Legit Reviews News History
May 13 through 17th News From Arond the Web
Web Reviews for May 13 through 17th
You would think that the Radeon X1950PRO would just about be discontinued, with the new mid-range graphics cards from Nvidia offering Direct X 10 and the HD 2600 just around the corner, why would you even bother looking at the AMD DX9 counterpart?
Posted by | Thu, May 17, 2007 - 08:02 PM | Comments
Google retools search engine
In a bold and potentially risky move, Google is making dramatic changes to the way it helps hundreds of millions of people find information on the Internet. Executives Wednesday unveiled a new master search engine at the company's Mountain View headquarters. In addition to pointing people to Web sites, Google will now steer them to digital books, movies, images, news articles and maps that could contain the answers they are looking for.
The new search engine at google.com, whose features are going to be slowly rolled out over the coming months, combines half a dozen search engines previously used only by a handful of cognoscenti who knew where to find them on Google's sprawling Web site.
Posted by | Thu, May 17, 2007 - 08:14 AM | Comments
Intel chipset road map slowed down by Windows Vista drivers
What has taken Intel so long? For one thing, Intel says the ever-changing requirements for Windows Vista drivers forced it to pull resources away from the project to make sure it had stable drivers for all of its chipsets.
We had to do many, many iterations of engineering work to get a functioning driver for Vista," said Mike Joy, graphics software product marketing engineer for Intel's mobile platforms group. Intel wasn't alone in having problems creating graphics drivers for Vista; Nvidia also suffered several delays getting its own drivers ready. Intel also says that PC companies, when informed of the time crunch, wanted Intel to focus on improving the video processing quality of the 965 chipset over 3D technology like vertex processing. "We put our focus first on video, but now we're refocused on getting our vertex processing capabilities delivered," Newman said.
Posted by | Thu, May 17, 2007 - 08:11 AM | Comments
Kingston Technology invests in packaging and testing house OSE
Kingston Technology announced that it will invest NT$184 million (US$5.51 million) in Taiwan-based packaging and testing house Orient Semiconductor Electronics (OSE) through private placement. The sum amounts to 8% of the shares that OSE plans to issue through private placement, and it would account for only a 1% stake in the packaging and testing house.
DK Tsai, chairman of both Kingston Technology Far East and Taiwan-based packaging and testing house Powertech Technology Incorporated (PTI), stressed that the memory module maker has no plans to shift orders from PTI to OSE. Tsai said that PTI is the first packaging and testing house that Kingston invested in Taiwan and that Kingston is not just an investor, but also a manager of PTI. The performance of PTI has a bearing on Kingston's reputation, and therefore Kingston will never do anything irresponsible to PTI, its investors and clients, Tsai insisted.
Posted by | Thu, May 17, 2007 - 08:09 AM | Comments
Java SE To Be Supported For Intel Itanium 2-Based Systems
The Itanium Solutions Alliance has commended Sun Microsystems and Intel Corporation, a Founding Sponsor of the Itanium Solutions Alliance, on their cooperation to deliver Sun's Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE) for Itanium 2-based solutions. Intel is porting and optimizing the code, and support is expected to be included as part of a standard update for Java SE 6 available from Sun next year.
The availability of this support will ensure the “write once, run anywhere” philosophy, which helped make the Java Platform a widely-used development environment, continues to extend to developers working on Itanium-based systems. This support for Intel Itanium architecture is expected to increase the availability of Java-based software and broaden solutions choices for end users. The announcement came during an Intel keynote at JavaOneSM in San Francisco, Calif. by Renee J. James
Posted by | Wed, May 16, 2007 - 09:37 AM | Comments
NVIDIA Releases Forceware Beta 158.43 Drivers
NVIDIA has released a new beta driver for Windows Vista users with GeForce 8 series graphics cards. The Forceware 158.43 drivers enable SLI for DirectX 10 applications for the very first time, so all the GeForce 8 series users with SLI will finally be able to run SLI the way it was designed to. This driver can to be used for work or play and yes I'm personally running this driver already on my XFX GeForce 8800 Ultra with no major issues.
Fixed Single-GPU Issues
• GeForce 8600: When playing a VC1 title with PowerDVD, there is a block of corruption at the bottom of the video.
• GeForce 8600 GT/GTS: The system hangs after switching from analog TV to another display while playing a video.
• GeForce 8600, GeForce 7 Series: Video playback color is off when playing a DV video in AVC‐HD format.
• GeForce 8600: Numerous NVIDIA registry settings are left intact after running the uninstaller
• GeForce 8300/8400/8500: When changing to 1024x768 on the DVI display, the display switches to centered scaling.
Posted by | Wed, May 16, 2007 - 09:23 AM | Comments
AMD Announces Update to Its I/O Virtualization Technology Specification
AMD today announced broad availability of the latest version of its I/O virtualization technology specification, which is enhanced with stronger and more secure input/output connections. Together with AMD Virtualization™ Technology (AMD-V™), the AMD I/O Virtualization Technology Specification revision 1.2 is designed to provide high throughput and scalability to improve overall system efficiency, reliability and security.
