cable

you need two cable cars, a cable car and to climb to the top of a mountain

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When someone wants to buy a Rolex, the most common thing would be to go to a central shopping street in any big city in the world and enter one of the exclusive watch stores that abound in these types of commercial hubs. However, to enter the latest boutique that the Swiss watch brand has opened you will need more than just taking a taxi to the center: you will need to grab a backpack, hiking boots and prepare to climb to a peak in the Swiss Alps. As and how I collected watchprothe Swiss brand has opened the highest boutique in the world: at 3,020 meters above sea level, at the top of the Mount Titlisin the Swiss Alps. Yeah, In Switzerland you can buy a Rolex on one of the highest peaks of the country. Getting to the place in question is not easy: you have to take a train, go up on two cable cars and, as the last stretch, ride the Titlis Rotairthe world’s first rotating gondola, opened in 1992. And then, of course, you can buy your Rolex, although in all likelihood you won’t be able to take it home. Who said that to buy a Rolex you only needed to have money? Buying a high-end watch has never been so literal Mount Titlis rises 3,238 meters above sea level, in central Switzerland, about 40 km south of Lucerne. Access from Engelberg includes several stages by cable car and two cable cars, according to the information itself. Titlis website. The final section takes place on the Rotair, a journey that lasts five minutes and rotates 360 degrees on the more than 5,000-year-old glacier, offering views at more than 3,000 meters above sea level. The Tallest Rolex boutique in the world It opened in June 2026, shortly after the inauguration of the Titlis Tower, a peculiar 76-meter-high skyscraper made of concrete, steel and glass that has defied the laws of logistics and Alpine engineering. Titlis Tower at the top of the Swiss Alps The renovation of this old telecommunications tower is part of a million-dollar project to convert the top of Titlis into a tourist center by 2029, when the new area linked to the ski resort of Titlis-Engelberg. Rolex has been one of the first luxury brands to settle there. The top of Titlis already received almost a million views annually before the opening of the tower, with tourists from India, Germany and the United States as the main international groups. The Rolex store is located inside the Titlis Tower, a building that signed Herzog & de Meuronthe Swiss studio that won the Pritzker Prize in 2001 and that has to its credit the design of the Tate Modern Londonhe Allianz Arena of Munich or the Olympic Stadium in Beijing, also known as “the bird’s nest“because of its shape. You get to the top and you leave with a waiting list Going from a mountain trek to the luxurious interior of a luxury watch boutique is a contrast that accentuates the dystopian experience of buy a rolex on top of a mountain. The store has the usual Rolex language: marble, wood, natural stone and well-placed sofas to enjoy the views while your checking account takes the hit. The store is managed by Bucherer, the watch sales chain that Rolex acquired in 2023 following the decision of its owner Jörg G. Bucherer, without direct heirs, to sell the business. The operation was formalized in 2024, after approval by the competition authorities. Bucherer operates more than 100 stores, but the one at the top of Titlis is by far the most unusual. Views from the Rolex store at 3,200 meters above sea level However, and here is the big final twist of this alpine adventure, after having traveled by train, two cable cars, the rotating gondola and climbed the 3,020 meters of altitude of this mountain, the shopping experience It is the same as in any other Rolex boutique in the world and it is very likely that the model you are looking for is not available. So you will go home without your watch. Rolex does not manage official waiting lists, but rather delegates availability to each dealer. That makes availability uneven depending on the model and design you choose. What is constant is that the most sought after models continue to be hard to getalthough the pressure starts to loosen in some markets from 2025. Although it may seem that opening a tent on a peak in the Alps It is more of a publicity stunt than something profitable, for a company whose image was forged on expeditions to the Himalayas and the conquest of Everesthaving a store above the clouds fits better than it seems. In Xataka | A farmer thought a cow had eaten his Rolex. 50 years later he recovered it, but it needed a good cleaning Image | Rolex, Titlis

Chile approved a direct submarine cable to China. The decision unleashed a diplomatic scandal with the US in the middle of everything

