MSI details Sandy Bridge, Fusion all-in-ones ahead of CES, teases a sliding screen

We just finished reviewing a feature-packed MSI Wind Top, but come CES next week we’ll have three more to try: the AE2410, AE2210 and AE2050, each with the very latest silicon inside. Notebook Italia reports that the Taiwanese computer company’s using Intel’s new Sandy Bridge CPUs in each of its 24- and 22-inch rigs, and grabbed a low-power AMD Brazos APU for the likely budget 20-inch model — which will reportedly still include a Blu-ray drive like its Core 2 Duo cousin. All three will sport 1080p touchscreen displays and USB 3.0 ports, but also a spiffy new feature called Super Charger that will charge attached USB gadgets even when the computer is off. Innovations, to be sure, but perhaps not as exciting as the concept items pictured above and below — up top is the MSI Butterfly, which reportedly has a sliding multitouch screen with ten points of contact, and after the break, see the luxurious MSI Angelow. Here’s hoping for prices, specs and high-res pictures once we get to the show.

Continue reading MSI details Sandy Bridge, Fusion all-in-ones ahead of CES, teases a sliding screen

MSI details Sandy Bridge, Fusion all-in-ones ahead of CES, teases a sliding screen originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 02 Jan 2011 19:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LucidLogix virtualization tech enables AMD and NVIDIA GPUs to play together with Sandy Bridge

It’s baaack. We’ve gone well over half a year without hearing a peep from black magic makers LucidLogix, but here on the doorstep of CES 2011, the company has resurfaced just in time to ride on the coattails of Intel’s forthcoming Sandy Bridge platform. Sandy is expected to take over CES when companies start to introduce new PCs in just a few days, and thanks to Lucid’s virtualization software, we wouldn’t be surprised if a few are served with NVIDIA and AMD GPUs. This here technology enables the two to play nice, making the outlandish fantasy of using a multi-GPU, multi-vendor setup a reality. DirectX 11 is also supported, with the only real requirement being to “connect the display screen directly to the motherboard’s Sandy Bridge display output.” We’ll be taking a closer look at the peacemaker once we land in Vegas, but for now, go ahead and prepare yourself for a beta version of ‘Virtu’ — it’ll hit at some point next month.

Continue reading LucidLogix virtualization tech enables AMD and NVIDIA GPUs to play together with Sandy Bridge

LucidLogix virtualization tech enables AMD and NVIDIA GPUs to play together with Sandy Bridge originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Dec 2010 08:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toshiba NB550D netbook spills specs, including 1GHz AMD Ontario APU and Harman Kardon sound

Looks like the AMD Fusion netbook strategy may be to supplant Intel’s Atom wholesale in the leadup to CES, as Toshiba has just become the second manufacturer to swap out an Atom chip for a 1GHz AMD C-50 Ontario APU while leaving the rest of the design practically untouched. Notebook Italia just spotted this 10-inch Toshiba NB550D having a grand old time on the company’s German website, leisurely flexing its Harman Kardon speakers and newfound HDMI port, all the while dreaming about ways to upgrade its scant 1GB of DDR3 memory and 250GB of magnetic storage. Interestingly, Toshiba’s actually forecasting only 9.5 hours of battery life for the AMD version (compared to 10 hours with Intel’s 1.5GHz Atom N550 CPU), but we suppose that’s the price you pay to have Radeon HD 6250M graphics on board. We’ll try to get pricing and availability when we inevitably spot it at CES next week.

Toshiba NB550D netbook spills specs, including 1GHz AMD Ontario APU and Harman Kardon sound originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Dec 2010 17:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MSI Wind U270 netbook emerges with 1.6GHz AMD Zacate processor

We weren’t actually expecting to see any Zacate-based machines until CES 2011 kicked off in earnest, but it looks as if MSI is hoping to snag a little wind from the sails of its competitors. In a small Taipei-based event, the outfit quietly snuck out a machine that we can only assume will become official in the coming days — the Wind U270 netbook is an 11.6-incher with a 1.6GHz Zacate processor, 4GB of RAM, a 320GB hard drive and no optical drive to speak of. Other specs include a VGA output, two USB 2.0 ports, a single USB 3.0 socket, a Kensington lock port, 4-in-1 card reader, Ethernet jack and an overly glossy 1366 x 768 resolution panel. Courtesy of Netbook News’ hands-on, we’ve spotted a traditional chiclet keyboard, a split mouse button (huzzah!) and a trackpad that may very well not exist if it were any smaller. MSI wasn’t about to spill any details on a ship date or price, but feel free to get yourself acquainted with the aesthetic in the video just past the break.

