Apple awarded patents for OpenCL and dock with moveable connector

The U.S. Patent and Trademark office has awarded Apple 25 more patents, two of which include Apple’s OpenCL, and a moveable connector in iDevices docking systems.

Without going into too many details in regard to Apple’s OpenCL, the OpenCL patent covers the Apple’s hardware and software leverage of CPUs and GPUs parallel processing. Supposedly, “traditional” GPUs and CPUs are configured with different programming environment, and therefore its difficult for an application to fully utilize the available processing powers of both GPUs and CPUs.

“A computer implemented method comprising: determining, in response to an API (Application Programming Interface) request from an application running in a host processing unit, a total number of threads to concurrently execute one or more executable codes compiled from a single source for one or more target processing units, the API request including a global thread number having a multi-dimensional value; verifying if a thread group size has been specified by a particular one of the executable codes, the particular executable code to be executed in a particular one of the one or more target processing units, the thread group size to partition the total number of threads; in response to verifying the thread group size has not been specified by a particular one of the executable codes, determining the thread group size for the particular target processing unit based on current resource usage status of the particular target processing unit; and loading the particular executable code of the one or more executable codes to be executed in a thread group of the thread group size concurrently in the particular target processing unit.”

According to Patently Apple, OpenCL allows:

“…an application to perform a task using any available processing resources, such as CPUs and one or more GPUs, capable of performing the task.”

The moveable connector patent for iDevices docking is straightforward. The connector portion of an iDevice dock has a swivel-like mechanism that allows the connector to move back and forth.

AMD Readying Fab 36

AMD has announced today that it is planning to hold the topping off ceremonyfor its AMD Fab 36 in Dresden, Germany on May 17, 2004. Among the expectedguests of honor are Germany's Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schroder, Prof. GeorgMilbradt, the Minister President of the Free State of Saxony, and Hector Ruiz,the President and CEO of AMD.

"Only five months ago we broke ground for our next-generation wafer fab inDresden. Since then, we have seen a near flawless execution of our constructionmaster plan," said Hans Deppe, vice president and general manager of the AMDsite in Dresden. "The shell of the building is already more than 50 percentcomplete and we have already put the first roof trusses in place. Theconstruction of the central utility building is advancing just as fast. Now thatwe have made it through the winter, we are even more confident that we will beable to meet the next milestones of the project: AMD Fab 36 is expected to be'ready for equipment' in late 2004, first silicon test starts are scheduled formid-2005, and first commercial shipments are planned for the first half of2006."

AMD Fab 36 will implement the third generation of AMD's Automated PrecisionManufacturing (APM 3.0) in the production of 300mm wafers for leading-edgemicroprocessors. Hiring for the new fab has begun. AMD expects to createapproximately 200 new jobs in Dresden this year alone. The headcount of AMD Fab36 is planned to grow to approximately 1.000 by 2007. The expected investmentinto AMD Fab 36 amounts to $ 2.4 billion during the same time period. AMD Fab 36will be AMD's second microprocessor wafer fab in Dresden. The first facility,AMD Fab 30, started commercial production in Q2 2000. Currently, AMD employsabout 2.000 people in Dresden.

Asus introduce New Lamborghini VX3 - compacted to 12.1 inch

ASUS-LAMBORGHINI VX Series Goes Compact
The VX3 is a notebook that carries all the distinguished traits of the ASUS-Lamborghini VX notebook series. Integrating luxurious design with raw power to create an agile and chic computing machine on-the-go, the VX3 encompasses a 12.1” widescreen and luxurious materials, including a sapphire crystal webcam panel, titanium alloy hinge backbone and the premium leather-bound palm rest for a perfect visual and tactile experience.

ASUS-LAMBORGHINI VX3 SpecificationPlatformIntel Core 2 Duo (Centrino)CPUIntel Core 2 Duo Processor T9300ChipsetIntel PM965WLANIntel Next-Gen wireless N (4965ABGN 802.11N)OSWindows Vista UltimateGraphicsNVIDIA GeForce 9300 / 256MB video memoryHDD320GB - 5400rpmRAM4GB DDR2 - 667 MHzLCD Screen12.1" WXGA with Crystal ShineCommunicationBuilt-in 3.5G & WebcamODDDVD-S-Multi Double Layer LightScribeAccessoriesLamborghini Mouse, Mouse pad, Carry Bag

Apple Announces New MacBook Air And Upgrades To iPhoto, iMovie And GarageBand

Angeline Tan, product marketing manager, portables and wireless, Apple Asia Pacific, says that in Singapore, according to IDC, the PC grows 21% as compared to the Mac, whichgrows 41.5% year-on-year.

