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.

NEC's newest ultraportable jumps onto the CULV bandwagon. The chic LaVie M ultra-thin laptop is a tiny but capable machine in the 13.3 inch form-factor. The screen has a native resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels. It is powered by an Intel Celeron SU2300 1.20 GHz processor aided by 2 or 4 GB of memory, and provides 320 GB of storage. Connectivity options include Bluetooth V2.1+ EDR, WIFI BGN, HDMI Out. The fruition of the CULV technology here is its battery life of up to 8.5 hours. The LaVie M is expected to debut in Japan in early November, it comes with Windows 7 Home Premium pre-installed. Chassis colour options include red, black, and white.

NEC Display Solutions, a leading stand-alone provider of commercial LCD displays and projectors, announced today the addition of three new desktop monitors to its AccuSync Series. With two widescreen displays and one standard-aspect display, this series offers small-to-medium-sized business users a reliable, environmentally-conscious and technology-rich desktop monitor solution.

The energy-efficient 19" AS191, 19" widescreen AS191WM and 22" widescreen AS221WM monitors consume up to 48% less energy than their predecessors. All three models offer an EPEATTM Silver rating, and ENERGY STAR 5.0 and TCO 5.0 compliance, giving users confidence that these displays are environmentally preferable purchases. ECO ModeTM technology allows users to maneuver between two energy-savings modes. Additionally, the tilt functionality provides flexibility and enhanced comfort for AccuSync users.

NEC Display Solutions is readying its first MultiSync LCD monitor that uses a white LED backlit for illumination. The Multisync EA222WMe is a 22 inch panel that brandishes the company's green initiatives, and with its white LED illumination, reduces energy consumption by up to 50% against traditional CCFL-illuminated LCD displays. It manages a brightness of 250 cd/m², and has a One Touch Eco Button power management feature that further reduces power consumption. Connectivity options include DVI and DisplayPort. The Multisync EA222WMe is targeted at the SMB segment. It will reach retailers by this December.

NEC Display Solutions of America , a leading stand-alone provider of commercial LCD displays and projectors , announced today the MultiSync EA190M, a 19-inch standard-aspect ratio desktop display designed for a variety of business environments, government applications and education users.

This enterprise monitor includes an abundance of eco-conscious features that improve energy efficiency. The EA190M consumes 50% less energy and contains 50% less mercury than traditional LCD monitors. Its one-touch button for ECO Mode enables users to quickly maneuver between two energy-savings modes. The carbon footprint meter allows users to easily track carbon savings and adjust their power settings accordingly.

NEC Display Solutions will be launching the first 23" screen with IPS technology in 16:9 format in autumn 2009. The MultiSync EA231WMi combines excellent image quality in high resolution (full HD) with low energy consumption and its wide screen format enhances productivity. Another innovation for NEC desktop displays is the DisplayPort interface for future-proof digital connectivity. Priced at a similar level as conventional 19" or wide 22" models it offers more display area to work with several applications at the same time. The monitor comes with TCO 5.0 certification and is therefore ideally suited for professional use.

With IPS technology the EA231WMi offers outstanding viewing angle and image stability which will be appreciated by all office users. Alongside its high-quality panel technology and award-winning design, the MultiSync EA231WMi also provides all the technical benefits of the EA series. These include integrated speakers, 110mm height adjustment and pivot as well as a USB hub. Additional environmental protection is achieved by an ambient light sensor for optimum screen brightness and energy usage at all times. The display features the latest Energy Star 5.0 and TCO 5.0 certification, with TCO 5.0 being one of the world's highest standards for ergonomics and environmental friendliness. This makes the EA231WMi the perfect office monitor from an ecological, economic and ergonomic point of view.

NEC Display Solutions of America, a leading stand-alone provider of commercial LCD displays and projectors, today announced the new MultiSync LCD2490WUXi² and LCD2490W2-BK-SV with NEC's SpectraViewII Color Calibration Solution. These two high-performance desktop displays are ideal for graphic arts, desktop publishing, photography, medical imaging and other professional applications.
Joining the award-winning MultiSync 90 Series and SpectraViewII Series respectively, the LCD2490WUXi² and LCD2490W2-BK-SV displays offer a multitude of innovative technologies, leading-edge capabilities and ergonomic design functions. The widescreen display (true 16:10 aspect ratio) enhances user productivity, as it provides roughly the same work area as two smaller-sized displays, enabling users to view and work simultaneously in multiple application windows.

