Globalfoundries Starts on 22nm Fab & Announces First non-AMD Customer

Somehow I’d managed to dodge meeting with Globalfoundries since the company was formed earlier this year. For those of you who don’t know, AMD is now officially a fabless semiconductor. AMD provided its two existing fabs to the new company and its partner, ATIC (Advanced Technology Investment Company) provided $6B. ATIC owns 65.8% of the new company and AMD owns the rest, although the two share voting rights.

AMD’s biggest limitation has always been capital. Intel currently has four fabs that will be producing 32nm chips by the end of 2010, AMD currently has (err, had) a single 45nm fab in Dresden. There’s simply no way AMD could compete in the fab game with Intel, so it chose to partner up with ATIC, take $6B of their dollars, and spin off its fab business.

Intel's 32nm fabs for 2010

Until this morning, Globalfoundries only had a single customer - AMD, but that just changed with the announcement that STMicro would be using their fabs. Currently Globalfoundries only has AMD’s two fabs in Dresden, Germany, only one of which is producing modern 45nm SOI wafers. But that too is about to change.

Ceremonial shovels, at a ceremonial ground breaking

My first official meeting with GF came just this past week, in Saratoga County, NY. That’s the site where its brand new post-AMD fab will be constructed and it’s sort of a big deal. I was there for the ceremonial ground breaking, but concrete doesn’t get poured until September, the shell won’t be finished until 2010 and the fab won’t be done until 2011. Globalfoundries won’t be able to ship revenue generating wafers until 2012. But that’s ok, with $6B in the bank and a strong commitment from wealthy ATIC the company couldn’t be in a better place.

On Competing with TSMC

AMD couldn’t last competing in the foundry game with Intel. The chart below just shows how expensive it gets:

At 32nm a single fab can cost $4B and in just two years it’ll need to be upgraded (to the tune of around a billion) to support 22nm production. For AMD to support the costs alone and remain competitive with Intel, it would have to virtually own the x86 microprocessor market. Even when AMD held the technology crown, that didn’t happen.

The other alternative is to subsidize the cost of these expensive factories over multiple customers. This is where things get interesting. AMD alone may not be able to fill a fab and make the investment pay off, but AMD + Sony + Toshiba + NVIDIA + etc... can definitely make it work.

Globalfoundries' potential customers and when they plan on going fabless

Currently, fabless semiconductor manufacturers like NVIDIA (and the graphics division of AMD) go to foundry companies like TSMC for their manufacturing needs. In return, they get nearly the latest manufacturing processes (TSMC is at 55nm for volume and 40nm while Intel is at 45nm moving to 32nm) and don’t have to worry about building expensive fabs.

There are problems with this approach. For starters, TSMC has been having troubles moving to 40nm - as you may have heard. Just as important, you don’t get the most advanced manufacturing process technically available. There’s also the fact that TSMC has very little real competition in the industry; all of the GPUs you’re used to reading about are made at TSMC.

The machine to the left of the man's head in the center of the pic is a 193nm lithography machine. We weren't allowed to take close photos, but that machine costs around $75M. Fabs are expensive.

Companies like Sony, Freescale, Samsung, Toshiba and TI all currently fab their own chips. These chips are far less complex than a Nehalem or a Radeon HD 4890 and are thus made on 130nm, 90nm or 65nm processes. The SoC (System on Chip) in the iPhone 3GS is built on a 65nm process by Samsung at its own fab. Being able to move to 45nm or 32nm alongside Intel would give Apple, Samsung and even ARM in general a tremendous competitive boost in the market place. A 45nm iPhone 3GS would use less power or even run at higher clock speeds.

The need for a modern fab partner increases as you look at Intel’s motions towards competing in the smartphone space. Once Atom finally makes its way into smartphones, Intel could have a manufacturing advantage over the ARM partners - allowing for quicker scaling to lower power and higher performance designs. In other words, companies making smartphone SoCs need a good foundry option to compete with Intel.

AMD's 785G Chipset - Revolutionary or Evolutionary???????

Remember when ATI made crappy chipsets that no one bought, and all AMD systems were built with NVIDIA or even VIA chipsets? Yeah, that memory is fading for us too.

Today we get to officially unveil the 785G, the latest in integrated graphics chipsets by AMD for AMD. As the name implies, there is very little separating 785G from its predecessor (780G) and we’re quite ok with that. In fact, the only reason not to get a 780G is addressed by the 785: the new chipset supports 8-channel LPCM audio over HDMI. The lack of TrueHD and DTS-HD audio bit-streaming remains but neither is this feature supported on other chipsets. We also see a jump from HDMI 1.2 to 1.3 standards.

