Raptorfire Inc., a Miami, FL-based manufacturer of gaming device modification tools, will be present at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles, CA from June 5th thru 7th. The booth will feature product demos as well as Q&A sessions with product developers.

Raptorfire will feature their new gaming controller modification chips for both Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. The chips, which are installed into existing hand-held controls for both systems, improve and enhance controller functionality and game play for the user. Many of the features provided by these chips include rapid fire, "drop shot", fast reload, and other popular modifications that are central to most first-person shooting games.

Razer, the world leader in high-performance gaming hardware, today announced a partnership with Piranha Games and Infinite Game Publishing for the highly anticipated next installation of the MechWarrior franchise, MechWarrior Online. The collaboration culminates in the Razer Artemis, a concept controller crafted to give gamers a competitive edge as they stomp and destroy their way to victory in the dog-eat-dog BattleTech universe.

The BattleMech inspired Razer Artemis concept controller puts gamers into the cockpits of their favored hulking metal behemoths, fully immersed and focused on the dangers of the battlefield, claiming wins for their chosen Great House. With fully-programmable, fine-tuned controls, the ergonomically adjustable Razer Artemis concept controller makes piloting a Mech more efficient and lethal in combat.

For all those put off with the ergonomics of Nintendo's standard Wii U controller, the console giant is planning a new ergonomic gamepad for games that can make do with just common controls (D-pad, axes, four buttons, triggers). Called the Wii U Pro Controller, the gamepad dons a similar shape to that of the Xbox 360 controller, but with both its analog sticks located in the same row of controls. The controller appears to be designed to work both wired and wireless. More details will be released at this year's E3 event, scheduled for this week.

BitFenix is proud to introduce two brand new fan controllers designed to put the user in the driver's seat - Recon and Hydra Pro. Recon is the world's first Internet-connected fan controller, offering total control even on the go. Hydra Pro delivers powerful 30 W per channel performance and, when combined with BitFenix Spectre and Spectre Pro LED fans, convenient push-button LED on/off functionality.

"Users have been clamoring for these two devices for a while now, and I'm proud to report that the wait is finally over," says BitFenix Product Manager David Jarlestedt. "With Recon and Hydra Pro, BitFenix once again takes our disruptive ideas and brings them into a new design space - fan controllers. Offering never-before-seen functionality at competitive price points, Recon and Hydra Pro are set to become the go-to thermal control devices for enthusiasts the world over."

Dell today announced additions to the PowerEdge portfolio with new blade, rack and tower servers designed to deliver value and performance in demanding enterprise and mainstream environments. The new blade servers offer strong performance gains and improved efficiencies from the shared power, cooling and network infrastructure, and professional IT services. The new tower and rack servers are built to enhance customer IT infrastructures with enterprise-class capabilities and tailored chassis designs for small and midsize businesses.

Dell introduced industry-leading innovations in the PowerEdge 12th generation servers based on input gathered from more than 7,700 customer interactions in 17 countries across four continents. The company was the first-to-ship servers based on the Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 product family with the first wave of PowerEdge 12th generation servers in March 2012.

EVGA has released a utility that allows the "GeForce GTX" logo on the side of the EVGA GeForce GTX 690 to be customized. Users can manually increase/decrease the brightness, or, when paired with EVGA Precision X, have the LED light increase/decrease based on GPU Utilization, GPU Clock or even Frame Rate! Please note this application is only compatible with the EVGA GeForce GTX 690.DOWNLOAD: LED Controller for EVGA GeForce GTX 690

The new Adjust 108 fan controller from Fractal Design offers a simple yet clean option to adjust the speed of your case fans. With a brushed aluminum front panel and smooth moving sliders, it does not only emanate quality but also robustness and preciseness.

The Adjust 108 Fan Controller manages a total of six fans with a maximum of 36W per channel, while grouped three by three for ease of use. With a bi-color LED beneath each of the six sliders, the controller shows the speed of the fan not only by the slider itself but also through the color of the LED; white indicates a low RPM and blue a high RPM.

Since Nintendo pushed the envelope, hardware manufacturers seem intent on making new controller types. Now that each of the big gaming companies have at least dabbled with motion controls, biometric feedback seems to be the next big thing. Sony is looking into biometric controllers to measure factors like sweat and heart rate. Not to be outdone, Microsoft is apparently considering a pressure-sensitive controller. The company has registered a US Patent (8,172,675) for a controller with a "pressure-sensitive exterior surface." The patent suggests that device memory could store the output signatures to identify users simply by how they grip the controller. And confirming that these plans relate to gaming, the patent also mentions the device as "a game controller that interacts with a game console service."

