ARM Saber-Rattling: Hey, Intel! We Will Take Over Your Market! - ConceivablyTech

If ARM has its way, then it will hold 40% of the notebook market by 2015.

Until recently, there was a pretty clear distinction between x86 and ARM architectures. Today, it is more and more apparent that Intel is moving downstream and ARM has clear intentions to go upstream, which sets the two on a direct collision course. Neither company has a clear-cut advantage at this time and we enjoy our front-row seats to witness yet another fierce processor war between two aggressive players that aren’t willing to surrender ground without a brutal fight.

ARM CEO Tudor Brown has just been quoted stating that the company expects to claim a 40% stake in the notebook market by 2015. Yes, that would be notebooks, not netbooks (which has been a failed adventure for ARM so far.) ARM is counting on a strong consumer pick-up of Windows 8 for ARM. By 2015, ARM also expects to hold 85% of the tablet market and, due to the anticipated growth in notebooks, 50% of the overall mobile market (excluding smartphones).

There is a certain creepy confidence in ARM’s most recent statements. ARM is quite obviously dancing around Intel and making lots of noise. We aren’t sure if that is incredibly dumb or a clever strategy that aims to provoke a reaction. 1.85 billion ARM processors may have sold in Q1 of this year, but ARM is a fly on the wall in terms of revenue. The company will take in about $700 million this year, while Intel is in the $40 – $45 billion range. ARM may be more nimble and it may have the overall advantage in the small mobile devices market right now, but teasing Intel in its core market has not worked well for any rival in the past. Arrogance in the wrong place can end up in catastrophic results. Just ask AMD.

ARM Cortex-A 15

Of course, Intel is just getting an answer to what it has dished out earlier. The company said back in 2008 that Atom is designed to move down into a market that is dominated by ARM and take over a fragmented processor market by unifying it with x86 architecture. Neither Intel nor ARM were able to leave their core market so far: ARM has not gained any ground in the mobile PC market, while Intel products are non-existent in smartphones and tablets. However, we are aware that both companies are positioning their armies. Intel’s move into the tablet market has been widely reported and we hear that the company has sent out its engineers to work with device vendors to design tablets based on Intel hardware designs. The messages we are getting are very conflicting: While Intel is pushing the tablet message, we also hear that the company is putting much more focus on the traditional notebook and a device category that may bridge the gap between the tablet and the notebook – which would be the ultrabook. Somehow it seems that this whole Intel tablet message isn’t quite flushed out yet.

ARM, on the other hand, is brave to announce that it wants 40% of the notebook market. Sure, we know that those predictions aren’t worth the bandwidth the transmission of those words requires, but it is this strange confidence at ARM that gets us thinking. Brown could be simply suicidal by challenging Intel, but we think he may have reasons to be confident. To be successful with a Windows 8 notebook, ARM will need something much more powerful than what he has right now. Nvidia’s upcoming quad-core Tegra platform is promising, but we are looking much more toward AMD, which may have an opportunity to directly attack its arch-rival by partnering with ARM. There are persistent industry rumors that AMD is already working with ARM, either by offering its graphics technology or by adopting ARM as a processor architecture for tablet and smartphone devices. If that is the case, Intel’s ARM problem may suddenly be a much bigger concern for the blue team. Could Brown be telling us that he has a few aces up his sleeve? Possibly.

We still think it is a misguided strategy to put those market forecasts out. They have been off for ARM in the recent past and they are likely to be off in the future as well. What ARM has achieved, however, is to attract the attention of Intel, which recently said that it “will command the respect of ARM”, according to Tom’s Hardware. Intel may not have had the best designs for smartphones and tablets yet, and it may have failed to bring a competitive Moorestown platform to market, but we know that there are virtually endless resources with an intimidating production technology that Intel can leverage, if it has to – especially if it is threatened in its core market. For ARM, It will take more than just words to take those 40% of the notebook market.

Given its support by heavyweights such as Qualcomm, Samsung, Nvidia and possibly AMD in the future, ARM has powerful partners in place that clearly can have a big impact on Intel’s market dominance. It is too early to make any calls on this battle, but we anticipate the clash to be sudden and hard. This will be an exciting phase of innovation for consumers with rapid technology progress. We surely won’t complain about that.

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Review: Acer Aspire 8950G aspires to greatness - ITworld.com

June 07, 2011, 9:17 PM — When I first hauled out the Acer Aspire 8950G from the backpack, I almost dropped it--not because it was that heavy, but because it was lighter than expected. This massive (I hesitate to say "notebook") desktop replacement system sports an 18.4-inch, true 1080p LCD panel. At 8 pounds, 5 ounces without the power brick, it's lighter than some smaller systems that have been through the lab here. Even with the 120-watt power supply, the weight falls just a little short of 10 pounds.

It's still too big to carry around, but it could make for a useful living room PC. The system includes an Intel Core i7 2630M quad-core CPU clocking in at 2GHz and maxing out at a Turbo Boost clock of 2.9GHz. The CPU is complemented by 8GB of DDR3 DRAM and 64-bit Windows Home Premium. Driving that big, bright LCD panel is an AMD Radeon HD Mobility 6850M discrete GPU with 2GB of GDDR5 video RAM. Given the GPU's pedigree, I expected greatness when it comes to gaming performance as well as reasonably good video playback quality.

The game tests brought me back to earth, however. The Aspire 8950G is a cut above many laptops when it comes to overall gaming performance, but you'll still need to dial back graphics settings to about "medium" to get good frame rates in current-generation games. Far Cry 2 ran at 44 frames per second (DX10, "optimal" settings), while the recently released DiRT3 mustered 20 fps, and Total War: Shogun 2 eked out only 16 fps. (These tests were run with all graphics settings maxed out, but antialiasing disabled.)

