Gaming Laptops Get Bigger and Faster Drives

The divide between gaming desktops and laptops just got a bit smaller. Today Seagate announced that its 2.5-inch, 320GB, 7,200-rpm, Momentus 7200.3 hard drive is now available as an option in Dell XPS laptops and will be available soon in some Alienware laptop models.”Seagate’s new 2.5-inch hard drive delivers up to 320GB of capacity and combines a fast Serial ATA 3.0 Gbit/second interface with 7200-rpm spin speed and a 16MB cache to enable the highest-performance laptops ever. The drive also is offered with G-Force Protection, a free-fall sensor technology, to help prevent drive damage and data loss upon impact if a laptop PC is dropped.”Dell’s online configurator for the XPS M1730Hard drives with 7,200-rpm speeds are already an option for some Alienware laptops–however, currently only up to a 250GB capacity. These 250GB drives have been available in single drive, and dual-drive RAID 0 and RAID 1 configurations, as well as an additional drive in the laptop’s Smart Bay. This means that when Alienware makes the 320GB Momentus 7200.3 available, some laptop models could be configured with almost 1TB of 7,200-rpm-based hard disk storage space (320GB x 3 drives = 960GB). Many gamers like to do complete installs of their games, so that they won’t need the install disc whenever they want to play an installed game.It should be noted, however, that Seagate is not the only hard drive manufacturer churning out 2.5-inch, 7,200-rpm, 320GB drive: Hitachi’s Travelstar 7K320 has similar specs.Having this much hard disk storage capacity on a laptop is not unique. But higher storage capacity on small form-factor hard drives usually means slower rotations speeds in the 4,200-rpm and 5,400-rpm range. Now that laptops are coming with quad-core processors and multiple GPUs, having desktop-like hard disk speeds and capacities means that a properly-configured laptop can give desktop gaming rigs a run for their money.Which gets us thinking… When will we see liquid-cooled gaming laptops that can be overclocked?

Displays: AUO Throws a Curve and Slices it Thin

AUO is expected to unveil today a number of innovative display technologies, including what it claims are “the world’s first Curved Display Technology on glass substrate,” and “the world’s thinnest Ultra Thin 1.9-inch TFT-LCD.” AUO is one of over 550 vendors exhibiting their wares at the Society for Information Display’s Display Week 2008 show in Los Angeles this week.“The world’s first Curved Display is developed and produced by AUO with TFT-LCD process on glass substrate. The curved radius is 100mm, and therefore requires a special thinning technology. The specially designed curved backlight unit maintains uniformity in brightness and contrast on the curved surface. Unlike the existing e-paper on a flexible substrate, AUO’s new curved display technology can bring TFT-LCD technology into play in terms of both color performance and image quality. Therefore, it could be applied to some curved display applications in the future, such as watches and dashboards etc.”This will be by no means the first real-world sighting of a curved display: Both Alienware and NEC showed off curved-display prototypes back in January. But the Alienware and NEC technologies we’re for larger-scale displays and neither utilized an actual curved display substrate: Both the Alienware and NEC prototype used DLP projection.“AUO will also demonstrate a series of mobile device technologies, in which the world’s thinnest Ultra Thin 1.9-inch TFT-LCD is expected to grab the spotlight. This ultra thin TFT-LCD, with a thickness of merely 0.63mm, broke AUO’s own record of 0.69mm released at FPD International 2007 in Japan. This 8-inch TFT-LCD uses special glass thinning technologies, shrinking the thickness of related components, to achieve 0.63mm in thickness, 2.1 grams in weight and 400nits in brightness. The end result is a multitude of desired features – light, slim, elegant and sunlight readable, to meet current mobile lifestyles.”While both of these prototype designs are being introduced on the smaller scale, there is good reason to suspect that the technology should scale up to larger-sized display technology in the near future. AUO (Taiwan-based AU Optronics Corp.) currently manufactures over 20 percent of “large-sized TFT-LCD” panels in the world. You might not be familiar with AUO, but you’ve probably heard of some of the companies that have merged into AUO in the last seven years: Acer Display Technology, Unipac Optoelectronics, and Quanta Display.Another technology AUO plans on showcasing at Display Week 2008 is “its in-cell multi-touch technology,” which “unlike the current touch panels in the market, AUO’s in-cell multi-touch TFT-LCD integrates touch function features into the TFT manufacturing process without adding an additional glass.” The visible-in-direct-sunlight, 4.3-inch display will be in production before the end of June. An 8-inch design is in the works as well.Users of iPhones and the iPod Touch will be happy to hear that AUO has also developed “a fingerprint free surface… its grease-resistance features help to easily wipe off smudges and grease from the display.” AUO will be showing off the design on a 2.4-inch panel. Let’s hope that Apple sits up and takes notice.

