Ultra-Mobile PC

UMPC (Ultra Mobile PC)

The Ultra-Mobile PC (abbreviated UMPC), previously known by its codename Project Origami, is a specification for a small form factor tablet PC. It was developed as a joint development exercise by Microsoft, Intel, and Samsung, among others. Current UMPCs feature the Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005, Windows Vista Home Premium Edition, or Linux operating system and low-voltage Intel Pentium or VIA C7-M processors in the 1 GHz range.

Ultra-Mobile PCs have a 20 cm (7-inch) or smaller touch sensitive screen at a minimum resolution of 800 × 480. Windows XP Tablet PC Edition is used with slight tweaks to the interface to make it more suited for the small form factor. In addition, a software suite known as the Touch Pack Interface is included to make the interface more suitable for use of stylus as well as hand.

The Ultra-Mobile PC is just a platform for which manufacturers can design any model they want, provided they meet or exceed the baseline specifications laid down by Intel and Microsoft. However, the UMPC will be capable of running a full version of most PC operating systems. When the UMPC was disclosed at CeBIT 2006, Samsung, ASUS and Founder had near-complete devices on display.

UMPCs with Windows XP installed will be able to run any software that has been written for the Windows XP platform, though the small form factor will mandate some changes to the interface. The standard Windows XP interface is the default, though a choice of having an interface more suited for the small form factor is available with the Touch Pack Interface. Due to the small size, most UMPCs do not feature a physical keyboard, but a virtual keyboard, known as DialKeys, is provided in the Touch Pack Interface. Also, since the device has standard USB 2.0 connectivity, external keyboards and mice can be attached.

UMPC devices will include a 900 MHz Intel Celeron M, Pentium M, Core Solo or VIA C7-M processor, 256 MB to 1 GB of RAM, and a 30 to 160 GB hard disk, depending on the manufacturer. Other ultra mobile devices have been found with AMD Geode CPUs (Raon Digital Vega) or Transmeta Crusoe CPUs (OQO Model 01). Ultra-Mobile PCs can also feature Global Positioning System (GPS) devices, webcams, fingerprint readers, stereo speakers, TV tuners, or memory card readers. Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and Ethernet are all supported as well.

UMPCs have enough processing power to support audio, video, and gaming, in addition to having rich support for browsing the internet as well as for other communication and networking applications. Windows Media Player will be included, with a special skin designed to provide a better experience on the small screen. The devices will also feature DirectX 9–class graphics, and all applications available for standard Tablet PCs are expected to be compatible.

It is hoped that the prices of UMPCs will come down to the US$500 range. Battery life is expected to increase from the initial 2½ hours to 8 hours. Most UMPCs are now available with Windows Vista although many new UMPCs come with the option to have Vista or XP Tablet PC Edition installed, one example of this is the Samsung Q1 Ultra which originally launched with only Vista versions, but has subsequently launched Windows XP versions.

While most UMPCs run Microsoft Windows, the Nokia N800 runs Linux Maemo because Microsoft does not have a version that support its non-x86 RISC-based dual-core CPU (ARM9-based general purpose CPU core and Texas Instruments DSP core). Currently it is the only UMPC shipping with Linux.

In September 2006, Raon Digital launched the Vega running a AMD Geode LX800, 256MB of RAM, and a 30GB hard drive. It has a 4.3" screen, a 500MHz processor, and a battery life of 5.5 hours. It runs Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition and retails for 680,000 Korean won (U$700-750). However it does not have WiFi capability.

In early October 2006 Samsung quietly launched the Q1B, bringing the Ultra Mobile platform closer to the vision that Microsoft created. The Q1b features a VIA C7-M ULV processor running at 1GHz, a 30% brighter screen, up to 5 hours of battery life, and a lower price point than the Samsung Q1. It also has optional modules for HSDPA or WiBro for ubiquitous internet connectivity in major cities around the world. Also a new UMPC on the market is the T770 from AMtek. It's a Windows Vista powered device with a 1200MHz processor and 1024MB of RAM. It has a 40GB hard disk (or 60GB on another cheaper brand, and also the same device) and a 7" screen. It is available for 899€ (the cheaper brand is 849€).

Around the same date, CHIP.DE featured an article about the R2H from ASUS, which runs a Windows Tablet PC edition OS on its Intel Celeron system. It has a VGA-TV output, GPS, 3 USB ports, 60GB hard drive and 512MB RAM. It also offers wired/wireless network capabilities. In Germany, its current price is 939€ at Amazon.de.

In 2007, Bill Gates introduced the OQO model 02 in his keynote at CES 2007. The OQO model 02 is now shipping with a 5-inch/12.7-cm screen, EV-DO WWAN, Bluetooth, 802.11 a/b/g WiFi, running Microsoft Windows XP and Vista. OQO has won quite a few computer and design awards, including Guinness World Records recognition of OQO model 02 as the world's smallest fully functional computer.

In August, 2007, Raondigital launched their 2nd UMPC 'EVERUN' which has built in WiFi and HSDPA. It use AMD Geode LX900. EVERUN is introduced as the UMPC with the longest battery life—as much as 6-7 hours with its standard battery and 12 hours with a large battery. Unlike its previous model 'VEGA', Everun has a full qwerty key pad, aesthetically similar to a Smartphone, which appeals to the mobile commuter. The price starts from US$799 at dynamism.com or 799 € at moboutlet.it.

