More HD 7770 Leaks: Pictures, Plus 3DMark Benchmarks

Not quite two weeks ago, we reported on leaked pictures of AMD's upcoming Radeon HD 7770 mid-range graphics card based on the new Southern Islands architecture and listed its basic specs. Well, the leaks keep coming and bigpao007 of ChipHell has leaked more pictures with some benchmarks to go with them. The test setup consisted of an Ivy Bridge ES CPU – Core i5-3550K at 3.3Ghz and Z77 chipset-based motherboard. The driver used was the AMD Catalyst 8.940 RC2, giving the following 3DMark benchmark results:

3DMark 06:
HD7770 (Stock @ 1Ghz): 18143 3D Marks (SM2.0: 6785/HDR: 8086/CPU: 6390)

3DMark 11 (Performance Preset):
HD7770 (Stock @ 1Ghz): P3421 (3138 Graphics Score)

3DMark 11 (Extreme Preset):
HD7770 (Stock @ 1Ghz): X1077 (965 Graphics Score)

Screenshots follow:

Source: techngaming.com

Intel Plans to Launch Medfield Platform in Q2, Clover Trail-W platform in Q4, 2012

According to the latest information received by industry observer DigiTimes, Intel plans to launch the first processor platform for ultra-thin Android tablets based on its x86 architecture, codenamed "Medfield", in Q2 2012. Tablets based on this will be able to run Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich". Then in Q4 2012, Intel plans to launch the more powerful Clover Trail-W platform. Currently, Intel's Oak Trail platform consisting of Atom Z670 processor and SM35 chipset drive Windows 7 or Android Honeycomb tablets.

The fundamental difference between Medfield and Clover Trail-W with its predecessor Oak Tail, is that Medfield will be designed for ultra-thin tablets with long batter life, currently only ARM processors provide the kind of performance-per-Watt to achieve this form-factor. Oak Trail and its succeeding Clover Trail-W, are designed for slightly more capable tablets. Oak Trail is opted today, to design tablets that run Windows 7 PC operating system. Microsoft will design performance and UI-optimized Windows 8 variants when its next-gen operating system sees the light of the day next year.

Source: DigiTimes

Intel DZ77RE First and Only to Feature Thunderbolt from Intel's 7-series Board Stable

This week, we got two important bits of news, firstly, that Intel's third-generation Core processor family (codenamed "Ivy Bridge"), is scheduled for launch on April 8, 2012; and secondly, that Intel will use that occasion to launch its new 7-series chipset, and with it, bring its 10 Gbps Thunderbolt interconnect to the PC platform. A road-map slide tabling Intel's own Desktop Board division products based on 7-series chipset, shows that only one motherboard from Intel's stable will feature Thunderbolt, the DZ77RE.

The DZ77RE is likely listed within the Extreme Series, which will be a top-of-the-line product. This is a bit of a contradiction to the idea behind Thunderbolt, and the way Intel's Desktop Board lineup is designed. It typically consists of Extreme Series, geared for gamers and overclockers; Media Series, for content-creation professionals; Classic Series, for office PCs with room for upgrades; and Essential Series, which well, covers the essentials. None of the supposed Media Series boards from Intel's 7-series chipset based Desktop Board lineup is listing Thunderbolt support, when it's the content-creation industry that stands to be the primary user of the interface. Thunderbolt facilitates ultra-high bandwidth for multiple lossless high-resolution video streams which will help in tomorrow's video-editing systems.

Sources: Expreview, DonanimHaber

Japanese to Launch WiFi Vending Machine; Creative Marketing

It is a very creative way to market their vending machines.

It’s no secret that Japan is the country of vending machines (they even have models like this one now), but this is new: Tokyo-based beverage company Asahi Soft Drinks took the wraps off a vending machine [JP] that not only offers drinks but also sends out WiFi signals within a 50m radius.

The WiFi will be available for free, is accessible with multiple devices, without registration, and for anyone to use (meaning users won’t have to buy any drinks to go online through the machine). It’s possible to use the web for about 30 minutes before the machine cuts you off (re-connecting is possible, however).

