Technology

• Recruitment drive would increase Graphcore's headcount by 20%
• Announcement marks first big moves since SoftBank acquisition
• Roles available in silicon design, software, and infrastructure

Graphcore has announced plans for a fresh hiring drive just months after its landmark acquisition by SoftBank.

The British AI chip manufacturer announced it has 75 open positions spanning a range of business functions, including silicon design, data center infrastructure management, hardware engineering, and AI research.

“Whether your expertise is in silicon, systems, software, AI research or any of the other functions that we are expanding, this is a chance to work at the leading-edge of your field,” said CEO Nigel Toon.

Graphcore hiring spree

The recruitment campaign represents a 20% increase in Graphcore’s overall workforce, and will include positions at all of its global offices.

The company currently has sites in Bristol, Cambridge, and London in the UK, along with offices in Gdansk, Poland, and Hsinchu City, Taiwan.

Graphcore was acquired by SoftBank in July 2024 in a deal described by Toon as a “tremendous endorsement” for the company. As part of the deal, the company became a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Japanese investment bank.

While financial terms of the acquisition were undisclosed, it’s believed the deal was valued at around $600 million, representing a significant markdown on its 2020 valuation of around $2.5 billion.

Toon described the deal as a “tremendous endorsement” for the company and said the acquisition is a “great outcome”.

What does the move say about Graphcore future plans?

In its announcement, Graphcore said the move builds on a pledge to “continue to invest in the creation of high-skilled jobs spanning a range of disciplines” in the wake of its acquisition.

The open positions do point toward its potential future plans, however, particularly with regard to chip design. Of the 75 roles Graphcore is recruiting for, 10 of these alone are in Silicon engineering design, suggesting the company plans to ramp up development of its next generation chip range.

Graphcore currently boasts three generations of silicon, with its most recent - the Bow Intelligence Processing Unit (IPU) - released in 2022. The Bow IPU delivers up to 350 teraflops of AI compute, and boasts a 40% increase in performance and 16% power efficiency compared to the company’s previous generation IPU.

However, unlike other processors available on the market, Graphcore’s IPUs do not use High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) technology. Instead, they rely on internal SRAM.

Competitor chips do use HBM though, including Intel, AMD and Nvidia.

With a raft of positions available in its silicon design department, this begs the question of whether Graphcore could shake up its design to include HBM capabilities.

Similarly, advertised roles in its infrastructure solutions and software departments may also point toward a change of tack for Graphcore, perhaps with its focus on data center capabilities sharpening.

It wouldn’t be alone here, either. Nvidia offers its own software and infrastructure options for AI inferencing. This has been crucial in its rapid ascendance throughout the generative AI boom.

AMD has also focused heavily on its own data center segment in recent years to keep pace with Nvidia.

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• Yellowjackets is being sued for copyright infringement
• Showtime has been accused of stealing the idea of Yellowjackets from a 2015 survival thriller Eden
• The lawsuit alleges that Yellowjackets has 'substantially, strikingly similar elements' to Eden

If crashing planes and cannibalism weren't enough, Yellowjackets is now being sued for copyright infringement. The best Paramount Plus show is accused of ripping off the 2015 survival thriller Eden.

With Yellowjackets season 3 set to air in 2025, Showtime has been hit with a lawsuit claiming the idea for Yellowjackets has been stolen from Shyam Madiraju's Eden, which is available to stream on one of the best free streaming services, Tubi.

The copyright infringement lawsuit filed on November 14 in New York federal court alleges that Yellowstone “borrows heavily from Eden to the point at which they are substantially similar.”

According to Deadline, the complaint reads: “Comparing the Film to the Show’s plots, setting, mood, pace, stories, characters, sequence of events, themes, and scene/dialogue similarities, demonstrates that the two works, in most respects, are identical. These substantially, strikingly similar elements leave little doubt that most substantive elements of Yellowjackets are copied from Eden.”

How are Yellowjackets and Eden similar?

Both Yellowjackets and Eden follow a soccer team who start to display cult-like behavior and resort to cannibalism after crashing into a remote location. Yellowjackets is a time-hopping thriller about a 1996 New Jersey high school girls' soccer team whose plane crashes into the Canadian wilderness. They are forced to make harrowing decisions to survive the harsh conditions and must grapple with these consequences in their present lives.

As for Eden, the plot is about a US men's soccer team that crashes on a deserted island after a World Cup match. It's not just the plot that's similar, though, but also the setting, characters, mood, themes, and pacing.

The Hollywood Reporter reveals that the complaint states: “In both works, the survivors, which include various players and the coach, among others, must fight for their lives against the harsh elements, starvation through dwindling resources, and the psychological toll of isolation in the form of growing darkness within themselves. As they struggle to survive, tensions rise, alliances form, dark secrets emerge, and moral boundaries are pushed to their limits - blurring the line between good and evil.”

