Category: Computing

All the Computer and Laptop news, bundled with all add ons including Printers and Peripherals.

HP Launches The Spectre Folio, Spectre x360 In India

US Electronic giant HP at an event today in New Delhi has launched two products under its premium Spectre series. The company has launched the Spectre Folio and the Spectre x360 in India. Both the devices are a 2-in-1 and feature 8th generation Intel chipsets.

HP Spectre Folio

The HP Spectre Folio is the world’s first leather convertible PC. The device has a 13.3-inch low-power, 1W 400-nits FHD display which supports touch input. It also has an 8th Gen Intel Core i7 processor. Boasting of a fanless thermal design, the device weighs 1.47Kg. Other features include up to 16 GB of RAM, and 512 GB of SSD storage. The device arrives with Windows 10 Pro preinstalled. It also features four front-facing speakers tuned by Bang & Olufsen. The Spectre Folio will be available in Cognac Brown at a price of Rs. 1,99,990.

HP Spectre x360

The Spectre x360 is another convertible offering launched by HP today. The device is available in a number of variants, differing in screen size, screen type, and internal specifications. The Spectre x360 is available in a 13-inch display in either FullHD or 4K resolution with a touchscreen. The device features either an 8th Gen Intel Core i5 or an i7 processors and will be available in 8GB or 16GB memory configuration. The convertible can be configured with up to 1TB of storage. The device also comes with a privacy camera kill switch which allows the user to electrically turn off the webcam when not in use. The Spectre x360 Dark Ash Grey is available at a starting price of INR 1,29,990, and in Poseidon Blue at a starting price of INR 1,39,990.

Also read: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Retail Packaging Images Surface Again

Both the devices come with McAfee Livesafe which will be free for a period of 12 months. The HP Spectre series is a premium lineup of convertibles and is targeted towards businessmen and students.

Model:	Spectre x360
Weight:	1.32Kg
Design:	Aluminum Casing
Screen:	13.3-inch WLED (FHD/4K)
Chipset:	Intel Core i5 8265U/ Intel Core i7 8565U
RAM:	8GB/16GB
Storage:	256GB/512GB/1TB
Battery:	61Wh
Price:	Rs. 1,29,990 (Starts at)
Colors:	Dark Ash Silver, Poseidon Blue

February 13, 2019

Coconics, Kerala’s Own Laptop Project, Announces 3 Laptops

Coconics, Kerala’s own laptop server project, has seen a big leap with the logo of the project being rolled out in PPP mode released by state Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. Industries Minister E P Jayarajan handed over the first Coconics laptop to the Chief Minister. Now, Coconics has announced three new models today on the sidelines of the Electronics Manufacturing Summit in New Delhi.

The three laptop models introduced by Coconics include CC11B, CC11A, and C314A. The CC11B is an 11 inch 2-in-1 and the other two are normal notebooks. These laptops boast of a metal casing and also a long battery life of up to 8 hours.

Kerala – India’s First Laptop Manufacturing State

Coconics is a joint venture of the state-run Keltron, a US-based technology firm UST Global, KSIDC and Acceleron. It is pitched as a unique public-private laptop and server manufacturing company from Kerala. Also, Intel is providing the guidance and technical assistance to manufacture laptops in India under the ambitious ‘Make in India’ initiative.

The laptops feature some good specifications. The CC11B is an 11 inch 2-in-1 having a FullHD resolution. It has an Intel Celeron N3350 inside coupled with 4GB RAM and a 64GB eMMC storage. It features a Type-C port and has Windows 10 on board. The CC11A has a 11 inch HD display with an Intel Celeron N4000 inside. It has 2GB of RAM and 64GB of eMMC storage. The laptops will arrive with Windows 10 pre-installed.

The C314A is a little more powerful than the rest. It has a 14 inch HD Display. It has a Intel i3 7I00U inside with 4GB of RAM and 500GB HDD. The laptop also has Windows 10 pre-installed. It is drop resistant and has also been tested for water and spill resistance.

