IT-Code-News: IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 18/05/2012

Corsair Vengeance Cup Sweepstakes, win a Vengeance 2000 Wireless 7.1 Gaming Headset!
Love contests? Love free stuff? Love Corsair? Well, Corsair are currently running the Corsair Vengeance Cup Sweepstakes where they have five Corsair Vengeance 2000 Wireless 7.1 Gaming Headsets up for grabs, worth US$149.99 each!

All you have to do is 'like' the Facebook page, hit the "Enter Sweepstakes" button, and that's pretty much it. Invite your friends, your mom, and everyone in between. Corsair will pick five winners at random, with the winners being notified via e-mail. The contest runs until 5/21/2012, and there's only one entry per person.

Facebook acquires photo startup Lightbox
Social networking site, Facebook, in the midst of their IPO roadshow, have just acquired Lightbox. Lightbox is a predominantly Android-based photo sharing startup, which shares quite a lot with the recently-scooped-up Instagram.

Lightbox will be closed by Facebook, and the company will most likely use staff developers for Android-based development. No terms of the deal have been announced. Just after the announcement, Lightbox stopped accepting new users, with existing users having until June 15 to conclude business and download all remaining photos from the service.

Existing photos will not be transferred to Facebook, which is a bummer. Lightbox's founders are quite happy with the deal, where they've said they are:

Happy to announce that the Lightbox team is joining Facebook, where we'll have the opportunity to build amazing products for Facebook's 500+ million mobile users.

On a good note, no layoffs have been announced, nor are they expected.

The Last of Us latest trailer shows off the game's dangerous world
Naughty Dog's PlayStation 3-exclusive 'The Last of Us' is shaping up very nicely, and there's something to get excited for: the latest trailer for the game. The new trailer doesn't show any in-game footage, but rather a cinematic.

The cinematic is quite powerful, with the leads Ellie and Joel driving in a car, when they stumble across what they think is an enemy. The enemy quickly reacts, and it turns out its an ambush. They get shot at, a brick thrown at them, and finally, they push an old run-down bus at them and they crash. These are the situations the game will put you in, and I'm quite excited at the possibilities.

The graphics are top-notch, and should be pretty close to the in-game graphics, as Naughty Dog uses the in-game engine to display cinematics, ala the Uncharted series. The game is a PlayStation 3-exclusive, so PC's won't be getting The Last of Us anytime, well, ever. But you'll want to check out the trailer to this, for sure.

the_last_of_us_latest_trailer_shows_off_the_game_s_dangerous_world

Retina-powered displays on the new MacBook Pro's would add $100 to Apple's costs
We know the new Apple MacBook Pro's are coming, we know that they will sport high-resolution "Retina", or "HiDPI" displays, and should be unveiled at next month's Worldwide Developers Conference. CNET are reporting that these new high-res panels are available available in the supply chain and that they carry a premium of up to $100 over their non-Retina counterparts.

The next question is, will Apple pass this cost onto you, and I, the customer, or would they absorb the costs themselves? Considering they're rolling around in seemingly unlimited money from their uber profits, as well as cutting the optical drive out of the new MBP's, I would expect nothing else but Apple to absorb the costs. Passing them onto the customer would just seem, cheap.

DisplaySearch Senior Analyst, Richard Shim, says that the 15.4-inch Retina MBP display would rock on with a resolution of 2880x1800, which would give a density of 220 pixels per inch (ppi), and costs approximately $160. This is a $92 increase over Apple's estimated cost of $68 for the current display in the 15-inch MacBook Pro. The 13-inch MacBook Pro with a Retina display of 2560x1600 costs $134, a $65 premium over the current model's display.

Where it gets very hot around the collar (for me, mostly) is the 17-inch MacBook Pro, which would have an unbelievable 3840x2400 display, and would bring across the biggest premium over the current display. But, it's not known if the 17-inch MBP would receive the same upgrades as the 15.4- and 13-inch MBP's.

What do you think of the ridiculously high resolution displays? A 3840x2400 display on the 17-inch MBP would be simply amazing to look at.

