This year's Computex tradeshow was a whirlwind of chip announcements, AI-everywhere drama, and new hardware galore. But as ever, the show was also a percolating laboratory of early technologies, barely done devices, and bold experiments that bubbled just under the surface for those with the time and inclination to look.
From our days bouncing around the show floors and suites, meeting with old contacts and new companies, these are eight of the most intriguing prototype technologies and early hardware that caught our eye. Will all hit the market or make a splash? Probably not. But Computex is nothing if not an incubator for the future of PCs, mobile devices, and the tech that will impact us all in the years to come. (For more from Computex, see our guide to the best PC DIY gear from the show, our Best in Show hardware picks, and our favorite PCs.)
1. Asus Labs: Six-Color E Ink Laptop Lids
During a short visit to Asus headquarters before Computex, the company showed off a demo suite with some future-looking technologies. This prototype display of six-color E Ink tech was the most compelling and eye-catching.
(Credit: John Burek)We all know E Ink as the boring monochrome screens in everyday ebook readers like Amazon Kindles, but color E Ink efforts have been few and far between and expensive. Here, Asus implements a multi-color E Ink solution on the rear of laptop lids, allowing for striking customization that you can change at will. For now, it's merely an experiment; there is no timeline for it showing up on the flip side of a ZenBook or Zephyrus.
(Credit: John Burek)Still, who wouldn't like a laptop that they can change with their mood, interests, or outfit of the day?
(Credit: John Burek)2. Cooler Master BTF GPU Concept Case
Asus’ Back to the Future (BTF) initiative involves eliminating visible cables from PC builds by putting them on the back of motherboards, out of sight. Asus supplements this idea with a limited range of GeForce RTX video cards that also have no cables, drawing their needed power to the card through a motherboard slot next to the PCI Express connector.
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(Credit: John Burek)This allows for some interesting possibilities in building out showcase PC cases. Take this Cooler Master effort, which looks like a little briefcase but can be assembled to lock a G-Force video card on top—on full display and in operation. Granted, no cables are attached here, but this looks as clean as we can imagine from a PC build.
(Credit: John Burek)3. Asus, Asetek, and Fabric8Labs: ECAM Copper CPU Cold Plates
Asus exhibited this interesting twist on CPU-cooler thermal interfaces. What you see here are the cold plates—the part of the liquid cooler that touches the surface of a CPU—used on all-in-one liquid coolers. However, these have been printed using a deposition process developed by a company called Fabric8Labs.
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(Credit: John Burek)Liquefied copper is built up in it using a method similar to resin 3D printing. The technique, dubbed Electrochemical Additive Manufacturing (ECAM), is used to “print” complex custom CPU cold plates that can have tiny gaps, micro-grooves, or customized fin pitches in different places that focus on (and are optimized for) the known hot points on a given CPU’s layout. Asus has an intriguing approach to CPU-specific cold plates in concert with liquid-cooling maestros Asetek.
(Credit: John Burek)4. CAMM2 Memory...on Desktop Motherboards?
We saw a few prototype implementations of the new CAMM2 memory-module format on desktop motherboards, mostly on next-generation Intel “Arrow Lake” models. CAMM stands for Compression Attached Memory Module; originally spearheaded by Dell, the CAMM format has gained some modest momentum on mobile. (See our initial explorations with CAMM.) JEDEC, the consortium that governs memory standards, recently released a spec for mobile and desktop CAMM designs: LPCAMM2 and CAMM2, respectively.
(Credit: John Burek)The benefits of CAMM designs for laptops are clear–these low-profile modules allow for thinner laptops overall. But CAMM also allows manufacturers to configure laptop models with different amounts of non-soldered-down memory and enable a wide high-speed memory interface. CAMM2 modules, however, take up more space on desktop boards than conventional desktop DIMMs do. Unlike the usual two to four DIMM slots on a motherboard, they are typically implemented only as a single module.
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(Credit: John Burek)The future of these modules on desktops is hazy, though they may well be implemented in enterprise servers and down the line. Perhaps we'll see it in high-end desktops with future types of memory (say, DDR6), where the higher bandwidth enabled by the CAMM2 spec will come into play. For now, though, CAMM2 is an interesting curiosity on consumer boards, though memory makers such as Kingston and Micron are soon shipping CAMM2 modules.
