It's no secret these days that GPU makers profited from the early cryptocurrency mining boom, but NVIDIA is now facing some repercussions as a result. The company is paying $5.5 million to settle US Securities and Exchange Commission charges it failed to disclose that crypto mining played a "significant" role in its surging revenue from GPU sales throughout fiscal 2018. NVIDIA allegedly violated both the Securities Act and Securities Exchange Act when it didn't reveal that its success was tied to a "volatile business," potentially misleading investors who might have thought this was the result of the firm's usual gaming-focused strategy.

The SEC's order also said NVIDIA misled investors by acknowledging that crypto demand did affect other aspects of its business at the time. That implied mining wasn't a significant part of the gaming business' success where it was for other products, according to the regulator. NVIDIA will have to abide by a cease-and-desist barring it from future rule-breaking.

An NVIDIA spokesperson declined to comment. The brand has increasingly seen crypto mining as more of a liability to its gaming GPU sales than a benefit, though. It started limiting the mining capabilities of RTX GPUs in 2021 in a bid to free up cards for the intended audience. The company even launched dedicated mining cards that year in a bid to satisfy crypto fans without cutting into demand for its GeForce GPU line.

The payment is tiny for a company that made $7.6 billion in its most recently reported quarter. With that said, the modest settlement was somewhat expected given an unsuccessful past attempt to demand compensation. Tom's Hardwarenoted in March 2021 that a judge dismissed a lawsuit accusing NVIDIA of deceiving investors — it was no secret many GPUs were destined for crypto miners, the judge ruled. While the SEC found wrongdoing, it was going to have a harder time showing that NVIDIA caused enough damage to warrant a large penalty.

The world needs to cut carbon emissions by a quarter by the year 2030 to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change, according to the latest report from the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Governments and industries must make sure to level carbon emissions by 2025. Even then, the world will need to invest in CO2 removal factories and other technologies to remove carbon dioxide from the sky. With all these measures in place, the world can still expect a bare minimum temperature increase of 1.5 degrees Celsius over the next few decades, still, a grim outcome that will eviscerate most of the world’s coral reefs and make many low-lying regions uninhabitable.

The lead author of the report, Sarah Burch, tweeted that even the 1.5 degrees Celsius target is unlikely, a sentiment that other climate scientists have expressed. In order to reach that goal, virtually every industry and country would have to make rapid emissions cuts.

“The average annual greenhouse gas emissions over the last 10 years were THE HIGHEST IN HUMAN HISTORY. We are not on track to limit warming to less than 1.5 degrees,” tweeted Burch.

But the report also expressed a few reasons to be optimistic. First, governments and the private sector at the very least know what they need to do as far as curbing their energy use. The question remains whether stakeholders will actually stick to their emissions targets and make the drastic changes needed to avoid the worst case scenario.

“Having the right policies, infrastructure and technology in place to enable changes to our lifestyles and behavior can result in a 40-70% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. This offers significant untapped potential,” wrote IPCC Working Group III Co-Chair Priyadarshi Shukla in the report.

Second, even though average annual global greenhouse gas emissions between 2010 to 2019 were the highest in human history, the rate of growth has slowed. Countries have adopted policies that have decreased deforestation and ramped up the use of renewable energy. The costs of solar, wind energy and lithium ion batteries have also decreased by 85% over the past decade, making it a more viable option than ever before.

The report warned that by 2050, solar and wind power will need to supply the majority of the world’s energy. And the report also echoed the consensus shared by most climate scientists that the world must immediately and rapidly curb its use of fossil fuels. “Coal has to go. Coal without carbon capture and storage has to go down by 76% by 2030. That’s… really fast,” noted Burch.

But attaining global consensus to cut down on fossil fuels is easier said than done. China, the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, increased its domestic coal use in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which ramped up energy commodity prices. Leaders in the EU and US have expressed concerns that global demand for coal will only increase, with countries needing to burn more coal due to higher natural gas prices.

Way back in 2018 Intel announced plans to develop its own line of discrete GPUs back designed to compete with rival cards from AMD and NVIDIA. And despite several delays including missing its original 2020 launch window, this spring the first batch of Intel's new Arc graphics cards are finally ready for use in retail devices, starting with Samsung's Galaxy Book 2 Pro laptops.

As a quick recap, while Intel's Arc line will eventually cover both laptops and desktops, the first batch of A-series GPUs are lower-power cards intended mainly for ultraportables and thin-and-light notebooks. The company's graphics cards will use a naming scheme similar to its CPUs to help differentiate between various performance tiers, beginning with the new Arc A350M and A370M, before moving on to the more powerful Arc 5 and Arc 7 cards which are due out sometime later this summer. 

