ATI, graphics product group of Advanced Micro Devices, has issued a statement to its partners claiming that its ATI Mobility Radeon graphics processing units (GPUs) have no issues with packaging, unlike competing solutions from Nvidia Corp. Surprisingly, AMD has shred some light on the possible issue that affects the mobile GeForce graphics chips.

ā€œIn the past couple of weeks there has been considerable media attention regarding product reliability of certain notebook GPU die/packaging material failures. AMD is pleased to reassure our customers that our ATI Mobility Radeon GPUs are not experiencing any such abnormal field failures,ā€¯ a statement from AMD seen by X-bit labs reads.

According to ATI, once the RoHS compliancy became compulsory several years ago, the company transited its ASIC packaging process from restricted solder bumping material (which is used to attach the ASIC die to the substrate) to the use of eutectic solder bumping. A ā€œeutecticā€¯ or ā€œeutectic mixtureā€¯ is a mixture at such proportions that the melting point is as low as possible, and which all ingredients crystallize simultaneously at this temperature from melt liquid. ATI chose eutectic instead of the alternative high-lead bumps (also allowable by RoHS) because the latter, according to the statement, were known to be more fragile and subject to field failure issues if not implemented properly. Read the rest of this entry »

Alienware has begun offering Nvidia ā€™s Quadro FX 3600M GPU as a $600 option for its 15.4″ Area-51 m15x notebook. According to the manufacturer, the hardware upgrade allows designers and engineers to work in complex, real-time, photorealistic environments throughout an array of CAD, DCC and scientific applications.

Alienware also offers an NVIDIA Quadro FX 1600M on the Area-51 and said it will soon offer the Quadro FX 3600M on the Area-51 m17x.

The Area-51 m15x is priced from $1500. A fully loaded model costs about $5000.

London (England) ā€“ A British hacker has lost his appeal against extradition to the United States.Ā  42-year-old Gary McKinnon is accused of wreaking havoc on US military computer systems back in 2001 and 2002 by hacking into systems with a simple dial-up modem and off-the-shelf software.Ā  US prosecutors want to try him in the states and McKinnon, along with his solicitors, have been fighting extradition for several years.Ā  Now it appears time is running out for the unemployed IT administrator as Britainā€™s highest court, the House of Lords, has rejected his appeal.

According to court documents, McKinnon is accused of scanning over 73000 government computers belonging to the Department of Defense, Army, Air Force, Navy and even NASAand actually gained access to 97 computers with his dial-up modem.Ā  During his exploits, he managed to take 2000+ computers offline for 24 hours at the US Army Military District of Washington and a similar hack attempt disabled 300 computers at a New Jersey naval weapons station.Ā  The government estimates that McKinnon caused approximately $900,000 in damage. Read the rest of this entry »

Round Rock (TX) ā€“ Dell is ready to return to the MP3 player battlefield and take another shot at Appleā€™s iPod. Following the Digital Jukebox (Dell DJ), which was introduced in 2003 and scrapped in 2006, Dell apparently believes that it has now what it takes to compete with the iPod for market share.

According to an article published by the Wall Street Journal today, the new device could be on sale as early as September. Our sources indicated that actually several new devices are in the works, which all may be aiming more or less for consumers that are attracted by the design-focused Apple brand. In fact, Dell has invited journalists for a product unveiling on August 12, which promises ā€œnew products that redefine mobility as the industry knows it.ā€¯ While this event appears to be notebook-focused with ā€œmind-blowing designs and exciting new features,ā€¯ it would only make sense for Dell to show this new media player at this event as well, if the WSJ is correct and a media player in fact has been developed by the company. Read the rest of this entry »

Round Rock (TX) ā€“ Dell Corporation started shipping its first monitor from the 2009 line-up. Under the name S2409W, the monitor has a 16:9 LCD display with full 1920×1080 resolution.

