xero1

Solid-state quantum memory using the 31P nuclear spin

xero1 — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 23:05:39 GMT

Scientists
Store and Retrieve Data Inside an Atom

Another step towards
quantum computing – the Holy Grail of data processing and
storage – was achieved when an international team of
scientists that included researchers with the U.S. Department of
Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley
Lab) were able to successfully store and retrieve information
using the nucleus of an atom.

In a paper entitled:
“Solid-state quantum memory using the 31P nuclear spin,”
published in the October 23 issue of the journal Nature,
the team described an experiment in which exceptionally pure and
isotopically controlled crystals of silicon were precisely doped
with phosphorus atoms. Quantum information was processed in
phosphorus electrons, transferred to phosphorus nuclei, then
subsequently transferred back to the electrons. This is the first
demonstration that a single atomic nucleus can serve as quantum
computational memory.

John Morton of Oxford
University was the lead author. Co-authoring the paper from
Berkeley Lab were Thomas Schenkel, Eugene Haller and Joel Ager.
Other co-authors were Richard Brown, Brendon Lovett and Arzhang
Ardavan of Oxford University, and Alexei Tyryshkin, Shyam Shankar
and Stephen Lyon, of Princeton, University.

The immediate lure of quantum
computing is blinding speed: a quantum computer would be able to
perform certain mathematical tasks, such as factoring, many
billions of times faster than the most powerful supercomputers of
today. Beyond that, quantum computing should make it possible to
engage calculations that cannot be considered with current
“classical” computing technology. The secret behind
quantum computing is the weird, counterintuitive but demonstrably
real properties of quantum mechanics.

In classical computing,
information is processed and stored based on the charge of an
electron, and represented in a binary digit or “bit.”
Each bit carries a value of 0 (no charge) or 1 (charge). Quantum
computing utilizes an intrinsic quantum property called “spin,”
in which certain particles can act as if they were tiny bar
magnets. Spin is assigned a directional state of either “up”
or “down,” which can be used to encode data in 0s and
1s. However, unlike charge in classical computing, which is
either present or not, spin can be up, down or both, thanks to a
quantum effect called “superposition.”

Superpositioning exponentially
expands the storage capabilities of a quantum data bit or
“qubit.” Whereas a byte of classical data, made up of
three bits, can represent only one of the eight possible
combinations of 0s and 1s, a quantum equivalent (sometimes called
a qubyte) can represent all eight combinations at once.
Furthermore, thanks to another quantum property called
“entanglement,” operations on all eight combinations
can be performed simultaneously.

Of the many challenges facing
quantum computing, one of the biggest has been finding a way to
preserve the integrity of data while it is stored. Although the
spin of electrons has proven well-suited for data processing, it
is too fragile to be used as memory – the data quickly
becomes corrupted by the influence of other electrons. To
overcome this obstacle, the co-authors of this experiment turned
to the more protected environs of the atomic nucleus.

“In this exciting
collaboration with colleagues from Oxford and Princeton, we have
reported on a very important demonstration of coherent
information transfer between the electron spin (processing qubit)
and the nuclear spin (memory qubit) of phosphorus atoms in
isotopically enriched silicon crystals,” said co-author
Schenkel, a physicist in Berkeley Lab’s Accelerator and
Fusion Research Division, who has been a leader in the use of ion
beams for the development of quantum computer test structures.

“The electron spin
information was faithfully stored in the nuclear spin for nearly
two seconds (thousands of times longer than ever reported for
similar studies), then transferred back to the electron spin with
about 90-percent fidelity,” Schenkel said.

In this study, the co-authors
created a superposition state in electron spin and transferred it
to nuclear spin using a combination of microwave and
radio-frequency pulses, which they applied to phosphorus-31. This
stable isotope of phosphorus is the ideal electron donor for
silicon-28, the stable isotope of silicon that is the basis for
today’s computer technology. Said lead author Morton in a
statement, “The electron acts as a middle-man between the
nucleus and the outside world. It gives us a way to have our cake
and eat it - fast processing speeds from the electron, and long
memory times from the nucleus.”