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For decades, Chile has tried to reduce its digital dependence on North America. The arrival of China Mobile as an alternative seemed like a solution to all their problems with the laying of a submarine cable from Valparaíso to Hong Kong. However, the issue has led to a tremendous geopolitical mess that is difficult to deal with. All because the United States had not liked the move one bit. Dependent independence. Almost all of the submarine cable infrastructure that connects Chile with the rest of the world passes through US territory or is in the hands of North American technology companies such as Google, Meta or Amazon. When Chile sought a direct route to Asia, it found that the only viable option passed through China. And of course, that set off all the alarms in Washington. What was being negotiated. China Mobile, a Chinese state telecommunications company, presented a $500 million proposal to lay an underwater cable of about 20,000 kilometers between the Chilean city of Concón and Hong Kong. The project, called Chile-China Express, would have been the first transpacific data connection from Latin America to Asia without passing through North America. The Chilean Ministry of Telecommunications approved the proposal last January. Washington’s response. Just like share Rest of World, two days after Chile signed the concession decree, the ministry annulled it, alleging “a technical error.” According to the mediumChilean officials had been urgently summoned to the US embassy in Santiago. And on February 20, the State Department revoked the visas of the Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications, Juan Carlos Muñoz, along with two other senior officials in the sector. The official notification was that their actions had “compromised critical telecommunications infrastructure and undermined regional security.” Munoz explained to Rest of World that the sanction prevented him from visiting a key country for his work and that it had damaged his reputation. What Chile defended. From Chile’s perspective, the evaluation of the project was an ordinary procedure. Jorge Heine, former Chilean diplomat, pointed out to the environment that diversifying digital communication sources is essential to avoid outages caused by geopolitical tensions. “The State Department entered uncharted territory,” he said, by sanctioning officials for doing their jobs legally. The new president inherits the problem. The change of government on March 11 complicated the scenario even more. The previous president, Gabriel Boric, acknowledged having ordered the withdrawal of approval after threats from the United States about long-term consequences. His successor, the right-wing José Antonio Kast, came to power with the poisoned task of maintaining relations with China, his main trading partner, without raising blisters to the United States (which is his main foreign investor). Complicated. The US ambassador to Chile made it clear shortly after the inauguration that the Chinese cable was “ruled out.” The official position has become more nuanced. The Kast government initially counted on Google’s Humboldt cable, that will connect Chile with Australia in 2027made the China project unnecessary. But more recently, executive sources have acknowledged that the China Mobile project “continues to be evaluated.” Pedro Huichalaf, cybersecurity researcher and former secretary of telecommunications, explained to Rest of World that for Chile “it still makes sense to create redundancy” with a main and a secondary route to Asia. The geopolitical trap. The Google cable does not completely solve the problem. And according to point Heine, intelligence agreements between the United States and Australia mean that South American data trafficking to the Asia-Pacific will continue under American supervision. And there is already precedent for this, since after Edward Snowden’s revelations about the NSA’s global surveillance programs, Brazil and the European Union accelerated the deployment of the EllaLink cable to connect directly and avoid passing through North America. How the board looks. China has been expanding its digital presence in Latin America. And the country operates 5G networks and data centers in Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Peru and Argentina through companies such as China Telecom, Huawei, ZTE and Alibaba Cloud. Brazil, for its part, is promoting its own 35,000-kilometer cable that would connect with China, India, Russia and South Africa. Washington views each of these moves as a threat to its influence in the hemisphere. In fact, just as stands out In the middle, the so-called Donroe Doctrine of the Trump administration formalizes that position by not allowing “foreign adversaries” to use trade as a lever to control critical infrastructure in the region. And in the long term. Just like point Rest of World, the most solid solution for Chile is not to choose between Washington and Beijing, but to reduce dependence on both. Aisén Etcheverry, former Minister of Science and Technology in the Boric government and a technology consultant, told the media that “Latin America has built lasting relationships with a wide variety of partners. Although this provides resilience, it is not enough. Developing its own capabilities must be a priority.” Cover image | aboodi vesakaran and AI generation with Gemini In Xataka | An unexpected salvation for the end user emerges from the memory market debacle: Chinese chips

The best wireless HDMI to send an image to another room with quality and without pulling a cable

