AMD shipped over 6 million DX11 GPUs

In less than two quarters

AMD announced that it has managed to ship in excess of 6 million DirectX 11 capable GPUs in the past two quarters

The company introduced the HD 5800 series in late September and the cards started shipping in volume in early October. A month later AMD launched the HD 5700 series, which was followed by entry level parts and mobile GPUs

AMD CEO Dirk Meyer said in a conference call that AMD had managed to ship over six million DirectX GPUs and that it has expanded the 5000 family into all market segments, so shipments will probably keep growing over the next quarter, as system integrators empty their inventories of low-end 4000 series cards embrace recently introduced 5500 and 5400 series products

As for Nvidia, it has moved few if any DirectX 11 cards. Its first DirectX11 enabled cards, the GTX 480 and GTX 470, were launched a few weeks ago but they are still not shipping in any significant volumes. What's worse, even when they do, Nvidia won't be able to match AMD in sheer numbers of DirectX 11 cards shipped to consumers. It will take a few more months before mainstream and low end Fermi products launch and eventually filter down to consumers

AMD, on the other hand, has plenty of time to ready new products to compete with Nvidia's upcoming cards. Even if it sticks to its current lineup, without any significant changes, AMD could probably fight Nvidia with lower prices, thanks to revenues generated by its 6-month head start. Take the HD 5850 as an example. It currently costs more than five months ago, when it was introduced, so it's quite obvious that AMD has some room to make price adjustments, as it's clearly operating with healthy margins

We're not saying that a new price war is looming, but there is a strong chance that we will see some price maneuvering on AMD's part in coming months
 

Powercolor shows its overclocked HD 5870

The new HD 5870 PCS

Powercolor has announced the newest member of its PCS series, the HD 5870 PCS++. The PCS++ series features higher than usual factory overclock and should have a much better overclocking potential

The new HD 5870 PCS++ still has 1600 Stream processors and works at 950MHz for the core and features 1GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 4800MHz. The new PCS++ HD 5870 uses the same cooler seen on previous overclocked HD 5870 cards from Powercolor and features dual slot design with a center placed 92mm fan and four copper heatpipes

The new cooler should provide temperatures that are up to 15°C lower than on the reference card and with a 100MHz factory overclock for the GPU, this card should be quite a performer

The new PCS++ HD 5870 should appear in retail/e-tail as of April 20th with a US $449 suggested price

Sapphire launches 2GB HD 5870's

Vapor-X and Toxic editions

In addition to regular factory overclocked HD 5870 cards, Sapphire has also launched two new HD 5870 cards with 2GB of memory, the HD 5870 Vapor-X and HD 5870 Toxic edition

Both cards feature the same Vapor-X cooler that provides lower temperatures and higher overclocking potential. The Vapor-X model features reference clocks so it works at 850MHz for the core and 4800MHz for 2GB of GDDR5 memory

The Toxic Edition is a bit more interesting as this one works at 925MHz for the GPU and 4900MHz for the same 2GB of GDDR5 memory. Both cards have 1600 Stream processors, support for DirectX 11, CrossfireX, Eyefinity and feature two DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort outputs

Both cards are currently listed in Europe at €449 for the Toxic and €439,90 for the Vapor-X edition

LGA1156 to get to 30 percent by year's end

Soc 775 at 60 percent during the same quarter

The most successful socket of Intel's recent past is the LGA 775 and this socket has accounted for some 79 percent of all Intel desktop CPUs in Q1 2010

This trend won’t go down by much in Q2 as Intel expects that 72 percent of all CPUs in Q2 will again be socket 775. This platform still has a long life to live for and even in Q3 Intel plans that 66 percent of all CPU to sell to end up in the socket 775 environment. In Q4 2010 the company plans that the socket 775 part of the market will go down to a still predominant 60 percent

The second most attractive socket is a newcomer, socket 1156 that got introduced in Q4 2009 with Lynnfield and in Q1 2010 with Clarkdale CPUs and in Q1 it already gained 16 percent of the market share. In Q2 2010 the market share of LGA 1156 will jump to 21, in Q3 grows to 26 percent and in the end, in Q4 2010 it will grow to quite impressive 33 percent

