News for Wednesday, 7 February 2007

A bit more than a year after the first MacIntel were announced, a new announcement shakes the market of PowerPC CPU, and it does not originate from IBM; but from a start-up company known as P.A. Semi. We already talked about this company in October 2005 as the future for PowerPC architecture. This California-based company leaded by Dan Dobberpuhl, the guy behind DEC Alpha and StrongArm designs, started shipping the first samples of its PowerPC CPU PWRficient 1682M. Its specifications are really interesting and can really compete with current Intel mobile CPU:
- Processeur Dual Core 64 Bits
- VMX unit (Altivec)
- 2MB of cache
- 2 DDR2-1066 controllers
- integrated southbridge featuring 8 PCIe controllers (one 16x)
- 2x 10Gb Ethernet and 4x 1GB Ethernet.
- virtualization
- power consumption: 5-13W (typical) at 2 GHz
- 65 nm CMOS engraving

If the battle for CPU notebook is to have the highest performance level with the lowest power consumption, the PWRficient 1682M is definitely a leader. To develop such a power efficient CPU, P.A. Semi is using a really advanced power management system.
Dozen of manufacturers are currently evaluating the PWRficient 1682M development kit.
As we mentioned it 18 months ago, targeted markets are numerous, ranging from traditional routing control planes and data planes to the growing array of embedded network services (security, RIF authentification, VoIP, message and video solutions).
As you might also remember we mentioned that Apple approached P.A. Semi when Cupertino was looking for a new CPU manufacturer when IBM failed to deliver a G5 mobile CPU, and had troubles to develop G5 desktop CPU according to the roadmap.

Rambus, a well known company for having developped an Intel hardware-dedicated RAM module, has been the target of a recent order issued by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC). While Intel dropped adoption of Rambus memory, Rambus continues to collect money thanks to its patent portfolio as well as numerous legal action launched against all RAM module and controller manufacturers. Due to this action, the FTC issued:

The Commission has issued an Order setting the maximum royalty rate that Rambus can collect on sales made of certain JEDEC-compliant parts after the Order becomes effective, as follows: 0.25% for SDRAM products; 0.5% for DDR SDRAM products; 0.5% for SDRAM memory controllers or other non-memory chip components; and 1.0% for DDR SDRAM memory controllers or other non-memory chip components. The Commission has further provided in its Order that these maximum rates will be in effect for three years, after which time the maximum rates will be 0%. The Order also mandates that Rambus offer a license for these products on terms set by the Commission, including a further cap on the non-memory rates that can be sought on broader systems.
The Commission determined that its remedy would not apply to DDR2 SDRAM or other post-DDR JEDEC standards.

The story of Rambus is not over, as DDR2 and GDDR2 are not included in the remedy, so the company will keep asking royalties, as DDR2 is now the new memory standard.

Cider is TransGaming's new Windows translation layer technology aiming to play PC games on MacIntel without requiring the installation of Windows.
If the release of Cider was generating a lot of buzz, it was not followed by more concret announcement.
Yesterday, TransGaming announced its collaboration with NVIDIA to bring top video games to the Mac:

TransGaming's Cider technology revolutionizes the migration and deployment of triple-A video games for the Intel Macintosh by eliminating the time and expense of porting Windows games to the Mac. Today's video games deliver immersive graphics and game play using high-level shader language (HLSL) technologies pioneered by NVIDIA. The collaboration between TransGaming and NVIDIA now allows Cider to run high-level shaders created for Microsoft's Direct3D platform using the NVIDIA CgFX framework. To accomplish this, TransGaming and NVIDIA have worked together to improve Cg in several areas, ranging from Effect (.fx) file compatibility through to performance, resulting in the ability to release more high-end games on the Mac with Cider.
"The collaboration between TransGaming and NVIDIA is an important step for Mac gaming. Our collaborative efforts with Cg provide a sophisticated alternative implementation of Direct3D compatible high level shaders on the Mac; this is important because Microsoft restricts the distribution of Direct3D on non-Microsoft platforms. We look forward to releasing many blockbuster titles this year with Cg", stated Vikas Gupta, CEO & President of TransGaming.
NVIDIA's work with TransGaming has greatly accelerated the development of the CgFX graphics system. TransGaming's cross platform experience has allowed us to make CgFX more compatible with developer's existing shader systems, and opens the door to a consistent developer model for deploying shader effects in different environments. The combination of Cider and Cg will give Mac gamers the best gaming experience possible and we’re pleased to be working with TransGaming to change the Mac gaming landscape", said Roy Taylor, VP of Content Engagement for NVIDIA.

Such collaboration should allow Mac users in a near future to play PC games thanks to on-the-fly translation of DirectX API. A revolution aroudn the corner?

If you thought the inkjet printer market was already saturated, Kodak is intending to prove you wrong, announcing, with a bit of bombast, a new range of printers.
Kodak's main argument is to offer much cheaper ink and paper compared to current printers on the market. the black ink will cost 10$ while the 5 colors cartridge will be priced at 15$. A bundle of both will be priced at 22$.
Kodak also states that those cartridges will typically print twice as much pictures as their current competitors.
The product range comprises 3 printers, scheduled for March, from 150 to 300$. Kodak has a reputation and a photographic past: we'll have to wait and see if the print quality is as revolutionnary as the price of their new cartridges. Let's hope they don't forget to offer mac drivers (the product pages make absolutely no mention to computers whatsoever!)

Apple confirmed the date of the World Wide Developer Conference 2007, it will take place in San Francisco from June, 11th to 15th.

So the WWDC is back to a more historical date, mid-year, last year it was postponed in August to allow Steve jobs to introduce the Mac Pro.
If one looks at Intel roadmap, one can imagine that Steve could unveil the new Apple notebook models based on Santa Rosa Centrino evolution.
Of course, Leopard should be launch by SJ during the keynote. The iPhone could also be launched at the same time, as it runs on Leopard mobile; and this could explain why the iPhone could not be available before June.

As usual, iFixit entirely disassembled the new Airport Extreme 802.11n before testing it.

One can clearly see the 3 independent antenna connected to the daughter card.

When submitted to a test, the base station was delivering expected performance; with data transfer speed around 7.5MB/s with peaks at 9MB/s and a wireless network range twice the range of 802.11g.
http://www.ifixit.com