Hardware Archive

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."

"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?"

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."

"The ATX standard allows power supplies and cases to be commodity parts, dramatically reducing the cost of computer design. Lessons learned from the success of this standard show why standardizing parts is important. The BTX standard builds on this, and the blade.org standards work should do likewise."

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."