Continue reading MSI Wind U270 netbook emerges with 1.6GHz AMD Zacate processor

MSI Wind U270 netbook emerges with 1.6GHz AMD Zacate processor originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Dec 2010 17:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AMD Radeon HD 6950 can be turned into an HD 6970 using a BIOS hack

Ah, the joy of getting something for nothing — that’s what this time of year is all about, right? The techPowerUp! guys seem to think so, and they’ve got the perfect gift for all you thrifty PC gaming enthusiasts: a BIOS flash for the Radeon HD 6950 that unlocks the full potential of its hardware (in other words, it turns it into an HD 6970). We already knew the two retail SKUs were built on the same Cayman core, but this hack confirms that all the 6950’s performance handicaps have been enacted in software rather than hardware, leaving you all to flip a switch, click a few confirmatory dialogs, and get your game on. You should be aware that the retail 6970 card uses an 8-pin and a 6-pin connector for its auxiliary power whereas the 6950 only has a pair of 6-pin intakes, which might cause trouble under extreme loads, and there’s also the fact that you’ll most likely be hacking your warranty away together with your GPU’s limitations. But hey, you can’t make eggnog without cracking a few eggs.

AMD Radeon HD 6950 can be turned into an HD 6970 using a BIOS hack originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Dec 2010 04:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel’s Core i7-2630QM Sandy Bridge CPU spotted inside an HP dv6 in Singapore

HP’s disregard for Intel’s officially scheduled Sandy Bridge launch continues today, with the news that Singaporean malls are already stocking Pavilion dv6 laptops with the new Core i7 silicon lurking within. It’s the same quad-core i7-2630QM chip that popped up on a dv7 spec sheet not too long ago — it runs at 2GHz by default, but dynamic overclocking and disabling of cores can take that up to the 2.8GHz mark. Keeping it company inside HP’s 15.6-inch laptop are 4GB of RAM and AMD’s Radeon HD 6570M GPU. The entire machine is described as indistinguishable, in terms of construction, from HP’s current crop of dv6s, leaving the precious internals to justify a price of 1,899 Singapore dollars (about $1,460).

[Thanks, Wayne]

Continue reading Intel’s Core i7-2630QM Sandy Bridge CPU spotted inside an HP dv6 in Singapore

Intel’s Core i7-2630QM Sandy Bridge CPU spotted inside an HP dv6 in Singapore originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Dec 2010 03:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Acer Aspire One 522 falls from the clouds, sporting dual-core 1GHz Ontario APU?

AMD Fusion’s taken its sweet, sweet time getting here, but we’re hearing you’ll be able to get your hands on some Atom-beating netbook chips soon — for instance, in this Acer Aspire One 522, which will reportedly drive its oh-so-glossy 10.1-inch, 720p screen with a 1GHz AMD C-50 Ontario APU. In case you need a brief refresher, Ontario’s the chip rated at just nine watts, meaning we should expect some fairly decent battery life here, though possibly not the heroic performance of its 1.6GHz Zacate cousin. Aside from those specs, the Acer’s mostly your standard netbook — three USB ports, VGA-out, a webcam and 802.11 b/g/n WiFi — though it does have HDMI out, something you won’t find on the otherwise similar Aspire One D255. It’s hard to say what it’ll cost stateside, but a Thai e-tailer’s ringing up a version right now with 2GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive for 12,829 baht (about $425). Wonder if it runs Android?

Acer Aspire One 522 falls from the clouds, sporting dual-core 1GHz Ontario APU? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Dec 2010 18:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Podcast Predictions: Tablets, High-Powered Processors and 3-D to Dominate CES

This week Brian X. Chen and I get all giddy and excited about the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show, aka CES.

CES is a weeklong preview of what kinds of gadgets you’ll see in 2011. We’ll be there from January 4-9, blogging right here on Gadget Lab.

Tablets are likely to big at CES this year, just as they were in 2010. But in 2011, we think manufacturers’ promises might even come true.

LG, MSI, Motorola and Toshiba are all rumored to be releasing tablets. HP, which acquired Palm earlier this year, is also planning to release a webOS-based tablet in the coming year — but we’re not expecting to see it at CES.

