Samsung demonstrates 10.1-inch, 300dpi WQXGA penTile RGBW prototype tablet display

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Because tablets are regularly used for viewing rich-colored images, the 10.1-inch 300 dpidisplayis ideal for applications that require extraordinary image and text clarity such as browsing the web and viewing high-definition movies, or reading books and spreadsheets.

“In order to develop tablets with the form and function that consumers demand, a design engineer ultimately has to determine how to get the highest resolution display possible, while still fitting within the overall power budget for their design,” said Joel Pollack, executive vice president of Nouvoyance, Samsung’s affiliate company that developed the PenTile RGBW technology.

Lightness and power efficiency of the display are critical factors since higher resolution displays typically draw more power.

“Samsung’s PenTiledisplay technologyis the only display technology that operates at 40 percent less power yet provides twice that of Full HD-viewing performance for consumers compared to legacy RGB stripe LCDs. There is no other commercial display technology on the market today that offers this high of a resolution and pixel density in a 10.1-inch size display,” said Dr. Sungtae Shin, Senior VP ofSamsung Electronics.

PenTile RGBW WQXGA Technology Highlights

• This 10.1-inch tablet panel is capable of 300 cd/m²of luminance, yet uses 40 percent less power than that used by legacy RGB stripe LCDs in power-saving modes.

• An outdoor brightness mode of as much as 600 cd/m²luminance enables viewing in bright ambient lighting.

• The display’s color gamut is 72 percent., allowing greater color realism than legacy RGB stripe tablet displays that have a typical color gamut of 55 percent NTSC.

• PenTile technology achieves 300 dpi resolution with two-thirds the number of subpixels, maintaining the VESA/ICDM displayresolutionstandard.

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Intel updates Atom processor roadmap

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So, it can be no surprise that, rather than creating a line of processor specifically for smart phone and tablet PCs, the company has chosen to work with an existing line of processors. The Atom processor line, a well-established line of processors for laptops and desktops, is getting some new members to the family tree. The line of processors are expected to change and grow over the next three years. There will be three new chips in the Atom family, one in 2012, one in 2013 and one in 2014.

The chips are also going to show some significant changes with each generation released. The current generation of Atom processors has a 45nm technology node. Next years processors will be 32nm node, which are correctly sized to fit into a mobile phone or atablet PCeasily. In the following years we will see these chip numbers decrease, the chip that are slated to come out in 2013 are expected to have a 22nm technology node. That chip will be named the 'Silvermount'. It will reduce the power usage from the current 40W to just only the use of 15W. The 'Airmont', 14nm Atom processor, is expected to be rolled out in 2014.

So, you may soon see the trademarked"Intel Inside"on your next cell phone.

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Sharp, NHK develop 85-inch direct-view LCD display

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NHK began R&D into Super Hi-Vision, which has dramatically higher resolution than current HDTV, in 1995 and aims to begin trial broadcasts in 2020. With approximately 33 megapixels (7,680 x 4,320 pixels), or 16 times the resolution of HDTV, Super Hi-Vision will offer powerful, life-like image reproduction.

Under the joint development, Sharp’s UV2A LCD technology was used to create for the first time in the world a direct-view LCD compatible with the unprecedentedly highdisplayperformance of Super Hi-Vision. The incredibly detailed images on the giant screen will immerse the viewer in a virtual-reality-like experience. The display's brightness is 300 cd/m².

The LCD will be shown to the public at NHK’s Science&Technology Research Laboratories in Tokyo from May 26 to 29, 2011.

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300-dpi: Epson, E-ink give ePaper a resolution boost

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Today E Ink andSeiko Epsonhave announced a joint venture that will create a 300-dpielectronic paperdevice for ePaper document readers. This will represent a fusion of Epson's high-speed display controller platform and E Ink'shigh-resolutionePaper display. The combination of these systems has the potential to create the highest-resolution E-ink system on the market.

The machine, which will have a display size of 9.68 inches on the diagonal, with a resolution of 2,400 x 1,650. This translates to roughly 3.96 million pixels on the display screen. The screen will, as all E-ink devices do, have a thin body and a glare free screen with a very lowpower consumptionrate.

Epson will manufacture and sell the E-ink devices, though there has yet to be any word about when the system will be in use or how much the devices will cost. We do know that Epson is going to target the devices to business and educational users where the higher resolution of the screens is not just appreciated but necessary in order to process some of the types of data collected.

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DonanimHaber leaks data on new AMD processors

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So, it can be no surprise when data about a new processor is leaked. The newest leak come to us fromDonanimHaber. The site has published a report that details the information on the newestmobile processorthatAMDplans to release later in this year.

