Dec 30, 2010
1

Company Spotlight: Micron Technology, Inc.

S|A goes on tour at the Micron fab in Manassas, VA

SOMEWHERE BETWEEN OPENING presents and the post-Christmas eggnog hangover, we had the opportunity to tour the Micron DRAM and Flash memory fabrication facility in Manassas, Virginia.  While a fab is a fab and the net result, like anywhere else, is a groovy 300mm platter of chips that you cannot eat, we’ll walk you through Micron’s production process, profile the company, and give you a bit of insight into the challenges it faces and its opportunities in the near future and years to come.
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Dec 30, 2010

Samsung to show off next generation AMOLED display at CES

Larger displays and flexible displays

SAMSUNG HAVE BEEN pushing its AMOLED display technology pretty hard, in fact the company has gained so much popularity that it can produce enough of its smaller displays that go into smartphones. At CES Samsung is set to show off several new AMOLED displays, including a flexible 4.5-inch model and a pair of larger qFHD transparent prototypes.
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Dec 29, 2010
7

Intel puts GPU memory on Ivy Bridge

Silicon interposers and stacked memory, oh my

INTEL’S SANDY BRIDGE is days away from launch, but the big news this week is the massive changes to the next generation Ivy Bridge. If Intel manages to get their drivers in order, it could destroy the entire low end GPU market.
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Dec 29, 2010

LucidLogix brings dynamic graphics switching to Sandy Bridge

It’s all done in software

REMEMBER HOW EVERYONE applauded Nvidia’s Optimus graphics switching technology? Well, it seems like there’s a new sheriff in town, as LucidLogix has just announced its brand new dynamic graphics switching solution called Virtu, which is all done in software and which will work with any discrete GPU, not just Nvidia’s.
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Dec 29, 2010

ASRock’s Brazos board detailed

Previewed in Vietnam

WE EXPECTED A FEW Brazos boards at launch, but it seems like we might end up seeing more than just a few which is good news for AMD if nothing else. ASRock is readying a board of its own called the E350M1 giving away both the CPU and chipset being used and it’s said to be a low cost solution, but it appears that ASRock might be offering a few different SKUs.
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Dec 29, 2010

MSI’s other high-end P67 board detailed

Should launch at CES

WE HAVE TO start by apologizing for the poor picture that we snapped of this board, as unlike the Big Bang Marshal board, MSI didn’t have the P67A-GD80 on display in the same fashion. Well, that’s not quite true, as there was a system with a board in it, but thanks to a large shiny heatsink and a large graphics card combined with poor lighting, we didn’t manage to get a good shot of the board.
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Dec 28, 2010

MSI shows off its first Brazos systems

One notebook, one all-in-one desktop

ALTHOUGH WE’RE STILL about a week away from the official launch, MSI was showing off a pair of Brazos solutions earlier today at an event in Taipei, Taiwan and while maybe not mind blowing out of a design perspective, it’s at least a step in the right direction. On display was a 12-inch notebook as well as a 20-inch all-in-one desktop, both featuring an AMD E-350 CPU.
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Dec 28, 2010
2

MSI’s R6970 Lightning and N580GTX Lightning sneak peek

Two big, expensive and powerful cards

AS OF LATELY, MSI has gained a bit of fame with the graphics card overclocking community largely thanks to its N480GTX Lightning and we can now offer you a sneak peek at what MSI has coming next, namely the R6970 Lightning and N580GTX Lightning. Both boards use a much larger PCB than you normally get on a graphics card, akin to the N480GTX Lightning, but MSI has come up with a new cooling solution called Twin Frozr III which aesthetically looks much better than the older card.
Updated: December 29, 2010
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Dec 28, 2010
2

MSI shows off its Big Bang Marshal board

The king of the P67 boards?

WHAT DO YOU do as a motherboard manufacturer when you have to come up with a flagship product that is unlike anything your competitors have? Well, in the case of MSI you create the Big Bang Marshal, a monster of a board that features no less than eight x16 PCI Express slots in an XL-ATX form factor.
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Dec 27, 2010

Radeon HD 6950 flashable to a 6970

Just make sure you get a card with fast memory

AMD, OR RATHER ATI have in the past had a few claims to fame thanks to its easily “soft moddable” graphics cards and it seems like the company has just scored itself another popular card with those brave enough to flash their graphics card BIOS. The Radeon HD 6950 as it turns out is quite easily turned into a Radeon HD 6970 and it can save you some cash at the same time.
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Dec 24, 2010

Sweden could get piracy fee on external storage devices

Industry and consumers up in arms

PIRACY, AN ISSUE that isn’t easy to resolve and that is currently causing a lot of commotion with the various governments in Europe at the moment, with some countries going as far as imposing bans on individual’s internet connections if they’re caught downloading illegal content. In Sweden an organization called Copyswede handles copy right licensing in most cases and they are suggesting a new “tax” that could be in affect from the 1st of April next year, for all kind of external storage devices.
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Dec 24, 2010

Gigabyte reveals first glimpse of the G1-Killer

As part of a series of desktop wallpapers

GIGABYTE HAS BEEN extremely secretive about its G1-Killer motherboard which is set to launch at CES alongside its already revealed line of Sandy Bridge compatible motherboards. However, today the company revealed a small sneak peek of what to expect as part of a series of desktop wallpapers and although it doesn’t reveal too much in terms of details, it does give away some interesting features.
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Dec 23, 2010

Adata launches DDR3L 1600MHz SO-DIMMs

Just in time for next year’s mini-ITX boards and gaming notebooks

COMPUTER MEMORY ISN’T the most exciting of product these days, as in broad terms – and the memory manufacturers wouldn’t agree with us of course – it’s much of a muchness. In saying that, Adata has announced two different DDR3L SO-DIMM’s which should prove popular not only in gaming notebooks, but also in mini-ITX boards that only accept SO-DIMMs.
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