My PC Universe

Momentus 5400 FDE.2: HDD with embedded encrypting system from Seagate

2008-03-15T05:14:00.001-07:00

Many users ignore safety of their data. Most of them are well protected against harmful software: they have anti-virus and firewall. But there are few who thinks about protection from physical stealing. And here comes a solution - new Seagate HDD Momentus 5400 FDE.2

There are two possible dangers: losing of data and information leakage. If hard drive is broken, data stored on it will be lost. If you make backups regularly, actual damage to the data will be minimal. But if you cannot physically protect storage device or whole system, your data may be compromised, which means unauthorized users will have access to your information.

Most troublesome are mobile users. When they work on PC's inside corporate building data usually stored on unified file servers or local discs. Local security policy and IT-infrastructure are usually enough to provide maximum data security. It could be compromised only in case of breach in IT-infrastructure or if someone will physically steal disc drive or copy data via direct access.

You know some standard methods of protection: BIOS password, Windows authentication and so on. But is good only for keeping your kids from playing on your PC while you are absent.

The only effective mean of protection is a hardware one. Seagate used new Trusted Platform Module in it's Momentus HDD. But you'll need special software all the same.

All models of Momentus series are represented by most popular modifications of 80, 120 and 160 Gb. It is not as fast as leaders such as Spinpoint M5 (Samsung), Hitachi Travelstar 5K250 or new Momentus 5400.4, but encrypting almost does not affects speed.

It is not supported by Windows Vista for now so you'll have to use Windows SP Home or Professional. To activate encrypting procedures you have to install FinallySecure package by Secude. After that you receive small second partition where you can store your most valuable information. To access it you'll have to enter login and password. When connected to other system this partition renders empty.

Technorati Tags: HDD,Seagate,Security,Windows,Samsung,Hitachi,PC,data storage

GeForce 9600 GT with passive cooling

2008-03-04T13:12:00.001-08:00

It seems engineers of Micro-Star International intend to provide customers with all imaginable and unimaginable accelerators based on graphic processing unit GeForce 9600 GT. No other manufacturer can boast such variety of goods based on D9P chip technology.

Developers brought another modification with index N9600GT-2TD512Z to international exhibition CeBIT 2008. It has alternative double-slot passive cooling system which consists of impressive-sized radiator and four heat pipes.

This modification built on non-standard red circuit board, has 512 Mb GDDR3 memory with 156-bit interface and functions on frequencies of 650/1625/1800 MHz perfectly matching etalon numbers.

There is no approximate information about price and public release date of N9600GT-2TD512Z.

[via 3dnews.ru]

Technorati Tags: GeForce,MSI,Nvidia,PC,Video Card

Asus Triton 79 AMAzing - Yep, It is Really Amazing

2008-03-01T14:39:00.001-08:00

Asus announced production of 3200 CPU coolers Triton 79 AMAzing. This move was specially made for gamers. Asus Triton 79 AMAzing is compatible with Intel Core 2 extreme / Core 2 Quad (LGA775) and AMD Athlon 64 FX/X2 Dual -Core (939/940/AM2/AM2+/1207+). This cooler is perfect for gamers who want to squeeze maximum power from hardware and also have the platform alternative.

Each part of Asus Triton 79 AMAzing is defended with polyurethane foam. Every customer will have exclusive identification card with device serial number. Without a doubt, every gamer will like this cooler for it's performance and very nice looking design.

Technorati Tags: Asus,Asus Triton 79 AMAzing,Triton,Cooler,Gamers

Radeon 3870 X2 on CeBIT: DDR4 RAM and Water Cooling

2008-02-29T08:38:00.001-08:00

Most of AMD's partners on CeBIT released Radeon 3870 X2 video cards with DDR4 instead of DDR3. Radeon 3870X2 with water cooling also will be shown. Mass production of these video cards with DDR4 memory planned for middle March 2008. And you can find such a cards in shops around a first half of April 2008.

Cost of Radeon 3870 X2 with DDR4 will be slightly higher than its analogues with DDR3 memory, but exact overprice isn't known yet. Performance with new memory will be improved of course but not very much.

Technorati Tags: Radeon 3870 X2,Radeon,AMD,ATI,Video Card,DDR4,CeBIT

Dell Doesn't Want to Sell AMD Anymore

2008-02-13T16:08:00.001-08:00

It seems Dell Company has disappointed in AMD based desktop computers and now seriously shrinks its stock of AMD related consumer products. Confirming this Dell announce that now you can't buy AMD based computer on Dell's website. And you can get such a computer only by phone or in offline shop.

This news rushed down AMD shares immediately. Shares felt on 4.7% to cost as low as $6,28 per share. It was just a excuse because the market was waiting for some bad news about AMD for 2 weeks already. Dell claims that it affects only website and AMD products may come back at any moment.

Dell is second in rating of world's leading computer manufacturers. It started to assemble desktop computers with AMD processors in may 2006. Now you can find only one desktop computer with AMD processor on the Dell website: Dell OptiPlex 740. Server solutions are not affected now.

Technorati Tags: Dell,AMD,Dell website,Dell OptiPlex 740

.Asia can be registered now

2007-10-21T08:07:00.001-07:00

New top-level domain ".asia" is available for registration. Registration and control are entrusted to nonprofit organization DotAsia Organization Limited which consist of members from China, India and Japan.

So far registration available only for companies located in Asia-Pacific region which have registered trademarks and for government offices. Regular people will be able to register .asia domains only in February 2008.

Currently Asia has 400 million users(for example 253 million in North America).

Technorati Tags: .Asia , Asia , Top-level Domain , TLD

Toshiba recalls 142 000 DVD player AC adapters

2007-10-17T17:15:00.001-07:00

Toshiba announce one more massive recall again, not a good sign for company.

AC Adapters sold with portable DVD players may overheat and even ignite when they fail, potentially threatening the user. This recall comes after two DVD players was burned, however, no injuries have been reported. You bought affected DVD player if it was between January 2005 and April 2006 at consumer electronics stores in US then and Your AC adapter has "ADPV16" mark. Don't use dangerous AC adapters and contact Toshiba service for replacement.

Affected AC adapter:

Technorati Tags: Toshiba , AC Adapter , ADPV16 , Recall , SD-P1600 , DVD player

Do You Want To Have Your Own Universe?

2007-10-12T03:56:00.001-07:00

If you want to broadcast your messages to the whole world you can be builder of My PC Universe(or any another blog of MyUniverseRing). We are waiting for your contribution.

Technorati Tags: Blogging , Blogger , Contribution

Goog-411

2007-10-07T12:17:00.001-07:00

Google started new service - Goog-411. This is search on the phone for US. You can call 1-800-GOOG-411, ask your query and operator will read the answer from Google. Of course this service is free.

Technorati Tags: Google , Goog-411 , Phone Search

Vixta: Vista Look and Feel for Penguins

2007-10-07T11:02:00.001-07:00

Vixta - new Linux distributive with very strange target audience. It is supposed to be used by Linux users impressed with Windows Vista and wanted to have similar-looking desktop.

Vista based on Fedora with customized KDE. It has widgets, main menu and taskbar in Vista style but inside it's still Linux. So in that a la Vista main menu you'll find Konqueror instead of Explorer, OpenOffice instead of Microsoft Office etc.

Technorati Tags: Vixta , Vista , Linux , Windows , OS

WiFi everywhere

2007-10-07T03:14:00.001-07:00

New shirt from ThinkGeek has animated WiFi and shows signal level to everyone. Now you can to find best place for WiFi just walking around. Detector placed on the shirt with stickers so you can wash it without harming electronics. I think it would be very nice present for a friend with IT interests.

Technorati Tags: WiFi , ThinkGeek , WiFi Shirt , Gadgets

Google gets Extra Large size

2007-10-06T16:03:00.001-07:00

"Extra Large" option appeared in Google Image Search. Now you can use it if you want to find really big pictures. For example querying "Ferrari" with that option you can get 3414 x 2968 photo found by Google. But I think it would be more interesting when Google implement feature that gives opportunity to set searching dimensions manually. Something like "300-500 wide and 200-250 height".

Technorati Tags: Google , Google Image Search , Extra Large

A case was disclosed by Flickr

2007-09-25T17:11:00.001-07:00

Six computers were stolen from the office of WorkSpace company. It was regular thievery but only one thing - it was disclosed by thief himself and online photo sharing service Flickr, owned by Yahoo.

WorkSpace had a company account on Flickr and stolen computers were using for uploading pictures on it. Thief, who didn't know about flickr-server function of his new computers, decided to make photos of himself. After that some nice photo of man with scary tattoos appeared on WorkSpace company's Flickr account. Photos was titled "Me". One of the WorkSpace's managers, Dane Brown saw that photos and didn't believed in such an ignorance. But it was true - thief upload photos of himself and pointed in title that it was he, who stole the computers.

Technorati Tags: Flickr , iMac , Photo , WorkSpace , Yahoo

Intel Phone Announced

2007-09-23T09:09:00.001-07:00

It looks like Phone Mania is spreading wider and wider among the top IT-companies. Next XPhone announced to be created by Intel. It is supposed to be innovative smartphone with sensor screen. You can see demonstration of Intel Phone in the video below:

By the way, don't You think Intel's phone can be called iPhone too? :)

PlayStation Store comes to PC

2007-09-23T07:41:00.001-07:00

Sony's network services for games distribution now available on PC. CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment Kaz Hirai announced that PlayStation store can be reached from PC in Japan now. Of course we thought that Sony will spread this feature in Europe and North America.

Before now You could to use PlayStation Store for downloading games, demos and media only with PSP.

Google Phone to be released in Q1 2008

2007-09-20T17:26:00.001-07:00

As mobile phone producers from Taiwan says Google will released its phone right after model specification works and OS planning. Google still don't have any contracts with distributors and other partners. Earlier it was known that Google will use hardware EDGE-solutions of Texas Instruments, but recently leaked out that 3G technologies can be used in Google Phone.

But this using of 3G technologies can delay Google's announce of Google Phone. There's suggestion that Google will do its best to start GPhone in bound with Google's own OS, which must be competitive with such OS as Windows Mobile and Symbian.

Technorati Tags: Google , Google Phone , GPhone , Google OS

Do You want to get inside Apple's product?

2007-08-30T14:56:00.001-07:00

Apple CEO Steve Jobs met Volkswagen's chief Martin Winterkhorn few days ago. And they plan to meet again for discissions. That fact makes some experts think Apple and Volkswagen decided to create "iCar" - vehicle with significant amount of media device aboard. Such a proposition have an opportunity to get reality because Apple have partnership with a lot of automakers including VW. It can be great step for Apple to create a branded car but don't You think that Apple goes out from its territory?