The processor, which has been dubbed the A8-3530MX is expected to launch as part of the company's LlanonotebookAPU line of machines, which will feature a set of four processing cores and an integratedgraphics processorthat has the Northbridge components embedded in the chipset.

The four cores in the CPU will each be capable of operating at a base frequency of 1.9GHz. The processors can get a boost, with the help of a TurboCore they will be able to reach a top speed of up to 2.6GHz. Either way, the processor will be paired with 4MB of L2 cache.

The graphics are being handled by a Radeon HD 6620G, which has been clocked at 444MHz. This is actually a bit slower than some of the current options, which can be clocked to 500MHz that you will find inside the low-voltage E-240 and E-350 machines. The system will also be capable ofBlu-ray3D playback.

No word yet on which machines this processor will make its way into or what the machines will cost.

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Apple upgrades iMacs with quad-core processors

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The new iMacs all have Intel quad-core processors, which were available as an upgrade to the standard dual-core processors of the previous generation. Apple Inc. says the new models are up to 70 percent faster.

The new 21.5-inch iMac has a singleThunderboltport, which can carry data at speeds 20 times higher than most current USB ports. It can also connect to additional monitors. The 27-inch iMac has two Thunderbolt ports.

Apple introduced Thunderbolt on MacBook Pro laptops in February. The port was developed byIntelCorp.

The 21-inch iMac starts at $1,199, the larger model at $1,699.

Apple last revamped its iMacs in October 2009.

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For computer chip builders, only one way to go: Up

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Analysts call it one of the most significant developments in silicon transistor design since the integrated circuit was invented in the 1950s. It opens the way for faster smartphones, lighter laptops and a new generation of supercomputers - and possibly for powerful new products engineers have yet to dream up.

Minuscule fins jutting from the surface of the typically flat transistors improve performance without adding size, just as skyscrapers make the most of a small square of land.

"When I looked at it, I did a big, 'Wow,'"said Dan Hutcheson, a longtimesemiconductor industrywatcher and CEO of VLSI Research Inc."What we've seen for decades now have been evolutionary changes to the technology. This is definitely a revolutionary change."

Intel CEO Paul Otellini said that"amazing, world-shaping devices"will be created using the new technology.

Computers are already doing things that were almost unimaginable when Intel co-founder Gordon Moore made his famous prediction in 1965 that computers should double in power every two years. The axiom, known as Moore's Law, has held true ever since as computers have gotten cheaper, smaller and more powerful.

Engineers believe Intel's new transistors will keep the axiom going for years to come. Chips with the 3-D transistors will be in full production this year and appear in computers in 2012.

When Moore's Law was first coined, the most advanced computers were large, mainframe-type machines that took up entire rooms and were best suited for narrow tasks done one at a time.

Today we have smartphones that let us carry around the Internet in our pocket, supercomputers that have beaten Jeopardy! and chess champions, and even experimental cars that drive themselves. Technologists entertain visions of even deeper integration of artificial intelligence into our lives as computer technology advances, such as robots performing surgery.

Transistors, tiny on/off switches that regulate electric current, are the workhorses of modern electronics. They're to computers what synapses are to the human nervous system. They have become faster over the years thanks to new materials and manufacturing techniques, but Intel's latest advance is a redesign of the transistor itself.

A chip can have a billion transistors, all laid out side by side in a single layer, as if they were the streets of a city. Chips have had no"depth"- until now. On Intel's chips, the fins will jut up from that streetscape, sort of like bridges or overpasses.

The fins give the transistor three"gates"to control the flow of electric current, instead of just one. That helps prevent current from escaping. There's a limit to how much current a chip can take, and the new design allows more of that power to be spent on computing rather than being wasted.

Intel has been talking about 3-D, or"tri-gate,"transistors for nearly a decade, and other companies are experimenting with similar technology. Wednesday's announcement is noteworthy because Intel has figured out how to manufacture the transistors cheaply in mass quantities.

Other semiconductor companies argue that there's still life to be squeezed from the current design of transistors, but Intel's approach still allows it to advance at least a generation ahead of rivals such as IBM Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

Intel's approach carries some risks because the technology is untested on the mass market. But Doug Freedman, an analyst with Gleacher&Co., said Intel's approach might actually reduce chip defects if the multiple gates make the transistors more reliable.

"Intel takes big gambles when it knows what it's doing,"Freedman said.

