Asus Eee Stick
Published by Codrut Nistor, on June 25th, 2008, in the categories: News
It seems AsusTek won't stop its assault on all areas of the computing world, and I wouldn't be amazed to see them showing up with some Eee Phone in a year or two. Anyway, there are other things to be released until then, and I think a game controller to get together with the Asus Eee Box is a pretty neat idea. Leaving the idea aside, what seems to be the upcoming game controller looks a bit strange to me, but let's see what is supposed to be known about it, since Asus didn't make any official statement about this whole deal yet, shall we?
The Asus Eee Stick GMC-1 is more than just a game controller, being a set of two pieces, one for left hand, and one for the right hand(anyway, I am sure that left handed people can use them too, by switching one with another), coming together with a USB dongle, a quick start guide and a support CD.
This is all according to a filing of Asustek with FCC, so no pricing and shipping details have been made public yet. If these controllers are going to be available separately, or bundled with Asus graphics card, maybe even with Eee PCs...so many questions, so many mysteries!
These being said, I guess we'll have to wait a few more weeks to see the Asus Eee Stick on the market, but I hope it's going to be worth it!
The Asus Eee Stick GMC-1 is more than just a game controller, being a set of two pieces, one for left hand, and one for the right hand(anyway, I am sure that left handed people can use them too, by switching one with another), coming together with a USB dongle, a quick start guide and a support CD.
This is all according to a filing of Asustek with FCC, so no pricing and shipping details have been made public yet. If these controllers are going to be available separately, or bundled with Asus graphics card, maybe even with Eee PCs...so many questions, so many mysteries!
These being said, I guess we'll have to wait a few more weeks to see the Asus Eee Stick on the market, but I hope it's going to be worth it!
Nokia Buys Symbian
Published by Codrut Nistor, on June 24th, 2008, in the categories: News
Nokia, already the world's largest mobile phone maker, decided to strengthen its position on the market. How? Well, since they are already leading the mobile hardware market, they decided to get a good piece of the software cake, and who else could have made a better target than Symbian? Fortunately, there's more than just Symbian when it comes to mobile operating systems. I have nothing against Nokia, even my mobile is one of their phones, but monopoly is not good, so here comes the story...
Nokia is expected to pay about $411 million for the remaining 52% Symbian Limited shares it doesn't have already, and since Sony Ericsson, Ericsson, Panasonic and Siemens already accepted, we can say that Nokia is in control already, because that would be about 91% of the company. Samsung Electronics still has to accept the offer.
According to Dick Komiyama, Sony Ericsson's president, "The complete, consistent platform that the Foundation plans to provide will allow manufacturers to focus on their unique differentiation at a device level. Sony Ericsson believes that the unified Symbian Foundation platform will greatly simplify the world for handset manufacturers, operators and developers, enabling greater innovation in services and applications to the benefit of consumers everywhere."
The transaction is expected to be completed during the fourth quarter, being subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions. Once closed, all Symbian employees will be Nokia employees, and the mobile market will probably see another significant player disappearing from the scene...
Nokia is expected to pay about $411 million for the remaining 52% Symbian Limited shares it doesn't have already, and since Sony Ericsson, Ericsson, Panasonic and Siemens already accepted, we can say that Nokia is in control already, because that would be about 91% of the company. Samsung Electronics still has to accept the offer.
According to Dick Komiyama, Sony Ericsson's president, "The complete, consistent platform that the Foundation plans to provide will allow manufacturers to focus on their unique differentiation at a device level. Sony Ericsson believes that the unified Symbian Foundation platform will greatly simplify the world for handset manufacturers, operators and developers, enabling greater innovation in services and applications to the benefit of consumers everywhere."
The transaction is expected to be completed during the fourth quarter, being subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions. Once closed, all Symbian employees will be Nokia employees, and the mobile market will probably see another significant player disappearing from the scene...
Asus Eee Box
Published by Codrut Nistor, on June 23rd, 2008, in the categories: News
Tired of that tiny Asus Eee UMPC, the same computer giving nightmares to Sony ? I love it, but I wouldn't use one. Why? Well, I don't have eagle eyes, and since I like to use bigger fonts...figure that out for yourselves! Even more, I don't have a clear opinion regarding Asus - I've seen a lot of outstanding products from them, but I have also seen (too many) pieces of hardware they should be ashamed of. Anyway, the bottom line is that the Asus Eee family just got a new member, the Asus Eee Box, the desktop counterpart of the Eee PC!
The details are somehow sketchy at this time, but there's enough to get a clear idea, and the design will be one that I love, if it proves that the image above is exactly the Asus Eee Box we're all waiting for. Now, to the technical specifications...
Based on Intel Atom N270 processor, which runs at 1.60GHz, together with an Intel chipset, the Asus Eee Desktop PC will feature 1GB of DDR2 memory, a 80GB hard disk drive, while on the connectivity part we have a Wi-Fi 802.11n controller, Gigabit Ethernet, as well as a card reader. Unfortunately, the Asus Eee Box does not come with any optical disk drive, so you can forget the multimedia part, at least for now. I am looking forward to the day when movies will ship on USB flash drives, instead of DVD discs!
At last, you should know this system comes with Windows XP Home OS, and Asus is going to ship it without a monitor. I hope they are working on some monitor designs to match the one of the Asus Eee Box, and since pricing is still a secret, let's hope for the better!
