Toshiba and Toshiba America Electronic Components (TAEC), its subsidiary in the Americas, have announced the expansion of its line of small-format, high-speed, high-capacity memory cards with the launch of a 4GB microSDHC card. The addition of the new card extends Toshiba's range of microSDHC cards, a popular memory card format for mobile phone applications, from 256MB up to 4GB. The new cards will be available worldwide beginning in July.Toshiba's 4GB microSDHC card meets SD memory card standard Ver.2.0, the SDHC card standard for high density SD products with a capacity of over 2GB. The card is designed for use in dedicated microSDHC slots, but can also be used in standard SDHC card slots with an adapter.The company said the market for high density memory cards will grow alongside increasing demand for digital equipment, such as mobile phones that can record and display video and high resolution images. Toshiba will continue to expand and upgrade its SDHC and SD memory card series to meet the growing demand for high-speed, high-capacity products, said the company.Toshiba 4GB microSDHC cardPhoto: Company
Samsung Electronics has announced that its GDDR4 graphics memory chips are being used in AMD's 1GB ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT and the 256MB ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT graphics cards, noting that the 1GB card has the widest bus in the industry designed for full-performance, high dynamic range (HDR) rendering in PCs.Built with 80nm process technology, the 512Mb GDDR4-based graphics cards provide 140.8GB-per-second performance – 25% faster than 700MHz GDDR3 graphics memory, the most common in graphics devices in use today, Samsung highlighted.GDDR4 processes video images on desktop PCs, notebooks and workstations at extremely high speeds, simultaneously moving large volumes of high-definition (HD) or other high-resolution video, such as next generation Blu-ray and full HD level video images.
OCZ Technology has announced the release of the Silencer 750 Quad CrossFire Edition power supply unit (PSU) under its PC Power and Cooling line.Tested and qualified under AMD's certification program, the Silencer CrossFire edition not only meets a high standard of quality, but guarantees compatibly with CrossFire technology as it is built to provide sufficient output to even the most demanding GPUs and cutting-edge platforms, according to OCZ. Complete with an array of connectors (quad PCI Express, 24-pin, dual 8-pin, and 4-pin motherboard connectors), the PSU is one of the only units equipped to power HD 2900 XT CrossFire technology, stated the company.Delivering 750W of continuous power, all Silencer 750 Quad high-efficiency power supplies offer the industry's most powerful single rail design on the market, stated OCZ, noting that if noise is a concern, the Silencer 750 Quad series is engineered to be the quietest PSU available, with up to 90% (10dB) less noise per watt.OCZ's Silencer 750 Quad CrossFire Edition power supplyPhoto: Company
Toshiba has announced several new notebooks, the Qosmio F45, Satellite A215 and X205 series.The Qosmio F45-AV412 audio-video notebook is a 15.4-inch notebook featuring an HD DVD-ROM drive and Dolby surround sound technology for visual and audio entertainment.The Satellite A215 series features several variations of AMD's most advanced family of dual-core processors made for mobility, including the AMD Turion 64 X2 TL64 found in the Satellite A215-S4767.The Satellite X205 series is designed specifically for extreme gaming. Toshiba's new gaming notebook is DirectX 10 compatible and features Nvidia's new GeForce 8700M GT graphics processing unit (GPU) with up to 512MB of graphics memory and an HD DVD-ROM drive for the ultimate gaming and high-definition experience, said the company. Toshiba notebooks specifications Model Qosmio F45-AV412 Satellite A215-S4767 Satellite X205-S9359 CPU Intel Core 2 Duo T7100 processor AMD Turion 64 X2 TL64 Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 processor Memory 2GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM, support up to 4GB 2GB DDR2 SDRAM, support up to 4GB 2GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM, support up to 4GB and 1GB Intel Turbo Memory Display 15.4-inch diagonal widescreen TruBrite display. 15.4-inch diagonal widescreen TruBrite display 17-inch diagonal widescreen TruBrite display VGA Intel X3100 graphics core ATI Radeon X1200 Nvidia GeForce Go 8700M GT with 512MB DDR3 graphics memory Price US$1649.99 US$1299.99 US$2499.99 Source: Company, compiled by Digitimes, June 2007Toshiba Qosmio F45Photo: CompanyToshiba Satellite A215Photo: CompanyToshiba Satellite X205Photo: Company
