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Windows 8 details: new features, UI enhancements and everything in between
Today, Windows Division prexy Steven Sinofsky treated Build 2011 attendees to a walkthrough of the various tweaks, subtle or otherwise, Microsoft's made to Windows 8. Staying true to its roots, the new OS implements the familiar keyboard commands users have become accustomed to over the years -- you know, like CMD and Ctrl+F. And as for its update to Internet Explorer, MS has imbued its tenth iteration with the ability to switch between the much-hyped Metro-style UI and plain old desktop view -- all according to your whimsy. Of course, Redmond's instituted other sweeping changes across the platform, and you can check some of the highlights after the break. %Gallery-133511%
Intel's Ivy Bridge coming Q1 2012, growing festive moss while you wait
If you were religiously awaiting the fruition of last month's Intel leak, brace yourself: we've got another one. Although Intel's updated roadmap hasn't changed anything per se, it does offer a few specifics. Whereas the previous schedule only suggested we'd be crossing the Ivy Bridge in the first half of 2012, the new roadmap shows the 22 nanometer processor penned in at the end of the first quarter. The Sandy Bridge E series is still on schedule for Q4 however, so unless you just have to have native USB 3.0 and DirectX 11 support, you still have plenty to look forward to. Otherwise, we'll see you in April.
Cray XK6 supercomputer smashes petaflop record, humbly calls itself a 'general-purpose' machine
Sure, IBM's ten petaflop supercomputer may sound impressive, but Cray can do you five better -- the outfit just announced the Cray XK6, an upgradable, hybrid supercomputing system capable of more than 50 petaflops of computational muscle. Powered by Cray's Gemini interconnect, AMD Opteron 6200 processors, and NVIDIA Tesla 20-Series GPUs, the XK6 system blends x86 and GPU environments with the firm's own flavor of Linux. The folks at Cray won't resort to bragging, however -- they're humbly declaring the machine to be the first "general-purpose supercomputer based on GPU technology," and not, as they put it, a stunt to place high on any Top 500 lists. Suggestive, aren't they? Check out the unassuming press release after the break.
AMD announces new, more energy efficient Embedded G-Series APUs
AMD has just rolled out two new additions to its line of Embedded G-Series APUs, combining Fusion-based processing with reduced power consumption. Both the T40E and T40R rock the same 64-bit x86 Bobcat CPU cores and DirectX 11-capable GPUs we've already seen in previous G-Series incarnations, but AMD says the pair can operate using thirty-nine percent less power than its cousins. The single core T40R boasts a thermal design power (TDP) rating of just 5.5 watts, while the dual core T40E offers a TDP of 6.4 watts. The two applications are designed for compact fanless systems, including kiosks and mobile industrial devices, though Axiomtek is apparently planning on incorporating the new APUs in a new Pico-ITX consumer PC, as well. Full PR after the break.
Intel goes ULV for laptops to combat the oncoming tablet horde
Intel has been talking up its x86-powered smartphones and battery-sipping Atoms for tablets quite a bit recently, but the company hasn't forgotten its roots in traditional PC form-factors. At an investor event in San Francisco, CEO Paul Otellini announced a significant change to its line of notebook CPUs -- ultra low voltage will be the new norm, not just a niche chip for high-end ultra-portables. The baseline TDP for future CPUs will be in the 10 to 15 watt range, a huge drop from the 35w design of the mainstream Core line and lower than even current-gen ULV chips (which bottom out at 17w). The company also plans to make NVIDIA eat its words by putting the pedal to the metal on die shrinks -- releasing a 22nm Atom next year followed by a 14nm version in 2013. That could mean our fantasy of true all-day battery life in a sleek and sexy laptop will finally come true. Don't crush our dreams Intel!
