Micron puts a suit and tie on its newest PCIe SSD

Subject: General Tech | May 3, 2013 - 12:38 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: micron, PCIe SSD, P420m, 25nm, mlc

Soon to be available in 350GB, 700GB and 1.4TB capacities, the Micron P420m PCIe SSD will be in a half-height and half-length form factor perfect for use in racks.  DigiTimes mentions it will use a custom ASIC controller from Micron but does not specify the model.  As will it will use 25nm MLC flash and XPERT, which is Micron's eXtended Performance and Enhanced Reliability Technology which should guarantee a decent lifespan for your storage.  Production will not start until June so it will be a while before we finally see performance results.

"The new Micron P420m combines consistent performance with the inherent power efficiency of an all-flash system to deliver improved economics for enterprise data centers. The drive accelerates performance of today's demanding data center applications, including online transaction processing (OLTP), data warehousing and virtualization, Micron said."

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Tech Talk

• Research explodes myth that older programmers are obsolete @ The Register
• Microsoft preparing second-generation Surface @ DigiTimes
• Intel appoints Brian Krzanich as CEO @ The Inquirer
• AMD says IOMMU v2.5 is key for Linux HSA support @ The Inquirer
• (UK) Government forces benefits claimants to use Windows XP and IE6 @ The Inquirer
• Sony SRS-BTX500 Review @ TechReviewSource
• Windows 8 – an unmitigated Microsoft disaster @ Kitguru
• Picture this: Kodak could get out of bankruptcy as early as July @ The Register
• Component of the Month: Op Amps @ MAKE:Blog
• An ode to the Kindle Paperwhite @ The Tech Report
• Legendary Internet Tech Pricing Mistakes and their (a)moral Implications @ Tweaktown
• USB Auto Update Guide @ OCC
• Lehman Brothers sues Intel over a billion dollar deal @ The Register
• TSMC reportedly to grab 100% of AP orders for 2014 model iPhone @ The Register
• ModSynergy 10-Year Celebration Contest!
• Noctua Joint Giveaway - NH-D14/NH-U14S/NH-U12S Up For Grabs Globally @ NikKTech

LG Launches Optimus F5 Android Smartphone

Subject: General Tech | May 3, 2013 - 11:00 AM | Tim Verry
Tagged: smartphone, optimus f5, LG, jelly bean, Android

LG has launched a new Android smartphone with 4G LTE connectivity. The new LG Optimus F5 is available in France now, and will be rolled out worldwide later this month. It measures 126 x 64.5 x 93mm and comes in either glossy white or piano black. Its specifications are not anything surprising, but this is not a new flagship smartphone. Rather, LG is positioning the mobile device as an affordable LTE smartphone.

On the outside, the LG Optimus F5 features a 4.3” IPS qHD display with a resolution of 960x540 (256 PPI). Above the display is a 1.3MP webcam while the rear of the smartphone hosts a 5MP camera with autofocus.

Internally, the LG Optimus F5 is powered by a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC clocked at 1.2GHz, 1GB of RAM, and 8GB of internal storage. LG is using a beefy 2,150 mAh battery which should give it decent battery life even when connected to 4G LTE networks. The phone also supports microSD cards for expandable storage up to 32GB. The Optimus F5 is running Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean.

The new Optimus F5 smartphone will be available soon in France and worldwide towards the end of May. LG has not yet released specific pricing information, however.

Enermax Power Supplies Are Ready For New Haswell CPU Sleep States

Subject: General Tech | May 3, 2013 - 08:59 AM | Tim Verry
Tagged: zero load, PSU, Intel, haswell, enermax, cpu, c6, c5

Earlier this week, it was revealed that Intel’s upcoming Haswell processors would feature new C6 and C7 sleep states that draw as little as 0.05A on the 12V rail. Such low power draw on the 12V rail may cause problems for existing power supplies, which are not accustomed to facilitating such low power draw (especially on the 12V line). In an attempt to clear up a bit of the confusion for its customers, Enermax has put together a list of its mid-range and high-end power supplies that meet the standards required to support the new low-power processor states.

According to the press release (seen below), the Enermax power supplies use so-called Zero Load technology that uses a DC to DC converter to support low wattage power draw. This technology has been in Enermax power supplies since the Revolution85+ series which was launched in 2008. The company claims that the power supplies deliver “rock solid voltages” down to 0W load, which is within the Intel specification of 0.05A for the CPU alone.

