Nvidia Readies GeForce GTX 680M for High-End Laptops.

Nvidia Corp. plans to introduce its new high-end graphics solution for notebooks at Computex 2012 in Taipei, Taiwan, early next month. The new GeForce GTX 680M will be based on the GK104 graphics processing unit that belongs to the Kepler family of solutions and will be offer about one third better performance than the model GTX 670M.
According to reports from web-sites like VideoCardz and Chiphell, the GeForce GTX 680M will feature 768 stream processors and therefore 64 texture units, reduced number of raster operating units and 256-bit memory bus. It is presently believed that the GeForce GTX 680M will utilize N13E-GTX-A2 chip, which is believed to be a variation of GK104 chip. The new mobile flagship will fully support modern high-end features like DirectX 11.1, OpenGL 4.2, OpenCL 1.2, stereoscopic-3D, 4 multi-monitor capability, PhysX, 4-way multi-GPU, PCI Express 3.0 and so on.
The reports claim that the GeForce GTX 680M is 37% faster compared to GeForce GTX 670M, which is based on Fermi architecture and which has 336 stream processors operating at 1200MHz. Given the fact that the data comes without attribution to any kind of source, it should be considered as inaccurate.
Even though both Nvidia and its arch-rival AMD in the recent cycles did not use flagship GPUs in mobile computers, Nvidia did squeeze the GF100 chip into mobile thermal envelopes and introduced GeForce GTX 480M back in mid-2010.
Nvidia did not comment on the news-story.

JEDEC Publishes Next-Generation LPDDR3 Standard for Low-Power Memory Devices.

JEDEC, a leading standard setting organization for  the microelectronics industry, on Thursday published the  final LPDDR3 low power memory standard, designed to satisfy the performance and memory density needs of the new generation of mobile devices, such as smartphones, tablets, ultra-thin notebooks and so on.  Leading memory makers - Elpida and Samsung - have already demonstrated the first LPDDR3 chips.
“To help address the dramatic rise in data-intensive apps and the resulting demands on device memory, JEDEC LPDDR3 is designed to focus on higher bandwidth requirements for device processors and graphic units. LPDDR3 represents countless hours of collaboration within the JC-42.6 subcommittee, and was developed rapidly in order to meet the mobile industry’s bandwidth requirements,” said Hung Vuong, chairman of JC-42.6 subcommittee, which standardized the LPDDR3 standard.

LPDDR3 offers a higher data rate, improved bandwidth and power efficiency, and higher memory densities over its predecessor, LPDDR2.  LPDDR3 achieves a data rate of 1600MHz (versus 1066MHz for LPDDR2) through the addition of new features, including:

• Write-Leveling and CA Training, which allow the memory controller to compensate for signal skew, ensuring that data input setup and hold timing as well as command and address input timing requirements are met while operating at the industry’s fastest input bus speeds;
• On Die Termination (ODT), an optional feature that enables a light termination to LPDDR3 data lanes to improve high-speed signaling with minimal impact on power consumption, system operation and pin count;
• Low I/O capacitance.

 As with LPDDR2, LPDDR3 supports both package-on-package [stacked] and discrete packaging types in order to meet the requirements of a wide array of mobile devices, offering designers the ability to select the options that best meet the needs of their product. LPDDR3 will preserve the power-efficient features and signaling interface of LPDDR2, allowing for fast clock stop/start, low-power self-refresh, and smart array management.
Both Elpida Memory and Samsung Electronics demonstrated their first 4Gb LPDDR3 memory components operating at 1600MHz last year. Originally, both planned to start production of LPDDR3 in late 2012, but the turmoil situation around Elpida may impact the LPDDR3-related plans. Analysts predict that demand for LPDDR3 will start to emerge in 2013.
“LPDDR3 builds on the revolutionary LPDDR2 standard, which paved the way for an entire generation of high-performance, low-power mobile devices. Now with LPDDR3, JEDEC has taken the standard to a new level, and we are pleased to offer a solution for the performance demands of a new generation of mobile products," said Mian Quddus, the chairman of the board at JEDEC.

RunCore Develops Self-Destructive Solid-State Drive.

RunCore, a supplier of solid-state drives, this week unveiled InVincible solid-state drive, which is the world's first and only SSD that features physical self destruction feature. Besides typical elimination of all data through overwriting, the InVincible SSD can completely destroy the data by physically destroying memory and other chips inside the drive by burning chips down physically.

The RunCore InVincible SSDs do not offer leading-edge performance: they can read data at up to 240MB/s speed and write data at up to 140MB/s speed. The drives use Serial ATA-II interface and can use single-level cell (SLC) or multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memory. But the drives can operate in rather unprecedented temperature range - between -45°C and +95°C - and support brutal ways to erase the data to keep it from obtaining by unauthorized people.

The RunCore InVincible SSDs allow to protect sensitive data from third party access in two ways with a single click. One method is an intelligent elimination of all the data by overwriting the entire disk with meaningless code. This overwrite-deletion method ensures that there is no way to potentially recover previous data stored to the device, effectively setting the SSD back to factory default. Still, there are various data recovery devices not available commercially which can, perhaps, recover data even after overwriting. A less subtle method is the physical destruction of memory chips inside SSD by applying an over-current to the NAND flash memory and thereby physically destroying them.

RunCore positions its InVincible SSDs for aerospace, military and general industrial applications, it is unclear whether the company plans to sell such SSDs to general public and whether the company will be allowed to do so.

Team Group Unleashes World's First 3GHz DDR3 Memory Modules.

Team Group, a leading maker of high-performance dynamic random access memory modules, has announced the world's first and yet the only memory sticks officially rated to run at whopping 3.0GHz. The new Xtreeme Limited Edition modules have all chances to become enthusiasts' favourite memory in the coming months.
The Team Xtreem DDR3 3000 Limited Edition 4GB memory modules are designed to operate at 3000MHz with CL11 13-13-35 latency settings on systems powered by Intel Core i-series 3000 "Ivy Bridge" central processing units and Intel Z77 platforms. The modules comply to XMP v1.3 specification, hence, should work at full speed on virtually any advanced mainboard with appropriate microprocessor. The extreme DRAM sticks utilize 8-layer printed-circuit board and bifurcated heatspreaders to ensure proper signal quality and cooling.

Unfortunately, Team Group claims that its PC3-24000 memory modules will only work in pairs, hence, it is theoretically impossible to install 16GB of such ultra high-speed memory into one PC. The modules also work only in dual-channel mode, hence, cannot be installed into PCs with quad-channel memory sub-systems.
Pricing of Team Xtreem PC3-24000/DDR3 3000MHz 8GB (2*4GB) memory kits is unknown. Keeping in mind that 16GB of DDR3 memory at 2.8GHz costs $600, do not expect 8GB of DDR3 memory at 3GHz to cost less than $300.

Samsung Starts to Mass Produce 4Gb LPDDR2 Memory Using 20nm-Class Technology.

Samsung Electronics, the world's largest maker of dynamic random access memory, on Thursday said it had begun production of 4Gb [512MB] LPDDR2 1066MHz memory components using 20nm process technology. Such memory solutions should allow to increase the amount of DRAM inside smartphones and tablets to 2GB, which will enable new classes of mobile applications and will let hardware makers to increase screen resolutions on mobile devices without compomising performance.
By stacking four 4Gb LPDDR2 components in a single LPDDR2 package, Samsung can deliver 2GB multi-layer memory solutions that boast thickness of 0.8mm. This new package is approximately 20% thinner than 2GB packages that stack four 30nm-class 4Gb LPDDR2 chips.  The new 2GB package can process data at up to 1066MHz and thanks to thinner process technology promises to provide better energy efficiency compared to previous multi-layer LPDDR2 memory solutions.

“Samsung began expanding the market for 4Gb DRAM last year with the first mass-produced 30nm-class DRAM, and now we are working on capturing most of the advanced memory market with our new 20nm-class 4Gb DRAM,” said Wanhoon Hong, executive vice president of memory sales and marketing at Samsung Electronics.
Economic benefits of the new 20nm-class 4Gb LPDDR2 are projected to help speed up the growth of the 4Gb DRAM market. Samsung now expects the newly introduced 20nm-class 4Gb LPDDR2 will rapidly replace 30nm-class 2Gb-based 1GB LPDDR2 that was in limited supply at the 0.8 mm thickness.