The patent makes repeated mention of the controller being used for identification, but doesn't go much deeper than that. Microsoft could potentially find gaming utilities, but doesn't seem to be going in that direction with the initial patent application. As always, a patent doesn't mean a product will ever come to market.

Leading international graphics card and mainboard maker MSI today announced MSI R7870 Hawk, equipped with AMD's 28nm Radeon HD 7870 GPU. MSI introduce the flagship design concept of Lightning series into R7870 Hawk, adopting UnlockedDigitalPower that incorporates an Unlocked BIOS, DigitalPWM Controller, and Enhanced Power Design to boost overclocking potential and make overclocking easier than ever. With the industry first "GPU Reactor" power panel, it reduces power supply noise as well as increases overclocking stability. As for thermal solution, MSI R7870 Hawk utilizes the latest Twin Frozr IV Thermal Design with Dust Removal Technology.

The dual 8cm fan setup with PropellerBlade Technology generate massive airflow for fast heat dissipation while remaining whisper silent. The two form-in-one heatsinks improve cooling for memory and the power module as well ensure structural integrity. The R7870 Hawk uses Military Class III components which have passed rigorous testing to meet MILSTD810G standards, guaranteeing the card's stability and reliability under actual use conditions. Moreover, the "3X3 OC Kits" are designed to simplify overclocking, which makes it easier for users to fine-tune their graphics cards. Competing with flagship design of Lightning series, R7870 Hawk absolutely stands out on top among the industry's HD 7870 based graphics cards.

David Kotkin, the founder of N-Control, the company that manufactures and markets the Avenger Controller, an adapter for the PS3 and Xbox 360, today announced the launch of the Avenger Elite. The company's new product is expected to be popular with gamers worldwide. The Avenger Elite is expected to be released at the end of this month.

Earlier models of the Avenger Controller were well received by gamers and reviewers for gaming publications. The AE remains fully legal for professional gaming competition, as well giving amateur gamers the chance to "up their game." According to Kotkin, "The Avenger Elite adapter may look a lot like previous versions of the Avenger but it represents a major leap forward for what was already a very advanced product. Using extraordinary new alloys and metals made in America specifically for the Elite, the new Avenger also makes use of medical grade nano technology and a new military grade precision hair trigger kit."

VIA Labs, Inc., a leading supplier of USB 3.0 integrated circuit controllers, today announced its 3rd generation USB 3.0 hub controller, the VIA Labs VL812. The VL812 USB 3.0 Hub Controller utilizes a new low-power design and features an industry-first integrated 5V DC-DC switching regulator, offering a single-chip solution that achieves both high power efficiency and greater system integration for further reduced BOM.

In typical configurations, the VIA Labs VL812 USB 3.0 Hub Controller consumes less than 0.5w under load, making it one of the market's low-power leaders. The low operational power consumption of the new VIA Labs VL812 USB 3.0 Hub allows users to attach an external 2.5" USB 3.0 hard drive, USB 2.0 Flash drive, and a USB Mouse simultaneously without the need for an AC adapter, when connected to a regular USB 3.0 port.

OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today introduced Indilinx Everest 2, its next-generation SSD platform that delivers an industry-best performance of 120,000 random input/output operations per second (IOPS) for SATA-based drives.

In addition to this unprecedented transactional performance, the Everest 2 features the most advanced flash management capabilities which can significantly extend NAND flash life and enhance SSD reliability. This innovative controller platform will debut in OCZ's new Vertex 4 SSD product line.

The Indilinx Everest 2 family of solid state drive processors establishes a new computing and storage paradigm by delivering breakthrough performance and uncompromising reliability to next-generation SSDs. Combining a 400M Hz dual-core CPU, 6 Gbps SATA Revision 3.0 interface, and support for the latest, most advanced NAND flash memory technology available, Everest 2 exceeds the needs of the most demanding SSD environments.

Matrox Graphics Inc. announced today the introduction of three new fanless MuraTM MPX Series video wall controller boards that build upon the line's revolutionary design. Mura is the first PCI Express (PCIe) x16 Gen 2 board class to feature both HD resolution inputs and outputs. The new fanless SKUs make use of the same high-performance, single-slot design with 64 Gbit/sec duplex data transfer and feature four HD outputs and either zero, two, or four HD inputs for maximum I/O flexibility. The fanless Mura boards have no moving parts, helping to further increase Matrox's industry-leading reliability. With the ability to create quieter systems and a jump to three-year warranties, Matrox expects a relatively quick OEM adoption of these new Mura cards.

