From Acer

Acer Debuts the Aspire M5 Ultrabook

Once again Acer pushes the boundaries of mobile computing to the extreme and created a family of Ultrabooks that are destined to impress and leave a mark. The all new Aspire M5 series reaches unprecedented levels of performance, convenience, connectivity and battery life.

Simply thin and light and not compromising with 14" and 15" form factors, the Aspire M5 represents the new experience of instant use and anywhere mobility. The Aspire M5 series are stunning laptops from any point of view, starting from the ultra-thin and smart design all the way through the powerful processors and graphics, the advanced audio technology and the seamless connectivity.

   

The first thing that catches the eye is the new metallic silver of the top cover that blends with the revolutionary new display technology: this integrates the display frame, cutting the bezel thickness by a third to create a futuristic effect. The clean lines, the geometric shapes and smooth angles all conjure up a minimalistic and ultra-stylish look and feel.

The casual design houses powerful all-around performance features. Sharp graphics performance comes from the latest NVIDIA GeForce GT640M with 1 GB DDR5, supporting PhysX, which accelerates gaming detail of material and effects for fast and smooth image experience, and Microsoft DirectX 11 for film-like geometric detail, perfectly smooth curves, and life-like animation.

The Acer Aspire M5 Series is based on the third generation of Intel Core processors family, providing dynamic processing performance and speedier multitasking while consuming less power.

The overall experience is ultra-responsive. Acer Green Instant-On provides fast resume in 1.5 seconds from sleep mode. Likewise, Acer Instant Connect automatically scans and registers most-visited access points, letting users connect to the Internet in just 2.5 seconds, which is four times faster than conventional methods.

Acer leads the trend of thin and light: thus in around 20 mm thin form factor, the Aspire M5 still features an optical disc drive, backlit chiclet keyboard (14" and 15") with numeric keypad (15" only), which provides prosumer look and feel, easy-to-clean efficiency, and typing with comfort.

An ample hard disk drive offers plenty of space for large files, and an integrated solid state drive enables instant-on capability. An SSD-only configuration is also available. The highly durable SSD lets user access files faster, run the battery longer, and operate more quietly.

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HIS Readies Fanless Radeon HD 7750 iSilence 5 Graphics Card

HIS is ready with a fanless Radeon HD 7750 graphics card that utilizes the company's iSilence 5 cooling solution, which is used on the recently-launched HD 6670 iSilence 5. The cooler consists of a swanky-looking aluminum fin stack to which heat is conveyed by four 8 mm-thick nickel-plated copper heat pipes, which make direct contact with the GPU die. The heat is then passively dissipated by the aluminum fins.

The HIS Radeon HD 7750 iSilence 5 sticks to AMD reference clock speeds. The 28 nm "Cape Verde" GPU, in the HD 7750 configuration, packs 512 Graphics CoreNext stream processors, and a 128-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 1 GB of memory. The card relies on the PCI-Express slot entirely for its power. Display outputs include one each of dual-link DVI, HDMI, and DisplayPort. HIS is expected to unveil the card at Computex, after which, it joins the league of passive Radeon HD 7000 series graphics cards such as PowerColor HD 7750 Go Green and Sapphire HD 7750 Ultimate....More at HIS Readies Fanless Radeon HD 7750 iSilence 5 Graphics Card

More evidence of the new Ultrabooks on their way out.

HP Unveils New Ultrabooks, "Sleekbooks by Vivek Gowri

 

Posted in Mobile

At the 2012 Global Influencer Summit in Shanghai, HP announced a full slate of new thin-and-light and ultrabook systems, and we've gotten to go hands on with all of them.

The most important products of the lot are the new Envy ultrabooks and sleekbooks. Sleekbook is just a marketing term to describe notebooks that don't meet all of Intel's criteria for ultrabook classification due to CPU and storage component selection, but are otherwise identical to the ultrabook line, including sharing the same 19.8mm thick chassis.

