Modern Visions for Technology (MV4T.com)

"Modern Visions for Technology" (MV4T) is the DBA ("doing business as") and branding under which Intersoft Development, Inc. markets modern hardware and software products and solutions. Intersoft Development, Inc. is a technology solutions and consulting corporation headquartered in Cleveland, OH that has been in business since 1995 serving Fortune-100 and smaller firms throughout the USA.

To obtain more information or to arrange interviews with our Technology Experts, Consulting Team, or Software Developer staff, please contact Modern Visions for Technology now.

• Technology, Software, Stock Market, and Investing Blog HOME PAGE

Specific Blog Topics of Interest
• Fix / resolve Adobe Acrobat Professional "Adobe PDF Converter.joboptions" missing file error and "Unable to find Adobe PDF resource files" message.
• VMware Workstation 7 : Great New Features!
• Adobe Acrobat Reader: Software Bloat at its finest.
• KDE42 Released : Microsoft Beware! Windows is looking outdated.
• How to fix / repair / correct Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 7000 and Blinking Red LED / Battery Recharge Problems
• 3D CAD Software Review : why I selected VariCAD over many other CAD options
• Stock Analysis / Technology Discussion: Nvidia - 2008 Q3 Results
• Performance Benchmark: Intel® X25-M SATA Solid-State Drives (SSD)
• First Look: Intel® X25-M, X18-M Mainstream SATA and X25-E Extreme SATA Solid-State Drives
• United States Wind Energy Statistics
• CEO / Executive Compensation Manifesto and Challenge
• Review: Mozilla Firefox 3 Internet / Web Browser
• DisplayPort Graphics Adapters and Monitors Status
• VMware Converter 3 Review and Usage
• The Ultra-Cool New Dell Studio Hybrid
• Comprehending the Latest Linux Developments and Achievements
• Product Review: MySQL - Not Ready for Critical Applications
• Virtual Machine Advantages with VMWare Workstation / Server
• First Look: KDE (K Desktop Environment) 4.0 Released
• Product Review: Windows Live Hotmail vs. Gmail

• Intersoft Development, Inc. News HOME PAGE

• (PCWorld) Intel: 2-year-old Nvidia GPU Outperforms 3.2GHz Core I7
[MV4T editor preface / comment: we found this article really interesting, as it demonstrates the computing power of GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) produced by Nvidia (their CUDA-capable graphics cards). The large number of parallel processing GPU stream-processors (aka "cores") can really make a HUGE difference in reducing processing times on compute-intensive operations that can be run in parallel.

What we found even more interesting is that Intel compared their current high-end Core i7 3.2 GHz processor to a somewhat older Nvidia GTX280; Nvidia has much newer, and more powerful, 400-series procesors out now. Keep that in mind as Intel points out that the Nvidia GPUs only ran tests 14 times faster. heh.]


Article Excerpt:
"Intel researchers have published the results of a performance comparison between their latest quad-core Core i7 processor and a two-year-old Nvidia graphics card, and found that the Intel processor can't match the graphics chip's parallel processing performance.
[...]
In a bid to discredit claims that GPUs outperform Intel's processors by a factor of 100, researchers compared the performance of the quad-core Core i7 processor with the Nvidia GPU running a set of 14 throughput computing kernels."
Read More...

• (TG Daily) Intel lowers SSD prices with 34nm manufacturing process
[MV4T editor preface / comment: The existing Intel (50nm) SSDs have been fantastic in our own servers, and these new 34nm SSD X25-M units further improve on a great product. The latency-reduction is just amazing, and we can perform Windows-Server 2003 virtual-machine "reboots" on our SSD-equipped servers in literally 1 or 2 seconds! The new price-point is certainly much more attractive now too, and should lower the barrier to more widespread IT Department adoption.]


Article Excerpt:
"Intel has set the following price points for the [new 34nm] X25-M:


• 80GB - $225 for quantities up to 1,000 units
• 160GB - $440 for quantities up to 1,000 units.

[...]
The X25-M is available in a standard 2.5-inch form factor, while the X18-M - in a 1.8-inch form factor - will begin shipping on 34nm later this quarter [3rd Qtr 2009]"
Read More...

• (TG Daily) AMD releases extreme low-power FirePro 2450 quad-display graphics
[MV4T editor preface / comment: Although we here at MV4T are partial to Nvidia graphics processors, cards, and CUDA technology, we can certainly appreciate the awesome efficiency of this new ATI / AMD FirePro 2450 card!]


Article Excerpt:
"The FirePro 2450 has 512 MB memory, operates on less than 18-watts on average, supports PCI Express 2.0 and has two VHDCI connectors with breakout cables for quad DVI-I or VGA monitors. AMD suggests the graphics card serves as a replacement for the ATI FireMV workstation cards which are currently used by financial service organizations.
[...]
though [the FirePro 2450] sales price of $499 might be a little steep for the same crowd's pockets"
[...]
Competitor Nvidia recently offered the Quadro NVS 420 video card which also supports four displays, though using DVI-D or DisplayPort connectors. Nvidia's card also sells for $499, and is designed to operate at a maximum of 40 watts driving four 2560 x 1600 monitors."
Read More...

• (source: DigiTimes) Intel offering Core i7 CPU and SSD bundle Discount
[MV4T editor preface / comment: this press release caught our attention; Intel SSDs and Core i7 combo discount!]


