Thread: Anandtech News

I mentioned earlier that we'll be seeing more Thunderbolt devices at CES this year, but what I wasn't expecting was for one of those devices to be made by OCZ. The Lightfoot is about a quarter away in terms of release, but it is going to be a Kilimanjaro based (OCZ/Marvell native PCIe SSD controller) Thunderbolt SSD. The drive will be available in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB and 1TB capacities, priced at around $2/GB. It's still a bit premature in my opinion to really nail down pricing or performance, but OCZ is claiming the drive will be able to deliver up to 750MB/s (presumably for the highest capacity drives).



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OCZ has a lot to show off this year at CES/Storage Visions, but the most exciting product from a client standpoint is its new Everest 2 controller. While the original Everest just launched two months ago, Everest 2 is expected in the next 6 months. OCZ already has silicon back and it is fast.
Whereas Everest 1 was a competitive performer, Everest 2 is designed to really go after the performance crown. OCZ has focused more on small block performance as well as reducing write amplification, both issues I've brought up regarding the current Everest in our reviews of OCZ's Octane. Everest 2 is an updated controller (IDX400M00-BC vs. IDX300M00-BC) with a new firmware architecture designed to address these shortcomings. Both it and the original Everest controller will co-exist in the market for a period of time, but the Everest 2 will clearly be aimed at the high end. Target performance is around 550MB/s sequential reads, 500MB/s sequential writes and 90K 4KB random write IOPS (the Iometer screenshots in the gallery below show early 4KB Random Write and 128KB Sequential Write performance, using our own Iometer tests, in that order). If OCZ ends up really confident in the Everest 2, it might just end up being the heart of the Vertex 4...
Gallery: OCZ's Indilinx Everest 2 Launching in June 2012, Features Vastly Improved Random Performance




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The Z-Drive R4 is a PCIe SSD available in 4 and 8-controller versions targeted squarely at the enterprise. Apparently some of OCZ's customers wanted an even beefier version, which OCZ has delivered in the form of the Z-Drive R4 CloudServ (RM1616). Featuring sixteen SandForce SF-2582 controllers, the RM1616 supports up to 16TB of NAND on a single, double slot, PCIe card. The interface remains PCIe x8 although the connector is physically a x16 interface.
The RM1616 is organized into two 8-controller sets, each behind an OCZ VCA chip.
Gallery: OCZ Z-Drive R4 CloudServ (RM1616) Features Sixteen SandForce Controllers




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DropCam's innovative cloud based home monitoring system was reviewed by us back in August 2010 and came away satisfied with the innovative take of a young startup on the home surveillance market.

In the Dropcam Echo, a standard off-the-shelf Axis security camera was made very user friendly with Dropcam's cloud based recording solution. This time around, Dropcam is handling the product from ground up. Not only have they come up with a stylish, unobtrusive and minimalist design, the setup process has also been simplified. To top it all, the unit now comes at a very reasonable price point of $149!

Dropcam is announcing the Dropcam HD today and taking pre-orders with an expected ship date early next month. We have the same cloud based backend and all the mobile apps which made the Dropcam Echo popular. However, the device and the setup process have undergone a number of changes:

1. The unit does away with the wired Ethernet port, and it is a pure Wi-Fi device.
2. There is no necessity to connect the unit to the router for configuration. It is just connected over USB and the details of the wireless network are configured over that link in the setup phase
3. The capture resolution is 720p, with a maximum frame rate of 30 fps. The Dropcam HD adjusts the exposure and frame rate based on the scene activity and lighting conditions.
4. The device is powered by a single micro-USB port An AC/USB adapter is included, but it can so be powered by a wide variety of power accessories (such as external batteries) due to the standard power input interface.
5. The lens module is the main unit, and it can apparently be detached and placed in discreet, unobtrusive locations (something that the industrial design of almost all home surveillance targeted IP cameras doesn't allow).
6. The unit is capable of operating in night vision mode, something the Dropcam Echo had trouble with. The two-way audio feature is retained.

On the whole, the unit appears interesting and will definitely do well in bringing HD home surveillance to the general consumers. However, I am worried about two aspects:

1. The bandwidth to keep a 720p stream consistently being uploaded to the cloud. A lot will depend on the bitrate of the video stream. Higher bitrate would mean better surveillance video quality, but it would also mean that the Internet bandwidth of the end user has to be up to the mark
2. The absence of an option to store the video locally is a drawback with the Dropcam model. I had covered this in the Dropcam Echo review also. It would be nice to have a 720p resolution stream recorded locally, while a lower resolution stream is sent to the cloud.

