Raspberry Pi: the $25 computer

Raspberry Pi is a £15 or $25 computer the size of a typical USB stick. Created by games developer David Braben, the whole computer is on a tiny circuit board, with a USB port on one end (for plugging in a keyboard) and an HDMI port on the other (for plugging in a monitor or TV).
Braben and other enthusiasts are working to turn the current sketchy prototype into a product that could be handed to every child in the UK. They believe that what today's schoolchildren learn in class leaves them uninspired and ignorant about the way computers work and does not encourage creativity, according to the BBC.
The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a registered charity in the UK which exists to promote the study of Computer Science and related topics. The organization's goal is to develop, manufacture, and distribute an ultra-low-cost computer. From this prototype, we can safely say "so far, so good."





Rasberry Pi is supposed to be a working computer that runs Linux and, like the kit computers of the 1970s and 1980s, encourages users to tinker and learn. While the computer was created to teach computer programming to children, the foundation expects it to have many other applications both in the developed and the developing world.
So what's left? The volunteer team still has to produce a better prototype, show that it really can be manufactured for the low price, and then convince the educational establishment to support it. We sincerely wish them good luck!

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Is this Dell's Adamo successor?

In the coming weeks, Dell is expected to introduce a sleek new 15.6-inch laptop that will succeed the Adamo. It will be the first in a line (both 14-inch and 17-inch models are also reportedly on the way) of laptops designed to be the thinnest and most powerful in their respective class.
The first model (latest Intel Sandy Bridge Core i5 and Core i7 processors, high-resolution display, fashioned from "special materials," and under $1,000) may have been pictured for the first time (below), courtesy of Mobile Review. While we don't know any more details, it does have a name: the XPS 15z. This would imply that Dell plans to leverage the XPS brand for its new line of laptops (we knew it would be an existing brand, just not which one), and that the other two may be called the XPS 14z and the XPS 17z.

In January of this year, Dell started to offer steep discounts on its ultra-thin Adamo notebook. One month later, in February 2011, the inventory was depleted, and consumers looking to buy the 13-inch laptop on Dell's website were recommended the thicker but more powerful XPS 15 or 17 instead. In short, the Dell Adamo line and brand name was discontinued.
First revealed at CES in 2009, the Adamo boasted looks and portability to challenge Apple's 13-inch MacBook Air. Besides an eye-catchingly thin (0.65-inch) aluminum casing, it also offered fast storage via solid-state drives, ultra-power-efficient Intel Core 2 Duo processors, and a SIM card slot on the side of the notebook.
Dell has deemed the Adamo a failure, but it still wants a line of laptops that will succeed it. Right now it looks like that will be the XPS z series, for the lack of a better name.

source:Techspot

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Apple's new iMac gets early access to Intel's Z68 chipset

intel's new Z68 chipset is slated to arrive in the first half of May as a hybrid between the P67 and the H67 for the LGA 1155 platform. Besides allowing better CPU overclocking and enabling the Quick Sync transcoding technology that is embedded into Sandy Bridge processors, the high-end chipset is introducing something called 'Smart Response Technology'. Its official debut is expected within a week, but apparently Apple has been granted early access.
As reported earlier this week, Apple unveiled a fresh batch of iMacs that packed a bevy of noteworthy upgrades beneath its aluminum enclosure, including faster processors and graphics as well as Intel's new Thunderbolt interface. But a recent teardown from iFixit revealed the machine also utilizes Intel's still unreleased BD82Z68 platform controller.

There's already speculation that that Apple might enable Intel's Smart Response Technology in their machines, which is said to boost system performance by marrying a conventional hard drive to a relatively small SSD. While that might be in the cards in the future for now there's no indication of Intel's SSD caching technology being used on the new iMac.
Apple does offer a SSD option in its latest iMacs but it involves a 256GB drive rather than the much smaller-capacity drives envisioned for SSD caching. Although you'll still get a nice boost by using it as your operating system and applications drive, the idea behind Intel's Smart Response Technology is that you'd be able to get a similar boost while spending much less on a smaller drive. Only the most frequently accessed data is automatically moved onto the SSD for fast access while users see a single drive on their computer instead of one for the SSD and another for the HDD.
That said, Apple could always add the option of a smaller solid-state drive later. A recent leak shows Intel is preparing to launch a "Larsen Creek" SSD with 20GB capacity for use within an SRT-based setup. The drive is scheduled to launch in Q3 2011 according to the latest roadmaps and is said to offer a substantial boost in performance a boot times.

Source: Techspot

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