http://www.osnews.com/ Exploring the Future of Computing en-us Copyright 2001-2012, David Adams OSNews version 4 donotreply@osnews.com (Adam Scheinberg) donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Wed, 15 Feb 2012 07:10:50 GMT http://www.osnews.com/images/osnews.gif http://www.osnews.com/ 120 http://www.osnews.com/story/25596/Engineers_boost_computer_processor_performance_by_over_20_/ http://www.osnews.com/story/25596/Engineers_boost_computer_processor_performance_by_over_20_/ "Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new technique that allows graphics processing units and central processing units on a single chip to collaborate - boosting processor performance by an average of more than 20 percent." Wed, 08 Feb 2012 23:22:13 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Hardware, Embedded Systems 11 http://www.osnews.com/topics/32 News http://www.osnews.com/story/25586/Raspberry_Pi_To_Hit_Store_Late_February/ http://www.osnews.com/story/25586/Raspberry_Pi_To_Hit_Store_Late_February/ Big news from the Raspberry Pi front today - they have a manufacturing date. "The boards will be finished on February 20. Eben and I may be going to China to make sure that the boards can be brought up properly for that date if necessary. We'll be airfreighting them to the UK immediately, so you should be able to buy them before the end of the month." Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:14:21 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Hardware, Embedded Systems 10 http://www.osnews.com/topics/32 News http://www.osnews.com/story/25562/Why_the_Raspberry_Pi_Won_t_Ship_in_Kit_Form/ http://www.osnews.com/story/25562/Why_the_Raspberry_Pi_Won_t_Ship_in_Kit_Form/ When the Raspberry Pi ships later this year, it will be delivered to your door as a finished unit. The more adventurous tinkerers among you, as well as adept system builders, have asked the Raspberry Pi Foundation why they can’t get them in kit form instead. The reason why that wasn’t considered is demonstrated in an image released by Broadcom . . . they are tiny. And unlike a typical system build using an x86 chip that just slots into place, installing these chips requires a very steady hand and just the right amount of solder. Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:46:29 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (David Adams) Hardware, Embedded Systems 11 http://www.osnews.com/topics/32 News sawboss http://www.osnews.com/story/25534/CPU_Startup_Combines_CPU_DRAM_-_and_a_Whole_Bunch_of_Crazy/ http://www.osnews.com/story/25534/CPU_Startup_Combines_CPU_DRAM_-_and_a_Whole_Bunch_of_Crazy/ "The CPU design firm Venray Technology announced a new product design this week that it claims can deliver enormous performance benefits by combining CPU and DRAM on to a single piece of silicon. We spent some time earlier this fall discussing the new TOMI (Thread Optimized Multiprocessor) with company CTO Russell Fish, but while the idea is interesting; its presentation is marred by crazy conceptualizing and deeply suspect analytics." Mon, 23 Jan 2012 11:29:32 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Hardware, Embedded Systems 22 http://www.osnews.com/topics/32 News http://www.osnews.com/story/25499/Raspberry_Pi_We_ve_Started_Manufacture_/ http://www.osnews.com/story/25499/Raspberry_Pi_We_ve_Started_Manufacture_/ "Raspberry Pis started being made a couple of days ago, but I was forbidden to tell you about it until signed contracts and receipts for payment had arrived - it's been killing me, especially since I've had tens of you asking me when manufacturing would start every day for the last few weeks. I am not good at keeping secrets." No more secrets to keep, Liz! I can't wait to place my order. Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:14:43 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Hardware, Embedded Systems 47 http://www.osnews.com/topics/32 News Elv13 http://www.osnews.com/story/25493/Vizio_Enters_PC_Market_with_Beautiful_All-in-one_Laptop/ http://www.osnews.com/story/25493/Vizio_Enters_PC_Market_with_Beautiful_All-in-one_Laptop/ The news I've seen coming out of the Consumer Electronics Show this year isn't particularly breathtaking or awe-inspiring. Phones, tablets, faster, thinner, yes, yes, we've all been here before. There is one piece of news, however, that stands out from the crowd. The best-selling TV maker in the US, Vizio, is entering the PC market. Stunning designs for both laptop and all-in-one - and buried deep within the press release lies the creamy nougaty centre that makes me want to buy one even more: a Windows 7 install optimised by Microsoft, free of crapware. Mon, 09 Jan 2012 20:10:42 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Hardware, Embedded Systems 60 http://www.osnews.com/topics/32 News http://www.osnews.com/story/25466/CPU_IO_Ports_on_Non-x86_Architectures/ http://www.osnews.com/story/25466/CPU_IO_Ports_on_Non-x86_Architectures/ In the world of alternative OS development, portability across multiple architectures is a challenging goal. Sometimes, it may be intrinsically hard to come up with hardware abstractions that work well everywhere, but many times the core problem is one of missing information. Here, I aim at learning more about the way non-x86 architectures deal with CPU IO ports, and in particular how they prevent user-mode software from accessing them. Fri, 30 Dec 2011 08:24:55 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Hadrien Grasland) Hardware, Embedded Systems 75 http://www.osnews.com/topics/32 Feature http://www.osnews.com/story/25354/EXOdesk_Surface_for_Everyone/ http://www.osnews.com/story/25354/EXOdesk_Surface_for_Everyone/ Okay, I think we can all agree on the fact that while Microsoft's Surface machines might not be particularly useful for most of us, we all secretly want one, or something similar. Thanks to EXOPC, you'll now be able to: for $1299, you'll have a 40" multitouch interactive desk. Mon, 21 Nov 2011 22:03:24 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Hardware, Embedded Systems 23 http://www.osnews.com/topics/32 News http://www.osnews.com/story/25293/Dell_HP_Respond_to_Secure_Boot_Issue/ http://www.osnews.com/story/25293/Dell_HP_Respond_to_Secure_Boot_Issue/ A big issue right now in the world of operating systems - especially Linux - is Microsoft's requirement that all Windows 8 machines ship with UEFI's secure boot enabled, with no requirement that OEMs implement it so users can turn it off. This has caused some concern in the Linux world, and considering Microsoft's past and current business practices and the incompetence of OEMs, that's not unwarranted. CNet's Ed Bott decided to pose the issue to OEMs. Dell stated is has plans to include the option to turn secure boot off, while HP was a bit more vague about the issue. Thu, 03 Nov 2011 19:34:15 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Hardware, Embedded Systems 124 http://www.osnews.com/topics/32 News lucas_maximus http://www.osnews.com/story/25271/ARM_To_Move_to_64bit_with_ARMv8/ http://www.osnews.com/story/25271/ARM_To_Move_to_64bit_with_ARMv8/ Big news from ARM over the past few days. The processor architecture, once strictly an embedded affair for low-power devices, is going big. Not only has ARM announced it's going 64bit, HP has announced it's going to build servers with ARM processors. It seems all the pieces are now in place for ARM. Fri, 28 Oct 2011 22:11:04 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Hardware, Embedded Systems 63 http://www.osnews.com/topics/32 News http://www.osnews.com/story/25233/Cray_Jaguar_Is_Getting_a_GPU_Upgrade_and_a_Name_Change/ http://www.osnews.com/story/25233/Cray_Jaguar_Is_Getting_a_GPU_Upgrade_and_a_Name_Change/ According to physorg.com (via popsci), the Cray Inc. XT5-HE supercomputer (Jaguar) is getting updated. The Department of Energy's Jaguar computer will be renamed Titan. This reported $97 million upgrade will be using AMD CPUs and NVIDIA Tesla GPUs and is claimed to "be at least twice as fast and three times as energy efficient as today's fastest supercomputer, which is located in Japan." Good news for gamers. Thu, 13 Oct 2011 17:33:57 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (David Adams) Hardware, Embedded Systems 16 http://www.osnews.com/topics/32 News jefro http://www.osnews.com/story/25176/Nvidia_s_Kal-El_Tegra_To_Pack_Five_Cores/ http://www.osnews.com/story/25176/Nvidia_s_Kal-El_Tegra_To_Pack_Five_Cores/ "Nvidia has released a few technical details of its upcoming 'Kal-El' Tegra processor, including a secret it's done well to keep under its hat thus far: it's a five-core, not four-core, chip." This fifth core is low-power, and can be used for remedial tasks. Clever, although, as the article notes, not new. Tue, 20 Sep 2011 21:56:40 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Hardware, Embedded Systems 9 http://www.osnews.com/topics/32 News http://www.osnews.com/story/25147/Raspberry_Pi_Playing_1080p_Video/ http://www.osnews.com/story/25147/Raspberry_Pi_Playing_1080p_Video/ Remember the Raspberry Pi ARM board we talked about last week? Well, while running Quake III is all fine and dandy and illustrates the board is capable of something, it didn't really tell me anything since I'd guess few people are going to use such a board for gaming. So, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Raspberry Pi team posted another demo today - running 1080p video for eight hours straight. The chip was still cool to the touch. And just to reiterate: $25. Thu, 08 Sep 2011 22:07:57 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Hardware, Embedded Systems 44 http://www.osnews.com/topics/32 News http://www.osnews.com/story/25108/Raspberry_Pi_ARM_Board_Demonstrated_Running_Quake_III/ http://www.osnews.com/story/25108/Raspberry_Pi_ARM_Board_Demonstrated_Running_Quake_III/ We all know platforms like the Beagleboard, which are cheap hardware platforms which can be used in all sorts of projects. A new entry into this market is Raspberry Pi, a British ARM board which is slated to be released in the fourth quarter of this year. For a mere $25, you'll have a fully-configured ARM-based 1080p-capable mini-motherboard. The device is still in development, and only a few days ago, the alpha version of the board was demonstrated running Quake III. Sun, 28 Aug 2011 21:19:18 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Hardware, Embedded Systems 59 http://www.osnews.com/topics/32 News http://www.osnews.com/story/25105/Razer_Blade_Superthin_Innovative_Gaming_Laptop/ http://www.osnews.com/story/25105/Razer_Blade_Superthin_Innovative_Gaming_Laptop/ The race to the bottom has wrecked havoc in the PC industry. The only PC maker with decent margins is Apple, and even they aren't doing anything particularly innovative. Razor, though, wants to buck the trend. After a ballsy marketing campaign, the company has unveiled the Razer Blade. The Razer Blade is what you get when you combine the team behind OQO, add some engineers from Dell, Apple, and others, and tell them to design the thinnest, most stylish gaming laptop - no questions asked. The result is striking. Fri, 26 Aug 2011 17:47:16 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Hardware, Embedded Systems 81 http://www.osnews.com/topics/32 News