Also read: Google Maps Will Support Augmented Reality Navigation Soon

The laptops will be manufactured at the plant in Monvilla, Thiruvananthapuram. It also has a capacity to produce 2,50,000 laptops annually. The manufacturing plant is ready and an official plant inauguration will happen this month. That’s when the manufacturing of the laptops will also begin. With this, Kerala becomes the first state in India to design and manufacture laptops. The pricing and the availablity of the laptops hasn’t been announced yet.

February 11, 2019
ZenBook 13, 14 And 15 Announced By ASUS In India

Since lightweight laptops are the ones ruling the markets these days, ASUS decided to show up with its own answer to all this. It just introduced the latest members of the ZenBook family, which are the ZenBook 13, ZenBook 14 and ZenBook 15. On the user-base side, the three laptops are targeting those users who prefer portability over everything. ASUS has previously released some pretty nice notebooks, so now it’s time to see what the new ZenBooks have to offer.

ASUS ZenBook 13

The ASUS ZenBook 13 in just 16.9 mm thin. Featuring a 13.3 inch Full-HD display with a NanoEdge design, the ZenBook 13 achieves a 95% screen-to-body ratio. With ultra-thin side and bottom bezels (2.8mm-3.3mm), it claims to be the world’s smallest 13 inch laptop. If you think the small screen at 13 inches is an issue, the display is optimized for 178-degree viewing angles. We think that this makes it a great device overall.

The ASUS ZenBook 13 will be marketed in two variants. The first one will pack a 8th gen Intel Core i7-8565U CPU, which will be clocked at 1.8 GHz. The second variant will pack an Intel Core i5-8265U clocked at the same speed. Both variants will have the 2GB NVIDIA GeForce MX150, and the users can pick either the 8GB RAM or 16GB RAM model. There’s a lot of variety in storage options too, with 256GB, 512GB and 1TB of SSD across these devices.

The ASUS ZenBook will start at Rs. 71,990. The device is expected to last 14 hours on a single charge. Also, it will be available in 2 colour options : Royal Blue and Icicle Silver.

ASUS ZenBook 14

The next iteration in the ZenBook series is the ASUS ZenBook 14, which will be 0.63 inches thin. The 1.09kg notebook will sport a 14-inch Full HD display, with a 92% screen-to-body ratio. Again, this is possible because of very thin bottom and side bezels. Again, it will be available in the same processor options as the ZenBook 13, with similar graphic options.

The ASUS ZenBook 14 will last up to 13 hours on a single charge, and it will be available at a price starting Rs. 72,990.

ASUS ZenBook 15

Also Read : ASUS May Launch Zenfone With Pop Up Camera And Punch Hole Camera

The best variant in the new ZenBook Series, the ASUS ZenBook 15 has a much bigger 15.6 inch screen. Not surprisingly, with a 92 percent screen-to-body ratio. It has two CPU options : An Intel Core i7-8565U (8th gen) processor and Intel Core i5-8265U (8th gen) processor. Backed by the same graphics as the other two notebooks, we think that it will deliver pretty well. Similar storage options as the ZenBook 13 and 14 are available.

The ASUS ZenBook 15 will be priced Rs. 1,39,990 onwards and will be available in the same two colours: Royal Blue and Icicle Silver Colour Options.

February 1, 2019
Google “Rammus” Surfaces On Geekbench With i7-8500Y & 8GB RAM

Last year, a mysterious Google device called “rammus” had appeared online, which was running an Intel Core M3-8100Y processor. This time, a different variant of the same “rammus” device was spotted on Geekbench. But this time, it’s sporting a better Intel CPU and twice as much RAM. Read on to find out more!

Google “Rammus” : Under The Hood

The latest Google “rammus” reveal on Geekbench indicates that the device is packing a 4.20 Ghz i7-8500Y dual-core processor. As we mentioned beforehand, the earlier version had an Intel Core m3-8100Y processor. This is an okay-ish improvement, considering the fact that there is not a lot of performance difference between the two chipsets. Both the Intel chips are based on the Amber Lake microarchitecture. They are built on a 14nm+ FinFET process.

