AMD launches new low-power quad-core Opterons

AMD today unveiled five new quad-core Opteron server processors with performance-per-watt as their key feature. The chips on average consume about 55 watts and are available in both the 2300 and 8300 series for two, four and eight-way rack-mounted servers and blades.

Compared to the “standard-wattage,” 75-watt Barcelona parts these chips are 30 percent more efficient. The model numbers are the Opteron 8347 HE, 8346 HE – for servers with four or eight processors – and the Opteron 2347 HE, 2346 HE, and 2344 HE for servers with two processors.

They run at clock speeds ranging from 1.7GHz to 1.9GHz and are priced from $209 to $873 in 1,000-unit quantities. This is AMD’s latest announcement concerning low-power chips and is seen as a good move for the struggling chip company as the issue around power efficiency and power consumption continues to gain momentum in the server and data center space.

EVGA announces USB display cards

For those that are craving for additional displays, EVGA has announced its UV Plus+ lineup of USB display adapters. These two display adapters branded as  UV12 and UV16 will use an USB to connect to PC in order to give support for additional displays.

Both UV12 and UV16 feature DVI and VGA support, and come with the so called GPU-less design. This design uses a virtual driver and high-performance DDR memory which gives it enough juice to run Windows Vista Aero and do high resolutions.

The UV12 will be able to produce up to 1440×900 resolution at 60Hz of refresh rate, while its bigger named brother UV16, will be able to give  up to 1680×1050 at the same 60Hz. The design is stackable so you are basically limited by the number of USB ports.

These new USB display adapters should be available sometimes during this week at the suggested retail/e-tail price of €79. Both devices are based on DisplayLink chips and they will be definitely good for anyone that needs more than one additional display on the notebook.

You can check out additional info here.