iXBT Labs - Computer Hardware in Detail

Platform

Video

Multimedia

Mobile

Other

News Archive


 « Previous Day News Archive Next Day » 

Headlines


CES 2005: Shuttle showcases new SFF barebones

TI showcases new WLAN controller for consumer electronics

Motorola Ojo: a videophone for your digital home

Plextor offers 6x DVD+R DL recording firmware

NVIDIA unveils GeForce Go 6200 graphics for mainstream

CES 2005: SanDisk unveils new players, capacities and clip-on panels

Pentium M with 533 MHz QPB and XD-bit is available for sale in Japan

CES 2005: Pretec is again about records

CES 2005: Kingston launches new RS-MMC, miniSD and Secure Digital media



CES 2005: Shuttle showcases new SFF barebones

At CES 2005 in Las Vegas Shuttle showcased two new SFF barebones: XPC G5 8300mc, which is bundled with Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, and XPC SB95P, which is based on Intel 925XE chipset.


SB95P:

  • Intel LGA775 Pentium 4 / Celeron D, up to 3.80 GHz
  • Dual-channel DDR2 533/400 MHz, 2 x DIMM sockets
  • FB95 motehrboard on IntelR 925XÅ + ICH6-R bundle, 1066/800/533 MHz FSB
  • 1 x PCI Express
  • 7.1-channel codec, digital SPDIF-out, analog outputs
  • Gigabit Ethernet
  • 4 x Serial ATA 150, Matrix Storage/RAID (0, 1, 0+1)
  • Front panel:
    • 6-in-1 card reader
    • 2 x USB 2.0
    • FireWire 400
    • Mic-in
    • Headphones-out
  • Back panel:
    • PS/2 keyboard and mouse
    • 2 x USB 2.0
    • FireWire 400
    • Gigabit LAN (RJ-45)
    • Audio outputs
    • SPDIF-out
    • Coaxial audio-out
    • Parallel port
  • Silent X, ICE (Integrated Cooling Engine)
  • 350W PSU
  • 325x210x220 size
  • 6.05 kg weight

TI showcases new WLAN controller for consumer electronics

At CES 2005 Texas Instruments showcased one of its latest specialized solutions — TNETW1350 WLAN controller designed for consumer electronics. Supporting IEEE 802.11 a/b/g, the novelty is a combination of MAC controller, baseband processor and radio interface. According to the press release, the solution is designed for home LAN gateways, consoles and portable devices like digital cameras, players etc.


TNETW13501350 utilizes with TNETW3422/28 radio unit (802.11 b/g, increased operation range). Besides, it can be used together with TNET3422/26 (802.11 b/g, lower energy consumption). All combinations support WPA2 security as well as 802.11e standard important for Wi-Fi voice and multimedia content streaming.

TNETW1350, 3422/28 and 3422/26 are to be available in Q2 2005.


TNETW1350 flowchart


Motorola Ojo: a videophone for your digital home

At CES 2005 Motorola introduced its new Ojo videophone with wideband connectivity features. According to the press release, Ojo utilizes the latest video and audio streaming standards and has wireless control unit.




Networking
Protocol TCP/IP
Ethernet 10/100 Base-T
Standards SIP, TCP/IP, UDP, RTP
Security SRTP, 128-bit AES
Required bandwidth 110-150 Kbps
Audio
Video compression iLBC
Audio compression G.711
Display
LCD 5.6"
Anti-glare Yes
Viewing angle ±30°(h) ±60°(v)
Camera
CCD 1/4"
Backlight compensation Yes
Auto levels Yes
White balance Auto
Min. lighting 2 lux
Speakerphone
Audio processing Full duplex
Echo reduction Adaptive
Crosstalk protection Yes
Video
Resolution 176x144 (QCIF)
FPS 30
Initial compression H.264
Secondary compression H.263
Battery
Charging time 1 hour
Talk time 6 hours
Standby 96 hours

Plextor offers 6x DVD+R DL recording firmware

Japanese Plextor and Buffalo together announced that in March 2005 they will start selling DVD drives with newer firmware supporting 6x DVD+R DL and 2x DVD-R DL recording, which will be the new record for DVD+R DL media.


The list of patched burners includes PX-716A (on the photo), PX-716SA and PX-716UF from Plextor and DVM-DM16FBS/DVM-DM16U2 from Buffalo. I believe that users will be able to download and patch the firmware manually as well.

