US Navy creates game to help solve real-world problems, fight pirates

The US Navy has announced a new video game: the Massive Multiplayer Online War Game Leveraging the Internet (MMOWGLI). Developed by the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the large-scale game is an experiment in generating collective intelligence to solve piracy-related problems. MMOWGLI is launching in just a few weeks (the official timeframe is spring 2011).

If you've always wanted to fight Somali pirates or take down a notorious terrorist leader, this game is for you. You also have to enjoy large games, as this looks to be one of the biggest online games ever created.

ONR plans to launch the new Internet wargame internally on May 16, 2011. It will start by recruiting a community of more than 1,000 players to collaborate on solving real-world problems facing the Navy. More specifically, for three weeks MMOWGLI will recruit online players from across the government to suggest ways of combating piracy off the coast of Somalia.

The piracy problem is just a means to demonstrate the platform, but MMOWGLI itself can be applied to any scenario. ONR intends to tap a diverse group of players from the ranks of academia, defense, as well as government and nongovernment organizations. In short, MMOWGLI is meant to identify solutions to difficult challenges by leveraging the intellectual capital of a broader community. It is still a pilot project, but it definitely sounds like it has potential.

"MMOWGLI is an online game designed to find and collectively grow breakthrough ideas to some of the Navy's most complex problems--those 21st-century threats that demand new forms of collaboration and truly outlying ideas," Dr. Larry Schuette, ONR's director of Innovation, said in a statement. "We hope MMOWGLI will help us to understand what happens when your insights are combined with the observations and actions of another player. Will that fusion result in a game-changing idea or solution, or will the MMOWGLI platform teach us something about our traditional thought processes?"

MMOWGLI should not be confused with what the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is doing. The organization last month asked gamers to test submarine-tracking simulator. Currently, ONR isn't asking gamers at large for help, but it will be soon

the world's smallest 3D HD display

The US Navy has announced a new video game: the Massive Multiplayer Online War Game Leveraging the Internet (MMOWGLI). Developed by the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the large-scale game is an experiment in generating collective intelligence to solve piracy-related problems. MMOWGLI is launching in just a few weeks (the official has a video of the 3D screen in action:

The screen's amazing specifications make it the world's smallest 3D display with full HD resolution (1920 x 1080 pixels), according to the company. Unfortunately, 3D glasses are required to view 3D images. It can display 16.77 million colors, has a viewing angle of 160 degrees, and comes with an LED backlight.

At the Embedded Systems Expo (ESEC), the company explained that the 3D effect is achieved by using a circular polarizing film called Xpol, developed by Arisawa Manufacturing. This film is affixed to the panel with extremely precise alignment and because this system shows images for the left and right eye alternately on each line, the vertical resolution must be halved.

"We expect this technology will be utilized in the monitors of commercial 3D cameras," an Ortus Technology spokesperson said in a statement. "It could be used to check 3D images immediately after taking them. We haven't set a date for the market launch, but we could start production in the near future, depending on demand from customers."

Personally, this is the type of screen I want to see in a phone one day. The 3D part doesn't impress me much, but the resolution certainly does (even if my eyes can't tell the difference!).

Via introduces QuadCore processor for notebooks

Via managed to get some buzz going on when the Isaiah architecture and Nano processor were first introduced back in 2008. But even though early benchmarks seemed promising performance-wise, Intel had the upper hand when it came to power consumption and quickly took the market by storm. It was only this year that AMD came out with a competitive alternative for netbooks and budget laptops and now it seems VIA is ready to give it another go.

Following the introduction of its Nano X2 processor back in January, which is a dual-core implementation of its Isaiah architecture built on TSMC's 40-nm chip fabrication process, VIA is now introducing the QuadCore processor combining a pair of Nano X2 chips on a single package to deliver a low-cost, low-power alternative to Atom and Brazos.

The pair of Nano X2 chips are connected by a shared 1333MHz FSB and each has two 1MB independent L2 caches, for a total of 4MB of L2 on-package. Initially VIA will be introducing a single model of the QuadCore, known as the L4700, which is rated for 1.2GHz operation and a maximum TDP of just 27.5W. The QuadCore can dynamically clock up to frequencies as high as 1.46GHz, however, provided there's enough thermal and power headroom available, thanks to a new feature called Adaptive Overclocking that appears to work very much like Intel's Turbo Boost.

The chip is designed to run multimedia, productivity and Internet applications, according to VIA, and will be pin-to-pin compatible with Via Eden, Via C7 and Via Nano E-Series and Via Eden X2 processors. The company offered some results from its own internal benchmarks compared to an AMD E-350 APU, and the QuadCore seemed to have a clear advantage in CPU intensive tests, encryption, and some multimedia as well.

