Following a successful run with the codenamed R700 family of GPUs, which was originally released back in June 2008 as the Radeon HD 4000 series, AMD is launching the highly anticipated R800. Debuting to no one's surprise as the ATI Radeon HD 5000 series, on our test bed today we have a reference HD 5870 graphics card packing some 2150 million transistors and produced on a 40nm process.

The new Radeon HD 5000 series is said to deliver around 2x more performance than previous generation Radeon cards, and brings DirectX 11 support to desktops for the first time. Even while Nvidia is downplaying the latter, AMD sees it as a great advantage and expects DX11-capable games to start shipping before the end of the year.

Nvidia will also support DirectX 11 on future hardware of course, but the way things are going it looks as though we'll still have to wait a few months before their response to the new Radeon HD line arrives.

AMD's pricing strategy with the Radeon HD 5000 series will be quite interesting too, as for the first time in a long while the company will be looking to take the performance crown from Nvidia. Previous generation ATI graphics cards have been unable to compete with the fastest Nvidia solutions, forcing AMD to heavily discount their products in an effort to deliver better value.

In the end the Radeon HD 4850 was competing with the much older GeForce 9800 GTX, while the Radeon HD 4870 ran somewhat unopposed at $299. At this price point the 4870 delivered an impressive level of performance, though it was overshadowed by improved GeForce GTX graphics cards over the next 12 months.

The new Radeon HD 5870 is in a very different position, though. This time around it looks like AMD is not going to be forced into a pricing war as easily -- at least not yet anyway. So for now the HD 5870 makes its debut with an MSRP of $380, while the Radeon HD 5850 is also arriving today priced at around $260.

This makes the Radeon HD 5870 roughly $120 cheaper than today's undisputable performance champ, the GeForce GTX 295. It also makes it almost twice as costly as the Radeon HD 4890, however, which begs the question: is the Radeon HD 5870 really that much faster? Today we finally get to find out, as we will be comparing AMD's latest and greatest against every single high-end graphics card released over the past year. (Full Story Link)

Asus W90Vp : World’s Most Powerful Gaming Laptop

Asus W90Vp is a desktop replacement notebook that offers record-breaking performance in a stylish, aggressively-designed chassis inspired by high-performance luxury vehicles.

Based on an ASUS motherboard using an Intel X38 desktop chipset, the W90Vp boasts a Discrete Graphics Engine (DGE) using a pair of ATI Radeon 4870 videocards with 1GB of video memory in CrossfireX, 6GB of system memory, and an overclockable Intel Core 2 Quad-core processor for class-leading performance. The DGE with its dual Radeon cards offers mind-blowing performance, allowing it to reach over 15,000 3Dmarks in 3DMark06 in overclocked mode – a score that puts all notebooks, and some desktops, to shame.

The W90Vp is a portable movie theater with its Blu-ray drive, glorious 18.4” LCD running at full 16:9 HD 1920x1080 resolution, and an amazing Dolby-certified sound system. The sharp display features an edgeless cover for a true home theater experience that is complimented by booming audio from the integrated 5.1 Altec Lansing speaker system with a built-in subwoofer.

Seven Second Boot with Express Gate
With the W90Vp you can quickly and easily access the web, instant messages, look at photos and more with its Express Gate quick-boot environment. Just press the W90Vp’s Express Gate button and in seconds you’ll be in a fully-functional Linux environment – perfect for quickly checking your email, listening to music, or making a Skype call.

Specifications

Processor and Cache Memory
Intel® Core™2 Duo processor T9600/T9400/P8600/P8400
Intel® X38 + ICH10R Chipset, FSB=1066 MHz

Operating System
Microsoft® Vista 64 bit SP1 Premium

Main Memory
DDR2 800MHz, up to 6GB, 3xSO-DIMM slots support

Display
* 18.4” widescreen HD ultra-bright LCD display (W90Vp/W90Vn)
* 17” widescreen WUXGA ultra-bright LCD display (W90V)

