Intel Ivy Bridge CPUs Out on April 23, 2012

We brought you the launch date of the AMD Trinity APUs and, now, we get to tell you when the Intel Ivy Bridge series of CPUs is finally going to show. 

After being delayed by a few months (and let's not even get into what the “broken” CPUs are all about), the next-generation chips will come out on April 23 (2012), according to Chinese VR-Zone. 

Previously, the most accurate estimate was that the processors would be formally unleashed between April 22 and 28, while mass availability was scheduled for April 29. 

We think the newest report means that the products really will start selling on that day, but you never know. 

It should be mentioned that the list of upcoming models doesn't include the Core i5-3550S or the low-power i5-3570T and i7-3770T. 

On the bright side, the prices of $182-$320 (139-245 Euro) seem to be $2-$12 lower than initially thought (1.52-9 Euro).

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Sony Preps New Xperia Model with 4.3’’ Screen

Sony Mobile Communication is reportedly getting ready for the launch of yet another high-end Android-based smartphone sometime in the second half of the current year. 

Rumor has it that the new device would be included in the company’s Xperia family of phones. Similarly to some of the latest models in the series, it should sport a large touchscreen display. 

Sony Mobile’s Xperia lineup is already highly popular all around the world, and the launch of new handsets should increase its appeal. 

Just like Xperia S and Xperia ion before it, the new Sony mobile phone should pack a large 4.3-inch touchscreen, rumor has it. 

Moreover, the report, coming from China Times, suggests that the panel would be AMOLED, and that it would be developed by Taiwan-based AU Optronics. 

Sony reportedly found the company’s offering fit to use in the upcoming smartphone, and will make all the necessary announcements on the matter sometime in the second half of this year. 

Little is known on the new device for the time being, and it appears that Sony hasn’t yet decided on a name for it. 

The features and capabilities of this device are still shrouded in mystery, and so is a potential release date or price. 

AU Optronics is currently delivering displays of all kinds and sizes to other large manufacturers around the world as well, including Apple, Acer, LG, and Samsung, a recent article on UnwiredView points out. 

Sony, which took over Sony Ericsson in the beginning of this year after announcing an agreement to buy Ericsson’s stake in the joint venture last fall, is determined to gain more market share on the smartphone segment, and already confirmed plans for new, highly appealing Xperia models. 

At the same time, the company is working on making its existing devices more appealing than before, through rolling-out software updates for its users.

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AMD Trinity APUs Set for May 15 Release (2012)

Advanced micro Devices has been praising its upcoming collection of Accelerated Processing Units, and now we know exactly when we'll be able to tell for sure if the chips are really all they're cracked up to be.  

We'll get it out there before people start fidgeting with impatience: the Trinity series of APUs will be launched on May 15, 2012, or so SWEClockers says. 

We can only hope that there won't be any last minute delays. 

As successors to the Llano, the next-generation chips will have higher clock frequencies, while sticking to the same thermal envelope as them. 

We can even tell you just how much better Trinity will run, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that we already have. 

A couple of days ago, we covered the performance advantage in graphics (56%) and productivity (29%). 

The information came from one of AMD's own marketing slides, which will presumably be formally unleashed upon the world when the company holds its press conference. 

For those who want a summary of the most important assets of Trinity, the APUs are based on “Piledriver” CPU modules and have Radeon HD 6000 graphics with AVX, AES-NI, SSE4.2, and DirectX 11.1 support, among other things. 

We actually have some information on the A8-4500M, plus some benchmark results, but the clock speeds are still unknown. 

It figures that the Sunnyvale, California-based company would stubbornly keep a lid on the relevant data, although we're willing to bet the numbers will become known somehow earlier than the formal unveiling, even if only by just a few days. Until then, those interested can go here to look at the benchmark we mentioned earlier. 

In related news, the low-power mobile Trinity APUs will take a little longer to arrive. The report places their formal launch in June, but the exact day is unspecified.

