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:: PC Perspective . News Archive
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.:News Archive ( 5/2010 )
Ryan Shrout | Source: PC Perspective | Subject: Processor
Who would have thought that just a couple short years ago one of the most interesting news stories we would hear about at Computex is about the expansion of manufacturing capabilities at a foundry company? But that is definitely the case and not just because of the details of the press conference itself but because of the implications the information presented indicates for the future of our industry.
Today at an event occurring in the early hours of the first day of Computex 2010, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, once the manufacturing arm of AMD and now a completely independent and global foundry company, detailed expansion at both facilities in Dresden, Germany and in upstate New York. Dresden, currently the drive behind the 45nm processors from AMD today and the upcoming 32nm Llano processors of 2011, will be receiving up to an additional $1.5 billion investment for a new addition to the corporate campus that will bring the total output from the facility to 80,000 wafer starts per month. The focus of the new portion will start with 40nm technologies in Q3 of 2011 but will eventually transition to 28nm and below. GLOBALFOUNDRIES is taking an aggressive stance to the construction of the facility in order to have it up and running in about 12 months in order to take advantage of the huge market opportunity for 40nm process customers that has been created by less than stellar yields and output from TSMC. 
Fab 1 in Dresden expansion plans GLOBALFOUNDRIES CEO Doug Grouse also discussed an expansion to the upstate New York campus that will add an additional clean room to a facility that is still yet to have its initial construction completed. The company plans to complete the shell of the addition during the current construction phase and then have it outfitted with production tools in early 2013. The focus of this new addition in NY will be 22nm and 20nm technologies targeted for that time frame. This new investment will be worth in excess of $2 billion when fully tooled and outfitted and will increase the wafer start capability to upwards of 60,000 per month. 
Fab 8 in NY expansion plans Finally, GLOBALFOUNDRIES is committing today to establish a semiconductor complex in Abu Dhabi, UAE on a 3km area of land near the international airport. While the company is still leaving room for placing either a manufacturing facility or a research facility there (or both) GLOBALFOUNDRIES wouldn't begin construction until the Dresden and NY projects are completely putting ground breaking at a time frame of 2012 or so. The decision will be made on what type of facility to build will be based on customer demand and technology transitions of the time but this announcement will not apparent preclude any additional expansions to the NY fab campus over and above the ones announced today. GLOBALFOUNDRIES indicated that its 32nm SOI production was on schedule as were the rest of the technologies on the roadmap and even had some 28nm wafers on hand to display as the first foundry to show High-K metal gate at this process. The addition of $3.5 billion plus investment into the GLOBALFOUNDRIES production plans indicates two things to us. First, the company continues to answer questions from critics about its ability to keep up with demand for process technologies into the future and its ability to handle the workloads associated with design wins for high profile customers. Even with these additions TSMC will have the edge in total available output with the high performance technologies but the gap is closing and if nothing else GLOBALFOUNDRIES appears to be winning the PR/marketing war. The addition in Dresden specifically for 40nm is particularly interesting because GLOBALFOUNDRIES originally had no plans for such a process but the demand from customers and the potential for sustainable profits apparently convinced them to develop it. Interestingly, it was apparently too late to get AMD's own Ontario 40nm Fusion part that will be built at TSMC later this year. 
Based on the technologies that GLOBALFOUNDRIES is focusing and building capacity for, it is obvious to me that they are betting a large portion of their future capital on the world of SoCs and designs from ARM, etc. Larger, high performance components from both AMD's CPU and GPU design teams are going to be built with GLOBALFOUNDRIES (Llano on 32nm and the next gen on 28nm are already in the works) but the capacity being outfitted (and purchased through mergers) is targeted at lower power, smaller, mobile designs. AMD's own Fusion parts are heading that direction, as is Intel with Sandy Bridge and Atom processors, and we already know how dominant ARM has been in this field. It is obvious that the market for consumer component-based designs is slowly fading into a smaller, more niche market as we get into the 2013 and 2014 time frames and designs for devices like cell phones and tablets are going to dominate. Have we reached a consensus that we have enough performance for everyday computing and now we demand more than just "faster" out of our devices? That is an editorial for another day... 
GLOBALFOUNDRIES has come from nothing to becoming a large player in the technology world in a very short time. When AMD discussed its "asset light" goals some years ago it was hard to see the manufacturing division of the company becoming so large and so relevant this quickly. They appear to have done it though and with fast paced and continued investments like the $4 billion discussed here today, the foundry market will continue to be interesting into the future.
Ryan Shrout | Source: PC Perspective | Subject: Case and Cooling
Computex 2010 is well under way and last night Corsair gave us a chance to preview some of the company's new devices that would be going on sale later in the year. This includes the new Graphite Series 600T mid-tower case that will be available for around $149 starting in late summer. After the acclamation of both the Obsidian Series 800D and 700D, Corsair has moved on to create an enthusiast-friendly lower priced option.
