A source today claims the sequel to NVIDIA's Tegra mobile processor could muster double the performance of the original. The new chip is purported by "high ranking" industry contacts to be switching from an ARM7 architecture to the much newer ARM9 and also to use a dual-core design. Combined with improvements to the graphics core, the updated Tegra would be roughly twice as fast overall.
Myka has moved on from producing media hubs by releasing its Myka ION nettop as a full-fledged home theater PC. As the name implies, the PC packs a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor and 2GB of RAM, along with an NVIDIA Ion graphics platform to supply HD (non-Flash) video. It runs on Ubuntu Linux and includes Boxee and XBMC media center software as well as support for standard-definition Adobe Flash and Hulu's online streaming service.
Dell today officially launched the Adamo XPS, the highest-end version of its designer ultraportable. The system is championed as the thinnest notebook ever and measures just 0.39 inches at its thickest point. Dell accomplishes the feat by tucking most of the computer components into the display section and relying on a unique hinge that opens underneath and acts as a built-in prop . In spite of its slimness, the notebook still has a removable battery, two USB ports and DisplayPort output but also weighs slightly more than its MacBook Air rival at 3.2 pounds.
Intel may have stalled adoption of the USB 3.0 standard for as long as two years, NVIDIA spokesman Brian Burke says. Following an apparent PC vendor leak which claims Intel won't have any USB 3.0-capable chipsets of its own until 2011, Burke tells TGDaily that NVIDIA has learned the same news. He contends that Intel has held the industry back by creating a near monopoly in demand for its chipsets but refusing to provide significant updates.
Broadpoint AmTech analyst Doug Freedman today revived talk of NVIDIA making its own x86 processors in a new research note. He claims that the graphics company has been recruiting "extensively" from employees of the one-time chip designer Transmeta and is using these to speed along one or more unknown designs. It may also not need to use Transmeta-like code translation as many of the original x86 architecture patents lose their effectiveness.
EVGA has released a new hybrid card, the Hybrid GTX 275 Co-op PhysX, which uses NVIDIA's GTX 275 and GTS 250 GPUs on the same card. The two split tasks accordingly, with the GTX 275 taking care of the graphics while the GTS 250 does PhysX computing for physics in games like Batman: Arkham Asylum (included in the box) or Mirror's Edge. There is 1.28GB of combined memory while the GTS 250 and GTX 275 chips run at 633MHz and 738MHz, respectively. Total memory bandwidth tops out at 179.8GBps.
On a recent trip to China, Intel's CEO Paul Otellini has been talking about the chipmaker's upcoming high-end Larrabee GPU with China-based graphics card makers, DigiTimes reported on Tuesday, citing sources at the card makers. They claim Intel is planning on offering preferential pricing for the GPU both on its own, as well as bundled with other Intel products. The Larrabee is expected to compete with NVIDIA's GeForce and AMD's Radeon products and is due for a 2010 launch.
Acer chose a rare Monday evening launch for an update to its Aspire notebooks. Acting as the new flagship, the 8940 takes the lead from the 8935 and use the same 18.4-inch screen but with a much faster 1.6GHz Core i7 in place of the Core 2 Quad. It further brings considerably newer GeForce GTS 250M graphics to better drive the 1080p display and, as with other Acer updates, replaces Vista with Windows 7.
Maingear today tackled the very high end, designer category of gaming PCs with the SHIFT. The system is specially designed by Maingear with an aluminum chassis and a rare, vertically-aligned cooling system; besides using an Asetek system to cool the processor without fans, all other components point upwards and have their heat naturally vent upwards instead of front-to-back like in most PCs. The system is also subtler with an all-black design and a pop-up port array on the top with card readers, FireWire, USB and audio.
A pair of leaks have revealed NVIDIA's Fermi hardware should both be a dramatic visual upgrade and have a quick release of mobile parts. A post today on a Chinese forum shows samples of the graphics chipset that include 3D rendered faces with both extremely high detail as well as particularly complex visual effects, such as natural-looking facial hair or skin glare. One also shows the level of detail possible with relatively fast raytraced lighting.
