Technically Speaking

How much PC power can be put into the shell of a Mac Mini? Here is another example of someone tinkering with a perfectly good machine but this time there seems to be a valid reason behind it. Kevin Rose, of The Screen Savers fame, has taken it upon himself to do an extreme modification of the Mac Mini to see how much PC power per square inch can be put in its case. Of course, the first step would be to gut the Mac Mini and stuff it full of PC components. Using thee parts list below Kevin walks use through the process.

Parts needed:

Nano-ITX Motherboard
Laptop IDE HD 2.5” (any capacity)
40 to 44pin IDE converter
Motherboard risers
Sears Tap kit

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Now I said that this was done for the sake of technology, but Kevin has not given us the benchmarks that answer the initial question; “How much PC power can be put into the shell of a Mac Mini?” I’m confident that we will see the results shortly, we will just have to wait patiently.

Apple announces that their version of the rack mount Xserve with two 2.3GHz processors is now available to all that wants it. They were originally custom made for the System X supercomputer at Virginia Tech but Apple has decided to increase their product line by making both versions of Xserve.

“Now we have it available to our entire customer base,” said Alex Grossman, director of server and storage hardware for Apple’s product marketing group. Apple’s Xserve line had topped out with dual-2.0GHz processors.

Apple is keeping pricing for the Xserve line the same while also improving the optical drive from a CD burner to one that can both burn CDs and read DVD discs. While servers aren’t often used to play movies, Grossman said more companies are distributing software on DVDs. Customers will also now be able to pay extra for a SuperDrive that can burn DVDs.

“If they want to do any kind of archive or backup, they can now do that,” Grossman said.

The system with two 2.3GHz processors will sell for $3,999, while a machine with one 2.0GHz will sell for $2,999. Both include an unlimited client version of Mac OS X Server. Apple also offers a version of Xserve for clustered computers that includes the speedier processor and a 10-user Mac OS X license for $2,999. The 2.3GHz machines also include a faster 1.15GHz system bus.

In addition to the Xserve changes, Apple on Tuesday released version 1.0 of Xsan, a file system for storage gear, which had been in testing for much of last year. Apple had planned to release it by mid-December but last month said it would delay the launch until early this year. Apple declined both then and on Tuesday to state the reason for the delay.

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I found this pretty interesting. I found it on ExtremeTech.

Theory of the Design

According the manufacturer, the vertical placement of the keyboard allows the user to type while keeping the forearms in a neutral position (with the thumbs up). With a standard flat keyboard, in order to type the hands are rotated so that the palms are parallel with the floor (this is called a “pronated” position). In the pronated position, the bones in the forearm twist with the wrist and scissor. This scissoring of the bones causes extra pressure to be forced upon the Carpal Tunnel.

On the other hand, so claims the manufacturer, typing on this keyboard while in the neutral position alleviates most of the stress on the Carpal Tunnel, and hence should be more comfortable in the long run.

ClearSpeed, in an effort to make a co-processor with exceptional computational power and run on very low electrical power, has come up with a chip they call Avebury. Avebury will handle the repetitive, computational grunt work involved in preparing a study on how a single protein will react with thousands of others or a financial analysis that charts how slight changes in a stock portfolio could affect a person’s financial position over the course of several years. The idea of co-processors is once again coming to life.

The driving force behind the move to co-processors is power consumption. General-purpose high-end microprocessors run in the 3GHz range. Partly as a result, some of these chips require 100 watts or more of power, more than household light bulbs, and generate tremendous amounts of heat.

Co-processors conserve energy by running at lower speeds but performing more tasks at the same time. Avebury, for instance, runs at 250MHz and coasts on 5 watts. But with its 96 processing cores, it can churn 50 billion floating point operations (math problems that involve a decimal point) per second. A typical microprocessor on the market today will have three floating point units and generally perform less than 10 billion operations per second.

The architecture works because the underlying equations in instructions in many applications are often identical–only the numerical variables change. In biological research, for instance, scientists will prepare data on the hundreds of different ways a single protein can be folded, and then need the same exact corpus of data on folding for thousands of separate proteins.

Currently, several national labs, some oil companies and a few universities are experimenting with Avebury, Hoff said.