In terms of power consumption Brazos and Atom still have an advantage, though, not to mention that with less than 1% of the x86 market VIA lacks the market pull of Intel or AMD. But it's still interesting to see some more competition in the market and we're eager to see if they manage to score some design wins from major notebook vendors. You can read a bit more about the QuadCore and take an inside look of VIA's simulation labs over at AnandTech and HardOCP.

Seagate intros mobile wireless HDD for iOS, Android devices

Seagate has announced an interesting new addition to its GoFlex range of external storage devices. Dubbed GoFlex Satellite, it's the first battery-powered hard drive to wirelessly connect to any Wi-Fi-enabled device, including iOS and Android tablets or smartphones. Priced at $200 for 500GB of storage it's certainly not for everyone, but Seagate believes that since most mobile devices are limited in storage, it can be a handy companion to take on the road.

The device's wireless radio supports up to three connections and lets you access any media on the drive through a web browser. There's also a dedicated GoFlex Media app for iOS that will let you transfer files between your device and the hard drive -- the Android version is said to be coming soon. Battery life will last about 5 hours of operation and about 25 hours when idle, and like other GoFlex drives, you can still hook it up to any computer via USB 2.0 or USB 3.0.

"With the GoFlex Satellite mobile wireless storage, we wished to create an elegant solution that provides real value to the multitude of iPad users out there by delivering a seamless connection to local storage," said Patrick Connolly, VP and general manager of Seagate's retail group. "No longer will a consumer feel as though it is a compromise to purchase a lower capacity tablet or iPad. With GoFlex Satellite, people will be able to carry their entire media library with them without the need for wires or the web at a fraction of the cost of adding 3G or purchasing or a higher capacity tablet."

The new device is basically a portable external hard drive, almost exactly the same as the GoFlex Pro or the GoFlex Ultra-portable, but with the addition of a built-in battery and Wi-Fi. Despite the additions is not too bulky for a 2.5-inch hard drive at 4.72 x 3.46 x 1.26 inches and weighing just over half a pound.

The GoFlex Satellite is available for pre-order now from Seagate.com, Amazon and BestBuy.com. It should arrive in retail stores this July, and an eventual global roll out is planned for later this summer.

Nvidia: Second wave of Android tablets a vast improvement

Nvidia is doing relatively well in the tablet space, with its Tegra 2 SoC being the core piece of silicon inside Honeycomb tablets like the Xoom and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. But Android was off to a slow start in this market compared to the hot-selling iPad. The platform's lack of 'killer' apps and unpolished software has been mentioned before as key weaknesses, but Nvidia's CEO Jen-Hsun Huang says this is just part of the problem.

"It's a point of sales problem. It's an expertise at retail problem. It's a marketing problem to consumers. It is a price point problem," he said in a recent chat with Cnet. Although Huang didn't mention any specific products, he clearly had Apple and the iPad in mind. Not only did the company have the lowest priced device in the market when it launched the first two iterations of the iPad, they also had a solid advantage when it came to distribution and marketing.

Having their own stores allows them to explain its product better to consumers through dedicated sales people, and it also means they can capture bigger margins than competitors who share a cut on each sale with retail partners.

The fact that tablets were initially selling with a smartphone OS was also a big issue, though Honeycomb has taken care of that for the most part. Lastly, Huang mentioned that tablets should be offered in a base WiFi-only configuration from day one, rather than launching with the 3G versions for the sake of packing more features and holding off the more affordable variants for later -- much like Motorola did with its heavily hyped Xoom.

Nvidia's chief executive believes the second round of Android tablets are far better than the first generation of devices, though, and while there are still issues that need to be dealt with we are already seeing the first devices that meaningfully undercut Apple's $499 price for the iPad 2 without sacrificing functionality. The Acer Iconia and Asus Transformer are two examples of that, and we're definitely interested to see what's next.

Samsung starts rolling out Android 2.3 for Galaxy Tab, Galaxy S

Samsung has announced that the Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) upgrade to its Galaxy S, Galaxy Tab, and Galaxy Ace/Gio/Fit/mini devices has begun to roll out on Kies, the company's device management software. The upgrade will start with the Galaxy S in the UK and Nordic countries from mid-May, and gradually roll out to other European markets, North America, Southeast Asia, the Middle East Asia, Africa, and the rest of the world, according to the regional plan.

