IT-Code-News: IT News Head Lines (AnandTech) 09/01/2014

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

IT News Head Lines (AnandTech) 09/01/2014

AnandTech

GIGABYTE BRIX Pro: A First Look at the Intel i7-4770R with Iris Pro HD 5200
Intel's high-end Crystal Well, the Core i7-4770R, has remained out of reach for consumers despite being introduced back in June 2013. While Apple's notebooks use the mobile Crystal Well parts, the 2013 iMac restricts itself to the Core i5-4570R. Users wanting to stay out of the Apple ecosystem have been left in the cold. Gigabyte is coming to the rescue with the launch of the BRIX Pro in the NUC form factor. The higher end SKU is equipped with the 65W TDP i7-4770R. Read on for our first look at the BRIX Pro along with some quick benchmark numbers.

USB-IF Updates Us on Type C Connector, Demonstrates USB SuperSpeed 3.1 Transfers

December of last year, the USB-IF announced that the definition of a new type of compact connector, dubbed type C, was underway. After pushback from the USB 3.0 micro-B connector, which added a lobe for the USB 3.0 data lines in addition to the signaling and port for USB 2.0 micro-B, many saw the definition of a type C connector as a way to learn from previous lessons and design a connector for better, sleeker industrial designs and with a new emphasis on mobile devices like tablets and smartphones.
The type C connector is still in development, and there aren't any current renderings or drawings, but what has been laid out are the design goals for the new connector design. The connector will be reversible, and able to negotiation which end is host or client (direction-agnostic) with type c connectorization at both ends, although cables will still come in type-A to type-C combinations for use with power adapters and current generation hosts. In addition it will be around the same size as the current USB 2.0 Micro-B connector and catered toward enabling the kinds of thin and sleek industrial designs smartphone, tablet, and even notebook OEMs desire. Type C will work with USB 3.1 and the power delivery specification, in addition to including some extra pins for growth and building out the standard in the future, the goal is to make this the connector for the next 10 years. In addition, the standard will define an intermediary adapter for going from current 2.0 or 3.0 micro-B connectors to the new type C connector. I'm told to expect the Type C connector to have drawings and be better understood probably before the next IDF.

In addition USB-IF showed two demos of USB 3.1, the new standard which enables up to 10 Gbps transfer speeds by doubling the clock rate and also moving to a more efficient 128b/132b coding scheme with just 3 percent overhead, compared to the 20% overhead in 10b/8b from USB 3.0. Both demos were implemented on FPGAs, and showed transfer rates right around 1 GB/s (8 Gbps), the second using Synopsis' FPGA implementation over current generation USB 3.0 cables.

Gallery: USB-IF Updates Us on Type C Connector, Demonstrates USB SuperSpeed 3.1 Transfers

AnandTech Mobile Show at CES 2014 Today
A couple of months ago Brian and I did a mobile show on video live from IDF where we discussed a lot of what was going on in mobile at the time. Intel was a huge help to us back then by providing support in the filming and production of the whole thing. It went over so well that Intel offered to help us out at CES this year to do the very same.
This evening (at 6PM PT) Brian and I will be at Intel's booth at the Las Vegas Convention Center (Central Hall, Booth #7252) filming the second on-location AnandTech Mobile Show. We'll be discussing all of the mobile announcements at CES thus far, including the Tegra K1 that was just announced earlier this week. If you're at CES, feel free to drop by Intel's booth to check out the show as it's being filmed. We'll post the show to our YouTube channel immediately afterwards so look for it tomorrow evening.
Update: It looks like we may get Intel's Hermann Eul (VP and GM of the Mobile & Comms group) to stop by for a candid interview on the show. This is going to be an exciting one. If there's anything you guys want us to discuss on the show let us know in the comments!

Ambarella Shows off Wearable A7LW Camera Platform for Google Helpouts

Wearables seem to already be the unofficial theme of CES 2014, which officially begins today. I stopped by Ambarella to see their latest and greatest, now well known for making the SoC and video encode platform inside the popular GoPro series of cameras, which are based on the A7 and A7L SoCs. Ambarella was showing off a newly announced camera platform designed in a partnership with Google for Google Helpouts, a service designed to enable inscrutable sessions through what looks like the Google Hangouts interface, between a teacher and learner.

The camera shown off is worn like a pendant, allowing the user to have full use of their hands while broadcasting and showing off whatever subject or task it is that they're performing. There's a magnetic quick detach strap on the lanyard as well to allow the user to move the camera around as well. The goal is to make the platform easy to use as a secondary camera for Helpouts, and pairs either to a smartphone or tablet, or directly to a local WiFi AP. Video quality looked very good, with minimal latency, and battery life at 1080p30 is around 1.5 hours. There's no onboard storage on this model since the application is streaming directly to the cloud, although the platform could easily store 1080p30 to an SD card or eMMC. Ambarella expects partners to adopt the platform and make cameras designed specifically for Helpouts.

