Intel Core i7-980X Extreme detailed; headed to 2010 Mac Pro

Details of Intel’s upcoming 6-core/12-thread Xeon (Gulftown) processor – and the CPU tipped to appear in the upcoming Apple Mac Pro refresh – have leaked, and while original predictions were that the hexacore chip would be branded the Core i9, it now seems that it will slot into the Core i7 Extreme range with an “X” suffix. First to the base will be the Intel Core i7-980X Extreme Edition, running at 3.33GHz.

The 32nm chip has 12MB of cache and supports both Hyper-Threading and Turbo Boost. Apple already offer a 3.33GHz processor on the Mac Pro; however that’s a quadcore Xeon chip rather than the six cores in the new i7-980X Extreme.

The presumption is that Apple and Intel will negotiate some sort of early-access or temporary exclusivity deal, that will see the Core i7-980X Extreme show up in the Mac Pro workstation a few weeks ahead the regular March 2010 launch. In fact, it’s expected that Apple will offer at least one SKU with two of these processors, adding up to a total of 12 cores and 24 threads..

Nokia Hackerbox makes geeks work for their N900 [Video]

Nokia’s product strategy may not meet with universal approval, but they can certainly teach most of us a thing or two about wrapping presents. Mint Digital’s Utku found a strange black box waiting for him at the office today, unmarked aside from a Nokia logo and a miniUSB port. An included card pointed him to hackerbox.co.uk, and the combined tech minds of Mint Digital eventually managed to get the box open.

Video demo after the cut

Inside – after a suitably theatrical puff of smoke – was a Nokia N900, together with a whole load of accessories. They’d also dropped in Modern Warfare II for the PS3, a mini Christmas cake and a Starbucks gift card, together with – somewhat bizarrely – a small model of a fox.

It’s obviously just a promotional thing – and it worked, we guess, since we’re writing about them now – but we can’t help but wish Nokia put the same magic and intrigue into their cellphone range as they did into this unusual box. We’re not saying we want to have to mount a phone and use Hyperterminal before we can make a call, but a shot of the unusual is what many of Nokia’s phones seem sorely lacking in right now.

Send Free SMS to India, Kuwait,Saudi Arabia, UAE, Singapore, Malaysia & Philippines

Now send full length* SMSes using 160by2.com to 7 Countries

(i.e.,India, Kuwait,Saudi Arabia, UAE, Singapore, Malaysia & Philippines)

:: Websites  ::

http:/www.way2sms.com
http:/www.160by2.com
http:/www.spicesms.com
http:/www.Sendsmsnow.com
http:/www.atrochatro.com
http:/www.youmint.com
http:/www.indyarocks.com
http://labs.google.co.in/smschannels/browse
http://isms.ibibo.com/contact
http://www.sms7.in/
http://www.mysmsindia.com/
http://www.krify.com/cell/
http://www.smswala.co.in/index.php
http://www.smsseva.com
http://www.freesms8.com
http://www.smscountry.com

Samsung W880 AMOLED 12M preview: First look

Introduction

The Samsung W880 ups the ante with a world's first 12 megapixel camera with 3x optical zoom. Featuring a hardware Mode dial and a real zoom lever it does feel like a real camera and you may find yourself struggling to find the mobile phone under the digicam skin. Now while W880 is South Korea bound only, it's enough to give us a taste of what's coming in the shape of the rumored Samsung M8920, which should make it our way sometime next year - but with Wi-Fi and GPS on board.


Samsung SCH-W880 AMOLED 12M official photos

Designing a mobile phone (or any other portable gadget for that matter) is a balancing act - the engineers must juggle between cost, size and features, all the while being limited by the current state of technology.

Say cost doesn't matter - that still leaves only so much that can reasonably be crammed into a mobile device. Progress is made, technology advances, which results in things getting cheaper, smaller and with more features. And quite soon, things that seemed impractical a few years back can now be released as a consumer device.

This is how the Samsung W880 AMOLED 12M came to be - it contains all the mechanical elements of a point-and-shoot camera, but still has enough room left for the phone parts. It's not the first phone to achieve that but it's the first 12-megapixel one and the added 3x optical zoom and xenon flash pretty much put it on par with a typical point-and-shoot camera.