This means that at least 33 + 1 percent will be Nehalem based CPUs which is not so bad after all

The third most popular socket is the BGA or socket-less Atoms that are being sold directly to OEMs and in Q1, BGA was 5 percent of total market. In Q2 1010 it should grow to six percent and in Q3 and Q4 Intel plans that the growth will stop at 7 percent

The least popular socket is the good old high-end LGA 1366 for Nehalem parts and this socket simply doesn’t grow at all. The plan is that some one percent will be the part of the market for these CPUs and it wont change for whole 2010, in all four quarters

This is what Intel anticipates trough the 2010 and the plan can slightly deviate

Nexus One did well for Google

Despite what you might have read

While the press have been weighing into the Nexus One as a slow seller for Google, it turns out that they did not do so badly after all

In amongst all the sales figures there is a note that the Nexus One sold enough to generate a profit for Google. Indeed the outfit claims that for the first time that its superphone is indeed in the black. The company said that the Nexus One is a profitable business for Google and it is driving the business to be more profitable

Hang on didn't the technology press write off the Nexus One as a failure?  It might be some more of the Pro Apple bias in the US media coming to the fore as the Nexus One was touted as an iPhone killer. Google said that it is "seeing more than 60 thousand Android devices sold and activations daily". It is up to some 38,000 apps in the Market. It looks like Google's future Nexus products will go better

Virus checkers to spy for record companies

Wish list of the day
The record and movie companies want security outfits to install software into their virus checkers that will scan your hard-drive for copyrighted content

The daft idea is on the wish list of the MPAA which believes that security companies will go along with it. After all I will rush out and buy a virus checker that tells big content what I have on my hard-drive. However the MPAA and RIAA have sent a response to the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator that would call for software to spy on users for potential piracy

Officially the software would be called tools for "managing copyright infringement" and it would block or report copyrighted material it finds. In addition to this bizzare request there is the usual call for the public hanging drawing and quartering of pirates and for ISPs to automatically filter connections

The movie studios want the US government to randomly inspect electronics going over the border, and to put pressure on companies that don't follow US copyright laws by threatening to make piracy a central issue of talks. Studios would even want police agencies to work on their behalf by timing their plans around major movie releases. Of course this only applies to its industry. If anyone else wanted the same treatment they would not get it

Six-core Phenoms listed Stateside

Cheap, as expected

AMD's new six-core Phenom II X6 CPUs are expected to show up in retail within weeks and some US retailers have already listed the parts

One retailer is taking pre-orders for the 1090T, clocked at 3.2GHz, at a rather tempting price of $318, here. Another e-tailer is listing the same chipat $350, but it's also offering the 2.8GHz Phenom II X6 1055T for $240, here

We're expecting the Phenom II X6 to go on sale next month and when it does, it could spell trouble for Intel. Intel's Core i7 980X processor sells for 3.33GHz and the new Phenoms won't be able to catch up. However, the 980X costs $999 and it's mated to the costly X58 platform, i.e. pricey LGA 1366 motherboards and triple channel memory. AMD's six cores, on the other hand don't mind running on cheap €100 boards

Although Intel will retain the performance crown, AMD's six-cores will obviously be a great choice for enthusiasts and professionals who don't want to spend a small fortune on Intel's 980X

More here

25 percent of Intel CPUs to have an IGP

Desktop, by the end of 2010

Intel has informed its own partners that by the end of 2010, 25 percent of Intel's CPUs will feature a integrated graphics

We are talking about 32nm Clarkdale CPU that has 45nm graphics and this means that in late 2010 Intel might be making more money per Core than it used to, simply as it now has an IGP to offer

This trend will continue as in Q1 2011 the company plans Sandy Bridge, a dual and quad core with monolithic integrated 32nm graphics. The future in Intel’s case will be a mix predominated by an IGP on CPU and for Intel this is nothing than good news, as it means better margins on products  

