AMD launched a pair of new E-series low-power APUs, the E2-2000, and the E1-1500. The two dual-core chips are based on the same (albeit refined) "Bobcat" micro-architecture as other E-series parts. The E2-2000 CPU cores are clocked at 1.75 GHz, with its Radeon iGPU clocked at 700 MHz; while the E1-1500 features 1.50 GHz CPU core frequency, and 529 MHz iGPU. TDP of both chips are rated at 18W, both feature 1 MB of L2 cache, 80 VLIW5 stream processors, DirectX 11 support, and UVD3 support. In addition to the higher clock speeds, the single-channel memory controller on the E2-2000 supports faster DDR3-1333 MHz, while the E1-1500 makes do with DDR3-1066 MHz. Various new devices launched at the 2013 International CES are based around the two.

The leading hardware solution provider, Rosewill, will be show casing their latest innovations and premiere line of products at CES 2013. Rosewill will debut a world first, Rosewill Helios RK-9200 Dual LED Backlit Mechanical Gaming Keyboard with Cherry MX Switches in Blue, Red, Brown, and Black. It supports Red or Green Backlit LEDs and allows independent color control of the vital WASD and 4 directional arrow gaming keys while allowing you to choose between 5 global brightness modes. It will stand side by side with the RK-9000 and RK-9100 series Mechanical Keyboards that have already cemented their positions.

Rosewill will also be show casing their line of Computer Cases, Power Supplies, Networking products, Server products, Gaming Peripherals, Surveillance Products, and Computer Accessories that compliment your PC build.

ROCCAT will be showing its new product developments in gaming peripherals and software at CES in Las Vegas on January 8 - 11, 2013. Some of the ROCCAT highlights at this year's show will include the brand's first-ever mechanical keyboard and the first software project for the company from Hamburg, Germany - the Power-Grid app, which has now passed Beta testing. In addition, several ROCCAT products at CES are newly available to US gamers, including the gaming mice Kone XTD and Kone Pure along with the multicolor gaming keyboard Isku FX.

ROCCAT founder and CEO, René Korte, on the significance of CES for the company: "We announced ROCCAT's entrance to the American market here exactly 12 months ago. The feedback from gamers and media worldwide has been overwhelmingly positive and we're here again to prove that ROCCAT sets the rules when it comes to gaming peripherals."

Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) will be showcasing its new line products at the 2013 International Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas at the Mirage Hotel from January 8 to January 11. ECS invites all interested parties to get hands-on experience with its latest product offerings, including two next generation All-in-one (AIO) touch based PCs, notebooks, a tablet, and the latest in ATX and Thin Mini-ITX motherboards.

With 10-finger touch capability, the G24 and G18 Series are a new line of AIO PCs using ECS' own Thin Mini-ITX motherboards. The G24 series in particular fully supports the touch interface of Windows 8. These two edge-to-edge 23.6"/18.5" AIOs featuring full HDMI capability, a TV tuner card and a remote not only act as your personal computer but also your 2nd TV.

It looks like Intel's Core "Haswell" processor family will miss its anticipated March-May launch window, with the company choosing Computex 2013 as its next launch-pad. According to a leaked document intended for distributors and large retailers, desktop Core "Haswell" processors will launch only after May 27, before June 7, and retailers are told to hold off advertising the launch till June 2nd.

Among the products featuring in the new May 27 - June 7 launch window are the Core i7-4770K flagship product, i7-4770, i7-4770S, i7-4770T, i7-4765T, i5-4670K, i5-4670, i5-4670S, i5-4670T, i5-4570, i5-4570S, i5-4570T, i5-4430, and i5-4430S, all of which are quad-core parts. In addition, socket LGA1150 motherboards based on Intel Z87 (flagship, OC-ready), H87, Q87, Q85, and B85 chipsets, will be launched. In all likelihood, one piece of decoration the CES venue could miss, is the wall of LGA1150 motherboards, which is usually put up by Intel.

TechPowerUp wishes you an awesome New Year's. 2012, the purported "Ides of March" for some, has come to pass without incident. For the tech world, it's been another eventful year. We look forward to 2013 with even more zeal, especially the kick in the butt that every new year brings to us: International CES, second week of January, and our on-ground coverage from 'Vegas.

So how was your 2012, and what do you most look forward to in 2013?