Sony bakes Ivy Bridge into VAIO S, VAIO Z, intros new VAIO E models
Sony's business-suited notebooks, VAIO S and VAIO Z, have received Intel's latest and greatest Ivy Bridge CPUs. Sony have also outed two new VAIO E models, VAIO E Series 15 and 17 join the 14P as part of Sony's entertainment line, but unlike the smaller 14P, they won't be receiving Intel's Ivy Bridge processors.

The VAIO S will arrive in 13.5- and 15.5-inch display options, sporting backlight keyboards and either an aluminum, magnesium or carbon fiber frame, depending on the model. The 15.5-inch model will be on of the 1080p IPS-based displays, but what the smaller display is made from is still shrouded in mystery.

VAIO S 13 buyers will have a few choices to make, between Core i5 and i7 processors, while the larger display system will come with an Intel Core i7-3612QM, 8GB of RAM, an NVIDIA GT640 LE GPU as well as integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000. The 15 will sport a 1TB HDD, whilst both systems will have the option of a solid-state drive. Both systems are expected to weigh in at less than 4.4 pounds.

The VAIO Z should feature the same CPU and RAM as the S model, but with a 256GB SSD powering the storage side of things, instead of the mechanically-driven 1TB option. Other configurations will include built-in 3G/4G LTE radios, while an optional media pack will provide an optical drive, and Radeon HD 7670M graphics. These systems will get on the scales at less than 2.6 pounds, with a thickness of less than 0.7-inches.

The new entertainment models arriving with the VAIO E Series 15 and 17 will sport 15.5- and 17.3-inch displays, respectively. Both of these systems will use the second-generation Core i5-2450M processor, Radeon 7650M graphics, a 750GB HDD and the usual connectivity array. Pricing and availability are not be available.

ASUS Maximus V GENE (Intel Z77) Motherboard Review

Introduction

With another video card launch out the way it's time to get back into testing the pile of Z77 motherboards that we've been collecting for the last few months. The latest comes from ASUS and is part of the popular Republic of Gamer series or ROG as most enthusiasts know it as.

The Maximus V GENE is the first of the ROG boards to hit us and carrying the GENE tag means that it's a mATX based model. While we'd normally expect to see a larger size ATX based ROG motherboard from ASUS, the Maximus V Formula was slightly delayed and is due in the coming weeks.

As always, though, there are a few things we need to do before we look at the performance side of things. First we'll start of by checking out the package and take a closer look at the bundle to see what ASUS is offering us with the Maximus V GENE.

Once we've done that we'll move onto the board to see just how the Maximus V GENE looks before we dive into the BIOS and then of course move onto the test system side of things and also the overclocking ability of the board.

Once we've done that it's time to get into the fun stuff to see just what kind of performance we're able to get out of the board at both stock speeds and overclock before we finally wrap everything up. But let's first check out what's going on with the package here today.

Package

Looking at the box we can see we've got a fairly small one on hand thanks to the mATX style of the board. Opening up the box we also see some of the main features that are on offer and one of the big stands outs is the SurpremeFX III onboard audio solution which is powered by Sound Blaster X-Fi technology.

Along with that you can see some of the other major highlights including GameFirst via Intel Ethernet networking, LucidLogix Virtu MVP support, ROG Connect, Extreme Engine Digi+ II and the new mPCIe combo card which we'll look at in just a moment.

Moving into the package we've got a user manual, driver CD, SATA cable labels and a sign to hang of your door which looks really cool. We've also got a ROG Connect cable, six SATA cables, SLI cable, EZ Connectors and the rear I/O plate.

The big extra in the board would be the new mPCIe combo card that ASUS has included. On one side we've got an mSATA connector while the other is a mini PCIe connector that can be used for a wireless card.

Looking above you can see the mPCIe combo card with our MemoRight mSATA SSD installed. We'll take a closer look at the installation of the mPCIe combo card in the next page when we check out the board. Overall, though, it's a really nice handy extra that adds more to a small board that is normally limited by room.
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SAPPHIRE adds new overclocked HD 7770 Vapor-X model
SAPPHIRE Technology has just introduced a new model in the successful HD 7000 series. The SAPPHIRE HD 7770 Vapor-X OC Edition is the first card based on the revolutionary new graphics GCN (Graphics Core Next) architecture from AMD to feature the SAPPHIRE exclusive and world acclaimed Vapor-X* cooling technology.

