Isaac Schrödinger

Nehalem News

Digitimes via Hardocp:

Intel plans to launch three Nehalem-based quad-core processors (Bloomfield) at the end of the fourth quarter this year targeting the company's new LGA1366 socket, according to sources at motherboard makers.

These will likely be the expensive models. The mainstream and budget versions won't make it to market till early 2009.

Nehalem Preview

Anandtech somehow got their hands on Intel's Nehalem processors. The successor to the Core 2 Duo will give the competition heartburn.

Nuked Discs

This is art.

Link via Hardocp.

Intel vs. Nvidia

Good for us:

The Intel-NVIDIA war heeds warning from CRT Captial Group, saying NVIDIA maybe providing motivation to the chip giant. CRT Captial Group analyst Ashok Kumar issued a warning stating the recent tirade by NVIDIA CEO, Jen-sun Huang may have adverse effects – angering a “huge, rich, motivated design powerhouse.”

More:

NVIDIA’s ongoing “war” with Intel started with Huang adlibbing during a financial analyst meeting, stating NVIDIA was about to “open a can of whoop ass” on Intel.

Huang further belittled Intel’s graphics solutions as a “joke” and being abysmal in the visual computing world. NVIDIA’s VP of content relations added to the fire with a declaration that the CPU is dead.

It's more likely that Nvidia will go caput; my money is on Intel.

Safe, Legal, and Utterly Useless

Ars Technica:

Customers who have purchased music from Microsoft's now-defunct MSN Music store are now facing a decision they never anticipated making: commit to which computers (and OS) they want to authorize forever, or give up access to the music they paid for. Why? Because Microsoft has decided that it's done supporting the service and will be turning off the MSN Music license servers by the end of this summer.

Nice.

"You will need to obtain a license key for each of your songs downloaded from MSN Music on any new computer, and you must do so before August 31, 2008. If you attempt to transfer your songs to additional computers after August 31, 2008, those songs will not successfully play."

So, some months down the road when you upgrade to a new computer, the songs for which you've paid will refuse to play.

Very nice.

Link via Vox Popoli.

Bad Review

My last computer had an ASUS motherboard and so does my present one. Seeing this behavior isn't comforting:

ASUS officially admitted that it provided better batteries to reviewers of its popular Eee PC 900 than those it shipped to actual customers. According to reports flowing in from Hong Kong, customers who purchased the new UMPCs on launch day complained that ASUS mislead consumers and reviewers. The batteries that were given to reviewers were 5800mAh batteries while consumers were given 4800mAh.

Video of the Month

You Tube: How Camera Lenses are Made.

I wonder how many such facilities exist in the Arab / Islamic world ...

Tiny Logos

Fun at McMaster:

Dr. LaPierre's group used a focus ion beam microscope (FIB) to shoot a beam of gallium ions at the surface of a human hair, carving atoms off the of the surface of the hair to etch these McMaster University logos. When not tattooing hair, they'll use the FIB microscope to fabricate nanoscale devices.

Damn!

Come to think of it, I like that. Tattooed hair. It's discreet.

Link via [H].

Microsoft Getting Hard

Reuters via [H]:

Yahoo Inc has three weeks to accept Microsoft Corp's $31-a-share cash-and-stock offer or Microsoft may lower its bid and take its offer to Yahoo investors, Microsoft said on Saturday.

Steve Ballmer sent a letter to the Yahoo's board of directors. An excerpt:

"If we have not concluded an agreement within the next three weeks, we will be compelled to take our case directly to your shareholders, including the initiation of a proxy contest to elect an alternative slate of directors," Ballmer wrote.

No pressure.

"Cyberspace"

Not your ordinary email:

'We just passed over the Himalayas and are en-route to Australia! The views today have been fantastic . . .,'' Gorie wrote in a ''Hello Earthlings'' e-mail he sent to friends from his days at Miami Palmetto.

That's from Gorie -- the shuttle commander of Endeavour.

That is the sort of thing -- along with an e-mail address that ends in mail.nasa.gov -- that attracts attention when it hits your inbox.

