Kioxia unveils E1.L SSDs for hyperscalers with up to 122.88TB capacity

IT Hardware

AI-rewritten: This is a summary of an article from Tom’s Hardware, rewritten by AI (Qwen, running locally) to make it easier to read. The facts come from the original article – read it for the full story.

Tom’s Hardware • Anton Shilov • October 9, 2026

Kioxia introduced its LD4-series solid-state drives (SSDs) in an E1.L form factor with capacities up to 122.88 TB on Friday, designed for hyperscale data centers. The manufacturer states these drives use proven BiCS8 3D QLC NAND technology and target read-intensive workloads such as AI data repositories and object storage. While Kioxia lists PCIe 5.0 compliance, the drives operate at PCIe 4.0 x4 speeds of up to 16 GT/s per lane, providing a theoretical maximum bandwidth of approximately 7.88 GB/s in each direction.

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Save $200 on the 2026 M5 MacBook Air right now, undoing Apple’s June price hike with prices starting from $1,099

IT Hardware

AI-rewritten: This is a summary of an article from Tom’s Hardware, rewritten by AI (Qwen, running locally) to make it easier to read. The facts come from the original article – read it for the full story.

Tom’s Hardware • Stewart Bendle • October 9, 2026

Apple raised prices for its entire MacBook and iPad lineup in June, with the MacBook Air increasing by $200. However, Amazon is currently selling the 2026 MacBook Air with the M5 chip at these reduced rates during Prime Day sales. The base model with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD is priced at $1,099, while the 16GB/1TB configuration costs $1,399 and the 24GB/1TB version is $1,599. These discounts are not available directly from Apple, which has kept its prices higher than what Amazon offers right now.

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Grab this 32-inch 4K OLED gaming monitor from ASRock for the super low price of $596

IT Hardware

AI-rewritten: This is a summary of an article from Tom’s Hardware, rewritten by AI (Qwen, running locally) to make it easier to read. The facts come from the original article – read it for the full story.

Tom’s Hardware • Stewart Bendle • October 9, 2026

Newegg currently offers the ASRock PGO32UFS Phantom Gaming Monitor at $596, down from its previous list price of $899. This represents a saving of $303 on this 32-inch 4K OLED display. While prices for RAM and storage have risen recently, gaming monitor prices are actually declining. The monitor features dual-mode refresh rates and resolution switching to support both high-performance gaming and competitive esports titles.

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Mistral’s new Large 4 trails some Chinese open models in independent tests

IT Hardware

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Tom’s Hardware • Shane Downing • October 9, 2026

Mistral recently launched its Large 4 (ML4) model, which uses a mixture-of-experts architecture trained on Nvidia’s Grace Blackwell GPUs in European datacenters. Artificial Analysis (AA), an independent benchmarking firm, ranked ML4 as the most intelligent open-weight model outside the U.S. and China with a score of 38 on its Intelligence Index v4.3.2. However, five Chinese models scored higher overall, including MiMo-V2.6-Pro at 46 and GLM-5.3 (max) at 45. Unlike these competitors, ML4 is not yet open; Mistral states its weights will be released by the end of October.

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PC shipments tumble over 20% in 3Q26 as chip shortages bite

IT Hardware

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Tom’s Hardware • Jowi Morales • October 9, 2026

Global PC shipments fell by 20.1% year-over-year in the third quarter of 2026, representing a drop of 15.8 million units. According to IDC Global, this decline is steeper than the 3.8% decrease seen last quarter and down 9.1% from the second quarter of this year. Many research firms had warned about this trend since late last year, with IDC predicting the market could shrink up to 9%, particularly in the budget sector. Some experts estimate the situation will not improve until 2029, while Tom’s Hardware readers stated they do not plan to upgrade their systems in the next two years.

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Liquid-crystal-like magnetism explains puzzling properties in a rare-earth compound

Quantum Technology

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Phys.org • October 8, 2026

Researchers led by Pengcheng Dai at Rice University discovered that quantum spins in the rare-earth compound YbMnBi₂ behave like molecules in a liquid crystal. In this state, spins favor a specific direction without forming large-scale magnetic order. This phenomenon was observed when the team fired neutron beams at crystals of YbMnBi₂ and a related calcium compound to measure spin fluctuations under varying temperatures and magnetic fields.

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Layered semiconductor unlocks magnetic control of light emitted by quantum condensates

Quantum Technology

AI-rewritten: This is a summary of an article from Phys.org, rewritten by AI (Qwen, running locally) to make it easier to read. The facts come from the original article – read it for the full story.

Phys.org • October 8, 2026

Researchers have developed a method to control light emitted by quantum condensates using the magnetic properties of a new layered semiconductor called chromium sulfide bromide (CrSBr). Unlike traditional semiconductors that require extreme cooling, this material allows exciton–polaritons to form at moderate temperatures. Exciton–polaritons are hybrid states created when electron-hole pairs, known as excitons, couple with light in an optical resonator. This coupling reduces their effective mass, enabling them to move in lockstep and form a macroscopic quantum state that emits coherent light.

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How researchers tell different quantum excitations apart in individual molecules

Quantum Technology

AI-rewritten: This is a summary of an article from Phys.org, rewritten by AI (Qwen, running locally) to make it easier to read. The facts come from the original article – read it for the full story.

Phys.org • October 8, 2026

Dr. Arnab Banerjee and his colleagues faced a challenge when studying individual cobaltocene molecules using tunneling spectroscopy. The measured spectra displayed confusing signals caused by various excitations, making it difficult to determine which specific process created each measurement signal because theoretical models were unreliable. To solve this, the team placed the molecules on a lead surface that becomes superconducting at very low temperatures and used a scanning tunneling microscope with a metallic tip positioned extremely close to the molecule to allow electrons to cross the tiny gap.

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Superconducting circuit links smaller photon groups into larger entangled states

Quantum Technology

AI-rewritten: This is a summary of an article from Phys.org, rewritten by AI (Qwen, running locally) to make it easier to read. The facts come from the original article – read it for the full story.

Phys.org • October 9, 2026

Researchers at Tsinghua University and the Hefei National Laboratory recently introduced a new strategy to link smaller groups of microwave photons into larger entangled states. This work, published in *Nature Physics*, aims to create adjustable graph states, which are mathematical networks describing connections between qubits used in quantum computing. The team utilized superconducting circuits, materials that allow electrical current to flow with zero resistance at specific low temperatures, to generate these photon groups.

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Roundtables: A Conversation With the Creator of AI-Designed Viruses

Artificial Intelligence

AI-rewritten: This is a summary of an article from MIT Technology Review, rewritten by AI (Qwen, running locally) to make it easier to read. The facts come from the original article – read it for the full story.

MIT Technology Review • MIT Technology Review • October 9, 2026

Stanford University PhD student Samuel King recently used a generative AI model to propose genetic blueprints for microscopic viruses. While this is not yet an example of AI-generated life, it suggests that creating new life forms could be the next step. James O’Donnell, senior AI reporter, will interview King on October 16th at 18:30 BST regarding these findings and his recognition as one of MIT Technology Review’s Innovators Under 35.

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