Hardware Post: 02/18/11

Friday, February 18, 2011

Almost perfect compatibility between motherboard and Ivy Bridge P67/H67

Intel has been much criticized in recent years have brought to market a range of platforms that have had a very short life, despite the quality of the project. First and foremost that of previous generation Core processors with Socket LGA 1156. But there's good news about the baby LGA 1155 platform for Sandy Bridge for which there seems to be possible to update with future CPU Ivy Bridge.

Unfortunately, compatibility is not completely guaranteed: while there is no problem to install a CPU on a motherboard Sandy Bridge Chipset Panther Point, does not mean that we can do the opposite, Ivy Bridge install a CPU on a motherboard P67 or H67. Or at least one of the current implementations, possibly because of potential problems with the supply section.

Action game for PC, PS3, Xbox 360: Dead Iceland: First Images of the Zombie Island

The fictitious island Banoi has everything the tourist heart beat faster: endless beaches, turquoise water, sunshine and a luxury resort. All this changes abruptly when suddenly zombies chase the flood scene, visitors and turn in their peers. For the survivors of the first attack, there is only one goal: survival rather than recreation.

Manufacturer Deep Silver shows now looks like the Zombie game.

Dead Island (wikipedia) Xbox (crunchbase) Xbox (wikipedia) Personal computer (wikipedia)

To access "premium" for 3G networks

At MWC, we met with Amdocs, a company specializing in consulting for the establishment of telecommunications networks for operators, and discuss an interesting problem, the network traffic. In recent years, mobile phone networks - thought to use the base for "voices" - are widely used to transport data and the advent of smartphones (especially the iPhone) induced a burden increasingly heavy on them.

Free Browser Gas: Google Chrome Beta released version 10

Up to 50 percent faster than Google Chrome 9 shall be the successor. Made possible by an improved Javascript engine. When watching videos, the browser will access the memory of the graphics card - and thus relieves the main processor of up to 80 percent. Also new in Google Chrome 10: The Settings menu appears as a tab in the browser window.

Bookmarks, Add-ons and passwords to sync between all your computers on which Chrome is running. To increase security, users create a pass-phrase (full set) in order to identify itself. Google Chrome 10 beta is available online for download. Note: The version is a program that is still in the testing phase and to try and detect errors is.

Google Chrome (homepage) Google Chrome (crunchbase) browser (homepage)

Lenovo LePad the first in China

Expected for several months now, the touch pad LePad Lenovo should not delay making its appearance. According to the latest rumors, this tablet Android could be launched on the Chinese market next month, before being available for the rest of the world by June. Behind its 10.1-inch touch screen capable of displaying a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels, incorporates LePad reminder for Qualcomm Snapdragon processor (single core) 1.3 GHz, 16 GB or 32 GB of storage depending on model loads and 1 GB of DDR3.

The SSD 510 Series Intel within 10 days

Intel will soon launch on March 1 next new models of SSD 510 Series - codenamed "Elm Crest." 2.5-inch classic, these SSDs are aimed at gamers, workstations and performance enthusiasts. They use MLC NAND flash memory etched into 34 nm and have a SATA 6 Gbps. Available in capacities of 120 GB and 250 GB SSDs by Intel 510 Series are capable of reaching speeds of around 470 MB / s sequential read and 315 MB / s sequential write.

Core Ivy Bridge compatible with the P67

One of the unknowns about Ivy Bridge is its compatibility with Sandy Bridge processors from Intel (Core i5/i7 current) and the associated platform P67/H67. Indeed, if future use CPU Core priori the same socket LGA 1155 processors that Sandy Bridge, there is no indication that these CPUs are actually interchangeable.

However, according to VR-Zone, it is indeed possible to use a Sandy Bridge processor on a motherboard equipped with a chipset Panther Point (the successor of the current P67/H67). It would also be possible to update a platform P67/H67 replacing the processor by an Ivy Bridge, both types of processors are physically compatible.

MeeGo, Intel looking for new partners for development

The news of the recent agreement between Nokia and Microsoft did not appeal to Intel, the main partner of the Finnish company in project development MeeGo. In fact, during a meeting with analysts, Paul Otellini, Intel CEO, said in no uncertain terms that his company is looking for potential partners able to take the project forward MeeGo.