Geekbench Scores

An 8GB RAM over 4GB RAM is a decent upgrade any day, which Google seems to have done with the new “rammus”. If we compare the benchmarking scores of the old and the new “rammus” models, we see a clear improvement. The newer variant with the core i7 processor scored 4054 in the single-core test, whereas it achieved a score of 8247 in the multi-score test. On the other hand, the older variant, which packed the Core m3 scored 3479 points in the single-core test and 6312 points in the multi-core test. A difference of almost 2000 points clearly indicates that Google is planning to bring this strange “rammus” to the market soon.

Also Read : Mysterious Google Device Leaks On Geekbench With Snapdragon 855

According to Geekbench, the device was running Android 9.0 Pie. But it is highly probable that the device is just running Chrome OS. The motherboard, listed as “Shyvana”. The device, when it’ll be launched, can be the more cheaper version of the Google Pixel Slate. Of course, nothing can be confirmed at this stage. But speculations point the other way, for sure.

January 31, 2019
Microsoft Launches The Surface Pro 6, Surface Laptop 2 In India

Microsoft has updated the Surface lineup of devices in the Indian market. On Monday, the company launched the Surface Pro 6 and the Surface Laptop 2 in the country. This makes it Microsoft’s third launch in the last few months, coming after the Surface Go, which was launched a while ago. The Microsoft Surface lineup of devices are soon making their way in the country.

Microsoft Surface Pro 6

The Surface Pro 6 is the most premium windows tablet in the market and one of the best devices for multimedia and work. The Tablet is equipped with a 12.3 inch Quad HD LED Backlit PixelSense Multi-touch Display with either the 8th Generation Intel Core i5 or i7. It is available in 3 variants. And all the three variants come with 8GB of RAM. The pricing for all the three versions are Rs. 83,999 for the Core i5, 128GB SSD variant. The Core i5, 256GB version comes at Rs. 1,10,999. The i7, 256GB SSD version costs Rs. 1,39,999. The device will be available on Flipkart.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 2

The Microsoft Surface Laptop got raving reviews when it launched in 2017. With the 2nd generation of the device, Microsoft hasn’t changed much. There is a new Matte Black colour and upgraded specifications. The Surface Laptop 2 comes with 8th Gen Intel processors. Rest of the features remain the same. There is the same 13.5 inch display as last gen.

There are 3 variants of the Surface Laptop 2 in India. The Core i5, 8GB RAM and 128GB SSD storage start at Rs 91,999. Bumping up the storage to 256GB on this variant will cost Rs 119,999. There’s a top-end variant with Core i7 processor, 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD storage that costs Rs 2,03,999. The device will be available on Flipkart and some offline channels.

Read more: Honor View20 Launched In India, Kirin 980 And 3D Camera In Tow

The Microsoft Surface devices are one of the best ones in the market for productivity and multimedia purposes. Let’s see if these devices find their success in India.

January 30, 2019
HP Announces Rugged Laptops With Wacom Stylus Support For Students

HP has been delivering great laptops in the form of Chromebooks for quite some time now. While there are several rugged phones in the market, a rugged laptop is hardly ever heard of. But HP has done just that! They showcased two Chromebooks recently – the Chromebook x360 11 G2 and Chromebook 11 G7 Education Editions.

Both the laptops are said to have undergone MIL-STD-810G testing and feature a spill-resistant keyboard. This is a millitary grade testing and the laptops are said to be able to survive drops of up to 76cm on concrete.

Chromebook x360 11 G2 EE

The Chromebook x360 11 G2 EE features an 11-inch IPS display with HD (1,366 x 768) resolution. It has two USB-C ports, one regular USB port, a headphone jack along with an SD card slot. The laptop’s screen has a 360-degree hinge lets you turn the device into a 3.24-pound tablet. It also supports the optional Wacom EMR pen. This is supposedly done to allow students to take notes. There are a few different options in terms of configuration and the laptop is powered by either a dual-core Celeron N4000 or quad-core N4100 with 8GB of RAM and 32/64GB of storage.

