Micron Announces Fastest SSDs
Published by Bogdan Alex, on August 6th, 2008, in the categories: Hard Drives
The guys over at Micron, who bring you some of the fastest memory chips on the market, introduced a new series of RealSSD solid state drives for enterprise computing and notebook applications. According to the official press release, these new SSDs are providing a dramatic improvement in capacity, power and performance for the applications they serve.
“We are seeing SSD interest in a variety of applications where historically hard disk drives have reigned. For many, the most logical place is in notebook computers, but there is incredible value for SSDs in enterprise server systems,” said Dean Klein, vice president of memory system development at Micron.
Micron’s RealSSD P200 family is specifically designed for enterprise computing and comes in densities ranging from 16 gigabytes (GBs) to 128GBs and is available in a standard 2.5-inch form factor. The overall improvements are facilitated through Micron’s high-performance single-level cell (SLC) NAND technology, which allows the P200 series to provide the industry’s fastest 3Gb/s SATA-based sequential read and write speed of up to a maximum of 250 megabytes per second (MB/s).
The RealSSD C200 lineup is aimed at notebook applications. C200 will be available in 2.5-inch and 1.8-inch form factors, with the 2.5-inchers providing densities of up to 256GBs, while the 1.8-inchers offer densities from 32GB up to 128GB. The notebook line provides a read speed of up to 250 MB/s and a write speed of up to 100 MB/s.
“With our C200 products, we are providing a balanced price to performance solution specifically designed for notebook applications by utilizing MLC NAND technology and highly optimized NAND management algorithms,” continued Klein.
Mass production for both P200 and C200 lineups is expected in the fourth quarter of 2008.
“We are seeing SSD interest in a variety of applications where historically hard disk drives have reigned. For many, the most logical place is in notebook computers, but there is incredible value for SSDs in enterprise server systems,” said Dean Klein, vice president of memory system development at Micron.
Micron’s RealSSD P200 family is specifically designed for enterprise computing and comes in densities ranging from 16 gigabytes (GBs) to 128GBs and is available in a standard 2.5-inch form factor. The overall improvements are facilitated through Micron’s high-performance single-level cell (SLC) NAND technology, which allows the P200 series to provide the industry’s fastest 3Gb/s SATA-based sequential read and write speed of up to a maximum of 250 megabytes per second (MB/s).
The RealSSD C200 lineup is aimed at notebook applications. C200 will be available in 2.5-inch and 1.8-inch form factors, with the 2.5-inchers providing densities of up to 256GBs, while the 1.8-inchers offer densities from 32GB up to 128GB. The notebook line provides a read speed of up to 250 MB/s and a write speed of up to 100 MB/s.
“With our C200 products, we are providing a balanced price to performance solution specifically designed for notebook applications by utilizing MLC NAND technology and highly optimized NAND management algorithms,” continued Klein.
Mass production for both P200 and C200 lineups is expected in the fourth quarter of 2008.
ATI’s Next Gen GPU
Published by Bogdan Alex, on August 5th, 2008, in the categories: Video Cards
ATI’s HD 4870X2 is a few weeks away from official launch, and although the R700 generation seems to be one of ATI’s best realizations thus far, the Canadians aren’t going to stop here. Some new info on the next generation has been recently leaked and it seems ATI wants to improve the performance per watt aspect, first and foremost.
The n RV870 (codename “Lil Dragon”) next gen GPU is primarily a shrink of RV770. According to NordicHardware, the node following 65/55nm (current gen) would be 45/40nm , as Intel’s and AMD’s CPU demonstrated earlier this year. However, there’s a strong possibility that the next ATI GPU would skip the 45nm phase directly to 40 nm. The main reason to do this is the achievement of a performance per watt ratio twice that of RV770.
Surprisingly, the overall performance gain for the RV870 is set somewhere around 20% over the RV770, but ATI will also drop the power consumption significantly. NordicHarsware estimates that the next gen GPU is going to integrate to 960 unified shaders (192x5), 48 texture units and 24 ROPs. Thus, the TDP of the RV870 should be around 150W, in case ATI maintains the usual frequencies.
Another mystery is represented by the inclusion of the DX11 support. Since DX11 is going to be available in late 2009 and the new GPU will be release next summer, ATI will probably stick to DX10.1 for the time being.
The n RV870 (codename “Lil Dragon”) next gen GPU is primarily a shrink of RV770. According to NordicHardware, the node following 65/55nm (current gen) would be 45/40nm , as Intel’s and AMD’s CPU demonstrated earlier this year. However, there’s a strong possibility that the next ATI GPU would skip the 45nm phase directly to 40 nm. The main reason to do this is the achievement of a performance per watt ratio twice that of RV770.
Surprisingly, the overall performance gain for the RV870 is set somewhere around 20% over the RV770, but ATI will also drop the power consumption significantly. NordicHarsware estimates that the next gen GPU is going to integrate to 960 unified shaders (192x5), 48 texture units and 24 ROPs. Thus, the TDP of the RV870 should be around 150W, in case ATI maintains the usual frequencies.
Another mystery is represented by the inclusion of the DX11 support. Since DX11 is going to be available in late 2009 and the new GPU will be release next summer, ATI will probably stick to DX10.1 for the time being.
Scythe Innovator
Published by Bogdan Alex, on August 4th, 2008, in the categories: PC cases
Scythe is known for some pretty good CPU coolers, although these might not be the best one can buy. The Asian company has recently entered the PC case market and their latest Innovator model seems to point out that Scythe could further diversify its line of products.
The Innovator is quite massive, measuring 605x550x208mm (HxDxW). I comes standard with enough room for two ATX power supplies. The innovation here is a special cable that powers the secondary PSU at the same time as you power on the system.
According to Fudzilla, the case is made of steel, so it should provide enough cooling potential, but Scythe thought it would be a good idea to fit a plastic front door to it that hides the six 5.25-inch drive bays. In addition, the Innovator supports two 3.5-inch drive bays and six internal 3.5-inch drive bays. Also in front, users can find four USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire port and a headphone and mic jack.
More features include rubber coated thumb screws for better grip and reduced vibrations, a bunch of extra long thumb screws for add-on cards, especially for graphics cards.
Weighing 14.8kg, it certainly appears to be server-oriented. It is already available in Japan for about €78, but Scythe didn’t mention anything about world-wide availability.
The Innovator is quite massive, measuring 605x550x208mm (HxDxW). I comes standard with enough room for two ATX power supplies. The innovation here is a special cable that powers the secondary PSU at the same time as you power on the system.
According to Fudzilla, the case is made of steel, so it should provide enough cooling potential, but Scythe thought it would be a good idea to fit a plastic front door to it that hides the six 5.25-inch drive bays. In addition, the Innovator supports two 3.5-inch drive bays and six internal 3.5-inch drive bays. Also in front, users can find four USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire port and a headphone and mic jack.
More features include rubber coated thumb screws for better grip and reduced vibrations, a bunch of extra long thumb screws for add-on cards, especially for graphics cards.
Weighing 14.8kg, it certainly appears to be server-oriented. It is already available in Japan for about €78, but Scythe didn’t mention anything about world-wide availability.
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