Hardware
Flashing the BIOS
The BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) is what gets your PC up and running. Most home users can ignore the BIOS but sometimes advanced users may want to apply an update for this very important component of the system. Adrian Kingsley-Hughes explains what is involved. Note that only those who understand something about hardware should consider [...]
Software development at crossroads?
As has been noted before, software programmers have not yet adjusted to the multi-core processor. Writing code that uses many simultaneous processes is not at all like traditional coding. Ars Technica reports on the challenge that faces programmers:
Intel has bad news for software developers. It’s been hinted at already, but now the company has stated [...]
How to access the BIOS setup
When you turn on a computer, it first uses some permanent memory called the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) to get things started. The BIOS contains very elementary information about the memory, the drives, etc. Most of the time PC users don’t have to think about the BIOS but now and then you may want to [...]
The old frozen hard drive trick
Every now and then I go through the motions of cleaning up the two hard drives on my main desktop computer. During one of these spells, I came across some old newsletters from the now-retired Fred Langa. They reminded me how much useful information Fred’s newsletters contained. One of the many items worth repeating has [...]
Taking advantage of multicore CPUs
For a while now, multiple cores have been the new thing in CPUs. It began with dual-core, went to quad-core, and on beyond. To what extent current software could take advantage of all these extra cores has been a subject of debate. In general, traditional programs have not been written in such a way as [...]
I don’t think it will fit in my den
The title of the world’s fastest computer keeps changing hands. The latest champion is an IBM/US military computer called “Roadrunner”. It supplants the old titleholder, the IBM BlueGene/L. What is notable is that it is the first petaflop machine (1015 floating point operations per second). The NY Times reports:
Roadrunner, which consumes roughly three megawatts of [...]
More about ultra-mobile PCs
The UMPC or netbook or whatever you want to call it is receiving a lot of attention these days. Many commentators are enthusiastic although there is pretty general agreement that the keyboards are hard to use for touch typists. Today’s New York Times has a review that is less favorable than many:
Having used a number [...]
Microsoft’s hand forced on low-end computers
As previously noted, there has been a lot of activity in small, portable PCs (sometimes referred to as ultra-mobile PCs or UMPCs). The market is beginning to shape up in a major way and Microsoft has been forced to keep Windows XP Home alive in order to prevent Linux from walking off with all the [...]
Instructions for portable applications
I’ve made a number of posts about putting applications on a thumb drive or other portable media. One suite of applications designed for use on a thumb drive is PortableApps and here is a link with detailed instructions on how to install it.
More on hard drives
I am nowhere near to filling up my 400 GB hard drive but others with video and music collections may need all the storage they can get. The PC Doctor recommends a couple of 750 GB and 1 TB drives. (Note that these are internal drives.)