K8 Mobos To Benefit From Cheap Athlon 64 2800+

AMD Athlon™ 64 ProcessorsPrice3400+$ 4173200+$ 2783000+$ 2182800+$ 178

AMD kept up the pressure on Intel by adding the Athlon 64 2800+processor to its 64-bit lineup on March 30. The new chip, available at US$ 178 inquantities of 1,000 units, will help boost demand for K8 motherboards built tosupport AMD’s Athlon 64 processors. Shipments of K8 motherboards now account forless than 5% of all AMD-based boards. The launch of the Athlon 64 2800+ chipwill also help AMD penetrate the mainstream market below US$ 200.

Intel Shipped Out High Performance SSD Drives

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Oct. 15, 2008 - Intel Corporation has begun shipping its highest- performing solid-state drive (SSD), the Intel® X-25E Extreme SATA Solid-State Drive, aimed at server, workstation and storage systems. Unlike mechanical drives, the SSDs contain no moving parts and instead feature 50nm single-level cell (SLC) NAND flash memory technology. Systems equipped with these drives will not suffer from the performance bottlenecks associated with conventional drives. By reducing the total infrastructure, cooling and energy costs, SSDs can lower total cost of ownership for enterprise applications by more than five times.

"Hard disk drive performance has not kept pace with Moore's Law," said Kirk Skaugen, general manager, Intel Server Platforms group. "Intel's high-performance SSDs unleash the full performance of the latest Intel Xeon processor-based systems while increasing reliability and lowering the total cost of ownership for a broad range of server and storage workloads."

The Intel X25-E increases server, workstation and storage system performance by 100 times* over hard disk drives as measured in Input/Output Per Second (IOPS), today's key storage performance metric. A storage model which includes SSDs can also lower energy costs by up to five times, an added benefit for businesses focused on electricity savings. "Solid-state drive technology will change the economics of enterprise data centers," said John Fowler, executive vice president, Systems Group, Sun Microsystems. "SSDs, along with our systems and Solaris ZFS with hybrid storage pools, are important components of the Open Storage initiative. Sun expects to offer enterprise storage solutions that will exploit the breakthrough performance of Intel's High Performance Solid-State Drives and deliver significant performance gains while consuming a fraction of the energy of traditional spinning disk arrays."

The product was designed for intense computing workloads which benefit primarily from high random read and write performance, as measured in IOPS. Key technical performance specifications of the 32 GB Intel X-25E SATA SSD include 35,000 IOPS (4KB Random Read), 3,300 IOPS (4KB Random Write) and 75 microsecond read latency. This performance, combined with low active power of 2.4 watts, delivers up to 14,000 IOPS per watt for optimal performance/power output. The product also achieves up to 250 megabytes per second (MB/s) sequential read speeds and up to 170 MB/s sequential write speeds, all in a compact 2.5-inch form factor.

Intel achieves this breakthrough performance through innovations such as 10-channel NAND architecture with Native Command Queuing, proprietary controller and firmware efficient in advanced wear-leveling and low write amplification. The 32GB X25-E is capable of writing up to 4 petabytes (PB) of data over three-year period (3.7 TB/day), and double that for the 64GB version - delivering outstanding data reliability.

The 32GB capacity drive is in production and priced at $695 for quantities up to 1,000. The 64GB version is expected to sample in the fourth quarter with production estimated for the first quarter of 2009. For more information go to www.intel.com/go/ssd.

JCI offering visitor SIM cards for tourists in Japan

JCI is seeking to ease the pain of foreign tourists stranded with no means of communication, by offering a new rental SIM card available from airports across Japan.

1GB! Cool, now I can download the latest episode of Dexter...

Dubbed the “VISITOR SIM”, the cards will be available from the airport post office. Users who sign up for the service will be able to pick up a VISITOR SIM from any airport post office for a postal fee of 210 yen. It gives travelers the advantage of having instant access to their cell the second they step off the plane.

At present, participating airports are: Chitose, Narita, Haneda, Chuubu(Central Japan International Airport), Kansai, Hiroshima, Fukuoka, Kagoshima, and Naha (Okinawa).

