Three totally different servers in one test: the dual Xeon X5670 HP DL380 G7, the quad Xeon X7560 SGI Altix UV10 and the Quad Opteron 6174 Dell R815. Three servers with a different platform and built from a different vision. Why place them in one comparitive article? Because they can all be used for the same tasks: virtualization building blocks, ERP server, or HPC number cruncher. Our focus is on the first task, as we went through a massive battery of performance and power consumption measurements.
Read More ...
Apple's iPod Touch (2010) Review, Not a Poor Man's iPhone 4
Last week Apple announced a complete overhaul of its iPod lineup including a new Shuffle, a new Nano (with multitouch screen) and a new iPod Touch. While the nano looks cool, it’s pricey and honestly I haven’t been interested in a dedicated MP3 player in about a decade.
The new iPod Touch however piqued my interest. With many of the same specs as the iPhone 4, I wondered if the new Touch might be a neat way to get most of the functionality of the 4 without the albatross of a contract AT&T hangs around your neck.
It turns out there’s a lot more than a cellular radio that separates the new iPod Touch from the iPhone 4.
Read More ...
ARM Aims at Intel, Cortex A15 Headed for Smartphones, Notebooks and Servers
Architectural details are light, and ARM is stating that first silicon will ship in 2012 at 32/28nm. Here’s what we do know. The Cortex A15 will be a multi-core CPU, designs can have as few as a single core but most will have 2 - 4 cores depending on their target market.
The cores will all be superscalar out-of-order designs and support Long Physical Address Extensions (greater than 32-bit memory addressing). I suspect the cores will be an evolution of the Cortex A9. The Cortex A15 will support extensions to the ARMv7 instruction set to enable hardware virtualization support (among other things).
The Cortex A15 will feature private L1 caches but a shared L2 cache (similar to the A9). The L2 cache is stated to be low latency and up to 4MB in size, although smartphones will probably see smaller versions. ARM is promising FP and SIMD performance improvements, but it isn't saying anything more than that.
Read on for more on ARM's plans for the Cortex A15.
Read More ...
Toshiba Portege R700: A Truly Ultraportable 13.3"
Read More ...
Going Out of Order: Samsung Announces Orion Cortex A9 SoC
Last night LG announced that it would be using NVIDIA's Tegra 2 in its Optimus Series smartphones starting in Q4 2010. The most exciting part of Tegra 2 is its use of two ARM Cortex A9 cores. The Cortex A9 is ARM's first out-of-order architecture and should deliver a performance boost similar, at worst, to what we saw in the ARM11 to Cortex A8 transition. But NVIDIA isn't the only company working on a Cortex A9 SoC.
Samsung was unwilling to talk about its Cortex A9 plans at CES, but today it announced the successor to Hummingbird: Orion. Samsung's 45nm Orion SoC implements two Cortex A9 cores running at 1GHz, each with a 64KB L1 cache (32KB+32KB) and a large 1MB shared L2 cache. At 45nm peak power consumption should be greater than the Cortex A8 based Hummingbird, but average power consumption may be lower thanks to the improvement in IPC that accompanies the Cortex A9.
The GPU specs are unusual. Samsung lists Orion as having up to 5x the GPU performance of its previous generation SoC (presumably Hummingbird). We just finished talking about how great Hummingbird's PowerVR SGX 540 is, but to outperform it by 5x would require a serious GPU. I'm not sure I believe Samsung's claim. It is interesting that 5x is the same number NVIDIA used in its announcement yesterday.
TI is also working on a Cortex A9 based SoC - the OMAP 4. Due to ship in Q4 2010 with devices available in 2011 the OMAP 4 series sounds a lot like Orion. However OMAP 4 will use the SGX 540, not whatever higher performing option Samsung turned to for Orion.
If you like you keep your smartphones for a while, it seems like now would be the worst time to buy. Within 6 months you should have much faster options at your disposal (Update: it's unclear when Orion will ship, but at least NVIDIA will have dual core A9 based products in the market by then).
Read More ...
Caring for the Elderly: iOS 4.1 Speed Boost on the iPhone 3G
iPhone 3G users have been unhappy, and rightfully so. When iOS 4.0 debuted, we talked about new features like multitasking for the iPhone 3GS and how much faster the camera application felt compared to iOS 3.1.3. iPhone 3G customers, however, gained little in terms of new features from the update except newfound slowness.
Discontent has been growing, with a number of users pointing fingers at Apple and citing planned obsolesnce as a possible motive. Steve Jobs later promised that iPhone 3G performance would improve, and that an update was coming to address speed on the aging platform.
Read More ...
AMD Reveals Competitive Fusion APU TDPs: 9W for netbooks, 18W for notebooks
The first Fusion project we heard about was Llano for mainstream notebooks/desktops. Llano will integrate a 32nm derivative of the current Phenom II architecture with a relatively capable DirectX 11 AMD GPU. Llano isn't due out until sometime in 2011 so details are still light. However, AMD just released some details on its lower end Fusion APUs that will begin shipping in Q4 2010 (OEM system availability in Q1 2011).
