Lenovo Puts a New Spin on the ThinkPad Tablet PC

Lenovo today announced the ThinkPad X60 Tablet, a new convertible tablet PC marking a technology trifecta for innovation, portability and performance — with two new screen choices and other innovative Lenovo features, such as dynamic screen rotation. The ThinkPad X60 Tablet offers new, combined MultiView/MultiTouch screen features in a convertible tablet PC, giving users the power to compute more naturally, whether working in the field or in the office.

The Lenovo ThinkPad X60 Tablet's new 12-inch MultiView indoor/outdoor, anti-reflective/anti-glare display, dramatically helps increase viewability in multiple environments. This screen choice comes combined with the new MultiTouch feature that allows users to move the cursor with their pen or finger, making interaction with the ThinkPad Tablet PC a natural fit.

The MultiView/MultiTouch screen combination along with the ThinkPad X60 Tablet's standard 170 degree viewing angle provides excellent usability for the healthcare professional recording patient information in a hospital, the real estate agent taking notes in a home or the sports coach reviewing statistics at a game. The ThinkPad X60 Tablet also gives users sharp, crisp images with more vibrant color when they choose to add a new, high-resolution SXGA+ screen.

According to IDC, convertible tablet PC unit shipments will reach more than one million this year and more than four million by 2010. With more industries relying on tablet PCs, Lenovo tablet customers have included mobile professionals in fields such as healthcare, insurance, real estate, government, education and sales.

"A recent campus-wide survey revealed that over 90 percent of the student body believes that computer technology enhances his or her learning experience," said Philip Lombardi, director of academic computing and media services at Bryant University. "Of the students surveyed, we discovered that more students would prefer to use a tablet over a traditional notebook PC because of its light weight and ease of use in taking notes. In the past year, a group of first year psychology majors have been using Lenovo Tablet PCs to administer surveys and collect data as part of a pilot program. Our goal is to extend this technology to more students in various majors to provide them with a PC solution that best complements their academic experience."

The ThinkPad X60 Tablets come equipped with Lenovo’s patent-pending Active Rotate function. With Active Rotate, the screen immediately orients to the user, no matter which direction it turns. The ThinkPad X60 Tablet's design also focuses on improving more traditional tablet features like navigational tools and the pen. Now a redesigned navigational dial lets users move easily in four directions, and it even remaps keys so "up" is always "up" as the user changes orientation with Active Rotate. Also, a new, more natural and durable pen resumes from suspend mode automatically when a user removes it from its cradle. An enhanced digital microphone repositioned on the front bezel enables accurate voice recognition and rounds out the ThinkPad X60 Tablet's sensory improvements.

"The Lenovo ThinkPad X60 Tablet PC marries the best aspects of notebooks and pen-based devices," said Peter Hortensius, senior vice president, Notebook Business Unit, Lenovo. "With new screen options, hardware capabilities and an improved sensory experience interacting with the Tablet, the new Lenovo ThinkPad X60 Tablet is packed with the innovation our customers want."

The ThinkPad X60 Tablet's design also includes greater performance with more memory, a larger hard drive and longer battery life than Lenovo's previous Tablet PC. The ThinkPad X60 Tablet also prepares people for the next generation of wireless connectivity with select models offering 802.11n technology as well as an embedded WWAN card. ThinkPad X60 Tablet users are also ready for the next operating system with many ThinkPad X60 Tablet models shipped Windows Vista Capable and some Vista Premium Ready.

Pricing for the ThinkPad X60 Tablet starts at $1,799. The ThinkPad X60 Tablet will be available for shipping in early December with select models available immediately for pre-ordering.

Source: Lenovo

Driverless transport in big cities

While traffic problems in major cities have been familiar for a long time, the measures needed to deal with them have still to be put into effect. However, in its 6th Framework Programme, the EU is beating the big drum and looking for more efficient transport solutions in big cities, as well as more rational use of motor traffic. New traffic solutions such as completely automated vehicles moving on tracks, cars in defined corridors (cybercars) and bi-modal vehicles that can alternate between automatic and manual control, will aim to reduce traffic queues and pollution.

“This may sound like pure science fiction,” says senior scientist Torgeir Vaa at SINTEF (Norway), “but the technology already exists and a number of demonstrations and pilot studies in this area have already been carried out, and these show that the systems do work. In the future that we are talking about, private cars will have to park at the city limits, and other systems will take over in the centre. This means that there will be a need for rapid public transport systems (buses, trains, underground) and personal transport for short distances.

