Good days, if there ever were any, may be over for VIA. Their small sized platform, EPIA, will soon have a rival coming from no less than Intel itself.

The Atom processor doesn't come alone, it will do it accompanied by the i945G based chipset that will make their own Mini-ITX platform: Little Falls. Measuring only about 170mm x 170mm it will only have space for a single DDR2 memory slot and a couple of SATA ports. With an integrated graphics and a CPU that only requires 7.5W, in it's initial version, these systems will meet the demands for green computing.

We can expect products form ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI, at least. Let's hope they find their way down to the retail distribution channels; that would mean the market growing in that direction and better availability of VIA's EPIA than what we've seen in the past. Can you say "MacBook Air style barebones"?

Link: X-bit labs.

Without much fanfare, the new iteration of AMD's mobile platform was unveiled at Computex. There are few products built around it at this time, the ASUS F5Z and F8Tr laptops spring to mind, but after so much Montevina talk, AMD got ahead of Intel, even if it only was a couple of weeks before the chip giant launches their own mobile platform refresh.

Though Intel was to take the spotlight at Computex, with a strong Montevina showing, the "official" début (you never know what that means, nowadays) was supposed to take place somewhere and some place else.

As many will already suspect, the Turion Ultra it's nothing else than the commercial name for what it was previously known as the Puma platform; basically, a Griffin processor, a mobile version of the 780G (RS780M) and Mobility Radeon 3450, 3650 and 3850 graphics cards (for those than won't have enough with the integrated Mobility Radeon 3200).

Link: TG Daily.

Taipei, Taiwan, May 14th, 2008 - VIA Technologies, Inc announced the successor to the previously smallest of all x86 systems, the EPIA PX10000.

The EPIA platforms continue to improve their power consumption characteristics, with the new VIA Eden ULV processor working at 500MHz. The total power the board will require it's not specified, but it mustn't be very high, because they opened a challenge to see how much it endures without a heatsink (the PX5000EG already looses the fan). After several weeks, they ended overheating the whole thing with a hair drier.

The new Pico-ITX integrates on a surface of 10 x 7.2cm as many components as: LVDS/DVI and VGA support , 5.1 sound, Ethernet 100/10, IDE and S-ATA connectors, six USB and one COM port. It also includes the VIA UniChrome™ Pro II IGP 3D/2D with MPEG-2/-4 a WMV9 decoding capabilities.

Link: VIA.

Samsung Electronics objections notwithstanding, the main LCD panel manufacturers want the 15.6" panel segment to grow.

Apart from the already mentioned, you can count on AU Optronics (AUO), Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO), LG Display and Chunghwa Picture Tubes (CPT) to promote the new panel standard for notebooks, which will mean a change (you're damn right,again! ) in the aspect ratio. If going from 15" to 15.4" left the good old 4:3 behind in favour of the 16:10 format, now 16:9 wants to be the new kid on the block and he will bring along his gang, a whole new set of resolutions. Don't you just love leaving your favourite games in the dust?

Panel prices for 15.6" will be very close to those of current panels, around $98-100, but some manufacturers are even aiming for a cheaper goal of $85. Wouldn't it be nice if we could buy them at that price?

Link: DigiTimes.

It was expected that the dual core version of the Atom would be introduced in the third quarter, which meant they had to begin mass producing them rather quickly. Or to be more precise, next month.

The first models will work at a frequency of 1.6 GHz and, as previously reported, will support some sort of Hyper-Threading Technology (four threads per CPU). TDP for the processor - chipset combination, will raise from the 12 W of the single core, to 16 W.

Even though they knew about it, manufacturers aren't exactly happy about Intel leaving so small a gap between the appearance of both incarnations of the Atom processor, because it will make their lives harder when it comes to selling the products. On the bright side, the dual core version should be compatible, just requiring for a BIOS update and not a change of socket.

Link: DigiTimes.

Looking for an ultra portable laptop and don't fancy shelling out £1200 on Apple's new ultra portable, ultra thin range. ASUS might just have the answer with their updated Eee PC. ASUS has made several innovative improvements with the next generation of the Eee PC – dubbed the Eee PC 900. These new technologies will bring about a brand new concept for Internet access with 1G of memory, larger storage of up to 12GB, and wider 8.9-inch screens. These new Eee PCs will cost 399 Euro each, and will be available in summer this year – to select countries on the first wave of launch. All of these new models will be Windows ready, and will provide users with a chance to enjoy a brand new PC experience while on the go.  

The new Eee PC made its debut appearance at CeBIT 2008 and was very well received. It looks to be a vast improvement over the old model running linux. The new bigger screen is great and the mouse keypad has been improved to offer easier response and use. We can't wait to see the new Eee PC 900 on the shelves. 

ASUS's mighty fine Eee XP powered mini white laptop is set to hit the shelves on the 9th of April with a rather attractive $400 price tag. The hardwares still the same but the addition of XP will make it much more attractive to mainstream users. The system comes pre-installed with Internet explorer 6 rather than 7 but you can easily swap over to Firefox for better web browsing.

The 800x400 pixel screen is still a little disappointing and some of you might want to hold out for the 8.9inch version with 1024x600 pixel resolution. Other than that, it looks like ASUS might have a real winner on their hands for laptop road warriors who desire ultimate portability.

