Hasta La Gadget!

The Titan supercomputer at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory has been upgraded, tackling complex climate change calculations with 20 petaflops worth of new processors. Under the (considerable) hood its NVIDIA’s “Kepler” GPUs and AMD Opetron 6274 processors doing the heavy lifting, though NVIDIA can’t resist pointing out that its graphics chips are in fact carrying 90-percent of the overall load. The GPUs, more commonly found powering gaming rigs, help make Titan “the world’s fastest supercomputer for open scientific research.”

That research will include simulating physical systems, such as weather patterns, or progressions in energy, climate change, efficient engines, materials, and other fields. However, unlike most supercomputers, where access is jealously guarded, Titan takes a more open approach to access.

Researchers from schools and universities, government labs, and private industry can access Titan – by arrangement, of course – to crunch their own data. Final testing is still underway by the laboratory and Cray, and the supercomputer’s first year will be dominated by work on the Department of Energy’s Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment (INCITE) program.

“The improvements in simulation fidelity will accelerate progress in a wide range of research areas such as alternative energy and energy efficiency, the identification and development of novel and useful materials and the opportunity for more advanced climate projections” James Hack, director of ORNL’s National Center for Computational Sciences, said of the new machine.

In total, there are 299,008 CPU cores, sixteen to each of 18,688 nodes; each node also has an NVIDIA Tesla K20 graphics accelerator. The cores are used to guide the simulations, while the GPUs are relied upon to do the actual data crunching; altogether, it’s more than 10x faster and 5x more power efficient than the Jaguar supercomputer Titan replaces.

In fact, Titan can simulate 1-5 years per day of computing time, whereas Jaguar took a day to work through around three months worth of data. ORNL says it’s the equivalent of “the world’s 7 billion people being able to carry out 3 million calculations per second.”

Titan supercomputer goes live with potent CPU/GPU tag team is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Apple finally gave ambitious road-warriors with excellent vision the Retina MacBook Pro they’d been demanding, a 13-inch model to join the existing 15-inch Pro at the pinnacle of the company’s mobile range. Promising the same eye-watering visuals with the sort of processing power the Pro line-up is known for, the 13-inch version also makes some concessions so as to slim down to suit more frequent travelers. Is this the perfect notebook for your bag? Read on for our full review.

Hardware and Design

Side by side, the two Retina-class notebooks are almost identical in their thickness. The 13-inch model is actually slightly thicker – we’re talking a millimeter’s difference, mind – but the disparity in weight (3.57 pounds versus 4.46 pounds), width (12.35 inches versus 14.14 inches), and depth (8.62 inches versus 9.73 inches) are the most noticeable changes. If the original Retina MacBook Pro is a long, thin slice of computer, then the smaller model is a tiny powerhouse that can easily be dropped into a bag without demanding the sort of performance compromise of, say, a MacBook Air. Next to the old-style 13-inch, meanwhile, the differences are considerably more obvious. The new Retina model is thinner, lighter, narrower, and even less deep.

Still, there are some compromises to be made for reducing bulk (and for starting $500 less) from the 15-inch Retina Pro. The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina loses the discrete graphics option of its 15-inch sibling, making do with Intel HD Graphics 4000, though you can still power two external displays – via a combination of the two Thunderbolt ports and the single HDMI – and run the notebook’s own display simultaneously.

Storage starts off at 128GB of flash, with 256GB, 512GB, and 768GB options; the default processor is a 2.5GHz Core i5 dualcore, whereas the 15-inch model heads straight to Core i7 quadcores. You can pay extra for a Core i7 chip on the 13-inch, but it’s the dualcore, not the quad. Memory is a fixed 8GB of 1600MHz DDR3L, with no option to change that.

13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina: Hands-on and comparisons:

All the ports, wireless connectivity, and 720p webcam are the same as we saw on the 15-inch, as is the backlit keyboard and sizable trackpad. That means you get a pair of Thunderbolt connectors (which can double as Mini DisplayPort), two USB 3.0, a headphone jack, SDXC memory card slot, and an HDMI output. Inside there’s WiFi a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0, and a pair of microphones are on the left edge.