"The Mac business is very important to us and we have spent a lot of focus and investment in this segment. Today we have the new MacBook Air which is Apple's thinnest and most portable and compact Mac. And for the first time, it has two configurations, the 11-inch and 13-inch," Tan said.

The baseconfiguration for the 11-inch MacBook Air starts from S$1,488, and the 13-inch MacBook Air starts from S$1,948.

Sam Leung, manager for applications product marketing, Apple Asia Pacific, talked about the new upgrades to iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand on iLife'11 and demonstrated how easy it is to create a slideshow, photo album, movie trailer and learn to play the guitar and piano.

The iLife '11 is availablein Novemberat a suggested retail price of S$78
through the Apple Store (http://store.apple.com/sg) and Apple Authorized Resellers.
The iLife ’11 Family Pack includes five licenses and is available for S$128 and the Mac
Box Set which includes iLife ’11, iWork and Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard is
available for S$278.

ASRock first with Q77 motherboard, a little bit too early in fact

Intels Q77 chipset isnt expected to launch for another week and a half or so, but that hasnt stopped ASRock from launching its first product based on the chipset, the Q77M vPro motherboard. As the name inclines, this is a motherboard for business users and as such it comes with Intels Small Business Advantage in the box.

Intels SBA is a software package that makes it easy for small businesses to manage their PCs without a dedicated IT support team, or at least thats the idea behind the software. It features a software monitor that keeps software up to date and working, a backup and restore application, a USB port blocker that prevents unauthorized USB devices to be used with the computer, a power saving feature and a "PC Health Center" which performs maintenance tasks on the system during non-working hours.

So what about the motherboard? Well, the Q77M vPro doesnt look all that special, its a fairly typical mATX motherboard with one x16 PCI Express 3.0 slot, one x16 PCI Express 2.0 slot with four lanes of bandwidth and two PCI slots. It also has the standard set of four SATA 3Gbps and two SATA 6Gbps ports, a front USB 3.0 header, as well as headers for four USB 2.0 ports, a serial port, a parallel port and a TPM module.

The rear port layout is fairly basic with a PS/2 port, six USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, Intel Gigabit LAN – this is a requirement for the SBA software to work – 5.1-channel audio and a DisplayPort, DVI and D-sub connector. The choice of DisplayPort over HDMI clearly makes this a motherboard targeted for more professional use, but its really the only thing that makes this board stand out a bit from the crowd.

The Q77M vPro is already on sale for around US$125 (S$160) which is a pretty steep price premium over something like ASRocks own H77 Pro4-M which offers a better feature set for a mere US$90 (S$115), so unless you really need the Intel SBA software and the DisplayPort connector, there are plenty of more affordable options out there.

Source: ASRock

Assassin's Creed III will feature new multiplayer content every month

The upcoming third installment of Assassins Creed will offer new content each month as part of a much more extensive multiplayer experience.

The multiplayer game will feature story much more than previous titles and will see the Animus being turned into a commercial product that consumers can go to for reliving the past. This gives Ubisoft a perfect opportunity to launch monthly updates as the story unfolds.The updates will be locked behind challenges that players need to complete and there will be new challenges and new content, including files and videos, available each month. It is not clear how extensive this new content will be in terms of actual gameplay, but it should keep gamers busy once the initial singe-player story has been played.Multiplayer features will include a new hunting co-op mode called Wolfpack, where players need to find and kill people in a timed challenge, and a four-player versus four-player team mode called Domination. Wolfpack will feature more advanced AI than weve seen in previous games, with a variety of NPC “personalities” that make some fighters, some cowards, and everything else between.These modes will also feature environmental effects, such as visibility-reducing weather, and conveniently-placed bottles and axes that can be utilised by players for a special kill, so the enhancements to the multiplayer experience wont simply be eye-candy.Assassins Creed III launches at the end of October for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and late November for PC.Source: Joystiq

ASUS Launches WL-700gE Wireless Storage Center

ASUS today introduced the WL-700gE, which is a multifunctionalbroadband wireless storage router. It’s also a digital home media center,as well as a user-friendly network storage.

ASUS Innovations for Wireless Digital Home

Download master and iTune service – TheWL-700ge is an excellent offering that integrated a 3.5-inch hard drive. Itenables convenient downloads through http, ftp and BT protocols, and is ableto operate independently from the PC, which means the WL-700gE can continueto download even when the computer is off or disconnected! Moreover, it supportsApple’s popular iTune interface. Simply just plug in your iPod and share storedmusic with other devices in the network. The WL-700gE will act as the LAN’saudio center.Whether it’s friendsor customers, all they need to do is to open Microsoft Internet Explorer, typein the link, access and share the files. There’s no hassle at all for WL-700gE!

