Buzzword of the Month

Buzzword of the Month

XPERIA X1
Claimed as yet another iPhone killer by Tech evangelists and bloggers, the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 has on incredibly high-resolution (800 × 480), 3-inch VGA touch screen display. With a unique arc-slider design, the X1 features a new desktop GUI called ‘Experia panels’, a nine-panel interface that’s eye candy on the high-resolution display. These panels are finger-friendly marvels that permit access to applications running on the phone via the home screen. Navigation is possible either by touch, arc-sliding QWERTY Keypad, 4-way joypad and an “optical joystick”. The X1 also has loads of other features like quadband GSM as well was UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA network support, WiFi, aGPS, microSD (400 MB on phone memory by default) and of course, Windows Mobile 6. X1 aims for the Web convergence market since it runs the Microsoft Windows Mobile OS for blending multimedia with Web communication. All the hype around the X1 leaves Sony Ericsson fans in anticipation, and it is expected to hit markets over the second half of 2008. There’s no way can you expect it to be cheap. Nevertheless, keep drooling!


Dunnington
Move over quad cores, here’s the new hexacore processor from Intel to steal your thunder. Intel has announced that it will be launching a native six core processor named Dunnington based on the Penryn architecture later this year. Altough aimed at servers, we suspect that the migration to desktops and maybe even laptops won’t take long. According to the technical specifications, Dunnington uses a 45-nm die fabrication process. The six cores between them share three 3M L2 caches and a 16-MB Shared L3 cache. It also implements Quick Path interconnects, an Intel patented point-to-point data transfer interface replacing the traditional slower Front Side Bus. Data transfer rates would be 25.6 Gbps. It also has an integrated memory controller and supports DDR3-800 memory. Simultaneous multithreading (SMT) is another feature that is widely touted. SMT enables each core to handle two threads at a time—speeds will see a huge increase. Implementation of this feature in Dunnington means that servers will be able to handle more requests and speed up delivery of pages.


ATOM
It’s all about the mobile these days, and when you want to develop a processor for gadgets that fit in your pocket, you’ve got to think smart. So far, ARM-based processors have been the powerhouse of choice for smartphones and PDAs, but if Intel has its way, the universal language of x86 is set to be spoken in your pocket, too. Intel’s new Atom processor is built with the world’s smallest transistors, sports a shiny new design, and has been built specifically to consume very little power. This, of course, means that it can power mobile phones, PDAs, and other “Mobile Internet Devices” (MIDs). The numbers, if they are to be believed, are astounding: a Thermal Design Power (TDP) that ranges from less than a Watt to a maximum of 2.5 Watts and an idle power consumption of 30 milliwatts. And it’ll be really cheap, too. What’s not to love? Support for the Atom has come in abundance—Acer is expected to show off an Atom-based, ultra-lowcost laptop (though this might be a relative term) sometime in June this year. Around the same time, it’s expected that ASUS will release an updated Eee PC, also based on the Atom. Japanese handset firm Willcom Inc has already released the world’s first Atom-based mobile phone—the D4. What really puts a feather in Intel’s cap is that this little phone runs—wait for it—Vista! Start saving up—it won’t be long before you’ll lay your eyes on the next generation of smartphones.