Heathrow Airport, a new exhibition centre in Rome and the Spanish city of Castellón are the sites that have been selected to demonstrate and confirm the viability of automated transport solutions. When the CityMobil project comes to an end in five years, these sites will have installed fully developed automated transport systems, and the first results will have been evaluated.

The Spanish city of Castellón will adopt bimodal buses that are capable of operating both manually and automatically – depending on where they are. In the new exhibition centre in Rome, a fleet of fully automated cybercars will be part of the fleet of vehicles that carry people between the car park, the railway station and the exhibition centre, while Heathrow will have a transit system that will carry people between the terminal and the car park in fully automated vehicles running on tracks.

From private motoring to public transport

Until now, advanced high technology has made most progress in private cars, where the introduction of ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) has improved driving comfort. ADAS refers to support systems that prevent the driver from exceeding the speed limit by making the accelerator pedal “heavy”, or that ensure that cars keep a safe distance from the vehicle ahead in a traffic queue.

CityMobil is a prolongation of the EU’s earlier Stardust project, in which SINTEF was also involved, and which built demonstration vehicles with ADAS technology that are in use today in the 0 Vision project in Lillehammer and in Trondheim City Operation.

Now, the EU wishes to focus on public transport, where little has been done, with the exception of a few automated metro systems (Paris, London, Lille) and some recently introduced automated buses and small units (Rouen, Eindhoven).

The SINTEF scientists regard it as extremely important to be members of the powerful EU consortium that comprises Europe’s total expertise in this area, with the Netherlands’ TNO in the driving seat, as it were. This large-scale European project consists of five sub-projects, and SINTEF will be involved in two of these, on tasks that include payment systems and safety legislation and regulations.

“Imagine that you arrive at Heathrow and want to get from the car park to the terminal”, say Vaa. “You call up an automatic driverless unit that is circulating and comes to the spot where you are parked. But what about personal protection and safety aspects? What about other people who are standing at the same parking place? Another example concerns driverless vehicles in mixed traffic; who would be responsible in the event of an accident?”

Trondheim has also been selected as a member of a reference group of 15 European cities that will submit relevant problems to CityMobil and test out technological solutions in the course of the project.

“Although Rome, Castellón and Heathrow are the major demonstration sites, plans and concepts will also be set out for a number of other cities, in order to help local authorities make decisions regarding automated transport systems,” says Vaa. “Some of these cities will also benefit from hosting small-scale demonstrations of automated vehicles. This will all depend on how active the individual cities are. Both the City of Trondheim and the Directorate of Public Roads are members of the reference group, and we hope to have the new transport solutions demonstrated in Trondheim and perhaps in other Norwegian cities as part of the project.”

The CityMobil project has a budget of € 40 million and involves 28 partners in 10 different countries.

Source: SINTEF

Intel Begins First Multi-Core Silicon Production

Intel Corporation today announced it has completed initial production runs of dual-core processors and provided further details about its multi-core plans to its customers, signaling the beginning of an era when PCs will have two or more “brains” inside. Intel plans to deliver two separate dual-core products and dual-core-enabled chipsets for its Pentium® processor-class families in the second quarter, including the Pentium® processor Extreme Edition.

The Intel® Pentium® Processor Extreme Edition will include Hyper-Threading Technology, providing the ability to process four software “threads” simultaneously.

“In addition to our products, we are investing heavily to further prepare the industry for the shift to multi-core computing platforms,” said Robert Crooke, vice president, Desktop Platforms Group and general manager, Desktop Marketing and Strategic Planning, Intel. “We accelerated this effort with the introduction of Hyper-Threading Technology three years ago and we’re extending it by building multi-core processors. Platforms based on Intel multi-core technology will provide the performance and responsiveness consumers and businesses need to get the most enjoyment and productivity from their applications.”

These first dual-core desktop platforms reflect Intel’s continued investment in silicon and platform innovation, manufacturing technology, capacity and industry enabling efforts that span the desktop, server, workstation and mobile market segments.

“As the leader in the extreme gaming, consumer and workstation markets, Dell plans to offer Intel’s powerful dual-core processor technology on high-end systems,” said John Medica, senior vice president, Dell Product Group. “No other companies make innovative technology more affordable to large groups of customers than Dell and Intel.”

