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Albatron wasn't the only victim of the "pre-show" on Monday at the CeBIT. Computerbase.de procured photos of several ASUS motherboards including the PINOTNOIR, which is equipped with a very high end chipset (X48 or nForce 790i?) and can be easily connected to a watercooling system. Also, there was a photo of the P5Q3 Deluxe, based on a P45, the next high end chipset from Intel.
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OCZ, which more than ever is try to diversify, announced that the Neural Impulse Actuator (NIA) has entered into mass production. This controller aims more or less to read our minds and while the concept isn’t new, we can only hope this time that the final product will be more interesting.
 Its creator is the first to admit that it will not replace the mouse but will enable using it less in normal conditions and even do away with the keyboard in games. It connects to your PC via USB 2.0 and can function with all programs as signals that come from the forehead are interpreted like those coming from the keyboard. The first orders will be taken at the CeBIT which starts today in Hannover where it will be on display. We will just have to wait for the final price which should not be too high given that at one time a sum of $300 was mentioned. |
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 Last week, AMD provided the first samples of the Opteron Barcelona B3 to its partners as well as certain wholesalers according to CNET, which cites one of the company’s representative.
Several manufacturers (and not the smallest ones) are awaiting this revision of AMD’s quad core processor to commercialize servers which integrate it. This is notably the case for Dell, IBM and HP. A spokesperson for this last company declared that they plan the first deliveries for the start of the second quarter. Dell should also offer servers equipped with the Opteron Barcelona in the same quarter.
So this is some good news for AMD because seven months after the launch of its professional CPU, which is finally rid of the TLB bug, it should finally start to come through. Currently, the Opteron Barcelona B2 is almost exclusively reserved to supercalculators and for those involved in their conception or that know how to go around the bug. |
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With Catalyst 8.3 which is expected out this month, ATI will launch CrossFireX, which will enable combining the power of 3 or 4 GPUs as well as releasing Hybrid Graphics, AMD’s graphic division’s response to Nvidia’s Hybrid SLI.
 One interesting point is that many combinations seem possible, the one condition being the use of Radeon HD 3800s (X2). Therefore, a Radeon HD 3850 can be relayed to a Radeon HD 3870 X2 in CrossFireX for three GPUs just like it’s possible to use two Radeon HD 3870 X2s or four Radeon HD 3800s in the framework of a four GPU CrossFireX configuration. On the software side, things currently appear more complex because at first only DirectX 9 applications will be entirely supported, DirectX 10 games will only be partially and those using OpenGL not at all. In addition, CrossFireX is only possible in Windows Vista.  Note that ATI seems to be encountering difficulties in developing multi-GPU drivers with this OS and we should also remember that Microsoft has already published two patches enabling CrossFire and SLI to function correctly in Vista. Moreover, the creator of the Radeon had the good idea of integrating a system that prevents performances from dropping when they are lower with a supplementary GPU by deactivating it. Multi-screen support should also be improved because it is no longer necessary to deactivate CrossFire as is currently the case. Finally, with the Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista which is expected out in mid-March, the Canadian company takes this occasion to remind us that its drivers are finally ready for DirectX 10.1. So in short, there are a lot of promises ATI will have to keep if they want to remain competitive with Nvidia, which according to the latest news, is still planning on launching Quad SLI the 18th of this month. |
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 The night before the opening of the CeBIT, Intel has unveiled the Atom, a CPU destined for MIDs (Mobile Internet Device) and Ultra Mobile PCs which up until now has been known under the name Silverthorne or Diamondville.
Engraved in 45nm, their TDPs vary between 0.6W and 2.5W for a frequency which can attain 1.8 GHz. They are also distinguished by their extremely reduced size of 25mm² for 47 million transistors. To accomplish this feat, Intel equipped them with a single core and 512 KB of L2 cache; however they do have HyperThreading technology enabling them despite everything else to offer interesting performances. Of course, they are entirely compatible with the instruction set of the Core 2 Duo and have a 16 stage execution pipeline.
You may recall, the Silverthorne is part of the Menlow platform which first and foremost is intended for MIDs while the Diamondville is the heart of the Shelton'08, an ultra portable platform. No precise information was given as to their availability but it is highly unlikely to see anything before the second semester.
Note that the Santa Clara giant also launched the Centrino Atom brand. Moreover, the Atom should enable them to easily sell their Parallel ATA SSDs for UMPCs in addition to chipsets.
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The CeBIT officially starts today but yesterday we already had access to a few stands, in particular that of Samsung. And like every year, we have to admit, it creates a stir. 
