(PR) MSI Debuts Wind U100 PLUS
Ready to enjoy a mobile life that is as easy as a breeze? MSI Wind, best seller of the year 2008, now launches its new Wind U100 PLUS to extend the fever! Two brand new colors rose champagne and metallic blue together with three colors that never go out of style -Imperial Black, Angelic White and Regal Red- will definitely be your must-buy electronic gadgets of the year!
Retaining the handy and practical design concept of Wind U100, MSI U100 PLUS is powered by the latest Intel Atom N280 processor, which not only enables better computing efficiency but also achieves lower power consumption. What's more, the lightweight of Wind U100 PLUS (only 1kg), 10" LED backlight display, 802.11n WLAN and 1.3M built-in webcam make it the perfect companion of your work, travel and on the go. Why not get a U100 PLUS to capture every single moment of your life?
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Intel Prepares Fresh Price-Cuts for SSDs
Silicon giant Intel is preparing a fresh round of price-cuts, this time with its High-Performance SATA SSDs. The price cuts revolve around the company's X25-M and X18-M series, with cuts ranging between US $50 and $100. The SLC-based X25-E series however, is exempted from price cuts. The 80 GB variants of X25-M and X18-M get $50 off, while the 160 GB ones get $100 off. The new prices will be effective from April 26. It remains to be seen as of how these prices affect those of the SSDs Intel co-braded with companies such as Kingston, A-Data, etc.
Source: VR-Zone
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ATI Months Ahead of NVIDIA with DirectX 11 GPU Schedule?
Never in recent times have we seen NVIDIA and ATI locked in such fierce market competition. The two are seen exchanging blows with product launches and price-cuts. ATI looks to be in the mood to take this competition to the next-level: DirectX 11 compliant GPUs. Microsoft has already released DirectX 11 with the pre-release versions of Windows 7 operating system. A recent report by Heise Online indicates that AMD will be ready with an ATI RV870, the company's first DirectX 11 GPU by the end of July, or early August.
Another source, The Inquirer, states NVIDIA's GT300 GPU launch for October. If you were to count these claims, AMD is put two to three months ahead of NVIDIA when it comes to time-to-market introduction of a new GPU generation. Now, whether you have DirectX 11 compliant software that makes use of the new technology available that soon is a different thing altogether. This will determine the practicality of a DirectX 11 GPU in July/August.
Sources: X-bit Labs, Heise Online, The Inquirer
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Zotac Readies NVIDIA Ion Mini-ITX Motherboards
After several technical hurdles and some controversy with Intel, NVIDIA was able to go ahead with its Ion platform initiative, where partners are allowed to use Intel Atom processors (both single and dual-core variants) with NVIDIA MCP79-class chipsets. The most distinct feature on offer is the powerful integrated GPU in the form of GeForce 9400M. NVIDIA partner Zotac is ready with two ULPC-friendly mini-ITX motherboards based on the platform, that promise features filled to their brims.
The Zotac IONITX-A-U and IONITX-B-E are powered by Intel Atom 330 dual-core or Atom N230 single-core processors respectively. The only other difference is that the former features an onboard DC-DC power supply. Both feature NVIDIA MCP79 chipset with onboard GeForce 9400M graphics, that comes with clock speeds of 450/1100 MHz (core/shader). Two 240-pin standard DDR2 DIMM slots support DDR2-667/800 MHz memory. There are three SATA II ports provided on the board, with the fourth one placed as an eSATA connector. RAID 0/1 modes are supported. Display outputs are taken care of by D-Sub, DVI and HDMI connectors. The 8-channel audio also provides co-axial and optical SPDIF connections. Six USB 2.0 ports on the back, four through headers, a gigabit Ethernet and WiFi make for the rest of the concoction. It is indicated that the two will hit Japanese stores at prices of JPY 29980 (US$303) for the IONITX-A-U and JPY 19980 ($202) for the IONITX-B-E.
Sources: PCWatch, Expreview
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(PR) Noctua Presents NF-S12B 120 mm Premium Fan
Noctua today introduced the new NF-S12B 120mm premium fan. Succeeding the vastly successful NF-S12, the NF-S12B is a next generation quiet fan featuring Noctua's advanced SCD2 technology as well as a highly optimised blade geometry with Bevelled Blade Tips that improves its award-winning predecessor's airflow efficiency by up to 10%.
