ECS introduced a new Intel Atom "Cedar Trail" motherboard in the micro-ATX form-factor. The board only slightly steps out of the size specifications of mini-ITX (measuring 190 x 170 mm), yet it wouldn't fit in most mini-ITX cases. The board draws power from a 24-pin ATX power connector. It is driven by Intel Atom D2700 dual-core processor clocked at 2.13 GHz, with HyperThreading technology enabling 4 logical CPUs, and TDP of just 10W; and Intel NM10 chipset.

The CPU is cooled by a chunky passive heatsink.It is wired to two DDR3 SO-DIMM slots, supporting up to 4 GB of single-channel DDR3-1066 MHz memory. Expansion slots include one each of PCI-Express 2.0 x1 and legacy PCI. Storage connectivity includes two internal SATA 3 Gb/s ports. The rest of the connectivity consists of 6-channel HD audio, gigabit Ethernet, serial/COM, eight USB 2.0 ports (four on the rear panel, four via headers), and PS/2. Display outputs include DVI and D-Sub. It is priced at a juicy 7,280 JPY (US $89).

Giada also introduced a tiny nano-ITX system board based on Intel HM65 mobile-on-desktop platform, featuring a low-power "Sandy Bridge" Celeron/Core processor. The board is designed to run off external DC power input. The board can be used as a micro-server. Apart from a standard SATA 6 Gb/s port, it has two slots, a mini PCI-Express (for WLAN+Bluetooth cards), and an mSATA (to hold its OS SSD). SO-DIMM memory slots, we imagine, are on the reverse side of the PCB. The system can be programmed to run headless, or there is a host of connectivity options along the top of the board, including USB, HDMI, D-Sub, Ethernet, and stereo line-out. The PCI-Express interface below is for an additional PCB that expands connectivity.

To an interview with Anandtech, ASUSTek USA representative JJ carried with him a sackful of new Z77 Express-based motherboards. One of these caught keen eyes at VR-Zone, which attempted to describe what it saw. Called the P8Z77-V Premium, this motherboard is poised to go a notch above the already launched P8Z77-V Deluxe, in terms of features. The new P8Z77-V Premium is a crossover between the Deluxe and WS (Workstation) models, in that it features no less than four PCI-Express x16 slots in its all-PCIe slot loadout. The electrical configuration of these four slots is hard to guess, but there is a tiny PLX bridge chip that adds a few PCIe 2.0 lanes to the board's PCIe budget, to wire out onboard controllers.

Speaking of onboard connectivity, apart from eight angled internal SATA ports, there clearly is an mSATA slot, which is populated by an SSD. Perhaps an SSD that's fit for Rapid Storage and Rapid Start technologies is a standard accessory with the P8Z77-V Premium. Just below the WLAN b/g/n + Bluetooth add-on card, one could spy a mini-DisplayPort. It's highly likely that the port is wired to a Thunderbolt controller apart from Intel Flexible Display Interface. The rest of the rear panel could be similar to that of the P8Z77-V Deluxe. The P8Z77-V Premium could command a price-point over US $300, the source postulates.

AMD revealed performance numbers of its key product for mainstream notebooks, the A10-4600M, in an infographic for the Korean market. Besides detailing the part, it reveals some performance numbers. To begin with, A10-4600M is based on the 32 nm "Trinity" silicon with all its components enabled. It has four x86-64 cores spread across two "Piledriver" architecture modules, 4 MB of total cache (2x 2 MB), CPU clock speeds of 2.30 GHz (3.00 GHz TurboCore), and integrated Radeon HD 7660G graphics that has 384 VLIW4 stream processors, and GPU core speed of 685 MHz. The chip integrates a PCI-Express 2.0 root complex, and dual-channel DDR3-1600 MHz integrated memory controller.

Moving on to performance numbers, and as expected, the infographic doesn't touch comparative CPU performance with a barge-pole. Instead the focus is on graphics performance, with an emphasis on Dual GPU feature, where the integrated graphics can work in tandem with a discrete GPU of the same class, resulting in up to 75% performance increase. Based on data from this infographic, and its own testing data of other notebooks, NordicHardware compiled relative performance of the IGP and Dual Graphics setup involving the A10-4600M and Radeon HD 7670M discrete GPU.

Intel finally got the ball rolling on its third generation Core processor family codenamed "Ivy Bridge", which will go into making most of the company's client processor portfolio for 2012. These chips are characterized as being the world's first microprocessors built on the 22 nanometer silicon fabrication process. Intel aided miniaturization of circuits to such tiny scale thanks to 3D Transistor technology, a space-efficient nano-scale transistor design that enables chip-designers to achieve higher transistor densities, and come up with ever more powerful chips.