Skype was attacked by... Microsoft

2007-08-20T14:44:00.000-07:00

Skype is on at last. Numerous users of peer-to-peer phone service Skype was unable to use it for almost 2 days. It was greatest outage of Skype for all its history. There was a lot of gossips about reasons of this problem. Someone told about DDoS, someone told about hackers etc. But Skype recently revealed the real reason of crash. The attacker was Microsoft! Cause was the regular Window Update. Skype reports that update caused massive computers reboot and then massive sign in of Skype users. There were some error in program code and because of it chain reaction crashed whole the peer-to-peer system.

iPhone's keyboard sucks

2007-08-19T09:59:00.000-07:00

Usability study group User Centric shows in its study that iPhone's keyboard isn't as well as common QWERTY keyboards. Users on common keyboards make much less mistakes while typing texts or numbers and they are much quicker in typing texts. You can read more about it here.
Some pictures showing the difference between QWERTY keyboards and iPhone's keyboard:

Intel did it again!

2007-07-23T15:23:00.000-07:00

Not so much time ago Intel seriously cut prices on its processors. And now Intel repeat its move. Great price cut on quad-core processors bring them much closer to the consumers.

Nanotechnology rapidly increases cooling efficiency

2007-06-11T12:10:00.000-07:00

by Gabriel Ikram

The OCZ Hydrojet cooler uses an advanced heatsink material
The first heatsink to make use of directional carbon nanotubes, the OCZ Hydrojet, was on display at Computex 2007. Carbon nanotubes, an allotrope of carbon, are widely regarded as the next major thermal interface material because of their superior thermal conduction properties.

The contact base of the OCZ Hydrojet is made completely of carbon-nanotubes, which OCZ claims are five times more efficient than copper. Carbon nanotubes have been looked upon as a strong alternative to traditional copper based heatsinks. They are ideal for application in heat transfer products because of their impressive heat-conduction properties. Carbon nanotube based interfaces have been shown to conduct more heat than conventional thermal interface materials at the same temperatures. In addition, they have shown to be ballistic conductors at room temperature, which means electrons can flow through CNTs without collisions.

Carbon nanotubes are small wire-like structures made out of a sheet of graphene. The sheet of graphene used to construct CNTs is roughly one-atom thick, and is rolled up into a cylinder. The diameter of the cylinder ranges in the nanometers.

Unlike most other thermal materials, carbon nanotubes are able to move heat in one direction. On the other hand, copper, which is looked upon as one of the more superior thermal materials, moves heat radially. In the case of CNTs, heat is moved along the alignment of the nanotubes.

(c) www.dailytech.com

Quick and Dirty AMD K10 Cinebench

2007-06-07T17:04:00.000-07:00

by Kristopher Kubicki

An early AMD "Barcelona" revision gets its first non-simulated benchmark

Earlier today, AMD announced that it successfully demonstrated Barcelona across the server market. The company did not publically state how fast the processor was running, the stepping of the processor, the processor thermal envelope or the eventual ship date.

We had the opportunity to benchmark the AMD Barcelona, native quad-core on an early stepping. We only had a few minutes to test the chip, but we were able to run a quick Cinebench before we were instructed to leave.

The AMD benchmark ran on a single-socket, K10 CPU running at 1.6 GHz on NVIDIA's nForce Professional 3400 chipset. According to the system properties, the AMD system used 4GB of DDR2-667.

The most similar Intel system we could muster up on such short notice was an Intel Xeon 3220. The Xeon X3220 is clocked at 2.4 GHz, and ran on Intel's Garlow platform (Intel X38). This system property profile stated the system utilized 4GB of DDR2-800.

Cinebench completed the default benchmark in 27 seconds for the 1.6 GHz K10; 17 seconds for the Intel Xeon X3220. The Kentsfield Xeon was 58% faster with a 50% higher clock frequency for Cinebench.

Both systems ran Windows 2003 R2, 64-bit.

AMD partner engineers tell DailyTech the chip we tested was the latest revision silicon. The same engineers claim 2.0 GHz Barcelona chips are making the rounds, with 2.3 GHz already on the desktop and server roadmaps.

AMD's current guidance suggests a late July announcement for Barcelona. However, when DailyTech tracked down the individual partners named in AMD's press release, all cited "optimistic September" ship dates for motherboards.

(c) www.dailytech.com

Raytheon Develops World's First Polymorphic Computer

2007-03-22T16:33:00.001-07:00

EL SEGUNDO, Calif., March 20, 2007 -- The world's first computers whose architecture can adopt different forms depending on their application have been developed by Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN).

The architecture of the MONARCH processor with key elements identified

Dubbed MONARCH (Morphable Networked Micro-Architecture) and developed to address the large data volume of sensor systems as well as their signal and data processing throughput requirements, it is the most adaptable processor ever built for the Department of Defense, reducing the number of processor types required. It performs as a single system on a chip, resulting in a significant reduction of the number of processors required for computing systems, and it performs in an array of chips for teraflop throughput.

"Typically, a chip is optimally designed either for front-end signal processing or back-end control and data processing," explained Nick Uros, vice president for the Advanced Concepts and Technology group of Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems. "The MONARCH micro-architecture is unique in its ability to reconfigure itself to optimize processing on the fly. MONARCH provides exceptional compute capacity and highly flexible data bandwidth capability with beyond state-of-the-art power efficiency, and it's fully programmable."

In addition to the ability to adapt its architecture for a particular objective, the MONARCH computer is also believed to be the most power- efficient processor available.

"In laboratory testing MONARCH outperformed the Intel quad-core Xeon chip by a factor of 10," said Michael Vahey, the principal investigator for the company's MONARCH technology.

MONARCH's polymorphic capability and super efficiency enable the development of DoD systems that need very small size, low power, and in some cases radiation tolerance for such purposes as global positioning systems, airborne and space radar and video processing systems.

The company has begun tests on prototypes of the polymorphic MONARCH processors to verify they'll function as designed and to establish their maximum throughput and power efficiency. MONARCH, containing six microprocessors and a highly interconnected reconfigurable computing array, provides 64 gigaflops (floating point operations per second) with more than 60 gigabytes per second of memory bandwidth and more than 43 gigabytes per second of off-chip data bandwidth.

The MONARCH processor was developed under a Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) polymorphous computing architecture contract from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory. Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems led an industry team with the Information Sciences Institute of the University of Southern California to create the integrated large-scale system on a chip with a suite of software development tools for programs of high value to the Department of Defense and commercial applications. Besides USC major subcontractors included Georgia Institute of Technology, Mercury Computer Systems and IBM's Global Engineering Solutions division.

Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems is the leading provider of sensor systems giving military forces the most accurate and timely information available for the network-centric battlefield. With 2006 revenues of $4.3 billion and 12,000 employees, SAS is headquartered in El Segundo, Calif. Additional facilities are in Goleta, Calif.; Forest, Miss.; Dallas, McKinney and Plano, Texas; and several international locations.

Raytheon Company, with 2006 sales of $20.3 billion, is an industry leader in defense and government electronics, space, information technology, technical services, and business and special mission aircraft. With headquarters in Waltham, Mass., Raytheon employs 80,000 people worldwide.

(c) www.shoutwire.com

Uni.PC Tags: Processor, Raytheon, Polymorphic Computer, MONARCH

DRAM prices continue to plummet

2007-03-20T10:53:00.001-07:00

Mark LaPedus

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Prices for DRAMs continue to plummet, as the tags for mainstream devices have fallen by a staggering 44 percent since the beginning of 2007, according to a report from Gartner Inc.

Average DRAM spot prices across all densities were down 6.5 percent for the seven-day period ended March 16, compared to the previous period, according to Gartner. Average spot prices stood at $3.67 on a 512-megabit basis for the period, down 39 percent since the beginning of 2007, according to the firm.

Prices for mainstream 512-Mbit DDR2-based chips are down 44 percent since the beginning of this year. ''Ample supply in the market and little fear of a tightening of supply gave the overall market a negative outlook,'' said Andrew Norwood, an analyst with Gartner.

At the beginning of February, the DRAM market crashed, as average selling prices (ASPs) had already fallen by 30 percent since the beginning of this year. DRAM ASPs were projected to fall by 30 percent for the entire year.

At that time, vendors insisted that the DRAM free-fall was temporary, claiming that a rebound is due in the second half of 2007, thanks in part to Microsoft's Vista operating system software.

In general, the memory market is lousy. The NAND flash market is also "brutal," according to Intel Corp. Some believe the ASPs on NAND chips will decline 65 percent this year.

(c) www.eetimes.com

Uni.PC Tags: Memory, Prices

NVIDIA GeForce 8600-Series Details Unveiled

2007-03-15T18:39:00.001-07:00

by Anh Huynh

NVIDIA prepares its next-generation mid-range and mainstream DirectX 10 GPUs

Earlier today DailyTech received it's briefiing on NVIDIA’s upcoming GeForce 8600GTS, 8600GT and 8500GT graphics processors. NVIDIA’s GeForce 8600GTS and 8600GT are G84-based GPUs and target the mid-range markets. The lower-positioned G86-based GeForce 8500GT serves as the flagship low to mid-range graphics card.
The budget-priced trio feature full support for DirectX 10 features including pixel and vertex shader model 4.0. NVIDIA has yet to reveal the amount of shaders or shader clocks though. Nevertheless, the trio supports NVIDIA SLI and PureVideo technologies.