The reduced power consumption also addresses a key need for Intel, which is the dominant maker of chips for personal computers but has been weak in the growing markets for chips used in smartphones and tablet computers. Intel's current chips use too much power for it to be competitive in those markets, and the 3-D chips could help it become more of a player.

Transistors are microscopic, but their performance is felt with every click of a mouse, tap on a smartphone or download from a website. The faster they twitch, the faster a computer"thinks"- and sucks up power.

They need to get smaller without leaking too much power, a worrisome issue as the materials reach the atomic scale and get worse at blocking current from escaping.

Intel's advance does not add a complete third dimension to chip-making - that is, the company can't add an entire second layer of transistors to a chip, or start stacking layers into a cube. That remains a distant but hotly pursued goal of the industry, as cubic chips could be much faster that flat ones while consuming less power.

And the technological advance Intel has achieved won't guarantee success, asIntelhas learned in repeated attempts at cracking the mobile market. The performance expectations and power requirements for phones and tablet computers are not as high as those for PCs.

Other chip makers such as Qualcomm Inc. and Texas Instruments Inc. have entrenched partnerships with cellphone makers that Hutcheson, the industry watcher with VLSI Research, said will be tough to overcome.

"When it comes to the mobile market, they have their work cut out for them,"he said. But"this gives you thetransistorsto build the next great system."

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Intel redesigns transistors for faster computers

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The switches, known astransistors, have typically been flat. By adding a third dimension -"fins"that jut up from the base -Intelwill be able to make the transistors and chips smaller. Think of how skyscrapers address the need for more office space when land is scarce.

The company said the new structure will let chips run on less power. That gives Intel its best shot yet at cracking the growing markets for chips used in smartphones and tablet computers. Intel has been weak there because its current chips use too much power.

Chips with the 3-D transistors will be in full production this year and appear in computers in 2012.

Intel has been talking about 3-D, or"tri-gate,"transistors for nearly a decade, and other companies are experimenting with similar technology. The announcement is noteworthy because Intel has figured out how to manufacture the transistors cheaply in mass quantities.

Transistors are at the center of the digital universe. They're the workhorses of modern electronics, tiny on/off switches that regulate electric current. They're to computers what synapses are to the human nervous system.

Transistors operate in the shadows, but they're integral to daily life. And they need to shrink, so that computers can get smaller and smarter.

A chip can have a billion transistors, all laid out side by side in a single layer, as if they were the streets of a city. Chips have no"depth"- until now. On Intel's chips, the fins will jut up from that streetscape, sort of like bridges or overpasses.

However, Intel's advance doesn't mean it can add a whole second layer of transistors to the chip, or start stacking layers into a cube. That remains a distant but hotly pursued goal of the industry, as cubic chips could be much faster that flat ones while consuming less power.

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An illustration of a 32nm transistor compared to a 22nm transistor. On the left side is the 32nm planar transistor in which the current (represented by the yellow dots) flows in a plane underneath the gate. On the right is the 22nm 3-D Tri-Gate transistor with current flowing on 3 sides of a vertical fin.

The demand is there for smartphones that deliver the Internet in our pockets, supercomputers that beat human champions at"Jeopardy!,"and other feats of computer wizardry that would have been impossible in the 1970s. Processors then could only hold several thousand transistors. Today they hold billions.

The latest change isn't something that consumers will be able to see because it happens at a microscopic level. But analysts call it one of the most significant shifts in silicon transistor design since the integrated circuit was invented more than half a century ago.

"When I looked at it, I did a big, 'Wow.' What we've seen for decades now have been evolutionary changes to the technology. This is definitely a revolutionary change,"said Dan Hutcheson, a longtime semiconductor industry watcher and CEO of VLSI Research Inc., who was briefed ahead of time on Intel's announcement.

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For consumers, the fact that Intel's transistors will have a third dimension means that they can expect a continuation of Moore's Law. The famous axiom, pronounced in 1965 by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, has guided the computer industry's efforts and given us decade after decade of cheaper and more powerful computers.

The core of Moore's prediction is that computer performance will double every two years as the number of transistors on the chips roughly doubles as well. The progress has been threatened as transistors have been shrunken down to absurd proportions, and engineers have confronted physical limitations on how much smaller they can go. Controlling power leakage is a central concern.

For Intel, which is based in Santa Clara, Calif., the change is a reminder of its leadership in advanced semiconductor technology and its incentive to keep Moore's Law alive.

Previous major changes have focused on new materials that can be used for transistors, not entire redesigns of the transistors themselves.

"People have been trying to avoid changing the structure,"Hutcheson said.

Other semiconductor companies argue that there's still life to be squeezed from the current design of transistors. Hutcheson agrees, but said Intel's approach should allow it to advance at least a generation ahead of its rivals, which include IBM Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

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The reduced power consumption addresses a key need for Intel.

The performance expectations and power requirements for PCs are much higher than they are for phones and tablet computers, so Intel's dominance in PC chips doesn't necessarily lead to success in mobile devices. Even Intel's Atom-based chips, which are designed for mobile devices, have been criticized as too power hungry.

The new technology will be used for Intel's PC chips and its Atom line.

Technological leadership alone won't guarantee success, however, as Intel has learned in repeated attempts at cracking the mobile market.

Other chip makers such as Qualcomm Inc. and Texas Instruments Inc. have entrenched partnerships with cellphone makers, and there is suspicion about the performance of Intel's chips in mobile devices.

"When it comes to the mobile market, they have their work cut out for them,"Hutcheson said of Intel. But"this gives you the transistors to build the next great system."

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The $25 educational PC

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Mr. Braben has developed a very small USB stick PC that has an HDMI port in one end and aUSB porton the other. The machine, which runs on a version ofLinux, is designed to help get programming and the general knowledge of how computers work back into the educational curriculum.

Mr. Braben’s central argument stems around the notion that computer science education has, in the 2000’s, veered away from development and towards teaching basic skills such as creating custom documents in a word processor, or making presentations, instead of higher-level skills, such as leaning about system architecture or development.

These small PC’s, which would cost about $25 a unit, would be able to be furnished to each student, and have courses structured around their use.

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You may be wondering what kind of hardware students will be able to get for that cost? As it turns out, the offerings are pretty solid. The system features a 700MHz ARM11 processor, which is paired with 128MB of RAM. The system runs OpenGL ES 2.0, which will allow it to have a decent level of graphics performance. The system is already confirmed to have 1080p output. An SD card slot provides storage for this unit.

This computer will be distributed by the Raspberry Pi Foundation, which promotes computer science education in schools. There is no final word on when the devices will be available, but its developer hopes to be shipping them out in the next 12 months.

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Seagate breaks areal density barrier: Unveils hard drive featuring 1 terabyte per platter

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Seagate’s GoFlex Desk products are the first to feature the newhard drive, delivering storage capacities of up to 3TB and anareal densityof 625 Gigabits per square inch, the industry’s highest.Seagateis on track to ship its flagship 3.5-inch Barracuda desktop hard drive with 3TBs of storage on 3 disk platters– enough capacity to store up to 120 high-definition movies, 1,500 video games, thousands of photos or virtually countless hours of digital music– to the distribution channel in mid-2011. The drive will also be available in capacities of 2TB, 1.5TB and 1TB.

GoFlex Desk external drives are compatible with both the Windows operating system and Mac computers. Each drive includes an NTFS driver for Mac, which allows the drive to store and access files from both Windows and Mac OS X computers without reformatting. The GoFlex Desk external drive’s sleek black 3.5-inch design sits either vertically or horizontally to accommodate any desktop environment.

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A multi-touch coffee table display may be coming to an office near you

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The Touchscape Multi-Touch Table, made by Touchscape, has a 47-inchdisplaythat can show pictures at 1080p high-definition. This technology could be used for high-definition collaboration for just about every application you can think of, from serious presentations to amazing gaming.

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Inside of the fairly standard-looking high-density acrylic coffee table is some serious hardware. The display has a 3.4GHz quad-core Phenon processor, which is able to draw support from 4GB of memory dedicated to the processor alone. The system also has 180GB of general storage and can connect wirelessly using any of the following standards: Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, USB, Ethernet or 3G.

The screen, a high viewing angle LCD display, features a vision system that includes 8-bit microprocessor-controlled Frustrated Total Internal Reflection technology to help it manage multiple simultaneous inputs. It also features an ambient light sensor that can adjust the displays brightness according to background lighting conditions as well as a self-monitoring system to keep the screen refreshing.

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Just in case someone treats this table like it is actually a coffee table, the screen has a scratch resistant, wipe clean top coating to keep spills from destroying the device.

The Touchscape Table is available in some standard configurations, but custom versions are available. If you are interested in the pricing on these devices you will have to contact the company directly.

