AMD Bolton Power Consumption Just 7.8 Watts

We’ve just reported on AMD’s Richland APU here and now it seems some information about the supporting chipset has surfaced on the internet. The new chipset will use only 7.8 watts and will bring RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 support to the FM2 platform. We’ve also reported here that AMD’s Richland will be compatible with the current FM2 socked, but hardware experts at Fudzilla.com has uncovered some more info about the new chipsets AMD will be launching next year. The FM2 platform will be somewhat renewed with the Bolton FCH. In AMD talk, FCH is short for Fusion Controller HUB, as Fudzilla report. AMD’s next generation chipset will consume exactly the same amount today’s A75 chipset uses and will pack 4 USB 3.0 ports, 14 USB 2.0 ports...

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16-Core Oracle SPARC Processors

After buying Sun back in 2010, Oracle continued Sun’s work on the SPARC T processors and now it is getting ready to present the new SPARC T5 processor at this year’s Hot Chips conference. Japanese company Fujitsu is also preparing to talk about its own SPARC architecture implementation during the same event, as we reported here. Back when Sun was trying hard to recover from the 2000 dot.com bubble burst, the company gave up on high thread performance microprocessor development and chose to concentrate on high throughput. The first-generation SPARC T1 processor has 8 cores able to handle four threads each. It only has a single FPU unit and it was not suited for HPC use, but rather specialized on HTC use. Sun adopted...

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Intel 22nm CPU Technology Fastest to Ramp in History

The 22nm manufacturing process technology has earned praise from Intel, and not because of the performance of the processors built on it, although that certainly played a part. The performance level of Core i 3000 series chips is what enchanted so many customers and persuaded them to buy them. Still, while this did drive the adoption of CPUs, ultimately leading to them accounting for 25% of all shipments, there was another important factor: mass production. As opposed to GPU makers NVIDIA and AMD, whose 28nm chip supply is insufficient (in no small part because of Qualcomm), Chipzilla doesn't have any supply issues. In fact, the 22nm technology ramped faster than the 32nm node, faster than Intel's own plans really,...

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SilentMaxx Sandy Bridge-E System Cooled Without Fans

We may be dramatic in our articles from time to time, but there isn't really much that can phase us on the desktop market nowadays, which makes it all the more amazing, to us anyway, that SilentMaxx managed it. As the title has no doubt made it more than clear already, SilentMaxx has created a high-end desktop that does not use any active cooling whatsoever. One might say this is not such a big deal, until they realize that even the “normal” Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge CPUs carry an entire cooling industry on their backs alone. Hardware makers and consumers are usually looking for the best and biggest cooler they can find. Passive cooling is the stuff of the HTPC and nettop market. Not anymore though, and what makes...

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RIM Releases BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha Update

Today, Canadian mobile phone maker RIM announced the availability of a software update for the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha devices that developers use now for creating apps for the upcoming platform release. The new release, 10.06 Bundle 362 (Platform 10.0.6.361), can be downloaded today from RIM’s servers, the company announced. For that, developers will need to connect their devices to a Windows PC and have the BlackBerry Desktop Software 7.1.0.31 Bundle 33 installed on it. Developers will receive notifications on their handsets as soon as the update is available for them. They can also perform manual checks to find and download the new update. For a complete list of instructions on how to update the BlackBerry 10 Dev...

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Wait for First Nokia Windows Phone 8 Device? Wait for September 7

Nokia announced earlier this year that its yearly Nokia World event will be split in several smaller events over a one- or two-month period. The first event is set to take place on 5-6 September, but the Finnish company did not reveal anything that might be announced at this event. However, the folks over at MyNokiaBlog have been tipped on a possible launch event at the Nokia flagship store in Helsinki, Finland. According to the picture below, “SOMETHING AMAZING IS COMING…” NOKIA 7.9.2012, one day after the first Nokia World event ends. There’s no telling exactly what the Finnish handset maker plans to announce, but the picture shows a Windows Phone device that has a barcode on the display. This clearly indicates...

