Thread: Anandtech News

Intel Labs is a super interesting arm of the company, responsible for developing technologies that would potentially go into products 5 - 10 years down the road. It's from the labs that we got things like BBUL packaging (still not deployed but neat nonetheless) and the first 10GHz x86 ALUs. 
Today, on the day before IDF, Intel put together a collection of demos to give us insight into what the labs folks are working on. We're still an hour away from actual demos but Intel did share a super interesting slide, pictured above.
Moore's Law and the (almost) ever shrinking transistor give us one of two things: more complexity/performance/features in a given die area, or the same performance in a steadily decreasing die area.

Exploiting the latter benefit, we have the realization above. By 2020, which assuming a 2 year cadence between process nodes means we're talking about silicon built on a 5nm process, Intel expects that the size of "meaningful compute" approaches zero. It's not totally clear what Intel defines as meaningful compute, but if you keep in mind that a single AMD Jaguar core measures < 3mm^2 at 28nm, it's not a stretch to believe that we'd have quite a bit of compute available nearly for free at 5nm. Assuming perfect scaling (not going to happen), a 100mm^2 die at 22nm would measure only 6.25mm^2 at 5nm. Even if you don't get prefect scaling, Moore's Law can give us the performance we get in a smartphone today in a size that's small enough and cheap enough to make that we can integrate it anywhere (smart-tables anyone?).
The idea of ubiquitous compute has been around for quite a while, but it's still mindblowing to think about what can happen once meaningful compute is really almost free. Remember that there's a direct relationship between the size of silicon and its cost. Today's 80 - 120mm^2 smartphone SoCs cost anywhere from $10 - $30 to integrate into a phone. If silicon with that level of complexity can be reduced in size to the point where we're looking at low single digit costs, the potential impact to new markets will be huge.

We saw what affordable compute did for smartphones, the next question is what even more affordable compute can do for other, undiscovered markets. A while ago I heard someone smart tell me that at some point displays become cheap enough where many surfaces we take for granted, start integrating them (e.g. bathroom mirrors that double as displays). Combine that with cheap compute that we can integrate everywhere as well and we have a recipe for the future.

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Intel's Ultrabook push has forced hard drive makers to do two things: take hybrid drives more seriously (because of the Ultrabook performance requirements) as well as focus on thinner drive form factors. Seagate brought its NAND equipped hybrid Momentus XT to market two years ago, but we haven't seen widespread OEM adoption partially because of the lack of a second source for hybrid hard drives.
Today Western Digital announced a 5mm thick hybrid HDD with 32GB of MLC NAND on-board. WD isn't saying anything else as far as details of architecture (NAND controller, what gets cached, etc...) or availability but I should be able to see the drive in person later this week.

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At our briefing with HP in the city, we had a chance to see just how far their Spectre branding was stretching by taking a look at their refreshed line of all-in-ones. The impending launch of Windows 8 is poised to breathe new life into touchscreen enabled hardware, but what HP is preparing may be surprising.
First, the slightly less exciting stuff. HP is bringing an all-in-one to market at an impressively low price point with the Pavilion 20 AiO. Launching in October for just $449, the Pavilion 20 (20 standing in for 20" display) is about as basic as it gets. No touchscreen, but the traditional bundle of HP software. Other than that, details are fairly scarce, but you can see it in the left side of the photo below.

Directly next to it is the HP Envy 20 TouchSmart All-in-One. You can see HP's essentially migrated Pavilion to their entry level brand and brought Envy "down" to their mainstream point. The Envy 20 (and Envy 23 that's to its right, photo below) are all ten-finger multi-touch ready, and will be available with optional caching SSDs along with up to 3TB of storage and Intel CPUs. Unfortunately, both displays also still employ TN panels. Both all-in-ones are expected to be available in October, with the Envy 20 starting at $799 and the Envy 23 starting at $999.

Of course, the major announcement is the HP Spectre One, and it's a pretty impressive piece of kit for an all-in-one. To keep the display razor thin, HP smartly moved the all-in-one's internals into the base and eschewed a touchscreen. Making up for the lack of a touchscreen, HP includes a very large trackpad, though it remains to be seen just how desirable this solution will wind up being.

On the other hand, the hardware is pretty impressive. HP is including Intel Ivy Bridge processors along with an optional NVIDIA GeForce dedicated GPU; they weren't able to tell us which part, but I'd personally guess the GT 640M and hopefully with GDDR5. The press release lists optional ExpressCache and an optional SSD, suggesting you can go with a hybrid storage solution or just opt straight for an SSD. What should get your attention is the inclusion of an NFC radio in the base; HP's representatives demonstrated it being used with an NFC tag to unlock the computer as well as download and view photos off of an NFC-enabled smartphone. Finally, it includes Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 and Premiere Elements 10 standard; while I wouldn't recommend anyone use Premiere Elements 10, Photoshop Elements 10 is a killer deal.
The Spectre One is due in November starting at $1,299.

