At NAB 2013, Intel just announced the next-generation of Thunderbolt, codenamed “Falcon Ridge,” which is Apple’s latest protocol for file transfer, as well as transmitting video. Intel says that the next-generation Thunderbolt protocol will be able to push 20Gbps and will support 4K video when it’s planned to launch in 2014.
Intel says Falcon Ridge will include backwards compatibility with current-generation Thunderbolt devices, although anything using the current standard will be kept at those same speeds of 10Gbps. This means that Falcon Ridge is twice as fast as the current-generation of Thunderbolt, which is quite impressive and something that haven’t seen yet.
Intel demonstrated the new technology using top-of-the-line components that are available today and were able to achieve speeds of 1.2Gbps, which is a far cry from what the Falcon Ridge is capable of, but the most obvious bottleneck is the stage at which hardware components are at right now. If you were to use current-generation Thunderbolt, you’d have to get a solid state drive just to take advantage of the faster speeds.
Thunderbolt is over two years old now, and it’s becoming a mainstream feature in Apple’s products, but taking advantage of the file transfer protocol is costly, with Thunderbolt external hard drives costing much more than USB 3.0 or eSATA drives. It’s certainly an investment if you’re looking for faster transfer speeds, but it’s really worth it in the end.
Intel is reportedly shipping its next-gen Haswell chips out to PC manufacturers now. The Haswell chip will be powering ultrabooks as well as hybrid laptops that are part laptop part tablet. Ultrabooks running the Haswell chip will see a major boost over ultrabooks utilizing Intel’s current Ivy-Bridge offering. The Haswell chip is expected to roll out around June, around the same time Windows Blue is expected to show its face.
While it hasn’t been officially confirmed that Intel’s Haswell chips are being shipped, many sources have come to CNET to confirm the news. They said that Intel should be releasing an official statement confirming the shipments at the IDF Beijing conference this week. The chips will provide major improvements to a critical aspect of laptops; battery life. Laptops with the chip are expected to last 24-hours with a single charge.
There will be some complications coming with the first batch of Intel’s Haswell chips. Intel has confirmed that the intial batch of Haswell chips have a bug that can affect USB 3.0 ports. Intel says that your files will be safe from data loss or corruption, but after waking up your computer from standby mode, you may need to re-plug your USB device into the socket. So far the issue seems isolated to a small amount of “USB SuperSpeed thumb drives”.
Along with the shipments of Haswell Chips, Intel will also be releasing its “Merrifeld” Atom chips for smartphones, as well as its “Bay Trail” Atom chips for tablets by the end of this year. The Haswell chips will fully utilize Windows Blue when it comes out, maximizing both performance and battery life in Windows Blue systems. Intel anticipates that the combination of both the chip and Windows Blue will revamp the laptop/ultrabook world.
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Here at NAB, Intel just introduced the next generation of its Thunderbolt interface, which promises a data rate of 20 Gbps in both directions (on each of the two channels) as opposed to 10 Gbps for the previous version. Of course, the company stepped back for a moment first, boasting that Thunderbolt currently has about 200 licensees, and more compatible devices — along with new, thinner cables — should be coming out in the following months. Building up to the big reveal, Intel also shared some info about its new Thunderbolt host controller, (code-named Redwood Ridge), which will be built into some of Intel’s upcoming fourth-gen Core processors.
But let’s talk about the real news: the next-gen Thunderbolt tech (code-named Falcon Ridge) enables 4K video file transfer and display simultaneously in addition to running at 20 Gbps. It will be backward-compatible with previous-gen Thunderbolt cables and connectors, and production is set to ramp up in 2014. An on-stage demo with fresh-off-the-press silicon showed the new Thunderbolt running 1,200 MBps, which is certainly a step up from what’s currently on the market.
Update: We’ve added a video of the Thunderbolt demo from Intel’s stage. Hop on past the break to check it out.
According to a new report Intel has started shipping its latest Haswell chip to PC manufacturers. Though it has not officially been confirmed yet by Intel, the chips have reportedly started reaching major manufacturers and products based on it are expected to launch this quarter. It is expected that Intel will make an announcement regarding Haswell chips at the IDF conference, due to take place next week in Beijing. Haswell, Intel’s most power efficient mainstream processor, was touted by CEO Paul Otellini as the single largest generation-to-generation battery life improvement in Intel history.
