Seagate Technology plc (NASDAQ: STX) today announced that it intends, subject to market and other conditions, to offer up to $500 million aggregate principal amount of senior notes (the "Notes") in a private placement. The Notes are expected to be issued by Seagate HDD Cayman, an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Seagate Technology plc, and guaranteed by Seagate Technology plc.

Seagate intends to use the net proceeds from the offering of the Notes for general corporate purposes, which may include, but are not limited to, the retirement of a portion of its outstanding indebtedness, capital expenditures and other investments in the business.

Unbeknownst to many, AMD launched the Radeon HD 6930 in some markets. The company apparently doesn't want this launch to disturb reviewers from key high-volume markets, who have their hands full with Radeon HD 7970, and so the HD 6930 got a limited launch. For one, the HD 6930 is most certainly launched in China, and so Expreview gave it a run against the HD 6950 1 GB. The Radeon HD 6930 is carved out of the 40 nm "Cayman" silicon, on which other HD 6900 series products are based. It features 1280 VLIW4 stream processors, 1 GB or 2 GB of GDDR5 memory over a 256-bit wide memory interface, 80 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and clock speeds of 750 MHz (core), 1200 MHz or 4.80 GHz effective (memory). Very few partners made English press-releases about this SKU, HIS was among them. The company launched an IceQ-X graphics card on Monday.Performance summary follows.

Rumored but still not officially launched by AMD, the Cayman-powered Radeon HD 6930 has now been outed by Hong Kong-based add-in board maker HIS (Hightech Information System). Known as the Radeon HD 6930 IceQ X, HIS' card comes equipped with a dual-slot IceQ X cooler (boasting a 92mm fan and four heatpipes), and features a blue PCB, a GPU clock of 750 MHz (the, a 256-bit memory interface, 1 GB of GDDR5 memory set to 4800 MHz, CrossFireX and Eyefinity support, plus dual-DVI, HDMI and dual mini DisplayPort outputs.

According to previous reports, the Radeon HD 6930 packs 1280 Stream Processors and will sell for under $200. No word yet on availability so it's not certain where HIS will ship this card.

AMD is reportedly working on a new Radeon HD 6900 series single-GPU graphics card based on the "Cayman" silicon, the Radeon HD 6930. This SKU will be designed to make things very competitive for the non-Ti GeForce GTX 560 from NVIDIA. In its most recent salvo, NVIDIA launched a limited edition GeForce GTX 560 Ti with 448 CUDA cores, targeting select markets in the winter shopping season. Tests showed it to be very competitive with HD 6950 and HD 6970, and is priced accordingly, at $289. AMD's new SKU will be designed to heat things up in the sub-$200 market where GTX 560 non-Ti and HD 6870 are trading blows.

Carved out of the 40 nm "Cayman" silicon, the GPU in its HD 6930 configuration will carry the codename "Cayman-CE". It will feature 1280 advanced VLIW4 stream processors, 80 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface that will hold 1 GB of memory. The core will be clocked at 750 MHz, and the memory at 1200 MHz (4.80 GHz effective). Most AIBs will reuse their cost-effective HD 6950 1 GB board designs with the new SKUs. The new Radeon HD 6930 is expected to be priced around $180.

Want a new graphics card this shopping season? Is news of Radeon HD 7000 series arriving late this year or early next year holding you back from purchasing current-generation? Don't let it, go grab that graphics card you had your eyes on. Fairly reliable sources point out that a bulk of Radeon HD 7000 series graphics cards will be based on rebranded current and previous generation GPUs. This bulk mostly spans across the entry-thru-mid range of the product lineup. Familiar GPU codenames such as Cedar, Caicos, and Turks, make a comeback with Radeon HD 7300 series, HD 7400 series, HD 7500 series, and HD 7600 series.

