TechEye |  |
- Chrome moves to 64 bit beta
- Microsoft promises cheaper Windows phones
- Microsoft leans on US government over NSA
- Intel shows off unlocked CPUs
- AMD launches mobile Kaveri
| Posted: 05 Jun 2014 02:48 AM PDT Google has released a beta version of a 64-bit version of Chrome which looks stable enough to give its 32 bit version a good kicking. Early users say that it is faster, stable and has better security capabilities than the current 32 bit version of Chrome. The beta version of the 64-bit Chrome can be used on 64-bit systems and has nearly daily updates which can be irritating for those who do not like thinking about what their computer is doing. According to Google, the 64-bit browser takes advantage of the latest processor and compiler optimisations, a more modern instruction set, and a calling convention that allows more function parameters to be passed quickly by registers. As a result, speed is improved, especially in graphics and multimedia content, where we see an average 25 per cent improvement in performance. Google said that Chrome 64-bit could take advantage of the latest OS features such as High Entropy ASLR on Windows 8. Generally security was improved on 64-bit platforms anyway. Those extra bits also help us better defend against exploitation techniques such as JIT spraying, and improve the effectiveness of our existing security defence features like heap partitioning. It has also noticed that there was an increase in stability for 64-bit Chrome over 32-bit Chrome. In particular, crash rates for the renderer process (i.e. web content process) are almost half that of 32-bit Chrome. |
| Microsoft promises cheaper Windows phones Posted: 05 Jun 2014 02:47 AM PDT Software king of the world, and now the proud new owner of Nokia, Microsoft is promising that there will be super cheap Windows phones in the shops soon. While at the Computex trade show in Taipei, Microsoft's Nick Parker, who handles the company's partnerships with device makers, told PC World the new handsets could be out by the end of the year. Current models are between $400 and $699, the new phones would have price points in the sub $200 to $300 range. He didn't identify the manufacturers that would be bringing the phones to market, but are nine companies Microsoft signed up to its Windows Phone development program earlier this year. These are Nokia, Samsung, HTC, Huawei, Foxconn, Gionee, Lava (Xolo), Lenovo, LG, Longcheer, JSR, Karbonn and ZTE. Microsoft hopes that some of its new chums will be able to use their significant market share in developing countries and these phones need lower prices to do well. Microsoft launched the latest version of its Windows Phone operating system, Windows Phone 8, in late 2012 to critical praise but limited public interest. Windows Phone 8 has been slowly increasing its market share since and has about three percent of the market. If Microsoft breaks into the developing market though with cheaper phones it could represent a huge payday for the company. IDC forecasts Windows Phone will continue to increase its market share to hit 7 percent in 2018, but that is if things stay the same as they are now. What is fairly clearly that if Microsoft is going to make itself cheap and cheerful, it does not want things to stay the same. |
| Microsoft leans on US government over NSA Posted: 05 Jun 2014 02:45 AM PDT A year after Snowden, Microsoft has unleashed its nastiest lobbying hounds into Washington to demand reform. According to PC World, Vole is demanding that government search warrants should end at the country's borders. Redmond is getting a canning overseas because foreign countries, particularly China, do not like the idea of the US government spying on it through American companies. Writing in his bog, Microsoft's General Counsel Brad Smith said the government needs to address important unfinished business to reduce the technology trust deficit it has created. Redmond is concerned about government attempts to use search warrants to force companies to turn over contents of communications of non-US customers that are stored exclusively outside the country. Snowden revealed the government intercepted data in transit across the Internet and hacked links between company data centres which could kill off the US's chance to make any impact in the lucrative Cloud trade. Microsoft is not the only one which might threaten to cut off US politicians gravy train of political funding if it does not do what it is told. Cisco Systems' CEO John Chambers is also jolly cross. In May he penned a stiffly worded letter to President Barack Obama, asking for his intervention so that U.S technology sales were not hit by a loss of trust from customers abroad because of reports of NSA surveillance. This followed reports of how the NSA physically intercepted network equipment to plant surveillance tools before repackaging the devices with a factory seal and sending the products to international customers. So far eight technology companies including Microsoft, Google, Facebook and Yahoo asked for a reform of government surveillance laws and practices worldwide. Together they are sitting on shedloads of lobby dollars which help to put congressmen's kids through college. US politicians do not really seem to get the risk they are facing. In May US politicians watered down the USA Freedom Act which basically still meant the spooks can do what they like. Microsoft said it never received an order related to bulk collection of Internet data, it believes the USA Freedom Act should be strengthened to prohibit more clearly any such orders in the future, Smith wrote. |
