News Bits: MacBook Pro and Super Pi, Dell Core Duo Notebooks, Google Wi-Fi in San Fran

NotebookReview.com's MacBook Pro Running XP andSuper Pi Results

NotebookReview.com's MacBook Pro, running an OS that is not Mac OS X! (view large image)

As most people have heard by now, this past week Apple announced the release of Boot Camp, a utility that allows users to run Windows XPand Mac OS X on any Intel poweredMac. Since we have a MacBook Pro in our inventory of laptops, we of course had to try out Boot Camp and get Windows running on the MacBook. And since we so love to run the program Super Pi (download Super Pi programhere)to calculate the accuracy of Pi to 2 million digits as a benchmark of processor performance, it was of course the first thing we did. And so, here are the results:

Notebook	Time to Calculate Pi to 2 Million Digits
Apple MacBook Pro(1.83GHz Core Duo)	1m 32s
Samsung X60 (1.66GHz Core Duo)	1m 29s
Dell Inspiron e1505 (2.0GHz Core Duo)	1m 16s
Fujitsu LifeBook N3510 (1.73 GHz Alviso Pentium M)	1m 48s
Dell Inspiron 6000D (1.6 GHz Alviso Pentium M)	1m 52s
Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (2.0GHz Core Duo)	1m 18s
Sony VAIO S360(1.7 GHzDothan Pentium M)	1m 57s
HP dv5000t (1.83GHz Core Duo)	1m 17s
Sony VAIO S380 (1.83 GHz Alviso Pentium M)	1m 42s

The MacBook Pro appears to not run Super Pi as fast as its equivalent pure PC peers, but a very healthy and respectable score nonetheless, and this is by no means a comprehensive comparison of overall system speed for all tasks -- just a rough guide and interesting result.

Cool thing, or hearsay to have Windows on a Mac? Your opinion, but it's reality now either way!(view large image)

Dell promises more Core Duo notebooks

Although Intel's new dual-core processor, the Core Duo, was released over four months ago, it is still a rarity in the notebook world. Intel has caught up with the market demand, and we should start seeing more notebooks equipped with the new processor. Dell announced it will be offering the Core Duo in six other business and multimedia notebooks (Latitude and Inspiron) this month.

Details on the supply of Core Duos are sketchy, but industry sources have told TG daily that the CPU has been in huge demand, even in the first few weeks after the initial launch.

Currently, Dell is offering the Core Duo in its business-oriented Latitude D620 and D820, and will ship later this month. Consumer-oriented Inspiron notebooks are branded with model numbers E1505, E1705, 6400, and 9400. The estimated shipping dates are April 12<SUP>th</SUP> and 13<SUP>th</SUP>.

Link to TGDaily

AMD Opens Fab 36 Facility, Upcoming 65nm and Socket AM2 performance

(view large image)

About six months ago, AMD introduced Fab 36, their first 300mm 90nm manufacturing facility, located in Dresden, Germany. However, six months ago it wasn't ready to begin shipping parts -- the estimated date to start was Q1 2006. Fab 36 has finally begun to ship parts. Currently, it's producing Sempron and Athlon 64 CPUs, not the Opteron and Athlon X2 (yet). Why only produce two CPUs? The reasoning behind that is because they're in the highest demand, which makes sense because the lower end sells more than the higher end.

Fab 36 is going to do a lot for AMD's manufacturing capability -- by 2008, they plan to be able to push out 20,000 wafers per month -- that doubles their production capacity to 100M CPUs per year because of the larger wafers and smaller transistors. In comparison to Fab 30, which is next door to Fab 36, it produces 30,000 200mm wafers per month. Additional 90nm manufacturing capability is helped by AMD's partnership with Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd. (Singapore), beginning in the second half of this year.

All parts coming out of Fab 36 will be 90nm; AMD is converting to the 65nm process in the second half of 2006. AMD plans to have the majority of Fab 36 converted to 65nm by the middle of 2007. What does 65nm mean for AMD? The same that it did to Intel -- smaller die sizes, faster switching transistors, and lower power consumption. AMD promised a 40% increase in transistor performance with the 65nm conversion.

45nm: AMD stated that they had successfully produced a SRAM test wafer at 45nm -- they produce a SRAM wafer first to validate a new process. Their announcement is roughly three months after Intel did the same.

AM2: Unfortunately, the new Socket AM2 has not been performing very well in development in the last few months, with sometimes less performance versus the current Socket 939. The gains are only about 5% at the same clock speeds, but using DDR2-800. Although its not much so far, keep in mind that it is early, and the transition to DDR2 from DDR will be more of a boost for AMD than it had been for Intel.

AMD did not give a roadmap of what will happen after the transition to DDR2, but they said that once AM2 launches, more information will be provided.

Link to AnandTech

EarthLink + Google to provide WiFi in San Francisco

On Wednesday, April 5<SUP>th</SUP>, San Francisco selected a joint bid by Google and Earthlink to provide city-wide wireless access. The proposal was submitted in February.

