Thermaltake Technology has just annunciated the release of yet another representative of Urban series: Urban R31. The chassis features mid-tower form-factor with 511x206x490 mm dimensions. It might boast a minimalist design concept with totally black coating, steel case, and aluminum frontal facet. The company offers the model in two framework variations: with an onboard side window and with a blind side facet. Unfortunately, there is no news so far concerning the pricing and an exact release date.



Thermaltake Urban R31 is ready to accommodate ATX or micro-ATX motherboards. Its internal layout comprises three 5.25-inch drive bays, six 3.5-inch drive bays, and one 2.5-inch drive bay. In addition, the chassis comes with a built-in dock-station on the top facet, ready to house one more 3.5/2.5-inch drive. Closer to the rear facet one can find seven PCI expansion slots.


To continue, spacing within the case allows for the integration of rather lengthy graphics cards (up to 410 …

For several years, developed Intel Larrabee graphics cards have changed its destiny, and now proudly referred to coprocessors Xeon Phi. The June announcement gave a very rough idea of ​​their characteristics and applications (highly specialized servers and workstations). Now some details will be revealed.



Bboosters Xeon Phi will be available in versions with 57, 60 and 61 core. There are in general 64 computational units, but some of them will be disabled. Depending on the number of cores the cache size varies from 1.8-1.9 MB first level and 28-30,5 MB second. The volume of onboard GDDR5 memory is 3, 6, and 8 GB.


Intel Xeon Phi device will operate on a low clock rate from 600-1100 MHz for the lower 57-core models with 3 and 6 GB of GDDR5, to the 630-1050 MHz or more for the older 60 — and 61-core board with 8 GB of RAM. Effective memory frequency will be in the range of 5-5.5 GHz. Support for dynamic overclocking Turbo Boost will be provided by reasonable balance of …

VIA Technologies Inc., a global manufacturer of power-efficient processor platforms, has recently announced the release of its peculiar motherboard, codenamed VAB-800. The major peculiarity of these motherboards is that they will be delivered in two variants: with chips of VIA personal production, WonderMedia (800 MHz), and with Freescale ARM Cortex-A8 1 GHz chips. The volume capacities of DDR3 memory in either variant will equal to 1 GB. VAB-800 is developed in piro-ITX form-factor but is also compatible with blocks of ATX form-factor.



Motherboard VAB-800 accommodates flash-memory of eMMC type with the integrated SATA 3 Gbit/sec sockets. The total volume capacity of flash-memory equals to 64 GB. This model can boast a large number of internal sockets, including a couple of RS-232, two LVDS (to enable the connection with the up-to-date monitors), SATA, JTAG, SDIO, RTC, and a slot for the activation of the external power supply.


The manufacturer has taken care of the …