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:: PC Perspective . News
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.:Latest News
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: The Tech Report | Subject: Mobile
The ageing 300M series of embedded mobile GPUs is being updated with the predictably named 400M series. That family will consist of the GeForce GTX 470M, GTX 460M, GT 445M, GT 435M, GT425M, GT420M, and GT415M
all of which will bring more than just improved performance. They will all support Optimus technology and will support 3DVision when paired with a 120Hz screen. Walking around with nVIDIA's stereoscopic glasses make seem a bit odd but this might help nVIDIA come to the forefront of providing 3D display technologies. Drop by The Tech Report for
the detailed specs.
"At long last, Nvidia has a top-to-bottom lineup of DirectX 11 mobile graphics processors. The company has introduced seven new GeForce 400M-series graphics processors, which will complement the company's existing, GF100- based GeForce GTX 480M." Here are some more Mobile articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: SemiAccurate | Subject: General Tech
While Zacate does seem imply that AMD is making Spanish Hay it is equally likely they are continuing their Age of Aquarius and referencing a certain creek that runs through Laredo, Texas. According to SemiAccurate what it is as far as we are concerned is a low power Accelerated Processing Unit that will be appearing in AMD's soon to be released Vision platform. This is over and above the Llano and Orochi lines that Ryan has been reporting on.
"IT'S MORE POWER to AMD's Fusion range as the company has announced today at IFA 2010 the Zacate 18W Accelerated Processor Unit (APU). Zacate is rated at twice the power draw of AMD's previously announced APU Ontario, which consumes 9W. The higher power consumption is due to the higher frequency Zacate will run at, but AMD declined to reveal that. What AMD did tell The INQUIRER in a one-on-one briefing at IFA 2010 is that Zacate will be in Vision branded nettop and low-power desktop systems in the latter half of 2011, with chips shipping to manufacturers in the first half of the year. Zacate will also tip up eventually in 11-inch notebooks and above." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: techPowerUp! | Subject: Case and Cooling
At 245 x 558 x 582mm or 9.6 x 22 x 23", this eATX case from BitFenix deserves the name Colossus. It is so big they've included a storage space on the top to let keep a few bits'n'bobs handy, or whatever else you might want close to hand while computing. Almost completely toolless, the only screws will be attaching the motherboard to the chassis though their is a large enough access hole in the back of the chassis to allow access to most heatsink backplates. If you need a case with a lot of space then drop by TechPowerUp for a close look at the shadow of this Colossus. "BitFenix may be a new brand but their first product has landed. The Colossus case is so large that you simply cannot miss it. It is packed to the rim with new and unique features, which make you wonder what we did without them before. We take an in-depth look at the retail version of this massive EATX case that goes for a very affordable 159 Euros." Here are some more Cases & Cooling reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Legit Reviews | Subject: Motherboard
The ASRock 880G Extreme3 motherboard packs a lot of features for a board you can pick up for $110. You will find two USB 3.0 ports, six SATA6 Gb/s ports and even an eSATA3 port on the back. Onboard is AMD's HD4250 GPU which won't get you gaming in style but means you can choose whether to purchase a discreet GPU or if you are not going to push it, to remain with the embedded solution. In the BIOS ACC can help you unlock any cores that might be disabled on your Athlon or Phenom and as for overclocking, Legit Reviews had no problems coaxing an extra gigahertz out of their Phenom 2 X3 720.
"The performance of the ASRock 880G Extreme3 was just as we expected. It performs very well and gives you a great platform for your upgrade dollars. As a bonus, UCC was able to unlock the fourth core, which not all boards (like the ECS board we tested against) are able to do. You will not be disappointed with the way this board handles at all..." Here are some more Motherboard articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: [H]ard|OCP | Subject: Case and Cooling
At 1500W the Silverstone Strider ST1500 might give you some sort of bragging rights but you should really make sure that you need that much power before running out to buy one. Being able to provide 1320W at 110A will keep three overclocked GTX 480s fed and running but this Strider will still have untapped power in reserve. On the plus side, it does run off of a 120v line so you won't need an electrician to bring in a special 240v line and it delivers high quality power off of the normal voltage making it rather attractive even if [H]ard|OCP would like to see the warranty extended beyond 3 years.
"SilverStone raises its flagship Strider PSU to what is the near-limit of wattage you can pull out a normal North American wall plug. At 1500 watts continuous and 1600 watts peak this power supply will hopefully get the job done for you. Let's see how it holds up under full load." Here are some more Cases & Cooling reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: AnandTech | Subject: General Tech
Looking into the near future and what we know about Sandy Bridge and its integrated graphics AnandTech tries to determine what we will be seeing. We do know that there will be two types, the single core GT1 and the dual core GT2 with the GT1 parts having 6 execution units and the GT2 doubling that to 12. Though he cannot confirm the fact, the assumption is that the CPU tested was a GT1 part, leaving us to wonder what the performance of the GT2 will be, the chip that will be found in all Sandy Bridge laptops and some desktops. Check it out here.
"Last week we published our preview of Intel's 2011 Core microarchitecture update, codenamed Sandy Bridge. In the preview we presented a conservative estimate of what shipping Sandy Bridge performance will look like in Q1 2011. I call it conservative because we were dealing with an early platform, with turbo disabled, compared to fairly well established competitors with their turbo modes enabled." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Global Foundries | Subject: General Tech
There is quite a bit of news that came out of the Global Foundries Global Technologies Conference that shows what the future of GF looks like. You may have heard of Freescale, whose thin film storage technology is found in non-volatile flash memory called FlexMemory are partnering with GF to start to produce 90nm EEPROM flash memory. This represents another non-AMD contract that AMDs semi-detached manufacturing arm will be working with.
If the 90nm process doesn't intrigue you then perhaps more information on the 28nm process ARM processor that was mentioned yesterday will. Once full results come back in later this year we will know exactly what the changes to the Cortex will be but ARM is expecting a 40% increase in computing performance along with a 30% cut in power consumption, and even better they expect standby battery life to be double what the the 40nm generation provided. Lastly they discussed the future of their 28nm process as well as giving details on theways they will utilize the process to create two new families of chips. The current chips are tagged as High Performance and we will see High Performance Plus chips reach an additional 10% performance boost above the current HP chips. There will also be Super Low Power chips designed with power savings in mind from their very inception; all chips will share the same high-K metal gate technology. You can also read about their current plans to move to the next generation of process which will see 22nm Super High Performance chips and 20nm Super Low Power chips. 
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: InsideHW | Subject: Mobile
The ASUS 1215N is a 12.1" netbook with an unexpected secret, within the casing are two GPUs. For casual usage the power saving Intel GMA 3150 and when extra graphical power is needed to make the 1366x768 LCD really work then nVIDIA's ION2 is there to take over, just as you would see in an Optimus based system. InsideHW managed to get quick peek at a display model and you can read about their impressions over here.
"The new ASUS netbook, namely the 12" 1215N model, is one of the most powerful Eee PCs to have appeared thus far. First of all, ASUS has installed Intel's Atom D525, the new dual-core hyperthreading-enabled 1.8 GHz CPU, first presented at this year's Computex fair. D525 is actually the heir to the well-known D510 Atom CPU working at 1.66 GHz, but now also contains both DDR2 and DDR3 memory support..." Here are some more Mobile articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: PC Perspective | Subject: Processor
ARM has finally taped out their 28nm process dual core Cortex A9 HKMG processor at Global Foundries; the processor will run between 2-2.5GHz and offer improved performance over their past generation which was 40nm and ran about 500MHz slower.
At first you might assume this means very little to the enthusiast but that is a mistaken assumption as the number of ARM processors currently in use is estimated to be about 20 billion or about 90% of all embedded 32-bit RISC processors in use. ASUS has demonstrated a Win7 based tablet that is powered by a ARM v7 processor so these new dual core, low voltage, low heat processors will be powering a device that you own very soon. A second example would be nVIDIA's Tegra which is also designed with the help of ARMs architecture and represents something very different from the usual embedded applications that ARM is associated with. As it has just taped out we do not have a lot of information on the architecture or the capabilities of this chip but you can read about the current generation single core 40nm TSMC made Cortex A9 at ARMs website here. It's the processor you didn't even know you loved and it is about to get better.
Click on the picture for a larger version of the slide.
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Ars Technica | Subject: General Tech
If you are a fan of dispatching zombies in new and interesting ways, such as with a kayak paddle, duct tape and chainsaw Darth Maul-ish kludge then you have probably been following the Dead Rising series. For those anxious for the release of the sequel or those curious about what all the hype is, for 400 Microsoft points you can have a few hours of fun in a post-apocalyptic world filled with zombies for you to torment. Take a peek over at Ars Technica.
