Saturday, June 27, 2009

IT News HeadLines (techPowerUp) 27/06/2009


techPowerUp!
(PR) Patriot Launches AMD Black Edition Ready DDR3 G Series
Patriot Memory, a global pioneer in high-performance memory, NAND flash and computer technologies, today announced their first co-branded Gamer Series for AMD's socket AM3 processors and desktop platform technology, codenamed "Dragon."

Built with Patriot's pre-sorted low-voltage solutions, the AMD Black Edition Ready G series, targeted for enthusiasts and overclockers, provide well-balanced performance and stability. In addition to the pre-programmed enhanced latency, the modules are AMD Black Edition Ready for use with AMD OverDrive software. With this program, users can easily adjust and fine tune their memory bandwidth, timing, and voltages under Windows with ease on AMD-based platforms featuring AM3 processors and AMD 7-Series chipsets. "Platforms featuring the latest socket AM3 for AMD processors, including the AMD Phenom II processor family, takes full advantage of the new Patriot Gamer Series memory," said Leslie Sobon, VP of Product Marketing, AMD. "Combined with AMD OverDrive software version 3.0.2, users can experience a state-of-the-art, real time over-clocking utility that allows unprecedented control over their AMD processor / chipset and memory to help push the performance threshold to it peak limits."


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MSI P55-GD65 Pictured Too
Earlier today, we were tipped off about the high-end MSI P55-GD80 motherboard. Looking a little eastwards, we were able to get information on its little brother, the P55-GD65, a low-frills motherboard based on the Intel P55 chipset, supporting LGA-1156 socket CPUs. This board concentrates on the feature-set the P55 chipset alone provides. The CPU is powered by a 7-phase circuit, with the active-phase switching power management feature, that turns off redundant phases when the power demand is low.

The board provides two PCI-E x16 slots (electrically x8 when both are populated), one open-ended PCI-E x4, and two PCI-E x1 slots. Two legacy PCI slots neighbour them. The PCH provides six SATA II ports, while an external JMicron controller gives out one internal SATA port, an eSATA port, and an IDE connector. Four DDR3 DIMM slots support up to 16 GB of dual-channel DDR3 memory. On the connectivity front, there are two gigabit Ethernet connections, 8-channel audio, Firewire, and USB.



Source: INPAI
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AMD Readying Phenom II X4 965
Following its roadmap, AMD is continuing with new processor releases based on the Deneb core with increases in the multiplier. The Phenom II X4 965 comes with a clock speed of 3.40 GHz, and an FSB multiplier of 17.0x, giving it a 200 MHz increase over the 955 Black Edition. It is not known if 965 comes in a Black Edition branding, one which could determine its pricing. If launched as a Black Edition (version with unlocked bus multiplier), It could either be priced above the 955, or could displace it and position itself at US $249.99. Without the BE branding it could be priced slightly lower. The new chip will be based on the AM3 package, supporting DDR3 1333 MHz and DDR2 1066 MHz. It comes at a time when AMD is releasing the RS880-based AMD 785G chipset. AMD will dispatch samples of the Phenom II X4 965 starting next week.

Source: Tweaktown
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MSI P55-GD80 Pictured
MSI's lineup of LGA-1156 motherboards has a new high-end entry in the making, apart from a seeming higher-end G9P55-DC which was recently pictured. The P55-GD80 fills the lineup, perhaps a notch below it, and the other MSI LGA-1156 motherboards that lack an NVIDIA nForce 200 chip and 3-way SLI support. The P55-GD80 was pictured in all its glory (read: release grade chipset cooling), sourced by SAV-Computer. The picture reveals a PCB layout very similar to the G9P55-DC, with differences in the CPU power circuit, overclocker-friendly features, and the storage connectivity.

The board uses a 10-phase CPU power circuit with standard solid-state capacitors, compared to the 11-phase circuit with flat-bed ML capacitors on the G9P55-DC. This board surprisingly has more overclocker-friendly features, such as on-board controls for clock-speeds, clear-CMOS, OC-Genie, a DIP switch to control voltages, and voltage-sensing points that make measuring voltages convenient. Apart from the Intel P55 PCH, it uses an NVIDIA nForce 200 bridge chip that broadcasts 16 PCI-Express lanes (from the processor root complex) to 32 lanes on the PCI-E x16 slots. Apart from the six SATA II ports the PCH provides, an additional controller provides two internal and one external SATA ports, and one IDE connector. Two gigabit Ethernet connections, 8-channel audio, Firewire, and around 13 USB ports make for the rest of the package. The board supports Intel Lynnfield and Clarkdale processors.