Samsung touts that the upgrade from Android 2.2 (codenamed Froyo) to Android 2.3 will give users a better user experience thanks to enhanced performance and an improved user interface:

• Faster Performance – Multimedia content now has a lower CPU consumption rate, while support for more powerful 3D Graphics enables an enhanced mobile gaming experience.
• Upgraded Usability – The user interface has been improved, enabling faster access and control and a more intuitive user experience. Users will also benefit from improved copy-and-paste functionality.

The Galaxy Tab features a TFT-LCD capacitive touch screen with a 1024 x 600 resolution, a 1GHz Cortex A8 Hummingbird Application processor, 512MB of RAM, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, 3G, and dual cameras for capturing still images, videos, or making video calls. It also has a robust HTML Web browsing experience with Adobe Flash 10.1, as well as support for a number of different formats, including DivX, Xvid, WMV, and MPEG-4.

The Galaxy S is available on all major US carriers; though on each it sports a slightly different name (but the Galaxy S moniker is present on each) and set of features. All of them still boast a 4-inch AMOLED touch screen display, 1Ghz Cortex A8 Hummingbird processor, 5-megapixel camera with LED flash and 720p video capture, six-axis sensor for gaming, up to 16GB of internal storage, Bluetooth, GPS, and Wi-Fi.

Although Samsung has already announced the Galaxy Tab 10.1, Galaxy Tab 8.9, and the Galaxy S II, it still supporting the older models. While the upgrade could have definitely come much sooner, it's still great to see that Samsung takes care of customers that buy the first version of its products

Windows 8 already at build 8006

The Windows enthusiast community is getting really excited because Windows 8 build numbers have passed the 8000 mark. We want to remind everyone that unless evidence shows otherwise, this currently means absolutely nothing.

Twitter user MSFTtm is one of the many users keeping us in the loop on Microsoft's latest work on Windows 8. Yesterday, he claimed that the last build he knew of, build 8006, was compiled at 6:55PM, on May 13, 2011. His messages show that the build number passed the 8000 mark somewhere between April 29, 2011 and May 12, 2011:

Last Windows 8 winmain build: 6.2.7996.0.winmain.110429-1810
Last Windows 8 build: 6.2.8005.winmain.110512-1726
Last Windows 8 build: 6.2.8006.0.winmain.110513-1855

If you were part of the Windows 7 beta testing community, you'll remember that Windows 7 beta was build 7000, the release candidate was build 7100, and the RTM build number was 7600. Microsoft did this on purpose: the company sometimes increases the build number to a rounded set of digits when it reaches a certain milestone.

Microsoft may or may not do the same for Windows 8. What we do know for sure is that build 8000 will not be the first beta. It's not clear if Windows 8 is still in the Milestone 3 stage or if it is in the pre-beta stage. It's very possible that Microsoft will artificially inflate the build number to 8100, 8500, or something else for the beta release, but right now we are not there yet.

Windows 8 build 7850, the first leaked Windows 8 build, hit the Internet last month. It was quickly followed by Windows 8 Build 7955 a few weeks later. Windows Server 8 build 7959 then leaked earlier this month.

If you see a download claiming to be newer than build number 7959, be careful as it is likely bogus and probably contains malware. We may not see new leaks for a while given that Microsoft is rumored to have recently fired two employees for this exact reason.

Corsair, A-Data launch new SandForce-powered SSDs

Corsair has launched its third-generation Force solid-state drives, delivering SATA 6Gb/s speeds to value-minded consumers. Powered by the same SandForce SF-2281 controller as OCZ's Vertex 3, the Force Series 3 can reportedly hit speeds of up to 550MB/s sequential reads and 520MB/s writes, with up to 85,000 IOPS during 4KB random writes. By comparison, the original Force drives peaked at 280MB/s and 50,000 IOPs. The Vertex 3 240GB lists the same maximum transfer rates as the Force 3, except it supposedly offers 15,000 less IOPS.

Despite claiming similar performance to the Vertex 3 (which most would consider to be today's quickest consumer SSD), Corsair is pushing its latest drives with incredibly aggressive pricing. The 60GB is set at $139, the 120GB costs only $219 while the 240GB is $499 -- all of which are bundled with a 3.5-inch adapter and backed with a three-year warranty. As of writing, the 120GB Vertex 3 is going for $299.99 at Newegg, while the 240GB is $529.99. The Force Series 3 will launch worldwide this month, so keep your eyes peeled for a review.

