SiS unveiles SiS648MX and SiSM661MX chipsets for Pentium M

N2700w and N2000 — two new LCD TVs from ViewSonic

C.I.A. and M.I.B.: serving Gigabyte P4 Titan GT Edition

New exhibits for our Hardware Museum: "UPS Inside" for your ISA slot

ABIT at Computex 2003: Guru, DigiDice, KV8-MAX3, SI-1Ns and other novelties

Hitachi Maxell develops tiny Li-Ion batteries

New exhibits for our Hardware Musem: Epson Acoustic Coupler — the modemless Internet of ancientry

More novelties in our videolab: Hercules 3D Prophet 9600 256MB

Prolink´s "Golden" PixelView GeForce FX5900 in our lab

Transcend unveils DDR466/500 SDRAM DIMMs

TravelMate C111TCi — new Acer´s Tablet PC with Centrino

SiS unveiles SiS648MX and SiSM661MX chipsets for Pentium M

Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS), a supplier of core logic products, today announced the company has reached agreement with Intel Corporation for a Pentium M microprocessor license. This gives SiS the necessary rights to build chipsets for Intel Pentium M microprocessors.

Just right after the announcement, SiS unveiled two chipsets: Incorporated with SiS162 wireless LAN (WLAN) chipset, the discrete chipset, SiS648MX, and the integrated chipset, SiSM661MX.

With 400 MHz System Bus, the SiS648MX supports memory capacity up to DDR 3G and the AGP 8X graphic interface. In conjunction with wireless network chipsets, the SiS648MX is also capable of providing customers with the ideal solution for wireless networks. SiS648MX supports the HyperStreaming Engine technology, with emphasis on upgrading the overall performance of PC systems. Through all-inclusive hardware management and system resource distribution, it effectively manages CPU, Front Side Bus, south-/north-bridge chips, memory controller, graphic interface and each I/O peripheral, enhancing PC function to the maximum while fully demonstrating the unparallel efficiency of the Intel platform.

Taking advantages of power management function of the Intel Pentium M, the SiSM661MX delivers excellent operating environment with low power consumption and high system efficiency. Coupled with SiS963 south bridge chipset, the chipsets provide a transmission bandwidth up to 1G between the north and the south bridges. The SiSM661MX also employs the unique Real256E graphic engine with the exclusive Ultra-AGPII technology, which provides lower signal latency and offers greater transmission bandwidth between the built-in graphic engine and the memory controller, which provide excellent operating environment and outstanding display quality for heavy gamers and digital video players. The flexible dual-view application allows the screen to be simultaneously displayed on a CRT, TV or LCD monitor, and supports a maximum resolution of 1600x1200 in the full screen UXGA display.

Designed exclusively for wireless broadband, SiS162 is the only wireless LAN (WLAN) chipset currently on the market that supports USB 2.0 interface of 480Mb/s high speed transmission function. It offers data transfer rates of 1, 2, 5.5, and 11 Mb/per second, which is compliant with the 802.11b wireless local network (WLAN) standard. Its minimal size of the wireless communication module achieved through advanced manufacturing process effectively lowers the overall manufacturing cost.

Mass production of SiS648MX and SiSM661MX will commence in the 4th quarter of 2003. Motherboards adopting these chipsets will be available in the market in early 2004.

N2700w and N2000 — two new LCD TVs from ViewSonic

ViewSonic officially announced two LCD TVs, the latest additions to the NextVision series, the 27-inch wide-screen N2700w and the 20-inch N2000. The NextVision N2700w has a native resolution of 1280x720 and offers plug-and-play connectivity with both digital and analog inputs, an integrated 181-channel TV tuner and a high fidelity 20-watt audio system. Variety of interfaces allows to use the TV with HDTV set-top-boxes, digital cameras, DVD players and video games, etc.

Brightness of the NextVision N2700w´s display is 500 nit, contrast ratio – 500:1, response time – 25 ms. Maximal power consumption – 60 W. The dimensions of the TV are 540 x 411 x 238 mm, its weight – 6.4 kg.

As for the second TV, it has resolution of 640 x 480 pixels (1024 x 768 when used as PC monitor), the model features 450 nits of brightness (typ) and a high 400:1 contrast ratio (typ), viewing angles are 160 degrees horizontally and 140 degrees vertically, response time – 16 ms. The TV is equipped with two 5 W speakers, and, as the previous model, is equipped with composite (RCA), component YPbPr, S-Video 3.5mm mini stereo audio in/out and RCA (left/right) audio in, etc.

The dimensions of the TV are 596.6 x 473.1 x 195.6 mm, its weight is 8.9 kg. Both models will go on sale in September for an estimated street price of $2499 and $1099 respectively.

C.I.A. and M.I.B.: serving Gigabyte P4 Titan GT Edition

At Computex 2003 Gigabyte is to unveil the new P4 Titan GT motherboard series on Intel 865PE. Initially P4 Titan GT will include 3 models: GA-8IPE1000 Pro 2, GA-8IPE1000 Pro and GA-8IPE1000/-L. All of them will feature two proprietary technologies: Gigabyte C.I.A. (CPU Intelligent Accelerator) and Gigabyte M.I.B. (Memory Intelligent Booster). Nice abbreviations, don´t you think? :-)

Common series capabilities include the supprt for Pentium 4 with Hyper-Threading and 800MHz FSB, dual-channel DDR 400, AGP 8X, Serial ATA, USB2.0, 6-ch. AC97 codec, UAJ (Universal Audio Jack) and 5 x PCI 2.3 slots.

