58222765
submission
MojoKid writes:
Shortly after 2.5-inch versions of Samsung's SSD 840 EVO drives hit the market, the company prepared an array of mSATA drives featuring the same controller and NAND flash. The Samsung SSD 840 EVO mSATA series of drives are essentially identical to their 2.5" counterparts, save for the mSATA drives' much smaller form factor. Like their 2.5" counterparts, Samsung's mSATA 840 EVO series of drives feature an updated, triple-core Samsung MEX controller, which operates at 400MHz. The 840 EVO's MEX controller has also been updated to support the SATA 3.1 spec, which incorporates a few new features, like support for queued TRIM commands. Along with the MEX controller, all of the Samsung 840 EVO mSATA series drives feature LPDDR2-1066 DRAM cache memory. The 120GB drive sports 256MB of cache, the 250GB and 500GB drive have 512MB of cache, and the 750GB and 1TB drives have 1GB of cache. Performance-wise, SSD 840 EVO series of mSATA solid state drives performs extremely well, whether using synthetic benchmarks, trace-based tests like PCMark, or highly-compressible or incompressible data.
58138355
submission
MojoKid writes:
After AMD launched its Hawaii-based R9 290 and R9 290X last fall, it was only a matter of time before the company followed up with a new set of workstation cards. Today, it's rolling out the FirePro W9100 — a new, R9 290X-based workstation GPU that slots in just above the older W9000. This new FirePro supports up to six monitors via DisplayPort, 44 compute units (2816 shader cores), and whopping 16GB of 5GHz GDDR5 memory. The W9100 is being positioned as a simultaneous GPU compute and 3D rendering solution, particularly for 4K work. AMD has also worked with Adobe to add OpenCL support to Premiere Pro and other content production applications. That's an effort that likely got a substantial kick from winning the Mac Pro's design — Macs may not sell in huge numbers compared to Windows systems, but they're heavily preferred in content creation applications. The other major announcement is AMD's new FirePro workstation certification program, with specific hardware and GPU options. It's not clear how much of an impact this will have on vendors, since companies like BOXX are already familiar with the rigors of workstation building. Still, this dovetails with AMD's general efforts to improve its software design and ISV support.
58101723
submission
MojoKid writes:
NVIDIA's 2014 GTC (GPU Technology Conference) kicked off today in San Jose California, with NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang offering up a healthy dose of new information on next generation NVIDIA GPU technologies. Two new NVIDIA innovations will be employed in their next-gen GPU technology, now know by its code named "Pascal." First, there's a new serial interconnect known as NVLink for GPU-to-CPU and GPU-to-GPU communication. Though details were sparse, apparently NVLink is a serial interconnect that employs differential signaling with embedded clock and it allows for unified memory architectures and eventually cache coherency. It's similar to PCI Express in terms of command set and programming model but NVLink will offer a massive 5 — 12X boost in bandwidth up to 80GB/sec. The second technology to power NVIDIA's forthcoming Pascal GPU is 3D stacked DRAM technology.The technique employs through-silicon vias that allow the ability to stack DRAM die on top of each other and thus provide much more density in the same PCB footprint for the DRAM package. Jen-Hsun also used his opening keynote to show off NVIDIA's most powerful graphics card to date, the absolutely monstrous GeForce GTX Titan Z. The upcoming GeForce GTX Titan Z is powered by a pair of GK110 GPUs, the same chips that power the GeForce GTX Titan Black and GTX 780 Ti. All told, the card features 5,760 CUDA cores (2,880 per GPU) and 12GB of frame buffer memory—6GB per GPU. NVIDIA also said that the Titan Z's GPUs are tuned to run at the same clock speed, and feature dynamic power balancing so neither GPU creates a performance bottleneck.