This latest specification extends the benefits of AMD’s I/O Memory Management Unit (IOMMU) to provide a secure, scalable, high-performance solution for I/O virtualization in x86-based servers, desktops, and notebook computers. IOMMU technology also improves reliability in non-virtualized environments and is expected to be a necessary component for secure systems of the future. "The IOMMU 1.2 spec is a breakthrough development in furthering our ability to deliver on the promise of virtualization,” said Joe Menard, corporate vice president for AMD. “As multi-core processors become critical for consumer and enterprise applications, IOMMU will provide an essential platform for virtual machines to manage I/O devices in a secure and efficient manner.”
Posted by | Wed, May 16, 2007 - 09:08 AM | Comments
Millions disconnected by NTT broadband outage
Millions of broadband Internet users across most of eastern Japan were unable to log on Tuesday evening after a problem at the country's largest broadband provider. All said and done 2.85 million customers were impacted by the outage and I'm sure the call centers were flooded!
NTT East said 2.85 million customers lost Internet service at 6:44 p.m. (9:44 a.m. GMT) on Tuesday, the carrier said in a statement. The outage, the cause of which is still being investigated, lasted until 1:35 a.m. on Wednesday when the last of the affected customers was reconnected. The outage is one of the largest in years and took out both PC Internet connections and IP telephone service across 14 of the 17 prefectures in which NTT East provides service. Customers in Tokyo and the surrounding prefectures of Kanagawa, Chiba and Saitama were not affected.
Posted by | Wed, May 16, 2007 - 09:06 AM | Comments
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Demo
As promised, Capcom has released a playable demo for Lost Planet: Extreme Condition, giving you the chance to try out the PC version of this sci-fi action shooter scheduled to be available for PC in June for a suggested retail price of $39.95. The demo will let you play through two levels: the Akrid hive and the pirate fortress, the same levels from the demo for the Xbox 360 version. If you’re on Windows Vista, you will need the DirectX 10 version. For XP users, grab the DirectX 9 version.
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition DirectX 9 Demo
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition DirectX 10 Demo
Posted by | Wed, May 16, 2007 - 09:02 AM | Comments
Microsoft Says 40 Million Vista Copies Sold in 100 Days
Nearly 40 million copies of Windows Vista have been sold in the first 100 days following its release, more than twice the sales of Windows XP over the same time period, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said in his opening keynote here at the 15th annual WinHEC. No mention on the 200 million copies that have been traded and sold on the underground market! ;)
"We have been amazed by the response to Vista and what has happened in the last 100 days. So, in the first five weeks of shipping Vista, we have matched the installed base of any other operating system provider," Gates told several hundred attendees in an address entitled "Platform Innovations for Today and Tomorrow."
Posted by | Wed, May 16, 2007 - 08:57 AM | Comments
Advanced Micro Devices shares are up 20% in five days
I knew AMD stock was on the rise, but I didn't know that it was up twenty percent in just five days! This is great news for AMD and investors that got in at the right time. Interesting to see a massive 20% stock price increase in such a short amount of time though.
ThinkEquity did raise the shares to a "buy" because the research firm believes that orders from Dell are strong. But, Dell is not doing all that well itself. American Technology Research also raised its rating on the theory that AMD will sell some of its operations and pay down part of its very large debt load. But, that is speculation. AMD also came out with two "Intel killer" chips earlier this week. One is a high end graphics chip for PC gamers. The other is a quad-core chip that delivers more computing and eats less energy. All of the news is thrilling. But none of its means a thing.
Posted by | Wed, May 16, 2007 - 08:28 AM | Comments
Microsoft says open-source violates 235 patents
Microsoft Corp made its broadest challenge to date against open-source software, including Windows rival Linux, claiming that such programs violate 235 Microsoft patents and saying it will seek license fees.
The world's largest software maker said that various open-source packages violate patents it holds in areas related to graphical user interface, e-mail programs and other technology. "The real question is not whether there exist substantial patent infringement issues, but what to do about them," Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft vice president of intellectual property and licensing, said in a statement.
Posted by | Wed, May 16, 2007 - 08:24 AM | Comments
Intel FUD versus AMD fact
At the AMD CTO Summit held last week in Monterey, Calif., AMD put a few members of the press under nondisclosure and gave them a detailed look at unpublished products and plans. Tom Yager goes over a couple of facts related to the state of AMD’s manufacturing process engineering in his editorial that was posted today in his blog.
The transistor innovation that AMD and IBM have developed brought most of the advantages of process shrink, like lower power consumption and reduced leakage in a transistor’s off state, to manufacturing. As a result, AMD carried its present process, 65nm (which is Intel’s standard as well), into production only when its benefits exceeded those delivered by transistor evolution and not as a reaction to Intel or any other competitor.
Posted by | Wed, May 16, 2007 - 08:19 AM | Comments
Microsoft sets launch date for Halo 3
Microsoft said on Tuesday it will release its Halo 3 video game on September 25, a hugely anticipated event that the software giant hopes will help drive sales of its Xbox 360 gaming console. The regular edition of Halo 3 will sell for $60, with two limited editions going for $70 and $130.
By moving up the launch of Halo 3 to the month of September, Microsoft is betting it will spur sales of Xbox 360 consoles, giving it a larger user base in time for the year-end holiday season that is the high tide for video game sales. The game will go on sale in Europe on September 26, but Kim said Microsoft had not set a date for Japan, where the Xbox 360 has been eclipsed by Nintendo's Wii and Sony's PlayStation 3.
