Apple updates MacBook range, releases new MacBook Pro

Apple has announced its new lineup of Mac laptop computers, with improved design and beefier specs under the hood.

The revamped MacBook Air, which Apple claims revolutionised the laptop market, will offer processor options up to a 3.2GHz (with TurboBoost) dual-core i7, memory of up to 8GB, 512GB Flash storage, and a high-definition camera for FaceTime. Best of all, and a surprise for Apple, is that it will be $100 cheaper than previous models. The new version is available from today.The MacBook Pro range is also getting an upgrade, with the 13-inch model featuring choices of a 2.5GHz i5 or 2.9GHz i7 processor, while the 15-inch model features a choice between 2.3GHz or 2.6GHz quad-core i7. Graphics will also be improved, up to 60 percent faster than previous models, and the devices will also come with USB 3.0 ports.There will also be a new MacBook Pro with a 15-inch 2880x1800 resolution retina display, called by Apple “the most beautiful computer we have ever made.” It is lighter than the 13-inch model, thinner than a persons finger, and packs a punch, with up to a 2.7GHz quad-core i7, up to 16GB of RAM, up to 768GB of Flash storage, a GeForce GT 650 M graphics card, ThunderBolt and USB 3.0 ports, and a battery life of up to 7 hours. Prices start at $2,199 and the new model is available immediately.The ever wasteful Apple is touting that users can watch full 1080p video with more than three million pixels left over. That is a whopping 220 pixels per inch. It seems that the revamps to all of its devices include the move to the retina display, despite it offering a much higher resolution than needed, or indeed noticeable, on a computer. Some improvements that will help, however, include 75 percent less reflection and 29 percent more contrast.It does not appear that any of the other Mac devices are getting an upgrade at this time.

ASUS Rampage IV Gene Looking Good

The Rampage IV Gene is a micro-ATX form-factor motherboard based on the Intel X79 chipset, supporting Core i7 processors in the LGA2011 package. It aims to give you everything the X79 platform can, 3-way SLI and CrossfireX included. The top half of the board is laid out like any other X79 motherboard. The LGA2011 socket sits in between two sets of DDR3 DIMM slots with two slots each, supporting quad-channel DDR3 memory, with speeds of up to DDR3-2400 MHz by overclocking.

Despite severe space constrains of the micro-ATX form-factor, ASUS did not compromise on the power delivery one bit. The CPU is powered by an 8-phase Extreme Engine Digi+ II VRM with at least 8 phases, and 4-phase memory VRM, cooled by a robust heatsink set that makes use of a heat pipe to spread the heat around. To the right side of the socket is the OC Zone, which gives you consolidated voltage measurement points, onboard OC control buttons; phase LEDs, and POST code readout.

The expansion slot area completely does away with ye olde PCI slots, it consists of three PCI-Express Gen 3.0 x16 slots, and an open-ended PCI-Express 2.0 x4 slot wired to the X79 PCH. Among the long slots, the top two are x16 capable, while the bottommost one runs at x8 speed at all times. In terms of SATA connectivity, the Rampage IV Gene gives you a total of 7 internal ports and one eSATA. Among these six internal ports (red) are SATA 6 Gb/s, two from the X79 PCH and two from an ASMedia-made SATA 6G controller; three internal ports (black) are SATA 3 Gb/s wired to the PCH. The eSATA port is wired to the PCH, and runs at 3 Gb/s speed.

ASUS implemented its SupremeFX III audio solution, which can also be found on the Rampage IV Formula. It uses a high-SNR HD audio CODEC (probably ALC898 for all we know), sitting on a tiny PCB thats laid on top of the boards main PCB. This isolates the CODEC from the ground layer of the main PCB. In conjunction with a 1500 uF capacitor, this design eliminates background electrical noises typically associated with onboard audio solutions. To top it all off, the 8+2 channel CODEC is backed by Creative X-Fi MB software that provides EAX 5.0 HD, X-Fi Crystalizer, CMSS-3D, and THX TruStudio Pro.

