Daily Tech News 5 February 2026

• Can Chinese memory save us from the RAM crisis? (WCCFTech)
  
  The article points out limitations of current Chinese DRAM production: It's slower than the best chips from the Big Three, uses more power, and is produced on an older technology node, making it larger and more expensive to manufacture.
  
  I think, for example, that CXMT in China and Nanya in Taiwan are both limited to 16Gbit chips, well short of Micron's 32Gbits.
  
  But who cares if it's slower and uses more power and take a little more space on the module which is module-sized anyway, if you can actually buy it?
  
  Can you buy it?
  
  Well, no. But it's the thought that counts.

• AMD has confirmed that the Steam Machine will ship early this year. (WCCFTech)
  
  The pricing may not be what people have hoped, even those who adjusted their expectations to match the awful new reality delivered by OpenAI.
  
  Also, the processor for the next-gen Xbox will be in production next year. The Xbox itself is an open question.
  
  
  
• NASA has acknowledged that the SLS is kind of a failure. (Ars Technica)
  
  The article goes into the awful details:

  The first launch attempt (effectively the fifth wet-dress test), in late August, was scrubbed due to hydrogen leaks and other problems. A second attempt, a week later, also succumbed to hydrogen leaks. Finally, on the next attempt, and seventh overall try at fully fueling and nursing this vehicle through a countdown, the Space Launch System rocket actually took off. After doing so, it flew splendidly.
  
  That was November 16, 2022. More than three years ago. You might think that over the course of the extended interval since then, and after the excruciating pain of spending nearly an entire year conducting fueling tests to try to lift the massive rocket off the pad, some of the smartest engineers in the world, the fine men and women at NASA, would have dug into and solved the leak issues.
  
  You would be wrong.

  Eric Berger is the token sane man at Ars Technica.
  
  
  
• Solar Winds in the server room with a lead pipe. (Bleeping Computer)
  
  Solar Winds - a very widespread network management system - has just patched a flurry of horrible security flaws. The latest one is a remote code execution bug, joining a hardcoded authentication nightmare and two authentication bypass holes.
  
  SolarWinds was the epicentre of a massive supply-chain attack in 2020, and related suspicions of insider trading when executives sold stock after the breach was detected but before it was announced. I don't think anything was ever proven there, though.
  
  
  
• Another review of Intel's new Panther Lake laptop chips, in a new laptop. (Ars Technica)
  
  Which has two screens.
  
  Panther Lake appears to be genuinely good, with solid CPU performance and best-in-class integrated graphics.
  
  Shame about the RAM-and-SSD crisis making laptops unaffordable right now.

posted by Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM

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