December 19th, 2011 Published by: VR-Zone
extract more performance out of it, Microsoft now has a kernel
patch for for its client and server OS.
Ever wondered why some benchmark results on Bulldozer and
its server version, Interlagos, look not just too low but outright
weird? Part of the explanation was that the fancy modular
architecture, where two integer and one FP block share one L2
cache and instruction scheduler, wasn't really supported that
well by the current operating systems. Add to it the Pentium 4-
style long pipeline and high latencies, and you got a problem.
Google first unveiled its self-driving car in Oct 2010 and
the company has applied for a patent on a "landing strip"
technology which allow the cars to go into auto mode as well as
to find parking spots. The patent has been approved by the U.S.
Patent and Trademark Office on 13 December. According to Microsoft now has a kernel update solution that solves
sources, the "landing strip" is more than an embedded sensor one part of the problem, at least - if you go to http://
in the ground, be it radio, QR code, or some other means of support.microsoft.com/kb/2592546/ knowledge base page,
transferring information to the car. The key is the information you'll notice that there is a patch for Windows 7 and for
and how the car uses it. Although Google's self-driving cars use Windows Server 2008 R2.
GPS technology to orient themselves, but in certain situations
a GPS signal may not be obtainable. The patent also suggests
that user could give a set of instruction to the vehicle that This patch updates the thread management logic in the OS
commands it to drive itself to specific location. at the kernel level for the Bulldozer, and - interestingly
- proclaims it as a multithreading feature. With this
update, Windows sees each BD dual core block as A
SINGLE MULTITHREADED CORE, contrary to AMD's
official positioning. Therefore, BD is seen as a 4-core, 8-
thread chip, rather than a fully 8-core processors. This update,
nevertheless, brings a definite single-digit % performance
jump in lightly threaded applications, but it is still good
though as it helps the CPU fight higher speed grades of
Intel processors in benchmarks. So, naming or no naming
confusion, go ahead and have it, if you're one of the early
Bulldozer users.
Microsoft comes to AMD
Bulldozer rescue: Windows
Update speeds up things
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/microsoft-comes-to-amd-bulldozer-
rescue-windows-update-speeds-up-things/14256.html
December 19th, 2011
AMD Bulldozer is, to say so, unusual in its modular dual-core
block architecture compared to the current X86 processors. To
21
December 22nd, 2011 Published by: VR-Zone
VR-Zone.com | Stuff for the Geeks!
The question is how much life MHL has now since the USB-
VR-Zone | Stuff for the Geeks is a bi-weekly publication IF announced the audio/video devices class, as this allows
covering the latest gadgets and stuff for the geeks. you to do everything that MHL does, but presumably without
the need of extra chips on the mobile device side. That said,
MHL is already a somewhat established standard, but as we
Silicon Image team up know, it's never clear cut which standard will end up being
with Onkyo to deliver MHL the dominant one and it's not always the best one that's the
winner.
equipped A/V receiver
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/silicon-image-team-up-with-onkyo-to-
deliver-mhl-equipped-av-receiver/14331.html
Intel said to be dropping
December 22nd, 2011 Sandy Bridge CPU prices
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/intel-said-to-be-dropping-sandy-
bridge-cpu-prices/14330.html
December 22nd, 2011
New connectors and interfaces always cause problems when
it comes to hardware compatibility and the Mobile High-
definition Link or MHL is one of those interfaces that is far
from widely adopted on anything but smartphones to date.
That seems to be set to change, as Silicon Image, one of the With Intel's upcoming Ivy Bridge processors expected to
driving forces behind the MHL standard has teamed up with launch in April of next year, it appears that Intel is already
Onkyo to deliver A/V receivers with MHL support. concerned about having too much stock of its current Sandy
Bridge processors and is as such planning on reducing the
price on at least is mobile Core i3 and Core i5 processors. What
New connectors and interfaces always cause problems when isn't clear is if Intel is planning on doing the same for the
it comes to hardware compatibility and the Mobile High- desktop parts or not.
definition Link or MHL is one of those interfaces that is far
from widely adopted on anything but smartphones to date.
That seems to be set to change, as Silicon Image, one of the With Intel's upcoming Ivy Bridge processors expected to
driving forces behind the MHL standard has teamed up with launch in April of next year, it appears that Intel is already
Onkyo to deliver A/V receivers with MHL support. concerned about having too much stock of its current Sandy
Bridge processors and is as such planning on reducing the
In practical terms the MHL interface is a combination of price on at least is mobile Core i3 and Core i5 processors. What
HDMI and USB 2.0 and the advantage it has over a pure HDMI isn't clear is if Intel is planning on doing the same for the
interface is that the device you connect up a smartphone desktop parts or not.
equipped with MHL to can power your smartphone. So far
it's mainly HTC, LG and Samsung that has adopted the MHL Digitimes is reporting that Intel has apparently told its
interface while Samsung and Toshiba have a handful of TV notebook partners that the company is about to drop the
models that supports it. The downside is of course that you processor pricing by some 10 to 15 percent depending on
need a dongle to connect your phone to an HDMI port, but it model, although for some reason the high-end Core i7's are
looks like this might just start to become less of an issue. apparently not part of this discount deal.
Onkyo didn't reveal a lot of details in the press release about its As to how much of an impact this will have on the final
new receivers as the company is planning on unveiling them product is a different matter, as many notebook makers are
at CES in a few weeks' time. What we do know though is already offering very cheap notebooks with Core i3 and Core
that Onkyo is using Silicon Image's latest MHL chipset with i5 processors and although we're expecting that some of this
supports something called InstaPrevue. This is a picture-in- discount will be passed on to consumers, we don't think we'll
picture solution for HDMI and MHL which allows a small see an equal reduction in price of the final product.
preview window of other attached devices to be overlaid over Even so, it might be worth hanging on for Ivy Bridge if you're
whatever is being displayed on the TV, must as you can do not in a rush to get a new notebook, as the new processors do
channel previewing on some TV sets. offer some advantage over Sandy Bridge, although most are
not CPU performance related. As we've seen in the many leaks
1
December 22nd, 2011 Published by: VR-Zone
to date, the overall platform as a whole is better than Sandy consumer boom in the cloud led by Apple, high consumer
Bridge and the cost isn't expected to be any higher than what demand for natural user interfaces, and potential micro-
a Sandy Bridge equivalent product costs today. segmentation of the industry that will lead the way to more
individualised marketing strategies.
AMD marketing chief steps
down, offers predictions for ASUS sued over "Transformer
2012 Prime" trademark
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/amd-marketing-chief-steps-down- infringement
offers-predictions-for-2012/14329.html Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/asus-sued-over-transformer-prime-
December 22nd, 2011 trademark-infringement/14325.html
December 22nd, 2011
AMD's Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Vice President
Nigel Dessau is leaving the chipmaker to work on a book, but
he has made some interesting predictions for the year ahead.
AMD's Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Vice President ASUS is now in trouble for using the name "Transformer" and
Nigel Dessau is leaving the chipmaker to work on a book, but "Transformer Prime". Toy maker Hasbro has filed a lawsuit
he has made some interesting predictions for the year ahead. against the Taiwanese company over the trademark on the
name that are more known for the toys, cartoons and movies.
Dessau said that he is excited about the prospects for AMD,
and with the upcoming Radeon HD 7970 and its all-star
reviews we are just as excited. However, he said that he had
reached a crossroads and decided to pursue the next phase of
his career outside of the company.
This next step will focus on a book based on his website, the
3 Minute Mentor, where he delivers career advice in three
minute podcasts.
The new ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime Android tablet
was showcased at the AsiaD: All Things Digital event in
Hong Kong, and has garnered great popularity from the name
it bears, but this has apparently also brought along some
troubles. Toy manufacturer Hasbro has sued ASUS for the
use of the name which they had trademarked, and stated that
they will defend their brand. While the two companies and
their products may be targeting different market, Hasbro does
have a series of video games and accessories for PC and Xbox
360 game console which are under the name “Transformer”,
thereby providing the toy company with adequate relevancy
to be concerned that consumers may be misled into thinking
Hasbro had endorsed the ASUS product. As for now, Hasbro is
requesting for an injunction against ASUS, and a 21 day period
for them to respond.
Dessau has worked at AMD for four years, leading the Elpida to begin merger talks
marketing team that has helped keep AMD in a prominent
position within the industry. He will stay on to help in the
with Nanya
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/elpida-to-begin-merger-talks-with-
transition to a new head of marketing.
nanya/14328.html
Before he departs from the company he made a number
of predictions about what will happen in 2012, including a
2
December 22nd, 2011 Published by: VR-Zone
December 22nd, 2011 December 22nd, 2011
Elpida Memory is to begin talks in January with rival
DRAM maker Nanya Technology on a possible merger as Sony has developed a battery prototype that generates
the companies struggle to cope with falling prices and tough electricity from shredded paper, an achievement that could
competition. lead to more environmentally-friendly electronic products.
Elpida Memory is to begin talks in January with rival Sony has developed a battery prototype that generates
DRAM maker Nanya Technology on a possible merger as electricity from shredded paper, an achievement that could
the companies struggle to cope with falling prices and tough lead to more environmentally-friendly electronic products.
competition.
Sony unveiled the technology at the Eco-Products exhibition in
The Japanese and Taiwanese chipmakers have been losing Tokyo, where a fan was powered by scrap paper and cardboard
substantial market share to larger rivals like Samsung, which dropped into a mixture of water and enzymes, which was then
now rules 45 percent of the market, making it difficult for the shaken.
smaller companies to survive, particularly with DDR3 DRAM
prices dropping from $1.50 in July to just $0.90 in October.
The bio-batteries turn waste paper into sugar by using the
enzyme cellulase, and when the resulting glucose sugar is
A report in the Nikkei Business Daily suggested that the two combined with oxygen and other enzymes it turns it into
companies would begin merger talks next month in a bid to electrons and hydrogen ions, which are used to generate
restore profitability and curb their shrinking market share. electricity.
Elpida denied it had made any formal announcement in this
regard, however, and said it was considering multiple options,
including refinancing debt and requiring advance payment for
product orders.
"Using a 'fuel' as simple as old greetings cards - the sort of
cards that millions of us will be receiving this Christmas - the
Elpida is in third place in the DRAM market with a 12.1 percent bio battery can deliver enough energy to power a small fan,"
market share, behind Hynix' 21.5 percent, while Nanya is in said Yuichi Tokita, senior researcher at the Sony Advanced
fifth place with just 3.6 percent. Elpida saw a revenue decline Material Research Lab. "Of course, this is still at the very
of 29.8 percent in the third quarter, while Nanya experienced early stages of its development, but when you imagine the
an even larger revenue drop of 36.7 percent. possibilities that this technology could deliver, it becomes very
exciting indeed."
However, the possibility of a merger could be held up by
legal battles between the two companies over the alleged The technology could give people another incentive to recycle
infringement of patents, not to mention a partnership between paper, cut down electricity costs, and help move the industry
Nanya and Micron, another rival to Elpida. towards renewable and sustainable power, but it will likely be
years before a powerful enough bio-battery is developed for
use with, for example, mobile phones. However, the potential
to recharge your smartphone with a bit of newspaper while on
Sony develops paper-powered the go is an interesting and useful possibility.
battery prototype
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/sony-develops-paper-powered-battery-
prototype/14327.html
3
December 22nd, 2011 Published by: VR-Zone
Scientists make self-repairing Intel Shows Its Atom-based
chip breakthrough Android Smartphone and
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/scientists-make-self-repairing-chip-
breakthrough/14326.html
Tablet Prototypes
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/intel-shows-its-atom-based-android-
December 22nd, 2011
smartphone-and-tablet-prototypes/14321.html
December 22nd, 2011
Researchers are close to developing self-repairing electronic
chips, which could revolutionise the technology industry and
even lead to safer space travel. Faced with continuous decline of its Atom series of processors,
Researchers are close to developing self-repairing electronic the semiconductor giant from Santa Clara is showcasing
chips, which could revolutionise the technology industry and concept smartphone and tablet designs for 2012.
even lead to safer space travel. By all standards, Intel had a dream year - the company
achieved record revenue and record profits. However, there
was one dark spot on otherwise, a spotless record: Atom line
Scientists and engineers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-
of products.
Champaign succeeded in creating a circuit that, when cracked,
heals itself by releasing a conductivity-restoring liquid metal,
which brings the circuit back online in less than a second.
The technology works by housing the healing liquid within the
chip, and if the chip is damaged it should also damage the
liquid container, releasing the liquid so that it can fill in any
gaps and restore the flow of electricity.
Intel Atom was introduced in 2008 as a byproduct of Intel
receiving back the P55C core from US Army. The second
byproduct of that heavily modified and optimized core was
Larrabee graphics core, which got canceled and is now known
as a HPC-accelerator Knights Bridge / Knights Corner. Intel
Atom enjoyed a lot of success in 2008-2010, with a lot of
Tests using gold and glass circuits with microcapsules analysts writing stories about the rise of netbooks and how
containing the metallic liquid eutectic gallium-indium showed netbooks will mark the end of PC as we know it. Sounds
a drop of voltage to zero when cracked and a return to almost familiar, right?
full voltage within one millisecond. These devices retained Fast forward to third quarter of 2011: Intel posted excellent
their conductivity for months after the damage and repair. sales and profit results, but the company also marked a 32%
decline in sales of Intel Atom platform. Indeed, when we look
at Atom as a whole, the product actually declined by over 60%
The breakthrough could affect every sector of technology, during 2011 alone - as tablets took over the hearts and minds
resulting in super long-lasting products. The scientists also of consumers, sales of netbooks came to a screeching halt.
believe it can help with satellites and space travel, since this is
an area where manually repairing and replacing electronics is Intel's answer to tablets is known for quite some time:
extremely difficult, expensive and time-consuming. Intel's second SoC design codenamed Medfield (first one
being Cedarview, D2x00 Series). Medfield is manufactured in
32nm process node and is consisted out of single Atom core
operating up to 1.9GHz clock, integrated graphics subsystem
(it is not known which one, but current Atoms utilize PowerVR
SGX545), Image Signal Processor, memory controller and
4
December 22nd, 2011 Published by: VR-Zone
chipset features. Do note that SGX545 is more powerful than year, even ahead of its move to killing off the Ericsson part
SGX543MP2 used inside the Apple's A5 Dual-core chip. of its brand name. Details of an upcoming model called the
LT28at have leaked courtesy of the Bluetooth SIG and it looks
like Sony Ericsson is planning to launch at least one seriously
high-end handset next year.
Sony Ericsson has had its fair share of troubles this past year,
but it looks like the company is about to rebound come next
year, even ahead of its move to killing off the Ericsson part
of its brand name. Details of an upcoming model called the
LT28at have leaked courtesy of the Bluetooth SIG and it looks
On IDF Fall 2011, Intel showed its prototypes of smartphone like Sony Ericsson is planning to launch at least one seriously
and tablet designs, but the Android operating system was not high-end handset next year.
ready for the limelight. Few months after, Android 2.x and 3.x
long gone and the company is optimizing for Android 4.x Ice The expected spec of what will be an as yet un-named
Cream Sandwich operating system. Xperia handset targeted for AT&T in the US includes a 4.55-
inch Reality display with 1280x720 pixel resolution, LTE, a
You can expect the first smartphone and tablet designs coming 13Megapixel backside illuminated camera sensor and a 720p
in the first half of 2012. Second half of 2012 will see the front facing camera for video calls. Other features include
appearance of Windows 8 tablets, where Intel will argue 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, although only 2.1 + EDR
compatibility with full set of applications on Windows 8. Bear and strangely enough support for the Chinese TD-SCDMA
in mind that ARM-based tablets won't be able to run software standard.
compiled for the X86 instruction set.
According to the Xperiablog we can expect to see a 1.5GHz
dual core processor of unknown origin. The Xperiablog also
managed to track down a few photos snapped in what appears
to be San Francisco by the LT28at and although they’re not at
full resolution, they’ll give you a good idea of the kind of quality
you can expect from the 13Megapixel BSI camera. Hopefully
there will be a non US version of the LT28at and there’s really
no reason as to why Sony Ericsson wouldn’t have a version
with similar spec without LTE. The Xperiablog is expecting the
Still, Medfield is just the introductionary part and we're LT28at to be unveiled at CES, so we’ll just have to wait and see
not surprised ARM vendors are sound asleep at the market what will happen in a few weeks’ time.
acceptance. Real headache for every member of ARM
In related news, Sony Ericsson has announced that it’ll be
ecosystem is coming on CES 2013, the 22nm Silvermont -
rolling out its Android 4.0 updates for this year’s Xperia
completely new Atom architecture, which will go hand in hand
handsets from late March next year with some models getting
with the next-generation 22nm Haswell architecture for high-
the updates a bit later in April or May. Full details can be found
performance computers.
on the Sony Ericsson product blog.
The Bluetooth SIG leaks Sony Canon Singapore announces
Ericsson LT28at details CanonSGLens, free iOS app for
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/the-bluetooth-sig-leaks-sony-ericsson-
lt28at-details/14324.html digital SLR photographers
December 22nd, 2011 Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/canon-singapore-announces-
canonsglens-free-ios-app-for-digital-slr-photographers/14323.html
December 22nd, 2011
Sony Ericsson has had its fair share of troubles this past year,
but it looks like the company is about to rebound come next
5
December 22nd, 2011 Published by: VR-Zone
With this iOS app, Canon photographers can now access - Depth of Field calculator
all the information including specifications on digital SLR
lens, learn about the physics behind capturing an picture - In-depth topic with interactive simulators explaining how
etc. The CanonSGLens app is free to download and is available aperture and shutter speed affect exposure, depth of field, and
on the Apple iTunes App store. motion blur in the various exposure modes
CanonSGLens is available on the Apple iTunes
App store - http://itunes.apple.com/sg/app/canonsglens/
id490527073?ls=1&mt=8
Nikon Singapore launches two
new Facebook applications
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/nikon-singapore-launches-two-new-
facebook-applications/14322.html
December 22nd, 2011
Canon Singapore has unveiled CanonSGLens, the company's
free iOS app for digital SLR camera users. Available from
today on the Apple iTunes App store, the app features detailed
lens specifications of all Canon digital SLR lenses that are Nikon Singapore has announced the launch of two Facebook
sold in Singapore. The application also contains a unique applications “Where’s the 1?” and "Psych'd by Nikon” contests
interactive simulator that allows users to compare the field whereby users stand to win attractive prizes including Nikon
of view between two camera-lens combinations, using the COOLPIX camera and Nikon 1 J1 with the 1 NIKKOR VR
current list of Canon EOS digital SLR cameras and lenses. The 10-30mm f3.5-5.6 lens.
CanonSGLens is designed to help beginners and professional
photographers. Beginners can learn more about the physics
behind capturing an photo, while professionals can make use
of features like the depth-of-field calculator to help them
achieve optimum focus.
App Features
- Highly visual interactive simulators
- Bookmark your favourite pages
- Add your own notes to any page
- Content optimized for both portrait and landscape
orientations
- No Internet connection required
Featured Content
- Detailed lens specifications of all Canon EF and EF-S lenses “Where’s the 1?” is a contest whereby you only have to answer
sold in Singapore four questions correctly by looking for the hidden Nikon 1
in the picture. If you have spotted all four cameras correctly,
- Compare lens specifications side by side, with differences you stand a chance to win the Nikon 1 J1 and 1 NIKKOR VR
indicated 10-30mm f3.5-5.6 lens. However, note that there is no lifeline
in this game, and you can only play it once a day. There will be a
- Compare high resolution MTF charts new set of questions and cameras for you to search every week,
and you can play up to once a day to increase your chances
- Compare high resolution lens construction diagrams to win the Nikon 1 J1 camera. The contest runs now till 19
January 2012.
- Field of View simulator featuring multiple photos taken
of the same scene in Singapore using different camera-lens "Psych'd by Nikon" was launched in the beginning of
combinations December, and the app is an easy-to-play contest to find out
which Nikon COOLPIX suits you. Just answer a few simple
- Depth of Field simulator questions and you can discover the Nikon COOLPIX camera
that best suits your needs and lifestyle, and find out if it is true
to your personality. One lucky winner with the most referrals
6
December 22nd, 2011 Published by: VR-Zone
via share will stand to walk away with a Nikon COOLPIX
camera.
Does PCIe 3.0 matter for
today's GPUs? We test with
the Radeon HD 7970
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/does-pcie-3.0-matter-for-today-s-gpus-
we-test-with-the-radeon-hd-7970/14306.html
December 22nd, 2011
For months now, certain smaller motherboard manufacturers
have been hyping up PCI Express 3.0 compatibility and
benefits to ignorant users, even going to the point of bashing
one another with libelous advertisements (lol hammer smash
motherboards into bits). Since the latest Intel's Sandy Bridge-
E processors and AMD's Radeon HD 7970 officially supports
the new signalling standard, we put that to the test to see if it
does improve things.
