Legit Reviews News History
SiS to produce DRAM modules
SiS are to enter the Dram market according to Digitimes. According to their sources SiS will be making DDR2 and DDR1-400 modules with the help of their parent company United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC).
SiS has purchased several module testers and expects to start shipping DRAM modules soon after receiving validation from its clients, according to the report, which added that the division will start generating sales in the second half of this year
Posted by | Tue, Feb 28, 2006 - 09:28 AM
Tuesday Reviews from Around the Web
A1 Electronics.net posted their review of the Thermaltake ToughPower 550w power supply today. Find this and many other reviews from the weekend by visiting the Legit Forums!
If it does what it is supposed to for us here what more can we ask of it. And of course the fan is quiet as none of us want a noisy power supply or indeed a noisy computer.
Posted by | Tue, Feb 28, 2006 - 08:46 AM
Google Offers National Archive Videos For Free
I think that this is a really great idea that will help the entire world. The National Archives and Google are teaming up to allow unprecedented access to historical film properties for free with just the click of a mouse. I personally will be checking into this and seeing what these rare films look like. Now Google just needs to get into the Vatican Library and scan all that material, but that will never happen.
Through a pilot program, U.S. archivist Allen Weinstein has collaborated with Google Video to compile an online library of 103 films, including movies, documentaries and other cinematic creations formerly unavailable to those who can't make the trip to Washington, D.C. "This is an important step to achieve our goal to become an archive without walls," Weinstein said. "For the first time, the public will be able to view this collection of rare and unusual films on the Internet emphasizing the importance of providing access to records anytime, anywhere."
Posted by | Tue, Feb 28, 2006 - 06:00 AM
The KODE5 Global Gaming Revolution Begins
Remember ACON4 and ACON5 over in China that featured some of the best Warcraft 3 players in the world? While the event was started by ABIT and ended some of the original founders have changed names, but kept the event nearly the same. Now called KODE5 it is still alive and kicking. If you play Counter-Strike: Source or Quake 4 take a look at this press release.
KODE5 masses gamers in 16 countries in a series of regional events to find the best gamers from around the world. The best then fly to an undisclosed location to square off against the world?s gaming elite. With television crews from around the world broadcasting, international media in attendance, and mass crowds rioting for their favorites, the KODE5 Global Finals will bring gaming to the center stage like no other gaming event. KODE5 will take competitive gaming to another level and gain the respect that gaming deserves. The result will be gamers taking gaming to the mainstream.
Posted by | Tue, Feb 28, 2006 - 05:49 AM
Intel Invests $300 Million In Ho Chi Minh City
Intel Corporation today announced it will invest $300 million (US) to build a semiconductor assembly and test facility in Ho Chi Minh City. This represents the first such investment by the semiconductor industry in Vietnam and supports Intel?s strategy to invest to support overall demand. Construction of this facility will begin immediately.
This new facility is part of Intel?s worldwide expansion of production capacity. By the end of 2006, the company plans to invest over $6 billion worldwide for capital additions. When completed, the Vietnam facility will be the seventh assembly site of Intel?s global network and is projected to eventually employ about 1200 people. Other sites include Penang and Kulim, Malaysia; Cavite, Philippines; Chengdu and Shanghai, China; and San Jose, Costa Rica.
Posted by | Tue, Feb 28, 2006 - 05:45 AM
Blu-ray Comes To America on May 23rd
Blu-ray Disc will go on sale in the US in 23 May, according to Sony's home video division, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, MGM Home Entertainment and Samsung. The South Korean giant will ship its BD-P1000 hardware on that date, ready to play the eight films the two content companies will release on the same day. Looks like the next generation DVD formats will come out after all!
The BD-P1000 will pump out HD content at 720p or 1080i resolutions, Samsung said. Supported audio formats include 192KHz LPCM, Dolby Digital and Dolby Digital Plus, MPEG 2, DTS, and MP3. The machine will play users' existing DVD and CD libraries, along with content stored on DVD-RAM and DVDR/RW discs, and it has a memory card reader capable of taking Compact Flash, XD, Micro Drive, SD, MMC and RS-MMC, and MemoryStick and Memory Stick Duo cards. Ports built into the device include CVBS Output, S-Video Output, component output, HDMI, and both digital and analog audio outputs.
Posted by | Tue, Feb 28, 2006 - 05:40 AM
ASUS To Reorganize Into 15 Business Units
I knew that Austek Computer (ASUS) was a large company, but they are going to reorganize and now have 15 business units on March 1st. Each business unit will have their own marketing and sales team! Looks like things are getting even bigger over at ASUS!
Taiwan-based motherboard maker Austek recently announced plans to reorganize into 15 business units with the reorganization to become effective on March 1, according to the company as cited in today's Economic Daily News (EDN). After reorganizing, each business will have its own R&D, marketing and sales team, the paper added. The company, however, declined to reveal further details, the paper noted.
