IT-Code-News: IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 9/11/2013

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 9/11/2013

TweakTown

We should expect Haswell-powered Chromebooks at IDF 2013
The Intel Developer Forum kicks off later today, where we should expect some Haswell-powered Chromebooks unveiled. Intel's general manager of software and devices, Doug Fisher, will reportedly unveil the new Chromebooks during his keynote.

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PCWorld also notes that there should be a Google exec that will join him to discuss the optimization of Android and Chrome for Intel processors. We should expect new OEMs to make the Haswell-powered Chromebooks, as well as the usual Google, HP, Lenovo, Acer and Samsung. Chromebooks could become a big item in the future considering they start at $199.
I'm hoping we see a new high-end Chromebook unveiled, that will include a powerful Haswell processor and the gorgeous high-resolution display. Right now, the 12.85-inch 2560x1700-pixel display on the Chromebook Pixel is hard to beat, but let's hope Google unveil something bigger and better. I wouldn't mind a Chromebook that could run Windows too, that would scream 'shut up and take my money.'

PlayStation 4 launches in Japan on February 22 with 19 launch games
The PlayStation 4 launches on November 15 for the US and on November 29 for Europe, but in its home country of Japan it won't be launching until February 22. Pre-orders will open up for Japan on October 5.

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Sony will make the console available for ¥39,980 ($401) with a special "Limited Pack" run of consoles which will include the PS4, controller, download voucher for Knack and one-year warranty for the same price as the stock PS4. All Japan PS4s will include a free copy of Knack, and a $442 package will be made available which will include the PS4 Eye Camera.
There will be 19 launch titles for the PS4 in Japan, which include:

Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag
Killzone Shadow Fall
Doki Doki Universe
Driveclub
Knack
Need for Speed: Rivals
Battlefield 4
FIFA 14
Hohokum
Resogun
Infamous Second Son
Wolfenstein: The New Order
The Evil Within
Thief
Dying Light
Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Watch Dogs
Kingdom Hearts 3
The Crew
The Order: 1886
Final Fantasy 15
Phantom Breaker
Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain

Battlefield 4 PC system requirements aren't harsh at all
The next-gen consoles are nearly here, with most people thinking that the minimum requirements on PC games were going to go through the roof: think again. DICE and EA have just released the system requirements for Battlefield 4, which aren't too bad at all:

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Minimum:

OS: Windows Vista SP2 32-bit (with KB971512 Platform Update)
Processor: AMD Athlon X2 2.8 GHz or Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz
Memory: 4 GB
Graphics Card: AMD Radeon HD 3870 or NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT
Graphics Memory: 512 MB
Hard Drive: 30 GB

Recommended:

OS: Windows 8 64-bit
Processor: AMD six-core CPU or Intel quad-core CPU
Memory: 8 GB
Graphics Card: AMD Radeon HD 7870 or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660
Graphics Memory: 3 GB
Hard Drive: 30 GB

Tackling the minimum requirements, which requires a very weak CPU in today's terms, and a relatively basic GPU. The recommended specs aren't that much higher, but it would look much better with a faster, more capable GPU. The weird thing here is that EA and DICE are actually recommending Windows 8 as a recommended requirement - what the?

What to expect from Apple's big iPhone event today
The new iPhone should be unveiled today, with Apple unleashing the iPhone 5S to the world, but what should we expect? Between the iPhone 5 being released and today, we've seen some truly amazing smartphones released, with pretty much all of them being based from Google's mobile OS, Android.

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What can Apple do to get customers back? They can't just unleash the iPhone 5S with the same 4-inch screen and not-even-HD 1136x640 display, can they? Well, I think they can. We should expect Apple to not shift from the 4-inch 1136x640 display from the iPhone 5... which is a disappointment. What will we see? I think we'll see an evolution of the iPhone, not a revolution, which is something we should be used to from the 'S' release of an iPhone, and from Apple as a company.
We should see the iPhone 5S feature the A7 processor, which should provide some more performance and hopefully improved battery life, which is something most people complain about on the iPhone 5. The fingerprint sensor is something I don't think we'll see - but is something we've heard quite a bit on lately. iOS 7 will most likely be the second biggest change to the iPhone 5S from the iPhone 5, but is that worth your money? Probably not.
What could they do to surprise me, and everyone else waiting with anticipation? Offer different sized iPhones for one. Why can't Apple do a Samsung and release multiple sizes within the iPhone family like Samsung has done with the Galaxy range of smartphones? Can't we have the iPhone 5S in 4-, 4.5- and 4.8-inch for example? If Apple released the three sizes of smartphones with a much-needed Full HD 1920x1080 display, everything would scale up, and down without an issue.
Apple needs to do something tomorrow, and it can't just be to release a slightly faster, slightly refreshed iPhone 5. Now is not the time to be playing around, as the future of Apple is riding on this smartphone release. If we don't get a big jump now, they're going to lose millions of customers who will just jump to the countless Samsung smartphones, while the rest of them wait for the iPhone 6.
Is Apple preparing something big for the iPhone 6? I would think so, but I would also think it would release a truly revolutionary, magical product with the release of the biggest change to the iPhone yet: iOS. iOS 7 is a much, much-needed change for the company, but I would've thought we'd be greeted with a truly revolutionary piece of hardware that would be in my hands at the time... maybe not.
We'll hear more about the iPhone 5S in the coming hours and days, where you'll see a slew of news posts on the new smartphone from Apple here on TweakTown.

SK Hynix fire not as bad as first thought, one plant re-opened
If you didn't tune in to our first Podcast, you might want to check that out here, where we had Jim Handy from Objective Analysis on the show talking with us about the SK Hynix factory fires.

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SK Hynix provided an update today, where it has said that the fab that was damaged by the fire is still being evaluated, but the second fab has been re-opened. The company said in a statement: "Our plan is to resume normal operations with full production capacity in the shortest time by ramping up operations in stages as soon as the damaged facilities are replaced."
Handy says that this seems to contradict earlier reports from the company, where it said it would see operations resumed quickly so that production volume wouldn't be impacted in the long-term. SK Hynix has said that it has inventory in Korea, where they said: "We will continue to make every effort to minimize the impact on supply with our inventories of finished products and completely processed wafers as well as production support from our headquarters."
We will continue to bring you news about the Hynix factory fire, thanks to our great resource Jim Handy at Objective Analysis.

Germany looks for NSA spy equipment at US consulate
Germany has really been pushing against the United States after the NSA revelations from whistleblower and NSA analyst Edward Snowden. The country has pissed the Americans off by sending a helicopter to look for listening posts at the US consulate in Frankfurt, Germany.

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The helicopter flew over the consulate twice, hovering just 60m above the building itself, where German staff took high resolution photos of potential surveillance equipment on the roof. They didn't find any listening posts on its August 28 flight, but Spiegel magazine definitely had something to say: "The message to the American friends was meant to be: 'Stop. Germany strikes back!"
Personally, I don't know what the German's were thinking - it's the NSA, they wouldn't just have an iPhone on top of the US consulate listening in on conversations. They'd have terminals within the consulate hacked, or microphones underneath or behind items within the consulate itself.

HTC continues to slide, August revenues don't impress
HTC has been on the downward spiral for quite sometime now, but its latest revenue report for August is quiet disappointing. Even with the HTC One smartphone being a success, the company only made $443.3 million, which is 16% lower than July's numbers.