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Apple Adds Canon EOS 5D Mark III to Supported (RAW) Cameras

Canon’s new EOS 5D Mark III digital SLR camera is now fully supported by Apple’s iPhoto ‘11 and Aperture 3, thanks to a recent software update pushed by Apple this week.

Since digital camera RAW formats retain more image information than traditional JPEGs, they can produce better results when used with imaging applications such as Aperture and iPhoto, which is why Apple continually adds support for the newest hardware.

OS X Lion provides system-level support for digital camera RAW formats from hundreds of cameras but, up until yesterday, canon’s new DSLR was not supported.

Digital Camera RAW Compatibility Update 3.12 takes care of that omission, adding RAW image compatibility for the EOS 5D Mark III to Aperture 3 and iPhoto '11.

Canon describes its camera, stating that “With supercharged EOS performance and stunning full frame, high-resolution image capture, the EOS 5D Mark III is designed to perform.”

“Special optical technologies like the 61-Point High Density Reticular AF and an extended ISO range of 100-25600 (expandable to 50 (L), 51200 (H1) and 102400 (H2) make the EOS 5D Mark III ideal for shooting weddings in the studio or out in the field, and great for still photography,” says Canon.

Digital Camera RAW Compatibility Update 3.12 goes onto machines running Mac OS X 10.6.8 and OS X Lion 10.7 or later, and supports several languages, including Deutsch, English, Français, Español, Italiano, Nederlands, and Chinese.

As usual, Apple directs customers to KB article HT4757 for more information on supported RAW formats.

There, customers learn that Apple’s last Digital Camera RAW Compatibility Update (3.11) added support for the Nikon D800. Before that, Update 3.10 had added support for a total eight new cameras, and prior to that, OS X 10.7.3 itself had added compatibility with almost a dozen new DSLRs.

Download Digital Camera RAW Compatibility Update 3.12 (Free)

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In Light of BackDoor.Flashback.39, OS X Gains Second Java Update

After rolling out Java for OS X Lion 2012-001 and Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 7 with the sole purpose of addressing a number of vulnerabilities, Apple this week released a second update, soon after several security vendors issued advisories detailing the numerous variants of the BackDoor.Flashback trojan.

Java for OS X 2012-002 is being offered via Software Update to OS X Lion users (no confirmation from Snow Leopard users yet), with Apple stating that the update “delivers improved compatibility, security, and reliability by updating Java SE 6 to 1.6.0_31.”

“Please quit any web browsers and Java applications before installing this update,” says Apple. Customers are directed to the same KB articles that documented Java for OS X 2012-001 a day before:

“Multiple vulnerabilities exist in Java 1.6.0_29, the most serious of which may allow an untrusted Java applet to execute arbitrary code outside the Java sandbox. Visiting a web page containing a maliciously crafted untrusted Java applet may lead to arbitrary code execution with the privileges of the current user. These issues are addressed by updating to Java version 1.6.0_31.”

More information on this flaw can be found at the Java website. Java for OS X 2012-002 is a 66.6 MB download.

Earlier this week, security software vendor Dr. Web issued an advisory to warn that over 600,000 machines running Mac OS X had been infected, as part of a botnet on April 4.

The firm said these reported case of infections only comprised a segment of the botnet set up by means of BackDoor.Flashback.39.

Most infected computers were discovered in the United States (56.6%, or 303,449 infected hosts), followed by Canada (19.8%, or 106,379 infected computers), the UK (12.8% or 68,577 cases of infection) and Australia with (6.1% or 32,527 infections).

“Doctor Web recommends Mac users to download and install a security update released by Apple to prevent infection of their systems by BackDoor.Flashback.39,” said the company.

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MSI Super RAID Makes GT70 Gaming Notebook Work at 928 MB/s

Micro-Star International's GT70 gaming notebook might look like any other gaming portable PC at first glance, but a certain entry on the spec sheet makes it stand apart. 

The MSI GT70 uses something called Super RAID, a storage technology that puts an interesting spin on solid state drive use in notebooks. 