5. AceMagic Z1A Dual-Screen Laptop
Sure, we have seen dual-screen laptops before, but never one executed quite like this. Shenzen-based system maker AceMagic, best known for its mini PCs, exhibited this ambitious laptop design, which resembles a basic notebook PC but with a portable monitor hinged to the left edge of the screen. You can fold the Z1A’s display around the back and close the lid, exposing the secondary display on the outside of the PC, or fold it into the screen so that the lid protects the whole device for transport.
(Credit: John Burek)Of course, for everyday work and play, you can swing out the second panel parallel to the main screen and use the two displays side-by-side. The second display works like any other portable monitor, as a duplicated or extended Windows desktop. Buttons on the upper right of the keyboard deck govern how the displays behave.
(Credit: John Burek)The laptop is a 14-inch 1,920-by-1,200-pixel model running a 12th Gen “Alder Lake” Intel Core i7 processor and DDR4 memory, with support for twin M.2 SSDs. (It does not have the most current components, but it is perfectly serviceable for a productivity PC.) For a laptop with two screens, it's surprisingly light at just less than four pounds.
(Credit: John Burek)6. Noctua ‘Thermosiphoning’ PC Cooling Solution
Noctua always comes to Computex with some forward-looking ideas on managing PC thermals, even if they may not pay off for years. The Austrian company, best known for its distinctive beige-and-carmine fans and heat sinks that are highly regarded among air-cooling hounds, is experimenting with a liquid-cooling solution for PCs that eliminates the pump altogether from the cooling scheme.
(Credit: John Burek)Instead, the proposed system relies on gravity and physics to move coolant around the circuit. The company calls the technique “thermosiphoning,” which employs 240mm or 360mm radiators, necessarily positioned at the case top, to draw vapor upward to a condenser thanks to the heated vapor’s lower density. The heated vapor is then cooled in the radiator, at which point the vapor recondenses into liquid and returns via gravity to the CPU cooler block, where the cycle repeats.
(Credit: John Burek)The upside? Theoretically, you can have an all-in-one liquid cooler with no moving parts besides the fans on the radiator. Without a pump, that means much higher reliability and much less noise. Noctua is developing the thermosiphoning cooler in concert with Calyos, a firm that provides cooling solutions for the green tech, aviation, and automotive industries. Noctua has no ETA quite yet on this project, but we'll check in with the company next Computex, to be sure.
(Credit: John Burek)7. TeamGroup Dark Airflow D5 RAM Cooler
Are you dead-set on overclocking your PC’s RAM modules to the max? Directed cooling is super-important, but exotic technologies like liquid-cooled memory modules are difficult to implement and may not be feasible on your motherboard of choice, using your preferred high-speed DIMMs. This TeamGroup design is an elegant and flexible way of getting much the same benefit with air right where you need it.
(Credit: John Burek)A miniature twin-fan cooler, the Dark Airflow D5 hovers over your bank of memory modules to cool them. However, it can be flipped to any angle (from parallel to your RAM to 180 degrees straight up) or rotated on the other axis (up to 360 degrees) to help run airflow over voltage modules or any other board elements in the area. Plus, it adds a little bit of flair to a visible PC build.
(Credit: John Burek)The Dark Airflow uses 40mm fans that spin at up to 7,000 rpm. TeamGroup rates these fans for 50,000 hours of operation and a 32dB noise level.
(Credit: John Burek)8. XPG Nia Handheld Gaming PC
We saw a few surprise gaming handhelds at Computex from unexpected sources; this was one of them. The Nia is an early execution of XPG’s vision of an Asus ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go competitor. (XPG, if you've never heard of it, is a gaming-oriented sub-brand of memory and SSD maker ADATA.) The unique angle around the Nia is that it will have upgradable storage and memory, which will be in the form of an LPCAMM2 module.
(Credit: John Burek)Why? As discussed above around CAMM2 and desktops, LPCAMM2 allows for thinner mobile device designs, which is decidedly needed in PC gaming handhelds like these.
(Credit: John Burek)The device is also notable for its flip-up screen and use of next-gen AMD processors. Four back buttons and some robust air cooling are evident on the back panel. It's still in development, with no firm launch date quite yet.