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:: PC Perspective . News Archive
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.:News Archive ( 4/2008 )
Ryan Shrout | Source: PC Perspective | Subject: Mobile
ASUS was kind enough to send over one of the soon-to-be-released M50S notebooks for our perusal - and this is a hell of a machine at first glance. While not as powerful as notebooks like the Dell XPS M1730 or the Alienware M9750, it's also not nearly as heavy and should actually be considered PORTABLE to most people.
We'll have a review up of the system pretty soon but for now I just thought you all would like to see some shots of the sexy M50S beforehand. 
The high-gloss finish on the back and on the inside of the system looks good AND allows you to see if anyone is sneaking up behind you with a weapon.
A quick look at the specs of the system should impress most: Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 processor that rocks at 2.10 GHz, 3GB of memory, 15.4" screen that is incredibly bright (but very capable of producing glare), 250GB SATA hard drive, 802.11 networks galore (a, b, g, n), Bluetooth and even the new NVIDIA GeForce 9500M GS mobility GPU with 512MB of dedicated frame buffer.
Oh, and it comes with a Blu-ray disc reader / DVD burner as well.
The touchpad has a lot of built-in multimedia features for one touch movie, music or video watching.
Left side connections consist of a VGA output, Firewire, HDMI, SD card reader, ExpressCard slot and even a combo USB/eSATA connection - the first one of those we have seen!
On the opposite side are the audio inputs and outputs, three more USB connections and the integrated Blu-ray drive.
Other nice observations thus far include pretty good integrated speakers from Altec Lansing (much better than most notebooks), manageable battery life and an integrated 1.3MP camera that swivels 180 degrees to face towards you or away from you. 
Again, we'll have a full review with performance evaluations and more pics soon! Join us in the PC Perspective Mobility Forum if you have any questions or comments.
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Jon Peddie Research | Subject: Graphics Card
TIBURON, CA-April 30, 2008-Jon Peddie Research (JPR), the
industry's research and consulting firm for graphics and multimedia,
today announced estimated graphics shipments and supplier market
share for the first calendar quarter of 2008.
Traditionally, the first quarter has flat to negative growth
for the computer industry as retailers and OEMs sell what's left from
the holiday season; and this year was no different, in fact the
quarter saw the biggest drop since 2005.
Table 1: Growth rates from Q4 to Q1 from 2002 to 2008 Total shipments for the quarter were 95 million units, down 5.6% in over last quarter. Compared to the same quarter last year shipments were up a heartening 20%. In the overall graphics market (desktops and notebooks), Intel held its first place position claiming 43% against Nvidia's 33%, while AMD moved to 19%, as shown in Table 2.
Table 2: Total Graphics Chip Market shares for Q1'08 On the desktop Intel took back its first place position with a 38% share against Nvidia's 36%, while AMD moved up to 19%. The desktop saw market saw decline of 6% this quarter to 62.3 million units. In the notebook market Intel held its dominant position but slipped one point to 53% while Nvidia gained a point to 27% and AMD slid a point to 17% as shown in Table 3. Notebook chips slipped 5% quarter-to-quarter to 32.6 million units, to claim 34% of the market.
Table 3: Market share in notebook graphics chips for Q2 2007 to Q1 2008 The first quarter of 2008 was seasonally down, a little more than normal. With the complex economic pressures building in the US, we think Q2'08 may drop significantly. "The first quarter of 2008 was seasonally down, and showed potential softness in the market and for the coming quarters," said Dr. Jon Peddie, president of Jon Peddie Research in Tiburon California. "No segment had any growth, even the gravity defying notebooks. This is the first time notebook shipments have slipped in several years." Peddie notes that Q2'08 will be an interesting quarter as AMD and Nvidia are not expected to release anymore new AIBs given the large number of introductions in the last two quarters. Further, says Peddie, although there is modest overall demand, and little shift in market share between GPU vendors quarter to quarter (which suggests there is no channel stuffing or double ordering), "we remain cautious about the second quarter's results."
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: The Tech Report | Subject: System
Spring is here, time to toss out that old system and get a fresh new one, or at least to cherry pick some prime new components to put in your system. To help you with that, The Tech Report has updated their System Guide, with 4 updated systems including a totally reworked HTPC system.
