IT-Code-News: IT News Head Lines (techPowerUp) 19/12/2011

AMD Bulldozer Threading Hotfix Pulled
Since we reported on the AMD Bulldozer hotfix, The Tech Report reports in an updated post, that the Bulldozer threading hotfix said to improve performance of the processor, has been pulled:

We've spoken with an industry source familiar with this situation, and it appears the release of this hotfix was either inadvertent, premature, or both. There is indeed a Bulldozer threading patch for Windows in the works, but it should come in two parts, not just one. The patch that was briefly released is only one portion of the total solution, and it may very well reduce performance if used on its own. We're hearing the full Windows update for Bulldozer performance optimization is scheduled for release in Q1 of 2012. For now, Bulldozer owners, the best thing to do is to sit tight and wait.

It will be very interesting indeed to see how this much maligned processor benchmarks after the fully developed patch is released. It's true, actually attempting to download the hotfix and agreeing to the licence terms, at the moment, one is lead to a page that shows it as unavailable.

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The Witcher 2 Contains Secret Sauce To 'Catch 100% Of Pirates'
Yes, really - 100% of those pesky "pirates" will be brought to book! The game's studio, CD Projekt RED (CDP Red) isn't letting on how it's doing so, either, claiming it's a "trade secret" and not giving out the name of the external company that's implementing the anti-piracy technology, claiming that to do so would damage their business. Seriously. The problem with identifying a dodgy copy of something is that the main info they have to track them down, are the IP addresses of the suspect. This has been shown many times over now, not to be a reliable tracker of who's doing what. At the most, it will pinpoint the account holder that it relates to, in some cases. However, this outfit reckons they've nailed this dealbreaking problem once and for all - and without any evidence on how they go about it. Snake oil, perhaps? The Polish company have therefore been sending out legal notices to thousands of suspects in Germany, chosen because this country has some of the strictest copyright laws in Europe. Presumably, they must be leaning on the ISPs to hand over customers' physical street addresses, although this isn't made clear, but read on for how this might be accomplished. In an email to PC Gamer, CDP Red VP Michael Nowakowski made the following statement:

Seagate Take A Leaf Out Of WD's Book, Offer Crummy ONE YEAR Warranties On Some HDD's
Two days ago, we reported on Western Digital's unwelcome warranty cuts. In that article, we said: "It would be surprising if Seagate didn't follow WD's lead on warranties." Well, as sure as water flows downhill and not up, Seagate has now followed suit – and then some. They will now offer miserly one year warranties on most Barracuda and Momentus hard disk drives. Seagate wrote the following letter on 6th December to its authorised distributors explaining this:

Effective December 31, 2011, Seagate will be changing its warranty policy from a 5 year to a 3 year warranty period for Nearline drives, 5 years to 1 year for certain Desktop and Notebook Bare Drives, 5 years to 3 years on Barracuda XT and Momentus XT, and from as much as 5 years to 2 years on Consumer Electronics.

So that's just a fifth of the time on some drives – a shockingly massive drop! Doesn't sound like a company that cares about its customers much then, does it? The new warranty periods will apply from shipments dated 31st December and the details of the new warranty periods are as follows:

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Intel Readies Core i5-2550K Quad-Core Unlocked Processor
Intel started its "Sandy Bridge" LGA1155 family with two processors geared for overclocking, the Core i7-2600K, at a $320 price-point, and Core i5-2500K at around $210. Both are extremely successful products, among the two the Core i5-2500K struck a price-performance sweet-spot, while the Core i7-2600K became the ideal chip to build high-end gaming PCs with. Around the time when AMD was releasing its AMD FX processor family, Intel released the new Core i7-2700K. This chip didn't necessarily replace the i7-2600K, but took a price point slightly higher than it. According to a CPU World report, Intel is readying a new sweet-spot processor geared for overclocking, the Core i5-2550K.

With a retail channel part number BX80623I52550K and OEM part number CM806230121300, the Core i5-2550K was added to the MDDS database. It will carry the S-spec code SR0QH. The exact clock speed of this chip is not known, but CPU World expects it to be 3.40 GHz. Based on the Sandy Bridge LGA1155 package, the Core i5-2550K will feature four cores, 256 KB L2 cache per core, 6 MB shared L3 cache, integrated dual-channel DDR3 IMC, , integrated PCI-Express 2.0 root complex, and TDP of 95W. We expect this not to necessarily displace the i5-2500K, but occupy a price-point slightly above it. Let's say, $239-$249, just to heat things up for the AMD FX-8150.