NVIDIA GeForce 8600GTS

NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT

NVIDIA touts three dedicated video engines on the G84 and G86-based graphics cards for PureVideo processing. The video engines provide MPEG-2 high-definition and WMV HD video playback up to resolutions of 1080p. G84 and G86 support hardware accelerated decoding of H.264 video as well; however, NVIDIA makes no mention of VC-1 decoding. G84 and G86 also feature advanced post-processing video algorithms. Supported algorithms include spatial-temporal de-interlacing, inverse 2:2, 3:2 pull-down and 4-tap horizontal, and 5-tap vertical video scaling.
At the top of the mid-range lineup is the GeForce 8600GTS. The G84-based graphics core clocks in at 675 MHz. NVIDIA pairs the GeForce 8600GTS with 256MB of GDDR3 memory clocked at 1000 MHz. The memory interfaces with the GPU via a 128-bit bus. The GeForce 8600GTS does not integrate HDCP keys on the GPU. Add-in board partners will have to purchase separate EEPROMs with HDCP keys; however, all GeForce 8600GTS-based graphics cards feature support for HDCP.
GeForce 8600GTS-based graphics cards require an eight-layer PCB. Physically, the cards measure in at 7.2 x 4.376 inches and available in full-height only. NVIDIA GeForce 8600GTS graphics cards feature a PCIe x16 interface, unlike ATI’s upcoming RV630. GeForce 8600GTS-based cards still require external PCIe power. NVIDIA estimates total board power consumption at around 71-watts.
Supported video output connectors include dual dual-link DVI, VGA, SDTV and HDTV outputs, and analog video inputs. G84-based GPUs do not support a native HDMI output. Manufacturers can adapt one of the DVI-outputs for HDMI.
NVIDIA’s GeForce 8600GT is not as performance oriented as the 8600GTS. The GeForce 8600GT GPU clocks in at a more conservative 540 MHz. The memory configuration has more flexibility, letting manufacturers decide between 256MB or 128MB of GDDR3 memory. NVIDIA specifies the memory clock at 700 MHz. The GeForce 8600GT shares the same 128-bit memory interface as the 8600GTS. HDCP support on GeForce 8600GT is optional. The GPU and reference board design support the required HDCP keys EEPROM, however, the implementation is up to NVIDIA’s add-in board partners.
GeForce 8600GT-based graphics cards only require a six-layer PCB instead of the eight-layer PCB of the 8600GTS. The physical board size is also smaller too – measuring in at 6.9 x 4.376 inches. GeForce 8600GT-based cards do not require external PCIe power. NVIDIA rates the maximum board power consumption at 43-watts – 28-watts less than the 8600GTS.
The GeForce 8600GT supports similar video outputs as the 8600GTS, however, the 8600GT does not support video input features.
NVIDIA has revealed very little information on the GeForce 8500GT besides support for GDDR3 and DDR2 memory. It supports dual dual-link DVI, VGA and TV outputs as well.
Expect NVIDIA to pull the wraps off its GeForce 8600GTS, 8600GT and 8500GT next quarter in time to take on AMD’s upcoming RV630 and RV610.

(c) www.dailytech.com

Uni.PC Tags: nVidia, GeForce, RV630, RV610, GeForce 8600 GT, GeForce 8600 GTS, GPU, DirectX 10

Gates: Vista Has Been "Incredibly Well Received"

2007-02-22T16:11:00.001-08:00

by Brandon Hill

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates lays praise on Windows Vista

Yesterday, DailyTech reported that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was cautious about "overly aggressive" forecasts for Windows Vista. Ballmer went on to say that Vista’s slow retail start can be attributed to piracy which has become increasingly popular in emerging markets.

It appears that Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Ballmer haven't had much communication on the matter recently. Reuters asked Gates about any trepidation Microsoft might have about the outlook for Vista to which he responded "I don't know what you mean. Vista's had an incredible reception."

Gates deflected the questioning and instead decided to focus on what he sees as positive progress for Microsoft's newest consumer operating system. "The reviews have been fantastic. This is a big, big advance in the Windows platform. It's the world's most used piece of software... Overall, the reliability feedback has been well better than we expected," said Gates.

"People who sell PCs have seen a very nice lift in their sales. People have come in and wanted to buy Vista," Gates continued.

Gates is right about the lift in PC sales. According to NPD, PC unit shipments were up 67% the week Vista launched in comparison to the same period in 2006. That is a key measure for Microsoft as 80% of its OS revenue comes from PC OEMs. Vista's retail performance, however, was down 60% in comparison to Windows XP's opening week in 2001.

(c) www.dalilytech.com

Intel Pulls 45nm Xeon Launch Into 2007

2007-02-22T15:58:00.001-08:00

by Kristopher Kubicki

Intel promises 45nm server processors this year

Earlier today, Intel revealed to DailyTech more details regarding 45nm server products, including launch windows and compatibility.
Kirk Skaugen, general manager of Intel's Server Platform Group, opened his statements with "We were originally in the Q1'08 timeframe. Today I'm happy to announce to report for the first time that our server 45nm Xeon products based on the Penryn core will be available into production for the second half of 2007."
Intel's latest desktop guidance claims 45nm desktop SKUs will also launch in late 2007, with volume shipments occurring in 2008. As it stands right now, only the mobile 45nm SKUs are expected to launch in 2008.
Skaugen also confirmed that Penryn-based Xeon processors will utilize the same server platform as Xeon 5000, 5100 and 5300. Nehalem, Intel's next-generation micro architecture on the 45nm node slated for 2008, will require new platform technology and is not compatible with the Penryn platform.
45nm quad-core Harpertown and dual-core Wolfdale were originally slated to spearhead the next-generation Xeon launch in Q1 2008. The existing Bensley platform, Intel 5000P chipset, will still provide the heavy lifting for volume dual-socket on 45nm Xeon. A new platform, Cranberry Lake, will replace Bensley-VS for value dual-socket Intel platforms, and will support Harpertown and Wolfdale.
Intel hinted earlier this year it might pull some of its launches in after the Penryn tape-out proved slightly more successful than anticipated.

(c) www.dailytech.com

Asus launches XG Station, the world’s first external graphics card for laptops

2007-01-07T06:57:00.001-08:00

by Doug Berger

Today at CES Unveiled, we had a chance to look at Asus’ new XG Station - an external graphics card station for your laptop. The unit includes USB 2.0 ports, and a Dolby headphone jack, and supports both HDCP and HDMI for all of your high-def enjoyment. You get that? You can plug your regular laptop into the XG Station, plug the XG Station into an HD monitor, then watch your screen in awe. According to Asus, “Lab experiments on a notebook based on Intel 945GM graphics connected to the XG station with an ASUS EN7900GS graphics card showed an astounding 9 times increase in acceleration.”

The XG Station not only adds extra graphics, but it’s easy on the eyes with its LED information display - showing volume, clock speed, GPU temperature, Dolby status, Frames Per Second (FPS) and more.

(c) www.gadgetell.com

Dell's Black Ice Finds Home in New Quad-Core XPS Desktop?

2007-01-07T06:27:00.001-08:00

An anonymous tipster sent us this flyer of Dell's mysterious Black Ice technology. Apparently it's a two-stage thermoelectric liquid cooling solution that will be a part of Dell's forthcoming XPS 710 H2C, which our tipster says will come with an Inel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 CPU and two GeForce 8800 GTX cards (in SLI configuration). We'll keep our eyes peeled for the full scoop as the show progresses. – Louis Ramirez

(c) www.gizmodo.com

Duracell FM transmitter, extended battery combo for iPod Video

2007-01-07T06:15:00.001-08:00

by Christopher Grant

Already available for the iPod nano, Battery-Biz is rolling out their Duracell PowerFM line to the iPod Video, complete with FM transmitter, extended battery, and bonus protective silicon case. The extended battery more than doubles the iPod's run-time while powering the FM transmitter, with unlimited channel selection. It also replicates the iPod's dock connector, so you can still use all those other accessories without unplugging your 'Pod. No date yet (they're saying end of Q1, early Q2) but expect a retail price of $79.99.

(c) www.engadget.com

Asus S6 Pink Leather Limited Edition

2007-01-07T06:11:00.001-08:00

CES Unveiled – I am posting this article because none of the guys wanted to write about a pink laptop… We published about this cute notebook last year during the CES Unveiled: This time, Asus released the matching mouse ? Even if I do not believe that technology in pink is the real way to attract female customers, I do appreciate the creative effort of designing computers in other colors and texture than black or gray. By the way, it won an IF award and a G-Mark award – Eliane.

(c) www.uberzigmo.com

Toshiba unveils world's first HD DVD writer

2007-01-06T02:10:00.001-08:00

Always expect firsts from Toshiba America, the maker of computers/storage/projectors and so much more. The company announced the world's first HD DVD burner for desktop computers. (Wondering what HD DVDs are? Catch up on a story I wrote last year)

We knew this was coming. High-def DVD players has been available for since April 2006 (mostly thanks to Toshiba's computer and consumer electronics divisions). Toshiba says more than 1.5 million HD DVD movies have been sold. But who can resist using the same discs for storage purposes? Since high-definition video needs oodles of gigabytes, the discs can hold 30 GBs of digital files (that's approximately up to five full-length standard DVD films, up to 7,500 MP3 songs or up to 30,000 high-quality images, according to Toshiba).

The SD-H903A internal drive will be sold to computer companies and manufacturers beginning in February. The good news for consumers, we may start seeing PCs with HD DVD burners in the spring or summer.

Other specs:
It only writes HD DVD content in real time (that's 1x speed)
Also compatible with all older DVD and CD formats.

(c) blogs.ocregister.com

Three Intel quad-cores coming Monday

2007-01-06T01:49:00.001-08:00

Intel plans to launch three quad-core processors on Monday, covering two Xeons for lower-end servers and one mainstream model for desktop computers, sources familiar with the plan said.

As expected, the desktop chip is called the Core 2 Quad 6600 and will join the Core 2 Extreme QX6700 model Intel already ships. The new processor will run at 2.4GHz, and the front-side bus that links the chip to the rest of the system will run at 1066MHz, the company is expected to announce at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week.

Also set to arrive are two low-end Xeons, the 2.13GHz 3210 and 2.4GHz 3220. Both are designed for single-processor servers. The chips have 8MB cache and a 1066MHz front-side bus.

Intel declined to comment for this story.

The chipmaker began its quad-core product launch in November but now is fleshing out the lineup. It often launches desktop products with extreme models geared for demanding video game systems, then adds more moderately priced mainstream models later.

"I expect, with respect to the desktop quad-core, it's mostly a matter of maintaining a certain cadence, even if, practically speaking, there won't be a whole lot of near-term buyers," Illuminata analyst Gordon Haff said.

Intel's quad-core processors combine two dual-core chips into a single package. Rival chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices has a quad-core processor code-named Barcelona under development that puts all four cores on a single slice of silicon. However, that chip won't arrive until midway through this year.

Servers, which often juggle multiple independent tasks, are well-suited to taking advantage of multiple processing cores. With desktop machines, however, the benefits aren't as clear because software often isn't able to use all the cores effectively.

(c) news.com.com

Month of Apple Bugs Releases QuickTime Flaw

2007-01-03T00:16:00.001-08:00

The Month of Apple Bugs project promised to unveil security flaws in Mac OS X and Apple programs during January...and it's started with a Mac and Windows QuickTime bug.

The Month of Apple Bugs project—a follow up to a Month of Kernel Bugs and A Month of Browser Bugs—vowed to release details of bugs and securty exploits in Apple's Mac OS X operating system and popular Mac OS X applications…and the project is off and running, publicizing the details of a possible security exploit in Apple's QuickTime software by overflowing buffers with specially crafted rtsp:// URLs. The bug impacts QuickTime 7.1.3 for both Mac OS X and Windows.

