The notebook industry promises increased battery run times, but the advances are in fact small, and run times still mainly depend on the power provided by the notebook battery. More efficient processors and platforms, drives and LED-backlit displays certainly help a lot. Real leaps, however—say to 10+ hours of battery life—just aren’t within reach.
The electrical draw of the system isn’t constant; it varies depending on the state of the each component. Displays are the largest power-eaters, as they have to operate transistors and their backlight—larger and higher resolution displays typically require more power than smaller ones. But there is also quite a power requirement range among notebook system components.
Modern notebook processors may require little power when there is nothing to do, but they can go up to 35 watts of power consumption at full load, depending on the processor model and power classification. Notebook platforms using graphics units built into the chipset are the most efficient, while notebooks utilizing a discrete mobile GeForce or Mobility Radeon always consume at least a bit more power than integrated solutions. In terms of storage, flash SSD drives have the potential to deliver impressive throughput and quick access times with very little power consumption. Most devices require considerably less power when they are idle, so it makes sense to operate your notebook as close to idle as possible, to maximize battery run time.
While there are alternative energy sources on the horizon, such as silver-zinc batteries (see ZPower), none of them are ready to be deployed into the mainstream right now, where huge quantities of batteries are required. Notebooks typically utilize lithium-ion or lithium-polymer batteries, which are organized into so-called “cells” (typical capacities are three, six, or sometimes nine cells). While the power level of a battery depends on the specific model, a 6-cell battery will generally give you twice the battery run time of a 3-cell model. Battery capacities are rated in Watt-hours (Wh).
The 9-cell batteries obviously provide the most juice, but they are often too large to be accommodated within the standard rectangular notebook footprint, and hence stick out a bit from the back. To expand capacity without this physical size expansion, some notebook vendors offer additional modular batteries that can be inserted instead of a machine’s optical drive; these are especially common on portable business notebooks (13-15”).
Source tomshardware.com
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
AMD’s Low Power Advantage
AMD, dominated the processor market with its Athlon 64 and Athlon 64 X2 just a few years ago, was able to make a return with the recent Phenom II processors. While these new 45 nm CPUs cannot trump Intel's Core i7, they offer performance that can match a Core 2 Quad here and there. Unfortunately, there is no low-power version available yet, so we decided to look at AMD’s remaining low-power option.
The latest Athlon X2 dual-core CPUs are very affordable, and supposedly efficient. Our shootout includes an Athlon X2 5050e (45 W TDP) and a 5600+ (65 W TDP) as well as several Intel processors.
Low Power
Power users will certainly focus on performance first, while all other users want to have the best of both worlds: a fast processor that does not consume more power than necessary.
Performance is easy enough to define. It is the time required for a workload to complete, or workload execution within a given time. However, efficiency is still sometimes misunderstood, because efficiency does not equal low power. A low-power device such as Intel’s Atom processor has low power consumption, but it is far from being efficient.
We define efficiency as the power that is required to complete a specific workload. In this case, power is measured in Watt-hours (this isn’t watts per hour, but watts times hours). Some readers had noted that work energy should be stated in joules. One joule equals one watt-second, so a watt-hour equals 1 x 60 x 60 = 3,600 joules. We decided to stay with Watt-hours (Wh), as this is the way we are charged for electricity.
CPU Power
On the CPU side, AMD has traditionally had two advantages over Intel. First there is the SOI manufacturing process (at 90, 65, and 45 nm), which ensures low power requirements in idle mode thanks to low leakage power. This makes it very much competitive with Intel’s manufacturing, which has typically been 12-18 months ahead of AMD with regards to transistor size (note that AMD processor manufacturing is being outsourced). Second, AMD processors have come with integrated memory controllers since the introduction of the Athlon 64 in late 2003, which typically provides a power consumption advantage over logic that is part of the Intel chipset. Core i7 has started to introduce a paradigm change in this direction with Intel, but that doesn’t apply to Core 2.
So there is the platform, which contributes to power consumption. Especially if you look at all-in-one integrated chipsets such as the AMD 780G, AMD has offered much better 3D performance and power efficiency than Intel chipsets. We used an integrated AMD 780G motherboard as well as an Intel board based on the latest G45 chipset for this article, as well as two representative AMD processors, two Intel dual-cores chips, and two Intel low-power quad core CPUs.
Source from tomshardware.com
The latest Athlon X2 dual-core CPUs are very affordable, and supposedly efficient. Our shootout includes an Athlon X2 5050e (45 W TDP) and a 5600+ (65 W TDP) as well as several Intel processors.
