We're Giving Away a Qualcomm MSM8660 Mobile Development Platform
Last month Brian put together a performance preview of Qualcomm's first dual-core SoC: the 1.5GHz MSM8660. The article was mostly focused on GPU performance as the new Adreno 220 is something we were very interested in. The first MSM8660 based smartphones will ship this year, but we benchmarked the SoC using Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon Mobile Development Platform (MDP).
What if you're an Android developer on a budget? Qualcomm was nice enough to provide us with a MSM8660 MDP to give away to one lucky reader. Read on for details on how to enter the contest.
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NVIDIA Synergy to Bring Optimus to Desktops
We first encountered NVIDIA’s Optimus Technology in February of last year. It has done wonders for laptop battery life on midrange systems, where manufacturers no longer need to worry about killing mobility by including a discrete GPU. Over the past fourteen months, we have seen the number of Optimus enabled laptops balloon from a few initial offerings to well over 50—and very likely more than 100. That sort of uptake is indicative of a successful technology and feature, and while we do encounter the occasional glitch it’s not much worse than the usual driver bugs we deal with.
If you were among those who thought, “This sounds like a great technology—when will they bring it to the desktop?” you’re not alone. So far it has only been available in laptops, and even then we haven’t seen any notebook vendors support the technology with anything faster than a GT 555M (i.e. there are so far no notebooks with GTX GPUs that support Optimus; the closest we get is Alienware’s M17x, which uses their own BinaryGFX switching technology).
Previously, the lack of switchable graphics on desktops—particularly something as elegant as NVIDIA’s Optimus—hasn’t been a big deal. That all changed when Intel released Sandy Bridge and introduced their Quick Sync technology. In our Sandy Bridge review we looked at Quick Sync and found it was the fastest way to transcode videos, providing up to double the performance of an i7-2600K CPU and potentially four times the performance of dual-core SNB processors. Unfortunately, there’s a catch: as we mentioned in our SNB review, Quick Sync works only if the IGP is enabled and has at least one display connected.
This limitation is particularly irksome as the only way you can get the IGP is if you use the H67 chipset (and give up the overclocking and enthusiast features offered by P67). The Z68 chipset should provide both overclocking and IGP support in the near future, but you’re still left with the IGP use requirement, making Quick Sync essentially unavailable to users with discrete GPUs—who are very possibly the most likely candidates for actually making use of the feature.
There appears to be some good news on the horizon. It’s hardly a surprise, as we’ve suspected as much since Optimus first reared its head, but VR-Zone reportsthat NVIDIA is finally bringing the technology to desktops. There’s a name change, as it will now go by the name Synergy (though you may also see it referred to as Desktop Optimus at times). Rumors are that Synergy will see the light of day late next month or in early June.
While it’s true that you can already get access to Quick Sync while using a discrete GPU using Lucid’s Virtu, there are a few differences worth noting. First and foremost, Synergy is software based, free, and requires no license agreement. Any recent NVIDIA GPU (400 or 500 series) should work on H67, H61 or Z68 chipset motherboards. (P67 does not support the SNB IGP and thus won’t work.) You’ll need the appropriate drivers and BIOS (and maybe VBIOS), but that should be it. No special hardware needs to be present on the GPU or motherboard and anyone with the appropriate GPU and motherboard chipset should have the option of using Synergy.
This is in contrast to Virtu, which only comes bundled with certain motherboards and incurs a price premium on those boards. However, Virtu still has the advantage of working with both AMD and NVIDIA GPUs. Owners of AMD GPUs will have to rely on Virtu or wait for AMD to come out with their own equivalent to Virtu and Synergy.
One final note is that both Virtu and Optimus/Synergy function in a similar fashion at a low level. There are profiles for supported games/applications, and when the driver detects a supported executable it will route the API calls to the discrete GPU. Here’s where NVIDIA has a big leg up on Lucid: they’ve been doing Optimus profiles for over a year, and while Lucid now lists support for 157 titles, NVIDIA has a lot more (and the ability to create custom profiles that generally work). You also don’t have to worry about new GPU drivers breaking support with Virtu, as NVIDIA handles all of that in their own drivers.