Crucial to the success of this
study were the exceptionally pure silicon-28 crystals created by
co-authors Haller and Ager. Haller is a world authority on
crystal growth and purification and is credited with launching
the modern era of isotopically enriched semiconductor research.
Ager designed and built a one-of-its-kind reactor for creating
isotopically enriched and chemically pure silicon, featuring a
high conversion efficiency.

Said Haller, “Crystals of
natural silicon contain 4.7-percent of the isotope silicon-29, in
addition to silicon-28 and silicon-30. For this study we needed
silicon crystals that were not only chemically pure, but
isotopically pure as well because silicon-29 has a nuclear spin
that would interfere with the readout of the electron and nuclear
spins of the phosphorus.”

Since the silicon crystals to
be doped would consist of billions of atoms, creating
isotopically pure crystals of silicon-28 was a painstaking
process. Once these exceptionally pure crystals were created,
they then had to be doped with phosphorus-31 in specific areas of
the crystal and to just the right amount – an undertaking
that Ager compared to adding one extra person to Earth’s
population at one particular address.

Now that it has been
demonstrated that electron spin data can be stored and retrieved
via nuclear spin, future steps will require improving spin
control and readout mechanisms. Also, while the quantum memory
time observed in this study is exceptionally long by previous
standards, it should still be possible to significantly extend
this time.

“The good news is that
there are no know physical limits that would prevent quantum
memory time in nuclear spin from being longer,” said Ager.
“With even greater isotopic and chemical purity of our
silicon crystals, we should be able to store data in the nucleus
for an arbitrarily long period of time, maybe even in terms of
years.”

The Berkeley Lab portion of
this research was supported in part by the U.S. Department of
Energy’s Office of Science, through the Materials Sciences
and Engineering Division of its Basic Energy Sciences programs,
and in part
by the National Security Agency.

Berkeley Lab is a U.S.
Department of Energy national laboratory located in Berkeley,
California. It conducts unclassified scientific research and is
managed by the University of California.

Version 3.0 of the universal serial bus specification has been released

xero1 — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 05:08:15 GMT

Unveiled on Monday by the USB Implementers Forum, the USB 3.0 spec
can theoretically support data-transfer speeds of up to 4.8Gbps — 10
times the speed provided by USB 2.0.

The new standard, also known as SuperSpeed USB, is also expected to be more power-efficient than its predecessor.

"SuperSpeed
USB is the next advancement in ubiquitous technology," Jeff Ravencraft,
the president of the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), the industry
group that promotes USB technology, said in a statement on Monday.
"Today's consumers are using rich media and large digital files that
need to be easily and quickly transferred from PCs to devices and vice
versa. SuperSpeed USB meets the needs of everyone, from the tech-savvy
executive to the average home user."

The USB-IF hopes
USB 3.0 will be built into computers from late 2009, with consumer
products using the specification starting to appear the following year
— or roughly a decade after USB 2.0 made its appearance. According to
the industry group, the first such products will include external hard
drives, flash drives, digital cameras and personal media players.

The specification was designed to be backwards-compatible with earlier iterations of USB.

Companies
that were instrumental in developing USB 3.0 include Intel, HP,
Microsoft, ST-NXP Wireless, NEC and Texas Instruments. Intel had taken
the lead in the specification's development, but only made a draft specification available
to companies such as AMD and Nvidia in August of this year. Prior to
that release, there had been concerns that the USB 3.0 specification
would be forked into divergent versions.

Red EPIC camera

xero1 — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 12:11:56 GMT

Fixstars Provides Complete Cell/B.E. Ecosystem Through Acquisition of Terra Soft Solutions

xero1 — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 12:06:59 GMT

TOKYO, Japan -- 11
November 2008 -- Fixstars Corporation, a pioneering company in Cell
Broadband Engine™ based solutions, today announced the acquisition of
substantially all the assets of Terra Soft Solutions, the world
renowned developer of Yellow Dog Linux. The new subsidiary 'Fixstars
Solutions, Inc.', of San Jose, California, maintains the entire Terra
Soft staff, product line, and regional offices in Loveland, Colorado.