The following is rephrased and quoted from Wikipedia's PCI
Express entry:
The much delayed PCIe 3.0 standard is supposed to
bring signal transfer bitrates to 8GT/s (double that of
PCIe 2.0) and a number of optimizations for enhanced
signaling and data integrity, including transmitter and
receiver equalization, PLL improvements, clock data recovery,
and channel enhancements for currently supported topologies
The BIOS on our favourite ASUS Rampage IV Extreme (X79)
allowed us to select the PCIe signalling standard for our tests
(Editor's note: yes we did use the latest 1004 bios which has
the CPU Microcode and PCIe 3.0 fixes)
PCIe 2.0 Benchmarks:
PCIe 3.0 Benchmarks:
7
December 22nd, 2011 Published by: VR-Zone
Our conclusions? Only a to 6757 for postpaid and
to 6757 for prepaid to access the 32 free channels. Viewers can Talking about legality: No, these are not fakes or illegal copies
refer to www.starhub.com/freepreview for more details. right now. The ARM and MIPS processors made in China
are fully licensed by the relevant ARM and MIPS IP owning
Note: The free preview is not extended to STAR Chinese
consortia, while the Shenwei Alpha-compatible chip is based
Movies 2, STAR Chinese Movies HD, Cricket Group, RediGold,
on Digital (DEC) IP that is well over 15 years old now - quite
Horse Racing Channel, On-Demand Channels and Video-On-
ironic for a CPU that matches the best current X86 processors
Demand titles.
based on 2010 IP and in 2 generations later process.
MIPS - Dragon's Progeny
18
December 22nd, 2011 Published by: VR-Zone
Loongson (Godson) is the name for the Chinese MIPS Be Quiet Straight Power E9
processors, developed by Institute of Computing Technology CM 580W PSU Review
(ICT) at Beijing's Chinese Academy of Sciences, with Prof Hu Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/be-quiet-straight-power-e9-cm-580w-
Weiwu being the design leader. Prof Hu also happens to be a psu-review/14301.html
deputy at National People's Congress, which surely is helpful December 22nd, 2011
in gaining support for the overall project. For the past 9 years,
the effort is run as a joint venture between the government
and private enterprises through a company called BLX, a
partnership between CAS and Jiangsu Zhongyi Group.
There were 3 major generations of these processors up to now,
with the latest one - Loongson 3B - being an 8-core 1.05 GHz Be Quiet is company originating from Germany and for
CPU, with each CPU having a 256-bit vector FP unit as well. the past several years has been creating computer related
Despite the low clock and 65 nm process, the efficient 4-way products for enthusiasts. The company offers a very long list of
out-of-order cores and vector units with dual 256-bit FP ops products, yet their primary focus lies on high quality and silent
per core per cycle, allow Loongson 3B to reach 16 GFLOPs power supply units. It is a power supply unit that we will put to
per core at 1 GHz, some 130 GFLOPs peak FP rate in double the test today, the 580W version of the highly popular Straight
precision at 1.05 GHz clock. For a comparison, the 3.3GHz Power E9 CM series.
Core i7 3960X with AVX would achieve some 160 GFLOPs
peak in DP, while the Westmere (Core i7 990X) and Bulldozer
CPUs would be at not more than two-thirds of this - Core i7 Be Quiet is company originating from Germany and for
990X is at 90 GFLOPs peak, and AMD FX8150 at some 110 the past several years has been creating computer related
GFLOPs peak, all in DP. And, oh yes, the Loongson 3B achieves products for enthusiasts. The company offers a very long list of
this performance at just 40 watts TDP, less than one third of products, yet their primary focus lies on high quality and silent
the above competing CPUs. power supply units. It is a power supply unit that we will put to
the test today, the 580W version of the highly popular Straight
Something even more interesting is that Loongson 3B has Power E9 CM series.
over 200 extra instructions in a separate box, which doesn't
affect the main core integrity, that speed up execution of X86
Manufacturer features and specifications
software when using QEMU translator. The benefit of this, at a
5% die area cost, is running lots of X86 software at near native · Extremely quiet operation thanks to SilentWings
speeds - an approach that Alpha perfected over a decade ago Technology
with FX!32 software that enabled Alpha Windows NT to run · Extremely efficient and economical operation - 80PLUS
many X86 titles at the time at high speed. Gold certification for top efficiency of up to 93%.
Anyway, since the core is reasonably efficient already, the · ErP ready. Stand-by energy consumption $200 market. It scores roughly 6500 in the
I haven't yet seen the Xeon E5 Socket 2011 dual-QPI processor
3D Mark 11 Physics test which stresses the CPU. This pegs it
pin-out, but it was bugging me a bit whether there's enough pin
just ahead of FX-8150 and Core i5 2500K, while behind Core i7
count left there non-connected - if any, remember power and
2600K thanks to its lack of HyperThreading. However, actual
ground pin counts go into many hundreds these days easily -
games tend to be much less threaded than 3D Mark 11 so the
to fit just one, one more QPI channel in some successor CPU.
Core i5 3550K will continue to be the best value for gaming.
Recent reports point to a release on April 8th 2012.
It actually may not matter, since a Haswell-based midrange
Xeon would probably have yet another new socket, but again,
since Haswell desktop parts will still use DDR3 memory, and
Interconnection dilemma: Haswell server & workstation parts may continue to do the
same rather than move to DDR4 yet, the justification to keep
should Socket 2011 successor the Socket 2011 may still be there.
get one more QPI to spare? Either way, the addition of third QPI channel would
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/interconnection-dilemma-should- accomplish two good things: first, for the midrange quad-
socket-2011-successor-get-one-more-qpi-to-spare-/14385.html socket parts, it would enable full proper direct point-to-
December 30th, 2011 point connectivity between all four processors, ensuring good
interprocessor bandwidth no matter what. Then, for the tightly
coupled dual-socket systems in workstation and HPC use,
where heavy inter-core communication is likely with new
generation finely multithreaded software, an option of all
three QPI channels connecting the two CPUs together may be
put to good use.
The full-blooded Socket 2011 CPUs have two QPI links on
each socket, to connect either doubly to another CPU, or each
Think it's an overkill? Think again - even Ivy Bridge EP Xeon
connect to one neighbouring processor. With so many pins
E5 series chips will have 10 cores, and the Haswell ones
available, is there use for, say, one more QPI channel? Yes!
will obviously have no less than that. A total of 20 cores
As mentioned here before, the dual-QPI Socket 2011 CPUs will wanting to talk to each other a lot, and frequently, will use
have two flavours: the dual-socket Xeon E5 2600 one will use all those channels, especially if you also have a multi-GPU
the two QPI channels in parallel to link the two processors at workstation or HPC node where GPUs attached to either CPU
double bandwidth, while the otherwise identical quad-socket communicate across the QPI between themselves.
E5 4600 series will allow each of the two channels to connect to
a different neighbouring processor, for a total of 4 processors There's actually one more important usage model potential,
in a square layout config. even in those dual-socket systems. This third benefit is obvious
- Intel is likely to have a QPI-based successor to its Knights
You notice here that, with only two QPI channels, there will Corner accelerator processor someday soon, for true coherent
be no direct connections between the processors in opposite shared memory processing between the multi-core CPU and
corners of the quad CPU configuration, so any information many-core accelerator. The accelerator would then be able
between will have to pass through the in-between CPUs, to address all the CPU's system memory directly and at
resulting in both added latency - up to 50 ns extra - as well low latency as if it is another CPU then, assuming it has a
as the risk of congesting the QPI lanes if there is a lot of compatible memory management hardware, of course.
inter-processor traffic. The Xeon E7 series in the Socket 1567,
which in the current 10-core Westmere-EX generation has 4 In this case, the third QPI link would be used for that purpose,
QPI links per chip, doesn't have that problem even in 8-socket so each CPU would have one direct QPI connection to the
configurations. However, it has much higher memory latency accelerator, in the same fashion as Xeon 5500 and 5600 dual-
and somewhat lower memory bandwidth per CPU due to its socket 1366 processors have separate parallel, direct QPI links
use of memory bridge/hub chips between the CPU and DDR3 to the north bridge. At the same time, the other two QPI links
channels to maximise the capacity. On the other hand, the E7 would still link the two CPUs in parallel at high bandwidth.
has - besides much higher price - also more RAS features not
required for workstations or supercomputing, but critical for In the end, such addition wouldn't impair the sales of the
servers. top-end enterprise E7 CPUs, as those have their commercial
market anyway, and, well, they could also have even more QPI
channels in the future if need be... but, for the workstations
4
December 30th, 2011 Published by: VR-Zone
and supercomputing nodes using mostly the E5 series chips helping avoid glare and eye strain associated with traditional
and their successors, it may be beneficial, as we have bseen screens.
here.
Price appears to be a dominant factor in the move to ebooks,
Tablets and e-readers signal with digital versions of a book costing a fraction of their real-
end of real books world price. Normal paperbacks can cost several dollars to
print, even moreso for print on demand titles, which drives up
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/tablets-and-e-readers-signal-end-of-
prices. Tack on warehouse storage costs and delivery charges,
real-books/14384.html
and it is no surprise that both companies and consumers are
December 30th, 2011
beginning to prefer ebook versions, which often cost as little
as $0.99.
Analysts at both Gartner and Creative Strategies believe that
it is only a matter of time before ebooks replace ink-and-
paper books completely, though the shift might only apply to
Tablet computers and e-readers may put an end to real younger generations.
paper-based books, according to a number of studies on the
continuing growth of the ebook market.
While ebooks are certainly set to boom further, and will likely
Tablet computers and e-readers may put an end to real become the dominant form of reading, it is unlikely that
paper-based books, according to a number of studies on the traditional hard copies will die out altogether. In many cases
continuing growth of the ebook market. they will remain a collector's item, while there will also be a
large number of people who prefer the touch and smell of the
genuine article.
The US Book Industry Study Group (BISG) found that close to
half of those who bought both print and digital books would
abandon the hard copies for just the ebook versions, provided
they were released within three months of the physical version.
Google adds SVG and CSS
Juniper Research projected that ebooks would make $3.2
GPU acceleration to Chrome
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/google-adds-svg-and-css-gpu-
billion this year, and that this figure would more than triple to
acceleration-to-chrome/14383.html
$9.7 billion by 2016.
December 30th, 2011
Much of the success of the ebook market can be attributed to
the tablet and e-reader boom in 2010 and 2011, largely due to
companies like Apple and Amazon, with the latter enjoying its Google has added new GPU acceleration features to its Chrome
best Christmas for Kindle sales this year. web browser, following in the footsteps of Microsoft and
Internet Explorer 9.
Google has added new GPU acceleration features to its Chrome
web browser, following in the footsteps of Microsoft and
Internet Explorer 9.
The Chromium 18 build features a flag that enables
hardware acceleration for vector-based SVG graphics and CSS
filters, opening the doors for potentially amazing visuals at
groundbreaking speeds on websites in the future.
The SVG and CSS GPU acceleration support works on
Windows, Mac, Linux and Google's Chrome OS, but it is still
considered largely experimental, with few websites supporting
the feature.
Initial concerns over reading books on a digital device have
largely dissipated, particularly with the Kindle E Ink display,
which does a relatively good job at imitating real paper,
5
December 30th, 2011 Published by: VR-Zone
Unfortunately this addition does not appear to offer any
noticeable increase in browser performance, with Tom's
Hardware reporting instability and crashes in some of its
Among those who are withdrawing their domains from
WebViz HTML5 benchmarks.
GoDaddy are Wikipedia, Lolcats owner the Cheezburger
Network, and image hosting service Imgur.
While it is still early days for the technology, it is likely that we
will see further hardware acceleration added to popular web
"Fighting online piracy is of the utmost importance, which
browsers as competition between Google, Mozilla, Microsoft
is why GoDaddy has been working to help craft revisions to
and others continues to push the boundaries of browser
this legislation - but we can clearly do better,” said Warren
speeds.
Adelman, CEO of GoDaddy.
GoDaddy previously lost numerous users after its founder and
GoDaddy boycotted over SOPA former CEO, Bob Parsons, posted a video of him killing an
anti-piracy stance elephant while on holiday in Zimbabwe.
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/godaddy-boycotted-over-sopa-anti-
piracy-stance/14382.html
December 30th, 2011
Amazon Kindle enjoys record
Christmas sales
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/amazon-kindle-enjoys-record-
christmas-sales/14381.html
Thousands of website owners, including Wikipedia, have December 30th, 2011
pledged to boycott web hosting firm GoDaddy over its support
of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), despite the company
changing its mind on the controversial anti-piracy law.
Thousands of website owners, including Wikipedia, have
pledged to boycott webhosting firm GoDaddy over its support
Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet computer and Kindle e-readers
of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), despite the company
enjoyed record Christmas sales, with over a million sold each
changing its mind on the controversial anti-piracy law.
week throughout December.
Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet computer and Kindle e-readers
GoDaddy, which is the largest hosting service in the world, enjoyed record Christmas sales, with over a million sold each
initially gave its support for SOPA, but u-turned after week throughout December.
mounting pressure from users and other companies. Many
high-profile internet-based companies, including Google,
Facebook, Yahoo and eBay, are staunchly opposed to the Act, Kindle devices sold so well that they took the top three slots
citing fears that it will lead to widespread internet censorship. on Amazon's best seller charts, with the Kindle Fire in first
place, Kindle Touch in second place, and the classic Kindle
coming in third. Of course, Amazon was able to aggressively
A boycott organised for today on Reddit is set to go ahead advertise the devices on its website, in addition to offering
regardless of GoDaddy's decision, with the service already substantial discounts for ad-subsidised models, which kept
losing over 37,000 domains in a two-day period. That number them as affordable as possible.
could skyrocket as the official boycott gets underway, but
GoDaddy is hoping to halt its losses by offering domain
discounts. Kindle sales were not limited to the US version of Amazon
either, as they were also the best-selling products on the UK,
German, French, Spanish and Italian websites.
6
December 30th, 2011 Published by: VR-Zone
In the event, XFastest compared the ECS X79R-AX, MSI
“We are grateful to our customers worldwide for making this X79A-GD45, ASRock X79 Extreme4, ASUS P9X79, and
the best holiday ever for Kindle,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and Gigabyte X79-UD3. Earlier this week, Gigabyte issued a press-
CEO of Amazon. release in which it acknowledged that some of its X79-UD3
motherboards may have got damaged by users as a result of
bad firmware. It offered free replacements to affected users,
The Kindle Fire, Amazon's significantly cheaper alternative and strongly recommended others to update the BIOS of their
to Apple's iPad, was the best-selling product on Amazon's X79-UD3, X79-UD5, and G1.Assassin 2 motherboards to the
mobile website and through Amazon's mobile apps, which is latest one available on the company's support website. It is
not altogether surprising given that mobile users will likely be with this on the backdrops, that XFastest ran this public test.
looking to buy portable devices. It recieved quite some attention from the local media, some
company representatives were also present to witness the
event.
Kindle book gifts were up 175 percent over the period from
Black Friday to Christmas Day compared to the same period in
2010, with Christmas Day itself being a record day for Kindle
book downloads, showing that ebook sales are continuing to
threaten the long-term survivability of paper books.
Mid-Range X79 Boards' VRM
Tested, Equally Stable, Equally
Flawed
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/mid-range-x79-boards-vrm-tested-
equally-stable-equally-flawed/14380.html
December 30th, 2011
XFastest set a common test bench with common components,
which included Intel Core i7-3930K processor, Kingston
HyperX memory, Antec PSU and high-performance CPU
On Wednesday, Taiwanese tech community site XFastest ran cooler. The test itself involved subjecting the motherboards'
a public event where it tested five similarly-priced mid-range VRM to extreme stress, and measuring stability, performance,
socket LGA2011 motherboards for CPU VRM performance and VRM temperatures. This was done by setting CPU
and stability. This comes at a particularly-important time for core voltage to 1.4V, maxing out the motherboards' load-
Gigabyte, when it's faced with CPU VRM problems that it's line calibration (aggressive V-droop correction), and running
dealing with. The results are in. multi-threaded Prime95 stress test.
On Wednesday, Taiwanese tech community site XFastest ran
a public event where it tested five similarly-priced mid-range
socket LGA2011 motherboards for CPU VRM performance
and stability. This comes at a particularly-important time for
Gigabyte, when it's faced with CPU VRM problems that it's
dealing with. The results are in.
7
December 30th, 2011 Published by: VR-Zone
Amazon's Kindle Fire in the price-sensitive market segment,
while the new tablets are designed for the mid- and high-
end segments. The upcoming iPad models will feature 9.7-
inch screens with QXGA resolution (1,536 x 2,048 pixels) and
dual-LED light bars for improved brightness. Apple would also
continue to contract Samsung to manufacture its quad-core A6
processors, which will be used in the next-generation iPads.
Traffic simulation systems of
the future: a special kind of
supercomputer?
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/traffic-simulation-systems-of-the-
future-a-special-kind-of-supercomputer-/14378.html
The parameters on which the motherboards were evaluated on
December 30th, 2011
were:
• CPU VRM temperature, measured using a thermal probe
attached to the VRM heatsink
• CPU Speed
• CPU voltage, effectiveness of the load-line calibration The worst-ever MRT metro line disruption in Singapore
affected hundreds of thousands; can custom supercomputer
• CPU temperature, measured using software simulation systems cushion the impact of such disasters in real
time?
This month's massive disruption of Singapore's two main - and
oldest - metro lines, the North-South and East-West MRT, was
Apple set to announce two the worst in the city's metro system history. The compounding
new versions of iPad in of smaller disruptions on the other two lines in the same
week didn't help either. Whether the two old lines should be
January? re-dug and replaced with underground maglev metro, where
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/apple-set-to-announce-two-new- the wear and tear like the one with 'claws' and 'sleepers'
versions-of-ipad-in-january-/14379.html stops happening, or the signalling systems need change too, is
December 30th, 2011 another issue beyond our scope here.
But, is there a way for high performance computing to help
manage such disruptions in real time, and analyse the possible
passenger impacts down to the minute detail?
Here's a simple scenario: in a city of 5 million like Singapore,
Apple may be planning to announce two new iPads at
suddenly, really, suddenly, the two main metro lines stop
the iWorld (formerly MacWorld) on 26 January next year.
working. Say, half of the population which is around the two
According to online sources, the two tablet devices are said to
lines' corridors is affected. How to avert the chaos and have the
be designed for the mid- and high-end markets.
extra bus or other resources deployed exactly there where the
traffic needs it, to avert the total transport collapse?
Let's go back to that number of 5 million inhabitants. Let's
say that each inhabitant, as a person, is an entry in a giant
database - the Big Brother datacentres, like the Google or
Facebook ones, already do it anyway on a global scale. In the
case of Singapore's EZ Link, or Malaysia's Touch'N'go, that
database can easily be filled with the transport history of each
card holder across a long period of time. Same for the car
registration plates tracked via electronic road pricing gantries
and such. Add to it the age, income, car ownership and house
& work/study location, and you can perfectly well estimate
a person's traffic movement during a weekday or weekend
on any given day or time. That draws a sort of 'movement
diagram' for each of 5 million persons on a given day.
Apple is planning to unveil two new iPads at iWorld next year.
According to sources, the iPad 2 is competing directly with
8
December 30th, 2011 Published by: VR-Zone
Such database entry for each person can grow up to 100 Windows Phone users can look forward to more features
kilobytes in size, and, since we got to keep such stuff in memory and improvements next year. According to a leaked roadmap
for full-speed analysis and modeling, it means roughly 500 (which is accurate as of October), Microsoft has been planning
GB of main memory, times 2 for space to create alternate for its upcoming Tango and Apollo updates 2012. The Tango
models, and we talk about a terabyte RAM machine with as update, targeted in Q2 2012, is said to be focused on delivering
many cores as you can throw at them, since it is highly parallel low-cost Windows Phone to go against iPhone and Android
work. That little slim 4-CPU terabyte Xeon E5 mainboard from phones. However, this could also mean that Tango could be a
yesterday's story comes to mind here... removable of features that most budget users would probably
not require. Apollo, on the other hand, claims to be a major
Now, with such system, containing the movement data of all update for smartphones that could include support for LTE,
the population and their vehicles, and where they want to high resolution displays and even dual-core processors. But
go next, we can automatically identify any hot spots in the the Apollo update won't be coming so soon; it is expected to be
case of any specific malfunction or shutdown and, in real available in Q4 2012.
time, divert the extra resources exactly to these 'hot spots
of the moment'. No, it doesn't replace the extra metro lines
that, maybe, Singapore should have built much earlier when Intel changes configurable
it was way cheaper to construct - rather than pouring money
into Western investment banks or assets - but, anyway, a fast
TDP specs of Ultrabook Ivy
computer for a quick fix, when the problems arise, is always Bridge processors
welcome. Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/intel-changes-configurable-tdp-specs-
of-ultrabook-ivy-bridge-processors/14376.html
Windows Phone updates,
December 30th, 2011
Tango and Apollo, coming
soon
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/windows-phone-updates-tango-and-
apollo-coming-soon/14377.html Although good news in a way for Intel, it seems that the
December 30th, 2011 demand for its Ultrabook specific Ivy Bridge processors have
been much higher than Intel initially anticipated and the
company has as such had to make some changes to the
configurable TDP of said processors. It appears that the
company can't meet its earlier targets, at least not if it's going
to be able to provide large enough quantities of the CPUs.