Other connectivity features include an Intel-made GbE connection, four USB 3.0 ports (two on the rear-panel, two via standard USB 3.0 header), a number of USB 2.0 ports, and a PS/2 keyboard/mouse combo port. PS/2 is still indispensable, as PS/2 keyboards are free from ghosting and rollback flaws associated with USB keyboards. This board includes several ROG exclusive features such as ROG Connect, ROG GameFirst, USB BIOS Flashback, etc. The board is driven by ASUS UEFI BIOS firmware. Unfortunately, we dont have a specific release date.

Source: SweClockers

ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime's specifications unveiled

Comes in Amethyst Gray and Champagne Gold, the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime, with metallic spun finish design made of aluminium, is incredibly slim at just 8.3mm thin and weighs a mere 586g.It features NVIDIA’s quad-core Tegra 3 processor that can deliver superb experience for tablet-based multitasking, web browsing, full high definition video playback and gaming. On top of that, the Eee Pad Transformer Prime also sports a bright 10.1-inch Super IPS+ screen with LED backlight and Corning Gorilla glass for protection.

On the front is a 1.2-megapixel camera for video conferencing while the 8-megapixel camera at the rear comes with auto-focus and LED flash for taking brilliant pictures and full 1080p HD video. The Eee Pad Transformer Prime is also powered by ASUS exclusive SonicMaster technology for impressive audio performance. And is available in 32GB and 64GB flavours, along with a micro SD card slot, 3.5mm combo audio jack and micro HDMI port. It boasts a battery life of up to 12 hours and when combined with the mobile dock, it can last up to 18 hours. Unfortunately,no details on the pricing and availability at press time.

Display

10.1"LED Backlit screen with Super IPS+ (1280 x 800) 10 finger multi-touch, Corning® Gorilla® Glass

Operating System

Android™ 3.2 Honeycomb (Upgradable to Android™ 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich)

CPU

NVIDIA® Tegra® 3 Quad-core CPU

Memory

LP DDR2 1 GB

Storage

32GB /64GB(1) EMMC + ASUS WebStorage

Wireless

802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1+ EDR

Camera

1.2MP (front)/ 8MP Auto-focus (rear) with LED flash, large F2.4 aperture

Interface

PAD: 2-in-1 Audio Jack (Headphone/Mic-in); 1x micro HDMI port; 1x Micro SD Card Reader; 1x Internal Microphone; 1x Stereo Speaker

Mobile Dock:1x USB2.0 port; 1x SD Card Reader

Sensor

G-Sensor, Light Sensor, Gyroscope, E-compass, GPS

Flash support

Yes

Multi-tasking

Yes

Special Apps

ASUS launcher, @Vibe Music, ASUS WebStorage, MyLibrary, MyNet, MyCloud, File manager, ASUS sync, SuperNote, App Locker, App Backup, TegraZone, Polaris® Office

Battery

12hours; 25Wh Li-polymer Battery(2)

18 hours pad with dock ; 25Wh(pad) & 22Wh(mobile dock) Li-polymer Battery(2)

Size / Weight

Pad: 263*180.8*8.3mm / 586g

Mobile Dock: 263*180.8*8~10.4mm / 537g

Asus' Transformer Prime gets undressed, reveals Tegra 3

The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) had kindly posted pictures of the guts of Asus’ upcoming Transformer Prime tablet, since if you want to sell a device in the US; it has to pass through the stringent testing of the FCC. As such, we now know not only what Nvidia’s Tegra 3 chip for tablets look like, but also some details about the specifications of the Transformer Prime beyond the processor.It looks like Nvidia has managed to shrink the size of the chip quite significantly compared to Tegra 2, despite doubling the core count and then some. It’s unlikely that this same chip will be used in smartphones though, as it’s still bigger than your average ARM SoC. Beyond the Tegra 3 chip, we’re looking at an unknown amount of 32-bit DDR2 or possibly LPDDR2 memory from Elpida, as the specific model number doesn’t appear on Elpida’s website. Storage comes courtesy of an eMMC chip from Hynix, in this case a 32GB chip built on 2Xnm technology that is compliant with the eMMC 4.41 standard that offers a maximum memory bandwidth of 104MB/s.Other chips spotted include Wi-Fi from Azurewave, a GPS receiver from Broadcom, audio from Realtek and a touch screen controller from Atmel with support for up to 16 simultaneous touch inputs. The tablet also appears to have a micro SD card slot, a built in camera with what appears to be an LED flash, an audio jack and a USB port. There’s also a custom dock connector for the keyboard dock, but it’s a bit hard to see in the pictures. The battery pack seems to take up most of the space inside the tablet and it’s rated at 25Wh or 3,380mAh whichever you prefer. That said, we shouldn’t have to wait too long for the Transformer Prime to launch and we should know more then. Check out the source for more pictures of the internals of the Transformer Prime.Source: Wireless Goodness

