Swiftech MCW60-T: Cool Freeze Your GPU

IBM Researchers Set World Record In Magnetic Tape Data Density

Samsung To Unveil First Commercial Hybrid Hard Disk Prototype For Windows Vista

Sony Ericsson Announces W850 UMTS Walkman Phone

Gecube Launches Radeon X1300 XTreme GDDR3 AVIVO Edition

ATI Delivers New Radeon Xpress 1100 Series Chipset

Micron Builds Smallest 8-Megapixel Image Sensor

ABIT Launches KN9 SLI Motherboard On nForce 570

Swiftech MCW60-T: Cool Freeze Your GPU

Swiftech published information about its new product -- the MCW60-T liquid-cooled thermoelectric (Peltier) solution, specifically designed for high-end graphics processors. Operating temperature ranges from ambient to freezing levels, depending on the heat load, and thermal capacity of the liquid cooling system.

This unit is intended for advanced users and requires appropriate insulation to prevent the formation of condensation in sensitive areas of the graphics card.

The MCW60-T features a 188 Watts built-in thermoelectric module that can be operated from 12 to 19 Volts and yields sufficient cooling power to operate most high-end GPU's from freezing to well below ambient temperature levels.

Graphics Card compatibility:

• Most NVIDIA GeForce series from 6800 and above, including the latest 7900 series. (Known incompatibility: GeForce 7800GS AGP.)
• Most ATI Radeon series, including the latest X1900 series. (Look up the product dimensions when using a card including a TV tuner, such as the All-In-Wonder series.)

Source: Swiftech

IBM Researchers Set World Record In Magnetic Tape Data Density

IBM researchers announced they have demonstrated a world record in data density on linear magnetic tape, an indication that one of the computer industry's oldest and still most affordable data storage technologies has the potential to provide increased capacity for years to come.

The researchers at IBM's Almaden Research Center in San Jose, CA, packed data onto a test tape at a density of 6.67 billion bits per square inch -- more than 15 times the data density of today's most popular industry standard magnetic tape products. To achieve this feat they created several new data-recording technologies and worked with Fuji Photo Film of Japan to develop a next-generation dual-coat magnetic tape capable of storing high-density data.

The demonstration shows that magnetic tape data storage should be able to maintain its cost advantage over other technologies for years to come. When these new technologies and tape become available in products -– projected to be in about five years -– a cartridge the size of an industry-standard Linear Tape Open (LTO) tape cartridge could hold up to 8 trillion bytes (terabytes) of uncompressed data. This is 20 times the capacity of today's LTO-Generation 3 cartridge, which is about half the size of a VHS videocassette.

The test tape (left) vs. the standard magnetic tape (right).

IBM's achievement leverages improvements in five areas of the magnetic tape system:

• New high-density dual-coated particulate magnetic tape -- this next-generation version of its NANOCUBIC tape uses a new barium-ferrite magnetic media that enables high-density data recording without using expensive metal sputtering or evaporation coating methods.
• More sensitive read-write head -- for the first time, magnetic tape technology employs the sensitive giant-magnetoresistive (GMR) head materials and structures used to sense very small magnetic fields in hard disk drives.
• GMR servo reader -- new GMR servo-reading elements, software and fast-and-precise positioning devices provides an active feedback system with unprecedented 0.35-micron accuracy in monitoring and positioning the read-write head over the 1.5-micron-wide residual data track.
• Improved tape-handling features -- flangeless, grooved rollers permit smoother high-speed passage of the tape, which also enhances the ability of the head to write and read high-density data.
• Innovative signal processing algorithms for the read data channel -- an advanced read channel used new "noise-predictive, maximum-likelihood" (NPML) software developed at IBM's Zurich Research Laboratory to process the captured data faster and more accurately than would have been possible with existing methods.

The demonstration was performed at product-level tape speeds (4 meters per second) and achieved error rates that should be correctable, using advanced error-correction techniques, to meet IBM's specification for its LTO-3 products.

Source: IBM

Samsung To Unveil First Commercial Hybrid Hard Disk Prototype For Windows Vista

Samsung Electronics announced that it is exhibiting the first commercial prototype of a Hybrid Hard Disk (HHD), the next-generation hard drive for notebooks and PCs that integrates NAND flash memory with rotating magnetic storage. The HHD will be exhibited with two cache densities, 128MB and 256MB, at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) in the Seattle on May 23-24, 2006.

The Hybrid Hard Disk eliminates the need for the hard disk to constantly spin whenever a computer is operating on battery power, and is less susceptible to damage from jarring or being dropped since it is idle most of the time.

Every time the cache is filled, the rotating drive spins to "flush out" or transfer data from the cache, spinning only a few seconds every 10-20 minutes. As cache the Samsung HHD uses the proprietory OneNAND flash with 108MB/s read and 18MB/s write data-rates. The functionality is automated by the high-performance HDD SOC which supports 3.0G Native Command Queuing SATA and an OneNAND interface. The HHD saves between 8 and 25 seconds of boot-up time and extends battery life by about 8-10% depending on the model of computer, the press release claims.

In addition, the HHD allows PC manufacturers to deploy value-added features, such as direct media experiences with instant-boot functionality and accelerated processing for specified applications.