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) today announced that the 2013 International CES will feature a record amount of exhibit space, with the show floor totaling more than 1.87 million net square feet. The previous record was 1.862 million net square feet at the 2012 CES. Owned and produced by CEA, the 2013 CES, the world's largest innovation event, is scheduled Tuesday, January 8-Friday, January 11, 2013 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

"With the largest show floor in history, more innovative technologies and services will launch at the 2013 CES than anywhere else in the world," said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO, CEA. "From cloud-based services, advancements in digital health, connected vehicle technologies, the latest apps, flexible devices and beyond, the innovations unveiled at the 2013 CES will create new jobs and further economic growth around the world."

The Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA), HomePlug Alliance, Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) and Wi-Fi Alliance will together promote and demonstrate the connected home during 2013 International CES, January 8 - 11. Demonstrations in South Hall 1, Las Vegas Convention Center, Booth 20300 will showcase how these technology standards from the four alliances create the ultimate connected home experience.

The market is experiencing exponential growth in the demand for connected home devices and applications. Trends toward ultra-high-speed broadband access, pay TV, and OTT services and device-to-device connectivity are changing the way consumers play, watch and listen to media. This evolution, combined with an influx of digital devices in every room, is expanding the scope and requirements of the connected home. As the connected home environment continues to evolve and expand, DLNA, HomePlug, MoCA and Wi-Fi Alliance, combined with their more than 650 member companies, play a crucial role in delivering a seamless and rich experience.

MultiTouch Ltd has announced the launch of 42" and 55" MultiTaction Cell multitouch displays, fully integrated with Windows 8. The new MultiTaction Cell 42" (MT420W8) and 55" (MT550W8) with Embedded Windows 8 on Intel Core i7 are the first large-format displays available with a built-in touch user interface -and the first to support simultaneous use of unlimited touch with hands, the new Windows 8 native pen tracking and real life object interaction.

The addition of Windows 8 makes MultiTaction an even better proposition for clients seeking large integrated Windows 8 devices particularly suitable for use in public spaces. The new MultiTaction Cell displays allow clients to use applications from the Windows 8 store, with both 42" and 55" models running applications compatible across smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktop PCs.

Kingston announced that it will enter Vegas next year all guns blazing, at the 2013 CES, held in January. The company plans to showcase new lines of SSDNow- and HyperX-branded SSDs, and PC memory, in addition to new "wireless storage expansion gadgets." In all likelihood, these are additions to Wi-Drive line of wireless SSDs. At its booth, Kingston will also be exhibiting StarCraft II finals, running live product demos, and let visitors meet its design team. CES 2012 starts in the week of 6th January.

Thermalright is working on a massive new CPU heatsink, so massive, that it won't leave much room to strap a fan on. Pictured below, the new HR-22 is [intended to be] a passive CPU cooler with a large aluminum fin heat dissipation area, to which heat from the base is conveyed by eight 6 mm-thick nickel-plated copper heat pipes. Should you decide to use fans, with a rectangle fin profile, the cooler appears to allow you to strap 140~120 mm fans on its longer sides, and 80 mm fans on its shorter ones.

Thermalright is calling the HR-22 its next masterpiece. Said the company in its Facebook post, "Thermalright's signature model the HR-02, has turn the impossible to possible and shown the world the power of passive cooling. Now we introduce to you our next masterpiece, the HR-22." The new cooler is slated for 2013, we expect the company to use CES (early-January) as its launchpad.

Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced it will host a free online StarCraft II tournament in honor of the 10-year anniversary of the HyperX product line. Since 2002, Kingston HyperX products have been the memory of choice for gamers, computer enthusiasts, overclockers and system builders. The tournament is a chance for Kingston to say thank you and host an event that gives back to its customers and fans.

Gamers from around the world will compete online with the goal of qualifying for the live finals in Las Vegas, NV. during International CES 2013 in January. In addition, eight invited pro gamers will be seeded into the top sixteen, and will battle it out to win one of four cash prizes totaling $15,000 and become the first-ever HyperX Champion.

Lenovo may have scored a lot of attention with its $1,400 X1 Carbon Ultrabook, but it's the ThinkPad T430u Ultrabook, which featured at CES 2012 (January) that has consumers looking forward to, due to its US $779 price-point. The T430u borrows several design elements from its more expensive sibling. The Ultrabook is said to be available later this month. The 14-inch Ultrabook comes equipped with a 1366 x 768 pixels screen, Intel Core "Ivy Bridge" processor, 8 GB of dual-channel DDR3 memory, HDD or optional 128 GB SSD, and optional GeForce GT 620M graphics.

