RightMark Audio Analyzer 5.3 released!

Pioneer unveils 8x DVD±R recorder — DVR-A07

iRiver works on a Wi-Fi MP3 player

Archos announces Gmini 220 MP3 player

XPC Zen (ST62K) — a new barebone from Shuttle on ATI RADEON 9100

DaimlerChrysler launches its second AMD Opteron cluster

LSI Logic ships SAS controllers

RightMark Audio Analyzer 5.3 released!

New features of RMAA 5.3 include:

• DirectSound mode for testing 24-bit support on a number of soundcards (because drivers of some soundcards provide direct hardware access only via DirectSound API and don´t offer the direct signal path in the standard MME mode)

Please also have a look at Creative´s newest testing instructions for RMAA 5.3 for Audigy2ZS/Platinum/Platinum Pro. The document describes how to measure Audigy2ZS card series correctly in the loopback mode.

By the way, our measurements of Audigy2ZS Platinum Pro (as usual with Lynx Two as the reference record device) showed even better results with DirectSound API: the noise level was —107.0 dB A (with band limiting AES17 filter 20 Hz to 20 kHz), which is very close to Audigy2ZS Platinum Pro specifications (108 dBA SNR).

The newest RMAA 5.3 release is available here.

Pioneer unveils 8x DVD±R recorder — DVR-A07

Pioneer unveiled its new internal 8x DVD±R recorder, DVR-A07, that will be on sale from late February. The model will have either black ("BK" suffix), or white body. According to the sources, the novelty bases on DVR-A06 DVD±RW drive and differs by increased DVD±R recording speed only.

As an ATAPI device the drive is sized 148x42.3x198mm and weighs 1.1 kg. The bundle includes DVD MovieWriter Advance, VideoStudio 7 SE, RecordNow, and WriteDVD!.

iRiver works on a Wi-Fi MP3 player

ReignCom, the well-known maker of iRiver players, together with Korean Telecom informed about plans to develop and promote new players with Wi-Fi support.

Pity, but initially such "music over WLAN" services will be deployed only in Korea (currently KT has over 12,000 access points in public places promising to install another 8000 by the year-end).

In fact, manufacturers are already moving to the Wi-Fi support: A week ago SoniqCast introduced its new MP3 player, Aireo (1.5GB Cornice HDD, selling since February, MSRP $300), capable of synchronizing stored MP3 collection with PC via WLAN. However, the device is not compatible with MusicMatch online stores yet.

Source: The Korea Herald

Archos announces Gmini 220 MP3 player

Archos announced its new portable multimedia solution, Gmini 220, combining an MP3 player, digital photo album and FM radio. From the previous Gmini 120 it differs rather significantly though the capacity remains 20GB.

• 1.8" 20GB HDD (assuming that 1.1GB = 1 billion bytes), 300 hours of MP3 at 128Kbps, 700 hours of voice notes @ 64Kbps
• 8Mb buffer
• USB 2.0 High-speed, CF Type I/II support
• 30-320Kbps MP3, WAV (PCM), 30-128Kbps VBR MP3 (user-selected), monochrome JPEG support
• 2.5" LCD, 16-tone grayscale, blue backlight, 160x160 pixels (11 lines)
• Analog line-in/out (stereo), built-in mic
• Up to 10 hours of operation
• Icon-based GUI, supports deletion, renaming, copying and moving operations
• Li-Ion battery or AC adapter
• 67.5x78x23mm size
• 170 g weight
• Bundle includes the player, USB (MiniB/A) cable, AC adapter, battery, audio cable, headphones, MusicMatch Jukebox, drivers, user´s manual
• €400 price

XPC Zen (ST62K) — a new barebone from Shuttle on ATI RADEON 9100

Shuttle introduced the new XPC Zen (ST62K) barebone on ATI RADEON 9100 chipset. It´s encased into a newly designed body — "K" enclosure — that primarily differs by the updated front panel and smoothed corners that reduce the system size by 20% comparing to the previous XPC.

• Aluminium chassis, acrylic front panel (white/silvery/black body)
• 1 x ext. 5.25" bay, 2 x 3.5" (ext. and int.)
• FT62 FlexATX motherboard
• Supports 478-pin Pentium 4, Celeron (400/533/800 MHz FSB)
• I.C.E. Heatpipe CPU cooling
• ATi RADEON 9100 IGP (RS 300) Northbridge, ATi IXP150 Southbridge
• ATA100 IDE
• 1 x PCI slot
• DDR333/400 memory
• Fast Ethernet LAN
• Realtek ALC655 audio codec (6-channel, 18-bit AD/DA)
• Mic, Line-in/out, 2 x USB2.0, headphones interfaces on the front panel
• VGA, TV-Out (with S-Video — Composite adapter), COM, LAN, 2 x USB, keyboard/mouse, FireWire, audio-out, SPDIF In/Out
• Shuttle 180W fanless external power supply
• 2.1 kg weight
• 280x190x170mm dimensions

DaimlerChrysler launches its second AMD Opteron cluster

AMD reported that DaimlerChrysler AG installted the new cluster on AMD Opteron processors in the Mercedes-Benz Technology Center (MTC) in Germany. It´s the second AMD-based cluster installed by DaimlerChrysler during the last three years.

According to the press release, the new cluster will utilize several hundred AMD Opteron processors and will be used in one of the most important testing areas for DaimlerChrysler: the crash-simulation division, where performance, stability and software compatibility are crucial elements. It will be one of the largest high-performance Linux clusters in the German automotive industry.

According to Johannes Luginsland, manager IT infrastructure for safety and comfort simulation, DaimlerChrysler, the previous AMD-based cluster was used for purposes like shortening product development processes and in running compute-intensive simulations.

Thus DaimlerChrysler joined the numbers of enterprises worldwide that are moving to AMD64 technology.

LSI Logic ships SAS controllers

LSI Logic informed that it became the first company to ship Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) controllers. If you remember, last year Seagate reported about its plans to release 2.5" SAS hard drives. The new interface provides high data density and throughput within server infrastructure.

LSI Logic LSISAS1064 SAS controller bases on Fusion-MPT (Message Passing Technology) architecture and provides up to 3Gbps throughput. SAS physical layer is to be made compatible with Serial ATA (up to 1.5Gbps) that should provide clientele an opportunity to select either interface for their systems.

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