SiS Develops Chipsets For "AMD LIVE!" Consumer Brand

New 12GB 1-Inch Hard Drive From Seagate

Plextor Ships First 18X DVD±R Burner

Intel Core Duo Delivered to Embedded Market

Secure Microcontroller for Next-Generation (U)SIM Cards From Atmel

SiS Develops Chipsets For "AMD LIVE!" Consumer Brand

Silicon Integrated Systems announced today the development of SiS chipsets in cooperation with AMD to support AMD LIVE! branded consumer multimedia desktop and notebook PCs expected to be delivered in mid-2006. The chipsets will provide support for AMD LIVE!, helping "deliver new home entertainment experiences to consumers for their digital lifestyle".

AMD LIVE! enables users to seamlessly connect, store, distribute, access digital media content in multiple rooms throughout the home and even take it along to enjoy on the go. AMD LIVE! machines will be powered by AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual-core processors for desktop PCs, as well as AMD dual-core mobile processors for notebook PCs. The SiS chipsets for desktops and notebooks are designed to provide full compatibility and support for AMD LIVE! in dual-core desktops and notebook systems. All SiS chipsets for AMD LIVE! will provide support for the PCI Express x16 interface.

Source: Silicon Integrated Systems

New 12GB 1-Inch Hard Drive From Seagate

Seagate Technology announced the newest member of its diverse CE product portfolio, the Seagate ST1.3 Series 12GB 1-inch hard drive. With a footprint 23% smaller (40x30x5 mm), 50% more storage capacity, and 30% less power consumption than Seagate's current 1-inch hard drive, the ST1.3 Series also offers a new optional drop sensor for increased robustness. The ST1.3 Series hard drive is Seagate's second hard drive with perpendicular recording and the company's first drive utilizing perpendicular technology in the 1-inch category.

By offering a 12GB of storage in a smaller footprint, the ST1.3 Series hard drive is a powerful solution for increasingly sophisticated media devices such as digital audio players, portable media players, and mobile phones. According to IDC, the worldwide mobile phone market is expected to grow 7% in 2006 to 857.9 million units. IDC forecasts that the worldwide converged mobile device market will reach 181 million units by the end of 20091 and worldwide portable multimedia player shipments are expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 95% between 2005-20092.

The drive incorporates Seagate RunOn technology, which enables the drive to automatically keep the read heads on track while the device is in motion. The ST1.3 Series also features G-Force Protection, which protects the hard drive against shock by sensing when the system is in a free-fall situation, moving the heads off the platter, and turning the motor off - all within 3/10 of a second.

The Seagate ST1.3 Series will begin shipping in the third calendar quarter of 2006.

Seagate Technology

Plextor Ships First 18X DVD±R Burner

Plextor announced the PX-760A DVD±R/RW CD-R/RW drive, aimed at professionals and power PC users.

The PX-760A is a DVD/CD burner that delivers recording speeds of 18X DVD±R on certified 16X DVD±R media. Users can burn up to four hours of high-quality MPEG-2/DVD video on a single 8.5 GB disc using 10X DVD+R on Double-Layer media and 6X DVD-R on Dual Layer media. The drive also supports 8X DVD+RW and 6X DVD-RW Rewriting; 16X max DVD-Reading; and 48X CD-R Writing, 24X CD-RW Rewriting, and 48X max CD-Reading. DVD±VR is supported for direct disc recording, while DVD+RW background format eliminates the need to manually format a DVD+RW disc.

The internal PX-760A drive features an E-IDE (ATAPI) interface. A short drive length of 6.69 inches accommodates small form-factor PCs, while a replaceable beige front bezel allows a user to change the appearance of the drive to match a computer. The PX-760A has a 2 MB buffer and features Buffer Underrun Proof Technology to prevent buffer underrun errors and allow multi-tasking.

The PX-760A also features AUTOSTRATEGY, a technology that selects the optimized write strategy for every DVD disc and, if necessary, creates a new write strategy for unknown media (DVD+/-R). PoweRec adjusts laser power and writing speed to optimum levels for a particular disc.

The PX-760A Series drive includes PlexTools Professional software, a unique combination of user-controllable CD recording and CD/DVD media test features, including PlexEraser, Q-Check, GigaRec, SecureRecording, Silent Mode, and VariRec.

The PX-760A drive ships with the award-winning Roxio Easy Media Creator 7, Basic DVD Edition software suite for burning video, music, photos, and data to DVD or CD.

The Plextor PX-760A drive will ship to distributors in North and South America in April 2006 with a Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) of $119.00 USD. All retail packages include one-year full warranty and unlimited toll-free technical support.

Source: Plextor

Intel Core Duo Delivered to Embedded Market

Intel today provided extended lifecycle support for the Intel Core Duo processor used by developers of embedded solutions, such as industrial control, test and instrumentation, aerospace, defense and medical imaging systems.

Embedded system designers increasingly wrestle with two challenges: balancing performance with power efficiency and supporting general purpose and special purpose functionality in embedded applications. Intel Core Duo processors provide system designers with the performance, low power and flexibility to build innovation into embedded systems.

Two independent processing cores can support multiple operating systems simultaneously to provide design–flexibility for custom applications. Intel provides a full set of software tools, including compilers, performance analyzers and thread checkers, to assist developers in maximizing application performance and to fully exploit concurrent threading.

The Intel Core Duo processor combines high performance with innovative power management capabilities to minimize operational costs. Features such as Enhanced Intel SpeedStep technology enable the system to dynamically regulate power to cores, caches and interconnects in response to changing processing requirements. The Intel Core Duo processor is supported by the Mobile Intel 945GM Express Chipset, which provides enhanced graphics, I/O bandwidth, storage speed and reliability for embedded system designs.

The Intel Core Duo processor for designers of embedded systems is available now at speeds of 2.0 GHz and 1.66 GHz for $423 and $316, respectively, each in 1,000–unit quantities. Intel will offer a development kit for the Intel Core Duo processor with the Mobile Intel® 945GM chipset priced at $1,500 and available within 30 days.

Source: Intel

Secure Microcontroller for Next-Generation (U)SIM Cards From Atmel

Atmel announced today the introduction of its new AT91SC512384RCT, a low-power, high-performance 32-bit RISC crypto-controller.

This product is designed for the next generation of (U)SIM cards, requiring high-speed interfaces with handsets, very large storage capacity and the capability of supporting concurrent applications including those requiring a contactless interface (e.g. mass transit, ID banking, etc).

Based on the ARM SC100 CPU, the AT91SC512384RCT features 512 Kbytes of ROM program memory, 384 Kbytes of high-performance EEPROM (fast erase/write time, high endurance) and 24 Kbytes of RAM. This chip provides USB full speed 2.0 and "USB Interchip" ports to allow very high-speed transactions with a USB host terminal. It also includes external Flash memories interfaces: SPI port for NOR Flash and dedicated hardware for NAND Flash. An interface for front-end RF device, located in a handset, is available through a Single Wire Protocol (SWP) to support the requirements of contactless applications.

Samples for the AT91SC512384RCT are available.

Source: Atmel

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