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A couple of days ago, NVIDIA posted a twitter
announcement that stated that Monday (today, that is) would see the
company holding a "major announcement.”
Now that Monday is finally upon us, the GPU maker has definitely made an
announcement, although it is (hopefully) just a prelude to the actual
major one.
NVIDIA has unwrapped a number of GeForce GT graphics adapters, namely
the GT 340, GT 330 and GT 320. These models are not exactly new
products, as they are redesigned versions of devices that already exist.
That or they are new models based on an existing 40nm GT21x graphics
processing unit.
One of the so-called new models is known as
the GeForce GT 320. This adapter boasts 72 processing cores, 1GB of VRAM
with a 128-bit interface and a memory clock of 780 MHz. The GPU runs at
540 MHz and the shader frequency is set at 1302 MHz. Furthermore, the
device comes equipped with D-Sub, DVI and HDMI outputs.
The
second in the line is the GeForce GT 340 graphics card, which is
actually a renamed GT 240. This adapter has 512MB of GDDR3 memory
clocked at 1700 MHz and a memory interface of 128 bits. In addition, the
card has the GPU designed with a clock frequency of 550 MHz and a
shader clock of 1340 MHz. Furthermore, the device comes with 96
processing cores, as well as HDMI, DVI and D-Sub outputs.
The
third card introduced by the company is the GeForce GT 330. This model
comes in multiple versions, each differentiated from the others through
its number of processing cores, its memory interface, its amount of VRAM
and clock speeds. The GT 330 has either 1GB or 2GB of VRAM and an
interface of 128 bits, 192 bits or 256 bits. The models can also have
either 96 or 112 cores, along with a GPU frequency of 500-550MHz, a
memory clock of 500-800MHz and the shader running at 1250-1340MHz.
The cards are exclusively aimed at OEMs.
Views: 671 |
Added by: UnkAlex |
Date: 2010-02-22
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Views: 510 |
Added by: UnkAlex |
Date: 2010-02-21
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The life of a large company CEO is not an easy
one. Decisions that affect millions of people and involve billions of
dollars aren't easy to make or live with and knowing that possibly tens
of thousands of people more or less depend on you for their livelihood
can be daunting, provided you care, anyway. Yet, there are some
advantages of owning a huge stake in a multi-billion-dollar company, say
Amazon, for example, as Founder, Chairman and CEO Jeff Bezos probably
knows already, like the fact that you can sell a very small portion of
it, make $234 million, and still have a very large chunk of the company.
Perhaps feeling a little light in the wallet, cash-wise, Amazon's head
honcho decided he could live without two million shares in the company
he founded in 1994. As a SEC filling yesterday revealed, Bezos shed a
small slice of his shares earlier this week netting him a cool $234
million.
It's not exactly clear what he plans to do with the
sum, not that he's going to say it in a regulatory filing, but
TechFlash, which uncovered
the filing in the first place, speculates he might be needing it to
fund his side-project/hobby Blue Origin, an aerospace company he created
in 2000, which plans to send people in suborbital flights in a couple
of years or so.
Now, before you start worrying about his stake
in Amazon after selling off two million shares, you need to know that
Bezos still holds a very comfortable 92,158,027 shares in the company,
that's 46 times the amount of shares he sold. You probably don't want to
know just how much that's worth.
And, from the looks of it,
it's going to be worth even more in the future, as Amazon
has been seeing some very good results lately and is also
solidifying its position in a couple of promising markets, notably the
e-book market, where it pretty much dominates with its Kindle
e-reader/e-book store.
Views: 465 |
Added by: UnkAlex |
Date: 2010-02-21
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There has been quite a bit of discussion around
the web concerning the upcoming Fermi-based NVIDIA graphics cards, but
what has generally characterized the company's next-generation products
is the overall lack of official benchmarks and actual information on the
product specifications. This fact has yet to change, even with the
recent rumors
that mass availability of GF100-powered products would only come
sometime during the second quarter. More recently, however, TechConnect
Magazine has reported
that the GPU maker may finally go into more details.
Of course, there is no hard evidence that Monday's announcement will
even be about Fermi, as NVIDIA's Twitter post
only said that the company would be making a major announcement on
Monday at 9:00 AM PST, or 17:00 PM GMT/UTC. If the GPU maker will talk
about Fermi, consumers worldwide might finally get to see actual
benchmarks and some official performance numbers of the upcoming GeForce
GTX 480 and GTX 470 graphics adapters.
Granted, there have been
practically no pictures or benchmark leaks, so it is unlikely that the
products would actually launch. Still, this would be the first major
move of NVIDIA on the field of DirectX 11 graphics.
Not so
long ago, AMD was revealed
to be planning on releasing its first DirectX 11 card with the
Eyefinity 6 technology around the same time NVIDIA was slated to release
its next-generation graphics cards. If NVIDIA shows some promising
benchmarks on Monday, consumer expectations will rise and the
graphics-card maker will have secured a larger part of the end-user
attention for when its products finally become available.