Terra
Soft was founded in 1999 to provide a Linux operating system for the
Power architecture family of microprocessors. With its early roots in
the Apple PowerPC, Terra Soft grew to become one of the top five Apple
Value Added Resellers, uniquely licensed to install an alternative to
Mac OS, with customers including Lockheed Martin, Boeing, NASA, DoE
labs and top universities.

Kai Staats,
former CEO of Terra Soft Solutions, now COO of Fixstars Solutions
states, “Terra Soft started with my personal credit card and what in
retrospect was an unlikely team to create a Linux distribution: a 17
year old sys admin, FileMaker Pro programmer, graphic designer, and
marketing consultant. Dan, Troy, Jake and I threw ourselves into the
challenge of building something which we were told (more than once) was
impossible. Over one hundred Linux companies came and went, but we
always pulled through.”

In the fall of
2005 Terra Soft began its work with Cell under contract with Mercury
Computer. A year later Terra Soft expanded its Cell support to the Sony
PS3. In 2007, Terra Soft released YDL v6.0 with support for the IBM
BladeCenter QS2x family of products.

Through
this acquisition, Fixstars will continue to maintain Yellow Dog Linux
as the only Linux OS with support for every Cell/B.E. based product on
the market, including Fixstars' own GigaAccel 180 and Sony ZEGO
BCU-100.

Staats continues, “Our ten
years' determination this year opened the door to a merger of teams and
talent which for me is the continuation of a dream. Miki-san and I, our
teams too, share a common vision and drive for completion of the Power
ecosystem and perfection which is now amplified and accelerated by the
new Fixstars Solutions.”

Founded in 2002,
Fixstars has since 2004 provided application development and
optimization services for the Cell Broadband Engine multi-core
processor. Fixstars maintains the world's largest dedicated Cell/B.E.
development staff. Fixstars' customers include industry leaders and
Cell consortium founders Sony, Toshiba, and IBM and companies such as
Mizuho Securities, Mitsubishi Research Institute, and Broadcast
International.

“A Cell/B.E. software
developer and long-time user of Yellow Dog Linux, Fixstars has great
faith in Yellow Dog Linux,” said Satoshi Miki, CEO of Fixstars. “This
business acquisition allows us to offer a reliable and stable Linux
distribution with sense of ease for our customers. I have no doubt that
in the expanding Cell/B.E. ecosystem we will offer the best Cell/B.E.
solution of the High Performance Computing generation.”

- Financial

- Healthcare & Life Sciences

- Petroleum Exploration

- Digital Media

Fixstars'
market specific solutions provide a marked advantage over in-house
optimization efforts which historically consume significant resources
to achieve the desired performance. The union of the Fixstars and Terra
Soft products, services, and engineering expertise forms a complete
Cell Broadband Engine ecosystem and client offering, reducing time
invested and total cost of ownership.

Fixstars now provides:

- Cell application optimization

- Middleware

- Yellow Dog Linux

- Cell based hardware

Mac OS X VBA-M

xero1 — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 01:17:04 GMT

This is a newer build of VBA-M with some speed improvements. I built this version a few weeks ago, and find it stable.

Download

DC 7 Mod -- UPDATE

xero1 — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 19:50:02 GMT

I used this method for a DC based 5.00 M33-3 because, it does not change DC 7, everything works, and uses the same files. (Just renamed one) I only added the 2nd menu which simply runs Alex's 5.00 M33-3 installer just like you would from the XMB. You will need the 5.00 SCE updater in the ms0:/PSP/GAME/UPDATE/ folder. You can also take screenshots in the 4.01 version of DC 7 only, by pressing the note key.

Update:

The directory structure got messed up, This is the proper structure. I'm very sorry for the mix up. Don't not worry the error will not effect DC 7.

Just copy MS_ROOT to your MS.

A few tips:

1: Download the 5.00 EBOOT.PBP, rename it 500.PBP, and copy it into the UPDATE folder just like a M33 update.

2: Do not perform any NAND operations under the 5.00 menu, it should work, but I do not have a Slim at this time to fully test this.