"Our popular NF-S12 series is renowned for its excellent airflow/noise ratio, so further improving it was by no means an easy feat", explains Mag. Roland Mossig, Noctua CEO. "It took us quite a lot of time and effort, but we couldn't be happier with the result. The new NF-S12B doesn't only provide more airflow at the same noise level than the original NF-S12, it also produces higher static pressure."
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(PR) OCZ Technology Announces Vertex EX 2.5-inch SLC-based Solid-State Drives
OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory and computer components, today unveiled OCZ Vertex EX 2.5" Solid State Drives that is designed to meet the stringent demands of server environments and enterprise applications. These new premium offerings are the pinnacle storage option excelling in performance, reliability, and power consumption that offer professionals and enthusiasts an unparalleled computing experience.
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(PR) NVIDIA Unveils Industry's First Integrated GPU Platform For Broadcast Production
NVIDIA Corporation today introduced the NVIDIA Quadro Digital Video Pipeline, the industry's first integrated GPU-based platform for broadcasters to acquire, process and deliver virtual effects to video.
The solution offers the fastest graphics computation engine for broadcast production, in a flexible, reliable and cost-effective PC-based platform. By providing a direct path for image processing into and out of the GPU, it allows professionals to incorporate higher quality, graphic-rich broadcasts in real time. It also offers the fastest path for capturing and transcoding HD broadcast-quality video for use in real-time Internet streaming services.
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(PR) NVIDIA Brings Highly Acclaimed Quadro FX 4800 To MAC Market
NVIDIA today brings to Mac Pro users its award-winning NVIDIA Quadro FX 4800, the market's most advanced professional graphics card. With its sophisticated GPU architecture and industry leading features, the Quadro FX 4800 delivers a substantial boost in graphics performance and capabilities, allowing users to continue to push the boundaries of realism and performance in markets such as: architecture, content creation, science and medicine.
The new Quadro FX 4800 GPU for Mac is on display at the NVIDIA NAB 2009 booth: SL 7906, lower South Hall at the Las Vegas Convention Center, April 20-23, 2009.
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Toshiba Unveils Dynabook UX 10.1-inch Netbook
Toshiba is launching its second foray into the netbook market, with the 10.1-inch Dynabook UX netbook offering. The Dynabook UX-series netbooks are based on the Intel Atom N280 chip and come with 1 GB of DDR2 memory, a 160 GB hard disk drive and integrated GMA 950 graphics from Intel again. The 10.1-inch LED backlight display boasts 1024 x 600 pixels native resolution. The Dynabook UX comes in two colors - brown or white, and a choice of batteries - a standard battery that will last for about 4 hours, or an extended battery that could provide up to 10 hours of use. Microsoft Windows XP Home OS comes pre-installed with the netbook. The UX-series computers will be launched in Japan on Friday for around آ¥60,000 to آ¥70,000 (US $606 to $707), and follow in other markets later this year.
Source: Akihabara News
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Jetway Releases XBLUE Series Motherboards
Jetway announced its newest line of mainstream motherboards for the AMD processor platform: XBLUE series. The two models currently part of the lineup include XBLUE-78GA3 (AMD 780G) and XBLUE-77A3 (AMD 770). Jetway used an identical PCB design for the two, with a few components' presence determined by the chipset. The core idea is to provide support for the entire range of processors right from AM2 to AM3. The board features two DDR2 (supports up to DDR2-1066 standard) and two DDR3 slots (supports up to DDR3-1333). For AM3 processors, either kind of memory can be used, while for AM2 and AM2+ ones the DDR2 slots have to be used.
On both the boards, Jetway implemented ATI Crossfire, not by using external PCI-E switching for the PCI-E x16 slot, but rather providing a PCI-E x4 slot powered by the SB700 southbridge. The XBLUE-78GA3 even packs SidePort memory for the IGP. Its output options include DVI, D-Sub and HDMI. The XBLUE-77A3 relies on discrete graphics. Other features include six SATA II ports, and six-channel HD audio. The company is yet to announce pricing and availability.
Source: NordicHardware
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NVIDIA Outsources 40 nm to Foundry Partners in Q2
With rival AMD having a production-grade 40 nm graphics processor, and UMC's recent announcement of being ready with a high-performance 40 nm manufacturing node, the conditions are increasingly favourable for NVIDIA to flag-off large-scale production of 40 nm GPUs. According to Chinese print-media Commercial Times, the company set its foundry outsourcing schedule for within Q2 2009, with TSMC and UMC being the regular foundry-partners.