"Dead Rising 2: Case Zero is an odd duck. The $5 Xbox Live Arcade release gives you a feel for the full version of Dead Rising 2, but with its own cut scenes, voice acting, story, and setting, it's far from a demo, taking place between the events of Dead Rising and Dead Rising 2, and it does a good job of showing you what has happened to the world after the first game." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Ryan Shrout | Source: PC Perspective | Subject: Processor
We don't know much about it, but at the first annual Global Technology Conference hosted by GLOBALFOUNDRIES, AMD's Chekib Akrout showed the first images of the upcoming Orochi core processor:
Here is what we know for sure about the upcoming Orochi processor: it is going to be the second 32nm product from AMD after the upcoming Llano Fusion core is built, it uses a set of 4 Bulldozer modules that bring 8 processing cores and 8 threads with integration of AMD's unique SMT alternative.
If you haven't read details about the new Bulldozer core and what it has to offer, definitely check out our recent preview of the processor based on information revealed at the Hot Chips conference last month. Nothing else was shared about the Orochi CPU in particular but we thought the hardware porn was worth the mention!
A good way to express what Bulldozer is can be summed up as “slimmed
down, but double wide”. For each traditional core, AMD has instituted a
dual ALU design with robust floating point and SSE units. Each core
can handle two threads, like SMT, but actually has separate execution
units which each process individual threads without sharing execution
resources.
Each unit features a single fetch and decode stage. The decode stage is comprised of four units, but we do not yet know their inner workings. In the previous K7/K10.5 generations of parts, there are three complex decode units. On the Intel side with Core 2 and Nehalem, there are three simple decode units and a single complex. AMD also did not cover subjects such as macro-ops and macro-op fusion. AMD has beefed up their decode stage significantly though. It simply had to, because it is now feeding dual integer schedulers and a floating point scheduler feeding 2 x 128 bit FMACs and MMX units. 
Fetch, decode, floating point/SSE, and the L2 cache are the shared components. Since most workloads are integer based, AMD doubled the integer units. These 128 bit packed integer pipes are a step above what was offered in the Phenom II. In theory, there should be a sizeable per clock increase in integer and floating point apps on Bulldozer over the Phenom II. When something is more heavily threaded, then we will see dramatic improvements in performance. Each integer core features its own L1 D-cache. AMD has again not clarified how much L1 or L2 cache there is for each discrete unit, or L3 cache sizes for the entire processor.
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: [H]ard|OCP | Subject: Graphics Card
"ASUS is back making another play for your hard-earned upgrade money. This time, ASUS have brought out the EAH5870 V2 STALKER Edition, a Radeon HD 5870 with an improved cooling device. Does a bundled game and improved cooling device make up for its $100 price premium?" Here are some more Graphics Card articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Digitimes | Subject: General Tech
Speculation over how the three main competitors for market share are going to manage to create a general purpose processing unit capable of handling the duties of both CPU and GPU have been keeping tech analysts busy over the past year and a bit. With AMD and Intel it has been obvious the path they are most likely to take as they currently have both CPU and GPU products and experience developing them is to find a way to combine their two existing products into a single die or at least a single ZIF chip. 
nVIDIA on the other hand has only a GPU line and some experience creating chipsets. Currently the only mainstream non-GPU is the nForce 200 a chip that is capable of providing and additional 32 PCIe Express 2.0 lanes to any motherboard that has included it in its design. This is partly because nVIDIA lost the licensing to make memory controllers for Intel processors, though that may change thanks to the recent decision against Intel by the FTC. In the meantime, DigiTimes has heard tell that nVIDIA will be working on a solution to bypass that by designing a southbridge with an integrated GPU to counter Intel's northbridge on a CPU. "Nvidia has recently been developing a chipset that combines the functions of a southbridge and a GPU, with the goal of the product to reduce cost for PC makers as well as create more potential for smaller and lighter devices, according to sources from motherboard makers. The makers stated that legal considerations, in terms of permission from Intel for Nvidia to participate in the chipset business, should be made smoother by the recent lawsuit the US Fair Trade Commission (FTC) took up with Intel. However, Intel is not expected to start any such negotiations with Nvidia in the near future, the sources speculated. Therefore, Nvidia is developing the new chipset to bypass Intel's new Sandy Bridge architecture, which combines CPU and northbridge chipsets. Nvidia's chipsets is expected to be US$10-15 less than Intel's standard GPU-integrated southbridge chipsets and makers will no longer need to integrate an extra graphics chip." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Overclock3D | Subject: General Tech
Don't let your first glance of the ASUS Xense fool you, that shiny shroud is more than just decoration, it is an EMI shield as well. It is a PCI Express card that will give you a use for those molex power connectors that are hanging around not doing much thanks to SATA and PCIe power connectors. Bundled with the sound card is Sennheiser's PC350
headset, using 6.30mm jacks for the mic and headphones and is collapsible into a nicely compact form. Head on over to Overclock3D to see how they sound together.
