March 2008 Volume 5 Issue 4Rs 125Also available in Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, UAESoulstorm, Universe at War, Latest Antivirus Definitions, Posteriza, 2300 Game Wallpapers and much more.High-end performance at a mid-range price.The all-in-one computer security suite.Nvidia GeForce 9600 GTKaspersky Internet SecurityPRODUCT OF THE MONTHSOFTWARE REVIEWTune your BIOS from inside WindowsCORELDRAW GRAPHICS SUITE X4How music pirates are tracked down onlineUnclog your inkjet printer cartridges SOFTWARE OF THE MONTHSoCHIP DVDTake stunning macro photographsGreen ComputingIs your PC killing the planet? We show you how to cut down on energy costs and help save the environment.FREE!55EXTERNALSTORAGEDEVICES TESTEDAlso Reviewed: PC Components, Cellphones, Gadgets, Software.EDITORIALMARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP|7Much is being written about Global Warming, these days. Its been cover story material for many respected international publications. Theres plenty of discourse on this topic on news web sites and blogs. You are well aware, dear readers, about the ecological damage being caused to our planet. But what can we, as individuals, do about it? Whats the IT industry doing about it?The CHIP International Test Center decided to investigate how the careless use of power hungry computers and peripherals can damage the environment. The results of this research indicate alarming levels of carbon dioxide emissions, even from devices in standby mode. You can read all about this research in our cover story this month. The article also offers tips on how to save power, and how to buy energy efcient devices.On a different note, we wondered what happens to all the computers that are disposed off in India, every year. Our correspondent Arjun Jassal went to Toxics Link and Greenpeace to investigate. The ndings are quite shocking. Unorganized groups scavenge parts and then extract gold, copper, lead and other reusable materials using life-threatening extraction processes. The components are heated on open ames to loosen them from the board or they are dunked into tubs of acid so that metal oats up, and can be removed. The rst method releases a host of carcinogenic gases, while the second causes acid burns and disposal problems. You can read the full report on page 38.We also asked IT companies in India about their initiatives to protect the environment. Some told us about their sustainability programs. Many are building more power efcient products. Socially responsible companies have installed policies that encourage use of recycled paper, for instance.TEST CENTER: We tested 55 external storage devices. Thumb drives have long replaced the humble oppy disk. In fact, nowadays companies send us press material on thumb drives! As capacities increase and prices fall, external hard drives will become as common as thumb drives. In our comparison test this month, you have much to choose from.COVER DESIGN: Change is good, so we decided to go in for a new cover design. This design is very similar to the German edition of CHIP (and CHIP started in Germany in the late 70s). This design has been followed by other international editions of CHIP, for many years. We think the new design not only takes us closer to our roots, but it clearly highlights many of the stories in the issue. You will immediately know about the best software on the current DVD too. Wed like to know what you think about this new design, so please write to: [email protected]. READER FORUM: At CHIP we are committed to understanding the kind of content our readers enjoy. We also aspire to get closer to our subscribers and those who are loyal to CHIP. We believe a Reader Forum is the most direct way to do this. CHIP will soon conduct a forum in Mumbai and later repeat it in other cities (look out for the details in the next issue). On behalf of CHIP, I extend an invitation to its subscribers and long-term readers. Those interested in coming may write to me at: [email protected] (please do mention your contact details or subscriber number). | Brian [email protected] results of our tests indicate alarming levels of CO2 emissions from devices, even in the standby modeGo Green, responsiblyP.S: The CHIP Customer Care cell is standing by to address your queries and grievances. Do get in touch with Sarita Quadros at [email protected]. Call 91-22-40302 805. You can subscribe to CHIP online at eshop.infomediaindia.com.8|INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008 NEWSWIRE20Digital Directions The physically impaired have not always had the opportunity to make the most of technology. But some digital samaritans are changing this notion. 22Children on the InternetThe Web is not the safest place for children. Microsoft IT Security Chief, Tom Khler, speaks about Windows tools which parents can use to know what their children are doing online. COVER STORY32Green ComputingIts high time we become aware of the ecological problems our computers are causing. Conserving energy begins by using our appliances and gadgets judiciously. HARDWARE42Top GearThe hottest hardware currently in the market tested and reviewed. Find out whats goodthe product or just its hype.60Giga-liciouosCHIP compared 55 external storage devices in different categories. Find out which ones emerged as winners in this grind. 81The Mid-Range MonsterNvidia launches its 9-series GeForce graphics cards with a Rs 10,000 model that eats its competition for lunch. We had no choice but to crown it our product of the month. 86CHIP CPU-GPU GuideStay updated with whats going on in the hardcore hardware market, to the very last detail!94Payment GatewaysFind out whether your money is in good hands with payment gateways. We graphically explain how payment gateways work. APPLICATIONS98Software CenterCorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4 is our software of the month. Find out whats new in this version. Weve also reviewed Kaspersky Internet Security Suite 7.0 and a bunch of awesome free applications to make your life simpler. 104Pirate SlayersCHIP takes you through the routine of a German Internet anti-piracy ofcer and how he carries out his duties of busting pirates. 107BIOS Tweaks in WindowsFind out how you can make changes in the BIOS to accelerate performance by using some simple tools! You dont even need to use those confusing blue menus. 110Pure in BinaryCinema is evolving not just in terms of content but also how the content is being handled. Find out how digital cinema production is going to affect your next movie date. 114The Next Communicator A futuristic account of life in the future, where communication knows no boundaries. A CHIP Readers Awards winner. HARDWARE COVER STORYGo online for regular updates atwww.chip.in ContentsMARCH 200810|INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008Go online for regular updates atwww.chip.in HANDS ON120Freaky PhotographyIf you are a budding photographer and have always been awed by macro photos, we show you how to make without those expensive lenses. The results, however, are absolutely priceless!122Data Backup for Sony EricssonWorried about losing all the information on your phone in case of theft or accident? CHIP brings you a great solution for Sony Ericsson phones with this workshop. 124Cleaning Inkjet CartridgesInkjet cartridges go defunct because they arent frequently used. Dont throw away those dead cartridges, we show you to revive them and save money. 126Posterize, King-size!Use this workshop to blow up your favorite images to huge sizes and print them in parts. You can use these to make huge posters! UNWIND136Deadspace - PreviewThe enemies in most games are perishable, no matter how powerful they are. But what if the enemies are zombies who just dont die and each has different qualities which you need to combat accordingly? And all of this is happening in the deep myseries of space! Welcome to Deadspace!138Burnout Paradise If your taste in car games is more about tasting the thunder than seeing the chequered ag, then this is truly your paradise! CHIP reviews the new draft of BurnoutBurnout:Paradise.140Company of Heroes The war really never ends on the virtual battleeld. Game publishers have continued to dish out World War II games and Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts is another one in the long line. This time, you get to choose between the Germans and Allies. Which one will be your company?APPLICATIONS HANDS ON UNWINDHARDWARE REVIEWEDREGULARS07Editorial12DVD Contents14Colophon16Letters90PC Congs96Technology Landscape116Dr. CHIP128Tips & Tricks142Townsquare148Last WordSony Ericsson W580iLG KU990Lenovo ThinkCentre A61e 6449-12QCanon LV 7365 Olympus SP-560 UZSprint TD L300DATI Radeon HD 3450BioStar TP35D2 - A7Thermalright HR-03iSkin CeruleanAPC Mobile Power PackGenius PF-A01ContentsMARCH 2008MARCH 2008DVD Contents SOFTWARE OF THE MONTHRED HOTCorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4TOYSGAME DEMOSSoulstorm Evochron Renegades Darkness Within Universe at War Pacic Liberation ForceSherlock Holmes: Silver EarringPDC World Championship Darts 2008GAME TRAILERS Pirates of The Burning SeaGAME ADD-ONS Crysis Patch 1.1Call of Duty 4-MW Patch 1.4Call of Duty 4-MW Patch 1.5 2,385 High Quality Game WallpapersLINUXgOS Live CD Sidux 2007TOOLSMULTIMEDIAeXPert PDF Reader Stardock DeskScapes Corel DVD Copy MyPhoneExplorer 1.6 Posteriza 1.1 iClone 2 iTunes 7.6 K-Lite Codec Pack Full 3.70INTERNETFirefox 2.0.0.12 Internet Explorer 7 Opera 9.25 Limewire 4.16 Flash player ActiveX Netscape Navigator 9.5DEVELOPER TOOLSActual Drawing CoffeeCup HTML Editor NoteTab Light OneClick Aurora Web Editor SiteSpinnerSECURITYKaspersky Internet Security 7.0 Avast! Virus Denitions McAfee Virus Denitions Norton 2008 Virus DenitionsTrend Micro Virus Denitions Avira Virus Denitions AVG Virus Denitions Bitdefender Virus DenitionsSYSTEMBurnAware Free Edition PrinterAnywhere Windows Inspection Tool Set MojoPac Freedom VersionTracker Pro Nitro PDF Professional Skype 3.6.0.2MUST HAVESNvidia Forceware XP32 169.21 Nvidia Forceware Vista32 169.21ATI Catalyst 8.1 XP32ATI Catalyst 8.1 Vista32You can send your requests forsoftware for the next months DVD to [email protected] MANAGER - PUBLISHING Krishna TewariBUSINESS HEAD & DGM CIRCULATION Vijay AdhikariEDITOR Brian Pereira [email protected] EDITOR - TECHNICAL Jamshed Avari [email protected] EDITOR Shaxeb ShaikhHEAD, TEST CENTER Anand Tuliani [email protected] WRITERS Francis DSa, Dushyant Khilnani, Arjun JassalMULTIMEDIA COORDINATOR Punit Lodaya, Maheswar SinghTEST CENTER COORDINATOR Gautami ChalkeDESIGN Jagdish Limbachiya, Pramod Jadhav,Brijesh Gajjar, Sachin Pandit, Hemali Limbachiya, Umesh Dahiwalkar, Ravikumar Potdar,Sanjay Shelar, Kalpesh DhanmeherSPECIAL PROJECTS WRITERS Vijay George, Gareth Mankoo, Dolwin Fernandes, Kamakshi VenugopalGROUP PHOTO EDITOR & CREATIVE HEAD Shiresh R KarraleMARKETING MANAGER Rishi Sutrave [email protected] MANAGER - MARKETING Alupt Verma [email protected] MARKETING CO-ORDINATOR Sagar Salunkhe [email protected] Phone: (91 22) 40302864ASSOCIATE - ONLINE Punit Lodaya [email protected] Sunder Thiyagarajan [email protected] OFFICE Intelligent Computing Chip,TBW Publishing & Media Pvt. Ltd. `A Wing, Ruby House, 2nd Floor, J.K. Sawant Marg, Dadar (W), Mumbai - 400 028. INDIA Fhone. (91 22) 1030 2323 Fax. (91 22) 1030 2707 E-mail: [email protected] INTERNATIONALEditorial Consultant InternationalThomas Pyczak, Poccistrabe 11, 80336 MunchenCHIP is also published in the following countries China, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey, UkraineTBW Publishing & Media Pvt. Ltd. does not take the responsibility for returning unsolicited material sent without due postal stamps for return postage. No part of this magazine can be reproduced withoutthepriorwrittenpermissionofthepublisher.TBW Publishing&MediaPvt.Ltd.reservestherighttousethe information published herein in any manner whatsoever.Copyright 2004 INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIPMARCH 2008|VOLUME 5|ISSUE 04 www.chip.inADVERTISERS INDEXCUSTOMER CARESarita QuadrosE-mail: [email protected]. 91 22 1030 2805 Fax. 91 22 1030 2707 Subscribe online at eshop.infomediaindia.comADVERTISING SALESMumbai Kausar Syed [email protected] Advani [email protected]: (022) 40302865BRANCHES Bangalore Ram Kalyan Sarangi [email protected] Fhone. (080) 25597282, 83, 81Chennai Badhresh Shah [email protected] Phone: (044) 28295050-54Hyderabad Rahul Hanchate [email protected] Rocky Joseph [email protected] Phone: (040) 66136613New Delhi Reema Datta [email protected] Gupta [email protected] Fhone. (011) 303278, 79, 80, 82Pune Abhijit Warghade [email protected] Phone: (020) 5603 1234CIRCULATION & SUBSCRIPTIONSNational Manager-Sunder ThiyagarajanNorth-Kamal Bhist, Aqueel AhmedEast-Debraj SurSouth-Kirupanand S, Murugesh Babu, Mahesh GSWest-Sachin Kamble, Sanjay BhujleSubscriptions-Chaitali Parkar,Kamalesh Matkar,Sarita QuadrosCo-ordinators-Usha Parad, Meena Katta,Vaibhav Ghavale,Dinesh DavidgaWRITE TO USReaders Letters: [email protected] Subject: LETTERSMagazine, DVD, Web and Design feedback:[email protected]. Chip: [email protected] and Tricks: [email protected] for review: [email protected] reviews: editor@chip-india.comIntelligentComputingCHIPisprintedbyA.S.Vadiwalaand publishedbyK.V.RaoonbehalfofTBWPublishingand MediaPvt.Ltd.andprintedatInfomediaIndiaLtd,PlotNo.3, Sector 7, 0ff. Sion-Fanvel Foad, Nerul, Navi Muubai - 100 70 and published at TBW Publishing and Media Pvt. Ltd., `A Wing, RubyHouse,2ndFloor,J.K.SawantMarg,Dadar(W),Mumbai - 400 028. INDIAisaninternationallyprotectedtrademarkownedby Vogel Burda Communication GmbHQuickQuoteCHIP is one of the frontrunners in the consumer technology space, and is well respected for its editorial quality. Doug HaugerChief Operating Officer, Microsoft India American Power Conversion ( India)BCBase MediaBICDell India Pvt Ltd9Epson India Pvt Ltd53Minds (India) Pvt. LtdFGFMonster.comFICViewsonic International Corporation49Micro Star International Co Ltd51Esys Information (T) Ltd.85Microsoft Corporation India Pvt Ltd45,55Hewlett Packard11Hill & Knowton [Sea]17DRS Logistics (P) Ltd.147Zoom Technologies (India) Pvt Ltd59Shroff Publishers & Distributors Pv144,145Best IT World (India) Pvt.Ltd.13Brother Intl Singapore Pvt Ltd6Loreal India Pvt Ltd19Emerson Network Power (I) Pvt.Ltd.31MTNL15Quantum Link Communications Pvt Ltd29Abacus Peripherals Pvt Ltd27Clever Bit146Ricoh India Ltd47Top Victory Investment5Statement about ownership and other particulars about magazine entitled Intelligent Computing CHIP, as required to be published in the rst issue every year after the last day of February.1.Place of Publication: Ruby House, A Wing, J. K. Sawant Marg, Dadar (W), Mumbai- 400 028. 2. Periodicity of Publication: Monthly3. Printers Name: Mr. Arvind Sukhabhai VadiwalaNationality: Indian4. Publishers name: Mr. K.V. RaoNationality: Indian Address: Ruby House, A Wing, J. K. Sawant Marg,Dadar (West), Mumbai- 400 028.5. Editors Name: Mr. Brian PerieraNationality: IndianAddress: Ruby House, A Wing, J. K. Sawant Marg,Dadar (West), Mumbai- 400 0286. Names and addresses of Individuals who own Intelligent Computing CHIP & partners or shareholder holding more than 1% of total capital: TBW Publishing & Media Pvt. Ltd., Ruby House,A Wing, J. K. Sawant Marg, Dadar (West), Mumbai- 400 028.Details of the shareholders of TBW Publishing & Media Pvt. Ltd., who are holding more than 1% of the paid up equity share capital of the coupany as on 31-12-2007.a.Kalimati Investments Company Limited, Bombay House, 24 Homi Mody Street, Mumbai - 400 001.b.Primal Investments & Finance Limited, Ewart House, 3rd Floor, Homi Mody Street, Mumbai - 400 001.c.Aftab Investment Company Ltd., Bombay House, 24 Homi Mody Street, Mumbai - 400 001.I, K.V. Rao, hereby declare that all particulars given above are true to the best of my knowledge and belief. Dated: 1st March 2008K.V. RaoSignature of the publisherLETTERS16|INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2008Letters Sachin PanditHands on bookletDear CHIP,Im a subscriber of CHIP, Id like to congratulate you on the great work you are doing. The Hands on series of booklets is superb. It unlocks many secrets and shows things that we were not even aware ofthough we work with MS Ofce every day. There are lots of short cuts and easy tools available within the program itself. Do keep up the great work. I request you to compare the features of MS Ofce with Openofce.org in the Hands on series. Neeraj ChawlaCHIP PlusDear CHIP,Im a big fan of CHIP and have been reading it for the past three years. Its very informative and offers knowledge of the latest technologies. The content is very simple to understand.I also thank you for starting CHIP Plus in January 2008. I nd this series really informative. With CHIP Plus, one can learn new and advanced techniques in dedicated applications. It has really added a lot to my MS Word and MS Excel skills. I hope future editions of CHIP Plus will cover topics like hardware, networking, hacking, virus programming, and even gaming topics. I also hope to see a detailed guide on plasma, TFT and LCD TVs soon, since I am planning to buy either a Plasma or LCD TV. Im confused about what brand and technology to buy, so a guide is always welcome. Anand NayyarOverclocking 8800GTSDear CHIP,I am a big fan of CHIP and have been reading it since September 2004. I have almost all issues dating back to that year. My friends regard me as a computer expert, and its all due to CHIPit has provided excellent information all these years. Your magazine has improved with time and has reached a state of perfection, for both its articles and DVD contents. All my technology related buying decisions are inuenced by your magazine. Last year, I had bought an MSI 8800GTS OC 320 MB GPU after reading your graphics card shootout. All games other than Crysis are playable at maximum settings. I remember an article in CHIP November 2004, where you discussed how to convert a 6800 pure to a 6800 Ultra with some BIOS tweaks. Is there any similar way to convert the 8800GTS to a GTX? Can you publish an article on it? Wishing you all the best and keep up the good work. Rahul DeyDear Rahul,Thank you for appreciating CHIP. Now to answer your question. The only way to boost performance of a graphics card is by overclocking its GPU and memory. The 8800 GTS that you have is already overclocked. So it shouldnt be tweaked further, as it will result in overheating, leading to problems in the long run. From our experience 8800 GTS cant be overclocked much. So theres no way you can tweak it to bring it in the range close to 8800 GTX. Anand Tuliani, Head, Test CenterBest Value cardDear CHIP,I am a big fan Im a regular reader of CHIP for the past one year. First of all, accept my heartiest congratulations for the tremendous February 2008 issue. I really enjoyed the cover LETTERS18|INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008story Game on (CHIP, MARCH 2008) and the graphics card comparison. But I found some mistakes.On page 59 you have marked Asus EN8600GTS Top as CHIP Best Value card, yet on the following pages you marked Sapphire Raedon HD 3850 as Best Value card. On page 59 you have marked the Crysis fps rating as only 4.5 for the Sapphire Raedon HD 3850. Is it really that low? If these are actually mistakes then please try to avoid them as they create a bad impression among readers.I also request you to put old 80s and 90s games on the DVD as I cant download them because of my slow Internet connection. Vinay AggarwalDear Vinay,We regret the mistake for Best Value graphics card. The rating for the Sapphire Raedon HD 3850 is correct. And yes, we will be providing classic games on our next DVD. Team CHIPSection on EducationDear CHIP,I have been reading CHIP for the past three years. I was pleasantly surprised to nd that the last two issues have Hands on booklets. I nd these very impressive and extremely helpful. I think CHIP is the rst to offer these kind of books on MS Ofce.After undergoing training, I began my career in the IT eld by working in a company as a hardware engineer, a few years ago. But now I work for a company that manufactures musical instruments like guitars. This is a very different eld and I long to return to the IT eld. Thats why I regularly read CHIP. I have a suggestion for CHIP. Instead of covering only games and products in your magazine, you can create a section on education. This will add a lot of value to the existing content. The section on education will appeal to diverse audiences ranging from school children to medium scale businesses. Vasanth Kumar Jagan Mohan18| INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008ICCO That was a fun cover story 57007SMS us!Since we like knowing whats on your mind and what you think about our magazine, we now bring you another way to get in touch with us. Have something to say about a test review? Liked a feature story? Was the workshop useful? SMS us your feedback!Heres how:For comments on a story, createthe following message:ICCO Example: ICCO The cover story was very usefulSend us your comments in160 characters per message.To rate a story, product review, etc look out for the story tag at the base of each article and use it as follows:ICCP Example: ICCP PWS 5The Story tag is mentioned atthe base of every story in the magazine and the Rating is ona scale of 1 to 5.Finally, send your messages to 57007Cheers!SMS replies to our storiesFrom: BSNL, PunjabSent: Monday, February 18, 2008SMS: ur feb issue was rocking. because of chip i was able to buy the best graphics card in my budget. overall-chip is mind blowing.From: Airtel, West Bengal/SikkimSent: Sunday, February 17, 2008SMS: hi chip, this is anal from burdwan. ur feb fractal (workshop) ws grat. i injoyd a nu soft-re also wth excel tips. also thanks for demo of comp. of heros.From: BSNL, Maharashtra/GoaSent: Tuesday, February 12, 2008SMS: review on cod4 was good! can u add an extra column for installation of critical games in viewing manner! such as crysis, cod4.& many other of todays gamesFrom: Airtel, Maharashtra/GoaSent: Saturday, February 09, 2008SMS: hi its nilesh, cn u add another section inur mag about critical installation of games. From: BSNL, KeralaSent: Friday, February 08, 2008SMS: dear chip, maheshmohan here. article on mini linux distros in feb was mind blowing.From: BSNL, PunjabSent: Wednesday, February 06, 2008SMS: im rdng the chip magazine for abt 2 and a half years now and the best part of the mag is the cover story which never lets a reader down. From: Idea, KeralaSent: Friday, January 25, 2008SMS: i am pratheesh george. the january magazine is great. the coverstory, feature about mobile themes, etc are very useful & highly interesting. WithhundredsofSMSessenttous,thisnew feedbacksystemhasevokedtremendous response.Goingahead,wereusingwhatyoure sayingtoincorporatechangesintoourcontent. Keep them coming!Please send your letters to:[email protected] or [email protected] | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008Talking cellphones, battery chargers that let you know when theyre done, cardiology machines that discuss matters of the heart, and most startling yet, display devices that dont have screens! For the average technoholic, TechShare 2008 was quite literally a jolt into an aspect of computing thats rarely seen. TechShare, the rst conference on accessibility and assistive technology in India, aimed to open the eyes of the visually unimpaired to the world of the sightless, as far as computing is concerned.For the visually challenged, tasks as simple as identifying the difference between bottles of pickle and jam have always been difcult and confusing. While various devices have been developed to assist them, few have addressed the digital divide that exists between the visually impaired and other users. Tasks such as typing need months of relentless practice just to understand the keyboard layout; even then they cant see what they have written on traditional CRT or LCD displays. The ease of pointing and clicking with a mouse becomes completely redundant, and the trackball takes them into completely alien territory.But the same technologies that have brought about information revolutions for us can be tweaked and modied to help them. Visually challenged people touch things to understand what they are. But what happens when there are a lot similar things around them? If there are bottles of blueberry, raspberry and strawberry jam, how can they tell the difference? asks Dr Dietmar Litschel, Managing Director of Caretec, a company that creates products for differently-abled people. Although this scenario is not new, previous implementations of such solutions had brought about their own share of problems. There are only two ways to handle this situation. Create stickers with descriptions in Braille and put them on various articles, or put a barcode on every object and give the person a reader, adds Litschel.Although useful, the labels need to be embossed on tape, cut with a sharp pair of scissors and then stuck onto each item. This needs the assistance of other people. On the other hand, barcode readers are bulky and prone to breaking down. Forced to solve this problem, Litschel decided to use tiny stickers just like the ones large corporations use to track shipping containers and mega-malls use to take stock of their inventoryRFID (Radio Frequency IDentication) tags. The concept is simple. There are sticky tags that you can simply put on the object, or washable plastic ones that can be attached. After that you take the reader close to the tag and record on it the name of the object. Thats all he says. He points the reader to one of the tags, the reader buzzes to life and a tiny speaker dutifully repeats Strawberry jam. Its called Sherlock, because it helps you detect things adds Litschel with a smile. While RFID demysties the tangible world, other microprocessors are being employed to decrypt the information age. The visually impaired need to be given access to computer applications. This is what we are doing, says Simon Kitchen, marketing assistant at Dolphin Computer Access, a rm that develops software for the visually challenged. At TechShare, the company showcased in-production software, called Supernova that magnies text on the computer screen, reads it out and also gives users the option to type and read using Braille keyboards and displays. But the most interesting thing on display was software for Web surng. As you tab through the Website, it automatically reads out all the links to you. If thats too cumbersome, by pressing a hot key, it creates a list of all the links on the page and reads them out to the user one-by-one. He just has to listen and hit enter, he adds. Similar software for PDAs and smart phones were also demonstrated.Text readers, themselves have been around for a while, yet, for the Indian public they lack two basic features: they cant speak to the user in his mother tongue and their accents are largely western. This is a task that Dolphin has been working on with an Indian partner, Digital DirectionsThere are thousands of people in India who cant use computers due to physical challenges. But there are companies and individuals out there trying to make a difference through innovative uses of technology. BY ARJUN JASSALSMS us! Story code: NDD to 57007NEWSWIRE Pramod JadhavFEATURE NEWSWIREMARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | 21Break Barrier Technologies. People feel that all visually challenged people need special keyboards. They dont; with the same keyboard they can type in Hindi and listen to every word as it forms and after completion. It doesnt stop there, every function in Windows is read out to them in Hindi as they scroll through the selection, explains Mamta Tandel, Accessibility Project Manager at Break Barrier, as she scrolls through the windows menu is urry, causing the speakers to lapse into an inadvertent tirade of Hindi. Although the product is still in its beta stage, it is expected to be available for institutions by May this year. One point worth noting is that all the software is built only for Windows computers, PDAs and phones. The Linux world will need a little more time for this light to shine on it.Creating text is only the tip of the iceberg when people think of computing. Moreover, the Internet is a gateway to a whole new playground of text, graphics, animation and dynamically changing content. Reading it off a screen is also an uphill task for the accessibility-impaired. We are used to seeing documents as PDF, HTML or even plain MS Word les. But when you have to provide access without the visual elements, then the les need to be converted to more suitable formats, says Kitchen. Thats why a lot of the software demonstrated at TechShare center on converting the most accepted formats into speech and Braille-based les. The software converts the les into four basic formats: talking books, MP3, Braille readable and DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System) formats,. While the rst two formats are well known, the latter two are designed specically for visually challenged people. The Braille les connect to a display device which has a row of tiny rectangles on which words are formed in Braille. Unlike conventional displays there is no screen here; instead the user moves his ngers over the display and feels the bumps that form each letter of the alphabet. On the other hand, DAISY is a format that takes audio books to a whole new level. In this format, the books information is stored under different headers, so that you can go directly to them. Using DAISY, you can make each chapter of the book a header, call for the chapter and start listening to it from there. Unlike talking books, you wont have to listen to them from the beginning again. Its the ease of navigation that makes all the difference. says Kitchen. Yet