The rest of the major improvements are strictly related to video playback duties. We jump from Universal Video Decoder (UVD) 1.0 on the 780G to UVD 2.0 capabilities on the 785G. The video decode engine supports decoding multiple HD streams (useful for picture-in-picture on a Blu-ray movie) and additional post processing effects if you are not a big video purist. Also new is the 785G's ability to perform detail enhancements on the fly.

The graphics side has not really changed that much. The new GPU is based off the RV620 core and is roughly the same size/complexity as the old one. In other words we get the same 55nm node process and almost the same amount of transistors, just a tad over 205 million.The 785G’s PowerPlay technology is improved with the core constantly adjusting clock speeds based on GPU utilization with a 60MHz target when idling compared to 500MHz at full load. AMD adds DirectX 10.1 support but stream processor count and clock speeds have not changed. Thus gaming performance remains mostly unchanged.

And in this corner: Intel

AMD is targeting Intel’s G41 with this 785G, and by simply by adding 8-channel LPCM and UVD 2.0 support it is no longer at a feature deficit for the HTPC audience. In fact, we cannot find one area where the 785G comes up short compared to the G41.

Intel’s G41 is a cost-reduced version of Intel’s G45 chipset. You lose PCIe 2.0 support (1.1 only) and integrated Gigabit Ethernet (only 10/100). Considering Intel recommends mating the ICH7 Southbridge to the G41for cost purposes, you also lose RAID support and two 3GB/s SATA ports compared to the AMD SB710.

	AMD 790GX	AMD 785G	AMD 780G	Intel G45	Intel G41	NVIDIA GeForce 9300
CPU	AMD Socket-AM2	AMD Socket-AM2	AMD Socket-AM2	Intel LGA-775	Intel LGA-775	Intel LGA-775
Manufacturing Process	55nm	55nm	55nm	65nm	65nm	65nm
FSB	N/A	N/A	N/A	800 / 1066 / 1333MHz	800 / 1066 / 1333MHz	800 / 1066 / 1333MHz
Memory Controller	N/A	N/A	N/A	2 x 64-bit DDR2/DDR3 channels	2 x 64-bit DDR2/DDR3 channels	2 x 64-bit DDR2/DDR3 channels
Memory Speeds Supported	N/A	N/A	N/A	DDR2-800/667 DDR3-1066/800	DDR2-800/667 DDR3-1066/800	DDR2-800/667 DDR3-1066/800
PCI Express	22 PCIe 2.0 lanes	22 PCIe 2.0 lanes	22 PCIe 2.0 lanes	16 PCIe 2.0 lanes	16 PCIe 1.1 lanes	20 PCIe 2.0 lanes
Graphics	Radeon HD 3300	Radeon HD 4200	Radeon HD 3200	GMA X4500	GMA 4500	GeForce 9300 mGPU
Core Clock	700MHz	500MHz	500MHz	800MHz	800MHz	450MHz Core / 1.2GHz Shader
Shader Processors	8 (5-way)	8 (5-way)	8 (5-way)	10	10	16
Full H.264/VC-1/MPEG-2 HW Decode	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes

The Radeon HD 4200 is where all the action is with this update but the more things change, the more they remain the same. We still have the traditional Northbridge/Southbridge layout with the NB supporting a 2GHz HyperTransport link compatible with the latest Socket AM3 processors. The 22 PCI Express 2.0 lanes are still around along with the four lane PCI Express 1.1 lanes supporting the A-Link Express connection between the two bridges.

The NB splits its 22 lanes between a single x16 link for graphics and six x1 links for expansion slots and onboard peripherals. Technically, the 785G chipset can't split its x16 graphics link into two x8 links for CrossFire X operation. The 785G supports hybrid CrossFire operation, but only with the older HD 3450/3470 video cards. We recommend skipping this feature, for now.

	AMD SB750	AMD SB700	Intel ICH10	Intel ICH7	NVIDIA GeForce 9300
Additional PCI Express	None	None	6 x1 PCIe 1.1	4 x1 PCIe 1.1	None
USB	12 ports	12 ports	12 ports	12 ports	12 ports
SATA (300MB/s)	6 ports	6 ports	6 ports	4 ports	6 ports
PATA	2 channels	2 channels	None	None	1 channel
RAID*	RAID 0/1/5/10	RAID 0/1/0	RAID 0/1/5/10	None	RAID 0/1/5/10
HD Audio Interface	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Ethernet	Not Integrated	Not Integrated	Intel Gigabit LAN	Intel 10/100 LAN (Gigabit through external controller)	NVIDIA Gigabit LAN
Northbridge Interface	4 lane PCIe 1.1	4 lane PCIe 1.1	DMI 10Gb/s each direction, full duplex	DMI 10Gb/s each direction, full duplex	N/A, Single Chip Solution

The SB710 is essentially an updated SB700 with ACC (Advanced Clock Calibration) support, or looking at it a different way, a cost reduced SB750 without support for RAID 5 arrays. The SB710 has six 300MB/s Serial ATA ports with RAID 0, 1, and 0+1 support plus a single IDE port supporting two drives so JMicron and Marvell are held at bay on these systems. Twelve USB ports and a high-definition audio interface round out the SB710 as native GbE support is still missing.

