Monday, 24 June 2013

ASRock launches Atom D2700 and D2500 mini-ITX motherboards

The ASRock related news arent over quite yet, as alongside its high-end boards, the company has also unveiled three new entry level Atom mini-ITX motherboards, all with Intels new D2x00-series of Atom processors. One of the new models sports the 1.86GHz Atom D2500, while the other two comes with the 2.13GHz Atom D2700.

Starting at the bottom we have the AD2500B-ITX which is a rather plain, almost dull looking board with a large passive heatsink covering the CPU and a really tiny one covering the NM10 chipset. The board has, rather unusually a pair of SO-DIMM slots, although as the new Atoms can accept up to 4GB of RAM, albeit in single channel mode, the two slots are at least somewhat useful.

Theres also a pair of SATA 3Gbps ports, a single PCI slot and a pair of headers for four USB 2.0 ports. The rear I/O consists of a range or ports that feel more like 1991 than 2011 with two PS/2 ports, a serial port, a parallel port, a D-sub connector, four USB 2.0 ports, a 10/100Mbit Ethernet port and 5.1-channel audio via three jacks. Overall not the most impressive board weve seen recently.

Moving up we have the AD2700B-ITX which swaps in the Atom D2700 over the D2500, but its not the only change. Although the board layout remains identical to the AD2500B-ITX, the AD2700B-ITX was upgraded with both Gigabit Ethernet and a pair of USB 3.0 ports making it an interesting board for a home server.

The third and final board is the most interesting of the three and its called the AD2700-ITX, a confusing similar name, but an entirely different board in many ways. Although youd be forgiven for thinking its yet more of the same if you take a quick glance at the top down view of the board, ASRock has overhauled the rear I/O entirely.

Here were looking at a single PS/2 port, four USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, Gigabit Ethernet, 7.1-channel audio with optical S/PDIF out and a D-sub, DVI and HDMI port. The general board layout is otherwise mostly the same, although theres a pin-header for a parallel port and a serial port not present on the first two models, but thats the only difference we can spot. We checked the manual quickly as we wanted to find out about the display connectivity and the good news is that both the DVI and HDMI port can be used simultaneously. The manual also suggested that there might be a version with the Atom D2500 of this board, although without USB 3.0 and with slower 10/100Mbit Ethernet.

One funny thing in ASRocks specifications is with regards to the GPU which ASRock lists as “Built-in IntelPowerVR SGX545” which isnt entirely true as the GPU is by Imagination Technologies and Intel calls it the GMA 3650 or GMA 3600 depending on which processors were talking about. If nothing else, ASRock has at least triple confirmed things for us. Once again we dont have any word on availability and pricing, but wed expect these boards to be out shortly.

Source: ASRock



Thursday, 13 June 2013

At Least 3 ARMs In Apple iPhone

Warren East, president and chief executive officer of ARM Holdings plc, has confirmed that "at least three" processor cores developed at his company are present within the iPhone from Apple Inc. Further to an "email to the editor" which estimated that there may be three ARM processor cores in the Apple iPhone, reports came forward that the main CPU for the iPhone is a PXA320, formerly the Monahan applications processor from Intel, now supplied by Marvell. "ARM is in 90 percent of the world's [mobile phone] handsets; we're in WiFi, baseband processors and applications processors and most of the world's MP3 players. So it's at least three," East said.

Saturday, 8 June 2013

ASUS New Wireless amp; PDA products

ASUS today introduced the WL-600g, the WL-500W and the MyPal A639 GPS PDA. The WL-600g is an all-in-one device that incorporates ADSL modem, wireless router and ftp printer server functions, while the WL-500W Super Speed N multifunctional wireless router adopts the latest 802.11n draft to deliver high-speed data transfer and unparalleled interoperability between n-draft devices. It also incorporates Download Master and USB Plug-n’-Share features for convenient digital content downloads and sharing of printer, webcam and external hard drive functions.

The MyPal A639 GPS PDA comes equipped with 1GB large storage capacity built in and provides ample space for GPS maps and digital multimedia contents. The all-new handheld device also incorporates advanced wireless connectivity, including GPS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth v2.0, to provide total wireless freedom.

Sunday, 2 June 2013

Apple ordered to give HTC settlement details to Samsung

A judge has ordered Apple to hand over details of its settlement with HTC to rival Samsung, the latest victory for the South Korean electronics giant.

HTC settled with Apple earlier this month, carving out a ten-year deal to share each others patents. Details of the deal were not revealed, but analysts believe HTC was forced to pay out between $5 and $20 on each handset it creates.The exact nature of the settlement will now be disclosed to Samsungs lawyers, not the public at large, and it is expected that it will deal with some of the same patents at the heart of Samsungs own dispute with Apple.This will give Samsung an edge in any kind of negotiation to end the close to 20 lawsuits the companies are engaged in, but Samsung has previously indicated that it has no intention on settling, despite a whopping $1.05 billion damages payment it was ordered to pay to Apple earlier this year, a ruling it is now appealing.Apple has also had a run of bad luck with its legal battles, including losing an appeal in the UK and being forced to publish an apology on its website, not to mention a failed attempt to dismiss a case launched against it by Motorola, now owned by Google. This latest setback, however, could pave the way for even more losses on Apples side of the patent war.Source: BBC