Intel and IDT Team Up for Wireless Charging Technology Chips

URL: http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/mobile/display/20120829095035_Intel_and_IDT_Team_Up_for_Wireless_Charging_Technology_Chips.html

IDT to Develop Silicon Solution for Wireless Charging System Based on Resonance Technology

Intel and IDT: Your Laptop Will Wirelessly Charge Your Smartphone by 2014

URL: http://dailytech.feedsportal.com/c/34650/f/635057/s/22dd700d/l/0L0Sdailytech0N0CIntel0Kand0KIDT0KYour0KLaptop0KWill0KWirelessly0KCharge0KYour0KSmartphone0Kby0K20A140Carticle255540Bhtm/story01.htm

Charging tech will be sampled to OEMs by the first half of 2013, product to land in 2013-2014

Leaked Document Suggest's Intel's 22 nm Atom Will Include Quad-Cores

URL: http://dailytech.feedsportal.com/c/34650/f/635057/s/22de421f/l/0L0Sdailytech0N0CLeaked0KDocument0KSuggests0KIntels0K220Knm0KAtom0KWill0KInclude0KQuadCores0Carticle255470Bhtm/story01.htm

New GPU -- 4 to 7 times as fast is also coming

MultiCore Enhancement: The Debate About Free MHz

URL: http://anandtech.feedsportal.com/c/34653/f/635203/s/22dea344/l/0L0Sanandtech0N0Cshow0C62140Cmulticore0Eenhancement0Ethe0Edebate0Eabout0Efree0Emhz/story01.htm

If you have been keeping up to date with any of the AnandTech motherboard reviews lately, there has been one topic that has been hot on my lips, and it is called ‘MultiCore Enhancement’.  As an exercise in explanation and opinion, we would like to know your thoughts on this, and how it would affect you as a user.

To start, let me describe what we are talking about.  On the latest line of Intel CPUs, we have multiple cores all willing to provide computational throughput.  The CPU itself has a listed stock speed, and a thermal window to ensure stable operation.  At the stock speed, the CPU does not hit the thermal window, so Intel assign higher speeds depending on how much computational power is needed, and this is adjusted to fit inside the power requirements.  Thus when a user requires only one CPU core, the CPU can be allocated the maximum turbo speed – when more cores are requested, the speed of the CPU drops until all cores are in use.  This is what Intel designates the ‘Turbo Boost’ for the CPU.

In the case of the latest Ivy Bridge CPU, the i7-3770K, this CPU has a nominal speed of 3.5 GHz.  However, the turbo boost is set such that in single threaded mode, the CPU can run at 3.9 GHz by adjusting the multiplier to 39x.  As more cores are loaded, the CPU reduces the multiplier down, until all four cores are in use and the processor is running at 3.7 GHz, still 200 MHz above the rated speed on the box.  This also applies to other processors:

CPU Turbo Bins
	i7-3770K (4C / 8T)	i7-3570K (4C / 4T)	i7-2600K (4C / 8T)	i7-3960X (6C / 12T)	i7-3820 (4C / 8T)
Rated Speed	3.5 GHz	3.4 GHz	3.4 GHz	3.3 GHz	3.6 GHz
1 Core	3.9 GHz	3.8 GHz	3.8 GHz	3.9 GHz	3.9 GHz
2 Core	3.9 GHz	3.8 GHz	3.7 GHz	3.9 GHz	3.8 GHz
3 Core	3.8 GHz	3.7 GHz	3.6 GHz	3.8 GHz	3.7 GHz
4 Core	3.7 GHz	3.6 GHz	3.5 GHz	3.8 GHz	3.7 GHz
5 Core	-	-	-	3.7 GHz	-
6 Core	-	-	-	3.6 GHz	-

However this technology is not defined by the processor itself.  The act of telling the processor to run at a certain speed is set by the motherboard, not the processor.  So as part of the deal with Intel, motherboard manufacturers’ code in the BIOS the algorithm to make the CPU switch speeds as required.  This algorithm can be aggressive, such that turbo boosts are held for a short time when CPU loading goes from low to high, or instant when CPU power is needed or not needed.  This algorithm and switching speed can determine how well a motherboard performs in CPU benchmarks.

This is all well and good when every manufacturer adheres to this specification.  But a new ‘feature’ has made its way onto our motherboards.  Since X79, ASUS has been implementing a feature they call ‘MultiCore Enhancement’ whenever XMP has been set.  Gigabyte has implemented this since their Z77 suite but as of yet leave it un-named, and ASRock are going to start using ‘MultiCore Acceleration’ with their Z77 OC Formula.  EVGA also has something in the pipeline for their Z77 boards.  This feature, put simply, gives the CPU some extra speed.