Microsoft rebuts Intel's claims about Windows 8, calls them 'factually inaccurate'
Bad Intel! Microsoft has issued a strongly worded response to comments this week from Intel SVP Renee James describing the future of Windows 8 on ARM as fragmented and backwards-incompatible. Those statements, says Microsoft, were "factually inaccurate and unfortunately misleading," though we're left without clarification as to what specifically was untrue. James claimed that legacy x86 programs won't be running on the ARM architecture, requiring a re-write for developers and probably a re-purchase for users. She also went on to suggest that each of the four hardware suppliers for Windows 8 systems-on-chip will have a different code stack, incompatible with the rest, which sounds like a far worse allegation to us. Now the issue is to try and figure out which of those two big accusations Microsoft has taken offense to. The Redmond team had nothing more to say on the matter, offering only a reminder that Windows 8 is still at the tech demo stage and there's still a long way to go.
Intel VP confirms ARM versions of Windows 8 will offer no compatibility with legacy apps
We already knew that there would be multiple flavors of the next version of Windows. This is, after all, Microsoft, and if it isn't available in dozens of different SKUs, one for each rung on the ladder from student to corporate executive, then it isn't worth stamping to a disc and throwing in a box. However, thanks to Intel Senior Vice President Renee James, we now know for sure that there will be a decisive split between the various ARM and x86 editions. James confirmed yesterday that x86 versions will work just fine on Intel, AMD, and other compatible chips, running all your legacy applications with aplomb. However, the ARM versions of the OS (which may number as many as six) won't include any sort of instruction emulation, James saying "Our competitors will not be running legacy applications. Not now. Not ever." That's something that Intel CEO Paul Otellini hinted at back at CES, which means Office running on ARM must have been a re-write -- or at least a re-compile. That's bad news for anyone hoping they'd be able to install Command & Conquer Collector's Edition on the Tegra-powered Windows 8 tablet of their dreams. James additionally indicated there will be four separate Windows 8 ARM SoCs, meaning someone has joined NVIDIA, Qualcomm, and TI since the CES unveil. Intrigue!
VIA QuadCore processor combines low-cost and low-power with 'adaptive overclocking'
Computex is coming up fast and with it we're expecting a slew of new gear. The event will also mark the first public showing of VIA's new x86 quad-core processors aptly named, QuadCore (pictured above center next to a Nano X2). The new procs are manufactured using 40nm processes and combine four Isaiah cores on two dies resulting in a Thermal Design Power of 27.5 watts. That low TDP allows VIA to make the nebulous claim that its first QuadCore L4700 processor is 21 percent more energy efficient than its nearest competitor while offering "awesome" multitasking and multimedia playback performance. Initially available at 1.2+GHz, the 64-bit native processor features adaptive overclocking (think Intel Turbo Boost) for dynamic clock adjustments up to 1.46GHz, a 4MB L2 cache, and 1333MHz front-side bus. Oh, and the QuadCores will be pin-to-pin compatible with VIA Eden, C7, Nano E-Series, and Eden X2 processors when they begin shipping in bulk in Q3. We'll bring you more on these supposed low-cost procs when we see them demoed first hand in Taipei starting May 31st. Until then, click through for the full press release or hit up the more coverage links below for an in-depth preview.
BlueStacks offering Android virtualization within Windows, harmony for one and all
It'd be too easy to simply describe BlueStack's suddenly titillating software as Android's Parallels for Windows, but really -- why try to complicate things? Currently available only in test form, the program is designed to run a virtualized copy of Android atop a not-at-all-virtualized copy of Windows, and the implications could be far-reaching. According to a hands-on demonstration given to the folks at Slashgear, BlueStack's software enables Android and Windows to share utilities and drivers; in other words, you can print something within Android via your Windows print driver, or make a call in Android's Skype application via Microsoft's VoIP drivers. We're told that multitasking was smooth and succinct, and while there's no access to the Android Market, test builds are including Amazon's Appstore as an alternative. If all goes well, the company should let the code loose "later this year," but it's hard to say what kind of price tag (or stipulations) will be attached. Can't think of a good reason to have Android and Windows living harmoniously? Here's one. (Oh, and you're welcome).
