Intel has announced the successor to Intel Core 2 Quad (codename Yorkfield) to be Intel Core i7 (codename Nehalem).Intel Core i7 is the successor to Core 2 architecture. All the newly available chips have 4 cores inside. Core i7 microprocessor represents a major advance in computing to enable chips to handle more data
Difference between Intel Core i7 and Intel Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad processors
Intel Core i7
Codenamed: Bloomfield - Nehalem
Fabrication: 45 nm
Instruction set: X86, X86-64, MMX, SSE 4.2
Socket: LGA 1366
Bus: Quick Path Interconnect
RAM: DDR3
Chipset Support: X58
Intel Core 2 Duo
Codenamed: Conroe, Allendale, Wolfdale - Core 2
Fabrication: 65 nm / 45 nm
Instruction set: X86, X86-64, MMX, SSE 4.1
Socket: LGA 775
Bus: 1333 MHz FSB
RAM: DDR2
Chipset Support: 965, P3x, G3x, P45, X48
Explanation:Difference between Intel Core i7 and Core 2 Duo
The Core i7 is a completely new architecture which is much faster and more efficient than the Core 2 Duo. Currently only the Core i7 920, 945 and 965 XE versions are available. Of that the Core i7 920 is available at just $284 which makes it a great buy. It offers better performance than almost all Core 2 Duo processors.
Native Quad Core, More Cache and Hyper Threading:
All the Core i7 processors are Native Quad cores (4 cores), which means that they actually have 4 cores on a single die, while the older Core 2 Duo processors like the Q6600 (2×2 = 4 cores) had two cores on a single die, and two such dies merged together. This increases the processing speed greatly. They also have 256 KB L2 cache per core and a shared 8 MB L3 cache which has proven to be much better than any cache configuration in Core 2 Duo.
It also has HyperThreading support which means that each of the 4 cores can process 2 threads simultaneously, so you get 8 virtual cores. This helps in running many applications parallely and also in gaming.
Quick Path Interconnect (QPI) and On Die Memory Controller:
The Core i7 processors sport the new Quick Path Interconnect technology which replaces the FSB (Front Side Bus) to connect the various components in a computer. QPI is much faster than FSB and hence improves the overall performance. It is even faster than AMD’s similar HyperTransport 3.0 standard.
The Core i7 have an On Die Memory Controller which means that it can access memory much faster than the Core 2 Duo processors which had an external memory controller. Intel has borrowed this feature from AMD. All the four cores, memory controller, cache are on the same die which improves the speed and performance greatly.
This world map shows a list of countries that are considered least affected by the global economic crisis
Australia takes the top spot followed by China with India and Singapore in equal third place. Qatar is the only gulf nation that figures in this "relatively" recession-proof list.
The data is based on the results of a business confidence survey that was done on international business people of 24 nations to identify which countries they believe are surviving the crisis the best.
The countries perceived to be surviving the economic crisis the best, as voted by international businesspeople are:
1. Use the full version of Bing
If you are using Bing outside North America, chances are that you seeing a localized version of Bing that may be missing some features. For instance, the Indian version of Bing.com doesn’t have search history and the image on the Bing home page here is not interactive as in the US version.
To explore the full version of Bing, go to this page and set English - US as your default region. You can now enjoy all the Bing features from anywhere.
2. Track Companies from the IE Favorites Bar
If you search for a company stock (e.g. GOOG or MSFT), Bing will automatically create a web slice for that company which you may then add to IE 8 and track the performance directly from the favorites bar. You need Internet Explorer 8 to try this feature.
3. Watch Preview of Hulu Videos outside US
Hulu hosts some popular popular TV shows but the problem is that you can only watch these videos if your computer has US based IP address.
However, Bing lets you watch shot previews of Hulu video even outside US. Just search for any TV show episode on Bing Videos (see example) and hover the mouse over any of the video thumbnail to watch a short clip.
4. Save and Email search results
With Bing, you can save your search history on to a local folder inside Bing or to your Windows Skydrive account. Alternatively, you may send your search queries to a friend via email or publish them on your Facebook wall via Bing. You’ll need Silverlight to share queries in Bing.
5. RSS Feeds of Search Results
Unlike Google or Yahoo, Bing offers RSS feeds for their web search results that you can subscribe to inside any feed reader. Your browser should be able to auto-detect the RSS feed of Bing pages or you can append &format=rss to any Bing search URL and convert it into a feed.
This RSS feature is not available for Image or Video search in Bing.
6. Find Pages That Link to MP3 Files or Documents
Bing (and Live Search) supports a unique "contains" search operator that lets you find web pages that contain links to particular file types.
For instance, a search like susan boyle contains:mp3 will show pages that are about the British singer and that also link to MP3 files. Replace mp3 with doc to search pages that contain links to Word Documents.
http://www.bing.com
Adobe BrowserLab is a new online service that will help you test the layout of your web pages across a variety of web browsers and operating systems.
Comparing web design in Firefox 3.0 & IE 7.0
You can use the Browser Lab service to view the design of your site in Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari on both Mac and Windows. BrowserLab works by taking screen shots of your web pages in different browsers on different platforms and then displays these screenshot images side by side for easy comparison.
Though the service doesn’t support Chrome, Opera and some Linux specific browsers, the advantage is that there’s no waiting time and it also offers skinning so you can place renderings one over the other to quickly spot the differences.
Skinning superimposes one screen shot over another
BrowserLab can integrate with Dreamweaver CS4 so you can test web page designs from within the WYSIWYG HTML editor without having to publish pages on to an external web server
https://browserlab.adobe.com/
There are numerous url shortening services like for example tinyurl.com, that help us convert long urls into short and manageable urls. But one of the problems with a shortened url is that, when you come across one either in your mail, or a website or in a forum, there is no way of knowing where that link is headed to without actually following the url by clicking on it.
The other problem is that, some of the url shortening services are blocked in some countries though the original url is not blocked.
Untiny is a free service that addresses the above problems. With Untiny you can find out the original url behind the tiny url without having to visit the link. That way you can know which domain the url is headed to. You can then decide whether you want to follow it or not. Also, if the shortened url is blocked in your country, you can use Untiny to extract the original url which may not be blocked.
Untiny currently supports over 75 url shortening services.
http://www.untiny.com
Most of you would be aware of the usual places to look for programs that are auto-starting – such as the Startup folder itself and the Run and RunOnce registry keys. Using MSCONFIG.EXE we can examine the components that execute from these locations.
However, there are numerous other components and locations to be aware of, including:
IE Browser Helper Objects
Scheduled Tasks
Sidebar Gadgets (Windows Vista)
Services and Drivers
Print Monitors
This is where Autoruns becomes almost indispensable. Autoruns is a free XP and Vista toll developed by Sysinternals (now part of Microsoft). The beauty of Autoruns is that it shows you absolutely everything that’s loaded a startup, including services, drivers, applications and more. Using the tabs, you can view items in individual segments, or you can view all entries in one list under the Everything tab.
Each entry details the publisher name along with a brief description of what its function is. If you’re still not sure what and entry relates to, right-click it, select Search Online and a browser window will appear complete with web search results relating to that specific entry.
For example, if you’ve installed Apple iTunes, you’ll see a service called Apple Mobile Device that has a Startup Type of Automatic. However, if you don’t have an iPod or other Apple-based portable media player, this service isn’t required. To find out a little more about the service, right-click it and select Search Online. Now right-click the service and select the Process Explorer option. The Process Explorer utility will load and you’ll be taken to the Apple Mobile Device properties window. Under Physical Memory, the WS Private entry (this details how much memory the service is hogging) shows it’s only using 872KB, but if you want to squeeze every last bit of performance out of your PC, it’s worth turning it off.
You can disable the service in Autoruns by removing the tick from the box next to it, or use the Window’s Services utility to change the Startup Type to Disabled. If later you buy an iPod, do remember to return this setting to Automatic.
Since Autoruns is designed to highlight those items that are run as soon as you boot into Windows, it won’t display those services that have Startup Type of Manual, even if they’re running. To view all services, you’ll need to use the Windows Services utility, which is accessible under Administrative Tools within Control Panel. Each service is listed, along with its Startup Type, status and a brief description. By right-clicking a service you can change its status and, by selecting Properties (or double-clicking an entry), change its Startup Type.
All said and done, knowing which services can safely have their Startup Type altered isn’t always easy, and if you’re not sure about one, it’s best to simply leave it alone.
http://download.sysinternals.com/Files/Autoruns.zip
Yet another Windows 7 build has leaked to the Web, turning recent appearances of pirated copies into a weekly event on file-sharing sites.
As many as 10 different copies of Windows 7 Build 7068 have been added to BitTorrent since last Friday, according to searches on popular tracking sites such as Mininova.org and Pirate Bay. Illegal copies of both 32- and 64-bit editions are available.
The appearance of Windows 7 Build 7068 follows the leak of Build 7057 by about a week; 7057, in turn, followed 7048 by about the same time span. The newest build is the fourth to hit BitTorrent since Microsoft stopped offering the public beta last month.
Traffic on this build has been especially brisk. As of midday today, Mininova reported that the various copies of Windows 7 Build 7068 have been downloaded a combined total of more than 65,000 times.
Although Build 7068 was compiled by Microsoft on March 21, there's no hint in the new version that it is a possible release candidate (RC), unlike earlier this month when some downloaders speculated that Build 7057 was the long-awaited RC.
Last week, in fact, Microsoft accidentally revealed details of Windows 7 RC, including a May 2009 delivery of a public download and a new expiration date, June 1, 2010, for the preview.
According to the My Digital Life site, Windows 7 Build 7068 expires on March 2, 2010, the same date as earlier builds, including 7057, displayed.
Windows 7 leaks have been a problem for Microsoft since previews were first handed out in October 2008 at Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference. Since then, other versions have appeared on BitTorrent, including a pirated copy of what was later released as the beta.
Intel used the first day of the Spring IDF in Beijing to show off its Moorestown integrated processor, which is expected to replace the current Atom CPU and chipset later this year or early 2010. The company also introduced two new Z-series Atom processors.
It was the first time that a Moorestown chip was shown live to the public. What makes this processor special is the fact that it integrates graphics and all other chipset components on-die, which will make it substantially smaller and apparently less power hungry than today’s Atom generation.
Moorestown is promised to run at ten times less idle power than the current Atom platform. Intel declined to reveal how much power the chip will actually consume and, at least for us, it is difficult to estimate that number. Today’s Atom relies on a 45 nm processor as well as an older chipset design, based on an updated i915 version, which is called System Controller Hub (SCH) as part of the Atom platform. The SCH is manufactured in 130 nm and simply too power hungry and too large to be used in small mobile devices such as smartphones.
Moorestown is expected to become Intel’s second serious attempt to make an impact in the cellphone market – the first was the Xscale processor, a technology which was acquired by Marvell in 2006. However, this time, the CPU seems to be much more focused and could turn into an interesting competitor to ARM processors
