Filed under: Storage

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Laptops

Ready to inhale some serious Intel technobabble? Here goes. As it stands, MIDs and UMPCs that utilize Windows operating systems are pretty much restricted to using Vista due to their incongruence with the “low-cost” requirement for still using XP. On top of that, Intel’s chipset used in these critters (you know, with those Silverthorne Atom CPUs) only supports 1GB of RAM. We don’t need to explain how underwhelming performance can be when mixing Vista with just 1GB of RAM. Now, however, a new PDF from Intel details updated System Controller Hub (SCH) specifications that include support for up to 2GB of RAM. What isn’t clear is whether current systems can be updated via a BIOS update, but we’ll be keeping an ear to the ground in hopes of hearing “yes.”

[Thanks, Itto]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Laptops

Ready to inhale some serious Intel technobabble? Here goes. As it stands, MIDs and UMPCs that utilize Windows operating systems are pretty much restricted to using Vista due to their incongruence with the “low-cost” requirement for still using XP. On top of that, Intel’s chipset used in these critters (you know, with those Silverthorne Atom CPUs) only supports 1GB of RAM. We don’t need to explain how underwhelming performance can be when mixing Vista with just 1GB of RAM. Now, however, a new PDF from Intel details updated System Controller Hub (SCH) specifications that include support for up to 2GB of RAM. What isn’t clear is whether current systems can be updated via a BIOS update, but we’ll be keeping an ear to the ground in hopes of hearing “yes.”

[Thanks, Itto]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Storage

Remember that MetaRAM technology we figured was nothing more than a sophisticated joke back in February? Intel, one of the noteworthy backers, has proven that said tech actually is one rung above snake-oil at its own Developers Conference in San Francisco. Hynix-made DDR3 DIMMs packing 16GB of memory were reportedly created via the MetaRAM method (and subsequently shown off), and just in case you’re not wowed by such wizardry, the demo system included no fewer than ten of these modules. Just in case that sort of flew over your head, the machine they were in possessed 160GB of RAM. Unfortunately, we’ve a feeling these are quite aways out from hitting the consumer market.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Storage

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

It may have once talked about toppling both Intel and AMD within a decade, but South Korea’s Hynix looks to have been knocked back on its heels a bit amid a general downturn in the DRAM market, and it’s now taken the rather drastic step of closing down its plan in Eugene, Oregon, eliminating some 1,100 jobs in the process. As EE Times points out, that move is at least partly due to the fact that 300mm plants are ramping up faster than expected, making 200mm plans like the one in Oregon far less cost effective to operate and, apparently, too expensive to upgrade. There’s also the little matter of some tariffs the United States had imposed on Hynix, which it was able to avoid thanks to its plant in Oregon, but which now appear to be set to expire. For its part, Hynix denies that has anything to do with the plant closing, and it adds that it is still looking at ways to “have a presence” in Eugene.

[Via The Wall Street Journal]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals, Storage

A full six months after Samsung took the wraps off of GDDR5 memory, along comes word from AMD that the next-generation ATI Radeon graphics cards will boast said technology. Apparently AMD will be tapping Qimonda for its supply of GDDR5 modules, which should boost gaming performance as well as benefit stream processing, “where GPUs are applied to address complex, massively parallel calculations.” As Hot Hardware points out, the release comes just weeks away from the rumored debut of the Radeon 4000 series, so if our deductive reasoning is sound, we’d surmise that the looming Radeon 4800 will indeed feature GDDR5.

[Via Hot Hardware]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Though not quite as impressive as the idea of toppling Intel and AMD within the next ten years, Hynix Semiconductor still has a decent reason to brag today. The South Korean chip producer has announced that it has just started mailing out the “fastest data transferring advanced dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chip for mobile devices.” Said chip is the one-gigabit LPDDR2 (low-power double-data-rate 2), which was crafted using 66-nanometer technology and features an 800-megabits per second operating speed at 1.2-volts. No word on exactly what devices will see the super-speedy chip packed within, but a company spokesperson did note that it plans on ramping up production during Q4 to meet “growing demand for flat-panel television sets and high-end handheld devices.”

