Hardware Archive

The Big Crunch: the Downside of Multicore

"Can you imagine getting a new PC and finding your software runs no faster than before? You probably can't imagine it running slower. For some types of software however, that is exactly what is going to happen in the not too distant future. Faster processors running slower may sound bizarre but if you're using certain types of data structures or code on large scale (8+) multicore processors it might actually happen. In fact it might already happen today if you were to run legacy software on one of today's processors which feature a large number of cores."

If Grey Bores You

ColorWare, a company which offers pre-coloured (my apologies for using that abomination of an English word) notebooks and desktops using a special coating process, has added the MacBook Pro to their product line up. If you find Apple's standard grey too boring, maybe a red or a black MacBook Pro is your game. They also offer coloured Mac Minis, iBooks, iMacs, Alienware computers, and more. You can also send in hardware you already own. They say they have some magical Wonderland procedure to paint the computers, but whether or not the process creates a tough layer of paint remains to be seen from customer testimonies.

Chinese Company Produces USD 150 Linux PC

"A Chinese company called YellowSheepRiver wants to make affordable budget computing a reality with its new $150 Linux Municator, a highly compact and innovative PC built with inexpensive Chinese hardware components. Although MIT's much touted $100 Linux laptop has yet to transcend its status as vaporware, YellowSheepRiver already has a working product which could potentially be available for purchase within the next three months." It runs on a custom 64 bit processor, derived from the MIPS processor, and as a result won't run Windows.

Dell Growth Rate Slips Behind Market

"IDC has released its first quarter PC market share figures, and for the first time in recent memory, it's not smooth sailing for Dell. Overall, it was a good quarter. PC shipments rose 12.9 percent from the same quarter in 2005, with the growth occurring worldwide. The big winners for the quarter were HP and Gateway. HP's gains are to be expected, given that it has been battling Dell for the number one market share position for the last several years. Gateway is a bigger surprise."

Desktop CPU Power Survey

SilentPCReview tries to answer an important question: what is the best power efficiency achievable with currently available AMD and Intel processors that can be used on a desktop PC? The answer: "Our focus on thermals, power and energy efficiency led to mostly predictable results: mobile processors are best, followed by AMD desktop processor in general, and then Intel desktop processors. The power efficiency of AMD Athlon 64 single and dual core processors is excellent, even for their highest performance models. The Intel desktop processors suffer from inefficiency, even on the 65nm die. The Core Duo is a delightful exception in Intel's camp, with probably the highest performance-per-watt ratio of all the processors in our survey."

OpenSPARC and Power.org: Which One Has It Right?

"Last summer, IBM set up Power,org, to promote its PowerPC chip as what it called 'open hardware.' This year, Sun launched the OpenSPARC.net open source project around the source code for its Niagera microprocessor. But what does "open" mean in the context of hardware? You have to pay to participate meaningfully in Power.org, as well as pay royalties to implement - it's built on a traditional RAND consortium model. To use the Sun code, though, its just download the code under an open source license, and you're good to go to use anything except the SPARC name. All of which leads to the questions: 'what does open mean in hardware, and which approach will work?"

ARM Offers First Clockless Processor Core

As expected processor licensor ARM Holdings and Handshake Solutions NV, a Royal Philips Electronics subsidiary, have developed an asynchronous processor based on the ARM9 core. The ARM996HS is thought to be the first commercial clockless processor and is being described as particular suited to use as an automotive microcontroller. Because clockless processors consume zero dynamic power when there is no activity, they can significantly extend battery life compared with clocked equivalents.

Review: Alienware Sentia m3200

Ars reviews the Alienware Sentia m3200, a 12" laptop which is not unlike Apple's iBook in case of features. Ars concludes: "The Sentia m3200 is small, light and fast enough to be a very good machine for many tasks. It's not built to handle the latest 3-D games, as it uses onboard graphics, but it makes up for that by being a well-rounded multimedia machine and the fact that it runs cool is a nice plus. When the kinks are ironed out of PowerCinema, the Instant-On feature will make more sense."