NEC Display Solutions of America, a leading stand-alone provider of commercial LCD displays and projectors, today announced the 43-inch NEC CRV43 ultra-widescreen specialty desktop display, designed for use in applications such as professional graphics, higher education, government, financial, command & control and home office.

The NEC CRV43 curved display can be seen at InfoComm 09 (Peerless Booth No. 5441) on June 17-19 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.

NEC Display Solutions of America, a leading stand-alone provider of commercial LCD displays and projectors, today announced the 22-inch MultiSync E222W, an eco-friendly monitor with numerous features designed to lower total cost of ownership.
The MultiSync E222W offers an ErgoDesign adjustable stand with 4-way ergonomic design, including 110 mm height-adjust, tilt, swivel and pivot, adding flexibility and comfort for any user. The display's ECO Mode reduces power consumption and heat generation, while its Intelligent Power Management (IPM) and off timer help conserve energy and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by switching to a low-power state or automatically powering down when the monitor is on, but not in use. Users have the ability to track their carbon footprint savings with the display's carbon footprint meter, a unique tool that calculates the reduction of green gas emissions. The combination of these green technologies extends the life of the MultiSync E222W and raises the standard for green LCD displays.

NEC unveiled one of the slimmest netbooks to the hit the market, literally the size of a large scribbling-pad, and as slim as 15.8 mm. This 10-inch netbook tips the scales at 725 g, and offers a screen resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels. Under its hood is an Intel Atom Z540 CPU, 1 GB of memory, and a 64 GB SSD. Its lone connectivity option is the gigabit Ethernet. Interestingly, it comes with Windows Vista Business Edition pre-loaded. It should hit the stores by July.

NEC added a new 24-inch, full-HD monitor to its lineup. The LCD2490WUXi2 features a native resolution of 1920x1200 pixels with a 16 ms response-time. The contrast ratio on offer is 1000:1, with a maximum brightness of 320 cd/m². A sensor adjusts brightness automatically to suit the ambient light conditions. It takes input from DVI and D-Sub. Although HDCP capable, the display does not feature an HDMI input. The LCD2490WUXi2 targets the class of users consisting of graphics professionals, and not necessarily that of gamers. Backed by a 5-year warranty, the LCD2490WUXi2 is expected to be priced around $1400.

NEC unveiled the first add-on cards based on its recently announced µPD720200 USB 3.0 host controller. This is the typical route taken by a company to propagate the standard in an environment where motherboard vendors and chipset makers haven't yet embraced it. For the desktop segment, the reference-design PCI-Express x1 add-on card provides two SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ports that are backwards-compatible with USB 2.0, 1.1, and 1.0. NEC also released an add-on card for notebooks, in the ExpressCard-34 form-factor based on the same controller, offering the same two ports. With these reference designs, NEC plans to propagate add-on card vendors to design their own cards based on the NEC µPD720200 controller. Typically, these cards should be priced around the $15~20 mark. A successor to USB 2.0, USB 3.0 offers 10-times the bandwidth (4.8 Gbps), although it will take a while for devices to use all that bandwidth, let alone support the standard. Perhaps this is why the company seems to find PCI-Express x1 sufficient as its system interface.

NEC Electronics today introduced the world's first Universal Serial Bus (USB) host controller (part number µPD720200) for the new SuperSpeed USB 3.0 standard. NEC Electronics expects rapid adoption of the device and standard as the need to transfer larger and larger amounts of information between PCs to external hard-drives, portable electronics devices, and flash-based thumb drives, continues to grow rapidly.
The µPD720200 device is a host controller for PCs and other digital devices, and is based on the new version of the SuperSpeed USB standard. Supporting the world's fastest USB transfer speeds of up to 5 gigabits per second (Gbps) of data, which is 10 times faster than previous USB 2.0 transfer speeds. The NEC Electronics device, as well as the standard, is fully backward compatible with the USB 2.0, 1.1 and 1.0 versions of the USB standard.