It would have been nice to see next-gen USB and SATA support but that will have to wait for the SB8xxx updates next year. However, compared to the ICH7 mated with the G41, the SB710 is positively feature rich at the same price point.

We could continue on with subtle hints about why this chipset is a better alternative than the Intel G41 or its 780G/790GX siblings, but the bottom line is that AMD has taken an evolutionary step with this chipset, one for the better. That said, let's see how it performs against the other chipsets in its class.

Global Positioning System

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a U.S. space-based radionavigation system that provides reliable positioning, navigation, and timing services to civilian users on a continuous worldwide basis -- freely available to all. For anyone with a GPS receiver, the system will provide location and time. GPS provides accurate location and time information for an unlimited number of people in all weather, day and night, anywhere in the world.

The GPS is made up of three parts: satellites orbiting the Earth; control and monitoring stations on Earth; and the GPS receivers owned by users. GPS satellites broadcast signals from space that are picked up and identified by GPS receivers. Each GPS receiver then provides three-dimensional location (latitude, longitude, and altitude) plus the time.

Individuals may purchase GPS handsets that are readily available through commercial retailers. Equipped with these GPS receivers, users can accurately locate where they are and easily navigate to where they want to go, whether walking, driving, flying, or boating. GPS has become a mainstay of transportation systems worldwide, providing navigation for aviation, ground, and maritime operations. Disaster relief and emergency services depend upon GPS for location and timing capabilities in their life-saving missions. Everyday activities such as banking, mobile phone operations, and even the control of power grids, are facilitated by the accurate timing provided by GPS. Farmers, surveyors, geologists and countless others perform their work more efficiently, safely, economically, and accurately using the free and open GPS signals.

For additional information about GPS, please explore the rest of this website, as well as the external sites referenced on this page.

EVGA's GeForce GTX 285 Mac Edition: The Best for OS X?

Upgrading anything other than memory or hard drives in a Mac is ridiculously frustrating. Most of Apple’s machines use mobile CPUs soldered on to the motherboards, which makes swapping chips an impossible affair. And the ones that don’t use mobile chips have other supermodel quirks associated with them, like being lidless.

Upgrading Mac video cards has always been an unreasonable pain. Mac versions of PC GPUs have always been ridiculously overpriced and taken far too long to come out. Apple still sells an ATI Radeon X1900 XT upgrade kit for the Mac Pro, for $399. Do I even need to point out how disappointing that is?

Lately Apple has been getting a bit better with GPU releases. The 8800 GT and even more recently, the Radeon HD 4870 have both been build-to-order GPU options directly from Apple. Even more awesome is that once Apple officially supports a conventionally PC video card, it just takes one user to dump the ROM from the Mac version and now we all have a way of hacking PC cards to become Mac editions.

In a completely surprising move however, EVGA has released a GeForce GTX 285 Mac Edition. Prior to this release, all 3rd party video card upgrades were branded either by ATI or NVIDIA - Apple doesn’t really support the upgrade market the way the PC industry does. What EVGA has done is given Mac users a very high end GPU option that they can buy from Apple.com or through a handful of other online vendors.

Why do you even need a GeForce GTX 285 Mac Edition? The hardware is identical to what you get (for $100 less) when you buy a PC card, the difference is in the packaging and firmware.

These cards are only useful in the Mac Pro, but the standard video card in any Mac Pro doesn’t require any additional PCIe power connectors. If you upgrade to a more power hungry video card, you’ll need one or two cables that connect the small PCIe power connectors on the Mac Pro’s motherboard to the connectors on the video card itself. These come in the GTX 285 Mac Edition box.

The other change is firmware. In order to get your PC video card to work under OS X it needs firmware with a few EFI hooks in it. It’s not a huge change, but for whatever reason the PC specific cards don’t have it. Now you can do some Googling (or Binging) and find ROM dumps for various PC cards that will enable Mac operation, or you can buy a card that comes EFI equipped from the factory.

EVGA is offering the latter, a GeForce GTX 285 with firmware that will allow it to POST and function under OS X without any modifications. It’ll also work just fine in Windows using Boot Camp.

The price is a bit hefty at $449.99, especially considering that you can buy the PC firmware enabled GTX 285 from EVGA for around $330. The EVGA bundle does come with the two necessary power cables, which you’d have to buy separately if you were going the hack-your-own route; they absurdly retail for $30 a cable.

