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Will More Win8 RT Hybrids Start Showing Up?
June 29, 2012 by admin
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Rumour has it that Nvidia has the best drivers and might be close to fine tuning its Windows RT platform, but we are sure Qualcomm and Texas Instruments aren’t far behind.
The Asus Transformer series has set a new trend by providing tablet users with a keyboard dock with some extra ports and an additional battery. This is definitely the way to go as you get the best of both worlds in a single package Windows 8 RT is finally bringing Microsoft in the ARM market and needless to say there will be many systems to be ready for launch.
Nvidia with Tegra, Texas Instruments with OMAP and Qualcomm with S4 are getting ready to embrace tablets as well as hybrid notebooks based on Windows 8 RT. The Asus Transformer 600 is just the first of many to come and there will be at least a few more similar designs to launch this year with Windows 8 RT, so we have no doubt that we will see quite a few convertible Windows tablets.
Microsoft Says Windows RT Best For ARM
Microsoft has said its upcoming Windows RT will be loaded on laptops and tablets, claiming it is the “most compatible” ARM operating system.
Microsoft’s Windows 8 will be the first time the firm has launched a desktop operating system that supports the ARM architecture, albeit with the Windows RT branding. Now the firm has said that laptops and tablets will feature Windows RT and called it the most compatible ARM operating system.
Erwin Visser, senior director of Microsoft’s Windows Commercial Business Group said, “Windows RT devices in tablet and laptops will run all the apps from the Windows store. It will also include [Microsoft] Office components like Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Onenote and support a large amount of PC peripherals through in-box class drivers. Relative to other ARM offerings in the market, Windows RT will be the most compatible ARM offering on the market.”
When The INQUIRER asked Visser what he meant by “most compatible” Visser replied, “Taking into acount ARM is a completely new processor architecture and what we’re focused on is a couple of things to help enterprise customers embrace Windows RT. […] All the Windows 8 apps that run on x86 will also run on Windows RT.” Visser also cited inclusion of in-box drivers for PC hardware, something that is largely missing from both Android and IOS devices.
Visser also said users can side-load applications on Windows RT devices, meaning the Windows Store isn’t the only source of applications. When we asked whether this could be a security risk Visser said, “In the case of side-loading apps, the app will be certified through the enterprise IT organisation.”
As for why Microsoft will allow side-loading applications in Windows RT, apparently that is what big business wants. Visser said, “If you think about apps that are used internally, so not apps that are built by enterprises for their consumers or customers but apps that support internal processes, customers do not want to put those apps – because they always have some competitive advantage – in the Windows App Store, which is a public place. So they want to keep those apps within their own infrastructure and [with] side-loading they can still load them on Windows x86 and Windows RT systems.”
AMD Gives Opteron A Boost
AMD has shown there is a little life left in its Bulldozer Opterons by bumping up the clock speed of five Opteron models.
AMD launched its Bulldozer Opteron processors last November amid widespread anticipation that its brand new Bulldozer architecture would once again make it competitive with Intel. Its new architecture failed to impress, but the company has managed to eek out another 100MHz from five Opteron processors in what is likely to be a last hurrah before Piledriver Opterons make their appearance.
AMD bumped up the clocks by 100MHz on the 16-core Opteron 6284 SE and Opteron 6278 to 2.7GHz and 2.4GHz, respectively, while keeping TDPs the same as before, at 140W and 115W, respectively. The firm gave four Opteron 4200 series chips the same 100MHz bump, including the eight-core Opteron 4276HE to 2.6GHz, the six-core Opteron 4240 to 3.4GHz and the Opteron 4230 to 2.9GHz.
AMD was keen to point out that its speed bumped Opteron chips have been picked by Dell and by HP for 11 of its servers. Although the firm has not been able to compete with Intel’s Xeon chips on perfermance, its chips are considerably cheaper, a fact that AMD is using to win customers.
Although AMD’s 100MHz speed bump isn’t going to set the world on fire, every little bit of performance will help the firm as Intel ploughs on with its hugely impressive Sandy Bridge E and Ivy Bridge Xeon chips. AMD’s answer to Intel’s latest Xeon chips is expected to be the Piledriver Opterons.
Adata Outs 40MB/s UHS microSD Card
Adata has launched a 32GB UHS-1 microSD card offering 40MB/s write bandwidth.