it was laptops that quickly became the center of attention at the TechShare expo. One look at them, and the image you might have of a at screen and a keyboard is completely dissolved. These devices are like tablets, slick lozenges of plastic with nine main buttons to accommodate ngers on top, lling the vacuum of the QWERTY keyboard with an assortment of buttons that let you do everything from scroll through pages to increase and decrease music volume. This laptop is built around an Intel processor that runs at 520 MHz. The user puts his ngers on top, and as he navigates, the laptop tells him all the menu options through a set of in-built speakers, says Wayne Lee, Marketing Manager of Human Information Management Services, a company that builds these laptops. The functionality of these devices easily rivals that of regular laptops, with a word processor, address and schedule manager, Web browser, e-mail client, instant messenger and even the option of reading directions when a GPS module is connected. The best part is that if you have a Braille display, you can connect it to this laptop making it easier to surf the Web and instant message. You can also sync data from a normal computer simply by plugging this into it with a USB cable,.As the meek Delhi winter sun set on the two-day conference, it wasnt just the technologies and their applications that warmed the heart. It was also the sheer number of visually challenged people who made their way to conference, trying to discover newer ways to look at the digital world around them. [email protected] Kitchen demonstrates Dolphin Computer Accesss application Supernova.Wayne Lee shows off his companys accessible laptop computer.Dr Dietmar Litschelwith his device that leverages RFID technology to help the visually impaired.NEWSWIRE22 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008The Internet is full of potential threats for children, and the latest studies have thrown up some really shocking gures. For instance, it takes just four minutes on average till a child is sexually harassed online. The unawareness and carelessness of children and youngsters are also dangerous in such cases: In a survey, 37 percent of 12 to 19 year olds said they thought it is simple to get to know people online. This tendency to interact freely can clearly be seen in social networks such as Facebook or Orkut. Whether its about anything commonplace such as a favorite band or shop, or even sexual affectionschildren and youngsters chat about anything and everything here. The protective measures taken by internet service providers (ISPs) against such freedoms are of no use. The hugely popular youth site MySpace claims that membership is allowed only after the age of 14. In reality however, anyone can state a false age and sign up. No wonder that even Ursula von der Leyen, Germanys Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, claimed to CHIP: Parents should talk about the dangers clearly and set denite limits. This is because websites and social networks dont do this very well. Parental control software also exists to help parents in protecting their children. CHIP has compiled a list of effective and recommended web lters.These lter tools allow only websites that are suitable for children to be opened in your browser, and they can even control who your child is allowed to chat with using instant messaging applications such as Yahoo or Windows Live Messenger. In addition, a few tools are also built in to Windows already.Education of children and parents is necessaryCHIP spoke with Microsoft IT Security Chief Tom Khler about tools built into Windows that parents can use.Q. Which tools by XP and Vista help parents in safeguarding children from inappropriate contents? A. By keeping user accounts having restricted rights, the parents can control Children on the InternetChildren find friends and information on the Web, but they see a lot more than is meant for their eyes. Parents, take note. BY AXEL SCHOEN AND JAMSHED AVARISMS us!Story code: NCI to 57007 Jagdish LimbachiyaTOM KHLERMicrosoft IT Security ChiefParents should talk with their children about experiences on the Internet.FEATURE NEWSWIREFEATURE NEWSWIREMARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | 23It is difficult to choose from the available web filter programs. Children should not, after all, be able to circumvent the tools with a few simple clicks. CHIP shows you a few recommended programs and websites. These tools block sites with inappropriate content, check instant messengers for suspicious text and can also regulate the amount of time the child is allowed to use the Web. Netintelligence Parental Control Home Edition: www.netintelligence.comAvira WebProtector: www.avira.comOpenDNS: www.opendns.orgCyberPatrol: www.cyberpatrol.comNet Nanny 5.6: www.netnanny.comthe time spent and content accessed by their children on the Internet. This also includes blacklists and whitelists, through which it is ltered. Q. Which precautionary measures for children does your own security tool OneCare provide? A. Through OneCare, parents can determine with whom their kids may communicate, and also the Internet sites that are allowed to be visited.Q. Can parents secure MSN Messenger and thus protect their children from getting pestered? A. Parents can administer the contact lists of the children. New contacts can then be added in the Messenger only on approval by the parents. Q. Does the search at MSN allow a ltering of objectionable contents comparable with Google SafeSearch?A. MSN complies with the Children and Young Persons Act, and does not display any objectionable websites.Q. What can be done to prevent children from circumventing the protection? A. This naturally cannot be completely barred. Parents should talk with their children about experiences on the Internet and inuence them the right way. [email protected] Minutes1The average amount of time it takes for children to be sexually harassed in chatrooms which are not supervised.36%2of children aged between 12 and 13 chat at least once in a week. 37%2of children aged between 12 and 19 say they get to know people easily on the Web47%2of children aged between 12 and 13 use the Internet daily for 1 to 3 hours.60%2of children aged between 12 and 19 watch videos on YouTube.1Dangers in the Internet and Chat, Symposium of the city Zurich 2006, 2Jim Study 2007Apart from searching for information, children aged between the ages of 6 and 13 use the web for email and chatting as well.Time spentchatting with friendsInternet filtersThe younger the child, the more often parents orsiblings monitor them while surfing the web. Parentsseem content as long as young children are not alone, whether or not they are the ones supervising. Once the child is 10 years old however, they start surfing by themselves more often. Parents are morewilling to trust them, although other research clearly shows that their trust might be misplaced.Surfing unsupervised at the age of 10Searching for info for schoolChattingWriting e-mailsInstant MessagingUsing childrens sitesLoading music filesAdult sitesDownloading games 4838332520151411Almost one fourth of the children aged between 6 and 13 use the computer daily.Time spent on the computerTelevisionEveryday/ almost everydayOnce/ several times in a weekMeet friendsLearnFamily/ParentsGo out for sportsTalk on telephoneUse computerRead a book78 194317635847443653781815232414 Alone with friends with mother with father with siblings no informationTotal67 years89 years1011 years1213 years36161538491561212211933342092331302417612854121124|INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008Orkut, Googles ubiquitous social networking platform, completed four years of connecting people in early 2008.To mark the occasion, the site launched a slew of privacy settings to reect users growing concern with personal information security. Orkut now allows users to set individual privacy levels for photos, videos, testimonials and text scraps so that only people they have added as friends can see them. The Web has progressively grown more social, and the role that social networking plays has evolved, explains Google India Head of Products, Vinay Goel in an exclusive interview with IC-CHIP. The users needs evolved, they wanted elements of privacy, control on who to show pictures to, whom to talk to. The new Privacy settings allow people to control scraps, pictures, videos, photos and testimonials. If the user wants, no random people can access these. The site has been criticized for making it a little too easy to locate people and see what they post on their proles. Privacy has become a growing concern over the years.There have also been growing allegations of sexual predators using these networks to stake out victims, and employers checking out the personal lives of prospective employees. If you dont want the prole to be public to employers, parents or teachers, the onus is on the user. The web is open, says Goel. The web has a history now, Google is trawling through everything. Once something is part of the public domain, you cant retract it. What you write becomes part of your history, what you open for the public to see remains. There is no easy way out, he adds.The need of the hour now is to stay in constant touch with users, to understand their evolving needs and better suit them. Looking into the future, I feel the web will become even more social. The Web 2.0 has been about social platforms, videos, photographs and blogging, which are distributed over 20 different networks. The next move is going to be to rationalize all of these, says Goel. One storm of privacy-related issues might be xed, but thats just a small step in the direction of user protection. As social networking evolves into a safer and friendlier environment, future problems will continue to question our ideas of what is acceptable, what information can be shared and what should remain visible online.Cisco, one of the worlds leading manufacturers of networking equipment and infrastructure, released its 2007 Annual Security Report last month. According to the report, last year was characterized by unprecedented innovation and adaptability in the realm of security threats. Major types of risks fell into seven categories: vulnerability, physical, legal, trust, identity, human and geopolitical, says Cisco. While operating system vulnerabilities declined sharply, spam and malware attacks became more sophisticated. New security vulnerabilities became apparent in common productivity applications as well as infrastructure damaged by natural disasters.Overcondence in security measures remains an issue. There were also more than 15 million potential victims of identity theft, and academic networks were prime targets.Orkut celebrates 4th anniversary with privacy features for usersIn the News...Innovative and adaptive threats in 2007WEBSECURITYDanger BarometerSpam on blogs and forumsTop ten malware infectionsHigh RiskAverage RiskLow RiskHuge botnets started growing at the beginning of the year. The number of phishing mail scams is increasing, along with the number of users affected.The USA tops the list of forum and blog spammers as well as regular email spammers.MalwareShare in percentTroj/Pushdo35.8%W32/Netsky28.1%W32/Mytob6.9%W32/Strati5.3%Mal/Dropper5.2%W32/Zafi4.9%W32/MyDoom3.5%Troj/Dloadr2.6%W32/Bagle1.7%W32/Sality0.8%Others5.2%The Pushdo downloader, which tricks users into downloading new Trojans is now the most widespread.28% USA REST 44%13%13%13%JAPANINDIABRAZIL93 percentCIO-level executives surveyed in 23 countries who said that IT is somewhat to very important to their overall corporate strategy.Source: ITGI ReportFIGURE OF THE MONTHNEWSWIRE NEWS SNIPPETSNEWSWIREMARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP|25NEWS SNIPPETSEVENTSEvery February, the Indian IT industry braves icy winds and heads for the NASSCOM summit where industry captains rubbed shoulders with foreign delegations, international press, and some VVIPS. The NASSCOM 2008India Leadership Forum saw three Global Leadership awards presented, with Mr. Ratan Tata picking up the Global Indian Award. Eight Indian companies were also given innovation awards. NASSCOM chairman Lakshmi Narayanan said the IT-BPO industry had performed well last year. He said Indian companies had diversied into markets. He also warned of the pressures of doing business globally.Nandan Nilekani, co-chairman of Infosys, stressed on the importance of an Information Infrastructure. He spoke of four elements: the need for a citizen ID, electronic land records, nancial accounts for all citizens, and a information distribution channel.Ginni Rometty, senior VP, Global Business Services, IBM said the industry needs to train global citizens who can work anywhere. Anand Mahindra, Vice Chairman and MD of Mahindra & Mahindra, highlighted the challenges faced by the IT industry, such as the effect of currency changes, escalating costs, and a declining talent pool. Former President APJ Abdul Kalam, who was a guest of honor at the special session said India needs a transformation from a software powerhouse to a knowledge system powerhouse. Unless you transform yourself, your growth will be linear, he said.CeBIT 2008, the global digital communitys most revered platform, will open on March 4, 2008 in Hannover, Germany and continue over ve days. This year, the software carnivals structure will feature Business Solution, Public Sector Solutions, Home and Mobile Solutions, Technology and Infrastructure and Conference. CeBIT 2008 promises to be completely revamped and shaped around primary elds of visitor interest. Whats more, the following new showcases will be making their debut as part of CeBIT 2008: Learning & Knowledge Solutions, Consulting & Services and Design: driving innovation.This year, Business Solutions will focus on the optimization of business processes and ICT solutions for all users from industry, the skilled trades and the service industries. CeBIT will showcase solutions for the control and management of operational and business processesand the interplay of these processesat one convenient time and place. For small and medium-sized companies the rst port of call is likely to be the special CeBIT forum for SMEs, while visitors from personnel/human resources departments should attend the Human Resources Forum. There is also a special Banking & Finance area, where visitors from this sector will be able to catch up on all the latest information and developments. Another new feature will be the Consulting & Services display, which portrays IT services in context, as integrated parts of the value-added chain. In response to a survey of visitors at CeBIT 2007, Deutsche Messe will be launching a dedicated eLearning display at CeBIT 2008. The survey revealed that more than 95,000 trade visitors were specically interested in this topic last year. There are also Public Sector solutions besides the display category for Home & Mobile Solutions will showcase a range of ICT products and solutions for everyday application in the home and work environment. Hotly anticipated new mobile trendsetters, characterized by high-speed Internet access, will go on display this year. Displays by leading manufacturers of their notebook innovations for the year in progress, besides the latest in notebooks of information and communication technology products and services is also anticipated this year.The new CeBIT concept is ready for takeoff andin the words of Ernst Raue as the Deutsche Messe board member in charge of the show is gearing up to underscore its outstanding role as the digital communitys No. 1 marketplace.Watch out our special CeBIT event coverage in the April issue of IC-CHIP.NASSCOM presents leadership awardsGet ready for the worlds biggest tech show!EventsFormer President APJ Abdul Kalam interacts with dignitaries outside the forum venue.A woman in the United States is suing retail giant Best Buy for $54 million after they were unable to explain how a laptop she gave in for repairs could go missing. 37-year-old Raelyn Campbell filed the suit after being given excuses for more than six months and then being offered poor compensation. The suit seeks damages for negligence and the chance that her private data will be compromised.$54 million for a lost laptop!LEGAL ISSUESNEWSWIRE26|INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008NEWS SNIPPETSNetscape, the browser of choice for Internet users in the mid-to-late 90s, will nally be laid to rest by its current owners AOL. The browser, which failed to keep up with Microsofts Internet Explorer and then went through attempts to relaunch before becoming the inspiration for Mozilla Firefox, was quietly killed in the beginning of February. AOL announced it would cease support and development by the beginning of March this year.Users who download version 9.0.0.6, which will be the last version produced by AOL, will notice a message informing users of the date that support will end, and recommending that they switch to either Firefox or Flock. Recent statistics show that Netscape is currently used by less than 0.8 percent of web surfers.Cellphone and accessory retail chain The Mobile Store has entered into a strategic alliance to stock Kingston memory products such as pen drives and ash memory cards at all its 425+ stores across the country. The Mobile Store targets young, tech-savvy customers, and expects to have more than 2,500 outlets by 2010. However, Kingstonswill not be the only memory products available.Netscape finally laid to restKingston at The Mobile StoreSOFTWARERETAILEDUCATIONTwo companies have contributed computers and support for deserving schoolchildren in India. Semiconductor giant AMD, in collaboration with the American India Foundation, launched its second Indian Learning Lab at the Government Girls High School, West Marredpally, Hyderabad in early February. The launch was a part of AMDs 50x15 initiative, whose aim is to have at least 50 percent of the world connected to the Internet by the year 2015. The lab is one of two in India and more than 25 around the world, and is equipped with AMD processor based PCs. AMD is committed to supporting the lab in terms of servicing, software and infrastructure in the coming years.AMD India R&D Center Managing Director Dasaradha R Gude, and AMD Senior Vice President and General Manager Adrian Hartog were present at the inauguration ceremony, which was followed by a small cultural performance and an interactive session in the lab with students of the school. Across the country, e-governance solutions provider ABM Knowledgeware also donated computers and learning software to the Society for the Education of the Crippled (SEC) School in Agripada, Mumbai. The school will be using them to impart vocational training in computers to the physically challenged children. ABM MD and Chairman Prakash Rane was present at the event, along withtwo popular TV actresses who interacted with the children.Companies launch school PC initiativesEDUCATIONMicrosoft Corporation, often criticized for high-priced software and unfriendly licensing terms, has introduced a scheme whereby it will give away copies of professional-grade software and development tools to students around the world at no charge whatsoever.Microsofts DreamSpark program will require students to be veried by the college or university that they are enrolled in, by supplying a valid college email address. Additionally, students must be at least 18 years old, sign in with a Windows Live ID, and agree to use the software for non-commercial reasons. DreamSpark will initially roll out in 11 countriesthe United States, United Kingdom, Canada, China, Germany, France, Finland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Belgiumand will be extended to a number of other countries around the world in the coming months. Students will be able to download ISO images of the software they want, and one activation license per program per Windows Live ID will be generated for them. The license will have to be renewed every 12 months, and will expire when the student graduates. The software available includes Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition, Visual Studio 2008 Professional edition, SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition, Expression Studio, and XNA Game Studio.For more details, visit https://downloads.channel8.msdn.com/Default.aspxMicrosoft gives free software to studentsThe DreamSpark website allows bonafide students to download expensive software for free.TVactresses at the Society for the Education of the Crippled School, delighting the children.NEWSWIREMARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP|27NEWS SNIPPETSWEBHARDWAREWeb18, one of Indias leading online media houses, has launched Biztech2TVTV-style content on its business technology news website Biztech2.com. Biztech2TV will offer a weekly episode on the website, covering case studies, book reviews and gurus from the industry talking about technology and innovations. The show also promises incisive stories on storage solutions, networking, open source software, and other topics of interest to corporate Indian technology decision makers.The website already specializes in business and enterprise-related tech news aimed at CTOs and IT administrators who have to select, buy implement and leverage high-tech products and services across their organizations. With content divided into verticals such as security, retail, manufacturing, pharma, education and media, the website claims to be the widest-reaching business technology media brand in India today.Nvidia announced it has completed the acquisition of Ageia Technologies, the company behind the PhysX in-game physics acceleration expansion card. The acquisition gives Nvidia access to Ageias existing base of PhysX card customers, more than 140 released games with PhysX optimization already built in, and over 10,000 registered and active users of the PhysX software development kit.Soon after completing the deal, Nvidia President and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang annonuced that work is currently in progress to port Ageias physics accelration engine to run in software on Nvidias existing GeForce 8-series graphics cards, of which the company says more than 50 million have been shipped.The port would make use of CUDA (Compute Unied Device Architecture), Nvidias programming structure designed to allow general-purpose programs to be accelerated by a GPUs unique parallel processing architecture.Ageias own PhysX expansion cards were initially criticized for their relatively high price and the fact that only a few games could take advantage of them. With this move, dedicated PhysX cards will be replaced by multi-GPU setups with one card processing the physics.Web18 offers TV-style business content onlineNvidia buys PhysX creatorNEWSWIRE28|INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008NEWS SNIPPETSThis month saw a number of high-profile security risks in commonly used software applications:Real Player: A critical security loophole is currently threatening users of Real Player 11. Attackers can execute malicious code on an unsuspecting users computer by sending him a manipulated media le. The loophole is already being used for criminal purposes. Solution: The aw can be removed by upgrading to the latest version. Microsoft Ofce 2003: The latest automatic update by Microsoft disables the option to open some older le formats. Files created with older versions of Corel DRAW and Lotus Notes, for instance, are affected by it. This measure has been taken becasue of security concerns.Solution: Microsoft advises you to convert old documents into new Ofce formats. Flash Videos: Various ash-authoring tools generate Flash videos susceptible to malicious code. Hackers could use this loophole to launch phishing attacks. Popular products such as Dreamweaver and Camtasia are affected as well. Solution: Users must update Flash Player without fail. Windows: Two major security holes in XP, 2000 and 2003 (one of which also affected Vista) were discovered in January.Solution: The latest automatic updates take care of the holes.New security risks discovered and patched SECURITY EVENTSAs New Delhi geared up for Defense Expo 2008, a number of military technology companies decided to showcase their wares before the main event. One of these was MKU, a military equipment manufacturer and supplier, which used the gathering excitement to reveal two working unmanned arial vehicles (UAVs) that could help the army to gain strategic advantages on the battleelds of today and in the future.The two automated iers, TERP and ERASMUS, are meant to serve the army for different purposes. TERP, which stands for Tactical Electrical Reconnaissance Probe, looks like the type of model plane a hobbyist would build. With a wingspan of a mere 72 inches, this UAV can be dismantled and carried to a remote location, from where it can help the armed forces search for hidden enemies or militant camps. This UAV can also lock onto a moving target and trace its path. Unlike most aircraft, the small size means that the TERP has to be hand launched, much like a paper plane!The ERASMUS, a tactical and strategic UAV, serves a different need. With a wingspan of 101 inches, this vehicle needs a short runway to take off, limiting it to surveying missions of up to 150 kilometers from a xed station. The best part is that it can be hand navigated by a tablet touch screen console that runs on Windows XP. The bigger size means that ERASMUS can easily carry heavier payloads, or a wide range of cameras that scan most visible and infrared frequencies.Yet the most fascinating facet of the launch was the number of civilian applications that MKU envisions the UAVs taking over. The company sees a future in which these machines are used for everyday tasks ranging from crop surveillance to trafc monitoring and even emergency disaster management; saving lives and making humans more effective and efcient. Indigenously developed UAVs demonstrated at Defense Expo 2008Look out for a fake anti-spyware program with the name Backdoor Guardthis misleadingly named program only pretends to protect your computer. Once installed, however, it opens a backdoor, so that the programmer can access your system. If the victim restarts his system after installation, the trojan blocks your normal desktop and opens a website. The victim then sees messages saying that there is a problem with the license and that a call to a long-distance number is required. A PIN number is displayed on the website and you are instructed to enter it when calling. However, the PIN will cost 20 (approx Rs 1,190)!Thankfully, theres a quick way to rescue your computer: all you have to do is boot up in Safe mode and then delete the le locker.exe in the Windows folder.New trojan hijacks WindowsSECURITYERASMUS, the unmanned arial vehicle designed for strategic surveying and intelligence gathering.NEWSWIREMARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP|29NEWS SNIPPETSEVENTSFEMTOCELLSCellular phones are ubiquitous, and millions of Indians make calls and send text messages every day. Unfortunately, the convenience of constant connectivity necessitates more and more cell towers, which mar skylines and cost service providers a packet to set up and maintain. As the number of users keeps on increasing, these towers need to serve more people, causing network jams and slowing down services, especially bandwidth hungry ones such as GPRS data downloads. But at the recently concluded Mobile Word Congress, a new type of cellular access point called a Femtocell was launched. Named after the metric unit of a millionth of a billionth, (10-15), these cells promise to put an end to dropped calls by connecting to the Internet to provide constant coverage. The concept is simple; a user simply hooks up a Femtocell (which looks like a Wi-Fi router) to his home Internet connection. After that, the cell gives him ve bar coverage and of course crystal clear sound at home, as well as blistering GPRS download/upload speeds. If he leaves his house, he can continue talking, as a Femtocell will connect seamlessly with his local mobile phone infrastructure. The best part is that a Femtocell can cover a range of 100 feet and support 2 to 5 users. This could give mobile users who are frequently stuck in low-coverage areas the ultimate experience, while cutting costs for the operators.As of now, these cells will be quite expensive, starting at $200. There are also concerns regarding interference, such as in cramped apartment complexes when dozens of people install them. The technology is already quite mature, and should start rolling out across the world in the second half of 2008.IPHONE KILLERSony Ericsson undoubtedly stole the show by showing off a brand new phone dubbed the XPERIA X1. The device, optimized for multimedia and web applications, will run Windows Mobile 6.1 with a customized graphical interface. The X1 will use nger-based touch navigation and display nine panels at a time on its screenlarge icons that display live versions of applications and web pages. With high-speed data access, Wi-Fi and DVD-quality video playback, this will undoubtedly be the most desirable phone on the block when it launches in the second half of 2008.New phones and tech debut at Mobile World CongressPERSONAL TECHNOLOGY COLUMN30|INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008Finally, there is a winner in the high-def optical media format war. Toshibas announcement in late February that they would cease marketing and development of the HD-DVD format came as no surprise after a tumultuous month in which the format was abandoned by major retail and rental chains Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Netix as well as Warner Bros, one of the largest movie studios in the world. After