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Sometimes we want to see the content on our mobile phone or computer on a larger screen, but it is not always easy. Smart TVs usually have everything you need to do it wirelessly, but older ones don’t. The good news is that there are wireless HDMI solutions that can be very useful, and our recommendation is the Vovipo WTR21 for everything it offers. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links He Vovipo WTR21 It is a wireless HDMI connector that is especially interesting to us because it is usually affordable and offers 4K resolution, so it is also designed to be used on more current televisions or monitors. It is also worth noting something quite practical, and that is that this model incorporates a screen that allows us to know the status of the connection and the strength of the signal. The highlights MODEL PERFECT FOR YOU THE BEST WORST PRICE FROM Vovipo WTR21 If you want to transmit the signal from a laptop to the TV without cables. It offers 4K resolution and has a screen with connection status indicators and signal strength. Does not come with cable adapters. €59.99 Lemorele R1010 If you are looking to connect two screens at the same time, such as a TV and a projector. Includes one transmitter and two receivers, as well as cable adapters. It only offers Full HD resolution. €129.99 Pousild If you want a simple, cheap model and you are close to a Full HD television. It is a basic model and moderately priced. It only offers Full HD resolution and does not have a screen or adapters included. €49.99 J-Tech Digital WEX200V3 If you need to connect several devices that are at a great distance. It offers a fairly large distance, even with obstacles and walls in the way. Its resolution is Full HD and the price is quite high €224.32 Vention TZ-ADP If you want a fairly complete model, with more range and the possibility of connecting several screens or receivers. It has an LED display, has thermal control and offers options with several receivers, up to a maximum of four. It only offers Full HD resolution. €139.99 Lemorele P400 If you want to send an image from a mobile phone, tablet or laptop with USB-C to a TV or projector. It is very versatile. You need the USB-C port on the device to have video output. €65.99 Why they stand out Of all the wireless HDMI kits, we choose the Vovipo WTR21 for everything it offers at a reasonable price. Next, we will review the main characteristics of these devices so that you are clear about what criteria to follow when choosing one model or another. The maximum range. The first thing we must be clear about is the distance at which we are going to have each of the wireless HDMI kits, since not all of them offer the same maximum range. In addition, it is important to know both the maximum distance and whether they are capable of transmitting the signal through physical obstacles such as walls, since some models require direct vision between both connectors for them to work correctly. The resolution and refresh rate supported. Generally, the wireless HDMI kits that we will find in stores will offer Full HD or 4K resolution. Depending on the use we want to give it, it is advisable to choose one or the other. For example, if your idea is to work or use some programs from the couch, a Full HD resolution will be enough. On the other hand, if you want to play multimedia content, the resolution should be 4K (as long as the television is compatible). The same goes for the refresh rate. If you are going to watch movies and series or use some applications, a rate of 60 Hz will be enough. But if you are looking for a much smoother experience because you are going to play video games, it is recommended that the rate reach 120 Hz. The latency. Latency is the time it takes for the image to be played from a device where we have the main HDMI connector installed until it reaches the screen where we have the second connector. And since we are talking about wireless devices, it is practically inevitable that we will encounter some latency. If you are going to watch a movie, latency will not have as big an impact on having a good experience. On the other hand, if you are going to play video games, especially if they are competitive, it is advisable that the wireless HDMI connector have a very low latency. The frequency band. The frequency band is the channel through which data will be sent between both HDMI connectors. Normally we will find 5 GHz and 60 GHz frequencies, and each of them has its advantages and disadvantages: 5 GHz: is the most common, offers good speed and is capable of passing through physical objects such as walls. 60 GHz: In models that work at 60 GHz, the speed is usually higher, but they require direct vision between transmitter and receiver, so they normally do not pass through walls. Connectivity. Some wireless HDMI kits come with a single HDMI port to function, while others are more complete and offer the possibility of connecting them to devices through other ports, USB-C being the most common. It is important to be clear about what devices we are going to use. If it is a laptop, it is possible that (almost) any model will work for you. On the other hand, if you are going to connect a mobile phone, you will need it to have a USB-C port or an adapter. Transmitters and receivers. These types of devices generally come with a transmitter and a receiver, although several may come. In any case, it must be taken into account that: Transmitters capture the signal from the source device and send it to the … Read more

an underwater cable through the North Pole

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He 99% of international internet data traffic travels through fiber optic cables that run along the bottom of seas and oceans. There is a kind of Google Maps of underwater cables where you can see its trajectory to discover that, while there are areas that are true wastelands, in others there are tangles of cables that clump together. Precisely these areas are critical for potential accidents and attacks. Well, 90% of the capacity of the Europe-Asia cables happens through a region that is anything but calm: the Red Sea. In times of peace these cables work well, but in conflicts they are a real candy for sabotage: they are “abandoned” to their fate in the middle of nowhere, they are strategic and repairing them is not exactly easy or convenient. And in fact, in the case of these Europe – Asia cables it has already happened: in 2024 a Houthi missile impact a cargo ship in the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb and its drifting anchor cut three underwater cables. Repair ships were able to enter four months later. In September 2025, history repeated itself. The Achilles heel is clear and Europe wants to solve it by detouring around the North Pole. The alternative route: Polar Connect. The European Union, through its resilience panel, has recommended building two Arctic cables to reach Asia by avoiding the Red Sea: one would go through the Canadian Northwest Passage and the other would connect Scandinavia with Asia by directly crossing the North Pole. The latter is precisely the Polar Connect. Said and done: the EU you have already labeled this cable as “Cable Project of European Interest” and has already prepared the first funds for its construction. The total estimated cost is around €2 billion and the operational goal is 2030. Behind the project is the Nordic research and education network NORDUnetNordic network operators such as GlobalConnect Carrier and the Swedish polar research agency. This summer probably they will do a study of the route. Why is it important. Because submarine cables are the roads that keep the world in which we live connected: corporate communications, cloud services, finance, streaming, security… and the fact that the majority of connections between Europe and Asia occur through a corridor in persistent conflict increases the risk of blackouts between both continents. This cable seeks to minimize geopolitical risk while reducing latency in data transmission. On the other hand, there is its strategic dimension: Meta, Google, Microsoft and Amazon now represent more than 70% of all submarine cable capacity consumed globally, compared to less than 10% a decade ago, according to TeleGeography data and GlobalData. Europe does not have any route of its own to Asia. How Polar Connect collects in your white paperthe three current options between Europe and Asia are the Red Sea, Russia or passing through the United States and none are under European sovereignty. The two new cables to connect Europe and Asia via the Arctic route. NORDUnet Context. The Red Sea and its surroundings have been an almost continuous hornet’s nest since at least the 1950s: the Suez crisis, the Six Day War, Yom Kippur… so as Roderick Beck, a cable industry veteran who is dedicated to finding telecommunications capacity for internet service providers, explains for The Verge: The industry looked for alternatives in the Persian Gulf, but it is not exactly an oil raft either: The United States attacks on Iran in 2025 also closed that route. That said, the geopolitical context in the Arctic is not neutral either. Historically to run a cable through the arctic was necessary a partnership with Russia, but since the war with Ukraine, the North Pole corridor lacks of western intercontinental connectivity. However, it will not be easy: others have tried it before and failed, such as Quintillion on the north coast of Alaska. They activated a section of cable, but the ice broke it twice and to repair it it is necessary either to have an icebreaking ship to repair the cable or to wait until summer. How do they want to do it?. He plan is connecting the Nordic region with Japan and South Korea via fiber optics under the Arctic Ocean with possible branches to North America. Regarding financing, at the end of 2024 were approved 44.6 million euros from the Connecting Europe Facility program for the first phases. Polar Connect will also have with advanced sensors for environmental and climate monitoring, so that it would function as a telecommunications infrastructure and an Arctic scientific research instrument. The project is complemented by Far North Fiber, another Arctic cable that would take the Canadian Northwest Passage route. Together they would form a network with mutual redundancy: when one fails, the other takes over the traffic. As it says the CEO of NORDUnet himselfValter Nordh: “both routes have strengths and weaknesses, which is why they complement each other well.” Yes, but. Designing, building and installing an underwater cable is not a small project, but the main problem that Polar Connect is going to face has already been glimpsed in the failed Quintillion project: the obstacle is maintenance. The ice cuts and the icebergs drag the seabed to depths greater than those that allow the cable to be buried in a phenomenon known as ice scour. If there is a break in winter, we have to wait until summer to repair it simply because there are no ships capable of breaking ice and laying cables at the same time. Alan Mauldin, research director at TeleGeography, one of the leading research companies in the sector, he says it bluntly: “We’ve seen a lot of (Arctic cable) projects happen. There’s a reason for that, right? It’s very complicated.” In Xataka | The submarine cables belonged to the teleoperators, and now the big technology companies are controlling them In Xataka | The first great Atlantic submarine cable that connected us to the internet says goodbye for a simple reason: it was too expensive to repair it Cover | PxHere … Read more

studies a huge submarine cable with distant Ireland to stop being an energy island

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Spain may have emerged as one of the EU states that more and better have understood and adopted the energy transition towards renewables, but there is an unquestionable geographical reality: The Iberian Peninsula is an energy island which has a problem called France. A bottleneck that prevents Spain from exporting its enormous surplus of solar energy, so the European Commission wants to correct it with ambitious connection goals for 2030. How? Looking at the sea that surrounds the peninsula in search of partners “to lend a helping hand” to solve this limitation: across the Mediterranean with two gigantic connections to Italy and also towards the Atlantic, with a cable between Spain and Ireland. The future cable between Spain and Ireland. The planned route would link the northern coast of Spain, specifically Asturias, with the southern coast of Ireland, with an estimated length of between 1,000 and 1,100 kilometers, as collects The Energy Newspaper. Although there is no defined route yet, the infrastructure will have to navigate considerable depths in the Bay of Biscay and the Celtic Sea. Go ahead that the agreement signed between Spain and Ireland It is a Memorandum of Understanding to study the feasibility of an underwater electricity cable within the framework of the WindEurope 2026 congress held in Madrid signed by the Spanish vice president Sara Aagesen and the Irish minister Darragh O’Brien. Why is it important. Because both Spain and Ireland share a structural problem: they are one of the least interconnected electricity markets in Europe and are classified as “energy islands” by the EU, which limits their ability to export renewable surpluses and reinforce their security of supply (friendly reminder: the blackout). From the point of view of energy security, more interconnection means less dependence on imported fossil fuels and more resilience in the face of shortages. This cable would diversify Spanish export routes, a detailed priority objective in REE Electrical Planning. The energy logic of the project rests on the complementarity of renewable resources: Spain would export solar surpluses and Ireland would provide electricity generated in its offshore wind farms. Both technologies have generation profiles decoupled in time, so the exchange is technically valuable to stabilize both electrical networks: when the sun shines in Spain, it can power Dublin, when Atlantic storms sweep the north, its wind turbines can sustain Spanish industry. Context. Spain currently has barely 3,000 MW of interconnection capacity, which represents a ratio of 2%, according to REE dataon its installed mix of approximately 150 GW. That is to say, it fails to meet the minimum target of 10% set by the EU for 2020 and has to work a miracle to reach the 15% planned for 2030. This chronic deficit limits the capacity of the Spanish system to export the growing surpluses of wind and solar energy. The project arises at a time of maximum urgency for energy independence after the gas crisis. Recent war conflicts have led the EU to accelerate the processing of large electrical interconnections between European markets as a tool for collective energy security in search of self-sufficiency with its own resources. Initiatives like the plan REPowerEU They have these cross-border interconnections as one of the levers with absolute priority. Map of transmission and storage projects. ENTSO-E Main connections in Spain. A brief summary of the very few electrical connections of the Spanish state with other EU states: Existing: Spain–France (Pyrenean land interconnection), with a current capacity of approximately 3,000 MW through the Pyrenees and Spain – Portugal, through various bidirectional land high voltage lines that make up the Iberian market. Under construction or approved: the submarine cable of the Bay of Bizkaia between Spain and France, scheduled to enter service in 2028, will add 2,000 MW of additional capacity with France. The wire Fontefríabetween Portugal and Galicia, will provide about 1,000 MW of exchange. Projected (under study or preliminary phase): Apollo Link between Spain and Italy, of 2000 MW and entering service in 2032. Iberia Link between Spain and Italy of 1,200 MW. Trans-Pyrenean land connection through Navarra and Aragon, blocked by the French government. How are they going to do it?. Technically, the project would be executed using a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) cable, the standard technology for long-distance underwater interconnections, due to its lower energy loss in transportation compared to alternating current. There are direct and operational precedents of a similar scale, such as the recent Celtic Interconnector between Ireland and France. After signing the Memorandum of Understanding to study the viability of an underwater electricity cable that links both states, the project must be technically and economically evaluated jointly by Red Eléctrica and EirGrid, the operators of both states. They will then present it to the European authorities for possible inclusion in the list of Projects of Common Interest (PCI), which would give it access to European funding and accelerated administrative procedures. ENTSO-Ethe association of European network operators, publishes every two years the Ten-Year Network Development Planthe technical reference framework to prioritize and evaluate this type of projects. Yes, but. The project is in its earliest phase, which means that it has everything ahead of it and a submarine cable is a major technical and economic infrastructure. A cable of more than 1,000 kilometers in length implies an estimated investment that would exceed 2,000-3,000 million euros, a construction period of several years once approved and logistical challenges in North Atlantic waters. Furthermore, the route through Asturias would require reinforcing internal transport networks to cross the Cantabrian Mountains to connect with the large solar generation centers in the interior of the peninsula. In Xataka | The submarine cables belonged to the teleoperators, and now the big technology companies are controlling them In Xataka | The first great Atlantic submarine cable that connected us to the internet says goodbye for a simple reason: it was too expensive to repair it Cover | ENTSOE

