Ethereum is a blockchain protocol that includes a programming language which allows for applications, called contracts, to run within the blockchain. Initially described in a white paper by it’s creator, Vitalik Buterin in late 2013, Ethereum was created as a platform for the development of decentralized applications that can do more than make simple coin transfers.

How does it work?

Ethereum is a blockchain. In general, a blockchain is a chain of data structures (blocks) that contains information such as account ids, balances, and transaction histories. Blockchains are distributed across a network of computers; the computers are often referred to as nodes.

Cryptography is a major part of blockchain technology. Mathematical encryption algorithms like RSA and ECDSA are used to generate public and private keys that are mathematically coupled. Public keys, or addresses, and private keys allow people to make transactions across the network without involving any personal information like name, address, date of birth, etc. These keys and addresses are often called hashes and are usually a long string on hexadecimal symbols.

Example of an RSA generated public key

Blockchains have a public ledger that keeps track of all transactions that have occurred since the first, “genesis”, block. A block will include, at least, a hash of the current and previous blocks, and some data. Nodes across the network work to verify transactions and add them to the public ledger. In order for a transaction to be considered legitimate, there must be consensus.

Consensus means that the transaction is considered valid by the majority of the nodes in the Network. There are four main algorithms used to achieve consensus among a distributed blockchain network: the byzantine fault tolerance, proof-of-work, proof-of-stake, and delegated proof-of-stake. Chris explains them well in his post.

Attempting to make even the slightest alteration to the data in a block will change the hash of the block and will therefore be noticed by the entire network. This makes blockchains immutable and append-only. A transaction can only be added at the end of the chain, and once a transaction is added to a block there can be no changes made to it.

Source: andrefortuna.org

Accounts

Users of Ethereum control an account that has a cryptographic private key with a corresponding Ethereum address. If Alice, for example, wants to send Bob 1,000 ETH (ETH / Ether is Ethereum’s money). Alice needs Bob’s Ethereum address so she knows where to send it, and then Bob needs to use his private key that corresponds to that address in order to receive the 1,000 ETH.

Ethereum has two types of accounts: accounts that user’s control and contracts (or “smart contracts”). Accounts that user’s control, like Alice and Bob, primarily serve for ETH transfers. Just about every blockchain system has this type of account that can make money transfers. But what makes Ethereum special is the second type of account; a contract.

Contract accounts are controlled by a piece of code (an application) that is run inside the blockchain itself.

“What do you mean, inside the blockchain?”

EVM

Ethereum has a Virtual Machine, called EVM. This is where contracts get executed. EVM includes a stack (~processor), temporary memory (~RAM), storage space for permanent memory (~disk/database), environment variables (~system information, e.g: timestamp), logs, and sub-calls (you can call a contract within a contract).

An example contract might look like this:

if (something happens): send 1,000 ETH to Bob (addr: 22982be234)

else if (something else happens): send 1,000 ETH to Alice (addr: bbe4203fe)

else: don't send any ETH

If a user sends 1,000 ETH to this account (the contract), then the code in this account is the only thing that has power to transfer that ETH. It’s kind of like an escrow. The sender no longer has control over the 1,000 ETH. The digital assets are now under the control of a computer program and will be moved depending on the conditional logic of the contract.

Is it free?

No. The execution of contracts occurs within the blockchain, therefore within the Ethereum Network. Contracts take up storage space, and they require computational power. So Ethereum uses something called gas as a unit of measurement of how much something costs the Network. The price of gas is voted on by the nodes and the fees user’s pay in gas goes to the miners.

Miners

Miners are people using computers to do computations required validate transactions across the Network and add new blocks to the chain.

Mining works like this: when a block of transactions is ready to be added to the chain, miners use computer processing power to find hashes that match a specific target. When a miner finds the matching hash, she will be rewarded with ETH and will broadcast the new block across the network. The other nodes verify the matching hash, then if there is consensus, it is added to the chain.

What’s inside a block?

Within an Ethereum block is something called the state and history. The state is a mapping of addresses to account objects. The state of each account object includes:

• ETH balance
• nonce **
• the contract’s source code (if the account is a contract)
• contract storage (database)

** a nonce is a counter that prevents the account from repeating a transaction over and over resulting perhaps in taking more ETH from a sender than they are supposed to.

Blocks also store history: records of previous transactions and receipts.

