AMD today announced efforts to help further increase the ease and efficiency of software development using AMD Stream processing with an extensive set of upgrades planned for future versions of the Stream Software Development Kit (SDK). Through a series of updates to the SDK scheduled over the course of the next 18 months, AMD plans to add full support for DirectX 11, the next-generation suite of advanced APIs from Microsoft.

Just as it ushered in the era of advanced 3-D gaming for the masses, DirectX is poised to be at the vanguard of the GPGPU revolution, said Anantha Kancherla, manager of Windows desktop and graphics technologies, Microsoft. DirectX 11 gives developers the power to more easily harness the astonishing capabilities of AMD GPUs for general purpose computation, and gives consumers an effortless way to experience all that AMD Stream has to offer, on the hundreds of millions of Microsoft Windows powered systems worldwide.

Physics: as geeks, we just have to love the subject. We loved learning about geniuses like Isaac Newton and concepts like gravity, acceleration and inertia. Also, typical of geeks, we love gaming. So, combining physics acceleration and gaming just sounds like a really cool idea. For the past several years, we’ve been learning more and more about physics in gaming in the form of PhysX, a technology created by a company called Ageia. The original approach to PhysX by Ageia was a dedicated PhysX card that sported

GIGABYTE today announce the launch of the GIGABYTE GA-MA790GP-DS4H, a brand new AMD AM2+ platform that is based on the just released AMD 790GX chipset. Gigabyte claims that this motherboard pushes the boundaries of integrated graphics performance and overclocking potential. THe board looks pretty slick.

Based on the newly released AMD 790GX chipset with onboard ATI Radeon HD 3300 graphics core, the GIGABYTE GA-MA790GP-DS4H features 128MB of onboard DDR3 1333MHz SidePort Memory, allowing dedicated memory access for the integrated graphics for an added boost of up to 10~15% in graphics performance. In combination with the SidePort Memory, the onboard graphics is able to be overclocked above 1000MHz, allowing users to maximize their graphics performance and achieve 3DMARK06 scores of 2800+ and beyond.

Micron Technology, today introduced its next-generation RealSSD solid state drives (SSDs) for enterprise computing and notebook applications. The new drives–the enterprise-class RealSSD P200 and the client-focused RealSSD C200–provide a dramatic improvement in capacity, power and performance for the applications they serve. Micron's RealSSD P200 and C200 drives are sampling now with mass production expected in the fourth quarter of 2008. And Micron's Lexar Media subsidiary plans to bring the advantages of this latest RealSSD architecture to consumers in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Designed using Micron's multi-level cell (MLC) NAND process technology, the RealSSD C200 drives will be available in 2.5-inch and 1.8-inch form factors. The 2.5-inch C200 will be offered in densities of up to 256GBs. And with its small form-factor, the 1.8-inch C200 will range in density from 32GBs to 128GBs offering uncompromised power and performance levels. Using a 3 Gb/s SATA interface, the C200 products provide a read speed of up to 250 MB/s and a write speed of up to 100 MB/s.

Cisco Systems Inc. said Tuesday that sales would be weaker than analysts had forecast in the next few quarters, but investors who had expected worse were cheered. The world's largest maker of computer networking gear said orders would grow 8 percent in the current quarter, as customers, particularly telecom carriers, pinch their money. Investors had been expecting the weak economy to catch up to the company. It's the dominant player in an industry that has been growing dramatically, but at the same time, its routers and switches are capital investments, the kind that suffer in an economic downturn.

Cisco shares were up $1.58, or 7 percent, at $24.25 in extended trading after the release of the results. The stock has slid from the year's high of $27.72 set June 5 as investors prepared for a weak forecast. For the fiscal fourth quarter that ended July 25, Cisco reported earnings of $2.01 billion, or 33 cents per share. In the same period last year, Cisco earned $1.93 billion, or 31 cents per share. Sales rose 10 percent to $10.4 billion. Excluding one-time items, earnings were 40 cents per share. Analysts had expected Cisco to report earnings of 39 cents per share on $10.3 billion in revenue, according to a Thomson Financial poll. Chief Financial Officer Frank Calderoni said the results, coming in “a quarter of somewhat uncertain macroeconomic conditions,” demonstrated the strength of the company's business model.

Cisco Systems Inc. said Tuesday that sales would be weaker than analysts had forecast in the next few quarters, but investors who had expected worse were cheered. The world's largest maker of computer networking gear said orders would grow 8 percent in the current quarter, as customers, particularly telecom carriers, pinch their money. Investors had been expecting the weak economy to catch up to the company. It's the dominant player in an industry that has been growing dramatically, but at the same time, its routers and switches are capital investments, the kind that suffer in an economic downturn.

Cisco shares were up $1.58, or 7 percent, at $24.25 in extended trading after the release of the results. The stock has slid from the year's high of $27.72 set June 5 as investors prepared for a weak forecast. For the fiscal fourth quarter that ended July 25, Cisco reported earnings of $2.01 billion, or 33 cents per share. In the same period last year, Cisco earned $1.93 billion, or 31 cents per share. Sales rose 10 percent to $10.4 billion. Excluding one-time items, earnings were 40 cents per share. Analysts had expected Cisco to report earnings of 39 cents per share on $10.3 billion in revenue, according to a Thomson Financial poll. Chief Financial Officer Frank Calderoni said the results, coming in “a quarter of somewhat uncertain macroeconomic conditions,” demonstrated the strength of the company's business model.

Cisco Systems Inc. said Tuesday that sales would be weaker than analysts had forecast in the next few quarters, but investors who had expected worse were cheered. The world's largest maker of computer networking gear said orders would grow 8 percent in the current quarter, as customers, particularly telecom carriers, pinch their money. Investors had been expecting the weak economy to catch up to the company. It's the dominant player in an industry that has been growing dramatically, but at the same time, its routers and switches are capital investments, the kind that suffer in an economic downturn.

Cisco shares were up $1.58, or 7 percent, at $24.25 in extended trading after the release of the results. The stock has slid from the year's high of $27.72 set June 5 as investors prepared for a weak forecast. For the fiscal fourth quarter that ended July 25, Cisco reported earnings of $2.01 billion, or 33 cents per share. In the same period last year, Cisco earned $1.93 billion, or 31 cents per share. Sales rose 10 percent to $10.4 billion. Excluding one-time items, earnings were 40 cents per share. Analysts had expected Cisco to report earnings of 39 cents per share on $10.3 billion in revenue, according to a Thomson Financial poll. Chief Financial Officer Frank Calderoni said the results, coming in “a quarter of somewhat uncertain macroeconomic conditions,” demonstrated the strength of the company's business model.

Cisco Systems Inc. said Tuesday that sales would be weaker than analysts had forecast in the next few quarters, but investors who had expected worse were cheered. The world's largest maker of computer networking gear said orders would grow 8 percent in the current quarter, as customers, particularly telecom carriers, pinch their money. Investors had been expecting the weak economy to catch up to the company. It's the dominant player in an industry that has been growing dramatically, but at the same time, its routers and switches are capital investments, the kind that suffer in an economic downturn.

Cisco shares were up $1.58, or 7 percent, at $24.25 in extended trading after the release of the results. The stock has slid from the year's high of $27.72 set June 5 as investors prepared for a weak forecast. For the fiscal fourth quarter that ended July 25, Cisco reported earnings of $2.01 billion, or 33 cents per share. In the same period last year, Cisco earned $1.93 billion, or 31 cents per share. Sales rose 10 percent to $10.4 billion. Excluding one-time items, earnings were 40 cents per share. Analysts had expected Cisco to report earnings of 39 cents per share on $10.3 billion in revenue, according to a Thomson Financial poll. Chief Financial Officer Frank Calderoni said the results, coming in “a quarter of somewhat uncertain macroeconomic conditions,” demonstrated the strength of the company's business model.

AMD has finally released the AMD 790GX chipset for enthusiasts around the world. The AMD 790GX chipset is designed for performance gamers and multimedia enthusiasts alike, and promises to deliver outstanding gaming as well as full HD video performance. With the AM2+ processor in mind the AMD 790GX Chipset along with the ATI Radeon HD 3300 graphics core provides awesome gaming compatibility and fantastic multimedia capabilities right out of the box at an ultra competative price.

Despite our technophile-ness, we haven’t seriously considered moving to the i 64-bit version of Windows Vista, mostly because we figure we will have application or device driver woes. However, in a blog post on the Windows Vista blog, Microsoft product manager Chris Flores said that Microsoft has noted a shift in adoption of 64-bit operating systems. Microsoft has been tracking this shift by tracking the number of 64-bit PCs connecting to Windows Update. According to Flores, The installed base of 64-bit Windows