The SAPPHIRE HD 7770 Vapor-X OC Edition is the first card in this generation to use the SAPPHIRE exclusive implementation of Vapor chamber cooling technology. Previous products with Vapor-X have received world wide acclaim for delivering very efficient cooling that allows the card to run at higher speeds but with very low noise levels. Based on the latest GPU technology from AMD, the SAPPHIRE HD 7770 Vapor-X OC Edition has 1GB of the latest DDR5 memory, and is factory overclocked with core clocks of 1100MHz and memory clocks of 1300MHz (5.2 GB/s effective) to deliver excellent performance.

Working or gaming with multiple monitors is becoming increasingly popular, and the SAPPHIRE HD 7700 series supports this with AMD Eyefinity, now in its second generation. The SAPPHIRE HD 7770 Vapor-X OC Edition has two DVI ports (DVI-I and DVI-D), HDMI and a single DisplayPort output, supporting up to four monitors. In addition, the SAPPHIRE HD 7700 series cards can output multiple, independent audio streams allowing the correct audio content to be associated with different applications on different screens.

HDMI specifications have increased in the HD 7000 series. Fast HDMI 1.4a supports Stereoscopic 3D with enhanced frame rates of 60Hz per eye - 120Hz total. It is also ready for the next generation of 4K displays that can be driven from a single high speed input of 3GHz HDMI 1.4a or DisplayPort 1.2 HBR2.

APP Acceleration is the name given to the enhanced performance of a wide range of applications using the stream processing capabilities and specific hardware features of the graphics architecture. The HD 7000 series has been optimised for this type of task. Typical applications include Video encoding and decoding, compression and multiplexing for media distribution, gaming or video conferencing. APP acceleration can also enhance everyday tasks such as Internet browsing, Office applications and file compression with supported software suites.

The HD 7000 series is the third generation of DirectX 11 compatible solutions from the graphics division of AMD - formerly ATI. The new SAPPHIRE HD 7700 series is ready for DirectX 11.1 and the new Windows 8 operating system as well as delivering all the features of the current DirectX 11 such as DirectCompute11 and multi threaded communications with the CPU. Communication with the host PC is optimised with the implementation of the latest high speed PCI-Express Gen3.0 interface, and multiple cards can be used to further enhance performance in CrossFireX mode on a suitably specified mainboard.

AVADirect Releases AMD HD 7970M For Gaming Notebooks
AVADirect, a leading custom computer integrator, has begun offering the AMD HD 7970 mobile graphics card for sale on their website. AVADirect is one of the first outlets to offer the AMD HD 7970M in Clevo P150EM and P170EM gaming notebook models. AVADirect has already begun taking pre-orders and plans to ship out the notebooks with dedicated AMD HD 7970M graphics cards to expecting customers within 2-3 weeks.

As mobile graphics cards continue to shape the way gamers look at mobile solutions, such as NVIDIA's mobile GTX 670 and 675 graphics cards, AMD closely follows with the HD 7970 mobile graphics card solution. As it appears, from data previously leaked and officially released by AMD, the HD 7970 provides a considerable amount of performance over an NVIDIA GTX 580M SLI setup; this is an unbelievable increase in performance, especially with the 7970M being $120+ more expensive than a single GTX 675M. Cost to performance ratio is exactly where an enthusiast wants, and makes it easy to consider over current mobile NVIDIA solutions. Specifications for the AMD HD 7970M can be seen below.

AVADirect will update its mobile offerings with the AMD HD 7970M as it becomes available in newly released models. To purchase a notebook featuring the ATI HD 7970M visit this page.