Source: CPU World

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SteelSeries Kinzu v2 Pro Edition Gaming Mouse Arrives in Europe
Without much fanfare, peripheral company SteelSeries has begun shipping in Europe one of its latest gaming mice, the tournament-grade Kinzu v2 Pro Edition. This new rodent measures 64 (W) x 36 (H) x 127 (D) mm and has an ambidextrous design, three buttons and a clickable scroll wheel, Omron button switches, Teflon feet enabling a low-friction glide, and a 3200 dpi optical sensor.

The Kinzu v2 Pro Edition also features a 1,000 Hz polling rate, a 2 meter braided cable, USB 2.0 connectivity, and comes in three color versions - black, red and silver. Currently only the black model is available and it costs 44.90 Euro. The global availability of this mouse is planned for early January.

Foxconn and NVIDIA Setting Up Cloud Computing R&D Center in China
OEM major Foxconn, graphics and ARM processor major NVIDIA, in coordination with the local government, plan to set up a new research and development center in the city of Tianjin, northern China. The three signed for establishment of the joint venture today. Heads of Foxconn and NVIDIA, Terry Guo and Jen-Hsun Huang, were present at the ceremony.

The center is slated to be dedicated for research and development in the fields of mobile terminal devices and cloud computing-based applications, and we can already see the right ingredients going into setting it up: an investment-friendly local government that provides a fertile platform and human resources, the vast expertise of Foxconn in design and manufacture of consumer electronics, and the expertise of NVIDIA in ultra-high performance application processors for portable computing devices.

Source: DigiTimes

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(PR) Corsair to Announce Several Key Products at 2012 International CES
Corsair, a worldwide designer and supplier of high-performance components to the PC gaming hardware market, today announced its participation at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas from January 10th to 13th, 2012.

"We're very excited about our presence at the 2012 International CES," said Andrew Paul, President and CEO of Corsair. "Not only is it a fantastic showcase for the new products we'll be announcing, it allows us to present all of our high-performance product lines."

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(PR) KFA2 Launches GeForce GTX 580 MDT X4 Graphics Card
KFA2, the European premium NVIDIA brand, announced today the GTX 580 MDT X4 EX OC, the latest in the line of MDT series multi-display performance gaming graphics cards. The KFA2 GeForce GTX 580 MDT X4 is designed to be the flagship product within our MDT range, offering unparalleled performance in the latest DirectX 11 games in full 1080p.

Whilst the KFA2 GeForce 580 MDT X4 supports up to 4 monitors for multi-display, its main feature includes 'Virtual single monitor mode' which shares one desktop across 3 screens, producing surround HD game play (50Mhz compatible monitors needed for this feature). This myriad of features and unrivaled performance is complimented by a KFA2 custom designed LED chassis and high efficiency triple fan cooling solution.

NSS Labs Accuses Google of Undertaking Campaign to Knock Firefox Off The Market
Google Chrome is a fast and functional web browser. Let's get that out of the way first. But one of the main reasons a largely successful corporation put resources into developing a web-browser into a market that isn't very profitable, is cost-cutting. Since it's inception, the search bar Mozilla Firefox came with, has Google as its default search provider. Every time people search using that search bar in Firefox, Mozilla Foundation makes money. It is estimated that these Google searches amount to a majority of Mozilla's revenue, as Google pays it as much as 50 million dollars an year. Google Chrome, despite its genuine merits, is a cost-cutting operation. The more people use it over Firefox, the less Google has to pay Mozilla.

Web security researchers have historically rated Google Chrome has having the worst security and privacy compared to Firefox, and Internet Explorer (read this, and here), but the most recent research by Denver-based security consultancy Accuvant claimed that Google Chrome has the best security and privacy features, while Mozilla Firefox has the worst. Want to hear the kicker? That research by Accuvant was funded by Google. Want to hear another one? A similar research firm that has historically done vendor-funded research, NSS Labs, voiced strong objections to Accuvant's research, calling it an all-out attempt to malign Mozilla Firefox.

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Toshiba Unveils the 220 MB/s TransMemory-EX USB 3.0 Flash Drive
Toshiba Japan has this week announced the TransMemory-EX, a new, USB 3.0 flash drive which is set to ship in February and will deliver read and write speeds of up to 220 MB/s and 94 MB/s, respectively (34/30 MB/s read/write speeds when on USB 2.0).

This speedy drive makes use of a low-power SuperSpeed USB controller, it measures 68.8 (L) x 21 (W) x 10.5 (H) mm, and will be available in 32 GB and 64 GB capacities. Toshiba didn't reveal the drives' prices but a report says the 32 GB TransMemory-EX will go for around $102, while the 64 GB model will cost $150.

(PR) VIA Announces Android Support for Embedded x86 Boards
VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, today announced Android support for VIA x86 embedded platforms, starting with support for the VIA EITX-3002 Em-ITX board. Running Android on an x86 platform offers increased flexibility, great multimedia support and cost saving advantages for embedded applications such as in-vehicle entertainment and interactive kiosks.

Key advantages for Android on x86 include leverage of Android development resources and existing apps, rich I/O flexibility, greater CPU performance as well as higher display resolutions of up to 1920 x 1080. In addition VIA has released SMART ETK, an Embedded Tool Kit which allows monitoring and control of peripheral devices through the Android OS, allowing for greater environmental control of kiosk and other installed environments.

Aerocool XPredator Evil Green Edition Full-Tower Case Coming in January
Following the release of the Black, Evil Black and White versions, Aerocool is now preparing the arrival of the Evil Green edition of its flagship full-tower PC chassis, the XPredator. This latest XPredator model still has a black coating on the outside but the motherboard tray and various other elements inside and out are colored green.

The green-themed XPredator measures 600 (H) x 234 (W) x 555 (D) mm, and features a 0.8/1.0 mm SECC steel construction, a top-placed storage compartment, an I/O panel with USB 3.0 (x 1), USB 2.0 (x 3), eSATA, mic and headphone ports, a 6-channel fan controller, and a side window which can be pretty much covered up with four 120/140 mm fans.

Radeon HD 7970 Tessellation Performance Figures Surface
Among the bits and pieces (read: slides) of AMD's press presentation that we're getting, a slide that's definitely missing is performance against competitive or previous generation graphics cards across a range of applications/games. Instead, there's a slide detailing tessellation performance improvements of the Radeon HD 7970 over the previous-generation HD 6970. On average, AMD is looking at about 1.5x (50%) improvements in the tests that it run. One has to also take in to account that the HD 7970 is a faster GPU overall, compared to HD 6970, and of course, that these are AMD's figures.

Source: ComputerBase.de

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Dell Giving Up on Netbooks, to Focus on 'Thin and Powerful' Laptops
In Dell's eyes, the age of netbooks is drawing to a close, and because of that, the company has already stopped selling consumer netbooks (the Inspiron Mini is now history), and decided against developing new (Cedar Trail-based) 10-inch machines powered by Intel Atom processors.

Despite the thumbs down given to netbooks, Dell is still selling Atom-based products like the business-oriented Latitude 2120 and the display-flipping Inspiron Duo, but their days are numbered. According to Dell, low-cost solutions like netbooks are no longer of interest, the focus now being on 'thin and powerful' machines like ultrabooks. Of course, ultrabooks are somewhat premium products but they should go mainstream in 2012 when cheaper, Ivy Bridge-based models will come about.

Source: The Verge

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(PR) NVIDIA Appoints Rob Burgess to Its Board of Directors
NVIDIA announced today that it has named Rob Burgess, a veteran technology executive and independent consultant, to its board of directors. Burgess, age 53, served as chief executive officer of Macromedia, Inc., a provider of Internet and multimedia software, from 1996 to 2005, and as the company's chairman or executive chairman from 1998 to 2005, when it was acquired by Adobe Systems Inc. He has been a member of Adobe's board since then, and has served since 2010 as a director of IMRIS Inc., a provider of image-guided therapy solutions.

(PR) AMD to Appoint Dr. Lisa Su as Senior Vice President and GM, Global Business Units
AMD announced today that Dr. Lisa Su, 42, has agreed to join the company as senior vice president and general manager, Global Business Units. She will report to president and chief executive officer Rory Read. Dr. Su, who was most recently senior vice president and general manager, Networking and Multimedia at Freescale Semiconductor Inc., will oversee AMD's business units focused on the Client, Commercial, Graphics, Professional Graphics, and Game Console markets.

EVGA Introduces Two GeForce GTX 580 Classified Ultra graphics cards
To spice up the holidays of Nvidia fans, EVGA has developed a couple of 'new' GeForce GTX 580 Classified cards, two 'Ultra' models which come with GPU/shader/memory clocks of 900/1800/4212 MHz (previously-released GTX 580 Classified cards topped out at 855/1710/4212 MHz).