Moving up the ladder, the source postulates two possibilities for Radeon HD 7700 series. First, and more plausible, is that the series is based on Juniper (a hop across two previous generations!); the second is that these make use of rechristened GPUs from a slightly higher market position from the previous generation. Perhaps Barts, perhaps even highly crippled Cayman. The only real next-generation GPU is codenamed "Tahiti", but we're hearing that graphics cards based on it are said to not follow the Radeon HD 7000 series nomenclature altogether.

Arctic slipped in the latest member in its reputed Accelero Twin Turbo series of graphics card coolers, the Accelero Twin Turbo 6990. As the name suggests, it is tailored for the top of the line AMD Radeon HD 6990 dual-GPU graphics card. The cooler is designed to cool everything on the obverse side of the PCB, that includes the two AMD Cayman GPUs, the VRM, and the bridge chip.

The cooler's design consists of two main heat-pipe fed heatsinks over the two GPUs cooled by 120 mm fans, which are connected by a common base. The main heatsinks maintain contact with the GPUs through cutouts in this base, while other components pass heat on to the base. There is a third central heatsink that relies on the air-flow from the two ventilated heatsinks. In all, the heatsink measures 300 (L) x 138 (W) x 50 (H) mm, and weighs 820 g. It doesn't replace the AMD reference backplate, so PCB bending is checked that way. Backed by a 6-year warranty, the Accelero Twin Turbo 6990 is priced at US $150.

TechPowerUp today announced the latest version of GPU-Z, the graphics hardware information and diagnostic utility trusted by the PC enthusiast community at large. Version 0.5.5 comes with support for the latest graphics processors, makes the interface a little more accessible to users, and improves stability and reliability.

To begin with, GPU-Z 0.5.5 adds full support for AMD A-Series accelerated processing units (the Radeon GPU component embedded in them), a load of new and lesser-known GPUs from NVIDIA including GeForce GT 560 Ti OEM, GT 545, GT 530, GeForce GTX 580M, GT 555M, GeForce 520MX, GT 520M, 410M, 305M, Quadro 5000, Quadro 4000M, Quadro 400; from AMD including Radeon HD 6290, Radeon E6760 & E4690, FirePro V8800, FirePro V3700, FirePro 2460 (FireMV); and the recently launched ASUS ROG MARS II, which probably got Santa's inbox flooded by now.DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 0.5.5 | TechPowerUp GPU-Z 0.5.5 ASUS ROG Edition

AMD is almost done releasing its first generation of Fusion accelerated processing units tageting almost every consumer segment, including ULPC, netbooks, nettops, notebooks, performance notebooks, and desktops. These chips combine x86-64 cores with Radeon GPU components, DDR3 memory contollers, and PCI-Express 2.0 hubs. At the Fusion Developer Summit, there is already talk about what the next generation of APUs will bring to the table.

The next generation Fusion platform, codenamed "Trinity", will combine two AMD's very latest in-house developments in the fields of x86 computing and consumer graphics: Bulldozer and VLIW4. Bulldozer is an x86 processor architecture built from ground up by AMD, that saw a large degree of reorganization within the processor core. A Bulldozer module is a closely-knit group of two cores that share some common resources, and end up with stellar inter-core bandwidth. Bulldozer packs support for the latest industry-standard instruction sets, including SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX, and AES. VLIW4, on the other hand, is a reorganization of the SIMD processing clusters of Radeon GPUs, introduced with Radeon HD 6900 series. With this reorganization, each stream processor is more capable than it was, and performance per mm2 die area is increased.

While between the GeForce GTX 580 and Radeon HD 6970, the former is clearly the faster graphics card, the two share a disputed lead over each other in their dual-GPU avatars, GeForce GTX 590 and Radeon HD 6990, attributed to the HD 6990 sustaining clock speeds closer to those on its single-GPU implementation, and a better electrical design. While NVIDIA is fixing the electricals on a revised PCB design scheduled for release in the weeks to come, companies like ASUS are wasting no time in designing their own PCBs that can let the two NVIDIA GF110 GPUs sustain clock speeds identical to those on the single-GPU GTX 580. This would pose serious competition to the HD 6990. To ward that off, PowerColor is working on a new Radeon HD 6970 X2 graphics card, which has two AMD Cayman GPUs clocked on par with single-GPU HD 6970, and having the same overclocking headroom.