On September 17, 2007, OQO launched the model e2 for the European audience with a localized keyboard, 1.6 GHz VIA C7-M processor, 120GB hard drive or a 32GB SSD option.

info : wikipedia

NEWEST ASUS LAPTOP

Newegg, ZipZoomFly Get Onboard With $350 ASUS Eee PC 4G Surf

The Eee PC is a small ('ultra-portable') computer designed by Intel and ASUS. According to ASUS, the name Eee (pronounced as the letter e, IPA /iː/) derives from "the three Es", a contraction of their advertising slogan "Easy to learn, Easy to work, Easy to play"

The Eee PC uses a solid-state drive for storage (instead of a hard drive) which consumes less power, allows the device to boot quickly and makes it less susceptible to shock damage. The SSD disk is permanently soldered to the board, to save space by reducing the wiring needed. The RAM in the 4G and 8G Eee PC models are replaceable with one slot for a maximum of 2GB memory, however the upgrade would also effectively void the warranty. However, pursuant to the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, the warranty cannot be voided in the US in this manner.

Storage can be expanded by using the Secure Digital Card compliant memory card slot located on the right side. SD and SDHC memory cards mount virtually flush into the spring-loaded slot. Removal of the memory card is done by pushing in the card until it clicks and ejects.

Many retailers have been hovering in and out of stock of ASUS' highly popular Eee PC 4G Linux-powered notebook. The two-pound Eee PC 4G has garnered rave reviews from around the web and has sprouted a fan site which details every conceivable aspect of the device.

The first shipments of Eee PCs to hit the retail market were of the Eee PC 4G which features a 900MHz Celeron Processor (which happens to run at 630MHz on a 70MHz bus), 512MB of DDR2 memory (upgradeable), a 7" display, integrated webcam and a 4-cell 5200 mAh battery (3.5 hours). The notebook was first available in Pearl White; however, Galaxy Black was later introduced.

Now it appears that the second wave of Eee PCs is starting to appear online. Newegg and ZipZoomFly are both stocking the new Eee PC 4G Surf model (Galaxy Black only). The 4G Surf has 512MB of DDR2 memory soldered onto the motherboard -- it is not upgradeable like regular 4G. In addition, the 4G Surf lacks the webcam and features a 4-cell 4400 mAh battery (2.8 hours).

The reduced feature set also means that the 4G Surf comes with a lower price tag: $349.99 versus $399.99 for the 4G.

The lower price is welcome news to those that need the extra frills afforded by the webcam and the ability to upgrade the memory, but many may not be willing to cope with reduced battery life as well.

Rambus Chip

Rambus Aims for Terabyte-Per-Second Memory Bandwidth

Rambus Inc. plans to announce this Wednesday a new memory signaling technology initiative targeted at delivering a Terabyte-per-second of memory bandwidth, which the company touts as a solution for next-generation multi-core, game and graphics applications.

Rather than simply increasing the clock speed of memory to achieve higher output, Rambus looks to boost bandwidth with a 32X data rate. Just as DDR memory technologies doubles transfer on a single, full clock signal cycle, Rambus’ proposed technology is able to data at 32 times the reference clock frequency. With 32X technology, the memory company is targeting a bandwidth of 16Gbps per DQ link with memory running at 500MHz. In contrast, today’s DDR3 at 500MHz achieves a bandwidth of 1Gbps.

“We're really excited about the Terabyte Bandwidth Initiative and the technologies that we've developed,” said Steven Woo, a senior principle engineer at Rambus. “The work of a large team of our scientists and engineers is pushing memory signaling technology to new levels of performance.”

Of course, it requires a little explanation on how a technology that enables a DQ link 16Gbps of bandwidth could result in a Terabyte of throughput. Rambus’ aim for the technology is to grant Terabyte bandwidth to a system on a chip (SoC) architecture, and such may be achieved with 16 DRAMs operating at 16Gbps, 4-bytes wide per device.

Another innovation that Rambus plans to integrate into its Terabyte memory initiative is FlexLink C/A (command/address), which the company claims is the industry’s first full-speed, scalable, point-to-point C/A link – with the C/A running at full speed along with the DQ. FlexLink C/A also simplifies the interface between the memory controller and DRAM. For example, traditional legacy interfaces may require a 12 wire interface, FlexLink C/A can operate point-to-point with just two wires.

Furthermore, FlexLink C/A is named for its flexibility given to system designers, as now the overhead wires freed from the FlexLink C/A interfaces may be devoted to more data wires. Conversely, the model may offer greater bandwidth with the addition of more FlexLink C/A wires, making the technology more easily scalable.

Rambus’ Terabyte bandwidth initiative will use a fully differential memory architecture, which will employ differential signaling for both the C/A and DQ. While current DDR3 and GDDR5 memory use differential signaling for data and strobe, Rambus aims for full differential at the DQ and C/A. Advantages of going full differential include better signal integrity, especially due to its suitability for use in low-voltage electronics, such as memory.

While this Terabyte bandwidth memory method isn’t slated for market until 2011, Rambus has recently received early silicon capable of demonstrating its technology. The early test rig uses emulated DRAM chips, connected to a Rambus memory controller at a 32X data rate capable of 64Gbps. Rambus will show its silicon test vehicle this Wednesday at the Rambus Developer Forum in Tokyo, Japan.

