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Nvidia steps into the cloud gaming battlefield with the GeForce Grid-- a "second-generation" platform promising to reduce latencies through the power of Kepler GPUs.

The result of a partnership with cloud gaming providers Gaikai, Ubitus and Playcast, Grid offers games "on any device, anywhere." Meaning tablets, smartphones, TVs and, of course, PCs (anything carrying a standard H.264 hardware video decoder).

The first Grid demo at the 2012 GPU Technology Conference runs on an LG Cinema TV, without the need for an external console.

Powering the Grid is consumer-grade technology derived from the latest GeForce card, the GTX 690-- x2 Kepler GPUs (each with 3072 CUDA cores) providing 4.7 teraflops of 3D shader performance. The technology apparently reduces latency to levels Nvidia claims are “comparable, if not better, than gaming on a console at home.”

A number of games developers (namely Epic, Capcom and THQ) already pledge support to Grid.

Nvidia gives no word on when Grid will actually launch, or the business model it will run on-- the company hints at an OnLive-style subscription model, with a $10 monthly fee. Will Nvidia manage to kill PC gaming as we know it?

Go Nvidia GeForce Grid

Lenovo refreshes the ThinkPad series with Ivy Bridge processors and revamped keyboards, but one model catches the eye-- the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, an ultrabook Lenovo claims is the thinnest and lightest yet.

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon is a 14" ultrabook with a carbon fibre rollcage, making it thin, light and stiff. It weighs 1.3kg and is 18mm thick at the thickest point.

The display handles 1600x900 resolution with 300 nits of brightness, "wide" viewing angles and a hinge allowing the screen to backwards by 180-degrees.

Inside are a 3rd generation Intel Core i-series processor (with Intel vPro support), a rapid-charge battery (charges up to 80% strength in 35 minutes) and integrated 3G connectivity. Ports include x2 full-size USB 3.0, mini DisplayPort socket, SD card slot and 3.5mm headphone jack.

Other additions to the Lenovo ThinkPad portfolio include the X, T, W and L series, all with improved keyboards, 3rd generation Intel Core processors and RapidBoot technology.

Go Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon

Go Lenovo Announces Latest ThinkPad Laptops

Japanese researchers at the Tokyo Institute of Technology smash the record for wireless data transmission over the "T-ray" band, achieving 3Gbps transfer over a 542GHz wireless connection.

The data rate achieved is double the previous record from chip maker Rohm of 1.5Gbps transfers using a 300GHz connection. Such connections falls into the 300GHz-3THz band, known as the terahertz spectrum or simply "T-rays."

300GHz is 60x higher than the highest current wifi standard.

Tetraherz wifi has range limitations (around 10m) but supports data rates of up to 100Gb/s, nearly x15 higher than the next generation of 802.11ac wifi.

The Japanese researchers achieve such wifi speeds using a resonant tunneling diode (RTD), a 1mm-square device that "resonates" and transmits electro-magnetic signals at very high frequencies. Previous T-ray experiments required bulky, costly and power-hungry equipment with science fiction-esque names like "quantum cascade lasers."

Project leader Dr. Safumi Suzuki is confident tetraherz communications are ripe for consumerisation-- he believes "everybody will use products related to THz technology within the next decade."

Go Intense Resonance Paper (IET Electronics Letters)

Go Milestone for Wifi with T-Rays (BBC)

AMD announces the 2nd generation of A-series APUs, following "Fusion" with "Trinity" processors-- chips the company claims offer longer battery lives and lower prices than Intel's Ivy Bridge.

Trinity still uses the 32nm fabrication process (unlike the smaller Ivy Bridge), resulting in larger die sizes as the number of transistors grows. AMD insists customers do not care about processor sizes, instead preferring features like instant-on functionality.

AMD aims the Trinity series for use in ultrabook-style laptops and says a sub 5-Watt tablet processor will be ready by the time Windows 8 launches. The company has no plans to make an Android-compatible processor-- yet.

Unlike Intel, AMD does not plan to dictate laptop standards to vendors. On the other hand, the company says "we feel the market is struggling due to a lack of differentiation, and we want to help companies accomplish this."

Apparently Trinity chips offer x2 the performance per watt and 29% more CPU performance in comparison to 1st generation chips, thanks to a new Piledriver CPU core using 3rd generation Turbo Core technology.

AMD also says Trinity APUs are more of a graphics processor than CPU (meaning improved gaming and video playback), while the chips use up to 12 hours of battery life.

Trinity CPUs should appear in laptops from vendors such as Acer, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba later this year.

Go 2nd Generation AMD A-Series APUs