On the physical side, DDR has a 184-pin DIMM interface and DDR2 has 240.

DDR2 runs cooler and has generally slower timings but is a lot faster than DDR in the end. DDR2 is capable of holding more ram on one DIMM.

2.  Does DDR2 do more work per cycle? And Does AMD Support DDR2 Ram?

AMD doesn’t support DDR2 as the A64’s built-in RAM controllers would have to be upgraded therefore making them incompatible with all the current motherboards out there which really wouldn’t be worth AMD and the board manufacturers’ time.

The differences:

• DDr1=184pin DIMM and DDR2=240pin DIMM.

• DDR2 has much higher bandwidth and chip density/# of chips per DIMM, allowing more ram to be effectively used (also the reason why it’s best to go for 1-2gb of DDR2) at a higher speed, but at the expense of latency.

• On the other hand, DDR1 runs at lower speeds but much tighter timings

It is difficult to differentiate a DDR2 from a DDR motherboard just by looking at it. Inserting a DDR2 DIMM into a DDR motherboard could damage the module, the motherboard, or both. To prevent such damage, the simplest process is to align the memory module and the socket, and visually check that the module “key” aligns perfectly with the socket key. You may have to turn over the memory module as the memory module direction may misalign even compatible socket and module keys.

3. What latencies will standard DDR2 DIMMs support?

JEDEC DDR2 specifications define standard DDR2 CAS Latencies of 3, 4, and 5:

– 400 MHz DDR2: CAS 3 (3-3-3)

– 533 MHz DDR2: CAS 4 (4-4-4)

– 667 MHz DDR2: CAS 5 (5-5-5)

4. What latencies do Kingston HyperX DDR2 modules support?

HyperX memory modules support enhanced CAS Latencies:

– 533 MHz PC4300 DDR2: CAS 3 (3-3-3)

– 675 MHz PC5400 DDR2: CAS 4 (4-4-4)

SDRAM – Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory
Short for Synchronous DRAM, this is a type of DRAM that synchronizes itself with the CPU’s bus. SDRAM, until recently, was the memory standard for modern PCs. When looking at SDRAM The number following "PC" indicates the speed of the system’s front side bus. (example: The PC100 SDRAM is designed for systems equipped with a 100 MHz front side bus.)

 
DDR SDRAM – Double Data Rate Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory
Short for Double Data Rate-Synchronous DRAM, a type of SDRAM that supports data transfers on both edges of each clock cycle (the rising and falling edges), effectively doubling the memory chip’s data throughput. DDR-SDRAM also consumes less power, which makes it well-suited to notebook computers. DDR-SDRAM is also called SDRAM II. and DDRAM. DDR-SDRAM (and subsequent DD2 and DD3) as well as RDRAM are the technologies which are replacing SDRAM.

DDR2 SDRAM Double Data Rate Two (2) Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory

DDR2 SDRAM is the next step up from DDR SDRAM. DDR2 SDRAM offers new features and functions that enable higher clock and data rate operations. DDR2 transfers 64 bits of data twice every clock cycle. DDR2 SDRAM memory is not compatible with current DDR SDRAM memory slots.

DDR3-SDRAM – Double Data Rate Three (3) Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory

The third generation of DDR-SDRAM that improves upon DDr2-SDRAM by offering reduced power consumption, a doubled pre-fetch buffer, and also offers more bandwidth because of its increased clock rate.

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In an effort to rev up profits and explore new territory, Google released Chrome, its new, free Web browser, on Tuesday. Take that, Microsoft.

Google (nasdaq: GOOG – news – people ) announced the news of its release on Labor Day, after it prematurely sent out a comic book drawn up to herald the new browser’s arrival. Chrome will be available in more than 100 countries for computers running on Microsoft’s Windows operating system. Google is still working on versions compatible with Apple’s Mac computer and the Linux operating system. (See “Google’s Shiny Moment.”)

Google’s shares gained 0.4%, or $1.96, to close at $465.25, while Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT – news – people ) lost 0.7%, or 19 cents, to $27.10.

“What we want is a diverse and vibrant ecosystem,” Google co-founder Sergey Brin told reporters Tuesday during Chrome’s unveiling. “We want several browsers that are viable and substantial choices.”

Among other features, Chrome’s navigation bar–where you type in an Internet address–will serve a dual purpose. Users can either enter an address into the space or enter a search request that will be processed through their desired search engine.