Trojan Virus

TROJAN HORSE COMPUTER VIRUS

In the context of computing and software, a Trojan horse, or simply trojan, is a piece of software which appears to perform a certain action, but in fact, performs another. Contrary to popular belief, this action, usually encoded in a hidden payload, may or may not be acutely malicious, but Trojan horses are notorious today for their use in the installation of backdoor programs. Simply put, a Trojan horse is not a computer virus. Unlike such badware, it does not propagate by self-replication but relies heavily on the exploitation of an end-user (see Social engineering). It is instead a categorical attribute which can encompass many different forms of codes. Therefore, a computer worm or virus may be a Trojan horse. The term is derived from the classical myth of the Trojan Horse.

In the field of computer architecture, 'Trojan Horse' can also refer to security loopholes that allow kernel code to access anything for which it is not authorized.

A simple example of a Trojan horse would be a program named "waterfalls.scr" which claimed to be a free waterfall screensaver. When run, it would instead open computer ports and allow hackers to access the user's computer remotely.

Trojan horse payloads are almost always designed to do various harmful things, but can also be harmless. They are broken down in classification based on how they breach and damage systems. The nine main types of Trojan horse payloads are:

• Remote Access.
• Email Sending
• Data Destruction
• Downloader
• Proxy Trojan (disguising others as the infected computer)
• FTP Trojan (adding or copying data from the infected computer)
• Security software disabler
• Denial-of-service attack (DoS)
• Trojan.ByteVerify
• URL trojan (directing the infected computer to only connect to the internet via an expensive dial-up connection)

Some examples of damage are:

• erasing or overwriting data on a computer
• encrypting files in a cryptoviral extortion attack
• corrupting files in a subtle way
• upload and download files
• allowing remote access to the victim's computer. This is called a RAT (remote administration tool)
• spreading other malware, such as viruses: this type of Trojan horse is called a 'dropper' or 'vector'
• setting up networks of zombie computers in order to launch DDoS attacks or send spam.
• spying on the user of a computer and covertly reporting data like browsing habits to other people (see the article on spyware)
• making screenshots
• logging keystrokes to steal information such as passwords and credit card numbers
• phishing for bank or other account details, which can be used for criminal activities
• installing a backdoor on a computer system
• opening and closing CD-ROM tray
• harvesting e-mail addresses and using them for spam
• restarting the computer whenever the infected program is started
• deactivating or interfering with anti-virus and firewall programs
• deactivating or interfering with other competing forms of malware
• randomly shutting off your computer

methods of infection

The majority of Trojan horse infections occur because the user was tricked into running an infected program. This is why it is advised to not open unexpected attachments on emails -- the program is often a cute animation or an image, but behind the scenes it infects the computer with a Trojan or worm. The infected program doesn't have to arrive via email; it can be sent in an Instant Message, downloaded from a Web site or by FTP, or even delivered on a CD or floppy disk. (Physical delivery is uncommon, but if one were the specific target of an attack, it would be a fairly reliable way to infect a computer.) Furthermore, an infected program could come from someone who sits down at a computer and loads it manually. However, receiving a Trojan in this manner is very rare. It is usually received through a download.

Well-known trojan horses

• Downloader-EV
• Dropper-EV
• Pest Trap
• NetBus
• flooder
• Tagasaurus
• Prorat
• Turkojan
• Back Orifice
• TroJanizary
• Vundo trojan
• Gromozon Trojan
• Sub-7
• Cuteqq Cn.exe

WMP 11

Windows Media Player 11

Windows Media Player (WMP) is a digital media player and media library application developed by Microsoft that is used for playing audio, video and viewing images on personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, as well as on Pocket PC and Windows Mobile-based devices. Editions of Windows Media Player were also released for Mac OS, Mac OS X and Solaris, but have since been discontinued.

In addition to being a media player, Windows Media Player includes the ability to rip music from and copy music to compact discs, build Audio CDs in recordable discs and synchronize content with a digital audio player (MP3 player) or other mobile devices, and enables users to purchase or rent music from a number of online music stores.

Windows Media Player replaced an earlier piece of software simply called Media Player, adding features beyond simple video or audio playback.

The default file formats are Windows Media Video (WMV), Windows Media Audio (WMA), and Advanced Systems Format (ASF), and supports its own XML based playlist format called Windows Playlist (WPL). The Zune software which actually is a modified version of Windows Media Player, additionally supports AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) audio, MPEG-4 and H.264 video formats out-of-the-box.

The player is also able to utilize a DRM service in the form of Windows Media DRM.

Windows Media Player 11 is the most recent version of the player, which is available for Windows XP as well as Windows Vista. This new version features many changes. The Media Library no longer presents the media items (such as albums and artists) in a tree-based listing. Rather, on selecting the category in the left panel, the contents will appear on the right, in a graphical manner with thumbnails featuring album art or other art depicting the item—a departure from textual presentation of information. Missing album art can be added directly to the placeholders in the Library itself (though the program re-renders all album art imported this way into 1x1 pixel ratio, 200x200 resolution jpegs). Views for Music, Pictures, Video and Recorded TV are separate and can be chosen individually from the navigation bar. Entries for Pictures and Video show their thumbnails. Windows Media Player 11 also includes the Windows Media Format 11 runtime which adds low bitrate support (below 128 kbit/s for WMA Pro), support for ripping music to WMA Pro 10 and updates the original WMA to version 9.2.

