WiMAX connecting Latinos in Washington County

As a Portland, Oregon resident and Intel employee, I've been lucky enough to experience wireless 4G WiMAX Internet broadband, as well as speak with others who are amazed by its speed, availability, and their overall experience. What I find most inspiring, however, is to hear how WiMAX is truly making a difference in peoples' lives.

My latest find is Centro Cultural and the "Digital Connectors" in Washington County, Oregon. Digital Connectors are youth trained to promote technology in their community using Washington County Beehive. The online guide was created to empower the local Latino community with tools supporting computer literacy and job training.

Through its Adelante con Tecnología (Moving Forward With Technology) program, Centro Cultural and Intel have been working to help bridge the digital divide among Latinos in this community, and the program has been quite successful. In fact, in a two-month timeframe (Dec. 2008 through Jan. 2009), 22 Adelanta con Tecnología volunteers reached 49 families, more than 100 individuals, during that time.

Intel's Social Media Story - just the beginning

We introduced Intel’s blog program 2 years ago this month. I’d like to use this Intel anniversary as an opportunity to reflect and look back at some of our social media efforts over the past decade.

Its not possible to go into every project and program in one blog post. Nor can I properly speak to all of the hard work from our various social media teams. So, I look to others to help fill in those gaps, but here’s a high-level overview of just some of the activities to date at Intel.

We created Blogs@Intel as a new business tool for our customers and employees to directly communicate and collaborate from keyboard to keyboard. We launched the blogs on April 10th 2007.

Yet in fact, our social media story started much earlier. 8 months prior, we launched our IT@Intel pilot blog. It was a big success, so we launched more blogs, including this one. Moreover, the Intel Software Network started our popular developer blogs and wikis for software collaboration back in May of 2006.

Internally, grassroots employee blogging started as early as 2003 consisting mainly of self-maintained servers under desks. These internal employee blogs gained a tremendous following. Intel CEO Paul Otellini launched his employee blog in 2004. Other top execs and leaders followed throughout 2005 culminating in a fully IT-supported platform that same year.

Team-based wiki collaboration started in 2004, culminating in our enterprise-wide “Intelpedia” created by Josh Bancroft in November of 2005. Today, Intelpedia contains over 15K articles from Intel employees defining, collaborating and documenting their part of the vast Intel workplace. Intelpedia was founded in the spirit of open information sharing and community moderation of content, much like the very popular Wikipedia.

We created all of these social spaces to foster dialogue and make important contributions to a widening range of issues relevant to our customers, to our employees and to the future of technology.

Since then, we were the first to offer a corporate blog in the People’s Republic of China with Blogs@Intel China(ok, Dell may have beaten us by a few days in May ‘07, but I’ll need to exchange notes with Lionel about that). We soon followed with Russian, Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese and English blogs on topics ranging fromcorporate social responsibility and research to jobs and customer support. Intel’s on-domain social media offering now totals over 35 blogs and vibrant communities.

Our social media guidelines are public in over 25 languages. And our strategy is simple:

• Build community
• Engage others
• Empower employees
• Expand the conversation
• Strengthen relationships through active listening
• Be social media leaders
• Amplify Intel and our brand

Today, we’re scaling our participation even further. Since last December, Intel launched a global initiative and training program (Digital IQ) that is open to all employees to become active participants in all forms of social media. We built this framework to ensure employees are successful, to protect their own privacy online and to engage in ways that are consistent with our ethical and corporate standards.

We want employees to get involved online - engage, comment and participate in the areas where they’re most passionate. We encourage them to engage in conversations on competitive topics but in those cases where the topic is part of pending or existing legal or litigation matters, we ask that employees contact our legal department before proceeding, as there could be risk to the employee and to the company.

Within 12-weeks, over 700 Intel employees have “raised their hands” and volunteered to tell their story, lend their experience and share their knowledge directly on places like Twitter, Facebook, technology websites, BBSs in China and support forums throughout the planet. We’re reaching out by engaging in technology conversations in existing communities where our knowledge is welcome and when participation is appropriate.

And, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

As a part of the Intel Social Media Center of Excellence and on behalf of my colleagues, we appreciate your continued feedback and participation. My hope is that this participation empowers us all and that we continue to discuss technology that defines tomorrow.

In follow-up posts, I’ll be talking more specifically around some of our challenges, successes, and disappointments. What we’ve learned and the common struggles we share.