Also on display in Taiwain is the new Corsair Professional Graphics Series of power supplies that is rated at 80 Plus Gold and is custom designed for Corsair; the PSU platform will apparently not be available to anyone else in the industry. Not only will these power supplies be efficient but they will also be quiet: Corsair claims they will remain at 24 db all the way up to 800 watts of usage. The 1200 watt model will start selling for $299 later in the summer with the 850 and 750 models coming down sharply in price. 
Finally, in a call back to the days of memory dominance in the enthusiast market, Corsair is unveiling the new AirFlow Pro device that is temperature sensor, activity monitor and trippy LED light show all in one. Combine LEDs with fans and unique sensors on the Corsair Dominator modules, the AirFlow Pro is an window-case enthusiast's dream device! 
We have MUCH more detail on all three of these releases in our short video below so give it a look! If you are on a mobile device you can view the video by clicking here.
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: [H]ard|OCP | Subject: Motherboard
For a mere pittance of $119 you can get your hands on the BIOSTAR TH55XE, a mATX board designed with overclocking performance in mind. The feature list is quite impressive for such a small board, the H55 chipset supports up to 16GB of DDR3, there is a PCIe 16x slot as well as an 4x and a pair of legacy PCI ports, 10 USB 2.0 plugs, 5 SATA-2 ports and an eSATA port, there are even a pair of firewire ports. There are graphics outputs as well but unless you have a chip that has Intel HD graphics built in they remain disabled. [H]ard|OCP pushed their overclocking claims as far as they could and were impressed by what they saw, especially considering the price point. Do keep in mind that even though many mATX boards now incorporate features previously seen only on full sized boards if you feel that you are cramped working on an ATX board then mATX might not be for you.
"BIOSTAR has decided to jump in to the Intel H55 fray with a solid offering in the TH55XE board. While this board is of a micro-ATX form factor, it performs well enough to take on the big boys. And yes, this is one mirco-ATX motherboard that delivers overclocking for the enthusiast." Here are some more Motherboard articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: TweakTown | Subject: Memory
If you have a socket 1156 processor that is looking for some of the fastest dual channel RAM on the planet then check out the Kingston HyperX PC3-19200 (2400MHz @ 9-11-9-27) 4GB kit. The price is unknown to Tweaktown, but at 2.4GHz and with an active cooling solution you know it will not be cheap. You don't have to consider that speed a solid ceiling, Tweaktown hit 2490MHz easily, with a bit more tweaking and a BIOS update or two you could probably top that. Read the full review to see where the extra speed really helps out.
"The HyperX name is getting stronger and stronger as the months go on. We see the company hit us with more aggressive modules on a constant basis these days. The best thing, though, is that when we hit that clock speed, we've been able to get even more out of the kit. Today we're dealing with a PC3-19200 (2400MHz) kit. That's some serious juice and you have to wonder once we hit that number, are we going to be able to get much further? - There's ultimately only one way to find out. Before we go looking at the overclocking potential and its performance, we'll first have a closer look at the package and the modules themselves." Here are some more Memory articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: PC Perspective | Subject: Graphics Card
On paper the GTX 465 looked rather lackluster and it was thought that the card would not stand a chance against the HD5850 which seemed to be its natural prey. As Ryan tested the card it proved to be able to stand up to the competition better than the specs would have implied. The power consumption and heat produced are what you would expect from a Fermi chip and you will see more of both than you do from the AMD side. Features are an interesting mix, on nVIDIA's side is you have PhysX, CUDA and 3D Vision and on AMD you can benefit from Eyefinity and Stream processing as well as better audio quality. Pricing is also goign to be a consideration when you compare these two cards, currently only a single model of the HD5850 is $289, the rest start at $300. You can take your pick of any GTX 465 as all the models on NewEgg are $279 and come with a Just Cause 2 coupon.
Not an easy choice for a systems builder. "The new NVIDIA GeForce GTX 465 brings the performance and features of the GF100 architecture to a lower price point and does a good job of making a case for itself against the competing AMD products. SLI performance also impressed us with scaling rates as high as 90% in some cases and with a base price of $279 could make for the first consumer-friendly option for NVIDIA Surround support coming later in the summer. The Galaxy version of this GPU is a custom design with a unique fan that is both quieter and more functional with a foldout mechanism for cleaning and maintenance." Here are some more Graphics Card articles from around the web:
Jonathan Hung | Source: MSI | Subject: Mobile
MSI is announcing their new Wind Pad tablet PC today at Computex. The Wind Pad is a 10" device featuruing 3G, WiFi, GPS, USB, HDMI and a webcam. To top this off, the device is just 800 grams (1.7 lb., a little heavier than the 1.5 lb. iPad) and lasts 8+ hours on a battery charge. Windows 7 is the OS of choice.
The Wind Pad features some exclusive MSI software including the WindTouch software which allows you to quickly switch and run applications on the device, as well as Easy Face 2.0 which which uses the built-in camera as a biometric password for applications like Skype. 