Within this quarter, NVIDIA will start mass-production of the entry-level GT218, high-end mobile GT215 and mainstream desktop GT214 and GT216 GPUs. Additionally, the company may also expand its output for the 55 nm G200b high-end GPU.
Source: DigiTimes
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(PR) WD Ships 2 TB RE4-GP Enterprise-Class HDDs with Next-Generation GreenPower Technology
Western Digital Corp. today expanded its enterprise family of hard drives to include the next-generation 2 TB capacity, the largest and only 2 TB enterprise-class hard drive shipping today. Combining industry-leading 64 MB cache, dual processors, and increased areal density, WD RE4-GP hard drives yield twice the processing power resulting in as much as 25 percent performance improvement over the previous generation.
WD's GreenPower technology platform is the first 3.5-inch hard drive platform designed with power savings as the primary attribute. These drives reduce average drive power consumption by up to 50 percent over currently available competitors' drives and are ultra-cool and quiet, all while delivering solid performance.
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(PR) Oracle to Buy Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems and Oracle Corporation announced today they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Oracle will acquire Sun common stock for $9.50 per share in cash. The transaction is valued at approximately $7.4 billion, or $5.6 billion net of Sun's cash and debt.
"We expect this acquisition to be accretive to Oracle's earnings by at least 15 cents on a non-GAAP basis in the first full year after closing. We estimate that the acquired business will contribute over $1.5 billion to Oracle's non-GAAP operating profit in the first year, increasing to over $2 billion in the second year. This would make the Sun acquisition more profitable in per share contribution in the first year than we had planned for the acquisitions of BEA, PeopleSoft and Siebel combined," said Oracle President Safra Catz.
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Intel Cuts Core 2 Prices, Introduces Core 2 Quad Q8400 and Q8400S
Our friends at TCMagazine have just posted an updated chart of Intel's Core 2 and Xeon processors that reveal two new CPUs, and some interesting price reductions. The new socket LGA775 Core 2 Quad Q8400 and Q8400S processors are both made using 45 nm technology, feature a frequency of 2.66 GHz, a 1333 MHz FSB and 4 MB of L2 cache. The S model has a TDP of 65W while the normal Q8400 has 95W TDP. Both processors cost $183 and $245 respectively.
Source: TechConnect Magazine
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(PR) LaCie Introduces Three High-Performance Storage Combinations for Video Professionals
Today LaCie announced a new 8 TB model of the LaCie 4big Quadra and three new product combinations for professionals who expect fast, large and reliable storage solutions to enhance their workflow. Leveraging the quality and reputation of the award-winning LaCie 4big Quadra-which is recognized for its high capacity, speeds, data protection, and designآ–LaCie premieres the 4big Quadra Bundle, which boasts huge capacities up to 32 TB and fast transfer speeds up to 700 MB/s. LaCie also announced today a new 8 TB model of the 4big Quadra, an integral part of the 32 TB LaCie 4big Quadra Bundle.
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TechPowerUp! WCG Team Announcement
Recently, a member of our community asked me personally to do him a big favour and publish the good cause he and his followers are trying to defend. I'm complete noob when it comes to World Community Grid (WCG) Teams, I really haven't got enough time to participate in such projects, but we know they exist for some time now and they're trying to make the world a bit better. Now techPowerUp! has its own WCG Team led by our forum member Fitseries3 and we're glad to inform you that it's doing pretty well. An averaging 113,000 points a day are being made by the team of 32 members. Full statistics of what's going on can be found here. The team is using me and this news story to become even bigger and recruit more members. To participate, please visit our forums thread here.
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HP Firebird 802 Gets $500 Discount
HP's flagman gaming rig, Firebird 802, just got $500 cheaper. That includes a $150 cut to the $1,799 base price and a $350 instant rebate that brings the final price down to $1,299. For that money you get a 2.66 GHz Core 2 Quad 9400 processor (6MB L2 Cache, 1333MHz FSB), 4 GB of PC2-6400 RAM, 2x 250 GB hard drives, and dual NVIDIA GeForce 9800S MXM 3.0 graphics cards with 512 MB DDR3 memory on each card, working in SLI mode. The system also includes a DVD burner, a 350W external power supply, an unique vertical HP casing and a factory-sealed liquid cooling system for almost noiseless operation. Visit HP for more information.
