Category: HDXPRT

CES: Gadget overload

on January 13, 2012

I never thought I would say this, but there are more electronic gadgets and toys than I want. While walking the many cavernous show floors of CES, I saw cool bicycle gadgets from iBike (www.ibikedash.com). One device is a case for your iPhone that transforms it into a cycling computer. Because it measures wind speed, it actually is more capable than any existing bike computer—it uses data you supply like your type of bike and your weight, GPS info and knowledge of the terrain, and readings on wind speed and your heart rate to calculate your power output. If it works reliably, it would provide data that normally requires a cycle power meter costing a couple thousand dollars. If you are not into cycling, you probably don’t care, but it does show how our phones are becoming the gathering point for a myriad of data sources around us. I definitely need to try one of these out when they become available in March.

I also saw solar panels from Sharp (SunSnap) that have the inverter built in so that they output AC power directly. This gets around the messy inverter and wiring problems of typical panels that output DC power. Now, if I can get my homeowners association to agree, I need some of these.

I also saw TVs that were enormous, like 84-inch LCD, and gorgeous, like the 55-inch OLED, both from LG. I saw Windows 8 tablets and cars and iPhone cases and e-cigarettes. Basically, I reached gadget overload. At least the future of technology does not appear to be boring!

Thanks so much to the folks that stopped by our suite to talk about HDXPRT, the upcoming touch benchmark, and what they see as the future of benchmarking. We will be doing our best over the coming months to incorporate your ideas and suggestions. If you were not able to visit with us, please feel free to drop me an email and let me know what you are thinking.

Bill

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See you next year, maybe at CES?

By Bill Catchings

on December 29, 2011

This is just a quick entry to wish everyone a great and productive 2012 and to let you know that I will be at CES. My goal is to meet with as many of you in the Development Community as possible. Please let me know if you have some time and would like to escape the craziness of the show to relax and chat. We’ll have a suite at the Hilton and would love to offer you the opportunity to kick back and talk about HDXPRT, the future of benchmarks, or about the cool things you’ve seen at the show. If you plan to be at CES, but are stuck working a booth or suite, let me know and I’ll try to stop by and say hi. Drop us an email at hdxrpt_CES@principledtechnologies.com and we will set up an appointment.

I hope to see quite a few of you folks there. And, to play with lots of cool new toys! Have a Happy New Year!

Bill

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Posted in HDXPRT, HDXPRT at CES |

A touch of tomorrow

By Bill Catchings

on December 16, 2011

As is often the case for me, Christmas shopping has given me the chance to look at all sorts of gadgets. (No, I’m not sure who to buy them for, but that isn’t the point.) The wealth of touch-based devices like the iPad, the Kindle Fire, the Galaxy Tab, and phones of all sorts is either incredibly exciting or amazingly confusing. Touch-based interfaces have moved well beyond the devices they started on and are showing up pretty much everywhere. Even my car (a Nissan Leaf) uses a touch interface. When I use a device with a screen, like my camera, and can’t touch the screen, it just feels wrong.

The power of computing devices like the iPad and other tablets is bringing touch into what we traditionally think of as the PC marketplace. The debut next year of Windows 8 with its touch-based Metro user interface will add another serious player to the mix. Touch will be in your desktop and notebook future. (Which for me means a steady supply of cloths for wiping screens will be a necessity, but that’s another story.) I think that touch will be the dominant interface—surpassing the mouse—in the near future.

When I see that kind of shift in the marketplace, and the resulting product diversity, my background makes me think that such an area is ripe for some good tools to compare the products. What do you think? Do we need a new generation of touch-based benchmarks for Metro? For other touch-based platforms?

Back here in HDXPRT Central, I do want to mention that the HDXPRT 2012 design specification is now available. Check it out at http://www.hdxprt.com/forum/2012_design_specification.php!

Bill

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Posted in HDXPRT 2012, HDXPRT 2012 design specification, Touch-based computing |

RFC responses

By Bill Catchings

on December 9, 2011

The official RFC response period ended last week on December 2. We’ve been working our way through the responses and have published all of the comments and our responses here. Please do read through all of them. I wanted to touch on a couple of them here.