Otellini also seemed quite annoyed by the choice of Nokia. The manager blamed it bluntly Nokia have thrown to the winds all the work done so far on MeeGo, the operating system developed in partnership by the two companies. Otellini also advances the hypothesis that the choice would be enough to Nokia obligations as Microsoft would have paid a large sum of money to ensure that Windows 7 Phone to become the leading smartphone operating system of the Finnish giant.

Scythe Rasetsu: full analysis

Time for analysis Rasetsu Scythe heatsink. If you want to know the details and performance have no more than follow the link below. As always, we hope you enjoy it. Scythe Rasetsu Analysis

Rakshasa (wikipedia)

The White House does not spread Steve Jobs with Obama's picture

As new concerns about the health of Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. Speculation arose as a result of lack of dissemination of the usual "package" of photographs for the press after the meeting among the "titans" of the IT industry and the president Barack Obama. In addition to Steve Jobs, were Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook Eric Schmidt of Google, Paul Otellini of Intel and other prominent members of the U.S.

Online game for PC: Star Trek - Infinite Space: Chris Huelsenbeck writes the music

Space is silent: the lack of atmosphere prevents the transmission of sound waves. not that this physical law for the virtual worlds of show business is show productions like "Star Wars" saga. Also, the online game "Star Trek - Infinite Space" is based on volume in space: The German composer Chris Huelsbeck created the soundtrack for the summer appearing title.

Huelsenbeck already wrote the music for "Giana Sisters" and "Turrican 2" and has worked with companies like Nintendo. A first taste of the background music in "Infinite Space" is on. The whole soundtrack offers manufacturers Gameforge to later free download.

Chris Hülsbeck (homepage) Chris Hülsbeck (lastfm) Chris Hülsbeck (musicbrainz) Chris Hülsbeck (wikipedia) Star Trek (wikipedia)

Google Chrome extension: Software Tip of the Day: Window Expander for YouTube

The "Window Expander for YouTube" is a free extension for the browser. The tool allows you to stretch a video by clicking on the total size of the browser window. After installation, you will find the browser line, an icon with arrows. Click it to enlarge the clip, press the button again, the movies shrink back together to its original size.

YouTube (homepage) YouTube (blog) YouTube (crunchbase) YouTube (wikipedia) Charlie bit my finger - again ! (youtube) guitar (youtube) Me at the zoo (youtube) Google Chrome (homepage) Google Chrome (crunchbase) Expander cycle (rocket) (wikipedia)

Role-playing game for PC and console: Diablo 3: Blizzard is working on console version

With a Blizzard unofficially confirmed the hopes of many console gamers: The studio is working on a console version of "Diablo 3". The Blizzard president Mike Morhaime was already beginning in February 2011 not on the U.S. Trade Fair Dice. At the time, Morhaime said that the game developer is currently looking into a release for PS3 and Xbox 360 - apparently successfully.

They are interested in the job? Years of experience in the gaming industry and as a producer of a major console title is needed to get into the narrow circle of candidates for the leadership position. You should be passionate players of Blizzard games and with the in-house gaming service Battle.

Subscriptions App Store in the U.S. and EU Antitrust lens

The U.S. and European antitrust agencies are investigating about the new subscription policy launched by Apple last February 15. The investigations, for now, are only informal. The bodies, in fact, are considering whether Apple will profile the case of abuse of dominant position in online publishing.

The new rules spread from Cupertino, in fact, there are explicit vetoes against publishers. The latter can not be included in their App external link that points to any subscription services outside the Apple ecosystem. It should be pointed out that, however, the new policy was regarded as less restrictive than the previous ones: the publishers, in fact, allowed to see products and content outside of the individual app, such as their reference sites.

Lifetime of DSS at 34 nm, it would be death (5)

Our DSS is still alive. It is almost two months that we write constantly on an SSD-based controller Indilinx and he just passed an average wear of 5000 cycles (5150 cycles this morning), which means that if it used the memory at 34 nm, it would be (very) bad shape. But our model uses memory Samsung MLC-up to ~ 10 000 entries (K9HCG08UIM) and will therefore have to wait a bit ...

For information, the average number of cycles was 1 761 at the beginning of our tests and we've been writing about 300TB (297,180 GB exactly) from a Velociraptor. To answer a frequently asked question, the SSD of 128 GB and it is filled with a 1 GB file is copied and deleted in a loop. The test machine is running Windows 7, with the TRIM activated, and the SATA controller is an Intel ICH9.

