Posts in the 'News' Category

VR Zone discusses future mainstream desktop processor evolutions, you can read the article over here.

Right now, even after AMD’s Bulldozer roll-out, Intel still seems to have quite clear processor performance dominance on the desktop for some time to come. So, since the refinements to the existing processes, and the new semiconductor process nodes will bring the capability to improvements, how to use them? Performance, power or price (read: integration)?

Mainstream desktop CPUs evolution (Haswell, New Sockets, Enhancements) – More news at DV Hardware

eTeknix is giving away a G.Skill 4GB DDR3 2133MHz Memory Kit, you can enter over here.

We always do competitions here at eTeknix and a lot of people wonder what we get out of giving stuff away, and the fact of the matter is, we just want to give back to our loyal readers.

If it wasn’t for our readers, we wouldn’t be where we are today, so in actual fact, we owe you in some weird and wonderful way and it’s our way of saying thanks by giving you the chance to win free stuff.

Though we have another competition that is still running where you can win one of three BitFenix Outlaw chassis, we want to give you the chance to win a set of G.Skill DDR3 2133MHz memory.

Weekly Giveaway #15: G.Skill 4GB DDR3 2133MHz Memory Kit @ eTeknix.com – More news at DV Hardware

EVGA cooked up the GeForce GTX 560 Ti 2Win, a new dual-GPU GeForce GTX 560 Ti card that promises to deliver 30 percent more performance than a GeForce GTX 580. The card offers 850MHz cores, 1700MHz shaders and 2GB GDDR5 clocked at 4008MHz. SLI isn’t supported though, so it’s not possible to put two of these bad boys together. Pricing over at EVGA is $519.99.

It may not be called a GTX 585, but it’s the next best thing. This card harnesses the power of two EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti GPU’s for blistering fast DirectX 11 performance, including tessellation performance that destroys the competition. Experience a whole new level of interactive gaming and combine up to three displays off a single card for the ultimate in 3D entertainment, or disable Surround and combine up to four displays for maximum productivity. With these features and more, the EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 2Win gives you double the GPU’s and double the win!

EVGA rolls out dual-GPU GeForce GTX 560 Ti 2Win – More news at DV Hardware

TC Mag noticed Zalman is getting ready to ship the CNPS11X Performa, a new processor cooler with a V-shaped dual heatsink design. The cooler has four direct-touch heatpipes and a 120mm PWM fan with a noise level of 17dBA to 26dBA.

It weighs 450g and measures 135mm x 80mm x 154mm (L x W x H). All current processor platforms are supported, including the Intel LGA 775/1155/1156/1366/2011 and AMD Socket AM2/AM2+/AM3/FM1.

The Zalman CNPS11X Performa should ship later this month, it’s currently available for pre-order in Europe for around 29EUR.

Zalman CNPS11X Performa budget HSF revealed – More news at DV Hardware

OCZ introduced two RevoDrive 3 Max IOPS edition solid state disks, the full specifications can be viewed over here.

OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:OCZ), a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today launched the RevoDrive 3 Max IOPS and RevoDrive 3 X2 Max IOPS solid state drives. Designed to deliver maximum throughput in multithreaded applications, the new Max IOPS edition is an extension of the company’s industry-leading RevoDrive 3 product line, supporting workstation users that require greater transactional throughput and bandwidth.

The RevoDrive 3 X2 Max IOPS series combines a proven cutting-edge PCI Express architecture and OCZ proprietary Virtualized Controller Architecture™ (VCA) 2.0 flash virtualization layer with premium NAND flash components to deliver exceptional 4KB random write performance of up to 245,000 IOPS, along with increased transfer rates at 1900MB/s reads and 1725MBs/ writes.

“The new RevoDrive 3 Max IOPS solid state drives further expand on our original PCIe series, and are designed to deliver even more bandwidth for the most demanding applications,” said Daryl Lang, VP of Product Management, OCZ Technology Group. “Engineered to leverage the benefits of multi-threaded processors and applications, the Max IOPS provides both the performance and features required by clients to address the most intensive workloads common in high performance computing and workstation environments.”

The RevoDrive 3 Max IOPS edition will be available in 120GB to 480GB capacities while the RevoDrive 3 X2 Max IOPS edition will be available in 240GB to 960GB capacities, providing ample space for primary persistent storage, multimedia files, and operating systems with the superior durability, energy efficiency, and reliability of SSDs. The new RevoDrive 3 Max IOPS and RevoDrive 3 X2 Max IOPS will be available throughout OCZ’s global distribution channel and come with a three warranty.

OCZ RevoDrive 3 Max IOPS SSDs launched – More news at DV Hardware

DailyTech heard TSMC’s 28nm process is doing very well. Anonymous sources within the foundry told the website that the 28HP HKMG process supports up to a 45 percent clock speed improvement over the 40G process used to make the last two generations of video cards!