Since Taiwanese manufacturers are now migrating to 16:9 panels, Dell had no choice but to use the panels and offer the display for only 379 US Dollars. This is one sweet deal for a large display, since last year you had to pay 400 bucks for a 22-inch display.

This S2409W belongs to entry-level series of displays, so donā€™t expect any home cinema features on this model. It features a 5ms gray-to-gray response time (just like 2408WFP), 1000:1 contrast ratio, just 300 candles light output and 85% color gamut.

Connectivity options include analog D-SUB (will this ever die?), DVI and HDMI. Oddly enough, DisplayPort ā€“ something monitors makers have been pushing lately - is not present on S2409W.

Personally, I am not a fan of a trend that will see more and more 16:9 LCD displays and less and less of 16:10. Then again, if higher-end monitors offer higher quality picture, we might even achieve some sort of compromise.

Tokyo (Japan) ā€“ 21 months after the introduction of the Nintendo Wii, the game console is still in short supply and you have to be lucky to find one on the shelves in retail stores. But Nintendoā€™s previously announced increase in Wii production capacity is showing effect: The company sold 5.2 million consoles in the second quarter of this year (fiscal Q1 2009 for the company), compared to only 1.7 million in Q2 of last year.

The Wii console was the main growth driver for the company in the second quarter, lifting earnings by 34% to $996 million. Sales came in at $3.9 billion. Read the rest of this entry »

The main reason for the trend, according to iSuppli’s report, is the drop in manufacturing outsourcing to China by foreign electronic equipment makers.

Chinese demand for locally designed semiconductors is heating up, as chipmakers turn their attention to serving the needs of electronic equipment makers in China, a market research firm said Wednesday.By 2012, $42.1 billion in Chinese-designed semiconductors will be bought for use in China, up 63.8% from $25.8 billion in 2007, iSuppli said. The main reason for the trend is the drop in manufacturing outsourcing to China by foreign electronic equipment makers. Read the rest of this entry »

Dell (Dell) on Wednesday sought to play down a report that it’s developing a digital music player that would take Dell squarely into Apple’s iPod turf, and said it is more focused on how to deliver entertainment services across multiple products.The Wall Street Journal reported that in recent months, the computer maker has been testing a player that could go on sale as early as September. The player would be accompanied by an online download service and related software that Dell hopes will launch the company into a broader range of consumer markets, the newspaper said. Read the rest of this entry »

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) researchers are developing a new operating system that’s designed from the ground up to support Internet-based computing and multicore architectures and which could one day replace the company’s storied Windows franchise.The operating system, which currently goes by the development name Midori, is being built to solve problems that are beyond the scope of Windows, a so-called fat OS that was first developed before the Internet came into widespread use and most PCs had only a single processor.

It’s possible that Midori is being designed for use in cloud computing scenarios, in which business applications reside on centralized servers and are accessed through the Web. Microsoft researchers also are building the OS with an eye to achieving better performance on multicore PCs, company documents show. To date, developers have had little success creating software that’s able to fully harness the power of computers that feature two or more cores on a single chip.Microsoft has said little about Midori and isn’t commenting publicly on the project. But company research documents confirm that the project exists and is related to a public project called Singularity — under which Microsoft developers are creating a slimmed down OS for use in the research community. Read the rest of this entry »

The Environmental Protection Agency has launched an initiative to collect monthly energy-consumption data from about 240 data centers over the next year with the aim of creating possible Energy Star specifications for energy-efficient data centers.As part of the new “Energy Star commercial building data center collection initiative,” the facilities are providing to the EPA monthly information about “how much power is going in to the data center, how much is being used, and submetering,” including how much energy is consumed by all non-IT “infrastructure” gear, including air conditioning, uninterruptible power supplies, and lighting, versus the power being used by IT equipment such as servers, storage, network products, and “other ancillary products,” Andrew Fanara, the EPA’s Energy Star program product development team leader, said in an interview with InformationWeek. Read the rest of this entry »