A theme of the new AMD is modularity. We've of course heard this before as it has always been a goal of AMD's to bring to market more modular, configurable designs, however this time the rhetoric is a lot more serious. In our earlier coverage we talked about future AMD SoCs allowing for a combination of AMD x86 CPU, GPU and 3rd party IP blocks. What AMD didn't mention during its Financial Analyst Day presentations however was how it would enable this pick-and-choose modular design. The secret, as it turns out, is in a new modular fabric that AMD is designing. 

It will take AMD until 2014 - 2015 to actually have the first, fully functional modular fabric in an SoC, but that's the goal. Being able to design a foundation that can interface with multiple buses (e.g. PCIe, HT, AMBA for ARM, etc...) will enable AMD to build more modular SoCs. 

With the fabric created, AMD can also change the way it does chip design. Today APU designs are seen from start to finish. Teams work on the various components of the design, but those components are viewed as a part of the whole, not as independents. E.g. the GPU portion of Trinity is worked on as Trinity's GPU, not a GPU block that will be re-used in other chips. Under the new AMD, teams will work on designing modular IP blocks without much focus on where they end up. You'll have teams that will work on a GPU block and simply move onto another GPU project after they're done.

Assuming AMD's new scalable SoC fabric is flexible enough, theoretically an APU designer could pick and choose from the various IP blocks and deliver a customized design that's decoupled from the individual blocks themselves. Similar to how you'll see an Imagination Technologies PowerVR SGX 540 in a variety of SoCs, AMD could build a GCN GPU block and use it in a variety of SoCs that address different markets. You can view AMD as having a broad portfolio of x86 and GPU cores and with this new SoC fabric it can mix and match those blocks as it sees fit. Furthermore, if the need arises, AMD could add in 3rd party IP where appropriate. 

We've actually heard of similar approaches to design from other companies in the SoC space, including Intel. With Atom Intel introduced a sea-of-FUBs (functional unit blocks) design methodology that leveraged more synthesized logic and modular blocks to reduce time to market and reduce feature creep. Atom also uses a fair amount of 3rd party IP (GPU, video encode/decode).

AMD's strategy makes a lot of sense. There's still a lot of execution that needs to happen before we get to the point where we can take modularity for granted, but the direction is sound.

While we don't usually cover every software update on every platform, I thought it worth noting something special about the new update which will begin going out shortly to the Motorola Droid RAZR and RAZR MAXX. Among the features included in "6.12.173.XT912.Verizon.en.US" is a new feature that isn't directly advertised in the changelog - it's the inclusion of Connected Discontinuous Reception, or CDRX for Motorola/TI's codename Wrigley 4G LTE baseband. The short of it is improved battery life on 4G LTE.

Discontinuous Reception (DRX) is nothing new for UMTS based networks, and is a power reduction feature. The aim is simple - during idle periods, the cellular network tells the handset that it doesn't need to expect any traffic, and thus the handset can shut down the RF frontend and other power draining bits. The phone can then wake up the parts required to receive and listen to a paging channel when the discontinuous cycle ends. 

The above is the way things work in UMTS, in 4G LTE things change a bit, but the concept is the same. However a new feature is the somewhat strangely-named connected DRX mode. The "connected" part comes from the fact that DRX now can work while the user equipment is in an RRC_Connected state, in addition to RRC_Idle. The result is that the handset can now shut down parts required to listen with much finer frequency, for example during the idle periods when a webpage is loading, as opposed to the longer idle periods when the phone is locked and in a pocket. 

I'm told that CDRX is now enabled on about half of Verizon Wireless' 4G LTE network, specifically in markets where Ericsson is the radio network equipment supplier. The other Alcatel-Lucent markets will be upgraded as well in due time. Unfortunately my markets in Tucson and Phoenix AZ are Alcatel-Lucent (to the best of my knowledge, from seeing many empty Alcatel-Lucent boxes and trucks around new LTE eNodeBs), so I'll have to wait to see just how big of a difference this makes in real-world testing.

Source: Verizon Software Update (PDF)

AMD's Rory Read Outlines AMD's Future Strategy
AMD Outlines HSA Roadmap: Unified Memory for CPU/GPU in 2013, HSA GPUs in 2014 
AMD is Open to Integrating 3rd Party IP in Future SoCs
AMD's Financial Analyst Day 2012 - Mark Papermaster, SVP & CTO Presentation 
AMD: Flexible Around ISA
AMD Nods at Shorter Design Cycles, More Synthesized Designs
What AMD Views as Important: Tablets, Servers, Notebooks & GPUs
AMD & Compal Show Off 18mm Trinity Notebook 
AMD's 2012 - 2013 Client CPU/GPU/APU Roadmap Revealed 
AMD's 2012 - 2013 Server Roadmap: Abu Dhabi, Seoul & Delhi CPUs
AMD is Ambidextrous, Not Married to Any One Architecture, ARM in the Datacenter? 
AMD's Tablet Architectures: Hondo at 4.5W, Future Sub-2W SoC

Read on for our summary and analysis of AMD's new strategy.