Other features:

• Stacking - Stacking allows graphical representations of how many albums there are in a specific category or folder. The more items there are, the larger the pile or stack is.
• Word Wheel - Searches and displays results as characters are being entered, without waiting for Enter key to be hit. Results are refined based on further characters that are typed.
• CD Burning - CD Burning now shows a graphical bar showing how much space will be used on the disc.
• URGE - The new music store from Microsoft and MTV networks is integrated with the player.
• Global Status - Global status shows a broad overview of what the player is doing. The information presented includes status information regarding buffering, ripping, burning and synchronization.
• Improved synchronization features for loading content onto PlaysForSure-compatible portable players. WMP 11 supports reverse-synchronization, by which media present on the portable device can be replicated back to the PC.
• Support for ripping audio CDs to WAV format.
• Media Sharing (via Windows Media Connect) allows content (Music, Pictures, Video) to be streamed to and from Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) AV enabled devices such as the PS3, Xbox 360, and Roku SoundBridge. This includes DRM protected PlaysForSure content. WMP 11 on Windows Vista can also connect to remote media libraries using this feature; this is not available on the Windows XP version.
• Integrated web-browsing support to browse online music stores.
• Disc spanning splits a burn list onto multiple discs in case the content does not fit on one disc.

Microsoft released the first public beta of Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP (excluding Media Center editions before 2005) on May 17, 2006 and subsequently released the second public beta on August 31, 2006. Then on October 30, 2006, the final version of Windows Media Player was released to the public. Windows Media Player 11 was included in Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system when it was released in November 30, 2006 (for volume-licenses) and January 30, 2007 (for worldwide retail availability); the Vista version includes some features not found in the XP version. As a result of a European antitrust ruling, Microsoft will also be required to produce "Windows Vista N" editions which do not include Windows Media Player for the European Union market.

The License Management tool available in prior versions of Windows Media Player has been removed since version 11. This prevents users of music download services from directly using Windows Media Player to back up their licenses and restore them to another computer. The user now must directly use the store's license restoration services.

The Quick Access Menu, which enabled browsing the library via a pop-up menu, has been removed. As a result of this, the library cannot be browsed when the player is in toolbar mode, but files and playlist still can be dropped to play it.

info : wikipedia

Windows XP for Tablet PC

Use Windows XP in Tablet PC

Windows XP Tablet PC Edition is an edition of Windows XP intended for specially-designed notebook/laptop computers called tablet PCs. Windows XP Tablet PC Edition is compatible with a pen-sensitive screen, supporting handwritten notes and portrait-oriented screens. A retail version cannot be purchased separately from a tablet PC, but is available to Microsoft Developers Network (MSDN) subscribers.
Tablet PC

System requirements

There are no clear specific system requirements for Windows XP Tablet PC and Tablet PC 2005 editions, as they are provided pre-installed on Tablet PCs.

Included Software

Windows XP Tablet PC Edition is based on Windows XP Professional and includes all the software provided in it. In addition it includes some of the following software:

• Windows Journal
• Sticky Notes
• Ink Ball
• Experience Pack: Ink Art
• Experience Pack: Ink Crossword
• Experience Pack: Ink Desktop
• Experience Pack: Media Transfer
• Experience Pack: Snipping Tool 2.0
• Experience Pack: Tablet PC 2005 Edition also includes the Royale/Media Center Theme, renamed Tablet PC Style: Energy Blue.
• Education Pack: Equation Writer
• Education Pack: GoBinder Lite
• Education Pack: Hexic Delux

It is often also bundled with OneNote 2003.

Upgrade To Vista

Despite the inclusion of Tablet PC support in Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate editions of Windows Vista, it is only possible to upgrade to Business and Ultimate editions. This is because Tablet PC edition is based on Windows XP Professional, and so moving to Home Premium would cause a downgrade and loss of features. However, an upgrade version can be legally used to perform a clean install of Windows Vista as a replacement for Tablet PC Edition.

Many of the 'new' features boasted in Windows Vista have already been launched as part of Windows XP Tablet PC Edition or Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005. Some of these features include:

• Windows Journal
• Ink Ball
• Sticky Notes

Technology

Windows XP Tablet PC Edition may utilize the Ink object as a means of data input and storage. This is a data type created as part of the Windows XP Tablet PC Edition API that allows one to manipulate and process handwritten data, including recognition results and, in some cases, the pressure information for each part of the stroke. Properties of Ink can be changed in much the same way as properties of other objects, and the data can be saved to allow future reference. Many applications referencing the Ink object also allow handwritten notes to be filtered and searched through, based on the recognition results stored when Ink is saved.

Handwriting Recognition: Integrated with the operating system is a Tablet PC Input Panel which allows handwriting to be converted into text for use in most non-full-screen applications. The integrated handwriting recognition in Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 can recognize print, cursive, or mixed writing. Accuracy can be increased by configuring the recognizer to expect left-handed writing or right-handed writing. Recognition in a variety of languages is available with the install of a recognizer pack. Unfortunately the handwriting engine cannot be trained to recognize a particular handwriting style so the user must modify their handwriting to be better recognized by the system in order to use this feature effectively.

info : wikipedia

VOIP

Talk With Your Friend With VOIP

Voice over Internet Protocol, also called VoIP (pronounced voyp), IP Telephony, Internet telephony, Broadband telephony, Broadband Phone and Voice over Broadband is the routing of voice conversations over the Internet or through any other IP-based network.