With these motherboards, usually when XMP is enabled, the CPU is told to use the top turbo boost setting under all loads.  That means a CPU like the i7-3770K has only two speeds – 3.9 GHz while under CPU load, and 1.2 GHz at idle.  For motherboards that implement this feature, they get a significant boost in their CPU benchmark scores.  As a result, the user who runs their processor at stock also gets up to 300 MHz more speed during multithreaded loading.

Technically, this is an overclock.  Typically we are told that overclocking a system is liable to void the warranty on both the processor and the motherboard.  With the case of the processor, typically what Intel put on the shelves is a safe speed – they are not pushing any competition to the limits, so these processors have breathing room and this ‘overclock’ should not harm longevity.  Nevertheless, Intel is usually very willing to replace processors (if I extrapolate the stories of returns I have heard).  With motherboards, they are designed to hold the top turbo bin at single core loads, so full threaded load should not be much of an issue.  Given that it is the motherboard manufacturers themselves that apply this, it would be reasonable that RMAs would be honored.

There has been a precedent with this in the past – when Turbo Boost was not part of the processor paradigm, motherboard manufacturers used to play around with the CPU FSB speed before it was passed through the multiplier.  So instead of 100.0 MHz on the FSB, we used to get 100.3 MHz, 100.8 MHz, 101.3 MHz, and even a case of 102.1 MHz I believe.  So essentially, a free 2.1% overclock if you ran the processor at stock speeds.

Given all this, I recently tested one motherboard that pushed the boundaries beyond the ‘normal’ MultiCore Enhancement.  The Gigabyte G1.Sniper 3, by default, gave the i7-3770K a 4.0 GHz turbo mode at any speed.  As a result, it took top spot in all our benchmark settings.  The G1.Sniper 3 is a high end product, so producing the jump was not much extra work for the product itself.  However, it does open up a variety of questions.

- How many users run processors (K or non-K) at stock?
- How many will notice the difference in speed?
- Will they worry that technically it is an overclock?
- Will a manufacturer go that one step further, to 4.1 GHz, or 4.2 GHz?  What is a safe limit?

Here are the results from one of my benchmark tests.  Here is 3DPM, a memory agnostic benchmark, using the multi-threaded version:

Here we see that the boards with MCE all come top.  More cores means more points, and more MHz is king.  Boards without MCE have to have an aggressive turbo switching algorithm to stay close, or fall behind up to 10% away from those without MCE.

I would like to cite some scenarios involving individuals and their computers in order to draw some conclusions.

• Person 1 uses his machine for gaming.  While an active gamer, his budget is low and does not know how to adjust the BIOS, but his system plays his games well enough not to overclock.
• Person 2 is an enthusiast with a high budget.  His system uses the best components, and he is always striving for top speed through overclocking.
• Person 3 uses their pre-built machine for work and email, sometimes watching movies or video websites.  They have no need for overclocking.
• Person 4 has a low power HTPC, and is focused on keeping his footprint green.  They buy a low powered CPU, and use it to watch videos.  The system is not underclocked, but when under load, the CPU will implement the full turbo mode.

Deductive reasoning tells us that Persons 1 + 3 will benefit slightly from MultiCore Enhancement, however the gamer moreso than the worker.  Person 2 overclocks, and thus MCE does not affect them.  Person 4 is more like a victim of MCE – without going into the BIOS they are unnecessarily using more energy than needs be.

Several companies have approached me and ask why I test motherboards with MCE enabled.  My response is that I test the ‘out of the box’ performance for the majority of users, such as Person 1, or system builders making machines for Person 3.  If I pre-overclocked the normal ATX boards, while that would help Person 2 in their decision, I would have to do it as well for Person 4 in order to keep the comparisons between ATX and mITX relevant.  Keeping everything at default on the latest BIOS is a steady baseline between these scenarios – if a motherboard manufacturer wants to be aggressive and enable MCE (or MCE-plus), then that is up to them.  But as a result of MCE, some companies who have not enabled it are being left behind in terms of stock CPU performance.

The point of this pipeline post is to ask our readers what they think of MultiCore Enhancement.  Do you like it?  Does it matter to you?  Should it become the standard, or should companies offer different SKUs with and without MCE?  If two motherboards from different companies are all equal on price and features but differ by MCE, would you go for MCE?  Would you worry about longevity?  Please let us know in the comments.

Comparing Intel HD 2000/3000/4000 Linux Graphics

URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Phoronix/~3/7jkVIyfpWi8/vr.php

Following the recent Intel HD 2500 Ivy Bridge Linux graphics benchmarks, here's some more numbers that were recently collected when benchmarking the latest Linux graphics code with the Intel HD 2000/3000/4000 graphics cores when clocking the rest of the CPU to a common speed...

Teclado Lavável da Logitech

URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/digitaldrops/~3/TCQF2xmIJ28/story01.htm

O teclado é muito provavelmente a parte mais suja do seu computador e também é a parte mais difícil de limpar, especialmente as teclas. A Logitech pensou nisso e anunciou um teclado totalmente à prova d'água.