The card itself has two dual-link DVI outputs on it; there’s no support for mini-DisplayPort so owners of the new 24” LED Cinema Display are out of luck. The advantage that the EVGA card has over the two current BTO options on the Mac Pro is that you do get two dual-link DVI ports, something that you don’t get out of either of Apple’s options. Furthermore, it’s quite disappointing that Apple doesn’t offer the EVGA card as a BTO option on the new Mac Pro - it’s easily the most powerful GPU officially supported by Apple, yet it’s barred from coming pre-installed on the most powerful Mac.

Breastlight Could Help Find Early Signs of Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is the second most common type of cancer (after lung cancer), and kills over half a million people worldwide annually.

While medical diagnostic technology has advanced rapidly over the last few decades, over 80% of breast cancer cases are first discovered by a woman or her partner, typically by finding an abnormal lump that feels different from the surrounding breast tissue. This must be followed up by a mammogram in order to objectively confirm the diagnosis and begin treatment. As most cancer types, the earlier the cancer is detected, the higher the chances of a successful recovery.

A new device has been invented by Dr. David Watmough could help millions of women avoid debilitating mastectomies, chemotherapy, or even death. The Breastlight works by shining powerful red LEDs through the breast, allowing women and their partners to see what is normal for their breasts and identify changes over time. They will be able to see veins and other blood vessels as dark lines in their breasts. Regular inspections could reveal dark spots, a possible signal of the growth of new blood vessels which feed cancerous tumors.

The Breastlight has already helped at least one woman during trial. Dorothy McCormick, a former nurse, was one of the first women to try the device. The 57-year-old grandmother had initially gone to her doctor due to pain in her left breast. The doctor diagnosed it as mastitis, or inflammation of the breast tissue. Antibiotics were prescribed to her, but the pain persisted. She heard through a friend of the trials for the Breastlight and decided to try it out.

"In my left breast it showed up small dark areas which suggested there could be new blood vessels growing," stated McCormick. She returned to her doctor and insisted on a mammogram and biopsy, which confirmed she had a 2cm tumor. Another patient was reportedly able to see her tumor receding as she went through treatment.

Development of the Breastlight was funded by a £2million (~$3 million USD) investment by PWB Health, a British firm. The company states that the Breastlight is intended to be used as part of an ongoing breast awareness routine, and aims to help women become more familiar with how their breasts look and feel. It is not intended to replace a clinical breast examination or mammogram, but instead serve as a "valuable personal aid that supports and encourages women to be breast aware".

The Breastlight has been used by women in the United Kingdom since November 2008.
The company claims that results have been extremely favorable with women that have large or lumpy breasts who find self-examinations of their breasts difficult. Most have found that the device is easy to use and has become a part of their regular breast awareness routine. It gives them more confidence when they are checking their breasts, since many are unsure whether to report any lumps that they may find.

A study of 1,087 women conducted in July 2008 and commissioned by PWB Health assessed how the Breastlight was being used by women and how it affected their attitude to breast awareness and breast screening. Approximately 80% of those women reported that they were more confident in their breast self-examinations after using the Breastlight. Of the 1,087 women, 14 (1.3 per cent) consulted a doctor because they were concerned by the outcome of their breast self-examination. Of that number, three had follow-up mammograms, one of whom was McCormick.

The Breastlight has recently gone on sale in Canada at Rexall Pharmacies for $150 CAD. Sales in the US are currently in the negotiation stage.

MOBILITY WITH NO COMPROMISE

MOBILITY WITH NO COMPROMISE

Its modest dimensions and weight (23,5×16,3×3,0cms for 1.2 kgs) make Flybook V5 a highly portable notebook that suits any occasion. The thorough study of all the ergonomic aspects, the keyboard dimensions and the position of the main control keys allow a very simple usage – even standing.

TOTAL CONNECTIVITY Connected everywhere: your Flybook V5 allows you to stay always connected thanks to its in-built technologies. Voice, data and videos can be transferred and received both wired and wireless using high-speed connections.

SUPERIOR TECHNOLOGY The latest powerful Intel processors, autonomy-ensuring low-consume components, its accessories and multiple options: this is what makes your Flybook V5 an unrivalled technological jewel. Among its cutting-edge technological features: touch screen, magnesium-alloy cover, possibility of SSD disk and SunLight readable screen.

INTEL® CENTRINO® PLATFORM Concentrating Flybook V5 high performances in small dimensions means solving the problems linked with consumes and heat dissipation. The use of Intel Core® 2 Duo® ULV (Ultra Low voltage) processors ensures a perfect combination between dual-core high performance and the highest autonomy due the low-consume processor.