Specs:
MSI Wind Pad featured with Intel’s approx. 2.4 watts latest power-saving CPU platform, eight+ hours of battery power, and the most advanced hardware specifications, including a 10” multi-touch control screen for the preloaded Windows 7 operating system, that offer a perfect touch of the latest technology living. In addition, with a mere 800 grams in weight and comes with built-in 3G and WiFi wireless transfer, GPS, G-Sensor, Web Cam, as well as USB, SD card reader and HDMI ports, all made it a best companion for wireless urban entertainment users.
Ryan Shrout | Source: PC Perspective | Subject: Storage
OCZ's booth was once ruled by memory and memory demonstrations; but not anymore. Now the dominant technology on hand at OCZ is solid state drives. We have already looked at and reviewed numerous OCZ SSDs here at PC Perspective but this week at Computex 2010 in Taipei the company had a few new things for us to curiously poke at.
First, OCZ is bringing the speed of the Vertex 2 line of SSDs to the 1.8-in form factor from the currently existing 2.5-in designs. While traditionally 1.8-in SSDs have been slow and sometimes even worse for a consumer than standard hard drives, these new OCZ Vertex 2 designs will offer nearly identical performance and should only incur a slight cost difference from the larger 2.5-in models. 
The second item at the booth was even more exciting for the 'nerds of storage' that most of us at PC Perspective are. The upcoming OCZ Revo drive is targeted as a truly affordable (by SSD standards) PCIe-based solid state solution that combines incredible performance with a bootable partition. 
OCZ is rating the Revo drive at 540 MB/s read and 530 MB/s write with a 75k IOPS rating on 4k random writes. It will be available in capacities ranging from 120GB to 480GB and while target pricing is not set yet, the goal is to see it "within 10-15% of standard 2.5-in SSD prices" of the same SandForce controller. Looking at today's Vertex 2 SSDs on sale that go for anywhere from $3.50 to $3.75 / GB that indicates that the Revo will be selling for a slightly steeper $4.30 / GB or so. That 480GB model then will set you back something around $2000. The Revo uses a x4 PCIe slot that maxes out at 1.0 GB/s so system bandwidth shouldn't be a bottleneck. You can expect to start seeing these SSDs ship to the channel in late June so stay tuned for the PC Perspective review! Finally, we met a really unique device from OCZ tentatively called the HSDL - high speed data link. 
A user would install the red PCB expansion card into their system and connect the black 3.5-in device that resembles an OCZ Colossus via the cable seen above. That drive could be mounted anywhere in the system and actually uses standard SATA power connections to keep the juices flowing. This custom, proprietary connection from OCZ will support data rates as high as 20 Gbit/s and allows a PCIe-to-storage connection that will be truly limited by the speed of your PCI Express bus. This add-in card and storage device combination will only be compatible with each other; thoughts of using the HSDL for standard SSDs are out the door. In the image above the PCIe x4 slot communicates through a HSDL connection to a custom SSD device that was essentially a pair of OCZ Revos in a single enclosure. Obviously this means the device would be FAST and also expensive. 
Interestingly OCZ is looking at keeping this unique connection type around for many other devices and configurations. They had a larger bandwidth expansion card capable of communicating with four such SSDs. OCZ's team even indicated that they would hope to see future motherboards implement a HSDL on-board for easier installation of this unique storage solution. Pricing and availability on such an interesting device are obviously still in the air - these were very early prototypes on display. OCZ does think they will be available by the end of 2010 though.
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Legit Reviews | Subject: Show and Expo
Legit Reviews managed to get a preview of some of the products being unveiled at Computex. There are a few pictures that show just how many booths there are and just how tightly packed that floor is, perhaps partly because companies like ASUS are going with multiple booths. They also got up close to a few products like the Tube AS301 DTS, a USB dongle resembling a vacuum tube that provides DTS Surround Sensation Technology. They also peeked at a few audio solutions that seek to bring back the warm sound of vacuum tube based analog sound as well as a case, a heatsink and a PSU.
"It's our first day in Taiwan and Computex doesn't start until tomorrow, but that didn't stop us from getting a preview of some of the innovative new products that will be seen at the show this week. Read on to see some pictures of the show being setup and to see some of the first new products that we spotted. Included are the Antec Lanboy Air PC case, Evercool Transformer 4 CPU Cooler and more!" Here are some more Shows and Expos articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: The Inquirer | Subject: General Tech
The Inquirer have managed to find a slide that was posted to the net covering the next 12 months of Intel's mobile chips. Six new processors will arrive by the end of the year to keep you occupied until Huron River comes out in the beginning of 2011, if all stays on track. Not too much new technology has been associated with this chip refresh though Zero Power ODD and the incorporation of on-die Intel HD graphics is generating interest.
