QNAP Systems, Inc., a leading manufacturer of world class NAS servers, NVR Video Surveillance Systems, and Network-based Video Players today announced the TS-859U-RP Business Series Turbo NAS server enclosure, the most affordable 2U rack-mounted unit with 8 hot-swappable 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch hard disk drives and a redundant power-supply for maximum up-time in corporate and entry-level enterprise datacenters where high performance, high data-availability, and maximum reliability are paramount. QNAP is the only network appliance company to currently offer 8-drive NAS enclosures, and does so in desktop and rack-mounted configurations.

The TS-859U-RP features a dual-core Intel Atom D510 1.66GHz CPU and 1GB DDRII RAM, delivering exceptionally fast performance coupled with ultra-low power consumption that translates into lower total cost of ownership without sacrificing performance. The TS-859U-RP contains two power units. Should one power supply fail, the other will continue to supply the power for the entire system and alert the administrator via email or SMS to the failure. The TS-859U-RP is chock full of advanced networking features including dual Gigabit LAN ports with 7 bonding modes, including failover (if one network port fails, the other LAN port is still active), load-balancing (aggregates the network load to boost transfer speed), multiple-IP settings. The fail-safe dual OS DOM architecture for positive system boot ups, and single, JBOD, RAID 0/1/5/6/5+ hot spare/6+ hot spare with online RAID capacity expansion and online RAID level migration, and RAID recovery. The TS-859U-RP also features iSCSI for business, which allows easy network storage capacity expansion by simply attaching other QNAP Turbo NAS units to the network and establishing virtual volumes, a feature not offered by other competitors currently in this product segment.

The 7-bay NAS is shaping up to be the go-to desktop NAS device for users who require both massive storage and blazing performance. Today, Thecus Technology is pleased to introduce the N7700+, a seven-bay storage server that retains all of the robust functionality of the N7700, but ups the ante with a PCIe x8 slot suitable for 10Gb Ethernet cards.

Thecus constantly engineers new ways to squeeze the maximum performance from existing technologies. The N7700+ one-ups its predecessor by including an internal PCIe x8 slot. Compared to the x1 slot found in the N7700, the N7700+'s PCIe slot offers up to eight times more bandwidth, which makes it perfect for 10Gb Ethernet cards. Outfitted with one of these cards, the N7700+ is fully compatible with the latest 10Gb networks, delivering unprecedented data transfer rates for the most demanding users.

Shortly after the Khronos group announced the OpenGL 4.0, the newest version of the multi-platform graphics API, AMD is out with a preview graphics driver for its ATI Radeon, FireGL, FirePro, and Mobility Radeon graphics accelerators, which includes the OpenGL 4.0 ICD (installable client driver). The driver is available for Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Linux. OpenGL 4.0 is comparable and up to times with Microsoft's DirectX 11 API, it makes use of hardware features such as tessellation on the GPU, per-sample fragment shaders and programmable fragment shader input positions, 64-bit double precision floating point shader operations, etc., and has no restrictions on which later version of Windows it can run on. With OpenGL 4.0 for example, one can expect 3D graphics with the complexity comparable to DirectX 11 on Windows XP.

DOWNLOAD: ATI Catalyst OpenGL 4.0 Preview Driver for Windows 7/Vista, Windows XP, and Linux.

The TRIM feature introduced by the newest generation of operating systems makes solid state drives more efficient with write performance. However, it does not work when RAID arrays are built with SSDs, until now. The latest version (9.6.0.1014) of Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver enables TRIM for each of the SSDs that are part of a RAID volume, of all RAID types, with the exception for RAID 5. The software can be downloaded from here.

Introduced with Microsoft's Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, and with Linux 2.6.33, TRIM is a feature which uses system idle time to physically erase deleted data, since unlike with magnetic hard drives, data can't be simply overwritten on areas with deleted data. Deleted data must be erased before a NAND flash device can store fresh data in its place, and this causes additional write-cycles on setups without TRIM support. TRIM erases deleted data whenever feasible so that lesser number of write cycles are spent when there's data to be actually written in its place, increasing performance.

Shuttle Inc., a leading developer and manufacturer of multi-form-factor solutions such as the world-famous XPC Mini-PC Barebones, is announcing the sales launch of a new All-in-One-PC. The second version of the X50 promises impressive, improved features and additional functions.