When Yellowjackets debuted on Showtime in 2021, it became the cable channel's biggest original series in years. With the lawsuit seeking an injunction prohibiting Showtime and the other defendants from further exploiting the series, this could be a major blow to the network if they lost the lawsuit.

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• Malicious commits found in Exo Labs' GitHub account
• They were submitted, and pointed to, a Texas-based security researcher
• The malware does not exist, and the researcher claims someone is impersonating him

Someone has been breaking into GitHub projects, injecting malicious code, and seemingly trying to discredit a researcher by accusing them of the hack.

Executives from AI and machine learning startup Exo Labs have warned someone tried to submit new changes to the code in the company’s GitHub repository.

The added code was “innocent looking”, and was titled “clarify mlx requirement for deepseek models”, and in order to hide the code from scrutiny, the attacker converted it to a number equivalent. However, the submission was analyzed before being pushed to the repository, and it was quickly discovered that it tried to connect to the evildojo[dot]com, to download the stage one payload. The researchers determined that there was no payload on the server and that it simply returned a 404 error.

Hidden Risk

Drilling deeper into the attack, the researchers discovered that the evildojo domain, as well as the GitHub accounts associated with the attack, all pointed to a researcher named Mike Bell - a security researcher and a white-hat hacker from Texas. He denies any involvement with the attack and claims it was all an attempt to ruin his good name.

"Not me, an impersonator. Notice account deleted. Very sorry people are being dragged into some skid's beef w/ me," BleepingComputer cited Bell saying about the attacks. “There was never any payload...why do people keep assuming there was?,” he added.

When questioned about the incident on X, Bell clarified that whoever was behind the attack never got access to his domain, never got the payload on his site, and that all Bell did was “piss someone off, apparently.”

Given that anyone can create a GitHub account impersonating someone else, and since there was no malicious payload or harm caused, the idea of a smear campaign seems plausible—especially since Bell is actively involved in the cybersecurity community, albeit from the opposing side.

Via BleepingComputer

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• A new report says to expect the AirTag 2 in 2025
• Apple is said to be focusing on improving privacy and connectivity
• Don't expect any major design changes, though

Rumors of an Apple AirTag successor began to circulate shortly after the launch of the original. Considering that Apple's original tracker has been around for nearly four years now, having been unveiled in May 2020, we’ve been hearing about the AirTag 2 for a while, and now a new report is shedding more light on what we can expect.

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that a new AirTag, codenamed B589, is in development and that “Apple is getting ready to bring it to market,” likely by the middle of 2025. It’s likely not going to be a redesign, even though we all wish the AirTag had a loop for the easy attachment of keys, but it’s not all bad news.

The report notes that the AirTag 2 will “offer better range, bolster the onboard wireless chip, and improve privacy” compared to the first generation. Seemingly, Apple wants to make privacy front and center and continue to prevent unwanted tracking – the first generation already has additional security features. These features include alerts sent to your iPhone if an AirTag is spotted traveling with you and the ability to play a sound on it to find it.

(Image credit: TechRadar)

One change Apple is likely to implement in the AirTag 2 is making it more difficult to remove the speaker, making it harder for thieves to render it untraceable.

Beyond privacy improvements, Gurman notes that the next AirTag will get improvements to the overall range and the onboard chip. The latter is said to be “bolstered,” so that could mean a new chip or improvements to the current one.

Improved connectivity, improved finding, and more privacy features certainly sound like a winning feature set on paper. We also hope Apple sticks with a user-replaceable, standard battery that can last for a year, a water-resistant design, and easy pairing with the rest of its ecosystem. And, of course, we’re hoping there’s no hike from the current price of $29 / £29 / AU$45 for one AirTag.

Beyond the AirTag, Apple seems to be preparing to launch a number of new products in 2025 – we’re expecting a next-generation iPhone SE, a new entry-level iPad, and a new MacBook Air. Gurman also reported that Apple’s long-rumored smart home display might see the light of day.

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If you watched the Mike Tyson versus Jake Paul match on Netflix last week, you know disappointment. I don't mean the fight. Sure, that was a snoozefest preceded by some truly compelling undercard fights. No, the disappointment was in Netflix, one of the best streaming services, which serves hundreds of millions of people every day but somehow succumbed to 65 million concurrent viewers with a deeply pixellated action, a frustrating spinning wheel, and sometimes no video service at all.

