Intel's CES keynote is all about virtual reality-- so much so the company handed attendees VR headsets to experience a series of pre-recorded and live experiences narrated by CEO Brian Krzanich.

The VR experiences featured 360-degree 4K video of scenes such as the inspection of a solar power plant in the Moapa River Indian Reservation, with footage sent live from a drone equipped with Orah 4i cameras and low-power, high-latency processing technology. Another demo had the first showing of a VOKE VR immersive live sports streaming.

The Intel all-in-one VR technology seen at the show, dubbed Project Alloy, includes collaboration with HypeVR, a computer vision company working on live action VR capture and playback with 6 degrees of freedom. Intel adds OEMs should start producing Project Alloy-based VR headsets by Q4 2017.

HPE makes a major step in the long-running The Machine program with a first demonstration of a proof-of-concept prototype running the concept behind the project, memory-driven computing.

The Machine brings together a number of advanced technologies. As well as memory-driven computing it also includes photonics and a new fabric able to handle vast amounts of data. The aforementioned prototype involves compute nodes sharing a pool of fast and permanent Fabric-Attached Memory, operational photonics-based data links and a custom Linux-based OS running on a customised SoC.

According to the company, simulations of the prototype has it improve execution speeds of a variety of workloads by a magnitude of 8000 times, and it hopes to achieve similar results on the actual hardware once it equips the prototype with more nodes and memory. After all, the ultimate aim of The Machine is to bring about nothing less than exascale computing.

HP announces the Z2 Mini-- a diminutive octagonal-shaped computer the company claims packs the "performance of a traditional workstation tower in a size that's 90% smaller."

Designed primarily for CAD users, the Z2 Mini carries either Core i7 or Xeon CPUs, Nvidia Quadro GPU, 2 storage devices, 1.5TB SSD and up to 32GB of DDR4 RAM. Connectivity comes through x4 dual-mode DisplayPort connectors, x4 USB 3.0 and x2 USB-C ports, ethernet connector, wifi 802.11ac radio and TRRS audio input.

The long-delayed Apple datacentre in Galway County, Ireland, gets on the legal fast track-- the Irish High Court decides the dispute between Apple and three individuals from the town of Athenry must be resolved within 6 months.

The aforementioned trio filed legal complaints against the datacentre with the Galway County Council, local planning body An Bord Pleanála and the High Court. As a result, the High Court put the dispute on the "commercial list," a dedicated section dealing with cases with more than €1 million at stake.

For the curious, the Galway County centre represents a €850 million investment from the iPhone maker. It consists of 8 facilities on a 500-acre site in Derrydonnell Forest, around 3 miles from Athenry. First announced back in February 2015, together with a similar facility in Denmark, it will find use for the storage of European customer data and help power online services.

Dell refuses to be left out of the fancy AIO PC game-- following Microsoft announcement of the Surface Studio, the Adobe Max conference has the company announces it will be revealing a similar machine at CES 2017.

Little is known about the mystery machine, but Dell says it has been "envisioned in 2014." A spot of detective work brings a concept design seen back at Dell World 2014, a PC replacing the regular keyboard and mouse combo with a large horizontal touchscreen named the "Smart Desk." This machine fits the teaser perfectly, since it also involves a touchscreen-equipped offering.

Broadcom sets to expand its chip making business with the $5.9 billion all-cash acquisition of Brocade Communications Systems, consolidating its position within the networking industry.

Formerly known as Avago Technologies, Singapore-based Broadcom is known for connectivity chips used in devices ranging from smartphones to servers. Meanwhile Broadcom makes networking switches, software and storage products. As such, the acquisition can be seen as a move by Broadcom to shift from reliance on smartphone market, especially following the declining sales faced by its biggest customer, Apple.

However Broadcom will not retain the entirety of Brocade-- Broadcom plans to sell the Brocade networking hardware business in order to avoid competition with its top customers, such as Cisco.