IT-Code-News: IT News HeadLines (Legit Reviews) 03/02/2010

February 2 News from Around the Web

OCZ 4GB DDR3 PC3-15000 Platinum Low Voltage Dual Channel memory kit review @ Elite Bastards and other reviews from around the web can be found by visiting our forums!

"A peek at the label of these PC3 15000 modules gives us a little more information about them - As you'd expect, this 4GB dual channel kit comprises of two modules sporting 2GB of DDR3 memory each, while these modules are designed to run at the low voltage of 1.65v in line with Intel's latest chipsets and CPUs. Timing wise, the key ratings of these modules are 9-9-9 If you're looking for a little further information on this memory kit, then some further investigation shows it to have CAS-TRCD-TRP-TRAS timings of 9-9-9-27, while the modules are also rated to operate using these timings at 1,866MHz, giving us a fair amount of overclocking headroom without the need to compromise on other aspects of memory performance."

Online gamers set for consolidation wave in 2010

Consolidation among online gaming firms is set to spark into life in 2010 with a possible deal between PartyGaming and Austria's bwin seen as the potential catalyst for a wave of takeover activity. bwin Interactive Entertainment AG offers sports betting, poker, casino games, and soft games with most revenue coming from poker and sports betting.

"I think 2010 is going to be the determining year," said one senior executive of an online gaming group who asked not be named. "I do think there's going to be a domino effect, meaning the first deal gets everybody else to run. You don't want to be the last one left without a partner." If a merger of Party and bwin were to materialize, it could cajole the likes of 888, Sportingbet and Playtech into tie-ups.

Samsung Announces 2TB EcoGreen F3EG Hard Drive

Samsung Electronics recently announced the F3EG, its new high-performance environmentally-friendly HDD (hard disk drive) for the desktop market. The EcoGreen F3EG, a higher capacity model from its predecessor the F2EG, features 2TB capacity with 500GB per disk that is capable of storing up to 880 hours of DVD video or 500,000 or more songs in MP3 format. With increased recording density, the EcoGreen F3 drive is more power efficient by supporting a capacity up to 2TB with four disks. The F3EG incorporates a 3.0Gbps SATA interface, Native Command Queuing features and a 16MB/32MB buffer memory. The 3.5 F3EG drive is available in 1.5TB and 2TB capacities in the United States and EU markets with a MSRP of $179.99.

Storage-hungry multimedia professionals, gamers and home PC users continue to increase the amount of video, music, photo and other personal data they store and back-up, said In Cheol Park, vice president, Storage Sales, Samsung Electronics. The F3EG delivers all the benefits of a low-power drive yet features high performance and is environmentally friendly.

ASRock aims to ship 9 million motherboards in 2010

ASRock expects to ship nine million motherboards in 2010, an increase on shipments of seven million units in 2009, according to chairman Ted Hsu. If the company successfully achieves its shipment goal for 2010, it will be become the third largest vendor after Asustek Computer and Gigabyte Technology, Hsu noted.

However, Hsu pointed out that ASRock currently does not have plans to enter the graphics card market since competition is too fierce. ASRock is currently working on building brand recognition and expects its branded PC business to see sales growth in 2010, largely in Europe, Hsu noted. ASRock will also start up a smart surveillance system product line.

ECS GeForce GT 240 512MB GDDR5 HDMI Video Card Review

ECS has the solution for HTPC users and gamers on a budget with their take on the GeForce GT 240. By combining the affordable GeForce GT 240 with the an impressive heat sink from Arctic Cooling you have a low cost and high performing combo. Read on to see if this is the solution for your new machine.

ECS GeForce GT 240 Video Card NGT240-512QI-F

If your looking for a graphics card to use in an HTPC the ECS GeForce GT 240 would be ideal as the Arctic Cooling heat sink does a great job of keeping the card cool. The best part is that it's nearly silent in operation and would not be distracting at all in a quiet room. While we don't have an official statement from NVIDIA, we have it on good authority that the GeForce GT 240 will support 3D Blu-ray. The only thing keeping it from being the perfect HTPC card is the lack of bit streaming HD audio...

