Alienware laptops out of this world for gamers

The new laptops include the Alienware 14 for the enthusiast gamer who requires a laptop that provides enough performance for any task, yet is mobile enough to fit into a backpack; the Alienware 17 for an immersive, graphics-intensive experience with the latest technologies for desktop-grade performance; and the Alienware 18, the ultimate gaming laptop that commands respect among top gamers for its unparalleled performance and construction. 

All three laptops feature a new, iconic, angular design that takes its cues from jet engines and stealth bombers with an anodized aluminum shell and magnesium alloy body. The latest laptops are exceptionally durable, with over 60 percent of the main mechanical components made of various metals. The keyboard is protected by a reinforced plate to ensure a solid typing experience, while the travel and responsiveness is specifically designed with gamers’ needs in mind. Based on customer feedback, the new Alienware 14 now features an anti-glare LCD display with wide viewing angles for reflection-free gaming in nearly any lighting condition, including a premium Full HD panel option with IPS. For 3D gaming enthusiasts, the Alienware 17 has an optional 3D panel for an immersive visual experience, while the Alienware 18 will feature a Full HD display with PLS wide viewing-angle technology.

Along with the new design, the laptops also feature a number of components that when combined create a superb PC gaming experience. The laptops sport full voltage, quad-core 4th generation Intel Core i7 processors, and NVIDIA GeForce 700 series graphics. DDR3L memory provides exceptional bandwidth with lower voltage requirements designed for increased battery life, and the laptops now provide support for up to three storage drives on the Alienware 14, and up to four storage drives on the Alienware 17 and 18. For the first time ever, the Alienware 18 will feature NVIDIA SLI dual graphics technology as standard, and the laptop will offer an overclocked CPU option with a maximum speed of 4.3GHz. The laptops all feature Ethernet technology by Qualcomm’s Killer networks, Klipsch speakers and Dolby Home Theater v4 audio.

The updated Alienware Command Center software provides intuitive, user-friendly access to Alienware-exclusive applications and controls in one centralized hub. Command Center includes the exclusive AlienFX lighting control system which allows users to create their own custom lighting themes and special effects. The new laptops have up to 20 colors to choose from across 10 different lighting zones, totaling to over 10 trillion lighting combinations. Alienware has worked closely with game developers to incorporate AlienFX in over 60 game titles, including cross-platform titles like Anomaly2, to PC-exclusive titles like SMITE and Neverwinter, for an immersive experience that can only be found on an Alienware. Whether healing, taking damage, or completing missions, AlienFX lights are an extension of the game play. Alienware Command Center also features AlienAdrenaline, a custom configurable game and application automation tool, the new Accelerator dynamic performance optimizer, and a new performance monitoring tool. 

“The new laptops are the latest culmination of listening and learning from our customers since we delivered our first gaming system back in 1996”, said Boitumelo Kgnore, Dell South Africa client product marketing manager. “We spent countless hours meticulously thinking through every detail of these new products to ensure they would be the most amazing line-up we’ve introduced yet.”

Alienware X51 – Big Gaming in Any Living Space

Alienware has announced an update to its award-winning X51 gaming desktop, which provides big gaming without a big box or big budget and on any HDTV. The new X51 offers more performance with improved technology in nearly every category over the previous generation. The compact desktop features an efficiently-designed chassis for an immersive experience in a variety of living spaces, and dual orientation capability allows it to lie horizontally or stand vertically. The new X51 boasts Intel 4th generation Core i5 and i7 processors, enthusiast graphics up to NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670, a dual hard drive configuration of 256GB SSD, and 1TB storage for fast boot and resume times and massive storage capabilities.




SOURCE: www.gadget.co.za

IBM unveils new programming language for Synapse processors

IBM has updated its plans to create a computer system that mimics the human brain.

The Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics (SyNAPSE) project, will try to carry out tasks that the brain finds easy but are difficult for computers.

The project involves IBM researchers working alongside Cornell University and Inilabs. The latest stage will involve devising a programming language with $53 million in funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

"We need augmentation, a symbiotic relationship with our machines - a partnership if you will - to help us cope and prosper as we go into the future."

IBM said that the new programming model “ breaks the mold of sequential operation underlying today's von Neumann architectures and computers. It is instead tailored for a new class of distributed, highly interconnected, asynchronous, parallel, large-scale cognitive computing architectures.”

Dr Dharmendra Modha, principal investigator and senior manager at IBM Research, said: “Architectures and programs are closely intertwined and a new architecture necessitates a new programming paradigm."

He added: “We are working to create a Fortran for synaptic computing chips. While complementing today’s computers, this will bring forth a fundamentally new technological capability in terms of programming and applying emerging learning systems.”

Work on the project will focus on refining the programming language for the SyNAPSE chip architecture first revealed by IBM in 2011. IBM has devised support technologies within the programming cycle to enable the new model.

These include a simulator comprised of a network of neurosynaptic cores; a neuron model that forms a fundamental information-processing unit of brain-like computation and a programming model based on reusable building blocks called ‘corelets,’ each representing “blueprint of a network of neurosynaptic cores that specifies a based-level function”.

There is also a program library, which stores more than 150 corelets. IBM has created a curriculum, dubbed a “laboratory” that will encompass information on applications, architecture, chip simulation, programming language and prototype design models.

The long-term goal of the project is to build a system with 10 billion neurons and one hundred trillion synapses, while consuming merely one kilowatt of power and occupying less than two litres of volume.

Analysts said that such projects have outclassed humans in all forms of games - such as IBM's project Watson -  and are now moving up the scale of medicine to displace doctors in fundamental diagnosis, treatment choice and aftercare.