A-Data revealed its latest contribution to the flash market alongside Corsair's announcement today. Unsurprisingly, the company's new S511 also employs an SF-2200 processor, and we wouldn't be the least bit surprised if it were an SF-2281. A-Data's lineup also consists of 60GB, 120GB and 240GB models with a peak throughput of 550MB/s reads and 520MB/s writes, along with 60,000 IOPS during 4KB random writes. They'll also come with a 3.5-inch adapter and are priced roughly equivalent to the Vertex 3 based on euro to USD conversions.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Review

A couple of months ago we were checking out Lenovo’s then latest ThinkPad offering, the X220. Based on Intel’s second generation Core processors, this system was classic business-oriented ThinkPad throughout. A few months before the X220, I had the IdeaPad U260 in-house which was classified by Lenovo as a “thin, light, stylish travel companion”.

I mention those two units as a transition to what we have for review today, the new ThinkPad X1. As the thinnest ThinkPad ever, the X1 seemingly takes the best features from the X220 and the U260 and merges them into one. The result is an extremely thin and sleek 13.4” notebook that is a real follow-up model to the X300 series that many came to own and love a couple of years ago.

The ThinkPad X1 packs a ton of features and powerful hardware in a thin frame, but it's interesting to note that the X1 lets go of a few key characteristics of the X300. Namely, Lenovo has transitioned to an internal non-removable battery and got rid of the optical drive. In true Thinkpad fashion though, the X1 maintains a rugged design and internal roll cage. For the first time Lenovo has also added a chiclet-style keyboard that is both spill-resistant and backlit.

The ThinkPad X1 unit we were sent is equipped with a dual-core Core i5-2520M clocked at 2.5 GHz. This is the same four thread capable processor we saw on the X220 which also features Intel HD 3000 graphics for a max TDP of 35W.

Additional hardware includes 4GB of DDR3, a Hitachi 320GB 7200 RPM hard drive, Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 wireless, Bluetooth, a 6-cell internal battery (38.92 Wh) and a 13.4” TFT display running at 1366 x 768 that is covered with Corning Gorilla glass. Our weight as tested is 3.73 pounds with dimensions of 13.26” x 9.1” x 0.65” – 0.84”.

Except for the internal battery, hardware specs are virtually identical to the X220 although you can configure the processor, memory and hard drive to your exact specification. We were also provided with the optional external slice battery, a 6-cell (35.5 Wh) unit for additional runtime

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Impressions

At first glance, the X1 looks much like any other ThinkPad but the more you study it, the more you realize how Lenovo has refined it. The front bezel and lid edge are featureless, a style that Lenovo carries around the perimeter of the system.

The exterior lid is solid black with a speckle-style black rubber-like finish complete with the Lenovo and ThinkPad nameplates. On the right side of the notebook is a switch to enable / disable all radios, a 4-in-1 card reader (SD, MMC, SDHC and SDXC) and the hard drive port.

The majority of ports are on the back of the system which include, from left to right: Network jack, what appears to be a non-functional SIM card slot, a USB 3.0 port, HDMI port, Mini DisplayPort port, a powered eSATA / USB 2.0 combo port, power connector and a Kensington lock slot.

On the left side of the system we find the CPU fan exhaust vent as well as a rubber plug that covers the headphone / mic jack and an additional USB 2.0 port.

There are four rubber feet on the bottom of the system as well as multiple vents to exhaust system heat. We can also see slots designed to drain liquid from the keyboard area in the event of a spill. Two of the smaller slots hide the dual downward-firing Dolby Home Theater v4 capable speaker system.

The hard drive can be taken out by removing a single screw, popping off the cover and pulling the drive out. Accessing the memory, however, is more difficult and would require the removal of no less than 10 screws.

The six row keyboard on the X1 looks and feels great. New features here include an LED backlight keyboard, a new spill resistance drainage design and what Lenovo has coined as a “legacy reduced layout” – a fancy term which simply means they have removed less frequently used buttons like Scroll Lock and SysRq.

This being a ThinkPad, the requisite TrackPoint pointing device is present between the G, H and B keys as is the dedicated mouse click buttons just below the space bar. Additionally we see that Lenovo has retained their Fn / Ctrl key placement which is a staple among ThinkPads.

Just to the right of the slightly concave chiclet style keyboard is a small media panel featuring the power button, ThinkVantage button and dedicated volume control buttons. A fingerprint reader sits to the right side of the touchpad for added login security.

The touchpad on the X1 measures roughly 3” x 2.5” and features integrated mouse click buttons. If you recall in my X220 review, I was not happy with Lenovo’s implementation of this. I am happy to report that this system works much better than what I used on the X220. I would still prefer Lenovo’s near-perfect physical click buttons, but this is the next best thing.