State and History and stored in each node (each member of the Ethereum Network). Having each node contain the history of Ethereum transactions and contract code is great for security and immutability, but can be hard to scale. A blockchain cannot process more transactions than a single node can. Because of this, Ethereum limits the number of transactions to 7–15 per second. The protocol has adopted sharding — a technique that essentially breaks up the chain into smaller pieces but still aims to have the same level of security.

Transactions

Every transaction specifies a TO: address. If the TO: is a user-controlled account, and the transaction contains ETH, it is considered a transfer of ETH from account A to account B. If the TO: is a contract, then the code of the contract gets executed. The execution of a contract can result in further transactions, even calls to contracts within a contract, an event known as an inter-transaction.

But contracts don’t always have to be about transferring ETH. Anyone can create an application with any rules by defining it as a contract.

Who is using Ethereum?

Ethereum is currently being used mostly by crytocurrency traders and investors, but there is a growing community of developers that are building dapps (decentralized applications) on the Ethereum Network.

There are thousands of Ethereum-based projects being developed as we speak. Some more the most popular dapps are games (e.g CryptoKitties and CrptyoTulips).

How is Ethereum different than bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a blockchain technology where users are assigned a private key, linked with a wallet that generates bitcoin addresses where people can send bitcoins to. It’s all about the coins. It’s a way to exchange money in an encrypted, decentralized environment.

Ethereum not only lets users exchange money like bitcoin does, but it also has programming languages that let people build applications (contracts) that are executed within the blockchain.

Bitcoin functions on proof of work as a means of achieving consensus across the network. Whereas Ethereum uses proof of stake.

Ethereum’s creator is public (Vitalik Buterin). Bitcoin’s is unknown (goes by the alias, Satoshi Nakamoto)

Other blockchains that do contracts

There are other blockchain projects that allow the creation of contracts. Here is a brief description of what they are and how they are different than Ethereum:

Neo — faster transaction speeds, inability to fork, less energy use, has two tokens (NEO and GAS), will be quantum resistant.

Icon — uses loopchain to connect blockchain-based communities around the world.

Nem — contract code is stored outside of the blockchain resulting in a lighter and faster network.

Ethereum Classic — a continuation of the original Ethereum blockchain (before it was forked)

Conclusion

Ethereum is a rapidly growing blockchain protocol that allows people to not only transfer assests to each other, but to create decentralized applications that run securely on a distributed network of computers.

Drive, dive and fly with the new Nintendo Labo Vehicle Kit

Buckle up for a new adventure while sitting in the driver’s seat of a car, a submarine and a plane with the Nintendo Labo: Vehicle Kit, launching on Sept. 14. This new Nintendo Labo kit is designed to work with the Nintendo Switch system*, and contains materials to build a variety of customizable cardboard creations called Toy-Con, including a Car, a Submarine, a Plane, a Pedal, two Keys and more. By inserting one of the assembled Keys into any of the vehicles, players can enjoy a variety of fun games and activities. Changing between vehicles while adventuring is a cinch – simply pull the Key out of one and slot it into another to transform from an airplane pilot to a submarine captain!

“Nintendo Labo is a collaborative and creative experience designed to encourage imagination in people of all ages,” said Doug Bowser, Nintendo of America’s Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “We’re excited to offer a variety of fun gameplay experiences with Vehicle Kit, and look forward to seeing the creative Nintendo Labo community continue to grow.”

Since its introduction in April, Nintendo Labo has inspired new ways to play by combining the family-friendly fun of DIY creations with the technology of Nintendo Switch. Nintendo Labo: Vehicle Kit will unlock even more ways for people to make, play and discover together, as they speed through races, battle cars equipped with extendable arms and explore a mysterious world. Each vehicle features its own controls and special moves, and with the second Key, players can even invite a co-pilot along on their in-game journey. Interacting with the assembled Toy-Con creations instantly translates into in-game actions to create a truly immersive experience – from pulling the cord on the Car to pop a wheelie, pushing the button on the Submarine to launch a grappling hook and so much more.

As with every Nintendo Labo kit, Nintendo Labo: Vehicle Kit includes its own unique Nintendo Switch software designed to work with the included Toy-Con projects. Enjoy the fun of making each Toy-Con creation, playing immersive games with them, discovering how they work and even inventing new ways to play. All materials needed to complete each Toy-Con creations are included – no glue, tape, or scissors required!

