Microprocessors have evolved a lot in the last decade. Starting with the launch in November, 2000 of the prolific Intel Pentium 4 Microprocessor, Intel has been at the forefront of microprocessor technology, giving us “bigger” and better processors ever since.

At first, these processors where the best that we had ever seen, but by today’s standards, they are very slow and power consuming. Now, Intel has brought us the newest technology available, in the form of the Intel Ivy Bridge microarchitecture. This top of the line microprocessor is a far cry from the early 180nm architectures, Intel managing to get it down to an impressive 22nm (even better than the previous 32nm Sandy Bridge).

Intel Ivy Bridge: Introduction Guide

Of course, this processor still has some of the elements of the Sandy Bridge, for example it retains the mounting socket LGA1155, therefore making it backwards-compatible with the Sandy Bridge (some firmware updates might be necessary for it to work on earlier LGA1155 motherboards). However, even if the Ivy Bridge is backwards-compatible with the Sandy Bridge, some features might not work without the new 7-series chipset that Intel is launching alongside the 13 new Ivy Bridge processors.

These 7-series motherboards will have four USB 3.0 and a pair of 6GB/s SATA ports natively installed, but it will be up to the other motherboard manufacturers to see what other features will be available. “What does this mean” You might ask. What advances really brings to the table this now and improved architecture?

The first thing is the new transistor technology, or what Intel calls “Tri-Gate” (or 3D) transistors. These were completely redesigned to a much more efficient configuration and also shrunken down from 32nm to 22nm. This design facilitates the current load of the transistors when the processor is in use and it provides a greater surface area for the current to pass, and also that the electrons are forcefully eliminated when not in use, making this design more power efficient.

Faster DDR3 Memory

And thanks to the smaller sized transistors, Intel managed to shrink the actual core of the processor to almost half the size of the previous cores. Another improvement comes in the form of faster DDR3 memory capabilities. As you might of known, the past processors where compatible to Dual Channel DDR3 at a stock frequency of 1333MHz. Although Ivy Bridge retains the Dual Channel configuration, it now has the ability to support 1600MHz DDR3 memory stock, with no overclock.

Improved Power Management

Power Management has been greatly improved in the new Ivy Bridge. And here is where we start to see the biggest advances this new line of processors has to offer. The smaller architecture and the multiple advances that the Ivy Bridge has make it more power efficient, thus better suited for mobile devices such as laptops or smartphones. A feature that Intel introduces in the Ivy Bridge is the Power Aware Interrupt Routing (PAIR).

PAIR is a protocol that allows the processor to actively modify between two states: power and performance, depending on the load of the processor making it more power efficient when not in use (the new and improved Intel Spread Spectrum Technology), and of course monitoring which part of the processor is working (the CPU or the GPU) and getting more power to the one that is used the most.

Intel states that the Ivy Bridge processor can be up to 60% more power efficient than earlier models, and compared to its Sandy Bridge counterpart, it has 20% more power and it drains 20% less energy for it.

Upgrades in Graphics

Another one of Intel’s main upgrades was in the graphics section. The Intel Ivy Bridge has native support for third generation PCI controllers (PCI Express 3.0) and also the integrated graphic processor has gotten a major overhaul. The now graphics processor can easily play 4K resolution videos very well (thus the name 4000 HD or 4K HD) and is DirectX 11 compatible. This last one is probably the best of all.

Even if it does not have the performances of aftermarket video cards, the Intel 4K can now play DirectX 11 with tessellation technology, making older video cards practically useless, even if it might not give high performance gaming, it can still get the job done to a certain level, and with tessellation, it does it even better. Also, there have been a few minor modification in the processor’s core. Such as Intel’s Digital Random Number Generator (DRNG) which will have an important role in the security of the processor, assigning random numbers for applications that require them.

Ivy Bridge Prices

These are in short the biggest upgrades that Ivy Bridge has received over the Sandy Bridge. Now, in terms of prices, it would seem that the 13 new processors will have similar prices as the Sandy Bridge (3.5GHz Core i7-3770K starting at somewhere around $300-$350).

As far as performance goes, in a standoff between the Sandy Bridge and the Ivy Bridge, the performance marks in benchmarks are not through the roof. The Ivy Bridge scores a bit better then the Sandy Bridge, but I think we will have to wait a little before we will see a major difference. Also, something that has caught my eye, is that the Ivy Bridge consumes less voltage than the earlier models (somewhere between 0.9V and 1.2V).

