Macro Rant

Here we go again! Time for a major release from Intel… and following suite is a new socket to go with it. LGA1155.. That’s right one pin less than LGA 1156.. and a far cry from LGA1366.

So what’s new about it? 32nm process for one. Reworked memory controller for two. Integrated graphics for three! w0000t! There will also be offerings with dual core graphics processing in the i5 and i7 versions! Synopsis? More processing from less power with greater memory performance (two load and store evens per cycle) and decent level graphics quality for the mainstream consumer utilizing DirectX 10.1. Will you be able to run Crysis at maxed out resolutions? Absolutely not. That will remain the realm of standalone GPUs (for now). However you might be able to play it at low resolutions with quality settings reduced. That’s not truly the aim of this series of processors anyways. The idea is to bring quality graphics to laptops according to Intel. That statement, I think, is more of a show for the standalone guys (AMD/ATI and nVidia) than it is about reality. Sure it will be great for laptop offerings but the true potential of these chips will be unleashed in desktops where the power performance isn’t as much of a factor for the consumer. Desktops offer the kind of power envelope where CPU integrated graphics can truly bloom. Only the future will tell the tall however.

My thoughts? EXCITED! Not as much for Sandy Bridge as I am for Ivy Bridge, it’s successor which is set, supposedly, to be released in the same packaging for socket LGA1155 on a 22nm manufacturing process. Ivy Bridge is rumored to be released with a minimum of eight processing cores and possibly as many as 12 in certain offerings. It is rumored to include integrated graphics with twice the shaders and double the throughput as the Sandy Bridge architecture and will support DirectX 11!!!! My sincere hope as a recreational level gamer is to see SLI and Crossfire support so that these on die graphic processors can be linked up with standalone products. As a consumer I’d like to see this offered standard. As a consultant I’d advise to make a separate offering that supports this. Something akin to how you can purchase an unlocked i7, dubbed “K” series. i7-2600K SLI anyone??? Yes please!

I wouldn’t be surprised either to see a second socket made available for both Sandy and Ivy bridge with additional pins in order to support higher bandwidth. Word is that the larger socket will be (coincidentally) LGA2011. My guess would be that the second package (LGA2011) will be made available in late Q4 2011 right around when Ivy Bridge is being introduced.

It is exciting times! Personally I can’t wait to put together a new system with Intel’s new lineup. I intend to invest as soon as possible. Intel continues to impress me with both their processor and SSD offerings. To think, I used to be an AMD guy. Bravo Intel.

Alright, so this happened a while ago. Back in January of this year. This is my first opportunity to really talk about it. Well, overall I have to say it’s been a negative for me personally. My primary let down was more recent with the death of OpenSolaris(or should I say murder?). Really this was tragic for me. I love OpenSolaris. I think it has a lot to offer the SMB and even some enterprise markets on a budget. Personally I use it to safeguard my data using ZFS volumes which are exported to iSCSI targets using COMSTAR, over which I place a NTFS partition since the majority of my work is done from a Windows machine. Lightning fast? No. It works exactly as I need it to. It checksums my data and provides easy backups, not to mention deduplication.

Anyways, I ‘m getting off target here. Oracle seems to be following suit with the rest of the big boys with all of the patent and copyright lawsuits. It seems that litigation has become a revenue producing branch of every large corporation these days. Especially software companies. It’s a sad progression to watch because I believe it is stifling innovation. It’s difficult to pass judgment because  companies and individuals deserve to reap the benefits of their creations but at the same time there needs to be a cohesiveness with innovation and progress. We can’t hold ourselves 10 years behind the curve so that XYZ company can squeeze that last .1% in profits out of their properties/products.

Oh Oracle. I hope  that, going forward, this doesn’t get any worse. You’re upsetting people. =(

MIT Nano Battery

Ahhh, Energy. Hot topic these days. Complex topic in fact. Unnecessarily complex if you ask me. Many people in the general population either haven’t had education in physics or don’t recall from high school. What is energy?