'Guess it gives new meaning to the term 'cyberspace,' '' said Mike Pedersen, 51, a former Miami Palmetto classmate and wrestling team partner who received two e-mails from Gorie since his friend blasted into space March 11.

''It reminds you that, gosh, our country still does some amazing feats,'' Pedersen said. "To get an e-mail like that is just amazing.''

Atom Inside

Computer World via Hardocp:

Taking advantage of dropping hardware prices, Intel expects to plug its newest Atom chips into desktops that will be available later this year from under $200.

Wow. A mainstream Core 2 Duo processor from Intel costs that much.

The Atom chips do not have the processing power required for more intense computing tasks like viewing high-definition DVDs, said Noury Al-Khaledy, general manager of Intel's Atom desktops, which the company called "Nettops." An Atom desktop could serve as a second machine in developed countries or a primary desktop in developing countries, he said.

Good for them. I, however, have my eye on Nehalem.

Holy Schnikes!

I had to excerpt this part:

How to Melt a Tank in Three Seconds Or Less

Read the rest.

Hasta La Vista

The New York Times: They Criticized Vista. And They Should Know.

I thought last year that I might get Vista this summer but after reading so many horror stories I'll pass on the "upgrade".

Link via LFG.

It's Gloating Time

Ways Sony Plans to Celebrate Their Blu-Ray Victory.

4. Get T-shirts printed up that say, "The HD stands for Hopeless Despair" and send them to engineers at Toshiba.

Ouch.

The Core 2 Duo Supremacy

Nehalem is the successor to the Core 2 Duo. The earliest time it'll be released is Q4 2008. Somehow, its performance numbers have been leaked.

Intel's domination will continue for a while.

No YouTube for You!

CNet via Hardocp:

Pakistan ordered local Internet service providers to block access to the popular YouTube Web site because of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad that have outraged many Muslims, an industry official said Sunday.

A small piece of advice to my former countrymen: Simply don't view the sinful videos that you find offensive!

The War is Over

Sony finally wins in an epic format arena.

PC World: End of the High-Def Format War: Five Pros and Cons for the Consumer.

I'm hoping to see Blu-ray drives as reasonable options for the desktop by the summer of next year. Reasonable? Less than $100.

HD DVD Death Watch

This is how it ends:

Super ginormous world-conquering retailer Wal-Mart is ditching flailing high-def home video format HD DVD in favor of rival Blu-ray.

Soon to be official:

Given recent marketplace advances made by rival Blu-ray in the format war, the word on the street is that Toshiba could be about to surrender and give up on HD DVD.

Good. A little history.

High Definition Lawsuit

Wired:

A class action lawsuit filed earlier this week (.pdf) against Samsung claims the company has knowingly sold defective Blu-ray players to the public since June 2006.

The lead plaintiff in the case, Bob McGovern, says he purchased his BD-01200 Samsung Blu-ray player last summer and was subsequently unable to view "numerous Blu-ray disc titles," a fact he attributes to the player's "defective design and/or manufacture."

Lead attorneys in the case also note that there have since been a number of similar complaints levied against the company concerning the inoperability of certain Blu-ray disc titles. In some cases, Samsung has also verified that it does not intend to provide future firmware updates to correct these issues…and hence the lawsuit.

Seems reasonable.

Thunderpack!

Cnet:

The Thunderpack model TP-R2G2, created by Thunderbolt Aerosystems, just might be the closest thing available to the rocket-powered jet pack of your childhood science fiction fantasies.

Sure, it can fly only for 75 seconds--and that's the upper end--but its creators hope that further research and development may make jetpacks a viable solution for everything from forest fire control to business commutes.

It'd be so cool to levitate.

An Expensive Dominos Set

That's a lot of capacity.

The Golden Ratio is Butchered

Still, the result looks mighty impressive.

Nano Wars

Gizmodo:

Taken with an electron scanning micrograph by Fanny Beron from the École Polytechnique de Montréal.

Scientists do love explosions.

