Fermi mass availability delayed to Q2

Nvidia's upcoming Geforce GTX 400 series was expected to release sometime in March. However, Nvidia claims the GTX 400 series will bereleased in Q1 2011 - which runs till April 30th, 2010. Reporters suggestmass availability has been delayed till Nvidia's Q2 FY2011, which runsfrom May 2010 to as late as 31st July 2010.

In addition to GTX 400,Nvidia's CEO, Jen-Hsun Huang claims Nvidia is all set to "launch acouple of Fermi products" that will span Geforce, Quadro and Tesla - allby July 2010. However, there are no plans to refresh the mainstreamGPUs any time in the near future.

Despite losing to ATI on all levels - whether performance, value, power efficiency or features - at the mainstream segment, Nvidia feels the Geforce 210/310 and GT 220/240 products are "really fabulous" and offers everything that mainstream consumers may need. Obviously, thanks to Nvidia's marketing, the "new" mainstream products still have strong demand, despite losing out to ATI's Radeon HD 5450/5570/5670 on all counts. In the end, we might be looking till well after Q2 FY2011, that is after July for mainstream derivatives of Fermi/GF100.

The Fermi saga just keeps traveling what looks like a near endless tunnel. Every time we see glimpses light, a new delay creeps in. It might be released in limited quantities by April, but realistically, we are looking at May for widespread availability. In the end, with Fermi, it will release when it will release - and those dates, as witnessed by past history, are most likely to change.

Reference: Xbitlabs

Exclusive MSI's GTX 560 cards pictured

Were only hours from the official launch of Nvidias upcoming GTX 560 GPU, the one without Ti on the end which is set to, well, compete with something or the other at a price point of $10-20 less than something else. Anyhow, weve gotten our hands on a couple of pictures of MSIs upcoming N560GTX Twin Frozr II cards, both of which look very similar to MSIs N560GTX-Ti Twin Frozr II, but not identical.

Were not quite sure why, but MSI seems to have added a small clamp on the rear part of the PCB that helps stabilize the GPU cooler. Oddly enough, the Ti versions dont have this little addition and were not quite sure why MSI has added, but there must be a reason for it. This is the only difference we managed to spot between the cards, but the real difference is of course inside the GPU itself.

The stock clocked card should have a core clock of 820MHz with the 336 shaders clocked at 1640MHz and the 1GB of GDDR5 memory at an effective speed of an even 4GHz. The GTX 560 GPU is said to have 32 ROPs and it retains the 256-bit memory interface. The N560GTX Twin Frozer II/OC is a little bit faster with a core clock of 870MHz which brings the shaders up to 1740MHz while the memory has been overclocked to 4080MHz.

Both cards have a pair of DVI ports and a mini HDMI port and MSI supplies a mini HDMI to HDMI adapter as well as a DVI to D-sub adapter with the cards. We found the N560GTX Twin Frozer II/OC listed on a European online retailer for €214.12 (S$380) which is only €9.16 (S$16) cheaper than the Ti version and with such a small price difference, its hard to see why anyone would go for the GTX 560 over the GTX 560 Ti.

Cypress New Universal Clock Gen

Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE: CY), a world leader in timing technologysolutions, today introduced the industry's first personal computer motherboardclock generator that supports multiple processors and chipsets. Cypress's newUniversal Clock Generator supplies timing signals for both Intel® P4 processorsand AMD K8 and next-generation processors, along with multiple chipsets fromIntel, VIA, and Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS). Users can choose the processorand chipset to support through pin selections on the device.

The new CY28551 device offers a number of advantages over clock solutionsdesigned specifically for a processor and chipset combination. Motherboardmanufacturers can greatly simplify their inventory requirements, and can makeadjustments to their product mix without the need for a different clock if achipset or processor is in short supply. In addition, designers can transfer thesame design and layout from one system to another using the new universal clock,reducing risk and saving design time and resources.