Chromebook 11 G7 EE

The second Chromebook, albeit similar in many ways has significant differences as well. The Chromebook 11 G7 EE features the same processor options, RAM, storage option, battery size and display size. The durability rating is similar as well with the same tests having been performed on this Chromebook.

The main difference are in it’s screen. It features three different display options — an HD IPS touchscreen, a matte HD IPS non-touchscreen and an HD SVA option.The hinge on this laptop only lets you lay the display flat on a table instead of a 360 degree fold.

Both these laptops can hold up to 11.5 hours of power according to HP. The Chromebook x360 11 G2 EE and Chromebook 11 G7 EE will go on sale sometime in April, and the prices have not been revealed as of now.

January 22, 2019
Alienware Area- 51m, An Upgradable Gaming Laptop

Imagine a powerful desktop computer, but portable. It sounds like a gamer’s dream. Well, not anymore since Alienware has done just that. The new Area- 51m is a completely customisable laptop. It was launched at CES 2019 by Dell and is going to change how gaming laptops have been seen so far.

Up until now, gaming laptops have concentrated on becoming smaller in size while providing top of the line specifications. But that has meant that while a customer buys the laptop, it supports all contemporary games but the specifications become obsolete as years go by. Games these days have become extremely demanding in terms of system specifications and this means that most gaming laptops stop supporting high end games in just a few years’ time. But the Aleinware Area- 51 can replace both the CPU and the GPU so that a gamer does not have to upgrade to a whole new laptop every few years.

Specifications

The laptop will sport a ninth-gen Intel CPU and 20-series overclockable Nvidia GPU. This will be the first time that an Alienware laptop will support eight-core processors, 2.5Gbit Ethernet and 64GB of RAM.

The laptop will be available in various CPU and GPU configurations. The CPU options include Intel’s 9th Gen i7-8700, i7-9700K or i9-9900K. GPU options of the laptop are Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060, GeForce RTX 2070 or GeForce RTX 2080. The RAM options for the laptop range from 8GB to 64GB DDR4 RAM with single, dual and triple storage options, from 256GB to 3TB. The screen of the laptop is a 17 inch screen with 144Hz G- Sync display. It also has a 10/100/1000/2.5 Gbps RJ-45 Ethernet with Killer Wireless 1550 2×2 AC and Bluetooth 5.0. The laptop is in no way light and weighs in at 8.5 pounds. Some of the weight is due to the body being made from a magnesium alloy. It will be available in either white or matte black.

The cooling system used is called Cryo-Tech 2.0, which covers the dual-intake, dual-exhaust airflow design, copper fin stacks, heat pipes and high-voltage fans. It also has hexagonal shaped vents for cooling both under and at the back of the laptop.

The lowest specced laptop starts at just around $2,000 and should be available on Jan 21st, 2019.

January 9, 2019
AMD Ryzen 9 3800X ‘Matisse’ With 4.7 GHz Turbo Clock Listed Online

AMD is an American company that design and markets computer processors. The CPUs offered by the company are usually overshadowed by their Intel counterparts. But in the year 2017, AMD launched the Ryzen series of processors which due to the high value for money factor has put the company in limelight. The Ryzen processors are available under three different lineups which are Ryzen 3, Ryzen 5, and Ryzen 7. Surprisingly, an all-new Ryzen 9 flagship CPU, the AMD 3800X has been listed on a Russian retailer’s website.

AMD Ryzen 9 3800x

The upcoming AMD Ryzen 9 3800x is the most powerful processor that the company has ever designed. According to the leak, the 3800x CPU is manufactured using 7nm technology and is based on Matisse (Zen2) architecture. Reports in the past have claimed that AMD will showcase Zen2 architecture based chip at the CES 2019. Therefore, the Ryzen 9 might be unveiled during the tech event which is scheduled for 8-12 January.