After the launch of Microsoft Windows Phone 7.5 Mango
Although good news in a way for Intel, it seems that the
operating system in October, the company is already planning
demand for its Ultrabook specific Ivy Bridge processors have
for the new update next year. And it seems that details of the
been much higher than Intel initially anticipated and the
new updates have been leaked, codenamed Tango and Apollo.
company has as such had to make some changes to the
configurable TDP of said processors. It appears that the
company can't meet its earlier targets, at least not if it's going
to be able to provide large enough quantities of the CPUs.
The changes aren't big and the nominal TDP remains at 17W
and the same goes for the highest configurable TDP for these
chips which stays at 25W. However, the lowest configurable
TDP has been increased from 13W to 14W and the same goes
for the low frequency mode. In addition the low power mode
has increased from 11W to 12.5W.
This might seem trivial, but for some notebook makers this
could potentially mean a re-design of the cooling system, not
exactly a non-trivial change. It's likely that Intel has picked
chips that would otherwise have been binned differently, but
due to the high demand the company had to bin them as U-
series processors. Currently Intel is planning on launching its
Ivy Bridge Ultrabook platform sometime in May and the new
TDP changes aren't likely to have a huge effect for most of its
partners as there's still plenty of time to make any changes that
might be needed.
9
December 30th, 2011 Published by: VR-Zone
Genesys Logic launches USB
December 30th, 2011
3.0 webcam controller
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/genesys-logic-launches-usb-3.0-
webcam-controller/14375.html
December 30th, 2011
As we've already reported, Intel is about to launch Ivy Bridge in
early April and although we didn't specify a date in our earlier
stories, Digitimes has now confirmed the April 8th launch date
that we'd previously heard. This information is apparently
coming from Taiwanese PC makers and we'd say it's pretty
much spot on, unless Intel makes some last minute changes to
USB 3.0 adoption might be moving slowly forward in the the launch schedule.
PC industry, but more and more peripherals are starting to
appear in the market and if Taiwanese Genesys has anything
to do with it, then we'll all be using USB 3.0 webcams soon As we've already reported, Intel is about to launch Ivy Bridge in
enough. The company has announced its new GL3620 USB 3.0 early April and although we didn't specify a date in our earlier
webcam controller and it looking at demoing it at CES in early stories, Digitimes has now confirmed the April 8th launch date
January. that we'd previously heard. This information is apparently
coming from Taiwanese PC makers and we'd say it's pretty
much spot on, unless Intel makes some last minute changes to
USB 3.0 adoption might be moving slowly forward in the
the launch schedule.
PC industry, but more and more peripherals are starting to
appear in the market and if Taiwanese Genesys has anything Not all CPUs and chipsets will launch on the 8th of April, as
to do with it, then we'll all be using USB 3.0 webcams soon some models alongside with the business chipsets are expected
enough. The company has announced its new GL3620 USB 3.0 on the 13th of May according to Digitimes. Most of the desktop
webcam controller and it looking at demoing it at CES in early CPUs will be available in April, although on the mobile side
January. only the quad core Core i7 models are expected to arrive in
April, with all other models launching at a yet unspecified date.
We have in fact seen a very early prototype demo but this was
using an FPGA instead of the actual finished silicon and to be It's not entirely clear why Intel is staggering the launch like
frank, we weren't impressed. However, Genesys wasn't using this, but as we know, Intel is trying to empty its Sandy Bridge
the best of sensors for the tech demo and it'll be down to the inventory and this might very well be part of the reason. One
wecam manufacturers to pick a suitable sensor to show of the interesting piece of information that Digitimes did provide is
capabilities of the GL3620. the cost of the chipsets, with the Z77, HM77 and UM77 coming
in at US$48, followed by the H77 and HM76 at US$43, the Z75
The chip is capable of delivering uncompressed 1080p
and HM75 at US$40 and finally the business orientated B75
video at 30fps, something that shouldn't put too much
at US$37. The corporate level chipsets start at US$53 with the
strain on the USB 3.0 bus. Apparently a key feature is
QS77 followed by Q77 and QM77 at US$48 and the Q75 at US
that the GL3620 supports isochronous transfer mode which
$40.
apparently guarantees the bandwidth between the webcam
and the host controller. This puts the chipset pricing at a similar level to the 6-series
where the Z68 chipsets has a list price of US$48 with the
Thanks to a built-in motion JPEG encoder the GL3620 is also
H67 at US$43, the P67 at US$40 and the B65 at US$37. The
backwards compatible with USB 2.0. The built in HISP or
same goes for the mobile parts where the HM67 is listed at
hardware image signal processor as Genesys calls it, allows
US$48 and HM65 at US$40, although the UM67 is actually
the GL3620 to turn the raw RGB data into interpolated YUV
a bit pricier at US$50. That said, these are all list prices and
video and it can also do things like bad pixel correction, image
may not reflect what the actual motherboard and notebook
scaling, gamma correction and image quality enhancement
manufacturers are paying Intel.
among other things.
The GL3620 won't go into mass production until the second
quarter of next year, but Genesys will be demoing it at CES As expected, Intel launches
alongside its GL3520 USB 3.0 hub, its GL3321 USB 3.0 to
SATA 3Gbps bridge and its GL3220 USB 3.0 memory card
Cedar Trail-M Atom's
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/as-expected-intel-launches-cedar-trail-
reader, all of which are already available.
m-atom-s/14373.html
December 30th, 2011
Ivy Bridge reportedly
launching on the 8th of April
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/ivy-bridge-reportedly-launching-on-
the-8th-of-april/14374.html
10
December 30th, 2011 Published by: VR-Zone
We're fairly certain that none of our regular readers are
surprised to see the arrival of Intel's Atom N2600 and N2800
Cedar Trail-M based Atom processors today, as we reported
about it launching at the very end of the year over a month ago.
That said, no products will be available for at least a couple
of weeks, although we'd expect that the first Cedar Trail-M
netbooks will be shown off at CES.
We're fairly certain that none of our regular readers are
surprised to see the arrival of Intel's Atom N2600 and N2800
Cedar Trail-M based Atom processors today, as we reported
about it launching at the very end of the year over a month ago.
That said, no products will be available for at least a couple
of weeks, although we'd expect that the first Cedar Trail-M According to Anandtech we can expect to see Cedar Trail-M
netbooks will be shown off at CES. netbooks with a starting price point of as little as US$199-229
We've also covered most of the specifications of the N2600 and and part of the reason for this is that Intel itself has reduced
N2800 Atom processors in the past, but we'll do a brief re- the price of the Atom processors compared to the previous
cap here. The N2800 is a 1.86GHz part with its graphics core generation. That said, these machines are likely to be very
clocked at 640MHz and it supports DDR3 memory at speeds basic and lack features such as WiDi. Intel's partners are
of up to 1066MHz. The N2600 on the other hand is clocked apparently Acer, Asus, HP, Lenovo, Samsung and Toshiba
at 1.6GHz with a 400MHz graphics clock and it only supports and we've already seen examples of models from Asus and
slower 800MHz DDR3 memory. One other major difference is Samsung, despite the latter promising to pull out of the
that the N2600 can be cooled passively thanks to its 5W peak netbook market in 2012.
TDP, although Intel is apparently claiming an average power
consumption of the processor and the NM10 chipset of under
2W, whereas the N2800 has a TDP of 8W, although average
power is meant to be less than 2.7W.
As we've already reported, Intel only managed to concoct
DX9 drivers for the platform, at least as far as Windows 7
is concerned, but we can apparently still expect a doubling
of the 3D graphics performance over the previous generation
of Atom processors. Not that this is going to make a huge
difference for most netbook users, but at least there should
be a decent increase in performance for casual gamers. More
interesting then is hardware decode support for H.264 video
and support for Intel's WiDi, albeit only at 600p.
Still, we'd rather pay a little bit more for an AMD Brazos
powered machine, despite not having seen final hardware
based on Cedar Trail-M, as AMD is likely to have the upper
hand in terms of performance even though Intel has finally
11
December 30th, 2011 Published by: VR-Zone
gotten Atom to the kind of level where it should have been from Other companies accused of price-fixing, including AU
the beginning. Intel might have a more power efficient option Optronics, LG Display and Toshiba, have yet to reach a
on offer, but there simply are too many things missing to make settlement, but will likely be forced to pay out millions of
Cedar Trail-M a competitive platform. dollars.
Samsung and others settle
LCD price-fixing case for $553 Chinese LG Display staff strike
million over alleged pay racism
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/samsung-and-others-settle-lcd-price- Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/chinese-lg-display-staff-strike-over-
fixing-case-for-553-million/14372.html alleged-pay-racism/14371.html
December 30th, 2011 December 30th, 2011
Samsung and a number of other LCD display makers have
settled a price-fixing case for $553 million.
The seven firms involved in the settlement include Samsung, Staff at an LG Display factory in China have gone on strike over
Sharp, Chimei Innolux, Hitachi, HannStar, Chunghwa Picture a dispute relating to alleged racism in the payment of end of
Tubes and Epson Imaging Devices, all of which are accused of year bonuses.
conspiring to fix LCD panel prices between the years 1999 and Staff at an LG Display factory in China have gone on strike over
2006. a dispute relating to alleged racism in the payment of end of
year bonuses.
Over $890 million has already been paid out by the companies Reports suggest that upwards of 8,000 Chinese workers have
to settle previous antitrust cases, but the latest payment is joined the strike at the Nanjing facility, accusing the South
aimed at resolving claims by indirect purchasers and eight US Korean electronics company of paying higher bonuses to
states. Korean staff compared to local Chinese employees.
"We and the Nanjing city government are jointly negotiating
with workers to smoothly reach an agreement and we expect
the problems to be resolved soon," said LG spokesperson
"This price-fixing scheme manipulated the playing field for Claire Ohm, according to Reuters. "Some of our production
businesses that abide by the rules, and left consumers to has been suspended."
pay artificially higher costs for televisions, computers and This the latest worker dispute in China, where the rising cost
other electronics," said New York Attorney General Eric of living has prompted numerous protests and demands for
Schneiderman. higher pay. Universally low salaries is one thing, but alleged
favouritism towards certain nationalities will unlikely go over
well with staff or customers.
Samsung will pay $240 million, Sharp will fork out $115.5
million, and Chimei Innolux will hand over $110.3 million.
Smaller payments are demanded of Hitachi, HannStar, Apple iOS and Android tied in
Chunghwa and Epson, with the companies paying $39 million,
$25.7 million, $5.3 million and $2.9 million respectively. A Christmas sales
number of state penalties, up to $6 million per company, were Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/apple-ios-and-android-tied-in-
also applied. christmas-sales/14370.html
12
December 30th, 2011 Published by: VR-Zone
December 30th, 2011 December 30th, 2011
AT&T has completed its acquisition of wireless spectrum from
Qualcomm in a deal worth roughly $1.9 billion.
The telecommunications company expressed interest in
Apple iOS and Android devices were popular Christmas gifts buying the spectrum in December 2010, but was held up by
throughout the world, with the two rivals virtually tied in the an investigation by the Federal Communications Commission
heated battle for holiday sales. (FCC). Approval was granted last week after AT&T withdrew
its controversial bid to buy T-Mobile.
Apple iOS and Android devices were popular Christmas gifts
throughout the world, with the two rivals virtually tied in the
heated battle for holiday sales. The 700 MHz spectrum was previously used by Qualcomm for
its FLO TV system, a mobile TV broadcasting technology that
flopped and was eventually discontinued.
There were 12 times more new devices using the mobile
operating systems form Apple and Google over the Christmas
weekend compared to previous weekends, according to mobile
app analytics firm Localytics.
Despite the two platforms being roughly neck and neck, their
popularity differed greatly from region to region. For example,
Apple devices sold best in the US and Germany, while Android
devices did better in South Korea and Sweden.
The spectrum will cover over 300 million people, giving AT&T
a significant boost to its Long Term Evolution (LTE) business.
This is particularly important given the general lack
of spectrum telecommunications providers have been
experiencing in recent years, resulting in numerous bidding
wars and acquisitions. The continuing popularity of
iOS devices were up 12.5 times, with a 14 times increase in smartphones and tablet computers will ensure that spectrum
iPhone sales, but a massive 21 times increase in iPods, showing demand remains strong in years to come.
that Apple's classic music player still has some life in it.
Spire hack allows Siri to run
Android's increase was not far behind at 12 times more sales,
but Android now leads in more markets than Apple, ruling 14 on jailbroken iOS 5 devices
of the top 20 global markets, which will likely see it become Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/spire-hack-allows-siri-to-run-on-
the overall market leader in the months and years to come. jailbroken-ios-5-devices/14368.html
December 30th, 2011
South Korea was a particularly strong victory for Android, with
a lead of over 80 percent compared to iOS. Sweden and Japan
also saw huge gaps between the two, with Android leading by
45 percent and 50 percent respectively.
AT&T buys Qualcomm A new hack, called Spire, is said to allow Siri voice assistant to
run on almost all jailbroken iPhone or iPad on iOS 5. And the
wireless spectrum best thing is, that is legal.
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/at-t-buys-qualcomm-wireless- Siri is one of the popular features of the latest Apple iPhone
spectrum/14369.html 4S, and it seems that a fully functioning port of the voice
assistant is available on almost all jailbroken iOS 5 devices.
13
December 30th, 2011 Published by: VR-Zone
Developed by Chpwn and Ryan Petrich, the new hack known and see when Mobile World Congress arrived in February next
as Spire, allows Siri to run on jailbroken iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, year.
third-gen iPod touch, fourth-generation iPod touch and first-
generation iPad. And it seems like it is legal. The Spire app is
free and available to download from the Cydia app store and More on Xeon E5: Terabyte of
takes about 100MB of space, and users are advised to connect
to a Wi-Fi network when downloading the app.
RAM even at midrange?
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/more-on-xeon-e5-terabyte-of-ram-
even-at-midrange-/14366.html
Samsung to debut GALAXY S December 30th, 2011
III at Mobile World Congress
2012?
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/samsung-to-debut-galaxy-s-iii-at-
mobile-world-congress-2012-/14367.html
December 30th, 2011 There will also be a quad-CPU enabled Xeon E5 Socket 2011
version, a quarter later from now. How much memory can it
take? How about a terabyte?
Two QPI links on Socket 2011 CPUs do enable connecting
each processor to TWO other ones, if you accept lesser inter-
processor bandwidth compared to just dual-link pairing of two
CPUs alone. There will be a separate Xeon E5-4600 series
News of the next-generation GALAXY smartphone is out, and covering that particular market segment, which sits between
it is likely to be the Samsung GALAXY S III. And the Quad- the high end dual-socket E5-2600 and the enterprise RAS-
core phone may be showcased at the Mobile World Congress enhanced even higher end E7 series (those fancy 10-core 30
in Barcelona next year. MB L3 cache Westmere-EX chips and their followons).
These are good for uber-rendering workstations with many
threads, as well as SMP server jobs where high per-core
performance is more important than RAS capability or huge
interprocessor bandwidth - E7 series have, after all, four QPI
links on each CPU for that purpose.
According to Korean media ETNews, the new Samsung
smartphone, GALAXY S III, will be equipped with a Quad-core
processor; possibly the Samsung's Exynos 4412 processor,
a 32nm quad-core chip based on the ARM Cortex A9
architecture. Other specifications include 4.6-inch Super
Now, since the maximum memory load on each Socket 2011
AMOLED Plus touchscreen display (1280x720), supports LTE
processor is three DIMMs per channel, or 12 in total, it would
network, 12-megapixel rear camera that can capture full high
allow for 48 DIMMs altogether on a quad processor board, as
definition 1080p video, and runs Google Android 4.0 Ice
you can see here on the 'Lizard Head Pass' S4600LH board
Cream Sandwich.
expected from Intel. A truly lovely platform which, if good
It was also reported that Samsung is developing 3D liquid cooling system was there, could actually fit into 1U
capabilities on the smartphone, though there's no details as platform! Else, it's 2U, still not bad at all.
to what extent will the new phone be equipped with the
technology. The company could come up with a separate Now, remember those fancy Samsung - and other vendors' -
smartphone, rather than incorporate it to the GALAXY S III, 32 GB LR-DIMMs at DDR3-1333 speeds and taking just like
and called it the Samsung GALAXY S 3D. We can only wait 5 watts? Well, put 48 of them into this 'little' mobo, and you
got... umm... 1.5 TB RAM, yes. Now, inexpensive large memory
14
December 30th, 2011 Published by: VR-Zone
data mining and analysis ops, not to mention simulations like, we've seen a fair few users reports complaining about the mice
for instance, impact of MRT line failure on all the car and bus disconnecting at random.
traffic in Singapore down to every person, vehicle and path Source: Ozmo
- an increasingly more often required app here, it seems -
become very real, especially when coupled with the current low
memory pricing. MSI launches MultiConnect
And, oh yes, there are 160 PCIe v3 lanes in total on such panel and Voice Genie
platform. Now, how about an extender box for an 8 x dual- Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/msi-launches-multiconnect-panel-and-
GPU setup as an accelerator? A eight-set of liquid-cooled OC voice-genie/14364.html
AMD HD7990 dual GPU cards could give you up to 15 TFLOPs December 30th, 2011
of double precision power to assist those Xeons on board...
More Wi-Fi mice coming
thanks to Wi-Fi Direct A couple of new motherboard peripherals have been launched
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/more-wi-fi-mice-coming-thanks-to-wi-
by MSI, one of which we’d say is far more useful than the
fi-direct/14365.html
other. First up we have the MultiConnect panel which is a 5.25-
December 30th, 2011
inch drive bay unit that sports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth among its
features, with the second one being MSI’s Voice Genie card
which allows you to control your PC by yelling at it.
A couple of new motherboard peripherals have been launched
We've already seen a few Wi-Fi mice from HP, although these by MSI, one of which we’d say is far more useful than the
weren't as far as we're aware using Wi-Fi Direct to connect. other. First up we have the MultiConnect panel which is a 5.25-
A company called Ozmo has announced that it has had its inch drive bay unit that sports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth among its
OZMO2000 wireless mouse reference design certified by the features, with the second one being MSI’s Voice Genie card
Wi-Fi Alliance as a Wi-Fi Direct enabled solution onto which which allows you to control your PC by yelling at it.
its partners can base their own Wi-Fi Direct mice upon.
The MultiConnect panel is an interesting spin on things as
although it’s a chunky piece of plastic that slots into a spare
We've already seen a few Wi-Fi mice from HP, although these 5.25-inch drive bay in your case, it not only adds 802.11b/g/n
weren't as far as we're aware using Wi-Fi Direct to connect. Wi-Fi connectivity, but also Bluetooth 3.0+HS, a pair of USB
A company called Ozmo has announced that it has had its 2.0 ports and if you have the right motherboard, an OC Genie
OZMO2000 wireless mouse reference design certified by the II button. For one we’re not quite sure why MSI had to make
Wi-Fi Alliance as a Wi-Fi Direct enabled solution onto which it so big, as it seems to waste a lot of space.
its partners can base their own Wi-Fi Direct mice upon.
One feature that stands outs with the Ozmo solution is the fact
that the company supports both 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi. The
company has also added support for WPA2 and WPS to make
pairing easy. Ozmo doesn't actually make any retail products
though, but its OZMO2000 chip is ready to ship to its potential
partners for implementation into Wi-Fi mice.
Interestingly Ozmo claims that its Wi-Fi solution offers two
to three times the battery life for the mouse compared to
Bluetooth mice and a much higher data rate – up to 24Mbps –
if needed. The range should in theory be longer as well, but we
can't imagine too many scenarios where you need to be able to
use a mouse 200-300m away from a computer.
One problem we can see though is that Ozmo charges US$3 Secondly MSI missed a major trick here, the USB ports are
per OZMO2000 chip even in fairly large quantities, something only 2.0, not 3.0 and considering that many chassis out there
that's likely to put off potential partners, although surprisingly shipped pre-USB 3.0 this would’ve been a much more useful
the company issues a press release back in October stating it addition. The Wi-Fi is also limited to 150Mbps and is a simple
had shipped one million chips back then. Apparently HP is one USB dongle hidden behind the plastic fascia. Admittedly it’s
of Ozmo's partners, alongside with Intel, Logitech and Targus. neater to have two dongles inside a drive bay than having a
As such it's likely we'll see a driver upgrade for HP's Wi-Fi pair of dongles sticking out the back of your PC, but we’re not
mice in the near future with some Wi-Fi Direct support which sold on MSI’s overall implementation.
should hopefully make HP's Wi-Fi mice a bit more reliable, as
15
December 30th, 2011 Published by: VR-Zone
As for the Voice Genie, well, this is a small PCB that slots into a
PCI Express x1 slot (or any other PCI Express slot at that), but
it doesn’t actually interface with the slots electrical connectors.
