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2010-03-11

AMD starts banging the developer relations drum Semi-Related
GDC 2010 Logos and background work

Gaming evolved logoAMD IS FINALLY doing what we have all been waiting for, promoting its developer relations program to the masses. With that in mind, it introduced three new logos to go along with the program.

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Apple rumoured to launch six-core Mac Pro's next week Semi-Related
Intel set to launch six-core Xeon's on the 16th

RUMOURS HAVE BEEN circulating for a while now that Apple is getting ready to refresh its range of Mac Pro computers and it looks like we're getting close. However, it seems like this Apple refresh will happen at the same time Intel is making its new six-core CPU's ready. Coincidence? We think not.

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2010-03-10

Mobile Nvidia Fermi GTX480 shown at CeBIT Semi-Related
CeBIT 2010 Big laptop, vaporware cooled

Cebit logoONE QUESTION THAT a lot of the financial set are asking has to do with Nvidia and mobile. While the company is effectively out of mobile for 2010, there was at least one GTX480 based laptop at CeBIT.

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AMD shows off 6-core Thuban Semi-Related
CeBIT 2010 Hard to get excited about

AMD LogoAMD WAS SHOWING OFF its 6-core Thuban CPU at CeBIT along with its 890 chipset. The good news is the showing, the bad news is that it wasn't saying anything about it.

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Intel's upcoming Core i7 980XE gets a decent cooler Semi-Related
Intel rethinks its approach to CPU cooling

NORMALLY WE WOULDN'T bother posting news about a CPU cooler on its own, but this is pretty big news, as Intel appears to have gotten rid of its traditional round coolers that have shipped with its retail CPU's for quite a few years by now. Although this only applied to the upcoming Core i7 980XE, it's still a move in the right direction.

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2010-03-08

Corsair makes direct contact Semi-Related
CeBIT 2010 Heat sinks, flash and SSDs

Corsair LogoCORSAIR HAS SOME new toys at CeBIT along the usual lines of flash, memory and power supplies. Nothing was revolutionary, but all were updated in some useful ways.

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Magny-Cours and Quad-Fermi boxes pictured Semi-Related
CeBIT 2010 Supermicro has the goods

Supermicro logoIF YOU WANTED to see AMD's upcoming Magny-Cours boards or 4 GPU compute platforms at CeBIT, SuperMicro was the place to be. That is only the short list though, there were a lot of other interesting bits all over its corner at Hannover.

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1500 Cores

Next Gen

More GPUs

How Much?

Cutting Through

 
     

2010-03-05

Intel's ULV Calpella platform almost here Semi-Related
Better performance, similar battery life to CULV

NOTEBOOKS HAVE ALWAYS involved a trade off between performance and battery life, but it looks like Intel will be getting close to finding a fine balance between the two later this month, when it's set to launch its ULV version of the Calpella mobile platform.

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2010-03-03

Asus launches 890GX board with core unlocking Semi-Related
AMD said to have removed it in the SB850

ALTHOUGH A BIT later than some of its competitors, Asus has announced its own AMD 890GX board, the M4A89GTD PRO. However, compared to just about everyone else, Asus claims to have one killer feature, CPU core unlocking.

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2010-03-02

Gigabyte claims the fastest HD5870 and GTX260 Semi-Related
CeBIT 2010 Passive 5770s and new mobos

Gigabyte logoGIGABYTE HAS BEEN on a tear lately, releasing tons of USB3 based mobos around CES, so the new AMD 890 chipset had to hold the line. On the GPU front, things were a bit more interesting.

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2010-03-01

Intel's Maloney on medical leave Semi-Related
Prognosis is good

Intel's Sean Maloney, Executive VP, is on medical leave.

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2010-02-27

A look at Intel's upcoming Sandy Bridge Semi-Related
Geshers of info about rings and PCIe

Intel LogoTHE RUMORS AND bits about Intel's next generation core, Sandy Bridge, are starting to come out here and there, but several big chunks have still not been outed. Here are a few of them.

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Kaboom!

Pins and Needles

Shown Off

Has Been

Robotic Rainbows

 
     
Why is TSMC still having 40nm woes? Semi-Related
Some problems fixed, others not mentioned

TSMC logoTHERE ARE A lot of curious things coming out of TSMC lately, and they all seem to center around dodging real questions. The problem is yields on their 40nm process, but TSMC will not address half of the reported problems publicly.

