The first glimpse of the long-awaited return of Max Payne - in action. Coming March 2012 to Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.
10 TIPS TO BOOST UP TORRENT DOWNLOADS
You’ll find a few tips on how to speed up torrent download speed.
HOW TO REPAIR SLOW COMPUTERS
There are so many solutions and steps that can be used to repair slow computer to reduce the demand of resources.
PLAYSTATION 4 CONCEPT DESIGN
Reports already foretold that Sony is already in talks with suppliers to start the production of PS4 by the end of this year.
GEARS OF WAR GAMEPLAY TRAILER
It’s bigger, louder, and a much more refined action experience than previous installments.
FACEBOOK HITS 1 TRILLION PAGEVIEWS PER MONTH
Facebook registered approximately 870 million and 860 million unique visitors, respectively which is interestingly 120 million more than its registered users.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Max Payne 3 - First Trailer
The first glimpse of the long-awaited return of Max Payne - in action. Coming March 2012 to Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.
Coolest Tech Toys of 2012
Read on to see 10 of the coolest tech toys for 2012. 1. Samsung Galaxy 7.7 TabletLaunched at IFA 2011, Samsung's Galaxy 7.7 Tablet is 7.89 millimeters thin and weighs only 12 ounces (335 grams). It incorporates the company's “Super AMOLED Plus” display technology, which it says delivers “brilliant, high-contrast colors and a beautiful, crisp viewing experience.” The device has a battery that provides up to 10 hours of video playback time, Samsung says. |
2. Samsung Note with 'S Pen'Also launched at IFA 2011, Samsung's Galaxy Note has a 5.3 inch display, the largest screen size available among smartphones. This means less scrolling and screen transitions, Samsung says.PowerPoint presentations, web pages, news apps, and e-books can be viewed with minimal scrolling or zooming, according to the company. The “pen-input technology,” called the S Pen, allows users to draw and send handwritten images and notes via text message, email, and instant messaging. |
3. LG Smartscan MouseLG's mouse has a built-in scanner, which the company says will "open a new era for scanners."Users will click the Smart Scan button on the left side of the mouse, then swipe it over the material to be scanned. The scanned image can then be saved in a variety of file types, or dragged and dropped into a document or application, LG says. LG's Optical Character Recognition technology converts scanned text into a Microsoft Word document that can then be edited as required. The 2-in-1 device can scan page sizes up to A3, larger than most conventional portable scanners, according to LG. |
4. Sony Personal 3D ViewerEasily the most futuristic-looking among devices launched at IFA, Sony's head-mounted "Personal 3D Viewer” is slipped onto your head to give the experience of a movie theater-like virtual screen, Sony says. The device has separate panels for the left and right eye in order to display independent HD picture quality to each eye, resulting in 3D vision, according to Sony. Aimed at gamers and film fans, it comes with built-in surround-sound headphones. |
5. Toshiba No-Glasses 3D TVToshiba's 3D televisions, launched in Europe at IFA on Friday, create the illusion of depth without the need to wear special glasses by sending images of different perspectives to the right eye and others to the left eye. |
6. Designer 3D TV GlassesWant to look cool watching 3D TV? A range of designer 3D glasses by the likes of Lacoste and Calvin Klein is available. Pricing is similar to that of a regular pair of designer glasses, but with a curved lens, the glasses are suited to 3D viewing. |
7. The World's Slimmest Digital CameraJust 12.2mm slim, the Cyber-shot TX55 is the world’s thinnest camera. It captures 16.2 megapixel still images and full HD video. The camera’s back panel has an 8.3cm/3.3 inch touch-screen for showing off photos and movie clips.It also features 3D shooting options. By pressing the shutter button once, the camera grabs a pair of frames in quick succession, estimating depth to create a three-dimensional still image. |
8. Panasonic Viera 2D-to-3D ConversionPanasonic unveiled its new Viera television range, which includes technology that converts 2D images to 3D.Technology companies argue that the relative scarcity of 3D content is delaying its adoption. As a result, they are incorporating technology that can convert 2D images into 3D format for TV sets. LG demonstrated a 2D-to-3D game converter at the IFA fair. |
9. LG's Plasma TV With 'Pentouch'This TV can be connected to a computer. Users then activate the “PenTouch” mode on the remote control. In PenTouch mode, users can access files created on their PCs and manipulate them, edit them, or move them around the screen.Pen batteries can be recharged through USB ports on the TV or PC. Using PenTouch software, which is provided with the TV, users can draw pictures directly onto the screen and then save the files for further editing. Alternatively, users can try to play a game of Angry Birds using the Pentouch. The LG PenTouch TV uses a scratch-resistant glass screen and comes with a stand that has been designed to provide more stability when owners or their children are using the PenTouch feature, LG says. |
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| Toshiba Ultrabook |
10. Toshiba Ultrabook
Toshiba unveiled its Portégé Z830 Ultrabook devices at IFA, one of several tech giants to launch a new super portable notebook. Weighing about 2.5 pounds (1.12 kg) and less than a half-inch (15.9 mm) thick, the devices will be available during the fourth quarter of 2011 in Europe.Acer's Aspire S3 launched at IFA and will go on sale in September. It resumes in 1.5 seconds and features large hard drive capacity. Acer says it connects to the Internet in 2.5 seconds and adds that the device’s "high-efficiency" battery requires less charging, making it more appealing for environmentally conscious buyers.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
How to Make Password Protected ZIP Files using WinRAR
Winrar is a popular archive management software that can be used to open or create archive (rar,zip etc) files.There are lot of freeware softwares like Axcrypt,Disguise Folders that can encrypt your files and password protect them.If you have winrar installed in your pc then you can use its inbuilt password protection feature
How To make Password Protected ZIP Files using WinRAR:-
- Right click on the folder/file which has to be Password Protected and select ADD to Archive option.
- From the pop up window select the Advanced Tab.
- Now click on the Set Password.
- Enter and Verify your Password (Use both Alphabets and Numeric words to make a strong Password).
- Now a new compressed file will be generated at the same location of your original file
Now whenever somebody will try to open or extract the files in archive it will ask for the password.
New 3DS circle pad: first official picture, release date revealed
Nintendo has officially revealed the controversial new circle pad attachment for the 3DS.
The circle pad attachment will be launching on December 10 (the same date as Monster Hunt 3G) at a price of 1,500 yen, which is around £12 but don't necessarily expect a straight conversion.
It uses a single AAA battery and - the Nintendo Japan website is kind enough to point out - will not work on its own.
Nintendo's also released an initial list of titles that the circle pad attachment will be compatible with.
Along with Monster Hunter 3G, Resident Evil Revelations, Metal Gear Solid Snake Eater 3D, Ace Combat 3D, Dynasty Warriors Vs and Kingdom Hearts 3D are all mentioned.
Xbox Live currently out of action
"Xbox.com is having issues at the moment," Eric Neustadter, director of architecture for Xbox Live operations, wrote on Twitter about an hour ago. "It's being worked on - sorry for the hassle, folks."
According to Joystiq, Xbox Live's out of action for the time being too....
FIFA 12 demo is live on Xbox 360,Comes to PSN tomorrow in Europe...
As usual it's available to Gold Xbox Live members via the Xbox Live Marketplace and is 1.2GB in size.
EU footie fans with a PlayStation preference can look forward to the FIFA 12 demo running out on PSN tomorrow.
It looks like it should be a good outing for the EA Sports series once again....
How Google +1 Can Change the Dynamics of SEO
You must have heard about Google’s new search result recommendation service called Google +1? This has revolutionized the field of social SEO and has started giving a tough competition to Facebook’s “like” option.
What is Google +1?
When you log into your Google account and search for something on Google, you will note that
the search results appear with a +1 button beside respective links. Clicking on the +1 button, you can recommend the website to your Google contacts.
These recommendations will appear to your friends when they search on the same keyword. For example, if you searched for iPod and recommended an ecommerce website, when your friends search for the same gadget with the same keyword, they will see that you have recommended a particular site for it.
However, to make the +1 recommendation visible, you have to change the settings in your Google account’s +1 tab and make it “public” from “private”.
A website admin can add the Google +1 button in his website very easily. The process is similar to adding a Facebook “like” button or Twitter “tweet” button. When a visitor comes to a site and likes it, he can click on the social media button to recommend it to his friends and social circle.
The process of “like” and “Google +1” may look the same, but the +1 has a lot more effect on search engine optimization and page ranking.
How it Works?
When you click on the +1 button, the link gets shared with your social circle. This social circle consists of all the contacts in Google Talk, Gmail, Buzz, Contacts, Google Plus, etc. The recommendation appears to both the person who has recommended the link and to friends in his social circle.
For example, if Bob, Bill and Dan are three friends and Bob recommends a link, Bill and Dan will see that their friend Bob has recommended it. Now, if Bill also recommends the same link, then Bob will see “you and Bill have recommended this site.”
How it Helps in Online Marketing?
The Google +1 is a boon to SEO companies. Online marketing has completely changed with the introduction of Google +1 button. The click-through rate, or CTR, will see a boost for those that have higher number of Google +1 recommendations.
Normally, popular sites will be recommended by thousands all over the world and help them to secure top ranking. But Google +1 is also beneficial for small companies. If you are looking for “SEO services in India” and see that the search result shows a recommendation for a particular company, you will be more interested in it, even if they don’t appear in the top 10 search results. We are always more comfortable to work with a company when our friends recommend them.
How Google +1 Will Affect SEO?
If a link is being +1’d by a large group of friends, Google will increase its page rank. Compared to false account SEO activities, a genuine recommendation helps Google to understand the value of that website. If your friend recommends a particular site, you will probably spend a lot more time there than on other sites. Google measures the success and failure of a site by its bounce rate. Bounce rate calculates how long a user stays on a website. It will help Google’s algorithm and page ranking system.
Can it be Manipulated by Black-hat SEO?
If you think that anyone can randomly click on the +1 button to increase a website’s search ranking, then you are mistaken! Google is no fool; they can mark a spam +1 recommendation very easily. If you use your Google account regularly and use services such as Gmail, GTalk, and Google Plus, etc, your recommendations will be considered as genuine. But if you use a fake account and only +1 hundreds of links everyday, Google will soon realize your intention.
Why it’s Here to Stay?
What is the advantage of Google +1, when there is already Facebook “like”?When you “like” a site on Facebook, your friends can only see that recommendation for a few days. Later, they will forget about it. But when you +1’d a link, it stays for a very long time. Even if your friends search on the same keyword after several months, they will see that you have recommended a particular site months ago. This is very important for online marketing. Google +1 increases the chances of brand recall and rise in profit margins.
Google +1 is an excellent tool for SEO and marketing. However, it has one shortcoming. To recommend a site and see your friends’ recommendations in the search results, you have to log in to your Google account first. Though, if you consider the number of people using Gmail everyday, the possibility of seeing a recommendation while logged in is very high.
How to Increase Your Facebook Fan Base..........
From freelance web designers to big web designing agencies, everyone is utilizing the marketing capabilities of Facebook. Facebook Fan Page is a very useful medium to promote your business to a global audience. It will help you meet new customers, stay in touch with the old ones and promote your new products or services.
A great Facebook Fan Page design is not enough to make a successful marketing campaign. Unless you have enough fans, the main marketing purpose won’t be fulfilled. Every company/individual wants thousands of fans, but only a few succeed in capturing people’s attention.
So, what is the secret to encourage people to click on the “like” button? Here are few things you can do to get more Facebook fans.
Include a Facebook Fan Page box in the website/blog- This is an easy-to-use and useful application. You can copy the Facebook page plug-ins codes and paste it in your blog/website. You can customize this box as you like and view images of your fans or stream regular updates from your Facebook fan page. The ‘like’ button is generally placed at the top of the Facebook fan page box and gives one click access to your Facebook fan page.
Never forget to ask people- If you are very active in your blog and write regular articles, give a “follow me on Facebook” link at the end of every article. If you write guest posts in other blogs, then ask your readers to ‘like’ you on Facebook. Wherever you have an online presence, leave a link/button for your readers to ‘like’ you. If you constantly ask readers to become a member of your fan page, at least a few will be interested and click the ‘like’ button.
Give advertisements- You can advertise your fan page in Facebook to get the attention of your target audience. Giving an ad in Facebook will earn you better response than from placing your ad on other websites. You will be able to attract the existing 500 million plus users with just one advertisement. Advertising process in Facebook is also quite easy and affordable.
Use fan page to interact- You can switch identity from your personal profile to fan page profile and start interacting with your fans directly. If you ‘like’ several other fan pages, you can comment on their page and their fans will see your fan page’s name in the comment. It will lead them to your fan page directly.