Source: PC Watch

NVIDIA unveils GeForce Go 6200 graphics for mainstream

NVIDIA unveiled the new NVIDIA GeForce Go 6200 GPU for mainstream notebooks. One of the first systems featuring the novelty are Sony Vaio series S and FS. GeForce Go 6200 support PureVideo (creating home theatres based on mobile systems), Microsoft DirectX 9.0 Shader Model 3.0.

Judging by NVIDIA´s solution hierarchy, GeForce Go 6200 is one step below GeForce Go 6800. Like 6800, 6200 (and 6250) support TurboCache.

Naturally the GPU has hardware support of WMV-HD and MPEG-2. Other features include nView, Digital Vibrance Control 3.0, Unified Driver Architecture, PowerMizer 5.0, HDTV coder, OpenGL 2.0 optimizations, 2 x 400 MHz RAMDAC (2048x1536 at 85 Hz; Dual-Link DVI).

CES 2005: SanDisk unveils new players, capacities and clip-on panels

SanDisk considerably updated its flash series, having announced Cruzer Mini with 2 GB and 4 GB capacities, Cruzer Micro 1 GB and 2 GB, Cruzer Titanium 1 GB, flash MP3 players, Memory Stick Pro Duo for PlayStation Portable (PSP) and... clip-on panels for Cruzer Micro devices.

One of the most interesting solutions showcased were "clamshell" SecureDigital cards which can be inserted directly into USB ports. Digimaster actually made such an effort regarding SD cards as well, but SanDisk elaborated its USB-SD solutions, so they fit into ports completely.


The first of these SanDisk novelties will be available in Q1 2005, while the detailed specs, etc. will be first announced at the exhibition by Photo Marketing Association (PMA) that will take place in Orlando, February 20-23.

As for MP3 players I mentioned, SanDisk introduced Sansa e100 series that includes 512 MB Sansa e130 and 1 GB Sansa e140. Note that available SD slots coupled with announced 2 GB SecureDigital cards can noticeably increase player capacities. New players support WMA and MP3 formats (protected and not). Other features include:

  • Powers from AAA battery; up to 8 hours of MP3 playback for Sansa e130 and up to 16 hours for Sansa e140
  • USB 2.0 interface
  • FM tuner, memory for up to 20 stations

Cruzer Micro with clip-on panels will go on sale in February with MSRP ranging from $30 for 128 MB to $100 for 1 GB models. Clip-on panels will be packaged with 256, 512, 1024 and 2048 MB SanDisk Cruzer Micro devices.

2 GB SanDisk Cruzer Mini will cost $200, 4 GB SanDisk Cruzer Mini — $400, and 1 GB Cruzer Titanium – $170.

SanDisk Sansa will be available in March 2005 with MSRP of $150 for 512 MB and è $200 for 1 GB model.

Pentium M with 533 MHz QPB and XD-bit is available for sale in Japan

While at CES 2005 notebooks vendors are only announcing notebooks on the new Sonoma platform, enterprising Japanese are already selling boxed versions of these CPUs.


These updated Pentium M are made using 0.09µm process technology (Dothan core), have 2 MB L2 cache and support 533 MHz QPB. New CPUs are likely to have a newer core stepping and we believe they actually support "Execute Disable Bit" (XD-bit) innovation to prevent some of malicious software by hardware means.


The new processors were packed into boxes just in the end of December. XD-bit support is indicated by the letter "J" before the sSpec#, which is unusual for Intel that traditionally places "J" on-box after the CPU model name.

CPU Pentium M
730 740 750 760 770 780
sSpec# SL86G SL7SA SL7S9 SL7SM ? ?
Òàêòîâàÿ ÷àñòîòà (max) 1,60 GHz (133 MHz x 12) 1,73 GHz (133 MHz x 13) 1,86 GHz (133 MHz x 14) 2,00 GHz (133 MHz x 15) 2,13 GHz (133 MHz x 16) 2,26 GHz (133 MHz x 17)
QPB 533 MHz
XD-bit Yes
Max. voltage 1.356 V
Min. voltage 0.988 V
Approx. price, $ 210 240 295 420 640 ?

Of all Pentium M chipsets existing in the market only i852GME unofficially supports 533 MHz QPB. Meanwhile XD-bit support is likely to arrive in Alviso series only.


