Workstation

An enthusiast rummaging through firmware files for macOS High Sierra found information suggesting that the upcoming iMac Pro will be powered by server-grade Xeon processors and protected by an ARM chip known as a Security Enclave Processor. The existence of an ARM chip the same as those found in the MacBook Pro with TouchBar sparks speculation that the iMac ...

Lenovo has unveiled what it claims to be the "world's smallest workstation" with the announcement of its ThinkStation P320 Tiny. The company promises "knockout performance" from a device that can fit onto even the most cluttered of desks.

The Thunderbolt 3 product line has been expanded to include dual display adapters with 4K and 60Hz functionalities, compatible with the latest Windows and Mac laptops.

Lenovo is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the ThinkPad lineup with an event in New York City. Let's take a look at a few of the product line's accomplishments over the years.

Microsoft has released a new keyboard with embedded fingerprint scanner and is calling it "The Modern Keyboard". The Modern Keyboard has both wireless and wired functionality but comes at the hefty price of US$129.99.

Pricing for Zotac's ZBOX CI327 nano mini PC has been released. The tiny PC starts at US $159 with a Celeron CPU, but can be configured with a Kaby Lake Core i3 or i5 as well.

iFixit has found that while the new 21.5-inch iMac is not easy to get inside, the RAM, 2.5-inch drive, and CPU are all technically user-replaceable.

Apple's new All-in-Ones are equipped with Intel Kaby Lake CPUs, Iris Pro integrated graphics, and options for high-res displays and dedicated AMD Radeon GPUs. The iMac Pro, a completely new device, will pack a punch with an 18-core Xeon processor and AMD Vega graphics.

Hardware manufacturers have listened to the fans (and sales numbers) and are finally taking small form-factor (SFF) gaming PCs seriously.

Gigabyte (via subsidiary Aorus) has released a Thunderbolt 3 external graphics dock that is specifically designed around miniaturized desktop GPUs. Additionally, the US$599 dock beats the competition by coming with a GTX 1070 pre-installed.

The Nvidia Max-Q series may not only be for gamers - this same technology could soon come to the Quadro series for mobile workstations.

Gigabyte has unveiled updates to its Aorus sub-brand of premium gaming notebooks at Computex, including the monstrously powerful X9 as well as updated X5 MD and X7 DT.

The GT75VR Titan is a gaming powerhouse with dual GTX 1070s, an unlocked i7-7820HK CPU, and a 4K 120 Hz display that MSI says covers 100% of the AdobeRGB spectrum.

Gigabyte has released a firmware update for their new Aero 15 laptop that fixes a bug preventing certain key combinations from registering. The 1.1.5 update is available through the Gigabyte Fusion application.

The chipmaker is benefiting from a stable consumer PC market with profits up 45 percent compared to Q1 2016 with 14.8 billion USD in revenue.

The upcoming Radeon Pro Duo will feature two GPUs on a single card. The professional grade graphics card will have a whopping 32 GB of VRAM and is able to hit 11.45 TFLOPS.

The PC market appears to be recovering somewhat with overall sales up 1.6 percent. Sales are particular high in Western Europe for both the desktop and portable PC segments.

HP has revealed updates to its ZBook line of workstations, including the long-awaited ZBook Studio G4.

The notebook is designed for heavy server loads and packs an Intel Xeon E3-1505M, up to 64 GB of ECC memory, and up to 16 GB of RAID 0/1/5 storage.

The new GPU is equipped with 12 GB of GDDR5X memory clocked at 11.4 Gbps, 3840 CUDA cores clocked at ~1.6 GHz, and boasts 12 TFLOPs of performance. Nvidia will also begin developing drivers for Mac OS X.

The new standard promises to bring twice the bandwidth and density over current DDR4 memory. Publication is expected to be finalized in 2018.

Launch prices for the eight entry-level quad-core processors are still unknown.

The 17.3-inch workhorse will launch next month with Intel Xeon processor options and Quadro GPUs up to the P5000.

AMD has revealed its Ryzen 5 series of chips ranging from US$169 to US$249. As the name suggests, AMD is pitching the Ryzen 5 as a superior choice to Intel's i5 7600K.

Lenovo's Yoga 720 is a 15-inch quad-core convertible notebook that also packs an Nvidia GTX 1050 GPU. It has just gone live on Lenovo's website for US$1259 and is expected to ship in 4-5 weeks.

Overclockers can compete for a grand prize of $10,000. The first qualifying round opens from March 17 to April 18 on hwbot.org.

Asus has yet to officially announce a 15-inch ZenBook Pro with GTX 1060, but the Taiwan Excellence Awards website reveals some details.

Google has announced that its collaborative computing effort, the 55-inch Surface Hub competitor known as the "Google Jamboard", will be available in May of this year for US$4999, plus a US$600 yearly management fee. It is still significantly cheaper than Microsoft's US$9000 55-inch Surface Hub.

HP has launched a sleek and stylish all-in-one PC for business called the EliteOne 800 G3. The AIO features a strong design with tiny bezels, a pop-out Windows Hello camera, and a Bang & Olufsen-tuned speaker bar that matches the modern design language of their other products.

Jide has revealed plans to make RemixOS a Continuum-like feature for Android phones.

System76 sells laptops running Ubuntu, an open-source Linux distribution. The company has recently started selling modern notebooks with Kaby Lake CPUs and the latest graphics cards from NVIDIA.

The new point release is available for the desktop, server, cloud products, as well as other Ubuntu variants with long-term support. Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS comes with many security updates and corrections for high-impact bugs.

This newsletter that made its debut on Valentine's Day provides regular technology updates and is part of a campaign that also involves customers in the development of the company's future products.

Alienware and XPS GM Frank Azor has stated that due to demand from customers, they will start to seek external graphics certification for their popular XPS line of notebooks. Without certification, newer graphics enclosures with the TI83 controller will not be able to connect.

If you have a Razer laptop that's broken and out of warranty, you might have an option other than paying US$700 for an out-of-warranty repair from the company: Brenden Henry is a computer enthusiast who grew up fixing phones, but now specializes in fixing issues with Razer's laptops.

NVIDIA's newest GPU targets the high-end CAD/CAE market, allowing users to get the most accuracy and reliability for programs where such features are an absolute necessity, such as complex engineering simulations.

Lenovo has refreshed their ThinkPad Workstations. The P51s is a thin-and-light workstation class notebook, the P51 now has a 4K screen with 100% color gamut coverage, and the P71 is a VR-ready workhorse.

Lenovo has confirmed that press release images showing the T470p with a Thunderbolt 3 port were a mistake, and that only the dual-core T470 and T470s will have Thunderbolt 3. This is bad news for ThinkPad fans who were hoping to use a T470 with an external GPU.

Retro-computing YouTuber Nostalgia Nerd has released the concluding part of his two-part documentary on the rise and fall of the Commodore Amiga: Part one explores the history and genesis of the beloved family of computers throughout the 1980s, while part two focuses on its struggles and eventual downfall in the 1990s.

Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reports that Apple is planning to upgrade their existing 13 and 15-inch notebooks with Kaby Lake as well as add two new laptops: a 12-inch MacBook and a higher-end 15-inch MacBook with 32 GB of RAM.

The leaked website for the XPS 9560, specs, and CES display model all showed the update to the popular 9550 would sport a fingerprint scanner. The latest information from the company suggests that it does not currently have one, but may get the option soon.