"A ROADMAP has leaked out of Intel's glorious plans to take the mobile chip market by storm this year. According to a slide found by Engadget, specifications for Chipzilla's entire fall collection of mobile chips have tipped up. It looks like the Core i7s and Core i5s will end up for mobile use, but the 2.66GHz / 3.33 GHz Core i5-580M won't be the only dual-core CPU to look for in your Christmas stocking." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Intel Press Room | Subject: Processor
SANTA CLARA, Calif. and HAMBURG, Germany, May 31, 2010 - During the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC), Intel Corporation announced plans to deliver new products based on the Intel Many Integrated Core (MIC) architecture that will create platforms running at trillions of calculations per second, while also retaining the benefits of standard Intel processors. Targeting high-performance computing segments such as exploration, scientific research and financial or climate simulation, the first product, codenamed "Knights Corner," will be made on Intel's 22-nanometer manufacturing (nm) process – using transistor structures as small as 22 billionths of a meter – and will use Moore's Law to scale to more than 50 Intel processing cores on a single chip. While the vast majority of workloads will still run best on award-winning Intel Xeon processors, Intel MIC architecture will help accelerate select highly parallel applications. Industry design and development kits codenamed "Knights Ferry" are currently shipping to select developers, and beginning in the second half of 2010, Intel will expand the program to deliver an extensive range of developer tools for Intel MIC architecture. Common Intel software tools and optimization techniques between Intel MIC architecture and Intel Xeon processors will support diverse programming models that will place unprecedented performance in the hands of scientists, researchers and engineers, allowing them to increase their pace of discovery and preserve their existing software investments. The Intel MIC architecture is derived from several Intel projects, including "Larrabee" and such Intel Labs research projects as the Single-chip Cloud Computer. "The CERN openlab team was able to migrate a complex C++ parallel benchmark to the Intel MIC software development platform in just a few days," said Sverre Jarp, CTO of CERN openlab. "The familiar hardware programming model allowed us to get the software running much faster than expected." "Intel's Xeon processors, and now our new Intel Many Integrated Core architecture products, will further push the boundaries of science and discovery as Intel accelerates solutions to some of humanity's most challenging problems," said Kirk Skaugen, vice president and general manager of Intel's Data Center Group. "The Intel MIC architecture will extend Intel's leading HPC products and solutions that are already in nearly 82 percent of the world's top supercomputers. Today's investments are indicative of Intel's growing commitment to the global HPC community
Jonathan Hung | Source: ASUS | Subject: Mobile
Asus has just announced another new mobile product called the Asus Eee Tablet. The tablet features a 2450 dpi touch-sensitive screen, Micro SD, and a 2 MP camera. The device allows the user to create content using the stylus to draw diagrams or take notes, and is also an e-book reader.
The Eee Tablet will feature a media player, as well making it not only appropriate for making making notes, but also for recreation. It does not appear that the device has WiFi or any other wireless connectivity which puts it in a peculiar spot in the marketplace somewhere between a non-connected ebook reader and a more fully-featured tablet like the iPad and Android devices. If hackable to become an input device for a PC, the Asus Eee Tablet could be a serious competitor to the Wacom Cintiq 12WX digital tablet used by creative professionals. No word on pricing or availability. Expect more details as Computex progresses. Press Release:
Fremont, California (May 31, 2010) ASUS’ leadership in innovation and design will once again be the focus at Computex 2010 in Taipei, Taiwan. ASUS will proudly showcase a wide range of products across five major categories: cloud computing, gaming, enthusiast-level PC components, multimedia and green computing. As a technological leader in cloud computing, ASUS offers a broad lineup of cloud-connected devices featuring on-the-fly data and multimedia sharing capabilities that consumers crave in today’s market.
The Notepad Goes Digital with the Eee Tablet Innovation meets cloud computing at Computex 2010 with the ASUS Eee Tablet. With a 2450 dpi touch resolution screen, the Eee Tablet is one of the world’s most accurate and sensitive digital note taking devices, and gives the user the feel of writing on paper. Users can select one of the built-in notepad templates and have the option to store, sort and tag, organize or browse through them. Real time text annotations can also be made on-the-fly. The Eee Tablet makes reading easy, with text file page turns taking just 0.1 seconds-nine times faster than the page turns of normal e-readers. Reading documents or books remains easy on the users’ eyes even after prolonged viewing periods. The ASUS Eee Tablet features a built-in 2 megapixel camera that captures detailed images, letting the user grab screenshots of lecture slides and write notes on them instantly. It easily syncs up with a PC or notebook via USB or Micro SD to ensure that all notes, content, and calendars are constantly kept up-to-date. With up to 10-hours of battery life, the Eee Tablet has enough power for a variety of tasks. At the end of the day, users not only have an electronic notepad, but a media player and e-reader as well. 
Jonathan Hung | Source: Daily Tech | Subject: Mobile
The company who invented and marketed the first netbook is hoping lightning strikes twice with their new line of slate PCs. Asus revealing their new Eee Pad EP121 and Eee Pad 101TC slate devices both featuring Windows.