Article Excerpt:
"Intel recently began offering its partners a discount bundle deal including a Core i7 CPU and solid state drive (SSD) hoping to increase demand of the two product lines and to clear stockpiled inventory.
[...]
Intel is offering a 10-15% discount on the combined price of the CPU and drive as part of the promotion which is mainly targeting markets in China, Europe and North America.
[...]
Current pricing of Intel's latest SSD lineup is: X25-E 32GB at US$410, X18-M 80GB at US$385, X25-M 80GB at US$385, X18-M 160GB at US$760 and X25-M 160GB at US$760. The company plans to launch the X25-E 64GB at US$790 later this month."

• (Hardware-Infos) Nvidia readying 40nm GT218 mainstream GT200 series cards for March/April 2009 timeframe
[MV4T editor preface / comment: We look forward to these upcoming higher-efficiency mainstream GT200 Nvidia graphics processors and cards based on them!]


Article Excerpt:
"According to the information on hand that the GT21x series will have 32 stream processors per cluster and 8 TMUs, you do not have to be a great prophet to forecast that the GT218 will have these 32 stream processors and 8 TMUs, too.
[...]
According to Fudzilla the TDP is determined at 22 watt, while the G98 features a TDP of 25 to 30 watt."
Read More...

• (TG Daily) Nvidia updates CUDA : Tesla support for Windows Vista
Article Excerpt:
"Nvidia has released a new version of its CUDA platform that exploits the GPGPU capabilities of its graphics processors. There are no new features, but the SDK now supports added support for Windows Vista, Red Hat Linux as well as VisualStudio 2008 on Windows XP.
[...]
The company now offers version 2.1 beta as a free download, adding Windows Vista support for Tesla products and 32-bit debugger support for CUDA on RedHat Enterprise Linux 5.x, which is a separate download. Also supported is VisualStudio 2008 support on Windows XP and Vista and Just-In-Time (JIT) compilation for applications that dynamically generate CUDA kernels.
[...]
According to Nvidia, new interoperability APIs for Direct3D 9 and Direct3D 10 have been included to accelerate the communication with DirectX applications. There is also “a series of improvements to OpenGL interoperability” as well as “support for recent releases of Linux including Fedora9, OpenSuse 11 and Ubuntu 8.04.”"
Read More...

• (TG Daily) Intel ships 160 GB solid state disk drives
[MV4T editor preface / comment: We have been quite pleased with the Intel 80GB X25-M SSD product, and have been using them in our servers, workstations, and desktops since their initial release in 2008. Prices for the 80GB are now ~$550 at retail. We now look forward to even higher capacities with the new Intel 160GB SSD products.]


Article Excerpt:
"The power consumption should be about 0.15 watts under load.
[...]
Since they are based on the same multi-level cell technology as the 80 GB X25-M (the “m” actually stands for “mainstream”) model, we would expect similar performance data – read speeds of up to 250 MB/s and write speeds of about 70 MB/s...competition in this high-performance SSD segment is increasingly competitive, which provides hope that these [160GB Intel] drives may cost less than $1000."
Read More...

• (AnandTech) Intel Xeon 5570: Smashing SAP records (includes performance graph)
[MV4T editor preface / comment: WOW! We look forward to selling the new Xeon 55xx processors that are based on the architecture of the Core i7 - outrageous and nearly unbelievable performance gains appear real, and should lead to incredible power savings for the same computer performance, as demonstrated in these SAP Enterprise application performance figures!]


Article Excerpt:
"The Xeon 5570 is based on the same architecture as the Core i7. It is a 2.93 GHz quadcore CPU with 4 times a 256 KB L2-cache and one huge shared 8 MB L3.
[...]
The SAP numbers are absolutely astonishing, as Intel's dual socket is able to outperform quad socket opteron machines. Based on the scaling of Barcelona, we speculate that a quad Shanghai at 2.7 GHz would obtain the performance of the Dual Xeon 5570 w/o HT. The new Xeon 5570 outperforms the "old" 5450 by 119%!!!

These numbers are so high, that we checked and checked again. The database used is the same (SQL Server 2005),..."
Read More...

• (InformationWeek) Solid-State Drives In The Data Center (includes data center power-consumption stats)
Article Excerpt:
"Here are some widely acknowledged facts about the current energy consumption of data centers:
• Incremental U.S. demand for data center energy between now and 2010 is the equivalent of about 10 new power plants • Worldwide energy consumption of the data center doubled between 2000 and 2006 • Data center electricity consumption is almost .05% of world production • The average data center consumes energy equivalent to 25,000 households • The average cost of utilities for a 100,000-square-foot data center is running at a staggering $5.9 million annually."
Read More...

• (Intel) Silicon Photonics (optics technology and the computing industry)
Site Excerpt:
"Intel has collaborated with industry, academic, and government partners to develop a silicon-based avalanche photodetector (APD). APDs are light sensors that process optical communications to electrical signals.
[...]
Over time, Intel's vision is to develop integrated, high-volume silicon photonic chips that could dramatically change the way that enterprises use photonics links for their systems and networks. Simply having photonics could eliminate bandwidth and distance limitations, allowing for radically new flexible architectures capable of processing data more efficiently."
Read More...

• (Climate Savers Computing) Climate Savers Computing Initiative Overview - a necessary initiative.
Site Excerpt:
"Started by Google and Intel in 2007, the Climate Savers Computing Initiative is a nonprofit group of eco-conscious consumers, businesses and conservation organizations.
[...]
As participants in the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, computer and component manufacturers commit to producing products that meet specified power-efficiency targets, and corporate participants commit to purchasing power-efficient computing products."
Read More...