News Bits: Intel Beating AMD, Micron RealSSD Introduced, School Buys Eee PCs

California school district to get 1,000 Asus Eee PCs

The Fresno Unified school district in California has invested $650,000 in Asus Eee PCs, which will be deployed in roughly 60 classrooms over the next few weeks. They will be use along textbooks and students will be able to use them for essays, drawings, and other activities.

Read More (Engadget.com)
Read our review of the Eee PC


Intel remains #1 chipmaker, AMD drops off top 10

Research firm iSuppli predicts that chip maker AMD will drop off the top 10 list by the end of 2007. Intel will remain number one with a 12.5% market share, and Samsung will come in second place with a 7.4% share. Toshiba and Texas Instruments will occupy third and fourth place respectively.

Read More (Reuters.com)


Micron introduces RealSSD Solid State Disks

Micron Technology introduced the RealSSD series of solid state disk (SSD) products on Nov. 29. The RealSSD lineup includes 1.8- and 2.5-inch models for notebooks and desktops, with capacities ranging from 32GB to 64GB. They have a SATA 3.0Gbps interface and are housed in lightweight plastic, which, according to the company makes the drives 50% lighter than similar density hard drives.

Mass production of the drives is expected to start in Q1 2008.

Read More (Laptoping.com)


Phillips introduces notebooks in Brazil

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Phillips is planning to release two notebooks in Brazil this December. The two models will be smaller than most mainstream notebooks. One model will have an 11-inch screen, Core Duo U2400, 120GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM, and a DVD burner, all housed in a magnesium alloy case. The 13-inch model will have a more powerful Core 2 Duo T7300 2.0GHz processor, 2GB of RAM, a 120GB hard drive, and a DVD burner. The 11-inch model will carry a pricetag of R$5,499 (~US$2,477), and the 13-inch R$3,999 (~US$2,165). According to Phillips, both of the models were designed for the Brazil market so there is little chance these will show up in the states.

Read More (Engadget.com)


Nvidia to introduce GeForce 9-series in February

According to market sources, Nvidia will introduce its next-generation GeForce 9-series graphics cards in February of 2008. They will be based on a 65nm manufacturing process and have support for DirectX 10.1 and Shader Model 4.1. The high-end model will be codenamed D9E and the mid-range chip, the D9P, will come out at a later date in June. It will be based on a 55nm manufacturing process.

Read More (DigiTimes.com)

Zalman introduces ZM-NC2000 notebook cooler

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Zalman has introduced a new notebook cooler designed specifically for 17-inch notebooks, the ZM-NC2000. It is an update to the popular ZM-NC1000. The NC2000 is slightly wider and deeper so it can fit 17-inch notebooks better.

The NC2000 has a built-in USB hub, fan RPM control, and is available in silver or black. At current it is not available in the US but it should be sometime in the future.

Read More (Zalman.co.kr)

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