On Wednesday, details emerged of HP's MediaSmart Server LX195, a home server packing a 1.6GHz Atom 230 processor that's priced at $400 with 1GB of memory and a 640GB hard disk drive. To date, HP has been using Intel Celeron and Advanced Micro Devices' Sempron processors.

Earlier this month, Acer rolled out the Acer AspireRevo, a small, slick box that augments the Atom with an Nvidia Ion chipset to boost graphics performance. This is expected to be priced well under $300 for some models. Asus was one of the first to bring out a head-swiveling Atom-based desktop–the Eee Box, which has been updated recently with ATI graphics. By design, Atom is a more power-frugal and, as a result, a slower processor than Intel's mainstream Core 2 chip architecture. HP, for example, markets its MediaSmart server as a storage hub, which typically doesn't require much processing punch. And Atom is cheap–the Atom 230 is $29, whereas comparative Celeron chips are about $34 but draw much more power. And mainstream Core 2 Duo desktop processors start at about $110.

Apple Inc is hiring new employees from the semiconductor industry and is building the capability to design its own chips, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. The iPhone and iPod maker hopes its efforts will lead to new features for its devices and enable it to share fewer details about it plans with outside chip vendors, the report said, citing people familiar with Apple's plans.

Apple has been hiring engineers to create multifunction chips that are used in cell phones, the Journal report said. Sources familiar with Apple's plans don't expect internally designed chips to emerge until next year at the earliest, it said. Last year, Apple acquired P.A. Semi, a designer of low-power microchips, in a move analysts said bolstered its ability to customize key parts for its iPhone, iPod and Macintosh product lines.

Word on the street is that AMD launched its super-cheap ($69 MSRP) Athlon X2 7850 Black Edition this week to celebrate 40 years in the industry, and while the last decade in particular hasn’t been too kind to the company, it’s still hanging tough and struggling to compete with Intel, NVIDIA and the rest of the big boys.Today, the Sunnyvale-based chipmaker began celebrating 40 years of “innovation in the semiconductor industry and its important role as a catalyst for enabling next-generation solutions.” Officially,

We’ve said before that introducing the Palm Pre after WWDC would be bad for Palm, as by then the hype over the new iPhone and iPhone OS 3.0 will make excitement over the Pre announcement, ahem, rather subdued. It now appears that rumors of a mid-May launch of the Palm Pre may be false, but there is now another date given, leaked at SprintGuys, of June 7th. Before you say, “but that’s a Sunday,” yeah, it is, but Sprint has never been shy about using Sunday for launch dates. Here’s what was said in the post: For

AMD launched the World's first 40nm graphics card this week and many are wondering how well the ATI Radeon HD 4770 video card overclocks. Read on to see how this $99 graphics card does when pushed to the limits with RivaTuner v2.24 and benchmarked with the new highest stable clock frequencies.

If you’re a fan of multiplayer gaming but hate the hassle of packing up your computer in order to go to a LAN party, iBuyPower has you covered with its latest PC. The LAN Warrior is a Core i7-based powerhouse in a small form factor case. The LAN Warrior’s included carrying strap and harness system make hauling this PC to and from your LAN-loving destination even easier. “We designed the LAN Warrior for gamers that need more power than a gaming laptop can provide,” said Darren Su, vice president of iBuyPower.

Video:ATI Radeon HD 4770 RV740 DDR5 Video Card @ Benchmark Reviews AMD Radeon HD 4770 @ techPowerUpHD 4770  @ NeoseekerGIGABYTE HD 4770 512MB GDDR5 Graphics Card @ TweaktownHIS Radeon HD 4770 512MB video card review @ Elite BastardsATI Radeon HD 4770 512MB Video Card Review @ Legit ReviewsATI Radeon 4770 Review @ AMDZoneATI Radeon HD 4770 512MB GDDR5 Review @ Hardware CanucksAMD Radeon HD 4770 512MB Review @ PC PerspectiveArctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme GTX 280 @ XbitlabsATI Radeon HD 4770 @ Legion HardwareATI

Video:ATI Radeon HD 4770 RV740 DDR5 Video Card @ Benchmark Reviews AMD Radeon HD 4770 @ techPowerUpHD 4770  @ NeoseekerGIGABYTE HD 4770 512MB GDDR5 Graphics Card @ TweaktownHIS Radeon HD 4770 512MB video card review @ Elite BastardsATI Radeon HD 4770 512MB Video Card Review @ Legit ReviewsATI Radeon 4770 Review @ AMDZoneATI Radeon HD 4770 512MB GDDR5 Review @ Hardware CanucksAMD Radeon HD 4770 512MB Review @ PC PerspectiveArctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme GTX 280 @ XbitlabsATI Radeon HD 4770 @ Legion HardwareATI

We took a look at AMDs ATI Radeon HD 4770 GPU earlier this week, and MSI isn’t missing a beat by announcing its first card based on the new chip. The simply titled R4770 is the company’s latest graphics card to be based on a 40nm chip, and with comes GDDR5 high-speed memory — something that was previously reserved for the R4870 and R4890 series.The card also includes ATI PowerPlay technology in order to dynamically adjust power usage as necessary, with the maximum wattage rating for the card peaking at 90W.

We took a look at AMDs ATI Radeon HD 4770 GPU earlier this week, and MSI isn’t missing a beat by announcing its first card based on the new chip. The simply titled R4770 is the company’s latest graphics card to be based on a 40nm chip, and with comes GDDR5 high-speed memory — something that was previously reserved for the R4870 and R4890 series.The card also includes ATI PowerPlay technology in order to dynamically adjust power usage as necessary, with the maximum wattage rating for the card peaking at 90W.