There are many definitions for energy as there are for most things, however this is my favorite:

en·er·gy (ěn’ər-jē)
n. pl. en·er·gies
1. The capacity for work or vigorous activity; vigor; power.

Notice it doesn’t say anything about volts, watts, joules, oil, hydrogen, electricity, or anything of that nature. This definition reinforces the idea that energy is just the ability to do work or acquire a desired change. That at it’s root is what energy is. You may drink a sugary coffee to gain enough energy to get through the morning, you may fill your car with gas to get to work, you may plug in your iPod to charge it up so you can listen to music. Every time you want a result, you provide some kind of input in some form of energy.

In my mind there are two primary problems today with energy as we know it.
1. Generation
2. Transportation

Generation
We don’t have a sustainable method of generation no matter how you look at it.
Coal will run out.
Oil will run out.
Uranium will run out.
Plutonium will run out.
Natural gas will run out.

Keep in mind that there will always be deposits of these resources that we either won’t find, or can’t extract. It is inevitable and to ignore these facts is, as the Borg would say, futile. So where are we headed in generation? A better question is where SHOULD we be headed in generation? It’s my opinion that the only sustainable energy source available to us is solar, which I’ll explain further later.

What about wind, wave, geothermal, etc?
For every action there is an equal but opposite reaction.
For energy to be obtained, energy must be removed.
I am of the opinion that wind is a TERRIBLE idea, not only are large wind farms the equivalent of a cheese grader for birds, but you are removing kinetic energy from the wind. How does this impact weather patterns? We don’t know, but I don’t like the idea of messing with a delicate balance like the planets weather patterns and function. Of the above renewable energies the only one that I believe we could harness with minimal impact to the system it interacts with is geothermal. Based on the studies I’ve seen thus far however it is not efficient enough to be valuable.

Now, short of finding an alternative energy source, solar appears to me to be the best option. Does removing this energy affect the system in which it exists? Absolutely. We’re harnessing power that otherwise would heat the surface of the planet and our atmosphere before some of it eventually bounces back out into space.
I am of the opinion that with sufficiently efficient solar cells we could harness the power of the sun without significantly affecting the system in which we live.
Where are we at now? Not far enough. Your typical residential photovoltaic solar cell is in the neighborhood of 9-15% efficiency. Some groups have recently released research and prototypes showing as much as 42.8% efficiency. Mostly using ultra rare metals that would not be feasible on a large economic scale.

If you ask me, instead of all the bailouts happening, dump some money into something useful like solar R&D. Under typical terrestrial conditions the sun lays down a lot of energy per square foot. If we could make solar cells with 70% efficiency we could make SERIOUS dents in our non-renewable resource usage. Alas, not enough research is being done. Just like everything else research costs money. Alas there is not enough money being put into research. So here we are chugging away on the non-renewable energy sources, hoping they’ll last until we at least have passed on and we’ll let our children worry about finding their own energy.

Transportation
What about transportation? Batteries suck. They’re messy, they’re big, and they don’t hold enough energy. What do I think is worth researching? Ultra capacitors. This term is used loosely for everything from high energy batteries to the more typically understood concept of a capacitor. I don’t know a lot about what’s currently under study but some form of ultra capacitor is necessary for the future of energy use. It’s necessary for transportation, home use during times when solar is not available, etc. Imagine a capacitor the size of a college textbook that holds enough energy to move a 4000 pound car 100 miles. Now put four or five of those in there and the transportation energy crisis is SOLVED. Done. Fin. Over. Thinks it’s not possible? Run the numbers. Energy density of that kind IS POSSIBLE. It exists in nature. The hard part is figuring out how to do with the the available technologies we have.

Anyways, this post is much longer than I wanted it to be. I had to paint the whole topic with a very broad brush and without much supporting evidence. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a tree hugger, but I am an air breather. Forgetting completely about the carbon dioxide output from oil sources, which I really don’t care about, I don’t like the other associated pollutants that result. I’m not a big fan of polluted foods and air. Anyways, one can only hope that things will line up and we as a country will head in a different direction. With enough energy, anything is possible. Anything.