Graphics Card
* ATI CrossFireX™ technology with ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 4870 graphics, GDDR3 1024MB VRAM (W90Vp)
* NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GS, GDDR3 1024MB VRAM (W90Vn)
* ATI CrossFireX™ technology with ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 3850 graphics, GDDR3 1024MB VRAM (W90V)

Hard Disk Drive
320 + 320GB / 250 + 250GB / 500 + 500GB (5400rpm)

Optical Drive
Blu-ray Combo/ DVD Super Multi DL

Video Camera
2.0M Pixels Auto Focus Webcam

Communication
* 802.11 Draft N wireless connection
* BlueTooth 2.1+EDR
* 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet
* 56k Modem

Audio
* 5.1 channel Altec Lancing speaker (w/ subwoofer),
* 2nd Generation Dolby™ Home Theater

Interface
* 1 x HDMI
* 1 x E-SATA
* 4 x USB 2.0
* IEEE 1394
* VGA-out (D-Sub)
* Headphone (SPIDIF)
* Mic-in
* 8 in 1 Card Reader
* 1 x Express Card
* 1 x CIR
* RF-in (w/ TV SKU)
* 1 x Modem jack (RJ11)
* 1 x LAN port (RJ45)

The W90Vp-A1 features an introductory MSRP of $2,499 USD and is available immediately at leading online e-tailers. (story Link)

Nvidia and Dell team up to ship Tesla-powered Personal Supercomputers

Nvidia announced today that Dell has begun shipping workstations with their Nvidia Tesla C1060 supercomputer card. Dell Precision R5400, T7500 and T5500 all offer Tesla GPU compute cards, which, according to Greg Weir, Senior Manager at Dell, “put the power of supercomputing on the desktop”.

Dell’s R5400 is a rack-mountable workstation computer designed for cluster operations. The T5500 and T7500 are tower-model workstations which sell for around $1800 base, plus the add-ons, which now include the C1060 which has an MSRP base price of around $1599.

The Tesla C1060 GPU provides raw computing power which is roughly equal to a small- to mid-range traditional CPU supercomputer cluster, though in a traditional dual-slot graphics card-sized configuration. The workloads it can operate on are not always the same as full-blown supercomputers, which can handle anything. Therefore, the C1060 does have real limitations (as do all graphics-based compute engines).

While the Tesla C1060 looks like a graphics card in appearance card, and even appears to software that way, it has no graphics port outputs. The Tesla is designed exclusively to be a compute engine which operates inside your PC.

Nvidia introduced double-precision (64-bit) floating point compute abilities with Tesla. The card itself is similar to high-end graphics cards offered by Nvidia, capable of nearly a Teraflop of dedicated single-precision compute performance (933 GFlops), with something around 80 Gigaflops in double-precision, though it is fully IEEE-754 compliant. It consumes up to 188 watts, has a memory bandwidth of 102 GB/s on a 512-bit interface 800 MHz clock, with a 1.3 GHz core clock with 240 stream processors. Each card comes with 4 GB of GDDR3 memory. Even though the Tesla C1060 card itself consumes up to 188 watts each, the reality is its compute abilities far exceed a traditional CPU-based supercomputer cluster, and for a fraction of the power and, according to Nvidia, for 1/100th the price.

The card’s dedicated compute is typically targeted at the oil and gas industries, computational finance, fluid dynamics, medical research and weather modeling — jobs which are traditionally sifting through volumes of data, computing with common operations like add, sub, multiply and divide.

It operates with Nvidia’s CUDA programming language, which exposes the compute abilities of the card through a C-like software interface.

See Nvidia’s press release, and information page about the Tesla C1060 released earlier this year in January. Nvidia also has a Tesla Personal Supercomputer Store, which shows several dedicated clusters which contain a series of Tesla cards inside, and are sold as true personal supercomputers. TigerDirect also published a YouTube video on Nvidia’s Tesla cards.

Rick’s Opinion

Nvidia’s second-generation Tesla C1060 was introduced nearly a year ago. That card is not up to today’s levels of performance and even greater performance can be obtained today through Nvidia or ATI’s highest-end graphics cards.

