Arrow – Earlybirds Invest https://earlybirdsinvest.com Latest Crypto News Sat, 31 May 2025 20:22:03 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.8 https://i0.wp.com/earlybirdsinvest.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/cropped-New-Project-2024-12-17T235703.455.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 Arrow – Earlybirds Invest https://earlybirdsinvest.com 32 32 240146708 Arrow Glacier Upgrade Announcement https://earlybirdsinvest.com/arrow-glacier-upgrade-announcement/ https://earlybirdsinvest.com/arrow-glacier-upgrade-announcement/#respond Sat, 31 May 2025 20:22:02 +0000 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/arrow-glacier-upgrade-announcement/

The Ethereum network will be undergoing a scheduled upgrade at block number 13,773,000, which is predicted to occur on Wednesday, December 8, 2021. The exact date is subject to change due to variable block times and timezones. Please upgrade your node before Sunday, December 5, 2021 to account for the variable block times.

What is Arrow Glacier?

The Arrow Glacier network upgrade, similarly to Muir Glacier, changes the parameters of the Ice Age/Difficulty Bomb, pushing it back several months. This has also been done in the Byzantium, Constantinople and London network upgrades. No other changes are introduced as part of Arrow Glacier.

The difficulty bomb only affects Proof of Work networks, and hence only exists on the Ethereum mainnet and the Ropsten test network. With the recent progress towards Ethereum’s transition to Proof of Stake, it was decided to only delay the bomb on mainnet for now and to try and run the Proof of Stake transition on Ropsten before the bomb goes off on that network.

To learn more about Arrow Glacier and the history of the difficulty bomb, see the Ethereum Cat Herders’ explainer blog post.

Client Versions

In order to be compatible with the Arrow Glacier upgrade, node operators will need to update the client version that they run to one of the ones listed below:


Note: OpenEthereum, which was announced as deprecated earlier this year, has released support for Arrow Glacier under version number 3.3.0-rc.14, which you can download here.

For now, we still recommend following the prior deprecation warnings and selecting an alternative client software. If you choose to use OE for the Arrow Glacir upgrade, please exercise caution and independently review changes to the codebase prior to running in production.

Upgrade Specification and EIPs

The full specification for the upgrade can be found in the execution-specs repository here.

A single EIP is included in the upgrade: EIP-4345: Difficulty Bomb Delay to June 2022.

As an Ethereum user or ether holder is there anything I need to do?

If you use an exchange, a web wallet service, a mobile wallet service, or a hardware wallet you do not need to do anything unless you are informed to take additional steps by your exchange or wallet service.

As a node operator or miner, what do I need to do?

Download the latest version of your Ethereum client, as listed in the table above.

What happens if I am a miner or node operator and I do not participate in the upgrade?

If you are using an Ethereum client that is not updated to the latest version (listed above), your client will sync to the pre-fork blockchain once the upgrade occurs. You will be stuck on an incompatible chain following the old rules and you will be unable to send Ether or operate on the post-upgrade Ethereum network.

What is a network upgrade in Ethereum-land?

A network upgrade is a change to the underlying Ethereum protocol, creating new rules to improve the system. The decentralized nature of blockchain systems makes a network upgrade more difficult. Network upgrades in a blockchain require cooperation and communication with the community, as well as with the developers of the various Ethereum clients in order for the transition to go smoothly.

What happens during a network upgrade?

After the community comes to an agreement concerning which changes should be included in the upgrade, changes to the protocol are written into the various Ethereum clients, such as geth, Erigon, Besu and Nethermind. The protocol changes are activated at a specific block number. Any nodes that have not been upgraded to the new ruleset will be abandoned on the old chain where the previous rules continue to exist.

Why “Arrow Glacier”?

While we’ve recently been using Devcon names for network upgrades, when we previously had an upgrade that only pushed back the bomb, we decided to switch nomenclature. To highlight the nature of the upgrade (pushing back the “Ice Age”), we went with a glacier name, hence Muir Glacier.

This upgrade follows a similar pattern. Because the transition to Proof of Stake is on the horizon, a retreating glacier was chosen, hence Arrow Glacier 🏔!

Thank You!

A big thanks to the Ethereum community and to all Ethereum developers across all clients and platforms who come together to provide input, thoughts, and contributions. This might be the last network upgrade on Ethereum before the transition to Proof of Stake. Let’s go!