The EP121 is as 12.1" unit with a CULV Core 2 Duo, and runs Windows 7 Home Premium. The battery is reported to run 10 hours. The EP101TC is a 10" unit that uses Windows Embedded Compact 7 as an OS and NVIDIA Tegra. No word on the Android slates we know Asus has in their boxes somewhere. I find that running a full Windows 7 on a slate a bit perplexing. To me, people wanting to buy slates are looking for a different experience than using a netbook or a full-fledged PC. Giving a desktop OS different clothes is still just a PC and I think consumers may have a tough time buying into that. Engadget got some hands-on time with these products and found them to be pretty buggy and unpolished, but of course these are early functional models, so expect the spit and polish you'd expect from Asus by time of release.
"An NVIDIA Tegra-powered EP101TC was
powering on, but its Windows Embedded Compact 7-based interface was
still noticeably buggy, and the touchscreen quite unresponsive. The UI
certainly looked attractive enough, and our swipe motions across the
capacitive touchscreen were handled admirably, but ASUS definitely has a
ways to go in terms of functionality. "
Asus Eee Pad EP121 announced today at Computex 2010.
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: newegg | Subject: Graphics Card
While the GTX 465 was not scheduled to be revealed until Computex officially begins, it would seem that NewEgg already has them for sale. All the models are selling for $279.99 though it looks like the different card makers were allowed plenty of leeway in the design of the cooling system. For instance the Palit model below has dual fans on the top to keep this Fermi processor in check as opposed to the single fan solution more commonly used.
The specs are no surprise but the price might be to some as this is much less expensive than the AMD HD5850 and not that much more expensive than the HD5830 so depending on the performance this card could take a chunk out of AMD's midrange GPU market share.
Ryan Shrout | Source: PC Perspective | Subject: Motherboard
ASUS sent over a handful of photos of the upcoming Rampage III GENE motherboard that takes the overclocking features of the Rampage ROG line, pairs them with an X58 chipset and then shoves it all into a mATX form factor. This results in a tiny motherboard that just about any enthusiast would be proud of:
The board supports both SLI and CrossFire configurations with true x16 PCIe 2.0 bandwidth but also offers a legacy PCI slot and x4 PCIe slot for other expansion options.
The LGA1366 socket supports Bloomfield processors and there are six DIMM slots supporting the triple channel DDR3 memory controller on the Bloomfield CPUs.
The Rampage III GENE will support USB 3.0 - a great feature to see on some mATX motherboards - as well as ROG Connect for remote PC management, monitoring and overclocking.
We'll have more information on this board as we get it this week and hopefully should be testing one just after Computex!
Jonathan Hung | Source: Computerworld | Subject: Mobile
Intelis mulling over hardware acceleration for Google's WebM video format for its embedded Atom proccessors, the Atom CE4100. With Intel hardware being integrated into GoogleTV, it seems a bit odd that Intel is thinking about adding WebM support instead of just doing it. I guess it's up to Google to push the new standard while the chip maker waits in the sidelines.
Hardware acceleration: like sandals for bare feet.
For more serious work, there are two Intel Core 2 CULV models, and a single Atom Z530 slate featuring more RAM more storage, but likely at the cost of battery life. Windows 7, naturally.
Google draws another line in the sand by adding the Lead Designer of Palm webOS to their ranks. This will allow Google to release a more polished Android OS in future releases. Ultimately this will make Android a more compelling for manufacturers as they don't need to spend the resources adjusting the UI (unless they want to of course), and more enjoyable for the end-user as they get a nicer OS. Everyone wins, well, except RIM and Apple (poor Microsoft and HP aren't even invited to the party).
Jonathan Hung | Source: Laptop Magazine | Subject: Mobile
 During CES 2010 back in January, Lenovo made some big waves by revealing the IdeaPad U1 Hybrid notebook. The 11.6" notebook not only sported an Intel Core 2 processor and 10 hours of battery life (the specs were revealed to PC Perspective) , the screen also detached to become a 11" slate PC with an independent OS. The slate was expected to run Lenovo's custom Linux OS called Skylight and from initial report, the OS had some potential.
But today we are learning that Lenovo has made the strategic move to scrap their Skylight OS in favour of Google's Android OS. The consequence is that the IdeaPad U1 will be delayed. The original expected launch date was to be June 2010.
Although this will put the Lenovo U1 later in the year and will possibly face more competition, the switch to Android is a good move which will make it more recognizable and familiar to consumers.
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: PC Perspective Forums | Subject: General Tech
It has been said before and it will be said again, but there is a good reason why the advice given in the PC Perspective Forums to those suffering from random reboots and failed POSTs is to remove everything, including the motherboard from the case and attempting to boot it. It will save you a lot of headaches though it does help your testing when you have one of the best PSUs out there to help you determine what is at fault.