Although Google made no explicit comments on the matter, the announcement was immediately viewed within the context of its battle with tech icon Microsoft, which is still the solid industry leader in Web browsers. To keep its top spot, it’s upping the ante (see “Browser Wars”) in part by launching a new version of its popular Internet Explorer 8.

Although Google made no explicit comments on the matter, the announcement was immediately viewed within the context of its battle with tech icon Microsoft, which is still the solid industry leader in Web browsers. To keep its top spot, it’s upping the ante in part by launching a new version of its popular Internet Explorer 8.
Meanwhile, Microsoft’s most aggressive competitor, Mozilla’s Firefox, has extended its relationship with Google, which sets the search engine as the default homepage and default in the search bar.

For all the talk about Microsoft vs. Google, Cowen analyst Jim Friedland said he believes that Google’s main goal with the new browser is to drive development and innovation in the search-engine field, not directly diminish Microsoft’s browser market share. If Internet Explorer or Firefox adopt Chrome’s new features, Google will still come out ahead, and the importance of the operating system, the basis of Microsoft’s strength, will wane, he said.

Friedland compared the strategy with Google’s Android project to create software for cellphones, which is seen both as a way to steer search revenue to the company, and as a prod to other software makers. The first Android phones are expected later this year.

The Associated Press contributed to this article

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One of the announcements to come out of the IDF keynote this afternoon was Pat Gelsinger’s discussion and demonstration of USB 3.0 technology. Although still in the prototype stage, USB 3.0 is aiming for 10 times the bandwidth of current USB2.0 solutions,or approximately 5Gbps. Since this requires fiber optic cabling, USB 3.0 will add a length of optical data cable to the mix, though USB 3.0 will retain full compatibility with USB 2.0 (and, one assumes, USB 1.0 as well).

Gelsinger expects the final version specifications to be finished by the first half of 2008,
with USB 3.0 peripherals realistically appearing in 2009 or 2010. There are an increasing number of devices that could potentially take advantage of the additional bandwidth, including external hard drives,flash readers, video cameras, and the all-new USB-compliant llama expected to be genetically delivered from the Andes sometime in late 2011. Obviously a USB llama wouldn’t be much use without a USB 3.0 device-ever tried downloading from a llama over an old 10BaseT network? Yeah. It’d be worse.

As for the other, official features of USB 3.0, there remains quite a bit of information we don’t know, and it would have been nice for Intel to have included additional information. USB has long been criticized for relatively high CPU usage. This has inevitably become
less of an issue as CPU performance has improved, but devices capable of using USB 3.0′s higher bandwidth capabilities could make CPU usage a problem again unless the issue is addressed during spec development. Issues like cable length, available power provided, and the number of devices per channel are all unrevealed as yet, and possibly unresolved. The Inquirer has a few more details on the spec (and the rest of the keynote) if you’re interested.

As far as future market competition, its target of 5Gbps puts USB 3.0 ahead of current eSATA (3Gbps), which is really the only other device protocol under active development that might challenge it as a peripheral interconnect. Although an IEEE 1394c protocol has been developed and published as of June 8 2007, no company has announced an intent to produce a product or chipset that utilizes the standard.FireWire remains supported in certain sectors, but I’d personally be surprised if the combination of USB 3.0 and eSATA doesn’t push FireWire out of the market completely. As for the nascent specification, the proposed 5Gbps speed is great and all, but hopefully the development committees will acknowledge some of the other concerns regarding the USB 2.0 protocol and incorporate solutions for them, rather than carrying them over into another product generation.

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F1: Help
CTRL+ESC: Open Start menu
ALT+TAB: Switch between open programs
ALT+F4: Quit program
SHIFT+DELETE: Delete item permanently

Windows program key combinations

CTRL+C: Copy
CTRL+X: Cut
CTRL+V: Paste
CTRL+Z: Undo
CTRL+B: Bold
CTRL+U: Underline
CTRL+I: Italic

Mouse click/keyboard modifier combinations for shell objects

SHIFT+right click: Displays a shortcut menu containing alternative commands
SHIFT+double click: Runs the alternate default command (the second item on the menu)
ALT+double click: Displays properties
SHIFT+DELETE: Deletes an item immediately without placing it in the Recycle Bin

