It’s 12:43AM and I just got back into my hotel room. I spent the past few hours in AMD’s suite a block from IDF trying to get to the bottom of an issue we discovered in our post on AMD’s Zacate GPU performance numbers earlier this week.
Let’s recap. Zacate is AMD’s 18W APU aimed at the mainstream notebook market (~$500 notebooks). The APU features a pair of Bobcat cores and a Cedar-class AMD DX11 GPU. Spending some time with the physical Zacate package, it seems to have a single 64-bit DDR3 memory interface ala Atom. Unlike Atom however, both the Bobcat cores and the DX11 GPU should be relatively high performance.
Earlier this week, AMD showed us the first public demonstration of Zacate. In its suite were two systems: a Zacate test platform and a Core i5-M 520 notebook from a major OEM. Both systems were configured with 4GB of memory and were running the 64-bit version of Windows 7 Premium.
AMD's Zacate
The first demo we saw on Monday was the system running City of Heroes. In CoH Zacate managed to reach frame rates around 2x of what we saw on the Core i5-M 520. AMD also ran through a number of IE9 performance tests including the Psychadelic HTML5 benchmark and the Amazon Shelf test. In both of those tests, the Zacate platform was significantly faster than the Core i5-M 520. And it was those IE9 tests that seemed suspect.
The Zacate test platform
I didn’t think much of it at first, but Zacate managed a ~10x performance advantage in the IE9 Psychadelic benchmark. While Zacate should have a higher performance GPU, it shouldn’t be that much faster. Something was amiss.
I borrowed a Core i5 notebook from Intel (we are at IDF after all) and ran the same tests on it. The performance was much better than what I saw in AMD’s suite. I went back to AMD to find out exactly what was going on.
At the end of this morning's keynote at IDF 2010 intel announced the Atom Processor E600 series. It's a Moorestown-like SoC designed for embedded applications.
It's pretty obvious what the E stands for in E600 - embedded. Read on for more info.
Dell just demonstrated its upcoming 10-inch Inspiron Duo convertible netbook/tablet. Based on the dual core Atom N550 the Inspiron Duo runs Windows 7 Premium. The system can work as a tablet:
The demo seemed quite slow and touch screen was very unresponsive (typical of Atom running Windows 7 on netbook hardware). When you need a full keyboard however the tablet can open up, screen swivel around (the bezel remains in place) and you get a standard netbook:
I actually played with a prototype of the Inspiron Duo earlier this year and the conversion mechanism felt pretty solid. Dell expects it to be shipping by the end of this year.
Check out our full gallery of the Inspiron Duo here.
Earlier this year Intel unveiled its Moorestown architecture, branded as the Atom Z600 series for smartphones and handhelds. Moorestown focused on a significant reduction in idle and active power, the former enabled by completely ditching the PCI bus. While this well for getting Atom into smartphones, the missing PCI bus means that you can't use Moorestown in Windows.
Intel made an alternate version of Moorestown to address this shortcoming. Oak Trail takes the Lincroft SoC (CPU + GPU + memory controller) and pairs it with a new PCH, codenamed Whitney Point. Whitney Point adds PCI support, enabling Windows support.
Just a few minutes ago Intel demonstrated its first Oak Trail platforms, both shipping in 2011. The first was a conventional looking tablet:
But the second was the OCS1 handheld Windows gaming device running Oaktrail. Intel didn't tell us much about the system but it has a sliding keyboard and a pair of d-pads.
Intel just announced its CE4200 (Groveland) SoC, the successor to the CE4100 used in devices like the Boxee box.
The CE4200 is based on Intel's 45nm Atom architecture and features a H.264 encoder. Presumably this is the same architecture as Intel's Moorestown SoC which added a 720p H.264 encode engine.
Intel didn't disclose any additional details about the CE4200 but we'll be asking around at the show to find out what we can.
ADB, Samsung, Sagemcom and technicolor are all announcing products in development with CE4200.
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Out of Germany comes the WeTab, the first shipping MeeGo-based tablet, running Intel’s new open source operating system on top of the venerable Atom N450 processor. It’s a fairly standard Atom based tablet, pretty similar to the Exo PC and others, with the netbook internals, an SSD, and an 11.6” WXGA screen.
Neofonie’s skin on MeeGo consists of a number of tiles on the homescreen, and scrolls through the application tiles with a thumb-based navigation on the sides of the screen. All of the settings and controls are also located on the sidebars, making both navigation and changing options pretty simple. While it’s not the most intuitive UI to pick up immediately, once you get used to it, I can see it being pretty efficient to use. The keyboard is definitely better than the stock Windows 7 keyboard, but not quite iPad quality, since the keys are pretty small. Overall, the experience isn’t as impressive as some of the skinned Windows UIs like the ExoPC, but it’s quick and MeeGo is definitely noticeably more responsive than the Windows-based Atom tablets.
The claimed battery life of 6 hours suggests a 4 cell battery inside with around 32 Wh in capacity. Build quality is pretty good, with a solid chassis and a good feel in hand. At 1.8lbs, it’s a bit heavier than the iPad, but since it’s larger, you don’t feel it as much.