In its client roadmap AMD revealed Hondo, a 4.5W APU with 1 - 2 low voltage Bobcat cores and an on-die DX11 GPU built on a 40nm process. Hondo will fit into Windows 8 tablets starting later this year. Going forward, AMD wants to get into the sub-2W market although we don't have a codename to associate with that power target. Mobile is very important to AMD going forward both in tablets and ultra thin notebooks and it looks like AMD is planning on building the architectures it needs to be successful there.

A few weeks ago at CES 2012, Seagate showcased their GoFlex Thunderbolt adapters. They come in two flavors: the GoFlex Desk Thunderbolt adapter takes 3.5" drives, requires an external power supply, and has two Thunderbolt ports; the GoFlex Thunderbolt adapter is suitable for 2.5" drives, is bus-powered, and has a single Thunderbolt port (i.e. no daisy-chaining).

The GoFlex Desk adapter won't be available until later this month, but Seagate has now updated their accessory page and started shipping the 2.5" GoFlex adapter. It's available from Seagate's online store for $100 (no cable included, so that's another $50), which is quite a lot more than a $15 USB 3.0 enclosure, but at least this is better pricing than the LaCie and Promise solutions we have seen so far. Unfortunately, you are still limited to using Seagate's GoFlex drives, but fortunately they are reasonably priced. By way of comparison, a solution using the GoFlex TB adapter and 1TB GoFlex external would cost around $230, whereas LaCie charges $400 for a similar setup.

UPDATE: It appears that a GoFlex drive is not needed and any 2.5" SATA drive should work.

MacWorld has already received a review unit and run a few basic tests. As you might have expected, Thunderbolt is noticeably faster than USB 2.0 but not much faster than FireWire 800. In terms of raw numbers, USB 2.0 had a maximum throughput of 33.7MB/s while FireWire and Thunderbolt had 70.3MB/s and 81.3MB/s respectively. Obviously, the 500GB 2.5" 5400rpm drive is the bottleneck here—the gap would be a lot bigger with a 3.5" hard drive, or better yet, an SSD.

To be honest, the GoFlex Thunderbolt adapter isn't really worth it unless you plan on using an SSD, which requires you to open the GoFlex enclosure and change the hard drive to an SSD, which is not supported by Seagate and may void your warranty. In the case of regular 2.5" hard drives, you're better off with the GoFlex FireWire 800 adapter ($50 from Seagate's online store and no $50 cable required), assuming you have a Mac with FireWire 800—otherwise USB 2.0 should be sufficient as well. For those not using Mac hardware, Thunderbolt may have more bandwidth, but right now USB 3.0 is a far more economical solution.

We've been hammering this point home all day, but AMD just mentioned it again. The company wants to be a solutions provider, one that's ambidextrous and not married to any one architecture. AMD is likely talking about ARM here and seems willing to offer both ARM and x86 based SoCs depending on the market segment/customer requirements.

What's important to note is that thus far AMD has talked about these ambidextrous solutions with respect to the datacenter and not client systems, and definitely not smartphones. If you were looking for AMD to get into the ARM based SoC race in phones, that's not what's going to happen. An AMD architected ARM based enterprise solution is interesting though. It's unclear to me what the main advantage of ARM would be there, particularly given that AMD has its own low power x86 core with Bobcat, but it's an interesting notion.

We've got a server roadmap update from AMD courtesy of its Financial Analyst Day here in Santa Clara, California. The changes to the 2012 - 2013 roadmap aren't all that startling. Obviously this year AMD delivers top to bottom Bulldozer based CPUs. Interlagos, which we've already reviewed, features between 4 and 16 Bulldozer cores (2 - 8 modules). There are 2 and 3 module variants as well: Zurich and Valencia, respectively. All three of these Bulldozer based CPUs fall in the Opteron 6200 line. 

Originally AMD had talked about introducing a new G2012 platform and delivering 10 & 20-core solutions called Sepang and Terramar. Those plans have been scrapped for the moment and what we get instead is a drop-in replacement for existing Opteron 6200 CPUs. 

Take the current 6200 lineup, upgrade the CPU cores to Piledriver and you get a high level look at AMD's near-term server strategy. The sockets remain the same, as do the core counts, but performance should go up. AMD hasn't given us any more detail as to what Piledriver fixes other than to say that it's a higher IPC version of Bulldozer.

AMD's Trinity APU, due out near the middle of the year, will combine two Piledriver modules (four "cores") with an even beefier GPU. We've already laid out the general performance expectations for Trinity here, but today AMD showed off a ~18mm thick Trinity reference design built by Compal. Price points for Trinity systems like this will be sub $900 and AMD is promising better battery life than competing 17W designs (clearly a jab at Ultrabooks).

AMD gave us a quick update on its 2012 - 2013 client roadmap, mostly focusing on new CPU/APU releases although there's a brief mention of Sea Islands - the follow-on to Southern Islands due out in 2013. AMD wasn't specific with what Sea Islands would bring us other than some more HSA (Heterogenous Systems Architecture, formerly Fusion System Architecture, aka heterogenous compute) enhancements. 

The bigger updates are on the CPU/APU side. This year we'll get Trinity but we'll also get an updated Brazos platform and a new ultra low power (~4.5W) Hondo platform. The latter is likely going to be targeted at Windows 8 tablets and both will be based on 40nm Bobcat cores. 

Going into 2013 AMD will move all mainstream client APUs to 28nm and bring a GCN (Graphics Core Next) based GPU to all of the APUs. Kaveri, the Llano/Trinity follow-on, will use Steamroller cores (evolution of Bulldozer/Piledriver) while Kabini and Temash will use Jaguar. Jaguar is an evolution of the Bobcat core although we don't have any architectural details at this time. Kabini and Temash will also integrate the Fusion Controller Hub (FCH, aka South Bridge) making these two APUs AMD's first true single-chip solutions.

AMD's FX platform will get an update to Piledriver cores this year with Vishera. There's no visibility beyond Vishera unfortunately, although it's probably a safe bet that we'll see a Steamroller based derivative at some point. 

AMD's 2013 roadmap is heavily built around HSA. The hope is that with Graphics Core Next on-die, and proper software support, AMD will be able to deliver a compelling heterogenous computing platform that lets you leverage the strengths of both x86 CPU cores and a GPU built for compute. AMD has been chasing the promise of heterogenous compute for a while now, but its roadmap is clearly built around that vision becoming a reality. 

Gallery: AMD's 2012 - 2013 Client CPU/GPU/APU Roadmap Revealed

The slide above really puts AMD's focus into perspective. AMD is mostly interested in markets that have high annual growth rates. Looking above you can see that pretty much all of those categories with the exception of the client desktop are interesting for AMD. It's about time that AMD focused more on mobile and I don't believe that it's too late for the company.  Given all of our history as a community with AMD, it is sad to think that the high-end desktop CPU market won't be as important to the company going forward. It's likely the right decision for AMD but it's truly the end of an era.

The presentations we've seen from AMD thus far today haven't been very specific in terms of numbers, but there's a lot of reading between the lines that we can do here. AMD already mentioned that it's no longer interested in pursuing bleeding edge process technologies, but its CTO expanded on that idea by mentioning that AMD will transition to shorter design cycles. We got a hint of this transition with the annual Brazos/Llano cadence, but now it's official AMD policy to have shorter design cycles. These shorter design cycles will leverage lower amounts of custom block design and lean more on easily synthesizable architectures. The tradeoff is obviously performance but you do get better time to market. As was the case with Brazos however, if you can bring the right combination of technologies to market at the right time, the tradeoff is worth it. 

If you want to follow the CTO presentation we've been quoting from a lot today, check it out in the gallery below.

Gallery: AMD Financial Analyst Day 2012 - Mark Papermaster, SVP & CTO Presentation

The slide above gives an example of the new agile/flexible AMD as it applies to the datacenter. Again, we're not seeing ARM, but we are seeing that AMD is willing to be flexible around ISA. In other words, AMD won't be married to x86 if the customer doesn't want it. If I had to guess, it sounds like AMD is talking about offering ARM based SoCs in the datacenter if a customer should want one. 

HSA will also play a role here. It seems like AMD views its flexibility around IP integration in combination with its GPU architecture as its main advantages in the datacenter. Should GPU compute prove to be widely useful in enterprise applications remains to be seen. Clearly highly parallel workloads lend themselves very well to GPUs.

Don't expect AMD to go into much detail on this here at the Financial Analyst Day, but the slide above shows a definite step towards becoming a modern SoC company. Looking at TI, Qualcomm, NVIDIA and even Intel, integrating 3rd party IP into an SoC isn't unusual - particularly when competing in the ultra mobile space. AMD wants the same flexibility. Going forward, if AMD is successful, we will see SoCs based on AMD technologies that are combined with 3rd party IP. In theory this could come in the form of anything from a video decoder/encoder block to an ARM based CPU/GPU. AMD has mentioned ARM a few times in its presentations today but don't expect any major announcements here. The key word here is agility. AMD wants to be an SoC company that can deliver whatever combination of first and third party IP that the customer wants. 