The possibilities of Nintendo Labo: Vehicle Kit can be expanded even further with Toy-Con Garage. This intuitive and interactive programming tool is included with every Nintendo Labo kit and features a simple, visual interface and handy tutorials designed for players of all ages. Toy-Con Garage encourages players to experiment with the Toy-Con creations they’ve built or craft their own original designs using handy household items like paper cups, stickers and ribbon. With Toy-Con Garage, the possibilities of Nintendo Labo become almost limitless – players of all ages can enjoy hours of inventing, tinkering, crafting, playing and enriching fun.

Pre-order the Nintendo Labo: Vehicle Kit from select retailers for a suggested retail price of $69.99. Stay tuned to the Nintendo Labo website for more information about Nintendo Labo: Vehicle Kit.

To start making, playing and discovering right now, check out the Nintendo Labo: Variety Kit and Nintendo Labo: Robot Kit, which are currently available in stores at suggested retail prices of $69.99 and $79.99, respectively.

Remember that Nintendo Switch features parental controls that let adults manage the content their children can access. For more information about other features, visit https://www.nintendo.com/switch/.

*Nintendo Switch system required and is sold separately.

A cursory glance at the promotional screenshots and you could be forgiven for dismissing Isle of Skye as simply a Carcassonne clone with a Scottish setting. Thankfully, although it shares the same tile-laying mechanic, Isle of Skye has many clever ideas of its own. So much so that the board game has won a host of awards, including the prestigious 2016 Kennerspiel des Jahres.

As clan chieftain, you expand your territory and strengthen your clan in the hope of being crowned King of the Isle of Skye. You do this by purchasing and placing landscape tiles. These tiles feature a mix of highlands, water and mountain areas and must be placed so that the different landscape types match. There are also roads to consider. These do not need to be placed so that they link to other roads, but to earn the maximum income, it is advantageous to have a connected road network. Tiles also feature a range of other point scoring opportunities, including livestock, ships and various types of buildings Finally, a small number of tiles contain scrolls that award bonus points at the end of the game for fulfilling certain requirements.

The first significant difference from Carcassonne is that each player works on building his or her own individual landscape. You may think that this would lead to a rather solitary gaming experience, with little interaction between competing players. Happily though, the brilliantly designed auction system ensures that the game feels both competitive and involving. Before we go to auction, however, we need some cash. Players earn a basic five coins per turn; additional income is earned from tiles that feature whisky barrels as long as they are connected to your castle by road.  There is also a catch-up mechanism that rewards extra coins to players who have fewer points.

With coins burning holes in our sporrans it is time to get trading. At the beginning of each round, all players draw three tiles. They then have to secretly choose one tile to discard and decide how much they are willing to pay for each of the remaining two. Then, in turn order, each player has the opportunity to use any remaining coins to purchase a single tile from an opponent. This works brilliantly, as you have to carefully set prices with the aim of purchasing tiles for the best possible price. However, set these too low and your opponents will snaffle them up. Furthermore, you don’t want to tie up too many coins in trying to secure your own tiles because you may miss the opportunity to purchase a tasty tile from another player. It sounds simple but setting prices can lead to some agonising decisions. Sometimes, you will be tempted to hang on to a tile that is not particularly useful because you know that it will appeal to an opponent. You can then attach a high price and take a gamble that they will bite, but you run the risk of being forced to cough up for your own overpriced tile.

Isle of Skye introduces plenty of variety, with a choice of sixteen different scoring tiles. Only four of these are used in each game and their point scoring potential should form the crux of your overall strategy. Before the game commences these four tiles can be chosen by the players or determined randomly. Not all of these tiles will be scored every round, so certain types of landscape tiles are going to be more valuable at certain points in the game. There is an interesting variety of scoring tiles, which require different tactics to exploit. Some have a spatial element, such as forming squares of four tiles; others will require you to enclose areas of particular landscape types. Then there are those that require you to have the majority of particular items such as ships or coins. The result is a pleasing diversity of scoring opportunities that makes every game feel different.

This isn’t a difficult game to learn and the interactive tutorial will soon have you up and running. To improve your strategy there is the option to watch games that have been played between the highest ranked players. At the start of the game your five coins will not go far, but with some shrewd financial management, you should soon see your income escalating. This will also mean that the landscape tiles will in turn rocket in price, which means that you constantly have to be aware of market trends.

