Finally results from the AMD - ATI merger are starting to appear and the first joint product was released this week as the new AMD 690 chipset. The newly launched solution is intended to deliver the combined power of AMD CPU’s and the ATI Radeon X1250 in a single unified product.

Being among the first chipsets with motherboard graphics to receive the Certified for Windows Vista logo, the AMD 690 will fully support the superior graphics in the new Microsoft OS (operating system), including the Windows Flip 3D funtions. The GPU platform provides separate HDMI and DVI connections and users also have the possibility of connecting up to 4 displays by adding a PCI express graphics card.

Already in the making, this new platform has been targeted by many motherboard manufacturers including Albatron Technology Co., ASUS, ECS, EPoX Computer Company, GIGABYTE United Inc, Jetway Info Co. Ltd., MSI Computer Ltd., and Sapphire. As the anticipation on AMD products is high, we hope this next statement made by an AMD official at the 690 series launch comes true: “This is just the first in a line of innovative, high-performance AMD chipsets that we’ll introduce to address every sector of the market.”

TUL Corporation is proudly introducing the best performing noiseless graphic card in the world, as they call it, the new PowerColor X1950 SCS3 Pro Silence Edition. Vista ready, with VIVO and HDCP the new card has a 575MHz core engine speed, 256 MB GDDR3 memory with 1380 MHz effective speed all these enhanced by 36 pixel processors.

It is supposed to be the most noiseless cooling solution thanks to the silent cooler that comes with 4 heat pipes and the special voltage converter provided by Arctic Cooling, and also have a patented vibration absorption technology. The temperature level drops from the usual 67C to 63C thanks to the passive cooler, and the noise level is 0, from 2.5

The new PowerColor X1950 Pro, the SCS3 model, is also capable of Blu-ray and HD-DVD applications: 1080p HDTV. More specifications about this new graphic card is that it’s compatible with DirectX9.0, OpenGL 2.0 and Shader Model 3.0. The maximum resolution is 2560 x 1600 pixels. If you think that you will be buying a very powerful PowerColor X1950 SCS3 with no noise and a moderated temperature, the price of $250 is not that much. Right? Read more on DigtalReviews.

Earlier this week Sony has announced it will launch new, cheaper versions of Blu-ray players for this summer. The BDP-S1 player available now on the market has a price of $999, so demand isn’t quite high on such products. Actually if your are looking for the best deal for a Blu-Ray player you might want to take a look at the gaming console PlayStation 3. The $499/$599 PS3 comes equipped with a drive capable of reading Blu-Ray discs and it is also a next-gen gaming console so you really can get two great products at less than half the price.

However, there are people who are not at all interested in the gaming part (I know hard to believe), and these people just want a device capable of playing movies that come on the Blu-ray discs. For this people Sony intends to release in the following months a cheaper player, the BDP-S300, at a price of $599, but rumours of an even cheaper one ($499) have reached our ears. From the informations we have we hear that the BDP-S300 will mainly have the same features as the BDP-S1, fact that leads us to believe Sony desperately wants to win the HD DVD vs. Blu-Ray war.

The two competing formats have been claiming the victory for themselves from the time the reached the market, but although Toshiba’s HD DVD had a better start, it appears the Blu-Ray Disc is catching up and might even get the lead all thanks to the PS3. However, at the time being there is no clear winner and it might not even be one for years, that’s why we are recommending to wait a little longer, or to buy a device capable of playing both types of discs.

In the last year Apple has developed the next generation wireless technology 802.11n. The new wireless technology delivers greater performance, more range, and improved reliability. In comparison with older wireless standards like 802.11g or 802.11b, the Apple’s 802.11n adds a technology called multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), a signal processing and smart antenna technique for transmitting multiple data streams through multiple antennas. The result is up to five times transfer speeds and up to twice the range compared to the earlier 802.11g standard.

