Zalman to unveil ZM-2HC1, ZM-WB2, ZM-80C-HP, ZM-OP1, NB47J cooling systems

Transmeta TM8000 (Astro) to be released in September

New exhibits for our Hardware Museum: Ensoniq 3D Banshee

TerraTec introduces Producer PHASE 28 and PHASE 26 USB interfaces

S3C2440: new mobile processor with up to 533MHz clock speed

GeForceFX 5700: some NV36 info

Chaintech announces motherboard and graphics card roadmap

Zalman to unveil ZM-2HC1, ZM-WB2, ZM-80C-HP, ZM-OP1, NB47J cooling systems

Zalman ZM-2HC1 — Easy to install NP Heatpipe HDD Cooler providing more hard drive stability, lower noise and vibrations. Sized 146x146x36.5mm, cooler weighs 260g and offers 400cm² heat dissipating surface. It’s made of aluminium, copper and rubber resin.

Zalman ZM-WB2 — Water cooling system for Socket 478 Intel Pentium 4, Socket 462 AMD Athlon/Duron/Athlon XP, Socket 754 AMD Athlon 64 processors. The purely copper base provides better heat dissipation and upper aluminium blocks prevent corrosion. It’s main features include three fitting types bundled for water pipes (80x10mm, 8x11mm and 10x13mm), 450/450/300g respective weight for 478/754/462 Sockets, 64mm diameter, 31mm height.

Zalman ZM-80C-HP — Noiseless and effective passive pipe cooling for graphics cards. Additional Zalman ZM-OP1 fan provides even more stability supplying airflow to both GPU, and card memory. Supports all card models with mounting holes around GPU. Optional Zalman ZM-OP1 is necessary for GeForce FX5800+ and Matrox Parhelia products. The system weighs 325g, pipes are made of gilded copper, heat-sink – of aluminium. Heat dissipating surface is 1200cm² in size.

Zalman ZM-OP1 — Dual-bearing fan for Zalman ZM-80C-HP passive graphics card cooling system that significantly improves its effectiveness. Sized 80x80x15mm, it works at 1400rpm (silent mode) or 2800rpm (normal mode) and provides up to 20dB in silent or 33dB in normal mode.

Zalman NB47J — Aluminium heat-sink for any Northbridge types. Mounted by two diagonal clamps. It doesn’t require active components due to larger heat dissipating surface comparing to other similar solutions for Zalman. Weighing 54g, it’s sized 37x37x47mm.

Transmeta TM8000 (Astro) to be released in September

According to Dr. Matthew Perry, Transmeta CEO, in Q2 the company had started sampling 1.1GHz TM8000 and already received positive response from partners. He said TM8000 performance is about 50% higher in general applications and 80% higher in multimedia apps comparing to the existing TM5800.

Transmeta aims its novelty at low-power notebooks with 12-14" LCDs, blades and home servers, web tablets, etc.

According to Dr. Perry, the company has already signed the agreement with one of the largest OEMs regarding TM8000 shipments. Transmeta estimates the profit as about $6-8 million in H1 2004.

By the way, Transmeta’s current results are far from the best: in Q2 the company earned $5.1 million vs. $6 million in the previous quarter and especially vs. $7.5 million in Q2 2002. Quarter losses made $22.0 million or $0.16 per share. Transmeta explains this with $24.6 million half-year expenses only for Astro development and debugging.

The next quarter results are expected to be similar to the just announced. And only by the year-end, when TM8000 will start arriving in volumes, the company expects considerable shift to profitability.

Let’s revise TM8000 features again. This 0.13µm chip will support 256-bit VLIW (Very Long Instruction Words) vs. 128-bit VLIW of the current generation, and will perform up to 8 instructions per clock. Similar to the existing Crusoe solutions, TM8000 will have memory controller integrated into Northbridge. However, unlike today’s DDR266 support, Astro will work with DDR400 and ECC memory (additional feat for the server segment). The new CPU will have integrated AGP 4X interface along with Low Pin Count (LPC) bus for flash memory.

Besides, the existing Ali Southbridge used with Crusoe processors, PCI-X supporting models might appear as well. Along with the CPU, the company will announce newer LongRun-enabled software for recompiling x86 instructions into internal codes.

TM8000 volume production will be handled by Transmeta´s traditional partner manufacturer, TSMC.

Source: Silicon Valley

New exhibits for our Hardware Museum: Ensoniq 3D Banshee

We obtained such a rarity for our Hardware Museum. Introducing the photo of a unique 3D Banshee made by Ensoniq. Most likely, Ensoniq had time to release this before it was purchased by Creative. As you know, there was time when Creative was releasing Banshee-based cards as well.

