Hardware: novembro 2011

quarta-feira, 30 de novembro de 2011

Intel Reveals Official Next-Gen "Ivy Bridge" Chip Performance Numbers to Partners

URL: http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/display/20111129203559_Intel_Reveals_Official_Ivy_Bridge_Performance_Numbers_to_Partners.html

Intel Expects Ivy Bridge Microprocessors to Be 7% - 25% Faster Than Sandy Bridge

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448-Core GPU Review

URL: http://hothardware.com/Reviews/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-560-Ti-448Core-GPU-Review/

Just in time for the holiday buying season, NVIDIA is at the ready with a brand new graphics card. Sort of. Today, NVIDIA is announcing the GeForce GTX 560 Ti with 448 cores. Some of you may be thinking, “Hey! GeForce GTX 560 Ti cards use the GF114 GPU which offers a maximum of 384 cores!” And you’d be right. This new GeForce...

Lâmpada com tecnologia LED promete durar até 36 anos

URL: http://exame.abril.com.br/tecnologia/inovacao/noticias/lampada-com-tecnologia-led-promete-durar-ate-36-anos

Linha da sul-coreana Samsumg usa mesma tecnologia que faz brilhar monitores

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Pesquisadores criam bateria que pode durar dez anos

URL: http://exame.abril.com.br/tecnologia/noticias/pesquisadores-criam-bateria-que-pode-durar-dez-anos

Tecnologia pode ser a solução para os gadgets que possuem bateria com vida curta e, por isso, tornam-se facilmente descartáveis

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Seagate hybrid drive approaches solid-state speeds at hard-disk prices

URL: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2011/11/seagate-hybrid-drive-approaches-solid-state-speeds-at-hard-disk-prices.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss

A new hybrid drive from Seagate can approach near-solid state drive speeds in opening programs and booting up a PC, according to benchmarks from Laptop Magazine and ExtremeTech. The second-gen 750GB Momentus XT uses adaptive memory to store your most used files on a small bit of flash storage, giving it a huge speed jump on your most frequently performed tasks.

The 750GB hard drive combined with 8GB of flash memory is designed to learn which files you most commonly use and cache them on the flash storage, allowing it to open programs very quickly. Laptop Magazine tests showed that after a few iterations, the Momentus XT was able to open Excel in 5.8 seconds, compared to 4.2 seconds for a Samsung SSD and 14 seconds for another 7200RPM HDD.

The flash memory also has a reserved section for Windows boot files, to crank up boot speeds. ExtremeTech found that the Momentus XT could boot in 14 seconds, nearly matching the 11 seconds of an Intel 320 SSD and soundly beating the 54 seconds of a 7200RPM HDD.

But the drive does have a significant weak point: performance under stress. Laptop Magazine clocked the drive at 22.6 seconds to open Excel while running a stress test, the same time it took a standard 7200RPM HDD. The Samsung SSD took only 6.7 seconds to open the same program under stress.

While the Momentus XT hybrid won't provide a massive speed-up in all situations, it will likely fill a niche for those looking for affordable speed without compromising on storage space. It's priced at $249, about $100 more than a standard 7,200RPM drive and $40 more than a 128GB SSD.

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Introducing AMD’s Memory Brand

URL: http://www.anandtech.com/show/5156/introducing-amds-memory-brand

We discussed the availability of AMD branded memory modules earlier this month, but today AMD is officially unveiling information on their memory platform. There are a few major questions many will have: why is AMD entering the memory market at all, and what do they hope to offer that we can’t already get from other vendors? Let’s take those in turns.

The reason for AMD’s entry into the memory market comes from two areas. First, AMD’s APUs are now shipping in large volumes and can definitely benefit from higher bandwidth memory modules. We’ve already shown the sort of performance scaling you can get from an A8-3850 with higher clocked DRAM, but many people buy A-series APUs as part of a prebuilt system, and right now lots of OEMs are still cutting corners on the RAM and using DDR3-1333. That’s the second aspect of the move: AMD wants to enable a [buzzword alert!] “holistic customer platform experience”, and they may be able to help drive down costs for AMD platforms. A final element AMD mentions is a desire to drive and enable future memory product developments.

The other item to discuss is what AMD offers that we may not already have. Here the distinction between AMD branded memory and other options isn’t quite so clear, but AMD will be doing testing and validation in their labs using AMD platforms. AMD also notes that they will not be using any ETT (Effectively TesTed) or gray market RAM. The latter is used as a term to collectively group hardware that may be less desirable; as an example, Intel unboxed CPUs are “gray market” because they are intended for OEM use but can still end up being sold at retail. Basically, gray market parts would cut out some of the supply channel (in the example just cited, gray box processors typically cut out AMD/Intel and only have a short warranty from the seller). ETT parts on the other hand are a way of cutting costs by skipping branding; the RAM is still tested and is supposed to be high quality, but without branding it’s one small way to reduce costs. Generally speaking, ETT memory is destined for value RAM modules, so basically AMD is saying is that their AMD RAM will start out a step above value RAM. AMD also states that they will take end-to-end ownership of the AMD Memory ecosystem, working with module manufacturers, memory partners, IC partners, distributors, and VARs (value added resellers).