After logging in, users will see various location-specific information on the home screen, for example on local stores, or sightseeing spots.

 Starting in 2012, Asahi will set up 1,000 of the vending machines in five different regions in Japan (Tokyo, Sendai, Chubu, Kinki, and Fukuoka) in the first year. The plan is to roll out a total of 10,000 units in the next five years. Asahi is currently operating 250,000 vending machines all over Japan.

Zalman F1-Series SSDs Start Selling

Zalman's newest line of solid state drives, the F1-series, started selling in Japan. These drives are slated for launch tomorrow. These drives are a typical implementation of the SandForce SF-2281 controller, backed by MLC NAND flash memory. The F1-series is available in three sizes, 60 GB, 120 GB, and 240 GB; priced at 11,980 JPY (US $153), 19,800 JPY ($254), and 39,980 JPY ($513), respectively. The drives take advantage of the SATA 6 Gb/s interface, and are built in the 2.5-inch form-factor. The drives offer read speeds of up to 560 MB/s, and up to 530 MB/s writes. The 60 GB and 120 GB models offer 4K random write performance of 30,000 IOPS, while the 240 GB one offers 45,000 IOPS.

Source: Hermitage Akihabara

Apple: A Touch of Fraud Over Guarantees

It looks like Apple has been a bit naughty in Italy according to Reuters and not been informing customers of their rights to product guarantees and assistance. Not only that, but they encouraged customers to buy their AppleCare Protection Plan, which actually overlapped with the free assistance required by law. Italy's anti-trust body has been looking at the activities of Apple Sales International, Apple Italia and Apple Retail Italia and fined them for the above practices. They have now fined Apple a total of 900,000 Euros over these shenanigans, which will hopefully put a stop to this. Reuters tried having a chat with three Apple spokesmen about this issue, but they were surprisingly elusive.

Separately, Apple faces an investigation over price-fixing deals with ebook publishers, blocking rivals and hurting customers. But there's more: EU anti-trust authorities are also looking closely at Apple's patents dispute with Samsung, as they suspect that their intellectual property rights may have been unfairly used against their rivals to block sales. We reported on this previously, here, concluding that Apple will now have to actually compete in the marketplace, rather than muzzle their rivals. Oh, such a shame.

It does feel to us as if the departure of Steve Jobs has lead Apple to try more underhand tactics than before. It's one thing to apply the Reality Distortion Field, aka clever marketing and lock your products in with DRM, but quite another to commit such obvious fraud against your customers. It looks like Apple may have started, or will soon start to haemorrhage customers and quite rightly, too.

Source

MSI Announces MultiConnect Panel and Voice Genie

Internationally renowned mainboard and graphic card manufacturer MSI announces today two new exclusive products: MultiConnect Panel and Voice Genie.

With support for Wi-Fi 802.11n and Bluetooth 3.0 wireless transfer, MSI's MultiConnect Panel provides an OC Genie button for MSI mainboard users to instantly increase system performance with a simple push of a button! The MSI-exclusive Super Charger on the MultiConnect Panel also allows users to quickly charge their smart-phones, tablet PCs, wireless keyboards, and wireless mice via any MSI X79 mainboard.

MSI's groundbreaking Voice Genie is the world's first voice control technology with system startup support without the need for keyboard or mouse operation! Aside from turning on and off the system, users can even enable and disable OC Genie, open a web browser, wake up the system, and set the system to sleep mode all via voice command! Full compatibility with all MSI X79 Series mainboards helps bring added value to the MSI computing experience with MultiConnect Panel and Voice Genie.

MultiConnect Panel with built-in Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and USB

The MultiConnect Panel is equipped with a high-speed Bluetooth 3.0 module for quick connection via smart-phones and tablets, and synchronization with notebooks. The Wi-Fi feature on the panel supports the latest 802.11n protocol with a transfer baud rate of up to 150 Mbps, equipping desktop systems with true wireless networking capability. The OC Genie button on the panel allows users to boost system performance with the MSI-exclusive OC Genie technology with one simple push. The USB ports connecting with the Super Charger on the mainboard supply power with voltage 3 times higher than conventional USB ports, allowing users to quickly charge their smart-phones or tablets. The MultiConnect Panel has a standard 5.25-inch bezel design to fit in any 5.25-inch bay on a computer case, making it truly friendly and handy to use.

