With a small but sizable, and growing number of PC cases with front-panel USB 3.0 ports, it is making sense for motherboard vendors to reciprocate with motherboards that have USB 3.0 front-panel headers. Spearheading this is ASUS, with its new mainstream socket LGA1156 motherboard based on the Intel P55 chipset, the P7P55/USB3. USB 3.0 has a different front-panel header layout from USB 2.0/1.1, and on ASUS' motherboard, there are two NEC-made 2-port USB 3.0 controllers, one for the two rear USB 3.0 ports, and one for the 2-port USB 3.0 header. The header can connect to front-panel ports, or simply provide two rear ports using an expansion bracket.

Apart from that, the P7P55/USB3 is a fairly standard offering with 4+2 phase CPU VRM, one PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slot, a PCI-Express x16 (electrical x4) slot, and two each of PCI-E x1 and PCI. The P55 PCH provides six SATA 3 Gb/s ports, connectivity features include 8-channel HD audio with optical SPDIF output, gigabit Ethernet, and USB 3.0. ASUS did not give out a price, though one can expect this model to be on the lower side, we expect under $150.

Renesas Electronics Corporation, a premier provider of advanced semiconductor solutions, today announced the availability of its new SuperSpeed Universal Serial Bus (USB 3.0) host controller (part number µPD720200A), featuring 85 percent reduced power consumption compared to the company's existing host controller (part number µPD720200) when peripheral devices, such as mice, are not connected to the ports.

Supporting fast data transfer rates of up to 5 gigabits per second (Gbps), the µPD720200A device achieves low power consumption of 50 milliwatts (mW) with no peripheral connection to the ports, reduced by 85 percent from the company's existing USB 3.0 host controller. The new host controller also has the same footprint as the previous host controller, which makes it possible for system designers to accommodate their designs on the same board used for the previous device, the µPD720200. These advancements enable system designers to develop notebook PCs that boast longer battery life, yet maintain high data transfer rates.

NEC Display Solutions of America, a leading provider of commercial LCD display and projector solutions, announced today the addition of two new models to its E Series, the 46" E461 and 55" E551. This raises NEC's affordable professional display product lineup to include a broad range of sizes from 32" to 55". These entry-level LCD displays provide users with a cost-effective solution for retail stores, waiting rooms and conference rooms.

The new models offer full high-definition 1080p resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate setting, increasing the clarity of movement and reducing image blur. Additionally, the E461 and E551 include built-in features, such as an ATSC/NTSC/QAM tuner, 12W stereo speakers and detachable swivel stand. With power consumption as low as 210W and full connectivity including 4 HDMI inputs, analog RGB, composite video and S-Video, these new E Series models provide professional performance and a sleek appearance to digital signage users in both corporate and specialty environments.

NEC is preparing a new professional-grade 27-inch LCD monitor called MultiSync Reference 271. The 271 uses a 10-bit P-IPS panel that give 98% Adobe RGB coverage, for a wide color gamut. The panel has a wide viewing angle of 178 degrees. Its frame design enables pivot at swivel adjustments.

The panel has a resolution of 2560 x 1440 (aspect ratio 16:9), with 5 ms response time. Its static contrast ratio is 1000:1, with a maximum brightness of 360 cd/m². It takes input from D-Sub (analog) and DVI-D or dual DVI. Backed by a 3-year warranty, the MultiSync Reference 271 is up for pre-order for under 1800 EUR.

Following last week's release of EVGA X58 FTW3, the company is ready with two new boards, the EVGA X58 SLI3 and X58 Classified3. While being based on essentially the same board design as the X58 SLI LE and X58 Classified, these boards have feature updates which include USB 3.0, and SATA 6 Gb/s. Both these features use 3rd party controllers from NEC and Marvell, and are available in 2-port forms. For existing users of X58 SLI LE and X58 Classified, EVGA developed its own 2-port USB 3.0 addon card.

Renesas Electronics Corporation, a premiere provider of advanced semiconductor solutions, today announced its collaboration with AMD to promote the new SuperSpeed Universal Serial Bus (USB 3.0) standard.

