EVGA SR-X Dual-Socket LGA 2011 Motherboard Gets Ready for Launch

EVGA seems to be making great progress with the SR-X dual-socket motherboard for LGA 2011 processors, as the company has recently posted a picture online showing this upcoming solution in a near final design stage.

Those of you familiar with EVGA’s creation would notice that the motherboard’s layout is almost identical with that of the SR-X presented at CES, except for the VRM and PCH heatsinks that are brand new.

Four of these were installed by EVGA in some key points of the board, thus managing to cool this monstrous HPTX solution using only passive cooling.

The SR-X is based on the Intel Patsburg chipset with support for Sandy Bridge-E CPUs from the Xeon E5 series.

Its most distinctive design feature is the presence of the two processor sockets that are paired with a total of 12 DDR3 memory slots, eight for what seems to be the primary CPU and four surrounding the secondary processor.

These are all powered via two 6-pin and two 8-pin connectors, while an additional 6-pin PCI Express plug is installed for delivering some extra juice to the PCIe slots when running SLI or CrossFireX setups.

Speaking of the PCI Express slots, EVGA has included no less than seven of these (all Gen 3.0 compliant) and each one can be enabled or disabled via a series of DIP switches (CPUs and SAS connectors can also be disabled via these switches). 

These are placed right next to the two SATA 6.0Gbps and four SATA 3.0Gbps ports included by EVGA in its dual-socket LGA 2011 creation, which are seconded by two additional SAS connectors.

Other features include on-board Power, Reset and Clear CMOS buttons, a debug LED, as well as dual Gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0 support and Bluetooth connectivity. 

No information regarding the price or the release date of the EVGA SR-X was provided by the company, but CeBIT seems like a good time to introduce this sort of motherboard to the world.

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Intel Core i7-3820 Sandy Bridge-E Introduced in Japan

Japan got lucky somehow, having become the place where Intel's Core i7-3820 central processing unit is now ready to step out of boxes, more or less.

At long last, the Intel Core i7-3820 CPU from the Sandy Bridge-E series has been released in the Country of Sunrise.

As part of the top-tier chip collection, it features high-end performance parameters that will put many other CPUs to shame.

Still, this is not the most powerful of SB-E chips, as it has some of its cores disabled.

That said, the quad-core newcomer is sure to make short work of most anything thrown at it, be it a game, an editing program or just casual and random tasks.

The base clock speed is of 3.6 GHz, quite impressive on its own, even though Turbo Boost can take it higher.

Unfortunately, it is unclear just how much of an improvement this dynamic overclocking technology can actually enable.

Though the top frequency of Turbo Boost is said, by some, to be 3.9 GHz (the same as on the 3960X Extreme edition), the report seems to be leaning more towards 3.8 GHz.

Formal documentation is still unavailable, so this matter is shrouded in ambiguity.

Of course, when there is hardly any application that can push a consumer's PC hard enough to make life difficult for this CPU, this doesn't ultimately matter overmuch.

In the end, overclockers are the only ones that will have a reason and the means to make this chip sweat, at their own risk of course.

Moving on, Intel's Core i7-3820 boasts a cache memory of 10 MB (Intel Smart Cache), as well as Hyper-Threading (8 threads) and a TPD (thermal design power) of 130W.

Finally, the chip's price is somewhere in the 20,000 – 25,000 yen range, which translates into $257 / 194 Euro to $322 / 243 Euro.

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Gigabyte S1081 Intel Cedar Trail Slate Specs Revealed

When it first presented the S1081 slate at this year’s CES fair, Gigabyte kept many of the specs of this tablet under lock and key, but recently all of these have been revealed when the marker added the device to its website.

Just like the rest of the Cedar Tail based slates to arrive so far, the S1081 is targeting business users, so the company has opted for running a full version of Windows 7 with a series of enterprise-class customizations.

At its heart will stand the new 1.86 GHz Atom N2800 processor, which includes two computing cores with Hyper-Threading support as well as Intel integrated graphics. 

Intel’s Cedar Trail processors are the company’s first Atom CPUs built using the 32nm fabrication process, and feature a unified architecture that packs the processing cores, memory controller and the GPU on the same die.

The latter is actually based on a PowerVR design and features hardware decoding capabilities for a wide number of HD formats, including MPEG2, VC1, AVC, H.264 and Blu-ray 2.0.

Gigabyte is pairing the Intel CPU with 2GB of system memory (can be upgraded to 4GB), while for storage purposes the company’s clients can choose from various HDD and SSD options, with capacities of up to 500GB (256GB max for SSDs).

The rest of the features list includes a front 1.3MP webcam, USB, D-Sub and HDMI ports, a 1024x600 resolution LED backlit 10.1-inch capacitive touchscreen, dual 1.5W speakers, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0, optional 3G connectivity, and a 4000mAh battery.

No estimate regarding the battery life of the S1081 was mentioned, but we do know that the slate weights between 790g and 850g (1.74 to 1.87 pounds), depending on the type of storage drive installed, according to TechPowerUp.

