Computer Reviews, NewsJune 21, 2007 5:29 am

Sony aims for pro editing market with VAIO RM1N

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Though Sony’s VAIO line is more closely linked with consumer laptops, the company has just announced the VAIO RM1N, the latest in its series of desktop workstations. The system is aimed squarely at digital video editing, since it comes preloaded with Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0, and its default storage comes in the form of a 1TB RAID 0 array. It likewise comes with a jog controller, and is one of the few machines that can burn double-layer Blu-Ray discs as well as play them.

The RM1N uses a 2.4GHz Core 2 Quad chipset with 2GB of RAM, and the graphics card is a 256MB GeForce 8600 GTS. A copy of Windows Vista Business is included, but users must buy their own display, and there are no capture cards pre-installed. The system does however have room for three PCI Express devices, as well as an extra four SATA hard drives. Ten USB and three i-LINK ports are front-mounted on the computer for easier peripheral connection. As yet, Sony has not mentioned when, where and at what price the computer will ship.  [via]

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Computer Reviews, NewsJune 14, 2007 12:47 am

ASUS to Launch Waterproof UMPC and Robust PC

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Asustek Computer Inc. (ASUS) of Taiwan will make full-scale entry into the market for robust notebook personal computers as early as the fall of 2007. At COMPUTEX TAIPEI 2007 held in Taipei, Taiwan, ASUS exhibited the Hermes Ultra-Mobile PC (UMPC) with 7-inch LCD display and a robust notebook computer under the brandname N13i that employs the new Centrino Duo platform (codename: Santa Rosa) launched from Intel Corp. in May 2007.

Hermes ensures its shock-resistance and is drip and dust proof through the use of rubber, etc., covering the chassis front surface. The product meets the MIL-STD-810F shock-resistance standard set by the U.S. Department of Defense, so it won’t break even if it was dropped from 120 cm above. Classified as IP54 by the water and dust proof standard, it is designed to protect the chassis from splashes from all directions. It employs C7-M, a low power consumption CPU available from VIA Technologies, Inc. of Taiwan. The CPU has a fanless, enclosed structure which is crucial for dustproof without scarifying its heat dissipation design. The product is equipped with a 7-inch display and the backlight is selectable from a fluorescent tube or LED. Although the product on display was equipped with an HDD, a demonstrator says, "We’re planning to offer the SSD model for users requiring a higher impact-resistance." A card reader, GPS module and other devices attachable to the upper part of chassis are optionally available.

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Chips & Upgrades, News 12:37 am

Nvidia ships GeForce 8700M GT for high-end notebooks

http://www.filehigh.com/serve/28675/436806.jpgNvidia on Wednesday announced its highest-performance DirectX 10 GPU for notebooks. The new GeForce 8700M GT graphics processing unit (GPU) for notebook PCs extends its GeForce 8M Series product line to include high-performance notebooks. As with the GeForce 8M Series notebook GPU lineup, the GeForce 8700M GT delivers the fastest DirectX 10 gaming performance as well as compatibility with Windows Vista and high-quality HD DVD and Blu-ray video playback. The GPU delivers support for Microsoft DirectX 10 games and a more efficient, unified architecture that delivers up to a 70 percent performance improvement compared to previous generation GPUs.

The company also touted its NVIDIA PureVideo HD video processing engine for high-quality playback of HD DVD, Blu-ray and HD movie downloads and its NVIDIA PowerMizer technology that balances the user’s need for longer battery life and performance. As with its other mobile 8M chips, the new 8700M GT can accelerate the entire H.264 video process, making it easy to play Blu-Ray, HD DVD, and other 1080p-native movies on a notebook without siphoning away CPU and memory resources.
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Chips & Upgrades, NewsMay 24, 2007 8:33 pm

NVIDIA’s G92 Joins the 1 Teraflops Clu

 NVIDIA has recently unveiled some spicy info on their latest G92 developments. This is the successor of the current G80 GPU and according to Michael Hara, vice president of the "green" company, the chip will be ready by Christmas 2007. This means that NVIDIA will try to update their high-end graphics card sector every fourth semester in the years to come. This release cycle was adopted with the G80 GPU last year, leaving the mid-range and low-end products for a spring release.
While ATI postponed their high-end R600 GPU series in order to be released with the mainstream and entry level models (this did not work according to plan, as the HD2600 and HD 2400 cards have been postponed for a June release), NVIDIA doesn’t see the benefit in releasing all three ranges of cards together. This is quite awkward for NVIDIA, considering that the mainstream and entry-level products yield the greatest income for the company.

However, this accelerated release cycle puts AMD/ATI in a delicate position. Although AMD is readying the Barcelona quad-cores for a Q3/Q4 2007 release, ATI is supposed to release the R650 GPUs in Q3 this year. This gives NVIDIA a one year advantage over ATI, because, as I mentioned before, the GeForce 9800 series should hit the market in Q4 2007.
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Chips & Upgrades, NewsMay 23, 2007 11:49 pm

OCZ Readies PC3-10666 DDR3 Memories

Hosted by imgPlace.comMemory manufacturers including Micron and Samsung have already announced their Intel P35 Certified DDR3 chips and now it’s time to check out what memory integrators have to offer. OCZ Technology, one of the leading memory integrators, also becomes one of the first companies to release DDR3 memories for Intel’s P35 chipset with their new line-up of PC3-8500 (1066MHz) and PC3-10666 (1333MHz) modules.

"For the past few years, we have highly anticipated DDR3, since it is everything DDR2 should have been from the very beginning," said Michael Schuette, vice president of technology development at OCZ, in a statement. "Being part of the task group defining the serial presence detect and extended feature set of DDR3 has further increased our commitment to the third generation of double data rate memory and we are ready to break some new performance records."
These new products will be available in 2x512MB and 2x1024MB dual channel kits and OCZ mentioned that, in the initial phase, these products will stick to JEDEC’s specifications for third generation Double Data Rate memory. Thus, the high-end solution represented by the PC3-10666 Gold Series modules features 1333MHz clocks with CL9-9-9-24 latencies. However, recent tests have demonstrated that latencies could be lowered to 7-7-7-21, while memory clocks could go as high as 1500 MHz or even 2000 MHz in dual channel mode.
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