[Via Physorg]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Storage

Ruh roh, Shaggy — you remember that disk encryption attack that involved cooling off your target’s RAM and yanking it to get a bitdump before the contents faded? Well, it looks like things just got a lot simpler for would-be attackers — check out this USB flash key designed by security researcher Robert Wesley McGrew, which can boot your machine and dump the RAM to itself without altering its contents. That means you no longer need to actually pull the DIMMs or carry around an air duster; all an attacker needs is enough time to reboot your machine and copy the contents of your RAM. Of course, that takes time — McGrew says things are running quite slowly right now, but he suspects his test machine is dropping down to USB 1.0 speeds. That’s still not too reassuring — looks like we’ll be spending even more time with our machines from now on.

[Via Hack a Day]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Desktops

We’re not sure what whacky voodoo snakeoil these MetaRam people are peddling, but the company’s got some high profile behind it (like Intel, for one), is being led by former AMD CTO Fred Weber, has appears to have some potentially revolutionary RAM quadrupling technology. Claiming to have leapfrogged current RAM technology by 2-4 years, MetaRam uses a specialized “MetaSDRAM” chipset that effectively bonds and addresses four cheap 1Gb DRAM chips as one, tricking any machine’s memory controller into using it as a 4x capacity DIMM. Since a 1Gb chip is apparently far less expensive than a 2Gb chip, MetaRam devices can multiply capacity at prices far lower than their competition; the company claims it’ll be shipping in machines in the first quarter of this year, and Hynix has already announced their own 2-rank 8GB DDR2 RDIMMs for the second half.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Desktops

We’re not sure what whacky voodoo snakeoil these MetaRam people are peddling, but the company’s got some high profile behind it (like Intel, for one), is being led by former AMD CTO Fred Weber, has appears to have some potentially revolutionary RAM quadrupling technology. Claiming to have leapfrogged current RAM technology by 2-4 years, MetaRam uses a specialized “MetaSDRAM” chipset that effectively bonds and addresses four cheap 1Gb DRAM chips as one, tricking any machine’s memory controller into using it as a 4x capacity DIMM. Since a 1Gb chip is apparently far less expensive than a 2Gb chip, MetaRam devices can multiply capacity at prices far lower than their competition; the company claims it’ll be shipping in machines in the first quarter of this year, and Hynix has already announced their own 2-rank 8GB DDR2 RDIMMs for the second half.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Multicore processors have become a major part of the consumer mainstream in the past couple years, but if a cryptographic researcher named Joseph Ashwood has his way, the next few years will see the rise of multicore memory. Ashwood’s design, which he’s had positively reviewed by a team at Carnegie Mellon, allows memory to actually become faster as it gets bigger, due to the way data is organized across individual memory cells. Ashwood says the ratio is almost 1:1 — doubling size should result in a doubling of speed — but it’s all theory for now, as he’s only gotten as far as the software simulation stage. Once a manufacturer commits to the tech, however, Ashwood says chips could be coming off fabs in as little as three months, but it’ll be interesting to see who signs up first — with so many next-gen RAM techs all jostling for position, Ashwood is going to need quite a sales pitch to stand out.

[Photo courtesy of MrBill]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Storage

If you’ve fantasized about how wonderful your life could be if the merits of DRAM, SRAM and Flash memory could all be mixed harmoniously into one “dream semiconductor,” listen up. You may not be up to speed on all the advancements in ferroelectric materials, but we’re pretty sure even the technological newbie could appreciate a new discovery by Korean researcher Dr. Shin Young-han. Reportedly, this fellow has “succeeded in figuring out the operational mechanism of ferroelectrics,” which could potentially lead to FeRAM — a technology that could “store data ten times faster than Flash memory and keep it for longer than ten years.” Kudos to you, Dr. Young-han, now let’s get this stuff on the production line, shall we?

[Image courtesy of Ferra]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Storage

Barely a fortnight after Sony disclaimed reports that it was pondering the sale of its PS3 chip production facilities, the firm has decided to partner up with Qimonda in a 50-50 venture “to design DRAM chips for consumer and graphics applications.” The new entity will be dubbed Qreatic Design, will be based in Tokyo and is scheduled to start operating by the end of 2007. Of note, financial terms of the deal weren’t released, but Qimonda’s chief executive did state that the agreement would “support its future product design and solutions development and would further pave the way for product diversification in non-PC applications.” [Warning: read link requires subscription]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!