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Green is the new blue for Intel -- pledges more eco friendly

Subject: General Tech, Processors, Mobile | May 24, 2012 - 06:01 PM |
Tagged: Intel

Intel has released a report about their environmental efforts in terms of manufacturing efficiency, waste, and the efficiency of their products themselves. Their 2020 mobile and data center product line is expected to use 25-fold less power than their 2010 product line. Intel is hoping to use less water and consume 1.4 TWh less energy between 2012 and 2015 in their manufacturing with no chemical waste to landfill by 2020.

It is not easy been green.

… But, especially now, Intel can afford to try.

The chip manufacturer has set some goals for themselves to decrease their impact on the environment. These plans were published in their 2011 Corporate Responsibility Report (pdf), released last week. The plan highlights goals extending out as far as 2020.

It would seem that for Intel foresight is also 2020.

11-intel-green.png

Yes, those puns were terrible, I admit it.

One of the forefront issues raised is alterations to their supply chain. Their raw materials have been addressed -- not just for eco-friendliness -- but also for human rights violations. By the end of 2012 Intel intends to validate that all tantalum would be “conflict-free” with the other three minerals verified by the end of 2013.

On the topic of environmental impact Intel is also intending on reducing their electrical and water usage at their manufacturing plants. A total of 1.4 TWh of energy is expected to be reduced from 2012 through 2015. Intel is also lauding their solar initiatives although they fell short of committing to any specific future endeavors in clean energy in this report.

Lastly, Intel claims that their mobile and data center products will consume 25-fold less power than their 2010 counterparts. Obviously such a statement falls more under gloating than a vow to promote sustainability but it is respectable none-the-less.

Source: Intel Newsroom

Podcast #203 - ASUS N56VM notebook, XFX 7850s and 7870s, Thunderbolt on Windows and more!

Subject: General Tech | May 24, 2012 - 02:59 PM |
Tagged: video, xfx, thunderbolt, podcast, msi, Ivy Bridge, Intel, asus, amd, 7870, 7850, 680

PC Perspective Podcast #203 - 05/24/2012

Join us this week as we talk about the ASUS N56VM notebook, XFX 7850s and 7870s, Thunderbolt on Windows and more!

You can subscribe to us through iTunes and you can still access it directly through the RSS page HERE.

The URL for the podcast is: http://pcper.com/podcast - Share with your friends!

Hosts: Ryan Shrout, Jeremy Hellstrom, Josh Walrath, and Allyn Malvantano

Program length: 1:12:55

Program Schedule:

  1. Introduction
  2. 1-888-38-PCPER or podcast@pcper.com
  3. http://pcper.com/podcast
  4. http://twitter.com/ryanshrout and http://twitter.com/pcper
  5. 0:02:00 You talked about all the cool stuff last week!
    1. GK110
    2. NVIDIA GRID
    3. AMD Trinity
    4. GTX 670
  6. 0:13:30 Antec High Current Pro Platinum 1000 watt PSU
  7. 0:16:20 ASUS N56VM Ivy Bridge Notebook - our reference system
  8. 0:17:30 XFX HD 7870 and HD 7850 Black Edition
  9. 0:28:25 Unreal Engine 4 Screenshots
  10. 0:31:00 AMD to stop making "needlessly powerful" CPUs
  11. 0:42:00 NVIDIA is not recalling Kepler
  12. 0:45:00 Thunderbolt for Windows from ASUS and MSI announced
  13. 0:48:30 Josh's Banana Phone - VIA $49 Android PC
  14. 0:51:30 Seagate to purchase LaCie
  15. 0:56:30 The discrete graphics card is not dead
  16. 1:02:00 Hardware / Software Pick of the Week
    1. Ryan: Pegasus R4 Thunderbolt External Storage
    2. Jeremy: DeLorean Hovercraft or levitating bed? Or I could go old school.
    3. Josh: Some Thieving Goodies from Way Back
    4. Allyn: Paragon Hard Disk Manager 12 - alignment for SSDs integral with partition moves / resizes / etc
  17. 1-888-38-PCPER or podcast@pcper.com
  18. http://pcper.com/podcast   
  19. http://twitter.com/ryanshrout and http://twitter.com/pcper
  20. Closing

Source:

TET, ePO and SSO... McAfee and Intel's Cloud

Subject: General Tech | May 24, 2012 - 12:19 PM |
Tagged: mcafee, Intel, cloud

Intel's purchase of AntiVirus vendor McAfee has been feeding rumours and speculation for about 10 months now and while we have plenty of buzzwords and a feeling that they are looking at securing Cloud Computing only recently have we seen anything concrete.  The first product to give us insight into their actual plans has arrived on the market bearing an awkward name, McAfee Management for Optimized Virtual Environments AntiVirus.  This is essentially antivirus and antimalware specifically designed to be used in virtualized server environments which are connected to and providing services to a large amount of geographically separate devices ... aka 'The Cloud".  It is possible that they have a product which will be able to prevent the spread of an infection by leveraging the strictly partitioned nature of virtual servers and data stores, something that will be very important for anyone providing SaaS (Software as a Service) to clients. 

The Register also points out that in order to fully benefit from this AV product you will need a relatively new Xeon for your servers to support Trusted Execution Technology and a Sandy/Ivy Bridge processor for client side machines.  That means hardware upgrades which Intel's sales team would be more than happy to talk to you about.

ds-move-anti-virus.png

"What Intel is planning is a cloud-to-desktop security strategy, mixing hardware and software features in a federated framework designed to make cloud computing safer, locking down the desktop and, coincidentally, giving IT managers another reason to specify Intel's systems during the next upgrade cycle."

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Tech Talk

 

Source: The Register

Podcast #201 - GTX 690 review, ASUS G75V Ivy Bridge Notebook review, a Vertex 4 update and more!

Subject: Editorial | May 10, 2012 - 03:56 PM |
Tagged: Vertex 4, podcast, nvidia, Ivy Bridge, Intel, gtx690, g75v, amd, 690

PC Perspective Podcast #201 - 05/10/2012

Join us this week as we talk about our GTX 690 review, ASUS G75V Ivy Bridge Notebook review, a Vertex 4 update and more!

You can subscribe to us through iTunes and you can still access it directly through the RSS page HERE.

The URL for the podcast is: http://pcper.com/podcast - Share with your friends!

  • iTunes - Subscribe to the podcast directly through the iTunes Store
  • RSS - Subscribe through your regular RSS reader
  • MP3 - Direct download link to the MP3 file

Hosts: Ryan Shrout, Jeremy Hellstrom, Josh Walrath, and Allyn Malvantano

Program length: 1:04:25

Program Schedule:

  1. Introduction
  2. 1-888-38-PCPER or podcast@pcper.com
  3. http://pcper.com/podcast
  4. http://twitter.com/ryanshrout and http://twitter.com/pcper
  5. Win a Netgear R6300 802.11ac router!!
  6. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 Review - Dual GK104 Kepler Greatness
  7. ASUS G75V Review: Gaming Goes Ivy
  8. Greater than 20 Percent of Malware Articles Miss the Point
  9. Trinity Improvements Include Updated Piledriver Cores and VLIW4 GPUs
  10. More Leaks Emerge on NVIDIA’s Kepler Based GTX 670 GPU
  11. Ready for Diablo III? Not with Catalyst 12.4 you're not.
  12. Corsair Launches Air Series of High Airflow and High Static Pressure Fans
  13. Steam Allows Remote Installation of Games
  14. OCZ Updates Vertex 4 Enthusiasts to 1.4 Release Candidate Firmware
  15. Windows Media Center To Be A Pro Only Feature In Windows 8
  16. Good news from TSMC for NVIDIA and you
  17. Hardware / Software Pick of the Week
    1. Ryan: ASUS N66U Dual-band Router
    2. Jeremy: Wave your hands like an idiot for free
    3. Josh: Not exactly mine, but good.
    4. Allyn: pqi U819V 3cm USB3 
  18. 1-888-38-PCPER or podcast@pcper.com
  19. http://pcper.com/podcast   
  20. http://twitter.com/ryanshrout and http://twitter.com/pcper
  21. Closing

