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PCI Express cables could take us to 32Gbps speeds by 2013
Thought Thunderbolt was the only superfast interconnect in town? Well, it is and will be for a little while yet, but the PCI Special Interest Group has just held its annual meeting and developer conference in California, where plans for a 32Gbps PCIe cable were revealed. Details are still fluid on precisely what such a connector would look like and do, but the expectation is that it'll be built out of copper wire, will be flatter and thinner than Thunderbolt's rotund construction, and will be able to channel power as well as data through to devices up to 10 feet (3m) away. Targeting consumer applications, and extra skinny tablets and laptops in particular, this cabled variety of PCI Express will start off based on the 3.0 spec in 2013, but will then move on from there to PCI Express 4.0 and, potentially, optical data conveyance. Oh yes, PCIe 4.0 also got announced by the PCI SIG, though that's at least four years away at this point -- no need to sweat about having it in your next motherboard, not yet anyway.
Micron RealSSD P320h can read 3GBps, write 2GBps, impress millions of geeks per second
Speed may be a relative thing, but whatever you choose to compare Micron's new RealSSD P320h series to, you'll probably find them pretty competitive. Coming in 350GB and 700GB capacities, these PCI Express solid state drives can process data at a rate of 3GB per second and write it at a no less impressive 2GBps. If you're more interested in input / output operations per second, the P320h clocks in at 750,000 IOPS when running Linux or 650,000 with Windows Server as the OS. You don't need us to tell you that both numbers represent screaming-fast performance. Such mighty feats are achieved with the use of 34nm SLC NAND flash memory and Micron's own controller chip. Samples of the P320h are trickling out now and mass production is coming in the third quarter of 2011, and while no pricing info has been offered yet, it's safe to say you'll be needing your company CFO's blessing before making any P320h purchases. Video and full PR after the break.
4G netbook onslaught imminent as Verizon clears Novatel LTE radio to run on its network
Xoom owners might still be waiting for an LTE upgrade, but it does look like 4G netbooks and tablets could be hitting Verizon's network pretty soon. The carrier, known for its stringent testing standards, has cleared Novatel Wireless' E362 module to run on its network, paving the way for devices with embedded 4G radios. In addition to LTE, the module is compatible with CDMA and HSPA+ / UMTS technology -- a safety net for people outside the 55 markets (soon to be 147) where Verizon is serving up 4G service. Okay, so with no word on pricing or product launches, an onslaught isn't exactly imminent, but when it happens we'll try not to say "told you so."
Intel distributing Thunderbolt developer kits this quarter, more peripherals on the way
According to IDG News, Intel announced yesterday that Thunderbolt developer kits would be making their way out to manufacturers within this quarter, opening up development for the fledgling standard. The technology, previously known by its code name 'Light Peak,' began shipping on the 2011 MacBook Pro line, replacing the mini DisplayPort socket of the previous iteration. The fully backwards compatible specification, which was announced on the 24th of February this year, encompasses both DisplayPort and PCI Express in a dual-channel, high-speed interconnect. Promising speeds of up to 10 Gbps along copper cables, there's a lot of potential for products that require high-speed connections but a minimum amount of cables. Companies including Canon, Matrox, AJA, LaCie and Western Digital have shown off products already, but none have made it to market as yet. Intel is hoping that by distributing developer kits, it can get a plethora of Thunderbolt-connected products hitting the shelves quickly, not just external hard drives, which is great news for MacBook Pro users. The holy grail of the one connector to rule them all may be a little ways off just yet, but with a bit of luck, we'll start to see some decent uses for Thunderbolt, short of the standard DisplayPort connection, in the very near future.
Intel Thunderbolt: a closer look (updated with video)
So what's this Thunderbolt stuff, and why is it in your new MacBook Pro? Intel just broke it down for us, and now we'll do the same for you. Simply put, Thunderbolt's a familiar-looking port, a brand-new chip, and a cord, which allows devices to pipe two data streams simultaneously -- in both directions -- over a single cable at up to 10 gigabits per second to start, primarily using PCI Express x4 for data and DisplayPort for video. The Thunderbolt controller chip -- required for the system, but Intel says it's hardware-agnostic and doesn't require an Intel processor or chipset to use -- acts as a miniature router of sorts that rapidly switches between the two bidirectional channels of data. Sounds great, but why would you want to buy into yet another copper cord? Intel defends that Thunderbolt will be backwards and forwards-compatible depending on the cable used. Representatives explained that the basic system can work with any other PCI Express 2.0-compatible I/O system with, say, a FireWire or eSATA adapter doing the dirty work --Intel wouldn't specifically comment on USB 3.0 -- and that the port you'll find in new MacBook Pros and storage devices can actually take an optical cable when those are cost-effective enough to roll out, because Intel will eventually bake the optical transceivers into the cables themselves. In the meanwhile, you can get up to three meters of range out of a basic cable, plus a fairly generous 10 watts of power over the bus, and since Thunderbolt devices are designed to be daisy-chained, you may be able to get another three meters for each device you add on that sports a pair of the ports. Though Intel wasn't talking about likely prices for the chips or cables in even the most general terms, Promise and LaCie had prototype devices on hand headed to the market soon -- get a peek at them and a closer look at the cable in our gallery below, and we'll have video up in a little while too. Update: Looks like LaCie's product now has a name and vague release date: it's the LaCie Little Big Disk, coming this summer, with a pair of solid state drives inside. Update 2: Video after the break -- get a load of Thunderbolt streaming four 1080p clips from a MacBook Pro and attached Promise NAS simultaneously! %Gallery-117530%
Thunderbolt: Apple and Intel's new interconnect
It's been a while getting here -- Intel first demoed Light Peak at IDF in September 2009 -- but the first production laptops featuring the new, rebranded Thunderbolt interface are about to ship, in the form of shiny new MacBook Pros. Thunderbolt's raw speed (10 Gbps) and purported simplicity will enable MBP owners to work with massive storage on the go. Both Intel and Apple have posted summary feature pages about the new connectivity option, including a list of potential peripheral partners and a tech brief PDF. Intel also has a launch event for the technology later today (10 AM Pacific), which may explain why the Apple Store is still down; they don't want to tease the new peripherals and adapters until Intel has a chance to demo everything. As rumored last week, the Thunderbolt connector replaces the Mini DisplayPort on the new MacBook Pro models, rather than subbing in for the USB ports as in preproduction versions of the technology. Apple's existing Mini DisplayPort-based displays will work unmodified with the Thunderbolt port. The real excitement, however, comes with new peripherals and adapters. Since Thunderbolt supports the PCI Express protocol, it should allow for dramatic expansion off of a single port; since the bulk of the MacBook Pro line gave up its ExpressPort card slot for an SDXC slot (except the 17" model), the laptop line has been waiting for another high-speed option for video capture and connectivity. Apple's feature rundown notes that Thunderbolt adapters will allow MacBook Pro users to connect to USB, HDMI, FireWire, Gigabit Ethernet or Fibre Channel at will (finally making the MacBook Pro a legitimate Xsan client). Imagine the next generation of MacBook Air sporting a Thunderbolt port, and getting back all the connectivity options traded off for size and weight savings. It's a safe bet that Thunderbolt will quickly replace Mini DisplayPort across the Mac desktop lines as well with the next iMac, Mac mini and Mac Pro revisions. Could it even work its way into iOS devices sometime soon? Your iPad would sync in seconds, or serve as an external high-performance display... so tempting. We'll check in on Intel's launch event later today for more details on Thunderbolt and new products supporting it. Update: CNET's liveblog of the Intel press event revealed that the optical/hybrid cables for Thunderbolt will be available later this year and will support much longer cable lengths (as distinguished from the copper-only cables that will ship now, maxing out at 3 meters). The company also said there are no plans for a PCIe adapter card for Thunderbolt; the only way to get it will be with a new computer/motherboard.
OCZ intros Vertex 3 Pro, Vertex 3 EX and Z-Drive R3 PCIe SSD at CES
Hello, speedsters! OCZ Technology has just busted out a new trio of solid state solutions here at CES, so we won't waste any time getting down to business. Up first is the performance-oriented, MLC-based Vertex 3 Pro, which runs along quite hastily on the SATA 6Gbps interface. We're told that it's built with a next-generation SandForce controller, enabling it to approach 80,000 IOPS and demonstrate 550MB/sec transfer rates. Up next is the Vertex 3 EX, which also utilizes a SATA 6Gbps interface but relies on SLC Flash memory. It's also capable of pushing a similar read rate (and the write rate of 525MB/sec ain't too shabby, either), with both the EX and Pro to be offered in capacities of 50GB, 100GB, 200GB and 400GB. Finally, the third-generation Z-Drive is being officially revealed, with the Z-Drive "R3" PCI Express SSD being the company's first SandForce-drive PCIe SSD. It's engineered for Tier-0/1 data applications, and offers performance rates of 1GB/sec and 135,000 IOPS. Those with absurdly deep pockets can buy one with up to 1.2TB of onboard storage, but alas, OCZ's not serving up MSRPs on any of these guys. The full release is after the break, complete with details on its new ZX Series of power supplies. %Gallery-112480%
MSI reveals mad Sandy Bridge motherboard with eight PCIe slots, eight USB 3.0 ports, and three BIOS chips
Straighten up and salute the Big Bang Marshal, MSI's attempt at redefining the term "overkill." This XL-ATX board packs a total of eight PCI Express lanes (though it only has the bandwidth to simultaneously feed four x16s or eight x8s -- relevant if you're crazy enough to think about using more than four GPUs), three separate BIOS chips, extra 8-pin and 6-pin 12V power intakes, and a thoroughly excessive set of power regulation components. The less extremely minded among you will appreciate having a full array of eight USB 3.0 ports on the back, though we can't get over the measly four DIMM slots on offer. Word is that features might change before the Marshal goes to market in the first quarter of next year, so let's hope more room for your RAM sticks is among the tweaks between now and then.
USB 3.0 for Mac review and benchmarks (with a LaCie 2big USB 3.0)
It took LaCie nearly a full year to ship the 2big USB 3.0 RAID drive -- a device that was announced in the fall of 2009 -- but now that it's here, it's being accompanied by a concept that actually far outshines the unit itself: USB 3.0 on a Mac. For whatever reason, Apple has refused to offer SuperSpeed USB on any of its machines, even a fully specced-out Mac Pro costing well north of $10,000. We've seen purported emails from Steve Jobs noting that USB 3.0 just isn't mainstream enough to sweat just yet, but coming from the guy who's still bearish on Blu-ray, we get the feeling that it'll be quite some time far too long before Apple finally caves and upgrades from USB 2.0. We're obviously no fans of the holdout -- after all, even a few sub-$500 netbooks are enjoying the SuperSpeed spoils already -- so we couldn't have possibly been more excited to hear that a longstanding storage vendor was about to fill the void that Cupertino continues to ignore. We were able to pick up a LaCie USB 3.0 PCIe expansion card as well as a 4TB (2 x 2TB) 2big USB 3.0 drive and put the whole setup through its paces on our in-house Mac Pro. Care to see how it stacked up against USB 2.0, FireWire 400 and FireWire 800? Head on past the break for the grisly details. %Gallery-111542%
VisionTek Killer HD 5770 combo NIC / GPU hikes frame rates, lowers ping times for $200
Mama always said that one was never enough, and just five months after revealing its first NIC / GPU combo card to us at Computex, Bigfoot Networks has taken the wraps off of its second. This go 'round, the outfit is partnering with VisionTek to produce the VisionTek Killer HD 5770, a single PCIe card that combines an AMD Radeon HD 5770 GPU (with 1GB of GDDR5 memory) and a Killer E2100 networking card. All told, buyers are presented with two DVI ports, a single HDMI output and a gigabit Ethernet jack. The card is compatible with Windows 7, Vista and XP, and put simply, it's designed to both improve your frame rates (that's AMD's role) and lower your latency / jitter (hello, Bigfoot!). The NIC portion actually has a 400MHz onboard processor that helps minimize the impact of slight changes in your connection, and Bigfoot's management software will be thrown in for good measure. The board is expected to hit North American retail shops within a fortnight or so, with the $199.99 asking price representing a ~$10 savings compared to buying an HD 5770 GPU and Killer 2100 separately. Oh, and you get a pretty sick dragon, too. %Gallery-108536%
Sandisk, Sony, and Nikon propose 500MBps memory card with more than 2TB capacity
While the CompactFlash Association scoots along at a maximum transfer rate of 167MB per second under its just released CF6.0 specification, Sandisk, Sony, and Nikon are already looking to the future. The trio have just officially proposed a new memory card format that switches from PATA to the PCI Express serial interface to achieve data transfer rates of up to 500 megabytes per second with a potential to extend maximum storage capacities beyond 2 terabytes. The proposed set of specifications hints at the high performance requirements we'll soon face as DSLRs and camcorders are updated to capture continuous burst shooting of massive RAW images and ever higher definition video. Naturally, the spec also enables photogs to transfer their troves of data more quickly to computers for post processing and combines high-speed transfer with a scaling system to extend battery life. The CompactFlash Association has already announced a new workgroup to study the proposal. Canon's Shigeto Kanda, CFA chairman of the board, had this to say about the proposal: Future professional photography and video applications will require memory cards with faster read/write speeds. The development of a new high-performance card standard with a serial interface will meet the needs of the professional imaging industry for years to come and open the door for exciting new applications. Sounds like tacit approval to us. And really, anything that brings Sony and Sandisk together on a future storage format should be seen as a positive step. Unless, of course, you're the SD Card Association or anyone who recently purchased a CFast card.
