Corsair announces the market availability of the 180GB and 240GB capacities Force Series GT SATA 6.0 Gb/s SSDs. These models join the 60GB and 120GB Force Series GT models already on the market. They utilize the SandForce SF-2280 controller with native support for SATA 6Gb/s (SATA 3). They are backward compatible with SATA 3Gb/s, and include an 3.5-inch adapter for use in desktop PCs.

The drives utilize ONFI synchronous flash memory. Their performance numbers according to Corsair: Sequence read/write speeds of up to 555 MB/s  read — 525 MB/s write based on ATTO benchmark, along with 85,000 IOPS (4k aligned) based on IOMeter 08. The new Force Series GT SSD models are available from authorized distributors and retailers worldwide at a U.S. suggested retail price of $379 for the 180GB model, and $489 for the 240GB model.

SOURCE via Corsair

Intel used such a technology, called Speedstep, since 2000, but is now being asked to pay damages, license fees, and attorney’s fees in a patent infringement suit.

The suit was filed by Frisco, Texas-based Power Management Systems, which claims rights to a patent that describes a “power management apparatus collocated on the same integrated circuit as the functional unit that it manages.”

The patent was filed in January 1994 by Dublin, California-based Electronics Products Company and was granted in April of 1996. There was no information how that patent found its way to Power Management Systems and why the patent infringements complaints are now filed more than 10 years after Intel introduced this technology in its products. It is interesting to note that the plaintiff does not target the entire processor line of Intel, but just the Atom 600-series of CPUs.

However, the case could set precedence and may only be limited because of simplicity and cost reasons at this time. If a patent violation is confirmed, Intel (and others) may be on the hook for substantial damages and license payments. Regardless, it’s unlikely that Freescale, Marvell and Intel will simply roll over and pay.

SOURCE via Conceivably Tech

Crucial has issued a firmware update for its m4 series of SSDs and promises a range of performance improvements beyond your normal firmware fixes. The company is claiming up to a 20 percent performance increase in sequential read speeds.  It is like “having your cake and eating it too” – You get those little firmware bugs fixed and you get a nice performance increase for free.

SSDs rely heavily on their firmware for their performance, along with controller-related features such as Garbage Collection, Wear-leveling, to name a couple. Other improvements in the firmware upgrade includes; increased throughput performance, lower write latency, improved chipset compatibility, improvement for cold boot failures, and faster boot up time. The firmware comes through an ISO image that is installed through a CD or DVD. (This is one area I would’ve like to see Crucial take a page from OCZ and provide its firmware updates from a “Crucial Toolbox”.)

Crucial’s Official Release Notes:

Release Date: 08/25/2011

Change Log:

• Changes made in version 0002 (m4 can be updated to revision 0009 directly from either revision 0001 or 0002)
• Improved throughput performance.
• Increase in PCMark Vantage benchmark score, resulting in improved user experience in most operating systems.
• Improved write latency for better performance under heavy write workloads.
• Faster boot up times.
• Improved compatibility with latest chipsets.
• Compensation for SATA speed negotiation issues between some SATA-II chipsets and the SATA-III device.
• Improvement for intermittent failures in cold boot up related to some specific host systems.

Firmware Download: Crucial

Later this year, Intel will launch the Romley-EP dual-socket platform, comprised of 17 different E5-2600 models. The E5-2600 line-up will consist of 2, 4, 6 and 8 cores, operating at frequencies up to 3.3 GHz, and featuring up to 20 MB of L3 cache. They will be supported on the LGA 2011 socket.

Xeon E5-2600 series is going to have eight 8 cores (16 threads) with 20 MB of L3 cache. In this processor family are the Xeon E5-2650, E5-2650L, E5-2660, E5-2665, E5-2670, E5-2680, E5-2687W and E5-2690. The fastest 8-core Xeon, the E5-2687W, is clocked at 3.1 GHz with a 150 W TDP.

There will be five 6-core (12 threads) chips with 15 MB of L3 cache: the Xeon E5-2620, E5-2630, E5-2630L, E5-2640 and E5-2667. These chips will run at frequencies ranging from 2 GHz to 2.9 GHz.