Voice Genie: The world's first voice control system with system startup control

MSI has been devoted to providing consumers with more intelligent technology for human-machine interaction. Voice Genie, a convenient-to-use voice control system, is the world's first voice control system with system startup control. Users can command the system to power on/off, open the browser, run MSI's exclusive Control Center, set the system to sleep mode, wake up the system, and run other functions via voice control. In addition, Voice Genie comes equipped with two sets of voice recognition and supports up to 8 customized voice commands. With Voice Genie, users can enjoy additional convenience in lieu of the keyboard and mouse for some of the most common PC operations.

Mainboards Supporting Voice Genie



Source

Gigabyte Recalling X79 UD3, UD5, G1.Assassin 2 Motherboards

Last week, a Taiwanese overclocker putting his OC workbench through an relatively laxed OC stress test saw its Gigabyte X79 UD3 motherboard go bust. Its CPU VRM couldn't cope with the stress, and blew a MOSFET. At the time, people responding to his video condoled him for his bad luck. It appears now that his wasn't a one-off case of "bad-egg". Gigabyte, in its latest press release on its Chinese website, noted the issue. Apparently it received several such complaints from overclockers where even moderate voltage-assisted CPU OC fried its VRM. The issue was found to be widespread, among three of its main socket LGA2011 products, the GA-X79-UD3, GA-X79-UD5, and G1.Assassin 2.

Apparently, the issue is caused by a cocktail of bad firmware to complement the board's PWM circuitry, and bad quality PWM components. As an immediate remedy, Gigabyte issued a BIOS update for the affected products. This BIOS, however, will cripple the board's overclocking abilities. The new BIOS will throttle CPU when subjected to extreme stress, to save the VRM. The BIOS remedy is only for those who opt to keep their boards, or don't subject the board to extreme tuning. The other remedy, is to return the board to Gigabyte, for a free replacement when the "right" boards are available. Gigabyte also announced a general recall of the GA-X79-UD3, GA-X79-UD5, and G1.Assassin 2, from the market. A video of the "unlucky" (not anymore) overclocker's day going bad, can be watched here.

Source: Gigabyte

U.S. Army Attacks the CryEngine

The U.S. Army might be financing one of the most epic videos games ever made that very few people may ever play. The "game" is called Dismounted Soldier Training System and was commissioned by the U.S. government back in May for a staggering cost of 57 million dollars. The contract was awarded to RealTime Immersive Inc. All of this according to PC Gamer. Everything about this simulator is said to be cutting edge but the hardware it runs on. In a GamePro interview with the director of strategic programs at Intelligent Decisions, Floyd West is said to have stated, "With CryEngine 3 being used for Crysis 2 and the capabilities that game engine provides, it allows us to make the most realistic simulation possible. We’re able to transport soldiers to accurately recreated locales like Afghanistan and Iraq, where we can simulate everything from visuals to 360-degree sound."

The virtual reality headsets the trainees wear will run from a backpack unit similar to a top of the range gaming laptop, called the 'Man Wearable Unit'. "While the man wearable units aren’t running on an off-the-shelf Alienware, the internal components themselves are commercial off-the-shelf CPUs and GPUs like NVIDIA graphic cards and whatnot."

As this is an internal military training simulator we the public may never play it. However that doesn't mean we cannot watch the trailers in awe and wonder if our own rigs could render thousands of kilometers in such massive detail.

Trailer 1 | Trailer 2

Source: PC Gamer

Seagate Takes Three Years To Realize It's Using The Wrong Branding!

Five years ago, almost to the day, Seagate issued a press release stating that it had bought EVault Inc for $185 million. This allowed Seagate to provide an online cloud-based backup service. It then renamed it to i365 in September 2008, to reflect its all-year-round availability. However, it has now made a screeching U-turn and renamed the service back to EVault. Why? Apparently, because i365 has no product recognition, but EVault has plenty. One wonders what took them so long to figure this out? You can currently see a marketing graphic about this on the EVault homepage. We have taken a snapshot of it below, to preserve it.