The 13.4” SuperBright LCD display features glossy Corning Gorilla glass for added scratch resistance with a low-light HD webcam and microphone centered above. Lenovo has implemented what they call an “infinity” design with the display and surrounding bezel. Much like an infinity pool, the glass covering the display extends out past the edge of the screen and covers nearly the entire display bezel. This results in a very elegant look and is something I would like to see other manufacturers adopt when using non-matte screens.

Pre-installed Software and Performance

The ThinkPad X1 we tested came installed with Windows 7 Professional 64-bit with Service Pack 1. 32-bit versions of Home and Professional are also available as configurable options, however.

ThinkPads have traditionally been light on pre-installed software and the X1 follows the same trend. Aside from an installation of the Bing Bar, there wasn’t any other questionable software to bog the system down. Trial versions of Microsoft Office 2010, Skype and Norton Internet Security are provided, but Lenovo leaves it up to the end user to decide whether or not to install these.

Lenovo installs plenty of their own software such as the ThinkVantage Toolbox, which is a suite of programs that cover things like system health, security, networking and diagnostics. Lenovo's custom power management program, Power Manager 3, is also included and set to a medium power / energy saving profile by default. Fresh out of the box, the X1 takes roughly 45 seconds to boot into a ready-to-use state of Windows.

Intel's Turbo Boost 2 is also part of the new second generation Core series chips and is designed to better manage workloads by dynamically adjusting individual core speeds depending on the processing power is needed. The Core i5-2520M in our unit is clocked at 2.5 GHz and should ramp up to 3.2GHz as needed.

Below we've included our standard suite of benchmark numbers tests run on the ThinkPad X1 to give you an idea of how the system performs under load.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 System Specs

• 13.4" TFT 1366 x 768 display (covered with Corning Gorilla glass)
• Intel Core i5-2520M (2.5GHz - 3.2GHz, 3MB L3 cache)
• 4GB DDR3 SDRAM
• Intel HD 3000 Graphics (650MHz - 1.3GHz)
• Hitachi 320GB 7200RPM hard drive
• Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (64-bit)

Lenovo ThinkPad X220 System Specs

• 12.5" Premium HD LED-backlit IPS 1366 x 768 display
• Intel Core i5-2520M (2.5GHz - 3.2GHz, 3MB L3 cache)
• 4GB PC3-10700 DDR3 SDRAM
• Intel HD 3000 Graphics (650MHz - 1.3GHz)
• Hitachi 320GB 7200RPM hard drive
• Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (64-bit)

Lenovo IdeaPad U260 System Specs

• 12.5" HD AntiGlare 1366 x 768 display
• Intel ULV Core i5-470UM (1.33GHz, 3MB L2 cache)
• 4GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM
• Intel HD Graphics
• Hitachi 320GB 5400RPM hard drive
• Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)

HP Envy 14 System Specs

• 14.5" HP Radiance 1600 x 900 display
• Intel Core i5-450M (2.4GHz - 2.66GHz, 3MB L3 cache)
• 4GB DDR3 system memory
• 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650
• Seagate Momentus 500GB 7200RPM
• Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)

Benchmark Results

Synthetic Tests	X1	X220	U260	Envy 14
3DMark 06
3DMark Score	3750 3DMarks	3786 3DMarks	1148 3DMarks	6866 3DMarks
PCMark Vantage
PCMark Suite	7607 PCMarks	7201 PCMarks	3557 PCMarks	6840 PCMarks

Application Tests	X1	X220	U260	Envy 14
iTunes Encoding Test	01 min 15 sec	01 min 14 sec	02 min 39 sec	01 min 34 sec
File Transfer Test
Small files	1 min 23 sec	1 min 20 sec	1 min 42 sec	01 min 20 sec
Large file	1 min 2 sec	56 sec	1 min 31 sec	01 min 14 sec

The iTunes encoding tests consist of converting 14 MP3s (119MB) to 128Kbps ACC files and measuring the operation's duration in seconds. For the file transfer test, we measure how long it takes to copy two sets of files from one location to another on the same hard drive. On the small files test we transfer 557 MP3s, totaling 2.56GB. For the large file, these same MP3s were zipped into a single file measuring 2.52GB.

