Agam Shah, Author at NetworkingNexus.net

Agam Shah

Author Archives: Agam Shah

Dell strengthens data center stack with shiny new assets

Just a few years back, Dell said it didn't want to mimic sloppy behemoths like IBM or HP and, instead, wanted to be lean and focus on the mid-market.But after a US$67 billion merger with EMC in 2016, the new company called Dell Technologies is a full-bodied systems integrator, offering hardware, networking, storage, and services.In the meanwhile, the company's rivals slimmed down. The new Hewlett-Packard Enterprise focuses on data-center hardware, while IBM focuses on software.Dell Technologies is taking a page from Alphabet, a bunch of autonomous companies like Google working together. Dell Technologies includes hardware company Dell and storage provider EMC, with many independent operational units that have combined to strengthen the company's infrastructure stack.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Dell strengthens data center stack with shiny new assets

Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 4 is coming in phones midyear

If you hate waiting for your smartphone to charge, relief is coming soon.After some hiccups, Qualcomm's superfast charging technology, called Quick Charge 4, will be in smartphones around the middle of this year.Qualcomm says Quick Charge 4 is one of the fastest smartphone battery technologies. It can charge a smartphone up to 50 percent in less than 15 minutes, or give enough juice for five hours of talk time in five minutes, the chip maker claims.The new charging technology is about 20 percent faster than its predecessor, Quick Charge 3, which is in many smartphones from Sony, LG, HTC and Motorola.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Chromebook shipments surge by 38 percent, cutting into Windows 10 PCs

In a slowing PC market, Chromebooks siphoned market share away from Windows PCs in 2016 as their popularity grew outside the education market.Chromebook shipments grew by a stunning 38 percent in 2016 compared to 2015. Gartner estimated 9.4 million Chromebooks shipped, compared to 6.8 million units in 2015.The number is just a fraction of overall PC shipments, but growth came in an otherwise down PC market. Overall PC shipments in 2016 were about 270 million units, a decline of about 6.2 percent, according to Gartner.Looking forward, 2016 may go down as the best year ever for Chromebook shipment growth. Gartner is estimating shipments to continue growing in the coming years but at a slower pace.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

PC makers will ship Windows 10 mixed reality headsets in Q4

Microsoft's hardware partners will flood the market with Windows Mixed Reality headsets by the holiday season this year, offering up a new way to enjoy Windows 10.A Windows Mixed Reality headset from Acer is already being seeded to select developers by Microsoft, but isn't available to consumers yet.So far three PC makers -- Lenovo and HP as well as Acer -- said they would ship headsets later this year. Dell is still mulling a release date. The headsets will start at $299, the rough minimum price suggested by Microsoft.The headsets need to be wired to Windows 10 PCs. Once on, they will transport you to a virtual world where you can, for example, roam, Skype-chat and play Xbox games. It's like computing in a 3D world, without the use of a mouse or keyboard.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Intel Xeon chips rebranded to sound like credit cards

After about half a decade, Intel is wiping the confusing E5 and E7 monikers off its Xeon chips and rebranding them to bring more clarity about the performance and features that come with the processors.Xeon chips are used in servers and workstations like Mac Pro. Xeon chips being released mid-year will be broken down into Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze processors.The naming scheme -- derived from metals -- is a mix of Olympic medals and branding of credit cards from companies like Delta. A person familiar with Intel's plans earlier said the chips will likely be widely referred to as Xeon-P, Xeon-G, Xeon-S, and Xeon-B, with the P for Platinum, G for Gold, etc.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Intel Xeon chips rebranded to sound like credit cards

Open-source chip mimics Linux’s path to take on closed x86, ARM CPUs

If you're buying a PC or server, you've likely considered chips based on x86 or, perhaps less often, the ARM architecture.But like Linux in software, an open-source chip project is out to break the dominance of proprietary chips offered by Intel, AMD, and ARM.The RISC-V open-source architecture, created by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, in 2010, is open to all who want to use it. The RISC-V design can be modified for PCs, servers, smartphones, wearables, and other devices.A startup called SiFive is the first to make a business out of the RISC-V architecture. The company is also the first to convert the RISC-V instruction set architecture into actual silicon. The company on Thursday announced it has created two new chip designs that can be licensed.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Intel’s new data center chief, a former PC exec, will be hands-on