A range of ultrabooks and tablet/laptop hybrids will be powered by the Haswell processor. According to the latest media note from Intel, the 4th generation Haswell core is on track for a mid-year launch. The Haswell processors retain a 22nm process similar to that of Ivy Bridge processors, though there’a new microarchitechture for improved performance. There will reportedly be 14 new CPUs across the Core i5 and Core i7 brands which will use an entirely new CPU socket called LGA 1150 on Lynx Point chipset motherboards, split in to six standard power SKUs and eight low power SKUs.
The Falcon Northwest Tiki is a custom-built pre-constructed gaming PC that emphasizes both a radically small form factor and high performance processing power. We had the opportunity to take a peek at this system thanks to NVIDIA – inside this tiny tower is the newest most fantastic consumer-aimed graphics card on the market: the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN, the consumer product riding the wave of the impact the TITAN supercomputer. We’ll be continuing to explore the ins and outs of the TITAN over the coming year as products such as Project SHIELD become available – for now, this review of the Tiki should serve as a primer for those of you considering a TITAN of your own – and/or a full Falcon Northwest build, of course.
Hardware
The Tiki case is one that those unfamiliar with the intricacies of custom-made computers will easily overlook. It’s certainly not the flashy rainbow LED light show that some gaming PCs opt for – it’s almost as if the Tiki dares those that look at it to ask what the big deal is. Up close and personal, you’ll find that the Tiki boasts a fabulously simple set of aesthetics, a subtly lit Falcon Northwest logo up front, and a granite base.
The granite base we’ve got here is what the company calls “Absolute Black”. While you’ve got more than one color choice if you’d like to explore several shades, we’d certainly recommend the black if you’re working with the straight-up black case – together they’re quite classy. The whole unit is light enough that you’ll be able to transport it to and from LAN parties with ease (if that’s your sort of thing) and is perfectly well balanced due in a large part to the granite – it does its job well.
Getting inside the Tiki is just about as simple as it gets without working with magnets – here you’ll be undoing two thumbscrews and pushing one side off – you’ll want to be careful doing so only because the 120MM Asetek liquid cooler (550LC) is attached to it, tubes running from the casing to the main hunk of the unit. This setup works awesome for getting down into the guts of the machine as quick as possible – the fewer screws we’ve got to deal with for customization, the better.
Inside this setup you’ll find an ASUS P8Z77-I Deluxe mini ITX motherboard shining out in all its bluey glory amid the massive monsters that are the high-end components that this amalgamation is made of. We’re working with a 256GB SSD SATA3 (Crucial M4 with M500 available soon from Falcon Northwest – check on that when you’re picking up your own) as well as a 3TB WD “Caviar Green” SATA3 hard drive for all the data storage you could ask for.
Getting inside to remove / replace / give big kisses to your favorite components is only a few screw turns away. While there are wires here or there glued down for the trip between Falcon Northwest’s test shop and your home, they’re easily popped off and apart when you decide you want to move forward with any new components.
The two big monsters inside this build are the 3rd Generation Intel Core i7 processor (overclocked to 3.5GHz), and the 6GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN graphics card. When you’re picking up the TITAN, you’re not looking for a budget setup. You’ve got a beast right out of the box. Again, this isn’t the last time we’ll be working with NVIDIA’s TITAN GPU for video game reviews and cloud gaming action – stick around our NVIDIA tag portal as well as our NVIDIA Tegra hub for the full fireworks through the future.
Once you’re done rummaging around the insides, you’ll find more inputs and outputs than you’ll ever have a need for. The build we’ve got here works with a Sony Optiarc slot load DVD+-RW on top near a a headphone jack, microphone jack, and set of two USB 3.0 ports. You’ll also see a symmetrical set of vents that, when you peek through, you’ll be able to see the side of the TITAN: “GEFORCE GTX” in bright NVIDIA green lights just below the surface – only visible up close.
