Tech
GIGABYTE Brings Supercomputer Power to Your Desktop with AI TOP ATOM
GIGABYTE launches AI TOP ATOM on October 15th—a compact personal AI supercomputer powered by NVIDIA Grace Blackwell GB10. Delivers 1 petaFLOP performance for on-premises AI development, supporting models up to 200B parameters on your desktop.
Last Updated on October 15, 2025 by Daily News Staff
Global Launch Set for October 15th as Tech Giant Democratizes AI Development
GIGABYTE is making a bold move to put enterprise-level AI computing power directly into the hands of developers, researchers, and students. The company’s latest innovation, AI TOP ATOM, launches globally on October 15th, promising to transform how we think about on-premises AI development.
Desktop Supercomputing Becomes Reality
What makes AI TOP ATOM remarkable isn’t just its specs—though those are impressive—it’s the promise of bringing supercomputer performance into a compact form factor that fits on your desk. Powered by NVIDIA’s Grace Blackwell GB10 Superchip, this personal AI supercomputer delivers up to 1 petaFLOP of FP4 AI performance. To put that in perspective, we’re talking about the kind of computational muscle that can handle large-scale models with up to 200 billion parameters right in your office.
The system comes equipped with 128GB of unified system memory and supports up to 4TB SSD storage, giving users the resources they need for serious AI workloads without the traditional infrastructure headaches.
Scale When You Need It
Here’s where things get interesting for power users: GIGABYTE designed AI TOP ATOM with scalability in mind. Need to tackle even larger models? Connect two units using the built-in NVIDIA ConnectX-7 NIC, and you can handle models up to 405 billion parameters. It’s like having a modular supercomputer that grows with your ambitions.
Software That Actually Makes Sense
Hardware is only half the story. AI TOP ATOM ships with NVIDIA’s complete AI software stack preinstalled—the full suite of tools, frameworks, and libraries designed specifically for generative AI workloads. But GIGABYTE didn’t stop there. They’ve integrated their exclusive AI TOP Utility, which provides an intuitive interface for the tasks that matter most: model fine-tuning, inference, and deployment across large language models (LLMs), large multimodal models (LMMs), and modern machine learning applications.
This approach addresses one of the biggest pain points in AI development—getting everything configured and working together. With AI TOP ATOM, you’re ready to start prototyping and developing from day one.
Who’s This For?
GIGABYTE is positioning AI TOP ATOM as a solution for anyone serious about AI development, from individual developers and academic researchers to students and educational institutions. The compact chassis means it works in environments where traditional server infrastructure simply isn’t practical—dorm rooms, small offices, research labs with limited space.
The “personal AI supercomputer” concept represents a significant shift in accessibility. What once required cloud computing budgets or dedicated data center space can now happen on-premises, giving developers more control over their data, faster iteration cycles, and potentially lower long-term costs.
The Bigger Picture
As AI development continues to accelerate across industries, tools like AI TOP ATOM signal an important trend: the democratization of high-performance AI computing. When powerful AI development tools become more accessible, innovation happens in unexpected places—and that’s exactly what GIGABYTE seems to be betting on.
AI TOP ATOM launches globally on October 15th. For complete specifications, pricing, and availability in your region, visit the official GIGABYTE website.
Source: GIGABYTE.com
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Space and Tech
I’ve fired one of America’s most powerful lasers – here’s what a shot day looks like
A lead scientist takes you inside the Texas Petawatt at UT Austin, where hours of careful alignment and safety checks build to a single, breath-holding laser shot that briefly creates star-like conditions in a vacuum chamber.
Ahmed Helal, The University of Texas at Austin
If you walk across the open yard in front of the Physics, Math and Astronomy building at the University of Texas at Austin, you’ll see a 17-story tower and a huge L-shaped building. What you won’t see is what’s underneath you. Two floors below ground, behind heavy double doors stamped with a logo that most students have never noticed, sits one of the most powerful lasers in the United States.