Performance in desktop applications proved robust, however, with the unit earning a strong WorldBench 6 score of 128. The battery life of this massive unit was a surprisingly good at 4 hours, 41 minutes. The 750GB, 5400-rpm Toshiba hard drive is capacious, but seems a little slow on bootup. A system like this deserves a Blu-ray drive, and Acer delivers one, in the form of a Panasonic unit that doesn't generate a lot of distracting seek noise.

The keyboard has a good feel, with nicely done tactile feedback, but the layout could be better. The arrow navigation keys are tiny and clustered tightly together. The dedicated numeric keypad, however, offers widely separated keys, making its use as a 10-key pad easy.

While the keyboard is mostly good, the trackpad is mostly bad. It's extremely sensitive, and you'll often see the mouse cursor flying wildly across the screen. That's partially curable via some control-panel settings. However, someone at Acer decided that building media control keys into the glass surface of the trackpad is a good idea.

It's not. Really, it's not.

You can use the trackpad either as a pointing device or as a set of media-control touch-sensitive buttons, but not at the same time. This feature is toggled via a gigantic button placed between the two main mouse buttons. That means you can accidentally enable the media control keys all too easily, and suddenly your mouse isn't responsive. Unless you're looking at the trackpad, you won't know why. Luckily, the big volume-control wheel directly beneath the trackpad works whether or not the media-control feature is enabled.

The handling of standard-definition video scaled up to the full 1080p resolution of the screen is a mixed bag. DVD playback seems noisy, though edge enhancement is thankfully minimal. Blu-ray high-definition playback looks much better, but overall video quality is still a touch soft.

Audio sounds fairly good through the built-in speakers. Acer ships this model with Dolby audio-enhancement software, which helps movie playback substantially--the virtual surround sound works fairly well, though the surround "speakers" are still more front than rear. You still don't get much bass, though, so low-frequency effects are often missing. Music playback is less robust. In stereo mode, vocals take on a dirty, edgy quality, though the speakers sound fairly good in pop and rock.

The Acer 8950G is a capable digital media system that can handle current-generation DirectX 11 games if you're willing to dial down detail settings a bit. High-definition playback is generally pretty good, but not exceptional. At roughly $1500 as configured (price as of June 7, 2011), it's a balanced set of compromises that falls short of perfection, but gets the job done.

AMD desktop Llano APU chip pictured... in the HEXUS labs - HEXUS

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Chip-maker AMD is putting considerable store in the qualities of its upcoming Llano Accelerated Processing Unit (APU). In case you've been living under a large rock, Llano is the codename for AMD's mainstream notebook and desktop chips for the second half of 2011. Llano processors are important because they bring together (up-to) a quad-core CPU and a DX11 Radeon graphics core on to one piece of 32nn-transistor silicon.

It's no secret that AMD is launching a range of mobile chips first, to go up against Intel's second-generation Core processors, and we'll doubtless see Llano laptops invading the retail market in the next two months.

But little is being talked about the desktop variant. Piecing together what we know from rumour and snatched conversations at the industry trade show COMPUTEX, desktop Llano will feature significantly higher speeds than its mobile counterpart, though the underlying architecture is said to be identical.

Motherboard manufacturers have already starting wheeling out desktop Llano motherboards, showing us the brand-new FM1 socket. Word on the street is that these desktop chips, to be productised as AMD A4, A6, and A8, won't be available, in good quantity, until the middle of July - and even that availability prognostication seems bullish.

Yet it's amazing what you can turn up if you look hard enough. Our recent visit to COMPUTEX yielded numerous stories but none more exciting than the appropriation of an engineering-sample A8-3800 (Llano) chip. We've brought it back with us, naturally, and have free rein to publish pictures.

Protecting the provenance of the chip - and, therefore, a clue as to how it was sampled - the finer details are removed.

The chip appears to have a 95W TDP, going by early benchmarks, and performance is, well, interesting when compared to Intel's Sandy Bridge processors. Stay tuned for the full reveal in the very near future.

HEXUS.net - press releases :: AMD and ViVu Join Forces to Bring Vivid, Next-Generation PC Video Experiences to Life
HEXUS.net - news :: Zambezi at work
HEXUS.net - reviews :: Sapphire Radeon HD 6670 1GB Ultimate fanless graphics card review
HEXUS.net - press releases :: AMD Reintroduces FX Brand for High-End Processors and Platforms at E3
HEXUS.net - press releases :: AMD Opteron™ 6000 Series Platform Increases Reach, Demonstrates Virtualisation Prowess, Drives Toward Core-Rich “Interlagos”
HEXUS.net - news :: AMD revives FX brand
HEXUS.net - news :: Ivy Bridge to arrive in Q2 2012?
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HEXUS.net - news :: AMD Llano and Zambezi pricing reportedly surfaces
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Novo notebook da HP tem autonomia de 32h e resistência a impactos - G1.com.br

Interface QuickWeb, independente do sistema
operacional,  dá acesso a recursos baseados
na internet (Foto: Gabriel dos Anjos/G1)

A HP apresentou nesta quinta-feira (9) sua nova linha de computadores para o mercado corporativo com 15 modelos, entre notebooks, desktop e workstations, a partir de R$ 1,5 mil.

Software
Um dos destaques de software da nova linha é a ferramenta HP QuickWeb, interface independente do sistema operacional que agiliza o acesso a recursos baseados na internet, e o HP Connection Manager, que gerencia conexões de banda larga e sem fio, para otimizar a produtividade.

