OCZ: a second Samsung SSD Core B3: the TLB bug corrected! ATI FireMV 2260: DisplayPort only S3 Chrome 400: freq., price & avail.

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OCZ: a second Samsung SSD   Posted on 12/03/2008 at 23:16 by Nicolas

	OCZ, the memory manufacturer, is continuing to pursue its diversification at impressive speed. In addition to its preferred activity, the firm already sells power supplies, heat sinks, thermal paste, graphic cards, mice, and high end PCs (under the Hypersonic brand). Also, they will soon launch the Neural Impulse Actuator. However, because the SSD market has a certain bright future ahead of it and the hard drive market is more closed, the American firm has decided to currently focus some attention there. In actuality, they are commercializing the most recent Samsung models just like their previous product and only the logo changes. Therefore, the interface is a SATA-II type, reading/writing speeds are 120 MB/s and 100 MB/s, respectively, and there is a capacity of 32 or 64 GB for a size of 2" 1/2. The price of the latter should be around 1000€ TTC.

Core B3: the TLB bug corrected!   Posted on 12/03/2008 at 22:30 by Nicolas

	Not only has AMD delivered the first B3 Opterons to its partners but DailyTech obtained this photo from a wholesaler which hadn’t received processors of this type since November. In addition, AnandTech was able to carry out some rapid tests which seem to confirm that everything has been straightened out. In a benchmark with WinRAR where the activation of the TLB Fix on a Phenom 9600 B2 plummeted results from 1348 KB/s to 367 KB/s (truly an extreme example), the Phenom B3 Engineering Sample set at 2.3 GHz attains 1357 KB/s. While this news will enable AMD high end solutions to slightly gain in interest, the company will now have to quickly offer K10 processors surpassing 2.3 GHz in sufficient quantities at competitive prices if it wants to attract buyers. Otherwise, they will have to wait for the arrival of 45nm.

ATI FireMV 2260: DisplayPort only   Posted on 12/03/2008 at 14:08 by Nicolas

	AMD’s graphic division has just launched the FireMV 2260, a 2D graphic card with 2 DisplayPort outputs. While it supports PCI-Express 2.0, there is a x1 type connector. The GPU used is not mentioned but given the characteristics, it’s most likely a RV620 which is already present in the Radeon HD 3400. It is sufficiently powerful in 3D to be able to use the Windows Vista Aero interface and is first and foremost intended for big financial institutions that have offices on market floors where space is tight and there are numerous screens. Because it is a professional card there is a warranty of 3 years. Equipped with 256 MB, it should be sold for $249 in the U.S.

S3 Chrome 400: freq., price & avail.   Posted on 12/03/2008 at 13:34 by Nicolas

	VIA’s graphic division announced that it took advantage of the CeBIT to make official alliances with two German companies: Qimonda, a memory manufacturer, and Memorysolution, a distributor. The latter will offer the S3 Chrome 400 in Europe starting in the second quarter which of course will be equipped with Qimonda GDDR2 or GDDR3. Thanks to its partnerships, the American company now believes it is well placed to improve its market shares in the very competitive sector of low-key graphic solutions in Europe. This is a position that reminds us of other events since the launch of the Savage XP in 2002. However, on paper the Chrome 430 and 440 are not unattractive. Engraved in 65nm by Fujitsu, they support the Shader Model 4.1 of DirectX 10.1, OpenGL 2.1, PCI-Express 2.0 and have ChromotionHD for video reading. On the other hand, the memory bus has a width of 64 bits. The Chrome 430 GT is already on pre-order at GStore, the company’s on-line store that is trying to make up for the lack of manufacturer support since the launch of the Chrome S20. With frequencies of 625 MHz for the GPU and 500 MHz for the 256 MB of GDDR2, the S3 tries to once again rival Nvidia and ATI in the entry level. While we can’t vouch for these numbers, we can say that the S3 should be aware of the current situation as this card is offered for $60 while the Radeon HD 3450 from ASUSTek, Sapphire, HIS and PowerColor are sold for $50 in the U.S.