No matter what happens, Intel won't acquire AMD, I can bet on that. Anyway, I don't like bets and gambling, so I will move on and tell you about Intel's plans for future acquisitions. Since they have a strong position in the computer industry, Intel is now aiming at the consumer electronics market, instead of expanding its domination in the hardware field.


In an interview with the Financial Times, Intel's Digital Enterprise group senior vice president and general manager, Patrick P. Gelsinger, said "I think you will see Intel being more acquisitive," while admitting that some of the purchases made so far by the chip maker weren't that great.

After talking about the lessons learned in the past, Gelsinger identified five areas where Intel could get better with new acquisitions - consumer electronics, embedded devices, visualisation technologies and the market for low-cost computers, where its Classmate PC Netbook model is already fighting the tough competition, especially the Asus Eee PC.

Now, I hardly wait to see who's going to be Intel's next "victim," but I am also glad that, considering the lessons of the past, the companies they purchase are probably going to be allowed to keep their identity and operate as subsidiaries, as it happened with Havok, purchased by Intel in September.

External graphics adapters are not something out of this world, but they are not something you get to see in every computer, either(well, "outside every computer" is more appropriate). Anyway, just like most external devices out there, the USB graphics adapters will surely find people to consider them worthy of their attention, so let's see who should take a closer look at the UGAs from EVGA, shall we?


While "normal" desktop computers, which can be easily opened and upgraded, won't need USB graphics adapters, notebooks and small desktops that require additional display(s) and don't have available slots for installing a graphics card, or they simply can't be opened will take full advantage of the UGAs features.Joe Darwin, EVGA's director of marketing, said "DisplayLink technology enables us to deliver a UGA that is affordable, portable, and easy to use, which dovetails perfectly with EVGA’s strategy of penetrating broader consumer markets. At the same time, we hope that the EVGA UV12 and UV16 will help bring DisplayLink’s exciting USB display technology to a wider mainstream audience."

The upcoming UV Plus+ Family of products from EVGA consists of the UV12 and UV16 USB graphics adapters, both based on the DisplayLink network display technology mentioned above. This enables Windows XP and Vista users to easily connect multiple displays to a PC or notebook in an instant, by using the ubiquitous USB connection. According to EVGA, up to four displays can be connected to a computer, as long as four UGAs are used.

For now, we have no idea about the precise date or release, but it seems both display adapters will have a price below $100, most probable around $65-$70.

Looks like AMD finally realized that Nehalem is a serious competitor for the K10.5 CPUs. In this sense, after Deneb and Propus 45nm K10.5 Quad-cores AMD wants to change the process and improve the existing K10.5 cores.

The future process is called 45nm K10.5 Rev. D and it will bring the High K gating technology developed with IBM’s aid to 45nm SOI cores. As you have already intuited, the K10.5 Rev. C is the 45nm SOI process that AMD is supposed to use with the upcoming Deneb and Propus 45nm cores. AMD also came up with the Hydra codename for the Rev D cores, which seem to be the true response to Intel’s Nehalem.

The K10.5 Rev. D introduces 1MB L2 per core, which is twice as much as in current K10 CPUs, plus 6MB L3 cache memory. The Hydra CPUs are set to include at least eight cores, most likely coming in eight-core native design and not the recently announced MCM (Multi Chip Module).

Hydra CPUs are expected to easily hit +3GHz clock speeds in standard mode, but AMD will hopefully allow for fair overclocking potentioals.

That said, Nehalem will probably hold the crown for at least six to nine months before getting a real competitor. This is because AMD is rolling the Hydra CPUs sometime in mid 2009 or even later.

Slowly, but surely, SSDs are getting into the mainstream. The good old hard disk drives we used in the past decades may still hang around for a few years, but their end is coming closer and closer with each new price drop for SSDs. Anyway, today I don't have news about any price drop, but there's something that may lead to such a thing - new SSDs coming from Super Talent!


What's new? Well, the new drives deliver higher performance than current models, and they are available in capacities up to 120GB. According to Joe James, Super Talent's marketing director, "These new SSDs are a rugged, lightning fast, low power storage alternative for mobile professionals and enthusiasts. With such overwhelming benefits, MasterDrive SSDs are sure to revolutionize mobile storage."

Despite the fact they are not the fastest drives on the market, the Super Talent MasterDrive MX, based on multi-level cell [MLC] NAND flash memory and MasterDrive DX, based on single-level cell [SLC] NAND flash memory provide very good performance, with 120MB/s read speed and 40MB/s or 70MB/s write speed depending on the model and flash memory organization, according to Super Talent.

Both MasterDrive SSDs use the Serial ATA-300 interface and are compatible with a wide range of desktops and notebooks, while the prices go between $299, for the 30GB MasterDrive MX, and $1299(ouch!) for the 60GB MasterDrive DX.

Are you sure your DDR2 800MHz memory is still fast? Fast, indeed, but not fast enough. In fact, it may soon become "almost vintage," just as DDR1 memory seems to have become these days. Why? Well, OCZ just reached the 2GHz memory barrier!


Obviously, we're talking about DDR3 memory, and here's what Dr. Michael Schuette, vice president of technology development at OCZ Technology, has to say about this breakthrough: "It is no myth that higher memory densities make it harder to push higher clock frequencies. OCZ Technology pulled off this seemingly impossible task with the release of the world’s fastest high-density memory solution. The new OCZ DDR3 PC3-16000 Platinum Edition kits combine two 2GB modules for 4GB system density running at 9-9-9 latencies and a record-breaking 2GHz data rate. All of this is achieved at only 1.9V which falls well within the voltage tolerances of any DDR3 memory controller currently on the market."

That should say it all, don't you think? Oh, yeah, you avid upgraders, I know - you want to know the price, don't you? For now, no detailed pricing figure has been made public, but everyone expects to see the 4GB kit selling for over $500, so only a few will probably experience this ultimate memory kit in the coming months, at least until the price reaches a decent level...