Reality Check - Windows XP Mode and Intel's chips

So, there have been quite a few stories recently about support for Windows 7’s new ‘Windows XP Mode’.

‘Windows XP Mode’ is a feature that will be available with some versions of Windows 7. The short version is this: it will let you run a copy of Windows XP SP3 on your Windows 7 PC or notebook within a virtual partition using hardware virtualisation. ‘Windows XP Mode’ will however have some cool bells and whistles including great integration into Windows 7 (copy and paste will work etc…). This is another very cool use of our VT technology.

Intel introduced its Virtualization Technology in 2005 and has shipped over 100 Million chips with the feature. Windows XP Mode is targeted for business customers. It is available on the mid to higher end versions of Windows 7 and is supported in hardware by many Intel processors. Intel vPro technology PCs are required to have an Intel VT capable CPU and Intel VT capable BIOS. They are the best platforms for testing and deploying Microsoft Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode.

However, there have been a lot of articles berating the fact that consumers with Intel processors without VT will ‘lose out’ on the Windows XP Mode, or that it ‘won’t work’.

Cnet for example mentions that there are at least 30 versions of consumer laptops using the VT’less T6400 version of the Core 2 Duo processor.

Here is an example of such a notebook: It comes with Windows Vista Home premium. (As do most of them)

Here is the list of Windows 7 versions that will ship according to ZDnet: Home Premium is a middle sku.

• Windows 7 Starter Edition (for emerging market and netbook users)
• Windows 7 Home Basic (for emerging market customers only)
• Windows 7 Home Premium (the main “Media Center” equivalent)
• Windows 7 Professional (the business SKU for home users and non-enterprise licensees)
• Windows 7 Enterprise (for volume licensees)
• Windows 7 Ultimate (for consumers who want/need business features)

And finally according to TheRegister.co.uk: The Windows XP Mode will only come with Windows 7 Professional and up.

So not having VT on these consumer laptops is not going to be an issue - because the consumer versions of Windows 7 (Starter, Home Basic, and Home Premium) do not include Windows XP Mode.

Intel® Core™2 Duo Processors

With 45nm Intel® Core™2 Duo processors, you'll experience revolutionary performance, unbelievable system responsiveness, and energy-efficiency second to none. And, you won't have to slow down for virus scan, multiple compute intensive programs, or home video editing—these desktop processors include Intel® HD Boost and are up to 70 percent faster when processing high-definition memories with your HD video camera.

Now the best gets even better with Intel's latest Core 2 Duo processors built using Intel's 45nm technology, using hafnium-infused circuitry to bring you the latest arsenal of performance-rich technologies. These amazing new processors include up to 6 MB of shared L2 cache, up to 1333 MHz front side bus for desktop, and up to 800 MHz front side bus for laptop.

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Dual Core Processor

Core 2 Duo E8400 Dual Core Processor
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Dual Core Processor
(3GHz, 6MB, 1333MHz FSB, LGA775 Socket T - MPN: BX80570E8400)
Price Range: $169.99 - $269.66 from 17 Sellers
Description: Based on Intel Core microarchitecture, the Intel Core 2 Duo processor family is designed to provide energy-efficient performance so you can do more at once without slowing down.
Quick Glance
Processor Socket: Intel Socket T (LGA775)
Processor Class: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Type: 2
Bus Speed: 1333MHz
Processor Speed: 3000
Processor Speed + Class
Bus Speed: 1333MHz
Processor Speed: 3 GHz
Processor Class: Intel Core 2 Duo
Physical + Memory Specifications
Included Fan Type: ATX
L2 Cache Size: 6 MB
Number of Processor Cores: 2
Processor Socket: Intel Socket T (LGA775)

Intel® Core™2 Extreme processor QX9770

Get untouchable desktop performance from Intel's latest Extreme processor. Play games, edit high definition video and easily tackle the most demanding multitasking environments like never before.


Intel® Core™2 Extreme processor
For extreme computing. Enjoy revolutionary levels of performance enabling vivid, high-definition experiences and multi-tasking responsiveness from state-of-the-art Intel dual-core and quad-core technologies.

Intel® Core™2 Quad processor
Multimedia enthusiasts, prepare to enthuse. Bring quad-core performance to your desktop with the Intel® Core™2 Quad processor. It's the ideal engine for highly threaded entertainment applications and highly productive multitasking.

