technology

HP Expands Their Line of Notebooks and Minis, Touch-Enabled

HP has expanded their lineup of notebooks and netbooks with the new HP TouchSmart tm2, the Mini 5102, and the Mini 210 and 2102.  The TouchSmart tm2 and the Mini 5102 are both touch-enabled, and feature multitouch and gestures.  The Mini 210 and 2102 are HP's latest in their "companion PC" lineup, weigh in at around 2.7 pounds, and are less than 1 inch thick.  They carry a 10.1-inch screen and feature HP's latest designs.

For more information, check out the HP website and their announcement here.

The Level 10 From Thermaltake – When Weird is Beautiful

For the latest in desktop tower design, look no further than the Thermaltake Level 10.  But be warned, this case is like nothing you’ve seen before.  Ever.

Designed jointly by Thermaltake and BMW Group DesignWorksUSA, the Thermaltake Level 10 Extreme Gaming Station picked up the IDEA 2009 Bronze Award.  That means cutting edge and unique.  Which really doesn’t even begin to describe the design.

The first time you see the Level 10, it looks like it’s missing parts.  The case doesn’t follow normal, mainstream design concepts.  Instead, the designers decided to focus on functional parts.  The whole thing is designed around a giant vertical heatsink, which acts as one of the sides of the case.  The rest of the design take a modular approach, with components occupying their own individual space.  The end result is a case that appears to be made out of large black Legos.  The overall effect, however is a modern modular masterpiece.

Some of the features of the Level 10 Extreme Gaming Station include, as stated above, a modular, easy-to-access design, a built in handle, and a locking system to help protect individual parts from theft.  It will support ATX and Micro ATX form factors with up to 8 expansion slots.  The case also includes space for up to six hard drives, including 3.5”, 2.5” and SSD drives.  The whole thing measures 24.17 x 12.52 x 26.22 inches and weighs in at 47.11lb.

To read more about the Thermaltake Level 10 Extreme Gaming Station, and drool over some major eye candy, check out the website devoted to the subject @ http://www.ttlevel10.com.

Intel Unveils a 48-core x86 Processor

Intel introduced a completely new processor technology today, dubbing it the "Single-chip Cloud Computer".  Justin Rattner, Intel's CTO, unveiled the new product in Santa Clara at a press event.

The "SCC", as we'll call it from here on in, is based on a handful of new, experimental technologies.  The whole thing resides on a 45nm Hi-K metal-gate silicon wafer.  There are 48 IA-compatible cores, which is the highest number ever built into a single chip.  The core are paired into 2-core "nodes", which each act as a node in a chip-level cloud computing environment.  The whole thing can run at power levels ranging from 25W at idle (we think) to 125W at full capacity.

Without getting into crazy technical detail, this new architecture can mean great things for applications such as physics modeling, financial analysis, and weather predicition.  It significantly increases processing density, which means a reduction in physical footprint of hardware in applications that require lots of parallel computing power.  In short: more cycles per square foot.

For more information, check out PC Perspective's article, "Intel Shows 48-core x86 Processor as Single-chip Cloud Computer".