Throughout the history of personal computers, RAM has always been something of a valuable commodity – even a luxury. Only a few years ago, even reaching the memory limit of 4 GB possible under a 32-bit operating system was completely unthinkable. But then again, at one time 640 kB was considered enough for anyone. Times change; right now, DDR2 memory is as cheap as it’s ever been Compare Prices on DDR2 Memory, and equipping your PC with 8 GB will only set you back about $198. The benefit of having 8 GB of system memory is that the OS has to access the hard drive far less frequently, making Vista feel much snappier. However, several settings in the BIOS and the operating system need to be changed in order for the system to be able to take advantage of that much memory.
(Full article ‘Vista Workshop: More RAM, More Speed’)

IBM once again dominated the competition in semi-annual rankings of supercomputers, but the big news is what’s coming next year.

The company is working on a computer nicknamed “Roadrunner” that will combine Cell processors, a family of chips found inside the PlayStation 3, and processors from AMD.

Roadrunner, which will be delivered to the US Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in summer 2008, will be capable of performing more than a quadrillion operations, or a petaflop, when it’s fully operational. IBM helped design and build the Cell chip and has been looking for ways to expand its commercial potential.

A computer that can churn a petaflop has been a long-standing goal for many manufacturers.

(Full article ‘IBM’s Roadrunner to smash supercomputing records’)

In overclocker circles, the hot topic of the moment is whether or not a quad-core CPU is better than a dual-core. We did many hardware tests to find out. After all, one of the most important questions when you try to put together a powerful new system is which combination of Core 2 processor, motherboard and RAM offers the best value for your money. One of the prerequisites is, naturally, that the system has to offer good overclocking potential in order give you high performance at a low price. That means that you can forget about buying a preconfigured system online or from your local computer around the corner – instead you should have full control over the choice of components. In this article, we present a complete solution consisting of a processor, a cooler, a motherboard and RAM that may become an item on the wish list of many of our readers.
(Full article ‘Overclocking: Dual- vs. Quad-Core CPUs’)

Hewlett-Packard Co. officials are marking the 30th anniversary of the OpenVMS operating system’s introduction by telling users of the software that it still doesn’t have an expiration date.

To deliver that message, HP has brought out some of its top executives, including Martin Fink, senior vice president and general manager of the company’s business-critical systems group. During a webcast on Friday, Fink responded to questions submitted by members of the Chicago-based Encompass user group. Encompass, which originated as a group for customers of the former Digital Equipment Corp., also posted a document containing written responses to questions that were posed to Fink in advance of the webcast (PDF format).

In addition, Mark Hurd, HP’s chairman, CEO and president, has recorded a video that can be viewed on an OpenVMS 30th anniversary Web site that the vendor has set up.

(Full article ‘HP tries to assure OpenVMS users that OS still has a future’)

Tom’s Hardware was one of the first publications to not only criticize ridiculously high heat dissipation, but also excessive power consumption where it’s totally unnecessary. AMD and Intel have been in the news for years because their products either weren’t efficient enough, or because of the advances they both made in reducing their power requirements. Measuring minimum (idle) and maximum power requirements of components, or of the overall system at the plug, is a good way to determine whether or not a device is thrifty. However, these measurements leave an important factor out of the equation: performance. The delay of new processor products Phenom X2 and X4 forced AMD to shift its focus from “look at how fast our products are” to “look at the value we provide”.
(Full article ‘The Truth About PC Power Consumption’)