The third-generation Core processor family is based around a single die design (pictured below), from which it will carve out numerous SKUs in the client market in May-June, and enterprise market (under its Xeon brand, towards the end of June). These SKUs will be carved out by toggling the various parallel components (such as x86 cores, cache banks, processor graphics cores, and of course clock-speeds). The new Core processor family is expected to feature higher performance per clock-speed, and higher efficiency. Intel's Kirk Skaugen has been quoted by the BBC as saying "This is the world's first 22 nm product and we'll be delivering about 20% more processor performance using 20% less average power."

Barebones mini PCs expert Shuttle Computer launched its first barebones featuring Intel Z77 Express chipset, ready for 3rd generation "Ivy Bridge" Core processors in the LGA1155 package, while retaining support for every LGA1155 "Sandy Bridge" processor launched till date. Shuttle also launched an Intel X79-based mini PC barebone, which supports Core i7 "Sandy Bridge-E" processors.

Called the SZ77R5, the Z77 barebone features four DDR3 DIMM slots supporting 32 GB of dual-channel DDR3-1600 MHz memory, expansion slots that include one PCI-Express 3.0 x16, one PCI-Express 2.0 x4 and one mPCIe; two SATA 6 Gb/s, two SATA 3 Gb/s ports, one eSATA 3 Gb/s, and one mSATA; four USB 3.0 ports, gigabit Ethernet, and 8-channel HD audio. Its chassis features two 5.25" and one 3.5" drive bays, front-panel that includes two of the four USB 3.0 ports, a USB 2.0 port with "fast charging" (high current), and front-panel HD audio. To power the machine, a 500W 80 Plus-compliant PSU is included. The SZ77R5 measures 332 x 216 x 198 mm (WxDxH). It will be priced around 32,800 JPY (US $404).

Although slated for June, Intel's budged 22 nm "Ivy Bridge" processors, under the Core i3 brand extension, matter a lot to system builders, small businesses, and enterprises. Three of its first models to be launched are priced. These include the Core i3-3220, priced at 113€ (US $149); Core i3-3225 at 130€ (US $172); and Core i3-3240 at 132€ (US $172).

The i3-3220 succeeds the current-generation Core i3-2100, it is clocked at 3.30 GHz. The i3-3225 has the same clock speed, but a faster integrated graphics (HD 4000 vs. HD 2500 on the i3-3220). The i3-3240 is clocked at 3.40 GHz, but retains the slower HD 2500 graphics from the i3-3220. All three chips are dual-core, lack Turbo Boost, but feature Hyper Threading. The PCI-Express root complex is thrown back to PCI-Express Gen 2.0, they lack Gen 3.0.

Apacer is working on a hard drive cache-SSD of its own, which is similar in principle to OCZ's Revodrive Hybrid. Called PHFD, the cache-SSD is a full-height PCI-Express 2.0 x1 add-on card, which seats a Marvell 88SE9130 (or similar) 2-port SATA 6 Gb/s controller, with one port wired to an onboard 32 GB SSD subunit, and the other port given out as a standard SATA port (to which you plug your system HDD). Marvell 88SE9130 includes a feature called HyperDuo, which is similar to Intel Rapid Storage Technology (RST), it handles the SSD-caching on PFHD. Apacer's solution could end up being a cost-effective solution to systems without Intel RST.

After last week's launch of nano-ITX Cedartrail motherboards, J&W launched mini-ITX motherboards under its iconic Minix brand. The new motherboards are designed keeping HTPCs and compact desktops in mind. These include the Minix D2700-HD (Atom D2700, HDMI), and Minix Minix D2500-HD (Atom D2500, HDMI). Pictured below is the Minix D2700-HD.

The Minix D2700-HD runs an Atom D2700 dual-core processor clocked at 2.13 GHz, with two SO-DIMM memory slots supporting up to 4 GB of single-channel DDR3-1066 MHz memory. Its lone expansion slot is a PCI-Express 2.0 x1. The board draws power from a 2-pin DC external input, and gives out a 4-pin Molex output to power connected SATA drives. Connectivity includes dual gigabit Ethernet, two SATA 3 Gb/s, two USB 3.0, 6-channel HD audio, and display outputs that include HDMI and D-Sub. The Minix D2500-HD is driven by Atom D2500 dual-core processor clocked at 1.85 GHz, it is largely identical to its bigger sibling, except for the lack of USB 3.0, and the second Ethernet connection. Pricing and availability information is awaited.

