Gateway Inc. has announced a new Small Form Factor (SFF) desktop PC - the Gateway E-2610. It features Intel 945G chipset with integrated graphics chip, supports 64-bit Intel Core 2 Duo processors and comes in three BTX case options.

“The Gateway E-2610 can be configured for entry-level to high-end mainstream performance, making it ideal for mass deployment into areas where performance and reliability are crucial. The unrivaled processor performance and energy efficiency of the Intel Core 2 Duo processors combined with Gateway’s innovative BTX chassis design, allow this PC to easily handle both power-hungry graphics and data-intensive software applications,” the company’s press release says.

Permalink

AMD has released Proprietary Linux Graphics Driver 8.35.5 for ATI video cards, including driver version for Intel EM64T and AMD64 platform architecture.

This release of the AMD Catalyst Linux Graphics Driver software suite, aimed for ATI Radeon, ATI Mobility Radeon, ATI FireGL, and ATI Mobility FireGL GPUs, introduces the Beta version of the AMD Catalyst Control Centre: Linux Edition to replace the FireGL Control panel.

It resolves the issue found on certain notebooks using AMD ATI GPUs.

Permalink

AMD ATI has released Catalyst Software Suite Version 7.3, featuring the updated drivers for ATI Radeon, ATI All-in-Wonder, Theater 550 PRO and TV Wonder Elite video cards.

ATI Catalyst 7.3 introduces OpenGL CrossFire support for the entire ATI Radeon X1000 product series under 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows Vista. Users will see significant performance gains in a number of applications when running in CrossFire mode under Windows Vista, according to Release Notes.

Permalink

Intel will begin producing its next-generation Penryn family of processors in the second half of this year. These new processors benefit from enhancements to the Intel Core microarchitecture and also 45nm technology which results in higher performance and more energy-efficient processors. Alongside Penryn, Intel annouced Nehalem CPUs, which will come in 2008.

“Six Penryn family processors, including dual and quad-core desktop processors and a dual core mobile processor are all under the Intel Core processor brand name as well as new dual and quad-core server processors under the Intel Xeon processor brand name. A processor for higher-end server multiprocessing systems is also under development,” Corporation says.

Permalink

Advanced Micro Devices has announced the availability of laptop-use version of its latest 690 chipset. AMD M690 supports AMD Mobile and Desktop Client processors, up to 800MHz HyperTransport interface speeds and has an integrated ATI Radeon X1200 series graphics. There is also a new battery life saving technology called Display Cache.

“To ensure longer battery life, the AMD M690 incorporates innovative memory technology known as Display Cache, designed to allow the CPU to operate in low-power mode without accessing system memory. This platform-level innovation coupled with the energy efficient processor design of AMD Turion 64 X2 dual-core mobile technology extends battery life by up to 30 minutes over previous AMD mobile technologies.

Permalink

Apple has denied any rumored delays for the forthcoming Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard release. Also, Shaw Wu of American Technology Research says that developer builds of the Leopard operating system indicates that Apple is on track to ship it in the spring release time frame. This runs from March 20th through June 20th.

“Analysts, however, are concerned that Apple has yet to publicize the promised “secret features” of Leopard. Apple is expected to highlight Mac OS X Leopard at ths year’s annual developer conference in June,” Associated Content reports.

Permalink

Chipset maker Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS) today announced that it has signed a long-term licensing contract with Intel for the manufacture and sale of chipsets for the Intel Core 2 Quad processors with 1333MHz front side bus.

“SiS will be offering the next generation products to support high-speed FSB 1333MHz for the Intel Core 2 Quad processors,” said Daniel Chen, the CEO and President of SiS, “These new chipsets will strengthen SiS product portfolios with another high-end option for consumers seeking extreme performance and innovative design.”

Permalink

Array Systems Inc, which assists its small – medium sized business clients with the integration of the Windows Vista OS, claims that mainstream users are better served with the 32-bit Vista than with its 64-bit counterpart.

“Mainstream users are best served with the 32-bit applications of Windows Vista and will experience the greatest compatibility with peripherals, applications, and improved features. The use of 64-bit implementations of Vista should be based on need. If you have a special application or operational requirement today that mandates this extended version of Vista, proceed ahead; just be sure to research and resolve potential conflicts and remedies first. Windows Vista 64 will gather increased momentum and acceptance; however the practical return on investment may be years away. As with any new product offering, the key will be testing the Vista environment with current application prior to making an upgrade decision,” Array System’s says in analysis on Microsoft’s 32-bit and 64-bit Vista.

Permalink

XFX has launched its MB-N680-ILT9 motherboard based on the NVIDIA’s new 680i LT SLI chipset, which is compatibile with Intel’s socket 775 processors.

“For extreme gaming performance at a great price, the 680i LT SLI features True Dual PCI Express slots, best-in-class performance and supports 1333MHz FSB and memory speeds reaching 800 MHz for SLI Ready memory with EEP. NVIDIA MediaShield storage, a suite of features that includes RAID and SATA drive support, safeguards users’ most important digital media assets. The 680i LT SLI also features TCP/IP Acceleration, which delivers the superior system performance by offloading CPU-intensive packet filtering tasks in the hardware,” XFX published.

Permalink

EVGA 122-CK-NF67-A1 ATX form factor motherboard based on the latest NVIDIA nForce 680i LT SLI chipset for Intel LGA 775 processors is now available at NewEgg.

