NVIDIA will expand its new generation of graphics processors into cost-effective price points with the launches of GeForce GTX 660 Ti, GTX 660, and GTX 650, in the August-September time-frame. According to a DonanimHaber report, the products the three are replacing, the GeForce 560 Ti, GTX 560, and GTX 550 Ti; will closely follow launches of the new GPUs. When a product discontinuation notice for a particular product is issued, distributors are set a last day for placing orders for it.

After fulfilling the last orders, the product's status is changed to End of Life (EOL). To consumers, this news comes as a heads up, if they plan to buy any of the three SKUs on the chopping block, at their currently-attractive prices. The GeForce GTX 560 Ti is available on US retail website Newegg.com for as low as $179.99 (after rebate), the GTX 560 goes for as low as US $149.99 (after rebate), and the GTX 550 Ti for as low as $114.99. One can also deduce that NVIDIA will have healthy inventories of the new GPUs on launch.

After last week's launch of the Xeon "Romley" platform, which replaces the Xeon 5500 "Tylersburg" platform, Intel has a retirement plan ready for the latter. Tylersburg was introduced in 2009, based on Intel's Nehalem architecture. Intel introduced product change notification (PCN) documents that detail these plans. The following models will be discontinued:

• High-end: W5590, W5580, X5570, X5560 and X5550
• Mid-tier versions: E5540, E5530, E5520, E5507, E5506, E5504, E5503 and E5502
• Entry-level versions: L5530, L5520 and L5506

September 28, 2012 is set as the last date of orders for these chips. After this date, Intel will work to clear the last orders, and the products will attain end-of-life (EOL) status. Small stocks will still be held to honor any warranty claims.

Just a handful of days ahead of Sandy Bridge-E's launch, a Chinese tech website, www.inpai.com.cn (Google translation) has done what Chinese tech websites do best and that's leak benchmarks and slides, Intel's NDA be damned. They pit the current i7-2600K quad core CPU against the upcoming i7-3960X hexa core CPU and compare them in several ways. The take home message appears to be that gaming performance on BF3 & Crysis 2 is identical, while the i7-3960X uses considerably more power, as one might expect from an extra two cores. The only advantage appears to come from the x264 & Cinebench tests. If these benchmarks prove accurate, then gamers might as well stick with the current generation Sandy Bridge CPUs, especially as they will drop in price, before being end of life'd. While this is all rather disappointing, it's best to take leaked benchmarks like this with a (big) grain of salt and wait for the usual gang of reputable websites to publish their reviews on launch day, November 14th. Softpedia reckons that these results are the real deal, however. There's more benchmarks and pictures after the jump.

German brand EOLIZE expands its portfolio by announcing a value for money Mini-ITX Case. EOLIZE SVD-NC11-02 aims for private and corporate customers who are looking for solid and reliable NAS Server as well as Home Server chassis. It has much in common with a Barebone chassis and can be used as such but additionally offers features such as two Hot Swap Modules.

Both Hot Swap Modules are located behind the decently designed front door and are able to fit two either 3,5 inch (8,89 cm) or 2,5 inch (6,35 cm) drives such as HDD or SSD. One further 2,5 inch sized HDD/SSD may be mounted inside the SVD-NC11-02 Mini-ITX chassis. This drive can be used as a system drive to install an appropriate Operating System and necessary Software. Additionally one 5,25 inch (13,3 cm) bay is located in the front giving enough space for a DVD, CD or Blu-ray drive as well as other commonly used bay accessory. SVD-NC11-02 Mini-ITX chassis is furthermore equipped with an I/O panel in the front offering two USB 2.0 connectors, one Mic and one Audio-out connector.

It is curtains for as many as 20 Intel processor models in H2 2011, according to a slide detailing the product lifecycle of Intel processors in the market. The 20 models will reach EOL (end of life) stage of their market-life. When a product is marked EOL, Intel stops taking orders for it from OEMs and channel vendors, clears outstanding orders, and stops its production. Intel will honor warranties on those products in accordance with its warranty policies.

Up for EOL are the socket LGA1366 Core i7-970, socket LGA1156 Core i7-880, Core i7-875K, Core i7-870S, Core i5-760, Core i5-750S, Core i5-655K, Core i3-530; and most socket LGA775 processor currently in the market. LGA775 models include Core 2 Quad Q9650, Q9550/Q9550S, Q9500, Q8400/Q8400S, Q8300; Core 2 Duo models E8600, E8500, and Pentium E5400. Several other products are marked PDN (product discontinuation notification), a stage that precedes EOL, which formally notifies OEMs and channel-vendors that they should place their last orders (and so they should choose quantities wisely).

With its latest generation of client processors just a stone's throw away (into the mist, since there's still uncertainity surrounding the actual launch dates), AMD is preparing to retire its current front-line client processors, the six-core Phenom II X6. A company slide talking about "desktop processor longetivity" shows all current Phenom II X6 models, including 1100T Black Edition, 1090T Black Edition, 1075T, and 1065T, are scheduled for "end of life" (EOL) in Q4 2011, at the very latest by December. When a product reaches EOL, the company stops taking orders from distributors for it, clears outstanding orders, and stops its production. The company will continue to honor any warranty claims in accordance with its warranty terms and conditions.

Apple on Thursday discontinued its 20-inch Cinema Display, reducing its external display offerings to just two options: the brand new 24-inch Apple LED Cinema model and the old 30-inch Apple Cinema HD display. The 20-inch has already been removed from Apple's online store. AppleInsider also suggests that the 30-inch Apple displays are next to go away.

