Acer America announced U.S. availability of new Acer Aspire notebooks offering exceptional price/performance and cinematic high-definition entertainment to anyone on-the-go, including students and small business professionals.

These systems boast a dynamic multimedia experience with cinematic HD, 16:9 widescreens and Dolby surround sound audio in a visually appealing sapphire design known as Gemstone Blue. The Aspire notebooks are engineered to suit the needs of users desiring an affordable mobile workhorse for being productive and enjoying digital life at school, on the road or at home.

Korean cooling specialist Zalman introduced the ZM-RHS90 heatsink specially designed for ATI Radeon HD 4890, and HD 4870 reference-design PCB. The heatsink is made of anodized aluminum. It measures 93.4 x 36.5 x 23 mm (LxWxH), and weighs 55 g. Due to the large number of Radeon HD 4890/HD 4870 graphics cards in the market using the reference AMD PCB design, Zalman expects a good compatibility range. The heatsink is mounted behind the VDDC chokes, and covers the most significant set of MOSFETs on the card. It uses push-pin retention mechanism. The use of this heatsink is recommended by Zalman, when users opt for their compatible GPU heatsinks that don't cover the card's VRM area. It will arrive at stores very soon.

Shuttle Inc., the market leader in the area of mini-PCs and the manufacturer of multi-form-factor solutions, is now offering another barebone for modern AMD processors. The SA76G2 hits the market with a style not unlike its predecessor, the SN68SG2: classic black G2 design in polished aluminium.

Even at only 30 x 20 x 18.5 cm (DxWxH), the compact device is the first mini-PC barebone from Shuttle to support AMD processors for socket AM3. Processors with AM2 and AM2+ sockets can also be used, ensuring maximum compatibility and long-term upgrade options. This versatility comes thanks to the AMD RS760/SB710 chipset inside.

AMD announced the availability of ATI Catalyst version 9.6 driver suite, that provides driver support for ATI Radeon series graphics processors (driver version 8.62), Hydravision, AMD Southbridge/Chipset driver, and Catalyst Control Center (version 8.62). The new version brings along the following application-specific performance increments:

• Company of Heores - performance gains of up to 25% for the ATI Radeon HD 4600 Series, and performance gains of up to 10% for the ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series.
• Crysis Warhead - performance gains of up to 11% for ATI CrossFireX configurations.
• Crysis - performance gains of up to 13% for ATI CrossFireX configurations.
• World in Conflict - performance gains of up to 30% for settings are were previously CPU limited.

The Linux version of this driver suite adds production support for SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) and SLED 11. It also provides early support for RedHat Enterprise Linux 4.8.

DOWNLOAD: ATI Catalyst 9.6 for Windows XP 32-bit | Windows 7/Vista 32-bit | Windows XP 64-bit | Windows 7/Vista 64-bit

Release Notes can be read here

HP today unveiled a versatile laptop computer featuring a unique and award-winning design that takes individual style and entertainment performance to new limits. Featuring the young Japanese designer Hisako Sakihama's winning submission from the HP and MTV Engine Room Laptop Design Contest, the new HP Pavilion dv6 Artist Edition Laptop PC comes wrapped in an exceptional design inspired by the Okinawa sea and sky.

For tech-savvy youth looking to stand out from the crowd, this special edition laptop is the perfect stylish technology companion and also comes with a matching imprinted sleeve and mouse in the same one-of-a-kind Sea and Sky design.

AMD is preparing yet another performance-mainstream Radeon HD 4000 series SKU. The Radeon HD 4790 finds lineage from the Radeon HD 4890, currently AMD's fastest GPU. The RV790 GPU will be given a new set of specifications and memory configuration, to yield an SKU that performs better than the Radeon HD 4770, and slightly better than HD 4850. It beats us as to why it is positioned in the HD 4700 series, and not say "Radeon HD 4860", but we are too late to comment on that.

