What it means though is a huge leap forward in processing power and this can have the benefits of enabling supercomputers to perform vastly more calculations per second than are currently available, or for far smaller supercomputers to be constructed that would not only be considerably cheaper than today’s machines, but that would also consume much less electricity.

As and when this technology filters down towards the consumer level this will mean smaller and much more energy-efficient datacentres and rack servers that can support up to fifty virtualised environments simultaneously.

Obviously the huge memory required to support running this many VMs is not supported by modern server single-processor motherboards.  Intel will be busy now designing a new generation of motherboards to harness the full power of Knight’s Corner.

There’s no word yet on how much a single Knight’s Corner ship will cost and even who will be able to buy one.  There’s also no word on how reliable the new chip will be.  It is after-all, state of the art technology and packing so many processing cores into a single die will have enormous side-effects and will require some serious cooling.  Intel is obviously happy enough with their new monster though that they’re happy to put it on sale.

Intel say the Knight’s Corner chip is “fully accessible and programmable” and is “visible to applications as though it was  a computers that runs its own Linux-based operating system, independent of the host OS.”

The benefits of this new architecture are the ability to run existing applications without the need to port the code to a new programming environment, according to Tom’s Hardware.  This means that scientists will be able to use the chip with existing x86 and x64 applications and code which will save everything having to be rewritten for the new chip.

The next generation of processors for PCs will also be based on a 22nm manufacturing process that will make them faster and considerably more power-efficient.  Every generation of processors now consume much less energy than the ones before them and a processor has even been demonstrated now that consumes less power when working flat out than a standard PC chip today does when in standby.

With such enormous jumps being made up to 50 cores already, only a few short years after the first dual core chips arrived, it’s clear that it won’t be very long before we see more cores appearing on the desktop and in mobile devices.  Now the operating system manufacturers will need to start engineering their next generation products to leverage the power of these cores effectively to maximise the benefits they bring.

Windows running at 1GHz is very important for a whole range of reasons.  Firstly and most importantly all its competitors can already do this.  It also helps keep the cost of devices down and means they can run smaller and with much greater battery life than existing x86 architecture chips such as the Intel Atom.

The processor in the W500 is an AMD C-50, a dual core chip that I genuinely expected to have Windows 7 dragging its heels behind the competition.  Imagine my surprise then when the lowly AMD chip not only matched a 1.66GHz Intel Atom for performance, but actually outshone it.

In the image above we have the Windows Experience Index scores for two Windows 7 tablets, the top one running an Intel Atom dual-core processor running at 1.66GHz, and the bottom score running the AMD C-50 chip running at just 1GHz.

Now the WEI score for a PC isn’t the most scientific measure of actual performance, however the scores here were borne out in general usage with the two tablets when I used them side by side.

The W500 was every bit as quick as the tablet with the Intel chip and even felt more responsive in some tasks.  This is because the original Atom is now a few years old and since it was released, processor manufacturers have been working hard to make their chips more power and performance efficient.

This bodes very well for the next version of Windows, and for Windows users.  We can be certain that the next Windows will be a bit leaner than Windows 7, and thus should run even more smoothly than I’ve experienced here.  The biggest hurdle people will face moving to Windows on ARM though is that none of their existing software will work.  A whole new ‘app store’ will need to be built from scratch to support it and for many people, for whom their existing software works perfectly well, that’s just too much to ask.

This tablet though proves that moving to a 1GHz low power chip doesn’t necessarily mean having to sacrifice all those apps.  The C-50 is still based on Intel’s original x86 architecture and will run all existing Windows software.  While you can expect certain applications such as HD Video, 3D games and anything processor-intensive to be logically out, it will be perfectly good for anything else.

It’s been an interesting learning curve working with Windows 7 on a processor running at just 1GHz (the same speed as the chip inside most modern smartphones) but now that I’ve seen it for myself it’s impossible to deny.  Windows at 1GHz isn’t something we will have to wait another year for, we can have it now.

According to him, Acer Inc. predicts that about one third of its revenue will be generated by the profits from tablet and smart phone sales by 2015.
Acer Inc is still in the phase of reorganizing itself after a sudden turnaround in situation when the company’s CEO left in March after a dispute about how to counter the massively growing tablet PC industry and how to safeguard company’s own core business, notebook and net books.

Jim Wong, who has recently taken over the role of President told reporters that Acer Inc. would now focus much more on tablet PCs and touch phones than earlier. According to him the new age belongs to touch technology and he & his team will do whatever they can to put the latest technology in the palms of users hands. The company has an ambitious plan to make up 13% of its revenue by touch products in 2013 and then about 33% of the revenue by 2015. And in touch products, Acer Inc will target the smart phones and tablet PC market along with its regular notebook business.

Ultrabooks is basically a new technology launched by Intel Corp. It’s a new category of notebooks that are ultra-light weight and perform much faster. Top chipmaker Intel has introduced high performance processors into the motherboards of these Ultrabooks. Intel anticipates that about 40% of the people who will buy a new laptop will have Ultrabooks by next year. Mr. Wong seems quite hopeful that Ultrabooks will help revive the notebook industry since there’s no doubt that tablet PCs can provide power packed computing performance much like the Ultrabooks can.

On the other hand, Acer’s rival and Netbook pioneer Asustek launched its first ultrabook at the Computex computer show in Taiwan on Monday.

Acer has been a dominant stake holder in the notebook industry with their cheap notebooks. Although they still lead the segment of low cost notebooks they have not been able to compete with the quickly growing tablet PC industry of, especially after the runaway success of Apple’s iPad.

In April, Acer Inc decided to cut is shipment target by 10% as compared to Jan- Mar the same year. This shows the drop in sales and low profits that the company is experiencing. Despite this, Wong is still confident that Acer is a major player in the industry and looks forward to increasing the company’s investments in China by establishing an R&D facility in Chongqing and another city in addition to the one already established in Shanghai. It seems like Acer is determined to succeed. It will be interesting to watch over the coming months.

Moore’s Law states that the amount of transistors that can be placed on a circuit will double every two years. Intel’s announcement means they’re going to be able to keep developing technology that proves the law. Previously, transistors were placed on a circuit on a flat surface. This new technology means that is no longer the case. Therefore, there can be more transistors on each circuit.

Intel says that the costs should be minimal, both in terms of production and in terms of operation. The chips won’t cost much more to make than they currently do, and the heat production should not be all that much higher than it is with current chip technology.

The minimal costs in terms of production are outweighed by the benefits of this technology. The chips made using the new 22NM process and the 3d transistor technology will have lower voltage, lower leakage and more speed.

These chips will be used in desktops and laptops to begin with, probably in early 2012. They will increase performance even in larger data centers. But the real benefit of this technology will be in the mobile market. That is where Intel really needs to make strides if it wants to stay relevant. This technology will do it for them. It will mean a lot more power in the smaller footprint of mobile phones and tablets.

Seagate is also putting more power in a smaller package. They are now able to put one TB per platter in a 3.5 inch hard drive. This means that the hard drives have an impressive capacity of 625 GB per square inch. Within a few months you will be able to buy a 3.5” 3 TB hard drive. You can back up all of your data onto small hard drives that will fit just about anywhere.

You will be able to get the new drives in 1, 1.5, 2 and 3 TB sizes. Seagate has not yet released pricing on the drives.

Seagate and Intel are both thinking that smaller is better. This is because the trend to smaller and more mobile technologies is driving the industry as consumers become more likely to spend their money on laptops than desktops. Tablets and smartphones are becoming ever more commonplace. These two advancements show that companies are aware of the fact that people want to fit more power into smaller packages.

How have your computing habits changed in the last while? Are you going smaller? Do you find yourself using mobile devices to do tasks that you used to do on a desktop? Do you use a desktop or a laptop as your main computer?

Then they dampened down everyone’s hopes a few months ago by saying they were now looking at copper cabling for the technology as a way of cutting costs (though with the price of copper increasing monthly I fail to see how this would make it a long-term viable alternative to USB3!)

Now it looks like Apple might be set to bring LightPeak to its next generation iMac lineup as CNET are reporting that Apple is set to bring a new “high speed interconnect” technology to it’s computers.

I should point out at this stage that there is absolutely no evidence for this though it would be very exciting and is exactly the push that the LightPeak technology needs in order to become widely adopted.

LightPeak, even with copper cabling is capable of delivering a data transfer speed of 10 gigabits per second in both directions simultaneously, making it much faster than USB3.  It remains to be seen whether Apple will support USB3 alongside LightPeak, should the rumours be true, or whether they will go their own way and ignore USB3 in the same way they have skipped past Blu-Ray.

It can safely be said that passing Blu-Ray support by has not harmed Apple in the slightest as the general takeup for the technology has been limited.  This is due to the cheap costs of external hard disks.  USB3 is very new and it could face similiar problems.  Having Apple pass the technology by would only exacerbate them.

LightPeak isn’t just a technology for connecting printers and hard disks though.  It was invented as a single method of conneting a broad range of devices including monitors.  In short its a very exciting technoology tempered only by the absence of fibro-optic cabling for the early versions.

Watch this space for more news on LightPeak support by Apple.

The recall is to fix a problem with the Series 6 chipset, used in all Sandy Bridge systems.  The company says that  the SATA ports within the chipset could degrade over time.  This would impact the performance and functionality of any SATA-attached device such as hard disks and optical drives.

The recall, which Intel claims will cost the company around $1 billion is being organised with OEMs  and it will affect computers that have literally only just been delivered, as the Sandy Bridge chips have only recently come on the market.

An Intel spokesperson told PC Promagazine that arojnd 5% of the SATA components were likely to fail with the failure rate rising to 15% for heavy users.  They went on to say that while 8 million Sandy Bridge chips had been sold, only a small number had been delivered to consumers.

While the company has rectified the problem, the new motherboards won’t start arriving at OEMs until the end of February.  Full volume production has also been halted until April.  It’s not all bad news for Intel though as the Sandy Bridge processors are bound to be successful anyway and are streets ahead of the power currently offered by AMD chips.

Intel says it will utilise McAfee to help it build security features into it’s processors, which currently power the majority of all PCs and Apple Macs around the world.

Both companies have already been working together for the last 18 months and both parties hope that regulatory approval for the buy-out will be granted after both boards for directors agreed the deal unanimously.

News of the surprise move for Intel sent McAfee’s shares soaring y 58% for $47.17 while Intel’s shares fell slightly by 3.2%, though probably not on the basis of this news.

Tim Danton, editor of PC Pro magazine, said the announcement came out of the blue.

“Intel does buy a lot of companies and it does have a lot of more cash than anyone else out there. So it making a big acquisition isn’t a surprise, but you may have thought it more likely to buy another hardware firm,” he told the BBC.

“No doubt Intel is looking ahead and seeing that the laptop and desktop market are probably past their heyday and the big growth area is mobile.

“For a company like Intel, it’s nowhere near as strong in the mobile area as it is in the laptop and desktop areas, so it’s probably looking for new ways to get streams and revenues in the future.”

But he added: “Perhaps that is Intel’s point of view but not everybody else’s. The reaction from investors has been quite negative.”

McAffe was founded in 1987 and has revenues of $2bn a year.  Intel, founded in 1968 has annual revenues of $35bn.

Well Intel have now unveiled the first 50-core chip, codenamed “Knights Corner”.  This 22 nanometer monster uses a new x86 core architecture and it’s clearly not intended for your PC.

Before you get all disappointed, Windows isn’t even optimised to use that many cores so they’d just sit idle.  It’s based on their now cancelled 48 core Larabee graphics processor and uses a grid of cores, all joined together by a network to keep the data flowing between each one at high speed.

There’s no release date yet but that doesn’t mean they’re resting on their laurels.  Intel are already readying a developer kit to help programmers make the most of the multi-multi-core processing these chips are capable of.

The chip, revealed today by electronista, isn’t tied to any particular software platform and will probably be in use in supercomputers in a few years crunching data on medical conditions and global warming.

A friend of mine for instance bought a new PC recently with a hard drive that had not the advertised size. While that can be easily discovered there are components that make the identification process much harder. Think of processors for instance.

The recent news that a major US online hardware store sold fake Intel cpus indicates that everyone should make sure that the hardware purchased is the hardware delivered.

The Windows device manager is usually a good starting point but the information presented there are limited. It is usually better to use a third party program to identify computer hardware.

The Intel Processor Identification Utility has been created by Intel to provide owners of Intel processors with a tool to check if their cpu is the one that they have ordered.

The tool displays the information about the Intel processor in three tabs that are called Frequency Test, CPU Technologies and CPUID Data.

The frequency test will display the reported and expected frequencies of the processor. Small variations do not necessarily mean that the processor is fake.

CPU Technologies lists the supported technologies of the CPU while the CPUID Data tab displays in depths information about the CPU.

The Intel Processor Identification Utility can be downloaded directly from Intel. A version for Microsoft Windows PCs and a bootable version are provided on the Intel website.

Aspire Revo Gets Dual Core And Windows 7

Aspire Revo has gotten a new boost in power and is powered by the Atom N330 along with the ION chipset. So now it can do HD video and some basic 3D games. The price is up too though, to $350.

KND Pine Trail Devices Spotted, The K1850 Nettop Looks Good

Although Intel’s Pine trail – the next generation of Atom CPUs – is not officially out yet, there are signs of its coming soon. Several new models featuring the Pine Trail D510 processor have been spotted, including the K1850 nettop. That actually makes the K1850 the first Pine Trail nettop. It comes with an 18.6inch display, 2GB of RAM, 250GB storage and a DVD drive.

Asus 1501 ION Packing Eee Box Spotted Again

The elusive Asus 1501 Eee Box has been spotted again, and everyone agrees – it looks pretty good. The build quality looks good, the slot loading drive looks great and the angled mount is a nice touch. Too bad it will start resembling spaghetti as soon as you start connecting all the wire to it.

The Best Ones To Get Right Now

These are all Dual Core Atom 330 models (Except the Mac MINI and FitPC2) with NVIDIA ION providing graphics muscle for crunching HD video.

MSI Wind Nettop CS120

The MSI Wind CS120 is selling for around $330 and it has everything you need for basic computing tasks and watching HD videos. In fact, the slim, vertical box is perfect for setting down beside your HDTV, especially with the 7.1 channel audio out. Plus I like the fact that it has a slot loading DVD drive.

ASROCK ION 330

This one has 5.1 channel HD Audio output, DDR2 800MHz RAM (up to 4GB) and a very compact form factor. It uses a 2.5” laptop HDD but gives you 320GB of storage. But here’s the best part – it has built in software overclocking with absolutely no stability issues. So you can crank the Atom 330 all the way up to 2.0GHz. Also, there is something called the ASRock Instant Boot, which is like a super-low power sleep mode that lets you boot to an Internet surfing state in about 3-4 seconds. Pretty cool huh? This one sells for about $350 before rebates. There is also a Blu-ray version if you want to make it your HTPC.

Shuttle X27D

Selling for about $390, this nettop has won a lot of accolades from all quarters including an editor’s choice award from CNET in April this year. You can easily get the barebone model for about $190 and build it up with components of your choice. It accepts DDR2 533 RAM, 2.5” HDD and has a volume of only 3liters.

Mac Mini (Older models)

If you want the goodness of Apple’s OS X and want something more powerful than your average Atom-based nettop, this is a really great thing to have. You can get Core 2 Duo machines with 1 to 2GB of RAM for under $300 if you look around. The only problem is that these older models ship with smaller HDDs. But with HDDs prices going so low these days, you can buy a large HDD for the Mac Mini and still stay around $350.

Pssst – just saw one going for $273 at compclasse.