The mighty AMD Ryzen 9 3800x CPU has 16 cores and 32 threads. It will be the world’s first computer chip to be manufactured using 7 nm FinFET technology. Most notably, the processor has a base clock speed of 3.9 GHz and a turbo clock speed of 4.7 GHz. This clock speed is 400 MHz higher than the current flagship Ryzen 7 2700X which can be clocked up to 4.3 GHz. The processor has a TDP (Thermal design power) of 125 watts which again is 20 watts higher than the current flagship.

Ryzen 9’s Competition

The Ryzen 9 with its 32 cores, super-high clock speed, and 125 W TDP will compete against the likes of Intel i9 processors which were launched late last year.

Launch Date & Pricing

Also Read: Sony Bumps Up 3D Camera Sensor Production

Like the previous Ryzen processors, AMD is expected to aggressively price the Ryzen 9 3800X. The CPU will most likely be unveiled at the CES 2019. Along with the Ryzen 9, the company might also showcase the next-generation Ryzen 3,5 and 7 CPUs.

January 2, 2019
Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air With Intel Core i5 Launched

Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi has launched yet another product, adding to its arsenal. The Mi Notebook 12.5 inch has been launched and it runs on the 7th generation Intel i5 processor. It is the latest in the impressive Mi Notebook series. The laptop has been launched at a price of RMB 3,999 which translates to about Rs 40,000. As of now, nothing is known about the Indian launch of the Mi Notebook Air.

Specifications

The Mi Notebook Air has a 12.5 inch Full HD display. The laptop is 12.9 mm thick and weighs 1.07 Kg, justifying its Air’ title. It runs on the seventh generation i5 processor. It has 4 GB of RAM along with 256 GB of storage. Xiaomi has not revealed much about the Mi Notebook Air’s battery, but claims that it has a 11.5 hour backup on a single charge. The laptop is based on Windows 10 and also features a USB Type-C port. This is used for connectivity and charging as well. The laptop also supports fast charging.

The company is not offering any higher configuration options on the Mi Notebook Air. Which is disappointing as buyers would not even get the option to opt for a better processor. But, the existing 7th generation i5 processor is still quite a jump compared to the m3 processor on the previous model. The laptop has been launched in China as of now and though the company has not mentioned anything about the Indian launch, we can expect it sometimes not year.

Also Read : POCO Will Launch A New Smartphone On 25 December

Now that the chinese smartphone giant has gained a strong foothold in India, it is looking forward to launch more and more products here as well. Earlier, top company brass had announced that they will bring more products to India and the Mi Notebook Air will surely be one of the best choices for the same.

December 24, 2018
Apple’s Blackmagic eGPU Pro Now Available For Purchase
Apple announced the Blackmagic eGPU Pro alongside the MacBook Air and Mac Mini in October. The Blackmagic eGPU Pro is an updated variant of the Blackmagic eGPU which was previously launched. Although the eGPU Pro was launched a few months ago, it was not available for purchase till now. The consumers can now place orders for the eGPU and Apple will commence deliveries from 15 January 2019.

What Is The Blackmagic eGPU Pro?

The Blackmagic eGPU is an external Graphics Processing Unit for Apple computers. It can be connected to any compatible Apple machine using a Thunderbolt-3 cable. The Blackmagic eGPU Pro when connected to an Apple laptop or desktop computer will provide it with sufficient horsepower to run graphics-intensive tasks, like playing video games and rendering video content. Apple claims that the eGPU is powerful enough to run intensive tasks that were previously possible only on the high-end iMac Pro.