The End of HD-DVD

Daily Tech:

The news just continues to sour for the HD DVD camp. Earlier today, DailyTech reported that Warner Bros. decided to go Blu-ray exclusive by the end of May 2008. Warner Bros. executives backed their decision by saying that the move was beneficial for consumers.

More:

It looks as though the fallout from the Warner Bros. move is coming fast and furiously. The DailyTech inbox was just moments ago greeted with the following message from a Toshiba representative regarding CES press meetings and the scheduled HD DVD press conference:

Here's the key part:

Based on the timing of the Warner Home Video announcement today, the HD DVD Promotional Group has decided to cancel 1:1 press meetings at CES, in addition to the press conference that was scheduled for Sunday evening.

They didn't have any warning about Warner Bros. going Blu-ray.

Not Your Average Bed

Engadget via Hardocp:

The sleeper not only combines dual, remote-controlled, adjustable mattresses with temperature control and anti-snore technology (whatever that is), but also manages to embed a 1080p HD projector, four subwoofers and tweeters, a 1.5TB hard drive, 4GB of RAM, Media Center integration, WiFi, and an iPod dock.

Meh. That iPod dock makes it ostentatious.

The price tag?

Showing at CES 2008, and priced from $20,000 to $50,000 (depending on options).

Yikes!

Two Different Structures

Two words popped into my head when I saw this photo.

Tuniq Tower!

Why Blu?

A reader asks:

Can you expand on this a little? I'm interested to know why you prefer Blu-ray.

Sure.

In one word: Capacity.

Currently dual-layer HD-DVDs top out at 30 GB whereas dual-layer Blu-ray discs can store 50 GB. This leads to two, likely, advantages for Blu-ray.

1. Better Quality for Movies

Blu-ray can use a higher data rate for video and audio on its discs which should theoretically result in better quality. Of course, most people might not be able to tell the difference because (a) they don't have the top-notch video and audio setup (b) it's just tough to judge the quality at that level.

Even if Blu-ray manufacturers decide to use the exact same data rate as HD-DVD, they then have space left over for more extras: a DTS-HD track in addition to the Dolby Digital already present, a foreign language audio track, more interviews, documentaries, etc.

So far for every two HD-DVD movies sold, the Blu-ray camp has cashed on three.

2. Excellent for Data Storage

The information that I've gathered over the years -- school documents, photos, music, movie trailers, ebooks, numerous software programs (all free and legal, I think) -- can fit on a single 50 GB Blu-ray disc. I can backup and transport my "core system" in just one disc!

News from less than three months ago:

Hitachi has developed a prototype four layer Blu-Ray disc capable of holding 100GB of data.

Hitachi is claiming that current Blu-ray players need only a firmware update to play these monsters. With such an advance Blu-ray movies can be packed with even more goodies.

It's a win-win.

One might ask: Why are some companies even bothering with HD-DVD?

The production cost for HD-DVD players and the discs themselves is lower than the Blu-ray side. The cheapest HD-DVD player goes for under $100 whereas the least pricey Blu-ray player is still around $300.

I think that Blu-ray is a better format than HD-DVD. Though, I'll be content if any one of them loses and dies out by summer 2009. I want to buy one optical drive for my computer setup then and I want it to be reasonably future-proof.

A Blu-ray Edge

I'm glad that Blu-ray is outstripping HD-DVD in the marketplace. Still, I'll likely wait till 2009 to see which format finally wins this race.

Also by then, I'm hoping, it'll be easier and cheaper to buy a computer system that is capable of displaying true high definition.

What Sale?

Best Buy is still using its old sleazy tactic on customers.

Here are a few stories of the deception.

Intel In No Hurry

DigiTimes via Hardocp:

Intel has recently adjusted its product strategy and will postpone three 45nm quad-core CPUs that were originally scheduled to launch in January next year, according to sources at motherboard makers.

Why the delay?

Launching the CPUs now will not benefit Intel much in its battle with AMD, while they could cause damage to Intel's 65nm quad-core CPUs, therefore the company has decided it is in no rush to release new products until AMD is able to present more of a threat.

