A look at the P55 chipset Core i5 motherboard

The eagle-eyed folks over at Hexus have spotted a gigabyte GA-IBP at CeBIT. So what’s so special about this board? It’s a P55 chipset, socket LGA1156 motherboard for Intel’s upcoming Core i5 processor.


Some background. The Core i5 is a Lynnfield processor which is itself based on the Nehalem Intel Core microarchitecture. It features an integrated memory controller supporting 2-channel DDR3, hyper-threading technology (which means that four cores translates into processing capacity for eight threads), features 8MB of Intel Smart Cache, and supports Turbo Boost technology and an integrated PCI-Express graphics controller. The socket for this chip differs from the LGA1366 used by the Core i7 (Bloomfield). So what’s the difference between the Core i5 and Core i7? Core i5 CPUs don’t make use of Intel’s QuickPath Interconnect.
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PC shipments to decrease 4.5 percent in 2009

As bad as the second half of 2008 treated the PC industry, 2009 is shaping up to be even worse.

PC shipments worldwide will drop 8 percent in the first half of this year, according to a forecast update to IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker. The fourth quarter saw a 1.9 percent decline, driven in large part by large enterprise companies delaying buying replacement PCs during the recession.

But after a rocky start, the industry should turn around a bit by year's end. IDC predicts that shipments will improve over the second half of the year, resulting in small, but positive growth in the fourth quarter, ending with a 4.5 percent decrease for the year. That's a change from the 3.8 percent overall growth for 2009 the company had predicted in early December.
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VIA's Em-ITX form factor: Less means more

In making embedded devices, one of the biggest challenges has always been reducing the physical size of the device without compromising the functionality. And the main component that decides the size of a computer is the motherboard.

In this regard, VIA Technologies has some good news. The company announced recently its latest board form factor for embedded systems, the Em-ITX. The new board boasts dual input/output coastlines, while still establishing an off-the-shelf standard for ultraslim embedded devices.

Measuring merely 120 x 170mm, the Em-ITX form factor is 30 percent more compact than the existing Mini-ITX standard, yet offers 200 percent more I/O real estate.


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Microsoft may let Windows 7 users turn browser off

Microsoft has included in recent Windows 7 test versions an option to turn off the Internet Explorer 8 Web browser, according to testers who have used the recent builds.

According to Chris Holmes, build 7048 of Windows 7 includes Internet Explorer as one of many Windows components that can be turned on or off via a "Windows Features" dialog box. The control panel exists in the public beta version of Windows 7, but IE8 is not listed among the features that can be turned on and off.
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MSI Winki: Boot up in a wink

Unfortunate name notwithstanding, the Winki is a proprietary Linux interface from MSI similar to Asus' ExpressGate technology. This allows you to boot up the machine almost instantly and bypass the longer startup process of Windows, giving you access to the Internet in record time. However, unlike the latter which is hardwired onto the mainboard, the Winki comes in a tiny package which plugs into the onboard USB controller. The advantage of this is that since Winki is available in 15 languages, you can plug in your Winki of choice.
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