The graphics accurately represent the table-top original and the screen layout works relatively well. All of the required information is laid out along the screen edges, with the central area reserved for your ever-growing kingdom. There are a few times when the interface feels a little unresponsive, like when you are trying to set prices, or get an overview of each scoring tile. I am not convinced by the background, which gives the impression that you are playing on a stained tablecloth. Also, the sound is rather nondescript, although mercifully it does hold back on the bagpipes. Most seriously of all, there appears to be a major bug that causes the game to freeze when playing a pass and play game. I encountered no such problems when competing against just AI opponents. Unfortunately, even at the highest difficulty level the AI does not put up too much of a challenge. In the auction, placing a value on a tile is dependent on so many different variables that creating an AI to challenge experienced players is tough. You are going to want to find some online human opponents to really get the most from this game. Thankfully, setting up an asynchronous online game is easy enough. This mode works especially well, as turns play quickly, and a single game doesn’t drag on too long.

If you enjoyed Carcassonne and are looking for something with more strategy and depth, then Isle of Skye is definitely worth considering even if the app itself isn’t as polished as other leading board game adaptations.

Note: By the time of publication, a recent update has ensured that the interface is much more responsive, sadly the issue with pass and play games freezing hasn’t been resolved.

Starting at 2:00 p.m. PDT today, members of the Xbox One Preview Alpha – Skip Ahead and Preview Alpha rings will begin receiving the latest Xbox One system update (1810.180716-1911). Learn more about the new features in development for 1810 here, and read on for a list of fixes and known issues in this 1810 system update.

Network

• Fixed various network performance issues

Performance 

• Various performance and bug fixes

Games

• Fixed an issue where users are reporting that certain multiplayer titles cannot be played due to frequent disconnects

Headsets

• We have fixed the issue with various headsets and mic not working.

Virtual Keyboard

• We have fixed an issue where users were unable to input text via Media Remotes using the on screen keyboard.
• Various performance fixes

Avatars

• Gamerpics may appear on certain places throughout the dashboard instead of Avatars.

Backgrounds

• We are tracking an issue where custom background images or achievement art are not being displayed on the dashboard when starting the console. The background image is not loading for the user when signing into their profile.
  
  • Workaround: Refresh the dashboard.

Virtual Keyboard

• We are tracking an issue where users are reporting that various keys & controller shortcuts for the virtual keyboard are not being recognized. Certain keys (spacebar, @ symbol, – symbol) are not registering when being pressed on the keyboard (both the virtual keyboard and via a USB keyboard)

Settings

• We are tracking an issue with users not being able to select/change options under Device power options in Device Control.

Game Pass Tab

• Preview Alpha – Skip Ahead users will notice that the Entertainment tab has been replaced on the dashboard with Game Pass content. This new tab allows for easy access to the Game Pass catalog and is only available in the US region at this time, so Preview Alpha Skip Ahead Insiders in regions outside of the US will continue to see the Entertainment tab.

Groups

• You may see issues with Groups if you frequently switch between your non-Preview console and your Preview console.
  
  • Workaround: Reset your Groups locally on the Preview console through “My games & apps” > Groups, then using the “Delete all groups” button at the bottom of the page to resync from the service.

Microsoft Edge

• The cursor may disappear when exiting and re-entering the app
  
  • Workaround: Press Y when re-entering the app to make the cursor re-appea

Profile Color

• Sometimes users may encounter an incorrect Profile color when powering on the console.

Networking

• When the console wakes from Instant on/connected standby with a wired connection, the console may not recognize that the Ethernet cable is plugged in.
  
  • Workaround: Please reboot the console via Guide > reboot

The latest Nintendo Download update for Europe has arrived, and it’s bringing new games galore to the eShop in your region. As always, be sure to drop a vote in our poll and a comment down below with your potential picks for the week. Enjoy!