Adicionamente, a HP oferece o Power Assistant, que permite configurar o notebook para um perfil de baixo consumo de energia através de uma interface simples, e o Face Recognition, que identifica os usuários do computador pela webcam.

HP Elitebook possui acabamento em aço escovado
(Foto: Divulgação)

Hardware
Já em hardware, destaca-se o módulo extra de bateria que oferece até 32h de autonomia e é compatível com parte dos modelos lançados. Ele pode ser usado em conjunto com a bateria interna do equipamento ou como fonte principal de alimentação. Nesse caso, a autonomia cai para cerca de 16 horas.

Na linha Elitebook, o modelo 8460p apresenta um acabamento em DuraCase inspirado no setor aeroespacial que atende às especificações de testes de padrão militar MIL-STD 810G, permitindo que suportem o uso e o desgaste ao mesmo tempo que tem uma aparência profissional e robusta.

All-in-One
Para atender a pequenos e médios negócios, a HP oferece o tudo em um 100B com processador Brazos da AMD, de núcleo duplo, tela de 20 polegadas e design que facilita atualizações de hardware.

Tudo em um Omni 110 com fácil acesso ao painel
traseiro facilita manutenção e upgrade
(Foto: Gabriel dos Anjos/G1)

Já o Omni 110 Pro possui alto-falantes integrados, webcam, microfone, processadores Intel  e capacidade de memória até 4 GB e disco rígido de até 1 TB. Seu painel traseiro permite fácil acesso ao componentes para manutenção ou upgrade.

Necessidades específicas
As  novas Workstations são máquinas ideais para os mercados de engenharia, cálculos financeiros, agências de criação e design, dentre outros com necessidade de grande poder de processamento.

Os modelos da HP Z210 oferecem a opção de processadores Intel Xeon E3 e Intel Core i3 de segunda geração, que aumentam o desempenho geral em até 20% em relação aos processadores da geração anterior. Ainda contam com uma variedade de opções gráficas profissionais, incluindo a possibilidade  de escolha entre AMD e NVIDIA que suportam até quatro telas.

A HP também dispõe de solução móvel para Workstations. São os laptops da linha EliteBook W, que  oferecem tela de 17,3 polegadas, possuem a segunda geração de processadores Intel quad core e placas gráficas AMD Fire Pro ou NVIDIA.

Disponibilidade e preço
Todos os modelos da nova linha já estão disponíveis no mercado com preços entre R$ 1,5 mil e R$ 9 mil.

LG: Der Alu-Bolide A520 kommt mit Quad-Core i7-2820QM und 3D - Notebookcheck

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Asus reveals G74Sx 17-inch 3D gaming laptop - CNET (blog)

(Credit: Asus)

Asus, a brand known for its Republic of Gamers (ROG) notebooks, announced its G74Sx gaming laptop at the Computex trade show in Taipei today. The G74Sx would be Asus' first 17-inch 3D laptop.

The G74Sx will feature a second-generation quad-core i5 or i7 processor and Nvidia's latest GPU, the GTX 560M. This notebook will also have a full-HD display and use Nvidia's 3D Vision for 3D content.

Like its G72 predecessor, the G74Sx comes with an innovative thermal design that makes use of twin fans at both the front and back of the laptop to maintain constant air flow. Cooling technology is especially important for such a notebook as graphic-intensive games can generate lots of heat.

Also, the company has equipped the G74Sx with several easy-to-use overclocking features for better gaming performance.

Asus has not announced the price or release date for the G74Sx, although more details are expected to be announced soon.

(Source: Crave Asia)

MSI's X460 packs quad core CPU, weighs less than 2kg - VR-Zone

Llano TDP can match Intel's quad TDP - Fudzilla

35W to 45W

We have been playing with some quad-core Core i7 notebooks, some of them clocked at 2.2, GHz and found out that Asus' N53SV 15.6-inch notebook can give you some three to four hours of endurance. Since we got a hint that Llano TDP has 35W to 45W depending on the clock and configuration, we have decided to compare what Intel has to offer in that TDP range.

Core i7 2720QM that we have tested works at 2.2GHz native clock but with turbo it rocks to 3.3GHz has 650MHz graphics and 1300MHz graphics memory. This is a 45W TDP CPU. A bit faster one is Core i7 2820M, again a quad-core with eight threads with 2.3GHz core clock and 3.4GHz clock with turbo. The TDP remains the same, 45W. Intel has bunch of 35W dual-cores and the fastest one is Core i7 2620M that supports four threads hyperthreading 2.7GHz core clock and 3.4GHz turbo clock.

These are the top parts in 45W TDP range, and these 45W quad cores will go after highest clocked and best performing quad core Llano. Still, even being a year too late, we expect to see Llano lose to Core i7 2x20QM in CPU performance. On the other hand, we expect it to win in the graphics part of benchmarks hands down.

In the 35W dual-core market, the competition is tougher but its safe to say that Llano in 32nm can definitely come up with better graphics, but we are not sure if its dual core can win against 32nm based Sandy Bridge.

MSI to feature gaming pavilion to highlight its latest products - Digitimes

MSI to feature gaming pavilion to highlight its latest products

Press release [Wednesday 1 June 2011]

In addition to exhibiting a full line of motherboards and notebooks at Computex, MSI is featuring a gaming pavilion at its Computex booth (TWTC Nangang Exhibition Hall 4F, Booth L607) to spotlight its newly launched products for hardcore gamers. Related products include the fierce G series gaming laptops (GT780, GT683, and GE620); C Series multimedia machines (CX480, CX640, and CX670); F Series performance notebooks (FX620DX and FX420); and finally, the company's fastest and lightest machines ever, its new (X460 and X370) notebook computers.