Apple’s industrial design continues its gradual evolution toward thinner, pared-back computing, and the new MacBook Pro is no different. From the side, it’s like the old model but flatter; you can also glimpse the new “side gill” vents which are part of the reworked cooling system. In use, it’s quiet, with the fans only rising to a concentrated hum during the heavier moments of our benchmarking. The compromise to be made is one of repairability and room for improvement: the memory is soldered to the logic board, so as to shave away bulk, as is the processor, and the flash storage uses a proprietary connector so it’s sensible to buy the biggest drive you can afford initially.

Display

The 13-inch MacBook Pro Retina display is, at 2560 x 1600, slightly lower than the 2880 x 1800 of the 15-inch, but because of the smaller size its pixel density is even higher: 227 ppi compared to 220 ppi. With both in front of you, though, you don’t see any difference – the whole point, after all, is that the pixels aren’t supposed to be individually identifiable – only the mesmerizing detail and smoothness of the graphics that leave other notebook displays, no matter how bright or colorful, looking crunchy and jagged. Viewing angles are broad enough that you might have to worry about those next to you on the plane glancing over and seeing what you’re working on.

As before true Retina mode on the MacBook Pro doesn’t actually give you 2560 x 1600 resolution. Instead, you get a simulated lower resolution which is smoother all round, since each pixel is in fact a cluster of smaller pixels.Yyou can optionally switch out of Retina mode and pick a higher effective resolution, though the 13-inch misses out on the 1920 x 1200 of the larger machine; instead, the maximum is 1680 x 1050, still impressive (and impressively detailed) for a relatively small notebook. Third party applications are available which will force the display resolution even higher, though are not officially supported by Apple.

Apple is quoting a 75-percent reduction in glare from its new Retina display, versus the previous MacBook Pro 13. In practice, there’s certainly fewer reflections, which adds up to more flexibility in where you can use the notebook. It’s not a true matte finish, mind, though by ramping up the brightness you can use it outdoors and still see what’s going on.

Performance

We actually have two new 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina models on our test bench: the 2.5GHz Core i5-3210M dualcore (3MB L3 cache) and the 2.9GHz Core i7-3520M dualcore (4MB L3 cache). Each has 8GB of memory and supports Intel Turbo Boost, up to 3.1GHz and 3.6GHz respectively, and is running Mac OS 10.8.2.

We started with Geekbench, a synthetic test of processor and memory performance. The Core i5 machine scored 6507 overall, while the Core i7 pushed that to 8238. It’s worth noting that the increases weren’t solely in the processor categories: the Core i7 model also recorded better memory scores, suggesting that it makes better use of the 8GB it has. Still, each is a fair step behind the 15-inch Retina model, which scored 12,970 with its 2.6GHz quadcore Core i7-3720QM and 8GB of memory. Performance was roughly on a par with the mid-2012 13-inch MacBook Air.

MacBook Pro 13 with Retina – Core i5 – Geekbench:

MacBook Pro 13 with Retina – Core i7 – Geekbench:

We then turned to Cinebench, which benchmarks processor and graphics performance with a mixture of 3D rendering and OpenGL testing. It’s a good way of examining how a system will handle intensive tasks such as video processing, or gaming.

The Core i5 model scored 2.12 CPU points, while the Core i7 scored 2.81 CPU points, or roughly half the result you’d expect from a quadcore processor. Unsurprisingly, with no discrete GPU, graphics performance showed the biggest hit, with the Core i5 managing 14.81fps and the Core i7 squeezing out 19.69fps.

By way of comparison, the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina’s NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M GPU saw it record a score of 34.30fps in the same category. The MacBook Air managed 16.41fps.

If you’re planning use your new Mac for serious graphics or video editing, our suggestion would be to stick to the larger Pro, as the standalone GPU pays dividends. Of course, it also requires more power, though it includes the same Intel HD Graphics 4000 chip for more everyday use.

Battery

While the battery in the MacBook Pro 13 Retina may be smaller than before – 74-watt-hour, or versus the 95-watt-hour of the 15-inch – the fact it’s driving a smaller screen and less extreme components means Apple rates it for the same runtime: up to seven hours of wireless web browsing, or 30 days standby. However, the 60-watt MagSafe 2 power adapter is slightly smaller and thus continues the theme of the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina being easier to transport.

In practice, with a mixture of web browsing over WiFi, some music playback, a couple of YouTube videos and some emailing, and the display set to a usable half brightness, the Pro lasted just over six hours. Scaling that back to solely browsing and we broke past Apple’s seven hour estimate by a couple of minutes. In contrast, a more ambitious use of the notebook for video playback and some brief video processing in iMovie saw the battery expire in around four hours.

