AMD's RV635, to Feature the New DisplayPort Interface

There have been a lot of rumors and suppositions about AMD's RV635 XT board, the world's first graphics card to provide the new digital display interface, dubbed DisplayPort by the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA). The new interface is alleged to replace the old and not-so-efficient DVI and VGA connections in the near future.

Based on a micro-packet architecture, the DisplayPort is supposed to deliver higher bandwidth for multi-monitor implementations over a single data cable. Moreover, the DisplayPort will integrate the 8-channel 24-bit audio signal too, just like HDMI, while providing extra links for I/O panel and other microphone connections.

The new standard is the result of a joint effort of big names in the video industry and not only, such as AMD, Intel, NVIDIA, Samsung and Dell. Currently, the DisplayPort is fueled to compete with rival HDMI for desktop and notebook supremacy, but there are chances that both standards are more likely to co-exist, as HDMI is already integrated on a wide scale into consumer electronics products such as DVD players and set-top boxes. DisplayPort is more likely to take the lead in the computing sector than in consumer electronics, since it has been designed from ground up for such use.

AMD's RV635 XT with Dual DisplayPort and DVI-D

Luckily for AMD, they have been the first to come with a DisplayPort enabled graphics card. Almost unbelievable, as the company has not come up first with real innovations for a long time. Moreover, rumor has it that rival Nvidia is pumping up harder to come up with their DisplayPort capable graphics cards to be ready early next year. The RV635 XT board is scheduled for launch around the same time, but AMD has not yet disclosed the exact date.

Yet Another “World's Fastest” 16GB UDMA CompactFlash Card Hits the Shelves

Although 16 GB UDMA CompactFlash cards are not exactly growing on trees, it seems that they're becoming increasingly popular among semi-pro and professional photographer, due to their high access speeds, large capacities and, more importantly, to the emergence of digital cameras that can actually take advantage of these features (Canon 1Ds Mark III, Nikon D300 and Nikon D3).
And the latest announcement regarding such a product comes from Delkin, who has just released the Compact Flash PRO 305x 16 GB, which provides both very large data transfer speeds, as well as a storage capacity to match.

As the name says it, the memory card can reach very high access speeds of 305X (which translates into a theoretical transfer rate of 45MB/sec). This is partly due to the fact that the CF card uses high grade SLC NAND flash modules, which allows for the aforementioned large data transfer rates. However, this 305X speed is not as impressive as you might think, since 300X speeds are already becoming standard.

However, it seems that Delkin's new offering also targets those (rather unfortunate, but quite many) photographers without UDMA enabled digital cameras and camera backs. Thus, the card-to-computer transfer times are touted to be very low, especially when the card is used (why am I not surprised) with the company's UDMA enabled FireWire reader and adapters.

"Delkin confirms its commitment to continuing leadership in speed, capacity and reliability of memory cards with this new expansion to our PRO memory card line," said Eric Richter, Delkin's Marketing Manager. "What's more, Delkin's complete UDMA solution for professional photographers is unmatched by any other manufacturer. Besides our CompactFlash PRO cards, we offer UDMA enabled ExpressCard and CardBus adapters, and a FireWire reader for the fastest download speeds to the computer. That's critical for such working pros as news, sports, and wedding photographers, but any photographer working with larger RAW files will benefit."

The Delkin Compact Flash PRO 305x 16 GB card has a MSRP of around 400 US dollars, which is comparable to the other similar offerings coming from SanDisk, for example.