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Friday, June 11, 2004

Creative Japan announces professional EMU-0404 sound card — Cormac @ 15:35 

Creative Japan announced the new professional EMU-0404 PCI sound card that will go on sale late in June with expected MSRP of $140.

The card has 32-bit E-DSP to offload CPU, 24-bit/192kHz ADC/DAC, and features 111dB SNR of analog input, 116dB SNR of analog output. According to the press release, sampling rates include 44.1/48/96 kHz @ 16-24-bit. The novelty supports MME, WDM, DirectSound, ASIO 2.0 drivers.

• Analog input:
  • Unbalanced
  • RCA
  • 20 Hz — 20 kHz (+0.20/-0.10 dB)
  • 3.3 kOhm input impedance
  • 100dB THD+N (1 kHz @ —1 dBFS)
  • Crosstalk less than —120dB (1 kHz @ —1 dBFS)
• Analog output:
  • Unbalanced
  • RCA
  • 20 Hz — 20 kHz (+0.20/-0.10 dB)
  • 560 Ohm input impedance
  • 100dB THD+N (1 kHz @ —1 dBFS)
  • Crosstalk less than —109dB (1 kHz @ —1 dBFS)
• 156x107 mm size

Acer introduces TravelMate 290E notebooks on Celeron M — Cormac @ 15:24 

In three weeks after the Intel Pentium M on 90nm Dothan core was announced, Acer introduced its TravelMate 290E notebook based on 1.3GHz Intel Celeron M with 512KB L2 cache, Intel 852GM chipset and 400MHz FSB.

Acer TravelMate 290E features:

• Intel Celeron M processor
• Intel 852GM chipset
• 256MB DDR266 (up to 2GB)
• 40GB ATA/100 HDD
• 15" TFT LCD, 1024x768
• Int. graphics, uses 64MB of RAM, supports DualView
• Up to 4.5 hours of standalone operaiton
• 56Kbps V.92 modem
• Fast Ethernet 10/100 Mbps, IEEE 802.11g
• 1 x LPT
• 3 x USB2.0
• IrDA
• 1 x PCMCIA (CardBus) Type II
• Microsoft Windows XP Home/Professional + Recovery CD
• Acer Launch Manager, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Norton AntiVirus, NTI CD Maker

This Intel Celeron M/852GM model differs from notebooks on Intel Pentium M Dothan/855GME announced earlier by the absence of integrated Memory Stick/Secure Digital/SmartMedia/MultiMediaCard reader.

Photo of the day: SMCWMR-AG EZ-Stream wireless receiver from SMC Networks — Cormac @ 15:07 

Our Alexey Samsonov is currently testing SMCWMR-AG EZ-Stream wireless receiver from SMC Networks.

The bundle includes:

• Receiver itself
• Support
• Remote control
• 1.5m RJ-45 cable
• RCA-RCA cable
• 2 x RCA — 2 x RCA cable
• Power supply
• Software CD
• Brief user's manual

And the features are:

• IEEE 802.3, 802.3u, 802.11b, 802.11a, 802.11g
• 1, 2, 5.5, 11 Mbps over 802.11b
• 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, 54 Mbps over 802.11a/g
• 64-bit, 128-bit WEP
• Infrastructure and Ad-hoc modes
• Built-in antenna
• 10/100 Mbps networking controller (RJ-45)
• CSMA/CA access protocol
• Firmware upgrades
• Composite TV connector
• PAL/NTSC
• Stereo sound (2 x RCA)
• Playback:
  • MPEG1 (352x288, up to 2 Mbps) and MPEG2 (352x480, up to 4 Mbps)
  • MP3 (16-320 Kbps)
  • JPEG, BMP
• Internet Radio support (128 Kbps and over is recommended)

Chaintech Korea unveils GeForce 6800 based cards — Cormac @ 14:59 

Chaintech Korea unveiled three cards on NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GPU: AA6800UA1 (GeForce 6800 Ultra, DDR3, 400/1,100 MHz), AA6800GA1 (GeForce 6800 GT, DDR3, 350/1,000 MHz), AA6800B1 (GeForce 6800, DDR3, 325/700 MHz).