Another novelty worth a mention is the new Celeron M also supporting XD-bit (and thus being based on the new-stepping core):


Other features of Celeron M 370 are typical for a 0.09µm core: 1 MB L2 cache, 400 MHz QPB. The clock rate is slightly increased to 1.5 GHz (vs. 1.4 GHz). sSpec# of this model is SL86J. The approx. price is $150.

It´s interesting that Pentium M and Celeron M seems to have cores of the same size (measured by eye):



CES 2005: Pretec is again about records

Pretec, which has always been making huge-capacity flash cards, this time announced iDisk Tiny 166X/266X USB dongles. The claimed read speed is 250% higher and write speed is 500% higher than read/write speeds of other solutions. Speaking of values, novelty´s read performance is 24.9 MB/s, write performance — 12 MB/s.

The company says it made such a card using its proprietary technologies. But as you all know "proprietary technologies" might mean any hardware & software package. The novelty is sized as a standard iDisk Tiny: 32x13.5x4.5 mm.

The company also introduced iDisk II with 8 GB capacity and performance close to that of iDisk Tiny. At the moment iDisk Tiny 166X cards are sampling, while iDisk Tiny 266X with 39.9 MB/s read and 19.9 MB/s write are to arrive in H2 2005.

CU-Flash is yet another novelty from Pretec. It also supports 24.9 MB/s read and 12 MB/s write performance, but is 25% smaller than iDisk Tiny — 21x11.9x1.9 mm. Currently CU-Flash series includes 16 MB to 512 MB cards, 1 GB models being scheduled to Q2 2005.

CES 2005: Kingston launches new RS-MMC, miniSD and Secure Digital media

At CES 2005 Kingston Technology launched the new RS-MMC, miniSD and Secure Digital cards.


New RS-MMC (Reduced-Size MultiMediaCard) and miniSD (mini Secure Digital) designed for mobile handsets have 64/128 MB and 64/128/256 MB capacities, respectively. The MSRP in North America is:

  • RS-MMC:
    • 64 MB – $20
    • 128 MB – $25
  • miniSD:
    • 64 MB – $17
    • 128 MB – $28
    • 256 MB – $42

Kingston Secure Digital series was updated with 512 MB and 1 GB Elite Pro cards, both offering up to 7.7 MB/s write and 8.2 MB/s read speeds. The novelties are sized 24x32x2.1 mm. But the most pleasing feature is their MSRP (for North America as well) — $62 for 1 GB.

 « Previous Day News Archive Next Day » 

Write a comment below. No registration needed!




blog comments powered by Disqus

  Most Popular Reviews More    RSS  

AMD Phenom II X4 955, Phenom II X4 960T, Phenom II X6 1075T, and Intel Pentium G2120, Core i3-3220, Core i5-3330 Processors

Comparing old, cheap solutions from AMD with new, budget offerings from Intel.
February 1, 2013 · Processor Roundups

Inno3D GeForce GTX 670 iChill, Inno3D GeForce GTX 660 Ti Graphics Cards

A couple of mid-range adapters with original cooling systems.
January 30, 2013 · Video cards: NVIDIA GPUs

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1

An external X-Fi solution in tests.
September 9, 2008 · Sound Cards

AMD FX-8350 Processor

The first worthwhile Piledriver CPU.
September 11, 2012 · Processors: AMD

Consumed Power, Energy Consumption: Ivy Bridge vs. Sandy Bridge

Trying out the new method.
September 18, 2012 · Processors: Intel
  Latest Reviews More    RSS  

i3DSpeed, September 2013

Retested all graphics cards with the new drivers.
Oct 18, 2013 · 3Digests

i3DSpeed, August 2013

Added new benchmarks: BioShock Infinite and Metro: Last Light.
Sep 06, 2013 · 3Digests

i3DSpeed, July 2013

Added the test results of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 and AMD Radeon HD 7730.
Aug 05, 2013 · 3Digests

Gainward GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST 2GB Golden Sample Graphics Card

An excellent hybrid of GeForce GTX 650 Ti and GeForce GTX 660.
Jun 24, 2013 · Video cards: NVIDIA GPUs

i3DSpeed, May 2013

Added the test results of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770/780.
Jun 03, 2013 · 3Digests
  Latest News More    RSS  

Platform  ·  Video  ·  Multimedia  ·  Mobile  ·  Other  ||  About us & Privacy policy  ·  Twitter  ·  Facebook


Copyright © Byrds Research & Publishing, Ltd., 1997–2011. All rights reserved.