The new card from PowerColor is not just an overclocked HD 6990, but also has the overclocking headroom of the HD 6970. Further, unlike the HD 6990, it uses Lucid Hydra technology. The PLX-made, AMD-branded PCI-Express bridge chip is replaced by a LucidLogix-made bridge chip that gives each GPU PCI-Express 2.0 x16 bandwidth. Users can run the two GPUs in either AMD CrossFire (with Hydra features disabled), or enable Lucid Hydra Engine features, and let the two GPUs work in tandem with any other graphics card installed in the system, that uses GPUs of any make and generation.

Sapphire designed a new AMD Cayman-based graphics card that's intended for sweet-spot SKUs such as Radeon HD 6950 1 GB. Seen here is one such card with the HD 6950 GPU. It uses an in-house blue PCB design with cost-effective components. The card is cooled by a custom-design dual-fan heatsink that uses a heat pipe-fed aluminum fin array. The fan speed is kept very low, making the card silent. The very same fan is used on Sapphire's single-fan cooler used on certain HD 6800 series graphics cards, that earned the reputation of being very quiet. It's unclear if Sapphire's card is factory-overclocked, or a base-model that's cheaper than AMD reference design models. Like many board partners, Sapphire will bundle a copy (paper license) of Dirt 3, with its new HD 6950.

Gigabyte rolled out its second factory-overclocked custom-design Radeon HD 6970 graphics card model, the GV-R697OC2-2GD, or the Gigabyte HD 6970 WindForce-3X OC2. The card makes use of the same exact Ultra Durable VGA+ PCB used on the GV-R697OC-2GD, as well as the WindForce-3X cooler, but comes with higher clock speeds of 920 MHz core and 1375 MHz (5.50 GHz GDDR5 effective) memory; compared to 900/1375 (5500) MHz on the GV-R697OC-2GD, and 880/1375 (5500). In all three cases, Gigabyte didn't tinker with memory clock speeds.

The PCB makes use of 2 oz copper layer, and high grade components such as ferrite-core chokes and Japanese capacitors. Its cooler uses a large heat pipe-fed aluminum fin array ventilated by three 80 mm fans. Based on the 40 nm "Cayman" silicon, the Radeon HD 6790 packs 1536 VLIW4 stream processors, and a 256-bit wide high-speed GDDR5 memory interface. Gigabyte did not give out pricing/availability information.

PowerColor is readying a new high-end Radeon HD 6990 based graphics card that's prepped for water-cooling, the PowerColor LCS HD 6990. Sticking to its LCS tradition, the new HD 6990 from PowerColor comes with a full-coverage water block made by EKWB, the EK-FC6990 pre-installed. The card sticks to AMD reference design PCB, and even uses the reference back-plate to cool memory chips on the reverse side of the PCB. The EK-FC6990 cools all heat-producing components on the obverse side, including the two Cayman GPUs, memory chips, VRM, and bridge chip. PowerColor's LCS HD 6990 is expected to come with out of the box overclocked speeds, and one can expect a hefty price-premium, taking the price closer or beyond the US $800~850 mark, or beyond.

Water cooling expert Koolance is ready with its full-coverage water-block for the dual-GPU AMD Radeon HD 6990 graphics card, which was launched a little earlier this month. The VID-AR699 from Koolance covers the obverse side of the PCB, cooling critical components there, including the two AMD Cayman GPUs, memory chips, the 450W-capable VRM, and the PEG bridge chip. Internally, the block is partitioned into three distinct bases, one over each GPU, and one over the VRM. The portions over the GPUs feature ribbed micro-fin structures to improve heat dissipation. The three bases are conjoined by a middle-plate that channels coolant through the three bases. The block is then topped off with acetal.

