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Raspberry Pi - DIY ( Do It Yourself)

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Monday, August 5, 2013
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Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Virtualization Enhancements with SP1

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Tuesday, September 6, 2011
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Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 is the rock solid server operating system by Microsoft. Today we will discuss about Virtualization enhancements in Windows Server 2008 R2. Windows Server 2008 introduced Hyper-V as new server role. Hyper-V is server virtualization technology introduced by Microsoft leveraging hardware-assisted virtualization.
Here are some of the key enhancements we have done in Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 in terms of Virtualization. I will be sharing some of the key features added to Hyper-V Server Role.

Live Migration

With the introduction of Live Migration, Windows Server 2008 R2 moves into a leadership position in the virtualization market.
 


Clustered Share Volume

While not a requirement for Live Migration, Windows Server 2008 R2’s introduction of Cluster Shared Volumes is definitely the way to go for shops with regular Live Migration operations on the horizon. Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) enables access to files on a shared storage device from all nodes in a Failover Cluster at the same time.
 

Processor Compatibility Mode

This improves VM compatibility with different processor version within same vendor. For e.g. Intel XEON & Core2Duo, AMD Opeteron/Tri-Core.
 

Boot from VHD & Native VHD Support

Windows Server 2008 R2 & Windows 7 support native VHD support. VHD is Microsoft standard Virtual Hard Disk file format. These operating systems natively support creation of VHD files. Also, these operating systems Boot from VHD for several editions of Windows Server 2008 R2 & Windows 7.
 

Dynamic VM storage

Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V supports hot plug-in and hot removal of storage. By supporting the addition or removal of Virtual Hard Drive (VHD) files and pass-through disks while a VM is running, Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V makes it possible to reconfigure VMs quickly to meet changing workload requirements.
 

Remote Desktop Services & VDI

Terminal Services gets a name change to Remote Desktop Services (more on that later). But RDS combined with the new Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and RemoteApp and Desktop (RAD) Connections feature, lets Windows XP, Vista®, and Windows 7 desktop operating systems as well as individual apps or portfolios of applications all be virtualized on R2 and managed via group policies. This makes it possible for end-users to run multiple operating systems simultaneously on client hardware, and facilitates desktop management as a whole and hosted desktop deployments in particular.
 
VM Chimney (TCP Offload Support) helps TCP/IP traffic in a VM can be offloaded to a physical NIC on the host computer. VMQ offloads the network routing and data copy processing by using hardware in a physical network interface card (NIC), such as multiple hardware receive queues and shared memory. The MAC address of the virtual NIC in the VM and an interrupt destination processor can be assigned to each hardware receive queue. The physical NIC puts the packet in the appropriate queue, eliminating the software routing overhead of the virtual switch. With shared memory, the physical NIC can use DMA to copy directly into the VM’s memory, thereby avoiding the extra memory copy by the virtual switch.
These are some of the new Virtualization enhancements in Windows Server 2008 R2. Apart from these features Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 also provided new features to the Server OS namely Dynamic Memory & RemoteFX. I hope you enjoyed this article and if you need to know more feel free to visit http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/hyperv-r2.aspx

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Gmail, Google Docs Viewer now support ZIP and RAR preview

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Saturday, July 16, 2011
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You may not always need to download any mail attachment; just view and check if everything is in place. The “view” feature helps you to do this tak. In case of compressed mail attachments, however, you are required to download them whether you want or not. Thanks to Google, now you can use Google Docs Viewer to preview compressed file types ZIP and RAR as well. With the new “view” button, you can now view all the contents within your browser.
After you have clicked on view button, the ZIP/RAR file is opened in a new tab where you get to see the contents of the file. When you hover over the list you can activate a menu by clicking Actions. You’ll be able to View items supported by Google Docs Viewer and Print (PDF) those that we offer PDF support. Save to Google Docs and Download appear for all files.