28HP is the first process from TSMC to use High-k Metal Gate (HKMG) technology, as opposed to the typical silicon oxynitride (SiON) found in 40nm GPUs. HKMG uses a material with a high dielectric constant instead of the traditional silicon dioxide gate dielectric. This allows for a substantial reduction in gate leakage, thus lowering overall power consumption and allowing for higher clock speeds.

According to sources within TSMC, the 28HP HKMG process is doing very well. So well, in fact, that it supports up to a 45 percent clock speed improvement over the firm’s own 40G process used to make the last two generations of video cards. This speed improvement is based on the same leakage per gate, but the GPU firms may choose to favor lower power consumption over a pure speed boost.

Full details over here.

28nm GPUs could be 45 percent faster? – More news at DV Hardware

Micron announced it has developed new load reduced dual-inline memory modules (LRDIMMs) with a capacity of up to 64GB. These new DDR3 modules are expected to ship in February 2012.

Micron Technology, Inc., today announced a new portfolio of load reduced dual-inline memory modules (LRDIMMs) featuring a 64GB offering. In addition to the standard densities of 8GB, 16GB and 32GB, which are sampling in high volume to several customers, Micron is introducing a 64GB LRDIMM to meet the ever-growing density requirements of servers.

Micron continues its memory market leadership with modules that provide 50 percent higher memory capacity and a performance increase of 33 percent for server applications. Resulting improvements to system scalability can significantly enhance cloud computing, high-performance computing, Web servers, transactional databases, and data analytics while reducing power needs by nearly 10 percent per DIMM slot compared to standard modules.

The loading profile of previous registered DIMMs (RDIMMs) was constrained in the amount of available memory for virtual computing environments. LRDIMMs reduce the load on the server memory bus and enable higher data frequencies and memory capacity.

“LRDIMM technology will change how DRAM is utilized in servers by enabling datacenters to support significantly more memory-intensive applications with the same number of CPUs,” said Robert Feurle, Vice President of DRAM Marketing for Micron’s DRAM Solutions Group.

LRDIMMs, coupled with appropriate server virtualization strategies, will maximize infrastructure and optimizes return on investment. For example, utilizing Inphi’s Isolation Memory Buffer (iMB™) chip in place of a register, Micron’s LRDIMMs reduce current DDR3 server module loads 2X for a dual-rank module and 4X for a quad-rank module.

“With leading companies like Micron, it’s exciting to see LRDIMMs become a reality,” said Paul Washkewicz, Vice President of Marketing, Computing and Storage at Inphi Corporation. “For the past two years, we worked with Micron, one of our key partners, in the development of their LRDIMMs using our Isolation Memory Buffer (iMB™) technology. Our collaborative effort has enabled a significant increase in memory capacity and performance for DDR3 server systems, which datacenters are anxious to employ.”

As new platforms are developed to expand scalability and virtualization of server networks, applications will rely increasingly on the competitive edge provided by Micron’s LRDIMM portfolio. Supermicro SuperServer solutions are one of the first platforms to support our LRDIMM product line.

“Supermicro leads the market with our application-optimized, high-efficiency server solutions. Incorporating Micron’s advanced LRDIMM technology extends our advantages with additional high-capacity, high-performance memory options,” said Wally Liaw, Supermicro’s Vice President of Sales, International. “Supermicro’s LRDIMM-enhanced SuperServer solutions provide our customers with higher memory density, speed and performance for a cost-efficient, competitive business edge.”

Samples of Micron’s new LRDIMMs are available in 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB capacities, with 64GB modules expected to be available in February 2012.

Micron debuts 64GB DDR3 LRDIMM modules – More news at DV Hardware

OCZ CEO Ryan Petersen talked about triple-bit-per-cell (TPC) NAND flash based solid state disks at last week’s Needham HDD and memory conference. Petersen said these disks should arrive next year, with prices significantly lower than those of MLC-based SSDs. The downside however is the much lower redundancy of TLC flash memory, but according to Petersen this should not be a problem for the low-end servers, consumers, laptops, and retail sub-segments.

“We announce [the intention to ship] TLC-based drives! [...] People have been talking about [TLC-based SSDs] for a long time and we have now put ourselves with next-gen [Indilinx Everest] controller, which we are shipping in January, and position it for low-end servers, consumers, laptops, retail; those sub-segments that really can adopt TLC-based solutions. This is really where we can get over four years of life [of SSDs],” said Ryan Petersen, chief executive officer of OCZ at the Needham HDD and memory conference.

Triple-bit-per-cell (3bpc) NAND flash is relatively cheap in manufacturing, but its redundancy is dramatically below that of multi-layer cell [MLC, 2bpc]: around a 1000 writes (for TLC) versus 10000 writes (for MLC) and simply cannot be compared to the number of write cycles for SLC [single layer per bit] which are around 100 000.