The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) today announced that it has released new compliance test specifications (CTS) for DisplayPort cable adaptors. The new CTS documents allow VESA members to have DisplayPort cable adaptors compliance tested through VESA's Authorized Test Centers (ATCs) worldwide, or by completing the new self-testing and reporting option.

"The DisplayPort logo signifies that a product is based on next-generation display technology," said Bill Lempesis, executive director at VESA. "By simplifying the certification process for our member companies, we've given them easier access to the logo."

MSI will be rolling out its latest generation of G Series gaming laptops, including the GT60, GT70, GE60, and GE70, June 5-9 at Booth L0810 on the fourth floor of TWTC Nangang Exhibition Hall. Other notebook computers to be displayed include the U270 with AMD's latest Brazos 2.0 processor, the high performance, highly mobile U180 netbook, the CX70, CR70, CX61, CR61, and CR41--five multimedia laptops from the solid C Series. The slender and powerful MSI Slider S20 will also be there. Popular the world over, this ultimate in ultrabooks sports an 11.6-inch screen and classy looks. Tipping the scales at just 1.3 kilograms, it is less than 2 centimeters thin. What's more, the Slider ultrabook can be collapsed to give you the most powerful tablet in the world.

Eurocom has unleashed the beast, the Panther 4.0 is here! The most powerful mobile computer ever conceived. It is powered by the Intel X79 Sandy Bridge-E Core Logic and Core i7 3960X Processor Extreme; RAID 0/1/5/10, with NVIDIA GeForce SLI and AMD Radeon CrossFireX support. The Eurocom production team has recently finished the EUROCOM Panther 4.0 teaser video, with information about the specs, innovations and technologies, along with a look inside the beast.

ASUS decided to bail on this year's edition of CeBIT, Europe's biggest consumer electronics and computer expo, held annually in Hanover, Germany. It has reportedly scrapped plans of setting up a booth there. What makes this big news is that it's ASUS - the single biggest vendor of PC motherboards, a notable vendor of notebooks, netbooks, and other computer hardware. Perhaps it's the timing of CeBIT that ASUS isn't quite liking, which falls right in between CES, held in early-January, in the US; and Computex, held mid-year in Taiwan, home of most computer hardware manufacturers, including ASUS. CES and Computex both have a fair attendance of European press anyway. No other companies similar to ASUS have reported to scrap their CeBIT plans. ASRock and Biostar have plans to set up small booths.

Lenovo Group reported results for its third fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2011, highlighted by record highs in quarterly sales, pre-tax income and market share, and the 11th quarter in a row that Lenovo has grown faster than the industry as a whole. For the ninth quarter in a row, the Company grew faster than any of the top four PC manufacturers, a result of Lenovo's continued focus on balanced growth across all geographies, customer segments and product lines. During the third quarter, Lenovo recorded its highest-ever worldwide market share of 14.0* percent, and its highest-ever market share in China of 35.3 percent, an increase of 3.7 and 3.1 share points year-over-year respectively.

During the third fiscal quarter Lenovo's pre-tax income increased 59 percent year-over-year, to a record high of US$192 million.

While it may not be as high profile as the Windows 8/ARM pair, Android/ x86 is still a match with potential. It certainly has a long way to go but progress is being made, and proof of that progress was seen at CES 2012 where AMD showcased a MSI WindPad 110W tablet running Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich).

The WindPad 110W packed a Z-01 APU (two x86 cores @ 1.0 GHz, Radeon HD 6250 graphics), 2 GB of RAM, and was available for some hands-on time, unlike the Tegra 3-powered Windows 8 tablet also seen at CES. Things weren't perfect with the 110W/Android 4.0 mix as the tablet did experience occasional freezes but keep in mind it's all a work in progress. People interested in converting their WindPad 110W from a Windows device to an (experimental) Android tablet can download the Android 4.0 for Brazos ISO via this page.

Buffalo Technology, a global leader in the design, development and manufacturing of storage and wireless networking solutions, has validated its commitment to innovation by showcasing 802.11ac technology on the show floor at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Operating in the 5 GHz space, the next generation wireless technology boasts unmatched wireless speeds of 1300 Mbps, approximately three times faster than 802.11n.