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Even worse, it's the worst they've seen in six months with HTCSource.com reporting that August's numbers are 45% lower than it was at the same time last year. The problem now is bringing the numbers up going into September, which would require a 60% increase in sales which simply isn't going to happen. Do you think HTC will make it until 2014? I see the company being acquired by a bigger player such as Google, rolling it into its Motorola business.

Carl Icahn retreats from Dell takeover battle, says he is done
Carl Icahn has called it quits and given up his fight to take control of Dell Computers. Icahn announced his intent to cease his fight to take over control of Dell in a newsletter he sent out to shareholders earlier today. This leaves the door wide open for Dell CEO Michael Dell to finally take the company private after 14 long months of Icahn's blockade.

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Michael Dell, along with private equity firm Silver Lake, will come together to purchase all outstanding shares of the company for $25 billion in an effort to take it private. Dell has agreed to pay $13.75 per share, issuing a one-time dividend to shareholders in exchange for a modification to the way votes are tallied. This new method will ensure that only votes that are actually submitted will count towards the final tally, thus giving Dell and Silver Lake control of the company.

LeakedTT: Xbox One Dashboard footage spotted in the wild
Earlier today, leaked footage of the upcoming Xbox One's Dashboard surfaced. This is a first look that we've had of the console's finalized UI since it was announced months ago. In the video below, you'll see a very Windows 8-esque interface with Live Tiles everywhere. This makes sense since the system runs a modified version of Windows 8.

While we've seen all of this before, seeing it on an actual console away from the confines of a scripted Microsoft event shows us how well it truly operates. Everything appears to flow smoothly and I have to be honest, the user interface looks much nicer than I ever expected. Additionally, the video shows off a very brief demo of RYSE: Son of Rome. Microsoft will launch the Xbox One on November 22, and it will retail for $499.

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Intel launches its Intel SSD Professional Family of SSDs
Just when you thought the storage world was going a little quiet, Intel has come to the table and thrown everything on the ground to announce its new Intel Solid-State Drive Professional Family, which includes the Intel Solid-State Drive Pro 1500 Series.

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The new drives are geared toward business-class clients, and are engineered specifically for "easy IT deployment and secure manageability, and offer a lower total cost of ownership (TCO) with enhanced performance." The Intel SSD Pro 1500 Series has some nifty features, where it can protect your data from unauthorized access with its enterprise-grade security features.
These security features include hardware-based 256-bit AES encryption and industry-standard Opal key management protocols. Intel has designed the new Intel SSD Pro 1500 Series SSDs to work with its Haswell-based fourth-generation Core processors with Intel vPro technology.
Rob Crooke, Intel corporate vice president and general manager for the Intel Non-Volatile Memory Solutions Group says: "The modern business employee is increasingly mobile and works in multiple environments. The Intel SSD Pro 1500 Series ensures employees have the flexibility, battery life and performance they need, while IT has the assurance data is secure and the device can be managed remotely. Tight integration with Intel vPro technology means we are able to deliver a complete solution for corporate business users."

Newegg wins another battle against patent troll Erich Spangenberg
Today, Newegg announced that it has won yet another battle in its ongoing fight against the notorious "patent trolls" Soverain Software and TQP Development. Newegg says that on September 4, 2013, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals invalidated an additional claim made by Soverian Software LLC on its "Shopping Cart" patent.

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Additionally, the court denied Soverain's request for a rehearing of the initial January 22, 2013 decision that invalidated the balance of the asserted claims. As a result of this decision, Newegg says that all patent claims asserted by Soverain have been held invalid for being no more than obvious variations of old patents held by CompuServe technology.
Newegg says that it is looking forward to going to trial later this year against TQP Development LLC, a shell company affiliated with the notorious patent troll Erich Spangenberg. Newegg says that it hopes that Spangenberg will allow the patent to be tested by the court system this time around and feels that it will be the end to the "shopping cart" patent for good.
"We have been vindicating our rights against advantage takers who assert bad patents or assert patents abusively since 2006. The smart plaintiff's lawyers and trolls are avoiding us-they unfortunately have far too many other companies to victimize. I hope that Mr. Spangenberg will have the guts to take the TQP case to trial, so we can challenge his unfair business model at trial and if necessary, through appeal. We want to do whatever is necessary to make binding legal precedent at the highest possible levels of the judiciary to end the ridiculous tax on society imposed by legal advantage takers," said Lee Cheng, Newegg's Chief Legal Officer, adding, "For that matter, I hope that Soverain 'Software' tries to appeal the recent Federal Circuit ruling to the US Supreme Court. Please, please, please."

Magma set to showcase new Thunderbolt PCIe expansion chassis at IDF
IDF 2013 - Today, Magma announced that it will showcase its PCI Express Thunderbolt Expansion Chassis at the 2013 Intel Developer Forum, which begins tomorrow in San Francisco, California. Magma will be demonstrating its Express Box 1T and Express Box 3T at the company's booth (#182) at the Moscone Center from September 10-12.

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"Magma is honored to be invited to this year's IDF," said Tim Miller, president of Magma. "Our technology is a market leader. Our technology is a platform for Thunderbolt equipped devices and participating in IDF presents an opportunity to continue to expand the awareness of Thunderbolt by OEMs and consumers alike."

Magma develops and manufactures PCI & PCI Express Expansion Systems for servers, desktops and portable platforms. Magma's ExpressBox™ line of products includes enclosed and non-enclosed solutions ranging from low-end single slot expansion products to fault-tolerant, highly reliable, available and serviceable (RAS) chassis specifically designed for mission critical environments.

Amazon confirms no smartphone for free or smartphone at all for 2013
Last night, we posted a rumor that said that Amazon was preparing to offer its own smartphone for free with no contract tying you to a service plan. Unfortunately, VentureBeat has discovered an official statement from Amazon that states otherwise.

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In an interview with Jessica Lessin, a former Wall Street Journal reporter, an Amazon spokesman said that it will not be launching a free smartphone this year and it has no plans to launch a smartphone at all during 2013. This last part of the statement is quite intriguing as Amazon did not deny that it would one day launch a smartphone. What do you think? Would you purchase a smartphone that ran a version of Amazon's mobile OS similar to what runs on the Kindle Fire HD?

EVGA launches new Hadron mini-ITX chassis, supports large hardware
Earlier today, EVGA announced the launch of its newest mini-ITX chassis, the Hadron Air. Measuring in at a mere 12 inches tall by 6 inches wide, the Hadron Air is one of the smallest enthusiast grade mini-ITX chassis that I have ever seen.

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EVGA says that although the Hadron Air chassis encompasses a small footprint, it packs a serious punch by providing enough room for two 3.5-inch HDDs or 2.5-inch SSDs and supporting graphics cards up to 267mm in length. An integrated Gold-Rated 500W PSU features 40A on the 12V rail, giving it enough power to handle whatever you can throw at it.

Additionally, EVGA has released a second configuration of the Hadron chassis that is designed to support liquid cooling. The Hadron Hydro is just a little bit taller than the Hadron Air to allow room for a liquid cooling radiator and supporting hardware. No information on pricing or availability was given at the time of release.

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Leica unveils the new "C" compact camera, features a real viewfinder
Today, Leica unveiled its new high-end, premium compact camera simply named "C." The camera features a 12-megapixel 1/1.7-inch CMOS sensor along with integrated Wi-Fi and NFC. A 3-inch TFT LCD is located on the back of the device for quick viewing of recently taken shots.