Wrap-Up

The $2,000 mark is an important mental barrier, and the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina’s $2,199 starting price put it out of consideration for many. In contrast, the 13-inch version starts at $1,699 with the 128GB flash drive, rising to $1,999 for the 256GB model.

Increasing storage isn’t cheap – you can boost the entry-level model to 768GB, yes, but it’ll cost you more than a MacBook Air to do so – but the $200 extra for the Core i7 dualcore strikes us as a worthy upgrade given the impact it has on performance overall. Apple still offers the non-Retina 13-inch MacBook Pro, which starts at $1,199 with the same 2.5GHz Core i5 dualcore, though to specify the same memory and a 128GB SSD you’re looking at $1,499. You also get a gigabit ethernet port, FireWire, and an optical drive, though you miss out on the lighter chassis and far improved Retina display.

While the Air might be the smallest of Apple’s notebook line-up, the 13-inch Pro hits a more palatable sweet-spot for balancing power, performance, and functionality. At $1,699 and up, the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display sits at the premium end of the notebook market ($500 less than the entry-level 15-inch model, mind, although you do get extra performance for that) but it does offer features that, right now, you can’t get elsewhere. Those for whom sheer power – particularly multimedia editing – is essential should probably opt for the bigger model, but those road warriors looking to pare back weight and bulk without unduly sacrificing usability will find a lot to love in the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display.

MacBook Pro 13-inch Retina Review is written by Vincent Nguyen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Apple’s Mac mini may be a masterpiece of origami, but that hasn’t stopped the teardown merchants from unleashing their screwdriver sets on the compact desktop. The tinkerers at iFixit have pinned down the new late-2012 model, announced earlier this week, and yanked out its silicon guts to see how flexible it might me. Despite the small size, however, the score is pretty good: 8 out of 10 for repairability.

The Mac mini gets credit for not using proprietary screws, unlike the pentalobes found on the Retina-class MacBook Pro, and there’s no glue holding down anything inside. iFixit also likes the fact that the RAM and hard-drive aren’t soldered in, which means they’re easily replaced by the user, and you can also add in a second drive (as Apple does by default for the server version of the mini).

Of course, there are always going to be some compromises with a small-form-factor chassis, and the Mac mini is no different. The fact that the CPU is soldered to the logic board and so can’t be replaced by the user is probably the biggest drawback, though iFixit also mentions the trickiness of actually unpacking and replacing all of the components involved.

The updated mini kicks off at $599 for the 2.5GHz dualcore Core i5 model with 4GB of RAM and 500GB of storage; it has Intel HD Graphics 4000 as standard. The server version, with a pair of 1TB drives and a quadcore Core i7 chip is $999.

Mac mini late-2012 teardown: Well packed but repair friendly is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

I just bought a 27-inch iMac last year, and I really love it. In fact, it’s the best computer I’ve EVER owned, and I’ve owned a whole lot of computers over the years. Between its industrial design, fast processor, the staggeringly-sharp display, and Apple’s solid OS X operating system, it’s really a dream machine. Now, they to tempt us to get rid of our already awesome machines and upgrade them to the 2012 iMac, thanks to its even sexier new form factor.

The new iMac doesn’t have a retina display or lots of new bells-and-whistles. In fact, it no longer has the DVD drive found in the 2011 and earlier models. But what it does have going for it is that it’s a sheer thing of beauty. With a new design that’s just 5 millimeters thick at the edges, and as much as 8 pounds lighter than the previous model, it’s a real marvel of modern engineering.

At first glance – especially from the side – you’ll ask where the heck they fit the computer in this thing. It’s really ALL display. And what a display it is. By redesigning the LED IPS display found in the current iMacs, the new screen manages to cut glare by as much as 75%. Plus, the thinner display offers more vibrant colors than the 2011 model. Plus, Apple is individually color-calibrating each iMac screen as it leaves the assembly line. As with the 2011 models, the displays come in 27-inch, 2560×1440 and 21.5-inch 1920×1080 flavors.

Apple also claims that despite the thin enclosure, that the new iMac’s sound quality is improved. It’s also got dual microphones and a 720p FaceTime HD camera for video chats.