months of speculation, Toshibas graceful surrender now sets the stage for Blu-ray to take off in a big way. While a monopoly is usually bad for consumer choice, the lack of a single unifying standard has put the brakes on adoption of high-def formats for movies so far. The lack of a clear winner for more than two years has made millions of customers more or less indifferent to the whole affair, for a number of reasons.First of all, there was always confusion between the two formats. Even computer and technology geeks were unable to state with any certainty that either format was technically superior to the other. Its not unreasonable to assume that many shopkeepers and salespeople were not necessarily equipped with the answers to such questions. Average consumers might not even have known that the two formats were distinct and incompatible before paying large amounts of money for either type of player. Considering the price of a Blu-ray or HD-DVD player just a few months ago and also the price of discs in either format, it made sense to wait in the wings until either a winner emerged, dual-format players became more common, or both became as common as DVDs are today. Even holiday-season sales, free bundled movies and other types of package deals didnt manage to stimulate sales to cautious buyers. Added to that, the growing penetration of broadband connections and the easy availability of online movie download, rental and streaming services (at least abroad) made a lot of people shy away from investing in a new format that might not even be around very long. And nally, theres the simple fact that movies in both formats never really became widely available. The war between formats wasnt about what consumers want at all, it was being fought by studios. They used their catalogs of movies to back the formats of their choice (and Blu-ray fared better with studios in part because of its slightly stronger anti-piracy encryption scheme). In the early days, there werent more than a few hundred titles available in either format, and the same movie was rarely available in both. No wonder people werent too eager to spend money on either format, knowing that there was a chance they wouldnt be able to watch the movies they might want to!Even in the US and Europe, Blu-ray and HD-DVD faced competition not only from each other, but also from standard DVDs. Convincing consumers they needed an upgrade was an uphill taskfor one thing, DVD quality good enough for a lot of people, and for another, you cant really perceive the difference between them and high-def video without an expensive high-def TV and surround-sound system. Statistics showed that people who simply bought HDTVs but didnt actually watch HD content on them were perfectly satised with the improvement in picture quality! Watching regular DVDs on an HDTV looks far better than watching high-def movies on a regular TV. Naturally, consumers didnt always perceive a need to replace their DVDs with high-def discs.Now, retailers are slashing prices of HD-DVD players to get rid of them. Its unlikely that many more movies will be available on the format. Those whove already bought these players can still use them for regular DVDs and the few HD discs they own, but theyre probably feeling quite frustrated and cheated right now. Maybe its a good thing that India is a year or two behind when it comes to product launches. Sure, the PS3 is available here, and a handful of manufacturers have introduced Blu-ray and HD-DVD players. And sure, a handful of eager early adopters have paid a lot of money to buy high-def hardware and movies. But there hasnt been any major buzz or marketing activity for either format here, which means that Indian mass consumers havent been caught in the same net of confusion and are much less likely to be stuck with a very expensive, useless HD-DVD player. [email protected] End of a Format WarJAMSHED AVARIAssistant Editor - Technical, CHIPThose whove already bought these players are probably feeling quite frustrated and cheated right now.COVER STORY32 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008COVER STORY Pramod JadhavSMS us! Story code: CGG to 57007 32 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008How much damage can a computing device cause to the environment? CHIP investigates power consumption and CO2 emission levels. And is the industry doing enough to make our planet a cleaner and greener place? BY NICOLE OTT, ARJUN JASSAL AND BRIAN PEREIRAGreen ComputingCHIP added the electricity consumption of all devices that are veryeconomical (blue) and all devices that require tremendous amounts of electricity (red).MULTIFUNCTION DEVICEPCWi-Fi ROUTERBest device2.6 WattsBest device1.0 WattBest device2.0 WattsWorst device16.3 WattsWorst device120.0 WattsWorst device10.4 WattsMARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | 33COVER STORY COVER STORYDepleting ice caps, polar bears on the verge of extinction, declining glaciers and erratic weather are visible signs of global warming. While some governments and industries choose to ignore the crisis, what is the rest of the world doing about it? Green is becoming the theme at consumer fairs (like CES), with many manufacturers launching green products. Its now fashionable to own a Hybrid automobileone that runs on fuel as well as electricity. Everyone seems to be going Green. The environment is being harmed by carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from power hungry devices. Did you know that your DVD player, TV, or computer is consuming power and emitting CO2 even in the sleep and standby modes? In the story that follows, we talk about certied environmental-friendly equipment. The shocking fact is that even these fall short of the minimum prescribed levels of energy consumption.What happens after you dispose your old computer or peripheral? There are factories in India that carelessly rip it apart and extract reusable metals like gold, lead and copper even as toxins leak into ground water and leach the soil. But, theres hope. Manufacturers are now building more energy-efcient products. They are also enforcing sustainability programs within their organizations. On a broader scale, we have the Kyoto Protocol and the Climate Savers Computing Initiative (CSCIglobal efforts to save the environment which require active participation of governments, organizations and manufacturers.You too can do your bit to save the environment. The next time you boot your PC or notebook, head straight to the Power Options (Control Panel) and choose a scheme thats a good trade off between performance and power saving. Also, switch off the lights when you leave home, and do use public transport!SOUND SYSTEMMONITORBest device3.0 WattsBest device0.1 WattsWorst device24.0 WattsWorst device10.0 WattsDVD RECORDERBest device1.0 WattWorst device21.9 WattsGAME CONSOLEBest device2.0 WattsWorst device10.0 WattsTELEVISIONBest device0.1 WattsWorst device30.0 Watts34 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008COVER STORYHow your devices harm the environmentYour computer and peripherals draw significant amounts of energy in sleep and standby modes. They contribute to harmful CO2 emissions. BY NICOLE OTTThese days everyone seems to be talking about global warming and ways to protect the environment. Unconsciously, all of us are contributing to unwanted CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions from home, through the careless use of our electrical devices. The sheer amount of energy wasted by devices like PCs, televisions, and most other electronic appliances, even when they are in standby mode, is enormous.According to reports from the German Federal Environment Ofce, devices consume around 17 billion kiloWatts hours (kWh) in a year when they are in the standby mode. This mode is also responsible for CO2 emissions; the CO2 dissipated from sleeping devices amounts to about one-seventh the CO2 emitted by an automobile. Twelve million tonnes of carbon dioxide is the price you pay for just keeping the device on standby!The electronic appliance industry is careless with the design of devices. Manufacturers do not provide a proper shut-off button in devices. DVD players, DVD recorders or even multifunctional printers continue to draw electricity because of the absence of an Off button. If you press Power off on the remote, these devices go into standby mode.The situation is even more serious in the case of PCs. Windows Vista never shuts down or powers off the PC completely. Rather, the default shut down mode is a deep sleep mode that requires power. Its only when you switch off the mains switch at the back of the computer that the power supply unit stops drawing power. Moreover, operating system shut down options such as Sleep mode (Windows Vista) or Standby (Windows XP) mislead us into believing that the computer hardly consumes electricity in these modes. However, it has been proved that such devices can consume as much as 120 Watts in these supposedly power-saving modes! In this story we shall examine how individual devices consume power in the standby mode. But rst lets have a look at some energy savinginitiatives.Inadequate standardsHeres some advice for those planning to buy environment-friendly devices. Many manufacturers label their devices with such tags to enable buyers to identify power-saving devices immediately. But dont buy blindly, for the guidelines vary to a great extent. Energy Star (www.energystar.gov), initiated by the US Federal Environment Ofce, has been a standard for PCs since 1992. But the limit values set down by Energy Star seem more suited to the energy supplier rather than the consumer. Labels on some monochrome laser printers indicate if the power consumption for that device is under 20 Watts in standby mode. But devices that require less than 5 Watts are already available in the market. The long overdue standard with lower limit values is expected soon.The European initiative GEEA (Group for Energy Efcient Appliances, (www.The Kyoto Protocol is an agreement between 174 nations of the world, to cut down on the emission of green house gases that are responsible for climate change. It was made under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC). The protocol divides nations into Annex 1 countries (developed nations) and Non-annex 1 countries (developing nations); the former are expected cut emissions to 5 percent less than their levels in 1991, while the latter are under no such obligation, but may participate in the Clean Development Management. Although the cut seems small, for many nations, it corresponds to 15 percent reduction in emission as compared to the expected values for the year 2008. However since reaching this expected cut needs a large investment in research, development and upgrading the infrastructure, Annex 1 countries can offset their contribution to the green house gases, by supporting counter climate change initiatives in Non-annex 1 countries. For example, an Annex 1 country like Germany can support low emission factories in nations like India. The framework of the protocol envisions, that by allowing this, developed nations will get access to sustainable development technologies, while the developed nations (also the biggest producers of green house gasses) will be able to reduce emission of green house gasses, this system is called the Clean Development Management (CDM). Yet its not as simple as setting up a clean technology plants in a developing nation. Under the CDM, projects are first assessed and approved by the Clean Development Mechanism Executive Board set up in Bonn, Germany, which then gives Certified Emission Restrictions (Carbon Credits) that can be bought by an Annex 1 nation. This creates a curious situation as Non-Annex try to keep the price of these credits high, while Annex1 nations try to do the opposite. India joined the protocol on August of 2002, but is not part of the framework. The Indian Government feels, that cutting down emissions is more important for developed nations, which have been producing more green house gases per capita, and that reducing emission now would hamper the countys industrial development. Most of the global community doesnt agree with this, as India and China are expected to become the biggest contributors to emissions in the coming years. The protocol was agreed upon on 11 December 1997, in Kyoto, Japan and a new treaty is expected to take its place by 2012. Kyoto ProtocolMARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | 35efcient-appliances.org/) has stricter guidelines. It suggests that a monochrome laser printer must consume less than 10 Watts in the standby mode before it gets the certication, but we think this is still too lenient. Devices that have an on/off switch can use the No Energy logo. This initiative demands true on-off switches that are easy to access, readily visible and clearly labelled.PC systemsFast PCs and speedy cars have one thing in common: high speed means high energy consumption. While a car consumes no fuel when the ignition is turned off, a PC still uses electricity even after it is shut down. You have to switch off the mains to cut off the supply totally.The amount of electricity required by a PC in the so-called soft-off mode depends on its power supply unit. A really good SMPS can make do with less than 1 Watt. A poor quality one, on the other hand, can use electricity to the tune of 20 Watts in standby mode. It makes practical sense to use a multi-way connector or power strip with a master switch, which also switches off the monitor, printer and other peripheral devices. We recommend programmable master-slave type plug sockets: All other devices (slave) are switched on or off with the main device (master)when the master uses minimum electricity. If a PC goes into the standby mode with a power consumption of 5 Watts in the lunch hour,then the slave devices such as the printer or monitor are automatically switched off. Energy can be conserved even when the device is in operation or in standby mode. The power saving schemes in Windows allow you to congure settings such as switching off the monitor or the hard disk, and activating the standby mode of the PCafter a predened period of inactivity. The power-saving options in Windows XP can be found in the Control Panel. Windows Vista has them in the Control Panel under the Hardware and Sound menu. You can also examine the BIOS settings: In most PCs, the BIOS is not optimized for energy conservation. To access the BIOS you need to press the [F1] or [Del] key when the PC starts. The correct key to be pressed is displayed on the screen.The standby mode is optimized when you activate the S3-mode (Suspend-to-RAM) in BIOS. All system information pertaining to conguration, open les and applications is stored in main memory (which remains powered), while other components are switched off to save energy. This way the computer gets activated within four to eight seconds and requires only 3 Watts in the sleep mode.On the other hand, when the BIOS is set to the energy-gulping S4 mode (in ViiV-PCs, for instance), the computer requires at least 65 Watts (latest processor models) even under the best conditions, and 120 Watts (in an older Pentium D version, for instance) in the most unfavorable conditions. The economical S3 mode is a good choice if you want to access a Windows computer through the network. Activate the The computer can activate this device from the standby mode option under Energy options in the device manager of the network card. Now activate the standby mode in the Windows energy options. You will now be able to access the PC through another device, such as an Xbox 360, in a few seconds.COVER STORYRestriction on Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS) is a law in the European Union that bans the use of six toxic materials in the manufacturing of components of electronic and electrical equipment. Under the RoHS directive equipment must have less than 0.1% (or 1,000 parts per million) concentration of Lead, Mercury, Cadmium, Hexavalent Chromium, polybrominated biphenyls and polybrominated diphenyl ether. The directive applies by weight of homogenous material, which means that if any part of the device fails to comply with RoHS, the entire device fails. Currently, RoHS applies to eight categories of devices, large and small household devices, IT equipment, Telecommunication equipment, consumer equipment, lighting equipment, electronic and electric tools, toys and sport equipment and automatic dispensers. Medical devices, and monitoring and control instruments are exempt from RoHS as of now, but are expected to comply to it in the future. A lot of large manufacturers produce RoHS compliant devices. Some of these manufacturers include big names like AMD, Apples iPods, Dell and HP home computers and servers Motorolas RAZR phones.RoHSHungry power stationsOver-sized PC power supply units eat up too much electricity. A 300 Watts power supply unit suffices for a standard desktop PC, but if it has a high-end graphics card, a 450 Watts unit is required. Two graphics cards require even more power.A cat nap for the PCWhen configured in the right way, (S3-mode in the BIOS), the computer automatically goes into the sleep mode after a period of inactivity. This easily saves two hours of electricity per day which is a large amount when calculated at the end of the year.unicards36 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008COVER STORYNotebooksUsually, notebooks are more modest than desktop PCs when it comes to the energy requirements. On average, notebook batteries last for less than two hours, so energy saving is an important issue for those who are away from a plug point for long durations.If you want to achieve maximum battery runtime then its essential for a notebook to have energy-efcient components. Heres a comparison: while desktop processors such as AMDs Athlon 64 X2 5000+ or Intels Core 2 Duo E6400 require up to 65 Watts, mobile CPUs make do with a maximum of 35 Watts. The PSU is of importance in matters of energy efciency. Some PSUs unnecessarily convert 7 Watts into heat. The warmer the external power supply unit, the higher the electricity consumption. Apples MacBooks or Acer-models have intelligent charging electronics that ensure the current-ow sinks below 0.1 Watts after the battery is charged. Values less than 3.0 Watts, in Samsungs Q10, for instance, are acceptable. This is known as conservation charging.Printers andmultifunctional devicesUsually, monochromatic laser printers require less electricity than color lasers. And this is true even in the standby mode. Color lasers use more energy when they go into the standby mode instead of the sleep mode. All color lasers require more than 10 Watts when they are in standby. To conserve energy, check the settings in the printer driver. The argument that a printer takes too long to resume operation is not true: Almost all devices wake up from standby mode with the same speed as they do from the sleep-mode. Comparing energy consumption of multifunctional devices in the standby and the sleep modes is also advisable.Inkjet printers are more frugal. Many models require less than our limit value of 3 Watts in the standby mode. Communications and network:W-LAN routers, DSL modems and DECT telephones do not have a standby mode since they must always be ready for operation. But low power consumption is a must since these devices are on 24 hours a day, seven days a week.OUR ECONOMY-TIP: W-LAN routers (with/without modem) by Netgear, Trendnet, U.S. Robotics and Zyxel require only 2 Watts of electricity when there is no data ow through them. Dray Tek, on the other hand, has not internalized conservation of energy. Even DECT telephones can devour power at times. The power supply unit of the charging tray alone uses up to 5 Watts. Base stations with integrated charging trays require even more energy. The Climate Savers Computing Initiative (CSCI) is a collective of computer and chip manufacturers, government agencies, conservation organizations and of course, users, which aims to bring down power consumption of computing equipment and hence reduce the carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere. Currently, most popular computing equipment, computers and servers, waste more than half of the power they draw from the supply. This power is lost in the form of heat, and its expulsion from the system requires additional cooling equipment, which in turn consumes more power. Since conventional power generation methods in thermal power plants release a lot of carbon dioxide, cutting on wasted consumption translates into bringing down green house gas emissions, as well as, reducing running costs of the equipment. Thus it gives organizations the advantage of helping save the environment, while cutting costs.The initiative supports the deployment of low power consumption devices as well as the development of newer energy-efficient technologies. To this effect, the CSCI has created a road map, which sets a target for power consumption and efficiency requirements over the next four years. When completely followed, by 2010, the road map will have cut $5.5 billion in energy costs and reduced CO2 emissions by 54 million tons a year: the equivalent of removing 11million cars of the road every year. Many big names in the computing industry are associated with the initiative, from Google, Intel Corporation, Dell, HP, IBM to Microsoft and the World Wildlife fund. But you too can contribute to the CSCI, by simply buying equipment that meets the initiatives requirements or turning on the power management systems build into your existing computer.Climate Savers Computing InitiativeA switch for all devicesA power strip is a good choice if several devices are used. Master-slave plug sockets are very useful they automatically switch off the peripheral devices when the computer is not in use.Expensive alien searchThe search for the extra terrestrials can be an expensive affair for the end-user. Those who have installed Seti@home as their screensaver to support the research on the extra terrestrial forms of life, will have higher electricity bills. MARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | 37COVER STORYExternal hard disksUsers are increasingly buying 3.5 inch external hard disks as backup devices for desktop and notebook computers. These are also being used to extend the system storage. Once connected, its easy to forget that its power supply continues to draw power, even when nothing is being read or written to the disk. Only a few models have sophisticated power-saving mechanisms; Seagate devices are quite commendable. Most devices do not have a Power button. The 3.5-inch hard drives need 12 Volts and therefore they have an external power supply unit (power brick). But 2.5-inch drives require just 5 Volts and they can draw power from the PC via a USB cable. Since they draw power from the PCs power supply unit, the 2.5-inch drives will switch off automatically when the PC shuts down.Drive manufacturers are now incorporating features such as the reduced RPM low-power idle mode. This is seen in some Hitachi drives and Western Digitals Greenpower-branded disks such as the 1TB capacity WD10EACS, which has a slower 5400rpm xed rotation speed for reduced power consumption. DVD and videoOlder DVD players and recorders are power hogs. Some devices consume up to 25 Watts in the standby mode and a switch-off button is absent. You can save energy in most such devices with a simple trick: The HF amplier in DVD recorders is responsible for consuming a good amount of electricity in the standby mode. The amplier refreshes the incoming antenna signal for the television, which is perhaps connected with an antenna cable. If one places the recorder and the television next to each other and connects them to the antenna using a T-connector, this amplication is rendered useless. Many devices have the option of completely deactivating the HF output in the set-up. Older video recorders often have sliding switches for this. TIP: If one programs a recording with VPS in a DVD, Video or a DVB hard disk recorder, it indicates that the tuner will supervise the VPS signal. If one programs a recording without VPS, certain video recorders will require only 3.5 Watts instead of 7 Watts.Monitor and televisionEven though monitors still have a soft-off button (they are not disconnected from the mains), the energy consumption is lower than 0.1 Watts in most models. Their point of similarity: they all have an integrated power supply unit. If you are still using an old TFT device, it could use more energy. If the external power supply unit heats up to a great extent when the display is off, then your LCD monitor is a power hog. Power consumption of 10 Watts in the standby mode is typical. Incidentally, the same applies for LCD TVs.But it is different case with tube-based displays. Such TV devices require thrice the power (30 Watts in the standby mode). Corresponding monitors require up to 10 Watts. Even plasma televisions are considered as big energy devourers. But this is true only when they are in operation; they are surprisingly frugal in the standby mode. For instance, a 40-inch device in operation consumes 300 Watts as against a mere 2 Watts when it is in standby mode.Wasted Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) or ewaste is the blanket term that is used to describe discarded devices that range from computers and servers to mobile phones and entertainment equipment. WEEE is of particular concern, as most of the components used in devices contain a variety of toxic materials that are non-biodegradable. For example, a computer monitor (CRT) usually contains 7 percent lead by weight. If improperly discarded, this lead can affect the health of the scrap workers as well as affect the soil on which the disassembling is done. Most electronics also contain a host of other toxins that range from Brominated Flame Retardants (BFR), Mercury, Cadmium and carcinogenic materials such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) that require proper recycling methods and health safety measures for workers. Although the European Union and the US have strict guidelines on ewaste disposal, most of the waste makes its way to India, China and Kenya, where lower costs of recycling and lax environmental laws mean that resalable components and materials are removed in hazardous conditions, and make their way back into the market, making a neat profit for scrap dealers. WEEEColor is costlyUsually, monochromatic laser printers require less electricity than color lasers. And this is true even in the standby mode. Color lasers use more energy when they go into the standby mode instead of the sleep mode. All color lasers require more than 10 Watts when they are in standby. Smart spenders keep trackYou can track down the energy use in your house using a device that measures power consumption (try a measuring device by Conrad, for instance). This device helps you calculate the cost per Watt of electrcity consumed. Upcinuthsmin38 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008COVER STORY338 3333338 33333338 33333338 38 38 38 38 38 388 38 38 388 38 38 388888 38 3338 38 3338 38 38 333338 38 388 3888 38 388 3333338 33338 33333338 3888 388 38 388 338 38 38 333338 38888 38888 333333338888 388888 33338 338 38 38888 38888888 38 38 33333338 38888888 3333338 38888888 38 3333338 38 38888888 3333388888 333333888888888 33338 3888888888 333338 388888888888 3333888888888888888 333888888888888 338 3888888888 38 333888888888 38888888 388888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888 38888888888888888 3333333333888||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| IINTE NTE TELLLLI LI LI LI LIG IG IG IGGG LLLLIGG LLI LII LLLI LIIIG LI LLIIG IG IIIIG LIGG IGEEN ENN ENT NT ENT NT NTENNT NT ENTTT CCCCO CO CO COM OMP OMP OMP MMP M OMP CCOOMP OMP OMP MP COOMP COM OMP COOM O P MP OOMP P OMP MP COOMP PP OM OMPPP MPPPPPPP OM OMMP MP PPPPP COMMMMMPPPPPPP C MMMP PPPPP OOOMMMMMM OMP MP PPPP OMP OMMMMMMPPPPPPP OOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMPPPPP COOOOOMP MMMMMMMMMMMMMPPPPPPUUUUT UUT UUUUUT UT T UT TTT UT TTTTTTTIIN IN INN UT UUUUT UT UUUT UT UT UUT TT UT UT UT UT TTTTI UT UT UUTI UT UT UT UT TTTT UT TTTTIIN UT UUUT UT UT UUTTTTT UT TTTI TIN IN UT UT UT UUT UT UUUT UT TTT UT TTTTIIN IINN UT UT UT UUUT UTT UT TTTIIN UUT UT UUT UTTTTTTIIIN UUUUTT UT TTTIIN UUTTTTTTTTTIII UUUUTTTTIIINN UTI UUUUUT TTTTTTTIII UUUUUTTTTTTTT UTII UUUUUUT UTTTTT UTII UUUUUUUUTTTTTIIIN UUUUUTTTIIIIIN UUUUUUUUTTTT UTIIIIIN UUUUUUTTTTIIII UUUUUUUTTTTTTIIIN UUUUUUUTTTTTTTIII GGGGGGGGGGG CCCCCCCHIP HI HHIP HIP HIP HIP HIP HIPPPPPPPPPPP HIPPPPPP HIPPPPPPPPP HIPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP HIP HIPPP HI HIP HIPPPPPPPP HHIIPPP HIPPPP ||||||||||||||| MMA MMAR MARC MARC MMMMARC MARC MARC MMMARC AR MAR AR MAR MARCCCCCCCCC MARC MARCCCCCCCC MARCC MMARC M CCCC MMARC CCCCC MARC MARC MARC MAR MARC MMARCCCCCCC ARC RCCCCC MARCC MMARC ARCCCCCCCC M CCCCCCCCCCCCCCC M CCCCCCC MM CCCCCCCC M CCCCCCCCC MMM CCCCCCC MMA CCCC MMA CC MA C MM H 20 H 20 H 20 H 20 H 20 H 2 HH 20 H 20 H 20 220 H 2 H 20 H 220 H 2 H 2 H 200 H 200 H 20 H 20 H 20 H 20 HHH 220 H 20 20 H 22222 H 220 H 200 H 200 H 20 H 20 H 20 HHH 2220 H 2222 H 2 H 20 20 20 H 200 20 HH 20 H 2 H 220 2222 H 20000 H 20 H 20 H 20 HH 20 H 220 220 22222200 200 H 20 20000 H 20 H 20 H 2 H 2 H 2 H 20 200 H 2000 200 H 2 H 2 H 22200 H 2000 H 2 H 2 H 2 H 2000 H 200 H 2 HHH 2220 H 20 20 20 20 HHHHHH 20 222220 20 HHHHHH 2222 HHHHHH 2220 HHHHHH 0 HHHHHH 20 HHHHH 22 HHHHH 220 HHHHH 220 HHH 0 HH 08 08 0008 08 000000008 00000000008 08 00000000000000008 00000000000000000000000000008 08COVER STORYBright, huge plasma screens, graphics accelerators that rip through reality, omnipresent omnipotent mobile phones, processors that blaze through every