There are many wireless alternatives to the HDMI cable. The problem is that none of them work as well as the HDMI cable.

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That the tangle of cables in our homes is well organized is something that it makes us obsessed for years. Normally, when we talk about cable management we usually refer to the workspace, but we also can be a problem in our salonswhere there are cables that no matter how much we try to replace them, they are still there. One of them is HDMI. Although there are technologies to be able to watch content on a television or projector without having to pull a physical cable, HDMI cable is still the best and sometimes only option. Alternatives to HDMI cable HDMI cables have the drawbacks of any cable: they limit mobility, cause visual clutter and, depending on the device we want to connect, it is very likely that we will need adapters. Fortunately there are technologies that allow us to do without it. Chromecast and Airplay Google TV Streamer, formerly known as Chromecast They are the most popular and well-known options since they have the support of large companies such as Google and Apple. More and more televisions integrate both systems, so it is no longer necessary to purchase a separate device. In the case of Chromecast classic, technically not a wireless solution, But it does allow us to launch the content we want to see without having to use one expressly to connect the mobile phone to the TV. Miracast Smart View on a Samsung mobile. Image: Xataka Home One of the solutions that has tried to replace HDMI is Miracastusually known as Mirror screen or Smart View on Samsung phones. It is a protocol that works through Wi-Fi Direct It allows two devices to detect each other and we can mirror the screen of one on the other. This point is important since it only works in mode mirroringthat is, that clone screen contentit does not extend it or play a video from an app like a Chromecast does. With Miracast, if you want to watch a video that you have saved on your mobile on TV, you will have to leave your cell phone on and the same video playing on it. The advantage is that it is a cross-platform standard and allows you to send FullHD video with almost no latency. That’s when it works well, because Connection problems are quite common. Wireless HDMI Kits If you can’t (or don’t want to) run an HDMI cable to a display or projector, a solution may be to use a wireless kit. It consists of an emitter that sends the AV signal wirelessly to a receiver, which will be connected to the destination device, such as the TV. There are quite a few options available at relatively affordable prices, such as this one from UGREEN that costs less than 60 euros or a little more expensive, like this one from VENTION for 119 euros. The problem with these types of solutions is mainly the interference and, above all, latency. In addition, they have limitations such as lack of HDR support and many do not support 4K video. HDMI is still necessary Although there are alternatives without cable, they are just that, alternatives, not substitutes. Yes, there are proposals that improve HDMI, such as GPMI standard developed by an organization of more than 50 Chinese companies. This interface promises transfers of up to 192Gbps and supports 8K video, but even if it manages to displace HDMI You still need a cable. There are no wireless alternatives that improve the performance and stability of a physical HDMI cable, especially in scenarios where latency is key such as competitive video games. Whether on the console or the PC, the cable will always be the preferred system in this case. It is also best if you are interested in obtaining the best video and audio quality, for example when connecting a home cinema system, and you prioritize connection stability. Of course, you have to choose the cable well and the port to which we connect it to get the most out of it. Image | Xataka In Xataka | The curse of hotels are TVs that do not allow you to use the HDMI port. The solution is obvious: hack them