Low Power
Power users will certainly focus on performance first, while all other users want to have the best of both worlds: a fast processor that does not consume more power than necessary.
Performance is easy enough to define. It is the time required for a workload to complete, or workload execution within a given time. However, efficiency is still sometimes misunderstood, because efficiency does not equal low power. A low-power device such as Intel’s Atom processor has low power consumption, but it is far from being efficient.
We define efficiency as the power that is required to complete a specific workload. In this case, power is measured in Watt-hours (this isn’t watts per hour, but watts times hours). Some readers had noted that work energy should be stated in joules. One joule equals one watt-second, so a watt-hour equals 1 x 60 x 60 = 3,600 joules. We decided to stay with Watt-hours (Wh), as this is the way we are charged for electricity.
CPU Power
On the CPU side, AMD has traditionally had two advantages over Intel. First there is the SOI manufacturing process (at 90, 65, and 45 nm), which ensures low power requirements in idle mode thanks to low leakage power. This makes it very much competitive with Intel’s manufacturing, which has typically been 12-18 months ahead of AMD with regards to transistor size (note that AMD processor manufacturing is being outsourced). Second, AMD processors have come with integrated memory controllers since the introduction of the Athlon 64 in late 2003, which typically provides a power consumption advantage over logic that is part of the Intel chipset. Core i7 has started to introduce a paradigm change in this direction with Intel, but that doesn’t apply to Core 2.
So there is the platform, which contributes to power consumption. Especially if you look at all-in-one integrated chipsets such as the AMD 780G, AMD has offered much better 3D performance and power efficiency than Intel chipsets. We used an integrated AMD 780G motherboard as well as an Intel board based on the latest G45 chipset for this article, as well as two representative AMD processors, two Intel dual-cores chips, and two Intel low-power quad core CPUs.
Source from tomshardware.com
GeForce GTX 285 On Water Cooling
Zotac's Infinity Edition : Why Water?
Liquid cooling takes advantage of the key features that a larger radiator offers compared to local sinks, with the added benefit that the radiator can often be mounted in a cooler air stream.
That explains why a large radiator sits at the front of most automobiles, but in the case of overclocking, complexity and inconvenience have limited the number of liquid-cooling applications in PCs. Most liquid cooling systems focus on the CPU, since adding other components to the loop makes servicing a nightmare. In particular, removing a liquid cooling system from graphics cards requires extreme caution and plenty of extra time to drain the system, which must then be refilled and re-purged (to remove air from the water lines) before it can be used again. This could easily turn five minutes of diagnostic work into a one-hour ordeal--and that's if you know what you're doing.
But liquid cooling’s inconveniences can be more easily justified in situations where air cooling simply isn’t adequate. We’ve run into this exact problem when overclocking multi-card graphics configurations, and our December $2,500 3-Way SLI PC was the most noteworthy example. Packing three double-slot cards together limited airflow to the intake fans of the top two cards, so that cooling was barely adequate to keep up with the configuration’s stock speed.
For overclockers, the opportunity to seek significant performance gains makes liquid cooling’s troubles worthwhile, and several companies are ready to fulfill those needs. Options include buying an air-cooled card and adding an expensive liquid-cooling “water block” or purchasing a card with the water block pre-attached, such as the GeForce GTX 285 Infinity Edition from Zotac.
Liquid-cooled graphics cards typically cost around $50 less than the sum of their parts (high-end water block plus a high-spec card), so the smart money for anyone looking to water cool is to buy these parts pre-assembled. Zotac adds one more reason to purchase its product by pre-overclocking its GPU and RAM to extra-high speeds, selling the card with a warranty that home overclockers typically must sacrifice. That also means that each GTX 285 Infinity Edition is hand-selected for its ability to support the rated speeds, while the purchaser of a reference-clocked card must rely on the luck of the draw to reach similar or greater speeds.
Overclockers aren’t the only market for liquid-cooled electronics, as similar methods have been used to address airflow constraints in densely packed servers. And let’s not forget home-theater and audio-studio applications where liquid cooling allows enormous passive radiators to suffice in situations that would have otherwise called for noisy high-speed fans. All of these markets share a common goal of increased cooling capacity at reduced use of local space and these are things that even non-overclocking performance enthusiasts can appreciate.
Source from www.tomshardware.com
Liquid cooling takes advantage of the key features that a larger radiator offers compared to local sinks, with the added benefit that the radiator can often be mounted in a cooler air stream.
