Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Intel xeon 6 core server processor

Intel unveiled Xeon 7400, the 6 core processor.Designed for visualization and server computing, Intel Xeon 7400 was developed with 16 MB L3 cache on monolithic architecture. That is all the cores are embedded on a single silicon chip called a die.

other features are
  • Socket compatibility with Intel 7300 series.
  • 45nm Architecture
  • 10% less power consumtion than its predecesor.
  • Virtualization
    2.0 capability
  • Exclusively developed at Intels Banglore centre.

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Chrome - Google Browser Review

Chrome is the latest e-gadget from Google. We have to wait and see what so called 'revolution' it will make in the browser market. I downloaded Chrome from official Google Chrome website. It comes as a downloader of around 500KB which downloads rest of the browser from Internet.

Google had supported Firefox greatly till now. With the major market share being with Microsoft internet explorer and most techies opting for Mozilla Firefox available with infinite addons, its hard for Chrome to make a mark. But the name Google had always been linked with wonders. Don't make any predictions. The latest hit from Google was Google Docs. Will Chrome be the next Major hit? Lets wait and see...

Review Of Google Chrome


  • Do not seem that fast. Firefox is Faster, then Safari, chrome and IE. Might be because it is still a public Beta.
  • Nothing at bottom Part like a StatusBar. Just Kept Empty.
  • Plain and Simple Design.
  • "Resolving Proxy" would be the first term to get attention of anyone who uses Chrome. It is actually the Domain Lookup I think. It has to be faster.
  • Like Opera and Firefox Fastdial, thumbnail views of sites are available in each new Tab. Instead of manually setting the sites, it is automatically set as the most viewed sites. I love that change.
  • Flash sites are loading faster. I tried Nokia.com and miniclip.com
  • Even the main top bar or menu bar is not visible. Tabs has replaced it. What is Google gonna do without a menubar?
  • Design is too simple. Might make it hard to use.
  • A privacy mode browsing is possible without sending any of the information about the user to Internet. It will make context based advertising hard.
  • There are some improper loading on certain site. try http://www.nokia-caribbean.com/ at firefox and Internet explorer.
Click here to download Google Chrome

I'm not gonna change from Firefox to Google chrome even though I love Google products generally. These changes are not enough. Waiting for the next Major release.

Sunday, August 31, 2008

MSI Wind review and specs


MSI Wind is the new netbook or more precisely a subnotebook from Micro Star International. WIND is not just a brand name given to this 'ultra portable notebook'. It stands for Wi-Fi network Device. Wind is likely to cost at around 700$ in market. Both Windows XP and Linux versions will be available.

8 and 10 inch versions are available with a screen resolution of 1024 x 600. Unlike a Flash drive from segment competitors, MSI has included a 80GB Hard Disk with the Wind.
I test operated the white 1GB version for which I will certainly give a rating above Asus eePC in comparable range.

Other tech specs:

Chipset:
ICH7-M, Intel 945GMS
10"W (1024*600) LCD - LED backlit.
VGA:
UMA 950
1GB DDR2 Memory

Technical Analysis and review of MSI WIND.

Friday, August 22, 2008

Open office 3 review


Open office 3 is striking hard at Microsoft office already. With the release of Open office.org version 3, the hit is being more severe. I just reviewed the windows version of open office 3.

The pack comes with 6 applications:
  • Writer - word processor
  • Calc - Spread sheet
  • Impress - Presentation maker
  • Base - Database application
  • Math - Equation Editor
  • Draw - Graphics program

It makes an almost perfect substitute for the costly Microsoft office. It has improved a lot this time. Start centre is a good addition which enables users to select the document they need to make from the welcome screen itself.

There is no other major changes to the total program. But there are numerous changes in each of individual applications. Overall changes are worth trying out.

Review Yourself and comment here

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Intel Nehalem processor review



Intel is all set to release their next generation processor Intel Nehalem boasting 8 cores. The speculations are so high that is is considered as "over" requirement for the current processor market. Nehalem is competing with the AMD Shanghai in the field. Both are set to be released around same date as per reports, this time no one is going to get the time advantage. ;-)

A
Nehalem processor with 1GB DDR3 memory is said to posses same processing capabilityas a Intel penryn processor with 3GB DDR3. memory manufacturers are planning 3GB DDR3 for Nehalem based 32 bit OS and 12GB for 64bit. Nehalem samples ahve been showing good performances too, Intels claims seems right.

Major features of Nehalem summerised from Intels wesite are
  • Dynamic scalability
  • Design and performance scalability
  • Simultaneous multi-threading
  • Scalable shared memory
Nehalem , processor microarchitecture is was displayed in Computex 2008.

Thursday, August 07, 2008

Intel atom processor performance review


Intel atom is the new processor from Intel specially manufactured for mobile internet devices(MIDs). Previously codenamed Silverthorne and Diamondville, it is now given the new name atom. Major fields of application include Smartphones and ultramobile PCs which
are of relatively smaller size. The mobile technology which incorporates this processor is called Centrino Atom. Actually this is the first X86, a bit old I have to say, based processor after Intel Pentium.

At the cost of speed, Intel has made significant improvements in power consumption and cost. Average battery life is significantly extended by decreasing idle powen consumption. In short, Intel Atom processors are aimed at devices which need smallest power consumption as their primary feature. Power consumption problems had always been there with all intel mobile processors and this is not the first attempt to rectify it. But now Intel has significantly improved, if their technicalclaims are going to be true.

  • Having two versions, silverthorne will be called the Atom Z series and Diamondville will be called the Atom N series, according to Intel. Intel and Lenovo jointly announced new IdeaPad series notebooks based on Atom processor.
  • Intel atom is a 45 nm processor.
  • Intel is having a series of of competiters in the field. The major ones are Nvidia Tegra based line of processors for MIDs and the mobile platforms like Puma from AMD. Tegra is claimed to have more processing efficiency than Intel atom processor.
  • Intel has also announced the next generation atom processors based on Lincroft Architecture. It is codenamed Pineview. Intel will officially launch it in 2009.

Intel atom processor review

Monday, August 04, 2008

KDE 4.1 Desktop review



This review focuses on KDE 4.1, the latest release the K Desktop Environment series. It was officially released on July 29th, 2008. There is no much hype regarding the new release since the older 4.0 was full of bugs. Still KDE remains one of the favorite desktop environment for GNU/Linux OS till date.

KDE 4.1 comes with significant positive changes in graphics and desktop experience. But still its not error free which is disappointing. The entire set of desktops, frames and panels are collectively called plasma in the new version(KDE4). This replaces the old Kdesktop in the older version. A new multimedia interface called Phonon has been added.This makes the KDE desktop enviornment independent of any particular media backend. Decibel is a new applicaition framework introduced in KDE to incorporate all the communication protocols in general to the K desktop. The amjor technologies introduced in KDE 4 could be summarised as follows:

  1. Plasma : A desktop and panel widget engine
  2. Phonon : A multimedia framework
  3. Solid : A device integration framework
  4. Sonnet : A spell checker
  5. ThreadWeaver : A library to more effectively use multiprocessor systems
The release of KDE 4 and 4.1 invited mixed response from the web community. It was criticized on the grounds of instability of desktop and applications. But there are a lot of revolutionary changes made to KDE 4 for which it was praised by the KDE fans.