General keyboard-only commands

F1: Starts Windows Help
F10: Activates menu bar options
SHIFT+F10 Opens a shortcut menu for the selected item (this is the same as right-clicking an object
CTRL+ESC: Opens the Start menu (use the ARROW keys to select an item)
CTRL+ESC or ESC: Selects the Start button (press TAB to select the taskbar, or press SHIFT+F10 for a context menu)
ALT+DOWN ARROW: Opens a drop-down list box
ALT+TAB: Switch to another running program (hold down the ALT key and then press the TAB key to view the task-switching window)
SHIFT: Press and hold down the SHIFT key while you insert a CD-ROM to bypass the automatic-run feature
ALT+SPACE: Displays the main window’s System menu (from the System menu, you can restore, move, resize, minimize, maximize, or close the window)
ALT+- (ALT+hyphen): Displays the Multiple Document Interface (MDI) child window’s System menu (from the MDI child window’s System menu, you can restore, move, resize, minimize, maximize, or close the child window)
CTRL+TAB: Switch to the next child window of a Multiple Document Interface (MDI) program
ALT+underlined letter in menu: Opens the menu
ALT+F4: Closes the current window
CTRL+F4: Closes the current Multiple Document Interface (MDI) window
ALT+F6: Switch between multiple windows in the same program (for example, when the Notepad Find dialog box is displayed, ALT+F6 switches between the Find dialog box and the main Notepad window)

Shell objects and general folder/Windows Explorer shortcuts

For a selected object:
F2: Rename object
F3: Find all files
CTRL+X: Cut
CTRL+C: Copy
CTRL+V: Paste
SHIFT+DELETE: Delete selection immediately, without moving the item to the Recycle Bin
ALT+ENTER: Open the properties for the selected object

To copy a file

Press and hold down the CTRL key while you drag the file to another folder.

To create a shortcut

Press and hold down CTRL+SHIFT while you drag a file to the desktop or a folder.
General folder/shortcut control
F4: Selects the Go To A Different Folder box and moves down the entries in the box (if the toolbar is active in Windows Explorer)
F5: Refreshes the current window.
F6: Moves among panes in Windows Explorer
CTRL+G: Opens the Go To Folder tool (in Windows 95 Windows Explorer only)

CTRL+Z: Undo the last command
CTRL+A: Select all the items in the current window
BACKSPACE: Switch to the parent folder
SHIFT+click+Close button: For folders, close the current folder plus all parent folders

Windows Explorer tree control

Numeric Keypad *: Expands everything under the current selection
Numeric Keypad +: Expands the current selection
Numeric Keypad -: Collapses the current selection.
RIGHT ARROW: Expands the current selection if it is not expanded, otherwise goes to the first child
LEFT ARROW: Collapses the current selection if it is expanded, otherwise goes to the parent

Properties control

CTRL+TAB/CTRL+SHIFT+TAB: Move through the property tabs
Accessibility shortcuts
Press SHIFT five times: Toggles StickyKeys on and off
Press down and hold the right SHIFT key for eight seconds: Toggles FilterKeys on and off
Press down and hold the NUM LOCK key for five seconds: Toggles ToggleKeys on and off
Left ALT+left SHIFT+NUM LOCK: Toggles MouseKeys on and off
Left ALT+left SHIFT+PRINT SCREEN: Toggles high contrast on and off

Microsoft Natural Keyboard keys

Windows Logo: Start menu
Windows Logo+R: Run dialog box
Windows Logo+M: Minimize all
SHIFT+Windows Logo+M: Undo minimize all
Windows Logo+F1: Help
Windows Logo+E: Windows Explorer
Windows Logo+F: Find files or folders
Windows Logo+D: Minimizes all open windows and displays the desktop
CTRL+Windows Logo+F: Find computer
CTRL+Windows Logo+TAB: Moves focus from Start, to the Quick Launch toolbar, to the system tray (use RIGHT ARROW or LEFT ARROW to move focus to items on the Quick Launch toolbar and the system tray)
Windows Logo+TAB: Cycle through taskbar buttons
Windows Logo+Break: System Properties dialog box
Application key: Displays a shortcut menu for the selected item

Microsoft Natural Keyboard with IntelliType software installed

Windows Logo+L: Log off Windows
Windows Logo+P: Starts Print Manager
Windows Logo+C: Opens Control Panel
Windows Logo+V: Starts Clipboard
Windows Logo+K: Opens Keyboard Properties dialog box
Windows Logo+I: Opens Mouse Properties dialog box
Windows Logo+A: Starts Accessibility Options (if installed)
Windows Logo+SPACEBAR: Displays the list of Microsoft IntelliType shortcut keys
Windows Logo+S: Toggles CAPS LOCK on and off

