Abit shows off Nvidia Nforce5
Upcoming Fatal1ty AN9 spots nForce 590 chipset
Abit is currently being taken over by USI Corporation with a the board meeting taking place in Taiwan during CeBIT, the engineers aren't sleeping. The R&D department is working at full tilt in order to have all of its products ready in time for AMD Socket AM2/Intel Conroe launches. While we toured the booth, we picked up a very interesting product.
The Fatal1ty AN9 32X is currently at an early stage of development, but the specifications should be fairly similair to the final product. AN9 32X is equipped with classical north bridge and south bridge chipset combination. The north bridge is codenamed the MCP55XE, while the SouthBridge chip is known as C51XE. The retail name for the chipset is The Nforce 590.
The board supports two PCIe x16 lanes, 1x PCIe x1, single UltraATA-133 and six SATA-II slots, hardware RAID-5 and most important - HD audio codec. Abit will continue to use its AudioMAX riser-card, so the sound connectors won't be placed on already crowded PCB.
The launch? June 6th of 2006, of course.
Socket AM2 may support DDR-II 1066
DDR-II 800 MHz may not be the final speed
AMD is playing a very interesting game when it comes to future memory standards. By integrating a memory controller onto the CPU die, the company has full control over information and all that motherboard manufacturers have to do is make a voltage regulator for the DIMM slots and some trace correction on the PCB, if necessary.
What surprised us was a talk with one of rhw motherboard engineers. Our source claims that AMD's Socket AM2 delay is actually the by-product of "engineering change at (the) last moment". He claims his company has to redesign the PCB more than "others", since they need to support DDR-II 800 and DDR-II 1066 memory standards.
Does this means AMD will support DDR-II memory clocked at 400/533/667/800/1066 MHz?
7600 to come as AGP too
This summer features last train for AGP
This summer features last train for AGP
AGP just refuses to die. With OEM shipments of both desktops and notebooks featuring 100% PCIe graphic chips, the only market left for AGP is an upgrade one. And it's still huge. Judging by the data we have been able to gather from various sources, AGP market share is still between 65% and 70% of total computers.
The launch of Nvidia 7900 and 7600 series on Thursday didn't contain AGP at all, but several Taiwanese manufacturers are gearing up to produce yet another wave of boards featuring Nvidia's BR02 AGP-to-PCIe-to-AGP chips. The product will probably go by the name 7600GS AGP, and it will feature a PCB very similar to the 6600GT.
Suggested specs are 500MHz core clock speed - BR02 chip supposedly has problems with chips clocked over 500MHz) and 256MB of GDDR-3 memory clocked at either 1000 (conservative Taiwanese VGA manufacturer - or 1300MHz (overclocking-friendly Taiwanese VGA manufacturer.
Of course, the main purpose of 7600GS is to get full Windows Vista Aero glass support for the AGP platform, for those not powered with GeForce series 6 or users of ATI Radeon 9200 and below.
So, if you still have an AGP machine and would not trade your Mobile Athlon XP clocked at 2.5G and nForce2 SoundStorm solution, not to worry. 7600GS just might be the answer to keep you waiting for the first wave of DX10 mainstream parts, which is currently scheduled to hit the street during CeBIT of 2007.
SiS On The Rebound
Silicon Integrated Systems used to share the AMD desktop landscape with VIA, is the company due to bounce back?
Silicon Integrated Systems used to share the AMD desktop landscape with VIA, is the company due to bounce back?
SiS claims that they will have DDR3 support on the 665 Northbridge by Q3'06, making it the first chipset capable of DDR3 support by our playbook. Whether or not motherboard adopters actually incorporate DDR3 into production designs is another issue entirely. However, given the fact that SiS has privately told us that the company will enter the DRAM market, it could be that SiS might have an ace up its sleeve.
Things for SiS are a little quieter on the AMD side, with the 770 chipset set to become the new flagship core logic design. According to the SiS roadmap, all future AMD chipsets will feature integrated graphics -- the 770, 771 and 772 chipsets will feature the Mirage 3 graphic engine. Mirage 3 isn't exactly the bleeding edge in desktop graphics, but it is enough to get a 1080p signal on a set top box. Mobile versions of these chipsets will also appear before the end of the year.
Although all of SiS's new chipsets feature integrated graphics, the company is moving more and more towards VIA's model of chipset production; many chipsets with many functions, rather than hot universal core logics. The company will announce the 307CP and 308CP chipsets later this year. The 307CP and 308CP are copy protection processors capable of taking a digital video output signal and encrypting the channel for HDCP. The 307CP will specifically encrypt up to 1080i for DVI-HDCP, the 308CP will encrypt up to 1080p for HDMI-HDCP.