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In its first major announcement since the acquisition by AMD, SeaMicro unveiled its SM15000 server. This is an updated version of the standard 10U SeaMicro chassis with 64 compute card slots. The new SM15K can accept both Intel Ivy Bridge and AMD Piledriver based processor cards. Despite being AMD owned, SeaMicro is committed for generations to come to supplying both Intel and AMD based servers. Seamicro still supports Intel based clusters to make sure that they do not alienate some of their customers. In virtualized environments, moving around VMs only works well if you standarize on Intel or AMD. So Seamicro will still build Intel based clusters for next years.
SeaMicro is particularly proud of the fact that its processor network fabric can support other CPUs outside of AMD/Intel as well. Despite the flexibility SeaMicro believes that ARM's Cortex A9 isn't very interesting, but in late 2013/early 2014 ARM could have a part out that's compelling.
The Ivy Bridge cards use quad-core Xeon E3-1265v2 CPUs, while the new Opteron cards feature 4-module/eight-core Piledriver CPUs. The full rundown of specs are below:

 
According to SeaMicro, 6 racks of classic servers and storage which would consume 40 kW can be replaced with 2 racks containing SeaMicro SM15000s, which consume only 20 kW at half the price.
In 10U, you get 64 sockets, each with a new octal Piledriver Opterons at 2.8 GHz (or 2/2.3 GHz). That is 512 Cores in 10 RU,  64 GB per scoket, 4 TB per system. With the Xeon, the fastest CPU is a quadcore 3.1 GHz (256 cores per system) supporting 32 GB of ram per socket, 2 TB per system.
SeaMicro has extended its Freedom Fabric to now work outside of the chassis as well. Using external storage expansion you can get up to 1408 disks (HDD/SSD) or up to 5PB of storage connected to a single server.
Gallery: AMD Introduces SeaMicro SM15000 with Piledriver and Ivy Bridge Compute Cards

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Intel has dominated the midrange and high-end segments of the desktop processor market since the release of its Sandy Bridge architecture in early 2011. A few months ago we saw the release of Intel's Ivy Bridge architecture—the tick to Sandy Bridge's tock. It's only recently however that we have seen the release of motherboards based on Intel's B75 chipset, which is aimed at rounding out the lower-end of the Ivy Bridge motherboard market. Also recently, Intel has released lower-mid range Ivy Bridge CPUs: the Core i3-3220 and Pentium Dual Core G2120.

Along with these new releases, new parts and price cuts in video cards have also introduced more options into the midrange market. SSDs likewise continue to fall in price; whereas just a year ago the midrange system included only budget SSDs, today's midrange budgets can comfortably accommodate performance SSDs. Finally, there are many new, nice cases for buyers looking to build a system that hits the sweet spot for desktop computing. In this guide, we'll discuss gaming and productivity machines that cost anywhere from $800 up to around $1,200.

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We have taken a look at the Netgear NV+ v2 multiple times in the past. With the launch of RAIDiator 5.3.6, Netgear is keeping up their promise to keep the updates flowing for the ARM-based units. The new firmware brings with it a host of features which Netgear places under the ReadyNAS Cloud umbrella.

According to Gartner’s market research report for network attached / unified storage devices, Netgear leads in the total number of units shipped across all segments of the market (followed by QNAP and Synology). In terms of revenue, Netgear leads in the market for units priced $5K and lower. However, heavyweights like EMC and NetApp take the lead in terms of revenue overall. It is clear that Netgear is a name to be reckoned with in the SMB / SOHO /  home NAS market. The feature to price ratio has kept the NV+ v2 and Duo v2 afloat in the market so far. We had mentioned multiple times that the units don’t have a lot of apps or firmware features even after a year. RAIDiator 5.3.6, available for download today for the NV+ v2 and Duo v2, hopes to address some of the issues.

ReadyNAS Remote:
As the name indicates, it is a software application intended to enable remote access to the ReadyNAS unit. In the original review of the NV+ v2, I wasn’t very impressed with the app (when compared with WD’s WD2go solution). The updates to ReadyNAS Remote being rolled out today involve the addition of the ReadyDROP and Remote Backup for Time Machine features.
ReadyDROP:
Almost all NAS vendors have come up with a DropBox-like solution using the unit for ‘unlimited’ storage with real-time synchronization capabilities across multiple clients. At CES, we wrote about Synology’s CloudStation which came with DSM 4.0. Netgear has a similar feature in RAIDiator 5.3.6 called ReadyDROP. Since the data is stored on the ReadyNAS, there is no monthly cost or capacity limits (other than the capacity of the ReadyNAS unit itself).
Netgear claims the use of patented technology from its acquisition of Leaf Networks in the ReadyDROP implementation. A secure VPN tunnel is created for synchronization, but the end user experiences the simplicity of a username and password for access, with no special router setup necessary. Options such as the ability to pause syncing when the connection is slow are also available. The files can also be accessed over the web through the ReadyDROP website.