CUPP crams ARM inside of a MacBook Pro, makes it run Android with a button press (video)
CUPP's original prototype wasn't exactly gorgeous, but the premise was sound -- couple an ARM platform with an x86 CPU in order to give consumers the ability to run a desktop OS and a low-power OS such as Chrome OS or Android. It's a tactic that has far-reaching potential. Imagine this: you're on a flight attempting to finish up a document, but you only have ten percent of your battery remaining. On a standard desktop OS (like Window 7 or OS X), that'll get you around 15 to 20 minutes of life; if you were instantly able to sleep that OS after saving your most recent copy on the hard drive, boot up Chrome OS and finish it there, you'd magically have at least an hour of usage time remaining. The fact is that ARM platforms require a fraction of the power that standard x86 systems do, with a demo unit here at MWC proving that a sleeping Windows 7 machine actually consumed more power than a typical ARM system that's running. The company has shown off a beast of a machine before in order to prove that it's concept was legit, but here at Barcelona's mobile extravaganza, it brought something special: a modified MacBook Pro with a TI OMAP-based daughter-board module sitting in place of the optical drive. In theory, a battery similar to that found in the machine above could power an instance of Chrome OS or Android for 20 to 30 hours, just to give you some numbers to nibble on. Care to see how it all panned out? Hop on past the break for a few impressions along with a video. %Gallery-116639%
Intel talks Medfield: will ship in a phone and have the longest usage time
We had a feeling we'd be hearing about Intel's Atom for smartphones here at Mobile World Congress, and Intel did in fact take the stage today to talk about its forthcoming Medfield processor. The company has announced that it's starting to sample or test its 32nm Medfield processor for mobile devices with its customers (obviously, it's not telling us which ones) and more importantly that it will ship in a phone. Yep, Intel's Senior Vice President Anand Chandrasekher spoke quite firmly about how the platform will in fact ship in smartphones and that it will also support Android. He pulled out the phone above just as a proof point, and while he didn't say who made it, we have a sneaking suspicion it's that Aava Mobile phone we've heard about. Chandraskher also took direct aim at ARM (he even called out ARM's CEO Warren East), and hammered home Intel's focus on battery life. He didn't quote an exact run time, but he did say that "on active power we are the most efficient architecture on the planet." We actually believe he repeated that it will have the "longest usage time" at least three times -- we're thinking he's serious. What about standby? He was a bit more vague on that, but did say it would be competitive there as well. We'll be doing our best to track down that Medfield-powered handset up there, so stay tuned. Update: Our friend Chippy from CarryPad caught a bit of Anand's talk on video. Hit the break for that. Update 2: We asked Anand for clarification on the time frame of these Medfield handsets -- he wouldn't detail that exactly, but he did say that the platform will go into production this year. %Gallery-116548%
Acer building Sandy Bridge tablets for Android, will use them to 'phase out' netbooks
You'd be forgiven for expecting that the dual-core Tegra 2 that swept all before it at CES would be the king of tablet processors for a good while, but Acer is already plotting ways to overthrow it. Admittedly, Acer is kind of cheating by jumping into x86 land and snatching some unspecified Intel Sandy Bridge silicon, but are you really going to complain about getting multi-core grunt under the hood of your well-lubricated Android machine? An official from the company has promised two to three new tablets, sized at either 7 or 10 inches diagonally, for the first half of this year -- a tasty morsel of information, which he garnishes with the forecast that netbooks will eventually be phased out in favor of such touchy-feely slate devices. If you can fit a full second-gen Core CPU inside a tablet, why the heck not? Updated: Acer's US team has clarified for us that the Android tablets it announced in November are still set to hit in April. Obviously, these Sandy Bridge versions would be farther off, but we've also heard from another source that Acer would likely wait for Intel's ULV-based Sandy Bridge processors, which aren't due until the spring / summer timeframe. We'll let you know if we hear more.
