Section: Hardware
Intel is planning to announce a new set of processors for the next generation of Ultra-Mobile PC (UMPC) at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) on the 18th of April. Can a new CPU and some new design approaches unfold the sales disappointment that has been the UMPC/Origami initiative?
According to a leaked PowerPoint presentation available from HKEPC, the new UMPC reference design is code-named “McCaslin” and will feature a new CPU dubbed “Stealey.” The CPU is based on a Dothan design using a 90nm fabrication process running at 600 or 800MHz with a 400MHz front-side bus and 512KB of onboard level 2 cache. Read More»
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The best gift PC is a computer that’s as close to new as possible, in terms of both hardware and software. It represents the most work for you, but the reward is a computer that will be as trouble-free as possible, and no one can pull your personal data off the hard drive, because you’ll be replacing it.
Windows works best when it is freshly installed from scratch on a clean hard drive, so if you’re looking to make the computer as trouble-free as possible, reformatting the hard drive and installing Windows from the Windows installation discs is one way to go. But prices of new hard drives have come way down—you can get a 40GB drive for under $60 and a 200GB drive for less than $100—so consider replacing the drive. Read More»
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Microsoft has made changes to its licensing model for Windows Vista to meet the needs of enterprise customers in the finance and government sectors using bleeding-edge technologies.
The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant will announce April 2 a subscription license called Windows Vista Enterprise Centralized Desktops, which allows customers to use Windows in virtual machines centralized on server hardware. Read More»
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iPod users will be relieved to know that Microsoft has fixed a glitch in Windows Vista that had the potential to mess up their players data. It concerns the Vista Safely Remove Hardware function, used to eject the player from the system and although the patch, which was released a few days ago, though the advice from Apple is to continue using the iTunes eject function. CNET News also reports a number of other updates to do with hooking devices up to Vista PCs, including one that could result in a loss of images when transferring image files from a Canon EOS-1D
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As momentum grows around its new Windows Home Server line, which is due for release towards the end of this year, Microsoft is looking to keep the love flowing with its hardware partners, software developers and end users alike.
Joel Sider, Senior Program Manager for Windows Home Server, told APC that the company intends to release a software development kit (SDK) for the platform early next month.
While already available to OEMs such as HP, which was the first to sign up to produce a Windows Home Server system, Read More»
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AMD today announced the availability of the AMD M690 chipset. Together with AMD Turionâ„¢ 64 X2 dual-core mobile technology, the new AMD M690 motherboard GPU technology further advances the mobile computing experience.
The new platform enables leading global OEMs to design notebook PCs that provide users with better graphics and connectivity performance, increased energy efficiency for extended battery life and extraordinary overall value. “With AMD’s graphics engine expertise and our mobile processor leadership, AMD delivers a cohesive mobile platform for commercial and consumer customers that demand the Windows Vistaâ„¢ Premium experience on the go,” said Phil Eisler, corporate vice president and general manager, AMD Chipset Division. Read More»
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IT professionals already know the importance of maintaining system integrity and thus, performance. Reliability isn’t just gained through good looks and prayer, however. Many of these negative issues stem from a single source: disk fragmentation. The following are suggested steps and know-how to help you maintain your own PC without seeking help from the acolytes of the help desk.
The Common Tragedies of Disk Fragmentation
Crashes. System hangs/freezing. Slow Boot times. Boot failures. Slow back up times. File corruption. Data loss. Disk fragmentation can even cause program errors, cache issues, and complete hard drive failures. The absolute first step to maintaining a healthy drive is storing your related files near each other on the drive. Try and keep them in chronological order, too. Even small amounts of fragmentation amongst often-used files can cause complete chaos. Read More»
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The Vista era has officially begun. The question is, has the world changed? Not yet, although I think it’s inevitable that it will.
I’ve been using the shipping version of Vista for about three months, and although I’m impressed overall, it’s still full of nagging annoyances. The wireless networking, for example, seems to work haphazardly, and driver support is still inadequate. Take 3D graphics drivers, for example. nVidia can’t seem to get its act together with a stable driver release, and AMD’s ATI division isn’t doing much better.
I downloaded ATI’s Vista update, called Catalyst 7.1, and it gave my sleek, new 22-inch View-Sonic widescreen LCD monitor a case of iridescent chicken pox. Dialing the driver down to 16-bit color solved the problem but produced a less-than-breathtaking image. So I reverted all the way back to Microsoft’s Vista driver for my ATI card. My image isn’t speedy, but at least it’s clean. Read More»
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OEMS ARE RELEASING dual-core machines onto the market without correctly configuring them. According to Notebook Review, Windows XP machines being shipped from the big retail stores with SP2 on board are not configured correctly.
The site names Sager as one OEM which does not configure this hotfix for their Dual Core notebooks. Machines at BestBuy, Fry’s, CircuitCity have also been found unmodified. Apparently Windows XP2 does not automatically sniff out whether or not a dual-core processor is being used and the configuration has to be done manually. Failure to do so results in some games such as Oblivion being tiggered.
Posted in Computer, Hardware, Windows XP | No Comments »
Sun Microsystems Inc. said it’s focusing its future strategy on areas of the technology industry poised for the strongest growth.
Sun executives discussed a strategy they call Redshift at a daylong event for news media Friday in East Palo Alto, Calif.
Sun’s chief technology officer, Greg Papadopoulos, said Sun has identified three areas where demand for more computing is expected to be greatest: digital content delivery, high-performance computing and service providers to small to medium-size businesses.
The idea is to stay ahead of Moore’s Law, the technology industry calculation that computing power will double every 18 months while the cost keeps coming down, Read More»
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