Adata, which recently has been making a big push in the solid-state disk (SSD) drive market, has announced its first microSD cards that support the UHS-1 specification. The firm’s Premier Pro cards come in 8GB, 16GB and 32GB capacities with the firm citing read bandwidth of 45MB/s and all important write bandwidth of 40MB/s.
The SD Card Association defined the UHS-I specification as part of its SD Version 3.01 standard, and while Adata’s new cards boast impressive speeds there is a lot of headroom left, with UHS-1 supporting bandwidths up to 104MB/s. Adata’s cards, roughly translated to the ‘X’ speed rating used on a number of memory cards, come out at 266X.
Ray Chu, product manager at Adata said, “These cards have the best read and write performance among all comparable products offered by the industry’s key players. When that is combined with the aggressive pricing options in store for this line, the result is going to be a bonanza for our customers worldwide.”
Dell Intros Ivy Bridge Xeon Servers
Dell has become the first to announce servers using Intel’s latest Ivy Bridge Xeon E3 processors.
Intel launched its single socket Ivy Bridge Xeon E3 processors a month after it wowed everyone with its dual-core Sandy Bridge Xeon E5 processors, and it has taken Dell only another month to announce the first servers to make use of Intel’s latest nearline server chip. Dell’s Poweredge C5220 microserver uses Xeon E3 1200 series processors that have thermal design power (TDP) down to 17W.
Dell is pitching its Poweredge C5220 servers towards high performance computing, cloud deployments and content delivery networks. While Dell calls the Poweredge C5220 a microserver, that really isn’t a reference to its size or density, but rather the fact that it is a single socket server.
Dell offers the Poweredge C5220 with either 17W or 45W TDP Intel processors supporting DDR3-1600 memory. The firm claims close to double the performance over previous generation single socket servers, mainly due to a 50 per cent increase in density.
Asus Stakes Claim In Tablets Market
May 4, 2012 by admin
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Asus has won critical acclaim for its early tablets, including the quad-core Transformer Prime TF201 that was debuted last year and the new quad-core Transformer Pad TF300T that will be available in some U.S. retail stores next week.
And it continues to improve its place in the crowded market — jumping into the Top 5 list of suppliers for the first time in 2011, according to the latest research from IDC. Asus ranked fifth in tablet shipments in both the U.S. and world in 2011 with a 2.3% share of the U.S. tablet market and a 2.5% share of the worldwide market.
Apple’s iPad remained at the top of both lists.
Though Asus still lags somewhat behind the market leaders, its influence on the market is clearly on the rise and could move it further up the tablet list, analysts say.
For instance, along with launching an array of powerful higher-priced new tablets, Asus is reported to be Google’s choice to supply a low-priced $200 device said to be called Google Play. The Google tablet would run Ice Cream Sandwich and a Tegra 3 quad-core processor, reports say.
The reports suggest Google is looking to launch the new tablet at its Google I/O developer conference in late June.
AMD Aims For The Cloud
Advanced Micro Devices on Tuesday is expected to announce new Opteron 3200 series chips for low-end servers, which the company believes will give it a competitive edge over Intel in the cloud server arena.
The three Opteron 3200 chips are for use in single-socket servers for Web hosting and cloud applications, according to a company presentation. The chips have up to eight processor cores, clock speeds of up to 3GHz, and draw between 45 watts and 65 watts of power.
The new chips are based on the Bulldozer processor architecture, which is also in the Opteron 6200 16-core processors and FX-series gaming chips. The Opteron 3200 launch comes after AMD in late February announced it would pay US$334 million to acquire SeaMicro, which offers dense and power-efficient servers for cloud computing environments.
AMD’s chips will likely compete against Intel’s Xeon E3 series chips, which are used in SeaMicro’s SM10000-XE server. Intel worked with SeaMicro on the server, but analysts have said that AMD will ultimately swap Intel’s chips with its own chips.
AMD is pitching the Opteron 3200 as a “low-cost-per-core” product. The chips are priced between US$99 and $129, while Intel’s E3 chips are priced between $189 and $885. MSI, Tyan, Fujitsu and Dell are expected to launch Web servers and dense systems based on the chips.
AMD’s expanded product line provides an entry point to new markets, said Jim McGregor, chief technology strategist at In-Stat.