57885299
submission
MojoKid writes:
Intel used the backdrop of the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco to make a handful of interesting announcements that run the gamut from low-power technologies to ultra-high-end desktop chips. In addition to outing a number of upcoming processors—from an Anniversary Edition Pentium to a monster 8-core Haswell-E—Intel also announced a new technology dubbed Ready Mode. Intel's Ready Mode essentially allows a 4th Gen Core processor to enter a low C7 power state, while the OS and other system components remain connected and ready for action. Intel demoed the technology, and along with compatible third party applications and utilities, showed how Ready Mode can allow a mobile device to automatically sync to a PC to download and store photos. The PC could also remain in a low power state and stream media, server up files remotely, or receive VOIP calls. Also, in a move that's sure to get enthusiasts excited, Intel revealed details regarding Haswell-E. Similar to Ivy Bridge-E and Sandy Bridge-E, Haswell-E is the "extreme" variant of the company's Haswell microarchitecture. Haswell-E Core i7-based processors will be outfitted with up to eight processor cores, which will remain largely unchanged from current Haswell-based chips. However, the new CPU will connect to high-speed DDR4 memory and will be paired to the upcoming Intel X99 chipset. Other details were scarce, but you can bet that Haswell-E will be Intel's fastest desktop processor to date when it arrives sometime in the second half of 2014. Intel also gave a quick nod to their upcoming 14nm Broadwell CPU architecture, a follow-on to Haswell. Broadwell will be the first Intel desktop processor to feature integrated Iris Pro Graphics and will also be compatible with Intel Series 9 chipsets.
57832613
submission
MojoKid writes:
Long-time memory maker Crucial, a division of Micron, is launching a new line of solid state drives today, dubbed the M550 series. The Crucial M550 is targeted at performance-minded, but budget-conscious enthusiasts and will be offered in array of form factors, including mSATA and M.2 flavors, with capacities at 128GB, 256GB, 512GB and 1TB. The drive is built around Marvell's 88SS9189 SATA 6Gbs controller and is outfitted with 20nm IMFT MLC NAND. The drives are rated at 550MB/s max read and 500MB/s max write performance and in the benchmarks they perform right up there with the latest offerings from Intel and Toshiba's OCZ Technology Group high-end products. Better still, at .67 - .77 per GiB, the M550s are some of the most affordable SSDs on the market currently.
57659463
submission
MojoKid writes:
The Asus Chromebox is a tiny palm-sized machine similar in form and footprint to Intel's line of NUC (Next Unit of Computing) mini PCs. One of the higher-end Asus Chromebox variants coming to market employs Intel's 4th generation Haswell Core series processor architecture with Integrated HD 4400 graphics. The machine is packed with fair number of connectivity options including four USB 3.0 SuperSpeed ports, HDMI and DisplayPort output, a microSD Flash card slot, 802.11n dual-band WiFi, and Bluetooth 4.0. It also sports a 1.7GHz dual-core Core i3-4010U processor with Hyper-Threading for four logical processing threads and 4GB of DDR3 1600MHz memory. Finally, the onboard 16GB SSD storage might be appear a bit meager, but it's backed up by 100GB of Google Drive cloud storage for 2 years. In testing, the device proved to be capable in some quick and dirty browser-based benchmarks. For the class of device and use case that the Chromebox caters to, Google has covered most of what folks look for with the Chrome OS. There's basic office productivity apps, video and media streaming apps, and even a few games that you might care to fire up. The Asus Chromebox handles all of these usage types with ease and it's also barely audible while consuming only about 18 Watts under load.
57608769
submission
MojoKid writes:
The power efficiency of NVIDA's Maxwell architecture make it ideal for mobile applications, so today's announcement by NVIDIA of a new top-to-bottom line-up of mobile GPUs—most of them featuring the Maxwell architecture—should come as no surprise. Though a couple of Kepler and even Fermi-based GPUs still exist in NVIDIA's new line-up, the heart of the product stack leverages Maxwell. The entry-level parts in the GeForce 800M series consist of the GeForce GT 820M, 830M, and 840M. The 820M is a Fermi-based GPU, but the 830M and 840M are new chips that leverage Maxwell. The meat of the GeForce GTX 800M series consist of Kepler-based GPUs, though Maxwell is employed in the more mainstream parts. NVIDIA is claiming the GeForce GTX 880M will be fastest mobile GPU available, but the entire GTX line-up will offer significantly higher performance then any integrated graphics solution. The GeForce GTX 860M and 850M are essentially identical to the desktop GeForce GTX 750 Ti, save for different frequencies and memory configurations. There are a number of notebooks featuring NVIDIA's GeForce 800M series GPUs coming down the pipeline from companies like Alienware, Asus, Gigabyte, Lenovo, MSI and Razer, though others are sure the follow suit. Some of the machines will be available immediately.
