Sanctuary. Pre-purchase now and unlock immediate in-game rewards. The darkness does not rest – neither should you.
Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC, Steam, Epic Games Store, cloud, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4
Celebrating a decade of adventures within Tamriel’s Second Era, The Elder Scrolls Online invites you to begin your epic story with a new trailer. Whether you’re an Elder Scrolls veteran or a newcomer to the series, you can explore an ever-growing world, party up with your fellow adventures, and discover why over 24 million players have now experienced the award-winning online RPG.
June also features the launch of ESO’s latest Chapter, The Elder Scrolls Online: Gold Road, now available on PC/Mac and coming June 18 on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S consoles. Unravel the mystery of the return of the Forgotten Prince, unlock the Scribing System to create your own abilities, and delve into the region of West Weld, a part of Tamriel not seen since The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Visit elderscrollsonline.com for more on the Gold Road Chapter and the ongoing 10-Year Anniversary Celebration.
Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC, Steam, cloud, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, or play it day one with Game Pass
In Skyline Valley’s major expansion of the world map, you’ll cross the Savage Divide and travel to the southern reaches of Appalachia. This picturesque new region, Skyline Valley, introduces fresh locations to explore among the woodlands once known as Shenandoah National Park.
Seek out Vault 63 and uncover its mysteries. Learn the truth about the Lost, the electric Ghouls that inhabit the Vault, and their enigmatic overseer, Hugo Stolz. You’ll chase storms in Skyline Valley’s new Public Event, Dangerous Pastimes, and fight new region bosses, a monumental trifecta of Robo-brains. Skyline Valley comes to Fallout 76 on June 12.
Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC, Steam, cloud, PlayStation 5, Game Pass
Rare showed off their dark side with a fiery new Sea of Thieves trailer, heralding the return of Captain Flameheart and inviting players to become the boss fight. An all-new world event will pit pirates against Flameheart’s mighty flagship in order to seize it, raining fire on their foes with a skeleton crew at their command and reaping the rewards of their dastardly deeds. This thrilling new encounter is part of Sea of Thieves: Season 13, which arrives on July 25 as a free update for all players on Xbox, PC and PS5.
Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, Steam, Game Pass
Deep in the dark reaches of space, the followers of the Great Serpent live shrouded in mystery. Begin an epic new story and explore House Va’ruun territory in Shattered Space, Starfield’s first major expansion. Watch the reveal trailer now and experience the story of House Va’ruun when Shattered Space launches later this year.
In addition to the first look at Shattered Space, highlights from Starfield‘s latest major update were shared immediately following the Xbox Showcase. Official mod support with the launch of Creations, the first new quest DLC with the introduction of Trackers Alliance, new bounty hunting features, and improvements to melee weapons are the highlights of Starfield’s June Update. The June Update is now available on Xbox Series X|S and PC.
PC via Battle.net
Blizzard Entertainment’s 10th World of Warcraft expansion and the opening chapter of the most ambitious story arc in the game’s near 20-year history, The War Within is set to launch on August 26.
This upcoming expansion – the first of three in The Worldsoul Saga – will draw you deep into the mythology of World of Warcraft, weaving narrative threads from the past two decades together in a way that will captivate players both old and new. For a limited time, Blizzard is offering the Welcome to Azeroth Bundle, which includes everything players need to begin their adventure in Azeroth. The bundle includes the current expansion – the critically acclaimed Dragonflight – a level 60 character boost, and 60 days of game time, for $24.99 USD.
Don’t miss out on this legendary adventure! Join the community today, explore the wonders of Dragon Isles, and prepare yourself for The War Within – pre-purchases are available now through Battle.net.
Three new Xbox Series X|S console options are joining our current lineup, and we’re excited to give players more ways to join gaming with Xbox – it’s the best way to enjoy the diverse experiences crafted by game creators. This holiday, our 1TB Series S in Robot White, an all-digital Xbox Series X, and a 2TB Xbox Series X Special Edition in Galaxy Black will be available in select markets (console assortment will vary by market). Stay tuned for updates in the coming months where we’ll provide information about market availability and regional Estimated Retail Pricing (ERP) when we share pre-order details. To learn more about these new consoles, head on over to the Wire post here.