NEC Electronics Corporation (NEC Electronics), Renesas Technology Corp. (Renesas), NEC Corporation (NEC), Hitachi, Ltd. (Hitachi), and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (Mitsubishi Electric) today agreed to enter into negotiations to integrate business operations at NEC Electronics and Renesas.
NEC Electronics was established in 2002, separating from NEC, and Renesas was established in 2003, integrating semiconductor units at Hitachi and Mitsubishi Electric. Both as leading semiconductor companies, NEC Electronics and Renesas provide a wide variety of semiconductor solutions, primarily specializing in microcontroller units (MCUs). In light of fierce global competition in the semiconductor market, NEC Electronics and Renesas have agreed to explore the possibility of business integration in order to further strengthen their business foundations and technological assets while increasing corporate value through enhanced customer satisfaction. By integrating the world's two largest MCU suppliers, the new company will provide one of the most competitive MCU product lineups throughout the world.

NEC introduced two new lines of all-in-one desktop PCs: ValueStar N, and ValueStar W. The launches push the company's monolithic all-in-one design approach further, into the realm of luxury PCs. The ValueStar N comes in three bezel colours: black, white, and cherry red. The main unit packs the 21.5-inch full HD display, and all the hardware otherwise found in a mini-tower. Under the hood is an Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 processor, 4 GB of memory, NVIDIA GeForce 9400 GT graphics, and 1 TB of storage.

There is also a 19-inch variant with a display resolution of 1440 x 900 px, and 500 GB storage. Both variants pack a DVD Super Multi drive. A media-center remote is bundled along with the keyboard and mouse. The ValueStar W on the other hand, packs beefier hardware with its Core 2 Quad Q8200 quad-core processor that is watercooled, 4 GB of memory, digital TV tuner, 1TB of storage, Blu-Ray drive and a 22" LCD. Better as it seems, ironically, this display features an underwhelming resolution of 1680 x 1050.

NEC Electronics Corporation today announced that it has developed a System-on-a-Chip (SoC) product integrating all the functionalities needed for DVD writing and reading on a single chip. The new product named SCOMBO 8 is a SoC for supporting DVD Drives equipped in PCs and home write/read appliances and has following features: (1) Integrates DVD drive control logic, synchronous DRAM, and flash memory all in a compact 14mm square flat package; (2) Delivers industry's fastest 24x DVD writing; (3) Lowers power consumption during DVD writing at 8x speed to 0.8W, reducing by 50 percent compared to the previous products.
The new product allows DVD drive manufacturers to reduce external components by 20 to 30 percent and facilitates low-cost system development with less than 100 materials. The market for CD-ROM, DVD, Blu-ray, and other optical disc drives for PCs is estimated at about 300 million per year. DVD drives account for about 80 percent of this market, with steady growth expected in the years ahead.

NEC Display Solutions of America today introduced LCD3090W-BK-SV - the big brother of the freshly released 26-inch MultiSync LCD2690WUXi² that we covered yesterday here. The 30-inch MultiSync LCD3090W-BK-SV is a wide-gamut display designed for users in the graphic design, digital animation, photography, print production, image analysis and CAD/CAM industries, as well as soft-copy clinical viewing in the medical field. It benefits from the company's ColorComp technology, which reduces LCD uniformity errors, in-plane switching (IPS) matrix and advanced backlight technology that enable the monitor to cover 107% of AdobeRGB color gamut. In addition, this display comes with a SpectraViewII color calibration sensor and software for precise calibration. The 30-inch MultiSync 3090 has a native resolution of 2560x1600 pixels, a G-T-G response time of 6ms (12ms typical), a brightness of 350 cd/m2, and 1000:1 contrast ratio. Input connection include single DVI-D (HDCP), and a DVI-I (digital/analog). The LCD3090W-BK-SV, which is backed by a 4-year parts and labor warranty, will be available this month with estimated street prices of $2,449. The new display can also be seen at the 2009 Macworld Conference and Expo that started today. For more detailed information, please click here.

NEC Display Solutions of America, a leading stand-alone provider of commercial LCD displays and projectors, today announced the new 26-inch MultiSync LCD2690WUXi², a desktop display ideal for graphic arts, desktop publishing, photography and other color-critical environments. The LCD2690WUXi² can be seen at Macworld Conference and Expo 2009 (NEC Display Solutions Booth, No. 2510) on January 6-9 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, Calif.

Enjoy the whole new experience with the new stylish NEC POWERMATE P All-In-One Desktop PC. NEC Computers Asia Pacific launches two new models of its NEC POWERMATE P All-In-One Desktop personal computers, POWERMATE P4000 & P6000. Leading its successful launch of the NEC POWERMATE P3000 and P5000 series, these two models further extend the range of NEC POWERMATE P All-In-One PC to convey another powerful entertainment system highlighting integrated thoughtful utility features.