Enjoy

Download

iR Shell 4.7 Released

xero1 — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:40:36 GMT

Below is the list of new feature summary:
- Support
Dark_AleX latest 5.00M33-3 CFWs. Users of original 5.00M33 & M33-2
should upgrade to M33-3 to avoid incompatibility issues. The latest
Popsloader 5.00 is also supported.
- An Infra-Red learning remote is
added for PSP Phat. You no longer need to hunt pronto codes for your
appliances. Just point your remote unit at the PSP and it will learn
the iR code. It is available under higher firmwares and not fw 1.5
mode. Refer to the Release Note for usage details.
- The nethostfs
connection handling has been redesigned to be more robust. However, iR
Shell 4.7 and onwards can only connect to the new nethostfs PC server
v2.1. Make sure you've updated the nethostfs PC server.
- Enhance UMD/ISO game compatibility via nethostfs MAX mode. Most previous failed games will probably work.
- Usbhostfs & nethostfs host redirection under XMB has returned.
- The Adhoc PC connection for nethostfs was broken since fw 3.71. This feature has been brought back for PSP Phat.
- Enhance the HTML Plugin (by Dark_AleX) to allow direct launching of flash games with extension SWF.

Special thanks to:
- Osgeld for spending so much effort in resurrecting irshell.org.
- Dark_AleX for the M33 custom firmwares and his assistance to help adding popsloader support.
- Tyranid and other developers in ps2dev.org for creating the pspsdk.
- Osgeld, StoneCut, F34R and other moderators who keep irshell.org running and providing technical support to the community.
- All iR Shell beta testers, donators, skins & plugin contributors.

Credits:
- M33 Custom firmware & popsloader are developed by Dark_AleX/M33.
- remotejoy & usbhostfs are developed by Tyranid.
- iR Shell bundled skins & plugins are developed by their corresponding authors.
- iR Shell Manual & FAQs are written by StoneCut.

Download Links:
iR Shell v4.7
http://rapidshare.de/files/40877597/pspirshell47.zip.html
http://www.sendspace.com/file/4phqdv

Usbhostfs v1.8 for Windows:
http://rapidshare.de/files/40877532/usbhostfs_PC_Win_1.8.zip.html
http://www.sendspace.com/file/i3pa2k

Nethostfs v2.1 for Windows:
http://rapidshare.de/files/40877555/nethostfs_PC_Win_2.1.zip.html
http://www.sendspace.com/file/1vgyuk

Nethostfs v2.1 for Linux:
http://rapidshare.de/files/40877564/nethostfs_PC_Linux_2.1.zip.html
http://www.sendspace.com/file/rjmca5

Installation Instructions:
-
Unzip the archive and place the content to the root directory of your
memory stick. Make sure to apply the irspatch under ms0:/IRSHELL/PATCH
directory for your cooresponding firmware version.

For Technical Supports, pls visit www.irshell.orgIt
has been a long time since the last iR Shell public release. Osgeld of
irshell.org admin has convinced me to make another release, so here it
is. You can thank him for bringing me out of retirement.

Below is the list of new feature summary:
-
Support Dark_AleX latest 5.00M33-3 CFWs. Users of original 5.00M33
& M33-2 should upgrade to M33-3 to avoid incompatibility issues.
The latest Popsloader 5.00 is also supported.
- An Infra-Red
learning remote is added for PSP Phat. You no longer need to hunt
pronto codes for your appliances. Just point your remote unit at the
PSP and it will learn the iR code. It is available under higher
firmwares and not fw 1.5 mode. Refer to the Release Note for usage
details.
- The nethostfs connection handling has been redesigned to
be more robust. However, iR Shell 4.7 and onwards can only connect to
the new nethostfs PC server v2.1. Make sure you've updated the
nethostfs PC server.
- Enhance UMD/ISO game compatibility via nethostfs MAX mode. Most previous failed games will probably work.
- Usbhostfs & nethostfs host redirection under XMB has returned.
- The Adhoc PC connection for nethostfs was broken since fw 3.71. This feature has been brought back for PSP Phat.
- Enhance the HTML Plugin (by Dark_AleX) to allow direct launching of flash games with extension SWF.

Special thanks to:
- Osgeld for spending so much effort in resurrecting irshell.org.
- Dark_AleX for the M33 custom firmwares and his assistance to help adding popsloader support.
- Tyranid and other developers in ps2dev.org for creating the pspsdk.
- Osgeld, StoneCut, F34R and other moderators who keep irshell.org running and providing technical support to the community.
- All iR Shell beta testers, donators, skins & plugin contributors.