With the incredible lineup of games shown at the Xbox Games Showcase 2024 and Call of Duty®: Black Ops 6 Direct, this is one of the best years ever to upgrade your console or jump into Xbox for the first time.
The post Xbox Games Showcase 2024: Every Announcement and Reveal appeared first on Xbox Wire.
If you have a lot of pictures, messages, and files that you don't want to lose, backing up your devices is crucial. For iPhones, this process is very simple. There are two ways of going about it: you can either create a full backup on your computer or just use the iCloud backup feature. Using your PC and Mac to back up iPhone data is a longer process, so we'll be concerning ourselves with the iCloud approach.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
OneDrive is one of the better Google Drive competitors, offering competitive prices as part of Microsoft 365 subscriptions. What if you want to transfer your files from a rival cloud storage service to OneDrive, though? There’s no easy way to do this right now, but our own APK teardown suggests Microsoft is working on a solution.
A teardown of the OneDrive v7.4 Beta 1 app for Android reveals strings suggesting that Microsoft is working on the ability to let you import files from other cloud-sharing services. The strings all contain the name “import_cloud_files,” while some of them even name Google Drive, Google Photos, and Dropbox as supported services.
<string name="import_cloud_files_add_cloud_service">Sign in to an account to import</string><string name="import_cloud_files_checking_connection">Checking connection...</string><string name="import_cloud_files_connect_to_cloud_storage">Connect to %1$s</string><string name="import_cloud_files_description">"OneDrive imports your photos and files without using your device's mobile data plan. Imports continue even if you close the app."</string><string name="import_cloud_files_dropbox">Dropbox</string><string name="import_cloud_files_dropbox_icon_description">Icon for Dropbox</string><string name="import_cloud_files_google_drive">Google Drive</string><string name="import_cloud_files_google_drive_icon_description">Icon for Google Drive</string><string name="import_cloud_files_google_photos">Google Photos</string><string name="import_cloud_files_google_photos_icon_description">Icon for Google Photos</string>
“OneDrive imports your photos and files without using your device’s mobile data plan. Imports continue even if you close the app,” reads an excerpt from one of the strings.
The aforementioned strings give us a good idea of the setup process too, as you’ll need to sign into the desired account. This step suggests you won’t have to actually leave OneDrive to get the ball rolling. Furthermore, a string in the previous version of the app points to the “import cloud files” option being available in the main settings menu. So you won’t have to dig deeply to find the feature.
We also found a few strings that shed more light on the import process. Perhaps the most prominent tidbit is that OneDrive will alert you when your import takes you over your quota limit.
<string name="import_cloud_files_import_completed">Import completed</string><string name="import_cloud_files_import_failed">Import failed</string><string name="import_cloud_files_import_in_progress">In progress</string><string name="import_cloud_files_import_over_quota_limit">Over quota limit</string><string name="import_cloud_files_import_partially_completed">Partially completed</string><string name="import_cloud_files_import_stopped">Stopped</string><string name="import_cloud_files_import_stopping">Stopping</string><string name="import_cloud_files_import_unauthorized">Sign in again</string><string name="import_cloud_files_ready_to_import">Ready to import</string>
This would be a long-overdue feature for OneDrive, as it would definitely make things much easier for people transitioning from rival cloud storage services. It’s not the only prominent feature we’ve recently spotted in OneDrive, as we saw references to a Magic Eraser-style feature in the app last month.
In any event, there’s no word on when OneDrive’s cloud import functionality will be available to users. We’ve asked Microsoft for a statement and will update the article if/when it gets back to us.
OneDrive is one of the better Google Drive competitors, offering competitive prices as part of Microsoft 365 subscriptions. What if you want to transfer your files from a rival cloud storage service to OneDrive, though? There’s no easy way to do this right now, but our own APK teardown suggests Microsoft is working on a solution.
A teardown of the OneDrive v7.4 Beta 1 app for Android reveals strings suggesting that Microsoft is working on the ability to let you import files from other cloud-sharing services. The strings all contain the name “import_cloud_files,” while some of them even name Google Drive, Google Photos, and Dropbox as supported services.
