Just after Microsoft decided to continue Windows XP support up to 2010, Bill Gates last Friday indicated that the next major Windows version, Windows 7 will be in first testing phases within next year. So far, there are no certain information bout Vista successor, but as Microsoft already planned Windows 7 will be released three years after Vista launch, which is 2010.
AMD today announced that ATI FireGL V7700 received DisplayPort certification badge making it first DisplayPort-equipped card for the professionals. The ATI FireGL V7700 features PCI Express 2.0 interface, 10 bit display engine, 512MB of onboard memory, dual-link DVI connector and support for CAD / DCC projects. The ATI FireGL V7700 3D workstation graphics accelerator card is expected to begin shipping in April 2008 and will be available from system integrators and AMD channel partners worldwide, with expected price of $1,099 bucks.
Sony has unveiled new music player Rolly with interesting design. Available in various colors this cutie has 1GB of storage space for your music, support for ATRAC3/ATRAC3plus/MP3/AAC formats, and two tiny speakers 20 mm in diameter and 180 degrees opposed to the left and right ends of device and it can dance in the rhythm of music you are playing. Also, it is equipped with Bluetooth and A2DP/AVRCP. You can get it from April 19th in Japan for ¥40,000, about $400 bucks. Curious to see what how does it work? Check out the video.
Microsoft’s super cool Surface technology is what we all expect to see in hands and now we have some new info. Tom Gibbons, the MS VP in charge of Specialized Devices and Applications said that Microsoft will not release Surface anytime before 2011 and still there is no special testing versions for T-Mobile and Harrah even that already have been seen some promotional appearances. In case you are new, Surface is a computer built into a coffee table, and its 30-inch screen is controlled by touch rather than by a mouse or keyboard the commercial version will be priced between $5,000 and $10,000.
Development company Nanochip Inc has unveiled new array-based memory technology that will allow production of 1TB memory chips. The engineering team has worked almost 12 years on this development and now looks like they made final product that will be in production next year. The company has being funded by number of large tech giants including Intel and as expected this array-based memory technology will improve all present IT solutions from USB keys, SSDs and enterprise-grade servers.
Intel is announced that their research teams work on six core server CPU platforms based on 45 nm Penryn architecture. The new processors will have name Nehalem and will improve the performance and energy with new Simultaneous Multithreading (SMT) technology so each core would process two threads at a time, not alternately like hyperthreading but truthfully at the same time. Also the microarchitecture bent on delivering an 8 MB level-3 cache, DDR3-800 memory support, 25.6GB per second Quickpath interconnects, an integrated memory controller and optional integrated graphics to high-end servers and eventually laptops. First models are expected at the end of this year.
AMD has more goodies to show at CeBIT this week. Yesterday the company unveiled new 45nm quad-core processors that can run multiple operating systems and a range of processing intensive applications. We don’t have much info about this presentation, just that two demonstrated processors are named “Shanghai” for servers and “Deneb” for desktops and both were produced in Germany. Stay tuned for more details.
Researchers at Melbourne University have designed new wireless chip with 5Gbps transfer rates over 10 meter distance. With this speed HD movie can be transferred between two devices in couple seconds. Chip itself measures 5 mm and manufactured with CMOS technology. Each chip uses less than 2 watts of power and uses 1 mm wide antenna. GiFi, how researchers called new technology, will cost about $10 each and can be used in consumer goods where large multimedia files can be transferred with hi speed. First commercial products with GiFi can be expected next year.
Sharp engineering team has developed new type of blue laser. Sharp’s new GH04P25A4G semiconductor laser maintain same 3.3 mm diameter as previous but manges to boost the power to 250mW. This advancement could manage to make 6x recording speeds to dual-layer Blue-ray media in laptops. Also similar 5.6-mm GH04P25A2G model has been announced for desktops. Both models are expected to ship in April for $462 bucks.
Blu-ray, HD-DVD war is still not over but we got info that Khosla Ventures along with Soraa is working on developing a new successors of the technology. So far we only know that researchers are exploring ways to “exploit gallium nitride, which is also the basis for existing blue LEDs and blue lasers.” Apparently, they would like to concoct suitable replacements for conventional LEDs in the lighting market and make a showing in the optical data storage arena.