Information Sharing Solution

TheWL-700gE complies of 802.11b/g with friendly functions for network data storageand distribution.

• 160GBinternal Hard Drive is pre-installed in the WL-700gE
• IntuitiveEZSetup Wizard
• DownloadMaster: Download around the clock even when your computer is disconnectedor off, leaving your notebook free to roam
• Triplecoverage range and increase data transfer speeds by 35%
• Easyplatform for business data sharing via ftp or http over the Internet
• All computingdevices in WLAN can share any printer supporting Windows and MAC networkingprinter function

  WiFiMultimedia

  WMM (Wi-FiMultimedia) provides multimedia enhancements for Wi-Fi® networks that improvethe user experience for audio, video, and voice applications. The Wi-Fi Alliancedefined WMM as a profile of the upcoming IEEE 802.11e Quality of Service (QoS)extensions for 802.11 networks and started a certification program for WMM tosatisfy the most urgent needs of the industry for a QoS solution for Wi-Fi networks.The WL-700gE is suitablefor environments that demand true wireless freedom, delivering easy wirelessstorage, media streaming and file sharing at high speeds and to large signalcoverage areas.

  Specificationsummary

  WLAN

  1

  Both Ethernet and 802.3 with max. bit rate 10/100Mbps and auto crossoverfunction (MDI-X)

   

  Connector

  RJ45 for 10/100 Base-T

   

  LAN

  4

  Both Ethernet and 802.3 with max.bit rate 10/100Mbps and auto crossoverfunction (MDI-X), 4 ports switch

   

  Connector

  4 xRJ45 for 10/100 Base-T

   

  Antenna

  2

  2(one internal inverted-F PCB antenna and one external dipole antenna)

   

  Connector

  Reserve-SMA antenna connector

   

  Output Power

  18~19 dBm (at normal temperature range)

   

  Wireless LAN

  Standard

  Standard IEEE 802.11b/g with 125 HSM, Broadband technology

   

  Frequency

  2.4GHz to 2.4835GHz

   

  Data Transfer

  ASUS High-Seed Mode: 125Mbps

   

   

  802.11g Mode: 11Mbps to 54Mbps

   

   

  802.11b Mode: 1Mbps to 11Mbps

   

  Encryption

  WPA2/WPA/AES/TKIP/64/128-bit WEP

   

  Authentication

  MACaddress, 802.1x, MAC filter

   

  USB2.0 Port

  2

  Share printer, webcam, HardDrive (Support list)

   

  1

  Copy content from USB memory drives

  Button

  EZSetup

  Push button for 5 seconds to enter easy setup mode

  Copy

  Push for copying data from USB disk to internal IDE disk

  Reset

  Push for above 5 seconds to restore factory settings or perform H/Wreset

  Real Time Clock

  1

  Firewall

  NATand SPI, Built an extra firewall to protect Internet traffic and anotherone for WLAN

  Management Interface

  Web-based manager
  EZSetup Wizard
  UPnP Internet Gateway Device
  UPnP Media Server
  S.M.A.R.T for Disk Monitoring and Report
  USB RAID with Monitoring station USB expanding capacity

  Hard Drive

  160GB IDE Hard Drive

  Power

  Input

  ACInput: 100V~240V (50-60HZ)

  Built-in module

  DCOutput: +12V with max, 3A current

  Dimension

  241mm x 161mm x 45mm

  Weight

  1.4Kg

   

  
  
  

ATI HyperMemory Technology

ATI today announced HyperMemory, an innovative technology that reduces PCsystem costs by allowing its visual processors to use system memory for graphicsprocessing. HyperMemory uses the high-speed bi-directional data transfercapabilities of PCI Express to store and access graphics data in system memory,leading to less of a dependence on graphics memory and ultimately a loweroverall system cost.

Under previous interconnect standards, the data transfer between the visualprocessor and the CPU was not fast enough for real-time graphics applications,so graphics cards have shipped with up to 256 MB of dedicated graphics memory tostore textures and rendering data required by the graphics processor.HyperMemory gives ATI and its board partners the option to deliver cards withless on-board memory and instead use system memory to handle the graphicsstorage requirements. The result is a lower overall PC cost for the same greatgraphics performance.

HyperMemory uses intelligent memory allocation algorithms to optimize the use ofavailable local memory and ensure critical components are placed in fast localmemory when required. Optimal assignment of data to local or system storage isdetermined dynamically to ensure the best user experience. HyperMemory alsoincreases the performance of system bus data transfers, making accessing systemmemory faster than ever before.

