Top Spec

Computex is here again another year of fantastic goodies waiting for the enthusiast to indulge on. I might consider taking some time off work for next years show, why not, treat yourself! This is the best time of year for computer hardware followers. Computex will be answering all my un-answered questions relating to Intel’s Nehalem processors, Larrabee and Graphics architectures.
So what have I got for you all today? Well you guessed it! Nehalem! At Computex Intel have show cased numerous vendor motherboards using the new processor architecture. Below is a picture of the new desktop based motherboard.

The motherboards will be using the x58 tylersburgDT chipset. If you look at the image above you will notice the enlarged CPU socket and shrunk chipset. Lets not forget the actual reason I write about Nehalem so much, there is no memory controller and FSB in the chipset! This means no more over-clocking is needed! Finally the revolutionary change in the computer architecture! I have a feeling that L3 cache will not be needed even L2 cache in-fact? If the memory can ideally be the same clock as the processor and FSB follows then the bottle neck is redundant! But will memory prices increase? I assume so.

If you haven’t noticed already the motherboard only includes 3/4 slots! The symmetrical memory setups are a thing of the past. The majority of the Nehalem based motherboards use asymmetric memory channels. This means that the memory can be configured into three channels. The first channel can take two dims sockets and the remaining two channels can only use one socket each. Nehalem can organise the memory addressing, this allows overflow to the remaining single socket channel.

Right with that said, Now lets move onto the server based motherboards (Skull trail 2 **COUGH**). Now you may have noticed the ram set-ups? The motherboard has 12 to 18 DIMM slots! You may think why an odd number? But the theory behind asymmetrical memory applies! Some simple math will put you all at ease. Two CPU x 3 channels x 3 DIMMS per channel, simple! Yet impressive!
Release is only months away, if my estimations are anything to go by! Start remortgaging your house its worth it!

Bookmark Article:

In my previous post on Nvidia’s Processors I looked into the general capabilities of the two processors. Today I will be giving more emphasis into the Nvidia Tegra Processor. As we already know, the processor renders both 720p and 1080p high definition signals. The Tegra processor is also known for good power consumption considering the processor will run 720p HD for 26 hours compared to Intels 1 hour.

The Tegra 650 Specs:

• Processing ARM11 MPCore @ 800Mhz,16/32-bit LP-DDR NAND Flash support
• Audio/ Video Processing:1080p H.264 decode, 720p H.264 encode
  Supports multi-standard audio formats, including AAC, AMR, WMA and MP3. JPEG encode and decode acceleration
• Imaging Up to 12 megapixel camera sensor support, Integrated ISP, Advanced imaging features
• True dual-display support
  Maximum display resolutions supports:
  - 1080p (1920×1080) HDMI 1.3
  - WSXGA+ (1680×1050) LCD
  - SXGA (1280×1024) CRT
  - NTSC/PAL TV output

Tegra 600

• Processor ARM11 MPCore @ 700Mhz, 16/32-bit LP-DDR, NAND Flash support
• Audo/ Video Processing 720p H.264 and VC-1/WMV9 decode, 720p H.264 encode, Supports multi-standard audio formats, including AAC, AMR, WMA and MP3, JPEG encode and decode acceleration
• Imaging Up to 12 megapixel camera sensor support, Integrated ISP, Advanced imaging features
• True dual-display support
  Maximum display resolutions supports:
  - 720p (1280×720) HDMI 1.3
  - SXGA (1280×1024) LCD
  - SXGA (1280×1024) CRT
  - NTSC/PAL TV output

Even though the processor seems impressive Intel’s Atom processor uses the x86 architecture and so will be used on multiple of platforms within a mobile scope. The processor used is a ARM11 32 bit RISC which is usually used in mobile phone hardware. I’m still interested in where this processor will be used compared to Intels version.

I would put the Atom against the Tegra processor as such but you could say the Nvidia processor will be great for HD video but if Intel’s Atom processor can perform around the same level then Nvidia sales could be effected.

On the other hand, I will be interested in seeing what Nvidia will offer in the future. The Head man at Nvidia said the processor was created from the bottom up. The processor has no limit to its future because the architecture is new.

Hopefully I will have much more to talk about regarding the latest technology’s. Now that Intel and Nvidia are at war over more than GPUS where will they venture next?

Bookmark Article:

The first online retailer to release Intel’s Atom powered motherboards was announced today. The UK based firm Tranquil PC are selling the units ten pounds cheaper than the estimated retail price. The company have stated that the boards will start shipping within the first week of June.

The Intel D945GCLF mini-itx main board yes ITX not ATX. The system uses the 1.6 GHz Atom 230 processor. The impressive package can run Vista Home Media Center which in my opinion must be a fairy good system to tackle to-days multimedia requirements.

Intel have decided to adopt their latest 45nm procedure, the processor as mentioned before runs at 1.6Ghz uses 512Kb of L2 Cache, now consider a single core AMD/ Intel processor this little machine is on par with my old 3200XP machine, actually this board is faster! The Motherboard uses the Intel 945GC/ ICH7 Intel Chipset. This means the little machine has a in-built 10/100 LAN,PCI, SATA2 (3GB/s) and DDR2 533/ 667 Mhz memory.

Did I mention the motherboard is only 17cm by 17cm. For such a little package its a brilliant starter P.C but the system is so robust that the system could even be used as a bare-bone web server.

Bookmark Article:

Cray has decided to develop its future HPC around Intel’s silicon. This has become a problem for AMD. Cray did in fact have fabrications from AMD which included XT3, XT4 and XT5. Unfortunately for AMD the organisation was hoping that Cray would strike a 5 year deal with the company securing their current status in the market. Cray have now made a 5 year deal with Intel for HPC which is a massive blow for AMD.

Crays development has been centred round building custom interconnects supporting multiple AMD chips through hypertransport (AMD interconnect). Intel has a rival technology called quickpath possible for their new Larrabee and Nehalem products.

Cray are hoping to combine their efforts. Cray will be using Intels Quickpath along with their own high-bandwidth memory subsystems. They are hoping this will give them a significant leap forward in high performance computational tasks. The result? an exaflop! One quadrillion operations a second, I’ve only heard of TeraFlops!

Bookmark Article: