TDK intros new DVD-R media

LG introduces 23" FLATRON L2320A LCD monitor

Realtek releases 8-channel ALC850 audio codec

Hitachi to develop 0.4mm ID chips with antennas

Our demographic survey is out for you!

CanoScan 8200F and LiDE40 sales to start in October

K8T800, K8M800, K8N800, K8T890: VIA gets ready to fight for the Athlon 64 market

ECS 848P-A: an i848P-based model from Elitegroup

TDK intros new DVD-R media

TDK introduced two new DVD-R blank series — 4.7Gb DVD-R47HCG for data and DVD-R120HCF for up to 120 min video – that feature additional UV guard layer. DVD-R47HCG are to arrive for sale on October 3, DVD-R120HCF – on October 10.

According to TDK, the additional layer provides 3 times more protection from UV comparing to usual solutions. Pricing hasn´t been disclosed yet.

Source: PC Watch

LG introduces 23" FLATRON L2320A LCD monitor

The monitor has 495x310mm (23") viewing area; supports 1920x1200@16.7M colors (up to 1600x1200 with DVI-I); features 25ms response time, 400:1 contrast, 235cd/m², 176° vertical and horizontal viewing angle. L2320A has VGA, DVI-I, DVI-D, AV (RCA) and S-Video interfaces as well as 2-port USB hub.

FLATRON L2320A will be shipping to Europe for about 3300 euros.

Source: PC INpact

Realtek releases 8-channel ALC850 audio codec

Taiwanese Realtek Semiconductor developed a new 8-channel AC´97 Rev 2.3 audio codec. According to the company, this is natural, as Dolby Laboratories (Dolby) and Digital Theatre Systems (DTS) are promoting 7.1 sound systems forecasting these to become the mainstream early in 2004.

ALC850 features the Universal Audio Jack (UAJ) chip providing three jacks, including Line-In/Out and Mic-In, and supporting Plug and Play. Besides, the codec supports S/PDIF-In/Out for DVD or other multimedia systems.

New chips are already sampling in 48-pin LQFP. The volume production is scheduled to 2004. Some Taiwanese mobo makers are going to showcase Realtek ALC850-based solutions at Computex 2003 that will take place late in September.

Source: The DigiTimes

Hitachi to develop 0.4mm ID chips with antennas

In the future we might see tiny ID chips instead of the existing "square" ones used in supermarkets. Hitachi launched the development of the next-generation RFID (radio frequency identification) chips that can be integrated into small objects or thin paper sheets like banknotes or certificates. What´s interesting about all this is that the new generation will feature integrated antennas.

The existing solutions require external antennas about 55mm long. Integration will speed up the implementation of these IDs into commonly used things. Today Hitachi speaks of less than ¥10 wholesale price per chip.

Sized just 0.4x0.4mm, novelties would be compatible with existing RFID readers. So they would be taking less than a 1mm² space on, say, banknotes instead of today´s 10-50mm long solutions.

Volume production of Hitachi´s RFID chips is scheduled to the beginning of the next year.

Source: Nikkei Net

Our demographic survey is out for you!

We´ve launched a demographic survey on our site to have a better understanding of our audience. Don´t be afraid, we don´t need your credit card numbers ;) Just some info about your age, favourite IT fields, etc. Ah well, I guess this one doesn´t differ much from all others. So please spend a minute to fill the form to let us understand who we are dealing with :)

Thanks in advance,
Artem Pavlenko aka Cormac.

CanoScan 8200F and LiDE40 sales to start in October

Along with the announcement of CanoScan LiDE80 sales date (mid-September with MSRP of $212), Canon announced sales date for two more models — CanoScan 8200F and LiDE40.

CanoScan 8200F is a flatbed scanner with 2400x4800 dpi optical resolution and 16-bit color depth. The model is to arrive for sale in mid-October with MSRP of $254.

The scanner is equipped with a 35mm 12-frame film holder and allows to scan up to 4 frames simultaneously. The scanning speed (for color and monochrome images) is about 10.8 ms/line (2400 dpi); the film scan speed is 5.4-64.3 ms/line. CanoScan 8200F size is 284x495x104 mm, weight – 4.6 kg.

CanoScan LiDE40 is a CIS-scanner featuring 1200x2400 dpi resolution, 16-bit in/out color depth. The model is to arrive for sale early in October with MSRP of $143.

Its scanning speed is 12.7 ms/line for color and 4.2 ms/line for monochrome images (1200 dpi resolution). Scanner dimensions are 256x374x38 mm, weight — 1.6 kg.

Both models are bus-powered and equipped with USB2.0 interface.

K8T800, K8M800, K8N800, K8T890: VIA gets ready to fight for the Athlon 64 market

It´s not long before AMD Athlon 64 chips arrive, so chipset makers get their heavy artillery ready to fight for the new, yet inexisting market.

For the 64-bit Athlon 64 platform VIA prepared three chipsets: desktop K8T800 and K8M800 and mobile K8N800. The latter two are already sampling, though their official announcement is scheduled only to Q4.

And we´ve been hearing about K8T800 for some time already, with photos posted in our news. As for K8M800, it has integrated Unichrome graphics with 200MHz core and 8-64 Mb RAM, and VIA Hyper8 that stands for the fully-fledged support of 16bit/1.6GHz Hypertransport interconnecting CPU and chipset. K8M800 is backward-compatible with K8T800 and will feature the VT8237 Southbridge.

Mobile K8N800 also has Unichrome graphics; supports external AGP; and features USB2.0, external and internal Serial ATA, 10/100 Ethernet and a modem.

The next generation of VIA´s chipsets supporting PCI Express will be presented with K8T890 designed for both server Opterons, and Athlon 64. In the future we might also see the VT8239 Southbridge with 4 x S-ATA ports and 2 x IDE channels.

ECS 848P-A: an i848P-based model from Elitegroup

Elitegroup (ECS) introduced its own motherboard on Intel 848P+ ICH5 that supports single-channel memory. The novelty, named 848P-A, will be sold (in Japan) for about $80.

ECS 848P-A ATX mobo supports Pentium 4/Celeron with 800/533/400 MHz FSB; has an AGP slot, 5 x PCI slots, 5.1-channel audio codec, 10/100Mbps LAN (Realtek RTL8100C), 2 x DIMM sockets for up to 2Gb Single-channel DDR400/333/266/200. In other words, a standard model for a moderate price.

Source: MyWeb

Write a comment below. No registration needed!