AMD Samsung Series 5 laptop have more GPU power than Intel Series 5

People looking into Samsung’s Series 5 laptops should take a look at the AMD series. While the 13’’ i5 Ivy-Bridge Series 5 will certainly outperform (clock for clock) the AMD platform in the CPU department, the refreshed 13’’ AMD Series 5 has the Radeon HD 7500G—which is much more attractive than an Intel HD 4000.

Most average consumers will be content with a laptop that has an Intel HD 4000, but it may not get the job done for casual gamers who want to do multimedia intensive activities such as 3D gaming. Web contents such as flash videos are very CPU intensive, but many video games are CPU and GPU intensive—thus, Samsung may have done them self a favor by adding some more GPU horses to their Series 5 laptops.

Not only does the 13’’ AMD Series 5 laptop have more GPU power, but it’s also cheaper. The Intel Core i5 Ivy Bridge’s premium comes at the expense of the graphical processing aspect. The 13’’ AMD version of the Series 5 is $100 cheaper than its Intel counterpart, and for $699 you can have a system that is balanced between CPU and GPU.

Source: Samsung.com

Asus Ares Support in Catalyst 10.3a

Out of curiosity, we took apart the latest installment of beta Catalyst just to see what AMD has up its sleeves. The Asus Ares "monster," which has already gained legendary status before hitting the shelves, turned up in this copy of 10.3a Catalyst.
Of course we did not find any Asus product brochure for the Ares hidden in here, but the "DEV_689C" device ID used by the Ares is shared with the Radeon HD 5900 series.
It sure ain't bad for Asus, having official driver support for a deviant design.

2012-12-21-60

[Rumour] AMD Phenom II X6 clocks revealed

As we have known for a while now, the Phenom II X6 CPUs will be releasedin three variants - 1035T, 1055T and 1075T at TDP of 95W, 125W and 125Wrespectively. The 1055T is expected to ship at 95W at a later stage.

Theclock speeds are the last part of the jigsaw which was originallyrumoured to be at 2.4, 2.6 GHz and 2.8 GHz respectively. It seems likeAMD has beat those expectations by featuring clock speeds of 2.6 GHz forthe 1035T, 2.8 GHz for 1055T and 3.0 GHz for 1075T.

AMD will introduce a feature reminiscent of Intel's turbo boost, where clock speed of select cores will be boosted when not multi-threading. Details of this technology are obscure at this stage, but such a feature is a must for a heavily multi-core CPU especially since it has become a standard for Intel's CPUs.

A 3.2 GHz X6 variant seems likely in the future. If AMD chooses to release a 140W CPU - like it's previous top range Phenom II X4 CPUs - we can perhaps even go as high as 3.4 GHz with a future stepping. Clearly, Thuban is more power efficient than the quad-core Deneb it is based on.

The Phenom II X6 CPUs will of course be in a different league from Intel's Core i7 980X. However, the Phenom II X6 products might just a great alternative to Intel's Core i5/i7 quad cores, especially for users who use multi-threaded applications extensively.

The first three Phenom II X6 CPUs are expected to hit retail towards the end of April.

Reference: TechConnect Magazine

2012-12-21-430

Acronis Collaborated w/ AMD on Better Data Recovery

ASIA PACIFIC; October 12, 2007 — Acronis®, Inc. (http://www.acronis.com), a provider of affordable, scalable storage management and disaster recovery software, has collaborated with Advanced Micro Devices® Inc. (NYSE: AMD) to help its customers more effectively recover their information on servers and personal computers running on AMD processors. 

With Acronis True Image 9.1 Enterprise Server, data is restored within minutes of a system crash that could otherwise permanently damage vital information. By joining the AMD64 Software Ecosystem, both companies can serve their customers better by helping them to save thousands of dollars in downtime by introducing comprehensive server protection to assure the availability, security, integrity and recoverability of their infrastructure.

“This alliance bolsters our continued commitment to bringing leading technology, choice, and innovation to our customers and AMD’s customers,” said Zorian Rotenberg, director of business development, Acronis. “By leveraging the best practices of both companies, we are bringing more comprehensive technology options to market.”

“Acronis’ technology helps ensure our joint customers can safeguard critical information that resides on servers and personal computers, and recover it quickly,” said Margaret Lewis, director, Commercial Solutions and Software Strategy, AMD. “Together, we can provide more effective technology offerings to help meet our joint customers’ needs.”

Acronis True Image 9.1 Enterprise Server allows customers to create a precise image of a server without interrupting server operations. A complete system restoration from that image can be performed in minutes to: an existing system; a new system with different hardware; or, a virtual machine.