Archive for December, 2010

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BIOSTAR TH67+ Motherboard Preview

December 21st, 2010
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BIOSTAR MICROTECH INT’L CORP., a professional manufacturer of motherboards today introduces its main stream product “TH67+”. Though the performance of Intel’s Sandy Bridge processor has not been formally revealed yet, a sneak preview of its new P67/H67 series chipset was given, and each major motherboard brand showcased his own P67/H67 motherboard eagerly. As a leading motherboard supplier, BIOSTAR officially released its latest H67 chipset based motherboard “TH67+” which also supports BIO-Remote2 and Charger Booster features.

The BIOSTAR “TH67+” motherboard adopts a black PCB small-plate design, uses the newest Intel H67 chipset, and supports the upcoming Intel socket1155 processor. Its power supply incorporates the use of a reasonably designed 5-phase power supply, with all-solid 100% X.D.C solid-state capacitors. As for the memory, the motherboard provides four DIMM slots, supports bi-channel DDR3-1333, and is designed to have a phase for memory and power supply so as to ensure stability under high frequency working conditions. With regard to its extended slot, the motherboard provides two PIC-E x16 2.0 display card slots, and supports x16/x4 dual-card mode, with one PCI-E x1 slot and one PCI slot additionally. “TH67+” also provides multiple I/O interfaces, two USB 2.0 + PS/2, HDMI+DVI+D-sub, two USB 3.0 + RJ45 Gigabit NICs, and 3 ports of 6 sound track HD audio outputs.

“TH67+” motherboard integrates the exclusive BIOSTAR BIO-Remote 2 remote control technique and connects the fashionable smart phone system with the HD computer such that smart phones (iPhone or Android) can easily and remotely control the HD computer equipped with the BIOSTAR motherboard, thereby realizing almost all applications of the computer, such as the remote control mode, mouse mode, PPT mode and BIOSTAR function mode. It is multi-functional to master high definition in comparison with the first generation BIO-Remote 1 which only supports media-centered function.

BIOSTAR “TH67+” motherboard completely moves the DIY computer to the living room from the bedroom, and thoroughly enriches the lives of the HTPC users. The new generation BIO-Remote2 function and Blue-ray audio effect are also incorporated into the HTPC features so as to make the HTPC users easily enjoy the added-values brought about by the new BIOSTAR motherboard. Meanwhile, the digital terminal products of the users are well connected with the DIY hardware products so as to realize the purpose of interconnectivity, affectivity and ease-of-use.

Source:http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=28093

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Natale d’oro per e-commerce e computer

December 21st, 2010
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Agli americani piacciono i computer, soprattutto se venduti online. Laptop e ammennicoli elettronici appartenenti alla grande categoria dei dispositivi computerizzati capeggiano in cima alla lista dei desideri e delle spese natalizie dei consumatori digitali d’Oltreoceano.

Lo dice un’analisi di mercato svolta da comScore nelle ultime settimane di e-commerce festivo (1 novembre-17 dicembre 2010). Le vendite della categoria ‘computer hardware’, che comprende anche gli ultimi nati tra tablet ed e-reader, sono in crescita del 25% rispetto al dicembre dello scorso anno. Bene anche anche le tv di ultima generazione, il cui mercato si allarga sempre più: la crescita del 22% nelle vendite è dovuta soprattutto al calo dei prezzi.

Gli internauti sembrano gradire particolarmente le offerte della rete, che in questo periodo prevedono spesso la spedizione gratuita della merce, magari a condizione di una cifra minima spesa sul medesimo portale. La frontiera dei regali, dunque, è sempre più elettronica.

Source:http://quomedia.diesis.it/news/24699/usa-natale-d-oro-per-e-commerce-e-computer

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Michael Dell buys shares worth $100 million in own company

December 21st, 2010
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Founder of Dell Computers, Michael Dell bought shares worth $100 million in his own company, reiterating confidence in the computer giant’s business.

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)were notified of the deal after the transaction took place on Friday.

Mr. Dell becomes the largest shareholder in the company with a holding of 263 million shares valued at $3.5 billion. He bought 7.37 million shares at $13.57 a share in the latest transaction.

Dell’s share price fell by 7% this year and Michael Dell said some shareholders were undervaluing his company. However, the news failed to cheer the market and the stock closed 2.1% down on Monday.

The company registered strong growth in the third quarter with net income posting a solid growth of 144% to $822 million (£511 million). The company attributed the strong bottom-line to falling costs and a wave of hardware upgrades by companies as the world economy slowly starts expanding.