Dell Introduces the First Multi-User 2U Rack Workstation for Virtualized 3D Workloads
Dell announced today it is expanding its client virtualization solutions with the introduction of the first virtualized 2U rack workstation enabling up to four concurrent professional graphics users to work from a single workstation from virtually anywhere. The Dell Precision R5500 rack workstation is the first four-GPU (graphics processing unit) configuration to be certified by Citrix with GPU pass-through on Citrix XenServer 6 using Citrix XenDesktop HDX 3D Pro, and brings additional security, IT resource optimization and end user flexibility to high performance workloads. This new usage model is designed for customers running 3D workloads in the engineering, medical, media and entertainment, scientific, software development and economic and finance market segments looking to support additional users on a single workstation.

Additional benefits of a virtualized rack workstation include the ability to centralize, secure and manage data, leverage worldwide talent pool, share resources for improved cost effectiveness and run performance critical applications that require the host system and data to be in close proximity. Users can connect to the powerful, dependable and manageable Dell Precision R5500 via Dell and non-Dell computing devices including thin clients, laptops, desktops or other mobile devices that have a loaded Citrix Receiver.

"The Dell Precision R5500 offers the highest user density available on a XenServer certified platform for XenDesktop HDX 3D Pro, with four concurrent users per host," said Derek Thorslund, director of product management, HDX technology at Citrix. "This makes it a very attractive option for customers looking to deliver high-end 3D professional graphics while keeping their intellectual property safe in the data center."

Citrix XenServer with HDX 3D Pro enables the virtualized workstation environment with a dedicated discrete graphics card per user or virtual machine. The dedicated graphics provides the user with full access to the graphics card in a virtualized environment. Users can configure their Dell Precision R5500 with up to four NVIDIA Quadro 2000 mid-range graphics cards, with other high-end NVIDIA Quadro graphics cards available soon. Dell's 2U rack workstation offers industry standard bus slots with options of up to five full-height and full-length PCIe slots, and industry standard graphics and GPU compute cards including the newest NVIDIA Quadro and NVIDIA Tesla solutions.

"This new rack workstation configuration from Dell provides designers and engineers with a unique virtualized desktop performance option," said Jeff Brown, general manager, Professional Solutions Group, NVIDIA. "Dell's R5500 powered by NVIDIA Quadro GPUs gives these users an opportunity to experience the full power of high-end OpenGL, Direct X and CUDA applications in a small form-factor, virtualized desktop environment."

In addition to high-end graphics support, the R5500 provides the full scalability and powerful performance of Dell's high-end tower workstations in a 2U form factor. It is purpose-engineered for professionals who run compute and graphics intensive workloads and require extreme performance with remote capability. It offers high-performance Intel Xeon processors with memory capacity of up to 192GB¹ and dual-wide GPU slots that scale up to 450 watts, up to six 2.5-inch SAS HDDs or five SATA HDDs.

"We are working closely with Citrix and NVIDIA to enable new usage models to address the needs of our workstation customers," said Efrain Rovira, executive director of Dell Precision workstations. "This industry first four-GPU XenServer certification delivers increased productivity and flexibility to our customers, and it adds to the list of innovations we've introduced to the workstation industry."

Availability

Citrix XenServer with GPU pass-through is available worldwide through Citrix and Dell S&P. The starting price for the Dell Precision R5500 is $2,742 USD.

Point of View Launches Custom OC GeForce GTX 680 EXO
Point of View - premier NVIDIA graphics partner - and manufacturer of Android tablets, notebooks and other hardware, launches today the factory overclocked POV GeForce GTX 680 EXO.

While the GeForce GTX 680 is already good for massive performance it's never a bad thing to get the max out of your graphics card. The POV GeForce GTX 680 EXO runs over 10% faster on the base clock compared to the standard version. However, it's important to know that the NVIDIA GPU Boost technology will crank up GPU Boost clock according to your needs. When loading up a heavy game, the card will over-overclock itself to an impressive speed of 1176 MHz! See the specs chart below for the further specifications.

While the stock cooling solution performs excellent we have decided to do some efforts to improve the temperature and bring down the noise level. For the cooling solution of the GeForce GTX 680 EXO we have again decided to team up with Arctic Cooling - known for their silent and great performing coolers.

