Atom Processors Move Intel Into New Markets

Intel has taken the wraps off four new Atom processors and two control hub chips for use in low-power Relevant Products/Services embedded applications. It also announced a new memorandum of understanding under which customers of Taiwan-based chip foundry TSMC eventually will be able to produce customized Atom designs for embedded applications using TSMC's processes, IP, libraries and design flows.

"Its a bold move" that opens the door for Intel to become active in new markets, while "maintaining full control over the process" and "who we sell to," said Intel Executive Vice President Sean Maloney during a conference call with financial analysts. "I believe as we look forward to the next three to four years, more and more customers will need to embed full PC functionality into their devices," Maloney said.

Intel's agreement with TSMC is "all about the collaboration" required to expand the availability of Intel's Atom to customers through integration with TSMC's diverse IP infrastructure Relevant Products/Services, Intel Senior Vice President Anand Chandrasekhar said. Capacity should no longer be a long-term issue for Intel given its announcement last month that the chipmaker will invest $7 billion to build advanced 32nm manufacturing facilities in the United States over the next two years.

Intel believes the package size and low-power envelope of its new Atom Z5xx chips make them ideal for designing in-car infotainment systems, eco-technology devices, and next-generation media phones capable of delivering communication services over IP. But to really compete with ARM, Intel will need to remain focused on the mobile application space, where devices must run off batteries.

"That's really the area in which Intel has been trying to compete with ARM directly," Sibeco said. "And as they march down the Atom road map, a lot of the work they are doing is toward optimizing the power efficiency Relevant Products/Services of the processor."

Windows 7 worrying by Linux but Hope For UMPC

Smaller memory footprint, faster boot, better UI and longer battery life. Windows 7 is not only going to be interesting for the laptop and desktop, it’s shaping up well for Netbooks and UMPCs too. Vista always offered better touch and natural input mechanisms but it was a struggle to run it on Ghz-class devices. The reports coming back from Windows 7 pre-beta testers point towards a much more usable system on these devices.

t really looks like Microsoft will put a lot of effort into making it work well on Netbooks where Linux is obviously taking sales but if it carries a standard licensing price and XP for ULCPCs goes away, there’s still a chance for Linux on the really cheap devices. Unless of course Microsoft surprise us with an X86-build of Windows Mobile 7 which would close off one of the last great hopes for consumer Linux.

Lets assume that there won’t be an X86-build of Windows Mobile though. I wanted to highlight some thoughts about why Windows 7 might be good for low-end PCs it might not be a solution for MIDs. Linux has a great opportunity here, as does a re-worked XP.

• 10gb of install requires either an expensive flash drive.
• Boot times on W7 are still not as fast as XP or a slim Linux.
• Battery life might be improved over Vista but is it improved over XP? I doubt it.
• Why run using 512MB when it can run in under 200MB (XP Home requires much less memory)
• Your, likely, most-used applications look the same on any operating system.
• XP or Linux is likely to cost less. (testing, license, deployment and support.)
• User interface changes could be added to XP using overlays (Origami was a good start, work seems to have stopped now.)
• Why carry support (drivers) for hardware you will never have on your device.
• Why carry programs (Gallery, Media Player, Email client) that you may never use.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just take a stripped-out XP with a nicer UI and touch integration so that we could run our programs efficiently on MIDs? If MS want to cut-off Linux in the netbook arena with low-cost XP then why don’t they do that? Maybe Intel got it right by putting serious investment into Linux area. If XP goes away, its currently the only hope for 2009/2010 MIDs.

NetApp, another player in storage management

"Each time I mention storage, a lot of people will think of hard disks," said Steven Law, the country manager of NetApp for Indonesia. "The fact is, the disks are only a component in a storage solution."

It is easy to understand why to the majority of users storage means the spinning platters inside the metal housing. Every PC, every notebook and even some smartphones have a hard disk. It is where the operating system, the application software and the data are stored.

In reality, storage -- especially as the term is used in the corporate and enterprise environments -- is more than just a place to keep all the 0s and 1s. It is the management of the gamut of storage devices.

These storage devices may be grouped into two types, namely, Network Attached Storage (NAS) and Storage Area Network (SAN). "They do not speak the same language," Steven said during a recent press briefing in Jakarta.

NetApp, his company, is just one of the very few companies that provide storage solutions to corporate and large enterprises. The others, of course, are Hitachi Data Systems (HDS), EMC, IBM and Hewlett Packard.

As I wrote here in the past, the relationships between these companies are quite complex. They may compete in a certain market segment, but use each other's products to address the needs for a different segment. Some vendors are strong on the server side, while others may need the servers to make their solution work.

We all know the digital revolution has created a volume of data that continues to grow exponentially. While the capacity of hard disks has also grown substantially, it will never be able to cope with the data explosion. Therefore, a solution is required to manage the data, where it is stored, backed up, archived and so on.

Today, enterprises talk about petabytes of data. If we consider that one petabyte is equal to a bit more than one million gigabytes, we will have some idea of how huge is the volume of data that has to be managed, compared with the capacity of the hard disk that exists in your desktop PC.

"Keep in mind that one KB of data produced requires around 10 KB of supporting data, including the backup and archive," said Steven.

The more common thinking is to buy additional disks as the volume of data grows. However, this will lead to a chaotic storage ecosystem. More storage devices means more electricity, space, maintenance costs and so on.

How to Enable Bluetooth in Windows Server 2008

Users who are using Windows Server 2008 64bit Standard Edition generally face a common problem on its Bluetooth part. All applications seem to work well except for the Bluetooth drivers. Users can search and add Bluetooth devices to their computer but these devices appear as unknown in the system. If users try to browse for the drivers, the system will indicate the drivers are not found. Even though Windows Server 2008 has built in Bluetooth service, but due to some reasons, Microsoft seems to have imposed some limitations to it and it can’t work properly without some additional settings.

To enable Bluetooth to work and install the Microsoft Bluetooth Stack on Windows Server 2008, Gil Kirkpatrick has come out with a solution to modify the INF files in the default Windows Server 2008 and subsequently install the Microsoft Bluetooth Stack in the OS. The process is detailed but tedious. Robert McLaws has simplified these detailed processes and they work more easily for non tech-savvy users:

a. Download a customized zip files
b. Unzip the file to C:\Bluetooth
c. Open up the Device Manager
d. right click any items that still say “Unknown Device” and select “Update Drivers”
e. Select the bottom menu option and browse to the C:\BT folder
f. “Lather, rinse, repeat” for any other Unknown Devices

With these steps, your Bluetooth devices will work fine with Windows Server 2008

welcome to Indocomtech 2008

INDOCOMTECH 2008 in Nov 12-16, will be occupying Hall A, Hall B, Cendrawasih and Plennary Hall at the Balai Sidang Jakarta Convention Center. This is our 16th show. Inconjuction to our show this year, the 1st IndogameShow and APICTA (Asia Pacific ICT Award), also A book fair will be held in conjunction with the Indocomtech. Many scholars, students, scientist and lecturers and many book enthusiast will have a chance to visit the Computer show at the same time.

Executives and Government Officers, from all over Indonesia are requested to register, for an official invitation and badge to be recognize by the exhibitors. Please provide us with a complete information and when your projects is due; It will help us in serving you with more information and arrange a meeting with the respective exhibitors.

Event Schedule
12 - 16 November 2008

Exhibition Hours
10.00 - 21.00 WIB

Venue
Hall A, Hall B, Cendrawasih Hall, and Lower Lobby Balai Sidang Jakarta Convention Center

Ticket
Rp. 5.000

Number of Exhibitors
300 Exhibitors will be occupying 20.000 sqm gross space

Product On Display
Notebook, PC Computer, Printer, PDA, Digital Camera, Projector / In Focus , Active Speaker, Etc

Hosted By
APKOMINDO Indonesia Foundation
Organized By
PT Dyandra Promosindo