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Problem Spotted

Same Issues

Outlook Bleak

Thumbs Up?

Heavily Scrubbed

 
     

2010-02-25

TSMC to start 22nm trial runs in 2012 Semi-Related
28nm is slightly delayed

THE MAKING OF computer chips is a complicated business, not only for the chip designers but also for the foundries. TSMC’s senior VP of R&D, Shang-Yi Chiang has announced that the company is getting ready for 22nm trial runs towards the end of 2012.

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28nm wafer

Qualcomm + Globalfoundries

ARM + Globalfoundries

Fixed yields

32nm canceled

 
     

2010-02-24

US Magny-Cours pricing revealed early Semi-Related
Initial specs somewhat off

THANKS TO ONE of our forum members, we managed to dig out a lot more details on the upcoming Magny-Cours processors from AMD and it seems like yesterday’s source was somewhat off the target, in terms of both pricing and specifications.

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2010-02-23

AMD Opteron Magny-Cours pricing tips up Semi-Related
Its 8-core and 12 core CPUs are almost here

ALTHOUGH WE’LL HAVE to wait a little while longer for AMD’s new Magny-Cours based Opteron 6100 series processors to turn up in servers and in retail, European pricing for these 8-core and 12 core processors has turned up ahead of the launch.

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40W Istanbul

Socket G34

G34 boards

 
     

2010-02-20

SemiAccurate gets some GTX480 scores Semi-Related
Hot, buggy and far too slow

Nvidia world iconNVIDIA HAS BEEN hinting about the performance of its upcoming GTX480 cards, and several of our moles got a lot of hands on time with a few cards recently. If you are waiting for killer results from the 'puppy', prepare for severe disappointment.

Updated: Clarified a point on DX11 performance.

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Bouncing Baby

Bouncing Puppy

Selecting Bouncing

Future Hopes

Hey!

 
     

2010-02-17

NEC is working on a 16Gbps communication interface Semi-Related
More than three times faster than USB 3.0

INTEL JUST GOT some competition against its Light Peak interface, as NEC has just demoed a faster, yet to be named high-speed serial communications interface that can pull off speeds of up to 16Gbps. This puts Light Peak’s 10Gbps, er, in the shade.

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Light Peak

HyperTransport

10Gbps Ethernet

PCI Express

USB 3.0

 
     
Nvidia's Fermi GTX480 is broken and unfixable Semi-Related
Hot, slow, late and unmanufacturable

Nvidia world iconWITH ANOTHER LAUNCH of the Nvidia GT300 Fermi GF100 GTX480 upon us, it is time for an update on the status of that wayward part. Production parts have been coming back from TSMC for several weeks now, and the outlook for them is grim.

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2010-02-16

TI and ST-Ericsson announce 1GHz+ dual core ARM SoCs Semi-Related
Devices not expected until late this year

WE WERE EXPECTING a fair few ARM partner announcements during the Mobile World Congress and so far we haven’t been disappointed. Texas Instruments and ST-Ericsson have both announced dual core ARM CortexA9 MPCore based products with clock speeds in excess of 1GHz.

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SGX Series5

Mali 400-MP

ARMathon

WiLink 7.0

 
     

2010-02-10

AMD finally outs the 32nm Llano core Semi-Related
ISSCC 2010 Fine details abound but overviews lacking

AMD Fusion LogoAMD IS FINALLY starting to talk about its Fusion CPUs, specifically the first one called Llano. The bad news is that it is not saying very much, but there are some interesting bits that leaked out at ISSCC 2010 in San Francisco.

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2010-02-08

Intel and Nokia make a chip Semi-Related
Finally, a real x86 designed for phones

Nokia IconREMEMBER WHEN INTEL talked about opening Atom CPUs to other companies? I'll bet you didn't think one of the first customers would be Nokia.

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Nokia opens up

ARM

Atom

Leaping forward

Job Opening

 

 
     

2010-02-05

No more desktop chipsets are coming from Intel this year Semi-Related
Next generation is unlikely to impress

DON’T EXPECT ANYTHING new from Intel this year in terms of desktop chipsets, at least not the way Intel’s current roadmap is planned. We’re going to have to make do with what’s on offer for the rest of 2010, despite some “missing features” in all three of Intel’s latest chipsets. What’s worse is that there’s not much to look forward to next year either, if our sources are correct.