I was the lead laser scientist on the Texas Petawatt, or TPW as we called it, from 2020 to 2024. Texas Petawatt, which is currently closed due to funding cuts, was a government-funded research center where scientists from across the country applied for time to use specialized equipment. It was part of LaserNetUS, a Department of Energy network of high-power laser labs.
This type of laser takes a tiny pulse of light, stretches it out so it doesn’t blast optics to pieces, and amplifies it until, for a brief instant, it carries more power than the entire U.S. electrical grid. Then it compresses the pulse back to a trillionth of a second to create a star in a vacuum chamber.
On a typical shot day, the target might be a piece of metal foil thinner than a human hair, a jet of gas or a tiny plastic pellet – each designed to answer a different scientific question.
Scientists from across the country applied for time on TPW to study everything from the physics of stellar interiors and fusion energy to new approaches for cancer treatment.
Most people hear about petawatt lasers and picture something out of a movie. A “shot day” is actually hours of quiet, repetitive work followed by about 10 seconds where nobody breathes.
I now work as a research scientist at the University of Texas-Austin, studying the interaction of lasers with different materials, but a typical shot day during my time running TPW would look like this:
7 a.m.
I arrive two hours before the first scheduled shot. I put on my gown, boots and hairnet and step into the cold clean room. The laser doesn’t just turn on. You coax it awake.
I start with the oscillator, a small box that generates the first seed of light. I write down the parameters that define how the laser will behave during the shot: energy, center frequency, vacuum pressure in the tubes, cooling water level and flow. At this stage, they are fixed regardless of the experiment. The laser must perform the same way every time before the science can begin. Then I fire up the pump laser that will amplify this tiny pulse from nanojoules to about half a joule.
The system needs at least 30 minutes to stabilize. During that time, I check alignment through every pinhole and every camera along the beam path. A slight misalignment at this stage isn’t just a problem; it can be catastrophic – a mispointed beam at full power can burn through optics that take months to source and replace, setting the entire laser back.
Building the beam
Once the system is warmed up, I send the beam into the first amplifier: a glass rod surrounded by bright flash lamps that pump light into the glass – like charging a battery. With each pass, the beam absorbs energy from the glass and grows stronger. Then the beam travels into a larger rod, where it makes four passes, picking up more energy each time until it reaches about 12 joules, roughly the energy of a ball thrown hard across a room.
This process alone takes the better part of an hour, most of it spent checking and confirming alignment and energy at each stage.
I expand the beam and send it through the final stage: the disk amplifiers. Two amplifiers, each consisting of two massive 30-centimeter glass disks, are pumped by a huge bank of flash lamps powered by capacitor banks – essentially giant batteries that store electrical energy and release it in a sudden burst. They are so large that they have their own room on a separate floor. Fast optical shutters between each stage act as gates, controlling exactly when and where the beam travels.
The shot
When the experimental team confirms that the target is in position, it asks me to prepare for a system shot. I run through the long checklist. We test the shutters and switch to system shot mode. Every monitor in the facility changes to display the same message – “System Shot Mode” – and flashes red.
I lean into the microphone at the control desk, a vintage piece that looks like it belongs in a World War II radio room, and announce that we’re going into a system shot. Then I open the compressor beam dump: a heavy glass plate that normally blocks the beam from reaching the target. It takes about two minutes to move.
“Sweeping, sweeping for a system shot.”
The announcement goes out over speakers across the facility. I grab a small interlock key, put on my laser safety goggles and head downstairs. I walk a specific pattern through every room, checking that nobody is still inside. As I go, I lock each door with the key. If anyone opens one of those doors after I’ve locked them, the entire shot sequence aborts.
Back in the control room, I sit down and start charging the capacitor banks. At this point, there’s no going back except for an emergency shutdown, and that means losing the shot and waiting for everything to cool down.