Intel today finally announced its SSD 910 "Ramsdale" PCI-Express SSD family. This is Intel's first SSD in the PCI-Express add-on card form-factor. Like its 2.5" SSD 710 series, the SSD 910 utilizes HET-MLC NAND flash chips, arranged in four SSD subuits. SSD 910 design consists of three stacked PCBs, the one with the PCI-Express 2.0 x8 bus interface holds a PCI-Express to SAS bridge (essentially a RAID controller), and four SAS/NAND ASICs (SSD controllers). Each controller is wired out to its NAND flash memory chips, which are arranged in the other PCBs.

The PCIe-SAS bridge is made by LSI. The SSD 910 series comes in two variants based on capacity: 400 GB and 800 GB. The 400 GB variant has just two SSD subunits, and hence provides transfer rates (according to an older article) of 1 GB/s reads and 750 MB/s writes, with 90,000 IOPS reads, with 38,000 IOPS writes; while the 800 GB variant, with its four subunits, provides 2 GB/s reads with 1 GB/s writes, and 180,000 IOPS reads, with 75,000 IOPS writes. The launch price of the SSD 910 400 GB variant is US $1,929; while the 800 GB variant is priced at US $3859, at launch.

Intel is on the brink of launching its new line of enterprise PCI-Express SSDs, codenamed "Ramsdale", carrying the market name "SSD 910 Series". The new SSD 910 series is coming to existence leapfrogging SSD 710 series, which was also codenamed "Ramsdale", but never made it to the market. The original Ramsdale SSD 720 was meant to be primarily based on SLC NAND flash memory with the probability of an MLC variant, Intel decided against launching it, probably because it was hedging its bets on 25 nm HET-MLC NAND flash, which provides endurance levels closer to SLC, while offering the capacity-advantage of MLC. The SSD 910 implements this new NAND flash standard that attempts to offer the best of both SLC and MLC.

The new SSD 910 will be available in two capacity options: 400 GB and 800 GB. Built as a PCI-Express expansion card, the SSD 910 consists of three stacked PCBs that hold SSD subunits and HET-MLC NAND flash chips, lots of them. Each of these subunits interfaces with the core logic over SAS. The core logic connects to the host over PCI-Express 2.0 x8 bus interface. The 400 GB variant provides sequential read speeds up to 1 GB/s, and up to 750 MB/s writes. The 800 GB variant provides up to 2 GB/s reads, with up to 1 GB/s writes.

It turns out that the "third" long (physical x16, electrical x4) PCI-Express slot on most higher-end Z77 chipset-based motherboards, across vendors, are wired to the CPU, and not the Z77 PCH, as the media assumed. Early buyers of these motherboards were greeted by an informative sticker stuck to the third slot, which tells them that to use the third slot, a 3rd Generation Core "Ivy Bridge" processor must be installed, although the motherboard very much supports 2nd Generation Core "Sandy Bridge" processors.

This can be explained by taking a close look at the block diagram of Intel Z77 Express system. Z77, in combination with "Ivy Bridge" processors, allows the CPU root complex to drive three devices. Its single PCI-Express x16 link can be arranged in three ways: x16/NC/NC; x8/x8/NC; and x8/x4/x4. As you can see, the third long slot is taken into the configuration. Intel figured out that since PCI-Express 3.0 x4 offers bandwidth comparable to PCI-Express 1.0 x16 to gen 3-compliant graphics cards, it's wise if the third electrical x4 slot is also wired to the CPU's PCIe root complex. This renders most high-end LGA1155 motherboards with such CPU-driven third x16 (x4) slots 3-way SLI/CrossFireX-capable. Sweet.

Scythe Japan unveiled its Gouriki mid-range PSU series. Consisting of 500W (SPGRN-500), 600W (SPGRN-600), and 700W (SPGRN-700) models, the series consists of 80 Plus Bronze-certified PSUs with fixed-cabling. The cables are not sleeved, and the PSU's body doesn't have any paint. It appears, however, that Scythe tried to spin this to its advantage, by referring to it as a design element it calls "Naked Herculean Strength" (not a case of bad-translation, it's literally what Scythe prints on its PSUs).

All three models feature a single 12V rail design, and a compliance/feature-set that includes ATX12 Ver2.3/EPS 12V, OCP, OVP, OTP, SCP, and UVP. A 120 mm fan is employed to cool the units. PCI-Express power connectors include 6+2-pin and 6-pin power connectors for all models. The power connector loadouts of the three models differ only with the numbers of SATA and Molex connectors available. The 500W (SPGRN-500), 600W (SPGRN-600), and 700W (SPGRN-700) models are priced at 5,980, 6,980, 7,980 JPY, respectively (US $72, $84, $96, respectively).