Almost one year after its successful introduction, the X50V2 Barebone is now being launched and will also be offered in future as a complete system, with a choice of Windows 7 or Linux.

Intel releases its first storage-optimized Intel Atom processor-based platform for the growing home and small office/home office storage markets. New single- and dual-core chip options provide performance scalability and flexibility and run on Microsoft Windows Home Server and Linux operating systems. Leading storage vendors LaCie, LG Electronics, QNAP, Synology and Thecus plan products based on the new Intel Atom processor-based platform. Intel Atom processors also introduced for embedded applications are ideal for multiple market segments including print imaging, digital security surveillance and industrial.

The energy-efficient platform consists of the Intel Atom processor D410 single-core or D510 dual-core and the Intel 82801IR I/O Controller, and delivers the processing performance and input/output (I/O) connectivity required to meet the throughput demands of leading storage vendors such as LaCie, LG Electronics, QNAP, Synology and Thecus.

Home server and SOHO network-attached storage (NAS) devices based on the new Intel Atom processor- based platform act as centralized hubs that organize, manage, protect and share documents, photos, videos and music throughout the home and small office. This makes it possible to keep digital content safe and available anytime, anywhere.

VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, today announced the VIA M'SERV S2100: a compact and versatile server system suitable for a range of applications for SOHO and SMB customers. Available to OEM customers, the VIA M'SERV S2100 is a mere 10.2" long by 4.7" high and provides up to four terabytes of storage in a stylish, compact, low power and low noise system.

The VIA M'SERV S2100 is the first product of its kind to offer the unique advantages of the high-performance, 64-bit VIA Nano processor. This makes the VIA M'SERV S2100 capable of addressing many traditional and next-generation server applications including sophisticated backup, cloud-intermediary service roles along with other storage oriented server applications such as NVR (Network Video Recorder) systems and Log servers.

Intel Corporation announced new Intel Atom processors today that feature integrated graphics built directly into the CPU, enabling improved performance and smaller, more energy-efficient designs in a new generation of netbooks and Atom-based entry level desktop PCs. Major OEMs have committed to having systems on the new Intel Atom processors and a new companion chipset available within the next few weeks.

The newest Intel Atom platform for netbooks consists of a new Intel Atom processor, the N450, and a new low-power Intel NM10 Express Chipset. For entry level desktop PCs, it consists of either the Intel Atom processor D410 or the dual core D510, also paired with the Intel NM10 Express Chipset. The Intel Atom processor was designed from the ground up for small devices and low power, and remains Intel's smallest chip, built on the company's 45nm high-k metal gate manufacturing process. The overall package, including chipset, just got smaller due to the increasing integration and 45nm manufacturing, which means smaller, more compact system designs, lower costs for OEMs and improved performance.

Google's slim and swift web-browser Chrome has been ported to Linux and Mac, at last, and a public beta release has been published. The beta version continues to use the version scheme of the latest developer channel release for Windows, with version 4.0.249.30 being the latest. It supports nearly all features of the Windows version, including sandboxed multi-process rendering for multiple browser tabs, among other features. Sadly, the team isn't ready with browser plugin support, with the Linux version not being able to use the Netscape compatible browswer plugins such as Adobe Flash, Adobe Reader, Java, and others which other browsers such as Firefox and Opera are able to use. To download Google Chrome beta for Linux, visit this page. For Google Chrome beta for Mac, visit this page.

Businesses rely on data every day and how this data is stored is of critical importance. Data has to be accessible at all times, but it also needs to be fast enough to keep up with the speed of modern business. Today, Thecus is proud to launch its latest 2U rackmount NAS device - the N8800PRO. With outstanding performance, rock-solid stability, and complete flexibility, the N8800PRO sets a new standard in enterprise storage.