Someone forgot to pull the plug

Actually, players still playing Halo2 online

Apparently, Microsoft has yet to pull the plug on the Xbox Live support for the original Xbox, which has extended the play time for those trying to get in their last games of Halo 2, Battlefront 2 and Crimson Skies. The Xbox Live Operations Team admitted that the plug had not yet been pulled, but that April 15th was the last day. There is no last-minute change in plans; the plug is going to get pulled

While Microsoft is talking about the necessary reasons to do this, it is rooted in the fact that it is necessary in order to upgrade the Xbox Live service itself. The company has yet to explain what new enhancements will be a part of ditching Xbox Live support for the original Xbox

Our sources suggest that the friends limit will be increased to pass 100 and will likely be one of the first enhancements that will come to Xbox Live. The same mole suggests that they do have a plan and some special announcements around Xbox Live enhancements will be announced at E3 as part of an upcoming Summer Update, which is said to be in the works

Skate 3 demo arrives for 360 & PS3

Next chapter in franchise looks good

Electronic Arts has released the Skate 3 demo for download on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 platforms. Considering the failure of Tony Hawk Ride and the new Shaun White skateboarding game upcoming from Ubisoft, this release looks to be a pivotal one for the company

The skateboarding arena has taken quite a beating over the lack of innovation, but when EA released the first Skate title, things seemed to change; the title offered more innovation in a number of areas that was giving it an edge over then champ, Tony Hawk. Since that time, Activision has attempted to reinvent its title with the release of Ride, which features that skateboard controller that no one liked. In the meantime, EA released Skate 2, which continued the innovation and turned out to give it the lead in this market space

From what we can see in the Skate 3 demo, EA has pushed the limited envelope with new innovation and better game play which continue to give the franchise an edge. While it is too soon to tell what the sales numbers will look like for Skate 3, we have to think that it will once again be popular. Both Activision and Ubisoft are going to be chasing Skate 3; and catching it will require a lot of hard work and some luck

Asus Radeon HD 5870 OCed to 1525MHz

Elmor and Kinc to blame

Asus' Radeon HD 5870 Matrix managed to get quite some fame rates and has proved that it is indeed an overclocking beast. Elmor and Kinc, the guys that are known well on XtremeSystems forums, managed to push the GPU of this card all the way from 894MHz (850MHz for the reference card) to a quite impressive 1525MHz

The memory on the card was overclocked to 1300MHz (4.9GHz effective), but it is nowhere close to the GPU clock. The best part of this overclock is that the card didn't die at 1525MHz but also managed to run stable at 1500MHz, just a notch lower clock and score P29342 in 3Dmark Vantage

The rest of the setup included Intel's Core i7 980X Extreme Edition running at 4492.9MHz and at 1.52V, Asus Rampage III Extreme motherboard, 6GB of Corsair Dominator GTX DDR3 memory and powered by Antec 1200W PSU

You can check out the 3Dmark validation here and a screenshot as well as the picture of the setup can be found below




Click to enlarge

Israel bans iPad imports

It won't be missed

The Israeli Communications Ministry has issued an order prohibiting the import of iPads to Israel. Customs officials were ordered to confiscate the devices and conduct a full body cavity search of the owners

The ministry's engineering staff refused to approve the device for the Israeli market and it seems that their decision didn't go down within the ministry itself. In the end the ministry did not give its approval, saying the iPad is not compatible with Israeli standards. Since the ministry announced its decision yesterday, 10 iPads were confiscated at Ben-Gurion International Airport despite the fact that their owners declared them and offered to pay VAT

It seems the only way of importing the iPad into Israel is from Egypt, through a tunnel to the besieged Gaza Strip and then onwards to Israel proper. We're not sure the IDF would look kindly on this, so the iPad could end up with a few extra 5.56mm holes or a stylish tank track texture on its shiny aluminium chassis

Oh yes, we made up the full body cavity search bit

More here

Inno3D shows its water cooled GTX 400's

Full cover water block

Inno3D has happily posted the first pictures of its Black Freezer GTX 480 and GTX 470 cards Both cards will carry the same water cooling block and should provide much better temperatures and probably even higher overclocking potential for those cards