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Axigon GeForce GTX 680 Temple Edition Comes with Arctic Accelero Xtreme Plus

Axigon is a less known Chinese video card manufacturer, but it seems like the company is planning or getting better aquatinted with 3D enthusiasts as it’s preparing a custom designed Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 card. The new toy is designated Axigon GeForce GTX 680 Temple Edition and, although we don’t have any definite info on the working frequencies or the price, it seems to be targeting the high-end market, as it comes with high-quality components and custom cooling, videocardz reported. The Accelero Xtreme Plus is a triple-slot cooling solution known for its high efficiency and low noise. The PCB uses a 8 (for the GPU) + 2 (for the memory) phase power design and comes with CHiL’s CHL8318 power controller, DirectFET filters...

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Wheezy Raspbian: Debian for Raspberry Pi

The Raspberry Foundation managed to deliver their own Linux distribution for the Raspberry Pi hardware, called Raspbian, based on Debian. Until now, the developers of Raspberry Pi have recommended a Debian Squeeze distribution for their platform, which worked great, but now they have built their own distro that seems to work really great. Raspbian “Wheezy” is the first Linux distribution to take advantage of the Raspberry Pi’s floating point hardware for, amongst other things, much faster web browsing. At least this is what the developers are saying. Raspberry Pi relies on an ARM processor with a clock speed of 700 MHz, 256 MB of RAM, an SD card slot and a 5V Micro USB connector that supplies the power. It also features RCA and HDMI...

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Biostar Hi-Fi A85X AMD FM2 Trinity Motherboard Gets Windows 8 Compatibility Certificate

Veteran motherboard company Biostar has decided to get back in the high-end computer mainboard market segment and launched back at Computex 2012 a new line of AMD FM2 “Trinity” mainboards. The most capable model is the Biostar Hi-Fi A85X, which has received a Windows 8 compatibility certification from Microsoft. The motherboard comes with four DIMM slots able to handle up to 32 GB or DDR3 2400 MHz + memory. There is a total of three PCI-Express x16 slots, but when all of them are occupied, the first two will be set in x8 mode and the third is an x16 slot connected to the FCH that only has 4 PCI-Express lanes available for data transfer. AMD’s FM2 socket is powered by a 10-phase VRM which can only improve overclocking results. There...

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MSI Liquid-Cooled AMD Radeon HD 7970 Video Card

Well-known mainboard manufacturer, maker of the world’s fastest Ivy Bridge notebook, Taiwanese company MSI is teasing a liquid-cooled AMD Radeon HD 7970 video card on its Facebook page. This card is the likely embodiment of AMD’s “Tahiti 2” or GHz Edition design and is gunning for the reference GTX 680 cards out there. Seeing how frequency-scalable their architecture is, AMD decided to up the ante and introduce a higher-clocked GPU based on the same architecture, PCB and even the same cooling system. This is an important achievement for AMD, as it clearly shows that the Radeon HD 7900 series are well-engineered and reliable. When adding water cooling in the mix, the results can be amazing as AMD’s Tahiti is responsible for...

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Intel 8-Series Chipset Scheduled April 2013

Even though Intel's tablet efforts aren't going to pay off this year, the core of its business continues to experience a great success, so it stands to reason that nothing but optimism surrounds the 8-series chipsets and Haswell CPUs. We've known, for some time, that Haswell processors and their corresponding chipsets, would be released in the first quarter (or at least first half) of 2013. Now we know the exact month when the big reveal will happen, courtesy of Digitimes: April. Then again, it's not exactly a shock. After all, the 7-series chipsets were introduced in April 2012. The first processors out, from the Haswell line, will be the mainstream and high-end, coupled with the Z87 and H87 platforms. They will replace...

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Nokia Asha 308 and Asha 309 Emerge in Leaked Document

Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia might be getting ready for the release of new devices in its already popular Asha lineup, two of which have already emerged online. We’re referring here to the Asha 308 and Asha 309, two devices that were spotted in a leaked document over at tieba.baidu. Asha 308 is said to be a dual-SIM device, while the Asha 309 will pack a single SIM, along with Wi-Fi connectivity capabilities. We should expect full touch capabilities on at least one of the two, but the rest of the specifications remain shrouded in mystery for the time being. This couple reminds us of the Asha 305 – Asha 306 pair, and some suggest that the new devices might be new flavors of the old ones. No info on when these might land...

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