100W over USB

Subject: General Tech | April 12, 2013 - 01:20 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: usb. power over USB, Intel

A new type of USB cable is being demonstrated in Beijing, capable of delivering up to 100W of power over USB 2.0 or 3.0.  In the demonstration below, the Dell provides both video and power to the monitor when it is plugged in, when on battery it immediately shuts off the monitor.  Even better these cords are bidirectional and are able to sense which device requires power and which is the source of the power so you won't have to manually configure them.  The Inquirer does point out a major hurdle to overcome, if one singular USB cord able to recharge the battery of any laptop, many laptop makers will see that as taking away one of their revenue streams; their proprietary power bricks and expensive replacement parts.

"BEIJING: THE USB IMPLEMENTERS FORUM (USB-IF) is showing off a prototype USB cable system at the Technology Showcase at IDF Beijing that can deliver up to 100W of power."

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Tech Talk

• Cupertino funk @ The Tech Report
• PC shipments post the steepest decline ever in a single quarter, says IDC @ DigiTimes
• Intel demos inexpensive 100Gb/sec silicon photonics chip @ The Register
• Can Console Gaming Save AMD From Collapse? @ Benchmark Reviews
• HGST straps Intel Thunderbolt onto uber-pricey drives, docks @ The Register
• Hacking the Oculus Rift: the Oculight @ Hack a Day
• Microsoft Telling Users To Uninstall Bad Patch @ Slashdot
• Samsung Galaxy S4 set to ship with Wolfson audio chip @ The Inquirer
• Netgear WNDR3700v4 N600 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router Review @ Legit Reviews
• Ninjalane Podcast - 3D Printing and Borderlands 2 Ultimate Vault Hunter
• 4 Days Left to Win a PC Specialist Gaming System @ eTeknix

SECO Introduces mITX GPU Devkit for CUDA Programmers

Subject: General Tech | April 12, 2013 - 02:08 AM | Tim Verry
Tagged: SECO, nvidia, mini ITX, kepler, kayla, GTC 13, GTC, CUDA, arm

Last month, NVIDIA revealed its Kayla development platform that combines a quad core Tegra System on a Chip (SoC) with a NVIDIA Kepler GPU. Kayla will out later this year, but that has not stopped other board makers from putting together their own solutions. One such solution that began shipping earlier this week is the mITX GPU Devkit from SECO.

The new mITX GPU Devkit is a hardware platform for developers to program CUDA applications for mobile devices, desktops, workstations, and HPC servers. It combines a NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor, 2GB of RAM, and 4GB of internal storage (eMMC) on a Qseven module with a Mini-ITX form factor motherboard. Developers can then plug their own CUDA-capable graphics card into the single PCI-E 2.0 x16 slot (which actually runs at x4 speeds). Additional storage can be added via an internal SATA connection, and cameras can be hooked up using the CIC headers.

Rear IO on the mITX GPU Devkit includes:

• 1 x Gigabit Ethernet
• 3 x USB
• 1 x OTG port
• 1 x HDMI
• 1 x Display Port
• 3 x Analog audio
• 2 x Serial
• 1 x SD card slot

The SECO platform is a proving to be popular for GPGPU in the server space, especially with systems like Pedraforca. The intention of using these types of platforms in servers is to save power by using a low power ARM chip for inter-node communication and basic tasks while the real computing is done solely on the graphics cards. With Intel’s upcoming Haswell-based Xeon chips getting down to 13W TPDs though, systems like this are going to be more difficult to justify. SECO is mostly positioning this platform as a development board, however. One use in that respect is to begin optimizing GPU-accelerated code for mobile devices. With future Tegra chips to get CUDA-compatible graphics cards, new software development and optimization of existing GPGPU code for smartphones and tablet will be increasingly important.

Either way, the SECO mITX GPU Devkit is available now for 349 EUR or approximately $360 (in both cases, before any taxes).

Deal for April 11th - HP ENVY dv6t-7300 15.6" Quad Edition @ $600

Subject: General Tech | April 11, 2013 - 03:49 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: deals

Today's deal is a fairly powerful HP laptop, the ENVY dv6t-7300 which has a Core i7-3630QM Processor @ 2.4GHz, 8GB DDR3 and a 5400RPM 750GB HDD.  If you are willing to pay a bit more you can get a full 1080p screen instead of the usual 1366 x 768 and a GT635M for a grand total of $825. 

