Desktop PCs

Seagate unveils 1.5 Terabyte desktop drive

Paul Mah — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 09:18:02 -0400

Seagate unveiled a 1.5 Terabyte, 3.5-inch hard disk for the desktop earlier this week. Meant for the mainstream market, the Barracuda 7200.11 represents the 11th generation of Seagate's flagship drive for desktop PCs. The release of this drive marks the single largest jump in hard disk capacity in the history of hard drives, up a half-terabyte from the previous highest capacity of just 1 TB. This was possible due to the four platters based on perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) technology spinning inside the Barracuda 7200.11. In addition, the drive comes with a SATA interface giving three gigabytes per second, and can give a sustained data rate of 120 megabytes per second. According to Seagate, the drive is scheduled to ship in August.

For more on Seagate's 1.5TB hard drive:
- check out this InformationWorld article

Fujitsu develops "zero watt" display

Mehan Jayasuriya — Fri, 02 May 2008 12:08:16 -0400

The larger the organization, the more employees. The more employees, the more PCs. And the more PCs, the higher the energy costs. There's no denying that desktop PCs are power hungry beasts, though it's quite often the display, rather than the PC itself, that wastes the most energy in standby mode. Looking to tackle this problem, Fujitsu has developed an LCD display that uses no energy when in standby mode. How does it work? Simply enough, the display contains a switch that completely shuts it off when a signal from the PC's video card is absent. Then, when a signal is detected, it turns the display back on. Best of all, the display goes on sale this summer, "for the price of a conventional monitor."

For more on the "zero-watt" display:
- see this Treehugger article

Fujitsu: Building a biodegradable laptop

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 06:59:59 -0500

When someone mentions green tech, the first thing that comes to mind is probably energy-efficient devices. While solar-powered desktops are certainly cool as all get out, energy use isn't the only environmental problem that the tech industry needs to face. The waste created by discarded electronics in the U.S. alone results in hundreds of thousands of tons of post-consumer waste, much of it toxic and non-biodegradable. What's worse, it's estimated that some 50-80 percent of the eWaste that is supposedly "recycled" is actually shipped overseas, where it contaminates the environment and creates health risks for those who work and live nearby.

Given that the tech industry probably isn't going to stop churning out gadgets anytime soon, one possible solution to the problem is the development of biodegradable devices. Fujitsu showed off one such device at CES this year: a laptop whose casing is built using corn. Apparently "the main component is polylactic acid, also known as PLA, a resin that comes from the fermentation of the raw biomass from plants." While an amount of traditional plastic still needs to be mixed in with the PLA in order to provide an adequate level of durability, the PLA and plastic can be separated at the end of the product's lifetime, at which point the PLA can either degrade naturally or be burned without emitting any harmful by-products. Sure, it's not perfect but it's definitely a start to addressing one of our industry's dirtiest secrets.

For more on Fujitsu's biodegradable laptop:
- see this post from Inhabitat
- and this AP article on green tech at CES

Intel at CES: tiny SSD, WiMAX

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 06:59:57 -0500

It's CES time again and hoping to cut through the noise, Intel has decided to jump the gun with a pre-show press conference. Let's cut to the chase, shall we?

In January, the company will release what they're calling "the smallest SSD in the industry." Intel's Z-P140 PATA SSD holds either 2GB or 4GB on a chip that's about the same size as a penny. Holy cow!
Intel's WiFi/WiMAX chip, code-named "Echo Park," will be available in devices sometime next year.
The company will launch "Skulltrail," a new dual-processor platform next year, making it easier to produce 8-core machines based on quad-core Core 2 Extreme CPUs.
The Centrino platform will get a much-needed boost with "Santa Rosa Refresh," which will feature a new 45nm CPU and better integrated graphics. There will also be a Refresh for desktops, though details on that remain sketchy.

For more on Intel's CES announcements:
- see this fact sheet (PDF link)

HP preps Penryn workstations

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 06:59:59 -0500

What did we tell you, folks? Just yesterday, Lenovo rolled out the first Penryn desktops, signaling the beginning of the 45nm onslaught. Today, HP is doing the same, revealing two towers of its own design that sport those hot-off-the-assembly-line Penryns. The forthcoming xw8600 and xw6600 workstations can be configured to house any combination of two Intel CPUs from HP's list: the choices range from a dual-core Xeon 5200 up to a quad-core Xeon 5400, with clock speeds ranging from 1.86Ghz to 3.33Ghz. The lower-end xw6600 supports up to 32GB of DDR2 RAM and sports a DVD burner, numerous PCI and PCIe slots and can be configured with the NVIDIA Quadro or ATI FireGL graphics card of your choosing. Meanwhile, the xw8600 can be packed with as much as 128GB of RAM and has a bit more room for storage drives and PCI cards. Additionally, these new desktops are more eco-friendly than HPs of years past, sporting more efficient power supplies, lead-free CPUs and 90 percent recyclable components. No word yet on either price or ship dates (starting price of $1200/mid-December are rumored), though Penryn doesn't get "official" until the 12th, at which point we'll hopefully have more to chew on.