57570003
submission
MojoKid writes:
Expectations are high for the imminent launch of Titanfall. The game is a major test for Microsoft's Xbox One — its one of the biggest exclusive projects, its beta was well-reviewed, and gamers have been looking for a game that would clarify just what the Xbox One is capable of when compared against the PlayStation 4. The game's beta ran an odd resolution — 1408x792 — but according to an interview with lead engineer Richard Baker, an upgrade could still be in the cards. Baker notes: " One of the big tricks is how much ESRAM we're going to use, so we're thinking of not using hardware MSAA and instead using FXAA to make it so we don't have to have this larger render target. We're going to experiment. The target is either 1080p non-anti-aliased or 900p with FXAA. We're trying to optimize... we don't want to give up anything for higher res." The jump from 1600x900 to 1920x1080 isn't small — that's a 44% leap in total number of pixels, and it's downright odd that the performance gap between FXAA and no antialiasing whatsoever might require the Titanfall team to drop the resolution so drastically. But there's a potential answer to this question that dovetails with what we've heard from other sources — the Xbox One's EDRAM cache might be a little too small.
57414849
submission
MojoKid writes:
Buzz has been building for the last week that Microsoft would soon unveil the next version of DirectX at the upcoming Games Developer Conference (GDC). Microsoft has now confirmed that its discussion forums at the show won't just be to discuss updates to DX11, but that the company is putting a full court press behind DirectX 12. The company responded sharply over a year ago, when an AMD executive claimed that future versions of the API were essentially dead, but it has been over four years since DX11 debuted. To date, Microsoft has only revealed a few details of the next-generation API. Like AMD's Mantle, it will focus on giving developers "close-to-metal" GPU resource access and reducing CPU overhead. Like Mantle, the goal of DirectX 12 is to give programmers more control over performance tuning, with an eye towards better multi-threading and multi-GPU scaling. Unlike Mantle, DirectX 12 will undoubtedly support a full range of GPUs from AMD, Intel, Nvidia and Qualcomm. Qualcomm's presence is interesting. With Windows RT all but moribund, Qualcomm's interest in that market may have seemed incidental. However, the fact that the company is involved with the DX12 standard could mean that the handset and tablet developer is serious about the Windows market in the long term.
57358477
submission
MojoKid writes:
For the past few months, Microsoft has been loudly and insistently banging a drum. All support and service for Windows XP and Office 2003 shuts down on April 8 — no more security updates, no more fixes. In early February, faced with a slight uptick in users on the decrepit operating system the month before, Microsoft hit on an idea: Why not recruit tech-savvy friends and family to tell old holdouts to get off XP? The response to this earnest effort was a torrent of abuse from Windows 8 users who aren't exactly thrilled with the operating system. Microsoft has come under serious fire for some significant missteps in this process, including a total lack of actual upgrade options. What Microsoft calls an upgrade involves completely wiping the PC and reinstalling a fresh OS copy on it — or ideally, buying a new device. Microsoft has misjudged how strong its relationship is with consumers and failed to acknowledge its own shortcomings. Not providing an upgrade utility is one example — but so is the general lack of attractive upgrade prices or even the most basic understanding of why users haven't upgraded. Microsoft's right to kill XP is unquestioned, but the company appears to have no insight into why its customers continue to use the OS. The fact that it only recently made a file migration tool available is evidence that Redmond hasn't actually investigated the problem.
57319759
submission
MojoKid writes:
As unfortunate as it is, DDoS attacks are as easy to pull off as it is frustrating for the targets. With enough computers at their disposal, anyone could force enough traffic to a website in order to take it down, and even massive services are not immune. A perfect example of this is ongoing, with popular social networking site Meetup. This is a site that's ranked in the top 500 globally, but despite that, it has been down more than it's been up since DDoS attacks began on Thursday. Here's what's interesting about this particular DDoS attack: Meetup could stop it for a mere $300. Given the fact that this site spends millions each year on its own security, $300 is a drop in the bucket, and in effect, the site's losing way more than that each day due to lost revenue. So why not pay? Because of the precedent it'd set, and for the site's defiance, we should all be thankful.