Posted by | Wed, May 16, 2007 - 08:17 AM | Comments
Intel to showcase Harpertown 45nm Processors at Computex 2007
With AMD scheduled to showcase its new quad-core Opteron processors (Barcelona) at Computex Taipei 2007, Intel also plans to demonstrate its 45nm native quad-core server processors (Harpertown) at the show, according to sources at server makers.
Intel will only demonstrate Harpertown-based products in its own booth, and the 45nm native dual-core processor, Wolfdale-DP, will be absent from the show, added the sources. In an update to previous reports, Barcelona-based products will be displayed in both AMD's and its server partners' booths. However, only AMD’s booth will have performance testing, with other companies only showcasing their own products.
Posted by | Wed, May 16, 2007 - 08:15 AM | Comments
Seagate Prototype Featured in Microsoft Demo of Windows Rally
Seagate Technology teamed up with Microsoft yesterday at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) to showcase Windows Rally technologies by setting up six network devices in six minutes. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates demonstrated that by incorporating the core Windows Rally technologies into a prototype Maxtor Shared Storage II, Seagate will make the everyday configuration, diagnosis, and backup interaction of network devices for consumers easier than ever.
The prototype 1TB Maxtor Shared Storage II utilizes the core Link Layer Topology Discovery (LLTD) and PnP-X technologies of Windows Rally and other features such as appearing in the Windows Vista Network Map. This tool provides users with great diagnostic information about the connectivity of the device and where it fits in the home network. Additionally, the prototype solution uses Plug and Play Extensions (PnP-X) to allow for an effortless setup experience because the prototype Maxtor Shared Storage II is discovered for the user as an installable device. The familiar plug and play experience immediately creates a mounted folder for users to access without ever having to know device IP configuration or opening a web browser.
Posted by | Wed, May 16, 2007 - 08:14 AM | Comments
Intel settles copyright infringement dispute with Chinese company
Intel Corp., the world's largest chip maker, said Monday it has settled a copyright infringement dispute with a Chinese maker of telecommunications and network equipment.
Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy said Monday it no longer made strategic sense to pursue the litigation, and the two companies brokered a licensing deal over the disputed technology. The companies have agreed to keep confidential the terms of the out-of-court settlement. "Continuing a lawsuit doesn't benefit each company's best commercial interests," the companies said in a joint statement. Beijing Donjin Xinda Technology Co., the Shenzhen Donjin unit that filed the countersuit, also signed the statement.
Posted by | Tue, May 15, 2007 - 09:58 AM | Comments
DirecTV ponders broadband over power lines
Satellite television provider DirecTV may test delivering high-speed Internet service through power lines in a major U.S. city in the next year, its chief executive said Monday.
DirecTV and others are talking to companies that specialize in providing broadband through the electrical grid, Chief Executive Chase Carey said at the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit in New York.
Posted by | Tue, May 15, 2007 - 09:57 AM | Comments
IBM union calls for work stoppage
An IBM labor union is calling for a 15-minute work stoppage to protest job cuts at the company. The stoppage is scheduled for Tuesday at 3 p.m. Eastern Time across the U.S. Workers at IBM in Italy are also planning a similar action in support of the U.S. employees.
A recent posting on the Robert X. Cringely blog at PBS.org suggesting that IBM might lay off about 150,000 U.S. employees may have contributed to concern about impending job cuts at the company. The posting set off a flurry of comments across the Web.
Posted by | Tue, May 15, 2007 - 09:56 AM | Comments
Micron announces its 78nm-made DDR3 validated with Intel
Micron Technology announced that its 1Gbit DDR3 have been validated with Intel desktop platforms. This DDR3 is being fabricated on Micron's 78nm 6F² process, which results a smaller die size premium over DDR2 compared with 512 megabit (Mb) products. offer lower power on modules that can utilize either 512Mb or 1Gb and meet the minimum system density requirements of 1GB.
Evaluation samples of Micron's 1Gb DDR3 components are available to select customers with production expected to begin early next year. Micron's 1Gb DDR3 components will be available in various output configurations (x4, x8 and x16), and will be fully compliant with the most recent JEDEC DDR3 specifications. These components will support module densities from 512MB through 4GB and a variety of module types, including UDIMMs, SODIMMs, and RDIMMs.
Posted by | Tue, May 15, 2007 - 09:55 AM | Comments
DRAM oversupply may ease
According to DRAMeXchange, DRAM spot prices declined sharply last week, where branded chips fell through the USD 2 level. DDR2 512MB 667MHz slid to USD 1.98, while DDR2 eTT dropped to USD 1.57. In a single week, the WoW decline in the spot market amounted to 22.3%. With prices showing no signs of a turnaround, buyers are in no hurry of making a deal, which has further weakened the already sluggish market conditions.
Despite the current market conditions, Samsung maintained its upbeat sentiment toward the memory market during its global investor conference in early May. In response to the plummeting price declines, it has increased the ratio of its specialty memory products from 25% to 35% in 1Q07. Furthermore, the more recent capacity expansions are no longer allocated to the production of DRAM. Aside from Samsung, other DRAM makers, such as Elpida, Powerchip, ProMOS, and Winbond are searching for solutions in handling their less cost-effective 8 inch fabs, while others are rolling out more specialty memory products, or boosting the production of the better-priced 1Gb chip. DRAMeXchange analysts forecast that these new measures may help slow down the DRAM capacity expansion, and alleviate the current DDR2 oversupply problem.