Even better, Ryan has just finished updating our PC Perspective Leaderboard, with changes to all the systems. If you know someone looking for an inexpensive entry level gaming machine, make sure to check out the new budget system, there is a lot of power in that box for under $700! "The time has come again for new system guide. In the two months since we last outlined system specifications, AMD has rolled out B3-stepping Phenoms that banish the TLB erratum that plagued the processor's initial release. Intel's 45nm quad-core chips have become available en masse, bringing with them a wave of price cuts that makes a Penryn-based CPU more affordable than ever. And Asus has busted the sound card market wide open with the introduction of its Xonar DX. There has been action on the storage front, too, with Western Digital's latest Caviar SE16 offering what we think is the best all-around value in a Serial ATA hard drive. Naturally, these new products feature heavily in our latest system guide, which packs more goodness than ever before. We've revamped everything from our Econobox, which now offers loads of gaming power for just over 500 bucks, to our Double-Stuff workstation, which packs more parallelism than should be allowed by law. Between them, our Grand Experiment and Sweet Spot configs offer tremendous power for their respective price points. We've even included a fifth system this time around: the Couch Potato Mk. 2. This latest take on the ultimate home theater PC combines HD tuning capabilities with Blu-ray playback support all wrapped up in a quiet, power-efficient package. Keep reading to see which components made the cut for our recommended system configurations, and more importantly, why we selected them." Here are some more Systems articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Madshrimps | Subject: Memory
8Gb kits are uncommon, but you can find kits for sale like the OCZ Quad 2Gb that Madshrimps tested. They start out by looking at the rumours surrounding the usage of 8Gbs of RAM in a system, and then dispel them. They felt the only sticking point was the price, but at $200, 2Gb of DDR3 will cost almost as much.
"With the introduction of Vista, 2 GB of memory suddenly seems insufficient. Many people have made the jump to 4 GB lately, but on a 32Bit operating system, more is definitely overkill. Today we happen to have a 64 bit operating system installed on our test system, so there's no stopping us from fully loading our P35 motherboard with... 8 GB of memory. And we even managed to overclock it!" Here are some more Memory articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Gamepyre | Subject: Graphics Card
EVGA's e-GeForce 8800GT AKIMBO incorporates two features that will be very attractive to overclockers, three phase power and a dual slot cooler. While Gamepyre's testing did not include maximum overclocking abilities, they did find that nVIDIA's claims of a 20C temperature difference from the reference model were fairy accurate. That leaves you a lot of headroom on a card with some fairly good performance.
"The EVGA 8800GT 1GB AKIMBO is an interesting card in many respects. The performance is not up to the 9800GTX but it is close being that the two cards share the same video chip just with 16 SPs disabled. The main selling point of this card is the AKIMBO cooling solution as it kept the card noticeably cooler during operation, about 15-20C cooler according to NVIDIA’s temperature monitoring software." Here are some more Graphics Card articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: bit-tech | Subject: General Tech
While Jen-sun Huang was on a brilliant tirade at the nVIDIA Analyst Day, not much was heard from David Kirk, nVIDIA's chief scientist. bit-tech managed to track him down for an in depth interview. They cover the hot topics you would expect, like Larrabee and ray tracing as well as CUDA. They also dig into other topics, like how Intel's focus on the process of making chips has helped them overcome their architectural deficiencies.
"What would happen if multi-core processors increase core counts further though, does David believe that this will give consumers enough power to deliver what most of them need and, as a result of that, would it erode away at Nvidia's consumer installed base? "No, that’s ridiculous – it would be at least a thousand times too slow [for graphics]," he said. "Adding four more cores, for example, is not going anywhere near close to what is required." But what about Larrabee - do you think Intel will get close to Nvidia with that? "There are no numbers [for Larrabee] yet – there’s only slideware. The way that slideware works is that everything is perfect." What if Nvidia has underestimated Intel though and they build an efficient microarchitecture that scales really well in graphics? "I'm not going to get into all of the details especially for Larrabee, but they're missing some pretty important pieces about how a GPU works. Without being too negative, we see Larrabee as the GPU that a CPU designer would build, not the GPU you'd build if you were a GPU designer." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: OCZ Technology | Subject: Memory
Sunnyvale, CA - April 29, 2008 - OCZ Technology Group, a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory, today announced the Special Ops Edition DDR3 Series, available in both PC3-8500 and PC3-10666 kits featuring the high densities and stability gamers demand. These DDR3 kits are ideal for users advancing to the next generation of memory platforms, offering the speeds, density, and reliability required for the latest DirectX 10 PC titles. Featuring a unique camouflage motif heatspreader design, the DDR3 Special Ops Edition Series was designed for gaming systems in need of a reliable upgrade as well as some extra style. “With DDR3 platforms becoming more mature and readily available, more and more gamers are adopting the newer higher performing memory standard,” commented Alex Mei, CMO of the OCZ Technology Group. “We are excited to introduce a complete range of new Special Ops DDR3 kits ranging from 1066MHz to 1333MHz designed specifically for gamers looking to take advantage of the higher bandwidth and lower power consumption benefits offered with these SOE DDR3 modules.”
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: TECHGAGE | Subject: Mobile
ASUS has put a lot of extras into their M51S laptop, without pricing it beyond the value market. With four USB ports, support for both DVI/VGA and TV-Out, webcam and a lot more, keeping the price of this 15" notebook at the $1000 is no easy task. The laptop is billed as being mostly a multi-media machine, but TECHGAGE fired up Crysis at 1280x800 and it was playable, as were other newer titles. All that power does have a price; you won't see the battery make it to the 2 hour mark, even with light usage.