Such systems still lack instinct, intuition, emotion, compassion, cognition and the very qualities that we associate with biological entities but would be necessary for humanity to continue and develop, according to Peter Cochrane, ex-CTO of BT and currently a futurologist and analyst at Cochrane Associates.

“We are trying to deal with an increasingly complex and chaotic world with biological brains that are fundamentally unsuited to the task. We can only deal with three to five variable/topics/tasks at a time – yet we live in a world where we are often faced with hundreds at the same time," he said. 

“We therefore need augmentation, a symbiotic relationship with our machines - a partnership if you will - to help us cope and prosper as we go into the future.” 

He added that humanity would be unlikely to survive without such a relationship. 

SOURCE:http://www.itpro.co.uk

Intel Core i5 4250U

Specifications
Full list of technical specs

Summary

• Clock speed: 1.3 GHz  
• Turbo clock: speed 2.6 GHz  
• Cores Dual: core  
• Is unlocked: No  
• Is hyperthreaded: Yes

Features

• Has a NX bit: Yes
• Supports trusted computing: No
• Has vitualization support: Yes
• Instruction-set-extensions:

• AES
• SSE4.1
• SSE3
• Supplemental SSE3
• SSE2
• MMX
• SSE
• SSE4
• SSE4.2
• AVX

• Supports dynamic frequency scaling: Yes

GPU

• GPU: GPU
• Label: Intel® HD graphics 5000 
• Number of displays supported: 3 
• GPU clock speed: 200 MHz 
• Turbo clock speed: 1,000 MHz

Memory Controller

• Memory controller: Built-in 
• Memory type: DDR3-1600, DDR3-1333, DDR3 
• Channels: Dual Channel 
• Supports ECC: No 
• Maximum bandwidth: 25,600 MB/s 
• Maximum memory size: 16,384 MB   

Details

• Architecture: x86-64 
• Threads: 4 threads 
• L2 cache: 1 MB 
• L2 cache per core: 0.5 MB/core 
• L3 cache: 3 MB 
• L3 cache per core: 1.5 MB/core 
• Manufacture process: 22 nms 
• Max CPUs: 1 
• Operating temperature: Unknown - 100°C         

Overclocking

• Overclocked clock speed: 1.3 GHz 
• Overclocked clock speed (Water): 1.3 GHz 
• Overclocked clock speed (Air): 1.3 GHz 

Power Consumption

• TDP: 15W 
• Performance per watt: 60.48 pt/W 
• Typical power consumption: 12.19W 

Bus

• Architecture: FSB 
• Number of links: 1

MSI Haswell Motherboard

 

MSI Z87 MPower Max

• Intel® Z87 Chipset
• Supports 4th Generation Intel® Core™ processors
• 3 PCIe 3.0 x16 slots, AMD CrossFire/NVIDIA SLI Support
• 1 DP, 2 HDMI out - requires CPU graphics
• 4 DIMMs, DDR3-3000 (OC)
• 4 PCIe x1 slots
• 8 6Gbps SATA, 1 mSATA
• RAID 0,1,5,10 available at ports 1 - 6
• 10 USB 3.0, 6 USB 2.0
• Killer E2205 GigE
• 802.11b/g/n WiFi, BT 4.0, Intel WiDi
• 8-channel HD Audio with Sound Blaster Cinema

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Z87-GD65 Gaming

• Intel® Z87 Chipset
• Supports 4th Generation Intel® Core™ processors
• 3 PCIe 3.0 x16 slots, AMD CrossFire/NVIDIA SLI Support
• 1 DP, HDMI, VGA out - requires CPU graphics
• 4 DIMMs, DDR3-3000 (OC)
• 4 PCIe x1 slots
• 8 6Gbps SATA, 1 mSATA
• RAID 0,1,5,10 available at ports 1 - 6
• 6 USB 3.0, 8 USB 2.0
• Killer E2205 GigE
• 8-channel HD Audio with Sound Blaster Cinema

4th Generation Intel Core processors launched in Philippines

Intel Philippines launched Thursday night the 4th Generation Intel Core processor family aiming to further reinvent personal computing.

The 4th gen Intel Core processors are also said to deliver up to 15 percent better performance than the previous generation.

Intel announced for some systems coming to market this year, over nine hours of active use battery life or 10 to 13 days of standby with fresh data on a single charge is expected.

To achieve such breakthrough, Intel exceeded its expectations on power reduction at the CPU level to as low as 6 watts and also worked across the system for power optimization.  These improvements range from System-on-a-Chip (SoC) and platform level technologies to Intel’s leading-edge 22nm process technology.

The Intel Core vPro is now vailable in select business desktops, all-in-one PCs, ultra-small form factor and mobile workstation devices and will be made available later this year for Ultrabook, tablet and business laptop devices.

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Specifications

Processor Number	Cache	Clock Speed	# of Cores/ # of Threads	Max TDP/ Power	Memory Types	Graphics
Intel® Core™ i7-4950HQ Processor (6M Cache, up to 3.60 GHz)	6.0 MB	2.40 GHz	4 / 8	47	DDR3L-1333,1600	Intel® Iris™ Pro graphics 5200
Intel® Core™ i7-4850HQ Processor (6M Cache, up to 3.50 GHz)	6.0 MB	2.30 GHz	4 / 8	47	DDR3L-1333,1600	Intel® Iris™ Pro graphics 5200
Intel® Core™ i7-4750HQ Processor (6M Cache, up to 3.20 GHz)	6.0 MB	2.00 GHz	4 / 8	47	DDR3L-1333,1600	Intel® Iris™ Pro graphics 5200
Intel® Core™ i7-4770R Processor (6M Cache, up to 3.90 GHz)	6.0 MB	3.20 GHz	4 / 8	65	DDR3L-1333/1600	Intel® Iris™ Pro graphics 5200