First, we heard differing opinions on what the minimum system requirements should be. This is a tough one. On the one hand, we want to keep the benchmark current with the latest versions of applications. Those applications typically increase their minimum system requirements over time. Those system requirements in turn are what we use as the basis for HDXPRT’s requirements. On the other hand, we really want HDXPRT 2012 to be useful on the new class of tablet, netbook, and nettop systems coming out in the next year. Our best idea is to go with the same method for determining the requirements, but to test on those slower systems and try to make sure that they are able to run.

Although we only addressed one in the responses, we heard from multiple people about making HDXPRT 2012 run on versions of Windows other than English. As we are trying to have HDXPRT used around the world, we’d like to make this happen. We face two challenges, however—first, getting systems with OEM images running non-English versions of Windows and second, the effort required for testing and debugging on those systems. You can help with the first by sending us systems. Please contact me if you may be able to help. We will test on any systems we receive and will make it a priority to work out any problems we encounter, but we can’t guarantee that all systems will work.

We are off working on the final design specifications based on the RFC and the responses. While we cannot include your comments in the design specs, we do still want to hear from you. If you have a good idea, we will try to see what we can do to accommodate it in our development cycle. So, please do let us know any comments you may have about either the RFC or the responses to it. Thanks!

Bill

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Posted in HDXPRT 2012, HDXPRT 2012 RFC, Let us know your thoughts |

Responding to the RFC

By Bill Catchings

on November 30, 2011

We are reaching the end of the RFC period. Your feedback plays a crucial role in defining what HDXPRT 2012 will be. Now is the time to let us know what you agree and disagree with in the RFC. We want to hear from as many of you as possible by the end of this week (December 2nd). We will still accept responses after that date, but they will be more difficult to include in the design specifications, which we will create next week based on the RFC and your feedback.

In case you have not yet had a chance to look at the RFC, it is available for Development Community members at www.hdxprt.com/forum/hdxprt2012RFC.php. You can give us your feedback either in the forums to help stimulate discussion or in email by sending them to HDXPRTsupport@hdxprt.com. However you choose to respond, we appreciate you taking the effort to do so. Thanks!

Bill

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Posted in HDXPRT 2012, HDXPRT 2012 RFC, Let us know your thoughts |

Thankful for change

By Bill Catchings

on November 23, 2011

With the American holiday of Thanksgiving almost here, I have been thinking of the many things I’m thankful for. I realized how thankful I am for the constant state of change in the computer industry. Part of that change is because of Moore’s Law and part of it is due to general innovation of how to take advantage of additional processing power. The consequences are that there are always new (and usually better) products out there. I love the opportunity both to play with the latest and greatest products (like my new Kindle Fire) and to use them to be more productive and do things I was not able to do previously. I genuinely look forward to when it is time to upgrade to a new computer.

A consequence of constant innovation is that it’s often important to understand how much faster new products are than their predecessors. I certainly don’t feel like going to the hassle of moving to a new computer for 10 percent more performance. But, when it is twice as fast, I have trouble resisting. And, it is important to be able to decide which of two products offers either the most performance or the best performance for the dollar. That, of course, is where benchmarks like HDXPRT come in.

Someday, the constraints of physics may put an end to Moore’s Law. When that happens, computers will be more like cars. Instead of the new model being twice or ten times as fast as your old one, it will be just a little faster, but have a really cool paint job and boss fins on it. That is not a day I look forward to! Not only will the computer industry be much less interesting, but there won’t be much need for benchmarks. I am thankful for the constant change in computers!

And, I’m thankful for all of you in the Development Community for your help in defining, developing, testing, and promoting HDXPRT. Now, before the tryptophan kicks in, please send us your responses to the RFC!

Bill

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Posted in HDXPRT 2012 RFC, Let us know your thoughts |

Category: HDXPRT

CES: Gadget overload

See you next year, maybe at CES?

A touch of tomorrow

RFC responses

Responding to the RFC

Thankful for change

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