known application and of course, faster connections to the sump of information we call the Internet. Technology and the devices it mothers are everywhere; user experience is all we crave, and the mega corporations that design, produce and promote, never fail to titillate our digital libidos. But there is a catch, constant upgrading comes at a price; a hole in the pocket and the rapid need to purchase even faster hardware and slicker software. Older, obsolete hardware be damned. Yet unfortunately for us, its the very toys of yesteryears that are now threatening to destroy the environment, humble immune systems, convert water into undrinkable lth and transform the already intoxicated air into a noxious nebula of gasses.Ewaste: a heaping problemLike all daily use objects, when a device is replaced, it makes its way into the dustbin, unfortunately, unlike other waste, this kind leaves behind a trail of problems and complications. Welcome to the world of e-waste. All electrical and electronic products that complete their useful life and cant be used for any purpose are e-waste, explains Satish Sinha, associate director of Toxics Link, an organization that has been tracing this waste for a number of years. The problem is that e-waste has a huge amount of highly toxic constituents, and needs to be handled with a lot of care during disposal. Failure to do so creates a number of environmental and human health issues, he adds. Its not difcult to see why. Every computer, computing device, cell phone, or PDA contains a printed circuit board, the area where the microprocessor and all the circuits, capacitors, resistors and sensors that make it work, are placed. These components and the solder required to keep them connected, contain a plethora of human poisons. Lead, a neurotoxin, is used in the solder and CRTs; cadmium that kills the kidneys, is used in chips;mercury a metal that disrupts the brain is part of LCDs and switches; brominated ame retardant plastics that forms most of the computers body, damage the DNA. The list goes on. Unfortunately, as Moores law produces faster devices every 18 months, the pile of discarded devices keeps growing, and we keep adding to the pool of mentioned substances.Dumping groundIt gets worse. There are two major sources of e-waste: domestic markets, and illegal waste dumping from countries such as the US, European Union and south east Asia, says Sinha. Although India is a signatory of the Basel convention that bans the movement of hazardous waste from developed to developing nations, that hasnt stopped a ood of old monitors, motherboards and MP3 players from being dumped in India. Even just the domestically produced e-waste is becoming a major problem. Explains Ramapati Kumar, team leader of toxics campaign, Greenpeace, an environmental activist group, A new report by the GTZ (an enterprise owned by the German government that specializes in technical cooperation for sustainable development), says that India produces 3.3 lakh tons of ewaste in a year. According to earlier data, we produce 800 tons of e-waste a day.Damaging evidenceThis waste cant simply be sent to landlls as the toxins leak into ground water and leach the soil. Theoretically, each devices needs to be dismantled, the functional components reused and hopeless ones processed to retrieve metals from gold, platinum, lead and copper. The metals are then supposed to make its way back into the manufacturing market. Practically, this is a monumental task that requires research and investment into facilities dedicated to this task. In India we dont have either. There are four or ve authorized e-waste dealers. But their combined capacity is just 10 tons a day. Even then, most of the products they collect are sent to Brussels for further processing, explains Kumar. The remaining 790 tons generated in a day, disappears into the veiled annals of the unorganized market. That is where the environmental and human impact raises its ugly head. In India we have always had kabadiwallas. In the past, they collected less toxic Where computers go to dieBy 2012 India will be producing 8,800 tons of e-waste every day. Heres the scary truth about what happens to your computer after you dispose of it. BY ARJUN JASSALCOVER STORYMARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | 39COVER STORYMMA MARC MA MMA MARC MARC MARC MARC MARC MMARC MAAA MA MA MA MARC MARC MARC MARC ARC MARC ARC MARC ARC ARC MMA MMMAARC MARCC MARC ARC MARC MMARC AR MA MARC MARC RC MMMARC MARC AAAR MAR MARC MARC MARC MARC AAAR MAR MAR MARC MARC MARC MARC AAR MARC MARC MARC MARC MARC ARCC RC ARC M C ARC MMARC MAARCCC RC RC RCCCCC RC RC ARCCCCCCC MAR A CCCC M RRC MAARRRRRR MMAAARRRRRRC AARRRC ARRRCCHHH 20 HHH 2 HHHHHHH 2 2 H 2 H 2 H 2 H 20 20 H 20 H 20 H 20 H 20 HH 2 H 2 HH 2 H 2 H 2 H 2 2 H 2 H 2 2200 H 20 H 20 H 20 20 H 20 HHH 2 2 H 2 H 2 22220 H 20 HHHHH 2 2 H 20 H 22 H 200 20 200 20 HH 220 H 2 222 HHH 2222 HHHH 22220 2 HHH 220 22 H 20 20 HHHHHHHHH 22 2 H 2 HHHHHHH 220 2 HHHH 2 HH 222 HHHH 20 20 HHH00000008 008 08 08 08 08 08 08 08 000008 08 08 08 0000008 0000008 0888 00008 000088 08 0008 08 0008 0000088 008 000888 088 008 0088 |||||||||||||||||||||||| IN IN IN IN IN NNNN IN INT INT NT NT NT T NT TTTE TE NTE TE TE TE NTEE TE TE TEE TEE NNTTTT NTE NTEEEEE NNNTTTEE TE TE TEE TEEEE TE IN NNNTTTTTTE TE TE NTEEE N INTTTEEEEE INNNNT TT NT TEEEEEE NTTTTTTEE NNTTTTTTTEEEEE NTTTTEEEEEEE INNNT NT TTEEEEEEEE NTEEEEE NNT TEE NNTTTEEEEEE NTTTTEEE NNNTEEEE NTTTEEE NTTTTTTE NTTTTTTEEE NNNNTTTTEELLLLLLLLLLLIG LLLLLLLIG LLLLIG IIIIIGG LIGG LIG IGGG LIG LIGG IG LLLLLLLLLLLLLLIIIGGG LIG LIGGG LIG LIG LLLLLLLLLLLI LI III LIG LIGG LIGG LIGG LIG LIG LLLLLLLLIG LLI IIGGGGGGG LIG LIG LIG LIG LLLLLIG LIG LLLII LIG LIG LIG LIG LIGGG LIGG LLLLLIG LLLLLIG LIGGGG LLLLLLLI III LIGGG LLLLLLLLLI LIG IGGGGG LLLLI LIG LIGGGG LLLLLLIG LLLLLIGG LIG LIGGGG LLLLLLLI L G LIGG IGGGGGGG IG IG LLLLLLLLLI LIG LIG IGGG IGGGGGG LLLLLLLLLLIGG LIGGGGGG LLLLLLLLLII LI LIGGGGGGGGGGG LLLLLLLI II LIGGGGGGGGGG LLLLLLLLLLII LI LIGGGGGGG LLLLLLLLLLLI LIGGGGGG LLLLLLLLLLLIG LLIIIGGGGGGG LLLLLLLLLLLLIIIIGGGGGGGEEEEEEEENN ENN ENNN ENNT NNT NT NTNT TTTTTTNT TT NT TTEENNN ENNNN ENNNNT NTTTTTTTTT EEEEEEEENNN ENN ENNNNNT NNT TTTEEEENN ENN EN EN ENNNNNNTTT NTEEEEENNNN ENN EN ENNT TT EEEEEEEN ENNN ENNNNNNNT TT EEEEEEEEENNN EN ENNNT EEEEEEEEENNNN EN ENNNT EEEEEEENNNNN ENNNNNN EEEENN EN ENT NT NT EEENN EN ENNNNNT EEENNNNN EN EN EN ENNN ENN ENTT NNN EN ENNNNN EEENNNNN ENNNNNNNT EN E T EN CO CO CO CO CCCO COOO CO CO CO CO COMMMMMMMMMMMMMP MMMMMP MP P MP P MP PPPP OMP OMP CO CO CCO COO COOOMMP MMMMMMMMP MMP MP MP MP PPPPPP CCCOOOMMMMM OM MMMMMMMPPPP MP MP OMP OOOOMMMP MMMP OM MMMMMMP PPPPP CCO COOOMMP MP MMMP MP PPP MP COOOOOMMP MPPPPPP O CO COOMMMPPPPP COOMMMMMPPPP O COOOOMMMP PP OOMMMMMPP OMP OOOMP MP MMMMMMMMPPPP COOOMPPPP OOOMP MMP COOOM OM MMMMPPPPP OOOMMPPPPPP COMMMPPPP OOOOMMPPP COOOOOOMPPPPP OOOOOOMPUUUUUUUUUUUUUT TT UT UT TTTTTTTTIN TIN IN IIIN IN INNNNNN IN INN IN UUUUUUUT UT TTTTTTTIN TIN TTTI IN IN INNN INNNN UUUUUUUUUUTTTTTTTTTIIIIN INN IN INN INNNNN UUUUUTTTTTTIN TIN TIN IINNNN TTTTTTIIN IN IN IN INNNNNN UTTTIIINNNNNNN UUTTTTIN IINN INNN INNNNN TTTTIN TTTIN IIINNNNNNNNNN UUUTTIN IIN INNNNN TIN NN UTTIN INNNNNNN UTTTTTIINNNNNNN UTTIIINNNNNN UTTTTIN INNNNNNNN TTTTINNNN UTTTIIINNNNNN UUUTTTTIN TIN NNNNNN UUTTTIN INNNNNNNNNN TT NNNNNNN TT NNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHHHHHHHHIIIIP IP HHHHHHI HHHHHIIIP HHHHHHHHHHHI IIIIIP HHHHHHHHHHHHI HI IIP HHHHHHHHIIIII HHHHIII HHIII HHHHHHHHII HHHHIIII HHHIII HHHHHHIII HHHHHHHHIIII HHHHHHHIII HHHHHHIII HHHHIIIIIP HHHHHIII HHHHHHHHIII HHHHII HHHHI ||||||||||||||||||||39 39 39 39 399999 39 39 39 39 39 3999999 3999999 39 39 3999999999 39999 399 3COVER STORYmaterials, but for the past 10 to 15 years they have started collecting and dealing in computer scrap, says Sinha. The kabadiwallas usually sell their scrap to bigger dealers, who employ people to retrieve metals from the waste, or sell it to manufacturers. A classic case of this is CRT monitors. On the scrap market, color monitors sell for Rs 1,000 upwards, while black and white ones sell for half the price. Monitors that still work are sold to local TV manufacturers, while completely unusable ones are broken to retrieve copper, lead and any component that can be used. Unfortunately, to get to these materials, the rst thing to be trashed is the screen, which releases a ne dust of lead that enters the lungs of all workers at the dismantling site and anyone else who has the misfortune of being downwind from them.Risky businessYet this process is hardly unorganized. E-waste processing now happens in by lanes of metros and small towns. Even then all the processes dont happen at a single point. There are towns that have become specialized in the recovery of a certain component, says Sinha. Ferozabad, in Uttar Pradesh (UP) has become famous for extracting glass from e-waste and selling it to bangle makers. Meerut, another town in UP, specializes in removing gold from circuits. Delhi is the center for recovering copper from all devices. The processes used for recovery are hardly safe: the components are heated on open ames to loosen them from the board or they are dunked into tubs of acid so that metal oats up and can be removed. The rst method releases a host of carcinogenic gases while the second causes acid burns and disposal problems. The people most vulnerable to this are the poor, marginalizedgroups and children. They already have weak constitutions and working with this scrap affects them a lot more, he adds. Clearly a solution is needed for this. Yet even the recently released third iteration of e-waste guidelines from the Central Pollution Control Board, a government organization that comes under the ministry of environment and forests, has failed to get an enthusiastic response. These are just guidelines, its not legislation. They are completely voluntary and corporates are not legally bound to follow them. Furthermore, they talk about treatment management and not about reducing toxic materials at the design stages itself. Lastly, they put no responsibility on the producer, the very people who put these products on shelves, says a visibly exasperated Kumar.As the discussions wind down, the most viable solution that seems to emerge is Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) that puts the onus of cleaning up the waste on the device producers. These (the producers) are the very people who make the products and the prots. They are the best people to know how to dispose of the products, says Sinha. Take back policiesIncreasingly, consumers are suggestingthat companies take back older products when a newer one is sold to them. But in India, there is another problem. HCL and Wipro have started voluntary take back policies. After consumers are done with the computer, they are told where it can be dropped off. Unfortunately, the typical Indian mindset doesnt want to part with anything unless they are paid for it. says Kumar.The system needs to be streamlined. If a person has to carry a monitor two hours away from where he lives on a weekend, the only day hes free, he wont want to. There needs to be a process by which these products are picked up from the consumers doorstep, explains Sinha. He thinks there is a huge business opportunity here. If companies set up plants to take care of e-waste here, they can get a competitive advantage in selling the recovered materials in the international markets. The economics are quite simple. A proper plant in India would cut costs as manual labor is cheaper here. Also, a domestic plant would eliminate the fuel costs required to ship the waste to authorized plants in the west. Put together, this would reduce the recovery costs, helping make a neat prot, as the recovered materials would sell at ever increasing international prices. Unfortunately, no companies have started any such initiative in India. The only way out seems to be the strong arm of the law. There has to be a regulatory framework, a legislation that forces them to comply. Just as RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous substances, a law in the EU that puts a limit to the amount of six toxic substances used in Electronics) ensured better production processes, safer disposal and a cleaner environment, we also need a local national legislation that could be on the same lines, says Sinha. After a lot of work, today almost 80 percent of the electronics in the Indian markets are RoHS compliant. But there needs to be more awareness. The consumer needs to know enough to demand green products and force companies to produce them, says Kumar. Till that happens, the statistics have a different story to tell. ELCINA (The Electronic Industries Association of India), has made public that by 2012, India will be producing 8,800 tons of e-waste every day, roughly 11 times in just four years. Its about time that consumers start seriously looking at the ugly side of glamorous technology, before our own waste buries us alive.COVER STORY40 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008COVER STORY40 40 40 40 40 40 440 40 40 40 40 40 40 44440 40 40 40 40 400 400 40 40 444000000000000000000000|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| INTE INTE INTE IINNN IN IN INN IN INN INT INTE INTE INTE INTE INTE INTE INNNNNT NNNN IN IN IN IINT NTE N IN INTE NT IN INTE NNN LLIG LLIG LLIG LLIG LLIG LLIG LL LLIG LIG LLIG LLIG LLIG LLIG LIGG LIG IGEENTENT ENTNTENTENT ENTENTENTENT ENTTT NT N EENT T EENT T EN COMP COMP COMP COMP COMP COMP COMP COM COMP COMP OMP COMP COMP COMP COM O COMP COMPP COMP COM COM COMMP PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP MP PPPPPPPPPPPPP MP PPPPPPPPPPPPPPP MMPPPPPPPUUUUUT UT N UUT UTIN UUTIN UTIN UTIN TIN UTIN UTIN TINNNN UTIN UTIN TIN UTIN TIN UT UT TI UTI UTI UTIN TIN UTIN UTIN UTINNNN TIN TTTTT UTIN UTI TI UTIN TINNNN TTTTTINNN TTTTTT UTIN INN UUUT TTT UTIN TIN UTIN TIN UTINNN T UT UTINN UUUUUTINNNN UUUUUU NN UUUUU N UUUU NN U N TTTT GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCHIP HIPP HIP HIP HIP HIP I HIP HIP HIPP HIPPP HIP HI HHHHIP HIP HIP HIP HIPP HIP HIP HIP HIP HIP HIP HIP IP IP IP HIP IP IP HIP HIP HIIP HHHHHI HIII HHHHHHIIIIIP HHHHI HHHHI HHIIP HHIP HIIII ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| MA MA MAR MA MMA MAR AAR MARC MAAR MARC ARC MARC ARC ARC RC RC ARCCCCCCC MMA MMAAR ARC RC CCC ARC MMAR ARC ARRCC MMM CCCC MMAR AARC RC CC MMMAAAR ARCCC MA MM RC MAA C RC MA MMMAAR MMA MAA C MMAAA MAA MMM RR HHHH 2 HHHHH 2 H 2 H 2 22 H 2 H 2 H 2 2 H 2 HH 2 20 H 20000 HHH 2 H 2 H 20 2220000000 H 2 HH 2 H 2 22220000 H 200000 HH 20 20 20 200 HH 20 2000 H 20 H 2 220 200 HHH 200000 HHH 220 HHH 2220 200 HHHHHHH 0 H 00 HH 00000 HH 000 H 220000 H 20 H 20 H 20 20008 0008 008 08888888 08 0888 008 08 08 0888 008888 0000088 008 08 08 008 08888 088 08888 08888888 088 0CCCCCCCCCCOV COV COV COV COV COV COV COV COV COV COV CCCCCCCOV CCCCCCCCO CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC V CCCCCCC V CCCCCCCCCCC V CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC ERER ERERERRRRRRRERRRRRRRRR ERR ERRRRR ERR ERRRRRR STO STO STO STO STO STO STO STO STO STO TO STO T ST TT ST ST ST STO STO STO T ST ST ST STO TO ST ST TTTT STO T ST T ST T ST TO ST T STTTO STTO STO TTTTTTT RY RY RY RY RY RY RY RY RRY RY RY RY RY RY RY RY RY RRY RRY RRRY RY RRY RY RY RY RY RY RRY RY RY RRY RY RY RY RYYY RRRYY RRRRY RY RRYY RY RYYYYYYYY RYYYYYY RRYY RYYYYYYGreen initiativesEveryone needs to do their bit to save the planet. Heres what some socially responsible IT companies are doing.AcerAcer has an environment policy to phase-out chemicals and other substances used in IT products that are harmful to the environment and to human health. Acer says its products are RoHS compliant, in keeping with its worldwide policy. Power savings are built into its products too. Acer claims its L310 small form factor PC can reduce power consumption by 65 percent. In addition, Acer products come bundled with the Acer ePower Management tool that lets you select from pre-congured power usage proles, or to create your own customized proles.CiscoCisco believes environmental sustainability is an important business imperative. It aims to foster an environment where sustainability concepts are accepted and embraced in day-to-day operations as well as real estate planning. Some of the activities Cisco follows include: review of energy efciency concepts, enhance and standardize recycling programs and green cleaning, explore transportation services and landscaping/parking for sustainability opportunities, incorporate LEED certication and energy collection data requests in future site selection criteria and standard lease agreements. AladdinAladdin has a global initiative to Go Green. From the earliest stages of product design, through manufacturing, use, and recycling, it ensures that its activities and products are environment-friendly. Aladdin has also been awarded an ISO 14000 certication. So its factories and production comply with ISO environmental standards. Aladdin claims that it is fully RoHS compliant too.In addition, Aladdin is doing its bit to be a socially responsible company. For instance, it has set up recycling bins in all its ofces for bottles, plastics, and paper. It encourages its employees to save paper too. D-LinkD-Link claims its green products have been compliant with RoHS since 2006 and with WEEE since 2005. D-Links Green Ethernet technology save power when desktop-to-switches are idle and optimized power usage on detection of cable length. Most switches today still consume considerable power even when a cable link or desktops-to switch is turned off. D-Links Green Ethernet technology will put the port in a sleep mode, thus reducing power used by that port.Usually, most switches send enough power to sustain data over a 100m cable regardless of the actual cable length. In a typical users environment, however, the cable is usually less than 20m. But Green Ethernet technology will automatically detect the cable length, and optimally adjust power usage to save energy. AMDAMD says its products comply with the RoHS directive. It has initiated lead-free research and development programs to identify and evaluate possible lead-tin solder substitutes, while working with suppliers and other companies to establish lead-free standards and testing requirements.AMD engineers have developed technical solutions to reduce lead content in microprocessors and chipsets. For instance, with microprocessors, the solder used to attach passive (heat spreader) to the topside of the package which has been replaced with a lead free solder to meet RoHS compliance. IBMIBM says it has led the technology industry in energy-smart innovation for over 40 years, from radical breakthroughs in mainframe cooling efciency to the development of the worlds most powerful computer in Blue Gene that delivers the most performance per kilowatt of power consumed. IBM says it will continue to drive leadership in power efciency with its Cool Blue portfolio of innovation. Cool Blue spans the spectrum from materials, devices, circuits, chips, system architecture and softwareall of which can be utilized to help solve datacenter energy problems.40 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008COVER STORYMARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | 41COVER STORYMARC MARC MA MA MA MA MA MMA MA MARC MARC MAR ARC MARC MAR MARC ARC MARC MA MA MAR ARC ARCC MAR MAR MAR MMA MAR MM C ARC MMMMARR MMARC MMA MMAAARC MAAA HHH 20 H 2 HHHH 20 H 20 H 20 H 20 H 20 H 20 HH 2 H 20 20 20 H 20 HH 20 20 H 20 2 HHHHH 20 HH 20 HHHH 20 H 20 H 008 08 08 088 0008 08 08 08 08 08 008888888 ||||||||||||||||||||||||| IIN IN INNNTTE TE NTE TE NTE TTE IIN IN INN INNNNNNNNNNNNNTE IIN INNNNNNNNNNNNN E IN IINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNTE TE TE IIINNNNNNNNNNNNNTE T IN INNNNNNNNNNNNNNNTTE TTE TEE NNNNN INNNNNNNNNNTEE INNNNNNTE TE TEE TE NNNNNNTE TE NNNNNNNT IINNNNNT IINNNT IN IINNNTT IIIINTT INTT INNNTT NTT IIINTT LLIG LIG LLI LLL LLI LLI L LLIGGGGGGGGGGGG LL LLI LI LLIGGGGGGGG IG GGGGGGGG LLIG LL GGGGGGG LLLI LIGGGGG LL LL LLI LLLIIIGGGGGG LLIGGGG LLIG LLL LLII LLIGGGGG LLI LLIG L LLIGGGGG LLI L GGGG LLIGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGENTENT ENTENT ENTENTENTENTENTENTENT ENT ENT NT NT ENTENTENTENTENTNTTT NTT E TTNT NNTT N COMP COMP COMP COMP COMP COMP OO COMPP COMP COMP M COMP COMP COMP COMP COMP COMP OMP OOM COMM OMP COMP C M COMP MM C MP CC P COMPPP MPPPPPPPPPPP MPPPPPPPPPPUUUUTIN UTIN UTIN UT UTIN TIN TIN UTIN UTIN UTIN UTIN TIN UTIN I UTIN UTIN UTIN TIN TIN UT UTIN UTI UUUUUUUTIN I UTIN UTIN UTIN TIN TIN UUTTIN UTI I UTIN UTIN NN TIN UTIN UUUTIN TTIN II UTIN UUUT UT UT TIINNN UUUUUTIN UT UT TIN UUU I UUUUUTI UUUUTI TTI UUUT UUUT UUTIN UTIN UUUUUT UTIN UUUUTI UUU IN UUUT UUUTIN UUUTT UUUUUUUU I UUUU GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCHIP HIP HIP HIP HHHHI HI HIP IP HIP P HIP PPPP HIP P HIP HIP HHIP HIP HIP HIP HIP PP HIP PP HIP HHHHHHIP HIP HIP HIP PP HHHI HHIP HHHIP HHIP PP HHHIP P HH PP HHHIPPP HHIP HHHIP IP H PP HHIP H P HI HI |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||41 441 441 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 4441 41 444111 41 41 41 41 441 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 44111 441 41 41 41 41 41 4111 41 41 441 41 41 4111 41 41 441 411 41111 4111 441 41 4111 41 4111 41111 411 4111111 41111 44441 41 41 44111 411 41 41 41 4441111 441 411111 41111111COV CCO CO COV COV COV CO COV OV OV OV VVVVVVVVVVVVV COV COV COV COV OV COV VVVVV C VVVVV COV VVVVV COV VV OV OV OV OV VVVVVVVV COV OV OV OV VVVVV C ERERERER ER ERERR EEEREEEEEEER EEER EEEEEER ER ER EEEER EEEEEER ERRR EEER EEEEEEEER EEEERRR ERRRRR EEEERRRRR ERRRRR STO STO STO STO STO STOO STO STO ST SSST STO SSSSSSSTO STO SSSSS RY RY RY RY RY RY RY RY RY Y RY RY RRRRIntel Intel says its processes and materials comply with the RoHS directive. It considers its products to be within the scope of the WEEE Directive. Last year, Intel announced the elimination of the last amount of lead (less than .02 grams/package) from its 45nm CPU and 65nm chipset products; these are now completely lead-free. Intel has announced that its 45nm CPU and 65nm chipset product platforms will convert to halogen free packaging in 2008. Apart from this, Intel works with industry groups. For instance, Intel worked closely with the US EPA to develop the Energy Star standard and also developed the IAPC power management.MicrosoftMicrosoft says it supports the recycling, recovery and handling of waste associated with electronics. This includes compliance with the WEEE and RoHS Directives issued by the European Union (EU). Microsoft works cooperatively with treatment facilities and governmental agencies to provide information that enables the successful treatment of Microsoft WEEE products. Additionally, Microsoft provides information to reuse centers, treatment and recycling facilities regarding new Microsoft electrical and electronic equipment as required by the WEEE Directive. PhilipsPhilips has a Sustainability program that aims to improve lives through technology and products, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet its own needs. This means causing less harm to the environment by cutting down on hazardous materials in its products, and creating energy-saving alternatives. All environmental friendly products from Philips bear the Green Tick logo on their packaging.Philips has also created an atmosphere of sustainability within the company, and it makes its partners and suppliers aware about it. XeroxHere are some innovations from Xerox Labs.SELF-ERASING, REUSABLE PAPER: Printed images last only a day, so that the paper can be reused a number of times. EMULSION AGGREGATION (EA): This chemically produced toner, with Xerox patents behind it, uses 60 to 70 percent less energy per page than the conventional toner. It also doubles the number of pages printed per pound of toner, thereby reducing waste.E-AGENT: A special chemical ingredient known as an embrittling agent has reduced by up to 22 percent the energy needed to make Xerox printer toner. HIGH YIELD BUSINESS PAPER: Launched in 2007, a high-yield business paper made using only half as many trees as paper made by chemical pulping. It is manufactured with less water and fewer chemicals, using hydroelectricity, which cuts greenhouse gas emissions by 75 percent.EMULSION AGGREGATION (EA): This patented chemically produced toner, uses 60 to 70 percent less energy per page than the conventional toner. It also doubles the number of pages printed per pound of toner. [email protected] [email protected] DigitalEven hard drives can be eco-friendly. Have you heard about Green Power drives? Western Digital claims its Green Power hard drives use just 40 percent of the power consumed by other drives. A standard 1 TB hard disk uses 13.5 Watts of power, but the Green Power drives nearly halves this, resulting in a saving of almost 4 to 5 Watts per drive. While this does not sound much, the collective power saving of several drives used in a data center can be signicant. Lower power consumption means these drives help reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 84 kilograms per year per drive, which is the equivalent of taking a car off the road for 19 days a year.NetAppNetApp claims its storage solutions require less storage per usable TB, reducing the number of hard disk drives and enclosures required. These benets directly impact power, cooling, and space metrics, which ultimately contribute to a better environment. NetApp systems require half as many rack units per usable TB compared to the industry, leading to space savings. Its systems consume 109 VA of power per usable TB and dissipate 368 BTU/hr of heat per usable TB. NetApp says it delivers 50 percent more storage efciency compared to the industry.LenovoThe Lenovo ThinkCenter A61e desktop PC is an eco-friendly product. It is the companys smallest, quietest and most energy-efcient desktop yet, with a footprint the size of an average telephone book. While it hasnt been ofcially dubbed Green PC yet, it offers whisper quiet performance and a choice of energy-efcient processors. The ThinkCentre A61e desktop is also Lenovos rst product with EPEAT Gold status. Operated by the Green Electronics Council, EPEAT ranks products on a variety of environmental attributes from energy efciency to materials use and recycling/reuse. A review of the ThinkCentre A61e appears elsewhere in this issue.MARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | 41COVER STORY42 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008Ratings Explained The products in the individual and comparison tests share exactly the same test procedures. Each product in Top Gear is rated on a scale of 5 for different key parameters: Performance, Build Quality, Features, Ergonomics, and Warranty. These vary according to the characteristics of the hardware. For instance, ergonomics (ease of use) is not important in a graphics card and therefore, it will not be evaluated for this. A products Overall Rating is calculated by assigning weightages to each evaluation parameterthe more important a parameter, the higher is the weightage allotted to it. In addition, there is a Value for Money rating, which is calculated from the performance and the features of the product in relation to the price. High performance and lots of features at a low price translates into a better Value for Money rating. This rating is calculated using current prices of the products.NOTE: The prices mentioned here do not include taxes. Hence, they will vary according to the taxes applicable in the city or state where you buy the product from.HARDWARELike we do every month, this month too we stood around in the test center to admire the new products which came in for reviewing.We got to check out some really cool gadgets, peripherals and hardware that were eye-catching and useful. LGs Viewty, the latest 5 mega-pixel multimedia mobile phone was the star, but a closer look at the features and performances revealed some disappointments. On the other hand, Sony Ericssons W580i is a beautifully priced feature-rich mobile phone. To ensure backup power for portable devices, APCs Mobile Power Pack is a must-have accessory that one can use when travelling outdoors. The ATI Radeon HD 3450 is the cheapest and best entry-level DirectX 10 card which supports Vistas Aero, HD video decoding and power saving features. With surprisingly good optics and sensors, the Olympus SP560UZ is targeted at prosumers who actually cant afford a digital SLR. Well enough talking for now, lets head to the next few pages to reveal the secrets of more products!Top Gear Jagdish LimbachiyaRatings ExplainedSMS us! Story code: HTG to 57007TESTED HARDWAREMARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | 43Specifications Dimensions (WxHxD):47x99x14 mm; Weight: 94 g; Display: 240x320, 256K color, 2-inch TFT; Memory: 12 MB internal + 1 GB bundled; Camera: 2 MP. PriceRs 13,995ContactSony Ericsson India Pvt LtdPhone1800 11 1800E-mailquestions.in@support. sonyerricson.comWebsitewww.sonyericsson.comWarranty1 year RATINGSBuild quality Ergonomics Performance Features Overall Rating Value for Money TESTED HARDWARESHAKE IT BABYWith the quad band W580i, Sony Ericsson has added an affordable option to its Walkman range of mobile phones. It is quite similar to the Sony Ericsson W910i in terms of features. This multimedia model sports a sleek and stylish look. Not content with the features of a phone and a music player, it goes a step further by adding the Shake feature using which one can change a song by simply shaking the phone once.FEATURES: The W580i is feature-rich, which is characteristic of most Sony Ericsson phones. It features a 2 megapixel camera and has 16 MB of onboard memory, which can be expanded using Memory Stick M2 cards. A 1 GB card comes bundled with the phone. The W580i