The VID-AR699 measures 10.1" x 4.8 " x 0.8" (25.7cm x 12.2cm x 2cm), and weighs 2.25 pounds (1kg). Its primary material is copper with nickel-plating that minimizes corrosion over time. Its nozzle threading is standard G 1/4 BSP, though the package doesn't include nozzles. Koolance is pricing it at US $159.99 on its online store, it will be taking orders and shipping only after the 28th of this month. In related news, Koolance also announced that it's working on a full-coverage water block for the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590, the VID-NX590, though there are no specifications or photos out, yet.

TechPowerUp today released version 0.5.2 of GPU-Z, our popular graphics hardware information and diagnostic utility that gives you information about the installed graphics hardware in your computer, and lets you monitor various parameters such as clock speeds, temperatures, fan speeds, and voltages, all in real-time. GPU-Z is also backed by our overclock validation system and video card BIOS database. Version 0.5.2 adds support for new GPUs, improved support for known GPUs, and a timely dose of stability improvements.

To begin with, GPU-Z 0.5.2 can now detect AMD Radeon HD 6990, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590, GTX 550 Ti, GTX 560 Ti; improved support for GTX 570, and Intel "Sandy Bridge" processor-embedded graphics. The CHL8228 VRM controller found on some Radeon HD 6900 series cards is supported. There's improved OpenCL support detection for AMD/ATI GPUs, and improved driver-based monitoring support for AMD/ATI GPUs in general. A number of stability/reliability fixes were introduced.DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 0.5.2

The changelog for GPU-Z 0.5.2 follows:

Sapphire is readying a new non-reference design AMD Radeon HD 6950 2 GB graphics card that boasts of superior out of the box display connectivity to the reference design. Called the Sapphire HD 6950 FleX Edition, the card features the same exact display output connector configuration as the reference design (two each of DVI and mini-DisplayPort 1.2, along with HDMI 1.4a), but can run a 5-monitor Eyefinity setup, of which three can run over DVI without needing an active adapter. The package might include a number of dongles and cables to help set up such a display array. Even if not for gaming, Sapphire sees professional applications for such a setup.

The Radeon HD 6950 is based on the 40 nm Cayman GPU, it has 1408 VLIW4 stream processors, and connects to 2 GB of GDDR5 memory over a 256-bit wide memory interface. Sapphire's card uses a non-reference design PCB and cooling assembly. The PCB draws power from two 6-pin power connectors; the cooler makes use of a large heatsink, ventilated by a central 80 mm fan. The card can pair with three more Radeon HD 6900 series graphics cards in CrossFireX. Expect Sapphire to release the card to market soon.

While it is slated for release on the 8th of this month, AMD's Radeon HD 6990 was detailed to sections of the industry. It wasn't long before someone leaked the press deck, revealing all the specifications and AMD performance estimates. The Radeon HD 6990 is a dual-GPU graphics card making use of two AMD Cayman GPUs in internal CrossFire. Cayman is the same GPU that is at the center of Radeon HD 6950 and HD 6970.

In the HD 6990, each Cayman is configured to use all 1536 of its VLIW4 stream processors. The GPU core is clocked at 830 MHz, and memory at 1250 MHz (5.00 GHz GDDR5 effective). The 256-bit wide memory interface of each GPU is populated with 2 GB of memory, setting the total board memory to 4 GB. Display IO includes five connectors, including one DVI and four mini-DisplayPort 1.2. While the HD 6990 is said to outperform GeForce GTX 580, AMD is also bracing itself for NVIDIA's dual-GPU GTX 590, with HD 6990 OC variants following an official specification of 880 MHz core, and the same 5.00 GHz memory.