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While it does have an LCD, Leica had enough forethought to include a viewfinder even though it is itself LCD-based. The C features an equivalent focal length of 28-200mm with an maximum aperture range of f/2.0 to f/5.9. The camera features several autofocus modes, including contrast detect, multi-area, face detection and a Live View mode.

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Leica's new C has an ISO range of 80 all the way up to 12,800 and even features an auto mode that will set the ISO based on lighting conditions. The camera is able to shoot in JPEG, RAW, and MPO formats and includes optical image stabilization. The camera can also capture an impressive full HD 1920x1080@60FPS video in MPEG-4 and AVCHD formats with Stereo Sound.
Available in "light gold" and "dark red trim," the new camera comes packaged with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and will feature a range of matching accessories including a case, pouch, and wrist strap, which will be available for purchase separately . The Leica C will be available mid-September and will retail for approximately $862 at major camera retailers everywhere.

Microsoft releases Xbox Music apps for Android and iOS devices
Today, Microsoft announced that it has released the long-awaited Android and iOS apps for its Xbox Music service. Additionally, the company announced that the apps now feature extended free music streaming, which had previously been exclusive to Windows 8/RT. Much like Spotify, Rdio, and other streaming services, Xbox Music uses your device's Wi-Fi or data plan to stream songs of your choosing to your device.

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Unlike Spotify, unfortunately, Xbox Music for Mobile does not yet support off-line playback, but it does, however, come with six months of free streaming, and after those six months are up, users are limited to how much they can stream without purchasing a subscription. Additionally, this free streaming comes to the Xbox Music for the Web, which allows Windows 7 and Vista users to listen to music through the Xbox Music service.

SpaceTT: Saturn, Venus and the Moon to appear side by side tonight
Tonight will be one of the last nights that you will be able to catch a trio of heavenly bodies hanging out in the night sky in the same neighborhood. This evening's sky watchers in the northern hemisphere will be treated to Saturn, Venus, and the Crescent Moon all within a few degrees of each other.

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Tonight around 45 minutes after sunset, you will be able to look toward the southwestern sky and see the waxing crescent moon. To the lower right, you will see a very bright star which is actually the planet Venus. Above Venus, you will see another brightly lit star that will actually be the planet Saturn. The distance between the moon and Saturn will be roughly 5 degrees, which is equal to about half your fist or 3 fingers held at arm's length.

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This will also be one of the last spectacular shows Saturn provides us for the year, because in just a few weeks, it will have dipped below the horizon and become visible to those in the southern hemisphere. For those of you with medium power binoculars or a telescope of at least 30-power, you would be able to view Saturn's rings tonight, even with it so close to the moon. I plan on taking out my telescope and imaging gear and getting a couple nice still shots of the trio. If you get any good shots, post them up in the comments and I will share them on our TweakTown Facebook Page.
Images are courtesy of Sky & Telescope and Samuel J. Hartman.

Facebook looks to take on LinkedIn with new "Professional Skills" tab
It appears that Facebook is going to jump into the professional social networking ring and go head-to-head with LinkedIn. A new report is showing off a new section that Facebook is said to be testing called the "Professional Skills" tab. Much like LinkedIn, it would allow users to list out their professional skill sets.

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Unlike LinkedIn, however, when clicking on a person's professional skill, it will not take you to a page showing who endorsed you for that skill, but rather to other professionals who claim to possess the same skill. Additionally, the new professional skills tab will only allow you to add skills that have existing Facebook pages. This can be confusing as a quick search shows that skills such as "marketing" have several different pages created by the community.

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Facebook has not announced a launch date for this feature, nor has any information on a beta program been released, but we expect some kind of announcement soon. With Facebook adding job-search features and other professional-style searches, users may want to rethink the content they post on the service or at least adjust their privacy settings to only display content they wish the public to see.

CyberPower launches new ZeusBook Ultimate Series notebooks
Today, CyberPower PC announced the debut of the ZeusBook Ultimate Series, a new laptop that is said to be the world's slimmest 17-inch gaming notebook. CyberPower says that the ZeusBook Ultimate measures in at under an inch thick and weighs less than six pounds total, which makes it not only slimmer, but also much lighter than similarly powered gaming notebooks on the market.

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Offered in two different models, the ZeusBook Ultimate series features the latest NVIDIA GeForce GTX 765M graphics card and Intel's i7-4700HQ Haswell CPU clocked at 2.4GHz. 8GB of RAM is present alongside a 17.3-inch 1920x1080 LED display. CyberPower has really stepped up the network connectivity by installing an E200 KILLER NIC and a Wireless N 1202 Wi-Fi adapter, which will ensure fast and reliable connectivity during gaming and general use.

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The ZeusBook Ultimate comes with Windows 8 64-bit pre-installed and has the ability to connect with three external monitors for a truly immersive HD gaming experience. The laptop is capable of supporting Super HD resolutions up to 3840x2160, which is four-times the resolution of a standard Full HD display. CyberPower has also managed to pack in some very impressive audio hardware into the ZeusBook Ultimate with the inclusion of HD Surround Sound speakers and a built-in subwoofer.
Additionally, the ZeusBook Ultra features a full-sized gaming keyboard with built-in anti-ghosting technology. The keyboard is fully RGB LED backlit, which can be tuned to literally hundreds of thousands of color combinations. The keyboard features five preset configurations, which allow gamers to fine tune the keyboard for each of their favorite games. The ZeusBook Ultimate 100 features a 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3 HDD and retails for $1429 and the ZeusBook Ultimate 200 features a 60GB Intel 525 mSATSA SSD and a 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3 HDD and will set you back $1535.

WD expands enterprise flash storage portfolio by acquiring Virident
Today, Western Digital announced that it has acquired Virident Systems, a key player in the enterprise flash storage industry. The announcement says that the two companies have entered into a definitive merger agreement where Virident will be acquired by HSGT, a subsidiary owned by Western Digital.

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"We have established a competitive position in the enterprise SSD space and with our recently announced acquisitions we are increasing our commitment to become an even more significant player in this high growth segment," said Steve Milligan, president and chief executive officer, Western Digital. "Virident has a proven leadership team and a culture of innovation. Its combination of great people, leading products and advanced technology will enhance our increasingly strategic position in enterprise storage."
Western Digital has reportedly paid approximately $685 million in cash for Virident, of which $645 million represents the enterprise value of Virident. Western Digital says that Virident CEO Mike Gustafson will join HGST as a senior vice president and will head up the Virident team under HSGT President Mike Cordano.
"The Virident acquisition is a continuation of HGST's strategy to address customers' rapidly changing storage needs by delivering intelligent storage devices that tightly integrate hardware and software to maximize solution performance," said Cordano. "Virident's server-side flash storage helps datacenter customers solve their most significant data infrastructure challenges, including application performance across diverse workloads, power efficiency, and total cost of ownership. We welcome the Virident team to HGST and look forward to further accelerating their momentum."

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"The Virident vision is centered on leading the flash platform transformation. This includes advancing adoption of server-side flash storage, software and solutions in next-generation datacenters. Bringing technology leadership and substantial business advantage to customers is our mission and drives our team every day," said Gustafson. "I want to recognize and thank our employees and founders for the combination of vision and execution. We are excited to join HGST and accelerate the growth of our business, partnerships and value."

OCZ shows NVMe SSD at 2013 HPC for Wall Street
Today at the world's largest High Performance Computing (HPC) event located at the world renowned Roosevelt Hotel in New York City, OCZ will unveil the Aeon Series 3.5-inch SSD. The Aeon series SSD is based on the Non-Volatile Memory (NVMe) specification and is targeted to meet stringent requirements of latency sensitive applications currently hindered by legacy HDD infrastructure. OCZ, with the Aeon Series, puts an emphasis on superior Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and increasing performance for financial industry datacenters.

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Unveiling the latest Aeon Series at the HPC for Wall Street show provides IT professional's valuable insight into leveraging new technologies to maximize their company's productivity and streamline their storage footprint.

Designed for demanding transactional environments such as high-frequency trading, Aeon delivers the speed and low latency read and writes of DRAM with the persistence and scalability of storage. It reduces file system overhead in enterprise appliances while accelerating applications and improving overall I/O efficiency, along with providing unlimited endurance supporting an infinite number of drive writes per day without wearing out or slowing down.

LeakedTT: NVIDIA's Tegra TAB gets detailed as it stops by the FCC
We've been hearing a lot of rumors and seeing a lot of leaks about NVIDIA's upcoming Tegra TAB Android-based tablet, but this morning it appears that we're finally getting some solid info on the upcoming device. During a recent visit to the FCC, some interesting information popped up.

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It appears that the Tegra TAB name has been confirmed and that the device will in fact feature a Tegra 4 processor. The exact model of the processor is still unknown, but we do know that the Tegra TAB will feature a 7-inch, 1280x800-pixel IPS display. A front "HD" camera of unknown pixel density will be featured alongside a five-megapixel rear-shooter.

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Battery capacity is said to be as large as 4,100mAh. The manual included in the filing reveals what appears to be a stock-looking version of Android Jelly Bean. One of the most interesting new features to pop up, however, is the inclusion of a stylus that appears to function much like Samsung's S-Pen. There are still no details of pricing or availability, and we're still not sure if NVIDIA will retail the device themselves or if they will license the design to OEMs such as ASUS, ACER, or Toshiba. Head over to the FCC source below for all of the manuals, images, and other information that is available in the recent filing.

SteelSeries releases two new gaming headsets, the new 5Hv3 and 3Hv2
Earlier this morning, SteelSeries released two new devices to its massively popular H-series of gaming headsets. The 5Hv3 and 3Hv2 are designed to deliver tournament-grade audio while remaining affordable to everyone in the gaming community.

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The SteelSeries 5Hv2 was undoubtedly one of the most popular gaming headsets in the professional gaming arena, and the newly released 5Hv3 update makes everyone's favorite headset even better. SteelSeries says that the new 5Hv3 features the latest high-end audio drivers from SteelSeries and a custom-engineered soundscape to bring you the highest level of audio quality possible. The new headset features a large microphone that retracts into the headset for convenient storage when not in use. Additionally, new ear cups have been designed with comfort in mind.

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Up next is the SteelSeries 3Hv2, a budget-friendly headset that has been created for gamers who are looking to experience what SteelSeries has to offer without breaking the bank. The new headset features a compact, affordable design, which makes it the ideal solution for travel, and includes a unique adapter that allows the headset to function with PC, Mac, tablets, and smartphones. The 3Hv2 features next-generation audio drivers, extra padded leather ear cups, and a retractable microphone. The 5Hv3 and 3Hv2 are available for purchase now at electronics retailers everywhere and retail for $79.99 and $39.99, respectively.

Futuremark releases new 3DMark for iOS benchmarking app for free
Today, Futuremark announced the release of its 3DMark benchmarking application for iOS. The new app comes a few months after the release of 3DMark for Android and allows both mobile operating systems to run "unlimited" benchmark tests on any Android or iOS device and compare devices across operating systems.

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Futuremark says that the new iOS addition of 3DMark includes everything you would need to accurately benchmark the performance of the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Users can directly compare 3DMark scores to other devices running iOS, Android, Windows, and even Windows RT, once the RT version is released, of course. The company says that testers will now be ready to benchmark and compare any new devices that Apple may release tomorrow during its press conference.

Futuremark has added a new test to 3DMark specifically designed for making chip-to-chip comparisons across mobile devices and operating systems dubbed 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited. This new test can be added to the Android edition of the app by updating to the latest version. Additionally, Futuremark has built a mobile hardware database of all of these scores from the most popular smartphones and tablets that have been benchmarked using the 3DMark application. Check out the sources listed below for both download links as well as a link to the 3DMark mobile hardware database.

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Amazon's Kindle for iOS app gets mandatory update ahead of iOS 7
This morning, Amazon announced that it has released a "mandatory" update to its Kindle app on iOS. Kindle users on iOS received the notification informing them that failure to update the app to the latest version could cause the loss of books and account registration when upgrading to Apple's new iOS 7 mobile operating system.

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It is widely expected that iOS 7 will be released tomorrow during Apple's launch event, at which it will also debut the new iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C, of which both devices are said to be running iOS7 out of the box. There is no explanation as to why books may be lost without the update, but since it's free and only takes a few minutes, upgrading to the new version should not be an issue for any user.
The warning notification users received is below:

This is a fix for a Kindle issue with the upcoming iOS7 OS upgrade that may cause customers to have to re-register and re-download books from Amazon. Please download and install - this is a required update before upgrading to iOS7.

PQI i-Mont 16GB Pico USB 3.0 Flash Drive Review

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Ultra small flash drives are all the rage at this point, with PQI's initial offering, the Tiffany being a luxury offering in this market. PQI is now back at it again, releasing the i-Mont, another ultra-small or Pico flash drive in a number of capacities ranging from the 16GB we have in house today all the way up to 64GB.
The PQI i-Mont is a step up when it comes to performance in small packages. Utilizing a one piece design, marketing specification for the drive allude to 130 MB/s reads, followed by 100 MB/s writes. PQI backs the i-Mont with a three year warranty.

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Looking over the drive you will quickly notice the corner office appeal the drive carries. The brick pattern design gives the drive a bit of elegance, while the aluminium casing continues the trend.

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The backside of the drive carries branding for the drive and also denotes the capacity, ours at 16GB.

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The i-Mont carries USB 3.0 compatibility and such has its port colored blue.

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Setting our i-Mont on our digital scale, we found the drive to weigh just 0.15 ounces.
One of the lesser-known features of running Microsoft's new operating system Windows 8 is the native capability of USB Attached SCSI or UASP. In benchmarking flash drives, we utilize ATTO Disk Benchmark followed by DiskBench and our custom set of real-world data, and is by far the most important comparison when looking for a flash drive for everyday use.
Recently we have added our very own Price vs. Performance charts for both read and write performance of each drive, for these charts we take the average sequential performance over five runs and divide it by the price per GB. All pricing information is updated before a new drive is added and is taken from certified channel retailers such as Newegg or Amazon.

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The PQI i-Mont is factory formatted with the FAT32 file system, insuring compatibility between Windows and Macintosh computers. The usable capacity after formatting is 14.6GB.

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While marketing specification for the i-Mont stated 130 MB/s read speeds, we were able to hit just shy of 190 at 189 MB/s. Write speeds fell well below marketing set at 100 MB/s at 40 MB/s.