Dell, next year will come a tablet with 8?

In the last hours are increasing in the network a number of rumors that Dell wants to work on a tablet with Windows 8. The rumors indicate that the new device, code-named "Peju" could be presented at the next CES 2012 event held in January. As revealed by the "roadmap" published on the web, back in July could be released a version of Android 3.0 Streak 7 with Honeycomb, which would replace the 2.2 version Froyo.

The stock prices of SSDs, it is urgent to wait

The return of our stock prices of SSDs. And it is urgent to wait. Indeed, if the SSD is less expensive but still comparatively more expensive than a hard drive, new generations arrive. And Vertex 2, Intel X25-M "Postville" Crucial C300 (etc.) are dying. Vertex 3, the new generation of X25-M and C400 Crucial come with memory in 25 nm, which should reduce prices and increase performance.

Obviously, there are some false notes, and memory in 25 nm already poses some problems, especially from OCZ has quietly replaced the memory in 34 nm memory in 25 nm, with the key to a decrease in performance and speed, but it is a priori isolated case, at least for now, and the company replacing the models with faster versions on request.

Gigabyte GA-E350-USB3 arrives in Europe

The first Gigabyte motherboard based on the platform Brazos (Merger) AMD has just made its appearance in some European shops. Called GA-E350N-USB3, this map in Mini-ITX E-350 features a compound of two x86 cores running at 1.6 GHz Bobcat and a chipset Radeon HD 6310. This APU is accompanied by a Hudson-M1 chipset.

There are also two connectors DDR3-1333, four SATA 6 Gbps connectors, a PCI-Express x16 (wired as x4) and Gigabit Ethernet controllers and 7.1 audio. Two USB 3.0 ports are also present, as well as VGA, DVI and HDMI. GA-E350N-USB3 is already given by some English shops, at a rate of 123 pounds.

Europe (wikipedia) Universal Serial Bus (wikipedia)

Apple healthy, despite Jobs

The unconfirmed reports on the disease indicate that CEO Steve Jobs had just six weeks old. These troubling rumor, however, it seems that not much will impact on the financial strength of Apple - and not only because investors do not trust the source, the National Enquirer. Some analysts, in fact, have expressed their views on the matter.

Sure, Apple's CEO is "the face" and "voice" of society, however, Apple is now an independent and stable. "Probably, knowing that they have little time, Jobs has sketched out ideas that go beyond the current roadmap "said Roger Kay of Endpoint Technologies. The American tabloid that sparked the rumors of Jobs has published photos showing him emaciated while he went to the Stanford Cancer Center in Palo Alto, California.

Duke Nukem Forever linked to the system Steamworks

2K Games has confirmed that the PC version of Duke Nukem Forever will incorporate Steamworks protection system. This means that those who buy the title on the retail channel will not have to enter it each time the DVD to play, since the activation is tied in to Steam. The support to Valve's online platform will be complete - that is sigleplayer muliplayer - and provides for the management of achievements, friends lists, statistics of all games "on the cloud." At this time the purchase on Steam for Duke Nukem Forever is not yet available but it will certainly before May 6, the day of official release.

Duke Nukem Forever (homepage) Duke Nukem Forever (wikipedia) Jace Hall Interview Triplebeard.com (youtube) Inside Gaming PAX Prime 2010 Extended Coverage: Duke Nukem Forever Interview w/ Randy Pitchford (youtube) Duke Nukem Forever Live Demo [HD] (youtube)

Steve Jobs has met with Obama

Steve Jobs rocked the IT world, after the release of photos depicting the skeletal and suffering. The photographs published by the National Enquirer had raised several questions concerning the health of Apple's CEO. From Apple and the Steve Jobs himself, but did not arrive nor denied nor confirmed. That is why all eyes were on an official meeting at which the CEO should participate in, meetings scheduled at the White House with President Obama and other leading figures of the technological world.

On arrival the first heat sink for CPU Enermax

Leveraging the proven experience in the field of PC cooling fans and air flow in the study, Enermax has decided to develop its own heat sink for the CPU. Currently, the product does not have a final name, but the official presentation is planned during the CeBIT 2011 (1 ~ 5 March) and the first images are already available.