Dual- and multi-core products are designed by including two or more full CPU cores within a single processor enabling the simultaneous managing of activities. When combined with HT Technology, which allows a processor to present itself as two logical processors, the Pentium Processor Extreme Edition product can process four software threads simultaneously by more efficiently using resources that otherwise may sit idle.

Platforms based around Intel’s dual-core Pentium Processor Extreme Edition are an ideal solution for PC computing and entertainment enthusiasts who crave computing power for audio, video, digital design and gaming tasks. The Pentium Processor Extreme Edition will be combined with a new chipset named the Intel® 955X Express chipset, formerly codenamed “Glenwood,” that includes features such as Intel® High Definition Audio, PCI-Express and faster dual-channel DDR-2 memory. Intel will also couple its mainstream “Smithfield” processor with two new chipsets named the Intel® 945G Express chipset and Intel® 945P Express chipset, both previously code-named “Lakeport” in the second quarter of the year.

Intel has more than 10 multi-core related projects underway and plans to increase its software and solutions enabling product lines, tools, investment and programs to further spur software design and validation.

India's $10 Laptop to be revealed Feb. 3 (Updated)

(PhysOrg.com) -- On February 3, the Indian government will display a prototype of the Rs 500, a $10 laptop that will hopefully give more young people the opportunity to learn and help increase the country's school enrollment.

UPDATE (February 4, 2009):
On Tuesday, February 3, India's national Mission on Education Program clarified that the $10 laptop is actually not a laptop, but a storage device. The storage device contains megabytes of data that can be accessed by a user by connecting the device to a laptop. The 5-inch by 10-inch Rs 500 storage device is now priced at $30. Joint Secretary N. K. Sinha, who made the announcement, did not explain why the device was being called a laptop when it was not. via: Times of India

The $10 laptop project is the product of a collaboration among institutions including the Vellore Institute of Technology, the Indian Institute of Science, and IIT-Madras. The project began about three years ago in response to the proposed $100 laptop (the "One Laptop Per Child" project), an idea from MIT's Nicholas Negroponte, which was going to cost $200. Currently, the $10 laptop is projected to cost $20, but India's secretary of higher education R. P. Agarwal hopes that price will come down with mass production.

The $10 laptop will be equipped with 2 GB of memory, WiFi, fixed Ethernet, expandable memory, and consume just 2 watts of power.

The unveiling of the laptop will occur at the government's launch of the National Mission on Education through Information and Technology, held next Tuesday in Tirupati. The Indian government is working with publishers to provide e-content on educational subjects which will be available free of cost. The government is also considering a plan to subsidize internet connections for schools.

Currently, the government is consulting with different production agencies, and hopes to make the computers commercially available in the next six months.

via: Engadget

© 2009 PhysOrg.com

Fermi mass availability delayed to Q2

Nvidia's upcoming Geforce GTX 400 series was expected to release sometime in March. However, Nvidia claims the GTX 400 series will bereleased in Q1 2011 - which runs till April 30th, 2010. Reporters suggestmass availability has been delayed till Nvidia's Q2 FY2011, which runsfrom May 2010 to as late as 31st July 2010.

In addition to GTX 400,Nvidia's CEO, Jen-Hsun Huang claims Nvidia is all set to "launch acouple of Fermi products" that will span Geforce, Quadro and Tesla - allby July 2010. However, there are no plans to refresh the mainstreamGPUs any time in the near future.

Despite losing to ATI on all levels - whether performance, value, power efficiency or features - at the mainstream segment, Nvidia feels the Geforce 210/310 and GT 220/240 products are "really fabulous" and offers everything that mainstream consumers may need. Obviously, thanks to Nvidia's marketing, the "new" mainstream products still have strong demand, despite losing out to ATI's Radeon HD 5450/5570/5670 on all counts. In the end, we might be looking till well after Q2 FY2011, that is after July for mainstream derivatives of Fermi/GF100.

The Fermi saga just keeps traveling what looks like a near endless tunnel. Every time we see glimpses light, a new delay creeps in. It might be released in limited quantities by April, but realistically, we are looking at May for widespread availability. In the end, with Fermi, it will release when it will release - and those dates, as witnessed by past history, are most likely to change.

Reference: Xbitlabs

Exclusive MSI's GTX 560 cards pictured

Were only hours from the official launch of Nvidias upcoming GTX 560 GPU, the one without Ti on the end which is set to, well, compete with something or the other at a price point of $10-20 less than something else. Anyhow, weve gotten our hands on a couple of pictures of MSIs upcoming N560GTX Twin Frozr II cards, both of which look very similar to MSIs N560GTX-Ti Twin Frozr II, but not identical.