There will be three 4-core chips with 10 MB of L3 cache. The processors are Xeon E5-2643, E5-2603 and E5-2609. The E5-2643 has the highest core frequency of 3.3 GHz in the whole line-up and will have Hyper-Threading and Turbo Boost.

The two entry-level Xeons, E5-2603 and E5-2609, on the other hand, do not support Hyper-Threading and Turbo Boost technologies. The 2603 and 2609 chips are clocked at 1.8 GHz and 2.4 GHz, have a TDP of 80 Watt and have a maximum supported DDR3 memory data rate of 1066 MHz.

Xeon E5-2637 is a dual-core CPU with 3 GHz clock speed, 5 MB L3 cache, and 80 Watt TDP.

Specifications of all upcoming E5-2600 processors are provided in the table below:

AMD’s Bulldozer is one of the most highly-anticipated CPU architectures in recent memory. For those who are eager for more info on this new processor design, some new slides outlining Zambezi for the Socket AM3+ platform recently surfaced.

Breaking down the eight-core “Bulldozer” die, we find four modules that are each composed of two cores. Each module packs 2 MB L2 cache for a total of 8 MB. The is also an integrated Northbridge that contains 8 MB of L3 cache, two 72-bit DDR3 memory channels and four 16-bit receive/16-bit transmit HyperTransport links.

From the slides, we also see how Turbo Core will behave in Bulldozer. When the CPU’s workload is within the TDP headroom, there is no core boost activity. When there is TDP headroom in given a workload, the Turbo Core kicks in and increases clock speed across the board. Conversely, when there is a lightly threaded workload, half the modules go into C6 sleep state, and the remaining cores get clocked up higher for better performance.

See the full deck of slides at Computerbase.

It’s been a long time since Intel tried to tempt the world with a new Itanium chip. The VLIW 64-bit processor last received a serious update in 2008, with the 2-billion transistors Tukwila. Now Chipzilla is upping the ante — moving to 32nm process, adding up to four more cores, and tacking on more than one billion additional transistors. Poulson also adds a new feature called Intel Instruction Replay Technology, which adds a buffer for more quickly recovering from errors, allowing the chip to pick up from the last known good instruction instead of having to completely flush the pipeline. Those looking to upgrade will also be happy to hear that the upcoming IA-64 CPU is pin compatible with Tukwila, so customers can simply drop the new processor in to existing systems.

SOURCE via Anandtech

Hoping for some new development from camp Intel about their much-improved Atom processor? Well, hold your breath longer. DigiTimes is reporting that the next-gen Atom chip has been pushed back from its anticipated September launch to November. Apparently Chipzilla is having issues with the graphics drivers and has been unable to pass Windows 7 certification. The new low-power CPUs should still be ready in time for the holiday season though, and will likely find their way into plenty of netbooks that almost nobody will buy.

SOURCE via Anandtech

AMD has given its APUs some healthy refresh, much needed from what we see. The updated “Zacate” and “Ontario” APUs sport DDR-1333 and HDMI 1.4a support, snaring bragging rights to faster memory and 3D output for 3D-enabled televisions. The new chips also promise an increased resting battery life — up to 10.5 hours for the E-Series, and a staggering 12 hours on the C-Series. Although it didn’t name any specific manufacturers, AMD says that machines rocking the new APUs are available starting today.

Because 30GB and 60GB are just too small, while 120GB is just too much and too expensive. So, the company has unveiled two middling models that might be just right. We begin with the 90GB Force 3, which wields 550MB/s reads and 500MB/s writes at a $159 price point.

For an additional $40, you can bump speeds up by 5MB/s on both counts with the identically sized Force GT. Just like their smaller and larger brethren, the two additions tote SandForce SF-228x controllers as they haul bits over SATA 6Gbps.

The Corsair 90GB Force GT SSD is available immediately, though you’ll need some luck to find one.

SOURCE via Anandtech

The new ROG MARS II picks up where previous graphics card powerhouses from ASUS ROG left off, and continues the legacy of the finest hardware for hardcore gamers. The limited-edition card is built on twin NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 GPUs and a mammoth 3GB of GDDR5 video memory, with a proprietary ROG design that combines extreme cooling and extensive tuning facilities that cater to the most demanding power user. It also offers colossal pixel-pushing output that is unmatched by any graphics card.

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