The latter model will go on sale first. It's almost repeats the reference design: 128MB DDR SDRAM (4x32, 256-bit bus), TV-out, D-Sub, DVI.

Source: DarkCrow

Thursday, June 10, 2004

TDK updates Indi series with 12x DVD drives — Cormac @ 18:01 

TDK officially announced two new multi-format Indi DVD drives: AID+1280 (ATAPI/E-IDE) and external DED+1280. Both devices have identical speed formulas: 12x DVD+R recording, 8x DVD-R recording and both support DVD+R/+RW, DVD-R/-RW, CD-R/RW media.

The external model has FireWire/IEEE1394 and USB2.0 interfaces that makes it theoretically suitable for both PC and MAC users. Bundles of both drives include DVD Builder, Roxio Easy CD & DVD Creator 6.2, Roxio DVDMax and PhotoSuite Lite.

The internal model is already selling with MSRP of $170, while DED+1280 will go on sale in July with MSRP of $270.

• DVD write: 12x (+R); 8x (-R)
• DVD rewrite: 4x (+RW); 4x (-RW)
• DVD read: 12x
• CD write: 48x
• CD-RW rewrite: 24x
• CD read: 48x
• CD rip: 48x

DynaMO 1300LT Photo/1300U2 Photo: Fujitsu's MO hybrids — Cormac @ 15:24 

Simply and unpretentiously Fujitsu announced new magneto-optical solutions (to go on sale in September) based on two old MO drives. The novelties are named DynaMO 1300LT Photo and DynaMO 1300U2 Photo. While DynaMO 1300LT has arrived recently, DynaMO 1300U2 sounded as far back as in 2002.

Updated drives are aimed at digital camera owners. DynaMO 1300LT Photo also features a CF, Microdrive, Smart Media, SD, MMC reader. It powers from 4xAA batteries enough to copy 2.6GB. Sized 195x135x29mm, it weighs 550g. If needed, the reader can be detached from the MO drive.

DynaMO 1300U2 Photo has a TV-out, but you can't detach the reader. It supports 128MB to 1.3GB media and provides 4,031rpm speed (3012rpm for 1.3GB), and has 2MB buffer. Sized 180x118x38mm, it weighs 650g.

This rather strange hybrid also has 320x230 LCD (1.6"), so considering the bundled remote control, it can be used as a kind of a photo album.

Wednesday, June 09, 2004

Apple Power Mac G5: a trio long-anticipated — Cormac @ 19:18 

Apple introduced Power Mac G5 desktop series, the junior model of which features 2 x 64-bit 1.8GHz PowerPC G5 processors, while the top model has 2 x 2.5GHz CPUs and 1.25GHz FSB (to CPU). The latter thus costs $3,000, while the former is offered for about $2,000.

Systems on 1.8GHz and 2.0GHz processors are already available, and 2.5GHz system will go on sale in July. It's interesting that the latter features a liquid-cooling system.

The basic configuration includes NVIDIA GeForceFX 5200 Ultra or ATI Radeon 9600 XT (ATI Radeon 9800 XT is an option). Interfaces include Gigabit Ethernet, FireWire 800, FireWire 400, 3 x USB2.0, optical digital audio output and input, AirPort Extreme, optional Bluetoth.

