PC Drivers

Looking for drivers that you can't find anywhere else? If after you have searched for drivers on the manufactures site, give Driversdown.com a whirl.

http://www.driversdown.com/

Now remember, you wouldn't have to do this if you had just kept track of your software.

When you purchase a computer is usually comes with recovery disks &/or drivers. Some PC's you must order separately or after the fact but you should make sure you have these and keep in a safe place because it is no IF your computer fails but when.

Contact a professional to help you:
www.MyComputerGirl.com
863-512-1079

The netbook distro - Moblin 2.0 beta

Moblin is an open source project focused on building a Linux-based platform optimized for the next generation of mobile devices including Netbooks, Mobile Internet Devices, and In-vehicle infotainment systems.

Moblin is Intel's initiative to develop a linux-based OS for mobile devices like netbook. According to the Moblin website, Moblin v2.0 boast the following feastures:

• New, visually rich user experience
• The myzone, acting as the 'home screen' panel
• Aggregation of your social networking content
• A web browser optimized for the Moblin 2.0 netbook user interface
• A 'Zoomable' media player
• A user interface for connection management

Currently, it is v2.0 beta and according to the website tested moblin on the following netbook

• Acer Aspire*One,
• Asus eeePC* 901, 1000H,
• Dell Mini 9, MSI Wind,
• Lenovo S10,
• Samsung NC10,
• HP Mini 1010 and 1120NR (wired networking only for now).

For more information, do go to Moblin Website

Using Intel® MKL in VASP

Using Intel® MKL in VASP guide is intended to help current VASP* (Vienna Ab-Initio Package Simulation*) users get better benchmark performance by utilizing Intel® Math Kernel Library (Intel® MKL).
The guide contain configuration and setup notes

Intel Unveils New Product Plans for High-Performance Computing - Knight Corners

A possible non-GP-GPU route with many CPU on a chip? As intel put it Single Chip Cloud Computer

During the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC), Intel Corporation announced plans to deliver new products based on the Intel® Many Integrated Core (MIC) architecture that will create platforms running at trillions of calculations per second, while also retaining the benefits of standard Intel processors...... [Read On "Intel Unveils New Product Plans for High-Performance Computing"]

Do Read

1. Futuristic Intel Chip Could Reshape How Computers are Built, Consumers Interact with Their PCs and Personal Devices
2. A webcast of Kirk Skaugen's International Supercomputing 2010 keynote presentation will be available here: lecture2go.uni-hamburg.de/live.
3. Keynote Presentation: Petascale to Exascale - Extending Intel’s HPC Commitment (PDF 7.6MB)

Using Intel® MKL with Threaded Applications

It seems that calling Intel MKL routines that are threaded from multiple application threads can lead to conflict (including incorrect answers or program failures) or at best longer unexpected CPU times.

A good and through description is given by the Intel Website on the issue as well as the workaround
.Using Intel® MKL with Threaded Applications.

The crux of the problem accoring to Intel is as followed:

Intel MKL can be aware that it is in a parallel region only if the threaded program and Intel MKL are using the same threading library. If the user program is threaded by some other means, Intel MKL may operate in multithreaded mode and the computations may be corrupted. Here is Intel recommendation
Here are several cases and our recommendations:

1. User threads the program using OS threads (pthreads on Linux*, Win32* threads on Windows*). If more than one thread calls Intel MKL and the function being called is threaded, it is important that threading in Intel MKL be turned off. Set OMP_NUM_THREADS=1 in the environment.
2. User threads the program using OpenMP directives and/or pragmas and compiles the program using a compiler other than a compiler from Intel. This is more problematic because setting OMP_NUM_THREADS in the environment affects both the compiler's threading library and the threading library with Intel MKL. In this case, the safe approach is to set OMP_NUM_THREADS=1.
3. Multiple programs are running on a multiple-CPU system. In cluster applications, the parallel program can run separate instances of the program on each processor. However, the threading software will see multiple processors on the system even though each processor has a separate process running on it. In this case OMP_NUM_THREADS should be set to 1.
4. If the variable OMP_NUM_THREADS environment variable is not set, then the default number of threads will be assumed 1. 

Setting the Number of Threads for OpenMP* (OMP)

The OpenMP* software responds to the environment variable OMP_NUM_THREADS:

1. Windows*: Open the Environment panel of the System Properties box of the Control Panel on Microsoft* Windows NT*, or it can be set in the shell the program is running in with the command: set OMP_NUM_THREADS=.
2. Linux*: To set and export the variableP "export OMP_NUM_THREADS=".

