Daily Tech News 4 August 2023

• The Chinese researchers who filmed a video of LK-99 demonstrating superconductive magnetic levitation at room temperature have published their findings. (Arxiv) (PDF)
  
  They note that they measured cutoff temperatures ranging from 299K to 340K depending on the size and purity of the sample - so anywhere from 26C / 78F which is a warm spring day to 67C / 152F which is well above the temperature of any room you would want to find yourself in - but still well below the cutoff temperature measured in the original paper.
  
  
  
• A second paper from researchers familiar with the superconductive properties of thin-film lead-based heterophase crystalline structures sheds light on why results may have varied between teams attempting to replicate the discovery. (Arxiv) (PDF)
  
  In short, it's a tricky bastard. It's not a single molecular compound but a complex structure made up of superconducting and non-superconducting crystals of varying sizes. While it may be the genuine article, it may not be of any practical use until we find a consistent and cost-effective way to synthesize it in bulk.
  
  We see this sort of issue with battery research too:
  
  Plus: Stores 10x the energy of the best existing lithium-polymer batteries.
  Minus: Detonates instantly if you look at it.

• AMD has announced its W7600 low-end professional graphics card. (Serve the Home)
  
  And also the even lower-end W7500, which only uses 70W of power and runs entirely off the power provided by the PCIe slot.
  
  While I say low-end, at 12 TFLOPS the W7500 is 20% faster than the previous-generation W6600, and the 20 TFLOPS W7600 is twice as fast. All three cards have 8GB of RAM on a 128-bit bus.
  
  W7500 costs $429, W7600 $599, which is actually cheaper than the $649 W6600 as well.
  
  
  
• Meanwhile full specs have leaked for AMD's 7800 XT unprofessional GPU. (WCCFTech)
  
  3840 shaders delivering up to 38 TFLOPS, and 16GB of RAM on a 256-bit bus.
  
  This is from a production model card from PowerColor, so those details are pretty reliable.
  
  Final MSRP has not leaked but is expected to be $549.
  
  
  
• LG's new 27" OLED monitor is ushering in a new age where they almost don't completely suck. (The Verge)
  
  Don't buy an OLED monitor, yet.
  
  
  

posted by Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM

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