GIGABYTE introduced two new graphics card models over the last week, based on GPUs that have been in existence for a while now. The first is the GV-R645-1GI, a low-profile single-slot graphics card based on the AMD Radeon HD 6450, and the GV-N440-1GI, a cool and quiet full-height double-slot graphics card, based on NVIDIA GeForce GT 440.

The GV-R645-1GI is armed with 1 GB of DDR3 memory over a 64-bit wide memory interface. It features clock speeds of 625 MHz core, with 1100 MHz memory. It uses a tiny, radial-fin fan-heatsink to cool the GPU. Its display outputs include dual-link DVI, HDMI (gold-plated connector), and D-Sub, which is detachable. GIGABYTE tried to pull off a neat marketing trick by mentioning that the card is "PCI-E 3.0 motherboard compatible", something every PCI-Express 2.0 and 1.0 graphics card ever made, already is.

Palit Microsystems Ltd, the leading graphics card manufacturer, announced a brand new Jetstream series at the GeForce GTX 680 The Palit Jetstream series of graphics cards features innovative cooling and an optimized product design to deliver gamers the ultimate gaming experience. As the latest and most powerful GPU in the series, the Palit Jetstream GeForce GTX 680 Jetstream guarantees gamers cutting-edge performance and an explosive new gaming experience.

The factory overclocked Palit GeForce GTX 680 Jetstream is at boost clock 1150 MHz that is +92 MHz than the standard speed and 2GB GDDR5 memory clock is set at 6300 MHz (+292 MHz higher). Equipped with the Jetstream cooler and optimized product design, Palit GeForce GTX680 Jetstream performs 12.5% higher at 3DMark11 Xscore and average 10% higher among all hot gaming titles.

Taiwan-based Edimax, which is known more for its low-cost networking hardware, took a big leap, by unveiling its first 802.11ac wireless networking hardware. These include a static router, and a USB adapter. The router uses a Broadcom-made 600 MHz Intensi-fi MIPS32 central processor. This chip has two PCI-Express interfaces, a built-in USB 2.0 host controller, and DDR2 memory controller. It has two WLAN modules, the Broadcom BCM4331 handles 802.11 b/g/n in the 2.40 GHz band, while a Broadcom BCM4360 handles 802.11ac in the 5 GHz band. This module supports network bandwidths up to 1.35 Gbps. Then you have a wired LAN interface, with one gigabit uplink port, and four gigabit downstream ports.

Moving on, Edimax showed off one of the industry's first USB 802.11ac adapters. This dongle uses Broadcom BCM43526 chip, and offers dual-band operation. In the 5 GHz band, it offers bandwidths of up to 900 Mbps, while in the 2.4 GHz band, it offers 300 Mbps. Sadly for this adapter, the USB interface is USB 2.0 HiSpeed, which poses a host bandwidth bottleneck of 480 Mbps. When you factor in things such as the various protocol overheads, the actual bandwidth yield could be much lower. Edimax is yet to name its products, so quite some development is left.

Sapphire released the new Pure Platinum A55V motherboard to the market. The board offers a value socket FM1 platform based on AMD A55 FCH chipset, in the ATX form-factor. The motherboard supports AMD A4, A6, A8, and Athlon II "Llano" APU/CPUs in the FM1 package. This model is not exactly designed to be "no-frills", as it does pack an interesting mix of features that could help it grab a comfy price-point in the market.

The FM1 socket is powered by a 6-phase VRM, which uses a simple whine-free choke + DPAK MOSFET design, but throws in a heatsink to cool the MOSFETs. The socket is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots, supporting up to 16 GB of dual-channel DDR3 memory, with speeds of over DDR3-1600 MHz with overclocking. The APU is also wired to a PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slot, and two PCI-Express 2.0 x1 slots. Apart from these, you get three legacy PCI slots, wired to the FCH.

TP-LINK, a global provider of networking products, today announced its Wireless N Dual Band PCI Express Adapter joining the line-up of TP-LINK products available through online retailers - while still being offered at leading retailers including Fry's Electronics and Micro Center. With wireless speed of up to 450 Mbps at 2.4 GHz and at 5 GHz, this dual band PCI adapter is the best companion when upgrading your PC's wireless capabilities.

Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of NAND flash storage solutions, today announces the new RAIDDrive upStream, a new type of SSD designed for the PCI backplane.