Unfortunately, Inno3D didn't share any details on the cards themselves, but as you can see from the pictures below, the block on both cards is the same and covers almost the entire PCB, or to be precise, all the important parts of the PCB

The block appears to be made out of nickel/nickel-plated copper and there has been rumours that this one might be even sold separately, as well as pre-fitted on the cards

In any case it does look quite good and we are sure that there will be a lot of interest for these cards, at least once they finally hit the market with decent availability

Atom drives car systems

Systems on a chip, chip in a car
Intel has outlined the latest Intel system-on-chip (SoC) products for embedded applications

 The move seems to be to shove the Atom processor core in places you would not expect

Intel is doing deals that will allow outfits to create PCI Express -compliant devices that directly connect to the chip, which offers new flexibility for embedded applications. Intel said it is working with HawTai, a major Chinese car maker that plans to use Intel Atom processors and MeeGo software for their in-car infotainment systems. In addition, China Mobile, the world's largest wireless telecommunications company, will adopt Intel chips for targeted platforms powering its wireless networks

Doug Davis, corporate vice president and general manager of Intel's embedded and communications group said Intel is committed to focus its technologies on innovative new applications in China. HawTai has said that its new B11 luxury sedan will incorporate the Intel Atom processor. It will be running the car's infotainment. MeeGo is a based Linux platform which HawTai said saves it application development costs, and enables new services to be introduced quickly with high reliability

Vista gets a bullet in the back of the head

Support killed off
Microsoft's least loved operating system, since Microsoft Bob, has been taken for a walk in a Berlin forest and discretely shot in the back of the head. Microsoft said that the service pack-free version of Vista will no longer be supported after April. The OS which hit manufacturers in late 2006 is left entirely at the mercy of hackers

Ironically Redmond isn't switching off the security updates on its  more popular, but much older operating systems - Windows XP SP2, as well as all version of Windows 2000 until July Microsoft's Eric Ligman warned on the company's SMB community blog th that engineers may not be able to help resolve this until you have upgraded to a supported level

Vista is currently on Service Pack 2 and Microsoft considers this as a "bare minimum" for decent support

MSI's Hydra gets DX11 support

Some additional tweaks

MSI and Lucid have issued a new driver, version 1.5.106, for its Hydra equipped motherboard, the Big Bang Fuzion, that gives it quite a few neat new tweaks and some additional performance boost

The new driver is definitely something that MSI needed. Although the Big Bang Fuzion did work, the performance and some other things were not that impressive. The new driver brings support for DirectX 11, 3-way Multi GPU combinations with either Nvidia or ATI, extended game compatibility including many Triple A titles, and much needed performance increase

The titles include bunch of DirectX 11-enabled games like BattleForge, STALKER: Call of Pripyat, Dirt 2 and Metro 2033

The new driver brings some quite neat performance improvements as cards now scale much better in both N-mode (SLI), A-mode (CrossfireX) and the X-mode (mixed). Thankfully, this isn't the end as MSI and Lucid will continue to work on new drivers and features and have promised support for Nvidia's GTX 400 series by the time these hit "mass availability

So they have plenty of time to fiddle with them. sub.ed

You can find the new driver here



 

TSMC skips 22nm full node

Goes straight to 20nm half node

Chipmaker-for-hire TSMC has announced that it will skip the 22nm full node process and jump directly to the 20nm half node process

The company will also have a 20nm CMOS process, but it will not offer an 18nm process. The 20nm process will feature high-k/metal gate  and new low resistance ultra-low-k interconnects

TSMC's rivals have not made much noise about their post-28nm processes and it appears that TSMC will try to outpace its competition by skipping the 22nm full node. Globalfoundries is working on a 22nm CMOS process  and it claims it will be ready for production in 2H 2012. Intel is expected to go 22nm in Q4 2011

TSMC claims the 20nm process is a much better choice than 22nm, as it offers better gate density and performance to cost ratio

