ATI plans to introduce a RD580 chipset and R580 GPU together by the end of January. R580 will have 16 pipelines and 48 pixel shaders and RD580 is a “two by sixteen” PCIe lane motherboard. ATI is working on world wide availability at launch time. NVIDIA will do the same and should have its G71 chips up and running and its preparing for early February launch and availability.
According to the analyst firm Pacific Crest Securities in a report fromEETimes,the R520 is a 24-stage pipeline chip that operates at 700-MHz. ATI is alsoreadying entry-level and mid-range chips, dubbed the RV515 and RV530,respectively. These chips, which are being made on a foundry basis by TSMC, areslated for introduction in September or October.TheInquireris more towards a 16 pipes R520 at the present moment. We have asked some ATI’sAIB partners and they aren’t 100% sure themselves but they are suggesting a 24pipes R520 would be more likely.
INQ revealed that R520 core clock will be much higher than 600MHz+ and ofcourse dual slot cooling solution is needed. Some of the cards have left ATI’sheadquarters but R520 clock speeds are not settled as it’s a matter of yields.ATI will be getting in for a hard launch sometime in September time, so it hasto have the real hardware as soon as it launches. ATI might do XT PE this timeagain.
Ed : We saw the R520 card back in Computex along with R530 and RV515.The R520 card looks pretty much like a X850XT PE which is a dual slot solutionbut has a mosfet sink like the NVIDIA’s and the PWM area is improved. The copperheatsink on the GPU is bigger if i can still remember correctly and there is aHDTV connector on the card too. As for R530 and RV515, they look pretty muchlike the current X700 and X300 cards.
While we await Yorkfield Processors, the latest incarnation of the Kentsfieldprocessor still holds plenty to look forward to! EVGA Rev A2 vintage 680i SLIMotherboard, together with Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850. This combo runs muchbetter than my good old QX6700… the amazing thing about this CPU is it’s lowrequirement of voltage.
Just 1.55v, without any Droop mods on the board, this processor runs through 3DMark CPU Test with the 4 cores at 4792MHz, and with just plain old Cascadecooling!
With 1.65v, I played for some screenshots, with 4 cores enabled of course!
5133MHz with just 1.65v! For best clocks of course, LN2 has to be employed,but looking at this, probably 3D Mark stable at 5GHz with LN2 cooling is quite easy.So much better than my QX6700!
Right here at VR-Zone.com, we’ve gotten our dirty hands on the Intel D975XBX2 (Bad Axe 2) BADASS MOBO and Core 2 Extreme QX6700 on initial tests
With just a mere Intel original cooler we were able to bring clockspeeds from the default 2.66GHz to over 3.7GHz!
That’s over 1GHz increase for FOUR MICROPROCESSOR units, 8MB total cache, with some lameass aircooling! Can’t wait to see what this baby can do under cascades in a “stickier” environment!
Discuss Over In Our Forums!
There has been some "concern" from Gigabytes competitors that the company wasnt going to offer any Z68 motherboards with display connectivity, in fact, some of its competitors have been so "concerned" that theyve sent out material stating this to media in certain parts of the world. Well, it turns out that it couldnt be further from the truth and yesterday you saw the GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3 and today we have a few hands on pictures of the GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 for your ogling pleasure.
In fact, we were told by Gigabyte that theyre confident to grab something close to 80 percent of the Z68 motherboard market at launch, with or without having display connectivity on its boards. Thats a pretty bold figure, although considering that Gigabyte has already unveiled it will have no less than 11 different boards to choose from once the Z68 chipset launches. On the other hand, Gigabyte isnt exactly going to be the only company launching boards this week, so itll be interesting to hear if the company manages to reach its goal in the end or not.
But enough talk about market share, lets take a look at the board. The Z68X-UD3H is Gigabytes only full ATX board with display connectivity at launch as far as were aware, with the more affordable Z68A-D3H set to follow somewhat later down the line. Its a fairly feature rich board and we cant see too many users complaining about whats on offer. The slot layout is pretty standard with two x16 PCI Express slots that operate in dual x8 mode when both are in use, three x1 PCI Express slots and two PCI slots.
There are headers for two USB 3.0 ports (via an Etron controller), eight USB 2.0 ports, a FireWire port and a serial port. Gigabyte has added a pair of extra SATA 6Gbps ports to the board, although you only get seven ports in total, as one of the Intel SATA 3Gbps ports have been used as an eSATA port. The VRM design is of a 6+1 type and were not sold on the heatsink which is held in place by two push-pins, but thats really a minor issue.