According to IHS iSuppli, shipments of 4Gb LPDDR2 will steadily increase, taking approximately 13% of total mobile DRAM shipments in 2012, 49% in 2013 and 63% in 2014, with 4Gb mobile DRAM monolithic becoming the mainstream chip in the Mobile DRAM market around the end of 2013.
“In the second half of this year, we expect to strongly increase the portion of 20nm-class DRAM within our overall DRAM output to make the 4Gb DRAM line-up the mainstream product in DRAM production, and therefore keeping the leadership position in the premium market and strengthening our competitive edge,” added Wanhoon Hong.

Apple iPad to Maintain Tablet Market Leadership This Year - IHS iSuppli.

After suffering a temporary dip in market share in the fourth quarter of 2011, Apple Inc.’s iOS is expected to reassert its commanding leadership of the worldwide tablet space in 2012, according to an IHS iSuppli.

Apple Likely to Sustain Leadership

After dipping to 55.1% in the fourth quarter of 2011, according to a final estimate, the Apple operating system’s share of worldwide tablet sales - a segment including both media tablets and PC-type tablets—is set to recover to 61% for the full year of 2012, about the same portion it had in 2011.
Apple’s dominating media tablet market share in the fourth quarter of 2011 had been diminished by a surge in sales of Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet, which is based on Google’s Android operating system. This had caused Android’s share of the tablet operating system market to climb to 41.1%, up from 31.1% during the third quarter of 2011. However, as Apple reasserts its leadership, Android’s share will decline to 38.4% for the full year of 2012.

“The key to Apple’s media-tablet success has been its offering of a complete hardware-plus-content ecosystem. The combination of a good-looking device, well-designed applications, video, books and music has provided consumers with an easy-to-use product and an appealing use case. Such an ecosystem took Apple years to put together, starting with the iPod plus iTunes Music Store more than nine years ago, and it’s proving to be a challenge for the company’s competitors to replicate it,” said Rhoda Alexander, director for monitors and tablets research at IHS.
Further bolstering Apple’s commanding position in the market, supply-side sources indicate that the company will deploy a smaller, 7.85" display version of the iPad later this year, although Apple has yet to confirm this. A smaller screen does not necessarily mean a substantially lower price; rather, IHS expects Apple will place continuing emphasis on the quality of the overall tablet experience and the benefits of selecting the company’s products.

Sales of Tablets to Hit 126.6 Million Units in 2012

Sales of tablets this year - including both media tablets and PC-type tablets - will soar to 126.6 million units, up a remarkable 85% from 68.4 million units in 2011. The impressive performance of tablets this year builds on an even mightier 253% explosion last year from sales of 19.4 million units in 2010. Tablets comprise one of the strongest categories in the consumer electronics market today, with heady growth in the next few years matching the wild exuberance of the cellphone or mobile handset industry in its initial years of market-busting expansion.
Tablet sales will rise another 63% next year, on their way to 360.4 million units by 2016.

Enter the PC Tablet

While media tablets such as the iPad dominate now and throughout the forecast, new ultrabook offerings and the release of Windows 8 later this year will help drive stronger sales in 2013 and beyond of PC-type tablets, IHS predicts.
PC tablets will appeal to users wanting the flexibility of a tablet with the versatility of a traditional computer. These devices are able to manage multiple windows and applications including traditional full desktop applications, but can also convert to a slate form with touch capability. The smaller, lighter form of some of the new ultrabook offerings, touch improvements in Windows 8, and more aggressive pricing will help drive growth in this category.
Media tablets are often designated as “consumption-type” products with which users can browse the web, send email, view video, play games or interact with applications.

Within the media tablet space, however, the market is fragmenting into two segments - value products largely serving as “consumption-type” portable media players; and higher-performance units incorporating more complex applications and stronger processors. Much of the growth in the future will come from the value segment, but the performance sector will provide the stronger challenge to traditional PCs in both business and consumer markets.
Overall, the growth last year of media tablets dwarfed that of tablet PCs, and media tablet sales will continue to outperform those of tablet PCs in 2012. By next year, tablet PC growth will accelerate to nearly 160%, compared to a still-robust 60% increase for media tablets.
The PC tablet growth is a form transition within the larger notebook market and does not reflect any cannibalization of the media tablet opportunity. This is because PC tablets will still lag well behind their media tablet counterparts next year, numbering a little over 8 million units compared to more than 197 million units for media tablets.

Half of Microprocessors Sold in 2011 are Hybrid Chips with Integrated Graphics - Report.

Half of the $111 billion microprocessor market was generated by hybrid processors that included graphics cores or other kinds of processing engines, according to a report by IMS Research. Hybrid microprocessors will not only continue to gain market share, but will also let companies like Advanced Micro Devices and Intel Corp. onto new markets, such as media tablets and smartphones.
“Through the last decade the mobile and media consumption device markets have been pivotal for this hybridization trend; Apple, Broadcom, Marvell, MediaTek, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Samsung, ST Ericsson, Texas Instruments and many other processor vendors have been offering heterogeneous application-specific processors with a microprocessor core integrating a GPU to add value within extremely confined parameters of space, power and cost. Now that smartphone sales exceed computers, and tablets explode onto the market, these hybridized application specific mobile processors represent the next largest class of processor by revenue," said Tom Hackenberg, semiconductors research manager and author of the Comprehensive Processor Report.
Hybrid microprocessors - which combine x86 cores and graphics processing units on one chip -  released by AMD and Intel in 2010 and 2011 were among the most important recent product introductions. This hybridization appears to be a critical step in upping the competitive edge in computers but is also a step for these vendors into smartphones, tablets and other high performance embedded devices. Hybrid applications processor growth in smartphones and tablets are predicted with upwards of a 10% and 14% CAGR from 2011 to 2016 respectively.
“With double digit revenue growth in these markets, it’s not surprising to see major processor vendors such as AMD and Intel adopting this strategy to compete for computer market share and expending increasing research and development on embedded solutions. This hybridization is getting even more competitive with an Intel Atom-based smartphone on the market this month demonstrating that Intel is serious about entering the mobile device market by combining an x86 microprocessor, graphics licensed from Nvidia and configurable security logic as a hybrid processor triple play to capture share,” said Mr. Hackenberg.
As economic and physical barriers to shrinking geometries raise concerns of the imminent demise of Moore’s Law, semiconductor providers are turning to hybrid processors as just one of many complementary technologies for increasing system level performance and adding processor value. IMS Research has identified no less than 20 processor vendors that now provide dozens of heterogeneous processing solutions on a single chip.
Some of these converging processors have been evolving over time such as the digital signal controller, a convergence of DSPs and MCUs with the real-time processing performance of a DSP and an expanded instruction set for controller applications. In configurable processors, historically those found in FPGAs, processor vendors such as Xilinx, Altera, Microsemi and Cypress Semiconductor are actively targeting SoC ecosystems with an embedded processor core identical to and applications processor or microcontroller but enhanced with configurable logic.
“This trend is growing and spreading. Other processor vendors are now including application specific configurable logic. Intel’s Z2460 mobile processor includes a configurable security engine; Analog Devices’ BF60x DSP targets the anticipated high-growth market of embedded vision with a signal processing SoC that includes configurable logic specifically accelerating vision applications acceleration,” added Mr. Hackenberg.
Computers and media consumption devices dominate revenues in the processor market easily allowing hybrid processors to capture over half the revenues in 2011, but the trend does not stop there.
“If processor suppliers are going to continue meeting performance expectations set by Moore’s Law, clearly this is a necessary trend. Future processors may be less marketable by their top-end frequency and more by their application specific cores,” said the analyst.

Intel Boosts Security Capabilities of vPro Platform.

IT managers face a range of challenges from complex business processes to sophisticated security threats. To address these challenges, Intel Corp. has added a number of new functions and capabilities into its third-generation Core i-series "Ivy Bridge" processors with vPro technology designed specifically for business and intelligent systems.
The enhancements to the Intel Core vPro processor platform provide a more secure platform for business computing and drive the next wave of innovation in intelligent systems. New capabilities embed security at every layer, including the silicon, without compromising performance. Software innovation allows IT managers to set up and configure systems within minutes to quickly implement compelling solutions. Additionally, the enhanced graphics and secure manageability help accelerate the transition and growth in intelligent systems for the retail, industrial, and healthcare industries.

To defend against identity theft, Intel introduced Intel Identity Protection Technology with public key infrastructure (Intel IPT with PKI) into Intel Core vPro processors. The technology provides a new second layer of authentication embedded into the PC that allows websites and business networks to validate that a legitimate user is logging in from a trusted PC by using a private key stored in a PC's firmware. Intel has been working with solution providers and online Web properties such as Feitian, InfoServer, Symantec and Vasco to take advantage of Intel IPT technology to safeguard users' identity.
The latest version of the Intel Core vPro platform also features Intel OS Guard and Intel Secure Key. Intel Secure Key, with Intel AES new instructions, protects media, data and assets from loss, while Intel OS Guard detects and prevents malware. The new Intel Core vPro family of chips includes Intel Active Management Technology (AMT) to remotely manage computing issues.
Intel Core i-series "Ivy Bridge" chips with vPro technology are or will be available for desktops, laptops and ultrabooks.

