VR-Zone

AMD today upholds the PC performance crown with the introduction of the AMD Athlon™ 64 FX-55 processor, the worlds ultimate PC processor for enthusiasts and hard-core gamers. The AMD Athlon 64 processor 4000+, also announced today, provides businesses and consumers with world-class performance and enables a more secure computing environment. These new additions to the award-winning AMD Athlon 64 processor family represent the next leap forward in desktop computing, providing exceptional performance on 32-bit applications today, with the ability to migrate to 64-bit applications. The AMD Athlon 64 FX-55 processor and AMD Athlon 64 processor 4000+ are available immediately worldwide. All pricing is in 1,000-unit PIB quantities. The AMD Athlon 64 FX-55 processor is priced at US$ 827. The AMD Athlon 64 processor 4000+ is priced at US$ 729.

Read more ››

SPARKLE is pleased to announce its next addition to the GeForce 6600 series. The GeForce6600 GT VIVO. This card will be available alongside the SPARKLE 6600 GT DVI, HDTV. SPARKLE 6600, which were released earlier this month. The SPARKLE 6600 Series is Geared for Gaming! The 6600 GT VIVO will be available in 128MB GDDR3 with a memory clock speed of 1000MHz.This card will also have a high-speed GDDR3 memory interface delivering fluid frame rates for the most advanced applications.

Read more ››

In response to AMD's plan to announce the release of Athlon™ 64 FX-55 processor and Athlon 64 processor 4000+, MSI today announces three new MSI motherboards V the K8N Neo2 Platinum, K8N Neo4 Platinum and K8T Neo2. These motherboards will be capable of supporting the Athlon™ 64 FX-55 processor and Athlon 64 processor 4000+. Again, AMD raises the performance bar to new heights while continuing to deliver customer-centric technologies that address end-users desktop needs.

The MSI K8T Neo2-FIR features the newer VIA chipset, and aside from being able to lock the AGP/PCI bus, the K8T800 Pro supports AMDs latest Athlon 64 and Athlon 64 FX, the Socket-939. Of course, the other features enthusiasts have come to expect are still present. These include the ability to adjust memory ratios, a new 1000MHz bus, SATA, RAID, support for up to 4GB RAM, and Gigabit Ethernet. The K8N Neo2 Platinum Edition is a Socket-939 motherboard for Athlon™ 64 and Athlon 64 FX. This motherboard is powered by NVIDIAs single-chip nForce3 Ultra. It has many features and capabilities, plus a few more courtesy of MSIs exclusive CoreCell chip and a few additional integrated controllers.

Read more ››

Creative today announced the MuVo® Micro flash memory based MP3/WMA player. Smaller than competing players and now available at incredibly low prices, the Muvo Micro (model N200) comes in eight electrifying colors. Its hard to believe such great sound quality comes from such a small player. At only 33.5mm by 65.5mm by 13mm and weighing at 32 grams, the incredibly thin MuVo Micro measures approximately one third the thickness of the competing iRiver player and about half the thickness of Samsungs competitive offering. The 128MB MuVo Micro has an estimated street price of US$ 89.99; 256MB model has an estimated street price of US$ 109.99 and the 512MB model is priced at US$ 159.99. All three models will be available in October. The MuVo Micro will also be available later this year in a 1GB model for the incredible low price of only US$ 209.99.

Read more ››

Intel 4GHz Pentium 4--scheduled for release early next year and originally due out at the end of 2004--won't come out at all now. Instead, Intel will boost performance on its chips by increasing the size of the cache, a pool of memory located on the processor for rapid data access. In the future, these chips will have 2MB of cache, like Intel's Xeon server chips and the "Extreme Edition" Pentium 4s designed for gaming PCs. Intel will continue to come out with Extreme Edition chips by boosting the bus speed and cache size. The first mainstream Pentium 4 with 2MB of cache will run at 3.8GHz and come out early next year. Intel also intends to emphasize more sharply technologies such as 64-bit functionality, HyperThreading and a security technology called LaGrande. It will also increase development efforts on dual-core chips with the goal of a 2005 release. Intel has already "taped out," or completed, the design on its dual-core Pentium-style chips, a major milestone that Intel has not announced until now.

