Top Spec

Data centre, data warehouses and server houses have a very strict environment where by security, temperature and hardware means are used to provide the servers with the ideal environment.

Take blade based servers for example, imagine a 20 blade servers in one rack, where 20 racks could be situated within one room. Imagine hundreds of web servers all running in unison and then data management servers backing up that data. Take around 40°C as an estimate times this by 20 then by the amount of racks and that’s quiet hot!

I’m not here to get into specifics of the hardware/ server side of the technology and how they adopt bespoke engineering to eliminate overheating, power failure and so-forth but to basically state the importance of temperature.

Air Conditioners of all scales depending on the application are used. More dedicated data centres use in build air conditioning for faster air flow and constant target temperature.

Bookmark Article:

Recently I posted that Pioneer have developed an optical disc that can store 400 GB worth of data but now scientists in the US have apparently created an 1 Terabyte optical disc which store’s all the discs data in 3D. The scientists announced that they have found a way to create hundreds of layers on a single optical disk, with each layer containing around 5GB of data.

The Californian scientist even claim they could create up to 5TB optical disks by using 405nm diodes to record a Blu-ray disc’s worth of data at around 25GB per layer.

There is no sign when this new technology will be available but hopefully its not to far away as i would love my whole DVD movie collection to be on 1 disk, with room to spare.

Bookmark Article:

Just call me Mr. Green as i have news of yet another eco-friendly, carbon footprint removing piece of tantalising hardware for all you environment conscious people!

We quite frequently hear that we should unplug our TV’s, DVD players, Radio’s etc instead of leaving them in standby mode as its unnecessary energy consumption. Well your wireless internet router is doing a good job of increasing your electricity bill, especially as they are usually left on all the time.

D-Link have taken note of the unnecessary electricity drain on products and released three new models that use a lot less power than your average gadget.

The new Xtreme NT router range uses 40 per cent less power than it previous models. This means that you will only see a small cost drop when you get your next electricity bill, but operating in large numbers around the country this could help reduce power consumption significantly.

D-Link’s three new routers; DIR-655, DIR-855 and DGL-4500 are available from £70 to £150.

Bookmark Article:

CherryPal has recently accounced it will be shipping its new simple cloud PC, the CherryPal Desktop, at the end of July. Now this paperback-book sized box has been designed and created for somebody who has very limited PC knowledge and to help cut your carbon footprint.

How I here you cry, well the CherryPal Desktop only uses 2 Watts of power which is pretty impressive. To hit that 2 Watt mark, CherryPal decided to use Freescale’s new 400MHz MPC5121e mobileGT processor, and eliminated all the moving parts normally found in your PC, which means 4GB of NAND flash memory instead of the regular optical drive. The full spec is as follows:

• Freescale’s MPC5121e mobileGT processor ( 400MHz )
• 256MB of DDR2 memory
• 4GB of NAND flash memory
• VGA output
• 2x USB 2.0 port
• 3.5mm headphone jack output
• 802.11b/g Wi-Fi
• Ethernet

This wounderful piece of kit will be up and running in around 20-seconds, the CherryPal is a budget-priced, maintenance-free PC. CherryPal’s online administrators perform all system maintenance and backup for their PC users. The operating system is a tweaked form of Debian Linux. When you purchase with CherryPal you receive 50GB of Internet storage which is managed and protected by the  CherryPal . You access the internet via the PC’s Ethernet jack or 802.11b/g Wi-Fi.

Bookmark Article:

I think I will be calling Vista Mojave from now on. Why i hear you say? Well Microsoft decided to do a little experiment of their own. To prove that Vista Ultimate is in fact the dogs b0ll0x 120 people took part in a test.

The 120 people who had low perception of Vista were given a new operating system called Mojave which was actually Vista Ultimate in disguise. The average user rated the operating system 4.4 out of 10 not 4.5! very specific. Out of the 120 people who rated the operating system the outcome was shocking, the group rated the OS 8.5 out of 10. Underneath Microsofts brainwashing the corporation were trying to make a point. Dont knock it until you try it!

The experiment was known days before Microsoft released their experiment public. You can visit the site ‘the mojave experiment’ by clicking the link.

Bookmark Article:

Intel has indicated that the processor code named Bloomfield the mainstream version of the new architecture. The processors will ship as 2.66Ghz in the last quarter of 2008. This will be followed by the 2.94Ghz processor. The extreme versions running at 3.2Ghz will shortly follow.

I didnt expect these processors to be released so early, but i had a slight indication that a Nehalem based processor was set for release around this time. With this in-mind when will the motherboards launch? Apparently the Intel x58 chipset is set for launch in October. The boards will cost around £150, remember these are mainstream based motherboards. Other mainboard chipsets should follow, unless you cannot wait and must buy the x58 version.

I must state that Intel have not released an official statement regarding the release dates but when rumours are released they are usually right.

Bookmark Article:

of cash oh and not to mention he likes peace and quiet and is a Hardcore Gamer! Want one? well I’m I’m not sure what to make of this, is it good? is it bad? is it somewhere in-between? anyways you decide! To start of with fair play to the guy who created this enclosure my guess is, he is MALE around 18 to 25 got abitafraid this bad boy is not for sale but feel free to check out these pictures bellow.

What a brilliant idea? but there is something missing in that equation! The fridge, a toilet and a microwave!

Bookmark Article:

Within office environments computer systems take a vital role within any organisation. Virtual offices across the UK must consider what their idea requirements are. Normally office computers are basic with no intension to specifiy any special requirments. What happens when specialised company’s need faster performing computers for graphical based work. Below is system specifications tailored for Virtual offices.

Office Systems
Processor
basic processor consisting of budget components. usually sempron, celeron based processors.
Memory
Limited RAM is needed, 512Mb would suffice considering Windows Vista like mega bytes.
Hard Disk
Depending on the network architecture this could either consists of local memory of a few gigabytes with a NAS is used else 30 gigabyte disk would suffice.
I/O
Sound card is usually onboard along with the graphics display.

Web Servers
These systems are virtually the same, they use limited processing power but more specific servers will need high Cache memory levels and usually uses quad core based systems.

When specifying these requirments always consider the software used and what processing will be carried out by the system

Bookmark Article:

Its Friday again, w00t! But what is there to talk about on the computer hardware front? Well nothing really! I’m still contemplating buying a new p.c. soon considering the 9800 GTX are coming down in price so dramatically. So what does the enthusiast do? Do