The list of compatible Enermax power supplies is as follows:

• Enermax Platimax Series
  • Platimax 500W (EPM500AWT)
  • Platimax 600W (EPM600AWT)
  • Platimax 750W (EPM750AWT)
  • Platimax 850W (EPM850EWT)
  • Platimax 1000W (EPM1000EWT)
  • Platimax 1200W (EPM1200EWT)
  • Platimax 1500W (EPM1500EGT)
• Enermax Revolution87+ Series
  • Revolution87+ 550W (ERV550AWT-G)
  • Revolution87+ 650W (ERV650AWT-G)
  • Revolution87+ 750W (ERV750AWT-G)
  • Revolution87+ 850W (ERV850EWT-G)
  • Revolution87+ 1000W (ERV1000EWT-G)
• Enermax MaxRevo Series
  • MaxRevo 1200W (EMR1200EWT)
  • MaxRevo 1350W (EMR1350EWT)
  • MaxRevo 1500W (EMR1500EGT)
• Enermax Triathlor Series
  • Triathlor 385W (ETA385AWT)
  • Triathlor 450W (ETA450AWT)
  • Triathlor 550W (ETA550AWT)
• Enermax Revolution85+ Series
  • Revolution85+ 850W (ERV850EWT)
  • Revolution85+ 920W (ERV920EWT)
  • Revolution85+ 950W (ERV950EWT)
  • Revolution85+ 1020W (ERV1020EWT)
  • Revolution85+ 1050W (ERV1050EWT)
  • Revolution85+ 1250W (ERV1250EGT)
• Enermax Modu87+ Series
  • Modu87+ 500W (EMG500AWT)
  • Modu87+ 600W (EMG600AWT)
  • Modu87+ 700W (EMG700AWT)
  • Modu87+ 800W (EMG800EWT)
  • Modu87+ 900W (EMG900EWT)
• Enermax Pro87+ Series
  • Pro87+ 500W (EPG500AWT)
  • Pro87+ 600W (EPG600AWT)

The list includes power supplies from a number of series over the past few years that range from 500W to 1250W. I'm sure between now and the launch of Haswell in the first week of June that other PSU manufacturers will be announcing which models are compatible and which are not. Stay tuned to PC Perspective as more information becomes available!

Overclocker Pushes An Intel Haswell Core i7-4770K CPU Beyond 7GHz

Subject: Processors | May 3, 2013 - 06:45 AM | Tim Verry
Tagged: z87, overclocking, Intel, haswell, core i7 4770k, 7ghz

OCaholic has spotted an interesting entry in the CPU-Z database. According to the site, an overclocker by the handle of “rtiueuiurei” has allegedly managed to push an engineering sample of Intel’s upcoming Haswell Core i7-4770K processor past 7GHz.

If the CPU-Z entry is accurate, the overclocker used a BCLK speed of 91.01 and a multiplier of 77 to achieve a CPU clockspeed of 7012.65MHz. The chip was overclocked on a Z87 motherboard along with a single 2GB G.Skill DDR3 RAM module. Even more surprising than the 7GHz clockspeed is the voltage that the overclocker used to get there: an astounding 2.56V according to CPU-Z.

From the information Intel provided at IDF Beijing, the new 22nm Haswell processors feature an integrated voltage regulator (IVR), and the CPU portion of the chip’s voltage is controlled by the Vccin value. Intel recommends a range of 1.8V to 2.3V for this value, with a maximum of 3V and a default of 1.8V. Therefore, the CPU-Z-reported number may actually be correct. On the other hand, it may also just be a bug in the software due to the unreleased-nature of the Haswell chip.

Voltage questions aside, the frequency alone makes for an impressive overclock, and it seems that the upcoming chips will have decent overclocking potential!

Noctua Releases PWM Controlled NF-A14 140mm Case Fan

Subject: Cases and Cooling | May 3, 2013 - 06:32 AM | Tim Verry
Tagged: pwm, noctua, nf-a14, fan

Austrian PC Cooling manufacturer Noctua has released a new fan called the NF-A14. The new fan is PWM controlled and aimed at case or watercooling radiator cooling. The NF-A14 uses a square frame and features higher static pressure than the NF-P13 along with a maximum speed of 1500RPM.

The fan kit comes with the fan itself, mounting screws, a rubber mounting system to reduce vibration, a 30mm extension cable, low-noise adapter, and a 4-pin Y splitter cable that allows two PWM fans to be connected to a single motherboard fan header. The new Noctua NF-A14 comes with a 6 year warranty.

You can find more information on Noctua’s website as well as the full press release after the break.

In other cooling news:

• Passively Cooled GTX 570 SLI Setup @ Bit-Tech.net
• Impactics D1NU1 Passive NUC Case HSF @ FanlessTech
• Noctua NH-L12 CPU HSF Review @ ChipLoco

Podcast #249 - Corsair 350D, Frame Rating in 4K, the Oculus Rift and more!

Subject: General Tech | May 2, 2013 - 02:59 PM | Ken Addison
Tagged: podcast, video, Indiegogo, corair, obsidian, 350d, mATX, frame rating, 4k, titan, 7990, 690, Oculus, rift, VR, 3d, amd, amd fx, vishera, hUMA, hsa

PC Perspective Podcast #249 - 05/02/2013

Join us this week as we discuss the Corsair 350D, Frame Rating in 4K, the Oculus Rift 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: Josh Walrath, Allyn Malventano, Scott Michaud and Morry Teitelman

Program length: 1:04:02

1. Week in Review:
   1. 0:05:00 Corsair Obsidian 350D Case
   2. 0:10:30 AMD Details hUMA for HSA
   3. 0:25:00 Frame Rating testing at 4K resolutions
2. 0:30:00 This week we thank you for IGG support!
3. News items of interest:
   1. 0:33:15 Read our Heart of the Swarm review
   2. 0:38:30 Oculus Rift hands on testing
   3. 0:44:00 AMD Refreshes FX CPUs
   4. 0:46:00 Gigabyte shows new audio setup for Z87 boards
   5. 0:49:45 Potential power supply issues for Haswell
4. Hardware/Software Picks of the Week:
   1. Ryan: Windows Movie Maker lets you record webcam videos!
   2. Jeremy: anti-pick - hotels that don't offer a RJ45 jack in the rooms!
   3. Josh: Just plain cheap. And Fun!
   4. Allyn: Ventev USB charging stuff (home / auto)
   5. Scott: 120Hz monitors... meh on 3D Vision.
   6. Morry: Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon
5. 1-888-38-PCPER or podcast@pcper.com
6. http://pcper.com/podcast
7. http://twitter.com/ryanshrout and http://twitter.com/pcper
8. Closing/outro

Deal for May 2nd - Samsung Galaxy S4 [AT&T] @ $168

Subject: General Tech | May 2, 2013 - 01:23 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: deals

Are you in the same boat as Howard Hughes and can't stand the thought of touching anything?  Samsung's new Galaxy S4 is right up your alley then, as you don't even have to touch the screen to use the phone, simply gesturing near the screen works just as well as touching it.  Not only that but you can benefit from the long list of new features integrated with the new Galaxy, for less than you would otherwise pay.

Samsung Galaxy S4 [AT&T]
Amazon now offers for the Samsung Galaxy S4 Smartphone for AT&T starting at just $168 with free shipping (2-4 weeks).  Requires new or upgrading two year contract.  Available in White Frost (pictured) and Black Myst.  You save about $32 off the retail price.

Corsair Clarifies Upcoming Investment Deal With Francisco Partners

Subject: General Tech | May 2, 2013 - 01:04 PM | Tim Verry
Tagged: private equity, investments, corsair

Corsair recently reached out to the technology community to clarify the news of a new investor interested in the company. It turns out that Corsair is in talks with a private equity firm called Francisco Partners. The PC peripherals company wants to expand by making strategic acquisitions of smaller companies in the gaming and audio industry. In order to do that, Corsair needs cash, and without going public, one way to get that is to go with a private equity firm.

Although it will not be official for a couple of weeks, according to Corsair, Francisco Partners will invest as much as $75 million in Corsair and become a shareholder in the privately-held company. The deal is simply a monetary one, with Francisco Partners providing needed cash in exchange for a share of the company. No management changes are planned, and the new investor will not become the majority shareholder according to Corsair.