Posted by | Tue, May 15, 2007 - 09:53 AM | Comments
AMD Introduces the ATI Radeon HD 2000 series
AMD today introduced the ATI Radeon HD 2000 series, a top-to-bottom line of ten discrete graphics processors (GPUs) for both desktop and mobile platforms. This family of GPUs delivers The Ultimate Visual Experience through best-in-class immersive high-definition gaming and high-definition multimedia playback.
The ATI Radeon HD 2000 series was designed to deliver compelling gameplay experiences never seen before in DirectX 10 games. The ATI Radeon HD 2000 series brings gamers astounding frame rates at all resolutions, advanced visual effects, and breathtaking realism for what AMD calls immersive HD gaming. The new cards were optimized for dynamic geometry acceleration, complex pixel processing and expanded non-graphical compute capabilities for more advanced characters and animation, more detailed environments, and more realistic real-world physics simulations. For gamers wanting even more horsepower, The ATI Radeon HD 2000 series also features native ATI CrossFire technology, opening the door for a wide variety of multi-GPU configurations and eliminating the need for any master cards.
Posted by | Mon, May 14, 2007 - 09:46 AM | Comments
AMD Announces Phenom Processor Series
AMD today unveiled the upcoming AMD Phenom processor family name and publicly demonstrated the first all-AMD enthusiast platform, codenamed "FASN8." The industry's only true quad-core client processors are expected to deliver the ultimate visual experience, especially when paired with AMD's new DirectX 10 ATI Radeon HD 2000 series, which began shipping today. Be sure to check out our review on the Radeon HD 2900 XT here!.
With the true quad-core design offered by the upcoming AMD Phenom processors, cores communicate on the die rather than through a front side bus external to the processor - a bottleneck inherent in other products that are packaging two dual-core chips to form quad-core processors. Additionally, AMD's Direct Connect Architecture on-chip ensures that all four cores have optimum access to the integrated memory controller and integrated HyperTransport links, so that performance scales well with the number of cores. This design is also highlighted by a unique shared L3 cache for quicker data access and Socket AM2 and Socket AM2+ infrastructure compatibility to enable a seamless upgrade path.
Posted by | Mon, May 14, 2007 - 09:45 AM | Comments
Samsung prepping DDR3 memory
Samsung Electronics is putting the finishing touches on its DDR3 memory chips ahead of their commercial release later this year. On Monday, Samsung revealed that 21 of its DDR3 memory chips and modules have been validated by Intel. This validation, which certifies the memory chips are compatible with Intel's PC chip sets, is one of the final steps toward commercial release of the chips.
DDR3 is the long-awaited successor to DDR2 memory, now the most common memory type used in PCs. The newer chips will offer data transfer speeds up to 1.6Gbps, twice the memory bandwidth of DDR2. That means better performance for both 3-D graphics and multithreaded applications that tap the power of multi-core processors. The chips will also consume less power -- around 1.5 volts compared to 1.8 volts for DDR2 -- which means longer notebook battery life, Samsung said.
Posted by | Mon, May 14, 2007 - 09:38 AM | Comments
Elpida DDR3 memory receives Intel validation
Elpida Memory has received Intel's validation for its DDR3 main memory based on the G33 chipset (Bearlake) reference platform. The testing validates that Elpida's DDR3 memory can run on Intel's reference platform and recognizes the excellent quality and reliability of Elpida products, said the memory maker.
Since completing development of its DDR3 SDRAM in August 2005, Elpida has been delivering DIMM samples and developing high-speed, low-power circuit technologies. Elpida has taken advantage of its development of DDR3 memory to proceed with the start-up of the DDR3 memory platform based on close cooperation between Intel and Elpida which has already resulted in the shipment of tens of thousands of sample DIMMs to Intel for validation testing.
Posted by | Mon, May 14, 2007 - 09:37 AM | Comments
May 9th through 12th News From Around the Web
May 9th through 12th Web Reviews
"I have planned and built systems ranging from media centers all the way through to highly advanced application specific servers and in so doing have come into contact with more different types and brands of PSU you than you can shake a stick at. The NX-8060 is one of the best PSUs in its class that I have had the pleasure of using. The price tag is not through the roof for this specification PSU and the performance is excellent."
Posted by | Sat, May 12, 2007 - 07:21 PM | Comments
ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT 512MB Video Card For Sale Starting At $399
Steve from the forums took notice that the ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT 512MB Video Card is listed as in stock and ready for purchase over at ZipZoomFly. Prices start at $399 and the shipping is free, so if you want one before they are officially launched head on over to the forums and find the direct links!
Diamond's Viper HD2900 is a magnificent beast. A 700 million-transistor processing powerhouse, a technology statement and dream come true for enthusiast gamers hungry for the fastest GPU ever made. Featuring a 2nd generation unified shader architecture, massive processing power and an unprecedented 512-bit GDDR3 memory interface, HD2900 will deliver astonishing performance and the richest feature-set yet for a big ultra-high definition gaming experience with all of the bells and whistles turned up to the max. X2900 is quite simply a ticket to the future of PC gaming.
Posted by | Sat, May 12, 2007 - 11:28 AM | Comments
Foxconn revenues jump 36% in April
Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry) saw its revenues grow 36.1% on year to reach NT$84.53 billion (US$2.53 billion) in April amid a steady growth in orders for consumer electronics products, according to company spokesman Edmund Ding.