GOG.com “Good Old Games,”‘ the progressive Polish developer and publisher behind Witcher and Cyberpunk 67, has teamed up with Amazon Luna, a cloud gaming service, to offer a more expansive gaming experience to players. This collaboration allows players to access GOG’s library, which includes popular titles like “The Witcher” series and “Cyberpunk 2077,” on various devices through Luna’s streaming technology. Using Amazon’s AWS platform, Luna provides seamless gaming without the need for downloads or high-end PCs.
This partnership maintains GOG’s commitment to DRM-free gaming. Players can access their GOG games on Luna without additional purchases, and new games purchased through Luna are automatically added to their GOG library. This means that the benefits of offline play and GOG GALAXY features, such as cloud saves and achievements, are preserved.
Luna supports various devices, including PCs, smartphones, tablets, and smart TVs. It’s compatible with standard controllers and offers a Luna Controller for easier device switching. This collaboration is ideal for gamers with less powerful hardware or those wanting to play on the go.
To learn more about this integration, gamers can visit Luna’s website. GOG promises to share more updates about this collaboration and ensure their diverse catalog, from classic to modern titles, is accessible on Luna.
The post Does DRM-free GOG dream of Amazon Cloud? appeared first on WePlayGames.net: Home for Top Gamers.
Tech giants rip off customers with sky-high bills
Tech giants have been overcharging their customers for cloud services, threatening to damage the industry long-term.
A new Civo report reveals that 64 per cent of AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud users have seen their costs increase in the last year.
This comes as the watchdogs are probing the public cloud services for their dodgy billing and pricing tricks.
Based on a survey of over 500 tech experts who use the big cloud services, the report finds that 69 per cent of them have seen their bills rise by up to 25 per cent.
More than 42 per cent of businesses using the cloud giants say they can't predict their monthly bill, and 28 per cent say they've been hit with a nasty surprise. 47 per cent of businesses are thinking of ditching the cloud, and 28 per cent have hired advisers to help them cut their costs.
Civo boss Mark Boost said that the cloud is a con and
Mark Boost, the boss of Civo, the firm behind the report, said that the industry needs to face the truth that the cloud is broken.
The cloud giants have not kept their promises of low costs and easy solutions made more than ten years ago. Instead, they've left us with high prices, complicated systems, and locked-in tech, making it hard to go anywhere else.
“Once you're in, you're stuck! This is terrible news, especially for small businesses, who can't afford to tailor the cloud to their needs, “Boost said.
He said the tech sector can improve by focusing on fairness, honesty, and customer experience—not fat cat profits.
“The cloud should be about helping IT teams try new things and create using the technology, finding the services they want, and paying a fair price. With this new approach, the cloud can be what it should have been: an amazing tool for equality in technology, making it possible for anyone to use the latest tech to innovate and succeed. I believe that the tech sector's future must be about fairness and social responsibility, giving back to users and making the world a better place,” Boost said.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth’s in-universe card game Queen’s Blood has taken players by storm. Whether it’s the thrill of the hunt for a new card, or besting your opponent with a broken deck, the Final Fantasy series has another standout card game to go alongside Final Fantasy VIII’s revered Triple Triad and Final…
With the 2018 launch of RTX technologies and the first consumer GPU built for AI — GeForce RTX — NVIDIA accelerated the shift to AI computing. Since then, AI on RTX PCs and workstations has grown into a thriving ecosystem with more than 100 million users and 500 AI applications.
Generative AI is now ushering in a new wave of capabilities from PC to cloud. And NVIDIA’s rich history and expertise in AI is helping ensure all users have the performance to handle a wide range of AI features.
Users at home and in the office are already taking advantage of AI on RTX with productivity- and entertainment-enhancing software. Gamers feel the benefits of AI on GeForce RTX GPUs with higher frame rates at stunning resolutions in their favorite titles. Creators can focus on creativity, instead of watching spinning wheels or repeating mundane tasks. And developers can streamline workflows using generative AI for prototyping and to automate debugging.
The field of AI is moving fast. As research advances, AI will tackle more complex tasks. And the demanding performance needs will be handled by RTX.
In its most fundamental form, artificial intelligence is a smarter type of computing. It’s the capability of a computer program or a machine to think, learn and take actions without being explicitly coded with commands to do so, or a user having to control each command.
