Windows Server 2012 RTM in Early August, Final Release in September

In addition to providing info on the upcoming release timeframe of its Windows 8 operating system, Microsoft took its time at the Worldwide Partner Conference in Toronto, Canada, to offer some details on the release of Windows Server 2012.

The Redmond-based software giant announced that the server platform is set to hit Release to Manufacturing status during the first week of August, the same as Windows 8. However, unlike the desktop client, the server OS will be ready for commercial availability as soon as the next month, September. “In fact, at the conference we are announcing that Windows Server 2012 will be released to manufacturing in the first week of August,” Jeffrey Snover, Windows Server, Microsoft, explains in a blog post. “The code will be complete and we will begin delivering it to our hardware partners. Then, the product will be generally available to customers worldwide through multiple channels in September.”

He also provided some info on how the pre-release flavors of Windows Server 2012 were received by the community, announcing over half a million downloads for it. “You, our customers and partners, have downloaded pre-release versions of Windows Server 2012 more than 500,000 times - more than any other server from Microsoft before. We can’t wait to get the final version out the door to you,” he concluded. The availability of Windows Server 2012 RTM means that OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) that build servers based on this platform will be able to load it on their new products, while the rest of the world will have access to it only in September.

Windows Server 2012 is seen as a major upgrade for Microsoft’s server OS, packing a wide range of major features when compared to the latest platform release, Windows Server 2008 R2. In addition to better control of files and processes, it also comes with single console management, Hyper-V with support for multi-tenant configurations, and a new ReFS file system, ComputerWorld notes. The OS also features the new Metro UI that is present on Windows 8 too. Last week, Microsoft also went official with the various Windows Server 2012 SKUs that will be available for its customers, and announced that it will remove the Windows Home Server edition from the list.

Windows Server 2012
Image credits to Microsoft

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Boston Limited Revolutionary ARM “Viridis” Servers with Calxeda Processors

We have talked about Calxeda’s impressive energy efficient quad-core processors. We also reported about the its performance and energy efficiency. Now, server maker Boston Limited is announcing the new “Viridis” server line using Calxeda’s EnergyCore SoCs.

SoC is short for System on Chip, which are quad-core ARM processors based on ARM’s Cortex A9 architecture. Boston’s new servers pack 48 nodes in a 2U enclosure and are, thus, able to offer an impressive 4032 cores in a single standard 42U rack. A node is in fact a Calxeda EnergyCore SoC with four Cortex A9 ARM cores inside with its 4GB of RAM, flash memory and network controllers. Practically, the 2U server box will house 192 Cortex A9 cores and will consume a maximum of just 240 watts. Packing so much processing power in a 2U modular enclosure consuming an average of less than 150 watts is truly amazing. The SoCs are mounted in “POCket boards,” which is a term coined by Boston Limited defining a board with four SoCs and four miniDIMM connectors with four SATA ports (one per each EnergyCore processor).

12 such boards are mounted in a 2U enclosure and each one comes with a 10Gbps Ethernet link, which is the interconnector between the main motherboard and POCket board. The thing is that a whole 42U rack packing 4032 Cortex A9 cores running at frequencies between 1.1 GHz and 1.4 GHz will be able to suck up a maximum of 5400 watts, thus making the whole rack consume less than the average instant water heater. Boston Limited claims over 10 times the performance per watt the best Xeon x86 server can offer and we tend to agree with them.

Calxeda Marketing Shot
Image credits to Calxeda

Calxeda EnergyCore Diagram
Image credits to AnandTech

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RIM’s CEO: BlackBerry 10 Devices Arrive in January 2013

Research In Motion is in deep trouble, but the Canadian company hopes to boost its market share once BlackBerry 10 OS gets launched next year.

Previously slated for a Q3/Q4 launch, BlackBerry 10 OS has been recently delayed by RIM due to the fact that there’s a large amount of coding needed and the company’s software engineers won’t have the time to include all the new features by the end of the year. RIM’s CEO, Thorsten Heins, stated last week that the first BlackBerry 10 OS devices were scheduled to hit shelves in Q1 2013, though the official did not unveil any exact release date. However, Heins decided to shed more light on the upcoming launch of the next-generation operating system, during an interview for CIO’s Al Sacco.

According to RIM’s CEO, “in January with the full touch device and the QWERTY coming, I think we will reinstall faith in RIM. That's what we're working on. This is what our objective is, and when I've talked to carriers about the delay of BlackBerry 10, the overwhelming feedback was, ‘First, thank you for letting us know in advance. Second, Q4 is mostly a prepaid quarter anyway, lot of noise coming, actually why don't we focus on a Q1 2013 launch and make this a major launch in Q1?’ ”

This information gets in line with the latest RIM BlackBerry 10 roadmap that leaked last week, so we can safely assume that the Canadian company is now hard at work to keep its promise to both carriers and customers, and deliver the first BlackBerry 10 devices in January 2013. Rumor has it that RIM will launch a full touch BlackBerry 10 smartphone first, which will be followed soon by a physical QWERTY device. Stay tuned for more updates on the matter.

RIM CEO Thorsten Heins
Image credits to RIM

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Haswell-EP is LGA2011 but It’s Likely Completely Incompatible

Intel Corporation has apparently decided to forget about all its clients that have invested hundreds of dollars in their LGA2011 mainboards. Most of us might think that the higher-end the mainboard is, the greater the platform longevity is.

In a shocking turn of events, As reported by SemiAccurate, it seems that Intel’s LGA2011 socket for the Haswell-EP processor platform is completely incompatible with today’s LGA2011 variant. While the pin count is the same, the two sockets will be physically and electrically completely incompatible.

Many thought that Intel’s LGA2011 platform would live through the Haswell generation and that there would be an initial launch with DDR3 memory, as DDR4 memory is practically inexistent now and the sales and production are not likely to boom in 2013. Well, the rumors are that this is not the case and even if AMD made good by us in keeping FM2 socket compatibility with Richland APUs, we can’t forget the bitter taste their FM1 to FM2 switch left us just after Intel’s ugly LGA1366 and LGA1156 moves.

Intel Current LGA2011 Processor Socket
Image credits to AnandTech

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New Windows Phone 8 Build Numbers Unveiled

Microsoft is applying the latest touches to its Windows Phone 8 platform, there’s no doubt about that.

The company unveiled the new platform a few weeks ago, and is expected to have smartphones running under it available for purchase before the end of this year. Apparently, the software giant is advancing fast with new Windows Phone 8 builds being pushed out almost daily. A post on ProfesseurThibault.fr notes that some of the latest builds compiled in Microsoft’s labs include 8.0.9722.0, delivered in late June, and 8.0.9730.0, which was released on the 4th of July.

Furthermore, WMPoweruser reports that the latest build number from the company is 8.0.9735, which was released on July 6th. Rumor has it that Microsoft is accelerating the development process as it prepares Windows Phone 8 for RTM in late July or early August, around the same time when Windows 8 will reach RTM status.

Windows Phone 8
Image credits to Microsoft

Windows Phone 8
Image credits to Microsoft

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Nokia RDA Unveils More Windows Phone Smartphones

A host of unannounced Nokia smartphones made an appearance online during the past several days, courtesy of leaked info coming from the company’s Remote Device Access service.

Apparently, the company is currently working on more than one new Windows Phone, and is set to launch both new high-end devices and entry-level handsets for budget-conscious users. Nokia’s RDA tool has unveiled model numbers such as Lumia 920, Lumia 950 and Lumia 510, along with the previously spotted Lumia 910 and Lumia 1001, NokiaPowerUser reports. Moreover, the service also showed an yet unannounced Nokia Belle 805, a smartphone that was mentioned before in relation with the company’s dying family of Symbian devices. For the time being, all info regarding these smartphones should be taken with a grain of salt, as there is a great possibility that they are not real, but the product of some enthusiast’s imagination.

However, Mobile-Review’s Eldar Murtazin claims that some of these handsets are, indeed, real, and that he already mentioned them, and that they would land on shelves with the upcoming Windows Phone 8 platform on board. “910, 920, 950 I mention in a past :) one of them with 12 mpx - wp8 all of them I think (earlier it was wp7.5),” he said in a tweet. If these devices are indeed real, it means that Nokia is working both on a higher-end smartphone than the Lumia 900 family, which should land as Lumia 1001, as well as on a cheaper device than the Lumia 610, supposedly set to arrive as the Lumia 510. No specific info on what the Nokia Belle 805 would include has emerged, but it should be pretty close to the 808 PureView, which was launched earlier this year with Symbian on board. Hopefully, official confirmation on these devices will emerge in the near future, as Nokia is expected to launch its first Windows Phone 8 devices this fall. Keep an eye on this space for more details on them.

Nokia logo
Image credits to Nokia

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RIM CEO: BlackBerry 10 Delayed for Better Feature Integration

Canadian mobile phone maker Research In Motion will bring to the market devices powered by its BlackBerry 10 operating system only next year, after targeting late 2012 as the initial launch timeframe for them.

According to the company’s CEO Thorsten Heins, the reason behind this push back is a simple one: better feature integration. Last week, he told The Globe and Mail that, while the BlackBerry 10 code is ready to go, some of the features included in the platform don’t yet work as seamlessly as intended, and that the delay is caused by this state of facts. RIM has been hard at work with developing BlackBerry 10 from ground up as an entirely new platform, destined to change the way in which users look at BlackBerry. The company is focused on packing the latest technologies out there inside the operating system, and is en-route to deliver what they call “the best mobile platform out there.” Thorsten Heins notes that BlackBerry 10 will arrive as an entirely new platform, and not a simple upgrade for the existing software.

