Hexus

"In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today, AMD announced that it has “performed an interim impairment analysis of its goodwill and intangible assets associated with its Handheld and DTV reporting units of the Consumer Electronics segment that it acquired from ATI Technologies.”

The analysis concluded that “The Company’s estimate is that the goodwill and intangible asset impairment charges will be approximately $880 million.” These charges will be included in the financial statements for the quarter ended 28th June 2008, which are scheduled to be announced next Thursday, 17th July.

On top of that, it will take a $32 million charge related to its restructuring – specifically paying off people it made redundant in the last quarter. It expects to complete the restructuring by the end of fiscal 2008.

It will also take a $36 million charge on its investment in two companies: $24 million of it from Spansion and $12 million from Auction Rate Securities.

Set against all that is the sale of “certain 200mm wafer fabrication tools” that AMD expects to yield $190 million.

AMD’s shares are currently trading at around $4.70. On 17th June they were trading at $7.72"

LINK

Techtree

"Its done by a rep. Indian Website and thus, officially confirms the launch date of 4870x2 in the interview."

LINK

Can this be true? ... Intel's X58 based motherboards supporting both Crossfire and SLI. If this is true ... this will be excellent news for the enthusiasts. According to reports, Intel's X58 based motherboards will be scheduled for release in Q4, 2008.

Expreview

Rather than high end mobo, NV will only focus on Intel Lynnfield CPU, try to debut a LGA 1160 board. That’s because LGA 1160 still keeps DMI we currently use to link to south bridge but no QPI, it will be more easier to design a LGA 1160 mobo then QPI supported LGA 1366 boards.

That doesn’t means NVIDIA will just hand over the high end market to AMD easily. It is said NV have already gave out  SLI permit to Intel X58, by selling their BR-04 chips, just like what they did to the Skulltrial.

But even they give permit, it doesn’t means you can see lots of SLI enable X58 everywhere after Q4. First of all, The chip BR04 is as expansive as $30 USD, and secondly a reference X58 can not add BR-04 by not changing the PCB layout, that means if a mobo maker want to make SLI and non-SLI X58, they need two different PCB layout. All these just keep the mobo production cost rising, so we can expect second tier mobo maker may not going for SLI enabled X58."

LINK

CPU3D: Special Weekend Deals 

Here's this week's list of special deals from our sponsors ... Also check out our discussion forums for further deals. Click HERE.

 - XFX GeForce GTX 260 896MB DDR3 XXX w Assasins Creed @ £235.50
 - XFX 8800GT Alpha Dog 512MB PCI-E @ £114.26
 - Asus Maximus II Formula (P45) Motherboard @ £180.11
 - Antec Truepower Quattro 1000W A/PFC Modular @ £128.54
 

Immortal Gaming

 - EVGA 9800 GTX Superclocked 512MB GDDR3 @ £176.24
 - Asus Maximus Formula (Socket 775) X38 DDR2 Motherboard @ £146.82
 - 2GB OCZ DDR2 PC2-8500 1066MHz SLI Nvidia XTC Dual Channel kit (5-5-5-15) @ £46.99

More Rambus shenanigans. Come on pay us more royalties ... all $300 miilion.

Dailytech

Weekend Reviews from around the net ... original compilation supplied by TechReport.

1. EETimes reports Rambus sues Nvidia for over memory patents
2. DailyTech reports FISA becomes law, EFF and ACLU rain down lawsuits
3. Ars Technica reports FCC head slams company's P2P filtering
   and troubled times ahead for VMware
4. The Inquirer reports all Nvidia G84 and G86s are bad
5. OCW reports Nvidia skips LGA 1366 Nehalem platform,
   supports SLI by chipset on LGA 1366 X58 mainboards
6. Fudzilla asks, "Where did all the Pumas go?"
7. V12 Designs' dual-touchscreen notebook coming within two years
8. DigiTimes reports MSI sees increase while ECS sees drop in June revenues
9. New iPhone 3G puts Apple in the game
10. HardwareZone on the Creative Zen X-Fi launch
11. AnandTech's mobile buyer's guide
12. "Into the Pixel" 2008 art & artists announced at jury panel event at Siren Studios
13. TG Daily reports researchers dive into invisible light and the origins of the universe

Software and gaming

1. Zone Alarm's workaround to sudden loss of Internet access problem
2. Gizmodo reports iPhone OS 2.0 unlocked
3. Fudzilla reports DirectX 11 belongs to Windows 7
4. Apple's MobileMe doesn't (fully) support popular browsers
5. TG Daily reports Gmail adding protection and monitoring features
6. Support for earlier versions of Spybot-S&D is going to end
7. Firefox 3.1 Alpha 1 available for download
8. Winamp 5.54 released
9. About the security content of Apple TV 2.1
10. TweakPC has Nvidia Medusa tech demo on Radeon:
    benchmarks, screenshots, and videos (write-up in German)
11. GameSpot's Far Cry 2 video interview
12. Shacknews has Good Old Games interview: CD Projekt
    on reissuing classic PC games for cheap, piracy concerns
13. HEXUS.gaming rviews Battlefield: Bad Company (Xbox 360 & PS3)
14. GameTrailers.com have Max Payne movie trailer