Switch eShop – New Releases

Mega Man X Legacy Collection (Capcom, €19.99 / £15.99 ) – The celebrated Mega Man X series returns! Play as Mega Man X – the powerful successor of classic fighting robot Mega Man – as he battles a variety of deadly bosses known as Mavericks in four hit titles. – Read our Mega Man X Legacy Collection review

Mega Man X Legacy Collection 2 (Capcom, €19.99 / £15.99 ) – Complete the exciting Mega Man X saga with this collection of four action-packed titles! Both Mega Man X and his ally Zero return as playable characters, allowing players to jump and shoot through challenging stages with X’s arm cannon, or slash through enemies with Zero’s energy saber. – Read our Mega Man X Legacy Collection 2 review

Pool Panic (Cartoon Interactive, €12.19 / £10.99 ) – Pool Panic frees billiards from the table and unleashes it into a world where everything from jungles and deserts to cities and swamps is a living pool game! You already know that sinking eight balls is the ultimate goal, but can you succeed while contending with monster balls chasing you, or ballerina balls leaping away from your well-aimed shots? – Read our Pool Panic review

Zaccaria Pinball (Magic Pixel, Free ) – Zaccaria was founded by three brothers (Marino, Franco, & Natale) and was the 3rd largest manufacturer of pinball machines in the world (behind Bally & Williams). They had created and produced more than 35 different pinball machines between 1974 and 1987.

Bud Spencer & Terence Hill – Slaps And Beans (Trinity Team, €20.00 / £17.99 ) – Bud Spencer and Terence Hill in their first virtual adventure. A brand new story! Whether in the Western Saloon, Miami Downtown, at the fairground etc… you’ll get the full load of funny conversation, slaps and of course lots of mass brawls.

Semblance (Gambitious , €8.99 / £8.09) – Semblance is an innovative platformer with deformable terrain, set in a beautiful minimalist world. It’s a game that asks, what if you could deform and reshape the world itself? Semblance takes the idea of a ‘platform’ in a platformer and turns it on its head. What if platforms were actually part of the gameplay, part of the way you solved problems? – Read our Semblance review

Paladins (Hi-Rez Studios, Now available for free ) – Join 25+ million players in Paladins, the free-to-play fantasy team-based shooter sensation. Wield guns and magic as a legendary Champion of the Realm, customizing your core set of abilities to play exactly how you want to play. – Read our Paladins review

ACA NEOGEO THE KING OF FIGHTERS ’97 (HAMSTER, €6.99 / £6.29 ) – “THE KING OF FIGHTERS ’97” is a fighting game released by SNK in 1997. Featuring popular characters from FATAL FURY and ART OF FIGHTING, these fighters will battle to determine who is the strongest. The ADVANCED and EXTRA modes of gameplay offer an even deeper level of tactics. – Read our ACA NEOGEO THE KING OF FIGHTERS ’97 review

Arcade Archives OMEGA FIGHTER (HAMSTER, €6.99 / £6.29 ) – “OMEGA FIGHTER” is a shooting game released by UPL in 1989. Use two kinds of Shots and a variety of items to defeat the enemies invading Earth and destroy their giant mothership. As enemies are approached and destroyed, your score increases in an intense shooting system that garnered many fans. *This version includes OMEGA FIGHTER SPECIAL MODE and OMEGA FIGHTER SPECIAL.

Banner Saga 3 (Versus Evil, €14.99 / £13.49) – Banner Saga 3 is the final dramatic chapter in the mature, story-driven Viking RPG series which has won over 20 awards and has been nominated for 4 BAFTA awards. As the world continues to crumble around you, who can you trust, how will you protect your allies and what choices will you make as the Darkness draws near?

Chicken Assassin: Reloaded (Akupara Games, €6.99 / £5.99 ) – Chicken Assassin is a fast-paced action-RPG with an outrageous storyline filled with over-the-top humour that boasts a myriad of colourful enemies and visually stunning levels and environments. – Read our Chicken Assassin: Reloaded review

Crossing Souls (Devolver Digital, €14.99 / £13.49 ) – Crossing Souls is an action-adventure set in a California suburb in the midst of a supernatural event that rocks the small community as grand forces siege the town. Control five characters and use each character’s specialties to overcome any obstacle. Fight in real-time, solve clever puzzles, face off against powerful bosses and play special levels inspired by 80’s arcade video games.

Dawn of the Breakers (CyberStep, Free) – Defeat the impending menace, the mysterious “Ghouls”! Utilize new abilities with each transformation of your Heroes! Discover the fate that awaits a young man afflicted with amnesia… Embark on an unpredictable journey!

NoReload Heroes (Forever Entertainment, €9.99 / £8.99 ) – NoReload Heroes is a chaotic co-op party shooter for up to four people. You play as a team, fighting your way through randomly generated rooms filled with various types of enemies, picking up insane magitech guns on the way. Shooting stuff up is simple and hilarious, but only the best of teams can make it all the way back to the evil they’ve created. – Read our NoReload Heroes review

Piczle Lines DX 500 More Puzzles! (RAINYFROG, €8.49 / £7.64) – Couldn’t get enough of Piczle Lines DX? This is another Piczle Lines game with 500 new and sometimes feisty puzzles to wrap your mind around. Draw lines to connect pairs of numbers to complete a hidden picture in this feverishly addictive PICture puzZLE game! Connect numbers of the same colour, using the same number of blocks as the number!