More here

Huron River 2011 can play 2 Blu-rays on single charge

One battery charge for 3+ hours of HD

Notebooks based on Intel's Sandy Bridge 32nm 2011 CPU and the rest of the parts that make up the Huron River platform should have improved battery life

Intel is now promising that your 2011 notebook might be able to play two Blu-ray discs per charge. At least to us this sounds like an improvement in battery life but we are well aware that some top battery saving Calpella notebooks can probably do the same

Intel’s rapid storage technology will somehow be able to save some battery life on your notebook and we hope that we can find out more about it before it gets revealed at Intel's IDF this fall, where it is expected that company will get technical about next generation mobile stuff

We believe that Intel means that an average Huron River notebook should be able to play two Blu-rays. In an era when most of the people simply buy movies on Apple's store and the like, this definitely doesn’t sounds as important as it used to be, but any news on battery life improvement is always welcome

Nvidia releases Geforce 197.45 WHQL driver

Optimized for Adobe CS5

Nvidia has released a new WHQL certified driver which supports all the cards except for the latest GTX 400 series

The new 197.45 driver features PhysX software v9.10.0129 and as noted, supports           Geforce 6, 7 ,8, 9, 100, 200 and 300 series graphics cards, as well as the ION GPUs. Nvidia has already released a Fermi 197.41 WHQL driver as well

The new 197.45 WHQL driver brings support for the new version of MotionDSP's video enhancement software, vReveal, which now has support for HD output, and, probably more important, is that this one is the recommended driver for the best performance with the new GPU-accelerated features in Adobe CS5, at least according to Nvidia

The new driver can be downloaded over at Nvidia

Splinter Cell: Conviction is freezing

Second level freeze workaround available

You have to wonder what Ubisoft did wrong to deserve all of this drama with the release of Splinter Cell: Conviction. First, it was the defective USB drives in the Collector’s Edition; and now it is an issue that is causing players to freeze when attempting to get to the second level of the game

While Ubisoft works on the problem with the “second level freeze,” a temporary workaround seems to be clearing the system cache on your Xbox 360. Of course, you have to be disconnected from Xbox Live, clear the system cache, and then reboot your Xbox 360. This does seem at least for the time being to resolve the issue so that you can get past level two

To clear the system cache on your Xbox 360, the process is actually quite simple. Under “System Setting” select “Memory” and then highlight your hard drive to select it and press the “Y” button on your controller. Then select Clear System Cache

According to our sources the problem with the freezing has to do with the release day patch that Ubisoft had released for Splinter Cell: Conviction. The patch was said to address some multiplayer issues as well as fix a couple of other minor bugs. Ubisoft is working on the issue, but does not yet have any idea of when this will be resolved

Infinity Ward developers head for the door

Long-time team members choose to move on

Despite rumored efforts by Activision to stabilize the situation at Infinity Ward after the departure of Jason West and Vince Zampella, veteran developers appear to be looking for the door. According to the whispers we hear, the latest departures will not likely be the last

On the heels of the departure of lead designer Todd Alderman, and lead software engineer Francesco Gigliotti, who left earlier this month, lead designer Mackey McCandlish, programmer Jon Shiring, and senior animator Bruce Ferriz have all left Infinity Ward. These departures will leave some holes on the team at Infinity Ward, as these are team members with years of experience that have been around for a long time

While we reported that West and Zampella have announced the formation of a new studio called Respawn Entertainment, none of the departed former Infinity Ward members are publicly saying that they will be joining Respawn; but we believe based on some of the scuttlebutt that we are hearing that at least some of them will eventually find their way to Respawn once it is up and running

While Activision might be rumored to be attempting to stabilize the situation privately, publicly they don’t seem to be worried yet about the impact of these departures. While the company has publicly spoken of a deep talent pool at Infinity Ward, it would seem that while there isn’t a mass exodus yet, things are headed in that direction from the outside looking in

G.Skill rolls out its new DDR3 kit

Dual-channel at 2.5GHz

G.Skill has rolled out its newest Trident series kit that works at stunning 2500MHz. The kit comes as a dual-channel DDR3 setup and targets Intel P55-based systems

