Intel vs. AMD: Better computer chips raise laptops' abilities

SAN FRANCISCO - The hot laptop market has sparked a war among computer chip companies - and they're not just fighting over who can build the fastest processor.

Intel (INTC) on Monday rolled out Centrino 2, its next-generation laptop chips. Centrino 2 laptops are faster than their predecessors. But their biggest benefits are other features, such as better graphics and battery life.

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Intel's chief rival, released a similar set of laptop chips last month. Graphics-chipmaker Nvidia, best known for desktop components, also rolled out a laptop line.

"It's a big shift," says AMD Vice President Patrick Moorhead. The number of laptops sold will outpace desktops by 2009, Intel CEO Paul Otellini predicts. (Laptop revenue already exceeds desktops, because laptops are usually more expensive.) That's prompting chipmakers to put new emphasis on the problems that arise in small, portable computers.

They include:

•Battery life. The best laptop in the world isn't worth much when its battery dies. Intel's new chip line features an ultra-low-power processor and other energy-saving tools. AMD's chips can detect whether a computer is plugged in and adjust power levels accordingly. (Other features also help.)

•Graphics. Laptops traditionally used low-end graphics chips that piggyback off other components. But now 26% have powerful stand-alone graphics chips, says semiconductor analyst Dean McCarron at Mercury Research. Demand has risen as more people watch movies, play games and use graphics-intensive programs such as Google Earth on their laptops, he says.

Nvidia (NVDA) now makes so many laptop chips that when a problem developed in some of them last month, the company said it must take a charge of at least $150 million. AMD's new chip line has a vastly improved graphics processor.

•Wireless Internet. Intel's new chip line features the latest version of Wi-Fi, known as 802.11n. Later this year it plans to roll out chips using a new wireless Internet standard, WiMax, which can send a signal over several miles. Chipmaker Atheros Communications and others are also pushing new wireless standards.

Chipmakers "are putting an awful lot of effort into their (laptop) solutions," says semiconductor analyst Matthew Wilkins at researcher iSuppli. An emphasis on features, instead of just processing power, is a way to stand out, he says.

source: news.yahoo.com

Toshiba Unveils Laptop With Cell-derived Chip

The first laptops to make use of the SpursEngine, a multimedia co-processor derived from the Cell chip that powers the PlayStation 3, will go on sale in Japan in July.

Toshiba will launch its Qosmio G50 and F40 machines with the chip, which contains four of the "Synergistic Processing Elements" from the Cell Broadband Engine processor. The Cell chip used in the PlayStation 3 has eight of the SPE cores plus a Power PC main processor. The SPE cores perform the heavy number-crunching that makes the console's graphics so stunning.

The SpursEngine SE1000 will work in much the same way in the laptops.

The operating system will run on an Intel Core 2 Duo chip and the SpursEngine will be called on to handle processor-intensive tasks, such as processing of high-definition video. This arrangement means the laptop should be capable of some tricks that haven't been seen on machines until now.

Among them, Toshiba said the two computers will be able to upscale standard-definition video to high definition; transcode in realtime digital TV to MPEG4 so that the resulting files are cut down in size by one-eighth and burn video to DVD in half the time of current machines.

A novel feature is face navigation. Faces that appear in video are recognized and displayed as thumbnail images to create a visual index to the video. Users can find the person or scene they want by glancing at the thumbnails and then click on the respective one to watch that portion of video. The computer can also divide up the scenes in user-shot video so they can be viewed one-by-one and analyze and display the volume or the clip across its entire length so, for example, excitement in a sports event can be more easily found.

Finally, by analyzing images from the computer's built-in camera it's possible to control video playback with hand gestures.

The Qosmio G50 is a multimedia laptop and has an 18.4-inch high-definition screen, 500G bytes of hard-disk space, NVidia GeForce 9600M graphics processor, dual digital TV tuners and wireless LAN including 802.11n. It weighs 4.9 kilograms and measures 45 centimeters by 31cms by 4.8cms. Battery life is about 4 hours.

The Qosmio G50 will be cost from ¥290,000 (US$2,700) and the F50, which has a 15-inch screen and 250G byte hard-disk drive, from ¥250,000. Toshiba plans to put the machines on sale overseas but has yet to announce launch details.

Source:news.yahoo.com

No Laptop Like Asus Laptops

There is so much we can talk about when we are speaking of Asus laptops, so why don't we start from the top. First of all, the things that people pretend to know about but really do not, the specifics. There are many different Asus laptops out there, but the one I looked at had an Intel Core Duo processor. It also had about 1 GB of RAM already installed onto the Asus laptops. The weight of the Asus laptops was actually pretty light when you think about it. In fact, the one I got to use was about 3.3 pounds.



Now you may say that is all good in gravy, but what about the stuff you care about? Well we are getting to that. The LCD screen was amazing and looked better than most HDTV's I have seen. Also, for having such a big screen on it, I was amazed to see at how long the battery lasted. Most of the Asus laptops come with leather lids and a matching mouse as well. Depending on the model of Asus laptops you choose to get, most come with a great built in DVD burner, which, even if you are not going to use it, is still a nice plus.

However, if you are not into that kind of thing, I would look for one that does not have a burner, because that would just save you money. Even so, like all great things, you have to take the good with the bad.