"Today we're taking a look at the Asus Xense which comes bundled with a matched pair of Sennheisers. Audio heaven?" Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: PC Perspective | Subject: System
In the setup that Ryan tested, the Maingear F131 has a watercooled Core i7-970 6-core overclocked to 4.5 GHz on an ASUS P6X58D X58
with 6GB of DDR-1600 and a pair of GTX 480 along with a Crucial SSD. Those components add up to a seriously powerful system as well as an expensive one at about $4200.
Check out the full video review of the system as well as pictures and charts right here. "Maingear really impressed us during our review process and everything from the custom made packing materials to the free custom etched side panels and the high level of personal service available to customers really shows that Maingear knows what it takes to impress customers and keep them coming back. It doesn't hurt of course that the F131 as we tested it was easily the fastest computer we have ever reviewed." Here are some more Systems articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: [H]ard|OCP | Subject: Case and Cooling
On PC Perspective Podcast #119 we had an email from a viewer wanting suggestions on how to reduce his HTPCs power consumption and noise. While we did have a few suggestions it looks like [H]ard|OCP has a definitive answer on at least one of his questions, how to get rid of the fan on his CPU cooler. The Thermalright HR-02 is designed to be a passive heatsink for 130W TDP processors although you could add a quiet fan to it if you wished. The cooler weighs in at 860g and is 110mm x 140mm x 160mm
so case size will be a consideration. They tested it with a Core i7 920 and you can see the results in the full review.
"Looking to cool a 130 watt processor with a passive heatsink? I am not sure many of us are, but if you are looking to silence a powerhouse enthusiast system, passive cooling is now a way you can go. We have a look at Thermalright's passive HR-02. And yes, you can put a "silent" fan on it as well if you wish." Here are some more Cases & Cooling reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Digitimes | Subject: General Tech
The 3.06GHz Core i7 950 is a rather nice LGA 1366 processor though at the price of $600 not everyone could afford to drop it into their system. DigiTimes has some good news for those eyeing a processor upgrade as Intel has announced that the price is coming down almost 50% to an MRSP of $294.
That price cut has not yet permeated through the market place, currently NewEgg still has it for the full $599 though PriceGrabber can find you one for $367. Keep an eye on the pricing over the coming days to see just where the retail price levels off at. "Intel recently dropped the price of its quad-core Core i7-950 processors to US$294 from US$562 to defend from AMD's recent price cuts for its quad-core Athlon II X4 640 CPU from US$122 to US$99, according to sources from motherboard makers. In addition to the price cut, Intel also recently released Core i3-560, Pentium E6800 and Celeron E3500 processors with prices at US$138, US$86 and US$53, respectively, the sources noted. All the prices are in thousand-unit tray quantities. For its next-generation products, Intel is set to launch Sandy Bridge processors in the first quarter of 2011, using the new LGA 1155 socket. The new processors will be required to pair with Intel's P67 chipset-based motherboards, which are scheduled to launch in October 2010." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Corsair Memory | Subject: General Tech
FREMONT, California — August 31, 2010 — Corsair, a worldwide designer and supplier of high-performance components to the PC gaming hardware market, today announced the launch of their inaugural audio product, the Gaming Audio Series HS1 USB gaming headset. This noise-isolating headset offers long-term playing comfort and immersive multi-channel audio, with massive 50mm drivers and a carefully tuned acoustical design optimized not only for gaming, but for movies and music as well. The HS1 is loaded with features designed to optimize your gaming experience. The 50mm drivers provide more accurate sound reproduction and far lower distortion than is produced by smaller, more typical drivers. The circumaural, closed-back design helps reject ambient noise and keeps you in the game, even in high-distraction environments like LAN parties. Replaceable memory foam ear pads provide a reliable, comfortable fit that conforms to the shape of your head without binding or pinching. The uni-directional noise-cancelling microphone on an adjustable boom enables clear, low-noise voice chat. The end result is a headset that simply provides a superior gaming experience. “We set out to develop a headset with the performance that gamers demand, while also providing the pristine audio reproduction required for multi-channel movies and high bit rate music,” stated Jim Carlton, Vice President of Marketing at Corsair. “The Audio HS1 easily meets both these challenges.” Corsair Gaming Audio Series HS1 Key Features:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Xtreme Computing | Subject: Memory
Xtreme Computing had a chance to play with Crucial's new Ballistix MOD Temperature-sensing DDR3-1600 @ 8-8-8-24. They have the usual and fairly effective Ballistix heatspreaders, with the orange branding sticker in evidence and they can inform you of their current temperature using the Crucial MOD Utility. In their overclocking tests they could not breach 1820mhz
@ 1.658v though with the temperature sensor some may be tempted to go past that voltage to see if they can be pushed further.