Companies providing VoIP service are commonly referred to as providers, and protocols which are used to carry voice signals over the IP network are commonly referred to as Voice over IP or VoIP protocols. They may be viewed as commercial realizations of the experimental Network Voice Protocol (1973) invented for the ARPANET providers. Some cost savings are due to utilizing a single network to carry voice and data, especially where users have existing underutilized network capacity that can carry VoIP at no additional cost. VoIP to VoIP phone calls are sometimes free, while VoIP to public switched telephone networks, PSTN, may have a cost that is borne by the VoIP user.

Voice over IP protocols carry telephony signals as digital audio, typically reduced in data rate using speech data compression techniques, encapsulated in a data packet stream over IP.

There are two types of PSTN to VoIP services: Direct Inward Dialing (DID) and access numbers. DID will connect the caller directly to the VoIP user while access numbers require the caller to input the extension number of the VoIP user.

VoIP can facilitate tasks that may be more difficult to achieve using traditional networks that have been typically used historically:

• Ability to transmit more than one telephone call down the same broadband-connected telephone line. This can make VoIP a simple way to add an extra telephone line to a home or office.
• Many VoIP packages include PSTN features that most telcos (telecommunication companies) normally charge extra for, or may be unavailable from your local telco, such as 3-way calling, call forwarding, automatic redial, and caller ID.
• VoIP can be secured with existing off-the-shelf protocols such as Secure Real-time Transport Protocol. Most of the difficulties of creating a secure phone over traditional phone lines, like digitizing and digital transmission are already in place with VoIP. It is only necessary to encrypt and authenticate the existing data stream.
• VoIP is location independent, only an internet connection is needed to get a connection to a VoIP provider; for instance call center agents using VoIP phones can work from anywhere with a sufficiently fast and stable Internet connection.
• VoIP phones can integrate with other services available over the Internet, including video conversation, message or data file exchange in parallel with the conversation, audio conferencing, managing address books and passing information about whether others (e.g. friends or colleagues) are available online to interested parties.

Many consumer VoIP solutions do not support encryption yet, although having a secure phone is much easier to implement with VoIP than traditional phone lines. As a result, it is relatively easy to eavesdrop on VoIP calls and even change their content. There are several open source solutions that facilitate sniffing of VoIP conversations. A modicum of security is afforded due to patented audio codecs that are not easily available for open source applications, however such security through obscurity has not proven effective in the long run in other fields. Some vendors also use compression to make eavesdropping more difficult. However, real security requires encryption and cryptographic authentication which are not widely available at a consumer level. The existing secure standard SRTP and the new ZRTP protocol is available on Analog Telephone Adapters(ATAs) as well as various softphones. It is possible to use IPsec to secure P2P VoIP by using opportunistic encryption. Skype does not use SRTP, but uses encryption which is transparent to the Skype provider.

The Voice VPN solution provides secure voice for enterprise VoIP networks by applying IPSec encryption to the digitized voice stream.

Caller ID support among VoIP providers varies, although the majority of VoIP providers now offer full Caller ID with name on outgoing calls. When calling a traditional PSTN number from some VoIP providers, Caller ID is not supported.

In a few cases, VoIP providers may allow a caller to spoof the Caller ID information, making it appear as though they are calling from a different number. Business grade VoIP equipment and software often makes it easy to modify caller ID information. Although this can provide many businesses great flexibility, it is also open to abuse.

info : wikipedia

BIOS

BIOS (pronounced /ˈbaɪoʊs/), in computing, stands for Basic Input/Output System.

The term is incorrectly known as Binary Input/Output System, Basic Integrated Operating System and occasionally Built In Operating System. BIOS refers to the firmware code run by a personal computer when first powered on. The primary function of the BIOS is to identify and initiate component hardware, (such as hard drives, floppies, and CDs). This is to prepare the machine so other software programs stored on various media can load, execute, and assume control of the PC. This process is known as booting, or booting up, which is short for bootstrapping.

BIOS can also be said to be a coded program embedded on a chip that recognizes and controls various devices that make up x86 personal computers. Among other classes of computers, the generic terms boot monitor, boot loader or boot ROM were commonly used. Some Sun and Macintosh PowerPC computers used Open Firmware for this purpose. There are a few proposed alternatives for Legacy BIOS on the x86 world: Extensible Firmware Interface, Open Firmware (used on the OLPC XO-1) and LinuxBIOS.

The term first appeared in the CP/M operating system, describing the part of CP/M loaded during boot time that interfaced directly with the hardware (CP/M machines usually had a simple boot loader in ROM, and nothing else). Most versions of DOS have a file called "IBMBIO.COM" or "IO.SYS" that is analogous to the CP/M disk BIOS.

PROM, EPROM or, most commonly, flash memory when the computer is powered on. It initializes several motherboard components and peripherals, including:

• The clock generator.
• The processors and caches.
• The chipset (memory controller and I/O controller).
• The system memory.
• All PCI devices (by assigning bus numbers and resources).
• The primary graphics controller.
• Mass storage controllers (such as SATA and IDE controllers).
• Various I/O controllers (such keyboard/mouse and USB).

Finally, it loads the boot loader for the operating system, and transfers control to it. The entire process is known as power-on self-test (POST). On the original IBM PC, the hardware only needed minimal configuration and POST was indeed used for testing; on modern systems, most of POST actually consists of hardware configuration.

Once system memory is initialized, the BIOS typically copies/decompresses itself into that memory and keeps executing from it.