Intel

Across the entire family of Arc GPUs, Intel's graphics architecture is based on four main pillars: the company's XE cores, XE Media Engine, XE Display Engine, and the XE Graphics Pipeline. All Arc cards will also have the same basic feature set including support for DirectX 12 Ultimate, ray tracing, XE Super Sampling, AV1 hardware acceleration and more. 

The Arc's XE cores are based on Intel's XE HPG (High Performance Graphics) microarchitecture, with each core featuring 16 256-bit Vector Engines. 16 1,024-bit Matrix Engines and 192KB of shared memory. The XE Media Engine is designed to support popular video apps with hardware encoding at up to 8K 10-bit HDR and hardware acceleration for a number of popular standards (VP9, AVC, HEVC, AV1). Meanwhile, the XE Display Engine was built to handle video output for up to two 8K displays at 60Hz simultaneously, four 4K displays running at 120Hz, or a single 1440p screen at 360Hz.

Intel

As for the two new cards themselves, both the A350M and A370M are targeting 1080p gaming at 60fps to 90fps across a range of popular games. The A350M is designed to draw between 25 and 35 watts of power and will sport six XE cores, six ray tracing units, a graphics clock of 1,150 MHz (which Intel says is a conservative estimate of the card's typical clock speed) and 4GB of GDDR6 vRAM. Alternatively, the A370M is designed for slightly larger laptops with a power draw of between 35 and 50 watts, eight XE cores, 8 ray tracing units, a graphics clock of 1,550 MHz, and the same 4GB of vRAM. And as you can see in the image above, the upcoming Arc 5 and Arc 7 cards will be significantly more powerful. But again, they won't be out until sometime in early summer. 

Intel

Also, alongside its new GPUs, Intel created a software suite called Arc Control similar to NVIDIA's GeForce Experience and AMD's Radeon Software, designed to allow users to more easily monitor performance, install drivers and updates, record game highlights and even connect to live streaming apps like Xsplit. And thanks to a UI that uses a streamlined overlay, Intel's Arc Control should be easy to access in the middle of a battle. 

Intel even says it's working more with developers to provide faster and more responsive driver support for new titles, with featured games on the Arc cards including titles such as Elden Ring, Ghostwire: Tokyo, Dolmen and a whole lot more. And as one of the largest chip makers in the world, Intel also created its Deep Link tech which is designed to give its Arc cards an additional performance boost when working in tandem with Intel's onboard integrated graphics. 

Intel

So while we're only getting two new Arc cards right now (and relatively low-power ones at that), today marks an important moment as Intel finally becomes the true third horse in the discrete graphics space. The first retail device to feature one of Intel's A-series cards is Samsung's Galaxy Book 2 Pro, which goes on sale next month. However, Intel promises that there will be a slew of even more laptops featuring Arc GPUs coming soon from big names including Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, MSI, Lenovo and others. 

Apple likes to flaunt its ability to save metal, and now it's reducing the environmental impact of the metal itself. The company says the latest iPhone SE is the first product made from "commercial-purity" low-carbon aluminum at industrial scale. Montreal, Canada-based Elysis has produced a batch for Apple using a carbon-free, hydropower-based smelting process that outputs oxygen rather than greenhouse gases.

The two companies didn't say just how many iPhone SE units would use this aluminum. The design most conspicuously relies on aluminum for the frame, but the back is dominated by glass that helps with wireless charging and data reception.

The development is a long time in coming. Apple helped development through an investment team-up that included Alcoa, Rio Tinto, the Canadian government and the Quebec provincial government. The tech firm also bought the first batch of aluminum from that union to produce the 16-inch MacBook Pro from 2019. Aluminum-linked carbon emissions at Apple have dropped almost 70 percent since 2015, according to the company.

Apple boasted that it has routinely poured money into projects like this through three "Green Bonds" totalling $4.7 billion. The investments, which started in 2016, have focused on both reducing emissions and providing clean power. The money for Elysis' low-carbon aluminum comes from a 2019 bond backing 50 projects, including ones that "mitigate or offset" 2.9 million metric tons of CO2 and establish close to 700MW of renewable energy.

The efforts help burnish Apple's image as much as they might lessen the contribution to climate change — like Samsung and other rivals, the company wants to assuage buyers worried that their new phone might do unnecessary harm. Greater use of this eco-friendly aluminum will help Apple reach its goal of selling carbon-neutral products by 2030, though. And given Apple's sheer market clout, carbon reductions like this could have a tangible effect.

Unusually high gas prices throughout the US and Canada has led to Uber tacking on a fuel surcharge to rides and deliveries, according to a blog post on the company’s website. This likely won’t surprise anyone who’s gotten behind the wheel recently. A rapid spike in crude oil and gas prices due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has made paying anywhere from $50 to $80 to fill a tank the norm.

