XPC SB86i: Shuttle´s first pico-BTX SFF barebone

VIA sheds more light on Envy24-II, new PC audio solution

Plextor introduces new PX-716SA, SATA DVD burner

P4 3.8 GHz: just another 200 MHz, no hype

Sony VAIO R series: based on Pentium 4 3.8 GHz

XPC SB86i: Shuttle´s first pico-BTX SFF barebone

With an official press release Shuttle launched the new SFF (small form factor) barebones — XPC SB86i — designed in the pico-BTX form-factor.

Shuttle XPC SB86i motherboard bases on Intel 915G chipset with ICH6-R Southbridge and has Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900 graphics.

XPC SB86i will be shipping late in this Q4.

VIA sheds more light on Envy24-II, new PC audio solution

At its official website VIA Technologies published interesting information about the soon-to-be-announced Vinyl Audio PCI novelties. As you know, Envy24 and Envy24xx are widely spread in various multimedia devices, on motherboard and even PCMCIA cards.

The new controller named Envy24-II will more likely be a logical continuation of Envy24 series than Envy24xx line and will be meant for professionals: improved digital hardware mixer, higher-quality ASIO support (through "flexible DMA architecture") for more effective usage of PCI bus and reduced latencies.

Envy24-II specs are noticeable better than those of Envy solutions:

• Sampling rates up to 192 kHz
• Width up to 32-bit
• 16 A/D inputs
• 16 A/D outputs
• Digital 32-bit hardware mixer for 32 channels
• Integrated S/PDIF transmitter with IEC958 direct interface (direct data transmission to receiver by PCM, DTS, AC3 protocols)
• 1 x SPI and 4 x I2C ports
• 2 x MPU-401 MIDI UART ports
• 10-channel GPIO
• 2 x reference quartz clock generators operating at 49.512 MHz/24.576 MHz and 22.5 MHz (external clock generators supported)
• PCI 2.3 revision
• 3.3 V (up to 5 V) voltage

The press release mentions that the device can decode new audio formats, including DVD-Audio, in hardware. Does it mean SACD is not an exception? There´s just one problem left: to make usual DVD drives read SACD media.

Plextor introduces new PX-716SA, SATA DVD burner

Plextor introduced the new PX-716SA DVD burner with Serial ATA (SATA) interface. Other features are identical to those of PX-716A.

• Write:
  • DVD+R, DVD-R – 16x CAV
  • DVD+R Double Layer — 4x
  • DVD+RW – 8x
  • DVD-RW – 4x
  • CD-R – 48x
  • CD-RW – 24x
• Read:
  • DVD – 16x
  • CD – 48x
• 8 MB buffer
• Buffer Underrun Proof
• Lossless Linking/Zero Link

The drive is bundled with PlexTools Professional supporting GigaRec (record up to 1 GB onto a 700MB CD-R), SecureRecording, Silent Mode, VariRec. Besides, PX-716SA supports Plextor Intelligent Recording technologies, including Intelligent Tilt, PoweRec and AUTOSTRATEGY. The bundle also includes Roxio Easy Media Center 7 Basic DVD Edition.

Plextor PX-716SA will be shipping in December with MSRP of $160 (North America).

P4 3.8 GHz: just another 200 MHz, no hype

As you have already understood from our news about Sony VAIO R series, without much hype Intel added another processor to its list: P4 570J. Well, another 200 MHz is not a surprise these days. Besides, judging by some benchmarks, the novelty performs not much faster than Pentium 4 560 anyway.

The only thing that catches the eye is that there´s no such processor model without Execute Disable Bit (´J´ suffix), though until now all 800 MHz FSB, 1 MB L2 solutions had two modifications (including Celeron D 325). At least such model is not listed at company´s website.

Sony VAIO R series: based on Pentium 4 3.8 GHz

According to the source, referring to the Japanese branch of Sony online store, the company started accepting requests for its high-end VAIO R series PCs based on the yet unannounced Intel Pentium 4 570 (3.8 GHz).

The system features 2 x 250GB HDDs, 1 GB RAM, RADEON X600 XT graphics and DVD±RW/+R9 burner. With Windows XP Professtional (SP2) OS and Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 the machine will cost ¥406,800 ($3700).

System interfaces include 7 x USB 2.0 ports, 2 x IEEE1394, built-in Gigabit Ethernet, PCMCIA Type 2 slot, Memory Stick (Pro) / CompactFlash/ xD-Picture Card / Secure Digital/MultiMedia Card reader. The PC case is sized 188x402x410 mm at 14.5-16 kg weight.

Source: PC Watch

Write a comment below. No registration needed!