For more on the new workstations:
- see this Electronista article

ALSO NOTED: The death of the Google phone?; Dell to start selling PCs at Staples;

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 06:59:51 -0400

> The death of the Google phone? Article
> eMachines looses some cheap new desktops. Article
> SD card with integrated WiFi gets FCC approval. Article
> Samsung announces the world's densest flash memory chip. Article
> Greenpeace vs. the iPhone: the battle continues. Article
> Dell to start selling PCs at Staples. Article
> R.I.P. the Hitachi consumer PC. Article

And Finally... The 16 all time worst apple products. Article

Dell gets behind Ubuntu 7.10

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 06:59:58 -0400

Just yesterday, we gave you a sneak peek at Ubuntu 7.10, or "Gutsy Gibbon" as it is commonly known. Today, Dell is announcing that it plans to install the newest version of Ubuntu on desktops and laptops, once 7.10 ships tomorrow. "We will offer Ubuntu 7.10 preinstalled on our systems soon," said Anne Camden of Dell corporate communications, in an interview with eWeek. "For customers who are interested in updating their existing Ubuntu systems, we advise them to visit the Ubuntu 7.10 page on our wiki, which will go live after the official launch." Granted, this doesn't come as much of a surprise--Dell has been offering pre-installed Ubuntu systems for a while now--but its still nice to see that the Round Rock company is looking to keep things up-to-date on the Linux tip.

For more on Ubuntu on Dell:
- see this eWeek article

Mozilla announces Mobile Firefox

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 06:59:59 -0400

We've heard some rumblings about a mobile version of the beloved Firefox browser in the past but now, for the first time, Mozilla is speaking openly about the portable browser. In a blog post, Mozilla's VP of Engineering, Mike Schroepfer reveals that the company is working on a mobile version of Firefox that will be largely based on existing Firefox code. "Up until very recently device limitations required writing new mobile browsers from the ground up," Schroepfer writes. Now, however, the team will be "able to leverage all the investments in the Mozilla platform across both desktops and devices," thanks to recent improvements in mobile hardware. This is great news for open-source proponents and for those looking for a mobile Safari-style full web experience on a mobile device. Don't throw away that iPhone quite yet, though: Mobile Firefox isn't expected to be released until after Firefox 3, which is currently expected sometime next year.

For more on the announcement:
- see this blog entry

AMD expands 45 watt lineup

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 06:59:58 -0400

Hot on the heels of its "Black Edition" Athlon chips, AMD has decided to expand its 45 watt offerings, releasing six new chips that span the Athlon X2, Athlon and Sempron lines. There's the 2.3Ghz Athlon X2 BE-2400, which retails for $104 when purchased in batches of 1000, the 2.4Ghz Athlon LE-1620 for $53, the 2.2Ghz Athlon LE-1600 for $47, the 2.2Ghz Sempron LE-1250 for $53, the 2.1Ghz Sempron LE-1200 for $48 and the lowly 1.9Ghz Sempron LE-1100 for $37. AMD has yet to reveal which OEMs will be using these chips, though its probably safe to assume that they'll be showing up in energy-conscious desktops and media centers.

For more on the new 45 watt chips:
- see this ExtremeTech article

ALSO NOTED: Intel preps quad-core mobile chip; Jobs to only speak for 1.5 hours after all;

Tue, 17 Apr 2007 20:01:31 -0400

> Intel is prepping a quad-core chip for high-performance laptops. That's gonna be one hot tamale. Article
> HD DVD: 100,000 stand-alone players sold in North America. Article
> HP rolls out some fancy new consumer desktops. Release
> USB charging could get faster with a new power spec. Release
> A 120GB PCMCIA NAND hard drive for portable storage buffs. Article
> Turns out that this year's "Stevenote" is only going to be 1.5 hours after all: the confusion was due to a typo on Apple's website. Article

And Finally... Inventions that were never meant to be. Article