TOUCH SCREEN Use your Flybook V5 like a real block notes: thanks to its touch-panel, it allows you to write your notes on the screen as you would do with a normal paper sheet. The stylus pen can be used to easily and quickly access all the Flybook’s functions or to add notes to your documents. Thanks to the Microsoft Windows Vista operative system, it’s easier to manage all the info written on the screen: use the tools given by the O.S. and see how they perfectly integrate with Flybook’s technology.

MATERIALS Being the lightest and most resistant material among those commonly used, Dialogue has chosen a magnesium alloy case in order to further exalt Flybook V5 lightweight and durability. In case of shocks due to falls or vibrations, this alloy ensures maximum strength, thus preventing unpleasant crushes. And thanks to a better heat dissipation system, your Flybook is able to perfectly cool down its components, ensuring global reliability.

SUNLIGHT READABLE SCREEN The optional Sunlight Readable screen is a must for those who want to use their Flybook outdoors. While other screens and their readability are compromised by direct sunlight, Flybook SLR ensures perfect use by converting solar rays in increased brightness, thus avoiding undesirable reflexes. Ideal in nautical settings, this option makes your Flybook V5 even more versatile.

SOLID STATE DISK Dedicated to professionals, this is a real technological novelty! Usually abbreviated with SSD, it is a data filing device that replaces traditional hard-disks and uses only the electronics solid state for storing digital information. This device does not contain any mechanical part, nor magnetic disk and offers several advantages, such as: less noise, lower consumes, access time reduced by 50 times compared to an HD, higher shock resistance, better heat dissipation, reduced weight and dimensions, lower breakage risk.

The First Solid Gold iPhone 3G in the world launched Photo Gallery

Mobile phones have gradually started morphing into fashion accessories. The iPhone 3G Solid Gold sets an example by its 22 carat gold body and stunning looks. In the days to come the mobile phones will compete with jewelry and other accessories to make a fashion statement like never before.

It is learnt that four designers have laboured to produce this solid gold iPhone that also contains 53 VVS1 diamonds. The polished finish lends it a jewel like look. It contains all the regular iPhone features with an excellent 320 by 480 touch screen. It has a memory of 16 GB. It includes Bluetooth, WLAN 802.11b, WLAN 802.11g. A 2 MP camera enables good pictures. It has a talk time of 10 hours and a stand by time of 300 hours.

The price is really astounding that reserves it exclusively for the premium class. The iPhone Solid Gold can be bought for a price of £22,995 that is about Rs 17 lakhs. The phone can be bought online through the official site of Stuart Hughes and was launched on 30 April 2009.

China Launches Crackdown on Porn

Government officials want search engines to reduce the amount of porn they link to

The Chinese government launched a crackdown against internet adult pornographic content by requesting search engine companies reduce the amount of web sites linking to all sexual content.

Government officials criticized Google and China's Baidu search engines, along with 17 others, calling for them to aggressively filter all sexual content.  Companies that do not comply with the threat risk heavy fines or being booted out of China.

Pornography is illegal in China, but the content proliferates into the country as more Chinese citizens begin to get Internet access.  A woman last month was arrested after she reportedly posted an explicit video of herself on the internet.

A collection of seven agencies, including the Ministry of Public Security, have banded together in an effort "to purify the Internet's cultural environment and protect the healthy development of minors."  The China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Center noticed that more web sites, including Google.cn, collects large amounts of links to pornographic web sites.

Baidu, Google -- the No. 2 search engine in China, trailing only Baidu -- NetEase, Sohu, and Sina were also named on the list created by the government.  Google doesn't attempt to censor pornographic search results or images in China, and uses an automatic filter and a red-flag system.

Search engines are expected to censor objectionable content, and then the government uses a massive Internet filtering system to eliminate material that slips through the cracks.  The Chinese government is well known for restricting and censoring internet content to its 253 million Internet users throughout the country.  

China's efforts to "control and censor the internet, and the government had tightened restrictions on freedom of speech and the domestic press" has increased, a U.S. State Department report published last year.

Intelligence analysts wondered if this small crackdown on porn content will lead to a bigger internet crackdown in the future.

Thermaltake Spedo Advanced Chassis

Thermaltake Spedo Advanced Chassis

Introduction

Thermaltake has been around for quite a while now; ever since the first Xaser chassis came out, people knew where to look first if they fancied extreme case designs that come in big size. Each of the high-end brands from today needs to have a flagship chassis that comes with the most and best features available. Previously the Xaser series filled this gap for Thermaltake, but today Xaser is more like a normal mid tower. Spedo (Ed: yes, that's Spedo and not Speedo -- trademarks, you know) is the new lion in the cage and we will be examining it today to see how it compares to the other towers we have tested.

