NetbookTech

You might very well see netbooks and thin-and-light notebooks in the near-future with built-in webcams capable of handling full 1080p/30 HD resolutions thanks to today’s announcement by OmniVision Technologies of their new OV2720 – the world’s first 1/6-inch, native 1080p/30 high-definition CMOS image sensor. Based on OmniVision’s 1.4 micron OmniBSI, the OV2720 delivers video conferencing quality HD video recording in a package that is ideal for today’s small notebook form factors.

According to the press release:

“The OV2720 is the first 1/6-inch sensor to offer native 1080p HD resolution. Native HD enables full field of view video with optimized image quality, sensitivity, color reproduction and clarity because no scaling or cropping is required to achieve HD resolution. The 1.4-micron OmniBSI pixel achieves best-in-class low light sensitivity of 680-mV/lux-sec, while enabling extremely thin modules with a z-height of 3.5 mm. Moreover, the OV2720 can use binning to further increase its low-light performance to double that of similar-sized VGA sensors. The OV2720’s outstanding low-light performance and slim form factor combine to make it an ideal choice for tier-one notebook manufacturers.

The OV2720 CMOS image sensor supports multiple platform architectures and controllers with both parallel and MIPI interfaces. It allows system designers to leverage the same opto-electrical design across various products and multiple market segments to reduce product development time. Exposure control, white balance and defective pixel canceling are programmable through the serial camera control bus interface. In addition, the OV2720 uses proprietary sensor technology to improve image quality. By reducing or eliminating common lighting or electrical sources of image contamination, such as fixed pattern noise and smearing, the sensor can generate a clean, fully stable color image”

OmniVision announced that OV2720 is currently sampling with multiple tier-one customers and is slated to go into mass production this summer.

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Intel looks to make solid state drives more affordable with today’s introduction of the new X25-V Value SATA SSD. The 40GB SSD is priced at $125 dollars making it a viable storage upgrade for low-cost netbooks or dual-drive/boot-drive desktop setups.

Features of the X25-V include:

• 2.5 inch form factor
• 40GB of 34nm NAND flash memory
• Sustained sequential read speeds of up to 170MB/s
• Sustained sequential write speeds of up to 35MB/s
• Features Intel SSD Toolbox, Intel SSD Optimizer, Intel Matrix Storage Manager
• SATA Revision 2.6 compliant and compatible with SATA 1.5Gb/s and 3Gb/s interface
• The X25-V also supports the Microsoft Windows 7 Trim function via the Intel SSD Optimizer

BTW, for those of you not familiar with the boot-drive option for SSDs, it’s the idea of placing the OS and your favorite applications on the SSD. Since SSDs are faster than standard hard disk drives, system boot times will speed up and application launch times will also start-up accordingly. Of course, a 40GB SSD will only get you so far so we’d probably just stick the OS and maybe one or two favorite apps on the SSD.

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Let’s face it. Sound typically sucks on netbooks and thin-and-light notebooks. These tiny systems with tiny speakers just can’t pump out the sound that we’ve come to expect on larger systems.

So what do you do if you want to pump out some serious sound from your netbook? Attach an external speaker system of course! Logitech is out with a new external attachment called the Logitech Laptop Speaker Z205.

Lightweight and small enough to attach onto netbook systems, the Z205 measures 1.35 inches thick and 2.5 inches tall – plenty small enough to take with you wherever you go. Simply clip the speakers to the top of display and them connect them to your system via the included USB cable. No need for external power adapters here.

The Z205 comes with two high-performance drivers,  a built-in amplifier, and a acoustically tuned enclosure. Buttons on top of the speaker control volume and power.

The Logitech Laptop Speaker Z205 will be available this month for a price of $39.99.

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NVIDIA officially launches their second-generation Ion platform today with the unveiling of the “Ion 2”. As most of you already know by now, the Ion 2 delivers a new discrete graphics chip which is 40 percent smaller than the original Ion chip as well as switchable graphics functionality via NVIDIA’s Optimus technology.

On the discrete graphics side, the Ion 2 will come in two flavors – an 8-core chip designed for 10 inch netbooks and a 16-core version for larger 11 inch or 12 inch netbooks. Both Ion 2 variants will support HDMI and DisplayPort technologies . The 8-core version will have a TDP of 6 watts while the 16-core version will have a TDP rating of 13 watts.

Of course we all know discrete graphics are certainly not a battery’s best friend.

To address this issue and improve overall battery performance with the Ion platform, NVIDIA rolls in Optimus technology into the Ion 2 platform. Optimus basically delivers switchable graphics to netbook systems – switching between the integrated graphics solution built into the Pinetrail Atom processor and the discrete NVIDIA graphics chip. A software driver automatically determines the best graphics solution for the application at hand – potentially saving tons of battery life on the netbook.