AMD's CTO Mark Papermaster just put up this slide that shows its HSA (Heterogeneous Systems Architecture) roadmap through 2014. This year we got Graphics Core Next, but next year we'll see a unified address space that both AMD CPUs and GPUs can access (today CPUs and GPUs mostly store separate copies of data in separate memory spaces). In 2014 AMD plans to deliver HSA compatible GPUs that allow for true heterogeneous computing where workloads will run, seamlessly, on both CPUs and GPUs in parallel. The latter is something we've been waiting on for years now but AMD seems committed to delivering it in a major way in just two years. 

AMD's Financial Analyst Day is under way and we're currently hearing from Rory Read about the future of the company. Specifics and roadmaps will follow, but the fundamental shift is outlined below:

AMD used to focus on PC clients and servers in mature markets. It used OEMs as the primary delivery vehicle for its products. Going forward AMD wants to focus more on client mobility, not smartphones but ultra thin notebooks, tablets and other similar devices. Rory was very clear to point out that AMD has no intentions of competing in the ultra low margin smartphone SoC space, but there's a lot more to mobility than just that. We'll still see a cloud computing focus from AMD, which makes sense as the server business has always been very profitable. AMD will also focus more on emerging markets (Brazil, Russia, India, China, etc...) rather than just the mature markets as that's where a huge amount of growth will happen in the future. From a product standpoint, AMD is really focusing on its mainstream and entry level APUs. Rory didn't come out and say it here but no where in AMD's future direction is a focus on the high-end x86 CPU space. 

Also note that AMD isn't going to be as focused on delivering high performance products on the absolute latest process node. It views Brazos as one of its biggest successes to date and that architecture was built on a 40nm process with an easily synthesizable architecture. It's likely that the future of AMD is built around more of these easy to manufacture SoCs rather than highly custom, bleeding edge CPUs.

AMD plans on leveraging OEMs to deliver its products but it also wants to explore other routes as well. Rory referenced the game console model, where AMD would sell an ODM a chip solution tailored specifically to their needs. AMD wants to use this model to complement the more traditional route of selling its products. The transition here makes sense if you look at the current tablet space. The SoC players in tablets effectively follow the game console model. You buy a tablet that has an SoC that's custom tailored to its needs rather than buying a system with a myriad of CPU options.

Until now, the way voice has worked on handsets with a 4G LTE air interface has been, well, interesting. That is to say, thus far all voice calls haven't been over 4G LTE but conventional circuit-switched (as opposed to packet-switched) 2G or 3G networks like CDMA2000 1x in 3GPP2 land, or WCDMA/GSM in 3GPP land. For example, on Verizon LTE the handset has a second radio always camping 1x for voice and SMS, and on AT&T LTE the handset falls back from LTE to WCDMA for the voice transaction. This is CSFB - Circuit-Switched FallBack. LTE deployments thus far have focused primarily on data connectivity for a variety of reasons, and further logistical hurdles like emergency call support has made VoLTE effectively only possible in 3GPP Release 9. 

Following their first quarter earnings announcement (and quiet period), Qualcomm is lifting the veil on news of a successful SR-VCC (Single Radio Voice Call Continuity) call which took place December 23, 2011 on an Ericsson test network using a Snapdragon S4 MSM8960 SoC. This marked the first successful trial of a VoLTE call which originated in the VoIP/IMS packet-switched domain handing over to WCDMA's circuit-switched domain. While this news is effectively a technology demonstration on a test network, this is just one more sign that the dual baseband cellular architecture (and associated power draws) we've talked about already is on its way out this upcoming year. With the appropriate software updates to radio access hardware, sufficient carrier testing, and the appropriate baseband support, it's looking like 2012 might be the year we finally get handsets with VoLTE enabled out of the box.

The Ericsson device and a demonstration network will be on display at MWC 2012, and we're looking forward to seeing VoLTE in action. 

Source: Qualcomm

Apple today released the OS X 10.7.3 update for the client and server versions of Lion - unlike 10.7.2, which introduced a major feature in iCloud, the 10.7.3 update consists mostly of smaller feature and security bugfixes. The updates are currently available both from Apple's download site and from Software Update - its build number is 11D50 and it bumps the OS X kernel version to 11.3.0.

On the client side of things, 10.7.3 adds Catalan, Croatian, Greek, Hebrew, Romanian, Slovak, Thai, and Ukranian language support, and addresses problems logging on using smart cards, with Windows filesharing, and with printing Word documents that use markup. Older iMacs with ATI graphics cards should no longer experience performance issues after waking from sleep, and post-sleep wi-fi connection issues were also addressed. Safari should no longer have trouble opening before the computer has connected to a wireless network. Lastly, Apple has fixed an issue authenticating to distributed SMB shares, and RAW image compatibility with additional cameras has been added.