In fact, the Tesla is an expensive parallel compute engine, and one not required for massively parallel compute abilities thanks to the advancements in CUDA and BrookGPU libraries for Nvidia and ATI graphics cards.

Buying two or more high-end Nvidia’s GTX 2xx or ATI Radeon HD 4xxx series cards might be a wiser decision, as these cards yield well over 1 Teraflop of performance today on less power, while also providing usable graphics abilities for the workstation. And with Nvidia’s SLI and ATI’s CrossFire, the cards can be joined together for a single-instance compute appearance with even greater resources and power. (story Link)

Key for Switch to Apple – 07

1. Should I buy a Mac-Intel PC now or wait until the new systems running the new OS X 10.5 (code named Leopard) arrive?
There's no particular need to wait because Tiger will work just fine. If you decide you want Leopard later on you have to buy.

2. Can I run Windows and Mac OS simultaneously toggling between the two?
The short answer is no. Boot Camp, Apple's downloadable application (in beta now but expected to come standard with Leopard), lets you switch between OSs but you have to reboot with each switch. You can run both OSs simultaneously with a utility, like Parallels Workstation.

3. Can I play my favorite Windows games, like Doom3, on a Mac? What other games can I play?
You'll be happy to hear that you can play your favorite Windows games on the new Mac-Intel systems, even against other Windows users. Keep in mind though that the 3D performance is directly affected by which graphics GPU you're using. And in a Mac-Intel, the highest end graphics card is the mid-range ATI Mobility Radeon X1600, which isn't as fast as the nVidia GeForce Go 7900GTX graphics system now available in systems like our Editor's Choice, Dell XPS M1710.

4. At home, I have two Windows PCs networked via WiFi. How difficult will it be to add the Mac-Intel into the mix? Will I be able to share files between my Windows PCs and my Mac-Intel whether it's running Windows OS or Mac OS?
Setting up your new Mac-Intel machine onto your PC network is easy. The Mac OS includes built-in support for Windows Sharing, which allows Macs to access files on your other Windows PCs. However, you need to enable this file-sharing option in OS X yourself since it's not a default factory setting. Enable File Sharing in Windows XP to view your Mac files.

Third party solutions are also available, like DAVE by Thursby software, which makes identifying Microsoft networks and sharing hard drives even easier in OS X.

5. Can I still use my old printer/scanner/wireless router or do I need to invest in a device?
First, check the Apple site or your peripheral manufacturer's site and see if they have Macintosh support and download the software for that specific model. Your wireless router will work with both Macs and Windows PCs without any additional software installations.

6. I do a great deal of work in Photoshop, and heard it runs slower on a Mac-Intel computer. Is this true?
Right now, yes that is true. The Universal Binary version of Adobe Photoshop CS2 is expected to address this disparity but will not be available until sometime in 2007. If you work primarily with OS X and rely heavily on Photoshop, you will notice a slow down. In that case, it might make more sense for you to wait until the next revision comes out. For a list of all the universal binary applications, check out (http://guide.apple.com/universal/).

7. Will I be able to see my IE bookmarks in both Mac OS and Windows OS?
Bookmarks are not synchronized between the Mac OS and Windows OS. You will have to import your bookmarks into the Mac OS and update them accordingly.

8. Does it slow the computer down to have both OS's open?
Technically, you cannot have both OS's open simultaneously. You can use Virtualization software like Parallels which is a PC emulator program that runs within OS X. Doing this though will place extra strain on your Mac's resources.

9. Is the Mac surround sound interface compatible with consumer electronic devices such as home theater receivers? I have a nice 5.1 living room speaker set up already.
The included optical out port on the iMac, Mac mini, and MacBook Pro gives you surround sound capability and easily connects to home theater stereos provided you have an Optical Mini Jack To TosLink Cable.

10. Can I boot Mac OS X on a PC?
No. Mac OS X is not available for Windows-based PCs. (story Link)

Mac OS X 10.5.7 may have Nehalem, Radeon HD 4000 support

In addition to expected fixes, Apple's upcoming 10.5.7 update to Mac OS X Leopard is now claimed to recognize Intel's newer Nehalem architecture as well as AMD's ATI Radeon HD 4000 graphics chipsets.