Source: at X-bit Labs

OCZ: Triple-bit-per-cell SSDs to be significantly cheaper – More news at DV Hardware

TechPowerUp reveals photos and features of the upcoming MSI Big Bang XPower II X79 mainboard, you can check it out over here.

Enter the MSI Big Bang XPower II, the company’s top-tier socket LGA2011 motherboard for enthusiasts. This board is designed in the XL-ATX form-factor, and will fit in cases with at least 10 expansion slot bays. Thanks to the added board area, it’s able to accommodate both a strong VRM, and high room for expansion (with eight DDR3 memory slots and seven PCI-Express slots).

To begin with, the LGA2011 socket is powered by a 24-phase VRM that makes use of driver-MOSFETs, solid-chokes, and High-C POSCAP capacitors. The memory is powered by a 4-phase VRM. The board draws power, apart from the 24-pin ATX, from two 8-pin EPS connectors, and an optional 6-pin PCIe (to stabilize PCIe slot power delivery). We can see many accessories to this VRM, such as phase-loading LEDs, and consolidated voltage measurement points. We are particularly intrigued by the design of the heatsinks over the VRM and chipset. The one over the VRM looks like the barrels of a Gatling gun, while the one over the chipset looks like a small piece from an ammo belt. You will either love it or detest it.

MSI Big Bang XPower II X79 motherboard gets pictured – More news at DV Hardware

Barnes & Noble introduced the Nook Tablet, a new $249 rival for Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet. This new product is a refreshed version of the 7″ Nook Color, it features a 1GHz dual-core TI OMAP4 CPU, 1GB RAM, 16GB internal storage capacity, and a SD memory slot to expand the storage capacity by up to 32GB. More details at Slashgear.

One of the biggest bits of news surrounding this release is the fact that while it, the NOOK Tablet, will be set at the $249 price point the NOOK Color had been at, the NOOK Color will be cut down to $199, this setting it right in line with the Kindle Fire, a device which has been known to have been compared to the NOOK Color upon its first reveal. Additional benefits of this new tablet include free Cloud Storage with Barnes and Noble (“Nook Cloud”) and the promise of an ultra-light under-a-pound chassis.

Barnes & Noble uncovers $249 Nook Tablet – More news at DV Hardware

Mitsubishi has introduced the DiamondCrysta series, the 23-inch RDT233WX-3D LED-backlit LCD monitor with stereoscopic 3D capabilities. It has full-HD resolution (1920 x 1080), and features response time of 3.8 ms (GTG), a honest-sounding 5,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio (1,000:1 static contrast), and its display inputs include HDMI 1.4, DVI, and D-Sub. It will be released by the end of May, and it is expected to be priced at 52,800 JPY (US $645).

Source.

The Gigabyte GS-AH6G3N 14-inch business laptop has been announced. It sports up to Core i7 CPU, the integrated Intel HD 3000 graphics, up to 750GB hard drive, a DVD burner, 1.3MP webcam, Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi, Bluetooth,6-cell battery, and Windows 7 OS. The GS-AH6G3N includes two SO-DIMM connectors supporting DDR3 memory for a maximum of 8GB.

Source

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 series 13.3-inch notebook has been selling at Tell IT. It is the thinnest laptop in the ThinkPad lineup and meets 8 military ruggedness standards. The NWK2NMZ (1294-2NG) model sold by Tell IT is powered by Intel’s 2.5GHz Core i5-2520M CPU with integrated graphics, 8GB memory, and a 160GB SSD. It features also a spill-resistant keyboard, Lenovo UltraNav trackpad and TrackPoint stick, Dolby Home Theater audio, 3G mobile broadband, USB 3.0, DisplayPort connector, and a fingerprint reader. The laptop is priced at around $3,150 US dollars at Tell IT. There is no information about availability in the US.

via Source.

Lenovo is currently working on an Android Honeycomb ThinkPad, according to rumors. It will sport typical Honeycomb tablet specs, including a 10.1-inch multitouch display, NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor, as well as choice of 16GB, 32GB and 64GB capacity, a USB 2.0 port, micro-USB, mini-HDMI, two cameras, and a SD slot. It will be .55-inches thick and weight 1.6 pounds. The Think Slate will support Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 3G and 4G connectivity. The price for the ThinkPad Tablet starts at $499, and it will be shipped in July.

Via|Source.

Shuttle has announced the new Shuttle SG41J4 XPC Mini-PC barebone. The SG41J4 features the Intel Core 2 processors, up to 8 GB DDR3 RAM, and the integrated Intel GMA X4500 graphics. The case is able to accommodate an optical 5.25″ drive and up to two 3.5″ drives. The SG41J4 sports 2x USB at the front as well as 6x USB 2.0, 5.1 audio, PS/2 and Gigabit network ports at the rear. Its new 250 W power supply unit now has a larger fan.