Elpida, a leading supplier of dynamic random access memory (DRAM), on Tuesday said that it had developed DDR3 memory chips that can function at unprecedented clock-speed. The new chips will enable leading developers of memory modules to create even faster memory solutions for computer enthusiasts.

The new memory chips can operate at 667MHz – 2500MHz with 1.2V – 1.5V voltage settings. The new memory devices have an optimized design based on a copper interconnect process and new circuit technology that not only enables faster speeds but also an ultra-low voltage operation of 1.2V while conforming to DDR3 specifications. The chips achieve data rates of 2.5Gb/s at 1.5V and 1.8Gb/s at 1.2V, considerably faster than the current industry standard of 1.6Gb/s at 1.5V.
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Intel Corp. on Wednesday said that it had made available the Extensible Host Controller Interface (xHCI) draft specification revision 0.9 in support of the USB 3.0 architecture, also known as SuperSpeed USB. The xHCI draft specification provides a standardized method for USB 3.0 host controllers to communicate with the USB 3.0 software stack.

This specification describes the registers and data structures used to interface between system software and the hardware, and are developed to be compatible with the USB 3.0 specification being developed by the USB 3.0 Promoter Group. The Intel xHCI draft specification revision 0.9 is being made available under RAND-Z (royalty free) licensing terms to all USB 3.0 Promoter Group and contributor companies that sign an xHCI contributor agreement.
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When we posted our 790GX preview there were still a few significant problems with the motherboards and drivers. Mind you, the problems we encountered primarily revolved around overclocking and other performance settings on the motherboards. Stock operation and stability were never a problem for us, but stepping outside of the norm created a fair share of frustrating moments for us. In addition, the beta drivers that implemented PowerPlay had their own set of problems with CrossFire X operation along with some weird interactions with our TV tuner and network cards in the PCI slots.

Our final opinion was that this launch occurred about two weeks early. As such, the motherboard suppliers and AMD have been in overtime mode to get the boards and drivers tuned properly. The good news is the last set of BIOS releases we have received from ASUS, Gigabyte, Foxconn, and MSI have solved about 95% of our problems. The last five percent are mainly performance or tuning requests that we deem optional for the most part. The last set of beta drivers have improved overall stability and performance greatly along with CrossFire operating correctly. Granted, the 8.7 Catalyst drivers will work fine, but performance enhancements and PowerPlay improvements in the latest 8.8 betas have us wishing that AMD would get the final drivers out quickly.
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Santa Clara (CA) - The replacement of faulty graphics chips as well as a much stronger than expected AMD  /ATI pushed Nvidia deep into the red during the second quarter. The company reported a revenue decline of 23% sequentially and a triple-digit loss.

The company posted sales of $893 million, down 23% from $1.15 billion the first quarter and down 5% from $936 million year over year. In a rare event, Nvidia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia reported a hefty loss of $120.9 million, compared to a net income of $211.8 million in the first quarter.
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Quick Look http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quick_Look : Falcon NW Mach V Quadfire System Could this rig finally bring Crysis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crysis to it’s knees? Thanks to a pair of AMD Radeon HD http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radeon_R600 4870 X2 cards, Falcon Northwest says this Mach V gets frame rates 3-times that of a similarly equipped 3-way http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3-Way SLI system.

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ap·o·gee: The farthest or highest point; the apex; a final climactic stage
The Apogee™ GTZ is Swiftech’s new flagship water-block. While it shares the same name with its predecessors, it also leaps beyond the GT and GTX performance charts thanks to an entirely new design that pushes and refines both thermal and mechanical specifications to the limits of today’s technology. Read the rest of this entry »

General purpose processing on graphics processing units (GPGPU) has been discussed for years, however, without standards that are accepted by the whole industry popularity of the technology is not high to say at least. But that may change once Microsoft Corp. unveils its DirectX 11 application programming interface and Khronos Group finalizes the OpenCL language.

“Industry standards are essential to unlocking the compute potential of GPUs and driving broad adoption of this capability in mainstream applications. GPGPU is now moving past the era of closed and fully proprietary development chains. With the advent of DirectX 11 and OpenCL, C/C++ programmers worldwide will have standardized and easier ways of leveraging the GPU’s computational capabilities,” said Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager, graphics product group at AMD.

At present AMD is promoting GPGPU with its proprietary Close-to-Metal, Brook+ and Stream SDK technologies, whereas Nvidia is pushing its own CUDA technology as a part of GPGPU popularization. Read the rest of this entry »

It appears that Nvidia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia ’s notebook chips aren’t the only ones that could be defective, if an Inquirer report is to be believed.

According to sources, the entire line of G84 and G86 chips all suffer from the same defect, regardless of desktop or notebook application. The chip generation utilizes the same Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application-specific_integrated_circuit ), which supposedly has an issue with an “unnamed substrate or bumping material, and it is heat related.”

As expected, Nvidia is staying mum on the topic, but analysts are spilling various details. One story is that HP was the recipient for the majority of the defective chips – only limited to a specific batch. Further explanation reveals that it was isolated to an end-of-life batch that used a different bonding/substrate process. Read the rest of this entry »

NZXT has unveiled a gaming mouse called Avatar. Equipped with a 2000 dpi optical sensor, this USB mouse features an ambidextrous design and has 7 programmable buttons (that have a life span of 5 million clicks) that allows the users to customize their games configurations. A rubber grip helps avoid slipping during intense game play. It’s MSRP is of USD 60.

Asetek’s industry-leading, LCLC liquid cooling solution is now available for AMD’s much anticipated multi-GPU cards, the ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 family of graphics cards (codenamed R700). The unique, liquid cooling approach is exactly what OEMs need to extract the highest performance from the graphics card and produce top-of-the-line gaming and entertainment products. Read the rest of this entry »