A-DATA and ASUS Demonstrate Intel Nehalem's DDR3 Performance

ASUS press conference in cooperation with A-DATA
A-DATA DDR3-1600X triple channel overclocked beyond 2000MHz

Taipei, Taiwan, Oct. 06, 2008 – The two major players of the IT industry, ASUS and A-DATA announced today at the Taipei Westin Hotel the ultimate overclocking motherboards for the new-generation Intel chipset X58 and A-DATA + Series DDR3-1600 DRAM modules in triple channel, expanding the overclocking market for high performance computer enthusiasts.

This event, releasing jointly with ASUS the latest products not only shows the multiple strategic technological alliance between A-DATA and main MB manufacturers, but also presents, officially, the newest tri-channel kits for overclocking and high-end power users , offering overclocking pros with the newest technology.

Remember the A-DATA DDR3 triple channel memory and the ASUS P6T Deluxe motherboard? They are both detailed on our page, but this story aims to show how both parts perform when working coupled with a quad-core Core i7 engineering sample CPU.

The results you're about to see below are achieved by three 1600MHz A-DATAs overclocked to over 2000MHz. The result is system memory read/write speeds of up to the incredible 20515/16946 MB/s. The latency time is also worth mentioning - 22.9ns.

ASUS Rampage II Extreme Support Intel i7

It appears that the ASUS Rampage II Extreme motherboard we spotted last week has been an early sample that was designed for testing only.

Today pictures of the retail version, the one that customers will see from now on appeared. The retail version of Rampage II Extreme will ship with a whole new cooling system, well known from various other Republic of Gamers mainboards, but different from the one we posted earlier.

Aside from the cooling changes, the motherboard will have the same features as we reported here. I can only add the SupremeFX 7.1 sound blaster and the ASUS LED poster to our previous information of extraordinary features.

Sanyo Electric Invents 12x High-Speed Blu-ray Laser

Sanyo Electric Co. said on Monday that it has created a new blue-violet semiconductor laser that might hold the key to the future of Blu-ray. According to the information given by the company, this laser can emit a beam of 450 milliwatts, which is about double the power of Sanyo's current highest-power laser for Blu-ray Disc systems.

The higher power means it can write and read data on discs with up to four data layers and at speeds of up to 12X, Sanyo said. Each recording layer on a Blu-ray Disc can store 25GB of data, and the highest-capacity commercial discs currently have two recording layers.

A four-layer disc would be able to hold 100GB of data, enough to store up to eight hours of 1080p video content. At 12x recording speed writing a four layer 100GB Blu-ray disc will take just around 10 minutes. That's the good part, unfortunately approving the 12x laser from the Blu-ray Disc Association and putting it into mass production can take two or even three years.

Lexar Media Unveils Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR3 Memory for Enthusiasts and Gamers

Lexar Media announced today the immediate availability of Crucial Ballistix Tracer PC3-10600 (DDR3-1333MHz) high-performance, low-latency memory modules. These modules are the first Crucial DDR3 Tracers, and as such they incorporate the company's proprietary activity-indicating Light-Emitting Diodes (LED).

These new modules feature a black printed circuit board (PCB) and black integrated heat spreaders, as well as an additional eight blue ground-effects LEDs that emit constantly, when the system is running.

Crucial is shipping now the Ballistix Tracer DDR3 memory in single 1GB ($54.99) and 2GB ($99.99) modules, as well as in 2GB ($109.99) and 4GB ($199.99) kits. All Tracer DDR3 parts operate at 1333MHz with CL6-6-6-20 latencies and 1.8V.

Razer Ups the Ante With Razer Lycosa Mirror Special Edition and Razer Arctosa

Razer, the world's leading manufacturer of high-end precision gaming peripherals, is proud to announce the launch of the Razer Lycosa Mirror Special Edition and the Razer Arctosa, inspired by fusing both form and function into an ultra-sleek gaming keyboard.

Both gaming keyboards retain the stylistic appeal and main features of the Razer Lycosa, with subtle differences to appeal to different gamer segments.

The Razer Lycosa Mirror Edition is influenced by gamer feedback on the original Razer Lycosa where some gamers eschewed the rubber keytop for enhanced backlighting with clean lines. Razer's reply to that culminated in the Razer Lycosa Mirror Edition. A gaming keyboard like its predecessor, the Razer Lycosa, the differences between them are a high-gloss mirror finish on the former with enhanced backlighting for night gaming. The original award winning Razer Lycosa will still be sold at all major electronics retailers while the Razer Lycosa Mirror Edition will be available in December 2008.