also features a Pedometer which uses an internal motion sensor system to calculate the number of steps taken while walking or running. This feature can be used to calculate how much you have walked, jogged or run during the day. Based on these results and by entering the phone users weight, height and age, the software calculates the number of calories burnt in 24 hours. The motion sensor is also used to operate the Shake option when the phone is in Walkman mode. All you need to do is press the Walkman key and shake the phone to change the song. Additional features include TrackID music recognition, by which you can identify a particular music track by recording just 10 seconds of the track and searching in its database over the Internet. It also has Pictbridge support. You can update the rmware of the phone by logging on via GPRS. Other features include FM radio with RDS, WAP 2.0/HTML browser and RSS feeds, Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP, GPRS class 10@48 kbps and EDGE class 10@236 kbps.BUILD QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE: The phone is light and very comfortable to hold and use, though it heats up a little after playing with it for some time. The 2-inch screen is bright and crisp, and supports 256K colors. The 2 megapixel camera gives surprisingly good results with good color balance and saturation in daylight. The phones interface is a tad slow, but it tends to feel even slower because of the badly built keypad. The keypad is built with metal clips (plates) attached to a plastic sheet over the phone. When you have a closer look at them, you will nd that they can be easily be pulled out of place. The slider neatly covers the keypad without which one could end up damaging the keys. The sides of the phone light up according to the theme or as per your selected styles using bright multicolor LEDs. It would have been a great feature if only the phone had an option to switch off the light effects to save battery life and reduce heating. VERDICT: A sleek and stylish Walkman phone built with loads of features in a small package.FOR: Good features, looks, sound quality and battery life.AGAINST: Poorly built and easily damageable keypad, handset heats up to a certain extent.MOBILE PHONESony Ericsson W580iThe 2 megapixel camera with flash and autofocus makes this phone a great value buy.TESTED HARDWARE44 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008MOBILE PHONELG KU990PHONE OR CAMERA?The LG KU990, aka Viewty (View the Next Technology), is a successor to the LG KE850 Prada. Resembling Apples iPhone, it boasts of great features and style, but at a steep price. FEATURES: LG has packed the gadget with a massive 5 megapixel camera using a Schneider-Kreuznach certied lens. Apart from the regular features available on a compact digital camera, this device lets you set ISO modes from 100 to 800 and also record good quality video at 120 fps directly in compressed DivX format. It also features separate buttons for instant access to the camera, video, playback and image stabilizer functions. However, the image stabilization was hardly noticeable. The phone features a large and crisp 3-inch 256K color TFT screen which makes viewing images and videos or browsing the Internet fun. It has a large screen but it can be easily scratched while being carried around. An external stylus that can be attached to the phone (at rst glance, it looks like a slim lipstick or eye liner) comes in the package. Around the camera lens is a sliding tab which can be used to scroll through the menus, zoom in and out in camera mode and choose volume levels when in call/play mode. The package includes a 1 GB microSD card, travel charger, driver CD and USB cable. The Viewty has a TV out feature so one can watch videos and photos on the TV, but the package lacks the video out cable (it has to be purchased separately). Additional capabilities include taking photos in panorama (3 images stitched together) or burst mode (takes 9 photos in 4 seconds in a single click). But the images were quite blurry and the panorama was not stitched properly. BUILD QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE:The KU990 is beautifully built with a sleek design and is loaded with features. The back plate is made of metal which also performs the role of an external antenna for the phone. Sadly the camera does not have a protective lens cover to shield it from dust. The phone performs well when used in music/video playback mode. However, the camera did not live up to the hype around it. When shot using best modes with autofocus in broad daylight, the results were devastatingplenty of fringes, color mismatches and image blurs were clearly visible in the pictures. When used in sunlight, certain areas in the image where the contrast level was visible on bright objects was totally seen in bright purple. Also, there was no proper color depthred was seen as dark pink, whereas the results were slightly better when clicked in shaded areas. Video playback and recording quality is excellent. The videos are crisp and clear. VERDICT: You can plan on buying this phone to make a style statement. If you need a 5 megapixel camera phone, there are better ones available at a much lower price point.FOR: Good looks, good video capture and playback, sturdy build quality.AGAINST: Slightly sluggish interface, below average camera quality, expensive.Specifications Dimensions (WxHxD):54.4x103.5x14.8 mm; Weight: 112 g; Display: 3-inch, 240x400 pixels, 256 K color TFT; Onboard memory: 100 MB (Shared); Expandable memory type: microSD; Camera: 5 MP, video (VGA 30fps, QVGA up to 120 fps); Battery type: Li-Ion 1000 mAh PriceRs 21,900ContactLGEIL Pvt [email protected] Websitewww.lgindia.comWarranty1 year RATINGSBuild quality Ergonomics Performance Features Overall Rating Value for Money The earphones are stylish, and the stylus looks like a tiny lipstick or eye liner. TESTED HARDWARE46 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008Specifications PC : Dimensions (WxHxD): 2770 x 800 x 2370 mm;Weight: 3.73 Kg; Chipset: ATI RS690;Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 BE-2350, 2.1 GHz,Memory: 1 GB DDR2-667; Hard disk: 160 GB SATA;Optical drive: DVD writer; TFT Monitor: Screensize: 19-inch; Optimal resolution: 1440x900;Aspect ratio: 16:10; Response time: 5 ms;Brightness: 280 cd/m2; Contrast ratio: 700:1PriceRs 39,900ContactLenovo Phone1800 425 3336 [email protected] Websitewww.lenovo.com Warranty1 yearRATINGSPerformance Features Overall Rating Value for Money GREEN PCThe concept of green computing isnt new, but with the ever-increasing dependency of more and more people on a wholly digital lifestyle, the amount of power used by these devices is huge. The least that companies can do is reduce the overall power usage for computers that dont have to be the fastest machines on earth.The easiest route to low power computing is through thin clients, but what if you could get good desktop-level performance in the space and power footprint of a thin client? The A61 is a decently powered machine that gives an average level of performance but only occupies an area of 277 cm by 237 cm. The machine has the kind of power usage that is only seen on laptops. With 4.1 Watts on standby and 47 Watts on normal usage, the A61 uses a external power brick to power itself, and thus keeps the noise levels and heat dissipation in tight control. The machine is really quite with rated noise levels of less than 40 dB, due to a well designed chassis and good quality components.BUILD QUALITY: The green computing theme in the A61 starts on the low power usage, but it just doesnt end here. Even the body is made up of recycled plastic resins which save our environment from the perils of a plastic pileup. For better power management, there is a mix of laptop and desktop components used in the machine. It uses a 7200 RPM desktop hard disk for good performance, but then it also uses SODIMM memory modules that are used in laptops. The SODIMM modules, though a bit more expensive, keep a tight check on heat production. One unique feature of the computer is the Athlon 64 X2 BE-2350 processor which powers the machine. This is probably the rst time we have seen it on any machine available in India. It is basically a low-powered version of the 2.1 GHz desktop processor from AMD.The label of green computing does not mean that IBM has skimped anywhere in the quality department. The very solidly built chassis is compact but made up of good quality materials. The design may look dated and may not have any ashy elements but this also means that the looks mean business.The peripherals on the system are also pretty well built; the keyboard has good quality keys that are well spaced out and feel really good. The keyboard is solidly built and does not have any troublesome accents on the surface.The mouse is also of a decent quality and feels good even in large hands; however its material quality isnt comparable to the keyboard.The display is a 19-inch LCD with a native resolution of 1440x900, and offers a decent level of quality for most ofce work. The controls for all settings and options are placed on the back of the monitor and are well hidden away from the main panel.The case features passive cooling for the most part and has only one cooling fan for the chipset and CPU. The motherboard is of the ITX type and features the RS690 chip from AMD.However due to the small form factor design, only half height expansion cards are supported by the computer. This is a usual limitation of nearly all small form factor PCs, but its a feature that we will still like to see, as half height cards are really hard to nd. Another limitation is that since the RS 690 chipset does not feature a Firewire controller, there are no Firewire ports on the computer.FOR: Low power consumption, well-built.AGAINST: No Firewire port.DESKTOP PCLenovo ThinkCentre A61e 6449-12QTESTED HARDWARE48 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008Specifications Dimensions (WxHxD): 310 x 109 x 265 mm; Weight: 3.1 Kg; Display type: 3 panel LCD; Contrast ratio: 500:1; Brightness: 3000 ANSI Lumens; Native resolution: 1024 x 768; Video inputs: Composite, S-Video, VGA, DVIPriceRs 1,45000ContactCanon India Private Limited Phone1800-345-33-66 [email protected] Websitewww.canon.co.in Warranty2 yearsRATINGSBuild quality Ergonomics Performance Features Overall Rating Value for Money BRIGHT LIGHTSA few months back we reviewed the very able LV 7265 and were very impressed. Canon recently launched their highest end model from the 7xxx series. Lets take a look at whats on offer in the LV 7365.BUILD: The 12 x 10-inch, 3 kg, LV 7365 shares the basic design with all its older siblings and has quite a curvy body with a smooth nish. Its body is very well ventilated because the full front panel is made of a metallic grill. There is a manual zoom control on the lens with a focus ring in front of it. The projector unit is driven by three .63-inch LCD panels similar to its siblings but is powered by a higher intensity 210 Watt, 3000 lumens lamp, that gives an even brighter image in the already powerful product platform. The lamp can be changed quite easily and Canon claims that it has a life of around 3000 hours. The back panel has connectors for D-SUB, DVI, and composite, with the DVI port also handling component input. This port also features an HDCP decryption for high denition content. There are three legs under the projectors body that have adjustable lengths and can provide corrections up to 100 degrees. Additionally there are standard sized holes provided under the body for attaching the projector to a ceiling mount.FEATURES: The projector shares almost all the features from the lower end models, and has the same well designed menu, and also the same feature list and controls. This goes to the extent that the keystone correction is still limited to vertical keystone and does not correct horizontal distortion in the perspective. There is automatic color correction for non white screens that does a decent job on most surfaces.The higher intensity lamp enables the projector to give a good quality picture in fully lit rooms with the largest of screen sizes, and we were easily able to get a decent 8 foot image in a normal indoor environment. The lamp takes about 10 seconds to startup and around 30 seconds to cool down; restarting still takes about 50 seconds.Output resolution is still 1024x768, with support for input resolutions up to UXGA (1600x1200). There is support for multiple color proles, including an sRGB prole. The remote for the projector also has the now common control buttons for controlling presentation applications. Additionally it can control each and every electronically controlled feature on the projector. However even this model misses out the much needed laser pointer on the remote.The included manual is very basic and just talks about cleaning and maintaining the projector. Package contents include a VGA cable, a DVI to VGA converter, an IR dongle for the remote, and a power cable. The power cable used by the projector is a standard two pin cable that can be easily replaced if it gets damaged.VERDICT: The 7365 is a decent product with a good package. However when compared with the lower end model, we think most users will not nd the difference in intensities of much use.FOR: Good intensity, HDCP support.AGAINST: None.PROJECTORCanon LV-7365The back panel of the projector features an A/V input, analog and digital video inputs. TESTED HARDWARE50 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008Specifications Size(WxHxD): 116 x 78.5 x 78 mm, Weight: 460 g, CCD: 12.35 inch, 8 MP, 7 Shooting Modes, Zoom: 18X, LCD: 2.5 inch, Focus range: 27-486mm, Internal Memory: 47 MB, Expasion slot: XDPriceRs 26,995ContactOlympus Imaging CorpPhone022-22854495E-maildsouza_anand@ot.olympus.co.jpWebsitewww.asia.olympus-global.comWarranty2 yearsRATINGSBuild quality Ergonomics Performance Features Overall Rating Value for Money THE ZOOMER Olympus has released a new series of ultra zoom cameras. The entire series is targeted at prosumers and professionals who cant afford a digital SLR.FEATURES & BUILD QUALITY: As is usual with ultra zoom cameras, the lens is the highlight of the camerahowever it isnt a very heavy burden. The lens assembly is split into 3 parts that retract to a large extent making the camera similar in size to a large compact camera. The rear of the camera has a large 2.5-inch screen that is best used in an indoor environment. The camera features an electronic viewnder right above the screen for outdoor shots. The electronic viewnder is well isolated from ambient light and is very visible even in the brightest of environments. This model also features a diopter adjustment for photographers who need to wear glasses. A small button on the right of the viewnder enables users to switch between the two displays.To the right of the display is a ve-way navigation cluster that has the usual four direction buttons and a select key in the center. On the four corners surrounding the button cluster are dedicated buttons for the menu, preview, OSD selector, and trash. The top of the camera has a popup ash that has to be manually opened by pressing a button on the right. At this models price point, we would have liked to see an automatic popup mechanism for the ash. The grip on the right of the camera houses the battery compartment that holds four AA batteries. A ap covers the slot on the rear right of the camera that holds the XD card for external storage. On the left of the camera is another ap that covers a port for connecting the USB cable and the AV cable. This port is not a standard USB connector and requires a proprietary cable which is included with the camera. So if you lose this cable, you will have no way to connect the camera to a computer. However the non-standard design of the connector is typical of all Olympus cameras and enables connection to an analog display such as a TV set from the same port.The camera looks very much like a digital SLR, but it is not a good idea to hold it like one unless you have really small hands. Since the unit is rather small, it is hard to hold, and it is best to hold it like any other compact camera.PERFORMANCE: The 560UZ comes with an 18x optical zoom lens and a 1/2.35-inch 8 megapixel CMOS sensor. This sensor is a typical CMOS sensor which provides acceptable quality. In our test shoot carried out in a typical day-lit environment, the color saturation was well represented, with no bias towards any primaries. Its detailing is not the best we have seeneven at ISO 100, detailed subjects seemed to merge into one another. However, the output of the sensor is very clean and there is no apparent fringing, or aberrations.The optics on the 560UZ are way above those on any compact camera that you might have come across. The 27-486mm focal range is just about the best available in any non-professional camera. The zoom lens is only powered by the motor and there is no way to zoom manually.VERDICT: The Olympus SP560UZ has a lot of good features and is probably the best prozoom camera available in the market. The optics, and sensor quality are very good, and its output is competitive.FOR: Good focal range, superb zoom level, face detection, image stabilization and other processed shooting modes.AGAINST: RAW shooting capability is slow enough to be useless.DIGITAL CAMERAOlympus SP560UZTESTED HARDWARE52 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008Specifications Dimensions (WxHxD): 375x277x58 mm (without stand); Processor: Intel Celeron M 380, 1.60 GHz; Chipset: Intel 915 GM; Memory: 512 MB DDR2; Hard drive: 40 GB SATA; Optical drive: DVD combo; Display: 15.4-inch, 1280x800; Ethernet: 10/100; USB ports: 6; OS: FreeDOS.PriceRs 28,500ContactSprint InfotechPhone9820396131E-mailsprintinfotech@gmail.comWebsitewww.sprint-infotech.comWarranty1 year RATINGSBuild quality Ergonomics Performance Features Overall Rating Value for Money ALL-IN-ONE PCWith Intels Mobile on Desktop platform, its now possible for manufacturers to produce all-in-one PCs that house an entire computer within the anorexic chassis of a TFT monitor. One of the advantages of such a PC is its space-saving form factor and freedom from wire clutter. But most importantly, PCs built with laptop components are highly energy efcient and this one makes similar claims. Lets delve deeper into the Sprint TD L300D which promises greener computing.FEATURES: The Sprint TD L300D packs an entire PC with a 15.4-inch wide screen TFT monitor. In an endeavor to offer an affordable PC to the budget audience, Sprint has congured this machine with the bare minimum components for handling basic home and ofce tasks. The TD L300D is powered by an Intel Celeron M 380 processor clocked at 1.60 GHz and 512 MB of DDR2 memory. The hard drive is of the lowest capacity that you can nd in the market40 GB. Although it isnt roomy enough to hold an enormous collection of movies and music, its acceptable for those who need it for serious work. The left side of the PC sports a CR-RW/DVD-combo drive and the right side features four USB ports, memory card reader and audio jacks. Ethernet jack, VGA port and two additional USB ports are located at the base of the computers unit.BUILD QUALITY AND ERGONOMICS: The all-black TD L300D looks more like a TFT monitor than a desktop PC. The best part about the design is its double-hinged base which allows the unit to be tilted horizontally at for a top view. This feature is useful if you wish to place the unit under a glass table/shelfideal for POS (Point of Sales) counters at retail outlets. We found no problems with the ergonomics of thsi unit, except the layout of the keyboard. The arrow keys are crammed and the page navigation keys are stacked vertically as an extension of the alphabet pada regular keyboard would solve this problem.PERFORMANCE: The Sprint TD L300D is only suited for basic applications like ofce productivity, accounting, Web surng, and e-mail. If you are an anymore demanding user you can contact Sprint to congure the machine with a dual-core processor, more memory, and a larger hard drive. With regards to energy efciency, Sprint claims that the PC consumes only 40 Watts of electricity which is just about one-fth of the power consumed by a regular desktop PC. VERDICT: Even though the Sprint TD L300D is priced at par with basic desktop PCs, we suggest going in for the latter if youre looking for performance. If your preference is convenience and power efciency, go out and get this one. FOR: Compact, energy efcient, good value for money.AGAINST: Build quality needs attention to make it satisfactory.PCSprint TD L300DScoresSyntheticSiSoft Sandra XIIHard drive index 33 MB/sLinear read and write 38 MB/sOptical drive index 17.6 xPCMark 05 1872Real-World ScoresCineBench R10 11 minAudio encoding: 300 MB WAV to MP3-256 kbps, High: 4 minFile compression: 200 MB to RAR using best compression2 min 40 secOptical drive: 650 MB multiple files read4 min 30 secTESTED HARDWARE54 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008GREAT IGP REPLACEMENTIf you wish to build a home theater PC or upgrade from integrated graphics to the next level, check out AMDs new entry-level offering, the ATI Radeon HD 3450.FEATURES: The Radeon HD 3450 is fabricated using 55 nm technology and runs at a peak speed of 600 MHz along with 256 MB DDR2 memory clocked at 500 MHz. Belonging to the third-generation, the key features of the HD 3450 includes the improved Unied Video Decoder (UVD) for manipulating high-denition videos, ATI PowerPlay technology for cutting down power consumption in idle mode, and ATI Hybrid Graphics support. Coupled with a leaner manufacturing process, these features translate into cooler and quieter performance.The test sample that we received from AMD featured VGA and DVI ports, as well as a component/S-video connector. You will also nd variants of this model featuring the new DisplayPort and HDMI ports from various manufacturers. In addition to this, those who are planning to build an HTPC (Home Theatre Personal Computer) can even look out for a fully-silent passively-cooled variant.PERFORMANCE: Although the Radeon HD 3450 supports DirectX 10.1, its certainly not meant for gaming unless you want to play decade-old games at 1024x768note the measly 11 fps at 1280x1024 in F.E.A.R in our tests.However, it has enough juice to handle Vistas Aero interface which features transparency effects, the Flip 3D task switcher, and other eye candy. Thanks to UVD, the card excels in at video playback making it ideal for a home theater PC. Pop this card into an entry-level PC and you have an inexpensive high-denition video player. If youre looking for decent 3D gaming performance, we suggest you extend your budget and settle for the meatier Radeon HD 3850.Considering the competition in graphics cards, the Radeon HD 3450 is marginally better than Nvidias GeForce 8400 GS in gaming performance. But that coupled with lower power consumption and less heat emission makes the HD 3450 a better deal hands down. The GeForce 8500 GT performed twice as better well in F.E.A.R. but only a frame per second better in Crysis and Call of Juarez. Between the HD 3450 and GeForce 8500 GT, we vouch for the latter solely due to its steroidal performance when overclocked.VERDICT: Integrated graphics does keep the budget cost of a PC low, but if you want to enjoy Vistas Aero interface and add HD video playback capability to your PC, this card is an absolute steal for its price. If you plan to build a Home Theatre PC, theres no better deal than buying a variant of ATI Radeon HD 3450 with HDMI or DisplayPort output.FOR: Runs cool, great for home theater PCs, handles Vistas Aero interface well.AGAINST: None.Specifications GPU: ATI Radeon HD 3450; Direct X support: 10.1; Interface: PCIe x16 2.0; Core speed: 600 MHz; Memory speed: 500 MHz; Memory type: DDR2; Video memory: 256 MB; Memory bus: 64-bit; Stream processors: 40; Video outputs: D-sub, DVI, and component /S- video.PriceRs 2,400ContactAditya Infotech LtdPhone011-26223810E-mailsales@adityagroup.comWebsitewww.adityagroup.com Warranty3 yearsRATINGSPerformance Features Overall Rating Value for Money GRAPHICS CARDATI Radeon HD 3450ScoresGeForce 8400 GS GeForce 8500 GT ATI Radeon HD 34503DMark 06: SM 3.0 520 810 665FEAR: 1280x1024 High 2xAA 13 25 11Crysis: 1280x1024 Med 7.15 8.12 7.3Call of Juarez: 1280x1024 Med 3.3 4.3 3.8TESTED HARDWARE56 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008STAR PERFORMERMainstream non-IGP motherboards with a single PCIe slot t snugly within a budget of Rs 6,000. No doubt IGP motherboards offer good value for money; however non-IGP motherboards are more future-proof with good headroom for expansion and more powerful chipsets. Lets nd out how impressive the Biostar TP35D2-A7 is.FEATURES: As the name suggests, the TP35D2-A7 is based on the Intel P35 chipset featuring the ICH9 South Bridge. Having an FSB speed of 1333 MHz, the chipset supports Intels latest 45nm Penryn processors. Though the feature set is nothing extraordinary, its good enough to build a powerful gaming machine when paired with high-end components. The TP32D2-A7 supports up to 8 GB of DDR2-800 memory and boasts 12 USB ports, gigabit Ethernet, 7.1-channel audio, four SATA ports, a PCIe x16 slot and three PCI slots.Enthusiasts will be amused with the Overclock Navigator Engine which features a range of tweaking options for manual and automatic overclocking. FSB and multiplier settings, voltage tweaks, memory ratio, memory timings, and BIOS settings backuptheyre all there! The expansion slots, IDE and SATA ports are of orange and light green colors which gives it a funky look with case lighting.LAYOUT: The layout of the TP35D2-A7 will disappoint those who are particular about cable management. Firstly, the 24-pin power connector is placed in such a way that the thick bunch of wires will have to traverse around the CPU socket. The IDE port, if placed at the right edge of the board could make routing the data cable to the optical / hard drive easier. In this case, the SATA cables will cause hindrance. The rest of its layout is nethree USB headers are placed at the base of the board and the area around the CPU socket and heat sink is quite open. PERFORMANCE: This board performs so well that it can easily take on some high-end motherboards. Using BIOS tweaks, we were able to overclock a quad-core Intel QX9650 CPU by 1 GHz (FSB 333 x 12). The maximum FSB that we recorded was 470 MHz with the multiplier set to 6.VERDICT: If youre looking out for a motherboard without an onboard GPU, the TP35D2-A7 is worth a buy. The faulty layout of some of the components is forgivable for the stellar performance that this board offers. FOR: Excellent performance, great value for money.AGAINST: IDE port in the wrong place, South Bridge requires active cooling.Specifications Form factor: ATX; CPU Socket: LGA 775; Chipset: Intel P35+Intel ICH9; FSB: 1333 MHz; Memory: DDR2-800 (8 GB max); SATA/PATA: 4/1; Expansion slots: PCIe x16, PCIe x1, PCIe x4, 3 PCI; LAN: Gigabit; Sound: 7.1-channel; USB ports: 12 (6 via headers).PriceRs 6,000ContactAbacus Peripherals Pvt Ltd [email protected] Websitewww.abacusperipherals.comWarranty3 years RATINGSPerformance Overall Rating Features Value for Money MOTHERBOARDBiostar TP35D2-A7ScoresSYNTHETIC 3 GHz OC 4 GHzPCMark 05: 8375 98483DMark 06 (SM 3.0): 5363 5858REAL WORLDCineBench R10 sec 57 secFile compression: 200 MB to RAR using best compression55 sec 37 secAudio encoding: 50 MB MP3-160 kbps to 70 kbps WMA81 sec 77 secVideo encoding: 1 min MPG to x.264 format 28 sec 21 secTESTED HARDWAREMARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | 57SUPER COOLThe next time you play a heavy game, touch the heat sink of your graphics card. If its really hot, you need to look out for a cooling solution. Heres onethe Thermalright HR-03, an aftermarket GPU cooler.FEATURES: The HR-03 features four heat pipes for transferring heat from the nickel-coated copper base to an array of 34 aluminum ns. The GPU cooler comes as a kit that includes memory heatsinks, fan clips, Nvidia and ATI mounting brackets, and a syringe of thermal compound. You can either mount the entire heat sink on top of the GPU, or slide the graphics card between the cooler. With the latter option, you wont have to forgo a PCI slot.The top of the heat sink has grooves to accommodate a 92 mm fan. However, youll need to buy one separately if you want active cooling. If you plan to use this card in passive mode, make sure your case is tted with a rear fan for exhaust.PERFORMANCE: We tted the HR-03 onto an ATI Radeon HD 3850 and noted the temperature with and without a fan. When used as a passive cooler, the peak temperature soared to 85 degrees C. So if your graphics card gets too hot, you will have to use a fan. With a fan mounted on the heat sink, the temperature didnt exceed 37 degrees Cthats a dip of 40 degrees C! VERDICT: Buy this cooler only if your graphics card needs serious cooling.FOR: Excellent cooling with a fan.AGAINST: Eats up three slots, poor memory heatsink adhesive.WIRELESS MUSICThe Cerulean TX and RX together fall into the rather strange market of iPod accessories. The set of wireless transmitter and receiver modules is designed to let you stream audio straight from your iPod to a speaker dock. Thankfully, the modules are also exible enough to be used for other purposes. The modules use standard Bluetooth for wireless communication, meaning mobile phones and other accessories can work with them too.The Cerulean TX plugs into your iPods dock connector and sends audio to the RX, which plugs into your speaker dock. Thus, your iPod itself is like a remote control for your audio system, including its handy screen. The TX can also plug into your PC using an included USB adaptor, and the RX can also plug into normal speakers or a