"Have a $1,000 budget for a new notebook? Look no further than the ASUS M51S. Touted as a multi-media notebook, it offers a 15.4" screen, 250GB HD and 3GB of RAM. Included also are 4 USB ports, DVI and VGA outputs, full numpad, fingerprint reader, a face-detection logon system and more." Here are some more Mobile articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Pro-clockers.com | Subject: General Tech
If there is one thing that the Cyber Snipa Stinger Gaming Mouse is not, it would be "the final step in the evolution of gaming mice." That is Cyber Snipa's claim, but considering the incredible growth in mouse features over the past year and a half, there is going to be a lot more 'evolution' to come. As far as the Stinger's new talents, it sports 4 DPI settings, onboard memory for macros, and it's laser sports 7000 frames per second, and report rate of 1000 Hz, which they say reduces the response to 1 ms. Drop by Pro-Clockers to see how well they incorporated these features.
"The new Stinger from Cyber Snipa shares the weight system of the Logitech G5 and G9. This was enough to make me want to review it. This is not the only similarities between the two but can Cyber take the similarities and take it a step further?" Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: OCIA | Subject: Case and Cooling
Nobody seems to want to do one thing well anymore, especially in the PC world. Sunbeam's subsidiary Tuniq is a prime example. They made their name with the Tuniq Tower, but have since branched out into cases, and now PSUs. The Tuniq Miniplant 950W packs some serious power, and claims the highest wattage 80+ Power supply in a standard PS2 form factor. OCIA didn't put that to the test, but they did check the stability of the voltages in their review.
"Tuniq, a subsidiary of Sunbeamtech, really made their name known with their Tuniq Tower CPU air cooler. The Tuniq Tower was recognized as one of the best air coolers on the market for longer than a year. Since then, they have become increasingly popular for their cases, thermal accessories, and most recently, power supplies. One power supply that has been getting a lot of attention lately is the Tuniq Miniplant 950W which we have for review today." Here are some more Cases & Cooling reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Intel Press Room | Subject: General Tech
BEAVERTON, Ore., April 29, 2008 - Infineon Technologies, Intel Corporation, Panasonic and Texas Instruments today announced the creation of HomeGrid Forum, which aims to promote and influence a single, next-generation worldwide standard for networking digital content, such as movies, music and pictures, over home wiring.
The forum will be a companion to ITU-T G.hn working group, supporting the interests of service providers, consumer electronics manufacturers, PC OEMs and other networking companies to create a single MAC and PHY protocol for transporting multimedia across a home's existing wiring to include coaxial cable, power lines and phone lines. HomeGrid Forum is contributing next-generation technology requirements to ITU-T G.hn, quickly developing consensus around one worldwide standard. ITU-T is the standardization sector providing global telecommunication standards in the International Telecommunication Union. "HomeGrid Forum was created to support the development of a single standard for transmitting multimedia over coax, power and phone lines," said Matthew Theall, president of HomeGrid Forum. "The forum will promote HomeGrid-certified products and ensure interoperability." "A single, unified technology for multimedia networks over power lines, coaxial cable, and phone lines has the potential to enable a simple, easy-to-use means of networking devices together in the home," said Kurt Scherf, analyst with market analyst firm Parks Associates. "We believe today's announcement is an important step towards eliminating fragmentation in the industry, and achieving the vision of a networked home." Three work groups have been established – an ITU-T G.hn contribution work group, a compliance and interoperability work group to ensure that any product with a HomeGrid logo will work reliably in customers' homes, and a marketing work group to promote HomeGrid-certified products worldwide. "EchoStar is eager to see HomeGrid Forum accomplish its goals. One standard to transfer HD video over a home's cable or power lines will make installations much easier for service providers," explained Michael Hawkey, vice president of sales, EchoStar. HomeGrid Forum has 11 founding members. Infineon, Intel, Panasonic and Texas Instruments will serve on the board of directors. Aware Inc. (Nasdaq: AWRE), DS2, Gigle Semiconductor and Pulse~LINK will serve as promoters; and Ikanos Communications, Inc., Sigma Designs and Westell will serve as contributors. HomeGrid Forum is recruiting additional members from leading silicon providers, service providers, CE companies, PC companies and others. To join, please visit www.HomeGridForum.org/join.
Ryan Shrout | Source: CNet News.com | Subject: Processor
According to this report coming out of CNet.com, AMD has admitted to problems with their 780G chipset motherboards and "high end" Phenom X4 processors. The problem seems to arise from 780G board makers not properly building in support for 125W TDP processors; what is more upsetting about this issue is AMD's response:
"What people have done, mistakenly, is paired a 780G (chipset-based)
motherboard with the higher frequency Phenom--the 125-watt Phenom,"
said Jake Whitman, an AMD spokesperson.