57198695
submission
MojoKid writes:
Over the past 20 years, special effects houses (known as VFX studios) have risen from an occasional tool used in science fiction or fantasy movies to a mainstay of the entire industry. Given that most Hollywood movies now rely so heavily on VFX, you'd think that VFX studios would be the toast of the town. Instead, they've been under increasingly desperate pressure. Rhythm and Hues, the Oscar-winning studio behind Babe, the Golden Compass, and Life of Pi filed for bankruptcy last year after winning an Oscar for the latter film. Hollywood studios have viciously pressed VFX houses — refusing to pay for multiple renders of a scene, refusing to pay for weeks of overtime, and threatening to use foreign VFX businesses if domestic ones won't compete on contract costs. Hollywood has gone to great lengths to keep this problem under the radar, deliberately cutting off Bill Westenhofer's acceptance speech for the Life of Pi's Oscar in an attempt to silence him. The VFX industry's fight against unfair off-shoring of their talent, however, has just gotten an unintentional boost from the unlikeliest source imaginable — the MPAA. In a recent amicus filing to a court case involving 3D printers, the MPAA strongly argued that goods transmitted digitally as "articles" should be considered to be governed by US trade laws and subject to strong protections against foreign subsidies and unfair pricing. According to the letter, "The use of electronic means to import into the United States infringing articles threatens important domestic industries such as the motion picture and software industries, as well as U.S. consumers and the government at all levels.
57157403
submission
MojoKid writes:
The new Intel SSD 730 will be the company's latest flagship consumer-targeted SSD. The drive, however, features technology gleaned from Intel's experience in data centers, and is actually quite similar to the DC S3500 series. Intel is doing a few things to set this drive apart, though. The SSD 730's controller and NAND components are have gone through additional qualification at the factory and the drive's firmware is tuned for high performance. The Intel SSD 730 series will initially be offered in 240GB and 480GB flavors and in the common 2.5" form factor. Intel is binning the parts used in the SSD 730 series to ensure maximum reliability, high-performance and low latency. To that end, the controller's clock speed has been boosted by 50% and the NAND is clocked 20% higher as well. You'd think that boosting the clocks might affect the long-term reliability of the drive, but Intel is offering a full 5-year warranty and rating the drive for 70GB writes/day. Performance of the new Intel SSD 730 series is top-notch, with the drive scoring at the top of the pack versus leading SSDs on the market currently with the best overall performance.
57023949
submission
MojoKid writes:
Intel is announcing its new tablet and smartphone designs this week at Mobile World Congress, alongside a major push to drive adoption of its 28nm XMM 7160 and XMM 7260 modem technology. It's been two years since Intel launched its first serious Atom-based smartphone platform, codenamed Medfield. The chips that will power these efforts are the Z34 and Z35 families, known as Merrifield and Moorefield, respectively. The new Merrifield core will use a 4G-capable XMM 7160 modem, a 1080p camera capable of 60 FPS capture, and the same Bay Trail CPU that was previously released. While it lacks Hyper-Threading, the addition of out-of-order processing means that the dual-core Bay Trail will be significantly faster than the older, in-order Atom parts. Merrifield also uses a PowerVR GPU core based on Series 6 (codenamed "Rogue"). This new GPU core is substantially more powerful than the older cores Intel used in the past and contains four separate compute clusters. Historically, Intel's tablets and smartphones have targeted "acceptable" graphics rather than fielding anything genuinely first rate, but that may change in 2014.
56944093
submission
MojoKid writes:
Intel has announced new 15-core Xeon E7 v2 series processors for the enterprise, big data and data center servers. The Xeon E7 processors Intel is replacing with this update are based on the old Westmere core, which first debuted in consumer products back in 2010, and have separate I/O hubs on the motherboard with a QPI link port dedicated to each of them. The new Xeon E7 v2 moves those hubs on-die, which means the system's remaining three QPI links are still providing a significant bandwidth boost — up to 8GT/s, from 6.4GT/s. The old Westmere-EX platforms had up to 72 lanes of PCIe 2.0 connectivity provided per socket while the new Xeon E7 v2 offer 32 PCIe 3.0 lanes per socket. The entire structure of the last-level cache has been reworked, with a comprehensive ring bus incorporated across all 15 cores. Intel also implemented the 37.5MB of L3 in 15 slices, which allows each core a dedicated interface to the L3. Intel claims up to a whopping 450GB/s of bandwidth per socket with the new Xeon E7 v2, counting both the quad-channel memory controllers and the L3 cache.
