Broadcom Corporation, a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, today announced that its Crystal HD technology will be available to OEMs wanting to deliver best-in-class video playback on the new Intel Atom processor platform for netbooks. The Broadcom BCM70015 Crystal HD solution will be offered as an option for OEMs designing netbooks using the Intel Atom processor N450 and Intel NM10 Express chipset platform. Crystal HD technology provides netbook users with a rich multimedia experience by enabling cost effective, quality playback of multi-format, high definition (HD) video and will be featured on select 2010 netbook platforms from top-tier OEMs including ASUS, Dell and Samsung.

Dell's hot-selling Inspiron Mini 10 netbook is getting better with a fresh new look and longer battery life to go along with technology enhancements and easy connectivity capabilities that make it a fashionable and functional must-have for on-the-go people. Updates to the Mini 10 include optional high definition entertainment bundles that deliver rich, smooth playback of streaming HD video in addition to Web surfing, email, listening to music and sharing user-generated content in real time. Dell expects the redesigned Inspiron Mini 10 to be available the first part of January 2010.

The new design with 10.1-inch display includes a textured, smudge-resistant palm rest, sculpted keys and, for the Inspiron Mini 10 mobility bundle, extended-life battery offering up to 9.5 hours of operation. The Mini 10 can be personalized with a broad range of optional colors or hundreds of optional custom artwork designs available in the Dell Design Studio.

As part of its Financial Analyst Day for 2009, AMD listed out its priorities for the year ahead, looking into 2010. While the company has lived up to its development targets for this year by releasing a full-fledged lineup of PC and server processors built on the 45 nm process, increasing its market share with graphics products, and releasing the first DirectX 11 compliant (back then referred to as 'next generation') GPU, the year ahead looks equally ambitious for AMD.

AMD set the following product priorities for 2010: to deliver four new winning PC platforms in the first half of 2010, improve battery life of its notebook platform, expand homegrown DirectCompute 11 and OpenCL developer tools, propagate DirectX 11 graphics to notebooks, launch the company's first 12-core Opteron processor, and more interestingly, sample the company's next-generation "Bulldozer" architecture to industry customers, along with sampling the company's first Fusion-design "Bobcat" processor, which integrates the CPU with GPU, along with sampling some of the company's first processors built on the 32 nm manufacturing process.

Intel's Atom processor platform will get its successor in the next-generation "Pine Trail" platform sooner than expected, what Intel refers to as a 'fast transition to the next-generation platform'. The company plans to detail the new platform for netbooks and nettops on the 21st of December, 2009, by means of a press release. Launches of products based on the new Atom N450 will start as early as by 4th January, 2010, in time for the CES 2010 event.

At the center of the Pine Trail platform is the "Pineview" processor. Unlike its predecessor, Pineview integrates a DDR2 memory controller, graphics processor, and a video decoding processor by Broadcom into a single package. The new processor will support the x86-64 instruction set, indicating that netbooks and nettops could use over 4 GB of memory very soon. The processor also comes with higher performance, and a brand new chipset. Sources reveal the following three initial models to X-bit labs:

• Intel Atom N450: single-core with Hyper-Threading support, 1.66GHz, 512KB cache, x86-64, BGA437 package, $63 price-point;
• Intel Atom D510: dual-core with Hyper-Threading support, 1.66GHz, 1MB cache, x86-64, BGA437 package, $63 price-point;
• Intel Atom D410: single-core with Hyper-Threading support, 1.66GHz, 512KB cache, x86-64, BGA437 package, $43 price-point.

HP added two more netbooks to its growing lineup, the Mini 1101 and Mini 110. The latter has two variants: Mini 110 XP and Mini 110 Mi. Both these models feature 10.1 inch LED screens. Users can choose between Atom N270 and N280, with as much as 1 GB of memory, 160 GB HDD, and Intel GMA 950 graphics.