The Hardware Industry Loses Chris Arthington - ChrisRay

I just wanted to give our forum members here at Legit Reviews here a heads up that longtime member of the NVIDIA user group member Chris ChrisRay Arthington passed away last week of pneumonia. He was only 27. If you wish to help, we encourage you to visit the memorial page and make a donation to benefit Chriss mother, who relied on him for support. NVIDIA worked with NVNews to set up a memorial page for Chris here. The picture below shows from left to right, Nathan Kirsch of Legit Reviews, Daniela Kustre and Theo Valich of Bright Side of News, Chris, and Ken Brown of NVIDIA. This picture was taken the last night Chris felt well and was just after a dinner we had together at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, January 11, 2010. Chris was a great guy and he will be missed.

Chris was a longtime graphics enthusiast, nZone moderator, and frequent contributor on a number of forums including NVnews, SLIzone, EVGA, Rage3D, Anandtech, and others. He loved graphics technology and had a sincere desire to help people by sharing information, trouble-shooting, and reporting issues to NVIDIA. As a member of our user group, he helped us evaluate new hardware and advocated for improvements like advanced anti-aliasing and improved multi-GPU scaling. His Twitter (ChrisRaySLI) bio states: Goal: Help all Nvidia users by improving their experience with Nvidia hardware. He did that in a big way.

Inventor Unveils $7,000 Talking Sex Robot

While Legit Reviews was at CES Las Vegas ogling the new hardware, elsewhere in Vegas, others were revealing new hardware of their own. Douglas Hines, the inventor of Roxxxy the talking sex robot, has unveiled the naughty automaton to the world with the notion that there will be a large demand for such a thing. I can understand the sex part...but the talking?

To some men, she might seem like the perfect woman: She's a willowy 5 feet 7 and 120 pounds. She'll chat with you endlessly about your interests. And she'll have sex whenever you please -- as long as her battery doesn't run out. Meet Roxxxy, who may be the world's most sophisticated talking female sex robot. For $7,000, she's all yours. "She doesn't vacuum or cook, but she does almost everything else," said her inventor, Douglas Hines, who unveiled Roxxxy last month at the Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Inside Intel and Micron's 25nm NAND Fab - IMFT

Legit Reviews was recently invited to take a tour of IM Flash Technologies (IMFT) in Lehi, Utah to see how NAND Flash memory is manufactured. Read on as we get into a bunny suit to see how 25nm NAND Flash memory wafers are made and then find out what this shrink means to you as a consumer. That 1TB SSD might not be a dream after all.

This shrink is important as the new 25nm process reduces chip count by 50 percent compared to previous process generations, allowing for smaller, yet higher density designs and greater cost efficiencies. This is great news as that means IMFT will be able to get twice as many NAND Flash chips per wafer. Intel said that performance would be comparable to 34nm speeds today, but that endurance and reliability would be improved. Since devices like SSDs can be built using less 'chips' now you can expect to see SSD capacities increasing in the months to come. Micron even mentioned that 1TB 2.5" SSDs will be a possibility in 2010 thanks to the move down to 25nm.

NVIDIA GF100 Fermi GPU Named - GeForce GTX 480 and GTX 470

NVIDIA has been releasing all sorts of GeForce GF100 Fermi video cards facts on Facebook and Twitter for the past couple of months, but tonight has to be the biggest announcement yet. Tonight they just posted up that the GF100 'Fermi' GPU has an actual name! GeForce GTX 480 and GeForce GTX 470 will be the names of the first two NVIDIA GPUs shipped based on the new GF100 'Fermi' chip!

Fun Fact of the Week: GeForce GTX 480 and GeForce GTX 470 will be the names of the first two NVIDIA GPUs shipped based on our new GF100 chip!

Kingston Launches DataTraveler 5000 Encrypted USB Flash Drive

Kingston Digital recently announced the release of the DataTraveler 5000 USB Flash drive. The DataTraveler 5000 is FIPS 140-2 Level 2 certified with Level 3 pending, and features 256-bit AES hardware-based encryption. It uses XTS cipher mode and also uses elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) algorithms to meet Suite B standards approved by the U.S. government. The DataTraveler 5000 is available in 2-, 4-, 8- and 16GB capacities. Prices on the DataTraveler 5000 USB Flash drive depends on the capacity, but ranges from an MSRP of $111.00 to $400 per drive.

Kingston DataTraveler 5000 USB Flash Drive

The DataTraveler 5000 utilizes patented Secured by SPYRUS technology which supports hardware-based 256-bit XTS-AES and Suite B cryptography, including ECC. Suite B algorithms were specifically selected and approved by the U.S. government and the Department of Defense for use in multinational data sharing environments including both classified and unclassified applications. XTS-AES mode is a cipher mode for encryption that is much stronger than CBC, ECB and other modes. SPYRUS, Inc., is the leader in the development of advanced hardware-based encryption, authentication and digital content security products.