In December 2009, Renesas Electronics (formerly NEC Electronics Corporation) released its USB Attached SCSI Protocol (UASP) driver, supporting the new industry-standard, highly efficient mass-storage protocol suitable for use on SuperSpeed USB to overcome the performance boundaries of the Bulk Only Transfer (BOT) protocol. The new UASP driver will be used with Renesas Electronics' USB 3.0 xHCI (eXtensible Host Controller Interface) host controller, which entered the market as the world's first USB 3.0 host controller in June 2009. Having shipped over three million units of the host controller, as a dedicated promoter of USB 3.0 standard, Renesas Electronics is now targeting monthly production of two million units starting April 2010 and aims to continually contribute to advancement and standardization of USB.

As many as nine major chip vendors were fined a total of 331 million Euros (US $404.2 million) for participating in illegal price-fixing activities, by the European Union authorities. These include Samsung, Hynix, Nanya, Elpida, Infineon, NEC, Toshiba, Hitachi, and Mitsubishi. A 10th company in this price-fixing cartel was Micron Technology, which escaped the fine for exposing the malpractice to the EU authorities. Of these Samsung was given the single biggest fine of 146 million Euros, followed by Infineon at 57 million Euros. The fines were reduced by 10% because all companies extended cooperation in the investigations.

The price-fixing cartel mostly involved bad trade of DRAM chips, and was active between 1998 and 2002, operating with a network of contacts which secretly exchanged pricing information. They colluded to fix prices of DRAM chips sold to major PC and server manufacturers. Investigations in the scam began in 2002 when Micron blew the whistle on the cartel. "By acknowledging their participation in a cartel the companies have allowed the Commission to bring this long-running investigation to a close and to free up resources to investigate other suspected cartels," said EU's Competition Commissioner, Joaquin Almunia. "As the procedure is applied to new cases it is expected to speed up investigations significantly," he added.

NEC released a new professional display, the MultiSync PA271W. Its 27-inch panel has an aspect ratio of 16:9, with a native resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels. The 10-bit IPS panel is capable of covering 97.1 percent of AdobeRGB colour space. Other important specifications include panel response time of 7 ms (GTG), static contrast ratio of 1000:1, maximum brightness of 300 cd/m², and inputs which include DVI and DisplayPort.

The display has 15 cm height-adjustable stand, which allows the panel to pivot, swivel, and tilt. With its dual inputs, the display offers picture-in-picture and picture-by-picture features. The AmbiBright feature senses ambient lighting conditions and adjusts the display's brightness automatically. Backed by a 4-year warranty, the NEC MultiSync PA271W sells for US $1,649.

Building upon its industry position in green technologies, NEC Display Solutions of America, a leading provider of commercial LCD display and projector solutions, announced today its latest environmentally friendly display, the AccuSync AS231WM LCD monitor.

Targeted to small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs) as well as education and government users, the AS231WM joins four other green monitors in the AccuSync Series (AS171, AS191, AS191WM and AS221WM), which all bear EPEAT Silver ratings as well as ENERGY STAR 5.0 and TCO 5.0 compliance.

The AS231WM widescreen display consumes 50 percent less energy and contains 50 percent less mercury content than conventional monitors of the same size. In addition, ECO Mode technology lets end-users toggle between energy-saving modes, helping to significantly reduce power consumption, heat generation and extend the life of the display.

Do you desire for a free CPU upgrade? Of course, you do! ASRock Inc. today launched the UCC [Unlock CPU Core] Series motherboard that delivers added core processing power by enabling the ASRock exclusive UCC function of the AMD CPUs. Unprecedentedly integrated with ASRock exclusive UCC Chip, ASRock UCC function is well-designed to provide extra performance boost on ASRock UCC Series motherboards. In conjunction with AMD's 8XX Series chipsets, ASRock 890GX Extreme3 motherboard, the first UCC series motherboard, comes with unique UCC feature and supports both advanced rendering from HD 4290, DX10.1 graphics technology and ATI Quad CrossFireX, 3-Way CrossFireX technologies.