Iomega Corporation has introduced its portable eGo USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive and eSATA/USB 2.0 Professional Hard Drive.The eGo USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive is a 160GB 2.5-inch drive, which is USB-powered (no additional power supply required), and it comes with EMC Retrospect HD software for automatic backups, scheduled backups, or on-demand backups. DropGuard technology protects the drive from accidental damage caused by drops of up to 51-inches, according to Iomega.Iomega's eSATA/USB 2.0 Professional Hard Drive, features a 3Gb/s eSATA interface for the fastest possible access to its 500GB storage capacity. The hard drive also comes with EMC Retrospect Express software. Iomega's eSATA drive requires a system with an eSATA interface for operation as an eSATA drive (PCI eSATA card not included). For computers that do not have an eSATA interface, the USB 2.0 interface offers a universally popular alternative, according to the company.Both drives are compatible with Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional, XP Home/Professional/Professional x64, and Vista. The eGo Portable Hard Drive is compatible with Mac OS X 10.1.5 or above; the Professional Hard Drive eSATA is compatible with Mac OS X 10.2 or above.The Iomega 160GB eGo USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive is available now for US$159.95. The Iomega eSATA/USB 2.0 500GB Professional Hard Drive is also available now for US$209.95.The Iomega 160GB eGo USB 2.0 Portable Hard DrivePhoto: Company
VIA Technologies announced the VIA EPIA LT-series Mini-ITX motherboards based on the VIA CX700 system media processor. Powered by a 1.5GHz or fanless 1GHz VIA C7 processor, the VIA EPIA LT has a maximum operating power consumption of less than 20W.The VIA EPIA LT motherboards incorporates a number of features for the fast-growing x86-based embedded market, such as greater device performance, clearer definition video and storage technologies, and a full feature I/O set including two LAN ports and native support for two LVDS panels, four COM ports, a PCI slot and up to six USB 2.0 ports, according to the company. Project-based customers also have the option of a VIA CX700M2 version with added TV-out functionality.The VIA EPIA LT-series motherboards will enter mass production in July, with pre-release samples available to VIA project-based customers immediately. VIA EPIA LT-series motherboards specifications Item Details Model name VIA EPIA LT15000AG VIA EPIA LT10000EAG Processor VIA C7 1.5GHz NanoBGA2 VIA fanless C7 1.0GHz NanoBGA2 Chipset VIA CX700 unified digital media IGP chipset System memory One DDR2 533 DIMM socket Supports up to 1GB memory VGA Integrated VIA UniChrome Pro II 3D/2D AGP graphics with MPEG-2 video decoding acceleration Source: Company, compiled by Digitimes, June 2007VIA EPIA LT series Mini-ITX motherboardPhoto: Company
Dell recently introduced a line of Inspiron notebooks in a variety of colors plus a new ultraportable notebook in addition to new desktop units.The new colorful notebooks announced include the Inspiron 1720 and 1721 (17-inch), Inspiron 1520 and 1521 (15.4-inch), and Inspiron 1420 (14.1 inch) notebooks. A rich palette of eight color choices, including "ruby red," "midnight blue" and "jet black," gives notebook customers the opportunity to truly express themselves, noted the company.Dell's new desktop units include the Inspiron 530 and 531.Widescreen displays on both notebooks and desktops support hi-definition lifestyle activities like watching movies, sharing photos, or shopping on the Internet, according to Dell. Built-in optional mobile broadband the notebook portfolio and Wi-Fi on the desktops allows seamless wireless connectivity. In addition to the Inspiron notebooks, Dell introduced a new flagship ultraportable notebook, the XPS M1330, what the company claims is the world's thinnest 13.3-inch notebook. With a starting weight of 3.973 pounds, the 0.9-inch thin XPS M1330 features a durable magnesium alloy chassis with brushed aluminum accents. The XPS M1330 comes in black, white or red colors.Dell XPS M1330Photo: Company
Seagate recently announced a one terabyte (TB) hard drive product lineup in its Barracuda hard drive series.As the industry's only second-generation desktop and enterprise perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) hard drives, the Barracuda 7200.11 and Barracuda ES.2 deliver 1TB of capacity, 7,200-rpm spin speeds, average seek times of 8.5ms, caches up to 32MB and a five-year limited warranty. Seagate's newest hard drives pack 1TB of data on just four discs to provide cool operating temperatures and low power consumption, which help extend drive life, according to the company.The Barracuda ES.2 is a newly designed product optimized for demanding business-critical and nearline enterprise storage environments including, networked and tiered storage solutions, reference/compliance storage, disc-to-disc backup and restore, archiving solutions, rich media content storage and collaboration.The Barracuda ES.2 hard drive's robust new features stand out in performance, reliability, capacity, and energy efficiency. Among them is its new RVFF (rotational vibration feed forward) system, designed to sustain performance in densely-packed multi-drive systems. The Barracuda ES.2 also boosts reliability with an industry-best unrecoverable error rate that is 10 times better than desktop class drives and a 1.2 million hour mean time between failure at full 24x7 data availability, according