Let’s get the hard data out of the way first: 480 CUDA cores, 700 MHz graphics and 1,401MHz processor clock speeds, plus 1.5GB of onboard GDDR5 memory running at 1,848MHz (for a 3.7GHz effective data rate). Those are the specs upon which Fermi is built, and those are the numbers that will seek to justify a $499 price tag and a spectacular 250W TDP. We attended a presentation by NVIDIA this afternoon, where the above GTX 480 and its lite version, the GTX 470, were detailed. The latter card will come with a humbler 1.2GB of memory plus 607MHz, 1,215MHz and 1,674MHz clocks, while dinging your wallet for $349 and straining your case’s cooling with 215W of hotness.
NVIDIA’s first DirectX 11 parts are betting big on tessellation becoming the way games are rendered in the future, with the entire architecture being geared toward taking duties off the CPU and freeing up its cycles to deliver performance improvements elsewhere. This is perhaps no better evidenced than by the fact that both GTX models scored fewer 3DMarks than the Radeon HD 5870 and HD 5850 that they’re competing against, but managed to deliver higher frame rates than their respective competitors in in-game benchmarks from NVIDIA. The final bit of major news here relates to SLI scaling, which is frankly remarkable. NVIDIA claims a consistent 90 percent performance improvement (over a single card) when running GTX 480s in tandem, which is as efficient as any multi-GPU setup we’ve yet seen. After the break you’ll find a pair of tech demos and a roundup of the most cogent reviews.

A new Apple iMac has been spotted in the wild, sporting a thinner body and ramped-up specs – and a rumoured Blu-ray drive.

The chaps over at AppleInsider have reported that the new iMac dual-core all-in-ones have been in production for two weeks, so we can expect a launch announcement very soon.Details are still a bit thin on the ground, but word is that there will definitely be a thinner form factor, perhaps taking Apple’s Cinema Display monitor as its design cue.

There are also some other “new features”, and one possibility is that the new iMac models will be sporting a Blu-ray drive. Depite the fact that Steve Jobs has previously dismissed bundling the HD format in Apple’s desktops, if the rumours of a cinema-style display are true, then Blu-ray would seem like an ideal addition to the functionality.

What do you think? What killer features would you like to see in the new iMacs? Let us know below…

MSI has just announced the MSI X400, a super-slim, affordable addition to its X-Slim range for those who need the power of a laptop in the portability of a netbook.
Following on from the larger X600, the X400 weighs in a just 1.5kg and closes down to 9mm at its thinnest point. It’ll offer up a 14-inch HD 16:9 widescreen display for letterbox-free movie viewing, a hard drive up to 500GB for all manner of storage requirements, 2GB memory and HDMI, Bluetooth and wireless connectivity.

There are also 2 USB ports, a card reader and built-in 1.3 megapixel webcam included as well.

Available this month, the X400 starts from £499 for a 320GB HDD and no optical drive, while it’ll be £569 for the full 500GB HDD complete with external optical drive.

If you’re style conscious on a budget, this certainly seems a good choice.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc ships a lower-power version of its Opteron server chip on Monday as it tries to expand its offerings for Web hosting companies. The company declined to give its projections for revenues from the new chip.

AMD said the new chip is aimed at companies that use servers for tasks like cloud computing, and are looking to cut power and costs related to things like air conditioning.

“We are seeing low power becoming prioritized within the IT Manager’s buying criteria. This is reflected in our processor shipments as our low power processors mix is increasing,” AMD senior manager Brent Kerby wrote in an e-mail to Reuters.

“Our new lowest power processors … (are) our fastest growing product,” he wrote.

The new chip is part of AMD’s six-core Opteron family of processors. Much larger competitor Intel Corp also has low-power chips, but its most advanced chips only have four cores.

More cores allow a chip to perform more tasks at once.

Intel, which currently dominates about 90 percent of the market for server chips, has said it will launch an eight core Nehalem chip in the first quarter of 2010.

“I don’t think this fundamentally changes AMD’s competitive position but it does give AMD a more complete portfolio and it makes their lower power offerings more attractive,” Real World Technologies analyst David Kanter said.

The server market — the worst impacted of any computing segment — was about 30 percent behind where it was a year ago due to the economic crisis, according to Mercury Research analyst Dean McCarron.

McCarron forecasts that gap will narrow in the second half and will rally to 7 percent to 8 percent growth in 2010, compared with overall PC growth of about 10 percent.

Having your browser, iTunes, IM, TweetDeck, Word, Skype, Photoshop, video editing tools, folders, and more open at the same time…well, it just takes up a lot of screen real estate. On a 15.4? laptop, you can only fit so much before your screen is piled with program after program.

gScreen, an Alaska-based notebook designer and manufacturer, aims to solve that problem, no matter where you are, with what can only be described as the PC version of a two-headed hydra: the dual-screen laptop.

Here are a few pictures that Gizmodo got its hands on:

Each monitor slides, so that you can move the gScreen around compactly. Now that is awesome.

Here are the specs for this beast, listed on the gScreen website:

- 2 LED backlit display screens
- Windows VISTA/ WIN XP PRO (optional)
- Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 2.26-GHz
- 4 GB of RAM (2GB DDR2 SO-DIMM x 2)
- 320GB 7200-rpm HD
- NVIDIA® GeForce® 9800M GT with 512MB dedicated memory (or)
- NVIDIA® Quadro FX 1700M Graphics with 512MB dedicated memory
- 9-cell battery
- IEEE 1394 1 Graphics Card Output (15-pin, D-Sub) X 1, HDMI X 1 Mic-in X 1, Line-in x 1, Headphone X 1 PCI Express Card X 1 AC Power Adaptor Output: 19V DC, 90W Input: 100~240V AC, 50/60Hz universal Battery Pack Li-ion 9 cells

This laptop is clearly meant for professional designers, programmers, filmmakers, and others that regularly need two monitors to get work done. Two-screen set-ups just allow you to get more done (thus why I use a two-screen set-up). There are disadvantages though, like the power drain two screens will cause and the sheer weight, estimated at 12+ pounds. And, of course, the price may be a deal-breaker: around $3000.

Still, this thing could do wonders for the productivity of digital professionals everywhere. And you may not have to wait long to get your hands on one; the company hopes to have the gScreen on the market by Christmas.

What do you think? Would you buy one of these two-headed beasts? Let us know in the comments.

Transcend has launched a set of new server-grade DDR3 modules that come equipped with an advanced thermal sensor. This allows motherboard chipsets to monitor the exact temperature of each memory module and adjust the memory load accordingly, ensuring the best possible system performance while at the same time protecting the DRAM modules from potentially catastrophic failure and compromised system stability.

“Thanks to the information provided by the thermal sensors of these modules, the memory load can be adjusted so as to provide high performance while protecting the modules from crash and burn scenarios, which can prove to be extremely costly for organisations,” said Mr. Austin Huang, Regional Head – Sales, SAARC & APAC, Transcend.

The DDR3 memory modules include ECC DIMMs and Registered DIMMs in both 1333MHz and 1066MHz versions.

Available with a 3-year warranty, the 1333MHz models sell at Rs 3,000 for 1GB and Rs 5,600 for 2GB. The 1066MHz models will cost Rs 3,000 for 1GB as well, but the 2GB version comes for a much more affordable Rs 3,700.

Strontium Technology recently unveiled their 4GB DDR3 1333MHz modules for desktops and laptops. The 4GB DDR3 module from Strontium exhibits higher capacity, lower energy consumption and better heat dissipation, making it an optimal memory upgrade for today’s powerful, compute-intensive hardware and software platforms.

Vivian Singh, CEO of Singapore based Strontium Technology, said “Dual- and multi-core CPUs for multi-tasking operations, 64-bit operating systems and sophisticated applications require high performance memory with reduced power consumption. To address the need for a more powerful memory support, we have come up with 4GB DDR3 in a single module for our customers.”

Strontium also released the all-new 4GB DDR2 800MHz modules for desktops and laptops. These modules are a perfect memory solution for users who are looking to upgrade their existing PCs with higher density and superior performance DDR2.

It don’t matter if you’re black or white

With newer Hi-Def video and audio formats becoming popular, games getting larger, and collections growing, you need more space, period. Western Digital plans to satiate your hunger for space with their new 1 Terabyte Caviar Black edition HDD.

This HDD is almost the same size of a 500GB HDD, despite the increased amount of memory platters. They managed to keep the height low by using perpendicular recording.

The WD caviar comprises of dual processors for twice the data processing speed as normal drives, coupled with a massive 32 MB of buffer memory that ensures that you get the maximum performance. Along with Acoustic management this drive also features Power management that allows it to power itself down when the drive is not in use or reduce its speed to a lower RPM when lower levels of performance are required.

We tested the WD Caviar Black edition HDD for its performance in real world scenarios using HD tach and SiSoft Sandra, and it did well, but not that much better. It gave us a random access time of 12.3 ms, while the average read and write speeds came to 81.1 and 92 MBps respectively, with CPU utilization at a maximum of 4 per cent. SiSoft Sandra gave it a Drive Index of 80 MBps, and listed the access time as 12 ms.

Asus India launched two new graphics cards in the market, apparently inspired by the design of Formula 1 cars – the Formula EAH4770 with 512MB DDR5 and the Formula EAH4890 with 1GB DDR5 memory.

It’s a bit of a marketing gimmick, but it looks good and it improves performance, so we aren’t complaining. ATI’s 4890 line of cards had been seeing some heating issues anyway, so if this solves the problem, well and good!

“The ASUS Formula Series graphics cards are a perfect amalgamation of aesthetics and performance. Conceptualised and designed to give you that extra design exclusivity along with the performance to keep up with it, the Formula Series Graphics cards are for users who want their graphics cards to look the part they play – super cool and super fast. These graphics cards provide much better cooling than reference designed cards and run up to 33 per cent cooler which is a dramatic improvement over existing standards,” said Mr. Vinay Shetty, Country Head – Components Business, ASUS (India).

ASUS Formula EAH4770

The ASUS Formula Series graphics cards come with built-in double cooling solutions to cope up with the demands of high performance gaming. They increase overall heat dissipation efficiency by up to a whopping 33% in comparison to reference design cards. On top of this unprecedented cooling capacity, Formula Series cards are also up to 12.4dB quieter than cards with generically designed fan-sinks—a 30 per cent improvement—rendering them perfect for users who require maximum cooling without excessive fan rotation noise.

Taking its inspiration from the pinnacle of motor sports, the Formula Series incorporates design elements from the streamlined body of a Formula One racing car, relying on aerodynamic principles to increase airflow volume by 7 per cent and to draw heat away from the GPU and other components. A heat-sink boasting ASUS’ proprietary Micro Surface Treatment improves heat dissipation by up to 14 per cent, while a fan sporting a unique dust-proof design provides cooling for up to 10,000 hours longer than conventional fans. The cumulative effect is an improvement in heat dissipation efficiency by up to 33 per cent as compared to reference design cards – propelling ASUS to the pole position in the graphics card cooling race.

ASUS Formula EAH4890

AMD HAS RELEASED a new version of its proprietary ATI Catalyst Linux display driver for both x86 and x86_64 systems.

The ATI Catalyst 9.8 suite updates the software to version 8.64 and supports Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.8 – and therefore most Red Hat based Linux distros – as well as the current Debian based Ubuntu 9.04 known as Jaunty Jackalope.

The release also supports RandR 1.2 to manage display rotation, desktop sizing and multiple display arrangement.

It also works better for users of the popular Ubuntu 9.04 who use multi ASIC configurations. They can now use normal mouse cursor movement between displays, which means the end of the static cursor.

The ATI Catalyst 9.8 works with Linux kernel 2.6 or higher and glibc version 2.2 or 2.3. If you want to have 3D display effects you also need to have support for POSIX Shared Memory (/dev/shm).

Also 64-bit users must have 32-bit libraries installed before updating or running the driver. The GCC compiler, kernel-headers and kernel-source are required to build the driver modules and enable 2D and 3D acceleration.

Although this sounds like your normal Linux “you have to be a computer scientist to install this” sort of warning, in reality it is a bit of doddle for those who are familiar with Linux.

It is nice that ATI is aggressively supporting Linux. It used to be that you could only run Nvidia cards on Ubuntu and its ilk.