Corsair recently acquired both gaming peripheral company Raptor Gaming and Simple Audio, a company that provides multi-room streaming audio solutions. Corsair plans to further aggressively pursue the gaming and music/audio markets in addition to its existing case, power supply, fan, and other PC peripheral lineups aimed at enthusiasts. I'm excited to see where Corsair goes from here as it grows and diversifies its business and product lines.

Microsoft Rumored To Be Working On Cloud-Based "Mohoro" Windows Desktop Service

Subject: General Tech | May 2, 2013 - 05:07 AM | Tim Verry
Tagged: windows, thin client, remote desktop, mohoro, microsoft, cloud computing, azure

Microsoft may be working on its own cloud-based desktop service according to sources speaking with ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley. The rumored service codenamed “Mohoro” would build the Windows desktop SaaS (Software as a Service) solution on top of the company’s Windows Azure cloud computing platform. With Mohoro, Microsoft would provide Azure virtual machines running the Windows operating system. Users would then be able to remote into the desktop on any Internet connected computer or mobile device (with remote desktop support) and get access to their own desktop and applications.

The Windows desktop... coming soon to a cloud near you?

Windows Azure users can already run virtual machines with Linux or Windows OSes, but in the case of Windows Microsoft only allows server versions to be run. Incensing restrictions prevent users from loading consumer operating systems such as Windows XP, 7 or 8 onto the virtual machines. The rumored Mohoro service would apparently relax the licensing restrictions and allow businesses or consumers to deploy client operating systems running on the Azure VMs. It would basically take the need for enterprises to run their own hardware and move it to “the cloud” behind a Microsoft-run subscription service.

It is an interesting idea that I could see universities and businesses looking into. The Azure platform is actually pretty good, from what little testing I've done on it. However, I think that for many consumers a local install is preferable. Although syncing applications and files can be a pain if you have multiple machines, you retain control of your data and are not bound to needing an always-on Internet connection to access that data and run applications. Further, latency issues and bandwidth caps with home Internet connections make a paid-for Azure desktop less appealing to home users. I think Microsoft would have a hard-enough time selling users a subsciption for a local/traditional Windows installation, much less a subscription for an OS requiring an always-on Internet connection to use their computer.

Would you use an Azure-powered desktop as your main OS?

EFF Report Outlines Which Companies Stand Up For Users' Data Privacy Rights

Subject: General Tech | May 2, 2013 - 02:01 AM | Tim Verry
Tagged: Privacy, eff, data privacy, consumer rights

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) released its annual Who Has Your Back report, which highlights Internet companies that (do or do not) defend user’s online privacy rights. The EFF looks at the policies and actions of several major Internet companies, including ISPs, cloud storage, email, and social networks (among others). The companies are graded on various criteria such as whether the companies require a subpoena or warrant before releasing information, lobby congress for stricter data privacy laws, and defend their users’ privacy rights in court.

This year, the EFF found some surprising results. Google is no longer the leader of the pack due to no longer providing transparent data requests to users on the same level that it did in the past. Twitter and ISP Sonic.net are actually the top ranked companies. In a less surprising twist, Verizon is actually the worst company of the bunch along with MySpace with failing grades in each category! And that is just the tip of the spear, with companies like Apple and AT&T being worse than I thought and Foursquare and WordPress doing better than I expected.

Data privacy is of supreme importance, and i hope that these EFF reports prod all companies to do better (and note the companies that are doing right by their users). It is definitely worth a read. You can find the full report in PDF form here.

Do you use any of these services, and are you happy with their data privacy efforts?

Possible power supply issues for Intel Haswell CPUs

Subject: Cases and Cooling, Processors | May 1, 2013 - 03:07 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: power supply, Intel, idle, haswell, c7, c6

I came across an interesting news story posted by The Tech Report this morning that dives into the possibility of problems with Intel's upcoming Haswell processors and currently available power supplies.  Apparently, the new C6 and C7 idle power states that give the new Haswell architecture benefits for low power scenarios place a requirement of receiving a 0.05 amps load on the 12V2 rail.  (That's just 50 milliamps!)  Without that capability, the system can exhibit unstable behavior and a quick look at the power supply selector on Intel's own website is only listing a couple dozen that support the feature. 