SSD solutions were first introduced as 2.5" SATA replacements for existing Hard Drives. These transitive solutions have clearly demonstrated the benefits of SSD technology we know today. SSDs are faster, use less power, are more rugged and are more reliable than HDDs but the 2.5" form-factor limited their capacity and the SATA interface has again limited the available throughput.

Intel's first Pentium processors based on the 22 nm "Ivy Bridge" silicon will arrive in Q4, 2012. One of the first models in the series, is the Pentium G2120. Specifications reveal that the chip will be quite generously designed as far as specifications go. To begin with, it is a dual-core processor, with a clock speed of 3.10 GHz. It lacks HyperThreading, so 2 logical CPUs is all that the OS will see; as well as Turbo Boost, so the clock speed won't normally scale beyond 3.10 GHz. Interestingly, the chip has 3 MB of L3 cache, on par with some Core i3 dual-core chips. The instruction-set has SIMD instructions up to SSE 4.2, but lacks AVX. Further, the PCI-Express root hub only supports PCI-Express 2.0, lacking PCI-Express 3.0 support. Its TDP is rated at 65W.

Japanese store Kuroutoshikou listed USB3.0R-P4-PCIe, a reference design USB 3.0 host add-on card. Driven by Renesas μPD720201 chipset, the card gives out four USB 3.0 SuperSpeed ports. Three of these ports are wired out on the rear expansion bracket, while the fourth one is an internal port (type-A plug, not header). The card draws auxiliary power from a SATA power connector, it talks to the rest of the system over PCI-Express 2.0 x1. A part of the reason why not all four ports are located on the bracket, is that the card is just about capable of being low-profile, due to its half-height PCB. USB3.0R-P4-PCIe could be re-branded and sold through various major brands. Slated for late-March, it is priced at 3,000 JPY (US $36).

HighPoint Technologies, Inc., the industry's price-leader for SATA and SAS HBA and storage solutions, is now shipping the RocketCache 3240X8; the next-generation SSD caching solution for high-performance Mac and PC platforms.

Ordinary caching solutions limit performance gains to specific applications, restrict configurations to a single hard disk and SSD pair, or are exclusive to particular storage device. HighPoint's RocketCache allows you to create your own high-performance storage solution using off the shelf hard disks and SSDs. Capitalizing on HighPoint's industry-proven RAID technology, RocketCache HBA's can aggregate multiple SSDs and hard disks into single storage units, in order to maximize transfer speeds or data security.

Super Talent showed off a new, cost-effective PCI-Express SSD, the RAIDDrive upStream. The drive is essentially a complex-SSD of four SandForce-driven SSD sub-units, working in an abstract RAID configuration. The card features PCI-Express 1.1 x8 interface. Available in capacities of 220 GB, 460 GB, and 960 GB; the RAIDDrive upStream churns out sequential speeds as high as 1 GB/s (read), and 900 MB/s write. Aimed at the consumer rather than the enterprise, RAIDDrive upStream taps into the market products such as the RevoDrive X2 from OCZ, did. It will be cheaper than other PCI-Express SSDs from Super Talent. It should be available by the end of April.

Colorful is well-known for its highly innovative graphics card designs, it is one of China's leading graphics card brands. Some of its graphics card designs have captured our imagination. Its latest creation is a DIY mini-ITX barebones system for gaming, called Desert Eagle. The package consists of Colorful's own-design slim-form-factor (SFF) chassis, which bears a swanky combination of red and black, with ample perforations and and top handles; a custom-design, low-profile Colorfire AMD Radeon HD 6750 graphics card (Colorfire is Colorful's Radeon-selling brand); a mini-ITX socket LGA1155 motherboard based on the Intel H67 chipset (model: i-H67HD U3); and a 300W PSU.

Shuttle unveiled the XPC Z77R5 mini-PC barebone at CeBIT. It is built into a familiar-looking XPC chassis, but with a new motherboard based on the Intel Z77 chipset, which lends it support for "Ivy Bridge" Core i7/i5/i3 processors out of the box, apart from support for LGA1155 "Sandy Bridge" processors. Connectors include six USB 2.0, four USB 3.0, HDMI, DVI, RJ-45 (gigabit Ethernet), 2x SATA 6 Gb/s, eSATA, and 8-ch HD audio. There are four expansion slots, one PCI-Express 3.0 x16, one PCI-Express 2.0 x4, and two mini-PCIe.

The chassis includes drive bays for 1 5.25" drive (such as optical drives), two internal+exposed 3.5" bays, for gadgets such as card readers. The power supply is rated at 500W, with 80 Plus Bronze efficiency rating. The XPC Z77R5 chassis measures 32.5 x 21.5 x 19.8 cm (DxWxH). Pricing and availability information was not given out.