This solution adopts the proprietary design Enermax called "Vortex Generator Flow", coupled with two 120mm fans Twister mounted in push-pull. The radiator tower is made from thin aluminum fins and crossed by three heatpipes (dua probably a 6mm and 8mm). In addition to the heat sink for CPU, Enermax present at the fair in Hannover two new cooling fans to houses belonging to the family TB Silence.

Enermax (homepage) Enermax (wikipedia) Central processing unit (wikipedia)

Thermaltake announces the availability of its acclaimed Level 10 GT Thermaltake

Thermaltake has announced the immediate availability of its case for Gaming Level 10 GT, which was announced at the CES (Consumer Electronic Show) 2011 held in Las Vegas. The Level 10 GT is the successor to the original Level 10, designed in collaboration with BWM Group DesignworksUSA. Overclockersclub, one of the groups most important independent information, said "This year, Thermaltake has raised its stake in the line of PC cases with the introduction of Level 10 GT at CES 2011.

ARM - who does what: Telechips (11)

Telechips is a fairly new company, founded in 2000 and who specialized in chips for the audio world. The company offers SoC ARM and equip their entry-level tablets and Media Center boxes at low cost from China. It is mainly based models and SoC TCC8900 TCC8902. The core CPU is quite old, it is an ARM1176 of ARM.

This core issue and in order simply use the ARMv6 instruction set and is found mainly in the low range or a little old (like smartphones of 2007). In SoC TCC890x, it operates at 500 MHz or 720 MHz, depending on the voltage (1.2 V and 1.5 V) and of course the autonomy expected. For the GPU is a chip, ARM Mali 200 of which is incorporated.

PowerVR of Series6 for 2014

Imagination has presented its products using PowerVR chips Series5 and announced the development of its family of graphics processors Series6. The firm presented the SoC from Renesas and Texas Instruments and Sony systems using the PowerVR Series5XT MP. The OMAP5430 and OMAP5432 chip involve PowerVR SGX544MP and should be marketed on smartphones within three months.

Similarly, the famous NPM uses a SGX543MP4 (see "PSP 2" NGP "announced"). He also wished to assert that its new PowerVR architecture that meets Series6 codenamed Snape has already been adopted by several partners who will begin their research. ST-Ericsson has already announced that he would incorporate into its processor Nova.

Intel SSD Drives 510 coming March 1

Intel plans to launch a new series of SSD 510, code-named Elm Crest, March 1 next year. As reported by VR-Zone, these discs, designed for enthusiast users, will have a SATA 3 and will be available in 2.5 inch format with 9.5 mm in height in 120GB and 250GB. The specifications provide the 510 SSD: Performance Up to 470MB / s read and 315MB / s write, up to 20,000 4K random reads and 5,000 write operations RandomUtilizzo 4K of memory cells MLC NAND Flash 34nmCompatibile with Intel chipsets Intel 6 Series 120GB version will cost about $ 280 while the 250GB comes to $ 580.

Solid-state drive (wikipedia) Intel Corporation (geolocation) Intel (homepage) NASDAQ: INTC (googlefinance) SEHK: 4335 (googlefinance) Intel (INTC) (wikinvest) Intel (crunchbase) Intel Corporation (wikipedia) Intel Corporation (youtube)

News from the GeForce GTX 550 Ti

We have new information on technical features of the GeForce GTX 550 Ti as we discovered in the latest drivers for the firm. The card uses a chip GF116. It is expected for March 15 next and should be 35% faster than Radeon HD 5770 DirectX 11 and 20% faster in DirectX 10. Leakage therefore speak of performance similar to a GTX 460.

It would have a 128-bit memory bus and 1GB of GDDR5. It would take the dimensions of the GTS 450 and would have a voltage regulator with three phases for the CPU and one single phase for the memory. It offers two ports DVI-I dual link port and a mini HDMI. The TDP should not exceed 110 W and its price should be around $ 200.

Shuttle, here are the new barebone platform for Sandy Bridge

Shuttle presents the edition of the CeBIT this year two models for the latest generation of Intel CPUs (Sandy Bridge) built with 32 nm manufacturing technology. With the models and SH67H3 SH67H7 the pioneer in the field of mini-PC launch on the market at the end of March 2011 based on the Intel Barebone two H67 Express.

