Yesterday MSI announced their latest notebook addition, the GT80 Titan. I'm a bit unsure what to think of the notebook, but it's obviously unique in that it offers a SteelSeries keyboard with Cherry MX Brown switches. It also has a tweaked keyboard/palm rest area, somewhat reminiscent of the Acer R7 in that the keyboard is at the front…only now you have to throw in shades of Razer's Switchblade touchpad/UI as there's apparently a configurable touchpad/screen on the right of the keyboard.
I get the idea of doing a notebook with a mechanical keyboard, though obviously that will result in a thicker chassis. I'm not so sure about shifting the keyboard forward and turning the 10-key into a touchpad and getting rid of the palm rest. For actual gaming, most users will still use a dedicated mouse, but I for one like having a place to rest my palms when gaming (or just staring at the screen trying to think of what to type next), and with a notebook that will likely be a couple inches thick that's a bit of a problem.
As far as the remaining specifications go, MSI is not officially announcing the supported CPUs or GPUs, and the GT80 Titan isn't actually available for purchase yet. My bet is the GT80 Titan will support at least the GTX 980M, and given it's an 18-inch chassis it could very well include support for SLI 980M. Given the name, it's also possible the GT80 will support desktop components (e.g. GTX Titan GPUs), but that's less likely; a desktop CPU on the other hand is certainly a possibility. Hopefully the screen and other elements can keep pace with the high-end mechanical keyboard. You can follow MSI from the GT80 Titan's page to receive updates if you're interested in hearing more.
Over the last couple of years, mini-PCs in the ultra-compact form factor (UCFF) have emerged as one of the bright spots in the troubled PC market. Zotac is no stranger to this segment. In fact, their nano xs units came to the market before the Intel NUC, even though the NUC is credited with kickstarting the UCFF trend. Starting with Ivy Bridge, Intel also began to experiment with Y series CPUs to bring the Core family to the fanless tablet market. Unfortunately, the impact of these SKUs in the tablet market has been minimal. However, Zotac has repurposed the Y series CPUs for the 'ZBOX C Passive Cooling Series' of mini-PCs. The ZBOX CI540 nano, equipped with a Core i5-4210Y, is currently the most powerful unit in the lineup. Read on to identify what Intel's Y series brings to the table for the mini-PC market.
This week we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the FDIV bug, an error in the then-new Intel Pentium processor. It was discovered by Thomas Nicely, a professor of mathematics, on 19 October 1994 and reported to Intel five days later. Then on 30 October 1994, he wrote a fateful email to "a number of individuals and organizations" that set the wheels in motion.
The processor floating-point divide problem was caused by a subtle but specific circuit-design error; the flaw was easily corrected with changes to masks in the next regular production revision of the chip, in 1994.
Although its actual impact would have been negligible, it then snowballed into something much bigger, thanks to national press coverage and can legitimately be called the first computer hardware problem to have made the headline worldwide, well before the Millennium Bug.
Subsequent processor related bugs like the TSX one that hit Haswell processors in August still make the headlines but only in tech and not in such a dramatic fashion.
Why was there a bug in the first place? Well, because microprocessors are such complicated pieces of technology that, even back then, involves millions of transistors. The whole industry was still learning about tools, processes (steppings) and mechanisms (like microcode, firmware updates) that would help reduce defects and errors but even today, bugs are very much part and parcel of any processor.
We asked Intel for some background on how the company lived through what could be called its first real PR crisis and Tom Waldrop, an Intel veteran who witnessed first-hand the drama unravel, was kind enough to contribute [note that his account is entirely based on Andy Grove's "The Life and Times of an American Business Icon" and Albert Yu's "Creating the Digital Future: The Secrets of Consistent Innovation at Intel".]
"Intel learnt a lot from that issue; previously, the firm had been the classic engineering-driven company. For the twenty-six years, we had decided what was good and what wasn't when it came to our own products. We set our own quality levels and specifications, and shipped when we decided a product met our own criteria. Furthermore, since we generally didn't sell microprocessors to computer users but to computer makers, whatever problems we had in the past, we used to handle with the computer manufactures, engineer to engineer, based on data analysis.
