Long Beach (CA) - Pioneer has announced a new Blu-ray Disc PC drive that can burn BD-R as well as rewritable BD-RE media. The second generation BDR-202 drive from Pioneer has limited equalizer LSI and a liquid crystal tilt compensator, which help in playback and data reading of discs.  Additionally, it incorporates ultra DRA technology, designed to reduce the vibrations when burning a disc, according to CDR Info.

If you are planning to do a lot more with the Playstation 3 than playing games, then here is an opportunity to use the console as a high-performance computing platform.

Just in time for the release of the first Blu-ray camcorders, Imation announced 8 cm BD-R (recordable) and BD-RE (re-recordable). To be sold under the TDK brand, the discs offer 7.5 GB storage space, which is enough for about 60 minutes of 1080i video. The BD-R version carries a suggested retail price of $25, while BD-RE will be priced at $35. Both versions are expected to hit store shelves sometime in September or October.

Evergreen is selling in Japan a 2.5” “CF to SSD” case that houses two adapters for Compact Flash cards. In essence, the device provides a very simple opportunity to build a solid state disk (SSD) drive. There is no performance data available, but Gekkstuff4u.com, which sells the device, says that data transfer speed depends on the CF card that are being used in combination with the CF to SSD drive.    

Armonk (NY) – In one of the largest virtualization efforts announced to date, IBM said that it will replace 3900 of its servers with just 30 mainframe systems – reducing power consumption by about 80% or enough to free up enough power to run a small town.  

Indianapolis (IN) – The world of graphics technologies continues changing at phenomenal rates. It is often difficult for the average consume to keep up with all of the advancements. Buzzwords like DVI, HDMI, UDI and DisplayPort are all the rage.  But, what is behind those phrases and how do they relate to one another? We have compiled the data into one comprehensive, easy to read overview.

Intel has informed its customers that it has begun phasing out two of its three “Sossaman” processors.

Chicago (IL) – After CPUs and GPUs, there’s now a device to watercool your hard drives as well.      

Rochester (NY) – Xerox said that it has developed a new kind of digital printing paper that can be manufactured using trees more efficiently.      

AMD made a very powerful presentation yesterday. No question about that. Anyone sitting in the audience or listening in, at least those who didn't have any reason to believe otherwise, is likely to be absolutely convinced about AMD’s vision. The company showed nothing but a solid purpose of mind. It was actually very refreshing to see such an upbeat AMD on that stage. The question now is: Will AMD’s vision be enough?>> In Pictures: Bulldozer, Bocat and AMD's roadmap update  

Dell has said that, although it has begun shipping the XPS M1330 notebooks, "the process to ramp production has taken a bit longer than we expected."