Dialog box keyboard commands

TAB: Move to the next control in the dialog box
SHIFT+TAB: Move to the previous control in the dialog box
SPACEBAR: If the current control is a button, this clicks the button. If the current control is a check box, this toggles the check box. If the current control is an option, this selects the option.
ENTER: Equivalent to clicking the selected button (the button with the outline)
ESC: Equivalent to clicking the Cancel button
ALT+underlined letter in dialog box item: Move to the corresponding item

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IPv6 is short for “Internet Protocol Version 6″. IPv6 is the “next generation” protocol designed by the IETF to replace the current version Internet Protocol, IP Version 4 (“IPv4″).

Most of today’s internet uses IPv4, which is now nearly twenty years old. IPv4 has been remarkably resilient in spite of its age, but it is beginning to have problems. Most importantly, there is a growing shortage of IPv4 addresses, which are needed by all new machines added to the Internet.

IPv6 fixes a number of problems in IPv4, such as the limited number of available IPv4 addresses. It also adds many improvements to IPv4 in areas such as routing and network autoconfiguration. IPv6 is expected to gradually replace IPv4, with the two coexisting for a number of years during a transition period.

The world is running out of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses because every device seems to require one these days. When IP version 4 (IPv4) originally appeared on the scene with 4,294,967,296 possible address combinations, the standards groups thought that no one could ever use that many addresses.

Unfortunately, the standards groups were wrong, and we now need IPv6, which provides a significantly larger address space of 3.4028236692093846346337460743177e+38 possible addresses. Of course, the standards groups also took this opportunity to improve performance, add support for mobile devices, and make IP more secure.

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cuil_search_engine

Cuil is a new search engine developed by Tom Costello, Ex-Google Search Architect Anna Patterson, and two Ex-Google Engineers Russell Power and Louis Monier which is supposedly going to be better, faster and bigger than Google search. It launched today (Monday the 28th of July, 2008), but when I first checked, the site was down because of overwhelming response and hits.

While Google ranks pages based on inbound links, Cuil aims to rank sites by their relevance to the actual search query. As you receive search results, you are able to categorize them to relevance towards your specific need.

Unlike the previous search engine Anna developed and sold to Google in 2004, this one aims to compete with the search giants, hoping to provide contextual results – “trying to understand the world, not the web”. With the financing of $33 Million received, the competition is here, but can it really stand next to the searching giants?

You can find more information on Cuil’s philosophy, features, management and more directly at the appropriate Cuil info page.

What do you think? Answer the poll: Can Cuil actually deliver a better search engine than Google?

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Step2
Think about whether this machine will need to work with your office or school server. Exchanging files between platforms is less of an issue than it used to be, but it’s still worth noting.
Step3
Ask your friends and co-workers in similar lines of work what machines they have, where they bought them, if there were any problems, and whether they’re happy with their choices.
Step4
Expect to spend 25,000 to 35,000 for a general-purpose machine, although you can find desktop computers for anywhere from 17,000 to 40,000.

Step5

Buy as much random-access memory (RAM), or system memory, as you can afford. At a bare minimum, get 128 megabytes (MB); 256 MB or 512 MB is preferable. (For a Macintosh, get at least 256 MB.) Memory is more critical than a faster processor.

Step6
Get at least two universal serial bus (USB) connections and a FireWire (also called IEEE 1394) connection. These will connect peripheral devices, such as a printer, PDA, digital cameras and camcorders, scanners and game controllers.
Step7

Get a DVD burner so you can back up valuable data and make your own music CDs. Look into a DVD burner too if you’re involved in film making or editing, but remember that there are multiple competing standards; computer-burned DVDs might not play in your home DVD player. Make sure your machine has a DVD drive if you want to watch movies on your computer. (See How to Buy Blank CDs.) Also look for an internal modem.

Step8
Ask about upgradability if you intend to use this computer for a long time, which is considered three or more years.

Step9
Get high-quality graphics and sound if you plan to play games. Look for a system that has a graphics card with a coprocessor, and 5.1 Surround sound. You’ll want a broadband Internet connection to play online games, and to improve your Internet experience overall. (See How to Choose an Internet Service Provider.)
Step10
Buy the biggest hard drive you can afford–80to 320 gigabytes (GB) is now commonplace. Get more than 200 GB if you’re storing music and/or editing video. For video editing, you’ll also need a video input/output card and a FireWire connection.

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