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Monday, September 29th, 2014
| Time | Event |
| 8:00a | Micron M600 (128GB, 256GB & 1TB) SSD Review Those that have been following the SSD industry for a couple of years are likely aware that Micron does not sell retail drives under its own brand (unlike, e.g. Samsung and Intel). Instead Micron has two subsidiaries, Crucial and Lexar, with their sole purpose being the handling of retail sales. The Crucial side handles RAM and SSD sales, whereas Lexar is focused on memory cards and USB flash drives. The Micron crew is left with business to business sales, which consists of OEM sales as well as direct sales to some large corporations. Since the MX100 Micron and Crucial have had separate product planning teams and the M600 is the first Micron-only product to come out of that. Read on to see how the M600 differs from the retail MX100. |
| 6:25p | Lenovo Acquisition of IBM's x86 Server Business Closing October 1
Lenovo announced today that they have satisfied the conditions needed to complete the acquisition of IBM's x86 server business, and the parties expect to finalize the deal and close effective October 1, 2014. This move also basically marks IBM's exit from the x86 market, after having previously sold off their PC laptop and desktop division to Lenovo back in 2005. The details of the acquisition were first announced in January 2014, with the purchase price being approximately $2.1 billion ($1.8 billion in cash and another $280 million in Lenovo stock). Getting into the details, as part of this acquisition Lenovo will get the System x, BladeCenter, and Flex System blade servers and switches, x86-based Flex integrated systems, NeXtScale and iDataPlex servers and software, and additional blade networking and maintenance operations. IBM for their part will maintain their System z mainframes, Power Systems, Storage Systems, Power-based Flex servers, and PureApplication and PureData appliances. IBM will continue to provide service and maintenance for an extended period of time, to help ensure a seamless transition for customers. Interestingly, the announcement bears an uncanny resemblance to the news from nearly a decade ago, as this will make Lenovo the third-largest player in the global x86 server market. When Lenovo bought IBM's PC division, they became the third-largest player in the PC laptop and desktop space. Of note is that last year, Lenovo was the largest PC vendor by unit sales, so clearly they're hoping for a repeat of that success, only this time in the more lucrative server space. Gerry Smith, Lenovo Group VP of and president of Enterprise Business Group and America's Group states, "The acquisition is a clear demonstration of the confidence we have earned based on our consistent track record as a responsible global investor and as a secure and reliable technology provider. Lenovo has big plans for the enterprise market. Over time, we will compete vigorously across every sector, using our manufacturing scale and operational excellence to repeat the success we have had with PCs." |
| 7:15p | AMD Releases Catalyst 14.9 Drivers
It seems like it's been a long time since we've seen a WHQL driver release from AMD… and it has been. The previous WHQL driver dates back to April, the Catalyst 14.4 drivers, so we're close to five months between updates. In the interim, AMD has had beta/release candidate drivers for 14.6 and 14.7, along with the initial driver release for the R9 285 Tonga GPU. The new 14.9 drivers appear to be the official release of the R9 285 drivers, with version numbering of 14.301 (compared to 14.300 for the launch driver). As usual, there are quite a few updates listed in the release notes, with minor to moderate performance improvements noted for 3DMark Sky Diver and Fire Strike, 3DMark11, Bioshock Infinite, Company of Heroes 2, Crysis 3, GRID Autosport, Murdered: Soul Suspect, Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare, Batman: Arkham Origins, Wildstar, Tomb Raider, Watch Dogs, Assassin's Creed IV, Lichdom, and StarCraft II. There's no mention made of any of the upcoming games, so it looks like we'll mostly be looking for hotfixes to address any issues with yet-to-be-released games. Other changes include Mantle support for AMD mobile products with Enduro technology. The drivers are available at the usual place, and support is specifically listed for the R9/R7/R5 series of desktop and mobile GPUs, along with the earlier HD 5000/6000/7000/8000 series of desktop and mobile GPUs. APU support is also included for the R7/R6/R5/R3 products and all APUs with HD 6000D/G or newer graphics (which basically means all of AMD's APUs). In other words, if you have a Direct3D 11 enabled GPU from AMD, the drivers should be available (though there are likely mobile products where that may not be the case). |
| 11:30p | HP Announces Low Cost Stream Laptops And Tablets
Several weeks ago, Hewlet-Packard announced the HP Stream 14” Notebook. The Stream series is HP’s version of the low cost Windows laptop, meant to compete head to head with Chromebooks on price, but still offer the power of a fully fleshed out operating system. The Stream 14 (pictured above) is available to purchase now for only $299, and comes with an AMD A4 APU, 2 GB of RAM, and 32 GB of eMMC storage. Today, HP revealed the rest of the Stream lineup, with two additional laptops, and two tablets. In a world where the Chromebook has put some serious price pressure on the Average Selling Price of low cost computing, OEMs are trying to win over consumers with nice designs and additional perks in an effort to differentiate from the competition.