NVIDIA
might also be optimistic about its future thanks to the revenue and
profit growth
it achieved during the fourth quarter of its Fiscal Year 2009. Monday
will reveal whether NVIDIA genuinely plans on detailing its
GF100-powered cards or if the company has some secret product in store
Views: 444 |
Added by: UnkAlex |
Date: 2010-02-20
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Mushkin Enhanced has now followed up on that
product launch with yet another memory kit for the performance segment.
The new addition to the company's memory-product lineup is the 996829, a
dual channel DDR3-2000 Channel Blackline Kit for Intel's LGA1156
platform. The new memory solution has a total capacity of 4GB and is
designed for the PC3-16000 speed specification. Both 2GB modules have
been hand-tested by Mushkin engineers for quality assurance and have a
CL7 level performance.
Of course, as it can be deduced from the product's name, the two
modules that make up the 996829 operate at a clock frequency of 2000MHz
and have latencies of 7-10-8-27, among the tightest latencies out of all
2000MHz Redline and Blackline kits. This new memory product comes after
the company released, back
in January, another trio of Blackline DDR3 for the Intel
LGA1156 and LGA1366 platforms. Those kits provided 8GB or 12GB of memory
and also operated at 2000MHz.
Mushkin Enhanced describes the
new dual-channel DDR3 memory kit as "an elegant solution for the
PC3-16000 specification while simultaneously boasting Mushkin Enhanced's
unparalled quality level.” The product will operate best on Intel's
Core i5 or Intel Core i7-based systems and runs on a voltage of 1.65V.
Furthermore, the company designed its products with the Mushkin
Blackline Frotsbyte heatspreader, for better reliability and a longer
product life.
"Our newest DDR3-2000 kit is a real
accomplishment for us. It offers the best of both worlds: top-tier
performance with the reliability and stability our customers expect.”
Brian Flood, director of product development, shared.
As it was
the case with the Blackline kits launched in January, there is no clear
information on the availability, but the Mushkin 996829 4GB DDR3-2000
Blackline kit should become available in the near future, at a price of
roughly $180. The memory maker is offering the kit with a lifetime
warranty.
Views: 535 |
Added by: UnkAlex |
Date: 2010-02-18
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Softpedia has reason to believe Apple is very close to releasing Mac OS X 10.6.3 to the public in under 12 hours. The most recent builds seeded to developers stand as evidence that development has followed a straight line, with few impediments. To their knowledge, developers see no issues in the focus areas they’ve been assigned, putting the 700+MB update on track for release by the end of the day. Mac OS X version 10.6.3 will be the third incremental update to Apple’s Snow Leopard operating system, delivering maintenance and security fixes. Earlier this week, Softpedia reported that people familiar with Apple’s Snow Leopard development cycles were telling AppleInsider that a comparison between the latest two beta builds showed very few differences, in what is a clear indication that development was wrapping up. January’s Mac OS X 10.6.3 build 10D538 listed just one known issue – "viewing shared photo albums in Front Row may cause Front Row to crash.” Build 10D548, seeded to developers as February kicked off, had no known issues, and altogether listed very few changes compared with its predecessor. In a followup report, AppleInsider revealed that "Apple on Friday evening equipped developers with yet another build of its upcoming maintenance and security update for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard,” noting that the build in question "includes few changes from an earlier build distributed two weeks ago,” citing people familiar with the matter. Those people reportedly indicated that Apple had narrowed down the focus areas to iCal and printing, AirPort, QuickTime and graphics drivers. Also on Monday, Softpedia noted that, in January, beta testers reportedly said that the public release of Mac OS X 10.6.3 was roughly three weeks away. Depending on the accuracy of these claims, our software updaters may show the incremental update in a few hours, or a day at most. 
Views: 482 |
Added by: UnkAlex |
Date: 2010-02-14
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Last time Super Talent launched a product was back
in January, when it released the enterprise-class TeraDrive
FT2 solid state drive. Stepping back into the spotlight,
the DDR, DDR2, and DDR3 and flash memory maker is now targeting the
consumer segment with a flash device designed to address consumer needs
for fast portable data storage solutions. Known as the USB 3.0 Express
Drive, the flash drive obviously uses the USB 3.0 interface and can
reach speeds of up to 125MB/s.
Measuring 62 x 37 x7.5 mm, the USB 3.0 Express
Drive is built around a patented technology protected under US Patent #
7457897. The drive can already achieve the 125MB/s transfer rate, which
means that a 600MB movie can be copied in just 12 seconds. This,
however, says Super Talent, is not necessarily the upper limit, as the
developers expect to further improve this performance over the coming
weeks, by using an advanced driver technology.
The company
expects to achieve this even while keeping power consumption at a level
where there is no need of separate power cables. Super Talent also
assures consumers that the USB 3.0 flashExpress drive is backward
compatible with USB 2.0/1.1 ports, although, naturally, transfer rates
will be restricted by the 2.0/1.1 standard's limit.