On the other hand, when you are playing with the newest technology to come out, often times there are few other users to help you out when you run into problems though we will still help you out as best we can. Still, it doesn't take long until a few Forum members become old hands at fixing the new tech and we are always trying new things and are accepting to change. Make sure to keep your eyes on the front page over the weekend, as Ryan is at Computex and will be posting updates as he can ... that is also why you didn't get your PC Perspective Podcast fix this week so expect a long one next week.
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: MSI | Subject: General Tech
City of Industry, CA. - May 28, 2010 – Micro-Star International (MSI), a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards and consumer electronic devices today proudly announces its partnering with Futuremark, the world leader in 3D, mobile and PC benchmarking, to officially introduce 3DMark 11, the upcoming version of the world’s most popular benchmark for measuring 3D graphics performance of DirectX 11 gaming PCs. The hands-on 3DMark 11 demonstration will be available publicly for the first time in the Big Bang Area at the MSI Booth (No.L607) in Nangang Exhibition Hall during COMPUTEX TAIPEI 2010, running from June 1st to June 5th. The award-winning MSI R5870 Lightning, the flagship ATI Radeon HD 5000 series graphics cards, and MSI Big Bang Series XPower, the INTEL X58 gaming motherboard, will be used as the DirectX 11 gaming platform to demonstrate the amazing visual performance and astonishing image quality of next generation 3D gaming technology. The 3DMark 11 trailer and screenshots taken from the tech demo called "Deep Sea" is available at http://www.3dmark.com/ To provide hardcore gamers total immersion and detailed game play experiences, MSI take full advantage of cutting-edge DirectX 11 technology by introducing the MSI award winning Lightning Series of NVIDIA Geforce 400 and ATI Radeon HD 5000 series graphics cards with support for DirectX 11; with more DirectX 11 compatible games and graphics cards available in 2010 and the partnership with Futuremark on 3DMark 11, MSI expects the increased adoption of DirectX 11 capabilities such as tessellation, depth of field effects, compute shaders and multi-threading. MSI will again partner with Futuremark on the major launch of 3DMark 11 in Q3 to provide gamers with a more affordable bundled solution with MSI DirectX 11 ready graphics card lineups. For more information about DirectX 11 ready motherboards and graphics cards used for the 3DMark 11 live demo at Computex 2010, please check out the videos at:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: BigFoot | Subject: Graphics Card
EDWOOD CITY, CA--(Marketwire - May 27, 2010) - Bigfoot Networks, the networking technology company behind the Killer line of gaming networks cards, and TUL Corporation, a leading manufacturer of ATI graphics cards under the PowerColor brand, will be unveiling a Gaming Combo Card at Computex that combines "best of breed" PC graphics and networking for online gaming. The working prototype is the result of cooperative design efforts on behalf of both companies announced in Taiwan earlier this year. 
The Gaming Combo Card is the world's first single card, PCI Express solution combining Bigfoot Networks' Killer 2100 Gaming Network Card technology and ATI Radeon HD 5000 graphics family technology. The Gaming Combo Card taps into massive parallel processing power on the GPU to deliver unrivalled visual quality and gaming performance supporting Microsoft DirectX 11 technology. Using Killer Game Networking DNA technology, the card also classifies network traffic and separates game data for priority treatment, while reducing freezing, stuttering and other symptoms of lag. The Gaming Combo Card is a one card, one slot solution that is plug-and-play ready to give consumers a competitive online gaming edge.
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Hardware Secrets | Subject: Case and Cooling
The first PSU that Gigabyte released was called the Superb 550 and it was not well received by reviewers, undaunted Gigabyte is trying again with the Odin Plus 700W
PSU. The initial impression that Hardware Secrets formed was from the cabling, which is decent but neither modular nor particularly lengthy. Their hopes were raised when they cracked the unit open as the components were of quite high quality. In testing the PSU proved solid and deserving of an 80+ rating but overall its performance could be better. We do not know the MRSP yet and that will have a huge impact on determining if this PSU is a great deal or something to be avoided.
"Gigabyte has quietly entered the power supply market, and the other model from this brand we reviewed – Superb 550P – proved to be an inferior product. Let's see if things got better with Odin Plus 700 W." Here are some more Cases & Cooling reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: The Tech Report | Subject: Processor
AMD's Black Edition processors are very popular among overclockers as the unlocked multiplier allows for a lot of leeway when you are adjusting clock speeds. Intel has not really been supportive of their fans in that way, though the lock down did happen for a very good reason that protected the majority of consumers. For that small subset of users that do overclock the newly announced 2.93GHz Core i7 875K and 3.2GHz i5 655K are a bright light on the horizon as both processors have unlocked multipliers. See how that overclocking ability effects the price to performance ratio at The Tech Report.
"Intel has unlocked a pair of affordable CPUs, making overclocking dead simple. Join us as we welcome the K series to the 4GHz+ club." Here are some more Processor articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: PC Perspective | Subject: General Tech
Here at PC Perspective we really haven't jumped into the iPad frenzy, apart from a little speculation on who made the chip that powers it and some thoughts on Flash support. Jon did find an interesting and brave use for his review model, letting his young children play with it.