No word on delivery dates for the Ion 2 platform but we all know the Acer Aspire 532G will be one of the first Ion 2 systems out.

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Corsair announced on Friday two new solid state drive product lines – the Reactor Series and the Nova Series.

The Reactor Series is available in 60GB and 120GB capacities and features the new JMicron JMF612 controller which incorporates 128MB of DDR2 cache memory for fast performance. The 60GB drive has read speeds up to 250MB/sec and write speeds up to 110MB/sec while the 120GB drive has read speeds up to 250MB/sec and write speeds up to 170MB/sec.

The Nova Series uses the Indilinx Barefoot controller which comes with 64MB of cache memory and is available in 64GB and 128GB storage capacities. The 64GB drive has read speeds up to 270MB/sec and write speeds up to 130MB/sec while the 128GB drive has read speeds up to 270MB/sec and write speeds up to 190MB/sec.

Amazon has the 60GB Reactor SSD for $187.65 while the 120GB Reactor SSD is available for $363.09.

They also have the 64GB Nova Series SSD for $193.99 and the 128GB Nova Series SSD for $373.29.

[Check out the Reactor Series product page]

[Check out the Nova Series product page]

We’re doing a bit of catch-up news here so I apologize if this is old news for you.

A few weeks back, Acer became the first vendor to announce a netbook featuring the upcoming next-generation NVIDIA ION platform (known to most as the ION 2). Known as the Aspire One 532G, the new 10.1 inch system measures only 1 inch thin, weighs a mere 1kg, and has up to 10 hours of battery life.

With the ION 2 GPU, the 532G supports 720p HD playback locally on the system and 1080p HD playback via an externally connected high-definition display. More importantly, the next-generation GPU supports NVIDIA’s Optimus Technology which automatically and intelligently switches between the discrete graphics and integrated graphics. This allows you to get 3D graphics horsepower when you need it and conserve power consumption when you don’t need it.

All this sounds but will the new ION platform deliver better 3D graphics performance than the first-generation ION platform? According to early test results from Netbook News, this might not be the case.

The site managed to get some time with the new 532G netbook and found the system scored 3049 with 3D Mark 2003. While this is a notable increase over integrated graphics performance, it’s actually lower than what the Samsung N510 scored with the first generation ION platform (the N510 scored a 3513).

Of course these are all preliminary results at this time. The drivers are not fully-baked at this time and this is still pre-release hardware. However, it might be prudent to lower graphics performance expectations of the ION 2 platform.

More importantly, we see the ION 2 as a way for NVIDIA to improve the battery life of ION-powered netbook systems – something that’s been a sore spot for first generation ION-powered netbooks. 

As for the Aspire One 532G, the netbook will be available in three colors (Sapphire Blue, Ruby Red and Pearl Silver), and should be shipping by the end of the first quarter.

Lose your netbook AC adapter? Never fear, iGo has you covered with its introduction of the iGo Netbook Charger. The portable iGo Netbook Charger powers and charges netbooks from any wall, car, or airplane outlet and works internationally without the need of a voltage converter. The charger supports a variety of netbook power tips including:

• Tip 401 for Asus brand netbooks (excluding models: Eee PC 1005HA, 1005HAB and 1008HA)
• Tip 206 for Acer brand netbooks
• Tip 207 for Dell netbooks
• Tip 212 for HP netbooks.
• Tip 213 for Asus brand netbooks, specifically the Eee PC 1005HA, 1005HAB and 1008HA Models.

The charger also supports devices other than netbooks thanks to iGo tips as well as USB charger support. The iGo Netbook Charger is available for $69.99 while a wall charger version is available for $49.99. You’ll be able to choose two free tips (one of which has to be a laptop tip) with the purchase of the Netbook Charger.

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Didn’t think you’d ever see a dual-core Atom processor in a netbook?

Guess again.

ASUS is readying the new Eee PC 1201 netbook featuring the dual-core Intel Atom N330 processor which is clocked at 1.66GHz. As if that alone wasn’t impressive enough, the 1201 also features the NVIDIA ION graphics platform which means high def enthusiasts might finally have a netbook they can be proud of.

Other notable features of the 1201 include:

• 12 inch widescreen display with 1366 x 768 resolution
• 2GB of RAM
• Full-sized keyboard
• HDMI port
• 250GB hard drive
• Three USB 2.0 ports
• Media Card Reader
• Ethernet port
• Built-in webcam
• Available in black and silver colors
• Weighs approximately 3.1 pounds

According to PC Magazine, the ASUS Eee PC 1201 comes with a removable 6 cell battery which should provide around 5 hours of battery life. Price for this system? A cool $499. No word on when the 1201 will hit the market.