AI can be thought of as the ability for a device to perform tasks autonomously, by ingesting and analyzing enormous amounts of data, then recognizing patterns in that data — often referred to as being “trained.”
AI development is always oriented around developing systems that perform tasks that would otherwise require human intelligence, and often significant levels of input, to complete — only at speeds beyond any individual’s or group’s capabilities. For this reason, AI is broadly seen as both disruptive and highly transformational.
A key benefit of AI systems is the ability to learn from experiences or patterns inside data, adjusting conclusions on their own when fed new inputs or data. This self-learning allows AI systems to accomplish a stunning variety of tasks, including image recognition, speech recognition, language translation, medical diagnostics, car navigation, image and video enhancement, and hundreds of other use cases.
The next step in the evolution of AI is content generation — referred to as generative AI. It enables users to quickly create new content, and iterate on it, based on a variety of inputs, which can include text, images, sounds, animation, 3D models or other types of data. It then generates new content in the same or a new form.
Popular language applications, like the cloud-based ChatGPT, allow users to generate long-form copy based on a short text request. Image generators like Stable Diffusion turn descriptive text inputs into the desired image. New applications are turning text into video and 2D images into 3D renderings.
AI PCs are computers with dedicated hardware designed to help AI run faster. It’s the difference between sitting around waiting for a 3D image to load, and seeing it update instantaneously with an AI denoiser.
On RTX GPUs, these specialized AI accelerators are called Tensor Cores. And they dramatically speed up AI performance across the most demanding applications for work and play.
One way that AI performance is measured is in teraops, or trillion operations per second (TOPS). Similar to an engine’s horsepower rating, TOPS can give users a sense of a PC’s AI performance with a single metric. The current generation of GeForce RTX GPUs offers performance options that range from roughly 200 AI TOPS all the way to over 1,300 TOPS, with many options across laptops and desktops in between. Professionals get even higher AI performance with the NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada Generation GPU.
To put this in perspective, the current generation of AI PCs without GPUs range from 10 to 45 TOPS.
More and more types of AI applications will require the benefits of having a PC capable of performing certain AI tasks locally — meaning on the device rather than running in the cloud. Benefits of running on an AI PC include that computing is always available, even without an internet connection; systems offer low latency for high responsiveness; and increased privacy so that users don’t have to upload sensitive materials to an online database before it becomes usable by an AI.
RTX GPUs bring more than just performance. They introduce capabilities only possible with RTX technology. Many of these AI features are accessible — and impactful — to millions, regardless of the individual’s skill level.
From AI upscaling to improved video conferencing to intelligent, personalizable chatbots, there are tools to benefit all types of users.
RTX Video uses AI to upscale streaming video and display it in HDR. Bringing lower-resolution video in standard dynamic range to vivid, up to 4K high-resolution high dynamic range. RTX users can enjoy the feature with one-time, one-click enablement on nearly any video streamed in a Chrome or Edge browser.
NVIDIA Broadcast, a free app for RTX users with a straightforward user interface, has a host of AI features that improve video conferencing and livestreaming. It removes unwanted background sounds like clicky keyboards, vacuum cleaners and screaming children with Noise and Echo Removal. It can replace or blur backgrounds with better edge detection using Virtual Background. It smooths low-quality camera images with Video Noise Removal. And it can stay centered on the screen with eyes looking at the camera no matter where the user moves, using Auto Frame and Eye Contact.
Chat with RTX is a local, personalized AI chatbot demo that’s easy to use and free to download.
Users can easily connect local files on a PC to a supported large language model simply by dropping files into a single folder and pointing the demo to the location. It enables queries for quick, contextually relevant answers.
Since Chat with RTX runs locally on Windows with GeForce RTX PCs and NVIDIA RTX workstations, results are fast — and the user’s data stays on the device. Rather than relying on cloud-based services, Chat with RTX lets users process sensitive data on a local PC without the need to share it with a third party or have an internet connection.
Over the past six years, game performance has seen the greatest leaps with AI acceleration. Gamers have been turning NVIDIA DLSS on since 2019, boosting frame rates and improving image quality. It’s a technique that uses AI to generate pixels in video games automatically. With ongoing improvements, it now increases frame rates by up to 4x.