"This
product underscores Super Talent’s continued leadership in the USB 3.0
storage market," said Super Talent COO, C.H. Lee. "We’ve listened to our
customers and responded with a USB 3.0 product that not only meets the
market needs but hits the balance point between price and performance.”
Super
Talent expects to make the device widely available through its
worldwide resellers sometime during March. The release will include
models of both 16GB and 32GB. Unfortunately, prices have not been
mentioned as of yet, though it is possible that they may depend on just
how much higher a transfer speed the developers will reach with their
special drive.
Views: 495 |
Added by: UnkAlex |
Date: 2010-02-12
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Views: 504 |
Added by: UnkAlex |
Date: 2010-02-11
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Back in late 2008, Santa Clara, California-based NVIDIA surprised everybody with the launch of a new product aimed specifically at the low-end netbook and nettop market. The NVIDIA ION was widely acclaimed as one of the outfit's most interesting products, as it basically enabled OEMs to create low-priced PCs that offered better graphics, compared with what Intel's Atom platform was capable of. At that time, there was a wide media coverage of the new solution, generating enough hype for users to really want ION inside their low-power systems. Since its launch, ION has grown, as NVIDIA is planning the launch of this technology's second generation, making an effort to gain more on the portable PC market. This is where the Optimus technology comes into play, enabling NVIDIA to boost its business.
Optimus comes as an evolution, out of something that NVIDIA has kicked off with its Switchable graphics technology, back in 2007. In the words of the company's Igor Stanek, this is probably the most important mobile launch that NVIDIA has come up with. And with good measure. Optimus will basically enable users to take better advantage of the balance between the GPU and CPU, in terms of performance and battery life. Although some saw it as a cool technology, NVIDIA's switchable graphics had one main drawback, namely that it required the end-user to choose which graphics solution they wanted to use. In addition, the technology wasn't exactly cheap, which made it less affordable to the mainstream market and available only in some expensive systems, from the likes of Sony. Although the technology evolved, switching between a discrete GPU and an integrated graphics chip wasn't really as smooth as some would have desired. Moreover, according to NVIDIA's research, less than 1% of users ever switched between IGP and the dGPU, and that's because of the way the technology enabled users to do that.
This is where Optimus comes into play, changing the way notebook graphics will work. While the previous technology required the user to manually change what GPU to use, Optimus does that while the computer is running and without the user even knowing it. Optimus decides when to switch to the discrete graphics, depending on what the end-user does. When the system is running low-graphics applications, such as Internet browsing, email or playing Solitaire, the laptop will utilize the integrated GPU, saving battery life. However, when the user decides to employ a graphics-demanding application, the system switches to the discrete GPU. The genius behind Optimus is that it will enable NVIDIA to be inside Intel-powered laptops, without having to worry about licensing problems. And that's big, if you consider the huge market share that Intel has, in the mobile space. In addition, it also helps NVIDIA dominate AMD in the notebook space, as this technology is currently available only for Intel processors. That said, you should get a pretty general idea of how the much-anticipated ION 2 platform will work.
Views: 428 |
Added by: UnkAlex |
Date: 2010-02-11
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Microsoft has already kick started the development process which will ultimately end up producing the successor of Windows 7, claims a third-party source. Russian website Wzor notes that the Redmond company has apparently set on a course to building Windows 8, and even provided the Build strings for a few assembles of the next iteration of Windows available exclusively in Redmond. Wzor is a source with a proven track record of delivering accurate information of the software giant’s moves, that otherwise would be kept under the tightly sealed translucent lid of Steven Sinofsky, president, Windows and Windows Live Division.
The Redmond company is reportedly compiling new interim versions of Windows 8 at a constant pace, having offered the following Builds the past month: 7702.0.100126-1751, 7703.0.100127-1845, 7704.0.100128-1900 and 7705.0.100129-1930. Per the numbers in the build string, 7705.0.100129-1930 was compiled on January 29, 2010. Microsoft has yet to confirm or deny the fact that the information offered by Wzor is valid. However, the Redmond company did confirm early in 2009 that it had already begun planning for Windows 8, and it only makes sense that it should start the actual development process since we’re now at more than half a year after the finalization of Windows 7. Previous leaks revealed that Microsoft’s silence should not be mistaken for inactivity. Leaked information and screenshots on Build 6.1.7700.0.100122-1900 for both Windows client and server have already been published in the wild. Users familiar with the evolution of Windows Vista’s successor already know that Build 6.1.7700.0.100122-1900 supersedes the RTM development milestone of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, which was 6.1.7600.16385. Information leaked by a program manager working on the Windows team (Windows Update) indicates that Sinofsky is looking to make Windows 8 beat all that end users expect of Windows platforms. Of course, provided that Microsoft ends up calling Windows vNext Windows 8.
Views: 434 |
Added by: UnkAlex |
Date: 2010-02-11
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