Both of the model lines are available in 14" and 15.6" sizes, and feature Beats audio, glass trackpads with multitouch and gesture support, and optional backlit keyboards. The lid and palmrest are brushed aluminum, while the bottom of the notebook is a soft-touch plastic material. There are two color options - silver metal/black plastic, or a much more visually arresting black metal/red plastic model. The ultrabook lines are based on Intel's 3rd generation Core ultra-low voltage processors, similar to other ultrabooks, while the sleekbooks come with normal Ivy Bridge processors in the 14" or AMD"s Fusion APUs in the 15.6". The entire lineup has battery life quoted in the 8-9 hour range (depending on screen size and CPU choice). I suspect that the ultrabook and sleekbook versions of the will be mixed up very often (I saw some HP product managers confuse the different demo units more than once here in Shanghai), but what gets lost is that effectively, they're all just different flavors of the same notebook....More at HP Unveils New Ultrabooks, "Sleekbooks"

Here is a quick look from the market news

Intel(INTC) has seen tremendous growth over the past couple of decades, thanks to the proliferation of the personal computer and the firm's dominant position in x86 microprocessors. As the world's largest semiconductor company, Intel is an undisputed tech titan, but not all has been smooth sailing recently. The emergence of smartphones and tablets has raised questions about the future of the PC market, but more important, it has given rise to a new competitive threat from ARM Holdings (ARMH), whose processor designs populate most of these mobile devices.

Despite some of the negative headlines surrounding Intel, we believe the firm's wide economic moat is intact. While the rise of smartphones and tablets may bring some challenges to Intel's bread-and-butter PC microprocessor business, it also presents the firm with new growth opportunities....More at Wide-Moat Intel's Opportunities Outweigh Its Threats

AMD Appoints Colette LaForce as Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer

AMD announced today that Colette LaForce, 39, will join the company as senior vice president and chief marketing officer, reporting to President and Chief Executive Officer Rory Read. In her new role, LaForce will lead global integrated marketing for AMD, including marketing strategy, branding, internal and external communications, corporate events, sponsorships and entertainment marketing.

“Colette brings strong technology marketing and brand-building experience, a fresh perspective and a results-oriented approach that will strengthen AMD’s global marketing organization,” Read said. “Her deep expertise will accelerate the revitalization of the AMD brand, amplifying our voice in the marketplace while helping position the company for long-term growth.”

 

...More at (PR) AMD Appoints Colette LaForce as Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer

 

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AMD Pitcairn With 768 Shaders: What is This Mystery Chip?

 Igor Wallossek - source: Tom's Hardware DE

Tom's Hardware Germany got its hands on a prototype of a AFOX HD 7850, the world's first single-slot board with this chip, which ended up being more than meets the eye. Is it an unannounced GPU, or something that was never meant to ever leave the lab?

Our colleagues at one of our European labs were handed an early version of an AMD Pitcairn-based Radeon HD 7850. What made this AFOX unit special from the currently existing Radeon HD 7850 reference design that we've already peeled apart is that is it a single-slot solution as opposed to one that takes up two of your expansion spaces. Here is what comes up with plugging it into GPU-Z:

...More at AMD Pitcairn With 768 Shaders: What is This Mystery Chip?

 

 

Intel Plans Two Enterprise-Grade Pentium LGA1356 Processors

Intel is planning to launch its newest line of enterprise-grade Pentium processors. A little later this year, Intel will launch Xeon E5-4600 processors which are built in the LGA2011 package, and support quad-socket servers, followed by Xeon E5-2400, which will be built in the new LGA1356 package. Designed for 2-socket servers, LGA1356 is a new package that's roughly as big as LGA1366, but has an entirely different pin layout. It retains the 2-chip (processor+PCH) system layout, and has pins for a triple-channel DDR3 memory controller, 24 PCI-Express 3.0 lanes, and one QuickPath Interconnect link (compared to two links on the LGA2011), which lets the processor talk to its only neighbour.

The LGA1356 chips slated for a little later this year include the Pentium 1403 and Pentium 1407. The Pentium 1403 is clocked at 2.60 GHz, and the Pentium 1407 at 2.80 GHz. Both chips are dual-core, capable of single-socket operation only, but retain triple-channel DDR3 and 24 PCI-Express lanes support. Both chips pack 5 MB of L3 cache. Features such as HyperThreading, vPro, and Turbo Boost might not make it to these chips' feature-set. This Intel's second round of enterprise-grade Pentium processors in recent times....More at Intel Plans Two Enterprise-Grade Pentium LGA1356 Processors

 

Third GK104-based Single GPU Graphics Card SKU Detailed

After GeForce GTX 680, which has all components of the 28 nm GK104 enabled, a dual-GPU GeForce GTX 690, which features two of these chips, and the GeForce GTX 670, NVIDIA is readying its third single-GPU GK104-based SKU. We know from older reports that this SKU could be named GeForce GTX 660 (Ti). A fresh report suggests that it will be carved out by disabling an entire graphics processing cluster (GPC) on the GK104 silicon, resulting in a CUDA core count of 1152; reducing the memory bus width of 192-bit GDDR5; and most likely reducing the ROP count to 24. This SKU could be used to capture a price point of around US $249, targeting AMD's Radeon HD 7800 series.

...More at Third GK104-based Single GPU Graphics Card SKU Detailed

This Sunday an excert from anandtech.com for you. This looks like it could be a very tasty piece of kit for the serious player .......

The Monster 1.0 isn’t just about stuffing the latest and greatest parts into a small form factor. Intel’s new Ivy Bridge processor is socket compatible with Sandy Bridge chips, and since there are no dual-core IVB offerings right now Eurocom offers the Monster with either dual-core SNB or quad-core IVB—though you’ll have to wait a bit longer for the quad-core IVB option it seems. Since it uses the updated HM76 chipset, you also get native USB 3.0 ports. Let’s run through the supported components and options just to give you a taste of what Eurocom has to offer.

Eurocom Monster 1.0 Configuration Options
Processor	Core i7-3720QM (4x2.6-3.6GHz, 6MB L3, 22nm, 45W) Core i7-3610QM (4x2.3-3.3GHz, 6MB L3, 22nm, 45W) Core i7-2620M (2x2.7-3.4GHz, 4MB L3, 32nm, 35W) Core i5-2540M (2x2.6-3.3GHz, 3MB L3, 32nm, 35W) Core i5-2520M (2x2.5-3.2GHz, 3MB L3, 32nm, 35W) Core i5-2410M (2x2.3-2.9GHz, 3MB L3, 32nm, 35W)
Chipset	Intel HM76
Memory	Up to 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3-1600 (Two SO-DIMM slots, DDR3-1333 or DDR3-1600)
Graphics	Intel HD 4000 (16 EUs, DX11) on Ivy Bridge Intel HD 3000 (12 EUs, DX10) on Sandy Bridge NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 2GB DDR3 Optimus (384 CUDA cores, 850/1800MHz Core/Shader/RAM)
Display	11.6" Glossy 16:9 768p (1366x768) or 11.6" Matte 16:9 768p (1366x768) (AUO B116XW02)
Storage	120GB-600GB SSD (Intel or Micron) 500GB-750GB 7200RPM HDD 1TB 5400RPM HDD
Optical Drive	N/A
Networking	Gigabit Ethernet 802.11n WiFi (Intel or Bigfoot Killer) Bluetooth (Optional, depending on WLAN)
Audio	Stereo speakers Headphone and microphone jacks
Battery	6-cell, 62Wh
Front Side	Memory Card Reader
Left Side	2 x USB 3.0 Headphone jack Microphone jack HDMI 1.4a Exhaust vent VGA Gigabit Ethernet
Right Side	Kensington Lock 1 x USB 2.0 AC Power Connection
Back Side	N/A
Operating System	Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Windows 7 Professional 64-bit Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
Dimensions	11.48" x 8.28" x 0.51-1.48" (WxDxH) (287mm x 207mm x 12.7-37.1mm)
Weight	3.96 lbs (1.8kg)
Extras	1.3MP Webcam 83-Key Keyboard Flash Reader (MMC/SD/MS Pro) 90W Power Adapter
Pricing	Starting at $817 with i5-2410M (500GB HDD, 4GB RAM, and 1-year warranty) $2203 for High-End i7-2620M (240GB SSD, 8GB RAM, and 3-year warranty)

 

On the CPU front, even dual-core Sandy Bridge is plenty fast for most users, and what’s more Eurocom uses full voltage CPUs. That means even the minimum i5-2410M ought to give Alienware’s M11x a run for the money. (Granted, we haven’t seen any news on the M11x since the R3 version, and while we can still find it on Dell’s site, it’s a bit odd that it doesn’t show up at Alienware’s laptop page.) Looking at the heart of any gaming system, it’s the GPU that’ll really determine what will run well and how high you can crank the settings. With the Monster, NVIDIA’s Kepler GK107 chips look ready for mainstream gaming at the very least.

Pricing isn’t bad either for what we could see; the base model should perform reasonably well, especially if all you want is a petty gaming laptop; the only real upgrade we’d make for sure is on the RAM. We’d also look into the LCD upgrade, but $136 extra for what may or may not be a substantially better panel is a tough pill to swallow. If you need more CPU performance, you’ll have to wait for the Ivy Bridge options to show up, and we’d guess the i7-3720QM will be at least a $300 upgrade, but we’ll have to wait and see....More at Eurocom Monster 1.0: Gaming with Quad-Core IVB and Kepler at 11.6”