Source: PC Perspective

Intel wants to be the colloidal silver lining in the cloud

Subject: General Tech | May 7, 2012 - 12:30 PM |
Tagged: Intel, mcafee, cloud

It really has been almost a year and a half since Intel bought McAfee and we started speculating on what this would mean.  It was a common hypothesis that Intel wanted to leverage the Trusted Execution Technology that exists in Xeon processors as well as a belief that there would be instruction sets in the Core architecture that could be used to make your machine more secure without sacrificing performance.  That theory has proven true as Jason Waxman who is in charge of Intel's Cloud initiative spoke about the current and planned implementations of their hardware assisted antivirus.  A new tool called McAfee Management for Optimized Virtual Environments AntiVirus will handle scans and updates for the server and service side and new additions to McAfee's ePO agent which expand its ability to secure networks and servers.  The Register put together a generalized look at what we know so far and while we are still hoping to see more specifics from Intel soon it is certainly more interesting than the other McAfee story currently circulating.

silverlining_small.jpg

"Jason Waxman, general manager of Intel's Cloud Infrastructure Group, said that over the last year or so he'd been inundated with questions about what Intel was going to do with McAfee since it lashed out $7.68bn for the security firm, during an industry-wide buying spree on cyber-security companies. Chipzilla's been intentionally quiet on the subject, but was now ready to talk he said."

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Tech Talk

 

Source: The Register

Getting hot and bothered by Ivy Bridge

Subject: Processors | May 2, 2012 - 04:14 PM |
Tagged: Ivy Bridge, Intel, i7-3770k

Anyone who has been keeping up with the reviews coming out which try overclocking Intel's new Ivy Bridge processor will be familiar with the large amount of power required to hit high frequencies.  While the voltages required to overclock Ivy Bridge and its predecessor Sandy Bridge are very similar, Ivy Bridge's stock voltage is lower so the change is greater for Ivy Bridge.  That larger increase could be one cause of the higher heat that Ivy Bridge generates.  Another theory is that the heatspreader could be a cause as Intel used thermal paste in the design as opposed to the fluxless solder present on SandyB, however other tests have shown that this does not seem to be the case.  The Tech Report has gathered together the current facts on this hot topic, so you can check out the numbers for yourself right here.

burning_ivy.jpg

"Folks across the web have reported some eye-poppingly high temperatures for their overclocked Ivy Bridge processors, leading to some tough questions about the causes. Does Ivy Bridge truly run hotter than its predecessor, Sandy Bridge, and if so, why? We checked into it, and the answers were surprising, to say the least. Have a look."

Here are some more Processor articles from around the web:

Processors

 

Source: The Tech Report

Intel SSD 910 Series 800GB PCIe SSD First Look

Author:
Date: April 27, 2012
Subject: Storage
Manufacturer: Intel SSD 900 Family
Tagged: ssd, pcie, Intel, 910, 800gb

Background and Internals

A little over two weeks back, Intel briefed me on their new SSD 910 Series PCIe SSD. Since that day I've been patiently awaiting its arrival, which happened just a few short hours ago. I've burned the midnight oil for the sake of getting some greater details out there. Before we get into the goods, here's a quick recap of the specs for the 800 (or 400) GB model:

"Performance Mode" is a feature that can be enabled through the Intel Data Center Tool Software. This feature is only possible on the 800GB model, but not for the reason you might think. The 400GB model is *always* in Performance Mode, since it can go full speed without drawing greater than the standard PCIe 25W power specification. The 800GB model has twice the components to drive yet it stays below the 25W limit so long as it is in its Default Mode. Switching the 800GB model to Performance Mode increases that draw to 38W (the initial press briefing stated 28W, which appears to have been a typo). Note that this increased draw is only seen during writes.

Ok, now into the goodies:

120426-193420-5.91.jpg

Click here to read on!

Podcast #199 - Ivy Bridge Desktop and Mobile reviews, Intel and AMD Earnings, and a Gold Motherboard

Subject: General Tech | April 26, 2012 - 04:59 PM |
Tagged: Z77, podcast, nvidia, Ivy Bridge, Intel, earnings, amd, 3770k

PC Perspective Podcast #199 - 04/26/2012

Join us this week as we talk about Ivy Bridge Desktop and Mobile reviews, Intel and AMD Earnings, and a Gold Motherboard

You can subscribe to us through iTunes and you can still access it directly through the RSS page HERE.

The URL for the podcast is: http://pcper.com/podcast - Share with your friends!

