NETGEAR IS GETTING ready to unleash two new HD capable media players unto the world and judging by the specs, we're looking at two very capable devices here. At the same time Netgear is also about to launch two additions to its range of HomePlug AV adapters of which the high-end model is said to offer a theoretical transfer speed of 500Mbit/s.
Editors Note:From time to time, SemiAccurate will be republishing some older articles by its authors, some with additional commentary, updates and information. We are mainly reprinting some of the oft referenced articles that originally appeared on the Inquirer. Some will have added content, but all will be re-edited from the originals as per contractual obligations. You may see some slight differences between the two versions.
This article has had some of the original links removed, and was published on Monday, October 23, 2006 at 2:42PM.
MOLES IN SANTA CLARA tell SemiAccurate that Nvidia's latest wonderchip, Tegra 3, has taped out. Expect the PR announcement storm to kick up soon, but don't look for product this year.
THERE HAVE BEEN a lot of rumours about what Apple will do with its Apple TV product, as the current model is hopelessly out-dated with its defunct 1GHz Intel Pentium M processor and GeForce Go 7300 graphics card. An ARM based device was suggested some time ago, but it now looks like AMD might be set to replace Intel in Apple's next generation Apple TV product.
THE MUCH ANTICIPIATED pricing for Microsoft's "casual gamer" accessory – Kinect – for the Xbox 360 has been announced today and, as predicted, the motion controller will retail for $149.99 on its own. However, that's only half of today's news as Microsoft also announced the new slim Xbox 360 Arcade which was leaked by Amazon.de a few days ago.
3D GLASSES AND 3D TVs have proven to be something of a problem when it comes to interoperability, but now it appears that a solution is on the horizon thanks to Monster Cable. Its new Monster Vision Max 3D glasses are mean to be a universal solution that works with any and all 3D TVs that rely on LCD shutter glasses, but is it really that simple?
YOU MIGHT VERY well have used one of Linpus' Linux distributions without even knowing about it, as the company specializes in custom Linux installations for a wide range of solutions, least not netbooks. The company has also made some customized versions of Moblin, but its latest project is something that looks extremely interesting, a version of Linux for ARM based PCTVs.
We take a closer look at Jetway and J&W’s offerings
The first part of our tiny motherboards roundup had some unusual boards in it, but the second part won’t disappoint as it contains some gems of its own. With no further ado, let's get on with it.
IT'S TAKEN QUITE some time for Tegra powered devices to turn up in the market, although we spotted an unusual implementation by a company called Yuan High-Tech. The company in question mostly makes PC TV-tuners and surveillance solutions, but was displaying its A-Box mini at Computex which is pretty much a tiny Tegra powered computer.
ALTHOUGH WE EXPECTED to see a lot more SATA 6Gbps SSD drives at Computex, it seems like some manufacturers are holding off, waiting for new SSD controllers, before they launch their new products with SATA 6Gbps support. Nonetheless, AData was showing off a model based on the Marvell controller and it didn't disappoint.
YOU MIGHT REMEMBER the name Crestatech from last year's IDF, they are making the first software defined radio. The big news from Computex is that they showed real silicon, real cards, and real software up and running on broadcast TV.
THERE HAS BEEN a lot of buzz around Google TV since it was announced a couple of weeks ago and since we know the hardware is based on Intel's Atom CE4100 SoC platform, we were quite surprised to see exactly that kind of solution hiding in plain sight among a range of server motherboards at Gigabyte.
THE ORIGINAL ACER Revo was and might possibly still be the best selling ION nettop to date. Now it looks like Acer is getting ready to revamp its Revo product line and it looks like we'll be seeing quite a lot of new additions that aren't strictly PC's as well. Acer has revealed some details about its new products at an event in Beijing, China today, although we'd expect that the nitty-gritty details will be divulged at Computex next week.
Designed for high-bandwidth video using the 5GHz band
WI-FI HAS BECOME something of a ubiquitous standard these days, as pretty much every notebook, smartphone and even a lot of consumer electronics feature Wi-Fi connectivity these days. However, Wi-Fi can't really compare to wired Ethernet when it comes to performance, well, that's unless you're using a Quantenna Communications based product with 4x4 MIMO.
NO, IT'S NOT April fools, Google really did announce Google TV at Google I/O today and although it might sound utterly daft to incorporate Google search into a TV, the demos shown were quite impressive, when they worked. It's early days as yet, but it seems like Google has managed to drum up enough support from a wide range of key players to make it a success, a huge success at that.
NVIDIA'S TEGRA LINE is not doing well. Sales expectations are being guided down, and the chip is losing major contracts in shocking numbers. To make things more palatable to the financial community, Nvidia is playing a very cynical PR game for the technically unaware.
IT IS SO PRETTY we hardly have any words for it. Notice the business card being held behind the screen and how much is visible along with the bright colors.
ZiiLABS HAS YET to get a single retail product based on its StemCell Computing Arrays or System on a Chip (SoC) that most other companies refer to them as. This doesn’t seem to have weakened the company’s resolve as the Creative Labs spinoff has announced a new platform for its 1GHz ARM Cortex A8 based ZMS-08 SoC. The SiVO digital home platform is set to offer 1080p video playback at “Blu-ray quality with bit-rates of up to 40Mbps”.
PEOPLE WATCHING TSMC'S process development might have noticed a radical change in messaging a few months ago. The foundry not only changed its high-K/metal gate (HKMG) strategy, but it also pulled in the timetables at the same time.
BIRDIES CHIRPING IN the warm Cambridge sunshine just told SemiAccurate that ARM is about to launch the new Cortex A5 core. The smallest member of the A series will likely debut at ARM's Techcon3 next week.
NVIDIA IS KILLING the GTX260, GTX275, and GTX285 with the GTX295 almost assured to follow as it abandons the high and mid range graphics card market. Due to a massive series of engineering failures, nearly all of the company's product line is financially under water, and mismanagement seems to be killing the company.
INTEL'S LAST KEYNOTE of IDF focused on TVs and how PCs could integrate with them. All it managed to do is convince me that the future is darker than I had feared, the wrong forces are in control, and Intel doesn't understand this market.
IDF 2009: Flexible and international TV, radio and GPS
CRESTATECH IS SHOWING one of the most misunderstood devices in recent memory at IDF, a software defined radio. It went from pre-production silicon at CES to OEM shipments in a very short time.
WORD HAS REACHED our tender ears that Larrabee, the upcoming Intel GPU, will not be quite as generalist as they claim. The fixed function parts will be two HD decoders.
INTEL DROPPED A bombshell on the market today with a little bullet point and a few carefully chosen words. Opening up Atom to third parties to interface with willy-nilly went from impossible to product in the space of one slide.