Another benefit comes in gradual degradation. If a single processing element burns out or fails to work, the remaining 95 will continue to function. At that point, the chip will provide slightly less performance, or can be sped up to compensate for a loss of performance.

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If you are finding that you may need this type of computing power, it will cost you roughly $50,000 to get a specially fitted machine with the dual-Avebury core.

A new memory technology, announced by Canada’s ATI Technologies, makes use of the bidirectional high-speed data transfer qualities of PCI Express bus technology. The technology will lessen the need for onboard memory on graphics cards because it will be able to utilize system memory via the faster PCI Express bus.

“HyperMemory allows ATI and its system integrators to package graphics cards with less on-board memory, which means that our products are both cheaper to make and to buy,” Mikula said.

Instead of on-board memory, the cards will use system memory to handle the graphics storage requirements, giving the same graphics performance at a lower cost.

HyperMemory uses intelligent memory allocation algorithms to optimize the use of available local memory and ensure critical components are placed in fast local memory when required, the company says. This allows data to be optimally assigned to local or system storage dynamically. HyperMemory also increases the performance of system bus data transfers, speeding up access to system memory, ATI claims.

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We should expect to see the new products with HyperMemory in them by the end of this year.

This new power supply by Ultra claims to be the world’s first fully modular power supply. I’m really surprised that no one has thought of this before.

Ultra does it again! The unique X-Connect power supply - the first in the world to have a fully modular configuration - delivers 500 Watts of Ultra-reliable energy and eliminates cable clutter. X-Connect’s molded cable core allows you to connect only the cables you need! Each cable is UV reactive, made of the highest quality shielded material, and has undergone the most rigorous testing in the industry. Ultra’s modular cables are the finest in the world and offer the best conductivity, stability, reliability and durability. Decked out in an attractive high-gloss finish, X-Connect boasts two hard-working, onboard 80mm cooling fans and has overvoltage and overheating protection to ensure safe, continuous operation. This ingenious, trend-setting power supply is now available at an incredibly low price. X-Connect - the world’s first fully modular power supply!

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Features

* High-Gloss Mirror Finish
* Modular Cable Connection System
* UV Reactive Shielded Cables
* Dual 80mm Fans
* Low Acoustic Noise
* Short Circuit Protection
* In-rush Current Protection
* Thermal Overload Protection

List price is $129.99 on TigerDirect

According to Designtechnica, AMD’s “Power Now” feature is the cause to some iPod owners woes.

Disaster struck. File transfers across USB 2.0 were slower than USB 1.1. Why? Why? Why?

He stumbled across some clues. Leaving screensavers running or moving the mouse a lot made it work better. Of course. But what was causing the problem?

Answer: the Athlon. Apparently it has something called ‘Power Now’ built into their Mobile+ 2400 CPUs. Something like Intel’s SpeedStep or the kind of power management built into every PowerPC processor since 1995’s 603e.

So the Athlon slows everything down when the PC’s not doing much. As the author says, “Unfortunately, USB2 drivers don’t count as “doing much”, so if nothing else is running, your CPU starts woefully underperforming. Since USB2 needs lots of CPU grunt, this cripples the speed of your transfer.”

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Insanely Great Mac has a couple suggestion for those of you in this predicament, guess which on is the obvious answer?

Suggestions for repair? Here’s one:

“1. iTunes could offer an option somewhere to ’speed up USB2 transfers on AMD laptops’ and essentially do some pointless CPU intensive task to massively speed up the transfer rate while the synchronisation takes place. Hopefully some apple staffer will see this post and confider implementing this, as it would save me having to run CPUBurn by hand.”

Hm. While we sympathize deeply with his plight, he did, after all, buy a PC without someone putting a gun to his head. And we don’t see why Apple should fix his Athlon’s idiocy. And it ain’t iTunes’ job to tell his CPU what to do.

Here’s our suggestion # 2:

Get Mac. Never go back.

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Nvidia has made a bold stance on the future of graphics cards for mobile devices. Their new MXM specification will allow mobile PC owners to upgrade their graphics card with relative ease. The standard will also apply to other classes of computers potentially making it easier for all to upgrade their graphics abilities. Three classes have thus far been defined, MXM I geared toward laptops, MXM II to mainstream machines and MXM III for desktop replacements.

