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As you might have expected; Intel has just released their comments on the suit filed against them by the FTC. Intel claims that this suit will cost the tax-payers money and that the FTC failed to work with Intel towards a settlement.

"Intel has competed fairly and lawfully. Its actions have benefitted consumers. The highly competitive microprocessor industry, of which Intel is a key part, has kept innovation robust and prices declining at a faster rate than any other industry. The FTC's case is misguided. It is based largely on claims that the FTC added at the last minute and has not investigated. In addition, it is explicitly not based on existing law but is instead intended to make new rules for regulating business conduct. These new rules would harm consumers by reducing innovation and raising prices."

Intel senior vice president and general counsel Doug Melamed added, "This case could have, and should have, been settled. Settlement talks had progressed very far but stalled when the FTC insisted on unprecedented remedies - including the restrictions on lawful price competition and enforcement of intellectual property rights set forth in the complaint -- that would make it impossible for Intel to conduct business."

So it finally happened. The US Federal Trade Commission is suing Intel for anti-competitive practices.

What is surprising is that they are not just saying that Intel abused its market dominance to injure AMD, but also to injure NVIDIA. This last one comes as an interesting surprise to me. Although I will not say that Intel has been nice to NVIDIA. The claim that they are being anti-competitive there is something of a stretch. After all I believe that NVIDIA opened the war by refusing to sign a new licensing agreement with Intel for their CPUs with integrated memory controllers, then went on a rant about how the CPU was dead amongst other things.

But hey, I suppose all of that will come out in the trial. One thing the FTC was careful about was to make sure no one will try to piggyback on their suit by making it only an accusation of violating monopoly and competition laws. If the suit is successful the FTC wants to prevent Intel from unfair bundling, offering incentives, and exclusory licensing. The last one is a tad ridiculous to me as it is like telling someone they have to share all their hard work for free or at least very little.

NVIDIA's CEO Jen-Hsun Huang recently made the statement that he wants Tegra to be 50% of the company's revenue in the coming years. It looks like not only does he want this to happen, but the engineers working on the Tegra project are also committed to this goal. With the release of the first Tegra and its inclusion in Microsoft's Zune HD we got a first glimpse at the power behind this idea.

But what is more for the first time NV actually released a road map for a product. They showed us just before the Zune HD where they planned on going. On this map was an entry labeled Tegra 2 2010. At the time my thoughts were that we would see this around the end of 2010 (Q3 at the earliest). It seems like might be way off the mark. Instead of waiting for Q3 NVIDIA could be showing off Tegra 2 as soon as January 2010. This introduction would be at CES with the tiny little computer being shown off working in Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) smart phones, and Personal Media Players.

While the details on the Tegra 2 are short we do have NVIDIA's claim that it will be twice the power of the original Tegra (big surprise). As far as rumors go, well there are plenty of them. We hear there will be two Dual Core Arm Cortex (11) CPUs dual GT200 based GPUs (possibly for SLI or to enable Cuda acceleration or Physx) as well as s host of other features. All told the future of Tegra 2 looks exciting.

Recently we did a news post about the fact that the XFX HD 5970 Black Edition's own overclocking utility didn't offer support for 64-bit users of Windows. For the most part this was a huge fail, but the good news is that it seems XFX heard our roar and sorted the issue out.

Below is the e-mail I received from XFX just the other day:

Hello Shane,

Intel plans to release no less than 13 Westmere-based 32nm processors under its Xeon E5000, L5000, X5000, and W3600 families towards the end of Q1 next year.

Six of these will be hexa-core Xeon CPUs which include the X5680 (3.33GHz / 130W TDP), X5670 (2.93GHz / 95W TDP), X5660 (2.80GHz / 95W TDP), X5650 (2.66GHz / 95W TDP), L5640 (2.26GHz / 60W TDP) and single-socket W3680 (3.33GHz / 130W TDP).

In the quad-core 32nm realm we have the Xeon X5677 (3.46 GHz, 130W), X5647 (3.06 GHz, 95W), E5640 (2.66 GHz, 80W), X5630 (2.53 GHz, 80W), X5620 (2.40 GHz, 80W), and L5630 (2.13 GHz, 40W), and L5609 (1.86 GHz, 40W). All of these processors have HyperThreading technology and Turbo Boost except for the L5609. The amount of cache is not confirmed on these quad-core variants as yet.

Intel's value positioned desktop chipset for LGA-1156, H55 Express is set for launch in Q1 2010 and a trio of H55 boards from GIGABYTE have been spotted online. These include the GA-H55M-S2H and GA-H55M-UD2H, both of which are mATX based, and also a full sized ATX board, the GA-H55-UD3H.

Where the GA-H55M-S2H has only two DDR3 DIMM slots, no eSATA or FireWire and the lack of Ultra Durable 3 (which includes all solid-state capacitors and a 2 oz copper PCB), the GA-H55M-UD2H has four DDR3 slots and makes welcome these other additional features.

