Canopus MTPlayer: a miniature MPEG player

Toshiba develops 1.4mm MCP package with 9 component layers

Melco introduces self-powered cable for USB 2.0 devices

ASUS DiGiMatrix — a stylish barebone in our test lab

Canopus MTPlayer: a miniature MPEG player

Japanese Canopus, known by its original graphics cards, this week started sales of the new compact MPEG player — MTPlayer — for ¥19800 ($185). The device´s salt is that it utilizes 2.5" hard disks for data storage.

As the device is rather compact (162x111x30mm), it doesn´t have any PC interfaces. Instead you can install the 2.5" MTHDD 25 disk (9.5mm thick), connected to PC via USB (USB 2.0), and watch its data with the MTPlayer that, in its turn, has VGA, S-Video, composite video and audio connectors.

Well, Canopus traditionally made a rather original, but not very comfortable device, because even the 120GB hard drive and the fastest connection might negate player´s main advantage of small size. However, the device also has slots for CompactFlash, Memory Stick, Secure Digital/MMC, MicroDrive, and supports MP3 playback and JPEG browsing.

Source: Akiba PC

Toshiba develops 1.4mm MCP package with 9 component layers

Toshiba developed the new MCP package 1.4mm high that can include 9 component layers. To create it, the company used its latest technologies, includin the 70nm-high memory chips (the smallest for MCP). The previous company´s solutions were 85nm high, so the new package can hold up to 6 chip layers and 3 dividing layers. Therefore in terms of layer number per MCP increase, the company achieved 50% gain.

Toshiba´s new package can hold any memory chips, including SRAM, SDRAM, Pseudo SRAM, NOR, NAND, etc., up to 776Mbit. Besides space saving, the new package optimizes CPU<->MCP interconnection thanks to the triple-data bus system (dedicated bus for each memory type). The highest bus bandwidth is provided for SDRAM and NOR, the average speed is meant for SRAM and NOR, and a separate bus is used for NAND.

Package specs:

• 6 memory chips, 3 dividing layers
• Supports SRAM (8Mb x 1), SDRAM (128Mb x 1), NOR Flash Memory (128Mb x 3), NAND Flash Memory (256Mb x 1)
• Sized 11x14x1.4mm
• 1.8V voltage
• 255 pins (FBGA)
• Triple-data bus system

Melco introduces self-powered cable for USB 2.0 devices

Melco (which owns the Buffalo trademark) introduced another useful device — a cable for connecting external USB2.0 storage. The device has an accumulator that powers from USB and continues to power the external storage in case of power shortage in the power bus. This might help connect and use a number of USB-powered devices simultaneously and might come in handy for notebook users.

Sized 58x63x18mm, it weighs about 50g. The cable length is 50cm.

In Japan this device is to go on sale late in January for ¥2750 ($25).

Source: PC Watch

ASUS DiGiMatrix — a stylish barebone in our test lab

We have just received the ASUS DiGiMatrix barebone that visually differs from other "boxes" of this class:

A hard drive is for you to estimate the barebone size

DiGiMatrix bases on ASUS P4SQ motherboard (SiS651/SiS962L chipset) for 478-pin Pentium 4/Celeron (Northwood) with 533/400MHz FSB. It has 2 x PC2700/2100/1600 sockets (2GB max.) Traditionally for multimedia centers, DiGiMatrix has TV and FM tuners, 7-in-1 card reader and is supplied with an antenna and a remote control.

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