The Razer Arctosa is designed to cater to the minimalist gamer looking for the bare essentials in a gaming keyboard. The Razer Arctosa is a basic version of the Razer Lycosa without the backlight but enhanced with fully macro-programmable and media access keys. The Razer Arctosa comes available in the standard silver-printed key letters but also comes with a black on black edition for gamers who have achieved the art of gaming without looking at their keys. The Razer Arctosa silver on black edition and the Razer Arctosa black on black edition will retail in November 2008 at global stores and online.

"The high-gloss mirror finish of the Razer Lycosa Mirror Special Edition will appeal to the stylistic crowd, while being powered by the exact technology which has catapulted the Razer Lycosa into one of Razer's core-selling products," said Robert "Razerguy" Krakoff, president of Razer. He continued "The Razer Arctosa's black on black version is a tribute to style personified. It's a basic gaming keyboard which also looks awesome with any gaming rig."

Lynnfield the Mainstream Nehalem CPU Pictures Emerge

Pictures of the mainstream Nehalem chips otherwise known as Lynnfield have emerged in the asian forum XFastest.

Unlike the Bloomfield that has 1366 pins, Lynnfield has only 1160 pins and lacks the QPI link that the Bloomfield uses for triple channel DDR3.

Instead Lynnfield uses DMI which only supports dual channel DDR3. Check out the link below for even more comparison images.

Mushkin-Exceleram Introduces New DDR3 Kits

Earlier this year, Mushkin acquired Exceleram to expand its technological expertise and manufacturing footprint. Exceleram had been in the business of high-performance gaming system memory modules for quite some time. Post acquisition, Mushkin lets Exceleram products, both current and future, retain the Exceleram brand name and product logos. News is, that the company launched two dual-channel DDR3 memory kits.

The EX3-21800X2-S2 is a 2x 1GB kit, that operates at 1800 MHz DDR, with timings of 8-8-8-24 and DIMM voltage of 1.85~1.90 V. The EX3-41600Q2-SM is a 2x 2GB kit. This is where the bank density eats into other parameters such as timings and frequency. It operates at 1600 MHz DDR, with looser timings of 9-9-9-27. On a positive note, the module voltage has been pushed down to 1.7 V, and it won't be too far-fetched to estimate, that the modules could operate at 1333 MHz at much lower voltages. While there's no word out on the pricing yet, Mushkin on its part states that the products would sell at "unbeatable prices".

ASUS Ready with Workstation-class X58 Motherboards

After flaunting the P6T Series motherboards, and the monstrous Rampage II Extreme, ASUS decided to expand its Bloomfield CPU-supportive motherboard lineup with its workstation-class offerings. ASUS is known for bringing in workstation boards on desktop platforms. They have had Intel 975P based workstation boards, just as they had nForce 590 SLI boards.

These desktop-thru-worksation platforms are usually single CPU socket platforms, with certain workstation features, such as PCI-X interface, enterprise-grade storage controllers, among other features that make them durable and suitable for mission-critical environments. They don't sport enterprise chipsets, and hence carry batch-leading desktop chipsets.

With Nehalem and the new Socket 1366, ASUS did just that, with the inclusion of two single-socket workstation boards. These motherboards, at the outset support the upcoming Core i7 processors, and have the potential to support Xeon processors that use the same socket, or even the same core.

There are two models lined-up: P6T6 WS Revolution and P6T6 WS Pro. The P6T6 WS Revolution is the flagship board. It features six full-length PCI-Express slots, which might have variable number of available PCI-Express lanes, depending on the number of PCI-E cards connected. It features a 16+2 phase CPU power circuit.

The board features the Tylersburg X58 chipset, along with an ICH10 series southbridge. There is passive cooling for the VRM area, northbridge, and a large southbridge block, that could be possibly cooling a supplementary PCI-Express switch chip.

Storage options include Serial-attached SCSI (SAS), SATA II and e-SATA ports.

As for the P6T6 WS Pro, it is a value-ended workstation board. It comes with only two full-length PCI-E x16 slots that have full electrical bandwidth.

It sports two PCI-X slots. It offers essentially the same storage options as the Revolution board. Indications are, that these boards won't be available right upon launch of other X58 chipset boards.