Read more ››

ASUS today introduced the ASUS WL-HDD wireless hard drive box, the one-of-a-kind solution that brings data storage, file sharing and wireless connection into one single device. This unique innovation enables up to 4 users to save and share data wirelessly at high-speed, 54Mbps data transfer. At a nimble 0.2kg, it is a great complement to notebooks and handhelds on business trips.

The WL-HDD is the perfect device to complete your wireless network. It is similar to a public folder in a conventional LAN but without the hassle of connecting cables and the messy tangling wires. The WL-HDD leveraged the advanced 802.11g wireless standard to support large data bandwidth at 54Mbps, making this all-new ASUS solution ideal for sharing files. It is also backwards compatible with 802.11b.

Read more ››

XGI announced Volari™ Z7, the newest GPU for a specialized market. This innovative product has a 2D graphics engine that directly supports PCI bus and DDR/DDRII/GDDRIII. XGI is recognized worldwide as the Volari™ brand has set milestones for notebook and desktop GPUs. In addition to a top-to-bottom product line for computers, the introduction of Volari™ Z7 fulfills other specialized markets such as Servers and Thin Clients.

Volari™ Z7 processors fully utilize XGI's highly optimized memory architecture which efficiently transforms an enormous amount of data between the processor and graphics board memory. Leveraging sophisticated compression-based algorithms, the highly optimized memory architecture effectively doubles the amount of data flowing to and from the DRAM and optimizes image processing and media streaming. Volari™ Z7 not only supports PCI bus with extra stability, it also supports DDR/DDRII/GDDRIII, 8-128 MB DRAM, and has the most efficient 16/32 bit DRAM bus. Furthermore, the direct support of the PCI bus eliminates the interface bridge cost between AGP and PCI.

Read more ››

TwinMOS introduces USB2.0 Red Rock S21 MP3 Player following the glorious Red Rock S11. In addition to the standard red color of the Red Rock range, S21 is offered in purple, light blue and silver. The smoother but sharper appearance adds a sense of slimness to the original passionate model. Moreover, consumers can select a wide variety of accessories to meet their personal needs. With the dimensions at only 73.6 x 24x 27.8mm and gross weight at just 50g including battery, the compact and lightweight Red Rock S21 is thus easy to carry. The cool silver shell supported with the trendy blue backlight LCD panel make S21 look more than just fashionable. In addition to an MP3 player, a digital recorder and a FM tuner, Red Rock S21 is a USB2.0 flash disk which is easy-to-use and driver-free. As it supports hot plug function, you can connect it to a PC anytime. Though Red Rock S21 has so many functions, it is energy saving. One AAA alkaline battery can support a continuous playing time for 18.5 hours.

Read more ››

Creative today announced the Zen Micro, the next generation of MP3/WMA players. The Zen Micro with 5GB of storage capacity carries up to 2,500 (WMA, 64kbps) songs, and it lets the listener choose MP3 or WMA music, ripped from CDs or downloaded from online music sites. 50% more battery life The party never stops with the Zen Micro, which delivers up to 12 hours of non-stop music playback. Removable battery Listen all day and night by just swapping out the Zen Micros removable battery for up to another 12 hours of music. Ten electrifying colors The Zen Micro comes in a choice of ten different electrifying colors: silver, black, red, orange, green, pink, purple, white, light blue or dark blue, to let users choose exactly what color they want. Besides offering features the iPod mini does not, the Zen Micro provides a built-in Address Book, Calendar, and To-Do List. The Zen Micro is slated for November shipment to all retail outlets in Asia at an estimated street price of US$ 279.99.

Read more ››

NVIDIA today announced the NVIDIA® GeForce™ 6200, a new graphics processing unit (GPU) which delivers the world-renowned GeForce 6 Series architecture and performance to the value PC segment. The GeForce 6200 features the industry’s most advanced graphics feature set and delivers an extraordinary gaming experience on next-generation titles, such as Ubisoft’s Far Cry and id Software’s Doom™ 3 , as well as consumer electronics-quality, high definition video playback. GeForce 6200 GPUs are the only graphics processors in the value segment that support Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0 Shader Model 3.0 which is being used to develop ultra-realistic, next-generation DirectX 9.0 games. GeForce 6200 GPUs are shipping now and GeForce 6200-based graphics boards will be available from leading add-in card manufacturers in November.