The new AirPort Extreme Base Station is using the 802.11n wireless standard. The AirPort Extreme Base Station is compatible with older standards 802.11a/b/g and it has built-in firewall and three Ethernet ports. The device is priced at $179.

The successor of DDR2 memories is ready to launch this year, the new DDR3 standard, and is developed by SuperTalent using Samsung chips. The new DDR3 memories will be designed for desktop PCs and notebooks and will have great advantages like, up to 30% lower power consumption by using 1.5V, almost double performance by using DDR3-800 up to 1600MHz instead of DDR2-800MHz and transfer data speeds of up to 25.6GB/s.

The new DDR3 memories are built on 12ns latency making it a very good solution for network applications where random network access is a must. First motherboards supporting DDR3 will be launched this year on the market along with the Intel Bearlake chipset. AMD is expected to implement it my the beginning of 2008 when they revise the K8L processor. SuperTalent is prepared to launch DDR3 memories even before the motherboards are ready to support them, so that everyone can adapt to these new standards. Check up Samsung for more specification features.

That is the result of an eBay charity auction organized by Dell and Blizzard. The two XPS M1710 Dell notebooks have two signatures by Dell Chairman Michael Dell and Blizzard Entertainment’s Vice- President of Gaming Rob Pardo, and there cases also replicate the artwork on the new World Of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade game boxes. Gorgeously looking the two new gaming laptops are among the best portable computers currently available on the market including numerous high-end hardware components.

Intel Shows 80 Cores Processor

Posted Tuesday, February 13th, 2007 by Marius Trusculescu

Intel’s “Era for Tera” project delivered this week the first programmable chip that integrates 80 cores and was able to pass the 1 teraflop mark. It took only a little more than 10 years for a processor the size of a finger nail to reach the performance of the supercomputer that passed the same mark in 1996, a supercomputer which integrated 10 000 processors and consumed about 500 kW back then.

Furthermore the new Intel chip managed to reach this record using just 65 watts, less than many current processors found in todays desktop computers and more than 7500 times less energy than 10 years ago. Although Intel has no plans of releasing this processor on the market, we will certainly see this technology applied in the next generation processors that are currently in development in their laboratories.

Posted in Hardware | No Comments »

Pocketec’s Nano USB hard disk

Posted Friday, February 9th, 2007 by Mihnea Boiangiu

Korean manufacturer Pocketec launched a 12GB USB 2.0 hard drive. Its name has nothing to do with Apple’s iPod Nano. Probably they chose this name for marketing purposes. The Nano USB hard disk is compatible with Windows and Mac OS. The dimensions are close to a matchbox - 38mmx38mmx15mm. But this tiny box can hold huge amount of data. For the moment Nano USB hard disk is available only in Korea.

Posted in Hardware, Storage | No Comments »

All-In-One Inkjet printers from Kodak

Posted Wednesday, February 7th, 2007 by Mihnea Boiangiu

From March 2007 we are expecting three new Kodak Easyshare AIO printers: the KODAK EASYSHARE 5100, the KODAK EASYSHARE 5300 and the KODAK EASYSHARE 5500. The three models I mentioned above are using the same hardware. The difference is that the 5300 model has in addition to 5100 a 3-inch color LCD display that enables photo viewing and cropping directly from the printer. The 5500 model includes the features of 5100 and 5300, but it has fax functionality and includes a 2.4-inch color LCD display, an automatic document feeder and a duplexer attachment.

The new EASYSHARE printers can print and copy up to 32 pages per minute in black and 22 pages per minute in color, and print photos from PICTBRIDGE-enabled cameras without involving a PC. These devices are capable of high performance at low cost, so they will be a success from my point of view. The prices for the new EASYSHARE line are ranging from $150 to $300 in 5500’s case. The ink cartridges are also cheap: $15 for colored cartridge and $10 for the black one. All in all, I would say the new AIO printers from Kodak will produce durable, high-quality documents and photos at low costs. You should try one!

Posted in Hardware | No Comments »