Despite comments from Ballmer last week Microsoft today announced Windows XP will still retire on June 30, except for some market segments like low-cost PCs.

The spokeswoman said Microsoft is aware that some customers are pushing for an extension to the deadline -- more than 160,000 people have signed a "Save XP" petition launched by Infoworld magazine, for example. But the company has also done its own research among partners and customers, and feels that "the dates are right," she said, speaking on behalf of Microsoft.

"We feel we've made the right accommodations for customers in certain segments who may need more time to transition to Windows Vista," she said. "But as Steve noted, we maintain a constant stance of listening to our customers and our partners. That's what is guiding our plan, and will continue to guide us going forward."

The "accommodations" refer to several exceptions that Microsoft has made to the June 30 deadline. For example, companies that make volume purchases of Vista Business or Vista Ultimate can ask their vendor to "downgrade" their license to Windows XP. Microsoft has also made exceptions for the emerging class of small, ultra-low-cost PCs, and it will continue to provide Windows XP Starter Edition for PCs sold in emerging markets.

Retailers and PC vendors can also continue to sell any backlog of Windows XP licenses that they bought before the June 30 deadline. Beyond those exceptions, most new Windows licenses purchased after June 30 will be for Windows Vista.

AMD on Monday announced it will be adding Business Class platforms to its line-up of multi-core CPUs. The maker's dual-core Athlon and triple or quad-core Phenom CPUs, coupled with AMD 780V chipset and optional ATI Radeon integrated graphics support are featured in the Business Class. The benefits of the new platforms will include up to 24-month image stability when installed in first-issue desktops, and a minimum 12 months in subsequent models. Furthermore, all are energy efficient thanks to Energy Star 4.0 rating.
One of the first desktop PCs utilizing AMD's Business Class platform is the HP Compaq dc5850, also announced today and is expected to ship on May 5. Dell's PC utilizing the new chips is the OptiPlex 740. AMD also hinted its upcoming mobile platform, code-named Puma, will use the Business Class platform.

The new platforms will also give businesses the freedom of choice when it comes to software and hardware integration, as it is committed to open security standards such as TCG and DMTF as well as the latter's DASH standard.

I think it's officially the memory kit with the longest name now. PQI has released the Phoenix Series ~ Turbo Immortality Edition DDR3-1600 4GB dual channel kit. With a tested operating frequency of 1688MHz at 1.54V and 2GB capacity, the module is sure to boost your computing experience to the next level. In compliance to JEDEC standards and compatible with Intel's X38 chipset, PQI's Phoenix Series Turbo Immortality Edition DDR3-1600 memory is made of Elpida's 70nm 128M8 modules. When working in dual channel, a maximum theoretical bandwidth of 25.6GB/Sec can be reached.

Utilizing Intel

EA held a London press event on Friday and released some brand new media as well as some new information on Battlefield Heroes. Battlefield Heroes

Publisher Sierra Entertainment has released a new trailer of Radical Entertainment's Prototype, highlighting the game's explosive open-world combat. In a near-future New York City, the populace is gripped in the claws of a vicious war between three powerful factions--the military, the monsters, and you. You are Alex Mercer, a shape-shifting, backflipping, people-eating antihero, and the star of Radical Entertainment's upcoming free-roaming action-fest, Prototype. 

Currently in development for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360, Prototype is due to arrive later this year.

The trailer definitely is look nice !

3DMark Vantage (DirectX 10)

It's that time of year again, today FutureMark releases their latest installment in their 3DMark series, the 100% DX10 version 3DMark Vantage. As requirement for DirectX 10 you need to have Windows Vista installed and have a DX10 ready graphics card (preferably a very fast one).

3DMark Vantage is a gamers

NVIDIA's partners today silently are announcing the GeForce 9600 GSO. The first of the card-makers to launch their 9600 GSO is EVGA, with a 650MHz, 384MB / 1900MHz DDR3, PCI Express 2.0 ditty (e-GeForce 9600GSO Superclocked 384MB), as well as an even lower end 550MHz, 384MB / 1600MHz version (e-GeForce 9600GSO 384MB).

Basically this is the GeForce 8800 GS. The 9600 GSO is still based on the same G92 core with 96 stream processors but NVIDIA will give board makers a bit more freedom in their designs in terms of own PCB design to and determine their own clocks. This 'old' card will still have 384 MB of GDDR3 memory.

We can expect many variants of cards with different types of cooling coming up to be branded as Overclocked Editions.

First press-release that entered our mailbox came from Inno3D actually. Their card is clocked a tad slower as it seems. 550 Mhz core clock, 1375 on the Shader processors and a the memory at 1600 MHz (384 MB).

nVidia's own control panel is not always very intuitive to use. Especially the 3D rendering settings are very cryptic and difficult to navigate. Even the new control panel introduced with the 9x.xx line of Forceware drivers isn't a real improvements for these problems. nHancer is a tool to improve the usage of these features.

nHancer is a tool to improve the usage of these features. Both normal and advanced users should find nHancer to be a big step forward.

