The PC Report

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has, after 11 years of overseeing internet and domain name related tasks, has finally approved non-Latin characters for domain names. Countries will now be able to have website domain names in their native language, and applications to get these domain names will begin on November 17th after documentation has been sent to various groups.

However, the ICANN has set up some guidelines for the new international domain names (IDNs). The language used in the domains must be a language of a country or territory and have a “legal status at minimum.” Also, you can only have IDNs on some specific country-code top level domains, such as Russian characters can be used in .ru addresses but not plain .com addresses. At first there will only be a limited amount of IDNs until bugs in the system are squashed, so if you want an IDN, get your application in while you can.

Asus axed its last attempt at a USB 3.0 motherboard in July “not for any particularly interesting reasons.” It looks like Asus is having another crack at a USB 3.0 motherboard with the P7P55D-E, which will be supporting SATA 6Gbps alongside USB 3.0 like the cancelled P6X58. Sadly though, the motherboard only carries two USB 3.0 ports, unlike the 10 USB 2.0 ports. SATA 6Gbps is also lacking with only 2 of those ports vs. 6 SATA 3Gbps.

Other than the USB/SATA, the motherboard is designed for the latest Intel i5 and i7 (and upcoming i3) processors with its LGA1156 socket and P55 chipset. It also carries both CrossFire X and SLI with its two PCI-E slots, and can support DDR3 RAM up to 2200MHz. The motherboard will be hitting retailers early next month for US$299.

The most popular Linux distribution has now been updated in line with its biannual releases. Ubuntu 9.10, aka “Karmic Koala” as been released and ready for your download or upgrade, and if you use one of the other related distros such as Kubuntu, Xubuntu (etc.), you can grab the 9.10 updates for those as well. Karmic Koala comes with improvements to cloud computing and boot speed, as well as a large range of program updates.

Included with Ubuntu 9.10 are GNOME 2.28, Linux Kernel 2.6.31, GIMP 2.6, Firefox 3.5, OpenOffice 3.1, and the Empathy Instant Messenger replaces Pidgin as the default IM client. Ubuntu One is also included by default alongside the new Ubuntu Software Center that improves package management. Check out the full list of improvements at the Ubuntu website, or download the distro now.

If you’re one of the few Vista users who can stand the operating system enough to not upgrade to Windows 7, this news might interest you. DirectX 11, the new version of DirectX that comes with Windows 7 and should be implemented in upcoming games such as DiRT 2, is now available for Vista in a Platform Update. However, you won’t be able to install the update if you aren’t running Vista Service Pack 2.

It’s good to know that DX11 games will perform equally as well if your running Windows 7 or Vista. If you that desperately need DirectX 11, the update (KB971512) should be available now on Windows Update or via the Microsoft Download Center.

It’s all about power in this “supercomputer” from Asustek. The ESC 1000 is a desktop-sized supercomputer that is said to push out 1.1 teraFLOPS, and it manages this with the help of 4 Nvidia workstation graphics cards. The ESC 1000 packs a 3.33GHz Intel Xeon W3580, alongside 24GB of 1333MHz DDR3 RAM, and a 500GB hard drive (a bit small for a machine this powerful). The real power-kickers are the 4 workstation graphics cards: three Nvidia Tesla C1060s and a Quadro FX 5800 for a total of 16GB of VRAM.

The company spokesperson said that the machine is ready to ship out now, but refrained from giving a launch date and price. However, as the parts to this machine cost around the US$10,000 mark, we expect you’re going to have to fork out quite a bit of money to enjoy this powerful beast. But, then again, this isn’t your ordinary desktop computer.

I recently was sifting through some old stuff of mine and came across my Windows 95 floppy disc collection – all 14 floppy discs required to install the classic Windows 95 operating system. So I painstakingly turned them all into images and managed to install Windows 95 inside a virtual drive in VirtualBox. So, here it is, the comparison between Windows 7, the latest and greatest operating system from Microsoft, and Windows 95 – the DOS-based OS from 14 years ago.

Ahhh, all the memories from such a classic operating system. Check out the full Windows 95 vs Windows 7 comparison in our reviews section.

100 cores does sound impressive, and while these chips are designed for web servers, Tilera’s upcoming 100-core Tile-GX is said to have at least four times the power of the Intel Nehalem EX, while “burning a third of the power.” This could be true, as the 40nm, 1.5GHz chip is set to use only 55W of power when it is in full use, which is impressive considering it has 100 cores under the hood.

While we wait for Intel’s 80-core processor that can be used for everyday applications such as Windows 7, the Tile-GX should fill all our multi-core server needs. The chip is set to cost between US$400 and US$1,000 and will be available for your purchasing in 2011.

Thursday marked the launch of the next major Microsoft operating system: Windows 7. Apart from Windows 7 installation discs being made available worldwide, many other Windows 7-related things happened on that special day:

• Windows 7 becomes the largest amazon pre-order of all time.
• The first consumer copy in the world is sold in Australia at midnight, although “house parties and press conferences” mark the Australian launch.
• Microsoft hold events in New Zealand to celebrate the launch.
• Microsoft release a fresh round of commercials, and so Apple join in, not wanting to be outdone.
• Windows 7 student upgrade fails to work properly.
• Burger King offers the 7-tier Windows 7 burger.
• Linus Torvalds gives a thumbs up to Windows 7.
• Many, many Windows 7 PCs are released.
• The Today Show launches Windows 7… on a MacBook Pro.

If you’re a regular driver updater, and you have an ATI card, now is the time to get to work updating as the new Catalyst 9.10 drivers are out for this month. While there aren’t any specified performance improvements in games, we do see full support for the ATI Radeon 5800 series, and a new Super Sampling anti-aliasing mode for the 5800 series cards that offers great performance with a high level of AA.

You can grab the drivers right now from the AMD website, and if you’re interested in the full list of features, you can read them here:

Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve waited, waited and waited, but today the wait is over. All around the world, Windows 7 has been released for consumers to buy and install, and alongside the standalone copy will be a slew of new desktops and laptops running Windows 7. We’ve had a pretty thorough coverage of Windows 7, and if your not sure if you should install the next big Microsoft operating system, read our 5 reasons to upgrade, or maybe our review.

Windows 7 starts at US$199 for Home Premium (US$119 for the upgrade) and should be available at your favourite computer retailers as well as Amazon and other online retailers. Ditch XP or Vista; it’s time for Windows 7 to shine.