The reported discovery by netkas has produced just five kernel extensions for the video cards and doesn't appear to work perfectly in a bootleg installation for 10.5.6 meant for hacked Mac OS X installations. The retrofitted version doesn't recognize DVI ports fully and doesn't even recognize widescreen resolutions without third-party utilities to force the expanded screen area.
However, the extensions are enough to not only identify the mid-range Radeon HD 4850 and high-end 4870 chipsets by name but to enable Core Image and Quartz Extreme acceleration of the Mac OS X interface, which would require the direct involvement of AMD, Apple or both firms to work. They also support the full OpenGL 2.1 specification for 3D graphics.
And while screen captures aren't available to support the claims as with the video hardware, the slip also hints that 10.5.7 is the first edition of Mac OS X to recognize Intel's Nehalem architecture.

Radeon HD 4800 series cards in the OpenGL Extensions viewer and Apple System Profiler. | Image credits: netkas.

The structure is a major overhaul of Intel's approach to processors and abandons the conventional system bus in favor of an interface that lets the processors talk directly to memory, peripherals and each other.
While it's not known when or even if Apple will definitively expose the new hardware support in the formal release of 10.5.7, such add-ons will eventually be necessary. It's commonly thought that Apple will use Nehalem-based Xeon processors at the heart of its next Mac Pro workstations and will eventually filter the technology down to its portables and mainstream desktops through Core i7 processors, which share the same essential design.
Apple has also remained comparatively dormant in its support for AMD's ATI Radeon graphics and hasn't used hardware newer than the Radeon HD 2600 found in the iMac and as an option for the Mac Pro; the technology is now approximately two generations old. (story Link)

Dell XPS 625 – Phenom II X4

Based on our review of AMD's latest Phenom II processor, we noted that the new processor could make up the core of a fairly low cost gaming system. Dell has stepped up to the plate, adding an all-AMD system based on the "Dragon" platform. The Dell XPS 625 joins the XPS line of gaming rigs, and features an AMD 790GX ATX motherboard, AMD Black Edition CPUs, and Radeon HD 4000 series graphics.

The mix of components is a little odd, however. Since Dell has chosen to go with all Black Edition CPUs, you can find it equipped with the Phenom II X4 940, Phenom X4 9850+, Phenom X3 8750+, or Athlon 64 X2 5600+. You won't be able to get one with a Phenom II X4 920, however.

Equally quirky is the choice of graphics hardware: You can get your choice of a single Radeon HD 4670 or Radeon HD 4850 or dual Radeon HD 4670s or HD 4850s in CrossFire mode. What you can't get is any flavor of the Radeon HD 4870, nor can you get an X2 card (either the 4850 X2 or 4870 X2.)

Most of the other component choices are pretty straightforward, including an array of optical drives, various hard drives, and so on. Memory configurations range from 2GB to 8GB. Also available are various audio options (integrated, X-Fi, etc) as well as the somewhat controversial Killer NIC K1. You only have one choice for the operating system: Windows Vista Home Premium, but it's the 64-bit version, which we applaud. (full Story)

Technorati Tags: Dell,ATI Radeon,Graphics Card,Windows Vista

10 things to Know Before Installing Windows 7 Beta + With MP3 Bug Fix

Today’s the big day. In about 12 hours (at 12PM PST/3PM EST), Microsoft will be posting the download link for Windows 7 Beta to the general public. Remember, Microsoft said that it would only be made available to the first 2.5 million people who download the beta so be sure to download it as soon as the link goes up on this page. But before you download and install Windows 7 Beta, here are 8 very important things you should know beforehand:

10.  Windows 7 Beta is build 7000:

The Windows 7 Beta being released on January 9th is Build 7000, which is exactly the same build that has been leaked on torrent sites already. Microsoft says that this beta build is near final feature-wise.