Around the back we have four USB 2.0 ports, a PS/2 port, two USB 3.0 ports, a FireWire port, the aforementioned eSATA port, a Gigabit Ethernet port, 7.1-channel audio with optical S/PDIF out and a full set of display connectors which includes D-Sub, DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort.
On the downside this isnt going to be a super cheap board as weve found it listed online already for US$179 (S$221). The Z68A-D3H is a fair bit cheaper at around US$138 (S$170); although we still dont know what features Gigabyte has dropped apart from using a standard PCB (read less copper per layer). On a side note we also spotted pricing for the Z68MA-D2H, Gigabytes budget mATX Z68 board which was listed for US$131 (S$162).
OCosmos is not one of the most well-known manufacturers of hand held devices, but the company is trying its luck with what is a rather unique offering with its OCS 1 which is a 5-inch Windows 7 tablet PC, although wed say it reminds us more of an MID than a tablet, but with the current tablet fad, why use a defunct term to describe your device? The OCS 1 isnt set to launch for a couple of months as yet, but that didnt stop the company from previewing a couple of mockups of future devices at its booth as well.
Windows 7 gives away the fact that were looking at an x86 powered device here and OCosmos has gone for a 1.5GHz Intel Oak Trail based CPU and its paired with one to two GB of DDR2 and a 32 or 64GB SSD drive. The 5-inch screen features capacitive multi-touch and has a resolution of 1024×600 pixels. Other features include 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS, a micro SD card slot, supposedly HDMI output (judging by the labels on the prototypes), USB 2.0 connectivity and optional 3G/UMTS. The OCS 1 sports a rear 3.1Megapixel camera as well as a front facing 1.3Megapixel camera and it does of course have integrated speakers and a microphone and headphone jack.
However, what sets the OCS 1 apart from the competition is OCosmos unique OMOS key interface which are the eight-way cursor buttons located on each side of the screen. These can be set up to work as either a mouse replacement or even a keyboard replacement by mapping keys to each of the directional movements of the cursor keys. Were not sure how well this will actually work in praxis, but its an interesting approach at solving the keyboard problem. OCosmos is still waiting for the final graphics drives to become available but the company claims that youll be able to play a wide selection of games on the OCS 1. On top of that, OCosmos has developed its own UI on top of Windows 7 which makes the OCS 1 easier to use which quick access to most programs through an icon driven launcher.
Also on display was the OCS 9 tablet which features the same hardware as the OCS 1, but has a larger 9-inch screen with 1024×768 resolution. OCosmos is working on a couple of accessories for the OCS 9, of which one is a carry case with a built in battery pack and the other being a small wireless touch screen keyboard that also doubles up as a track pad and game controller.
Also on display was a mockup of the next generation OCS 1 which features a detachable tablet part leaving the cursor controls attached to a rear plate allowing for a somewhat more pocket friendly device when on the road. As much as we like the concept behind OCosmos products, we cant say were sold on the overall platform, but OCosmos recon that people want a truly portable Windows device. They wouldnt go into details about the battery life, but the standard battery pack is a 4,000mAh unit which isnt terrible as long as the CPU is frugal enough. The final question is how much the OCS 1 will cost when it arrives in a couple of months time, but we have a feeling it wont be entirely cheap.
At very low temperatures, close to absolute zero, chemical reactions may proceed at a much higher rate than classical chemistry says they should – because in this extreme chill, quantum effects enter the picture. Researchers from the Weizmann Institute have now confirmed this experimentally; their results would not only provide insight into processes in the intriguing quantum world in which particles act as waves, it might explain how chemical reactions occur in the vast frigid regions of interstellar space.