After a significant delay past its original summer goal, Lenovo on Wednesday began selling a version of its IdeaPad S12 netbook with NVIDIA's Ion graphics onboard. The upgrade comes in tandem with Windows 7 Home Premium and gives it enough visual power to support the full Aero Glass interface as well as to decode 1080p video and handle some more recent 3D. Lenovo also adds Bluetooth 2.1 for wireless peripherals.
MSI is developing an e-book reader that would use NVIDIA's Tegra processor at its core, the company's chairman Joseph Hsu says today. Confirming an earlier rumor, the executive admits that a device with the fast graphics and ARM chip combo is in progress but has "some problems" that have pushed a formal unveiling back until sometime in the first half of 2010. Other details will likely only be supplied closer to the actual release.
Lenovo today sparked life in its IdeaCentre desktops and IdeaPad notebooks by refreshing them for Windows 7 and adding a few completely new models. The IdeaCentre B500 is one of the few all-in-one PCs built for gamers and high-end media use with both a Core 2 Quad, unnamed but dedicated graphics and a built-in JBL speaker system. It also brings a 23-inch 1080p display, 1TB of disk space and a motion remote for an unspecified price.
Korea's LG has recently shown off its first netbook with Intel's Core i7 quad-core processor, the 15.6-inch XNOTE R590. Two models will be available, one with a 1.73GHz i7 and the other sporting a 1.6GHz version. Either version will ship with Windows 7 Home Premium and NVIDIA's GeForce GT 230M graphics chipset with 1GB of dedicated RAM.
To coincide with the release of Windows 7 on Thursday, Verizon has officially released the earlier rumored HP netbooks with a connection to its wireless data network. Only the 11.6-inch HP Mini 311-1037NR sports Windows 7 Home Premium, however, as the 10.1-inch HP Mini 110-1046NR includes Windows XP Home. Full specs of the devices are available, with the HP Mini 311 getting the NVIDIA Ion graphics platform along with a 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU and 2GB of RAM.
Dell has brought its Inspiron 13z notebook to Australia and Japan, both with Windows 7. While basic specs differ slightly between the two offerings, buyers still get a 13.3-inch, 1366x768 resolution, LED-backlit screen and a choice of Intel's CULV processors.
NVIDIA has teamed with a rendering technology company, mental images, to introduce the RealityServer platform for cloud computing. The technology integrates GPUs and software capable of supporting 3D web-based applications for consumers and enterprise users.
Verizon is poised to kick off the launch of Windows 7 this week with two netbooks as a leaked document has shown its plans. Both the HP Mini 311 and the Mini 110 are due to reach the provider along with Windows 7 on Thursday and will be partly subsidized, with Engadget showing the higher-end Mini 311 dropping to $250 after agreeing to a contract and a $100 mail-in rebate while the Mini 110 will cost $200 on similar terms.
In spite of claims of an on time release, Intel's Atom processors using its Pine Trail architecture now won't show until the very start of 2010, a string of leaks have shown Thursday. The 1.66GHz N450 and 1.86GHz N470 are said by Fudzilla to ship on January 3rd and won't necessarily save battery life. Instead, the primary gain will come from moving graphics to the main processor core, reducing the number of chips from three to two and creating more space.
Acer on Friday announced it will soon offer the small form factor AspireRevo R3610-U9012 nettop PC in the US. First introduced in the summer, the PC is one of the first nettops to feature NVIDIA's Ion platform, which supports NVIDIA's CUDA general purpose computing and can also play back 1080p movies even on an Atom-based system.
Nintendo's next-generation DS may be powerful enough to rival the current iPod touch in terms of power if a purported source is accurate. Contacts at BSN say NVIDIA has won a contract with Nintendo to use a variant of the Tegra chipset in a future handheld. Which model would be used is unknown, but it's still expected to be a single-chip design and may be a second-generation Tegra rather than the existing component.