The executive director of the Depratment of Telecommunications and Information Services for San Francisco, Chris Vein said that he expected the negotiations between the two companies to go smoothly, and work on the network would begin in 2006, hopefully to be completed in a few months.

There are several concerns with the network -- one is security. The committee that selected the EarthLink proposal, TechConnect, "felt comfortable enough with the total package of the deal that we should negotiate with Earthlink and Google on issues like privacy and security going forward." Another concern was whether or not the wireless network would truly be citywide, as in it could penetrate buildings. Vein also said that would be discussed with EarthLink and Google.

Google and EarthLink are pleased to be selected as the winning bidders.

Link to Cnet

ATI Beta patch enables HDR and anti-aliasing in Oblivion

ATI released a new patch today, April 7<SUP>th</SUP>, that will enable HDR (High Dynamic Range) and anti-aliasing (AA) at the same time in the recently released Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. If you don't have the patch, you can only enable one at a time. But the patch isn't for everybody: it supports CrossFire graphics via AFR mode. Bummer!

Link to TGDaily

Link to Download Patch

AMD embedded processors adopted by Taiwan IPC makers

AMD's recent launch of the Geode LX EPIC RDK (reference design kit), which are aimed at delivering lower power solutions for SBCs (Single Board Computers), have already been adopted by industrial Taiwan PC makers DFI and Advantech Computer.

To quote:

"Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) announced on April 3 that the availability of its Geode LX EPIC RDK will enable developers to get their products faster to market. The design supports a wide-range of ruggedized industrial SBC applications, including data acquisition, video processing, point-of-sale terminals, telecommunications, global positioning satellite (GPS) devices and motion control. "

Intel's embedded processors currently have an average price of over $100 USD, but the average price for VIA Technologies' C7 series is $50-$100. AMD is going even lower, at less than $50 average. The low price is expected to attract more IPC makers.

Link to DigiTimes

 

Thanks for posting this Chaz, as always very interesting update to the computing world.

 

Interesting news Chazster

 

Wouldn't it be hard, if not at least very annoying to use Windows with only one mouse button? What is your problem Apple!?

By the way, how hard is it to run OSX on PC notebooks anyways?

 

Yeah, it is hard to use Windows with only one button - an external mouse would be a must for Mac to Windows users.

I think it's much harder to get OS X to run on a PC than the reverse order - plus, there are no retail versions of OS X available to the public - just upgrades to current software.

 

Why does windows report 496mb of ram in the system info window? (see 2nd picture of MacBook Pro running windows).

The MBP has 512 ram and dedicated graphics so it should all show up...

 

Wow - you can read that? I'm guessing it might be due to the hypermemory in the X1600 GPU.

 

I zoomed in a little...

 

How much is a little?

 

3 clicks on the zoom button in the windows picture viewer.

 

Six new laptops from Dell this month? Most interesting indeed. Let's hope there'd be dedicated graphics for their new 14" (hopefully) model.

 

I feel like I'm the only one that's never gotten to try out OSX yet. I'm just plain sick and tired of everyone saying how OSX is TONS and TONS better than XP and I want to see it for myself, I'd really like to try to get it to run on my PC, I can't see why it wouldn't work. I think some have managed to get it to run quite well in fact.

I know that last year, Apple released finally their own external 2 button mouse called the Mighty Mouse but does anyone know when they'll finally put two mousebuttons on their notebooks!?
Call me crazy, but thats almost a dealbreaker for me.
I've never, ever considered getting a Mac until this boot camp software, but I'll have to wait at least 2 more years before getting a new notebook, but this time, it may actually be a mac, I've always been a loyal windows user.

 

I've used my uncles mac and I liked it a lot, the style, the elegance, the performance... Though I doubt I'd buy one, my gamer soul wouldn't let me.

 

If you use Macs, you're a coward. A real man would use Windows and be able to handle all the crashes and errors and blue screens of death.

 

ditto, even something low end like the x1300 or go 7300 would be nice.

 

personally i don't see what is so great about os x. i recently took a job that i get to play with some macs. right now i have a dual g4 box running os x 10.2.8 (i believe) and i really hate it. everytime i use the mac i feel my blood pressure rising. i have never disliked a computer so much in my life before. i have 10.4.3 on the way but so far i am extremely unimpressed. i like win xp and ubuntu much much better.

scott

 

Some people love it and some people hate it. I personally love OS X and Windows, but I hate Linux. It's just a matter of personal preference.

 

san francisco blows!!!!!!!!

i wish my city was wi-fi.

 

Exactly. If they release anything that'll be in direct competition with the upcoming Apple iBook, I'd be happy.

edit: Does anyone know the possible specs of the Intel-based ibook? Core Duo T2300 and X1400 graphics maybe? I was set on something expensive ($2200 USD and up) but ended up not getting anything because of my now lower budget (around $1500-$1800 or so).