NZXT Phantom Review
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Intel Shows Off Silicon Photonics Link with Speeds Up to 50Gbps
Intel has shown off one of its latest projects that has some staggering speed numbers with it. Now, Intel has been trying for years to replace all that copper wiring in a computer with beams of lights. A few years ago it hit the 40Gbps mark and now Intel has just hit the 50Gbps mark which sets a new milestone for electronic signal transmission. The process is called Silicon Photonics Link and it uses integrated lasers to carry data. The link can move data over long distances and at much faster speeds compared to copper cabling. The 50Gbps speed would be the equivalent of an entire HD movie being transfered each second. The current copper cabling used in the construction of computers has a maximum length it can reach before data is degraded too much. With all the information being passed in beams of light, this will allow computers to be built using fiber optics to help carry data with no loss at long distances. One possible application is a wall-sized 3D display at such a high resolution that the people appear to be actually in the room with you. Another one is for datacenters to be spread out across longer distances, like throughout an entire university campus, instead of being confined to one room while still providing faster data access and less energy usage.
The technology is still years away from commercial applications but it is good to see so much progress in something that can play a vital role in shaping the construction of future computers.
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Several New Products Released by Apple
Today Apple announced updates to the iMac, Mac Pro, and LED Cinema Display product families along with two new products. Both the the iMac and Mac Pro lineups have been expecting updates for sometime now, however the new systems did not receive USB 3.0 or the faster FireWire as recent rumors had suggested. The iMac family does however include the Intel Core i3, i5 and i7 processors which have been seen several times here on OCC. The Mac Pro, a customizable desktop aimed at audio and video professionals, now include quad and hexa-core Intel Xeon Processors with up to 32 GB of memory. To complement the power on the Mac Pro Apple also released a 27-inch LED Cinema Display with a 2560x1440 resolution and a 178 degree viewing angle.
The two new products introduced by Apple today include a trackpad designed for the desktop. The 'Magic Trackpad' is 80 percent larger than the standard trackpads found on the MacBook, and brings full multitouch gestures to the desktop.
Probably the most interesting of all the products released by Apple today is the new Apple Battery Charger. For $30 it includes 6 NiMH (nickel-metal hydride) batteries, which Apple says will maintain a high capacity for hundreds of charges and has a life of up to 10 years. Apple says the charger is compatible with NiMH batteries from other manufacturers as well. If you are the energy conscious type, you might like to know that the Apple Battery Charger only uses 30 mW of power on standby, compared to the average charger's 315 mW power draw.
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- Apple Releases New iMac Systems With Intel i3, i5 and i7 Processors
- Mac Pros With Up To 12 Cores Announced
- New 27-inch LED Cinema Display Released
- Apple Releases Magic Trackpad
- Apple’s New AA Battery Charger
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GF104 Coming to the GTX 470?
The GF104 is a powerful chip that runs cooler and is much more efficient than the GF100. The GF104 is only used in the GTX 460 while the GF100 is used in the GTX 465, 470, and 480. Now it seems NVIDIA is gearing up to put the GF104 in the GTX 470 to make it run better, perform higher, and stay much cooler. Keep this under rumor for now as NVIDIA has not confirmed anything, but it does make sense to pack a GF104 chip into the GTX 470 since the 470 has relatively low clocks compared to the GTX 460. The GTX 460 has one full cluster disabled though even with the cluster enabled, a GF104-based GTX 470 would only have 384 SP and be on a 256-bit interface. The GTX 470 has 448 SP and is on a 320-bit interface, so a GF104 version would need to make up the deficit by having a higher clock speed. If this card does come to fruition, odds are that it will be called a GTX 475 and should easily outperform the current GTX 470.
There are also rumors that NVIDIA will replace the GTX 480 with a dual GPU card consiting of two GTX 460s on a single PCB. If that comes to pass, then NVIDIA is taking ATI's approach to video cards since the high end from ATI essentially has two HD 5850s on one PCB.
The GTX 460 has basically replaced the GTX 465 so I can see why NVIDIA wants to replace the existing GF100 products with new GF104 ones. Only question is if NVIDIA had the GF104 ready to go so quickly after the launch of GF100, why launch three cards with it when it could be replaced by a more efficient product mere months later?
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GameStop Purchases Kongregate
When it comes to gaming news today, not much can top the release of the hotly anticipated StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, but this comes close. The world's largest video game retailer, GameStop, has purchased online gaming site Kongregate for an undisclosed amount. Kongregate is one of the leading online gaming portals, offering thousands and thousands of free games (the current count, as of this writing, is 31,070 free games), along with great community features like badges, levels, and development tools. On the developer side of things, anyone can create and upload a game, with the best rated games making it to the homepage and eventually getting badges, which helps generate thousands to millions of plays. Furthermore, developers can earn money for their games, earning a share of advertising and microtransaction revenue, as well as competing for weekly and monthly prizes. Through it all, developers retain full rights to their game!
The announcement that a retail chain like GameStop is purchasing a site that thrives on offering free content is disconcerting for many, but Kongregate CEO Jim Greer assures us that when it comes to free games, nothing is changing. What the purchase does mean is that things should get done faster. GameStop has a lot more employees than Kongregate's five programmers, so a lot of the "cool stuff" Kongregate had planned for awhile may actually see the light of day a lot faster. Furthermore, Jim believes that they may even integrate GameStop's new PowerUp rewards program, providing even more benefits to members. And as far as developers go, partnering with a retail giant like GameStop should provide more exposure.
Change is a scary thing, especially when it's a buyout, but Jim assures us that this will be a good thing - only time will tell. I have been a member of Kongregate since 2007, and it's been my de facto site when I need a game to play during lunch, while watching television, or simply when I need a break and don't feel like firing up a "real" game. I hope, for the sake of Kongregate's employees, the indie developers, and of course, us gamers, that this will only be beneficial. In any case, congratulations to Jim and his crew for creating such a great site and for selling it, presumably, for a nice profit.
You can read about the announcement here, as well as watch a video of Jim Greer discussing the sale.
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