Entry-level:

• 2 x 1.8GHz PowerPC G5
• 256MB DDR 400 SDRAM (max. 4GB)
• 80GB HDD (Serial ATA, 7200rpm)
• AGP 8X Pro
• NVIDIA GeForceFX 5200 Ultra, 64MB DDR SDRAM
• 3 x PCI (64-bit/33MHz)
• 8x SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW)

Middle-range:

• 2 x 2.0GHz PowerPC G5
• 512MB DDR 400 SDRAM (max. 8GB)
• 160GB HDD (Serial ATA, 7200rpm)
• AGP 8X Pro
• NVIDIA GeForceFX 5200 Ultra, 64MB DDR SDRAM
• 3 x PCI-X (1 x 64-bit/133MHz, 2 x 100MHz)
• 8x SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW)

High-end:

• 2 x 2.5GHz PowerPC G5
• 512MB DDR 400 SDRAM (max. 8GB)
• 160GB HDD (Serial ATA, 7200rpm)
• AGP 8X Pro
• ATI RADEON 9600 XT, 128MB DDR SDRAM
• 3 x PCI-X (1 x 64-bit/133MHz, 2 x 100MHz)
• 8x SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW)

Pocket Loox 700: new rumours — Cormac @ 15:12 

Some time ago rumours were circulating about the release of a new PDA from Fujitsu-Siemens that should have had VGA display. Today FirstLoox.org provides another portion of rumours about Pocket Loox 700.

They say the PDA will go on sale in August this year with the following features:

• Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition
• 3.7" or 3.8" LCD VGA display
• 520MHz Intel XScale
• 128MB RAM
• 64MB ROM
• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
• CompactFlash, SD/MMC (SDIO)
• 1.3-megapixels camera (perhaps, with a flash)

Judging by photos and specs, provided by BrightHand, the model resembles ASUS MyPal A730.

I wonder if this model can compete with HP 4700, as already existing iPaqs have 624MHz processors.

Canon releases Optura 400 and 500 miniDV cameras — Cormac @ 15:02 

Canon announced two miniDV cameras, Optura 400 and Optura 500. Both feature 2.2 sensors and are capable of capturing JPEG images and Motion JPEG video (Optura 500 also supports MPEG4). Both models are to go on sale in mid-July for about $1000 and $1200, respectively.

Ramtron updates FRAM series with 256Kbit chips — Cormac @ 14:47 

Ramtron announced 256Kbit 3V FRAM chips with SPI interface — M25L256. These novelties are designed for consumer and industrial markets. According to the press release, most competing products have parallel interface and are 16% larger in size.

FM25L256 read and write performance is comparable to that of hi-speed memory types. From EEPROM or flash memory this nonvolatile FRAM differs by no write latency. Similar to RAM chips FM25L256 allow unlimited rewrite cycles, while EEPROM endures about a million of them. New chips that have 25MHz bus are pin-compatible with EEPROM that enables to swap memory types during development without performance losses. FM25L256 voltage ranges from 2.7V to 3.6V, while the temperature range is —40°C to +85°C. FM25L256 is already sampling in 8-pin SOIC package.

Tuesday, June 08, 2004

Continue with cooling: ZM80D-HP and ZM-RHS1 — Cormac @ 13:59 

Korean Zalman showcased its new developments for graphics cards, ZM80D-HP and ZM-RHS1. The former is an aluminium passive cooling that differs from preceding ZM-80C-HP by additional heat pipe made of gilded copper increased board gap providing space for card memory heatsinks. As usually, the company recommends to install Zalman ZM-OP1 cooler as well.

And it seems aluminium ZM-RHS1 are just suitable for being memory heatsinks as they are sized 12x12mm.

Elsa unveils Fire GL V7100, V5100, V3200, V3100 PCI-E cards — Cormac @ 13:27 

According to Brainbox, ELSA announced workstation PCI Express cards: Fire GL V7100, V5100, V3200, V3100 on X800 XT, X800 Pro, X600 and X300.

Fire GL V5100

Briefly speaking of ATI FireGL Visualization series, we must mention the following:

• Based on single-chip PCI Express x16 architecture
• FireGL VPU
• Up to 256-bit bus
• 4, 8, 16 pixel pipelines
• Up to 2 x DVI-I
• Up to 2048x1536 per display in dual-head mode
• 2 x 400MHz RAMDAC (10 bits/channel
• OpenGL 1.5 and extensions
• Microsoft DirectX 9.0
• SMARTSHADER, SMOOTHVISION and HYPER Z