Equipped with an exclusive ASRock UCC Chip, ASRock 890GX Extreme3 is able to support the excellent UCC function. ASRock UCC feature allows users to enjoy an instant performance boost by simply tuning on the UCC switch on BIOS. ASRock 890GX Extreme3 is the ASRock True 333 series motherboards. The board offers the latest SATA3 6.0Gb/s and USB 3.0 5.0Gb/s technologies from the industry-leading NEC support. The real I/O includes 1 x external SATA3 connector through the Bundled eSATA3 Bracket and 2 x USB 3.0 ports for 10X faster data transfer speed. For memory part, it supports 4 X DDR3 1800(OC), Hyper Transport Bus 5200 MT/s, ATI Quad CrossFireX and 3-Way CrossFireX. For audio aspect, it features 7.1 CH, VIA 2020 audio codec with Premium Blu-ray audio support. Combined with advanced rendering from AMD Radeon HD 4290, DX10.1 graphics, ASRock 890GX Extreme3 offers the spectacular visual output (output options include: D-Sub, DVI-D, HDMI) as well.

Intel Corporation today unveiled its 2010 Intel Core vPro processor family to meet the needs of businesses of all sizes for PCs with greater, more flexible performance, theft prevention and cost savings in a rapidly changing business computing environment. These and several other capabilities are at the heart of many new Intel-based business laptop and desktop computers beginning to roll out from computer manufacturers worldwide.

The Intel Core vPro processors arrive as business computing evolves with the emergence of video, Internet telephony, social networking and other heavyweight applications - in many cases running at the same time - making a computer's performance an even bigger priority.

ASRock is developing a new upper-mainstream socket LGA-1156 motherboard based on the Intel P55 Express chipset: the P55-Deluxe3. This motherboard builds on the chipset's feature-set, and offers USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gb/s connectivity. It further borrows from a design ASUS innovated with its P7P55D Premium, which makes use of a PCI-Express 2.0 bridge chip, which connects to the P55 chipset over its PCI-Express 1.1 x4 link, and gives out PCI-Express 2.0 x1 connections to the USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gb/s controllers. The SATA 6 Gb/s controller gives out two SATA ports (color-coded white), and an IDE connector. The NEC USB 3.0 controller gives out two external ports color-coded blue.

Expansion slots include two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (electrical x8 when both are populated), a PCI-Express x1, and two PCI slots. Both NVIDIA SLI and ATI CrossFire, are supported. Other connectivity options include 8+2 channel audio with SPDIF connectivity, gigabit Ethernet, eSATA, FireWire, and a number of USB 2.0 ports. The ASRock P55 Deluxe3 should be priced somewhere in the $180~$200 range.

NEC Display Solutions of America, a leading provider of commercial LCD display and projector solutions, announces today the 17-inch AS171 to the AccuSync Series, replacing the popular ASLCD73VX-BK display. Joining the recently introduced 19-inch AS191, AS191WM and 22-inch AS221WM, this standard-aspect ratio display is designed for small-to-medium-sized businesses and continues to promote environmental consciousness, a standard in the AccuSync Series.

The energy-efficient 17-inch AS171 display consumes 21% less power than its predecessor. It shares the certifications of its AccuSync siblings, an EPEAT Silver rating, and ENERGY STAR 5.0 and TCO 5.0 compliance, giving users confidence that these displays are environmentally preferable purchases. The monitor's 2-step ECO Mode technology allows users to maneuver between two energy-savings modes, while its ergonomic tilt function brings users flexibility and enhanced comfort.

NEC Display Solutions of America, a leading provider of commercial LCD display and projector solutions, announces the new MultiSync PA Series, successor to the critically acclaimed MultiSync 90 Series, by introducing the MultiSync PA241W. Designed for professional graphics applications, this 24-inch desktop display is ideal for digital photography, video editing, print production and any environment in which color accuracy is crucial.