Source: The Register

Windows 8 build 8172 Screenshots

Sometime in 2012, Microsoft is expected to announce its next major version of Windows for the client platform. It has the working name "Windows 8", and was previewed to developers at the BUILD Conference, this September. A member of Chinese tech site PCbeta community got to play with a newer build of Windows, build 8172. Screenshots of its most common user interface elements, such as desktop, Windows Explorer, PC Settings (control panel), etc., were posted. Engadget notes that these screenshots don't reveal much else from the Windows Developer Preview shown at the BUILD Conference.

The first screenshot above reveals the Start screen featuring Metro UI design elements (which replaces the Start Menu), the second reveals PC Settings screen, which serves the purpose of the Windows Control Panel, and the next two screenshots reveal the Windows Explorer user interface with its "ribbon" element collapse and expanded.

The next screenshot (above), reveals the new file transfer dialog, which provides a little more information than just a progress bar, an animation, and a few numbers. The progress bar embeds a graph that reports transfer speeds in real time. Next up, is the new Task Manager, which gives greater control over running tasks and processes; and the final screen reveals the new sidebar, which makes the taskbar optional. In all, Microsoft plans some major UI changes, while retaining compatibility with many of the elements found in Windows 7, to ease the transition. The window titlebars themselves look identical in function to the ones Windows 7 gives you, but that there are some aesthetic changes. Basically every rounded-edge is sharpened out. The PCbeta member who leaked these screenshots confirmed that build 8172 is still pre-beta.

Sources: PCbeta, Engadget

Mozilla Officially Releases Firefox 9.0, Signs New Search Deal with Google

Open source software supporter Mozilla has today announced two things, the launch of the 9.0 version of Firefox, and the signing of a new search deal with Google. Firefox 9.0 features the Type Inference which boosts JavaScript performance, it brings better theme integration on Mac OS X Lion, and also includes goodies like:

- two finger swipe navigation for Mac OS X Lion
- support for querying Do Not Track status via JavaScript
- support for font-stretch
- improved support for text-overflow
- improved standards support for HTML5, MathML, and CSS
- fixes for several stability and security issues


This latest Firefox release is available for Windows, Mac OS and Linux.

As for the updated agreement with Google (which should represent the bulk of Mozilla's revenues), it spans three years and ensures that Google Search remains the default search provider for Firefox.

Source

AMD Announces New A-Series Accelerated Processing Units (APUs)

AMD today updated its A-Series line-up of desktop and notebook Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), further improving its top-performing family of dual- and quad-core APUs. Along with speed and performance improvements, AMD Steady Video update make this unique feature more compelling than ever. For desktop users, AMD extends its overclocking pedigree to the APU; for the first time users can tune both x86 and graphics settings in a single processor for boosted performance.

The updated AMD A-Series APUs combine up to four x86 CPU cores with up to 400 Radeon cores, delivering powerful DirectX 11-capable, discrete-level graphics and dedicated HD video processing on a single chip. These new APUs increase performance and deliver a richer feature set than existing AMD A-series APUs. Plus, only AMD APUs offer AMD Dual Graphics for an up to 144 percent visual performance boost when a select APU is paired with a select AMD Radeon HD 6500 Series graphics card.

The AMD A-Series family of APUs also features AMD Steady Video, designed to stabilize videos during playback – making unsteady, jumpy content look steady and smooth as you watch. On select systems using AMD A-Series APUs, Internet Explorer 9 will include an AMD Steady Video plugin, unlocking one-click control to simplify access to the premium AMD Steady Video feature for video stabilization.

All AMD A-Series processors are powered by AMD VISION Engine Software, a suite of software that provides end-users with regular updates designed to improve system performance and stability, and can add new software enhancements.