]]> http://techplore.com/technology/ati-updates-its-linux-graphics-display-drivers/feed/ 0 http://techplore.com/technology/amd-%e2%80%9cevergreen%e2%80%9d-graphics-chips-you-won%e2%80%99t-believe-your-eyes%e2%80%a6-nvidia/ http://techplore.com/technology/amd-%e2%80%9cevergreen%e2%80%9d-graphics-chips-you-won%e2%80%99t-believe-your-eyes%e2%80%a6-nvidia/#comments Sun, 16 Aug 2009 18:55:23 +0000 Abhijit Kamal http://techplore.com/technology/?p=1849

The word is finally out. AMD will launch it’s much anticipated next generation graphics processors code name “Evergreen” on September 10th; ahead of Windows 7’s launch in late October..

Evergreen is the codename for AMD’s 40nm DX11 based product. With AMD’s codename shift this time around, it is still a little ambiguous as to whether Evergreen is a GPU class or a specific configuration. While it is exciting that they’re sharing what they are, AMD are still holding quite a few cards close to their chest. We know almost nothing about the details of the configuration, except that is is built on a 40nm process, is fully DX11 compliant, and that AMD put forth a slide titled “DirectX 11: sooner than you think.”

Of course, sooner than I think would have to mean DirectX 11 would be here before Windows 7 launches (which is sort of impossible). We learned today that Microsoft has announced Windows 7 will be here on on shelves on October 22nd. From AMD’s press release and slide deck, however, the only safe bet on when we’ll see hardware is before the end of the year. But teasing us with “sooner than you think” would just be mean if we’ll have to wait that long.

If AMD doesn’t need to respin their silicon and Evergreen really is complete as of today (aside from qualification, tuning and ramping production), AMD really could be ready to ship product much sooner than November, getting product out along side or in advance of Windows 7. It all really depends on a bunch of things they aren’t going to tell us. Of course that’s just the way it is, but that doesn’t make it any less frustrating not knowing.

We can ascertain from the wafer shot AMD provided us that there are about 19.5 dies vertically and 25.5 dies horizontally. As this is a 300mm wafer, we can sort of “guess” the dimensions of the chip at roughly 15.38mm x 11.76mm resulting in a die area of a little over 180mm^2. This is much smaller than the 55nm RV770 which is a 260mm^2 part, so if we expect a similar price target for the first Evergreen die that we saw with RV770, we could see a significant cost savings (and hopefully this tiny die will deliver a good general performance improvement as well).

Compare this die size to RV740 that weighs in at 137mm^2 and 826 million transistors, and we can estimate very loosely that Evergreen could come in at something over 1 billion transistors. Certainly the process has been tweaked since RV740 and Evergreen is a different architecture and layout, so scaling isn’t exact or direct, but proportionally AMD should be able to fit that many transistors into only 180mm^2 on the 40nm process.

We’ll definitely be interested in seeing how close our guesses are when we finally have hardware in hand. But this still doesn’t speak to performance. Our only real reference for AMD’s target is to guess that they will want to come in at near the same price point the RV770 hit at: the $200 – $300 range. With the added transistors, changes in architecture, and clock speed advantages with the 40nm process over 55nm, we could reasonably see AMD hitting that target.

Showing off Demos and Preliminary Thoughts

Unfortunately, we don’t have any videos of the demos in action as presented at Computex. All we have to go on right now is a presentation from AMD with some slides showing stills from some demos. Here’s a DX11 SDK sample showing sub-division surfaces using tessellation.

Since we don’t have hardware that can run this demo as of yet, we can’t really know how good 14 frames per second really is or what it means. We’ll have to wait until we have competitive hardware to do any evaluation of performance (or we’ll have to wait until AMD shows us something we can compare to current DX10 hardware running on Evergreen). Also shown were some other demos including transcoding and compute shader based AI.

While there are a lot of applications that will be potentially enabled by the compute shader, it will certainly take some time for developers to get familiar and comfortable with treating the GPU like another processor for data-parallel compute operations. Our expectation is that DX11 (and preparation for the next round of console game systems) will serve as a catalyst for a final push away from DX9 based hardware and into the realm of real programmability.

