In order to facilitate interoperability and enable customers and vendors to access the data in .pst files on a variety of platforms, we will be releasing documentation for the .pst file format. This will allow developers to read, create, and interoperate with the data in .pst files in server and client scenarios using the programming language and platform of their choice. The technical documentation will detail how the data is stored, along with guidance for accessing that data from other software applications. It also will highlight the structure of the .pst file, provide details like how to navigate the folder hierarchy, and explain how to access the individual data objects and properties.

AMD released the Mecha and LadyBug technology demo's yesterday on the developer website. Unfortunately it required a developer login in order to download them. Therefore we hosted them on our file-severs.

AMD Mecha DirectX 11 Demo
The Mecha demo shows the results of a new approach to rendering semi-transparent objects without pre-sorting, known as order-independent transparency (OIT). It is made possible by the ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series of graphics processors and the new features of Microsoft DirectX 11 technology. Blending is an order-dependent operation that requires sorting objects before rendering them. Atomic operations and append buffers make it possible to construct per-pixel fragment lists and sort them on the GPU. The results are a significant increase in speed and accuracy over those possible with traditional techniques.

Download

AMD Ladybug DirectX 11 Demo
The Ladybug demo shows the results of a new approach to simulating lens-accurate depth-of-field effects based on real-world parameters of focal length and focus distance. This technique is made possible by the ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series of graphics processors and the Microsoft DirectX 11 and Direct Compute 11 technologies. Depth-of-field is used in feature films by cinematographers to subtly guide a viewer

When you purchase Windows 7 from Microsoft Store, you have the option to download an ISO file or compressed files. The Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool allows you to create a copy of your Windows 7 ISO file on a USB flash drive or a DVD. To create a bootable DVD or USB flash drive, download the ISO file and then run the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool. Once this is done, you can install Windows 7 directly from the USB flash drive or DVD.

The ISO file contains all the Windows 7 installation files combined into a single uncompressed file. When you download the ISO file, you need to copy it to some medium in order to install Windows 7. This tool allows you to create a copy of the ISO file to a USB flash drive or a DVD. To install Windows 7 from your USB flash drive or DVD, all you need to do is insert the USB flash drive into your USB port or insert your DVD into your DVD drive and run Setup.exe from the root folder on the drive.

Note: You cannot install Windows 7 from the ISO file until you copy it to a USB flash drive or DVD with the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool and install from there.

To install the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool:

1. Download the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool installation file.
2. When you are prompted to either save the file to disk or run it, choose Run.
3. Follow the steps in the setup dialogs. You'll have the option to specify where to install the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool and whether to create shortcuts on your Start Menu or Windows Desktop.

System Requirements

• Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 (32-bit or 64-bit)
• Pentium 233-megahertz (MHz) processor or faster (300 MHz is recommended)
• 50MB of free space on your hard drive
• DVD-R drive or 4GB removable USB flash drive

Download - click here

S3 Graphicsannounced the latest addition to its power-efficient embedded graphics processor family, with the unveiling of the OpenCL 1.0 capable Chrome 5400E GPGPU processor. The S3 Graphics 5400E will be unveiled at the Electronic Manufacturer Exposition (eMEX), October 22nd - 25th, in Suzhou, China at the Suzhou International Expo Center, Hall 4A, Booth No. 4K08.

OpenCL is an open, cross-platform standard used to harness the power of a GPUs internal shaders to accelerate parallel computations in applications ranging from scientific, medical, and other high performance computing (HPC) markets. The native OpenCL engine in the 5400E GPU enables our partners to go beyond graphics and video, and penetrate these diverse HPC markets.

"S3 Graphics continues to empower key embedded technology providers, helping extend their market offerings based on our growing portfolio of feature-rich products, incorporating next-generation technologies like General Purpose GPU computing, as well as the latest 3D graphics architectures, HD video decode and encode, and the latest HDMI and Display Port display interfaces," said Dr. Ken Weng, GM for S3 Graphics. "Our new Chrome 5400E truly bridges the gap between PC and embedded device design, giving customers true GPU versatility."

Native support of OpenCL with the industry's best GFLOPS per watt rating including a DirectX 10.1 / OpenGL 3.1 graphics engine, ChromotionHD video core for HD video decode including Blu-ray, H.264, and VC-1, a video encode engine, and OpenVG 1.1 engine in the 5400E creates the most versatile GPU for embedded applications requiring longevity, customization, performance, features, and low power.

DirectX 10.1 and OpenGL 3.1 applications on Microsoft Windows and Linux platforms can be effectively run using the Chrome 5400E programmable shader cores to speed up 3D simulations, 3D rendering applications, and other visual processing functions. OpenVG 1.1 support boosts 2D based vector graphics for scalable graphics and video vector based applications.

Driver support of Microsoft operating systems includes Windows 7 Aero, Vista Aero, XP, and CE. Linux kernel 2.6.xx with support for RedHat, SuSE, Ubuntu, Fedora Core, Debian, along with other Linux distributions are supported by the 5400E drivers. For more information, visit the product page.

ASUS is very soon introducing a motherbaord with support for SATA 6 Gbps and USB 3.0 under product name P7P55D-E Premium. According to ASUS,this P55 board expects to show up in late October. The motherboard  follows P7P55D Deluxes design and features except for enhanced SATA 3.0 and USB 3.0. P7P55D-E Premium is available soon.

According to a new study, if HDDs continue to progress at their current pace, then in 2020 a two-disk, 2.5-inch disk drive will be capable of storing more than 14 TB and will cost about $40 (today, a typical 500 GB hard drive costs about $100). Although flash memories have also become popular - with advantages such as lower power consumption, faster read access time, and better mechanical reliability than HDDs - the cost per GB for flash memories is nearly 10 times that of HDDs. In addition, flash memory technology will reach technical limits that will prevent its continued scaling before 2020, keeping them from replacing HDDs.

In a study published in a recent issue of IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, Professor Mark Kryder and PhD student Chang Soo Kim of Carnegie Mellon University have investigated 13 up-and-coming NVM technologies to see whether one of them might outperform HDDs on a cost-per-TB basis in 2020. Their results showed that most technologies will probably not be competitive with HDDs or flash memories at that time, except for two potential candidates: phase change random access memory (PCRAM) and spin transfer torque random access memory (STTRAM).

As Kryder and Kim explained, PCRAM is based on the phase change properties of chalcogenide glass. With the application of heat, the glass can switch between two different states (amorphous and crystalline) to be used as a memory. With their small cell size and ability to store multiple bits per cell, PCRAMs have the potential to offer high densities and be cost-competitive with HDDs, but their biggest drawback is that they require somewhat higher power than most other technologies. PCRAMs are already beginning to be marketed by Numonyx Inc., an Intel-ST Microelectronics joint venture, and so are closer to practical realization than STTRAM.

STTRAM, which is similar to magnetic RAM, uses a spin polarized current to write data by reorienting the states of a magnetic tunnel junction between parallel and anti-parallel orientations. In their evaluation, Kryder and Kim found that STTRAMs appear to potentially offer superior power efficiency, among other advantages. If STTRAMs could be improved to store multiple bits per cell, the researchers predict that STTRAMs

Cooler Master designed the Cooler Master LAB Test Bench v1.0. It's what has been missing here at the lab alright, a nice looking, easy to use chassis where we can pop on and off hardware components, it makes motherboard, cooler and RAM testing really easy. And as simple as this product is, we really like it. And rest assured we'll be using it with pretty much any future motherboard review. It's not a suitable product for everybody, but if it applies to you we can wholeheartedly recommend it.

Read the Guru3D review

One of the bigger fans and aficionado's of graphics technology is Bodar -- Bodar is active in our forums a lot and he spends a lot of money on his gear. He recently built a fantastic PC -- totally overclocked and pimped up with no less than four Radeon HD 5870 1024MB card. This weekend he made a nice little video about his new setup and takes you through a good number of benchmarks and user experiences.

His configuration:

• Radeon HD 5870 1024Mb (x4)
• Xeon 3580 @ 4.72 GHz
• 120GB OCZ Vertex Turbo SSD
• 6GB Corsair Dominator
• 1500 Watt PSU
• Windows 7

 If you are bored on a Sunday morning, go check out his video and if you like to comment him, please do so in this thread. Nice job Bodar !

Akasa has introduced the Freedom Tower, a new processor cooler for the most recent processors from Intel and AMD. The cooler features a tower heatsink with four nickle plated direct-touch heatpipes, aluminum fins and a 120mm PWM fan with a max airflow of 57.32CFM at a noise level of 27.2dBA. Akasa Freedom Series is designed to unleash the performance of your system. Freedom Tower is a multi platform CPU cooler utilizing four nickel plated copper heatpipes with direct contact technology. The extreme cooling capabilities give you freedom to overclock and white LED 12cm fan with PWM provides ultra quiet performance and subtle illumination. Freedom to overclock is yours.