Credits:
- M33 Custom firmware & popsloader are developed by Dark_AleX/M33.
- remotejoy & usbhostfs are developed by Tyranid.
- iR Shell bundled skins & plugins are developed by their corresponding authors.
- iR Shell Manual & FAQs are written by StoneCut.

Download Links:
iR Shell v4.7
http://rapidshare.de/files/40877597/pspirshell47.zip.html
http://www.sendspace.com/file/4phqdv

Usbhostfs v1.8 for Windows:
http://rapidshare.de/files/40877532/usbhostfs_PC_Win_1.8.zip.html
http://www.sendspace.com/file/i3pa2k

Nethostfs v2.1 for Windows:
http://rapidshare.de/files/40877555/nethostfs_PC_Win_2.1.zip.html
http://www.sendspace.com/file/1vgyuk

Nethostfs v2.1 for Linux:
http://rapidshare.de/files/40877564/nethostfs_PC_Linux_2.1.zip.html
http://www.sendspace.com/file/rjmca5

Installation Instructions:
-
Unzip the archive and place the content to the root directory of your
memory stick. Make sure to apply the irspatch under ms0:/IRSHELL/PATCH
directory for your cooresponding firmware version.

RedSquirrel's CTF Manager for 5.00

xero1 — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 02:14:02 GMT

What's it?
It is a simple GUI for ctf/unctf tools.
With this program you can create CTF theme files directly on your PC, without the need of a PSP!
You can also extract files from a CTF file and install CTF themes in your PSP!

Features
v5.00
-Possibility to create CTF themes for CF 5.00M33!
-Possibility to extract file from a CF 5.00M33 CTF file!

v2.0

-Possibility to create CTF themes for CF 4.01M33!
-Possibility to extract file from a CTF file made with CXMB 3.2 (ONLY with the "official" Poison CXMB!)
-Now program is all in a single EXE
-If program does not find required folders it will create them automatically!
-Now you can use also CTF custom names that contain spaces.
-Added some security checks (to avoid some NET Framework error messages).

v1.0
-Possibility to create CTF themes using only a PC!
-Possibility to extract files from a CTF file (files will be put in EXTRACTED folder)
-Possibility to install easily required PRXs in SUPPORT folder (they have to be put in SUPPORT folder in any case, otherwise program will not work!).
-Possibility to install CTF themes in your PSP

Note: program will not require a installation, but it requires the .NET Framework 3.5 (you can download it FREE from Microsoft website!).

Download

Japanese clone mouse from old cell

xero1 — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 01:49:14 GMT

Scientists at the government-backed research institute Riken used
the dead cell of a mouse that had been preserved at minus 20 degrees
celsius - a temperature similar to frozen ground.

The scientists hope the research will pave the way to restore extinct animals such as the mammoth.

The findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States.

The scientists extracted a cell nucleus from an organ of the dead mouse and
planted it into an egg of another mouse which was alive, leading to the
birth of the cloned mouse, the researchers said.

"The newly developed technology of nucleus transfer greatly improved the
possibility of reviving extinct animals," the research team led by
Teruhiko Wakayama said in a statement.

The cloned mouse was able to reproduce with a female mouse, it added.

But the researchers said tough challenges remain ahead on how to restore
extinct animals, which would require breeding with animals that are
still alive.

To revive a mammoth, researchers would need to find
a way to implant a cell nucleus of a mammoth into the egg of an
elephant and then implant the embryo into an elephant's uterus, it said.

The elephant is the closest modern relative of the mammoth, a huge woolly mammal believed to have died out in the Ice Age.

Intel Core i7 Nehalem processor

xero1 — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 00:40:59 GMT

This month, Intel moves on from the Core microarchitecture to the
next generation of processors for mobile, desktop and servers,
codenamed Nehalem and officially named the Core i7 family.

We've spent a few weeks with Intel’s test kit for the new desktop
part, codenamed Bloomfield, as well as the new compatible motherboard
chipset the X58 Express, codenamed Tylersburg.