Start a contest or give free items- This is a popular marketing trick to increase fan base within a short span of time. In these contests, participants are asked to become a fan to enter the contest or get the free item. This free item gifting technique was successfully used by Tradus and they have almost 60,000 fans now!
Mention other fan pages in your update- This is a good process to establish bond with other companies in your niche and get the attention of their fans. First, be a fan of other famous web design, web development,logo design, SEO companies, etc, and then in your Facebook fan page status, mention how the company is doing a great job. The post will appear in that company’s wall and their fans may get interested in you, visit your page and ‘like’ your page. Without spending a penny, you will be able to increase your fan base.
Attractive welcome tab will increase the number of fans- You have convinced people to visit your Facebook fan page. But will they click on the ‘like’ button? To interest them, you can add a “welcome tab” in the fan page. It’s completely customizable and allows you to welcome a new visitor with animation or video.
Connect Facebook with Twitter- If you are popular in Twitter and want to lead that traffic towards Facebook, all you need to do is install a plug-in and connect the two social networks. Once the plug-in is activated, your FB posts will be published in Twitter as a tweet. Your Twitter followers will get to know about your Facebook fan page and may become a fan as well. You can also write about your Facebook fan page in the Twitter “about me” section. The same thing can be done in your personal Facebook profile as well. It will inform your new friends about your fan page.
Conclusion- Facebook fan page is the best way to interact with your clients and friends. You should update the fan page content regularly, post new images, organize competitions and answer the questions asked by your fans. Some companies even use the fan page as a new product/service launch platform and online customer care. If your fan page contents are exclusive, your fan base will keep increasing.
HTML5 adoption might hurt Apple's profit, research finds
The widespread adoption of HTML5 for Web apps could cut Apple's operation profit growth by 30%, with Microsoft, Google and carriers benefiting, Bernstein Research predicted.
The financial researchers envision widespread adoption of HTML5 will affectiPhones and iPads, reducing margins for the former and lowering market share for the latter.
"Rough scenario analyses says that even a modest impact in each of these areas could cut our estimated Op. profit growth forecast for Apple through 2015 by about 30%," senior analyst Toni Sacconaghi Jr. wrote in a research paper issued last week. This could reduce the compound annual growth rate (CGAR) from roughly 19% today to 13%.
According to Sacconaghi, the emergence of HTML5 apps is "an important, longer-term issue for Apple investors to monitor." HTML5 technology has the potential to undermine profit margins and market share in Apple's iPhone and iPad franchises.
HTML5 is appealing to developers and businesses because it can be used to build Web apps that target all mobile platforms at once. This is more cost-effective and less labor-intensive than building different native apps for iOS, Android and Windows Phone.
It also allows developers and publishers to circumnavigate the 30% commission charged by Apple and Google for selling apps through their app stores. Furthermore, Apple also takes a 30% cut on subscriptions sold through the App Store. Both cuts could be obviated with HTML5-based apps, the report pointed out.
These are the main reasons why Amazon, the Financial Times and Twitter have each announced Web apps. Executives from Apple, Microsoft, Google and Facebook have all praised HTML5's virtues, Bernstein Research noted.
Jeffrey Hammond, principal analyst at Forrester Research, also thinks HTML5 will have an impact on the mobile ecosystem: "With more and more companies investing in HTML 5 clients -- or even hybrid apps that combine HTML 5 and native code -- what you will see is a reduction in porting costs to support other platforms like Android and Windows 8. This will erode, but not eliminate Apple's first mover advantage," he said in an email responding to questions.
"The primary beneficiaries will be Microsoft and Google and their OEMs. Examples of companies taking this approach include LinkedIn, Salesforce, the Financial Times and Amazon. There are many others as well," Hammond said.
Bernstein's research also painted a possible rosy future for Microsoft and Google. HTML5 apps could help to neutralize Android's advantage in third-party developer support. Also, "commoditization could lead to lower pricing, which could in turn cause some unit elasticity, potentially benefitting Google," according to Bernstein's research.
Carriers in turn could benefit from reduced handset prices and as a result, lower handset subsidies. The researchers expect that HTML5 apps would also cache data, which means that data usage is not likely to increase and the average revenue per user (ARPU) would not be affected. The increase of HTML5 usage would, however, have an overall negative impact on mobile device makers.