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In CDM our results were similar to what we found with ATTO. Here we were able to touch the same 189 MB/s read and 40 MB/s write.

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DiskBench testing had the i-Mont slightly quicker than the Pico drive from Super Talent and JetFlash 760 from Transcend.

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Above, we have our Price vs. Performance charts for read performance. Here we found the i-Mont tucked in between the two Lexar JumpDrive flash drives.

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Write performance had the i-Mont above the two products from Super Talent and just shy of the RageXT from Patriot.
The i-Mont from PQI successfully raises the bar on performance in a very small package. With the flash drive being no bigger than the size of a nickel, the flash drive belongs in a high class environment and would make a great companion storage option for MacBook and ultrabook users. Performance of the drive was quite exceptional when you take into account it was able to exceed marketing specifications by quite a big margin, except write speeds.
What does hurt the drive is it high cost per GB, at $1.87. If the price were to come down just slightly, I feel PQI could really push this drive to the masses with ease.
Pricing of the PQI i-Mont in the 16GB flavour is set at $29.99 at the time of writing, availability is quite slim though, at least at this moment in time.

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Top 10 TweakTown Content from the past week [09 September 2013]
Here are our top 10 articles, reviews and guides from the past week!

Phanteks Enthoo Primo Ultimate Chassis Review

Introduction

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All I have seen from Phanteks for a long time is its CPU cooler collection. Granted, copying a top tier cooler design and offering it in all the colors that make customers all warm and fuzzy inside was a stroke of genius, and filled a gap in the market that had been there for quite some time. Sort of going on the same logic, Phanteks is now taking on the chassis market, but this time with a design that is all their own.
As they went about designing this chassis, they have gotten to see what all of the latest and greatest cases from the last year or two have offered, what has been successful, and what were just fads or trends of the era. I see a lot of cases in this design actually, and again I have to say that Phanteks put their own spin on it and has come up with something that has a way to deal with many styles of full-tower cases, and turns them all up a notch to bring something to the market that is truly unique.
I can see bits of Corsair Obsidian designs, I can see NZXT influence, even bits that remind me of the Level 10, but as I said, all done in a unique way, and delivers something that could very well be a mainstream case killer for all of these companies. The level to which Phanteks took this full-tower will make all of the big selling case companies currently selling for enthusiast builds need to stand up and take a look at what Phanteks did, as they have certainly raised the bar a bit here in this design.
With all sorts of modularity to the design, and some super sleek external designs, the new Enthoo Primo from Phanteks is aiming to take on the 900D, Switch 810, the Level 10, and try to slaughter the dreams of all who currently own that chassis or are currently in process of doing an over the top water cooling setup.
This chassis is so slick in fact that I am for the first time in a very long time, pondering actually moving away from my TJ11 for this chassis. For those that don't typically follow my writing won't exactly get that, but by the time you are finished looking at everything that I have seen with the new chassis from Phanteks, you will not only be sold on the chassis and wanting to buy it, but I think you may even go as far as to harass Phanteks to speed up the availability of the Enthoo Primo. It is just that good.
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Kingston Technology to Demo ECC SO-DIMMs for an Avoton C2000
Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced they will be showcasing working DDR4 memory, XMP certified HyperX memory on a new Ivy Bridge-E based desktop, 2133 MHz SO-DIMMs for a Haswell based notebook and ECC memory in an Avoton based microserver at the Intel Developers Forum (IDF) 2013. IDF will be held at the Moscone center in San Francisco, California on September 10th - 12th.

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During IDF 2013 Kingston will be showcasing four demo systems. The DDR4 memory demo will highlight 192 GB of working 2133 MT/s DDR4 Registered DIMMs at 1.2V operating on a future Intel reference platform. The Kingston HyperX demo will be showcasing the latest HyperX memory that has been validated through Intel's XMP certification process. The demos will be shown using an X79 motherboard and one of Intel's newest Ivybridge E processors. Our 2133 MHz SO-DIMM memory demo will be shown working on a Haswell based notebook. The Microserver demo will be demonstrating 1600 MHz 1.35V low voltage ECC SODIMM memory on an Intel Atom C2000-series "Avoton" microserver. Kingston's ECC SODIMM memory has been validated on the Intel "Edisonville" microserver system, and is posted on Intel's website.
Intel's Avoton System on a Chip (SoCs) is a more powerful chip for use in the microserver market. This chip allows low power machines to handle a broader range of computing workloads. Microservers are quickly gaining in popularity as companies seek powerful, yet more energy- and physical-space efficient solutions that serve specific data center needs or cloud applications. Examples include web and cloud hosting, and big data where terabytes or petabytes of information sets are analyzed per second. Kingston's low-voltage, high-performing microserver memory modules are the perfect match to help accomplish these tasks.
Kingston is celebrating 25 years in the memory industry. The company was founded on October 17, 1987, and has grown to become the largest third-party memory manufacturer in the world. The 25th anniversary video and information including a timeline of Kingston's history can be found on the anniversary web page. In addition, HyperX memory is celebrating its 10th anniversary. The first HyperX high-performance memory module was released in November 2002.

LEPA Announces Three New Power Supply Series
LEPA Technology is proud to announce the launch of new series of 80Plus Gold, 80Plus Bronze, and 115/230Vac power supplies. GM-MaxGold represents an 80Plus Gold product line which ranges from 500W to 1000W with 92% peak efficiency. BM-MaxBron is an 80Plus Bronze line that goes from 450W to 1000W with over 88% efficiency. Also, LEPA MX F1 series consists of 115/230Vac models with an output of 350W, 400W, and 600W.

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GM-MaxGold and BM-MaxBron series are both equipped with a hybrid modular cable design, hydraulic bearing fan, powerful single +12V rail, and complie with ErP Lot6 standard. The new GM-MaxGold and BM-MaxBron series carry one unique feature - The special"Anti3s Q-Brick design", which is a protective sleeve that protects power supplies from three aspects: shock, static, and slip. GM-MaxGold and BM-MaxBron comes with one red Q-Brick and one extra black Q-Brick as a gift for users to replace or swap-out as they prefer. Also, GM-MaxGold series applies DC-DC converter design ensuring the stability of output voltage when the CPU goes into a C6/C7 sleep state, meeting the new Intel Haswell CPU standard. As you can see, the GM-MaxGold series is completely compatible with Intel's 4th Generation Haswell Processors.

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This MX F1 series (115/230Vac) provide 6+2P PCI-E connectors for 350W, 400W, and 600W power supplies to meet the requirements of power-hungry graphic cards. The MX F1 is also equipped with a durable hydraulic bearing fan delivering proper cooling under silent operation. To better facilitate installation with bottom-mounted PSU chassis, the CPU connector cable has been lengthened to 60cm. MX F1 series (115/230Vac) perfectly fulfills your basic computing requirements.
Specifications:

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Western Digital Expands Enterprise Flash Storage Portfolio Virident Acquisition
Western Digital Corp. and Virident Systems, Inc. announced today that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement under which Virident, a provider of server-side flash storage solutions, will be acquired by HGST, a wholly owned subsidiary of Western Digital. Virident will be acquired for approximately $685 million in cash. This represents approximately $645 million in enterprise value, net of Virident's estimated cash balance at closing.