With that out of the way, let’s discuss the specifics of what AMD Memory will be available and the target markets. Here’s a slide from AMD’s presentation summarizing things:

As you would expect from any memory, the AMD RAM will work with both AMD and Intel platforms; the main difference between the tiers will be the speed and packaging. Entertainment Edition memory will target the mainstream/value segment, come in single 2GB and 4GB DIMM packages, and is rated for CL9 operation at DDR3-1333 and/or DDR3-1600; Entertainment Edition memory is already available, starting in October. The Performance Edition memory should start shipping this month, and it will come in 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB capacities (these are presumably two-DIMM kits with 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB total capacities; Bulldozer could potentially use four-DIMM kits). The main difference with Performance Edition memory is that it is rated for CL8 operation at DDR3-1333/1600 speeds. Last is the Radeon Edition memory, which will come in 4GB and 8GB kits and offer DDR3-1866 and up to DDR3-2133 support with CL9 operation (and presumably CL7/8 operation at lower speeds). The Radeon Edition parts will also have support for overclocking via AMD OverDrive software; availability is expected in Jan/Feb 2012.

So what does all of this really mean? That’s the difficult part. If all AMD memory supported speeds of at least DDR3-1600, that would be a clear break from the current offerings, but the press release indicates that there will be both DDR3-1333 and DDR3-1600 parts. The upgrade to DDR3-1600 provides a significant performance increase; we linked our Llano A8-3850 article above showing some of our own results, but here are some charts of our testing along with AMD’s results:

Gallery: AMD Memory

AMD shows up to a 20% performance increase in their testing by upgrading from DDR3-1333 to DDR3-1600, while our own results show an average increase in performance of around 14% across seven tested games (with a range of improvement of around 8% to 41%). Should you choose to spring for faster DDR3-1866 memory (or just overclock some decent DDR3-1600 RAM), the average performance increase is around 20% and up to 40% in some cases (or as low as 8% in Civ5). This isn’t too surprising as the AMD Fusion GPUs are significantly faster than competing solutions and the combination of shared memory bandwidth with the rest of the platform along with generally slower memory speeds (compared to dedicated GPUs) is a double-whammy. So why would AMD continue to sell anything less than DDR3-1600? Your guess is as good as mine.

Several of us have chatted about the AMD Memory announcement, and really we’re not quite sure if this is necessary or useful. If it means systems with better quality and higher performance RAM at the same price, that would be a good thing, but the persistence of DDR3-1333 for desktop parts doesn’t jive with that goal. What’s more, RAM prices are already incredibly low, so AMD entering a commodity market doesn’t appear to be a good way to improve the bottom line.

AMD’s first partners for their branded memory initiative are Patriot Memory and VisionTek, with Patriot being a familiar name to memory shoppers and VisionTek known for their graphics products. There’s nothing inherently wrong with AMD branded memory, but unless the price is lower than existing options (e.g. AMD mentions bundles as something we’re likely to see), there’s also not much that it adds to the market. For now, we’ll stick with recommending you buy RAM that will supports at least DDR3-1600 speeds if you’re buying a Llano (or future APU) system; whether that memory is AMD branded or otherwise will likely be far less important than how much the memory costs for the desired level of performance.

Seagate's 2nd Gen Momentus XT: More NAND, Larger Capacity

URL: http://www.anandtech.com/show/5161/seagates-2nd-gen-momentus-xt-more-nand-larger-capacity

It's been over a year since I reviewed Seagate's first hybrid hard drive: the 500GB Momentus XT. At the time I felt that it wasn't nearly as good as an SSD, but likely the best 2.5" hard drive money could buy. Armed with only 4GB of SLC NAND acting as a read cache, the original Momentus XT delivered VelociRaptor performance in a much more power efficient package.

Since then Seagate hasn't updated or expanded its line of hybrid HDDs at all. I kept hearing rumors of new drives coming but nothing ever surfaced. More recently Seagate announced that the next version of the Barracuda XT will be a hybrid drive as well.

Today Seagate is announcing availability of its second generation Momentus XT. Now at 750GB with 8GB of SLC NAND (once again, as a read cache), the new Momentus XT is a definite evolution over its predecessor. With a larger NAND cache Seagate can be more aggressive with its caching, not to mention the improvements to the mechanical side of the drive as well. The entire package is still not nearly as fast a value SSD, but it's doing much better than mechanical (3.5" included) hard drives in our tests.

Write caching is still not enabled on the NAND, however Seagate is planning on enabling it via a firmware update sometime in 2012. I've seen results from an early version of the write caching firmware and the improvement is tangible.

The 750GB Momentus XT will be available at a MSRP of $245.