Strong corporate demand ensured revenue grew by 19% in Q3 2010 over same period, last year. However, retail demand still remained weak and posted a growth of just 4%.

This the third occasion in less than three years when Michael Dell has bought shares of Dell computers. In 2008 July, he paid a total of $99.7 million at $22.14 per share. Two months later, he spent another $100 million in two separate transactions at an average price little over $20 for each share. The latest buy seems to be a bargain compared to previous transactions. He now holds around 12 percent share in the company valued at $3.5 billion.

Source:http://www.financenews.co.uk/economy/michael-dell-buys-shares-worth-100-million-in-own-company/

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Acer Aspire 7551G Laptop Review – AMD Phenom II X4 N930

December 21st, 2010
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A few weeks ago we had our first look at an Acer product, the Acer Aspire 1551 Notebook. Today in our lab we have something a bit more powerful, the Acer Aspire 7551G. Make no mistake, this laptop is a processing power house. It’s fully capable of video encoding/decoding thanks to it’s 2GHz AMD Phenom II N930 Quad core CPU. If you are into gaming it has one of the most powerful graphics processors to ever grace a portable product, the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650. That’s right, a DirectX 11 laptop that can play today’s latest and greatest titles.

The 17 inch laptop segment seems to be a hot bed of activity as consumers are looking at replacing their traditional desktops with something that can be used on the go without compromising all of the performance they’ve grown accustomed to. Walk in to most brick and motor stores today and you’ll find that 15-17 inch portables are a large part of the selection. You can expect to see more reviews of portables this size coming up! Let’s take a look at the specifics of the Acer Aspire 7551G.

AMD Phenom II Quad-Core Mobile Processor N930 (2MB L2 cache, 2GHz)
4GB DDR3 1066 SDRAM
500GB SATA hard drive, 5400RPM
5-in-1 card reader for optional MultiMediaCard, SD, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO or xD
CineCrystal HD+ 17.3″ (1600×900) high-brightness (200-nit) TFT display with LED backlighting
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 with 1GB of dedicated GDDR3
Integrated Acer webcam, 1280 x 1024 resolution and Acer Video Conference Manager software supporting 1280×1024 resolution
VGA and HDMI with HDCP support ports
Two integrated Acer 3DSonic stereo speakers
High-definition audio support
802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi
Gigabit LAN
103-key Acer FineTip keyboard, independent standard numeric keypad, hotkey controls, international language support, Multi-gesture touchpad supporting two-finger scroll, pinch, rotate, flip, 1.8mm key travel
16.3″ (415.0mm) W x 10.8″ (275.0mm) D x 1.1″ – 1.4” (27.1mm – 34.3mm) H
7.3 lb. (1.4kg) with six-cell, 4400mAh battery
90w AC adapter
One-year and labor limited warranty with concurrent International Traveler’s Warranty
This is a power house of a laptop, a quad core processor with a significant graphics card for gaming duties. At the price of about $1000 it’s not cheap but that’s the result of compromise.

Source:http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1487/1/

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For Google’s Notebook, the Internet Isn’t Everything — It’s the Only Thing

December 21st, 2010
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Are you ready to embrace the cloud? Gird your loins, for Google’s Cr-48 (or Chrome OS Notebook, laptop prototype or whatever else you want to call it) is itching to drag you kicking and screaming up to the cloud and into it.

Google’s Cr-48 is, as many Google projects are, a brazen experiment in laptoppery that’s so crazy it just might work. Might not, either. For the Cr-48 — or whatever it ends up being called -– is really a notebook only in the sense that it has a keyboard and a hinge which lets it fold in half.

The sell here is that the Cr-48 runs Google’s new and long-anticipated Chrome OS. Based on a skeletal Linux build, it is virtually instant-on and instant-off, and its simplicity is hard to overstate. That’s because Chrome OS really is almost nothing but the Chrome web browser.

When you turn on the Cr-48, it drops you right into the Chrome browser, with a handful of icons which are really shortcuts to web pages. Anything you can do on the web -– with Chrome on Linux, anyway -– you can do on the Cr-48. Flash, JavaScript, whatever, it’s all possible, but of course, Google would prefer you stick to Gmail, YouTube, Picasa and the like. Google’s services are tightly integrated with the Cr-48, to the point where you’re asked for your Google ID when you turn on the machine for the first time.

And be assured: None of this will work if you’re not online. The Cr-48 supports every kind of Wi-Fi, and it packs a Verizon WWAN system with a killer hook: Users get 100 MB of free bandwidth every month. That’s not much, but it can get you through the dead zone between Starbuckses. (Additional bandwidth costs up to $50 for 5 GB a month.) It won’t, however, do you any good on an airplane without Gogo: You can open a few cached web pages on the Cr-48, but mostly it’s a 3.6-pound brick when you’re offline.

Under the hood the Cr-48 has netbook guts: a 1.66-GHz Atom CPU, 2 GB of RAM and integrated graphics, all powering a 12.1-inch, 1280 x 800 screen. Battery life is impressive: at least 8 hours with the wireless on (because you’d never turn it off). You also get a sole USB port (for input peripherals mainly) and VGA output. And there’s a grainy webcam.

Sure looks like a laptop. But is it really? Consider the evidence: The 16-GB SSD drive is not user-accessible, and you can’t store any files on the machine. Want to type a letter? You’ll need to go to Google Docs (which, oddly, is not a default icon). Want to write an e-mail? You’ll have to visit Gmail. Want to view a picture or video on your camera’s SD card? Well, er, you’ll have to upload it to the web from someone else’s real computer: The Cr-48’s SD slot is nonfunctional. Remember: You are not allowed to access local files, period!

Hackers are surely going to start finding a way to mod these things to overcome their limitations –- I tricked the machine into downloading a Firefox setup file, but had no way to open it — but for now the Cr-48 is really more of a tablet masquerading as a laptop. It even has its own app store, already full of the usual suspects. Weatherbug FTW!

Source:http://www.wired.com/reviews/2010/12/googles-all-chrome-notebook-keeps-your-head-in-the-cloud/

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Corsair Vengeance DDR3-1600 8GB Dual Channel Memory Kit Review

December 21st, 2010
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Corsair is a company that we all know for memory and rightfully so, their Dominator Series of memory has been the flagship for their DDR3 line for some time now. Today we will be looking at a new enthusiast line of memory called Vengeance. The Vengeance line is aggressively priced and with a lower voltage rating of 1.5V instead of the normal 1.65V you should be able to these modules to the limit. Today we will be taking a look at the 8GB 1600MHz dual channel DDR3 kit (CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9) and putting it through it’s paces. Read on to see how well them perform!

Packaging
The Vengeance modules come in a very nice colorful package with a photo of them on the front and some other information. The back of the package is open so you can see the information on the modules.

Source:http://www.thinkcomputers.org/corsair-vengeance-ddr3-1600-8gb-dual-channel-memory-kit-review/

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Locating the impossible with ‘lightening fast’ speed

December 21st, 2010
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The solution may lie in work being done in Northeastern University’s Computer Architecture Research Laboratory, where electrical and computer engineering professor David Kaeli and his team have developed supercomputing hardware/software technology to pinpoint the location of people, buildings—or even bombs—10 to 15 times faster than traditional computing methods.

Northeastern researchers are collaborating on the project with colleagues at the University of Virginia and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), a Sunnyvale, California-based company that develops computer processors for the commercial and consumer sectors.

The innovative technology, which aligns with Northeastern’s commitment to research that solves global challenges in health, security and sustainability, showcases the value of using Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) to help protect the nation’s critical infrastructure, said Kaeli.

“GPU technology will have huge implications for the intelligence community,” he said, noting the plan to open-source the application in the near future.

Here’s how it works: A user uploads a photo to an image database such as Google Earth. The GPU-based application enables the user to run a lightning-fast search, comparing the photo against images in the database until it finds a match.

“There’s no application like it,” said Perhaad Mistry a doctoral student in electrical and computer engineering who helped develop the idea while on co-op at AMD. “Pinpointing certain people or places needs to be done quickly.”

Industry leaders have recently recognized Northeastern’s cutting-edge research in this area of supercomputing.

• NVIDIA, a multinational company that develops graphics processing units, designated Northeastern’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, in conjunction with Massachusetts General Hospital, as a NVIDIA CUDA Research Center for its ongoing development of GPU-accelerated medical image analysis tools. (CUDA stands for Compute Unified Device Architecture, a parallel computing architecture developed by NVIDIA.)

• AMD named Northeastern a Strategic Academic Research Partner for conducting research with the company’s GPUs. AMD also awarded Northeastern a $65,000 grant to conduct GPU-research and invited the Northeastern team to present at Supercomputing 2010, the largest international conference on high performance computing, networking, storage and analysis.

Source:http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-12-impossible-fast.html

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