Gaming machines often have 2.5-inch SATA SSDs, or an HDD and an SSD, with or without SSD caching. 

That way, they can achieve read and write speeds much higher than what a pure HDD setups manage. 

With Super RAID, though, the company uses one hard disk drive and, in place of the second HDD, a Super RAID card that has two mSATA SSDs plugged into a small PCB. 

The solid state drives in the photos are SanDisk-made, probably the U100 series. 

With a capacity of 64 GB each, their individual performance isn't all that extraordinary, for NAND Flash anyway: 450 MB/s read and 220 MB/s write. 

Fortunately, the individual performance isn't what we're interested in: MSI's Super RAID somehow reaches an average 928.6MB/s with a burst rate of 1,997.2MB/s in HD Tune Pro 5.00. 

All this comes in half the space needed by a second HDD, so we can safely say that, even with the added cost, MSI is onto something here. 

The rest of the laptop components are pretty much what people would expect from a 17.3-inch gaming beast, though we don't have all the specifics. 

An Intel Ivy Bridge CPU (no, not one of the “broken” ones) is backed up by a lot of RAM (not certain how much) and an NVIDIA GeForce 600-series mobile GPU (graphics processing unit). 

We'll have to wait until the official announcement for the rest (RAM, web connectivity, I/O, software, warranty, etc.). People should just keep in mind that Super RAID will probably add a bit more to the price than the common alternatives.

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EVO 3D Successor Spotted in Video Presentation for EVO 4G LTE

This week, HTC announced the upcoming availability of EVO 4G LTE, its latest smartphone for the wireless carrier Sprint. 

The new device is expected to become available for purchase sometime in the second quarter of 2012, featuring a price tag of $199.99 (around 150 Euro). 

The behind the scenes video that HTC made available with the new smartphone also featured another device from the Taiwanese handset vendor, one that was not made official as of now. 

The phone appears to pack two cameras on the back, which would suggest that the company is working on the release of a successor for the EVO 3D smartphone launched last year. 

According to The Verge, the handset might either never arrive on the market, or it could be launched as the 3D-capable flavor of the new EVO 4G LTE.

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BlackBerry World 2012 Mobile Conference Guide App Now Available for Download

BlackBerry avid fans who are planning to attend this year's Blackberry World 2012 conference can rest assured they will know almost everything there is to know about this event.

There's a new mobile application that provides users access to all the details regarding the conference schedule and sponsors, speakers, maps and more.

Simply dubbed “Conference Guide: BlackBerry World 2012,” this piece of software is fully compatible with all devices running BlackBerry 5.0 OS and up, including the PlayBook tablet.

Furthermore, the application can also be used during the event to fill out surveys and connect with other people attending the conference. 

Every time there are schedule changes, the application will automatically update and sync with the user's conference calendar in the My Scheduler tool on the PC.

Keep in mind that premium features, such as session scheduling and event messages are only available for registered attendees. “Conference Guide: BlackBerry World 2012” is now available as a free download via App World.

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Panasonic's Micro Four Thirds Lumix GF5 Camera

Panasonic's Micro Four Thirds camera line has gained a new member, one that is, at heart, a refined GF3 (the third to have been added to this collection).

The name Panasonic chose to give the newcomer is Lumix GF5. The item will sell alongside the GF3, at least for a while.

We'll not bruise our brains thinking about how the two will manage to coexist, given their relatively similar looks. Instead, we'll give a rundown of what makes the GF5 tick.

A 12.1-megapixel sensor lies at the so-called heart of the item.

This Live MOS image sensor, together with Panasonic's Venus Engine with Multi-process Noise Reduction, can capture 920k-dot resolution images (GF3 has 469k dots) and 1080i Full HD videos.

In addition to all this, focusing is done based on Contrast AF (full-area focusing is supported) and Pinpoint AF (enlarges the point of focus for higher scene selection accuracy).

Furthermore, Panasonic tossed in a bunch of onboard filter modes, like Soft Focus, Cross Process, Low Key, Toy Effect, Star Filter, Dynamic Monochrome, Impressive Art and One Point Color.

Not only that, but shooting modes can be changed as well (4fps full resolution burst photography, iA+ automatic mode, etc.).

"Panasonic expects the LUMIX GF5 to please photo enthusiasts and budding photographers that are looking for the next step from the traditional point-and-shoot camera," said Christopher Rice, senior product manager, imaging, Panasonic Consumer Marketing Company of North America. 

"The camera's host of shooting options makes photography even more artistic, yet easy for users of any experience level. The powerful Venus Engine and sensor allows the camera to achieve exceptional photo quality in a range of shooting environments."

Panasonic's Lumix GF5 will start selling this year (at some unspecified time), for $599 (455.44 Euro) or $749 with a 14-42mm power zoom lens (570 Euro).

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Sony Xperia P Approved by FCC, Heading to Various Carriers

Sony has already confirmed it will introduce its entire Xperia NXT lineup of phones in the United States in Q2 2012.

However, the official announcement doesn’t mention anything regarding the carriers that will offer the Xperia smartphones. 

There’s also no info on the exact release dates for any of the three devices that are expected to hit shelves in the US: Xperia S, Xperia U and Xperia P.

The only thing that we know for certain is that Brightstar will bring these Xperia NXT devices to various carriers and authorized retailers in the country.

Until more details on the upcoming availability of these smartphones emerge, the folks at Engadget report that the Sony Xperia P has just received FCC’s (Federal Communications Commission) approval, which suggests that we’re closer to an official announcement than we might think.

Unfortunately, there is still no additional carrier-related information available, so this one might be released by more than one operator in the States.

Unveiled back in February at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Sony Xperia P will be shipped with Android 2.3 Gingerbread platform at launch. 

Although the Japanese company confirmed all smartphones in the Xperia NXT series will be upgraded to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich soon after launch, there’s no telling when exactly these updates will be pushed.

Hardware-wise, the Xperia P is less-featured than the Xperia S, but can still be considered a powerful device. The phone embeds a 1 GHz dual core processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of internal memory, but no microSD card slot for memory expansion.

The phone’s 4.0-inch LED-backlit LCD capacitive touchscreen display integrates Sony’s new “WhiteMagic” technology, which makes it perfectly visible under strong sunlight.

Last but not least, Xperia P boasts an impressive 8-meapixel camera with autofocus, LED flash, 3D sweep panorama, image stabilization and full HD (1080p) video recording. There’s also a secondary VGA camera for video calls.

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Script: Wookmark

Wookmark is a jQuery plugin created by the Wookmark.com team to power up their website's main page, a resizable multi-column grid layout.

The plugin works by automatically shifting objects from one column to another, so they perfectly fit with one another.

Also, if the width of the viewport (browser visible area, screen) is modified, so is the entire layout, by adding and removing columns, and implicitly moving objects around again.

To better understand this effect, either go to Wookmark.com and take a look at it, or download the plugin and play with the included demo. A similar effect can also be seen on Pinterest as well.

Wookmark is available under the MIT License, so you can use it any way you want. Development is done on GitHub.

Download Wookmark here.

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New MacBook Airs Prepared for June Launch, Chinese Paper Says

A Chinese newspaper is dishing out information about the upcoming laptop releases from Apple, Sony, HP and Toshiba, mentioning that a MacBook Air refresh from Apple is expected this June.

Hit-and-miss publication DigiTimes is citing a Chinese-language Apple Daily report as saying that “Taiwan-based notebook ODMs expected ultrabooks to contribute 10% of their shipments in the second quarter as notebook vendors such as Apple, Sony, Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Toshiba are all set to mass produce or launch new ultrabooks in the quarter.”

The report continues, specifically mentioning that “Apple's new MacBook Air reportedly will launch in June.” The sources are unnamed.