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Virident is a technology leader in one of the fastest growing segments in enterprise and cloud computing. Virident solutions enable enterprises to tackle performance-intensive datacenter applications with PCIe-based enterprise flash storage solutions for virtualization, database, cloud computing, and webscale applications. Virident's FlashMAX II can be installed in any server and provides the highest capacity in a single low-profile card, enabling organizations to maximize the use of valuable datacenter space, reduce datacenter sprawl and provide uncompromising performance. In addition, the company's FlashMAX Connect is the industry's first software suite to deliver a shared server-side flash storage tier with enterprise-class reliability.
The pending acquisition extends HGST's presence in enterprise SSDs, which IDC predicts will grow from $2.5B in revenue in 2012 to $7B in revenue by 20171. The acquisition further enhances the value of HGST solutions through Virident's intelligent storage software. The integration with HGST will enable Virident to accelerate its go-to-market efforts by leveraging HGST's strong brand, extensive channel relationships, and global customer reach.
Virident CEO Mike Gustafson will upon closing join HGST as a senior vice president leading the Virident team. Mr. Gustafson, who has more than 20 years of experience in the storage, server, networking systems and IT industries, will report to HGST President Mike Cordano.
"We have established a competitive position in the enterprise SSD space and with our recently announced acquisitions we are increasing our commitment to become an even more significant player in this high growth segment," said Steve Milligan, president and chief executive officer, Western Digital. "Virident has a proven leadership team and a culture of innovation. Its combination of great people, leading products and advanced technology will enhance our increasingly strategic position in enterprise storage."
"The Virident acquisition is a continuation of HGST's strategy to address customers' rapidly changing storage needs by delivering intelligent storage devices that tightly integrate hardware and software to maximize solution performance," said Cordano. "Virident's server-side flash storage helps datacenter customers solve their most significant data infrastructure challenges, including application performance across diverse workloads, power efficiency, and total cost of ownership. We welcome the Virident team to HGST and look forward to further accelerating their momentum."
"The Virident vision is centered on leading the flash platform transformation. This includes advancing adoption of server-side flash storage, software and solutions in next-generation datacenters. Bringing technology leadership and substantial business advantage to customers is our mission and drives our team every day," said Gustafson. "I want to recognize and thank our employees and founders for the combination of vision and execution. We are excited to join HGST and accelerate the growth of our business, partnerships and value."
RBC Capital Markets has acted as the financial advisor to Western Digital and BofA Merrill Lynch acted as financial advisor to Virident in connection with this transaction.
Closing of the acquisition, which is subject to customary conditions, is expected to occur in the fourth calendar quarter of 2013.

USB-IF to Develop Media Agnostic USB Specification
The USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) today announced the development of the Media Agnostic (MA) USB specification. The specification is designed to allow wireless devices and docking stations to communicate over the USB protocol, without the need for a physical USB connection. An important design goal of the specification is to achieve wireless gigabit transfer rates while leveraging existing USB infrastructure, present in the form of:

Open application programming interfaces in every major operating system
USB class specifications by USB-IF device working groups
A wealth of open-source/OS specific drivers for USB classes
Vendor-specific device drivers for a multitude of USB vendor-specific devices

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The WiGig Serial Extension (WSE) v1.2 specification from the Wi-Fi Alliance will provide the initial foundation for the Media Agnostic USB specification. The WSE specification has been formally transferred to the USB-IF from the Wi-Fi Alliance, and the WSE specification already incorporates the USB protocol.
"We are pleased to see the USB-IF use the WiGig Serial Extension in its development of the Media Agnostic USB specification," said Edgar Figueroa, president and CEO of Wi-Fi Alliance. "Advanced wireless usages of serial bus technology have the potential to deliver great benefit to users."
Wireless devices implementing the Media Agnostic USB specification will be compliant with SuperSpeed USB (USB 3.0) and Hi-Speed USB (USB 2.0). The USB-IF has established a Media Agnostic USB Work Group which is currently developing the MA USB specification 1.0.

CyberPowerPC Introduces the ZeusBook Ultimate Series
CyberPower Inc. http://www.cyberpowerpc.com, a global manufacturer of custom gaming PCs, gaming laptops, and performance workstations, today announced its ZeusBook Ultimate series, the thinnest and lightest 17-inch gaming notebook to ever slay an opponent.

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The ZeusBook Ultimate measures less than an inch thick and weighs less than six pounds with more firing power than many chunky laptops that are mobile in name only. The ZeusBook will be offered in two models, the Ultimate 100 and Ultimate 200, both of which do not sacrifice power or portability and offer the same functionality of a full-size laptop in the slim form factor that's easily transportable. No other laptop comes close to packing this much power in an elegant form factor.
With performance powered by the latest NVIDIA GeForce GTX 765M gaming grade graphics and the newest Intel Core i7 "Haswell" processor, the ZeusBook Ultimate is capable of handling the most graphically intensive and system demanding games. GeForce GTX 765M graphics double your gaming performance and provides extra long battery life with NVIDIA Optimus technology. Users experience a whole new level of gaming with the best in performance and portability, and take it even further with the blazing-fast speeds of SSD.

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The ZeusBook Ultimate can also double as your home or business workhorse. It can run any PC-compatible application with Microsoft Windows 8 Pro (64 Bit Edition) pre-loaded.
To keep ZeusBook running cool, it features dual fan smart thermal cooling, which optimizes and increases airflow via an automated cooler boost. Even under the hottest and heaviest tasks, dual fan functionality ensures the ZeusBook never gets overheated.
For the ultimate HD immersive experience, the ZeusBook's Matrix Multi 17-inch display can connect up to three external monitors for complete immersion. For the ultimate multimedia experience, the ZeusBook can support Super HD 3840 x 2160 resolution, which is four-times the resolution of a Full HD display for incredibly detailed and lifelike images for gaming and movie watching.
The ZeusBook Ultimate does not skimp on sound quality. The system kicks out HD Surround Sound with its ample-sized speakers and a built-in subwoofer to deliver a crystal sound clarity and immersion. An anti-ghosting full-size gaming keyboard is also standard. The keyboard is fully color-customizable with thousands of color combinations and five preset configurations. The anti-ghosting capability allows you to capture simultaneous keystrokes to take control of any battle.
ZeusBook Ultimate Highlights:

Intel Core i7-4700HQ "Haswell" processor 2.40 GHz (3.4 GHz w/ Turbo Boost Technology) with Intel HM87 chipset
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 765M, 2 GB GDDR5
8 GB 1600 MHz Memory
17.3" 1920x1080 Anti-Reflective LED Display
Dual Killer Technology (E2200 NIC and Wireless-N 1202)
Sound Blaster Cinema & dual speaker w/ subwoofer
Li-ion 6 cell battery & AC Adapter included

Base price for the ZeusBook Ultimate 100 is $1429. All CyberPowerPC gaming notebook systems include a 1-year limited warranty. For more information see: http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/landingpages/Zeusbook/.

Dell Announces New Precision Workstations
Dell today announced it has expanded its workstation portfolio with the most powerful mobile and tower workstations, the Dell Precision M4800, M6800, T3610, T5610 and T7610, designed to seamlessly run the leading content creation, engineering, scientific and other professional software applications.