Samsung Thinks Small

Samsung has a couple of new products that break the mold on what you might expect from computer peripherals. Samsung’s Dual Display 2263DX is a dual display with a twist. It is actually a normal 22-inch LCD display that also includes a 7-inch “companion” display that attaches to the larger display, “via a pivoting, swiveling arm which allows it to be positioned on either side or above the main display for a truly comfortable, customizable work environment.” The smaller display uses the USB-based DisplayLink technology.         The 22-inch display features a native resolution of 1,680×1,050; while the 7-inch is 800×600. Samsung claims a brightness of 300 cd2/m and 200 cd2/m for them, respectively, as well as contrast ratios of 1000:1 and 400:1, and response times of 5ms and 30ms. The 22-incher includes 15-pin D-SUB, DVI-D, and HDMI video inputs, as well as a microphone and headphone jacks. The 7-inch display plugs into the larger display via a USB connection on the larger unit. The larger display also includes an integrated 3-megapixel webcam, speakers, and a microphone.        Another curious Samsung device on the near horizon is the Samsung P400 Pocket Projector, as first reported by CNET U.K.’s Rory Reid. Reid reports that the mini-projector is light and small, and can run on battery power for up to 2 hours. It even has a built-in speaker:”It only runs at SVGA resolution — 800×600 pixels — but that’s higher than the resolution used by DVD movies and, indeed, consoles such as the Nintendo Wii and PS2. The quality of the image was commendable, too. We managed to get an image size of approximately 50 inches from around 2m away, and the 150 ANSI lumens brightness was certainly watchable — even in a room that was reasonably well-lit.”While Samsung has found some innovative ways to squeeze productivity from miniaturized products, believe it or not, others are working on shrinking down devices even further. Back in early January, 3M announced an “ultra-compact, LED-illuminated projection engine” designed to be integrated into portable devices, such as cell phones. “Roughly the size of a wireless earpiece and less than half an inch thick, the 3M mobile projection engine delivers brilliant VGA resolution images…”“When deployed in a host platform, such as a mobile phone, 3M’s technology can project a 40-inch or larger image with no-speckle and a high-fill factor that ensures superior image quality. Each engine uses an advanced liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) electronic imager in conjunction with proprietary 3M optics technology.”It would appear that thinking small pays off after all.

Atom-Based MID Up Close and Personal

The folks over at UMPC Fever have got their hands on one of the very first-to-market, Intel Atom processor-based MIDs (Mobile Internet Device). It is the Aigo MID, which they claim is the Asian version of the Gigabyte M528 we’ll be seeing shortly in the U.S.:”Apart from the interior Intel Atom processor, my first impression on aigo MID is it’s size and weight! It is a real small and light and even lighter than Raon Digital Everun which is the smallest UMPC I’ve played before! When you holding it, it is just like you are holding a PSP or NDS but with a x86 processing power! My HTC TyTN II weights ~200g and aigo MID is just 352g but with a larger screen size (4.8 in 800 x 480 res.) and full function browser which is what I have expected on a mobile internet device.”The unit they received came with a GUI-based Linux OS and supports multi-touch input. It also sports a min-sized QWERTY keyboard. UMPC Fever was a bit skimpy on details, but they were impressed with its overall application performance, but disappointed by its battery life. Not content to let the device just run Linux, they installed Windows XP SP3 on it and posted a video on YouTube demonstrating how it works with XP. Judging by the video, it seems to handle XP pretty well–especially considering that they didn’t install any specific Windows drivers for the device. Bluetooth worked, as did the integrated 3-megapixel camera, webcam, and several USB devices they tried, such as a mouse, external keyboard, and flash drive. Due to the lack of installed drivers, WiFi, audio, and the microSD slot were not functioning, and only a VGA resolution were supported.   Aigo MID                                              Gigabyte M528From an aesthetic perspective, the Aigo MID and the Gigabyte M528 look identical. Anyone intersted in being one of the first to own a MID or Intel Atom-based device might want to check out S&A Mobile Parks, which appears to be taking orders for the Gigabyte M528, selling it for $420.