Systems and storage

1. TechSpot reviews Asus Maximus II Formula
2. TweakTown reviews XFX nForce 790i Ultra SLI motherboard
3. Overclockers Club reviews Gigabyte GA-M78SM-S2H
4. Hardware Secrets reviews Sapphire PI-AM2RS780G
5. ProClockers review 4GB Aeneon XTune DDR3-1600 memory kit
6. Björn3D reviews HighSpeed PC's Top Deck Tech Station (large)
7. BIOS reviews LiteOn DX-401S external Blu-ray Disc drive
8. Benchmark Reviews on 60GB Super Talent MasterDrive MX SATA-II SSD
9. Viper Lair reviews 4GB and 16GB Silicon Power Ultima 150 flash drives

Multimedia, power, case, and cooling

1. Techgage reviews Palit GeForce GTX 280 1GB
2. Hard Tecs 4U has Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 Reloaded (in German)
3. Digit-Life reviews AMD Radeon HD 4850 512MB
4. CPU3D reviews Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 512MB
5. HotHardware's Diamond Viper HD 3870 showcase
6. Digital Trends reviews Sony KDL-32XBR6 32" LCD TV
7. techPowerUp! reviews 900W Cooler Master Ultimate Circuit Protection PSU
8. HEXUS.net on Enermax Modu82+ PSU: high efficiency, but at what cost?
9. Technic3D reviews 385W Enermax Pro 82+ PSU (in German)
10. Futurelooks reviews Antec Twelve Hundred case
11. DragonSteelMods update C2Q Q6600 heatsinks roundup comparison

Enjoy ...

Ooopps! ... already Apples fans have found faults with the latest iPhone v2. Also BE AWARE that there will be people still selling iPhone v1, make sure you check ... you don't wanting to be buying old technology would you now?

BBC

"iPhone fans in the UK have struggled to get their hands on the latest version of the popular smartphone. A glitch with the online registration system run by the O2 network meant that many people could not activate their devices at Apple stores.

The same glitch hit O2 stores but was quickly resolved, according to the firm, which is the only network to offer the iPhone in the UK. In addition, many stores sold out within hours of opening. The new version, which is cheaper and faster, went on sale in 22 countries.

More than 1,500 people lined up outside one Tokyo store, whilst guards in kevlar vests and helmets stood watch over 500 devices in Hong Kong. "

LINK

The INQ

"The short story is that all the G84 and G86 parts are bad. Period. No exceptions. All of them, mobile and desktop, use the exact same ASIC, so expect them to go south in inordinate numbers as well. There are caveats however, and we will detail those in a bit.

Both of these ASICs have a rather terminal problem with unnamed substrate or bumping material, and it is heat related. If you ask Nvidia officially, you will get no reason why this happened, and no list of parts affected, we tried. Unofficially, they will blame everyone under the sun, and trash their suppliers in very colourful language."

LINK

CPU3D Review: Xigmatek HDT-SD964 CPU cooler

It's one of the quietest CPU cooler we've tested to date. The Xigmatek HDT-SD964 CPU cooler features a new technology called Heatpipe Direct Touch. It consists of exposed copper heatpipes at the base of the heatsink unit, which allows direct contact with the processor. The heat is dissipated via aluminum fins cooled by an ultra quiet 92mm fan.

"The Xigmatek HDT-SD964 installed with its low rpm 92mm fan, is one of the quietest CPU coolers we've tested to date ... hardly a murmur."

Read the rest of the review ... HERE.

Delft, Netherlands—July 11, 2008—OCZ Technology Group (LSE: OCZ), a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory and components, today announced the expansion of its gaming peripherals under a new “Alchemy” line, with the introduction of the Elixir keyboard series for highly advanced functionality in game-play. Featuring a wealth of user-friendly features combined with an ergonomic and sturdy design, the Elixir keyboard will deliver a unique combination of performance and vale to gamers as they blaze through the latest PC titles.

 

“The new Alchemy line from OCZ is designed to offer gamers quality gaming solutions that deliver both exceptional performance and value,” said Eugene Chang, Product Manager of the OCZ Technology Group. “Just because gamers have a budget doesn't mean they shouldn't enjoy premium gaming features, and our first Alchemy solution the Elixir gaming keyboard is designed with quality ergonomics and offers efficient game-play with programmable macro keys.”