Nvidia said it was opening up the MXM spec. to allow other chip vendors and any number of notebook vendors to support the initiative. Beyond the association with Nvidia, it’s hard to see why they wouldn’t. Notebooks are taking an ever greater share of the PC market, and without MXM or something like it, there’s unlikely ever to be much in the way of a mobile graphics after-market.

Nvidia said it had already won the backing of Far Eastern ODMs like Quanta, Wistron, FIC, Uniwill, Clevo, AOpen, Tatung, Arima, Asustek and Mitac, all of whom have said they will offer MXM-based notebooks. Since these ten already account for many of the world’s name and no-name notebooks, MXM is likely to grow by stealth, becoming a de facto standard.

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Nvidia claims that their next generation of GeForce Go mobile chips, version 6, will be on MXM add-in cards. I suppose this means we should be seeing product emerging rather quickly.

Yesterday, Microsoft’s WinHEC conference kicked off. This is a conference in which Microsoft entertains discussion on the low-level internal workings of Windows. This year the main topic will be Longhorn.

Microsoft is expected to distribute their official alpha release of Longhorn at the conference. Along with the alpha, the system and driver requirements for Longhorn are to be announced as well. Here is what’s known already:

Microsoft is expected to recommend that the “average” Longhorn PC feature a dual-core CPU running at 4 to 6GHz; a minimum of 2 gigs of RAM; up to a terabyte of storage; a 1 Gbit, built-in, Ethernet-wired port and an 802.11g wireless link; and a graphics processor that runs three times faster than those on the market today.

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Those machine requirements sound like something to look forward to. Realistically, Longhorn is about 2 years away from completion. I bet that Microsoft is gauging future machines to have some pretty impressive specs by that time. So if you are expecting to upgrade you current machine to Longhorn you may want to forget about that and start think about buying a new machine first.

With the accomplishment of improving areal densities for hard drives to 80GB of data per square inch, Toshiba has implemented their technology in their latest 2.5-inch HDD. In doing so they have produced the world’s highest capacity HDD for laptops. Along with the increased storage capacity, Toshiba has also improved the drives power consumption and shock resistance.

Check out the specs

Model name: MK1031GAS
Capacity: 100GB
Number of platters: 2
Number of heads: 4
Average seek time: 12msec
Data transfer rate: Ultra DMA/100
Rotational speed: 4,200rpm
Buffer memory: 8MB
Interface: ATA-6
External dimensions
(WxDxH; mm): 70 x 100 x 9.5
Weight: 99g
Energy consumption efficiency: 0.005W/GB
Shock resistance: Operating: 3,185m/s2 (325G, 2msec)
Non-operating: 8,330m/s2 (850G, 1msec)

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Read more about it.

Intel’s next-generation desktop platform, based on the Intel� NetBurst�architecture and code-named Prescott, illustrates how Intel is extending Moore’s Law, overcoming challenges in process technology, circuitry, and microarchitecture design, to continue gains in performance, frequency scaling, and efficiency.

Prescott is slated to be one of the first high-volume chips to be made using Intel’s
90-nanometer process and incorporating Intel’s Hyper-Threading (HT) Technology.

I found this excerpt on ZDNet detail some of the features included in this new chip. Click below.
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Not too long ago, I posted about an awesome looking piece of display hardware, almost too good to be true. It turned out to be too good to be true. I’m talking about the GrandCanyon Display by Liebermann Inc. I came across another awesome display and automatically became weary whether it is real or not. Just like when I posted about Liebermann Inc, I’m a little late with this scoop. I have acyually seen this listed in a couple of sources and then found it on Gizmodo.

This new monitor combines the viewing area of two 15″ monitors into one display unit. I see this as a baby step to that famed 3 and 4 panel display. What’s even better is the price.

Designed for office work, casual browsing,or other applications where two monitors would be handy, the DoubleSign [sic] DS-1500 places two 15-inch LCDs side-by-side, each capable of up to 1024 x 768 resolution. The combination provides the user an effective workspace of 24 inches by 9 inches, all for $799.