“We know that prices have been going up across the economy, so we’ve done our best to help drivers and couriers without placing too much additional burden on consumers. Over the coming weeks we plan to listen closely to feedback from consumers, couriers and drivers. We’ll also continue to track gas price movements to determine if we need to make additional changes,” wrote Uber spokesperson Liza Winship on the company’s website.

Uber’s fuel surcharge will vary by state and by the amount of miles driven. For Uber rides, the fuel surcharge will be anywhere between $0.45 to $0.55 per trip. For Uber Eats deliveries, the fee will be between $0.35 to $0.45 per trip. The company says the additional fee will go straight to Uber drivers, who pay for mileage out of their own pockets. The policy won’t apply at all in New York City, where drivers have a pay floor and the majority of delivery drivers are on bikes.

Interestingly enough, riders will have to pay the fuel surcharge even if they're riding in an EV. According to The Verge, Uber hopes this will be an additional incentive for drivers to switch to electric vehicles. But given that Uber already charges passengers an additional $1 for its Uber Green option — which only deploys hybrid or electric vehicles— this could lead to some Uber Green customers opting for cheaper ride options.

High gas prices have led to some Uber drivers working for below minimum wage, especially in California, where the average price of a gallon of regular gas on Friday was $5.802, significantly higher than the national average. Some Uber drivers have opted to not work at all due to the price of gas.

Uber’s fuel surcharge will go into effect on March 16th, 2021, after which the company will re-evaluate the policy.

We got our first look at Dune: Spice Wars at the 2021 Game Awards, and now developer Shiro Games is giving fans of Frank Herbert’s seminal novels a better look at the project. In a gameplay trailer the studio shared on Tuesday, we see how a game of Spice Wars plays out. Unlike most 4X games, including Civilization VI and Humankind, Spice Wars is part real-time strategy game. That means you won’t have hundreds of turns where you can agonize over every possible move to decide how to lead your faction. That should make decisions like where to send your troops, what settlements to invade and how to engage in diplomacy more impactful.

Of course, each time you move your troops or fight in combat out in the open desert of Arrakis, you’ll need to keep in mind a Sandworm may come to snack on your units. Judging from the trailer, you’ll also have access to agents you can send to organizations like the Spacing Guild, CHOAM and even the Landsraad. When it arrives on Steam Early Access later this year, Spice Wars will feature four playable factions. Naturally, the noble House Atredies and fearsome House Harkonnen are among the groups you can lead.

That the first Dune game in two decades should include RTS elements is fitting. In 1992, Westwood Studios helped established the formula for the genre with the excellent Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty. While the popularity of RTS games has waned in recent years, Dune II’s legacy and influence persist. You wouldn’t have MOBAs like League of Legends if not for the work Westwood Studios and Blizzard did in the early ‘90s.

A group of Democratic lawmakers led by Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachuttes has asked six crypto mining companies, including Riot Blockchain, to answer questions about the impact of their operations on the environment and cost of electricity in the US. In separate letters to the chief executives of each firm, the group asks the companies to detail how much electricity they consume, their scaling plans and any agreements they have in place with local utility companies. They have until February 10th to reply.

Lawmakers say they’re concerned about what a dramatic increase in domestic cryptocurrency mining has meant for the environment and consumers. Specifically, they cite a 2021 study from the University of California, Berkeley that estimated crypto mining in upstate New York raised annual electricity bills by approximately $165 million for small businesses and $79 million for consumers, “with little or no local economic benefit.” They also point to the fact that energy consumption related to Bitcoin mining tripled between 2019 and 2021.

“The extraordinarily high energy usage and carbon emissions associated with Bitcoin mining could undermine our hard work to tackle the climate crisis – not to mention the harmful impacts crypto mining has on local environments and electricity prices,” Senator Warren said. “We need more information on the operations of these crypto mining companies to understand the full scope of the consequences for our environment and local communities.”

The group stops short of suggesting regulatory action could be on the horizon for the industry, but clearly the effect of cryptocurrency on other parts of the economy is something lawmakers are thinking about. On January 20th, the House Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing titled “Cleaning up Cryptocurrency: The Energy Impacts of Blockchains.” What’s more, US lawmakers have taken a more board interest in cryptocurrencies in recent months. That was on display in December when the Senate held a hearing on Stablecoins.

Coal should be going obsolete because renewable energy is becoming cheaper, but the US government is keeping it afloat with the promise of capturing carbon emissions and storing them underground. Now, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has said that federal agencies spent $684 billion on coal plant carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects that have mostly failed, Gizmodo has reported. It also spent $438 million on other three CCS industrial projects, two of which were cancelled.

"DOE [Department of Energy] provided nearly $684 million to eight coal projects, resulting in one operational facility," according to the GAO report. "DOE’s process for selecting coal projects and negotiating funding agreements increased the risks that DOE would fund projects unlikely to succeed."