Source: SAV-Computer
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Elpida to Receive 2.1 Billion USD in Aid
DRAM major Elpida, like most other Japanese companies, is not seeing the best of days, in fact its worst. The world's third largest DRAM company holds great importance to the Japanese electronics industry. The state-backed Development Bank of Japan (DBJ) will acquire shares in the company, and the government has approved dispatching 30 billion Yen to the company as early as by next week. DBJ separately plans to offer 10 billion Yen, while another state-backed financial institution Japan Bank for International Cooperation, will provide 20~30 billion Yen in emergency loans.

Three of Japan's megabanks and others are expected to lend around 100 billion Yen to Elpida, said Nikkei daily, adding that a public-private fund that supports innovation will also consider providing tens of billions of Yen. In all, at least US 2.1 billion worth of aid is coming Elpida's way. More companies will follow suit and seek government aid.



Source: AFP on Google News
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Philips Intros PowerSensor-equipped LCD Monitor
Philips today introduced an LCD monitor with a unique energy-saving feature. The 22 inch Brilliance LCD with PowerSensor draws parallels with a proximity-sensor technology. It makes sure the optimal (or user-set) brightness levels are enabled only when the user is in front of it. When it finds that the user left it alone, it steps down the brightness and contrast levels by 50 percent to cut-down energy consumption. This feature is embedded in the monitor's own firmware, and doesn't require the host PC to control it. Its sensitivity is configurable, and can detect users anywhere from 30 to 120 cm (1 to 4 ft.) The PowerSensor feature aside, as a monitor, it offers a native resolution of 1680 x 1050, 1000:1 static contrast ratio, 5 ms of response time, and inputs from DVI and D-Sub. It is priced at about آ£170 (US $280) in the UK.



Source: Engadget
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TechPowerUp World Community Grid Team Amongst Top 100 Teams
The TechPowerUp World Community Grid (WCG) team crossed an important milestone today, reaching a world rank of 99, entering the top 100 domain. The team ranks (TC) 99 out of 15,293 according to WCG statistics aggregator BOINC Synergy. 118 out of registered 132 members are active. According to statistics from Free-DC.org, the team will enter the top 90 teams in 10 days (at its present rate), and top 75 in about one month. The team's growth like clockwork could not have been possible without the invaluable contributions of its members, who believe in doing their bit for the various scientific and socially-relevant problems WCG attempts to solve. To learn more about contributing to the team, please visit this page. Extended team statistics can be viewed here.


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Gateway Intros New Widescreen HD Monitors
Gateway announced two new widescreen LCD monitors in its ranks. The FHD2102 bmidgz is a 21.5 inch display, while the FHD2402 bmidgz is 24 inch. Both offer a native resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, and brightness of 300 cd/mآ². While the FHD2102 offers access time of 5 ms and dynamic contrast ratio of 20000:1, the FHD2402 provides 2 ms of access time and 40000:1 dynamic contrast ratio. Both monitors take input from DVI, D-Sub and HDMI. They are mounted with 2W stereo speakers. While the FHD2102 sells for $200, the FHD2402 is priced higher, at $270.



Source: TechConnect Magazine
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(PR) ASUS Brings Truly Immersive Gaming to Notebooks with the G51 and G60
ASUS, a leading producer and innovator of notebooks, today announced the launch of its 15.6-inch G51 notebook, a gaming powerhouse which snared the 'Best Choice' award in the Digital Entertainment Products category at the recently-concluded COMPUTEX 2009. Sporting a futuristic, robot-inspired 'mecha' design, the ASUS G51's use of seamless gamer-centric interface elements and scorching gaming performance-both in the visual and audio departments-are a fitting recognition of the Republic of Gamers' tireless and extensive efforts to deliver on its promise: "Designed for gamers". The ASUS G51 also boasts industry leading audio technologies that combine to envelope users in true-to-life surround sound for added gaming realism. Users who appreciate the G51's gaming pedigree but prefer a slightly larger screen can opt for its 16-inch cousin, the ASUS G60.


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Hard Rectangular Drive Could be the Hard Disk Answer to SSDs
A company called DataSlide has decided its not time for mechanical disk drives also known as hard disk drives (HDD) to roll over and die with SSDs beating them in just about every aspect other than price. The key aspect of the new technology is that it does not require the data platter to be spun like conventional hard disk drives do. For a start this provides savings in power consumption and due to the use of magnetic recording media as found in hard disk drives should allow the hard rectanguar drive (HRD) to be cheaper than an SSD or at least provide significantly more usable space for your money. A diagram explaining the technology and the manufacturers details and specifications follow.


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(PR) Corsair Launches New 128GB and 64GB Performance Series Solid State Drives
Corsair, a worldwide leader in high-performance computer memory, power supplies and flash memory products, including solid-state drives, today announced two new products in its Performance Series SSD family: the P128 and P64 high-performance solid-state drives.