GO VACATION (Nintendo, €49.99 / £39.99 ) – Welcome to Kawawii Island, a paradise resort where friends and family can enjoy 50+ co-op and competitive activities. There are all sorts of exciting ways to explore the island, from horseback to buggies, snowmobiles to inline skates. – Read our GO VACATION review

Hello Neighbor (tinyBuild Games, €39.99 / £35.99 ) – Hello Neighbor is a stealth horror game about sneaking into your neighbor’s house to figure out what horrible secrets he’s hiding in the basement. You play against an advanced AI that learns from your every move. Really enjoying climbing through that backyard window? Expect a bear trap there. Sneaking through the front door? There’ll be cameras there soon. Trying to escape? The Neighbor will find a shortcut and catch you.

Candle: The Power of the Flame (Merge Games, €15.99 / £11.99) – Candle is an adventure with challenging puzzles. Play as Teku, a young novice on a dangerous journey to rescue his tribe’s shaman from the evil tribe of the Wakcha. But the way is littered with sinister traps and difficult obstacles. – Read our Candle: The Power of the Flame review

Element (Flightless, €11.99 / £10.99 ) – Element is a real-time strategy space game for people who don’t have time to play real-time strategy space games. Home no longer provides a means to survive. A fight for resources to escape our system has begun. The future lies beyond…

Final Light, The Prison (Enjoy Up Games, €6.99 / £6.29 ) – Politicians, spies, inventors and anyone who may harm those who really control the world, were imprisoned in Prison S-313, created in a barren area unknown to mankind. Darkness and incomprehension overcame them all, subjecting them to all kinds of barbarity. This is now a ghost prison where everything that happened remains in the past. Our reckless and difficult mission will be to free these hateful spirits…

Spheroids (Eclipse Games, €7.99 / £6.99 ) – In Spheroids you take control of Lucas, a jumpy Canadian boy who sets out on an adventure with his crazy scientist companion Otto after it’s discovered that the government has been hiding alternative universes from the cubic world they live in. Unfortunately, these alternative universes contain spheres that wish to turn everything round, so it’s up to Lucas to save the world from these dangerous aliens: the Spheroids. – Read our Spheroids review

3DS eShop – New Releases

Smash Bowling 3D (Big John Games, €4.99 / £4.49 ) – Get ready to smash the boundaries of any previous handheld bowling experience with Smash Bowling 3D on the Nintendo 3DS from Big John Games. Smash Bowling 3D provides an incredibly accurate interface to apply aim, ball spin, power, and positioning. – Read our Smash Bowling 3D review

WarioWare Gold (Nintendo, €39.99 / £34.99 ) – The latest in the WarioWare series is coming to Nintendo 3DS family systems! Which means, there’s a new way to play Wario’s strangely satisfying microgames. With classics and new additions, there are 300 microgames to enjoy, making this the biggest entry in the series! Press buttons, tilt the system, use the Touch Screen and microphone, and dig that crazy action while it’s hot!

Switch eShop – Pre-Orders

Crush Your Enemies! (Vile Monarch , €7.99 / £7.19, pre-order from 23/07/2018) – Pre-Order until 02/08/2018, 14:59 CEST Game description: Jump right into battle and use your rusty strategic and tactical skills to crush hundreds of enemies within minutes! Crush Your Enemies has everything you like in strategy games: planning, choosing different types of units, managing resources, taking enemy territory and outwitting your opponents with the ingenious formations of your men.

SNK Heroines Tag Team Frenzy (NIS America, €49.99 / £39.99, pre-order from 24/07/2018) – Pre-Order until 06/09/2018, 23:59 local time Game description: Fan-favourite heroines from SNK gather together for 2-on-2 tag-team action in SNK Heroines Tag Team Frenzy on Nintendo Switch!