For the first four months of 2007, revenues amounted to 331.41 billion, up 40% on year, the company data showed. Due to the company's well diversified clients and product lines, the impact of off-seasons on the company's revenues are relatively limited, Ding said, adding that the company's second-quarter revenues will grow a considerable level over the same period in 2006.
Posted by | Fri, May 11, 2007 - 07:22 AM | Comments
Nvidia's Profit Jumps 44 percent year-over-year
Brisk demand for graphics chips boosted Nvidia's sales and profit in the first quarter, sending the company's shares up in extended trading. Nvidia said its bottom line popped 44% year-over-year to $132.3 million in net income, or 33 cents a share.
"With our continued focus on operational excellence, gross margins achieved a company record," said CEO Jen-Hsun Huang in a statement. "We maintained leadership in each of our core product lines, which positions us for continued growth throughout the year."
Posted by | Thu, May 10, 2007 - 09:19 PM | Comments
1.0003 S.T.A.L.K.E.R. patch released - 31 Bug Fixes
THQ has put out a new patch for its post-apocalyptic first-person action game S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, fixing a large number of bugs not covered by the previous 1.0001 update. The patch weighs in at 7MB and is available to download over at file shack right now. Follow the link below to find the right download link and to get the full list of fixes.
Overall, the new 1.0003 patch contains 31 bug fixes and improvements, including a fix for users of 16:9 wide-screen monitors, changes to the game's AI, and multiplayer latency reductions. Stability has apparently been improved, with six different types of crash-related issues as well as "various crashes" pertaining to the game's dedicated server now fixed.
Posted by | Thu, May 10, 2007 - 05:26 PM | Comments
Original Dell PC added to Smithsonian collection
Michael Dell never imagined his work would end up in a museum when he was sitting in his college dorm room in 1984, dreaming of building and selling his own personal computers. Now, one of his original computers is going to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.
he 42-year-old chairman and chief executive of Texas-based Dell Inc. donated a collection of materials Wednesday to the Smithsonian, including his employee badge, one of the company's newest computers and a PC Limited computer from 1985. The objects will join an Altair computer, a first-generation IBM PC and an original Apple Macintosh in the museum's collection.
Posted by | Thu, May 10, 2007 - 11:33 AM | Comments
Intel Announces Six New Global Investments
Intel Capital, the venture capital arm of Intel Corporation, kicked off its eighth annual CEO Summit today with the announcement of six investments totaling $31 million. The deals, all led by Intel Capital, include: China-based 51.com (social networking) and Phoenix Microelectronics (microelectronics); Aternity (application management software) and Ceedo (portable computing environment), both based in Israel; and from the United States, Jajah (Internet telephony solutions) and Tutor.com (education network)
"With global reach, larger investment stakes and active collaboration, Intel Capital is a leader in company building and becoming engaged with companies beyond our initial investment," said Arvind Sodhani, president of Intel Capital. "By bringing together savvy business executives, global decision makers and our inspired entrepreneurs, the CEO Summit demonstrates our proactive strategy in helping our portfolio companies succeed. We look forward to welcoming CEOs, executives and entrepreneurs from around the world to this year's event."
Posted by | Thu, May 10, 2007 - 09:00 AM | Comments
Activists Aim at Apple
Three labor unions holding Apple stock in pension funds have put proposals on the company's ballot that would require options to be priced on the day they are granted; give shareholders a nonbinding vote on executive compensation; and tie executive bonuses to the company's stock performance.
ronically, the assault on Apple's governance practices comes when shareholders are enjoying all-time highs, sparked by continued strong sales of the iPod digital music player, expanded market share of the Mac computer line, and the anxious anticipation of the iPhone. Apple shares closed Wednesday at $106.88.
Posted by | Thu, May 10, 2007 - 08:54 AM | Comments
Nvidia announces new GeForce 8 GPU for notebook PC
Nvidia has announced a new family of Nvidia GeForce 8 series of graphics processors targeted at the newly evolved notebook PC market. These new GPUs (graphics processing units) help power notebook PCs with their multimedia output.
Initially available in GeForce 8600M and GeForce 8400M versions, the new GPUs' features include Nvidia's PureVideo HD video processing engine for playback of HD-DVD, Blu-ray and HD (high-definition) movies, and Nvidia PowerMizer technology which intelligently balances the user's need for longer battery life and performance, noted the company.
Posted by | Thu, May 10, 2007 - 08:52 AM | Comments
EA posts loss, says 'Spore' could be delayed
Electronic Arts posted a wider quarterly loss on Tuesday and forecast fiscal-2008 adjusted profit below expectations, saying its widely anticipated video game, Spore, could be delayed.
Redwood City, Calif.-based Electronic Arts said it taken out Spore, a game where players build organisms from scratch, from its financial projections for the fiscal year ending in March 2008, adding that the game could be delayed until fiscal 2009.
Posted by | Wed, May 09, 2007 - 07:50 AM | Comments
Philips to sell TSMC shares worth $2.5 billion
Royal Philips Electronics and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) have jointly announced that TSMC has filed a registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with an offering of TSMC shares held by Philips.
The contemplated offering of TSMC shares would form part of the multi-phased plan to facilitate an orderly exit by Philips from its shareholding in TSMC which was announced by the companies on March 9, 2007. The offering is subject to all necessary regulatory approvals and to market conditions. The offering would involve 1.2 billion TSMC common shares in the form of 240 million American Depository Shares, with a value of approximately US$2.5 billion based on the market price for TSMC shares on May 7, 2007.