We’ll certainly be keeping an eye out for Synergy and will report our findings when it becomes available. In the meantime, gamers interested in Quick Sync as well as people looking to cut down on power use when they’re not using their GPU have something to look forward to. Now bring on the Z68 motherboards, Intel.
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HTC Thunderbolt Review: The First Verizon 4G LTE Smartphone
We've spent a long time testing Verizon's first 4G LTE enabled smartphone, the HTC Thunderbolt. We're finally ready with the complete review. It's got the fastest cellular connectivity around, and simultaneous voice and data to boot.
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Verizon 4G LTE: Two Datacards and a WiFi Hotspot Massively Reviewed
2011 is going to be a year dominated by fourth generation network everything—handsets, portable hotspots, datacards, and news of networks lighting up in each regional market. There’s a veritable soup of wireless network tech being billed as 4G, but far and away the most interesting suite of new network access technology is LTE—Long Term Evolution. We got the chance to play around with a number of Verizon’s upcoming LTE enabled phones and preview the carrier’s two launch LTE datacards at CES. Since then, we’ve spent a considerable amount of time with Verizon’s 4G LTE out in the wild. We’ve split the reviews down the middle—our HTC Thunderbolt review is one piece, everything else LTE is in here, including the Pantech UML290, Verizon USB551L, and Samsung SCH-LC11 WiFi hotspot.
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This Just In: HTC Droid Incredible 2 on Verizon
This morning HTC and Verizon announced the Droid Incredible 2 (aka Incredible S) will be up for sale starting on April 28, this Thursday, for $200 with a 2-year contract. Internally the Droid Incredible 2 uses the same Qualcomm MSM8655 Snapdragon SoC we've seen in other recent releases, including the HTC Thunderbolt. The 8655 combines a single Scorpion core running at 1GHz with an Adreno 205 GPU, all built on a 45nm process. The SoC has 768MB of LPDDR2 DRAM on-package.
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Additional Details on Sandy Bridge-E Processors, X79, and LGA2011
The latest Intel roadmap has come out, and it's already being discussed elsewhere, so we're going to weigh in with our own analysis of the content as there's plenty of interesting bits of information to sift through. We’ll be looking at other areas over the coming days, but today we’re going to start with the Sandy Bridge-E (SNB-E) processors. Sporting a new socket and chipset, the SNB-E CPUs will start showing up in Q4 this year. None of this is new, as we’ve known the general timeframe for the launch since our Sandy Bridge review, but we can now add some concrete specs. According to the roadmap, the initial SNB-E lineup will consist of three CPUs: two hex-core processors and one quad-core. We don’t have model numbers yet, but we do have most of the other pieces of information.
The Sandy Bridge-E Lineup | |||
Family | Core i7 Extreme | Core i7 | Core i7 |
Core/Thread Count | 6/12 | 6/12 | 4/8 |
Frequency | 3.3GHz | 3.2GHz | 3.6GHz |
Max SC Turbo | 3.9GHz | 3.8GHz | 3.9GHz |
L3 Cache | 15MB | 12MB | 10MB |
Overclocking | Fully unlocked | Fully unlocked | Limited unlock |
One interesting piece of information is that the roadmaps make no mention of integrated graphics or Quick Sync, suggesting the platform will be for discrete graphics only. That makes perfect sense on one level, as users likely to upgrade to such high-end systems are almost sure to have discrete GPUs. On the other hand, Quick Sync has proven very effective for video transcoding, providing up to a four-fold increase over CPU-based encoding, so the loss of the feature is unfortunate.
Intel hasn’t disclosed all of the various Turbo modes yet, but they have listed the maximum single-core Turbo speeds. Both the hex-core 3.3GHz and quad-core 3.6GHz top out at a maximum speed of 3.9GHz, and likely the hex-core chip can do 3.6GHz on QC workloads making it equal to or better than the QC chip on every potential workload. The 3.2GHz hex-core steps the maximum clocks speeds down 100MHz, along with cutting the L3 cache size. As with other i7 processors, all the new chips support Hyper-Threading, and while the hex-core chips will be fully multiplier unlocked the quad-core offering will be a “limited unlock”. The roadmap states that the limited unlock will allow up to six bins of overclocking above the maximum Turbo frequencies, which means that even that chip should be able to hit up to 4.5GHz (with appropriate cooling, motherboard, etc.)