Gaming Performance	X1	X220	U260	Envy 14
Far Cry 2
1024x768 Medium Quality	26.59 FPS	27.56 FPS	--	--
Native Resolution, High Quality	17.94 FPS	18.46 FPS	--	--
StarCraft 2
1024x768 Medium Quality	15.23 FPS	15.60 FPS	--	--
Native Resolution, High Quality	10.42 FPS	10.21 FPS

Usage, Battery Life and Closing Thoughts

One key feature missing from the X1 that we liked about the X220 is the IPS display. While the Corning Gorilla glass and “infinity” screen are nice features, the display can’t hold a candle to the IPS display in terms of viewing angles. Observed independently, the horizontal angles are actually pretty good, but the vertical angles are bad in comparison. Thankfully it’s easy to adjust the angle of the display, so this isn’t as big of an issue as it could be. Aside from viewing angles, colors looked nice and text was crisp thanks to the 1366 x 768 resolution.

The keyboard on the X1 is one of the best I’ve seen on a ThinkPad. It starts with the chiclet keys that feel great as you type. Lenovo has managed to work in a backlit keyboard in addition to the spill-resistant design carried over from previous iterations. Key layout is good as well with Lenovo implementing their “legacy reduced” key delete and typical Fn / Ctrl placement.

I can also report that the touchpad is much improved over the X220’s implementation. The problem I found on the X220 is that Lenovo integrated the mouse click buttons into the touchpad. The implementation was pretty bad and difficult to use. Lenovo has corrected that issue with on the X1 and although it’s still not as good as dedicated click buttons, you can use it without becoming frustrated.

For those looking to forego the touchpad completely, the TrackPoint and its dedicated click buttons are a viable option, especially for ThinkPad veterans.

Intel’s Core i5-2520M performed as anticipated. We had an idea of what to expect from the X1 since our X220 sample came equipped with the same processor, memory and hard drive. 1080p full screen videos on YouTube only taxed the CPU around 15%. The 4k resolution video that we tested with on the X220 also taxed the X1 for roughly the same amount of cycles, around 80% CPU utilization.

The downward-firing speakers are up to the task as well. Audio can be played pretty loud and sounds just fine when bouncing off of a hard surface. Playing music with the system on a bed or sofa will result in less noise as the cushion below it will undoubtedly absorb some of the sound.

Heat generation and fan noise are both kept to a minimum even under full load. The system is very quiet at idle and just marginally louder under full load. At full load, the bottom back and left side do get warm but again, not overly so. The cooling fan seems to do a respectable job and keeping things under control, while part of the credit also goes to Sandy Bridge and its 32nm power-conscious architecture.

Connectivity options have also been improved on the ThinkPad X1. Noticeable additions include a USB 3.0 port, eSATA port and HDMI out. This is one of the few notebooks I have used that doesn’t have a VGA port, however.

I conducted a few different battery tests using the internal 6-cell battery. Our video playback test consists of looping a 720p rip of one of my favorite movies (Inception) in Windows Media Player at full screen with max screen brightness and Wi-Fi disabled. This is a taxing test that resulted in 2 hours and 43 minutes of usage with the single battery.

Our endurance test is run with five Firefox windows open with the Reload Every add-on refreshing each page every 5 minutes to simulate real-world browsing. Max screen brightness is used and Wi-Fi is enabled. This test resulted in 3 hours and 23 minutes of life. We anticipate that decreasing the screen brightness to the default setting will likely meet the 5 hours Lenovo claims the X1 is capable of on normal use. The X1 also has the external slice battery option similar to the X220's, but we had issues testing our unit with it. If it's anything similar to the X220, this will result in doubling the battery life at the expense of additional weight and thickness.

Lenovo advertises that the X1's RapidCharge feature can charge the laptop's battery up to 80% in 30 minutes. In the single test we performed we had a completely dead system in hibernation when we started, then unplugged at 30 minutes and booted up to find 85% battery life. Seems spot on with their claims. This can be handy if you need a quick refill between connecting flights or while waiting between classes or during lunch.

If you can live without the fabulous IPS display found on the X220, the new ThinkPad X1 is a great notebook. The hardware under the hood is plenty powerful to keep the system relevant for some time to come. The thin frame, infinity display, backlit keyboard, Trackpoint and trackpad are all positives on this system. An SSD upgrade on the X1 would really wake the system up and ensure a snappy computer for the long haul, granted you can afford the upgrade cost and sacrifice disk space. Battery life, however, was lower than expected.

AMD's upcoming A8-3530MX mobile Llano APU detailed

DonanimHaber has published a report detailing what is supposedly the fastest mobile processor AMD plans to release in 2011, though this could be confused in translation. The A8-3530MX will launch as part of the company's Llano notebook APU lineup, featuring a 32nm fabrication and using AMD's new FS1 package, the chip is comprised of four processing cores along with an integrated graphics processor and embedded northbridge components.

