Xbox 360 updates will focus on TV

The new Microsoft Xbox 360 update is yet another step towards the company's vision of an integrated entertainment solution. Now, the Xbox Kinect lets you control your television with voice and gesture too. A slew of new content providers will bring a new lease of life to the aging system.

 

Microsoft has announced the much anticipated update to their Xbox 360 dashboard interface which allows users to use voice commands and evoke actions such as ‘pause’ or ‘play’ on the television, as well as voice search on the Internet for relevant videos, music, and games, amongst other content. The upgrade also enables gesture control which allows scrolling across options with the wave of the hand. These new capabilities come with refreshing visual layout, inspired by Windows Phone.

With a new range of 40 over content providers supporting Xbox 360 such as online movie rental portal LOVEFiLM and Internet television Sky Go, consumers will find it hard to be at a lack of entertainment options despite the ommision of live television. Microsoft says: “a new technological era in live TV in the home where the user becomes the remote control through voice and gesture control”, and added that “the new software update will create the biggest interactive TV service in the world”.  

The updates will be served on 6th December.

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Notebooks with AMD Radeon HD 7600M Listed

The first 28nm GPUs have been listed by HP and Asus, to feature in their upcoming notebooks. The listed GPUs are Radeon HD 7670 and Radeon HD 7690 - both based on the Thames XT chip. HP has also listed drivers for Radeon HD 7470 on their website, on the eve of the London media event for AMD's London series of Radeon HD 7000M GPUs. 

The Thames XT chip features 128-bit GDDR5 memory. PCGamesHardware suggests it utilizes the VLIW-4 architecture, while other rumours point to a GCN based London series. HP Envy 17-3030ew features Radeon HD 7690M with 1GB GDDR5, working with a Core i7 Sandy Bridge based quad-core CPU. The Asus X53TK-SX058V is a more budget oriented notebook, featuring Radeon HD 7670M in addition to a Llano APU.
AMD is expected to officially announce the London - branded Radeon HD 7000M - series today at a media event in London. All evidence point to the London series to be the first 28nm GPUs to launch, and also sets the scene for their desktop counterparts - Southern Islands - in early 2012. 

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Rumour: AMD preparing Radeon HD 6930

 Not to be outdone by NVIDIA's recent GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 Core release, AMD is preparing a salvaged GPU of their own. According to reports from Chinese forums, the new card will be branded Radeon HD 6930, and based on Cayman. The HD 6930 will fill in the gap between HD 6870 and HD 6950, and will retail in the $180-$200 price range.  

HD 6930 cuts down 2 more SIMDs over HD 6950, leaving only 20 of 24 Cayman's SIMDs ienabled. This translates to 1280 SP and 80 TMU. ROPs and memory are left untouched to 32 and 256-bit respectively. The 6930 features a downclock to 750 MHz, with 1GB or 2GB GDDR5 clocked at 4.8 GHz. The TDP is not mentioned, but should requires 2x PCI-e connectors, suggesting a TDP of over 150W. 

 

Both pice and performance are expected to fill the gap between HD 6870 and HD 6950. In doing so, it will also fill in the gap between GTX 560 and GTX 560 Ti. 

 

HD 6930 will surely be the last HD 6000 series product to release, with HD 7000 series rumoured to be announced on ecember 5th. Like the GTX 560 Ti 448, the 6930 is most likely to be a limited edition SKU. Judging by AMD's past history, there's a good chance that the HD 6930 will be China-exclusive or otherwise available in limited regions. 

 

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Global external disk storage market grows 10.8 per cent in Q3

The global external disk storage market has seen revenue growth of 10.8 per cent in the third quarter of this year, according to a report by the International Data Corporation (IDC).

The external disk storage systems industry made roughly $5.8 billion in revenue for the third quarter, making up the largest chunk of the $7.6 billion in revenue made in the overall disk storage sector.

 

Much of the strong growth was attributed to increasing demand for external storage amongst businesses, which IDC believes marks a return to a business as normal scenario for companies that were previously struggling to cope financially. However, it said that this high growth is likely to slow and return to the same levels seen before the global economic crisis.

 

 

EMC experienced third quarter growth of 22 per cent year on year, with revenue up from $1.351 billion to $1.649 billion. Its market share also grew from 25.9 percent to 28.6 percent.

 

IBM saw a slight decline in market share from 12.8 per cent in the third quarter of 2010 to 12.7 per cent this year, but revenue was up from $667 million to $735 million.

 

NetApp was in joint second place with a 16.5 per cent increase in revenue in the third quarter, up from $601 million to $700 million. Its market share grew from 11.5 percent to 12.1 percent.

 

HP was next with a 13.1 percent increase in year on year revenue for the third quarter, up from $575 million to $651 million. It also saw a marginal increase in market share from 11 percent to 11.3 percent.