The Month of Bugs projects have been the center of some controversy; many software developers and security analysts feel it is irresponsible to publish the details of working security vulnerabilities in widely-available software, arguing that only feeds the ever-active malware communities lurking on the Internet's dark underbelly and the possibility of real-world exploits. The responsible thing to do, they argue, is report the issues to the software vendors and security agencies, and publicize the details only when a patch or fix is available.

On the other hand, the "report and keep quiet" methodology rubs some people the wrong way: if their computers are vulnerable, they want to know the details now, regardless of whether a patch or fix is available, so at least they know what they're up against. The participants in the Bug a Month projects—such as the "mysterious" programmer operating under the tag "LMH"—have also expressed frustration at the amount of time software developers like Apple and Microsoft take to patch seemingly trivial vulnerabilities.

In any case, it would appear that Apple's Mac OS X and key applications—certainly not immune to security problems but thusfar spared the malware pain of the Windows world—are under a very public microscope.

(c) news.digitaltrends.com

WiFi on the highway: Avis to offer 3G-to-802.11 bridge

2007-01-03T00:00:00.001-08:00

by Eric Bangeman

Business travellers will soon have another option for connectivity when they are on the road. Start-up Autonet Mobile and car rental giant Avis are partnering to offer renters a device that will provide laptop users with WiFi access on the road. You can take "on the road" literally in this case, as the device is designed to create a WiFi hot spot accessible from within 100 feet of the car.

Autonet Mobile's In-Car Router is about the size of a laptop and draws power from the car's cigarette lighter outlet. The hardware itself is a bridge for a cellular provider's 3G network (Avis will likely have contracts with 3G providers around the country), acting as a WiFi gateway for those connected to it. Other 3G-WiFi bridges are already available from the likes of Linksys and Kyocera, but this appears to be the first targeted exclusively at vehicles.

Autonet Mobile CEO Sterling Pratz told the International Herald Tribune that the In-Car Router will function in around 95 percent of the country, including all major US cities. Pratz claims to have minimized the problem of dropped signals with a technology similar to that used by the space shuttles to maintain an Internet connection.

In the absence of a WiFi network, laptop users can already get on the Internet at faster-than-dial-up speeds via 3G PCMCIA cards from the major cellular provides. Should you need to share that connection, it's easy enough to do so without using additional hardware via functionality built into your favorite modern OS.

Is it time to add surfing the Internet to the already-alarming list of distractions facing drivers? Actually, we're already way past that point. I've used my cell phone and laptop to check e-mail and get on IRC or even engage in some light browsing while on the road (only when someone else was behind the wheel). Autonet Mobile's solution—assuming it has indeed overcome the technical obstacles inherent in maintaining connectivity while travelling at high speeds—seems targeted at a niche market. Once Mobile WiMAX (802.16e) and 802.20 networks—which will provide broadband-class connections on the go—come online in the next few years, the shelf life for devices like the In-Car Router may prove to be relatively brief.

If the In-Car Router comes with a vanilla AC adapter for use outside of the car, it could at the very least provide an additional marketing hook for Avis as it battles for rental customers. Will it offset the increase in insurance premiums due to accidents caused by drivers distracted by YouTube?

(c) www.arstechnica.com

Early AMD ATI "R600" Specs, Benchmarks Leaked

2007-01-01T23:19:00.001-08:00

Details of AMD's next generation Radeon hit the web

Newly created site Level 505 has leaked benchmarks and specifications of AMD’s upcoming ATI R600 graphics processor. The upcoming graphics processor is expected to launch in January 2007 with an expected revision arriving in March 2007. These early specifications and launch dates line up with what DailyTech has already published and are present on ATI internal roadmaps as of workweek 49.

Preliminary specifications from Level 505 of the ATI R600 are as follows:

64 4-Way SIMD Unified Shaders, 128 Shader Operations/Cycle
32 TMUs, 16 ROPs
512 bit Memory Controller, full 32 bit per chip connection
GDDR3 at 900 MHz clock speed (January)
GDDR4 at 1.1 GHz clock speed (March, revised edition)
Total bandwidth 115 GB/s on GDDR3
Total bandwidth 140 GB/s on GDDR4
Consumer memory support 1024 MB
DX10 full compatibility with draft DX10.1 vendor-specific cap removal (unified programming)
32FP [sic] internal processing
Hardware support for GPU clustering (any x^2 [sic] number, not limited to Dual or Quad-GPU)
Hardware DVI-HDCP support (High Definition Copy Protocol)
Hardware Quad-DVI output support (Limited to workstation editions)
230W TDP PCI-SIG compliant

This time around it appears AMD is going for a different approach by equipping the ATI R600 with less unified shaders than NVIDIA’s recently launched GeForce 8800 GTX. However, the unified shaders found on the ATI R600 can complete more shader operations per clock cycle.

Level505 claims AMD is expected to equip the ATI R600 with GDDR3 and GDDR4 memory with the GDDR3 endowed model launching in January. Memory clocks have been set at 900 MHz for GDDR3 models and 1.1 GHz for GDDR4 models. As recent as two weeks ago, ATI roadmaps had said this GDDR3 launch was canceled. These same roadmaps claim the production date for R600 is February 2007, which would be after a January 22nd launch.

Memory bandwidth of the ATI R600 is significantly higher than NVIDIA’s GeForce 8800-series. Total memory bandwidth varies from 115GB/s on GDDR3 equipped models to 140GB/s on GDDR4 equipped models.

Other notable hardware features include hardware support for quad DVI outputs, but utilizing all four outputs are limited to FireGL workstation edition cards.

There’s also integrated support for multi-GPU clustering technologies such as CrossFire too. The implementation on the ATI R600 allows any amount of ATI R600 GPUs to operate together in powers of two. Expect multi-GPU configurations with greater than two GPUs to only be available for the workstation markets though.

The published results are very promising with AMD’s ATI R600 beating out NVIDIA’s GeForce 8800 GTX in most benchmarks. The performance delta varies from 8% up to 42% depending on the game benchmark.

When DailyTech contacted the site owner to get verification of the benchmarks, the owner replied that the benchmark screenshots could not be published due to origin-specific markers that would trace the card back to its source -- the author mentioned the card is part of the Microsoft Vista driver certification program.

If Level505's comments seem a little too pro-ATI, don't be too surprised. When asked if the site was affiliated in any way to ATI or AMD, the owner replied to DailyTech with the statement that "two staff members of ours are directly affiliated with AMD's business [development] division."

(c) www.dailytech.com

Intel: We will produce foreign documents in AMD antitrust case

2006-12-30T17:24:00.001-08:00

by Nate Anderson

Though not yet stretching to the epic lengths of Jarndyce and Jarndyce, the AMD v. Intel antitrust lawsuit has been going for well over a year and is still mired in arguments about what materials will be allowed in the discovery phase of the trial. One of those arguments has just been settled as Intel has bowed to the decision of the case's special master, Vince Poppiti, and agreed to release documents about its foreign business practices.

In a letter to Judge Joseph Farnan, Intel's law firm says that the company will not be filing any objections to the special master's report. "While Intel obviously had hoped for a different outcome regarding discovery, Intel of course will comply with the Special Master's decision and will respond to discovery as the Special Master directs," said the letter, though it also noted that Poppiti was not making any claims about the admissibility of any evidence uncovered during discovery.

AMD has accused Intel of violating antitrust law by giving out cash payments or using discriminatory pricing in order to keep AMD from making any gains in the CPU market. AMD filed its lawsuit last year in federal court, though it suffered a setback in early 2006 when the judge ruled that US courts have no jurisdiction over Intel's alleged anticompetitive actions outside the US.

Intel wanted the judge to rule that this meant AMD should only be restricted to US information during discovery. AMD argued that it should be allowed to look for evidence in any part of Intel's business so long as the alleged offenses took place in the US, and Poppiti agreed earlier this month.

(c) www.arstechnica.com

Apple takes $84 million charge, defends Jobs

2006-12-30T17:19:00.001-08:00

by Graeme Wearden

Apple Computer released new information about its allocation of stock options on Friday, defending Chief Executive Steve Jobs following speculation that a key document had been forged.

In its delayed annual report, published early on Friday, Apple said it would restate its financial results for the last three years and also take a charge of $84 million.

Apple also said that while Jobs was "aware (of) or recommended the selection of some favorable grant dates, he did not receive or financially benefit from these grants or appreciate the accounting implications."

"The special committee, its independent counsel and forensic accountants have performed an exhaustive investigation of Apple's stock option-granting practices," former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, chair of the special committee, and Jerome York, chairman of Apple's Audit and Finance Committee, said in a joint statement. "The board of directors is confident that the company has corrected the problems that led to the restatement, and it has complete confidence in Steve Jobs and the senior management team."

Earlier this week, legal Web site Law.com claimed that federal prosecutors were looking closely at "apparently falsified" stock option documents. Other reports claimed that chief executive Steve Jobs had received a grant of 7.5 million share options in 2001 without the required approval from the full Apple board and that documents were subsequently drawn up to suggest that the board had approved them.

The allegations have sparked concern that Jobs could be forced to resign, robbing Apple of its visionary leader. Apple's stock price has dropped about 5 percent this week, but it rose by almost 3 percent following Friday's announcement.

Earlier this year, one of Apple's former chief financial officers quit the company's board of directors after the internal probe found evidence of some irregularities in stock option allocation.

Almost 200 technology companies have been caught up in the options scandal--including News.com publisher CNET Networks--and have been forced to investigate whether stock grants were backdated, a practice in which the grant date of an option is moved to coincide with a low point in the value of a company's shares.

Last week, Juniper Networks admitted that it would have to take a $900 million charge, while civil and criminal charges have been filed against several former executives of storage vendor Brocade Systems.

(c) www.zdnet.com

Newfangled DVD Copy Protection Apparently Cracked; Now The Real Fun Starts

2006-12-30T17:15:00.001-08:00

Next-gen DVD players are already something of a joke. Despite their ability to play HD content, industry infighting over two competing standards has stymied their introduction, and their high prices don't help, either. But HD isn't the only new feature these players enable -- they've got a fantastic new DRM scheme, called AACS, too. But, just like pretty much every other DRM scheme out there, rumors say it's already been cracked. It's inevitable, really, and illustrates just what an exercise in futility implementing DRM is: it certainly doesn't stop piracy, as the content available on file-sharing networks indicates, and it simply raises costs and prevents honest consumers from using content they've legitimately purchased in the ways which they'd like. In any case, if AACS really has been cracked, it will be interesting to see the industry response. AACS is supposed to be able to adapt and be changed as time goes on. For instance, keys on playback devices can apparently be revoked and updated in order to allow the DRM to be updated and keep pace with cracks and hacks. However, simply not updating a player may not shield a user from updated DRM, since the copy-protection on discs will change, too -- and if a player hasn't been updated, it won't play the new media. Surely the movie industry feels great about this, and thinks it's really got one over on crackers and pirates. Here's the thing, though: whatever changes they make, the DRM will just get cracked again. And changing around the DRM and requiring updates and breaking functionality isn't going to hurt those people -- it's just going to frustrate honest consumers who won't understand why their expensive DVD player won't play movies any more.