The company has also actively set its sights on the business and specialty markets by introducing an All-in-One PC (AP2011) aimed at enterprises seeking high performance devices. MSI's booth will also feature a special area to highlight its much talked about WindPad tablet computers and the Funrobot iCleaner robot vacuum.

World-renowned fashion innovator Jeremy Scott, who helped design for style icon Lady Gaga, has paired up with MSI to produce an exclusive series of tablets that will be revealed at the show. A new Funrobot iCleaner model (M800) will also be introduced featuring ultrasonic anti-collision technology and intelligent operation capabilities.

Z68 mainboards and world's most powerful graphics card

As a world-leader in mainboard and graphics cards, MSI is introducing its latest Intel Z68 series mainboards featuring Military Class II components and its exclusive OC Genie II intelligent overclocking technology. The company's booth will feature a display wall with its flagship Lightning series, and MSI will introduce the world's most powerful graphics card, the N580GTX Lightning Xtreme Edition with unique MSI features such as Power 4 architecture and Twin Frozr III dual-fan cooling with innovative Propeller Blade technology. The company will also highlight its technologies including its overclocking software Afterburner that supports triple over-voltage, advanced fan speed control, and 5 overclocking profiles. MSI will also reveal several innovative new technologies at the show in line with its commitment to satisfy gamer needs.

Four powerful laptop series

Combining new technologies from partners Intel, AMD, and Nvidia, MSI developed its GT780 combat gaming machine, the fastest laptop on the planet, according to MSI.

The company has also added to its four key laptop series: The next generation G Series gaming laptops all feature second generation Intel Core i7 quad core processors. The GT780 and GT683 also have a maximum of 16GB of DDR3 memory, along with next generation Nvidia discrete graphics, and will debut on Computex. The devices will also feature Dynaudio and THX TruStudio Pro smart wrap around sound as well as full HD high resolution screens. In addition, MSI worked with gaming equipment leader SteelSeries to create a specialized gaming keyboard for the GT780. Not only more durable, the keyboard was designed specifically with gamer needs in mind.

Touch screen LED All-in-One PC

MSI is rolling out its brand new array of true-color, energy efficient, AIO PC's, with the AE series for home users and the AP series for business users.

MSI said it is the first to introduce an AIO computer with an LED backlit display (Wind Top AE2211 and AE2230) and the device also features sensitive multipoint touch control and full HD 1920x1080p.

Recognizing that people today use their computers for longer and longer periods of time, MSI's business Wind Top AP2011 design utilizes a 20-inch anti-glare backlit LED monitor. Not only does it increase resolution, but also reduces eye strain to protect users' vision. MSI's LED panels use 30% less energy than traditional CCFL panels. The energy efficient technology can also extend the life of the monitor, protecting the environment in two ways.

MSI includes "Smart for Life" (Smart Media Link & Smart Sync) software allows users to share multimedia entertainment over the Internet with the touch of a finger. The MSI AIO AE2410 and AE2070 models come with second generation Intel CoreM i3/i5, while AE2230 boasts AMD's latest Sabine platform. MSI's exclusive Wind Touch 4 user interface software combines social network capabilities with web browsing.

WindPad tablet puts power and style at your fingertips

MSI has launched its new generation WindPad tablet computers that feature powerful energy-efficient processors and a complete array of I/O ports to connect to computers and A/V devices at home and at work. To bring a bit of glamour to the segment, MSI has called upon world-renowned fashion innovator Jeremy Scott who designed for style icons Madonna and Lady Gaga, and introduced his own line for Adidas. His most recent collaboration has brought him into new high-tech territory, to design a series of WindPad tablets for MSI. The WindPad 100W features the AMD Brazos processor platform, while the WindPad 100A features the ARM Cortex-A9. The former runs Windows 7 while the latter runs the newest version of the Google Android operating system.

Creating a new standard for network performance and safety

MSI will present its newest Intel Sandy Bridge DT and AMD Lisbon Server platforms. In order to meet the needs of business users, MSI not only made its best efforts into server research and development, but also has performed in-depth study of network security system architecture innovation. Besides displaying general purpose servers, the company will have more network appliance products in this event as well. MSI provides total server/network appliance solutions to meet any network challenge and continues to diversify its server product lines.

Funrobot next generation robot vacuum - iCleaner M800

MSI's Funrobot brand will see a new generation of home-use robot vacuums introduced, the iCleaner M800. Featuring intelligent capabilities while being simple to operate, the iCleaner M800 also has a stylish color scheme and sleek exterior. The iCleaner M800 features a total of six ultrasonic anti-collision sensors that reduces furniture collisions by 90%. According to scientific and clinical studies, the ultrasonic waves emitted by the M800 inhibit the growth of allergy-causing dust mites. In addition, this robot will automatically return to its charging dock when running low on power and includes programmable cleaning times, anti-tangling, and anti-fall features. The iCleaner M800's high-capacity lithium-ion battery can fully recharge and be ready to get back to cleaning in just two hours.

MSI WindPad
Photo: Company

MSI iCleaner
Photo: Company

MSI AP2011 all-in-one PC
Photo: Company

Apple MacBook Pro Winter 2011 Notebook Computer Review - Release-news.com (press release)

In early 2006 Apple swapped out the actual Powerbook G4 with the MacBook Pro. Designed for professionals on the go, Apple continued to refine their family of high-performance laptop computers every year. The most recent release, called the Apple MacBook Pro Winter 2011, signifies a significant improvement in a number of important characteristics.
The Pros

The Apple MacBook Pro Winter 2011 notebook computer joins the Sandy Bridge bandwagon as each of its models include Intel second generation Core i5 and Core i7 processors. The Intel Core i5 2620M is the new engine underneath the hood of the 13-inch MacBook Pro. 15-inch and 17-inch designs now have quad-core power which is needed for running high-end programs like Final Cut Pro and Adobe Photoshop smoothly. While 4 GB will be the minimum memory shipped, you can obtain up to 16 GB for an additional cost. If you are into gaming or other graphic intense programs, the AMD Radeon HD 6490M can fully suit your needs. If that's still not really quick enough, you can also upgrade to the Radeon HD 6750M. Do not worry about losing out on battery life, as the Intel HD Graphics 3000 works very efficiently. With these kinds of overall performance improvements, the new 2011 models literally soar in the benchmarks.