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With Windows 7 launched, Lenovo is finally offering the ION-based IdeaPad S12 netbook for sale with prices starting at $599. The $599 model has the following specs

• Intel Atom N270 processor clocked at 1.6GHz
• Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit
• NVIDIA ION with 256MB RAM
• 2GB DDR2 SDRAM
• 12.1 inch WXGA TFT 1280 x 800 resolution display
• Touchpad
• 250GB Hard Drive
• 6 cell Lithium Ion battery
• Broadcom 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR

The $699 model ups the memory to 3GB of RAM and the storage capacity to 320GB.  Both ION based S12 models are available in black only.

Remember that the S12 is also available in other configurations. The low end model for $429 consists of the VIA Nano ULV 2250 processor clocked at 1.3GHz coupled with the VIA Chrome 9 HC3 graphics while the mid-range model for $449 consists of an Intel Atom processor coupled with the Intel GMA 950 integrated graphics.

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Intel X25-M Solid State Drive owners listen up. Intel’s released a new Solid State Drive Toolbox with SSD Optimizer and firmware update for the X25-M Mainstream SATA SSDs.

Here are the detail from the press release:

“

Intel® Solid-State Drive Toolbox with Intel® SSD Optimizer Enables Users to Maximize SSD Performance over Time

SANTA CLARA, Calif. –(Business Wire)– Oct 26, 2009 On the heels of the Microsoft* Windows* 7 introduction, Intel Corporation today announced the availability of the Intel® Solid-State Drive (SSD) Toolbox, with Intel® SSD Optimizer and firmware update, for its 34nm Intel® X25-M Mainstream SATA SSDs. The latest tools are designed to help better manage and retain the out-of-box performance of Intel SSDs.

An SSD is built to replace a traditional hard disk drive (HDD) with added performance, lower power consumption and higher reliability. The Intel SSD Toolbox allows users to more effectively monitor and manage the SSD’s health. The firmware upgrade and Intel SSD Optimizer use the Windows* 7 ATA Data Set Management Command (known as Trim) to help keep the Intel SSD running at continued high performance. In addition, the SSD Toolbox and Optimizer also allow the respective enhancements to work with Windows* XP and Vista* operating systems.

“Fast and reliable access to data is critical for our SSD users,” said Pete Hazen, director of marketing, Intel NAND Solutions Group. “The latest firmware and toolbox upgrade for Intel 34nm SSD users provide a host of new management, information and diagnostic tools to help SSDs retain out-of-box performance. We are encouraging our 34nm customers to download the new firmware update today. Not only will Windows 7 users receive the performance enhancements of the Trim command, but so will our Windows XP and Vista users.”

For 34nm X25-M 160GB owners, the firmware update also offers a performance boost to sequential write speeds by delivering up to 100MB per second, a 40 percent performance improvement over the existing firmware version.

The Trim attribute of the ATA Data Set Management Command, often referred to as Trim, synchs the operating system’s view of deleted files with those that are deleted, but not erased on the drive. Trim tells the SSD which data blocks are no longer in use. This helps stabilize the performance and health of the SSD over time.

The Intel SSD Toolbox provides SSD management tools and information about the drive, including comparing Self-Monitoring and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T.) drive attributes to manufacturer threshold. It provides basic and full diagnostics, along with recommended actions. The Toolbox also features an easy-to-use graphical user interface that will allow end users to schedule and run the Trim command independent of the operating system. The company recommends users install the firmware update and toolbox, and run the Trim function daily to ensure best performance. The firmware upgrade can be found at www.intel.com/go/ssdfirmware and the Intel SSD Toolbox and Optimizer at www.intel.com/go/ssdtoolbox.

Intel’s award-winning X25-M SSD began shipping on 34nm in July. The multi-level cell (MLC) Intel® X25-M Mainstream SATA SSD is aimed at laptop and desktop PCs, and available in 80 Gigabyte (GB) and 160GB versions. SSDs are data storage devices found inside computers. Because SSDs have no moving parts they offer faster performance and greater energy efficiency and durability than traditional HDDs. A draw for gamers, media creators and technology enthusiasts, SSDs have also played a key role in the emergence of ultra-thin and light notebook PCs that are becoming increasingly popular due to their design, size and longer battery life. For more information on Intel SSDs visit www.intel.com/go/ssd.

Intel [NASDAQ:INTC], the world leader in silicon innovation, develops technologies, products and initiatives to continually advance how people work and live. Additional information about Intel is available at www.intel.com/pressroom and blogs.intel.com.

Intel is a trademark of Intel Corporation in the United States and other countries.

*Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

for Intel Corporation
Deborah Paquin, 916-984-1921
dpaquin@strategiccom.biz
or
Claudine Mangano, 408-765-0146
claudine.a.mangano@intel.com

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