ATI unveils graphics chip to chop through demanding games

Aimed at demanding gamers, ATI has announced a new high-end graphics offering, the Radeon X800 GTO, a graphics chip featuring SmartShader technology to provide what ATI claims is 'the most-advanced pixel shader engine available anywhere'. With 12-pipelines and GDDR3 support (clocking a memory data rate of up to 1GHz on a 256-bit interface), other elements of the spec include a 256-bit GDDR3 memory interface, SmoothVision for improved gaming realism, 3Dc compression technology to minimise memory usage and HyperZ for lossless Z-Buffer compression for reducing memory bandwidth requirements. 'ATI's new Radeon X800 GTO will let you get into the game and lose yourself in a truly immersive gaming experience with any of today's top titles,' said Rich Heye, General Manager of ATI's Desktop Business Unit. ...more

Unisys and Dell swap badges

Dell and Unisys have agreed to a bout of badge-swapping, worth $1bn in joint profits over the next three years, reselling each other's desktops, notebooks, servers and services. Under the arrangement, Dell will get to brand Unisys 16- and 32-processor servers, while Unisys gets to play with Dells' two-, four and eight-way PowerEdge servers as well as its OptiPlex desktop, Latitude range of notebooks. Dell also said that Unisys would become a Preferred Service Provider, providing installation, maintenance and support for selected Dell products. ...more

Toshiba officially unveils 17in notebook

Toshiba Europe has announced the availability of its 17in notebook. Apple has lead the way with its 17in G4 PowerBook, and the likes of the Rock Quaddra have followed. And now Toshiba is joining the party. ...more

Sony digital cameras

Accentuate the positive, emulate the negative. Sony's latest additions to the CyberShot stable do far more than emulate their celluloid counterparts, but include technology that adds flexibility that a film camera can only dream of. The DSC-P31, DSC-P51 and the DSC-P71 boast CCDs of 2. ...more

Blue Gene retains supercomputer crown

The Blue Gene/L System retains the No. 1 position as the world's fastest computer for the third year running. According to the latest Top500 supercomputer listings IBM also retains its lead as the principle builder of ultra fast machines. ...more