AMD's A-series of Fusion APU's finally launches

Although we expected AMD to announce its A-series of APUs first at Computex and then at E3, it seems like weve finally gotten there as today is D-dayuhm, A-day(?). AMD has launched no less seven mobile parts today, although so far the desktop models have as yet to make an official appearance.

The specifications leaked yesterday, courtesy of none other than AMD itself, but specs alone doesnt tell the whole story. AMDs APUs have been a long time coming and the really big question is if theyll live up to everyones expectations. AMD is making some bold claims, least not in terms of battery life where the company is promising up to 10.5h of usable battery life. In fact, AMD claims that its A8-3510MX APU has 3.5h better battery life than a similar notebook with Intels Core i5-2401M processor.

Where we dont doubt AMD is when it comes to graphics performance, as the company has always had a huge lead here over Intel, but AMD has thrown in a few new features that should further boost the appeal of its APUs. First up AMD has added what the company called Perfect Picture HD which is a post-processing option for cleaning up 1080p video, a feature that might prove popular with people shooting their on HD home videos. The second feature, called Steady Video is rather quite impressive though as you can see in the video below from Engadget, it actually pre and post processes the video to reduce camera shake and it even works with online videos.

As always, AMD is being very competitive on price and the company is expect notebook with its new APUs to start at US$499 with an A4 APU, whereas with an A6 were looking at around US$599 and finally A8 models will come in at around US$699. Of course these are best case scenarios and wed expect a lot more expensive machine to be available as well, depending on configuration. For those looking for a boost to the graphics performance beyond the APUs integrated solution, AMD supports CrossFire on the platform and claim up to a 75 percent performance boost for its discrete mobile GPUs when pairing them up with an APU. Were going to have to hold off on making any judgements until we get some units in for review, but at least on paper it looks like AMD could have a real winner on its hands here.

ASUS EAX1800XT TOP Version

ASUS has unveiled EAX1800XT Top version touted to be the firstto breach 10,000 in 3DMark05. It features an higher clocked X1800 XT running at650MHz core and 1550MHz memory where the reference card runs at 625MHz / 1500MHzclock speed. The card sports a new cooling design with a black coolingdesign which is said to improve the heat dissipation from the pure copperheatsink.

Asus teases the Eee Pad Transformer 2 tablet

In a short 22 second video posted on YouTube, Asus has revealed the first glimpse of its upcoming Eee Pad Transformer 2 tablet which is rumoured to be powered by Nvidias upcoming quad core Tegra 3 SoC. The video doesnt really give away much in terms of details and as a teaser it sure has our interested piqued.What you can tell from the few short glimpses of the tablet itself is that Asus has been hard at work to create something a lot more professional looking that its first Transformer tablet, as the Transformer 2 has a brushed metal finish which in the video appears to be a pinkish purple, although we have a feeling that this isnt the actual colour of the tablet. The new finish isnt the only change though as it appears that were looking at a much thinner tablet this time around with styling similar to that of Asus recently launched Zenbooks.The keyboard dock is of course making a return and it too appears to have been given a few tweaks to go better with the redesigned tablet part. The only connectivity option we know for sure is present is a single USB 2.0 port which is seen in the video. The tablet itself appears to have been given a new camera with a single LED flash which can also be seen in the video. Well simply have to wait for more details on the new Eee Pad Transformer 2 before we can say with a certainty what it will come with or not, but wed expect that Asus will continue to throw teasers at us ahead of the launch which is expected to take place sometime between now and the end of November.

Asus' AMD 900-series motherboard specs unveiled

When it rains, it pours and the leaks about AMDs upcoming 900-series of AM3+ chipsets are now appearing on a daily basis. A detailed spec sheet of Asus six upcoming AMD 900-series chipset motherboards have tipped up on a Swedish website and although we have no idea what any of the boards except the already leaked M5A99X EVO will look like, we do at least know what features theyll come with.

So first up we have three AMD 970 boards, all three are full ATX boards and all three has a pair of x16 slots configured in x16 and x4 mode. The entry level model is the M5A97 which has a 4+2 VRM design and it has six SATA 6Gbps ports and three headers for six USB 2.0 ports as far as internal connectors are concerned. Around the back were looking at two USB 3.0 ports, six USB 2.0 ports, 7.1-channel audio and Gigabit Ethernet. This board doesnt feature Digi+VRM , but has all of the other common Asus features.

Next up we have the M5A97 Pro and Evo, both featuring a 6+2 phase Digi+ VRM design, six intenral SATA 6Gbps ports, three headers for six internal USB 2.0 ports and the EVO model also has an internal pin header for two USB 3.0 ports and a FireWire port. Around the back we have two USB 3.0 ports, eight USB 2.0 ports, two eSATA ports, Gigabit Ethernet and 7.1-channel audio with the EVO board also sporting a FireWire port.