Design And Specifications

The Blackmagic eGPU Pro looks like a tower PC cabinet with an aluminum build and plastic base plate. The eGPU has cold air inlet vents at the bottom and hot air outlet vents at the top which allow it to stay cool even during intensive data processing tasks. It measures 2944 x 1768 x 1768 mm and weighs in at 4.5 kilograms. The rear side of the unit has various input and output ports which are as follows:
- 2 x Thunderbolt 3 ports
- 4 x USB 3 ports
- 1 x HDMI 2.0 port
- 1 x DisplayPort 1.4 port
- 85W power delivery port
The Blackmagic eGPU Pro features an AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 graphics card with 8 GB of HBM2 memory. The RX Vega 56 has 56 computing cores that have a base frequency of 1156 MHz and a boost frequency of up to 1471 MHz. The device supports Apple desktop and laptop computers which run on macOS 10.14.1 Mojave or later.

Price And Availability

Also Read: Xiaomi Launches Mi Pay Mobile Payment Service In India

The Blackmagic eGPU Pro is available at a price of $ 1,119 from Apple’s US website and the company will deliver the first batch between 15-23 January 2019.
December 21, 2018
Microsoft Launches Surface Go 2-in-1 PC In India
Microsoft offers a wide range of laptops and touchscreen PC’s which carry the Microsoft Surface branding. These devices have a premium build with high-end features and are intended to set a benchmark for other Windows PC OEMs. Earlier this year, the company launched their cheapest 2-in-1 detachable notebook, the Surface Go in the US. The budget-oriented Surface Go has now been launched in India. As the name suggests, it is a 2-in-1 PC with a detachable keyboard that is sold separately. Like a lot of other companies, Microsoft has also chosen the online sales model for the Surface Go. The PC will be exclusively available on Flipkart and will be offered in two RAM + ROM configurations.

Click Here To Buy The Microsoft Surface Go

Design

The Microsoft Go has a rectangular tile-like shape with an adjustable kickstand. It measures 245 x 176 x 8.3 mm and weighs in at 522 grams. The top side of the device houses the power button and the volume rockers while the bottom side houses the magnetic keyboard connector. The left side of the Surface Go houses the microSD expansion slot and the right side houses the 3.5 mm jack, USB Type-C port, and side firing dual speakers. The rear of the device has a 5 MP camera and a microphone pinhole. The PC also has an 8 MP autofocus camera for taking pictures and video conferencing.

Specifications

The Microsoft Go has a 10-inch LED display with a resolution of 1800 x 1200 px. For protection against scratches, the display also gets Corning Gorilla Glass 3. The Microsoft Surface Go has dual 2 Watt stereo speakers with Dolby audio support. The touchscreen PC features the dual-core Intel 4415Y Pentium Gold processor that has a clock speed of 1.6 GHz. The Intel SoC also has integrated HD 615 graphics.

In terms of connectivity, the Surface Go has Bluetooth 4.1 and Wi-Fi 802.11 ac. It also has a variety of built-in sensors which include an ambient light sensor, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, and a magnetometer. The PC runs latest Windows 10 Home in S Mode and is powered by a 2 cell battery. According to Microsoft, the Surface Go can offer up to 9 hours of battery backup, depending on the usage pattern.

Price, Colours, And Availability

The Microsoft Surface Go is available in a single Grey colour variant. It is available for pre-order on Flipkart and the deliveries will commence on 27th December. It is offered in two RAM + ROM configurations for which the price is as follows:
- 4 GB + 64 GB – Rs 37,999
- 8 GB + 128 GB – Rs 49,999
Also Read: Huawei Nova 4 With In-display Camera Launched

Another point worth mentioning is that the 64 GB variant has eMMC storage whereas the 128 GB variant gets an SSD. Both eMMC and SSD are types of NAND flash storage but the latter has higher read and write speeds.

Click Here To Buy The Microsoft Surface Go
December 18, 2018
Qualcomm Unveils Snapdragon 8cx SoC for Windows 10 Laptops

After dominating the smartphone market, Qualcomm is looking forward to taking on the Windows computer industry. In a recently held Snapdragon summit in Hawaii, the company has announced their first purpose-built chipset for laptops. The new chipset gets the Snapdragon 8cx moniker and is a successor to the previously showcased Snapdragon 850. The Snapdragon 850 was a just a tweaked Snapdragon 845 which is a mobile chipset. However, the Snapdragon 8CX is designed to meet the requirements of a high-end Windows computer.

