The Atom goes ATX and with PCI-E x16 nForce 770i: DDR3-1333 & 2-way SLI AMD leaves the domain of digital TV

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The Atom goes ATX and with PCI-E x16   Posted on 26/08/2008 at 16:24 by Nicolas - source: Expreview

	While AMD and Ibase are striving to reduce the size of motherboards which integrate the Sempron 2x0U, the motherboard manufacturer Galaxy is working on a model in ATX format with…an Atom N230 processor (1.6 GHz/1 core) combined with the more ancient 945GC/ICH7 duo. Note that the motherboard has a physical PCI-E x16 port (we do not yet know how many lanes are connected) and five classic PCI ports. Up until now, Intel tolerated at best a single PCI port while some such as Foxconn and ECS "risked" sometimes offering a PCI-E x1 port. Its price should be roughly $100 (tax not included) while it will be reserved for the OEM market. Otherwise, its interest is yet to be seen and there is the fear that it may be found in ersatz desktops...

nForce 770i: DDR3-1333 & 2-way SLI   Posted on 26/08/2008 at 15:58 by Nicolas

	Nvidia recently reaffirmed its desire to remain in the chipset market despite the more than lukewarm success of the nForce 790i. This is now confirmed by a slide put online by Expreview. We learn that the Californian company will launch an nForce 770i at the end of the year which will actually be a “castrated” 790i or rather limited to DDR3-1333 and 2-way SLI support. Other sources indicate that its overclocking potential will also be reduced. However, this is nothing dramatic as it wasn’t the strong point of its bigger sibling. Sold for an attractive price, it may allow Nvidia to glean a few market shares if it proves to be sufficiently robust and if SLI gains in interest compared to Crossfire. The latter is open to Intel chipsets and has benefited from the arrival of the Radeon HD 4800.

AMD leaves the domain of digital TV   Posted on 26/08/2008 at 12:09 by Nicolas

	AMD has announced the sale of its digital TV (DTV) section to Broadcom, a partner of long date specialized in chipsets and network equipment. The transaction for an amount of $192.8 million notably concerns Xilleon and Theater 300 DTV chips and therefore products developed by ATI. In terms of employees, some 530 people work in six "design centers" throughout the world and they are welcome to join Broadcom. This announcement isn’t really a big surprise because AMD had recently paid out a depreciation cost of $876 million after its abandonment of DTV activities. AMD’s directors are now proving to be quite realistic and since the company no longer has the means to carry out its ambitions on this market it has been necessary to abandon them. Now we will just have to wait and see what Broadcom plan on doing with this section...