"They've taken an enthusiast-class quad-core part and paired it with a mainstream motherboard," Whitman said. "And not all motherboard manufacturers have tweaked their boards to support a 125-watt TDP." Whitman says that AMD's 790 chipset--not the 780--should be paired with the 9750 and 9850 processors and that a number of motherboard makers are already doing this. "We've never made claims that 780G motherboards are enthusiast-class motherboards," Whitman said. Really? The answer on this is that the USER screwed up by trying to pair one of your processors with one of your motherboards? Unless there was some direct distinction between these supposedly "high-end" $200 processors and the supposed "low-end" $180 CPUs and what was supported and where, AMD has some serious egg on the face they need to clean up.The inability to use high-end quad-core AMD processors on some motherboards may be symptomatic of a larger challenge. AMD is finding it difficult to compete head-on with Intel quad-core offerings in the consumer segment. Hewlett-Packard and Gateway, for instance, offer desktops with only the lower-performance Phenom chips, such as the 9100e (1.8GHz) and 9600 (2.3GHz). Neither HP nor Gateway offer desktops with higher-performance 9750 (2.4GHz) or 9850 (2.5GHz) Phenoms. Meanwhile, Intel-based systems from these companies--though usually more expensive--come with quad-core chips ranging up to a 2.83GHz Q9550. Whitman says there's a reason for this. First-tier PC makers "are not necessarily interested in building the fastest AMD-based quad-core systems, but are more interested in price." He expects wider adoption of the high-end Phenom chips with system builders and game-enthusiast PC makers.
Ryan Shrout | Source: General | Subject: Processor
According to an article over at Electronista, Intel is having problems providing as much as 50% of their Atom orders with actual product. If this is the case, it could be an opening for VIA's Isaiah architecture to really move into the market and win over some of these high-value OEMs.
Intel has encountered a supply shortage that will prevent it from fulfilling more than half of the orders for its Atommobile processors in the next month, according to a report in the Taiwan newspaper Apply Daily and .
Less than 40 percent of the semiconductor firm's requests are
purportedly being met and, as a result, are expected to delay or hurt
the rollouts of micro notebooks from a number of new entrants to the
field, including from AcerDell.
Though unnamed, Apple is believed by many to be readying handheld devicesbased on Atom, which bridges the gap between strictly mobile processors
such as the ARM chip in the iPhone and standard notebook processors.
Ryan Shrout | Source: Digitimes | Subject: Processor
This report on Digitimes goes over quite a few new processors that AMD will supposedly be releasing in the coming months including new quad-core and triple-core SKUs. Basically outlining the plans for AMD's move to 45nm process technology, here's the bullet points outlined in the text:
AMD is planning to launch two 45nm Phenom X4 CPUs (Deneb) in 2008 with core frequencies of between 2.5-2.8GHz and 2.4-2.7GHz, with both adopting 6MB L3 Cache and having a TDP rating of 95W, according to sources at motherboard makers. AMD will announce the final order date for its 125W Phenom X4 9750 by the end of the second quarter and the CPU will be replaced by a 95W version – which is available this quarter – while the 95W Phenom X4 9850 will appear before January of 2009. The company is also planning to launch an updated version of its upcoming Phenom X4 9950 (schedule to launch in June) at the end of the fourth quarter. In addition to the current triple-core CPUs, AMD will launch the Phenom X3 8550 with a core frequency of 2.2GHz in the third quarter (production beginning in the second quarter) and the company will launch more triple-core CPUs in the fourth quarter. The company will begin production and take orders for the low-power Phenom X4 9350e (Agena) in the third quarter, while the low-power 8450e (Tollman) will see production begin in the second quarter, though order availability will not begin until the third quarter. The Phenom X4 9150e, which was originally planned to be launched in the second quarter, will not be available for orders until the third quarter, along with the 9350e. In the fourth quarter, AMD will launch another low-power CPU, while in the first half of 2009, the 45nm low-power quad-core Phenom CPUs (Propus) will appear in the market. The company will stop taking orders for the Athlon 64 FX-74 in the beginning of the fourth quarter. AMD's 45nm CPUs are already in EVT testing and motherboard makers should receive their samples by August or September this year, if the process goes smoothly, 45nm Phenom X4 CPUs should appear in the market by the end of November, added the sources. AMD indicated that it declines to comment on unannounced products.
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: PC Perspective | Subject: Graphics Card
The new Futuremark is here, and while Ryan's score of P4129 may seem strange and upsetting to those familiar with 3DMark, but if you got over the switch to Vista, this shouldn't be too hard. Futuremark 3DMark Vantage is Vista only, to do a proper job of benchmarking DX10 as well as the gamut of other tests included in this suite. Take look at screenshots from several of the tests, including new physics tests that can take advantage of an Ageia PPU card.
"For those of you interested in the actual weighting of graphics and CPU tests as well as how the individual game tests and CPU tests all add up. One interesting note is that as we move up from Entry to Extreme the amount that Futuremark has weighted the CPU score decreases. This is an interesting side note in the current GPU/CPU debate as Futuremark seems to be saying that in lower end systems the CPU is much more important than in the extreme gaming PCs."" Here are some more Graphics Card articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Digitimes | Subject: General Tech
According to DigiTimes, they have a pretty good idea of the new members in AMD's lineup over the coming seasons. A few older processors will be retired but the 45nm Deneb's should be out to replace them soon. Of course, if you ask AMD, all you will hear is "We know nothing!"