Flat Heroes (Deck13 Interactive, €9.99 / £8.99, pre-order from 26/07/2018) – Pre-Order until 02/08/2018, 14:59 CEST Game description: Flat Heroes rewards you with that good old feeling of surviving impossible levels alongside a smooth modern design with a minimalist style. With a simple set of movements and delightful controls, Flat Heroes encourages you to stylishly navigate and survive over 300 handcrafted levels, destroy the most epic bosses around and truly be the two-dimensional hero (or heroes!) you’ve always dreamed you could be.

Switch eShop – Special Offers

3DS eShop – Special Offers

Wii U eShop – Special Offers

DLC / Add-On Content

Nintendo Switch

• Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Nintendo) (Update)
• Zaccaria Pinball – Various Tables (Magic Pixel) – €1.99 / £1.79 – €2.99 / £2.69
• Zaccaria Pinball – Zaccaria Solid-State Table Pack 1 (Magic Pixel) – €9.99 / £8.99
• Zaccaria Pinball – Zaccaria Solid-State Table Pack 2 (Magic Pixel) – €9.99 / £8.99
• Zaccaria Pinball – Zaccaria Solid-State Table Pack 3 (Magic Pixel) – €9.99 / £8.99
• Zaccaria Pinball – Zaccaria Electro-Mechanical Table Pack 1 (Magic Pixel) – €9.99 / £8.99
• Zaccaria Pinball – Zaccaria Remake Table Pack 1 (Magic Pixel) – €14.99 / £13.49
• WorldNeverland – Elnea Kingdom: Guiding Butterfly Wings (althi) – €2.99 / £2.69
• Dawn of the Breakers – 6 Spirit Gem (CyberStep) – €0.99 / £0.99
• Dawn of the Breakers – 36 Spirit Gem (24 + 12 bonus) (CyberStep) – €4.99 / £4.99
• Dawn of the Breakers – 75 Spirit Gem (48 + 27 bonus) (CyberStep) – €9.99 / £9.99
• Dawn of the Breakers – 140 Spirit Gem (90 + 50 bonus) (CyberStep) – €17.99 / £17.99
• Dawn of the Breakers – 320 Spirit Gem (190 + 130 bonus) (CyberStep) – €39.99 / £39.99
• Dawn of the Breakers – 440 Spirit Gem (250 + 190 bonus) (CyberStep) – €49.99 / £49.99
• Dawn of the Breakers – 1055 Spirit Gem (490 + 565 bonus) (CyberStep) – €99.99 / £99.99
• Dawn of the Breakers – Monthly Spirit Gem Pass (CyberStep) – €9.99 / £9.99

So that’s your lot for this week’s Nintendo Download. Go on, be a sport and drop a vote in the poll above, and a comment below with your hot picks!

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced the first grants for its Electronic Resurgence Initiative (ERI). The initial round, which will expand to $1.5 billion over five years, covers topics ranging from automating EDA to optimizing chips for SDR to improving NVM performance. Of particular interest is a project called POSH, (posh open source hardware), which intends to create a Linux-based platform and ecosystem for designing and verifying open source IP hardware blocks for next-generation system-on-chips.

The first funding recipients were announced at DARPA’s ERI Summit this week in San Francisco. As reported in IEEE Spectrum, the recipients are working out of R&D labs at major U.S. universities and research institutes, as well as companies like Cadence, IBM, Intel, Nvidia, and Qualcomm.

Most of the projects are intended to accelerate the development of complex, highly customized SoCs. ERI is motivated by two trends in chip design. First, as Moore’s Law roadmap slows to a crawl, SoC designers are depending less on CPUs and more on a growing profusion of GPUs, FPGAs, neural chips, and other co-processors, thereby adding to complexity. Second, we’re seeing a greater diversity of applications ranging from cloud-based AI to software defined networking to the Internet of Things. Such divergent applications often require highly divergent mixes of processors, including novel chips like neural net accelerators.

DARPA envisions the tech world moving toward a wider variety of SoCs with different mixes of IP blocks, including highly customized SoCs for specific applications. With today’s semiconductor design tools, however, such a scenario would bog down in spiraling costs and delays. ERI plans to speed things up.