Specifications-wise, the RV790 core runs at 600 MHz, slightly lower than the RV770 in Radeon HD 4850 (625 MHz), but its performance increment over it comes from the use of GDDR5 memory. The GPU makes use of a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface. It handles 512 MB of memory clocked at 800 MHz (3200 MHz effective). Being based on the RV790, it is pin-compatible with any existing HD 4890 PCB. Price-wise, it is expected to sit between the HD 4850 and HD 4870.

Thermaltake Technology, leading manufacturer of computer components, today announced its newest and unparalleled aesthetic power supply unit - the EVO_Blue. Available in 550Watts, 650Watts, and 750Watts, the EVO_Blue comes with several cutting-edge features such as a fancy built in multi-color LED, large size 14 cm whisper-quiet ball bearing fan, robust and dedicated single +12V rail, and advanced cable management system.

Following Thermaltake's most innovative design concept, the EVO_Blue's unparalleled aesthetic exterior design has set itself above all other currently available PSUs in the market. The fancy built-in multi-color LEDs surrounding the fan and the blue LEDs backlight behind the modular cable sockets give users a feel of tough atomic energy. The EVO_Blue is also equipped with an large size 14 cm whisper-quiet ball bearing fan to dramatically reduce overall PC noise and increase thermal efficiency. In addition, the robust and dedicated single +12V output provides superior performance under all types of system loading. The modular cable management design improves internal airflow and reduces cable clutter by allowing you to use only the cables you need.

AMD tasted a bit of success with its Phenom II series of processors, which reflected in recent market share figures, where the company's share grew by around 5 percent, despite a fall in sales throughout the PC processor industry. Leading its pack currently, is the Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition, which holds a full-featured 45 nm Deneb core with unlocked bus multiplier, and AM3 platform support. It seems like AMD isn't stopping at this. The company is preparing a new model targeted at the enthusiast segment, called Phenom II TWKR ("tweaker").

High-end PC manufacturer Maingear PC has reportedly received this chip in a display model form, and looks forward to incorporating it in its lineup of PCs. Very little is known at this point in time, about this chip, beyond the point that it will provide better clock-speeds compared to the Phenom II X4 955. We can tell that it retains the AM3 socket package from the looks of it, and comes in a pretty jewel-case. AMD is yet to announce the chip, or disclose more about how it plans to sell it, and at what price.

AMD is expected to introduce a series of price-cuts next month, for its ATI Radeon HD 4800 series graphics products. The price-cuts may amount to as much as US $50, perhaps taking advantage of the low manufacturing costs. The cuts also come ahead of the time-frame in which the company will introduce a DirectX 11 compatible future-generation of ATI Radeon, to sync with the commercial launch of Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system.

When implemented, the price of the high-end Radeon HD 4890 is expected to be $199, down $50 from its current price of $249. Radeon HD 4870 will sell for $149 from its current listing price of $199, although there needs to be some clarity on how the 1 GB and 512 MB variants are positioned. Finally, the Radeon HD 4850 will enter the $100 realm, to substitute the Radeon HD 4770, which seems to be suffering an acute stock shortage.

Yesterday, AMD unveiled its surprise for this year's Computex, with a demonstration of a DirectX 11 3D scene. Behind the scenes though, was what AMD claimed to be the "world's first true DirectX 11 graphics processor". The hardware itself however, wasn't publicly displayed, although a memento of AMD's partnership with TSMC, a wafer of 40 nm DirectX 11 GPUs, was made public. VR-Zone however, sneaked into the backdrops and pictured the machine that ran the demo (which ironically, was built into a case with a side-window).

The graphics card, a portion of which, is hidden behind the "wing" of the AMD Dragon logo graphic, is seen to be about 8.5 inches long, spans across two slots, and has a seemingly sporty cooler with the ATI-red shroud. It draws power from a single 6-pin PCI-E connector. The photographers note that this could be the RV840-based desktop accelerator, which forms the performance-mainstream product for the company's upcoming DirectX 11-compliant GPU lineup codenamed "Evergreen". The first product from this series is expected to be released in September, weeks ahead of the launch of Microsoft Windows 7.