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Sony to release a professional grade OLED screen

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The OLED is a flat-panel screen technology made up of cells that contain anorganic material. The material used omits its own light. This allows the screens to be made thinner than the more well-known LCDs flat screens. The OLED screens are also more power efficient than LCD screens. OLED's are significantly more expensive to produce than LCD screens, which has hindered their wide-scale adoption, but they handle fast-moving images better. The colors also appear richer on the OLED screens when compared to images shown on the LCDs. Sony hosted a live demonstration of the new monitors at its Tokyo headquarters and played the samevideo footageon OLED and LCD monitors side-by-side to illustrate this point.

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The new monitors will not be cheap. The 25-inch model is expected to cost $28,840. Despite how high that number seems when you compare it to the average home LCD monitor, it will only cost about 10 percent more than the LCD monitors that are currently in production for the film industry.

OLEDscreens are already common in smaller gadgets, such as cell phones and other handheld devices.

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Nvidia releases the Kal-El quad-core mobile chip

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During a live demonstration at the Mobile World Congress Nvidia showed off the speed that Kal-El can give to web browsing, with speeds that are two times faster than other dual-core processors currently on the market. Of course, you really cannot simply take the companies word for it. A lot of factors can effect the speed of browsing.

It is time for us to bring in an objective measure. When tested, Kal-El received a CoreMark score of 11,352. That score is, as promised, roughly twice the performance rating score of Nvidia's Tegra 2. The Tegra 2 received a CoreMark score of 5,840.

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Project Kal-El web-browsing benchmark

The Kal-El processor is expected to ship in as-yet-unnamed tablets by August of 2011 and be featured in smartphones by Christmas 2011. Though a few lucky customers are already getting samples of the products made with the newNvidiachip currently. The names of the devices that are sporting these enhanced chips were not released.

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Coremark performance on Kal-El

As it turns out Kal-El is only the beginning of these super hero themed chips. A whole line of heroic processors are expected to come to the market between now and 2014, with increasing speeds. Future chips will sport names such as Wayne, Logan, and Stark. Stark is expected to be the most advanced of the planned chips in this line with an improvement in performance of up to 75x, when compared to the Tegra 2.
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Qualcomm announces a new family of mobile Snapdragon Chipsets

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Speeds of up to 2.5GHz per core and delivering 150 percent higher overall performance and 65 percent lower power than currently available ARM-based CPU cores. Thechipsetfamily will incorporate 28nm technology and designed built CPU’s and GPUs for the best mobile performance at the lowest possible power consumption.

The single-core MSM8930 will have an integrated LTE modem designed that will be incorporated into smartphones. It will also include the new Adreno 305 GPU which delivers more than six times the performance of the original Adreno GPU.

Thedual-coreMSM8960 has integrated multi-mode 3G/LTE modem and has been designed for multi-tasking smartphones and tablets. It includes dual asynchronous CPU cores which can be independently controlled for maximum efficiency. The MSM8960 also supports dual-channel LP DDR memory and features the Adreno 225 GPU which delivers eight times the performance of the original Adreno GPU.

The quad-core APQ8064 has been designed for the next generation of computing and entertainment devices while minimizing power consumption and meeting the performance requirements. The APQ8064 includes four asynchronous CPU cores which can be independently controlled for maximum efficiency. The Adreno 320 quad-core GPU is being launched for the first time in the APQ8064 processor where the user can experience console-quality gaming and a richer user interface.

Qualcommhas integrated the new Adreno 320 GPU with the Snapdragon so that it can have up to four 3D cores and boosts performance 15 times over the original Adreno chip.

Samples of the Dual-core MSM8960 chips will be available in the second quarter of this year and samples of the single-core MSM8930 and quad-core APQ8063 chips becoming available early 2012.

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iNAND embedded flash drives enable continued development of powerful mobile devices

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SanDisk reduced its iNAND package sizes by using advanced 24nm generation NAND memory chips, which are more compact than previous versions, and reduced its iNAND package heights by using advanced packaging technologies. iNAND EFDs are based on SanDisk's three-bit-per-cell NANDflash technologyand iNAND Ultra EFDs are based on SanDisk's two-bit-per-cellNAND flashtechnology.

"For smartphones and tablets, every millimeter of thickness counts,"said Amir Lehr, vice president, embedded business,SanDisk."Designers are constantly looking for new ways to make mobile devices as small and thin as possible. To meet that need, SanDisk's advanced NAND process and packaging technologies allow us to pack more storage into smaller and slimmer footprints. This in turn enables OEMs to design more compact devices while freeing up precious board space for other needs, such as larger batteries."

As smartphones continue to increase incomputing powerand offer advanced features, they require greater amounts of storage; at the same time, consumer demand for smaller and slimmer devices presents a significant challenge to hardware designers. To meet this need, SanDisk reduced the package size of its iNAND and iNAND Ultra e.MMC embedded storage devices, enabling handset manufacturers to develop sleek, highly functional products.