 

Hitachi and Dell were almost neck and neck in terms of revenue and market share, which were $505 million and $459 million, and 8.8 percent and eight percent respectively. However, revenue growth was significantly different, as Hitachi saw an increase of 22.1 per cent, while Dell saw a 2.6 per cent drop instead. Market shares also differeed, with Hitachi gaining 0.8 percent, while Dell dropped a whole percentage point compared to this time last year.

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Samsung Looks Ahead With "Optical Sensor In Pixel" LCD Panels

Ever heard of an Optical Sensor in Pixel panel? Now you have. Samsung just announced that it began mass production of 40-inch 'Optical Sensor in Pixel' LCD panels, which feature highly advanced optical sensors, in November this year.

The Optical Sensor in Pixel LCD panel detects reflected images of an object on the panel using Infrared sensors that are built into the panel. With optical sensor in each pixel of the panel, the new panel can much more accurately assess touch sensitivity compared to existing touch panels.

Using next-generation image sensing technology, the Optical Sensor in Pixel panel can detect more than 50 touch points simultaneously and can display images with Full HD resolution and wide-angle viewing.

All of the input functions of a keyboard, mouse or scanner can be carried out on the panel itself. The panel can be installed in a variety of applications including table top and wall-mounted types. Its tempered glass is strong enough to withstand external loads over 80 kilograms.

As the panel can perform touch and multi-touch sensing and image display simultaneously, it represents a new paradigm for massively interactive communications, compared to the one-way communication of today's kiosk touch panels.

Samsung's 'optical sensing per pixel' technology can perform accurate image sensing without interrupting the image signals displayed on the panel, so it should be well received by many types of professional consultants including stock brokers and financial analysts. Also, it can be handily used in eDesk applications for schools or business conference rooms.

The Optical Sensor in Pixel LCD panel has been installed in 'Samsung SUR40 for Microsoft Surface', a table-type PC product, co-developed by Samsung Electronics and Microsoft®. SUR40 has been available for pre-order since last month.

"Our Optical Sensor in Pixel panel has overcome the limitations of touch functionality that have hampered the effectiveness of most interactive displays," said Younghwan Park, senior vice president of sales and marketing team, Samsung Electronics LCD Business. "With the world's first mass production of an Optical Sensor in Pixel LCD, Samsung Electronics has set its sights on taking the lead in the global interactive display market," he added.

Hard to say if this stuff will ever skip beyond Surface and touch more mainstream gadgets, but we're pretty sure Samsung didn't make these kinds of investments for nothing.

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Hard Drive Shortage Takes Toll on Built-to-Order iMacs

If you're trying to configure an iMac system to arrive in time for the holiday season, you'll have to cap your storage at 1TB. Next day shipping is available on iMacs with a 1TB mechanical hard drive, 256GB solid state drive, or 1TB HDD + 256GB SSD from the Apple Store, but if you choose one of the 2TB HDD options, you'll have to wait 5-7 weeks for it to ship. That would put the arrival date at anywhere from the middle to end of January.

Such a long lead time isn't par for course when ordering an iMac, but apparently even Apple can't escape the ripple effects of recent flooding in Thailand. The overseas floods ravaged the hard drive industry, ultimately resulting in a shortage of HDDs, higher prices, and in cases like this, long delays, at least for home consumers.

Those in need of a workstation-class machine can order a Mac Pro from Apple with up to four 2TB hard drives and it will ship in 3-5 business days. This tells us that whatever remaining stock of 2TB hard drives Apple is sitting on, it's being set aside for business clientele.

Back in October, Apple CEO Tim Cook admitted he was "concerned" about the hard drive shortage, but also said he wasn't sure how it would affect Apple.

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WD Resumes Production of Hard Disk Drives in Thailand.

Western Digital Corp. on Friday said that this week it resumed production of hard disk drives (HDDs) in one of its factories in Thailand ahead of schedule. The company expects to restart production of HDD head sliders in Q1 2011. Besides, the firm said its profitability – with the exclusion of the “unusual costs” and “arbitration decision” will be higher than expected.

WD restarted production of hard drives this week in one of its buildings in Bang Pa-in (BPI), Thailand, one week ahead of internal schedules. This facility had been submerged in some six feet (1.8 meters) of water since October 15, the estate was pumped dry on November 17, main power was restored on November 26 and production restarted November 30.

The company removed all submerged slider manufacturing equipment from the BPI facilities for assessment, decontamination and refurbishment and has commenced decontamination and restoration of its remaining buildings in BPI.


Western Digital expects to recommence head slider production in BPI in the Q1 2012 quarter (Q3 FY2012) and also begin production in a new WD slider fab location in Penang, Malaysia, in the same time frame.

The company's other Thailand hard drive facilities at Navanakorn remain under approximately two feet of water. The industrial estate is expected to be pumped dry within ten days at which point the work of decontamination and refurbishment will commence.

“The passion, perseverance, ingenuity and execution exhibited by the WD team has been extraordinary and enabled us to make substantial progress in partially restoring our operations in Thailand, well in advance of our earliest expectations when the floods hit. Much work remains to be done but we couldn't be more pleased with the effort and results thus far, including tremendous support from our supply partners and strategic customers,” said John Coyne, president and chief executive officer of WD.