To enable businesses to access their data as quickly as possible, the N8800PRO features a multitude of performance enhancements. Powering the N8800PRO is an Intel Core 2 Duo processor coupled with a full 4GB of DDR2 800 memory for lightning-quick system response and increased concurrent connections. All of this technology allows the N8800PRO to achieve data transfer speeds of over 300MB/s! And to ensure compatibility with future technologies, the N8800PRO even comes with an internal PCI-e slot. which enables users to install a 10Gbit PCI-e NIC for greatly increased throughput. In terms of storage, the N8800PRO comes equipped with eight 3.5" SATA hard disk bays for a maximum of 16TB of storage. System admins that require more storage can actually attach up to five different N8800PROs to it and manage them all using one master device using the stackable feature, or use the N8800PRO with iSCSI initiators. The N8800PRO even supports iSCSI thin provisioning! Expandable and flexible, the N8800PRO can grow along with your business.

Flash memory manufacturer leader, Silicon Power debut their flagship USB flash drive earlier this year, the LuxMini 920. It featured ultra fast read (maximum 200x) and write speed. Straight out of the gate, Silicon Power's LuxMini 920 received rave reviews and was awarded "Original Design" from iXBT Labs and won the top honor ~ Product of the Month, a five-star review from PC Magazine, Russia. To continue its success, Silicon Power announced today (11/4), the LuxMini 920 storage capacity will be boosted up to 64GB. Retaining its elegant looks and the 200X high speed transfer rate, it is currently one of the most attractive and the fastest USB flash drives in its class.

The maximum 200X read (30MB/sec) transfer rate is a feature accomplished only by a few USB flash drives in the market. With modern day high definition digital devices, the captured data capacity have increased daramtically. Whether it be recorded audio or pictures, the 200x speed can signigicantly reduce the time it takes to copy data. Apart from LuxMini 920's ultra fast read speed, its write speed is no slow either. When compared with most USB flash drives on the market, it is roughly 3~6x faster at a maximum speed of 20MB/sec.

QNAP Systems, Inc., a leading manufacturer of world class NAS servers, NVR Video Surveillance Systems, and Network-based Video Players today expanded their Turbo NAS lineup with the addition of the TS-210 desktop NAS server targeted specifically at the SOHO and Prosumer market segments. The TS-210 supports up to 2 3.5" SATA hard drives with up to 4TB of total capacity (using 2TB drives) and features a Marvell 800MHz CPU and 256MB DDRII memory which provides sustained high performance with low power consumption. The TS-210 can be configured to RAID 1 for high data redundancy. The TS-210 also supports iSCSI Target service with Thin Provisioning and a Gigabit LAN port, features generally found on much higher end NAS servers. The TS-210 is equipped 3 USB ports (1 front, 2 back panel) for expanding the storage capacity, printer sharing, or data backup to an external storage device.

The TS-210 is a smart choice for installation in home or home-based business as it is fully compatible with Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and UNIX networks. It features a built-in UPnP/ DLNA media server (with TwonkyMedia enabled) supporting a wide range of DLNA media players such as Sony PS3 and Microsoft Xbox 360 gaming consoles. By installing the DLNA/ UPnP application on your iPhone or iPod touch, users can access the TS-210 on the home network and play the videos, music, and photos from the server over the network. In addition, the high-speed PC-less Download Station with the unique QGet utility enables users to manage the BT/ FTP/ HTTP download tasks remotely over the local network or the Internet. The TS-210 can perform centralized backups of all computers attached to the network to protect valuable paid downloaded music and video content, digital pictures, and documents.

Iomega, an EMC company and a global leader in data protection, today announced the next generation of its popular double-drive desktop NAS appliance with the worldwide launch of the new Iomega StorCenter ix2-200. Based on industry-leading enterprise-class EMC storage technologies, the versatile yet affordable StorCenter ix2-200 wraps ease-of-use around big business data management functionality and advanced media serving and other consumer features that make it the ideal NAS appliance for small business users and home users.

Available in 1 TB, 2 TB and 4 TB capacities, the new ix2-200 utilizes a very simple four-step setup to be operational in a matter of minutes - be it in a business setting or in the digital home.

Shuttle Inc., market leader in the Mini-PC sector and manufacturer of Multi-Form-Factor solutions, is now supplying its X50 All-in-One PC platform with pre-installed Linux operating system.

The just 3.6 cm thin X500V complete system is fitted with the latest version (11.1) of openSUSE Linux and can be expanded with open-source applications from the openSUSE website. 1-click package installation allows the system to be customised specifically to a wide range of user requirements.