(c) www.techdirt.com

Luxurious Leather Signature Suits for MacBooks

2006-12-26T13:42:00.001-08:00

Case-mate’s stylish Signature Suits are form fitting leather wraps for the Macbook and MacBook Pros. The casing of the Signature Suit is molded out of an impact resistant shell, it has a soft interior lining, an easy slide in/slide out design, and it has a cooling vent on the underside for airflow.

The suits are available in black with a white accent, black with a red accent, phantom black, white with black accent, white with a red accent, alpine white and sienna red. These stylish laptop suits retail for $149, which isn’t exactly cheap, but these suits will really make your laptop look and feel luxurious.

(c) www.iyiz.com

RIAA Sues AllofMP3.com for $1.65 Trillion

2006-12-26T13:30:00.001-08:00

RIAA sued the Moscow based AllofMP3.com which sold DRM less MP3 for roughly $1.65 Trillion at the rate of $150,000 each for 11 million songs that were download from their website June to October. AllofMP3 was selling full albums for $3 without paying royalties to its original artist. Its illegal in other countries but in Russia its completely legal.

Earlier this week, Internet Service Provider, Perspektiv banned its users from accessing AllofMP3.com and to counter this move Piratebay decided to block Perspektiv users from access their site. Finally Perspektiv was forced to lift the ban (Piratebay turned off the ban too). Looks like they are playing it like an Eye for an Eye game.

I’m sure the entire lawsuit will be settled in court for something lower than $1.65 Trillion. Good news is that AllofMP3 is giving an special 20% discount till January 14th, 2007. Grab the deal before it goes offline.

(c) www.tech-buzz.net

2006: The Year in PCs and Chips

2006-12-26T13:02:00.001-08:00

From Macs running Windows to Justice Department probes to quad-core processors: 2006 was a busy year.

Vendors in the PC and chip industries moved boldly in 2006, changing the marketplace map through mergers, recalls, layoffs, and lawsuits. Oh, and they launched some impressive new products too, keeping Moore's Law moving as they built smaller, faster chips and cooler, more efficient computers. Here, in chronological order, we share a sampling of the biggest events of the past 12 months.

Apple Releases Macs That Run on Intel Chips

In January Apple Computer sold its first Mac PCs that run on chips from Intel instead of on chips from IBM and Motorola, fulfilling a promise made in June 2005. Apple substitutes Intel's Core Duo chip for the PowerPC and G4 chips in its iMac and 15-inch MacBook Pro, soon followed by the Mac mini and 13-inch MacBook.

The move also let Apple expand from its own operating system. In April, Apple launches its Boot Camp software, enabling Intel-based Macs to run their choice of Apple's OS X or Microsoft's Windows XP.

AMD Announces ATI Acquisition

In July Advanced Micro Devices announces it would buy Canadian graphics chip vendor ATI Technologies for $5.4 billion. Integrating its processors with ATI's chip sets would allow AMD to sell platforms of integrated technologies, competitive with Intel bundles like Centrino, Viiv, and VPro, analysts say. Another effect of the merger is to leave Nvidia as the only independent graphics chip vendor in the market.

By November, Nvidia also says it will expand, paying $357 million to buy PortalPlayer, a maker of semiconductors for digital music players.

Battery Recall Begins

Dell recalls 4.1 million notebook batteries in August as a growing number of customers report they could short-circuit, causing some to overheat and catch fire. Within days, other vendors join the recall, leading to 8.1 million recalls of the lithium ion cells manufactured by Sony. Other PC vendors affected by the largest recall in consumer electronics history include Apple, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Lenovo, and Toshiba.

Intel Reorganizes, Lays Off Thousands

In September, Intel lays off 10,500 workers--about 10 percent of the workforce--as Chief Executive Paul Otellini enacts a promised reorganization that has already included the sale of its media and signaling business, the firing of 1000 executives, and the sale of its XScale smart phone chip division. Otellini blames slowing growth in the PC market when he predicts Intel's annual profits will reach only $9.3 billion for 2006, down from $12.1 billion in 2005. Analysts point out that Intel had also lost revenue by slashing prices on its chips in an effort to slow gains in market share by rival AMD.

Justice Department Investigates SRAM Market

The Department of Justice launches a probe in October of sales practices in the SRAM memory chip market, serving subpoenas to Cypress Semiconductor, Mitsubishi Electric, Samsung Electronics, Sony Electronics, and Toshiba. The investigation comes shortly after the Justice Department wins convictions and multimillion-dollar fines for price fixing in the closely related DRAM industry. By December, the Justice Department also turns its focus to graphics chips makers, demanding documents from AMD and Nvidia as part of an antitrust investigation.

Meanwhile, AMD continues another antitrust fight, continuing its long-running suit against Intel over accusations that the much larger chip-maker intimidated vendors from using AMD chips. That case is scheduled to come before a judge in April 2009.

HP Tops Dell as World's Largest PC Vendor

Hewlett-Packard overtakes Dell in October as the world's largest PC vendor, capping a year when Dell had reported a series of sagging profits and the start of an accounting investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. HP has its own problems, coping with a spying scandal on its board of directors that leads to criminal investigations and the resignation of chief executive Patricia Dunn. But Dell is unable to stop its loss of market share even when the company ends its longtime allegiance to Intel and begins selling PCs powered by chips from AMD as well. Dell Chief Executive Kevin Rollins says the company was also hurt by slashing prices in order to bolster market share, and pledges to spend $100 million to hire more sales and call-center workers.

Intel Launches Quad-Core Processors for PCs

Intel launches the first quad-core processors for mainstream desktops and servers, continuing its effort to rebound from a loss of sales to AMD. The new chips include the Core 2 Extreme QX6700 for gamers and Xeon 5300 for servers, coming just a few months after Intel launches a new family of dual-core chips including the "Conroe" Core 2 Duo for desktops and "Woodcrest" Xeon 5100 for servers.

Still, the arms race continues, as AMD emphasizes its advantage in power efficiency and pledges to launch its own quad-core processor by the second quarter of 2007, the "Barcelona" quad-core Opteron 8000 for servers.

(c) www.pcworld.com

Intel Pentium 4 Prescott costs just $70 Or grab a Prescott Celeron for $47

2006-12-26T12:54:00.001-08:00

by Fuad Abazovic

US CPU prices today look realistic even compared to the mainland China consumer market.

The cheapest Core 2 Duo 6300 clocked at 1.86GHz LGA 775 Processor retail will cost only $183 retail. This boy can be heavily overclocked even with air cooling, some say to 2.6GHz or beyond.

But compared to other deals this is ultra expensive. You can get an Intel Celeron D 326 Prescott 2.53GHz LGA 775 for $47 only. This baby will be significantly slower but it is a quarter the price of a Core 2 Duo.

Intel's Pentium 4 511 2.8GHz LGA 775 RoHS version processor costs $70 retail. If you want a Pentium 4, a dual-core Intel Pentium D 805 Smithfield at 2.66GHz LGA 775 processor (Model HH80551PE0672MN OEM version) you will need to spend $89.

The Vista upgrade market can only be super-thrilled and happy as less than $100 bucks will get you a decent CPU.

All of these details are here so go and make your Yule. Newegg might even ship it to you before Yule Monday

(c) www.theinquirer.net

Vista security spec 'longest suicide note in history'

2006-12-26T12:25:00.001-08:00

by Andrew Thomas

VISTA'S CONTENT PROTECTION specification could very well constitute the longest suicide note in history, claims a new and detailed report from the University of Auckland in New Zealand.

"Peter Gutmann's report describes the pernicious DRM built into Vista and required by MS for approval of hardware and drivers," said INQ reader Brad Steffler, MD, who brought the report to our attention. "As a physician who uses PCs for image review before I perform surgery, this situation is intolerable. It is also intolerable for me as a medical school professor as I will have to switch to a MAC or a Linux PC. These draconian dicta just might kill the PC as we know it."

But this isn't just a typical anti-Microsoft rant. Gutmann's report runs to 6,000 words and contains hardly any FSF-style juvenile invective.

"Windows Vista includes an extensive reworking of core OS elements in order to provide content protection for so-called "premium content", typically HD data from Blu-Ray and HD-DVD sources. Providing this protection incurs considerable costs in terms of system performance, system stability, technical support overhead, and hardware and software cost," says Gutmann on his homepage.

"These issues affect not only users of Vista but the entire PC industry, since the effects of the protection measures extend to cover all hardware and software that will ever come into contact with Vista, even if it's not used directly with Vista (for example hardware in a Macintosh computer or on a Linux server). This document analyses the cost involved in Vista's content protection, and the collateral damage that this incurs throughout the computer industry."

He also claims that Vista's content protection will 'have to violate the laws of physics if it is to work'.

I'm not going to comment on the details of the report and its implications but merely suggest that you read it for yourselves and come to your own conclusions. I'd also venture to suggest that Microsoft might want to comment on Gutmann's work.

(c) www.theinquirer.net

AMD lent $650 million for New York State fab

2006-12-26T12:02:00.001-08:00

We wanted to know which is the best overclocking platform for Intel’s Core 2 Duo and some people who are really into it said we should maybe wait for the Nforce 680i motherboards.

They should be the fastest for both memory and CPU overclocking and the boards should emerge in the following days.

We know these will end up faster than both Intel’s high-end chipset 975X and the P965 although we know it will have a rough ride to beat RD600 from DAAMIT.

It supports three PCIe slots, two for graphic cards and one for physics, I guess they saw this one from ATI. We know that the memory can hit 1200MHz if not even higher. The boards based on it should be announced on the 8th, together with the new Geforce thingummy.

(c) www.theinquirer.net

Microsoft applies for "RSS patent"

2006-12-26T12:01:00.001-08:00

by Jeremy Reimer

Late last week, right before the Christmas season began, Microsoft filed a patent related to using RSS services inside a web browser and throughout an operating system. The patent was filed with the United States Patent Office (USPTO) by Microsoft employee Amar S. Gandhi, with seven other names on the patent.