Also, the overclocking capabilities of the Ivy Bridge are quite good. With the Intel Turbo Boost 2.0 you can get it up to 3.9GHz and via the conventional way you can reach as high as 4.5GHz. But even when fully overclocked, the Ivy Bridge is much more power efficient than Sandy Bridge, sometimes up to 20-30%.

Should I Upgrade to Ivy Bridge?

Let me put it this way: if you own a Sandy Bridge processor, then you probably shouldn’t upgrade just yet. The performances are not that better in the Ivy Bridge (~10% better) and being at just about the same price, you won’t see a major performance boost. Also, until aftermarket motherboards come out equipped with the 7-series chipset, I wouldn’t recommend a transition.

If, on the other hand, you are planning to buy a new PC, then I would advise to go for the Ivy Bridge because it has great performance, superb power management and most of all, because of the possibility for upgrade in the future. Intel is probably going to upgrade them even more in the future, so it will be a great platform with USB 3.0, PCI Express 3.0 and 6GB/s SATA. All the new technology ready for you.

And there you have it: The new Intel Ivy Bridge processor. The newest and baddest that Intel Unleashed. And either you consider it good or useless, Ivy Bridge remains the trail blazer in microprocessor technology. The first 22nm Intel processor that has cutting edge technology and power management features. I see a bright future for this “little guy”, making its way to laptops and tablets, smartphones and who knows where else.

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Remote access specialists, LogMeIn has jumped into the lucrative business of cloud storage services, with the introduction of Cubby. It is more than obvious that, with Cubby, LogMeIn is eying the market share of Cloud storage services like Dropbox, Box.net and even iCloud.

With Cubby, users will be able to backup, sync and share files across Macs, PCs, iPads, iPhones, or Android devices. The service is still in beta and hence invite-only. Once they get invited, the users will be provided with 5 GB of free cloud storage in this beta period.

Cubby vs Dropbox & Others

Some of you might be wondering why another cloud storage service. But the way Cubby works is pretty different when compared to Dropbox, Box.net and iCloud. With Cubby, you don’t need to copy files over to a different folder, as Cubby lets you keep your existing file structure, allowing you to “cloud-enable” the folders you want synced. This is more like how Microsoft’s Live Mesh used to work.

The biggest reason for you to try Cubby is its unlimited peer-to-peer syncing across your own devices. This is a great feature to have in certain situations. For example, Cubby helps you to sync home PC and office PC without worrying about the cloud storage data limitations. What more? Users can configure which files or folders are synced where.

LogMeIn has also launched the Cubby app for iPhone & iPad, as well as for android which lets you access those important documents, pictures, videos and other data from your mobile devices.

Users will still need Cubby’s desktop application to save their data to the cloud; they can then access those files from other devices, as well as share and sync them with their friends or collaborators. Users can also share a cubby (shared folder) on a read-only basis. And individual cubbies can be saved for offline access.

LogMeIn is yet to announce the prices for Cubby. The company insists that they will be able to competitively price the service as it runs on low-cost hardware and proprietary stack. Cubby surely looks like a nice Dropbox alternative, but that will be decided by the price and performance.

[via]TechCrunch

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Video Games, Part of The Education Culture

I can’t neglect, however, the role and impact that video games have had in my life. I remember playing cartridge games on Dendy when I was about 10 years old. You probably don’t know what Dendy, so let me enlighten you. It was, basically, a hardware clone of NES made in China and commercialised mostly in Russia and countries from the Eastern Europe and from the former Soviet Union. And I wasn’t, by any means, a kid that would stay the entire day inside the house, watch TV programs and play video games.

No, sir, I was on the field, playing soccer with my buddies. But, still, video games had a charm of their own; it was like I was entering a new realm, filled with interactive games. Video games have always enjoyed thousands of fans everywhere in the world. Nowadays, there are people out there who spend most of their waking hours locked in a room and playing for countless hours. And games are no longer restricted to bulky desktop computers, no, games have moved to other platforms as well. The most important ones seem to be smartphones and tablet.