For those unaware, Netflix tried its hand at live sports last Friday, broadcasting a full card of pro-level fights over three hours and culminating in the highly anticipated bout between the 26-year-old Paul and the 58-year-old former champ Tyson. The fight went about how you would expect between someone in the prime of their youth and a boxer who retired almost 20 years ago. However, throughout the evening, Netflix became wildly unstable. I watched a good part of all the action and experienced numerous outages, as well as a fair amount of videos that looked like graphics from Mike Tyson's 1987 PunchOut! game for NES. At times, the throughput devolved into dial-up at best.

I'm describing my experience, but I was far from alone. Social Media was flooded with reports, and site and service performance tracking service Downdetector reported tens of thousands of service issues. Reuters termed it an "outage."

Netflix succumbing pic.twitter.com/aPIWpKlqkENovember 16, 2024

Netflix has yet to comment publicly on the performance issues, but it did tout the audience numbers, claiming that 60 million households tuned in for the Tyson vs. Paul match. Even some of the undercards, like the women's boxing rematch between Amanda Serrano and Katie Taylor, drew 50 million. I can confirm that the video performance on that compelling match was at least as bad as what I experienced in the title match.

It's not a good look for a streaming platform that's set to aggressively enter the live sporting event space with the WWE and the NFL. And it may be quite alarming for Beyoncé fans, which are legion.

The music icon just signed up to perform as the Christmas Day half-time show for Netflix's first NFL game between the Houston Texans and the Baltimore Ravens.

A live football game on Christmas is sure to draw millions of viewers. It might not be Tyson vs. Paul levels, at least not until Beyoncé takes the stage. Many people who don't care a whit about the pigskin sport will tune in to see Beyoncé's first live performance of tunes from her Grammy-nominated country album, Cowboy Carter.

If Netflix thinks boxing fans are vocal, wait until they get an earful of the Beyhive.

(Image credit: A.RICARDO)

It's possible, though, that Netflix learned a thing or two from the Tyson vs. Paul bout and is now shoring up its backbone in anticipation of this Dec. 25 mega event. Maybe, but without another comparable live event in between, how will Netflix test an upgraded system? As I see it, Netflix will be flying without a net.

If Netflix wants to avoid Beyonce and her fans', it better pony up with some servers and as much backbone support as possible – maybe 16 Carriages worth – as it can muster. Netflix must understand this is not Just For Fun. It won't be enough for Netflix to respond "Ya Ya" or play Texas Hold 'Em with resources. No crying Alligator Tears that you couldn't get it done. This isn't your, Smoke Hour, Netflix. It's essentially your Super Bowl, so do all you can so you can be Livin' the Dream with Beyonce' and her fans.

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Google might be resurrecting its Pixel laptop, a fresh rumor insists, getting plenty of hopes up with high-end Chromebook fans.

This comes from Android Headlines which cites an internal email that was leaked as mentioning Google’s new project for a premium laptop under the Pixel branding (which is now used for its smartphones and watches).

Way back in the mists of time, there used to be a Chromebook Pixel laptop, and the new version is apparently codenamed ‘Snowy.’ We aren’t told anything about it, though, save that it’s still in the early stages, and that Google intends it to be a rival for the likes of the MacBook Pro, Microsoft Surface Laptop and Dell XPS – a seriously premium effort by the sound of things.

The laptop will surely run ChromeOS, and likely be among our rankings of the best Chromebooks, if it does end up coming to fruition, although nothing is confirmed at this stage.

What we are told is that the project is greenlit and underway, so it’s progressing from the concept phase, and apparently a dedicated team has been formed to develop the laptop.

This is one to keep an eye out for future rumors around, certainly, though we need to take this report with a good deal of caution at this stage. We’ll be happier when we have the contention made here corroborated by other tech sites.

(Image credit: Future) Analysis: Pixel perfect? Here’s hoping

The original Chromebook Pixel was a gorgeous creation in some ways, but deeply flawed in others, when it came to light over a decade ago. Google switched to make the Pixelbook (and Pixelbook Go) towards the end of the decade, which were superb notebooks (the latter especially). However, sadly the whole laptop line-up came off the rails eventually, and indeed the whole team behind the Pixelbook was dissolved in 2022 – which seemed a pretty bold line drawn to close the entire affair.

Apparently, though, a team is now back together, and Google is rethinking the possibilities behind another Chromebook Pixel, or maybe even a Pixelbook if it keeps the more recent (and successful) branding.

We hope this is true, but at the same time, we’ve got to acknowledge that we’ve heard buzz from the rumor mill about a Chromebook Pixel resurrection in the past that resulted in nothing. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that this rumor is on the money, and Google’s development team manages to generate enough interest from the powers-that-be and various bean counters to allow new Pixel hardware to emerge in notebook form.

There’s no shortage of enthusiasm around a new Pixel laptop, that’s for sure, but hopefully as well as premium portables, there’ll be room for an affordable option in the mix, too. We’ll likely be in for a fair old wait for these creations to come to market, mind you.