Chips connected by laser instead of cable. It seems like science fiction, but it aims to revolutionize data centers

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If you have ever mounted a PCSurely one of the points on which you have had to pay the most attention is the connections. Because understanding the power of the processor, the GPU or the speed of the RAM is “easy”, but the motherboard is what allows us to interconnect all these components with ‘highways’ in which the data speed can be maximum. In the data centers and serversthis is the same: the better the connections between chips and equipment, the lower latency, higher bandwidth and better performance. These connections are made physically, but there is a French startup that wants to change the rules of the game with NVIDIA. As? Connecting the chips by laser. Chips connected by laser and NVIDIA taking out the wallet Improving interconnection speed is no small feat or a whim. NVIDIA has begun manufacturing its next generation platform, the one named Vera Rubin. It is a system that can be combined with others to multiply benefits. That union, as we say, is physical, but there comes a point at which physics is no longer enough. When that arrives, NVIDIA wants to be ready and, a few days ago, Reuters reported on a $4 billion investment by NVIDIA in two companies that are aggressively researching new technologies to help increase that interconnection speed: Lumentum and Coherent. This is a rack and the nightmare of those of us who hate cables. Specifically, that of the Wikimedia Foundation. Well, imagine that a large part of those cables go outside because the systems are connected by electricity Another of the companies in which they have invested is Scintil Photonics. It is a French startup that this in the testing phase of a technology that, if the industry adopts it, will mark a before and after in this connection on a team scale. The LEAF Light Evaluation Kit is, as detailed, the first dense wavelength division multiplexing single chip to go from theory to practice. It’s like another language, I know, but it’s basically what we were talking about: an optical chip interconnection system instead of copper. And that is the main advantage. With copper reaching physical limits of speed and density, optics are emerging as a solution when connecting clusters of thousands of processors. Each chip has an optical system that is responsible for emitting and receiving light, and in that light goes the data that is currently traveling through cables. The one from the French company it is not the first chip based on photonic communication, but they claim that their technology reduces the energy necessary for them to work by 50%, as well as latency. Results? Well we’ll see. The startup’s CEO, Matt Crowley, has commented that he has “six or seven companies interested in implementing the technology by 2028,” but that due to confidentiality agreements, he cannot name names. The Scintil Photonics prototype The complication in this will be that they get supply of the photonics systems, since the data center racks are built with the idea that they are scalables. That is, it is no longer just power, but how many tens of thousands of units you can interconnect, and a bottleneck in the manufacturing of any of the parties involved in optics would be equivalent to a lack of supply for their customers. At the moment, some prototypes have already been served to select companies for testing, but certainly, using light pulses instead of electrical signals is something that is very interesting in superclusters focused on huge data centers that can scale without the limitations of the physical connection. Images | Victorgrigas, M.I.T., GlobeNewswire In Xataka | Huawei no longer competes: it is building its own parallel reality

China wants to lay a cable from Chile to Hong Kong. And in the process, it has put Chile in a storm against the US