For anyone with young kids that can handle the idea of grubby little fingers touching their pristine white iPad this is a guide to some of the apps, both free and paid, that are age appropriate and fun for kids and their parents. Did you know Sesame Street has a podcast or that you could get your hands on an official Disney Toy Story read along book for free? "I have been lucky enough to have been using the iPad for a full week before the Canadian launch. While some people have a clear idea of what they will use the iPad for, I have been trying to discover my own "killer app" for this beautiful device. I quickly discovered that my kids (youngest 16 months and the eldest 3 years old) really gravitated to Apple's latest gadget. As much as I hate to deny it, I suspect the iPad will be as much a toy for them as it is for me." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Overclockers Club | Subject: Case and Cooling
Cooler Master is replacing their ageing HAF 932 case with a brand new flagship case called the HAF X. It is a 30lb steel chassis standing 230mm x 550mm x 599 mm, leaving you plenty of space for whatever heatsink you desire and almost enough drive bays to satisfy Allyn. The cooling is also big, in front is a 230mm fan, there is a pair of 200mm fans and a 140mm in the back, plus the option to add two more fans specifically to target your GPUs. That only scratches the surface of the features this case offers, drop by Overclockers Club to discover the rest.
"Cooler Master also did a very good job with the new additions and in my opinion, one of the best is the new hot swap bays. These new bays allow for easy installation of two SSDs or HDDs thought the front bezel. When connected, the drives are actually attached directly to the motherboard via the circuit board, so there is no reduction in performance when using your hard drive via the bays." Here are some more Cases & Cooling reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: OCZ Technology | Subject: Storage
SAN JOSE, CA-May 27, 2010-OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) and memory modules for computing devices and systems, is pleased to announce the Company's enterprise storage solutions are now qualified with Adaptec MaxIQ SSD caching products. Using solid state drives in place of hard drives in IT and storage infrastructures is already proven to enhance performance and efficiency; leveraging the optimization of MaxIQ storage controllers allows OCZ SSDs to perform at even higher levels, maximizing performance and cost-savings. "OCZ is constantly looking for new opportunities to provide our customers with innovative ways to integrate SSD technology into enterprise class storage solutions that meet the demanding performance and reliability requirements of data center and computing applications," said Alex Mei, CMO of the OCZ Technology Group. "MaxIQ Caching Software together with OCZ SSDs will increase I/O performance and lower the total cost of ownership while reducing energy consumption, offering a considerable improvement in overall value and performance." Combined with Adaptec's MaxIQ SSD caching, OCZ SSDs can deliver up to eight times the I/O performance of hard disk drive-only arrays, and can reduce capital and operating expenses up to 70 percent by allowing integration of High-Performance Hybrid Arrays (HPHAs) consisting of both hard disk drives (HDDs) and SSDs. MaxIQ SSD caching tools are available to analyze I/O data flows and predict performance, plus I/O instrumentation allows for easy configuration, monitoring and management for data centers and cloud computing customers.
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: The Tech Report | Subject: Storage
The Tech Report is checking out the performance of the SuperTalent 32GB RAIDDrive today, though if that isn't enough space there 64 and 128GB capacities available as well if you can afford the entry price. Inside the flash memory is organized into two drives with a pair of JMicron JM612 flash controllers and a RAID chip, along with a SATA to USB bridge which makes the drive both faster and larger than most USB drives out there. The smaller 32GB version does not support interleaving like the two larger models so you can reasonably expect better performance from the larger drives. Still the testing proves that this drive is significantly faster than a USB 2.0 stick.
"Super Talent's USB 3.0 RAIDDrive stripes dual internal SSDs to offer 32GB of SuperSpeed connectivity in a lightweight and easily pocketable package. We run one through its paces to see what's what." Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: TweakTown | Subject: Graphics Card
Tweaktown has a video of a little graphical insanity for your viewing pleasure. They've taken four MSI HD5870's and made some custom heatsinks of a rather impressive size for each of them and placed them on an EVGA 762 4-Way Classified
motherboard with a i7 980X overclocked with LN2. They take you through the setup, including a nice tutorial on adding a custom heatsink to an HD5870 and finish up with some rather impressive runs.
"Four 5870’s in CrossfireX with an overclocked gulftown CPU is a monster setup in anyone’s book; and they would be right. But I say NO! - We want more and by more, I mean more drama, theatrics and excitement. So, it’s time to bring out the soldering iron, strap on more copper than can sink a small boat and really get these cards pumping. For some time now I’ve looked forward to some five-pot action; that’s liquid nitrogen containers on the CPU and one on each of the MSI 5870’s. But one hold up, or should I say hardware failure after another has made this long overdue. At long last those false starts are behind me and I am finally ready to let this monster setup loose." Here are some more Graphics Card articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: The Inquirer | Subject: General Tech
Powercolor is showing off two hybrid HD5770's that add extra and unexpected functionality to their offerings at Computex. The first is the HD5770 Sniper which has a network processing unit onboard; think Killer NIC, though a different solution. The second card is another HD5770, the Evolution, has a little present from LucidLogix on it called Hydra. This is the form that the second release of Hydra is taking, originally planned as a discreet card they seem to have learned the lesson Bigfoot has not and convinced a graphics reseller to add it directly to one of their cards. That should allow triple SLI or Crossfire in hybrid setups, just like the add on chip on MSI BigBang motherboards.