Priced at $199.99, the EVGA 122-CK-NF67-A1 nForce 680i LT SLI provides support for Intel’s Quad-core, Core 2 Extreme, Core 2 Duo and Pentium processors with 1066/800MHz front side bus, as well as up to 8GB of DDR2 800 memory. There are two PCI Express x16 slots, which enable dual graphics gaming in SLI mode, according to motherboard’s product page.

Permalink

NVIDIA has launched its nForce 680i LT SLI chipset, which is the trimmed down and cheaper version of nForce 680i SLI.

The NVIDIA nForce 680i LT motherboards for Intel 775 socket processors “bring the award-winning performance of the nForce 680i SLI media and communications processor (MCP) to a sub-$200 price point.”

Permalink

The Windows Vista Codec Package x64 Components 1.1.2, which enables xvid, divx and DVD playback in 64-bit Vista’s Media Center, was released this week.

“Did you buy Vista x64 but find that almost nothing will play in MediaCenter? Do you want to watch your favorite video’s in MediaCenter? These package is tested on Vista Ultimate x64. It is a fully functional standalone installation,” the publisher’s description says.

Permalink

PC maker Alienware is now offering Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 quad-core overclocked processors standard in the Area-51 ALX gaming desktop computer. Also, for a limited time only, customers will have the option of choosing the quad-core overclocked processor in the Area-51 7500 desktop, according to Alienware.

Alienware increased the clock rate of the Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 from the default level of 2.66 GHz to 3.2 GHz.

Permalink

Sabayon Linux 3.3 has been released recently. This Linux distribution, based on Gentoo Linux, is available in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

Sabayon Linux 3.3 - New Features and Improvements

• Sabayon Linux kernel sources based on 2.6.20 featuring wireless-dev, unionfs, squashfs 3.0, Afatech 9005 support, MacTel enhanced support
• Both systems completely recompiled with new LDFLAGS that give an extra performance boost and reactivity
• Featuring both software raid support and dmraid 1.0
• GeeXbox has been updated to 1.1rc1 waiting for the upcoming 2.0 release.
• Gentoo Portage import freeze was on the 20th of January, 2007
• Complete artwork redesign to meet the new marketing strategy
• Faster boot time thanks to massive startup optimizations
• Created the basis to the yet highly experimental eINIT support trough the selection of the accelerated init system using (accel_init=/sbin/einit)
• Featuring HAL 0.5.9 and D-Bus 1.0.2 for an out-of-the-box laptop experience
• X.Org 7.2 featuring AIGLX and Composite support
• Beryl 0.2.0r2 supporting XGL, AIGLX and NVIDIA Composite extension
• NVIDIA Drivers 9755 and 9631 (legacy - automatically triggered - to disable append nvidia=disablelegacy to the boot prompt. To force 9631, append nvidia=forcefail instead) sporting our runtime linking feature
• Support for the latest NVIDIA GPUs like GeForce 8800 GTX
• ATI Drivers 8.34.8 sporting our runtime linking feature
• ATI GPU detection improved for X600, X700, X8xx video cards
• Metisse 0.4 Technology Preview ONLY for GNOME and KDE desktops
• Outstanding wireless support thanks to the drivers imported from the wireless-dev linux kernel git tree (sporting the cutting edge DeviceScape IEEE802xx stack) and to a much more integrated NetworkManager stack
• Outstanding NTFS support in read/write mode thanks to NTFS-3G 1.0
• Fonts rendering highly improved on all the Desktop Environments (fonts look sharp and clean now)
• The award winning Acceleration Manager has been rewritten using Qt 4.2 and it’s 2x times faster than the old one (latest release is 1.3.2)
• KDE 3.5.6 with Sabayon Linux integration patches
• GNOME 2.16.2 with a highly improved Sabayon Linux integration
• New Games on the DVD! (removed Quake4 and added Sauerbraten - aka Cube 2 - and Battle of Wesnoth)
• Get Live Help extended to the shell using irssi (you can run “get-live-help” without X.Org, chat with us and get helped, LIVE!)
• New Virtualization Support stack featuring: KVM-12 (fully supported), libvirt and Virt-Manager GUI (Technology Preview ONLY)
• Music Edition is now enabled by default (you’ll hear a nice music made by Tryad on Jamendo.org during the Live boot - CC License)
• Sabayon Linux Installer is now about 25% faster on fresh installations and 10% faster on upgrades
• 6th Sense Install upgrades now could be considered much more ironed out and tested but still EXPERIMENTAL
• New users creation after install will have the new Sabayon Linux default look
• Automatic and out-of-the-box video card auto-reconfiguration after install: if you’ll upgrade your PC to a new video card, the system will auto-reconfigure X.Org automatically
• Finally we have a LVM Management GUI imported from RH - system-config-lvm
• Language Configuration Helpers have been rewritten and ironed out
• Mozilla applications language autoconfiguration now works nicely
• Added Safe Internet Browsing Helpers to easily enable/disable Tor/Privoxy stack after install on GNOME, Ephipany, KDE, Konqueror, Mozilla applications and Opera. See /sbin/safe-browsing-setup
• Netscape Flash now works out-of-the-box on Firefox, Konqueror and Opera browsers
• Tons of stability fixes.

Sabayon Linux 3.3

The Frugalware Developer Team announced the immediate availability of Frugalware 0.6, the sixth stable release of this Linux distribution which is available in bot 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

Permalink