Some of the first AMD socket G34 motherboards were caught on camera, at the ongoing Computex event, by Inpai. The new socket succeeds the G3MX, which was discontinued in its development process itself. It facilitates upcoming six-core, and twelve-core "Magny-Corus" processors by AMD, which will use HyperTransport 3.0 system interface (for the first time on the enterprise AMD platform), and support the quad-channel (per socket) memory interface. One of the first processors in line for this socket is the based on the "Istanbul" six-core silicon.

The Inventec G34 HPC motherboard (left, below) will be targeted at the server and HPC markets. The two sockets are wired to twelve DDR3 DIMM slots per socket, each array supporting a 256-bit wide (quad-channel) memory interface. The Quanta G34 looks to be more workstation oriented, featuring several PCI-Express slots, and eight DIMM slots per socket. Like Socket F, the new socket physically will be a land-grid array, with pins on the socket, and contact points on the processor package. Its pin-count is known to be 1974.

At a press conference in Taipei, Taiwan today, AMD publicly demonstrated the world's first Microsoft DirectX 11 graphics processor. The series of demonstrations shed new light on the significantly improved computing experience set to debut at the end of 2009. The fusion of AMD's new ground-breaking graphics processors with the forthcoming DirectX 11 programming interface is set to forever change both applications and PC gaming for the better. To illustrate, AMD showed numerous examples of faster application performance and new game features using the world's first true DirectX 11 graphics processor.

AMD launched the ATI Theater HD 750 PC TV chip offering HDTV viewing capabilities on desktop and notebook PCs around the world using analog, and digital, and free-to-air broadcast signals. ATI Theater HD 750 uses advanced video processing and signal reception technologies for clear HD picture quality, crisp images, high color performance and fidelity for an authentic HD home theater feel on the PC.

Bringing its acclaimed 45 nm technology to new high-volume processor designs, AMD today announced two new dual-core desktop processors. Building on 10 years of AMD Athlon processor innovation, the new 45 nm AMD Athlon II X2 250 processor gives mainstream consumers exceptional performance, efficiency and value. For enthusiasts and overclockers, AMD also announces the AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition processor, the first ever dual-core AMD Phenom II CPU. With this latest addition to the AMD Phenom II processor family, users can now experience the power of AMD platform technology, codenamed "Dragon," with dual-, triple- and quad-core configurations.

AMD today announced availability of the world's first six-core server processor with Direct Connect Architecture for two-, four- and eight-socket servers. Six-Core AMD Opteron processors (code-named "Istanbul") extend AMD's commitment to offering server customers superior value at every price point with unmatched platform flexibility.
Across a single platform, AMD can address the need for more cores and greater scalability with the new Six-Core AMD Opteron processor and offer a cost- and power-efficient solution with Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors. Systems based on Six-Core AMD Opteron processors are expected to be available beginning this month from leading OEMs including Cray, Dell, HP, IBM and Sun Microsystems, along with support from motherboard and infrastructure partners. HE, SE and EE versions of the Six-Core AMD Opteron processor are planned for the second half of 2009.

AMD announced the ATI Radeon E4690 graphics processor unit (GPU) designed to enable a whole level of new reality for embedded graphics applications with more than triple the 3D graphics performance of prior AMD embedded products. Arcade system manufacturers will appreciate the long term support and lower cost of placing the GPU chip directly on the motherboard instead of a separate add-in graphics card. This product will enable digital signage manufacturers to decode and play multiple high-definition videos in hardware, offloading all the decoding from the CPU. Casino system manufacturers will be amazed by triple the graphics performance to help attract players while increasing overall entertainment value with incredibly realistic 3D graphics, plus two-monitor support.

Thermaltake, leading PC chassis, cooler, and PSU brand manufacturer, is celebrating their 10th anniversary in the PC DIY industry and will therefore present a very special highlight at this year's Computex 2009 show in Taipei, Taiwan, June 2 ~ 6.