"Today I’ll be reviewing one of their latest DDR3 products – the Ballistix 240-Pin DDR3 PC3-12800 with integrated temperature sensors. Yes – you did read that right, these dimms have built in temperature sensors! This is certainly new to me, and as far as I know, not offered by any other manufacturer at a consumer level." Here are some more Memory articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Computing On Demand | Subject: Storage
It is easy to communicate the idea of file encryption to someone well versed in the world of technology but it can be frustrating to disseminate that type of information to your users, who are the ones who need to do it in the first place. Computing on Demand thought that it would be a good idea to write an overview of what the encryption choices are today and a quick look at how they work. If you read through it then you might stand a better chance of communicating how important and relatively easy it is to use to your users, before they lose another laptop, USB disk or removable HDD.
I said might. "It seems that the world is going crazy; everyone wants everyone else's information. Some companies are going to great lengths to protect their data. Laptops have gone missing or stolen with tons of important data on them, copy machines have latent images on the hard drives that can contain vital or important private information on them. So what can be done about all this? Some companies, including my own, have started encrypting hard drives. This is nothing new as types of encryption have been around for thousands of years (ever watch an Indiana Jones movie?), but it seems as soon as something makes the news, the purchasing departments or C level staff finally listens to IT." Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Funky Kit | Subject: General Tech
Sharkoon has been heard from before but certainly not as a supplier of mice and QPad tends to focus more on mouse pads than the actual mice themselves. That hasn't stopped either company as you can now purchase a QPad K5 or a Sharkoon FireGlider. Both have high DPI settings, the QPad with a higher top end than the Sharkoon though the Sharkoon is a litte nicer to look at with the pattern they've decorated it with. Drop by Funky Kit for a look at both mice.
"This week we take a look at two laser gaming mice ... one from QPad 5K and the other from Sharkoon. Both of these mice look very professional and offer high DPI customisation, as well as programmable buttons. It will be interesting to see how it performs in our tests. It's the battle of the mice ... QPad K5 vs Sharkoon FireGlider. Who will come out on top? Read on and find out." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: The Inquirer | Subject: Display
The specifications look familiar a 23" 1920x1080 LCD with a 2ms response and 80,000:1 contrast ratio with VGA, DVI and HDMI
connections. What makes the Acer T231h different is the USB port that connects to your PC and allows the multi-touch interface to work, if they are using Windows 7 Ultimate, Enterprise, Professional or Home Premium, other versions of Win7 as well as XP are limited in their interface. Check out the full review that The Inquirer provided here.
"DESPITE MICROSOFT making a big song and dance about Windows 7's built-in multi-touch shenanigans, manufacturers haven't exactly been falling over themselves to release new touch-based hardware. Indeed, Acer's new T213H is one of just a handful of multi-touch screen available, aiming to persuade you to ditch that archaic keyboard and mouse combo." Here are some more Display articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: MAKE: Blog | Subject: General Tech
Here at PC Perspective we have often recommended Badflash.com and BIOS Saviour as the two main ways to recover from a bad BIOS flash. It is easy to tell if you have done a bad BIOS flash as the component you've just updated has become about as useful as a brick, albeit a brittle one. Some motherboards have incorporated features to prevent such disasters from occurring but it is always nice to have alternatives. Thanks to a project featured over at MAKE:Blog we now have a new alternative from openbiosprog.spi. It is a USB-based Serial Peripheral Interface chip programmer, aka your BIOS chip and it should allow you to reflash that chip back to life!
"you've ever bricked the BIOS on your PC, then you might appreciate the Openbiosprog-spi project by Uwe Hermann. It is designed to be able to reprogram any flash memory that uses the serial peripheral interconnect bus (SPI), which could come in handy if you need to restore a botched firmware upgrade." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Ryan Shrout | Source: PC Perspective | Subject: Graphics Card
Back in June during the Computex show in Taipei, we saw a very interesting pair of graphics cards in the Lucid suite. One combined a set of lower end GPUs in a multi-GPU single card design that otherwise hadn't existed while the other card showed a single AMD GPU and a single HYDRALogix 200 chip. (Note the small change from Lucid HYDRA to Lucid HYDRALogix.)
By adding the Lucid technology onto the graphics card the board manufacturer is enabling the use of HYDRALogix multi-GPU scaling technology (if you need to catch up on Lucid's technology, do so here) on basically ANY motherboard using this single card and any other PCIe video card installed in the system. Lucid is calling this new iteration of HYDRALogix "UNITY" for its ability to pair two completely independent graphics cards together in a single gaming system.
