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Western Digital to showcase 74Gb Serial ATA Raptor hard drives at IDF2003

Asustek announces DigiMatrix barebone

ABIT officially announces DigiDice mini PC

XGI introduces new Volari graphics trademark and new 3D chips

Corsair unveils XMS Pro Series DDR modules with LED indication

Motorola announces MPx200, a Windows-based handset

USB Video Device Class: streaming over USB

Nokia 3200: 3-band GSM handset with EDGE support

New exhibits for our Hardware Museum: S3 Trio64 V2/DX

OCZ Eliminator 2 Gold — golden cooler for P4



Western Digital to showcase 74Gb Serial ATA Raptor hard drives at IDF2003

At Intel Developer Forum (September 16-18) Western Digital is to showcase the new generation of 10Krpm WD Raptor Serial ATA drives.

New WD Raptors feature:

  • 74Gb capacity, 37Gb/plate with higher linear density
  • Up to 72Mb/s internal data throughput (for outer tracks) vs. 55Mb/s of the first Raptor generation
  • 4.5ms access (vs. 5.2ms)
  • FDB, fluid bearing motors for lower noise
  • 1.2-million-hour Mean Time Between Failure
  • 5-year warranty
  • Ultra/150 Command Queuing
  • Rotary Accelerometer Feed Forward (RAFF)
  • Shipments: November 2003

Asustek announces DigiMatrix barebone

Asustek introduced Asus DiGiMatrix barebone based on Asus P4SQ motherboard for Pentium 4 @ 533MHz FSB. It´s positioned as a home theatre platform with connectivity to LCD monitors, projectors, plasma TVs, etc. DiGiMatrix allows to to listen to CDs, MP3 and radio without OS bootup.

CPU Intel Pentium 4/Celeron 2.4GHz, FSB533/400
Memory 2 x DDR 333/266 DIMM sockets for up to 2Gb
Optical drive Slim DVD/Combo/DVD-RW
AV outputs VGA, DVI-OUT, S-Video/HDTV, S/PDIF, headphones, 5.1 speakers
AV inputs CATV, FM radio, RCA/S-Video, mic, line
Card reader SD, MMC, MS, MS Pro, SM, CF, Microdrive
Networking Gigabit, 10/100 Mbps, 802.11b Wi-Fi
I/O 2 x IEEE 1394, 4 x USB2.0 (back panel), 4 x USB2.0 (front panel)
Size 285x53x290mm






ABIT officially announces DigiDice mini PC

Today ABIT officially announced its new DigiDice barebone brand. DigiDice´s distinctive feature is the new mini PC concept based on performance, upgradability and functionality.

New mini PC specs are:

  • ABIT IS-50 motherboard
  • Intel 865G + ICH5 chipset
  • Supports Intel P4, up to 3.06GHz
  • 2 x DIMM sockets for DDR400
  • Integrated Intel Extreme Graphics 2
  • 1 x PCI slot, 1 x AGP slot
  • 2 x ATA/SATA HDD bays, 2 x CD-ROM / DVD/VCD-ROM / CD-RW bays
  • 2 x Serial ATA ports
  • 6-ch. AC97 codec
  • Front interfaces: 6-in-1 card interface, mic-in, headphones-in, 2 x USB ports, 1 x IEEE1394 port
  • Backpanel interfaces: PS2 mouse/keyboard, VGA, audio, S/PDIF, LAN, 2 x USB ports
  • 200W power supply
  • Optional TV-out
  • OTES Cooling System with FanEQ
  • 307x255x215mm dimensions


Four programmable buttons are provided on the front panel for multimedia features access. These can also be bound to apps in the OS.

Overclocking is provided in two ways: either with ABIT Softmenu, or with a special controller managed by 5-position switch on the front panel.

Besides, the system front provides status indication.

OTES cooling system provides noise below 25dB.

Finally, a bag is provided for mobile users.

XGI introduces new Volari graphics trademark and new 3D chips

Today XGI Technology (eXtreme Graphics Innovation), the daughter company of SiS with rights to all its graphics expertise, held a press conference to officially announce the first generation of graphics products under own brand.

XGI´s Volari trademark will be used on a DX9 discrete GPU family. The top-end Volari Duo V8 Ultra and Volari Duo V5 Ultra would be high-performance dual-processor solutions. Besides, the family will include high-end Volari V8 Ultra and Volari V8; mainstream Volari V5 Ultra and Volari V5; entry-level Volari V3.

New desktop GPUs are compatible with DirectX9 and OpenGL 1.4, higher-end solutions support both DDR DRAM, and DDR2 DRAM. The dual-processor design of XGI Volari V5 and Volari V8 is implemented with the help of the new BitFluent Achitecture.

XGI is going to participate in the mobile graphics market as well. The Volari family includes three mobile DirectX9 GPUs — Volari XP5m32 for light models, Volari XP5m64 for performance models and Volari XP5 for other segments.