Sony's ultrabooks are to ship this month, the paper said, while HP’s and Toshiba’s are set to enter mass production any day now.

DigiTimes is not at its first report citing Chinese sources with alleged inside information regarding Apple’s products refreshes.

In fact, the Taiwanese trade publication churns up these reports on a daily basis, and while sometimes it presents facts with pinpoint accuracy, there are just as many times that the opposite occurs.

With that out of the way, there is good indication the Apple is, in fact, refreshing its notebooks this summer. Whether it’s the MacBook Pro gaining an Air-like design, or the MacBook Air getting Pro-level specs, it’s all going to be geared towards the Ivy Bridge processors coming from Intel.

Howtoarena.com quoted a “reliable tipster” this week as saying that Apple is ramping up production of thinner 15-inch version of the MacBook Pro with Core i5 and Core i7 Ivy Bridge processors. The laptops are said to ship as early as this month.

The same report said the new processors are also making their way inside the company’s all-in-one desktop solution, the iMac. The 2012 models are expected to arrive “in the June-July time frame,” the report said.

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Nokia 808 PureView Gallery and Guide Unveiled

Nostalgic Nokia fans who are still into Symbian smartphones will have to wait one more month for the Nokia 808 PureView. The smartphone is expected to arrive sometime in May for no less than 450 EUR (590 USD) outright.

Until then, the Finnish company decided to sweeten the wait by releasing a Nokia 808 PureView gallery for those who want to take a closer look at the phone before it arrives on the market.

The main selling point of the smartphone is the 41-megapixel rear camera, which Nokia claims is the best on the market.

Featuring Carl Zeiss optics and Nokia’s new pixel oversampling technology, the phone’s camera can combine up to seven pixels into one “pure” pixel, hence the name of the device.

In addition, Nokia claims that the 808 PureView is the world’s first video recording device that allows users to capture clips without any audio distortions whatsoever. Check out the pictures below for a closer look.

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Eurocom Panther 4.0 Notebook Gets Xeon E5-2690 8-Core CPU

There was a time when describing a laptop as a desktop replacement meant it was as powerful as it could get, but Eurocom seems to have gone beyond that level.

The Panther 4.0 mobile computer is a machine that we have already described as simply the best notebook there is.

One would think that it would take a while before the company managed to outdo itself, but that does not appear to be the case.

Seeing that it reached the top, more or less, allowed by consumer-oriented components, Eurocom simply went into server territory.

The result is a Panther 4.0 that uses the 8-core Intel Xeon E5-2690 processor (20 MB cache, 2.9 GHz clock speed)

As if that wasn't enough on its own, the company also tossed in massive storage and random access memory capacities.

“Now supporting Universal Extensible Firmware Interface, the Eurocom Panther 4.0 can surpass the limitations of the 2TB install/boot disc and fully take advantage of its 4 hard drive configuration. Putting 4 x 1TB HDD into a RAID 5 configuration to get a redundant 3TB boot disc,” said Mark Bialic, Eurocom president.

“Also worthy of note is the possibility of 4 x 600GB Intel SSD 540 series drives, adding up to 2.4TB or using Seagate’s latest iteration of its Momentus XT hybrid drives, you can get up to 3TB of blazing fast speed.”

Really, the only thing not part of the beast is a discrete graphics adapter, but it's not like a server actually needs something like that (and there are doubtlessly such options anyway).

“With such massive amounts of RAM, storage, redundancy and processing power available, the Panther 4.0 is a great tool for virtualization and server class environments. This is the ultimate tool for Engineering Companies to combine with our Mobile Workstations to create mobile engineering teams that can be deployed on customers sites. A desktop component-driven mobile server offers many advantages to traditional laptops” said Mark Bialic.

The Eurocom Panther 4.0 measures 419 (W) x 286 (D) x 57.9-62.1 (H) mm (16.76 x 11.44 x 2.31-2.48 inches) and will sell for a massive amount of money, probably more than $3,500 / 2,687 Euro.

