Samsung Electronics America has announced the N110 and N120, new additions to the company's netbook lineup.The N110 and N120 are both currently available with prices of US$469 and US$459, respectively.The N110 netbook weighs 2.78lbs and features a 10-inch LED SuperBright Glossy Backlit Display, along with a 6-cell (5900mAh) lithium battery providing battery life up to nine hours of continuous use, claimed Samsung. The N110 is equipped with a 1.6GHz processor, 1GB of RAM and 160GB hard drive, the company noted.The N120 netbook includes an SRS 2.1 channel system, featuring two 1.5W stereo speakers and a dedicated subwoofer, and integrated 1.3-megapixel camera. With a 6-cell (5200mAh) lithium battery the netbook can run six hours continuously, the company added. Samsung N110 and N120 netbooks specifications Model N110 N120 CPU Intel Atom N270 Memory 1GB Display 10.1-inch WSVGA Super Bright Glossy Backlit Storage 160GB HDD Battery 6-cell (5900mAh) lithium ion battery 6-cell (5200mAh) lithium ion battery Sound system 3W stereo Speaker (1.5W × 2) 3W stereo Speaker (1.5W × 2) with Subwoofer Sources: Company, compiled by Digitimes, April 2009Samsung N110 netbookPhoto: CompanySamsung N120 netbookPhoto: Company

Taiwan-based motherboard and notebook makers Gigabyte Technology and Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) as well as Singapore-based EMS firm Flextronics International have launched Intel-designed Montevina-based white-box notebooks for regional brand vendors around the globe, according to market sources.The notebooks are launched under and Intel-led program, aiming to offer design support to second-tier OEM notebook makers to produce notebooks for brand vendors in different regions.Intel's white-box notebook platforms include a 13.3-inch model (Bianca) and a 13.3-inch model (Peggy's Cove) featuring 3G capabilities, both made by Gigabyte, a 15.4-inch version of Peggy's Cove manufactured by Flextronics, and a 13.3-inch CULV-based ultra-thin notebook (Conte) made by ECS.In addition to notebooks, a 8.9-inch white-box netbook (Elego) is being made by Amtek as part of the program.Intel's 13.3-inch Peggy's Cove white-box notebook made by GigabytePhoto: Monica Chen, Digitimes, April 2009Intel Conte/T30 white-box ultra-thin notebook made by ECSPhoto: Monica Chen, Digitimes, April 2009

AMD has launched the ATI Radeon HD 4770 graphics processor that harnesses a 40nm manufacturing process for the desktop PC market, delivering performance and energy efficiency at anticipated launch prices as low as US$99.HD 4770 graphics cards are the latest addition to the ATI Radeon HD 4000 series, they feature third-generation hardware support for DirectX 10.1, and use GDDR5 memory, said AMD.AMD also announced the Athlon X2 7850 Black Edition processor, delivering the strong performance to mainstream PC users for under US$70.

Lanner Electronics has announced the launch of a compact Intel Atom-based industrial PC with extended temperature range and industrial-use I/O interfaces.The Luge LEC-2050 is Lanner's first Intel Atom-based industrial PC designed to operate in harsh industrial environments, from negative 40- to 60-degrees Celsius, said Lanner. It also supports an extended power input range (DC +24V) and dual-power inputs via Phoenix connector and standard DC in jack. The fanless system measures 43mm in height, and provides dual-video (VGA and DVI), dual-Gigabit LAN, four COM ports and four USB ports, along with SATA 3Gb/s and CompactFlash storage support, highlighted Lanner.The system includes 512MB of DDR2 memory onboard, expandable to 2GB via SO-DIMM and a 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU.Lanner industrial PCs are ruggedized platforms that can withstand extremes of temperature, shock, and vibration. The Luge LEC-2050 is designed for industrial applications such as industrial control, communications and measurement, said Lanner. Lanner offers 5-7 years availability for its entire line of Luge embedded computing platforms, the company added.The Luge LEC-2050 is available for immediate orders.Lanner Luge LEC-2050Photo: Company

Renesas Technology America has added 16KB flash versions to its line-up of low pin count SH/Tiny flash microcontrollers. The lower memory versions provide a more flexible and cost-effective solution with many advantages over digital signal processors (DSPs), according to the company.The SH/Tiny flash MCU family already includes pin-compatible 32KB, 64KB and 128KB derivatives which have 8KB RAM. The new 16KB version includes 4KB of RAM, making it the lowest cost flash-based SuperH device in the portfolio.Renesas' SH/Tiny flash MCU family including the new 16KB version is available in 10×10mm 64LQFP, 14×14mm 64QFP and 10×10mm 48LQFP, and the ultra-tiny 8×8mm 64VQFN and 7×7mm 52VQFN packages, the company said.The Renesas SH/Tiny lineup has been developed for white goods applications such as induction cookers, washing machines, vacuum cleaner motor controllers and inverters such as in pumps, fans and air-conditioners.Renesas SH/Tiny flash MCU for white goodsPhoto: Company

AMD has introduced the 45nm quad-core AMD Opteron EE processor, a 40W average CPU power (ACP) processor designed for dense data center environments such as those built for cloud computing and web serving, according to the company.The quad-core AMD Opteron EE processor adds power efficiency improvements over the quad-core AMD Opteron HE processor within the same platform. At the same performance level, the new EE processor delivers up to 62% improved performance-per-watt over the previous generation, the company claimed.AMD also announced new processors available in the HE, standard, and SE power bands, as well as support for HyperTransport 3 technology and a new fine-tuning feature called AMD Core Select, which enables IT managers to turn off one or more cores, helping them to fine tune their hardware for their specific operating conditions and workloads.