to Seagate.With the introduction of the Barracuda ES.2, Seagate is first to provide customers with a SAS interface option in addition to SATA, stated the company, adding that SAS offers greater levels of reliability, data integrity and performance for business-critical and nearline enterprise environments. The choice of SATA or SAS also enables greater system-design and integration flexibility for solution builders and OEMs, noted Seagate.Seagate's new PowerTrim technology is integrated into the Barracuda ES.2 and dynamically manages drive power consumption at all levels of activity. With PowerTrim, the Barracuda ES.2 addresses the IT dilemma facing energy-constrained data centers by delivering a 20% reduction in overall drive power consumption and a best-in-class 55% reduction in watts-per-gigabyte.Seagate's Barracuda 7200.11 drives stands alone in performance among high-capacity desktop hard drives, with category-leading 105MB/s sustained transfer rate, the highest ever, according to Seagate. And with a low power rating of eight watts at idle, the Barracuda 7200.11 is not only energy-efficient, but also operates cooler, increasing reliability, noted the company, adding that the Barracuda 7200.11 also delivers industry-leading acoustics, as low as 2.7 Bels, which is nearly undetectable by the human ear.The Barracuda ES.2 and 7200.11 will begin shipping in volume during the third quarter. The 1TB Barracuda 7200.11 will be offered at an MSRP of US$399.99.Seagate's 1TB Barracuda hard drivePhoto: Company
SanDisk has announced the availability of its Cruzer Contour USB flash drive.What especially sets apart Cruzer Contour, with its glossy black top and silver metallic body, is the drive's unique sliding USB connector. Using a thumb to slide the top of Cruzer Contour back and forth brings out or hides the connector. There's no visible switch, and no cap to lose. Available in 4GB and 8 GB capacities, the Cruzer Contour features a slider that requires nothing more than two flicks of the thumb. Moving the top back and then forward brings out the connector, while moving the top forward and then back pulls in the connector. When Cruzer Contour is connected to a computer, blue LEDs illuminate the word "Cruzer" on the drive's top. Cruzer Contour delivers a write speed of 18 MB/sec, double the performance of SanDisk's previous top-of-the-line retail model. Read speed for Cruzer Contour is two-thirds faster at 25 MB/sec. Cruzer Contour also supports the ReadyBoost feature in Microsoft Windows Vista, which taps unused storage space on USB flash drives to improve system performance.Cruzer Contour offers U3 technology for running applications directly from the drive, without those applications having to be installed on the computer. U3-compatible software provided free with the drive includes the PC phone service Skype, SanDisk's own CruzerSync for synchronizing files between a PC and the drive, the password manager program SignupShield Passwords from Protecteer, and a trial version of anti-virus software. Just for fun, there are two titles from Big Fish Games: Sudoku and Mahjong Towers Eternity. Cruzer Contour provides password protection through U3, backed by AES hardware encryption. With password protection turned on, Cruzer Contour owners have less to worry about if the drive is lost or stolen.SanDisk Cruzer ContourPhoto: Business Wire
Samsung Electronics announced that it has begun mass producing 1.8-inch solid state drives (SSD) in 64GB capacity for mobile computing applications.This 64GB SSD consists of 64 8Gb single-level cell (SLC) flash memory chips, which are fabricated under a 51nm process. Samsung highlighted that the circuitry size of 51nm-made flash is only 1/2500 of the width of a human hair. Besides greater reliability, faster boot times and faster application start-up times than hard disk drives, Samsung said SSD can also improve battery life by up to 20% in notebooks. Company flash marketing director Jim Elliott highlighted that Samsung is seeing sharply increasing interest in SSDs among OEMs worldwide amid a growing push to launch premium SSD-based notebooks, particularly in the ultra-mobile category. Over the next three years, 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch SSDs will also gain a great deal of momentum for widespread use in standard notebooks and desktop PCs, respectively, the company noted.Rapid expansion of the 1.8-inch SSD market will spark demand for even smaller SSD formats to be used in mobile consumer electronics. The miniaturization of SSDs will give rise to new types of digital products. Samsung has already introduced 32GB SSDs into ultra-mobile personal computers (UMPCs). Besides PC, the company sees SSD demand also coming from server applications and other digital consumer products such as camcorders, PDAs and printers, which can now be equipped with SSDs ranging from 4GB to 64GB. Samsung expects that sales of SSD units will increase rapidly industry-wide between now and 2010 by 270% to become the largest growth segment in the NAND flash industry. Samsung already shipping 64GB SSD in volumePhoto: Company