Asus introduces dual GPU 6600GT after Gigabyte

GIGABYTE´s GV-3D1 won´t be alone in the market soon, because ASUSTeK Computer decided to introduce a competing solution with two GPUs onboard. Taiwanese Digital-Info.Net posted intriguing photos of a sample named EN6600GT Dual:

Though this card is based on the same GeForce 6600GT GPUs, it´s totally different from GIGABYTE GV-3D1:

EN6600GT Dual has two DVI-I interfaces, 9-pin S-Video that also supports video capture (with Philips SAA7114H chip). On card´s PCB there´s also 6-pin power connector, 256MB of 256-bit 1.6ns GDDR3 memory from Samsung similar to that installed on GV-3D1 (8 x K4J55323QF-GC16 chips).

The architecture is still a matter of guess, but GIGABYTE already patented its version of it. It seems that GPUs share PCI Express evenly, each using 8 x PCI-E channels. Perhaps, GPUs are interconnected with SLI (Scalable Link Interface) that has the switch integrated into the PCB circuits.

I wonder, is it possible to install 2 x EN6600GT Dual card to get yourself a whole 4 GPUs? Perhaps, it is, because the novelty from ASUS has two 14-pin connectors, one in the place of SLI interface, so if you take a couple of cables...

It seems a configuration of two EN6600GT Dual will require a special daughterboard like TYAN Thunder K8WEX to provide each fully-fledged PCI Express slot with 16 PCI-E channels, otherwise the #9 to #16 PCI-E channels of the 4th GPU won´t be connected (in 16 + 4 PCI-E channels mode).

So, the motherboard should be able to switch 8 + 8 PCI-E channels (or 16 + 4 PCI-E channels) as channels #1 to #4 for 1-1/2-1 GPUs, channels #8 to #12 for 1-2/2-2 GPUs (or channels #1 to #8 for 1-1 GPU, channels #9 to #16 for 1-2 GPU + channels #1 and #2 for 2-1 GPU, channels #8 and #9 for 2-2 GPU). This can be done by DFI nForce 4 based series, for example. But, of course, if GeForce 6600GT supports multi-GPU modes, ASUSTeK is bound to release a new board to handle two EN6600GT Dual cards at once.

2012-12-21-471

A-Data Readies S596 Turbo SSD for Release

A-Data is preparing to release the S596 Turbo SSD, targetingenthusiasts.



Encased in a brushed aluminum enclosure, the 2.5” SSD boasts a JMicronJMF616 chip, 128Mb DDR2 cache buffer, both SATA II and USB 2.0interfaces, MLC NAND flash memory, TRIM support, “static wear-levelingtechnology” (for extended lifespan), and supports data transfer rates upto 210Mb/s (write) and 260Mb/s (read). Available in capacities of 32Gb,64Gb, 128Gb and 256Gb, the S596 Turbo SSD is bundled with a 3.5"converter and a 60-day trial version of Norton Internet Security 2010.Pricing and availability has not been set yet so stay tuned for moreupdates.


News via [Softpedia]

2012-12-21-312

90nm Athlon 64 Mass Production In Q3

AMD Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Robert J. Rivet haspresented at the Morgan Stanley Semiconductor and Systems Conference today andhere are some information he has shared regarding the upcoming 90nm Athlon 64 :

AMD is right on target to ship out 1M units of Opteron and Athlon 64 in thisquarterAMD's strategy is to establish in server first (high end client first),then mobile then desktopAMD to start fab conversion for 90nm process in 5 weeksFirst 90nm production silicon in April, volume production in July andavailability around September-October targeted at Athlon 64 family90nm Athlon 64 (Winchester) will be around 98-102mm2 in diesize, about half the size of a 130nm Athlon 64 (193mm2) and smallerthan Intel Prescott (112mm2)

Some of the architectural improvements such as SSE3 and DDR-2 might just be present inthe 90nm Athlon 64.