Ace on Tech

May
5

Scheduled Downtime

I expect the site to be down for several hours later today, as I push through some updates. After that, I’ll also be back daily/regularly with new posts and content.

Hope to see you back soon,

Ace

More »

Powered by Bookmarkify™

April
9

Intel’s New Nehalem Microarchitecture

Tags: core, cpu, Intel, nehalem, processor, quad
Posted in Featured, Intel, Tech News | No Comments »

Nehalem is the name of Intel’s next-generation 45 nanometer micro-architecture. It is a processor architecture that will harness the processing power for a wide range of computers, ranging from ultra-portable laptops to high-end server equipment, utilizing a scalable amount of cores.

The projection is that this new processor will make its entry for high-end computers later this year, with 4 and 8 core variants on a single die. With this introduction, Intel will sweep the old FSB architecture off the table.

Not CPU, it’s SoCs

Being touted as the biggest leap in processor technology since the Pentium 4, Nehalem will use the same 45nm production process as Penryn. It is said that the quad-core variation that’ll make its debut this year will house 781 million transistors (see Moore’s Law). It does the Nehalem injustice to call it a mere CPU, though. SoCs or ‘Systems-on-a-Chip’ suits this baby better. Why?

As illustrated by the image above, the Nehalem is indeed a complete system in itself, since it contains the processing cores, cache, and fast DDR3 memory on a single chip. Furthermore, the L3 cache, with its 8MB in capacity, is pretty huge, too. It also incorporates the newly-fangled QuickPath [Interconnect], which basically replaces the by now ancient FSB architecture. It’s a new point-to-point connection between the processor and other key components like the chipset and RAM. QuickPath will provide a tremendous amount of aggregate bandwidth, in comparison with FSB.

Since this architecture is scalable, it will be suitable for most all computing needs. Whereas the Pentium series was built around clock speeds, Intel’s new platform is centered around parallel bandwidth.

Integrated graphics, greener

Nehalem also promises 30% lower power usage when compared to its little brother Penryn, which is always nice. But the most interesting thing, in my opinion, has to be the option to include optional high performance integrated graphics into the architecture. This could lend an extra advantage to ultra-mobile devices like the eeePC - or any of the other lightweight laptops out there. But that’s just one of the possible uses for it.

Nehalem’s successor, Westmere will be shrunk to 32nm and should be ready for release by 2009.

My thoughts

It looks like this will be a breakthrough in day-to-day computing. It [moderately] breaks with old - yet tried - conventions. If nothing else, it’s delightful to see this kind of technology sprout out of Intel, which has been killing AMD big time with its Dual Core technology. I’m curious to see how it’ll work out and will keep you posted.

Read ArsTechnica’s great overview of the Nehalem for more information.

Geek Speak Explained

FSB: Front Side Bus
The FSB is the transfer bus that carries information between the CPU and the Northbridge of the motherboard. [Wikipedia]
a die: rectangular fragment of a semiconductor wafer
cache: limited, high-performing memory that is placed close to the processor
DDR3: DDR3 SDRAM
The improved reincarnation of its predecessor DDR2, promising lower power consumption (by 17%) and higher bandwidth. DDR3 is dimensionally identical to DDR2, except for the placement notch, since DDR2 and DDR3 modules are not interchangeable.

‘Intel processor and soap bar’ image courtesy of Flickr user ‘plataforma‘. This photo is subject to the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license.
‘Nehalem processor illustration’ image courtesy of ArsTechnica.com.

More »

Powered by Bookmarkify™

April
1

April 1st: Google loves jokes

Tags: april, fools, Google, joke, prank
Posted in Fun, Google | No Comments »

Google has a history of loving pranks and especially April Fools’ Day.
Yep, today’s that day.

For a full listing of all of Google’s jokes, visit the Google Operating System Blog.

iGoogle from right to left

Today, I saw my iGoogle homepage shift everything to the right.

Gmail Custom Time

Gmail Custom Time is a feature in Gmail which lets you set how recipients of your mails will see the datestamp. Dates in the past will also be reflected in the recipients’ inbox. And older message will appear lower in the list than newer ones, making your friends believe they’ve just forgotten about your message, instead of you being late.

The catch is that you can’t set dates back before April 1st, 2004, Gmail’s launch-date.

Tagline: “Be on time. Every time”.

Every time, this time, means you can use the option up to 10 times before it disappears.

gDay

Google Australia gDay, a feature that lets you search the web of tomorrow today. It uses a special technique to forecast what websites will like look like and which content they’ll deliver.

Virgle: The First Permanent Human Colony on Mars

Vigle is a contraction of Virgin Airlines and Google and is a company that will make the first human settlement on Mars, announced by Google’s Main Blog. Here’s the video announcement:

Apart from it not being very believable, it also shows signs of bad acting. But who cares.

New Google Docs Option

The file menu on Google Docs now has a new entry, called ‘Create a new airplane’. It renders an image of an airplane. Well, sort of. It still needs to be folder and that task is up to you.

Happy April Fools’ Day everyone!