YouTuber Moore’s Law is Dead claims that in addition to all the new desktop and mobile chips that AMD has already told us are coming in the next year or two, there’s at least one more chip on the way. Code-named “Little Phoenix,” it’ll be a low-power alternative to the upcoming Phoenix Point laptops, and it could be optimized for budget gaming laptops and handheld gaming PCs… like the next-gen Steam Deck.
Meanwhile, chip manufacturer TSMC is outlining its plans for manufacturing 3nm and 2nm chips in the coming years, Google has rolled out yet another beta of Android 13, Valve has released a software update that should allow Windows to run better on its handheld, and Amazon has announced this year’s Prime Day sale will take place July 12 and 13.
Here’s a roundup of recent tech news from around the web.
TSMC unveils roadmap for manufacturing chips on its upcoming 3nm and 2nm nodes in the coming years, bringing performance, efficiency, and transistor density to next-gen CPUs, GPUs, and other chips. https://t.co/jS5Jak5HwC
— Liliputing (@liliputingnews) June 17, 2022
AMD is said to be working on a “Little Phoenix” chip for late 2023 handheld gaming PCs with 4 Zen 4 CPU cores @ up to 4 GHz, 8 RDNA 3 GPU compute units, LPDDR5-6400 support. Could bring up to 35% better CPU & 2X better graphics performance to Steam Deck 2. https://t.co/yAyniDsyZj pic.twitter.com/Zqo56TYZ2F
— Liliputing (@liliputingnews) June 17, 2022
Google released Android 13 Beta 3.2 this week and while it’s mostly a bug fix release, it does bring some small behavioral changes to Pixel phones. Here’s a run-down of what’s new. https://t.co/9cfZA0eAiO
— Liliputing (@liliputingnews) June 17, 2022
Hi all, just a heads up for folks running Windows on their Steam Decks – we’ve recently updated the APU driver and one of the audio drivers to address a few issues.
You can find those updated drivers here: https://t.co/zjU2Ubr8l0 pic.twitter.com/LywG0wmsOe— Steam Deck (@OnDeck) June 17, 2022
Amazon says some Kindle, Echo, Fire, Ring, and Blink products will be up to 55% off during the company’s annual Prime Day sale (which is actually two days again this year, from July 12 – 13, with those device deals starting June 21). https://t.co/c5ZmklyZcU
— Liliputing (@liliputingnews) June 16, 2022
The Floppotron 3.0 is a bigger, louder, more versatile musical instrument made from hundreds of old-school computer peripherals including 512 floppy disk drives, 8 HDDs, and four flatbad scanners, all of which make noises (that become music). https://t.co/6uZDozYLNT
— Liliputing (@liliputingnews) June 16, 2022
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I’m not willing to bet on the existence of a Steam Deck 2, not while new orders are still expected to ship next year, maybe, and not given Valve’s track record with hardware. But if they did, I hope they paid attention to recent discussion and add recessed sticks into it.
Assuming there’ll be a Steam Deck 2, I wonder what kind of timeline it’d have. Will there still be a queue for the Deck 1 when the 2 is announced?
In any case, I hope some larger OEMs enter the space. Be it earlier with a 6600U/6800U or later with Little Phoenix. It’d be great to have good post-sales support and probably less chances of early HW issues compared to the current small competitors. I’m not a DIYer so I’d rather ship my devices to the OEM’s local to me address and get it fixed/fully replaced.
While it’s nice the little companies are trying to fulfill the market, I really do hope the market/user base grows and larger companies enter it.
These small companies just struggle too much (or don’t try at all) supporting international customers.
Hopefully the next generation of Steam Deck hardware is where we see other OEMs get onboard with making their own hardware.
Valve said early on that their goal was for other PC OEMs to take over, and Valve would step back from the hardware. But we haven’t heard anything about this plan since.
Perhaps AMD couldn’t meet that demand with the 1st gen Steam Deck hardware, and maybe they’re gearing up for proper supply? Fingers crossed.
We’re starting to see x86 gaming handhelds from the retro emulation device makers in China like the AYN Loki and the AYA Neo Air. These companies already have experience with handhelds but we have yet to see any of the major PC makers jump into the fray. The chip shortage is definitely a big issue. Even Valve cited the shortage as a reason it couldn’t meet demand. Microsoft and Sony both had issues filling orders w/ the AMD chips in Series X and PS5. Hopefully once chip supply eases up, we’ll see the major PC makers introduce their own handhelds.