9.  Windows 7 Beta will have bugs / MP3 corruption bug fix:

It’s easy to forget that Windows 7 Beta can have possible bugs because of how stable it is. Try not to keep sensitive data on the same partition and run Windows Update right after installation. If you don’t receive the KB961367 update through Windows Update  to fix the Mp3 corruption bug, you can download it here.

8.  You can run Windows 7 under VMWare or Virtual PC instead of actually doing a full-fledged install

In Layman’s terms, running Windows 7 under a virtual environment is like running an Operating System (OS) inside an OS, so you don’t have to worry about putting your actual computer at risk. You can start by downloading Virtual PC here for free. For further instructions please check out the tutorial here. (The tutorial is for running XP in Vista, but works for Windows 7 too. Just select Windows Vista at the OS Menu. When your mouse is in the Virtual PC area, press Right-Alt to drag your mouse back onto the screen of your current OS.) If you’re a VMWare User, many other VMWare users in community forums have said they have had no trouble getting Windows 7 to work with VMWare.

7. You don’t need to burn a DVD at all to install Windows 7:

You can use WinRAR or .iso mounting software that have extracting capabilities to extract the ISO’s contents into a folder. Once extracted, you can install Windows 7 Beta off your hard-drive just like any other OS.

6.  How to create a separate partition for your Windows 7 Beta installation:

Usually, the Windows 7 Installation wizard will have an option for you to easily create a new partition for the install. If the option is not provided, here is how you can manually set up the partitions within Windows. If you are running Windows Vista, open up your Start Menu, right click Computer, and choose Manage. Then in the left-pane, open up the Storage category and select Disk Management. Right click any area of Unallocated Space and create a New Simple Volume. From there, complete the wizard to create your new volume. Once created, make sure that it is a Primary Partition.Now you’re all set and good to go with the installation.

If you are running Windows XP or having problems creating a partition in Windows Vista, you can download the EASEUS Partition Manager. EPM is only compatible with Windows XP and Vista. The process for creating a new partition with EPM is the exact same as above, except that you must select to create a Primary partition as shown below:

5.  The driver model of Windows 7 is identical to Vista’s:

This means Windows 7 won’t suddenly bring life back to your XP-only hardware. If it didn’t work for Vista, it won’t work for Windows 7.

4.  Don’t take out those driver CDs yet…

Windows 7 contains updated hardware drivers so chances are you won’t need to install a single driver if your hardware isn’t as old as Zeus. Also don’t forget that Windows 7 would require an optimized graphics driver to take advantage of the hardware you have (WDDM 1.1) so you may want to think again before planning to force-install the latest beta drivers from Nvidia or ATI. (full Story with Thank)

AMD Introduces New Mobile GPUs at CES 2009

Las Vegas—AMD is beginning to see a light at the end of the tunnel. At CES 2009, soon after launching its netbook-like Yukon platform, the manufacturer's graphics division unveiled an assortment of graphics chipsets for laptops. The ATI Mobility Radeon 4000 series will eventually replace the current 3000 series, although AMD hasn't officially named any partners who plan to use these chipsets yet.

For gamers, the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4850 and 4870 are high-end graphics cards, with a thermal envelope of 35 watts. So yes, you'll probably find them in gargantuan gaming systems like the Alienware M17 or any other laptop frame with a 17-inch screen or larger. These particular models can be used in a CrossFireX configuration, meaning they can be paired with each other, similar to Nvidia's SLI brand.

The ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4670 and 4650 are mid-range graphics cards aimed at casual gamers and HD video enthusiasts alike. These cards dissipate less heat than the 4800 line, and thus will work for thin-and-light systems and portable desktop replacements. They, too, can be arranged in a CrossFireX configuration.

Lastly, the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4500 and 4300 series will start making their way into thin-and-light, mainstream, and ultraportable laptops. The cards work with small form factors because their thermal envelopes are particularly low, ranging from 10 to 20 watts. (full Story)

Nvidia GeForce 3D Vision

We live in an era where every six months a newer and speedier graphics card emerges that pushes pixels exponentially faster than its predecessor, but at its core is still just a faster graphics card. There hasn't been much in way of truly mind-blowing innovations, until now. The new Nvidia GeForce 3D Vision ($199 list) takes PC graphics in a whole new direction and creates a 3D graphics environment previously only seen in movie theaters.