Here are some brief summaries of the projects followed by a closer look at POSH:

• IDEA — This EDA project is based primarily on work by David White at Cadence, which received $24.1 million of the total IDEA funding. The immediate goal is to create a layout generator that would enable users with even limited electronic design expertise to complete the physical design of electronic hardware such as a single board computer within 24 hours. A larger goal is to enable the automated EDA system to capture the expertise of designers using it.
• Software Defined Hardware (SDH) — SDH aims to develop hardware and software that can be reconfigured in real time based on the kind of data being processed. The goal is to design chips that can reconfigure their workload in a matter of milliseconds. Stephen Keckler at Nvidia is leading the funding at $22.7 million.
• Domain-Specific System on Chip (DSSoC) — Like the closely related SDH project, the DSSoC project is inspired by software defined radio (SDR). The project is working with the GNU Radio Foundation to look at the needs of SDR developers as the starting point for developing an ideal SDR SoC.
• 3DSoC — This semiconductor materials and integration project is based largely on MIT research from Max Shulaker, who received $61 million. FRANC is attempting to grow multiple layers of interconnected circuitry atop a CMOS base to prove that a monolithic 3D system using a more affordable 90nm process can compete with CPUs with more advanced processes.
• Foundations Required for Novel Compute (FRANC) — FRANC is looking to improve the performance of NVM memories such as embedded MRAM with a goal of enabling “emerging memory-centric computing architectures to overcome the memory bottleneck presented in current von Neumann computing.”

POSH boosts open hardware with verification

The POSH project received over $35 million in funding spread out among a dozen researchers. The biggest grants, ranging from about $6 to $7 million went to Eric Keiter (Sandia National Labs), Alex Rabinovitch (Synopsis), Tony Levi, and Clark Barrett (Stanford and SiFive).

As detailed in a July 18 interview in IEEE Spectrum with DARPA ERI director Bill Chappell, proprietary licensing can slow down development, especially when it comes to building complex, highly customized SoCs. If SoC designers could cherry pick verified, open source hardware blocks with the same ease that software developers can download software from GitHub today, it could significantly reduce development time and cost. In addition, open source can speed and improve hardware testing, which can be time-consuming when limited to engineers working for a single chipmaker.

POSH is not intended as a new open source processor architecture such as RISC-V. DARPA has helped fund RISC-V, and as noted, POSH funding recipient Barrett is part of the leadership team at RISC-V chip leader SiFive.

POSH is defined as “an open source SoC design and verification ecosystem that will enable the cost effective design of ultra-complex SoCs.” In some ways, POSH is the hardware equivalent of projects such as Linaro and Yocto, which verify, package, and update standardized software components for use by open source developers. As Chappell put it in the IEEE interview, POSH intends to “create a foundation of building blocks where we have full understanding and analysis capability as deep as we want to go to understand how these blocks are going to work.”

The ERI funding announcement quotes POSH and IDEA project leader Andreas Olofsson, as saying: “Through POSH, we hope to eliminate the need to start from scratch with every new design, creating a verified foundation to build from while providing deeper assurance to users based on the open source inspection process.”

POSH is focusing primarily on streamlining and unifying the verification process, which along with design, is by far a leading cost of SoC design. Currently, there are very few high-quality, verified hardware IP blocks that are openly available, and it’s difficult to tell those apart from the blocks that aren’t.

“You’re not going to bet $100 [million] to $200 million on a block that was maybe built by a university or, even if it was from another industrial location, [if] you don’t really know the quality of it,” Chappell told IEEE Spectrum. “So you have to have a methodology to understand how good something is at a deep level before it’s used.”

According to Chappell, open source hardware is finally starting to take off because of the increasing abstraction of the hardware design. “It gets closer to the software community’s mentality,” he said.
DARPA ERI’s slidedeck (the POSH section starts at page 49) suggests Linux as the foundation for the POSH IP block development and verification platform. It also details the following goals:

• TA-1: Hardware Assurance Technology — Development of hardware assurance technology appropriate for signoff quality validation of deeply hierarchical analog and digital circuits of unknown origin. Hardware assurance technology would provide increasingly high levels assurance for formal analysis, simulation, and emulation and prototypes.
• TA-2: Open Source Hardware Technology — Development of design methods, standards, and critical IP components needed to kick-start a viable open source SoC eco-system. IP blocks would include digital blocks such as CPU, GPU, FPGA, media codecs, encryption accelerators, and controllers for memory, Ethernet, PCIe, USB 3.0, MIPI-CSI, HDMI, SATA, CAN, and more. Analog blocks might include PHYs, PLL and DLL, ADCs, DACs, regulators. and monitor circuits.
• TA-3: Open Source System-On-Chip Demonstration — Demonstration of open source hardware viability through the design of a state of the art open source System-On-Chip.

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