The precise specifications of the new Trident kit rates it at 2500MHz with CL 9-11-9-28 at 1.65V

 G.Skill has designed this kit in cooperation with Asus and are best used with Intel's Core i7 860 and 870 CPUs on Asus P7P55D-E Deluxe and P7P55D-E EVO motherboards

We are sure that other manufacturers will join the 2500MHz memory market but for now, G.Skill can happily brag it's leader of the pack. Unfortunately, price or the availability date haven't been announced but we guess that these specifications will be anything but cheap

Nvidia GTX 480 in stock

Cards sold in a matter of minutes

We managed to score a link to at least one e-tail/retail shop that has the GTX 480 in stock. Unfortunately, the shop is located in Netherlands and asks €549.00 for the Point of View GTX 480

We were also informed that GTX 400 stock is selling in a matter of minutes and as we told you already, many of the cards went to those that have pre-ordered them. The good side of the story is that more retailers/e-tailers will join in on the fun pretty soon as some of them haven't even received the cards yet, especially if they are buying their stock via distributors

The GTX 480 should be priced at around €480, but some shops are quite bold and demanding up to €549 for the card

You can find the Informatique.nl shop here

Crytek launches Crysis 2 web site

Times Square trailer on-line

Crytek has finally posted the Crysis 2 trailer and went live with the official Crysis 2 website, sosnewyork.com. As you probably know, the trailer was shown at the NY Times Square

Although the new trailer doesn't show any details about the game, it is still quite exciting to see anything that has something to do with Crysis 2. The "over 2 minutes" trailer show ruins of what appears to be New York City

The game is scheduled for release on "Holidays 2010". You can find the site, trailer and some cool screenshots here



 

OCZ announces its Colossus LT SSDs

The new 3.5-inchers

In addition to its full line of Sandforce based solid state drives, OCZ has also announced a new version of its Colossus 3.5-inch SSD, the Colossus LT. The new LT version features 34nm MLC NAND flash chips, dual Indilinx controllers and maximum speeds of up to 260MB/s

The new Colossus LT will be available in 128, 256, 512 and 1TB capacities and features an internal RAID 0, has 128MB of cache, and uses SATA 3.0Gbps interface. Thanks to 34nm MLC chips and dual Indilinx controllers can achieve maximum read/write speeds of up to 260MB/s, sustained write of 220MB/s and 15,000 IOPS with 4K random write

It is backed by three years of warranty and should be available pretty soon. All four version are currently listed with a price tag that ranges from €338.56 for a 128GB one, all the way to €2874.64 for the 1TB version

Gears of War 3 to arrive in 2011

Also, BulletStorm on the agenda

Later tonight on the Jimmy Fallon show we are hoping that Cliff Bleszinski (CliffyB) will not be too disappointed that his big news was accidentally leaked by none other than Microsoft themselves in an ad on Xbox Live. As we had already told you previously, Gears of War 3 is now confirmed for April of 2011. It will be an Xbox 360 exclusive, according to our sources, despite the wishful thinking and rumors suggesting a PlayStation 3 version

People can Fly Studios (which was acquired by Epic) will apparently take some of the spotlight on the Fallon show; we expect CliffyB to talk about BulletStorm, which is also in development. People can Fly Studios is best known for Painkiller. BulletStorm has not exactly been a secret, but it has been flying under the radar, so to speak, with little news known about the title since the trademark filing was uncovered last year and Electronic Arts confirmed it on a recent upcoming release list

As for BulletStorm, we expect this to come out early next year prior to the arrival of Gears of War 3. While it would have been nice for CliffyB’s appearance to have been a total surprise, at least we know the content of what he is going to be talking about. We do think it is likely that that he might have a trick or two up his sleeve, but what many are hoping for is a glimpse of the actual game play; but it just might be too early for that. Epic does look to be on track for a big 2011 with two high-profile releases