Posted by | Wed, May 09, 2007 - 07:49 AM | Comments
May 3rd to May 8th News From Around the Web
News From Around the Web
"ZEROtherm's new fanless BTF95 CPU cooler is a bold move by a relative newcomer in this market. The butterfly design is somewhat kitschy, but I was pleasantly surprised by its cooling performance . I can certainly see a niche that this cooler fits into nicely. If quiet computing is your bag, then the BTF95 may be a butterfly worth collecting. The mounting solutions are superb and the manual is quite good."
Posted by | Tue, May 08, 2007 - 12:04 PM | Comments
OCZ Announces AMD AM2 Optimized Memory Kit
OCZ Technology Group today unveiled a unique memory kit for AMD enthusiasts and power users. The new PC2-5400 Titanium modules were designed exclusively for the AMD AM2 platform and are custom-tailored to the extended column address range of the AM2 memory controller. With a doubled page size, access penalties are reduced to ultimately improve system performance. Used on the AM2 platform, the architecture of these modules is particularly beneficial for large CAD model processing and memory intense graphics applications such as filters in Adobe Photoshop or video processing.
Determined to seek new ways of achieving greater system performance, OCZ developed the innovative Titanium AM2 Special kits to leverage AMD’s sophisticated DDR2 platform for enhanced real world computing experience. With 11 column address bit support by the AM2 memory controller, the number of addresses in each row or page can be as high as 2048 individual entries for a page size of 16kbit. Unlike modules based on standard 10-bit column address chips with an “8k” page size, the new Titanium AM2 Special modules take advantage of the AM2 controller’s feature set and provide a single rank solution with 2GB density using “16k” pages. This allows the controller to stay “in page” twice as long compared to standard memory architectures, thereby achieving unparalleled performance.
Posted by | Tue, May 08, 2007 - 09:08 AM | Comments
H-P Boosts Second-Quarter Guidance
Hewlett-Packard raised its fiscal second-quarter expectations Tuesday, citing strong showings from its personal systems group and server business.
The computer hardware and software giant said that for the quarter ended April 30, revenue should be between $25.50 billion and $25.55 billion. H-P is looking for adjusted profits of 69 cents to 70 cents a share. After all items are included, earnings will likely be 64 cents to 65 cents a share.
Posted by | Tue, May 08, 2007 - 09:01 AM | Comments
DRAM price crashes through $2 - Memory Bargins To Be Found!
Users looking to add more DRAM (dynamic RAM) to their PCs are likely to continue to see bargains throughout May and June, as prices of the memory chips continue to crash. Contract prices of the chips have fallen 67 percent since the start of the year, when they were fetching $5.95 each. Today they are just $1.94 each, which is a huge price decrease and why memmory has become so cheap.
It's great news for users. Falling DRAM rates can help offset recent increases in prices for LCD (liquid crystal display) panels, and keep PC prices in check. Users wanting to boost their system speed can also add more DRAM at a low cost. These prices aren't likely to last longer than the next few months. At $1.94 each, the chips are well below the $2.50-$3.00 cost of production for chip makers, and they'll likely shift their production strategies in order to reverse the decline. The second half of the year is also the strongest for PC sales, another factor that could stop the current downtrend.
Posted by | Tue, May 08, 2007 - 08:59 AM | Comments
NVIDIA Launches The GeForce 7200 GS Video Card
Today NVIDIA Corporation introduced the NVIDIA GeForce 7200 GS graphics processing unit (GPU), a new, faster, entry-level GPU. This video card is a step above integrated graphics cards and will be priced below $50, which is the lowest price point from PCI Express graphics cards.
Graphics cards equipped with the NVIDIA GeForce 7200 GS GPU are available today from e-tailers and retailers worldwide at aggressive prices under $50 and are being offered in PCs from leading OEMs and system builders. The NVIDIA GeForce 7200 GS performs up to 50% faster than the latest integrated graphics solutions in common 3D benchmark tests.
Posted by | Tue, May 08, 2007 - 08:56 AM | Comments
Kingston Announces MobileLite 9-in-1 USB Reader
Kingston Technology Company, Inc. today announced the launch of MobileLite: a 9-in-1 USB card reader that helps mobile consumers navigate multiple expansion memory card formats more easily when moving between mobile phones, digital cameras, PCs and portable media devices.
"There are so many Flash memory card formats currently used by different digital devices that the Kingston MobileLite will be a welcome tool that simplifies managing digital content between one's cell phone, digital camera, PC and MP3 player,” said Wendy Lecot, Flash marketing manager, Kingston. "With nine different card reading options, MobileLite makes moving and accessing music, video, image and data files between cards and devices quick and easy – via one convenient reader,” continued Lecot.
Posted by | Mon, May 07, 2007 - 03:15 PM | Comments
Dell joins Microsoft, Novell in Linux collaboration
Dell is backing the Windows-Linux partnership set up by Microsoft and Novell. As part of the deal, Dell will buy Suse Linux Enterprise Server certificates from Microsoft for corporate customers that are not already using Linux, the computer maker said Monday.