This is a nice move on Powercolor's part, as many agree with the theory behind networked gaming acceleration or mix and match multi-GPU setups but are not willing to pay $100+ for the privilege. By adding it onto a card that already serves a purpose you get something useful with an extra feature that will add a little to the cost but not as much as a discreet solution. Most consumers would scoff at a Gigabit NIC for sale separately as there is at least one on every modern motherboard and most have abandoned discreet sound cards. The GPGPU and similar merged products continue to find more ways to mutate and multiply. "GRAPHICS CARD MAKER Powercolor, or TUL Corporation as it is otherwise known, has thrown our way some tasty morsels of what's to be expected at the upcoming Computex tradeshow. The company will be putting a couple of items on the menu. These did spark our curiosity and will definitely warrant some additional looking-into. The first one goes by the name of HD5770 Sniper, a Juniper RV840 based card that sports not only a GPU but also an onboard NPU, the likes of the ones we see from Bigfoot Networks, that is, Killer Xeno Pro. NPUs give users a slight edge in gaming as they prioritise gaming network packets to reduce possible latency." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: AMD | Subject: General Tech
AMD today announced the appointment of Manju Hegde as corporate vice president, Fusion Experience Program. A renowned parallel and visual computing innovator, Hegde previously served as vice president of CUDA Technical Marketing at Nvidia before joining AMD to lead the AMD Fusion Experience Program, an initiative focused on identifying innovative computing solutions and applications poised to take full advantage of the forthcoming AMD Fusion family of Accelerated Processing Units (APU). Hegde reports to Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager, AMD Products Group. “We are thrilled to be able to attract an experienced industry leader like Manju Hegde to the AMD team, a sign of the quality of talent we are able to attract to AMD on the strength of our Fusion roadmap,” said Bergman. ”Manju brings prized expertise in developing the ecosystem for enabling breakthrough and heightened experiences on new architectures to AMD. As Manju and his team work with the ecosystem to usher in a new era of visual computing, we expect a wide range of industry leaders to embrace the future of accelerated computing through the combination of the GPU and CPU -- a combination only AMD can deliver with its AMD Fusion technology.” Prior to joining Nvidia, Hegde was chief executive officer and co-founder of AGEIA Technologies Inc., during which he drove their quest to bring a heightened physics experience to consumers. Before joining AGEIA, Hegde served as chief technology officer and co-founder of Celox Networks Inc., and chief scientist of Minmax Technologies, Inc. Hegde has also held a number of departmental leadership, professorial and research roles at respected universities, including Louisiana State University and Washington University in St. Louis, and his work has been published in more than 30 research journals and publications. Hegde received a Ph. D. from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in computer information and control engineering, along with a master’s degree from the University of Toledo in statistics, a master of management studies’ degree from the University of Bombay in finance, and a bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, in electrical engineering.
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: AMD | Subject: Graphics Card
Resolved issue highlights
Highlights of the Linux ATI Catalyst 10.5 release include:
Ryan Shrout | Source: PC Perspective | Subject: Processor
Though Computex doesn’t start for another few days, some initial bits of information continue to flow in. One notable piece was that VIA was planning to demonstrate the first monolithic dual-core version of its Nano processor for the mobile technology markets. While we had indeed previously known about a dual-core variant of Nano, it was always expected to be a dual-chip package – similar to what we saw with the first Intel quad-core processors under the Core 2 Quad brand.
The benefits of building the processor on a single package include performance and power efficiency improvements – both critical for the fickle mobile market. Using the 40nm process node at TSMC, VIA is expecting the new dual-core Nano to compete directly with the updated Atom processor lines, though I doubt we’ll see it go after the cell phone markets that Intel is pushing Moorestown towards. Back in our initial comparisons of the VIA Nano and Intel Atom processors the performance of the Nano impressed but has basically remained stagnant during several iterations of Atom. 
A current generation VIA Nano processor VIA is a company in desperate need of a product that will help maintain its relevancy in the western markets. It continues to do very well in the emerging markets of India and China with lower power desktop products but those efforts just don’t apply very well to the US consumer. An improved Nano dual-core processor with better power efficiency could help VIA take ground in the battle for netbooks, tablets and other small format computing devices. And don't forget, VIA has an ARM-based design they are pushing as well. 
VIA Nano single-core die shot PC Perspective will bring you more information about the Nano updates as we find it! Keep an eye on the PC Perspective Computex 2010 page for all the latest news and notes from the show floor. |
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