It was due to be expected, a pretty big announcement actually. Advanced Micro Devices is preparing a to spin-off its manufacturing operations to a joint venture in an attempt to cut costs, according to an online report from The Wall Street Journal. This means that the company will be splitting up and the news will be officially announced today.

The plan will see AMD's factories taken over by the venture, ownership of which will be split between AMD and other investors including some associated with the government of Abu Dhabi, the newspaper said quoting "people familiar with the matter." The new venture will not only make chips for AMD but also other companies, according to the report.

AMD could not immediately be reached for comment.

Shortly before the newspaper report was published the company informed reporters and analysts that it plans a "significant corporate announcement" at 8a.m. EDT (12pm GMT) on Tuesday. AMD President and CEO Dirk Meyer will lead the conference call.

Well, we can rely on overclockers.co.uk to leak out sensitie information. X58 mainboard prices have been posted on that e-tailers website. The cheapest board is the Intel reference it'll cost you

We already had the Vista version available, yet we now can add a smile on Windows XP users as well.  There's not much info on it other than it's a small update over the recently released WHQL driver.

We have a discussion/feedback thread open on these drivers right here.

A bucket load of GeForce graphics cards are supported though.

Download:

  GeForce ForceWare 178.15 XP 64-bit
  GeForce ForceWare 178.15 XP 32-bit
  GeForce ForceWare 178.15 Vista 64-bit
  GeForce ForceWare 178.15 Vista 32-bit

Today here at Guru3D we test and review the HIS Radeon HD 4850 ICEQ4 TurboX. A very lovely mid-range Radeon HD 4850 graphics card that comes pre-overclocked and has one of the best performing and definitely most silent coolers available on the market to date.

In this review we'll show you all the ins and outs of this product, as usual covering the GPU, thermals, power consumption, noise levels, photo-shoot, benchmarks, overclocking and obviously our verdict.

You can check out this article right here.

Kingston issued a press release in which they announce HyperX DDR3 memory modules with a frequency of 2GHz

Shipping immediately in 2GB memory kits, the new HyperX PC3-16000 memory offers gaming enthusiasts top-of-the-line Enhanced Performance Profile (EPP) ready memory with CL9-9-9-27 @ 1.9v timings. "Two Gigahertz is now the sweet spot for many benchmarking enthusiasts and Kingston's new 2GHz HyperX DDR3 memory is fully tested at specified frequency and timing values so it's ideal for anyone seeking to boost performance," said Mark Tekunoff, senior technology manager, Kingston. With the addition of the 2GHz kit, Kingston now offers a full slate of DDR3 memory products available in a variety of speeds and capacities.

The Kingston PC3-16000 kit (KHX16000D3K2/2GN) is available for $227.

Midway has released full version of Area 51 allowing you to enjoy this sci-fi FPS developed by Inevitable Entertainment for free. The 2GB download can be found in CGO.ro, GH. 

Players take on the role of Lt. Nick Cross, a hazardous biological waste specialist sent to investigate. During his investigation, Lt. Cross stumbles across alien creatures and becomes infected with a biological mutagen that eventually transforms him into something not quite human. To save the earth and himself, Lt. Cross must fight to solve the enigma of Area 51. Area 51 takes the player through eight massive levels within a clandestine government complex. Combining intense combat, exploration, adventure, discovery, and puzzle solving, the game blends graphic violence with science fiction. As Lt. Cross, the player will discover secret areas and items, including the answers to this rumored government conspiracy.

Photos of a retail Foxconn Renaissance X58 Digital Life motherboard have surfaced on the web. The cooling is a bit weird as you'll see on the photo, the Northbridge cooling looks somewhat like a speaker while the Southbridge heatsink looks like a knob. Heh, I kinda like it though. More photo's here.

Here's a look at some of the specifications:

* X58 tylersburg chipset
* ICH10-R southbridge
* 6 phase power circuit for CPU
* 2x 16X PCI-E and 2x 8X PCI-E slots
* 6 memory slots for 3-channel memory configurations
* Maximum memory amount xx?
* All basic connectors you need in today computing
* Selectable QPI 4800GT/s, 6400GT/s (Gigatransfers/s)
* All adjustments for basic overclocking

I'll do the blunt copy and paste here, but in a nutshell .. there's a rumor on the web that's saying that Microsoft Windows 7 might be relased as soon as 2009 already. There have been more rumors on this topic, yet AMD has just added fuel to the fire:

As PC Watch reports, AMD showed an interesting slide during its presentation at the Cutting Edge IT & Electronics Comprehensive Exhibition (CEATEC) event near Tokyo.

Under the title, "What to Expect in 2009," the AMD slide lists a number of items: the move to 40nm process technology, the arrival of the OpenCL general-purpose GPU API, widespread use of GDDR5 memory, consumer GPGPU applications, "HD+" televisions, and... Windows 7. To be more specific, the slide says "Windows 7 and DirectX 11" on one line.

PC Watch doesn't say much on the subject, so it's not fully clear what AMD was referring to there. Perhaps the firm let slip Microsoft's release schedule, or perhaps it's just talking about getting drivers working with pre-release versions of the OS. Judging by the context, though, it certainly looks like AMD expects Windows 7 to come out next year.

A 2009 launch sounds plausible, too. Microsoft has apparently been cutting fat from the OS by removing apps like Windows Mail, Windows Photo Gallery, and Windows Movie Maker. Also, recent reports have claimed Microsoft's internal calendar sets the Windows 7 "gold" date in early June. According to ZDNet's Ed Bott, Microsoft would have to trim the OS's beta cycle to get it out before next summer, but that schedule "would be downright leisurely compared to the one Microsoft followed for Windows XP, which was launched in October 2001, only 20 months after its predecessor, Windows 2000." [via tech report]

The delay if accurate would draw out the availability of XP for non-budget PCs until just months before the release of the next-generation Windows operating system expected in early 2010. The remaining window would be the smallest in recent memory where the current version of Windows was available exclusively.

Although Vista adoption has accelerated since computer makers have had to discontinue XP sales for consumer systems earlier in June, Microsoft has routinely struggled to counter negative perceptions formed early in Vista's history and has seen stiffer resistance from businesses whose software and hardware is more likely to be incompatible with the more recent Windows platform.

The original extension is commonly known to have stemmed from pressure by PC assemblers concerned that business sales would draw to a halt without guarantees of XP availability for some systems.

The Inquirer heard that Intel is adivising mobo-makers and memory vendors alike about their new X58+Core i7 combo and to abide to a strict 1.65V limit on memory voltages, beyond which there is the risk of burning out the CPU.

The info first tipped up on the XFastest forums where the admin posted several photos of an Asus P6T Deluxe (retail-packed) mobo including one of a big sticker over the DIMM slots motherboard warning that anything over 1.65V will fry the CPU.

The DDR3 JEDEC specification is well within limits of this, however, starting off at 1.5V, but as Intel

The HOC Crysis Warhead Benchmark is a very hard opponent against the synthetic benchmark. Many usefull options, many tweaks, many lost FPS...

Crysis Warhead updates and refines the gameplay of the original game through a sidestory plot involving Psycho, one of previous protagonist Nomad's allies. The game is a parallel story that follows Sergeant Michael "Psycho" Sykes, a character from the original Crysis, as he faces his own trials and challenges on the other side of the island during the time period of the first game. It features new fully customizable weapons, vehicles and enemies, along with new multiplayer content. It also showcases a new, enhanced and optimized version of CryEngine 2 and is the first game developed by Crytek's Budapest studio.

System requirements

• 32/64 bit Windows XP / VISTA
• The latest drivers for your graphics card
• Source: DVD or STEAM

Feature

• Change the resolution from 800

Fraps is a universal Windows application that can be used with games using DirectX or OpenGL graphic technology. In its current form Fraps performs many tasks and can best be described as:

• Benchmarking Software - Show how many Frames Per Second (FPS) you are getting in a corner of your screen. Perform custom benchmarks and measure the frame rate between any two points. Save the statistics out to disk and use them for your own reviews and applications.
• Screen Capture Software - Take a screenshot with the press of a key! There's no need to paste into a paint program every time you want a new shot. Your screen captures are automatically named and timestamped
• Realtime Video Capture Software - Have you ever wanted to record video while playing your favourite game? Come join the Machinima revolution! Throw away the VCR, forget about using a DV cam, game recording has never been this easy! Fraps can capture audio and video up to 2560x1600 on dual-core CPUs (1152x864 single-core) at up to 100 frames per second!

The latest Fraps 2.9 release adds support for Vista and DirectX 10 games. With games starting to appear using DirectX 10 graphics we are happy to report that benchmarking, video capture, and screenshots are now all fully supported for these titles.
Vista also includes a rewritten audio subsystem. Fraps can take advantage of this and directly record a sound stream from the machine without requiring any support from the soundcard driver. This allows you to capture ingame audio even if you are using a USB headset or other audio device which does not normally support a "Stereo Mix" or "What U Hear" recording input.
Since the Vista Desktop Window Manager (DWM) runs through DirectX we have also added a new option to monitor the desktop under Vista. You can now take screenshots and record video from the desktop just like any other game or 3D application.

Fixed

• Fixed games such as Stalker not being detected in 2.9.5
• Fixed video capture corruption in FSX on multi monitor setups
• Fixed codec crashes in large projects
• Fixed Fraps not starting with Windows when running on battery power
• Fixed Fraps closing when switching to battery power
•  Fixed OpenGL video capture not recording correct viewport in some applications
• Fixed sound sync when recording started while rendering paused

Download - click here.

If you are a Netflix subscriber, take a second look at the LG HD 300 Blu-Ray Player. Apart from streaming Netflix

Typically known for its business storage, Fusion-io provided a glance at an upcoming solid-state drive built for very high-performance home systems. The ioExtreme card will hold just 80GB but switches from SATA to PCI Express and is tuned for sheer transfer rate above all else: data reading speeds hover between 500MB and 700MB per second, or about five times as quick as current SSDs. The extra speed is pitched as ideal for particularly disk-heavy tasks such as compiling code, content editing or large games.

The card is still in the development stage and hasn't received its official operating system support or complete technical details. Fusion-io plans to release the ioExtreme in early 2009 and is targeting a price below $1,000, putting it in the same price range as high-end traditional but slower SSDs.

Rap-rocker Kid Rock has chosen Rhapsody as the exclusive online sales venue for his music, the owner of latter party has announced. Real notes that Kid Rock's albums have not been available online in any legal manner in the past, whether for download or streaming; as of today, the artist's entire collection should be available for purchase or streaming through the subscription version of Rhapsody.

The decision is notable mainly because of Rock's outspoken dislike for the iTunes Store, in spite of its prominence as the most financially successful music download site. His most recent album, Rock N Roll Jesus, has nevertheless sold over 1.7 million copies, which the Wall Street Journal observes is an impressive figure in a world of deteriorating CD sales. Many parties are said to be irritated with the restrictions of iTunes, which can include DRM, an insistence of selling tracks separately, and pressure to offer exclusivity in exchange for advertising on the iTunes homepage [via Macnn].

Earlier this week in Japan the CEATEC was held, ATI graphics department senior vice president and general manager Rick Bergman announced the company