Beside the ultra-high clocks mentioned, EVGA's latest offerings feature 512 CUDA Cores, a 384-bit memory interface, 3 GB of GDDR5 memory, 4-way SLI and EVBot support, a custom PCB, a 14+3 phase power design, one NEC Proadlizer, Super Low ESR SP-Cap capacitors, and high frequency 3 MHz shielded inductors.

The air-cooled GeForce GTX 580 Classified Ultra costs $619.99 while the water-cooled GeForce GTX 580 Classified Ultra Hydro Copper has a price tag of $749.99. Neither card is shipping yet but hopefully they will become available very soon.

StatCounter Says Chrome 15 is the Most Popular Browser Version, But it Won't Last
Dublin-based web analytics firm StatCounter has announced that the end of November saw Google's Chrome 15 become the most popular browser version worldwide for the first time on a weekly basis. In the last full week of November, Chrome 15 managed to take 23.6% of the global browser market, inching in front of Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 which had a 23.5% share. Better yet, for Google at least, in the first week of December Chrome 15 topped 24.55% while IE8 slipped to 22.16%.

These results don't change the big picture though, so Internet Explorer (with all its still working versions) continues to be the number one browser worldwide, while Chrome is on the second spot. Chrome 15's performance is certainly noteworthy but it should be short-lived since Google this week released the stable 16.0.912.63 build and people are likely upgrading to it as we speak. It remains to be seen if Chrome 16 will get the browser crown like its predecessor.

AMD Radeon HD 7970 Reference Board Design Detailed, Single Slot Capable - Finally!
AMD Radeon HD 7970 launch is just around the corner. Ahead of its launch, AMD conducted its usual press briefing. DonanimHaber has access to some of the slides shown in that meeting. Earlier this day, we brought you perhaps the most important of them all, specifications. Let's take a look at the reference board design itself. AMD is sticking to the black+red colour scheme, and has come up with a swanky new cooling assembly design. The design, unlike those of higher-end Radeon HD 6000 series graphics cards, is surprisingly curvy and features dashes of red plastic making up its contours, surrounded by tougher black ABS.

A welcome change here from the previous generations, is that the card is truly single-slot capable, when say, a single-slot full-coverage water block is used. High-end cards from previous generation HD 5000 and HD 6000 have a dual DVI connector cluster that extends into two expansion slots, which many enthusiasts found to be annoying, especially when setting up benches with four single-GPU graphics cards in scenarios where PCI-Express slot spacing isn't kind. Moving on to display connectivity, the card has one DVI, one HDMI, and two mini-DisplayPort connectors, all arranged in the confines of a single expansion slot. The space of the second slot is dedicated to a hot-air exhaust of the cooling assembly. All board partners are required to ship HDMI-to-DVI dongles, and active mini-DP dongles.

Radeon HD 7970 Raw Specs Leaked
If slide leaked on Orb-Hardware is to be believed we GPU consumers are in for a pretty big treat in the next month or so. The slide shown below states that the AMD 7970 will have a default core clock speed of 925MHz and a whopping 3 GB of GDDR5 memory.

It also sports a 3.5 TFLOPs precision floating point. Which would put it well beyond the NVIDIA flagship single GPU solution. The slide states the a ROP count of 32, against an earlier speculated count of 48. This could be because AMD may have delinked ROP clusters from memory bus. The cooler itself is under the trademark AMD black shroud so there is no way to see if it uses the rumored "vapor chamber" as seen in after market solutions.

Looking past all the beastly prowess of this slide one cannot help but think about power draw. The "leaked" slide states the 7970 will have a peak power draw of 300 W and an idle draw of 3 W. We will have to wait for review to see if any of these amazing stats are true.

Source: OBR Hardware

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AMD Pulls Radeon HD 7970 Launch to December 22
In a surprising move, AMD pulled the launch date of Radeon HD 7970, a high-performance single-GPU graphics card based on the 28 nm Tahiti silicon, up to December 22, 2011; from its earlier launch date of January 09, 2012. The January date was a lot more than speculation, as older presentation slides from AMD to distributors and retailers talked specifically about it. The move to pull December 22 (next Thursday) spices things up in the run up for CES. First, it gives AIB partners full freedom to show off their custom-design graphics cards at the event, along with full details about GPU specifications and clock speeds.

According to a VR-Zone report, Radeon HD 7970 will launch on December 22, 2011, this will be the day you will be able to read reviews of the card (at least the AMD reference design board), online. It will be a limited launch (read: paper-launch), but one can expect "full" retail availability of the card by January 09. Another interesting bit of information is concerning the Radeon HD 7950. This card will be available in non-reference board designs from day one, it will however launch on January 09.

Source: VR-Zone

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WD Slashes HDD Warranties By A Third – But You Can Buy Them Back
Way back in 2008, we reported that Seagate was lowering warranties of its hard disk drives from 5 years to 3. This trend quickly spread throughout the HDD industry and unsurprisingly, wasn't something that customers were too happy about. Now, Western Digital is lowering the warranty on some of its HDD lines from 3 years to a mere 2, with the affected lines being the Caviar Blue, Caviar Green and Scorpio Blue. Lines not affected are the Caviar Black, Scorpio Black, A/V drives and externals. Also, as the stock feeds through the channel, there will be a transition period where the same model in a store will have either a 2 or 3 year warranty, depending on its serial number, which can be checked on WD's support site. It will be interesting to see if retailers will clearly differentiate to customers which drives have which warranty, as it might be rather convenient for them not to.

Channel partners have received a letter from SelectWD about this:

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Microsoft Announces the Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard 5000
Nokia BFF Microsoft has today revealed a new peripheral which caters to the typing needs of Windows, Android and iOS tablet owners, the Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard 5000. This keyboard measures 165 × 355 × 13 mm, it features a sleek, Comfort Curve design (allowing for a more natural wrist posture), Bluetooth connectivity (range is up to 10 meters), and comes with a three-year warranty.

The Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard 5000 requires two AAA batteries to work and is scheduled to become available later this month. Its price tag is $49.95.

AMD 'Bulldozer' gets an Update from Microsoft.
Today Windows updater may have brought "Bulldozer" users a little surprise. A hotfix that increases the AMD flagship processors performance. As this "hotfix" is bleeding edge news any benchmarks have yet to be seen but this confirms Windows 7 was in fact hampering "Bulldozer" from performing at 100% in all prior benches. What percentage it was previously performing at has yet to be determined. Here is a small snippet from the Hotfix release notes.

This article introduces an update that optimizes the performance of AMD Bulldozer CPUs that are used by Windows 7-based or Windows Server 2008 R2-based computers. Currently, the performance of AMD Bulldozer CPUs is slower than expected. This behavior occurs because the threading logic in Windows 7 and in Windows Server 2008 R2 is not optimized to use the Simultaneous Multithreading (SMT) scheduling feature. This feature was introduced in the Bulldozer family of AMD CPUs.

You can download the Hotfix here.

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Zalman Intros CNPS20LQ CPU Cooler
Zalman took its first dip into water cooling after a while, with the CNPS20LQ, a self-contained (closed loop) CPU cooler. Designed and made originally by Asetek, a well-established brand name in OEM water cooling solutions, the CNPS20LQ uses a single-fan (dual-fan capable) radiator design. Its radiator measures 120 (W) x 158 (L) x 25 (H) mm. The radiator houses a small reservoir. The block houses a pump, which draws power from standard 4-pin CPU power header, and supports PWM control. The two are connected by flexible tubing. The block features a copper base with pre-applied thermal interface material. The CNPS20LQ supports all current socket types, including Intel LGA2011, LGA1155/1156, LGA1366, LGA775; AMD AM3+, FM1, and AM3/AM2+/AM2. It is priced at €69.90.

Valve teases 'Something with a Three'
Shacknews has reported today Valve's Gabe Newell announced they will debut "something with a three in it" at E3 2012 in an e-mail to 4Chan. With almost all of Valve's franchises up for a third installment its anyone's guess what "three" it is. If rumors around the internet are to be believed we are in for another run in with Dr. Freeman. The world is truly coming to an end in 2012.

Source: Shacknews

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Microsoft will Automatically Update Internet Explorer, if You Let it
In an effort to ensure that Windows users have the latest version of Internet Explorer installed and ready for use, Microsoft has decided to add its browser to the automatic update list. This means that Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 installations which have automatic updating enabled in Windows Update, will also be seamlessly upgrading Internet Explorer, from time to time.

For starters the automatic update switch for IE will be turned on for customers in Australia and Brazil. This will happen in January (2012) and will expand in other areas throughout the year.