Is Microsoft trying to patent RSS technology as a whole or RSS readers in specific, as has been reported elsewhere? Not really. The patent itself makes no claims over the Really Simple Syndication (RSS) specification itself. Rather, the patent describes a way for an operating system to centrally manage RSS subscriptions via an API which can be used by other applications to access and/or modify the subscription data.

The patent itself describes the problem this is aimed at, in more detail: "Each RSS application will typically have its own list of subscriptions. When the list of subscriptions is small, it is fairly easy for a user to enter and manage those subscriptions across the different applications. As the list of subscriptions grows, however, management of the subscriptions in connection with each of these different RSS-enabled applications becomes very difficult. Thus, it is very easy for subscription lists to become unsynchronized."

In addition, the API can be used within applications to publish stories directly to a blog or other content-managed web site. In theory, this allows developers to quickly add RSS support to their own applications via the API.

The Microsoft RSS Team blog has new entries responding to concerns that the patent is too broad. "First these patents describe specific ways to improve the RSS end-user and developer experience (which we believe are valuable and innovative contributions)—they do not constitute a claim that Microsoft invented RSS." The blog goes on to mention that Microsoft has already released various Atom and RSS extensions under a Creative Commons license, and points out that both Google and Apple have applied for RSS-related patents in the past.

Still, because Microsoft is Microsoft, any move they make in the legal and patent sphere is bound to come under intense scrutiny. The company has a culture of applying for as many patents as possible (one program manager I talked to said his higher-ups were always suggesting he patent everything he could). Many of these are "defensive patents" designed to prevent Microsoft from being sued by other patent-holding companies. However, the issue of software patents in general is still a very contentious one, with some people believing that they should not exist at all.

(c) www.arstechnica.com

Board game tests PC graphics to limit

2006-12-26T11:46:00.001-08:00

Unable to display Scrabble

Just how difficult can it be to write a version of the board game, Scrabble, that could be viewed on a regular, XP based PC? Too difficult for Ubisoft, it seems.

It seems fairly reasonable to assume that if you're a keen games player, you do a bit of research and get yourself a decent graphics card allied to a pretty reasonable display.

That surely applies to a contemporary shoot-em-up game but to Scrabble for Heaven's sake? All it needs to do is display a board and a few tiles (chips).

Yet this INQ hack wasted a couple of hours trying to get Ubisoft's Scrabble 2005 to work and to no avail.

The irony is that the game was bought purely because an ancient version – also by Ubisoft – refused to load under XP, having run happily under Windows 95 and 98.

Does everybody have to possess the graphics industry knowledge of a Fudo to get a PC game to work, the INQ wonders?

Another irony is that a close friend of the INQ, Dr Peter Turcan, made his name by creating a version of Scrabble that could run on a Sinclair ZX80!

Just for the record this is what the PC has: a SiS Mirage 3000+ display adaptor, married to a Video Seven (V7) L17GM LCD display.

The game requires DirectX – for which the drivers have very definitely been loaded.

At this rate, going back to playing the game with a physical board and tiles seems to be the most sensible option.

(c) www.theinquirer.net

Nvidia G80 Vista drivers in 2006 don't materialis

2006-12-26T11:34:00.001-08:00

DirectX 10 is 2007

WE KNEW that Nvidia and everyone else targeted DirectX10 for next year but we and dozens of G80 users are frustrated as we don’t even have buggy drivers for the new OS yet. We at least expected some beta in 2006 but this driver has been more than delayed.

Nvidia is playing stall until it's ready tactics but is getting a lot of criticis about it. People had time over the Yule break and all G80 owners can forget about Aero glass for Yule and New Year.

So what happens when you plug a G80 into a Vista system? You are forced to install standard VGA driver that will let you change the resolution to fit your native resolution of the screen and that’s it. Aero Glass won’t work and even rendering of 2D windows will be difficult.

Nvidia has really disappointed us with lack of Vista driver in 2006 but we hope that the full working version will be ready soon. Until then, ATI users can play all they want with Vista with the exception that a few things won’t work well, but every card is supported while Nvidia users can forget the super high end G80s for the time being.

I exepect that Nvidia plans to show G80 driver at CES as internally Nvidia has it for a while, but it doesn’t want to share it yet.

(c) www.theinquirer.net

Dell hints at "Black Ice" technology

2006-12-25T09:16:00.001-08:00

Dell today posted an update to its XPS 710 website referencing a technology only known as Black Ice. The company makes an allusion to a "cold front" but does not reveal more than a teaser image. Sources, however, suggest that Black Ice may be a phase change cooling system similar to that of asetek's Vapochill cases, which dramatically reduce the temperature of the system beyond even liquid cooling. The improvement would let Dell overclock even the hot-running Core 2 Extreme four-core processor without affecting other components. The system builder has not committed to an unveiling date but may reveal Black Ice in time for the CES expo in early January.

Earlier this year, Dell released a special edition XPS system known as the Renegade which featured an overclocked, factory-warrantied Pentium 4 as well as a then special quad-SLI video card offering.

(c) www.electronista.com

Rumor: Mac Pro/Apple Supporting Blu-ray

2006-12-24T06:08:00.001-08:00

Prediction of the day: Apple is going to announce Blu-ray support for a few of their machines come MacWorld. We have two bits of information we're basing this one on. One, the above image out of computershopper.com, which was sent to us by reader Sky. It's a scan that shows the feature comparison between Blu-ray and HD DVD. The interesting part is of the manufacturer support, which notes Apple among the companies to support Blu-ray. Typo? Early leak?

The second bit of evidence comes from an inside tip in one of Apple's departments. Apparently, Blu-ray people were there for an entire week holding talks on incorporating Blu-ray into Apple's products. Of course, the HD DVD camp could have also had a week there as well, but our tipster said he/she did not see them there personally.

Our prediction is that Apple's going to surprise-announce Blu-ray support come January, possibly in the Mac Pro and iMac lines. – Jason Chen

Thanks Sky!

Update: Oops, right, as the commenters pointed out, Apple's had "support" for the Blu-ray format since they joined up (thanks Neil). However the "manufacturer" support is something that seems new to us, as other commenters point out that there is no current hardware support. The fact that they're under the manufacturer's column now is why we're thinking they will include Blu-ray in their machines come January.

(c) www.gizmodo.com

New Core 2 Processors Around the Corner

2006-12-24T05:14:00.001-08:00

Intel's roadmap adds more quad-core and value dual-core in the pipeline

It’s been a while since Intel last made notable updates to its desktop processor roadmap. Last month DailyTech revealed Intel is expected to launch a variety of new Core 2 Duo and Pentium E 2100 processors including refreshed Conroe based products next year. Intel’s latest desktop roadmap reveals more new processors and removes some previously reported models.

Intel is expected to release its first mainstream quad-core Core 2 Quad Q6600 early next year. The processor is still on track for a Q1’2007 launch with an $851 per-unit in 1,000 unit quantities price tag. While this may seem a bit steep, Intel is expected to cut the price of the Core 2 Quad 6600 down to $530 per-unit in 1,000 unit quantities when Q2’2007 rolls around.

The Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 won’t be the only one in the Core 2 Quad family though. Somewhere between Q2’2007 to Q3’2007 Intel will add one more member to its Core 2 Quad family. This will arrive as the Core 2 Quad Q6400. The Core 2 Quad Q6400 will be clocked at 2.13 GHz and operate on a 1066 MHz front-side bus. It will have an 8MB L2 cache with support for Intel VT, Enhanced Intel Speedstep, Intel EM64T and NX bit technologies.

Moving onto the dual-core product roadmap Intel has made a few changes to its latest roadmap. Gone from the latest roadmap is the Core 2 Duo E6390 which was essentially a Core 2 Duo E6400 with Intel VT and vPro extensions disabled. The previously reported Intel Core 2 Duo E6650 has been renamed in the latest roadmap. The latest roadmap has renamed the Core 2 Duo E6650 to Core 2 Duo E6550. Aside from the naming changes it remains a 1333 MHz front-side bus processor clocked at 2.33 GHz.

Previous roadmaps have indicated that 3.0 GHz Core 2 Duo processors will be available next year as well. Currently, this remains unchanged.

New to this roadmap are new Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 and E6320 processors. These processors are clocked at 2.13 GHz and 1.86 GHz like the Core 2 Duo E6400 and E6300. However, the Core 2 Duo E6420 and E6320 will have 4MB of L2 cache instead of the 2MB found on the Core 2 Duo E6400 and E6300. The two processors are expected to launch in Q2’2007. Pricing for the Core 2 Duo E6420 and E6320 will be $183 and $163 in 1,000 unit quantities respectively.

Since the Core 2 Duo E6420 and E6320 are endowed with 4MB of L2 cache this leaves room for the new Core 2 Duo E4x00 series processors. It was previously reported the Core 2 Duo E4x00 series was expected to have two models—the Core 2 Duo 4400 and 4200. However the roadmap has changed and the Core 2 Duo E4200 has been scrapped. Nevertheless in place of the Core 2 Duo E4200 is a new E4300. The Core 2 Duo E4300 is clocked at 1.8 GHz on an 800 MHz front-side bus. It’s expected to launch late January with pricing starting at $163 in 1,000 unit quantities. The Core 2 Duo E4300 is expected to have a one year life cycle with a product discontinuance notice expected in Q4’2007 and reach end-of-life in Q1’2008.

Joining the Core 2 Duo E4300 will be the Core 2 Duo E4400. The Core 2 Duo E4400 is expected to arrive in Q2’2007. It will be clocked at 2.0 GHz and priced at $133 in 1,000 unit quantities. With the launch of the Core 2 Duo E4300 in Q2’2007, Intel is expected to slash prices on the Core 2 Duo E4300 down to $113 in 1,000 unit quantities.

(c) www.dailytech.com

Dell to launch Blu-ray notebook pc 'XPS M1710' in Korea

2006-12-24T04:40:00.001-08:00

SEOUL, Korea (AVING) -- <Visual News> Dell International announced the launch of ' XPS M1710', its Blu-ray notebook pc in Korea market. It features Core 2 Duo processor T7600(2.33GHz/667MHz FSB/4MB L2 cache), 512MB dual channel 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM memory, 80GB(5400RPM SATA) HDD, and 9-cell batteries.

Suggesting price is 3,299,000(KRW-VAT not included) or 3,628,900(KRW-VAT included)

(c) www.aving.net

Dungeon & Fighter PC

2006-12-22T08:45:00.001-08:00

You might not have heard about Dungeon & Fighter, but it is a shoot 'em up from Korea that is wildly popular. Samsung has created a gaming rig that pays homage to that fast and furious shooter, but the model number could do with a rename. Known as the DM-Z60/Sport PC, it is powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo processor and comes with an entry-level SLI video card. The popularity of this game has even spilled over to Japanese shores and it is known as Arad Senki there. Those who love the game ought to start saving some money today in order to get a matching computer. Pricing details are unavailable though.