Chief Exec of AMD: We Will Come In and Steal Ultrabook's Bacon.

Chief executive officer of Advanced Micro Devices believes that lower cost of the company's A-series "Trinity" accelerated processing units will help it to steal a lot of notebook market share from Intel Corp., which is pushing relatively expensive ultrabooks. The firm believes that it does not need high-end client chips in the light of the fact that that the cloud computing is emerging.
"I think we come in and steal the bacon around the whole thin-and-light movement and capture a significant portion of the opportunity there. [...] That [performance client computing] era is done. There is enough processing power on every laptop on the planet today," said Rory Read, chief executive officer of AMD, in an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek.
The head of AMD was referring to the fact that A-series Fusion "Trinity" APUs is behind Intel's Core i-series "Ivy Bridge" chips in terms of general-purpose performance, but is ahead when it comes to graphics processing performance.


What should be kept in mind is that high-performance in the cloud means high-performance server processors. Since technologies used to create high-performance chips are used both for central processing units for datacenters and for microprocessors aimed at client PCs, it is impossible to supply high-end server CPUs and sell low-performance client chips: either both types show decent performance or both do not. Nowadays AMD's highest-performance FX-series microprocessors are behind of Intel's performance-mainstream Core i7-3000-series chips across the board.
Mr. Read claims that instead of boosting general-purpose performance of client CPUs, AMD needs to integrate as many functions as possible into its microprocessors, something that makers of ARM-based system-on-chips do.

Nvidia Introduces Tesla K10, Announces Tesla K20 Accelerators [UPDATED].

UPDATE: Correcting the number of stream processors in GK110 chip.

Nvidia Corp. this week formally announced two new Tesla compute accelerators that are based on the code-named Kepler architecture. The Tesla K10 - based on the well-known GK104 chip - will become available shortly and will be aimed at those, who need maximum raw single-precision compute performance here and now. The Tesla K20, which will show up late this year, promises to be a performance monster thanks to GK110 chip with whopping 7 billion transistors.
The Nvidia Tesla "K10" compute card is based on two GK104 GPUs that deliver an aggregate peak performance of 4.58TFLOPS single precision, 0.190TFLOPS double precision and 320GB/s of m memory bandwidth. The Tesla "K10" is optimized for customers in oil and gas exploration and the defense industry. Since the K10 compute board is powered by GK104 chip, which is generally meant for graphics processing, it does not deliver really strong double precision performance and will not be a good solution for many fields of high performance computing.
The flagship compute solution based on Kepler architecture will be Tesla K20, which will be based on GK110 graphics processing unit. The latter will be a monster chip containing whopping 7.1 billion transistors, 15 streaming multiprocessors with total of 2880 stream processors and "delivering three times more double precision [performance] compared to Fermi architecture-based Tesla products", according to Nvidia. Given the fact that the highest-end Tesla 2090 provides 0.665TFLOPS of DP performance, the Tesla "K20" has potential to deliver up to enormous 2TFLOPS DP, although Nvidia claims about "over 1TFLOPS" (which is not that impressive, considering the fact that AMD Radeon HD 7970 hits 947TFLOPS DP at 925MHz).
But in addition to enormous transistor count and high performance, the GK110 will offer new capabilities that are not available on other chips:

• Dynamic Parallelism enables GPU threads to dynamically spawn new threads, allowing the GPU to adapt dynamically to the data. This simplifies parallel programming, enabling GPU acceleration of a broader set of popular algorithms, such as adaptive mesh refinement, fast multipole methods and multigrid methods.
• Hyper-Q enables multiple CPU cores to simultaneously use the CUDA architecture cores on a single Kepler GPU, which increases GPU utilization, slashing CPU idle times and advancing programmability. Hyper-Q is ideal for cluster applications that use MPI, according to Nvidia.

The GK110 GPU is expected to be incorporated into the new Titan supercomputer at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and the Blue Waters system at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Nvidia Tesla K20 is planned to be available in the fourth quarter of 2012.

STEC's CellCare Technology Improves Endurance of MLA Flash Memory by 13 Times.

STEC, a leading maker of solid-state drives, said Wednesday that the company has validated its proprietary CellCare technology's ability to extend the endurance of 24nm consumer-grade multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memory to 40 000 program/erase cycles, which is greater than 13 times the manufacturer's specified endurance metric of 3000 program/erase cycles.
CellCare Technology is a proprietary combination of hardware and firmware working together to improve MLC flash performance and endurance throughout the life of the solid-state drive. Key endurance-extending features of this patented technology include, flash parameter tracking per die, which delivers reduced and controlled wear; flash management through the lifetime, which delivers reduced wear, controlled performance, improved performance, and lower write/read latency; and advanced error correction with digital signal processing to improve data reliability and require a minimum of re-reads.
"This announcement opens up a lot of new opportunities, as cost is king in NAND and SSDs. Being able to take consumer-grade MLC NAND from 3000 cycles to 40000 cycles presents a huge leap in cost-effective enterprise endurance - enabling much more adoption," said Alan Niebel, founder and chief executive officer for Web-Feet Research.

The new CellCare technology enables development of a new generation of STEC's enterprise-class SSDs that utilizes low-cost cMLC NAND chips, while still achieving 10 full capacity random writes to the drive each day for five years, and data retention for three months (at 40°C) with no degradation in performance. This equates to approximately 7.3PB of data being written to a 400GB SSD over the life of the drive.
After applying STEC's CellCare Technology in combination with its fourth-generation ASIC-based SSD controller, STEC engineers performed a series of JEDEC-standard tests, including a program/erase endurance and data retention stress test; a stress-test-driven qualification of integrated circuits; and a SSD requirements and endurance test.
Results of the endurance testing are outlined in the table below:

"The results of the 24nm MLC endurance testing, performed at our San Diego R&D center, are testimony that the solid flash management algorithms and digital signal processing/error correction code within our patented CellCare technology bring true enterprise-class capabilities to consumer-grade flash memory. We have now tested the use of lower-cost 24nm MLC NAND with our CellCare technology to withstand the rigorous workload environments of enterprise storage applications - specifically, to provide for 40 000 program/erase cycles," said Pablo Ziperovich, STEC's vice president of flash channel development.
CellCare Technology is embedded in STEC's full line of MLC NAND-based enterprise-class solid-state solutions, including its PCIe solid-state accelerators, ZeusIOPS SAS SSDs, and MACH16 SATA SSDs. STEC's 24nm MLC NAND flash-based SSDs are currently in development and testing, with production anticipated for later this year.

WD's HGST Begins to Use 500GB 2.5" Platters in New-Generation Consumer Hard Drives.

HGST (formerly Hitachi Global Storage Technologies), a division of Western Digital, has introduced a new generation of hard drives for consumer electronics applications. The new CinemaStar hard disk drives (HDDs) utilize latest-generation 2.5" platters with 630Gb/inch² areal density and thus provide 500GB capacity while being very - 7mm - thin, or up to 1000GB in 9.5mm models.
"The ever increasing appetite for on-demand entertainment is driving the adoption of high-capacity 2.5" hard disk drives into a growing number of CE applications. Not only is there a desire to increase the storage capacity in these devices to hold more programs, but they must deliver predictable A/V streaming performance," said Brendan Collins, vice president of product marketing at HGST.

The new family of CinemaStar 2.5" hard disk drives for such applications as high-definition multi-stream DVRs, tuner-based STBs as well as IPTV set-top boxes, DVR-enabled TVs, audio systems and video surveillance systems includes C5K1000 (9.5mm, 5400rpm), Z5K500 (7mm, 5400rpm) and Z7K500 (7mm, 7200rpm) sub-families of hard drives:

• CinemaStar C5K1000 features dual-disk 9.5mm designs with 640GB, 750GB and 1000GB capacities, 5400rpm spindle speed, 8MB cache and Serial ATA-600 interface. The manufacturer declares 1.5W typical power consumption, 5.5ms average latency, 15ms typical seek time and 124.75MB/s media transfer rate.
• CinemaStar Z5K500 features one-disk 7mm designs with 500GB, 320GB and 250GB capacities, 5400rpm spindle speed, 8MB cache and Serial ATA-300 interface. The manufacturer declares 1.5W typical power consumption, 5.5ms average latency, 15ms typical seek time and 125.5MB/s media transfer rate.
• CinemaStar Z7K500 features one-disk 7mm designs with 500GB, 320GB and 250GB capacities, 7200rpm spindle speed, 32MB cache and Serial ATA-600 interface. The manufacturer declares 1.7W typical power consumption, 4.2ms average latency, 15ms typical seek time and 174.5MB/s media transfer rate.

