Systems and Components Briefs

BenQ Fattens Up Flat-Panel Family

AMD, Microsoft Team Up
AMD is working with Microsoft to incorporate 64-bit support for its future 8th-generation Athlon and Opteron processors into the Windows OS. Server applications, such as databases, business intelligence, data warehousing and ERP programs, as well as client applications for image manipulation, technical and scientific computing, and entertainment, can all benefit from 64-bit computing power. Shipment of Athlon processors is slated for the fourth quarter; shipment of Opteron is slated for the first half of 2003.

What's In a Name?
Intel recently announced a brand name for its second-generation Itanium processor: the soon-to-be released Intel Itanium 2 processor. Formerly code-named McKinley, Itanium 2 will be the second in a family of 64-bit products from Intel. Itanium 2-based systems are expected to deliver one-and-a-half to two times the performance of today's Itanium-based systems. Servers and workstations based on Itanium 2 processors are expected to roll out soon and continue to do so throughout the year.

Pump Up the Volume
Samsung Semiconductor last month began volume-shipping Double Data Rate 400-Mbps SDRAM (DDR400) modules in 128-MB, 256-MB and 512-MB densities. As the newest addition to Samsung's DDR SDRAM portfolio, the 400-Mbps (200-MHz) DDR devices are ideal for use as a PC system's main memory, offering three times the performance of Single Data Rate PC 133 SDRAM and 50 percent more bandwidth than mainstream DDR266. DDR400 PC3200 modules are available through distribution. Earlier this year, the company was first to deliver engineering samples of DDR400 to major PC chipset companies, including NVidia, SiS and VIA.

Cubix Serves Up New Multiserver System
Cubix, a manufacturer of blade-server systems, recently released the Density Series 1500 system, a 7U system with the capacity for up to eight server blades. Each blade supports two Intel Pentium III 1.4-GHz processors, a ServerWorks chipset,

4-GB RAM, dual 10/100 Ethernet interfaces and 64-bit PCI expansion slots. The Density 1500 includes a KVM switch, shared CD-ROM and floppy drives, internal hot-plug hardware RAID support, a hot-swap N 1 power system, redundant cooling and remote-management capabilities.

Available now, the Density 1500 with dual-processor server blades is targeted at midtier server deployments, such as e-mail servers, thin-client server farms and Web-application servers, as well as network infrastructure servers, including firewalls and VPNs.

Speakers of the House
White-box builders who want to offer their customers an audio option with their PC systems should look into a pair of AOpen's Titanium GT speakers. Titanium GT speakers provide rich, full sound from PCs as well as other audio sources, such as portable and stationary CD, DVD and tape players, TVs and radios. Each of the speaker's cylindrical shells has vibrating drivers for smooth speaker response and delivery of natural tonal balance and clarity throughout the audio spectrum. The speakers feature a ported design that launches sound on a column of air instead of from a vibrating cone found in conventional speakers, resulting in better bass response. They also offer a 360-degree voice feature that scatters sound throughout a room, eliminating dead air space. The street price of the AOpen Titanium Sound speakers is $79.99.