New in this release:

• Corrected all startup problems. Multithreaded startup for splash screen redone from scratch and much, much simpler.
• Added new filter option
  

Just a gentle reminder that the download servers will get a rough beating later today as FutureMark 3DMark Vantage will be released later today. It's the new DX10 version of their FM gaming benchmark series. The download will wigh in at roughly 450 MB.

Check back later.

LaCie has released a new 500GB external hard drive with a rugged scratch-resistant aluminum shell and shock-resistant rubber bumper.

LaCie announced today that it has pushed mobile capacity limits by making available a new 500 gigabyte (GB) Rugged Hard Disk. Designed by Neil Poulton, the LaCie Rugged features a unique scratch-resistant aluminum shell and a shock-resistant rubber bumper to protect data against the everyday bumps, bruises and hard knocks of the real world, while protecting valuable data along the way.

Utilizing a state-of-the-art Hitachi Travelstar 5K500, 2.5-inch internal hard disk, LaCie was able to produce a product nearly identical in size to its previous Rugged offerings. The 500GB Rugged is available in USB 2.0 or a USB 2.0, FireWire 400 and FireWire 800 version for speedier data transfers. Bus-powered by either USB* or FireWire, the Rugged is designed to interact smoothly with any computer.

Statistics from research group BDA China indicate China is now the country with the most Internet users. Internet usage in China allegedly hit 220 million users in February, which is 4 million more than in the US at the end of 2007.

The percentage of American users

On the web rumors are floating everywhere that NVIDIA decided to accelerate the launch of its GeForce 9900 series flagship cards to beat out AMD's ATI Radeon HD 4800. The very top-end GeForce 9900 GTX and its close counterpart the GeForce 9900 GTS are now reportedly due as soon as July, replacing the 9800 GTX after the earlier card has spent just three months on store shelves. The revised 8800 GTS is also expected to disappear.

The underlying advantages of the 9900 are still unknown, although NVIDIA has already said the architecture behind the flagship will be extraordinarily complex with as many as one billion transistors on the GTX. The chip designer is rumored to be separating the GTX and GTS primarily by their memory bandwidth, with the GTX supporting a full 512-bit interface and the GTS scaling back to a 448-bit interface. Such a change would likely dictate unusual memory limits: the GTX would come equipped with either 512MB or 1GB of video memory and the GTS given either 640MB or 768MB.

Prices and clock speeds for the new GeForce chips aren't confirmed.

Realtek updated it's Audio HD driver for both Windows XP & Vista . Our download contains both the XP and Vista drivers (32 & 64-bit).

Changes in version 1.91:

• Support ALC663/ALC272.
• Support ForteMedia microphone effect APO feature.
• Customizations.

Chipsets supported:

1. Windows Vista WHQL: ALC882, ALC883, ALC885, ALC888, ALC861VD, ALC660, ALC662, ALC663, ALC260,ALC262,ALC267, ALC268, ALC 269, ALC 272
2. Windows 2000/XP WHQL: ALC880, ALC882, ALC883, ALC885, ALC888, ALC861VC, ALC861VD,ALC660, ALC662, ALC663, ALC260, ALC262, ALC267,ALC268, ALC269, ALC 272
3. HDMI Device WHQL Support: ATI HDMI Devices

Download - http://downloads.guru3d.com/Realtek-HD-Audio-1.91-download-1907.html

There are new screenshots available from Mafia 2, the sequel to the 1930's open world crime action game from developer 2K Czech (ex-Illusion Softworks) and publisher 2K Games. The action is set in a fictitious late 1940's-early 1950's scenario, in a mob underworld with believable characters and beautiful cars. Mafia 2 is being made for unnamed next-gen consoles and the PC.

I really liked the first Mafia game, from the developers of the groundbreaking action game Mafia comes Mafia II, a dark and seductive story about one man

Rockstar has just updated GTA 4 official website with Niko's character introduction.
This video places a focus on Niko's troubled past and his personal struggles of morality, always fun:

Great story on TGDaily via the Inquirer today. Quite honestly I've met Roy Tayler a couple of times already, and the man is just really outspoken, he's going a little far this time though.

See first we had NVIDIA CEO Jen Hsun-Huang saying to "open a can of whoop-ass" on Intel, by touting its new sub-$45 integrated platform as far superior to Celeron-based systems. But now we have good old Roy here who is a VP of Content Relations saying that "a war has started" and pronouncing the Intel CPU "dead."

According to Roy Intel is "panicking" because CPUs have "run out of steam," and that they "no longer make anything run faster." The only thing that needs to get faster is the GPU, and NVIDIA's going to make it happen, say Roy. 

