Intel finally delivers a SATA solid-state drive

Intel finally announced its own SATA solid-state drive (SSD) for notebook and desktop clients, and our secured lab has become a feeding frenzy of folks geeking out on the X25-M, just one of the SSD drives Intel introduced at its Developer Forum in San Francisco.

The mainstream SSDs will come in 1.8-inch and 2.5-inch models and both will use standard multi-level cell NAND flash memory that will hopefully translate to a lower cost-per-bit for the consumer.

As of the time of this announcement, Intel hasn't released pricing. We're crossing our fingers that the company will eventually price these drives within a reasonable range for the average consumer; most current 64GB SSDs fall around S$1,300 (US$923.56).

Along with the 80GB drive, Intel also sent over its own system benchmarks that show a 50 percent improvement in system performance as well as a nine-fold improvement in HDD performance.

Via CNET Crave

What recession? Gartner predicts IT spending growth

Worldwide IT spending should top US$3.4 trillion in 2008, up 8 percent from 2007, research firm Gartner is predicting.

But much of that growth is due to the decline in the US dollar. When adjusted for currency issues, worldwide spending is predicted to grow only 4.5 percent.

Software spending and IT services are expected to see the biggest gain, up 10 percent and 9.4 percent, respectively, in 2008.

Analysts attributed some of the software growth to replacement cycles, but noted that "the replacement of systems does not automatically equate to new software market growth".

"Software as a service/cloud computing, service-oriented architecture/Web 2.0, and open-source software are causing huge changes to the software market," wrote Joanne Correia, managing vice president at Gartner in a research note. "Many of these factors are impacting market growth as enterprises replace assets with per-use services."

Hardware spending is expected to rise 7 percent in 2008, thanks to strong Asia-Pacific and Western Europe sales and a global shift to mobile computers.

Via CNET News

AMD Athlon beats Intel Atom

If the latest range of slim and sexy Nettops are beckoning for your wallet, you may want to strap on a straitjacket right now. According to benchmarks performed by Tomshardware, the latest Intel Atom chipset not only underperforms against the AMD 780G platform, but also consumes up to 2.3 watts more power than its competitor.

The tests pit a 1.6GHz Atom 230 processor against the 1.0GHz AMD Athlon 64 2000+ chip. Though the clockspeed of the latter is slower on paper, the platform as a whole is so much more efficient that it outperforms the Intel solution. This shows that technical specifications only tell half the story. And, to sweeten the deal, the AMD PC doesn't even need to run a cooling fan, which makes the system quieter overall.

On the flip side, the Intel Atom processor can be placed on smaller miniTX boards, while AMD's solution still depends on the larger microATX platform. So for now, it seems that one will have to consider if desktop real estate or performance is more important when buying a small form-factor PC.

Wireless-USB advocate touts growing list of offerings

Working on a Fujitsu Siemens laptop to cordlessly watch a film trailer on an Asus monitor across the room while listening to speakers controlled by a Realtek wireless USB dock, Jeff Ravencraft touted how USB lets many peripherals work wirelessly at once.

A year after the first wireless universal serial bus products started appearing on the market, more products with the cordless capability are coming to fruition. Juggling several gadgets at a downtown hotel here Thursday, Ravencraft, president of the USB Implementers Forum, wanted to demonstrate how the new technology can impact consumers.

His organization--founded by the group of companies that developed the Universal Serial Bus specification--works to certify wireless USB devices, and so far, 45 products--ranging from computers to hubs to monitors--have received the nonprofit's stamp of approval.
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New Intel chipset could awaken the PC as phone

One of the biggest drawbacks of current PC-based Internet phone services like Skype, which allow people to make phone calls from their computers over the Internet for free or for reduced fees, is that you can't receive calls when the computer is turned off. But that is changing with a new chipset introduced by Intel Thursday that allows computers to wake from "sleep" to accept calls and do other tasks like accept downloaded content.

Intel has teamed up with JaJah, a California-based voice-over-IP startup, to allow JaJah users to receive calls on their PCs when their computers are in "sleep mode".

"The Intel technology turns the PC into a PBX for the home," said Trevor Healy, CEO of JaJah. "With the JaJah soft client you can plug in any USB-enabled phone and start receiving inbound calls anytime."

The deal with Intel also means that JaJah technology will come already configured into certain PCs so that users don't have to download any software to make Web calls. This makes it different from other PC-based IP telephony services, like Skype, which require users to download a software client. Jajah provides users with local phone numbers and routes calls over the Internet to allow users to call any fixed or mobile phone anywhere in the world for a fraction of what they would normally pay.
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