Nearly all BIOS implementations can optionally execute a setup program interfacing the nonvolatile BIOS memory (CMOS). This memory holds user-customizable configuration data (passwords, time, date, hard drive details, etc.) accessed by BIOS code. The 80x86 source code for early PC and AT BIOS was included with the IBM Technical Reference Manual.

In most modern BIOS implementations, users select where the BIOS obtains its boot image: CD, hard disk, floppy disk, USB device or via a networked connection. This is particularly useful for installing operating systems or booting to a LiveCD or flash keydrive, and for selecting the order of testing for the presence of bootable media.

Some BIOSes allow the user to select the operating system to load (e.g. load another OS from the second hard disk), though this is more often handled by a second-stage boot loader.

Before 1990 or so BIOSes were held on ROM chips that could not be altered. As its complexity and need for updates grew, BIOS firmware was subsequently stored on EEPROM or flash memory devices. The first flash chips attached to the ISA bus. Starting in 1998, the BIOS flash moved to the LPC bus, a functional replacement for ISA, following a new standard implementation known as "firmware hub" (FWH). In 2006, the first systems supporting a Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) appeared, and the BIOS flash moved again.

EEPROM chips are advantageous because they can easily be updated by the user; hardware manufacturers frequently issue BIOS updates to upgrade their products, improve compatibility and remove bugs. However, the risk is that an improperly executed or aborted BIOS update can render the computer or device unusable. To recover from BIOS corruption, some new motherboards have a backup BIOS (i.e. they are referred to as "Dual BIOS" boards, Gigabyte even offers a motherboard with quad BIOS). Also, most BIOSes have a "boot block" which is a portion of the ROM that runs first and is not updateable. This code will verify that the rest of the BIOS is intact (via checksum, hash, etc.) before transferring control to it. If the boot block detects that the main BIOS is corrupted, then it will typically initiate a recovery process, by booting to a removable media (floppy, CD or USB memory) so that the user can try flashing again.

Due to the limitation on the number of times that flash memory can be flashed, a flash-based BIOS is vulnerable to "flash-burn" viruses that repeatedly write to the flash, permanently corrupting the chip. Such attacks can be prevented by some form of write-protection, the ultimate protection being the replacement of the flash memory with a true ROM.

AMD Athlon

AMD Processor

Athlon is the brand name applied to a series of different x86 processors designed and manufactured by AMD. The original Athlon, or Athlon Classic, was the first seventh-generation x86 processor and, in a first, retained the initial performance lead it had over Intel's competing processors for a significant period of time. AMD has continued the Athlon name with the Athlon 64, an eighth-generation processor featuring AMD64 (later renamed x86-64) technology.

The Athlon made its debut on June 23, 1999. The name was chosen by AMD as short for "decathlon". Athlon was the ancient Greek word for "Champion/trophy of the games".

AMD ex-CEO and founder Jerry Sanders developed strategic partnerships during the late 1990s to improve AMD's presence in the PC market based on the success of the K6 architecture. One major partnership announced in 1998 paired AMD with semiconductor giant Motorola. In the announcement, Sanders referred to the partnership as creating a "virtual gorilla" that would enable AMD to compete with Intel on fabrication capacity while limiting AMD's financial outlay for new facilities. This partnership also helped to co-develop copper-based semiconductor technology, which would become a cornerstone of the K7 production process.

In August 1999, AMD released the Athlon (K7) processor. Notably, the design team was led by Dirk Meyer, one of the lead engineers on the DEC Alpha project. Jerry Sanders had approached many of the engineering staff to work for AMD as DEC wound the project down, and brought in a near-complete team of engineering experts. The balance of the Athlon design team was comprised of AMD K5 and K6 veterans.

By working with Motorola, AMD was able to refine copper interconnect manufacturing to the production stage about one year before Intel. The revised process permitted 180-nanometer processor production. The accompanying die-shrink resulted in lower power consumption, permitting AMD to increase Athlon clock-speeds to the 1 gigahertz range . AMD found processor yields on the new process exceeded expectations, and delivered high speed chips in volume in March 2000.

Internally, the Athlon is a fully seventh generation x86 processor, the first of its kind. Like the AMD K5 and K6, the Athlon is a RISC microprocessor which decodes x86 instructions into its own internal instructions at runtime. The CPU is an out-of-order design, again like previous post-5x86 AMD CPUs. The Athlon utilizes the DEC Alpha EV6 bus architecture with double data rate (DDR) technology. This means that at 100 MHz the Athlon front side bus actually transfers at a rate similar to a 200 MHz single data rate bus (referred to as 200 MT/s), which was superior to the method used on Intel's Pentium III (with SDR bus speeds of 100 and 133MHz).

AMD designed the CPU with more robust x86 instruction decoding capabilities than that of K6, to enhance its ability to keep more data in-flight at once. Athlon's CISC to RISC decoder triplet could potentially decode 6 x86 operations per clock, although this was somewhat unlikely in real-world use. The critical branch predictor unit, essential to keeping the pipeline busy, was enhanced compared to what was onboard the K6. Deeper pipelining with more stages allowed higher clock speeds to be attained. Whereas the AMD K6-III+ topped out at 570 MHz due to its short pipeline, even when built on the 180 nm process, the Athlon was capable of going much higher.

AMD ended its long-time handicap with floating point x87 performance by designing an impressive super-pipelined, out-of-order, triple-issue floating point unit. Each of its 3 units were tailored to be able to calculate an optimal type of instructions with some redundancy. By having separate units, it was possible to operate on more than one floating point instruction at once. This FPU was a huge step forward for AMD. While the K6 FPU had looked anemic compared to the Intel P6 FPU, with Athlon this was no longer the case.