Not everything about Asus laptops are the best. First of all, I have to say most are some what expensive for most people. For the same price that you can get one of the Asus laptops, you can get a super powerful desk top PC that would eat one of these Asus laptops alive. You could even choose not to spend so much and get a different laptop for about the same price. Unlike a few of the other keyboards I have seen, the Asus laptops seem to have a cramped space for these keyboards. If you have big hands, this could become a problem. Although the screen is nice, it does have a glossy coat on it. This can cause it to be a little bit to reflective and hard to see at times.



When all is said and done, all Asus laptops are great, and you are going to get your money out of them. However, if you do not have a lot of money to spend on a laptop then you may want to go with a different brand. These are super nice, but now-a-days you can get a laptop that does the same thing for less money. Keep in mind, however, that this is a very powerful laptop. Unlike other super powerful laptops, the Asus laptops are very portable. It seems like other laptops weigh a lot, and you have to stay close to a wall so you can plug it back up when the battery runs down.

Article Source: EzineArticles.com Mike Stone

Amazing History Of Notebook Batteries

The laptop is a great thing. It allows you to use your computer without having to be plugged up to a wall. However, back in the day you could not run your laptop off the batteries alone for too long. Thanks to people always looking to improve what we already have, we have made great jumps in the history of the batteries. When we think of laptop batteries many of us think about the rechargeable ones that we use today.

However, did you know that they used to make laptops that ran off AA batteries? Not only did it take a lot of AA batteries to run a laptop, but they could not run it for long. Many people today remember the laptops running off the very heavy lead acid based batteries. Not only did these batteries not last long, but it made your laptop very heavy. You might as well been carrying around a desktop. Since then the history of laptop batteries have kept improving. In fact, after we turned in the old lead acid batteries we moved on to the nickel cadmium batteries.

If you do not remember ever hearing of nickel cadmium batteries, that is because some people called them NiCD. However, these batteries were not around too long because we soon left those for nickel metal hydribe batteries (also called NiMH). As you can guess both of these batteries lasted a lot longer than the old acid ones, however, we were not done making great batteries just yet. After that we moved on to the lithium ion batteries as well as the lithium polymer. These are the batteries that most laptops use today. However, we are not done making great batteries, and you can bet that the history of laptop batteries is going to move on from here. As more and more people get laptops every year the demand for a longer lasting batter is ever growing. Until we can make a battery that never dies, we are always going to see more improvements in the life of batteries.

People use there laptops for many different things. Some use it for school, and others use it for work. However, no matter what you use your laptop for, you know that you need a long last battery. You have to know that you are going to be able to count on the battery when you need your laptop the most. Because of that, we should be happy that batteries keep improving.

The history of laptop batteries is a long one, and it's going to just keep getting longer. All that means is that we are going to end up with some great batteries over the course of a few years. As companies jump at the chance to improve their laptops you are going to see some of the worlds best batteries come to be. What that means for us is the fact that we can have great running computers that do not die after a few hours.

Article Source: EzineArticles.com Mike Stone

More on MacBook Air... Laptop power connectors...

Letters, we get letters, stacks and stacks of letters.

Q: I read your review of the MacBook Air and it's pretty clear you just don't get it. You've always been a Windows and Microsoft fanboy and some things just never change. The Air wasn't made for you and you are just not the target market. So why can't you say something positive about an Apple?

A: Well, as I write this on my Apple Powerbook, I can pause to reflect that I was positive about many parts of the MacBook Air in the review. And I do believe I am the target market for the MacBook. My current business laptop has a 14-inch screen (and no optical drive) by choice; my current pleasure laptop is an Apple with a 12-inch screen.

I have logged, at last count, more than 400,000 frequent-flyer miles, a lot of that on business, so I think I am exactly the market for the Air. I do think they got a lot of it right. But they got a lot of it wrong, especially for business travelers, who need a removable battery. (I even missed one downside that Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal reminded me of; there's no PC card slot so I can't use my cellular card to connect. It's either Wi-Fi or nothing.)

I think you misread the review if you thought I slammed the thing. I liked it. I just think they took too many things out so it would fit in an inter-office mail envelope. Put some things back so it fits in a FedEx pouch.

We'll still be happy.

Q: I heard that some laptop power connectors are so faulty that class-action lawsuits are filed and the makers have to fix them for free. Mine you have to hold a certain way or the laptop battery won't charge. How can I tell if they will fix it? I have called and called the manufacturer and they won't do anything about it.

A: You are correct. Some models are so prone to this issue that lawsuits or other consumer initiatives have forced warranty extensions, repairs or other actions. In your case, Google (extensively) your model and the terms "warranty extension," "power jack" and "class action" and you will be interested in what you find. Several current models are under recall or warranty extension for power-jack issues like you describe. You will find several repair companies on the Web that specialize in these repairs and will fix these for a reasonable flat rate.

Q: I heard that I can keep my AOL dial-up account for free now. I don't plan to use it much but would like to keep it in force when I travel or for emergencies. How do I keep it in force?

A: You can keep your AOL account but not your dial-up account. AOL is doing this to encourage Web traffic among people who switch to high-speed Internet.

Basically, you can connect to the Internet via your high-speed connection, and then fire up AOL via a TCP/IP connection. However, AOL has some basic dial-up plans that you can consider for emergencies if you wish. Contact AOL for details.

(James Derk is owner of CyberDads, a computer-repair firm, and tech columnist for Scripps Howard News Service.)

Source: shns.com