Also, many thanks to Harshil Gudka for the cover image.

This is an emergent and evolving highly technical space. If you choose to implement the recommendations in this post and continue to participate, you should make sure you understand how it impacts you. You should understand that there are risks involved including but not limited to risks like unexpected bugs. By choosing to implement these recommendations, you alone assume the risks of the consequences. This post and recommendations are not a sale of any kind, and do not create any warranties of any kind including but not limited to anything related to the Ethereum network, or the Ethereum clients referred to herein.

]]> https://earlybirdsinvest.com/arrow-glacier-upgrade-announcement/feed/ 0 39399 Intel Slashes Arrow Lake Prices Amid Tough Competition From AMD https://earlybirdsinvest.com/intel-slashes-arrow-lake-prices-amid-tough-competition-from-amd/ https://earlybirdsinvest.com/intel-slashes-arrow-lake-prices-amid-tough-competition-from-amd/#respond Thu, 08 May 2025 11:07:43 +0000 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/intel-slashes-arrow-lake-prices-amid-tough-competition-from-amd/

Intel (INTC 2.16%) launched its Arrow Lake family of desktop central processing units (CPUs), officially the Core Ultra 200 series, in late 2024. The company outsourced most of the manufacturing to TSMC, moved to a chiplet-based architecture, and managed to improve energy efficiency substantially, compared to its previous-generation chips. For productivity tasks, Arrow Lake performed well.

However, there were two problems. First, Arrow Lake’s gaming performance fell flat, losing to Intel’s last-gen chips. Some software fixes have improved the situation, but for those looking to squeeze every last frame per second out of their gaming PC, Arrow Lake isn’t the answer.

Second, pricing was on the high side. Not only were Arrow Lake CPUs expensive on their own, but they also required a new motherboard, making all upgrade paths pricier.

Arrow Lake CPUs have been selling below Intel’s original suggested retail pricing for a while, but the company is now officially slashing prices on one of its chips. The 265K, a mid-range part that was originally priced at $399, now has a suggested retail price of $299. Suggested retail prices for the higher end 285K and the lower end 245K are staying put, although actual retail prices vary.

While Intel’s price cutting is limited, the 265K is in the sweet spot for many potential customers, with most of the performance of the 285K for much less money. Featuring eight performance cores and 12 efficiency cores, the 265K is a solid all-arounder that falls a bit short in gaming and makes a lot more sense at $299 than it did at $399.

A CPU being placed onto a motherboard.

Image source: Getty Images.

A sign of things to come?

Intel replaced its CEO in March with Lip-Bu Tan, a veteran of the semiconductor industry and a critic of Intel’s sluggish pace and bureaucratic nature. Tan’s strategy revolves around cutting a bloated cost structure, putting out better products faster, and listening to customers. More aggressive pricing could be part of the equation as Intel looks to make Arrow Lake more competitive.

AMD‘s latest Ryzen 9000 series CPUs didn’t get great reviews, and retail pricing quickly dropped to reflect muted demand. But the Ryzen 9000 series looks a lot better relative to Arrow Lake, especially with Arrow Lake’s sky-high initial pricing.

AMD’s gaming-centric X3D variants, which feature ultra-fast cache memory capable of boosting gaming performance, are the undisputed kings of gaming CPUs. AMD noted in its first-quarter report that there was strong demand for its newest Ryzen chips, likely at the expense of Intel.

Intel also cut the prices of its Granite Rapids server CPUs in January, although there was no official announcement. The Granite Rapids family is the best set of server CPUs that Intel has put out in years, and it largely caught up to AMD in terms of core counts, performance, and efficiency. But like Arrow Lake, pricing skewed high.

There was a time not long ago, before AMD’s comeback, when Intel faced no real competition in either the PC or server CPU markets. The company’s dominance afforded it the ability to price its products high and generate impressive profit margins. With AMD now highly competitive and stealing market share, that era is over. With price cuts for Granite Rapids and Arrow Lake, Intel appears to finally recognize that it needs to compete on price to win back market share.

Intel has a long road ahead as it attempts to turn itself around. If recent price cuts are any indication, more aggressive pricing will likely be part of Tan’s strategy as he looks to stop the bleeding and regain some lost market share from AMD.

Timothy Green has positions in Intel. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Intel, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: short May 2025 $30 calls on Intel. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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