VIA EPIA MII: a new Mini-ITX CardBus-equipped motherboard
Hynix launches volume production of 0.11µm 256Mbit chips
VoodooPC unveils another "shamanistic" Centrino notebook – ENVY m:460
Thomson Lyra PDP 2860 multimedia player with a 20GB HDD already selling
VIA EPIA MII: a new Mini-ITX CardBus-equipped motherboard
VIA Technologies introduced another Mini-ITX novelty — VIA EPIA MII Mini-ITX – featuring CardBus Type I/II controllers (Ricoh R5C476 II/R5C485).
VIA EPIA MII bases on VIA C3 ESP processor, VIA CLE266 + VT8235 chipset and naturally has all implied options, including 6-channel VIA Vinyl Six-TRAC Audio, S-Video and RCA, IEEE1394 and USB2.0, 10/100 Mbps Fast Ethernet. The integrated CardBus and CompactFlash controllers should add to Mini-ITX popularity and get it closer to notebook functionality.
Hynix launches volume production of 0.11µm 256Mbit chips
Korean Hynix
Semiconductor launched volume production of 0.11µm 256Mbit DDR SDRAM chips. For this the company improved the existing line that firstly reduced additional expenditures and secondly boosted line performance by 40%. Farhad Tabrizi, vice president of worldwide marketing, reported some time ago that the company would launch a line for 12" wafers next year.
By the way, Chinese Economic Daily News reported that Hynix would pass a part of its production to Chinese GSMC (Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation). They said Hynix was planning to outsource 0.11µm DRAM manufacture, however the agreements might be officially signed only next year.
GSMC launched the production of 0.11µm chips at one of its two Shanghai fabs last April. By the year-end the performance should make 10,000 of 200mm wafers monthly. In the future both fabs might be re-equipped for 300mm materials.
It seems that volume production using the new technologies and interesting third parties indicate that Hynix plans to struggle for its market share and return to the 3rd place in the manufacturer rating.
VoodooPC unveils another "shamanistic" Centrino notebook – ENVY m:460
VoodooPC unveiled a new notebook claiming it to be the first Centrino solution with a DirectX 9 graphics core. But actually, according to The Register, ENVY m:460 is not a purely Centrino notebook as some models are based on 1.4 to 1.7 GHz Pentium M processors and feature Intel Centrino 802.11b WLAN cards (cards´ manufacturer wasn´t disclosed).
Models have ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 Pro graphics with 128MB of G-DDR2-M SDRAM. The basic configuration includes 512MB to 1GB RAM, a 5400rpm 40GB Hitachi Travelstar (7200rpm 60GB and 5400rpm 80GB drives are also available), a DVD-R/CD-RW or DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive. The price starts from $2986. According to the company, there are several body colors available. Besides, you can have your custom logo painted on your model as well.
Thomson Lyra PDP 2860 multimedia player with a 20GB HDD already selling
Another multimedia novelty from Thomson: Thomson Lyra Audio/Video Jukebox PDP 2860 with a built-in 20GB hard drive is available in European retail.
The novelty supports numerous multimedia formats, including MPEG-4, MPEG-1, MP3, WMA and can be upgraded to MP3 Pro in the future. PDP 2860 has a 3.5" color LCD, provides playing information, including ID3 tags. The model has a USB 2.0 interface. The OS recognizes the device as a usual portable drive. Sized 135x80x27mm, it weighs about 300g.
In Europe Lyra PDP 2860 MSRP is 749 euros.
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