The Pentium G6951 dual-core LGA1156 processor may not have made any headlines when it was known to be almost identical to the Pentium G6950, until now. Intel designed the G6951 to support "hardware feature upgrades" by purchasing them and enabling them using a software, so users with this processor installed can upgrade their systems by enabling that are otherwise locked for the SKU. The $50 upgrade fetches support for HyperThreading Technology, enabling four threads on the processor; and unlocks the disabled 1 MB of the L3 cache (Clarkdale has 4 MB of L3 cache, of which 1 MB is disabled on the Pentium SKUs).

There isn't much value in buying a $99 Pentium G6951 and the $50 Upgrade Card upfront, but later down the line, companies can opt to mass-upgrade system performance without touching any of the hardware inside. The service works by the purchase of an upgrade key that the user has to feed into the software, which is then verified by Intel's activation server, following successful verification, the software unlocks the processor's features. This is a one-time process, portable between software reinstallations.

SPARKLE Computer Co., Ltd., the professional VGA card manufacturer and supplier, today launched the SPARKLE GeForce GT240 1024MB GDDR5 Graphics Cards with 1024MB GDDR5 big capacity and high speed memory, delivering world-class HD graphics performance for mainstream gamers.

Taking the performance increase into account, SPARKLE GeForce GT240 1024MB GDDR5 Graphics Cards features 40nm chip process from TSMC, this new process let SPARKLE GeForce GT240 1024MB GDDR5 Graphics Cards to be the first batch graphics cards on market to adopt the NVIDIA new 40nm graphics chip. Thanks to advanced 40nm process, now It features much higher transistor density than before, bringing a greater number of stream processors than its predecessor.

Today marked the first day of the Windows 7 upgrade deal for most european countries. Much like the US variant, customers in the EU were able to preorder Windows 7 Home Premium for 50 € or UK Pounds. According to the Hannoversche Allgemeine Newspaper the entire stock of the new operating system has been sold out within hours in the german speaking region. Large etailers like Amazon.de only had 1500 from the 10000 pieces of the german version - which sold out 7 minutes after the start at 9:00 AM - while others only managed to get 500 or less. Other german etailers like Alternate, OTTO, Neckermann managed to hold out a tad bit longer, but all of their servers - including the ones from Amazon Germany where brought to their knees so that many potential buyers missed out on the deal. Amazon UK on the other hand allowed pre-orders for about 6 hours until listing the item out of stock. Overall, most etailers all over Europe are sold out, while some traditional stores may have some left. It should be noted, that Microsoft actually planned to offer this deal from July 15th until August 9th.

A very plausible rumor doing rounds has it that Microsoft may sell "family-pack" licenses for its Home Premium (and perhaps Home Basic) variants of the upcoming Windows 7 operating system. The license allows users to install and use a copy of the OS in three PCs in the same household, while being priced significantly less compared three individual copies or paper licenses. Last week, a blogger noticed an interesting term in the license agreement of a pre-release version of Windows 7 Home Premium which read:

b. Family Pack. If you are a "Qualified Family Pack User", you may install one copy of the software marked as "Family Pack" on three computers in your household for use by people who reside there. Those computers are the "licensed computers" and are subject to these license terms. If you do not know whether you are a Qualified Family Pack User, visit go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?Linkid=141399 or contact the Microsoft affiliate serving your country.

Today, an American e-tailer started accepting pre-orders for Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade "Family-Pack" (manufacturer product code GFC-00236). It is priced at US $144.99, a mere $25 more compared to its single-user retail price of $119.99. If this sort of a pricing scheme stays on with the full-version retail pack too, it would sweeten the deal many fold. Three fold to be precise.

With Microsoft close to the finalization of Windows 7, MSI today also announced that from June 26 onwards it will support the Windows 7 upgrade offer that gives consumers the opportunity to pre-book Windows 7 upgrades online for a small processing fee. Once Windows 7 is officially released, Windows 7 upgrade DVDs will be sent out to consumers by Microsoft so they can upgrade their Vista operating system to the latest Windows 7. This offer will apply to owners of specific new and used laptops and all-in-one PCs under the MSI brand with legal Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium, Business and Ultimate operating systems. The offer is legit till January 31, 2010. You can find more information on the MSI Windows 7 upgrade offer here.