Both units have outstanding technical characteristics. It supports all Intel Core i3, i5 and i7 LGA1155 with the second generation. The four DIMM memory modules can be integrated DDR3 memory and offers a maximum memory capacity of 16 GByte. On both mini-PCs can be installed two 3.5-inch drive unit and 5.25 ".

Apple raffle production touchscreens

Apple has bought nearly 60% of world production of touch screens, leaving its competitors with shortages and high prices. This was reported the DigiTimes site claiming that Apple orders from major manufacturers such as Wintek and TPK mean that its competitors are paying more and are sometimes unable to meet demand.

It is still difficult to know the exact scope of this situation on the shelves of other manufacturers that their products should be out this year. Some analysts argue that the Internet is the main reason for the price of competitors is so high iPad. This explanation seems a bit premature.

Ice Cream Android smartphone with elements of Android 3.0

Since the release of Android smartphone named as Ice Cream, Google will introduce evidence available at present in Android 3.0 per tablet. Confirmation of this is the development director Dave Burke who talks about the possibility of integrating the top bar that allows you to perform actions in context, the removal of most of the command "press-and-hold" and possibly adopting the look of a typical holographic older brother.

The Tegra 3 Kal El will be engraved in 40nm

NVIDIA has announced that he would not appeal to 28-nm TSMC for Kal El, citing a weak performance for the launch of a chip Tegra. TSMC says it will leave the chips in 28 nm this year. NVIDIA does not dispute this but says he can not get out enough chips to meet demand. According to the chameleon, the new fine engraving will be more available later this year.

However, the release of Kal El is scheduled for the third quarter, which allows manufacturers of smartphones and tablets out products incorporating the next Tegra SoC before Christmas. The firm thus tries to defend his decision to stay at 40 nm while increasing the fine print would have to reduce consumption of the chip.

Intel is looking for a new partner to Nokia and critical MeeGo

During a meeting with analysts, Chief Executive of Intel, Paul Otellini, said that his company is looking for other partners to MeeGo after the announcement of the marriage between Nokia and Microsoft. He did not fail to acknowledge the Finnish manufacturer has virtually thrown in the bucket to the operating system developed in collaboration with Intel in favor of Windows Phone 7.

The decision continues Otellini, has not been free since Nokia had received an "incredible" amount of money from Microsoft because it adopts its own operating system on its handsets. Even Google had made a similar offer but then the choice fell to the solution of Redmond. The Intel spokesman has criticized the CEO of Nokia, Stephen Elop, for this decision: "I would not have made the choice he made: I probably would have chosen Android in its place," said Otellini.

Apple becomes the first notebook PC maker

According to DisplaySearch, Apple became the largest manufacturer of notebook PCs in the world during the last quarter of 2010. The problem is that the study relies on data that are sure to be debated. Apple is used to rub the top 5 PC manufacturers in the United States. However, once we take the global figures, the company fell far behind.

The study by DisplaySearch has completely upset this by saying that Apple has 17.2% market share of laptops, which puts it before HP (15.6%), Acer (14%), Dell (9, 9%) and Toshiba (8.6%). DisplaySearch how he arrived at these figures? It simply combines the sales of tablets and laptops. Since the firm's competitors to Apple does not offer any consumer product, and sales iPad exploded during the holiday season, Apple ends up on top of a classification that usually escapes .

Prolimatech invented the cooler 2-in-1

It is difficult to innovate CPU cooler! Since the advent of heat pipes and the general format of "skyscraper", the products of various manufacturers and are very similar. The last Genesis Prolimatech bring some welcome change. Echoing the classic building blocks that are the copper heatpipes and aluminum Aillet package, it is distinguished by its design in two parts: a vertical and a horizontal radiator.

Tabloid sparked talk: evil rumor: Steve Jobs supposedly terminally ill

Barack Obama traveled to California to be there to meet with giants of the IT industry: Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Eric Schmidt (Google) - and Steve Jobs. Parallel to this news shows the newspaper "National Enquirer" in the U.S. Internet a photo of the supposedly see Steve Jobs is: sunken, spindly and shaky on the way to treatment in a cancer clinic.

To this end, the Journal cited two physicians, because the prophesy of the images that jobs have to live only a short time. The macabre rumor was enough to bring into the United States to the Apple's stock under pressure. Investors reacted nervously, the paper lost seven percent. No other company is so very dependent on the creativity of its leaders such as Apple's Steve Jobs.