Taiwanese laptop computer maker Micro-Star International (MSI) is already hard at work on an ultra-low cost notebook PC based on Intel's Diamondville microprocessor to compete against rival Asustek Computer's Eee PC.

Asustek created the Eee PC laptop to sell in emerging markets such as India. It carries an Intel Celeron processor, weighs less than a kilogram, has a 7-inch LCD (liquid crystal display) and can connect to the Internet wirelessly. The lowest-priced version costs NT$7,999 (US$248). MSI is working on a similar device for the ultra-low cost notebook market, using an extremely low voltage, low cost microprocessor from Intel called Diamondville. Intel has said it will formally unveil the chip at the Intel Developer Forum in Shanghai this April.

Asustek Computer has set an internal goal to achieve revenues of NT$340 billion (US$10.5 billion) for its own-brand business in 2008, an increase of 50% compared to NT$220 billion in 2007. The notebook segment is expected to contribute over NT$170 billion, accounting for around 50% of total revenues in 2008, on a shipments growth of around 30-40%. If the targets are met the company will grab 6% of the worldwide market and become the sixth largest vendor in the world, according to Jonney Shih, chairman of Asustek, speaking at the company's end-of-year banquet.

Asustek is confident it will achieve its goal of shipping five million Eee PC before the end of 2008, with the low-cost notebooks occupying 10% of the total worldwide notebook market, according to Jerry Shen, president of Asustek. Since the spin-off, the company's OEM business is focusing on expanding its economic scale, while the brand business will focus on profits. The US market will be the biggest contributor to the company's growth in 2008, noted Shih.

The ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 video card (known internally as the R680) was first seen by the world right here on Legit Reviews a few months ago and was again spotted at CES 2008, where the the retail card was seen. Everyone knew that the launch was close, but today is the day that the card is officially announced. The ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 is a single-board with multiple-GPUs on it, which is why the card is so interesting.

NVIDIA has launched their new flagship video processor for mobile computers, the GeForce 8800M GTX and 8800M GTX. NVIDIA wants to power your DX10 notebook and took a huge leap forward in technology by introducing this new hardware architecture. Already, Dell, Alienware, and Sager are offering the new 8800M in one of their many notebook configurations.

The high bids totaled $3.2 billion in the U.S. Federal Communications Commission's auction of wireless spectrum licenses in the 700MHz band after three rounds and a day and a half of bidding. That figure is far short of the $10 billion Congress and the FCC expect to raise in the auction, which opened Thursday, but bidding could continue for weeks. In most cases, the high bids don't yet meet the FCC's reserve price set for minimum winning bids.

For sale is 62MHz of spectrum in the 700MHz band. In late 2005, after a decade of debate, Congress passed a law requiring U.S. TV stations to move to all-digital broadcasts and abandon analog spectrum between channels 52 and 69. The deadline for TV stations to end broadcasts in the 700MHz band is February 2009. After three rounds, 906 of the 1,099 available spectrum licenses had bids, with four more licenses receiving bids than at the end of round two late Thursday. High bids had totalled just under $2.8 billion after round 2, and just over $2.4 billion after round one Thursday morning.

Find reviews from around the web by visiting our forums, including this review on Patriot Viper Fin DDR3 PC3 12800 2 x 1 GB from OverClockers Club!

“After testing five different sets of DDR3 memory, I must say that the highest clockspeeds that I have attained were with the Patriot Viper Fin PC3 12800, 962FSB (1924MHz) 8-7-7-20. 162FSB worth of overclocking headroom means that with a 1:2 memory divider you will be hard pressed to find a CPU that can outscale this memory. Did I mention that this was done at a 1t command rate? With higher speed rated memory, the expectation is that it will go a little faster and further up the clock speed scale. This does hold true in many instances, though not all. With the voltage requirements for performance DDR3 creeping up and away from the 1.5 volts DDR3 spec, cooling the memory modules needs to be addressed. Patriot designed a special Aluminum-Copper composite (ACC) heatspreader that effectively cooled the modules down. Even with 2.0+ volts running through them they never got warm to the touch. One surprise was the ability to run tighter than stock timings at 1333MHz. I was able to run the modules at 6-5-5-16 with only 1.76 volts. Sweet!”

OCZ Technology Group has announced its hardware solutions are now available at eCost.com, a top online reseller in the United States. By partnering with quality resellers like eCost that offer a wide range of consumer electronics, OCZs products will be more accessible to a greater breadth of customers with varying system requirements and budget restrictions.

OCZ offers a complete range of component and system products that cater to everyone from mainstream consumers to enthusiasts; we are proud to partner up with eCost.com to make these solutions readily more available to all consumers, commented Justin Shong, Sr. VP of Worldwide Sales, OCZ Technology Group. eCost.com specializes in fast and easy delivery of top tier brands to consumers, and they have a unique and loyal customer base which very closely matches OCZs, so by working closely together we are able to offer the very best combination of top notch products, service, and support to our customers.

Advanced Micro Devices gave further details of its upcoming Fusion processor, saying it will be based on the design of a microprocessor used in the desktops currently shipping to enthusiast PC users such as gamers. The Fusion chip, which will combine a graphics processing unit and CPU on one chip, will be a redesign of the company's current Phenom processor, said Patrick Moorhead, vice president of advanced marketing at AMD, in an interview. However, the Fusion chip will witness significant design changes from the current iteration of Phenom, Moorhead said. The first Fusion chips will be released as dual-core CPUs for notebooks, followed by quad-core CPUs for notebooks, Moorhead said. The dual-core notebook processors will be available in the second half of 2009, said John Taylor, an AMD spokesman. The company didn't provide a timeline for the quad-core chips.

The Fusion chip, code-named Swift, will be shrunk from the Phenom core and be optimized for use in a notebook, Moorhead said. The optimization will focus on making the chip more power-efficient while increasing graphics capabilities, Moorhead said. The graphics processing unit on the Fusion chip will include multiple “mini-cores” that breaks down code from a program, like 3-D games, to process data faster, said John Taylor, an AMD spokesman. Fusion's graphics processor will be based on a graphics card AMD plans to release in the near future, Taylor said, declining to give details.

Microsoft said on Thursday that it has released another updated test version of Windows Vista Service Pack 1. The company said that the new version, dubbed “Windows Vista SP1 RC Refresh 2,” has been released to about 15,000 beta testers. The code is not being made available publicly, Microsoft said.

The product is still on track to be finalized this quarter, Microsoft said, while offering its standard caveat. “The final release date is based on quality, so we will continue to track customer and partner feedback from the beta program before setting a final date,” the company said. Earlier this month, Microsoft released the first refresh to the release candidate of Vista SP1, first to about 15,000 testers and later to the public.

Due to the TLB (translation lookaside buffer) bug, AMD has postponed the launch of its upcoming quad-core Phenom 9700 CPU to the second quarter of 2008, however the company is planning to showcase the CPU at CeBIT 2008 in March along with 9900 and 9100e models, according to sources at motherboard makers.

AMD is confident that it has solved the bug in the B3 stepping revision, but since the company has not yet revealed an actual shipment date for the three CPUs, it is unclear whether the showcase will also mark their official launch, noted the sources.