Instead the Voice Genie card connects to a special pin-header
available on a selected few MSI motherboards which include
most of MSI’s Z68A models, the Big Bang Marshal and all of
MSI’s X79 motherboards.
Luckily MSI has added an option to make your own custom
voice commands, but this is limited to a mere eight commands
in total. In as much as we think this is an amusing piece of kit
and potentially something very useful for handicapped people,
we can’t see it being a huge seller for MSI. We’d also hope that
MSI comes to its senses and bundles a better microphone than
the one in the pictures of the card, as it looks like a terrible
piece of kit.
Intel said to be letting
Thunderbolt loose in April
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/intel-said-to-be-letting-thunderbolt-
loose-in-april/14363.html
December 30th, 2011
There's no secret that Intel wasn't going to let Apple keep
its Thunderbolt technology as an exclusive forever, but no
reports are coming out stating that we can expect Thunderbolt
equipped PCs, notebooks and motherboards in April of next
year. We've been hearing rumours for a while, but this is the
first solid lead on an actual launch date.
At the rear of the card there’s a microphone connector, a pass-
through to the mic connector of the onboard audio or sound There's no secret that Intel wasn't going to let Apple keep
card and a small, sliding on/off switch. Once installed the its Thunderbolt technology as an exclusive forever, but no
Voice Genie allows you to issue voice commands to your PC reports are coming out stating that we can expect Thunderbolt
in either English or “traditional” Chinese, although we’re not equipped PCs, notebooks and motherboards in April of next
quite sure what the latter is in terms of a spoken language. It year. We've been hearing rumours for a while, but this is the
supports commands even if the system is powered down, so in first solid lead on an actual launch date.
other words you can now make your PC start without having As we already know, Intel is planning on launching Ivy Bridge
to touch it. MSI also claims that you can overclock the system, around this point in time and it's not a co-incident that the
make it start applications and do a wide range of other things company is also trying to get some Thunderbolt equipped
by simply issuing voice commands. devices out in the market at the same time. Digitimes is
reporting that we'll see notebooks from Asus, various devices
from Sony and motherboard from Gigabyte with Thunderbolt
connectivity.
Somewhat erroneously Digitimes is quoting Thunderbolt chip
cost of more than US$20 a pop, a price that as far as we're
aware only applies to Intel's most expensive Thunderbolt chip
know as Light Ridge. This should be replaced at some point
next year by Cactus Ridge which should prove to be a fair bit
more affordable. Cactus Ridge was meant to be ready in time
16
December 30th, 2011 Published by: VR-Zone
for Ivy Bridge, but Intel appears to have run into a few snags of memory on board and only left a single DIMM slot for
and as such it has been delayed until sometime in Q2 of next expansion, one of the not so good changes.
year.
As such notebook manufacturers only has the choice of using
Intel's Light Ridge or the version of Eagle Ridge that Apple
uses for the MacBook Air, but this chip only has half the
Thunderbolt channels of Light Ridge. For some reason Intel
has discontinued its standard version of Eagle Ridge already,
so on the host side there's little other choice for the time being.
The good news in terms of growth of Tunderbolt device is
that Intel has finally finished off its Port Ridge peripheral
chip, an affordable two PCI Express lane solution that draws
a mere 0.7W (compared to 2-3.8W for its other Thunderbolt
chips) and which will be far more affordable than previous
options. This should hopefully see a growth in devices that use
Thunderbolt as an interconnect, although we still doubt it'll be
price competitive with USB 3.0 in many scenarios.
There are of course usage cases where Thunderbolt excels
compared to USB 3.0, least not for adding desktop expansion
cards to a notebook, be it via a notebook docking station or
some kind of external enclosure. However, Thunderbolt is not
the most affordable route and we doubt there will be the same
You still get 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0+HS (apparently
growth in Thunderbolt peripherals as there have been with
optional on some models), a crummy 0.3Megapixel webcam,
USB 3.0 peripherals, as the need for the kind of speeds offered
an HDMI port, a D-sub connector, Ethernet, a pair of audio
by the interface just isn't there for the majority of computer
jacks and a card reader. However, Asus has now upgraded at
users, yet.
least some models with a pair of USB 3.0 ports and rather than
offering three USB 2.0 ports you know get one to go with the
Asus outs the Eee PC 1225B two USB 3.0 ports.
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/asus-outs-the-eee- Oddly enough Asus is now rating the battery life at 7h instead
pc-1225b/14362.html of 8h, despite offering what appears to be the same 6-cell
December 30th, 2011 56Wh battery pack. The weight has gone down slightly thanks
to the smaller display, although this apparently only shaves
off a mere 10g if the specs on Asus' website are correct.The
Eee PC 1225B is expected to launch in January and it'll be
available in either glossy black and white or matte grey, red
or silver, although we have a feeling the screen will be glossy
either which way.
Intel's Atom based netbooks might not be overly popular these
days and to some degree AMD appears to have something to
do with it thanks to the introduction of its Brazos platform.
Asus is getting ready to launch a refresh of its 12-inch Brazos
powered Eee PC 1215B with a slightly updated model called the
1225B, although the differences are fairly small.
Intel's Atom based netbooks might not be overly popular these
days and to some degree AMD appears to have something to
do with it thanks to the introduction of its Brazos platform.
Asus is getting ready to launch a refresh of its 12-inch Brazos
powered Eee PC 1215B with a slightly updated model called the
1225B, although the differences are fairly small.
The Eee PC 1225B comes with a choice of either an E450
or a C60 APU, something latter models of the 1215B also
offered. The biggest change is the screen which has been
shrunk slightly from 12.1-inches to 11.6-inches, although
the resolution has remained the same at 1366x768. Almost
everything else has stayed the same, but some minor changes
have been done and apparently Asus has fitted 2 or 4GB
17
January 3rd, 2012 Published by: VR-Zone
VR-Zone.com | Stuff for the Geeks!
Overclocking is the name of the game for this motherboard,
VR-Zone | Stuff for the Geeks is a bi-weekly publication with the ability to run 4-way SLI or CrossFire via four
covering the latest gadgets and stuff for the geeks. PCI Express Gen3 slots. Renowned overclocker Jon “Elmor”
Sandström helped MSI bump up the overclocking abilities of
the Big Bang-XPower II.
MSI launches Big Bang-
XPower II overclocking The board includes 8 DIMM slots, with support for up 128GB
motherboard of RAM, significantly more than most people will ever need or
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/msi-launches-big-bang-xpower-ii-
use, but helping to make the motherboard that little bit more
overclocking-motherboard/14419.html
future-proof.
January 3rd, 2012
Other features include Sound Blaster X-Fi MB2 7.1 high-
definition audio, six USB 3.0 slots, 10 USB 2.0 slots, two Intel
SATA 6Gb/s and four 3Gb/s slots with RAID support, two
ASMedia SATA 6GB/s slots, a multi-BIOS UEFI interface, and
several buttons for easy overclocking and resetting.
MSI has launched its latest motherboard, the Big Bang-
XPower II, offering plenty of overclocking goodness for the LG unveils world's largest
Intel X79 chipset.
MSI has launched its latest motherboard, the Big Bang-
OLED TV
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/lg-unveils-world-s-largest-oled-
XPower II, offering plenty of overclocking goodness for the
tv/14418.html
Intel X79 chipset.
January 3rd, 2012
The company claims that this board is its most powerful to
date, building on the record achievements of the original Big
Bang-XPower, supporting Intel's latest second generation i7
processors.
LG will unveil a 55-inch OLED TV at the Consumer Electronics
Show (CES) in Las Vegas next week, touting it as the largest of
It is built with Military Class III components, such as DrMOS its kind and the “future of TV technology”.
II, Super Ferrite Choke, Hi-c CAP and Solid CAP, allowing
LG will unveil a 55-inch OLED TV at the Consumer Electronics
heavy duty use with an extended lifetime. An enhanced
Show (CES) in Las Vegas next week, touting it as the largest of
thermal design also ensures that no active cooling is required.
its kind and the “future of TV technology”.
The TV features a huge organic light-emitting diode (OLED)
panel that is only 4mm thick and weighs just 7.5kg, utilising
the technology used by many smartphones at a much larger
scale.
With an infinite contrast ratio and speeds that are 1,000 times
faster than LCD displays, it looks like OLED technology is
definitely the way forward for the TV manufacturing industry.
It also comes with LG's 4-Colour Pixels, adding white to the
traditional RGB mix, and Colour Refiner, which enhances
1
January 3rd, 2012 Published by: VR-Zone
colour consistency across multiple viewing angles to improve expected to be lower than supply for the first quarter of the
hues and tones. year.
The companies saw their ratings cut from 'overweight' to
'equal weight', market lingo for Barclays' belief that these
companies are no longer outperforming and are pretty much
on neutral territory, seeing negligible growth or remaining flat.
"First quarter should be the trough for semis given the ongoing
inventory correction, coupled with supply chain constraints,
due to muted end demand visibility," said C J Muse, an analyst
at Barclays, whom Reuters cited as being highly reliable.
“Working closely with LG Display, we have a product which
not only delivers on all the advantages of OLED over
LCD but at a significantly lower cost than what could be
achieved using existing OLED manufacturing technologies,”
said Havis Kwon, president and CEO of LG Electronics Home
Entertainment Company. “OLED is clearly the future of home
TV entertainment and LG is very focused on making this
exciting technology as easy as possible for consumers to
embrace.”
LG previously released 15-inch and 31-inch OLED TV models,
Intel cut its fourth quarter forecast last month by $1
but those sizes won't satisfy many home entertainment
billion, blaming the shortage of hard disk drives (HDD) for
enthusiasts who will want something larger than 40 inches.
plummeting demand in the entire PC industry, but Nomura
We can likely expect something in the 60 to 70 inch range
Equity Research claims there is more to Intel's revised
within the next year or two, in addition to other sizes between
financial outlook than the HDD problem.
the existing ranges. Price will be an obstacle, however, even
with LG's cheaper production method.
It was not all bad news for chipmakers, however, as Micron,
Barclays cuts Intel and other LSI and Cymer were all upgraded from 'equal weight' to
'overweight'.
chipmakers' ratings
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/barclays-cuts-intel-and-other-
chipmakers-ratings/14417.html Market recovery is expected in the second half of the year, with
January 3rd, 2012 end of year growth of five percent, followed by six to eight
percent growth in 2013.
ASUS to launch the second
Jay Chou edition laptop N45J
Investment firm Barclays Capital has downgraded a number Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/asus-to-launch-the-second-jay-chou-
of semiconductor companies, including Intel, Freescale, edition-laptop-n45j/14416.html
Microchip, Applied Materials and Spansion, as demand is January 3rd, 2012
expected to be lower than supply for the first quarter of the
year.
Investment firm Barclays Capital has downgraded a number
of semiconductor companies, including Intel, Freescale,
Microchip, Applied Materials and Spansion, as demand is
2
January 3rd, 2012 Published by: VR-Zone
It was about six months ago when ASUS announced the Jay
Chou edition laptop N43SL, and it looks like the company is
planning to launch a second laptop endorsed by the Taiwanese
celebrity.
SmartDevices has recently unveiled their new SmartQ Ten2
Plus T13 Android tablet. The touchscreen is said to be similar
to that of the Apple iPad - 9.7-inch capacitive, IPS panel
and has a pixel resolution of 1024×768. Internally, the T13
is powered by a 1GHz ARM Cortex A9 processor with 512MB
DDR2 RAM and 8GB built-in Flash memory. It also has a
microSD card slot for expansion, and supports up to 32GB.
Other features include 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, 3G support, Bluetooth
2.0+EDR and 2-megapixel front camera. The tablet also comes
with a 7500mAh Lithium-ion battery and runs Android 2.3
Last year, ASUS announced the Jay Chou Edition N43SL Gingerbread. (Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is said to be in
laptop and very soon we would see the second Taiwanese the works). But the most impressive thing about the SmartQ
celebrity-endorsed notebook PC in the market. Unlike the first Ten2 Plus T13 is its incredible price tag; it is selling at RMB998
model with a piano black finish, the new laptop N45J will be (or approximately US$160) which is value for what it offers.
white with similar artistic designs printed at the back of the
display. The new design is said to be related to his upcoming
album. The ASUS N45J will feature a 1600x800 resolution
Klipsch Mode M40 headphones
screen, second generation Intel Core i7/i5/i3 processor, 8GB with active noise-cancelling,
memory, Nvidia GT555M graphics with choice of either 1GB
or 2GB VRAM, SSD or hard disk storage options and Bang lands in Singapore
& Olufsen ICEpower audio technology that is found on the Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/klipsch-mode-m40-headphones-with-
N45SF. Specifications would vary depending on country, active-noise-cancelling-lands-in-singapore/14414.html
although it is likely that this new laptop will be focused for January 3rd, 2012
the Asia market. According to sources, the ASUS N45J Jay
Chou edition laptop is scheduled to launch in mid January this
month. No details on the pricing yet.
SmartDevices unveils SmartQ
Ten2 Plus T13 9.7-inch Tat Chuan Acoustic, distributor for Klipsch products in
Singapore, has announced the availability of the Klipsch Mode
Android tablet M40 headphones. The stylish M40 claims to incorporate
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/smartdevices-unveils-smartq-ten2- active noise-cancelling technology and provides superb
plus-t13-9.7-inch-android-tablet/14415.html quality sound for audiophiles.
January 3rd, 2012
Chinese manufacturer SmartDevices has announced their
new Ten2 Plus Android tablet. The tablet sports a 9.7-inch
touchscreen, runs Android 2.3 and retails at an unbeatable
RMB999 (approximately US$160).
3
January 3rd, 2012 Published by: VR-Zone
Digital cameras might very well be on the decline, especially as
Smartphones are getting better and better cameras, but that
doesn't stop the camera makers from shoving more and more
features into cameras. Samsung has announced an updated
version of its DualView cameras and its latest model, the
DV300F has gained Wi-Fi support for instant uploading of
your pictures.
Samsung is so far the only company so slap an LCD display
on the front of one of its cameras for self-portraits, a clever
enough idea, although we're not sure if it's taken the world
by storm. To give consumers easier access to their pictures,
Samsung has kitted out the new DV300F with Wi-Fi which in
turn allows you to connect the camera directly to the internet
and upload your pictures and videos to websites such as
Facebook, Picasa and YouTube. You can also email pictures
directly as well and luckily the camera appears to have some
basic editing options built in.
The Klipsch Mode M40 is said to be the company's first active
noise-cancelling (ANC) headphones, designed to provide
superior audio performance. It claims to offer 45 hours of ANC
on a single triple AAA battery, which is almost double the
time offered by other ANC headphone models currently in the
market, as well as serves as a high-quality stereo headphone
if you choose not to put in the batteries. Each of the Mode
M40 lightweight ear cups are made of premium leather and a
special high-density memory foam for long hours of listening
comfort, and has an adjustable headband for secure fit. The
M40 comes with two detachable cloth cables, with one of
them having a three-button remote and built-in microphone
with echo cancellation; users can make clear conversations
and control the music on their iPhone, iPad or iPhone devices
conveniently.
Priced at S$599 (inclusive of GST), the Klipsch Mode M40
is available at all Apple Premium Resellers, and comes with
a two-year warranty, AAA battery, microfiber carrying case,
airline adaptor and 1/4-inch adaptor. A much neater advantage that the Wi-Fi connectivity brings in
our opinion is that Samsung has an auto backup feature which
will upload the pictures to cloud storage services, although
Samsung adds a dash of Wi-Fi only Microsoft's SkyDrive and Samsung's own AllShare Play
to new DualView camera services are mentioned. In either case you would of course
need to be connected to a Wi-Fi network, although hopefully a
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/samsung-adds-a-dash-of-wi-fi-to-new-
smartphone with a Wi-Fi enabled hotspot would do the job.
dualview-camera/14413.html
January 3rd, 2012 The camera itself doesn't really stand out as such with a
16Megapixel sensor, 5x optical zoom with a 25mm wide angle
lens, but it should be vastly superior to any camera equipped
phone we can think of. The DV300F will come in black, silver,
navy and red, although Samsung didn't announce any pricing
or launch date.
Digital cameras might very well be on the decline, especially as
Smartphones are getting better and better cameras, but that
HP's Envy Spectre gets teaser
doesn't stop the camera makers from shoving more and more video, almost here
features into cameras. Samsung has announced an updated Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/hp-s-envy-spectre-gets-teaser-video-
version of its DualView cameras and its latest model, the almost-here/14412.html
DV300F has gained Wi-Fi support for instant uploading of January 3rd, 2012
your pictures.
4
January 3rd, 2012 Published by: VR-Zone
Apart from its Folio 13 it appears that HP has a second, Intel's partners aren't meant to be showing off any 7-
somewhat larger Ultrabook coming which may or may not be series motherboards for a few days yet, but Chinese Wibtek
known as the Envy 14 Spectre. HP has released a short teaser apparently doesn't care much for Intel's restrictions and has
video of something simply called the HP Spectre. shown off its first Z77 based motherboard. For something from
a smaller Chinese motherboard maker it's actually not a half
bad board, but it's not up there with the Taiwanese board
Apart from its Folio 13 it appears that HP has a second, makers in some areas.
somewhat larger Ultrabook coming which may or may not be
The pictures got posted on Expreview and they're not exactly
known as the Envy 14 Spectre. HP has released a short teaser
high-resolution, but plenty of details can be seen nonetheless.
video of something simply called the HP Spectre.
The board is called the Hacker Z77 and apparently Wibtek has
So far next to nothing is known about the new notebook, or jumped on-board the whole gun heatsink theme, albeit in a
possibly Ultrabook as it may be and as you can see by yourself little bit more discrete way. The heatsink is meant to be of a
from the video below, HP doesn't exactly give away a lot of “desert eagle” design, although it looks more like some ray gun
details. Some details with regards to the bottom design leaked from a Sci-Fi movie to us. Heatsink design apart, Wibtek has
just before Christmas, but even in that case it's not clear if it's gone for a black on dark brown PCB in terms of slot and PCB
of the actual model that will be known as the Spectre or not colours and everything looks quite well polished.
and by now HP has had the FCC remove even those details.
The board has 16 power phases for the CPU, although the CPU
It's clear that the Spectre will be a high-end product and we'd socket area is quite crowded due in part to the large heatsink.
expect something out of the ordinary from HP. The only thing The slot configuration consists of a pair of x16 slots where the
that seems to be agreed upon is that it should be a 14-inch second slot operates in x8 mode, a pair of x1 PCI Express slots
notebook of some kind and that it should arrive soon, maybe and two PCI slots. There's also a half-size mini PCI Express
even ahead of CES. We'll just have to wait and see what HP slot located at the rear of the board which will accept a Wi-Fi
manages to conjure up, but it's about time that HP brings out card or similar. There are no less than 10 SATA ports in total,
a high-end ultraportable notebook. six of them SATA 6Gbps (four via two Marvell controllers) and
four are thus SATA 3Gbps.
Wibtek first to show off
alleged Z77 motherboard
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/wibtek-first-to-show-off-alleged-z77-
motherboard/14411.html
January 3rd, 2012
Intel's partners aren't meant to be showing off any 7- Around the back of the board we find six USB 3.0 ports of
series motherboards for a few days yet, but Chinese Wibtek which four should be native ports to the Z77 chipset, a FireWire
apparently doesn't care much for Intel's restrictions and has port, a Gigabit Ethernet port, 7.1-channel audio with optical S/
shown off its first Z77 based motherboard. For something from PDIF out, an HDMI, DVI and D-sub connector and something
a smaller Chinese motherboard maker it's actually not a half else that we didn't manage to identify above the first pair of
bad board, but it's not up there with the Taiwanese board USB 3.0 ports. The additional USB 3.0 ports appear to be
makers in some areas. courtesy of a VLI host controller and there are pin headers for
what appears to be four front USB 3.0 ports as well as four USB
5
January 3rd, 2012 Published by: VR-Zone
2.0 ports and a FireWire port. The board also has power, reset emissions, only remains to be seen (since there are no reliable
and clear CMOS button located at the front. data on carbon emissions from datacenters).
Enter Asetek. The company known for its legendary VapoChill
phase-change system and the LCLC (Low Cost Liquid Cooling)
OEM design that today ships in numerous computers such
as HP Z800 workstations or retail products such as Corsair
H series, Antec Kuhler and many more is now entering the
enterprise segment.
In order to satisfy the needs and worries of the datacenter
designers the company launched not one but three liquid
cooling products.