This is issue was mentioned by Axel Kohlmeyer at this forum on Parallization Issues

Intel doubles capacity, drops price in refresh of popular SSD line

Solid-State Drive 320 series offers up to 30% drop in price; capacities increased by up to triple that of X25-M drives

Computerworld - Intel announced today a new line of consumer-class solid-state drives based on its smallest 25 nanometer (nm) circuitry that replaces the chip maker's most popular SSD, the X25-M.

The new 2.5-in. Intel Solid-State Drive 320 Series offers models that more than triple capacity over the X25-M and reduces prices by up to 30%, or $100, on some models. While aimed at the laptop and desktop market, the consumer SSD has also been Intel's most popular model for servers in data centers.
SSD 320 doubles sequential write speeds
The SSD 320 more than doubled sequential write speeds from Intel's second-generation X25-M consumer SSD, to 220MB/sec.

With the 320 Series, Intel has added native 128-bit AES encryption on the drives, which protects data while at rest on the NAND flash memory.

For data resiliency, Intel also included surplus NAND flash chips on the drive's board over and above the usable capacity. If the SSD's controller detects a potential chip failure, it automatically migrates data to the spare capacity.

Intel has also included small capacitors in its latest SSD, so that in the event of a power loss, data writes in progress to the NAND flash memory will be completed.

"We're talking about microseconds [of power] here, not seconds," said Kishore Rao, product line manager for SSDs. "There's just enough reserve current to complete any writes that were in progress."

Michael Yang, an analyst with market research firm iSuppli, called the SSD 320 Intel's "Honda Accord." Yang noted that Intel is not the first manufacturer to offer native encryption or data redundancy features on an SSD, but he said they have added what amounts to enterprise-class features on a consumer-class SSD.

For example, SSDs made with SandForce and Indilinx controllers -- such as those from OCZ -- also come with native encryption.

"This is not a leadership product by any stretch," Yang said. "But it's a good product, especially for a 25nm SSD."

Intel's legacy consumer SSD series, the X25-M, comes in 80GB and 160GB models. The new SSD 320 Series offers capacities ranging from 40GB to 600GB.

Read full story...

Intel ships first Celeron chip based on Sandy Bridge

IDG News Service - Intel this month started shipping its first Celeron laptop processor based on Sandy Bridge architecture. It is a cheaper and stripped down version of the new Core i3, i5 and i7 counterparts.

The dual-core Celeron B810 processor runs at a speed of 1.6GHz, includes 2MB of cache and draws up to 35 watts of power. The chip is priced at $86 when purchased in quantities of 1,000.

Celeron chips have been used in low-cost laptops designed for basic applications such as word processing and Internet surfing. Over the last two years, single-core Celeron chips have been used in sub-$300 laptops with 15.6-inch screens. The Celeron chip usually competes with AMD's V-series and Sempron processors.

PC makers have not yet announced laptops based on the Celeron chips.

According to product details on Intel's website, the Celeron B810 includes integrated graphics capabilities just like the Core i3, i5 and i7 chips, which are being used in the recently announced business and ultraportable laptops from Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Lenovo. But the Celeron chip is missing some power saving and speed-enhancement features such as Turbo Boost 2.0, in which idle processing cores can be shut down or cranked up depending on the level of processing power needed.

Read full story...

Intel's 50Gbps Laser Light Beams Are the Future

Sharks with 50Gbps laser beams?

Someday in the future, we may look back on the technology we're using today and laugh that we were using electrons to carry data in and around computers.

Intel Corporation this week announced a research prototype representing the world's first silicon-based optical data connection with integrated lasers. The link can move data over longer distances and many times faster than today's copper technology; up to 50 gigabits of data per second. This is the equivalent of an entire HD movie being transmitted each second.



The transmitter chip is composed of four such lasers, whose light beams each travel into an optical modulator that encodes data onto them at 12.5Gbps. The four beams are then combined and output to a single optical fiber for a total data rate of 50Gbps. At the other end of the link, the receiver chip separates the four optical beams and directs them into photo detectors, which convert data back into electrical signals.

While telecommunications and other applications already use lasers to transmit information, current technologies are too expensive and bulky to be used for PC applications.

Today computer components are connected to each other using copper cables or traces on circuit boards. Due to the signal degradation that comes with using metals such as copper to transmit data, these cables have a limited maximum length. This limits the design of computers, forcing processors, memory and other components to be placed just inches from each other.

Read full story...