Gallery: Thermaltake Spedo - Exterior and Packaging





The Spedo with the Advanced Package has a massive appearance and an awful lot of drive bays, including all the necessary covers for the drive bays. There are twelve bays/covers but Thermaltake still manages to keep the design simple and sleek. It looks similar to the previously examined Cosmos S with this pseudo-robot style derived from science-fiction movies. One of the features is A.T.C.3 (Advanced Thermal Chamber), a system that is supposed to separate the different cooling zones within the PC. Another feature is C.R.M.3 (Cable Routing Management) which is actually really helpful.

Specifications

Thermaltake Spedo Specifications
Motherboard Form Factor	ATX, Micro ATX
Drive Bays	External	7x 5.25", 1x 3.5"
	Internal	6x 3.5"
Cooling	Front	1x 140mm intake
	Rear	2x 120mm exhaust
	Top	1x 230mm exhaust
	Side	1x 230mm intake
	Bottom	1x 120mm (Optional)
Expansion Slots	8
Front I/O Port	2x USB, 1x Audio, 1x Micro , 1x eSATA
Power Supply Size	Standard ATX
Weight	8.66kg
Dimensions	610 x 232 x 536 (WxHxD in mm)

Gallery: Thermaltake Spedo - Interior

The initial impression on opening the case is that the interior is very roomy. There are several covers at the bottom; the first one covers the power supply and the second one above is the A.T.C.3. You can see a small green PCB at the bottom, which is another unique feature Thermaltake offers with the Spedo. This contact board has a counterpart on the side panel. When you close the panel, the two board connect to each other and enable the fan in the panel to run -- there's no need for additional cables or connections. If you install the PSU facing down with a 120mm fan, there is a filter to keep out the dust. Unfortunately the opening just beside this does not come with a filter. The other side reveals the C.R.M.3 that contains four table-like plastic parts connected to the back behind the motherboard. All cables going through the case can be stored under these parts.

System Installation

Gallery: Thermaltake Spedo - System Installation

The installation of parts is easy and the first impression of a big interior space is confirmed, as there's ample room after installing a normal size ATX motherboard. Space beside and above the motherboard allows you to easily route cables and helps allow air to circulate and cool the various components. Even longer video cards will fit inside of this case with no conflicts on the right side. The hard drives install without tools since Thermaltake provides a handy tightening system in the hard drive frames.

Our only minor complaint is that after installing our standard test bed, we installed all of the plastic covers again and found that the cover above the power supply touches the third graphics cards in our triple-SLI setup. This prevents fresh air from reaching the card's intake fan, which will almost certainly cause problems. As you will see on the next page, the definitely impacts GPU cooling.

(CNET) -- Microsoft has applied for a patent on metered

Microsoft has applied for a patent on metered, pay-as-you-go computing.

Under a Microsoft proposal, consumers would receive heavily discounted PCs, then pay fees for usage.

U.S. patent application number 20080319910, published on Christmas Day, details Microsoft's vision of a situation where a "standard model" of PC is given away or heavily subsidized by someone in the supply chain. The end user then pays to use the computer, with charges based on both the length of usage time and the performance levels utilized, along with a "one-time charge."

Microsoft notes in the application that the end user could end up paying more for the computer, compared with the one-off cost entailed in the existing PC business model, but argues the user would benefit by having a PC with an extended "useful life."

"A computer with scalable performance level components and selectable software and service options has a user interface that allows individual performance levels to be selected," reads the patent application's abstract. The patent application was filed June 21, 2007.

"The scalable performance level components may include a processor, memory, graphics controller, etc. Software and services may include word processing, email, browsing, database access, etc. To support a pay-per-use business model, each selectable item may have a cost associated with it, allowing a user to pay for the services actually selected and that presumably correspond to the task or tasks being performed," the abstract continues.

Integral to Microsoft's vision is a security module, embedded in the PC, that would effectively lock the PC to a certain supplier.

"The metering agents and specific elements of the security module...allow an underwriter in the supply chain to confidently supply a computer at little or no upfront cost to a user or business, aware that their investment is protected and that the scalable performance capabilities generate revenue commensurate with actual performance level settings and usage," the application reads.

'A more granular approach'

According to the application, the issue with the existing PC business model is that it "requires more or less a one chance at the consumer kind of mentality, where elasticity curves are based on the pressure to maximize profits on a one-time-sale, one-shot-at-the-consumer mentality."

Microsoft's proposed model, on the other hand, could "allow a more granular approach to hardware and software sales," the application states, adding that the user "may be able to select a level of performance related to processor, memory, graphics power, etc that is driven not by a lifetime maximum requirement but rather by the need of the moment."

"When the need is browsing, a low level of performance may be used and, when network-based interactive gaming is the need of the moment, the highest available performance may be made available to the user," the document reads. "Because the user only pays for the performance level of the moment, the user may see no reason to not acquire a device with a high degree of functionality, in terms of both hardware and software, and experiment with a usage level that suits different performance requirements."