Active Media Products (AMP), manufacturer of SSDs and WWF series USB drives, today announced immediate availability of a bootable Linux USB (BLU) drive that is compatible with Windows 7 and benefits WWF. These new penguin BLU drives are preloaded with the full installation of Ubuntu Linux 9.0.4.

BLU drives allow booting into Ubuntu Linux from the USB drive regardless of what operating system is installed on the hard drive. Because the hard drive will still be fully accessible when booting from the BLU drive, it's an excellent disaster recovery solution in the event of problems with the operating system on the primary hard drive, because important data files on the hard drive can be backed up onto the BLU drive or another USB storage device.

Nearly nine months after launching the Chrome web-browser, which took the browser market by storm at least as far as pure-performance goes, with a conservative figure of 30 million active users, internet giant Google announced that it embarked on the ambitious-sounding Google OS project. The core ideology behind an OS of its own, is that it wants to focus on the web-connected era, which it feels current operating-systems are too dated and archaic in design. Of course it's not going to cater to a PC enthusiast, but the larger mass of internet and productivity users who will soon be using more web-based applications, and staying online and connected in general.

According to Google, its OS will be a light-weight, open-source, which will initially be targeted at netbooks and nettops. What's more interesting, is that it like POSIX-derivatives, it does not stick to one machine architecture. The OS will be available for both x86 and ARM. This opens up a lot of opportunity for consumer electronics companies working on ARM-based netbooks and MIDs. "Simplicity, speed, and security" will be the top design targets of the OS. Under the hood, Google OS will make use of a highly-customised Linux kernel. Google encourages its developer base to code web-applications, not exactly Linux apps, so the focus of its developer community remains on something that will work on any OS with a web-browser, and the developers get to cater to the largest base of target-consumers.

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 added two more netbooks to its growing lineup, the Mini 1101 and Mini 110. The latter has two variants: Mini 110 XP and Mini 110 Mi. Both these models feature 10.1 inch LED screens. Users can choose between Atom N270 and N280, with as much as 1 GB of memory, 160 GB HDD, and Intel GMA 950 graphics.

The Mini 110 XP offers a few exclusive features. Users can opt for a 32 GB SSD and WLAN. It comes with Broadcom Crystal HD Enhanced Video Accelerator, that provides smooth playback of HD video at resolutions of 1080p. It comes with Windows XP Home SP3 pre-installed. The Mini 110 Mi is physically identical, except for that it comes with a popular Linux distribution pre-installed, and allows users to opt for a 250 GB HDD or 2 GB of system memory. The Mini 1101 will retail in June with a base price of US $329. The Mini 110 Mi, with Linux, will be priced significantly lower, at $279.

QNAP Systems, Inc. today announces the first 2-bay network-attached storage (NAS) which supports both 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch SATA hard drives - TS-219P Turbo NAS. Dedicated to home and SOHO users, the TS-219P is an advanced version of the previously released TS-219. Powering Marvell 1.2GHz high performance processor and 512 MB DDRII memory, the NAS comes with 3 USB ports and 2 eSATA ports to deliver the best storage expansion capability compared with other 2-bay NAS in the market.

The TS-219P supports two hot-swappable 2.5" or 3.5" SATA hard drives with maximum 4TB storage capacity. The device can be accessed across Windows, Mac, Linux, and UNIX. It is a highly reliable and powerful NAS with abundant business-class features, such as built-in iSCSI target service (max 8 iSCSI devices) with Thin Provisioning, Online RAID Capacity Expansion, Online RAID Level Migration, automatic policy-based IP blocking, hard drive status report, instant SMS and email alert, built-in TwonkyMedia UPnP/ DLNA media server, BT and eMule download, schedule power on and power off, one Giga LAN port, and 2 IP cameras for network surveillance.

Silicon Power, the leading brand among Solid State Disk (SSD) Manufacturers lifts the benchmark another notch with their new Portable eSATA / USB SSD II. It is the world's first eSATA (eSATA; External Serial ATA) /USB dual interface portable SSD drive. The new drive emphasis the convenience of USB connection and the ultra fast performance of eSATA interface as an external drive. Overall, the drive has excellent aesthetics and the performance to match.