Samsung will sample its HHD with customers beginning next quarter and it will ship in large quantities by January, in conjunction with the Windows Vista rollout.

Source: Samsung Electronics

Sony Ericsson Announces W850 UMTS Walkman Phone

Sony Ericsson announced the UMTS-enabled W850, which is company's first GSM/UMTS slider combined with a full horizontal mode camera and the latest Walkman player 2.0.

Available in "Precious Black" or "Golden White", the phone has "heartbeat illumination" feature to light-up the control keys in rhythm with your music. The phone is configured for operator over the air (OTA) music download services and accepts many popular music file formats including e-AAC+. Supplied is a 1GB Memory Stick Pro Duo card enough for around 1,000 songs in e-AAC+ (can be expanded to 4GB through a slot).

The Walkman player 2.0 simplifies navigation through music genres, playlists, individual songs or music albums and there's also a TrackID feature powered by Gracenote Mobile MusicID. This is a new service which means you can record a few seconds of a song, either via the microphone or the in built FM radio, and then with one click send that clip to the Gracenote worldwide music database, which will identify the track and relay the information back to the phone.

Other features include 2" QVGA TFT 260K color display, 2-megapixel camera, Macromedia Flash support, FM radio, audio out via system connector, USB 2.0 mass storage functionality, RSS feeds support.

The Sony Ericsson W850i is an UMTS 2100 and Tri-band GPRS 900/1800/1900 Walkman phone for Europe, Middle East, Africa. It is commercially available and starts shipping during Q3 2006.

Source: Sony Ericsson

Gecube Launches Radeon X1300 XTreme GDDR3 AVIVO Edition

Gecube today announced the Radeon X1300 XTreme, 128MB GDDR3, AVIVO edition. The new card features core clock of 600MHz (overclocked to 650MHz), 1.2GHz memory clock with GDDR3 1.4ns memory, and a low-noise cooler.

The X1300 XTreme edition enables dual-link DVI support for resolutions up to 2560x1600 as well as support for an analog VGA display at resolutions up to 2048x1536. An included S-video and composite video output cable combines to provide fullscreen video playback to an NTSC or PAL video monitor.

The X1300 XTreme series graphics card is OpenGL and Microsoft DirectX (Shader Model 3.0) compliant.

Source: Gecube

ATI Delivers New Radeon Xpress 1100 Series Chipset

ATI Technologies introduced the new Radeon Xpress 1100 series of chipsets, supporting AMD's Turion 64 X2 mobile technology. The novelty is claimed to offer a 33 percent faster graphics core and supports Microsoft Windows Vista (3D Aero interface).

The Radeon Xpress 1100 series supports DDR2 memory up to 667 MHz and features Radeon X300 integrated graphics core with clock speed of 300/400 MHz (for Radeon Xpress 1100/1150). The graphics core supports Hypermemory, resolutions up to 2536x2536@32bpp, 2x/4x/6x MSAA, and HSR.

Speaking of power conservation, the new chipset has support for AMD Cool‘n’Quiet technology and fifth-generation PowerPlay power management.

Other features include up to 8 x USB 2.0 ports, up to 7 x PCI v2.3 slots, Serial ATA with hot plug and RAID 0,1, AC-97 compliance up to 7.1/5.1-channel output and TPM 1.1 and 1.2 support.

Source: ATI Technologies

Micron Builds Smallest 8-Megapixel Image Sensor

Using a tiny 1.75-micron pixel design, Micron Technology has built the first 8-megapixel image sensor in a 1/2.5-inch optical format, the standard size for mainstream digital cameras.

The company unveiled a prototype that, when used in continuous-shot mode for digital still cameras, is capable of bursting more than 10 pictures a second at full 8-megapixel resolution and more than 30 pictures a second at 2-megapixel resolution. Also given it's high-speed, the sensor allows for cameras to have features like image stabilization for reducing the effect of blurred images typically caused by jittery hands and fast auto-focus response.

The sensor also enables a digital camera to capture and playback HD video, which equates to shooting video at 30 frames per second in 720p format. As such, it complements Micron;s 5-megapixel image sensor that also supports HD video and is currently shipping in volume.

Additionally, Micron announced its work on a 1.4-micron pixel and unveiled pictures taken with test chip.

General customer sampling is planned for the fall of 2006 with mass production expected in the first half of 2007. The pricing will be determined at the time of general customer sampling.

Source: Micron Technology

ABIT Launches KN9 SLI Motherboard On nForce 570

Today ABIT launched its ABIT KN9 SLI Motherboard. This is the first NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP based motherboard for the new generation of AMD Socket AM2 processors.

Supporting dual-channel DDR2-800 memory, the KN9 SLI is positioned as a dual-graphics (SLI) gaming platform. Also supported are 6 SATA ports with 3G RAID (0/1/0+1), NVIDIA's dual Gigabit Ethernet, 7.1-channel Realtek 883 audio chipset with a digital S/PDIF output.

Of proprietary technologies, the motherboard supports ABIT Silent OTES cooling, ABIT EQ monitoring, ABIT Extreme SoftMenu tweaking, and ABIT CPU ThermalGuard.

The ABIT KN9 SLI is also fully RoHS compliant.

Source: ABIT

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