The PA241W continues the MultiSync 90 Series' tradition of delivering crisp, accurate images while adding improved color coverage, sleeker industrial design and enhanced connectivity. The display features 102% coverage of NTSC and 99.3% of Adobe RGB, an increase from 72% in the MultiSync LCD2490WUXi². With a 38% smaller footprint size, the display provides users with more desktop space and decrease costs in shipping and storage. Improved cable management enables simpler setup of the monitor, while its new 10-bit DisplayPort and USB hub add to an already diverse set of input connectors.

NEC Display Solutions of America, a leading provider of commercial LCD display and projector solutions, announced today the addition of a new commercial-grade product line, the E Series. Debuting for this entry-level series are the 32-inch E321 and 42-inch E421, which give corporate users an affordable option for lobbies, boardrooms and small conference rooms, while addressing the display needs of digital signage users in retails stores, waiting rooms, and health clubs.

Due in part to the continuing advancement of the display industry and breakthroughs in technology, NEC is able to offer high-definition resolution, integrated analog/digital tuner and 10W stereo speakers as standard options with this series. The E Series brings corporate and digital signage users the professional performance and looks of the latest large-screen displays in a flexible, affordable digital signage solution. Multiple source inputs allow users to work from a variety of sources and easily maneuver between desired content. These LCD displays feature brightness and contrast levels suitable for most applications, providing vivid image quality and easier viewing in areas with high ambient light such as lobbies and health clubs. Low power consumption in the E321 and E421 reduces energy costs, while the capability to adjust the backlight lowers total cost of ownership.

NEC gave its ValueStar W line of all-in-one PCs which it released last year a specifications upgrade. Variants feature Intel's new dual-core processors, with a choice between the Core i5 650 which runs at 3.20 GHz, and the Core i3 530 clocked at 2.93 GHz. Other features include 4 GB of DDR3 memory, 1 TB of storage, Blu-ray disc drive, and Intel integrated graphics. TV tuner and USB 3.0 controllers are also optional. Another major change is the Windows 7 Home Premium operating system, which takes place of Windows Vista, on the specs sheet. The PCs come with bezel colors of red, black and white. They feature screen sizes of 21.5" and 23", both with resolutions of 1920 x 1080 pixels.

At the ongoing CES event, ASUS displayed some of its upcoming motherboards which included the M4A89GTOD PRO, an ATX form-factor model based on the AMD 890G chipset. The AMD 890G seems to be a successor to the AMD 790GX, in being a performance integrated graphics part. It integrates a DirectX 10.1 compliant IGP while supporting discrete graphics with 2-way ATI CrossFireX.

The M4A89GTOD PRO comes with an expansive feature-set thanks to the AMD 890G. The more interesting component being the AMD SB800 southbridge chip, which is on its way to being one of the first PC motherboard chipsets to natively support SATA 6 Gb/s. The chip doles out six SATA 6 Gb/s ports, while doing away with its on-die IDE controller. An external JMicron-made storage controller compensates with an IDE connector, a SATA 3 Gb/s port (colored black) and perhaps an eSATA port (at 3 Gb/s speeds), too.

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co., Ltd, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards and other computing hardware solutions is pleased to announce their latest generation H55/H57 series motherboards, based on the Intel H55 and Intel H57 chipset and leveraging the success of the GIGABYTE Ultra Durable 3 design featuring 2x copper PCB and delivering a host of cutting-edge features including innovative Smart6 PC management tools, Dynamic Energy Saver 2 power saving utilities, DualBIOS and support for Energy Using Products Directive (EuP), for a powerful, yet power efficient multimedia platform.

"GIGABYTE once again leads the motherboard industry and sets the standard for delivering high speed data transfer and richer video playback capabilities for HD multimedia home entertainment devices," commented Tim Handley, Deputy Director of Motherboard Marketing at GIGABYTE Technology Co. Ltd. "Featuring next generation storage capabilities including USB 3.0 and high performance digital DisplayPort connectivity, as well as GIGABYTE's own unique 3x USB Power Boost, the GIGABYTE GA-H57M-USB3 and GA-H55M-USB3 provide a compelling solution for users wanting the ultimate multimedia system."