Having won rave reviews with their 64GB eSATA /USB SSD, Silicon Power releases the new lidless and portable eSATA/USB SSD II. Through the eSATA interface, maximum read speed reaches 90MB/Sec and maximum write reaches 50 MB/Sec. Maximum read through the USB connection is rated at 30MB/Sec and 20MB/sec for write. It is the perfect solution for professional multimedia enthusiasts or users that often carry and transfer large capacity files.

Today DisplayLink is taking steps to bring its USB display technology, formerly only available on Windows and Mac, to Linux. DisplayLink's chips enable one or more high resolution displays to be connected via the standard, universal USB 2.0 connector. The library released today enables the creation of Linux software - X Servers, drivers, and other applications - which will work with the growing universe of products using DisplayLink technology.
The library is provided under the GNU Lesser General Public License v2 (LGPL), enabling software to be ported by the community to cover the widest possible range of processors, platforms, and applications. This ultimately enables companies to create products which will work on the full variety of Linux devices like netbooks, notebooks, mobile Internet devices, mobile phones, embedded displays, embedded devices, digital signage, and more.

Soon after becoming the first to be out with a portable desktop alternative featuring the Intel Core i7 processor, SmoothCreations dished out another of its kind, this time a portable workstation named Bulldozer. The company is looking to target two classes of consumers with this product: gamers, and graphics professionals, who will take advantage of its hardware for high-definition gaming or CAM/CAE/CAD, medical imaging, forensics, government or military use. The applications are broad thanks to the hardware, which just might come at the expense of a little portability.

The Bulldozer features a 17-inch screen with a native resolution of 1900x1200 pixels. Under its hood is a Core i7 (models 940 or 965 XE) or Xeon X5580 processor. Up to 16 GB of memory can be opted for, along with up to 1.5 TB of storage thanks to three SATA HDD bays. A Blu-Ray combo drive provides removable storage. Connectivity options include WiFi, Gigabit Ethernet, and Bluetooth 2.0. Graphics is care of NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700 with 1 GB of memory. Depending on the application, 64-bit Windows XP, Windows Vista, or RedHat Linux could be opted for. Its pricing is not known.

Shuttle Inc., the market leader in the Mini-PC sector and manufacturer of Multi-Form-Factor solutions, is now expanding its portfolio of Mini-PCs with Open Source operating systems. The latest offshoot is the X270V complete system based on the Shuttle Barebone X27D.

As with earlier Shuttle Mini-PCs with pre-installed Linux operating system, the X270V uses OpenSUSE - now in version 11. All PC functions are configured after the first start-up in only a few steps and can then be used immediately. Expansion with program packages is possible at any time by a 1-Click-Installation from the openSUSE website to meet individual requirements.

VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, today announced its entry into the design manufacturing service business to offer provide flexible system hardware solutions, starting with the new VIA NSD7200 home storage and media server.

Building on its success as a pioneer of system level innovation in small form factor and IPC markets, VIA can provide OEM and ODM customers with customized versions of home and SOHO storage platforms targeting specific markets. By combining energy-efficient processor platforms and high quality chassis designs with a full design manufacturing service and comprehensive engineering support, VIA enables customers to more accurately address the needs of system integrators and retailers by speeding up product cycles and reducing production costs.

It looks like NVIDIA's attempts to let Tegra make it to bigger platforms are beginning to bear fruit. LaptopMag got its hands on one of the first mini-notebooks based on Tegra, a fully-integrated computing architecture that focuses on making more powerful and visual portable computing devices possible. The Tegra CPU core is based on the ARM11 architecture, working along with NVIDIA's own graphics processing, and system controlling technologies.

The model in use with the mini-notebook is Tegra 650, which runs at 750 MHz (core clock speed), supports hardware HD video decoding, an S-Video out, and USB. It supports DDR memory running at 200 MHz, and an IDE channel for a sold-state drive for primary storage. Apart from the IDE interface, Tegra has its own NAND-flash controller so small amounts of flash memory (up to 8 GB) could be embedded onto the main PCB. The mini-notebook features an OS that lets the user achieve all the tasks one would ask from this 90~200 Dollar mini-notebook. Windows CE and Linux are the likely candidates. The screenshot below is that of the Windows CE-based prototype that takes advantage of the 3D processing power of the core. Also pictured is the prototype system board by NVIDIA.