Herewith we would like to cordially invite you to this exclusive ceremony with the Director of the European Studio of BMW Group DesignworksUSA, Laurenz Schaffer the AMD Vice President of Platform Business Development Levi Murray and the CEO of Thermaltake Kenny Lin. Don't miss your chance to meet three of the most innovative technology leaders in their fields and directly ask them and tell what you think matters.

TUL Corporation, a leading manufacturer of AMD graphics cards, announces a new addition to HD4700 series: the PCS HD4730. The latest PCS HD4730 has 640 streaming processors, clocks at 700MHz core and 900MHz memory respectively, with the fastest ever GDDR5 memory, it supports up to 3.6 Gbps data rates. This offers an unbeatable gaming performance in its segment.

The PowerColor PCS HD4730 equipped with award-winning ARCTIC COOLING solution, increases air flow at a lower fan speed that easily dissipates heat from an optimized heat sink. The unique fan design avoids direct contact with high temperatures emanating from heat sink, extending the life cycle of the cooling fan. With PowerColor exclusive fan control technology, the fan speed can be adjusted automatically providing a perfect balance between silent operating environment and cooling performance.

It seems that in order to make up for the shortages of the now very popular HD 4770, due to TSMC's issues with 40 nm manufacturing, AMD is dropping the prices of the HD 4850 to around the MSRP of the HD 4770. That is around $99.99 US and about €90, this will be putting further pressure on NVIDIA as AMD brings down one of its top GPUs in to the sub-$100 market.

Days after releasing its high-end Crosshair III Formula, ASUS is readying another motherboard, this time based on AMD's new 785G + SB710 chipset. This AM2+ micro-ATX board offers a fairly standard feature-set. The AM2+ socket supports nearly every AM2, AM2+, AM3 socket CPU ever made, while the four DDR2 DIMMs support up to 1200 MHz DDR2 by overclocking, while DDR2-1066 is a standard for AM2+/AM3 CPUs. The southbridge provides five SATA II ports, with a sixth one positioned as eSATA on the rear-panel. Display connectivity options include DVI, D-Sub and HDMI. The motherboard may be released during the upcoming Computed 2009 event.

The source also revealed a bit about the AMD 785G chipset, confirming our earlier assumption that it was based on the RS880 core. The chip embeds an RV620 graphics processor, which will be named as the Radeon HD 4200 IGP. It features UVD 2.0 video hardware decoder, and supports DirectX 10.1. It also supports SidePort auxiliary memory, apart from the usual UMA. AMD notes that the IGP will be slightly faster than the RS780, while being significantly faster than Intel G45 and NVIDIA's GeForce 8200 (although NVIDIA's fasted IGP for the AMD platform is GeForce 8300).

ECS is dressing up two new motherboards for a gala launch at Computex 2009. The A785GM-M and P55H-A were recently announced by the company to be heading for display and launch at the event, in its Computex booth invitation press-release. AlienBabelTech published exclusive pictures of the two.

To begin with, the A785GM-M is a micro-ATX motherboard based on the new AMD 785G chipset. The chipset features a Radeon HD 4200-class IGP. It is possibly based on the new RS880 core. The board supports AMD AM3 socket CPUs, and provides four DDR3 DIMM slots. Its display connectivity options include D-Sub, DVI, and HDMI. The rest of its connectivity includes FireWire, eSATA and one gigabit Ethernet interface.

The P55H-A on the other hand, is one of the company's first offerings that support the upcoming LGA-1156 socket processors. This is another of the motherboards we have seen so far, that lack display connectors, and hence, lack Intel Flexible Display Interface support, that connects integrated graphics processors on some CPUs to their output. It provides two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots (electrically dual x8 when both populated). Four DDR3 DIMM slots support dual-channel DDR3 memory, 8 channel audio, gigabit Ethernet, and 6 SATA II ports make for the rest of it.