(c) www.ubergizmo.com

What's next for AMD?

2006-12-21T15:44:00.001-08:00

by Jon Stokes

In a series of announcements and conference calls, culminating in a recent analyst meeting, AMD has been slowly revealing pieces of the big picture regarding where they plan to take their platforms in the coming years. I've been following the coverage, and I've put together a synthesis of it below.

Fusion and Torrenza: die-level vs. board-level

AMD's long-term plan appears to go as follows. First, they'll push Torrenza as a platform for doing board-level integration with specialized coprocessors. This way, system builders will have the option of tailoring systems to particular workloads by changing the mix of processors that inhabit the coherent HyperTranspoort sockets on a motherboard.

So for instance, for a four-socket motherboard, one customer may want two stream processors and two multicore general-purpose processors (i.e., Opteron or Athlon), while another may want one Java + XML coprocessor and three multicore general-purpose processors. Thus, system builders can mix and match to get the best performance per watt per dollar for the type of workload that their customers typically run.

Fusion and die-level integration

AMD also plans to do the same type of mix-and-match strategy at the level of the processor die by offering an array of heterogeneous multicore parts that fit different workloads. A "quad-core" processor from AMD might have two general-purpose cores and two specialized processor cores (e.g., a stream processor and a Java + XML coprocessor), one general-purpose core and three specialized cores, and so on. AMD refers to these specialized computing cores as application processing units (APUs), and they plan to develop an array of such application-specific, modularly designed cores that can be dropped onto a die and fabbed with minimal cost.

In addition to modular processor cores that can be mixed and matched to suit different application types, AMD also plans to make other parts of the processor modular, as well. Specifically, the processor will host one or more HyperTransport modules and other I/O interfaces, a memory controller, different levels and amounts of cache, and so on.

All of this die-level mixing and matching goes by the name of Fusion, with the result that Fusion and Torrenza are essentially the same idea, but at the die level and board level respectively.

AMD would like to use the Fusion/Torrenza combo to escape an n-core race with Intel. When you consider the fact that Intel's approach to the nascent n-core race, in which the company starts out with package-level integration before moving to die-level integration, leaves them perpetually ahead of AMD in terms of cores-per-socket, it's easy to see why AMD doesn't want an n-core race to replace the MHz race.

So will AMD's flexible, mix-and-match, Fusion/Torrenza approach beat Intel's brute-force multicore approach over the medium term? It's really hard to say at this point, but the question is worth thinking about from a historical perspective.

Integration and reincarnation

To understand the ebb and flow of the modern (post-integrated circuit) history of computing, you need to know three fundamental rules that govern the evolution of computing systems:

Moore's Law: die-level integration is cheaper than board-level integration, and it gets ever cheaper as transistors shrink.
The abstraction vs. specialization tradeoff: modularity and abstraction can be cheaper (depending on the amount of overhead involved), but specialization is almost always faster.
Sutherland's "wheel of reincarnation": generally speaking, it's cheaper to do things with a combination of software and general-purpose hardware than it is to do them with specialized hardware, but sometimes the market demands faster instead of cheaper (see Rule #2). So functionality will move from the processor die to a dedicated coprocessor for speed's sake, and then back on to the processor die when the coprocessor becomes bloated with features and too expensive.

Let me take these three rules one at a time, and discuss their implications for AMD's overall strategy.

Rule #1 above may not look like the traditional formulation of Moore's Law, but if you've read my article on Moore's Law then you know that the traditional formulation doesn't look much like what Moore actually said. In fact, I think that my formulation here actually captures Moore's larger point, which was a point about the economics of integration, than does the traditional "transistor densities double every 18 months" phrase.

At any rate, this rule is the number one factor working against AMD's QuadFX initiative, which is basically a pitch to sell board-level integration using coherent HyperTransport and PCIe. The overwhelming economic advantages of die-level integration will forever relegate platforms that rely on board-level integration to more specialized niches. These specialized niches are profitable, but the really huge money is in the mass market, and the mass market has an endless appetite for die-level integration.

So the result of rule #1 for AMD's grand strategy is that Torrenza is a niche server/workstation technology, while Fusion could be used in everything from the high end of the market all the way down to mobile devices. The economics of microprocessors dictate that this is and will always be the case.

Rule #2 may mean that Fusion-based parts are generally slower and cheaper than whatever kind of specialized hardware that Intel is producing at the moment. I say this, because Fusion's basic idea of a library of modular functional blocks that are mixed and matched for different implementations seems to imply the heavy use of automated layout tools, with less process- and clockspeed-friendly customization. So the question for Fusion is, how much performance- and profit-killing overhead is implied in the modular design, and is the tradeoff worth it in terms of cost?

My point here is that the main way that Fusion is interesting is as a way to do performance per dollar (and per watt), and not raw performance. Note that this characterization is as true for servers as it is for, say, mobile phones. Leaving coprocessors on the system board (i.e., Torrenza) will probably make for better raw performance in most cases.

The other, closely related issue with such modular designs (software or hardware) is that they're forward-looking, with the idea being that an up-front investment in modularity and flexiblity will pay off over a projected long term scenario in which flexibility is important. But what if flexibility turns out not to be very important? Specifically, what if there are really only two or three types of functionality that will ever be worth putting on a processor die?

Put differently, AMD has pitched this idea of an APU as a sort of placeholder, and invited all of us to imagine many different types of specialized coprocessors that people will want to put on the CPU die. To help jump-start our imaginations, they've offered up the GPU as an example of functionality that's headed for the processor die in the very near future. Then, they have a few more minor, "hey, someone might do this" examples, like Java + XML processors and physics processors. But what if it turns out to be the case that the GPU—or, rather, a generic stream processor—is really the only specialized kind of coprocessor that's worth putting on the CPU die for the forseeable future? What if it turns out that there's essentially no such thing as an "APU," because in the real world all "APUs" are just stream processors?

This last point brings me to rule #3, the wheel of reincarnation. Sutherland's original observation that functionality moves back and forth between the main microprocessor and specialized, off-die hardware was originally made with respect to graphics processing. And indeed, graphics processing is really the only domain I can think of where the observation has consistently held true. So it's not insane to think that GPU functionality is ultimately the only thing that will continue to make that transition.

But maybe I'm wrong, and there are other specialized coprocessors that could profitably make the jump onto the CPU die. (Notice the word "profitably," because I'm sure there are some that could do so unprofitably, where the market wouldn't reward the time spent developing and implementing it.) If you can think of some other examples, post them in the discussion thread.

(c) www.arstechnica.com

A peek at Intel's upcoming roadmap

2006-12-21T15:34:00.001-08:00

by Jon Stokes

Two new rumors offer a peek at what's in the cards for Intel in 2007 and 2008. First up is a rumor from HKPEC that fleshes out the picture of the bottom end of Intel's lineup that has been emerging over the past few months. Specifically, we can now add more details of single-core Merom-based parts to what we've already heard about the single-core Conroe-L.

Previously, news had leaked out about a Merom-based Celeron M 520, which is supposed to be launched in January. (The brains of the rumored MacBook Thin, perhaps?) The new rumor brings news of a Celeron M 523 (933MHz) that will come out later in the year. This part, like the other Merom-based single core parts, is a 65nm Socket M part with a TDP of 5W.

Also fitting those same socket and TDP specs are two other Merom-based parts that will go under the "Core 2 Solo" moniker. These will sport higher clockspeeds and be sold under the U2100 (1.2GHz) and U2200 (1.06GHz) names. The Core 2 Solo parts are also due out in Q3 of 2007.

The news that these parts will be branded as "Core 2 Solo" makes me wonder if there's any truth to previously reported rumors that the single-core Conroe-L will be sold under the venerable Pentium brand name. Why would Intel revive the Pentium brand for single-core Conroe, while shipping single-core Meroms under the Core 2 Solo and Celeron brands?

In other Intel rumor news, VR-zone claims to have seen a roadmap that puts Intel past the 4GHz barrier in 2008. The chip that will break the barrier is allegedly the quad-core Bloomfield processor. Bloomfield has long been rumored to be a 45nm design that will use Intel's long-delayed common systems interconnect (CSI)—an answer to coherent HyperTransport that will also host the Itanium product family. Bloomfield is also a true quad-core part, in that all four cores sit on the same die and share an L2 cache.

I don't think that the 4GHz rumor sounds particularly implausible, given current clockspeeds on the 65nm process. However, I do wonder about part of the rumor that says they'll do it in the 130W power envelope.

(c) www.arstechnica.com

LG to launch a new 'TVPC' supporting powerful PC performance

2006-12-20T11:09:00.001-08:00

by Rose Kim

SEOUL, Korea (AVING) -- <Visual News> LG Electronics presented 'TVPC series' a sort of intelligence TV that embraces powerful PC inside while maintaining almost the same size of regular LCD TV.

It enables users to watch TV while they do various PC work like surfing the internet or editing documents. It can jump from TV-mode to PC-mode or vice versa easily with a touch of a button on remote control and provide instant access to web content related to the program that is currently on the screen, and allow users to move to the sites directly.

For PC-side, it features the same platform of LG's Xnote - intell celeronM 430 CPU, 160GB HDD, i945PM chipset, Intel GMA950 graphic chip, and 1GB DDR2 553 memory. WiFi access and wireless keyboard with mouse-function are provided as well.

Suggesting price is 1,850,000(KRW).

Meanwhile, LG anticipates rolling out another new 'TVPC' lineup that will support 'Time-machine' function and increased PC performance by the end of this month.

(C) www.aving.net

McAfee SiteAdvisor Plus Adds Support for Firefox and AOL

2006-12-20T09:17:00.001-08:00

By Brian Prince

McAfee announced Dec. 19 that its McAfee SiteAdvisor Plus safety tool now supports Firefox, AOL Instant Messenger and AOL Mail.

SiteAdvisor Plus actively shields consumers' computers from dangerous Web sites encountered when browsing, searching, instant messaging or e-mailing, said officials at the Santa Clara, Calif., company. The new Protected Mode feature prevents consumers from browsing risky sites, while Link Checker analyzes links contained in e-mail and instant messages. SiteAdvisor Plus also supports advanced phishing site detection.

In addition to Firefox, AIM and AOL Mail, SiteAdvisor Plus supports a wide range of IM and e-mail platforms, including Yahoo Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, Google Talk, Outlook, Outlook Express, Yahoo Mail, Microsoft Live Mail and Gmail.