But the Opteron 3200 could be a misfit in servers if competing on price versus performance-per-watt, McGregor said. There is a growing interest in deploying low-power servers in data centers to cut energy costs, but the Opteron 3200 chips are comparatively power-hungry for such installations.
Is Apple Taking Work Conditions Seriously?
February 20, 2012 by admin
Filed under Consumer Electronics
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Apple “takes working conditions very seriously”, the firm’s CEO Tim Cook said at a conference yesterday.
Cook was speaking at a Goldman Sachs technology conference, according to Mac Rumours. He said the company is committed to making sure working conditions are up to standard, and that Apple’s top priority will be to eliminate underage workers. He added, “If we find a supplier that intentionally hires underage labor, it’s a firing offence.”
Cook said, “Apple takes working conditions very seriously, and we have for a very long time. Whether workers are in Europe or Asia or the United States, we care about every worker.”
He added, “I’ve spent a lot of time in factories, personally. Not just as an executive. I worked at a paper mill in Alabama and an aluminium plant in Virginia. Many of our top executives visit factories on a regular basis. We have hundreds of employees based there full time.
“We are very connected to the process and we understand working conditions at a very granular level. I realize that the supply chain is complex and I’m sure that you realise this.
“The issues around it are complex. Our commitment is simple: every worker has the right to a fair and safe work environment, free of discrimination, where they can earn competitive wages and they can voice their concerns freely. Apple’s suppliers must live up to this to do business with Apple.
“No one in our industry is doing more to improve working conditions than Apple. We believe transparency is so very important in this area.”
Yesterday, Apple asked the Fair Labor Association (FLA) to conduct audits at Foxconn’s factories in China. In a statement, Apple said that factories in Shenzhen and Chengdu will be audited at its request. Audits have already begun.
Samsung Plans To Go Low-End
February 13, 2012 by admin
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Samsung Electronics Co, the world’s top television maker, has seen TV sales firming up so far this year and plans to launch cheaper TVs, as demand for lower-end models increase, the head of its TV business said on Wednesday.
Demand for lower-end TVs has been increasing in recent months as major South Korean retailers such as E-Mart Co introduced flat-screen models that are as much as 40 percent cheaper through alliances with small local manufacturers.
“As long as there’s demand, we’re open to get into that segment,” Kim Hyun-suk, executive vice president of Samsung’s visual display division, told reporters.
“We’ve been preparing to introduce cheap models and have been studying to optimize production costs and retail prices. Those (cheap) models will be ready for sale in one or two months.”
Samsung, the most profitable TV maker, also introduced on Wednesday its highest-end premium set that it hopes will help boost profitability, as a fragile global economy threatens to sap demand growth this year after no growth in 2010.
The ES8000 model has voice, motion and face recognition functions, as well as 3D and Internet-enabled capabilities. The models, available in sizes of between 46 and 65 inches, will go on sale from this weekend in South Korea before a global launch in March.
Kim said Samsung’s TV sales so far this year have been stronger than a year ago and demand from China remained solid.
Apple’s Patent Hints At Tablet-Macbook Hybrid
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Apple has received approval from the U.S. Patent Office this week for a patent for a MacBook with a cellular antenna and a rotating display. Such a MacBook could have the super thin qualities of the MacBook Air and the cellular connectivity and touchscreen versatility of the iPad.
It could also strengthen Apple against the onslaught of Ultrabooks that PC makers are gearing up to unleash. “This officially announces to the Wintel camp that Apple now has the ability to match or beat the Ultrabook design that is to come to market in 2013 with the [Intel] Haswell processor,” declared Jack Purcher, of Patently Apple.
Intel announced the Ultrabook category of PC laptops in May. The line is squarely aimed at the MacBook Air. The first wave of Ultrabooks, based on existing Intel processors, has already begun to hit the market. The units are supposed to be priced under $1000 and be super thin–0.78 inches–or in the case of the HP Folio announced today, even less–0.70 inches.
Next year, the platform is expected to be advanced further with the introduction of units based on Intel’s Ivy Bridge processor. A third wave of Ultrabooks is planned for 2013. They would be based on the Haswell processor and consume half the power of today’s laptops. Some of them also will sport Windows 8 with its touchscreen-enabled Metro interface.