Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has scheduled a ramp up of monthly capacity at its 300mm (12-inch) wafer fab (Fab 14) located in southern Taiwan at the Tainan Science Park to 6,000 wafers by the end of 2009, and to about 35,000 wafers in 2010, according to sources at chip equipment suppliers.

One reason for the ramp of capacity is that TSMC is gearing up to use Fab 14 as its processor production base over the next few years, as it begins leveraging its partnership with Intel on the Atom platform. According to a note from BNP Paribas, TSMC shifted processor production from Fab 12 to Fab 14 earlier in the year and the foundry is now purchasing backend packaging and testing equipment and plans to allocate capacity of 5,000-6,000 wafers for production of Intel Atom-based processors on a 40nm process. Nanya PCB was named as the substrate supplier. In March, Intel and TSMC announced they would collaborate on system-on-chip (SoC) solutions based on the Atom processor. Under the agreement, Intel would port its Atom processor CPU cores to the TSMC technology platform including processes, IP, libraries, and design flows. The idea is that Intel can tap TSMC's resources to expand Atom SoC availability for a wider range of applications.

CEO Mark Hurd said Thursday at a meeting with analysts that he expects the IT industry to return to growth in 2010 and went so far as to say that HP will outpace the market. The company provided HP's outlook for the year, with revenue expected to be between $117 billion and $118 billion, reflecting a year-over-year growth of 3 percent to 4 percent. GAAP earnings per share is expected to be $3.60 to $3.70, a year-over-year jump of 17 percent to 20 percent, and non-GAAP of $4.20 to $4.30, or 10 percent to 13 percent year over year.

“Our broad product and services portfolio and global scale give HP a clear competitive advantage,” he said in a statement. “As a result, we see tremendous opportunity to grow our business and improve earnings while delivering value to our customers.”

As top computer gamers are demanding only the very best hardware, all manufacturers in the industry are constantly striving for the efficiency and performance to fulfill these needs. In order to adequately cater to these ever increasing performance demands, MSI has joined forces with the renowned graphics chip manufacturer AMD and officially launched the next generation MSI R5800 series graphics cards. The 40nm GPU supports DirectX 11 and a variety of AMD-exclusive audio/visual and performance enhancing technologies, creating an entirely new series of performance oriented graphics cards.

The brand new MSI R5870/R5850 series uses a more advanced 40nm GPU to decisively implement more transistors within the same amount of space, thereby reaching a new level of performance. In addition the modern 40nm process reduces power consumption and brings about a more efficient overall electrical utilization. By using the advantages of this innovative 40nm process technology, the next generation MSI R5870/R5850 series offers outstanding performance of a new kind. In order to further improve stability of the MSI R5870 and R5850 graphics cards, MSI has adopted solid capacitors and SSC (solid state chokes). This provides for the highest stability even under long-term full loading. Hardcore gaming sessions will be limitless with components that wont quit on you!

Nanya Elixir 6GB Kit DDR3 1600 CL9 Memory Review @ Technic3D and other reviews from around the web can be found by visiting our forums!

“The Nanya Elixir 6GB DDR3 1600 CL9 Memory-Kit arrived Technic3D. Technic3D will see as good they are with Overclocking against the CSX Diablo, OCZ and G.Skill Memory Kits on Windows Vista Ultimate 64 Bit and the Foxconn Bloodrage Mainboard. You can see 1.730 MHz (1,5V) with 9-9-9-28 (2T) in the following Review.”

To wrap up our coverage of the 2009 Intel Developer Forum we are going to bring you coverage on a number of companies who had products that stood out to us over all the rest. If you've heard about Super Talent's TeraByte PCIe RAIDDrive SSD, Intel's 7 SSD PCIe card, Kingston's dozen SSDNow powered demo system, Marvell's SATA 6G storage controller, Lucid's Hydra 200 multi-GPU technology or SuperSpeed USB 3.0 then you are in for a real treat today.

Back in Feburary 2009, Intel disclosed that the 32nm 'Westmere' desktop processors were coming out in the fourth quarter of 2009 and that appears to still be true. Arrandale and Clarkdale are the first two Westmere cores that will be introduced to the market. Both Arrandale and Clarkdale are dual-core Westmere parts, but the difference between the two is that Arrandale is for mobile platforms while Clarkdale is for the desktop market.

OCZ today announced an expansion to their lineup of DDR3 to include certified OCZ Black Edition 4GB kits for ultimate compatibility with AMDs next-generation Phenom II processors. The OCZ Black Edition modules feature the high densities and fast DDR3 speeds enthusiasts and gamers demand. They will be available as DDR3 PC3-12800 4GB kits operating at 1.65V.

OCZ is excited to launch our new AMD Black Edition Ready Series which is designed specifically to work with AMDs OverDrive software utility, said Eugene Chang, Vice President of Product Management at the OCZ Technology Group. The new OCZ Black Edition modules not only interact with AOD to overclock the memory, but also communicate with the BIOS to increase the frequency and performance of the memory controller. The result is a symbiotic relationship between memory and the rest of the system to unleash the full power of the Dragon Platform.

Razer announced today the long delayed update to the Razer DeathAdder Gaming Mouse. It has loads of improvements including a state-of-the-art 3.5G 3500dpi infrared sensor and tangle-free braided cable. Razer hopes these enhancements will keep the DeathAdder as one of their most popular products.

The new Razer DeathAdder is an upgraded replacement for the original and is now equipped with the ultra-precise 3500dpi Razer Precision 3.5G infrared sensor and tangle-free braided fiber cable. The Razer DeathAdder utilizes a right-handed ergonomic design to provide optimum comfort for intensive and extended game play. Its 3500dpi Razer Precision 3.5G infrared sensor provides gamers with 4x more precision than a standard 800 dpi mouse. The 1000Hz Ultrapolling response time of 1ms delivers instantaneous execution, giving gamers the competitive edge over opponents with faster communication between the Razer DeathAdder and the computer.

Windows 7 is unlikely to have any obvious impact on PC demand in the tail-end of 2009, according to sources at notebook players, who believe demand should not be expected to pick up until the second half of 2010, when large enterprises and governments begin to expand their expense budgets.

Based on past experience, PC replacement demand is not driven significantly by the consumer market, but rather enterprise and government purchases, the sources noted. The sources noted that since most enterprises in Europe and North America are expected to start planning annual purchasing budgets for the year in March and April of 2010, actual replacement demand is not expected to spur until the second half of the year.

The first “Project Pink” murmurings began in 2008.  At the time, there was little consensus regarding this upcoming smartphone (or family of smartphones) other than A) the OS would be based on Windows Mobile and B) there would be some manner of Zune-inspired media software onboard.  In fact, the term “Zune Phone” was, for a short time, synonymous with “Project Pink.”

By early 2009, Pink faded to gray, and after CES 2009 yielded nothing but Zune Phone denials and an interim-version Windows Mobile announcement, there wasn’t much in the way of fresh Project Pink news.

But now, eight months later, the rumor mill is churning again.

Gizmodo recently posted renderings of two phones purportedly being baked in the Project Pink oven.  The phones, code-named “Turtle” (seen above) and “Pure” will supposedly be released under joint Microsoft and Sharp branding (Sharp has built several Sidekick phones for Danger, Inc., which Microsoft acquired in early 2008) and will be aimed at the same target market as T-Mobile’s Sidekick line (younger text, social networking and multimedia-heavy users).

Newly-posted information at MoDaCo gives us more in-depth speculation on Pink.  In a posting entitled “The Truth About Microsoft’s Project ‘Pink’” Turtle and Pure are said to run a variant of Windows Mobile 7, but with a Silverlight-based UI that looks little or nothing like WM.  Media software similar to that which runs on the Zune HD is also said to be included, as is XBox integration.  The post goes on to say that “Turtle” and “Pure” will feature 5MP and 8MP cameras, respectively, and include an unnamed “ground breaking” display that will “blow everyone away.”  Technology recovered from Roswell, perhaps?

None of this information can be confirmed; the newly-released images don’t include any solid evidence that they’re even related to any Microsoft project, though it’s certainly possible.  And if Pink handsets will run a variant of Windows Mobile 7, they will either have to ship in late 2010 or Microsoft plans to have the WM7 core finalized long before the first standard WinMo7 handset ships.

Irrespective of veracity, Pink watching is an interesting pastime, and I truly hope Microsoft has some fantastic mobile products planned for 2010.

They could really use some.