Thursday February 01, 2007

- Wow! That's Vista being French-boxed... - Lionel - 10:23:55

Two days after its worldwide launch, Vista is far from getting general approval in France. Of course there was the usual lot of Windows fanboys writing articles full of praise, but more sensible journalists have begun to raise doubts concerning Microsoft's latest offspring. Not that the megacorp didn't try to pump up the event: a global TV campaign, PC websites redesigned to mimic Vista's look, in France, the cherry on the top was a firework in Paris above La Defense Great Arch to the glory of Vista praised by thy name...
Just for you to have an idea of what it was like in Paris (and also because, anyway, you don't expect us to have a balanced view on this, do you?), here's what a French blogger wrote about that over-hyped event:

Predictably enough, Microsoft France CEO ended his speech Ballmer style:
''Woooooo! Woooooo! I had a GREAT day, 'GREAT' I say ! What a BEAUTIFUL day! And that's all thanks to Vista's lauch! Yeaaah!''
''And look, we also have cinema programmes gadgets (widgets), that's COOOOOL!''
''And Vista's whole architecture, which is completely new, will have you rip all the benefits from the new Internet''
''And for each dollar spent in Windows, that's actually an $13 average you pour in Microsoft's ecosystem. Isn't that GRREEAAAT?!?''
Gimme a break, fire the guys who wrote that speech. Change it all please. First of all your product is not revolutionary at all, but now you're smearing it with a shame it does not deserve...

If you wanna read the article (in French :P )
http://www.monsieurlam.com/

PS : Wow! is the word smart guys from Microsoft's marketing department have elected to put forward for the promotion of their product, insisting on how revolutionnary it is. ''Tell a lie a hundred times, and it becomes the truth''...

[translation by Greg]

- Xeon not to move to 45nm before 2008 - Lionel - 09:58:12

Source : Digitimes

While Core 2 Duo CPUs should start their migration to 45nm before the end of 2007, Xeon CPUs should only be following sometime in 2008.
This might upset some readers, but is hardly surprising. indeed intel has always been conservative with server CPUs. They are meant to operate in difficult conditions and with a high load, much more than other products. Here again, Intel prefers to migrate only once the 45nm dye process has been perfected.

[translation by pmax]

- New laptops in May - Lionel - 09:51:27

Source : Digitimes

After a quiet period, information is starting to seep through on the next evolution of Intel's mobile platform, code-name Santa Rosa.
The major new feature will be the migration to a 800 MHz bus, up from the current 667 MHz. it will also integrate the Robson technology, allowing some processes to be accelerated with flash memory. Furthermore, GMA 3000 will replace the ageing GMA950.
It will come along with CPUs made for a 800 MHz bus, but with similar frequencies to those currently available.
The fastest will be the Core 2 Duo T7700 running at 2.4 GHz. However, these CPUs will be more affordable than the current line.
According to Dailytech , we'll have to wait another quarter to gain faster CPUs. Intel should then ship Merom CPUs running at 2.6 and 2.8 GHz. Some models will implement Intel's Dynamic Acceleration, which allows overclocking one of the CPU's cores in some circumstance when using apps that do not support multi CPU processing. In a nutshell, one core will be partially deactivated, while the other will be able to run beyond it's spec. The aim is a gain in performances without impacting thermal dissipation.

Knowing that Apple is completely dependent on Intel's innovations, our laptops are unlikely to be updated until those product ship. Of course, this is only about the motherboard-CPU subset. Apple could very well offer a different design, more powerful video cards, or even HD or Blue Ray displays in the meantime.

For those wishing to look even further, Dailytech unveils information on the Montevia platform, due for 2008. It will allow to make even thinner machines, support Robson version 2 and introduce 4 core CPUs for laptops...

And to think that in the PPC days it took months of investigation and incredible risk taking to learn precious little about the near future of our macs' evolution :)

[translation by pmax]