Both AMD Dual Core Athlon X2 and Intel Dual Core Pentium EE 840 are already hit the market in previous weeks. PC World has just tested both AMD and Intel Dual Core chips and concluded the winner is clearly AMD’s new Athlon 64 X2, which handily outdistanced a dual-core Intel system they tested last month.

Don’t mix up AMD Dual Core Opteron with Athlon X2, same goes to Intel Dual Core Pentium EE 840 with Pentium D. In PC World’s recent tests, they were testing AMD Athlon X2 and Intel Pentium EE 840, the result from the tests is an obvious one. The performance chart clearly shows that PC equipped with AMD’s Dual-Core chip beats Intel’s Dual-Core system.

Quoted:
The AMD machine was the second-fastest we’ve ever tested, with a 116 mark on WorldBench 5, easily surpassing the 95 posted by the 3.2-GHz dual-core Pentium Extreme Edition 840 reference system that we looked at earlier. The unit showed its prowess on the multitasking portion of WorldBench 5. Its time of 6 minutes, 44 seconds was an impressive 3 minutes, 42 seconds faster than the average of two Athlon 64 FX-55 systems, and about 3 minutes faster than the dual-core Pentium EE 840 reference PC’s time.

PC World also highlighted another advantage of upgrading to Athlon 64 which you need only a BIOS upgrade, whereas to convert an Intel unit to dual-core you’ll need to purchase a new motherboard.

As the conclusion, PC World sums up that if you want powerful performance from Athlon X2, you’ll have to pay dearly for it as AMD’s 4800+ chips alone are priced at USD$1001, while Intel’s 3.2-GHz Pentium EE 840 chips currently sell for USD$995. :)

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As expected in the post “AMD’s Dual Core Athlon64 X2 Debut” early this month, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) plans to launch four dual-core Athlon 64 X2 processors–the 4800+, the 4600+, the 4400+ and the 4200+ in Taiwan on Tuesday, May 31, 2005.

Quoted:
The 4200+ chip, for instance, is about 10 percent faster than the Athlon 64 4000+, the best, fastest single-core Athlon. The 4800+ is about 22 percent faster, according to the Jonathan Seckler, Athlon 64 product marketing manager for AMD.

Seckler pointed out a very valid reason to go for Dual Core processors – It drives down the software licenses costs, because with Dual Core you can do more with less. :)

As compared to the price listed in previous Intel Pentium D processors, AMD Dual Core chips seem to have high price tag. However, Seckler said: “We are going to appeal to people who appreciate the performance benefits.” :) Anyway, just in case the company runs out of people who appreciate performance, AMD will also strive to bring down the price over the next 18 months, Seckler said too.

The debut of the dual-core chips also means the beginning of the end for the Athlon 64 line, because AMD doesn’t have immediate plans for new Athlon 64s yet. There are also no current plans to come out with a dual-core chip for the Sempron line, AMD’s budget processor.

The chips are available now, dealers in Singapore and Taiwan can already get processors to put into house-brand PCs. However, PCs won’t be expected to hit the shelves for a few weeks.

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Aztech Systems Ltd, announced the introduction of its V300ATA VoIP Broadband Router bundled with Global Village Internet Phone Service to provide broadband users with a new, low cost way to call anytime and anywhere in the world via an existing telephone instead of using a PC.

Quoted:
Powered by Conexant’s industry-leading voice processing technology and chipsets, Aztech’s V300ATA VoIP Broadband Router allows users continue to use their broadband to surf the Internet while making simultaneous Internet voice calls with their telephone, thereby maximizing the value of the existing ADSL or Cable Broadband connection.

The package consists of the following:-

• Aztech V300ATA VoIP Broadband Router that allows users to connect any Analog Corded/Cordless Telephone or DECT Phone to make calls
• Global Village Internet Phone Service with free 60 minutes call time included upon registration
• Low cost long distance calls at S$0.05 per min to 27 countries
• Free Calls to any Global Village users and many other Voice over IP users around the world
• Free Premium Features like Caller ID, Caller ID Blocking, Call Return, Call Forwarding, Do not Disturb, Call Block, Voice Mail and Conferencing
• User friendly instructions to set up and register

In Singapore, V300ATA VoIP Broadband Router is priced at S$139 and will be available at major stores like Harvey Norman, Best Denki and Challenger Superstores as well as retail and computer outlets in Sim Lim Square and Funan Centre, Singapore in early June 2005.

According to Aztech, users can make high-quality phone calls over their broadband connection for as low as S$0.05 per minute anytime for 27 countries. FYI, S$0.05 (Singapore Dollar) is equivalent to USD$0.03, according to X Rate Calculator.

For Malaysia users, try calling Aztech branches for further information.

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New Windows Media Player (WMP) 11, code-named Polaris, formerly called Aurora, will now be shipping in a public beta this November, coinciding with Longhorn Beta 2.

The final release of Windows Media Player 11 is roughly scheduled for early 2006.

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Since the final release of Netscape 8.0 Browser on May 19, 2005, Netscape 8.0 has been facing problems like several publicly known security flaws. Unfortunately, just after a week of the bad news, America Online on Thursday, May 26, 2005, confirmed that a bug in its new Netscape 8 Web browser was breaking certain XML configurations in Microsoft’s IE.

The issue first surfaced on Microsoft Corp.’s Internet Explorer Weblog, where chief IE developer Dave Massy recommended that users completely uninstall Netscape as a possible workaround.

However, AOL spokesman defended that the bug only affects “a very small percentage of IE users” who visit pages using XML technology. I don’t really agree with him as a rapidly growing number of Internet users are using RSS feed to read news, weather reports etc.

Quoted:
According to Microsoft’s Massy, Netscape 8 corrupts the XML rendering capabilities of Internet Explorer, meaning that an IE user navigating to an XML file, such as an RSS feed, is greeted with a blank page.

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Just a few days after the flash memory based harddisk news, Apple Computer plans to roll out 2GB and 4GB versions of its iPod Shuffle this June and August, 2005.

According to the source, Samsung Electronics was reported to have started volume production of 8Gbit NAND flash memory in April of this year, while Toshiba stated it will begin producing 8Gbit parts this summer.

So, hopefully we will see a huge capacity iPod Shuffle been revealed very soon. :)

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