MSI is ready with a new Radeon HD 6950 2 GB graphics card that makes use of the company's new Twin Frozr III cooling assembly. The R6950 Twin Frozr III Power Edition from MSI makes use of a custom-design PCB with strong, overclocker-friendly VRM circuitry, out of the box overclock speeds of 850 MHz core and 1300 MHz (5200 MHz effective) GDDR5 memory speeds, against reference speeds of 800/1250 MHz. The Twin Frozr III cooler makes use of a dense aluminum fin array to which heat is conveyed by a number of nickel-plated copper heat pipes, and is ventilated by two 80 mm fans that use "propeller-design" fan blades that deliver higher air-flow at lower noise outputs.

Based on the 40 nm Cayman silicon, Radeon HD 6950 packs 1408 VLIW4 stream processors, is DirectX 11 compliant, and makes use of a high-speed GDDR5 memory controller with 256-bit bus width. Display output connectors include two DVI, two mini-DisplayPort 1.2, and one HDMI 1.4a. AMD-exclusive technologies such as Eyefinity and HydraVision are supported. The card can pair with up to three more Radeon HD 6900 series GPUs for 4-way CrossFireX multi-GPU operation. MSI's new Radeon HD 6950 2 GB Twin Frozr III Power Edition graphics card is priced at around 300€.

The the consumer graphics industry is about to see yet another round of competition between top market players AMD and NVIDIA in March, with reports suggesting that the red team (AMD) has chosen March 8 as the launch date of its Radeon HD 6990 graphics card. NVIDIA's response, the GeForce GTX 590 is slated for sometime later in March, as well. AMD is said to be finalizing the SKU, and it should be launched by partners on the 8th of next month. The Radeon HD 6990 is a dual-GPU "CrossFire on a stick" solution, in which two AMD Cayman GPUs with 2 GB of memory each, work in tandem.

Hightech Information System Limited launches its HIS 6970 & 6950 Fan Turbo 2GB GDDR5 graphics card. Offering the latest and greatest features like AMD Eyefinity technology,
AMD HD3D technology and DirectX 11 support, the new 6900 Turbo Series provides flawless image quality and unbelievable performance to the gamers at every advantages. The HIS 6950 Turbo has over-clocked its core clock speed to 840MHz and memory clock at 5,120MHz, delivering serious high-definition gaming frame rates.

The HIS 6970 Turbo supplies the same 2GB GDDR5 but at a maximum core clock speed of 900MHz and memory clock of 5,600MHz. The utmost speed will let you enjoy the high resolution and fast frame rates which directly translate into superior performance and ultra-high bandwidth.

Here's the Radeon HD 6990 up close. The HD 6990 is AMD's new dual-GPU graphics card that extends the performance leadership held by Radeon HD 5970. The pictures put rest to some speculation surrounding the cooler design. It now appears that the cooler design is similar to that of the GeForce GTX 295 single-PCB, as far as air-flow is concerned. A single long PCB holds two GPU systems on either sides, a centrally-located blower pushes air on either sides. The exhaust from one GPU is sent out of the case, while that from the other is pushed out of the card from its rear portion.

The Radeon HD 6990 uses two 40 nm Cayman GPUs, it packs a total of 3072 stream processors, and 4096 MB of memory between the two GPU systems. It also features a new kind of display output that consists of one dual-link DVI and four mini-DP 1.2. Power is drawn in from one 6-pin and an 8-pin PCIe connector. The card can pair with another of its kind for 4-GPU CrossFireX. It is expected to be released a little later in this quarter.

A few days earlier, AMD's Matt Skynner displayed the company's newest graphics card that seeks to extend the performance leadership currently held by Radeon HD 5970. The dual-GPU AMD Radeon HD 6990, codenamed "Antilles", makes use of two 40 nm "Cayman" GPU, which powers the single-GPU HD 6950 and HD 6970. The core configuration of Cayman in Antilles is not known. The card itself keeps up with the product styling that all Radeon HD 6000 series carry, it's about as long as the HD 5970.