New A-Series Desktop APUs launched today:

• A8-3870K: Four CPU cores, 3.0 GHz CPU base (unlocked), 100W TDP, 400 Radeon cores, 600 MHz GPU base (unlocked), 4 MB L2 cache
• A8-3820: Four CPU cores, 2.5 GHz CPU base (2.8 GHz Turbo Core), 65W TDP, 400 Radeon cores, 4 MB L2 cache
• A6-3670K: Four CPU cores, 2.7 GHz CPU base (unlocked), 100W TDP, 320 Radeon cores, 600 MHz GPU base (unlocked), 4 MB L2 cache
• A6-3620: Four CPU cores, 2.2 GHz CPU base (2.5 GHz Turbo Core), 65W TDP, 320 Radeon cores, 4 MB L2 cache
• A4-3420: Two CPU cores, 2.8 GHz CPU base, 65W TDP, 160 Radeon cores, 1 MB L2 cache

New Notebook APUs launched today:

• A8-3550MX: Four CPU cores, 2.0 GHz CPU base (2.7 GHz Turbo Core), 45W TDP, 400 Radeon Cores, 4 MB L2 cache
• A8-3520M: Four CPU cores, 1.6 GHz CPU base (2.5 GHz Turbo Core), 35W TDP, 400 Radeon Cores, 4 MB L2 cache
• A6-3430MX: Four CPU cores, 1.7 GHz CPU base (2.4 GHz Turbo Core), 45W TDP, 320 Radeon Cores, 4 MB L2 cache
• A6-3420M: Four CPU cores, 1.5 GHz CPU base (2.4 GHz Turbo Core), 35W TDP, 320 Radeon Cores, 4 MB L2 cache
• A4-3330MX: Two CPU cores, 2.2 GHz CPU base (2.6 GHz Turbo Core), 45W TDP, 240 Radeon Cores, 2 MB L2 cache
• A4-3320M:Two CPU cores, 2.0 GHz CPU base (2.6 GHz Turbo Core), 35W TDP, 240 Radeon Cores, 2 MB L2 cache
• A4-3305M:Two CPU cores, 1.9 GHz CPU base (2.5 GHz Turbo Core), 35W TDP, 160 Radeon Cores, 1 MB L2 cache
• E2-3000M: Two CPU cores, 1.8 GHz CPU base (2.4 GHz Turbo Core), 35W TDP, 160 Radeon Cores, 1 MB L2 Cache

The new AMD A-Series family of APUs improves the first generation of highly successful and revolutionary desktop and notebook processors, providing an outstanding experience for consumers seeking more responsive multitasking, long battery-life, vivid graphics, lifelike games, lag-free videos and the ultimate multimedia performance.

Desktop APUs in the component channel as well as systems based on the new AMD A-Series APUs will hit the retail market over the next several weeks.

Source

AOC to Show Off 23-inch Monitor with Built-In iPhone/iPod dock at CES 2012

Next month at CES 2012 in Las Vegas (January 10-13) monitor maker AOC is promising to showcase a widescreen display which includes a built-in iPhone/iPod touch dock. This extra allows people to view videos or photos taken with their Apple-flavored handheld on the monitor's 23-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) panel, or to listen to the music on the device via the monitor's SRS Premium Sound speakers.

Beside this slim, sleek, and dock-enhanced monitor (called e2343Fi), AOC will show off at CES a new USB-powered display, and a fresh, passive 3D display.

Source

Radeon HD 6930 2 GB Tested

Unbeknownst to many, AMD launched the Radeon HD 6930 in some markets. The company apparently doesn't want this launch to disturb reviewers from key high-volume markets, who have their hands full with Radeon HD 7970, and so the HD 6930 got a limited launch. For one, the HD 6930 is most certainly launched in China, and so Expreview gave it a run against the HD 6950 1 GB. The Radeon HD 6930 is carved out of the 40 nm "Cayman" silicon, on which other HD 6900 series products are based. It features 1280 VLIW4 stream processors, 1 GB or 2 GB of GDDR5 memory over a 256-bit wide memory interface, 80 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and clock speeds of 750 MHz (core), 1200 MHz or 4.80 GHz effective (memory). Very few partners made English press-releases about this SKU, HIS was among them. The company launched an IceQ-X graphics card on Monday.

Performance summary follows.

