|
|
 |
|
|
|
 One of Intel’s PR confirmed to PC World that the Pentium 4 570 would be released next November 15. Clocked at 3.8 GHz, this Socket 775 processor is like the other Pentium 4 5xx based on the same Prescott core. These processors are equipped with 1 MB of cache L2, are compatible with SSE3 instructions and have a 90 nm fabrication process. This should be the last evolution of the 5xx series. The next 6xx series will be released during the first quarter 2005 and will be equipped with 2 MB of cache L2. |
| |
|
 According to a Merril Lynch study partly published on DigiTimes, the chipset market repartition for the third quarter 2004 is:
- Intel : 62.1%
- VIA : 18.5%
- SiS : 9.9%
- ATI : 4.5%
- NVIDIA : 4.2%
Intel’s share slipped of 6.7 point compared to the precedent quarter at a time when VIA increased their market shares by 3.6 %. This new market repartition is due to the late success of the Athlon 64. VIA’s chipset sales for Intel’s platforms increased by 17% and 67% for AMD’s platform. SIS, ATI and NVIDIA each increased their market shares by one percent. |
| |
|
 During a press conference organized by Creative ten days ago, Hardware Upgrade obtained some information on the next Creative sound card, the Audigy 4 Pro. This sound card should be released in the next weeks. Still using a standard PCI slot, this card improvement should include a higher noise level to 113 dB.
We know now a little bit more about his card since the release online of this product in this shop :
Includes: Sound Blaster Audigy 4 Pro external I/O Hub with Infrared receiver, remote control unit with battery, AD_LINK cable, power converter cable, 3.5mm minijack to 6.5mm jack adapter, Thief 3 DVD, Hitman: Contract DVD, Cubase LE, & more.
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 4 Pro - This Sound card is designed with the Professional in mind. It provides you with a multitude of connectors and support for high-end Audio Recording and reproduction. Featuring 24-bit EAX 4.0 ADVANCED HD audio, THX certification, Advanced Resolution DVD-Audio playback, 113 DB SNR DACs, a 14-connector external I/O hub and Entertainment Center remote control!
- Stereo Output 113dB
- Output Voltage @ 2Vrms
- Total Harmonic Distortion + Noise at 1kHz
- Frequency response +/- 3dB: 10Hz to 46kHz
- Advanced Hardware accelerated Digital effects processing
- 32-Bit digital processing, which maintains a theoretical 192 dB of dynamic range
- 8-point interpolation that reduces distortion to inaudible levels
- 64-voice hardware wavetable synthesizer
- 24-bit Analog-to-Digital conversion of analog inputs at 96 kHz sample rate
- On-Board Connectors - Line level out (Front / Side / Rear / Center / Subwoofer), Digital CD Audio In, Aux Audio in, AD_Link 1 & AD_Link 2, Power connector, Headphone Out, Line In 1 (1/4" stereo jack, shared with Mic in with Gain Control), Line In 2 (1/4" stereo jack), Line In 3 (2x RCA Jack), Optical SPDIF In/Out, Coaxial SPDIF In/Out, Digital Out for 5.1 support (6-channel SPDIF output), 2x FireWire, & MIDI In/Out
|
| |
|
 Already available for quite some time now, the Super Hard Coat technology is a protection layer present on all TDK’s CD and DVD to avoid any scratches or damages. When TDK joined the Blu-Ray Disc Association last March, they brought with them this technology and the possibility to avoid the use of a protective cartridge for future Blu-Ray discs.
TDK has now the ambition to develop this technology for others markets as it is transparent to the full spectrum of visible light. So this technology can also be used on other surfaces like mobile phones or PDA to protect their LCD screens.
During a press conference a journalist of the NewScientist has tested the CD protective layer resistance with a wire-wool pan scourer and some permanent marker pens and was unable to make a single mark on the disc even with the scourer. According to TDK, the only person to have succeeded in damaging the disc used a Swiss army knife.
The Sony Ericsson P910 mobile phone announced last July is also equipped with a resistant LCD screen protection to protect the screen from the pen used to activate some functions. However, unlike TDK, Sony Ericsson has no ambition to give some details or develop their technology for any other uses. |
| |
|
 Intel’s sales of the CPU market reached 81.9% during the third quarter instead of 82.5% for the precedent quarter. AMD increase slightly their market shares from 15.5 to 15.8%. Intel’s market share reduction was beneficial for AMD but also for other companies such as VIA and Transmetta. |
| |
|
In the past, ATI already worked on multi GPU solutions. Some of you might remember the failure of the Rage Fury MAXX, a graphic card based on two Rage 128 Pro. This graphic card was developed, while waiting for the Radeon release, to compete with the GeForce. Recently, ATI also worked with Evans and Sutherland to develop a multi GPU graphic card dedicated to 3D simulation for the army. Announced in December 2002, the SimFUSION OpenSim 600Q was based on 4 Radeon 9700. Its price: approximately $20 000. Two years later and, two GeForce 6800 GT (20 times cheaper) are able to reach higher performances.
 Jon Carvill, PR Manager of ATI Technologies on ATi's plans for graphics and desktop chipsets has been interviewed by Ocworkbench. He answered to the question about the possibility to develop dual-GPU cards, or implement SLI on PCI-e, that ATI had plans for the second possibility, but it was too early to discuss this project. So if ATI doesn’t change their plans it is possible that they might release the SLI competitor. |
| |
|
 It is now official, Maxtor has just modified their warranty policy for hard drive. This decision is finally announced early November but is applied to all hard drives sold by Maxtor since last September 12. New warranties are:
- Fireball, DiamondMax ATA/SATA, DiamondMax Plus ATA/SATA : 3 years
- MaXLine ATA/SATA : 5 years
- Atlas SCSI : 5 years
The warranty hasn’t been modified for SCSI hard drives, but it has been extended from 3 to five years for MaXLine hard drives. The warranty for any other internal ATA/SATA hard drive is now 3 years. Fireball, DiamondMax and Diamond Max hard drive with 2 MB of cache and a capacity inferior to 120 GB used to have a warranty of one year only.
This announcement follows the previous announcement made by Seagate in July to extend their warranty to five year, and also respond to our concerns regarding the warranty for ATA 7200 Rpm hard drives (announced at one year only).
Here is a list of several manufacturers’ warranty for internal ATA / SATA hard drives:
- Hitachi : 3 years with 8 Mb de cache, else 1 year , except for the 7K250 in Europe : 2 years
- Maxtor : 3 years
- Samsung : 3 years
- Seagate : 5 years
- Western : Raptor : 5 years, others : 3 years with 8 Mb of cache (Special Edition), else 1 year, except for Europe : 2 years
The warranty is extended to 2 years for Europe because of specific regulations. Now the last question is: is this warranty applied if you have bought your hard drive from a European shop for another market? |
| |
|
 Early December, JVC should release first in Japan, the first DVD-RW media certified at 6X. Announced at 1000 Yen ($9.41 in the US), these media are based on the DVD-RW 3.0 revision validated by the DVD Forum end of September. |
| |
|
|
Copyright © 1997- Hardware.fr SARL. All rights reserved.
Read our privacy guidelines.
|
|