That explains why a large radiator sits at the front of most automobiles, but in the case of overclocking, complexity and inconvenience have limited the number of liquid-cooling applications in PCs. Most liquid cooling systems focus on the CPU, since adding other components to the loop makes servicing a nightmare. In particular, removing a liquid cooling system from graphics cards requires extreme caution and plenty of extra time to drain the system, which must then be refilled and re-purged (to remove air from the water lines) before it can be used again. This could easily turn five minutes of diagnostic work into a one-hour ordeal--and that's if you know what you're doing.But liquid cooling’s inconveniences can be more easily justified in situations where air cooling simply isn’t adequate. We’ve run into this exact problem when overclocking multi-card graphics configurations, and our December $2,500 3-Way SLI PC was the most noteworthy example. Packing three double-slot cards together limited airflow to the intake fans of the top two cards, so that cooling was barely adequate to keep up with the configuration’s stock speed.
For overclockers, the opportunity to seek significant performance gains makes liquid cooling’s troubles worthwhile, and several companies are ready to fulfill those needs. Options include buying an air-cooled card and adding an expensive liquid-cooling “water block” or purchasing a card with the water block pre-attached, such as the GeForce GTX 285 Infinity Edition from Zotac.
Liquid-cooled graphics cards typically cost around $50 less than the sum of their parts (high-end water block plus a high-spec card), so the smart money for anyone looking to water cool is to buy these parts pre-assembled. Zotac adds one more reason to purchase its product by pre-overclocking its GPU and RAM to extra-high speeds, selling the card with a warranty that home overclockers typically must sacrifice. That also means that each GTX 285 Infinity Edition is hand-selected for its ability to support the rated speeds, while the purchaser of a reference-clocked card must rely on the luck of the draw to reach similar or greater speeds.
Overclockers aren’t the only market for liquid-cooled electronics, as similar methods have been used to address airflow constraints in densely packed servers. And let’s not forget home-theater and audio-studio applications where liquid cooling allows enormous passive radiators to suffice in situations that would have otherwise called for noisy high-speed fans. All of these markets share a common goal of increased cooling capacity at reduced use of local space and these are things that even non-overclocking performance enthusiasts can appreciate.
Source from www.tomshardware.com
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Computer software 2
Software is a collection of instructions that enables a user to interact with the computer or have the computer perform specific tasks for them. Without any type of software the computer would be useless. All software purchased at a retail store is included in a box similar to the one shown to the right, this box usually contains all the disks required to install the program onto the computer, manuals, warranty, and other important documentation.
Audio software allows users to create, listen, and/or manipulate sound files.
Computer software program utilized to help use, maintain and protect a computer software operating system or other software programs. Example of a software utility is Microsoft's Disk Cleanup utility used to delete unnecessary files and recover disk drive space.
A type of computer software that has been designed to entertain and/or educate an individual. Today, computer gaming is a big business and there are millions of different types of computer games that are enjoyed by people of all ages.
Audio software allows users to create, listen, and/or manipulate sound files.
Computer software program utilized to help use, maintain and protect a computer software operating system or other software programs. Example of a software utility is Microsoft's Disk Cleanup utility used to delete unnecessary files and recover disk drive space.
A type of computer software that has been designed to entertain and/or educate an individual. Today, computer gaming is a big business and there are millions of different types of computer games that are enjoyed by people of all ages.
Computer software
Software is instructions that enables a user to interact with the computer or have the computer perform specific tasks for them. Without any type of software the computer would be useless. Below is a listing of different types of software a user may have on his or her computer. For a computer to be functional, most computers will include a software operating system and a collection of different software programs.
1. Programs
Program is the most commonly found and run files on a computer. An example of a software application is Ms Word, which is a word processor allowing users to create and write documents. Without programs, a user may have an operating computer, but would not be able to do much with it.
Many program files on IBM compatible computers commonly end with a file extension of .BAT, .EXE, .COM, or .PIF. Executing these files will commonly open the program.
Programming is a term used to describe the process of a programmer developing a program.
2. Aplication
Application is synonymous with Program.It is also used to describe a form or questioner that is filled out to help inform an individual or company about an individual or product. Example of an application is a job application where a user must fill out a form of his or her qualifications before being considered by the company.
3. Operating System
An operating system is a software program that enables the computer hardware to communicate and operate with the computer software. Without a computer operating system, a computer and software programs would be useless.
Additional information about operating systems and a listing of computer operating systems and links can be found on our operating system page.
Additional information about determining the type of operating system you have can be found on document CH000643.
1. Programs
Program is the most commonly found and run files on a computer. An example of a software application is Ms Word, which is a word processor allowing users to create and write documents. Without programs, a user may have an operating computer, but would not be able to do much with it.
Many program files on IBM compatible computers commonly end with a file extension of .BAT, .EXE, .COM, or .PIF. Executing these files will commonly open the program.
Programming is a term used to describe the process of a programmer developing a program.
2. Aplication
Application is synonymous with Program.It is also used to describe a form or questioner that is filled out to help inform an individual or company about an individual or product. Example of an application is a job application where a user must fill out a form of his or her qualifications before being considered by the company.
3. Operating System
An operating system is a software program that enables the computer hardware to communicate and operate with the computer software. Without a computer operating system, a computer and software programs would be useless.
Additional information about operating systems and a listing of computer operating systems and links can be found on our operating system page.
Additional information about determining the type of operating system you have can be found on document CH000643.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Led LCD
Hardware designers have made stunning advances in designing much more power-efficient components than most of us are using in their notebooks today. Choosing the options wisely may result up to 50% more battery time in some, with little extra money spent. Unfortunately, there is very little information on these new components out there would provide a guideline what purchase makes sense and which not. Do you know which components have the most impact on the battery time the new generation of notebooks? I bet that there is at least one you wouldn’t expect.
Jeremy Brody, HP’s global business notebook marketing manager, disagrees and stated that 24 hours is possible with the right adjustments - turn off your wireless network, dim the screen down and use applications that do not demand too much from your hardware (read about the additional configuration requirements in our previous article.) I will leave it at that and we will know more once the hardware HP described in the configuration will be available.
However, if you think about, the 24-hour claim isn’t really the big deal here. On very few occasions, you may want your notebook to hold up for 24 hours on one charge. The much more interesting question is: What would I have to buy to get a notebook that takes me through an entire workday on one charge – for 8 to 10 hours? Brody had some interesting recommendations, which I believe are important to pass on.
First, you really want to equip your notebook with the most battery capacity that is available. In HP’s case and the 14.1” Elite 6930p notebook that would be the standard 6-cell battery and an optional 12-cell battery, which promise a combined battery time of 16 hours. The extra battery will set you back $190.
Second, how do you cut the power consumption most effectively beyond a low-power processor? According to Brody, you definitely would want to pick the company’s upcoming LED display, which will be offered as a $50 option in October. The LED display can cut the power consumption dramatically as the LCD typically eats most of the electricity provided by the battery. HP says that the LED alone may extend the battery time by 4 hours. Source tgdaily.com
Jeremy Brody, HP’s global business notebook marketing manager, disagrees and stated that 24 hours is possible with the right adjustments - turn off your wireless network, dim the screen down and use applications that do not demand too much from your hardware (read about the additional configuration requirements in our previous article.) I will leave it at that and we will know more once the hardware HP described in the configuration will be available.
However, if you think about, the 24-hour claim isn’t really the big deal here. On very few occasions, you may want your notebook to hold up for 24 hours on one charge. The much more interesting question is: What would I have to buy to get a notebook that takes me through an entire workday on one charge – for 8 to 10 hours? Brody had some interesting recommendations, which I believe are important to pass on.
First, you really want to equip your notebook with the most battery capacity that is available. In HP’s case and the 14.1” Elite 6930p notebook that would be the standard 6-cell battery and an optional 12-cell battery, which promise a combined battery time of 16 hours. The extra battery will set you back $190.
Second, how do you cut the power consumption most effectively beyond a low-power processor? According to Brody, you definitely would want to pick the company’s upcoming LED display, which will be offered as a $50 option in October. The LED display can cut the power consumption dramatically as the LCD typically eats most of the electricity provided by the battery. HP says that the LED alone may extend the battery time by 4 hours. Source tgdaily.com
Microsof build up
Microsoft is beginning to build up interest in its next-generation operating system. The company confirmed that it will be handing out a pre-beta software at the PDC 2008 event next month and if the conference scheduled is any indication, Windows 7 will focus on five key areas: Graphics, communications, energy-efficient applications, multi-touch and a first step into Web 3.0.