Cmon, get in there..GET IN THERE! Grrr!!

Compatibility with various phones has yet to be announced, so if you’re planning on travelling to the far east and can’t bear to go ten minutes without your cell phone, make sure your phone is of the unlocked variants.

One more thing: If you take your iPad, I don’t think they will be happy about you cutting the SIM card in half.

Press release: http://www.j-com.co.jp/news/release/1228.html

Intel Native 2MB L2 Conroe Merom In Feb '07

The existing E6300 and E6400 has 4MB L2 onboard but half of its cache disabled so costs are naturally higher since the transistors are there. Intel will therefore release native 2MB L2 Conroe and Merom (Santa Rosa Platform - 800FSB/Socket P) in Feb 2007 which sport smaller die size (~30% smaller) as well as fewer capacitors on the package. It will lower their production cost to compete against AMD upcoming 65nm native 1MB L2 and 512KB L2 processors. The native 2MB L2 Conroe includes Core 2 Duo E6300 (1.86GHz), E6400 (2.13GHz), Xeon 3040 (1.86GHz) and Xeon 3050 (2.13GHz). The stepping will change from B2 to L2 and has new SSPEC and MM, and CPUID will change from 6F6 to 6F2. A BIOS update is needed to recognize the CPUs properly.

Kingmax quot;Super Speed quot; SD Cards

Capturing the "picture-perfect" moment usually lies in a splitsecond, but many Secure Digital Cards (SD Cards) on the market today oftencannot help you capture these moments because of slow read-write speeds. Notonly is it difficult to realize the full potential of an SD card, you may missthe opportunity to record some of your finest memories. Kingmax "Super Speed" SDCards will help you overcome these obstacles and will absolutely be the mostreliable and top quality solution for all types of consumer applications.

Digital cameras are rapidly following the path of mobilephones, where "everybody has one". In addition to the standard functions of acamera, digital cameras now support the DV format and are now entering themainstream. Mobile phones, PDAs and other mobile devices are also adapting tothe internal functions of digital cameras. High resolution digital cameraproducts are gaining in popularity, and consumers are now more discriminatingabout SD cards when it comes to read-write speeds and capacity. In order tosatisfy demands for a high level of quality in SD cards by users around theworld, Kingmax Digital Inc. has combined the semiconductor craftsmanship of itsTinyBGA memory module packaging technology with its exclusively developed UniqueProprietary PIP™(Product In Package) Patented Package Technology, in addition toutilizing its specialized stacking technology. In 2003, Kingmax introduced itsunique line of "Super Speed" SD Cards (fastest transmission speed of 10MB/sec),all of which are waterproof and resistant to high temperatures and high pressureand whose release has brought enthusiasm and discussion worldwide.

Kingmax SD Card features:

Compliant with the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI)portable device requirements
Fast data transfer rate up to 10MB/sec
Full Plug-N-Play compatible
Form factor: 32mm x 24mm x 1.4mm
Card capacity up to 512MB
Low power consumption to maximize battery life in small portable devices
5-Year Warranty

Kingmax provides global consumers with the highest quality choices, with acomplete line of high speed SD memory digital storage card products in thefollowing capacities: 32MB, 64MB, 128MB, 256MB, and 512MB.

Intel updates WiDi drivers, adds 1080p support, HDCP protection

If youve got a recent Intel powered notebook with an Intel network card in it, theres a big chance that you have WiDi support in your notebook without even knowing about it. That said, youd need a little box that hooks up to your TV to take advantage of video streaming over Wi-Fi, but so far HDCP protected content hasnt been possible to stream. Well, that was until today when Intel launched new drivers which solved that problem.

As a technology, WiDi is pretty cool as it uses standard Wi-Fi technology to stream video up to 1080p resolution; depending on the box on the receiving end as first generation WiDi boxes are limited to 720p. The new drivers do not only add support for HDCP 2.0 content from DVD and Blu-ray discs, but also from copy protected online content. Guess what? That ties in nicely with Intels Intel Insider video streaming service which allows you to download and stream HD video over the internet, well, at least as long as you live in the right country.