Intel makes no mention of pricing at this time, but the new chips should follow familiar patterns. The i7 Extreme will replace the current i7-990X and target the familiar $1000 price point. Moving down, the 3.2GHz hex-core replaces the current i7-980 (which is set to replace the i7-970 in the near future), taking over the $550~$600 range. At the bottom of the SNB-E lineup is the quad-core 3.6GHz chip, which will take over from the i7-960 as well as providing a competitor to the i7-2600 in the sub-$300 market.
Chipset Comparison | ||
X58 | X79 | |
Processor Support | LGA1366 | LGA2011 |
PCIe Graphics | 2x16 or 4x8 (chipset) | 2x16 or 4x8 (CPU) |
PCIe Based Uplink to CPU for Storage | No | Yes (x4) |
USB 2.0 Ports | 12 | 14 |
SATA Total (6Gbps) | 6 (0) | 14 (10) |
Given the 2x16 PCIe lanes for graphics and quad-channel memory, we can account for most of the pinout increase relative to LGA1366 and LGA1155, and adding in these remaining storage PCIe lanes with a DMI link to the chipset should take care of the rest. Intel doesn't state whether they're using DMI or QPI, but DMI 2.0 only provides up to 20Gbps between the CPU and chipset, so supporting 10 SATA 6Gbps ports with fast SSDs would certainly saturate that.
That wraps up the consumer side of the SNB-E platform. Note that Intel will also have SNB-E Xeons launching in a similar timeframe. The bigger concern for us is that SNB-E continues the strengths of the Bloomfield/Gulftown processors but doesn’t address some of the weaknesses (i.e. lack of Quick Sync). SNB-E looks like a very capable processor, but if you’re willing to forego the current SNB lineup and wait for SNB-E, you’ll then have to contend with Ivy Bridge. That will be Intel’s first 22nm CPU and it’s scheduled for release in the first half of 2012, but that’s a story for a separate article. We’ll also have additional information on Atom CPUs and Intel SSDs in the near future.
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Dell's New Mobile Workstations: These Are The Laptops You're Looking For
Having had the chance to check out Toshiba's and HP's impending enterprise-class notebooks, more and more I'm convinced spending up is the way to go when it comes to buying a notebook that both looks and feels like quality. While Dell's Precision notebooks are still a little boxy and aren't quite the ladykillers the new HP EliteBooks are, there's still something very austere and functional about them that puts consumer-grade laptops from any manufacturer to shame. If you're one of the people that didn't much care for Dell's new XPS line, these may be for you.
Dell has announced two new mobile workstations, the Precision M4600 and M6600, 15.6" and 17.3" respectively. Both are based on Intel's Sandy Bridge platform, supporting up to 32GB of DDR3-1333 (16GB of DDR3-1600) in four DIMM slots along with ramping all the way up to the 55-watt Core i7-2920XM, and each offers a range of choices from AMD's FirePro Mobility GPUs and NVIDIA's Quadro GPUs. Best of all, Dell is offering bare-minimum 72% gamut displays on each of these notebooks along with an optional upgrade to an IPS RGB-LED display on the M4600. Let's break them down.
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The Motorola Xoom Giveaway, Final Round
We've given away three Motorola Xoom tablets already, this is your last opportunity to win one. Read on for details on how to enter.
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HP's New Workstations, Plus More DreamColor Offerings
When HP invited me to attend a press reception for their new mobile workstations, I was understandably confused. I'd just been out to San Francisco to see the new mobile workstations a little over a month before, what could possibly be so new that it needed to go under NDA? As it turns out, HP was saving the best for last.