This table from VR-Zone, the source of the information initially, shows the difference between the requirements for 3rd (Ivy Bridge) and 4th generation (Haswell) processors.  The shift is an order of magnitude and is quite a dramatic change for PSU vendors.  Users of Corsair power supplies will be glad to know that among those listed with support on the Intel website linked above were mostly Corsair units!

A potential side effect of this problem might be that motherboard vendors simply disable those sleep states by default.  I don't imagine that will be a problem for PC builders anyway since most desktop users aren't really worried about the extremely small differences in power consumption they offer.  For mobile users and upcoming Haswell notebook designs the increase in battery life is crucial though and Intel has surely been monitoring those power supplies closely. 

I asked our in-house power supply guru, Lee Garbutt, who is responsible for all of the awesome power supply reviews on pcper.com, what he thought about this issue.  He thinks the reason more power supplies don't support it already is for power efficiency concerns:

Most all PSUs have traditionally required "some load" on the various outputs to attain good voltage regulation and/or not shut down. Not very many PSUs are designed yet to operate with no load, especially on the critical +12V output. One of the reasons for this is efficiency. Its harder to design a PSU to operate correctly with a very low load AND to deliver high efficiency. It would be easy just to add some bleed resistance across the DC outputs to always have a minimal load to keep voltage regulation under control but then that lowers efficiency.

A Duke Nukem obsession like no other

Subject: General Tech | May 1, 2013 - 03:03 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: gaming, mod, duke nukem, obsessive

You might think you expressed your disappointment about the pile of garbage that was Duke Nukem Forever by posting scathing reviews online, but you have nothing on these modders who attempted to create the Duke we were all promised by modding Duke Nukem 3D.  If you still have the DN3D kicking around, or at least the DUKE3D.GRP file you can head to ModDB and download a 30MB mod which will expand Las Vegas far beyond the original game. Don't expect miracles, they can only reuse existing assets but they certainly impressed Rock, Paper, SHOTGUN who posted a trailer-ish movie of the mod in action.

"A group of modders have been busily attempting to rewrite history – by recreating the game that 2001 trailer suggested in good old Duke Nukem 3D. Given they suffered a degree of 3D Realms-esque hubris in their struggle to finish the thing, are these the first Method Developers?"

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Gaming

• Hurrah! – Defense Grid 2 Funded By Secret Investor @ Rock, Paper, SHOTGUN
• New GTA V trailer details the lives of the three protagonists @ HEXUS
• Impressions: Neverwinter @ Rock, Paper, SHOTGUN
• BioShock Infinite PC @ eTeknix
• Chapter & Verse Of Space Hulk @ Rock, PAper, ShHOTGUN
• God of War: Ascension PlayStation 3 @ eTeknix
• Injustice: Gods Among Us Xbox 360 @ Tweaktown

A sneak peek at Gigabyte's upcoming audio for the Sniper5 series

Subject: General Tech | May 1, 2013 - 02:19 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: gigabyte, G1.Sniper 5, G1.Sniper 5M, AMP-UP Audio

Slow but surely teases of the next generation of motherboards for Intel processors are showing up, such as Tweaktown's preview here.  You don't get to see much of the board its self but you do have a chance to learn about the new AMP-UP audio that will be featured on these motherboards.  This will be a removable OP-AMP paired with Creative's Sound Core3D to bring high end audio performance to your onboard audio.  It will be removable so that audiophiles can choose their favourite OP-AMP to install if they prefer it to the one included. Take a peek right here.

"The NDA is starting to come off the 4th Generation Intel Core series and today we'll show you what to expect from GIGABYTE in its new AMP-UP audio feature on the G1.Sniper 5 and G1.Sniper M5."

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Tech Talk

• Microsoft Exchange rival Icewarp says selling Linux to Windows customers is easy @ The Inquirer
• Samsung making 20nm 4Gb LPDDR3 DRAM for mobile devices @ DigiTimes
• Is it me or did cloud marketing suddenly get really weird? @ The Register
• Intel LANFest SoCal 2013 – Local Gaming & Fun @ Legit Reviews
• Kitguru MEGA graphics card giveaway
• Noctua Joint Giveaway - NH-D14/NH-U14S/NH-U12S Up For Grabs Globally @ NikKTech

Deal for May 1st - Roku 2 XD 1080p Streaming Player (Refurbished) @ $60

Subject: General Tech | May 1, 2013 - 02:05 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: deals

If you are looking for a very inexpensive way to stream HD video the Roku 2 is a great choice as it offers flexibility and an easy to use interface.  The only better deal would be to pick up a Roku 2 at $20 off the retail price, which is exactly what the deal for today is.  There are quite a few units available but you might not want to spend too much time debating the purchase as they are not unlimited.