Both of these mATX boards use a 7-phase CPU VRM, have two PCI-E x16 slots (with the lower electrically at x4), two legacy PCI, six SATA 3 Gbps ports (the sixth on the GA-H55M-UD2H is routed to an eSATA port on the rear I/O), and DVI / D-Sub / HDMI connections.

Memory card readers are a dime a dozen today and 99% of them are all the same. The things are almost exclusively USB readers and they tend to read the same formats. Users that read large CF or SDHC cards have probably wished the memory card readers were faster before.

Addonics has unveiled a pair of new memory card readers called the pocket eSATA/USB DigiDrive and the internal SATA/USB DigiDrive. The pocket version of the reader reads 15 memory card formats and connects via either USB or eSATA ports.

The internal version connects via SATA and slips into a 3.5-inch drive bay. Both of the readers can be had in versions that can read and write to the memory cards. Both of the memory card readers are also firmware updatable for support of new formats. The read only version of both readers are $59.99.

Seen below are a bunch of benchmark results showing off Fermi's performance vs. NVIDIA's current-gen GTX 295 and 285 graphics cards as well as ATI's HD 5870 and 5970 models.

Of course, given the lack of validity to these results along with the fact that the layout of the graphs scream out 'NVIDIA slide deck presentation', the results are to be taken with grains of salt.

Benchmarks are performed in Far Cry 2, Resident Evil 5 and STALKER: Clear Sky; you can see whether or not AA was used and at what resolution the tests were done with at the bottom portion of each graph.

As many of you know, Intel's crop of Core i5 and Core i7 processors has a new feature called Turbo Boost which can significantly increase the clockspeed of singular cores on the processor on-the-fly depending on what is being asked of the processor at a given time.

This is designed to function transparently and give the CPU a good kick in the pants when applications and games call upon extra grunt. But for users wanting to see exactly what mode the processor is in and when Turbo Boost is influencing performance, Intel has now made it possible to monitor this with a new gadget that can be installed into the Windows Gadget Gallery and be shown in the sidebar on Vista and Desktop on Windows 7.

The downside of the first version of this monitoring tool is that it's only able to display a single number which corrosponds to the fastest running core at the time, not individual clockspeeds across all the cores.

Reminising of the funny ole' DriveSpace' days way back where it would work supposed magic to double the capacity of your hard drive (only for many to find out soon after their data would crumble beyond any hope of retrieval), Western Digital has come up with a new form of increasing the amount of usable space on a hard disk which is said to be a lot more reliable.

WD calls it 'advanced format' which is a new partitioning method that gets rid of all the Sync/DAM headers and Ecc that each sector normally includes and instead makes use of larger 4k physical sectors, as depicted from the image shown below.

Whilst this method means the ECC ends up being larger, the overall increase in space is still enough to make this form of partitioning worthwhile with an increase in usable storage space of between 7 and 11% (certainly quite noticeable when you're talking 1+TB HDDs).

Foxconn makes all sorts of cool computer gear form video cards to computer cases. The company has announced a couple of new computer cases that use Bamboo in their construction for good looks and a green bent.

The cases include the Bamboo One and the Bamboo 2. The Bamboo One is a mid-tower chassis that has bamboo wood for a front cover rather than plastic. The bamboo looks really good and the only issue I see is that the bay covers don't match the grain and color of the surrounding wood.

Those wanting a smaller case can get the Bamboo II sized for HTPC use. This case has matching color and grain and looks really good too. Exactly how much the cases will cost is unknown as is whether these things will make it to America.

The notebook has pretty much taken over in many categories with the average home user and office drone preferring the smaller notebook to more bulky desktops. For some uses, the desktop is still popular through and among the most popular growing category of desktops are small form factor machines.

Dell has announced a couple new SFF machines for its OptiPlex line including the ultra small form factor 780 and the 380 available in three styles. The 780 claims to be the world's smallest fully functional desktop and has lots of options for graphics, storage, and uses Intel Core 2 Duo processors. Pricing for the OptiPlex 780 starts at $629.

The OptiPlex 380 is offered in minitower, SFF, and desktop versions and pricing starts at $329. Both models can use Vista, XP, Windows 7, or Linux operating systems.

AMD have a successor to its current Dragon platform due out in Q2 of next year; this known as Leo. Two of the three individual components that make up this platform are the Thuban six-core processor and RD890 chipset (using the SB850 Southbridge).

A picture of MSI's first RD890 offering has already surfaced on the web which it calls the 890FX-GD70. What we can learn from the picture is that it looks to sport MSI's 5-phase DrMOS, four DDR3 slots, a very extensive set of PCIe x16 slots (six!), six SATA 6Gbps ports along with a seventh blue one which may or may not also be SATA 6Gbps.

Further to that are buttons directly on the board for Power, Reset and OC'ing on the fly as well as Gigabit Ethernet, 7.1 audio, eSATA, FireWire and two USB 3.0 ports controlled by NEC's chip.

Well, well, well it looks like we have a new rumor to toss around over the holidays. The rumor comes from a short tweet by Eldar Murtazin, the Editor-in-Chief of Mobile review. The tweet in question?

