Sales Of Wii Expected To Surpass PS3 In First Four Months

Samsung Showcases 70" HD LCD At FPD International 2006

NEC To Launch New SX-8R, Claims It's Fastest Vector Supercomputer

Intel Encourages Use Of Server Acceleration Technology

Fujitsu Replaces Certain Notebooks With Sony Cell Batteries

Fujitsu Introduces Three New Desktop Replacement Multimedia Notebooks

DirectX 9.0 L Works On Vista Only

Sales Of Wii Expected To Surpass PS3 In First Four Months

Global sales of Sony's PlayStation 3 (PS3) and Nintendo's Wii game consoles are expected to reach 4.13 and 5.47 million units, respectively, by the end of March 2007 following their planned November launch, according to an estimate by Japan-based gaming magazine Enterbrain.

However, the PS3 is expected beat Wii in terms of sales volume by the end of 2007, buoyed by increasing numbers of game titles for the PS3 and decreasing prices of the console through reduced costs, said the magazine, which projected sales of the PS3 worldwide will total 23.51 million units in two years after its launch.

Source: DigiTimes

Samsung Showcases 70" HD LCD At FPD International 2006

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. will exhibit the first 70-inch full-HD LCD for consumer TVs at Flat Panel Display (FPD) International 2006. It will also showcase mobile displays here, including 4.8-inch and 7.0-inch WVGA screens targeting portable computing, entertainment and communication applications.

Samsung's new 70-inch LCD panel is the first TV display that can reproduce full HD video images at 120Hz, giving it a technological edge over plasma display panels (PDPs). According to the press release, most LCD panels have a 60Hz refresh rate, which will make Samsung's new 120Hz 70-inch LCD twice as fast as other LCDs available today.

The Samsung 70-inch LCD TV panel is being shown in Japan for the first time at this, one of the largest international event dedicated entirely to flat panel displays. Samsung will begin commercial production of its 70-inch, full-HD LCD panels early next year, accelerating the company's push into high-volume, large-screen TV markets. The largest full-HD LCD TV panel currently in mass production is 65 inches.

Also at FPD International 2006, Samsung is unveiling 4.8-inch and 7.0-inch displays with WSVGA resolution for use in ultra-mobile PC (UMPC) devices and mini-PCs. WSVGA (1,600 pixels per row by 600 rows) is the optimal resolution for Internet browsing today, which presents design challenges for high resolution mobile displays. Samsung has increased the aperture ratio of its 4.8-inch model by applying a single-crystal-like silicon manufacturing process technology that improves electron mobility and enables smaller TFT geometries. Using a low power, dot inversion driving scheme, allows Samsung also to reduce the display's power consumption.

Rounding out Samsung's FPD International 2006 showcase are 40-inch, 46-inch and 82-inch digital information displays, an A4-sized plastic electrophoretic display (EPD) using an e-Ink design, and a 7-inch plastic LCD.

Source: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

NEC To Launch New SX-8R, Claims It's Fastest Vector Supercomputer

NEC Corporation today announced the worldwide launch and availability of a new supercomputer in the SX series, model SX-8R (an enhanced version of SX-8), vector supercomputer with a peak vector performance of 144 TFLOPS (by mounting up to 4,096 CPUs; TFLOPS: one trillion floating point operations per second).

The new supercomputer contains twice as many pipelines for addition and multiplication as the SX-8 in its vector unit, the central function of a vector processor. In addition, with 10% faster clock cycles, it realizes more than double the performance of the SX-8 at 35.2GFLOPS (GFLOPS: one billion floating point operations per second).

The monthly rental price of the SX-8R will start from approximately 1,210,000 yen, and NEC expects 200 system sales over the next year. NEC has already begun development of its next vector supercomputer, focusing on that of a single-chip vector processor whose performance per CPU exceeds 100GFLOPS.

In addition, it also boasts an enlarged memory capacity of up to 128TB in 512-node configuration by doubling the memory capacity up to 256GB per node. Peak data transfer rate between the CPUs and memory is 288TB/s.

More specs of SX-8R are here.

Source: NEC Corporation

Intel Encourages Use Of Server Acceleration Technology

Intel Corporation announced today that it will encourage networking companies to benefit from a key server data input and output acceleration technology designed and added to its server product lines earlier this year.

A component of Intel I/OAT (Input/Output Acceleration Technology), Intel QuickData technology is a data acceleration engine that enables other networking and server vendors to increase the throughput of server data traffic. Key supporters of Intel QuickData Technology include Broadcom, Fujitsu-Siemens, IBM, Mellanox, Microsoft and VMware.

Introduced as part of I/OAT with the Intel Xeon 5100 series processor-based platforms earlier this year, the DMA (Direct Memory Access) engine in Intel’s server and workstation platform chipsets are the foundation of Intel QuickData Technology. I/OAT is already supported by a broad range of server vendors including IBM, Hitachi, NEC, Toshiba, Acer, Lenovo, Samsung, Supermicro and Tyan. Intel QuickData Technology will extend that support to a broad range of device manufacturers moving forward.

Intel QuickData Technology also offers an acceleration solution that will benefit virtualized environments.

“Intel QuickData Technology is a platform solution that addresses the computing overhead and system level bottlenecks associated with TCP/IP based communication as opposed to TCP Offload Engines which only address part of the problem,” said Michael Kagan, vice president of architecture, Mellanox Technologies. “Mellanox is embracing Intel QuickData Technology and will implement support for the technology in our adapters that will seamlessly fit into the total platform solution to accelerate TCP/IP communication.”

Source: Intel Corporation

Fujitsu Replaces Certain Notebooks With Sony Cell Batteries

According to the press release, Fujitsu Siemens Computers has reviewed – in close cooperation with Sony - the notebooks running on battery packs with integrated Sony cell batteries. This research and information provided by Sony permit the conclusion that the batteries of Fujitsu Siemens Computers’ notebooks – due to the system configuration and the specific battery charging technology applied - are not prone to the kind of overheating incidents reported recently; although the risk of battery failure can never be entirely excluded.

To date, the company has not been alerted to any Sony battery-related incidents involving Fujitsu Siemens Computers notebooks.

The company is participating in the Sony battery exchange program. Subject to this voluntary replacement program are only certain batteries of the following models:

• LIFEBOOK C1320
• LIFEBOOK P1510
• LIFEBOOK P7120
• LIFEBOOK Q2010
• LIFEBOOK S7020 / S7020D
• LIFEBOOK S7010
• LIFEBOOK T4210
• AMILO Pro V8010
• AMILO Si 1520

Details on how customers can identify batteries that may potentially be affected and further information about the voluntary exchange program will be announced separately to the press and on the company’s internet pages during October. At present knowledge there is no reason for customers not to use their Fujitsu Siemens Computers notebooks as they did before, although for a final recommendation more information needs to be provided by Sony.

Source: Fujitsu Siemens Computers

Fujitsu Introduces Three New Desktop Replacement Multimedia Notebooks

Fujitsu Computer Systems Corporation today announced three new desktop replacement multimedia models, including the Fujitsu consumer flagship LifeBook N6420 notebook featuring an HD DVD player. Fujitsu also introduced the new LifeBook A Series two 15.4-inch wide mainstream notebooks offering a choice of Intel Core 2 Duo or Dual Core AMD processors.

The Microsoft Windows Vista Premium-capable LifeBook N6420, LifeBook A3110 and LifeBook A6010 notebooks offer Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005.

Equipped with a large 17-inch Color Enhanced Crystal View display, the LifeBook N6420 notebook features the new Fujitsu Visual Optimizer, a special image processing subsystem that "amplifies" video from any source.

A built-in stereo sound system is supported by a subwoofer.

Notebooks feature Intel Core 2 Duo processors and the ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 graphics with 512 MB HyperMemory. The LifeBook N6420 notebook has storage capacity up to 400 GB with dual hard drives. Data is protected with an integrated fingerprint sensor.

The LifeBook A Series is aimed at the cost-conscious education and home markets. The LifeBook A6010 is powered by the Intel Core 2 Duo processor and the LifeBook A3110 notebook is powered by the AMD Turion 64 X2 processor.

Both the LifeBook A6010 and A3110 notebooks include the Fujitsu Shock Sensor utility, an accelerometer based hard disk drive protection system that constantly monitors the notebook for any shock and vibration. If a sudden motion or excessive vibration is detected, the hard drive head is retracted to minimize the likelihood of data loss. The sensor can also be set to password-lock the storage device if motion is detected, preventing the unauthorized access of data. Durability is addressed with a spill-resistant keyboard with two layers of protection including a protective membrane and collection tray to help reduce the chances of internal components getting damaged.

The Fujitsu LifeBook N6420 notebook is priced at $1,499 for a base configuration; the Fujitsu LifeBook A3110 notebook is priced starting at $ 1,399 with $100 mail-in rebate for a base configuration and the LifeBook A6010 notebook is priced starting at $1,149 with a $50 rebate for a base configuration. The three notebooks are immediately available. Users can choose from a recommended configuration, or they can customize their system using the Fujitsu Customize feature located on each product web page.

Source: Fujitsu Computer Systems Corporation

DirectX 9.0 L Works On Vista Only

Ah, a pity, but we have to correct the information which sounded so good. The source published a rather disappointing update:

"Unfortunately, we were wrong about DirectX 9.0 L.

We managed to confirm the existence of DirectX 9.0L but it won't be a DirectX 10 for Windows XP. It will be the other way around. It is a faster version of DirectX 9.0 that will run under Vista only.

So I have to disappoint all of you who expected to run DirectX 10 games under Windows XP as there won't be an API to supports it.

DX9.0L is a special version of DirectX 9 for Vista only that allows DX9 games to run with Vista's new driver model. It's not possible to run D3D10 on XP without running in pure software emulation.

The D3D10 API was designed around the new driver model in Vista. In addition, Aero Glass runs on DX9.0L. Aero Glass is one of the main reasons DX9.0L exists on Vista.

Our sources also confirmed that L in DirectX 9.0 L stands for Longhorn. So we are back at the beginning - you need to buy a new graphic card and a new OS to have the hardware DirectX 10 acceleration on an API that supports it."

Source: The Inquirer

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