By way of example, the application posits a situation involving three "bundles" of applications and performance: office, gaming, and browsing.

"The office bundle may include word-processing and spreadsheet applications, medium graphics performance and two of three processor cores," the document reads. "The gaming bundle may include no productivity applications but may include 3D graphics support and three of three processor cores. The browsing bundle may include no productivity applications, medium graphics performance and high-speed network interface."

"Charging for the various bundles may be by bundle and by duration. For example, the office bundle may be $1.00 [68 pence] per hour, the gaming bundle may be $1.25 per hour and the browsing bundle may be $0.80 per hour. The usage charges may be abstracted to 'units/hour' to make currency conversions simpler. Alternatively, a bundle may incur a one-time charge that is operable until changed or for a fixed-usage period," the document reads.

Microsoft's patent application does acknowledge that a per-use model of computing would probably increase the cost of ownership over the PC's lifetime. The company argues in its application, however, that "the payments can be deferred and the user can extend the useful life of the computer beyond that of the one-time purchase machine."

The document suggests that "both users and suppliers benefit from this new business model" because "the user is able to migrate the performance level of the computer as needs change over time, while the supplier can develop a revenue stream business that may actually have higher value than the one-time purchase model currently practiced."

"Rather than suffering through less-than-adequate performance for a significant portion of the life of a computer, a user can increase performance level over time, at a slight premium of payments," the application reads. "When the performance level finally reaches its maximum and still better performance is required, then the user may upgrade to a new computer, running at a relatively low performance level, probably with little or no change in the cost of use."

ASUS N10JC Specifications

Specifications and Features

ASUS N10JC Specifications
Processor	Intel Atom N270 (single-core 1.6GHz 512K with Hyper-Threading)
Chipset	Intel 945GSE + ICH7M-U
Memory	1x1024MB DDR2-667 (Running at 4-4-4 DDR2-533)
Graphics	NVIDIA GeForce 9300M GT 256MB + Intel GMA 950
Display	10.2" WSVGA (1024x600) Glossy LED Backlighting, mfg. by Chuanghwa Picture Tubes
Hard Drive	160GB 5400RPM 8MB Seagate Momentus 5400.5 3Gb/s (ST9160310AS)
Optical Drive	N/A
Networking	Integrated Gigabit Ethernet Atheros AR5007EG 802.11b/g
Audio	2-Channel HD Audio (2.0 Speakers)
Battery	6-Cell 53Whr 3-Cell optional
Front Side	Flash Reader (SD, MMC, MS, MS)
Left Side	2 x USB 2.0 HDMI WiFi On/Off Switch IGP/Discrete GPU Switch Kensington Lock Cooling Exhaust
Right Side	VGA 1 x USB 2.0 ExpressCard/34 Ethernet Power Connector Microphone and Headphone Jacks
Back Side	None
Operating System	Windows XP Home
Dimensions	10.87" x 7.68" x 1.46" (WxDxH)
Weight	3.1 lbs with 3-cell battery ~3.3 lbs with 6-cell battery
Extras	1.3MP Webcam Fingerprint Scanner Carrying Case Express Gate by SplashTop
Warranty	2-year ASUS Global 1-year Accidental Damage and Battery 30-day Zero Bright Dot LCD
Price	Starting at $633 shipped (plus tax)

We've already discussed some of the specifications on the previous page, but here's the full summary. Like many new netbooks, ASUS uses Intel's latest Atom CPU, this time the N270. This is a single-core Atom running at 1.6GHz -- or 800MHz when things aren't as busy (i.e. at idle). Note that while it's a single-core chip, Atom/N270 has the ability to run two threads simultaneously per core (i.e. Hyper-Threading), so Windows Task Manager shows two CPU graphs. The net result is that power consumption for the CPU should be much lower than that of any of the other ULV mobile CPUs like the Core 2 Duo U7500, although performance is also going to be lower. That leads to much better battery life than we've seen on any other recent notebook... but we'll get to that later.

While the Atom uses a 45nm process technology, as we've discussed previously the current iteration still teams up with an older chipset, in this case the 945GM-E. That's a 90nm chip, which means it's larger and consumes significantly more power than the N270; the final result is still good in terms of power requirements, but we can only imagine how much better things will get when we start seeing Intel's future Atom CPU/chipset platform, codenamed Moorestown -- or the 32nm Medfield Atom variant due out in 2010. Of course, CPUs and chipsets only account for a portion of the power demands, so let's look at the rest of the system.

