With slimmer notebooks thanks to the Ultrabook platform, the demand for low-power ULV processors is expected to go up, so will Intel's need to stratify the lineup to capture more price-points. Details of three new Core "Ivy Bridge" models were scored by VR-Zone, which reports them to be Core i3-3217U, Core i5-3317U, and Core i7-3517U. The i3-3217U is Intel's cheapest Core ULV processor in the next generation, clocked at 1.80 GHz. It lacks CPU Turbo Boost, and so the TDP limit stays at 17W, which can be lowered to 14W, when the CPU is on low loads, and when it's clocked all the way down to 800 MHz.

Next up there's the Core i5-3317U, with a native clock speed of 1.7 GHz, which has no option to increase the TDP, but which can be lowered to 14W. It supports Turbo Boost speeds of up to 2.40 GHz for both its cores, and 2.60 GHz for one of its cores. Lastly, there's the Core i7-3517U. Clocked at 1.90 GHz, this chip supports increasing its TDP from 17W all the way up to 25W to accommodate higher Turbo bins. At its native TDP, the chip supports Turbo speeds of 2.40 GHz, but with the bump in TDP, it supports Turbo bins as high as 2.80 GHz for two cores, and 3.00 GHz for single-core. This model differs from the other Core i5 ULV models in having 4 MB L3 cache (vs. 3 MB). We will be hearing more about these chips only after Intel kickstarts the mobile Ivy Bridge lineup in mid-2012.

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc, today announced that the sales of the PlayStation Vita (PS Vita) portable entertainment system reached over 1.2 million units worldwide as of February 26, 2012. PS Vita experienced an initial burst of momentum when it launched on December 17, 2011 in Japan followed by Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea. Newly launched in North and Latin America, Europe and PAL territories as well as in Singapore on February 22, 2012, sales have exceeded expectations surpassing over 1.2 million units worldwide, firmly establishing PS Vita as the must-have portable entertainment device across the world. Software sales across the globe have surpassed 2.0 million units at both retail and on PlayStation Network.

Buffalo Technology, a global leader in the design, development and manufacturing of storage and wireless networking solutions, has validated its commitment to innovation by showcasing 802.11ac technology on the show floor at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Operating in the 5 GHz space, the next generation wireless technology boasts unmatched wireless speeds of 1300 Mbps, approximately three times faster than 802.11n.

Accompanying the 802.11ac technology is the class leading Buffalo AirStation WZR-1750H wireless router; combined, they provide complete backward compatibility with 802.11a, 11b, 11g and 11n, in addition to offering 2.4 GHz transmission speeds up to 450 Mbps and exceptional coverage. The WZR-1750H provides consumers with total aggregate wireless throughput of 1750 Mbps.

Cavium, Inc. (NASDAQ: CAVM), a leading provider of semiconductor products that enable intelligent processing for networking, communications, and digital home applications, today announced a technology and marketing collaboration with Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) to offer Intel(R) WiDi-based products designed to enable superior wireless display consumer experience. The resulting end-to-end solution will combine Intel(R) WiDi's ease-of-use and innovation with Cavium's super low latency technology and advanced video processing techniques to further enhance Intel(R) WiDi's interactivity and broaden its target applications. As a part of the marketing collaboration, Intel and Cavium will work together to expand and grow the market for wireless display products. A range of OEMs will soon be offering Intel(R) WiDi compatible receivers with Cavium's PureVu(TM) media SoC. Live demonstrations of Cavium's new Intel(R) WiDi receivers are available at Cavium's suite at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, between Jan 10th and 13th.

There has been excitement recently, that the much-anticipated next generation OLED display technology for consumer TVs and computer monitors will finally make an entrance in the market in 2012. Fuelling this, was the announcement last week that LG is to showcase their OLED TV at CES this month. Sony was also due to introduce OLED TVs to consumers. However, this plan has now been shelved, according to The Daily Yomiuri, with Sony only continuing to sell this technology to corporate customers such as broadcasting companies, along with the associated research and development into better displays. The reason for dropping the consumer market is partly due to poor business performance in this area, so Sony cut back on capital investment, which in turn reduced its price competitiveness with its Korean rivals such as LG and Samsung.

This is a shame, because for a healthy and good value OLED TV and monitor market, there need to be many players competing with each other, which will drive down prices and increase product quality over time. However, if OLED takes off in the consumer space, it seems very unlikely that Sony wouldn't return to it eventually.Sony XEL-1 OLED TV.Picture credit: engadget

Broadcom Corporation, a global innovation leader in semiconductor solutions for wired and wireless communications, today introduced its first family of 802.11ac (5G WiFi) chips designed for a broad range of product segments. The new IEEE 802.11ac chips are three times faster and up to six times more power efficient than equivalent 802.11n solutions. Visit Experience Broadcom @ CES for more news, blogs and multi-media from CES and www.5GWiFi.org for more information on consumer advantages of 802.11ac.

5G WiFi is the next generation Wi-Fi standard required for today's mobile and video era. Based on 802.11ac, 5G WiFi is a major evolutionary step from the existing 802.11a/b/g/n networks. Broadcom's 5G WiFi dramatically improves the wireless range in the home, allowing consumers to watch HD-quality video from more devices, in more places, simultaneously. The increased speed enables consumers to download web content from a mobile device faster and quickly synch large files, such as videos, in a fraction of the time it would take on a similar 802.11n device. Since 5G WiFi transfers the same volume of data at a much faster rate, devices enter low-power mode faster, which results in significant power consumption advantages.

VR-Zone have been having a little chat with Intel 'sources', who have leaked some juicy tidbits for us to enjoy in the form performance and power news. The upcoming next generation Medfield platform is Intel's first true System on a Chip (SoC) and is designed to compete with various low power ARM offerings in the tablet space. To help achieve this, they've gone through an internal restructure, merging four business units into just one: Ultra-Mobility, Mobile Wireless, Mobile Communications and Netbook & Tablet PC. The business unit is now simply known as Mobile and Communications. It's being run by Mike Bell and Hermann Eul and the first product to emerge from it will be is the 32 nm Medfield SoC solution.

VR-Zone explained that the competition will be "Apple's A-Series, NVIDIA Tegra, Qualcomm Snapdragon, Samsung Exynos, Texas Instruments OMAP and the likes. Out of all the chips mentioned above, only Samsung's Exynos is currently manufactured in 32nm process, just like Medfield."

Ladies and Gentlemen with graphics card upgrade plans, circle the date January 09, 2012, for this is going to be the day AMD will launch its next generation high-performance graphics cards in the Radeon HD 7900 series, according to reliable market sources DonanimHaber spoke with. On the 9th, AMD is expected to unveil at least two new SKUs in the HD 7900 series, most likely, HD 7970 and HD 7950. These will be based on the new 28 nm "Tahiti" silicon that will use completely redesigned number-crunching machinery, and a very wide memory bus.

Nordic Hardware has scored an exclusive interview with Pat Bliemer, Managing Director of Intel Northern Europe to discuss the technology following on from the 22 nm one used in the upcoming Ivy Bridge processors. Unfortunately, Bliemer was light on the technical details of this technology and didn't say when it would see the light of day, except to say that it will make fuller use of the Tri-Gate tech being used in the Ivy Bridge processors and that test circuits are running.

We need to keep going and you can trust me that in our labs we actually have the next generation after 22nm running, so we need to keep going.[...]I cannot really disclose more about that other than that in a laboratory-environment, absolutely we do have the path, our engineers do have the path to actually go and produce 14nm products. There are many variables that you can play with of course it is not the right name for it and the engineers would not like it when I say play, that you can influence to actually go and stay to that model. And I think the breakthrough we had now with the 3D metal gates, just the design of the gate will actually allow for much more efficient thermals and power.

Back in July, we looked even further ahead and reported that Intel aims to have 10 nm-based processors by 2018 and that the 14 nm tech is due for release around 2014. Watch this space.

Finally, next generation gaming consoles are around the corner. It will have an uplifting effect on the entire gaming industry as it will raise the bar for visual and technical detail in games. Many of today's games are designed keeping consoles in mind, and so their PC platform versions don't look much more than what has come to be known as "console-ports". There are a few exceptions to this, but it would be refreshing to see most game developers move on to creating games that take advantage of today's insanely powerful PC platform, because the console platform will have caught up technologically.

Rumors have it, that Microsoft will be developing not one, but two product lines that succeed the Xbox 360, and we're not talking about product variants here, but two distinct lines. The first of the two will be an entry-level console designed more like a set-top box, designed around the Kinect controller (perhaps something to compete against Nintendo Wii U). The second product line will be the one that will be supercharged with the latest technologies that will raise the bar in graphics. It will compete with whatever succeeds the Playstation 3. There is talk that it will pack a 6 core processor, an AMD-made GPU, and 2 GB of fast DDR3 memory. This console could be unveiled to the world (although not launched), at the CES event held in January. Meanwhile, Microsoft is allowing TSMC some time to refine its 28 nm bulk process.

Love 'em or hate 'em, Apple has a habit of trend setting. When Apple released their original iPad, it had a meager low resolution 1024 x 768 resolution display which was scoffed at by many, yet it didn't stop it from being a runaway success. And the iPad 2 didn't improve on it, either - perhaps surprisingly, since the original formula worked so well. However, in early 2012 Apple plans to introduce its new Retina display equipped next generation iPads, offering a very high 2048 x 1536 resolution. On the 9.7" screen of an iPad, this would make the pixels all but invisible to anyone, except for those with the sharpest of 20-20 vision, giving the screen superb clarity and wow factor. These will be incorporated into its next generation iPads, which is expected to push the PC notebook market to use higher resolution displays too in order to remain competitive.

As early as in September, we heard reports of AMD toying with Rambus XDR2 memory on its next generation of high-performance GPUs. Apart from our own community's response, that news met with a wall of skepticism as it was deficient in plausibility. New reports from Chinese websites have raised the topic again with fresh rumors that AMD will attempt to implement XDR2 on some of its next-generation ultra-high end products after all. XDR2, according to Rambus, can transport twice the amount of data per clock as GDDR5.

Apparently AMD and Rambus have had much more cordial relations with each other, than other companies the latter engaged in patent disputes with. In 2006, AMD settled outstanding disputes with Rambus by willing to pay licensing costs for certain technologies claimed by Rambus, turning a leaf in the relations between the two. What Chinese sources are suggesting now, is that AMD will design its high-end GPU (codename: "Tahiti") in a way that will let it support both GDDR5 and XDR2. Certain higher-end SKUs based on Tahiti will use XDR2, while the slightly more cost-effective SKUs will use GDDR5.

Corepad, the manufacturer and distributor of PC gaming accessories, introduced the Corepad DeskPads in new sizes.

The Corepad DeskPad series are made of very durable, extreme large, flexible and smooth cloth. These huge mousepads will cover most of your Desk and are available in 3 sizes. It's supposed to put your keyboard or Laptop on as well. Besides that your arms lean comfortable on the surface.

Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS), the world's leading motherboard, graphics card, barebone system, notebook and mobile device manufacturer presents two king-level motherboards to join ECS Black Series as the best gaming station of next generation based on Intel X79 chipset supporting LGA2011 Sandy Bridge-E processors-X79R-AX Black Extreme and X79R-AX Black Deluxe.

ECS Black X79 Series unleashes the extreme power of Intel Sandy Bridge-E processors and breaks the limitation of your desktop computer to a height you could never dream of. ECS Black X79 Series is equipped with four PCIe Gen 3 x16 slots for 4-way GPUs supporting NVIDIA SLI and AMD CrossFireX graphics cards to construct an invincible gaming station. Also, ECS Black X79 Series supports quad-channel memory up to 64GB providing off-the-chart task processing speeds; the memory frequency support could also overclock to 2500MHz which is over 87% more than the traditional 1333MHz memory frequency.

VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, today announced the VIA VE-900 Mini-ITX Mainboard, immediately available worldwide at incredibly competitive pricing. The VIA VE-900 Mini-ITX provides the ideal platform for DIY enthusiasts to custom build stylish home desktop and media center PCs.

Featuring a high-performance 1.4GHz VIA Nano X2 dual core processor and the VIA VX900 unified all-in-one media system processor, the VIA VE-900 Mini-ITX Mainboard delivers a highly optimized platform that boasts stunning HD video performance of the most demanding video formats at resolutions of up to 1080p. The VIA VE-900 Mini-ITX also supports high fidelity surround sound through the VIA VT1708S HD audio codec which delivers amazing stereo 24-bit resolution and up to 192kHz sample rates and adds HDMI support in a compact, power-efficient package.