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VIA Pico-ITX Goes Low Profile, Integrates Power Supply

AMD Shrike First Details

OCZ Announces 3GB DDR2 SODIMM Kits

Gainward Is Unfaithful To NVIDIA - Releases ATI HD4870 And HD4850

Genius SP-T1200: Stylish Speakers That You Can Touch

Dell Launches New Studio 15 and Studio 17 Notebook Series

XFX GeForce GTX 260/280 XXX: Fastest And the Most Expensive

Blu-ray May Become Obsolete By 2013, Analysts Believe



VIA Pico-ITX Goes Low Profile, Integrates Power Supply

VIA Technologies today announced the VIA EPIA P700 Pico-ITX board designed for ultra compact machines.

Now featuring native S-ATA II support, Gigabit LAN, and support for GPIO, SM bus and LPC devices, the 10cm x 7.2cm VIA EPIA P700 is based on the VIA VX700 unified digital media IGP chipset and is powered by a 1GHz VIA C7 or fanless 500MHz VIA Eden ULV processor. An integrated power adapter coupled with the 5-volt S-SATA power cable negates the need for a separate power daughterboard, saving considerable space for ultra compact systems.

Linear on-board pin-header placement means developers can use a single cable to connect various I/O devices and reduce cable clutter. Flexible battery placement is also geared towards improved miniaturization.

Two companion boards simplify design implementation and product testing. The P700-A board features an RJ45 port, a VGA port and a COM port, while the P700-B sports four USB ports and three audio jacks for multi-channel surround sound. The two companion boards fit with the linear pin-headers on either side of the VIA EPIA P700 to enable ultra low profile devices.

VIA EPIA P700 Pico-ITX boards are available now for developers.

Specifications:


VIA EPIA-P700 Pico-ITX Board Specifications
Model Name VIA EPIA-P700-10L
VIA EPIA-P700-05LE
Processor 1.0GHz VIA C7 processor
500MHz VIA Fanless Eden ULV processor
Chipset VIA VX700 Unified Digital Media IGP chipset
System Memory 1 x DDR2 533/667 SODIMM socket (effective speed to 533MHz), Up to 1GB memory size
VGA Integrated VIA UniChrome Pro II 3D/2D AGP graphics with MPEG-2/4 and WMV9 video decoding accelerator
Onboard IDE 1 x UltraDMA 133/100 Pin Connectors with 2.0mm 44-pin right-angle type
Onboard Serial ATA 1 x SATA connector
1 x SATA power connector (5V)
Onboard LAN 1 x VIA VT6122 Gigabit LAN controller (a connector board is required) / 1 x VIA VT6107 10/100 Mbps Fast Ethernet controller (manufacturing option)
Onboard Audio VIA VT1708B High Definition Audio Codec
Onboard I/O Connectors 1 x LAN pin header
1 x CRT/DVI pin header
1 x COM Port pin header
1 x CPU Fan pin connector
1 x Audio pin connector for Line-out, Line-in, MIC-in
1 x Front panel pin header
4 x USB 2.0 ports pin header
1 x PS2 mouse/keyboard pin header
1 x LVDS pin connector
1 x LPC/SM Bus/GPIO pin header
1 x +12V DC-In 2-pin jack with lock
BIOS Award BIOS, 4/8Mbit flash ROM
Operating System Windows XP, Linux, Win CE, XPe
System Monitoring & Management Keyboard-Power-on, Timer-Power-on
System power management, AC power failure recovery
Wake-On-LAN
Watch Dog Timer
Operating Temperature 0°C ~ 50°C
Operating Humidity 0% ~ 95% (relative humidity; non-condensing)
Form Factor Pico-ITX (10-layer)
10 cm x 7.2 cm

Source: VIA


AMD Shrike First Details

Until recently, there were no low/ultra low voltage AMD processors (LV/ULV).

But it seems that the first Fusion-based CPUs that will be released as a part of Shrike platform will be aimed exactly at compact devices with low energy consumption.

In a single crystal Shrike will combine central and graphics processors and a Southbridge.

Judging by this image published by the source, we are to expect up to 20% boost in CPU performance, up to 35% graphics acceleration at 6 hours of battery life. Besides, integration will allow making notebooks even smaller, less than 1 inch thick.

Shrike-based devices are expected in the market in H2'2009.



Source: GottaBeMobile


OCZ Announces 3GB DDR2 SODIMM Kits

OCZ announced its new 3GB PC2-5400 SO-DIMM kits for notebooks. According to the company, 3GB (1GB and 2GB modules) is optimal for most notebooks with 32-bit operating systems; besides, 4GB would cost more.

Specifications:

  • 200-pin, DDR2-667, unbuffered,
  • 1.8V voltage
  • CL 5-5-5-15 timings
  • Available in 512MB, 1GB, and 2GB modules
  • Available in 2GB, 3GB and 4GB kits
  • Lifetime Warranty
  • Part Numbers: OCZ2667512VSO (512MB), OCZ26671024VSO (1GB), OCZ2MV6672G (2GB), OCZ26672048VSO-K (2GB), OCZ6672MV6673GK (3GB), OCZ2MV6674GK (4GB)

Source: OCZ Technology Group


Gainward Is Unfaithful To NVIDIA - Releases ATI HD4870 And HD4850

Gainward, that had been releasing graphics cards exclusively on NVIDIA's GPUs, decided to deviate from this rule. Perhaps, market prospects of novelties from AMD are brighter. Anyway, now the company offers two products based on ATI Radeon HD 4800 series GPUs: Gainward HD4870 and Gainward HD4850.

The graphics cards copy the reference design. The HD4870 features 512MB of GDDR5 operating at 3,600 MHz (900 MHz x 4) and 750 MHz GPU. Also mainstream, the HD4850 features 512MB of GDDR3 that operates at 1,986 MHz and 625 MHz GPU. Both naturally support PCI Express 2.0, ATI CrossFire X, AVIVO HD and PowerPlay.

Both cards are bundled with EXPERTool utility that monitors GPU temperature and fan rotation speed and notifies user if either exceeds a limit. Besides, it can be used to adjust fan rotation speed and clock rates of GPU, memory and shader unit.









Source: Gainward


Genius SP-T1200: Stylish Speakers That You Can Touch

This stylish speaker system was introduced by KYE Systems, a subsidiary of Genius. Instead of ordinary controls, SP-T1200 features a touch panel for adjusting volume, treble and bass. Accompanying LED lights are called to add the hi-tech look to it. One of speakers also features a headphones jack and mute button.

Offering 30W power, black glossy speakers have MSRP of 99 USD and are already available.



Source: Genius


Dell Launches New Studio 15 and Studio 17 Notebook Series

Dell launched its new "Studio" notebook series, which is "highly expressive and personalized - inside and out", according to the press release.

Dell Studio 15 and Dell Studio 17 were the first to be introduced. These notebooks feature stylish design and offer webcams, touch multimedia control buttons, slot load drives, LED displays and optional broadband connectivity. Numbers 15 and 17 indicate corresponding display diagonal. Prices for these notebooks start from 799 and 999 USD respectively.

By their look Studio notebooks resemble Dell XPS M1330 and M1530. When ordering such a notebook, a buyer can select enclosure color and coordinated color of accessories and peripherals (bags, mouse, headphones, etc.).







Source: Dell


XFX GeForce GTX 260/280 XXX: Fastest And the Most Expensive

XFX, known by its XXX and Black Edition solutions, again pleased gaming enthusiasts by introducing several novelties, including factory-overclocked.

BFG also introduced its factory-overclocked GeForce GTX 280. But XFX decided to release the very fastest graphics cards on NVIDIA's newest GPU.

Its GeForce GTX 280 XXX (P/N: GX-280N-ZDF9) features GPU/memory/shader unit clock rates of 670/2,500/1,458 MHz versus the reference 602/2,214/1,296 MHz. The fastest card costs 905 USD (according to Japanese retail).



Besides, the company also introduced two more modifications of GeForce GTX 280: GX-280N-ZDE9 (with 'XT' suffix) and GX-280N-ZDD9. These two have lower clock rates.

Finally, XFX added two more GeForce GTX 260 cards to its XXX series: GX-260N-ADD9 and GX-260N-ADF9. The former has GPU/memory clock rates of 640/2,300 MHz and costs 515 USD, and the latter - 576/1,998 MHz for 485 USD.

Source: XFX


Blu-ray May Become Obsolete By 2013, Analysts Believe

Such an interesting forecast was made by the source regarding certain technologies, Blu-Ray in particular. They claim that by 2013, this format that is advancing with difficulties as it is, might become obsolete at all.

Referring to a research conducted by Forrester, the source estimated Blu-Ray spread as very slow and came to an obvious conclusion that only fast price reduction might speed it up. Otherwise, consumers might not become interested in opportunities that the new format is offering, and Blu-Ray might disappear from the scene within the next 5 years.

Currently, Blu-Ray is primarily competing with usual DVDs and growing Internet bandwidths. The latter already allows downloading HD content and becomes more and more attractive from the consumer's point of view. Also, a huge amount of DVDs in rotation and wide spread of related equipment just do not allow to merely step over this format.

It's interesting that even ordinary HDDs might share the fate of Blu-ray. According to the The Standard, local storage will be replaced by networked. The first signs of that can already be seen, and this process might speed up with time. As the key benefits of online storage the source states no binding to standalone PCs, reliability and opportunity to access information from any place with an Internet connection.

Source: The Standard


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