Long-standing predictions are that quantum effects should allow the formation of a transient bond – one that will force colliding atoms and molecules to orbit each other, instead of separating after the collision. Such a state would be very important, as orbiting atoms and molecules could have multiple chances to interact chemically. In this theory, a reaction that would seem to have a very low probability of occurring would proceed very rapidly at certain energies.Dr. Ed Narevicius and his team in the Institute’s Chemical Physics Department managed, for the first time, to experimentally confirm this elusive process in a reaction they performed at chilling temperatures of just a fraction of a degree above the absolute zero – 0.01°K.Their results have just been published in the journal Science.“The problem,” says Narevicius, “is that in classical chemistry, we think of reactions in terms of colliding billiard balls held together by springs on the molecular level. In the classical picture, reaction barriers block those billiard balls from approaching one another, whereas in the quantum physics world, reaction barriers can be penetrated by particles, as these acquire wave-like qualities at ultra-low temperatures.“The experimental system: two supersonic valves followed by two skimmers. The blue beam passes though a curved magnetic quadrupole guide, and the merged beam (purple) enters a quadrupole mass spectrometer. B is a front view of the quadrupole guide.The quest to observe quantum effects in chemical reactions started over half a century ago with pioneering experiments by Dudley Herschbach and Yuan T. Lee, who later received a Nobel Prize for their work. They succeeded in observing chemical reactions at unprecedented resolution by colliding two low-temperature, supersonic beams. However, the collisions took place at relative speeds that were much too high to resolve many quantum effects: When two fast beams collide, the relative velocity sets the collision temperature at above 100°K, much too warm for quantum effects to play a significant role. Over the years, researchers had used various ingenious techniques, including changing the angle of the beams and slowing them down to a near-halt. These managed to bring the temperatures down to around 5°K – close, but still a miss for those seeking to observe chemical reactions in quantum conditions.The innovation that Narevicius and his team, including Alon B. Henson, Sasha Gersten, Yuval Shagam and Julia Narevicius, introduced was to merge the beams rather than collide them. One beam was produced in a straight line, and the second beam was bent using a magnetic device until it was parallel with the first. Even though the beams were racing at high-speed, the relative speed of the particles in relation to the others was zero. Thus a much lower collision temperature of only 0.01 K could be achieved. One beam contained helium atoms in an excited state, the other either argon atoms or hydrogen molecules. In the ensuing chemical reaction, the argon or hydrogen molecules became ionized – releasing electrons.To see if quantum phenomena were in play, the researchers looked at reaction rates – a measure of how fast a reaction proceeds – at different collision energies. At high collision energies, classical effects dominated and the reaction rates slowed down gradually as the temperature dropped. But below about 3°K, the reaction rate in the merged beams suddenly took on peaks and valleys. This is a sign that a quantum phenomenon known as scattering resonances due to tunneling was occurring in the reactions. At low energies, particles started behaving as waves: Those waves that were able to tunnel through the potential barrier interfered constructively with the reflected waves upon collision. This creates a standing wave that corresponds to particles trapped in orbits around one another. Such interference occurs at particular energies and is marked by a dramatic increase in reaction rates.Narevicius said, “Our experiment is the first proof that the reaction rate can change dramatically in the cold reaction regime. Beyond the surprising results, we have shown that such measurements can serve as an ultrasensitive probe for reaction dynamics. Our observations already prove that our understanding of even the simplest ionization reaction is far from complete; it requires a thorough rethinking and the construction of better theoretical models. We expect that our method will be used to solve many puzzles in reactions that are especially relevant to interstellar chemistry, which generally occurs at ultra-low temperatures.”Source: Weizmann Institute of Science
D-Wave Systems will demonstrate the world’s first commercial quantum computer next week, a supercooled, superconducting niobium chip housing an array of 16 qubits. D-Wave quantum computer, called “Orion,” solves the most difficult problems—called “NP-Complete”—in a just a few cycles, compared to the thousands of cycles needed by conventional computers. Orion is fabricated out of the superconducting metal niobium using conventional lithography. It was then supercooled to near absolute zero to permit its qubits to maintain their quantum state throughout a calculation. Initially, D-Wave will lease time on its quantum computer, which will be accessed over a secure Internet connection. Eventually, the company plans to sell quantum computer systems.
These days most people with a broadband internet connection at home have some kind of Wi-Fi router, however not all of these are equal as it goes and there are many things that make them work differently well. Quantenna is an interesting company that so far havent had a real breakthrough, but the company is making 4×4 MIMO Wi-Fi chipsets which allows for streaming of HD video, in fact, multiple streams of HD video over a standard Wi-Fi network.
The company has announced its latest family of chipsets the QHS7xx family which offers 802.11n speeds of up to 600Mbit/s on the 5GHz band. All of its products are dual band, but the idea is that you use the 5GHz band for video streaming and the much more common 2.4GHz band for computers and various handheld devices and what not. Quantennas chipsets also use a technology known as beamforming which further helps the signal to reach where it might otherwise not reach. This is extra helpful when living in a large home, or in one with multiple floors.
The only slight snag in this is that there arent a lot of 5GHz Wi-Fi video receivers out there and so far youve had to buy a two kit set with a transmitter and a receiver to make use of Quantennas technology, making it all a bit expensive for the average consumer. Sadly this isnt likely to change any time soon, but Quantenna is working with a wide range of Wi-Fi device makers to try and get its technology into them. As the Quantenna chipsets work just fine inside a regular router, the companys new, more affordable QHS710 will hopefully find its way into some standard dual-band routers, whereas the more expensive QHS715 will still be reserved for more advanced video streaming solutions. We should hopefully be seeing some Quantenna based products come Computex as we know the company is working with several Taiwanese manufacturers to put its technology into their products.
Source: Quantenna
Crystal L Rivera blog 