A top executive responsible for shaping Intel's PC roadmap will now run the company's data center business.Navin Shenoy -- previously senior vice president and general manager of the company's Client Computing Group -- has been appointed the general manager of Intel's Data Center Group (DCG). He will replace the well-respected Diane Bryant, who was group president of DCG.Bryant is taking a leave of absence for six to eight months, and will be given a new position on returning, Intel said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Micron’s SolidScale system pushes SSDs out to shared storage

SSDs operate the fastest when inside a computer. Micron's new SolidScale storage system uproots SSDs from servers and pushes them into discrete boxes while reducing latency.SolidScale is a top-of-the-rack storage system that will house many SSDs. It will connect to servers, memory, and other computing resources in a data center via gigabit ethernet, and will use the emerging NVMeoF (NVMe over Fabric) 1.0 protocol for data transfers.The new storage system is faster than regular storage arrays, Micron claimed. SolidScale can deliver data more than two times faster than a standard all-flash array.SolidScale is a step in decoupling SSDs from servers and putting them into shared storage in data centers. It also provides a power-efficient way of packing fast storage into tight spaces.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Micron’s SolidScale system pushes SSDs out to shared storage

Google’s surging Chromebooks will test Microsoft’s new Windows 10 S PCs

Microsoft for years has been trying to tackle the growing threat of Google's Chrome OS, which is siphoning PC market share away from Windows.The company's new Windows 10 S operating system, announced on Tuesday, will be Microsoft's latest attempt to tackle Google's surging Chrome OS. The OS is targeted at the education market, which in the U.S. is dominated by Chromebooks.Even with the new Windows OS, worldwide Chromebook shipments are expected to grow by double digits this year, analysts from IDC and Gartner said. The market share of Chromebooks has been growing up consistently since 2015.The new Windows OS is built like Chrome OS. PCs with Windows 10 S will be able to download apps only from the Windows App store. The OS is more like a "container" that will run apps secured and verified by Microsoft. A version of Microsoft's Office Suite will also come to Windows 10 S.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft adds a Surface Laptop to its growing stable of devices

Microsoft has added a new laptop to its growing stable of Surface devices, and it's amazingly thin and fast.The Surface Laptop has performance, features and design that will redefine the category, said Panos Panay, corporate vice president at Microsoft during an event in New York City on Tuesday.The 13.5-inch laptop is the first pure laptop in the product line and offers an elegant design. Microsoft's other portable Surface devices include the Surface Pro, which is a tablet, and the Surface Book, which is a 2-in-1.The Surface Laptop is 14.5 millimeters thick and weighs 1.25 kilograms. It runs on Intel's Core i5 or i7 processors based on the Kaby Lake architecture, and has up to 1TB of SSD storage.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

These new super fast Intel SSDs provide a bridge to Optane

If you can't afford Intel's super fast Optane SSDs but need a massive speed boost, the company's latest DC P4600 and DC P4500 SSDs may fill the need.The new SSDs are based on conventional 3D NAND and targeted at data centers. The SSDs will be used in servers or storage arrays to serve up quick video streams, voice-assistant AI responses, and even pull out information from databases.These SSDs are a reliable upgrade for those who don't want to mess with Optane, which is based on brand-new memory technology. According to Intel's rough estimate, the P4500 and P4600 drives provide two times faster read and write performance compared to predecessors, the DC P3520 and P3600 drives.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft’s new Windows 10 S will take on Chrome OS

Microsoft hopes a new Windows 10 operating system called Windows 10 S will usurp Chromebook's domination in education and provide a better way for students to learn.The new version of Windows, announced at an event in New York Tuesday, is targeted at teachers, students, artists and creators. It's got features very similar to that of Chrome OS in Chromebooks, which dominates the education market.It has a traditional Windows 10 desktop look, and will only run applications downloaded from the Windows App store. That means all applications will be verified and secure.Windows 10 acts like a "container" that will run secure apps. A version of Microsoft's Office Suite will also come to Windows 10 S.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