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Pin doubling

Office helper

Cores galore

Current crop

Full support

 
     
Intel's next socket nearly doubles pin counts Semi-Related
Less than 1156 x 2 though

Intel LogoIF INTEL'S NEXT generation chip does indeed slip into 2011 as some rumors suggest, there is a very good reason for it. Intel works in strange and mysterious ways, and uses more Feng Shui than anyone would expect.

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Biostar unveils AMD Thuban retail branding Semi-Related
Details its own 890GX board early

IT SEEMS LIKE Biostar jumped the press release gun as the company posted details of its upcoming TA890GXE motherboard based on the AMD 890GX chipset on its website. The press release has since been taken down, but it has already spread all over the web. However, what makes it interesting is the fact that it includes the retail name for AMD’s upcoming hexa-core CPUs.

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March launch?

Gigabyte's take

Asus spotted

El Dorado?

Future arrivals

 
     

2010-02-04

Intel announces Core vPro processors Semi-Related
Adds even more confusion

HERE WE GO again, Intel has come up with yet another nifty marketing name, Core vPro. These are not only Intel’s 'new' processors for businesses of all sizes that add a host of features, but they're also said to gain cost savings.

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vPro

Intel branding

Intel on notebooks

Consumer friendly

i5 impressions

 
     
ARM readying 2011 cores Semi-Related
More Cortex goodness

IT DOESN'T APPEAR as if ARM is getting ready to slow down its product development. Quite the contrary could be said as the company is readying 2GHz ARMv7 Cortex cores for 2011. It looks like Intel and its Atom processors might get a lot more competition.

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Quad ARM

We're waiting

Not needed

Losing the battle?

A9 MPCore

 

 
     

2010-02-02

Sony stands out with E series notebooks Semi-Related
Adds a touch of too much colour?

IT’S ALWAYS GREAT having a choice when it comes to colours, as how boring would it be if everything we owned was the same colour? Sony seems to have taken this to the extreme with its Intel Core i3 and Core i5 based Vaio E series of notebooks, since not only can you have them in a selection of six colours but they’re also available with optional coloured keyboard skins.

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2010-01-29

AMD 890GX to land in March Semi-Related
880G and CPUs coming in Q2

IT SEEMS LIKE there has been some confusion as to AMD’s naming convention of its chipsets and what we thought was the 890G is actually the 890GX. There will also be an 880G model, but that is expected to launch a month or two after the 890GX, which is set to arrive the first week in March.

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Animal crackers

Cheap as chips

Wrong name?

Hexpensive

Roadmap?

 
     

2010-01-27

Apple's iPad is here Semi-Related
Six different models

APPLE HAS JUST announced its latest addition, the iPad. We’re not sold on the name, but one of the big news items here is that Apple might be forced to change the name, as iPad was a registered trademark of Fujitsu Japan and there’s also a company called Magtek that sells a product called the IPAD. But that’s for another day; let’s take a closer look at what’s on offer.

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Custom CPU rumour

iPad, not iSlate

Not announced

Event coverage

 
     
Intel Core i7 can work in dual CPU mode Semi-Related
But not with the X58 chipset

THERE HAS BEEN a lot of discussion about EVGA’s dual CPU board that was displayed during CES earlier this month. The main topic of discussion was what CPUs it would work with and most people presumed it was limited to Xeon processors.

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Xeon lappy

Intel 5500

4GHz Gulftown

Exploring EVGA

Moving pictures

 
     

2010-01-26

AMD is prepping Scorpius and Lynx desktop platforms for 2011 Semi-Related
Sabine and Brazos with fusion for the mobile space

AMD SPENT SOME time talking to the press in Singapore today and unveiled some details of its upcoming platform plans for 2011. What we’re looking at are more cores, fusion and improved notebook battery life.

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Moving dirt

Fusion uncovered

880G or 890G?