There a whole host of potential benefits to Lucid's UNITY technology when taken at face value: Card Manufacturers
Consumers
System Builders
In fact, the new UNITY designs from Lucid will not only support two graphics cards, but THREE if the motherboard has enough PCI Express slots to get the job done. All of the hardware communication then between the Lucid technology and the other GPUs is all handled by the single HYDRALogix 200 on the single UNITY graphics card the user purchases. Best of all, this solution does NOT prevent the user from using your standard SLI or CrossFire configurations should they wish to revert for specific games, etc.
Thus far only Radeon manufacturer TUL/PowerColor has announced support for Lucid's UNITY technology though Lucid continues to indicate that others are on the way. While they won't talk details, I am guessing the added cost of the Lucid chip is about $5, maybe less, plus the cost in redesigning the PCB of a graphics card to integrate it. If that is the case, it will be interesting to see what performance levels of cards will actually integrate it as that will indicate how reliable performance scaling actually is. Of course, if you don't want to get a UNITY graphics card and don't mind upgrading your motherboard, there are several upcoming Lucid-powered options coming out for various price points very soon. Lucid Introduces UNITY Graphics Board Architecture to Make HYDRALOGIX Multi-GPU Gaming Accessible to All
When combined with a HydraLogix graphics card, any system or graphics card turns into a multi-GPU platform
KFAR NETTER, Israel and SANTA CLARA, California – August 30, 2010 – Today LucidLogix Technologies (Lucid) announced its arming video card manufacturers with the new Unity™ graphics board architecture for the HydraLogix engine (previously known as HYDRA).
Now graphics board vendors for the first time can combine a single HydraLogix 200 real time distributed processor with any single NVIDIA or ATI GPU, creating an affordable, flexible multi-GPU-ready graphics card that can make any motherboard a high performance gaming system.
Gamers and high performance PC enthusiasts will have even more options to configure multi-GPU systems, which until recently were limited to vendor-exclusive architectures or HydraLogix equipped motherboards. And mainstream graphics users can now buy even a $99 graphics card and upgrade their system in the future with the brand graphics card of their choice.
“The Unity architecture provides a win-win situation for the market and for consumers,” said Offir Remez, Lucid President. “Graphics board vendors can increase the total market for multi-GPU computing from the low end to the high end. And as a consumer, why wouldn’t you choose to buy a graphics card with HydraLogix on board? You only get more!”
The benefits of the UNITY architecture for HydraLogix include:
Card Manufacturers · Create multi-vendor-multi-GPU upgradeable cards by integrating a single, low-cost HydraLogix chip · Allow their customers to couple a UNITY type VGA with any additional existing or new VGA from any vendor on Intel or AMD motherboards · Create differentiated products by using any brand or GPU model, mixing and matching capabilities, power consumption and price points · Easy upgrade with additional cards Consumers · Add HydraLogix multi-GPU graphics capabilities to existing motherboards · Run multiple NVIDIA and/or ATI GPUs on any motherboard · Upgrade system performance simply by leveraging any existing GPUs by coupling with a new
· Combine a low cost graphics card with another for increased performance, or turn up the volume with multiple high end graphics card of choice · Combine both an AMD and NVIDIA GPU to enjoy the benefits of both graphics features and perfromance System Builders · Flexibly design custom systems at multiple price/performance targets · Save costs with royalty-free alternative to vendor-specific multi-GPU graphics architectures
Jon Peddie of Jon Peddie Research “The market for multi-GPU systems has shown continual growth even in a down economy. Lucid’s expansion of its HydraLogix technology to the graphics board further expands options for OEMs, ODMs and consumers, and should provide additional momentum to the growth of reasonably priced, high-powered gaming systems.”
Ted Chen, TUL CEO at TUL, maker of the 1st Unity architecture based VGA – the PowerColor Evolution “Lucid’s graphics card implementation of HydraLogix creates new marketing opportunities for graphics card vendors, and we’re proud to be first to offer this technology integrated into our graphics cards. With more options for consumers, we are looking forward to continued healthy growth for PC gaming technology.”
About HydraLogix Designed with the PC gamer in mind, The HydraLogix engine offers a flexible solution for performance hungry or cost sensitive consumers who may wish to upgrade to multiple GPUs from a variety of vendors. This Lucid approach provides interoperability among GPUs and chipsets, auto-correct load balancing and multiple GPUs that simultaneously process.
