6000 Euro Mini-supercomputer Hits 12 Teraflops with Gaming Hardware

The University of Antwerp gave everyone a chuckle last year when they built a quaint little supercomputer made out of four high end Nvidia GPUs. Apparently, that was just a practice run. The same group has now constructed a 13 GPU monster of a supercomputer called Fastra II.

The rig contains six dual-GPU Nvidia GTX295 cards and a single GTX275. As you can imagine, there were a few issues getting the whole system up and running. Motherboard manufacturers don’t usually anticipate someone needing to run 13 GPU cores. With a little persistence and a custom BIOS from ASUS, the tiny supercomputer was up and running. The whole affair cost only 6000 Euros, and is capable of twelve teraflops.

The value per teraflop is high considering most conventional supercomputers cost millions of dollars to build and run. You can check out some possible applications and crazy benchmarks here.

Nokia N900 with Skype Close Up

The Nokia N900 comes with Skype fully integrated into the Nokia N900 – there’s no downloading or launching applications because Skype is built into the Nokia N900.

The Nokia N900 with its inbuilt Skype lets you make free Skype-to-Skype calls and Skype IM over either a 3G wireless network or Wi-Fi.

Using your Nokia N900, the first thing to to do is setup Skype in Settings on the Nokia N900 and then tap on contacts. Your contacts appear on the Nokia N900 Skype interface screen, tap on a contact and all the Skype options appear. Options such as Skype Call and Skype IM etc.

You can also call someone abroad using the Nokia N900 and Skype. You need to select the country your contact is in and use “Call To Skype”.

The Nokia N900’s slide out keyboard can be used for Skype IM messaging. The demo below gives a great insight into the Nokia N900 and the world of Skype.

ZTE Preps Vodafone 545 Branded Mobile Phone

ZTE in China already supply mobile phones to a number of European 3G mobile phone operators such as 3 UK. 3 UK sell the ZTE F102 which is a budget mobile handset currently availalble.

ZTE have made a spectacular entry into the Portuguese mobile phone market so much so that they have announced plans for a full entry into the European smarthone market. Their main success so far in Europe has been with the Bluebelt 3G smartphone.

News has now broken via Gadgetfolder.com that a Vodafone 545 ( see above ) mobile phone has sprouted up on the FCC’s ( Federal Communications Commission ) website in the states. By all accounts its heading to Europe as it operates in the 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz bands. Therefore it’s a GSM / GPRS / EDGE mobile phone.

Gadgetfolder indicates that the Vodafone 545 will be another budget mobile phone with a 1.3 megapixel camera, built-in torch, Bluetooth, FM Tuner, microSD slot and Opera Mini web browser. The photo above is courtesy of Gadgetfolder.com. There was no indication of pricing or availability.

Nokia 2710 Navigation Edition -Affordable Navigation Device

The Nokia 2710 Navigation Edition comes pre-loaded with Nokia Maps and local maps for the region it’s sold in. The maps come pre-loaded onto a 2GB microSD card, meaning you don’t need to be online to access your maps.

The Nokia 2710 Navigation Edition features on board GPS, as well as a digital compass. Onboard maps are accompanied by turn-by-turn driving navigation will full guidance.

The Nokia 2710 Navigation Edition also comes with a car charge and care cradle and a lifetime navigation license. It also has a 2.2 inch screen, a 2 mega pixel camera, FM radio, MP3 Player and a 3.5mm headphone socket.

BlackBerry Curve 8520

The BlackBerry Curve 8520 is a premium handset that has a full QWERTY keyboard, touch-sensitive track pad and a 2 mega-pixel camera. The BlackBerry Curve 8520 also supports WiFi for internet browsing and has specialized media keys for easy music playback.

The BlackBerry Curve 8520 also has email support, as well as social network support for Facebook and MySpace.

The BlackBerry Curve 8520 is fully compatible with BlackBerry App World enabling you to download games, applications and music easily onto your smartphone.