The Samsung W880 has some high-end imaging functions too - tracking touch autofocus, 720p@30 fps video recording, 3.3" big AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with WVGA resolution. That's not something you see every day on a cameras and it's top notch in mobile phone terms. Even the degree of control over how a photo is taken beats out consumer cameras, let alone cameraphones.

Now, keep in mind that the we're previewing a prototype here and it's a prototype of a phone meant for the South Korean market only and although it has tri-band GSM and support for UMTS, those are meant for roaming only - the AMOLED 12M is for South Korea and South Korea only.

So, why bother with a preview then? Well, there's a global version coming in the beginning of next year and that might actually land in a store near you. It will look just the same but will drop the T-DMB TV receiver, which has little use outside of South Korea anyway, swapping it for the more practical Wi-Fi and GPS. Supposedly, the global GSM version will be allegedly called Samsung M8920, but that has yet to be confirmed by an official source.


Samsung W880 AMOLED 12M live shots

In this preview we focus mainly on the camera - admit it, it's the most interesting aspect of the Samsung W880 and it's the camera that has us holding our breaths.

For now, we'll just concentrate on the essentials - we take a look at the hardware, next we have a video walkthrough of the interface and finally, we focus on the camera, with plenty of still photos and video samples.

How DDR3 Memory Works ?

Following DDR and DDR2 memory, the next synonym on PC memory is, of course, “DDR3”. While Intel has promised delivery of DDR3 memory system on PC’s in Q207, the picture is still not clear. This article examines the difference between DDR2, DDR3, and performance difference on using DDR3. It also predicts the consumer sentiment and adaptation time table.



Difference between DDR2 and DDR3

Higher operational frequency
According to JEDEC, DDR3 will be running at 800MHz to 1666 MHz. That would double the frequency of DDR2. This will bring operational performance to systems by slashing the read and write time into half.

Lower voltage and power

DDR3 operates at 1.5V instead of the 1.8V for DDR2. The power saving factor is, therefore, 16%. This will offset the higher power consumption brought by increasing the operational frequency. At the same time, die shrinking will also help in power reduction to give DDR3 twice the performance per watt of power.

DDR3 is also built-in with power conservation features like partial refresh. Precious system battery power will no longer need to spend on refreshing the portion of the DRAM not in active use. It also included a thermal sensor to allow the system to provide minimum refresh cycles when the system is not in high performance demand thus to achieve further power saving.

More internal banks

To further speed up the system, DDR3 consist of 8 internal banks vs 4 internal banks on DDR2. As the size of the DRAM increases, this will allow advance pre-fetch to reduce access latency.

Mode register difference

Because of the many feature selections, the initialization on DDR3 takes a new approach. The Mode Registers (MRS) are re-engineered for quicker and more efficient configuration of the memory system.

Modules on fly-by topology

For the higher frequency operations, DDR3 is now more critical on signal integrity of the memory module (DIMM). At the extreme frequencies, the signal path can no longer be balanced, but have to be tuned (trained) to match to each DRAM. The module signal path topology is called the “fly-by” vs. “T branches” as on the DDR2 module. That means the address and control lines will be a single path chaining from one DRAM to another instead of the T topology that branches on DDR2 modules. This method takes away the mechanical line balancing and turn to automatic signal time delay generated by the controller fixed at the memory system training. Each DDR3 DRAM has an automatic leveling circuit for calibration and to memorize the calibration data.

Technical difficulties on DDR3 memory systems

To achieve maximum memory efficiency on the system level, system front side bus frequency has to follow suit. The most optimum is to have the front side bus run at the memory data execution frequency. That is 800MHz to 1600MHz. That puts the burden on the processor and also the chipset. On the other hand, higher frequencies also mean more signal integrity issues. Both motherboard and module design engineers now have to deal with strip line, micro strip, termination impedance and return loss….all those new radio frequency terms. Test equipment for verification of the circuit is no longer available at low costs. Engineer often require $100,000 of equipment just to look at the memory performance.

The “Fly-By” timing technology puts the burden on system calibration. Memory system is calibrated each time the computer is turned-on. The controller and the DRAM circuit design allow the calibration to be done in an automatic mode. To make this calibration, extra circuit and intelligence has to be added to the controller and to the DRAM. Extra die area on the chip is also required to accommodate. This might add cost to the final system.