Casual Games, Making The Most of Our Free Moments

Not everybody has the luxury of locking himself/herself into one room and playing nonstop games. Some of us have to work. But during their lunch breaks, most game lovers would fancy playing a relaxing game to take the edge off and forget about the stress at work. And exactly that’s why casual mobile games have started to be successful. Because you don’t have to be at home to play them, you can always resume the game and the fun doesn’t get spoiled!

Games like Angry Birds have really set off. Even if it started as a little unnoticed iOS game before transforming into an actual cult, Angry Birds has managed to achieve massive popularity among gamers. The sequels also enjoyed the same popularity. Angry Birds: Space broke some records when it was first launched after an aggressive Rovio (the company behind the game) marketing campaign. The game was downloaded over 10 million times in just three days. Angry Birds is not alone in the sea of mobile game success.

Companies Are More Interested in The Mobile Field

Meet Cut the Rope, a physics-based puzzle video game. Who said that science isn’t attracting people anymore? The game was developed by Russian developer ZeptoLab and published by Chillingo. On iOS it uses the Crystal and Game Center social networking services. In 2011 it was followed by a smash hit sequel called Cut the Rope: Experiments. Go geeks! So what does all this success tell us? A recent research on the Gaming Industry as a whole reveled some interesting facts.

The numbers are quite puzzling. Here’s how many games Electronic Arts has available at the moment:

Video-console games: 480

Desktop games (PC&Mac): 270

Mobile games: 220

Online games: 24

Look at the numbers, mobile games provide the company with almost the same amount of revenue as desktop games. This is quite interesting. If mobile games continue to evolve in the right way, we might see them climbing at the top of the hierarchy. Tomorrow mobile gamers are more than just casual gamers looking for “bite-sized” escapes. Augmented reality games could become a great example of how mobile games could develop into something wonderful. They could become the bridge between the real and virtual words. The new game tactics could be incorporated into location-aware apps in order to enhance user game-play.

Social gaming could also be a big surprise. Smartphones offer this functionality. You can unwind playing with your friends on Facebook or Twitter. According to recent studies, 4 in 5 people agree that games – if they are well designed – could create positive changse in the world, and 96% said they would like see more games being developed with this consideration in mind. I am not quit sure if this is the right approach for business companies because Zynga’s games inside Facebook are definitely killing employees’ time. But doesn’t that make them more relaxed?

The Future of Mobile Apps Belongs to Children

Returning back to my memories of being a kid and playing video games on my cloned Dendy console, I realize that today’s casual games are bound to be successful thanks to 2 important factors: kids and touch technology. We need to give credit to Apple here, for making touch technology a world standard and for making the iPad, an intuitive product, ready to be used by kids.vBy no means am I the advocate of kids playing apps on tablets and those of you, parents, that are on the Android side, you can use such an application as Kyte to be able to control them.

I am not an advocate to that but I also don’t think we should interdict them to play games. Actually, only by mixing up technology and education, we could have awesome learning tools, that could be brought to the world by Apple itself, which I was referring to as a potential Superhero company. It is obvious why we shouldn’t allow kids to play too much these casual games but are you aware of the benefits? Personally, I think that these beautiful displays, the Super AMOLED and Retina Display will bring in front of their eyes a truly colorful world and, who knows, maybe they’ll learn to reproduce that in the following years.

I know I’m being a little too visionary here, but isn’t that what kids learn in drawing lessons? To create and to perceive the beautiful? Why can’t a casual mobile game stimulate the creativity and develop the intelligence of kids? Obviously, there are enough games that will only transform him into a vegetable, but I am sure he’ll be intrigued by the challenging ones.

Mobile Games Companies vs Big Players in Entertainment

Mobile games aren’t that costly to be made and can deliver good returns on the long run. I praise Vesterbacka for refusing the deal with Hollywood and that means that we’ve got an emerging new trend in the entertainment field. Let’s say it’s a bit of an educational field, as well. I only can hope that we will see more and more great games like Angry Birds, Cut the Rope, Temple Run in the future. I think that a bigger number of independent companies will do a much better job than a world of entertainment and education divided between Hollywood, Pixar and Disney.

If you think about it, TV is not anymore the hot gadget of our days. I am not saying it is going down because people will always stay hungry for news and kick-ass displays but kids are way more different. For them, being able to interact, to burst a bubble, to shoot a bird is a funny and engaging experience. I am not talking only about games here. Just imagine how easily your kid would learn to speak, if he’ll see all sorts of shapes, beautifully created inside a cartoon-app.

Mobile Apps to Boost Kids’ Creativity

My strong belief is that you shouldn’t be skeptic about allowing your 3-year old son to play on your pad, you can start off with tablets for kids and then allow him to more sophisticated gadgets, such as the iPad. I also strongly think that FPS games, evolved games won’t fare well on tablets and smartphones, unless a product like Razor’s Fiona will prove I’m wrong. To sum up, I am sure that we will see more hit-games in the future and that they will be target the younger audience, especially.

Kids love to touch, they love to interact and it would be a pity not to create some entertaining applications to feed their curiosity and the unstopping need to be engaged in something. Sure, don’t put that in the first place and neglect his social needs. We cannot stop technology but we can make it understandable and enjoyable even for our kids. Your children will become the most important customer to mobile apps developers and that’s a good thing because developers will be forced to create spotless, ingenious applications.

photo credits

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For those of you, more tech-savvy, NFC is a set of short-range wireless technologies, typically requiring a distance of 4 cm or less. NFC operates at 13.56 MHz on ISO/IEC 18000-3 air interface and at rates ranging from 106 kbit/s to 424 kbit/s. NFC has gotten a great deal of attention in the last years, as especially from the major cell phone manufacturers which have started The NFC Forum. Now, there are over 150 members, including Intel, Microsoft, Samsung and MasterCard Worldwide, and all are working on making NFC better and more integrated in everyday life.

The future of NFC

NFC offers a variety of benefits over existing Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections, eliminating the need for pairing and complex configurations. In comparison with Bluetooth, for example, NFC has lower transfer speed, but it does not consume as much battery life as Bluetooth and it eliminates the need for pairing devices.

• Intuitive: NFC interactions require no more than a simple touch
• Versatile: NFC is ideally suited to the broadest range of industries, environments, and uses
• Open and standards-based: The underlying layers of NFC technology follow universally implemented ISO, ECMA, and ETSI standards
• Technology-enabling: NFC facilitates fast and simple setup of wireless technologies, such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, etc.)
• Inherently secure: NFC transmissions are short range (from a touch to a few centimeters)
• Interoperable: NFC works with existing contactless card technologies
• Security-ready: NFC has built-in capabilities to support secure applications

Also, NFC can be used in a variety of applications, such as easy and secure payments with your smartphone, public transportation, media sharing, consumer electronics and many others. Smartphone manufacturers have started to integrate NFC into their products, for easier communication and the possibility to read unpowered NFC chips, called “NFC Tags”. These tags can be imprinted with information and later be read by any NFC enabled device.

1. NFC Gaming

We have seen an example of this technology used in gaming, Activision and NXP Semiconductors worked together to release a NFC powered game, called Skylanders. The characters had real life figurines, and when placed on a NFC filed reader they would appear in the game. Also, they had the possibility to write information on the NFC Tags inside the figurines so players could advance their characters. Games for tablets could be made, where you could place a figurine on the tablet display and play with it. These are just the first steps in NFC gaming, but this trend is far from over.

2. NFC Cases

NFC cases could be the next big thing. They can send and receive information, or store information from other NFC devices. These could be a great idea for people who have smartphones with no NFC support, like the iPhone. iCache is another good example of a iPhone Case that uses NFC to communicate to other devices. You have to input your personal data by scanning your card and you are set to go. For a security measure, the case has a fingerprint scanner to ensure that only you can access the information.

3. Secure Online Shopping

It’s a well known fact that online shopping is not secure. Although there have been many efforts to improve the security of online shopping, security experts still say that it’s not 100% secure. NFC technology could greatly improve internet shopping security. A prototype has been developed that consists of a NFC tablet on which you place your NFC enabled credit card. NFC will eventually replace the wallet in the future.

When the connection between your card and the reader has been established, a red LED turns on. When you want to complete a transaction, the reader, which is connected via USB to your computer will automatically fill the purchase forms with your personal information. This could mean a great deal in security, mostly because it could eliminate the threat of keyloggers and trackers.