From: Roy Taylor [mailto:-----@nvidia.com]
Sent: 10 April 2008 23:36
Subject: The best job in the world.

Guys I have the best job in the world. Official. I cant tell you how much fun we

Over the past days here at Guru3D.com we have been implementing a series of software updates. We worked on an improved commenting system and SEO optimized URLs.

Effecitvely immediately the old style URLs will no longer work. So if you click an old article link or got here linked from somewhere else forget it, please enter our articles and hardware reviews and select the article you wanted to read.

Example old URL:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/518/

Example new URL:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/bfg-geforce-9800-gtx-512mb-ocx-review/

There are still a couple of things that will be updated early this week, we'll keep you posted on that.

Matrox TripleHead 2 Go Digital Edition (DVI) review

Exactly two years ago we reviewed the analog (VGA) Matrox Triplehead to go. And although a little rough around the edges when it came to graphics card support, times have changed for the better. In fact last year they released a digital (DVI interface) version of the product and we figured it was about time to check out how this small box of magic has developed, and we where pleasantly surprised I might add.

Full article here:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/matrox-triplehead-2-go-digital-edition-dvi-review/

3DMark Vantage Has Gone Gold, and the countdown clock is ticking. Futuremark has just announced that 3DMark Vantage is ready, and the countdown indicates that it will launch on Monday, 28th of April 2008. Downloads should be available at 16:00 EET (13:00 GMT, 09:00 EST, 06:00 PST).

The definite DirectX10 benchmark will ship in four editions:

• Trial (free)
• Basic ($6.95)
• Advanced ($19.95)
• Professional ($495)

The Professional version is intended for business and commercial use, while Basic and Advanced are limited to private use. A Free Trial key allows you to test the benchmark with a single run. Full details on the differences between the available versions will be available at launch, but to give a rough idea, Basic (6.95$) version allows you to benchmark as many times as you like with the "Performance" preset, and you get a score with all the ORB features available. Advanced ($19.95) unlocks all four presets, six additional feature tests and allows you to customize all the settings.

The final system requirements to run 3DMark Vantage Trial are:

Minimum

• x86/x64 single core CPU with SSE2 support. Performance similar to Intel Pentium D 3.2GHz or better
• Fully D3D10/SM4.0 compliant graphics card, 256MB
• 1024MB Memory
• 2GB of free disk space
• Windows Vista (Server editions not supported)

Recommended

• Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 or equivalent AMD CPU
• Fully D3D10/SM4.0 compliant graphics card, 512MB
• 2048MB Memory
• 2GB of free disk space
• Windows Vista (Server editions not supported)

Additionally, following requirements must be met to run each of the four available presets with the Advanced and Pro versions

• Entry - 128MB DX10 Video Card and a monitor capable of displaying 1280x1024 resolution
• Performance - 256MB DX10 Video Card and a monitor capable of displaying 1280x1024 resolution
• High - 512MB DX10 Video Card and a monitor capable of displaying 1680x1050 resolution
• Extreme - 512MB DX10 Video Card and a monitor capable of displaying 1920x1200 resolution

Custom preset can be used to run the benchmark at an user-selectable resolution for individual subscores, but the 3DMark score is displayed and saved to ORB only when using one of the pre-defined presets. In other words, to get a score using the "High" and "Extreme" presets, a widescreen display is required. You probably also need a system that exceeds the recommended setup to get a reliable score at these settings - "Extreme" might be a bit too much for even the fastest systems available today.

For benchmarking older hardware and operating systems 3DMark06 is still around, and remains as the definite DX9 benchmark.

Pretty good news for NVIDIA as Forbes has an positive article on NVIDIA and cites data from Jon Peddie Research that team green had a marketshare of 71% in the discrete graphics card market in Q4 2007:

"Nvidia's CEO, Jen Hsun-Huang, was talking some serious smack on Intel at the company's analyst day, dropping several choice lines," notes Mowrey. "First, he mocked Intel's claim of 42% market share in PC graphics in Q4 2007, versus Nvidia's 33% and AMD's 18%. Intel's figures count its 'integrated' on the motherboard graphics business, which Mr. Hsun-Huang called 'a joke.' So what's he gonna do? He's gonna 'open up a can of whoop-ass!' Really. He said that."

Mowrey chuckles at Hsun-Huang's colorful talk, but he notes that he is talking from a position of strength.

"Research firm Jon Peddie Research pegged Nvidia's Q4 2007 share of the add-in graphics board market at 71% of all units shipped, up from 64% in the prior quarter," he says. "As Nvidia continues to build its Tesla CPU business, focused now on supercomputing applications, it may well begin to take an interest in lower-level computing tasks, encroaching on Intel's home turf."

Mowrey and Buckingham have a 12- to 24-month price goal of $47 for Nvidia. It's going so well for NVIIDA that you almost start feel like the bubble has to pop at on point eh ?