2012-12-21-11

"LUDO G10" is Archos' next 1080p budget tablet?

Archos’ next budget Android slate may come with a full 1920 x 1080 HD screen, and well, that’s pretty darn good for a “budget” tablet. The France-based consumer electronics firm has been competing with the likes of Asus and Apple in the growing tablet market, and Archos’ "LUDO G10" may help the firm gain some spotlight among the fierce competitors.

In a recent benchmark, a device labeled “Archos Ludog10” (LUDO G10) was listed as a 1920 x 1080 device, and as far as budget tablets go, it doesn’t make much sense to pair a full HD screen with outdated/underpowered hardware.

Although it’s unconfirmed, Archos is rumored to adopt Texas Instruments latest OMAP 4470 dual core chips clocked at 1.8GHz, and the PowerVR SGX554 GPU in the near future.

Nvidia’s Tegra 3 chip may be the big shot in the high-end Android tablet market, but a budget slate featuring a 1.8GHz dual core is no joke—especially, if it’s paired with a full HD screen and a high performance multi-pipe SGX554 GPU.

In the same benchmark, the LUDO G10 boasts Android 4.0.4 ICS, but Jelly Bean may actually be the device’s OS of choice once it becomes consumer-ready.

The LUDO G10 may be Archos’ next best budget slate, or it can be the firm’s transition into the high-end sector. Here’s to hoping that Archos will deliver an amazing OMAP 4470 full HD slate for under $400.

2012-12-21-238

3D Blu-ray standard finalized

The Blu-ray Disc Association has recently released its finalized 3D specifications,which includes full 1080p resolution, backward compatibility for both 3D Blu-ray players and the 3D Blu-ray Discs (meaning that both will play or be able to be played in 2D), and the use of a new MVC codec, an extension of the existing AVC.

According to the Blu-ray Disc Association, 3D playback will be "display agnostic"; the format will be compatible across "any compatible 3D display", which basically means a new TV set for this technology work.

The PS3 is also included in the specification announcement from the Blu-ray Disc Association, which means the PS3 is perfectly suited to become a 3D platform in every respect.

The capability for PS3 consoles to become full-fledged 3D Blu-ray players, especially in advance of what seems to be the biggest 3D Blu-ray killer app yet seen, could be a huge selling point for PlayStation in 2010.

Source: CNET

2012-12-21-52

[Rumour] All ATI Radeon HD 5830 to be non-reference

As evidenced by all the leaked pictures of the Radeon HD 5830, eachvendor gave its HD 5830 its own distinctive look. The latest rumourssuggest that ATI have indeed given AIB partners full freedom to createtheir own reference design, right at launch.

This comes as a stark contrast to recent criticism that ATI were peggingAIB partners with strict limits on non-reference designs. We haven'tseen pictures of boxed HD 5830 with a reference design. In fact, even inthe presentation slide, the picture of the HD 5830 has been blankedout.

Obviously, ATI feels that, by now, the partners have a good grasp of the Cypress GPU, and have allowed them greater freedom, right at release date.

What this means for the consumers is a whole new range of products to choose from. Whether it be Sapphire's Vapor-X, Powercolor's PCS, or something simpler, consumers get far more choice. It also allows the AIB vendors a chance at distinguishing their products. Now, it can work both ways, as the consumer might have a bit too much choice. Gone are the days where you would simply want a "Radeon HD 5830" - this time it is a choice between a Sapphire Vapor-X 5830, or a Powercolor PCS Radeon HD 5830, and so on... It could also create some confusion for reviewers, as this is not one product they are reviewing - but several.

While rumours are rumours, there's strong credibility to this particular one. It is certainly a welcome change, and it will be interesting to see how the GPU world reacts.

Reference: Fudzilla

2012-12-21-243

3D Video Output Exposed on PS3's 3.20 Debug firmware

We mentioned about PS3 having 3D output not long ago and now,screenshots of the XMB for Playstation3 have unveiled that the 3D videooutput option was shown in debug firmware version 3.20.


Source indicates that version 3.20 is in the hands of developers now and we might be seeing the release pretty soon.

As of now, the current version of PS3 firmware is at 3.15, no official announcement by Sony has been made yet of any future release date.

That said, 3D gaming is only possible if you have a TV that supports 3D output, and the glasses to get the full experience. Blu-ray movies in 3D willrequire a separate firmware update, made available later this year.

2012-12-21-257

3DMark06 Single/Dual Core Test

Hardspell has done some interesting tests on the 3DMark06 by making theAthlon 64 X2 and Pentium D 820 to run single core by using the Task Assignsoftware developed by THG. The 3DMark06 test revealed that the doubling of theCPU score from 782 to 1543 on the X2 3800+ allows the overall score to improvenearly 300 points while SM 2.0 and 3.0 tests remain unchanged and and same goesto the Pentium D 820.

Ed's note : You might also wish to check out our FX-55 vs FX-60 testhere and Presler XE 955 vs FX-60test here.

2012-12-21-363

ABIT spills Nvidia nForce 570 SLI beans

Motherboard maker Abit has announced a board based on Nvidia's as-yet-unlaunched nForce 570 SLI chipset. The mobo, the KN9 SLI, supports AMD's upcoming Socket AM2 interconnect and the "newest dual-core AMD processors".

According to Abit, the KN9 SLI supports dual-channel DDR 2 SDRAM clocked to 800MHz and a 2GHz HyperTransport link to the CPU. It ships with a pair of PCI Express x16 slots for graphics, and two PCI Express x1 slots and two PCI connectors for other devices. The board has a single parallel ATA 33/66/100/133 port, and can run up to six 3Gbps SATA drives configured in RAID modes 0, 1, 0+1, 5 and JBOD.

The motherboard has a pair of Nvidia Gigabit Ethernet ports, three USB 2.0 headers and two FireWire headers. It has optical S/P DIF audio out fed by a Realtek ALC883 7.1 HD audio codec. The Nvidia Gigabit Ethernet controller can "prioritise game traffic over other applications", Abit said.

Abit said it was shipping the board with its EQ system voltage, fan and temperature monitor and control software. It also comes with the company's Extreme SoftMenu BIOS-tweaking tool and its Silent OTES speed:noise balancing utility.

2012-12-21-518

Aeneon by Qimonda introduces DDR3 SO-DIMMs High Performance Memory for notebooks

Aeneon by Qimonda, the channel and retail brand of Qimonda, announced its new DDR3 SO-DIMMs (Small Outline Dual Inline Memory Modules) which provide power saving and high performance to the industry's first DDR3 notebooks based on the Intel(r) Centrino(r) 2 processor technology.

Aeneon is among the first retail memory brands to offer 1GB and 2GB DDR3-1066 SO-DIMMs to the market. The modules use low-power 1Gbit DDR3 components and feature competitive latencies of 7-7-7-21 at standard DDR3 voltage of 1.5V - ideal for mobile computing. The DDR3 SO-DIMMs will be made available worldwide in single retail package from August 2008."We are pleased to offer the DDR3 memory technology to the retail market enabling a wider group of users to experience the new Intel Centrino 2 technology," said Dr Carsten Gatzke, Vice President of Qimonda's Channel and Retail Business Unit. "DDR3 will be the key memory architecture for several years. With this introduction, Aeneon shows its commitment to provide a broad portfolio of advanced memory products to the retail."These new DDR3 modules, together with the high density DDR2-800 SO-DIMMs are part of Aeneon's portfolio of retail DRAM solutions tailored for the new Intel Centrino 2 platforms.