But in 1991, Intel had introduced the "Intel Inside" program, a major merchandising campaign intended to give Intel distinction and an identity, and to help build computer-user communities' awareness of Intel and our products. Hundreds of manufacturers, domestic and international, participated in this campaign, and Intel spent a lot of money promoting the brand. By 1994, research showed that our "Intel Inside" logo had become one of the most recognised logos in consumer merchandising.
So when problems developed with our flagship Pentium chip, our merchandising pointed the users directly back to us. In addition, we had become the world's largest semiconductor manufacturer, and we were growing faster than most large companies. We had become gigantic in the eyes of computer buyers. The old rules of our business no longer applied. The trouble was, not only didn't we realize that the rules had changed – what was worse, we didn't know what rules we now had to abide by.
Intel CEO Andy Grove said at the time: "Bad companies are destroyed by crises. Good companies survive them. Great companies are improved by them."
Intel survived the crisis and was made stronger by it. We dramatically improved our validation methodology to quickly capture and fix errata, and investigated innovative ways to design products that are error-free right from the beginning. We set up permanent phone support teams and web-based discussion groups to listen to and respond to consumer needs. We found we could shorten our response time from days to minutes on urgent matters.
Lastly, we embarked on a policy to publish all errata we found so that our end-users would have open and full disclosure from us. We explain all errata to OEMs and ISVs and work with them to devise workarounds so that there is minimal impact on end-users."
Intel's 15-core Xeon Ivy Bridge-EX CPU has more than 4.3 billion transistors, about 1400x more than what the original Pentium processor packed.
The idea of an external PCI-Express chassis for video cards is practically as old as PCI-Express itself. However over the years the idea has failed to reach the consumer market as a complete product, even with the introduction of standardized external PCIe interfaces such as Thunderbolt. Various prototypes have been shown, but in practice the only way to acquire such a rig has been to build it yourself, combining an ExpressCard slot and its pokey PCIe 2.0 x1 link with an external PCIe chassis.
Thankfully it looks like the PC industry is finally going to turn the corner on the concept thanks to Alienware. Today Alienware is introducing their own PCIe video card chassis, the Alienware Graphics Amplifier.
Alienware’s amplifier is a fairly typical take on the concept – there are only so many ways to build an external PCIe chassis – however Alienware has been able to put together something that is clearly tuned for video cards. The chassis itself houses a PSU and a single x16 PCIe slot for a video card, along with a quartet of USB 3.0 ports for any other I/O needs. Notably, Alienware has designed the amplifier to be able to handle double-wide video cards up to 375W, which is quite a bit more power than professional grade external PCIe chassis, and this means it can conceivably run just about any self-contained video card on the market. That said, like many small form factor computers the amplifier is also clearly designed for video cards with fully exhausting blowers, so it’s going to be best paired with reference model video cards since blowers are nearly non-existent in custom cards these days.
Alienware's Graphics Amplifier Opened (Image Courtesy Gizmodo)
More interesting perhaps is the PCIe interface, which up until now has always been the sticking point in getting a video card chassis to market. The good news is that Alienware has more or less solved the problem, but the bad news is that the interface is a proprietary Alienware/Dell design that is only available on their laptops. Alienware notes that the interface is actually a PCIe + USB interface – apparently carrying USB over from the host rather than using PCIe to power a separate controller – and in the meantime we’re still working to determine just how many PCIe lanes the interface is carrying. Even if it’s not a full 8 lanes (the Haswell U series CPUs don’t support 16 lanes), given the severe bandwidth limitations of ExpressCard and Thunderbolt, even a 4 lane setup would represent a significant improvement in bandwidth. Like Thunderbolt however this interface does appear to use active cabling (it would be very difficult to carry that much bandwidth externally without it), in which case the cable is going to be an expensive part of the entire setup.