15% hope

Mobile quad

 
     

2010-01-25

Gulftown gets tested early Semi-Related
Overclocked to 4GHz

IT'S NOT ALWAYS journalists or bloggers that get their hands on new gear first, as is evident in this case. A forum member at Bit-tech who goes under the handle of windwithme has run a good selection of benchmarks on the upcoming Gulftown CPU, which is expected to be the next Extreme Edition processor from Intel.

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Core i7 980X?

Gulftown

12 threads

 
     
AMD launches three new sub $99 CPUs Semi-Related
And two more expensive models

AMD HAS LAUNCHED five new processors, of which three are priced at $99 or less. Okay, so this might not be such a big deal, as AMD already has a number of CPUs selling for under $100, but it seems like AMD is set on owning the sub $100 CPU market.

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Partners in crime?

Not going here

Some friends

The future

Cheap quadruplets

 
     

2010-01-20

TSMC fixes its 40nm yield issues Semi-Related
Let's hope so

TSMC HAS REPORTEDLY fixed its yield issues with its 40nm manufacturing process, you know the one that all the new GPUs from AMD and Nvidia rely on. This should hopefully mean that there won’t be any more shortages of GPUs, at least for the ones that are already in production.

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Unmanufacturable?

28nm ahoy

32nm nay

Got fixed

 
     
Will Apple design its own CPUs? Semi-Related
So says the rumour mill

ONE THING YOU hopefully learn very quickly in the IT business is that you shouldn’t believe everything you see on TV, or read on the Interweb these days. With Apple’s announcement that it’ll be announcing something on January 27th, the rumours about what Apple is up to haven’t stopped. The latest is that Apple is ready to unveil its own CPU, but the question you have to ask is if this makes any sense at all.

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2010-01-14

Intel leaks next gen MacBook Pro Semi-Related
Core i5 inside

TRADITIONALLY APPLE HAS been pretty good at keeping a tight lid on things when it comes to leaks about upcoming products, with the odd slip here and there. That doesn’t stop its fans from coming up with some wild speculations as to what Apple is going to launch next as soon as Apple announces that it is about to host an event. The next such event is on January 27th and the interweb has been full of speculations about what Apple is going to announce.

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Another unicorn

Ouch!

Small recognition

MacMan

In 1984


 
     

2010-01-09

EVGA's dual 1366 board explored Semi-Related
CES 2010 More and less than you think

EVGA logoEVGA TEASED US about a dual Intel Core i7 board a few weeks ago, and now it is showing that off. It is big, has lots of slots, and does indeed support two Intel Core i7 chips.

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Global Foundries 28nm wafer spotted Semi-Related
CES 2010 Not SRAM test structures

Global Foundries LogoGLOBAL FOUNDRIES has been way ahead of the curve with process tech when compared to any other foundry on the market. Today, it somewhat accidentally cemented that lead by publicly displaying an unlabeled 28nm wafer.

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2010-01-08

AMD shows integrated DX11 and mobile quads Semi-Related
CES 2010 Danube and Dorado

AMD iconAMD WAS SHOWING off two new platforms today at CES, Danube and Dorado. Danube is the mobile quad-core and Dorado is the 8xx next generation DX11 IGP.

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2010-01-07

Asus ATI 890 board spotted Semi-Related
CES 2010 Not quite enough camouflage

AMD iconIT LOOKS LIKE the AMD 890 based motherboards are starting to break cover. This particular one is the mid-range Asus M4A89GTD Pro.

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Qualcomm signs with Global Foundries Semi-Related
CES 2010 40nm, 28nm, 4G and netbooks, oh my

Global Foundries LogoGLOBAL FOUNDRIES JUST announced a major win by signing Qualcomm to a fab contract. If anyone was waiting to see if Global Foundries had what it took to compete for the best, they now have their answer.

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1) First Story

2) STMicro Signs

3) One More

4) More Cores

5) Footgun Deployed

 
     

2010-01-06

Marvell announces the world's first quad core ARM processor Semi-Related
CES 2010 Gigahertz-plus performance

MARVELL SEEMS TO be set on becoming the leader in ARM based processors and its announcement of the world’s first quad core processor based on the ARMv7 architecture must be a major blow to its competitors.