ASUSTeK Computer Inc., the world's leading provider of motherboards andnotebooks, worked with Cypress on the design of the new clock. ASUSTeK offeredmotherboard expertise, helping Cypress to define the part for maximumflexibility and performance.

"We have seen convergence in clock architectures supporting multiple chipsetsand platforms, driven by newer standards such as PCI Express," said S.Y. Shian,associate vice president of ASUSTeK. "The Universal Clock is a versatilesolution that leverages this trend, easing the process of board layout,termination and impedance matching over a variety of platforms. As the worldwideleader in motherboards, ASUSTeK is taking advantage of these features with newboards in development today."

"The motherboard expertise and market knowledge of ASUSTeK was instrumental inbringing this innovative solution to market," said Geoff Charubin, managingdirector of Cypress's PC Clock business unit. "We'd like to thank ASUSTeK forits collaboration, and we look forward to a strong partnership as ASUSTeK bringsleading-edge motherboards to market utilizing the Universal Clock."

The combinations of processors and chipsets supported by the Universal Clockappear below:

Processor
P4 K8
Chipset
Intel965(G, GC, GF, P), 948 ________
VIAPT890, PT890 Pro, PM890K8M890, K8T890Pro, K8T890, K8T900,K8N890
SiS 656, 656(FX, MX), 662, 670, 649MX 756FX, 761GX, 770

Product Features
The new device offers a variety of features, including:

· Easy configuration via hardware strapping
· Low power consumption for laptop applications
· Overclocking support for end-user modifications
· Low-power differential buffers for lower noise and better performance
· Watchdog timer with system reset for auto-reboot

"The Universal Motherboard Clock is a solution that showcases our strengths inthis market segment-system expertise, a broad and deep technical base, andexcellent customer relationships," said Elie Ayache, Cypress's marketingdirector for PC Clocks. "Working with a leader such as ASUSTeK has enabled us tointroduce a ground-breaking product that meets the needs of next-generation PCsystem design."

Availability
The Universal Clock is offered in a 64-pin QFN package (CY28551) and a 56-pinQFN (CY28551-3). High-volume pricing will be competitive with clocks designedspecifically for processor/chipset combinations. Samples of the new devices areavailable now, with full production expected later this month. A high-resolutionimage of the new product can be downloaded at www.cypress.com/universal-clock-photo.

Deepcool Preps Assassin CPU Cooler

Deepcool, manufacturer and provider of various thermal products for desktops, laptops and servers, is preparing to unleash the high performance Assassin CPU cooler - an Alpenfohn K2 lookalike.

The nickel plated boasts a twin tower design, eight 6mm copper heat-pipes, a copper base, uniquely shaped aluminum fins, and comes with two fans. The Assassin is compatible with all Intel LGA 775/ 1155/ 1156/ 1366 and AMD AM2/ AM2+/ AM3 processors.

News via [Softpedia]

DFI Showcases New Motherboards at Computex 2004

During Computex 2004, VR-Zone had the chance to visit DFI's booth in Hall 2. A total of 8 new motherboards were released.

The new LANPARTY Intel boards (925X-T2, 915P-T)will feature:Socket 775 platformKarajan 8-channel audio codecHigh speed GbE LAN on PCI Express busThe new LANPARTY AMD board (nF3 ULTRA-D) will feature:AMD 939 pin AMD64 platformKarajan 8-channel audio codecGbE PHY LAN by MarvellAs dor the INFINITY series, there will be two new models, 915P-T and 875P-T INFINITY, for P4 775-pin CPU platform and nF3 250Gb, K8T800 and K8M800 for AMD Athlon 64 754-pin CPU platform.

More photos of DFI's latest product offerings (which includes a barebone) can be found at VR-Zone's Computex 2004 Day 3 Report

ASUS Xonar D2 X Sound Card Details

We first broke the news about ASUSmaking sound cards over at CeBIT andDigiTimes followed up with an article yesterday stating Xonar D2X is usingCMedia sound chips instead of ADI we initially heard. If that the case, XonarD2/X is most probably based off C-MediaOxygen HDCMI8788 sound chip according to the specs we seen.