"Foxconn received order for next generation iphone"

This seemingly innocuous statement would not seem to be of much use if it were not for the history of accuracy that Murtazin has. He has typically been able to get information on upcoming mobile technology months ahead of others. When you add this statement to other "evidence" we do see the likelihood of a new iPhone in 2010. After all just last week the internet was ripe with articles on a new model ID found in the iPhone firmware, and the possibility that a new prototype was at work in San Francisco.

Onkyo has bettered Japanese based Kohjinsha's DZ-series dual-display laptop with the new DX dual-screen unit, which while for the most part is just a rebadge, makes a good step forward in the way of its dual 10.1-inch 1366x768 LCD displays that give better res (1024x600 on the Kohjinsha unit) without the cost of physical portability.

Specs wise its much the same; a 1.6GHz Athlon Neo MV-40 CPU, ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics, 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR and three USB ports. However, Onkyo give 2GB of memory as standard (1GB on the Kohjinsha), a 320GB 5,400RPM HDD, Gigabit Ethernet and a 32-bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium.

Better still is the price, coming in at around $966 whilst the more underwhelming Kohjinsha continues to sit at about $909, or $1,148 if purchased through GeekStuff4u.

It looks like after a long time back at the drawing board, Thermalright has finally come out with a true successor to the highly regarded Ultra 120.

Thermalright calls it the Venomous X and just by looking at you can see Thermalright has gone all out with this monster to push for unprecedented performance.

The cooler supports sockets 775, 1156 and 1366 and makes use of six nickel plated 6mm heatpipes for heat transfer to the massive alumium fin array. The base is of pure nickel plated copper with a promised ultra-shine mirror surface. Dimensions come in at 125mm (length) x 158mm (width) x 160mm (height) and weight is 755g without the fan and bracket system mounted.

The folks at Engadget were lucky enough to have recently gotten a taste of NVIDIA's 3D Blu-ray ecosystem on one of Acer's upcoming LCD beauties, the 120Hz NVIDIA 3D-ready 24" G245.

During their demo session they also learned a bit about the 3D Blu-ray format which is a backward compatible 1080p source, but uses the new MVC-AVC format to provide a 3D image for both the software and decoding hardware that is able to make use of it.

As far as supporting NVIDIA cards go, the GT 220 and GT 240 can make use of 3D Blu-ray, with NVIDIA's upcoming Fermi cards carrying support as well. It's been said that supporting software won't be an issue with all the main mobs (Arcsoft, Core, Cyberlink and Sonic) all nodding their heads to prepare for 3D Blu-ray titles and have support in time for shipping next year.

After hearing the ringing cries of the death of Intel's Larrabee circle around the internet we now may just be hearing hints that Larrabee is not completely dead (it feels much better). The rumor comes from a small (and very short) interview conducted by PC Games Hardware. In it they speak with an unnamed Intel rep explaining the death of the consumer version of Larrabee and if you look closely even saying they there might be a chance of a Larrabee in the future.

The key phrase that will get some going is "Our first Larrabee product will not be launched as a standalone discrete graphics product, but rather be used as a software development platform for internal and external use." As you can see it is directly saying that there will be more than one but that the first will be for development only. This is probably a great move on Intel's part as it will potentially allow some time for the ecosystem needed for a project like this to be created in the background (and with help).

Of course this does not say that there will be a Larrabee for the consumer but a later comment does again point us back in this direction. The statement, "we remain committed to delivering world-class many-core graphics products to our customers. Additional plans for discrete graphics products will be discussed some time in 2010." is our second indication that we may see a consumer based Larrabee product in the future.

I bought myself one of Dell's 30-inch LCDs with the WQXGA 2560 x 1600 resolution years ago. The screen is fantastic for working and when it comes time for gaming the high resolution of the screen is awesome. 30-inch LCDs have long been the only items supporting the high resolution.

Projectiondesign has announced a new projector called the F35 that boasts a resolution of 2560 x 1600. The projector is the first to use the new Texas Instruments WQXGA DLP chip. The F35 has a brightness of 6500 ANSI lumens.

The contrast ratio is 8000:1 and the screen can throw an image up to 20 meters. Man would I like to play Modern Warfare 2 on a 50-foot screen, that would rock. Pricing is unknown and the projector will debut in the second half of 2010.

The folks at bit-tech have learned quite a bit about a new app from Google it calls 'Goggles' which has already hit the Android and is said to be due for the iPhone in the near future.

Its purpose is to make for significantly easier information searching when on the go. We're not talking about using a more advanced version of a search field, nor voice recognition for that matter. This works where you can simply use a photo of an item you've taken on your phone; this is then submitted and analysed by Google in such a way that it looks for cover images, recognisable text, barcodes etc. to work out exactly what the image is and then it searches for that item accordingly.

A video demonstration below shows how well it works even though its still in its infancy. The user had taken a photo of the front cover of a book, submitted it using Google's Goggles service and very quickly it reported back reviews and product links all about that book :-