This time, AMD is toying with a revolutionary new cooler design that makes use of a cylindrical blower (like ones used in air-curtains, on a much smaller scale) to draw air from the rear portion of the cooler, and circulate through the complex vapor-chamber enhanced heatsink inside. In other words, the card lacks a fan intake hole where it's typically located, but the rear portion serves that purpose. Power is drawn in from two 8-pin PCI-E power connectors. AMD is expected to release the new enthusiast graphics card in this quarter.

HIS unveiled one of its first Radeon HD 6950 1 GB graphics cards. The HIS HD 6950 1 GB Fan Edition features AMD's high-end GPU with 1 GB of memory, and a cost-effective design that makes it competitive with upcoming GeForce GTX 560 Ti. HIS used its own design PCB that's shorter in length, and uses cost-effective VRM since the card isn't dealing with high-density 2 Gbit GDDR5 memory chips anymore. It uses a GPU fan-heatsink that uses a large fan to ventilate an aluminum fin array that cools the GPU and other components. the cooler is covered by a well-ventilated shroud.

That and the memory aside, other specifications are the same: the 40 nm Cayman GPU features 1408 VLIW4 stream processors, and connects to 1 GB of GDDR5 memory over a 256-bit wide memory interface. The core is clocked at 800 MHz, and the memory at 1250 MHz (5.00 GHz GDDR5 effective). HIS did not release pricing yet, but it will be well below the $300 mark.

Club3D announced its latest high-end graphics cards based on AMD's new Radeon HD 6970 and HD 6950 graphics processors (GPUs). Both cards stick to AMD reference board design and clock speeds. The HD 6970 from Club3D carries the model number CGAX-69748, features 1536 advanced stream processors, 2 GB of 5.5 GT/s GDDR5 memory across a 256-bit wide memory interface, with clock speeds of 880 MHz core and 5500 MHz (GDDR5 effective) memory. The HD 6950 (CGAX-69548) features 1408 advanced stream processors, 2 GB of GDDR5 memory, and clock speeds of 800 MHz core and 5000 MHz (GDDR5 effective) memory. Both cards are expected to feature standard pricing.

SAPPHIRE Technology, the largest manufacturer and supplier worldwide of graphics solutions based on AMD technology has just added two new models bringing higher performance and new features to the recently launched HD 6000 series. The new SAPPHIRE HD 6970 uses a new GPU architecture from AMD which features dual graphics engines in one chip with 24 SIMD engines and a total of 1536 stream processors with 96 texture units, providing massively parallel computing power for graphics and other accelerated applications. Its core clock speed of 880MHz, together with a dedicated high speed interface to 2GB of GDDR5 memory running at 1375MHz (5.5Gb/s effective) delivers the highest performance in this series. New Tesselation engines bring up to three times the performance of the previous generation, and new Enhanced Quality AA and filtering modes bring the highest image quality ever achieved.

We've seen quite a few pictures of the AMD Radeon HD 6970 from its exterior, including some finer details observable. For the first time, we're getting to take a peek inside, thanks to a Chinese website that looks to be auctioning off an HD 6970 ahead of launch for a quick buck, if we're not terribly mistaken. The PCB shot reveals many details about the GPU and its board design:

• To begin with, the GPU indeed has a 256-bit wide memory interface, counting the memory chips on the obverse side, and looking at the size of the GPU package.
• The size of the die, and taken that Cayman is a 40 nm GPU, indicate that Cayman is not much bigger than Cypress, it should be about 400~500 million transistors higher compared to Cypress.
• Given the roughly 2500 million transistor count, the stream core count of 1536 seems more realistic. AMD is said to be using an architecturally superior VLIW4 stream processor design that increases performance per mm² die area.
• The board uses a high-grade 6+2+1+1 phase digital PWM voltage regulation design, draws power from 8+6 pin power connectors.
• The reverse side of the PCB has no memory chips, so AMD might be using 2 Gbit memory chips to get 2 GB of total memory

Images Courtesy: Taobao.com