The most advanced GA-8IPE1000 Pro 2 will also bear Texas Instrument´s IEEE1394, Gigabit LAN (Intel PRO/1000 CT, 82547EI CSA). Two other boards — GA-8IPE1000 Pro and GA-8IPE1000/-L – won´t have Gigabit LAN. Finally, GA-8IPE1000/-L won´t feature IEEE1394 and DualBIOS.

As for the new technologies, Gigabyte C.I.A. (CPU Intelligent Accelerator) is called to monitor CPU load to optimize system performance whenever possible. M.I.B. (Memory Intelligent Booster) is to optimize data exchange between CPU, Northbridge and memory.

New exhibits for our Hardware Museum: "UPS Inside" for your ISA slot

Such an intricate device was added to our Hardware Museum. Power failures can be prevented not only with the help of external modules. Just insert this UPS into your ISA slot, and voila, you´ve got some time to save your work.

ABIT at Computex 2003: Guru, DigiDice, KV8-MAX3, SI-1Ns and other novelties

On its website ABIT posted a brief list of novelties to be first showcased at Computex Taipei 2003 late in September.

Guru – ABIT´s new proprietary motherboard chip that combines a hardware monitor, overclocking, BIOS update and voice comment capabilities. It has a Windows-like and features ABIT EQ, ABIT FanEQ, ABIT OC Guru, ABIT FlashMenu, ABIT AudioEQ and ABIT BlackBox.

DigiDice — ABIT´s answer to Mini PCs. Stylish DigiDice hosts two HDDs bays, two ATAPI drives (CD/DVD-RW), AGP and PCI slots, and naturally a special noiseless cooling system.

Secure IDE — Already familiar ABIT Secure IDE provides on-the-fly encryption of data written to HDD.

SI-1Ns — An Intel 845GV-based 1U server motherboard for Intel Xeons. Features an integrated Cavium NITROX Security Macro Processor.

IC7-MAX3 — Already familiar Pentium 4 motherboard with an original cooling system.

KV8-MAX3 — A new desktop motherboard for Athlon 64. Bases on VIA K8KT800; features OTES MAX3, 6-channel Serial ATA RAID, 6-ch. audio, Gigabit LAN, SPDIF, USB2.0 and Firewire.

Siluro GeForceFX 5900 and 5600 OTES graphics cards.

Hitachi Maxell develops tiny Li-Ion batteries

In the morning issue of Nihon Keizai Shimbun they reported that Hitachi Maxell had developed a new tiny Li-Ion batteries for devices like portable consoles and mobile handsets.

At 270Wh permittivity per litre new 3.7V solutions are sized just 18x20x5.8mm that´s about 75% of today´s similar batteries. Êîììåð÷åñêèå ïîñòàâêè íîâûõ áàòàðåé îæèäàþòñÿ óæå â íà÷àëå ñëåäóþùåãî ãîäà.

Until now the miniaturization of such kind of power elements has been resulting in the significant capacity reduction making their production inexpedient. Not much details are provided about the technology, but the message states the high enough graphite and Lithium-cobaltic oxide (LiCoO&sub2;) density has been achieved in the aluminium package with the help of magnetic tape development experience.

Source: Nikkei Net

New exhibits for our Hardware Musem: Epson Acoustic Coupler — the modemless Internet of ancientry

Our Hardware Museum was extended with a truly unique rarity: Epson´s Acoustic Coupler.

In the previous age of torches and quills, when there were telephones, but no modems yet, Epson Acoustic Coupler could provide an overwhelming 300 baud rate with a handset put on its rings.

We wonder if Epson´s Acoustic Coupler was used in the Terminatrix development, as she sometimes sounded the same in the movie. :)

More novelties in our videolab: Hercules 3D Prophet 9600 256MB

We obtained another novelty for our videolab — Hercules´s 3D Prophet 9600 with 256Mb RAM, a record for such cards.

Model´s clock speeds are 325/200(400) MHz. Interfaces include D-Sub, DVI-I, TV-Out. Hercules´s traditional copper cooler is onboard as well.

Prolink´s "Golden" PixelView GeForce FX5900 in our lab

This one features 128Mb of Hynix´s 256-bit DDR, standard 400/850MHz clock speeds, all necessary interfaces, including VIVO. The model´s zest is the special "gilding" to provide better stability as well as the original cooling system.

Transcend unveils DDR466/500 SDRAM DIMMs

Transcend announced the new DDR466/500 memory modules for the hardcode gamer and overclocker markets. All DDR466/500 modules are assembled with a double-sided silverty heatsinks and tested at their highest speeds. The complete product line includes both 256MB and 512MB DIMMs:

• 184-pin 500 MHz (DDR4000) and 466 MHz (PC3700) unbuffered DIMM
• PC4000: 3-4-4-9 (CL=3)
• PC3700: 3-4-4-8 (CL=3)
• Voltage — 2.6 V

TravelMate C111TCi — new Acer´s Tablet PC with Centrino

Acer announced its new Centrino-supporting Tablet PC, TravelMate C111TCi with retail recommended price of about $2100. Compared to the previous model, TravelMate C110TCi, it has ultralow voltage 1 GHz (instead of 900 MHz) Pentium M and Bluetooth support.

The system is based on i855GM chipset and has 512 MB RAM (2 GB max), 40 GB HDD. Although there is no built-in optical drive, external 8/24/10/24x DVD/CD-RW with IEEE 1394 interface can be used with TravelMate C111TCi.

The model has 10.4" TFT LCD (supported resolution – XGA, 1024 x 768), ports set is rather usual: three USB 2.0, one FireWire, PC Card Type II slot. As for the other features, they are: built-in Ethernet controller, IrDA/Bluetooth/IEEE 802.11b connectivity, internal modem.

The dimensions of the TravelMate C111TCi – 257 x 216 x 25.4-29.4 mm, weight – 1.45 kg; battery life time is about 3 hours.

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