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Could Intel's Braidwood Lessen SSD Appeal?

Posted on September 4, 2009 10:00 AM by Rob Williams

Does there exist a computing enthusiast right now who wouldn't want a solid-state disk in their PC? Of course not, and as it stands, there are many who've opted to upgrade their storage and make their computer all the more faster, from quicker application launching to smoother operation. What's not to like? Of course, there's the costs and densities, but even those are getting better as time goes on.

With SSDs hogging so much of the computing limelight lately, what on earth could dampen its outlook? Well according to a report written by Objective Analysis, a Los Gatos, California firm, Intel's Braidwood (seriously, that's a code name?) has a good chance at it. In the simplest of explanations, Braidwood would add one of Intel's NAND flash memory chips directly to the motherboard, allowing for improved performance.

Ranging in densities from 4GB - 16GB, and price-ranges of $10 - $20, this addition would promise to increase to reliability and overall system access speeds. It could act as a cache and allow data to be written to the hard drive in such a way that it won't lag your machine, which is one of the major benefits of SSDs. Plus, as the chip would be based on SLC technology, it would be reliable, fast, and still much cheaper than typical DRAM.

The report clearly states that the technology has real potential to hurt SSD sales, since the overall performance boost would almost negate the overall speed increase that an SSD would offer. Intel disagrees and claims Braidwood has huge reliability features, which is no doubt true. In the end, I find it hard to believe that Braidwood could actually lesson the desire for people to own SSDs, but it will be interesting to see how things pan out when the technology is launched next year.

An Intel spokesman disagreed with Objective Analysis' premise that Braidwood could hurt SSD sales, saying "It's not just the performance, but also the added reliability...[SSDs] can help facilitate versus a hard drive. We see a long life ahead for SSDs, and won't stop inventing a variety of other technologies that make computers faster and/or more energy efficient."

Source: Computerworld

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Microsoft Attacks Linux at the Retail Level

Posted on September 4, 2009 9:20 AM by Rob Williams

If you're reading our site and others like it, chances are you are well-versed where technology is concerned, or are at least trying to be. That's great, because if you understand technology, life will be easier and you'll always know what you're looking for when you need to make some tech purchase. Sadly, that's not how it is for most people, and like me and knitting, many people just don't care or have the desire to learn about technology or computers.

Those are the people that companies like Microsoft and Apple like to prey on, because after all, it's easy to be gullible about something you don't have much interest in. The situation isn't made much better when retail stores exist to mislead customers, either. Just walk into a Best Buy to see what I'm talking about. And speaking of Best Buy, there's an interesting thread at Overclock.net that's pretty eye-opening.

Whenever a hyped product is soon to be released, employees at stores like Best Buy (I should note that Best Buy is certainly not the only store guilty of this) are usually briefed about it, so that they know which points to bring up when talking to customers. With Windows 7, Microsoft for some reason considered Linux to be a large enough threat to have them create course material to explain to people why Linux is inferior. Of course, employees who opt for the training get a perk: $10 Windows 7. Heck, even as a Linux user I'd take the quiz for a $10 copy.

It's not so much the fact that they are explaining reasons why Linux is lacking, but it's the fact that a lot of their statements are untrue. In the slide below, they rank Linux extremely low with regards to camera and iPod support and also MP3 compatibility. Anyone who has ever used Linux knows how false this is. I've never had a camera not work in Linux, and most iPods work just fine as well. As for MP3 compatibility, Windows 7 might open up a bragging right for Microsoft where media support is concerned, but install Ubuntu and you'll see an even wider range of support available.

I won't point out all the false statements, including "Linux is safer then Windows" as being a myth, but I do recommend anyone to look through the thread and find them yourself. Even if you don't use Linux, they're clear as day.

No iPod support? Really? And the Zune doesn't work on the Mac either although there has been some progress from the Linux community. And I've never had any problems pulling pictures from cameras. I've yet to see a printer that doesn't have a driver. You might have to download it from the products website though (gasp!). Yeah yeah. Software. Although WINE has been vastly improving lately (we even got around that stupid Secu-ROM). There are free alternatives to all of the Windows Live "essentials". WOW. Of all the games to mention, they mention World of Warcraft.

Source: Overclock.net

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Deadlands 2: Trapped to be Released on HD DVD (You Read that Right)

Posted on September 4, 2009 8:45 AM by Rob Williams

When Toshiba's HD DVD died out last year, Sony couldn't have been happier. Blu-ray won the somewhat lengthy battle, and humorously, it all came down to marketing, and deals made by Sony to the most dominant movie companies. It was a sad end for Toshiba, especially since their format was hardly lacking. In fact, even though I never owned an HD DVD player (but do own a Blu-ray), I always liked Toshiba's format more. But I won't get into the reasons as to why here due to space.

After Toshiba made it official that they were pulling out of supporting HD DVD, movies released for the format thinned out very quickly, until a point when it was safe to call the format dead. But not so surprisingly, there are many die-hards of the format who don't want to let it go, and it's with that, that one company has worked hard to release just one more movie on the format: Deadlands 2: Trapped.

The company, Anthem Films, posted on High-Def Digests forums a few months ago to gage interest in seeing the release on HD DVD, and the response was overwhelming. They originally hoped for 250 prints of the movie to be made, but it now sits at 500 that will be made, or more if demand suddenly jolts once again. The movie will retail for $29.99, so no deals just because the format is defunct. This will be a collector's item, after all.

Sure, HD DVD is dead, but I love seeing passionate fans that can make this happen. I was in a similar set of shoes after Sega discontinued their Dreamcast console. Games were still being released years after the company pulled the plug, and there were certainly no complaints from fans. So it's good to see HD DVD live just a bit longer, even if it does take a flick featuring undeads to get it done.

"I know it’s a gamble with HD DVD having lost out on the format war, but based on feedback from HD DVD fans we expect this to be a huge moment for them, the film and HD DVD. Kind of ironic that a zombie film would be helping HD DVD try to come back from the dead, even if for a short period of time, but who knows, if the program is a success maybe other indie filmmakers and distributors can do something similar for the HD DVD fans and keep it alive for the hard core."

Source: High-Def Digest

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