All CinemaStar drives feature HGST’s patented SmoothStream technology, which supports the industry-standard ATA‑7 streaming command set, and SMART command transport (SCT) that provide time-limited error recovery and thermal monitoring capabilities for a longer system life. Together, the SCT protocol and HGST SmoothStream technology minimize disruptions in stream delivery by adapting buffer management behavior and error recovery timing to match the characteristics of typical streaming applications.
"With our broad new family of 2.5" CinemaStar drives, we continue to give our customers the flexibility to select a variety of reliable and robust drives to meet their cost, performance, power or capacity requirements, while helping them to deliver smaller, more aesthetically appealing designs," added Mr. Collins.
The new 2.5" CinemaStar family is now shipping in limited quantities. CE OEM samples are now available.
"Increasingly, set-top-box, DVR, and game console manufacturers are leveraging smaller 2.5" form factor HDDs instead of traditional 3.5" drives in more compact CE product designs. With 2.5" HDDs able to offer the capacity sweet spot for set top boxes and DVRs, IDC expects 2.5" HDD shipments into these applications will grow at a worldwide 2011-2016 compound annual growth rate of 21.8%," said John Rydning, IDC's HDD research vice president.

AMD Formally Introduces Second-Generation Fusion "Trinity" Chips for Notebooks.

Advanced Micro Devices on Tuesday officially introduced its new-generation of Fusion A-series accelerated processing units (APUs) previously known as Trinity. The new chips feature new x86 code-named Piledriver cores and Radeon HD 7000-series graphics cores. AMD hopes that its new APU will help it to increase presence on the market of various notebooks.
“The latest OEM notebooks, ultrathins, all-in-ones and desktops based on the new AMD A-Series APU enable the best video and gaming experiences, highly responsive performance with AMD Turbo Core, and accelerate an ever-increasing range of productivity and multimedia applications -- in sleek, stylish designs at price points that make sense,” said Chris Cloran, corporate vice president and general manager of AMD client business unit.
The AMD A-series "Trinity" APUs feature up to four x86 cores powered by enhanced Bulldozer/Piledriver architecture, AMD Radeon HD 7000-series graphics core with DirectX 11-class graphics support, DDR3 memory controller and other improvements, such as new dynamic acceleration Turbo Core technology, improved video playback engines and so on. The new chip is made using 32nm process technology at Globalfoundries, just like its predecessor code-named Llano, but thanks to architectural improvements it is projected to be 25% - 50% faster - depending on the task - than the first-gen A-series APU.

“Our second-generation AMD A-series APU is a major step forward in every performance and power dimension, allowing users to enjoy a stunning experience without having to give up the things that matter to them most. This experience doesn’t stop at mainstream notebooks. It carries over into affordable ultrathin form factors featuring the latest in AMD Radeon graphics,” added Mr. Cloran.
The initial family of AMD A-series Fusion "Trinity" chips currently includes only five models with 17W, 25W and 35W thermal design power.

AMD claims it has a record number of design wins with companies like  Acer, Asus, HP, Lenovo, Samsung and Toshiba based on its new AMD A-series APUs, with mainstream and ultrathin notebooks as well as embedded solutions, available beginning today.

Nvidia Unveils Cloud Graphics Processing Technologies.

Nvidia Corp. on Tuesday introduced what may be one of its most important developments in the recent years: cloud technologies that allow processing of graphics data from any device. Nvidia’s Grid and VGX cloud graphics processors enable gamer-grade or professional-grade graphics capabilities on absolutely any device, including desktops, laptops, tablets or even smartphones.
Thanks to a set of virtualization technologies supported by graphics processing units (GPUs) that belong to Kepler family, Nvidia now offers Grid, a cloud graphics solution for consumers for gaming applications, and VGX, a cloud graphics solutions for professional usage in professional programs. Both technologies enable high-performance graphics processing on devices that simply cannot take advantage of the latest power-hungry GPUs.
"Kepler cloud GPU technologies shifts cloud computing into a new gear. The GPU has become indispensable. It is central to the experience of gamers. It is vital to digital artists realizing their imagination. It is essential for touch devices to deliver silky smooth and beautiful graphics. And now, the cloud GPU will deliver amazing experiences to those who work remotely and gamers looking to play untethered from a PC or console," said Jen-Hsun Huang, president and chief executive officer of Nvidia.

Nvidia VGX: One Professional Board Can Serve Multiple Users

Nvidia VGX platform enables workers for the first time to access a GPU-accelerated desktop similar to a traditional local PC from any device (thin client, laptop, tablet or smartphone) regardless of its operating system, and enjoy a responsive experience for the full spectrum of applications previously only available on an office PC. The platform's manageability options and ultra-low latency remote display capabilities extend this convenience to those using 3D design and simulation tools, which had previously been too intensive for a virtualized desktop.

Nvidia VGX uniquely addresses the user experience issues of traditional virtualized desktop infrastructure by adding a fully virtualized GPU board to the data center. This now enables up to one hundred users to share a VGX board with a true PC experience with GPU-accelerated VDI (GPU-VDI). Initially, Nvidia will offer one quad-GPU graphics card with 768 stream processors and up to 4GB of memory per chip. The card will be 10.5” in length and 4.4” in height, hence, it will require new cases, special power supply units and so on. Still, Nvidia promises that machines with Nvidia VGX hardware will fit into common server racks.
One of the key features of GPU-accelerated desktop virtualization cloud platform is Nvidia’s sophisticated VGX Hypervisor that manages the GPU resources to allow multiple users to share common hardware, improving user density on a single server while providing true PC performance and compatibility.

Integrating the VGX platform into the corporate network enables enterprise IT departments to address the complex challenges of BYOD (bring your own device) trend and delivers a remote desktop to these devices, providing users the same access they have on their desktop terminal. At the same time, it helps reduce overall IT spend, improve data security and minimize data center complexity.

Nvidia GeForce Grid: High-Quality Gaming Now Available Everywhere

Nvidia GeForce Grid cloud gaming platform allows gaming-as-a-service providers to stream next-generation games to virtually any device with lower latency, while incurring lower operating costs, particularly related to energy usage.
Gamers benefit from the ability to play the latest, most sophisticated games on any connected device, including TVs, smartphones and tablets running Apple iOS and Google Android, provided that game designers implemented special ways to control their titles from those devices.
The key technologies powering the new platform are Nvidia GeForce Grid GPUs with dedicated ultra-low-latency streaming technology and cloud graphics software. Together, they fundamentally change the economics and experience of cloud gaming, enabling gaming-as-a-service providers to operate scalable data centers at costs that are in line with those of movie-streaming services.

The first GeForce Grid graphics card will feature two GPUs each with its own encoder and 1536 stream processors. The boards enable providers to render highly complex games in the cloud and encode them on the GPU, rather than the CPU, allowing their servers to simultaneously run more game streams. Server power-consumption per game stream is reduced to about one-half that of previous implementations, an important metric for data centers.
Fast streaming technology reduces server latency to as little as 10 milliseconds by capturing and encoding a game frame in a single pass. The GeForce Grid platform uses fast-frame capture, concurrent rendering and single-pass encoding to achieve ultra-fast game streaming.
The latency-reducing technology in GeForce Grid GPUs compensates for the distance in the network, so gamers will feel like they are playing on a gaming supercomputer located in the same room. What remains to be seen, though, is whether such encoding and decoding of a very dynamic video stream will provide the same level of quality as local PCs.
Nvidia and Gaikai demonstrated a virtual game console, consisting of an LG Cinema 3D Smart TV running a Gaikai application connected to a GeForce Grid GPU in a server 10 miles away. Instant, lag-free play was enabled on a highly complex PC game, with only an Ethernet cable and wireless USB game pad connected to the TV.

"A cloud GPU is transformational technology for the online gaming industry. Using a graphics-optimized cloud GPU eliminates some of the final barriers that stand in the way of a truly immersive, truly exciting cloud-based gaming experience and could change the business model for how games are played and delivered," said Brian Blau, an analyst with Gartner.

WD's HGST Begins to Use 500GB 2.5" Platters in New-Generation Consumer Hard Drives.