Industry observer DigiTimes, citing anonymous sources, today reported that AMD is planning to move production of its desktop processors to 45 nm node process by the third quarter of this year.

AMD plans to move production of its desktop CPUs to its 45nm node process in the third quarter, helping to reduce costs, according to sources at motherboard makers.
Currently, only AMD's quad-core Phenom II X4 800 and 900 series (Deneb) and triple-core Phenom II X3 700 series (Heka) CPUs are manufactured under a 45nm process. The company plans to move its dual-core Phenom II X2 500 series (Callisto) and Athlon II X2 200 series to 45nm in June, and quad-core Athlon II X4 600 series and triple-core Athlon II X3 400 series (Rana) in September, the sources noted.
The chipmaker also plans to launch several CPUs during the period between the end of the second quarter and the third quarter. The dual-core Phenom II X2 550 and 545 will launch at the end of the second quarter, and the quad-core Phenom II X4 945 (95W) and 8xx (95W), triple-core Phenom II X3 7xx (95W), quad-core Athlon II X4 630 and 620, triple-core Athlon II X3 435 and 425, and dual-core Athlon II X2 250, 245 and 240 will launch in the third.
AMD also plans to launch 10 low-power consumption CPUs including the Phenom II X4 905e, Phenom II X3 705e and Athlon II X4 605e.

In the run up for the launch of Intel's newest line of desktop CPUs - the Core i5 series, companies with related products such as motherboards and coolers are in full swing gearing up Core i5. Spire is ready with two new coolers CoolWave 5 and CoolWave 5 Pro, that support LGA-1156, the socket Core i5 uses. The two are identical except for that the former features pre-applied S350 thermal grease, while the latter comes with a tube of superior-grade S420 thermal grease. The cooler doesn't leave out support for LGA-775, or interestingly, AMD AM3/2+/2 either. Measuring 90x90x80 mm (LxWxH), the CoolWave 5 makes use of a silent 90 mm, UV-reactive fan. The coolers will be available in late-June at prices of $9.95 for the CoolWave 5, and $14.95 for the CoolWave 5 Pro.

AMD is dressing up a new ATI Radeon SKU to go to office soon. The Radeon HD 4730 beats our guesswork, and wits both in one shot. The new SKU is not based on a scaled-down 40 nm RV740 GPU the HD 4770 is based on, but rather on a new RV770 variant, dubbed the RV770CE. This GPU is physically identical to the RV770, and has part of its configuration identical to the RV770LE (Radeon HD 4830), while its memory interface is 128-bit GDDR5 instead of 256-bit GDDR3.

The only explanation we have in store is that perhaps AMD is looking to save on using lesser number of memory chips per board (while not crippling the memory interface), and that RV770 is in healthier stock than the RV740. Pictured below is the PowerColor Radeon HD 4730 PCS, one of the first cards based on the GPU. Other important specifications, such as stream processor count, and clock-speeds are yet to surface. Ideally it should cash-in on a price-segment below that of the Radeon HD 4770.

Having hit the 1.00 GHz (core) mark with its recently-introduced Radeon HD 4890 Atomic Vapor-X, Sapphire still finds the need for a card with the Vapor-X cooler sans the factory-overclocking, leaving some headroom for enthusiasts to play with. The new HD 4890 Vapor-X uses a non-reference blue PCB, along with the Vapor-X cooler similar to that on the HD 4870 Vapor-X model. A vapor-chamber plate makes direct contact with the GPU. It conveys heat to a radial heatsink cooled by a central fan. The memory is cooled by heatsinks, while the VRM-area is cooled by a heatsink of its own.

Sapphire uses AMD reference clock speeds: 850 MHz (core), and 975 MHz memory. The card features 1 GB of GDDR5 memory. Its outputs are care of DVI, D-Sub, HDMI and DisplayPort connectors provided right on the card. The card will reach retail in a few weeks' time.