• Quality materials, classic design and killer looks
• Four nickel plated heatpipes with direct contact technology
• High grade aluminium fins for rapid heat dissipation
• Ultra quiet PWM 12cm white LED fan
  

Sapphire is developing a Radeon HD 5750 with Vapor-X cooler. The HD 5750 Vapor-X includes a uniquely designed cooler utilizing Sapphire

Unigine Corp announced its release of the first DirectX 11 benchmark "Heaven" that is based on its proprietary Unigine engine. The company has already made a name among the overclockers and gaming enthusiasts for uncovering the realm of true GPU capabilities with previously released "Sanctuary" and "Tropics" demos. Their benchmarking capabilities are coupled with striking visual integrity of the refined graphic art.  

"Heaven" benchmark excels at providing the following key features:

• Native support of OpenGL, DirectX 9, DirectX 10 and DirectX 11
• Comprehensive use of tessellation technology
• Advanced SSAO (screen-space ambient occlusion)
• Volumetric cumulonimbus clouds generated by a physically accurate algorithm
• Dynamic simulation of changing environment with high physical fidelity
• Interactive experience with fly/walk-through modes
• ATI Eyefinity support

Hardware requirements:

• The Tessellation feature REQUIRES a GPU with DirectX 11 support!
• ATI Radeon HD 2xxx and higher or NVIDIA GeForce 7xxx and higher (recommended: NVIDIA 8800 / AMD 4800 series)
• 256 Mb of video memory

Earlier this month the company has announced full support of DirectX 11 features in its top-notch 3D middleware. Updated Unigine engine supports Windows 7 and has successfully incorporated the groundbreaking DirectX 11 capabilities, including the following core features:

• Hardware tessellation
• DirectCompute
• Shader Model 5.0

Download the benchmark --  click here (135MB).

Or you can watch the YouTube video. We also have a discussion thread open here.

Today we'll look at Gigabyte's offering with their P55 UD5 motherboard. The UD5 features Gigabyte's UD3 suite of features, which include 2oz of copper throughout the PCB, Japanese solid capacitors, low RDS MOSFETs, high-quality ferrite core chokes, and more. The UD5 comes equipped with a modest 12 phase power design. s standard the board has ten USB 2.0 ports and additional USB headers to add another 14 USB ports should you want to.

Extra's can be found in an eSATA ports, Clear CMOS, power and reset micro switches, Optical SPDIF audio output controlled by 8 Channel Realtek AL888S HD Audio. It is one fine motherboard alright !

Check out the full Guru3D article right here.

NZXT expanded its Classic Series of PC cases with the Gamma. This all-black ATX mid-tower intends to provide the essentials of casing the PC of today, while attempting to be creative with its bezel design to the extant possible. It measures 190 X 449 X 508 mm (W x H x D), and weighs 6 kg. The case material is steel, including a dash of meshed steel in the front-panel. The front-panel includes four 5.25" drive bays, audio, USB, and eSATA connectors, and perforated steel to cover the front intake fan.

The interiors are all-black, with seven internal 3.5" drive bays. Apart from openings that help in cable management, the motherboard tray has an opening that makes working with CPU coolers with back-plates easier. The ventilation system provides a lot of room for expansion: a 120 mm intake fan, two side 120 mm fans, a rear 120 mm, and another two 140 or 120 mm fans on top. Ports for water-tubing are included. It is available in Europe, for a price of 39.90 EUR.

Yep that is right .. 25W. AMD will launch a Athlon II X2 260U with a extremely low 25W TDP for OEM in Q4. This will be the first 25W Athlon II X2 based on 45nm Regor. The processors is clocked at 1.8GHz and hasa  2MB cache, comes with support for DDR3 1066 on an AM3 socket. Some faster models will show up after 2010 with revised Regor dual-core.

Athlon II X2 260U will replace 1.8GHz Athlon X2 6850e,which is based on 65nm dual-core with 22W TDP -- Athlon II X2 260U obviously will return better performance.

Meanwhile AMD and NVIDIA have criticized Intel which seems to purposely dragging its feet on this despite of 3.0 controller spec eventually by Intel. The manager explains that Intel teams prefers its own optical cable interface, Light Peak with 10Gbps of transfer speed ,which is expected to show up early next year.

That doesn