FitPC2

This one’s all about the size. If you want something that is smaller than a CD and runs in absolute silence, the FitPC2 models are varied but they use the Z series Atom processors and the Poulsbo chipset to decode HD video at, what they claim, has only 20% CPU usage. You can get one for between $250 and just over $400, depending on the configuration. It comes in Linux and Windows versions and there’s one where you can put in your own HDD. If you are planning on a hideaway HTPC or a carpc, this is the perfect way to go. In fact, these nettops are in great favor with car modders.

Real Temp displays various information about the cpu. The information are not limited to the cpu temperatures but also the model of the cpu, clock speeds and cpu load.

The main purpose of Real Temp is however cpu temperature monitoring. The temperatures of each cpu core are displayed in columns in the program’s interface. They are divided into various sections that display the maximum and minimum temperatures as well as the current cpu temperature.

The time that the maximum and minimum temperature levels were reached are also displayed in the program which is great for troubleshooting purposes. Many advanced settings are available that can change the information that are displayed, integrate external applications such as RivaTuner or settings that define how and where the application is displayed.

The CPU temperature monitor Real Temp uses less than one Megabyte of computer memory when running minimized in the system tray. Computer users with Intel cpus might want to give the software program a try.

While it will not provide benchmarks of any kind it will display the hard facts about the chosen Intel products. The comparison chart is aimed at experienced computer users who understand abbreviations such as FSB, GHz or L2.

Casual users might feel overwhelmed by the technical slang that is used on the website. The interesting aspect of the comparison website is that it contains hundreds of Intel products. The desktop processors products alone contain old and new Intel desktop processors starting with Intel Pentium 4 Processors to Intel Core2 Quad Processors and Intel Core2 Extreme Processors.

Selected products are displayed in a handy comparison chart that lists all the selected products and their specifications. Desktop processor information include information about front side bus speed, L2 and L3 cache, clock speed, chipsets, slot / socket type, memory type and architecture.

It is possible to select a different display language in a pulldown menu. The consequence is limited choice of products. Since most information are usually English anyway it does not make much sense to switch languages.

Support will be added to Windows Vista with Service Pack 1 and is already available for Microsoft Windows Server 2008 and first motherboards supporting UEFI are already available on the market (MSI P35 Neo3). One of the main differences between BIOS and UEFI is the way applications are coded. Assembler was used if functions or applications had to be coded for the BIOS while a higher level language code will be used to program the UEFI.

The memory footprint is about 10 times smaller as well. The main benefits for customers are a better presentation and (probably) motherboards that are more stable. When will the transition be complete ? Insiders suggest that it might take between two or three years.

The UEFI specification defines a new model for the interface between personal-computer operating systems and platform firmware. The interface consists of data tables that contain platform-related information, plus boot and runtime service calls that are available to the operating system and its loader. Together, these provide a standard environment for booting an operating system and running pre-boot applications.

Fosfor posted a video of a live demonstration of alan wake running on an intel quad-core cpu and an nvidia gpu. I took the liberty to use a youtube plugin to make this video available for you as well. To be honest, I’ve never seen such detail in a computer game before, wonder if my machine will run it in low details..

Here is the Alan Wake Trailer that has been uploaded to YouTube.

Update: Alan Wake has been released in the meantime. The game has received several awards when it was released in 2010, almost four years after the initial demonstrations and screenshots have been posted.

The game’s metascore rating is 83 of 100, a good but not very good rating. Time Magazine has listed it as the top video game of 2010.

The developers have announced that a second part of the game will be released in the near future. Alan Wake Season 1 will not be the second part of the series. It is more of an add-on of the first game or a DLC. The developers have the intention that it bridges the gap between Alan Wake and the next installment of the series. The game will be available on Xbox Live Arcade in December 2011.

Seven different systems are introduced ranging from budget system to high end systems. Except for the budget system which uses an AMD cpu all other categories present a INTEL and an AMD system. Next to the budget system (500$ – 700$) resides the entry level systems (750$ – 1100$), the mid range systems (1200$ – 1500$) and finally the high end systems which start at 1900$. Helpful as a starting point. Unfortunately there is no explanation why the mentioned hardware was chosen.