As the speed of the DRAM memory system increases, so as the amount of Cache memory built onto the MPU. New processors come with 1MB to 2MB of on-board cache memories. That means there might be no main memory hit during normal non-graphical operations. Therefore, one might never see the performance increase with faster DRAM at normal applications. The memory technology might have reached a point of diminishing return.



Another point of system argument is number of memory slots required for the system. DDR3 specification calls for maximum of 2 two rank modules per channel at the lower frequency of 800MHz to 1333MHz. Only one memory slot is allowed at the maximum operational frequency of 1600MHz.

The Address/Command on DDR3 unbuffered modules are in a “single fly-by path” while DDR3 registered modules are routed in a T split before getting to the individual DRAM. Therefore, the registered system is more complicated. The registered chips now also have to be trained to compensate for the individual DRAM timing. The registered module is not only built with the clock buffer (PLL) on the same die but also have configuration registers to set the training parameters.

In summary, there will be technical frontiers to be tested during the initial implementation of DDR3 memory technology.

DDR3 adoption driven by application

Overall, DDR3 mass adoption should be driven by applications and pricing. The power reduced feature is best suited for Notebook and Mobile multi-media applications. As handset and mobile devices gets multi-media heavy, DDR3 will find its place. Price is also another factor. Consumer market reception of new technology is often related to price. As DDR3 becomes main stream, a derivative of it will be used for graphic applications found in future handset and set-top boxes.

Since the early DDR3 frequencies (800MHz and 1066MHz) will overlap with DDR2, consumer will not find much interest in rushing to the same performance. Mass adoption will only come at 1333MHz and higher.

DDR3 price performance curve
According to price/performance, DDR3 sweet spot is seen at 2Gbit chips. For DRAM vendors to produce 2Gb chips at acceptable power consumption level, 50nm to 60nm semiconductor line width will have to be used. This will become a schedule and investment challenge to the DRAM producer. At this point, it is forecasted that the smaller geometry would not be cost effective until late 2008. That will essentially mean DDR3 would not cross price parity with DDR2 nor in mass adoption before Q4/08.

DDR3 as mainstream memory
DDR3 as mainstream will be delayed. Industry will likely extend the life of DDR2 for PC applications. Breakthrough will probably come when DDR3 lands on consumer mobile application like Mobile IPTV, portable streaming receiver, or portable game devices.

Kingston unveils 128 GB DataTraveler flash drives

Kingston announced a brand new flash drive series yesterday called the DataTraveler 200, which sports a 128GB capacity for the very first time. Other models are 32GB and 64GB, rounding out the line up nicely.

These flash drives feature added security by means of the Password Traveler software. Other specs include a capless design with a retractable USB connector. It’s also compatible with the ReadyBoost feature on Windows Vista.

Windows 7 Loader eXtreme Edition 3-Napalum

   Heres another Windows 7 activator/crack. Whats special about this one? It’s said that this one activates all versions of Windows 7! Its by a guy named Napalum. Share you results in the comments! I heard that this program uses retail keys, which can’t be used to many times and can easily get detected and blocked by Microsoft(or Micro$oft). So use at your own risks and again tell use how it goes in the comments! . Links and more below!

Release Name: Windows.7.Loader.eXtreme.Edition.3-Napalum
Size: 2.00MB
Download: UploadJockey

Aquos HDTV, Sharp TV with LED backlighting

LED-backlit HDTVs once were an expensive rarity, but that’s changing. Sharp Electronics’ new line of Aquos HDTVs offer the premium of LED backlighting. The advantage of LED backlighting: It can boost black levels and minimize power consumption, even while still providing a superior level of brightness.

The new 32- ($1,100), 40- ($1,700), 46- ($2,200) and 52-inch ($2,800) LE700-series Aquos LED TVs use Sharp’s UltraBrilliant LED backlighting technology, which features a full array of evenly spaced LEDs behind a diffusing panel. The 120-Hz TVs are rated for 4ms pixel-response rates, and have motion-smoothing dejudder technology. The TVs also have an immpressively wide angle of view, 176-degrees.