HP this afternoon held a rare UK-first debut for one of its notebooks. The Pavilion dv8 is now HP's largest non-HDX notebook and carries an 18.4-inch, 1080p display that lets it replace a desktop. A 1.6GHz Core i7 and a dedicated GeForce GT 230M also put the dv8's performance closer to that goal.
HP early today is making an aggressive push into touchscreen PCs with two key updates to its TouchSmart home all-in-ones. The TouchSmart 300 and 600 add true multi-touch input and have significantly expanded use for the technology: they can not only use pinch-to-zoom, flicks and other gestures in the general operating system thanks to Windows 7 but in several new touch apps for the systems' custom front end. They can now navigate Hulu or Netflix streaming video, stream Pandora or Rhapsody music, or update and follow Twitter feeds all primarily using touch.
HP in gearing up for Windows 7 added two newer touchscreen PCs to its mix. The TouchSmart tx2 convertible tablet now makes better use of its multi-touch display both in the OS as well as in the new apps specific to HP's TouchSmart front end; users can watch Hulu or Netflix from the touch interface as well as update Twitter or stream Pandora and Rhapsody music. Unlike most such screens, the tx2's input isn't solely finger-oriented and will work with a stylus as well.
BFG on Monday ventured into mobile computing for the first time with the Deimos, an 18.4-inch desktop replacement notebook meant for gamers. Like the Phobos desktop, video performance is the centerpiece and always has at least dual GeForce GTS 260M graphics; top-end models have twin GeForce GTX 280M chipsets. Unusually, none of the systems use Core i7, capping off at a 2.53GHz Core 2 Extreme, but in return they all have at least two RAID-striped hard drives with the option of a third drive for either a backup or to make 1.5TB of combined space.
HP's Mini 311 is already slated to get a performance upgrade if the company's own service manual reflects the real product. The current version is limited to the lower-power Ion LE graphics core as well as 1GB of RAM and a 160GB hard drive, but myHPMini has discovered that the manual references the full-power Ion chip as well as configurations with 2GB or 3GB of RAM. Storage would likewise get a boost with an option of a much faster 80GB SSD as well as 250GB or 320GB hard drives.
Detailed specs of not one but two 12-inch Eee PC notebooks have been revealed recently. One of the new Eee PCs, the 1201N, was first spotted in Asia last month. Now, the unofficial specs for the 1201N and 1201HA are known and they include a 12.1-inch, 1366x768 resolution display. The specs reportedly come from leaked ASUS documents.
ASUS has recently announced pricing and a release date for its previously announced UnLimited (UL) series of notebooks for the UK. Two of the three models will ship to the country's retail electronics stores on October 22nd. This includes the 13.3-inch UL30 and two variations of the 15.6-inch UL50, the UL50AG and UL50VG. There is no word on the 14-inch UL80, however. All three use Intel's CULV processors and some are claimed to provide up to 12 hours of battery life.
NVIDIA's Ion 2 chipset is still due to ship before the end of year and could provide a significant boost not just to netbooks but to notebooks using Intel's CULV (Consumer Ultra Low Voltage) processors as well, an update from the company has shown. In addition to supporting the timeframe, an executive heading chipset development has reportedly confirmed rumors that the next-generation Ion will support processors other than the Atom, including the Celeron, Core 2 and Pentium processors that make up CULV as well as VIA's competing Nano design.
NVIDIA late Wednesday said it would "postpone" any future nForce mainboard chipsets until an end is reached in the countering lawsuits between itself and Intel. As Intel alleges that NVIDIA's license doesn't cover chipsets for processors with an integrated memory controller, such as all Core i5/i7 and some newer Atom processors, NVIDIA claims that it has no choice but to freeze development of future nForce chipsets until Intel's "unfair business tactics" are either halted or cleared in court.