The SoC is an A7L derivative called the A7LW (W for wearable) which consists of the same combination of ISP, video encoder up to H.264 High profile Level 5.0, 600 MHz ARM11 CPU, and built on a 32nm LP process, but further optimized for even lower power to squeeze it into wearables.
Ambarella also noted that the A9 SoC which will enable 4Kp30 (UHD) encode and decode that we saw at CES 2013 (and again in a more final form at this CES playing back some new 4Kp30 content at 35 Mbps H.264) is now in production and that devices will arrive this year with it inside.
Source: Ambarella

Gallery: Ambarella Shows off Wearable A7LW Camera Platform for Google Helpouts

Corsair Showcase a Technology Smörgåsbord at CES 2014

With another year comes another Consumer Electronics Show, held in Las Vegas every January. CES represents one of the three major showcasing events in the calendar, the other two being Computex held during June in Taiwan, and CeBIT held in Germany in March. Typically the North American and Asian shows hit hardest in terms of new releases and previews of upcoming equipment, and this year’s CES is no different. Corsair got in touch with us before the event regarding their new releases and previews, including new power supplies, cases, liquid cooling and keyboards. Here’s a sneak peak before we head on over to their booth.

NVIDIA GeForce 332.21 WHQL Drivers Now Available

After November's s release of their 331.93 beta drivers, NVIDIA’s has pushed out another WHQL version of their R331 driver with today's release of driver version 332.21.
As another iteration of the R331 series drivers, 332.21 is chiefly a bug fix and profile update driver. New SLI profiles have been added for Assetto Corsa, EVE Online (DX11), Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare, and Thief. Meanwhile this driver fixes several bugs, including a ShadowPlay resolution issue, browser crashes/freezes on Fermi GPUs, and issues with Microsoft Flight, Shadow Warrior, and Splinter Cell: Blacklist.
As usual, you can grab the drivers for all current desktop and mobile NVIDIA GPUs over at NVIDIA’s driver download page.

AMD/TI's DockPort Adopted As Official Extension to DisplayPort Standard

Shortly after the launch of Intel’s Thunderbolt interface in 2011, there was a great deal of discussion to be had in several camps over what the future of data and display interfaces may hold. Thunderbolt was a very intriguing interface, not only on a raw bandwidth basis but also on the basis of being able to reduce cable clutter by bringing data and display connectivity to a single small Mini DisplayPort connection. But with those capabilities came concern over the fact that Intel held exclusive control over the technology, and that its PCI-Express roots made the product more complex/expensive than what some manufacturers and system builders were willing to support.
The end result was that a few different ideas were floated as potential Thunderbolt competitors. AMD’s Lightning Bolt proposal ended up being the frontrunner in this field, proposing a very Thunderbolt-like connection that would have USB 3.0 and power routed alongside DisplayPort, rather than Thunderbolt’s PCI-Express plus DisplayPort. However since AMD’s concept demo two years ago at CES 2012 we’ve heard very little about Lightning Bolt. Until today, that is.

AMD's CES 2012 Lightning Bolt Concept

At CES 2014 the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) is announcing that Lightning Bolt, now operating under the name DockPort, is being adopted as an official extension to DisplayPort. This move effectively promotes DockPort from a 3^rd party standard riding on top of DisplayPort to a 1^st party standard that although not required for DisplayPort compliance, now has the backing of the entire VESA rather than just AMD and Texas Instruments. Equally important, like DisplayPort itself DockPort is going to be royalty free, opening the door for device makers and chip makers alike to implement it at-cost, without paying additional fees.
With DockPort the VESA is initially targeting a slightly different series of use cases than what Intel and Apple have done with Thunderbolt, both for technical and pragmatic reasons. Whereas Thunderbolt is being used to supersede USB 3.0 in some cases, as DockPort is based on USB 3.0 there’s little need to supersede USB 3.0 as far as data connectivity is concerned. Rather DockPort will be focused on single-cable connectivity – and as implied by the DockPort name – as a docking interface for tablets and laptops. The latter in particular owing to the fact that DockPort carries power alongside its data and display components.
As we’ve already seen with Thunderbolt products such as Apple’s Thunderbolt Display, there are definitely some good arguments to be had for offering a single combined data/display interface, as the continued shift from desktops to laptops has made monitors as docking stations an increasingly attractive option. Furthermore because DockPort provides power as well data, it should be possible to surpass Thunderbolt here and go truly single-cable on tablets and laptops, with the DockPort providing everything a laptop needs. However it remains unclear just how much power the standard will be able to provide to host devices, and consequently how big of a device can be powered through DockPort.

DockPort's potential: monitors as laptop docks

Meanwhile on the technical side of matters, while there isn’t a final specification to have in hand quite yet (finalization is expected in the second quarter), DockPort looks very similar to AMD’s initial Lightning Bolt proposal. This means we’re looking at DisplayPort 1.2 with USB data multiplexed into the connection. DisplayPort 1.2 tops out at effective data rate of 17.2Gbps, with the DisplayPort display stream and the USB data stream sharing the connection. At the same time while DockPort cables won’t be identical to DisplayPort cables, the VESA has confirmed that DockPort will offer passive cables, allowing for DockPort cabling to be cheaper than the relatively expensive active cables that Thunderbolt requires.
From a functionality perspective, due of the muxing of DisplayPort and USB the amount of bandwidth available to data devices will depend on in part the amount of bandwidth leftover after connected displays have consumed their share. Practically speaking this means that we expect AMD’s earlier claims to remain true, and that DockPort won’t be able to quite keep up with a native USB 3.0 connection. Meanwhile because this is USB based, this also means that manufacturers will be able to include just about any type of USB peripheral in their docks/monitors, including USB audio controllers, USB based NICs, and USB hubs, for all the benefits and drawbacks USB provides.
Meanwhile in an interesting twist, due to the drawn out development of DockPort, the first DockPort controller is already out ahead of the specification itself. TI’s HD3SS2521 controller was unveiled back in 2013 when AMD and TI were still going it alone on DockPort, and is being used as the basis of the final standard. Until the standard is in hand it’s not clear quite how quickly DockPort devices will be available, but with TI already having a controller on the market the turnaround time should be much shorter than most other VESA standards (where the specification has come first and the silicon second).

As for how widely DockPort will be adopted, it’s going to be a wait-and-see affair. Thunderbolt has seen little success outside of the Mac realm, and while the idea behind DockPort/Thunderbolt is very sound and useful, this doesn’t guarantee its adoption. Outright inertia carries a lot of weight in the PC industry and in the meantime plain DisplayPort is still relatively uncommon on laptops and mobile devices, especially outside of workstation grade laptops.
On the other hand, having an open standard opens the doors to ultimately having multiple vendors with competing DockPort controllers, which offers the potential to keep controller costs closely in check. All the while the aforementioned passive cabling will bring down total costs even further. The use of USB instead of PCI-Express should also make DockPort more Windows-friendly than Thunderbolt, as USB is already hot-plug friendly as opposed to Thunderbolt requiring an additional layer of drivers to make PCI-Express behave properly with hot-plugging.
Wrapping things up, AMD and TI will be showing off their initial work on DockPort at CES 2014, showcasing a version of the AMD Discovery concept tablet with DockPort functionality. Otherwise we should have more launch details on DockPort once the specification is finalized next quarter.

CES 2014: EVGA Announces Its First Gaming Mouse Complete with Real Carbon Fiber Trim
EVGA gets into the gaming mouse market

CES 2014: Sony Announces Z1S, Z1 Compact
New devices impress, but leave something to be desired in each case

CES 2014: "PlayStation Now" Cloud Service Brings Old PS Games to Various Devices
The closed beta will begin at the end of January, and the full release is expected this summer

CES 2014: Mushkin Adds 480GB USB SSD to Ventura Ultra Line
There was no mention of price

CES 2014: TrackR Helps You Find Those Lost Keys
Smartphone apps help you solve a common problem

CES 2014: Next Generation Audi TT’s “Virtual Cockpit” Pictured
Audi's new virtual cockpit is full of win

Quick Note: Apple Grabs $10 Billion in 2013 App Store Downloads
$1 billion of that came from December alone

CES 2014: Buffalo Rolls Out 1TB MiniStation Air, Wirelessly Streams Media to 8 Devices
Buffalo's MiniStation Air can also serve as a portable battery and a Wi-Fi hotspot

Analysts: Samsung Smartphone Sales for 2014 May be Slowed by Apple
Apple's new contract with China Mobile and the release of iPhones with larger screens could hit Samsung's sales

CES 2014: Mophie Space Pack Brings Built-in Battery, Storage for iPhone 5/5s
Mophie Space Pack is available in 16GB or 32GB sizes

Gaming Console Ban Temporarily Lifted in China
It's not clear for how long

Gartner: 1.1 Billion Android Smartphones, Tablets Expected to Ship in 2014
This represents a 26 percent boost from 2013's total

CES 2014: Toshiba's New Dual Camera Module Allows You to Refocus After Taking a Pic
Samples of the TCM9518MD are available now in the U.S. only for $50 a pop

CES 2014: Intel Changing McAfee Name to "Intel Security"
The company is also offering certain McAfee Security components for free on Android and iOS

Samsung Outs 12.2" Galaxy NotePRO and TabPRO Tablets at CES
Samsung unveils new tablets at CES

Available Tags:GIGABYTE , Intel , USB , AnandTech , Google , NVIDIA , GeForce , WHQL , EVGA , Gaming , Sony , SSD , Audi , Apple , Samsung , Smartphone , iPhone 5 , iPhone , Android , McAfee , Galaxy ,

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