Intel and AMD are both working on next-generation processors, including Intel’s “Sandy Bridge” CPUs and AMD’s “Fusion” line of chips that combine CPU capabilities and graphics processing in a single package. What’s that mean for you? Lower power, longer-lasting netbooks and tablets.

Look for dual-core smartphones to boost the processing power in your pocket, largely on the basis of Nvidia’s Tegra processor.

There will be lots of 3-D televisions at the show, but what we’re more excited about is the advent of more 3-D cameras and camcorders, like one that Fujifilm introduced in 2010. If you could actually make your own 3-D pictures and movies easily, you might have a reason to buy 3-D displays like the Nintendo 3DS or — who knows? — any one of the increasing number of 3-D TVs.

Like the show? You can also get the Gadget Lab video podcast on iTunes, or if you don’t want to be distracted by our unholy on-camera talent, check out the Gadget Lab audio podcast. Prefer RSS? You can subscribe to the Gadget Lab video or audio podcast feeds

Or listen to the audio: Gadget Lab audio podcast #98 (.mp3 or .ogg)

http://downloads.wired.com/podcasts/assets/gadgetlabaudio/GadgetLabAudio0098.mp3


AMD Radeon HD 6970 and HD 6950 launch assault on enthusiast gaming market

It’s taken AMD a long time to refresh the top end of its graphics hardware, but today’s culmination to that wait has to be described as somewhat bittersweet. Sweet, because we’re finally getting a successor to the venerable HD 5870, one that offers improved power management and tessellation performance at a lower $369 price point, but also bitter because in terms of sheer firepower, the Radeon series doesn’t seem to have made quite the leap many of us had hoped for. The new top of AMD’s single-GPU pile, the HD 6970, offers 1,536 stream processors, an 880MHz core clock speed, and 2GB of GDDR5 RAM running at 5.5GHz for a total of 176GBps of memory bandwidth. Its partner in crime, the HD 6950, is expected to list at $299, for which saving you’ll have to sacrifice some clock speed (down to 800MHz) and processing units (1,408 in total). There’s a neat little addition to both new boards: a Dual-BIOS switch that will act like Google’s hardware jailbreak toggle on the Cr-48, allowing tweakers to unlock the extra (unprotected by warranty!) performance headroom in their cards.

Early reviews all seem to agree that both the Radeon HD 6970 and HD 6950 have struck a very fine price-to-performance ratio. The 6970 manages to spar with the much pricier GTX 580, but given that it’s priced similarly to NVIDIA’s GTX 570, it scores plaudits for being a more than viable alternative. The HD 6950 is seen as the real value item here, however, particularly since it occupies a relatively unique spot in the price range, and most reviewers tipped it as their new bang-for-the-buck leader.

Read – HardOCP
Read – AnandTech
Read – Tech Report
Read – Guru3D
Read – PC Perspective
Read – Hot Hardware
Read – techPowerUp!
Read – Hexus
Read – TechSpot

Continue reading AMD Radeon HD 6970 and HD 6950 launch assault on enthusiast gaming market

AMD Radeon HD 6970 and HD 6950 launch assault on enthusiast gaming market originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 00:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Major tech manufacturers to drop VGA by 2015, Apple wonders what took ’em so long

A syndicate of consumer electronics titans including AMD, Dell, Intel, Lenovo, Samsung and LG announced this week that its products will collectively drop support for VGA by 2015. Saying sayonara to the 20+ year-old analog technology is pretty self explanatory to us in this day and age, but the council of doom apparently felt compelled to cite DisplayPort’s and HDMI’s benefits of increased energy efficiency, smaller size and support for higher-resolutions as proof the move wasn’t personal — just business. AMD plans to lead the charge by starting the VGA removal process in 2013 and even intends to go the extra mile by stripping DVI-I and low voltage differential signaling technology (LVDS) support too. We definitely side with AMD’s desire to focus on cutting edge standards like Displayport 1.2 and HDMI 1.4a sooner, but if plenty of lead time and “going green” excuses help everyone else involved in the sentencing sleep better at night, then so be it.

Continue reading Major tech manufacturers to drop VGA by 2015, Apple wonders what took ’em so long

Major tech manufacturers to drop VGA by 2015, Apple wonders what took ’em so long originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Dec 2010 10:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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