Network Throttling is Big Business

How exactly do major ISPs determine which types of traffic to let through unhampered and which types to throttle or block? With deep-packet inspection devices, such as the $800,000 Procera Networks PacketLogic PL10000. Ars Technica reports on the latest ammunition in ISPs’ arsenal:”The PL10000 can handle up to 5 million subscribers and can track 48 million real-time data flows. That’s certainly a potent piece of hardware, but larger ISPs will need more. That’s why Procera designed the new machines with full support for synchronizing traffic flows where return traffic might be routed to a different PacketLogic machine.”In other words, large ISPs will need several of these $800K appliances to adequately monitor and shape traffic. Deep-packet inspection is becoming so important to ISPs that an entire business ecosystem is building up around it. Hardware, software, and service providers are ratcheting up their tools to help ISPs analyze and shape network traffic. The ISPs claim that the technology enables them to better identify security threats and bandwidth overloads; charge for different tiers of service; and enforce bandwidth quotas. Both proponents and opponents of net neutrality are feeding money to lobbyists to fight their battles in Washington D.C. Even politicians, such as former Arkansas governor, Mike Huckabe, are taking stands.The momentum appears to increasing now more than ever in the network throttling debate–with a new net neutrality bill just proposed in Congress. There is a lot of money at stake in this fight, which is quickly appearing to be one of free speech vs. big business. Many Internet users, such as those who don’t use P2P applications and don’t download lots of files, feel that these issues don’t impact them. That might not be a safe assumption. With ISPs seriously considering bandwidth quotas and additional charges for allowing certain types of Internet traffic, such as VoIP, the issues surrounding this debate might be closer to home than many realize.

Parallels Desktop for Mac Now XP SP3 Compatible

Just in time for the (delayed) release of the Windows XP SP3 update, Parallels updates its Mac virtualization application, Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac. As recent as last week, a Parallels representative stated that an XP SP3-compatible update to Parallels Desktop was as much as a month away. Perhaps what he meat to say was “next month,” which in this case meant only a handful of days.Prior to the most-recent Parallels Desktop update, users who were running Windows XP and tried to upgrade XP to the SP3 update were running into a variety of problems. This latest update, build 5600, not only claims full support for XP SP3, but also for the Vista SP1 update as well. Macbook Air users using Parallels Desktop can also breathe easier as the Air is now fully supported as well. In addition to some minor bug fixes and performance enhancements, improvements were made to make it easier and faster to share folders and files between the Windows and Mac OSes. For more information on how and why Mac users would want to run Windows on their Macs, see the article here.

New Net Neutrality Bill Proposed

The ISP network throttling debate continues on Capital Hill: News.com reports that two Democratic Congressmen, John Conyers from Michigan and Zoe Lofgren from California, have introduced new legislation designed to prevent network providers from prioritizing Internet traffic and content.Just like last time, the bill would rewrite U.S. antitrust law to prohibit network operators like AT&T and Comcast from blocking, impairing, or discriminating against “lawful” Internet content, applications, and services or charging extra fees for “prioritization or enhanced quality of service.”"The Internet was designed without centralized control, without gatekeepers for content and services,” Conyers said in a statement. “If we allow companies with monopoly or duopoly power to control how the Internet operates, network providers could have the power to choose what content is available.”This is not the first time such legislation has been proposed. Similar bills were proposed in 2006, but were never passed into law. Proponents of enacting net neutrality legislation are a number of big Internet companies such as Google and Yahoo, as well as advocacy groups, such as Consumers Union and the American Electronics Association–who “argue rules are necessary to keep the Internet free, open, and democratic, so that small start-ups can be on a level playing field with more established companies.”  Network operators such as Comcast and AT&T, not surprisingly, oppose such legislation on grounds that “new rules will stifle investments in new broadband networks and deprive them of the flexibility they need to keep their services running smoothly.” Many share the opinion of Cisco’s Robert Pepper that the market will adjust accordingly to the needs of the users and that a tiered system will better meet the varied demands of those users, therefore government-mandated oversight is not necessary.Even readers of HotHardware appear split in their opinions as to whether net neutrality legislation is necessary. We’d like to know what you think about the net neutrality debate, so please tell us your thoughts in the comments below.