Yet another brand new technology has been introduced in the new large monitor hook-up or Display Port. With the Apple MacBook Pro Winter 2011 notebook, a technology by Intel called Thunderbolt has been put in place which makes the port a lot more flexible. Finally transfer speeds, that have increased by as much as 1200%, will stop being the bottleneck which has slowed down file transfers to high capacity hard drives. Thunderbolt provides the additional advantage of supporting a number of devices in a daisy chain while maintaining maximum performance.

The old iSight webcam was actually replaced by the FaceTime HD camera, similar to those found in the iPhone 4 and iPad 2. Apple has established 720p as the completely new standard resolution for video calls using the FaceTime HD camera.

Drawbacks

With all of these types of improvements, the battery life had to decrease and the Apple MacBook Pro Winter 2011 notebook still uses the same battery as the previous model. You shouldn't be too concerned though, since it still lasts a reputable seven hours with wireless turned on. The latest 13-inch model MacBook Pro relies upon the integrated graphics of the Intel processor, which in turn results in a small decline in speed. Nevertheless, the Intel graphics is much better as compared to previous versions, with only gamers likely to spot the minimal decrease in speed.

Summary

The criteria for the high-end laptop category have been significantly increased with the launch of the MacBook Pro Winter 2011 models. Fresh MacBook Pro buyers can be certain that they will be able to run the most demanding software applications for the near future.

Preview: Dell XPS L501X - PCWorld.co.nz

Dell XPS L501X

Contact: dell.co.nz

AT A GLANCE Intel Core i7 CPU and Nvidia GT 435M graphicsMetal-alloy casingJBL speakers with subwooferErratic touchpad response

A decent, stylish, high quality notebook capable of playing modern games at medium settings.

Dell has been peddling its premium XPS desktops and laptops for many years now. Like most products in its line up the L501X we received this month is a good looking, solid little piece of equipment.

The thing I like the most about this laptop is the metal alloy casing. Not only is it attractive and sturdy, but I found it helped keep my wrists cool whereas other units with cheap plastic casing around the keyboard will sometimes cause my skin to stick to it, especially when trying to write long articles (which is painful enough in the first place).

What’s under the hood is probably more important to most people. You can customise the machine on Dell’s website when you order, however the review unit we received came loaded with a quad-core Intel Core i7 820QM processor, 6GB of RAM, Nvidia GT 435M graphics card and a 640GB 7200RPM hard drive, all working together to feed a 15-inch, 1366 x 768 LCD screen.

Whilst the CPU’s stock speed of 1.73GHz isn’t chart-topping, its maximum Turbo speed is 3.06GHz which is fairly chipper, especially for a portable machine. Being from the Core i7 series it also features HyperThreading for a total of 8 processing threads. This is great for multitasking, video editing, rendering and other core-intensive tasks.

The graphics card is also pretty good for a notebook. At medium settings, the L501X churned out an average of around 30 frames per second in Crysis 2, Bad Company 2 and S.T.A.L.K.E.R, which are playable results, plus an ultra-smooth 60 frames per second in Trackmania on high settings.

On paper, the GT 435M graphics chipset is roughly similar in terms of processing power to Nvidia’s decent-but-dated 9600GT desktop cards. Coupled with the fairly low resolution of the screen, it should be able to handle most other modern games at medium settings as well.

To round out the gaming experience you also get 2.1-channel JBL speakers with Waves Maxx Audio technology – that’s right, a laptop with a subwoofer! It’s not going to blow your windows out, but the sound quality is head and shoulders above most other laptop sound systems. In-game explosions are deep and satisfying, plus the audio setup is suited well to music and movies. Our review unit only came with a DVD drive, but a Blu-ray drive is available when customising on Dell’s website.

I liked the keyboard a lot, but hated the touchpad. For some reason it always thought I wanted to scroll up/down or left/right, when I was simply trying to move the cursor around the screen. It also had a habit of making the cursor jump around wildly when I was trying to make minor adjustments to its position.

My other qualm is the resolution of the screen. 1366 x 768 is fine for most games if that’s what you want to use the L501X for (I would even hazard a guess that the graphics card would choke quite badly at higher resolutions), but for web surfing and office applications it can be a major drag. 1680x1050 would have been much more useful.

We weren’t able to get hold of confirmed pricing for this particular configuration of the L501X (the lower-specced base model goes for $1,699). Until we can take value-for-money into consideration, we’ll be holding off a score on this one: check back here for updates.

Nvidia mostra tablet rodando chip Tegra com quatro núcleos - PC World

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Gigabyte Announces Slew of New Laptops, Portable devices at ... - LAPTOP Magazine (blog)

Hardware manufacturer Gigabyte made news at Computex 2011, the glitzy Taiwanese computer trade show. The company has unveiled multiple new mobile products including a line of P2532 multimedia notebooks, a S1080 tablet and a host of devices with interesting convertible designs.

