COUGAR 600M Gaming Mouse Review
COUGAR 600M Gaming Mouse Review
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Windows 10 Set to be 'Last Version of Windows'
Windows 10 is set to arrive this summer at some point, but apparently it's going to be the last version of the venerable OS. That is according to Jerry Nixon, an employee at Microsoft, who had this to say: "Right now we’re releasing Windows 10, and because Windows 10 is the last version of Windows, we’re all still working on Windows 10."
Apparently that means there's no follow-up to Windows 10 in the works right now, like with two years ago when Windows 10 was being worked on as Windows 8.1 rolled out. Microsoft is going to play up Windows as a service, which so far doesn't have any real information behind that statement. Windows 10 is a fundamental shift in how the company created an operating system, so it is feasible that it really is the last full OS and everything after is just an update to it. There's already a Windows 10.1 update in the works, so why not do similar updates later on as technology changes? Apple already does that with OS X, so Microsoft could do the same with Windows 10. Various software for Windows 10 is being designed to handle regular or even monthly updates, such as Mail, Office, and Xbox. That could be the strategy for the OS as a whole, which is not a bad idea if it means things like greater expandability, acceptance, and compatibility.
Whatever the exact plan is for Windows 10 now and in the future remains to be seen, but I imagine a yearly or so upgrade would be far preferrable than a brand new OS every two or three years.
Source: The Verge
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Geralt Goes on the Offensive in Latest Trailer for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Less than two weeks to go before The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt arrives for gamers to sink their teeth into, and to help pass the time we have a new trailer for you. RAGE and STEEL is the name of it, and basically, Geralt is pissed. There's death and destruction opening it up, with Geralt staring at a town that is on fire before some bandits decide to take on the White Wolf. The scene then shifts to some different opponents about to take on Geralt, with the witcher now in a different set of armor. Up next Geralt dons full plate to go off against what looks to be a drake, so the stronger armor is probably a good idea there. A fire golem appears in another scene, and then it's off to the fighting. Geralt slices, dices, spins, leaps, parries, dodges, shoves, and pretty much every manner of attack you can think of, he performs. And it is awesome.
Source: YouTube
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Proof-of-concept Malware Targets GPUs
Information about two proof-of-concept pieces of malware reveals that the software targets the GPU, rather than the more common CPU attack vector. Targeting the GPU allows the malware to "run without the usual software hooks or modifications malware makes in the operating system kernel. Those modifications can be dead giveaways that a system is infected." Jellyfish is a Linux based rootkit that uses the OpenCL API to target both AMD and NVIDIA GPUs, but requires the system to have a dedicated graphics card. The Demon keylogger is based off a 2013 research paper titled You Can Type, but You Can’t Hide: A Stealthy GPU-based Keylogger. In the paper the researchers stated, "The evaluation of our prototype implementation shows that a GPU-based keylogger can effectively record all user keystrokes, store them in the memory space of the GPU, and even analyze the recorded data in-place, with negligible runtime overhead."
Source: Ars Technica
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Nanotube Films Made Better by Microcombing
Carbon nanotubes are an amazing material with great potential for various applications. This is thanks to their amazing strength and electrical properties, but getting them into usable forms can be difficult. Researchers at North Carolina State University and the Suzhou Institute of Nano-Science and Nano-Biotics in China have succeeded in developing a method to create large films of CNTs stronger than any that came before it.
Carbon nanotubes are a form of pure carbon and are among the strongest materials known to man, despite also being among the smallest. To utilize this strength, they have to be made into larger structures, like threads or films. The better aligned the nanotubes are within these structures, the better the properties of the final structure will be, but aligning a bunch of nanotubes a thousand times smaller than human hair tends not to be easy. Yet that is what the researchers have achieved by exploiting the imperfections of surgical blades. To the naked eye, these blades will look perfectly straight, but if one looks closer with a microscope, microscale fissures will become visible along the cutting edge. The researchers realized these fissures could be used as a kind of comb to straighten the nanotubes, just by drawing them over the blades.
The resulting films made from the microcombed nanotubes have more than double the tensile strength of regular CNT films, at over 3 gigapascals, compared to just 1.5, and some 80% better conductance. Despite that though, there is still room for improvement with this method. Right now though, the researchers are looking for an industry partner to help scale up the method for large-scale production, which, theoretically, should be easy.
Source: North Carolina State University
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Intel Launches the Haswell-EX Xeon E7 v3 Processor Family
The server and enterprise market is going to get a big boost, as the Intel Haswell-EX Xeon E7 v3 processor line has arrived. The Xeon E7 v3 processors feature 12 new chips, with the flagship Xeon E7-8890 v3 packing 18 cores, 36 threads, and 45MB of L3 cache. The other processors are all derived from that flagship beast, with the Xeon E7-8800 v3, Xeon E7-8870 v3, and Xeon E7-8860 v3 considered the advanced models (along with the flagship, of course). All of those have a 9.6 GT/s interconnect speed, DDR4/DDR3 support, and S8S scalability, with all featuring 18 cores, except for the E7-8860 V3, which has 16.
Moving down to S4S scalability are the 14-core Xeon E7-4850 v3 and 12-core E7-4830 v3, which have an 8 GT/s interconnect speed and DDR4/DDR3 support. Still on the S4S are the 10-core Xeon E7-4820 v3 and 8-core Xeon E7-4809 v3, with an interconnect speed of 6.4 GT/s and DDR4/DDR3 support. There are also the 10-core Xeon E7-8891 v3 and quad-core Xeon E7-8893 v3 for the enterprise and database markets, the 18-core Xeon E7-8880L v3 for low power servers, and the 16-core Xeon E7-8867 v3 for HPC.
Clock speeds range from 1.9GHz on the E7-4820 v3 to 3.2GHz on the E7-8893 v3, with Turbo speeds ranging from 2.7GHz on the E7-4830 v3 to 3.5GHz on the E7-8891 v3 and E7-8893 v3. The E7-4820 v3 and E7-4809 v3 do not have a Turbo frequency. TDPs range from 115W to 165W, a grand total of 1536GB of RAM is supported (although some S8S servers can handle up to 12TB), and all are 22nm parts. Prices go from $1,224 for the E7-4809 v3 all the way up to $7,175 for the flagship E7-8890 v3. All these Xeon E7 v3 CPUs are available now from selected manufacturers.
Source: WCCFtech and Intel ARK
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Intel Broadwell Core i5-5675C and Core i7-5775C CPUs Quietly Arrive with OEMs
Recently some OEMs have been listing pre-built PCs with new Intel Broadwell chips, which is a bit of a surprise considering the fifth generation parts had not received anything definitive about a launch date. This relatively quiet launch of the 14nm Broadwell chips means some people may get a surprise when browsing for all-in-one and mini PCs. The Intel Core i5-5675C and Core i7-5775C CPUs are the unlocked models, with that "C" a bit of a change from the familiar "K" SKUs. Broadwell parts will be available in Broadwell Y (Core M), Broadwell-HQ, and Broadwell-U lines as well to better fit what kind of needs fit the consumer, whether it's low-power laptops, Ultrabooks, all-in-ones, or desktop PCs. Desktop models will be available in BGA or LGA versions, with BGA being the soldered-in and LGA running on LGA 1150 sockets.
The Core i5-5675C and Core i7-5775C both have a 65W TDP, which is expected to increase once the Skylake series arrives. Broadwell is the last generation of chips with a fully integrated voltage regulator, as that will be changed on Skylake, too. What Broadwell does different compared to Haswell and other previous models is that it integrates eDRAM directly on the die to help boost the Iris Pro 6200 graphics. Anyone using the integrated graphics should see quite a nice boost in performance, so those on Ultrabooks or mini PCs should be happy. Broadwell is not seen as the direct successor to the current Haswell parts, as that is Skylake's job, but rather a sidestep for anyone in need of a new PC right now.
The Intel Broadwell processors will be arriving soon at your favorite (r)etail outlets, although an exact date is not known. Currently there are just some OEMs using them, although it won't be for long considering Skylake is set to arrive later this fall. Skylake also uses the new LGA 1151 socket and a new motherboard line, so Broadwell is the last of LGA 1150 processors to still use in your current motherboard.
Source: WCCFtech
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Hardware Roundup: Thursday, May 7, 2015, Edition
The week is drawing to a close, but not before we have some items to help get you through this Thursday. There is a review of the Zalman Z11 Neo case, a mid-tower model that offers a rather unique appearance and a wealth of features. If storage is what you need, then perhaps the HyperX Predator M.2 PCIe G2 x4 480GB SSD is the solution for you. The Scythe Ashura CPU cooler gets tested to see how well it can keep your CPU at a reasonable temperature. Wrapping up today's items is a look at both the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge smartphones to see what kind of a difference there is between the two and how they stack up to the competition.
Cases
Zalman Z11 Neo Mid-Tower @ Benchmark Reviews
Storage/Hard Drives
HyperX Predator M.2 PCIe G2 x4 480GB SSD @ LanOC Reviews
CPU Cooling
Scythe Ashura @ ThinkComputers
Mobile
Samsung Galaxy S6 & S6 Edge @ TechSpot
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Risen 3: Titan Lords - Enhanced Edition Announced for PS4
About a year after it first released, Risen 3: Titan Lords is going to be coming to the PlayStation 4 as an Enhanced Edition. This new edition will include all of the DLC content already released, and graphics comparable to or better than the original PC release on "Ultra" settings. These visual improvements come by way of higher resolution textures, new post processing effects (bokeh depth of field and HDR bloom effect), and a new volumetric cloud system. It will run at 1080p and 30 FPS on the console.
Risen 3: Titan Lords – Enhanced Edition for PS4 is set to release digitally on August 21, 2015, for $39.99.
Source: Deep Silver
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Coming Closer to Quantum Computers with New Chip Design
As powerful as our computers get, there are some things they will simply never be able to do because the operations involved are too complicated. For many of these problems, quantum computers may be able to provide the solutions, but we are not able to build such a computer. We are getting closer all the time though with new developments, such as a new chip architecture set to appear in the Journal of Applied Physics.
The key to quantum computers is the use of quantum bits, or qubits, which are able to represent both 0 and 1 at the same time, as opposed to electronic bits that are one or the other. There are many candidates for qubits, including ions trapped in vacuum chambers that lasers manipulate, but it is difficult to scale up the technologies involved. This is because the electrodes needed to create the trapping fields are attached to the perimeter of the chip, which has only so much room. The researchers' new solution was to switch to a ball grid array (BGA), like some computer chips use. This moves the electrodes from the perimeter to the more spacious area of the chip, significantly increasing the density of the connections.
Besides the shift to BGA, the researchers also changed the kind of capacitors commonly used from surface or edge capacitors to trench capacitors, and rewired the connections. While this is a large and valuable step forward, there is still a lot of work to be done before quantum computers can come to be.
Source: EurekAlert!
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Project CARS Only Requires 17GB of Storage to Install
Project CARS, which is officially available for consumers to purchase and download starting today, only requires 17GB of storage space to be installed. This is quite amazing, given the level of detail that the game offers concerning in-game objects and environments. Compared to other recently released gaming titles, 17GB of required storage space looks miniscule. For example, Titanfall requires 48GB, Assassin’s Creed: Unity requires 50GB, Battlefield: Hardline requires 60GB, and GTA V requires 65GB of space. Obviously these games are quite different from Project CARS, which is developed by Slightly Mad Studios, but the fact remains that 17GB is relatively small for a game that includes so much detail surrounding its content.
Source: TweakTown
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Mushkin Announces Expansion of REACTOR Series and Ghost Recon Phantoms Promotion
Mushkin, an industry-leading designer and manufacturer of high-performance and mission-critical computer products, has officially announced that it is expanding its REACTOR SSD series. Starting on May 11, 2015, the REACTOR product line will offered in 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB capacities, enabling enthusiasts and professionals to experience the best computing experience available. The 1TB version of the Mushkin REACTOR SSD has already been available for some time and has received the AnandTech Recommended and TweakTown Editor’s Choice Award. The Director of Product Management at Mushkin Enhanced MFG, Brian Flood, stated that "At Mushkin we have always focused on not only helping enthusiasts push the limits of their PCs, but we've taken it to the next level, by providing quality solutions that deliver levels of performance that have earned Mushkin its place as one of the top SSD manufacturers."
Alongside the announcement, Mushkin also revealed that consumers who purchase select Mushkin products through Newegg will receive a $30 game code for Ghost Recon Phantoms. The code, which is available for a limited time, allows gamers to purchase game upgrades to improve their overall experience. The announcement comes just weeks after Mushkin originally announced its Ghost Recon Phantoms marketing campaign.
Source: Press Release
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