Intel® Core™2 Duo processor
The power to perform. With power-optimized enabled dual-core technology and exceptional energy efficiency, the Intel® Core™2 Duo processor excels running the most intense applications.

* Google tests ActiveX alternative *

Google has released new software designed to let Web developers write more powerful programs that can work directly with an operating system, rather than having to be run through a browser called Native Client, the software was released under an open-source software license by Google engineers on Monday. It's still in an early stage of development, but Google says it could eventually help Web developers create Web programs that would run more quickly and feel more like real desktop applications.

Developers could use Native Client to speed up a photo-sharing Web site, for example, so that users could touch up photos without ever leaving the site, Google spokesman Brad Chen wrote on a company blog. "Modern PCs can execute billions of instructions per second, but today's web applications can access only a small fraction of this computational power," he said.

Google doesn't expect the software to be widely used just yet. "Native Client is a research technology so the goal of this release is to expose it to the research, security and open source communities for their feedback and contributions," a Google spokeswoman said.

Native Client looks similar to Microsoft's ActiveX technology but will run on Linux and the Mac OS as well as Windows, Web experts said Monday. It also bears a resemblance to an Adobe technology called Alchemy.

"Google is clearly reaching for ways to take more control over the desktop, the Web browser and user content," said Robert Hansen, CEO of security consultancy SecTheory. "Native Client appears to be another way to reach into people's computers and use as many resources as possible. It's not a matter of whether it can be done. It's a question of if it should be done. We haven't even solved yesterday's problems yet, let alone another ActiveX clone."

Native Client is not intended to replace any existing technology, Google said. "We believe developers can use this technology alongside others to create applications that provide a richer, more dynamic experience than ever before," the Google spokeswoman said.

The software does not yet work with Microsoft's Internet Explorer, but runs on the Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Opera browsers. The developers hope to support Internet Explorer eventually, the spokeswoman said.

To keep Native Client secure, Google has built what it calls an "inner-sandbox" that will analyze code for security bugs and protect the rest of the operating system from being compromised.

*THIS WEEK HOT NEWS*

* New beta is the first version of Firefox to turn on a much faster JavaScript engine and sport a working privacy mode.

*n pledging to "renew our information superhighway," President-elect Barack Obama has offered the broad outline of an economic stimulus plan likely to lead to major increases in IT spending -- especially for broadband deployment and technology for schools and health care.

*In a tribute to computer industry pioneer Doug Engelbart, dignitaries from IT and academic realms espoused the concept of "collective intelligence" at a technology event Monday, emphasizing developments such as search engines that promote the idea.

*Microsoft has released an early version of an open-source content management platform that developers can use to build sophisticated blogs or large Web sites.

*Dell and EMC have agreed to extend their worldwide storage partnership, even though the existing deal -- which has generated billions in sales for the two companies -- doesn't end until 2011.

*Intel said on Friday it is researching technology to harvest free energy from the environment, which could lead to devices like mobile phones running for indefinite periods without recharging.

*If you install the beta of Windows Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2) expecting to see visible changes to your version of Vista, you'll be sorely disappointed. At least in this initial beta, all the changes are under the hood, and even they are far from earth-shaking.

*Google launches Cross-Language Enterprise Search*

Cross-Language Enterprise Search works only with the Google Enterprise Search Appliance and will find internal documents written in any language, no matter what language was used to create the query.It is automatically translate the document if that feature is activated by the administrator through a dropdown menu. Otherwise, it can bring back the search results in the language they were written in.

*THIS WEEK HOT NEWS*
------------------------------
*The U.S. government should spend $44 billion to improve its broadband infrastructure and extend broadband to rural and other underserved areas, a media reform advocacy group recommended Wednesday.

*A "clerical error" by Mozilla omitted one of the security patches that was supposed to be included in the Windows version of Tuesday's Firefox 2.0 .0.19 release, a company executive said Wednesday.

*Adobe Systems is extending on Thursday its AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) technology to Linux desktops.

*Adobe Systems is extending on Thursday its AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) technology to Linux desktops.

*IBM's Rational Software unit announced Wednesday several new applications that provide collaboration, automation, and reporting features that take advantage of Web 2.0 technology.

*Yahoo said Wednesday it will anonymize most of the data it collects about people's Web searches after three months, a move that could put further pressure on competitors Google and Microsoft to do the same due to privacy concerns

*Microsoft will publish technical documents on Tuesday describing how it built support for the rival Open Document Format (ODF) within Office 2007.