The 3DNow! floating point SIMD technology, again present, received some revisions and a name change to "Enhanced 3DNow!". Additions included DSP instructions and an implementation of the extended-MMX subset of Intel SSE.

CPU Caching onboard Athlon consisted of the typical two levels. Athlon was the first x86 processor with a 128 KiB split level 1 cache; a 2-way associative, later 16-way, cache separated into 2×64 KiB for data and instructions (Harvard architecture). This cache was double the size of K6's already large 2×32 KiB cache, and quadruple the size of Pentium II and III's 2×16 KiB L1 cache. The initial Athlon (Slot A, later renamed Athlon Classic) used 512 KiB of level 2 cache separate from the CPU, on the processor cartridge board, running at 50% to 33% of core speed. This was done because the 250 nm manufacturing processes was too large to allow for on-die cache while maintaining cost-effective die size. Later Athlon CPUs, afforded greater transistor budgets by smaller 180 nm and 130 nm process nodes, moved to on-die L2 cache at full CPU clock speed.

Athlon Classic launched on June 23, 1999. It showed superior performance compared to the reigning champion, Pentium III, in every benchmark.

Athlon Classic is a cartridge-based processor. The design, called Slot A, was quite similar to but incompatible with Intel's Slot 1 cartridge used for Pentium II and Pentium III. The cartridge allowed use of higher speed cache memory than is possible to put on the motherboard. Like Pentium II and the "Katmai"-core Pentium III, Athlon Classic used a 512 KiB secondary cache. This cache, again like its competitors, ran at a fraction of the core clock rate and had its own 64-bit bus, called a "backside bus" that allowed concurrent system front side bus and cache accesses. Initially the L2 cache was set for half of the CPU clock speed, on up to 700 MHz Athlon CPUs. Faster Slot-A processors were forced to compromise with cache clock speed and ran at 2/5 (up to 850 MHz) or 1/3 (up to 1 GHz). The SRAM available at the time was incapable of matching the Athlon's clock scalability, due both to cache chip technology limitations and electrical/cache latency complications of running an external cache at such a high speed.

The Slot-A Athlons were the first multiplier-locked CPUs from AMD. This was partly done to hinder CPU remarking being done by questionable resellers around the globe. AMD's older CPUs could simply be set to run at whatever clock speed the user chose on the motherboard, making it trivial to relabel a CPU and sell it as a faster grade than it was originally intended. These relabeled CPUs were not always stable, being overclocked and not tested properly, and this was damaging to AMD's reputation. Although the Athlon was multiplier locked, crafty enthusiasts eventually discovered that a connector on the PCB of the cartridge could control the multiplier. Eventually a product called the "Goldfingers device" was created that could unlock the CPU, named after the gold connector pads on the processor board that it attached to.

In commercial terms, the Athlon Classic was an enormous success — not just because of its own merits, but also because the normally dependable Intel endured a series of major production, design, and quality control issues at this time. In particular, Intel's transition to the 180 nm production process, starting in late 1999 and running through to mid-2000, suffered delays. There was a shortage of Pentium III parts. In contrast, AMD enjoyed a remarkably smooth process transition and had ample supplies available, causing Athlon sales to become quite strong.

Specifications

• K7 "Argon" (250 nm)
• K75 "Pluto/Orion" (180 nm)
• L1-Cache: 64 + 64 KiB (Data + Instructions)
• L2-Cache: 512 KiB, external chips on CPU module with 50, 40 or 33% of CPU-speed
• MMX, 3DNow!
• Slot A (EV6)
• Front side bus: 200 MT/s (100 MHz double-pumped)
• VCore: 1.6 V (K7), 1.6 - 1.8 V (K75)
• First release: June 23, 1999 (K7), November 29, 1999(K75)
• Clockrate: 500 - 700 MHz (K7), 550 - 1000 MHz (K75)

Microcomputer

Small Computer

Although there is no single definition, a microcomputer (in the 1970s and 80s sometimes shortened to micro) is most often taken to mean a computer with a microprocessor as its CPU. Another general characteristic of these computers is that they occupy physically small amounts of space. Although the terms are not synonymous, many microcomputers are also personal computers (in the generic sense).
The term "microcomputer" came into popular use after the introduction of the minicomputer, although Isaac Asimov used the term microcomputer in his short story "The Dying Night" as early as 1956 (published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in July that year). Most notably, the microcomputer replaced the many separate components that made up the minicomputer's CPU with a single integrated microprocessor chip.

The earliest models often sold as kits to be assembled by the user, and came with as little as 256 bytes of RAM, and no input/output devices other than indicator lights and switches. However, as microprocessor design advanced rapidly and semiconductor memory became less expensive from the early-to-mid-1970s onwards, microcomputers in turn grew faster and cheaper. This resulted in an explosion in their popularity during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

The increasing availability and power of desktop computers for personal use attracted the attention of more software developers. As time went on and the industry matured, the market for personal (micro)computers standardized around IBM PC compatibles running MS-DOS (and later Windows).

Modern desktop computers, video game consoles, laptop computers, tablet PCs, and many types of handheld devices, including mobile phones and pocket calculators, as well as industrial embedded systems, may all be considered examples of microcomputers according to the definition given above.