The new feature is also available on mobile versions of Google Docs. For each viewable file (including embedded ZIP or RAR archives) there is a link to view. The Google Docs Viewer now supports over 15 different file types such as MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Photoshop, .XPS and .ZIP and .RAR.
Google says on its official blog that the new feature works for archives inside archive files too. This means, if you have a ZIP file inside a RAR file or vice versa, you can still preview them. All you need to do is click on that file to get access to that contents of the archive.

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Sony Ericsson Xperia Duo leaks, sports a 1.4GHz dual-core CPU and 4.5-inch screen

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source: ThinkDigit
It looks like the dual-core Sony Ericsson phone we've all been expected is almost ready, with multiple leaks of a device called the Xperia Duo, with a massive 4.5-inch screen and a 1.4GHz dual-core processor.

For now, the identity of the chipset is a hotly debated topic, with some believing it to be an overclocked Qualcomm MSM8260 1.2GHz dual-core processor (the same as that in the HTC Sensation), and others an unheard of NovaThor A9500 chipset, a 1.4GHz dual-core Cortex A9 processor with a Mali-400 GPU.
Other specifications revealed about the device include a qHD (960x540) resolution for the 4.5-inch screen, powered by theBravia Mobile imaging engine, a 12MP camera, and a 2,500 mAh battery. For now, nothing is official, and things are certain to change before launch. We’ll keep you apprised of any developments. For now, we presume it will be running Gingerbread, and will arrive sometime after September.

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AMD launches the world's fastest mobile graphics card, the Radeon HD 6990M

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While AMD has been relatively quiet in the recent past about the growing prowess and adoption of its laptop graphics technologies, it has now decided to snatch some of the much publicise recent glory of Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 580M GPU, by releasing the AMD Radeon HD 6990M as contender for the crown of the world’s fastest mobile graphics card. Claiming 25% better performance than the previous top-end HD 6970M offering, the HD 6990M is based on the same Northern Islands family’s Barts core as the 6970M, but with more stream processors, and faster clocks.

The AMD Radeon HD 6990M is already out in markets, starting with gaming laptops like the Alienware M18x (seen below), which offers it in single of CrossFire configurations.
Yes Barts, and not the full-fledged Cayman architecture of the desktop HD 6990 GPU. Specifications of the HD 6990M GPU include a core clock speed of 715MHz, 2GB of GDDR5 RAM at 3.6GHz memory clock speed, a 256-bit bus with a bandwidth of 115.2GB/s, 32 ROPs, 56 texture units, and 1120 stream processors. The core clock of the card can be overclocked up to 740Mhz. The most noticeable difference between the GTX 580M and HD 6990M, apart from CUDA and PhysX, will have to be the lack of a switchable graphics solution like Nvidia Optimus for the AMD Radeon HD 6990M. This could have a serious impact on battery life, figures of which were notably omitted from the introductory announcement.
 

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ASUS Rampage III Extreme Black Edition - Overclockers Paradizse!.. PART-2