"AMD is planning to launch two 45nm Phenom X4 CPUs (Deneb) in 2008 with core frequencies of between 2.5-2.8GHz and 2.4-2.7GHz, with both adopting 6MB L3 Cache and having a TDP rating of 95W, according to sources at motherboard makers. AMD will announce the final order date for its 125W Phenom X4 9750 by the end of the second quarter and the CPU will be replaced by a 95W version – which is available this quarter – while the 95W Phenom X4 9850 will appear before January of 2009. The company is also planning to launch an updated version of its upcoming Phenom X4 9950 (schedule to launch in June) at the end of the fourth quarter. In addition to the current triple-core CPUs, AMD will launch the Phenom X3 8550 with a core frequency of 2.2GHz in the third quarter (production beginning in the second quarter) and the company will launch more triple-core CPUs in the fourth quarter. The company will begin production and take orders for the low-power Phenom X4 9350e (Agena) in the third quarter, while the low-power 8450e (Tollman) will see production begin in the second quarter, though order availability will not begin until the third quarter. The Phenom X4 9150e, which was originally planned to be launched in the second quarter, will not be available for orders until the third quarter, along with the 9350e. In the fourth quarter, AMD will launch another low-power CPU, while in the first half of 2009, the 45nm low-power quad-core Phenom CPUs (Propus) will appear in the market. The company will stop taking orders for the Athlon 64 FX-74 in the beginning of the fourth quarter. AMD's 45nm CPUs are already in EVT testing and motherboard makers should receive their samples by August or September this year, if the process goes smoothly, 45nm Phenom X4 CPUs should appear in the market by the end of November, added the sources. AMD indicated that it declines to comment on unannounced products." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Bjorn3D | Subject: Case and Cooling
The CoolIT Freezone Elite is a Phase Change Cooler, an incredibly expensive but thoroughly effective way of cooling PC components. Working with multiple peltiers, it is second only to exotic cooling like LN2 or phase change, but tends to be a bit easier to set up and maintain. Bjorn3D tried it out on a QX9650 which produced brilliant idle temps, but the chip actually overwhelmed the capacity of the Freezone on the overclocked test; it was beaten by a custom watercooling setup.
"The art of overclocking has led to many advancements throughout the computer industry. From higher quality components used on motherboards to faster RAM capable of keeping up with the CPU, overclocking is at the very heart of advancement. It is because of overclocking that we have after market coolers that can cope with the extra heat output from CPUs which brings me to the point of this article. There are many different methods for removing heat from your CPU which helps to lengthen the processor's life as well as increasing your overclocking headroom. There are high-end air coolers for the enthusiasts, water-cooling for the hardcore crowd and phase-change cooling for the extreme users. Each of these methods have distinct advantages and disadvantages. While water cooling offers lower temps than air cooling it is often an order of magnitude harder to setup and maintain. The same goes for phase-change cooling over water cooling, which brings us to the Freezone Elite from CoolIT systems. The Freezone Elite promises better cooling than water while being as easy to setup as a high-end air cooler. Trying to be all things to all people is always a risky path to take but one that can prove to be extremely lucrative if implemented properly. Does the Freezone Elite have what it takes to earn a spot in your gaming machine or is it just smoke and mirrors? I intend to find out." Here are some more Cases & Cooling reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: InsideHW | Subject: Processor
Triple core processors have allowed AMD to sell a lot more Phenoms, as any Quad Cores that have one core that is not up to spec can have the troublemaker disabled. Now they have a fully functional Triple Core, which runs at the speed they had expected it to. Of course, things are never that easy. In this case it is the assumption that many programs make, that the number of cores available will be divisible by two, so a triple core is identified as a single. Lost Circuits tries to pin down where you might see this problem, and just how many end users will ever notice the lack of the fourth core.
"Three Cores instead of four is the word of the day. AMD follows in the footsteps of ATI's "Pro" series to increase yield on the Phenom series. As it turns out, though, it is not just an issue of reducing the number of cores and incurring some scaling back of performance, there are also software recognition and licensing issues that come into play. In the end, while the Phenom X3 performs admirably well in some applications, it's performance comes in last in a number of other applications simply because, in a triple core configuration, those will only utilize a single core.
Does that really matter for the end user?" Here are some more Processor articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: TweakTown | Subject: System
Matching the AMD 4850e and the ASUS M3A78-EMH HDMI Micro ATX board will not help you break any performance records. It will however give you a great HTPC system that is fairly cheap to set up, very cheap to power and easy to cool quietly. While we would all like to see AMD processors at the top of the performance charts, TweakTown's review proves that AMD is still the king of some specific types of PC.
"AMD has for quite some time provided the most power efficient processors on the market. In fact, the ULV versions of the Athlon 64 X2 processors have been able to draw as little as 45watts, and at speeds of above 2GHz. Now, that’s something even the laptops would love to have running in them, yet they are desktop processors. How’s that for efficiency? Today we are testing out AMD's latest addition to its 45watt TDP family with a clock speed of 2.5 GHz; that’s pretty efficient for such a powerful processor with Dual Core functions. Rather than just being a CPU review, today we are looking at the new Athlon 4850e processor as a HTPC component in conjunction with the AMD 780G chipset and Radeon HD 3450 graphics card." Here are some more Systems articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Intel Press Room | Subject: General Tech
SANTA CLARA, Calif. and SEATTLE, April 28, 2008 - Cray Inc. (Nasdaq GM:
CRAY) and Intel Corporation announced today they signed a multi-year
agreement to advance high-performance computing (HPC) on Intel
microprocessors while delivering broad new Intel and Cray technologies
in future Cray server systems. The collaboration of these two industry
leaders will result in HPC systems that will help solve some of the
world's most complex scientific, engineering and humanitarian
challenges.