Furthermore, the company has roadmap plans for its 196 gigabit PHY chipset, its 186 SATA 3.0Gbps chipset and 163 802.11a/b/g wireless chipset.
With ULi out of the picture and VIA on the fritz, SiS has some ambitious plans for 2006.
OCZ Brings 1100MHz DDR2 Modules
OCZ Technology has both product lines these days: it has Titanium for mission critical applications and various series for performance-starving overclockers.
This year OCZ showcases the fastest memory modules on the planet: the DDR2 that is capable of functioning at 1100MHz with 2.1V voltage. According to OCZ’s Michael Schuette, who is technology chief at the company, the maximum for DDR2 should be something like 1200MHz under normal conditions and providing stable operation, which means that the new modules are pretty close to the limit.
OCZ will start selling its 512MB and 1GB 1066MHz and 1100MHz memory modules by the end of the month. Pricing is still not confirmed, but we can expect premium products to have premium price.
Foxconn Goes Quad SLI
What we also do know is that what is displayed by Foxconn is a combination of two GeForce 7900 GTX and GeForce 7900 GT. It is not known how do graphics cards work with each other, however, it is yet another evidence of how complex the quad SLI is.
GeCube Demonstrates Radeon Gemini
Last CeBIT a lot of graphics cards makers, including Asustek, Gigabyte, Leadtek and, perhaps, some other showcased their graphics cards with two visual processing units based on variety of GeForce 6-series chips. This year the dual-GPU boards are not really highlighted by Nvidia’s partners probably because they are not in very high demand. The only product that, for instance, Asus offers is very high-end dual-GeForce 7800 GT and the company is already discussing the dual-GeForce 7900-series product. It looks like graphics cards featuring two mainstream chips did not receive popularity among users.
This year GeCube decided to give dual-GPU graphics cards a try: the company demonstrates a graphics card with two Radeon X1600 XT chips on it. Currently the company says that the board which concept is called Gemini is still in development and the final version should be available sometime in late April or early May. In the light of the fact that ATI recently dropped the prices on its Radeon X1600-series chips, GeCube will reconsider its intention to sell dual-GPU Radeon X1600 XT product for $399.
Other graphics cards makers are reluctant to develop dual-chip cards, so, GeCube will have a unique position this time. Whether it will provide the company any benefits or not remains to be seen.
Gainward tries for 700MHz+ on GeForce 7900 GTX
Speaking to Gainward at CeBit, it seems they plan to wrestle XFX for the title of fastest clocked GeForce 7900 GTX. With XFX's XXX Extreme coming in at 690MHz, 40MHz over standard, Gainward are shooting for something even higher. Still in development and with clocks yet to be finalised, Gainward are currently aiming for around 720MHz core and 900MHz mem.
Clocks in that region would see Gainward shipping the fastest clocked GPU to date, and since it's on NVIDIA's flagship graphics product, the rough 10% clock boost will see it even more competetive with ATI Radeon X1900 XT and XTX products.
Gainward aren't using watercooling for it either, dropping CoolFX recently, so it'll be all air cooled. Whether it uses the standard heatsink or not is something else, though. Again, we must stress that clocks aren't finalised yet, but Gainward definitely do want to oust XFX at the top.
Geil Adds Voltage from Outside
It is not a secret that one of the problems that the memory module makers, who overclock their products to the maximum, have is insufficient supply of power to the memory slots. The manufacturers have tried to improve the situation in various ways: OCZ introduced special device that improves the quality of power for memory modules as well as allows to put higher voltage, whereas other memory module vendors worked with companies like Asustek Computer to improve memory power supply circuitries.
Geil went further! It added special power connector to its memory modules to allow them to operate at up to 3.0V voltage. It is unclear for how long memory modules can survive under these circumstances, but it is evident that with such a high overvoltage it is possible to expect maximum overclockability, provided that you have a high-performance power supply.
Currently the external voltage regulator for memory modules is still a concept and the company does not discuss speed-bins of products featuring the technology.
Foxconn has Nforce 5xx AM2 boards
Ready, waiting for AMD
FOXCONN is getting ready to announce its AM2 based motherboard. The design is ready and all the OEMs in the world can enjoy the love of the DDR2 with the socket AM2 platform.
The board has a rather massive cooler but it is still a single chip design and we suspect it has two times 8X PCIe graphic slots. It is based on Nvidia's MCP 55 and Nvidia already announced that it will brand this chipset as Nforce 5xx.
The board is branded as Foxconn Winfast MCP55PM2AA-8EKRS2 and we are sure that it won't be easy for customers to remember that. It features two PCIe 1X slots, two PCI slots and four DDR 2 ram slots. The sign says that the board supports DDR 2 400, 533 and 667 but we are sure it will be able to support DDR 2 800.