Were not quite sure why, but MSI seems to have added a small clamp on the rear part of the PCB that helps stabilize the GPU cooler. Oddly enough, the Ti versions dont have this little addition and were not quite sure why MSI has added, but there must be a reason for it. This is the only difference we managed to spot between the cards, but the real difference is of course inside the GPU itself.

The stock clocked card should have a core clock of 820MHz with the 336 shaders clocked at 1640MHz and the 1GB of GDDR5 memory at an effective speed of an even 4GHz. The GTX 560 GPU is said to have 32 ROPs and it retains the 256-bit memory interface. The N560GTX Twin Frozer II/OC is a little bit faster with a core clock of 870MHz which brings the shaders up to 1740MHz while the memory has been overclocked to 4080MHz.

Both cards have a pair of DVI ports and a mini HDMI port and MSI supplies a mini HDMI to HDMI adapter as well as a DVI to D-sub adapter with the cards. We found the N560GTX Twin Frozer II/OC listed on a European online retailer for €214.12 (S$380) which is only €9.16 (S$16) cheaper than the Ti version and with such a small price difference, its hard to see why anyone would go for the GTX 560 over the GTX 560 Ti.

Cypress New Universal Clock Gen

Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE: CY), a world leader in timing technologysolutions, today introduced the industry's first personal computer motherboardclock generator that supports multiple processors and chipsets. Cypress's newUniversal Clock Generator supplies timing signals for both Intel® P4 processorsand AMD K8 and next-generation processors, along with multiple chipsets fromIntel, VIA, and Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS). Users can choose the processorand chipset to support through pin selections on the device.

The new CY28551 device offers a number of advantages over clock solutionsdesigned specifically for a processor and chipset combination. Motherboardmanufacturers can greatly simplify their inventory requirements, and can makeadjustments to their product mix without the need for a different clock if achipset or processor is in short supply. In addition, designers can transfer thesame design and layout from one system to another using the new universal clock,reducing risk and saving design time and resources.

ASUSTeK Computer Inc., the world's leading provider of motherboards andnotebooks, worked with Cypress on the design of the new clock. ASUSTeK offeredmotherboard expertise, helping Cypress to define the part for maximumflexibility and performance.

"We have seen convergence in clock architectures supporting multiple chipsetsand platforms, driven by newer standards such as PCI Express," said S.Y. Shian,associate vice president of ASUSTeK. "The Universal Clock is a versatilesolution that leverages this trend, easing the process of board layout,termination and impedance matching over a variety of platforms. As the worldwideleader in motherboards, ASUSTeK is taking advantage of these features with newboards in development today."

"The motherboard expertise and market knowledge of ASUSTeK was instrumental inbringing this innovative solution to market," said Geoff Charubin, managingdirector of Cypress's PC Clock business unit. "We'd like to thank ASUSTeK forits collaboration, and we look forward to a strong partnership as ASUSTeK bringsleading-edge motherboards to market utilizing the Universal Clock."

The combinations of processors and chipsets supported by the Universal Clockappear below:

Processor
P4 K8
Chipset
Intel965(G, GC, GF, P), 948 ________
VIAPT890, PT890 Pro, PM890K8M890, K8T890Pro, K8T890, K8T900,K8N890
SiS 656, 656(FX, MX), 662, 670, 649MX 756FX, 761GX, 770

Product Features
The new device offers a variety of features, including:

· Easy configuration via hardware strapping
· Low power consumption for laptop applications
· Overclocking support for end-user modifications
· Low-power differential buffers for lower noise and better performance
· Watchdog timer with system reset for auto-reboot

"The Universal Motherboard Clock is a solution that showcases our strengths inthis market segment-system expertise, a broad and deep technical base, andexcellent customer relationships," said Elie Ayache, Cypress's marketingdirector for PC Clocks. "Working with a leader such as ASUSTeK has enabled us tointroduce a ground-breaking product that meets the needs of next-generation PCsystem design."

Availability
The Universal Clock is offered in a 64-pin QFN package (CY28551) and a 56-pinQFN (CY28551-3). High-volume pricing will be competitive with clocks designedspecifically for processor/chipset combinations. Samples of the new devices areavailable now, with full production expected later this month. A high-resolutionimage of the new product can be downloaded at www.cypress.com/universal-clock-photo.