Samsung Announces First 30nm DDR3 DRAM

Samsung Electronics today announced that the industrys first 30-nanometer-class DRAM has just successfully completed customer evaluations, in two gigabit (Gb) densities. With DDR3 SDRAM becoming the predominant main memory this quarter, Samsungs aggressive advancement in process technology will raise productivity and expedite dissemination of high performance, 1.5V and 1.35V DDR3 for servers, desktops and notebook PCs.

The 30nm-class process when applied to DDR3 mass production raises productivity by 60 percent over 40nm-class DDR3. This will result in a doubling of production cost-efficiency compared to DRAM produced using 50nm to 60nm-class technology. The 30nm-class 2Gb, Green DRAM reduces power consumption by up to 30 percent over 50nm-class DRAM. A 4-Gigabyte (GB), 30nm module when used in a new-generation notebook will consume only three watts per hour, which is just three percent of the total power usage of a notebook.

Sega and Rebellion Release New Aliens vs Predator Trailer

Sega has released a new trailer from their upcoming Aliens versus Predator title. The clip shows a slightly different take on the traditional Co-Op Mode that the game will ship with.

Survivor mode is a 4-player online coop mode where 4 marines try to survive for as long as they can against an endless stream of progressively stronger Aliens. The final game ships with two Survivor mode maps C Block and Mausoleum.

Acer Delivers 23.6-inch Full HD NVIDIA 3D Vision-Ready Display - GD235HZ

Acer America today debuts a new high-end, high-resolution display that features a 120Hz refresh rate. This display can also perform as a full HD 3D display when combined with NVIDIA 3D Vision active-shutter glasses, making it perfect for showcasing high-definition 3D games, Blu-ray movies and other multimedia. The Acer GD235HZ bid 3D display will be available early this month for U.S. customers at leading retailers for an MSRP of $399.99. The NVIDIA 3D Vision Kit is available for an MSRP of $199 from leading e-tailers. The only thing this monitor is lacking is a DisplayPort connection!

The new 23.6-inch display boasts a 16:9 aspect ratio and a 1920x1080 resolution, providing excellent high-definition picture quality. Users can enjoy the clarity and precision of Blu-ray Disc high definition technology for watching movies in extraordinary detail. The 16:9 aspect ratio allows users to view high-definition digital content without image distortion that arises from incompatible aspect ratios. Additionally, the Acer GD235HZ features a rapid 2ms response times for viewing high quality moving images and a 300 cd/m2 brightness, further improving the visual performance.

Intel & Micron Officially Introduce 25-Nanometer NAND

Intel Corporation and Micron Technology today announced the world's first 25-nanometer (nm) NAND technology, which provides a more cost-effective path for increasing storage capacity in such popular consumer gadgets as smartphones, personal music and media players (PMPs), as well as the new high-performance class of solid-state drives (SSDs). The 25nm, 8GB device is sampling now and is expected to enter mass production in the second quarter of 2010. For consumer electronics manufacturers, the device provides the highest-density in a single 2 bits-per-cell multi-level cell (MLC) die that will fit an industry-standard, thin small-outline package (TSOP). Multiple 8GB devices can be stacked in a package to increase storage capacity. The new 25nm 8GB device reduces chip count by 50 percent compared to previous process generations, allowing for smaller, yet higher density designs and greater cost efficiencies. For example, a 256GB solid-state drive (SSD) can now be enabled with just 32 of these devices (versus 64 previously), a 32GB smartphone needs just four, and a 16GB flash card requires only two.

"To lead the entire semiconductor industry with the most advanced process technology is a phenomenal feat for Intel and Micron, and we look forward to further pushing the scaling limits," said Brian Shirley, vice president of Micron's memory group. "This production technology will enable significant benefits to our customers through higher density media solutions." "Through our continued investment in IMFT, we're delivering leadership technology and manufacturing that enable the most cost-effective and reliable NAND memory," said Tom Rampone, vice president and general manager, Intel NAND Solutions Group. "This will help speed the adoption of solid-state drive solutions for computing."

ECS GeForce GT 240 512MB GDDR5 HDMI Video Card Review

Inside Intel and Micron's 25nm NAND Fab - IMFT

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

IT News HeadLines (Legit Reviews) 03/02/2010

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