ASUS To Ship 500K Xonar D2X Sound Cards

ASUS plans to ship 500,000 Xonar D2X audio cards which adopt C-Media's solutions in 2007 after seeing satisfactory sales following the card's introduction at CeBIT 2007. The audio card, which will primarily target the gaming market, features 3D sound processing and supports Dolby Digital Live, DTS and 5.1 surround sound. C-Media is reported to earn US$ 10-20 for each Xonar D2X Asustek sells. If Asustek reaches its target of shipping 500,000 units in 2007, or 100,000 units per month, the design house can expect royalty payments to reach US$ 5-10 million.

Apple files for sales ban on eight Samsung smartphones

Apple is seeking to immediately capitalise on its US court victory by filing for a sales ban on eight smartphones made by rival Samsung.

The Korean electronics giant was found guilty of infringing six of seven Apple patents last Friday, with the judge ordering Samsung to pay out $1 billion in damages, less than the $2.5 billion sought by Apple, but still a major blow to the company.Worse for Samsung, many of its products will likely be wiped off the US market in the short term, including the Galaxy S II and Droid Charge, along with six other devices that Apple wants banned. 28 of Samsungs products are covered in the lawsuit, but most of these are no longer available.Samsungs flagship model, the Galaxy S III, escaped the trial, but Apples victory over features and design elements could allow it to target the device in another case, with a potential fast tracking option as a contempt proceeding, according to legal experts cited by Reuters.A sales ban is not guaranteed, but the chances are high following the court outcome. Samsung is expected to try to delay a ban in order to make an appeal and is already preparing to modify devices to remove infringing features, the typical method employed to circumvent such injunctions. Samsung is likely to also delay upcoming product launches to ensure they wont fall victim to an attack by Apple.The situation does not just affect Samsung, however. All manufacturers using Googles Android platform will be concerned about being next on Apples hit list and may also be forced to make design changes.Source: Reuters

ASUS PC-DL Deluxe Dual Xeon Board

-Support Intel Xeon 3.06GHz+
-Intel 82875P (Canterwood) MCH
-Intel 82801ER (ICH5R)
-4 DIMM slot up to 4GB of PC2700 ECC DDR
-AGP 4x/8x slot
-PCI (32/64-bit, 33 Ìhz)
-Intel 82547EI CSA Gigabit Ethernet controller
-Serial ATA RAID
-Promise PDC20378 with RAID 0, 1, 0+1
-6 USB 2.0, 2 IEEE 1394
-AD1985 6'ch Audio

Android On The iPhone

This is perhaps one of the interesting stuff to catch our eye. Android OS onApple's iPhone. There is a video, check it out

The author quotes that it should be pretty simple to port forward to the iPhone 3G. The 3GSwill take more work

ASUS Introduced TA-89 Series Chassis

ASUS has announced the TA-89 Series chassis – which incorporates an advancedventilation design, injury-proof installation, easy access to hardwarecomponents and a large hardware capacity for customized PC building.Additionally, its stable and well-built frame and independent USB port designprovides users with convenient access to USB devices and avoids mutualinterference when multiple USB devices are connected.

Advanced Ventilation Design

The TA-89 supports dual 80mm rear and front fans, with the option of upgradingthe front fan to a 120mm large fan in order to create even better airflow atlower fan speeds and a quieter computing experience. The side venting holes pullin cool air to lower CPU and graphic card temperatures and the air-duct funnelsthe cool air towards the CPU, while unique rear venting holes enhancesventilation around the add-on cards. This comprehensive cooling design enableslong and continuous operations for the most powerful processing platforms andincreases overall system performance and stability.

Easy-Access Installation

The screw-less hard drive cage with user-friendly holders and side panels withthumbscrews enable easy system upgrade and maintenance. The Injury-proof harddrive cage and folded metal edges protect fingers from scrapes and cuts. Thespring-opened optical drive door allows quick access to optical devices, andintelligently located USB ports avoid mutual interference when multiple USBdevices are connected. All of these features make the TA-89 series aneasy-access DIY installation chassis.

Outstanding scalability

The TA-89 provides support for four 5.25-inch and six 3.5-inch drive bays, sevenPCI slots, two USB ports and two audio ports to support an array of opticaldrives, hard disks, sound cards, LAN cards and peripherals.

 

Specifications

The TA-89 series is now available.