Acer to Downsize Two-Thirds in 2012
Today DigiTimes reported Acers Chairman JT Wang, announced that the company will be downsizing its product line two-thirds by the end of 2012. Mr. Wangs statement leaned this maneuver as more of a streamline process rather then a downsize citing he expected sales to increase by 10% or higher within the next year. Mr. Wang also stated that this downsize will not effect its outsourcing partners. However, Acer's major partners including Quanta Computer, Compal Electronics, Wistron and Pegatron Technology have decline to comment. One cannot help but wonder how many other manufactures will follow suit in these hard economic times.

Source: DigiTimes

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(PR) Corsair Announces 8GB and 16GB DDR3 Memory Upgrades for Apple Computers
Corsair, a worldwide designer and supplier of high-performance components to the PC gaming hardware market, today announced of 8GB and 16GB DDR3 memory upgrade kits for Apple Mac desktop and laptop systems.

Mac systems with two memory slots have traditionally been limited to only 8GB of memory. By increasing the individual module capacity to 8GB, Corsair's latest memory upgrade kits allow Mac owners to upgrade to 10GB, 12GB, or even 16GB of memory.

(PR) ROCCAT Releases Taito Mouse Pad in New Sizes and Heights
Offering a fresh take on one of the best-selling gaming mouse pads in history, ROCCAT Studios – the Hamburg, Germany-based manufacturer of professional PC gaming devices and equipment – today announced that the legendary ROCCAT Taito Shiny Black Gaming

Mousepad now comes in two thicknesses of 3mm and 5mm, as well as in the three sizes of Mini-, Mid- and King.

The introduction of a new thickness allows gamers to select a Taito that best offsets the amount of hand pressure used during play – which means hours of playing comfort no matter what a gamer's style is. The two heights also let players pick a Taito best suited to their desktop, as each pad provides a form fit on most playing surfaces, compensating for unevenness on a gamer's desk and delivering uninterrupted gliding.

(PR) Corsair Announces Retail Availability of New Vengeance Gaming Keyboards and Mice
Corsair, a worldwide designer and supplier of high-performance components to the PC gaming hardware market, today announced immediate retail availability of their new line of Vengeance PC gaming peripherals.

Corsair's new PC gaming peripherals line includes four new HID products: The Vengeance K60 and Vengeance K90 gaming keyboards and the Vengeance M60 and Vengeance M90 laser gaming mice. A key feature of all four of these new Vengeance Series products is the use of an aluminum structure to provide strength and durability, as well as a stunning industrial design.

26 December Launch Date for AMD A8-3870K and A6-3670K Black Edition Unlocked APUs
December thru January looks to be a busy time for AMD. Along with a few new graphics products, AMD will launch new CPUs and APUs. The company has chosen December 26 to launch its A8-3870K and A6-3670K Black Edition "Llano" accelerated processing units (APUs) in the FM1 package, which feature unlocked base clock multipliers for the processor component, making overclocking a breeze. In two of its presentation slides to distributors, it unveiled the swanky new box art of these unlocked APUs.

These chips pack four x86-64 cores based on the "Stars" K10.5 architecture with 1 MB dedicated L2 cache per core, dual-channel DDR3-1866 MHz integrated memory controller, PCI-Express 2.0 root complex, and a "discrete-class" graphics processor that packs 400 VLIW5 stream processors, DirectX 11 support, and the ability to pair with similarly specc'd discrete GPUs. The A8-3870K Black Edition features x86 core clock speed of 3.00 GHz, and Radeon HD 6550D graphics that features all 400 of those stream processors, with 600 MHz GPU clock speed. The A6-3670K Black Edition, on the other hand, has its x86 component clocked at 2.70 GHz, it features Radeon HD 6530D graphics that has 320 out of the 400 stream processors enabled, and a GPU clock of 433 MHz.

AMD Starts Shipping 28 nm GPUs for Revenue
AMD CEO Rory Read, speaking at the IT Supply Chain conference organized by Raymond James this Tuesday, said that his company had begun shipping 28 nm GPUs for revenue (meaning, in volumes big enough to fetch revenue). With it, AMD fulfilled its promise to be the first to the market with GPUs built on the 28 nm silicon fab process. AMD's foundry partner for these chips is TSMC. "We are ramping 28nm [products] with TSMC in Taiwan and shipping the products here and now. We are very excited about the products," said Read.

At the upcoming CES event, AMD will formally unveil a range of products that will use its 28 nm GPUs. CES will give AMD a good opportunity to bag design wins with large volume manufacturers of notebooks and PCs. What this means for the enthusiast community is that whenever AMD does launch its Radeon HD 7900 series, it won't be a "paper-launch".

