| HP May Leapfrog Lenovo in Notebook Shipments This Year Posted: 01 Apr 2014 11:41 AM PDT  Hewlett-Packard jumps off to a fast start with 7 million notebook shipments in Q1
If Hewlett-Packard can maintain its current pace, there's a good chance it will close out the year with more laptop shipments under its belt than rival Lenovo, the world's largest supplier of PCs (a distinction once held by HP not that long ago). It's still early, but preliminary numbers show that HP shipped 7 million notebooks in the first quarter of 2014, which is 1 million more than some were expecting. These figures from Digitimes' sources within the upstream supply chain. They were expecting HP to ship 6 million laptops in Q1, which would have put HP behind Lenovo's 6.6 million units. That means it's going to be a closer race than anticipated, as Lenovo is expected to ship 28.3 million laptops by the end the year. We could be looking at a photo finish. However it unfolds, it's bad news for Acer and Asus, both of which are being impacted by better-than-expected sales by its top-tier rivals. Acer may have been hit the hardest, as sources believe the company suffered a 15 percent sequential drop in laptop shipments in Q1. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Here's What AMD's Dual-GPU Radeon R9 295 X2 Graphics Card Could Look Like Posted: 01 Apr 2014 09:20 AM PDT  AMD's dual-GPU card might rock a hybrid cooling solution
It's good practice to take Internet rumors with a healthy dose of skepticism, especially on April Fool's Day. Got it? Good, now we can continue with what are claimed to be the first photos of AMD's rumored Radeon R9 295 X2, a dual-GPU graphics card that some have surmised could carry a massive 500W TDP. If that's true, a gnarly cooling solution would be mandatory, and certainly that's what these early photos show. Chinese language website Chip Hell posted a couple photos of what the author says is AMD's upcoming card, and to keep the two GPUs chilly, it's shown with a dual-slot hybrid cooler. It essentially combines a self-contained liquid cooler with a traditional air cooling shroud to give the card a double dose of cooling potential. It's a funky looking design and one that's sure to draw criticism if AMD goes forward with a setup like this, especially since Nvidia hasn't needed to resort to anything this extravagant. At the same time, it's believed that each GPU carries a 250W TDP, so with two of those underneath the hood, it wouldn't be shocking if AMD used a hybrid cooling solution. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Microsoft Contest Uncovers Prime Number Over 324,000 Digits Long Posted: 01 Apr 2014 08:45 AM PDT  Playing with prime numbers
There's a fascination among math enthusiasts with discovering prime numbers, and lucky for them, the world will never run out of them. To put that into perspective, the winner of a contest intended to introduce people to the future of complex computing in the cloud discovered a prime number 342,000 digits long. That's an immensely long number, though still nowhere close to the longest prime number ever discovered, which checks in at 17,425,170 digits. Over 400 people signed up to participate in Microsoft's Prime Challenge since it launched last year. The contest is now over with a user who goes by "PHunterLau" emerging as the winner. "Thanks to everyone that took part in The Prime Challenge, and of course huge congratulations to the winner - PHunterLau," said Steve Plank, Cloud Computing and STEM Evangelist at Microsoft. "We've shown that with a bit of determination, some computing resource and possibly a bit of luck here and there, we can advance knowledge in mathematics." "However, as an industry and a nation we must do more to maintain the interest in maths, as well as science, technology and engineering. We mustn't allow the interest in STEM skills to continue to decline," continued Plank. "This challenge has shown a critical intersection between technological components and skills." Microsoft said that many of the contestants had never used cloud computing before, though they made quick work of their free Microsoft Azure subscriptions to build and configure servers. On the other end of the spectrum, several participants used mathematical tools that already existed, such as Marcel Martin's Primo, while some wrote their own code. What's the big deal with prime numbers? They have real-world uses, such as creating public key cryptography algorithms used to secure nearly all online data transfers, Microsoft says. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Buffalo Stuffs TeraStation 7120r NAS with 6TB HGST Ultrastar Helium HDDs, Won't Float Away Posted: 01 Apr 2014 08:07 AM PDT  Industry's first enterprise-class NAS to use helium-filled HDDs
We imagine Buffalo's TeraStation 7120r enterprise-class NAS box talks to end users in a funny high-pitched voice as they walk around holding the thing on a string like a balloon. None of that is true, of course, though it is the first NAS box of its kind to come with a belly stuffed full of 6TB HGST Ultrastar helium-filled hard drives, up to 72TB total capacity (TS-2RZH72T12). The 12-bay RAID 2U rackmount NAS comes with an Intel Xeon E3-1275 quad-core processor clocked at 3.4GHz, 8GB of DDR3 RAM, quad Intel NICs with 10-gigabit support, half a dozen USB 2.0 ports, redundant hot plug PSUs and fans, two PCi-Express expansion slots, and support for various RAID and storage configurations (RAID 0/1/5/6/10/51/61/JBOD). "Buffalo has a proven track record of delivering products that utilize the latest technological advancements in the storage and networking sectors," said Brian Verenkoff, director of product management at Buffalo Americas, Inc. "We are excited to embrace HGST's revolutionary Ultrastar He6 helium-filled hard drives to offer the industry's largest capacity 2U NAS solution, with the goal of lowering TCO for high-capacity enterprise applications and datacenters."' There are some TCO benefits to using HGST's helium HDDs compared to a typical 3.5-inch air-filled 5 platter 4TB HDD. They include 50 percent more capacity at 6TB, 23 percent lower idle power at 5.3W, 49 percent better watts-per-terabyte, 4-5C cooler operation, and 50g lighter weight at 640g. These benefits don't come cheap. The TeraStation 7120r Enterprise 72TB TS-2RZH72T12D will be available in the U.S. for an estimated $20,000 MSRP. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Newegg Daily Deals: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit, AMD 760K Richland, and More! Posted: 01 Apr 2014 07:36 AM PDT |
