News Bits: Nvidia 9M Launches, AMD Enters Low-Cost Market, Apple Offers Free iPod with Mac

Nvidia introduces 9M series graphics cards, Hybrid SLI

COMPUTEX - Nvidia today introduced its 9M series of graphics cards for notebook computers and Nvidia Hybrid SLI technology. Jeff Fisher, senior vice president of the GPU business at Nvidia, said "Beginning this summer, GeForce 9M GPUs and Hybrid SLI, paired with AMD and Intel CPUs, will enable a new breed of notebooks.These new notebooks will be optimized to deliver a visual experience and raw computing performance that traditional cookie-cutter notebooks with integrated graphics simply can't touch."


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The GeForce 9M series graphics card will have an engine that is up to 40% faster than the previous-generation cards, and full support for Blu-ray playback.

GeForce 9M-equipped notebooks will be the first to be equipped with Hybrid SLI technology, which enables two different Nvidia GPUs - one low-powered and one high-powered - to work together to deliver "GeForce Boost" and "HybridPower". This will allow both GPUs to work together when necessary, and the lower-powered GPU can take over to save power when processing power is not in demand.

Nvidia says that over 100 notebook models will be available with the GeForce 9M series GPUs this summer.

Editor note: It is about time the GeForce 9M was officially announced, Nvidia, as it is one of the worst-kept secrets ever.

Nvidia Press Release

Intel Atom processor shortage to end by September

Intel says it is increasing its production volume of Atom processors and the current shortage should end by September. ASUS CEO Jerry Shen says that the Atom shortages and delays will not seriously affect its Eee PC shipments but said it could become a problem if they are not resolved when the pre-holiday season starts later this year.

Full Story (PCWorld.com)

AMD enters low-cost notebook market

COMPUTEX - AMD is entering the low-cost notebook market with its own technology. There are several notebooks on display at Computex Taipei 2008 with AMD processors and chipsets.

Full Story (JKKMobile.blogspot.com)
Via (Gizmodo.com)

UPEK introduces TouchStrip fingerprint sensor for notebooks

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COMPUTEX - UPEK today introduced the TCS5 TouchStrip Fingerprint Sensor, a technology module designed to be integrated into notebooks introduced in 2009. The product is designed to bring fingerprint readers into the mainstream market. The TCS5 has UPEK's new SteelCoat sensor coating for increased durability. The company's unique HD3D sensing technology reads virtually all fingerprints in any condition for reliable recognition.

UPEK will be previewing its new Protector Suite software to go along with TCS5.

Press Release

HP to include Microsoft Live Search with computers

Microsoft made a deal with HP to put a Live Search toolbar on its computers. The agreement will take effect in January 2009. The agreement states that Live Search will be the default service loaded on the Internet Explorer browser on new HP computers.

This move is another sign of Microsoft's attempts to chip away at Google's share of the search market.

Full Story (NYTimes.com)

Best Buy announces free electronics recycling program

Best Buy announced it has started a test of its new free electronics recycling program at 117 stores. Customers can bring in no more than two units per day per household to stores in the Baltimore, San Francisco, and Minnesota markets for free recycling. Please see the full press release for full details on what is accepted.

Press Release

Apple Rolls out Free iPod Touch with Mac Purchase

Apple today announced their biggest student discount offer yet, for university students (sorry high schoolers) and staff you can score a $299 free iPod Touch 8GB with the purchase of a MacBook, MacBook Pro or MacBook Air. You just have to buy the Mac with the iPod Touch so it's on the same receipt and then send off for a rebate from Apple. Not a bad deal if you were in the market for a Mac anyway!

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Apple Store

 

About time indeed.

 

to bad i hate macs

 

i find it strange that for the mac discounts, you would need to mail in a rebate even if you buy from the apple site...

and really, i think they should have offered better discounts on their computers instead of ipods... i could really use at least 400$ in discount

 

9 series 40% faster?

I sure hope they arent talking about the 9500m and of the sort...

 

That is pretty much standard operating procedure for most PC manufacturers. They count on a certain percentage of people not sending in the rebate form. One good thing about Apple is that you get the refunds pretty quickly (2-3 weeks as opposed to months).

You DO get the normal education discount on the hardware in addition to the iPod. If you don't need the iPod sell it and pocket the cash.

 

i suppose thats a way to solve the problem... but involves work... i just wish the discount could have been in cash from as well... like the imac, only 50$ off the 1299 price tag (in canada). i would get it if it offered a 300-400$ discount instead of the ipod rebate + 50.

 

Yeah seriously, the 9M series is not even worth designating as a new series. It's not much different than the 8M series. Some chips are exactly the same as previous chips like the 9500M-GS you mention, which is an 8600M-GT.

Plus there are so many models that it's confusing as hell.

9800M-GTX
9800M-GTS
9800M-GS
9700M-GTS
9700M-GT
9700M-GS
9650M-GT
9600M-GT
9600M-GS
9500M-GS
9400M-GS
9300M-GS
9200M-GS

Memorize that list, read it back to me, and I'll give you a chocolate chip cookie.

Supposedly Nvidia is going to simplify their product lineup:
http://forum.desktopreview.com/showthread.php?p=2250416
Can't come soon enough . . .

 

I'd appreciate if they just called their graphics card "The Series 9"

-Fair
-Good
-Fast
-Fastest

cards. Then people could just ask if they should get the Fast card or simply the Good card, and we'd all know what we're talking about. Lol, I challenge them to be so bold as to make this move.

 

4 cards per series would make me much happier.

 

The 9M series is very disappointing. Looks like a pure 65nm shrink, with mid-range parts still only having 32 shaders and a 128-bit memory bus. And this is a year after the 8M series first launched. I thought nVidia was the one to invented and perfected the 6 month refresh cycle. It's disappointing that after a year the best they could come up with is a shrink.

 

The high end cards for the 9M series will probably be 55 nm shrinks of GT200 cards (or at least I hope they will be). Yes it is disappointing that nothing new is in the midrange cards for the 9M series.

 

No one to comment on the AMD netbook? I wonder if they'll do something crazy about the GPU department of its netbook...

 

http://sg.vr-zone.com/articles/Nvidia_55nm_Mobile_Graphics_Cards_Unveiled/5705.html

Well, the rumours so far are that the highest 9800M GTX will be G92 based, so 128 shaders and a 256-bit memory bus, which isn't bad. The thing is that only the highest model will have 128 shaders with the 9800M GTS already dropping back to the G94 or 64 shaders. I was really hoping that the G94 could have moved into the mainstream by now.

 

hmmm... looked at a mac, for build quality reasons, but they are just to much money... starting 2000$ for a macbook pro in canada... just to get a standard 15.4 over a 13.3, which is simply to small for me.

oh, well, it apple's problem, I can be happy with a Asus, or a Dell

 

They're not.

The new naming scheme is GTX, by the way. The first two cards will be the GTX280 and GTX260, with the 280 being more powerful.

 

Lame news about the Geforce 9 series. I should have sprung on those ridiculous XPS M1530 deals about a month ago but didn't because I thought the new 9 series midrange cards would be noticeably faster than the 8600 GT.

 

LOL, It would be great if they went with that or:

Enthusiast
Performance
Portability
Cheap-O

 

Nope, that's not confusing at all. Do they really need that much variance in their product lineup?

It's good to see Best Buy take a progressive step in electronic recycling. We need to make it as easy as possible to recycle electronic components so that they don't go to waste in landfills and spread toxic chemicals in the environment.

 

How bout

X (pensive)
S (teep)
A (verage)
W (on't run much)