While dynamic branching has been available since DX9, we haven’t seen heavy use of it as it can be very resource intensive and slow even on modern hardware. Yes, it’s much faster today, but there are still somethings that are not practical today despite the fact that some algorithms would significantly benefit from fast branching. We hope, and it seems AMD believes, that DX11 class hardware will continue the trend of speeding up and improving branching on GPUs. Here’s a timeline showing ATIs GPU technology progression at a very high level.

From the context of the presentation and what we’ve seen, AMD is really interested in pushing their tessellation technology. Tessellation has been an option since R600, but it hasn’t been taken incredibly seriously because it wasn’t a standard feature and couldn’t run on all DX10 hardware. DirectX 11 changes that, and AMD is touting their experience as a benefit here. We’ll have to wait and see what NVIDIA does, as experience doesn’t always mean better.

So, the big deal today is that AMD is showing off working DX11 silicon on a 40nm process running DX11 demos. We expect DX11 before the end of the year based on what AMD has said. Now that we know when Windows 7 will hit (October 22nd) and that AMD already has Evergreen silicon in their hands, we are fairly hopeful that AMD could introduce their DX11 part ahead of Windows 7 if everything goes smoothly for them from now until then. Definitely cool stuff that really puts the pressure on NVIDIA to follow suit and start talking about their DX11 answer.

Update:- AMD confirmed that the Evergreen cards are being shown this weekend, at the QuakeCon video game convention in Dallas, Texas.

Aching to switch dull old DVD for beauteous Blu-ray but worried it’ll punish your pocket? Philips has snuck out a budget Blu-ray player to brighten up your Monday  – the Philips BDP3000

Slap down £169 and hook the Philips BDP3000 up to your HD TV and it’ll give you Blu-ray movies in 1080p 24fps Full HD. 

If you’re not planning on ditching your DVDs entirely, the BDP3000 will also upscale them or you. There’s also support for Dolby TrueHD 7.1 surround sound and BD Live (Profile 2.0) which will give you access to extra content on your Blu-ray discs. 

The player itself doesn’t look too shabby either, measuring up at 435 x 58 x 308 with a high gloss black finish. Oooh shiny. 

The BDP3000 is available now for £169.

The software giant has built a new touchscreen computer—a coffee table that will change the world. Go inside its top-secret development with PopularMechanics.com, then forget the keyboard and mouse: The next generation of computer interfaces will be hands-on.

If you saw Minority Report’s gesture-controlled computers and immediately added one to the imaginary Amazon wish list in your head, your’re in luck. While the MSI Wind Top isn’t as flash as the ones Tom Cruise used in the 2002 thriller, it is a fully touchscreen PC, housed in a monitor about the same width as a 20-inch iMac. Sure, HP’s Touchsmart may have got there first, but unlike that machine, you won’t need Cruise’s legal budget to afford this one. MSI has taken care to ensure that even newcomers to the touchscreen revolution can use it with no prior experience. This sleek, glimmering screen is a one-stop shop for all your web-browsing, email-sending, word-processing, and (basic) game-playing needs; all you need to do is fire it up and start tentatively prodding the touchscreen.

The menu is simplistic in the most laudable way. You select from Work, Tools, Fun and Web categories depending on waht you want to do. The icons are larger than you’d find on a normal PC, so you won’t need to use your fingernails or a makeshift  stylus to select functions and the response time is just five milliseconds, which feels near enough instant to anyone who isn’t a man/fly hybrid. It’s easy to use, and this Wind Top AE1900 has pretty simple innards too. It runs Windows XP – that’s some serious diss to Vista, there – has Intel’s Atom 230 processor whirring inside and packs 2GB of RAM. The built-in 1.3 megapixel webcam handles video chat – use it at the same time as the touch interface and your friends will get to view some excellent footage of your big finger coming towards them. There’s a comfortable four USB’s and a card reader and, yes, there is a bundled keyboard and mouse for text entry and for old time’s sake. The only major shortcoming is the 160 GB hard drive which, like the AE1900’s styling and choice of OS, seems to have come from about 2003.