Enterprise users with Active Directory domains should also note that the 10.7.3 update fixes a number of Directory Services bugs, a full list of which can be found in the client release notes.

OS X Server sees a few more feature updates, both in Server.app and in the services themselves - there are too many of them to list here, but you can check out the server release notes for a full list.

10.7.3 also includes Safari 5.1.3, a minor version bump for which release notes are not currently available (it's also not clear whether 5.1.3 will be released to Snow Leopard users, or whether it addresses issues that are only present in Lion). Snow Leopard users can also grab Security Update 2012-001 to get all of the security fixes present in 10.7.3 that also apply to 10.6.8.

Not to be left in the dust by their big national counterparts, regional carriers are also moving onward to 4G LTE, and US Cellular today announced its initial 4G LTE markets and two devices. US Cellular has made a coverage map tool visible with its initial rollout markets, and noted that additional market announcements will happen later this month. US Cellular also makes note of its intent to deploy 4G LTE onto 700 MHz spectrum licensed to King Street Wireless.

A quick check on the spectrum dashboard indicates that indeed US Cellular will likely deploy 4G LTE into a host of 700 MHz Lower A and B block licenses, both of which are 5 MHz FDD. A quick spot checking of the announced markets revealed that most are regions where both lower A and B are held, though Des Moines Iowa has both A and B, so it seems as though 5 MHz and 10 MHz FDD will be the name of US Cellular's LTE game.

King Street Wireless National 700 MHz Spectrum Holdings

The two devices US Cellular has in store are the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 LTE, and the Samsung Galaxy S Aviator, the latter of which looks virtually identical to the Droid Charge we've already reviewed. No doubt the Aviator will turn out to be based on the same hardware platform given the similar choice of air interfaces shared between Verizon and US Cellular (CDMA2000 1x/EVDO and 4G LTE). 

Source: US Cellular (Devices), (Press Release)

I'm going to be honest with you: the Radeon HD 7970 launch recap was pretty boring, with its wall-to-wall stock coolers and stock clocks. Like many high-end GPU launches, AMD's partners were for the most part restricted to reference designs, and didn't get much of a chance to put their own spin on the new GPU.

The same can't be said of the Radeon HD 7950 launch—as Ryan noted in today's review, AMD's partners have been let loose for this card, and as a result we're looking at 11 better-differentiated cards from seven manufacturers in today's roundup. The downside of all of this customization is that none of these cards quite hit AMD's MSRP of $449.99—the closest cards are $10 or $20 more expensive, though that's arguably a rounding error when you're in the market for a card in this segment.

Read on for detailed specifications and analyses. As usual, for simplicity's sake, the only cards we're looking at are the ones available through Newegg as of this writing. AMD's partners often offer different SKUs through other sites, but most of the time those SKUs are just variations on what's listed below. To help differentiate these cards from one another in the table below, I've bolded some of the more extreme data points, including highest core overclock, best warranty, smallest and largest size, and highest and lowest price. Hopefully this extra visual data will help you tell the cards apart at a glance.

Every card here comes with 3GB of GDDR5 on a 384-bit bus and the same array of outputs: one DVI, one HDMI, and a pair of Mini DisplayPorts. While some of the cards have core overclocks from the factory, outside of the XFX BE, the memory is all running at the reference speed of 1250 MHz (5 GHz effective). Every card additionally requires a pair of 6-pin power connectors to satisfy their cravings for electricity, and as of this writing Newegg is offering a free voucher for a copy of DiRT 3 with every card, the PC version of which is currently going for a bit less than $20 on Amazon.

Gigabyte

Gigabyte's take on the 7950 is right in the middle of the pack—it isn't quite the most expensive or the longest, and it doesn't quite have the longest warranty or the most accessories, but it comes pretty close on all of those counts. It's the only card in the lineup with a three fan cooler, which may help slightly with overclocking—it comes from the factory with a 100 MHz (~11%) overclock, which ties with a few other cards for the fastest stock clock in the lineup.

HIS (Product page)

The HIS card has a cooler that bears a striking resemblance to the 7970 reference cooler, and HIS passes at least some of those savings on to those consumer—at $20 over MSRP, this is one of the cheaper cards in this list. It is otherwise unremarkable—a 2-year warranty ties with some other cards for the shortest on the list, and it comes from the factory with stock clocks. HIS claims that its included "weight lifter" accessory can help alleviate the pressure that gravity exerts on both the card and the PCI slot, making for greater longevity, but that confidence doesn't apparently extend to the warranty.