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You Can Watch All High-Quality YouTube Videos in 3D Now

3D video is somewhat of a gimmick, but movies that leverage the technology properly can really be enhanced by the new "dimension." Of course, 3D has come out of theaters and made it onto regular TVs and even online.

YouTube has had support for 3D videos for a while now, but it's important to realize that not all 3D videos are created equal. For example, few videos are "true" 3D videos, shot with stereoscopic cameras.

Many though are converted, from regular videos shot with regular cameras. 

That's the way most Hollywood "3D" movies are made, the bad ones in particular and, if you've been unfortunate enough to see one you may have noticed that there is a clear difference between a true 3D and a converted one.

Still, if done with care and, importantly, science, even a converted video can have a noticeable and pleasing 3D effect.

YouTube has been enabling users to convert their videos to 3D, if they so wanted, in a beta program. The program is now open to all YouTube users. Any short-form video that's uploaded in 1080p can now be converted to 3D, meaning you can enjoy quite a lot of videos on your 3D TV.

"You can select 3D viewing in the Quality settings (click on the gear icon) on the YouTube player, then pop on your 3D glasses and see YouTube in another dimension. Here’s one of our favorites," YouTube explained.

YouTube explained how it's able to convert any high-quality video on the fly. For one, it's got the processing power to do it, but that's just part of the equation. The more important part is the algorithm used for the conversion.

YouTube boasts that it's been working on improving the quality of the algorithm. For example, YouTube analyzes all the true 3D videos available to determine how to extract depth from a monoscopic video. The site is confident enough in the technology at this point to enable it for all videos.

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HUD Glasses Project Also Confirms Google[x] Lab for Advanced Research

Google revealed that it's working on augmented reality glasses partly to put an end to the leaks around the project. Info was still getting out and, as the team moved to the next phase of the project, testing the glasses in real-world situations, it would become impossible to keep it quiet anymore.

Of course, the positive PR effect is certainly nice, especially after the last few months in which Google has been getting hammered.

But along with the glasses, Google also confirmed another widely spread rumor, its Google X lab, which we now know is called Google[x]. The division is tasked with experimenting with wild technologies and houses all shoot-for-the-moon projects at the company.

The augmented reality glasses are the first project to be made public, but they’re hardly the only thing Google[x] is working on. Self-driving cars is another of these projects, but it predates Google[x] even though it's a part of it now.

But Google[x] is rumored to be working on things as far-fetched, or "long term" as space elevators.

The Google[x] Project Glass announcement is signed by Babak Parviz, Steve Lee and Sebastian Thrun.

Babak Parviz is an expert on bionanotechnology, self-assembly and nanofabrication. His expertise is what will make the display on these glasses a reality. He recently built a contact lens with an integrated display.

Steve Lee is a Google product manager formerly associated with its location app Latitude, but he now works on Google[x]. Finally, Sebastian Thrun is a world expert on robotic vehicles and is the one responsible for the self-driving cars.

While his name is not part of the announcement, Google cofounder Sergey Brin leads the Google[x] effort and was heavily involved with the HUD glasses project. After a string of copy-cat and me-too products, it's nice to see Google do something no one else is doing, for a change.

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Colorful Officially Intros iGame GTX680-2G Kudan Graphics Card

Last week we spotted the most powerful rendition of the GeForce GTX 680 graphics card that Colorful had come up with and, now, that very product is ready and waiting to be bought.

The name of the video controller is iGame GTX680-2G Kudan and the price was not specified, although we guess it will be higher than $499 / 499 Euro.

We also aren't sure why companies seem to be putting that “i” before their product names nowadays. Imitating Apple probably, for better or worse.

We'll get the specs out of the way first: the board is a dual-BIOS beast.

One of the BIOS chips runs the card at 1,059 MHz (GPU) / 6,008 MHz (2 GB memory), while the other one drives everything higher, to 1,110 MHz / 6,208 MHz. A switch on the card toggles between them.

For the sake of comparison, the reference adapter operates at 1008 MHz and 6,008 MHz, respectively.

