主题：【欣赏】2004年最佳电脑电子产品 -- Highway

下面是美国《Popular Science》杂志评选的2004年最佳电脑电子产品，您看看有没有道理。

[SIZE=3]Intel Express Chipsets[/SIZE]

PCs get some AV guts: A cheap yet powerful replacement for sound and video cards

Your PC will be the hub of home entertainment; it’ll rule your digital life. So goes the tired promise, anyway. While processors have gotten predictably faster, the capabilities of integrated audio and video chips and peripheral component interconnect (PCI) buses―the devices that connect auxiliary cards to the CPU―have lagged behind. We’ve been left fantasizing about affordable machines that can sling HD video and 7.1-channel surround sound. Intel issued a wake-up call in the form of supporting chipsets with onboard AV capabilities, code-named Grantsdale (officially the 915) and Alderwood (the 925), that work hand-in-glove with Pentium processors to deliver faster peripheral and memory-access performance. Suddenly it’s possible to turn your PC into a powerful HD-video recorder without shelling out for add-on cards. And because the supernerds in pink and purple bunnysuits scrimped on pricey silicon, you’ll find these chipsets in sub-$800 machines.

The boon for serious gamers and videographers is that these clever wafers support PCI Express, a robust serial bus that moves expansion-card data twice as fast as ever before. It also allows for dedicated two-way traffic, which makes it possible, for example, to capture and edit HD video at the same time―and to make good on that old promise.

[SIZE=3]Sharp Actius MP30[/SIZE]

The slimmest, lightest laptop with an optical drive

The Actius MP30 is the first no-compromise ultralight notebook. By ditching the removable drive bay found in most laptops and smartly condensing the MP30’s innards, Sharp was able to squeeze an optical drive into its less-than-three-pound magnesium body. The cool-running, energy-efficient 1.6GHz processor eliminates the need for bulky fans―freeing up room for a battery with 4.6 hours of juice. And the instant-on technology lets you watch DVDs and play music without waiting for Windows to boot up.

? 40GB

? 10.4-inch LCD screen

? $1,900

[SIZE=3]NVIDIA Scalable Link Interface[/SIZE]

Dual graphics cards let your screen keep up with, or even exceed, your gaming abilities

You’re barely hanging on in Doom 3, when suddenly the graphics start reassembling themselves pixel by pixel. The screen is playing catch-up with the game. Bang-bang, you’re dead. Blame your computer’s lone graphics card; it doesn’t have the oomph to process the pixels before they’re due on screen. NVIDIA’s Scalable Link Interface (SLI) technology, however, chains two graphics cards together to pump out up to twice as many pixels per second. Live or die, you win.

[SIZE=3]HP LightScribe Labeling System[/SIZE]

Sorry, Sharpie: the laser just upstaged you

Labeling discs has long been a tedious task involving adhesives and printers and ink-stained fingers. LightScribe is the first CD- and DVD-writing technology that burns images and labels directly onto your discs with the same kind of laser used to write data and media.

[SIZE=3]Logitech QuickCam Orbit[/SIZE]

You can squirm, twitch, or fidget all you want, but this little rubbernecker has got you covered

Employing facial-tracking algorithms and a swiveling lens, the Orbit is the first webcam that automatically follows the face of its user. But it wasn’t always so family-friendly. Early on, after the Orbit’s designers crammed the low-friction gears, a CCD sensor and built-in microphone into its spherical housing, the cam developed the rude habit of staring down the blouse of an office assistant. The software now homes in on eyes as well as skin tones. No word on whether the wardrobe has changed.

? 30 frames per second at 640 x 480

? 1.3-megapixel stills

? $130

[SIZE=3]Matrix Semiconductor 3-D Memory[/SIZE]

Towers of memory reduce the cost of chips

Standard memory chips store data on a single layer of bits, but require multiple layers of wire, stacked vertically, to move information. Matrix’s Integrated Circuits have multiple layers of polysilicon bits, which double as storage and wiring. This setup squeezes several times as many bits per square area, and makes the chips easier to build and cheaper to manufacture. Mattel’s Juice Box portable media player (shown above; $70) uses 3-D circuits for its memory cards.

[SIZE=3]SkypeOut[/SIZE]

Pay-as-you-go VoIP to any phone in the world

Skype，Until now, voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) has been an all-or-nothing proposition: Pay monthly to call anyone, or make free calls from your PC―but only to other VoIP users. SkypeOut allows you to call most any cellphone or land line at cellphone-call quality or better for between 2 and 10 cents a minute, charged against a prepaid account. Next up is SkypeIn, which will allow any VoIP, landline or mobile to call you using Skype’s network.