Computer Systems News - Page 1

Over the years, Raspberry Pi's has only gotten better and better, but this year could very well be the best year yet.

Back in June last year, we saw the launch of the Raspberry Pi 4, which sported massive upgrades when comparing it to the first model of Raspberry Pi, which released back in 2012. Now, in celebration of the Raspberry Pi's eighth birthday, they are dropping the prices of the Raspberry Pi 2GB of RAM variant.

According to the blog post, due to the drop in RAM prices, Raspberry is now able to bring down the cost of the Raspberry Pi 4 with 2GB of RAM to just $35 from $45, which is the same price as the original Raspberry Pi when it launched. When comparing the Pi 4 to the original Pi from 2012, it has 40x the CPU performance, 8x the memory, 10x the I/O bandwidth, can support 4x the number of pixels on screen as well as dual screens, and finally, has dual-band wireless networking.

Introducing Daisy, the tiny microcomputer that sports all of the necessary equipment for coding your musical instruments.

The company behind this little device is Electrosmith, and according to their announcement, Daisy comes with the following features. Two channels of line-level audio, MIDI connectivity, an in-built micro USB port, 64MB of SDRAM, and latency under 1ms. It doesn't stop there though; Daisy also comes with programming languages such as C++, Arduino, Max/MSP, and Pure Data.

At the moment, Daisy is available on Kickstarter and comes in at the cost of $29, which I think is a damn good price considering all the features that come with it. If you are interested in checking out the other things that Daisy can do, head on over to the Kickstarter page here. On a side note, Electrosmith also believes that Daisy would be a great addition to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) research and education. Quite a nifty little device Electrosmith, fantastic work!

Corsair's new ONE PRO i200 compact workstation-grade PC has been announced, packing in some seriously kick-ass components into something near impossibly small.

The new Corsair ONE PRO i200 packs a high-end 14-core, 28-thread Intel Core i9-10940X processor and flagship NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti graphics card. Corsair also installs a huge 64GB of quad-channel VENGEANCE DDR4 memory that can handle virtually anything you throw at it when it comes to workstation use.

Corsair also packs in a super-fast 2TB M.2 NVMe SSD that will ensure you have super-fast loading times, and super-fast read/writes for everything you want to do. Corsair's new ONE PRO i200 workstation is not just a kick ass workstation PC, but it would be an insane gaming PC that would handle everything you throw at it all the way to 4K 60FPS gaming.

Apple debuted its new high-end Mac Pro last year, which can be configured with some pretty wicked-fast hardware and can pack up to an insane 1.5TB of RAM and cost up to $50,000. That 1.5 terabytes of RAM is meant to be used for professionals and content creators, but what about Google Chrome?

Jonathan Morrison used his fresh new Mac Pro with 1.5TB of RAM and put it to the test, opening up countless Chrome tabs that started with around 2000 tabs chewing up 75GB of RAM. From there, over 5000 tabs were opened and Chrome was using over 170GB of RAM. But after leaving the system overnight, Morrison came back to see over 6000 tabs open and Chrome RAM usage hitting 857GB.

The testing continued, with Chrome pushing up past 1TB of RAM, into the max territory of 1.4TB of RAM -- simply insane. In the end, Morrison's new Mac Pro packed with 1.5TB of RAM eventually saw Chrome crash -- shocker -- but other apps within macOS were operating normally. A testament to Apple's own macOS, and a snicker towards Google and its web browser Chrome.

I hope Jonathan purchased those $400 wheels for his new Mac Pro, too.

Apple made headlines in the PC gaming world with teases of its new gaming-focused Mac that could cost $5000, but what if that new gaming-focused Mac was powered by an AMD Ryzen CPU and AMD Radeon GPU.

According to code snippets found in macOS Catalina 10.15.4 beta, a bunch of AMD APUs were spotted, teasing that Apple could be using AMD technology inside of a future Mac. These APUs could be perfect for low/mid-range MacBook and MacBook Air laptops, but it could scale as high as Ryzen and Navi-powered gaming Macs, too.

AMD is offering up their Ryzen CPUs much cheaper than Intel does with its range of Core processors, and given the troubles Intel is going through mixed with the mega success AMD is going through right now, Apple making this change would be a serious move for the entire tech industry. It's all rumor mill stuff for now, but I'll keep a close eye on how this progresses over 2020.

We now live in a world where foldable displays and smartphones are a reality, with Samsung already on the market with their game-changing Galaxy Fold -- but what is Apple doing about that?

According to a new patent filed by Apple, we could expect a revolutionary new Mac in the future that is built from a single sheet of glass. As you can see from the patent, it is curved into a display at the top and keyboard and track pad at the bottom. We should expect the display, camera, and sensors in the top half of the new Mac -- while the wedge at the bottom (in the image below) would most likely house the internals of the system.

Apple would have one of the most interestingly designed PCs on the market with this new patent, but considering how many years the company is behind everyone else that is already experimenting with foldable tech... don't expect the foldable iMac any time soon. I'd give it at least another 2-3 years before we see something this radical from Apple on the desktop.

AMD is kicking off the new decade with a collaboration with Corsair on its new Vengeance gaming PC, which is powered by all-AMD goodness packing a kick-ass Ryzen 7 3700X processor and Radeon RX 5700 XT graphics card.

Corsair has its new Vengeance 6100 series systems with the Vengeance 6180 and Vengeance 6182 gaming PCs packing AMD Ryzen 7 3700X, meaning we have 8 cores and 16 threads of CPU power. Both of the new Corsair Vengeance 6100 series PCs also include the Navi-based Radeon RX 5700 XT graphics card.

Since it's a Corsair gaming PC, the cooling is handled by Corsair using their in-house H100i RGB Platinum AIO cooler, which is then installed into the Corsair Crystal Series 280X RGB case. You'll also find the rest of the components to be from Corsair too, with 16GB of Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO DDR4-3200 RAM, a Corsair RM650 PSU, and a 2TB HDD.

Toshiba research scientists have created a new algorithm that is capable of sifting through extremely large number sets ten times faster than laser-based quantum computers.

The two Toshiba research scientists are Hayato Goto and Kosuke Tatsumura, and back in 2015, Goto originally created the idea for the new algorithm after noticing how some parts of a complex system can go through a bifurcation process once new inputs are implemented. It took Goto a further two years to implement the new algorithm, which has been called "Simulated Bifurcation Algorithm". Goto then partnered with Tatsumura, and with his knowledge, the researchers were able to make the new algorithm scalable.

After some time tweaking the design process, the researchers were able to get the algorithm to not only work on a traditional computer with off the shelf components but also a cluster of server CPU's and field-programmable gate array (FPGA). Using an FPGA, the reports of Toshiba's new algorithm is to be up to ten times faster than a laser-based quantum computer. Toshiba plans on selling the "Simulated Bifurcation Algorithm" to stock trading companies, social networks, and manufacturing companies. Toshiba is aiming this new algorithm at solving companies' combinatorial optimization problems.

CES 2020 - Razer had one of the best-looking modular gaming PCs at CES 2020 with its new Tomahawk Gaming Desktop, which is built on the concept of Intel's new Ghost Canyon NUC.

The new Razer Tomahawk sees your graphics card vertically mounted and front-and-center to the glass window, with the company building the Tomahawk in an all-aluminum chassis. It's easy to get into with a lock-and-slide mechanism at the back of the Tomahawk, providing a tool-free leap into the PC.

Razer will let you configure the Tomahawk modular g aming PC with up to an Intel Core i9 processor, 64GB of RAM, and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER graphics card. We should expect the new Razer Tomahawk modular gaming PC to start at around $2000, and I'm sure it'll be an expensive little beast with a Core i9, 64GB of RAM, and GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER graphics card.

CES 2020 - Origin PC, the boutique system builder recently acquired by Corsair, has made some waves at CES 2020. Today Origin announced their new M-Class studio desktop. The M-Class Studio desktop is targeted at professional class users who need maximum power for tasks such as video, and photo editing, 3D Modeling, and various other creative workflows.

The M-Class Studio desktop is something that is well outside of what we consider "in the wheelhouse" of a custom boutique builder like Origin, until now. With their recent acquisition by Corsair, they got a massive shot in the arm, and likely some wiggle room to expand their offerings beyond extreme gaming-focused rigs and into the professional application realm.

One of the key features enabling productivity-focused builds from Origin is NVIDIA's new "Studio drivers," which are tuned and optimized for professional workload performance. These drivers have been tested and shown to accelerate professional workflows by a significant margin for professional users while still retaining the gaming performance users have come to know.