"Intel's 845 Chipset has been eagerly awaited by the computer industry because it allows the high performance P4 processor to work with cheap SDRAM memory," said President of FIC's Networking and Information Group, Gene Sheu, in a statement this morning. "Our engineers have put tremendous effort into creating two motherboards that best utilize this advanced technology and that have displayed outstanding performance during our rigorous testing process. We would like to thank Intel for their excellent cooperation with us in helping to bring these boards to market."

Intel's P4 CPU features highly advanced "Netburst" micro-architecture: this doubles the instruction pipeline, runs ALU at 2x core frequency and significantly improves L1 and L2 cache performance. In addition, it provides 400MHz Front Side Bus and has an improved instruction set (SSE2). The VC11 and VC31 motherboards are fully packed with features to best utilize this technology, including 1x AGP 4X slot, ATA/100, On-Board Audio, optional LAN and 1x CNR slot. Both boards use an Intel 845 North Bridge and an Intel ICH2 South Bridge.

The VC11 Motherboard
Form Factor: ATX
Memory: 3x DIMM Sockets up to 3GB PC133 SDRAM
Expansion Slots: 1x AGP 4X, 5x PCI, 1x CNR

The VC31 Motherboard
Form Factor: Micro ATX
Memory: 2x DIMM Sockets up to 2GB PC133 SDRAM
Expansion Slots: 1x AGP 4X, 3x PCI, 1x CNR

(From ZDNET)While monochrome PDA models are mainstays at the low end of the market, buyers willing to spend several hundred dollars are increasingly opting for color models. This sudden segmentation of the market has not only contributed to the severe woes facing Palm and Handspring, but could make it difficult for the companies to reduce their bulging inventories of high-priced, grayscale devices.Both Palm's m500 and Handspring's Visor Edge (both of which feature monochrome screens) have been slow sellers since their launch this spring. On Thursday, Palm slashed the price of its m500 by $70 to $329. In late August, Handspring chopped the price of its Visor Edge by $100 to $299.
[Comment on SharkyForums]

(Reuters) - International Business Machines Corp. said it has launched a new midrange network computer, the eServer p660, in a new shot across the bow of competitors Sun Microsystems Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. Midrange machines generally cost $100,000 to $1 million and are one of the hottest spots of competition among the three companies that dominate high-end server sales. A network server is a computer that manages network traffic. IBM's announcement comes just ahead of Sun's launch of a new high-end server running its UltraSPARC III microchip. Sun has been the global leader in machines running variations of the Unix operating system, which include the new machine by IBM. IBM in turn is the No. 1 vendor of all high-end machines. The p660 runs on up to eight IBM RS 64 IV microchips. Big Blue is due to launch its first sever running on its new Power 4 chip in the fourth quarter.
[Comment on SharkyForums]

(Reuters) Microsoft Corp is drafting a settlement proposal for a new round of talks with the U.S. government this week, aimed at resolving the landmark antitrust suit against it, lawyers close to the case said, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal's online edition on Monday. The overture comes in response to the government's decision last week to narrow legal issues in the case and not seek a breakup. It will be Microsoft's first substantive effort to settle since a June 28 ruling by the federal appeals court here that upheld the core of the government's case, the report said.

Settlement efforts have failed and the government is continuing to draft a broad set of restrictions on Microsoft's business conduct that it will ask a federal court to impose. These rules are intended to take the place of a breakup, a remedy that was thrown out by the appeals court in June and formally abandoned last week by the Justice Department and 18 states involved in the case, the report said.

Microsoft is expected to fight the restrictions now under development. Last year, its chief executive, Steve Ballmer, called proposed conduct rules "just as damaging" as a breakup and said that they would force the company into court-ordered regulation, the article said.
[Comment on SharkyForums]

(Service Announcement) Sony Electronics today launched its new MYLO (My Life On Line) wireless Internet service for CLIE PEG-S320 handheld and notebook PC users looking to wirelessly access local news, sports scores, weather reports and financial information. Powered by GoAmerica, a leading nationwide wireless data and Internet solutions provider, and its Go.Web technology, the MYLO wireless service encrypts and compresses data while reformatting for a mobile Internet experience. MYLO wireless service and MYLO.com enable users to personalize information, bookmark their favorite sites, access e-mail or instant messaging and search HTML and WML-based Web sites, all of which optimizes wireless Internet access.

The CLIE handheld modem adapter is now available on www.MYLO.com for $199, after a $100 mail-in rebate, with a 12-month service contract, other terms and conditions may apply. Sony's MYLO service will be available for a monthly rate of $39.95 for CLIE handhelds, $59.95 for notebook PCs and $79.95 for both. The service features unlimited Internet access within a designated service area.
[Comment on SharkyForums]

(Press Release) VIA Technologies, Inc., a leading innovator and developer of core logic chipsets, microprocessors, and multimedia and communications chips, today announced that it has begun filing lawsuits against Intel Corporation in US and Taiwan courts for the infringement of VIA patents by Intel processors and chipsets. Separately, VIA has initiated litigation against Intel for violations of the Republic of China Fair Trade Law and the willful destruction of VIA property by Intel representatives and employees. As part of these complaints, VIA is seeking damages for losses incurred and for injunctive relief.

"Intel processors and the Intel Pentium 4 processor compatible 845 chipset infringe VIA's patents," commented Richard Brown, Director of Marketing, VIA Technologies, Inc. "Starting today, VIA will begin filing a series of patent infringement lawsuits and civil actions in the Taiwan and US courts seeking damages and injunctive relief."

"Intel has not obtained a license from VIA for the Pentium 4 microprocessor or the 845 chipset," continued Richard Brown. "The lawsuits will be aimed at stopping the infringement of VIA's patents by these products," he said. VIA will file a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against Intel and its Pentium 4 microprocessor.

VIA Technologies, Inc has also filed a complaint to the Taiwan Fair Trade Commission against the illegal anti-competitive behaviour employed by Intel in attempting to prevent the smooth introduction of VIA's Intel Pentium 4 processor compatible chipsets into the market. In addition, VIA is filing criminal suits over the willful destruction of VIA property by Intel representatives and employees at the Computex 2001 tradeshow held in Taipei in June 2001.
[Comment on SharkyForums]

(Product Announcement) Elastic Networks has announced the release of chipsets that boost the company's innovative EtherLoop technology to 10Mbps. The new 10Mbps chipsets provide higher data rates while delivering EtherLoop's built-in intelligence to adapt to real-world conditions of imperfect copper loops and spectral interference.  The 10Mbps chipset is the latest milestone in the company's continuing development of EtherLoop technology towards its vision of delivering 100Mbps over existing copper telephone wires. Over the last nine months, the company's R&D labs have extended EtherLoop performance from 4Mbps to 6Mbps, and now to 10Mbps. The 10Mbps chipsets will be incorporated into Elastic Networks' Storm System family of intelligent IP-over-Ethernet products. The chipsets will also be incorporated into products in development by Elastic Networks technology licensing partners, including Beijing-based Keval On-Line and Hitachi Telecom USA.
[Comment on SharkyForums]

(Service Announcement) VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator and developer of core logic chipsets, microprocessors, and multimedia and communications chips, today announced that it has launched a new web site aimed at strengthening its connections with users of VIA products. Called VIA Arena, the site features a full set of on-line product information and technical support services, including driver downloads, FAQs, a knowledge atabase, fun downloads, and technical support and discussion forums. VIA Arena will also run monthly competitions and deliver all the latest news about products released by VIA and its partners.
[Comment on SharkyForums]

Elsewhere on the web today...

TweakTown has posted a review of the Intel Pentium4 2GHz processor:
"Intel's name for the Pentium 4's new design is "NetBurst". Like with the Intel Pentium III and its SSE instructions to supposedly make internet content load quicker Intel is trying its hardest to push the idea that Intel's new processor will make your web pages load quicker, unfortunately Internet is mostly limited to your modem's maximum speed and the speed of your ISP."

X-bit labs has posted Seagate Barracuda ATA IV HDD Review:
"Besides Seagate Barracuda ATA IV HDD, we also included some very popular drives, namely: Quantum Fireball Plus AS, IBM Deskstar 60GXP, Western Digital Caviar WD600BB and Western Digital Caviar WD800BB. The drives participating in our tests featured the following capacities: 60GB (by Quantum, IBM and WD600BB) and 80GB (by Seagate and WD800BB)."

Digit-Life has posted its Kinyo R-565 and D-565 Active 5.1 Acoustic Systems roundup:
"The R-565 and D-565 models we are going to talk about have been released a short time ago. These two sets were combined in a single review since their speakers and amplifying parts are absolutely identical. The only difference is lack of a DD5.1 decoder in the R-565."
[Comment on SharkyForums]