To get cheapest ENVY dv6t-7300 Quad Edition laptop, follow these steps to use $50 coupon code:

1. Start here at HP Home direct store
2. Click Customize button
Note: free upgrades if any are applied automatically
3. Click View Summary button at the top, Add to cart
4. Apply coupon code: MU1743 during checkout

This deal: $799.99 - $150 off - $50 coupon code = $599.99 with $9.99 shipping.

OR

To get ENVY dv6t-7300 Quad Edition laptop with 1080p LCD and 2GB GeForce GT 635M Graphics, use $50 coupon code, follow these steps:

1. Start here at HP Home direct store
2. Select Customize button
3. Select NVIDIA GeForce GT 635M Graphics with 2GB of dedicated video memory +$75
4. Select 15.6-inch diagonal Full HD Anti-glare LED-backlit Display (1920 x 1080) +$150
5. Click View Summary, Add to cart
6. Apply coupon code: MU1743 during checkout

Big Flashy news from Samsung

Subject: General Tech | April 11, 2013 - 02:38 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: tlc, Samsung, flash memory, 10nm

A process shrink to 10nm wasn't enough for Samsung, they also doubled the density of their MLC flash storage to 128Gbits at a physical size of 170.6mm².  They claim write speeds of up to 18MB/sec and 400Mbit/s bandwidth through their toggle interface.  Even better news for consumers is that this should be even cheaper than current MLC flash which will help continue to drive the price of SSDs down.  Samsung didn't tell The Inquirer when we can expect to see these in devices but it should not be too long from now that we are doing longevity testing on this new Flash.

"MEMORY MAKER Samsung has announced that it is producing 128Gbit 3-bit multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash chips for solid-state disk (SSD) drives"

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Tech Talk

• SSH an ill-managed mess says SSH author Tatu Ylonen @ The Register
• 10 Hot New Linux-Ready Embedded ARM Modules @ Linux.com
• Microsoft: Here's some cash, channel. PLEASE sell Office 365 @ The Register
• TRENDnet AC1750 Dual Band Wireless Router (TEW-812DRU) Review @ Madshrimps
• ACTi D32 review: 3MP outdoor IP security camera @ Hardware.info
• Win a speedy Plextor M5 Pro Xtreme 256GB SSD @ Tweaktown
• Win a Cyberpower X7-100 Fangbook @ Kitguru

Podcast #246 - ASUS P8Z77-I Deluxe Mini-ITX motherboard, more Frame Rating, DirectX 12 and more!

Subject: General Tech | April 11, 2013 - 01:26 PM | Ken Addison
Tagged: video, xeon, thunderbolt, roccat, quadro, premiere, podcast, opencl, nerdytec, Ivy Bridge-E, haswell, frame rating, firepro, falcon ridge, DirectX 12, couchmaster, ASUS P8Z77-I Deluxe, amd

PC Perspective Podcast #246- 04/11/2013

Join us this week as we discuss the ASUS P8Z77-I Deluxe Mini-ITX motherboard, more Frame Rating, DirectX 12 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 Malventano

This Podcast is brought to you by MSI!

Program length: 1:01:46

1. Winner last week? Mike McLaughlin!! Congrats!
2. 0:02:40 Win the Roccat Kone+ Gaming Mouse
3. Week in Review:
   1. 0:04:50 ASUS P8Z77-I Deluxe Mini-ITX Motherboard
   2. 0:11:00 Frame Rating: GTX 660, HD 7870, HD 7790, GTX 650 Ti BOOST
4. 0:24:00 NerdyTec COUCHMASTER
5. News items of interest:
   1. 0:27:25 AMD and Adobe show OpenCL Support for Premiere
   2. 0:29:37 Haswell has USB 3.0 issues
   3. 0:32:45 The end of DirectX...?
   4. 0:37:30 Falcon Ridge Thunderbolt 20 Gbps shown
   5. 0:42:00 Intel talks upcoming Haswell and Ivy Bridge-E Xeon
6. 0:47:00 Hardware/Software Picks of the Week:
   1. Ryan: Bioshock Infinite
   2. Jeremy: I can't believe they did it but yes, you can play it
   3. Josh: Almost 1 TB...
   4. Allyn: Ultra Brush dust remover
7. 1-888-38-PCPER or podcast@pcper.com
8. http://pcper.com/podcast
9. http://twitter.com/ryanshrout and http://twitter.com/pcper
10. Closing/outro

