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 Started in January 2004, the 802.11n norm that integrates the management of MIMO won't be finalised before 2008. After a first draft in the beginning of the year, no less than 12,000 modifications requests have been recorded by the standardisation organism.
The second draft that was initially supposed to be validated before the end of autumn could be finally really validated early 2007. This is the reason why the final validation of the 802.11n standard will probably be in 2008.
We draw your attention on the fact that Wi-Fi MIMO peripherals are available in shops and that we have written an article on this technology a last March. It is important to point out that the possibility for these products to evolve to the final norm is thin even for those who have written on the packaging « 802.11n Draft 1.0 » (802.11n in capital letters and draft 1.0 in smaller one of course). The interoperability in MIMO mode but these peripherals will work in 802.11g. |
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In the race of who has got the biggest memory module, OCZ has taken a new step forward with PC2-8800 memory modules equipped with DDR2-1100 at 550 MHz. Available in 1GB an 2x1GB version, these OCZ DDR2 PC2-8800 Gold modules are certified to operate with timing of 5-6-6-15 at 2.2V. Up until today, OCZ "only" sold 3 versions of PC2-8000 memory modules:
- PC2-8000 5-6-6-15 at 2.1V: Gold GX XTC
- PC2-8000 4-5-4-15 at 2.2V: Platinum Extreme Edition
- PC2-8000 4-4-4-15 at 2.3V: Titanium Alpha VX2
 This new release will allow OCZ to have fewer complexes compared to Corsair who released last March 6 DDR2 at 533 MHz (5-5-5-15, 2.2V) to answer to the release of DDR2 at 500 MHz in February 22 [sic]. We have to point out that these memory modules are very expensive and not very interesting even for very advanced overclockers. With a Core 2 Duo E6600 Overclocked at 9x400 MHz for example, DDR2 at 500 MHz in 5-5-5 won't provide higher performances than DDR2 at 400 MHz in 4-4-4. |
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Even if the Radeon X1950 XTX announcement will be next August 23, the actual product release seems to be slightly rescheduled. If it was initially the 4th of September, ATI now speaks of the 14th of September. The X1900 XTX singles out because of the use of GDDR4 at 1 GHz instead of GDDR3 at 775 MHz. Also, a new more discreet cooling system will be released.
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 AMD has seized the opportunity of the release of the new Opterons to announce to have completed the design and tape-out process of future Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors. Now, the manufacturer will of course have to go through a new phase of bug correction which will require to several revision of this CPU and numerous months. AMD has also unveiled a released date, mid-2007, and said that these processors would be physically (at the Socket level) and electrically compatible with AMD's Opteron announced this day. It means that the Socket F and most of all AM2 Opteron will normally be compatible!
So, if AMD hasn't yet officially communicated on the subject, the possibility of a compatibility of the Athlon 64 Quad-Core with current AM2 motherboards seems to be more and more possible. These processors will have on a single die, 4 cores, 4x512KB of L2 cache and a unified L3 cache of 2 MB. Each of the core will also beneficiate from several improvements compared to current execution cores such as DDR3 support, doubled FPU power and the possibility of an execution in Out-Of-Order of Load type instructions. |
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x-bits labs has tested an Athlon 64 X2 3600+. This processor is supposed to reduce AMD's dual core entry ticket and singles out from the 3800+ not because of the frequency but because the cache L2 reduction from 2x512 KB to 2x256 KB. Surprisingly, the 3600+ performances are quite good. The 3800+ is only 3.8% slower in Far Cry and 4.7% in WinRAR, two applications which tend to be very much dependent of the cache size.
 Increasing the cache size from 256 KB to 512 KB doesn't improve as much performances as from 512 to 1 MB. Even if tests aren't 100% comparable, during our Socket AM2 test, we measured a performance gap of 6.5% in WinRAR and 6.3% in Far Cry between the X2 4000+ (2x1 MB) and the X2 3800+. Here is an interesting entry level dual core product in a market where the 15€ that separate this model from the 3800+ matters. For now, Intel only has Pentium D processors such as the 915 and 945 (2.8 and 3.2 GHz) priced $133 and $163 to compete with the A64 X2. When will the manufacturer release more affordable Core 2 Duo? |
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Dell has launched the most important product recall of the history of the IT industry. It concerns no less than 4.1 million of battery sold with the following notebook computers manufactured from April through July 2006: Latitude, Inspiron and Precision. 2/3 of these lithium-ion batteries manufactured by Sony have been sold in the US.
 The reason of this recall is the possibility for these batteries to overheat, which could pose a risk of fire. The number of actual fire in the US would be of 6 and the recall may seem a little disproportionate. However, whatever the motivation is for Sony and Dell to recall all those products, we are pleased to see that they do everything they can to avoid their batteries to be the next Ford Pinto.  According to analysts, the recall costs will be from $200 to $400 million and will be shared between Dell and Sony. To have more information, go to this page. |
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 Bill Healy, senior vice president of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies announced that the first hard drives with a capacity of 1 terabyte will be available this year. For now, the maximum capacity is 0.75 for the Seagate Barracuda 7200.10.
This new density rush is possible thanks to perpendicular recording. Such a hard drive will contain 200,000 times the storage capacity of the first hard drive released 50 years ago. On September 13, 1956, the first RAMAC was introduced in the IBM System 305. The storage capacity of this drive was 5 MB and it included 50 platters of 24"!
The GB step was reached by Hitachi in 1982 with the H-8598. The storage capacity of this drive was 1.2 GB and it included 10 platters of 14". With a transfer rate of 3MB/s this drive was the fastest on the market. With this announcement one may think that Hitachi GST, which absorbed the hard drive operations of IBM, intends once more to write its name into the HDD History… |
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AMD just released new Opteron processors compatible with DDR2 memory. They all have 2 cores with 1 MB of L2 cache per core but they do not use the same Socket.
The 1xxx range uses the Athlon 64 AM2 socket and the 2xxx (bi processor) and 8xxxx (quadri / octo processors) the Socket F. Just like Intel's Socket 775, the Socket F has contacts instead of pins. It is interesting to note that all processors feature AMD's Virtualization technology.
 Processor will be clocked from 1.8 to 2.8 GHz depending on the model. The processors with the lowest performance per watts will be the SE and the ones with the highest the HE: - Opteron 1210 : 1.8 GHz, 103 W - Opteron 1212 : 2.0 GHz, 103 W - Opteron 1214 : 2.2 GHz, 103 W - Opteron 1216 : 2.4 GHz, 103 W - Opteron 1218 : 2.6 GHz, 103 W - Opteron 1220SE : 2.8 GHz, 125 W - Opteron 8212/2212 : 2.0 GHz, 95 W - Opteron 8214/2214 : 2.2 GHz, 95 W - Opteron 8216/2216 : 2.4 GHz, 95 W - Opteron 8218/2218 : 2.6 GHz, 95 W - Opteron 8220SE/2220SE : 2.8 GHz, 120 W - Opteron 8212HE/2212HE : 2.0 GHz, 68 W - Opteron 8214HE/2214HE : 2.2 GHz, 68 W - Opteron 8216HE/2216HE : 2.4 GHz, 68 W - Opteron 8218HE/2218HE : 2.6 GHz, 68 W |
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