Under the hood, choose from an Intel Core i5 or Core i7 quad-core “Ivy Bridge” CPU, with speeds ranging from 2.7GHz to 3.2GHz for the i5, and up to 3.4GHz for the i7. The machine also has an upgraded NVIDIA GeForce Kepler graphics chipset, which Apple claims to offer up to 60% faster performance than the last generation. You can choose from the 512MB GT 640M, or 650M on the 21.5-inch model, or the 512MB GTX 660M, 1GB G675MX or the top-of-the line 2GB GeForce GTX 680MX for the 27-inch model.

One cool new option available is a drive Apple is calling the Fusion Drive – a new hybrid that combines a 128GB solid state drive with a 1TB to 3TB hard drive – melded into a single volume. This should greatly improve performance of disk intensive apps, as well as system startup. That said, the standard hard drive comes in 1TB to 3TB sizes, and there’s also a (likely to be expensive) 768GB SSD option for the 27-inch model.

Both models come with 8GB 1600MHz DDR3 RAM standard, while the 21.5-inch model is expandable to 16GB RAM, while the 27-inch can accept up to 32GB. Wireless connectivity is provided via 802.11 a/b/g/n wi-fi and Bluetooth 4.0. Each system comes with four USB 3.0 ports, 2 Thunderpolt ports, Gigabit Ethernet, and an SDXC memory card slot (that’s been moved to the back of the display. There’s also still a Mini DisplayPort connector, but it’s not clear where they hid it from the picture below:

Exact release dates haven’t been announced, but the 21.5-inch model will start shipping this November, while the 27-inch model comes out in December. Both models will offer similar pricing to the 2011 line, with the 21.5-inch iMac starting at $1299(USD) and the 27-inch starting at $1799. Pricing for upgrades and options haven’t been announced yet.

Apple today officially revealed the latest addition to the iPad line, a slimmed-down new model with a 7.9-inch display called the iPad Mini. The new tablet is aimed squarely at the lower end of the market, looking to undermine Amazon’s Kindle success and to deal a blow to other small tablets, such as Google’s Nexus 7 that are significantly less expensive than the current iPad.

The new iPad mini is built to be slim and lightweight, and measures just 7.2mm thick and weighs .68 pounds – about half what the 10-incher weighs, and much easier to hold with one hand.

Under the hood, it’s similar to the iPad 2, running the same A5 dual-core chipset, and offering a 1024×768 touchscreen display at 163ppi, which is lower than “retina” density, but still looks sharper than the displays in the original iPad and iPad 2, and ensuring full backwards compatibility with existing apps.

It’s all packed into a svelte aluminum case with similar design cues to that of the recently-released iPhone 5, with a skinny bezel that helps pack more display into a smaller package. It sports Apple’s tiny, 8-pin Lightning connector to help keep things slim. It will ship with either a black or white version with an anodized aluminum case, just like the iPhone 5 too. Connectivity is 802.11 a/b/g/n wi-fi, with Bluetooth 4.0 and optional 4G LTE connectivity.

Just like its big brother, battery life is rated at 10 hours, and the mini sports a front-facing FaceTime camera at 720p resolution and a rear-facing camera that can shoot 1080p video or 5-megapixel stills. It’s also got the requisite three-axis gyro, accelerometer, compass, and ambient light sensor. The 4G LTE model also offers A-GPS.

Of course, the iPad mini ships with the recently-released iOS 6, along with all of its new bells and whistles. Of course, it can take advantage of the over 275,000 iPad apps already available through the App Store too. Also announced today was an updated version of iBooks, which supports continuous-scrolling, posting of excerpts to Facebook and Twitter, and iCloud page syncing, and support for 40 languages. The update will be available from the App Store later today.

And for those of you who take your iPad on the road, the iPad mini even supports Siri.

Pricing for the iPad mini starts at just $329 for 16GB wi-fi and $429 for the 32GB Wi-fi model and $519 for 64GB. As for the 4G LTE version, you’re looking at $459 for 16GB, $559 for 16GB, and $649 for the 32GB model.

The iPad mini will be available for pre-order starting this Friday, October 26th, and the Wi-Fi version will ship starting on November 2nd. No word yet on which countries will get the device on that date, nor the exact date for the LTE variants. You should be able to find more details on the iPad mini over on Apple’s website now.

Personally, I prefer the larger screen of the regular iPad models, and someday I’d love an even bigger tablet – maybe 15 inches. But for those of you who want something more compact, still want Apple’s massive library of iOS apps, and are looking to save on their tablet purchase, the iPad mini looks pretty nice.