IDF: Intel Announces Upcoming Haswell and Ivy Bridge-E Xeon Processors

Subject: General Tech | April 10, 2013 - 04:14 PM | Tim Verry
Tagged: xeon-ex, xeon-ep, xeon, server, Intel, HPC, haswell

Intel officially announced its next-generation Xeon processors at IDF Beijing today. The new lineup includes the Haswell-based Xeon E3 1200 V3 family on the low end, and the Ivy Bridge-EP Xeon E5 and Ivy Bridge-EX Xeon E7 aimed at the mid-range general purpose and high-end HPC markets respectively. Intel did not disclose pricing or details on the new chips (such as core counts, cache, clockspeeds, number of SKUs etc.). However, the x86 chip giant did state that the new chips are coming later this year as well as teasing a few tidbits of information on the new Xeon chips.

The upcoming Xeon E3 processors will be part of the Xeon E3 1200 V3 family. These chips will be based on Haswell and are limited to one socket per board. Thanks to the Haswell architecture, Intel has managed to reduce power consumption by approximately 25% and increase video transcoding performance by about 25%. There will be at least one Xeon E3 1200 V3 series chip with a 13W TDP, for example.

Intel is also releasing a new media software development kit (SDK) for Linux and Windows machines that will provide a common platform for developers. It has allowed Intel to maximize the use of both the CPU and GPU for HD video transcoding as well as increasing the number of simultaneous video transcodes over previous generations. The new Xeon E3 1200 V3 (Haswell) chips will be available sometime before the end of 2013.

The next-generation Xeon E5 chips will be based on the 22nm Ivy Bridge-EP architecture. They will be positioned at general purpose computing in data centers (and possibly high-end workstations), and will be limited to 2 sockets per motherboard. The new Xeon E5 processors will incorporate Intel Secure Key and OS Guard technologies. OS Guard is the evolution of the company's existing Intel Execute Disable Bit security technology. Intel is also including AES-NI (AES-New Instructions), to improve the hardware acceleration of AES encrypt/decrypt operations. These mid-range Xeon chips will be available in Q3 2013.

Finally, the top-end Xeon E7 processors will be based on the 22nm Ivy Bridge-EX architecture. The upcoming processors are intended for high performance server and supercomputing applications where scalability and performance are important. The Ivy Bride-EX chips are compatible with motherboards that will have between 4 and 8 sockets and up to 12TB of RAM per node. Further, Intel has packed these processors with new RAS features, including Resilient System Technology and Resilient Memory Technology. The RAS features ensure stability and data integrity in calculations are maintained. Such features are important in scientific, real-time analytics, cloud computing, and banking applications, where performance and up-time are paramount and any errors could cost a company money. Intel has stated that the new Xeon E7 CPUs will be available in the fourth quarter of this year (Q4'13).

While I was hoping for more details as far as core count, clockspeeds, and pricing, the approximate release to market timeframe for the chips is known. Do you think you will be upgrading to the new Xeon chips later this year, or are your current processors fast enough for your server applications?

More information on the upcoming Xeon chips can be found in this Intel fact sheet (PDF).

Deal for April 10th - HP Pavilion 27xi 27" 1080p IPS @ $240

Subject: General Tech | April 10, 2013 - 01:48 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: deals

Looking for big pixels at a reasonable price?  Check out todays deal from LogicBuy, the HP Pavilion 27xi 27" 1080p IPS LED-backlit display.  At $240 it costs as much as many smaller IPS displays and buying several of them will not bankrupt you.  For people running a pair of GTX680's these might not be the best choice but many lower priced cards can handle the 5760 x 1080 resolution which opens up multi-monitor gaming for more people.

HP Pavilion 27xi 27" 1080p IPS LED-backlit Display

HP Home is offering massive 27-inch HP Pavilion 27xi IPS-panel, LED-backlit LCD Monitor (model no. C4D27AA#ABA) for $239.99 with FREE shipping. Use $100 coupon code: MT41314 to get final price.