WD: Return to pre-flood production level by September

Western Digital announced it expects to restore its production output to pre-flood levels by September:

Western Digital expects to rebuild its production capacities to pre-flood levels by September, 2012, the company said this week. The manufacturer aims to repair its two factories in Thailand and bring back its output to normal levels in several months from now. Until then, shortages of hard drives will likely persist.

"Our focus today is on bringing back our capacity to rapidly support our customers," said John Coyne, chief executive officer of WD, adding the impact of the floods had reduced its output by 30%, according to Reuters news-agency.

WD: Return to pre-flood production level by September - More news at DV Hardware

AMD Radeon HD 7950 clock speeds revealed?

TPU spotted a rumor over at DonanimHaber regarding the supposed clockspeeds of AMD's Radeon HD 7950 video card:

eliable sources revealed to DonanimHaber the reference clock speeds of the HD 7950. The core of the HD 7950 will be clocked at 800 MHz, and the memory at 1250 MHz (actual), 5.00 GHz (GDDR5 effective). This, compared to the 925 MHz (core), 1375 MHz (memory actual)/ 5.50 GHz (memory effective) clock speeds of the HD 7970. The HD 7950 will hence be a good overclocker considering the speeds it comes with, there is scope for quite a few factory-OC models from AIBs.

The Radeon HD 7950 is expected to be around $100 to $150 cheaper than the Radeon HD 7970, which would put it around $400 to $450.

AMD Radeon HD 7950 clock speeds revealed? - More news at DV Hardware

Zalman sells LGA2011 upgrade kit for its waterblocks

TPU spotted that Zalman has released the ZM-OC2011, a new retention kit that makes the company's WB5 and WB5 Plus waterblocks compatible with Intel's upcoming LGA2011 processors. In Japan the kit is sold for the equivalent of $19, which seems quite excessive for two metal plates and some nuts and bolts.

The kit consists of brackets that let you use the mount-hole spacing of all previous Intel LGA sockets, including LGA775, LGA1366, LGA1155/1156; nuts and bolts.

Zalman sells LGA2011 upgrade kit for its waterblocks - More news at DV Hardware

Skyrim mod tools and patch 1.4 to arrive soon

Bethesda announced patch 1.4 for Skyrim will be finalized next week, and that the Skyrim Creation Kit for modders is on track for a public release near the end of the month. A full list of changes in Skyrim patch 1.4 can be found at the company's blog.

The Creation Kit and Steam Workshop are nearly ready. We�re currently working with members of Valve and our modding community to do some final testing, and we�re on track for a public release near the end of the month. We think Skyrim modding is one of the game�s best features, and we have the best modders of any game. It�s been a lot of exciting work for us, and we can�t wait to unleash it.

Skyrim�s 1.4 update is currently undergoing testing on all three platforms. The update will include fixes and optimizations for the most common issues people have been reporting (see below). We�re hoping to finalize this next week, and submit it to the console manufacturers for certification, as well as release on PC.

Our current update plan for the PC is to first release our updates as �beta� versions through Steam. This is something you�ll be able to opt into through Steam and back-out of if needed. This is an extra safety check for everyone going forward and should expedite and improve our updating process for our PC users. We�ll have more info soon on how this will work.

Skyrim mod tools and patch 1.4 to arrive soon - More news at DV Hardware

TSMC anticipates 28nm will be 10 percent of its sales in 2H 2012

TSMC reports the ramp up of its 28nm process will be fast, the company anticipates the new process will contribute to 10 percent of its wafer revenue in the second half of 2012, up from 2 percent in Q4 2011.

"Our 28nm entered volume production last year and contributed 2% of Q4 2011's wafer revenue. Defect density and progress is ahead of schedule and is better than 40/45nm at the corresponding stage of the ramp-up. We expect 28nm amp this year to be fast and we expect 28nm will contribute more than 10% of total wafer revenue this year," said Morris Chang, chief executive officer and chairman of TSMC.