Features such as versioning and ability to share files and folders with other people are slated to appear in a future update next year.
Time Machine with Remote Backup:
Time Machine is a local backup solution for the Apple ecosystem. It is used to backup data to a share over AFP on a LAN. Almost all NAS units have the ability to act as a Time Machine target. The ReadyNAS is Time Machine enabled too. Using technology similar to what is necessary for ReadyDROP, the ReadyNAS units can now act as both local and remote Time Machine targets even when the Mac is on the road. No router configuration is necessary. Pure cloud-based Time Machine solutions such as iCloud and Dolly Drive exist, but Netgear claims that their implementation is the first to do both remote and local backup seamlessly.
Mobile ReadyDLNA:
ReadyNAS already has the ReadyDLNA server application for streaming to DMRs (Digital Media Renderers) in the local network. With RAIDiator 5.3.6, the clients are not restricted to being in the local network. Again, the solution is a result of technology similar to what was developed for the ReadyDROP.
ReadyNAS Replicate:
We covered the ReadyNAS Replicate add-on in detail in our second look at the NV+ v2. With RAIDiator 5.3.6, the Replicate add-on will become free for owners of the Duo v2 and NV+ v2. In order to access the full-featured Replicate license it must be downloaded from within the GUI.
Genie Apps:
Netgear introduced Genie Apps at the 2012 CES for their router lineup. With RAIDiator 5.3.6, the ReadyNAS NV+ v2 and Duo v2 also start getting these apps. The integrated application list automatically updates when new ones are added and also allows third parties to sell apps and subscriptions. The apps can be launched directly from the GUI.
We are excited to see that Netgear is committed to improving the feature set of the ReadyNAS NV+ v2 and Duo v2 lineup. It will be interesting to see the sort of apps which will make an appearance in the Genie Apps marketplace. Netgear also assured us that these features will be rolled out to the x86 based units in the near future.

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Today we're trying out something new: a beta version of our new Live Blog engine. As long as WiFi and cellular networks cooperate, we'll be providing live coverage from the kickoff keynote at this year's Intel Developer Forum. 
Dadi Perlmutter is set to take the stage at 9AM PST. Today is going to be all about Haswell disclosures so expect to see some hints of it this morning, as well as more throughout the day.
Get ready, this is going to be a crazy week.

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If you've been following our IDF Live Blog you've already seen this, but for everyone else - Intel gave us a hint at what Haswell will bring next year: 20x lower platform idle power compared to Sandy Bridge, and up to 2x the GPU performance of Ivy Bridge. 
Intel ran Unigen on a Haswell reference platform at 2x the frame rate of an Ivy Bridge system. Alternatively you could run at the same performance but using half the power on Haswell.

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Intel is about to give us the first architectural details on its 4th generation Core processor microarchitecture, codename Haswell. Follow the live blog for full details as we get them!

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Last week we were able to spend some time with Samsung's new Galaxy Note 2. The device is a largely updated version of the original Galaxy Note, that enjoyed surprising success with over 10M units sold since its introduction.
The Galaxy Note 2 grows the display size to 5.55" and uses the latest iteration of Samsung's 720p Super AMOLED display. Internally you get a 1.6GHz quad-core Exynos SoC with four ARM Cortex A9 cores and an ARM Mali-400MP4 GPU. Although US versions haven't been announced yet the international version boasts HSPA+ 21.1 and LTE support. You can expect similar specs when the US versions are eventually announced if Samsung continues the trend set by the Galaxy S 3.
The big feature of the Galaxy Note 2 is its digitizer that stores away nicely inside the unit. The S Pen, as Samsung calls it, allows you annotate on top of emails, photos, etc... Handwriting recognition works better on the Galaxy Note 2 than on the Galaxy Note 10.1, although I'm not entirely sure why. A major improvement to the S Pen in the GNote 2 is the ability to detect the pen at around 10 - 12mm above the display. This increased hover sensitivity allowed Samsung to enable a bunch of neat hover-over features. E.g. hovering over the subject of an email will expand it in a window.
The Note 2 runs Jelly Bean, and the OS felt extremely smooth even with Samsung's TouchWiz UX layered on top of Android. The hardware was similarly well executed. Solid build quality, good in-hand feel - the usual we've come to expect from Samsung. 
We'll have a full review later this year once review samples are available, until then check out the video and gallery below:

Gallery: Samsung Galaxy Note 2 Hands On

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