Monitors, keyboards and other devices for input and output may be integrated or separate. Computer memory in the form of RAM, and at least one other less volatile, memory storage device are usually combined with the CPU on a system bus in a single unit. Other devices that make up a complete microcomputer system include, batteries, a power supply unit, a keyboard and various input/output devices used to convey information to and from a human operator (printers, [Computer display|monitors], human interface devices) Microcomputers are designed to serve only a single user at a time, although they can often be modified with software or hardware to concurrently serve more than one user. Microcomputers fit well on or under desks or tables, so that they are within easy access of the user. Bigger computers like minicomputers, mainframes, and supercomputers take up large cabinets or even a dedicated room.

A microcomputer comes equipped with at least one type of data storage, usually RAM. Although some microcomputers (particularly early 8-bit home micros) perform tasks using RAM alone, some form of secondary storage is normally desirable. In the early days of home micros, this was often a data cassette deck (in many cases as an external unit). Later, secondary storage (particularly in the form of FLOPPY and hard disk drives) were built in to the microcomputer case itself!!

Radeon R520

ATI RADEON R520 Graphic Card

ATI's "R520" core (codenamed Fudo) is the foundation for a line of DirectX 9.0c 3D accelerator X1000 video cards. It is ATI's first major architectural overhaul since the "R300" core and is highly optimized for Shader Model 3.0. The Radeon X1000 series using the core was introduced on October 5, 2005. ATI has released the successor to the R500 series with the R600 series on May 14, 2007.

The R520 core architecture is referred to by ATI as an "Ultra Threaded Dispatch Processor". This refers to ATI's plan to boost the efficiency of their core, instead of going with a brute force increase in the number of processing units. A central pixel shader "dispatch unit" breaks shaders down into threads (batches) of 16 pixels (4x4) and can track and distribute up to 128 threads per pixel "quad" (4 pipelines each). When one of the shader quads becomes idle, due to a completion of a task or waiting for other data, the dispatch engine will assign the quad with another task to do in the meantime, with the overall result being a greater utilization of the shader units, theoretically. With such a large number of threads per "quad", ATI created a very large general purpose register array that is capable of multiple concurrent reads and writes and has a high-bandwidth connection to each shader array. This provides temporary storage necessary to keep the pipelines fed by having work available as much as possible. With chips such as RV530 and R580, where the number of shader units per pipeline triples, the efficiency of pixel shading drops off slightly because these shaders still have the same level of threading resources as the less endowed RV515 and R520.

The next major change to the core is with its memory bus. R420 and R300 had nearly identical memory controller designs, with the former being a bug fixed release designed for higher clock speeds. R520, however, differs with its central controller (arbiter) that connects to the "memory clients". Around the chip there are two 256-bit ring buses running at the same speed as the DRAM chips, but in opposite directions to reduce latency. Along these ring buses are 4 "stop" points where data exits the ring and going into or out of the memory chips. There is actually a fifth stop, one that is significantly less complex, designed for the PCI Express interface and video input. This design allows memory accesses to be far quicker though lower latency by virtue of the smaller distance the signals need to move through the GPU, and by increasing the number of banks per DRAM. Basically the chip can spread out memory requests faster and more directly to the RAM chips. ATI claims a 40% improvement in efficiency over older designs. Again, the smaller cores such as RV515 and RV530 receive cutbacks due to their smaller, less costly designs. RV530, for example, has two internal 128-bit buses instead. This generation has support for all recent memory types, including GDDR4. In addition to ring bus, each memory channel now has the granularity of 32-bits, which improves memory efficiency when performing small memory requests.

Ruby returns in The Assassin

The vertex shader engines were already of the required FP32 precision in ATI's older products. Changes necessary for SM3.0 included longer instruction lengths, dynamic flow control instructions, with branches, loops and subroutines and a larger temporary register space. The pixel shader engines are actually quite similar in computational layout to their R420 counterparts, although they were heavily optimized and tweaked to reach high clock speeds on the 90 nm process. ATI has been working for years on a high-performance shader compiler in their driver for their older hardware, so staying with a similar basic design that is compatible offered obvious cost and time savings.

At the end of the pipeline, the texture addressing processors are now decoupled from pixel shader, so any unused texturing units can be dynamically allocated to pixels that need more texture layers. Other improvements include 4096x4096 texture support and ATI's 3Dc normal map compression sees an improvement in compression ratio for more specific situations.

The R5xx family introduced a more advanced onboard motion-video engine. Like the Radeon cards since the R100, the R5xx can offload almost the entire MPEG-1/2 video pipeline. The R5xx can also assist in Microsoft WMV9/VC-1 and MPEG H.264/AVC decoding, by a combination of the 3D/pipeline's shader-units and the motion-video engine. Benchmarks show only a modest decrease in CPU-utilization for VC-1 and H.264 playback.

As is typical for an ATI video card release, a selection of real-time 3D demonstration programs were released at launch. ATI's development of their "digital superstar", Ruby, continued with a new demo named The Assassin. The demo showcased a highly-complex environment, with high dynamic range lighting (HDR) and dynamic soft shadows. Ruby's latest nemesis, Cyn, was composed of 120,000 polygons.

The cards support dual-link DVI output and HDCP. However, using HDCP requires external ROM to be installed, which were not available for early models of the video cards. RV515, RV530, RV535 cores include 1 single and 1 double DVI link; R520, RV560, RV570, R580, R580+ cores include 2 double DVI links.