"We're excited at the potential of bringing together Intel's powerful silicon expertise and Cray's industry leadership in scalable HPC systems," said Peter Ungaro, president and CEO of Cray. "We pride ourselves in offering the most innovative supercomputing systems and our customers will now enjoy greater choice in processor technologies. "This collaboration provides the HPC market segment with access to the best microprocessors the industry has to offer at any point in time, in the most advanced supercomputers in the world," Ungaro added. "This further strengthens Cray's industry-leading adaptive supercomputing vision as we move into the Cascade timeframe and beyond." The two companies plan to explore future supercomputer component designs such as multi-core processing and advanced interconnects. As a result of this collaboration, Cray and Intel plan to develop a range of HPC systems and technologies over the next several years. "Cray's commitment to Intel is a testament of our commitment to HPC and the strength of our hardware and software roadmap and many-core research," said Patrick Gelsinger, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's Digital Enterprise Group. "Throughout Cray's history, it has been an innovator in high-end HPC while Intel has pushed the boundaries of processor technology. "The combination of this industry leadership and technical strength will allow HPC users to take advantage of future Xeon and other Intel processor technologies," Gelsinger said. "Together we will enable fundamental and historical problems of science and industry to be solved."
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Benchmark Reviews | Subject: General Tech
The SyncMaster2263DX is a 22" widescreen with a little friend attached; a removable 7" LCD widescreen attached to the side of it's face. Benchmark Reviews doesn't have a picture of the side display working, but it could obviously do a good job as a secondary display to keep your Photoshop controls or other tools on. It will also do the job for a lot cheaper than the cost of a second monitor, though there are some performance drawbacks.
"The Samsung SyncMaster2263DX provides a more reasonable balance between screen size and price by offering an enormous 22-inch widescreen monitor coupled with a more modest 7-inch side display to handle the screen overflow. Like the heads-up display in a car, the 2263DX gives users a convenient way to keep an eye on a handful of side programs without distracting from the main task at hand." Here are some more Display articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: The Inquirer | Subject: General Tech
After having so much difficulty with the Phenom, it is nice to hear some good news about AMD's fabs. According to what The Inquirer has heard, the yeilds on the RV770 are higher than expected. This will mean the XT version, which uses GDDR5; as opposed to the Pro's GDDR3, will be appearing sooner than expected. Lets hope for some better than predicted performance as well.
"A FEW MURMURINGS out of China suggest that DAAMIT has had better-than-expected yields and performance out of its latest RV770 chips, which means that the XT variation - using GDDR5 memory - should be en route to hardware enthusiasts sooner than expected. RV770 Pro should be hitting the shelves in June at the latest, and it was previously thought that the XT variation could be as much as two months behind it. However, the fact the ramp-up has exceeded AMD's expectations means that the XT should now follow no later than a month after the Pro in mass availability, and the two cards will almost certainly ship simultaneously to press for review." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: VIA Arena | Subject: Chipset
New Hyperion Pro drivers have just been released - the drivers for all VIA chipsets (so long as they're not too old) and all Microsoft operating systems. This new version, 5.17a has had the built in VIA Falcon IDE driver updated to version 2.50A. The full list of components includes:
INF V3.00A AGP V4.60A V-RAID V5.70A and RAID Tools v5.40 VIA IDE Falcon Storage Device driver v2.50A VIA Hyperion Pro drivers are suitable for ANY VIA chipset - but they are particularly recommended for KT4## series, P4X4## series and newer, for example: K7 chipsets: KT400, KT400A, KT600, KT880, KM400, KN400 K8 chipsets: K8T800, K8T800Pro, K8M800, K8M890, K8N800, K8N890, K8T890, K8T890Pro, K8T900 P4 chipsets: P4X400, P4X400A, PT800, PT880, PM800, PN800, PM880, PN880, PT880Pro, PT894, P4M800/Pro/CE, P4M900, PT890 C Series Chipsets: CN700, CN400, CLE266, CX700,CX700M, CX700M2, CN800, CN896 V Series Chipsets: VN800, VN896, VX700, VX800
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: AMD | Subject: System
SUNNYVALE, Calif. - April 28, 2008 - AMD (NYSE: AMD) today introduced AMD Business Class, an initiative dedicated to developing AMD processor-based commercial desktop and notebook solutions designed specifically for businesses. AMD Business Class technology is designed to offer the best value and tools on the market for OEMs and system builders to provide a solid, reliable foundation that delivers exceptional performance and power savings, industry-leading longevity and stability, and supports the essential security and manageability business users require. The launch of AMD Business Class also brings with it the introduction of AMD's new line of commercial stable AMD Athlon(tm) and AMD Phenom(tm) processors. "IT decision-makers have a broad range of commercial client solutions to choose from and it is not always clear which systems deliver the best business value," said Dirk Meyer, president and COO, AMD. "At its heart, AMD Business Class processors are based on the same innovative technology that powers the world's most advanced servers. Our solutions are designed to give commercial customers the assurance that platforms are designed with their business in mind to help get more from their computing infrastructure, longer."