To seal the deal, the AE1900 is also highly eco-friendly, sucking just 45 watts of power in use. Tech energy-saving specialist 1E says the average desktop computer uses 52 watts without the monitor, so it’s well under the average. It also runs very quite – never more than 26 decibels when the HD isn’t whirring. Money-saving, eco-friendly, touchscreen tech at your service. Welcome to the future…..

Specification:-

Screen: 18.5 inches, 1440×900, 16:9 ratio LCD

Processor: 1.6GHz Intel Atom 230

Storage/Memory: 160GB/2GB maximum

Connectivity: 4xUSB, N Wi-Fi, ethernet, four-in-one card reader, DVD burner, 1.3 mega cam, audio in/out

Size: 476×365x49mm

Most of the connectors at the back of your computer are familiar while some are not. Here is a visual guide to all the possible plugs and sockets you’ll encounter.

Very often, people peek at the back panel of their computer or laptop and wonder what all those connectors are for. While many of them are indispensable, many others might never need to be used at all. SOme might be there only in case you ever need an older peripheral, and some duplicate each others’ functionality for no apparent reason. If you’ve ever been confused by the variety of ports out there or if you’ve never known which ones you need, this handy reference guide should give you everything you need.

1. D-sub (D-subminiature): A very common display connector for monitors/display panels.     Usually found in CRT monitors, this connector will soon be phased out on feature LCD monitors with DVI, HDMi or DisplayPort connectors.
   

   D-Sub Port

2. DVI (Digital Visual Interface):
   

   DVI Ports

   It is the  digital display output port currently used for most LCD monitors. It is superior to the D-Sub VGA standard.

3. HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface): A single media output interface which incorporates high quality audio/video output in one single cable for high-definition TVs and monitors.
   

   HDMI Connectors

   The current standard is 1.3, though it keeps evolving. HDMI also supports HD anti-piracy measures.

4. DisplayPort: A digital display interface similar to HDMI, but with a higher data transfer rate.
   

   DisplayPort

   Yet to be implemented in desktop monitors, this port has already made its entry on some graphics cards. The connector is much smaller and more convenient than DVI.

5. Component Video: Comprises of three analog video signals: Y, Pb and Pr. Usually used where high quality video is required with resolution up to 1080p.
   

   Component Video

   It does not carry audio on the same cable. This type of interface is found on DVD players and TV sets, while most graphics cards need an adapter.

6. Composite Video: It is an analog video output with three signals Y, U, and V combined together with sync pulses.
   

   Composite Video

   It supports standard video resolution of up to 480i and does not carry audio on the same cable. Found on most VCD/VCRs, DVD players, TVs, camcorders and certain graphics cards. This is easily the lowest quality video interface.

7. S-Video: Also known as Super-Video, is similar to composite video output, but with two seperate video signal lines for Luminance and Chroma.
   

   S-Video

   It supports video resolutions of up to 576i and does not carry audio on the same cable. This type of interface is seen in digital camcorders, DVD players, and certain graphics cards.

8. RJ11 and RJ45 (Registered Jack-11 and 45): These are connectors for communications-related and networking purposes. RJ11 is used for telephone connections,
   

   RJ 11 & RJ 45

   while RJ45 is used in twisted pair Ethernet connections. The RJ11 connector is smaller than the RJ45 connector. The two have 6 and 8 pins respectively.

9. Coaxial S/PDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interconnect Format): It is an interface to carry compressed digital audio data (multi-channel support) over a single wire using a standard RCA jack.
   

   SPDIF

   Similar to optical S/PDIF, which carries signals using light as a medium via an optical fiber cable.

10. Audio in-out: This is the most common audio input and output port type. It usually is a 3.5mm earphone-type plug and socket, and carries stereo audio signals for the left and right speaker channels.
    

    Audio In & Out

    Multiple audio ports can be used to carry multi-channel audio output. The audio ports on a motherboard are color coded according to their targets.

11. PS/2 (IBM Personal System/2): It is generally an input port used for keyboards and mice. The purple PS/2 connector is for the keyboard, while the mouse connects to the green PS/2 port.
    

    PS/2

    It is found on motherboards only, but is already being phased out because of the growing adoption of USB peripherals.