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Updated with the latest high-performance, workstation-class processors, graphics, storage, display and other technologies, the new systems demonstrate Dell's continued commitment to delivering unparalleled performance and reliability that creative, engineering and scientific professionals require to quickly develop and realize innovative ideas.

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Ghost Town Media, a post-production company, relies on high-performance technology and collaboration to stay on the bleeding-edge of design to create the most robust and unique imagery in the industry - from music videos to visual effects for feature films. "Our latest project is CG-heavy so we needed strong processing power and speed," explained Brandon Parvini, principal and creative director, Ghost Town Media. "We turned to the latest Dell Precision tower and mobile workstations with NVIDIA Quadro professional graphics as we found they provide massive acceleration that facilitate lightning-fast rendering, allowing complex 3D scenes to be rendered in minutes instead of hours."

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The most powerful mobile workstations in the market
Committed to improving the performance and personal experience and interaction with its new Dell Precision M4800 and M6800 mobile workstations, Dell is the first to bring a 15.6-inch Quad HD+ IGZO panel to the workstation market, with higher resolution than the Apple MacBook Pro Retina display, and the only to offer optional 10-finger Wacom multi-touch on a 17.3-inch display for intuitive control and interaction with creative and design applications. Dell is also the first to offer WiGig wireless docking and has improved audio performance with WAVES MaxxAudio Pro integration.
The new Dell Precision mobile workstations also deliver the highest performance with up to 16GB¹ of 1866MHz memory, fourth-generation Intel Core i5 and i7 processor options up to Core i7 Extreme Edition, and AMD FirePro and NVIDIA Quadro professional graphics, with up to 8 GB graphics memory on the M6800 configured with NVIDIA Quadro K5100M, for handling complex 3D work, including rendering and simulation.
Both systems also provide superb reliability with all-day battery life, including a secondary slice battery, new AMD Enduro and NVIDIA Optimus, and industry-leading endpoint security solutions that include comprehensive encryption, advanced authentication and leading-edge malware protection.
New tower workstations designed for demanding software applications
Offering an award-winning chassis design and cutting-edge technology, the new Dell Precision tower workstations include next generation workstation-class processors and professional graphics, Windows 8 factory installed, new Intel Cache Acceleration Software, PCIe SSDs and updates to Dell Precision Performance Optimizer. Designed for scientific analysis, professional engineering and complex 3D modeling, the new tower portfolio, adding to the Dell Precision T1700 Small-Form Factor and Mini-Tower, includes the Dell Precision T3610 with advanced single Intel Xeon CPU performance, the Dell Precision T5610, a high-power dual socket Intel Xeon processor workstation in a small footprint, and the Dell Precision T7610, the world's most powerful tower workstation. The T7610 will offer up to 512 GB system memory and power up to three high-end graphics cards, including up to two NVIDIA Quadro K6000s cards starting in October.
Thierry Rouf, Director, FashionLab, said, "We work on the cutting-edge of fashion design, providing designers with sophisticated tools they need to employ the latest 3D technology in their high-end designs, so it's important that we always collaborate with the best. That's why we chose to work closely with Dell for a high-profile event in Paris. The workshop was supported without interruption by the latest high-end Dell Precision tower workstations."
Dell understands its workstation customers have specific needs for their workflows so is updating and offering new tools that enable maximum performance and reliability so they can remain focused on being creative.

Dell Precision Performance Optimizer - DPPO, the world's first automated workstation performance tool that configures settings based on the software application, will be updated with new profiles for Siemens NX 8.5 and Dassault Systèmes CATIA and French and German languages starting September 17 via online and factory install on new workstations in October.
Intel Xeon Phi co-processor 3120A PCIe card - The Intel Xeon Phi coprocessor is a new manycore x86-based computational architecture built for high efficiency and exceptional performance on highly parallel workloads. Offered as a coprocessor on a PCIe card, it works synergistically with Intel Xeon Processors to deliver accelerated performance on Dell Precision T7610 tower and R7610 rack workstations.
PCIe Solid State Drives (SSDs) - Dell is the first to bring Micron PCIe SSD technology to the workstation market on its tower and rack workstations starting in October. The PCIe SSD is one of the highest performance storage options that merge SSD technology directly with the fast PCIe system communication bus.
Intel Cache Acceleration Software - Workstation (CAS-W) - Dell has deeply collaborated with Intel to bring to market and tune the first workstation enterprise-grade storage acceleration software application, Intel CAS-W, which improves workstation application performance. It is available exclusively on Dell Precision rack and tower workstations starting in November.

"Dell Precision workstations with the innovative Intel Cache Acceleration Software-Workstation give a notable performance boost to Autodesk applications," says Maurice Patel, head of Media & Entertainment Industry Marketing, Autodesk. "We have seen a many-fold increase in some of our internal tests. As the demand for larger data sets increase with 4K, stereoscopic projection and next generation consoles, the performance increase will be a great benefit for our 3D animation customers."
As part of Dell's Technology Partner Program, Dell Precision works with the top Independent Software Vendors (ISV) to test and certify the leading software applications including Autodesk Design & Creation Suites, Dassault Systèmes CATIA and SolidWorks and PTC Creo, among many others, for maximum uptime and productivity. Additionally, many ISV partners also leverage Dell Precision workstations to develop and showcase their software capabilities. For example, PTC uses Dell Precision workstations to power its customer theater with a high-end, three-channel rear-projection active stereo 3D system with tracking that allows visitors to have a hands-on experience using PTC software in an immersive virtual reality environment.
Pricing & Availability:
The new Dell Precision tower and mobile workstations will be available worldwide on September 12 with US prices starting at $1,099 for the T3610, $2,729 for the T5610, $3,059 for the T7610, $1,249 for the M4800 and $1,599 for the M6800.

Seagate Ships First Hard Drives Using Next-Gen Shingled Magnetic Recording
Seagate Technology plc, a world leader in storage solutions, today announced it has shipped over one million drives using shingled magnetic recording (SMR). SMR is the next generation in storage technology and is critical for continued improvement in areal density (the amount of data that can be stored on a single disk) to support global growth in cloud and mobile usage. The SMR generation of storage technology is expected to power gains of up to 25 percent.

"With nearly 7 billion inhabitants on earth we are creating an astounding 2.7 Zettabytes of data a year and as such are rapidly approaching the physical limits of how much can be written on a single conventional hard disk drive," said Mark Re, Seagate's chief technology officer. "With SMR technology, Seagate is on track to improve areal density by up to 25 percent or 1.25 TB per disk, delivering hard drives with the lowest cost per gigabyte and reaching capacities of 5 TB and beyond."
The last technology transition, perpendicular recording, improved areal density by arranging the bits in a perpendicular fashion, thereby enabling narrower data tracks and read/write heads. Due to physical limitations read/write heads cannot become smaller. The most reliable option to improve areal density is to change the way data is written to the drive.

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This is where SMR technology comes into play. A fundamental change to the architecture of the media, SMR technology rearranges the way data is stored on a disk by overlapping tracks- similar to shingles on a roof- thereby, increasing track density and improving aerial density. As a result of increased track density the amount of data on a single disk increases as does the overall storage capacity of a single drive.
"The HDD industry is experiencing Petabyte shipment growth rates greater than 30 percent per year while at the same time HDD areal density is improving at a rate less than 20 percent per year," noted John Rydning, IDC's research vice president, for hard disk drives. "Shingled magnetic recording technology is a solution that leverages existing drive architecture to help close the gap in these growth rates while at the same time providing a relatively simple yet economical path to higher capacity HDDs for many applications."
Importantly, SMR can improve reliability by allowing Seagate to use fewer heads and disks to achieve new capacity points. SMR also provides a better value by increasing storage capacity while utilizing the same disk and heads as drive configurations shipping today thereby, providing a more cost-effective approach to increasing aerial density.
For more information on Seagate shingled magnetic recording technology click here.