HGST (formerly Hitachi Global Storage Technologies), a division of Western Digital, has introduced a new generation of hard drives for consumer electronics applications. The new CinemaStar hard disk drives (HDDs) utilize latest-generation 2.5" platters with 630Gb/inch² areal density and thus provide 500GB capacity while being very - 7mm - thin, or up to 1000GB in 9.5mm models.
"The ever increasing appetite for on-demand entertainment is driving the adoption of high-capacity 2.5" hard disk drives into a growing number of CE applications. Not only is there a desire to increase the storage capacity in these devices to hold more programs, but they must deliver predictable A/V streaming performance," said Brendan Collins, vice president of product marketing at HGST.

The new family of CinemaStar 2.5" hard disk drives for such applications as high-definition multi-stream DVRs, tuner-based STBs as well as IPTV set-top boxes, DVR-enabled TVs, audio systems and video surveillance systems includes C5K1000 (9.5mm, 5400rpm), Z5K500 (7mm, 5400rpm) and Z7K500 (7mm, 7200rpm) sub-families of hard drives:

• CinemaStar C5K1000 features dual-disk 9.5mm designs with 640GB, 750GB and 1000GB capacities, 5400rpm spindle speed, 8MB cache and Serial ATA-600 interface. The manufacturer declares 1.5W typical power consumption, 5.5ms average latency, 15ms typical seek time and 124.75MB/s media transfer rate.
• CinemaStar Z5K500 features one-disk 7mm designs with 500GB, 320GB and 250GB capacities, 5400rpm spindle speed, 8MB cache and Serial ATA-300 interface. The manufacturer declares 1.5W typical power consumption, 5.5ms average latency, 15ms typical seek time and 125.5MB/s media transfer rate.
• CinemaStar Z7K500 features one-disk 7mm designs with 500GB, 320GB and 250GB capacities, 7200rpm spindle speed, 32MB cache and Serial ATA-600 interface. The manufacturer declares 1.7W typical power consumption, 4.2ms average latency, 15ms typical seek time and 174.5MB/s media transfer rate.

All CinemaStar drives feature HGST’s patented SmoothStream technology, which supports the industry-standard ATA‑7 streaming command set, and SMART command transport (SCT) that provide time-limited error recovery and thermal monitoring capabilities for a longer system life. Together, the SCT protocol and HGST SmoothStream technology minimize disruptions in stream delivery by adapting buffer management behavior and error recovery timing to match the characteristics of typical streaming applications.
"With our broad new family of 2.5" CinemaStar drives, we continue to give our customers the flexibility to select a variety of reliable and robust drives to meet their cost, performance, power or capacity requirements, while helping them to deliver smaller, more aesthetically appealing designs," added Mr. Collins.
The new 2.5" CinemaStar family is now shipping in limited quantities. CE OEM samples are now available.
"Increasingly, set-top-box, DVR, and game console manufacturers are leveraging smaller 2.5" form factor HDDs instead of traditional 3.5" drives in more compact CE product designs. With 2.5" HDDs able to offer the capacity sweet spot for set top boxes and DVRs, IDC expects 2.5" HDD shipments into these applications will grow at a worldwide 2011-2016 compound annual growth rate of 21.8%," said John Rydning, IDC's HDD research vice president.

First Microsoft Windows 8 Tablets to Emerge in November - Report.

Despite of negative expectations, the first tablets based on Microsoft Windows 8 operating system will emerge this calendar year. The devices are now projected to emerge in November, ahead of the holiday season. Unfortunately, there will be huge fragmentation on the market of Windows 8-powered slates as they will run completely different hardware.
The grand plan for device makers today is to release tablets, convertibles and hybrids featuring Windows 8 operating system in November, 2012, reports Cnet News web-site. Those devices will utilize x86-based Intel Atom "Clovertrail" or AMD Fusion "Hondo" as well as ARM-powered Qualcomm Snapdragon S4, Nvidia Tegra 3 and TI OMAP system-on-chips. It is also expected that some business tablets
"The schedule is tight. Looking at what Windows is trying to achieve not only with a new OS, but a new OS that needs to run four to five architectures - three ARM, Intel, and AMD," said a source close to device makers.

The tablets featuring Windows 8 operating system will not only feature completely different hardware, but will have very different capabilities. Those, which will use Windows 8 RT will not run older software, but will have integrated office capabilities. Media tablets that will utilize Windows 8 will run older programs, but will not feature built-in office software.
Pricing of different Windows 8-powered tablets will also likely to be very different due to the price of hardware.
Microsoft and its hardware partners did not comment on the news-story.

Toshiba and Western Digital Complete Transaction of HDD Manufacturing Capacities.

Toshiba Corp. and Western Digital Corp. have announced that they have completed transactions of hard disk drive manufacturing assets from WD to Toshiba and vice versa. As a result of the transaction, Toshiba will gain 3.5" hard drive production capacities, whereas WD will get 2.5" HDD manufacturing assets.
As part of its deal with Toshiba, WD also completed its purchase of Toshiba Storage Device Thailand (TSDT), which manufactured hard drives prior to the recent Thailand flooding. The principal assets of TSDT are its Thailand property, facilities and employees, which WD plans to integrate into its Thailand operations. Acquisition of TSDT will boost Western Digital's positions on the market of 2.5" hard disk drives.

The WD's assets - which include manufacturing equipment and related intellectual property - will enable Toshiba to manufacture and sell 3.5" hard drives for the desktop and consumer electronics markets and will enhance its ability to manufacture and sell 3.5" hard drives for near-line (business critical) applications.
Going forward, Toshiba's consolidation of HDD production at two manufacturing facilities in the Philippines and a contract manufacturer in China will allow the company to strengthen its cost competitiveness by boosting manufacturing efficiency.
Having completed this reinforcement of its HDD operations, Toshiba aims to double sales in the business to ¥800 billion ($9.985 billion or €7.819) in fiscal year 2014.
The financial terms of the two agreements were not disclosed.

Nvidia Teams Up with Intellectual Ventures to Acquire Wireless Communication Patents.

Nvidia Corp. and Intellectual Ventures (IV) on Monday announced that they have jointly acquired a set of patents developed and owned by IPWireless. The portfolio comprises approximately 500 patents granted and pending in the wireless communications area, including essential concepts in LTE, LTE-Advanced and 3G/4G technologies.
Terms of the acquisition, which closed on April 30, 2012, were not disclosed. Ownership of the patents was split between Nvidia and IV, with Nvidia licensing the rights to those patents that it did not acquire. As part of the acquisition, IPWireless retains perpetual, royalty-free access to these patents.
"This acquisition complements our ownership of extensive fundamental patents in graphics, visual and mobile computing. These patents, acquired in collaboration with Intellectual Ventures, will help support our rapidly expanding efforts in the mobile business," said David Shannon, executive vice president and general counsel at Nvidia.

IPWireless is a pioneer in wireless broadband and broadcast and its inventions are on the cutting edge of wireless technologies. Intellectual Ventures is building an active market for invention that allows buyers, sellers and inventors to realize value for their ideas.
"Through this acquisition, IV was able to acquire a portfolio that is both strategic and relevant in a variety of technology areas.It was a pleasure working with Nvidia to develop a customized structure to complete this deal in a relatively short period of time, while also helping Nvidia to meet its strategic goals. This investment provides efficient access to important inventions and standards-essential patents and reinforces our leadership role in building an active market for invention," said Loria Yeadon, executive vice president of the invention investment fund (IIF) at Intellectual Ventures.

Intel Begins Work on 7nm, 5nm Process Technologies.

Paul Otellini, chief executive of Intel Corp. said that the company had begun to work on 7nm a 5am process technologies. The company's plans now are to equip its Oregon, Arizona and Irelands fabs to make chips using 14nm fabrication processes.
"Our research and development is quite deep, I talk about ten years," said Paul Otellini, chief executive of Intel.

Chief executive of the world's largest maker of microprocessors said that that the company's products made using 7nm and 5nm process technologies "on time and on target".

"The invention continues. [...] We will continue to deliver value to [our investors] and partners through our silicon technology," said Mr. Otellini during a meeting with investors.

Nvidia Blames TSMC's 28nm Process Technology for Slow Sales.

Although the yields of semiconductors made using 28nm fabrication process at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company seem to be improving, their undersupplies is just becoming more evident. For Nvidia Corp., it just hurts.
Nvidia on Friday said that the problems with supply of chips made using 28nm process technology at TSMC persisted throughout its first quarter of fiscal 2013. Even though the company's better-than-expected margins signal that the costs are getting down, which is an indicator of improving yields for leading-edge products, the firm does not expect its supply issues to get resolved shortly.
"Demand is high for Kepler and although supply will continue to improve, we are not able to meet all our OEM and channel demand in Q2 FY2013. We do not expect the 28nm supply situation to resolve itself until later this year," said Chris Evenden, director of investor relations at Nvidia, during quarterly conference call with financial analysts.