Accompanying the 802.11ac technology is the class leading Buffalo AirStation WZR-1750H wireless router; combined, they provide complete backward compatibility with 802.11a, 11b, 11g and 11n, in addition to offering 2.4 GHz transmission speeds up to 450 Mbps and exceptional coverage. The WZR-1750H provides consumers with total aggregate wireless throughput of 1750 Mbps.

Samsung Electronics America Inc., a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Corporation and the number one worldwide brand of professional commercial display LCD products, is demonstrating its digital solutions leadership at a showcase event featuring the Samsung SUR40 for Microsoft Surface and a variety of applications from development partners at the National Retail Federation (NRF) conference, being held Jan. 16 and 17 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York in Room 1A17 (on Level One of the convention center).

Available now through Samsung channel and reseller partners, a CES Best of Innovations 2012 award-winner, the Samsung-Microsoft collaboration incorporates Microsoft Surface 2.0 software and touch technology into an interactive and engaging 40-inch Full HD LCD that can be used horizontally as a table, mounted vertically on a wall or embedded in other fixtures and furniture.

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) announced today that the 2012 International CES is the largest in the show's 44 year history, with 1.861 million net square feet of exhibit space. The previous record was 1.857 million net square feet of space at the 2008 International CES. Owned and produced by CEA, the 2012 International CES, the world's largest tradeshow for consumer technology, runs through Friday, January 13 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

In other show news, a keynote address by Ericsson's Hans Vestberg, the Innovation Power Panel with leaders from Ford, Verizon and Xerox, a Brand keynote from executives from AT&T, Walmart, Facebook and GE, an LIT keynote from eBay's John Donohue and a keynote from YouTube's Robert Kyncl were mid-week highlights of the 2012 International CES.

Mushkin unveiled three new lines of consumer solid state drives (SSDs) at CES, the Chronos GO, Atlas, and Scorpion. Chronos Go is a series of simple SSDs in the 1.8-inch SATA 6 Gb/s form-factor, Atlas is a series of mSATA SSDs based on a fast controller that takes advantage of SATA 6 Gb/s interface, while Scorpion is a line of ultra-high performance PCI-Express SSDs. At the heart of all three is SandForce SF-2281 SSD controller. Chronos GO is available in Standard and Deluxe variants, both offering sequential read speeds up to 565 MB/s, and write speeds up to 525 MB/s, with 4K random write performance of 90,000 IOPS. These drives are available in capacities of up to 480 GB.

Next up are the Atlas mSATA drives. These include standard and deluxe variants, too, with the same sequential read speeds of up to 565 MB/s. It's just that the deluxe variant offers slightly higher write speeds of up to 535 MB/s, while the standard one stays at up to 525 MB/s. These drives will be available in capacities up to 240 GB. Both Chronos GO and Atlas lines will be available sometime in Q1, 2012.

Apart from the Z77H2-AX, ECS showed off a mainstream socket LGA1155 motherboard based on the H77 "Panther Point" chipset, in the micro-ATX form-factor. The H77 chipset has the same feature-set as the Z77, except it lacks Rapid Storage Technology, and overclocking features. Out of the box, this board supports next-generation "Ivy Bridge" Core processors.

The LGA1155 socket is powered by a 6-phase VRM. It is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots supporting dual-channel DDR3 memory; and a PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slot. Other slots include a PCIe 2.0 x1, and two legacy PCI slots driven by an ITE-made bridge chip. Storage connectivity includes two SATA 6 Gb/s, and four SATA 3 Gb/s, all wired to the PCH. Display connectivity includes DVI, D-Sub, and HDMI. Other connectivity includes 8-channel HD audio, gigabit Ethernet, and four USB 3.0 ports (all driven by the PCH). The board uses cost-effective electrolytic capacitors on all circuits that don't deal with large currents, only the power conditioning circuits have solid-state capacitors.

Not to be outdone by the competition, ECS (Elitegroup Computer Systems) has brought with it at CES 2012 a couple of motherboards based on Intel's upcoming 7 Series chipsets - one is a micro ATX model powered by the H77 chip, and the other is an ATX solution boasting the Z77 flagship silicon, the Z77H2-AX.

Part of the ECS' Black Series, the Ivy Bridge-supporting Z77H2-AX features a black PCB, a 12-phase power design, a quad-heatsink cooler, four DDR3-2600 memory slots, six SATA ports (two are surely 6.0 Gbps), and three PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots.