The first-ever ThinkPad X41 Tablet Series (X41T) that converts to a tablet PC will make its debut on Monday, June 6,2005.

This is the first computer released by China’s Lenovo Group following its purchase of IBM’s legendary PC business earlier this year.
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First ThinkPad Tablet Debut

At Intel’s Wireless and Mobility Press Day on Thursday, June 2, 2005, Mooly Eden – vice president and general manager of the company’s mobile platforms group – described the company’s next generation notebook technology, code-named Napa. Basically, Napa’s centerpiece: Intel’s coming Yonah mobile processor- the company’s first dual-core CPU for notebooks.
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No 64-bit Intel Mobile Chip Yet

Intel unveiled a concept PC that closely look alike with Apple Computer’s Mac Mini on Tuesday, 31 May, 2005.

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The AOpen prototype is one of several designs on display at Computex this week, said Intel spokeswoman Barbara Grimes. Intel is working with multiple computer and device manufacturers on similar designs and expects the products to come to market later this year, she said.

The squarish metallic box, originally code-named Pandora, will be released under AOpen’s XC Cube product line and is similar to one revealed by the chipmaking giant at its Intel Developers Forum in March.

As we can see, the new design lets Intel take another move to entertainment PC. Moreover, Don MacDonald, a vice president with Intel’s home product group, has said that future living room units will be smaller, more stylish and likely less costly. Analysts believe Intel will need to keep production and software bundle costs down if it is to compete with Apple’s $499 Mac Mini.

According to Silent PC Review, AOpen’s Pandora device has a slot load CD drive and power button in the front, along with three USB ports, a keyboard hookup and a serial port in the back for hooking into displays. The computer also has internal wireless networking connectors and uses a single blower fan to keep it cool.

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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.

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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.

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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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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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