Techreport

"Jon Peddie Research reported last month that graphics processor shipments tumbled in the first quarter by the largest amount since 2005. Judging by Nvidia's latest financial results, though, the drop hasn't quite hurt everybody. For its first 2009 fiscal quarter, which ended on April 27, Nvidia has posted revenue of $1.15 billion and net income of $176.8 million.

That revenue figure represents a 37% year-over-year increase compared to the $844.3 million Nvidia posted for its first 2008 fiscal quarter, and the net income number is 34% bigger than last year. Nvidia didn't do too badly compared to its record-breaking fourth 2008 fiscal quarter, either: its revenue only dipped 4%, and its profits went down around 31%.

Overall, Nvidia seems pretty pleased with itself. In the results announcement, Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang calls this first fiscal quarter the company's "best first quarter ever," crediting a 42% year-over-year growth in GPU sales for the good results. Nvidia also saw "record revenue" in its Professional Solutions Business, which grew 44% compared to last year."

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BBC

"A computer hacker in Chile has published confidential records belonging to six million people on the internet, officials say. The information was obtained by hacking into government and military servers, and was posted on a technology blog. It included ID card numbers, addresses, telephone numbers and academic records. The hacker left a message saying the aim was to demonstrate the poor level of data protection in Chile, says the newspaper which uncovered the story.

El Mercurio newspaper reports that the data came from computer servers at the education ministry, the military and the electoral service. It was posted on the forum of a Chilean blog dedicated to technology issues, but was quickly removed by site's administrators, who contacted the police. "

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CPU3D Exclusive: Gigabyte Spring Break Plug-Fest 2008

CPU3D is proud to present an exclusive coverage of Gigabyte's Spring Break Plug-Fest 2008. This year Gigabyte have gone out of their way, to really promote their up-and-coming motherboards based on Intel's lastest P45 chipset, which is still under NDA. We were invited to attend their exclusive, invitation-only event at their head quarters in Taipei, Taiwan.

"The main purpose of the event was to allow the press and media organisations from around the world, to have an exclusive first look at Gigabyte's new range of up-and-coming P45 based motherboards, which will be released later in June. The whole day was quite quite erratic, with over 22 media representitives from around the world registering at the main reception in Gigabyte's head quarters. The atmosphere was amazing, and the place was buzzing with TV crews, photographers and local press ... all wanting a slice of the action."

Read the rest of this exclusive article ... HERE.

BBC

"Regulators in the US are being urged to investigate any potential online advertising and search partnership between Google and Yahoo. The call by a coalition of 16 American civil rights and rural advocacy bodies comes despite the fact no firm deal has actually been announced.

"We all suffer in such mega mergers," Gary Flowers of the Black Leadership Forum told BBC News. The justice department is examining a trial the companies did in April. It has been widely reported that it is looking into the anti-trust implications of last month's two-week test.

However, the department says it has no comment on the coalition's demands because there is no definitive agreement between Yahoo and Google at the moment.

But reports say that the two companies are presently hammering out the intricacies of a future potential advertising and search agreement, and are sharing their plans with antitrust regulators."

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Techreport

"The last time we attempted to quantify the value propositions of a large cross-section of competing products, we concentrated on microprocessors. Ever since then, we've wanted to explore the same concept with graphics cards. Thanks to our latest round of graphics card reviews, which culminated with the massive GeForce 9 series multi-GPU extravaganza last month, we've ended up with enough benchmark data to paint a fairly complete picture of today's mid- to high-end GPU market.

Armed with this information, we've taken another crack at quantifying value, this time by looking at what sort of GPU power you get for your dollar. The results are interesting, if nothing else. Read on to see what we found."

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CPU3D Review: DFI LanParty DK X38-T2RB Motherboard

DFI have made much of its success through their NF4 DR Expert motherboards a few years ago ... now it seems they are about to do the same again with their DK series of motherboards. The LanParty DK X38-T2RB motheboard features Intel's X38 chipset, supports DDR2 ram and DFI's own Genie BIOS, and they've even added a few extras that might appeal to the enthusiasts.

"...DFI have done a great job with their LanParty DK X38-T2RB motherboard. It's affordable, overclockable and offers very good performance. We'll be seeing a lot more from DFI this year, no doubt about that. " 

Read the rest of the review ... HERE.

Digitimes

"AMD is planning to launch its 45nm server processor Shanghai in the second half of this year, which features HyperTransport 3.0, instruction-per clock enhancement (IPC) and will have its L3 cache increased from 2MB to 6MB, while the company will launch a six-core server processor codenamed Istanbul in the second half of 2009. The processors will fit with the current Socket F1 (1207) and will feature the company's Direct Connect Architecture.

In 2010, AMD expects to introduce its third-generation AMD Opteron processor socket G34 platform, which will offer features including DDR3 memory capabilities and AMD's RD890 chipset for non-coherent HyperTransport 3.0, along with an additional HT link."

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The INQ

The problems, which first arose just one day after the push, have been causing lots of noise on Microsoft support sites and angry user bogs.

One user reported, "I just installed Windows XP SP3 and after completing the processes and when the system reboots, the system cannot proceed to load the Windows. It just displays the flash screen of Windows then after it reboots again."

Angry users have also reported that, after the installation, it is not even possible to boot in safe mode, usually the last resort before setting up a repeated forehead/screen interface."

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DailyTech

"A new report released Wednesday in the Wall Street Journal indicates that Microsoft expressed interest in acquiring Facebook, the second largest social network, painting a more interesting picture of the waning talks with Yahoo.  Microsoft already owns a $240M USD, 1.6 percent stake in the company.  A full acquisition could be valued at $15B USD or more.

According to the reporter, Microsoft's bankers subtly inquired about Facebook's interest in a possible full acquisition.  The talks were first made public by All Things Digital, a website owned by publisher Dow Jones, which also owns the Wall Street Journal. Microsoft's spokespeople did not make themselves immediately available for comment on the report.  Facebook spokeswoman Brandee Barker also refused comments.

The report indicates that no current talks are going on between the two companies, as apparently Microsoft was rebuffed.  Facebook is one of the hottest internet properties, founded in 2004 by Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg.  The site has over 70 million registered users and boasts high site loyalty and traffic volume.  Zuckerberg in the past has opposed selling the whole company, working instead to develop partnerships and move toward an initial public offering.

It is unclear exactly where the comments fall in the chronology of Microsoft's online dealings, but it appears that they were made before Gates comments on Wednesday.  Perhaps Microsoft only decided to go it alone after being rejected by Facebook, if the reports are to be believed."

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DailyTech

"People all over the planet depend on the GPS satellite positioning system for all sorts of things from navigating in their cars to keeping up with equipment and personnel. China says that it intendeds to have an operational GPS system covering all of Asia by 2010.

Despite the 2010 date specified, Chinese officials aren’t giving up much information. In fact officials from Japan say that it and China have had no talks concerning interoperability of the two nations GPS satellite systems. This is despite the fact that both China and Japan are members of the International Committee on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (ICGNSS) that was founded to ensure global interoperability of navigation satellite networks.

China has also not yet completed frequency coordination with the other ICGNSS member nations including the U.S., Europe, Russia and others. According to Space.com, Chinese officials said at the Toulouse Space Show that China’s global Compass/Beidou system would be fully compatible with the U.S. GPS, European Galileo, and Russian Glonass global navigation constellations."

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