The HydraLogix 200 currently supports both dual and triple multi-GPU configurations, and provides 80% or more graphics acceleration for popular PC games.
Pricing & Availability The Lucid UNITY architecture for graphics board with HydraLogix 200 engine are both available now to graphics board OEMs. With multiple configurations of the HydraLogix engine, vendors can provide nearly limitless combinations of GPUs to meet a variety of target audiences and price points.
Consumer graphics boards are expected to be available for the holiday buying season 2010 at accessible prices under $199.
About Lucid LucidLogix Technologies has reinvented multi-core graphics with its HydraLogix real-time distributed processing engine that improves visual computing for both business and gaming applications. A fabless SoC provider, headquartered in Kfar Netter Israel with sales and marketing in Santa Clara, California, Lucid’s innovations are protected by more than 60 patents and patents pending. For more information visit the Lucid website or follow @LucidHYDRA on Twitter.
About TUL
TUL is a leading supplier of AMD graphics cards under the PowerColor brand. We offer award-winning products based on our technology leading componments, quality design and superb engineering. TUL employs more than 150 talents worldwide, with offices in China, Europe, Russa and USA to support over 300 channel partners and distributors in 50 plus countries. For more information visit: www.powercolor.com.
Ryan Shrout | Source: PC Perspective | Subject: Graphics Card
A second piece of AMD "news" is hitting the streets this Sunday night, and that is the delivery of a device to enable three-display Eyefinity support for non-DisplayPort monitor users for under the $100 price tag that has existed for a full year. When AMD first launched the Radeon 5000-series of graphics cards in September of 2009, we were very excited about Eyefinity gaming technology and how it could revolutionize PC gaming. At the time it was expensive, DP monitor support was low and the active adapters to make it work with DVI monitors were almost impossible to find. We were given many AMD's employees words and told many promises about support and lower cost options coming "very soon."
About a year later, DP monitors are only slightly more prevalent, the "thin bezel" Samsung displays are just finally trickling into the market and those $100 adapters are still $100 and hard to find. Sigh. But good news! AMD has worked with several companies to produce a lower cost, active DP-to-single-link-DVI adapter that will be for sale very soon (today actually!) for only $30. The adapter only supports resolutions up to 1920x1200, which should be more than enough for nearly all users and those of you with triple 30" panels can probably afford the $100 adapter anyway. 
We have this new adapter in house and it is working just fine in our triple panel configurations! I only wish it were out about 10 months earlier so we could have really driven home the advantages of buying low cost displays for gaming. Better late than never I guess! Considering that NVIDIA Surround still requires at least two cards in SLI, AMD's edge in value for three panel gaming will only increase with the release of these units. Several partners of AMD will be offering the adapters in one form or another: Sapphire, XFX, PowerColor, Accell, Weison and more. They will come in both mini-DP and DP flavors with DVI outputs. Look for them on Amazon.com, MicroCenter.com, NCIX, etc. The adapters are easy to install, there is no software to worry about so anyone looking for a way to get three panels running on cheap(er) will be glad to see these for sale! Finally!
Ryan Shrout | Source: PC Perspective | Subject: Graphics Card
All of you ATI fan boys are going to need a new moniker: AMD is officially announcing that they are phasing out the "ATI" name completely and will be replacing it with the "AMD" brand in all areas. Since the merger of ATI and AMD back in 2006 the debate has quietly been raging on when, or if, the ATI brand that we all know and love would filter its way out of relevance. Later this year, that process will begin.
AMD claims that after doing some extensive surveys of a worldwide "discrete graphics aware" audience they found a few interesting points that indicated permission from the community to make this move:
The new generation of GPUs will be called "AMD Radeon Graphics" while the currently existing products will continue to hold their ATI nomenclature until their own untimely demise. 
Also interesting is the branding that omits the "AMD" brand; that will be used for OEMs that are sensitive to putting both an Intel CPU and AMD GPU logo on the same machine. Honestly though, this will likely prevent some confusion for the average consumer. 