“Charging.”
The room goes silent. Everyone’s eyes are on the monitors. Nobody talks.
I typically will share a glance with the researcher whose project the shot is for – today it’s Joe, a visiting scientist from Los Alamos National Lab, who designed the target we’re about to vaporize. He’s gripping his coffee cup like it owes him money. I turn back to the console.
“Charge complete. Firing system shot in three, two, one. Fire.”
I press the button. A loud thud rolls through the building as all that stored energy dumps into the beam. The monitors freeze, capturing everything at the moment of the shot: beam profiles, spectra, diagnostics – these metrics provide a full picture of exactly how the laser performed and whether the shot was clean. Downstairs, in the vacuum chamber, a spot smaller than a human hair just reached temperatures measured in millions of degrees.
I lean back in my chair and start recording laser parameters as everyone exhales. A radiation safety officer heads down first to check readings around the target chamber before anyone else can enter. The experimental team follows to collect data.
Sometimes it all works perfectly. Sometimes a shutter fails to open and you lose the shot.
For example, one afternoon in 2023, we’d spent three hours preparing for a high-priority shot. Target aligned. Capacitors charged. I pressed the button and heard nothing. A shutter had failed somewhere in the chain. The monitors stayed frozen, showing black. Nobody said anything. I wrote SHOT FAILED in the logbook and started the hourlong cooldown sequence. That’s the part they don’t show in movies: sitting in silence, waiting to try again. We got the shot four hours later.
This anticipation is all part of the job: hours of patience for 10 seconds you never quite get used to. Everything happens underneath a campus where thousands of people walk above, unaware that for a fraction of a second, a tiny point of matter hotter than the surface of the Sun just existed below their feet.
Ahmed Helal, Research Scientist, The University of Texas at Austin
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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Science
New Glenn’s Third Mission Set for April 19 as Blue Origin Advances Commercial Space Capabilities
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Blue Origin has confirmed the launch window for the third mission of its heavy-lift New Glenn rocket, marking another step forward in the company’s expanding role in commercial spaceflight.
New Glenn’s Third Mission
Launch Details and Timeline
The mission is scheduled to lift off no earlier than Sunday, April 19, 2026, from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The two-hour launch window opens at 6:45 a.m. EDT (10:45 UTC) and closes at 8:45 a.m. EDT (12:45 UTC).
Viewers can follow the mission through a live webcast hosted by Blue Origin, beginning approximately 30 minutes before liftoff.
Mission Payload: Expanding Space-Based Connectivity
At the heart of the mission is the deployment of the BlueBird 7 satellite, developed by AST SpaceMobile. The satellite is designed to enhance a growing direct-to-smartphone broadband network, an emerging technology aimed at delivering connectivity to standard mobile devices without the need for ground-based towers.
BlueBird 7 will contribute to expanding network capacity and is expected to support initial service rollout plans targeted for 2026. The broader initiative reflects a significant shift in how satellite infrastructure could complement terrestrial telecom systems, particularly in underserved or remote regions.
Reusability Milestone: Booster Returns Again
A key feature of this mission is the planned reuse of New Glenn’s first-stage booster, “Never Tell Me The Odds.” The booster previously demonstrated a successful launch and landing during the rocket’s second mission in November, underscoring Blue Origin’s commitment to reusable rocket technology—a cornerstone of cost reduction and operational efficiency in modern spaceflight.
If successful, this mission will further validate the reliability of the New Glenn system and strengthen its competitiveness in a market increasingly shaped by reusable launch vehicles.
Industry Context: Competing in a Rapidly Evolving Market
The New Glenn program represents Blue Origin’s answer to heavy-lift launch demands, positioning the company alongside major players such as SpaceX. As satellite constellations grow in scale and ambition, reliable and cost-effective launch services have become a critical component of the global space economy.