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Little brother

Pointless

Direct competition

Potential competition

 
     
8-Core Becton gets put into a laptop Semi-Related
CES 2010 Ace makes wretched excess portable

Xeon LogoIF YOU ARE sick and tired of slogging along with your wimpy 4-core Nehalem laptop, Ace Computer has a solution for you, the 8-core Xeon 5500 (Beckton) based Ace Raptor 5 Server Workstation AC-Raptor55V. Yes, some insane company just put an Intel 8-core Becton server chip in a laptop, let's hear it for wretched excess.

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2010-01-05

Marvell outs Plug Computer 3.0 Semi-Related
Gets upgraded CPU, WiFi, Bluetooth and more

MARVELL’S PLUG COMPUTER has been given an overhaul just in time for CES and the new model looks set to be the greatest one yet. Marvell has moved away from its 1.2GHz Kirkwood SoC to the new 2GHz Armada 300 SoC. The Armada 300 is still based on Marvell’s Sheeva core, but Marvell hasn’t disclosed if the Armada 300 is based on the ARMv5 or ARMv7 architecture. Other new additions include WiFi, Bluetooth and an “internal hard drive”.

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Plugcomputer

Cortex A5

 
     

2010-01-04

EVGA's dual socket LGA-1366 gets pictured Semi-Related
One seriously huge motherboard

EVGA HAS MANAGED to gain a fair bit of fame for its unusual and often quite good motherboards, but its latest creation that was sneak previewed on Twitter a couple of days ago is a monster of a motherboard. Not only does it feature two LGA1366 CPU sockets, but it also has six memory slots and seven PCI Express x16 slots. However, there’s one slight problem with this board, it uses a proprietary form factor.

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Xtreme Systems

XL-ATX

EVBot

 
     
Clarkdale and Arrandale NDA's end Semi-Related
Core i3 well received, Core i5 not so much

TODAY INTEL'S NDA for its Clarkdale and Arrandale CPUs finally ended and the web got plastered in reviews. Most of the reviews take a closer look at the Clarkdale, although a handful of Arrendale reviews have also made it, all of them based on a single Asus notebook model. What is a bit irksome is the fact that Intel has pretty much only seeded the Core i5 661 processor to reviewers and this is of course the model with the much faster IGP than the other Core i5 and Core i3 processors that are being launched later this week.

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Not far off

Almost there

Spot on



 
     

2009-12-31

Nvidia's ION2 is a G218 GPU, not a chipset Semi-Related
The renaming scams continue

Nvidia world iconNVIDIA IS TRYING to make Ion2, its next generation 'chipset' seem like something it is not, but the specs say otherwise. It is just a warmed over G218 integrated graphics chip with a few ports added on.

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1) Yawners Abound

2) Add 100

3) Add 95

4) Add S120M

5) Add Dirt

 
     

2009-12-29

Early Pentium G6950 benchmarks on H55 appear Semi-Related
Can you say Meh?

SOME EARLY BENCHMARKS of Intel’s next generation integrated graphics processor have allegedly been posted by a “local paper” somewhere in Asia. It didn’t take long for them to appear online, but what is important to keep in mind is that these should be the worst case figures. Why? Well, simply because the CPU used is the Pentium G6950 which has its GPU running at a mere 533MHz and will most likely lack Intel’s Turbo feature for the IGP.

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Next gen

Teh suck

Another IGP

Can it be?

 

 
     

2009-12-24

Futuremark launches Gigabyte System Builder Semi-Related
Slanted much?

WE’RE ALL FOR tools that help people pick suitable parts for their next system build, especially these days as it can be hard to figure out what bits goes with what. Futuremark has just launched a new tool in partnership with Gigabyte called the Gigabyte System Builder. Okay, so you only have the choice of Gigabyte motherboards and graphics cards, but that’s fair enough, as this is a business partnership and monies have been exchanged at one time or another to get this up and running.

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DX11 competitor

A Peacekeeper?

Final Reality

 
     

2009-12-21

DFI rumored to exit consumer mobos Semi-Related
Industrial to continue on, consumers lose a great maker

DFI logoIT IS OUR really sad duty to inform you about rumors that DFI will be leaving the consumer motherboard business in January. The company is not going away, and will be refocusing on the industrial PC business.

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1) Industrialization

2) Mighty Mite

3) Fast'n'Easy

4) Glowing Fun

5) Retail Minefield