Posted by | Tue, Feb 28, 2006 - 05:38 AM
On March 10th ABIT Will Figure Out A New Company Name
We have been working with ABIT since day 1 here at Legit Reviews and it will be weird not seeing their name in the community, but the memories will not be forgotten. With the ABIT/USI merger going ahead at full speed it seems likely that on March 10 ABIT will have a new name!
At the Abit shareholder meeting on March 10, the Abit Group will come up with a new brand name for itself. As soon as the shareholders approve the new brand name, the Abit Group will no longer call itself Abit. Simultaneously, USI will immediately obtain ownership of the Abit brand. All of the employees of the Abit motherboard group will also quit the former Abit Group and become USI employees instead. Effectively, the same people working on the Abit motherboard brand today will still do so on March 11, but their employer will now be USI. The non-core businesses of Abit will not transfer to USI: System building, graphics cards, logistics and real estate will all still belong to the Abit Group once it determines the new name. The new Abit will have access to USI?s manufacturing and engineering technologies.
Posted by | Mon, Feb 27, 2006 - 06:05 AM
Microsoft to offer 6 versions of Windows Vista
Microsoft Corp. plans six core offerings of its upcoming Windows Vista operating system, targeting how people use computers instead of PC hardware specifications, the company said on Monday. That should make benchmarking interesting, but rumor has it that Windows Vista Home Premium will be the version most of us use.
The world's largest software maker plans three offerings aimed at consumers, two at business users and a stripped-down edition for emerging markets. Unlike the current Windows XP, there will no versions designed specifically for advanced 64-bit computing, multimedia computers or Tablet PCs. "We're delivering the exact same number of offerings as in Windows XP, but the big difference is that each of those offerings are targeted differently with a different set of features," said Barry Goffe, director of Microsoft's Windows client product marketing.
Posted by | Mon, Feb 27, 2006 - 05:53 AM
Geforce 7900 GT has 7800 GTX 256 performance for $299
Fudo at The Inq. says the upcoming nVidia GeForce 7900GT will perform better than the current nVidia GeForce 7800GTX and do so fo just $299. If this rumor turns out to be true it will be music to the ears of all those holding out for the next generation cards.
Nvidia will price those cards at around $299 or just a little bit higher in Europe. This means that Nvidia will sell a card clocked at minimally 450 MHz core or even higher, a 256 MB card with full 24 pipelines for a price of 7800 GT. The performance of 7900 GT might be as high as 7800 GTX as the card is clocked 10 MHz higher and has the same number of pipelines. It will have 256 MB of memory but no one should care that much about RAM as 512 MB card is rarely faster than the same clocked 256 MB card. Still we know it sounds cool to say you have 512 MB card.
Posted by | Mon, Feb 27, 2006 - 05:48 AM
World Population To Hit 6.5 Billion Today
Do you think the United States has a high population density? If you do think again because today the planet will host 6.5 billion people for the first time ever. All the deaths from medical issues and guns that kill it seems that humans are having sex now more than ever. Git-R-Done!
On Saturday, Feb. 25, at 7:16 p.m. ET, the population here on this good Earth is projected to hit 6.5 billion people. Along with this forecast, an analysis by the International Programs Center at the U.S. Census Bureau points to another factoid, Robert Bernstein of the Bureau's Public Information Center advised LiveScience. Mark this on your calendar: Some six years from now, on Oct. 18, 2012 at 4:36 p.m. ET, the Earth will be home to 7 billion folks.
Posted by | Sat, Feb 25, 2006 - 08:25 AM
3DLabs going mobile
Creative Technology, the parent company of 3DLabs has announced that the company is withdrawing from the workstation graphics market and will be focusing more on mobile graphics. It should be no small wonder though, what with nVidia and ATi having such a commanding presence in the graphics market with their substantially cheaper Quadro and FireGL line of products.
Creative warned investors the restructure will cost it $9m. Writing down certain 3Dlabs assets and goodwill will see the company taking a further $25m hit, it said.
Posted by | Fri, Feb 24, 2006 - 05:20 PM
Inquirer Bunny or Voodoo Bunny?
Dejavu. More claims of Dell going AMD, but this time, from Voodoo PC's Rahul Sood. Charlie Demerjian at The Inquirer would beg to differ, and there is now a friendly wager going on. The loser will don a bunny suit for IDF this fall, so it should make for a interesting event when it rolls around!
Posted by | Fri, Feb 24, 2006 - 05:05 PM
AMD's Next-gen Socket F Revealed
Although at this time, details are scarce, we have found a site that has posted up some images of AMD's next-generation Opteron socket, called Socket F. This socket has 1207 pins and will support future quad-core Opteron processors.