Under terms of the agreement, Dell established a customer marketing team for Suse Linux Enterprise to target "Linux users who are not Dell Linux customers," the statement said. That qualification is key: Dell already offers a competing version of Linux from Red Hat to corporate customers, and existing customers will presumably not be targeted by the new marketing effort.
Posted by | Mon, May 07, 2007 - 09:54 AM | Comments
Watch it AMD: Nvidia reportedly to trade technology for cooperation with Intel
Nvidia plans to release some of its graphics processor unit (GPU) technology to Intel in exchange for cooperation with the chip giant, according to sources at motherboard makers. Nvidia has had discussions with Intel and has already reached several agreements for cooperation, noted the sources, adding that details of the agreements remain unknown.
Executives of Nvidia recently met with the company's partners in Taiwan to explain the company's plan in the motherboard market, pointed out the sources. With Intel pushing its GPU development again, Nvidia needs to be careful about trading its GPU technology with Intel in exchange for cooperation, added the sources.
Posted by | Mon, May 07, 2007 - 09:54 AM | Comments
Journalists intend to sue HP over surveillance
In an unusual step for the news media, three journalists whose private phone records were scrutinized by investigators working for Hewlett-Packard intend to sue the company for invasion of privacy.
The dispute stems from an investigation of Hewlett-Packard's directors initiated under the company's former chairwoman, Patricia Dunn. To try to uncover leaks from board members, private investigators examined the phone records of nine journalists who covered the company, as well as the records of some of their relatives.
Posted by | Mon, May 07, 2007 - 09:52 AM | Comments
18,000 Mexicans strip for Tunick photo shoot
A record 18,000 people took off their clothes to pose for U.S. photographic artist Spencer Tunick on Sunday in Mexico City's Zocalo square, the heart of the ancient Aztec empire. Tunick, who has raised eyebrows by staging mass nude photo shoots in cities from Dusseldorf, Germany, to Caracas, smashed his previous record of 7,000 volunteers set in 2003 in Barcelona, Spain. What a great way to start off the week!
Directing with a megaphone, Tunick shot a series of pictures with his Mexican models simultaneously raising their arms, then lying on their backs in the square as well as another scene on a side street with volunteers arranged in the shape of an arrow. Hundreds of police kept nosy onlookers away during the nippy early-morning shoot, and a no-fly zone was declared above the plaza.
Posted by | Mon, May 07, 2007 - 09:50 AM | Comments
$299 HD DVD players unlikely to happen in 2007
On the heels of the Fuh Yuan Electronic Development admitting that it has not received orders from Wal-Mart for two million HD DVD players at a target retail price of US$299, industry sources commented that it is unlikely that HD DVD players will fall to such a low price this year.
The sources explained that global supply of HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc (BD) pick-up heads (PUHs) is still tight because yield rates on blue-laser laser diodes are quite low and the world's major suppliers of such PUHs, including Sony and Matsushita (Panasonic), have assigned their production capacities for own use first. Since PUHs and chipsets together account for 60-70% of the production costs of HD DVD and BD players, the shortage of PUHs renders it almost impossible to minimize the production costs to below US$299 this year, the sources noted.
Posted by | Mon, May 07, 2007 - 09:45 AM | Comments
Asetek signs manufacturing contract with AVC
Asetek announced today that they have signed a three year manufacturing contract with one of the most respected thermal cooling suppliers in the computer market; Asia Vital Components (AVC).
“After spending a lot of time planning our production with AVC it is my pleasure to welcome them on board as a partner,” says Bill Nisbet, VP Supply Chain of Asetek. “I feel the partnership will benefit both companies, allowing us to grow together and lead the way for liquid cooling technology into the OEM market. AVC understands our technology and appreciates the benefits of our design, while enabling us to scale according to future demands,” continues Bill Nisbet, VP Supply Chain of Asetek
Posted by | Mon, May 07, 2007 - 09:44 AM | Comments
Court denies Vonage bid for patent case retrial
A U.S. appeals court has denied a request by Internet phone company Vonage Holdings Corp. that it order a retrial in the patent infringement case brought against it by Verizon Communications Inc.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in a ruling dated Wednesday, turned down a motion by Vonage to have an infringement verdict by a lower court vacated because of a landmark patent ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday. The appeals court said Vonage can cite the new Supreme Court ruling as part of its pending appeal of the case.
Posted by | Fri, May 04, 2007 - 09:49 AM | Comments
Design flaw found in Apple's iBook - OMG Apple Screws Up!
The Danish Consumer Complaints Board has published evidence of a manufacturing defect resulting in power failures in some of Apple's iBook G4 notebook computers. The board has already ordered the company to refund one Danish customer, and expects its findings to influence cases elsewhere, a spokesman said on Friday.
The faulty iBooks were among the first G4 models Apple produced, and had an opaque white casing like their G3 predecessors. The machines examined, the 800MHz Model 9164LL/A and the 1GHz Model 9426LL/A, were introduced in April 2004 and discontinued in October of that year. The board received the complaints between April and November 2006. Reports of faulty G4 iBooks have surfaced in other countries, and the board has supplied a copy of its findings to lawyers for one owner in the U.S., Navne said.
Posted by | Fri, May 04, 2007 - 09:48 AM | Comments
Customers find Vista draining laptop batteries and patience
Some of Microsoft's most important customers aren't happy with the battery life offered by notebooks running Windows Vista. When Vista Aero is turned off, battery life is equal to or better than Windows XP systems. But with it turned on, battery life suffers compared with Windows XP. I guess the solution is easy as just Aero needs to be turned off.