We had the opportunity to review the HP EliteBook 8740w last year, complete with DreamColor IPS display, and it was...well, a monster. It's expensive, but it's the most powerful workstation-class notebook with the best quality screen you're ever going to find in a portable. The refresh of the 8740w, indeed the entire EliteBook w-series line, only amps up HP's game that much more. This entire line enjoys a gunmetal finish, strengthened glass touchpad, and ISV-certified graphics, and they've all been updated with Sandy Bridge processors, the latest mobile graphics from AMD and NVIDIA, and USB 3.0 connectivity. They're all expected to be available in May.
Starting small and working our way up, there's the EliteBook 8460w. HP offers this notebook with dual-core Intel i5 and i7 processors, up to 16GB of DDR3, and 14" matte screen resolutions at either 1366x768 or 1600x900. The 8460w also comes standard with the AMD FirePro M3900 with 1GB of GDDR3 and supports EyeFinity with up to four screens. MSRP starts at $1,299.
Finally, the big daddy: the EliteBook 8760w. The largest refresh of the EliteBook line also sees the least change. Users will be disappointed to know that while DreamColor is still available, the 8760w loses the 1920x1200 resolution of its predecessor in favor of the more common 1920x1080. That said, there are improvements: the 8760w supports all of Intel's new mobile i7 chips, allows for up to three internal hard drives (two bays plus the optical drive bay can be converted) in RAID 0, 1, or 5 configurations, and offers the fastest mobile workstation graphics on the market. It starts with an AMD FirePro M5950 with 1GB of GDDR5, but can be upgraded to an NVIDIA Quadro 3000M with 2GB of GDDR5, NVIDIA Quadro 4000M with 2GB of GDDR5, or an NVIDIA Quadro 5010M with an incredible 4GB of GDDR5. MSRP starts at $1,899.
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Toshiba's New Mobile Enterprise Line: The Portege R830 Sets the Standard
To say the Toshiba Portege R700 was well-received by the industry would apparently be an understatement; Toshiba brought a level of engineering acumen to bear on that machine heretofore unseen on their notebooks, and the success of the R700 and its descendants is now informing Toshiba's entire mobile business line.
Toshiba's older mobile business notebooks under their Tecra line weren't bad, but stylistically were well behind the times. Made chiefly of ABS plastic, these notebooks unfortunately didn't look like much of an improvement over, say, an HP G-series notebook, and they inherited some of the same problems that plagued Toshiba's consumer notebooks. The older Tecras are big and bulky, but since the success of the R700, Toshiba has taken the hint and completely rearchitected their 14" and 15.6" Tecra notebooks while updating the Portege. The result is the R800 series, split between the 14" Tecra R840, 15.6" Tecra R850, and 13.3" Portege R830.
I had the opportunity to see these new notebooks when I met with Toshiba representatives in person and they're a major step forward from older designs. These are sleek, clean, and smart designs. My chief concern is that Toshiba is releasing these notebooks into a market where they have to compete with the new designs by HP which are, frankly, stunning in person. My other complaint is a milder one, but nonetheless relevant: while the chiclet keyboard Toshiba has moved to with these new notebooks is a step in the right direction, the smooth, slightly-glossy finish on the keys isn't the best or most comfortable to use. It's true that traditional plastics may be more liable to wear out over time, but they're more comfortable in the interim. Still, competing workstation-class notebooks from Dell or HP are generally more expensive, and Toshiba is offering a great value in these notebooks. If anything, we just wish some of these innovations would trickle down into the consumer space.
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AMD's Radeon HD 6450: UVD3 Meets The HTPC
AMD’s Northern Islands family is composed of four GPUs, roughly divided into two categories. At the top is the 6900 series powered by Cayman, AMD’s first VLIW4 GPU. Below Cayman are three more GPUs, all derived from the VLIW5 Evergreen generation (5000 series). The first of these GPUs was Barts, which is the basis of the 6800 series that launched back in October of 2010. However up until now we haven’t seen the other two mystery GPUs in the retail market. Today that starts to change.