Foxconn to enter the graphics card market
Nvidia and ATI
Nvidia and ATI
BEWARE! The company that has 250,000 employees - at least according to one or two of its employees - is getting ready to enter the graphics market. Foxconn will make both AMD and Nvidia revisions.
This will certainly step on many toes as Foxconn/Hon Hai is big, and has huge chunks of money. We've seen a few cards at their booth and first one is a star of the show Geforce 7900 GTX 512 simply branded as PX7900 GTX.
The card has rather strange clock speeds where the core works at 450MHz and the memory runs at 1320MHz but this could be a typo, we guess. We spoke with some people at the booth and they were happy to inform us that the company is getting very aggressive in the computer graphics business.
We didn’t see any ATI cards but it will certainly make them as well.
Gigabyte PC runs on car battery
Make it a truck
Make it a truck
INTEL Pentium Ms can run on batteries. It is a well known fact. But what if we tell you that the whole desktop system based on Celeron M single can run on batteries, too?
The machine was running quite some time but we would not call it a mobile as the batery is a rather heavy part of the system.
The guys were cheating a little bit as the display was plugged in the power cord but the computer was connected to Kawasaki battery only.
Quad SLI works on AMD AM2
With 850W PSU
With 850W PSU
NVIDIA is rather happy about its Quad show off SLI. Four are better than two because two are better than one, except if you are talking about troubles or broken ribs.
We have seen three Quad SLI systems so far and we are not surprised that Foxconn has one of them. The Foxconn one has naturally four graphic cards but it supports and works with AMD's socket AM2 CPU.
An Nvidia boy was guarding the system with his life, and the people were very interested to see these cards in action. Nvidia still doesn’t talk about the performance of the machines but it likes to show off the Formula One race. That is the only thing you can see on it so far.
When it comes to hard launches, this is the second time that Nvidia showcased the Quad SLI and it is still not ready to ship it. It naturally blames the OEMs and manufacturers but some of the spinners actually said that the system is not ready for benchmarks, at least not yet.
You need an 850W power supply unit to make it happen and that won't be cheap for your electricity bill. At least it is cool to have four power cables in four graphic cards, which are again internally interconnected. Did we mention that the cards are much bigger than anything we've seen so far?
Creative wireless speakers come with power cables
Rear speakers need the power
Rear speakers need the power
We finally saw the new Creative wireless speakers. There are a lot of cables around them but at least you don't need to connect the front speakers with the rear ones.
The front speakers are connected to the subwoofer that powers them while the rear speakers have their own power. There is a wireless connection between front speakers and the rear ones and that's why Creative Labs call them wireless.
The speakers will be known as Gigaworks G550W and a 5.1 compatible system. It would be very unpractical to make the 7.1 version of those wireless speakers as you would again end up with a thicket of cables. The good news is that the rear speakers will work up to 30 feet away from the front ones.
The speakers feature 36W of power per satellite and 130W power woofer and they are THX certified. We don’t have the price but we know they should be available shortly. It will be a very long time until we see real wireless speakers and Creative bas tried to make those but if you end up with batteries in each speaker you soon realise that you would sooner or later forget to power one and the speakers simply won't work. There might be a way to do it but it is still far away from commercialising.
Creative makes noise cancellation 1.3 Mpix Skype camera
Works even at CeBIT noise level
We saw a cool product for all that travel a lot. It is not cheap but Creative Labs just announce its Live!Cam voice 1.3 camera.
The camera has two microphones and it manages to cancel background noise. We tried it with the Creative girl and we could hear her loud and clear and she was able to understand our Bosnian English as well. It actually does works with Skype video.
The camera is attached to the Alienware laptop and it won't be cheap - it will cost $/€99 but will offer you nice video quality and rather nice audio for the money.
Nvidia dabbling in SLI mobile phones?
Two are better than one
We can not give you many details yet, but apparently Nvidia has some SLI compliant mobile phones. The maths works just right, two phones are enough for SLI and they do have Goforce chip inside.
The SLI sticker above has to mean something, surely?
ATI Theatre 650 tuner chip nearly ready
Windows Vista premium ready
Windows Vista premium ready
Power Color has new Theatre 650 tuner cards ready. ATI has shipped Theater 550 for some time and it is time to upgrade to the next level.
The card supports analogue TV NTCS, PAL or the Franch Secam and the hybrid analogue plus digital TV tuner for North America and Euroland.
It features the higher quality 3D comb filter and the motion compensation hardware noise reduction. The chip and its drivers are Windows Vista premium logo ready and cards are expected in a few weeks.
It is a low profile design card and the new card comes as good old PCI solution while the old Theater 550 is based on a new PCIe 1X interface.
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