GF104 Nvidia mainstream card real

Summer launch, taped out

We learned some basics about Nvidia's first new card to launch after Geforce GTX 480 and GTX 470 cards. The new card is codenamed GF104 and it is currently taped out, works and performance looks good

The chip is much smaller than recently launched Fermi-based Geforce GTX 480 and 470 and our sources expect that this product might be the next  8800 GT

Let me remind you, this was probably the best selling card in sub $200 market that Nvidia later renamed to 9800GT and most recently to GTS 250. We probably missed a few internal rebrands, as this was Nvidia’s policy for a long time

We can only hope that this card won’t be late, for Nvidia’s sake

EA to have big push for MMA title at E3

Nokia Theatre to host MMA event across from show

According to our sources, Electronic Arts will be going all out with their promotion of their upcoming MMA title at E3. As part of this aggressive strategy, partner Strikeforce will be hosting an event at the Nokia Theatre across from the LA Convention Center that hosts E3 on June 16th

 While no one is yet officially confirming EA’s involvement in the event, it is thought that EA will be turning up the heat on the rival UFC title by giving out passes to the event. We would be surprised if most of the video gaming media isn’t at this event on the evening of June 16th

The card, as well as the PPV for the event, has not been announced, but we suspect that the Strikeforce will be teamed with Showtime for the recording and televising of the event. We suspect that we will hear more specifics on this in the weeks leading up to E3. Whispers that we hear suggest that you will be able to see the bouts on Showtime

The EA Sports MMA title will, of course, be facing stiff competition from the THQ UFC 2010 title. The UFC title (besides being better branded and having the more well known fighters) also has a one-year head start on EA in this title segment. While this one-year head start is being downplayed, as the EA MMA title uses a modified or specially adapted version of the Fight Night 4 engine, many suggest this gives EA an advantage over having to start from scratch

Still, the THQ UFC 2011 title clearly has the advantage, with consumers and maybe even the media heading into this year; and EA will clearly have to draw attention from UFC 2011 to make sure that both the buying public as well as the media are paying attention to the EA MMA title. The bigger the splash and noise they make can do nothing more than to help grow the title prior to release, and this momentum will be necessary if EA is to make a dent into THQ’s market share with UFC 2011. It will be interesting to see how this plays out, but it should be noted that EA has been very successful with sports titles in the past in coming from behind to dominate the segment in the end

Canadian outfit sues 19 computer makers

All your Bluetooth are belong to us

Canadian outfit Wi-Lan has sued major computer makers, accusing 19 top companies of infringing on a patent by selling laptops and cellular handsets with Bluetooth technology enabled

Wi-Lan has sued Apple, Dell, HP, and Intel, so it is not thinking small. While Wi-Lan, based in Ottawa, isn’t likely to win an injunction, it might use the court case to force small payments from a lot of companies who are not interested in a messy court case. The Wi-Lan argues the sued companies violated US Patent No 5,515,369 by making and/or selling various products enabled with Bluetooth technology including cellular handsets and personal notebook computers

According to the website of the US patent office the patent was granted in 1996 and assigned to Metricom of California. It specifies a method of method for frequency sharing and frequency punchout in frequency hopping communications network. The method enables each node in a multimode network to specify a random channel hopping sequence that it will use to for data transfer and a means by which it can communicate that sequence ot other nodes in the network

OCZ officially shows its new SSDs

Agility 2 and Vertex 2

OCZ has officially announced its Vertex 2 and Agility 2 solid state drives that will be available in 50, 100, 200GB capacities. Both drives use new Sandforce controllers and are based on MLC NAND memory chips with some quite impressive maximum read and write speeds

A few days ago we wrote about these two as they started to appear in retail, and back then we had info that these new Sandforce based SSDs are going to be available pretty soon. The Agility 2 features maximum read and write speeds of up to 285MB/s and 275MB/s and 10,000 IOPS for random write 4k performance

The Vertex 2 is a bit more impressive as it uses a faster SF-1500 Sandforce controller with same maximum read and write speeds of 285 and 275MB/s but has a quite higher 4k random write set at 50,000 IOPS

You can find them both here