"McAfee SiteAdvisor gives online consumers more than 285 million individual site ratings every day," said Mark Maxwell, senior product manager at McAfee, in a statement. "Adding support for AIM, AOL Mail and Firefox to SiteAdvisor Plus extends the premium product's reach to users of these popular e-mail, instant messaging and browser applications."

SiteAdvisor's software adds red, yellow or green ratings to sites and search results based on proprietary tests of more than 95 percent of the trafficked Web, officials said. The software has already been downloaded more than 10 million times, they added.

(C) www.eweek.com

First Overclocked GeForce 8800 Cards From XFX: X-Rated Speeds

2006-12-16T16:52:00.001-08:00

As if Nvidia's GeForce 8800 cards weren't already fast enough, XFX is taking it upon themselves to be the first company to overclock them, sending them into hyperspeed territory. At the head of the pack is the 8800 GTX XXX Edition which is overclocked from 575MHz to 630MHz. Meanwhile the core clock on the 8800 GTS XXX Edition gets a kick up from 500 MHz to 550MHz. Pricing on the cards isn't out yet, but you can expect to pay a nice premium for them when they do come out. – Louis Ramirez

[original post: www.gizmodo.com]

IBM, Intel develop virtualization performance benchmark

2006-12-16T11:17:00.001-08:00

by Patrick Thibodeau

It's been offered to SPEC, which is developing an industry standard

December 15, 2006 (Computerworld) -- There are already industry benchmarks for CPUs, mail servers and a wide range of other IT technologies -- and by this time next year, virtualization users may have an industry-sanctioned benchmark.

Last month, Standard Performance Evaluation Corp. (SPEC) created a working group to begin development of a virtualization standard. And this week, IBM and Intel said they have offered a virtualization benchmark to the standards group for its consideration.

What IBM and Intel are offering is called vConsolidate, which measures processor and memory throughput efficiency on two or more servers.

Lorie Wigle, director of server technology marketing at Intel, said IT planning departments will be able to use the benchmark to simulate the workloads they are planning to consolidate and determine the best hardware platform for them. The joint Intel and IBM benchmark should be ready for users sometime in the first half of next year, she said.

Warrenton, Va.-based SPEC, a nonprofit company that has developed a wide range of IT benchmarks, set up a working group on virtualization that includes representation from the major vendors, including IBM, Intel, Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Dell Inc., Sun Microsystems Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. Virtualization software vendors are also expected to participate, and IT managers have been invited to contribute ideas to a standards process, according to SPEC.

A benchmark has to be consistent across all operating platforms and has to be "fair for everybody involved," according to SPEC spokesman Bob Cramblitt, who said parts of what the vendors contribute to the standards effort may be included in a final standard. "Nobody is going to let one vendor get away with something that might favor their particular configuration."

Jay Bretzmann, manager of System x product marketing at IBM, said the benchmark is now being used by other vendors. He said a tool for measuring performance across larger servers is needed because customers are putting tmore important and strategic workloads in virtualization environments.

[original post: www.computerworld.com]

MS' New MultiPoint Lets Many Mice Work on a PC

2006-12-16T03:47:00.001-08:00

Microsoft has plans to commercialize a technology originally developed for schools in India to allow multiple mice to work with one PC. Originally this technology was to help in schools with many more children than PCs. Using the software you can connect several mice to the USB port of one computer. The technology is called MultiPoint and while it uses mice now, MS is working on allowing multiple keyboards and other peripherals to be used on one system at once as well, hence the MultiPoint moniker rather than MultiMouse. With this technology each user sees the same thing on screen; they just have their own input device.

[original post: www.everythingusb.com]

Adobe Photoshop CS3 Beta Available for Download

2006-12-15T13:46:00.001-08:00

Adobe's flagship product nears release

This week Adobe made the beta version of its next Photoshop installment, CS3, available for download. The one major caveat is that those who wish to try out the beta must already own a copy of Photoshop CS2, and a non academic version at that -- full retail only.

Photoshop CS3 has been long in the waiting for many graphics professionals and artists, particularly professional photographers. While Photoshop CS2 introduced integrated features such as RAW processing, CS3 is expected to take that even further, with more features as well as work with Adobe's upcoming Photoshop Lightroom.

The new CS3 beta is available for both Mac and Windows PCs. Mac users will find CS3 delivering a breath of needed fresh air, as for the past year Intel-Mac users have been running Photoshop under Rosetta. Adobe announced early on this year that it would not be updating CS2 to run natively on Intel-Macs, and instead putting its efforts into CS3. When Photoshop CS3 fully launches, it will be available in a universal binary format for Mac users.

[original post: http://dailytech.com]

Apple Planning MVNO, Squashing Helio?

2006-12-14T11:48:00.001-08:00

by Matt Hickey

So we know the iPhone is coming, we know it’s slim, we know that if we type the word “iPhone” again, our heads will explode, but what we don’t know is Apple’s plan for carriers. Kevin from Digg said he had knowledge that it would work on all networks. Of course, he also mucked up which technology Sprint uses, so we don’t count that as canon.

We mentioned briefly a couple months ago the idea that Apple might start up its own MVNO, like Helio or Virgin Mobile, to have more control over the total user experience than would be possible under an “unlocked” strategy.

TelecomsKorea agrees with us. In fact, it’s naming Helio as a possible casualty of such a plan, as Helio markets itself towards the same demographic as Apple: Young, hip, and with disposable income, people willing to pay for the lifestyle the brand affords.

While Helio isn’t exactly posting large numbers in the userbase column, we think it would definitely feel the pinch if Apple were to start up an iTunes-based or even .Mac-based network, as most of Helio’s features would be duplicated by Apple, and others (wireless iTunes, for example) would be introduced that couldn’t be easily matched.

At least Helio still has MySpace.

[original post: http://crunchgear.com]

Nvidia unveils nForceR 680a SLI MCP

2006-12-07T17:00:00.001-08:00

Nvidia introduced its new nForce 680a SLI media and communications processor (MCP), designed specifically for the new AMD Quad FX Platform with Dual Socket Direct Connect Architecture.

The nForce 680a SLI MCP provides processing capabilities on a massive scale, by allowing users to harness the power of up to four GPUs, eight displays, 12 SATA hard drives, and four gigabit Ethernet connections, all from a single consumer desktop PC, according to the company.

The nForce 680a SLI MCP is a motherboard core-logic solution providing a host of technologies, which include support for Nvidia SLI multi-GPU technology, with four PCI Express slots that can be used to drive up to eight independent, high-resolution displays for extended work spaces and advanced networking and storage capabilities, including support for up to four gigabit Ethernet connections and 12 SATA hard drives for a combined eight terabytes of media storage, according to Nvidia.

Additionally, the nForce 680a SLI MCP has been architected to take advantage of the power behind the AMD Athlon 64 FX-70 series processors, allowing users to also run multiple multi-threaded, CPU-intensive applications simultaneously without compromising performance, according to the company.

[original post: www.digitimes.com]

Half of North American Business PCs Aren't Ready for Vista

2006-12-07T16:45:00.001-08:00

Vista's stiff hardware requirements leave many PCs in the dark

Even though analysts predict that over 90 million copies of Windows Vista will ship next year -- far greater than the 67 million mark reached by Windows XP at the one year mark -- it might be a bumpy upgrade path for many businesses. Vista pushes PC hardware further than any previous version of Windows. Many business PCs will get stepped over when it comes to upgrades as a result.

Softchoice Research has determined that roughly half of all business PCs in North America won't make the grade when it comes to baseline requirements for Windows Vista. Likewise, only 6% of business PCs meets the baseline requirements for a "Vista Premium" label. eWeek reports:

The inventory data used in the study represents a total of 112,113 desktops from 472 North American organizations in the financial, health care, technology, education and manufacturing sectors... Vista's minimum CPU requirements have increased 243 percent from those of Windows XP, which in turn had a much smaller increase of 75 percent from Windows 2000's CPU requirements.

Vista's stiff system requirements in relation to currently available hardware represent a significant jump over Windows XP and the hardware available when it launched in 2001. "At the time of release 71 percent of the PCs met the system requirements for Windows XP, whereas only 50 percent of the PCs included in this study meet the minimum requirements to run Windows Vista," said Dean Williams of Softchoice.

The poor state of readiness of today's business PCs can be attributed to companies adopting longer cycles between PCs upgrades. Some companies are waiting 5 years or more before significant upgrades or replacements are made to PC inventory. "Most organizations planning to deploy Vista within the next two years will have a PC life cycle that is affected by these factors, which, taken together, present a significant operational and financial stumbling block if not planned for well ahead of time," said Williams.

For those companies that have already planned ahead for a Vista rollout and have made the appropriate hardware upgrades there will still be software/driver compatibility issues to deal with. Companies that haven't taken the plunge to bring their PCs up to par still have plenty of time to work out the hardware/software/driver kinks before Vista gets its secondary boost with Service Pack 1. In fact, surveys show that 33% of businesses will wait six months to one year to adopt Vista, while 27% will wait one to two years (just in time for SP1).

[original post: www.dailytech.com]

La Feel Multimedia Mouse, a MX610 Clone?

2006-12-05T23:33:00.001-08:00

It seems that integrating media controls in the keyboard is not enough anymore. Now we can get media controls on our mice as well thanks to the La Feel Optical Mouse. The La Feel is available in both blue and red colors and sports an 800 DPI sensor. The mouse also has a four-way scroll wheel, internet forward and back buttons and play/pause/volume keys as well as forward and backwards music track keys. I will say the mouse is rather ugly to me and the name is odd. If you want a proper mouse, get the Logitech MX610.

[source: www.everythingusb.com]

Will I ever have enough hard drive space?

2006-12-05T23:24:00.001-08:00

I just ordered another 300GB hard drive for my Media Center PC the other day (hopefully it will arrive in the next few days). That brings me up to 700GB of storage and I'm sure I will have that extra 300GB used up in not time.

I've already reluctantly deleted a lot of video which I will be keen to get back. If I could buy a 1TB hard drive for under $200 I would definitely have one and be filling it up fast and I know I'm not alone.

I don't even record or download video in HD quality, I don't know what I would do if I did given that HD content takes up almost 10 times more space. I'd be looking at needing 7TB of hard drive space on my PC instead.

Right now if I wanted to feel comfortable and could afford it I would like about 2TB of space with most of it housed on a network attached storage device (NAS), but five years from now I'll probably be sitting there with my 5TB of video storage wishing I could have 50TB.

I think my soon-to-be 700GB setup is above average but will be dwarfed by what some of you guys have out there. So if you have a beefy storage setup for your recorded videos let us know!

[source: www.pvrwire.com]

Birthday!

2006-11-27T08:43:00.000-08:00

Today is "My PC Universe" birthday!