ASUS chose to save money and increase storage capacity by including a traditional 160GB HDD. While SSDs may be all the rage these days, the fact remains that prices are much higher and capacity is much lower; a 128GB SSD would easily cost 5X as much as the 160GB Seagate HDD, and the best models that offer truly better performance cost even more money and may not even provide significant power savings. Also of note in the storage department is that there's no optical drive; that's not too surprising with the small 10.2" chassis, but it does mean you will need to use the network connection or a USB drive to install additional software.

One area that was a real sore spot with us on the original ASUS Eee PC was the tiny LCD with a low 800x480 native resolution. Simply put, there are far too many applications where you need more than 480 pixels of screen height. Later Eee PCs have addressed that by increasing the LCD size and native resolution, and the N10JC follows that trend by offering a 1024x600 LCD. That's enough to handle most of what I need to do on a laptop, but honestly it's still a painful downgrade from 24" and 30" desktop LCDs. It's fine for reading email, writing a few documents, or even watching movies in a pinch; photo editing on the other hand is something that really demands much higher resolutions. Besides the size and resolution, one interesting thing about the LCD panel is that it happens to be the brightest laptop LCD we've ever tested, topping out at nearly 300 nits! It's nice to get a good range of brightness levels, and we could use anything from about 8% brightness (minimum brightness is only suitable for use in very dark environments) up to the maximum without trouble. ASUS offers 16 steps of brightness for the LCD, and at higher settings it's bright enough that you don't even notice the reflective surface (unless you're in a very bright environment).

One component in the N10JC that may seem out of place is the inclusion of a GeForce 9300M GS discrete GPU; after all, this isn't a high-powered laptop, and it's not running Vista, so why even bother with a discrete GPU? Well, it turns out we did find one good reason for the inclusion: movie decoding, specifically watching certain H.264 content, was too much for the CPU, but the combination of the GPU with the right software handled the task with aplomb. The best part is that you can switch between the integrated GMA 950 Intel graphics and the 9300M at the flick of a switch, although a reboot is required. Battery life improves by up to 50% when the discrete GPU is disabled, so it's great to see users get both the option for GPU performance/video decoding offload as well as improved battery life. Another plus in the video department is that the N10JC includes both VGA and HDMI outputs, the latter being something you don't normally find in a netbook.

The remaining features are mostly what you'd expect: 802.11b/g WiFi, Gigabit Ethernet, USB ports, an ExpressCard/34 slot, and a flash memory reader. One item that does disappoint us is the inclusion of only 1GB of RAM. Moreover, there's only one SO-DIMM slot and the chipset only supports 1GB, so you're stuck with 1GB. If you want 2GB, you'll need to move to the more expensive N10J, which also includes Windows Vista Business -- really not a bad move. Considering the current cost of 2GB DIMMs, we would have liked to see all N10 models support and ship with 2GB RAM, even if it bumped the price up another $25 to $50.

ASUS N10JC: the Netbook Goes Corporate

Introduction

Just over a year ago, ASUS made some big waves in the mobile computing world with the launch of the Eee PC. The idea was to make an ultra small laptop that could provide "enough" computing power for a very low price -- something like an oversized PDA but with a full OS and a standard user interface. The concept seems simple and obvious in retrospect, and the Eee PC has created an entirely new category of laptop: the netbook. Competition in this market that ASUS spawned has become fierce, with Dell, HP, Acer, and others now shipping netbook PCs ranging in size from the same 7" chassis as the original Eee PC up to 10" models.

One of the interesting corollaries to this whole story is the ultraportable market, typically consisting of 10" to 12" laptops designed for corporate users that want mobility and a lightweight form factor above all else. We've reviewed a few of these laptops over the years, and we always end up with the impression that, sure, these things are light and offer good battery life, but performance is often terrible and frankly the cost is often a major deterrent. It's not unusual to see prices upwards of $2000 for such a laptop, so mostly they end up in the hands of corporate employees.

So we now have the $300 to $500 netbook and the $1500+ ultraportable markets, but there's a gaping hole for those that would like a small, inexpensive PC like a netbook, but with better quality, features, and performance. Enter the ASUS N10JC, which ASUS is billing as a "corporate netbook". What makes this more of a corporate netbook than something like the Eee PC 1000? Only a few minor differences, really: an exterior that looks a little nicer, a larger battery, a fingerprint scanner, and a two-year global ASUS warranty. Those are all nice things to have, certainly, and alone they might be enough to convince people to shell out the extra money.

There's a bit more to sweeten the pot, however, like the inclusion of an NVIDIA GeForce 9300M GS 256MB. The LCD panel may also be a bit better -- certainly the N10JC has a good panel, but we haven't personally used the Eee PC 1000 so we're not sure if it's the same panel or not. The entire package is still very reasonably priced too, at just $650. The interesting question is going to be how well this netbook performs in comparison to some of the ultraportables we've reviewed, like ASUS' own U2E and U6V -- both laptops that cost over twice as much.