Test if Your ISP is Throttling BitTorrent

Potential throttling of BitTorrent traffic by major ISPs, such as Comcast and AT&T, means that your Internet access could be affected. It’s not just the downloading of illegal movies and applications that utilizes BitTorrent traffic; there is plenty of legitimate BitTorrent traffic out there as well, such as Valve’s Steam game distribution platform. Some legitimate Steam users have reported interference from ISPs.While the government investigates and contemplates enacting net neutrally legislation, what is a broadband user to do? Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems have created a couple of tools for detecting if an ISP is manipulating BitTorrent traffic. They call their project: “Glasnost: Bringing Transparency to the Internet.”"ISPs are increasingly deploying a variety of middleboxes (e.g., firewalls, traffic shapers, censors, and redirectors) to monitor and to manipulate the performance of user applications. Most ISPs do not reveal the details of their network deployments to their customers. We believe that this knowledge is important to help users make a more informed choice of their ISP. Further, such knowledge is also useful for researchers designing protocols and systems that run on top of these networks.”The Glasnost page currently hosts two tools: One tests to see if your ISP blocks or limits BitTorrent traffic; and the second tool measures characteristics of your broadband connections, such as router queueing delays. The researchers promise more relevant tools in the near future. At the time of this news post, the BitTorrent traffic manipulation test tool was consistently providing the message, “We are sorry. Our measurement servers are currently busy. Please try again later.” Therefore we were unable to test its effectiveness.UPDATE: Several users have reported that links on the Glasnost pages result in popup windows with inappropriate content. Visit these pages at your own risk, and at the very least make sure a popup blocker is active.

Srizbi is World’s Most Prevalent Spam Botnet

Technology News Daily reports on the latest findings of Marshal’s Threat Research and Content Engineering (TRACE) team, indicating that the Srizbi botnet comprises 49.4 percent of all spam for the week ending May 4, 2008–making Srizbi “the world’s largest spam botnet.” (Marshal is an e-mail and Internet-content security service provider.)”Srizbi is estimated to comprise at least 300,000 compromised computers and sends more than 60 billion spam messages per day. Recently, the botnet has been used to promote a range of products including watches, pens and male enlargement pills. Srizbi also actively distributes copies of its own malware in malicious spam campaigns using social engineering ploys to trick recipients into infecting their computers.”Here are some other interesting statistics from the TRACE team’s recent findings:The average size of a spam message is 2.9KBThe next-most active spambot, Mega-D represents 17.3 percent of all spamThe United States produces the most spam of any countryTurkey produces the next most spam

12-Core Chips from AMD in 2010

AMD has released its product roadmap for the next two years and the company appears to have gone core crazy. Plans for several multi-core chip releases over the next two years will culminate in a 12-core CPU to be released in the first half of 2010. The first new product from AMD will be code-named “Shanghai,” and is expected to see the light of day in the second half of this year. This will be AMD’s first 45nm sever processor, and will support HyperTransport 3.0 as well as sporting a whopping 6MB of Level-3 cache. Shanghai will have four cores.Next at bat will be “Istanbul,” due out in the second half of 2009. Istanbul will sport six cores and will be designed for use in multi-processor systems (two processors and up). In early 2010, AMD expects to release its new Socket G34 platform with DDR3 memory support.The pièce de résistance, however, will be AMD’s 12-core, Socket G34-based, “Magny Cours” processor. A six-core version will also be available, code-named “Sao Paolo.”Increasing the number of cores on CPUs is a logical direction, and one that Intel is heading in as well. It has become increasingly difficult to squeeze higher speeds out of processors, so the solution to increasing CPU performance has been to integrate more cores into the chips themselves. While AMD’s recently-announced roadmap focuses on server processors, this doesn’t mean that desktop and laptop processors are getting the short shrift. Like Mary and her little lamb, wherever server processors go, desktop and laptop processors are sure to follow. Processor designs for AMD’s mainstream systems will reap the benefits of the technological advances going into the server processors. The sockets will be different, there will be less on-board cache, fewer HyperTransport links, and no multi-processor support, but the desktop and laptop processors will share the same number of cores and have the same raw CPU power.