There are markings on the board suggesting SLI and
CoressFireX support and with the right CPU the board should
support PCI Express 3.0. We should be seeing more 7-series
motherboards at CES next week and hopefully we'll see
something a bit more exciting than the Hacker 77, even though
on a whole it's not a terrible board. Hit up the source for a few
additional pictures.
Can Asetek's Technology Save
Billions of Dollars and Reduce
Carbon Emissions?
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/can-asetek-s-technology-save-billions-
of-dollars-and-reduce-carbon-emissions-/14409.html
January 3rd, 2012 First and foremost, Asetek now offers closed liquid cooling
for single 1U rackable server, including cooling for both CPU
and the GPU, as demonstrated on Supermicro GPU server.
Named Internal Loop Liquid Cooling (ILLC), Asetek created a
compact radiator cooled by eight low profile fans. This design
does not require any adjustments to the datacenter, so it can
be retrofit into any server environment.
Asetek launched their concept of liquid cooling for high
density servers to be used in datacenters. The idea of server
liquid cooling in datacenters is as old as the datacenter itself,
but this time we're approaching the tipping point.
Every time we mention liquid cooling in datacenters, there is
a string of skepticism about the durability of hardware and
alleged danger of leaks.
At the same time, server hardware is the cheapest investment
from the whole datacenter budget sheet, since building
a cooling system will eat up 40% of total build cost.
Furthermore, largest portion of the monthly power bill will
come from running the cooling subsystem. How big is this
cost? Well, thanks to air cooling the server CPUs and GPUs,
datacenters are now single largest consumer of electricity in
the United States, with the situation not being exactly "great"
in other countries around the globe. What this does to carbon
6
January 3rd, 2012 Published by: VR-Zone
All of this solutions mean only one thing - death to the
power consumer of the datacenter, CRAC (Computer Room
Air Conditioning). Liquid cooling significantly reduces the
current need for heavy investing in the cooling infrastructure,
leaving room for significant computing density improvements.
When it comes to redundancy, it is interesting to know
that liquid cooling actually continues to work even if fans
fail (most common situation for server technicians). Back to
2003, I started to experiment with liquid cooling for the first
time, using components from German Innovatek AG. One of
things that I forgot was to switch two 120mm fans on, so
the system worked for three months (throughout the whole
summer) without the active exchange of heat. Yet, Pentium
4 2.4@3.3GHz and two liquid cooled Gainward GeForce
FX 5900 boards operated at 60C without hassle. Once this
"genius" figured the fans were off, the temperature dropped to
32C for the CPU and 42C for the GPUs. You all remember the
temperatures on those parts if they were air cooled.
If you're a computer enthusiast, and run liquid cooling for as
long as you can remember - today is the day to celebrate -
since you were right. Liquid cooling is better than air, and now
enterprise management can select best performing cooling
If you are designing a new datacenter or remodeling the solutions for the datacenter.
old one, Rack CDU (RCDU, Coolant Distribution Unit) is a
multistage system which either connects high-performance 1U
and 2U servers with the delivery of fresh coolant to be chilled Asus Eee Pad 7-inch tablet
by the rack itself, or by using additional blade chassis system
called Sealed Server Liquid Cooling (SSLC).
expected at CES
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/asus-eee-pad-7-inch-tablet-expected-
The Sealed Server Liquid Cooling blade chassis fits 10 blades at-ces/14410.html
with quad-socket motherboards. Since liquid cooling is much January 3rd, 2012
more efficient than air, you can forget about the common 95W
TDP limitation for the Blade CPUs and go with fully fledged
130W, 150W TDP processors in the same space, increasing
the computing power density by up to 58.7%, as calculated by
Asetek.
Back at CES last year, Asus showed off a device called the Eee
Pad MeMo which later got a 3D suffix tucked onto its name
at Computex, however the device itself never made a retail
appearance. Now rumour has it that Asus will be launching it,
or rather a pair of reworked versions of it at CES.
Back at CES last year, Asus showed off a device called the Eee
Pad MeMo which later got a 3D suffix tucked onto its name
at Computex, however the device itself never made a retail
appearance. Now rumour has it that Asus will be launching it,
or rather a pair of reworked versions of it at CES.
Notebook Italia has not only managed to dig out some brief
specifications, but also a picture of what is said to possibly be
the new device. We're still looking at a 7-inch display and we
can apparently expect a resolution of 1280x800 pixels. The
source claims that there will be a 3D and a non 3D version of
what might still be known as the Eee Pad MeMo.
7
January 3rd, 2012 Published by: VR-Zone
An unnamed former member of the WebOS app development
team said the main problem was not WebOS itself, but
a leadership and engineering failure to secure outside
programmers to develop apps for it.
The processors is rumoured to be a 1.2GHz Qualcomm chip
and it should be paired with 16 to 64GB of flash memory. Other
features include Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity, although this is
hardly surprising. Apparently we can look forward to a 7-inch
Transformer tablet as well (of which the picture could be of), at
least if we're to believe Notebook Italia, although the site has
something of a track record when it comes to Asus leaks and Another issue was the numerous shortcuts taken over the
their authenticity. It's not long to wait, so we'll just have to see nine month development period it took to give life to WebOS,
what happens next week. including leaving app development kits until the last minute,
which were then overhauled twice, which meant programmers
WebOS developers say HP had to relearn how to make apps for the platform several times.
TouchPad was doomed from Other problems included a lack of staff to appropriately deal
start with such a large-scale project, with particular difficulties
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/webos-developers-say-hp-touchpad- finding programmers who really understood WebKit. This
was-doomed-from-start/14408.html shortage led to a situation where the initial launch was
January 3rd, 2012 achieved, but updates and bug fixes could not be developed at
a quick enough pace. When HP bought Palm many of the core
team left, leaving the company with an even bigger manpower
problem on its hands.
Given these blunders with the software it is no surprise that
Developers who worked on WebOS have revealed that HP's the TouchPad failed to compete with Apple and Google based
rival to Apple's iPad, the TouchPad, was doomed from the products. Mercer said that as long as WebOS depends on
start, thanks to a number of design flaws. WebKit it will continue to linger far behind its rivals.
Developers who worked on WebOS have revealed that HP's
rival to Apple's iPad, the TouchPad, was doomed from the
start, thanks to a number of design flaws.
Google's Chrome browser to
overtake Internet Explorer this
Paul Mercer, the former senior director of software at Palm,
which HP acquired for $1.2 billion in 2010, said that his year
company was ahead of its time and just was not able to achieve Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/google-s-chrome-browser-to-overtake-
the ambitious outcome it aimed for with the mobile operating internet-explorer-this-year/14407.html
system. January 3rd, 2012
According to Mercer, who previously worked on a number of
Apple products, one of the fatal mistakes of WebOS was its
reliance on the open-source software engine WebKit, which Google's Chrome web browser will overtake Microsoft's
ultimately slowed down apps, making it less appealing to opt Internet Explorer (IE) this year, becoming the most used
for WebOS over faster rivals like iOS and Android. browser across the world, according to figures by StatCounter.
8
January 3rd, 2012 Published by: VR-Zone
Google's Chrome web browser will overtake Microsoft's the memory. We also flashed the R4E's latest 0001 bios, which
Internet Explorer (IE) this year, becoming the most used has further PCIe 3.0 signal tweaks for the HD7970.
browser across the world, according to figures by StatCounter.
Currently Chrome has a market share of 27 percent, putting
it in second place behind IE, which still rules a healthy 38
percent of the industry.
By June or July of 2012, however, Chrome is expected to
outgrow Microsoft's former glory. This will be particularly
bad considering the year Chrome launched in, 2008, saw IE
dominate the market with a 70 percent market share.
Mozilla's Firefox, which was once the most popular alternative
to IE, has dropped more than five percent since last year to
25.27 percent, putting it in third place behind Chrome.
The remaining web browsers are significantly behind the
others, with Safari gaining a small increase from 4.79 percent
to over six percent, and Opera coming in fifth place with nearly
two percent.
The figures show how quickly and easily the market can change Results:
when new competition enters, especially if the established 3DMark 11 v1.03 Performance Preset (single card scores
companies fail to adapt and push out better products. P9532)
AMD Radeon HD 7970 Tri-Fire
Results
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/amd-radeon-hd-7970-tri-fire-
results/14406.html
January 3rd, 2012
We are still missing one card for quadfire (Kim Jong-un aides
probably hijacked the package for his Christmas present), but
till then, here are some 3-way Crossfire results... 3DMark 11 v1.03 Extreme Preset (single card scores X3219)
Test Setup:
As the software voltage tool we used for our 1.26GHz core
overclock yesterday didn't work with multiple cards, we
clocked all the cards to 1100Mhz on the core and 1500Mhz on
9
January 3rd, 2012 Published by: VR-Zone
Unigine Heaven 2.5 (single card scores 78.3fps)
Battlefield 3 (DX11) 1080p Ultra Preset
Going Hunting Single Player Level Fraps Runthrough
Verdict:
Computemark (single card scores 6951)
With such stellar performance already on 3 cards, we really
can't wait for our 4th card to arrive and extended voltage
options to be available for multiple cards! A quick check on
our power meter showed around 900W power usage while in
Battlefield 3 (quite the GPU waller) - which again outclasses
previous generation cards. AMD have really shut the door on
its competitiors this time...
AMD Postpones Radeon HD
7950 Until February
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/amd-postpones-radeon-hd-7950-until-
february/14404.html
10
January 3rd, 2012 Published by: VR-Zone
January 3rd, 2012 Front of Box - one of the nicer boxes around
When AMD pushed the introduction of the Radeon HD 7970
from January 9, 2012 to December 22, 2011, the only that
actually launched were the reviews by selected press. Now,
AMD is making sure the same thing does not happen with
7950.
By all standards, the introduction of Southern Islands GPU
architecture is proving to be a success: the first card, Radeon
HD 7970 launched on December 22, 2011 with the worldwide
availability coming next week (on the original launch date:
January 9, 2012).
However, while the Radeon HD 7970 is delighting us with Back of Box - Jonathan 'Fatal1ty' Wendel's face only appears
the performance achieved and fantastic overclocks on air (we once here and his endorsement message. We also noticed
cannot wait to see the water-blocks and LN2 cooling results), an alarming lack of any technical specs like DAC/ADC SNR
this was the first paper launch in ages. For reasons unknown, rating or sample rate/resolution - which even Taiwanese
AMD introduced the part without actual hardware availability. motherboard makers are eager to boast about on their Realtek
Knowing that this came from the company that openly based implementations.
criticized its competitors in the past for doing so, we wondered
is AMD planning another paper launch in the form of value
part, the Radeon HD 7950.
Not anymore: according to an e-mail from AMD, the company
is making sure that Radeon HD 7950 launches on the same
date as the retail availability, which is 1st week of February.
That's right, no 7950 coming on January 9, 2012.
In a way, this is an appropriate delay as well since NVIDIA
is widely expected to introduce its GK104, its first part based
on 28nm Kepler architecture in the last week of January or in
early February.
From the looks of it, even though we're still going through
the hangover of New Years' party, 2012 is looking even more
exciting on the GPU front. It looks like 28nm process from
TSMC is nothing short of brilliant.
Quick Start leaflet and Driver CD
Quick Look: Sound Blaster
Recon3D Fatal1ty Professional
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/quick-look-sound-blaster-recon3d-
fatal1ty-professional/14401.html
January 3rd, 2012
Almost three months ago back in September of 2011, Creative
announced their Sound Core3D™ "quad core" chipset, and it
has since featured in their latest gaming focused sound cards
and headsets as well as on motherboards like the ASRock
X79 Extreme9. We got the Sound Blaster Recon3D Fatal1ty
Professional PCIe sound card in our labs today to see if it
pleases the audiophilles or the hardcore gamer groups. Beamforming Microphone Array
11
January 3rd, 2012 Published by: VR-Zone
Hackers are working on sending their own satellites into orbit
around the Earth as part of an effort to combat the rising threat
of internet censorship, and are also planning to put an amateur
astronaut on the moon.
Hackers are working on sending their own satellites into orbit
around the Earth as part of an effort to combat the rising threat
of internet censorship.
The Hackerspace Global Grid was revealed at the Chaos
Communication Congress in Berlin. The proposals include
developing and launching satellites in addition to a grid of
The Card - Metal housing with a plastic window. Uses a PCIe x1 ground stations for tracking them. The idea is to have the
interface, which is good as legacy PCI slots are almost extinct ground stations built by individuals or small groups, dividing
the cost and control.
"The first goal is an uncensorable internet in space. Let's take
the internet out of the control of terrestrial entities," said
hacktivist Nick Farr, who put out a call for contributions to the
project in August.
The major obstacle to this endeavour is funding. Hobbyists
have previously managed to get small satellites into orbit,
but they are usually unreliable and difficult to track, which
would be no good for the internet. Other obstacles include
the technical difficulties of low-orbit versus geostationary
satellites and the potential for governments to interfere with
and disable satellites.
Colour coded outputs for 5.1 audio, 600ohm amped
headphone jack and TOSLINK Optical In/Out ports
Three prototype ground stations are being planned for the
first half of 2012. The group also hopes to give away working
models at the next Chaos Communication Congress, with the
aim to keep ground station costs around €100, making it
Hackers to build satellites to affordable for many people to participate in this space project.
combat internet censorship
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/hackers-to-build-satellites-to-combat-
The hackers suggested they would even like to put an amateur
internet-censorship/14405.html
astronaut on the moon within the next 23 years, though how
January 3rd, 2012
feasible this is remains in question, particularly given the
technical and monetary barriers, as well as the potential safety
threat.
12
January 3rd, 2012 Published by: VR-Zone
The idea of making space open to more than just government
agencies is an interesting and welcome thought, however, and The 'Generation 7.5' graphics core in Haswell is, as the
could pave the way to some of humanity's greatest triumphs naming convention hints, a 'point upgrade' of the seventh
and discoveries. generation Ivy Bridge graphics engine. Up to 20 execution
units, each 128 bits wide, are to be supported, and these are
supposedly enhanced with a new GPU compute architecture.
The other major additions include a new internal GPU cache,
Haswell graphics hierarchical Z, as well as improved encode & decode pipelines
expectations: A quantum leap for more hardware formats.
or just another small step A very interesting productivity enhancement is the processor's
forward? ability to simultaneously manage external display connection
both by its own integrated graphics and the external PCIe
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/haswell-graphics-expectations-a-
GPU over up to two displays, avoiding the need for external
quantum-leap-or-just-another-small-step-forward-/14399.html
switching hardware.
January 3rd, 2012
How about the performance? It seems that the initial
performance expectations aren't that high - compared to
each matching Ivy Bridge graphics level, we're talking of
maybe 20% average performance improvement. Two possible
explanations come to mind, one being that Intel team is happy
enough with the Ivy Bridge graphics speed-up, and focuses
As the Ivy Bridge processors from Intel comes out four months instead on features and power saving in Haswell (remember
from now, its graphics, with reportedly double the Sandy the power-focus on Haswell from their IDF keynote?), while
Bridge GPU performance, would have an impact on entry level the other one is that the actual speed-up is to be way higher,
discrete GPUs. Will Haswell continue with the same major especially in the high-graphics GT3 version, and that future
performance jump, or just some moderate improvements? driver improvements should help as well.
By now, we know that Ivy Bridge graphics, integrated in the
CPU, will be quite a refresh compared to the current Sandy We'll look more into the possible additional features and
Bridge capabilities. The performance, DX11 compatibility, and capabilities expected from Haswell generation graphics over
high resolution multi-display capability should satisfy most time, however we also have to keep in mind that graphics is one
mainstream users' needs, somewhat reducing the entry-level capability where AMD has very strong credentials, including
discrete GPU market at that point. integrating it on the CPU. If, say, Llano graphics is roughly 2x
that of Sandy Bridge (i.e. similar performance as Ivy Bridge),
A year later, in early 2013, the next generation Haswell yet Haswell is another 20% or 70%, depending on the version,
platform should see the light of the day, again first in the that would roughly match the performance of AMD 'Trinity'
mainstream PC and mobile arena. Haswell will again include graphics, which is, however, due much earlier - at about the
grapghics enhancements, but how far are those likely to go? same time as the Ivy Bridge itself. On the other hand, AMD
Here we share some insights on the graphics side of Intel's next is unlikely to have a Fusion integration with a Bulldozer
major X86 PC microarchitecture revision. follow-on on the high end desktop yet by early 2013, so the
only competition that would beat Haswell at the time in the
GPU department is another mainstream follow-on to 'Trinity',
maybe in 20 nm GloFo process?
AMD Radeon HD 7970 Voltage
Mod - 1.26GHz flying on air
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/amd-radeon-hd-7970-voltage-
mod--1.26ghz-flying-on-air/14398.html
January 3rd, 2012
One week ago, Santa Claus brought us the red themed
AMD Radeon HD 7970, which practically smoked previous
generation cards and showed great overclocking headroom.
13
January 3rd, 2012 Published by: VR-Zone
For our first feature in 2012, we sacrificed our holiday
weekend to bring you an exclusive look at some benchmark
results achieved with a slight voltage bump and core
clocks raised to nearly 1.26GHz. Stay tuned also for our
record breaking 4-way Crossfire tests which should be
done this upcoming week! Update: "Lousy" Furmark Results
(settings: http://imgur.com/WAuyP) spotted by sharp eyed
viewers - even on the other benchies and BF3 (which walls the
CPU to 99%), didn't see the temps go above the magical 66
degrees (toasty Singapore ambient), measured by onboard i2c
sensor and ma fingers.
If you recall our Radeon HD 7970 reference board review not
too long ago, we got our card to overclock to 1125MHz core and
1500Mhz memory, limited by a bios controlled clock ceiling
and lack of voltage mod tools. Things changed on this New
Year's weekend though...
With core voltage bumped from 1.15v to 1.25v using publicly
available software and a special bios (9th Jan reveal), we got
the core clock speed up to 1267MHz
At 100% fan speed and overvolted, the GPU temps were still
only a lukewarm 66 degrees celcius - which implies that the
reference cooling solution could probably handle a lot more
voltage
Update 2/1/12: These were the latest Furmark 1.9.2 Xtreme
Test Setup: burn-in settings used (http://imgur.com/WAuyP) - different
card but same settings. Even on the other benchies and BF3
(which walls the CPU to 99%), didn't see the temps go above
the magical 66 degrees (toasty Singapore ambient), measured
by onboard i2c sensor and ma fingers.
3DMark 11 1.03 Performance Preset (stock is P8227)
14
January 3rd, 2012 Published by: VR-Zone
ComputeMark (stock is 5920 marks)
3DMark 11 1.03 Extreme Preset (stock is X2764)
The 28nm process and new GCN architecture have really done
wonders for the performance and frequency headroom (VR-
Zone Legend Shamino has achieved way better - 1.7GHz+
on LN2). Considering that the the temperatures were still in
the 60s on full load, we simply can't wait for the software
controlled voltage ceiling (currently 1.25v on the software
we used) to be raised to push our clocks higher!. If you
have a 7970 and good soldering skills, visit Shamino's Lair
at kingpincooling forums for his guide on the HD 7970
Unigine Heaven 2.5 (stock is 69.6fps) measuring points and hardware vmods.
STAY TUNED FOR OUR POTENTIALLY RECORD
BREAKING HD7970 4-WAY CROSSFIRE FEATURE THIS
UPCOMING WEEK!
Collins Dictionary now
available online
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/collins-dictionary-now-available-
online/14396.html
January 3rd, 2012
Famous English dictionary by Collins is now avaliable
online. The new beta website is designed to facilitate your
referencing needs. Updates are on the way to expand the range
of definitions and translated languages.
Collins English Dictionary is the first dictionary to publish
their contents online. Previously available with a major
publisher, the beta website allows user to search for words
to match some 120,000 entries available for free, including
a list of possible leads for misspelled words. It supports
15
January 3rd, 2012 Published by: VR-Zone
translations to French, German and Spanish, available via
the tabs above the entry field. With an expanding range of
the word definitions, the online dictionary will be adding
another 100,000 entries by March, along with translations to
35 different languages. For a year and a half, the Scotland-
based team had been preparing the online publication. Head
of digital at HarperCollins, Alex Brown, said: “We’ve brought
together the web designers’ creativity with our own experience
of language and how it’s used to create a really nice, user
friendly but sharply designed website.”
Sapphire Readies HD 7970
with 1335 MHz GPU Clock
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/sapphire-readies-hd-7970-with-1335-
mhz-gpu-clock/14397.html
January 3rd, 2012
We tend to be skeptical about AMD or NVIDIA claiming stellar
overclocking capabilities of their upcoming GPUs, but this
time, it seems AMD wasn't playing the same old PR games.
Sapphire is readying a non-reference design HD 7970 graphics
card that boasts of 1335 MHz GPU clock speed. Out of the box!