The CPU cores operate at a base frequency of 1.9GHz with TurboCore speeds reaching up to 2.6GHz and are accompanied by 4MB of L2 cache. Graphics are handled by a Radeon HD 6620G clocked at 444MHz, and while that may seem sluggish compared to the 500MHz part inside the low-voltage E-240 and E-350, the HD 6620G has 400 shaders versus a paltry 80. The GPU will also have DirectX 11 support and the UVD 3.0 with hardware-accelerated Blu-ray 3D playback.

The A8-3530MX contains a dual-channel memory controller that supports DDR3 RAM up to 1600MHz, as well as a PCI-Express 2.0 hub that can handle discrete graphics. Despite cramming all of those components under one roof, the A8-3530MX is said to have a thermal envelope of 45W. DananimHaber mentioned that the Fusion chip will be paired with one of two southbridge chipsets: the A60M or the A70M. Both are largely identical, except the former lacks native USB 3.0 support.

Asrock Z68 Extreme4 (Intel Z68) Motherboard Review

Launched at the beginning of the year, Intel's 32nm Sandy Bridge processors arrived alongside the new socket LGA1155 and two accompanying 6-series chipsets, the P67 and H67. Each platform presented a different value perspective: the pricier P67 supported Intel's unlocked "K" series enthusiast processors with advanced overclocking options, while the cheaper H67 had access to Sandy Bridge's built-in graphics.

Neither chipset offered both features, ultimately forcing users to assess their priorities. However this hasn't been a major deal for the average system builder because someone who wants to overclock heavily probably has a discrete graphics card, while someone who's using Sandy Bridge's integrated graphics chip likely wouldn't want to be bothered with overclocking -- note the word "likely."

There exists a third, smaller group of individuals who want squeeze extra performance out of their processor and memory, but don't require the graphical muscle of a full-blown video card. To fill that void, Intel has released the Z68 chipset, which is somewhat of a hybrid of the P67 and H67: it allows you to overclock while simultaneously using the baked-in graphics engine. But there's more to it...

Along with combining the functionality of its previous chipsets, Intel has infused the Z68 with some impressive new features that should make it more appealing to a broader demographic. By cramming more features into the Z68, the company has effectively created a new enthusiast-grade chipset, while the P67 has been demoted to somewhat of a mid-range offering.

Intel's Smart Response Technology (SRT) is one of the more noteworthy additions as it boosts system performance by using a small solid state drive for caching purposes. SRT is to an extent similar to what the Seagate Momentus XT hybrid hard drives offer, except it's considerably more flexible. This is an attractive feature among hardware buffs, as full-fledged SSDs are still too expensive for widespread adoption. We'll be fully testing this capability on this review.

Intel is also shipping the Z68 with LucidLogix Virtu GPU virtualization software, which offers power savings by allowing your system to toggle between a discrete video card or Sandy Bridge's built-in graphics engine for a specific task -- think of Nvidia's Optimus technology on the desktop. Needless to say, we're eager to examine both features courtesy ofAsrock's latest Z68 Extreme4 motherboard, so let's get this show on the road.

Asrock Z68 Extreme4

For testing Intel's latest chipset Asrock provided us with their Z68 Extreme4 motherboard, which is currently retailing for $200, making it slightly more affordable than the P67 Extreme6 we tested in our recent P67 motherboard roundup. In fact, we considered the Extreme6 to be the best all-around value for enthusiast shoppers.

Besides the inclusion of Z68's new features, the Extreme4 appears to offer many of the same great features seen on the P67 Extreme6. The spec sheet includes 64Mb AMI UEFI Legal BIOS with GUI support, four USB 3.0 ports, four SATA 6Gb/s connectors, 8-channel audio, eSATA 6Gb/s and Gigabit LAN.

Asrock has added quite a bit of functionality to the stock Z68 chipset. Whereas all Z68 motherboards have six SATA 3Gb/s ports (two can work at 6Gb/s speeds) Asrock has expanded the storage capabilities of their Z68 Extreme4 by including the Marvell 88SE9120 controller, which supports a pair of 6Gb/s SATA ports each using a PCI Express 2.0 x1 (5.0Gb/s) lane.

While the Marvell chip doesn't offer any RAID functionality, it does support NCQ (Native Command Queuing) and it provides the Asrock Z68 Extreme4 with a grand total of SATA ports. Networking is covered by a Broadcom BCM57781 Gigabit Ethernet controller which supports Wake-On-LAN and Energy Efficient Ethernet 802.3az.