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 ROG Special Features
1) Extreme Engine Digi+: Considering this being an ROG board, overclocking the processor to its limits is a given. This requires the board to have a very strong power management system. Extreme Engine Digi+ is a mixture of hardware and software design elements which enable quicker heat dissipation, better electronic conduction to keep the system stable while under load. In the BIOS under Extreme Tweaker there is a menu for Extreme Engine Digi+ to tweak PWM voltage and CPU PWM frequency among other things.
2) ROG Connect: This is a feature that was seen in older ROG boards which allows you to tweak parameters with the help of an ROG Connect utility. You basically connect your notebook to the main system with a USB cable and you can check the POST code as your system is booting up, monitor temperatures, voltages and fan speeds, and even tweak settings on the fly. In short you can overclock in real time, using a Windows Utility.  
3) ROG iDirect: Dont want to use wires to tweak or monitor the system performance? Thanks to Bluetooth v3.0 support, you can use tweak parameters using your iPhone or iPad. Honestly we feel hardcore enthusiasts won't bother with these functions, it is still an innovative feature which allows you to wirelessly overclock your system!
4) ASUS Thunderbolt Combo card: This is a first we are seeing on any high end board. The ASUS Thunderbolt is a combo card which houses a 2.1 channel XONAR sound card along with the Killer E2100 Network Processing Unit (NPU). The E2100 NPU claims to reduce the lag experienced while playing games over a LAN network.
Performance
Considering this is an extreme high end feature rich board, we did not have any comparable board to test this against. We did run through our gamut of tests and also indulged in some basic overclocking, as not overclocking the board would have been blasphemous.
We tested the board with an Intel Core i7 980X processor and an AMD HD6850 card. As expected it aced the tests. On stock settings (Memory - 1333MHz and CPU - 3.3 GHz) PC Mark Vantage gave an overall score of 10300, Cinebench R10 rendering gave a multi-core score of 22842 marks, Video encoding (100 MB VOB to DIVX) took 22 secs whereas Crysis Warhead (1680x1050, med) gave 63 FPS. We overclocked the memory using the XMP profile 1 (Memory - 2000MHz) and the processor to 4.1 GHz - on air. The system ran fine without any blue screens, giving a 15 percent increase in benchmarks.
Verdict
This is the most feature-rich board we have seen to date. It comes with all the bells, whistles and fog horns and much more to satisfy overclockers. The build quality is top notch, on-board troubleshooting options are great, the add-on Thunderbolt combo card is a good addition and serving the dual purpose, the ROG Connect takes overclocking to a different level, etc. At Rs. 39,500 it comes at a price which is enough to configure a decent multimedia rig. But then, this board is meant for a select niche audience.
Specifications

CPU Socket: LGA1366
CPU Supported: Core i7 Extreme Edition / Core i7 Processor
Chipset: Intel X58 / ICH10R
System Bus: Upto 6400MT/s
Memory: 6 DIMM slots, support upto 48GB of DDR3 RAM
Expansion Slots: 4 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (support x16; x16/x16; x16/x8/x8 and x8/x8/x8/x8 configurations); 2 x PCIe x1
Thunderbolt LAN/Audio card
Audio Chipset: SupremeFX X-Fi 2 Built-in 8-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC
Form Factor: Extended ATX Form Factor
Back Panel I/O Ports:
1 x PS/2 Keyboard
2 x External SATA ports
1 x LAN(RJ45) port(s)
2 x USB 3.0/2.0 (Blue)
7 x USB 2.0/1.1 (1 port also for ROG Connect)
8 -Channel Audio I/O
1 x Clr CMOS switch
2 x Wi-Fi antenna jacks
1 x ROG Connect On/Off switch
Ratings
Features: 9.0
Performance:8.5
Build Quality:9.0
Value for money:6.5
Overall:8.5
Price: Rs. 39,500
Test Scores Log Sheet
BrandASUS 
Model No.Rampage III Extreme Black Edition 
Processor Frequency3.3 GHz (stock)4.1 GHz (OC)
Memory Frequency1333 MHz (stock)2000 MHz (OC)
Performance  
PC Mark Vantage (Overall)1030011624
CINEBENCH R10  
CPU (All cores)2219426624
WinRAR 3.9 (Multi threaded)35033615
100 MB file Video Encoding (VOB-DivX 7) (sec)22.121.85
File Transfer (MB/s) 4GB file  
Sequential56.0160.41
Assorted54.6154.21
USB 3.0  
Sequential Write67.1468.14
Sequential Read69.5470.11
Assorted Write29.3529.53
Assorted Read32.1433.21
Game  
Crysis Warhead (1280x1024, med)6667
Crysis warhead (1680x1050, med)6368
Resident Evil 5 (1280x1024, med)138148
Resident Evil 5 (1680x1050, med)115120

Contact
ASUS Technology Pvt. Ltd
Phone:             1800 209 0365      
Email: reachus@asus.com
Website: www.asus.in

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ASUS Rampage III Extreme Black Edition - Overclockers Paradizse!..