12. FireWire (IEEE 1394): FireWire is used for high-speed data transfers. It is found in two variants- FireWire 400 and FireWire 800. The data transfer speeds attained by FireWire 400 and FireWire 800 connections are 400 Mb/s and 3200 Mb/s respectively.
    

    FireWire

    Both are usually used for importing video from camcorders or hard drives, but are losing out to high-speed USB 2.0.

13. Parallel: Also known as printer port or Centronics port, this is an IEEE standard I/O connector.
    

    Parallel Port & Connector

    Older printers use this type of connection where the data is sent to the printer in a parallel form. This connector is now almost completely replaced by the common and fast USB port.

14. Serial/RS232 (Recommended Standard 232): It is a standard I/O port for serial binary data signal transfers. Usually found on older computers (but supported on most new ones via a riser),
    

    Serial Port

    it was commonly used to connect modems, and mice, and was popular as a way of interfacing with programmable electronics projects.

15. USB (Universal Serial Bus): It is a serial bus standard used to connect devices to a host computer. Used commonly by peripherals such as keyboards, mice, printers, scanners, modems, storage devices and so on, the highest data transfer speeds by USB are up to 60 MB/s.
    

    USB Port

    This is today the most common and easy-to use interface for peripherals.

16. Mini USB: This is functionally no different from a regular USB connector, but is a lot smaller in size. Mini USB connectors are commonly used for smaller devices such as portable storage devices. MP3 players, cameras, etc.
    

    Mini USB

    Micro USB is still smaller than the mini USB and is used for much smaller devices and gadgets such as MP3 players, mobile phones/PDAs which have no space even for mini USB.

17. SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment): It is used for hard drives and optical drives inside the computer like PATA used to be, but is alot faster than the older PATA.
    

    SATA Port & Cable

    The SATA interface can transfer data at speeds of up to 3 Gb/s.  SATA ports are found on motherboards and add-on drive controllers.

18. eSATA (External Serial Advanced Technology Attachment): It is similar to SATA, but is used externally unlike the former which is used internally.
    

    eSATA

    eSATA is used to connect an external hard drive directly to the computer’s motherboard for incredibly fast data transfers.

Asus M4A79T Deluxe

With Socket AM3 processors supporting DDR3 memory, motherboard manufactures are finally starting to shift the focus from DDR2 to DDr3 memory based boards. Asus too is focusing largely on AMD’s socket AM3 processors, confirming their interest with the release of the M4A79T-Deluxe motherboard. The M4A79T-Deluxe motherboard chipset is based on the AMD 790FX northbridge. Unlike the previous M4A79 motherboards which featured the similar chipset, this motherboard is not backward compatible with older Socket AM2+ processors.

Aimed especially towards high-end rigs, the board screams high-performance, sporting multi-GPU support for ATi CrossFireX, Triple CrossFireX and Quad CrossFireX. It runs in x16 mode when a single card is installed and can supports CrossFire in dual x16, three-way and quad modes. The motherboard supports a total of 16 GB DDR3-1600 MHz RAM. It has an 8+2 phase power design which ensures accurate and clean power supplied to the processor and better power efficiency. The all-solid capacitors ensure a longer life and the copper heat pipes along with the heatsink provide adequate cooling. The back I/O panel flaunts feature-rich connectivity, with six USB ports, one eSATA port, one FireWire port, Gigabit Ethernet, an 8-channel audio solution and legacy PS2 ports for input devices. The board fetures Asus Stack cool – a noiseless (fan-less) solution which ensures lower temperatures by incorporating a specially designed PCB to dissipate heat from critical components. The Asus Anti-Surge Protection feature protects the motherboard from damage caused by suges from the PSU. A bundled software – TurboV, provides realtime overclocking possibilities without restarting the system. The overall layout of the motherboard is good with evently placed I/O connectors, but the PCI slots and the SATA ports are cramped. Three of the five SATA ports and one of the two PCI slots are blocked if dual CrossFireX mode or Dual-slot GPUs are used.

Details:-

Chipset: AMD 790FX

FSB: 2,600 MHz

Processor Support: Socket AM3

Memory Support: 4 x DDR3 1600 MHz (16 GB Max)

Multi-GPU: ATi CrossFireX to Quad CrossFireX