For the December quarter, the company now expects revenue of at least $1.8 billion and gross margins above the high end of its business model range of 18% to 23%, and operating expenses of approximately $265 million, exclusive of unusual charges related to the floods, acquisition-related expenses and litigation. Unusual charges related to the floods are expected to be in the range of $225 million to $275 million for the December quarter, exclusive of any insurance recovery.

The company expects to file a property damage claim of at least $50 million and an additional claim for business interruption during the December quarter. The accounting treatment of these claims is dependent on their status as of the end of the quarter. The company expects acquisition related charges in the December quarter of approximately $15 million.

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IBM and Micron to Produce the First Hybrid Memory Cube.

IBM and Micron Technology announced this week that Micron will begin production of hybrid memory cube (HMC) memory device built using the first commercial CMOS manufacturing technology to employ through-silicon vias (TSVs) at IBM's manufacturing capacities. The companies did not indicate when they plan to start the production and where they intend to use HMCs.
"HMC is a game changer, finally giving architects a flexible memory solution that scales bandwidth while addressing power efficiency. Through collaboration with IBM, Micron will provide the industry's most capable memory offering," said Robert Feurle, vice president of DRAM marketing for Micron.

The hyper memory cube technology uses advanced TSVs [through silicon "vias"] - vertical conduits that electrically connect a stack of individual chips - to combine high-performance logic with Micron's advanced DRAM. HMC prototypes, for example, clock in with bandwidth of 128GB/s. By comparison, current state-of-the-art devices deliver 12.8GB/s. HMC also requires 70% less energy to transfer data while offering a small form factor - just 10% of the footprint of conventional memory.

HMC will enable a new generation of performance in applications ranging from large-scale networking and high-performance computing, to industrial automation and, eventually, consumer products. Unfortunately, neither IBM nor Micron indicate where will the new memory technology used. Perhaps, IBM will install HMCs into some of its products.

HMC parts will be manufactured at IBM's advanced semiconductor fab in East Fishkill, N.Y., using the company's 32nm high-K metal gate process technology. Since the manufacturing process was designed for microprocessors, the cost of the first HMCs will be extreme.

"This is a milestone in the industry move to 3D semiconductor manufacturing. The manufacturing process we are rolling out will have applications beyond memory, enabling other industry segments as well. In the next few years, 3D chip technology will make its way into consumer products, and we can expect to see drastic improvements in battery life and functionality of devices," said Subu Iyer, IBM fellow.

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Samsung Announces ARM Cortex-A15 Processor Samples Samsung Announces ARM Cortex-A15 Processor Samples

Samsung announced the industry’s first dual-core processor samples based on the ARM Cortex-A15 core. The new 2GHz dual-core Exynos 5250 is designed for use in high-end tablets. According to Samsung, the Exynos 5250 offers about twice the CPU performance of today's products which use Cortex-A9-based dual core processors running at 1.5GHz. The Exynos 5250 features 3D graphics processing capabilities and supports display resolutions up to 2560 x 1600 (WQXGA). This chip also features doubled memory bandwidth of 12.8 GB/s. The Exynos 5250 is scheduled for mass-production in the second quarter of 2012.

Samsung Announces Industry First ARM Cortex-A15 Processor Samples for Tablet Computers

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LG Pushes Glasses-Free 3D With The 25" DX2500 Montior

See that car blasting out at you? The one on the left. No, the one on the right! LG has just expanded their glasses-free 3D lineup with the 25" DX2500, which incorporates glasses-free parallax barrier 3D and head-tracking technologies. With the DX2500, LG becomes the first in the industry to receive TÜV Rheinland certification for a glasses-free 3D monitor.

"LG is taking glasses-free 3D monitors mainstream with the DX2500," said Si-hwan Park, Vice President of the Monitor Division at LG's Home Entertainment Company. "With the DX2500, we are making the LG brand synonymous with glasses-free 3D monitors. In 2012, we'll continue to expand our range of glasses-free 3D monitors featuring different designs and advanced functions."

For optimal viewing of 3D images, existing glasses-free 3D products generally require viewers to stay within a tightly restricted angle and distance. However, the DX2500 has removed this restriction with the parallax barrier 3D and head-tracking technologies, allowing viewers greater freedom of movement, enabling a more comfortable user experience.

Position tracking in the DX2500 works via a camera embedded in the monitor, which detects changes in the user's eye and head position in real-time. Based on this information, the monitor calculates the angle and position of the viewer and adjusts the image to display the optimal 3D effect. And with an advanced 2D to 3D conversion function, DX2500 users can view unlimited 3D content such as movies, photos and games all with a single mouse click.

Now available in Korea, the DX2500 will be launched worldwide in early 2012. Too bad there's no price, and it's hard to say if this thing will ever make it the U.S.

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