MSI (Product page)

Like the HIS card, the MSI model uses a single-fan, dual-slot cooler reminiscent of the 7970 reference cooler. It's the same price as the HIS card, but offers a slightly better warranty (3 years parts but only 2 years labor), a slight (~8%) overclock, and a couple of extra display adapters, and it's a bit smaller in width and in height (at least according to MSI's measurements).

XFX and XFX Black Edition (Product page)

Here's where we get to the manufacturers who are offering multiple cards based on the 7950 GPU. Generally speaking, partners will offer a low and a high end card, usually differentiated by price, cooler, and overclock—included accessories and warranty length tend to be the same between different cards from the same manufacturer.

In XFX's case, even the cooler is the same between the basic card and the Black Edition card—the only difference between the two is a 100 MHz factory overclock on the core, a 125 MHz overclock on the RAM (the only RAM overclock in the entire lineup) and $20. If you're comfortable doing your own overclock, buying the Black Edition may not be worth it. It should be noted that the XFX Black Edition is one of the few cards on this list that we've actually done some testing on—while its performance is good, its cooler is both a bit louder and a bit less cool-running than that of many of its peers. Registering either card will get you a lifetime warranty, which beats anything else on this list and may sweeten the deal.

ASUS (Product page)

This is ASUS' stock-clocked version of the 7950, and like a few of the other cards in this list it uses a single-fan dual-slot cooler. At just $15 over MSRP it's one of the cheapest cards here, and the 3-year warranty manages to best a few of the more expensive cards with 2-year warranties. If you buy a component for this much money, I think it helps to buy something with a longer warranty, especially since the jumps in performance between GPU generations aren't quite what they used to be.

ASUS Direct CU II (Product page)

This massive card, which ties the XFX Black Edition for the most expensive in our lineup, has a dual-fan triple-slot cooler that makes it the longest card here by almost an inch (with the exception of the Gigabyte, though it's three-fan cooler is still a bit shorter) the widest by about half an inch (though the Gigabyte card and the PowerColor dual-fan cards come close), and the tallest by around three-quarters of an inch (no exceptions here). A 100 MHz core overclock and a 3-year warranty are both nice touches, but if space is at a premium in your case (or if you plan on running a couple of these in a Crossfire setup) you may want to get out the tape measure first.

PowerColor (Product page)

PowerColor's take on the stock-clocked, single-fan cooler design isn't much different from anyone else's, but at $20 over MSRP it's one of the less expensive cards in the lineup, and it's also one of the few to come with an HDMI to DVI adapter if you should need such a thing. If price is the most important factor in your purchase (and if the 2-year warranty doesn't bother you), it's worth a look.

PowerColor PCS+ (Product page)

This card's dual-fan cooler is about an inch shorter than that of the ASUS model, and it's also $10 cheaper at $40 over MSRP. The 80 MHz core overclock and 2-year warranty make it slightly less appealing than some of the other models on the list.

Sapphire (Product page)

This Sapphire card is an interesting one—it's got a 2-year warranty and a measly 10 MHz overclock, but it's also the shortest and slimmest card of the bunch, distinguishing it a bit from the other single-fan cooler cards in the group. It also happens to be the cheapest, coming in at just $10 over MSRP. Both Sapphire cards also come with the best complement of adapters and cables, including two 4-pin to 6-pin power adapters and an honest-to-goodness HDMI cable. Ryan noted in his 7950 review that the Sapphire OC edition (below) includes a BIOS selection switch, which may help enterprising modders to turn that card into a full-on 7970. This cheaper card should also have that switch, according the OC Edition's product page.

Sapphire OC Edition (Product page)

And, lastly, we have the Sapphire OC Edition. Like most other manufacturers, Sapphire has given this higher-end model a 100 MHz core overclock, but it costs only $30 more than MSRP compared to $40 and $50 for other cards. The 2-year warranty bothers me a little bit, in case you haven't picked up on this by now, but if you don't trust yourself to handle your own overclocks this is the cheapest card available at this speed, and comes with the same array of cables and adapters as its cheaper cousin. Our test sample also ran very quiet compared to both the "reference" design and the XFX BE, making this card particularly attractive for lower noise scenarios.

Apple has today issued an update for their professional video editing suite, Final Cut Pro X (FCPX). The update carries version number 10.0.3 and re-introduces some crucial elements, such as multicam editing. Multicam filming is widely used by video professionals as many scenes require multiple video angles, and it's obvious that you also need editing software that supports multicam editing in order to achieve the best outcome. Other new features include advanced chroma keying that allows color, edge and light adjustments; media relink that allows content to be modified with third party software and then be relinked to your project; import Photoshop graphics; and broadcast monitoring that allows video to be output to an external monitor using PCIe or Thunderbolt devices.