4. Starting Your Car/Bike

We have seen this technology used before, in which the engine starts when reading a RFID card, or it can open the door when you are close to your car. NFC enabled smartphones can be used to do this task, eliminating the need of using a key or card. Now this is where security is involved, as you wouldn’t want your vehicle to be stolen that easily.

Risks Involved in NFC?

NFC is a pretty secured protocol, so the only risk you can find is the possibility that you lose your phone or it’s stolen. But that’s about it. Now, even this can be worked around. As we saw, the iPhone can blocked remotely, and so do other smartphones. Their memory can be wiped, or they can completely blocked so then, they would be useless to anyone else trying to access your information or make a payment. Also, any transaction over a certain amount could not be done via NFC to ensure that there is no possibility of unauthorized use. Still, there are privacy issues that will need to be adressed before NFC will reach mainstream use.

photo credits: nicolasnova

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A new cloud paging technology will revolutionize the way you play games online. Instead of downloading the entire (or partial) game, you will be able to play by converting your computer into a mere console.

The above effort made by a startup, Numecent is fruitful in this direction. The company has filed for a patent on this budding technology. The gaming technology named – “Approxy“, enables you to play games without downloading the software into your computer. Thanks to the fast internet connections provided by internet service providers; with minimum coding on local computer, online games can be played.

Cloud Paging Technology, Next Step in Online Games

Hardware resources present at the nearest computer will be utilized to process the request from the user. The technology will not give major burden on network resources also as a nearest computer will be selected to perform the task. The new technology mimics client-server technology. If the local computer (from where you are playing games) is treated as a client, all the computers present in the network play the role of server. The new technology will target both consumer and enterprise market. By successfully implementing the new way of online gaming entertainment, it is possible to cut down game downloads to the extent of 40%.

The new technology necessitates higher bandwidth consumption by gaming companies. Even if users leave half-way in their gaming sessions, gaming company will pay for bandwidth. As local hardware resources (processing and memory) are utilized instead of dependence on streaming from a distant server, users will experience quick response rates. It is an altogether new experience as users will not download games but they will be able to play directly from their computers. The network based virtual memory manager will play the trick to implement this innovative technology. A fraction of the code will reside on the client computer.

Numecent Tries to Use the Power of Cloud to Improve the Online Gaming

Numecent should be appreciated for working on innovative technology which is also timely. Increased processing speeds, raising memory capacities and latest technologies in data transfer and latest developments, in cloud based technologies are encouraging factors for pursuing new gaming technologies. The push-pull paging technology will revolutionize the way games are played online. Instructions and data will be made available in the cloud as per the demand and they are available in real-time. This will lead to elimination of unnecessary and unwanted code in multiple computers across the globe. A lot of space can be saved in this process. Memory pages created on demand will be nullified as soon as the session ends.

Virtualization process will take new heights in the coming days as the software asset will be split into mini pages using server side technologies. These pages will be fed into the client’s browser through http or https access. Virtual memory management unit that, resides at client computer will take care of this functionality. This unit will take care of the implementation of new technology without the need of installation of software locally. The new technology also enables delivery of large scale applications even from small handheld devices like smartphones and tablets (acting as servers) to large PCs (acting as clients).

The new technology will expand the gaming horizon. In future many new web applications will be derived from the new cloud paging technology. These applications will revolutionize the way we interact with each other and the way employees work in an organization.

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Virtualization Right in Your Browser

Now, this field is expanding as well, in the direction of the blowing wind. Virtual machines are officially coming to tablets and smartphones. So far, we have a prototype to prove it. It’s called WSX, although the name might change in the near future, and brings virtual machines to portable devices, the software does not exclude PCs or anything that has installed a modern browser on it.

WSX has been designed with the help of some creative web software – HTM Canvas or Web Sockets, being among them. The technology actually transforms your browser into a remote console that could allow you to pick up a tablet at your local tech market and in a matter of seconds be able to access your latest documents on your home computer. WSX has been tested for compatibility with Chrome, Firefox and Safari and has received the OK. It also seems to work with the Internet Explorer 10 preview.

WSX Brings the Power of Virtual Machine Inside Browsers

As for tablets, WSX has been given the green light for the iOS 5. As far for Android fans, some work on their version still needs to be done, so they will have to wait a little longer. Therefore, from now on, users will be able to work on their documents on the iPad without being anxious about losing their data. They can also enjoy playing their favorite Windows games (like Solitaire) on their iPhone. And you know what’s awesome about this tweak? You can use Windows 8 on your iPad, or your new iPad and leave everybody stunned!