ASUSTeK today also announced that it will be starting an upgrade program that will allow users who have purchased a qualifying ASUS desktop PC, notebook, EeeTop PC or Eee PC to upgrade their existing Windows Vista OS to the better and yet to be finalized Windows 7 operating system. From June 26, 2009 through January 31, 2010 owners of the below listed ASUS products may visit this webpage here, complete the registration process and wait for their upgrade kit after the general availability date of Windows 7 which is October 22nd. The ASUS Windows 7 Upgrade offer will be free in the USA, while users from other parts of the world will have to pay a nominal shipping and handling fee. Below is the full list of ASUS products that are eligible for the Windows 7 upgrade program.

Trying to deliver even more options for third party netbook makers, Super Talent today made their fifth significant announcement of the week, by introducing the world's fastest upgrade SSDs for the ASUS Eee PC netbooks. The SATA Mini 2 PCIe SSDs are Super Talent's second generation product focused on enabling better performance for ASUS Eee PC users and feature a SATA-II (3Gbps) interface. They are compatible with all Eee PC models 900, 901, 901A, 901 GO, and S101. The products are available using both MLC and SLC flash memory. The MLC version delivers sequential read speeds up to 150 MB/s and sequential write speeds up to 100 MB/s, and is available in 16 GB, 32 GB, and 64 GB capacities at very affordable prices. The SLC version is available in 16 GB and 32 GB capacities and features sequential read speeds up to 170 MB/s and sequential write speeds up to 130 MB/s. Super Talent will showcase these products at the 2009 Computex Taipei show, no availability date was announced though.

Microsoft impressed many by releasing the evaluation version Windows 7 Release Candidate ahead of the formal launch of its Windows 7 line of client operating systems. Polish website CentrumXP.pl caught early glimpses of what the jewel-cases of the some of the variants of Windows 7 could look like, along those of the Anytime Upgrade packs that let users promote their Windows 7 variant to a higher variant. The case design resembles that of Windows Vista, along with variants retaining the box color scheme from those of their predecessors. The Windows logo looks frosty-white, and gets some of the motifs from the default user login background Windows 7 RC sports.

We all regard PC games, as an entertainment medium, but spend hundreds to even thousands of Dollars regularly, to keep our PCs up to date, to be able to play the latest PC games. Imagine a medium that rids us of that, and we are able to consume PC gaming like any other content, like the TV or radio. Well, that the potential a new on-demand gaming platform holds - to make you never have to buy/upgrade a gaming PC again.

Called OnLive, the on-demand platform consists of a web service, an internet connection, and a thin-client, called "micro-console" that connects your input (game controllers), and output (monitor/TV/HDTV). You control the game - whichever you're subscribed to and playing - the client relays your input to the OnLive servers, that do the processing, including graphics rendering, and send back output to your client. The client then displays the output. Sounds familiar? Cloud computing? Exactly, but for PC gaming. The platform is conceptualized to be advanced-enough to handle any of today's games, Crysis included. The work-model of this platform is what makes it tick with any game, and is far more future-proof than the present mode of PC gaming (where people own expensive hardware that are in requirement of upgrades, the costs of buying games, buying gaming services separate).

For standard definition television quality, a broadband connection of at least 1.5 megabits per second is required. For HDTV resolution, a connection of at least 5 mbps is needed. The service uses patented algorithms that work to counter lag caused by network constraints. The technology is already gaining attention from major publishers, including EA, THQ, Codemasters, Ubisoft, Atari, Warner Bros., Take-Two, and Epic. People can buy or rent a game to play it, the usage fees are expected not to be much more than the subscription fees for Xbox Live.

Tech ARP has managed to get a hold of a copy of a draft document, preliminarily named the Windows 7 Upgrade Program. It is said to have been distributed to Microsoft's OEM partners on 10th December giving them a month to provide feedback. Obviously nothing is set in stone yet, but Microsoft provided similar upgrade programs for Vista and XP. The extract follows: