The TR Podcast 56: Intel's ups and downs, ultraportable madness, and Avatar


Plus, a podcast exclusive review, GPU acceleration for flash video, and more
by Jordan Drake — 3:59 AM on December 21, 2009

The Tech Report Podcast Date: December 20, 2009
Time: 1:28:00

Hosted by Jordan Drake

Co-hosts: Scott Wasson, Cyril Kowaliski, and special guest Rob Williams

Download: MP3 (63.4MB) | M4A (86.5MB)

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Sponsored by MSI. Be sure to check out our review of the MSI P55-GD65 motherboard, which earned TR's Recommended award.

Show notes
After kicking off this episode with a review of James Cameron's Avatar, the gang welcomes Rob Williams of TechGage, who fills in for TR's venerable chipset and storage expert Geoff Gasior this week. Cyril then follows up on last episode's GPU shortage discussion, giving us the latest on the availability of AMD's Radeon HD 5850 and 5870 graphics cards.

Later, in a round of ultraportable stories, Scott shares his experiences with GPU-accelerated Flash video, installing Windows 7 on his Samsung NC20, and using Acer's Aspire Timeline 1810TZ ultraportable. A listener question subsequently prompts several Intel-related stories, including updates about the Larrabee graphics processor, the Federal Trade Commission's recent lawsuit, and the upcoming 32-nm Clarkdale, Arrandale, and Gulftown CPUs.

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

Listener mail (1:03:21):

Larabee as a software platform? - from Cassidy (ssidbroadcast) - (0:55:13):

"Hey Guys - Apparently Larabee is being "downgraded" to a software platform?* Sounds like a major setback for Intel. Could we hear your guy's take on this?"

Tech discussion:

    Cyril's Avatar review (0:02:37)- Read more

    Jordan's Avatar review (0:14:34)

    Availability check: Radeon HD 5850, 5870 drought ends (0:19:06)- Read more

    GPU acceleration comes to Flash video (0:28:27)- Read more

    Installing Windows 7 on a Samsung N20 (0:39:41)- Read more

    Eee PC 1201N shows up at Newegg (0:43:34)- Read more

    Scott's podcast exclusive review of the Acer Aspire 1810TZ (0:48:43)

    Intel confirms January 7 launch for Clarkdale, Arrandale (1:03:45)- Read more

    First Gulftown CPU may be branded Core i7-980X (1:06:31)- Read more

    Pineview Atoms on their way (1:12:05)

    FTC sues Intel over antitrust violations (1:17:22)- Read more

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

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