Nvidia has introduced the Quadro Digital Video Pipeline, which it claims is the industry's first integrated GPU-based platform for broadcasters to acquire, process and deliver virtual effects to video.The solution offers a graphics computation engine for broadcast production, in a flexible, reliable and cost-effective PC-based platform. By providing a direct path for image processing into and out of the GPU, it allows professionals to incorporate higher quality, graphic-rich broadcasts in real time. It also offers a path for capturing and transcoding HD broadcast-quality video for use in real-time Internet streaming services, said Nvidia.The Quadro Digital Video Pipeline platform integrates components including a Quadro SDI Capture card which enables uncompressed video to be streamed directly to Quadro SDI-enabled GPU memory, and offers the ability to capture up to four HD-SDI Single link sources simultaneously.The Quadro SDI Output card provides an integrated graphics-to-video solution, enabling 2D and 3D effects to be composited in real-time with 2K, HD and SD video. It can be genlocked to external house sync, or synced to the SDI Capture card.Quadro FX professional GPU solutions include the latest generation Quadro FX 3800, Quadro FX 4800 and Quadro FX 5800 graphics cards.The Quadro Digital Video Pipeline SDK includes an software development kit (SDK) containing samples, APIs and plug-ins that allow applications to optimize the graphics and data processing pipelines of the Quadro GPU.Nvidia's Quadro Digital Video Pipeline will ship August 2009 at estimated prices ranging from US$5,000 to US$8,000 depending on configuration.Nvidia Quadro SDI Capture cardPhoto: Company

Nvidia has launched its Quadro FX 4800 graphics card for Mac Pro users in markets such as architecture, content creation, science and medicine.The Quadro FX 4800 GPU for Mac features a standard 3-pin stereo connector for 3D stereoscopic imaging; critical to many core professional Mac applications, according to the company.The Quadro FX 4800 GPU for Mac includes a 1.5GB frame buffer and memory bandwidth up to 76.8GB/s to deliver high throughput for interactive visualization of large models, Nvidia highlighted.Additionally, Nvidia's Cuda parallel computing architecture enables enhanced application performance in areas such as video, animation, photography and production, said the company.The Quadro FX 4800 GPU for Mac is priced at US$1,799 and will be available starting May 2009.Nvidia Quadro FX 4800 graphics card for Apple's Mac ProPhoto: Company

Taiwan-based TV card maker Avermedia has launched two new products – the AirExpress TV card and the TwinStar dual digital TV stick.The AirExpress TV card is a 34mm ExpressCard interface with built-in remote control signal receiver, which supports standard TV, DVB-T and radio signals. The card also features a converter to support 54mm ExpressCard slots.The TwinStar dual digital TV stick can receive two signals simultaneously. The TV stick also features a diversity mode to strengthen TV signals to improve reception quality.Avermedia AirExpress TV cardPhoto: CompanyAvermedia TwinStar dual digital TV stickPhoto: Company

Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS) has unveiled a new 120Hz/100Hz motion-fluent co-processor – SiS168 – to decrease motion-blur artifacts in LCD TVs, and which can also reduce film-judder usually seen in low frame rate movies.The SiS168 adopts a close-loop Multi-state Motion Vector Search & Analysis (MMVSA) algorithm to increase the reliability and accuracy of the regenerated motion vectors. The closed loop MMVSA algorithm includes moving objects grouping, moving object boundary detection, static text detection, motion vector distribution analysis, and motion vector regeneration. Low frame rate films with inverse 3:2/2:2 pull-down are also detected during the motion vector distribution-analysis. Based on the motion vectors, new frames are thus elaborated and inserted between two originally consecutive frames, with further polish such as de-blocking, halo effect reducing, and low frame-rate film-processing.SiS168 can pair with a series of SiS HDTV SoC processors, such as SiS328, SiS329, the upcoming new generation SiS HDTV products or any other third party TV chips to upgrade motion-video picture quality. It accepts either single-link LVDS (WXGA) or dual-link LVDS (Full-HD) input signals and outputs to either dual-link LVDS (WXGA) or quad-link LVDS (Full-HD) 100Hz/120Hz TFT LCD panels.SiS 168 employs 0.11-micron 3.3V/1.2V silicon process, and is housed in a 484 LFBGA package. Engineering samples are available now for design and validation and mass production is expected to start in May.Application with SiS168 motion-fluent co-processorPhoto: Company