Asus is showing couple of notebook finishes at the Computex that helps to do more than appeal to the eyes. The Satin-brushed Aluminum finish is achieved by applying Non-conductive Vapor Metallization (NCVM) technology. NCVM preserves the uniform coloration, shine and the design pattern giving it real brushed aluminum look. In addition to the aesthetics, it is scratch resistant, durable, no interference with RF signals and also enhances them. N81Vf, N60Sf and N51Vn notebooks will be finished with this pattern and will be available soon.

Other finish unveiled is the NeoWood finish. It acts and feels like the wood in a high-end furniture and gives the tactility and high tensile strength of a real wood. It is also resistive to friction and scratches. N60Sf will be the only notebook that will come in this finish.

[Via Asus]

AMD is proudly showing the world’s first graphics processor supporting DirectX 11 at the Computex. AMD says ATI graphics card combined with DirectX 11 will give consumers an ultimate experience because the cards can benefit from DirectX 11 features like tessellation and compute shader. The shader and ATI DirectX 11 card will make Windows 7 perform faster in day-to-day operations like converting a video for a PMP in under 82 seconds.

The retail launch is expected this year, presumably closer to Windows 7’s launch.

Press Release

Nvidia’s Ion is gaining traction and the product announcements at the Computex today is a testament to that. We just had a couple of Ion products prior to this and now we have a total of 21 products that will come with the Nvidia platform. For people who are still alien to the Ion, it’s a combination of an Atom CPU and GeForce 9400M GPU that enables decent gaming graphics, full HD playback, DirectX 10 support etc.

New products include:

Acer AspireRevo (Desktop)
AsRock ION 330 (Desktop)
ASUS C2N7A-I (Motherboard)
ASUS eeeTop ET2002 (All-in-one)
Colorful iHTPC (Desktop)
ECS 7AT-3L (Desktop)
ECS Morph-I (All-in-one)
Flextronics Cobra-2 (All-in-one)
Flextronics Dove-2 (Desktop)
Funtwist FION 330 (Desktop)
ICD Kitchen PC (All-in-one)
Lenovo IdeaPad 12 (Notebook)
MSI Windbox D200 (Desktop)
MSI Windtop AE2201 (All-in-one)
Pegatron IPP7A-CP (Desktop)
Pegatron IPP7A-DF2 (All-in-one)
Pegatron IPX7A-ION (Motherboard)
TCL Ruiyi 1010 (All-in-one)
Telcast TL-1000N (Notebook)
Weibu N10A (Notebook)
Zotac ION-ITX (Motherboard)

Press Release

SanDisk has started shipping its next-generation SSDs meant specially for netbooks. The pSSDs P2 and S2 integrate a new technology called nCache that helps to improve performance of the SSDs. nCache is a non-volatile write cache that supports burst performance and gives a vRPM (virtual Revolutions Per Minute) of up to 9,000.

Though the pSSDs will work with any netbook, SanDisk is pushing their drives to be highly compatible with ARM processor based netbooks and have even worked closely with Canonical, makers of Ubuntu Linux.

The second-gen pSSDs will come in capacities of 8/16/32/64GB.

Press Release

Freescale Semiconductor is upbeat about ARM’s launch of Snapdragon for Smartbooks and the former has teamed up with Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) to create some conceptual smartbooks that will also be exhibited at the Computex.

Smartbooks are powered by ARM based processors which boast an all day battery life, instant-on and always-on connectivity. Hit the gallery to see few of Freescale’s creations.

UPDATE: Acer Android netbooks will be run on Atom processors.

Just after giving a nod about Android phones release, Acer is back with something to say about Android powered netbooks. Acer’s global prez for IT products, Jim Wong confirmed that Acer branded Android netbooks will make its way to the market in Q3, a quarter early than the Android smartphones.

[Via Reuters]

Intel reckons ultra-thin notebooks are the future and to cater to the new segment, they have unveiled an ultra-low voltage (ULV) processor and a chipset. The single-core SU2700 processor in conjunction with the GS40 Express Chipset will give performance, better battery life in a slim form factor. The processor clocks at 1.3GHz while the chipset will enable consumer centric features like an integrated HDMI, HD playback and Windows Vista Premium support.

In addition to it, Intel also showed three standard voltage (SV) processors for regular notebooks. T9900 dual-core processor will be the first Core 2 Duo to cross the 3GHz barrier. It clocks over at 3.06GHz with 6MB of cache and is priced at around $530. Other C2D processors include P9700 and P8800 that runs at 2.8GHz and 2.66GHz, have 6 and 3MB of cache respectively with the price pegged $348 and $241.

Press Release

[Via PCWorld]

Asus will show a new netbook at the Computex which kicks off from tomorrow. Based on the Seashell design, it’s the 11.6-incher 1101HA that will take on Acer’s 11.6-inch Aspire One 751. The 11.6-inch has a 1366×768 resolution, Intel Z520/Z530 processor, 1GB RAM, 160GB HDD, 3 USB ports, memory card reader and 2200mAh/2800mAh 6-cell battery options to give a runtime of 9 and 11 hours respectively.

[Via Engadget]

UPDATE: Video of Android running Snapdragon powered Eee PC added below.

Qualcomm at the Computex presscon unveiled a 45nm based QSD8650A Snapdragon chipset. This SoC meant for smartphones and smartbooks (netbooks) advances over the previous Snapdragon chipsets and features a processor clocking at 1.3GHz, UMTS and CDMA 3G connectivity, GPS, Wi-Fi, hi-def video recording and playback, Bluetooth 2.1 and support for WXGA resolution display, MediaFLO, DVB-H and ISDB-T.

This chipset will be under sampling before the end of this year so expect an end product to reach sometime in 2010.

Qualcomm also added one more chipset to the Snapdragon family. It’s the QSD8672 chipset that boasts dual CPU support, clock speed of up to 1.5GHz and full HD playback.

Press Release

We have heard murmurs of ARM based netbooks and now its been confirmed that ARM will enter the netbook fray. Mike Inglis, VP, ARM told Reuters that it’s just the beginning and are eyeing to take about 30 percent of the market share by next year.

Six ARM based models will make its way this year while at least 14 are expected in 2010. ARM netbooks will run on Linux and will retail below $200.

[Via Reuters]