Next generation memory gets an airing

LOST CIRCUITS interviewed the Marketing VP of ISi which is currently licensing the Z-RAM technology to some of the most prominent silicon manufacturers out there. Z-RAM has been linked to AMD's next generation processors and is bound to play a pivotal in bringing more L1/L2 cache to AMD's Athlon without increasing the core size and thereof price. Z-RAM is faster than eDRAM but slower than eSRAM and although there was nothing concrete, there might be some work in progress as far as multi-sensing memory is concerned. Very exciting indeed.

Phoronix has a review of the Asrock 939SLI32-eSATA2 motherboard. Regular readers will remember that this same website posted a preview of the same product roughly one month ago. This time around, they have a real review. But this time around, they use the Fedora Core 5 as well as Nvidia's Beta Linux display drivers. The board is powered by low cost but yet powerful ULI chipsets. The board comes with GbE LAN, Firewire, eSATA ports and of course SLI compatibility. Expect it to sell for cheap.

Guru3D tests the Silverstone 600W ATX power supply, a monster called ST60F which has quad 12v rails and active PFC as well sa a silent fan. It carries the label Stider and comes with advanced cable management - meaning that everything is detachable. Does that mean that it is good old yet sturdy power supply? In a world of constant change, Silvestone was caught pants down when Guru3D discovered that there was some serious problems with the PSU and caused the manufacturer to launch a rev 2 of the PSU.

Elsewhere at Matbe, there's a test of a little known casing. The Belgium based website chose to look at the Spire Pininfarina SP-ATX-PALU. Spire is a well known manufacturer of budget cooler solution so like coolermaster, it is no surprise that they chose to expand in casings as well. Practical yet beautiful. look out for this casing near you. It is heavy and does not have any dust filters. Yet, it got best buy because it is cheap, is sturdly built - no vibratione even without anti-vibration solutions. Plenty of fans, tool less assembly and a good looking finish.

Another belgium website, Madshrimps.be, compares Super Talent memory modules to Crucial's. The memory kit used are PC2-6400 DDR2 2GB parts. Supertalent's module are covered with a grey heatsink while Crucial's memory are Ballistix parts. Crucial memory carries a lifetime warranty while Supertalent has a limited warranty. Furthermore, Supertalent is not available in Europe or US - if you find them, let me know - while Crucial is much more widely available. Performancewise, the Supertalent is definitely compatible with the best from Micron.

French website Generation NT has a guide to Skype's services. Some of us might remember that the first mass market VoIP software was Net2phone back in the 1990's. The guide speaks about Skype's various services like Skype-in and Skype-out. They also talk aboutt the voice mail features as well as the fact that you can now make video calls as well. Good introduction to Skype. µ