I will be talking with the folks at Dropcam about these two aspects when I meet up with them later this week at CES. You can look forward to more thoughts about Dropcam in general and the Dropcam HD in particular in our 2012 CES coverage.



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Traditionally the launch of a next-generation high-end video card has been a staggered process. In the name of getting cards out as soon as possible the first cards are almost always reference cards coming preassembled straight from AMD or NVIDIA, which are then touched up in the livery of their partners before being boxed and sold. Only later on – particularly when there’s a solid supply of GPUs – can partners acquire individual parts and put together their custom designs.
But as it’s turning out the Radeon HD 7970 isn’t going to be a traditional launch. In a rare move AMD has loosened the leash on their partners just a bit, and as a result we’re seeing semi-custom cards planned for launch earlier than usual. XFX looks to be the first partner to take advantage of this more liberal policy, as alongside the reference cards being launched today they’re launching their first semi-custom 7970s

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We're at Huawei's press event where we just got to go hands on with the company's two new phones, both running Android Ice Cream Sandwich: the Huawei Ascend P1 S and Ascend P1. Both are based on a 1.5 GHz OMAP4460 SoC with PowerVR SGX 540 graphics and sport a 4.3" SAMOLED qHD display (960x540) with Gorilla Glass front face.

The P1 S is impressively thin at 6.68 mm. Both the P1 S and P1 sport the same specifications, and only differ in battery capacity - the P1 S includes a 1670 mAh battery, whereas the slightly larger P1 includes an 1800 mAh battery and slightly thicker 7.69 mm waistline. Huawei's industrial design has come a long way in the last two years, this is an impressive device that felt subjectively pretty good in the hands and is clearly aiming at the high end market. Huawei claims that this is the current thinnest smartphone, and impressively includes pentaband WCDMA alongside it.

Huawei Ascend P1 / P1 S
Specifications
Height	129 mm
Width	64.8 mm
Depth	7.69 mm (P1) / 6.68 mm (P1 S)
SoC	1.5 GHz Ti OMAP 4460
Network Support	Pentaband WCDMA 850/900/AWS/1900/2100 MHz, Quadband GSM/EDGE
Battery Size	1670 mAh (P1 S) / 1800 mAh (P1)
WiFi	802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0 HS
Camera	8 MP BSI Rear Facing / 1.3 MP Front Facing
RAM/ROM	1 GB RAM / 4 GB NAND

Gallery: Huawei Ascend P1 / P1 S

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Intel announced its 32nm Atom platform for netbooks/nettops at the end of last year. Codenamed Cedar Trail the new Atom doesn't really change CPU performance all that much but includes a new GPU block from Imagination Technologies. The PowerVR SGX 545 comes with all Cedar Trail Atom CPUs by default, however it looks like due to driver issues the integrated graphics on the very first Cedar Trail systems will be disabled.
Zotac's ZBOX ID80 is the first Cedar Trail nettop we've seen announced and it ships with Cedar Trail graphics disabled. In its stead Zotac is using a GeForce GT 520M from NVIDIA. I'm hearing that fixed drivers for Cedar Trail, enabling integrated graphics, will be available sometime in February although that will really only matter for new systems as the DVI/HDMI outputs on the ID80 are directly wired to the onboard 520M.
The ID80 uses an updated version of Zotac's ZBOX chassis (no word on the changes yet) with support for two DDR3-1066 SO-DIMMs and a single 2.5" 3Gbps SSD/HDD. The ID80 Plus is the same platform but it comes equipped with 2GB of DDR3 and a 320GB 5400RPM hard drive.

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Elgato sent over info on its brand new Thunderbolt SSD available in February in 120GB and 240GB capacities. There's no word on the controller inside. If I had to speculate based on the capacities alone it sounds a lot like SandForce but it honestly could be anyone. The external drive is entirely bus powered and will retail for a hefty $429.95 for the 120GB model and $699.95 for the 240GB version.
I'm still waiting for someone to make a BYOD external Thunderbolt chassis though...



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OCZ is on a roll at CES this year. It just announced LG's Super Ultrabook Z300 will ship with a 256GB mSATA Indilinx Everest based SSD. I'm still trying to get photos of the actual device so I can get an idea of the channel configuration but it's still great news for the once enthusiast-only memory company.



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If you'd rather have a Brazos based mini HTPC than something that uses Cedar Trail, Zotac has you covered with the ZBOX AD04. Equipped with an AMD E-450, the AD04 should make for a pretty sweet low power Windows HTPC.

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