Intel basically said, "Hey, we're making loads of cash and AMD is in the gutter. Why compete with ourselves by releasing better products quickly?"

End result: Intel wins, AMD gets humiliated, the consumer loses.

Slight Improvement in Storage

Check it out.

They Like Blue

Some nice lookin' case mods. I wouldn't spend money on this stuff but I can't deny that this one looks elegant and oh so shiny.

Ouch

Glenn Reynolds congratulates Microsoft.

Choices, Choices

For $1500 you can buy or build yourself a nice desktop setup with a 24-inch monitor or you could just get a new keyboard.

Another Reason Why Islam Sucks

MSN:

Singapore has banned the sale of an Xbox video game that features an intimate scene between two female characters, a statement said.

Link via Hardocp.

Fresh Hardware with Malware

Slashdot via Kate:

About 1,800 brand new 300-GB or 500-GB external hard drives made for Maxtor in Thailand were found to have trojan horse malwares pre-installed (autorun.inf and ghost.pif). When the HD is in use, these forward information on the disk to two websites in Beijing, China: www.nice8.org or www.we168.org.

Damn. I'm sticking with Western Digital.

The Two Titans

Nvidia rules the current GPU arena. It just released the GeForce 8800GT at an awesome price point. AMD/ATI will be screwed for the Christmas rush if they don't release a better product in November.

Intel is king in the CPU arena. It will debut a smaller, efficient and technically superior Core 2 Duo next month:

Instead of producing MOSFET transistors inside the CPU via the conventional silicon-oxide technique in use since 1960, Intel now fabricates the transistors using a new High-K Dielectric technique. As a result, the Penryn core has improved over the previous CPU generation in several ways.

Read this:

We were amazed - in fact, couldn't believe our eyes - when we first measured the power consumption of the QX9650. We repeated our measurements several times to ensure their veracity and rule out errors on our part, but we kept coming up with the same result. In idle mode, with the CPU's four cores running at a reduced frequency of 2 GHz thanks to Intel's Speedstep technology, the meter only indicated 310 milliamperes. The system voltage lay at 12.216 Volts, which means that our 45 nm Penryn has a sensationally low power consumption of only 3.79 Watts.

Take a look at the chart here to see just how impressive that number really is. Such a powerful and power-efficient processor will be great for laptops.

Still, I'm holding out for Nehalem.

Fatwa in 4, 3, 2 ....

I think I see the face of Muhammad in there.

I could be wrong.

Colossus Constructs Tinier Chips

The Associated Press:

In the latest display of its manufacturing might, Intel Corp. is opening a new $3 billion factory in Arizona, widening its lead over rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. in the industry's switch to a new chip-making technique.

A major update to the Core 2 Duo line will be released in the next few months. They'll all be 45 nanometer processors. How small is 45 nanometers?

The transistors on such chips are so small that more than 30 million can fit onto the head of a pin.

Whenever I read of such marvels, a questions pops up. Where will it stop? We'll hit a brick wall with scaling and move on to constructing special materials (which likely don't even exist yet) that will continue to improve raw performance.

Bad Use of Velcro

Hunh: Top ten gadgets every designer SHOULD live without.

Really, what's wrong with the beverage bag?

Tech Woes

Clayton Cramer:

I emailed the VP of Customer Support for HP, both describing the severity of the problem (including sharing a part number between incompatible parts), and suggesting some methods of reducing costs and improving customer support. (There are some dreadfully inefficient aspects to how their support system works that are obvious from the outside.) I haven't heard back from him. Perhaps he is too busy trying to get his HP notebook repaired.

Ouch.

How Western Ingenuity Helps the War

Read on.

Baby Einstein...

Is so cute!

Surfing Feels So Good

[H] Enthusiast:

If you have a choice between having sex and surfing the web and surfing the web wins...something is seriously wrong.

Keyword: If.

Conroe to Penryn

TG Daily: Intel to launch Penryn on Nov. 12.

AMD is so screwed, again.

Idiocy in High Definition

Earlier this year, I talked about the headaches in trying to get the new generation of video formats to play on the PC.