GeForce 3D Vision is a consumer lever "stereoscopic 3D ecosystem." In layman's terms, it is a set of 3D glasses that makes certain games, videos, and photos appear three-dimensional. The 3D Vision comes with a set of rechargeable active shutter glasses, a USB IR emitter, a driver disc, and all of the requisite DVI and USB cables. In a perfect world the glasses would be plug-and-play, and you would be (virtually) knocking off bad guys within minutes. Yeah, unfortunately, that's not really the case. First of all you need a system with a fairly new Nvidia graphics card (a GeForce 8800 or higher will suffice). You will also need to use certain 120Hz monitors and a DVI cable without a VGA adapter, (for testing, we used a 22-inch Samsung SyncMaster 2233RZ). The device will also work with select Mitsubishi and Samsung DLP HDTVs and the Light Speed Depth Q 3D projector. Nvidia sends along all the required cables for these displays as well.

Installation

Setting up the 3D vision was pretty straightforward. The first thing you need to do is delete your old Nvidia display drivers and install the new ones that come on the included disc. Once this is done, you follow the installation directions, plug in the IR emitter, put on the glasses, and calibrate them with a series of images that are provided on the same install disc. Make sure the IR emitter is within your line of sight to avoid transmission issues and some image flickering. ,,,

Game on

I have found that whenever a company launches an innovative product, it is often only useable in a very narrow realm. Remember when the first HDTVs came to market and had a picture that blew away standard definition television? The only glitch was that there were only a handful of HD channels to watch. Nvidia has taken its time with the development of the GeForce 3D Vision and has gotten all its ducks in row before launching the device. The GeForce 3D Vision will work with over 300 games on the market today. I tried the system out with Spore and Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and was impressed with the use of 3D rendering—but not really blown away. But when I played Call of Duty: World At War, it was another story: Stereoscopic technology is going to totally change the way we play first-person shooters. Along with a good pair of headphones, the GeForce 3D Vision had me totally immersed in the game. Blood, bodies, and bullets were flying all around me, and it was awesome. The images produced were not quite the 3D we are used to seeing at the movies. ,,,

What about ATI graphics card users?

ATI is currently working on its own 3D technology with monitor maker iZ3D, but it uses a different technology—stacked LCD panels with different polarization and polarized glasses. iZ3D monitors work with Nvidia cards as well, of course, but you if you buy an ATI card, you get a rebate on a monitor. iZ3D also makes a special 3D driver for 3D DLP TVs, which works free with Radeon owners but is a paid deal with Nvidia cards. The iZ3D drivers support other technologies as well, like the Nvidia's stereoscopic shutter technology. Look out soon for Extremetech editor Jason Cross's in-depth comparison of ATI and Nvidia's 3D technology. (full Story)

AMD Officially Releases Phenom II and Dragon Desktop Platform

AMD’s 45nm quad-core Phenom II processors get an official unveiling.

The Phenom II comes in two flavors:

• X4 920 - 2.8GHz - $235
• X4 940 - 3.0GHz - $275

The price and performance of these pieces puts them roughly in the middle ground between Intel’s Core 2 Duo and the Core i7 - around the Q9400 mark. Certainly these new processors beat the original X4’s hands down, and give Intel’s mid-range Core 2 Duo’s a run for their money. However, despite having a clock speed of 3.0GHz, don’t be fooled into thinking that these CPUs come close of the Core i7 - they don’t.

Along with being based on 45nm architecture, the Phenom II processors also have 6MB of L3 cache, and have a DDR2 and DDR3 compatible integrated memory controller (although this first batch only support DDR2).

These processors sound promising, and certainly have a fair amount of overhead when it comes to overclocking, but ultimately the initial reviewsare somewhat understated. The main advantage of the Phenom II seems to be that you can drop them into any 125W TDP Phenom compatible motherboard, whereas Intel’s i7 means a whole new platform. My guess is that over the next 12 months AMD will release more Phenom II parts with faster clock speeds.

The Dragon platform is basically a combination of a Phenom II processor, a 7-series chipset motherboard and a Radeon 4000 series GPU. These parts actually come together quite well to create a well-rounded, balanced platform that doesn’t feel CPU top-heavy like most Core i7 systems do. (full Story)

Lenovo IdeaCentre 600: Thinnest All in One PC

Lenovo's IdeaCentre 600 is a pretty splashy debut: Its first ever all-in-one is a simple curved slab that's supposedly the thinnest all-in-one in the industry.

Beyond the form factor—which borrows liberally from the new Star Trek and the iMac (the frameless black bezel looks like it was copy and pasted)—it's actually a disappointingly standard all-in-one affair, with a smallish 21.5-inch screen and nothing you can't get on the new Vaio LV. And it's missing, at least from the spec sheet, one of the Vaio's killer features—HDMI in, which would let it be a total bedroom TV replacement. Still, it does have an awesome Swiss Army knife of a remote—it's an air mouse, accelerometer controller for games and Skype VOIP handset (it acts like a cordless phone). It starts at $999, but all the cool stuff (like Blu-ray) is add-ons, so it'll probably get pricey pretty fast.

IdeaCentre A600 All-in-One Desktop
Lenovo brings consumers the next generation of desktop computing with the IdeaCentre A600 – Lenovo’s first all-in-one desktop. The new, sleek IdeaCentre A600 all-in-one features a 21.5-inch frameless screen, and provides discerning space-conscious and style-conscious users a modern design that measures only one inch at its slimmest point, making it the slimmest all-in-one in the industry2.

For the entertainment enthusiast, the all-in-one offers a true Hi-Def experience featuring a 16:9 aspect ratio screen for cinema-like viewing and support for 1920x1080 full HD resolution delivering outstanding image quality. The integrated speaker system includes a bass sub-woofer and Dolby® Home Theatre™ audio certification, while the optional Blu-ray player completes the home cinema experience. Users can also take advantage of a digital TV tuner for watching and recording their favorite TV programs. Users can opt to include the Microsoft Vista Media Center for easy recording of TV programs and interactive navigation between videos, music and TV programs.

For gaming enthusiasts, Lenovo developed the first-of-its-kind 4-in-1 optional remote controller. It is the first to bring PC users the ability to play games using the remote control’s ‘motion drive’ feature, which controls on-screen objects according to the movement of the remote.

Unlike competitor’s remotes, the Lenovo 4-in-1 remote controller can also be used as a VOIP handset3 to make and receive phone calls over the Internet, similar to a typical cordless telephone. The remote also serves as a media center/TV remote, and with Microsoft Vista Media Center users can use the controller to operate DVDs, movies and TV. Additionally, the remote also functions as an “air mouse” so it can be used to operate the cursor on the screen, eliminating the inconvenience of using a wired mouse.

At the core of the all-in-one is a powerful desktop computer with choices of Intel® Core™2 Duo processors, optional ATI Radeon™ graphics card technology with DirectX10 support, up to 4GB of fast DDR3 memory for improved multitasking, and up to 1TB (1000GB) of hard drive space for storing hundreds of videos, music and other documents. Equipped with the latest high-performance mobile processor technology, the all-in-one runs whisper-quiet even when performing intensive tasks.

IdeaCentre A600
21.5-inch frameless screen, full HD resolution 1920 X 1080 resolution
Intel Pentium Dual Core & Intel Core 2 Duo mobile processors
Intel G45M Chipset
DDR3 1066MHz, 1GB-4GB and up to 1 TB (1,000 GB) of HD space
Integrated graphics with support for DirectX10 , Optional DX10 256M OR 512M OR ATI graphics
Connectivity – Intel a/b/g Optional a/b/g/n, Ethernet
VeriFace 3.5 facial recognition
Dolby Home Theatre
Optional Blu-Ray DVD player
Optional hybrid analogue/digital TV tuner
Touch sensitive controls
Optional 4-in-1 remote control
6-in-1 card reader
6 USB 2.0 ports and 1 firewire (1394)
1.3 or 2 megapixel camera
Vista Premium, Vista Basic (full Story)

AMDs New Athlon Neo Enters the Netbook Matrix

Intel-based netbooks are arguably the most talked-about platforms to date. AMD finally has an answer to them: the Athlon Neo.

