LINPACK: Intel’s Nehalem versus AMD Shanghai

 
 
A “beta BIOS update” broke compatibility with ESX, so we had to postpone our virtualization testing on our quad CPU AMD 8384 System.
 
So we started an in depth comparison of the 45 nm Opterons, Xeons and Core i7 CPUs. One of our benchmarks, the famous LINPACK (you can read all about it here) painted a pretty [...]

IPhone Not “Really Fast” Say UK Officials

Another Apple ad gets the axe in the UK for questionable statements
Apple is known for its “Get a Mac” commercials, which blast Windows as virus-laden and virtually unusable. They have been a real headache for Microsoft which is finding that people’s negative perceptions of Vista often have little to do with the OS’s real problems.
While slightly more sedate with [...]

Glaciers in Norway Growing Again

Scandinavian nation reverses trend, mirrors results in Alaska, elsewhere.
After years of decline, glaciers in Norway are again growing, reports the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE). The actual magnitude of the growth, which appears to have begun over the last two years, has not yet been quantified, says NVE Senior Engineer Hallgeir Elvehøy.
The flow [...]

Seasonic M12D 850W: DC-to-DC Perfection?

We visited many power supply companies during the past year, and many of them have commented, “the power supply market is dead — there’s nothing new that can be done to attract more customers.” That’s not entirely wrong, as PSUs are one of the components most people only think about when their old unit fails, [...]

The Same Chip With Fewer Transistors; HP’s Memristor Changes Everything

HP’s new integral circuit component allows engineers to produce identical logic circuits using fewer transistors and less space
The goal of chipmakers has always been topush Moore’s Law, squeezing more and more transistors into a smaller space.  But what if you could do more with fewer transistors?  That’s the intriguing potential of HP’s memristor, which joins the [...]

Lenovo Security Feature Kills Notebooks via Text Message

Lenovo security feature leaves notebooks inoperable after receiving a special text message
It’s no fun having something that belongs to you stolen. When it’s your notebook computer, things can be even worse if you have confidential personal or business information stored on the notebook. Criminals can gain access to things like tax returns and have all [...]

PC Magazine Goes Completely to the Digital Darkside

PC Magazine will produce its last print issue in January 2009
It’s no secret that the internet is making it very hard for print magazines and newspapers as more and more turn to the digital medium for their news. The cost to print and distribute print publications is getting more and more expensive at a time [...]

IPod Touch 2G Faster than iPhone for Gaming

Performance difference is credited to faster CPU in 2G touch
The iPod touch and iPhone are typically considered to be twins with the obvious exception that the touch lacks the phone hardware. Games and applications for the iPhone are usually able to play on the iPod touch as well.
Thomas Fessler, CEO of Handheld Games Corp., says [...]

Pentagon Bans USB Drives After Virus Hits Computers

Government bans use of flash drives and begins to collect them after undisclosedvirus plagues computers
Pentagon officials admitted an undisclosed virus has hit some Pentagon and DoD computers, which has forced officials to confiscate flash drives and ban the use of external hardware drives until further notice.
“We are aware of a global virus for which there are some public alerts on,” [...]

EVGA X58 SLI – First Look

EVGA formally introduced their first motherboard based on an Intel chipset today, the EVGA X58 SLI. For a long time launch partner of NVIDIA based chipsets, this event was somewhat of a surprise when the rumors started spreading a few months ago about the possibility of EVGA utilizing other chipsets. Considering EVGA’s continuing in-house development [...]