First up is the laptops. There are two screen sizes with the smaller being 11.6” and the mid-size being 13.3”, to compliment the already released 14” model. Exact specifications have not been disclosed yet, but both units will be powered by an Intel dual-core Celeron processor based on the Bay Trail architecture. This will make it a fanless device, and both come with 2 GB of RAM and 32 GB of eMMC storage. The 13.3” device has an optional touchscreen to go with the 1366x768 resolution that both laptops share. The 13.3” model also is available with optional 4G connectivity, and as a value add, HP is including 200 MB of free data every month for the life of the device. As another value add, HP is offering one year of Office 365 personal, which includes 1 TB of online storage and 60 Skype minutes per month. Battery life is listed from HP at 8:15 for the 11.6” model, and 7:45 for the 13.3” model. The HP Stream laptops are available in several colors, and will be priced at $199.99 for the 11.6” model and $229.99 as the starting price for the 13.3” model.
With the race to the bottom on pricing, one has to wonder where it will end, but all we know is it has not ended yet. Today HP also announced the HP Stream 7 Tablet, which is a 7” Windows 8.1 with Bing device that comes in at only $99.99. If you are in need of a slightly larger device, with optional 4G, then HP also has you covered with the HP Stream 8 which has a starting price of $149.99. Both tablets are powered by Intel Atom quad-core processors, and 1366x768 screens. Like the larger of the two laptops, the 8” tablet, if equipped with the optional 4G, comes with 200 MB of data per month for the life of the device, and both also come with Office 365 personal for one year. Office 365 personal is $70 to purchase on its own, so for only $30 more you can get it with a 7” tablet.
It has been a bit painful to see the thin and light Chromebooks popping up over the last couple of years, and it was always especially frustrating that low cost Windows laptops were large, thick, noisy, and had very slow spinning hard disks. It is great to see the Chromebook styling now coming to Windows PCs, and with the Chromebook pricing as well. Microsoft is making a big push to recapture some of this end of the market by offering Windows 8.1 with Bing, and they are now starting to see some examples of great looking Chromebook competitors. The tablet side is not as rosy, with Windows 8.1 not having the same mobile ecosystem as Android, but at least the pricing is now in line for the bottom end of the market. The add-ons offered by HP are pretty strong, with the Office 365 Personal costing almost as much as the tablet itself, and 4G for life is a nice bonus to those who just need a bit of data when they are not on Wi-Fi. Of course what the Windows Tablets need as the killer app is the touch version of Office, but that is not available as of yet, so anyone who wants to take advantage of Office 365 will have to do it from a 7-8” desktop, but as with most Windows tablets these can be connected to a keyboard, mouse, and monitor if you were so inclined. This is a strong push by HP to get a foothold in the low end of the market, with sharp looking products and useful value adds as well. Hopefully we can get some of these as review units to give you the full break down on just what you get for so little money. |
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