TSMC has so far completed 36 individual tape-outs and have scheduled another 132 individual product tape-outs in this year. At present the company produces chips using 28LP (SiON), 28HP (HKMG) and 28HPL (HKMG) versions of the process. The 28HPM flavour entered risk production this quarter and the manufacturer expects to start volume manufacturing of chips using 28HPM in the second half of 2012. At present the majority of 28nm chips made by TSMC are produced using 28nm LP process technology that relies on silicon oxynitride, but by the end of the year TSMC expects 50% of its 28nm chips to rely on more advanced high-K metal gate (HKMG) technology. In Q1 2012 TSMC expects wafers processed using 28nm process technologies to account for 5% of revenue.

Future Horizons analyst Mike Bryant on the other hand paints a bleak picture over at EE Times, he heard from contacts at multiple companies that TSMC's 28nm process suffers from poor yields:

Bryant said that there are 10 designs in manufacture from seven companies. "We're now hearing none of them work; no yield anyway," he told an audience at a one-day market forecast conference organized by Future Horizons, here on Thursday (Jan. 19). "Ten designs going through; we have heard about problems on six of them," Bryant added. Bryant's comments echo those made by Bob Johnson, research vice president at market research firm Gartner in November 2011.

However, Bryant's description of the situation at TSMC is quite different to that of the company's CEO and chairman Morris Chang. Speaking to analysts about TSMC's fourth quarter financial results on the previous day, Chang said: "Our 28-nm entered volume production last year and contributed 2 percent of 4Q11's wafer revenue. Defect density and new progress is ahead of schedule and is better than 40-45-nm at the corresponding stage of the ramp-up. We expect 28-nm ramp this year to be fast and we expect 28-nm will contribute more than 10 percent of total wafer revenue this year."

TSMC anticipates 28nm will be 10 percent of its sales in 2H 2012 - More news at DV Hardware

CES 2012 roundup of the day

CES 2012 � Cooler Master Shows Off New Notebook Coolers for Both PC and Mac Users

It can be tough finding the perfect notebook cooler, especially since there are different needs for different people. In the pursuit of a great cooling solution, I met up with Dennis Liu at the Cooler Master suite at CES 2012 in Las Vegas and he showed off the company�s newest creations.

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CES 2012 � LG Unveils New 3D Television and Gaming Technology

The MEGA goodness continues at CES 2012, where LG was showing off some pretty fantastic Cinema 3D innovations. We�ve seen smarter homes, but we still want a smarter living room too. They've got some very compelling console gaming and casual gaming innovations too that you won't want to miss in our video coverage.

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2012 CES: Cooler Master @ OCIA.net

We visited with Cooler Master at the Bellagio after they hosted one heck of a party the night before. Cooler Master is celebrating their 20 year anniversary with a plethora of new products for 2012. The PR team first showed us their upcoming heatsink known as the TPC-812 which utilizes a new technology called Vertical Vapor Chamber. We were told that Cooler Master is one of only two companies in the world that are capable of producing this technology.

CES 2012 roundup of the day - More news at DV Hardware

2012 - Not a blue year for Blu-ray

Disney plan to fill out the gaps in the classic animation collection with confirmed February releases of Lady and the Tramp Pocahontas, late 2012 release of Cinderella, but releases of Robin Hood, Tarzan and possibly The Hunchback of Notre Dame are all widely tipped. Sony's multi-year restoration of Lawrence of Arabia is finally set for a mid-year release, and their much delayed release of Bad Boys 2 will finally see the light of day. Monty Python and The Holy Grail will return in a 35th anniversary set mid year. Fox will release one of the final entries in the classic Rogers and Hammerstein collection The King and I later in the year. Panasonic's timed exclusitivity for the 3D Blu-ray release of Avatar expires in February, so a wide retail release can be expected along with a new transfer of The Terminator which will likely take centre stage to a special edition Blu-ray re-release, along with first time releases of True Lies and The Abyss. Hitchc ock's Dial M For Murder will likely see a 2D and 3D release midyear from Warner, and Universal will unleash The Birds around the same time.

To coincide with the theatrical release of the latest James Bond title Skyfall in November, now that MGM's financial woes are over, look for all of the outstanding James Bond titles including my personal favourite GoldenEye, along with Tomorrow Never Dies, You Only Live Twice, Diamonds Are Forever, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, The Spy Who Loved Me, Octopussy and the truly awful A View To A Kill. Read more at Tweaktown.

2012 - Not a blue year for Blu-ray - More news at DV Hardware