Roku 2 XD 1080p Streaming Player (Refurbished)
Groupon is offering refurbished Roku 2 XD 1080p Streaming Player for $59.99 with free shipping. That's 25% off the price of brand new model and backed by 90-day limited warranty.

AMD Planning APU13 Developer Summit In San Jose, California

Subject: General Tech | May 1, 2013 - 07:08 AM | Tim Verry
Tagged: hUMA, hsa, apu13, APU, amd, AFDS

AMD announced its third annual Developer Summit last week. Dubbed “APU13,” the upcoming summit is the AMD equivalent to NVIDIA’s GTC and is an annual event that brings together industry analysts, researchers, programmers, academics, and software/hardware companies pursuing heterogeneous computing technologies.

In previous years, the AMD Developer Summit has been the launchpad for C++ AMP and the HSA Foundation. This year’s Summit will continue that trend towards heterogeneous computing as well as look back over the year and provide updates on where the various HSA member companies are at as far as goals to move towards standards-based heterogenous computing.

In addition to keynote speeches from AMD and some of its partners, expect a great deal of presentations and workshops from researchers and programmers that are working on new programming models and hardware solutions to efficiently use CPU and GPU processors. More information on hUMA is one of the likely topics, for example. Discussion about upcoming hardware, process nodes, and products may also be on the table so far as it relates to the HSA theme. Considering the summit is called “APU13,” I also expect that AMD will reveal additional details on the company’s Kaveri APU as well as a look into its future product road map.

AMD is currently asking for presentation proposals from researchers in a number of HSA and technology-related fields including heterogeneous computing, cloud computing, web technologies, programming languages, gaming and graphics technologies, and software security. The lineup of presenters for the summit is still being worked out, and proposal papers will be accepted until May 10th with the winners being notified over the summer.

In all, AMD’s APU13 should be an exciting and intellectual event. Last year’s AMD Fusion Developer Summit (AFDS) was an interesting and fun event to cover, and I hope that APU13 will keep up the same momentum and interest in heterogeneous computing that AFDS started.

Zotac Announces Overclocked GTX TITAN AMP! Edition Graphics Card

Subject: Graphics Cards | May 1, 2013 - 05:41 AM | Tim Verry
Tagged: zotac, nvidia, gtx titan, AMP!

Zotac has announced a new GTX TITAN graphics card that will fall under the company’s AMP! Edition branding. This new Titan graphics card will feature factory overclocks on both the GPU and GDDR5 memory. However, due to NVIDIA’s restrictions, the Zotac GeForce GTX TITAN AMP! Edition does not feature a custom cooler or PCB.

The Zotac TITAN AMP! Edition card features a single GK110 GPU with 2,688 CUDA cores clocked at 902MHz base and 954MHz boost. That is a healthy boost over the reference TITAN’s 836MHz base and 876MHz boost clock speeds. Further, while Zotac’s take on the TITAN continues the reference specification’s 6GB of GDDR5 memory, it is impressively overclocked to 6,608Mhz (especially since Zotac has not changed the cooler). The GPU clocks might be able to be replicated by many of the reference cards though. For example, Ryan managed to get his card up to 992MHz boost in his review of the NVIDIA GTX TITAN.

The card has two DL-DVI, one HDMI, and one DisplayPort video output(s). The cooler, PCB, and PCI-E power specifications are still the same as the reference design. You can find more details on the heatsink in the TITAN review. Not allowing vendors to use custom coolers is disappointing and possibly limiting the factory GPU overclocks that they are able/willing to offer and support, but within that restriction the Zotac AMP! Edition looks to be a decent card so long as the (not yet announced) price premium over the $999 NVIDIA reference card is minimal.