The P2532 notebook will have a 15.6-inch display, a quad-core Intel Core i72630QM CPU with clock speeds ranging from 2.0 to 2.9 GHz. Graphics are provided by an Nvidia GeForce GT550M GPU with 2GB of dedicated RAM. To save on power, Optimus technology, which switches between discrete and integrated graphics, is on board as well.

Other variations of the laptop will be offered. These include the P2532V that comes equipped with Nvidia’s 3D vision technology. The P2532N will boast a sharp 1920 x 1080 resolution screen with LED back light. Clearly engineered for movie watching and gaming, the P2532N will sport not two but four speakers plus a subwoofer with THX TruStudio Pro audo enhancements.

The S1080 tablet is expected to run Microsoft Windows 7, feature a 10.1-inch capacitive touch screen, Intel Atom N570 CPU, and a large 320GB hard drive. Other goodies include USB 3.0, a 1.3 megapixel Webcam, and Bluetooth 3.0.

Besides these machines, Gigabyte showed off the Booktop T1125P, a device it calls “the world’s first 3-in-1 computer” which looks to be an 11.6-inch tablet and docking station combo. Also taking the docking station approach is the Booktop M2432 laptop. The company’s Q2432 and Q2532 notebooks are targeted at the everyday user, while the T1005 will be Gigabyte’s latest convertible tablet product. For more on the new devices announced be sure to check out Gigabyte’s Computex 2011 press release.

DosPara introduces new Quad Core i7 Prime Note Galleria QF540 - AkihabaraNews

[30/5/2011 01:09]

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Review - MSI GE620-021US 15.6-Inch Gaming Laptop Computer - About - News & Issues

The Bottom Line

May 23 2011 - The MSI GE620-021US is a visually appealing 15.6-inch gaming laptop computer with a brushed metal finish. Inside the MSI GE620-021US, you'll find fast components that enhance the overall experience. For $1,100 (street price), you get a fast quad-core processor, 8GB of memory, and an NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M 1GB graphics card. To top it off, the MSI GE620-021US is equipped with a full HD display that is quite stunning.

The widely anticipated MSI GE620-021US is now on the market, and this 15.6-inch gaming notebook features a brushed metal finish that sets it apart from the shiny and brightly lit laptops normally seen in the gaming sector. The MSI GE620-021US features a fast quad-core Intel Core i7-2630 processor with a factory clock speed of 2.0GHz and Turbo Boost functionality up to 2.9GHz. This chip is a decent value with 6MB of cache for even greater performance. The MSI GE620-021US retails for $1,250, although street price is around $1,100 (at the time of publication).

The display on the MSI GE620-021US is exceptionally nice with full HD resolution for a great gaming experience. The 15.6-inch size allows some enhanced portability, especially considering this notebook is lightweight at 5.28 pounds. Along with sporting a gorgeous display, the MSI GE620-021US also features 8GB of DDR3 memory. For under $1,100 this amount of memory is a great value as applications become more and more memory intensive.

Gaming on the MSI GE620-021US is a pleasurable experience due to the NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M graphics card with 1GB DDR3 video memory. This card is now found in many budget friendly gaming notebooks, and it's easy to see why. The card is capable of running newly released DirectX 11 titles, such as Dragon Age II and MMORPG games, including World of Warcraft and Rift. You may find some intensive games benefit from reducing or disabling anti-aliasing, but the overall level of gameplay is still quite high for a system at this price point.

Storage space is ample with a 640GB hard drive, but unfortunately the system only includes a DVD drive. With such a high resolution display, it would definitely be nice to see a Blu-ray drive included to take advantage of the full HD screen. The MSI GE620-021US also includes a base 6-cell battery. And with MSI i-Charger technology that allows more charging power through the USB ports, you can charge devices faster.

One positive attribute is definitely audio quality. The MSI GE620-021US has THX TruStudio Pro sound, and it sure is nice to see a decent set of speakers on a notebook computer. If you are able to take advantage of listening to the sound while in game, it's definitely recommended. The touchpad does suffer a bit from lack of sensitivity, but the keyboard does have a 10 key numeric keypad. The MSI GE620-021US also is equipped with other basic features, such as a 5-in-1 card reader and 720p webcam. These components come in handy if you are into photography or like to communicate with long distance friends and relatives.

Overall, the MSI GE620-021US is a good value thanks to the quad-core Sandy Bridge processor and an abundance of memory. The discrete graphics card holds its own at high settings with anti-aliasing disabled, and the full HD display is excellent in a variety of tasks, including gaming. The brushed metal finish is also nice for those looking for a more subdued or professional looking laptop over the typical glossy and bright designs found on many gaming laptops. For the price, the MSI GE620-021US is a top buy.

Lenovo ThinkPad W520 - ZDNet UK

Lenovo's ThinkPad W520 is a fast 15.6in. notebook with a high-quality display whose limited portability isn't helped by a brick-like AC adapter. If you do take the W520 on the road, its battery performance ought to be adequate. … Read full review

Lenovo tends to deliver solid, reliable business notebooks in its ThinkPad range. The ThinkPad W520 is a well-specified machine for users who need high level of mobile productivity. It benefits from a superb high-resolution screen, dedicated graphics and a quad-core processor. This level of sophistication doesn't come cheap: the starting price is £1,157.20 (inc. VAT; £964.33 ex. VAT), while our top-of-the-range review model costs £1,821.40 (inc. VAT; £1,517.83 ex. VAT).

Design
The design of the ThinkPad W520 is very familiar, and the solid black chassis looks tough and robust. In fact, there's a fair amount of flex in the screen lid, and on our review sample it was easy to pull the bezel away from the screen, which could make it susceptible to dust ingress.

