Hercules releases today the 4th version of the sound card Fortissimo. This 7.1 PCI format sound card is based on the VIA Envy24HT audio controller, provides 24 bit performance and 192kHz sampling rates, and is using the Wolfson WM8766 and WM8766 CODEC and DAC
Hercules left Sensaura, bought by Creative one year ago, for the 3D engine, and has chosen the QSound engine also integrated in Phillips’ sound cards. The Fortissino 4 should be available in a few days.
For the last quarter 2004, ASUSTeK has the ambition to become the number one Taiwanese manufacturer for graphic cards and so logically the number one in the world. For 2004, DigiTimes report that ASUSTeK was expected to ship over seven million graphics cards. The manufacture plan to ship over 10 million graphics cards in 2005.
Memory chip price has been increased by 16.7% from mid-September to early October, but recent price cuts seem to contradict previous forecasts. After increasing from $4.13 to 4.82, the 32 Mb DDR400 memory chip price has now been reduced to $4.48. New prices show once more that DRAM price market forecasts are very difficult as market analysts expected prices up to $5.
NVIDIA reported sales of $515.6 Millions and net income of $25.9 million for the financial quarter ended October 24, 2004. In the third quarter NVIDIA reported sales of $456.1 million and net profit of $5.1 million and sales $468.1 million and net profit of $6.4 millions in the same period last year.
These good results are driven by the GeForce 6 sales increase (multiplied by six between the third and fourth quarter) and the release and increased availability of the GeForce 6 6600 and 6200. NVIDIA’s sales were $1.44 billion from January to October instead of $1.35 billion last year. Net income increased from $50.3 millions last year to $52.3 million today.
For the last quarter 2004, ASUSTeK has the ambition to become the number one Taiwanese manufacturer for graphic cards and so logically the number one in the world. For 2004, 
Memory chip price has been increased by 16.7% from mid-September to early October, but recent price cuts seem to contradict previous forecasts. After increasing from $4.13 to 4.82, the 32 Mb DDR400 memory chip price has now been reduced to $4.48. New prices show once more that DRAM price market forecasts are very difficult as market analysts expected prices up to $5.
NVIDIA reported sales of $515.6 Millions and net income of $25.9 million for the financial quarter ended October 24, 2004. In the third quarter NVIDIA reported sales of $456.1 million and net profit of $5.1 million and sales $468.1 million and net profit of $6.4 millions in the same period last year.