On the 17th of November, Valve Software celebrated the 10th anniversary of the game that pretty-much made the company what it is, Half Life. Valve used the simple 3D first-person shooter genre, focused heavily on the gameplay elements to churn out an awesome game of its time. With the introduction of the Source game engine, Valve made additions to the franchise with Half Life 2 (HL2), HL2: Episode 1 and HL2: Episode 2.

While the company itself could be working on another addition, an independent community-driven group sought to commemorate the 10th anniversary, by remaking the original Half Life using the Source engine. This is not to be confused with the simple Source-engine port Valve created in the form of Half Life: Source. The game is to be called Black Mesa: Source, which is comes in the form of a Half Life 2 modification. The levels, characters, graphics and physics get a refresh to the latest Source has to offer. The game is set for release in 2009. The Black Mesa: Source team has released its official trailer that has been posted on YouTube here. To know more about Black Mesa: Source, visit its home page.

Pioneer showcased its high density multi-layer optical disc at the IT Month fair in Taipei, Taiwan. The optical disc uses the same protocol as that of the Blu-ray disc, except for that Pioneer perfected its material technology of reflective layers, that allows for 16 separate layers of 25 GB each on a single side of the disc. Blu-ray discs in production facilitate only two parallel layers making for a maximum of 50 GB storage space per disc. The 16 layers on Pioneer's disc would make for 400 GB.

The specifications of the pick-up head (PUH) of the disc is the same as those for the PUH of blank BD discs, and therefore the Pioneer discs can be read on any of the Blu-ray disc players in production, the company said. In its current form, the media is in a read-only (burn/press once) format, and could reach production anywhere between 2008 and 2010, with re-writable media slated for 2010~2012, and even denser 1 TB discs in 2013, according to the company's internal roadmaps.


Source: DigiTimes

A lot has been said about the launch schedules of AMD's upcoming 45nm desktop processors over the last fortnight. While the company itself slated its 45nm desktop CPU range to kick-off on January 8 2009, skeptics think otherwise saying it could take longer for AMD to have sufficiently stocked up inventories in retail channels.

HKEPC compiled a list of tentative order availability. time-frames for the 45nm CPUs sourced from PC manufacturers, which shows that the company launches Phenom II X4 940 on Jan. 8, while most of the product launches are concentrated in the months of February and April, 2009. Starting those months, channel vendors will be able to place bulk orders for those processors, to stock up inventories. Also pictured is the die-shot of AMD Deneb, and a picture showing the differences between the AM3 and AM2+ pin-grids (AM3 on the leftHS, AM2+ on rightHS).


Source: HKEPC

Shuttle Inc., the market leader in the Mini-PC segment and manufacturer of Multi-Form-Factor solutions, today presents its first product in the "Special Solutions" category. The new Shuttle D 1416S surveillance system offers a unique operating convenience through an easy to understand software interface. Up to 16 separately available CCTV cameras can be connected and video signals can be recorded.

ECS has released a partial list of its motherboards that are ready for the upcoming 45nm desktop processors by AMD. Featured in the list, are most of ECS' AM2 and AM2+ socket motherboards based on the AMD 7-series chipsets along with those based on NVIDIA GeForce 8100a and 8200a. CPU compatibility of these existing motherboards can be expanded by means of a BIOS update. Excluded from the update notably, are the company's 7-series chipset based motherboards that use the older SB600 southbridge. For links to the supported motherboards' product pages for BIOS updates, please visit this page.

Intel made additions of three new chips to its mainstream thru value lineup of desktop processors. They include Core 2 Quad Q8300, Pentium Dual Core E5300 and Celeron Dual Core E1500.

The Core 2 Quad is based on the 45nm Yorkfield-4M core. It has an operating frequency of 2.50 GHz and a FSB configuration of (7.5 * 333 MHz) with an effective FSB of 1333 MHz. It has a total L2 cache of 4 MB. This chip will be priced at US $224 (1000 unit tray). Pentium Dual Core E5300, based on Wolfdale-2M sports 2 MB of L2 cache and a clock speed of 2.60 GHz (13.0 * 200 MHz) with an FSB of 800 MHz. It will be priced at $86, displacing the E5200. The Celeron series is now lead by E1500, clocked at 2.20 GHz and an L2 cache of 512 KB. This chip is based on the older 65nm Allendale core, and is priced at $53.

Source: TechConnect Magazine