Photo of the day: Soltek EQ3401A barebone in our lab

Imation releases MiniSD USB adapter

S/U/M/A/ announces its version of RADEON 9800XT 256MB DDR

Cirrus Logic introduces new CS4351 DAC with integrated line drivers

300mm AMD Fab 36 officially: financing, partners, plans...

2.2GHz Xeon follows 2GHz Celeron

Photo of the day: Soltek EQ3401A barebone in our lab

We´ve recently posted a complete list of Soltek barebones. And now we are testing one of those models, EQ3401A, on SL-B8E-F motherboard (Intel 865G chipset) for Intel P4 Socket 478 @ 800/533MHz FSB (HyperThreading).

The barebone is supplied with such a comfortable backpack:

Imation releases MiniSD USB adapter

Imation released two solutions that promise to become popular among reader manufacturers. These are the USB adapters for MiniSD (FG-Mini SD) and MiniSD/Memory Stick Duo (FG-MSD/MS Duo) cards. Novelties are to arrive for sale on December 1 costing $20 and $30, respectively, in Japan.

Sized 29x65x12mm, the dual-format adaper weighs about 15g. MiniSD only version is 24x64x12mm weighing 14g. Devices work under Windows 98/98 SE/Me/2000/XP, Mac OS 8.6+.

Source: PC Watch

S/U/M/A/ announces its version of RADEON 9800XT 256MB DDR

Korean S/U/M/A/ announced its model on ATI R360 GPU, RADEON 9800XT 256MB. According to Brainbox, the card features 2.5ns BGA memory, 412/365MHz clock speeds.

The model supports the VPU Recover technology that might come in handy during overclocking (through OVERDRIVE). Other features are standard: DirectX9 support, AGP 8x, DVI, D-Sub, TV-Out.

Currently the following cards feature this GPU: Hercules 3D Prophet 9800XT, Sapphire Atlantis RADEON 9800XT 256 Ìá, ASUS RADEON 9800XT Limited Edition.

Cirrus Logic introduces new CS4351 DAC with integrated line drivers

Cirrus Logic introduced a family of its new high-performance DACs — CS4351. The novelties are designed for modern DVD players, professional audio and car sound systems. The main difference is integrated amplifier and filter stages enabling to omit additional circuitry and directly drive the outputs of audio products. Due to this CS4351 saves about 20% on peripheral buffering costs without signal quality reduction.

CS4351 family key specs:

• Advanced multi-bit Delta-Sigma modulator
• 24-bit conversion
• Up to 192 kHz sample rates
• 108 dB dynamic range
• -95 dB THD+N
• Integrated line driver
  • 2 VRMS output into 5 kΩ AC load
• Digital volume control with soft ramp
  • 119 dB attenuation
  • 1/2 dB step size
  • Zero crossing click-free transitions
• Automatic sample rate detection
• ATAPI mixing
• Low clock-jitter sensitivity
• Popguard technology for control of clicks and pops
• +3.3 V, +9 V to +12 V power supply
• Direct interface with 3.3 V to 1.8 V logic
• Package: 20-pin TSSOP

300mm AMD Fab 36 officially: financing, partners, plans...

The place for the new AMD fab has been finally selected. Yesterday evening the company officially laid the first foundation stone of AMD Fab 36 that will be designed for making <65nm chips from 300mm wafers.

AMD Fab 36 will be constructed in Dresden, Saxony countryside as a part of AMD Dresden Fab 36 LLC & Co. KG. Its production lines will be located nearby operating AMD Fab 30.

A model of the future 300mm AMD Fab36, west side

A model of the future 300mm AMD Fab36, east side

AMD Fab 36 is expected to produce cips in volumes in 2006. It will host about 1000 workers, mostly expert engineers.

AMD Fab 36 will be equipped with all the latest technologies. In particular, its produciton lines will feature AMD´s patented Automated Precision Manufacturing, APM 3.0þ Achieving full capacity in 2006 the fab is expected to produce 13 thousands 300mm wafers monthly. Later the yield is to grow up to 20 thousands wafers per month.

The capital expenditures are estimated $2.4 billion with $1.5 biliion external financing. According to the press release, the external financing is expected to include up to approximately $700 million in loans from a consortium of banks, including an 80 percent residual guarantee from Germany and Saxony, approximately $500 million in anticipated grants and allowances from the Germany and Saxonian governments (pending European Union Commission approval), and up to approximately $320 million in equity funding from Saxony and a group of European investors led by M+W Zander. The balance of the financing will be provided by AMD and other potential partners.

Of course, funds will be allocated gradually. As you know, over 70% of modern fab construction is about purchasing hi-tech equipment, so Fab36 gradual financing will help to carry such expenditures burden.

It´s also interesting that at the construction launch ceremony Hector Ruiz, president and CEO at AMD, said about the significant similarity between processes used at IBM´s 65nm 300mm fab in East Fishkill, NY and AMD´s Fab36. Thus, despite the lack of additional comments from AMD, we can assume that IBM will remain the AMD´s largest technology partner all these years.

2.2GHz Xeon follows 2GHz Celeron

Intel continues purging processor series. Yesterday we reported that 2GHz Celeron was cancelled, and today 2.2GHz Intel Xeon with 512KB L2 cache is going to follow its lower-end brother.

The reason is naturally the same – low demand and transition to more powerful processors like 3.2GHz Intel Xeon with 1MB L3 cache announced early in October. The latter are compatible with server Intel E7501 and workstation Intel E7505 chipsets featuring IntelPRO Gigabit Ethernet adapters and RAID controllers. In over 1,000-unit quantities 3.20GHz Intel Xeons cost $851.

Orders for 2.2GHz processors (OEM and box) are accepted until March 12, 2004, while the last quantities are to be shipped on November 10, 2006 and June 11, 2004, respectively.

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