We're still hard at work on our review of the drive, expect to see it later this week!

domingo, 27 de novembro de 2011

Fábrica na Índia pretende exportar tablet mais barato do mundo

URL: http://redir.folha.com.br/redir/online/tec/rss091/*http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/multimidia/videocasts/1012382-fabrica-na-india-pretende-exportar-tablet-mais-barato-do-mundo.shtml

Vídeo O indo-canadense Suneet Singh Tuli, presidente da companhia britânica Datawind, que fabrica na Índia os tablets mais baratos do mundo, disse já possuir 340 mil reservas do produto, mas ambiciona chegar a 3,5 milhões de unidades. O Aakash --que significa "céu" em sânscrito--, é destinado a estudantes universitários pelo preço de US$ 22. Mas o que Tuli tem em mente é uma revolução nas comunicações na Índia, com o produto ao preço de 2.276 rúpias (US$ 43) e a generalização do acesso à internet. Leia mais (26/11/2011 - 10h00)

Tascam iM2, um Microfone Estéreo de Alta Qualidade para iPhone, iPod e iPad

URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/digitaldrops/~3/Da4JR3pXnco/story01.htm

Quer transformar seu iPhone, iPod ou iPad num gravador de alta qualidade? Uma excelente opção é o novo microfone da Tascam, uma marca da mundialmente famosa Teac.

O Tascam iM2 Stereo Microphone se encaixa perfeitamente em qualquer gadget iOS e vem com dois microfones estéreo, ajustáveis em 180 graus com pré-amplificador e conversor análogo para digital integrado. O iM2 grava sons altos de até 125dB, como num show, sem distorções com um limitador que diminui sons repentinos e pode ser usado com qualquer aplicativo de som para iOS, incluindo os que gravam vídeo no iPhone.

O microfone iM2 custa US$79,99 na B&H Photo Video.

Veja outros gadgets Teac e mais microfones aqui no Digital Drops.

Via technabob.

Zotac Introduces Passively Cooled GTS 450 Zone Edition

URL: http://www.anandtech.com/show/5150/zotac-introduces-passively-cooled-gts-450-zone-edition

Passively cooled high performance GPUs are quite popular with the HTPC community. NVIDIA GPUs are preferred by many HTPC users because of good software support (LAV CUVID, for example) and the ability to use custom renderers like madVR without losing out on hardware decode acceleration. I have already covered this in detail in a previous piece.

A look at the list of passively cooled GPUs on Newegg reveals that higher end NVIDIA GPUs are not represented well. In fact, we have a number of GT 430 and GT 520 passive models, but only one GT 440 model. On the other hand, AMD's GPUs seem to be quite popular in this space. We have a large number of 6450s. There are two models each of the 6570 and 6670. The 6750, 6770 and even the 6850 have one passively cooled model each.

Zotac is trying to level the playing field here with the introduction of a passively cooled GTS 450.

The GTS 450 Zone Edition comes with a GTS 450 GPU (192 shaders) underclocked to 600 MHz / 1200 MHz. The 128-bit 1 GB DDR3 memory runs at 1333 MHz. Unlike other GTS 450 units, this one will not require a PCI-E power connector. The GTS 450 Zone Edition will have a MSRP of 99 Euros in the EU (with the pricing in the NA market yet to be determined). The unit is currently shipping to retailers and is expected to be out on sale in time for the Christmas shopping season.

Gallery: Zotac GTS 450 Zone Edition

Given that even the NVIDIA GT 5xx models seem to be looking a bit dated right now, we asked Zotac as to why this cooling mechanism wasn't put on one of the more recent NVIDIA GPUs. It appears that the thermal limitations of passive cooling required underclocking which NVIDIA wouldn't allow on the 500 series. We are sure this will turn out to be better than the GT 430 models we have been recommending for HTPC use so far (particularly if you want to use madVR with 1080i60 streams). Will the lower speed DDR3 memory and core clock speeds hurt it when compared to the passively cooled GT440 (for HTPC purposes) ? We will know as soon as the card hits the market.

domingo, 20 de novembro de 2011

Chega ao Brasil o primeiro carro com internet

URL: http://exame.abril.com.br/tecnologia/noticias/chega-ao-brasil-o-primeiro-carro-com-internet

O serviço é gratuito por um ano e, por meio dele, será possível acessar mapas com as indicações do trânsito, se conectar às redes sociais e acessar e-mails

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Intel quer triplicar faturamento no Brasil até 2015

URL: http://exame.abril.com.br/tecnologia/noticias/intel-quer-triplicar-faturamento-no-brasil-ate-2015

Atualmente o Brasil representa mais de 40% do mercado da Intel na América Latina

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Why Apple rejected AMD's Llano in the MacBook Air

URL: http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2011/11/why-apple-rejected-amds-llano-for-the-macbook-air.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss

Apple's MacBook Air may have come close to shipping with AMD's "Llano" integrated CPU and GPU processors this past summer. According to unnamed sources speaking to SemiAccurate, Apple had Llano-based MacBook Air prototypes "on the verge of production" but ultimately decided on Intel's ultra-low voltage Sandy Bridge processors instead. Assuming it's true that Apple was tinkering with Llano processors in its popular ultraportables—and we think it is—it's worth considering why the company ultimately sided with Intel over AMD.

First, it should be no surprise that Apple experiments with processors from other sources besides Intel. It just makes good engineering and business sense to consider and test alternatives. Apple even reportedly has MacBook Air prototypes with ARM-based processors somewhere inside its Cupertino headquarters, so the fact that an alternate x86 prototype exists is really no revelation.