AMD also unveiled the first AMD commercial desktop platform solution, which configures in a variety of ways to better meet customer needs.
The platform includes a new comprehensive lineup of stable processors, with up to 24-month stability and longevity from initial product availability. These commercial stable processors include native AMD Phenom X3 triple-core and AMD Phenom X4 quad-core processors, as well as AMD Athlon X2 dual-core processors. OEMs can choose AMD 780V chipsets or optional ATI Radeon(tm) HD 3000 series discrete graphics, and the platform also supports non-AMD graphics and chipsets. Commercial notebooks for AMD Business Class are scheduled to be available based on the upcoming next-generation notebook platform, codenamed "Puma," with competitive productivity and battery life at multiple price points.
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: PC Perspective Forums | Subject: General Tech
The PC Perspective community is build from a diverse range of people, with different backgrounds and cultures, but a shared love of hardware and community. Our members have found PCPer through a variety of means, for instance I was looking to end an abusive relationship with the ASUS NetQ forums and was welcomed to this community when I unsuspectingly followed a link from there almost 7 years ago. However I doubt many people came via BoardReader, who seemed clueless when it came to our community. They have since promised to fix their database.
We even accept Luddites! Really, no matter what your (PC) problem is, you will find someone who can help you get back to normal. Get help with the new Ubutnu release, Oscillating Ocelot or whatever the beast is currently called, or obscure problems that Windows has managed to inflict upon you. Even if you are just looking for a familiar face to fill full of lead, you can hook up with willing victims. It's not all about tech problems here either, just head to the Off Topic Forum, The Lightning Round or the BOINC forums if you are in the mood, or do a bit of shopping. For the ultimate in passive involvement though, just plug into the newest PC Perspective Podcast. Episode 28 was recorded last night and posted today for your enjoyment.
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Big Bruin | Subject: Motherboard
ASUS' P5K PRO claims to be a green board, having three different modes in which you can run and save power. While the claims that ASUS makes are upwards of 50% savings, the total system power draw doesn't actually dip by that much. It does certainly save power when compared to the P5KC, especially when placed into the nap mode. See how well the board performs in Big Bruin's full review.
"When people think of energy efficiency they may have the misconception that it has to equate to a lack of power and excitement. In terms of automobiles, perhaps thinking that all hybrids are like a Prius. But what we have with the P5K PRO is a sporty, high performance model that just happens to have a smart design capable of saving energy." Here are some more Motherboard articles from around the web:
Ryan Shrout | Source: PC Perspective | Subject: Graphics Card
We have talked many, many times about Larrabee in the last several years and we consider ourselves to be pretty knowledgeable on the subject. It's always interesting to see some new comments on the topic though and it turns out one of Larrabee's developers at Intel posted a bit on their blog on the subject of rasterization on the new GPU architecture.
Let's page through his comments if we can: I've been trying to keep quiet, but I need to get one thing very clear. Larrabee is going to render DirectX and OpenGL games through rasterisation, not through raytracing.
I'm
not sure how the message got so muddled. I think in our quest to just
keep our heads down and get on with it, we've possibly been a bit too
quiet. So some comments about exciting new rendering tech got
misinterpreted as our one and only plan. Larrabee's tech enables many
fascinating possibilities, and we're excited by all of them. But this
current confusion has got a lot of developers worried about us breaking
their games and forcing them to change the way they do things. That's
not the case, and I apologise for any panic.
I'd have to agree with him - a large portion of Intel's push into the graphics market with Larrabee seemed to be centered on ray tracing and only in recent months has the discussion of rasterization really taken a front seat at all. We first heard of it from John Carmack directly - he was the first to really verify that Larrabee would rasterize and HAD to in fact. There's only one way to render the huge range of DirectX and OpenGL
games out there, and that's the way they were designed to run - the
conventional rasterisation pipeline. That has been the goal for the
Larrabee team from day one, and it continues to be the primary focus of
the hardware and software teams. We take triangles, we rasterise them,
we do Z tests, we do pixel shading, we write to a framebuffer. There's
plenty of room within that pipeline for innovation to last us for many
years to come. It's done very nicely for over a quarter of a century,
and there's plenty of life in the old thing yet.
Larrabee up close Obviously this is something we have come to realize ourselves - rasterization isn't going anywhere. There isn't any mention of how well the Larrabee architecture does perform on this type of pipeline but the fact that he claims the team has focused on that from day one is at least a good sign. There's no doubt Larrabee is going to be the world's most awesome
raytracer. It's going to be the world's most awesome chip at a lot of
heavy computing tasks - that's the joy of total programmability
combined with serious number-crunching power. But that is cool stuff
for those that want to play with wacky tech. We're not assuming
everybody in the world will do this, we're not forcing anyone to do so,
and we certainly can't just do it behind their backs and expect things
to work - that would be absurd. Raytracing on Larrabee is a fascinating
research project, it's an exciting new way of thinking about rendering
scenes, just like splatting or voxels or any number of neat ideas, but
it is absolutely not the focus of Larrabee's primary rendering
capabilities, and never has been - not even for a moment.