*Microsoft Tuesday said that the release candidate for Internet Explorer 8 is "just around the corner" and urged developers to get ready to test their sites with the new browser.

*Rambus' memory controller interface DDR3*

Rambus' memory controller interface solution for industry-standard DDR3 DRAMs features a fully integrated macro cell which provides the physical layer (PHY) interface between the controller logic and DDR3 or DDR2 DRAM devices for data rates of up to 1600 MHz.

The Rambus DDR3 interface solution incorporates Rambus innovations such as:

• FlexPhase™ timing adjustment circuits for precise on-chip data alignment with the clock
• Calibrated output drivers.
• On-die termination.
• LabStation™ software environment for bring-up, characterization and validation of the DDR3 interface in the end-user application.

Other key interface features include:

• 800 to 1600 MHz data rates
• Support for DDR3 and DDR2 signaling modes
• On-chip phase-locked loop (PLL)
• On-chip delay-locked loop (DLL)
• Levelization support for fly-by command and address architecture
• Rambus FlexPhase™ based in-PHY module that provides characterization and testing capability in the production system
• Multi-drop bus and multi-rank module support for large capacity systems
• Variable data bit-widths (8-, 16-, 32-, and 64-bit) with optional ECC support

Rambus interface solutions provide a comprehensive architecture and system design, as well as design models and integration tools. Included in the solution are reference GDSII database, timing models, layout verification netlists, gate-level models, place-and-route outline, and placement guidelines. Package design and system board layout services are also available.

*THIS WEEK CURRENT NEWS*

>Perhaps pre-alpha was a bit too early for Mozilla to release its Fennec mobile browser for Windows Mobile.

>Symantec Tuesday unveiled Endpoint Virtualization Suite, its set of server-based tools for controlling and delivering laptop and desktop application environments through flexible online provisioning.

>Microsoft warned last week that it would be easy for cybercriminals to build new attacks using bugs it patched in the Internet Explorer browser; now that prediction has come true.

>Altor Networks' firewall software for virtual environments now supports a unique identifier to keep track of particular versions of virtual machines, even as they replicate themselves to different hosts.

>Microsoft will introduce an application store with its newest version of Windows Mobile software, it planned to announce at Mobile World Congress, where it also was to formally open a limited beta for its My Phone data backup offering.

>Acer has jumped head first into the smartphone market with its Tempo family of devices. They are all touch-enabled and based on Windows Mobile, the company announced on Monday.

>Skype is developing a VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) software client for Nokia's top-of-the-range N97 smartphone, executives of both companies said Tuesday.

>The battle by Microsoft to secure its Live Hotmail system from spammers appears to have failed yet again with the news that the latest version of its CAPTCHA authentication system has been broken.

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz - Wolfdale Arrives

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz - Wolfdale ArrivesIn the summer of 2006, Intel released their 65nm Conroe-based processors, and to say they won the hearts of many would be an understatement. It was one product-launch that Intel didn't want to hit lightly, especially since AMD were actively taking from their customer base - on the enthusiast side, most notably. When said and done, Intel did accomplish what they planned to do. They put the industry through a blender and showed us how to be excited about processors again.Although frequencies with Conroe were not as high as what we were used to seeing from Intel, the folks in Santa Clara proved that a high frequency didn't mean much if the processor itself was inefficient. Indeed, a 2.4GHz Conroe Dual-Core proved just how much better an efficient processor could be, and it quickly became the most common processor choice for the enthusiast.The following summer, follow-up processors were released, including the E6750 Dual-Core which we evaluated at the time. Besides speed bumps, those processors didn't bring much to the table in way of new features, except for native 1333FSB support. Instead, the processor we are taking a look at today is one of the few new models that effectively replace the Conroe-based chips that we came to love so dearly in summer of '06.I won't delve deep into how 45nm improves on 65nm, as I explained all of that in our QX9650 review, but I will touch on things briefly. One large benefit that comes with all die shrinks is better power efficiency and lower temperatures. Chips have the capability to run just as fast, if not faster, than their predecessors, all while running cooler and drawing less power. It's a win/win situation.But with 45nm, Intel introduced more than just a die shrink. The biggest feature that most people will be interested in is the SSE4 instruction set. It affects media-buffs only - those who encode videos - but the performance gains are so evident, that developers of such applications are bound to begin supporting it sooner than later. The speed increases could be as large as 2x, even though it's difficult to believe.Other improvements include increased L2 cache, half-multipliers (eg, 9.5x), a faster front-side-bus, improved Super Shuffle Engine, Smart Cache (to improve how split loads are accessed and stored) and so many transistors on a single die, it can give people headaches to think about it!The obvious downside of the QX9650 launch in November was the fact that no other processors complimented it. Therefore, it was QX9650 or bust - until now that is. During CES earlier this month, Intel officially announced their 45nm launch plans, which include the desktop side, server and also mobile. We found out at that time that the Quad-Core models (Q9300 - Q9550) were pushed back to sometime in Q1. Although a solid date was never settled on, original road maps showed January as the scheduled launch. However, the rumor is that due to poor performing Phenom Quad-Core sales, Intel decided to hold off on the launch to help push remaining 65nm models to consumers first.So how does the road map stand now that some time has past? Although Intel announced near-immediate availability of all 45nm desktop Dual-Cores at CES, only the E8400 has shown up on e-tailers. One popular e-tailer has the other models listed for availability in April. How true that is, I'm unsure, but it's strange given the fact that they were supposed to be available by now.Processor NameCoresClockCacheFSBTDP1Ku PriceAvailableIntel Core 2 Extreme QX977543.20GHz2 x 6MB1600MHz150W$1,499Q1 2008Intel Core 2 Extreme QX977043.20GHz2 x 6MB1600MHz136W$1,399Q1 2008Intel Core 2 Extreme QX965043.0GHz2 x 6MB1333MHz130W$999NowIntel Core 2 Quad Q955042.86GHz2 x 6MB1333MHz95W$530Q1 2008Intel Core 2 Quad Q945042.66GHz2 x 6MB1333MHz95W$316Q1 2008Intel Core 2 Quad Q930042.5GHz2 x 3MB1333MHz95W$266Q1 2008Intel Core 2 Duo E850023.16GHz6MB1333MHz65W$266Jan 2008Intel Core 2 Duo E840023.00GHz6MB1333MHz65W$183NowIntel Core 2 Duo E820022.66GHz6MB1333MHz65W$163Jan 2008Intel Core 2 Duo E819022.66GHz6MB1333MHz65W$163Jan 2008The biggest downside to the road map is that the Q9xxx are not available. Once they are, they are no doubt going to sell like hotcakes, given the improvements over the previous generation and the fact that the prices do not increase. The upside, though, is that even though the E8400 is the lone desktop Dual-Core to be available right now, we can be happy that it is the model most people would be after.What makes the E8400 such a great choice is the fact that it's affordable, at $220USD on average, and has a nice clock speed. Let's face it... where overclocking is not concerned, having a 3.0GHz CPU looks better to the ego than say, 2.66GHz. It's all about the smooth frequencies, baby.

Intel® Core™2 Duo Processors

Maximum everything. Energy-efficient performance. Multimedia power.

Based on Intel® Core™ microarchitecture, the Intel® Core™2 Duo processor family is designed to provide powerful energy-efficient performance so you can do more at once without slowing down.
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo desktop processors
With Intel Core 2 Duo desktop processor, you'll experience revolutionary performance, unbelievable system responsiveness, and energy-efficiency second to none.
Big, big performance. More energy efficient.¹ Now available in smaller packages. The Intel Core 2 Duo processor-based desktop PC was designed from the ground up for energy efficiency, letting you enjoy higher performing, ultra-quiet, sleek, and low power desktop PC designs.
Multitask with reckless abandon. Do more at the same time, like playing your favorite music, running virus scan in the background, and all while you edit video or pictures. The powerful Intel Core 2 Duo desktop processor provides you with the speed you need to perform any and all tasks imaginable.
Love your PC again. Don’t settle for anything less than the very best. Find your perfect desktop powered by the Intel Core 2 Duo processor and get the best processing technology money can buy. Only from Intel.
• Up to 6MB L2 cache
• Up to 1333 MHz front side bus
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo mobile processors
At the dual-core heart of Intel® Centrino®2 processor technology, the Intel® Core™2 Duo processor family features a faster FSB (up to 1066 MHz), higher clock speeds, and enhanced microarchitecture technologies, helping to maximize Intel®Centrino®2 processor technology's dual-core performance and power savings.
• 6 MB of total L2 cache
• Up to 1066 MHz front side bus

Intel Core 2 Duo Knocks Down AMD Athlon 64

Intel has regained the performance crown from AMD, after its launch of Core 2 Duo line of processors which are based on Intel’s new Core micro architecture. The processors are expected to ship by 27th July 2006. The performance Core 2 Duo is found to be superior than the AMD’s current line of processors.
Intel’s Core 2 Extreme X6800 didn’t lose a single benchmark in our comparison; not a single one. In many cases, the $183 Core 2 Duo E6300 actually outperformed Intel’s previous champ: the Pentium Extreme Edition 965. In one day, Intel has made its entire Pentium D lineup of processors obsolete. Intel’s Core 2 processors offer the sort of next-generation micro-architecture performance leap that we honestly haven’t seen from Intel since the introduction of the P6.
Compared to AMD’s Athlon 64 X2 the situation gets a lot more competitive, but AMD still doesn’t stand a chance. The Core 2 Extreme X6800, Core 2 Duo E6700 and E6600 were pretty consistently in the top 3 or 4 spots in each benchmark, with the E6600 offering better performance than AMD’s FX-62 flagship in the vast majority of benchmarks. Another way of looking at it is that Intel’s Core 2 Duo E6600 is effectively a $316 FX-62, which doesn’t sound bad at all.
We’re still waiting to get our hands on the E6400 as it may end up being the best bang for your buck, but even the slower E6300 is quite competitive with AMD’s X2 4200+ and X2 3800+. If AMD drops the price on those two parts even more than we’re expecting, then it may be able to hold on to the lower end of the performance mainstream market as the E6300 is not nearly as fast as the E6600.
For industry experts, Core 2 Duo beating the Athlon 64 processor family is no surprise: On the one hand, Core 2 Duo is a brand-new state-of-the-art processor, whereas the Athlon 64 X2 has been around for a while. On the other hand, Intel must come out with a superior product to finally beat AMD after two years of Athlon 64 headwinds.
Core 2 is an eighth-generation x86 architecture microprocessor to be produced by Intel based on an all-new CPU design called the Intel Core Microarchitecture, which will replace the NetBurst architecture that has powered Intel processors since 2000. Core 2 also will mark the retirement of Intel’s Pentium brand name that has been used from 1993 and the reunion of Intel’s notebook and desktop product lines since Pentium M was released apart from Pentium 4 in 2003.
Unlike NetBurst-based processors, such as the Pentium 4 and Pentium D, Core 2 will not stress designs based on extremely high clock speeds but rather improvements on other CPU features, including cache size and number of cores. Intel claims that the power consumption of these processors is to be extremely low compared to the Pentiums before.
Intel Core 2 processors will feature EM64T, Virtualization Technology, and Execute Disable Bit. The release will also introduce LaGrande Technology, SSE4, Enhanced SpeedStep Technology, and Active Management Technology (iAMT2).

SLI support on Intel DX58SO Motherboards

According to the System Diary Technology News Blog several days ago representatives from Intel Inc. announced following upgrade:

technology news Intel SLI

We glad to inform you that Intel and NVIDIA signed contract to integrade SLI support to the new Intel Motherboard DX58SO. Official full release of this contract can be found on the NVIDIA site. This upgrade covers all DX58SO models even the one which been already sold to the retailers. For the customer who already bought these motherboards can download BIOS (v. 3435) upgrade to active SLI support.Release of this new feature for Intel motherboards can bring another huge competitor to the overclocking arena.

Manufacturer Intel UK Price Reviews

Manufacturer: Intel
UK Price (as reviewed): £99.33 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed): $119.99 (ex. Tax)

To round up our short mini-ITX season, we've finally got around to reviewing Intel's little blue G45 board. Today we're going to strip it down and get to grips with how it compares to the competition coming from other LGA775 based mini-ITX boards.

While Intel's G45 maybe continually ribbed for its extremely poor gaming performance, we're reviewing the DG45FC under the HTPC guise, because that's what Intel concentrates its driver development on. At £20 less than the Zotac GeForce 9300-ITX WiFi, is it a better buy or will the more expensive Nvidia solution be a more complete package? Can Intel design motherboards, as well as it can make chipsets and CPUs? Let's find out.

Box and Bits

Click to enlarge

The tiny box is actually quite informative (see the back of it, above) and inside Intel gives about a tree's worth of documentation, instead of just a manual and driver CD (there is one, but not shown).