AMD's Socket F will be a LGA-type socket with 1207 pins, and is an entirely new design from current Opteron sockets. We've read that the new socket will be used for upcoming dual-core Opterons as well as quad-core Opterons. The new socket comes with an updated retention mechanism. Intel adopted the LGA socket design with Prescott to reduce cost and also to reduce the defect rate on processors. After all, would you rather scrap a $600 CPU for a bent pin, or a $100 motherboard for a bent land grid? A few days ago, we got some pictures of the upcoming Intel 771 LGA socket for Xeon motherboards.
Posted by | Fri, Feb 24, 2006 - 03:48 PM
Microsoft vows to fight South Korean antitrust decision
Microsoft Corp. vowed Friday to appeal a decision by South Korea's antitrust regulators concluding the U.S. company had abused its market dominance and ordering it to offer alternative versions of Windows. The fine against Microsoft is only $33.6 million, but I guess that is still a large chunk of change to hand over.
Earlier Friday, the Korea Fair Trade Commission released its report formalizing its preliminary ruling against Microsoft late last year. The commission had ruled that Microsoft's practice of tying certain software to its flagship Windows operating systems was an abuse of its dominant position in the market. It ordered Microsoft to provide two separate versions of Windows: one stripped of the Windows Media Player and Windows Messenger, and the other carrying links to Web pages that allow consumers to download competing versions of such software.
Posted by | Fri, Feb 24, 2006 - 01:54 PM
Judge delays decision on BlackBerry cutoff
A U.S. judge on Friday stopped short of ordering an immediate shutdown of millions of BlackBerry portable e-mail devices, but reminded manufacturer Research In Motion Ltd. it had already been found to have infringed the patents of NTP Inc.
Wrapping up nearly four hours of arguments, Spencer said there was no escaping that RIM had been found to be infringing on NTP's patents. "The simple truth, the reality of the jury verdict has not changed," Spencer said, adding that the parties should have settled out of court. Spencer said he would take the arguments he had heard under advisement and issue a decision on an injunction "as soon as reasonably possible."
Posted by | Fri, Feb 24, 2006 - 11:34 AM
Lenovo Moves Past China And Enters The World Market
China's Lenovo Group Ltd. introduced the first computers under its own brand name outside China on Thursday (Feb. 23) as part of a worldwide launch. It will be interesting to see how they do. Ever since they took over the IBM PC Business they have seemed to really take off thanks to the success of the ThinkPad series.
Lenovo has been selling its ThinkPad products to the higher-margin enterprise sector. Now, Lenovo 3000 desktop computers, starting at $350, and laptops starting at $599 will target small enterprises. Lenovo, which acquired IBM's PC business in 2004, has incorporated IT tools into is new 3000 line usually used by large enterprises. Lenovo expects these convenience tools and its aggressive global advertising on Winter Olympics broadcasts to offer a "value proposition" for small enterprises. Lenovo will also be a major sponsor of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
Posted by | Fri, Feb 24, 2006 - 08:29 AM
High Noon Showdown Comes Today For BlackBerry
BlackBerry maker Research in Motion and patent holding firm NTP face off today, when a hearing begins on whether to shut down the popular wireless e-mail device in the U.S. At the hearing in a district court in Richmond, Va., Judge James Spencer could grant NTP's request to shut down Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM's BlackBerry operations
An injunction is usually granted in intellectual property cases -- that's the right of the patent holder, according to Yoches. That bodes well for NTP, which successfully sued RIM (Research) for patent infringement in 2002. But several developments have occurred since that judgment was made, which could influence Judge Spencer's decision.
Posted by | Fri, Feb 24, 2006 - 07:27 AM
Intel Downgraded By Friedman Billings Ramsey
Intel (INTC) was slapped with a downgrade this morning by Friedman Billings Ramsey, which also slashed its price target on the chip giant. Shares of Intel were edging down 7 cents to $20.22 in early morning trading.
FBR cut its rating on Intel to market perform from outperform and lowered its price target on the company's shares to $23 from $31. The firm said it believes the order cancellations that started at the end of the fourth quarter have continued into the first quarter and that pricing pressure in the chip market probably won't end anytime soon.
Posted by | Fri, Feb 24, 2006 - 07:23 AM
Rumor: The nVidia Geforce 7600 GT has 12 pipes at 560 MHz+
Fudo thinks he figured out some more information on the nVidia Geforce 7600GT video card and thinks we will see 585+ MHz from the partners. Don't forget about the rumored ATI X1800GTO though. This card is rumored to have 12 pipelines, a 500MHz core clock, 1GHz GDDR3 memory frequency, and a 256 bit interface.
Geforce 7600 GT will still be 128 bit card but so also are the X1600XT/PROs. We reckon that 7600 GS is meant to fight X1600PRO and both G73 based 7600 cards will end up with a 128 bit memory interface. I suspect that both 7600 GT and GS will be able to outperform the current X1600 XT and PRO cards and 7600 cards will be able to do 12 pixels shaders per clock. It is just enough to match ATI's offering.
Posted by | Fri, Feb 24, 2006 - 07:17 AM