Posted 09/21/09 at 08:01:41 PM by Ryan Whitwam

The USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) today approved the first SuperSpeed USB 3.0 product. The product in question is a host controller from NEC Electronics. Having this certified host controller will be a boon to other manufacturers, as they will be able to easily test products using the USB 3.0 spec.

The controller, known as the µPD720200 host controller, uses a PCI Express Gen 2 interface bus. This allows 2 USB 3.0 ports to be easily added to any system supporting the PCI Express bus. Analyst firm, In-Stat, estimates nearly one-third the market will support the SuperSpeed standard by 2013.

NEC Electronics originally announced the µPD720200 in May, but the product has just now been certified. “NEC Electronics has supported the development of SuperSpeed USB technology since the earliest efforts, and it is gratifying to help make the technology become a reality,” said Masao Hirasawa, General Manager, SoC Systems Division, NEC Electronics Corporation.

Check out the press release here. [warning, PDF]

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Posted 09/14/09 at 08:00:54 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Japanese electronics manufacturers Casio, NEC and Hitachi have decided to merge their mobile phone divisions. The merged entity will be ready to lock horns with local and international competitors by April next year. Casio and Hitachi are already part of a joint venture they constituted in 2004. With NEC joining the existing joint venture, the resulting entity will, immediately after its birth, acquire the bragging rights that belong to the second-largest handset maker in Japan.

The latest entrant will be the largest stakeholder in the new business with a 66 percent stake, while Casio and Hitachi will hold 17.34 percent and 16.66 percent, respectively. The three are not only eyeing the jam-packed Japanese market, but also the global market. Japanese handset makers have not been able to have an impact on the world stage. Though they seem to posses the goods to shatter their global jinx to smithereens, the world has never really warmed up to the relatively more advanced Japanese cellphone technology.

The Japanese have pioneered many advancements in mobile technology, from e-mail to electronic payments. All said, their lack of success is not entirely incomprehensible. The fact is that Japanese handset makers have never tried to tailor their products to international tastes.

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Posted 07/20/09 at 07:23:40 AM by Paul Lilly

Despite the recent push towards going green, power management on the PC has a long ways to go, but a new breakthrough could shakes things up in a big way. Both Rohm Co Ltd and NEC of Japan are working on what's called zero-standby-dissipation IC technology, which is an integrated circuit that waits in Off mode for an input before instantly turning itself on, and then turning right back off.

Already in prototype form and expected to ship in quantity before 2010, the innovative chips are made from nonvolatile logic and merged memory. By making the entire chip nonvolatile, the integrated circuits consume no power when in standby mode, only turning themselves on when power is needed. And because of the logic circuit, the chips do not need data retention, which means power to the entire chip can be cut in standby.

"This technology has enormous potential in applications such as games, where the system is usually sitting and waiting for player input," says an un-named source at Rohm.

Lots more details here.

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Posted 07/03/09 at 02:58:29 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Taiwanese manufacturers might have positioned themselves to begin shipping SuperSpeed USB (aka USB 3.0) before the curtain falls on the year 2009, according to the July issue of Nikkei Electronics Asia. The magazine believes that it was quite evident from the various prototypes on display at the SuperSpeed USB Developers Conference held in Tokyo May 20-21, 2009 that the commercial rollout of the next-gen USB interface in PCs is nigh.

Japanese company NEC Electronics Corp shipped samples of the first USB 3.0 host controller in early June and expects to churn out a million every month beginning this September. The first devices based on the interface will most certainly be external hard disk drives, with more exciting applications like hd video streaming expected to follow later.

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Posted 06/09/09 at 09:00:00 AM by Paul Lilly

Forget about those wimpy TN panels, NEC has instead decided to shoot straight for the high end with its two latest 24-inch LCD displays, the LCD2490WUXi2 and LCD2490W2. Both monitors sport IPS (In Plane Switching) panels for better color accuracy, a wider viewing angle, and higher credit card bills.

On the spec sheet, NEC rates both models at a 1,000:1 static contrast ratio, 320cd/m2 brightness, 8ms response time, and 1920x1200 native resolution. Both also come with DVI and VGA inputs. Other similarities include about a 96.7 percent coverage of the sRGB color spectrum, 12-bit color lookup tables, and ambient light sensors. Where the LCD2490W2 separates itself from the base model is with the inclusion of a SpectraView color calibrator.

No word yet on availability, which gives you a bit of time to save up the $1,100(LCD2490WUXi2) and $1,300 (LCD2490W2) these two models command.

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Posted 06/04/09 at 04:30:24 PM by Andy Salisbury

This week NEC announced a 43-inch, curved monitor that will sport a 2ms response time.

The CRV43 “ultra-widescreen” display will pack a native resolution of 2880x900, and thanks to LED backlighting, feature a response time of just 2ms. For those of you that are looking to get one of these for yourself, start saving now – it’ll cost you $7,999.

Though, for those of you that have gaming running through your blood, no length is too great in order to have the baddest rig on the net. And, adding this to your setup will without a doubt put you near the top of the stack.

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Posted 05/26/09 at 04:30:35 PM by Andy Salisbury

While the netbook market is already mighty crowded, NEC has decided to enter the fray with their UltraLite Type VS.

The Type VS will pack a 1.86GHz Intel Atom Z540, 1GB of RAM, and a 64GB SSD. Along with this, it’ll have a 10.6-inch 1208x768 screen, three USB ports, Ethernet, an SD card reader and weigh roughly a pound and a half.

As for the price, it’ll run the average Japanese consumer ¥176,000 ($1,850). While it does pack some pretty solid hardware, that price is awfully hard to condone in the netbook market.

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Posted 05/22/09 at 04:00:41 PM by Paul Lilly

We like where this is going. NEC this week introduced the first USB 3.0 host controller chips for PCs and other digital gadgets, which should help accelerate the technology coming to market.

Checking in at 10X the speed of USB 2.0, NEC's µPD720200 chip ups the data transfer ante to 5Gpbs, while also maintaining full backward compatibility with previous generation USB protocols, NEC promises.

The USB Implementers Forum finalized the specifications for the USB 3.0 standard almost six months ago, which in addition to offering faster data transfer rates, will also provide more power output. That means you'll be able to recharge your MP3 player and other gizmos quicker than before.

Samples of NEC's chip will be available in June for $15 each, with production expect to hit one million units by September.

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