PCI Express makes the 3.0 leap, doubles bandwidth over PCIe 2.0 spec
First Bluetooth, then USB and now PCI Express. It's clearly the era of version 3.0, and given that the PCI Express specification has been humming along at 2.0 speeds for over two years now, we'd say an update was definitely due. Thankfully, the PCI-SIG has announced the availability of the PCIe Base 3.0 specification to its members today, and the highlights are certainly notable. There's a new 128b/130b encoding scheme and a data rate of 8 gigatransfers per second (GT/s), doubling the interconnect bandwidth over the PCIe 2.0 specification. And since we're sure you're fretting it, we'll go ahead and affirm that it maintains backward compatibility with previous PCIe architectures. We're also told that based on this data rate expansion, "it is possible for products designed to the PCIe 3.0 architecture to achieve bandwidth near 1 gigabyte per second (GB/s) in one direction on a single-lane (x1) configuration and scale to an aggregate approaching 32 GB/s on a sixteen-lane (x16) configuration." A lot of technobabble, sure, but one thing's for sure: your next graphics card is bound to murder your current one if paired with a PCIe 3.0 motherboard.
LSI's WarpDrive SSD is a steal at $11,500
We want one of these so bad. The LSI WarpDrive SLP-300 packs 300GB of solid state storage onto a PCI Express card and promises up to 240,000 sustained IOPS (Input / Output Operations Per Second), with 1,400MBps sustained throughput -- about double the performance of OCZ's substantially cheaper RevoDrive X2. According to LSI, you would need over 400 regular hard drives in 36U of rack space and 300 times the power to match the WarpDrive for sheer IOPS. Sure, LSI recommends all sorts of fancy server applications to put this $11,500 card to good use, but we've been noticing some serious browser launch lag time lately... and we're worth it.
FTC approves Intel settlement change, will let it ship Oak Trail without PCIe support
Well, it looks like Intel's settlement with the FTC isn't quite a done deal just yet -- the FTC has now announced that it's approved a change to one key measure of the settlement following a public comment period on the matter. That specifically involves Intel's Atom-based Oak Trail platform, which Intel will now be allowed to ship without PCI Express support -- as opposed to the earlier stipulation that it be required to support PCIe in order to "not limit the performance of graphics processing chips." In the short term, that basically means that Oak Trail devices (mainly tablets) likely won't have non-Intel GPUs, and that Intel will be able to continue to ship such products until June 2013. After that, the original settlement requirements will go into effect, and Intel says it is, in fact, already working on an Oak Trail successor that supports PCIe.
Sony slips out second generation TransferJet chip, partners begin to take notice
Bless its heart. Regardless of how loudly consumers yell, Sony can't seem to understand that creating proprietary formats that no other company has any interest in adopting isn't the brightest of ideas. The eventual fates of UMD, ATRAC, MiniDisc and countless others are proof of the outfit's ignorance, but somehow or another, it seem as if TransferJet has a modicum of a chance to gain some traction. Nearly a year after outing its first generation TransferJet chip, Sony is using CEATEC to spring its second generation one into action. From what we can tell, the primary addition to this chip is its native compatibility with USB 2.0 and PCI Express, with hardware and software improvements credited with an effective data transmission boost to somewhere north of 300Mbps. Potentially more interesting, however, is the lower power draw, which could lead to TransferJet embeds within smartphones, tablets, netbooks and other low-cost mobile computers. Across the pond(s) in Tokyo, Toshiba has been caught showing off a TransferJet SD card that could allow a potentially wider swath of devices to support Sony's wireless protocol, although the hardware typically has to be designed specifically to not interfere with the chip's ultra short-range transmissions, and software drivers have to be built as well -- not even all of Sony's new Cyber-shots support its existing TransferJet Memory Stick. We'll be digging for more details (ship date, price, etc.) just as soon as we can.