Hack brings down Linux websites
A number of Linux websites, including LinuxFoundation.org and Linux.com, have been pulled offline after a security breach.
The breach is believed to be related to the hack of the Kernel.org website that is home to the Linux Project, nearly two weeks ago.
In a holding message on its website, the Linux Foundation said that it had discovered a security breach on Sept. 8, which led to its taking down the Linux websites and their subdomains for maintenance.
The Linux Foundation infrastructure also supports services such as Open Printing and Linux Mark. However, it does not house the Linux kernel or its code repositories.
"The Linux Foundation made this decision in the interest of extreme caution and security best practices.
"We believe this breach was connected to the intrusion on kernel.org," the statement on Linux Foundation said.
While the Linux Foundation is restoring services, it warned users that their passwords may be compromised, and advised them to change them urgently:
"As with any intrusion and as a matter of caution, you should consider the passwords and SSH keys that you have used on these sites compromised. If you have reused these passwords on other sites, please change them immediately."
The foundation added that it is auditing all its systems, and will provide an updated statement when it has more information.
Google lets Wi-Fi hotspot owners opt out of location service
Bowing to pressure from European privacy regulators, Google will soon allow owners of Wi-Fi access points to opt out of a Google service that allows smartphone owners to identify their location without using GPS (Global Positioning System), it said Tuesday.
On the same day, Google announced it will not appeal an order from the Dutch Data Protection Authority (CBP) requiring it to destroy records of 3.6 million Wi-Fi SSIDs (service set identifiers) it collected in breach of Dutch privacy laws, IDG's Dutch news site Webwereld.nl reported.
By detecting the identity of a nearby Wi-Fi access point and looking up its geographic location in a database, Google can tell a smartphone owner roughly where they are. But so far, the owners of those Wi-Fi base stations haven't had a say in how their location information is used.
Now Google plans to build an opt-out service so that access point owners can ask that their data not be used to determine the location of smartphones, it said Tuesday.
The opt-out service will be available globally, although it was created at the instigation of European privacy regulators, Google Global Privacy Counsel Peter Fleischer wrote on a company blog.
The company will release details of how to opt out of the service by the end of the year, when the service is ready, he wrote.
Google collected the disputed geographic Wi-Fi data by having its Streetview vehicles scan for Wi-Fi signals at the same time as they recorded panoramic images for its mapping service, an action that some European data protection regulators condemned as an invasion of privacy.
Part of the reason for the regulators' anger was that Google collected far more information than it needed simply to identify the Wi-Fi base stations.
The French National Commission on Computing and Liberty (CNIL), discovered that Google had also recorded private communications being transmitted over unencrypted Wi-Fi connections, including usernames and passwords. The Commission fined Google 100,000 ($142,000) for that.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Linux Google Chrome Shines
The Google Chrome browser is still available as a stable build only for Windows, but it turns out that youcan get a dev build for Linux and also for Mac OSX. I've been curious about this browser for a while, so I tried out both.
The Linux build is easy to install if you're running current versions of Debian or Ubuntu. It may also be possible to install on other distros, but it's untested — the available version is .deb. Once installed, it's pretty fast — faster, I think, than Firefox on my machine.
Install is also easy on the Mac (.dmg available), but on initial startup, it hung when importing settings from Firefox. The second time around I did get a window, and all seemed to work well. It does start fast. Once up and running, Chrome is noticeably faster than Firefox (although perhaps this was a slightly unfair test, as I have about 20 open tabs in my Firefox right now!)
I quite like how the server address in the address box is bolded, with the rest of the URL left light gray. The address-and-search-box is also nice, although you get this functionality in practice in Firefox these days as well. I also like the minimalism of the address/button bar. I certainly intend to keep experimenting for a while.
Note that these are dev builds (not even beta!), so they may be significantly unstable. In the case of the Mac build, various privacy settings are unavailable.
Juliet Kemp has been messing around with Linux systems, for financial reward and otherwise, for about a decade. She is also the author of "Linux System Administration Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach"
8 Great Uses for Old Wireless Routers
Don't throw away your old 802.11g routers just yet. The new slick-looking 802.11n routers may provide higher speeds and performance, but there are still many ways your old gear can help out, including extending your wireless coverage, improving a new network, assisting in offering public Wi-Fi, providing network authentication, or enabling secure remote or site-to-site VPN connections.