DoubleSight can be connected to computers with two VGA ports, one VGA port and a DVI port, or to two separate computers by attaching one VGA cable to each computer. Additionally, DoubleSight is powered through a single power cord providing a simplified cabling solution.

[via ExtremeTech]

Funny, I was hoping to be able to buy a multi-panel monitor instead of having multiple single monitors for my computer setup. After finding that it was most unlikely that I would be able to acquire one, I gave in and bought a second 19″ LCD to match the first. I should have waited a bit longer. Here is a little more info on the monitor.
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To go along with the review of the AMD Athlon 64 3200+, I have found this article on Slashdot. MSI, ASUS, and Shuttle are featured in this article for they have the hottest motherboards for the new Athlon 64. As you can probably guess, I’m looking to build my next computer and I will be keeping you all informed of the component choices I make. Stay tuned!

Ilya Gavrichenkov of Xbit Laboratories got his hands on the Athlon 64 3200+ CPU and wrote a detailed review about it. I just want to point out some of the things that caught my attention and leave the rest for you to read. Ilya’s review goes on to talk about performance, overclockability and the Cool’n'Quiet technology. There are lots of CPU-Z screenshots and comparison charts with other CPUs. Ilya really likes to compare the Athlon 64 3200+ to the Athlon 64 FX. The review is a good read, so check it out.

First of all let me point out that Athlon 64 processor is exactly that particular 64bit processor for desktop systems, which AMD was going to introduce from the very beginning. Later on, when Intel announced faster Pentium 4 processors and provided them with a faster 800MHz bus and Hyper-Threading technology support, AMD had to quickly re-position a one-way Opteron processor for the desktop market having hidden it behind the Athlon 64 FX trade mark. However, the server origin of Athlon 64 FX will prevent this solution from spreading really widely and getting less expensive so far. So, it is exactly Athlon 64 that is intended to really promote the 64bit architecture into the market.

So far AMD has released only one processor model from the new Athlon 64 family with the 3200+ performance rating. This CPU works at the actual 2GHz frequency, which is 200MHz lower than Athlon 64 FX-51 supports. Later on AMD will also release a faster modification of its Athlon 64 CPU with 3400+ performance rating and 2.2GHz actual core clock frequency. However, this can hardly be expected to happen soon. Why so, you will understand later on.

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A pair of upstart data-storage companies plan to launch products next week designed to let companies easily ramp up data capacity and manage files with a minimum of effort.

Isilon Systems is targeting its networked storage device at digital content companies, while Panasas is focusing on organizations using Linux clusters.

This is a great arena to jump into for storage solutions are on many peoples mind as of late. Especially with those home users that have several different computers. It is a challenge to have half way decent networking that allows for easy data sharing among the computers.

Seattle-based Isilon is unveiling a product dubbed Isilon IQ. The product is based on a file system that’s distributed among a number of storage device modules and essentially knits them together to create a single pool of storage, according to the company. Each of the modules holds 1.44 terabytes of disk capacity. A key feature of the product, Isilon said, is that extra modules can be added easily, in less than 30 seconds. What’s more, as capacity is added, an “AutoBalance” feature automatically redistributes content without manual intervention, according to Isilon.

The product is tailor-made for the large video, audio, image and graphics files common in fields such as entertainment, digital imaging and health care, according to Isilon. Some initial Isilon customers include Paramount Digital Entertainment, Technicolor and the University of Washington Medical Center.

There is no information on pricing but hopefully they won’t forget about the home PC users that want more storage.

Source: ZDNet

Digi-Life has posted a great review on the Plextor PX-708A Dual format burner. Believe it or not, I STILL haven’t bought a DVD burner. I do plan to buy this model, as of now. I will see about getting this done by Christmas.

Source: DesignTechnica

Maxtor has found a way to take its product to the next generation standard at the same cost as today’s standard.

The company announced Monday that its subsidiary, MMC Technology, has demonstrated a method of making disk-drive media for the new technology at roughly the same cost as media used in today’s drives. With the new media and perpendicular recording technology, Maxtor said it is possible to more than double the amount of data that can be crammed onto a typical disk, from the standard 80GB per 3.5-inch platter to 175GB.