TerraTec introduces Producer PHASE 28 and PHASE 26 USB interfaces

TerraTec introduced and launched shipments of the first TerraTec Producer audio solutions: PHASE 28 and PHASE 26 USB.

PHASE 28 is a 24bit/192kHz multi-channel digital interface for recording studios. It features 2 analog inputs, 8 analog outputs, MIDI and digital S/PDIF connectors. The novelty is designed for 24bit/192kHz signal processing at 5.1/7.1-channel resolution. The model supports AC3, DTS standards along with streaming audio. Supplied software enables to use PHASE 28 under MAC and PC platforms.

TerraTec Producer PHASE 26 USB is an external studio interface supporting resolutions up to 24bit/96kHz. The model is naturally transportable enabling to work with Windows or MacOS notebooks. The interface features 2 analog inputs, 6 analog outputs supporting 5.1-ch. mode, MIDI interface, Mic-In, Headphone-Out, optical and coaxial S/PDIF.

Both models are expected in retail late in July.

S3C2440: new mobile processor with up to 533MHz clock speed

S3C2440 is a highly-integrated chip, containing the 1.3V 16/32-bit ARM920T RISC core along with a wide number of interfaces for NAND flash, digital camera, TFT/STN LCD, USB header, SD/MMC/SDIO card reader, touch screen, etc.

S3C2440 is made using 0.13µm CMOS process and works under most existing OS, including Microsoft Windows CE, Palm OS, Symbian and Linux.

Currently Samsung samples S3C2440 with 533MHz, 400MHz and 300MHz clock speeds. Volume shipments are scheduled to Q4 2003.

GeForceFX 5700: some NV36 info

• Process: 0.13µm
• Manufacturer: IBM
• Transistors: 82 million
• GPU clock speed: 500MHz
• Memory bus: 256 bit
• Memory clock speed: 325MHz
• Memory amount: 128Mb or 256Mb
• Shaders: the half of NV35
• Supposed name: GeForceFX 5700
• First silicon made in May
• Volume availability unknown

Source: NV News

Chaintech announces motherboard and graphics card roadmap

At a recent press conference in Moscow Daphne Su, Chaintech sales division chief, announced the company motherboard and graphics card roadmap for the near future.

First of all, the company plans to extend its product lines. Except for traditional desktop motherboards and 3D-graphics, Chaintech is going to expand presence in the DVB receivers, media centers, desktop notebooks (IMO-DESK PC) and LCD TVs market segments.

Though the Russian market will, as usually, appreciate Chaintech’s traditional products most. As you know, the company differentiates its motherboards by platforms, indicating it visually on packages, by interfaces and bundled accessories. Besides, Chaintech solutions are also separated into three subgroups: maximum performance/features/accessories Zenith; overclockable Apogee offering optimal price/quality ratio; inexpensive entry-level Summit. The new desktop platform, AMD Athlon 64, should complicate the clear hierarchy a bit and introduce its own orange color.

So, the top-end Chaintech Zenith mobos line, currently including 9CJS (Intel 875P + ICH5R), 9EJS1 (Intel 845E + ICH4) and 7NJS Ultra (nForce2 Ultra 400 + MCP-T), should be extended with 8NJS Ultra on NVIDIA chipset (Crush K8/K8S series, of course.)

Apogee series that includes 9PJL (Intel 865PE + ICH5), 9EJL2 (Intel 845PE + ICH4) and 7NJL1 (nForce2 Ultra 400 + MCP-T), will be updated by a model for AMD Athlon 64 8VJL on Crush K8/K8S chipset.

As for the entry level, the Summit line, including 9EJL4, 9VJL3 (for Intel P4) and 7NJL3/4, 7VJL5 (for AMD K7) products, will be extended with VIA-based 9VJL5 and Intel-based 9BJL3, 9PJL1/9PJL3 and 9PJL4 models for P4; NVIDIA-based 7NJL3/7NJL4 and VIA-based 7VJL5 models for K7.

Company´s graphics cards are separated into the same groups: Zenith, Apogee and Summit. These products are easier to recognize and remember: Zenith includes FU98 (GeForce FX5900), FX70/60 (GeForce FX5600), FX30/20 (GeForce FX5200) cards; Apogee features FU91 (GeForce FX5900 Ultra), FX71 (GeForce FX5600 Ultra), FX61 (GeForce FX5600) and GX21 (GeForce4 Ti4200-8X).

Apogee cooling system, the so-called Gas-Turbine Technology, is worth mention as well. Providing <28dB noise, this triple-cooler system supplies airflow to all components due to the all-over-the-card casing. For example, Apogee FX71 equipped with such cooling features 38.6°C typical GPU temperature. Gas-Turbine Technology cards also feature stylish blue LED lights.

Below is the Apogee FX71 retail pack:

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