So, AMD announced a new 8-core CPU running at 5 GHz this week. It’s a bit of a hollow victory, since it basically will match the highest-end Intel Core i7 in performance, in spite of its much higher clock rate and wattage. I’m not sure what the appeal of a 220-watt CPU is, and I’m [...]
All posts tagged intel
AMD hits 5 GHz
Posted by Dave Farquhar on June 12, 2013
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/06/amd-hits-5-ghz/
No, this doesn’t mean Ubuntu and Linux are giving up
This week, Mark Shuttleworth closed the longstanding Ubuntu bug #1, which simply read, “Microsoft has majority market share.” Because Microsoft didn’t lose its market share lead to Ubuntu, or Red Hat, or some other conventional Linux distribution, some people, including John C. Dvorak, are interpreting this as some kind of surrender. I don’t see it [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on June 1, 2013
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/06/no-this-doesnt-mean-ubuntu-and-linux-are-giving-up/
Is this a good computer for the money in 2013?
My realtor sent me some computer specs this past week and asked for my opinion on it, since I get paid to keep up with this stuff these days and he doesn’t. I thought my critique of the system might help other people.
Posted by Dave Farquhar on March 27, 2013
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/03/is-this-a-good-computer-for-the-money-in-2013/
No, it doesn’t take a “serious hacker” to crack wi-fi through WPS
John C Dvorak is raving in PC Magazine about Netgear wireless routers and range extenders and how easy WPS makes it to set them up–and providing some very seriously flawed security advice along the way. “Note that WPS is crackable by serious hackers using brute-force attack, but any SOHO user not dealing with government secrets [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on March 26, 2013
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/03/no-it-doesnt-take-a-serious-hacker-to-crack-wi-fi-through-wps/
Commodore was more than a stock scam
From time to time, I see the phrase “Commodore stock scam” or something similar come up in my search engine logs. Commodore, in case you don’t know, was a high-flying computer company in the 1980s that was literally making computers as quickly as they could sell them while Apple struggled for its survival, and was [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on March 15, 2013
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/03/commodore-was-more-than-a-stock-scam/
Why Intel can’t quit x86
Here’s a nice perspective on Intel’s non-x86 efforts, and why they failed and x86 marched on, despite its weak points. Kudos for remembering that Intel made ARM chips.
Posted by Dave Farquhar on March 10, 2013
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/03/why-intel-cant-quit-x86/
OCZ is in trouble
You know it’s bad when a story about a company ends with the words, “OCZ’s survival is still possible.” Survival is supposed to be a given.
Posted by Dave Farquhar on February 6, 2013
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/02/ocz-is-in-trouble/
How the previous week’s headlines flow together
Here are some headlines I read this past week: Dell is trying to take itself private. Microsoft is investing in Dell. Intel is pulling out of the motherboard market. AMD is considering ARM CPUs. And the PC is dead. It’s all related.
Posted by Dave Farquhar on January 27, 2013
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/01/how-the-previous-weeks-headlines-flow-together/
Up and coming low-end Android chips
I decided to dig into what the low-end Android chipmakers like Mediatek and Rockchip are up to, since they’re the ones who are likely to drive prices down.
Posted by Dave Farquhar on January 19, 2013
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/01/up-and-coming-low-end-android-chips/
SSDs might be getting less interesting, but that’s not necessarily bad
Ars Technica has a story about SSD news coming out of CES. Basically, they’re predicting that the big news this year will be consolidation and lower prices. That may be bad news for someone who writes about SSDs for a living (I don’t), but good news for consumers.
Posted by Dave Farquhar on January 12, 2013
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/01/ssds-might-be-getting-less-interesting-but-thats-not-necessarily-bad/