Friday, June 12, 2009
Intel, Microsoft, Dell and Panasonic looking for WiGig - faster home wireless
We have Wi-Fi, WiMAX, WirelessHD, WHDI, but the new buzzword for higher-speed at-home wireless networking is WiGig — short for Wireless Gigabit Alliance. And not just for peripherals, but also for cell phones, TVs and video cameras; basically anything that has wireless data transmission needs.WiGig is the name given to a new association created to develop “an even faster wireless technology”, that is expected to be at least 10x faster than Wi-Fi. It’s greatest strength (and potential weakness in some people’s eyes) is that it will only operate over short distances, such as within a single room (or possibly two) by operating in the 60 GHz band.
Intel, Microsoft, Dell and Panasonic have all teamed up to form the association. Their effort will compete against other approaches to in-home wireless data transmission, including SiBEAM’s WirelessHD — which connects set-top boxes and Blu-ray players to TVs; and Amimon’s WHDI, which uses a Wi-Fi-like technology for the same purpose.
WiGig will provide enough bandwidth to fully transmit an entire DVD in 15 seconds, which is about 6 Gigabits per second. Its range will be limited to about 30 feet max, with notably drop-offs in throughput beyond 15-20 feet. Within 10 feet it will have its strongest transmission range, making it ideal for nearby entertainment center components.
Is Intel on the outs with Microsoft? Pushing Moblin with Novell
Last week Intel and Novell Inc. announced “broad efforts to closely collaborate and encourage original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and original design manufactures (ODMs) to adopt Moblin, an optimized open source Linux software platform” that Intel has targeted with their Atom-based CPU, one that’s used in netbooks and other Atom-powered mobile systems, including MIDs.Intel and Novell “signed an agreement outlining their plan for collaboration”. Novell also announced it will create a Moblin-based product for netbooks “that it will take to market to a wide range of OEMs and ODMs”. Novell will also establish Novell Open Labs in Taiwan to aid in the adoption of Moblin, working with the Taiwan Moblin Enabling Center (MEC), which is a joint effort between Intel and the Taiwan Institute for Information Industry. Their task will be to validate designs for Moblin compliance.
In 2007, Intel launched its Moblin software and even at that time raised questions about their continued support of Microsoft-based products. The effort largely remained under wraps, however, until resurfacing last month when The Linux Foundation became host to the Moblin community (as what many at first thought was an April Fool’s joke — it wasn’t).
Doug Fisher, Intel’s VP of Software and Services Group, and GM of the System Software division, said:
Novell has taken a significant leadership role in the Moblin community since joining the effort late last year, and today’s announcement will extend Novell’s level of involvement. The combination of Intel Atom processor-based platforms and Moblin-based Novell software will provide even more opportunities for OEMs, ODMs and the broader Moblin community to deliver excellent mobile Internet solutions.
The part which makes Geek.com question Intel’s loyalty to Microsoft was given a voice through this signed agreement by Ron Hovsepian, Novell’s President and CEO. He said:
We are extending our involvement with Moblin because we believe that it provides a richer mobile Internet experience. The emergence of such mobile computing platforms as netbooks presents a significant growth opportunity. We believe that Moblin-based Novell software on Intel-based platforms will offer OEMs and ODMs exceptional solutions for delivering a full Internet experience on such devices.
Moblin is currently in its alpha release stage and appears just like any other graphical form of OS, though its boot time is reportedly only “a few seconds”. Click on the thumbnail to see a larger screenshot
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Intel preps 16 threads with next-gen Nehalem-EX Xeon monster
Intel’s next big server chip, Nehalem-EX, codename “Beckton”, will include 2.3 billion transistors, eight cores, 16 threads per socket, and will be available possibly in late 2009, or more likely early 2010, according to recent revelations by Intel. The chip is designed for systems in excess of two sockets, and is capable of executing 16 simultaneous threads each. While Intel has not yet provided full details about the chip, in April they demonstrated the 300mm wafer (see pic), which showed the Beckton cores all nicely laid out. At that time, Shannon Pouline, Xeon Platform Director of Intel’s Server Products Group, said “What you’ll get at the beginning of next year — late this year or the beginning of next year — will be the push into the four-socket, eight-socket, and above space.”
In addition, they have just announced that on May 26 (a week from today), Boyd Davis, Intel’s GM of Server Platforms Marketing Group, will host the “roll-out event” to “discuss how this new server product raises the standard in cost-effective RISC replacement solutions”.
Intel will likely tempt Apple with high performing 45nm Moorestown
TG Daily’s Wolfgang Gruener managed to catch up with Anand Chandrasekher, Senior VP for Intel’s Ultra Mobility Group, during a recent trip to Silicon Valley. There he saw Intel’s next-gen 45nm Moorestown CPU/GPU hybrid operating in demo devices, along with its 65nm I/O chips (down from 130nm I/O on Atom’s mainboard). While Intel would not give performance or power data, the products are real and, according to Gruener, quite impressive and iPhone-like. Intel’s goal of a 50x reduction in idle power consumption was also realized with the process shrink, and new power saving abilities introduced into the design. In addition, the architecture is robust, supporting 1080p video playback as well as advanced 3D graphics abilities suitable for higher-end games, beyond those of the iPhone today.
Thanks to the process shrink, Moorestown’s form factor is now small enough to rival that of iPhone’s existing design. And when faced with the obvious fact that the demo devices look very much like iPhone products, even with an aluminum outer edge, Gruener asked Chandrasekher if “Apple is still on Intel’s customer wish list?” to which Chandrasekher replied, “I would love to have Apple as a customer”.
Intel also gave a little more information about the 32nm Moorestown follow-on, codenamed Metfield. In addition, the integrated design of Moorestown is not quite as tight as was originally thought. This was a design decision by Intel to limit its risk, should any one single part fail then only that one aspect would have to be redesigned. It doesn’t integrate SATA/PATA ports, for example, nor audio and security features.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Microsoft and Intel hamper consumer choices with new Windows 7 netbook plan
It’s being reported that Microsoft and Intel have jointly reached a consensus to limit the screen-size for netbook PCs certified with Windows 7 to 10.2-inches, down from a previous 12.1-inch limit. The move is designed to harm the competition, primarily VIA, and to reduce consumer choice while bolstering Intel’s Atom-based platform, which now dominate this 10.x inch niche, according to Taiwan ODM notebook makers.
In addition, the move will likely end PC vendors’ current Atom Zxx-based netbook offering, that of 11.6-inche and larger products, shortly after the launch of Windows 7, meaning netbooks stay on the small end, with CULV-like products taking up where netbooks could otherwise be.
This artificial limitation (of imposed hardware specs by Microsoft/Intel) runs contrary to VIA’s standard operating procedure, the chief competition in this area, and a company that does not limit its vendors’ ability to choose any components, including CPUs, chipsets, and display sizes, for their products. VIA lets the market decide for itself.
Reducing the maximum screen size from 12.1-inches to 10.2-inches for Windows 7 validation will reportedly push VIA out of the reduced OEM-price for Windows 7 licensing rates as well, thereby lowering the advantage of choosing a VIA product (such as the outstanding Samsung NC20 I