Memory Interface : 128-bit
Fill Rate : 1.2 billion texels/sec.
Vertices per Second : 225 million
Pixels per Clock (peak) : 4
RAMDACs : 400 MHz

Read more ››

Creative today announced the first ever PCMCIA Sound Blaster®, the PCMCIA Sound Blaster Audigy® 2 ZS Notebook. The PCMCIA Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook simply plugs into any notebook computer’s PCMCIA slot and provides an amazing audio experience. It enables users to listen to PC games on a notebook in 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound and play back their MP3 music on their notebook with a dramatic improvement in audio quality.

By plugging the PCMCIA Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS notebook into their notebook PC, users can now have the same quality audio experience that was previously only available on a desktop PC with a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS PCI card. The PCMCIA Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook will be unveiled for the first time at the World Cyber Games 2004, Oct. 7-10 in San Francisco, with interactive, hands-on demonstrations for attendees. The PCMCIA Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook is slated for November shipment to all retail outlets in Singapore at an estimated street price of US$ 129.99.

Read more ››

AMD reported a $ 44 million third-quarter profit from a loss a year earlier, and predicted sales growth in the current quarter because of better-than-expected demand for its personal computers processors. AMD expected sales to be "driven by processor sales that exceed seasonal trends" in the fourth quarter, a traditionally strong period marked by winter holiday shopping for gadgets and computers. AMD's outlook suggests that the electronics industry is quickly working through excess inventories of cellular phones and other products in Asia, and that AMD's Athlon 64 and Opteron microprocessors will take market share from arch-rival Intel. AMD may have trouble meeting its own forecast, given fierce price competition for flash memory and the success of Intel's lower-end Pentium 4 processors.

Read more ››

ATI announced its second consecutive record revenue quarter, driven by sales increases in both the personal computer and consumer product lines. ATI reported revenues1 of $ 572.2 million for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2004 (ended August 31, 2004), a 50.3% increase over the fourth quarter a year earlier. Gross margin declined 1.8 percentage points to 33.8% over the same period of the previous year as a result of costs associated with the ramp of a number of new desktop products. ATi expect leadership in graphics and multimedia technologies for both digital consumer products and PCI Express-based PCs to continue driving growth for ATI in fiscal 2005. As a result, ATI currently expects revenue for the first quarter of fiscal 2005 to be in the range of $ 600 to $ 640 million.

Read more ››

OCZ in a collaborative effort with Inphi announced the release of Zero-Buffer DDR (ZB-DDR) technology (patent pending) for unbuffered memory modules. Using discreet zero-delay clock buffers, ZB-DDR technology combines the robustness of server class memory with the low latency of unbuffered modules, resulting in better data integrity, lower noise, and lower susceptibility to interference over a wider frequency spectrum while still remaining fully compatible with all current motherboards. ZB-DDR technology uses the state of the art Inphi INCU 877 clock buffers with a custom-developed PCB matched to the impedance of the clock buffer.

Read more ››

Clearspeed upcoming chip, CSX600 code-named Avebury contains 96 separate internal units tuned for doing particular types of math problems. The CSX600 is designed as a co-processor for accelerating PC’s, workstations, servers, clusters, and blades eg. Intel or AMD based. Initial applications are expected to be in life sciences, financial modeling, geophysical computation, scientific computing, military and aviation among others. Avebury runs at 250MHz and coasts on 5 watts. But with its 96 processing cores, it can churn 50 billion floating point operations (math problems that involve a decimal point) per second. If a single processing element burns out or fails to work, the remaining 95 will continue to function. Samples of Avebury now exist. CSX-600 will come out in the first quarter of 2005. A workstation that contains a dual-Avebury card will likely cost around $ 50,000.

Read more ››