home stereo using its 3.5mm output. Neither module requires a battery, instead it draws power from your iPod or speaker dock. Youll have to supply external power through a USB cable while using the RX with its 3.5mm out. This exible design lends itself to many usage scenarios. You can use Bluetooth to stream audio from a cellphone to the RX, or from the TX to wireless Bluetooth headphones. If your Bluetooth headphones support play/pause/volume/track buttons, the TX will control your iPod accordingly. While you can transmit Bluetooth commands from headphones, you cant do it from the RX module. This feature would have allowed leaving the iPod in a secure location while controlling all music from the docks remote instead. We didnt notice any signicant reduction in sound quality when using the TX and RX rather than plugging an iPod directly into the dock, but there was a reduction in overall volume. Also, owners of older iPods should note that the dock connector supplies a line-level output, i.e. the iPods volume control doesnt affect the speaker volume.VERDICT: Flexible and convenient connectivity options, but the price is way too steep.FOR: Works in multiple scenarios.AGAINST: Insanely expensive.GPU COOLERThermalright HR-03Specifications Dimensions (WxHxD): 154x45x133 mm; Weight: 305 g; Material: Aluminum; Type: Heat pipe and active; No of fins: 34 PriceRs 2,100ContactPrime ABGB Pvt Ltd [email protected] Websitewww.primeabgb.com Warranty1 year RATINGSBuild quality Performance Features Overall Rating Value for Money S ifi ti ifi iIPOD ACCESSORYiSkin Cerulean TX + RXSpecifications Dimensions (WxHxD): 41x30x10 mm (TX), 55x30x10 mm (RX); Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.0+A2DP/AVRCP PriceRs 12,750ContactJ S EquipmentsPhone022-23810713/[email protected] year RATINGSBuild quality Ergonomics Performance Features Overall Rating Value for Money S ifi ti fi iScores Stock cooler HR-03 without fan HR-03 with fanIdle temp (deg C) 38 40 32Loadtemp (deg C) 77 85 37Weight (gm) 245 305 440Loadtemp (deg C) 77 85 37Weight (gm) 245 305 440TESTED HARDWARE58 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008DIGITAL FLAUNTINGDigital photo frames are fast becoming a style statement accessory for homes, hotels and ofces. The Genius PF-AOI is one that ts this bracket with its large TFT display and crisp and clear image output. Hang it on the wall or just keep it on your desk in portrait or landscape orientation and this oakwood-textured (also available in walnut) frame just blends perfectly in with your home or ofce. FEATURES: The Genius PF-AOI comes with a 128 MB of built-in memory on which you can store up to 700 resized photos. Additionally, you can plug in a USB ash drive or use a memory card to view photos directly without having to transfer them to the onboard memory. Options available to view and edit your photos include a slide show, rotation, thumbnail view and page-wise scrolling. You can also set it to display the time and date while a slideshow is running. You can play MP3 les (via the built in mini speaker or via an external amplier using the audio out jack) continuously in the background to turn your slideshow into a more complete experience. The frame is robust and weighs around 1.4 kgs, but it lacks a protective glass for the TFT screen. A bundled metal stand can be used when it is placed on the desktop, while the bundled remote can be safely docked behind the screen. Flipping images is a little painful as you have to use the remote to do all the work for you. There are absolutely no controls available on the frame, so if you lose or damage the remote, you cannot control the digital frame. If the photos resolution and size is too big, it will take more time to load on the screen. You can use the simple drag and drop feature to transfer images to the frame as it shows up as a removable drive in My Computer when plugged in. You can increase the brightness level, set timings for the slide show, start a multi-show (show 2/3/4 photos on one screen), and also set an auto on/off timer.VERDICT: Easy-to-use digital photo frame.FOR: Good display, plug and play.AGAINST: No onboard control panel. POWER-FULLThe APC UPB10 is a great power backup companion for all your USB-powered or chargeable mobile appliances. It is small (a little smaller than a regular deck of playing cards) and light, weighing just 95 grams, and can easily t into the pocket of your pants or coat. Charge it using the bundled USB AC power adapter or directly through the USB port of your laptop or desktop PC. It recharges to full power in just around 3.5 - 4 hours and can hold its charge for weeks together. A white LED based power meter indicates the balance charge at the click of a button. APC claims its overall life to be around 2 - 4 years. The UPB10 can be used to charge a range of USB-powered devices such as MP3 players, mobile phones, etc. Use it either as an emergency battery or simply to get extra talk/play time for your gadgets. So you can now leave home without all those heavy power adapters. Based on the batterys rating, we have calculated the amount of time you should be able to extend the battery life of certain common gadgets. VERDICT: An excellent device for charging or extending the battery life of various mobile devices (see table).FOR: Doesnt require a separate power adapter for recharging. AGAINST: Slightly expensive.DIGITAL PHOTO FRAMEGenius PF-AOISpecifications Dimensions (WxHxD): 318x260x47 mm; Display: 10.4-inch, 640 x 480 TFT, Onboard memory: 128 MB; Expandable memory: CF/SD/MMC/MS/MD.PriceRs 13,999ContactKYE Systems Corp Phone011-41580611E-mailsales_india@geniusnet.com.twWebsitewww.geniusnet.comWarranty5 years RATINGSBuild quality Performance Features Aesthetic appeal Overall Rating Value for Money SpecificationsBATTERY PACKAPC UPB10Specifications Dimensions (WxHxD): 64 x 14 x 99 mm; Weight: 95 g; Battery rating: Li-Polymer 1000 mAH, Package contents: Battery pack, USB cable and USB power adapter. PriceRs 3,500ContactRashi Peripherals Pvt Ltd Phone022-67090909 [email protected] Websitewww.rptechindia.com Warranty1 year RATINGSBuild quality Performance Features Overall Rating Value for Money SpecificationsDevice Battery rating (mAh) Rated device batt. Life (hrs) Additional gained batt. Life (hrs)iPod 5G - 80 Gb 450 30 audio | 5 video 67 audio | 11 videoiPod Nano 3G 330 24 audio | 5 video 73 audio | 15 videoiPod Touch 980 22 audio | 5 video 22 audio | 5 videoiPod Shuffle 250 12 audio 48 audioBlackberry Pearl 900 4 talk 4 talkMotorola RAZR 770 7 talk 9 talkMotorola ROKR 1000 7 talk 7 talkSony PSP 1200 4 talk 3 talkEXTERNAL STORAGE COMPARISON HARDWAREGiga-licious55 external storage devices in different shapes and capacities compared to suit your evolving storage demands. No more raw deals!BY CHIP TEST CENTERSMS us! Story code: HES to 57007 60 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008EXTERNAL STORAGE COMPARISON HARDWARE Pramod JadhavEXTERNAL STORAGE COMPARISION HARDWAREMARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | 61With our lives revolving around ofce documents, images, videos, MP3s, and all sorts of media, its inevitable to own a USB ash drive or a portable hard drive. Wouldnt you be surprised if your tech-savvy friend says that he doesnt have a USB pen drive or any sort of external storage media?The accelerated rate of content creation and outburst of media formats, coupled with multitude of online and ofine sources fuel the demand for ever-increasing storage capacities. Thus, it goes without saying that a capacious portable hard drive is the most economical and convenient medium for carrying around a humongous collection of music and movies. And the best part is that you can carry it in your pocket! On the other hand USB ash drives are the best medium for instant storage, and hence ideal for transferring a few hundreds of megabytes in a go. With a 4 GB USB ash drive in hand, theres no need to burn a DVD for transferring les between computers and laptops.With a sharp decline in prices of ash memory and hard drives, external storage devices have taken the market by storm. This year we witnessed a decrease of more than 100 percent in prices of USB ash drives and hard drive-based storage devices. This phenomenon is largely attributed to the advancements in ash memory and hard drive technology. With smaller and denser ash memory chips, its now possible to pack more of them in the same nger-sized form factor. And the result? The maximum USB ash drive capacity has now reached a whopping 32 GB! So, its now possible to carry data worth around seven DVDs in a single USB stick. USB ash drive capacities are gradually inching towards those of hard drives and hard drives are now crossing the terabyte mark. Formerly, 1 TB external storage devices were brick-like, housing two 500 GB hard drives. Thanks to perpendicular recording technology, these drives are now compact devices with only a single 1 TB hard drive. We now have 2 TB storage devices with two 1 TB hard drives packed within! 2.5-inch hard drive-based portable storage devices have also leapt aheadthe largest capacity has now moved on from 160 GB to 250 GB. Also for the rst time we came across some devices featuring the FireWire interface. Along with increased storage capacities, most hard drive-based storage devices come pre-loaded with software that allow you to backup and synchronize data on your PC with great ease. Some devices feature a one-touch backup button for this purpose. Flash drives also come with value added features such as U3 and utilities for data protection.In this comparison, we tested 55 external storage devices ranging from a 1 GB stick to a mammoth 2 terabyte drive. Turn the page and take your pick!EXTERNAL STORAGE COMPARISON HARDWARE62 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008We categorized the products based on the storage medium. We therefore have two broad categories: Solid state storage devices that use ash memory and hard drive-based devices that employ a hard disk to store data. The hard drive-based devices were grouped according to the form-factor of the drive2.5-inch and 3.5-inch. We didnt test any network attached storage devices.FeaturesIn this section, the most weightage was given to the interface of the device and specications of the hard drive as they directly translate into performance. Being fastest, devices with the eSATA interface scored the highest followed by FireWire 800 and 400. In case of hard drives, the greater the spindle speed and buffer memory, the better the transfer rates. In the case of ash drives, we also awarded extra points for devices with support for the U3 standard. Backups are hassle-free with a one-touch backup button as it eliminates user intervention. We also noted features of the backup software such as incremental and scheduled backups and data encryption.30 percent of the overall scores were allotted to the products features.Build qualityThis parameter is extremely vital for portable storage devices as they are highly prone to sudden falls and physical shock. The device should have a solid exterior that offers protection against such mishaps. Hence, the protection offered by a metal shell is greater that that offered by a plastic shell. Also, metal casings keep the drive cool during operation as it dissipates heat.Bulky storage devices with a narrow base should have a stand that offers good support. Some devices come with a stand for holding them vertically The material and quality of stands were also assessed. In case of ash drives, we took into consideration the provision of a mechanism to retain the USB cap while the drive is connected. This feature minimizes chances misplacing the cap.PerformanceFinally, it all boils down to performance! Being the most critical, this section was alloted 40 percent of the overall score. The test bed was kept constant for all the devices to eliminate any disparity in scores. Performance was evaluated using synthetic as well as real-world tests. We used the disk benchmark tool in Everest 2007 to test linear and random read/write speeds. We also used the removable storage benchmark in SiSoft Sandra XII. This test assesses read/write speeds by simulating le transfer using les of various sizes.The real-world scores were obtained by timing le transfers between the device and the RAM drive created out of system memory. The test beds hard drive was not used in order to prevent bottlenecks, especially in case of hard drive based storage devices. The tests were carried out with single as well as an assortment of les amounting to 1 GB for both ash drives and hard drive-based devices. In case of 1 GB ash drive, we used single and multiple les amounting to 500 MB. The real world tests were given more weightage as they represent a truer indication of the products performance.Warranty & supportIts important that your investment is backed by robust warranty and support Brands that offered longer warranty period scored over others. Value for moneyWe concluded the tests with the Value for Money index. This is calculated by stacking the products features, build quality, ergonomics, and performance against its price. The device with the highest VFM index in each category was awarded Best Value. Note that we have awarded winners in the ash drive categories spanning all capacities. Thus, the best performer is the fastest out of the 24 drives tested.Test bedMOTHERBOARD: Asus Maximus Formula, Intel X38 ExpressPROCESSOR: Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650, 3.0 GHzMEMORY: 2x 1 GB Kingston HyperX DDR3-1333HARD DISK: 2x Western Digital Raptor 740 GD in RAID 0TEST PROCESSWeightages used for evaluating external storage devices.You wont lose the cap of your USB flash drive if it has a provision for cap retention.If youre looking out for speedy transfer rates, look out for the eSATA interface.40% Performance10% Ergonomics30% Features10% Warranty & Support10% Build qualityTotal capacity of all the external storage devices testeda whopping 12227 GigabytesEXTERNAL STORAGE COMPARISION HARDWAREMARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | 63BUYING GUIDEFlashTech-com Pendrive 1 GB Rs 350 350 3 17 x 69 x 8 8 g | | | 9.09 | 2.81 8.93 | 1.95 3SanDisk Cruzer Micro 1 GB Rs 450 450 5 21 x 57.1 x 8 10 g | | | 16.67 | 13.89 6.58 | 3.52 1Transcend Jetflash V30 1 GB Rs 500 500 2.5 16.5 x 60 x 8.1 7 g | | | 11.11 | 3.52 10.87 | 2.53 3Toshiba TransMemory 2 GB Rs 600 300 2.5 17.5 x 62.5 x 8.5 9 g | | | 11.9 | 4.35 10.1 | 1.94 3Kingston DataTraveler mini fun 1 GB Rs 655 655 2.5 19 x 38 x 8 5 g | | | 15.15 | 4 17.86 | 2.5 5Kingston DataTraveler mini migo 1 GB Rs 655 655 2.5 17.8 x 36 x 10.2 5 g | | | 11.36 | 3.52 10.87 | 2.65 5Corsair Flash Voyager 2 GB Rs 700 350 3 24 x 75 x 12 14 g | | | 22.22 | 7.58 20.41 | 1.42 LifetimeBuffalo RUF2-J2GS 2 GB Rs 747 374 2.5 20 x 55 x 8 9 g | | | 8.77 | 2.32 8.85 | 0.41 3Transcend Jetflash V30 2 GB Rs 800 400 1.5 16.5 x 60 x 8.1 7 g | | | 12.5 | 6.54 7.81 | 1.41 3Silicon Power Touch 212 4 GB Rs 849 212 2.5 18.5 x 57 x 8 8 g | | | 17.24 | 10 16.13 | 3.33 3Tech-com Pendrive 4 GB Rs 850 213 1.5 17 x 69 x 8 8 g | | | 9.09 | 5.13 9.26 | 2.3 3Corsair Flash Voyager 4 GB Rs 975 244 2.5 24 x 75 x 12 15 g | | | 32.26 | 8.13 26.32 | 2.75 LifetimeKingston DataTraveler 101 LE 2 GB Rs 1,200 600 1.5 16 x 54 x 9 12 g | | | 15.15 | 2.31 14.08 | 1.14 5Transcend Jetflash V30 4 GB Rs 1,500 375 1 16.5 x 60 x 8.1 7 g | | | 14.08 | 6.49 12.99 | 3.29 3Moser Baer SW 602C 2 GB Rs 1,550 775 1 19 x 56 x 11 14 g | | | 22.22 | 3.98 16.67 | 1.34 LifetimeTranscend Jetflash V30 8 GB Rs 2,000 250 1 16.5 x 60 x 8.1 7 g | | | 14.49 | 5.18 13.51 | 0.97 3Corsair Flash Voyager 8 GB Rs 2,150 269 1 24 x 75 x 12 17 g | | | 32.26 | 8.2 25.64 | 2.76 LifetimeSanDisk Cruzer Contour 4 GB Rs 2,299 575 1.5 23 x 73 x 10 34 g | | | 22.22 | 13.7 18.52 | 5.99 1Transcend Jetflash V10 16 GB Rs 4,500 281 0.5 21 x 64 x 10 10 g | | | 25 | 12.2 22.22 | 2.6 3Kingston DataTraveler 100 8 GB Rs 4,525 566 0.5 22 x 60 x 9 11 g | | | 12.99 | 5.18 10.64 | 1.29 5SanDisk Extreme Ducati 4 GB Rs 4,599 1150 0.5 20 x 80 x 18 55 g | | | 23.26 | 19.61 18.18 | 7.52 1Corsair Flash Voyager 16 GB Rs 4,750 297 0.5 24 x 75 x 12 18 g | | | 30.3 | 7.19 25.64 | 1.9 LifetimeCorsair Flash Voyager 32 GB Rs 8,900 278 0.5 24 x 75 x 12 17 g | | | 20.83 | 7.81 18.87 | 2.12 LifetimeKingston DataTraveler Secure 8 GB Rs 10,500 1313 0.5 22.2 x 78 x 12 27 g | | | 23.26 | 12.05 20 | 7.63 52.5-inchBuffalo MiniStation 80 GB Rs 4,100 51 5 82 x 20 x 128 166 g|| |31.25 | 30.3 21.28 | 22.22 3Seagate FreeAgent Go 160 GB Rs 5,500 34 3 98 x 18 x 123 179 g|| |27.78 | 25.64 20.83 | 21.28 5Western Digital Passport 160 GB Rs 5,500 34 3 79.78 x 15 x 129.78 105 g|| |26.32 | 25.64 21.28 | 20.41 2Freecom Mobile Drive Classic 160 GB Rs 5,670 35 2.5 83 x 21 x 138 193 g|| |33.33 | 28.57 21.74 | 17.54 2LaCie Mobile Hard Drive 160 GB Rs 5,725 36 4 77 x 18 x 128 171 g|| |31.25 | 29.41 22.22 | 17.86 2Freecom ToughDrive Pro 120 GB Rs 5,810 48 4 84 x 20 x 142 211 g|| |33.33 | 28.57 23.26 | 17.54 2Maxtor OneTouch 4 Mini 160 GB Rs 6,000 38 3.5 82 x 17 x 125 171 g|| |32.26 | 30.3 21.74 | 21.74 5Freecom ToughDrive Pink 160 GB Rs 7,070 44 3 84 x 20 x 142 216 g|| |33.33 | 28.57 22.22 | 17.24 2LaCie Safe Mobile Hard Drive 80 GB Rs 7,250 91 2.5 82 x 26 x 140 232 g|| |31.25 | 28.57 21.28 | 15.87 2LaCie Mobile Disk 120 GB Rs 8,125 68 2.5 82 x 16 x 130 186 g|| |35.71 | 28.57 22.22 | 16.39 2Transcend StoreJet 2.5 SATA 250 GB Rs 9,000 36 2.5 80 x 13 x 129 175 g|| |32.26 | 28.57 23.26 | 23.26 2Freecom FHD-2 Pro 120 GB Rs 9,750 81 2 80 x 22 x 135170 g|| |31.25 | 30.3 22.22 | 15.87 1LaCie Rugged 160 GB Rs 9,750 61 2.5 93 x 26 x 142254 g|| |29.41 | 30.3 21.74 | 20 2Iomega eGo Portable Hard Drive 250 GB Rs 11,690 47 1.5 88 x 20 x 136 205 g|| |32.26 | 29.41 19.61 | 16.13 1Freecom ToughDrive Pro 160 GB Rs 12,500 78 2 84 x 20 x 142 215 g|| |30.3 | 27.03 21.28 | 16.67 1Freecom ToughDrive Pro U&F 250 GB Rs 24,000 96 1 85 x 22 x 153 264 g|| |33.33 | 28.57 18.52 | 16.67 13.5-inchIomega Desktop Hard Drive 250 GB Rs 5,950 24 3.5 122 x 135 x 222 1.19 Kg|| |29.41 | 27.78 24.39 | 17.24 1Seagate FreeAgent Pro 320 GB Rs 6,500 20 5 76 x 190 x 160 1.14 Kg|| |34.48 | 34.48 27.03 | 27.03 5Western Digital My Book Essential 500 GB Rs 7,200 14 2.5 55 x 166 x 135 1.06 Kg|| |30.3 | 29.41 26.32 | 23.26 5Freecom Hard Drive 500 GB Rs 8,120 16 3 116 x 38 x 201 1.20 Kg|| |32.26 | 27.03 20.83 | 13.89 3Western Digital My Book Home 500 GB Rs 8,200 16 4.5 55 x 166 x 135 1.08 Kg|| |66.67 | 66.67 43.48 | 34.48 5Western Digital My Book Premium 500 GB Rs 8,500 17 2.5 58 x 174 x 140 1.29 Kg|| |29.41 | 26.32 24.39 | 21.28 5Western Digital My Book Pro 500 GB Rs 9,200 18 3 58 x 174 x 140 1.20 Kg|| |25.64 | 26.32 24.39 | 20.41 5Seagate FreeAgent Pro 500 GB Rs 9,500 19 3.5 76 x 190 x 160 1.10 Kg|| |35.71 | 38.46 27.03 | 25.64 5LaCie D2 Quadra 320 GB Rs 9,790 31 4.5 172 x 44 x 160 1.43 Kg|| |76.92 | 66.67 62.5 | 50 3Maxtor OneTouch 4 750 GB Rs 10,800 14 2.5 63 x 171 x 150 1.13 Kg|| |30.3 | 28.57 26.32 | 24.39 5Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus 750 GB Rs 11,600 15 2.5 63 x 171 x 150 1.22 Kg|| |32.26 | 30.3 25.64 | 25 5Seagate FreeAgent Pro 750 GB Rs 14,000 19 2.5 76 x 190 x 160 1.25 Kg|| |35.71 | 31.25 26.32 | 25 5Freecom Hard Drive Pro 400 GB Rs 16,500 41 3 180 x 52 x 150 1.48 Kg|| |71.43 | 71.43 58.82 | 50 1Western Digital My Book Studio 1000 GB Rs 19,500 20 2 55 x 166 x 135 1.18 Kg|| |66.67 | 66.67 45.45 | 41.67 5Western Digital My Book Pro II 2000 GB Rs 40,000 20 0.5 105 x 175 x 158 2.58 Kg|| |29.41 | 25.64 24.39 | 20 5NameCapacityPricePrice / GBVFMSize (WxHxD) mmWeightFireWire 400 | 800 | eSATAU3 | One-touch backupLinear: Read | Write (MB/s)*Random: Read | Write (MB/s)*Warranty (yrs)*Real World Score CHIP Best Value CHIP Best PerformanceEXTERNAL STORAGE COMPARISON HARDWARE64 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008FLASHCorsair Flash Voyager - 4 GBSpecifications Capacity: 4 GB; Dimensions (WxHxD): 24 x75x12 mm; Weight: 15 g; USB: 2.0 Hi-Speed PriceRs 500ContactRashi Peripherals Pvt LtdPhone022-67090909 [email protected] Warranty1 Year RATINGS Performance Features Build Quality Overall Rating Value for Money We expected the SanDisk Extreme Ducati Edition to win, but unexpectedly the Corsair Flash Voyager swept the title of the Best performance award in the ash storage category. The performance scores revealed that this drive has the fastest real world and synthetic read scores in its category. The ash drive is superbly built using rubber, thus making it resistant to shock and water. But wait, the drive has some disadvantagesthere is no cap retention, so you can lose the cap easily and the rubber body attracts dirt and lint quickly. It can be used vastly for storing media, and you can ll the entire drive in just 8 minutes. A USB extension and a neck strap cable are bundled. Data encryption software comes pre-loaded. Priced at a mere Rs 975, the cost works around to about Rs 250 per GB. The drive also carries a staggering 10 year lifetime warranty.VERDICT: Great quick storage and transfers between PCsthis drive is quite cheap and rugged for its performance.FOR: Fast transfers, 10 year warranty.AGAINST: Tough keeping it clean.Sandisk Cruzer Micro - 1 GB Specifications Capacity: 1 GB; Dimensions (WxHxD): 21x57.1x8mm; Weight: 10 g; USB: 2.0 Hi-Speed PriceRs 975ContactTirupati [email protected] WarrantyLifetime RATINGS Performance Features Build Quality Overall Rating Value for Money Shipped with U3 onboard, the 1 GB Cruzer Micro from SanDisk bagged the Best Value award purely based on the ratio of its features, performance and build quality against its price. With U3, you can carry your encrypted data without the headache of installing frequently used software on different computers. Be it games or documents, music or video, U3 is there for your disposal. You can download additional U3 compatible applications from the Internet which is the best feature of a ash drive. The Cruzer Micro has a beautifully built shell which has a retractable USB connector avoiding misplacement of the USB cap. You may use this drive to mainly carry round small documents and music as only one full length video can be stored on it. If you are looking for a cheaper drive with more capacity, opt for the Silicon Power Touch 4 GB (for around Rs 400 more), but you will have to compromise largely on features while gaining good performance.VERDICT: This is a well-built ash drive with the best of features and average speeds. FOR: U3 capability, good build qualityAGAINST: Expensive price per GB ratio.Transcend StoreJet 2.5 SATA Specifications Capacity: 250 GB; Dimensions (WxHxD): 80x13x129 mm; Weight: 175 g; USB: 2.0 Hi-Speed; HDD specs: SATA, 5400 RPM, 8MB Cache. PriceRs 9,000ContactMediaman Infotech Pvt Ltd Phone022-23823100 [email protected] Warranty2 Years RATINGS Performance Features Build Quality Overall Rating Value for Money Built using a metal body with average looks, the Transcend StoreJet 250 GB eventually won Best Performance for data transfer rates that almost every other drive in its category gave. It struck high data transfer speeds in real world multiple le tests. This drive is a good companion for your computer when it comes to backup needs. It is sleek, specically designed for ultra-portability and convenience. It comes bundled with a one-click data backup software. Tough competition came from contenders like Freecom ToughDrive Pink 160 GB and LaCie Mobile Hard drive 160 GB with respect to performance. But if looks are of your concern, with slight compromise on performance, features and price, take a look at the 250 GB Iomega eGo Portable Hard drive at Rs 2,690 extra. It has a superb build quality, looks awesome and features shock resistance. It also lacks the one touch backup button, but bundles a backup utility along with data encryption software.VERDICT: A sleek backup drive for your portable storage needs at a good price. FOR: Slim, user replaceable hard drive.AGAINST: None2.5 INCH FLASHEXTERNAL STORAGE COMPARISION HARDWAREMARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | 65Buffalo MiniStation - 80 GBSpecifications Capacity: 80 GB; Dimensions (WxHxD): 82x20x128 mm; Weight: 171 g; USB: 2.0 Hi-Speed; HDD specs: SATA, 5400 RPM, 8MB Cache. PriceRs 4,100ContactSupertron Electronics Ltd Phone011-41709020 [email protected] Warranty3 Years RATINGS Performance Features Build Quality Overall Rating Value for Money Seagate FreeAgent Pro Specifications Capacity: 320GB; Dimensions (WxHxD): 76x190x160 mm; Weight: 1.14 Kg; USB: 2.0 Hi-Speed; HDD specs: SATA, 7200 RPM, 8 MB Cache. PriceRs 6,500ContactFortune Marketing [email protected] Years RATINGS Performance Features Build Quality Overall Rating Ample features, performance, good build quality at the best price nally got this average looking 80 GB drive, the Buffalo MiniStation, to be the Best Value award winner in the 2.5-inch category. It features a wrap around USB cable so that you never misplace the USB cable. The chassis is built with shock resistance. The drive is bundled with Memeo Backup Software, which can be used for synchronizing your data, backups and data encryption for safety. Offered for Rs 1,400 extra, one would opt for the Seagate FreeAgent Go 160 GB which has similar features, same performance, but has a sexy look and twice the capacity. No doubt the Buffalo has a user replaceable hard drive which is not available on the Seagate FreeAgent Go. If extreme data safety is your necessity and price is a low factor, check out the 80 GB LaCie Safe Mobile Hard Drive which features a biometric nger print scanning section. The cost difference is around Rs. 3,150 only. VERDICT: Buy this drive if you are on a low budget and need a feature rich hard drive.FOR: Shock resistant design.AGAINST: Below average looks.Priced at merely Rs 6,500, the FreeAgent Pro 320 GB external storage drive from Seagate is a damn good looking cheap storage device one can have on the desktop. This low priced, feature-rich drive with above average performance and good build qualities made sure that the drive won the Best Value award in this category. The drive features a detachable port which can be interchanged if you would like to use the eSATA or the FireWire 400 interface by just removing one single screw. Sadly, Seagate has not bundled any eSATA cable with the unit, which means purchasing one from the market if you want to use the eSATA option. Use it for data backup or encryption with the FreeAgent software bundled in the drive. The closest competitor to this drive with better performance and features was the for its price. For as little as Rs 1,700 more, we would suggest buying the My Book Home edition 500 GB, as it performs almost twice as fast as the Seagate.VERDICT: The Seagate FreeAgent is the cheapest good looking drive one can nd.FOR: Massive 5 year tension free warranty.AGAINST: Unstable on the desktop. Freecom Hard Drive ProSpecifications Capacity: 400 GB; Dimensions (WxHxD): 180x52x150 mm; Weight: 1.48 Kg; USB: 2.0 Hi-Speed; HDD specs: SATA, 7200 RPM, 8MB Cache. PriceRs 16,500ContactJ S [email protected] year RATINGS Performance Features Build Quality Overall Rating The fastest of all drives in the 3.5-inch external storage category, the Freecom Hard Drive Pro was easily the Best Performance award winner since the last comparison done in March 2007. Though the drive has passable looks, this 400 GB storage device beat the rest of the contenders purely on performance using the eSATA interface. This interface doesnt have any bottlenecks and runs as fast as an internal SATA hard drive. You can actually load an OS and boot through it. This drive features a strong all rugged aluminum shell with some ventilation holes and two buttons (the power and one touch backup) in the front. The rear has an exhaust fan, an eSATA port and a standard USB connector. It ships along with a USB and eSATA cable, data backup, encryption and a drive restoration software called Acronis True Image. VERDICT: Spend Rs 3,000 more and get the My Book Studio Edition 1 TB, if your hunger for capacity is more than speed. If price & performance is necessary, then settle for Home Edition 500 GB. FOR: Faster speeds using eSATA.AGAINST: Poor looks, no rewire support.3.5 INCH 2.5 INCH 3.5 INCH1 2EXTERNAL STORAGE COMPARISON HARDWARE66 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008SpecScan* Prices are indicative and are subject to change, taxes extraCATEGORY FLASHName Corsair Flash Voyager Corsair Flash VoyagerContact Tirupati EnterprisesTirupati Enterprises Phone 9339207519 9339207519E-mail [email protected]@tirupati.net Price* Rs 975 Rs 2,150OVERALL RATINGSFeatures (30%)Build quality (20%)Performance (40%)Warranty (10%)Overall Score (out of 100) 34 33Value for moneyFEATURESCapacity (GB) 4 GB 8 GBDimensions (WxHxD) mm 24 x 75 x 12 24 x 75 x 12Weight 15 g 17 gInterfaceUSB 2.0 High SpeedFireWire 400 | FireWire 800 NA | NA NA | NAeSATA NA NAHard disk: Spindle speed | Buffer NA | NA NA | NAPower switch NA NAU3 capable | One-touch backup| NA| NASoftware featuresBackup (Selective | Incremental | Scheduled)|| || Data encryption | Secure partition| | Drive recoveryPackage contentsCables (USB extension | FireWire | eSATA)| NA | NA| NA | NAAux power cable NA NAVertical stand | Carry case | Carry strap NA ||NA || BUILD QUALITYQuality of shell Good GoodUse of metal in constructionUSB cap retentionShock resistantAesthetic appeal Average looking Average lookingPERFORMANCESyntheticEverest 2007Sequential read (MB/s) 33.40 33.40Sequential write (MB/s) 43.50 37.30Random read (MB/s) 8.73 8.64Random write (MB/s) 3.90 5.45SiSoft Sandra XII256 KB files (Read | Write) MB/s 29.48 | 5.54 28.23 | 5.642 MB files (Read | Write) MB/s 32.57 | 5.57 32.37 | 5.4764 MB files (Read | Write) MB/s 33.07 | 8.53 33.07 | 8.53Real worldSingle file read (MB/s) 32.26 32.26Single file write (MB/s) 8.13 8.20Multiple files read (MB/s) 26.32 25.64Multiple files write (MB/s) 2.75 2.76WARRANTYWarranty period (years) Lifetime LifetimePersonal TakeAnand Tuliani,[email protected] was contemplating whether to buy a 2.5-inch or a 3.5-inch external drive to store my ever-growing collection of movies, music, and photos. After weighing the pros and cons, Ive nally decided to go in for the 500 GB version of the Western Digital My Book Home. Initially I thought Id settle for a decent 160 GB 2.5-inch external drive that offers the lowest price per GB. But looking at the price-per-GB ratio and the features of the My Book Home, I couldnt help changing my mind. For me, storage space and speedy transfer rates are more important than portability. If I were to pick a portable hard drive, it would be none other than the 160 GB Seagate FreeAgent Go which offers a gigabyte for Rs 34. Being an Internet geek, I download a lot of movies and software. But my problem increases daily with additional les being downloaded. I think of buying an external storage drive for my house almost every week, but the constant fall of prices gets me worried. This month, I fortunately got a chance to lay my itchy hands on all the meaty drives in the Test Center and nally made my pick. I dont need speed, but need massive data storage space. I opted to buy the My Book Pro Edition 2 TB, but the price almost killed me. I nally settled for My Book Home edition 500 GB and decided to interchange the internal hard drives when I run out of space. As the drive is similar to the internal SATA drives of any desktop computer, it would cost just around Rs 4,500 more to get up to 1 TB space rather than spending 19,500 for a My Book Studio edition at 1 TB capacity.Francis [email protected] 50 10095226.561000 50 100952261003 4 5 6 7EXTERNAL STORAGE COMPARISION HARDWAREMARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | 67Corsair Flash Voyager Corsair Flash Voyager Corsair Flash Voyager Kingston DataTraveler SecureSanDisk Cruzer ContourTirupati EnterprisesTirupati EnterprisesTirupati EnterprisesKingston Technology Rashi Peripherals Pvt Ltd9339207519 9339207519 9339207519 1800-425-4515022-67090909 [email protected]@[email protected][email protected] [email protected] Rs 4,750 Rs 8,900 Rs 700 Rs 10,500 Rs 2,29933 31 31 30 28 16 GB 32 GB 2 GB 8 GB 4 GB24 x 75 x 12 24 x 75 x 12 24 x 75 x 12 22.2 x 78 x 12 23 x 73 x 1018 g 17 g 14 g 27 g 34 gNA | NA NA | NA NA | NA NA | NA NA | NANA NA NA NA NANA | NA NA | NA NA | NA NA | NA NA | NANA NA NA NA NA | NA| NA| NA| NA| NA || || || || || | | | | | | NA | NA| NA | NA| NA | NA| NA | NA| NA | NANA NA NA NA NANA ||NA ||NA ||NA ||NA || Good Good Good Very good Very goodAverage looking Average looking Average looking Good looking Awesome33.40 22.80 20.40 24.00 28.1033.90 22.40 25.90 25.90 33.507.88 20.50 8.04 12.70 18.006.71 10.60 1.92 7.74 10.9028.22 | 5.17 19.46 | 4.63 18.86 | 4.42 21.21 | 7.01 26.69 | 8.7132.4 | 5.87 21.8 | 5.3 19.7 | 6.63 23.4 | 6.6 27.8 | 13.533.07 | 7.47 22.4 | 7.47 20.27 | 7.47 23.47 | 9.6 27.73 | 1630.30 20.83 22.22 23.26 22.227.19 7.81 7.58 12.05 13.7025.64 18.87 20.41 20.00 18.521.90 2.12 1.42 7.63 5.99Lifetime Lifetime Lifetime 5 10 50 100952251000 50 100952201000 50 100952191000 50 10096524500 50 100156225108 9 10EXTERNAL STORAGE COMPARISON HARDWARE68 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008* Prices are indicative and are subject to change, taxes extraSpecScanCATEGORY FLASHName SanDisk Extreme Ducati EdTranscend Jetflash V10 Moser Baer SW 602CContact Rashi Peripherals Pvt Ltd Mediaman Infotech Pvt Ltdneoteric Infomatique LtdPhone 022-67090909022-23823100022-39828600 E-mail [email protected]@[email protected] Price* Rs 4,599 Rs 4,500 Rs 1,550OVERALL RATINGSFeatures (30%)Build quality (20%)Performance (40%)Warranty (10%)Overall Score (out of 100) 28 28 27Value for moneyFEATURESCapacity (GB) 4 GB 16 GB 2 GBDimensions (WxHxD) mm 20 x 80 x 18 21 x 64 x 10 19 x 56 x 11Weight 55 g 10 g 14 gInterfaceUSB 2.0 High Speed FireWire 400 | FireWire 800 NA | NA NA | NA NA | NAeSATA NA NA NAHard disk: Spindle speed | Buffer NA | NA NA | NA NA | NAPower switch NA NA NAU3 capable | One-touch backup| NA| NA| NASoftware featuresBackup (Selective | Incremental | Scheduled)|| || || Data encryption | Secure partition| | | Drive recovery Package contentsCables (USB extension | FireWire | eSATA)| NA | NA| NA | NA| NA | NAAux power cable NA NA NAVertical stand | Carry case | Carry strap NA ||NA ||NA || BUILD QUALITYQuality of shell Very good Good PoorUse of metal in construction USB cap retention Shock resistant Aesthetic appeal Awesome Good looking Passable looksPERFORMANCESyntheticEverest 2007Sequential read (MB/s) 25.60 26.40 27.10Sequential write (MB/s) 31.00 25.00 29.60Random read (MB/s) 21.30 20.30 4.13Random write (MB/s) 9.20 16.60 2.18SiSoft Sandra XII256 KB files (Read | Write) MB/s 22.91 | 8.01 22.91 | 4.52 13.34 | 2.22 MB files (Read | Write) MB/s 24.67 | 10.07 25.57 | 6.1 17.8 | 1.5364 MB files (Read | Write) MB/s 24.53 | 17.07 25.6 | 10.67 18.13 | 4.27Real worldSingle file read (MB/s) 23.26 25.00 22.22Single file write (MB/s) 19.61 12.20 3.98Multiple files read (MB/s) 18.18 22.22 16.67Multiple files write (MB/s) 7.52 2.60 1.34WARRANTYWarranty period (years) 1 3 Lifetime0 50 100136226.45100 50 100135524300 50 1004461710011 12 13 14 15EXTERNAL STORAGE COMPARISION HARDWAREMARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | 69Silicon Power Touch 212 Sandisk Cruzer Micro Kingston DataTraveler 100 Kingston DataTraveler mini migo Kingston DataTraveler mini funChip Tech IT Pvt. Ltd. Rashi Peripherals Pvt Ltd Kingston Technology Kingston Technology Kingston Technology080-41654050 022-670909091800-425-45151800-425-45151800-425-4515 [email protected] [email protected][email protected] [email protected] [email protected] 849 Rs 450 Rs 4,525 Rs 655 Rs 65523 22 21 21 21 4 GB 1 GB 8 GB 1 GB 1 GB18.5 x 57 x 8 21 x 57.1 x 8 22 x 60 x 9 17.8 x 36 x 10.2 19 x 38 x 88 g 10 g 11 g 5 g 5 gNA | NA NA | NA NA | NA NA | NA NA | NANA NA NA NA NANA | NA NA | NA NA | NA NA | NA NA | NANA NA NA NA NA | NA| NA| NA| NA| NA || || || || || | | | | | | NA | NA| NA | NA| NA | NA| NA | NA| NA | NANA NA NA NA NANA ||NA ||NA ||NA ||NA || Very good Very good Good Good GoodGood looking Good looking Average looking Good looking Good looking20.30 18.30 13.60 12.40 12.2023.10 8.54 13.90 12.30 11.9010.10 7.24 5.73 3.73 4.326.91 1.67 4.00 4.02 4.1617.96 | 5.58 16.58 | 3.23 12.09 | 2.26 11.44 | 2.57 11.61 | 2.4119.07 | 7.5 17.23 | 4.9 13.1 | 2.97 12.03 | 2.77 11.97 | 2.6319.2 | 9.6 17.07 | 6.4 12.8 | 5.33 11.73 | 3.2 11.73 | 4.2717.24 16.67 12.99 11.36 15.1510.00 13.89 5.18 3.52 4.0016.13 6.58 10.64 10.87 17.863.33 3.52 1.29 2.65 2.503 1 5 5 50 50 10046018300 50 100184714100 50 10055211500 50 100104211500 50 1006421450EXTERNAL STORAGE COMPARISON HARDWARE70 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008* Prices are indicative and are subject to change, taxes extra * Prices are indicative and are subject to change, taxes extraSpecScan16 17 18CATEGORY FLASHName Kingston DataTraveler 101 LE Buffalo RUF2-J2GS Transcend Jetflash V30Contact Kingston Technology Supertron Electronics LimitedMediaman Infotech Pvt Ltd Phone 1800-425-4515011-41709020022-23823100 E-mail [email protected] [email protected]@mediamangroup.com Price* Rs 1,200 Rs 747 Rs 2,000OVERALL RATINGSFeatures (30%)Build quality (20%)Performance (40%)Warranty (10%)Overall Score (out of 100) 19 19 17Value for moneyFEATURESCapacity (GB) 2 GB 2 GB 8 GBDimensions (WxHxD) mm 16 x 54 x 9 20 x 55 x 8 16.5 x 60 x 8.1Weight 12 g 9 g 7 gInterfaceUSB 2.0 High Speed FireWire 400 | FireWire 800 NA | NA NA | NA NA | NAeSATA NA NA NAHard disk: Spindle speed | Buffer NA | NA NA | NA NA | NAPower switch NA NA NAU3 capable | One-touch backup| NA| NA| NASoftware featuresBackup (Selective | Incremental | Scheduled)|| || || Data encryption | Secure partition| | | Drive recovery Package contentsCables (USB extension | FireWire | eSATA)| NA | NA| NA | NA| NA | NAAux power cable NA NA NAVertical stand | Carry case | Carry strap NA ||NA ||NA || BUILD QUALITYQuality of shell Below average Very good GoodUse of metal in construction USB cap retention Shock resistant Aesthetic appeal Passable looks Good looking Average lookingPERFORMANCESyntheticEverest 2007Sequential read (MB/s) 23.30 8.38 14.80Sequential write (MB/s) 21.90 9.70 15.20Random read (MB/s) 2.26 2.19 6.11Random write (MB/s) 2.06 1.62 3.27SiSoft Sandra XII256 KB files (Read | Write) MB/s 14.24 | 1.01 8.13 | 0.44 13.77 | 3.312 MB files (Read | Write) MB/s 15.63 | 1.7 8.33 | 1.3 14.8 | 3.1764 MB files (Read | Write) MB/s 16 | 2.13 8.53 | 2.13 14.93 | 5.33Real worldSingle file read (MB/s) 15.15 8.77 14.49Single file write (MB/s) 2.31 2.32 5.18Multiple files read (MB/s) 14.08 8.85 13.51Multiple files write (MB/s) 1.14 0.41 0.97WARRANTYWarranty period (years) 5 3 30 50 10053813500 50 10011477300 50 10011291330EXTERNAL STORAGE COMPARISION HARDWAREMARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | 7119 20 21 22 23Toshiba TransMemory Transcend Jetflash V30 Tech-com Pendrive Transcend Jetflash V30 Transcend Jetflash V30Abacus Peripherals Pvt Ltd Mediaman Infotech Pvt LtdShree Sagarmatha Distrubutors Mediaman Infotech Pvt LtdMediaman Infotech Pvt Ltd 022-40914613 022-23823100011-26428541 022-23823100022-23823100 [email protected]@[email protected] [email protected]@mediamangroup.com Rs 600 Rs 1,500 Rs 850 Rs 800 Rs 50017 15 14 14 14 2 GB 4 GB 4 GB 2 GB 1 GB17.5 x 62.5 x 8.5 16.5 x 60 x 8.1 17 x 69 x 8 16.5 x 60 x 8.1 16.5 x 60 x 8.19 g 7 g 8 g 7 g 7 gNA | NA NA | NA NA | NA NA | NA NA | NANA NA NA NA NANA | NA NA | NA NA | NA NA | NA NA | NANA NA NA NA NA | NA| NA| NA| NA| NA || || || || || | | | | | | NA | NA| NA | NA| NA | NA| NA | NA| NA | NANA NA NA NA NANA ||NA ||NA ||NA ||NA || Average Average Below average Average AverageAverage looking Average looking Passable looks Average looking Average looking12.40 13.20 10.70 13.10 13.0016.90 14.30 11.00 16.10 12.204.30 8.06 5.62 6.90 3.561.66 4.06 3.04 2.78 1.6211.88 | 3.22 12.72 | 2.9 10.02 | 3.33 12.41 | 3.83 12.55 | 2.5712.17 | 3.73 13.27 | 3.1 10.47 | 3.47 12.87 | 5.37 12.97 | 3.1311.73 | 4.27 11.73 | 6.4 10.67 | 5.33 12.8 | 6.4 12.8 | 3.211.90 14.08 9.09 12.50 11.114.35 6.49 5.13 6.54 3.5210.10 12.99 9.26 7.81 10.871.94 3.29 2.30 1.41 2.533 3 3 3 30 50 100162411300 50 10062414300 50 100131810300 50 10062411300 50 1006241130EXTERNAL STORAGE COMPARISON HARDWARE72 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008* Prices are indicative and are subject to change, taxes extra * Prices are indicative and are subject to change, taxes extraSpecScan24 25 26CATEGORY FLASH 2.5 INCHName Tech-com Pendrive Maxtor OneTouch 4 Mini LaCie RuggedContact Shree Sagarmatha Distrubutors Supertron Electronics Ltd neoteric infomatique ltdPhone 011-26428541 033-22131221 022-39828600 E-mail [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Price* Rs 350 Rs 6,000 Rs 9,750OVERALL RATINGSFeatures (30%)Build quality (20%)Performance (40%)Warranty (10%)Overall Score (out of 100) 14 43 42Value for moneyFEATURESCapacity (GB) 1 GB 160 GB 160 GBDimensions (WxHxD) mm 17 x 69 x 8 82 x 17 x 125 93 x 26 x 142 Weight 8 g 171 g 254 gInterfaceUSB 2.0 High Speed FireWire 400 | FireWire 800 NA | NA| | eSATA NAHard disk: Spindle speed | Buffer NA | NA 5400 rpm | 8 MB 5400 rpm | 8 MBPower switch NAU3 capable | One-touch backup| NA| | Software featuresBackup (Selective | Incremental | Scheduled)|| || || Data encryption | Secure partition| | | Drive recovery Package contentsCables (USB extension | FireWire | eSATA)| NA | NA|| || Aux power cable NAVertical stand | Carry case | Carry strap NA || || || BUILD QUALITYQuality of shell Below average Good Very goodUse of metal in construction USB cap retention Shock resistant Aesthetic appeal Passable looks Good looking AwesomePERFORMANCESyntheticEverest 2007Sequential read (MB/s) 10.70 33.40 27.70Sequential write (MB/s) 10.70 30.50 27.50Random read (MB/s) 2.83 31.40 31.30Random write (MB/s) 1.44 29.60 31.10SiSoft Sandra XII256 KB files (Read | Write) MB/s 10.07 | 2.2 31.57 | 23.66 35.75 | 13.642 MB files (Read | Write) MB/s 10.3 | 2.6 26.27 | 28.93 32.63 | 20.5364 MB files (Read | Write) MB/s 10.67 | 3.2 33.07 | 29.87 35.5 | 20.27Real worldSingle file read (MB/s) 9.09 32.26 29.41Single file write (MB/s) 2.81 30.30 30.30Multiple files read (MB/s) 8.93 21.74 21.74Multiple files write (MB/s) 1.95 21.74 20.00WARRANTYWarranty period (years) 3 5 20 50 10013189300 50 100306241500 50 10025853920EXTERNAL STORAGE COMPARISION HARDWAREMARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | 7327 28 29 30 31Freecom ToughDrive ProFreecom ToughDrive Pro Transcend StoreJet 2.5 SATA Freecom ToughDrive Pro U&FFreecom ToughDrive PinkRashi Peripherals Pvt Ltd J S Equipments Mediaman Infotech Pvt LtdJ S Equipments Rashi Peripherals Pvt Ltd022-67090814 022-30944054 022-23823100022-30944054 022- [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]@vsnl.com [email protected] 5,810 Rs 12,500 Rs 9,000 Rs 24,000 Rs 7,07042 40 39 39 39 120 GB 160 GB 250 GB 250 GB 160 GB84 x 20 x 142 84 x 20 x 142 80 x 13 x 129 85 x 22 x 153 84 x 20 x 142211 g 215 g 175 g 264 g 216 g | | | | | 5400 rpm | 8 MB 5400 rpm | 8 MB 5400 rpm | 8 MB 5400 rpm | 8 MB 5400 rpm | 8 MB | | | | | || || || || || | | | | | || || || || || || || || || || Very good Very good Very good Very good Very goodAwesome Awesome Average looking Awesome Awesome42.70 32.00 33.30 42.90 42.7028.20 29.60 32.90 33.90 33.1025.50 25.60 29.40 25.60 29.5027.30 26.00 29.50 23.60 29.9025.75 | 15.92 23.8 | 15.96 30.57 | 22.07 26.52 | 12.26 26.42 | 17.0532.27 | 23.87 29.53 | 23.1 29.9 | 27.27 36.23 | 16.93 32.27 | 24.4333.07 | 28.8 29.87 | 25.6 33.07 | 25.6 38.4 | 18.13 33.07 | 26.6733.33 30.30 32.26 33.33 33.3328.57 27.03 28.57 28.57 28.5723.26 21.28 23.26 18.52 22.2217.54 16.67 23.26 16.67 17.242 1 2 1 20 50 100258340200 50 100258337100 50 100266442200 50 100218338100 50 1001483402032 33 34EXTERNAL STORAGE COMPARISON HARDWARE74 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008* Prices are indicative and are subject to change, taxes extra * Prices are indicative and are subject to change, taxes extraSpecScanCATEGORY 2.5 INCHName LaCie Mobile Hard Drive Buffalo MiniStationLaCie Mobile DiskContact neoteric infomatique ltd Supertron Electronics Ltdneoteric infomatique ltdPhone 022-39828600011-41709020022-39828600 E-mail [email protected]@[email protected] Price* Rs 5,725 Rs 4,100 Rs 8,125OVERALL RATINGSFeatures (30%)Build quality (20%)Performance (40%)Warranty (10%)Overall Score (out of 100) 39 38 37Value for moneyFEATURESCapacity (GB) 160 GB 80 GB 120 GBDimensions (WxHxD) mm 77 x 18 x 128 82 x 20 x 128 82 x 16 x 130Weight 171 g 166 g 186 gInterfaceUSB 2.0 High Speed FireWire 400 | FireWire 800| | | eSATA Hard disk: Spindle speed | Buffer 5400 rpm | 8 MB 5400 rpm | 8 MB 5400 rpm | 8 MBPower switch U3 capable | One-touch backup| | | Software featuresBackup (Selective | Incremental | Scheduled)|| || || Data encryption | Secure partition| | | Drive recovery Package contentsCables (USB extension | FireWire | eSATA)|| || || Aux power cable Vertical stand | Carry case | Carry strap|| || || BUILD QUALITYQuality of shell Very good Very good Very goodUse of metal in construction USB cap retention Shock resistant Aesthetic appeal Awesome Average looking Good lookingPERFORMANCESyntheticEverest 2007Sequential read (MB/s) 32.50 33.00 42.50Sequential write (MB/s) 29.50 29.90 31.80Random read (MB/s) 31.20 31.30 31.20Random write (MB/s) 30.70 29.60 30.40SiSoft Sandra XII256 KB files (Read | Write) MB/s 26.99 | 12.4 26.82 | 18.93 27.37 | 16.82 MB files (Read | Write) MB/s 35.1 | 19.3 26.77 | 18.47 32.3 | 21.2364 MB files (Read | Write) MB/s 36.27 | 21.33 33.07 | 20.27 33.07 | 23.47Real worldSingle file read (MB/s) 31.25 31.25 35.71Single file write (MB/s) 29.41 30.30 28.57Multiple files read (MB/s) 22.22 21.28 22.22Multiple files write (MB/s) 17.86 22.22 16.39WARRANTYWarranty period (years) 2 3 20 50 100247039200 50 100186740300 50 1001867402036 37 38 39 35EXTERNAL STORAGE COMPARISION HARDWAREMARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | 75Freecom FHD-2 Pro LaCie Safe Mobile Hard Drive Seagate FreeAgent Go Iomega eGo Portable Hard Drive Western Digital PassportJ S Equipments neoteric infomatique ltd Fortune Marketingneoteric infomatique ltd Western Digital022-30944054 022-39828600011-26414468 [email protected] [email protected]@fortune-it.com [email protected]@wdc.comRs 9,750 Rs 7,250 Rs 5,500 Rs 11,690 Rs 5,50037 35 35 34 34 120 GB 80 GB 160 GB 250 GB 160 GB80 x 22 x 13582 x 26 x 140 98 x 18 x 123 88 x 20 x 136 79.78 x 15 x 129.78170 g 232 g 179 g 205 g 105 g | | | | | 5400 rpm | 8 MB 5400 rpm | 8 MB 5400 rpm | 8 MB 5400 rpm | 8 MB 5400 rpm | 8 MB | | | | | || || || || || | | | | | || || || || || || || || || || Very good Very good Very good Very good Very goodAwesome Good looking Awesome Awesome Awesome33.40 31.20 30.90 42.60 33.3028.50 27.10 29.70 32.50 32.6031.30 29.30 28.90 31.20 31.2028.30 26.80 26.50 30.90 30.8029.04 | 16.65 23.46 | 18.14 29.5 | 20.58 22.67 | 14.16 29.09 | 21.8921.7 | 18.27 30.03 | 23.83 29.63 | 25.7 30.37 | 20.47 27.83 | 20.3330.93 | 25.6 30.93 | 27.73 29.87 | 27.73 32 | 24.53 33.07 | 21.3331.25 31.25 27.78 32.26 26.3230.30 28.57 25.64 29.41 25.6422.22 21.28 20.83 19.61 21.2815.87 15.87 21.28 16.13 20.411 2 5 1 20 50 100305838100 50 100176737200 50 100105838500 50 100117039100 50 1001545385040 41 42EXTERNAL STORAGE COMPARISON HARDWARE76 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008* Prices are indicative and are subject to change, taxes extra * Prices are indicative and are subject to change, taxes extraSpecScanCATEGORY 2.5 INCH 3.5 INCHName Freecom Mobile Drive Classic Freecom Hard Drive Pro LaCie D2 QuadraContact Rashi Peripherals Pvt Ltd J S Equipments neoteric infomatique ltdPhone 022-67090814 022-30944054 022-39828600 E-mail [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Price* Rs 5,670 Rs 16,500 Rs 9,790OVERALL RATINGSFeatures (30%)Build quality (20%)Performance (40%)Warranty (10%)Overall Score (out of 100) 29 66 65Value for moneyFEATURESCapacity (GB) 160 GB 400 GB 320 GBDimensions (WxHxD) mm 83 x 21 x 138 180 x 52 x 150 172 x 44 x 160Weight 193 g 1.48 Kg 1.43 KgInterfaceUSB 2.0 High Speed FireWire 400 | FireWire 800| | | eSATA Hard disk: Spindle speed | Buffer 5400 rpm | 8 MB 7200 rpm | 8 MB 7200 rpm | 8 MBPower switch U3 capable | One-touch backup| | | Software featuresBackup (Selective | Incremental | Scheduled)|| || || Data encryption | Secure partition| | | Drive recovery Package contentsCables (USB extension | FireWire | eSATA)|| || || Aux power cable Vertical stand | Carry case | Carry strap|| || || BUILD QUALITYQuality of shell Very good Very good Very goodUse of metal in construction USB cap retention Shock resistant Aesthetic appeal Average looking Passable looks Good lookingPERFORMANCESyntheticEverest 2007Sequential read (MB/s) 42.60 75.60 4.16Sequential write (MB/s) 33.10 61.10 4.06Random read (MB/s) 29.00 75.70 4.03Random write (MB/s) 29.20 61.30 3.96SiSoft Sandra XII256 KB files (Read | Write) MB/s 26.59 | 16.64 50.68 | 73.93 76.76 | 74.392 MB files (Read | Write) MB/s 32.3 | 24.57 53.07 | 72.07 63.93 | 71.6764 MB files (Read | Write) MB/s 33.07 | 27.73 68.27 | 72.53 74.67 | 76.8Real worldSingle file read (MB/s) 33.33 71.43 76.92Single file write (MB/s) 28.57 71.43 66.67Multiple files read (MB/s) 21.74 58.82 62.50Multiple files write (MB/s) 17.54 50.00 50.00WARRANTYWarranty period (years) 2 1 30 50 10015240200 50 100486196100 50 1005667803044 45 46 47 43MARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | 77Western Digital My Book Studio Western Digital My Book Home Seagate FreeAgent Pro Seagate FreeAgent Pro Seagate FreeAgent ProWestern Digital Western Digital Fortune MarketingFortune MarketingFortune Marketing 9321029204 9321029204 011-26414468 011-26414468 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] 19,500 Rs 8,200 Rs 9,500 Rs 6,500 Rs 14,00060 55 52 51 51 1000 GB 500 GB 500 GB 320 GB 750 GB55 x 166 x 135 55 x 166 x 135 76 x 190 x 160 76 x 190 x 160 76 x 190 x 1601.18 Kg 1.08 Kg 1.10 Kg 1.14 Kg 1.25 Kg | | | | | 7200 rpm | 16 MB 7200 rpm | 16 MB 7200 rpm | 8 MB 7200 rpm | 8 MB 7200 rpm | 16 MB | | | | | || || || || || | | | | | || || || || || || || || || || Very good Very good Very good Very good Very goodGood looking Good looking Awesome Awesome Awesome42.50 77.30 56.80 56.80 55.8054.40 58.00 37.50 37.30 37.1071.40 77.00 60.20 54.40 40.2055.60 57.80 33.30 35.60 33.2082.74 | 28.17 74.05 | 22.83 47.28 | 9.85 45.86 | 9.07 46.32 | 18.8854.43 | 44.17 54.2 | 36.07 52.9 | 33.9 49.63 | 21.07 47.77 | 28.0367.2 | 48 76.8 | 44.8 53.33 | 34.13 55.47 | 33.07 55.47 | 3266.67 66.67 35.71 34.48 35.7166.67 66.67 38.46 34.48 31.2545.45 43.48 27.03 27.03 26.3241.67 34.48 25.64 27.03 25.005 5 5 5 50 50 100464282500 50 100294282500 50 100407053500 50 100387051500 50 1004270495048 49 50EXTERNAL STORAGE COMPARISON HARDWARE78 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008* Prices are indicative and are subject to change, taxes extra * Prices are indicative and are subject to change, taxes extraSpecScanCATEGORY 3.5 INCHName Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus Maxtor OneTouch 4 Western Digital My Book ProContact Supertron Electronics Ltd Supertron Electronics Ltd Western DigitalPhone 033-22131221 033-22131221 9321029204E-mail [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]* Rs 11,600 Rs 10,800 Rs 40,000OVERALL RATINGSFeatures (30%)Build quality (20%)Performance (40%)Warranty (10%)Overall Score (out of 100) 49 45 43Value for moneyFEATURESCapacity (GB) 750 GB 750 GB 2000 GBDimensions (WxHxD) mm 63 x 171 x 150 63 x 171 x 150 105 x 175 x 158Weight 1.22 Kg 1.13 Kg 2.58 KgInterfaceUSB 2.0 High Speed FireWire 400 | FireWire 800| | | eSATA Hard disk: Spindle speed | Buffer 7200 rpm | 16 MB 7200 rpm | 16 MB 7200 rpm | 16 MBPower switch U3 capable | One-touch backup| | | Software featuresBackup (Selective | Incremental | Scheduled)|| || || Data encryption | Secure partition| | | Drive recovery Package contentsCables (USB extension | FireWire | eSATA)|| || || Aux power cable Vertical stand | Carry case | Carry strap|| || || BUILD QUALITYQuality of shell Very good Very good Very goodUse of metal in construction USB cap retention Shock resistant Aesthetic appeal Good looking Good looking Good lookingPERFORMANCESyntheticEverest 2007Sequential read (MB/s) 33.40 33.40 31.30Sequential write (MB/s) 33.30 33.30 31.20Random read (MB/s) 31.30 31.40 27.90Random write (MB/s) 31.30 31.30 27.80SiSoft Sandra XII256 KB files (Read | Write) MB/s 33.02 | 14.49 30.44 | 14.4 28.29 | 16.482 MB files (Read | Write) MB/s 35.13 | 24.57 23.7 | 28.6 26.5 | 21.464 MB files (Read | Write) MB/s 38.4 | 25.6 33.07 | 29.87 29.87 | 22.4Real worldSingle file read (MB/s) 32.26 30.30 29.41Single file write (MB/s) 30.30 28.57 25.64Multiple files read (MB/s) 25.64 26.32 24.39Multiple files write (MB/s) 25.00 24.39 20.00WARRANTYWarranty period (years) 5 5 50 50 100456744500 50 100326743500 50 1004842385052 53 54 55 51EXTERNAL STORAGE COMPARISION HARDWAREMARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | 79Western Digital My Book Pro Western Digital My Book Premium Freecom Hard Drive Western Digital My Book Essential Iomega Desktop Hard DriveWestern Digital Western Digital Rashi Peripherals Pvt.ltd Western Digital neoteric infomatique ltd9321029204 9321029204 022-67090814 9321029204 022-39828600 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Rs 9,200 Rs 8,500 Rs 8,120 Rs 7,200 Rs 5,95043 38 38 33 29 500 GB 500 GB 500 GB 500 GB 250 GB58 x 174 x 140 58 x 174 x 140 116 x 38 x 201 55 x 166 x 135 122 x 135 x 2221.20 Kg 1.29 Kg 1.20 Kg 1.06 Kg 1.19 Kg | | | | | 7200 rpm | 16 MB 7200 rpm | 16 MB 7200 rpm | 16 MB 7200 rpm | 16 MB 7200 rpm | 8 MB | | | | | || || || || || | | | | | || || || || || || || || || || Very good Very good Very good Very good AverageGood looking Good looking Passable looks Good looking Ugly31.60 31.50 32.30 33.30 31.2031.20 31.00 32.30 33.00 30.8028.20 28.00 30.60 31.20 29.5027.80 27.80 30.60 31.10 29.0027.86 | 16.9 28.37 | 16.48 17.3 | 10.98 32.13 | 21.29 28.99 | 11.4326.57 | 20.3 26.5 | 20.77 27.5 | 23.3 30.13 | 25.63 23.63 | 22.1330.93 | 21.33 30.93 | 20.27 32 | 28.8 33.07 | 26.67 30.93 | 23.4725.64 29.41 32.26 30.30 29.4126.32 26.32 27.03 29.41 27.7824.39 24.39 20.83 26.32 24.3920.41 21.28 13.89 23.26 17.245 5 3 5 10 50 100474238500 50 100304239500 50 100266137300 50 10094243500 50 10010483810MARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | 81 SMS us!Story code:HPM to 57007The New Midrange MonsterThe mid-range market is about to see a major shakeup, with the 9600 GT that delivers high-end performance at a mid-range price.BY JAMSHED AVARI AND ANAND TULIANI Pramod JadhavE Even for the most hardcore computer enthusiasts, GPU nomenclature is confusing. Graphics cards are usually named and sold on the basis of the GPUs they use, but there are just so many models and variants available today that its easy to get lost in a maze of alphanumerical product names and sufxes. Some cards come with custom coolers, some with different sets of ports, and some running at higher speeds than rated. To add to our misery, multiple GPU generations from each of the two major manufacturers, Nvidia and AMD, exist in the market simultaneously and compete with each other at the same price point. Today, we see the launch of Nvidias rst 9-series GPU, the mid-range GeForce 9600 GT. Its the rst of a new generation, but its still going to t between the 8500 and 8800 GPUs. Nvidia promises at least a hundred percent increase in performance over its predecessor, the 8600 series. Its an impressive claim, more so because thats the kind of performance we expect to see from the current generation of high-end cards. Well run our XFX-branded 9600 GT card through our usual series graphics torture teststo see whether or not this new 9-series part lives up to this claim. Then, well evaluate its performance and price to see how it ts into Nvidias product lineup and how it fares against its competition from AMD, the impressive 3850 and 3870 GPUs.The GPUThe 9600 GT chip is codenamed G94, putting it in the same class as the G92 that powers the recently-released GeForce 8800 GT and refreshed GTS 512 parts. These GPUs incorporate a number of improvements at the silicone level, as compared to the rst generation of stream processors in earlier GeForce 8-series GPUs. Nvidia is touting a20 percent improvement in overall performance, thus allowing fewer stream processors to runat a higher clock speed and still drastically improve performance.PRODUCT OF THE MONTH HARDWARE82 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008The GeForce 9600 GT uses 64 second-generation stream processors running at 1625 MHz, supported by 512 MB of GDDR3 RAM on a 256-bit bus. The signicant feature here is the fact that Nvidia has upgraded its mid-range cards to 512 MB, up from the 256 MB that the last few generations have shipped with as standard. This is a reection of the changing times, and more specically the fact that gamers with mid-range budgets now expect to be able to play games at high resolutions with high quality settings. Apart from this, the 9600 GT also supports Nvidia PureVideo HD, for high-denition video decode acceleration. Improvements to this technology include Dynamic Contrast Adjustment which claims to analyze each individual frame of a movie clip (up to 30 fps) and adjust the contrast on the y if the exposure needs it. Dynamic Color Enhancement claims to isolate and improve skin tones in frames, and Dual-Stream Decode allows the GPU to decode two simultaneous HD video streams. These three features arent exclusive to the 9600 GT though; owners of 8800 GT and GTS 512 cards will see these options enabled on their cards with a driver update this month.Inexplicably, theres no support for DirectX 10.1, a feature that AMDs been trumpeting in its 3xxx series cards. This new standard doesnt offer much more than incremental updates, but it might be a feature you miss in the future when newer games start taking advantage of it.The GPU supports analog, dual-link DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort output. Its up to individual brands and vendors to decide which ports their graphics cards will support, so be careful if youre buying one, since versions of this card with different outputs will be available. High Denition Digital Content Protection (HDCP) is incorporated, for full-quality playback of protected HD content on Blu-ray or HD-DVD media. Our XFX 9600 GT sample card sticks to Nvidias reference design, with two DVI ports, an analog TV out, and the standard single-slot cooler. The cooler is a smooth black enclosure that covers the entire surface of the card. Its almost exactly like that of the 8800 GT, except for a more curved rear and a much larger fan. Theres a 6-pin PCIe power connector pokes out of the heatsink, and a single SLI connector nger in its usual place near the backplate. A rather bland-looking XFX sticker is the sole differentiating feature on this card. The retail package includes a driver CD, a couple of pamphlets on installing and cooling the card, and an amusing hotel-GeForce 9600 GT SpecificationsTransistor count 505 millionFabrication process 65 nmStream Processors 64Core Clock (MHz) 650 MHzShader Clock (MHz) 1625 MHzMemory Clock (MHz) 900 MHzMemory Amount 512MBMemory Interface 256-bitMemory Bandwidth (GB/sec) 57.6Texture Fill Rate (billion/sec) 20.8HDCP support YesHDMI/DisplayPort SupportedForm Factor Single slotInterface PCIe 2.0 x16Power Connector 1x 6-pinMax Power Consumption 95 WattsThe 9600 GT cooler makes direct contact with the GPU core, the RAM chips and the power circuitry.The GeForce 9600 GT has a wide array of features.The 65-nanometer in all its glory, surrounded by 512 MB of GDDR3RAM for gaming at higher resolutions with more effects turned on.PRODUCT OF THE MONTH HARDWARE84 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008style Im Gaming, Do Not Disturb door hanger. For