The final two Northern Island GPUs are Caicos and Turks. They have been available in the OEM market for both desktop and mobile products since the beginning of the year, but as is often common with low-end/high-volume GPUs, a retail presence comes last instead of first. AMD is finally giving Caicos its first retail presence today; it will be powering the new Radeon HD 6450. Packing all the upgrades we saw with Barts last year, it will effectively be replacing the Radeon HD 5450. But how well does AMD’s latest stand up in the crowded low-end market? Let’s find out.
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SETI Suspends Allen Telescope Array Operations
Reduced federal dollars and a state budget crisis has put the Allen Telescope Array into hibernation
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News Corp. Hopes to Get at Least $100M for MySpace
News Corp. to take $480 million to the chin
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Nokia Restructuring Begins, 4,000 Employees to be Fired
Company to shed 7,000 jobs by 2013
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Apple Admits it Botched iPad, iPhone "Location" Code, Says Fix is Coming
The distortion field is failing Capt'n! She can't take much more of it!
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Top Democrat Demands Answers From Sony About Possible Credit Card Theft
Customer addresses, passwords, usernames, and emails -- and possibly credit cards -- were all taken
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UPDATED: White iPhone 4 to Launch Thursday
Best Buy and Apple stores have begun to receive inventory of the devices
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Crucial Unveils New 25-nanometer m4 SSDs
SSDs are for consumers and business users
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NASA Turns Animal Fat Into Jet Fuel
Jet: Beef -- it's what's for dinner?
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Sony to PS3, PSP Owners: Your Credit Card Info May Have Been Stolen, Good Luck!
Playstation Network and billing system has been down for six days, company just now decide to let users know the worst
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Netflix Releases Favorable Q1 Results, Not So Favorable Q2 Predictions
Analysts predict a disappointing second-quarter due to the additional spending Netflix has had to do in order to increase and maintain a broad archive of content for consumers
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4/26/2011 Daily Hardware Reviews
DailyTech's roundup of hardware reviews from around the web for Tuesday
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iPad, iPhone Customers File Class Action Suit Over Tracking, Demand Refunds
Some iPhone and iPad users are taking less kindly to Job & Co.'s tracking than others
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Nexus S 4G Hits Sprint May 8, Droid Incredible 2 on Verizon April 28
Sprint and Verizon getting sweet new Android smartphones
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$27,990 Mitsubishi EV Qualifies for $7,500 Federal Credit, $4,500 Hawaii Rebate
Mitsubishi i launches first in Hawaii
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YouTube's VOD Service to Unleash Major Hollywood Flicks Within 2 Weeks
Google has struck a deal with Hollywood film studios, but no other details are being released at this time
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MIT Researchers Use Army of Subjugated Viruses to Build Solar Cells
Go my microscopic minions, go and power my empire!
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Motorola Xoom Sees Abysmal Sales, New Competitors Pour Salt on Its Wounds
New Android tablets put even more pressure on failing tablet
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Sony Announces Dual-screen Tablet
Because two is better than one
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Not So Fast: State of Washington Proposes $100 Annual Fee for Gas-Dodging EV Owners
Washington is looking to recoup lost revenue from EV drivers
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Jobs Claims That Apple Don't Track Customers, Droids Do
Apple CEO offers no evidence to support his claims
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Wikileaks Fires Back At U.S. Gov't With Wealth of Information
Leaked documents either vindicate the U.S. or offer proof of horrible wrong-doing depending on who you ask
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AT&T Offers Portable Cell Tower in a Suitcase
Cell site has half mile range
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4/25/2011 Daily Hardware Reviews
DailyTech's roundup of hardware reviews from around the web for Monday
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GM: Chevy Volt Owners Averaging 1,000 Miles Between Gas Stops
One owner has averaged 547 mpg by relying more on the battery pack for propulsion
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Sprint Takes Fight Against AT&T/T-Mobile Merger to Washington
Sprint is likely trying to force more concessions
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Researchers One Step Closer to Building Synthetic Brain
Carbon Nanotubes used to create a synapse circuit
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Available Tags:NVIDIA , HTC , Thunderbolt , 4G , Smartphone , Sandy Bridge , Motorola , Xoom , Radeon , Nokia , Apple , iPhone , Sony , NASA , Hardware , Tablet , Wikileaks ,
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