[…]

Perpendicular recording involves arranging magnetic charges–which hold digital information–vertically on a platter. In a sense, the disk surface is made up of tiny magnets standing vertically. The approach contrasts with the current industry standard method, called longitudinal recording. In longitudinal recording, charges are arranged horizontally on the surface of the platter.

Perpendicular recording is decades old, but it has yet to be widely used. The disk-drive industry has enjoyed rapid advances in data density without it. For example, data density doubled annually in the late 1990s. But the rate of growth has slowed, thanks partly to technical challenges.

Perpendicular recording has had its own challenges. One relates to the “soft underlayer” of magnetic material that helps a perpendicular recording head to write and read charges on the disk. Johnson said researchers have thought the underlayer needed to be as thick as 400 nanometers. Given that the final top layer of magnetic material is about 30 nanometers, the underlayer represented a relatively large amount of material to deposit on a platter, he said.

Okay, I’m a little late with this one but it is such an awesome idea that I am posting it anyway. If you have been to Gizmodo since yesterday, then this isn’t anything new to you. The one day I skip Gizmodo I find this monitor on another site; Binary Bonsai. Alright now, I’m over the snibbling.

Liebermann Inc. has put the exclamation point on the word phrase “BadAss!”. When you first glance at this monitor, the automatic condition response is “Daaaammmnnn!”. And if your jaw doesn’t hit the floor then you ain’t living. I happened to get goose bumps when this monitor came into focus. Instantly, I had to know, “Where can I get one?” I bypassed the “How much?” stage. The image made that much of an impression.

Targeted for the professional, scientific, high-end graphics, video, audio and imaging computing environments, ’s new Grand Canyon 76″, 81″, and 92″ Displays are out-of-this-world. Providing resolutions up to 6400 x 1200 pixels, taking your computing experience to heights that you’ve never even imagined. The word “huge” doesn’t begin to tell half the story. Exclusively matched with high-end Quadhead Multiple-output Professional Graphics adapters, you’ll be able to view multiple pages of text and graphics, while working in multiple applications simultaneously and still have tons of room to spare for tear-off menus, palettes, toolbars, and everything else. Ideal for high-end professional audio, video, graphics and multimedia applications, and industrial, medical, military, broadcasting, presentation, and engineering environments, your imaging world will be bigger than ever before, while working and interacting with a computer, a new re-discovered experience.

Now, the price is a bit daunting. Aligned with the sizes, these monitors are $8499.99, $12499.99 and $17499.99 respectively. The top of the line model will make you wonder whether you really need a new car. I’m sure you would make the right choice. If you are like me, you might want to wait 4 - 5 years for the price to come down on last years model, when a new version is coming out and the old one is being discounted for quick sale. There is another option tough, Liebermann Inc. has a sibling model for those of us on a slight budget. The Cinerama Display….
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ATI has had a big part in developing the standards for PCI Express since the idea was first thought up. Today they have released a video card that will demonstrate the benefits of the new standard.

ATI has designed, developed and validated in tests with Intel, the industry’s first visual processor using the brand-new PCI Express bus to accelerate the movement of information between the visual processor and the central processor.

“PCI Express is the most significant transition the PC industry has undergone in the past decade. We already have working silicon that uses PCI Express natively,” said Rick Bergman, Senior Vice President of Marketing and General Manager, Desktop, ATI Technologies Inc. “As the industry transitions to PCI Express and as chipset and motherboard companies make this new interconnect available to customers, ATI will be ready with visual processors that can take advantage of the advanced capabilities.”

ATI has been a key player in the development of PCI Express standards since its inception, first sitting on the original steering committee and continuing to influence and support the PCI Special Interest Group (PCI-SIG).

Source: BusinessWire.com

Ximeta�s NetDisk external hard drive is the networking solution for the small business or the home enthusiast. The beauty of this device is that it can be setup as a NAS drive.

Xitmeta exhibited a little shortsightedness with the flexibility of use with this product but if you are looking just to save data from your computer you shouldn’t have too hard of a time provided you fall into this category. 1) If you are running Microsoft Windows 2000 or XP operating systems. No Mac support as of yet. 2) If you have USB 2.0 or 100BaseT Ethernet ports. This allows for you to connect it as a personal drive via USB or as a network drive via the Ethernet through a router.
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