Some of these ideas consist of moving the old router around to serve a different purpose. However, most make use of the neat features that replacement firmware projects offer for the popular WRT series from Linksys and many other vendors and brands. Nevertheless, all the ideas can be quite helpful and save you a lot of money.
1) Extend coverage by using it as an AP
Though wireless routers are designed to connect to and distribute an Internet connection, they can be used just for their Wi-Fi capabilities. In other words, you can use it as an access point (AP) instead of a wireless router. If you have a small network with only a single wireless router, this can just about double your wireless coverage—and it's essentially free.
Like a regular AP, you want to place the makeshift AP in a thoughtful spot to provide the best coverage. You want the wireless coverage boundaries of each router to overlap some. Then you have to run an Ethernet cable from the network's router or switch all the way to the makeshift AP.
The trick to turn the router into an AP is to turn off the router's DHCP server and to hook the Ethernet cable to one of the switch ports instead of the old router's WAN port.
2) Relieve 802.11n routers from supporting 802.11g
When using 802.11n (or Draft N), it's best to allow only 802.11n connections on the router. If 802.11g clients connect, they can slow down the newer clients. However, you can set up the old router again, just to support the old clients. You'd use the router as an AP, such as discussed above, except you could place it right next to the new router since you aren't trying to get more coverage.
So you can better differentiate between the 802.11g and 802.11n signals, you should use different SSIDs or network names. To make sure someone loaded with a 802.11g card doesn't accidentally connect to the new router, you can change the default wireless mode to 802.11n only.
3)Make it a repeater to take the signal further
Another way you can use an old router to extend your Wi-Fi footprint is to turn it into a repeater. Instead of having to run an Ethernet cable out to an AP, a repeater gets its network connection by listening to the airwaves and retransmitting the Wi-Fi signals between the existing wireless network and the users out of the main coverage area. This is great if you can't or don't want to run wires.
Though this range-extending technique doesn't require running cables, it does require flashing your router with replacement firmware. That's because routers don't come with the repeater feature out of the box. If you have a supported router, you can use the DD-WRT, Tomato, or Sveasoft firmware replacement.
4) Use it as a wireless bridge
If you have computers or other network devices that need to be connected to the network but only have an Ethernet port and aren't close enough to the router, you could convert your old router into a wireless bridge. In bridge mode, the old router would communicate with the new router via the airwaves. Any computers connected to the old router's Ethernet ports would be just like they were wirelessly connected with the new router themselves.
Like with the repeater mode, to get this bridging capability, you'll have to use a firmware replacement: DD-WRT, Tomato, or Sveasoft.
5) Offer VPN connections or connect offices together
Another feature provided by some firmware replacements is a built-in VPN server and client. This lets you set up the router for secure remote connections, so you can access files and services or secure your Wi-Fi hotspot connections. Plus if you have multiple locations, you can securely connect them via the Internet. You can find this functionality in the DD-WRT or Sveasoft firmware replacements.
6) Turn it into a hotspot
If you have a business, you could convert your old router into a hotspot gateway. Though you can simply plug in a regular wireless router to offer wireless Internet, you should implement the hotspot features. A captive portal makes users see a disclaimer or advertisements, or make payment, before getting Internet access. Plus some hotspot gateways can manage user accounts if login is required.
Both DD-WRT and Sveasoft include hotspot features. You might also want to check out the CoovaAPfirmware replacement and all their free services. Sputnik offers a modified version of DD-WRT along with their paid services.
7) Make it a RADIUS server
If you want to use the enterprise mode of WPA or WPA2, but don't have a RADIUS server to do the authentication, you may be able to convert your old router into one. If you have a supported router, you can flash it with the TinyPEAP firmware replacement.
8) Do your own brainstorming
We've discussed many ideas on how to use your old gear. Now you can review the features and documentation of the firmware projects to see if there are even more features that interest you. If all else fails, list your equipment on eBay…
Can the x86 Just Keep Going?
In an industry known for its planned obsolescence, few technologies have lasted three decades and continue to grow more powerful with each passing year. The few that are out there, like DRAM and Motorola's 68000 processor, are chip-based.