How Intel’s New 22nm 3D Tri-Gate transistors will Blast Android into Outer Space

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Are you familiar with Moore’s Law? It’s a trend described by Gordon E. Moore, co-founder of Intel, noting that the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. What’s that got to do with Android? It’s quite simple – bigger processing power in the same size package. Today Intel has announced its 22nm 3D Tri-Gate transistors, processing technology that they say will bring 50% power reduction at constant performance (that means better battery life) and 37% performance increase at low voltage – a better job for less!

So what is 22nm – what’s that mean? “nm” stands for nanometer, one nanometer is equal to one billionth of a meter. In the semiconductor industry, this unit is used to describe the wavelength of light. All you and I really need to know is that this is the newest, the best, where back in 1989 we were at 800nm, 2002 we were at 90nm, and now we’re all the way down to 22nm. Again, this follows the plan – Intel had their OG Gordon Moore send out a quote on the matter:

“For years we have seen limits to how small transistors can get. This change in the basic structure is a truly revolutionary approach, and one that should allow Moore’s Law, and the historic pace of innovation, to continue”

Next, what does “3D” stand for here? Hint – there’s no double camera tricky business going on here. It’s got to do with the structure of the transistor. The 3D Tri-Gate transistors form conducting channels on three sides of a vertical fin structure. This build results in less heat transmission, longer battery life in mobile devices, and because of a combo of the high-k gate insulators and strained silicon, improved performance.
Intel notes the following to confuse and excite you:

Tri-gate fully-depleted substrate transistors have a raised plateau-like gate structure with two vertical walls and a horizontal wall of gate electrode. This three-dimensional structure improves the drive current while the depleted substrate reduces the leakage current when the transistor is in the “off” state. Reducing leakage current not only helps control heat at the circuit level but also translates to increased battery life in mobile devices.

You can expect some other bits that you may or may not be super excited about from an Android standpoint: native PCIe 3.0 and USB 3.0 controllers at the processor level as well as an integrated DirectX graphics core with support for the second-generation of QuickSync. QuickSync is Intel’s media encoding/decoding acceleration technology, in case you do not know.

The first application of this technology will be in Intel’s Ivy Bridge processors, demonstrated today on some high-volume CPU’s, as noted by our sister site SlashGear. Have a peek at some videos while we’re at it and see where Intel is at with the project at the moment:
















Press Release:

Intel Reinvents Transistors Using New 3-D Structure
New Transistors for 22 Nanometer Chips Have an Unprecedented Combination of Power Savings and Performance Gains
NEWS HIGHLIGHTS
Intel announces a major technical breakthrough and historic innovation in microprocessors: the world’s first 3-D transistors, called Tri-Gate, in a production technology.
The transition to 3-D Tri-Gate transistors sustains the pace of technology advancement, fueling Moore’s Law for years to come.
An unprecedented combination of performance improvement and power reduction to enable new innovations across a range of future 22nm-based devices from the smallest handhelds to powerful cloud-based servers.
Intel demonstrates a 22nm microprocessor – codenamed “Ivy Bridge” – that will be the first high-volume chip to use 3-D Tri-Gate transistors.
SANTA CLARA, Calif., May 4, 2011 – Intel Corporation today announced a significant breakthrough in the evolution of the transistor, the microscopic building block of modern electronics. For the first time since the invention of silicon transistors over 50 years ago, transistors using a three-dimensional structure will be put into high-volume manufacturing. Intel will introduce a revolutionary 3-D transistor design called Tri-Gate, first disclosed by Intel in 2002, into high-volume manufacturing at the 22-nanometer (nm) node in an Intel chip codenamed “Ivy Bridge.” A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter.
The three-dimensional Tri-Gate transistors represent a fundamental departure from the two-dimensional planar transistor structure that has powered not only all computers, mobile phones and consumer electronics to-date, but also the electronic controls within cars, spacecraft, household appliances, medical devices and virtually thousands of other everyday devices for decades.
“Intel’s scientists and engineers have once again reinvented the transistor, this time utilizing the third dimension,” said Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini. “Amazing, world-shaping devices will be created from this capability as we advance Moore’s Law into new realms.”
Scientists have long recognized the benefits of a 3-D structure for sustaining the pace of Moore’s Law as device dimensions become so small that physical laws become barriers to advancement. The key to today’s breakthrough is Intel’s ability to deploy its novel 3-D Tri-Gate transistor design into high-volume manufacturing, ushering in the next era of Moore’s Law and opening the door to a new generation of innovations across a broad spectrum of devices.
Moore’s Law is a forecast for the pace of silicon technology development that states that roughly every 2 years transistor density will double, while increasing functionality and performance and decreasing costs. It has become the basic business model for the semiconductor industry for more than 40 years.
Unprecedented Power Savings and Performance Gains
Intel’s 3-D Tri-Gate transistors enable chips to operate at lower voltage with lower leakage, providing an unprecedented combination of improved performance and energy efficiency compared to previous state-of-the-art transistors. The capabilities give chip designers the flexibility to choose transistors targeted for low power or high performance, depending on the application.
The 22nm 3-D Tri-Gate transistors provide up to 37 percent performance increase at low voltage versus Intel’s 32nm planar transistors. This incredible gain means that they are ideal for use in small handheld devices, which operate using less energy to “switch” back and forth. Alternatively, the new transistors consume less than half the power when at the same performance as 2-D planar transistors on 32nm chips.
“The performance gains and power savings of Intel’s unique 3-D Tri-Gate transistors are like nothing we’ve seen before,” said Mark Bohr, Intel Senior Fellow. “This milestone is going further than simply keeping up with Moore’s Law. The low-voltage and low-power benefits far exceed what we typically see from one process generation to the next. It will give product designers the flexibility to make current devices smarter and wholly new ones possible. We believe this breakthrough will extend Intel’s lead even further over the rest of the semiconductor industry.”
Continuing the Pace of Innovation – Moore’s Law
Transistors continue to get smaller, cheaper and more energy efficient in accordance with Moore’s Law – named for Intel co-founder Gordon Moore. Because of this, Intel has been able to innovate and integrate, adding more features and computing cores to each chip, increasing performance, and decreasing manufacturing cost per transistor.
Sustaining the progress of Moore’s Law becomes even more complex with the 22nm generation. Anticipating this, Intel research scientists in 2002 invented what they called a Tri-Gate transistor, named for the three sides of the gate. Today’s announcement follows further years of development in Intel’s highly coordinated research-development-manufacturing pipeline, and marks the implementation of this work for high-volume manufacturing.
The 3-D Tri-Gate transistors are a reinvention of the transistor. The traditional “flat” two-dimensional planar gate is replaced with an incredibly thin three-dimensional silicon fin that rises up vertically from the silicon substrate. Control of current is accomplished by implementing a gate on each of the three sides of the fin – two on each side and one across the top — rather than just one on top, as is the case with the 2-D planar transistor. The additional control enables as much transistor current flowing as possible when the transistor is in the “on” state (for performance), and as close to zero as possible when it is in the “off” state (to minimize power), and enables the transistor to switch very quickly between the two states (again, for performance).
Just as skyscrapers let urban planners optimize available space by building upward, Intel’s 3-D Tri-Gate transistor structure provides a way to manage density. Since these fins are vertical in nature, transistors can be packed closer together, a critical component to the technological and economic benefits of Moore’s Law. For future generations, designers also have the ability to continue growing the height of the fins to get even more performance and energy-efficiency gains.
“For years we have seen limits to how small transistors can get,” said Moore. “This change in the basic structure is a truly revolutionary approach, and one that should allow Moore’s Law, and the historic pace of innovation, to continue.”
World’s First Demonstration of 22nm 3-D Tri-Gate Transistors
The 3-D Tri-Gate transistor will be implemented in the company’s upcoming manufacturing process, called the 22nm node, in reference to the size of individual transistor features. More than 6 million 22nm Tri-Gate transistors could fit in the period at the end of this sentence.
Today, Intel demonstrated the world’s first 22nm microprocessor, codenamed “Ivy Bridge,” working in a laptop, server and desktop computer. Ivy Bridge-based Intel® Core™ family processors will be the first high-volume chips to use 3-D Tri-Gate transistors. Ivy Bridge is slated for high-volume production readiness by the end of this year.
This silicon technology breakthrough will also aid in the delivery of more highly integrated Intel® Atom™ processor-based products that scale the performance, functionality and software compatibility of Intel® architecture while meeting the overall power, cost and size requirements for a range of market segment needs.

Comparing Computer Processors

Most people know that when buying a new computer, it's important to look at the CPU speed and the amount of RAM (Memory) is installed.  But start talking about different type of processors, and confusion quickly sets in.

Intel and AMD are the two biggest manufacturers of Computer Processors (CPU's) and for the average consumer, it really doesn't matter much today which one you get.  This isn't true for online gamers where speed is very important. But for the rest of us, who don't want to spend top dollar for the latest and greatest processor and don't need nano-second speed advantages ... the average CPU is usually sufficient.

For those who do care, there is a great site with side by side comparisons of CPU benchmark tests that you may find useful.