Remember how annoying it is when your laptop dies during the single most precious moment of your life, because you were in a hurry in the morning and forgot to bring the charger? While automatic and wireless recharging might prove to be a solution, now you can have your work live on VM so when your machine is out, you can grab the nearest notebook or tablet and just go on with it. At the moment, Workstation Tech Preview comes equipped with a Linux Installer but you need to install Workstation first. Also, the python2.6 binary is necessary for the WSX to work properly. If you are a Windows user, your version is not available yet but the team is working on it.

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Khan Academy iPad App

Khan Academy’s videos have always been available to public for free on YouTube. But with Khan academy iPad app, students can download videos and watch them offline at their own pace. It also includes time-syncing between devices and also an interactive transcript of the lectures for easy searching.

Khan Academy has always tried to ensure that the teachers get to monitor the progress made by the students on these videos, with information about how long students took to answer practice questions, and whether they’re stuck on a certain topic. Though the iPad app does not yet support practice exercises, the academy does plan to include them in the future.

Salman Khan, the brain behind the academy hopes that the free iPad app could possibly replace or supplement textbooks in schools across America. The Khan academy iPad app looks inspired by the TED iPad app with interactive time-stamped transcript.

Ted-Ed

But the inspiration is bidirectional. The success of Khan Academy has rubbed off on yet another not-for-profit organization, TED, which has just announced TED-Ed, a brand new Education based initiative over YouTube. The aim behind Ted-Ed is to unite the World’s great teachers and animators to spread lessons beyond the classroom.

Though the concept and the idea is very similar to Khan Academy, TED-Ed aims to make learning more fun by using animations. TED-Ed is open to teachers and animators across the world who desire to reach out and help millions of students around the globe

The TED-Ed video content does not seek to replace traditional curriculum, but rather to supplement it by providing teachers with new tools that inspire curiosity and bring lessons to life with dynamic animation.

The Future of Education

Salman Khan believes that using online lectures (rendered offline, courtesy their iPad app) would give much more opportunity for the teachers to interact with their students. On the other hand, students will have the liberty to go through the lectures at their desired pace, while going back and forth till they understand the concept. This should drastically change the way of education which is currently follows ‘one size fits all’ concept.

TED-Ed too is trying to break the traditional way of education. They aim to show the students that learning can be fun and thrilling. Apple too has been trying to redefine the future of education with iTextBooks where interactivity takes precedence over others. Unlike Khan Academy and TED-Ed which focus on lectures, Apple plans to digitize the textbook industry.

The future seem bright. The interactivity which services like iTextbooks offer and the online lectures with ability to pause and rewind offered by Khan academy & TED-Ed should revolutionize the education space by giving the onus back on mastering the subject rather than completing the syllabus.

Interesting times ahead for students.

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From ARM 1 to ARM Cortex A15

ARM is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer (RISC) developed by ARM Holdings. It was first named Acorn RISC Machine, having their first product released in 1985 as ARM 1. The fact that ARM processors have quite simplistic designs made them ideal for low power applications, making ARM one of the dominant forces in both mobile and electronics market. What you should know is that ARM only provides the technological know-how and it is their partner, Qualcomm or Texas Instruments that actually produce the chips. The ARM representative at MWC was kind enough to emphasize that.

Their first project started in October 1983 saw Acorn and VLSI Technology, Inc working together, their main goal being the achievement of low-latency input/output handling. And on 26 April 1985, VLSI produced the first working ARM silicon. But their first production systems became available only the following year with the release of ARM 2.

Ongoing Improvement of ARM Microprocessors

The core featured a 32-bit data bus, a 26-bit address space and twenty-seven 32-bit registers. This was probably one of the simplest and most useful microprocessor in the world, having only 30.000 transistors. This was due to the fact that it not had a microcode and didn’t include cache, things that led to low power usage. Next in line we had the ARM 3 core, one that had 4 KB of cache that led to further improved performance.

In the late 80’s, Apple and VLSI started working on a new ARM core, and they released a new version in 1992, called ARM 6. This came in three versions:

• the ARM 60, which was the first to support 32-bit of memory address space without any cache;
• the ARM 600, one that had also 32-bit of address space, but this time with 4 KB of cache and coprocessor bus;
• the ARM 610, which was identical with the 600 version, excepting the coprocessor bus.

