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Russian Hacker Fixes Busted Atom Support on Snow Leopard Netbooks

Paul Lilly — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:04:13 -0600

In what's turning out to be a game of cat and mouse, Apple last week disabled support for Intel's Atom processor through a Snow Leopard update, a tactic the Hackintosh community insisted would present only a temporary setback. They were right, thanks to a Russian hacker known as "teateam," who says he has restored support for Atom-based Hackintoshes running Snow Leopard 10.6.2.

"The problem originates in a revision to the kernel in 10.6.2. The changes Apple made to the latest mach_kernel removes support for [Atom] processors, leaving updated netbooks in a useless state," InsanelyMac member "blkhockypro19" explained in a forum post.

TeaTeam's hack appears to address the issue, though Jeff Porten of MacWorld warned that performing the crack is not something to be taken lightly.

"You'll need to roll up your Terminal sleeves for a few simple steps here," said Porten. "And, of course, replace the kernel of your operating system -- the fundamental code that underlies everything else in Mac OS X -- with a file you've downloaded from the Internet."

Not only that, but it's only a matter of time until Apple releases another update that, in all likelihood, breaks support again. Apple hasn't been sympathetic to the Hackinstosh community, and even went so far as to serve Wired.com a cease and desist order after the tech site posted a video with instructions on how to hack a netbook to run Mac OS X.

Image Credit: adisetiya.files.wordpress.com

First Programmable Quantum Computer Created

Ryan Whitwam — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:27:22 -0600

Moore’s Law states that approximately every two years, the number of transistors that can be placed on an integrated circuit doubles. This has held true for the last 50 years. But there will come a point one day when physics puts a stop to that. Eventually the boundaries of atomic scale will limit transistor density. However, a new breakthrough in the field of quantum computing may provide hope for future advances. Until now, a quantum computing device had to be designed for one, and only one, operation. But scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have constructed the first programmable quantum processor.

Quantum processing units are fundamentally different in a number of ways. First, where a regular bit can be only 1 or 0, a quantum bit (or qubit) only assumes a value of 1 or 0 when it is observed. Additionally, Quantum computers aren’t bound by Boolean operators like ‘and, ‘or’ and ‘not’. Finally, two qubits can be “entangled”, meaning they will always have the same value when observed, even if separated.

The NIST computer consists of two quantum gates, one single qubit gate and an entangled two qubit gate. The gates utilized two beryllium ions stimulated with UV lasers to represent operations. The test programs run came back with 79% correct results. Certainly not perfect, but a huge step forward. You won’t be dropping one of these into a socket on your motherboard anytime soon, but maybe someday.

Intel to Launch Core i5, Core i3 Notebook CPUs in January 2010

Paul Lilly — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:45:36 -0600

Citing anonymous sources from notebook heavyweights, news and rumor site DigiTimes says we can expect Intel to launch four 32nm dual-core Arrandale CPUs (Calpella platform) by the second week of January 2010. These will include the Core i5 520M and 430M, and Core i3 350M and 330M.

Details weren't available on all four chips, but it looks like the Core i5 430M will come clocked at 2.26GHz and include Intel's Turbot Boost Technology, which could bump the clockspeed up to 2.53GHz for a single core. The Core i3 350M will also boast a 2.26GHz clockspeed, but no Turbo Boost.

The Core i5 will feature a graphics clock running at 500MHz and up to 766MHz with Turbo Boost, whereas the Core i3 will also run at 500MHz, but top out at 667MHz. All four chips will support DDR3 memory, come equipped with 3MB of L3 cache, and come rated with a TDP of 35W.

Image Credit: hardwarezone.com

AMD Unveils New Mobile, Server x86 Chips

Paul Lilly — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 07:30:07 -0600

AMD this week unveiled a newly revamped roadmap outlining a pair of all-new processor architectures, as well as plans for its CPU/GPU integration, ArsTechnica reports.

Let's start with 'Bobcat,' which is the codename for AMD's new mobile architecture. AMD says Bobcat was built from the ground-up and will compete with Intel's Atom and VIA's Nano platforms. According to one of the slides AMD showed, Bobcat is "sub one-watt capable," though expect higher-clocked parts to sip more juice than that. The 32nm part will support SSE 1 through 3, and is slated to ship in 2011.

On the server side, AMD also announced its "Bulldozer" architecture. As ArsTechnica explains it, a single Bulldozer "module" will appear as a single processor core to the OS with simultaneous multithreading (SMT) enabled. It's unclear how many instructions per cycle the front-end can dispatch, other than at least four and probably as high as eight. Bulldozer will also launch in 2011.

Image Credit: AMD via ArsTechnica

Apple Flips the Finger at Hackintosh Community, Disables Atom Support

Paul Lilly — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:32:49 -0600

Rumors of an Atom ban turned out to be true, as the Hackintosh community found out with the latest update to Apple's Snow Leopard OS.

"Well, looks like I was right, again," Hackintosh guru StellaRola wrote in a blog post. "The netbook forums are now blowing up with problems of [Snow Leopard] 10.6.2 instant rebooting their Atom-based netbooks. My sources tell me that every time a netbook users installs 10.6.2 an Apple employee gets their wings."

While the ban presents a temporary setback, StellaRola reiterated that "this is OSx86 after all," and predicted that a modded kernel is likely just around the kernel.

In the meantime, a user on the MyDellMini forum claims to have found a workaround that entails running 10.6.2 with a 10.6.1 kernel. The process involved booting from a backup, mounting the 10.6.2 partition, and punching in a few commands, all of which you can read here.

Image Credit: adisetiya.files.wordpress.com

Processor Shipments on the Rebound with Record-breaking Growth

Pulkit Chandna — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:58:54 -0600

The PC processor market seems to be on a comeback trail. According to a fresh report by IDC, CPU shipments in the third quarter of 2009 increased 23 percent from the previous quarter, which is a new record for sequential growth. The increase in shipments was accompanied by a 14 percent sequential increase in revenue. The sales of PC processors in the quarter helped generate $7.4 billion in revenue.

Mobile CPU shipments grew 35.7 percent in 3Q09 to bail the industry out from what is now a receding crisis. The Intel Atom processor merits a special mention as it led the industry's comeback during the quarter. But the low average selling price of Atom processors meant that the record growth in shipments did not quite translate into record revenue.

"While Atom processors led the PC processor market to reach record unit shipments, on the revenue side, their low average selling price led to notable price erosion, more than 7 percent." said Shane Rau, director of semiconductors for personal computing research at IDC.

"The market's growth has been due to shipments of inexpensive Atom processors being sold into markets like China, which is being stimulated by government incentives there," said Rau.

Intel Fast Tracking Pine Trail Debut

Paul Lilly — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:45:45 -0600

Expect to see quite a few netbook and nettop deals this holiday shopping season, especially if Intel forges ahead with plans to fast track the introduction of its upcoming Pine Trail platform.

"Intel is planning for a fast transition to Pine Trail. To generate excitement for the platform ahead of launch, Intel is planning a press release in late December publicly disclosing the details of the platform," X-bit Labs claims to have read in an Intel document.

Should Intel aggressively push Pine Trail ahead of its launch, consumers could see a fair number of pre- and post-Christmas day sales on older Atom platform-based netbooks and nettops. And look for plenty of coverage at next year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Intel's Pine Trail platform will include a bunch of next-gen Atom Pineview processors, which will come with an integrated graphics core, a built-in DDR2 memory controller, a new core-logic set, and other goodies.

Image Credit: laptoping.com

Nvidia CEO Denies x86 Processor Rumors

Paul Lilly — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 07:15:16 -0600

No matter what we've been hearing, a x86 CPU just doesn't appear to be in the cards for Nvidia, at least according to the company's outspoken CEO Jen-Hsun Huang.

"No," he said when asked if there was any truth to the rumor. "Nvidia's strategy is very, very clear. I'm very straightforward about it. Right now, more than ever, we have to focus on visual and parallel computing."

Rather than allocate resources into developing a x86 chip to, say, compete at the low end where Intel's Atom processors have the market nearly all to themselves, Huang says the best opportunities for growth will come from pushing the GPU "into all kinds of platforms," such as servers for parallel computing, super-computing, and cloud-based computing, and in lower power platforms, like the Zune HD.

Speculation about Nvidia taking on Intel in the x86 market began much earlier in the year when Micheal Hara, Nvidia's senior VP of investor relations and communications, said getting into the x86 business was a matter of 'when,' and not 'if.'