Mura boards can be scaled from just one board to create small video wall controllers to multi-board medium-sized and even very large-sized video wall controllers in order to support a wide range of applications from presentation systems in conference rooms, auditoriums, control rooms, and classrooms to collaboration systems used in surveillance and process control systems. With support for HDCP capture and output, the Mura line is also now very popular in advanced digital signage solutions.

Microsoft rolled out the Chrome Series special edition Xbox 360 controllers. As the name suggests, these controllers have a chrome finish. The top-side has a metallic/chrome surface, in three color options: red, blue, and silver, while the D-pad has a silver chrome finish on all three variants. Slated for mid-May, these controllers are each priced at US $54.99, availability may be limited, and specific to select markets.

EtronTech, which started out as a DRAM IC manufacturer, expanded into PC connectivity solutions, such as USB 3.0 host and webcam controllers, is now shipping its first USB 3.0 flash drive controllers. The EV268-series dual-core controllers come in 2-channel and 4-channel variants, with the ability to offer transfer-rates in excess of 230 MB/s. These controllers are designed to support 30 nm-class and 20 nm-class SLC/MLC/TLC NAND flash memory chips.

With the EV268, Etron entered a small but budding group of companies with USB 3.0 flash-drive controllers: VIA Technology/VIA Labs Inc. (VLI), Phison Electronics, and InnoStor Technology. By Q4 2012, it is estimated that USB 3.0 flash drives will make up 20% of all flash-drives shipped.

ASUS-subsidiary ASMedia made its mark as a vendor of high cost/performance 2-port USB 3.0 SuperSpeed host controllers, 2-port SATA 6 Gb/s controllers, and PCIe-PCI bridge chips, with good adoption by PC motherboard vendors. The company now eyes the emerging Thunderbolt-IO market. Thunderbolt will begin seeing adoption by the PC market starting this year, and the adoption of the interconnect by data storage device manufacturers, particularly of fast external storage, for use in the content-creation industry.

Thunderbolt host controllers are yet to receive widespread adoption due to three factors:

• Cost of the controller. Intel is yet to bring its Thunderbolt host controllers down to an a reasonable price.
• Deficiency of alternative controller providers, high scope for price-reductions the moment there are alternative providers
• A looming transition from Thunderbolt copper-electric to fiber-optic medium, which could make current 10 Gb/s-over-copper standard obsolete

ASMedia could address at least two factors here, it could provide an alternative to Intel-made controllers, and could offer a competitive price (or at least price-performance ratio). ASMedia president Lin Che-Wei told DigiTimes that his company will be ready with Thunderbolt-compatible SATA 6 Gb/s controllers, by the second half of 2012.

Intel has reportedly discontinued one of its "Cactus Ridge" family of Thunderbolt controllers, the L3510H. This controller has relatively high TDP of 3.4W, and a low-power part in the same family, the L3510L, already exists. The L3510L has a slightly lower TDP, at 2.8W. The difference may not seem much, but could impact notebook battery life. The L3510 "Cactus Ridge" family consists of 4-channel Thunderbolt controllers, with smaller package-size (12 x 12 mm) compared to the 82523EF "Light Ridge" controller family, with its larger (15 x 15 mm) package sizes. The final samples of "Cactus Ridge" chips will reach customers only by mid-April.

Marvell today announced mass deployment of the Marvell 88SS9187 SATA controller fueled by high performance embedded processor technology. The 88SS9187 features a 6 gigabit-per-second (Gb/s) SATA Revision 3.1 compliant host interface optimized for the fast-growing solid state drive (SSD) sector, offering many game changing benefits to the consumer, mobile and enterprise markets. A significant number of high-profile SSD manufacturers are set to deploy Marvell's newest solution immediately, with additional partners expected to integrate 88SS9187 implementations later this year.

Marvell's newest SSD controller boasts an open, world-class architecture that supports industry-standard, high-speed NAND Flash interface up to 200 MB/s per channel. The 88SS9187 also offers a groundbreaking correction capability thanks to its high performance ECC engine with Adaptive Read and Write Scheme and on-chip RAID functionality to allow use of the latest generation of NAND Flash devices in the fast-growing SSD markets.

University of Utah engineers designed a new kind of video game controller that not only vibrates like existing devices, but pulls and stretches the thumb tips in different directions to simulate the tug of a fishing line, the recoil of a gun or the feeling of ocean waves.

"I'm hoping we can get this into production when the next game consoles come out in a couple of years," says William Provancher, an associate professor of mechanical engineering who is in Vancouver, British Columbia, demonstrating the new game controller with his students March 5-7.

