Intel: Thunderbolt coming to PCs, prototype shown at IDF 2011

Guess what, Wintel loyalists? "Apple's" Thunderbolt I/O port is coming your way. If you'll recall, Thunderbolt was actually built with Intel's collaboration (Light Peak, anyone?), and sensibly, the chip giant is now making it possible for the port to appear on non-Mac machines. The news was just broken here at IDF, where a Haswell-based machine was briefly teased with a heretofore unpossible T-bolt port. Mooly Eden, vice president and general manager of the PC Client Group, was on-stage to showcase six pre-production Ultrabook designs (all based on 3rd generation Intel Core processors), but stopped short of telling us exactly when the Thunderbolt I/O port would make its debut on commercially available rigs(Acer and ASUS are onboard for a 2012 launch!). Naturally, we're hoping it's sooner (tomorrow) rather than later (the 2013 launch of Haswell).

Haier's transparent organic TV

What's the worst thing about your TV? If you said "opaqueness," boy have we got the set from you. This is a 22-inch transparent organic TV from the folks at Haier (you know, the ones who also showed off that mind control TV today). It's a slim display with a metal bezel that has a clear OLED at its center with a 1680 x 1050 resolution. The images appeared pretty sharp on screen, though the colors didn't particularly pop.

And really, this thing isn't likely headed to any living rooms in the near future -- Haier sees it more as an advertising tool, letting shoppers see its images from both sides. The display in its demo form was actually hooked up to a Windows PC, running video through a media player, making this not too unlike that 14-inch Samsung laptop that we saw at CES last year.

Sony Reveals 3D Bloggie Camcorder

Sony Electronics has an HD film camera – it’s a 3D HD film camera, called the Bloggie. Sony held their official CES press conference about, Bloggie 3D which displays media via a 2.4-inch 3D LCD screen without glasses, or with glasses on any 3D-capable television via HDMI connection. The video which is captured in 1920×1080 high-definition 3D, as well as the 2D MP4 videos and five-megapixel still photos are all recorded via two lenses and sensors.

Key Features:

• Digital 4x zoom lens, auto focus/auto macro (4-inch) for close shots
• Freestyle shooting and playback and auto-image rotation
• Steady Shot image stabilization and face detection
• 8GB internal memory allows, capability to store 240 minutes of 2D HD video recording
• Stereo microphone to capture higher quality sound in 3D or 2D movie modes
• Sony’s Exmor CMOS Sensor and LED light

The Sony MHS-FS3 Bloggie 3D HD camcorder will be available in April and will retail for approximately $250. The Bloggie Duo MHS-FS2 carries a $169 price tag and sales should begin in March. The entry-level Bloggie MHS-FS1 will also come out in March, but has a cheaper MSRP of $149.

In addition to these three new Bloggies, Sony will continue to offer last year’s Bloggie Touch models TS20 and TS10 in 2011.

Intel's Sandy Bridge CPUs: What to Expect

ntel will be ringing in the New Year with their long-awaited second-generation Core processor, codenamed "Sandy Bridge." It's the "tock" of the company's 32-nanometer fabrication process, which succeeds this year's corresponding "tick"-the 32-nanometer die shrink of the company's Nehalem microarchitecture, codenamed "Westmere."

That's a lot to digest: Intel's general CPU strategy follows a tick-tock pattern; the company unveils alternating successions of brand-new microarchitectures and improvements for its product cycles. Sandy Bridge is the former: a brand-new chunk of CPUs with a new socket, new chipsets, and new technologies that are designed to push Intel to the next echelon of computing performance.

Of all the changes present in Sandy Bridge--including Intel's final push to unify its desktop and mobile lines under an identical 32-nanometer production process, none are perhaps as remarkable as the company's integration of a graphics processing unit directly onto the die of some Sandy Bridge processors. These should be able to double the performance of Intel's current integrated graphic lineup. But that's not all: neighbor to the GPU is an upgraded video processing unit that dedicates actual silicon to encoding and decoding videos, improving the performance of both.