ATi Crossfire On 24th Sep

ATI is getting ready to release its first Crossfire motherboards and retail boards should follow, and some even ready at the launch date. ATI plans to lift its NDAs on the 24th. One of the key problems with Crossfire was the linking external cable that caused a few weeks delay. Just a little later, ATi will announce Radeon X1800 XT Crossfire edition master cards.

ASRock's Fatal1ty X79 Champion arrives, will cost you a kidney

Were not unfamiliar with high-end motherboards by any means, but ASRocks Fatal1ty X79 Champion is only likely to be overshadowed by ASRocks own X79 Extreme11 and that is if ASRock actually decides to launch that beast of a board. That said, features dont come cheap and youll have to pony up the cost of about two regular motherboards to get your hands on the Fatal1ty X79 Champion if early pricing is anything to go by.

The differences between the Fatal1ty X79 Professional and Fatal1ty X79 Champion are surprisingly large, starting with the memory slot where the Fatal1ty X79 Champion has no less than eight DIMM slots in total for some 64GB action. Continuing around the CPU socket, ASRock has actually gone for a more basic VRM design with 12+2 phases compared to 16+2 phases for the Fatal1ty X79 Professional, although this is likely due to the additional memory slots.

Spot the last minute quick fix

In terms of expansion slots, the Fatal1ty X79 Champion sports five x16 PCI Express slots with slot one and five operating in dual x16 mode, slot one, three and five or one, four and seven operating in a x16/x8/x8 mode and the final configuration allows for a x16/x8/x8/x8 option using slot one, three, five and seven. The board also has space for two x1 PCI Express slots, of which at least one could be usable if needed, as long as no more than three dual-width cards are being used.

Beyond the six Intel SATA ports – two SATA 3Gbps and two SATA 6Gbps – ASRock has added a Marvell SE9230 four port SATA 6Gbps controller to the Fatal1ty X79 Champion, although its not clear if this uses one or two PCI Express lanes, as the chip has support for both options. Other board level features include two front USB 3.0 headers via a TI TUSB7340 host controller, three headers for six USB 3.0 ports, a header for a FireWire port and a serial port, power and reset buttons, a Voltage readout point and a POST80 debug LED.

At the rear of the board we have a PS/2 port, two USB 2.0 ports, no less than eight USB 3.0 ports via two TUSB7340s, two eSATA ports via an unspecified SATA 3Gbps controller, a FireWire port, two Gigabit Ethernet ports via a pair of Broadcom chips and 7.1-channel audio with S/PDIF out courtesy of a Creative Sound Core3D.

Considering the insane amount of on board features, we cant but feel a little bit disappointed with the bundled accessories, as all you get is a front USB 3.0 unit, a rear USB 3.0 bracket and the various SLI bridges and a mere six SATA cables. Another issues with the Fatal1ty X79 Champion is the form fact, as for whatever reason, ASRock saw fit to go with a server/workstation CEB form factor which measures 305x267mm. This means that the Fatal1ty X79 Champion might not fit in some standard ATX chassis, as although the board is as wide as an ATX motherboard, its 23mm deeper. ASRock appears to have gone with a standard ATX layout for the screw holes though, but this is something worth keeping in mind.

We presume youve already guessed that this is a seriously expensive motherboard and although we only have Japanese pricing to go by at the moment, ASRock is selling the board for a massive 37,980 Yen in Japan. In more familiar currencies, thats US$466 or S$582, which you could get a good motherboard and a CPU for if youd pick something a bit more sensible. Then again, if you were sensible, then this would probably not be the kind of motherboard youd be considering buying in the first place. The official retail date is apparently set for the 27th of this month, so youll have to wait a little bit longer to spend your hard earned cash in this case.

Source: ASRock

AMD To Demo Virtualization On Socket F Opteron

AMD today unveiled its upcoming processor with virtualization technology to visitors of the Linux World tradeshow. This new chip, currently referred to as "Rev F," builds on the existing 90 nm architecture, but will come with the new socket 1207 and use DDR2 memory. Rev F is scheduled to be available in the third quarter of this year. Visitors of Linux World are first to actually see the company demo its virtualization technology previously code-named "Pacifica" and now called "AMD-v." The demo at the tradeshow has simply purpose to show the virtualization feature and not possible performance gains the dual-core Rev F CPUs will bring. The processor on site runs at a clock speed of 2.6 GHz.

AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition Launched

AMD launched the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition graphics card. In its crosshairs is NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680, and retaking the single-GPU performance crown. The new chip, apart from a fully-configured ASIC, features ≥1000 MHz GPU clock speed.

Unlike what previous reports from various sources in the media have been suggesting, the HD 7970 GHz Edition is not based on a new ASIC, or even a new revision of the existing "Tahiti" one. Instead, it is made from hand-picked (binned) high-performing Tahiti chips, from existing batches. It goes with the internal codename "Tahiti XT2." The chip attains high clock speeds and overclocking headroom purely out of tolerance to higher voltages, or higher quality (low leakage) silicons, which can attain higher clock speeds at typical voltages.

Speaking of clock speeds, AMD implemented PowerTune with Boost, a technology that sounds similar to NVIDIA GPU Boost. AMD clocked the HD 7970 GHz Edition at 1000 MHz (core), with 1050 MHz (core Boost). The Boost frequency is active for most applications, although some apps with unreal loads (eg: Furmark) can send the frequency down to 1000 MHz. AMDs Boost technology uses a "predictive" algorithm that takes into account how an application behaves, and how it should tune clock speeds (between Boost, nominal, and throttle p-states), and how the GPU voltage should be adjusted on-the-fly to support the clock speeds. Stability and performance seem to be a greater priority than power draw.

The memory clock of the HD 7970 GHz Edition isnt left untouched, it is stepped up to 1500 MHz,. using the same Hynix-made GDDR5 chips that go into the GeForce GTX 600 series. Thanks to the 384-bit wide memory interface, the card ends up with a memory bandwidth of 288 GB/s. The rest of the component load-out is identical to that of the HD 7970.

The 28 nm Tahiti silicon packs 2,048 Graphics CoreNext stream processors, which at the given clock speeds, breaches the 1 TFLOP/s double-precision floating-point performance mark. The chip is armed with 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs.

Like the HD 7970, the new HD 7970 GHz Edition draws power from a combination of 8-pin and 6-pin PCIe power connectors. AMD rates its peak power consumption at 250W, just 49W short of that of the GTX 690. Display outputs include dual-link DVI, HDMI, and a pair of mini-DisplayPort connectors. The card can pair with any three more Tahiti-based ones, in CrossFire configuration (that includes HD 7970 (925 MHz), HD 7950, and even HD 7970 X2).

AMD is pricing the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition at US $499. It should be mostly sold as non-reference designs though its add-in board partners.

ASUS to introduce ultra-thin laptop, UX Series

Weighing just 1.1kg, 17mm in thickness, aluminium finishing and featuring a large touch pad, the UX Series is going to be a centre of attraction in this years Computex. It is said that the UX Series will be released somewhere in Q3 this year.

Source: TCMagazine, 4Gamer

ASUS and Jay Chou jointly announce special edition N series notebook PC

The event kickstarted with a symphony comprised of ASUSlaptops,conducted by ASUS chairman Jonney Shih and Taiwanese celebrity Jay Chou playing the piano. And later, both unveiled theJay Chou special edition N-series notebook PC.

No, it isntexactly a celebrity endorsement;Chou was the chief designer who has worked with the ASUS design centre on the laptop. Shih said that the companys vision is to produce more of such distinct products which are incomparable and he is happy to have Chouas the designer for the special edition N-series. To conceptualize the design, itboils down to howthe combination ofthe consumers sixth senses and ASUS advanced technologies, and bring out the incomparable experience to the users. According to Chou, he had used "incomparable" as the theme for one of his concerts and that the design of the special edition N-series is very much like east meets west.

Shih also presented Chou withan honored employee pass which means the celebrity is officially working for the company.

Here are some pictures of models with the ASUS special edition N-series laptop:-

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A-Data Readies S596 Turbo SSD for Release

A-Data is preparing to release the S596 Turbo SSD, targetingenthusiasts.



Encased in a brushed aluminum enclosure, the 2.5” SSD boasts a JMicronJMF616 chip, 128Mb DDR2 cache buffer, both SATA II and USB 2.0interfaces, MLC NAND flash memory, TRIM support, “static wear-levelingtechnology” (for extended lifespan), and supports data transfer rates upto 210Mb/s (write) and 260Mb/s (read). Available in capacities of 32Gb,64Gb, 128Gb and 256Gb, the S596 Turbo SSD is bundled with a 3.5"converter and a 60-day trial version of Norton Internet Security 2010.Pricing and availability has not been set yet so stay tuned for moreupdates.


News via [Softpedia]