The back of this machine has its IO panel labels set in upside-down for easy reading whilst looking down over the top – as you’re prone to do with such a desktop. That massive set of connections includes two eSATA ports, four USB 3.0 ports, and four USB 2.0 ports. You’ll also find GigE, ASUS Wifi connections (you’ll get two external antenna in your package from Falcon Northwest), and standard optical and analog audio jacks. Ethernet and processor-powered display outputs DVI, HDMI, and Display Port are also down there if you want to make use of them.
Nearer the top you’ve got two DL-DVI ports as well as HDMI and DisplayPort outputs bringing the heat via your GeForce TITAN GPU. Your power supply (Silverstone ST-45B 450W) sits nearest the bottom on the back. On either side of the case you’ll more airflow action allowing this Tiki setup to remain impressively cool no matter what we throw at it. With that you’ll still be hearing next no noise – you’ll certainly not be having to dismiss a “hum” while you’re enjoying the greatness of the highest powered games on the market – those being the games you’re essentially obligated to test out and work with when you’re rolling with Tiki.
Software and Performance
Under the hood out of the box we’re working with 64bit Windows 8 Professional, and though it’s still a little odd working with this operating system without a touchscreen interface, it’s certainly starting to feel more natural than it did when Microsoft first pushed the system to consumers. That said, the real power here comes from the software we’re using outside the standard Microsoft experience: games, games, and more games. And with a system this size, big-time possibilities!
Steam Big Picture Mode
The size of this system suggests some rather unique use-cases, even before we consider the fact that NVIDIA has some big plans for GeForce and cloud computing in the home this year. The Tiki case isn’t much larger than the average major-label gaming console today, and even compared to what’s coming out later this year (more than likely), you can be confident you’ll have a size-to-power ratio that blows any gaming console out of the water. And unless the Xbox 720 or PlayStation 4 pull some real magic out of their sleeves with regards to digital game distribution soon, Valve’s Steam will continue to be the premiere destination for the universe’s greatest downloadable games.
NVIDIA GeForce Experience
NVIDIA has made some rather interesting strides recently in making sure the average citizen is able to have a top-notch gaming experience. Just this year the GeForce Experience was released – an NVIDIA-powered app interface where a collection of the world’s most fabulous games can have their settings optimized for your unique gaming hardware setup instantly and automatically. NVIDIA has released a new GeForce driver software update for esentially every major game delivered in the first quarter of 2013, each of them able to be accessed via this GeForce Experience with a single button click, a unique game settings interface appearing for you then if you’ve got said game on your computer.
System – System manufacturer System Product Name
Manufacturer
Falcon Northwest
Product Type
Desktop
Operating System
Microsoft Windows 8 Pro (64-bit)
Motherboard
ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. P8Z77-I DELUXE
Processor
Intel Core i7-3770K
Processor ID
GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 58 Stepping 9
Processor Frequency
3.50 GHz
Processors
1
Threads
8
Cores
4
L1 Instruction Cache
32.0 KB
L1 Data Cache
32.0 KB
L2 Cache
256 KB
L3 Cache
8.00 MB
Memory
8.00 GB DDR3 SDRAM 934MHz
FSB
100.0 MHz
BIOS
American Megatrends Inc. 0607
With the automatic settings optimization feature, your games will become as excellent as they possibly can be – both aesthetically and performance-wise. With the Tiki rolling with a GeForce GTX TITAN under the hood and NVIDIA optimizing settings game-to-game, we’ve had nothing but the best gaming experiences we’ve ever seen on a gaming computer.
Benchmark Score – System manufacturer System Product Name
Section
Description
Score
Total Score
Windows x86 (64-bit) – Microsoft Windows 8 Pro (64-bit)
Integer
Processor integer performance
16175
18728
Floating Point
Processor floating point performance
28310
Memory
Memory performance
10590
Stream
Memory bandwidth performance
10411
Right this minute we’ve done just our standard fare as far as benchmarks go, Geekbench showing this build to be amongst the most powerful gaming PCs we’ve reviewed. Also be sure to check out similar results on much larger machines, too: AVADirect Quiet Gaming PC and NEEDLETAIL SX – and have a peek at a couple relatively small machines so you know what the Tiki is up against physical size-wise: MainGear Potenza and iBuyPower Revolt.