For the Q1 FY2013 that ended on April, 29, 2012, Nvidia reported revenue of $924.9 million, net income of $60.4 and gross margin of 50.1%. The results were generally better than expected by many, primarily thanks to shipments increase of Tegra 3 system-on-chip.

Nvidia's operating expenses (to which the company usually attributes GPU/GPGPU implementation costs) were even higher than projected by around $7 million at $390.5 million. Nonetheless, the firm's gross margins was 50.1%, higher than predicted 49.2%. This happened primarily because of sound launches of the GeForce 6-series GTX "Kepler" products that are now sold in price ranges between $399 and $999.
Due to seasonally weak calendar first quarter, sales of Nvidia were down across both consumer and professional lines.

Foxconn's Head Confirms Apple's HDTV.

The chief executive officer of Foxconn Technology Group, the world's largest contract manufacturer of electronics, has reportedly confirmed that his company had begun preparations to manufacture Apple's highly-anticipated TV-set.
Terry Gou, the head of Foxconn, said the company is making preparations for iTV, Apple's rumored upcoming high-definition television, although development or manufacturing has yet to begin, reports China Daily. Apple's TV-set reportedly features an aluminum construction, Siri, and FaceTime video calling.
Foxconn's recent LCD joint-venture factory with Sharp in Japan is one of the preparations made for the new device, Mr. Gou reportedly said.

Nobody knows what exactly is Apple TV-set and how competitive it is in the light of emerging smart TVs with stereo-3D support and other technologies. In fact, it is unknown whether the company even plans to release it this year. But like a lot of Apple's products, it may become a major success for the company and will transform the whole market of TV-sets. But that is not cast on stone as TV-makers are also not standing still and will compete against Apple vigorously. One thing that Apple should count on is a unique set of capabilities that will be hard to copy in a short period of time.

One of the main features of Apple's television set is projected to be an ability to quickly search for content from numerous sources, including Apple's own iTunes. Given the fact that the user experience should be integrated, this feature alone presents a number of challenges. In order to provide unique capabilities and simplicity, Apple TV will likely integrate iCloud as Siri along with motion sensing support for content sharing and control purposes. In a bid to be able to control the TV using iPhone, iPad or iPod, the TV will be compatible with Apple's AirPlay technology.

Apple traditionally remains tight-lipped about its future television set, nobody knows whether it will receive content using radio broadcast, cable or the Internet. Actual peculiarities and capabilities of Apple TV will be determined after the company negotiates with media partners.

It remains to be seen whether the Apple TV device will also support high-definition gaming as presently Apple's ecosystem clearly has a weak spot due to absence of high-quality games on Macs and lack of a game console in Apple's lineup.

The Apple TV project has been discussed by market observers for several years already, this year Apple's former chief executive officer Steve Jobs confirmed his biographer Walter Isaacson that the work on TV was underway as well as that the Apple TV would have a simple user interface and would wirelessly synchronize content across all Apple devices.

Dual-Core Processors Powered 20% of Smartphones in 2011 - Analysts.

Every fifth smartphone sold last year featured system-on-chip with two general-purpose cores, according to Strategy Analytics market tracking firm. Samsung leads transition pace to multi-core SoCs for smartphones: 60% of its smartphone chips sold last year are dual-core application processors.
Dual-core system-on-chips (SoCs), which power ultra high-end smartphones, gained strong traction in 2011, accounting for nearly 20% of total smartphone applications processors shipped, according to, Strategy Analytics market research firm. This Strategy Analytics research shows that Samsung led the dual-core smartphone applications processor market in 2011, with 60% volume share, followed by Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and Nvidia. Samsung’s success in dual-core processors can be attributed to its strong sales at Apple and in Samsung’s own mobile handset division.

“Qualcomm captured 16% volume share in the dual-core smartphone applications processor market in 2011 on the strength of its dual-core Snapdragon applications processor products MSM8x60 and APQ8060. Strategy Analytics believes that Qualcomm is well-positioned to make significant share gains in 2012 with the help of its LTE-integrated dual-core Snapdragon processor MSM8960,” said Stuart Robinson, director of the Strategy Analytics handset component technologies service.
Stand-alone applications processors accounted for 90% of total dual-cores shipped in 2011. Single-core applications processors are much more likely to be integrated with baseband capabilities: 72% of total single-core SoCs shipped in 2011 featured integrated baseband capabilities.
“Strategy Analytics would advise Nvidia to focus on high volume tier-one design-wins in 2012 in order to maintain its first-mover advantage with quad-core processors. Nvidia, whose Tegra 2 smartphone shipments declined 8% at the end of 2011 - compared to shipments in the first half of the year - lost momentum, despite being early to market with dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processors,” said Sravan Kundojjala a senior analyst with Strategy Analytics.
Strategy Analytics anticipates dual-core applications processor penetration into mainstream smartphones will accelerate through 2012 and into 2013, and new ARM architectures such as Cortex-A5 will help dual-core penetrate entry-level smartphones at the start of 2013.

TSMC Reportedly Gives 28nm Supply Priorities to Nvidia, Qualcomm.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company has reportedly given Nvidia Corp. and Qualcomm priorities in 28nm capacity allocation. As a result, tight supply situation with their latest chips should get easier in approximately one quarter from now.
Qualcomm has officially stated that it started to work with TSMC rivals to manufacture its system-on-chip and baseband processors for mobile devices using 28nm low-power process technology. The company said that the demand for its latest Snapdragon S4 application processors was so high that TSMC was unable to manufacture enough chips. Qualcomm confirmed that it initiated working with its other partners among contract makers of semiconductors to manufacture the Snapdragon S4 and potentially S5 products at their capacities. Since that required significant redesign of chips as well as creation of new masks, validation and a lot of other actions, the company will have to spend additional OpEx [operating expenditure] money to enable second or third sources for 28nm products.
Nvidia Corp. also blamed TSMC for inability to supply enough chips made using 28nm high-performance process technology and also noted lower-than-expected yield issues. Rumour has it that Nvidia has also started negotiations with Globalfoundries and Samsung Semiconductor  to manufacture its chips at their capacities.

It is believed that both Nvidia and Qualcomm suffer from TSMC's slow ramp of 28nm manufacturing processes that utilize high-k metal gate (HKMG) technology.
According to a market rumour reported by DigiTimes web-site, the world's largest maker of semiconductor decided to provide priorities to Nvidia and Qualcomm, which will result in higher allocation of production capacities and faster manufacturing, testing and packaging procedures. At present it is unclear whether TSMC will reduce volumes it ships to other companies, such as Advanced Micro Devices, or will delay manufacturing for semiconductor designers that planned to begin production of their 28nm chips only now.
TSMC, Nvidia and Qualcomm did not comment on the news-story.

Nvidia Unleashes GeForce GTX 670: Hardcore Gaming Becomes More Affordable.

Nvidia Corp. on Thursday introduced its third consumer graphics adapter based on the code-named Kepler architecture. At $399, the GeForce GTX 670 not only offers enthusiast-class performance in demanding video games, but is also quiet, energy efficient and can fit into many computer cases.
Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 is powered by a cut-down version of GK104 graphics processing unit - the same chip that is used for the GTX 680 and GTX 690 graphics boards - and features 1344 stream processors, 112 texture units, 32 raster operating units as well as 256-bit memory bus. The chip is clocked at 915MHz, whereas 2GB of GDDR5 memory operate at 6GHz. The new graphics card fully supports modern high-end features like DirectX 11.1, OpenGL 4.2, OpenCL 1.2, stereoscopic-3D, 4 multi-monitor capability, PhysX, 3-way multi-GPU, PCI Express 3.0 and so on.

The graphics board consumes up to 170W, which is not a lot for today's high-end graphics cards, and is 9.5" long, which is also considered normal for today's performance-mainstream solutions. The model GTX 670 requires two 6-pin PCI Express connectors. Reference design of the graphics card has one dual-link DVI-I, one dual-link DVI-D, one HDMI and one DisplayPort outputs.
Nvidia claims that the GeForce GTX 670 is considerably faster than the GeForce GTX 570 and in some games in 1920*1080 resolution it can be over 40% faster than AMD Radeon HD 7950.