Source: X-bit Labs

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ADATA Intros S396 30 GB Value SSD
ADATA introduced a new value consumer SSD in its 300 Series, the S396 30 GB. Built in the conventional 2.5-inch form-factor, the drive makes use of the SATA 3 Gb/s interface. The drive offers sequential read speeds of up to 280 MB/s, up to 250 MB/s sequential write speeds, and up to 44,000 IOPS 4K random write performance. If those speeds hold up, the ADATA S396 30 GB should make for a decent entry-level SSD. Unfortunately, we don't have a price at hand.

Source: PCLaunches

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(PR) Build a Cooler, Faster PC with the Revolutionary Lian Li PC-100 Case
Experienced case maker Lian Li has unveiled a radical rethink of the PC case, the new PC-100. The PC-100 is a long overdue redesign of the traditional PC chassis that improves cooling, prolongs component life, and saves space. This beautiful and compact mid tower case is roomy enough for the longest graphics cards and largest E-ATX/XL-ATX/ATX motherboards, thanks to its innovative layout. It is also remarkably easy to assemble without tools. Lian Li's innovative PC-100 is a breath of fresh air for the stagnant PC case market.

Superior cooling helps CPUs and graphics cards run at maximum speed without slowdowns or crashes due to overheating. This also means higher speeds for overclockers, and extends the life of disk drives and motherboards. However, traditional case layouts have two serious barriers to optimal cooling, performance, and ease-of-use: firstly, they block airflow with a wall of hard disk drives inside the front of the case. Secondly, important ports and connectors are at the back, making them difficult to access – a defect that manufacturers can only try to address by adding a few front panel connectors.

MSI Intros the X79A-GD45 (8D) LGA2011 Motherboard Supporting 128 GB of RAM
Taiwanese company MSI has today unveiled the eight DIMM version of its X79A-GD45 motherboard released last month. This new, module-enriched board is called X79A-GD45 (8D), it supports LGA2011 (Sandy Bridge-E) processors, and, according to MSI, can handle up to 128 GB of RAM (G.Skill will need to take notice).

The X79A-GD45 (8D) features Military Class III components (DrMOS II, Hi-C CAP, Solid CAP, Super Ferrite Choke), the mentioned eight (DDR3-2400) memory slots, two SATA 6.0 Gbps and four SATA 3.0 Gbps ports, plus three PCI-Express 3.0 x16 and two PCIe 2.0 x16 slots.

MSI's board also comes with one PCIe x1 slot, Gigabit Ethernet, four USB 3.0 ports (two on the back plate, two via a header), 7.1-channel audio, Click BIOS II (UEFI), and the OC Genie II overclocking function. The X79A-GD45 (8D) has yet to be priced but since its quad-DIMM sibling costs 195 Euro, we're thinking it will go over the 200 Euro mark.

Lenovo IdeaPad U300s Up For Pre-Order, Already Back-Ordered
Lenovo put its IdeaPad U300s ultrabook up for pre-order on its company online store. Soon enough, many buyers found themselves to have back-ordered it. The initial few waves of orders got December 19 as the expected shipment date, the rest will have to wait for at least another few weeks. Not only is the U300s back-ordered, but it's also that the winter break is falling in between that period. The only model available for orders is a 13.3-inch one powered by Intel Core i7 ULV processor, with up to 4 GB of memory and 256 GB of SSD storage. The fact that this $1999 model is being sold at a sweet web-price of $1499 could be driving the rush.

GammaTech Reveals the Durabook R13C Rugged Convertible Laptop
GammaTech Computer has just announced the Durabook R13C, its newest, fully rugged, convertible notebook which has managed to pass the Military Standard 810G certification for drop, shock, and spill protection, plus explosive atmosphere, salt, fog, and freeze/thaw standards.

This rough and touch machine makes use of a magnesium alloy casing that's 20 times stronger than ABS plastic, and features a water-resistant backlit keyboard, a 13.3-inch (1000 NIT) multi-touch display, a Core i7-620LM processor, up to 8GB of RAM, a 2.5-inch SATA hard drive (which can be quickly swapped for an SSD), an ultra-slim DVD drive, an SD card slot, GPS, and connectivity options like WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, and 3G.

The Durabook R13C also has a Smart Card reader, a fingerprint scanner, a built-in handle, and comes with a stylus. Unfortunately, GammaTech did not reveal the notebook's pricing or its availability date.