The Mini 110 XP offers a few exclusive features. Users can opt for a 32 GB SSD and WLAN. It comes with Broadcom Crystal HD Enhanced Video Accelerator, that provides smooth playback of HD video at resolutions of 1080p. It comes with Windows XP Home SP3 pre-installed. The Mini 110 Mi is physically identical, except for that it comes with a popular Linux distribution pre-installed, and allows users to opt for a 250 GB HDD or 2 GB of system memory. The Mini 1101 will retail in June with a base price of US $329. The Mini 110 Mi, with Linux, will be priced significantly lower, at $279.

Shortly after the official proclamation of the Bluetooth 3.0 standard, Broadcom Corporation today announces that its leading Bluetooth combo chip has been qualified as compliant with the Bluetooth v3.0 + HS specification. The new standard significantly expands the capabilities of Bluetooth wireless technology in multimedia smartphones, netbooks and other devices by enabling the transmission of large files via Bluetooth profiles at speeds up to 24 Megabits per second (Mbps), or a 10 times increase in speed over the previous Bluetooth v2.1 + EDR (enhanced data rate) standard. With the company's InConcert BCM4325 Bluetooth + Wi-Fi + FM combo chip solution and Bluetooth software, Broadcom becomes the world's first to support the standard in a single-chip solution. With this chip you get Bluetooth 3.0 support, 802.11b/g wireless capability and FM radio functionality. Hopefully, after the quick adoption, Bluetooth 3.0 enabled devices will be out very soon.

Bigfoot Networks is perhaps the first company that gave the network interface card (NIC) a high-end consumer take. The Killer N1 and K1 PCI NICs were known to come with some very innovative features that, as our review showed, did impact positively on networked gaming performance. After close to two and a half years since its previous NIC, Bigfoot Networks Killer is back. In the making is the Killer Xeno NIC.

With near identical features and more, this NIC takes the advantage of the newer leaner components in the market, such as the NPU which may be using a newer manufacturing process, NPU-accelerated audio that provides audio-chat with zero system-overhead, and up to 256 MB of onboard memory to drive this mini "PC inside PC". The ASIC is done away with, a newer gigabit Ethernet transceiver made by Broadcom is present. The card uses a native PCI-Express x1 interface. It comes in two variants: the 128 MB "Pro", and 256 MB "Ultra". Apart from selling these cards under its own banner, Bigfoot Networks has struck an OEM deal with Alienware. Also, the company has an AIB partner (a-la graphics cards), and guess who it is - EVGA. The Xeno Ultra will be priced at US $179.99, and the Xeno Pro at $129.99.

The company slogan change, from "Smarter Choice" to "The future is fusion" marked a major shift in core-Strategy for AMD. The company now focuses on delivering solutions, more so than mere products, with a solution comprising of several products working together to let the PC serve a purpose. One such solution is the AMD Maui entertainment platform. Maui platform makes AMD hardware work with AMD's own Live! Media Center software to deliver a complete home-theater PC solution.

On the hardware front, Maui includes a qualifying AMD Athlon X2 or Phenom series processor, a motherboard based on the AMD 7-series chipset with integrated graphics. Video is handled by the 7-series IGP, while audio is handled by a special audio component-riser card that has pre-amp circuitry onboard, which enables users to connect speakers in the 5.1 channel configuration directly to the motherboard. Future models would bring in 7.1 channel support. The first motherboard to use this design, is the MSI Media Live DIVA 5.1 780M.

AMD today announced completion of the sale of its Digital TV (DTV) processor business to Broadcom Corporation. AMD announced a definitive agreement to sell its DTV business on August 25 as part of its strategy to become leaner and more focused, while seeking to create a business model to deliver sustainable profitability and leadership in core x86 computing and graphics businesses.

In connection with the business sale, AMD received approximately $141.5 million in cash, subject to certain escrows and adjustments pursuant to the terms of the definitive asset purchase agreement.

Microsoft and Broadcom Corporation today announced a collaboration in Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) products. The collaboration includes Microsoft and Broadcom working together to enable the popular Microsoft Mediaroom IPTV client software to operate on next-generation set-top boxes (STBs) utilizing the Broadcom BCM7405 system on a chip (SOC). This technology will permit service providers and original equipment manufacturers to support a range of features such as whole-home digital video recording (DVR), high-performance user interfaces, and photo and music sharing.