Intel 510 Series SATA 6Gb/s SSDs Coming March 1st
Intel's newest SSDs, the 510 series, are set to launch on March 1st. The 510 series will bring SATA 6Gb/s support, making it Intel's first series to offer the latest SATA standard. The drives will be based on the 2.5" SATA form-factor and include 34nm NAND MLC flash memory chips. The SSDs, designed with enthusiasts in mind, will offer speeds of up to 470MB/s (read) and 315MB/s (write). The Intel 510 series of SSDs will consist of one 120GB model and one 250GB model, retailing at around $280 and $580 respectively.
Read More ...
Intel Plans New Manufacturing Facility
In the times of hardship concerning the United States economy, Intel has some interesting new plans and developments that it wants to work on fairly soon. The computer silicon company recently showed off its Oregon facility to President Barrack Obama and after the tour, the President was very happy with what he saw. The President witnessed many aspects of the manufacturing process to include the electron microscope as well as the microprocessor plant, also known as the clean room. The Oregon site offers many areas of the newest technology Intel is working on, and the company also announced that there will be a add on to the area allowing for the fabrication of the 14nm chips. Along with this announcement came news that Intel will also be building its newest facility in Arizona, which will be known as FAB 42, and offer the same 14nm abilities along with enough room and technology for future endeavors. The new Arizona site will run the processor company roughly $5 billion, and even with all of this construction and new renovation, 4,000 new jobs are also said to be available from everything that is being done.
Read More ...
Mushkin Not Moving to 25nm Process
It appears as though several SSD manufacturers will be moving to the 25nm process from 34nm. Mushkin has issued a statement, and won't be following Corsair. NAND manufacturers are on a similar track to CPU manufacturers, continually trying to shrink the die to achieve greater performance. However, as the sizes of transistors shrink, the possibility of problems goes up. One problem is the way in which the smaller chips interact with controllers, and as a result the capacity of drives will be smaller. Another, much greater, problem is a lower amount of program erase cycles, which decreases the lifespan of the drives. Mushkin has decided to continue making 34nm based SSD, until it determines that 25nm Flash will be as effective.
Read More ...
Corsair Outlines Transition Plan for Force Series SSDs
Corsair, leading manufacturer of many computer parts, has just outlined its transition plan for its Force Series solid state drives. Its SSDs will be switched from the 34nm to the 25nm manufacturing process, and Corsair has clarified what that will mean for the drives. There will be a slight reduction in performance and capacity, but Corsair has worked closely with SandForce to ensure that the reduction is nothing major. The 25nm SSDs will be cheaper than the 34nm ones, just the performance will be ever so slightly less. How less? Well, Corsair has run the 25nm SSDs through the ATTO benchmark and saw a three or four percent drop in performance, but real-world tests show no loss at all so you shouldn't be able to notice a difference. However, some of the capacities will change so a current 120GB SSD on the 34nm process will now be 115GB on the 25nm process. Corsair will also have an "-A" suffix on the part or model number to further differentiate which is which.
By the end of February, Corsair will have two Force Series 25nm SSDs available for purchase. The F115-A will have a capacity of 115GB and be priced at an MSRP of $215. The F80-A will be an 80GB SSD and have an MSRP of $169. For comparison's sake, the current Force Series F120 has an MSRP of $289 while the F80 has an MSRP of $199. So there is a price reduction which hopefully will drop even further with more 25nm drives on the market.
Read More ...
House of Representatives Vote to Block Net Neutrality Funding
I have to say, I'm not exactly surprised by this bit of news. Ever since the FCC passed limited net neutrality rules, I was just waiting for something like this to happen. Now, the House of Representatives have voted to block funding for net neutrality. Now, the House is Republican-controlled and in order for it to pass, the Democratic-controlled Senate would have to give it a yes and then the President would have to sign it into effect. Basically, it doesn't seem too likely that the blocked funding would come to pass, but the big thing is that Congress has its eyes on the matter. Verizon and MetroPCS are both challenging the net neutrality rules in the courts, so it will be interesting to see what exactly comes of that or what Congress will do about it. Either way, it looks like the FCC may have a long fight on its hands.
Read More ...
NPD Reports Overall Video Game Revenues Have Dropped
Well, the NPD has released its report on overall video game sales for last month, and things don't look too good. Compared to January, 2010, overall revenues for the entire industry dropped five percent in January, 2011. New sales of video game hardware, software, and accessories totaled $1.16 billion last month, with $1.14 billion in revenue which is down four percent from last year. $576 million of that came from software alone, which is still an five percent drop compared to last year, while hardware sales netted $376 million, an eight percent drop. Video game accessories saw a six percent growth ($235.1 million) from last year, which is at least the bright spot in all of this. It looks like the PlayStation Move and Microsoft Kinect are still doing just fine to give the accessories numbers a boost. PC sales are excluded from these numbers, so this is strictly about the consoles and handhelds.
Read More ...
Microsoft To Release IE9 In March
The Internet Explorer 9 RC has been out for some time, and has surprised many users who traditionally use the Microsoft browser, along with users from other areas such as Opera and Google Chrome. Though not topping the charts in many performance tests, Internet Explorer 9 is a great leap for Microsoft in terms of their own internet browser, which has been a Windows standard since the beginning of time. The final version however is said to get released at an upcoming event on March 14th though, known as SXSW, which follows the exact six week release cycle the company has planned to follow. What is not known yet however, is if the updated internet browser will get automatically downloaded and installed on the day of the new release, or if Windows users will have to wait till the usual patch Tuesday. Nonetheless, for the users who really are wanting to grab their hands on the final version of Internet Explorer 9 as soon as possible, a direct download will be available on the Microsoft website once it is posted.
Read More ...
OCC XFX One-A-Day Give Give Away: Through 2/25/2011
Starting on Friday 2/18/2011, OCC in partnership with XFX will be giving away a XFX PRO 750 Watt PSU EVERYDAY until Friday 2/25/2011! Paul recently had the opportunity to review the hardware! Read what he had to say about it here! Participation in this contest could not be more simple! All you have to do is head over to this thread, and post what your current system would be if you are one of the lucky winners!
Winners will be announced on Friday 2/25/2011.
So be sure to read Paul's review, and then head over to our forums and sign up to win!
Read More ...
No comments:
Post a Comment