| Posted: 05 Jun 2014 02:44 AM PDT Fashion bag maker Intel has released a new range of chips which are unlocked – something you normally only see on more expensive models. The Pentium "Anniversary Edition" G3258, Core i5-4690K and Core i7-4790K, all have an unlocked clock multiplier and several tweaks to improve its overclocking potential. Based around a Devil's Canyon core, Chipzilla has changed its Thermal Interface Material (TIM) to Next-Generation Polymer TIM, or NGPTIM. It has also improved power by adding more capacitors. The Pentium G3258 doesn't have Devil's Canyon enhancements, but it does have the clock multiplier unlocked which means that it is the cheapest unlocked chip available. The i5-4690K and i7-4790K have 4 CPU cores, 6 or 8MB last level cache, and support for DDR3-1600 memory. The processors run Haswell instruction set extensions, including TSX. They cannot manage VT-d virtualization and Vpro features. The Core i5-4690K can’t manage Hyper-Threading but otherwise most of Haswell technologies are supported. According to CPU world, both CPUs come with higher clock speeds. The i5-4690K runs at 3.5 GHz, or 100 MHz higher than the i5-4670K. Compared to the Core i7-4770K, the i7-4790K is 500 MHz faster. Both Devil's Canyon chips support Turbo Boost feature, and their maximum turbo frequency was increased by 100 MHz on the i5 part, and by 500 MHz on the Core i7-4790K. The i5-4690K and i7-4790K integrate HD 4600 graphics, clocked at up to 1.2 GHz and 1.25 GHz respectively. To allow higher clock speeds and better overclocking, the chips are rated at slightly higher than standard TDP, at 88 Watt. The i5-4690K and i7-4790K are priced at $242 and $339. The CPUs should be available in stores in June. The Pentium Anniversary Edition is rated at 53 Watt TDP. At $72, it is only $8 more expensive than the Pentium G3240. |
| Posted: 05 Jun 2014 02:42 AM PDT AMD has launched its all-new mobile APU platform, codenamed Kaveri which could give Intel a good kicking in its mobile fourth-generation Core lineup. It looks like AMD is so excited about what it is releasing it has slapped its enthusiast-oriented FX brand on the best of its new parts. For those who came in late, Kaveri processors feature a heterogeneous architecture that allows the CPU and the GPU portions of the processor to access the computer's entire memory space (up to 32GB). Intel processors with integrated graphics must share system memory, with some exclusive to the CPU and the rest dedicated to the GPU. The Kaveri APU can address the computer's entire memory space when and where it likes. The most powerful mobile Kaveri—the FX-7600P with Radeon R7 Graphics—has 12 compute cores: 4 CPU and 8 GPU. It operates at a base frequency of 2.7GHz and is capable of jumping to 3.6GHz in AMD's "Max Turbo" mode. The chip can address up to DDR3/2133 memory. The A6 PRO-7050B with Radeon R4 Graphics, has five compute cores (2 CPU and 3 GPU). This chip operates at a base frequency of 2.2GHz and 3.0GHz in Max Turbo mode. It can address up to DDR3/1600 memory. All up AMD announced nine mobile Kaveri processors across three performance categories with the PRO parts are aimed at commercial laptop builders. The GPU supports Microsoft's DirectX 11.2 gaming API and AMD's own Mantle API. AMD claims that Mantle will deliver up to 219 percent of the performance of DirectX 11 with games running on its FX-7600P processor. Fully 47 percent of the mobile Kaveri's die area is dedicated to GPU cores. Nearly half of Kaveri's die area is dedicated to graphics processors. All this means that AMD can finally compete against some of Intel's Core i7 processors. The company claims its FX-7500 chip (4 CPU cores and 6 GPU cores) delivers equivalent performance with productivity apps (as measured by PCMark 8 scores) and 50-percent better performance with graphics (based on 3DMark scores) when compared to Intel's Core i7-4500U (dual CPU cores with an integrated Intel HD Graphics 4400 graphics processor). The only problem for AMD is that its mobile Kaveri processors use a 28nm manufacturing process, where Intel's Haswell-class processors are manufactured using a more advanced 22nm process. Intel is also planning to move to 14nm process with Broadwell. Fortunately for AMD, the chip has been delayed and bought it some time. |
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