AMD Details Embedded Product Roadmap
AMD (NYSE: AMD) today disclosed its roadmap for the fast-growing embedded computing market, as it becomes the first company to offer both ARM and x86 processor solutions for low-power and high-performance embedded compute designs. The new lineup includes two best-in-class x86 accelerated processing units (APUs) and central processing units (CPUs), a first look at a high-performance ARM system-on-chip (SoC) and a new family of discrete AMD Embedded Radeon graphics processing units (GPUs) expected to launch in 2014. These additions provide the embedded industry's engineering community with more choices to match their exact design needs, and are designed to offer improvements in performance-per-watt and performance-per-dollar. Together with the recent launch of the award-winning AMD Embedded G-Series SoC family that set a superior bar for performance-per-watt low-power multicore APUs, these latest additions to the embedded product roadmap further signify a strategic push by AMD to focus on the high-growth embedded market.

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The embedded systems market is vast and forms the underpinning for the Surround Computing era. This market is comprised of different segments of which intelligent embedded devices - those enabled with high-performance microprocessors, IP connectivity, and high-level operating systems - are quickly becoming the most significant. A recent VDC Research report indicates the market for CPUs in traditional and intelligent embedded systems will grow 36 percent from roughly 330 million units in 2013 to more than 450 million units by 2016 with x86 and ARM architectures accounting for 82 percent of the total addressable market (TAM)1.
"AMD is committed to providing the embedded community with the solutions required to succeed in today's transformative market as it continues to expand at an unprecedented rate," said Arun Iyengar, vice president and general manager, AMD Embedded Solutions. "There are different customer needs in different segments of this market -- from low-power to high-performance, Linux to Windows, x86 to ARM -- and now with our upcoming product portfolio, we are addressing them by providing embedded design engineers with a range of solutions backed by our embedded longevity program for supply stability assurance to fit their every need."
"The unprecedented rise of intelligent connected solutions over the next several years will require a myriad of ultra low-power to ultra high-performance solutions connecting devices to the cloud," said Jim McGregor, Principal Analyst with TIRIAS Research. "With their new roadmap, AMD leverages both ARM and x86 computing and graphics architectures to fulfill the company's vision of creating an ambidextrous ecosystem. The current products combined with the new roadmap offer price, performance and power options to meet the needs of embedded designers."
2014 AMD Embedded Roadmap
In 2014, AMD plans to bring to market two new high-performance AMD Embedded R-Series processor families: the "Hierofalcon" CPU SoC family based on the ARM Cortex-A57 architecture and the "Bald Eagle" APU and CPU offering based on the x86 microprocessor architecture codenamed "Steamroller." The upcoming "Steppe Eagle" APU SoC is designed to provide improved performance while extending the low-power characteristics of the current AMD Embedded G-Series SoC family. In addition, "Adelaar" will bring to market the first discrete GPU based on AMD Graphics Core Next architecture for embedded systems.
"Hierofalcon" CPU SoC
"Hierofalcon" is the first 64-bit ARM-based platform from AMD targeting embedded data center applications, communications infrastructure and industrial solutions. It will include up to eight ARM Cortex-A57 CPUs expected to run up to 2.0 GHz, and provides high-performance memory with two 64-bit DDR3/4 channels with error correction code (ECC) for high reliability applications. The highly integrated SoC includes 10 Gb KR Ethernet and PCI-Express Gen 3 for high-speed network connectivity, making it ideal for control plane applications. The "Hierofalcon" series also provides enhanced security with support for ARM TrustZone technology and a dedicated cryptographic security co-processor, aligning to the increased need for networked, secure systems. "Hierofalcon" is expected to be sampling in the second quarter of 2014 with production in the second half of the year.

amd_details_embedded_product_roadmap

"Bald Eagle" APU/CPU
With "Bald Eagle," AMD continues to build on its heritage as a leading provider of x86 solutions for the embedded market. "Bald Eagle" is the next generation high-performance x86-based embedded processor available as both an APU and CPU featuring up to four new "Steamroller" CPU cores within a 35W TDP. The APU products will provide the new power-optimized AMD Radeon Graphics Core Next GPU architecture and HSA enhancements for high-performance embedded applications, making it a superior solution for next-generation digital signage and embedded digital gaming. The "Bald Eagle" family will also introduce new power management features, such as configurable TDP, allowing engineers more design flexibility. "Bald Eagle" is expected to be available in the first half of 2014.

amd_details_embedded_product_roadmap

"Steppe Eagle" APU SoC
"Steppe Eagle" will further extend the performance and low-power range of the current award-winning AMD Embedded G-Series APU SoC platform with an enhanced "Jaguar" CPU core architecture and AMD Graphics Core Next GPU architecture that include new features for increased CPU and GPU frequency. Designed for low-power embedded applications, "Steppe Eagle" is designed to offer increased performance-per-watt both at a lower TDP than the current AMD Embedded G-Series APU SoC, as well as extending the high-end performance above 2 GHz. "Steppe Eagle" also provides embedded design engineers the flexibility to leverage the current AMD Embedded G-Series APU SoC board design and software stack for a variety of applications with footprint compatibility. "Steppe Eagle" is expected to be available in the first half of 2014.

amd_details_embedded_product_roadmap

"Adelaar" discrete GPU
"Adelaar" is the next-generation discrete AMD Embedded Radeon GPU based on Graphics Core Next architecture specifically designed for embedded applications. Bringing industry-leading performance to embedded applications, "Adelaar" comes as a market-differentiating multi-chip module (MCM) with pre-qualified and integrated 2 GB of graphics memory. The "Adelaar" GPU family will deliver rich 3D graphics, multi-display support and support for DirectX 11.1, OpenGL 4.2 and both Windows and Linux. "Adelaar" is expected to be available in the first half of 2014 with seven years of planned supply availability as an MCM, mobile PCI express module (MXM) and standard PC graphics card2.

amd_details_embedded_product_roadmap

With current and future offerings, AMD is actively pursuing the intelligent embedded device market with a broad ecosystem of software and hardware partners supporting multiple operating systems including Windows and Linux. In particular, the company is focusing on:

Industrial Control & Automation
Digital Gaming
Communication Infrastructure

"Visual Embedded":

Digital Signage
Thin Client
Medical Imaging
Auto Infotainment
Set-top-Box/Internet-enabled smart TV
Printing/Imaging
Digital Surveillance
Storage
Military/Aero

"AMD has quickly embraced the need to deliver the right SoC for the right task in one of the industry's most comprehensive product portfolios for the embedded community," said Tom Cronk, executive vice president and general manager, Processor Division, ARM. "The addition of devices based on the 64-bit ARM Cortex-A57 processor to their embedded roadmap gives designers of high-performance embedded systems a solution that delivers incredible savings in terms of both energy and system cost."

Top 10 TweakTown Press Releases from the past week [09 September 2013]
Here are our top 10 posted press releases from the past week!

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