Finally, below are the features of family´s most powerful Volari Duo V8 Ultra GPU:

  • Supports 32-bit PCI 2.2, AGP2.0 / AGP3.0
  • Hardware recognition of AGP1.0, AGP2.0 or AGP3.0
  • Dual 8-pipeline 256-bit 3D engine
  • 4 x vertex shader blocks fully supporting Direct3D 9.0 Vertex Shader ver. 2.0
  • 8 x pixel shader blocks fully supporting Direct3D 9.0 Pixel Shader ver. 2.0
  • 16 x pixel rendering pipelines
  • Supports Bump Mapping, Mipmapped Cubic Mapping 2X/4X FSAA
  • 2D engine (hardware instruction sorting; Direct Draw accelerator; GDI 2000 hardware accelerator; TV-out on XV301 chip; PAL and NTSC support; composite, S-Video and RGB connectors; Macrovision Copy Protection Process Rev. 7.1.L1; HDTV 480i/480p/1080i/720p YpbPr support; TMDS transceiver)
  • MPEG-2 decoder (MPEG-2 MP@ML; up to 20Mbps; VCD, DVD and HDTV hardware decoding)
  • Programmable 24-bit RAMDAC, up to 400MHz
  • VIP interface
  • Supports 32Ká/64Ká/128 Kb ROM
  • 1140-pin FC-BGA package
  • 37.5x37.5mm dimensions

It´s just impossible to describe all the novelties in a single news, so below is a spec table for all of them together.


I´d also like to note that some names resemble codenames of previous solutions (e.g. Volari XP5m32 or XV301), however some are really new for 3D graphics.

For the first time new GPUs will be showcased at Computex 2003. I guess some prototypes would be available by that time as well.

Corsair unveils XMS Pro Series DDR modules with LED indication

Today Corsair Memory announced its high-performance XMS Pro Series DDR modules that have two distinctive features: new heatsinks and LED lights.

New nielloed aluminium heatsinks with longitudinal fins that cover both module sides have been developed specially for the XMS Pro Series. On top each has a line of 9 LEDs indicating module usage. Moreover, dual-bank 512Mb XMS Pro Series feature two lines of green, yellow and red LEDs (18 in total).


Currently XMS Pro Series includes the following products:

  • TwinX1024-4000PRO – a couple of 512Mb DDR500 modules tested together
  • TwinX1024-3200C2PRO – a couple of 512Mb DDR400 modules tested together
  • CMX512-4000PRO – 512Mb DDR500 module
  • CMX512-3200C2PRO – 512Mb DDR400 module

Motorola announces MPx200, a Windows-based handset

Motorola has finally announced its MPx200 handset based on Microsoft Windows Mobile OS, of which you might have heard already, as Taiwanese Chi Mei Communication Systems (CMCS) has had time to present a number of prototypes before.



Considering it´s a CMCS phone, it should be the "Beethoven" — Motorola MPx200 has 32Mb ROM and 32Mb RAM, Secure Digital slot, USB interface and IR port. The phone is designed for GSM/GPRS networks and 1800/1900MHz bands. It supports Microsoft Outlook sync either during PC connection, or via Exchange server. The phone has Pocket Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player installed.



AT&T Wireless has already declared the intention to start selling this model in Northern America. Besides, in the near future, it should arrive to Europe (Orange) and Hong Kong.

USB Video Device Class: streaming over USB

USB Implementers Forum posted a new specification that supports streaming data — USB Video Device Class Specification Revision 1.0. This new substandard is called to simplify the connection of streaming devices with PCs.

USB Implementers Forum members expect new devices will include both inexpensive webcams, high-end digital video cameras. Prototypes will be first showcased at Intel Developer Forum that starts tomorrow.

Source: CNet

Nokia 3200: 3-band GSM handset with EDGE support

These are the first specs of Nokia´s EDGE handset that features a built-in camera and a new design. If you remember, EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution) provides throughputs up to 150-180Kbps, exceeding GSM/GPRS. Still EDGE might root in USA only, as most European and Asian regions are going to 3G from GPRS at once.

Nokia 3200 brief features:

  • 3-band GSM: 900/1800/1900MHz or 850/1800/1900MHz
  • EDGE and GPRS support
  • Up to 12 days standby, up to 4 hours active
  • 352x288 camera with timer
  • 27.3x27.3mm 128x128 LCD matrix, 4K colors
  • 16-tone polyphony
  • Calendar, task list
  • XHTML browser
  • IR port
  • Changeable panels
  • Stereo FM tuner
  • MMS, EMS/SMS support
  • T9 input
  • 107.5x45.1x20.8mm dimensions
  • 90g weight



Nokia 3200 seems to be a budget version of 7250/I without some features and 1Mb memory (vs. 5Mb in Nokia 7250/I). Priciing information is unavailable for now, but the model is expected in retail in Q4 2003.

Source: OCWorkBench

New exhibits for our Hardware Museum: S3 Trio64 V2/DX

It´s hard to believe that not so long ago most graphics cards had 1Mb memory. 4Mb was a kind of luxury, and S3 Graphics ruled the graphics card market. Well, at least the considerable amount of systems featured its products. And it would be just impossible to forget S3 Trio series (still present in some price lists), their popularity can hardly be overestimated.

Our exposition was updated with one of the later S3 Trio — S3 Trio64 V2/DX (Virge). This card is a real fragment of times long gone, but we must admit most of such "fragments" in our Museum are still operational.




OCZ Eliminator 2 Gold — golden cooler for P4

OCZ Technology unveils the Eliminator 2 Gold CPU cooler for the Intel Pentium 4 processor up to 3.2. GHz. The Eliminator 2 features a solid copper, gold coated design to prevent corrosion and increase performance.


It is bundled with 70mm YS Tech TMD (Tip-Magnetic Driving Fan) fan, mounting hardware, thermal paste. The dimensions of the OCZ Eliminator 2 Gold are 80x70x70mm.


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