You read that right, 1335 MHz GPU core clock speed, out of
the box! A leaked company document belonging to AMD's
biggest add-in board (AIB) partner, Sapphire, disclosed details Both "Atomic RX" and "Atomic WC" have the same exact
such as clock-speeds, of pretty much every non-reference clock speeds - 1335 MHz core, 5735 MHz (1433 MHz actual)
design Radeon HD 7970 graphics card that company has, in memory. The "Atomic RX" could be an air-cooled model,
the works. These include Sapphire's using brand markers - while the "Atomic WC" could be a liquid-cooled one. Sapphire
Atomic, Toxic, FLEX, Vapor, and Dual-Fan. The cards that will most likely use a closed-loop, pre-fitted water-cooling
caught our eyes are "Atomic RX" and "Atomic WC". solution.
Other variants include Toxic 3G, with 1125 MHz core,
5600 MHz (1400 MHz actual) memory; FLEX 6G, with a
flexible display output configuration of six mini-DisplayPort
connectors, AMD reference clock speeds of 925/5500 MHz
(core/memory effective), but with a whopping 6 GB of memory
on board; VaporX 3G with 1010/5500 MHz (core/memory
effective), Dual-Fan 3G, with a cost-effective double-fan cooler
and AMD reference speeds; and "Da Original", which is the
vanilla card that sticks completely to AMD reference board
design. Boy, are we excited.
Intel to offer seventh mobile 7-
series chipset
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/intel-to-offer-seventh-mobile-7-series-
chipset/14395.html
January 3rd, 2012
16
January 3rd, 2012 Published by: VR-Zone
Quite unexpectedly we got our hands on details of a seventh for the notebook makers than Anti-Theft technology and
mobile chipset for Intel's upcoming Ivy Bridge processors, a additional SATA ports and PCI Express lanes.
model that has us wondering what Intel is playing at. The
chipset appears to be another budget model, yet it offers some
additional features compared to chipsets with higher model Elpida samples 4Gbit Wide IO
numbers. Mobile RAM
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/elpida-samples-4gbit-wide-io-mobile-
ram/14394.html
Quite unexpectedly we got our hands on details of a seventh
January 3rd, 2012
mobile chipset for Intel's upcoming Ivy Bridge processors, a
model that has us wondering what Intel is playing at. The
chipset appears to be another budget model, yet it offers some
additional features compared to chipsets with higher model 2012 is so far looking like it'll be a great year for mobile
numbers. devices with plenty of quad core ARM implementations
The chipset in question is the HM70 and it appears to be arriving, higher resolution screens expected, faster flash
something of a request from OEMs as it's something of a mix storage memory at ever increasing capacities and now, super-
between the UM77 and the HM75. For starters it only has four fast, low power memory, at least if Elpida has anything to do
lanes of PCI Express 2.0, the same as the UM77 chipset, yet it with it. The company has announced that it has started to ship
has support for two USB 3.0 ports, a feature lacking entirely samples of its new Wide IO Mobile RAM as well as its Mobile
from the HM75. That said, it still only has half the USB 3.0 DDR3 RAM in 4Gbit capacities.
ports of the other 7-series chipsets. Intel has also cut the total
number of USB 2.0 ports down to a mere six, again the same
as the UM77 chipset. 2012 is so far looking like it'll be a great year for mobile
devices with plenty of quad core ARM implementations
arriving, higher resolution screens expected, faster flash
storage memory at ever increasing capacities and now, super-
fast, low power memory, at least if Elpida has anything to do
with it. The company has announced that it has started to ship
samples of its new Wide IO Mobile RAM as well as its Mobile
DDR3 RAM in 4Gbit capacities.
Let's start with the Mobile DDR3 or LPDDR3 as it's also
known as (not to be confused with Low Voltage DDR3) which
is the next generation of "standard" DRAM to be used in
mobile devices and it's a simple evolution from LPDDR2.
We're looking at a doubling in the data rate from 800MHz to
1600MHz, or from 3.2GB/s to 6.4GB/s if you prefer. LPDDR3
still uses a fairly narrow 32-bit bus and it will be available in
sizes of 512, 1024 and 2048MB down the line, although initial
sample shipments will be 512MB. LPDDR3 can of course
be configured in dual-channel which effectively doubles the
bandwidth and this is something we'd expect to see in some
high-end tablets where PCB space restrictions aren't as much
of a concern as they are in smartphones.
So what about Wide IO Mobile RAM? Well, as the name
As we move down the feature list we find that the HM70 only
suggests it has a much wider bus than regular DRAM, in fact
sports four SATA ports of which only one is SATA 6Gbps, once
its 512-bit wide, that's 16 times wider than that of LPDDR3 in
more mimicking the UM77. However, there's no support for
single channel mode. However, the operating speed is a mere
RAID or Smart Response, something it shares with the HM75
200MHz, but thanks to the wide interface data transfer speeds
and HM76. Almost other features are present though with
still hit 12.8GB/s. Elpida claims that the vastly lower clock
the exception of Anti-Theft technology and the ones intended
speed of Wide IO Mobile RAM allows for up to a 50 percent
for corporate and business notebooks. We're not sure why
power saving compared to today's LPDDR2. Just as with its
Intel would do a chipset without support for its Anti-Theft
LPDDR3, we'll see capacities of 512, 1024 and 2048MB, but
technology as this seems rather backwards.
with initial shipments being limited to 512MB modules.
What we don't know if package size or cost, but we'd guess that
The interesting thing here will be once clock speeds increase,
we're looking at pricing similar to the HM75, so somewhere
as even fairly minor increases in the speed of Wide IO Mobile
around the US$40 mark. A very peculiar addition indeed,
RAM (they really need to come up with a catchier name
but a chipset we have a feeling we'll be seeing in a lot more
though) should result in big performance improvements.
notebooks than the HM75, despite its omissions as we have
Hopefully we'll see a widespread adoption of Wide IO Mobile
a feeling that USB 3.0 will be a more appealing selling point
RAM, but it's not clear how easy it is to add support for it for
17
January 3rd, 2012 Published by: VR-Zone
the SoC manufacturers, but it's clear that it would require a January 3rd, 2012
different memory interface than what is widely used today.
Lenovo gives us a sneak peek We've managed to dig out a few details of an upcoming mini-
of its upcoming IdeaPad S110 ITX motherboard from Asus featuring Intel's Atom D2500
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/lenovo-gives-us-a-sneak-peek-of-its- processor and although this isn't the most exciting platform in
upcoming-ideapad-s110/14393.html the world, Asus has created something a little bit different. In
January 3rd, 2012 fact, anyone looking at building a home server with some fancy
features might just want to consider this board.
We've managed to dig out a few details of an upcoming mini-
If a teaser video posted by Lenovo on YouTube is anything to
ITX motherboard from Asus featuring Intel's Atom D2500
go by, Lenovo should be one of the first companies to launch
processor and although this isn't the most exciting platform in
a Cedar Trail-M netbook, although Lenovo seems to have
the world, Asus has created something a little bit different. In
ditched the term netbook in favour of "mini notebook". The
fact, anyone looking at building a home server with some fancy
IdeaPad S110 should feature the new Atom N2600 processor
features might just want to consider this board.
as well as a few other additions that most netbooks don't have.
The model name is D25NM10-I/CSM and it's quite different
from the boards we've seen from ASRock, as Asus is targeting
If a teaser video posted by Lenovo on YouTube is anything to quite a different market segment. In reality this ought to be an
go by, Lenovo should be one of the first companies to launch industrial PC motherboard judging by the fact that it has an
a Cedar Trail-M netbook, although Lenovo seems to have LVDS connector, five serial ports (of which two are RS422/485
ditched the term netbook in favour of "mini notebook". The compatible) and even a pin header for a parallel port. However,
IdeaPad S110 should feature the new Atom N2600 processor Asus has also included a PCI Express x1 and a mini PCI Express
as well as a few other additions that most netbooks don't have. expansion slot, a DVI port and a pair of Gigabit Ethernet ports
The video gives away the fact that the IdeaPad S110 will come making this an interesting solution for a home server.
in a choice of red, blue, white or black. It has a 10.1-inch screen, Other features include an on-board DC-DC converter, 5.1-
but this is apparently an HD resolution screen, although by channel audio, a pair of SATA ports, a total of eight USB 2.0
this we presume Lenovo means 1366x768 at the most. It also ports (four via two headers), a PS/2 port, a D-sub connector
comes with an optional 720p webcam, USB 3.0 connectivity, and a pin header for S/PDIF out. Sadly we don't have a picture
Wi-Fi and optional 3G connectivity. of the board, but we can imagine it being a fairly cramped
A few other features were also dug out thanks to some helpful board considering the amount of features Asus has squeezed
online retailers that have already listed the IdeaPad S110 for in. Intel has finally allowed for up to 4GB of 1066MHz DDR3
sale and as such we know we can expect 1GB of RAM and RAM to be supported by its Atom processors and this further
a 320GB hard drive as standard. A bit sting in our opinion makes this a decent little server board.
especially considering how cheap RAM is these days, but The CPU is passively cooled and with an external power
typical for a netbook. Lenovo also claims that the IdeaPad S110 adapter there's no noise from the PSU either. The only
weighs in at 1.15kg and measures in at 16mm thick/thin and limitation as far as a server is concerned is the two SATA ports,
that it comes with "long battery life for extended use" without but at least a PCI Express RAID card could be connected to the
going into any details. PCI Express slot if need be. The question is how much Asus is
We managed to dig up some official pricing and at least in planning on charging for this board, as we have a feeling it'll
Canada the list price excluding tax is CAD$299.99 (S$382) be quite expensive due to all the industrial PC features, but we
which isn't terrible, but one should take into consideration that might be wrong here. No word on when it'll be available, but
Intel is offering its Cedar Trail Atom processors at a much we'd expect it to arrive shortly.
more affordable price than the previous generation with an
Atom N2600 having an Intel list price of a mere US$42 which
should be compared to US$86 for either of the Atom N550 or
N570, a US$46 price difference that would be directly reflected
in the price of the actual device.
Asus to launch Atom D2500
mini-ITX motherboard
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/asus-to-launch-atom-d2500-mini-itx-
motherboard/14392.html
18
January 5th, 2012 Published by: VR-Zone
VR-Zone.com | Stuff for the Geeks!
in terms of what the user would notice in terms of delay, yet
VR-Zone | Stuff for the Geeks is a bi-weekly publication big in terms of power saved.
covering the latest gadgets and stuff for the geeks.
An added bonus is that the host controller PHY would also be
powered down, saving further power. The problem here is that
SATA-IO announces DevSleep it wouldn't work with today's SATA controller, as a DevSleep
side-band signal would be needed to allow the host and device
for reduced power draw of to communicate as to when to go to sleep and when to wake
up. As such it's not likely that we'll see DevSleep support in
SATA devices any SATA devices this year, although the information provided
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/sata-io-announces-devsleep-for- by the SATA-IO doesn't really explain what is needed to add
reduced-power-draw-of-sata-devices/14451.html the extra side-band signalling, so it's entirely possible that this
January 5th, 2012 is a very minor addition that could easily be implemented in
current SATA hardware.
Google drops Intel in favour of
ARM for Google TV
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/google-drops-intel-in-favour-of-arm-
We seem to be living in the age of power frugality when it
for-google-tv/14450.html
comes to mobile computing devices and although this is by no
January 5th, 2012
means a bad thing in most cases, we're starting to wonder if the
technology companies aren't looking in the wrong direction
sometimes. Now the SATA-IO is the latest organization to
join with a new power saving feature called DevSleep which is In a surprise to no-one move, Google or rather Marvell has
meant to help reduce the power of SATA devices. come clean on the fact that Google TV will be moving away
from Intel and onto ARM. The first new Google TV boxes
should be based on the Marvell Armada 1500 HD media SoC
We seem to be living in the age of power frugality when it
and should make a debut at CES next week.
comes to mobile computing devices and although this is by no
means a bad thing in most cases, we're starting to wonder if the
technology companies aren't looking in the wrong direction In a surprise to no-one move, Google or rather Marvell has
sometimes. Now the SATA-IO is the latest organization to come clean on the fact that Google TV will be moving away
join with a new power saving feature called DevSleep which is from Intel and onto ARM. The first new Google TV boxes
meant to help reduce the power of SATA devices. should be based on the Marvell Armada 1500 HD media SoC
According to Microsoft and Intel the two most power hungry and should make a debut at CES next week.
devices in a notebook is the hard drive and the display and it's The Armada 1500 (also known as the 88DE3100) is a brand
clear that the SATA-IO is trying to address the first one of these new SoC from Marvell and an up to date version of the older
two categories. What DevSleep enables is the ability for a SATA Armada 1000, a chip that found its way into some Blu-ray
device such as an SSD or hard drive to more or less power itself players among other things. The Armada 1500 sports a custom
off entirely when not in use. This is quite different from the PJ4B dual core ARM v6/7 processor designed by Marvell
various slumber modes currently available for SATA devices. which is said to be Cortex-A9 compatible. Marvell claims
One problem with DevSleep is that new device and host 2.61 DMIPS per MHz per core, somewhat faster than the 2.5
controllers would need to be made that supports DevSleep, DMIPS for a standard Cortex-A9 implementation. According
as the PHY and other parts of the storage device would be to the spec sheet, each core is clocked at 1.2GHz which gives
completely powered off when the device is in DevSleep mode. us a performance of just over 6200 DMIPS. Marvell has also
In DevSleep mode a SATA device is meant to draw less than included Neon support and support for Intel WMMX in the
5mW, yet have a response time of less than 20ms. This is a lot Armada 1500.
quicker than resuming a notebook from standby and should Marvell has also added a 3D graphics core to the Armada 1500,
equate to a similar power draw. A SATA device today would although this is not an in-house design, as Marvell has licensed
draw in the region of 50-100mW in its lowest slumber mode, the GC1000 from Vivante. According to Anandtech this is an
yet still take 10ms to respond, so the trade-off here is very small OpenGL-ES 1.1/2.0 port with a core clock of 750MHz, but
1
January 5th, 2012 Published by: VR-Zone
the details are fairly thin with regards to how this GPU core A file-sharing organisation has gained official recognition
compares to that seen in other Cortex-A9 SoC's. Marvell has in Sweden as a religion, an unusual move that could have
of course also included its own Qdeo post processing engine repercussions on the debate about the illegal downloading of
with supports per-pixel 3D noise reduction and de-interlacing, files.
scaling and a wide range of other post processing features. A file-sharing organisation has gained official recognition
in Sweden as a religion, an unusual move that could have
repercussions on the debate about the illegal downloading of
files.
The Church of Kopimism considers “kopyacting”, or file-
sharing, to be a religious service, despite most people seeing it
Other hardware features include support for 32-bit DDR3
as little more than a digital act.
800MHz memory, support for various types of Flash memory,
HDMI 1.4 support, SATA 3.0 (we're not sure if Marvell refers
to 3Gbps or 6Gbps here), 10/100Mbit Ethernet, SDIO, USB Kopimism gained recognition as a religion just before
2.0 connectivity and interestingly support for digital video Christmas after applying three times to the Swedish
input. In the latter case it seems like Marvell is hoping for its government agency Kammarkollegiet. Not only is file-sharing
Armada 1500 to end up in some TVs and as such it would need considered its central sacrament, the CTRL+C and CTRL
to have HDMI inputs, although it will be interesting to see if +V shortcuts for copying and pasting are viewed as sacred
anyone will create a device that will allow for recording from symbols.
the digital input.
Marvell has also included support for a ton of codecs in its
VMeta video engine and it can decode two streams at once.
It handles just about every format out there including High
Profile H.264, VC-1 Advanced profile, DivX-HD, VP6/8 in HD,
Real Video 9/10 up to 1080p and a bunch of other formats.
We should point out that there's support for Blu-ray 3D video,
although we don't expect this to be a feature of any new
Google TV products, but it should as such also handle 3D TV
broadcasts. On the audio side of things the Armada 1500 will
handle multi-channel Dolby and DTS up to 7.1-channels.
Beyond Google TV, Marvell is also claiming support for
Android and various Linux operating systems. The planned
implementations are as we've mentioned Google TV, smart
TVs, set top boxes of various kinds, Blu-ray players and all
kinds of media players. Marvell appears to have a well featured
solution here, albeit maybe not quite as flexible as an x86
The group is run by Isak Gerson, a 19-year-old student of
setup, but vastly cheaper. Marvell's own demo system that you
philosophy, who is now the spiritual leader of Kopimi, the
can see pictured above might not look that impressive, but
people who follow the tenets of this new religion, which
remember that this isn't what Google's partners' products will
does not explicitly support illegal file-sharing, but the general
look like. Time will tell of Google TV 2.0 will be a success or not,
free exchange of information. There are likely millions of
but if the price can be brought down to something much more
unknowing adherents of Kopimism throughout the world.
reasonable than the first generation hardware and if Google
can put together slightly better software, then we see no reason
bar that of Google being shut out by the content providers that While this might sound like something akin to the idea of
the new Google TV boxes shouldn't be a success. the Jedi religion, it could have a monumental effect on the
legality of various laws against illegal file-sharing, as internet
Swedish file-sharing group cuts and website blocks could be seen as religious persecution,
a violation of a fundamental human right.
recognised as a religion
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/swedish-file-sharing-group-recognised-
as-a-religion/14449.html File-sharing remains one of the big debates of modern society,
January 5th, 2012 with widespread opposition to various proposed laws that
many see as internet censorship. Political groups like the
Pirate Party have formed in recent years, and now advocates
of file-sharing can add the divine to their list of supporters.
2
January 5th, 2012 Published by: VR-Zone
Apple hires Adobe executive AMD Radeon HD 7970 Quad
for iAd position CrossfireX: The Stock Air
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/apple-hires-adobe-executive-for-iad-
position/14447.html
Cooling Champion
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/amd-radeon-hd-7970-quad-crossfirex-
January 5th, 2012
the-stock-air-cooling-champion/14444.html
January 5th, 2012
Reports suggest that Apple has hired Todd Teresi, an Adobe
executive, for its iAd advertising platform, an ironic move Armed with only our fists, we slayed the murderous fire
considering the companies' past rivalry. breathing dragon and rescued the princess (actually the last
HD 7970 to complete our 4-way quadfire feature). This time,
Reports suggest that Apple has hired Todd Teresi, an Adobe
we have also included 5760x1080 Eyefinity tests in Battlefield
executive, for its iAd advertising platform, an ironic move
3 and DiRT3, complete with videos!
considering the companies' past rivalry.
Test Setup:
This time we've upgraded our CPU cooling to a XSPC RX360
Teresi previously held the role of vice-president of Adobe's
kit and clocked it higher at 4.8GHz (LinX 4gb 10 runs stable).
media solutions group and is now working as vice-president
Unfortunately we still couldn't get any of the available
of iAd, despite the lack of a formal announcement of the
overclocking tools to set voltages or core clocks beyond
employment shift.
1125MHz on simultaneously all 4 cards without running into
BSODs or weird artifacts, so we were forced to use the
The position opened up after the founder of Quattro Wireless, restrictive AMD Overdrive to run our cards @ 1100/1500MHz
the firm Apple acquired and turned into iAd, stepped down,
suggesting all was not well in Apple's mobile advertising
division.
The move is particularly interesting given strained relations
between the two companies after Steve Jobs dismissed Flash
as outdated and insecure.
Apple launched iAd in 2010 in an attempt to monopolise on
the potential ad revenue that could be made from the booming
smartphone and tablet sectors, an area that Google has been
quite successful in. Some believe iAd has failed to achieve what
Apple set out to do, however, with criticisms over its high cost
and limited exposure.
“Charging premium prices and reaching only Apple devices is a
much harder sell,” said EMarket analyst Noah Elkin, according
to Bloomberg. “That has been a huge stumbling block.”
This might explain why Apple brought Teresi on board, as
he has extensive experience in the media and advertising
sector, working for both Adobe's digital publishing business
and Yahoo's publishing sales. Whether or not he can turn iAd
into the number one mobile advertising business remains to
be seen.
3
January 5th, 2012 Published by: VR-Zone
3DMark Vantage Performance Preset
(http://3dmark.com/3dmv/3788612)
Unigine Heaven Benchmark (hwbot.org Submission)
The Tests:
3DMark 11 v1.03 Extreme Preset
(http://3dmark.com/3dm11/2480832)
LuxMark OpenCL Benchmark Tool (single card scores 19238)
3DMark 11 v1.03 Performance Preset
(http://3dmark.com/3dm11/2480813)
4
January 5th, 2012 Published by: VR-Zone
The 14-inch ThinkPad T430u offers the portability of an
ultrabook with a number of useful business features, such
Lenovo announces ThinkPad as Intel's Small Business Advantage productivity and security
Hybrid laptop and business tools. Users can choose from a variety of Intel Core processors,
Intel integrated or Nvidia graphics, and an SSD or HDD. It also
ultrabook has a fast boot and resume feature and a battery life of up to
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/lenovo-announces-thinkpad-hybrid- six hours.
laptop-and-business-ultrabook/14446.html
January 5th, 2012
The X1 Hybrid will be available in the second quarter for
around $1,599, while the T430u will come out in the third
quarter for roughly $849.
Broadcom launches its first
Lenovo has announced its first ThinkPad Hybrid laptop
802.11ac Gigabit 5G WiFi
and first business ultrabook, combining portability with chips
enterprise-class features and power-saving options. Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/broadcom-launches-its-first-802.11ac-
Lenovo has announced its first ThinkPad Hybrid laptop and gigabit-5g-wifi-chips/14445.html
first business ultrabook. January 5th, 2012
The 13.3-inch ThinkPad X1 Hybrid features many
improvements over its predecessor, the X1, such as double the
CPU speed and quadruple the GPU performance.
It's already been five years since 802.11n arrived, although
One of the more interesting elements of the X1 Hybrid is
back then in its draft standard and things have progressed
its instant media mode, which doubles the battery life to 10
slowly since then, although some 450Mbps hardware started
hours and effectively gives the laptop some PC functionality,
to show up last year. This year looks set to be the launch for
explaining the 'Hybrid' name. This mode, which can be
the 802.11ac standard, also known as 5G WiFi which promises
accessed instantly by clicking an icon on the homescreen,
Gigabit speeds, better coverage, improved reliability and lower
utilises a Qualcomm dual-core processor, up to 16GB of RAM,
power usage and Broadcom looks set to be one of the first chip
and a custom Linux-based operating system. The battery can
makers for the new standard.
also be charged up to 80 percent in half an hour.
It's already been five years since 802.11n arrived, although
The X1 Hybrid comes with some business features like
back then in its draft standard and things have progressed
encrypted hard drives, remote management support, and a
slowly since then, although some 450Mbps hardware started
fingerprint reader, in addition to having everything required
to show up last year. This year looks set to be the launch for
for voice and video conferencing.
the 802.11ac standard, also known as 5G WiFi which promises
Gigabit speeds, better coverage, improved reliability and lower
5
January 5th, 2012 Published by: VR-Zone
power usage and Broadcom looks set to be one of the first chip
makers for the new standard.
We've already written about the 802.11ac standard, although
that was nearly a year ago and things seem to have progressed
quicker than originally anticipated. To do a quick recap and
catch-up 802.11ac will operate on the 5GHz band, although
originally it was said to operate at 6GHz and below, although
no specific frequency was given. By now it's clear that 802.11ac
will be using the same 5GHz band as 802.11a/n, although
with some significant differences. For starters 802.11ac will
use 80 and 160MHz channel width compared to a maximum
of 40MHz for 802.11n.
Next up we have the BCM4352 and BCM43526 which supports
two streams and speeds of up to 867Mbps. The feature set
is the same here, although the BCM4352 has a PCI Express
2.0 interface, while the BCM43526 gets to make do with USB
2.0 and clearly will never reach its advertised speeds due
to the USB 2.0 bottle neck. That said, it's possible that the
BCM43526 will still perform better than the BCM43516 in
some environments thanks to its dual antenna configuration.
The BCM43526 is intended for use in PCs, TVs and other
A/V products according to Broadcom, while the BCM4352 is
802.11ac also supports twice as many MIMO spatial streams intended for PCs, access points, routers and internet gateways.
as 802.11n (8 vs. 4), an increase of the QAM (Quadrature The fourth and final product is the BCM4360 which supports
amplitude modulation) count from 64 to 256 and it three streams and speeds of up to 1.3Gbps. Interestingly it's
will support multi-user MIMO which allows for further still only using 80MHz per channel, so it appears that we'll
increased performance depending on the configuration of the have to wait for 160MHz per channel to make an appearance
transmitting and receiving end. Not all devices will support either from one of Broadcom's competitors, or at a later point
Gigabit speed, as smaller devices are likely to end up much in time. The BCM4360 uses a PCI Express 2.0 interface and is
slower than that due to the inability to fit enough antennas. intended for use in PCs, access points, routers and gateways.
This is one of the downsides of 802.11ac, as to reach really
high speeds, at least two, preferably three or four antennas Broadcom will be demoing partner products at CES and
need to be used, although eight antenna configurations are judging by the quotes in Broadcom's press release we can
also planned. expect products from Asus, Belkin, Buffalo, D-Link, Huawei,
Lenovo, Motorola, Netgear, Ubee and ZTE that supports
Broadcom has announced four new chipsets starting with the 802.11ac. As to how many will actually use Broadcom's
BCM43516 which is intended for PCs and other consumer solutions is a different matter, but it looks like wireless
electronics devices. It's a single chip solution that offers speeds networking is set to get a significant speed boost this year, even
of up to 433Mbps using 80MHz channel width, dual-band if wired Ethernet isn't likely to be disappearing any time soon.
support with current Wi-Fi networks and a USB 2.0 interface.
We'd say Broadcom is pushing it a bit here, as USB 2.0 has
a theoretical peak bandwidth of 480Mbps and although we More Cedar Trail Atom's on
wouldn't expect to see wireless speeds of 433Mbps, there isn't
much life left in the old USB 2.0 standard when it comes to the way
new high-speed wireless technologies. Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/more-cedar-trail-atom-s-on-the-
way/14443.html
January 5th, 2012
6
January 5th, 2012 Published by: VR-Zone
Intel has only just gotten its Cedar Trail-M processors out of
the door, but the company is already planning new, slightly Intel Prepares for Ivy Bridge:
faster models in the mobile space, as well as a new desktop EOLs 25 Desktop Processors
part. Intel has kindly leaked all the details of the three Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/intel-prepares-for-ivy-bridge-eols-25-
upcoming models in a spec sheet that recently got updated and desktop-processors/14439.html
if you were considering getting a new netbook, it might very January 5th, 2012
well be worth holding off a little bit if you can wait.
Intel has only just gotten its Cedar Trail-M processors out of
the door, but the company is already planning new, slightly
faster models in the mobile space, as well as a new desktop
part. Intel has kindly leaked all the details of the three
upcoming models in a spec sheet that recently got updated and The company is getting ready to unleash the 22nm Ivy Bridge
if you were considering getting a new netbook, it might very processors to the world by choosing to kill a lot of 32nm
well be worth holding off a little bit if you can wait. processors which currently make the desktop mix.
The three new models are the D2550, N2650 and N2850. The
desktop focused D2550 is clocked at the same 1.86GHz as the
D2500, but Intel bumped the GPU clock speed from 400 to
640MHz giving the D2550 the same GPU spec as the D2700.
The increased GPU clock means that the D2550 will support
Blu-ray playback, something the D2500 doesn't. The overall
TDP hasn't increased for the D2550, although according to
Intel's spec sheet, the idle TDP is up, albeit a mere 0.02W.
In order to prepare for the launch, the company announced
As for the mobile parts, the N2650 has been given a fairly the discontinuation (EOL, End of Life product status) for
nominal speed bump of 100MHz, something that increased 25 various desktop models based on LGA1155, LGA1156 and
the TDP by 0.1W compared to the N2600. We should point LGA1366 sockets. All of the EOL'ed models are based of 32nm
out that the N26x0 parts only supports 2GB of memory and as Westmere and Sandy Bridge architectures:
such only a single DIMM, a move by Intel that we don't quite
As you can see, this is a thorough cleanup of all sockets,
understand.
with LGA1156 and LGA1366 essentially being terminated (i7
The N2850 got bumped 140MHz, again a very small 970, 980, 980X were all EOL’ed during 2011), simplifying the
performance increase and as with the N2650 the TDP lineup to only feature the LGA1155 and LGA2011 sockets.
increased by 0.1W, although in this case over the N2800.
Interestingly Intel is listing the average power draw as 0.11W
less than the N2800 despite the higher clock speed. Both of the Arctic Comes Out with a new
new N models also supports DDR3L, something we're not sure
if the first two models do and the spec sheet isn't clear here as
High-Performance Cooler for
it mentions the refreshed SKU which we presume is the N2650 Radeon HD 7970
and N2850. Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/arctic-comes-out-with-a-new-high-
performance-cooler-for-radeon-hd-7970/14438.html
7
January 5th, 2012 Published by: VR-Zone
MSI announces new powerful
January 5th, 2012
GT685 gaming laptop
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/msi-announces-new-powerful-gt685-
gaming-laptop/14442.html
January 5th, 2012
As the retail launch of Radeon HD 7970 approaches (January
9, 2012), the ecosystem is forming around the product: liquid
and air cooling solutions.
As the retail launch of Radeon HD 7970 approaches (January
9, 2012), the ecosystem is forming around the product:
while we already saw waterblocks from Slovenian EK and MSI has announced their new ultimate gaming laptop, the
German Aqua Computer, Far East is waking up with the high- GT685, which features the second generation Intel Core i7
performance air cooling: this time around, news are coming quad processor, 32GB DDR3 memory, and Nvidia GeForce
from Hong Kong. GTX 580M, the world's fastest discrete graphics card in a
laptop.
This latest MSI gaming laptop features top-of-the-line
hardware, including Nvidia GeForce GTX 580M, which claims
Arctic launched Accelero Xtreme 7970, a high-performance
to be the most powerful discrete graphics card in a laptop
cooler featuring a combination of copper base, six copper
that provides superb display performance. The graphics card
heatpipes (6mm diameter), 84 aluminum fins and three
boasts 384 more CUDAs than the previous generation, giving
92mm fans that operate from 900 to 2000 rpm, depending on
it 256-bit memory bandwdith and 2GB GDDR5 VRAM. This
the mode selected. The copper base features a MX-4 thermal
translates to seamless experience with crisp and clear graphics
compound, so you don’t need to look for additional high-
and more detailed 3D images, and you can enjoy serious
performance TIM (Thermal Interface Material).
gaming without worrying that your laptop can’t keep up.
Powered by second generation Intel Core i7 quad-core
processor with support of Intel Turbo Boost 2.0, the GT685
offers superb computing performance. On top of that, it comes
equipped with four DDR3 memory slots to give a total of
32GB memory, as well as RAID 0 accelerated dual hard
drive architecture that can increase hard drive read speeds by
70%. Other features include Dynaudio sound technology for
faithful stereo reproduction, THX TruStudio Pro technology
that provides cinematic-quality audio, and full high definition
16:9 widescreen display. The MSI GT685 also comes with an
HDMI port for your to output your videos on any large-screen
True, the potential show stopper is massive weight of the
LCD televisions.
heatsink - at 653 grams or almost 1.5 pounds this triple-slot
heatsink definitely requires to be mounted inside the case.
If you’re interested in getting a 3rd party cooling for your HP unveils new consumer
precious new 7970, this beast comes to market just before PCs, including Omni27, the
Chinese New Year (shipping as of week starting January 30)
for a price just below USD100 mark - $97.95 in the US, €73.83 company's first 27-inch all-in-
in European Union and 126 SGD in Singapore.
one PC
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/hp-unveils-new-consumer-pcs-
including-omni27-the-company-s-first-27-inch-all-in-one-pc/14440.html
8
January 5th, 2012 Published by: VR-Zone
January 5th, 2012
Just few days into 2012, HP has recently announced their
new line of consumer PCs and a notebook docking monitor
that offer stylish design and superb performance. Among the
products is the HP Omni27, which is the company's first 27-
inch all-in-one PC.
HP Pavilion HPE Phoenix h9
The HP Pavilion HPE Phoenix h9 is the company’s most
powerful Pavilion PC to date, with futuristic design and
superb performance for users who enjoy content creation and
immersive gaming. It has an armor plating that extends across
the top and front of the bezel and attention-grabbing lighting
in red, which makes the HPE Phoenix stand out among today’s
desktop PCs. The HPE Phoenix has room for up to 16GB
of DDR3 memory and three internal hard drives, as well
as optional liquid cooling system to draw heat away from
high-performance processors. It also comes equipped with
high-end discrete graphics cards that can support multiple
HP Omni27 all-in-one PC displays, while delivering amazing video performance and
picture quality. Gamers can enjoy RIFT Digital Collector’s
HP has announced their new line-up of consumer PCs, Edition, the latest massively multiplayer online role-playing
as well as notebook docking monitor with enhanced game (MMORPG) from Trion. With every purchase of HP
design, performance and convenience for consumers and Pavilion HPE Phoenix, users can download and enjoy free
professionals. The HP Omni27 all-in-one PC is designed access to RIFT for sixty days, and following that a monthly
specifically for users who want stylish design, simplicity and subscription of around US$15 for continuous access to the
performance. It has a brilliant 27-inch high-definition flat game. The HP Pavilion HPE Phoenix h9 PCs are expected to
panel display with edge-to-edge glass and can tilt up to be available from end January 2012 in APJ at a starting price
25-degree to suit users' viewing preference. The all-in-one of approximately US$1,599.
claims to be the company's first non-touch PC to feature
HP’s Magic Canvas software, which allows the desktop to
expand horizontally and accommodate photos, videos as well
as applications.
With convenient features such as HP LinkUp Technology,
users can easily access and edit content from a notebook PC on
the Omni27’s large display with little hassles. The HP Omni27
offers multi-core processors, advanced high definition (HD)
graphics and up to 2TB of storage, and standard features
including Beats Audio, Blu-Ray disc drive and optional TV
tuner. The HP Omni27 All-in-One PCs are expected to retail in
APJ at a starting price of approximately US$1,199.
9
January 5th, 2012 Published by: VR-Zone
HP Compaq L2311c Of course this rebrand was expected considering previous
reports and HD 7000M announcements. In addition OEM
The HP Compaq L2311c 23-inch Notebook Docking Monitor
versions of HD 7500, 7400 and 7300 are all expected to
is targeted at mobile professionals who wants a desktop
be rebrands, while HD 7700 up will feature GCN 28nm
experience via an easy connection with a USB cable to their
GPUs. Of course, the gap between HD 7600 and HD 7700
notebook PC with a USB 2.0 or 3.0 port. The Notebook
will be disproportionate, and might create a gap in AMD's
Docking Monitor sports a full high-definition (HD) LED
Radeon HD 7000 line-up. Judging by NVIDIA's strategy wih
backlit LCD display and features HP Smart AC Technology
GeForce 600M it is likely NVIDIA will also follow a similar
that powers and charges HP notebook PCs while also detecting
strategy - rebrands for entry-level to mainstream GeForce
and regulating the capacity of the electrical current. It also
600M products.
features a built-in 720p HD webcam and is equipped with HP
MyRoom business edition software and Cyberlink YouCam, For now, the HD 7670 remains an OEM only product.
a productive webcam tool that eases communication with However, it may eventually make it to the retail market - as
co-workers and clients in any location. The HP Compaq HD 6700 did.
L2311c is expected to be available in APJ at a starting
price of approximately US$319. The availability date will be
announced at a later stage. Nakamichi introduces cube-
The HP LV1911 and LV2011 are the latest LED backlit LCD sized "My Mini Plus" for music
monitors that claim to provide business performance at
budget-friendly prices. The monitors come in attractive, slim on the go
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/nakamichi-introduces-cube-sized-my-
form factors, and consumes lesser power compared to CCFL
mini-plus-for-music-on-the-go/14437.html
panel monitors. The HP LV1911 and LV2011 have a 18.5- and
January 5th, 2012
19.5-inch respectively, offer VGA inputs, 3,000,000:1 dynamic
contrast ratios and 5ms response times. Both monitors
are expected to be available in APJ at a starting price of
approximately US$125 and US$135, respectively.
Availability date for all HP products will be announced later.
Small, portable speakers looked to be the in-thing these days.
AMD releases OEM Radeon HD Japanese audio company Nakamichi has launched "My Mini
7670 Plus", a new range of stylish looking mini speakers with built-
in radio in Singapore.
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/amd-releases-oem-radeon-
hd-7670/14441.html
January 5th, 2012
AMD has quietly announced the second desktop product in its
Radeon HD 7000 range - HD 7670 for OEMs. There's nothing
new about the 7670 OEM however - it is simply a rebranded
HD 6670.
AMD has quietly announced the second desktop product in its
Radeon HD 7000 range - HD 7670 for OEMs. There's nothing
new about the 7670 OEM however - it is simply a rebranded Renowned Japanese high fidelity audio company, Nakamichi,
HD 6670. has launched a collection of stylish mini speakers with radio
The specifications and performance are identical to HD 6670. for music lovers on the go. The cube-sized speaker, which
Both are based on Turks XT, featuring 480 VLIW-5 SP, 24 measures 5cm on every side and weighs 139g, claims to offer
TMU and 8 ROPs running at 800 MHz. Upto 1GB GDDR5 exceptional audio quality. The Nakamichi "My Mini Plus" fits
at 4 GHz is mated to a 128-bit interface. HD 6670 held the easily into your bag, charges via a USB connection to your PC
distinction of being the fastest graphics card not requiring an or laptop and on full charge, it can provide up to five hours
addition PCIe connector (i.e. it draws all its power from the of non-stop music playback. The speaker can also play music
PCIe slot) which is what made it popular with OEMs. The HD from microSD card and it has built-in FM radio function for
7670 powers HP's upcoming Phoenix products and is likely to you to listen to your favorite channel. Available in eight colors -
show up in a few OEM desktops around CES 2012 time. Light Pink, Fuchsia, Purple, Red, Blue, Black, Lime Green, and
Silver; The "My Mini Plus" by Nakamichi will be available at
CK Tang, Technobay level 3, epi lifestyle, and other premium
10
January 5th, 2012 Published by: VR-Zone
Nakamichi authorized reseller stores from mid January 2012 January 5th, 2012
at S$69.90 (inclusive of GST)
Nokia plans to launch Lumia
900 at CES 2012
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/nokia-plans-to-launch-lumia-900-at-
ces-2012/14436.html It's hard not to get a bit frustrated with Intel and its many
January 5th, 2012 proprietary technologies, although at least a few things seems
to be changing slowly but surely when it comes to WiDi, Intel's
video streaming technology over Wi-Fi. We've managed to dig
up a fair bit of news as to what to expect in 2012 from WiDi and
some things are being improved while others remain the same.
The Nokia Lumia 900 Ace was recently spotted on Nokia Pulse It's hard not to get a bit frustrated with Intel and its many
website which has the capacitive touch buttons that are placed proprietary technologies, although at least a few things seems
closer to the edge, compared to the Lumia 800. It was also to be changing slowly but surely when it comes to WiDi, Intel's
reported that the Finnish company would be launching the video streaming technology over Wi-Fi. We've managed to dig
phone at the Consumer Electronics Show 2012 in Las Vegas up a fair bit of news as to what to expect in 2012 from WiDi and
next week. some things are being improved while others remain the same.
For starters Intel has decided to take advantage of Wi-Fi
Direct for the discover, pairing and connect part of WiDi which
should make it easier for its partners that built the receivers.
Intel will also be supporting Wi-Fi Display, but only for basic
features. If you want to be able to play back 1080p video,
especially copy protected content, then you need full-on WiDi
support on the receiving end. This year Intel is also adding
support for 3D video and 24fps video such as certain Blu-ray
discs. It will also be possible to set up an extended display over
WiDi, something that could actually be quite handy in certain
situations.
One interesting thing is that Intel is planning on offering WiDi
support on desktops, a feature we can see at least a few people
wanting. That said, if you were hoping for WiDi support in the
According to sources, Nokia will be announcing the new Lumia upcoming Windows 8 tablets, then it looks like you're out of
900 Ace (codenamed Eloko) at the 2012 Consumer Electronics luck, as this isn't likely to happen this year at least. Beyond the
Show (CES) next week. Weighing 160g, the phone is said to small adapters you've had to connect to your TV so far to get
be equipped with a 1.4GHz processor, 512MB memory and WiDi support, Intel is apparently hoping to get its technology
8-megapixel rear camera. The Lumia 900 will feature a 4.3- into TVs, game consoles, Blu-ray players (really?) and various
inch WVGA Nokia ClearBlack AMOLED display, which is other devices of which some will simply be able to have a piece
slightly bigger than the 3.7-inch of the Lumia 800, although of software loaded to enable WiDi support.
the resolution is the same as its older sibling. It will also come We're still not sold on Intel's WiDi technology, mostly because
with 1830mAh battery, and runs Windows Phone 7.5 Mango so few notebooks in the grand scheme of things are sold with
operating system. No word on the pricing or availability yet, Intel Wi-Fi cards that support WiDi and this is one of the
though all could be revealed at CES next week. The company is biggest failings of the technology. We fully understand Intel's
also expected to announce a mid-range device, the Lumia 719. argument here, but many notebook vendors would simply
not put Intel Wi-Fi cards in their notebooks due to the cost
Intel WiDi to get cheaper, difference compared to the many other options available to
them. Still, if more Wi-Fi enabled devices will start to support
better and maybe inside TVs WiDi there's a chance that things will change, but we're hoping
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/intel-widi-to-get-cheaper-better-and- for a more open standard to take over what Intel has started.
maybe-inside-tvs/14435.html
Roku goes tiny with its
upcoming Streaming Stick
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/roku-goes-tiny-with-its-upcoming-
streaming-stick/14434.html
11
January 5th, 2012 Published by: VR-Zone
January 5th, 2012
It's really a shame that Roku's products are only available in
the US due to the technicalities of streaming content over the
internet, something the traditional TV companies obviously
are very much against even though they are allowing for it to
a degree. The company has come up with a simple and elegant
solution that would turn any TV into a smart TV, without the
need of a clunky box.