"It's a little scary," said John Wozniak, a distinguished technologist in Hewlett-Packard's notebook engineering department, referring to the work HP needed to do on making Windows Vista more suitable for notebooks. Vista, while touted as having improved power management capabilities that would make it easier for users to extend battery life, isn't to some living up to that promise. The main culprit appears to be the Aero Glass interface a spiffy new user interface that makes Vista more pleasing to the eye with transparent windows and animated transitions when moving from one application to another.
Posted by | Fri, May 04, 2007 - 09:47 AM | Comments
Digg Users Unite And Rebel
Digg.com, a Web site that lets anyone post and rank news stories, found that out this week when its members revolted over what they saw as an effort to censor them. It began when Digg.com's founder Kevin Rose banned members from mentioning a software code that helps online pirates make bootlegged copies of high-def movies. After that, all hell broke loose.
In a blog post Tuesday night, Rose bowed to his site's readers. "After seeing hundreds of stories and reading thousands of comments, you've made it clear," he wrote. "You'd rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company...effective immediately we won't delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be." Rose even stressed his solidarity with the membership by posting the key in the title of his post.
Posted by | Thu, May 03, 2007 - 04:50 PM | Comments
Median Salary in the Video Game Industry is $73,000
Game developers make a median salary of $73,000 per year. But is that as much as it sounds? This is a great article for anyone thinking about going to school for how to design games.
Of course you’ve read the stories about game-industry revenues topping $12.5 billion in the United States last year. Video games are big business. I know my mom read that story. It’s bragging ammo when her friends look skeptical about her son-in-law’s profession. But if you think game-makers spend all day playing “Quake,” think again. This is a fast-paced, competitive business with inflexible ship dates and punishing hours. “If you want to work nine to five, this is the wrong industry,” says David Riley of the NPD Group. “Deadlines are fierce.”
Posted by | Wed, May 02, 2007 - 11:43 AM | Comments
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra Reviews and Previews
Here are a few NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra reviews and previews that have been posted up this morning. More will come in as the weeks go on, so be sure to check around for more. [H]ard|OCP was one of the few sites that got to do SLI benchmarking, so be sure to check that one out!
Posted by | Wed, May 02, 2007 - 10:26 AM | Comments
HP touts new mold for the chip industry
Hewlett-Packard and Nanolithosolutions say they have a machine that will let semiconductor manufacturers produce chips sporting wires measuring a few atoms wide. And the device takes only a few minutes to install.
The machine is a system for imprint lithography. Imprint lithography sounds like what it is: A mold with an intricate pattern is pressed into a substrate, which creates a pattern. The grooves and channels created in the substrate are then filled with metal to make wires. What makes imprint lithography different from a waffle iron or a rubber stamp are the dimensions. The HP-Nanolitho system is capable of creating grooves that will measure as small as 15 nanometers, smaller than the width of wires in today's chip. The mold, or module, does not make grooves in silicon, but in a thin layer of polymer on top of the silicon.
Posted by | Wed, May 02, 2007 - 10:05 AM | Comments
IBM lays off 1,315 workers
IBM laid off 1,315 U.S. workers from its global services division on Tuesday, a union group under the Communications Workers of America said Tuesday.
The world's largest technology company also released an unknown number of contractors, and job cuts will continue, Alliance@IBM said on its Web site. An IBM spokesperson could not immediately be reached for confirmation. The company said at an investors' conference last month that it would reduce costs in the U.S. and noted a slowdown in its U.S. enterprise business.
Posted by | Wed, May 02, 2007 - 10:03 AM | Comments
Asustek leads motherboard makers in 1Q EPS
Major Taiwan-based motherboard makers recently announced their financial results for the first quarter of 2007 with Asustek leading Micro-Star International (MSI), Gigabyte Technology and Elitegroup Computer System (ECS) in terms of earnings per share (EPS).
Asustek performed the best among the top four motherboard makers in the first quarter of 2007 with a net profit after tax amounting to NT$6.73 billion (US$30 million), translating into an EPS of NT$1.97. Since electronic manufacturing services (EMS) accounted for a large proportion of orders in the first quarter, the company found it hard to increase revenues substantially, noted sources at Asustek, adding that with the portion of EMS orders to drop in the second quarter, the company is confident about its revenue outlook in the second quarter.
Posted by | Wed, May 02, 2007 - 10:02 AM | Comments
Hynix receives DDR3 validation from Intel
Hynix Semiconductor today announced it has received validation on its DDR3 memory components and modules from Intel. The newly-validated DDR3 products are 1Gb DDR3 SDRAM component manufactured on 80nm process technology, 1GB 2GB DDR3 Unbuffered-DIMMs.
These devices have operating speeds of 800MHz and 1066MHz and a 1.5V power supply. These speeds are offered in latency combinations of 5-5-5 and 6-6-6 for 800MHz, and 7-7-7 for 1066MHz, to suit the needs of a wide range of PCs, workstations and other applications. In addition to its high speed characteristics, DDR3 features reduced current consumption of almost 25%, compared to the present generation DDR2. Hynix’s “three-dimensional transistor” architecture also minimizes current leakage to further reduce overall current consumption and ensure data integrity.
Posted by | Tue, May 01, 2007 - 07:36 AM | Comments
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