Snapdragon 8cx

The Snapdragon 8cx comprises of Octa-Core Kryo 495 CPU’s and Adreno 680 GPU. Both CPU and GPU are integrated into a single chip which provides better multi-tasking performance and highly efficient graphics memory bandwidth. The latest Snapdragon 8cx is manufactured using 7nm FinFET technology. Therefore, it will be more power efficient than other chipsets like AMD and Intel.

Qualcomm addressed that the “cx” suffix in the Snapdragon 8cx stands for “compute” and “extreme”. According to the company, the Adreno 680 GPU can easily handle dual 4K HDR displays and it will have hardware acceleration for 4K HDR video playback at 120fps. For high-speed internet connectivity, the Snapdragon 8cx also accommodates the Snapdragon X24 Modem. Theoretically, it can support download speeds of up to 2Ggbps and uploads of up to 316 Mbps.

The Snapdragon 8cx being a complete system on a chipset also gets Bluetooth 5.0, NVMe SSD support and fast charging support. It has a built-in Hexagon 685 DSP (Digital signal processor) which will enable support for voice assistants like Cortana.

Need Of An ARM Laptop Chipset

ARM is a company that designs CPU cores which are used by other companies to develop their chipsets as per their needs. Unlike Intel’s X86 and AMD 64, ARM cores are designed with efficiency and space conservation in mind. Following are the benefits of using an ARM chipset on a PC:

Also Read: Qualcomm’s New Mid-Range Snapdragon SM6150 Spotted On Geekbench

Better Battery-Life: As the ARM cores were first intended for mobile devices they are highly energy efficient. Using them in laptop computers can offer a very good battery backup. The previously demonstrated Snapdragon laptops offered up to 24 hours of battery backup.

Compact Size: As Qualcomm CPU’s are much smaller in size than their Intel and AMD counterparts. Their temperatures can be kept under control using a passive CPU cooler like a copper tube. In simpler terms, Snapdragon laptops can do away with clunky CPU coolers and save up on some space making the laptop more portable and easy to carry.

All in all, the Snapdragon 8cx seems like a very promising chipset. Sadly, the first devices featuring it will only make their way into the market in late 2019.

December 7, 2018
Qualcomm’s New Mid-Range Snapdragon SM6150 Spotted On Geekbench

America based Qualcomm is currently the world’s number one smartphone chip making company. Earlier this week, the company unveiled their first 7 nm based chipset, the Snapdragon 855. Most notably, it is the company’s first SoC that supports 5G connectivity. Recently yet another Qualcomm chipset, the Snapdragon 6150 was spotted on Geekbench. Like the Snapdragon 855 was codenamed 8155, the 6150 could officially be called the Snapdragon 650.

Geekbench Scores

The Geekbench report of the Snapdragon 6150 was first uploaded on December 5. The chipset is listed with the model number “sm6150” and the score was most likely collected on a development board. As the listing does not provide any information about the smartphone.

The listed Snapdragon 6150 is an Octa-Core chipset and has a base frequency of 1.8 GHz. The development board runs on the latest Android 9.0 Pie and is paired with 6 GB of RAM. According to the report, the chipset gets a single core score of 2,598 and a multi-core score of 5,467.

To summarise, the Snapdragon 6150 will likely be seen on mid-range devices. Although the company has not announced its launch date, the listing indicates it will launch soon.

Snapdragon 855

Also Read: Flipkart Big Shopping Days & Amazon Sale: Top Deals On Xiaomi Smartphones

The recently launched Snapdragon 855 is the successor to the Snapdragon 845 which is present on devices like the Pixel 3 & OnePlus 6T. It is the first chipset from Qualcomm that is manufactured using the 7 nm FinFET technology. Therefore, it will draw less power and perform better than its predecessor. The previously leaked scores of the chipset placed it at number one in the AI benchmarks. Recently, OnePlus has announced that they will be one of the first companies to manufacture a smartphone that will feature the Snapdragon 855 chipset.