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ASUS's Republic of Gamers series of boards are quite a rage amongst the enthusiast gamer community as a majority of its features are overkill for most users. The last time we tested an ROG board was quite a while back. Then came the barrage of the Sandy Bridge boards (the mini ITX form factor as well as ATX) followed by AMD's Brazos boards housing the AMD E350 APUs. In the midst of these entry level and mid range boards when we suddenly got a confirmation from ASUSthat they would be sending us their Rampage III Black Edition board, we were delighted at the prospect of using the fastest Intel processor on the planet and running it through its paces after a long time. That the board was an enthusiasts wet dream was the icing on the proverbial cake.
Having tested ROG boards from the previous generations, we were expecting a similar packaging with the maroon coloured box housing the board. But what we got instead was a thick black box highlighting the logo and the product name. Like all the other high end boards, this box also has the gatefold design, where the front facing flap of the box opens up to reveal the motherboard behind the transparent plastic package. The features of this X58 board are highlighted all around the packaging.
The Board
The board comes a beautiful matte black finish with top of the line components such as solid state caps, sturdy heatsinks, dedicated buttons for Start and Reset, etc. The heat sinks look quite attractive thanks to the minute extrusions on them. The northbridge heatsink comes in a two tone (black / maroon) colour and houses a ROG button that glows red when the motherboard is working, adding a dash of glowing red to the proceedings.
The layout of the board is quite good, with enough space between the four PCIe slots for a 3-way SLI or CrossFireX. There are two PCIe x1 slots as well.
We will not go into explaining each component of the motherboard, as most of pretty much standard components. We will focus on some interesting features as under.
1) Dedicated Start and Reset buttons: This is a desirable feature for enthusiasts as it means no longer having to short two pins for these purposes.
2) Debug LED: This is located just above the Start and Reset buttons and helps you debug your motherboard issues based on the value it is displaying. Very handy tool as it expedites troubleshooting.
3) PCIe x16 Lane switches: Just beside the Reset button you will come across four switches, which are mapped to each PCIe x16 slot. So you can switch a PCIe x16 slot On or Off. This is particularly useful to troubleshoot faulty graphics card in a multi-GPU setup. You can only keep one PCIe slot on to see if the card is working or not based on whether, you can see the monitor working
4) Bluetooth v3.0 and WiFi adapter: The board has an in-built WiFi adapter and a Bluetooth v3.0 support. This is found on the back IO plate and the board comes with two extendable antennas. You can use the onboard Bluetooth to overclock the board via the iROG connect feature.
5) ROG Connect: The back IO plate has an ROG connect button which can be used alongwith the ROG connect utility on your laptop to monitor and tweak your system remotely.
6) SATA 3 and USB 3.0 support: This X58 board comes with full support for SATA 6 Gbps with the help of the Marvell 9182 controller and USB 3.0 support thanks to the NEC
BIOS: Extreme Tweaker
Being an X58 board, the ASUS R3B has stuck with the normal text based BIOS. It was a good to see the familiar BIOS after going through a horde of motherboards having the UEFI BIOS. The BIOS follows the all black colour in its user interface. It is neatly divided into Extreme Tweaker, Main, Advanced, Power, Boot, Tools and Exit. The Extreme Tweaker tab is the most important and the most exhaustive tab amongst all as it has a variety of options to tweak your settings.

We had mentioned that the board has a lot of features, but we were quite impressed with the sheer variety in the BIOS for overclockers. You can overclock by selecting either Manual, XMP profile or CPU level Up presets (from the Ai Overclock Tuner) to overclock easily if you do not want to go tweaking manually. Based on the processor, the CPU level Up will give you an option to select between two preset frequencies, after which the other settings are accordingly adjusted to run your system stable. To get more details on the CPU settings, you can enter the CPU Configuration option. For the purpose of overclocking, we had kept the Turbo Boost off. As you go further down in the list of options, you will get things like Extreme Over Voltage (OV) and Extreme OC and there are CPU voltage adjustment options.
Further down there is an setting called ASUS OC Profile which allows you to set upto 8 OC presets and select whichever one you want at ease.
Click next post to read on about the ASUS Rampage III's ROG Special Features, our verdict, and more...

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