Razer, the world leader in high-performance gaming hardware, together with Sixense Entertainment, the leader in precision motion technology, announce fully integrated motion gaming support for Valve's game titles including Left 4 Dead 2, Half-Life 2, and Team Fortress 2 using the Razer Hydra motion sensing controller. Future Valve titles Dota 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive will also support full motion play with the Razer Hydra.

Additionally, Sixense and Valve have now integrated Sixense MotionCreator 2.0 software with Valve's Steam gaming platform, enabling backward compatibility for motion gaming with the Razer Hydra for over 250 of the most popular titles on Steam. Now, Steam users will receive automatic motion control updates for current and future game titles, and a new in-game overlay allows gamers to view control maps for the Razer Hydra as they play.

LSI Corporation today announced a new line of MegaRAID SATA+SAS controller cards designed to deliver the high I/O transaction performance required to accelerate the most demanding database applications and datacenter workloads. Powered by the LSI dual-core 6 Gb/s SAS RAID-on-Chip (ROC), the new controllers deliver data quickly and reliably to mission-critical applications by combining the industry's highest server RAID performance, achieving up to 200,000 RAID 5 random I/Os per second (IOPS), with intelligent flash-based caching and enhanced data protection capabilities.

With Windows 8, Microsoft is integrating an eXtensible Host Controller Interface (xHCI) driver, which serves as a common driver for USB 3.0 host controllers. Expreview put this driver to test with a Renesas USB 3.0 controller, and compared its performance to when the controller is backed by Renesas' own driver (ver. 2.1.28.0). The controller is a μD720200F1 found on ASUS P8P67 Deluxe motherboard. The reviewer used Orico UE3 16GB USB 3.0 flash drive that uses SLC NAND flash memory.

The flash was put through four synthetic tests on a constant hardware setup, differences in performance were attributed to the drivers. Tests included HDTune, ATTO, AS SSD, and CrystalDiskMark. The xHCI driver provided by Microsoft trailed a tiny/insignificant notch behind the third-party driver provided by Renesas. In HDTune, the performance graph was smoother (fewer variations) with the Microsoft xHCI driver. In sequential speed tests, variation between the two drivers seldom exceeded 2%. The xHCI driver will ship with Windows 8, letting you run USB 3.0 host controllers and compatible devices right out of installation. The drivers pass through Microsoft's WHQL, although the update cycle of drivers provided by Microsoft is traditionally known to be slower, in some cases they have found to be more stable. Screenshots with "MS" markings (below) show results for the xHCI driver.More results follow.

Award-winning developer BioWare, a label of Electronic Arts Inc. along with Razer, the world leader in high performance gaming hardware, reveal today peripherals and gear created for the highly anticipated Action RPG Mass Effect 3.

Fans of the Mass Effect series can arm themselves for the all-out galactic war with the Razer Mass Effect 3 Edition peripheral line which includes a Razer Imperator gaming mouse, Razer Vespula dual-sided gaming mouse mat, Razer BlackWidow Ultimate gaming keyboard, Razer Onza Tournament Edition Xbox 360 controller, and Razer Chimaera Xbox 360 gaming headset. The cutting-edge peripherals will give fans of the series a competitive advantage in the epic battle to save the galaxy from the ancient alien race known only as the Reapers.

Microsoft's next-generation Xbox game console, which has been unofficially referred to as "Xbox 720", has been reportedly given a codename by Microsoft so industry partners could use it, instead. It is now codenamed "Durango". The working-name "Xbox 720" has been received negatively by some quarters, that felt it implied 720p (1280 x 720) display resolution, which is not a big departure from the present-generation. 1080p (1920 x 1080) is expected of this console, as it's also reported to feature Blu-ray disc support. Durango will focus on improving human-interface, by creating a combination of Kinect and a newer gamepad with a touchscreen.

Japanese cooling expert Scythe expands the product portfolio of fan controllers by a brand new model. Scythe chose a different path when designing the new Kaze Master Flat fan controller. Previously announced fan controller models utilized rotating knobs (potentiometer) as control system. Kaze Master Flat comes with a front panel, which is covering the buttons used for operating the fan controller.

Kaze Master Flat combines both a tidy and clean front panel design with Scythe's usual variety of functions. Hence allows it to match almost every on market PC Chassis. With only one finger tip users are able to open the front panel, which grants access to six buttons used as control system. Four of the buttons are being used to adjust the fan speed of the individual fan channel. The other two located on the both sided of Kaze Master Flat allow shutting down of the alarm signal and activating or deactivating of the built-in VF-Display (Vacuum Fluorescent Display).