Switched On: Making the call on Windows Phone 7
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. CES 2011 saw the debut of what could be the biggest challenge to the Wintel dominance of personal computing since Windows 95 cemented its position. The combination of the Android operating system on ARM processors -- ARMdroid if you will -- grabbed most of the attention in the emerging tablet category on products such as devices such as the Motorola Xoom and LG G-Slate. But it was also clear that manufacturers -- unconstrained by Cupertinian notions of what operating system is best suited to what kind of device -- are willing to take the combination in new directions that come much closer to the notebook form factor. A clear example of this was the ASUS Eee Pad Slider. If having the tablet thunder stolen from Microsoft wasn't enough to make the company uncomfortable, clearly encroaching designs like this were. And so, at Steve Ballmer's keynote, the company announced that the next version of Windows will support not only x86 offerings from Intel and AMD – themselves moving closer to ARM-like system-on-chips – but ARM designs from companies such as Qualcomm and NVIDIA as well. Microsoft noted that the new chip support was requested by its partners, implying that PC companies want to take advantage of the long battery life and thin form factors enabled by ARM architectures, but also bring along Windows' broad driver and software support. Microsoft clearly considers the tablet another PC, albeit one that Windows' hardware and user interface layer needs to support better. However, in striking back at Android evolution, Microsoft risks collateral damage to its own mobile OS. Can Windows Phone 7 co-exist with a ARM-based version of the real thing?
Intel CEO Paul Otellini addresses Microsoft's ARM move in the wake of record earnings announcement
We're kind of getting used to Intel setting records with its earnings this year, and it capped off its 2010 with another killer quarter. With $11.5 billion in revenue, and a total of $43.6 billion for the year (up 24 percent from last year), Intel is naturally riding high. There's danger lurking on the horizon, however, with Microsoft announcing at CES that the next version of Windows will also run on ARM chips, potentially ending a decades-long x86 dominance in the desktop OS space. Naturally, the topic came up in the earnings call, and here's Intel CEO Paul Otellini's level-headed statement on the topic: The plus for Intel is that as they unify their operating systems we now have the ability for the first time, one, to have a designed-from-scratch, touch-enabled operating system for tablets that runs on Intel that we don't have today; and, secondly, we have the ability to put our lowest-power Intel processors, running Windows 8 or the next generation of Windows, into phones, because it's the same OS stack. And I look at that as an upside opportunity for us. On the downside, there's the potential, given that Office runs on these products, for some creep-up coming into the PC space. I am skeptical of that for two reasons: one, that space has a different set of power and performance requirements where Intel is exceptionally good; and secondly, users of those machines expect legacy support for software and peripherals that has to all be enabled from scratch for those devices. After careful analysis of Paul's voice, we couldn't detect any hints of panic or fear in it, and we buy about 50+ percent of what he's putting down -- a lot better than we expected, to be honest. It's very interesting that he sees the new version of Windows being a "designed-from-scratch, touch-enabled operating system for tablets," and the idea of Windows Phone running on regular Windows is also news to us -- though it certainly makes plenty of sense in the long run (and perhaps Ballmer has been hinting at it). Still, Intel has just as much of a disadvantage making a phone processor as ARM guys have a disadvantage at making high-powered PC processors, and when it comes to legacy support, they'll at least be on pretty equal footing when it comes to a "designed-from-scratch" tablet OS. No matter what, Intel certainly has a great roadmap and a ton of cash right now, so we look forward to a fair CPU fight on all sides of the form factor coin.
Intel's next CPU refresh will include DirectX 11 graphics support
Tick, the CPU and GPU get integrated into the same 32nm die, tock, they both go down to 22nm with the latter gaining DirectX 11 support. Intel's only just unveiled its Sandy Bridge processors, but the next update to the company's desktop and laptop hardware has already gained an important detail. Mooly Eden, general manager for the PC Client Group, has disclosed the news that Ivy Bridge -- the die shrink of the Sandy Bridge microarchitecture -- will include DX 11 graphical capabilities when it arrives late in 2011. We're inclined to agree with Intel that DirectX 11 really wasn't a necessary implementation for Sandy Bridge given its humble gaming credentials, but Mooly expects a lot more applications will have harnessed the available APIs by the time we come to cross the Ivy Bridge. Let's hope it is so.