Unfortunately, the screen is a pretty big letdown on the WeTab. The 11.6” WXGA panel has a decent resolution, producing crisp images, but the viewing angles are pretty bad and the responsiveness was not very good. There were pretty frequent missed presses throughout our hands-on experience with the WeTab, and it really puts a downer on the otherwise decent UI. For a device that is shipping next week, that’s pretty disappointing, though it is possible that we were using an earlier prototype. If WeTab can figure out the touchscreen responsiveness, it could really push the MeeGo platform for tablets and carry the OS until the tablet-specific build of MeeGo is released early next year.
Since I reviewed my first SSD, three things have happened. 1) Controllers have improved significantly. My personal favorite, SandForce’s SF-1200, can outperform the original X25-M by more than 3x in random write speed. 2) Consumer capacities have tripled. While the majority of SSDs sold are still under 100GB in size, you can now get 240GB and even 480GB consumer drives. 3) Prices have dropped. The first SSD I reviewed was Intel’s 80GB X25-M and it carried a $595 MSRP. OCZ will sell you a 120GB Vertex 2 for about half that today.
As a result of prices dropping, SSDs are being used for more than just expensive boot/application drives. Personally, I use a couple of old SSDs connected to Apricorn SATA-to-USB adapters as Windows 7 and Mac OS X 10.6 install discs. Using an SSD instead of a DVD drive speeds up OS install time considerably. I can install Windows 7 from one of these SSDs to an SSD in just under 3 minutes (timed from the moment it starts installing to the first reboot).
OCZ was the first to produce an interesting SSD for external use but Kingston has since delivered a lower priced alternative. Read on as we look at both options.
Not to outdone by Intel’s IDF and AMD’s counter-meeting this week, NVIDIA’s GPU Computing group has their own announcement this week ahead of their GPU Technology Conference next week.
Next week NVIDIA will be releasing the first major update to their GPGPU programming toolchain since the Fermi-based Tesla series launched earlier this year. Specifically, they will be releasing Parallel Nsight 1.5, and version 3.2 of the CUDA Toolkit.
A few weeks ago we previewed the performance of Intel’s next-generation microprocessor architecture, codenamed Sandy Bridge. We came away impressed with our early look at performance but honestly had very little explanation for why the chip performed the way it did. For the first time in years we knew the performance of an Intel processor without knowing much about its underlying architecture.
Today, that all changes. Read on for our full analysis of Intel's Sandy Bridge microarchitecture.
In IDF’s technology showcase, we got a chance to catch up with OpenPeak, makers of the OpenTablet 7, a 7” Android tablet running atop the Moorestown Atom Z6xx SoC. The OpenTablet 7 is a reference design created for ODMs to rebrand and customize as they want. It will be on sale later this year as an AT&T branded product bundled with their 3G connectivity and also serves as the basis for Cisco’s Cius business-centric videoconferencing tablet.
We’ve seen the OpenPeak before, having played with an earlier prototype at CES in January, but the real story is that we got performance benchmarks from the Moorestown-based tablet. Read on to see our preliminary findings on what Intel’s new SoC can do.
Update: We've spent more time with Zacate and have some more accurate performance comparisons here.
It's tradition for AMD to have an off-site meeting place during IDF week and this year is no exception. I headed over to AMD's suite to talk about servers, desktops and the imminent mobile Fusion launches. We've talked about AMD's three new microprocessors in great detail before. Bulldozer is targeted at the high end desktop and server markets, due out sometime in 2011 (sampling in Q4). Llano will arrive at the end of Q2 2011 and feature multiple 32nm Phenom II derived cores paired with a very beefy AMD DX11 GPU. What I'm most excited about however is the parts that will begin shipping in Q4 2010: Zacate for mainstream notebooks (18W TDP) and Ontario for netbooks (9W TDP).
Both APUs will have a pair of low-power Bobcat cores and an AMD DX11 GPU. AMD isn't publicly confirming how many cores the GPU side will have but both will share the same die manufactured on TSMC's 40nm process. The package is extremely compact:
AMD let us have some benchmarking time with an early Zacate platform. For a low end/mainstream notebook platform, the GPU performance looks very good. Read on.
Intel is no stranger to raytracing - we've seen demonstrations such as Quake IV ported to an Intel-designed raytracer along with a number of other demos in the past. The promise of raytrace renderers over today's conventional raster engines for games and desktop 3D has always been increased realism and theoretically near linear scaling. Of course, the problem until now has been that raytracers haven't been able to maintain playable framerate at desktop resolutions.
Yesterday Intel demonstrated a new example of raytraced graphics on the desktop using a raytrace rendered version of Wolfenstein. This time, it was based around a cloud-centric model where frames are rendered on 4 servers, each with 32-core codename Knights Ferry silicon at the core. Think OnLive but raytraced. Read on for the whole news scoop.