We like the lock that ensures the lid is very securely closed for transit, and the three status LEDs on the lid. The first tells you when the computer is hibernating, the second indicates battery status — green for 20 percent or more charge, blinking orange between 5 and 20 percent and fast-blinking orange less than 5 percent. The third LED indicates that automatic colour calibration of the display is underway. This feature is most appropriate to design professionals.

The ThinkPad W520 is a bulky and heavy notebook measuring 37.28cm wide by 24.51cm deep by 3.18-3.56cm thick and weighing 2.7kg. If you're considering carrying this system around for any length of time, you should take note of the hefty AC adapter, which itself weighs around 600g.

The ThinkPad W520's outstanding physical feature is its screen. Measuring 15.6in. across the diagonal, the display is superb, offering rich, deep colours. The viewing angles are excellent and a matte finish means there's no glare or reflectivity from surrounding light sources.

The top-end W520 model has a high-resolution 1,920 by 1,080-pixel screen, driven by an Nvidia Quadro 2000M GPU with 2GB of DDR3 RAM

On our review sample the screen resolution was an impressive 1,920 by 1,080 pixels — on other models it's a more modest 1,600 by 900 or 1,366 by 768. Graphics professionals will appreciate the high resolution, although it can make unzoomed text rather hard to read. A companion model, the W510, is fitted with a touchscreen.

There's enough room on either side of the keyboard for a pair of speaker grilles. The keyboard itself is typically Lenovo. The QWERTY keys are large and depress a fairly long way, delivering a characteristic degree of tactile feedback — we actually prefer a shallower key travel, but preferences vary. The Enter key is, as usual, oversized and blue. The inverted-T cursor keys double up for media control; forward and back web browser keys complete this rectangle of keys.

The W520 has a traditional ThinkPad keyboard, which delivers plenty of tactile feedback

Above the number row sit two rows of keys which include the Fn keys, a volume rocker and mute, a microphone mute and the ThinkVantage key, along with the power switch. This arrangement will be familiar to ThinkPad users. The UltraNav cursor control system is also standard Lenovo fare. The two-button touchpad is augmented by a trackpoint between the G, H and B keys. The pointing stick has its own pair of mouse buttons flanking a central scroll button.

There is a fingerprint reader on the wrist rest, next to the colour calibration sensor. A keyboard light on the bezel above the screen, which can be activated by a keyboard combination, provides enough light to work by. Next to it is a 720p HD webcam.

Features
The ThinkPad W520 is an extremely well specified notebook, aimed at specialists running resource-hungry graphics applications. The processor in the top-end review model is a 2.20GHz Intel Core i7-2720QM quad-core processor, supported by 4GB of RAM. At the entry-level, the CPU is a Core i5-2520M with 2GB of RAM. Graphics are handled by a discrete Nvidia Quadro 2000M GPU with 2GB of DDR3 video memory; this drops to a Quadro 1000M in cheaper models.

Our review sample had a 500GB, 7200rpm hard drive — slightly larger than the 320GB unit advertised at Lenovo's web site for this model. The extra capacity will no doubt be welcome to graphics and media professionals. All models run Windows 7 Professional 64-bit.

Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n) and Bluetooth 3.0 provide the wired and wireless connectivity. It's a shame there's no mobile broadband support as standard, but this is available as an upgrade option.

There's an optical drive on the right side, along with an SD-compatible media card reader, a 34mm ExpressCard slot, an audio jack and an Ethernet (RJ-45) port. The left side has a smartcard slot, a hardware switch for wireless connectivity, a mini-FireWire (IEEE 1394) port, a combined eSATA/USB 2.0 connector, two USB 3.0 ports, a VGA port and a DisplayPort connector.

The two USB 3.0 connectors are stacked one above the other and adjacent to the eSATA/USB 2.0 combo port, and we found some of our peripherals — a 3G dongle for example — were large enough to obscure the both the other free connectors when in use. Fortunately, there's a further (always-on) USB 2.0 port on the back edge. The RJ-15 modem port is also on the back of the chassis, along with the power input.

Performance & battery life
The Windows Experience Index (WEI) for the ThinkPad W520 was 4.7 (out of 7.9). This corresponds to the lowest subsystem score, which, rather surprisingly, was for Graphics (desktop performance for Windows Aero). The remaining component scores are all very high, with Processor (calculations per second) getting an impressive 7.1.

The other graphics subsystem, Gaming Graphics (3D business and gaming graphics performance) scored 6.7 while Primary hard disk (Disk data transfer rate) and RAM (Memory operations per second) both scored 5.9.

Apart from a rather low 2D graphics score, the WEI results describe a fast computer able to tackle a range of demanding workloads.

The ThinkPad W520 comes with a 9-cell battery that protrudes slighly from the back of the chassis. Lenovo claims that our review configuration should run for up 8.9 hours with this battery.

We tested the battery by asking the ThinkPad W520 to play a DVD video continuously. Lenovo provides its usual comprehensive power management application, and we chose the Video Playback option for our test. This power plan doesn't do a great deal to minimise fan usage, and we found its noise disrupted the quieter moments of our chosen video. If your presentations are silent you'll certainly notice the fan kicking in at regular and frequent intervals.

Video played for a total of 4 hours and 6 minutes, which is longer than we are used to seeing from a notebook. Video colours were superb, vibrant, sharp and bright. Sound quality was also very good. Multimedia performance is generally a notch or two above what we'd expect from a standard business notebook — as you'd expect from this top-end configuration.

Conclusion
Lenovo's ThinkPad W520 is a fast 15.6in. notebook with a high-quality display whose limited portability isn't helped by a brick-like AC adapter. If you do take the W520 on the road, then its battery performance ought to be adequate.