Here's an example: I came across this post in a tech forum titled, "How to play HD DVD". After a few helpful comments the fellow who wanted help could finally get the audio from the disc with his intended connection. That's it.

You Gotta Respect the Japanese.

They know the way of the Samurai.

Those Fast Japanese!

The Washington Post:

Americans invented the Internet, but the Japanese are running away with it.

Broadband service here is eight to 30 times as fast as in the United States -- and considerably cheaper. Japan has the world's fastest Internet connections, delivering more data at a lower cost than anywhere else, recent studies show.

Charles Johnson:

The Japanese are getting download speeds of 61 mbps over fiber optic cable.

Damn. Imagine how much por-, er, music one could transfer with that.

Rootkit: The Sequel

HardOCP:

Damn, you’d think Sony would have learned its lesson by now.

Nope, they're idiots.

Itanium Madness

The Greatest Desk in the World^TM.

Reign of Intel

TG Daily:

Intel plans to initially release nine desktop processors with the 45 nm Penryn core, with clock speeds eventually scaling up to 4 GHz, according to a report published by Digitimes today. 

Bad news for consumers:

According to our sources, Core 2 Duo processors have been running at 4.0 GHz in Intel's labs for some time, while the company apparently never felt the competitive pressure to actually release such a processor to the public.

AMD has been getting clobbered for over a year now and still that pressure is nowhere to be found on the horizon.

Mighty Mouse

What he said:

I played around with both grips and each one had its advantages, though as someone with large hands I preferred the Wide Load overall.

Ahem.

Intel Realizes the Mistake

Digitimes:

Intel plans to unify the product names of its CPUs and platforms beginning on January 1, 2008 to simplify the company's complicated product lines, according to sources at PC makers.

Good. Why they made the whole mess in the first place is anybody's guess.

Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Duo and the Core 2 Solo will soon be simply known as Core 2 processors. Next year or so, Intel will release a processor with 8 cores. The present naming scheme would have sound silly with that: Core 2 Octo.

I still think Intel should have publicly called the new line they released in July 2006 as the 'Core' processors. They could have kept the 'Core 2' name for the epic Nehalem line which will come out in late 2008.

Now, if Intel would only rename the Viiv...

Opening the Mind

Imagine a future in which you're not dead. You're just waiting for repair.

Incredible.

High Definition Video on the PC

Tom's Hardware Guide:

We'll concentrate on high-definition video formats like HD DVD and Blu-ray, and dig into what it takes to get them to work on the PC and investigate how the user experience is impacted by the new HD digital rights management components.

With this eye to the future, we'll use the newest video card architectures available, as well. We'll see what Nvidia's newest DirectX 10 cards, the Geforce 8800, 8600, and 8500 can do for HD video. We'll also see what ATI's newest flagship card brings to the table, the HD 2900 XT.

It's a very thorough and informative piece.

A Glimpse of the Future?

A cool video of touch screen computing.

Info about "Milan" from Hardocp.

More here at Microsoft Surface.

iLike

I think it would be a good idea to bomb Muslim nations with these.

Slightly Pricey

Holy crap:

Russian design studio Art Lebedev opened its online store for pre-orders of the Optimus Maximus LED keyboard. The first shipment of 200 keyboards was sold within one day, despite the keyboard’s hefty price tag of $1564.37.

My entire PC setup* didn't cost that much!

* Monitor, keyboard, mouse, mic and headphone included.

ReadySlump?

PC World via Hardocp:

Windows Vista's Windows ReadyBoost sounds too good to be true, and based on our extensive lab tests, it is. The technology promises to let you speed up Windows by plugging an inexpensive USB flash drive into your PC. But we found that while ReadyBoost may speed up Vista a tiny bit, it can also slow it down in some instances.

Oops.

Let's Boogy With DCE!

Idiot.

Not In The Geekdom

Top 11 Signs Your Candidate Isn’t A Geek.

I laughed hard at the 4th one:

Thinks DRM is an old school rapper.

Link via HardOCP.