Wrapping up our two part series about NVIDIA’s new GeForce GTS 450, we have our in-depth look in to the vendor cards. As was the case with the GTX 460, NVIDIA’s partners are coming out swinging by offering a wide variety of customized cards alongside NVIDIA’s reference design. Custom PCBs, coolers, and more; you’ll find it all here.
The Intel Developer Forum kicked off today with a keynote by Intel CEO Paul Otellini in San Francisco. Intel's focus in today's keynote has threefold. First, the change in the chipmaker's focus from being exclusively a chip company, to a much more comprehensive computing solutions provider. Second, the new three pillars of computing that Intel sees for continuing computing growth - including a comprehensive look at WiDi, and finally Sandy Bridge which Anand just covered .
We just left the keynote floor, read on for more coverage.
Today marks the first day of our IDF 2010 coverage and we just left Dadi Perlmutter's keynote. Keeping up with tradition, Dadi's keynote focused on two of Intel's upcoming microprocessors.
Dadi began his architecture talk with a reference to Westmere EX. The follow-on to Nehalem EX brings the architecture down to a 32nm manufacturing process. The transistor shrink enables Intel to increase core count from 8 on Nehalem EX to 10 on Westmere EX (20 threads).
Westmere EX is socket compatible with current Nehalem EX systems. Along with AES-NI support, Westmere EX also enables support for 32GB DIMMs. Bringing total system memory support from 1TB (64 DIMM slots) to 2TB with Westmere EX.
Read on for more details on Sandy Bridge.
Boxee and D-Link announced the availability of the Boxee Box for pre-order on Amazon today. At CES 2010, they demonstrated the Boxee Box with the Tegra 2 SoC inside. The press release today brings the news that the Tegra 2 has been replaced by Intel’s CE4100. This is one of the first mainstream products in the market to incorporate an Intel x86 based SoC.
What happened behind the scenes? Why did Boxee and D-Link decide to drop Tegra 2? What are the details of the new SoC in the Boxee Box? What capabilities are brought forward by the Boxee Box in the media streamer market? How would it compare with a HTPC? Read on to find out more about the Boxee Box and our analysis of today’s announcements.
After the drawn out launch of GF100 and the GTX 400 series earlier this year, NVIDIA has been firing on all cylinders when it comes to the launch of the rest of the Fermi family. In July we saw the launch of the GF104 GPU and the GTX 460 it powers, providing a surprising tweak to the Fermi architecture on what should have been a simple waterfall part, and in the process trampling AMD’s Radeon HD 5830 at the $200 price point. For the first time in over a year we saw an NVIDIA product come out that was hyper-competitive on performance and pricing, the kind of competition we sorely miss.
Now 2 months after that launch we’re going to find out if lightning strikes twice. Today NVIDIA is launching the next desktop video card in the 400 series: GTS 450 Powering it is their new Fermi family GPU – GF106 – the next in the line of successively smaller Fermi GPUs for cheaper products. Targeted directly against AMD’s Radeon HD 5700 series, does it have what it takes to dethrone AMD's mainstream lineup?
Over the years, we've looked at many of ASUS' mobile offerings. From the lowly Eee PC up through gaming powerhouses, ASUS has something for everyone. They're looking to increase market share in the mobile world, and with products like the N82Jv we're looking at today there's no reason they shouldn't succeed. The last time we looked at their multimedia N-series with the N61Jv, we liked the general idea but found the combination of a 16" chassis with a middling display and battery life to be lacking. Can the 14" newcomer change our feeling?
Six months has also brought a lot more competition in the realm of Arrandale laptops as well as laptops equipped with Optimus Technology. Besides packing more power into a smaller form factor, ASUS updated the exterior to help the N82Jv stand out from the crowd. Join us as we investigate this laptop and see where it excels, and where it could still use a bit more TLC.
Our Ask the Experts series continues with another round of questions.
A couple of months ago we ran a webcast with Intel Fellow, Rich Uhlig, VMware Chief Platform Architect, Rich Brunner and myself. The goal was to talk about the past, present and future of virtualization. In preparation for the webcast we solicited questions from all of you, unfortunately we only had an hour during the webcast to address them. Rich Uhlig from Intel, Rich Brunner from VMware and our own Johan de Gelas all agreed to answer some of your questions in a 6 part series we're calling Ask the Experts. Each week we'll showcase three questions you guys asked about virtualization and provide answers from our panel of three experts. These responses haven't been edited and come straight from the experts.
If you'd like to see your question answered here leave it in the comments. While we can't guarantee we'll get to everything, we'll try to pick a few from the comments to answer as the weeks go on.
Three totally different servers in one test: the dual Xeon X5670 HP DL380 G7, the quad Xeon X7560 SGI Altix UV10 and the Quad Opteron 6174 Dell R815. Three servers with a different platform and built from a different vision. Why place them in one comparitive article? Because they can all be used for the same tasks: virtualization building blocks, ERP server, or HPC number cruncher. Our focus is on the first task, as we went through a massive battery of performance and power consumption measurements.
Join us as we present you the first virtualized performance per watt comparison of real OEM server products.