Whilst playing Batman: Arkham City, we’ve experienced a been a bit of a re-birth of interest with the much higher-definition display than we used when originally reviewing the game, not to mention a system that’s on a whole different level than the Alienware notebook (pre 3rd-gen Intel Core processors and so-forth). While it’s not that working with a beast like the MX-17 from a couple years ago is a bad thing (it’s actually still quite amazing), there’s just no comparing to the smoothness and detail we’re getting here.
In Hawken the only thing that stops one from having the miraculous non-stop smoothness we’re seeing in Arkham City is the fact that part of our experience is based online. If we’d be working with the connections our friends in Japan have with wires so thick you could drive a truck through them, we’d be golden – here we’ll have to settle for just “destroys all gaming experiences we’ve had before this year.” Have a peek at our first look at Hawken while you’re at it.
Even Star Wars: The Old Republic looks great. As it’s included in NVIDIA’s GeForce Experience list of games that can be optimized for greatness automatically, we certainly had to give it a go. As it turns out, the difference between what you get in this game on a basic level and what NVIDIA can give you is immense. While the gameplay remains the same – you’re still firing blasters at your opponents and rolling in the Force like mad – you can take part in the deepest visual details the developers intended you to see. Just look at that water ripple!
We’ll be continuing to benchmark the build we’ve got here through the future, so be sure to ask if you’ve got any tests you’d like us to run. We’ll be putting this setup through the punches in any and all ways you desire!
Wrap-Up
The Falcon Northwest Tiki is not a machine made for penny-pinchers. If you’re planning on working with any gaming PC packing an NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN GPU, you’re going to be paying quite a chunk of change – this isn’t the sort of situation where you’re paying just a little bit of cash for a just-good-enough helping of performance. Instead you’re going to want to save up for a couple months – the build we’ve gotten from Falcon Northwest here will cost you more than $3k.
You can make your Tiki cost quite a bit less if you don’t want to pack it full of the top-of-the-line components we’ve got here – and you’ll still have an amazing build – but that’s not what NVIDIA’s TITAN brand is about. With the Falcon Northwest Tiki packing NVIDIA’s TITAN, you’ve got a gaming masterpiece, plain and simple.
Modern day hardware has one advantage over the hardware of yore – a simple firmware update (all right, so coming up with a tweaked firmware is not that simple in essence, but you know what I am talking about here, don’t you?) is all that is required to offer a boost in overall performance, compared to having to purchase a totally new piece of hardware in the past. Well, Intel’s integrated HD 4000 GPU has been used in numerous devices in the past, so it is nice to hear that the silicone giant has announced a totally new graphics driver for the existing chipset, targeting machines that run on Ivy Bridge processors.
According to Intel, this new firmware update ought to see improvement in graphics performance by up to 10%, in addition to lowering the overall power consumption, which is always a good thing whenever you deal with mobile devices. The upcoming Intel HD 4000 graphics driver will be version 15.3.1, and it is tipped for an early April release, which frankly, is not too far off away.
At GDC 2013, Intel has revealed some details of its 4th Gen Core Processors, including details about their upcoming graphics processors features (all Intel Core processor comes with a graphics processor or integrated GPU inside). Not surprisingly, DirectX 11.1 is supported, but what was not expected was that Intel actually extended upon the DX11 specifications to include two new features: Instant Access and PixelSync. Instant Access provides a more straightforward, more convenient and faster way to access the GPU memory, PixelSync does provide a more fundamental improvement in how computer graphics work and performs, especially when it comes to handling transparency. (more…)
If you’ve not heard of it before, the Razer Edge gaming tablet can seem like a bit of an odd unicorn. While we’ve heard of gaming tablets before, this really does appear to be one of the most grand efforts a company has made thus far – especially considering the rise of the Android tablet and the iPad – both of which could be considered “gaming tablets” in their own right. What have we got here then? We’ve got Windows 8, a 3rd-gen Intel Core i7 processor, 256GB SSD, and a fabulous 8GB of RAM – and NVIDIA graphics, too!
Of course with NVIDIA GT 640M LE (1GB DDR3, Optimus Technology) you’ve not exactly got the biggest, baddest beast in the land, but you’re still running with a brand that boasts its greatness on a daily basis. The tablet itself is 278.5 mm x 178.85 mm x 19.5 mm / 10.9″ x 7″ x .80″ – not exactly tiny. All that comes in the PRO version – there’s also a basic edition which you can find out more about in our fabulous original rundown.