Gigabyte hasn’t provided us with any info regarding the pricing or availability of the S1081 slate.

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Nvidia Kepler GK104 Will Be Available in Two Versions, Says Report

Nvidia’s upcoming GK104 graphics core based on the company’s next-gen Kepler architecture is expected to arrive in two different versions, according to a report that has reached the Web recently.

According to SemiAccurate’s findings, the two graphics cores will be called GK104-400 and GK104-335.

Both of these will actually be based on the same GPU, but the former comes as a fully working GK104, while the latter is partially fused off version of the same chip.

The main difference between the two lies in the number of graphics processing clusters they will include, since the -400 is said to be a “8 group” device compared to the -335 which is described as a “7 group” GPU.

According to the source, Nvidia took this decision because it wanted to make its Kepler GPUs much more flexible than before, as they can now disable smaller “chunks” of the graphics core in order to build lower end parts.

This design should help Nvidia improve yields and allow for virtually endless GPU variations, although it does add a bit to the overall size of the graphics core die.

While the shader count and operating clocks have not been provided, the Thermal Design Power (TDP) of GK104 cards seems to be set at 225W, which is pretty much similar to that of the GTX 570 (219W).

Judging by the designation used by Nvidia for this core, we expect the GK104 to come as a replacement for the graphics cards in the popular GeForce GTX 560 (GF114) and GTX 460 (GF104) product families.

Just like AMD has done for the Radeon HD 7900-series, Nvidia’s Kepler GPUs will also be manufactured using TSMC's high-K metal gate (HKMG) 28nm fabrication process.

Nvidia’s next-gen graphics core is expected to be more flexible in terms of programmability than the current Fermi architecture. The first Kepler parts should arrive in Q2 of this year.

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New Samsung Galaxy S III Concept Emerges

During the first half of the ongoing year, Samsung is expected to bring to the market the successor of its highly popular Galaxy S II smartphone.

The company has yet to confirm an official release date for it, along with specs and the like, but that does not stop enthusiasts from imagining what the mobile phone will be all about.

We already hand the chance to have a look at one Galaxy S III concept phone, and a new one is now available for your viewing pleasure. 

The new device - which emerged over at Android Advices - comes from Long Nong Huang and is meant to pack inside the latest advancements in the mobile industry. 

The Samsung Galaxy S III concept phone packs an NVIDIA Tegra 3 chipset, a quad-core application processor that has been clocked in at 1.3 GHz, and it arrives with 1.5GB of RAM to enable great performance capabilities. 

Moreover, the device was conceived with a 4.65 inches Super AMOLED HD touchscreen display that sports a 326-ppi pixel density. 

On the back, the concept phone sports an 8-megapixel photo snapper with Xenon flash and support for HD video recording, 3D capabilities could also be part of this device’s specs list. 

The smartphone is powered by a 1750 mAh battery and weighs 118 grams. It also arrives on shelves with a microSD memory card slot with support for up to 32GB of additional storage space, as well as with HSPA / LTE connectivity.

The Samsung Galaxy S III would run under Google’s Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. 

Overall, the smartphones appears to be packing design features from both Galaxy S II and the Galaxy Nexus smartphones that Samsung launched last year. 

The concept device was meant to be exactly what Galaxy S III is expected to become, namely the next flagship Android handset from Samsung. Hopefully, the real phone will be able to impress as much as these concept phones do.

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ACTA Protests a Success, Germany Takes a Step Back

The global protests against the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Act (ACTA) seem to have left their mark on state leaders, the latest country to pull back being Germany.

While they didn’t clearly state that they were against ACTA, German officials decided to postpone their decision on whether or not the agreement would be signed, waiting for the European Parliament to make the first move, ZDNet UK reports.

At the end of January, 22 states part of the European Union signed ACTA, but since none of them ratified the act they can proceed with caution, many of them being highly influenced by the mass protests that take place worldwide.

In the case of Germany, three political parties, the Pirate Party, the Left Party and the Greens, showed their disapproval towards ACTA, RT informs.

Even though 31 countries have already signed the agreement, none of them ratified it yet and without being ratified, the convention cannot come into force.

In Europe, Poland, the Czech Republic, Latvia and Slovakia have also delayed the ratification process and considering that street protests are scheduled to take place all over the world, it can be expected that other countries will soon follow their lead.

Since it was first proposed, ACTA has gone through a lot of changes, many parts being considerably modified to make it sound less draconian. 

Although this don’t do much good for ACTA defenders, US President Barack Obama and the EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht are still trying to convince everyone that by enforcing the rights of copyright holders, the pact may be helpful to global economies. 

Considering the fact that Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) was indefinitely postponed after massive protests, it’s very likely that ACTA will have the same fate. If world leaders haven’t noticed by now that the citizens in their countries are displeased with the pact, today they’ll surely find out.

Check out the map of worldwide ACTA protests.

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No 15-Inch HP Envy Spectre Ultrabook for Now, Just a Mistake

Yesterday, many websites reported that HP unveiled a 15-inch version of the Envy Spectre Ultrabook in Taiwan, after citing an article published by DigiTimes.

The news however seems to be wrong as Laptoping has recently uncovered that the notebook everybody thought to be a larger 15-inch Envy Ultrabook was actually the standard Envy 15, which is already available in the US. 

Although these two laptops have similar names, they’re entirely different beasts, the Spectre coming as a thin and light Ultrabook, while the Envy uses the regular notebook form factor.

So far, Samsung is the only company that has announced the launch of a 15-inch notebook, which will take the form of a Series 9 model. 

This will include a 1600x900 resolution screen and should hit the US market on February 27th.

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Sara, a Siri Alternative for All iPhones and iPads

A company called iSoft JSC has released an alternative to Siri, the digital assistant that does things just by asking on your iPhone 4S. Sara works on older-generation devices, starting at iPhone 2G, and allegedly does even more than Apple’s Siri.

The Vietnamese group at iSoft JSC says Sara is actually an advanced alternative to Siri. In addition to offering regular Siri capabilities, Sara accepts custom commands via plug-ins.

Don’t worry about having to code your own because if this thing takes off, programmers will be flocking to get their plug-ins out so everyone can enjoy them. Sara also works in many countries. In fact, it supports 37 languages. Beat that Siri!

Unfortunately, Sara does come with a small caveat - you need a jailbroken device to access Cydia to download it. For those who are interested, it’s located at http://isoftjsc.com.

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Intel 2012 Haswell CPUs Will Feature Improved Multi-Core Support

Intel has recently announced that its next-generation 22nm processors based on the Haswell architecture will support Transactional Synchronization Extensions (TSX), a new instruction set designed to allow cores to work more efficiently together.

These new synchronization extensions (Intel TSX) are useful in shared-memory multithreaded applications that employ lock-based synchronization mechanisms.

In a nutshell, Intel TSX provides a set of instruction set extensions that allow programmers to specify regions of code for transactional synchronization.

According to Intel, with transactional synchronization, the hardware can determine dynamically whether threads need to serialize through lock-protected critical sections, and perform serialization only when required. 

From what we know at this point in time, the new TSX instruction set will be supported by all processors based on the Haswell architecture.

Haswell is the code name used by Intel for Ivy Bridge's successor and this is expected to be launched in March-June 2013.

Compared to their predecessors, the chips will feature higher IPC performance, support for the AVX2 instruction set, and will also receive DirectX 11.1 support. 

With the introduction of Haswell, Intel plans to split its product range into two distinct groups. 

The first group includes the company's desktop and notebook processors, while the latter is specially designed for Ultrabooks, and drops the usual 2-chip platform approach that Intel has been using for quite some time in favor of a system-on-a-chip (SoC) design.

Desktop CPUs will feature either two of four processing cores with TDPs of 35, 45, 65 or 95 Watt, and will include a dual-channel DDR3/DDR3L memory controller, as well as GT2 or GT1 integrated graphics cores.

Mobile chips will be available in the same dual or quad-core configurations, but pack the more powerful Intel GT3 GPU, while the memory controller only supports DDR3L DIMMs. More info about the TSX instruction set is available here.

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iPad 3 Developers May Be Required to Own Retina Macs Soon

There’s a pretty good chance Apple will introduce an all-Retina Mac lineup this year, one programmer theorizes. If anything, at least development machines will sport double the pixel count, he suggests.

iOS developer David Smith has created a chart to demonstrate that coders who use Macs to craft the apps for Apple’s tablet computers may require Retina-grade graphics, should the Cupertino giant indeed release a Retina-display iPad 3.

“It is now widely accepted that Apple will be releasing a new iPad early in March. It is expected this will include a Retina display like the iPhone,” Smith writes. “This would have a resolution of 2048x1536 (double its current resolution of 1024x768).”

“I find numbers like that often hard to visualize so I did a quick graph comparing that to current Apple displays. A screen that size would be 96 pixels taller than a 27” iMac or Thunderbolt Display in landscape and 608 pixels taller in portrait,” he explains.

Therefore Smith believes “this will present problems for developers and designers of iPad apps unless Apple also releases a new display with either a higher resolution or a HiDPI mode.”

He stresses that, should Apple not release Retina-capable Macs for development, programmers “will no longer be able to view 1:1 mockups or run the simulator at full size without clipping part of the view.” His chart is pictured above (click to enlarge).

A plausible solution would be a 3840×2160 pixel display, Smith says. This would “over double the pixels, have plenty of room for a 2048×1526 app mockup image and be easier to pack into a MacBook sized screen.”

Smith believes that all signs are pointing to the fact that “Apple might begin offering Retina display equipped Macs soon […] in order to offer developers the ability to craft pixel-perfect apps for the iPad 3.”

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