Blu-ray Drives

Yikes! I just checked the prices of various Blu-ray drives. The least expensive model goes for US$500. They'd have to drop below $100 before I'd even consider upgrading to this convoluted technology.

Increased Costs For Consumers

Click here for an incredibly devastating critique of Windows Vista.

Near the end, we get some quotes. I found this one amusing:

“DRM causes too much pain for legitimate buyers […] There are huge problems with DRM” — Bill Gates (reported by blogger Michael Arrington).

I've been reading with quite some shock about the requirements for playing the next generation video formats.

When DVDs hit critical mass in 2000, the PC needed the following few items to play DVD movies:

• A DVD
• A DVD drive
• A fast-enough processor: a 300 MHz Pentium II could do the job.

Now, to be able to play either HD-DVDs or the Blu-ray movies at their intended resolution, the PC requires:

• Either a HD-DVD or a Blu-ray movie.
• Either a HD-DVD or a Blu-ray drive.
• A dual-core processor: any Core 2 Duo should do it.
• 1 GB of RAM minimum.
• A high-end graphics card that supports High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP). Shockingly not a single graphics card sold today is capable of supporting the resolution of high definition (1080p).
• An up-to-date operating system: Windows XP SP2 or better.
• A monitor that accepts a High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) connection. Otherwise, one won't get the high definition video -- the content will get downgraded.
• Software that plays HD media. Yes, you have to pay for it. I don't think the Windows Media Player will suffice.

This is simply insane. 100% of the PCs out there would need some or all of the above upgrades to be able to get the true high definition stream. It's highly likely that one can get a new setup today and easily miss one of the requirements and not get true HD video and not even know about it!

In addition, some of the companies have been cute with advertising: promoting HD-ready products that were anything but. (Oh yes, fraud is part of the equation.) The industry is supposed to make it easier for consumers to move on to the new and far superior technology but here it seems we are in for a frustrating few years.

Fast and Furious

Orgasmic speeds:

A group of researchers led by the University of Tokyo has broken internet speed records for the second time in two days. Damn, what would you do with that kind of speed? I can’t put a thumb on a good use for all that speed right now but I’m sure something will come to me.

Beats me.

The Monster Arrives

Tom's Hardware Guide:

On March 16, 2007, UPS delivered to our storage test lab a shipment from Hitachi, which we had anticipated for several weeks. The box contained the world's first hard drive with a total capacity of 1 terabyte (1 TB): the Deskstar 7K1000.

I'm surprised. I thought Seagate would be the first-to-market with the 1 TB drive. Still, it's good news since prices for the 300 GB to 500 GB drives should see a significant drop in the coming weeks.

Burying XP

APC via Slashdot:

Computer makers have been told they'll no longer be able to get Windows XP OEM by the end of this year, despite consumer resistance to Vista and its compatibility problems.

By early 2008, Microsoft's contracts with computer makers will require companies to only sell Vista-loaded machines. "The OEM version of XP Professional goes next January," said Frank Luburic, senior ThinkPad product manager for Lenovo. "At that point, they'll have no choice."

By then Windows Vista Service Pack 1 will be out. So, the situation will (hopefully!) improve. Still, this looks like a desperate move by Microsoft.

DIY Computer Setup

Corsair:

PC gaming is exceptionally popular and can be a lot of fun, but nobody likes trying to run a modern high-end game on a 3 year old, outdated system. At the same time, not everyone wants to drop thousands upon thousands of dollars on the most ridiculously equipped gaming rig from a specialty boutique computer builder.

So what's the answer? Believe it or not, it's possible to get great gaming performance from a system that doesn't necessarily break the bank. Our goal today is to talk about building the best possible system you can for around $1500 US at the time of this writing. With some careful component selection, a little bit of knowledge, patience, and some tweaking, you can build a rock-solid gaming box.

Let's start with our component selection.

It basically comes down to good-enough components. The team picked the best: with names like Asus, Intel, Corsair, Seagate and Nvidia, one can't pick a better product at the same price point.

Even if you're not a gamer, you might still find the process to be educational.

This setup, however, is for those who're crazy.