Showing posts with label notebook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label notebook. Show all posts

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Atom - Intel's Money Machine

Amazing. Chipmaker Intel’s money machine is at work like there’s no tomorrow.

Although purchases of some computing products have slowed, Intel created a whole new chip – The Atom Processor– for the masses. The Atom fits in perfect for smaller netbooks like the ASUS EEE, MID devices and cellphones?

Quote – “Intel calls Atom a "perfect recession product"”.

The performance and battery life on the Atom is like no other.

Just a few years ago, AMD was moving towards the top of the game. They had great processors for desktops. However, AMD could never figure out a solution for the heat problems that affected the processors. The failure rate was just too high.

AMD’s next problem was the absence of a processor for laptops. Computing has been moving towards mobile. AMD had nothing to beat Intel’s Centrino technology.

Even today, laptops with the AMD processor are plagued with heat problems. Heat leads to fatigue and failure. High temperatures can kill electronics.

After Intel released the Core 2 Duo, AMD’s fate was sealed for failure.

Intel continues to focus on Mobile.

- Processors that run faster
- Processors that consume less power
- Processors that produce less heat
- Chipsets integrated and packed with everything - from graphics to WiFi to 3G
- Integration does away with external dongles
- USB 3.0

I am on an Intel Core 2 Duo laptop and this thing flies.

Looking forward to in the (near future?) where cellphones and car computing are all powered by Intel's latest, fastest and greatest chips!


INTEL's STOCK PERFORMANCE - LAST 5 YEARS



AMD's STOCK PERFORMANCE - LAST 5 YEARS



References:

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=INTC#chart3:symbol=intc;range=20030902,20080813;indicator=volume;charttype=line;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=on

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=AMD#chart1:symbol=amd;range=5y;indicator=volume;charttype=line;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=on;source=undefined

Saturday, September 30, 2006

ASUS W3J and S96J/Z96J, ATI X1600 Graininess BIOS Update Patch Fix

On some notebook computers, the ATI X1600 creates a graininess issue on the screen when viewing certain shades of colors.

A BIOS update has been released for a few of the ASUS notebooks. This includes the ASUS W3J and the S96J/Z96J models.

These BIOS updates can be found on this thread on Notebook Forums. The BIOS fix has been confirmed to fix the graininess issue.

Direct links to the BIOS Updates:

S96J Beta BIOS

W3J Beta BIOS

Procedure to install the BIOS update:

1: Download NERO image files
2: Use Nero to burn the image file to the CD
3: Insert CD and when first power on the laptop press "ESC" at Intel logo screen
4: Select Optical drive at boot options screen
5: At "A:\" prompt type "Update" and press "Enter".
6: The BIOS will be updated and don't turn off or reset the computer during BIOS flash.
7: Screen will go back to "A:\" prompt when finish
8: Restart the computer and then hold F2 to enter BIOS, press F10 to save and exit BIOS.
9:Boot to Windows, it'll start to find all kinds of new hardware.