On the host side, the amplifier is being launched alongside the Alienware 13, which will be the first of what will presumably be a series of Alienware laptops to support the amplifier’s interface. Rather than hanging off of spare PCIe lanes, we suspect some kind of MUX is in play here, as Alienware has noted that the 13’s internal dGPU (a GeForce 860M) has to be shut off to use the amplifier interface. Most likely Alienware is rerouting the GPU’s lanes to the interface when it’s in use. Activating or deactivating the interface does require a reboot, which although not especially convenient bypasses some very messy issues that could occur when hot-plugging an active GPU, and we suspect would otherwise be a show-stopper.
Alienware's Graphics Amplifier Up Close (Image Courtesy Gizmodo)
Meanwhile it’s interesting to note that in their development process Alienware has been able to solve some of the technical issues around an external video card in the process to better integrate it with the host. The video card in an amplifier can be used to drive both external and internal displays, meaning that it’s possible to use the amplifier to drive the 13’s built-in display and still reap the benefits, even without an external monitor. The overall non-portability of the 7lb+ amplifier and the USB ports strongly drives the amplifier towards being used as a docking station with an external monitor, but if you want to use it to drive the internal display that is going to be a viable option.
Moving on, Alienware is taking a vendor agnostic approach with the amplifier and will be supporting NVIDIA as well as AMD GPUs. There are still some additional technical details we’re chasing down on how this will work with the internal display capabilities, but ultimately it means the amplifier can be used with a wide range of cards from both vendors. That said, since the amplifier is going to be best paired with a blower type video card, NVIDIA’s cards are going to be the more natural fit at this time. Alienware has been showing the amplifier off with the GTX 980, and next to being the most powerful single-GPU video card on the market it also has a reference blower that is an excellent match for the amplifier’s cooling capabilities.
Finally and perhaps most importantly, Alienware has made it clear that the amplifier isn’t a prototype and won’t be vaporware, and that we’re looking at an external video card chassis that is actually going to ship. Alienware will begin taking orders for the amplifier today alongside the Alienware 13 laptop, with the hardware shipping in November. Even the price is decent (especially compared to DIY attempts), with the amplifier set to cost $299. This is on top of the price of the Alienware 13 laptop and the video card to fill the amplifier with, so the total cost of a setup is still going to be significant, but despite being the first shipping consumer solution it’s not priced through the roof.
Alienware teased the new, smaller version of their gaming laptop in August. Available today, the Alienware 13 is the 4.5 pound little brother to the Alienware 14, but this gaming laptop has a twist. Alienware is offering an add-on Alienware Graphics Amplifier, which lets you plug a desktop GPU into this portable machine to dramatically increase performance.
Let us take a quick look at the new Alienware 13 though. While not as small as an ultrabook, it is significantly thinner than the 14 inch model, coming in at just under 1 inch thick. This, coupled with the two pounds less weight than the larger model, should make it a lot more portable.
The CPU will be Intel i5 and i7 Haswell U series parts, and the GPU offerings will be up to the NVIDIA GTX 860M. This will power a display, which at the default configuration is a lowly 1366x768 IPS panel, but luckily the display can be upgraded significantly with 1920x1080, and 2560x1440 options, as well as optional touch.
The base $999 model also comes with a 5400 rpm 1 TB hard drive as the base option, however the laptop can be outfitted with SSDs as well. In late 2014, it seems hard to believe that a $999 computer can still come with a slow mechanical hard drive, so hopefully the upgrade to SSD storage does not break the bank.
The star or the show though is the Alienware Graphics Amplifier, which is a first for this segment. Ryan will be covering this in full, but this $300 add-on is certainly a unique offering from Dell. With a dedicated 460 watt power supply just for the GPU, the amplifier should help the Alienware 13 with thermals when gaming on the discrete GPU. However, you can fall back to the GPU built into the laptop when you are on the go. Hopefully this adapter gets added to the entire Dell laptop line.
Unfortunately, details are light on this launch, with Alienware not releasing any press releases at the time of this writing. Check in to www.alienware.com starting today to check out all of the available pricing and options for the Alienware 13.
