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

Biostar has released its T-Series TF560 A2+ motherboard which supports AMD's upcoming socket AM2+ CPUs. Although socket AM2+ CPUs will not launch until later in the year, the socket is backwards compatible and is able to support both AM2 and AM2+ CPUs, according to the company. The TF560 A2+ adopts the Nvidia nForce 560 media and communications processor (MCPs) which includes support for MediaShield RAID 0, 1, 0+1 or 5 configurations, FirstPacket network optimization technology, and nTune system performance and optimization manager, noted Biostar. The TF560 A2+ will be available in the US on June 29 and in Europe at the beginning of July with a price of US$80, according to the company. Biostar TF560 A2+ specifications Item Description Chipset Nvidia nForce 560 Socket AM2+/AM2 PCI Express x16 1 PCI Express x 1 2 PCI 3 LAN Realtek RTL8110SC - Integrated 10/100/1000 Transceiver SATA 3Gb/s 4 RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 5 Integrated Audio Realtek ALC888 8+2-Channel HD Audio Source: Company, compiled by Digitimes, June 2007 Biostar TF560 A2+Photo: Company

Albatron Technology, Biostar, and Walton Chaintech have each announced low-cost graphics cards based on Nvidia's new GeForce 8400GS GPU.Positioned to target the entry-level market, the 8400GS-based cards feature 450MHz core speeds and 64-bit 256MB DDR2 video memory. Additionally they support Shader Model 4.0 rendering technology, high-resolution DirectX 10 gaming, Microsoft Windows Vista graphics, and HD DVD and Blu-ray video playback.Walton Chaintech GSV84GSPhoto: CompanyAlbatron 8400GSPhoto: CompanyBiostar Sigma Gate V8402GL26Photo: Company

Nvidia has announced a new class of processors based on a new graphics processing unit (GPU). Under the Nvidia Tesla brand, Nvidia will offer a family products that will place the power previously available only from supercomputers in the hands of every scientist and engineer. Today's workstations will be transformed into personal supercomputers, claimed the company.The Nvidia Tesla product line includes new GPU processors, deskside supercomputers and servers:Nvidia Tesla GPU computing processor, a dedicated computing board that scales to multiple Tesla GPUs inside a single PC or workstation. The Tesla GPU features 128 parallel processors, and delivers up to 518 gigaflops of parallel computation. The GPU computing processor can be used in existing systems partnered with high-performance CPUs.Nvidia Tesla deskside supercomputer, a scalable computing system that includes two Nvidia Tesla GPUs and attaches to a PC or workstation through a PCI Express connection. With multiple deskside systems, a standard PC or workstation is transformed into a personal supercomputer, delivering up to eight teraflops of compute power to the desktop.Nvidia Tesla GPU computing server, a 1U server housing up to eight Nvidia Tesla GPUs, containing more than 1000 parallel processors that add teraflops of parallel processing to clusters.Computing on Nvidia Tesla is now available to any software developer through the world's only C-language development environment for the GPU. Nvidia Cuda is a complete software development solution that includes a C-compiler for the GPU, debugger/profiler, dedicated driver, and standard libraries. Cuda simplifies parallel computing on the GPU by using the standard C language to create programs that process large quantities of data in parallel. Programs written with Cuda and run on Tesla are able to process thousands of threads simultaneously, providing high computational throughput to enable the GPU to quickly solve complex, computational problems. The Nvidia Cuda development environment is currently supported on the Linux and Microsoft Windows XP operating systems, noted the company.Nvidia Tesla productsPhoto: Company

Samsung Electronics has announced its one terabyte (TB) F1 series hard disk drive (HDD), which features the highest recording density in a 3.5-inch HDD using only three disks. The new Serial ATA 3.5-inch F1 series drives are designed to be a large capacity, low power and high performance solution for enterprise applications, personal video recorders, desktop PCs or external storage, said the company.Samsung's F1 drives employ proprietary technologies to achieve low power consumption and high performance. Quiet operation is ensured via Samsung's NoiseGuard and SilentSeek technologies, which reduce overall noise and vibration emanating from the drive, claimed the company, while optimized electronics and power saving modes reduce power consumption and resulting heat dissipation, making the F1 the coolest operating 1TB drive on the market.PMR recording with Samsung's Flying on Demand (FOD) head technology ensures improved recording stability over changing temperature ranges. Samsung's drive offers a higher predicted reliability versus competitive drives that require five disks to achieve similar capacities, noted the company.The F1 series drive features a 334GB per-platter capacity, a 7200-rpm spin speed, a 32MB cache, and up to a 1.2 million-hour MTBF. The F1 series offers high reliability for enterprise requirements and is optimized for RAID applications. It features a SATA 3Gb/s interface with NCQ and additional SATA features. The F1 series offers improved performance with SHOS based firmware, vibration tolerance with a rotational vibration sensor and lower power consumption with an optimized SOC.Samsung's SpinPoint F1 series is currently shipping with a US$399 MSRP.

OCZ Technology Group has announced its PC2-6400 Platinum Vista Performance Edition 4GB (2x2048MB) dual-channel kit. These new modules feature enhanced timings for gamers transitioning their high-performance systems to Windows Vista, noted the company.For enthusiasts shifting to Vista and who need the performance of high speed memory, the PC2-6400 Platinum 4GB kit is the ideal upgrade from the standard 2GB of RAM, according to OCZ, adding that the OCZ PC-6400 Vista Performance series was developed to provide a superior computing experience that ensures the best possible gaming and productivity on Vista systems.As part of OCZ's Platinum series, the PC2-6400 4GB modules run at 800MHz with 5-4-4 timings, according to the company.OCZ Technology's PC2-6400 Platinum Vista Performance Edition 4GB (2x2048MB) dual-channel kitPhoto: Company