Colorful based its monster on the Silver Plated Technology, which gives the PCB (printed circuit board) an 8-phase native VRM and, after installing the Power-kit, an extra six phases.

The power provided by two 8-pin PCI Express connectors is needed to make it work, which means that host PCs will require very powerful PSUs.

For those who want even more info on this matter, the VRM has a modulation range of 0.1MHz to 1.5MHz and is controlled by an uP6208AM PWM chip.

Something stands out more than all the above, though: the cooler, a three-slot creature made of ten 6mm heatpipes, multiple heatsinks, three fans and a 3mm steel plate for the back of the PCB.

Finally, there are three sets of accessories to go with the Colorful iGame GTX680-2G Kudan.

One of them, Air-Kit, is held together by five detachable heatpipes, which can be installed for the main heatsink. The second one, the aforementioned Power-Kit, is the one the power users will like best.

Finally, there is the Color-Kit, which is essentially a collection of acrylic paints and brushes. It lets users paint the shell of the cooler.

Sales will start in Asia at first, with other regions following later on. Just how late is something we'll have to wait and see.

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Three New 450 Mbps Wireless Networking Products Released by NEC

This week will mark the arrival of the Aterm WL450NU-AG, the Aterm WR9500N and Aterm WR9300N in stores, in Japan at least.

Resulting from a collaboration between NEC and Access Technica, the three devices are meant to enable wireless connectivity at the speed of 450 Mbps.

The Aterm WL450NU-AG is an 802.11n USB network adapter that transmits 450 Mbps over the 5 GHz band, although 2.4 GHz is supported too (different speeds though).

The Aterm WR9300N is a bundle between a 2.4 GHz 802.11n/a/b/g-compliant router and the Aterm WL450NU-AG.

As for the Aterm WR9500N, it is a bundle of the Aterm WL450NU-AG and a 5 GHz / 2.4 GHz 802.11n/a/b/g-compliant wireless router.

The Aterm WL450NU-AG will sell for 6,000 JPY ($73 / 55.66 Euro), while the Aterm WR9500N has a price of 10,000 JPY ($121 / 93 Euro). The WR9300N is a bit cheaper than the latter.

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Weaker NVIDIA GK104 Chips Used in GeForce GTX 670 Ti

We've seen more of the GeForce GTX 680 graphics card than most people probably need, and now we get to learn something about the second Kepler-based adapter(s). 

The GeForce GTX 680 is the high-end video card powered by the GK104 GPU (graphics processing unit). 

As it happens, the same GPU will be used in the making of the GTX 670 and GTX 670 Ti, a pair of upper mainstream video controllers. 

For those wondering why NVIDIA would waste fine GPUs instead of pushing them to the max, the answer is simple: the company actually doesn't. 

What is really going on is that not all chips come out of the assembly lines fully functional. 

As such, by fusing off the parts that don't work, the GPU can be given a new brand and role. 

Really, it isn't all that different from how Intel (and Advanced Micro Devices for that matter) salvage flawed CPUs. 

What we have here is a report stating that the GTX 670 Ti will use recycled GK104 unit clocked at around 900 MHz. 

Seven SMX clusters will be available, instead of the maximum 8 (192 units per cluster), as well as 112 texture units (TUs), 32 raster units and four graphics processing clusters (GPC). 

As for the rest of the card assets, GTX 670 (Ti) will possess 2 GB of GDDR5 VRAM at a frequency of 1 GHz QDR (5 GHz effective) and a memory interface of 256 bits, leading to a video memory bandwidth of about 160 GB/s. 

Keep in mind that the clocks are speculation only. NVIDIA may very well settle on different final numbers. 

The GeForce GTX 670 and GTX 670 Ti will battle AMD's Radeon HD 7950, and will have prices of about $50-100 lower (38-76 Euro). That means that buyers will have to part with $349-399 (266-304 Euro according to exchange rates). Announcements should happen this May (2012).

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