And with the introduction of Ray Reconstruction in the latest version, DLSS 3.5, visual quality is further enhanced in some of the world’s top titles, setting a new standard for visually richer and more immersive gameplay.
There are now over 500 games and applications that have revolutionized the ways people play and create with ray tracing, DLSS and AI-powered technologies.
Beyond frames, AI is set to improve the way gamers interact with characters and remaster classic games.
NVIDIA ACE microservices — including generative AI-powered speech and animation models — are enabling developers to add intelligent, dynamic digital avatars to games. Demonstrated at CES, ACE won multiple awards for its ability to bring game characters to life as a glimpse into the future of PC gaming.
NVIDIA RTX Remix, a platform for modders to create stunning RTX remasters of classic games, delivers generative AI tools that can transform basic textures from classic games into modern, 4K-resolution, physically based rendering materials. Several projects have already been released or are in the works, including Half-Life 2 RTX and Portal with RTX.
AI is unlocking creative potential by reducing or automating tedious tasks, freeing up time for pure creativity. These features run fastest or solely on PCs with NVIDIA RTX or GeForce RTX GPUs.
Adobe Premiere Pro’s Enhance Speech tool is accelerated by RTX, using AI to remove unwanted noise and improve the quality of dialogue clips so they sound professionally recorded. It’s up to 4.5x faster on RTX vs. Mac. Another Premiere feature, Auto Reframe, uses GPU acceleration to identify and track the most relevant elements in a video and intelligently reframes video content for different aspect ratios.
Another time-saving AI feature for video editors is DaVinci Resolve’s Magic Mask. Previously, if editors needed to adjust the color/brightness of a subject in one shot or remove an unwanted object, they’d have to use a combination of rotoscoping techniques or basic power windows and masks to isolate the subject from the background.
Magic Mask has completely changed that workflow. With it, simply draw a line over the subject and the AI will process for a moment before revealing the selection. And GeForce RTX laptops can run the feature 2.5x faster than the fastest non-RTX laptops.
This is just a sample of the ways that AI is increasing the speed of creativity. There are now more than 125 AI applications accelerated by RTX.
AI is enhancing the way developers build software applications through scalable environments, hardware and software optimizations, and new APIs.
NVIDIA AI Workbench helps developers quickly create, test and customize pretrained generative AI models and LLMs using PC-class performance and memory footprint. It’s a unified, easy-to-use toolkit that can scale from running locally on RTX PCs to virtually any data center, public cloud or NVIDIA DGX Cloud.
After building AI models for PC use cases, developers can optimize them using NVIDIA TensorRT — the software that helps developers take full advantage of the Tensor Cores in RTX GPUs.
TensorRT acceleration is now available in text-based applications with TensorRT-LLM for Windows. The open-source library increases LLM performance and includes pre-optimized checkpoints for popular models, including Google’s Gemma, Meta Llama 2, Mistral and Microsoft Phi-2.
Developers also have access to a TensorRT-LLM wrapper for the OpenAI Chat API. With just one line of code change, continue.dev — an open-source autopilot for VS Code and JetBrains that taps into an LLM — can use TensorRT-LLM locally on an RTX PC for fast, local LLM inference using this popular tool.
Every week, we’ll demystify AI by making the technology more accessible, and we’ll showcase new hardware, software, tools and accelerations for RTX AI PC users.
The iPhone moment of AI is here, and it’s just the beginning. Welcome to AI Decoded.
Get weekly updates directly in your inbox by subscribing to the AI Decoded newsletter.
We've kind of become used to the idea of monthly subscriptions for our gaming needs. But if even that's too much for you, Nvidia has now made it possible to utilize its cloud gaming service on a daily basis.
As reported by Videocardz, you can now purchase a Day Pass for GeForce NOW, which gives you access to Nvidia's servers, powered by the RTX 4000-series graphics cards. It comes in two flavors as well: Priority and Ultimate, similar to the monthly memberships.
As for what you get, well, you'll be entitled to 24-hour access to Team Green's cloud, which includes all the usual benefits of a typical subscription, but without actually having to subscribe for a month or beyond.
It should be said that you won't get to play your games through GeForce NOW for the full 24 hours. Depending on which tier you opt for, you'll get either six or eight hours of actual game time, but you'll have access to the servers for the entire day.