OCZ Ibis touts 2GBps High Speed Data Link, vanquishes SSD competition
What's after ludicrous speed? If you ask OCZ, the answer is HSDL speed, which is the company's new interface idea for bypassing the bandwidth limitations of standard SATA/SAS interconnects. Using a high-quality SAS cable to hook up its new Ibis drive to a PCI Express host card, OCZ has managed to deliver a cool 2GBps of total bandwidth -- that's one gigabyte up and one gigabyte down... every second. In order to feed this massive data pipe, the company's gone and stacked four SandForce SF-1200 controllers inside the Ibis and RAIDed them together for good measure too. The upshot isn't too dramatic for desktop applications, where'll you'll see performance that's merely world-beating -- reading at 373MBps and writing at 323MBps -- but if you throw in some deeper queues and enterprise-level workloads you'll be able to squeeze out 804MBps reads and 675MBps writes. Needless to say, the Ibis scooped up many a plaudit in early reviews, and though it may be expensive at $529 for 100GB, it still seems to represent good value for those who have the workloads to saturate its High Speed Data Link.
PhotoFast's PowerDrive-LSI PCIe SSD screams past the competition at 1400MB a second
Usually we find overwrought product names, ostentatious paintjobs, and flame decals tacky, but all's forgiven with this PCI Express 2.0 SSD. CompactFlash stalwart PhotoFast has unveiled its all-new PowerDrive, which claims it can read your mind data at 1.4GBps and write it at an even faster 1.5GBps. That's the rough equivalent of reading two full CDs' content every second! Need we say more? The PowerDrive's speed puts the stinking fast Fusion-io ioXtreme to shame, humbles PhotoFast's own 1GBps G-Monster, and matches OCZ's otherworldly Z-Drive. The supported OS list includes a nice selection of Linux flavors as well, and sizes stretch from 240GB up to 960GB. Pricing? One word: unaffordable.
Atheros and Wilocity embrace 'tri-band' wireless wares, 60GHz wireless PCIe
The amount of dual-band products (you know, those that support both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands) is slowly growing, but already a pair of companies are thinking about the next big thing: tri-band. Atheros and Wilocity have both been eying that 60GHz stuff that the WiGig Alliance is pushing around these days, and now they're announcing a collaboration to "build tri-band wireless solutions that combine the ubiquity and coverage of WiFi with the multi-gigabit performance of the Wireless Gigabit Alliance's 60GHz technology." The new gear would enable all sorts of backwards compatibility, and while there aren't too many details being shared just yet on exactly what kind of kit is in the pipeline, we do know of one particular tidbit. That tidbit, of course, is wireless PCI Express, or wPCIe. Developed by Wilocity, this black magic would essentially enable PCIe devices to be docked outside of the desktop and have their signals beamed to a receiver card within the desktop. Think external graphics, storage arrays, etc., all sans cabling. It's being reported that wPCIe can push data at up to 5Gbps, and if all goes to plan, the spec should scale easily to 7Gbps. Be sure to give the links below a visit for a deeper dive, and get ready to give that SFF machine you've often overlooked... well, another look.
NZXT's Sentry LXE touchscreen fan controller turns you into Storm, minus the cheese
We know, you're probably scoffing at those mortals still using "fans" to "cool their gaming rigs," but unless you've thrown down the cheddar on a swank liquid cooling solution, you'll probably find yourself at least mildly interested here. NZXT has taken a break from the mice and keyboard routine to break out a rather unique piece of kit in the Sentry LXE. This touchscreen fan controller connects to one's desktop via PCIe, and from there provides finger control of up to five internal fans. Users can adjust each one individually, set it to automatically keep the machine at a given temperature or create a silence that would spook even the Reaper. As you'd expect, there's an inbuilt temperature alarm to notify you if temps head north of a designated point, and all this fun awaits you in exchange for a low, low $59.99. Head on past the break if you're in need of a video demonstration.
MSI Graphics Upgrade Solution seeks an ExpressCard slot to call home
It seems like we've been talking about external graphics cards forever, but how many do you recall that look quite as raw and ready as this? The Graphics Upgrade Solution, set for a full unveiling at Computex, is MSI's latest answer to the eternal problem that is gaming on the move. Serving as a conduit -- via its own PCI Express interface and the oft-neglected ExpressCard slot -- between desktop GPUs and laptops, the GUS comes with its own power brick that can support cards with up to an 84W TDP. That, together with the limited bandwidth on offer, makes the ATI Radeon HD 5670 bundle pretty much the top of the GUS pile, but at somewhere around $229 that doesn't look like a terrible deal at all. Alternatively, you can buy the bare unit for around $100 and make use of some old GPU to give a little extra pep to your laptop. It's all good.