The last of Sony's three notebook updates Wednesday evening was the VAIO CW. It brings a 16:9 aspect ratio 14-inch display (versus 16:10 before) and is the first mid-range Sony notebook to carry Windows 7. In keeping with earlier VAIO C systems, the CW is style-centric and comes in glossy colors both on the outer shell and on the palm rest.
Sony at an event tonight launched a trio of new systems, starting with its first touchscreen PC. The VAIO L supports Windows 7's own multi-touch elements for scrolling and zooming through content without needing special software. Like Gateway and HP, Sony has its own custom touch portal, here called Media Gallery, that lets users rely on touch to edit photos and videos.
MSI on Monday said it will soon follow up its first quad-core Core i7 powered notebook, the 15.4-inch GT640, with the larger 17-inch GT740 gaming notebook. Like the smaller PC, this new one will also ship with Windows 7. Another shared feature is the NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250M 3D graphics chipset, which should give it added performance beyond just the faster Intel processor.
Adobe at its MAX show launched Flash 10.1, a major update to its plugin that promises video on devices that normally haven't been capable. The release adds hardware graphics acceleration on computers and should make HD Flash video possible on netbooks and ultraportables and standard definition possible on smartphones. NVIDIA already promises that its GeForce, Ion and Tegra chipsets will speed up the Flash update when available.
The just-unveiled Fermi graphics architecture will find its way into Macs and play an important role in Mac OS X Snow Leopard, NVIDIA chief scientist Bill Dally said today. While it's expected that NVIDIA would continue to play an important part of future Macs, the researcher drew a particular connection between the new GPU design and Apple's new OS, expecting that it would provide a significant boost for those apps that implement OpenCL. Windows 7 will also get support through DirectX 11 and DirectCompute.
NVIDIA's Fermi architecture will start with three models if it ships before the end of the year as promised, one leak from Friday claims. A flagship single-chip model would have the 512 cores NVIDIA is advertising, but a second model would, like the GeForce GTX 295, have two slightly less powerful chipsets on one card that combined would be much faster. The slowdown may be necessary as Fudzilla believes the card would have a peak thermal power of 300W.
AMD's first mainstream graphics chipset in its ATI Radeon HD 5000 series has been leaked with photos, specifications and even performance tests. The reference model seen by Chinese site MyMyPC is a dual-slot card but has a unique teardrop-shaped cooling system. It should be a slightly scaled-back version of the 5800 line with 1,120 effects cores (versus 1,440 for the 5850), a 700MHz core (down from 725MHz) and an unknown amount of 1,150MHz GDDR5 memory.
ASUS has quietly launched a major redesign of the Eee Box. The EB1501 has a much sleeker, rounded look but also gives it numerous features that improve its usefulness as a full-time PC: it uses NVIDIA's Ion chipset and can smoothly decode 1080p video in hardware as well as drive most visually intensive tasks. To help, ASUS gives it Windows 7 Home Premium and improves the performance of the system on its dual-core 1.6GHz Atom processor.
Taiwanese PC maker MSI has recently announced a new addition to its G Series of gaming notebooks with the 15.4-inch GT640. It ships with Intel's mobile quad-core Core i7 processor, though which models aren't known. The portable represents one of MSI's first Windows 7 systems and will have relatively quick visuals through a GeForce GTS 250M for graphics. Hard drives can be had in 250GB, 320GB or 500GB capacities, but MSI only promises up to 4GB of RAM.
NVIDIA this evening provided an early look at the next generation of its graphics processors. Nicknamed Fermi, the architecture for future GeForce, Quadro and Tesla chipsets will jump from 240 cores to a much larger 512 and should be much faster in each core courtesy of some industry-first techniques. Fermi chips will be the first GPUs to have a real cache hierarchy, with Level 1 caches to keep specific information on hand and a single, shared Level 2 cache for larger tasks; they will also have a new GigaThread engine that can transfer data in both directions at once and handle "thousands" of tasks at once.