By releasing GeForce GTX 670, Nvidia considerably widens addressable market for its GeForce Kepler family thanks to $399 price-point. Still, the GeForce GTX 670 is not a mainstream solution, but clearly a high-end one, based on its positioning. What should be kept in mind is that since the GK104 graphics processing unit made using 28nm process technology is not large (294mm²) and in the past Nvidia could sell various products based on chips with similar die size (and comparable cost) in $200 - $300 range without problems, the company has a lot of opportunities to further reduce pricing of the GTX 670.
The GeForce GTX 670-based graphics cards are available now from various add-in card suppliers, including ASL, Asustek Compter, Colorful, ECS, EVGA, Gainward, Galaxy, Gigabyte, Innovision 3D, Jetway, Leadtek, MSI, Palit, Point of View, PNY, Sparkle and Zotac.

Mubadala: Globalfoundries Makes Losses, Unlikely to Become Profitable Shortly.

Mubadala, the Abu Dhabi government fund that owns Advanced Technology Investment Company that controls chip maker Globalfoundries, said that neither ATIC nor Globalfoundries have ever reported profits. Nonetheless, Mubadala will continue to invest into ATIC as it believes semiconductor manufacturing technologies will not only gain importance globally, but will help to develop the economy of the emirate.
In a recent filing Mubadala said that ATIC (and consequently its main asset, Globalfoundries) had an accumulated deficit of 4.1 billion dirhams ($1.12 billion) as of the end of 2011 and made losses in the past two years, Reuters news-agency reports. In another disclosure Mubadala noted that ATIC continued to invest to make Globalfoundries a leading semiconductor manufacturing company resulted in GF becoming the world’s second-largest foundry by revenue in Q4 2011.
Mubadala also noted that no assurance is given that ATIC will be profitable in 2012 or in subsequent years, but it also indicated that ATIC could continue making further investments in boosting capacity and research in a bid to become a profitable catalyst for Abu Dhabi's economic development. For the emirate, it may be more important to create semiconductor industry within its borders than to gain direct profits from Globalfoundries.

Earlier this year Ajit Manocha, chief executive officer of Globalfoundries, said that the company would spend around $3 billion on capacity expansion this year, down from $5.4 billion in 2011. The company will continue to invest into all of its existing products facilities across the world, but not as significantly as in the previous year.
Earlier the company said it would not initiate construction of a new manufacturing facility in Abu Dhabi in 2012 due to uncertain market conditions. The fab in the emirate is still in plans, but the decisions about the construction start will be made at a later date.

Transcend Debuts Ultra High-Performance mSATA SSDs for Ultrabooks.

Transcend Information, a leading supplier of various DRAM- and NAND flash-based products, has revealed its new MSA720-series solid-state drives in tiny mSATA form-factor that deliver performance comparable to fully-fledged SSDs. Thanks to multi-level cell NAND flash with toggle DDR interface and SandForce SF2281 controller, the Transcend MSA 720 are the fastest mSATA SSDs to date.
Transcend MSA 720 solid-state drives are available in 64GB and 128GB capacities and use Serial ATA-600 interface. The SSDs are deliver blazing fast sequential transfer speeds up to 560MB/s read and 530MB/s write, and impressive 4K random file writes up to 91 000 IOPS. The extreme performance was made possible by new-generation SandForce SF2281 controller as well as latest-generation MLC NAND flash memory with toggle DDR interface. The controller also supports such functions as S.M.A.R.T., TRIM and NCQ to increase the long-term health and efficiency of the SSD and also supports hardware-based 256-bit advanced encryption standard (AES) protection.

The mSATA form-factor combines high-capacity SSD in a space that is about one-third of the size of a standard business card (3cm*5cm). Such tiny size allows to make notebooks extremely thin without sacrificing performance. Moreover, mSATA SSDs can act as cache drived to accelerate operating system boot-up time and commonly-used application launch speed in environments where hard drives are needed for high capacity reasons.
Unfortunately, Transcend revealed nothing about the reliability of mSATA solid-state drives based on MLC NAND with toggle DDR interface. Hopefully, it is not considerably lower compared to fully-fledged SSDs.
Transcend MSA 720 solid-state drives are available now. Pricing is unknown.

AT&T Predicts End of Tablets without WWAN Support.

The era of always on/always connected Internet devices dictates one simple thing: the devices should be always connected everywhere, not just where Wi-Fi is nearby. As a result, media tablets without support of wide wireless area network (WWAN) seem to be a little incomplete. But the end of such slates is near, according to AT&T, which believes that tablets should always come with built-in 3G or 4G.
"All devices should have all capabilities built in from the beginning. One reason that has not become a reality is that the additional hardware has been too expensive in the past, the ecosystem was a little out of balance," said Glenn Lurie, president of emerging devices at AT&T, in an interview with Computerworld at CTIA Wireless.
The cost of 3G HSPA+ modem is around $30 to device makers, whereas 4G/LTE modem cost from $60 to $70. As the cost of modems declines, it will not make sense for media tablet makers not to integrate them into their products and offer a true freedom for the end-users. Moreover, with modems inside every tablet, operators will get more interested in selling them and more software makers will start making programs that use Internet connectivity.

Although modems are relatively affordable, Apple, the dominant supplier of media tablets in the world, adds $130 for the cost of a 3G or 4G/LTE modem to iPad 2 of the iPad third-gen slates compared to Wi-Fi-only models. Other manufacturers add around $50 for WWAN support, according to Mr. Lurie.
Not surprising that according to Bob O'Donnell, an analyst with IDC, over a half of Apple iPad tablets sold today only come with Wi-Fi connectivity. The market observer believes that carriers should offer data plans for multiple devices, which should catalyze people to get gadgets with support for 3G, 4G and other types of connectivity.

Calxeda Shows Live ARM-Based Cluster Running Ubuntu Linux.

Calxeda demonstrated a live cluster running Ubuntu 12.04 LTS on actual Calxeda EnergyCore hardware at the Ubuntu Developer Summit this week. The company managed to run existing Linux web applications on the system. This was the first public demonstration of an ARM-based server hardware working in clusters, a significant milestone for Calxeda and the industry.
The cluster running on stage was a Calxeda EnergyCard prototype in a 2U chassis that supports up to 48 quad-core nodes at under 300W, with up to 24 Serial ATA hard disk drives.   A complete build of the Ubuntu 12.04 kernel took less than an hour to compile on a single node, 1/4 the time of current ARM build platforms, according to Calxeda. With a larger Calxeda cluster, a full build of the entire distro will take hours, instead of weeks.
"Running Ubuntu 12.04, we are demonstrating a standard LAMP stack (running Calxeda’s web-site) along with other popular web frameworks such as node.js and Ruby on Rails, provisioning of OpenStack Nova compute instances, and even Canonical’s Metal-as-a-Service bare-metal provisioning. [...] This demo really shows just how easy it is to move modern software over to Calxeda and Ubuntu.  Literally, it all just worked. The code came up without any modifications. Just load and go," explained Karl Freund, vice president of marketing at Calxeda.

Calxeda EnergyCore system-on-chip incorporates four ARM Cortex-A9 cores as well as  a supercomputing-class 80Gb/s fabric switch and an integrated management engine with power optimization software, all on a single piece of silicon. The EnergyCore SoC also includes a full complement of server I/O features and a large 4MB ECC L2 cache, enabling system vendors, Calxeda’s customers, to offer a complete server node that consumes only 5W, including 4GB of ECC memory and a large capacity SSD.

With the first live demo of an ARM-based cluster, we can now expect credible performance numbers of ARM servers to emerge shortly.
"Most importantly, we can get on with the important work of characterizing real benchmarks on real systems with real OS support. HP’s Discovery [Calxeda-powered] centers will certainly play a part in this process as well, and I am willing to bet that by the end of the summer we will have some compelling data on whether the ARM server will deliver on its performance and energy efficiency promises. It’s not a slam dunk guaranteed win – Intel has been steadily ratcheting up its energy efficiency, and the latest generation of x86 server from HP, IBM, Dell, and others show promise of much better throughput per watt than their predecessors. Add to that the demonstration of a Xeon-based system by Sea Micro (ironically now owned by AMD) that delivered Xeon CPUs at a 10W per CPU power overhead, an unheard of efficiency," said Richard Fichera, an analyst with Forrester Research.

Micron Technology Confirms Plans to Acquire Elpida Memory.

Micron Technology has confirmed it is engaged in discussions with Elpida Memory's trustees to acquire Elpida's business. Earlier it was reported that Micron had won exclusive right to bid for Elpida. The Boise, Idaho-based memory maker will pay between approximately $2.5 and $3.75 billion for Elpida's assets.
Micron made the announcement following approval by the Tokyo district court allowing Elpida's trustees to negotiate an agreement with Micron, pursuant to which Micron would become Elpida's sponsor and acquire Elpida's entire business in accordance with the corporate reorganization proceedings. Elpida, a semiconductor DRAM memory manufacturer, began insolvency procedures in late February, 2012.
Elpida recently undertook a bidding process to select a company to "sponsor" Elpida during its corporate reorganization proceedings and to acquire the company's business. In that process, Elpida has decided to move forward in negotiations with Micron as the potential sponsor.