According to the sign-up page on Nvidia's website, you can pay $3.99 for the Priority Day Pass or $7.99 for Ultimate. The latter is said to have "exclusive access" to the RTX 4080 servers. You'll also benefit from up to 4K resolution and 120 FPS.
Oh, but if you want to try before you buy, the report from Videocardz says there's an option to get a free hour-long session, but I couldn't see where you would sign up for that. It also comes with ads, because we are, in actuality, living in an episode of Black Mirror (what a cool reference).
The post Can’t afford an RTX 4000-powered rig? Nvidia GeForce Now will let you rent one for a day appeared first on Destructoid.
Chiplets are gaining renewed attention in the automotive market, where increasing electrification and intense competition are forcing companies to accelerate their design and production schedules.
Electrification has lit a fire under some of the biggest and best-known carmakers, which are struggling to remain competitive in the face of very short market windows and constantly changing requirements. Unlike in the past, when carmakers typically ran on five- to seven-year design cycles, the latest technology in vehicles today may well be considered dated within several years. And if they cannot keep up, there is a whole new crop of startups producing cheap vehicles with the ability to update or change out features as quickly as a software update.
But software has speed, security, and reliability limitations, and being able to customize the hardware is where many automakers are now putting their efforts. This is where chiplets fit in, and the focus now is on how to build enough interoperability across large ecosystems to make this a plug-and-play market. The key factors to enable automotive chiplet interoperability include standardization, interconnect technologies, communication protocols, power and thermal management, security, testing, and ecosystem collaboration.
Similar to non-automotive applications at the board level, many design efforts are focusing on a die-to-die approach, which is driving a number of novel design considerations and tradeoffs. At the chip level, the interconnects between various processors, chips, memory, and I/O are becoming more complex due to increased design performance requirements, spurring a flurry of standards activities. Different interconnect and interface types have been proposed to serve varying purposes, while emerging chiplet technologies for dedicated functions — processors, memories, and I/Os, to name a few — are changing the approach to chip design.
“There is a realization by automotive OEMs that to control their own destiny, they’re going to have to control their own SoCs,” said David Fritz, vice president of virtual and hybrid systems at Siemens EDA. “However, they don’t understand how far along EDA has come since they were in college in 1982. Also, they believe they need to go to the latest process node, where a mask set is going to cost $100 million. They can’t afford that. They also don’t have access to talent because the talent pool is fairly small. With all that together comes the realization by the OEMs that to control their destiny, they need a technology that’s developed by others, but which can be combined however needed to have a unique differentiated product they are confident is future-proof for at least a few model years. Then it becomes economically viable. The only thing that fits the bill is chiplets.”
Chiplets can be optimized for specific functions, which can help automakers meet reliability, safety, security requirements with technology that has been proven across multiple vehicle designs. In addition, they can shorten time to market and ultimately reduce the cost of different features and functions.
Demand for chips has been on the rise for the past decade. According to Allied Market Research, global automotive chip demand will grow from $49.8 billion in 2021 to $121.3 billion by 2031. That growth will attract even more automotive chip innovation and investment, and chiplets are expected to be a big beneficiary.
But the marketplace for chiplets will take time to mature, and it will likely roll out in phases. Initially, a vendor will provide different flavors of proprietary dies. Then, partners will work together to supply chiplets to support each other, as has already happened with some vendors. The final stage will be universally interoperable chiplets, as supported by UCIe or some other interconnect scheme.
Getting to the final stage will be the hardest, and it will require significant changes. To ensure interoperability, large enough portions of the automotive ecosystem and supply chain must come together, including hardware and software developers, foundries, OSATs, and material and equipment suppliers.
Momentum is building
On the plus side, not all of this is starting from scratch. At the board level, modules and sub-systems always have used onboard chip-to-chip interfaces, and they will continue to do so. Various chip and IP providers, including Cadence, Diode, Microchip, NXP, Renesas, Rambus, Infineon, Arm, and Synopsys, provide off-the-shelf interface chips or IP to create the interface silicon.
The Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express (UCIe) Consortium is the driving force behind the die-to-die, open interconnect standard. The group released its latest UCIe 1.1 specification in August 2023. Board members include Alibaba, AMD, Arm, ASE, Google Cloud, Intel, Meta, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Samsung, and others. Industry partners are showing widespread support. AIB and Bunch of Wires (BoW) also have been proposed. In addition, Arm just released its own Chiplet System Architecture, along with an updated AMBA spec to standardize protocols for chiplets.
“Chiplets are already here, driven by necessity,” said Arif Khan, senior product marketing group director for design IP at Cadence. “The growing processor and SoC sizes are hitting the reticle limit and the diseconomies of scale. Incremental gains from process technology advances are lower than rising cost per transistor and design. The advances in packaging technology (2.5D/3D) and interface standardization at a die-to-die level, such as UCIe, will facilitate chiplet development.”
Nearly all of the chiplets used today are developed in-house by big chipmakers such as Intel, AMD, and Marvell, because they can tightly control the characteristics and behavior of those chiplets. But there is work underway at every level to open this market to more players. When that happens, smaller companies can begin capitalizing on what the high-profile trailblazers have accomplished so far, and innovating around those developments.
“Many of us believe the dream of having an off-the-shelf, interoperable chiplet portfolio will likely take years before becoming a reality,” said Guillaume Boillet, senior director strategic marketing at Arteris, adding that interoperability will emerge from groups of partners who are addressing the risk of incomplete specifications.
This also is raising the attractiveness of FPGAs and eFPGAs, which can provide a level of customization and updates for hardware in the field. “Chiplets are a real thing,” said Geoff Tate, CEO of Flex Logix. “Right now, a company building two or more chiplets can operate much more economically than a company building near-reticle-size die with almost no yield. Chiplet standardization still appears to be far away. Even UCIe is not a fixed standard yet. Not all agree on UCIe, bare die testing, and who owns the problem when the integrated package doesn’t work, etc. We do have some customers who use or are evaluating eFPGA for interfaces where standards are in flux like UCIe. They can implement silicon now and use the eFPGA to conform to standards changes later.”
There are other efforts supporting chiplets, as well, although for somewhat different reasons — notably, the rising cost of device scaling and the need to incorporate more features into chips, which are reticle-constrained at the most advanced nodes. But those efforts also pave the way for chiplets in automotive, and there is strong industry backing to make this all work. For example, under the sponsorship of SEMI, ASME, and three IEEE Societies, the new Heterogeneous Integration Roadmap (HIR) looks at various microelectronics design, materials, and packaging issues to come up with a roadmap for the semiconductor industry. Their current focus includes 2.5D, 3D-ICs, wafer-level packaging, integrated photonics, MEMS and sensors, and system-in-package (SiP), aerospace, automotive, and more.
At the recent Heterogeneous Integration Global Summit 2023, representatives from AMD, Applied Materials, ASE, Lam Research, MediaTek, Micron, Onto Innovation, TSMC, and others demonstrated strong support for chiplets. Another group that supports chiplets is the Chiplet Design Exchange (CDX) working group , which is part of the Open Domain Specific Architecture (ODSA) and the Open Compute Project Foundation (OCP). The Chiplet Design Exchange (CDX) charter focuses on the various characteristics of chiplet and chiplet integration, including electrical, mechanical, and thermal design exchange standards of the 2.5D stacked, and 3D Integrated Circuits (3D-ICs). Its representatives include Ansys, Applied Materials, Arm, Ayar Labs, Broadcom, Cadence, Intel, Macom, Marvell, Microsemi, NXP, Siemens EDA, Synopsys, and others.
“The things that automotive companies want in terms of what each chiplet does in terms of functionality is still in an upheaval mode,” Siemens’ Fritz noted. “One extreme has these problems, the other extreme has those problems. This is the sweet spot. This is what’s needed. And these are the types of companies that can go off and do that sort of work, and then you could put them together. Then this interoperability thing is not a big deal. The OEM can make it too complex by saying, ‘I have to handle that whole spectrum of possibilities.’ The alternative is that they could say, ‘It’s just like a high speed PCIe. If I want to communicate from one to the other, I already know how to do that. I’ve got drivers that are running my operating system. That would solve an awful lot of problems, and that’s where I believe it’s going to end up.”
One path to universal chiplet development?