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Next March 11, Chile will have a new president. Gabriel Boric will no longer be in charge of the country and José Antonio Kast will land in the presidential chair. And he arrives just to take care of a morrocotudo mess: the submarine cable that China is deploying from Valparaíso to Hong Kong. And, evidently, the United States does not like this situation one bit. To the point that he considers it dangerous for his safety. In short. On February 20, the United States revoked the visas of three Chilean officials. The reason? Concern about an underwater cable that will connect Chile and Hong Kong. It’s not so much the cable, but who is ‘pulling’ it: China. As they point out in Mercopressit was the outgoing president who managed the agreement to deploy this cable through a concession decree signed on January 27, which allowed the company China Mobile to install, operate and exploit the cable. 48 hours later, that act was annulled citing “technical errors” and the Boric Administration commented that the project was in the evaluation process. The United States, however, wasted no time and banned the visas of the Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications, the Undersecretary of Telecommunications, and the Chief of Staff of Subtel (Chile’s Undersecretary of Telecommunications). The storm it had just started. political war. Marco Rubio is the Secretary of State of the United States and accused Chilean officials for having “knowingly directed, authorized, financed and supported activities that compromise critical telecommunications infrastructure.” You may be wondering what the United States cares about what Chile does, but Rubio continued by pointing out that this decision “undermines regional security in our hemisphere.” “Which hemisphere” is not the question, but what is happening now. Because Chile has responded that the accusation is “absolutely false” and describes the United States measure as “unilateral,” also pointing out that it is something that goes against Chile’s sovereignty. China has not stood by and, through its embassy in Santiago de Chile, accused the United States of acting in a hegemonic manner, ignoring Chile’s sovereignty to carry out these projects in its territory. If you look closely, the cables from the American continent pass through the US except for Google’s Halaihai, at least directly Cross-fire. Brandon Judd is the US ambassador to Chile and has sided with his government… going a little further in the accusations. Affirms which had already warned the Chilean authorities of what would happen, describing the agreement with China as an intrusion into Chilean telecommunications systems carried out by “malicious foreign actors.” And, as we said, it will be next March 11 when the new president will take office with a pending task: solving a monumental ballot. From the Foreign Relations Department of the incoming president, it has already been saying that “everything possible will be done to ensure that foreign policy allows for the best possible relations with all countries.” A 0º, neither cold nor hot. Influence. Leaving domestic and foreign politics aside, the cable is known as Chile-China Express and is estimated to measure almost 20,000 kilometers. It will link the Chilean city of Concón and reach Hong Kong. The budget is about 500 million dollars and its importance seems key because it would represent the first transpacific data route that would completely avoid routing through North America. From China Mobile it is pointed out that this cable will allow establish Chile as “the central node of the computing power network between China and Latin America.” Now we begin to understand what it is that “undermines regional security in our hemisphere” to which Marco Rubio referred. If completed, it will be a cable deployed by China and in which the United States will have no say, but which reaches the American continent. And we say that it is an important ballot for the new president because the United States injects a lot of money into Chile, being its main foreign investor, but China is the main trading partner of the country. A cable is going to put Kast between a rock and a hard place. Not only in telecommunications. In the background, we have a United States that is looking at the wolf’s ears. In recent months, and at an accelerated pace, China has been moving its chips. It has done this in developing countries on the African continent through energy deals, infrastructure construction, agreements to mine strategic elements and expand its automobile market. But he is also doing it in America. When the United States turned its back on Mexico with tariffs, China was there to offer to open factories. He is carrying out energy projects on American soil, he has interest in some of the strategic ports of the continent and is rolling out infrastructure, such as a railway line that, if completed, will link South America from east to west. The cable between Hong Kong and Chile is just one more piece of a puzzle that Beijing is weaving, which has already torn off with the works. And Washington only sees one thing: the wolf at the doors. In Xataka | The first great Atlantic submarine cable that connected us to the internet says goodbye for a simple reason: it was too expensive to repair it

The first great Atlantic submarine cable that connected us to the internet says goodbye for a simple reason: it was too expensive to repair it

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It has been at the bottom of the sea for more than two decades, forgotten. But now, finally, the TAT-8, the first fiber optic cable that crossed the Atlantic and connected us to the Internet, is being removed from its place. And to understand the importance of this, it is worth telling its story, since perhaps the Internet would not be as we know it without this cable. The cable that started it all. On December 14, 1988, AT&T, British Telecom and France Telecom developed TAT-8, the acronym for Trans-Atlantic Telephone 8. It was the eighth transoceanic cable system between Europe and the United States, but the first to use optical fiber. Before him, transatlantic cables ran on copper, with very limited capacity. With the TAT-8, voices and data traveled converted into pulses of light through glass threads thinner than a hair. Just like account Wired in its report, at the inaugural event, writer Isaac Asimov connected by video call from New York with audiences in Paris and London to celebrate, in his own words, “this inaugural voyage across the sea on a ray of light.” Why was it so important? When it came into operation, the Internet was still too technical a concept for the general public. But the TAT-8 literally built the highway on which everything later circulated. The curious thing is that in just 18 months it already reached its maximum capacity, so this forced new cables to be laid as soon as possible, especially after the outbreak of the world Wide Webelectronic commerce and in a context in which the Internet became increasingly relevant. By 2001 the TAT series had already reached 14. Disconnection. Just like account In the middle, in 2002, the TAT-8 suffered a breakdown, and repairing it was not worth it, it was that simple. With more modern and higher capacity cables already operational, it made no sense to invest in their recovery. It went offline and was abandoned at the bottom of the Atlantic, where it has remained for more than two decades. Now they are taking it out of the sea. According to collect Wired, a specialist company called Subsea Environmental Services is physically recovering the cable with its vessel MV Maasvliet. It is one of the few companies in the world whose entire business consists of recovering and recycling retired submarine cables. The operation involves dragging a flat hook across the seabed, waiting hours until tension is felt in the cable, and then hoisting it aboard meter by meter. The workers they explain As the ocean floor is an increasingly crowded space, and recovering old cables frees up routes for new ones. What is done with the remains. The TAT-8 is not thrown away. Fiber optic cables contain high purity copper, steel and polyethylene, all recyclable materials with market value. Copper, especially, is a valuable resource and may become scarce in a few years. And according to the International Energy Agency, in less than a decade could be scarce if the industry does not find new sources. On the other hand, the steel of the cable will end up being converted into fences, and the plastic, processed in the Netherlands, will be transformed into pellets to manufacture non-food packaging. In fact, just as they count At Wired, you may soon be using shampoo in a bottle made from remains of the first fiber optic cable to cross the Atlantic. Sharks. Curiously, the TAT-8 is at the epicenter of one of the legends that has lasted the longest in this sector: that sharks bite internet cables. Just like share In the middle, it all started with a test prior to the TAT-8, the Optican-1, which ended up failing due to problems in its insulation. A Bell Labs engineer appeared at a conference with shark teeth that had supposedly been removed from the damaged cable. The story spread instantly. As well as point At the time, AT&T even included four pages on protection against shark bites in its press kit for TAT-8. Actually, there has never been consensus about whether the sharks really caused that damage. Subsequent tests in aquariums, where they were starved to see if they would bite into wires with electric fields, did not yield any clear patterns. At least the outcome of all that testing and debate was positive, as engineers added a layer of steel between the insulation and the fibers, which improved the cable’s overall resistance to abrasions and damage of all kinds. Cover image | What’s Inside? In Xataka | In 1901, a Spanish man had one of the ideas of the century: invent the remote control before television

when you need to buy the most expensive cable and when the 5 euro one is worth it