NEC Display Solutions of America introduced today its new MultiSync P Series with the 22-inch P221W LCD monitor, the first display in this new family of desktop monitors. The P221W offers professionals working in color-critical environments the opportunity to take advantage of a professional grade desktop display without breaking their budgets. The P221W display can be seen at the Photo Plus Expo (Booth No. 263) today through October 24 in New York.
"Built upon the success of the 90 Series displays, the new MultiSync P Series has features specifically designed for the professional graphics user," said Stan Swiderski, Product Manager for NEC Display Solutions.

NEC announced today its entry into the netbook market with the introduction of its first netbook - LaVie Light. I have to admit this is an odd name for a computer part although Eee is not a better one too, but people seem to like and buy them regardless of their strange model names. The NEC LaVie Light serves up the typical netbook specs - a 8.9-inch display with 1024x600 resolution, Intel Atom N270 CPU, 1GB of RAM, 160GB hard drive, and last but not least a Windows XP Home Edition operating system. The LaVie Light weighs in 2.6 pounds and also includes a 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, three USB 2.0 ports, an SD card slot, and a built-in 1.3MP camera. The 8.9-inch NEC LaVie netbook will be released in Japan on November 6th this year. Exact price for the model wasn't announced, but its price is estimated to be around $650.

Graphics designers, professionals or users with deep pockets out there looking for a high-end LCD monitor are advised to read this post, as NEC Display Solutions of America is launching today its new 24-inch MultiSync EA241WM widescreen and 19-inch MultiSync EA191M standard-format LCD monitors. These are the third and fourth MultiSync EA Series products to be introduced, following the launch of the 26-inch EA261WM in June and the 22-inch EA221WM in September. The wide-format MultiSync EA241WM is a premium enterprise display that features 5ms response time, 1000:1 contrast ratio, 400 cd/m² brightness and full 1080p high-definition 1920x1200 native resolution. The screen offers DVI-D and VGA 15-pin D-Sub interface options. If offers a height, pivot, tilt & swivel adjustment, and also has integrated down-firing speakers with headphone jack. The MultiSync EA191M, a standard-format (5:4 aspect ratio) desktop display boasting a top-of-the-line PVA panel, is ideal for the financial and specialty markets with its 1500:1 contrast ratio, four-way ergonomic capabilities (height, swivel, tilt, pivot) and integrated speakers. The EA191M features a native resolution of 1280x1024, response time of 5ms and brightness of 250 cd/m². The MultiSync EA241WM and EA191M displays come with a three-year parts, labor and backlight warranty, and even an extended warranty if desired. The displays will be available for shipment this month at an estimated street price of $549 and $379, respectively.

NEC Display Solutions of America launched today the new 22-inch MultiSync EA221WM widescreen display aimed towards high-end users and professionals. The MultiSync EA221WM comes with top-performing panel that boasts a 5ms response time, a 1000:1 contrast ratio, a brightness of 250 cd/m², wide-viewing angles of 176 degrees and the tipical 22-inch 1680x1050 WSXGA resolution. The new LCD is also enhanced with a 4-way adjustable stand (height, tilt, swivel, pivot), 4-port USB hub, and NEC's robust NoTouch Auto Adjust. On top of that the EA221WM comes with down-firing speakers with headphone jack, a DVI with HDCP and one analog inputs. NEC ships the MultiSync EA221WM display with a three-year parts, labor and backlight warranty, an extended warranty is available too. The display will be available for September 2008 shipment at an estimated street price of $399.99.

NEC Electronics today expanded its suite of Wireless USB devices with the introduction of the µPD720171 Wireless USB host controller. Building on the company's first host controller (part number µPD720170), the new µPD720171 controller for PCI Express bus interfaces, enables high-speed, wireless data transmission between PCs that have MiniCard or Half-Minicard expansion cards and PC peripheral devices such as wireless hubs, printers, external storage equipment and digital cameras. The new host controller also provides laptop computer connectivity through an ExpressCard slot. Providing greater throughput and higher performance than previous host devices, the µPD720171 controller enables consumers to enjoy wireless lifestyles while maintaining wired USB functionality and ease of use.