The inclusion of commercial payloads like BlueBird 7 highlights the increasing collaboration between aerospace firms and telecommunications providers, signaling a future where space-based infrastructure plays a central role in everyday connectivity.
Looking Ahead
With its third mission, New Glenn continues to build momentum as a next-generation launch platform. The combination of reusable hardware, commercial partnerships, and advanced payload capabilities places this launch among the most closely watched developments in the 2026 spaceflight calendar.
For ongoing updates, mission tracking, and live coverage, audiences can follow Blue Origin across its digital platforms or visit its official website.
Source
Blue Origin Official Announcement – New Glenn Third Mission
Related External Links
- Learn More About Blue Origin’s New Glenn Rocket
- AST SpaceMobile – Space-Based Cellular Broadband Network
- Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Information
- NASA Overview of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Operations
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Tech
Drones paired with AI could help search‑and‑rescue teams find missing persons faster
AI-powered drones equipped with thermal and infrared imaging are transforming search-and-rescue operations, enabling teams to locate missing persons faster and assess their condition—including signs of injury, consciousness, or life-threatening temperature changes—in real time.
Adeel Khalid, Kennesaw State University
A combination of infrared imaging, thermal imaging and color cameras on an uncrewed drone, along with an AI system to interpret the data, can help emergency responders and search-and-rescue teams locate, identify and track people who have gone missing in the wilderness. The experimental system helps responders pinpoint where a missing person is and determine whether they are hurt or even alive.
People who get lost or hurt while exploring nature can become stranded for days. Rescue teams often use drones to look for the person or signs of their whereabouts. The small drone my colleagues and I built at my lab at Kennesaw State University flies autonomously using a grid search pattern. It sends live video and images to a ground station operated by the rescue team.
When the AI system finds a person, it analyzes images to determine whether the individual is upright or lying on the ground. It segments parts of the person’s body, identifying the person’s head and the body’s position. It then zeroes in on the forehead. It extracts forehead temperature readings, pixel by pixel, from the imaging data to estimate forehead temperature. We have two papers detailing these findings accepted for the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Aviation Forum 2026 conference.
Our AI model then assesses whether the person is conscious or unconscious and identifies abnormal temperatures that could indicate heat stress, hypothermia or other physical complications, or death – all vital information for a search-and-rescue team.
In field trials we have conducted, the system has provided consistent temperature readings of the heads of volunteers from our research team who have walked out into a variety of environments, under different conditions.
Why it matters
It is critical to get accurate and timely information on the whereabouts of a missing person. The likelihood that the person will survive decreases steeply as time passes.
An AI-enhanced drone can make search-and-rescue operations significantly more efficient than sending teams of people out into the environment to search on foot, especially in poor weather conditions or under thick foliage. Rescuers who know whether a person is conscious or unconscious can also better gear up for what they need to do to retrieve the person and administer aid. Our technology could save lives.
What other research is being done
Search-and-rescue personnel use various kinds of drones, but the machines often lack the ability to positively identify humans, especially under thick foliage, in bad weather or when the person is lying down or unconscious. The AI-based technology we have developed overcomes those challenges.
Better sensors that are very lightweight, that can function at night or in rain, and can see more clearly through thick foliage could further improve our drone and drones used by others. Researchers are devising AI-powered sound recognition for detecting screams for help, advanced thermal imaging for better nighttime vision and autonomous drones that could act as first responders.
Also under development are drones that can carry heavy payloads, such as flotation devices, fly for up to 14 hours or perform real-time mapping of the ground below.
What’s next
One of our next steps is to have multiple drones fly together and autonomously coordinate search-and-rescue operations among themselves. This will allow the technology to cover a much larger area, perhaps hundreds of square miles.
We are also designing a large drone that can carry up to 110 pounds (50 kilograms) of payload and stay aloft for an hour.
The Research Brief is a short take on interesting academic work.
Adeel Khalid, Professor of Industrial & Systems Engineering, Kennesaw State University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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