WD, the world's leader in external storage solutions, and NEC Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723), a leading provider of semiconductor solutions, today announced that the companies have collaborated to promote the new SuperSpeed Universal Serial Bus (USB) 3.0 standard, a next-generation interface to be used in a wide range of electronic devices including PCs, PC peripherals, and digital appliances.

USB 3.0 is capable of supporting data transfer rates of up to 5 gigabits per second (Gbps), which is 10 times faster than the previous high-speed USB 2.0 transfer speeds. With its higher speeds and enhanced power efficiency, external hard disk drives are the first SuperSpeed USB 3.0 devices to appear on the market.

MSI decided to rev up its high-end socket LGA-1156 motherboard lineup with the new P55-GD85. A part of this board's design seems to have been inspired from the ASUS P7P55D Premium, in which a PLX PEX8608 PCI-Express bridge chip has been used over the PCI-Express 1.1 x4 link from the P55 PCH to give out PCI-Express 2.0 x1 connections, which then drive the NEC D720200F1 USB 3.0 and Marvell 88SE9123 SATA 6 Gbps controllers on their optimal interface speeds of PCI-E 2.0 x1.

The CPU is powered by a 10-phase VRM, which is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots. Expansion slots include two PCI-Express x16 (electrical x16/NC or x8/x8 depending on how they're populated), two PCI, and two PCI-E x1. One of these two is color-coded blue, and could be wired to the PEX8608, occupying its third port. Apart from the six SATA 3 Gbps ports the PCH provides, and the SATA 6 Gbps controller with its two ports, an additional controller provides two more SATA 3 Gbps ports and an IDE connector. Other features are standard issues for an MSI motherboard in this class: notably the OC Genie feature, centralized manual voltage measurement points, and support for both NVIDIA SLI and ATI CrossFireX.

Gigabyte is readying the industry's first socket AM3 motherboard that offers the new connectivity features combo that is turning out to be quite a selling point in itself: USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gbps. Enter GA-790FXTA-UD5P, a high-end socket AM3 motherboard based on the AMD 790FX + SB750 chipset, that isn't just a revised GA-MA790FXT-UD5P. Apart from the star attractions of USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gbps, the board features a redesigned expansion slot layout, among other new features. The socket AM3 motherboard supports AMD Phenom II AM3 and Athlon II series processors with support for dual-channel DDR3 memory.

To begin with, the CPU is powered by a 8+2 phase VRM supporting 140W processors, with a 2 phase VRM powering the four DDR3 DIMM slots. The board supports DDR3-1866 by overclocking, while DDR3-1333 and DDR3-1066 are naturally supported. A Precision OV controller provides fine (small step) voltage control for the CPU, memory and chipset voltages. Instead of two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots on the MA-790FXT-UD5P, this board features three PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots (electrical x16, x16, NC, or x16, x8, x8, depending on how they're populated). Each x16 slot as one slot spacing which is occupied by a PCI slot. A lone PCI-E x1 slot heads the pack.

Intel Corporation and NEC Corporation today have agreed to jointly develop High Performance Computing (HPC) system technologies that will push the boundaries of supercomputing performance. NEC will bring these technologies to market in future supercomputers based on the Intel Xeon processor. NEC's expertise in this field coupled with the Intel Xeon processor's outstanding performance and its accelerating vector capabilities such as AVX will allow for higher performance supercomputers, satisfying customer demand for Intel architecture based products.

NEC will also continue to sell their existing SX vector processor-based products. A vector processor can perform a mathematical operation on several numbers simultaneously.

"Intel's substantial investment in the Intel architecture, including the development of processors, chipsets, software compilers and other related products has expanded the usages of Intel Xeon processors in both the volume and high-end HPC market segments," said Richard Dracott, general manager of Intel's High Performance Computing Group. "Now with NEC further innovating on Intel Xeon processor-based systems, Intel is poised to bring Intel Xeon processor performance to an even wider supercomputing audience."