Azul To Go 48-Core with Vega 2

While the X86 world hops from one to two processing cores, startup Azul Systems plans to integrate 48 cores on its second-generation Vega chip, expected next year. The first-generation Vega processor it designed has 24 cores but the firm expects to double that level of integration in systems generally available next year with the Vega 2, built on TSMC's 90nm process and squeezing in 812 million transistors. The progress means that Azul's Compute Appliances will offer up to 768-way symmetric multiprocessing.

Dell Acquires Alienware

Dell has announced it has acquired Alienware, a well-known digital solitaire machines maker. "Dell said Alienware will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary following completion of the transaction and will maintain its own product development, product marketing, sales, technical support and other operations as well as brand. The management and founders of Alienware will continue to operate the company as a standalone unit of Dell."

Dell, Alienware Equip Products with PhysX Processors

The much-talked about PhysX processor by Ageia is now finally obtainable for consumers-- sort of. Dell has launched the XPS 600 Renegade: a limited edition computer with four GeForce 7900 cards connected via SLI, Intel Pentium D 965 Extreme Edition (overclocked to 4.26 Ghz), and 2GB of GDDR3 memory, and of course the PhysX processor. That's a $10000 gamer's wet dream. Alienware couldn't watch silently by the sideline of course, and it also equipped some of its digital solitare machines with the PhysX processor.

Cray’s Future: Out of Many, One

In a bid to simplify its product lines and get an edge on competitors, Cray plans a multi-year strategy to unify four different supercomputing technologies into a single, versatile machine. The company plans to announce the concept Monday with its multi-year, three-phase "adaptive supercomputing" plan, said Jan Silverman, senior vice president of corporate strategy.

Tyan Brings Supercomputing to the Desktop

"Every so often there comes a genre-bending product, and Tyan has one of those on its stand at CeBIT this year. It is called the Typhoon PSC or Person Super Computer, and is aimed at the scientific and HPC set. Typhoon PSCs come either Opteron or P4/PD flavors, and brushed aluminium or black finish. The point of this box is not to make an ultimate gaming rig, it is meant to take what used to be the domain of a data centre and move it to under the desktop." That's 4 dual-socket blades (either P-IV or Opteron) in a stylish case with wheels and handles. Now that's one machine I'd like to play Solitare on.

VAX and the Economics of Microprocessors

"John Mashey is known in computing circles for a whole raft of things, among them are his work on the design of the original MIPS architecture, his work at SGI, and a long history of in-depth posts in the newsgroup comp.arch. David Kanter of Realworldtech has taken one of Mashey's posts and, with the author's permission, fleshed it out with more data and graphs for posting as a multipart series. Part I of the series is now available, with Part II on the way. One of the things that really struck me in reading the retrospective was just how prominent a role completely non-architectural factors play in the stories of the successes and failures of various processors."

Genesi Selects Tundra Tsi109TM for PPC High Density Blade Server

"Tundra Semiconductor Corporation today announced the Tundra Tsi109 Host Bridge, the industry's highest performing host bridge for PowerPC, will be integrated into the Genesi High Density Blade Server, demonstrating the Company's rapidly strengthened position as the industry's leading supplier of host bridges for PowerPC." A lot of chit-chat press-release nonsense, but the bottom line might be that Genesi is trying to fill the PowerPC void left by Apple's move to Intel.

ENIAC – Monster and Marvel – Debuted 60 Years Ago

"In February 1946, J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly were about to unveil, for the first time, an electronic computer to the world. Their ENIAC, or Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, could churn 5000 addition problems in one second, far faster than any device yet invented. The scientists knew that they had created something that would change history, but they weren't sure how to convey their breakthrough to the public. So they painted numbers on some light bulbs and screwed the resulting 'translucent spheres' into ENIAC's panels. Dynamic, flashy lights would thereafter be associated with the computer in the public mind." Yes boys and girls, 60 years ago the groundwork was laid for that grey thing hooked up to that thing you're staring at right now.