The details are somehow sketchy at this time, but there's enough to get a clear idea, and the design will be one that I love, if it proves that the image above is exactly the Asus Eee Box we're all waiting for. Now, to the technical specifications...
Based on Intel Atom N270 processor, which runs at 1.60GHz, together with an Intel chipset, the Asus Eee Desktop PC will feature 1GB of DDR2 memory, a 80GB hard disk drive, while on the connectivity part we have a Wi-Fi 802.11n controller, Gigabit Ethernet, as well as a card reader. Unfortunately, the Asus Eee Box does not come with any optical disk drive, so you can forget the multimedia part, at least for now. I am looking forward to the day when movies will ship on USB flash drives, instead of DVD discs!
At last, you should know this system comes with Windows XP Home OS, and Asus is going to ship it without a monitor. I hope they are working on some monitor designs to match the one of the Asus Eee Box, and since pricing is still a secret, let's hope for the better!
GeForce 9800 GTX Price Down
Published by Codrut Nistor, on June 19th, 2008, in the categories: Video Cards
I know it sounds incredible, but it's true! The GeForce 9800 GTX cards from NVIDIA are going to become cheaper. In fact, the price is getting close to ridiculous! I know, models for enthusiasts like the BFG 9800 GTX ThermoIntelligence won't get that low for sure, but...
...what else can you say when NVIDIA announces its partners that the recommended prices on the GeForce 9800 GTX, from now on expected to be available for only $199! The main reason behind this is the fact that NVIDIA announced the GeForce 9800 GTX+, a slightly overclocked version of the 9800 GTX, which is planned to go up against the Radeon HD 4850.
The 9800 GTX+ is going to have the core/memory frequencies raised to 738/1836MHz, about 10% higher than the 675/1688MHz default speeds of the 9800 GTX. The price expected for the 9800 GTX+ is $229, and that's it.
Obviously, all this can be described with a single word: lame. I am sure that, if ATI wouldn't have had the HD 48xx breathing down NVIDIA's neck...you know what would have happened, I don't have to say it!
...what else can you say when NVIDIA announces its partners that the recommended prices on the GeForce 9800 GTX, from now on expected to be available for only $199! The main reason behind this is the fact that NVIDIA announced the GeForce 9800 GTX+, a slightly overclocked version of the 9800 GTX, which is planned to go up against the Radeon HD 4850.
The 9800 GTX+ is going to have the core/memory frequencies raised to 738/1836MHz, about 10% higher than the 675/1688MHz default speeds of the 9800 GTX. The price expected for the 9800 GTX+ is $229, and that's it.
Obviously, all this can be described with a single word: lame. I am sure that, if ATI wouldn't have had the HD 48xx breathing down NVIDIA's neck...you know what would have happened, I don't have to say it!
ATI Prophecies
Published by Codrut Nistor, on June 18th, 2008, in the categories: Video Cards
Pretty soon, the world as we know it is going to end. This has nothing to do with any natural disaster, because I am talking about the computer hardware landscape, and not the Earth. Why? Well, according to ATI's senior VP of marketing, Richard Bergman, NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 200 GPU is the last high-end monolithic "megachip." So... no more single-chip GPUs??? Good question!
According to EETimes , Mr. Bergman said "I predict our competitor will go down the same path for its next GPU once they see this. They have made their last monolithic GPU."
Looking at it closer, he may be right - NVIDIA's GTX 200 GPU has a die size of almost 600mm², because its dimensions are 24X24mm, while the 55nm GPUs from ATI are smaller, with only 16X16mm. The catch? We'll leave power consumption aside, and mention one big factor - pricing, because the less chips fit on a wafer, the more expensive is to produce them, so that's why we'll soon get to see incredible performance from ATI for about $300(I hardly wait!).
In the end, it seems AMD doesn't need to go with large monolithic GPUs. If they may not get the best monolithic GPU for desktop computers, which may not be true anyway, because the current test results look amazing, ATI will end up with the most powerful GPU ready to use in notebooks, while there seems to be "no way this new Nvidia core will be in notebooks this fall," according to Bergman.
...what else should I say? I just have to ask what do you think - will NVIDIA shrink the die size and go with the flow, or keep hanging to those large DirectX 10 GPUs and DDR3, while ATI already stepped into the DirectX 10.1 and GDDR5 era?
According to EETimes , Mr. Bergman said "I predict our competitor will go down the same path for its next GPU once they see this. They have made their last monolithic GPU."
Looking at it closer, he may be right - NVIDIA's GTX 200 GPU has a die size of almost 600mm², because its dimensions are 24X24mm, while the 55nm GPUs from ATI are smaller, with only 16X16mm. The catch? We'll leave power consumption aside, and mention one big factor - pricing, because the less chips fit on a wafer, the more expensive is to produce them, so that's why we'll soon get to see incredible performance from ATI for about $300(I hardly wait!).
In the end, it seems AMD doesn't need to go with large monolithic GPUs. If they may not get the best monolithic GPU for desktop computers, which may not be true anyway, because the current test results look amazing, ATI will end up with the most powerful GPU ready to use in notebooks, while there seems to be "no way this new Nvidia core will be in notebooks this fall," according to Bergman.
...what else should I say? I just have to ask what do you think - will NVIDIA shrink the die size and go with the flow, or keep hanging to those large DirectX 10 GPUs and DDR3, while ATI already stepped into the DirectX 10.1 and GDDR5 era?
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