Users will take advantage of features that include video chatting, NFC (Near Field Communication) and more, thus enjoying a robust, reliable new way of interacting with the world, all courtesy of BlackBerry 10. Given the fact that BlackBerry 10’s launch has been delayed, RIM will have more time to integrate wanted software in the platform, and to apply the final touches to a product that should bring the company back to profit. As usual, RIM will push devices powered by the new OS to corporate environments as well, with features such as BlackBerry Mobile Fusion, and with enterprise services that were already available on the BlackBerry platform. Various handsets supposedly running under BlackBerry 10 already emerged online, and they managed to impress those who had the chance to put hands on them. Overall, the new platform should be able to prove highly popular, in the event that RIM will indeed manage to deliver it on time.

BlackBerry logo
Image credits to RIM

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Windows 8 in 109 Languages, 231 Markets Globally

Windows 8, the next-generation operating system from Microsoft, is officially set to arrive on shelves in late October, and will benefit from wide availability all around the world.

Today, Microsoft’s Windows Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Financial Officer Tami Reller confirmed that at the annual Worldwide Partner Conference in Toronto, Canada. She announced that Microsoft is on track to make Windows 8 generally available in late October, and that the platform will be released in 109 languages across 231 markets worldwide. The availability of the next-generation OS in October means that Windows 8 and Windows RT PCs will be put on shelves during that month. Windows 8 will be available for acquisition as a full retail product, but users will also be able to grab it as OEM flavor pre-installed on new computers, or as an upgrade option for existing platforms. Last week, Microsoft announced that owners of Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 computers will be able to upgrade to the upcoming Windows 8 Pro flavor for only $40 for a limited period of time following the general availability of the platform.

To be more precise, the promotion will be available for all upgraders until the end of January next year, and will include the purchase of a Windows 8 Pro upgrade through Windows.com. Additionally, Microsoft unveiled that upgraders would be able to grab the platform on a DVD, but that it will cost them $70. The upgrades will be available for all qualifying users in 131 markets around the world, and not for people in all 231 countries where the new platform will be put up for sale. At the moment, Windows 8 is available for free as a pre-release flavor, and has been so since September last year. Those who already have it installed on their computers will be able to upgrade to Windows 8 Pro when it lands on shelves, provided that they have a prior valid Windows license.

Windows 8 logo
Image credits to Microsoft

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Intel Wants 3D, HD Resolution Displays in Next-Gen Ultrabooks

Even as the threat of mass Apple lawsuits looms on the horizon, Intel is pushing ahead with its ultrabook plans, faster and more boldly than any of its OEMs.

Intel finally agreed to cut the price of one or more Core i3 ultrabook CPUs, since the alternative was to give up on too many other features. This made us think that those laptops would finally be worthy of the “affordable” moniker, but the situation may not last. Ultrabooks didn't sell well when they started off, with their $1000+ / 1000+ Euro price tags, but that also means that some people did buy them. In other words, there is a market for expensive, ultraportable notebooks, and Intel means to milk it for all it is worth. At least, this is what a certain report from Digitimes suggests.

Next-generation models could have sensors, higher screen resolutions and 3D support, of all things. New cases, hinges and security measures will become part of the standard spec sheet as well. We're not certain how quickly Chipzilla hopes for these wishes to come true, but we doubt it will be in the near future. Still, the move from HD (1,366 x 768 pixels) to Full HD (1,920 x 1,080 pixels) is essentially inevitable, and 3D is the next logical step.

Ultrabooks will get Full HD and 3D
Image credits to Acer

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Thermaltake BigTyp Revo CPU Cooler

Thermaltake has decided to update its well-known Big Typhoon cooler design in the light of hot CPUs coming from Intel and AMD in the following months. AMD is getting ready to launch the new FX Vishera processor, and Intel will likely follow with an Ivy Bridge based hexa-core CPU.

The new Thermaltake cooler is called BigTyp Revo, its designated model number is CLP0602 and it comes with a relatively quiet 120-millimeter fan. As reported by Overclockers.ua, The fan is reportedly only 25 millimeters tall, and the whole thing weighs in at 530 grams. That’s 1.16 pounds of cooling power that will take care of CPU with a very high 160 watts TDP.

There are six 6-millimeter cooling heatpipes running through the cooler and only the mid three are likely to come in contact with the CPU die, while the others will help using by drawing additional heat from the CPU’s IHS. There is no info on pricing yet, but we can’t help being disappointed with Thermaltake’s decision to use 6 mm heatpipes instead of 8 mm. We believe that at least the mid three heatpipes should have sported an 8 mm diameter.

BigTyp Revo CPU Cooler
Images credits to overclockers.ua

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