Monday night, AMD launched its Yukon platform at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), consisting of the AMD Athlon Neo processor and either an ATI Radeon HD 3450 discrete GPU or the X1250 integrated graphics.

While the platform won't compete with the likes of the MSI Wind, the ASUS eeePCs, and the rest of the netbook market. AMD has said it believes that there's a void that needs to be filled in the 12- and 13-inch space (referring to the size of the screens), and netbooks are too small and aren't providing the profit margins the company needs to succeed in this space. In layman's terms, AMD wants to offer its customers an oversized netbook for under $1,000.

The Athlon Neo is supposed to be the equivalent of the Intel Atom processor, only it's much larger and less energy efficient, which is why the company is targeting laptops that are bigger but are still considered ultraportables. It will designate a line of "slim and stylish" notebooks, according to Bahr Mahony director of notebook product marketing for AMD.

The Neo's footprint measures 27 mm by 27 mm and has a thermal envelope of 15 watts. Compared to the Atom's 22-by-22 mm footprint and its 2.5W thermal envelope, you can see why the Athlon Neo's not really meant for anything that has a sub- 12-inch screen. At this launch, there will be a single Neo variant—the 1.6GHz Ahtlon Neo, and one of the first laptops to showcase it is the HP Pavilion DV2. Similar notebooks will cost between $699 and $899, Mahony said.

Since the Neo is a larger package than the Atom, expect performance scores to be better than those of netbooks: 2.5 times faster than a 1.6-GHz Atom and GMA 950 platform, although 30 percent slower than a 1.6-GHz Core 2 Duo, which is also considerably more expensive.

The single-core Athlon Neo processor features a 512MB L2 cache, Direct X 9 graphics, and support for 667MHz DDR2 memory.

Like all platforms, whether AMD or Intel, the processor makes up a portion, albeit a huge one, of the Yukon platform. The graphics subsystem is the other part. A Neo laptop will be paired either with the ATI Radeon HD 3450—a discrete GPU for light 3D applications, games, and high-definition video—or ATI Radeon X1250 UMA graphics, for better battery life. There isn't a wireless component, as is common in Intel platforms. As always, AMD will leave it up to third-party players like Atheros and Broadcom to address this void. (full Story)

Thin HP Pavilion dv2 has AMD's Neo Platform

Comes loaded with Windows Vista to avoid netbook nomenclature, up to 4GB RAM support and 500 GB storage

With CES 2009 just a few days away, HP announced less than a inch thin Pavilion dv2 notebook with 12.1-inch LED backlit display, reported CNET.
Pavilion dv2 features AMD's new Neo platform CPU, 1.6GHz Neo MV-40, similar to Intel Atom and ATI Mobility Radeon 3410 graphics. Consumers can expect to see Pavilion dv2 in March at a price range of $600 (Rs. 29,000)-$800 (Rs. 40,000).

HP Pavilion dv2 measures 1.3 inch at its thickest point and weighs about 3.8 pounds. AMD's new Neo platform for netbooks will compete with Intel Atom platform. HP loaded Windows Vista to break the netbook nomenclature shell. The dv2 is equipped with up to 4GB RAM (only one slot) support, up to 500 GB storage, WiFi (802.11b/g/n), HDMI port, 8x DVD Burner, webcam, Bluetooth and WWAN configurations.

HP also announced Pavilion dv3 with 13.3-inch LED backlit display. The dv3 features 2.3GHz AMD Turion X2 Ultra ZM-84 dual-core mobile processor and ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3200 series graphics. The dv3 will have price tag of $800 (Rs. 40,000) to $1,200 (Rs. 58,500) and pre-orders to begin soon.
After it showcased Voodoo Firefly a few days ago and now Pavilion dv2 as well as dv3, HP's intention to steal the show at CES 2009 is fairly visible. (story Link)