Atheros debuts first Bluetooth 4 / 802.11n system-in-package
You know Atheros, right? The company known for its various wireless networking products has just announced a little something called the AR6233. Billed as "the first SIP solution to support the new Bluetooth 4.0 standard," this system-in-package (that's what SIP stands for -- but you already knew that) sports the aforementioned Bluetooth radio, as well as 802.11n "with a near-zero impact on the battery life of portable devices." Sounds like just the thing for your handcrafted boutique cellphone startup! The architecture works with ARM or x86 processors, and is expected to be in volume production in Q2, 2011. PR after the break.
AMD will contribute 'engineering expertise' to MeeGo development project
Now here's a very positive new sign for MeeGo's future. AMD, Intel's oldest and boldest nemesis, has added its name to the list of companies actively supporting the development of the platform -- which got its start as a joint project between Intel and Nokia -- and has pledged the contribution of its "engineering expertise" to the further advancement of the open source OS. In simpler terms, AMD must be aware of the great potential of MeeGo and is seeking not to be left behind, as illustrated by Ben Bar-Haim, the company's software development VP, who expressed AMD's hope that "this operating system will help drive our embedded plans and create expanded market opportunities for our forthcoming Accelerated Processing Units." Good to know, guys, good to know. Jump past the break for the full press release.
NVIDIA teams with PGI for CUDA-x86, gifts its brand of parallelism to the world
NVIDIA's GPU Technology Conference 2010 just kicked off in San Jose, and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang has shared something interesting with us on stage -- thanks to a partnership with The Portland Group, it's bringing the CUDA parallel computing framework to x86. Previously limited to NVIDIA GPUs -- and the lynchpin of NVIDIA's argument for GPGPU computing -- CUDA applications will now run on "any computer, or any server in the world." Except those based on ARM, we suppose. Still no word on NVIDIA's x86 CPU.
CUPP Hybrid PC makes dynamic duo out of ARM and x86, dubious new 'Computicator' class of device
There's a quiet war going on for the thin-and-light laptop space between ARM and x86 architectures. Intel and AMD are winning handily right now, thanks to their ability to run Windows, but there's still that small hope within the industry that a Good Enough Linux build will come along one day and rescue these power-sipping ARM platforms from obscurity. Well, CUPP Computing would like you to have it both ways. The company's Hybrid PC, which is in a early prototype stage right now (a rather ugly stage, unfortunately, as seen above), runs an ARM A8 OMAP 3430 processor with 512MB of RAM right up next to a Core 2 Duo processor with 4GB of RAM, with both platforms sharing the 320GB HDD, 16-inch LCD, keyboard, touchpad, HDMI out, and USB plugs. A simple alt+tab command switches between the systems on the fly. It's pretty flashy, although the real use case for a device like this would more likely be to use the ARM setup as a low powered mode and then boot into Windows when necessary. Of course, Dell does exactly that at "Latitude ON" in its Latitude Z and Latitude E series, but we won't begrudge CUPP having a go at its own spin on the concept -- although if they try and push this "Computicator" classification on us it might come to blows. Check out a few video demos after the break.
MasterPad prototype marries Windows 7 to 11.6-inch IPS screen (video)
Check out this 14mm-thin contender: built by Pegatron and still at the prototype stage, the MasterPad looks to be the embodiment of Steve Ballmer's incoming armada of desirable Windows 7 tablets. It sports an 11.6-inch IPS screen, which accommodates a 1,366 x 768 widescreen resolution, a 1.3 megapixel webcam plus mic, two USB ports, a memory card reader, an accelerometer, mini-HDMI port, 3G connectivity, and 32GB or 64GB SSD options. All that hi-tech goodness is wrapped up in a magnesium and aluminum alloy body, weighing 990 grams. There are some less cutting edge specs, like the disappointing 2-cell battery that will only get you 5 hours of use and the 1.66GHz Atom N450 CPU -- but we're being promised 1080p video playback and Flash compatibility are ready to roll, and our machine translation hints at an additional HD video-processing chip. The early hands-on experience seems to have left the Israeli journos impressed, and their homeland can expect the MasterPad to arrive "in the coming months," with an Android version also in the works. See it on video after the break. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in] Image courtesy of Nitsan Saddan, Ynet