Add to that list the x86 architecture, which stands alone in the broader computer market now that Sun Microsystems' Sparc processor is on life support. There have been many attempts to knock off the x86, from Sparc to HP's PA-RISC to SGI's MIPS to DEC's Alpha. But resistance proved futile; many PA-RISC and Alpha engineers now work for Intel on the Itanium, which was also supposed to retire x86. Intel's only real competitor any more is another x86 company, AMD (NYSE: AMD).
Meanwhile, the x86 keeps humming along; it now powers everything from the fastest supercomputers on Earth down to handheld music and Internet devices and PCs and servers in between. Soon it will be in phones. Name another architecture that spans eight-core processors to smart phones.
Still, Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) itself has tried to put the x86 out to pasture more than once and couldn't do it. There was the iAPX-432 in the 1980s, the i860 in the early 1990s and then Itanium.
"If you were going to bet on an architecture that would be around in 20 years, which would you pick? I could think of only two, the IBM mainframe, which has been around 45 years and counting, and x86. All these other guys came and went," said Martin Reynolds, research vice president and fellow with Gartner.
The reason, he argues, is that x86 as an instruction set is mature and fully baked. Anything that comes along is in addition to what is already there, but there is no changing of the fundamentals. This helps maintain backwards compatibility that would in theory allow Windows 95 to run on a Core 2 Quad machine and have more driver problems than instruction problems.
"When we were debating multi-core internally, all the focus seemed to be on rewriting these apps and I said to management, 'stop. What you should assume is no apps will be rewritten. They simply have to run.' What we're all about is making sure the new apps take advantage of this capability without a loss of compatibility," said Intel CTO Justin Rattner.
Preserving that legacy was Intel's smartest move, argued the analysts. "They are changing x86 architecture, but when they do it's always additive and always backwards compatible," Reynolds told InternetNews.com. "Every x86 has a different implementation. It may have a different microarchitecture but it has the same instruction set."
Because x86 is a cumulative technology that keeps the old along with adding new, this allows it to keep the old while adding new technologies. It has created a scenario where x86 can literally go on forever, adding enhancements while supporting its legacy, until something knocks it off the perch. Many have tried.
Taking a RISC
Rattner said the big change in the x86 was the advent of the Pentium Pro in 1996."Up to that point, it was all about instruction set architecture. We were all arguing instruction set architecture. Patterson and Hennessy were arguing for RISC, there was the ACE initiative and RISC is going to blow everything out of the water," Rattner, who is also a senior fellow at Intel, told InternetNews.com.
David Patterson is a computer scientist at the University of California at Berkeley who created the RISC design and authored a number of seminal books on computer architecture with John Hennessey, a computer engineering professor and now president of Stanford University. Both were advocates of the RISC architecture taking over from complex instruction set computer (CISC) processors like x86.
"Pentium Pro said I can deliver the performance of a RISC architecture and in some sense the simplicity of a RISC architecture and maintain compatibility with this growing body of legacy code," Rattner added.
Rattner thinks the x86 architecture has changed from a hardware structure to something more akin to an application programming interface. "It evolves, just like the Windows API evolves, the Mac OS API evolves. APIs are a little more robust here than the media formats," he said.
The RISC side of the argument fell short where it counted: it didn't produce the software needed to run that nifty processor, notes Tony Massimini, chief of technology with Semico Research.
"The RISC guys underestimated that Intel could continue to get performance out of the x86 and I don't think anyone really focused enough on the software," he told InternetNews.com. "They all said 'here's great hardware,' and I said 'ok, where's the OS? Where's the apps?' That was the question I kept asking in '94, '95 and there was never a good answer."
Since then, he said, x86 has steadily grown as a high performance processor and the CISC vs. RISC war has died off as x86 is pretty much the only major architecture for computing. "I can't tell you the last time I heard someone argue for or debated someone that one instruction set architecture is better than another," said Rattner. The x86 will be around "until somebody proves otherwise. The burden of proof is on somebody else to come along and demonstrably prove otherwise."
So far no one has, and Reynolds figures no one will. "It can go on in perpetuity. People don't write in x86 code. There was a time, but now they write in C or Java that something else translates to x86," he said.
Massimini doubts anyone will knock x86 off its perch, either. "Never say never in this business but right now you would have to invest so much it would be a very difficult task," he said.