The superb screen, discrete graphics and high-capacity hard drive lend themselves to multimedia-intensive activities, but the W520 should handle all manner of resource-hungry applications with ease.

Display technologyLED-backlit TFT with antiglarePointing devices2-button multi-touch touchpad, 3-button pointing stickUSB2 x USB 3.0, 1 x eSATA/USB 2.0 combo, 1 x USB 2.0Otherfingerprint reader, 720p HD webcam, display colour calibratorOperating systemWindows 7 Professional (64-bit)Software includedThinkVantage Product Recovery 9.0, ThinkVantage Toolbox v1.4, ThinkVantage Tools v2.0, ThinkVantage Utilities 1.0, ThinkVantage System Update 4.0, Microsoft, Live Essential Corel DVD Movie Factory Corel Burn Now, Intervideo WinDV

Only quad-core mobile Sandy Bridge in March / April - Fudzilla

Dual in Q2 2012

Intel plans to launch both desktop and notebook version of Ivy Bridge 22nm processor and their platforms in March / April 2012 but in mobile space it only plans to launch quad-cores.

The Ivy Bridge launch list includes extreme mobile Core i7 Ivy Bridge and two Core i7 based quad-cores that fit Intel's performance market P2 and performance market P1. To paint a better picture high end quad core extreme Ivy Bridge replaces Core i7 2920XM, faster quad core non-extreme Ivy Bridge replaces Core i7 2820QM, while the slower version of quad core from P1 market replaces the Core i7 2720QM CPU.

Dual cores, including Core i7 and Core i5 parts based on Ivy Bridge 22nm are scheduled to launch in Q2 2012 while the current guideline indicate that Intel plans to introduce its quad core mobile Ivy Bridge parts and Chief River platform before the end of Q1 2012. One can expect to see Chief River launch before the end of March, but if things get pushed, it might slip to April or early Q2 2012.

Llano powered HP notebook listed - Fudzilla

Quad-core A6-3410MX for about €600

Several German retailers have jumped the gun and posted listings for HP’s DV6 packed with AMD’s upcoming Llano processor.

The 15.6-inch DV6-6110SG is based on the A6-3410MX processor, a quad-core clocked at 1.6GHz, which can overclock to 2.3GHz on turbo. In addition, this particular SKU apparently also features HD 6750M discrete graphics with a 1GB frame buffer. It packs 6GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive.

Here’s the best part of the story. The lowest list price stands at €590 and a couple of shops are listing it at €616 and €659.

Considering the spec, this is very good value. The cheapest 15.6-inchers based on Intel Core i7 quad-cores cost about €650 on the European market. A similarly spec’d HP DV6 with an Intel Inside sticker costs north of €750, so we are looking at a sizable price difference. This basically means that cheaper Llano notebooks, without discrete graphics and other features could cost less than €500. This is in line with expectations, as notebooks based on quad-core Phenoms are already selling for about €450.

If everything pans out right, Llano could become AMD's biggest coup in the mobile market in years.

AMD pode lançar APU Fusion Quad-Core - Notebook Barato

A AMD tem feito um bom trabalho na competição direta com Intel no mercado de processadores. Ultimamente temos visto vários lançamentos de notebooks equipados com a nova linha de APUs (CPU e GPU integradas) Fusion, especialmente por alguns modelos com chip dual-core. E parece que uma nova geração da família Fusion vem por aí. 

Rumores na internet indicam que a empresa prepara o lançamento de uma certa linha de chips chamada “Sabine”. Por enquanto tudo ainda é muito incerto, mas é possível que essa nova linha conte com processadores quad-core, ou seja com quatro núcleos.

Denominada A8-3530MX essa linha pode ter arquitetura de 32nm com velocidade de 1.9 Ghz até 2.6 Ghz no modo TurboCore. Esses novos chips terão 4 MB memória cache L2, terão suporte à memória RAM DDR3 de 1.600 Mhz, e poderão se integrar à GPU Radeon HD 6620G. Como ainda se tratam de rumores ainda não há uma data definida para o lançamento da linha “Sabine”, nem há qualquer comentário por parte da AMD.

Por Maximiliano da Rosa

Fonte: Engadget

AMD, APU Fusion, Quad-Core

Sony Vaio VPCF21Z1E 16in laptop - Register

Review Imagine my joy when asked to try out a 3D entertainment centre built into a Sony Vaio notebook. Imagine my disappointment, then, when I discover that the notebook in question is actually too big to fit in my notebook bag.

Sony's Vaio VPCF21Z1E: don’t think of it as an overgrown notebook but as a very portable gaming PC.

Less a notebook than a 1,000-page grimoire with oak covers, the nattily named VPCF21Z1E/BI is one of those portable computers probably intended to replace a desktop computer. This is true, in the sense that it’s about the same size as my desktop computer.

The computer makes no pretentions about portability, however. The shiny black clamshell design is a non-flush, uneven, wedge-shaped paving slab with all of its ports open to the elements, and there isn’t even a clasp to keep it closed. This is a computer that expects to stay indoors – occasionally lugged from one room to another – rather than rushed around town tucked under an executive’s armpit.

Hinging open the computer reveals a full keyboard with numeric keypad which has well-spaced, shiny black keycaps and is comfortable to use. An automatic light sensor triggers a white backlight to illuminate the keys when it thinks you are in a dark room. I couldn’t find a way to switch the backlight on or off manually but that’s hardly a showstopper.

The textured trackpad is flush and not always easy to er, keep track of

The touchpad area in front of the keys is marked by a lightly textured rectangle, otherwise it is flush with a curiously unnecessary band of matte black plastic running across the full width of the computer. It supports basic multitouch gestures for scrolling, paging, pan and zoom.

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