It's really a shame that Roku's products are only available in
the US due to the technicalities of streaming content over the
internet, something the traditional TV companies obviously
are very much against even though they are allowing for it to
a degree. The company has come up with a simple and elegant
solution that would turn any TV into a smart TV, without the
need of a clunky box.
The device in question is called the Roku Streaming Stick
which is said to be about the size of a USB flash drive, yet
it packs so much more inside. Roku hasn't gone into too
much with regards to the specific hardware, but the Streaming Roku is expecting the Streaming Stick to retail for somewhere
Stick will feature an SoC, memory and Wi-Fi as well as some between US$50-100 (S$65-130) when it arrives later this year,
software of course. However, unlike a USB flash drive the although Roku is also hoping to bundle it with some TVs. One
Streaming Stick sports an HDMI port, or rather an MHL port. problem Roku has though is the small install base of MHL
If you remember, MHL or Mobile High-definition Link is a equipped TV's, but it shouldn't be too hard to make some kind
combo port that offers HDMI and USB in one. of power adapter. We can see a lot of companies coming up
with their own versions of this, as if the technology can be
compacted down to this size, why would you want a larger box
sitting around next to your TV?
Broadcom announces smart
TV chips
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/broadcom-announces-smart-tv-
chips/14433.html
January 5th, 2012
In the case of TV's it appears that this port is a standard size
HDMI port judging by the pictures from Roku and not a micro
USB port as it is on smartphones. Plonk the Roku Streaming
Stick into a TV with one of these ports and you've got all the
Just ahead of CES, Broadcom has announced four new
functionality of a Roku box without having to find space for
solutions related to Smart TVs which will be displayed at the
the box itself. The only problem we see with this is how you
show. Some of the chips are intended for integration inside the
actually control the Streaming Stick unless it's done over Wi-
TV unit while others are destined for media streamers or what
Fi or some other wireless technology, as it would be hidden
Broadcom calls Over-the-Top media players.
behind the TV and as such an IR remote wouldn't work.
Just ahead of CES, Broadcom has announced four new
solutions related to Smart TVs which will be displayed at the
show. Some of the chips are intended for integration inside the
TV unit while others are destined for media streamers or what
Broadcom calls Over-the-Top media players.
It would seem that smart TV is not a sexy word any more
as Broadcom is using the term hybrid TV instead, although
for what it's worth, it's pretty much the same thing. What is
12
January 5th, 2012 Published by: VR-Zone
common between all three of the new SoC's from Broadcom is pretty clear from the small sizes of the SSDs that they weren't
support for Broadcom's own Web 2.0 application framework, intended as a main storage option.
Adobe AIR, Qt and Android. This should allow for some varied The Deneva 2 drives sports a SandForce 2141 or 2181 controller
implementations from the device makers at least. (OCZ's website lists both options) and are as such SATA 3Gbps
The most basic SoC is called the BCM7219 and as with its drives. The max read speed is rated at up to 280MB/s with the
higher-end siblings this is a 40nm chip (yes, SoC's are getting write speed following closely behind at up to 260MB/s. OCZ
smaller and smaller too), although it lacks any really cool apparently has a 120GB model as well as the company is also
features. That said, it'll handle 1080p HD video, both decoding targeting the Deneva 2 series for embedded applications in the
and encoding which means that we should hopefully be seeing enterprise, industrial and automotive industry.
more devices capable of recording HD video in the future. We've already seen Asus utilize mSATA SSDs from Adata,
Moving up a step we have the BCM7220 which gains OpenGL although these weren't intended for caching, but are in fact the
ES 2.0 support for 3D UI's and maybe even some casual main SSD of Asus' Ultrabooks. We're still not convinced that
gaming. The third and final model is the BCM7221 which Intel's Smart Response technology is the way forward though,
supports 3D TV MVC (Multiview Video Coding) which means especially as SSDs continue to come down in price whereas
that it can handle 3D TV broadcasts/streams. It can also be at the same time pricing for hard drives are likely to remain
set up to support video conferencing if the TV has a built in quite high for much of this year. So far SSDs seem favourable
camera. in Ultrabooks, but as prices come down, we'd expect to see
The three chips have been designed to support a wide range of more hard drive equipped models and maybe this is when SSD
other technologies such as DLNA, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Display, NFC, caching will come into play.
HomePlug and bog standard Ethernet. Apparently Netgear is
one of the first companies that are ready to get on board as
soon as the new chips hit mass production as the company Samsung secures approval for
is already working with Broadcom. As for other partners
we'll just have to wait until CES, although half of the time
Chinese Flash memory plant
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/samsung-secures-approval-for-chinese-
you wouldn't know what chip is inside these type of devices
flash-memory-plant/14431.html
anyhow.
January 5th, 2012
OCZ announces mSATA SSD
for Ultrabook hard drive
caching
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/ocz-announces-msata-ssd-for-
Samsung has been granted permission to build a Flash
ultrabook-hard-drive-caching/14432.html
memory chip plant in China worth in the region of 5 trillion
January 5th, 2012
won ($4.5 billion) as the smartphone and tablet computer
markets continue to boom.
Samsung has been granted permission to build a Flash
memory chip plant in China worth in the region of 5 trillion
won ($4.5 billion) as the smartphone and tablet computer
markets continue to boom.
Being in the retail SSD market isn't a money maker and OCZ
has been trying to work its way into the OEM market space for
The Korean electronics giant announced the plan early last
some time. Now the company has announced a new mSATA
month, but was forced to seek approval from the South Korean
SSD under its Deneva 2 brand that the company is targeting
government, which regulates foreign investment. The go-
towards Ultrabooks for some Intel Smart Response caching
ahead was given this week on the provision that Samsung set
action.
up a committee to prevent potential leaks of its technology.
Being in the retail SSD market isn't a money maker and OCZ
The location of the factory has yet to be decided. It will produce
has been trying to work its way into the OEM market space for
NAND chips using 20nm processing technology and will serve
some time. Now the company has announced a new mSATA
the growing Chinese market, which many see as a lucrative
SSD under its Deneva 2 brand that the company is targeting
region for smartphone and tablet sales.
towards Ultrabooks for some Intel Smart Response caching
action.
The mSATA version of the Deneva 2 (OCZ is already offering
standard 2.5-inch SATA drives in the Deneva 2 series) is
available in 30 or 60GB and OCZ claims that the drives have
been optimized for Intel's Smart Response technology. It's
13
January 5th, 2012 Published by: VR-Zone
It is not yet clear how much Google paid for these, but we can
likely expect it to be hundreds of millions of dollars. The move
might also signal plans to buy further patent stashes from
other companies, and perhaps more from IBM, throughout
2012.
Google previously bought over 1,000 patents from IBM last
year and a huge portfolio of around 25,000 patents in an
acquisition deal with Motorola Mobility worth $12.5 billion.
The company is still awaiting final approval from regulators
before that acquisition can go ahead.
Samsung dominates the NAND Flash market with a 40 percent Google's patent spending spree is largely seen as an effort to
share, with many of the major players in the industry, such as protect its interests, which have been threatened by a number
Apple, relying on it for memory chips. of lawsuits taken by Apple against its partners, such as HTC
and Samsung. Google is quickly putting itself in a position
where it cannot be sued for technology it uses or can at
Mass production at the Chinese factory is expected to begin in least counter-sue or offer a trade with some of its valuable
late 2013, with plans to produce 100,000 wafers every month. collection.
Google buys more IBM patents Official Launch of VR-Zone
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/google-buys-more-ibm-
patents/14430.html
Chinese Edition - Attractive
January 5th, 2012 prizes to be won!
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/official-launch-of-vr-zone-chinese-
edition--attractive-prizes-to-be-won-/14429.html
January 5th, 2012
Google has bought another 187 patents and 36 patent
applications from IBM in efforts to remain ahead of rivals like
Apple in the bitter legal wars engulfing the industry.
Google has bought another 187 patents and 36 patent VR-Zone is excited to announce the launch of our official
applications from IBM in efforts to remain ahead of rivals like chinese edition @ http://chinese.vr-zone.com. To mark this
Apple in the bitter legal wars engulfing the industry. watershed moment, we will be giving away to some lucky
readers an ECS X79 motherboard, Corsair power supply and
SteelSeries products!
The patents include several related to social networks, such as
a system for using semantic networks and a method to identify
common interests between users of a communication network.
This is particularly interesting, as it means Google is preparing
new things for its social network Google+, which launched last
year and became a viable alternative to Facebook.
There are also patents related to web applications and mobile
technology, areas that Google has had major success in with
its Chrome web browser and Android operating system.
VR-Zone is excited to announce the launch our official chinese
edition @ http://chinese.vr-zone.com, which will have its own
14
January 5th, 2012 Published by: VR-Zone
editorial team (headed by industry veteran Chris Low) to The Samsung GALAXY Nexus was announced in October to
produce quality original content and translate selected pieces be the world's first smartphone to run Google Android 4.0
from our main site. Based in Taiwan where most of the Ice Cream Sandwich. Equipped with a 1.2GHz processor, the
groundbreaking tech stories and product launches are at, the phone features a 4.65-inch high definition Super AMOLED
team aspires to serve the rapidly growing North Asian market, display and comes with various new innovations including
and provide exclusive stories for our international readers. Face Unlock, photo taking with zero shutter lag as well as
Near Field Communication (NFC). However, for those who
are eagerly waiting for the Samsung GALAXY Nexus will
Samsung announces launch of have to wait a while longer. The company said that Android
new smartphones and tablets smartphone is expected to be available in February next
month.
in Singapore
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/samsung-announces-launch-of-new-
smartphones-and-tablets-in-singapore/14425.html
January 5th, 2012
On the first week of 2012, Samsung has announced their new
lineup of smartphone and tablets which include the GALAXY
Nexus, Omnia W, GALAXY W, GALAXY Tab 7.0 Plus and
GALAXY Tab 7.7.
While the GALAXY Nexus touts itself as the world's first
smartphone with Android 4.0, this new Samsung GALAXY
Tab 7.7 claims to be the world's first tablet to feature the
Super AMOLED Plus display. The tablet is extremely slim
and portable, measuring 7.89mm in thickness and weighing
335g. It is powered by 1.4GHz processor with 1GB RAM and
16GB storage. If that's not enough, the GALAXY Tab 7.7 has
a microSD card slot for expansion. The tablet runs Google
Android 3.2 Honeycomb and has a 5,100mAh battery that can
provide up to 10 hours of video playback. Like the GALAXY
Nexus, the Samsung GALAXY Nexus will be available in
February.
15
January 5th, 2012 Published by: VR-Zone
Samsung releases audiophile-
January 5th, 2012
grade dock speakers
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/samsung-releases-audiophile-grade-
dock-speakers/14426.html
January 5th, 2012
We have seen smartphones and tablet devices running Google
Android mobile operating system. And apparently SiriusXM
has recently introduced their new Android portable satellite
radio called Lynx.
An audiophile-worthy speaker dock for iOS devices and
GALAXY S smartphones will be joining the ranks of Samsung
products soon. The Samsung DA-E750 may sport a hybrid
vacuum tube system akin to high-end audio equipment, but
will it make the cut amongst audiophiles?
The SiriusXM Lynx claims to do everything you want it to
- you can use it as satellite radio in the car or at home, or
turn it into a portable player via a 3.5mm audio or Bluetooth
headphone. It supports Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity and
can record up to 200 hours of your favorite music. With "Show
Audiophiles will be glad to know that Korean company Finder" electronic programming guide, you can access the
Samsung is offering a new speaker dock, the DA-E750, with complete list of what’s on over the next seven days by channel,
a hybrid vacuum tube amplifier technology that will interface with the ability to set reminder alerts when favorite shows are
with both iOS devices and GALAXY S smartphones while being broadcast. The SiriusXM Lynx will be available soon and
charging their batteries. For those not certain of audiophile priced at US$250.
jargons, a vacuum tube amplification system is usually present
only in premium audio systems, which is said to produce one
of the richest sound and has the best audio representation in
Fuji's mirrorless camera leaks
clarity, despite the technology’s age. Sangchul Lee, senior vice again ahead of next week's
president, Samsung Electronics says “As the leader in home
entertainment, we wanted to create products that are unique, unveiling
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/fuji-s-mirrorless-camera-leaks-again-
highly-functional and beautifully designed, yet offer the crystal
ahead-of-next-week-s-unveiling/14423.html
clear, rich sound that consumers can enjoy, regardless of the
January 5th, 2012
portable device they store their music on.” The 2.1-channel
speaker supports analog (composite) and USB inputs, as well
as wireless and Bluetooth audio playback, while thumping
away with its built-in 100-watt subwoofer. More details may
be released at the upcoming Consumer Electronic Show.
We've already seen what was meant to be some picture of
an unfinished version of Fuju's upcoming mirrorless digital
SiriusXM unveils Lynx, Android camera and now additional pictures have appeared, including
a full-on frontal shot of the camera. There are still a lot of
portable satellite radio things that aren't known about the camera, but one thing
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/siriusxm-unveils-lynx-android- is certain, Fuji is really digging retro styling on its high-end
portable-satellite-radio/14424.html cameras.
We've already seen what was meant to be some picture of
an unfinished version of Fuju's upcoming mirrorless digital
16
January 5th, 2012 Published by: VR-Zone
camera and now additional pictures have appeared, including
a full-on frontal shot of the camera. There are still a lot of Intel's slim-ITX motherboard incentive appears to have spilled
things that aren't known about the camera, but one thing over into other markets than the all-in-ones that Intel targeted
is certain, Fuji is really digging retro styling on its high-end the standard for initially. Tranquil PC, a UK company that
cameras. specializes in low-noise media centers and home media servers
The camera which is expected to be called the X1 or LX10 has taken advantage of the form factor in its new 4cm thin
should be officially unveiled next week at the PMA show MMC-12 system.
which takes place at the same time as CES, although it won't The system specifications aren't what we'd call mind blowing,
actually be launched until sometime in February according to but the MMC-12 should be more than capable at doing its job.
Photorumours. The camera looks set to be something quite The motherboard in question is Intel's own DH61AG and as
special, at least as long as you don't mind the retro rangefinder the name implies this is based on the Intel H61 chipset. In
styling. terms of connectivity you'll find a pair of USB 2.0 ports (both
high current), two USB 3.0 ports, an eSATA port, a Gigabit
Ethernet jack, a pair of audio jacks, a DVI port and an HDMI
port. Oddly enough there's no S/PDIF connector on the board
which spoils things a little bit when it comes to media center
usage.
To the board, Tranquil has added a 35W Core i3-2100T
processor which is a 2.5GHz part, a single 4GB SO-DIMM
and an 80GB mSATA SSD which we presume is also an Intel
made product. The system also sports a slot loaded DVD
In the single picture of the camera we can see the 35mm f/1.4 drive and there's space for one internal 2.5-inch drive for a
lens which was rumoured, something which should please larger internal drive to compliment the SSD. The entire system
many a photographer. Fuji has included a viewfinder as we is powered by an external power adapter and it's passively
reported previously, although this is apparently not a hybrid cooled, so this is a true zero noise system, despite its low
viewfinder as seen on the X100. We're also curious about the profile. The downside you ask? Well, Tranquil wants a fairly
inclusion of what appears to be an LED light which might be steep £649 (S$1,300) for the MMC-12, a steep price for what
intended for when you're shooting video with the camera. We in reality is a very basic PC, but in this case you're paying for
could be wrong, but the picture seems to suggest that there is the custom chassis which you won't find elsewhere.
a pair of built-in microphones for stereo audio on each side of
the LED. There's also what appears to be an auto focus light
just below the viewfinder. We'll have to wait a few more days
Asus promises Android 4.0 for
to see what the official word is. Transformer Prime from next
Update: The picture above is apparently not the real deal,
but rather a mockup of what the camera might look like.
week
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/asus-promises-android-4.0-for-
Photorumors has a blurry picture from an odd angle of the real transformer-prime-from-next-week/14421.html
deal. January 5th, 2012
Tranquil launches 4cm thin
media center PC
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/tranquil-launches-4cm-thin-media-
center-pc/14422.html
January 5th, 2012 For those lucky few that has managed to get their hands on an
Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime the company has announced
that it will start rolling out Android 4.0 also known as Ice
Cream Sandwich beginning on the 12th of January. On top of
Intel's slim-ITX motherboard incentive appears to have spilled
that, the company is working on a solution that will allow users
over into other markets than the all-in-ones that Intel targeted
to unlock the bootloader, with one small caveat.
the standard for initially. Tranquil PC, a UK company that
specializes in low-noise media centers and home media servers
has taken advantage of the form factor in its new 4cm thin For those lucky few that has managed to get their hands on an
MMC-12 system. Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime the company has announced
17
January 5th, 2012 Published by: VR-Zone
that it will start rolling out Android 4.0 also known as Ice Toshiba's press release didn't reveal too much about the
Cream Sandwich beginning on the 12th of January. On top of specific devices, but we can apparently expect tablets, laptops
that, the company is working on a solution that will allow users and smartphones featuring TransferJet. As you'd expect,
to unlock the bootloader, with one small caveat. Toshiba is one of the driving forces behind TransferJet
alongside Sony, but many other companies are standing
The details were posted on Asus' Facebook page and contain
behind the technology including Canon, JVC, Nikon, Olympus,
some confusion as it mentions an over the air update with
Panasonic, Pioneer, Samsung and Sony Ericsson to mention
a version number of 8.8.3.33 which will apparently improve
a few of the promoters of the standard. So far most of the
the auto focusing of the camera, the fluidity of the touch
companies are Japanese and this is part of the reason why the
experience and the APK capabilities in the Android market.
technology hasn't taken off.
Then it goes on to talk about the Android 4.0 upgrade which
is also an over the air update, but it's not clear if this contains Another reason is the relatively high cost and this is
the aforementioned fixes or not, or if that's a separate update what Toshiba is hoping to address with its new LSI, the
for those not wishing to move on to Android 4.0 as yet. TC35420 which is a single chip solution for TransferJet that
incorporates bot the IC and the RF part. This should not
The post also contains a disclaimer about the GPS and the fact
only help simplify the implementation, but also help drive
that it's not as good as people expected it to be. Asus is making
down cost, although at US$5 a pop in sample quantities one
some excuse about the metal chassis of the tablet blocking the
can hardly accuse Toshiba for selling the chips on the cheap.
signal as well as the usual excuses as to why you wouldn't get a
Compare this to a USB 3.0 host controller which by now we'd
good GPS signal. Either which way it appears that the company
expect to be below US$2 in large quantities and you can see
has removed the GPS from the spec and it's now a feature that
why TransferJet is struggling a bit.
is included but may not work to everyone's satisfaction. Odd
to say the least. Actual transfer speeds of TransferJet are close to that of USB
2.0 at 375Mbps (USB 2.0 has a theoretical data speed of
As for the bootloader and the complaints about Asus locking
480Mbps), so as long as you don't mind plugging in a cable,
it down, Asus is making some fairly lame excuse about Google
there are much faster alternatives. In as much as we're all for
DRM, yet Google's own phones aren't locked down as tightly
ease of use, it's hard to justify the extra cost and getting slower
as the Transformer Prime. Asus is also claiming that bricking
speed than a wired connection can offer at lower cost. Still,
is one of the reasons why Asus decided to lock down the
it'll be interesting to see what Toshiba and the TransferJet
Transformer Prime, but anyone that has tried to flash a recent
consortium will demo at the show.
Android device knows that it's relatively hard to brick it. Even
so, Asus will apparently be offering a tool that unlocks the
bootloader, but this means that you can no longer watch
Google video rentals and other similar DRM'ed content on
your tablet. Not a big loss in our opinion, but it might be for
some.
Toshiba to promote
TransferJet at CES
Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/toshiba-to-promote-transferjet-at-
ces/14420.html
January 5th, 2012
You may or may not be familiar with TransferJet, a technology
that allows for short range wireless data transfer speeds of up
to 560Mbps using the 4.5GHz band. So far there isn't much in
terms of devices that supports the standard, but Toshiba and
the TransferJet consortium are set to change this at CES where
they will be showing off a range of new devices that supports
the technology.
You may or may not be familiar with TransferJet, a technology
that allows for short range wireless data transfer speeds of up
to 560Mbps using the 4.5GHz band. So far there isn't much in
terms of devices that supports the standard, but Toshiba and
the TransferJet consortium are set to change this at CES where
they will be showing off a range of new devices that supports
the technology.
18