Nvidia's Jensen Huang upstaged at TSMC annual Sports Day by TSMC-branded sneakers
Whatever the meaning of the pixel grid (and both explanations could be true), the animated greeting card swiftly transforms the black and white dies into festively colored pixels to begin the Christmas animation.
The festive fun begins with two very pixilated-looking youngsters enjoying a snowball fight. An enthusiastically hurled snowball whizzes way past the target and into the stratosphere. Next, we get to enjoy a little 8-bit Breakout gaming magic, as the snowball beeps and bloops, eventually carving a fully formed Christmas tree from green blocks. The tree, complete with full decorations by now, floats down, almost hitting Santa in his sleigh during its descent. Finally, the tree comes to rest alongside some presents and candy canes, all in a vibrant, blocky 8-bit art style.
(Image credit: TSMC via Neil Shah ) (Image credit: TSMC via Neil Shah ) Even the most advanced chipmaker felt the pull of retro in 2025 One of the themes we have perceived strengthening throughout 2025 is the increasing desire for and interest in retro computing and retro gaming topics. It seems odd that the world’s most advanced chipmaker has chosen this theme, though.
As tech enthusiasts grow tired of difficult-to-find cutting-edge tech being gobbled up to feed unwanted AI overlords , we have seen increasing interest in reviving the ‘old days.’ We note that the likes of Commodore and Atari have been making the most of this wave of interest, with products such as the C64 Ultimate and the Gamestation Go , respectively.
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Key considerations
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Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/semiconductors/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/semiconductors/tsmcs-christmas-card-evokes-an-8-bit-winter-wonderland-pixelated-kids-play-breakout-with-snowballs-carving-out-a-festive-scene#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
- 'Twas The Night Before Tom's Christmas 2025
- Arch Linux kills off Nvidia Pascal GPU support — users still running GTX 10-series graphics cards will have to manually install older drivers
- The Christmas Present Peeker Trap uses an ESP32 Cam board, photoresistor, buzzer, and connected app to catch even the sneakiest of gift glimpsers
- As AI Grows More Complex, Model Builders Rely on NVIDIA
- SK hynix expands U.S. presence with new Bellevue, Seattle office in efforts to get closer to its largest customers — offices near Nvidia, Amazon, and Microsoft
Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.