And here is the crux: while the Larrabee architecture will be GOOD at ray tracing according to this post, they will not be asking people to move to that type of rendering anytime soon. If that's the case then much of our ray tracing and rasterization concerns could be at ease. However, we might still be seeing one half of conflicting internal debates and the possibility remains that Larrabee will perform poorly enough in rasterization that ray tracing is way to make the product stand out. Obviously this is something we just don't know yet. We are totally focussed on making the existing (and future) DX and OGL
pipelines go fast using far more conventional methods. When we talk
about the rendering pipeline changing beyond what people currently
know, we're talking about using something a lot less radical than
raytracing. Still very exciting for game developers - stuff they've
been asking for ages that other IHVs have completely failed to
deliver on. There's some very exciting changes to the existing graphics
pipelines coming up if developers choose to enable the extra quality
and consistency that Larrabee can offer. But these are incremental
changes, and they will remain completely under game developers' control
- if they don't want to use them, we will look like any other fast
video card. We would not and could not change the rendering behaviour
of the existingAPIs.
This is kind of interesting and if I were to hazard a guess I'd say that he is referring to a more robust data-sharing caching structure and nearly complete programmability compared to even the latest G80 or RV670 architectures from NVIDIA and AMD. We can surely hope to see more of this kind of information from Intel and the team that works on Larrabee - it is important for the media, developers and gamers to see what Intel has in store for them in the world of PC gaming if we are to truly be excited and accepting of Intel's first entry to the world of discrete graphics in quite some time. More soon!!! More Reading on Gaming and Ray Tracing:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: techPowerUp! | Subject: General Tech
Perhaps it is because I am hard on earphones, killing them off frequently enough that it is not worth getting a good pair, but the LiveWires T1 Custom In Ear Monitors just don't make sense for my listening habits. They are about half the price of other custom IEMs, running about $249 plus the cost of your ear molds. Yes, ear molds. According to techPowerUp!, it is best to go to an audiologist and pay to get a mold of your ears made, as the "home kits are not nearly as reliable or safe".
On the other hand, if you find yourself habitually talking about the depth of the sound stage produced by earphones; you probably should consider investing in these. They are incredibly good for their price and are going to be incredibly comfortable. Me, I'd probably get them caught in a FedEx dropbox the same day I bought them. "LiveWires T1 is the name of some new custom earphones that cost about half of its main rivals. They are built exactly to fit your ear with additional customization options like colors. These in-ears use two balanced armatures and play in a completely different league compared to whats usually available in this price segment." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: The Inquirer | Subject: General Tech
... or blogs, anyways.
With so little news coming from the Larrabee team, most of what we know is speculation and marketing. It is interesting to see the comments from team member Tom Forsyth about rasterisation and Larrabee linked to at The Inquirer. It has been mentioned several times during our podcasts and in Ryan's interview with John Carmack that from a game developer's view, Larrabee is quite worrying. There are no ray traced games, nor any studios that want to take the plunge into programming one, so I am sure that many game houses are breathing a small sigh of relief to hear this news that rasterisation programming will not be phased out any time soon. "Larrabee's tech enables many fascinating possibilities, and we're excited by all of them...But this current confusion has got a lot of developers worried about us breaking their games and forcing them to change the way they do things. That's not the case, and I apologise for any panic. "There's only one way to render the huge range of DirectX and OpenGL games out there, and that's the way they were designed to run – the conventional rasterisation pipeline. That has been the goal for the Larrabee team from day one, and it continues to be the primary focus of the hardware and software teams. We take triangles, we rasterise them, we do Z tests, we do pixel shading, we write to a framebuffer. There's plenty of room within that pipeline for innovation to last us for many years to come. It's done very nicely for over a quarter of a century, and there's plenty of life in the old thing yet." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: InsideHW | Subject: Motherboard
InsideHW looks at the BIOSTAR TF8200 A2+ which has an nVidia GeForce 8200 and Realtek's ALC888S, and a classic BioStar look. We really haven't seen many boards from BioStar recently, but that does not mean they've forgotten how to make a good one. Check it out if you are looking for an HD compatible board that can support 4 displays, or want to try a little onboard SLI.
" It's very interesting whenever we test Biostar motherboards with integrated graphics, especially when they are based on new chipset. This time we have tested new Biostar model from "T-series" based on GeForce 8200 chipset. GeForce 8200 is single chip solution aimed for AM2 and AM2+ platforms and it integrates complete south bridge and graphics accelerator. This integrated GPU has full support for HD video resolutions up to 1080p and has interesting options for connecting more than one monitor. With this chipset you can create hybrid SLi which means that you can insert another graphics card in PEG slot and create SLi system with integrated graphics card." Here are some more Motherboard articles from around the web:
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