Closely trailing the GA-X58A-UD7, Gigabyte is preparing a new high-end socket LGA-1156 motherboard based on the Intel P55 chipset. The GA-P55A-UD7 is touted to lead the new pack of motherboards under the P55A series, which bring technologies such as USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gb/s integrated for the LGA-1156 platform. Observantly, after a very long time, Gigabyte has made use of an NVIDIA nForce chip on its high-end motherboards, certainly the first time it has made use of the nForce 200 PCI-Express bridge chip. Gigabyte made some clever use of its real-estate, especially with regards to the PCI-Express bandwidth.

The LGA-1156 socket is powered by a 24+3 phase circuit. It connects to four DDR3 DIMM slots for dual-channel memory. Its PCI-Express 2.0 x16 link is wired to an NVIDIA nForce 200 chip, which gives out 32 PCI-Express 2.0 lanes to ensure support for 3-way NVIDIA SLI, ATI CrossFireX is naturally supported. There are three PCI-Express x16 slots (which arrange into x16, x16, NC; or x16, x8, x8, depending on how they're populated). A PLX-made PCI-Express bridge chip (probably connected to the PCH) ensures full-bandwidth PCI-Express 2.0 x1 connections to the NEC two port USB 3.0 controller, and the two port SATA 6 Gb/s controller made by Marvell. Apart from the six (color-coded blue) SATA 3 Gb/s ports the PCH provides, the two color-coded white ports on the south are SATA 6 Gb/s, while the two on the north are connected to a Gigabyte GSATA2 SATA 3 Gb/s controller, which also gives out an IDE connector.

Just as ASUS was readying its first wave of socket LGA-1156 motherboards, the company picked up interest in offering SATA 6 Gb/s and USB 3.0 as a feature set. With the P7P55D Premium motherboard, the company even used a PCI-Express 2.0 bridge chip to ensure the SATA 6 Gb/s controller - the Marvell 88SE9123-NAA2 - got a PCI-E 2.0 x1 link, which other manufacturers end up wiring a PCI-E 1.1 x1 link from the P55 PCH. In a bid to propagate the design, the company had also designed an addon card that works on the same principle. The the card has finally taken shape in the form of the ASUS U3S6 (USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gb/s), complete with its missing USB 3.0 controller that provides two SuperSpeed 5000 Mbps ports. The interface bottleneck for the NEC µPD720200 USB 3.0 controller is also reduced by provision of a PCI-E 2.0 x1 link. Both connectors are wired to a PLX PEX8613 3-port/12-lane PCI-E 2.0 bridge chip, which takes in four PCI-Express lanes (typically PCI-E 1.1 lanes from the southbridge or P55 PCH), and gives out the required two links. Although there is no word on the card's price yet, PCSTATS reckons something around $30 likely. In that case, the card would be a steal deal, considering recently announced SATA 6 Gb/s addon cards by HighPoint that hold just the Marvell 88SE9123-NAA2, are priced over $60.

Gigabyte is readying a new socket LGA-1156 motherboard, the GA-P55A-UD4. Bearing resemblance with the GA-P55-UD4, the motherboard features upgraded connectivity, with support for USB 3.0, and SATA 6 Gb/s. The new model also features an upgraded CPU VRM, with a 12+2 phase design compared to the 8+2 phase design on the GA-P55-UD4. USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gb/s features are provided using additional controllers on board. A Marvell-made SATA 6 Gb/s two-port controller replaces the familiar Gigabyte GSATA2 controller, while an NEC-made controller provides two USB 3.0 ports on the rear-panel. The USB 3.0 ports are color-coded blue, and share the port cluster with the lone gigabit Ethernet connector, while the SATA 6 Gb/s connectors are color-coded white, next to the usual six SATA 3 Gb/s ones the P55 PCH provides.

The rest of the feature-set remains largely same, with four DDR3 DIMM slots to support up to 16 GB of memory, two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots (electrically x8 when both are populated) supporting ATI CrossFireX and NVIDIA SLI, Dolby Home Theater supportive onboard audio, among other standard issues. The Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD4 will not replace GA-P55-UD4 from the market, it will coexist, albeit priced higher. It remains to be seen if this is the only "P55A" motherboard Gigabyte sells.