As 2011 nears you can see that AMD is taking a big step forward in reducing its branding and logo systems going from 18 in 2009 to 7. Obviously I wouldn't place bets on us not seeing additional logos in the coming months as new processors Fusion technologies are introduced, but it's a start. A big part of this consolidation is also based on the move to the hybrid CPU/GPU chips that AMD calls "Fusion" as it consolidates all the companies technologies one brand AND one processor. AMD is betting the farm on its Fusion technology and the branding aspect is just one of many internal indications of this dramatic shift. In the end, I think some people will blow this pronouncement out of proportion and it is overall a good move for the company going forward. But, I must admit, I weep a single tear as I post this logo for perhaps the last time: 
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: NVIDIA | Subject: General Tech
Starting this week across the US and Europe, you can get a free copy of the smash hit game Mafia II with the purchase of a GeForce GPU, GTX 465 and higher! That’s right, a copy of Mafia II for free! We here at NVIDIA are super excited about the incredible experience that can be realized when playing on a GeForce GPU. With a strong integration of NVIDIA PhysX technology and support for multi-display configurations including NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround (3D) and NVIDIA Surround (2D), only GeForce users can fully immerse themselves into the realistic worlds of Mafia II created by the top-notch game designers at 2K. To celebrate the launch of Mafia II and the gaming goodness it provides to GeForce owners, NVIDIA is offering a coupon code good for one FREE digital download of the complete PC version of Mafia II with the purchase of any qualifying NVIDIA GeForce GTX 465 and above. The offer will be available while supplies last. In the US:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/sectors/campaigns/include/nvidia_gtx400_mafia.asp
http://www9.ncix.com/lp1/nvidia-Mafia2/ 
Ryan Shrout | Source: AnandTech | Subject: Graphics Card
Must be something in the water today; another leak as apparently sprung out about hardware that shouldn't be available yet. This time, the news is found at a Chinese website called PCinLife.com where a user has apparently taken time to share some basic performance information about the upcoming Radeon HD 6870 graphics card from the Northern Isles family rumored to have been taped out. The leak comes in the form of a 3DMark Vantage screenshot and a GPU-Z screenshot, so take it for what its worth:
The 3DMark Vantage score of 11,600 is easily better than the HD 5870 and the NVIDIA GTX 480, both of which are under 9000 in our most recent results. The HD 5970, a dual-GPU graphics card, scores about 11,500; this would be a nice boost in performance from a GPU that is really just a minor tweak of the currently available parts on the same 40nm process.
If we believe what GPU-Z is telling us, the upcoming Cayman XT GPU is running at the same 850 MHz clock speed as the current Radeon HD 5870 while the memory speed has been increased to 1.6 GHz! The GPUID matches up with some other leaked code name information courtesy of the Catalyst 10.8 drivers, so while we are always curious about the authenticity of these things, it does get more credible with the matching information.
Ryan Shrout | Source: AnandTech | Subject: Processor
It was bound to happen, really. Anandtech has posted a very in-depth preview of the upcoming Intel Sandy Bridge architecture that includes benchmarks of an engineering sample they "located" somewhere without Intel's blessing. But who cares, right? Let's see what the numbers are telling us!
The Core i5-2400 used in this test is still an early sample, and as such the results might not be indicative of final performance. This 3.1 GHz processor will not ship with HyperThreading enabled later this year but the early samples had it enabled for motherboard vendor testing. CPU performance is compelling in that it offers a noticeable performance increase over currently existing products at similar price points if Intel sticks to the leaked roadmaps that we have seen over the past few months.
Probably more interesting is the updated integrated graphics that gets a very dramatic redesign from previous Intel CPUs. In Anandtech's testing the single core version that resided in this i5-2400 sample was able to outperform the low-end of discrete graphics like the AMD Radeon HD 5400:
This is definitely an article you should be reading if you have any interest in what Intel will be offering you early next year!!
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: AnandTech | Subject: Mobile
The Toshiba T235D sports some nice features behind its 13.3" 1366x768 LCD, a dual core Neo K625 @ 1.5GHz, 2x2GB DDR3-800 and it is a Radeon HD 4225 that provides the graphical power. It weighs under 4lbs with a 6 cell battery installed and is between 0.7" to 1.03" thick. The gaming performance is nothing to brag about but general performance shows improvement over the previous generation of mobile AMD solutions. If you are looking for a thin $600ish laptop and can't wait for Bobcat read the review at AnandTech and see if it peaks your interest. "Unlike the higher performance AMD parts, the Nile platform (and Geneva CPUs) compete in the ultraportable market. We've looked at a few laptops from the previous generation AMD Congo family, the Acer Ferrari One and the MSI Wind U230, but to date we haven't found anything that can seriously challenge the Intel ultraportable market. On the performance side, both Intel's CULV and AMD's ultraportables have easily pounded Atom netbooks into the ground, but where CULV laptops are able to hit 8+ hours of battery life we've yet to break the five hour mark with an AMD laptop (while using a moderately sized 6-cell battery). The Toshiba T235D changes that, and finally we have an AMD platform—and a Toshiba laptop—that we can recommend without a whole bunch of caveats." Here are some more Mobile articles from around the web:
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