• SanDisk iNAND and iNAND Ultra EFDs offer up to 64 gigabytes (GB) of storage in a 12mm x 16mm JEDEC standard package
• Package heights reduced to as low as 1.0mm for even slimmer handset designs. 32GB versions of both iNAND and iNAND Ultra products offered in 1.2mm package heights; for comparison, ten sheets of 20-pound office paper is approximately 1.0mm thick
• SanDisk iNAND products with capacities up to 8GB available in 11.5mm x 13mm sizes
• The new products will be available beginning in the third quarter of 2011

SanDisk also offers embedded solid state drives for use in"productivity tablets"with high performance requirements. SanDisk's integrated solid state drive is the world's smallest 64GB SSD in a BGA package and first in a new category of embedded SSDs that are smaller than a postage stamp and weigh less than a paper clip. iSSD devices are available in capacities ranging from 4GB to 64GB with a SATA interface. The iSSD device is the fastest high-capacity embedded storage solution at this physical size, and is designed for high performance and reliability for mobile computing platforms including high-end tablets. iSSD devices are based on MLC technology.

SanDisk iNAND EFDs come in a variety of storage capacities ranging from 2GB to 64GB for quick integration into handset and other designs that require an e.MMC interface. With managed physical partitions, customizable attributes and advanced power failure immunity, SanDisk iNAND EFDs feature highly reliable boot code and application storage device capabilities in addition to being a mass storage solution. iNAND drives use advanced caching technology that improves system responsiveness, and are designed based on SanDisk's usage analysis capabilities. iNAND EFDs are based on both MLC and X3 technologies.

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SanDisk intros UHS-I SDHC Card ideal for capturing high resolution photos, full HD videos

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"SanDisk has a long history of developing fast, highly reliable cards for photography enthusiasts and professionals,"said Susan Park, director, retail product marketing, SanDisk."Our new SanDisk Extreme Pro SDHC card lets consumers take their skills to the next level by capturing high-resolution still images, fast-moving action shots and HD videos of the highest quality."

As DSLRs offer increasingly sophisticated features such as high megapixel continuous burst shooting and high-definition (HD) video capture, photographers need advancedmemory cardscapable of unlocking their cameras' full potential. The card achieves high performance and efficientpower consumptionin UHS-enabled cameras such as the Nikon D7000.

The SanDisk Extreme Pro SDHC card's write speed of up to 45 MB/sec delivers improved shot to shot performance of RAW images using continuous burst mode. The card also adheres to the new UHS Speed Class 1 video class rating, offering 10MB/sec minimum sustained write speed capable of recording HD 1080p videos or even 3D content. In addition, the card's fast read speeds of up to 45 MB/sec let users avoid lengthy wait times when transferring content from the card to a computer.

SanDisk develops its flash controllers andmemory chipstogether, allowing the company to perfectly match and fine-tune the two technologies throughout the testing process. The SanDisk Extreme Pro SDHC card uses an intelligent Power Core controller to achieve its speed. The controller's data prediction and binary caching features allow for improved overall performance.

Featuring an automatic error-code correction (ECC) engine, the SanDisk Extreme Pro SDHC card offers long-term reliability that comes from the brand trusted by professional photographers. Advanced wear leveling extends card endurance by distributing data evenly throughout the card. For added protection, the card includes one year of RescuePRO media recovery software, which lets photographers recover their images in case of accidental deletion.

Designed to withstand the most extreme conditions, the new card offers photographers peace of mind knowing that their photos are stored on one of the most rugged cards in the world. Able to withstand punishment, the SanDisk Extreme Pro SDHC card is water proof, temperature proof, shock and vibration proof, x-ray and magnet proof. The card is backed by a lifetime limited warranty.

The card is shipping to major retailers worldwide and is available immediately at www.sandisk.com. The card comes in 8GB to 32GB capacities carrying suggested retail prices ranging from $109.99 to $349.99.

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New Intel chip a coup for Hollywood

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The second-generationIntelCore processors, referred to as"Sandy Bridge,"have been built into computers big and small, many of which will be displayed at theConsumer Electronics Showkicking off here Thursday.

"This is the best product we've ever built,"said Intel chief executive Paul Otellini."We've shifted to processor-based graphics."

Building graphics computing into chips enables slick handling of games, images and video at a time when lifestyles are increasingly shifting to online entertainment loaded with data sent online.

"We are hooked on the Internet,"Intel vice president Shmuel"Mooly"Eden said while showing off Sandy Bridge-driven computers at a press event."PCs (personal computers) are no longer a luxury, they are a necessity."

Sandy Bridge was welcomed by Hollywood and Bollywood film studios that have been reluctant to make prime releases available online to computers, where they could potentially be copied or shared without permission.

Intel worked with major US and India film studios, including Warner Brothers, DreamWorks, Yash Raj Films and 20th Century Fox to craft copyright-guarding technology into the chips.

Warner Brothers has avoided putting high-definition or 3D releases online because of the potential for piracy.

"You've taken the excuse away from us,"Warner Brothers Home Entertainment Group president Kevin Tsujihara told Eden during an on-stage appearance.

"Sandy Bridge lets us put our content out there on a global basis."

Studios working with Intel will make hot releases available to Sandy Bridge-driven PCs through online services such as Cinema Now.

Films can be routed from PCs to TVs.

"Our partnership with Intel creates a game changing opportunity to provide consumers around the globe our highest value content in a secure environment,"said 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment worldwide president Mike Dunn.

Eden predicted that Sandy Bridge, with 1.16 billion transistors on eachchip, would be"a cornerstone of the computer revolution."

A million PCs are sold daily, with consumers driving the market instead of businesses, according to Intel.

"The consumer is king, and queen,"Eden said."It is all about consuming and creating digital content."

People are shifting to communicating with photos and video instead of simple text email.

Sandy Bridge enables fast conversion of video for increasingly common tasks such as shifting digital snippets from personal computers to iPads or iPods, or transferring content from handheld cameras onto desktop machines.

The chips have enough power to smoothly handle real-time gesture-based controls and even enhance computer games with animated versions of players that mimic movements and facial expressions, according to Eden.

"Finally, we have enough computer power to deliver real-time interaction between us and the computer,"Eden said.

"Soon, you will be able to take my face and I will be able to be the hero, or some would argue villain, in a game."

He predicted that in the coming two to four years, Sandy Bridge will enable advances that have people looking at computer keyboards as though they were from"the Middle Ages."

"Pretty soon, you will not know if you are in the real world or the virtual world,"he said.

Sandy Bridge chips will be featured in 500 devices from mobile handsets to notebook and desktop computers, according to Intel.

Sandy Bridge will represent more than a third of Intel's revenue this year, and generate 125 billion dollars in revenue for the PC industry, Otellini predicted.

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World's fastest high-capacity CompactFlash card announced by SanDisk

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"No other product on the market can match our new card's combination of speed andstorage capacity,"said Susan Park, director, product marketing,SanDisk."By consistently pushing the boundaries of flash innovation, we are able to develop advanced products not found anywhere else."

With a set of features optimized for professional photographers and videographers, the 128GB SanDisk Extreme Pro CompactFlash card is ideally suited for imaging applications requiring Full HD 1920x1080 resolution, up to 50Mbps bit rate and 4:2:2 color sampling. The card's unprecedented combination of speed and storage lets photographers capture more frames when shooting in continuous burst mode, and enables them to record high quality Full HD videos.

• Up to 100MB/sec write speed enables shorter wait times and faster continuous burst shooting.
• Video Performance Guarantee allows for superior Full HD video recording at a sustained 20MB/sec write speed.
• 128GB capacity aoffers more room for capturing RAW+JPEG photos, sequential bursts, even Full HD and 3D video content.
• SanDisk's proprietary Power Core controller distributes data across the card more rapidly and efficiently, and the UDMA-7 interface allows for maximum data transfer between card and camera.
• Best-in-class quality assurance offers photographers peace of mind knowing that the card is backed by rigorous stress, shock, vibration, humidity and moisture testing procedures and a lifetime limited warranty. The card features RTV silicone coating for added protection.

The 128GB SanDisk Extreme Pro CompactFlash card is available now for preorder atwww.sandisk.com, and will be available at retailers worldwide later in Q1 2011. The card carries a suggested retail price of $1,499.99.

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New computer chips help PCs compete with tablets

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Intel Corp. andAdvanced Micro DevicesInc., whose processors are the"brains"of PCs, are unveiling significant changes to their chips' designs at this week's InternationalConsumer Electronics Showin Las Vegas.

Tablet computers and other gadgets have taken on many of the tasks once performed by PCs, and there are already signs that those devices - led by Apple Inc.'s iPad - are eating away at PC sales.

Inteland AMD are responding with new chips designed to make people think twice before picking a tablet over a new PC. The new chips won't dampen the success of tablets, but they will make traditional, low-cost computers more competitive - by making them better at doing graphics-intensive tasks and playing video.