Fancy a bit of Crysis on the way to work. Kobalt Computers has the answer. Their new Mojave XI Laptop features the worlds fastest mobile GPU - the Geforce 8800m GTX or NVIDIA's takeout as we like to think of it. For all you hard-core gamers  the laptop features stunning processor power, unparalleled graphics performance and an eye-catching design that will make you road warriors stand out from the crowd. 

The brains inside is the Santa Rosa is the fourth-generation Centrino Platform for Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processors. Combine this with the raw power of the dedicated NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8800M GTX graphics and you have unbeatable performance never seen before in a notebook. Enough to run Crysis in direct X10 with all the eyecandy just the way you like it. The display side of things is taken care of by a 17" WUXGA display with an exceptional 1920 x 1200 resolution - you can experience superb image clarity whilst annihilating your latest victim! And thanks to the 17" WUXGA display the Mojave XI features a full keyboard with 86 keys, windows hot-keys, an inverted T cursor, 12 function keys and seperate numeric keypad. It also features an integrated touchpad with scroll functionality.

An interesting feature is the Intel Turbo Memory that lets your notebook actually learn your habits to provide better system response. That's because it stores frequently used information near the processor, where it's more quickly available.It's only compatible with Vista Operating Systems but then would you want to run anything else on this beast! Other nifty features include a 7in1 card reader, Express Card 54 (34) slot, WiFi, Bluetooth, 2.0 Megapixel webcam.

We can't stop drooling over this laptop and given the price starting from £1675 inc vat, we think you'd be barmy not to give the Kobalt range of laptops a look. For more details head on over to their fab website and start customising your Mojave XI laptop.

On the eve of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, at a time when most of the technology world is asking whats the next big thing?, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) has answered that question quite literally by introducing the world’s highest capacity 2.5-inch mobile hard drive. Setting a new industry benchmark for capacity, the half-terabyte (500GB) Travelstar 5K500 is poised to usher in a new era of “slim” desktops, full-featured notebooks, gaming consoles and other advanced applications for consumers on-the-go.

Since entering the 2.5-inch segment in 1991, Hitachi has led innovations in the form factor for every measurable category: areal density, performance, power management, acoustics, shock tolerance, reliability and breadth of product options. Hitachi Travelstar drives continue to be the most popular 2.5-inch hard drives on the market today.

“PC form factors are changing dramatically as PCs shift from productivity tools to lifestyle devices,€ according to Richard Shim, Personal Computing Research Manager at IDC. The most notable change is the emergence of notebooks as the dominant PC form factor over desktops. At the same time, desktops are slimming down without sacrificing, and in some cases improving, performance. One key component enabling this “less is more concept” in PCs is hard drives, which continue to increase in capacity, while maintaining their relatively diminutive sizes.

With the Travelstar 5K500, Hitachi GST has effectively eliminated the “capacity compromise” by offering consumers all the storage capacity of a desktop with the portability and convenience of a notebook. Moreover, the new drives are well-suited for use in €œslim desktops, where users are seeking high-capacities in a space-saving, small form factor enclosure. These new sleek PC designs are highly desirable among today's consumers who are often placing computers in multiple rooms throughout the home.

The Travelstar 5K500, available in either a 400GB or 500GB model, is the fourth-generation Hitachi mobile drive to use perpendicular magnetic recording technology to deliver breakthrough capacity and reliability. The half-terabyte drives can store up to 500 hours of digital video, 178 feature length movies, 250 games or 125,000 four-minute songs. Travelstar 5K500 drives are available with a 3.0Gb/s Serial ATA (SATA) interface for enhanced system performance.

Hitachi will also offer an enhanced-availability (EA) version, called the Travelstar E5K500€“ also available in both 400GB and 500GB capacities€“ which is designed for applications requiring 24x7 operation in lower transaction environments, such as blade servers, network routers, point-of-sale terminals and video surveillance systems.

Availability

The Travelstar 5K500 will be available worldwide in February. The Travelstar E5K500 will be available by the end of the second quarter, 2008.

More details after the click or visit Hitachi's website for the full brief.

If you've been enjoying Crysis on your super powered desktop PC over the holiday season you'll probably know what a power hungry beast it is. Currently no PC can handle Crysis on maximum eye candy - even SLI 8800GTX's. So how about some laptop gaming. The thought of playing a next generation game on the go usually conjures images of power point presentation FPS gaming. Enter the new WidowPC Sting 517D2.

And what a sting it packs. Using the new 8800M GTX NVIDIA Go graphics cards, it's one of the first laptops on the market that can handle serious gaming and can even run Crysis at decent frame rates in Direct X10 with some serious eye candy settings. The rest of the specs looks equally impressive with a 17″ 1680 x 1050 WSXGA+ or 1920 x 1200 WUXGA widescreen displa, choice of Intel Core 2 Duo T7100 / T7300 / T7500 / T770 processor, up to 4GB RAM, 250GB hard drive or a very sexy 32GB SSD, dual layer DVD burner, Fingerprint reader for security and Vista Ultimate.

The full package will set you back some $4,000 dollars but those with more modest ambitions can jump aboard with prices starting at around $2,000.