AMD shares timing for Ryzen 3, mobile chips and Vega GPUs

AMD's Ryzen chips are off to a strong start in desktops, and more chips are coming in the second half of this year.New chips for desktops, called Ryzen 3, will come in the earlier part of the second half, while Ryzen mobile chips -- code-named Raven Ridge -- will come out around the end-of-year holiday season.AMD CEO Lisa Su shared the release schedule during a first-quarter earnings call on Monday. She also said top PC makers will launch desktops with the already shipping Ryzen 5 and 7 chips later this quarter.The Ryzen 3 is expected to be for low-end desktops, while the Ryzen 5 and 7 chips are faster. Late last week, Acer announced its Aspire GX desktop with Ryzen chip options.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Legal war with Apple hits Qualcomm’s revenue projections

The legal fight between Apple and Qualcomm on licensing modem technology is turning uglier every day.Apple has filed lawsuits against Qualcomm in countries like the U.S., U.K., China and Japan, accusing the chipmaker of using its dominant market position to overcharge licensing fees.The iPhone maker itself doesn't pay licensing fees directly to Qualcomm. The fees are paid by partners like Foxconn, which makes the iPhone and iPad for Apple.Qualcomm is now accusing Apple of interfering with the licensing payments owed by those partners. Its revenue forecasts for the third quarter are affected, Qualcomm said.The chipmaker on Friday revised its revenue projections for the third fiscal quarter. It is projecting revenue to be between US$5.3 billion and $6.1 billion. That range runs between a decrease of 12 percent and an increase of 1 percent, compared to the same quarter last year. The forecast removes royalty revenues from Apple's contract manufacturers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Intel projects decline in chip prices, and AMD’s Ryzen is one reason

Intel is forecasting a "slight decline" in its premium chip prices for the remainder of the year, and AMD's Ryzen chips could have played a part in that.Prices of Intel's chips in both desktops and laptops went up in the first quarter. That helped drive up the quarterly revenue for Client Computing Group -- which deals in PC chips -- to $8 billion, which was up 6 percent compared to the same quarter last year.But Intel's PC chips now face serious competition from AMD's new Ryzen chip, which was released last month. Ryzen chips offer competitive performance, and are priced significantly lower.AMD's fastest Ryzen 7 1800X chip -- targeted at gamers -- has eight cores and is priced at $499. A comparable chip like Intel's Core i7-6900K is priced at $1,089. Intel's fastest gaming chip is the Core i7-6950X Extreme Edition chip, which is priced at $1,723.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Hands on with the unusual Acer Predator Triton 700 gaming laptop

To prove it's going big in PCs, Acer held a product launch event at world's largest IMAX screen in New York City. It made a big statement with the Predator Triton 700, a super-thin laptop with some unusual features.At first glance, the Triton 700 looks like any other thin gaming laptop. The surprises start when you open it up. The keyboard and touchpad trade locations. The keyboard is placed at the bottom, while the extended touchpad is above it.The oversized touchpad is also transparent, giving a glimpse into cooling components of the laptop, like its unique AeroBlade cooling fan. That design was inspired by transparent gaming desktops, and it is something gamers will love, said Eric Ackerson, senior product and marketing manager at Acer.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Hands on the Acer’s Swift 5, a competitor to Microsoft’s Surface Pro

Microsoft has set the gold standard for tablet-style 2-in-1 devices with its Surface Pro, and other PC vendors have followed suit with their own designs. Acer's latest Surface-style device, the Switch 5, offers a couple of advantages but lacks in other areas.I had a chance to play with the Switch 5 at an Acer event in New York City, where new PCs and tablets were announced. The Switch 5 is a tablet first, but a keyboard attachment can be hooked up to make it a laptop.As a tablet, the Switch 5 is quite light, about the equivalent of the Surface Pro 4. The device doesn't look as polished as the Surface Pro, nor does it have the premium finish. But it does have solid technologies, like the latest Intel processor and liquid cooling, that set it apart from rival devices.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

« Previous 1 2 3 4 … 26 Next »