  • iTunes - Subscribe to the podcast directly through the iTunes Store
  • RSS - Subscribe through your regular RSS reader
  • MP3 - Direct download link to the MP3 file

Hosts: Ryan Shrout, Jeremy Hellstrom, Josh Walrath, and Allyn Malvantano

Program length: 1:06:54

Program Schedule:

  1. Introduction
  2. 1-888-38-PCPER or podcast@pcper.com
  3. http://pcper.com/podcast
  4. http://twitter.com/ryanshrout and http://twitter.com/pcper
  5. Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge LGA1155 Processor Review
  6. Intel Core i7-3720QM - Ivy Bridge For Mobile Review: Monster Kill!
  7. NVIDIA continues to tease, sends us a crowbar
  8. ASUS Demonstrates Z77 Motherboard Features at PC Perspective
  9. ASUS Overclocks Ivy Bridge To 7 GHz, Breaks World Records
  10. Intel Announces Q1 2012 Earnings: Not a Record, but Close
  11. AMD Q1 2012 Earnings Analysis: Looking Back and Looking Forward
  12. New mLink PCI-E to Thunderbolt Enclosure Shown Off at NAB 2012
  13. Hardware / Software Pick of the Week
    1. Ryan: ECS GOLDEN BOARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    2. Jeremy: 25GB free on Microsoft SkyDrive
    3. Josh: I like this case. Not exactly affordable, but still really nice.
    4. Allyn: Is it a pen or is it a pencil?
  14. 1-888-38-PCPER or podcast@pcper.com
  15. http://pcper.com/podcast   
  16. http://twitter.com/ryanshrout and http://twitter.com/pcper
  17. Closing

Source:

The i7-3720QM rules the mobile roost

Subject: Mobile | April 26, 2012 - 12:55 PM |
Tagged: mobile processor, mobile cpu, Ivy Bridge, intel hd 4000, Intel, i7-3720QM

Matt was not the only one who had a chance to play with a notebook based on the new i7-3720QM, Hardware Canucks received an engineering sample of the ASUS G75VW-3D which contains the Core i7-3720QM and an impressive 16GB of DDR3-1600.  Their testing agreed with Matt's as they saw improvements across the board when comparing this system to a similar SandyBridge based machine on general GPU computing and an even larger increase when testing the HD4000 graphics engine on the chip.  Catch their full review here.

HC_IVY-BRIDGE-MOBILE-14.jpg

"With such a big deal being made about the introduction of Intel's Ivy Bridge lineup on the desktop side, their new mobile chips deserve a chance in the spotlight as well. In this review, we take a closer look at the new i7-3720QM notebook processor which promises to be a significant step forward for the mobile product space."

Here are some more Mobile articles from around the web:

Mobile

 

Source: Hardware Canucks

Revisiting an old argument; does HyperThreading hurt performance?

Subject: General Tech | April 26, 2012 - 11:48 AM |
Tagged: hyperthreading, Intel, overclocking, fud

In the past there have been two arguments against using Intel's HyperThreading to create two threads per core.  The first is specific to overclockers who found that previous generations of Pentium and Core architecture chips could remain stable when pushed to higher frequencies when they disabled HyperThreading.  There is still a lot of testing to be done on Ivy Bridge overclocking before a definitive answer is found for this generation of chips, which may fall victim to power issues before HyperThreading becomes a major limiter.

The second issue is more serious and deals with the fact that in some cases enabling HyperThreading reduces the total performance of the chip on certain, usually single threaded, applications and by disabling it you will see performance improvements from your processor.  SemiAccurate felt that this needed to be revisited in light of the release of Ivy Bridge and so took an i7-3770K through a battery of 7 tests once with HyperThreading enabled and once without, including a run through CineBench with multithreaded processing disabled.  Drop by to see if there is any noticeable benefit to disabling HyperThreading on this generation of Intel processor.

hyperthreading_image2.gif

Yes, that was 11 years ago

"We decided to explore the effects of Hyper-Threading on the performance of the Ivy Bridge based Core i7-3770K by running our CPU benchmarking suite on it twice. Once with Hyper-Threading enabled, and once with Hyper-Threading disabled. As such we set-up our results table to look for applications that perform better with Hyper-Threading disabled, rather than enabled."

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Tech Talk

 

Source: SemiAccurate

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