Date: May 21, 2010 Time: 1:22:55 Hosted by Jordan Drake Co-Hosts: Scott Wasson, Cyril Kowaliski, Geoff Gasior Download: MP3 (59.8MB) | M4A (81.4MB) Subscribe: RSS | iTunes
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Show notes
This week is all about quality over quantity as we tackle TR's latest three reviews. But before getting into Eyefinity, SSDs, and bring-your-own-OS laptops, our panel goes over the new TR site layout, puts out the call for TR interns, and answers a very technical listener question about Intel's new Moorestown handheld platform.

Moving on to the heavy stuff, Scott has finally finished his opus on AMD's Eyefinity system, and he runs through the various configurations, their pros and cons, and which setup he'd keep around to use on a regular basis. In the storage corner, Geoff has the scoop on new SandForce based solid-state drives from OCZ and Corsair, and he reveals how SandForce's hotshot storage controller fares against popular Intel offerings. Finally, Cyril took Asus's choose-your-own-adventure Eee PC for a spin, and he gives us the skinny on whether an OS-free system is worth the trouble.

Send in listener mail, and we'll answer on the podcast. - jdrake@techreport.com

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Listener mail:

Moorestown Questions - from Paul - (0:12:41):

"Hello. I am a big fan of the TR podcasts. I love the production. Good job!
I listened to Scott's commentary on Intel's Moorestown. I am surprised at his response. It sounds like he actually likes it! There were a couple big items I thought Scott missed to mention in the podcast. I have not read his actual editorial yet. Things I thought were missed:
Moorestown is a multichip solution. It still has a southbridge! All current SoC's (Tegra, Snapdragon, OMAP3/4) are all highly integrated. A final Moorestown BOM could mean way more add-on chips than the competition. Moorestown does not come in a POP package. All the current SoC's I mentioned above have a POP package. This means the DRAM can be on the same package as the SoC. Moorestown is not packaged this way which is really going to increase PCB real estate in smart phones. It may not be a problem on tablets but definietly eliminates them from any smartphone design.
X86. It is nice that Moorestown is X86. I am not sure if this is a good thing in the mobile space. I just don't think X86 is the right architecture for the mobile world. X86 is a 20+ year old architecture. It is going to bring some desktop baggage. ARM rules the mobile space. 100k+ apps are already available for certain platforms (Ipad, Iphone, android). I don't think developers are going to want to create a x86 path if they do not have to. Google is never going to let Intel fragment Android more than it is now. X86 may actually be a hindering factor for Intel.
Again, great podcast. I listen frequently. I was just surprised there was not more coverage on the points above."

Tech discussion:

Whoa... new look (0:01:43)- Read more

Work at TR! Summer interns wanted (0:09:26)- Read more

Eyefinity to the sixth degree (0:23:09)- Read more

SandForce showdown: Corsair's Force F100 and OCZ's Agility 2 and Vertex 2 SSDs (0:49:12)- Read more

Asus' Eee PC 1201T ultraportable (1:08:25)- Read more

That's all, folks! We'll see you on the next episode.