ASUS Xonar sound cards are primarily targeted at Gamers as well as Music andDigital Home users. There are two versions of cards but with the same specs;Xonar D2 is PCI based while D2X is PCI Express based. Xonar D2/X supports192K/24-bit with 118dB SNR for playback and 115dB SNR for recording. It supportsHW accelerated EAX 2.0 and OpenAL under Windows XP but not Windows Vista sinceHardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) is removed. Without that, games usingDirectSound3D will be rendered in software mode without EAX. It doesn't affectnew game titles since most of them run on OpenAL. Creative faced the sameproblem with their X-Fi sound cards therefore they have a ongoingALchemyproject to convert EAX into OpenAL so perhaps CMedia or ASUS can follow suit.

Other features include supports for Dolby Digital Live and DTS Connect toconvert gaming audio into Dolby Digital & DTS 5.1 channels surround signal forHome Theater systems. It also supports Dolby Headphone and Dolby Virtual Speakerto provide 3D sound positioning over headphones and speakers. ASUS promises theywill provide constantly updated drivers on both XP and Vista to the consumers.ASUS plans to ship 500K Xonar D2X sound cards in 2007.

ASUS Unveils New Eee PC, EeeTop and EeeBox Powered by NVIDIA ION

ASUS, one of the world’s leading PC OEMs and pioneer of the netbook category, has adopted award-winning NVIDIA® ION™ graphics for many of its top-selling “Eee” netbooks and nettop PCs.

The NVIDIA ION graphics processor transforms low-power PCs into versatile media and entertainment centers that support stutter-free HD video, games and video editing. ION delivers up to 10x faster graphics performance than comparable systems with Intel integrated graphics.

All of the NVIDIA ION-based PCs and motherboards from ASUS fully support Windows 7, which takes advantage of graphics processors to accelerate a variety of applications, freeing the CPU to handle other tasks.

The new ASUS products include:

• ASUS Eee PC 1201N: An incredibly fast netbook that combines NVIDIA ION graphics with a dual-core CPU to deliver a superior multimedia experience.
• ASUS EeeTop PC ET2002T: A stylish all-in-one PC featuring a 20-inch Touchscreen display and built-in DVD drive.
• ASUS EeeBox PC EB1012: The latest version of ASUS’s pioneering nettop delivers an incredible media experience with support for HD video, HDMI, and casual gaming.
• ASUS EeeBox PC EB1501: A full PC experience with built-in DVD burner, up to 4GB of memory, wireless connectivity and Windows 7 Home Premium.
• ASUS AT3N7A-I: A mini-ITX motherboard that is ideal for building a media centre, small form factor desktop, or home theater PC.

Jeff Fisher, senior vice president of the GeForce and ION business units at NVIDIA said, “ASUS has energized an entire line of netbooks and nettops with our NVIDIA ION GPU. High definition media, great gaming, and Windows 7 – with these PCs consumers can truly have it all.”

“Our new ION-powered Eee PCs will redefine netbook and nettop performance,” said Jerry Shen, CEO of ASUSTeK Computer Inc. “They deliver an outstanding HD experience that isn’t possible with today’s basic integrated graphics.”

Jon Peddie, an industry analyst who specialises in graphics research, said, “ASUS is a leader in small form factor PCs, and this step shows that they are aware of the importance of great graphics, even for netbooks and nettops. These PCs will run circles around most Atom-based systems, so they are an excellent solution.”

ION graphics deliver a premium experience in small, low-powered PCs with support for:

• All versions of Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7
• Outstanding HD video including 1080p and Blu-ray*
• Smooth streaming video with the upcoming Flash Player 10.1
• Digital connectivity to an external monitor via HDMI
• Mainstream games including Spore, The Sims, UP, and LEGO games
• Hardware acceleration for NVIDIA® CUDA™ architecture-based applications such as vReveal, Badaboom, Arcsoft Total Media Theater, and Super LoiLoscope
• 24-bit 8-channel LPCM uncompressed audio through HDMI