SiS´s updated chipset roadmap

Minolta DiMAGE A2: the new meaning for the older name

EIZO FORIS.TV SC23XA1 — the new 23" LCD TV with a built-in DVD player

ASUS publishes the complete list of its Pentium 4 Prescott-supporting motherboards

On AMD64 processors with the new CG stepping: how to distinguish

Intel curtails production of Mobile Pentium 4 / Celeron

SiS´s updated chipset roadmap

Mycom PC Web informed on SiS Intel and AMD roadmap. As we get it, SiS doesn´t intend to cede to Intel and focuses on PCI Express 16x instead of AGP as well as on the support of dual-channel DDR400/DDR-II 677/533/400.

Along with the promotion of SiS655TX and SiS655FX chipsets that are the obvious rivals of Intel´s i865 series, the company is going to further advance its proprietary projects, including SiS659 supporting 4-channel RDRAM. SiS662, the simplified version of SiS656 (w/o ECC), is to arrive closer to the Summer. Closer to the this year-end, we should see the SiS656FX supporting DDR2-800 (given this memory is available). And company´s AMD chipset roadmap looks like this:

It seems that SiS755 will become the only SiS solution with Socket 940 support and further models will support Socket 939. SiS965, expected in March 2004, will support MuTIOL 1G, 8 x USB 2.0, 4 x ATA133, 4 x SATA w/RAID, 2 x PCI Express x1, 10/100/1000 LAN, AC97 2.3.

Closer to August we should expect SiS966 supporting MuTIOL 2G, 8 x USB 2.0, 4 x ATA133, 4 x SATA w/RAID, 4 x PCI Express x1, 10/100/1000 LAN, Intel Azalia/AC97 2.3.

Minolta DiMAGE A2: the new meaning for the older name

The old Minolta A2 is to be reborn in the new DSLR, Konica-Minolta DiMAGE A2. The French Chassuer d´Images published the first images (of an ad poster it seems) alongside DiMAGE A2 main specs:

• CCD with an image stabilizer, 8Mp
• Predicative 3D AF, 11 areas
• 28-200mm optical lens (35mm equiv.)

As A2 will have the image stabilizer (the lens remind that of Sony DSC-F828, so, perhaps, A2 will have 8Mp Sony ICX 456 CCD), most likely the novelty will be based on the 5Mp DiMAGE A1 announced in mid-2003. Judging by the body, you can see that A1 resembles A2 very much. Still none of these look like the original A2 of 1955:

EIZO FORIS.TV SC23XA1 — the new 23" LCD TV with a built-in DVD player

EIZO Nanao introduced its new 23" LCD TV with a built-in DVD player (located between the screen and speakers) — EIZO FORIS.TV SC23XA1 — that is to go on sale on March 15 for about $2350.

Brief specs:

• 23" diagonal, IPS LCD, 1280x768
• 170° horizontal and vertical angle
• NTSC, VHF1-12, UHF13-62, CATV13-63 channels
• Supports DVD-Video DVD/DVD-R, Audio CD: CD/CD-R/CD-RW
• 2 x 10cm speakers, 80Hz-20kHz, 5W (8 ohm)
• Video-In, Antenna-In, S-Video, D4, optical digital output, headphones connector, etc.
• 544x370x1073mm size, 19.5kg weight
• Height adjust

Source: ASCII24

ASUS publishes the complete list of its Pentium 4 Prescott-supporting motherboards

ASUS published the complete list of motherboards supporting the new 3.2GHz+ Intel Pentium 4 Prescott processors.

Those of you who already purchased listed boards will just have to update BIOS.

On AMD64 processors with the new CG stepping: how to distinguish

As you know, during the life cycle each processor undergoes several technological revisions that result in the new steppings with new or improved features. The new CG stepping of AMD Athlon 64, Mobile Athlon 64 DTR, Mobile Athlon 64, Athlon 64 FX processors will differ from the previous C0 by some serious improvements, mostly energy saving.

More information of CG stepping is provided in the AMD Athlon 64 Processor Power and Thermal Data Sheet v3.11 updated in January 2004. The Athlon 64 with the new CG stepping has the new marking. E.g. desktop Athlon 64 marks...

...now have the following additions:

According to this document, the same is made to other desktop and mobile AMD64 processors with the new stepping.

Our colleagues from Heise.de compiled a table of the old- and new-stepping processors:

And now let´s describe the changes that the new stepping implies. Note this table of features of Athlon 64 (Desktop) with CG stepping:

As you can see, the Cool´n´Quit technology was changed in these processors. Unlike C0-stepping chips which have energy saving mode at 800MHz, 1.30V and respective 35W TDP, the CG stepping differs by Cool´n´Quiet at 1000MHz, but 1.10V and thus 22W TDP. The full-clock mode remains the same 1.5V and 89W TDP, however they added another intermediate energy-saving state for Athlon 64 3400+, p-State #2 at 1.80GHz and 1.30V.

Another significant change in the new stepping is the reduced requirements for AMD64 interface logic energy consumption: now Desktop, DTR and Mobile Athlon 64 models have I/O Power at 160mW (vs. 600mW for the previous stepping). Athlon 64 FX have this value reduced from 1.4W to 0.4W.

Despite that the new stepping has the same TDP, the new "relieved" modes mean the significant offload of CPU cooling systems and the improvement of the thermal conditions in general.

Whether all these improvement are useful, only the tests will tell. Still don´t forget that all of them are actual for motherboards which BIOS supports Cool´n´Quiet.

Intel curtails production of Mobile Pentium 4 / Celeron

The list of Intel´s cancelled processor was extended by 2.66GHz Mobile Pentium 4 (S-Spec SL724), 2.66GHz Mobile Pentium 4 w/HT(SL77M?) and 2GHz Mobile Celeron (SL6VJ). All three chips were made using 0.13µm, D-1 stepping.

The orders for these models will be accepted until March 19. Besides, 2GHz Mobile Celeron processors will be supported for some more time by Intel Communications Group.

Write a comment below. No registration needed!