Expreview put the HD 6930 through its usual battery of tests, covering a large variety of games and synthetic benchmarks. The results are tabled below. Overall, the HD 6930 was found to be about 7.8% slower than the HD 6950 2 GB.

Source: Expreview

AMD's Own HD 7970 Performance Expectations?

Ahead of every major GPU launch, both NVIDIA and AMD give out a document to reviewers known as Reviewer's Guide, in which both provide guidelines (suggestions, not instructions), to reviewers to ensure new GPUs are given a fair testing. In such documents, the two often also give out their own performance expectations from the GPUs they're launching, in which they compare the new GPUs to either previous-generation GPUs from their own brand, or from the competitors'. Apparently such a performance comparison between the upcoming Radeon HD 7970 and NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 580, probably part of such a document, got leaked to the internet, which 3DCenter.org re-posted. The first picture below, is a blurry screenshot of a graph in which the two GPUs are compared along a variety of tests, at a resolution of 2560 x 1600. A Tweakers.net community member recreated that graph in Excel, using that data (second picture below).

A couple of things here are worth noting. Reviewer guide performance numbers are almost always exaggerated, so if reviewers get performance results lower than 'normal', they find it abnormal, and re-test. It's an established practice both GPUs vendors follow. Next, AMD Radeon GPUs are traditionally good at 2560 x 1600. For that matter, the performance gap between even the Radeon HD 6970 and GeForce GTX 580 narrows a bit at that resolution.

Source: 3DCenter.org

Intel 'Ivy Bridge' Core Desktop Processor Prices Compiled

In 2012, Intel will update its processor lineup up to performance 2 tiers with new models based on the spanking new 22 nm "Ivy Bridge" silicon, which will increase performance over the current generation, and bring some new features to the table. In late November, a list of desktop Core i5/i7 models could be compiled, which were later confirmed on roadmap slides. CPU World compiled retail channel pricing of several of those Core i5/i7 "Ivy Bridge" chips. The prices look to be more or less consistent with current "Sandy Bridge" Core processors, which those chips are bound to replace. The Core i7-3770K, for example, which will replace the Core i7-2600K, will be similarly priced to it.

Source: CPU-World

HIS Unveils the Radeon HD 6930 IceQ X Graphics Card

Rumored but still not officially launched by AMD, the Cayman-powered Radeon HD 6930 has now been outed by Hong Kong-based add-in board maker HIS (Hightech Information System). Known as the Radeon HD 6930 IceQ X, HIS' card comes equipped with a dual-slot IceQ X cooler (boasting a 92mm fan and four heatpipes), and features a blue PCB, a GPU clock of 750 MHz (the, a 256-bit memory interface, 1 GB of GDDR5 memory set to 4800 MHz, CrossFireX and Eyefinity support, plus dual-DVI, HDMI and dual mini DisplayPort outputs.

According to previous reports, the Radeon HD 6930 packs 1280 Stream Processors and will sell for under $200. No word yet on availability so it's not certain where HIS will ship this card.

Source

Aerocool XPredator Evil Green Edition Full-Tower Case Coming in January

Following the release of the Black, Evil Black and White versions, Aerocool is now preparing the arrival of the Evil Green edition of its flagship full-tower PC chassis, the XPredator. This latest XPredator model still has a black coating on the outside but the motherboard tray and various other elements inside and out are colored green.

The green-themed XPredator measures 600 (H) x 234 (W) x 555 (D) mm, and features a 0.8/1.0 mm SECC steel construction, a top-placed storage compartment, an I/O panel with USB 3.0 (x 1), USB 2.0 (x 3), eSATA, mic and headphone ports, a 6-channel fan controller, and a side window which can be pretty much covered up with four 120/140 mm fans.

Aerocool's case also has six 5.25-inch and six 3.5-inch drive bays (all have tool-free mounting systems), water-cooling holes at the rear, cable routing holes are pre-drilled on the motherboard plate, and two pre-installed 230 mm fans (750 RPM) - one with green LEDs on front and one without any lighting on top.

The XPredator Evil Green Edition case is set to become available in January priced at 119.90 Euro which is approximately RM497.

Source