O teclado Logitech Washable Keyboard K310 foi criado para ser abusado e você pode teclar enquanto come batas fritas ou uma costelinha e pode derramar o que quiser nele desde Coca-Cola, café, guaraná até iogurte e ketchup. Depois é só mergulha-lo na pia, lavar e pronto, tá bem novinho e limpinho!

O teclado Logitech Washable Keyboard K310 pode ser imerso por inteiro na água sem nenhum problema e é compatível com Windows 7, XP e Vista (o Mac vai continuar com o teclado imundo).

O teclado lavável Logitech Washable Keyboard K310 custa US$39,99 na pré-venda da Logitech.com.

Veja mais teclados aqui no Digital Drops.

Via Logitech Blog.

Clique abaixo para assistir um vídeo de demonstração do teclado.

Fast and Quiet: Inno3D iChill GeForce GTX 670 HerculeZ 3000 Graphics Card Review

URL: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/graphics/display/inno3d-ichill-geforce-gtx-670-herculez-3000.html

The new product from Inno3D Company impressed us not that much with its performance or overclocking potential, but with its unprecedentedly low noise. Actually, it would be more correct to say the absence of noise. Read our review to find out how they managed to accomplish that.

D-Link lança o DIR-865L, ou “o roteador mais rápido do mundo”

URL: http://targethd.net/2012/08/19/d-link-lanca-o-dir-865l-ou-o-roteador-mais-rapido-do-mundo/

A D-Link anuncia oficialmente o lançamento daquele que é considerado (pela empresa), “o roteador mais rápido do mundo”, o DIR-865L, que pertence à linha de produtos Cloud Series.  O DIR-865L pode chegar à velocidade de 1,750 Gbps (802.11ac), sendo assim o primeiro roteador com essa tecnologia disponível no mercado brasileiro. O roteador apresenta um alcance [...]

$50 Sound Cards Impress Versus Integrated Audio

URL: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/SHZtqyUAi20/50-sound-cards-impress-versus-integrated-audio

crookedvulture writes "Most PCs have audio integrated right on the motherboard. There's much to be gained from upgrading to a discrete sound card, though. This look at a couple of sub-$50 sound cards from Asus explores what can be found at the budget end of the spectrum. In blind listening tests, both cards produced better sound than an integrated solution. They also offered superior signal quality, but neither had an impact on gaming performance. The days of hardware-accelerated game audio seem to be behind us, with developers handling positional audio processing in software."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Panasonic preps SD cards that survive heat, water and X-rays, will probably outlast you

URL: http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/09/panasonic-preps-sd-cards-that-survive-heat-water-and-x-rays/

Much ado has been made of weather-resistant cameras, but it's all a moot point if the memory card dies, isn't it? Panasonic wants that level of survivability in its SDHC and SDXC cards, and its new UHS-I-level SDAB and SDUB lines are tested for the kind of abuse that could see the camera give up the ghost first. The cards can take the kinds of punishment that we often associate with rugged gear, such as temperatures from -13F to 185F, immersion in 3.3 feet of water for half an hour and the usual steep drops. It's beyond this that the resistance levels become truly exotic: the cards are also built to survive zaps of electricity, proximity to magnets and exposure to X-rays. If it all becomes too much to bear, the design will even fuse on the inside to prevent fire burning the card from within. Those who like what they see will only have to decide whether or not they want the SDAB range's 95MB/s read speeds and 80MB/s writes or are willing to settle for the SDUB line's respective 90MB/s and 45MB/s transfers. We have yet to see if or when the SD cards cross the Pacific after their September 8th launch in Japan, although we hope so -- with that kind of extra-tough design, our photos are more likely to endure than we will.

Filed under: Digital Cameras, Storage

Panasonic preps SD cards that survive heat, water and X-rays, will probably outlast you originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Aug 2012 05:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A quick look at Corsair's Professional Series AX1200i digital power supply

URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techreport/articles/~3/YWmtCwaNUoI/23367

Your PC's power supply may be the most critical component in the entire system. It's charged with feeding everything from your CPU to your graphics card to your SSD with a steady flow of life-giving electrons. If a power supply goes bad, it can damage other system components in a puff of magic smoke. Even when operating correctly, lousy PSUs can exhibit poor efficiency and high noise levels.

Why don't we cover them more? Frankly, because PSUs are rarely very interesting. They convert AC to DC power and, well, ...

Read more...

Ivy Bridge 3770K IHS removal and results

URL: http://www.silentpcreview.com/IvyBridge_3770K_IHS_removal_and_results

The high core temperatures of Ivy Bridge CPUs have been a livey topic for debate since the new Intel chips were released. Poorer quality TIM has been deemed the culprit. SPCR forum member graysky put this idea to the test by removing the integrated heat spreader from his i7-3770K to try a different, proven, high quality TIM.