AMD Releases FX CPU Refreshes

Subject: Processors | April 30, 2013 - 02:04 PM | Josh Walrath
Tagged: amd, FX, vishera, bulldozer, FX-6350, FX-4350, FX-6300, FX-4300, 32 nm, SOI, Beloved

Today AMD has released two new processors that address the AM3+ market.  The FX-6350 and FX-4350 are two new refreshes of the quad and hex core lineup of processors.  Currently the FX-8350 is still the fastest of the breed, and there is no update for that particular number yet.  This is not necessarily a bad thing, but there are those of us who are still awaiting the arrival of the rumored “Centurion”.

These parts are 125 watt TDP units, which are up from their 95 watt predecessors.  The FX-6350 runs at 3.9 GHz with a 4.2 GHz boost clock.  This is up 300 MHz stock and 100 MHz boost from the previous 95 watt FX-6300.  The FX-4350 runs at 3.9 GHz with a 4.3 GHz boost clock.  This is 100 MHz stock and 300 MHz boost above that of the FX-4300.  What is of greater interest here is that the L3 cache goes from 4 MB on the 4300 to 8 MB on the 4350.  This little fact looks to be the reason why the FX-4350 is now a 125 watt TDP part.

It has been some two years since AMD started shipping 32 nm PD-SOI/HKMG products to the market, and it certainly seems as though spinning off GLOBALFOUNDRIES has essentially stopped the push to implement new features into a process node throughout the years.  As many may remember, AMD was somewhat famous for injecting new process technology into current nodes to improve performance, yields, and power characteristics in “baby steps” type fashion instead of leaving the node as is and making a huge jump with the next node.  Vishera has been out for some 7 months now and we have not really seen any major improvement in regards to performance and power characteristics.  I am sure that yields and bins have improved, but the bottom line is that this is only a minor refresh and AMD raised TDPs to 125 watts for these particular parts.

The FX-6350 is again a three module part containing six cores.  Each module features 2 MB of L2 cache for a total of 6 MB L2 and the entire chip features 8 MB of L3 cache.  The FX-4350 is a two module chip with four cores.  The modules again feature the same 2 MB of L2 cache for a total of 4 MB active on the chip with the above mentioned 8 MB of L3 cache that is double what the FX-4300 featured.

Perhaps soon we will see updates on FM2 with the Richland series of desktop processors, but for now this refresh is all AMD has at the moment.  These are nice upgrades to the line.  The FX-6350 does cost the same as the FX-6300, but the thinking behind that is that the 6300 is more “energy efficient”.  We have seen in the past that AMD (and Intel for that matter) does put a premium on lower wattage parts in a lineup.  The FX-4350 is $10 more expensive than the 4300.  It looks as though the FX-6350 is in stock at multiple outlets but the 4350 has yet to show up.

These will fit in any modern AM3+ motherboard with the latest BIOS installed.  While not an incredibly exciting release from AMD, it at least shows that they continue to address their primary markets.  AMD is in a very interesting place, and it looks like Rory Read is busy getting the house in order.  Now we just have to see if they can curve back their cost structure enough to make the company more financially stable.  Indications are good so far, but AMD has a long ways to go.  But hey, at least according to AMD the FX series is beloved!

hUMA has come with a weapon to slay the memory latency dragon

Subject: General Tech | April 30, 2013 - 01:23 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: Steamroller, piledriver, Kaveri, Kabini, hUMA, hsa, GCN, bulldozer, APU, amd

AMD may have united GPU and CPU into the APU but one hurdle had remained until now, the the non-uniformity of memory access between the two processors.  Today we learned about one of the first successful HAS projects called Heterogeneous Uniform Memory Access, aka hUMA, which will appear in the upcoming Kaveri chip family.   The use of this new technology will allow the on-die CPU and GPU to access the same memory pool, both physical and virtual and any data passed between the two processors will remain coherent.  As The Tech Report mentions in their overview hUMA will not provide as much of a benefit to discrete GPUs, while they will be able to share address space the widely differing clock speeds between GDDR5 and DDR3 prevent unification to the level of an APU.

Make sure to read Josh's take as well so you can keep up with him on the Podcast.

"At the Fusion Developer Summit last June, AMD CTO Mark Papermaster teased Kaveri, AMD's next-generation APU due later this year. Among other things, Papermaster revealed that Kaveri will be based on the Steamroller architecture and that it will be the first AMD APU with fully shared memory.

Last week, AMD shed some more light on Kaveri's uniform memory architecture, which now has a snazzy marketing name: heterogeneous uniform memory access, or hUMA for short."

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

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