FCPX was strongly criticized by professional users when it was launched in June 2011 due to the lack of major features such as import of projects made on earlier versions of FCP, multicam support, and usage of 3rd party I/O devices for capture and output—all which were present in the earlier version of Final Cut Pro. Apple released the 10.0.1 update in September, which brought support for XML format, allowing FCP 7 and many other apps projects to be imported into FCPX. However, it took Apple more than half a year to support multicam editing, which is finally bringing FCPX more or less on-par with FCP 7 in terms of features.

FCP 7 was outdated in various areas, for example it was single-threaded, so it's evident that professionals with high-end Macs were craving for a new version but ended up being disappointed due to the lack of several essential features. This update is free for all users who have already bought Final Cut Pro X. For users who haven't, Apple offers a 30-day trial on Final Cut Pro X and the full version is priced at $299—both are available in the Mac App Store. Apple also offers Motion, an effects editor, and Compressor, a tool for project export, as complement applications and they are both priced at $49.

Firefox 10 is due to release today, continuing Mozilla's commitment to the six-week release cycle it switched to last year. As usual with these rapid-release browsers, Firefox 10 brings a couple of features you'll probably notice and a few more that you probably won't. The browser is available for Windows XP, Vista, and 7, Intel versions of Mac OS X 10.5, 10.6, and 10.7, and most flavors of Linux.

Firefox 10's banner feature is a tweak designed to fix add-on compatibility - most add-ons compatible with Firefox version 4 and later will now automatically be marked as compatible by the browser without any additional updates from the add-on's developer. This is true both of add-ons downloaded from Mozilla's repository, or add-ons installed from elsewhere on the Internet. This was done to ease the pain of upgrading for heavy add-on users, and to make way for Mozilla's silent Firefox updater, which is tentatively scheduled to land in June with the release of Firefox 13.

Mozilla has also hidden the browser's forward button unless it can actually be used, implemented anti-aliasing for WebGL, added support for CSS3 3D transforms, added full-screen APIs to allow for full-screen web apps (though still no official support for Lion's Full Screen mode), and a few other small feature and bug changes.

FF10 is also the first release of the browser to be offered as an "Extended Support Release" or ESR, which will be offered as a separate download - as we reported earlier this month, the ESRs will be good for a year, and will keep the same major version number and rendering engine while being kept current with security and bug fixes. The ESR is intended to replace Firefox 3.6, which has been patched continuously as Firefoxes 4 through 9 have been end-of-lifed, and is meant to placate enterprise administrators and others upset by the new rapid release cycle. Firefox 3.6 is tentatively scheduled to be discontinued on April 24, so if you've stuck by it for the last year you should begin testing the new version soon.

Source: Mozilla

We've been covering the changes in Windows 8 fairly closely since Microsoft started talking about the upcoming operating system, and while most of these changes will probably land in the final version, Microsoft is already making some tweaks based on user feedback. Microsoft's Ilana Smith has written about some of the tweaks made to file copy operations and Windows Explorer since those features were last discussed.

File copy operations get a couple of GUI tweaks and a few useful under-the-hood enhancements. First, when two files in a copy operation have conflicting names, Windows will give you the (opt-in) option to skip files that also have the same timestamp and file size while copying over files that just have the same name as files in the target folder. File copy interrupts, which in past versions of Windows have stopped the copy operation until the user clicks through them, will now queue and display after Windows has copied everything it can.

Under the hood, improvements to the SMB protocol mean that a computer can now dynamically switch to the fastest available network connection in mid-operation, for those cases when you begin a file copy to another computer over wi-fi and then decide it would be faster to plug the computer into the network with a cable. Because it relies on these SMB improvements, this functionality can only kick in for a file transfer between two Windows 8 computers.

Copy operations will also pause when a computer goes to sleep or hibernates, and can be manually resumed when the computer wakes back up. This feature won't kick in unless the user prompts it to, since a sleeping computer can often wake back up on another network where it can't continue the file copy.

On the Windows Explorer side, the new Ribbon interface is still present, but it is minimized by default - power users who need it can pop it back out, and casual users who don't use it much can retain the screen real estate granted by the minimized ribbon. Customizations you make to the Windows Explorer view settings will also now sync between your Windows 8 systems if you're syncing settings using your Windows Live ID.

Other Explorer changes include: the addition of an "Open PowerShell" option in the File menu to complement the "Open Command Prompt" option, automatic rotation of images based on EXIF data, the removal of a navigation pane scrolling bug, the removal of icon overlays (like a padlock icon for private files) in exchange for a new "Sharing status" column that offers more information while (very slightly) increasing performance, the addition of hotkey information to button tooltips, and the ability to add folders and executables to the new Metro-style Start menu.

All of these changes will all be available in the Windows 8 beta when it releases late next month. We'll continue covering them as Microsoft talks about them.