In Q1 2012 Micron and Elpida had 11.6% and 12.4% revenue share of the DRAM market, respectively; a good distance behind second-place maker SK Hynix, who controlled 23.9% market share. After Micron and Elpida have integrated, their combined market share will bring the Micron team’s market share (Micron, Inotera, Elpida, and Rexchip) to nearly 24%, surpassing SK Hynix’s 23.9% to become second only to memory giant Samsung Electronics, according to DRAMeXchange.
As previously stated, the DRAM industry is heading towards becoming an oligopolistic market: the emergence of three major DRAM players. This situation is projected to  help DRAM chip price gradually stabilize, bidding farewell to the price-slashing market competition of the past.

Freescale Introduces 64-Bit Multi-Core Chips for Control Plane Apps.

Freescale Semiconductor this week introduced two 64-bit QorIQ P5 family control plane processors. The quad-core QorIQ P5040 and dual-core P5021 products operate at 2.40GHz and feature a mix of accelerators, high-speed interfaces and security features, resulting in advanced embedded solutions ideally suited for power-conscious control plane applications.
Built on Freescale’s 64-bit Power architecture e5500 core, all QorIQ P5 family products are pin- and software- compatible. Software reuse is further enhanced with hybrid 32-bit mode capabilities, which support legacy software and help ensure a seamless transition to 64-bit computing. The family now includes single-core, dual-core and quad-core chips operating at 2.0GHz or 2.40GHz with power consumption from sub-15W.
Integration of application-specific accelerators and advanced I/O on a single embedded device means customers of both new products benefit from reduced system development cycles and thermal management costs. Processing efficiency is optimized in part via CoreNet on-chip fabric that is designed to feed accelerators and cores while eliminating bus contention. A RAID 5/6 engine offloads the processors’ cores from parity calculations for storage applications. The devices integrate high-speed connectivity support for PCIe, SGMII, XAUI, SATA, Aurora and multiple 1GigE and 10GigE. Double precision floating point support is included to address key industrial market requirements.

“Freescale continues to expand its broad range of highly successful QorIQ multicore processors with the new P5040 and P5021 devices. These products are engineered to help our customers maintain best-in-class power efficiency while handling the tremendous control plane processing demands associated with the rapid global growth of wired and wireless data,” said Bernd Lienhard, vice president and general manager of Freescale’s networking processor division.
The newQorIQ P products are designed for industrial, storage, military/aerospace and networking applications including core routers and data centers. They feature advanced security capabilities including secure boot of application code, tamper detect circuitry and secure debug, as well as hardware-assisted acceleration of cryptography protocols. Key to establishing highly secure systems, Freescale’s embedded trust architecture prevents cloning and unauthorized cores from running on a system.
Freescale plans to offer initial samples and a P5040 development board in June 2012, with full qualification for both products expected in the first quarter of 2013.

Fujitsu and Lenovo Unveil USB 3.0 Dock Stations with DisplayLink Connectivity.

Fujitsu and Lenovo Group on Wednesday introduced new docking stations for latest notebooks that enable additional display connectivity through common USB 3.0 interface and special DisplayLink chips that let monitors to be connected to PCs through USB 3.0 ports. The new dock stations enable additional expansion capabilities for mobile computers. All users have to do it to plug them to USB 3.0 ports.
“Lenovo’s latest ThinkPad USB 3.0 Dock takes full advantage of the bandwidth offered under SuperSpeed USB to achieve exceptional graphics and video performance in an unprecedented form-factor,” Said John Cummins, vice president of sales and marketing for DisplayLink.
The Lenovo ThinkPad USB 3.0 dock is powered by the DL-3900 dual head graphics chip with integrated Gigabit Ethernet and audio. The new DisplayLink certified USB docking station packs wide expansion opportunities in a small form factor, including dual video connections offered via two DVI ports enabling multiple displays to be connected for enhanced productivity,  five USB 3.0 ports for peripheral expansion and always-on mobile device charging, Gigabit Ethernet and audio connectivity.
“Incorporating virtual graphics technology from DisplayLink into Fujitsu’s port replicators makes it easier for mobile workers to connect to a more ergonomic, richer desktop display experience, no matter which desk they choose,” says Dieter Heiss, head of workplace systems at Fujitsu technology solutions.
Fujitsu USB 3.0 port replicator is also based on DisplayLink’s DL-3900 chip and provides a Gigabit Ethernet port, two USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 ports, a DisplayPort connection that supports ultra-high resolutions of up to 2560*1600, DVI-I port with an external VGA adapter, as well as 3.5mm audio in/out ports with stereo (2.1) and surround sound (5.1) support.
Specifically designed chips from DisplayLink can receive a compressed video stream via such interfaces as USB, Ethernet or WiMedia (a wireless data-transfer standard with a throughput up to 480Mbps), uncompress it into video and output it in various formats to displays.

Inventor of LiquidMetal: Material Will Be Ready for PC Production in Several Years.

Materials used to make modern electronic products are very different and have their own pros and cons. Plastic is inexpensive, but not durable; glass is fragile; aluminum and stainless steel are hard to produce in complex shapes. According to the inventor of liquidmetal, a family of amorphous alloys that combine advantages of the aforementioned, the new material could be a solution for future electronics devices, but only several years down the road.
Liquidmetal, which is currently used in various medical, military, industrial, sports and technical applications, can be cast in various forms and will maintain good look, superior strength, scratch and corrosion resistance and other advantages, e.g. relative light weight. Unfortunately, mass manufacturing infrastructure is currently not ready for liquidmetals. Although Apple has bought exclusive rights to use liquidmetals in its PCs, phones, tablets and other electronics, it will take hundreds of millions of dollars and several years before the company starts to use the new material in large scale.
"I would not say Liquidmetal was perfected. This is a technology that has yet to be matured and perfected both in manufacturing process and application development. I should note that this is a completely new and different metal technology. Therefore, there is no suitable manufacturing infrastructure yet to take full advantage of this alloy technology. For example, I estimate that Apple will likely spend on the order of $300 million to $500 million - and three to five years - to mature the technology before it can used in large scale," said Atakan Peker, one of the inventors of the Liquidmetal alloy, in an interview with Business Insider web-site.

There are several instances of liquidmetal usages in personal technology: Apple used the material for SIM-removing pin, Nokia and Samsung made flip phones of liquid metal. At present Apple uses aluminum to create cases for MacBook laptops, but since it involves milling cutter, it is very hard and expensive to produce them in volume. Liquidmetal could help, but at present it is not ready for it.
"First evolutionary substitution of current materials and secondly, and more importantly, in a breakthrough product made only possible by Liquidmetal technology. Apple’s exclusively licensing a new material technology (specifically for casing and enclosures) is a first in the industry.  This is very exciting. Therefore, I expect Apple to use this technology in a breakthrough product. Such product will likely bring an innovative user interface and industrial design together, and will also be very difficult to copy or duplicate with other material technologies," added Mr. Peker.

Dell Unveils World's First Microserver Based on Intel Xeon "Ivy Bridge" Chip.

Dell on Tuesday introduced the industry's first microserver based on yet unannounced Intel Corp.'s E3-1200 v2-series microprocessors with reduced thermal design power. Dell's new PowerEdge C5220 micro servers with new processors are designed to deliver up to 95% more performance within the same rack and 50% more density compared to the previous generation of micro servers.
“We are constantly inspired by the unique ways our customers are leveraging Dell microserver platforms to drive specialized web 2.0, HPC and cloud computing applications. As the microserver market and ecosystem have matured, customers like Vibrant Media have validated that microservers are a cost-effective, scalable platform in web 2.0 environments,” said Forrest Norrod, vice president and general manager of Dell server solutions.
Dell PowerEdge C5220 servers powered by Intel's forthcoming Xeon central processing units made using 22nm fabrication process are designed to power business-critical web 2.0, cloud, and content delivery networks (CDN), as well as high-performance computing (HPC) applications.

Intel's latest Xeon E3-1200 v2 product family includes various dual-core and quad-core chips with thermal design power ranging between 17W and 45W. The new processors also support such technologies like Turbo Boost, Hyper-Threading, ECC memory, 64-bit processing, virtualization and so on.
The PowerEdge C5220 featuring the latest Intel Xeon E3-1200v2 processor series will be available May 22, 2012. Pricing starts at $12 207.84.