(PR) INSIDE Secure to Provide NFC Technology and Products to Intel
INSIDE Secure, a leader in semiconductor solutions for secure transactions and digital identity, today announced it has entered into an agreement with Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) to provide the company with INSIDE's NFC products and technologies. The agreement marks a significant milestone for INSIDE Secure and the future of the NFC industry, helping move this emerging technology towards full-scale market adoption.

The agreement gives Intel access to INSIDE's software, firmware and core hardware technology for development of future Intel products. In addition, INSIDE will provide Intel's Mobile Wireless Group with access to scalable NFC solutions based on INSIDE's MicroRead, SecuRead and Open NFC products.

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HP Rolls Out the X4000 and X5000 Wireless Laser Mice
webOS-shedding PC company HP has now expanded its peripheral offer through the release of two new wireless mice, the X4000 and X5000. Both models measure 4.21" (L) x 2.64" (W) x 1.52" (H) and feature an ambidextrous design, a 1600 dpi laser sensor, 2.4 GHz wireless connectivity, an operating range of up to 30 feet, and a micro receiver which can connect up to five devices (to save precious USB ports).

The X4000 has a battery life of up to 30 months and a 'regular' scroll wheel, while the X5000 comes with a touch scroll and lasts up to 24 months on a pair of AA batteries. The X4000 sells for $29.99 whereas the X5000 is available for $39.99.

HIS Develops Radeon HD 6450 with 2 GB of Memory and a PCIe x1 Interface
Claiming to help owners of 'legacy systems', Hong Kong-based add-in board maker Hightech Information System (HIS) has constructed a Radeon HD 6450 card which is equipped with 2 GB of DDR3 memory and makes use of a PCIe x1 interface.

Suited for compact systems, HIS' new card features a low-profile design, a blue PCB, a passive cooler, 160 Stream Processors, a 64-bit memory interface, GPU and memory clocks of 625 MHz and 1000 MHz, respectively, and three display outputs - D-Sub, dual-link DVI and DisplayPort. No word on pricing.

Firm Thinks More Factors Than HDD Shortage Behind Intel's Reduced Q4 Revenue Forecast
Nomura Equity Research, an investment broker, recons that factors other than, and more significant than hard disk drive (HDD) shortage caused due to the recent Thailand floods affecting HDD manufacturing, are behind Intel's reduced Q4 forecast. Earlier this week, Intel shaved off close to a billion dollars from its Q4 Revenue Guidance, leveling the blame on HDD shortages, as HDD is a near-indispensable component in manufacture and assembly of a vast majority of PCs. Nomura Equity Research thinks "weak sell-through" is that other factor.

Nomura Equity Research said "HDD shortages are a concern, but we think weak sell-through is also contributing to the $1 billion shortfall." It continues, "We see softness in China, continued demand for ARM-based more power-efficient devices, and low volumes for ultrabooks." Intel is clearly feeling the heat with depleting demand for Wintels, as entire PC form-factors are challenged by leaner, fitter computing devices such as tablets, netbooks, and smartphones driven by ARM processors are growing in demand.

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(PR) GLOBALFOUNDRIES and ARM Deliver Optimized SoC Solution based on ARM Cortex-A Series
GLOBALFOUNDRIES and ARM today revealed the latest advances in their longstanding collaboration to deliver optimized system-on-chip (SoC) solutions for ARM Cortex-A series processor designs using ARM Artisan advanced physical IP and GLOBALFOUNDRIES' leading-edge process technologies. The companies announced the industry's first test chip based on a dual-core Cortex-A9 processor operating at frequencies of more than 2.5GHz. In addition, a 20nm tape out using GLOBALFOUNDRIES' Technology Qualification Vehicle (TQV) was also announced for SoCs based on Cortex-A9 processors.

The two companies worked closely together to develop a TQV strategy that allows GLOBALFOUNDRIES to optimize its advanced process technology for customer designs based on Cortex-A series processors. The solution is more than a standard test chip. Each TQV is designed to emulate a full specification SoC and aims to improve performance, lower power consumption and facilitate a faster path to market for foundry customers.

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Available Tags:AMD , Seagate , Intel , Gaming , NVIDIA , GeForce , GTX , Google , Firefox , USB 3.0 , Toshiba , USB , VIA , Android , Radeon , Dell , EVGA , Chrome , HDD , Microsoft , Keyboard , CPU Cooler , Zalman , CPU , Valve , Microsoft , Acer , DDR3 , Apple , SSD , MSI , Lenovo , HP , Wireless , HIS , HDD ,

Monday, December 19, 2011

IT News Head Lines (techPowerUp) 19/12/2011

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