December 6, 2018
World’s Most Powerful GPU, Nvidia TITAN RTX Announced
Nvidia is an American technology company, renowned for their GPUs. The company designs graphics processing units for both gaming and professional markets. GPUs unlike CPUs are mainly used to process image/video files and execute rendering tasks at a rapid pace. Architecturally, the CPU is composed of just a few cores with lots of cache memory that can handle a few software threads at a time. In contrast, a GPU is composed of hundreds of cores that can handle thousands of threads simultaneously. Recently, Nvidia has launched their TITAN RTX graphic card which the company claims is world’s most powerful GPU.

The Mighty TITAN

The Nvidia TITAN RTX has 576 multi-precision Turing Tensor Cores which provide up to 130 teraflops of deep learning performance. It has 72 Turing RT Cores which can deliver up to 11 GigaRays per second of real-time ray-tracing performance. The TITAN RTX has 24 GB of GDDR6 RAM, which according to Nvidia is up to two times faster than previous TITAN GPUs. This high memory storage can be used to fit larger data sets and processing instructions. It has a base clock frequency of 1350 MHz and a boost clock frequency of up to 1770 MHz.

The new TITAN RTX allows enough power to render 8K video in real time. Additionally, the company has showcased the NVIDIA NVLink that offers 100 GB/s transfer speeds which can be used to pair two RTX GPU’s if the need arises. Out of the box, the GPU also supports Windows 7 (64-bit), Windows 10 (64-bit), and Linux 64-bit. To operate, it requires 650 watts of power supply and has a thermal threshold of 89-degree Celsius.

Ports, Price And Availability

Also Read: Meizu C9 To Go on Sale In India On December 5

In terms of connectors, the NVIDIA TITAN RTX offers the following ports:
- 3 x DisplayPort
- 1 x HDMI
- 1 x USB Type-C
The GPU has a price tag of 2,499 USD (Rs 1,76,000). However, the ‘notify me’ page for the same is already up on the company’s website.
December 4, 2018
A Brain-Like SuperComputer With 1 Million Processors Is Here

Having taken up more than 15 Million Euros, 20 years of conception and more than 10 years of construction, the world’s largest brain-like supercomputer has finally got its final coprocessor, making it ready to be switched on. The machine just got its one-millionth processor. While the majority of its contributions will be towards science. It can also help assistants like Alexa and Siri better understand accents among different human beings.

Named the Spiking Neural Network Architecture or SpiNNaker for short. The supercomputer is capable of completing more than 200 million actions per second. Additionally, each of its chips has a 100 million transistors. The machine has been designed and developed by the School Of Computer Science at the University of Manchester and can model more biological neutrons than any other machine, in real time.

The Science Behind All The Processors

To understand how this supercomputer works, we just need to understand how the human brain works. The human brain sends out a series of messages through an intricate network of parallel communication architecture. computers on the other hand, send chunks of information from Point A to Point B, no matter how large the information is. The SpiNNaker on the other hand, mimics the brain and uses a number of parallel connections to simultaneously send billions of small bits of information to different destinations.

By doing so, the supercomputer ends up mimicking the billions of biological neurons present in the brain. The brain uses a spikes of electro chemical-energy to send this information across. The SpiNNaker uses large scale systems with electronic circuits to mimc the spikes seen as seen in the human brain.

Also Read: Standalone Alexa App For Windows 10 Launched

The ultimate objective of the team is to make sure that they can mimic the entirety of the human brain. To put things in perspective, the 1 Million processor supercomputer can just mimic 1% of the brain. The supercomputer can then help scientists to better understand how the human brain works and the process it goes through. This will be a huge boost for neuroscience. On the technology front, the supercomputer can be used to help Alexa and Siri better understand human accents and how we interact with machines.

November 12, 2018