With a couple of SATA cables, a basic, metal rear I/O plate and even a floppy with RAID drivers it's as basic as other mini-ITX products. Since the board has no floppy port though, it leaves this up to USB floppy support which makes us wonder whether it's even worth the bother.

For software, the package includes a three month subscription to Cyberlink Live Premium, although the non-Premium version is available for free for everyone, as well as Acronis True Image 11 Home, Diskeeper Home Edition, DivX Pro, Dolby Control Centre, Laplink PCmover Express and a few other anti-viral bits and bobs, including Norton that no one should ever use.

That's a surprisingly good bundle! Especially Acronis True Image and Diskeeper, which we use in the labs all the time.

ABOUT INTEL

Intel pushes the boundaries of innovation so our work can make people's lives more exciting, fulfilling, and manageable. And our work never stops. We never stop looking for the next leap ahead—in technology, education, culture, manufacturing, and social responsibility. And we never stop striving to deliver solutions with greater benefits for everyone


In the mainstream and high end motherboard markets, there seems to be an "arms race" between the various manufacturers; each stuffing as many integrated peripherals and features into its products as possible. Consumers are definitely benefitting, motherboards these days come with almost every features you can think of, and ample expansion space on top of that.





While most of the attention has been spent on physical attributes, a few manufacturers like Foxconn are moving beyond the hardware and into software features. Overclocking is big business now and a strong software overclocking/tweaking utility can help win over users. After all, who wouldn't love the ability to tweak their computer settings while from the comfort of the Windows desktop?



Foxconn has made a pretty big splash in the retail market with its motherboards and videocards, and the company is considered a top tier manufacturer (in terms of quality) with the likes of Asus, MSI and Gigabyte. The Foxconn MARS motherboard certainly looks like a great enthusiast friendly motherboard, particularly because it's based on Intel's hot P35 Express and ICH9R chipsets.


With a retail price of $187 CDN ($190 US, £92 GBP), Foxconn is targeting high end users with the MARS motherboard. In terms of integrated goodies, the motherboard has a Gigabit network card, two IEEE 1394a ports, onboard 7.1 channel high definition Azalia audio codec, six Serial ATA II ports (with RAID 0,1,5,10) along with an eSATA jack and twelve USB 2.0 (six on the rear I/O, six headers).


In terms of expansion the Foxconn MARS motherboard offers up two PCI Express x16 slots for videocards, two PCI Express x1 and three 32 bit PCI slots. This Intel P35 Express based motherboard will support all current Intel Pentium 4/D/XE and Core 2 Duo/Quad processors running on an 800/1066/1333 MHz FSB. The four DDR2 memory slots will accommodate a maximum of 8GB of DDR2-667/800/1066 memory. The Mars platform supports Windows Vista and the next-generation 45nm Intel multi-core processor.

INTEL MOTHER BOARDS HISTORY

The motherboard is the centre piece of you system it contains all the circuitry and components either directly on the board or via additional components which connect directly to it. The motherboard is also often referred to as the main board.

The motherboards many connectors and slots include a socket for the processor to be installed along with memory slots, a number of expansion slots, connectors to IDE/SATA devices and smaller connectors for USB, serial and printer connectors.





The motherboard plays an essential role in the following aspects of your computer system:

Organization of devices: Everything is eventually connected to the motherboard. The way that the motherboard is designed and laid out dictates how the entire computer is going to be organized.

Control of the devices: Built-in to the motherboard is the chipset and BIOS program, which between them control the majority of data flow throughout the different computer systems.

System Communication: Almost all communication between the PC and its peripherals, other PCs, and you, the user, goes through the motherboard.

Processor Support: The motherboard socket depicts which choice of processor you can use in your system.

Peripheral Support: The motherboards components determine what type of peripherals you can use in your PC. For example, you can not use AGP cards if you only have PCI slots.

System Performance: The motherboard is a major factor in your system's performance; it dictates which type of processors, memory, system buses, and hard disk interface speed your system can have via its connectors or BIOS settings. Often if you are upgrading after a number of years you will need to replace the board, CPU, and memory.

Upgradeability: As motherboards are developed newer processors may not be compatible with your hardware as limitations of the circuitry built-in to the board itself will not allow them to run. As a result you can look for any upgrades via your maker's website but may need to consider upgrading.