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AMD today released a new processor in the Geode range, the LX 800@0.9W, an evolution of the processors of the GX range. The GX range was based on the National Semiconductor works on the Geode themselves based on the Cyrix MediaGX.
 Compared to the Geode 533 @ 1.1 W, the frequency is increased from 400 to 500 MHz and the LX includes a DDR-SDRAM memory controller instead of an SDR-SDRAM for the GX. The cache L1 is increased from 32 to 128 KB and the cache L2 from 0 to 128 KB. Each of them includes a graphic solution. The maximum chip power consumption is 2.4 Watts, the “typical” is 1.6 Watts. The 0.9 Watts corresponds in fact to the x86 CPU power consumption measured under Winbench 99 Business Graphics, the overall is then of 1.957 Watts. The Geode LX 800@0.9W will be available for $45 with a companion chip the CS5535 in charge of functions usually supported by the Southbridge. |
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Last December 2004, Gigabyte was the first to release a graphic card with two GeForce 6600 GT. ASUSTeK recently responded with the announcement of a bi-GeForce 6800 GT. It seems today that Gigabyte has decided not to give up this race and announced the release soon of the GV-3D1-68GT.
 Including two GeForce 6800 GT, each one with 256 MB of memory and SLI compatible, this graphic card will also feature 2 DVI-E and 2 D-Sub outputs for those who want to use several displays (the 3D1 was restricted to two outputs). Gigabyte announces performances of 9500 point with 3DMark05. This result corresponds to two GeForce 6800 GT graphic cards in SLI. The GV-3D1-68GT should be available end July /early August. Gigabyte hasn’t communicated any price yet, but it could be 10 to 15% lower than two graphic cards. Now we will have to wait and see if it will be sold in bundle with a Gigabyte motherboard and which motherboards will be compatible. |
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 M-Systems today announced a new “hard drive” range based on flash memory Ultra320 SCSI. The capacity of these 3.5” drives has reached a new record: 176 GB. The sustained transfer rate is of 40 MB/s for writing and reading, but the most important figure is access time announced under 20 microseconds. This is 250 times better than a standard high end SCSI hard drive.
Specifically dedicated to military applications, these hard drives other specificity is that they can function with temperatures from -40°C to +85°C and for the most advanced version with 16.3G vibrations on average. The most important downside of flash memory is in fact the number of read/write cycles of 5 millions.
Do you dream of a hard drive with such an access time? Well you should know then its price. Last February, the price of the IDE version with 45 MB /s reading, 40 MB /s writing transfer rate and 0.04 ms access time was $2450 in 8GB and $4300 in 16 GB version.
What about the release of this type of hard drives for our computers? Samsung, the first flash memory chips manufacturer has announced the release of their first hard drives based on chips. The range includes 2.5” hard drives with 16 512 MB or 1 GB chips for a capacity of 8 and 16 GB respectively. 4 an 8 GB 1.8” hard drives have also been announced. Samsung hasn’t communicated any access time yet, but the transfer rate would be 57 MB /s reading and 32 MB /s writing. According to Samsung their power consumption is 95% lower than a standard hard drive and could increase by 10% the autonomy of an ultra portable laptop.
Samsung is planning to release 1.8” hard drives in August for ultra portables and tablets PC. Prices should be much lower than previous flash memory hard drives…now we will have to keep an eye on their capacity! |
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HKEPC has tested the Albatron ATOP, the AGP to PCI-Express (see this news) based on NVIDIA HIS chip. About compatibility first, Albatron specified that the adaptor works with all AGP 8x graphic cards (except for height restraints) based on the following GPU:
- GeForce MX 4000
- GeForce FX 5200
- GeForce FX 5700/LE
- GeForce 6800
- GeForce 6200A
 This list corresponds to the last native AGP NVIDIA chips. HKEPC has also tested for fun the compatibility with ATI S3 and XGI graphic cards. It didn’t work except for the XGI in 2D and 16 bits only. For NVIDIA, a GeForce 2 MX doesn’t even boot. The FX 5200, 5700LE, 6600GT and 6800GT works in 2D but are recognised as GeForce 6200. It is impossible to process completely 3DMark but this is probably due to this recognition problem. For performances, the standard GeForce 6200 64 bits is approximately 7% faster than a GeForce 6200A coupled to an ATOP. How great is that! |
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 Meetings which took place during the last few days to find a common ground between Blu-ray and HD-DVD supporters, seems to continue through Medias.
The President of Matsushita said in public that they, and their partner Sony, wouldn’t change their position for certain points and that they were waiting for Toshiba’s answer. The most discussed point would be apparently the protection layer size before data, 0.1mm for the Blu-ray and 0.6mm for HD-DVD (like current DVD). Each side holds its ground.
Because of this very thin protection layer, Blu-ray discs necessarily need a protection layer like DVD-RAM. It is only when TDK joined the Blu-ray association last March 2004 with the Super Hard Coat technology that Blu-ray discs have been seriously considered. This technology allows a very thin but sufficient protection layer.
Two successors to the DVD instead of one because of 0.5 millimetres? That would be really unfortunate… |
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 Toshiba should release an MP3 player including one of its own hard drives using the perpendicular recording technology. This 1.8" hard drive, less than 5 mm thick, will feature a 40 GB platter with a 16.6 GB / inch² density. The 80 GB two platters version will be out next quarter.
The PMR technology should exceed from its release the LMR (Longitudinal Magnetic Recording) limits of 12.5 GB/ inch². Hitachi already announced that the density reached in March 2007 would be 28.75 GB / inch² in PMR. The technology limits are apparently around... 125 GB / inch²! |
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