It appears that Microsoft is well on track with the development of Windows 7. Barely 10 months after the company handed out its first “Milestone 1” version of the software to its closest partners, the company is now ready to share what it has been working on with a much larger developer crowd. In a post published on the website of the Professional Developers Conference 2008 (PDC 2008), Microsoft said that “keynote attendees will be among the first to receive the pre-beta build of Windows 7.”
Microsoft is referring to the keynote of Steven Sinofsky, senior vice president of the Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group. Sinofsky has led most of Microsoft’s public outreach relating to Windows 7. Following a rather lukewarm reception of the demonstration of Windows multi-touch features by Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer at this year’s All Things Digital conference, Sinofsky squashed all rumors that Windows 7 would be an entirely different operating system in May of this year. According to the executive, Windows 7 will be based on the kernel of Windows Server 2008 kernel, which is an evolution of the Windows Vista kernel. The executive highlighted driver compatibility, saying that Windows 7 will not come with a new driver model. “We're very clear that drivers and software that work on Windows Vista are going to work really well on Windows 7,” he said.
Since then, Windows 7 has largely been expected to become a Windows Vista on steroids, or, if you will, a Vista SE that will bridge the gap between Vista and completely new operating system that may be released in the late 2011 or 2012 timeframe. And the PDC 2008 scheduled appears to support these expectations – there will be some new features, but no surprises. Microsoft has dedicated a substantial portion of the conference to the new operating system: 22 out of 155 sessions will directly new features in Windows 7 – which makes the software the second-most covered topic (behind cloud services with 26 sessions) during the event.
The lion’s share of all Windows 7 sessions is dedicated to graphics - the appearance of Windows 7 and applications. Four tracks will provide information on the Windows 7 graphics architecture, new API’s to find, organize and visualize, new text and graphic API’s and Windows 7 taskbar integration. There is lots of content that will deal with Direct3D and how developers can take greater advantage of GPUs, but we know that these sessions will be restricted to graphics and that Windows 7 will not support the use of GPGPUs.
Two sessions focus exclusively on performance (of background processes) and energy efficiency of applications under Windows 7, and other major tracks will zero in on communications applications, native web services and how developers can develop applications that will take advantage on Windows 7’s multi-touch support. A look at new Shell user experience APIs also looks to be an interesting briefing.
Source tgdaily.com
It appears that Microsoft is well on track with the development of Windows 7. Barely 10 months after the company handed out its first “Milestone 1” version of the software to its closest partners, the company is now ready to share what it has been working on with a much larger developer crowd. In a post published on the website of the Professional Developers Conference 2008 (PDC 2008), Microsoft said that “keynote attendees will be among the first to receive the pre-beta build of Windows 7.”
Microsoft is referring to the keynote of Steven Sinofsky, senior vice president of the Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group. Sinofsky has led most of Microsoft’s public outreach relating to Windows 7. Following a rather lukewarm reception of the demonstration of Windows multi-touch features by Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer at this year’s All Things Digital conference, Sinofsky squashed all rumors that Windows 7 would be an entirely different operating system in May of this year. According to the executive, Windows 7 will be based on the kernel of Windows Server 2008 kernel, which is an evolution of the Windows Vista kernel. The executive highlighted driver compatibility, saying that Windows 7 will not come with a new driver model. “We're very clear that drivers and software that work on Windows Vista are going to work really well on Windows 7,” he said.
Since then, Windows 7 has largely been expected to become a Windows Vista on steroids, or, if you will, a Vista SE that will bridge the gap between Vista and completely new operating system that may be released in the late 2011 or 2012 timeframe. And the PDC 2008 scheduled appears to support these expectations – there will be some new features, but no surprises. Microsoft has dedicated a substantial portion of the conference to the new operating system: 22 out of 155 sessions will directly new features in Windows 7 – which makes the software the second-most covered topic (behind cloud services with 26 sessions) during the event.
The lion’s share of all Windows 7 sessions is dedicated to graphics - the appearance of Windows 7 and applications. Four tracks will provide information on the Windows 7 graphics architecture, new API’s to find, organize and visualize, new text and graphic API’s and Windows 7 taskbar integration. There is lots of content that will deal with Direct3D and how developers can take greater advantage of GPUs, but we know that these sessions will be restricted to graphics and that Windows 7 will not support the use of GPGPUs.
Two sessions focus exclusively on performance (of background processes) and energy efficiency of applications under Windows 7, and other major tracks will zero in on communications applications, native web services and how developers can develop applications that will take advantage on Windows 7’s multi-touch support. A look at new Shell user experience APIs also looks to be an interesting briefing.
Source tgdaily.com
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