Building on the success of the award-winning P256 SSD, the Corsair P128 delivers the same 220MB/sec read speeds and 200MB/sec write speeds as its higher capacity cousin, at a lower cost. The P64 is one of the best-performing, lower-density SSDs available, with read speeds of up to 220MB/sec and write speeds of up to 120MB/sec. Both drives utilize the same cutting-edge technology as the P256, including a sophisticated Samsung controller IC with 128MB of cache memory and NCQ support to deliver class-leading, stutter-free performance.


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Microsoft Announces Windows 7 Retail Prices Ahead of General Availability
Microsoft unveiled the retail pricing structure of its upcoming Windows 7 operating system, and its three important variants: Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate, elaborating on the pricing on both the upgrade and full versions. Microsoft also announced that customers buying PCs pre-installed with existing versions of Windows from select sources (retailers or OEMs), will be able to upgrade to Windows 7 at "little or no cost". The company also announced that select retailers in certain markets will be able to offer for a limited period of time, a pre-order discount scheme that can reduce the price by as much as 50 percent.

Here are the prices (in USD):
  • Windows 7 Home Premium - $199.99 (full version), $119.99 (upgrade)
  • Windows 7 Professional - $299.99 (full version), $199.99 (upgrade)
  • Windows 7 Ultimate - $319.99 (full version), $219.99 (upgrade)
Microsoft also detailed the global availability of the OS, and in different languages. The English version will launch on October 22. PC OEM vendors will be able to start shipping PCs pre-installed with the OS on the same day. Apart from the English version, Windows 7 in Spanish, Japanese, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Chinese (Hong Kong), will be available on the same day. Windows 7 in Turkish, Czech, Portuguese, Hungarian, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Greek, Ukrainian, Romanian, Arabic, Lithuanian, Bulgarian, Estonian, Slovenian, Hebrew, Thai, Croatian, Serbian Latin, and Latvian, will be available on October 31.
Source: The Windows Blog
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Scythe Setsugen VGA Cooler Pictured
Scythe is designing a new VGA cooler aimed at broad compatibility and a relatively compact built. The Scythe Setsugen will be the first VGA cooler from Scythe to formally support NVIDIA GeForce GTX 2x0. It uses a slightly smaller, slimmer overall design, and makes use of the recently announced Slip Stream 120 mm fan, which enables the cooler to stay within the limits of two expansion slots.

Its construction involves a copper GPU contact block from which four heat-pipes arise. Two heatpipes make convey heat to an aluminum fin block each (two in all). The blocks make an enclosure for the Slip Stream fan to stay closest to the GPU, blowing air away from the PCB, rather than on it. The kit includes heatsink for the NVIO2 processor and a heatsink that matches the VRM area of the P651 PCB, along with heatsinks for the memory. The cooler will remain compatible with most other GPUs from NVIDIA and ATI. Scythe is expected to announce this soon.



Source: Fudzilla
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(PR) HP Offers Customers Free Upgrade to Microsoft Windows 7
HP today announced it will offer the Microsoft Windows 7 operating system on consumer and business PCs beginning Oct. 22.

To meet customers' computing needs while protecting their investments, the company is participating in the Windows Upgrade Option Program to help customers transition easily to Windows 7. The program will enable customers who purchase qualifying HP PCs to enjoy the benefits of a new Windows-based PC immediately and receive a free upgrade to Windows 7 when it becomes available in October.
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Consider a GPU Upgrade Before CPU: NVIDIA
Ahead of the bulk of the crucial summer shopping season, NVIDIA sent a circular urging consumers to focus their PC upgrades on GPUs, rather than CPU and its platform. It thinks that if you have a reasonably good platform from last year or the year before, a GPU upgrade serves as a better price for performance increment when it comes to games. A slide explaining NVIDIA's advice was leaked (perhaps ahead of its formal publication, as it seems to be targeted at end-users and not intermediate customers or distributors).

Quite simply, the slide shows how upgrading the GPU is a more cost-effective way of increasing performance of a gaming PC, compared to upgrading the platform (CPU, compatible motherboard and memory). The side specifically targets the Intel Core i7 platform, and pits the upgrade path against upgrading the graphics components, keeping the rest of the PC constant, based on the common Core 2 Duo E8400. The price of this base system along with a GeForce GTS 250 GPU is measured at $506. A $159 upgrade to GeForce GTS 250 SLI sends the average FPS (application not mentioned) up to 54 from 42, likewise as you look further up the options NVIDIA provides. Upgrading the rest of the platform is making no performance impact on this application. The general idea conveyed is that for a gaming PC with recent generation hardware, better graphics is a better incremental upgrade. Choose with your wallet.