With immediate effect, the following products are 'End of Life' (EOL); Apple 20" Cinema Display,

All backlog will be cancelled and there is no automatic order conversion.

Apple wrote in a worldwide bulletin to its sales and service channels.

Intel has updated its plans with the desktop CPU lineup across segments with some of the current products getting discontinued from manufacturing. The company will send product discontinuance notices (PDNs), documents sent to relevant firms in the industry, notifying them of a time-frame in which the company plans to stop production of a product. Some products are also slated to reach end of life (EOL). Along with this, there are also plans to bring in new products based on the current architecture.

Sources at motherboard vendors tell that by Q1 2009, the Core 2 Extreme QX9770 and QX9650 discontinue, with PDNs being issued. They will be totally phased-out by Q2. The company will also send out PDNs for four quad-core CPUs including the Core 2 Quad Q9450, ten dual-core CPUs including the Core 2 Duo E8300, three Pentium CPUs including the Pentium E2220 and the Celeron E1200 starting in November, and all products will phase out between the first and second quarters next year. Other highlights include:

Infoworld started a Save XP petition on their website. The main goal of this petition is to get Microsoft to continue handing out Windows XP licenses beyond the June 30 deadline Microsoft put out. Fortunately for Windows XP diehards everywhere, an astounding 75,000 people have signed this petition so far. Infoworld plans on presenting this petition to Microsoft when they reach 100,000 signatures. If you have not already done so, I suggest you sign the petition if you feel that Windows XP should be around a little longer than June 30, 2008.

Intel took on the mindset of "out with the old and in with the new", and their choice is reflected in their roadmaps. Starting in Q1 2008, Intel will remove their single-core offerings from the market by replacing them with superior dual-core models. The upcoming Celeron E1000 series will be the first entry-level dual-core processor to hit the market. The first dual-core Celeron, the E1200, is clocked at 1.6GHz, has an 800MHz FSB, a 512KB L2 cache, and will cost a mere $51 USD (in thousand-unit quantities). All of the E1000 series will be based on the Core 2 Duo micro-architecture, and will be 45nm parts.

It's official: the 60GB version of the Sony PS3 is on it's way out. None of the SCEA (Sony Computer Entertainment America) warehouses have any 60GB PS3 stock. Fortunately for Sony, all of the PS3s were going straight to retailers around the country, and were already paid-in-full. And while Sony has no idea how many of those 60GB PS3s are still on store shelves, Sony believes that there's still "ample supply left".

In response to earlier reports of the increasing market rarity of the 20GB PlayStation 3, Sony Computer Entertainment of America has officially confirmed that the less expensive variant of its console will no longer be offered in North America.

Due to the overwhelming demand for the 60GB model from both retailers and consumers, we have ceased offering the 20GB model here in North America

said Dave Karraker, senior director of corporate communications for SCEA. Sony has also indicated that the 20GB model, while discontinued, will still be supported by software and services, such as warranty.

After 5 years and generally very innovative PDAs at great prices, Dell has quietly removed the last Axim - the x51v from their website. The Axim is still a very high end product, featuring a VGA display, 3D system, 624MHz CPU as well as WiFI and Bluetooth. I had the pleasure of testing on such a device and am rather dissapointed to see them discontinued.

Two weeks after Ray Maguire, the man in charge at Sony UK, told the world about a smaller and lighter PlayStation Portable he recently admitted Sony decided not to update its mobile gaming solution for now. In the interview with GamesIndustry.biz where Maquire spoke about Sony's recent change of mind he added they are instead focussing on the relationship between the PSP and the PS3. In general this interview, which is the second part already, is more related to the PlayStation 3. Maguire seems to be very talkative throughout the whole questioning - don't miss the first part if you are interested in the console market.

Maybe many of you know that ULi was acquired by NVIDIA in February of last year. Now in order to push its own chipset series into the lower segment of the mainboard market, NVIDIA decided to terminate the supplies of ULi chipsets to third parties completely. At the CeBIT 2007 show NVIDIA Corp. has demonstrated such solutions as MCP68 and MCP73, so the ULi solutions need to be removed from their way. Engineers that were involved into ULi chipsets development will now join the NVIDIA team working in the same field. So, it looks like ULi branded products are history now.

The new Nintendo console - the Wii - has been a huge sucess. A big selling point has been the fact that it can play Gamecube games. A Nintendo spokesperson has now mentioned that the Gamecube is no longer produced and that there are no more games in developement for the console. This also explains the diminishing selection of games and hardware at retailers. The remaining consoles will be sold to first time buyers until they are all gone.

UPDATE: Seems like Eurogamer has gotten confirmation from Nintendo UK that Gamecube support has not been axed. Catch up on all the details here at Eurogamer.

EA Japan is no more. This certainly doesn't mean a lack of EA games in Japan, however. These games will simply be distributed or developed through EA's various partners. This will change the schedule of development for any games to be released in Japan.

Super-analysts at Gartner have something to say about Microsoft and its Windows software. For those of you unfamiliar with the company, Gartner is the largest IT industry analyst firm in the world, and it got there for a reason - it's pretty good at its guesses.

Gartner estimates that Windows Vista will be the last Windows as we know it. The company predicts that it is too difficult and expensive to keep pushing box sales for new versions.

Perhaps a modular architecture, where you download updated versions of modules that piece together the OS, is on its way?

Intel has announced the end of the Celeron D 326, 346, 351 and 355 processors. Orders for the products become unchangeable on 2 February 2007, and no further orders will be accepted after 6 April 2007, Intel documents reveal. Intel is clearing all its Pentium and Celeron CPUs to make way for the increasing mainstream-oriented Core 2 Duo family and for future Core-based Pentium processors.