But before we get too far into the raw technical details, here's what Intel's been able to let loose in regards to the actual lineup of chips heading out the door in early January. The company hasn't dropped its "Core" designation for its CPU lineup: You'll still see Core i3, i5, and i7 branded chips on the market. The number immediately following the "i" modifier-a "2"-will indicate that said CPU is a part of the Sandy Bridge family, as it's a second-generation CPU. Three more numbers will indicate the specific processor SKU, and a letter possibly appended to the end-"K," "S," or "T"-will detail whether the CPU is unlocked for overclocking, optimized for "lifestyle" computing, or optimized for power-savings.

As you might expect, you won't be able to slap a second-generation Core processor into your current system.The new Intel socket for Sandy Bridge is LGA-1155, and you'll find it paired on motherboards that are themselves based on three new chipsets: the performance-focused P67, the integrated graphics-focused H67 (click the diagram for a larger view), and the entry-level H61.

Turning back to the Sandy Bridge CPUs themselves, we mentioned that the addition of an on-die GPU is a pretty big step for Intel-a step up from the Clarkdale design, Intel's first GPU/CPU combination. While you won't be able to run chips that beat the best of Nvidia or ATI's discrete cards, Intel boasts that the new execution units present in its Sandy Bridge GPU not only come at more than twenty times the power of Intel's Generation-5 graphics, but that the cards themselves should rival integrated (and even entry-level discrete) graphics from Nvidia and ATI.

These integrated DirectX 10 GPUs will benefit from a number of functions normally found within Intel's CPUs, including their Turbo Boost functionality for automatic overclocking and (more importantly) shared access to the chip's L3 cache (click the diagram for a better view). The latter required Intel to construct an entirely new interface to replace its previous QuickPath Interconnect -- the means by which a CPU "talks" to memory and other system components. A new ring bus will deliver up to 96 gigabytes per second of bandwidth for every core, and connect said CPU cores to the GPU, cache, and the system agent (analogous to an on-die North Bridge).

Intel's second-generation Core processors will come in two- and four-core variants. Hyper-threading is still present; it's the process by which one physical CPU core is split into two virtual CPU cores of-sorts. Turbo Boost is back as well, but it's been kicked up a notch from Nehalem's designs. Not only can all four cores receive an automatic overclock depending on your system's workload, but the CPU will actually push past the rated thermal design power (TDP) of the chip itself for brief periods of time. The technological wisdom is that a CPU can get away with a bit of over-overclocking before it has to back off at the TDP limit -- the CPU doesn't immediately jump up to said limit, for example, if the cores get clocked up to extreme amounts.

Those opting to use Intel's built-in CPU/GPU combination instead of a discrete graphics card will also be treated to enhanced video decoding and encoding capabilities as a result of the chip's built-in media processor. But just how much has Intel's fixation on fixed-function processing boosted its video capabilities? A demo at this year's Intel Developer Forum featured a three-minute 1080p source video converted to a 640-by-360 iPhone video in around 14 seconds-or roughly 400 frames per second.

New vector extensions built into Sandy Bridge CPUs-dubbed AVX, or Advanced Vector Extensions-should increase floating-point performance for tasks like video and photo processing, as well as certain financial applications. In essence, AVX's 256-bit vectors--double those of its predecessor instruction set, Streaming SIMD Extensions or "SSE"-will allow your system to crunch more data by grouping it together in larger chunks. And that directly correlates to the power efficiency of the chip itself. In order to actually benefit from AVX however, consumers will have to be running Windows 7 SP1. Expect to see the update hit sometime in the first quarter of 2011.

The full details on Sandy Bridge's performance are still under wraps, but CES 2011 is looming over the horizon, and a few vendors are getting the party started a bit early. For a look at how Intel's second-generation Core processor performs for work and play, stay tuned to our coverage!