The result is a custom triple fan cooling setup with a huge performance increase! Also the backside of the card has been tweaked with an aluminum back plate to allow a better heat dissipation. The full card is slightly thicker than 2-slots and this beast of a graphics card is ready to show you what maximum performance really feels like.

This top-of-the-line graphics card is the best choice for all who want nothing but the best performance! The GeForce GTX 680 EXO by Point of View has excellent availability throughout stores in Europe as from today. Contact your POV retailer for more information or visit the "Where to Buy" section of our website.

NVIDIA Tesla K10 GPU Accelerates Search For Oil And Gas Reserves, Signal And Image Processing For Defense Industry
GPU Technology Conference -- NVIDIA today announced availability of the NVIDIA® Tesla® K10 GPU accelerator, designed to address the most difficult challenges in two high-performance computing (HPC) markets: seismic data processing in oil and gas exploration, and signal and image processing in the defense industry.

The Tesla K10 is based on the new NVIDIA Kepler computing architecture, the fastest, most efficient, highest-performance computing architecture ever built.

The Kepler architecture enables two high-performance Tesla K10 GPUs to be placed on a single accelerator board. Delivering an aggregate performance of 4.58 teraflops of single-precision floating point and 320 gigabytes per second memory bandwidth, the Tesla K10 is the world's highest throughput GPU accelerator.

The Tesla K10 GPU was introduced at the GPU Technology Conference (GTC), as part of a series of announcements from NVIDIA, all of which can be accessed in the GTC online press room.

Seismic Data Processing -- Oil and Gas
Seismic processing uses large data centers to crunch through petabytes of information about the Earth's subsurface area, generated from reflected seismic waves. Geophysicists analyze the resulting 2D and 3D images to discover oil and gas deposits, and to determine the best and safest locations to drill.

NVIDIA GPUs improve the accuracy of seismic processing by enabling the use of more detailed, computationally intensive seismic processing software algorithms such as reverse time migration, full waveform inversion and Kirchoff time / depth migration.

Leading seismic processing companies -- including Schlumberger, CGGVeritas, and TGS -- and oil and gas companies -- such as Chevron, Petrobras, Total, ENI, Repsol and Saudi Aramco -- are using GPUs to dramatically increase their success rate in the identification of new reserves. By generating higher-quality images in a more affordable and timely fashion, GPUs give these companies a much greater degree of accuracy and confidence in drilling decisions.

"The Tesla K10 is simply amazing," said Paulo Souza, developer in the Geophysical Technology Group at Petrobras RTM. "My seismic application is 1.8x faster on the K10, compared with the Tesla M2090 GPU within the same power envelope. This transformational technology will dramatically accelerate our ability to find and safely reach new oil and gas reserves, as 90 percent of our computational power comes from the GPUs."

Signal and Image Processing -- Defense
The NVIDIA Tesla K10 GPU can help agencies increase national security by improving the quality, and speeding the delivery of, actionable video analytics and image forensics to security and law-enforcement officials. GPUs speed up by as much as 100x the process of analyzing thousands of video feeds generated by security cameras and drones, enabling analysts to better identify events and individuals of interest.

"The massive amount of video data being generated from security cameras and UAVs presents a 'new big data' problem for the defense industry," said Yiannis Antoniades, director of ISR Technology at BAE Systems. "We now have broad access to robust, high-quality video, but often we cannot analyze it quickly enough to generate actionable intelligence. GPUs are being used to accelerate nearly every aspect of video analytics, from video stabilization to orthorectification, enabling us to provide real, valuable data to the field quicker than ever before."

Availability
The new NVIDIA Tesla K10 GPU Computing Accelerator is available beginning this month from leading OEMs, including Appro Supercomputer Solutions, Dell, HP, IBM, SGI and Supermicro, as well as through NVIDIA distribution partners. More information about the Tesla K10 is available on the NVIDIA Tesla website.

Available Tags:Wireless , Gaming , Facebook , MacBook , Ivy Bridge , Sony , VAIO , VAIO , VAIO , ASUS , SAPPHIRE , AMD , Dell , 3D , GeForce , GTX , NVIDIA , GPU ,

Friday, May 18, 2012

IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 18/05/2012

Introduction

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