Etron EJ168A controllers also occupy one PCI Express 2.0 x1 (5.0Gb/s) lane each to provide a combined four USB 3.0 ports. One controller powers two rear USB 3.0 ports while the other feeds a pair of front mounted ports using the supplied onboard header.

Asrock has added quite a few PCI Express devices and that presents a problem as the Z68 features just eight PCIe 2.0 (5.0Gb/s) lanes. As a workaround, Asrock employs the PLX PEX 8608 switch to deliver eight more flexible ports -- though we suspect many have been used to connect the PLX switch to the Z68. This isn't an ideal solution, but it's the only way Asrock could strap on so much extra hardware.

We found that the 8-channel audio is delivered by a rather traditional choice in the Realtek ALC892 codec which supports THX TruStudio Pro. Despite seeing this chipset on numerous Asrock boards before, we were unable to dig up any real info on it. The Realtek website only lists 8-channel codecs from the ALC861 to the ALC889

Intel Smart Response Technology

Flash-based storage represents a massive leap forward in performance when compared to traditional hard drives, largely due to its zero millisecond access time. Unfortunately, that speed still comes at an with exorbitant premium, with most mainstream SSDs costing around $2.00 per gigabyte while conventional HDD technology costs roughly five cents per gigabyte.

While most of us can't afford to transition entirely to flash storage, it's increasingly common for enthusiasts to house their operating system and certain programs on a relatively inexpensive low-capacity SSD. The obvious drawback is that you're still forced to rely on an HDD for large applications and media, which won't enjoy the same performance benefits.

Seagate first demonstrated SSD caching technology with their Seagate Momentus XT series. The hybrid drives utilize "Adaptive Memory" to automatically move frequently accessed data to a 4GB NAND flash module. The performance and price of these drives make them a reasonable compromise for pricey full-sized SSDs, but they do leave quite a bit to be desired.

Intel has developed its own solution called "Smart Response Technology," which takes a slightly different approach. Instead of having a small NAND flash buffer on your hard drive, SRT lets you separate both storage mediums, creating a more flexible solution -- and a potentially faster one at that.

You can select any SSD as long as it is at least 20GB in capacity and pair it with any HDD. The SSD is used as a cache for commonly used data blocks while the Z68 chipset monitors the HDDs usage patterns and transfers the most frequently accessed bits of data from the HDD to the SSD.

Data stored on the HDD must be accessed multiple times before it's transferred to the SSD, so data that is infrequently accessed or new will not take advantage of the speed bump provided by the SSD. In other words, you are unlikely to witness an immediate performance boost in freshly installed programs or while transferring large files.

Where SRT really surpasses the Seagate Momentus XT is in its ability to utilize much larger SSDs. You can dedicate just 18.4GB of an SSD for caching purposes or you can use the entire drive -- though limiting the use to just 20GB makes more sense as larger 64GB+ drives would probably work better if they were used solely as the boot drive.

Intel plans to launch a drive specifically for use with SRT. We expect the upcoming 20GB Larsen Creek SSD to cost around $50 and it should present a fantastic value when paired with a 2TB HDD. Although we don't have a 20GB Larsen Creek SSD yet, we used the Kingston SSDNow V+ 180 64GB for testing purposes which should provide similar

Gaming Performance

We used Fraps to measure StarCraft II's frame rates, recording five minutes of gameplay and using a replay of an 8-player online battle.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 was tested using Fraps to record 60 seconds of gameplay from the level "Cold War" with the best quality settings and 4xAA/16xAF enabled.

We tested Civ V with a saved file that's more 300 turns into a game, offering a good representation of gameplay. Using Fraps, we measured the performance at various zoom levels while scrolling around the map.

Unsurprisingly, we didn't record any noteworthy fps discrepancies between the Z68 and P67.

Intel SRT - Atto Disk Benchmark

SRT increased read performance quite a bit in Atto Disk Benchmark, once again putting the Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.C 1TB in the same league as entry-level SSDs.

Atto Disk Benchmark write performance was also greatly improved with the SRT results similar to that of the Kingston SSDNow V+ 180, which we chose for our cache drive.

Intel SRT - AS SSD Benchmark

As you're probably used to hearing by now, Intel's SRT boosted performance in AS SSD by a significant degree: sequential reads soared from 86.4MB/s to 135.3MB/s, while writes climbed from 100.3MB/s to 125.6MB/s.

The 4K-64 thread performance is also drastically improved, matching budget flash drives such as the Kingston SSDNow V+.

Oddly, while Intel's Smart Response Technology offered massive gains in AS SSD write access times, read access times were actually slower when using the SSD cache.