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Dell Abducts Alienware

WebProNews Staff — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 18:06:03 +0000

The Texas-based computer maker not only has a hot brand with appeal to big-spending hardcore gamers, but a line of products with AMD processors instead of the Intel chipsets that dominate Dell’s computer lineup.

Dell picked up an infusion of cool for an undetermined price tag with its acquisition of Alienware. Though Alienware does sell PCs for other markets, they are best known for their gaming hardware.

A PCMag.com report cited Alienware’s desire to expand into more markets, a desire only the influx of lots of ready cash could fulfill:

“We were at a crossroads, we were at a point in time where we had to make a decision to go public or to perhaps merge with another entity if it made sense,” Gonzalez said. “There were very few organizations out there that we would do this with-and there’s only one that I could think of, and that was Dell, just because of the similarities in terms of the direct business model, and that we have a lot of similarities with the [company]. The problem is that we were at these crossroads, we needed to raise capital, and we had never raised capital at this company from day one.”

“We needed to get bigger, and we needed to release more products,” Gonzalez added. “We do our own designs and our own form factors, and that costs a lot of money, frankly.”

Alienware gains from being part of Dell’s supply chain management. The article noted how customers would have to wait several weeks for the latest hardware like nVidia to be available in Alienware machines. That cycle should be considerably shorter now.

Oddly enough, Dell just announced a very high-end gaming machine in its XPS line. Called the Renegade and hand-painted by artist Mike Lavalee, the gaming PC lists a price tag of $9,930. This keeps Dell directly in competition with its new acquisition, a situation that looks strange on the surface.

Dell has to hope that its brand won’t work against it with this purchase. While a $9,000 price may make the typical PC user blanch with disgust, enough people will pay that kind of price for an Alienware machine, or a competitor’s like VoodooPC, because of features that a Dell does not offer.

To a lot of gamers, Alienware is very cool. Dell, not so much.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.

Mozilla Extends Prizes To Firefox Winners

WebProNews Staff — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 17:10:41 +0000

The contest to find the best of the extensions and their developers for the Firefox browsers yielded ten winners out of the over 200 submissions received.

Tops among the winners was Michael Wu’s Reveal extension. Reveal shows thumbnails of the browser’s history when the user passes the mouse over the Back and Forward buttons. Wu’s design was the grand prize winner for Best Extension Overall, which snared him an Alienware Firefox Edition PC and a Firefox 1.5 prize pack.

Two other grand prize winners also picked up an Alienware PC and the Firefox prizes. Chris Pederick won for Best Upgraded Extension with his work on the Web Developer extension. Josep del Rio’s Firefox Showcase grabbed a grand prize for Best Use of Firefox 1.5 Features.

Seven other developers were recognized for their Best in Class work:

Vivek Jishtu, Most Innovative New Extension –
   Viamatic foXpose
The Sage Team (Peter Andrews), Most Innovative Upgraded Extension –
   Sage
Massimo Mangoni, Most Useful New Extension –
   Separe
Taiga Gomibuchi, Most Useful Upgraded Extension –
   ScrapBook
Ingo Wennemaring, Best User Experience Upgraded Extension –
   All-In-One Sidebar
Derek Jacob, Best Integration with a Web Service New Extension –
   MyStickies
Aaron Sarna, Best Integration with a Web Service Upgraded Extension –
   Forecastfox Enhanced

The Best in Class winners and overall winner Wu each received an Apple iPod Nano, $250 Gift Certificate for O’Reilly books, and a Firefox 1.5 Prize Pack for their extensions. All of the extensions are available for immediate download; the MyStickies extension requires a free account registration from its website.

Some news outlets reported on another awards show taking place recently, so we included a link to that story for the reader’s convenience.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.

Alienware To Offer Intel Dual-core

WebProNews — Sat, 16 Apr 2005 21:03:11 +0000

Alienware announced that select Alienware systems will soon offer the dual-core Intel Pentium Processor Extreme Edition 840 using the Intel 955X Express chipset.

The Alienware Area-51 5500 desktop, Area-51 ALX desktop, and MJ-12 5500 workstation will come loaded with the highly advanced power of two execution cores on a single chip to deliver breakthrough performance for gaming, digital content, and other demanding applications.

Alienware systems featuring the dual-core Intel Pentium Processor Extreme Edition 840 support Intel Hyper-Threading technology. This allows Alienware systems to offer advanced multitasking potential by supporting up to four threads and accommodating multiple applications running simultaneously, such as playing a game while also streaming video in the background. Running at 3.2GHz, the Intel Pentium Processor Extreme Edition 840 provides Alienware systems with 2MB L2 cache and 800 MHz FSB for faster information flow and great performance for data-intensive applications like gaming, video editing, and 3D rendering.

Dual-core-processor powered Alienware systems will also deliver cutting-edge performance enhancements like dual-channel DDR-2 667 memory and innovative Intel Matrix Storage Technology through the powerful Intel 955X Express chipset. Intel Matrix Storage Technology provides enhanced storage and safekeeping for digital content such as video, audio, photos, music libraries, and 3D gaming environments. Backed by Intel Execute Disable Bit technology, Alienware systems bring additional peace of mind by providing protection against malicious virus attacks.

“Having already earned praise throughout the industry for uncompromising performance, Alienware systems that will soon feature dual-core processing are primed to further elevate customers’ multitasking potential,” said Patrick Cooper, director of product management for Alienware. “Because dual-core-powered Alienware systems can efficiently run multiple demanding applications at once, customers can accomplish more in less time.”

“Powered by the dual-core Intel Pentium Processor Extreme Edition 840 and the Intel 955X Express chipset, Alienware systems deliver an intense gaming experience as well as offer exciting new options for creating and sharing multimedia content,” said Don MacDonald, vice president of Intel’s Digital Home Group. “Supporting up to four threads, these systems provide increased capabilities and the power for people to do more with their computers.”

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Alienware Workstations Earn Highest Scores in Graphics Performance

WebProNews — Fri, 20 Aug 2004 18:43:42 +0000

Alienware MJ-12 Workstations Earn Highest Scores in SPECviewperf 8.0 Benchmark Testing.

Alienware, recently earned the highest scores out of all submissions for the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation’s (SPEC) SPECviewperf 8.0 benchmark. Alienware’s MJ-12 Digital Content Creation workstations powered by ATI’s FireGL(TM) X3-256 and 3Dlabs Wildcat Realizm 100 professional graphics accelerators, outperformed all competitors in six out of eight benchmarks.

With graphics performance test results submitted by both ATI and 3Dlabs, Alienware again proved the superiority of its systems by capturing the top two spots of all test submissions. SPECviewperf measures 3D-rendering performance and is considered the most popular standardized software worldwide for evaluating graphics performance on systems running under the OpenGL application programming interface (API).

The results published on August 11, 2004 by SPEC, demonstrate the optimized performance available to design professionals running key CAD/CAM, digital content creation and visualization software applications on Alienware MJ-12 Digital workstations. Benchmarked with ATI FireGL X3-256 and 3Dlabs Wildcat Realizm 100 graphics accelerators, the MJ-12 systems rendered graphics with blistering speed. The MJ-12 rendered 38% faster than the nearest competitor in 3dsmax; 29% faster in Maya; 42% faster in Catia; and 108% faster in Ensight.

“The SPECviewperf benchmark results are yet another testament to Alienware’s continued market leadership, quality, and innovation,” said Frank Azor, senior vice president, Alienware Worldwide Product Group. “These recent results prove that Alienware workstations equipped with the most advanced hardware continue to set the standard for high-end graphics performance.”

ATI’s FireGL X3-256 features revolutionary parallel rendering capabilities and optimized support for OpenGL Shading Language and DirectX 9 HLSL enable 3D professionals to realize a dramatic increase in productivity. Designed for AGP-based workstations, this powerful card is based on ATI’s stunning graphics architecture with six parallel geometry engines and twelve parallel rendering pipelines.

“Winning the majority of ViewPerf benchmarks demonstrates that the FireGL X3-256 gives professional workstation users the speed and reliability they demand from a graphics accelerator,” said Dinesh Sharma, Director of Workstation Products, ATI. “As a leader in high-end computing, Alienware’s selection of the FireGL X3-256 is further validation of our flagship AGP product.”

3Dlabs’ Wildcat Realizm 100 professional graphics accelerator supports several API graphics standards and offers unmatched shading language performance for robust acceleration of industrial-strength shaders. Advanced floating-point processing and extended virtual memory offers new levels of performance, programmability, accuracy and fidelity.

“Along with Alienware, 3Dlabs continues to deliver cutting-edge technology to the workstation graphics industry that increases the user’s overall productivity and creativity,” said Jeff Little, director of marketing at 3Dlabs. “Wildcat Realizm 100 graphics accelerators offer CAD and DCC professionals a high-quality, price-performance graphics solution.”

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