The new drivers also add better support for Intels new HD graphics 3000 series and H.264 hardware encoding. Its worth noting that you need a CPU with Intel HD graphics 3000 to be able to stream certain content which Intel simply refers to as “premium content” which we presume is anything with HDCP encryption. For the full details of what hardware and software you need to make all this work, hit the link below.

Source: Intel

Intel updates LGA1366 Core i7 900 pricing

To accommodate the Core i7 990X, the 980X must drop in price. However, this price drop hasnt really shown in e-tail, yet, but the price is expected to stabilize at around $900-$950. It is the Core i7 970 which undergoes a massive cut from $880 to $583, making Intel six-core CPUs that much more affordable. (relatively)

The 3.2 GHz Core i7 960, which is a quad-core CPU, drops from $583 to a much more affordable $294. Of course, it is no match for the similarly priced Core i7 2600, except you cant really get a motherboard to use it with.

The 990X and these price updates are likely to be the last hurrah for the extremely successful Nehalem generation, with the Sandy Bridge E processors incoming, replacing the LGA1366 platform with LGA2011.

Source: Intel

Below is the bulk pricing not retail price, just to serve as a reference.

Processors ModelSpecsOld PriceNew Price% ChangeCore i7-990X Extreme Edition3.46GHz, 6C/12T, 12M Cache, LGA1366-$990-Core i7-980X Extreme Edition3.33GHz, 6C/12T, 12M Cache, LGA1366$990$990-Core i7-9753.33GHz, 4C/8T, 8M Cache, LGA1366$990$990-Core i7-9703.2GHz, 6C/12T, 12M Cache, LGA1366$845$555(34%)Core i7-2600K3.4GHz, 4C/8T, 8M Cache, LGA1155$305$305-Core i7-26003.4GHz, 4C/8T, 8M Cache, LGA1155$285$285-Core i7-9603.2GHz, 4C/8T, 8M Cache, LGA1366$555$285(49%)Core i7-9503.06GHz, 4C/8T, 8M Cache, LGA1366$285$285-Core i7-9302.80GHz, 4C/8T, 8M Cache, LGA1366$285$285-

Microsoft Delays Office 2007

Microsoft announced today that along with Windows Vista, the next version of Office -- Office 2007 -- will also be delayed. Originally slated for release during the holiday season of this year, both Office and Vista are being pushed back to early 2007. According to Microsoft, Office was pushed back to co-launch with Windows Vista. The date currently set for release is sometime in January but no official day has been set.

Office 2007 is herald to be a true next-generation of the Office suite. Previously, releases of Office have only come with minor upgrades and in most cases many customers have complained that the price of every new version of Office does not warrant what's delivered. Office 2007 however, is expected to bring an entirely new working environment. New user interface, new file formats and new a core design -- Office 2007 will be integrating with Vista as well as support Microsoft's suite of Live products.

Those who were hoping to hop onto an entire new platform of Microsoft software will have to wait just a bit longer.

Kingston releases HyperX 3K SF-2281 powered Solid State Drive

Kingston has just launched a new SSD to market under its HyperX family dubbed the HyperX 3K. Aimed at enthusiasts and gamers on a budget, the HyperX 3K is an MLC based drive using a second-gen SandForce SF-2281 controller together with a SATA 6Gb/s interface to produce impressive sequential read and write performance of up to 555MB/s and 510MB/s respectively.

The drives maximum random read and write IOPS sits at 85K read and 74K write. Other features of the HyperX 3K include SandForces DuraClass technology which promises improved endurance and lifespan, support for SMART, TRIM and Garbage Collection and a classy black aluminum outer casing.

Kingston is shipping the HyperX 3K in capacities of 90GB, 120GB, 240GB and 480GB with e-tail pricing ranging from US $139.99 to US $709.99. It will be offered as a standalone drive or as part of an upgrade kit (working out to about US $10 more than the standalone option).