Moving forward, chiplets are a focal point for both the automotive and chip industries, and that will involve everything from chiplet IP to memory interconnects and customization options and limitations.
For example, Renesas Electronics announced in November 2023 plans for its next-generation SoCs and MCUs. The company is targeting all major applications across the automotive digital domain, including advance information about its fifth-generation R-Car SoC for high-performance applications with advanced in-package chiplet integration technology, which is meant to provide automotive engineers greater flexibility to customize their designs.
Renesas noted that if more AI performance is required in Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), engineers will have the capability to integrate AI accelerators into a single chip. The company said this roadmap comes after years of collaboration and discussions with Tier 1 and OEM customers, which have been clamoring for a way to accelerate development without compromising quality, including designing and verifying the software even before the hardware is available.
“Due to the ever increasing needs to increase compute on demand, and the increasing need for higher levels of autonomy in the cars of tomorrow, we see challenges in monolithic solutions scaling and providing the performance needs of the market in the upcoming years,” said Vasanth Waran, senior director for SoC Business & Strategies at Renesas. “Chiplets allows for the compute solutions to scale above and beyond the needs of the market.”
Renesas announced plans to create a chiplet-based product family specifically targeted at the automotive market starting in 2025.
Standard interfaces allow for SoC customization
It is not entirely clear how much overlap there will be between standard processors, which is where most chiplets are used today, and chiplets developed for automotive applications. But the underlying technologies and developments certainly will build off each other as this technology shifts into new markets.
“Whether it is an AI accelerator or ADAS automotive application, customers need standard interface IP blocks,” noted David Ridgeway, senior product manager, IP accelerated solutions group at Synopsys. “It is important to provide fully verified IP subsystems around their IP customization requirements to support the subsystem components used in the customers’ SoCs. When I say customization, you might not realize how customizable IP has become over the course of the last 10 to 20 years, on the PHY side as well as the controller side. For example, PCI Express has gone from PCIe Gen 3 to Gen 4 to Gen 5 and now Gen 6. The controller can be configured to support multiple bifurcation modes of smaller link widths, including one x16, two x8, or four x4. Our subsystem IP team works with customers to ensure all the customization requirements are met. For AI applications, signal and power integrity is extremely important to meet their performance requirements. Almost all our customers are seeking to push the envelope to achieve the highest memory bandwidth speeds possible so that their TPU can process many more transactions per second. Whenever the applications are cloud computing or artificial intelligence, customers want the fastest response rate possible.”
Fig 1: IP blocks including processor, digital, PHY, and verification help developers implement the entire SoC. Source: Synopsys
Optimizing PPA serves the ultimate goal of increasing efficiency, and this makes chiplets particularly attractive in automotive applications. When UCIe matures, it is expected to improve overall performance exponentially. For example, UCIe can deliver a shoreline bandwidth of 28 to 224 GB/s/mm in a standard package, and 165 to 1317 GB/s/mm in an advanced package. This represents a performance improvement of 20- to 100-fold. Bringing latency down from 20ns to 2ns represents a 10-fold improvement. Around 10 times greater power efficiency, at 0.5 pJ/b (standard package) and 0.25 pJ/b (advanced package), is another plus. The key is shortening the interface distance whenever possible.
To optimize chiplet designs, the UCIe Consortium provides some suggestions:
Conclusion
The idea of standardizing die-to-die interfaces is catching on quickly but the path to get there will take time, effort, and a lot of collaboration among companies that rarely talk with each other. Building a vehicle takes one determine carmaker. Building a vehicle with chiplets requires an entire ecosystem that includes the developers, foundries, OSATs, and material and equipment suppliers to work together.
Automotive OEMs are experts at putting systems together and at finding innovative ways to cut costs. But it remains to seen how quickly and effectively they can build and leverage an ecosystem of interoperable chiplets to shrink design cycles, improve customization, and adapt to a world in which the leading edge technology may be outdated by the time it is fully designed, tested, and available to consumers.
— Ann Mutschler contributed to this report.
Related Reading
Automotive Relationships Shifting With Chiplets
As the automotive ecosystem balances the best approaches for designing in increasingly advanced features, how companies interact is still evolving.
The post Why Chiplets Are So Critical In Automotive appeared first on Semiconductor Engineering.
Přihlásit se