The core remained almost at same seizes, the ARM 6 versions having 35.000 transistors. With the ARM 7 TDMI, which had a 3-stage pipeline, they managed to sell hundreds of millions cores.

ARM’s Products Start Targeting the Mobile Field

Their architectures range from the low-range ARM 5 devices to the high-end ARM M-series ones. Even if the ARM 6 cores are used in some cases for the lower-end devices, it is now time for the Cortex processors to provide faster and more power-efficient options. As like its former relatives ARM 9 and ARM 11, the Cortex-A targets application processors, as needed for smartphones. Cortex-R is for real-time applications, while the Cortex-M is for microcontrollers.

In the case of ARM 9, it has a 32-it RISC architecture, with separate data buses than increased its potential speed. The upgrades from the earlier versions would be easy to spot, as the heat production and the overheating risk decreased. More, the upgrade to a 5-stage pipeline saw the clock speed doubled, and the cores had “Enhanced DSP” instructions incorporated such as a multiply-accumulate.

The ARM 11 was released to public in 2002, and was a 32-bit RISC microprocessor that introduced the ARM 6 architectural additions. It has SIMD instructions that can double the audio digital processing algorithm speed, a physically addressed cache, and a redesigned 8-stages pipeline that supports clock speed of up to 1GHz.

ARM Cortex A15 Comes With Huge Speed and Power Management

The latest of the Cortex-A series of processors, the A15 MPCore will be a multicore processor that provides a superscalar pipeline running at up to 2.5GHz. The unprecedented processing ability combined with the low-power consumption enables compelling products in a wide range of ARM markets. It ensures full application compatibility with all of the Cortex-A series processors and gives immediate access to software ecosystem like Android and Adobe Flash Player (which have made public their recent roadmap and plans).

The high-computing performance for web infrastructure applications will be available due to the improvements in floating point and NEON media performance, as well as the 4MB low-latency level-2 cache. The A15 MPCore will deliver over five times the performance of previous versions, and the running at 2.5GHz will enable solutions within shrinking energy and cost budgets.

Some of the key features on the core will be:

1. 40-bit Large Physical Address Extensions (LPAE) that will address up to 1TB of RAM;
2. 17-25 floating-point pipeline;
3. 4 cores per cluster, with up to 2 clusters per chip with CoreLink 400.

The processor also introduces the ARM technology that enables the efficient handling of the software environments such as support for data management and arbitration, enabling the applications to simultaneously access the system capabilities.

Tight Battle Against Nvidia and Intel

First, we have the guys down at Nvidia. They attacked the market with their new quad-core Tegra 3 processor, bringing PC-class performance levels, better battery life and improved mobile experiences to phones. The processor will bring three times the graphics performance of Tegra 2 and up to 60% less power consumption. Tegra 3 implements a new technology that includes a small-power working CPU.

So, when tasks that require less power consumptions are rolling, the four main CPU’s are turned off. The Tegra 3 processor brings to the table the world’s fastest web experience (with accelerated Adobe Flash Player 11, HTML5 and WebGL browsing), fastest applications (blazing performance for multimedia apps) and fastest multitasking (switching between common uses and background tasks). ARM Cortex A15 will have a hard task in order to beat these records.

Intel has Big Plans and Many Partners

On the other hand, we have Intel, the leading developer of chips for servers, desktops, notebook and net-books. Even though AMD poses a threat for them in the core market with their rather lower costs, Intel has a bigger problem on their hands. In the core markets for mobile platforms Intel has really been absent, and now they’ve decided to develop an x86 processor to rival the ARM leaders.

With Apple’s iPhone, Motorola Droid, Google Nexus One and the HTC Incredible all running on ARM processors, Intel introduced the Moorestown processor architecture, providing an SoC comprised of an Intel Atom core, combined with graphics processing, video and memory controller functions. The company promised better performance and richer graphics, with 1080p video playback and 780p HD video recording. More, they say that the processor is capable of two days of audio playback time and five hours of video playback.

Now it all remains to see which of the three companies will gain supremacy in this battle.