Source: DonanimHaber
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(PR) MSI Announces the Ultra-Slim X-Slim X600 with Discrete Graphics Card
The MSI X-Slim X600 notebook computer uses Intel's latest CULV platform to deliver perfect processing performance at just one-sixth of a conventional notebook's power consumption. The built-in discrete graphics card also delivers even better display performance so slim aesthetics and discrete graphics are no longer mutually exclusive options.

The lines of the X600 were inspired by the round shape of a feather. The feather represents lightness and the styling makes the notebook impression of stiffness a thing of the past. What makes the X600 stand out is that it weighs just 2.1kg with the batteries fitted, making it possibly the lightest and thinnest 15.6" notebook in the world.


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(PR) Rambus Demonstrates Superior Power Efficiency of World's Fastest Memory
Rambus Inc., one of the world's premier technology licensing companies specializing in high-speed memory architectures, today showcased a silicon demonstration of a complete XDR memory system running at data rates up to 7.2Gbps with superior power efficiency. This silicon demonstration consists of Elpida's recently-announced 1Gb XDR DRAM device and an XIO memory controller transmitting realistic data patterns. The XIO memory controller is up to 3.5 times more power efficient than a GDDR5 controller, and the total memory system can provide up to two times more bandwidth than GDDR5 at equivalent power. In addition, the XIO memory controller demonstrated bi-modal operation with support for both XDR DRAM as well as next-generation XDR2 DRAM.

"Future graphics and multi-core processors require significantly higher memory performance under extremely challenging power and thermal constraints," said Martin Scott, senior vice president of Research and Technology Development at Rambus. "This technology demonstration highlights the outstanding power efficiency of the XDR and XDR2 memory architectures at performance levels from 3.2 to 7.2Gbps with scalability to well over 10Gbps."
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(PR) Western Digital Announces My Book World Edition II NAS
Western Digital, the world's leader in external storage solutions, today introduced its newly redesigned My Book World Edition II dual-drive network storage system in capacities of up to 4 TB. With the double protection of two Mirrored (RAID 1) drives and continuous backup software, the My Book World Edition II network storage system provides an extra-safe place for users to back up and store the data and digital media from all the computers on their network in one central location. Available now at select retailers and the WD online store, the new dual-drive systems join the recently introduced (Feb. 2009) My Book World Edition and are compatible with PC and Mac computers.

According to a July 2008 report by research firm Parks Associates, the number of households worldwide with data networks will grow from around 170 million in 2008 to 240 million by year-end 2012. The firm also reports that the average broadband household will see its digital media storage needs grow to nearly 900 GB by year-end 2012. In addition, consumers indicate that the most important feature for a network-attached storage (NAS) device is the amount of available storage. With its massive 4 TB capacity, the My Book World Edition II network storage system will serve this rapidly growing need for home data storage.


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(PR) GLOBALFOUNDRIES Announces New Fab 2 Executive Leadership Team
GLOBALFOUNDRIES today announced the appointment of Norm Armour as vice president and general manager and Eric Choh as vice president of operations to lead an expanding team dedicated to developing Fab 2, the company's next semiconductor fabrication facility, or "fab," at the Luther Forest Technology Campus in Saratoga County, New York. Once constructed, Fab 2 is expected to be the world's most advanced semiconductor foundry, creating more than 1,200 new direct jobs plus an additional 5,000 spin-off jobs in the region.

"Norm and Eric bring a wealth of semiconductor manufacturing experience to GLOBALFOUNDRIES and will play critical leadership roles as we build and operate the most sophisticated semiconductor manufacturing facility in the world," said Douglas Grose, chief executive officer, GLOBALFOUNDRIES. "With a wealth of industry expertise in fab build-out and global operations, we now have the leadership team in place to create a cluster of semiconductor manufacturing and technology innovation in upstate New York that will bring the next wave of chip innovation to the marketplace."
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(PR) Seagate's New FreeAgent For Mac Delivers Performance, Capacity And Style
Delivering on the specialized requirements of the Mac community, Seagate today introduced an advanced line-up of mobile and desktop FreeAgent for Mac storage solutions and accessories: the FreeAgent Go for Mac with USB, FreeAgent Go Pro for Mac, the 2TB FreeAgent Desk for Mac and FreeAgent Go Dock+, a powered USB hub and dock for the FreeAgent Go.Providing a complete storage toolkit for today's creative professionals, such as web designers, musicians and graphic artists, as well as multimedia enthusiasts, these enhanced FreeAgent for Mac external hard drives each include performance and capacity improvements to help store, record, protect and share creative inspirations.

"Performance is all that counts when I record," said Rami Jaffee, award-winning keyboard player for the Wallflowers and Foo Fighters. "I can depend on Seagate hard drives for quality and convenience. When recording, a song could take up to a few gigabytes, but the fact that I can have a whole record ready for me to attack and record on a slim external hard drive is so convenient that its value is immeasurable."


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