DOE’s process for selecting coal projects and negotiating funding agreements increased the risks that DOE would fund projects unlikely to succeed.

Not only did the Department of Energy use a "high-risk selection" method to choose projects, it negotiated and funded them too expeditiously, according to the report. Coal negotiations lasted just three months instead of the usual year "based on DOE's desire to begin spending American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 funds quickly." On top of that, it bypassed the usual cost controls and supported projects "even though they were not meeting required key milestones." 

The DOE recently said that it wants to dramatically reduce the cost of carbon capture technology via a program called Carbon Negative Shot. The aim is to remove CO2 directly from the air and sequester it underground at a cost of less than $100 per ton, deploying it at the gigaton scale. 

However, the easiest and cheapest way to cut gigatons of emissions would be to retire costly coal plants completely, according to a report last year the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena). That's because the costs of renewable energy have plunged in the last decade, making them effectively cheaper than coal. And of course, adding CCS tech to coal would increase costs considerably. All that said, coal and fossil fuels are a charged political subject in the US, despite the global risks of climate change. 

In the end, the GAO recommended more congressional oversight for DOE expenditures on CCS. "Absent such a mechanism, DOE is at risk of expending significant funds on CCS demonstration projects that have little likelihood of success."

When AT&T's and Verizon's C-band 5G services go live on January 19th, they'll be implementing buffer zones around 50 airports in the US to reduce to risk of flight disruption. The Federal Aviation Administration has released a list (PDF) of the 50 airports it chose, which include major passenger hubs such as Chicago O'Hare International, Dallas-Fort Worth and Los Angeles Int'l. As The Wall Street Journal notes, it also includes airports in foggy and cloudy locations like Seattle-Tacoma International, as well as cargo hubs like Indianapolis Int'l.

The carriers were supposed to roll out their 5G service using their newly purchased frequencies on January 5th, but they agreed to comply with the FAA's and Transportation Department's request to push back their expansion by two more weeks. Authorities intend to use the extra time to investigate concerns that the new frequencies are too close to those used by airplanes' radar altimeters. The devices measure the distance between the plane and the ground to help planes land in poor visibility and poor weather conditions. Wireless companies deny that using the C-band frequencies for 5G will disrupt aviation.

The FAA said that Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and some of the other busiest airports in the US are missing from the list, because they're nowhere near the areas where the new 5G services are deploying. Meanwhile, other large airports are also not included because they're deemed far away enough from the nearest 5G towers. 

Airlines for America, the association that represents major North American airlines, told Reuters and The Post in a statement that it appreciates the "FAA's efforts to implement mitigations for airports that may be most impacted by disruptions generated by the deployment of new 5G service." However, Kevin Burke, the CEO of airport trade group Airports Council International-North America, is less than pleased. Burke said the list is "largely irrelevant because the entire aviation system is about to be adversely impacted by this poorly planned and coordinated expansion of 5G service in and around airports."

In 2020, Goodyear pledged to develop a new tire made entirely of sustainable materials within the next decade. Today the company has unveiled a tire with 70 percent sustainable material content, which shows the progress it has made towards achieving its ultimate goal. The tire features 13 ingredients across nine different tire components, including three different carbon blacks that are traditionally made by burning petroleum products.

Carbon black is typically used as a filler to reinforce tires, as well as other rubber products, and to lengthen their lifespan. Instead of using carbon black produced using petroleum, Goodyear used ones that were made using methane, carbon dioxide and plant-based oil. The company says the methods of production its suppliers used to create the sustainable carbon blacks generated less carbon emissions than traditional processes. 

Goodyear has also been using soybean oil for certain tire lines instead of petroleum oil, and this one is no different. Soybean oil allows tires to remain pliable in changing temperatures with added traction benefits. The company had been aiming to use 100 percent soybean oil in four of its tire lines in 2020, but it fell short due to production issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Goodyear's new tire uses a variety of silica, which improves tire grip and help lower fuel consumption, made from rice husk ash, as well. Rice husk ash is a by-product of rice milling, and it's pretty abundant in rice producing countries. Researchers have ben looking into its use as an alternative for cement and and as a source of silica, and according to Goodwill, it was able to produce high-quality silica from the waste material. In addition, the company broke down polyester materials recycled from plastic bottles and other plastic wastes into their base chemicals. They were then turned into technical grade polyester used for tire cords that maintain the shape of the tire. 

Chris Helsel, chief technology officer at Goodyear, said the 70 percent sustainable tire "is an exciting achievement that demonstrates [the company's] commitment to increasing the use of sustainable materials." That said, it was manufactured as a demo product, and the company has yet to reveal whether it will be released to the public.