Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on April 29, 2008 by CyberNet.

Earlier this month we asked CyberNet readers, “How old is your primary computer?” Over 950 of you responded and as it turns out, 30% of you, larger than any other group, are using a computer that’s less than one year old. Coming in next was 21% of you who said that you are using a computer that’s 1-2 years old. In all, over 50% of you have a computer that’s between less than a year, and two years old. Judging from the results, it looks as though many of you do what you can to keep up with the latest technology.

Now it’s time for a new Poll and the idea for this one came from a Tip from Asgard (thanks for the tip!) who thought it might be interesting to find out how many people are using Vista 64-bit compared to Vista 32-bit. In the message, he said “Guru3D had poll like that some time ago and it gave very interesting results. Over 80% had 64-bit. It would be nice to see if it’s just graphics fanatics who have or is it more common. Also it would help people to be less afraid of 64-bit systems because 64-bit Vista really has advantages over 32-bit.”

We thought it was a great idea, but decided to extend the poll further to include XP and Linux because there are 32-bit and 64-bit versions of those operating systems available.Some of you may not even know the difference between a 32-bit and 64-bit processor, so we thought we’d give a quick explanation of that first. We found a great explanation over at “Build Your Own Computer Tips“:

A bit is short for “binary digit.” It is basically how a computer stores and makes references to data, memory, etc. A bit can have a value of 1 or 0, that’s it. So binary code is streams of 1’s and 0’s, such as this random sequence 100100100111. These bits are also how your processor does calculations. By using 32 bits your processor can represent numbers from 0 to 4,294,967,295 while a 64-bit machine can represent numbers from 0 to 18,446,744,073,709,551,615.

There are several benefits to using 64-bit processors and one of the most popular is the ability to use more than 4GB of RAM in your computer. Computers with 32-bit processors are limited to 4GB of RAM while those with 64-bit processors are “limited” to 17.2 billion GB of RAM which is about 16 exabytes.

For our new poll, we’re taking a look at how many of you are using 64-bit operating systems to take advantage of the capabilities that your processor has to offer.

Which are you using, if any:

• 64-bit Vista
• 32-bit Vista
• 64-bit XP
• 32-bit XP
• 64-bit Linux
• 32-bit Linux
• none of the above

Cast your vote in the sidebar or if you have Flash enabled you can vote right here:

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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So AMD’s Bulldozer has been chugging along at a snail’s pace when it comes to actually making it to market, but if these benchmarks are any clue, the sluggishness stops there. Donanim Haber recently obtained an 8-core (that’s four Bulldozer cores) engineering sample and put it through its paces alongside an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 GPU, and from the looks of things it faired pretty well, pulling in a 3DMark 11 score of 6265, with a physics (CPU-centric) score of 7487. As Ars Technica points out, that puts it solidly in the center of Tom’s Hardware’s physics scores for the Sandy Bridge Core i5-2500K, scoring 6667, and Core i7-2600K, pulling in 8152. When it came to PCMark 7 scores, however, Bulldozer fell far behind the competition. Of course, these are just numbers — for an engineering sample, no less — which means they should be taken with a fistful of salt, but it’s nice to finally see Bulldozer getting down and dirty. If your hunger for benchmarks hasn’t been fully satisfied, hop on over to the source for more results.

AMD Bulldozer prototype gets benchmarked, could give Sandy Bridge some competition originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Jul 2011 20:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AMD is due to release a batch of new Llano APUs next month that are specifically tailored to desktops rather than laptops. The most powerful among them will be the 2.9GHz A8-3850, which has already caused a stir on the review circuit for one simple reason: it pulls off a brutal “one shot one kill” on Intel’s HD 3000 integrated graphics. AnandTech raised an impressed eyebrow at the fact that all its benchmarking games were playable on the $135 AMD chip, which roughly doubled frame rates in titles like Modern Warfare 2, Bioshock 2 and World of Warcraft compared to the more expensive Sandy Bridge i5 2500K. TechSpot declared the APU its “new budget king,” with graphical performance “on another level” compared even to an i7.

However, the superlatives quickly evaporated once reviewers shifted their focus to the CPU. TechReport spotted that pure CPU performance per dollar was actually lower than what you’d get from a lowly i3. Moreover, it reckoned you’d only have to spend an extra $70 to buy a much more powerful CPU and a separate graphics card — an option that comes “awfully close to making the A8-3850 seem irrelevant.” Ouch. Nevertheless, if an affordable processor with integrated graphics is what you’re after, then it’s fair to say this one sets the standard. Click the source links below for full reviews.

AMD Llano desktop APU gets reviewed: the best integrated graphics in town originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Jun 2011 14:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Freescale answered our power prayers with the introduction of its i.MX 6 processor suite at CES earlier this year, but left us longing for a demo. Well, the outfit’s just given us all our first glimpse at the healthiest processing muscle in the bunch, the quad-core i.MX 6. Sporting four ARM Cortex A9 cores and a 64-bit memory bus, the reference design board can be seen running a 1080p video demo and Quake simultaneously — and it didn’t even break a sweat. Freescale says it’s currently working with Google on making the processor Honeycomb-compatible, but don’t get too excited; i.MX 6 won’t make it into real-deal machines until 2012. If you’ve got an extra 20 minutes to spare, hop on past the break for a rather lengthy video of the processor at work.

Continue reading i.MX 6 quad-core reference board flexes processing muscle at Freescale Technology Forum

i.MX 6 quad-core reference board flexes processing muscle at Freescale Technology Forum originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Jun 2011 04:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel’s so-called Ultrabooks may be a little way off into the distance at the moment, but the company isn’t making you wait until its Ivy Bridge rollout to get a taste for ultraslim laptops with some real power inside them. A trio of new ultra-low voltage CPUs, each rated with a TDP of just 17W, has been added to the company’s catalog, starting with the top-tier Core i7-2677M, whose pair of cores run at 1.8GHz by default but can be sped up to 2.9GHz when duty calls. Then there’s the i7-2637M, which looks to only differ in clock speeds (1.7GHz default, 2.8GHz under Turbo Boost), and the i5-2557M that makes do with a 3MB L3 cache (1MB less than its i7 brethren) and a 1.7GHz / 2.7GHz speed range. All three 64-bit, 32nm processors also integrate a GPU (350MHz base clock, maxes out at 1.2GHz) within their walls, which is what makes their ascetic power consumption all the more impressive. OEMs should soon start splicing these new options into their next generation laptops, and while the obvious speculation centers around a MacBook Air refresh, CNET tells us the Core i5-2557M has already found a home in ASUS’ upcoming UX21, a (purportedly) sub-$1,000 11.6-inch featherweight contender.

Intel adds to ULV processor line with 1.8GHz Core i7 and i5 options, one of them to star in ASUS UX21 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jun 2011 03:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink MacRumors  |  CNET, Intel (i7-2677M), (i7-2637M), (i5-2557M)  | Email this | Comments