2011 VW Jetta launched in India

As expected the 2011 Jetta, though stylish, depicted the typical understated looks of the VW group and the only standout features for this car are the day time running lamps and the all new Navarra alloy wheel design. Twin exhaust pipes are also present. The Jetta is presently being offered only with the option of a 2.0 liter TDI engine which has an output of 140 Bhp and 320 Nm of torque. VW are offering both a 6 speed manual and 6 speed DSG transmission for this car. The 2011 Jetta would initially be offered in 4 variants and would be available across the 75 dealers that Volkswagen currently has in India. Bookings start from the onset. The 4 variants of the car include the likes of Trendline which would be the base variant, mid of the line Comfortline and the top of the line Highline variant which would be available both in DSG as also manual variant. The base model starts from Rs 14.12 and whilst the price of the top end variant hasn’t being revealed, Neeraj Garg put the estimate as around the Rs 18 lakhs mark for the manual top end one. All these prices are ex-show room, Delhi. In the interiors, the car boasts of a touch screen audio system with a 6 CD changer and also the likes of Parktronic system with acoustic warning and also a central display. Cruise control is also being offered. Another first in the segment would be the array of 8 airbags for the safety aspect.

The 2011 VW Jetta would compete against its own stablemate, the Skoda Laura, then the French flair Renault Fluence, American Chevrolet Cruze and also the Japanese Honda Civic. Localization components are said to be very low in this car and the car would be assembled at VW’s Aurangabad facility. As of now no sales target has been set by the company for the Jetta and VW hopes that the customers would like it as much as the older variant.

Transcend Introduces Next-Gen Super Speed USB 3.0 StoreJet 25A3

In a move to further strengthen its product portfolio in the range of USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drives, Transcend Information, Inc. (Transcend) a worldwide leader in storage and multimedia products announces the launch of feature-packed StoreJet 25A3, USB 3.0 portable hard drive in India. Besides its slender and compact design, this next generation, shock resistant portable hard drive flaunts impressive looks along with robust durability. Featuring strikingly fast data transfer speeds, powerful software tools and up to a full terabyte of storage capacity, the StoreJet 25A3 is an ultimate choice for everyday backup and storage needs.

Equipped with a next-generation SuperSpeed USB 3.0 connection interface and backwards compatible with USB 2.0,the Transcend StoreJet 25A3 portable hard drive provides 10 times the bandwidth of USB 2.0. Thanks to the improved connection speed of USB 3.0, the StoreJet 25A3 delivers real-world transfer speeds of up to 90MB/s ? fast enough to transfer a full DVD in just 50 seconds. Much more than just a place to store files, the StoreJet 25A3 can also function as an advanced data backup station, with a convenient One Touch Auto-Backup button for swift, effortless data backup and synchronization when used with the bundled Transcend Elite software backup and security software. To add to its security measures, the Transcend hard drive comes with powerful 256-bit AES file & folder encryption features.

Key Features:

* Super Speed USB 3.0 compliant and backwards compatible with USB 2.0
* Connection bandwidth up to 5Gbits per second
* Advanced internal hard drive suspension system
* Extra-large storage capacity
* Sleek durable and shock-resistant
* Easy Plug and Play operation ? no drivers required
* USB powered ? no external adapter necessary
* Power saving sleep mode
* Includes Transcend Elite backup and security software - LED power / data transfer activity indicator
* 256-bit AES file & folder encryption
* One Touch Auto-Backup button.

Creative doles out Sound Blaster gaming headsets, Recon3D audio platform / sound cards

Creative isn't nearly the aural force it once was, but it's still a respected name when it comes to headsets and -- gasp! -- sound cards. Here at IFA, the outfit has busted out a new range of Sound Blaster (yeah, seriously) gaming headsets for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC and Mac platforms. The 360-friendly Sound Blaster Tactic360 Sigma is being revealed with a steel core headband design and 50mm audio drivers, not to mention separate voice and game audio controls. Moving right along, the Tactic360 ION slims down with a pair of 40mm drivers, while the Tactic3D Wrath Wireless caters to Mac / PC users who'd rather not sweat the whole "cable" thing. The Tactic3D Omega Wireless does likewise for console gamers, and for those infatuated with three-dee, the outfit's new Recon3D audio platform / sound cards sound give you reason to celebrate. Full details are posted up after the break, for those who find themselves strangely intrigued.