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The Future of Flash to Focus on Games and Video

Adobe starts its diatribe by admitting that Flash isn’t alone anymore in the field of creating web content. They acknowledge the rising power of technologies like HTML 5, CSS3 or JavaScript, but continue to consider Flash an important pawn in the process of web creation. But providing creative thinkers with the right materials to build focused web content won’t be the main purpose of Flash anymore, as ArsTechnica suggested. Things will slowly start to change.

Adobe’s new strategy consists of focusing on whatever Flash does best – meaning at creating games and at showcasing real video quality. But Adobe will not neglect the other areas Flash can be used in, and will focus a lot of its efforts in perfecting those fields. They go on to say that games today are evolving extremely fast, but they think that Flash will do extremely well in catching up with these new sets of demands, even ahead of its competitors. That’s because Adobe holds almost an universal reach on the desktop because of the Flash Player browser plug-in.

Adobe Isn’t Quitting the Mobile Environment

On mobile devices, Flash infiltrates itself via Adobe AIR. The service also relies on very fast 2D and 3D rendering support which enables top notch graphics. Adobe seems to think that Flash is enough to reach 99% of computers and hoped it would end up on at least 500 million portable device owners.

Adobe is also well aware of the fact that Flash is famous for its video content delivery, thus the company will do anything to expand its dominion over responding to all video requests. And, of course, Adobe has laid out a pretty decent plan for Flash video. It plans to support premium content owners the best it can, to establish warmer collaborations with its hardware providers and provide support for content protection which leads to premium video content getting a license in order to be available for online distribution.

The new version of Flash player 11.2 will be rolling out during the first quarter of 2012, so, we’re almost there. With it, Adobe plans to add some new functionality like:

• Mouse-lock support
• Right and middle-click support
• Context menu disabling
• Hardware accelerated graphics
• Stage 3D support for iOS and Android

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© Raju PP for Technically Personal!, 2012. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us, so we can take legal action immediately. If you are on Twitter you can follow me @rajupp! | Permalink |

Have a project that needs a voice-over? Not sure where to start? Who to audition? Where to find reliable and cheap voice-over artist? Are you already feeling lost in the thought process? Then you should absolutely meet VoiceBunny. This web service is guaranteed to make your headaches go away, and fast.

VoiceBunny, Cheap VoiceOver Database for Your Needs

VoiceBunny is a brand new startup that’s looking to carve a name for itself in the business of voice overs by using a rather unorthodox method. The company is relying on low pricing in the hopes of increasing the turnaround process. Thus, it provides a massive library (135,000 voice artist professionals are waiting to be at your service, to be exact) for those looking for some decent talent to hire.

Another important feature of VoiceBunny is time. Everything moves super fast. For example, the average time for a project to be accepted by a voice professional is about 98 seconds. The cost per word is not that budget-wise, if you ask me, the average being 8 cents. And more than 50 languages are supported. Everything sounds too good to be true. But then…

VoiceBunny claims it is doing customers a service. Its statement seems to be based on the extremely high price of a professional voice work. The company claims that a 60 second commercial might cost the interested party, somewhere around $3000 – a figure that includes agency services, booking the talent and the studio time. When you think about this 8 cents per words, it totally changes your mind, right? And what’s even more interesting about this start-up is that you can even make money! If you’ve got a lovely voice and you are a master of English pronunciation, why not give it a try?

Transform Your Blog Into a Podcast With Voice Bunny

A home studio is even a bigger investment, they say, amounting to $12,000 – a sum that includes equipment and an appropriate recording computer. But some voices seem to disagree. This is history, they say, and came up with a counter example saying that now a voice studio could be set up with merely $1000. If you are still not sure if VoiceBunny would be a good alternative, why not try their service for free, as they are giving you $100 to try out their service.

Even so, it’s not unlikely for a company to go to different measures to try and gain some attention. All in all, connecting to the site will automatically turn your blogs or articles into podcasts in a matter of minutes. One such example is this website. And, when you think about it, it does makes sense to have a podcast version of your website. Some people just don’t have enough time to read but they’ll gladly listen to your podcast. We feel that VoiceBunny is an efficient product, has a great portfolio and it’s very affordable. It’s worth a decent shot!

photo credit

© Raju PP for Technically Personal!, 2012. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us, so we can take legal action immediately. If you are on Twitter you can follow me @rajupp! | Permalink |