Hardware Archive

ARM To Enter Netbook Market

Thom Holwerda 2008-10-23 Hardware 43 Comments

Netbooks use various types of processors, but most of them are built around Intel's Atom processor and architecture. There are more exotic options, such as the Chinese Longsoon processor, but those are quite rare and hard to come by - and certainly not as powerful. Apparently, another contender is preparing to enter the netbook processor market. Say hello to ARM.

Embedded Device Makers Turn Away from Linux

David Adams 2008-10-07 Hardware 21 Comments

An EE Times straw poll of embedded device makers in Europe found that while last year 50% said they planned to use Linux, that number had dropped to 33%. 26% said they planned to use a commercial OS, up from 15% a year ago.

MSI: Wind Doing Well, Linux Version Not So Much

Thom Holwerda 2008-10-05 Hardware 105 Comments

The netbook craze is currently in full swing, with these small laptops being advertised everywhere (at least here in The Netherlands); in fact, you can already get netbooks with 3G from the mobile phone carriers at severely reduced prices (but with a one or two year contract, of course). Netbooks are also welcomed by the Linux community as the break they've been waiting for: many netbooks are available with Linux pre-installed. One of the more successful (and powerful) netbooks out there is MSI's Wind, which is also sold under different brand and model names by other companies. In an interview with LaptopMag, MSI's Director of US Sales Andy Tung, however, has some bad news for those that believe the netbook will be the foot in the door that the Linux desktop has been waiting for.

Review: Asus Eee PC 4G 701

Eugenia Loli 2008-09-16 Hardware 19 Comments

Our friends at Geeks.com, known for their cheap laptops offers, sent in one of the most popular netbooks around: the Asus Eee PC. The model is the 701 4G, with 512 MB RAM, and Windows XP in it. Read through for a review of the product.

Netbooks and Mini-Laptops Buyer’s Guide

Thom Holwerda 2008-09-12 Hardware 41 Comments

As some of you may have noticed, I'm slightly obsessed with my Aspire One netbook, and actually, with netbooks in general. They are great little devices, more powerful than you'd give them credit for upon first encounter. And, but that might just be me, netbooks are what laptops should have been from day one: truly portable. El Reg has put together a buyer's guide for today's netbooks, and while the guide is generally spot-on with its assessments, it does present some odd choices here and there. Read on for some of my own thoughts grown out of experience.

8 Cores, 64 Bits, Building a Better Workstation

David Adams 2008-09-10 Hardware 48 Comments

It this post Geek.com offers a walkthrough of the building of a powerful, yet affordable workstation. Each of the parts was carefully chosen and the build was extensively detailed. There were some problems, but those were worked around and the end result was an impressive 64-bit workhorse.

China’s Godson 3 Processor To Take on Intel, AMD

Thom Holwerda 2008-09-09 Hardware 62 Comments

When China launched its first microprocessor, the Godson 1 in 2002, it wasn't much of a competitor to what Intel and AMD had to offer. The 64bit Godson 2, released in 2005, still didn't worry the Western chip makers, but the chip did start to pop up here and there outside of China. Expect to see a lot more of them in the coming years, as the Godson 3 promises to be a chip that can compete head on with the big ones: quad-core, eight core version in the pipeline, and 200 extra instructions aiding in x86 compatibility.

Review: Eee Box

Thom Holwerda 2008-09-08 Hardware 6 Comments

The Eee Box is the latest addition to the Eee family, and this article takes a closer look at setting up and using the Eee Box. "Unless you've had your head in the sand for the past several months, you've probably heard of Asus' line of Eee PC laptops - low-cost, ultra-portable laptops with solid-state hard disk drives. Over the past several months, the Eee PC has evolved. Newer laptop models come with Linux as well as Windows XP Home, standard hard disk drives, and even the new Intel Atom processor. Now, we have a desktop version of the Eee PC - the Eee Box. Here, I will detail the unpacking and initial setup of an Eee Box unit using text and images."

Submitted by Rahul 2008-08-20 Hardware 12 Comments

"Me and Bobby Powers have spent a few hours smoothing out the process of getting fully-featured Linux desktops to boot on the XO laptop. On the whole, OLPC developers have been pretty good at getting code upstream, so only a few fixups are needed to get things operational on the XO." On a slightly (stretching it here) related note, here is a detailed guide on installing and optimising Ubuntu on the Acer Aspire One that we reviewed last week. I replaced the default Linpus installation with Ubuntu using this guide, and I must say that I am quite pleased.

Review: Acer Aspire One

Thom Holwerda 2008-08-12 Hardware 40 Comments

There's a new hype going on in the world of computing. I used to call them 'tiny laptops', but somewhere along the way, Intel's marketing got at me and now I call them netbooks. Every self-respecting manufacturer has a netbook product line, or is about to introduce one (Apple?), so I figured I would take a look at what all the fuss is about: I bought a netbook.

Tiny, 6-Chip ‘Open’ Computer Runs Linux

amjith 2008-08-08 Hardware 3 Comments

Embedded designer Paul Thomas is showcasing a tiny, open-sourced computer at LinuxWorld in San Francisco this week. Would-be Linuxstamp enthusiasts can obtain pre-built boards for the hefty sum of $120 directly from Thomas, or they can download the design for free and build it themselves.

Aussies, Americans Lose Out in Lenovo’s Linux Netbook Push

Submitted by SBW 2008-08-07 Hardware 62 Comments

It seems Lenovo is being selective in which markets get Linux on its new range of IdeaPad netbooks. "People in most markets Lenovo serves, including Singapore, China and the UK, will be offered the company's new IdeaPad S10 with either Microsoft Windows XP or a Linux OS, but Australian and US computer buyers will only be offered Windows XP according to Lenovo."

ThinkPad X200 Reviewed

amjith 2008-08-03 Hardware 31 Comments

"The recent release of Intel's Centrino 2 platform means a refresh of notebooks from every manufacturer. Lenovo took this chance to not only update the internals of their ThinkPads, but also to make changes to their naming conventions and release a few new models, including the addition of the ThinkPad X200 to the venerable X series." The X200 brings along a widescreen display (the X was the ThinkPad's last standard aspect ratio series), the Centrino 2 platform with 45nm processor, and an SSD option. The notebook is a bit wider than before but still has that ThinkPad keyboard and with the right battery it will last up to 9 hours."

Submitted by snydeq 2008-07-31 Hardware 20 Comments

While using an AMD Barcelona server to create a portable benchmarking kit, InfoWorld's Tom Yager discovered something unexpected: "I could incur variances in some benchmark tests ranging from 10 to 60 percent through combined manipulation of the server's BIOS settings, BIOS version, compiler flags, and OS release." Yager put this matter to AMD's performance engineers and was told he was seeing an effect widely known among CPU engineers, but seldom communicated to IT - that the performance envelope of a CPU is cast in silicon, but is sculpted in software. "Long before you lay hands on a server," Yager writes, "BIOS and OS engineers have reshaped its finely tuned logic in code, sometimes with the real intent of making it faster sometimes to homogenize the server to flatten its performance relative to Intel's."

Submitted by jmalasko 2008-07-31 Hardware 10 Comments

For the first time, you can hit your computer and get a meaningful response! Knock some sense into your computer with a Hard Drive Active Protection System-aware kernel, an accelerometer-enabled laptop, and a Perl script. Double tap to lock the screen, and knock in your secret code to unlock. Tap the display lid once to move your mp3 player to the next track. The possibilities are endless.

Submitted by computerishcat 2008-07-25 Hardware 21 Comments

People have been saying for some time that operating systems will eventually just become windows to the "cloud" (essentially browsers) and everyone will just use web applications, but now a company called CherryPal is really doing it. Plus, the CherryPal uses only 2 Watts of power.

Computer Boot Up Process

amjith 2008-07-16 Hardware 7 Comments

Gustav Duarte has written a three part article about the computer boot up process. The series starts with the Motherboard Chipsets and the Memory Map of an Intel computer and then he covers the processes that take place from the BIOS initialization to the boot loader. The final part is the coverage of the Kernel Boot Process.

What Makes a Toughbook So Tough?

amjith 2008-07-14 Hardware 9 Comments

A lot of manufacturers have notebook computers that they consider ruggedized in some form or another, but it's not always clear just how much they can take. Panasonic gave Geek.com access to their testing facilities in order to see some of what their notebooks go through. Some tests include temperature shock, drop testing (from various angles), a 360-degree shower with pressurized water, and more. In addition to describing parts of the test process they got some video of a Toughbook 30 standing up to a few drops and a lot of water.

Submitted by snydeq 2008-07-08 Hardware 15 Comments

Decrying stasis in the laptop industry, InfoWorld's Tom Yager and crew have designed their ideal laptop for 2009 given the components are available currently. The project was subjected to the same limitations manufacturers face when whiteboarding a new notebook and introduced only those components that would increase end-user productivity manyfold. The resulting AMD Puma-based WorldBook Ether and WorldBook Meteor include an 'Embedded Smartphone' system-in-system ARM microcontroller, flash-memory overlay for fast boot, and ATI/AMD Hybrid Graphics for power-saving switched mode.

Will the QC Kill the PC?

Eugenia Loli 2008-07-01 Hardware 37 Comments

Quantum computers could become a reality very soon, opening up some fantastic possibilities -- including tele-portation, says Richard Gray.