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• Vaio SX14-R is a new lightweight 14-inch laptop with advanced connectivity options
• Powered by Intel Core Ultra H-series, up to 64GB memory
• Elegant color options: Deep Emerald, Urban Bronze, Fine Black, Bright Silver

Vaio has launched the SX14-R, an upgraded, higher-end model of its popular 14-inch business notebook.

Aimed at professionals, the new device weighs just under 1kg (2.2 pounds), 100g heavier than the smaller SX12 laptop.

The SX14-R is powered by Intel’s Core Ultra H-series processors (Ultra 5 125H or Ultra 7 155H). While the newer Series 2 Lunar Lake architecture would have been preferable to the previous generation Meteor Lake, the SX14-R - paired with up to 64GB of LPDDR5X memory and up to 2TB of PCIe 4.0 NVMe storage - is still highly capable.

Striking color options

The laptop includes two Thunderbolt 4 ports for high-speed data transfer, two USB 3.0 Type-A ports, and an HDMI port. Additionally, a Gigabit Ethernet port provides a reliable wired internet connection, ideal for stable networking in office environments.

On the wireless side, the SX14-R supports both 5G and Wi-Fi 7. Like the recent SX12 model, it can take a SIM and an eSIM simultaneously, allowing users to seamlessly switch between networks - a welcome feature for frequent travelers and remote workers alike.

It comes with stereo front-facing speakers, an optional 9.2MP webcam with HDR video support, and a sensing feature which can automatically turn off the display when you step away from the screen. There's a choice of two battery options: a high-capacity model that provides up to 16 hours of video playback or 38 hours of standby, and a standard battery that lasts up to 11/27 hours. The actual capacity of both isn't known.

Probably the most striking aspect of the Vaio SX14-R is the choice of colors it comes in. The laptop is available in attractive Deep Emerald and Urban Bronze hues, as well as the classic Fine Black and Bright Silver.

For now, the SX14-R is available exclusively in Japan, with pricing starting at 259,800 yen (approximately $1,730), although we wouldn't be surprised to see it become available globally in 2025.

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• El Capitan is the new world leader in raw computing power
• It is situated at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)
• El Capitan is powered by AMD instinct MI300A APUs

The global supercomputing leaderboard has a new presence at top spot, as the AMD-powered El Capitan takes over prime position to become the world's most powerful setup.

With a sustained compute power of 1.7 exaflops and a peak of over 2.7 exaflops, El Capitan knocks previous leader Frontier to second on the list of the most powerful supercomputers in the world.

El Capitan was built by HPE for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) to simulate nuclear weapons tests. It is powered by AMD instinct MI300A APUs and is not only the fastest but also in the top 20 of the greenest computers too.

Computations reduced from months to weeks

For perspective, El Capitan can achieve a task in less than one second that requires one human to do one calculation every second since the earth formed and then again for nine more earths.

The supercomputer will enable LLNL to significantly improve the ability to predict and model nuclear weapon performance as the stockpile gets older and new systems are introduced.

This will help LLNL to better understand and make informed decisions for safety. It will also be leveraged for a range of other missions to help understand emergencies such as natural disasters and manmade crises.

It does this by providing higher resolutions in 3D modelling that were either not possible with previous machines or too computationally expensive to regularly run.

More accurate replication of physics allows the analysis of components to be of higher quality, helping scientists incorporate more real-world factors such as material and manufacturing imperfections and environmental conditions.

Previously these calculations were either impossible or would take weeks or months on LLNLs current systems - which has now been reduced down to days or even hours.

"Leveraging the AMD Instinct MI300A APUs, we've built a system that was once unimaginable, pushing the absolute boundaries of computational performance while maintaining exceptional energy efficiency," noted Bronis R. de Supinski, LLNL’s chief technology officer for Livermore Computing.

“With AI becoming increasingly prevalent in our field, El Capitan allows us to integrate AI with our traditional simulation and modeling workloads, opening new avenues for discovery across various scientific disciplines."

AMD now powers both of the two most powerful supercomputers in the world, with a combined power of over 3 exaflops totalling 61% of the performance of the entire top 10.

Of the top 10, AMD now powers five devices, including El Capitan, Frontier, HPC6 from ENI, LUMI, and Tuolumne.

“We are thrilled to see El Capitan become the second AMD powered supercomputer to break the exaflop barrier and become the fastest supercomputer in the world. Showcasing the incredible performance and efficiency of the AMD Instinct MI300 APUs, this groundbreaking machine is a testament to the dedicated work between AMD, LLNL and HPE,” said Forrest Norrod, executive vice president and general manager, AMD.

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