The new platform represents a fundamental change in the way Intel
processors communicate with the rest of the system, but more on that
later.

Tick-Tock: this one is a tock

Intel's
tick-tock development process means every "tick" of the clock is a
minor update to processor architecture (such as a process shrink),
while the "tock" is a major upgrade to the architecture.

Since adopting this process, Intel's first "tick" was the process
shrink for Presler, Yonah and Dempsey CPUs to 65nm, and the first Tock
the release of the Core microarchitecture which superceded them.

Since then, there's been another "tick" with a process shrink from 65nm to 45nm for the Penryn processors.

Now, we’re seeing the "tock" side of the development process with
the new Nehalem microarchitecture. So this is a major relaunch.

Intel's Tick-Tock Model

Looking forward, we can expect to see a process shrink of the
Nehalem family to 32nm around this time next year, and roughly 12
months after that, a new microarchitecture codenamed Sandy Bridge
(formerly Gesher).

Currently, we don’t know much about Sandy Bridge except unconfirmed
whispers that it will focus on power efficiency and include a combined
CPU and GPU on die.

Bloomfield has a number of fundamental changes from the Penryn
processors we’re used to. Physically, Bloomfield is a larger processor
in a new socket, incompatible with existing coolers and motherboards.

Though we’ve been steady with socket LGA775 since 2004, moving to
the new on-chip memory controller means a larger number of physical
connections are needed for the interface; and a new socket is born –
socket LGA1366. It’s physically larger than socket LGA775, and is
incompatible with existing CPU coolers, so no easy upgrade there.

The rear of the Bloomsfield Core i7 processor showing new socket interface

More importantly, Bloomfield does away with the front side bus (FSB)
altogether, as well as integrating the memory controller directly into
the processor itself. Replacing the FSB is a new interconnect named
QuickPath Interconnect (QPI).

The processor’s cache has also had a revision, with some major changes over Penryn.

The biggest news in the Nehalem family is that the FSB is no more.
As the FSB has become a bottleneck in modern Intel systems (hence the
constant increases in FSB speeds in recent years), Intel replaced the
FSB with a new communications path named QuickPath Interconnect.

QPI can handle up to 6.4GT/sec using an Extreme Edition processor or
4.8GT/sec in lower performance chips between the IOH (northbridge) and
other processors in a multi-CPU setup. Compared to 1333MT/s FSB
bandwidth of Penryn, that’s a significant speed increase. (GT/sec
stands for Gigatransfers per second -- you can read more about it here.)

Communication with the system RAM is done directly from the CPU,
bypassing the northbridge altogether, leaving more bandwidth available
for IO.

QPI is a more efficient way of moving data around a platform as it’s
a point to point system. This will, understandably, increase the
complexity of motherboards especially in a multi CPU system, but
because there are no third party stops along the way for a data path,
communication directly between a CPU devices like the IOH (northbridge)
and other CPU’s memory sees substantial increases in performance.

Unlike the Skull Trail platform’s use of an entry level
server/workstation board to support a dual processor system, X58
already includes two QPI endpoints, allowing two physical CPUs to be
connected.

The matching CPUs with two QPI connections allowing a dual
processor setup is codenamed Gainestown, but no specific announcements
about Gainestown compatibility with X58 has been made.

Bloomfield has some significant changes in its cache configuration
compared to Penryn, with some aspects slower and some much faster.

Level 1 cache is unchanged from the Core microarchitecture using
64KB total (32KB four-way instruction cache and 32KB eight-way data).

Bloomfield’s level 2 cache is set at 256KB per core, so there's 1MB for the first lot of four core Bloomfield processors.
Each L2 cache is private and specific per core.

Bloomfield sports an 8MB Level 3 cache, shared between the four cores.

As Nehalem processors aren’t compatible with existing motherboard
chipsets, the first on the block to support the new chips is Intel’s
own X58 Express performance chipset codenamed Tylersburg. Intel’s
motherboard integrating the X58 chipset is the “Smackover” DX58SO.