The improvements that Intel and AMD make to their products are felt with every keystroke or click of a mouse, even if most computer buyers aren't paying attention to the intricacies ofchip design.

For example, people have come to expect the benefits of Moore's Law, even if they don't know the technical specifics underlying the prediction that computer processors' performance will double every two years. The principle has guided the industry for more than 40 years, and is a key reason why computers have gotten smarter even as they've gotten smaller.

One major change in chip design that Moore's Law enabled and consumers felt came several years ago. That's when Intel and AMD took chips known as"memory controllers,"which have historically been separate from a computer's main processor, and put them on the same piece of silicon as the processor itself.

The controllers act as middlemen between the processor and a computer's memory. Shortening the distance between the parts cuts the amount of time they needed to talk to each other, helping the computers work faster.

A similar thing is happening in the new generation of chips.

This time, Intel and AMD have thrown another feature - graphics, which too had historically been handled by a separate chip - also onto the same silicon as the computer's main, general-purpose processor.

And by coupling graphics more tightly with a computer's main processor, there's another benefit besides faster communication. The power the parts need to talk to each other is also reduced, leading to longer battery life.

Think of what's happening in chips like what's happened with cell phones: Technical innovations mean more stuff can fit into a smaller space. In the case of computer processors, Moore's Law is driven by the fact that transistors, the tiny on-off switches that regulate the flow of data in computer chips, keep getting smaller.

"It's a natural evolution of integration,"said Jon Peddie, who studies the semiconductor industry as president of Jon Peddie Research."We keep putting more and more stuff into the processor - now it's graphics' turn to get shoved into the processor along with all the stuff that previous generations have shoved in. The big difference this time is because of the processors' smaller size, the capability of the graphics is significantly better."

With the current chips, cheap, low-end laptops are largely poor at playing high-quality video, a task too taxing for the machines' underpowered chips. Those laptops, which also include so-called"netbooks,"will likely benefit first from the new chip designs, said Martin Reynolds, a vice president and research fellow at Gartner Inc. who studies the computer market.

Intel and AMD are using different technical approaches, but the results are similar: Consumers should expect"snappier operations in anything involving pixel movement,"from playing games to editing photos and video and preparing PowerPoint and other visually rich presentations, Peddie said.

But Peddie cautions that even with the new chips, the low-end computers will still be too weak for certain uses, including graphics-intensive video games.

Still, the changes could eliminate the need for many people to buy separate graphics cards, which can add hundreds of dollars to the price of a PC. The shift is an opportunity for Intel and AMD, which can charge higher prices for chips that have higher-quality graphics capabilities built in. Intel doesn't mind if people buy fewer graphics cards since it doesn't sell them. Intel's graphics have been built into its"chipsets,"yet another type of chip inside computers. They handle a range of tasks.

The situation is more delicate for AMD, which does make the cards. AMD hopes that stealing even small amounts of business from Intel offsets any risks to graphics-card sales.

The latest lines of chips can be seen as a response to the sudden popularity of tablet PCs, starting with the launch of theiPadlast April.

Tablet makers have turned to such chip-makers as Samsung Electronics Co., Texas Instruments Inc. and Qualcomm Inc. Even Apple now makes its own chips. Their chips are built on a different design and sip power rather than gulp it - a requirement of mobile devices and a problem that Intel and AMD have yet to crack.

Intel and AMD are trying to address that problem by aping the sleek and streamlined approach that has helped make tablets so popular.

"Tablets have forced the PC ecosystem to be thin and light,"said Doug Freedman, an analyst with Gleacher&Co."If they don't want to lose market share, they're going to have to design a more efficient PC."

The new chips aren't likely to upset the historically steady breakdown between Intel and AMD. Intel sells 80 percent of the chips that run on the so-called"x86"standard for chip design, which is used in Windows and Mac computers. AMD has the remaining 20 percent of the market.

But the new products could help keep both companies relevant in a tablet era. After all, despite the rise of tablets, they aren't good for everything.

"Tablets are great devices for consuming content, but creation of content is best done on PCs,"said Tom Kilroy, an Intel senior vice president.

The attack on tablets by Intel and AMD isn't without a key disclaimer: Now that Apple has proved that there's an appetite for tablet computers, both chip-makers want in.

Both companies have been chosen to make chips for tablets, but analysts say power consumption will likely remain an issue that needs to be resolved.

"It's a great opportunity for them,"Reynolds said."They just haven't figured out a way to do that yet."

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