QX

The 2011 New York International Auto Show starts tomorrow, but Infiniti is already looking forward to the Los Angeles Auto Show in November, where it will be unveiling the 2013 Infiniti JX, a larger sibling to its EX and FX crossovers.

Until the concept is unveiled, all we have is the sketch above and a few tidbits teased by the automaker. The large crossover slots in just below the full-size Infiniti QX and will have three rows of seats with room for seven passengers. Externally, the design language that featured prominently on the Infiniti Essence concept car should be stretched … Read more

At last year's CES, Intel Wireless Display was one of our Best of CES nominees, standing out for its potential to bring streaming Internet video to an HDTV from a laptop over its own dedicated wireless channel, including audio. In fact, it was your pick as Best in Show, winning the People's Voice Award (as determined by a user poll).

Let's go back to early 2010: back then, connecting a laptop to a TV with a wired connection was still the best way to get Internet video content such as Hulu and Netflix without an additional set-top box. Despite having a slight delay in the video/audio signal, and requiring a $99 Push2TV box from Netgear plugged into an HDTV or non-HD television to receive the signal, the benefits seemed clear, and for those looking to make a laptop into a home entertainment solution, there was no better choice.

Times have changed, indeed, although Intel Wireless Display really hasn't. The debut of Apple's iPad, and its support of Netflix, Hulu Plus, and other streaming services, has changed the equation a bit, even if the iPad doesn't support Flash. Video game consoles now have Netflix across the board, and even (on the PS3, at least) Hulu Plus and Vudu. TV sets are including an ever-increasing number of Internet apps for accessing digital content, and set-top boxes such as the Boxee Box, the next-gen Roku box, and Apple TV offer a variety of solutions.

When it comes to methods of getting Internet or computer-stored video content on your TV, your options come to this: … Read more

A year ago, Samsung wasn't much of a player in the laptop space aside from a few Netbooks. This year, however, the equation changed. We've seen Samsung midrange laptops that have offered great value for their components, with designs that seem to be getting progressively better. With the company's newest batch of laptop announcements, that trend seems to be continuing.

The NF and SF series of Netbooks and laptops adopt a similar design, with curved, glossy lines and raised walls around the keyboard deck. The look feels particularly suited to living-room use, as if these laptops were … Read more

Update with Dunnington and Core i7 photos, text.

The latest and greatest silicon and derivative products is what the Intel Developer Forum is all about. Moorestown, Tolapai, and Canmore are just a few of the chips detailed at IDF this week, while UrbanMax, new netbooks, and the first laptops based on the quad-core mobile processor were among showcased products.

Intel Chairman Barrett brought out Carnegie Mellon University's Johnny Chung Lee, who demonstrated how cheap, off-the-shelf technology--in this case a makeshift whiteboard--can go a long way. "To be interesting today, technology has to be the fastest, the best, the brightest, the lightest, but here you can see if you sacrifice a little bit of capability and performance for dramatic savings in cost, you can have a pretty dramatic impact," Chung said.

One of the more novel devices demonstrated was the 10-inch Intel UrbanMax a computer that can switch between a laptop and tablet. This by itself isn't groundbreaking because tablet PCs from Hewlett-Packard and Toshiba already do this. The novelty is the size and design: it is smaller than an ultraportable--like the Toshiba Portege--yet is designed like an oversize mobile Internet device such as Compal JAX 10. When configured as a tablet, the keyboard is hidden but can morph into a laptop by sliding out the keyboard, which tilts the screen.

An Intel official demonstrating the device said that "UrbanMax is an innovation platform from Intel. This is a product-ready concept." UrbanMax uses "Montevina" Centrino 2 small form-factor (SSF) silicon. SSF chip packaging is used in the MacBook Air and results in lower voltage and smaller size than typical Intel low-power mobile processors.

It is interesting to note that major PC makers have adopted Intel concept designs in the past. Last year, Intel offered a ultra-thin laptop concept design that was eventually adopted by HP for its Voodoo Envy 133 notebook. … Read more

Is four processing cores inside a laptop overkill? Probably not for gamers. Intel is expected to meet this insatiable need for speed when it rolls out it first mobile quad-core processor.

An Intel executive is on the record stating an August roll-out.

And this may happen sooner in August than later. System vendors may go public with information about the quad-core mobile processor as soon as August 11, according to sources. This is when other processors, such as the Core 2 Quad Q9650 (3GHz), are expected to go public.

Many of the details of the quad-core mobile processor are public … Read more

The first dual G4 PowerPC systems from Apple were all heat sinks and fans. In this tradition, a rarefied Intel Skulltrail-based powerhouse from Thirdwave uses two top-line quad-core QX9775 processors and a bevy of Nvidia GPUs--and plenty of fans.

The system (photo) in fact looks more like a stand-alone power supply box than a computer. Of course heat dissipation is paramount in enthusiast screamers.

The original Apple dual G4 systems (circa 2001) were a testimony to heat dissipation--and Rube Goldberg. So much heat that the system could quite literally raise the temperature in a small room. (Note: I can testify … Read more

Intel has posted the quad-core QX9775 on its price list, indicating the top-of-the-line chip used in the Skulltrail motherboard is available in volume.

The Skulltrail motherboard was announced in mid-February but the QX9775 processor was initially very scarce. Intel has now listed (PDF) the processor at $1,499. The 45-nanometer part runs at 3.2GHz, packs 12MB of cache, and uses a 1600MHz bus.

Skulltrail is a very high-end enthusiast gaming platform based on the company's 5400 "Seaburg" workstation chipset. Skulltrail distinguishes itself with a dual CPU socket design that uses eight processing cores (two QX9775 chips) … Read more

Intel is getting ready to launch the full-sized SUV of desktop motherboards. Expected later this quarter, the Skulltrail board packs two quad-core 130-watt QX9775 processors--which Legit Reviews said sucked up to a whopping 351 watts. In short, this is not the MacBook Air. The tiny processor in that power-stingy computer sips a mere 20 watts.

Skulltrail pulls out all the stops. It has dual 1600-MHz front side-buses connected to dual Xeon sockets and four full PCIe x16 slots, with planned support for up to four high-end graphics boards. And Xeon processors running on Skulltrail boards have been demonstrated by Intel … Read more

Keep in mind that the following benchmark results feature systems, not isolated CPU scores, and have a look at our test scores for the new ABS Ultimate X Striker Elite, which features Intel's newly announced 2.93GHz Core 2 Extreme QX6800 quad-core chip. It might not look like it at first, but the system actually did very well on our tests compared to other high-end desktops.

The reason the ABS doesn't sit higher on our charts is because the other systems either a) have an older 2.66GHz Core 2 Extreme QX6700 overclocked to 3.2GHz, b) run … Read more