X58 boards will be available at Nehalem’s launch from a number of
vendors including GIGABYTE, MSI, Asus and EVGA. Though X58 is an
enthusiast chipset (with multiple graphics card and cooling options)
there will be lower-end SKUs shortly after today's launch for other
parts of the market, such as home entertainment or budget solutions.

X58 has also undergone major changes from the X48 chipset, such as
removing the memory controller and integration of QPI to talk to the
processor. X58 still uses DMI to talk to the southbridge, and PCI
Express 2.0 to communicate with add-on cards and graphics options.

For enthusiasts and gamers, of note is the (optional) integration of
NVIDIA SLI capability into an Intel motherboard, so at least some X58
motherboards will support both NVIDIA SLI and AMD CrossFire multi-GPU
setups. The SLI support is allowed through an NVIDIA certification
scheme, and only for X58 motherboards. The support only extends to a 2
way x16 SLI configuration or a 3-way 16x and 2x 8x setup.

Nehalem sees the comeback of Hyperthreading in mainstream Intel
processors. With Nehalem family processors having a real core count of
2-8 cores, Hyperthreading gives the processor an opportunity to execute
two threads per core concurrently; meaning a thread count per processor
from 4 to 16.

It does add performance to heavily threaded applications, which are
becoming increasingly (but slowly) more common. Of course, assuming
you're using a 4-core CPU, any application that doesn’t use at least
five threads won’t see any advantages because of Hyperthreading -- four
threads would be handled by the processor natively.

There's a list of heavily threaded commercial applications at the
bottom of this article which will give a feel of what kinds of
applications will be able to take advantage of Hyperthreading on the
Bloomfield processor.

The doozy: three channel, DDR3 memory controller

The doozy, and
a marked change from the way Intel’s processors have worked in the past
is the integration of a memory controller directly into the processor
package. Having the controller integrated allows for much faster
communication with system memory and offers around 300% increased
bandwidth between the processor and memory.

Nehalem processors all include a three channel integrated DDR3
memory controller, with support for two memory slots per channel for a
total of up to six per processor. Intel’s X58 motherboard includes four
memory slots, while the boards from other brands we’ve seen all include
six.

We put the Intel Core i7 965 Extreme Edition through some benchmarks
against an Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 on the following testbenches:

Bloomfield test system

CPU: Core i7 965 Extreme Edition

Motherboard: ASUS P6T Deluxe

Memory: Corsair Dominator @ DDR3-1600 8-8-8-24 1T 6GB (3x2GB)

Graphics: GIGABYTE HD4870 1024MB

PSU: Silverstone OP1000

Storage: Intel X25-M

Penryn test system

CPU: Core 2 Extreme QX9770

Motherboard: Foxconn BlackOps

Memory: Corsair Dominator @ DDR3-1600 7-7-7-21 2T 2GB (2x1GB)

Graphics: GIGABYTE HD4870 1024MB

PSU: Thermaltake Tough Power 1200

Storage: Intel X25-M

For this first look, we prepared some basic benchmarks including PC
Mark Vantage, 3D Mark Vantage and Crytek's Crysis CPU benchmarks. The
Vantage benchmarks show a marked difference in performance between the
Core i7 and QX9770 processors, however under Crysis, there's less
difference to be seen as optimisations for multiple cores aren't
enabled under Vista.

Crytek Crysis - Windows Vista 64

Products on Shelves

Released in the next few weeks will be three Bloomfield products,
the Intel Core i7 965 Extreme Edition at 3.2GHz, the Intel Core i7 920
at 2.66GHz and another Core i7 product at 2.93Ghz. Intel X58 Express
based motherboards will be available from launch from Intel, MSI,
GIGABYTE, ASUS and EVGA.

xero1

Solid-state quantum memory using the 31P nuclear spin

Version 3.0 of the universal serial bus specification has been released

Red EPIC camera

Fixstars Provides Complete Cell/B.E. Ecosystem Through Acquisition of Terra Soft Solutions

Mac OS X VBA-M

DC 7 Mod -- UPDATE

iR Shell 4.7 Released

RedSquirrel's CTF Manager for 5.00

Japanese clone mouse from old cell

Intel Core i7 Nehalem processor

Tick-Tock: this one is a tock

The doozy: three channel, DDR3 memory controller

Products on Shelves

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