The M5A99X EVO weve already seen thanks to the leaked image on Thursday, although it seems like we got a couple of specs slightly wrong. It turns out that the board has two internal SATA 3Gbps ports, not two SATA 6Gbps ports as we thought. It also has a rear eSATA and an eSATAp (powered eSATA/USB combo port), but the rest was pretty much spot on except the VRM design which is 6+2 rather than 8 phases.

On the high-end side we have the TUF Sabertooth 990FX which as the name gives away is based on the 990FX chipset. Here were looking at an 8+2 Digi+ VRM design, four x16 PCI Express slots in a dual x16 or x16 plus dual x8 and a x4 slot. Internally we again have six SATA 6Gbps ports, two SATA 3Gbps ports, headers for four USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports and a FireWire port. Around the back the board has two USB 3.0 ports, 10 USB 2.0 ports, one eSATA, one eSATAp, Gigabit Ethernet, a FireWire port and 7.1-channel audio. Special features includes a return of Asus CeraM!X heatsinks, the TUF Thermal Radar, the various TUF components and a range of other more or less important stuff.

Finally we have the ROG Crosshair V Formula which as expected is the top of the range board, which is another 990FX board. We have the same slot configuration here as on the TUF board with four x16 slots in either dual x16 or x16 plus dual x8 and one x4 slot. On-board connectors consist of seven SATA 6Gbps ports and two front USB 3.0 ports. Around the back we have four USB 3.0 ports, 12 USB 2.0 ports, although one of them is dedicated to ROG connect, one eSATAp 6Gbps port, Intel powered Gigabit Ethernet and 7.1-channel audio with SupremeFX X-Fi 2. This board will also ship with Asus ROG ThunderBolt and comes with all the usual ROG features youd expect to find.

Overall a pretty decent line-up of boards, well just have to wait and see what the final boards look like. Its anyones guess what these boards will be priced at, but were hearing rumours of some very and we mean VERY competitive pricing on AMDs upcoming AM3+ CPUs in as much as youll get an eight core AMD CPU for about the same price youd pick up a Core i7 2600K. That sounds like a pretty good bargain to us, especially as most of the other CPUs will be priced lower than that.

Source: Sweclockers

ASUS Launches Silent and Effective Thermal Solution for Latest Graphics Cards

SilentCool Technology Offers Fanless Design to Deliver High-Performance Cooling at 0dB

Taipei, Taiwan; July 25, 2005 – ASUSTeK Computer Inc. (ASUS), a leading provider of graphics solutions, today introduced SilentCool Technology, a fan-less, noiseless cooling solution for high-performance graphics cards. The all-new thermal innovation operates at 0db for silent operation and reduces GPU (graphics processing unit) by 40 C compared with competing cooling technologies.

“In the past, enhanced video capability also comes with louder noise. With ASUS SilentCool Technology, users can now enjoy high-performance graphics card applications without hearing the noisy cooling fan rotation,” said Kent Chien, Director of ASUS Graphics Business.

To provide a fan-less, noiseless thermal solution that also enables high-performance graphics performance, ASUS incorporated several unique innovations.

Larger and efficient heat exchange area

SilentCool included the large heatsink design, which significantly increases heat exchange area for absorbing heat away from the GPU. The hidden heat pipe and stacked fins, both made of copper (a very effective heat conductor), then conduct heat away from the heatsink for fast heat dissipation. SilentCool is similar to technologies used in processor coolers, and reduces GPU temperature by 40 C compared with thermal solutions for competing graphics cards.

Unique mechanical designs

The stacked copper fins are positioned on a unique joint design, which enables the fins to rotate 90 . Depending on the locations of critical components such as the CPU, mosfets or capacitors etc., users can rotate the fins away from these areas for optimal heat dissipation. An additional cooling module attached to the heatsink and extends to the exterior of the PC further lowers GPU temperature by another 6 C.

Currently, SilentCool is available on ASUS Extreme N6600GT Silencer graphics card. More ASUS graphics solutions will implement this exclusive technology.

Apple suspends iPhone 4S sales in China due to unrest

Apple has suspended sales of its iPhone 4S in mainland China after violence and vandalism broke out at its flagship store in Beijing.

The Chinese launch of Apples latest smartphone was expected to go ahead today, but as demand skyrocketed past supply Chinese police ordered that the store in the Sanlitun district of Beijing remain shut to avoid unrest.Unfortunately this had the opposite effect, with people who had been camping out all night becoming frustrated with the news. Eggs were thrown at the Apple stores glass windows and people shoved police.Part of the problem is due to scalpers, who are paying people to buy the device for them, which they then resell at inflated prices. People working for these scalpers were told they would get the equivalent of around $16, but since the sales did not go ahead, they will be lucky to get a tenth of that as a food allowance, despite spending the night in the cold.The incident caused Apple to postpone sales of the iPhone 4S in all five of its Chinese stores, which will likely only exacerbate the situation. The device can still be bought online, however, or through authorised resellers.The Sanlitun store was previously the location of similar violence when the iPad 2 was released, resulting in the smashing of a glass door and four people being injured. Until supply meets demand we can likely expect similar incidents in the future.Source & Image Credit: New York Times