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You go to a store like Amazon and type ‘HDMI cable’ in the search engine. The results show a lot of options and all, at a glance, they are almost identicalyes. Yes, there are braided cables, cables of different lengths, or you can even find cables of other colors, but there doesn’t seem to be much difference between them all. Despite this, there are very cheap cables and others that cost more than 20 euros. Your first impulse may be to go for the cheapest one that has the meters you need. Ideally, you should spend a moment on the details, since the cheapest ones are usually HDMI 2.0, while the most expensive ones are HDMI 2.1. What does that mean for you? Let’s take a look at it so you know if it’s worth investing a little more or if one of these cheap cables works for you. Choosing an HDMI 2.1 cable In short, HDMI 2.1 cable is better. The main difference between this and HDMI 2.0 is that it has greater bandwidth (more than double, in fact). In practice, this means that the cable can handle and transport more information per second. Since we are talking about an HDMI cable, we are referring to image and sound. Precisely because it has more bandwidth, this cable can move higher resolution at higher hertz. It is the right one if you plan to see 8K resolution content (although for commercial 8K content there is still) or if you are looking to play something at 4K at 120 Hz. The latter is what leads many people to go for one of these cables because it is the way to get the most out of a PlayStation 5 or one Xbox Series X. To the greater bandwidth of this cable, we must add some technologies such as dynamic HDR or others that are also great for video games and that are not present in HDMI 2.0. The most important one is called VRR (either Variable Refresh Rate), which basically makes the console or PC and the TV “agree” so that the image does not jerk. We have two examples of VRR with two technologies that are usually present in many monitors, such as NVIDIA G-Sync or AMD FreeSync. There is also ALLM, which makes the TV’s Game Mode activate automatically when you connect the console. This is very convenient because it will save you from doing it manually every time, but it is great when playing because reduce latency. That is, it minimizes the time that passes between you pressing a button and the action being displayed on the screen. For competitive games it is key. If you have a good sound bar for TV at home and you want to connect it via HDMI, then choosing an HDMI 2.1 cable may be a good idea. Here comes into play what is called eARCwhich allows you to command uncompressed audio in the highest quality from the TV. Where is the “but”? So that all these things that we tell you are worth something, It is necessary that both the TV and the console or PC are compatible. You can use the cable if they are not, but you will have spent more money and you will not be taking advantage of it. The good thing is that check if your TV or monitor has HDMI 2.1 It’s not difficult. Choose an HDMI 2.0 cable The best cable doesn’t have to be what you need. The HDMI 2.0 cable has less bandwidth, as we said above, but it is still more than enough for 4K and 60 Hz content. This combination, today, is the most common when playing with all consoles. Plus, it still supports HDR. For this reason, it can be great for consoles from previous generations (PlayStation 4 or Nintendo Switch, for example) or for a TV Box. Another asset that this HDMI 2.0 cable has: the price. Generally, this type of cable It is significantly cheaper than HDMI 2.1. That, which is great for our pocket, also allows us to buy one of better quality without having to spend a good pinch. Because yes, the quality of the cable or connector matters (a lot). And the distance, because the longer the cable is, the more likely it is to suffer losses or interference. What is the main drawback of this cable? May it become obsolete soon. If you don’t plan to change your TV or console right now, HDMI 2.0 is perfect. Now, when you switch to a newer device that supports HDMI 2.1, you will have to buy a new cable if you want higher resolution and more fps. In other words: if renewing consoles or TVs in the short or medium term is on your mind, buy an HDMI 2.1 directly. The good and the bad of both options, face to face HDMI 2.1 HDMI 2.0 THE GOOD 🟢 It reaches up to 8K and 60 Hz (or 4K and 120 Hz) and has exclusive technologies It’s cheaper and still capable with 4K and 60 Hz THE BAD 🔴 It is more expensive and you will not get the most out of it if your TV is not compatible It will soon become obsolete if you plan to renew your TV or console. Ideal for: Play at higher fps and higher resolution with a PS5 or Xbox Series X and to play audio in the best quality Consoles from past generations or watch movies, series and football if you don’t have an 8K TV We do the math to see which one can compensate you more. Both options have their advantages and disadvantages, so now let’s see which one may interest you more depending on which cases. Here it will depend a little on what you are looking for, but especially on What TV or monitor are you going to use the cable for?. The advantages in resolution, Hz and technologies of HDMI 2.1 are obvious, … Read more

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