“This isn’t the kind of device you’re going to be bringing to highschool to play during class.”
Since we saw this device back at CES 2013 for our most recent hands-on adventure, the tablet itself has been modified just a bit – but for the most part, it’s still the same device we described then as “a rather interesting combination of ‘why would I want this’ and ‘take my money right this minute’”. You’ll almost certainly be saying one of the two when you see the price: $1,450 USD brand new for the PRO – go grab one!
If you need a bit more convincing, hear this: this is just about as close to NVIDIA’s Project SHIELD that you’re going to get until later this year. With a 10.1-inch 1366×768 IPS display up front and Windows under the hood, it’s also the only experience you’re going to get like this on the market today. Unless you create your own handlebars and control connections for your own Windows 8 tablet, that is.
There’s also a keyboard dock, mind you. We’re expecting that this tablet will have no end to its accessory add-ons throughout its life. Expect the oddities to roll in!
Why would you want it?
Because playing games on a 10.1-inch tablet is cool, but playing games on a 10.1-inch tablet with a massive set of physical controls attached is even cooler. This device isn’t for everyone, but if you’re the sort of person that’s looking for a gaming experience that’s not exactly like one you’ve ever had before, this is a good place to start!
Have a peek at our hands-on with the Razer Edge and get pumped up about our future coverage as well – this is a rather unique experience, we assure you – don’t miss it!
Ultrabooks have started to become popular alternatives to regular laptops due to its thin and slim form factor, and the fact that most Ultrabooks come bundled with speedy SSDs versus regular HDDs found on normal laptops. However Ultrabooks tend to be priced at the higher-end of the market, meaning that customers who don’t see the point in paying $999 for a laptop will not buy one. However according to Intel at the Intel Solutions Summit, Kirk Skaugen, the senior vice president and general manager of Intel’s PC Client Group came out and said that we might be able to look forward to $599 Ultrabooks entering the market this holiday season.
These $599 Ultrabooks are expected to be built on Intel’s Haswell chipset, making it more affordable, but apparently more feature-rich compared to current generation devices. Intel’s reference Haswell model is expected to come with a high-res touchscreen display, speedier SSDs, voice recognition and facial recognition, and best of all, “all-day” battery life which we guess is definitely subject to testing and will vary from user to user. However we have to wonder if dropping the price down to $599, will OEMs have to sacrifice premium materials in favor of plastic (i.e. the Samsung Series 9 uses aluminum for its chassis)?
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Modern day hardware has one advantage over the hardware of yore – a simple firmware update (all right, so coming up with a tweaked firmware is not that simple in essence, but you know what I am talking about here, don’t you?) is all that is required to offer a boost in overall performance, compared to having to purchase a totally new piece of hardware in the past. Well, Intel’s integrated HD 4000 GPU has been used in numerous devices in the past, so it is nice to hear that the silicone giant has announced a totally new graphics driver for the existing chipset, targeting machines that run on Ivy Bridge processors.
At GDC 2013, Intel has revealed some details of its 4th Gen Core Processors, including details about their upcoming graphics processors features (all Intel Core processor comes with a graphics processor or integrated GPU inside). Not surprisingly, DirectX 11.1 is supported, but what was not expected was that Intel actually extended upon the DX11 specifications to include two new features: Instant Access and PixelSync. Instant Access provides a more straightforward, more convenient and faster way to access the GPU memory, PixelSync does provide a more fundamental improvement in how computer graphics work and performs, especially when it comes to handling transparency. 
Ultrabooks have started to become popular alternatives to regular laptops due to its thin and slim form factor, and the fact that most Ultrabooks come bundled with speedy SSDs versus regular HDDs found on normal laptops. However Ultrabooks tend to be priced at the higher-end of the market, meaning that customers who don’t see the point in paying $999 for a laptop will not buy one. However according to Intel at the Intel Solutions Summit, Kirk Skaugen, the senior vice president and general manager of Intel’s PC Client Group came out and said that we might be able to look forward to $599 Ultrabooks entering the market this holiday season.