NVIDIA has announced that a public beta release of the PGI CUDA-enabled Fortran compiler is now available for download. The compiler was developed by NVIDIA and the Portland Group, and is billed as the first Fortran compiler that works with CUDA-enabled GPUs. The compiler translates the Fortran programming language into binary code that CUDA GPUs can interpret.
Intel will more aggressively update the Atom processor than it has in the past, executive VP Sean Maloney said in an interview published today. The company waited roughly a year between the original Atom launch and its Z500 upgrade but now plans to put it more closely on the faster "tick tock" pattern it uses for regular processors, where it first shrinks the manufacturing process for an existing design and later ships a new architecture built on that process. Such upgrades will start in earnest with Pine Trail this fall, which technically achieves both by moving to a smaller 45 nanometer design and moving the graphics core to within the processor.
NVIDIA at a recent presentation showed its Ion chipset accelerating HD video on a netbook. While the hardware can already process HD already on the system, the new demo shows YouTube's HD video smoothly with Ion's full decoding enabled where the same footage stutters when it has to rely mostly on the Atom processor. The technique works by adapting Ion to recognize and process the H.264 encoded video inside the Flash environment.
HP inadvertently confirmed its own notebook plans this morning by posting specs of its own in a technical brief. The Pavilion dv8 (not yet pictured) will be its first 18.4-inch notebook and its second system after the Envy 15 to use a mobile Core i7 processor. While it's unclear if there will be multiple stock configurations, the one model on show has the base 1.6GHz Core i7, which can clock up to 2.8GHz when less than four cores are needed.
Sager has released its first Core i7-powered gaming notebook, the 15.6-inch NP8690. The hardware maker is touting the portable PC as the world's most powerful gaming notebook of its size, with 1.6GHz, 1.73GHz or 2GHz quad-core CPUs; RAM is limited to a maximum of 4GB, however. The screen can be had with the standard 1600x900 resolution or a higher 1920x1080. Graphics are handled by NVIDIA's high-end GeForce GTX 280M. Security is also in place through a fingerprint scanner.
Despite a report of NVIDIA's 40nm GeForce 300 series GPUs facing a possible delay until 2010, the card is currently at the tape out (initial silicon production stage), Fudzilla reported on Friday. Codenamed GT300, it was was originally believed to be going on sale in October and may still reach the target if all goes smoothly during testing. The DirectX 11-capable card has already been seen by key industry people, and if the tape out began in early September, it could be shipping by middle or late October.
An NVIDIA executive on Thursday confirmed the company is working with Google to introduce a netbook containing Chrome OS and NVIDIA's Tegra mobile device platform. This is in addition to systems based on Windows Mobile, Windows CE and Google Android, all of which have been appearing. Quoted in a Wednesday JkOnTheRun report, NVIDIA GM of Mobile Business Mike Rayfield said his company is working closely with Google in developing such a product.
Apple could be on the verge of launching its increasingly rumored redesigned iMacs as early as next week, a new rumor suggests today. A pair of sources for AppleInsider say the company has already been assembling the new all-in-ones for the past two weeks and that large-scale buyers have been given discounts in an effort to clear excess stock. These would only last one week.
HP today began taking orders for the Mini 311 a week after its unveiling. The netbook is HP's first to use NVIDIA's Ion chipset and uses it to smoothly drive the system's 11.6-inch, 1366x768 screen and to decode up to 1080p without straining the Atom processor inside.
Toshiba UK on Wednesday announced it has added a new flagship gaming notebook, the 18.4-inch Qosmio X500. The system is just the second notebook driven by Intel's mobile Core i7 CPU, which normally runs at 1.6GHz but can operate at 2.8GHz when in Turbo Boost mode. Toshiba also regards it as a media system beyond the processor and gives it both a 1080p display as well as a Blu-ray burner and HDMI-CEC support for remote control from other peripherals.