Source: Engadget
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MSI Launches N260GTX Lightning Fast Graphics Cards
MSI releases two GeForce GTX 260 video cards today - MSI N260GTX Lightning, and N260GTX Lightning Black Edition. First introduced at Cebit 2009, MSI N260GTX Lightning has twice the standard GeForce GTX 260 GDDR3 memory - 1792 MB, utilizes a Twin Frozr cooling with heatpipes, dual slot heatsink and two big fans. The card is reported to utilize 10 Phase PWM design, where 8 phases are reserved for the GPU and 2 phases for the memory.
There are two versions of the card, that are essentially the same, but differ only from the bundle package. The better version N260GTX Lightning Black Edition is paired with the company's AirForce Panel, an external touch panel that can change the card's voltages and clock speeds on the fly. It is not included in the Lightning edition. Detailed information on the clock speeds of both cards is below.
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Microsoft Windows 7 RC to Go Public on May 5
The offficial release candidate (RC) version of the next-generation operating system from Microsoft - Windows 7 - will be publically released on May 5th, and should be available for MSDN and Technet subscribers now. This information comes directly from Microsoft, who by mistake updated one of the Windows 7 related web pages to display the following text: "Partners: if you have a subscription to MSDN or TechNet, you can download Windows 7 RC now. Otherwise, you can download Windows 7 starting May 5, 2009." As you can expect, the page is now fixed and the text was removed. The page has now been reverted back to inform about Windows 7 beta, and how to obtain trial keys for partners.
Source: Neowin.net
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(PR) G.Skill Announces the Falcon MLC-based SSDs in 64 GB to 256 GB Capacities
G.Skill International Co. Ltd., a world leader in extreme performance storage and memory products with solid quality, today launches Falcon SATA II 2.5" MLC-based Solid State Drive (SSD) Series based on the latest, cutting edge Indilink controller. With a huge 64 MB dram buffer, the Falcon series represents the best read/write performance stability while avoiding OS stutter. The Falcon series is available in large capacities of 64 GB, 128 GB and 256 GB: the read/write performance of the 128 GB and 256 GB drives are an industry leading 230/190 MB/Sec, while the 64 GB drives are capable of 230/135 MB/Sec.
G.Skill is a dedicated provider of the best PC enthusiast computer storage and memory solutions, and the Falcon SSD once again reaffirms this, providing both desktop and laptop users the best choice of data storage device, retaining reliable quality and a highly power efficient nature. G.Skill SSDs are designed to yield an impressive 1.5 million hour mean time before failure (MTBF) and include an international 2 year warranty as well as ever ready technical back-up. For more information, please visit this page here.
Source: G.Skill
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OLPC Selects VIA for Gen 1.5 XO-1 Laptops
Last Friday, One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organization announced that it is leaving Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) as main processor partner in favour of VIA Technologies. This is a step that will lower the price of OLPC's laptop further. From this point on VIA's C7-M processor instead of AMD's Geode will power OLPC's XO-1 laptops. The processor will be a VIA C7-M, with plans on using one whose clock speed ranges from 400 MHz (1.5 W) to 1 GHz (5 W). The clock may be throttled back automatically if necessary to meet thermal constraints. Gen 1.5 XO-1 laptop will come with the VIA VX855 all-in-one chipset solution, as well as with an updated HD Audio sound. The upgraded XO laptops will also include 1 GB of RAM and between 4 GB and 8 GB of storage, which is considerably more than the currently existing XO systems with 256 MB RAM and 1 GB of storage. There are two more changes being made, the network interface will be upgraded to an 88W8686 with wake-up functions, which halves the power consumption of current XO-1 network adapter, and a new OLPC OS 8.2.x will be installed to support all the hardware variations. Overall, the Gen 1.5 XO-1 laptop will remain the same from the outside - same display, same form, same power consumption, probably the same price - but come with upgraded internals.
Early versions of the hardware (bare board) should be available for driver development at the end of May. A larger number of prototype laptops (several hundred) for software development and testing will become available around the end of August. It's unclear when children will get their hands on the final product, though.
Source: OLPC
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