ARM MPCore processor 2.5GHz

The Eagle has landed. As portable devices sporting ARM's Cortex A9 1GHz powerhouse start to appear, the company has unveiled the next step in the evolution of its system-on-a-chip Cortex A architecture, the A15 MPCore processor. ARM-based chips currently provide the processing power for a host of mobile devices, from smartphones to tablets, and this latest development is claimed to deliver five times the performance of current solutions such as the Cortex A8, yet has a similar low energy footprint.

ARM sees its latest system-on-a-chip development being available in configurations ranging from 1GHz to 2.5GHz, and being extended to octo core designs and beyond for certain implementations. The scalable solution can provide processing power in everything from smartphones, tablets and televisions, right on up to high-end servers and wireless infrastructure. Like the rest of the Cortex A family of processors, the new baby is fully application compatible with existing software developer ecosystems like Google's Android, Adobe's Flash, Linux and Windows.

Other features include up to 4MB tightly-coupled low-latency L2 cache, multiple software environment capabilities including full hardware virtualization, the ability to support up to a terabyte of memory, and advanced memory correction. Up to 30 per cent less memory is required to store instructions, the inclusion of NEON technology is said to speed up the handling of multimedia and processing algorithms, and hardware support for floating point operations coming in the next generation of consumer products is provided.

Currently available to system manufacturers in 32nm and 28nm flavors, the A15's development roadmap is also reported to extend to 20nm. As to when consumers will begin to benefit from the new chip... the Cortex A9 was launched by ARM in October 2007, and we are only just now seeing it in new tablets – so don't hold your breath.

Source: A15

LG's new NIVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core processor

With smartphones packing more and more features and people using them for increasingly processor intensive tasks LG has announced plans to introduce the first Android smartphones to be powered by a dual-core processor. The new phones, which will be part of the company’s new Optimus Series, will feature the second generation NIVIDIA Tegra mobile processor, the Tegra 2.

As well as being the first mobile dual-core CPU, the Tegra 2 is also the only ultra low-power NVIDIA GeForce GPU and the first 1080p HD mobile video processor. It comprises two 1GHz processors, which LG says allows web browsing that is up to 2x faster, and gaming performance that is up to 5x faster than its single core counterparts running at 1GHz.

LG and NVIDIA say the Tegra 2 processor will deliver console-quality gaming, 3D capablities and flawless 1080p Full HD video playback to smaprtphones – although anyone who can notice, let alone appreciate 1080p on a smartphone display has to be the next step in human evolution.

But who knows, maybe some models in the new Optimus Series will sport a HD video out connection for hooking up to a HDTV? We’ll find out soon enough as smartphones featuring the NVIDIA Tegra 2 mobile processor will be introduced sometime before the end of the year.

Source:LG and NVIDIA

Aerosystem One has all the speakers

There’s no doubting Jean Michel Jarre’s talent as a musician and showman, so it’ll be interesting to see how he goes with his new roles as a soothsayer (he’s predicting the demise of the Internet on the basis it will be rejected by today’s youth as a sham) and as an AV entrepreneur with sales of his new speaker system AeroSystem One. Launched today at IFA in Berlin, the EUR 800 (US$1000) stand-alone unit contains a 60 W sub-woofer and two 30 W speakers all integrated to deliver a roomful of sound.

 The speaker looks amazing in the press image but before we write any more, we’ll head down and have a listen to the relatively affordable system and give you our verdict along with the details.

 Jarre came to world prominence as a composer and musician with seventies release of Oxygène and the subsequent Équinoxe album.

Our big tip for Jean Michel is that his ridiculous prediction for the Internet significantly detracts from his credibility as an authority worth listening to about anything.

 Source Jean Michel Jarre soothsayer

LaCie Rikiki GO Hard Drive

The LaCie Rikiki Go is our popular Rikiki drive remastered. It’s perfect for users that need access to all of their files, without having to carry around a massive hard drive. With up to 1TB of capacity, you’ll always be able to access the files you need. Best of all, it comes with an integrated USB 2.0 cable, ensuring that you’ll always have everything you need to transfer and store your data. The aluminum exterior is tough, but also light enough for complete mobility.

 Capacity   500 GB,  Color  Silver,  Interface  Hi-Speed USB 2.0 port (USB 1.1-compatible), Interface Transfer Rate   Hi-Speed USB 2.0  up to 480Mbits/s,  Software  LaCie Backup Assistant,  Size  75 x 109.7 x 13.4 mm / 2.9 x 4.3 x .5 in. Weight 158g / 5.5 oz.

System Requirements  Computer with a USB 2.0 port,
High-speed internet for online storage,
Latest version of Windows^® XP, Windows Vista^®, Windows 7 / Mac^® OS X 10.5, 10.6
Minimum free disk space 600 MB recommended ,

LaCie Rikiki USB 2.0 500 GB Portable Hard Drive 301909 

Box Content   LaCie Rikiki Go,
Integrated USB cable,
Quick Install Guide Comments *1TB = 1000GB. 1GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes. Total accessible capacity varies depending upon operating environment (typically 5–10% less). Warranty :  2-Year Limited Warranty.

New Set for ferroelectric data storage

For most of us, storing and accessing the vast majority of our computer data involves using either hard disk or solid state drives or perhaps a combination of both. Each method boasts its own advantages and while the battle for storage supremacy between the two rages in public, research at Japan's Tohoku University has revealed another option. Using a pulse generator to alter the electrical state of tiny dots on a ferroelectric medium, Kenkou Tanaka and Yasuo Cho have successfully recorded data at around eight times the density of currently available hard disk drives.

Scanning Nonlinear Dielectric Microscope
Inset left: shows topography and electric dipole-moment
Inset right: Example of a ferroelectric information storage

For primary computer data storage at the moment, there are really only two contenders fighting for public domination. Hard disk drives magnetically encode data onto spinning platters, which is subsequently read by detecting those magnetized areas and translating it back into something usable. Solid state drives work by electronically altering the state of flash memory cells and then transform all the positive and negative cells into something that the computer can understand. Although the adoption of solid state drives is slowly beginning to spread, most of our computer systems still currently use voluminous spinning disks to store the various pieces of our digital lives.

Another way

Meanwhile, researchers from the Research Institute of Electrical Communication Tohoku University have been looking at other storage methods and have recently disclosed their findings to the American Institute of Physics. Recording to a ferroelectric substrate, Kenkou Tanaka and Yasuo Cho have reportedly been successful in achieving a data density of 4 trillion bits per square inch, a world record for experimental ferroelectric data storage.

The scientists used a Scanning Nonlinear Dielectric Microscope as the storage and playback apparatus. Writing data involved sending relatively large voltage pulses through a pulse generator to a 30nm Lithium Tantalate medium. The tiny cantilever tip of the pulse generator successively alters the electric polarization and nonlinear dielectric constant of tiny spots on the ferroelectric medium, where positive voltage pulses represent a "1" data bit and negative pulses represent "0".

Tanaka and Cho also experimented with various pulse amplitudes and came up with a method for reducing the incidence of miswritten dots where close write proximity caused the polarized regions to expand to such an extent that individual bits were not distinct. Cho said: "We expect this ferroelectric data storage system to be a candidate to succeed magnetic hard disk drives or flash memory, at least in applications for which extremely high data density and small physical volume is required."

Research continues

 However, improvements and fine tuning of such things as accuracy and speed will need to be made before such a storage system can be primed for commercial development.

In related news, it would appear that existing magnetic technologies are not going to be superseded without a fight as Toshiba recently unveiled a prototype magnetic storage technology capable of cramming 2.5Tb of data into a square inch.

Eton's Soulra solar-powered sound system

Built to provide music outdoors, Eton's Soulra solar-powered sound system has a rubberized exterior to help withstand the odd bump and being splash-proof too, it's designed to cope with unpredictable weather conditions. When the sun does shine, folding out the high-efficiency solar panel will keep the music playing on whilst also charging the docked device.

 Behind the left and right grills to the front of the Soulra's rubberized aluminum casing sit a couple of 11 W full-range speaker drivers which are said to benefit from extra bass boost. Raising the cover in between the speakers reveals the docking bay which, in addition to being compatible with the iPhone, will happily house a host of Apple's music players including various generations of the iPod, the Nano, the Touch and Mini. Should you wish to feed in another music player, there's also an audio line-in socket to the rear.

The underside of the cover contains a 5.11-inch (130 mm) square solar panel made up of high efficiency monocrystal solar cells with a maximum power output of 230 mA / 2 W. Eton says that around 10 hours of direct sunlight is required to fully charge the two-cell 2000 mAh, 7.4V lithium-ion battery pack, or 4 hours via the supplied AC adapter. Once fully charged, the 11.9 x 6.6 x 3.5-inch (301 x 168 x 89 mm) Soulra should give up to "4 hours of audio playback at mid-volume and continuous charging of iPod and iPhone." 

Playback control is undertaken via the rather menacing red buttons to the top or with the similarly-styled remote. The Soulra, which is shipped with a protective cover for the docked device, costs US$200

The main features of the Soulra are demonstrated in the following video:

Zotac's new nVIDIA ION-powered ZBOX HD-ID11 mini-PC

Zotac International appears to be amongst the first to announce a new computer system featuring the next generation nVIDIA ION graphics processor. The ZBOX HD-ID11 mini-PC has a small footprint, low power draw but promises to deliver big system performance with full 1080p video playback, 7.1 digital surround sound and the facility to easily pop in your own memory and storage medium.

The next generation nVIDIA ION graphics processor in the 7.4 x 7.4 x 1.73in Zotac ZBOX HD-ID11 mini-PC caters for full 1080p high definition playback and comes with 512Mb of dedicated DDR3 memory, which should provide "a rewarding experience" when combined with the 7.1 surround sound LPCM digital audio, according to the company's Carsten Berger.

At the heart of this teeny monster beats an Intel Atom D510 dual core processor at 1.66GHz on a NM10 Express chipset. Users will be have to slam in their own memory into the 200-pin DDR2 SODIMM slot, supply their own 2.5in storage medium and then load in their choice of operating system (it is Windows 7 compatible). Doing so is claimed to be a relatively simple affair thanks to the ZBOX's tool-less case design and once done, a monitor or TV will need to be found. The ZBOX offers HDMI 1.3a connectivity or dual-link DVI (package includes DVI-to-VGA adapter) so that shouldn't prove too much of a headache.

The unit offers connection to other devices via six USB 2.0 ports (four to the rear and one each on the top and front), an eSATA 3Gb/s interface and a 6-in-1 memory card reader. Wireless connectivity is taken care of by integrated 802.11b/g/n and there's also Gigabit ethernet for wired networking. You can hide the unit behind a monitor if you so wish courtesy of the included VESA mount or sit it in the provided desk stand.

Zotac told Gizmag that the ZBOX HD-ID11 mini-PC will be available in the US by the beginning of April for a recommended price of US$239.