Bobcat is the CPU core. Last month we went in depth on its architecture. In short, Bobcat is an out-of-order alternative to Intel's Atom that has the potential to offer significantly higher performance. But since we're talking about APUs, Bobcat is only a part of the equation.
AMD will be shipping two Bobcat based APUs in Q4: Ontario and Zacate. Both APUs implement two Bobcat cores and a DX11 AMD GPU with an undisclosed number of cores. Ontario is aimed at netbooks/nettops while Zacate can be used in ultra thins and value notebooks/desktops.
Today at IFA in Berlin AMD announced the Ontario and Zacate TDPs as well as shared a photo of a low power AMD Fusion APU (possibly Ontario?). The Ontario APU is rated at 9W, while Zacate is rated at 18W.
Read on for more analysis of AMD's announcement.
Read More ...
Apple Has a Dramatic Change of Heart, Reallows Flash-Ports
Perhaps company was visited by a very early Christmas ghost -- or more likely is desperate to beat Android
Read More ...
Ferrari's Next Generation "Halo Car" to be a Hybrid
Enzo successor to get HY-KERS hybrid system
Read More ...
Report : Windows Phone 7 to Launch October 11
New OS offers a fresh reinvention of the smartphone
Read More ...
Microsoft Granted Permanent Ownership of 276 Botnet Domains
The domains now owned by Microsoft were part of the Waledac botnet
Read More ...
T-Mobile G2 is Official, Pre-Sale Starts This Month
First HSPA+ device is apt successor to G1
Read More ...
Nissan Announces Dates and Locations for Nationwide Leaf Tour
Drivers can schedule test drives at each tour location
Read More ...
Report Released by BP Reveals Causes of Gulf Oil Spill
A four-month investigation shows that poor decision-making and judgement led to the explosion
Read More ...
IOS 4.1 Jailbreak to Come Via Bootrom Exploit
Dev Team has found an exploit for iOS 4.1
Read More ...
Polar Ice Loss Estimates Shrinking Faster Than Icecaps Themselves
Global warming proponents are forced to revise their predictions in the face of mounting evidence
Read More ...
Apple Releases iOS 4.1 for iPhone, iPod touch
IOS 4.1 fixes proximity sensor issue on iPhone 4
Read More ...
Google Launches "Google Instant" Search
Google Instant will save 2 to 5 seconds per search
Read More ...
9/08/2010 Daily Hardware Reviews -- Cooler Master HAF 912 Edition
DailyTech's roundup of hardware reviews from around the web for Wednesday
Read More ...
China Isn't as Willing to Subsidize Chevy Volt as U.S. Government
Volt will cost over $40k USD when it goes on sale in China later this year
Read More ...
Firefox 4 Beta 5 Hits, Gets Full GPU Support, HSTS, HTML5 Audio
Firefox is gearing up for a final release late this year
Read More ...
Creepy Crawlers Could Help Fight Superbugs
Antibiotics in cockroach brains could treat MSRA and E-Coli
Read More ...
Oracle's Ellison Unleashes War of Words Over Mark Hurd HP Lawsuit
Oracle CEO responds to suit against new Oracle Co-President Mark Hurd
Read More ...
Super Talent Debuts USB 3.0 Flash Drives with RAM Cache Tech
Ram Cache tech promises up to 300% performance improvement in some uses
Read More ...
Nikon Unveils Coolpix P7000, S80 Digital Cameras
P7000 is a high-end offering with the S80 featuring an OLED touchscreen
Read More ...
LG: We'll Have Dual-Core Smartphones By Year's End
The Optimus is primed to take on Samsung's Orion
Read More ...
LCD Filter Could Make Screens 400 Percent More Energy Efficient
A new grating pattern allows more light to pass through the filter to enhance efficiency
Read More ...
Researchers Hope to Shrink Room-sized Artificial Kidney, Make Implantable Device
Goal is to shrink implant to the size of a coffee cup
Read More ...
Google TV, Chrome OS Ready for Fall Battle With Apple TV, iPad
Competitors strategies mirror in TV market mirror their strategies in the smart phone market
Read More ...
Researchers Help Severely Paralyzed Humans "Speak" With Their Thoughts
New smaller, impenetrable microelectrodes could help paralyzed patients communicate safely
Read More ...
Android-powered HP PhotoSmart Printer With Detachable Tablet Revealed
HP's latest wireless printer features a detachable 7" display/tablet
Read More ...
Verizon's Galaxy S to Blast Off on Thursday
Bleeding-edge Android smartphone goes on sale Thursday at stores
Read More ...
Dell Gains PC Market Share as Acer Stumbles
"If you ain't first, you're last" - Ricky Bobby
Read More ...
Samsung Mobile Display Production Capacity to Get 10x Increase Next Year
Production will hit 30 million monthly with new facility
Read More ...
Oracle Co-President Replaced by Former HP CEO Mark Hurd
HP's former CEO finds a new home thanks to his friend and colleague Larry Ellison
Read More ...
No comments:
Post a Comment