Source: Building Windows 8 blog

Of course AMD has always produced multiple video cards from their high-end GPUs, and with Tahiti this was no different. The second Tahiti card has been waiting in the wings for its own launch, and that launch has finally come. Today AMD is launching the Radeon HD 7950, the cooler, quieter, and cheaper sibling of the Radeon HD 7970. Aimed right at NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 580, AMD is looking to sew up the high-end market, and as we’ll see the Radeon HD 7950 is exactly the card to accomplish that.

Today, CyberLink is introducing PowerDVD 12 along with an updated Android / iOS app. With the Blu-ray functionality not needing any updates, most of the attention has been focused on the mobile apps and streamlining the user experience with the PC player. How good are the changes? Are they enough to make us change our opinion of PowerDVD? Read on for our review.

Apart from a few screenshots leaked early last year, not much was known about the next major release of Microsoft Office codenamed “Office 15”. However, as of yesterday, Microsoft has announced that "Office 15" has entered into Technical Preview, with the public beta slated for a summer release.

The technical preview is currently open only to a select few outside Microsoft under a non-disclosure agreement.  Last time around, prior to the launch of Office 2010, people had a chance to sign up for the technical preview. However, this time, Microsoft seems to have taken a less public approach for choosing potential candidates for the technical preview.

In any case, the technical preview means the suite should most-likely be feature complete and relatively stable to let end-users try it out. Details on what’s new are scarce right now, but it could be fair game to expect some Metro-esque updates to the UI, aligning the user experience with other products such as the Xbox Dashboard and Windows 8.

Microsoft is calling "Office 15" as one of the most ambitious undertakings for the Office division, promising a simultaneous update to all its Office products and services across all platforms for the first time ever.  

Either way, it should be interesting to see what new features and enhancements make their way into Office 15. Personally, I would like to see deeper integration with Microsoft’s cloud services such as Office 365 and Skydrive, allowing for easier sharing and collaboration.

Office 2010 brought to the table several new features such as the controversial Backstage View, a consistent Ribbon UI across the suite, and lots of minor enhancements in every app. However, it was by no means a must have upgrade. I guess we’ll have to wait for the public beta to see if "Office 15" fits that bill.

Source: MS Office Blog

A while ago, Motorola announced plans to start unlocking bootloaders on devices "where operator and channel partners will allow it" sometime in 2011. While it's clear now (with that deadline behind us) that operators remain opposed to subsidizing sales of devices with unlockable bootloaders, Motorola is now moving forward with what would seem like an alternative means to a similar end, starting with creation of a Developer Edition XT910 device for Europe. The Developer Edition XT910 is similar to to the normal XT910, but includes an unlockable bootloader and is sold with no warranty - the device is currently available for preorder for €499.00. This is essentially the RAZR we've reviewed already but with GSM/WCDMA air interfaces and no LTE connectivity. 

Customers stateside will have to wait for a corresponding unlockable developer device which ostensibly will mirror the XT912 shipping on Verizon Wireless with CDMA2000 1x/EVDO and LTE air interfaces. Hopefully Motorola's plans to launch Developer Edition devices doesn't mean that it has failed to reach an agreement with carrier partners to enable currently shipping devices to be unlocked.

Source: Motorola Blog, Motorola Dev. Devices, XT910

Which leads us to today's build, which AVADirect dubs their Silent Gaming PC. Their builders have tried to take a standard powerhouse boutique machine and kill the noise. Did they succeed, or is the Silent Gaming PC merely the sum of its parts?

Apple just pushed out a slew of updates to its WiFi related products which we've covered and reviewed already, including the AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule. The latest update brings the Base Station firmware version to 7.6.1, and adds performance fixes as well as iCloud remote access for attached disks. From the release notes:

This update is for all 802.11n AirPort Express, 802.11n AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule models. It fixes an issue with wireless performance and provides support for remote access to an AirPort disk or a Time Capsule hard drive with an iCloud account.

I've just updated my own AirPort Extreme and 802.11n AirPort Express, and we'll update if we see anything major. The other part of the update includes AirPort Utility 6.0 which matches the style and theme of the recently released AirPort Utility for iOS. Thus far the update seems to be primarily aesthetic, though a number of old options panes have been consolidated in some places.

One notable change is the repositioning of the wireless client RSSI graph, which now gets reported after clicking on the base station as a pop-up. Interestingly enough, older AirPort devices will be configured using AirPort Utility 5.6 going forwards, and it's in this client that you can access options absent in 6.0, including the logs and wireless client graphs.

Gallery: AirPort Utility 6.0 on OS X, Base Station Firmware 7.6.1

We're playing around with the updates and will update soon with more details. Both updates are currently available over Software Update.

Source: Apple (1), (2)