connectivity, XFX includes a 6-pin PCIe power adapter, an S-video cable, YPbPr component video dongle, and a single DVI to VGA adapter. Theres no sign of an HDMI adapter or any bundled gamesnot dealbreakers, but XFX should have included these.Test resultsWe benchmarked the 9600 GT using an Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 on an ASUS Maximus Formula X38-chipset based motherboard. We used 2 GB of DDR3 RAM running at 1066 MHz, with two 10,000 RPM Western Digital Raptor 740GDs in RAID 0. This kind of a conguration will completely eliminate all bottlenecks, squeezing an insane amount of power out of the GPU.Throughout our tests, the card ran superbly cool and quiet throughout our tests. Even overclocked, the core temperature barely went above 46 degrees C, and the fan was nowhere near as loud as some of the dustbusters weve seen in the past.Benchmark results at stock speeds were just about where we expected them to be. In a nutshell, the card outclasses the 8600GTS by a massive margin, but still trails slightly behind the 8800 GT. Its great to see games playable on a mid-range card with the AA and image quality settings pumped up a bit. This is exactly the positioning Nvidia wants, having rst raised the bar at the bottom of the high-end and now matching it at the top of the mid-range. Its also exactly where there used to be a pretty large gap in their product lineup which AMD has recently managed to exploit with its 3850 and 3870 cards.The 8600 GTS will live on for some time, moving into a lower price bracket (its already selling for around Rs 8,000 and that will probably go down further). The 8800 GT will be the next step up, at around Rs 14,000. AMDs offerings cant quite match the 9600 GT in terms of price or performance. Our XFX card comes with an MRP of Rs 13,990 which is quite unattractive compared to the 8800 GT, but were expecting it to sell for a street price of around Rs 10,000which would be a very, very sweet spot indeed. Nvidia has stuck another decisive blow, and we cant wait to see what the high-end cards in the 9-series will be capable of when we get our hands on them in the nextfew months. [email protected] [email protected] 8600 GTS will live on for some me, moving into a lower price bracket ts already selling for around Rs 8,000 nd that will probably go down further). The 8800 GT will be the next step up, ataround Rs 14,000. AMDs offerings cant quite match the 9600 GT in terms of jamshed.avari@chip india.com [email protected] resultsPerformanceSapphire Radeon HD 3850 - 512 MBGeCube Radeon HD 3870 - 512 MBZebronics 8800 GT - 512 MBNvidia GeForce 9600 GTGeForce 9600 GT OverclockedOC Increase percent3DMark 06SM 2.0 4080 4576 5234 4560 4681 2.65SM 3.0 4354 4990 4979 4236 4793 13.15FEAR1280x1024 - High 2xAA 91 99 125 88 104 18.181600x1200 - Max 4xAA 54 62 70 65 77 18.46Call of Juarez1280x1024 - Balanced 2xAA 24.9 40.4 26.7 23.1 25.7 11.261680x1050 - Low 4xAA 25.5 29.6 30 17.4 19.3 10.921920x1200 - Low 2xAA 24.3 28.4 30.1 17.3 19.3 11.56Crysis1280x1024 - Medium 44.49 50.1 61.78 53.57 56.33 5.151680x1050 - Medium 35.39 40.08 48.43 40.64 42.98 5.761920x1080 - Medium 31.26 35.51 41.98 35.33 37.23 5.38Temperature after benching 77 50 50 46 46 46PRODUCT OF THE MONTH HARDWARE86 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008Every few months, CHIP offers you a market overview of all available CPUs and graphics cards. We spend a lot of time, money and effort to test all these new products and research all prices from scratch. This allows us to track every single development. Peoples PenrynEver since its launch, the QX9650 has been the top performer. Intel is now launching another Penryn-based series, marketed as Core 2 Duo E8xxx. These CPUs have two processor cores 6 MB cache, 410 million transistors and a maximum power loss of 65 Watts.Those who require full performance, e.g. gamers or even photo and video experts belong to the target group of the E8000 CPU. Performance is excellent for the price. If you still need more, you can upgrade the dual-core CPU for a quad-core laterwhen it becomes considerably cheaper after some price cuts. Until then, two CPU cores with a fast clock rate would denitely give you better results than four slower cores even for video encoding.Buy or waitYou can expect these processors to be available soon. Intel wont take too long to introduce affordable quad-core Penryns after the QX9650; probably in the rst quarter of the year itself. In the second quarter of 2008, Intel wants to convert its E2000 Pentium and Celeron processors from 65 nm to 45 nm. [email protected] CPU-GPU GuideIntel extends its new processor family Penryn with the E8000 seriesand nobody else can offer this kind of performance at such an outstanding price. BY ANDY ILMBERGER & ANAND TULIANIIntel: CPU production from 1971 to 2011Production in nm10,000 3,000 1,500 1,000 600 350 250 180 130 90 6545 32 22Year 1971 1978 1982 1986 1994 1994 1998 1999 2001 2004 2006 2007 2009 2011Processor core 4004 8086 80286 i386 DX i486 DX4 Pentium Pentium II Pentium III Pentium IV Pentium IV Pentium D Core 2 8/9000 Core 2 ? ?Codename - - - - - P54C Deschutes Coppermine Northwood Prescott Presler Penryn Nehalem ?Number of cores 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 & 4 ? ?Clock frequency 740 KHz 10 MHz 12,5 MHz 33 MHz 100 MHz 200 MHz 450 MHz 1.133 MHz 3.400 MHz 3.600 MHz 3.600 MHz 3.200 MHz ? ?Transistors2,300 29,000 134,000 275,000 1.6 million 3.2 million 9 million 28.1 million 55 million 125 million 376 million 410 / 820 m ? ?5007NEWFEATURE HARDWAREMARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | 87Technical specifications BenchmarksCore code nameSocket typeNo. of CPU coresClock speed (GHz)L2-cache (MB)System connectionManufacturing process (nm)No. of transistors (Million)Max power loss (TDP) (W)PCMark05 CPU (Points)Doom III 1024x768 (fps)Video Encode Gordian Knot (sec)Performance standardized to 100 INDEXDESKTOP CPUsPrice-performance standardized to 100Higher the betterCinebench 2003 max CPUs (sec)Overview of desktop CPUsOFFICE & INTERNET: Excel, Word, surng, music and high-resolution lm materialevery CPU introduced here offers excellent performance. MULTIMEDIA & ALL-ROUNDER: DVD recording or playing HD videos up to 1080i require powerbut not too much. Note that there will be high power usage for silent cooling.VIDEO & IMAGE EDITING: Touching up of photos, editing and encoding videos, sprucing up soundthese CPUs do all this within minutes. You can very well enjoy playing games with it as well.POWER-USER & GAMER: Multimedia specialists, 3D renderers and hardcore gamers look for a processor belonging to this class. g p g g pRankProcessorPower User & Gamer POWER-USER & PLAYER1 Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 Yorkfield 775 4 3.000 12.288 FSB1333 45 820 130 9699 128.1 249 15.2 100.0 33.42 Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 Kentsfield 775 4 3.000 8.192 FSB1333 65 582 130 9697 123.5 275 15.6 96.1 32.53 Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6800 Kentsfield 775 4 2.933 8.192 FSB1066 65 582 130 9312 122.5 283 16.4 93.1 31.04 Intel Core 2 Extreme Q6700 Kentsfield 775 4 2.666 8.192 FSB1066 65 582 95 8450 120.0 303 17.9 87.0 45.25 Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 775 2 3.166 6.144 FSB1333 45 410 65 8120 128.9 248 23.7 86.9 79.06 Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 775 2 3.000 6.144 FSB1333 45 410 65 7674 127.3 260 25.1 83.4 100.07 Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 775 4 2.400 8.192 FSB1066 65 582 95 7727 116.8 331 19.0 81.6 75.38 Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 Conroe 775 2 3.000 4.096 FSB1333 65 291 75 7689 124.3 273 27.3 80.5 70.89 Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 EE Conroe 775 2 2.933 4.096 FSB1066 65 291 75 7429 122.2 293 27.9 77.6 18.910 Intel Core 2 Duo E8200 Wolfdale 775 2 2.666 6.144 FSB1333 45 410 65 6849 124.1 290 28.2 76.6 86.911 AMD Phenom 9700 *Agena AM2+ 4 2.400 2.048 HT4000 65 600 125 7289 114.7 346 22.6 76.0 53.8Video & Image editing VIDEO & IMAGE EDITING12 Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe 775 2 2.666 4.096 FSB1333 65 291 65 6813 120.9 302 30.7 73.9 78.013 AMD Phenom 9600 * Agena AM2+ 4 2.300 2.048 HT3600 65 600 95 6994 113.2 362 24.2 73.0 49.614 Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 Conroe 775 2 2.666 4.096 FSB1066 65 291 65 6670 120.1 310 30.8 72.8 43.915 AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+ Bl. Ed. Windsor AM2 2 3.200 2.048 HT2000 90 227 125 6235 119.9 307 30.1 72.2 75.016 AMD Phenom 9500 * Agena AM2+ 4 2.200 2.048 HT3600 65 600 95 6671 112.0 379 26.0 70.1 52.317 AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor AM2 2 3.000 2.048 HT2000 90 227 125 6146 115.2 333 33.3 68.2 72.318 Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 775 2 2.400 4.096 FSB1066 65 291 65 6098 116.6 342 34.5 67.5 47.819 Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 Conroe 775 2 2.333 4.096 FSB1333 65 291 65 5987 115.8 340 35.0 67.0 63.920 Intel Core 2 Duo E4600 Allendale 775 2 2.400 2.048 FSB800 65 167 65 6041 114.1 357 33.7 66.4 74.721 AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ Windsor AM2 2 2.800 2.048 HT2000 90 227 89 5732 113.3 343 35.5 65.6 78.322 Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 Allendale 775 2 2.200 2.048 FSB800 65 167 65 5616 110.8 386 37.4 62.3 73.423 Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 Conroe 775 2 2.133 4.096 FSB1066 65 291 65 5401 112.4 375 38.0 62.3 46.724 AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ Windsor AM2 2 2.600 2.048 HT2000 90 227 89 5452 108.8 378 38.5 61.5 70.625 AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Brisbane AM2 2 2.600 1.024 HT2000 65 154 65 5480 105.2 374 37.9 61.2 81.226 Intel Pentium E2200 Conroe-L 775 2 2.000 1.024 FSB800 65 167 65 5589 105.6 387 37.6 61.1 85.6Multimedia & Allrounder MULTIMEDIA & ALLROUNDER27 AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Brisbane AM2 2 2.500 1.024 HT2000 65 154 65 5126 103.4 380 39.6 59.2 82.728 Intel Core 2 Duo E4400 Allendale 775 2 2.000 2.048 FSB800 65 167 65 5049 106.4 420 40.0 58.0 59.329 AMD Athlon 64 X2 EE 4600+ Windsor AM2 2 2.400 1.024 HT2000 90 154 65 4932 100.9 404 41.0 57.0 84.430 Intel Pentium E2180 Conroe-L 775 2 2.000 1.024 FSB800 65 167 65 5105 100.3 428 41.6 56.3 81.331 Intel Core 2 Duo E6320 Conroe 775 2 1.866 4.096 FSB1066 65 291 65 4731 106.0 429 43.9 56.0 37.332 Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 Allendale 775 2 1.800 2.048 FSB800 65 167 65 4631 102.4 451 45.0 54.1 53.233 AMD Athlon X2 BE-2400 Brisbane AM2 2 2.300 1.024 HT2000 65 154 45 4607 98.5 445 44.6 53.5 61.034 Intel Pentium E2160 Conroe-L 775 2 1.800 1.024 FSB800 65 167 65 4646 98.8 458 45.6 53.1 79.635 AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Brisbane AM2 2 2.300 1.024 HT2000 65 154 65 4513 98.1 446 44.8 53.1 68.236 AMD Athlon 64 X2 EE 4200+ Windsor AM2 2 2.200 1.024 HT2000 90 154 65 4507 95.9 451 45.0 52.5 76.937 AMD Athlon X2 BE-2350 Brisbane AM2 2 2.100 1.024 HT2000 65 221 45 4300 92.9 457 47.4 50.8 59.738 AMD Athlon 64 X2 EE 3800+ Windsor AM2 2 2.000 1.024 HT2000 90 154 65 4107 93.4 470 49.3 49.7 71.239 Intel Pentium E2140 Conroe-L 775 2 1.600 1.024 FSB800 65 167 65 4115 90.7 511 51.1 47.9 63.740 AMD Athlon X2 BE-2300 Brisbane AM2 2 1.900 1.024 HT2000 65 221 45 3889 87.6 496 52.3 46.9 54.841 Intel Pentium 4 661 Prescott 775 1 3.600 2.048 FSB800 65 169 115 4579 90.2 577 69.0 45.6 33.6Office & Internet OFFICE & INTERNET42 Intel Pentium D 820 Smithfield 775 2 2.800 2.048 FSB800 90 169 95 4638 74.9 544 56.0 44.6 35.443 AMD Athlon 64 3800+ Orleans AM2 1 2.400 512 HT2000 90 81,1 62 3502 100.7 625 78.0 43.5 58.344 AMD Sempron 64 LE-1300 Sparta AM2 1 2.300 512 HT1600 65 81,1 45 3411 96.6 660 81.2 41.7 35.645 Intel Celeron S 440 Conroe-L 775 1 2.000 512 FSB800 65 167 35 3646 84.2 648 80.0 40.1 34.346 AMD Sempron 64 LE-1250 Sparta AM2 1 2.200 512 HT2000 65 81,1 45 3299 92.7 697 84.8 40.0 40.847 Intel Celeron S 430 Conroe-L 775 1 1.800 512 FSB800 65 167 35 3305 78.1 709 88.0 36.8 39.748 Intel Celeron D 356 Cedar Mill 775 1 3.333 512 FSB533 65 125 84 3915 62.6 747 91.0 34.6 29.449 Intel Celeron S 420 Conroe-L 775 1 1.600 512 FSB800 65 167 35 2928 73.0 790 99.0 33.5 40.050 AMD Sempron 64 3400+ Manila AM2 1 1.800 256 HT1600 90 81,1 62 2625 75.3 831 104.0 32.6 36.8CHIP purchase tipNewcomer * Benched without TLB patchCHIP performance index: Diverse benchmark results from different application focuses are added. The CPU with the best result gets the best value 100, followed by others.CHIP price-perfor-mance index: CPU prices often increase in inverse proportion to increases in per-formance. The longer the orange colored bar of a CPU, the better its value-for-money ratio.CHIP INDEXDesktop CPUs88 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008Overview of mobile CPUsULTRA-MOBILE, OFFICE & INTERNET: Ultra Low Voltage CPUs or Celerons do not satisfy ones appetite for performance. However, they sufce for surng and simple ofce tasks. ULV CPUs are good on power but not on the pocket.OFFICE & EDITING: The ideal CPUs for inexpensive notebooks for completing ofce work and editing photos. ALL-ROUND, MULTIMEDIA & VIDEO: CPUs for typical mainstream devices. They can do practically everything; even play 3D-games, though not very smoothly.POWER-USER & GAMER: Notebooks with these CPUs serve as substitutes for real PCs and are completely suited for playing games.FEATURE HARDWARECHIP performance index: Diverse benchmark results from different application focuses are added. The CPU with the best result gets the best value 100, followed by others.CHIP price-perfor-mance index: CPU prices often increase in inverse proportion to increases in per-formance. The longer the orange colored bar of a CPU, the better its value-for-money ratio.CHIP INDEXMOBILE CPUsHigher the betterTechnical specifications Benchmarks3D-Index (Points)Core code nameNo. of CPU coresClock speed (GHz)L2-cache (MB)System connection Max. power loss (TDP) (W)PCMark04 CPU (Points)Cinebench 2003 1 x CPU (fps)Cinebench 2003 2 x CPU (fps)3DMark05 CPU (Points)3DMark05 CPU (Default)Integrated graphics3DMark05 (Default)GeForceGo 7400/8400 GT 3DMark05 CPU (Default) GeForce Go 7600/8600 M GTBattery runtime 6 cells (min)2 ) CHIP Purchase tip Newcomer1Mobil CPUs are usually available only with a notebook2Estimated runtime with integrated graphics as powerful graphics chips reduce the runtime by up to 40%Performance standardized to 100 INDEX MOBILE CPUsPrice-performance standardized to 100RankProcessorPower User & Gamer POWER-USER & PLAYER1 Intel Core 2 Extreme X7900 Merom 2 2.800 4.096 FSB800 44 154 7.054 466 837 10213 1020 4100 6100 100.0 50.12 Intel Core 2 Extreme X7800 Merom 2 2.600 4.096 FSB800 44 154 6.487 424 768 9238 910 3800 5800 91.3 55.83 Intel Core 2 Duo T7800 Merom 2 2.600 4.096 FSB800 35 205 6.455 423 767 9223 910 3800 5800 91.1 69.94 Intel Core 2 Duo T7700 Merom 2 2.400 4.096 FSB800 35 205 5.942 415 744 8136 890 3500 5500 85.4 100.05 Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 Merom 2 2.200 4.096 FSB800 35 205 5.420 377 670 7464 870 3200 5200 77.7 95.0Allround, Multimedia & Video editing ALLROUND, MULTIMEDIA & VIDEO EDITING6 Intel Core 2 Duo T7300Merom 2 2.000 4.096 FSB800 35 205 5.325 354 622 6992 850 3000 5000 74.0 82.47 Intel Core 2 Duo T7600 Merom 2 2.333 4.096 FSB667 34 166 5.382 373 676 5203 550 2300 4100 70.8 28.58 Intel Core 2 Duo T7250Merom 2 2.000 2.048 FSB800 35 205 5.070 328 603 6366 830 2800 4800 69.0 82.29 Intel Core 2 Duo T7100Merom 2 1.800 2.048 FSB800 35 205 4.673 315 558 6420 830 2800 4800 65.8 71.310 Intel Core 2 Duo T7400Merom 2 2.166 4.096 FSB667 34 166 5.231 332 605 4833 540 2200 4000 65.2 32.811 Intel Core Duo T2700 Yonah 2 2.333 2.048 FSB667 31 186 4.896 327 601 4889 480 2300 4100 64.0 20.512 Intel Core Duo T2600 Yonah 2 2.166 2.048 FSB667 31 186 4.818 319 590 4803 470 2200 4000 62.7 29.513 Intel Core 2 Duo T7200Merom 2 2.000 4.096 FSB667 34 166 4.755 309 566 4621 530 2100 3900 60.8 41.6Office & Image editing OFFICE & IMAGE EDITING14 Intel Core Duo T2500 Yonah 2 2.000 2.048 FSB667 31 186 4.461 295 544 4617 450 2100 3900 58.6 32.915 AMD Turion X2 TL-60 Trinidad 2 2.000 512 HT1600 35 160 4.176 291 546 4402 710 2100 3900 56.8 27.816 Intel Core 2 Duo T5750 Merom 2 2.000 2.048 FSB667 34 166 4.152 290 533 4387 430 1950 3750 56.3 36.217 Intel Core 2 Duo T5600 Merom 2 1.833 2.048 FSB667 34 166 4.337 287 521 4305 520 2000 3800 56.1 35.818 Intel Core 2 Duo T5550 Merom 2 1.833 2.048 FSB667 34 166 4.284 281 510 4189 430 1950 3750 55.0 37.319 Intel Core 2 Duo T5500 Merom 2 1.666 2.048 FSB667 34 166 4.274 274 501 4125 510 1900 3700 54.2 38.720 Intel Core Duo T2400 Yonah 2 1.833 2.048 FSB667 31 186 4.085 271 498 4359 430 2000 3800 54.1 32.121 Intel Core 2 Duo L7500 (LV) Merom 2 1.600 4.096 FSB667 17 250 3.682 261 431 5352 780 53.0 16.922 AMD Turion X2 TL-56 Trinidad 2 1.800 1.024 HT1600 33 173 3.855 261 492 4235 680 2000 3800 52.3 42.023 Intel Core 2 Duo T5470 Merom 2 1.600 2.048 FSB800 35 160 3.910 258 486 4156 430 1950 3750 51.9 35.024 Intel Core Duo T2250 Yonah 2 1.766 2.048 FSB533 31 186 3.909 258 476 4210 420 1950 3750 51.8 42.225 Intel Core 2 Duo L7300 (LV) Merom 2 1.400 4.096 FSB800 17 250 3.581 247 418 5189 770 51.1 16.226 Intel Core 2 Duo T5450 Merom 2 1.666 2.048 FSB667 34 166 3.842 251 472 4085 430 1950 3750 50.7 37.027 Intel Core Duo T2450 Yonah 2 2.000 2.048 FSB667 31 186 4.440 289 509 2705 460 1950 3750 50.1 48.628 Intel Core Duo T2300 Yonah 2 1.666 2.048 FSB667 31 186 3.743 248 452 4167 410 1900 3700 49.9 52.929 Intel Core 2 Duo T5270 Merom 2 1.400 2.048 FSB800 35 160 3.802 247 467 3988 430 1950 3750 49.9 40.730 Intel Core Duo T2080 Yonah 2 1.733 2.048 FSB533 31 186 3.779 248 449 4067 400 1850 3650 49.7 47.531 Intel Core Duo L2400 (LV) Yonah 2 1.666 2.048 FSB667 15 288 3.708 246 450 4085 410 49.4 17.132 Intel Pentium T2310 Yonah 2 1.466 1.024 FSB533 31 186 3.376 239 432 4776 420 1800 3600 49.3 42.533 Intel Core Duo T2050 Yonah 2 1.600 2.048 FSB533 31 186 3.759 244 443 4022 400 1850 3650 49.1 45.834 Intel Core Duo T2350 Yonah 2 1.866 2.048 FSB667 31 186 4.224 273 496 2635 440 1850 3650 48.1 47.335 AMD Turion X2 TL-52 Trinidad 2 1.600 1.024 HT1600 31 186 3.436 236 440 4029 650 1900 3700 47.6 31.636 Intel Core Duo L2300 (LV) Yonah 2 1.500 2.048 FSB667 15 288 3.551 231 422 3789 400 46.5 16.5Ultra-Mobile, Office & Internet ULTRA-MOBILE, NEW-OFFICE & INTERNET37 Intel Pentium T2130 Yonah 2 1.866 1.024 FSB533 31 186 4.081 243 424 2520 420 1800 3600 44.1 40.538 AMD mobile Sempron 3800+ Lancaster 1 2.200 512 HT1600 35 150 2.630 295 295 3010 410 39.6 33.039 AMD mobile Sempron 3600+ Lancaster 1 2.000 256 HT1600 25 180 2.568 275 275 2865 390 37.5 37.440 AMD mobile Sempron 3500+ Lancaster 1 1.800 512 HT1600 25 180 2.538 272 272 2849 390 37.1 54.341 AMD mobile Sempron 3400+ Lancaster 1 1.800 256 HT1600 25 180 2.472 270 270 2733 370 36.4 68.442 Intel Core 2 Duo U7600 (ULV) Merom 2 1.200 4.096 FSB533 10 294 2.783 186 331 2803 385 36.2 7.243 Intel Core Duo U2500 (ULV) Yonah 2 1.066 2.048 FSB533 9 326 2.742 178 330 2733 210 35.4 7.944 Intel Celeron M 450 Yonah 1 2.000 1.024 FSB533 28 205 2.670 237 237 2828 420 35.1 23.045 Intel Celeron M 440 Yonah 1 1.866 1.024 FSB533 28 205 2.643 231 231 2788 410 34.4 28.946 Intel Celeron M 430 Yonah 1 1.733 1.024 FSB533 28 205 2.611 229 229 2751 400 34.0 33.447 Intel Core 2 Duo U7500 (ULV) Merom 2 1.066 4.096 FSB533 10 294 2.559 172 307 2687 380 33.7 6.548 Intel Celeron M 420 Yonah 1 1.600 1.024 FSB533 28 205 2.412 219 219 2503 380 31.9 34.549 Intel Celeron M 410 Yonah 1 1.466 1.024 FSB533 28 205 2.167 215 215 2289 360 30.1 29.050 Intel A110 Dothan 1 800 512 FSB400 3 980 1.264 106 106 1361 200 16.2 1.2MARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | 89Overview of graphics chipsOFFICE & MULTIMEDIA: Integrated graphics or a Rs 3,000 card will do for Internet and ofce work. Rs 7,000 for a graphics card is good investment in case of media PCs, which should play HD lms at 1080i.ALL ROUNDER: A good choice for those who want to play new 3D games along with HD videos on their media PC. GAMES UP TO 1280 X 1024: Professional games on a screen of up to 19 inches with even the most modern 3D games with all adjustable trimmings in this class. GAMES UP TO 2560 X 1600: A theatre feel is created while gaming with 24 or 30-inch monitors. Here, the graphics card cannot be fast enough since the pixel density has to be maintained.Technical specifications BenchmarksCHIP performance index: The results of the diverse game benchmarks with different 3D engines (OpenGL and DirectX) are added. The best GPU gets the best value 100, followed by others.CHIP price-perfor-mance index: The ratio of price to performance is well balanced in the case of 3D cards. You get double the performance for double the price. The longer the orange colored bar, the more reasonable the price.CHIP INDEXGPUsPerformance standardized to 100 INDEX GRAPHICS CHIPSPrice-performance standardized to 100 CHIP-best buyNewcomer * Flexible division through Unified-ShaderHigher the betterRankGraphic ProcessorMemory size (MB) & typeClock speed (MHz)Memory clockrate (nominal) (MHz)Memory connection (Bit)SLI/CrossFireVertex ShaderPixel ShaderManufacturing process (nm)Transistors (Million)3DMark05 (Default run) (Points)Doom III 16 x 12,4 x AA, 8 x AF (fps)HL 2 Lost Coast 16 x 12,4 x AA, 8 x AF (fps)sYes NoPower-gamers with screen resolutions up to 2560 x 1600 GAMES UP TO 2560 X 16001 Nvidia GeForce 8800 Ultra 768/DDR3 612 1.080 384 s/128* 90 681 15402 1393 1623 100.0 33.82 Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX 768/DDR3 575 900 384 s/128* 90 681 15022 1260 1571 95.1 46.93 Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT 512/DDR3 670 975 256 s/112* 65 754 17472 1094 1443 94.0 69.54 Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS 512/DDR3 650 970 256 s/112* 65 754 17442 1079 1427 93.3 59.15 Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT 512/DDR3 600 900 256 s/112* 65 754 17052 998 1332 88.6 73.16 ATI Radeon HD 3870 512/DDR4 775 1.125 256/s 320* 55 666 15430 1167 1211 86.1 80.47 ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT 512/DDR3 740 825 512/s 320* 80 700 15455 1147 1195 85.3 54.18 ATI Radeon HD 3850 512/DDR3 670 830 256/s 320* 55 666 16494 1024 1072 82.2 91.29 Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS 640/DDR3 500 800 320 s/96* 90 681 14138 914 1329 80.3 53.810 Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS 320/DDR3 500 800 320 s/96* 90 681 14051 897 1307 79.2 59.811 ATI Radeon HD 3850 256/DDR3 670 830 256/s 320* 55 666 15588 950 1087 78.9 100.012 ATI Radeon HD 2900 Pro 512/DDR3 600 800 512/s 320* 80 700 14943 946 1068 77.0 97.6Power-gamers with screen resolutions up to 1280 x 1024 GAMES UP TO 1280 X 102413 Nvidia GeForce 7950 GX2 2 x 512/DDR3 500 600 256 s/16 48 90 556 12582 1028 1127 74.9 33.214 ATI Radeon X1950 XTX 512/DDR4 650 1.000 256/s 8 48 90 384 12381 789 1116 69.0 38.315 ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT X2 2x 512/DDR3 800 800 256/s 240* 65 780 15541 693 881 68.7 55.416 ATI Radeon X1950 XT 256/DDR3 625 900 256/s 8 48 90 384 11786 762 1090 66.5 69.417 Nvidia GeForce 7950 GT 512/DDR3 550 700 256 s/8 24 90 278 9348 701 886 55.3 42.718 ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 256/DDR3 580 700 256/s 8 36 80 384 9995 516 809 51.0 82.319 Nvidia GeForce 8600 GTS 256/DDR3 720 1.100 128 s/32* 80 289 11770 468 670 50.8 69.320 ATI Radeon X1900 GT 256/DDR3 575 600 256/s 8 36 90 384 9599 480 774 48.6 78.421 ATI Radeon X1950 GT 512/DDR3 500 600 256/s 8 36 80 384 9151 451 767 46.8 79.122 Nvidia GeForce 8600 GTS 256/DDR3 675 1.000 128 s/32* 80 289 10855 419 622 46.7 72.1Allrounders & casual gamers ALLROUNDER & CASUAL GAMERS23 Nvidia GeForce 7900 GS 512/DDR3 450 660 256 s/7 20 90 278 7471 560 683 43.7 64.624 Nvidia GeForce 7900 GS 256/DDR3 450 660 256 s/7 20 90 278 7425 553 678 43.3 90.425 ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 256/DDR4 800 1.100 128/s 120* 65 390 10238 378 472 41.1 72.926 ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 512/DDR3 800 700 128/s 120* 65 390 9308 333 368 35.8 66.927 Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT 256/DDR3 540 700 128 s/32* 80 289 8627 307 437 35.3 78.328 ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 256/DDR3 800 700 128/s 120* 65 390 9176 327 356 35.1 89.029 ATI Radeon X1650 XT 256/DDR3 575 675 128/s 8 24 80 330 7402 319 539 35.1 89.030 ATI Radeon X850 XT-PE 256/DDR3 540 590 256/s 6 16 130 160 6727 351 553 34.6 64.631 Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT 256/DDR3 575 750 128 s/5 12 90 177 6459 394 462 33.0 65.132 ATI Radeon X850 XT 256/DDR3 520 540 256/s 6 16 130 160 6421 329 524 32.8 64.733 Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT 256/DDR3 560 700 128 s/5 12 90 177 5969 355 419 30.1 62.834 ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro 512/DDR2 600 500 128/s 120* 65 390 7316 270 329 29.2 74.035 ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro 256/DDR2 600 500 128/s 120* 65 390 7098 259 317 28.2 77.036 Nvidia GeForce 7600 GS 256/DDR3 450 500 128 s/5 12 90 177 5124 372 348 27.0 59.937 ATI Radeon X1650 Pro 256/DDR3 600 700 128/s 5 12 80 157 5523 284 325 26.4 85.238 Nvidia GeForce 6800 GS 256/DDR3 425 500 256 s/5 12 110 202 5120 318 341 25.7 50.739 ATI Radeon X800 GTO 256/DDR3 400 490 256/s 6 12 110 160 4682 223 350 22.9 67.740 ATI Radeon X1600 XT 256/DDR3 590 690 128/s 5 12 90 157 4955 198 268 21.1 68.141 ATI Radeon X1300 XT 256/DDR2 500 400 128/s 5 12 90 157 4759 200 273 20.8 73.8Office, Multimedia & HD-Video up to 1080i OFFICE, MULTIMEDIA & HD-VIDEO UP TO 1080i42 Nvidia GeForce 8500 GT 256/DDR3 450 400 128 s/16* 80 210 4573 168 212 18.4 59.443 Nvidia GeForce 7300 GT 256/DDR2 400 375 128 s/4 8 90 112 3603 210 262 18.3 72.244 ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT 256/DDR3 700 750 64/s 40* 65 180 4457 103 211 16.7 59.345 Nvidia GeForce 8400 GS 256/DDR2 450 400 64 s/16* 80 210 3461 82 93 11.4 57.846 ATI Radeon X1550 256/DDR2 550 400 128/s 2 4 90 105 2875 71 142 11.0 55.847 ATI Radeon HD 2400 Pro 256/DDR2 525 400 64/s 40* 65 180 2914 69 135 10.9 55.348 ATI Radeon X1300 Pro 256/DDR2 600 400 128/s 2 4 90 105 2875 66 137 10.8 63.949 ATI Radeon X1300 256/DDR2 450 250 128/s 2 4 90 105 2058 47 84 7.4 32.850 Nvidia GeForce 7300 GS 256/DDR2 550 270 64/3 4 90 112 2110 27 47 6.3 31.9RankGraphicraphicssorvideos on their mehic ProcessPC CONFIGS90|INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008HARDWARE* Prices are indicative and are subject to change, taxes extraSMS us!Story code: HPC to 57007PC ConfigsGAMING ( ENTRY LEVEL )GAMING ( MID-RANGE )Rs 55,650Processor Intel Core 2 Duo E6550, 2.33 GHz 7,000 Motherboard Asus P5N-E SLI7,200 RAM 2x 1 GB Kingston DDR2-667 MHz2,200 Hard disk Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 - 320 GB SATA3,500 Graphics card XFX GeForce 8800GT Alpha Dog Ed. - 512 MB15,500 Optical drive LiteOn Super AllWrite LightScribe - 20x DVD Writer1,850 Network card Onboard 10/100/1000 GbE- Monitor ViewSonic VA1912w - 19-inch TFT9,000 Keyboard Logitech Internet Pro Desktop850 MouseIncluded in Combo - Speakers Creative Inspire T6060 - 5.1 surround4,400 Sound card Onboard high-definition audio- PC Case Cooler Master Elite 3302,200 Power supply unit Cooler Master Extreme Power 380W1,950 TOTAL 55,650Processor Intel Core 2 Duo E4500, 2.2 GHz5,100 Motherboard Galaxy nForce 650i Ultra4,850 RAM 2x 512 MB Transcend DDR2-667 MHz1,200 Hard disk Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 - 250 GB SATA2,850 Graphics card XFX GeForce 8600GT - 256 MB5,250 Optical drive LiteOn Super AllWrite LightScribe - 20x DVD Writer1,850 Network card Onboard 10/100/1000 GbE- Monitor ViewSonic VA1703WB - 17-inch TFT8,250 Keyboard Logitech Internet Pro Desktop850 MouseIncluded in Combo - Speakers Altec Lansing ATP3 - 2.1 stereo2,850 Sound card Onboard high-definition audio- PC Case iBall Gamer with 400 Watts power supply1,750 Power supply unit Included with the PC Case -TOTAL34,800 EVELRs 34,800RAHaGONMKeMSpSoPCRsPC CONFIGS HARDWAREMARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP|91* Prices are indicative and are subject to change, taxes extraGAMING ( HIGH-END )Processor Intel Core 2 Duo E6850, 3.0 GHz11,650 Motherboard XFX Nvidia 680i LT SLI10,500 RAM 2 GB Kit - Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400C4DHX6,400 Hard disk 2x Western Digital Caviar SE16 - 250 GB in RAID 05,900 Graphics card 2x XFX GeForce 8800GT Alpha Dog Ed. - 512 MB31,000 Optical drive LiteOn Super AllWrite LightScribe - 20x DVD Writer1,850 Network card Onboard 10/100/1000 GbE- Monitor Dell E228WFP - 22-inch TFT13,162 Keyboard Logitech G-15 Gaming Keyboard4,600 Mouse Logitech MX5182,500 Speakers Creative Gigaworks G500 - 5.1 surround22,999 Sound card Onboard high-definition audio- PC Case Cooler Master Centurion 534 Plus3,850 Power supply unit Cooler Master I-Green Power 500W5,600 TOTAL 1,20,011GONMKMSSPRs 1,20,011WORKSTATIONRs 1,37,762Processor Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600, 2.4 GHz12,000 Motherboard Asus P5N32-E SLI12,800 RAM 2 GB Kit - Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400C4DHX6,400 Hard disk 2x Western Digital Caviar RE, 500 GB in RAID 011,200 Graphics card Leadtek Quadro FX 540 - 128 MB9,250 Optical drive LiteOn Super AllWrite LightScribe - 20x DVD Writer1,850 Network card Onboard 10/100/1000 GbE- Monitor Dell E248WFP - 24-inch TFT19,188 Keyboard Logitech Internet & Multimedia Keyboard825 Mouse Logitech MX5182,500 Speakers Creative Gigaworks G500 - 5.1 surround22,999 Sound card Creative X-Fi Elite Pro25,500 PC Case Antec Titan 5506,250 Power supply unit Corsair HX620W7,000 Input Device Wacom Graphire 4 Tablet 6x8 (optional)9,000 TOTAL 1,37,762 PC CONFIGS HARDWARE92|INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008* Prices are indicative and are subject to change, taxes extraHOME BASICHOME THEATER PCRs 27,000Rs. 85,337Processor Athlon 64 X2 4200+, 2.1 GHz3,250 Motherboard Asus M2A-VM3,300 RAM 2x 1 GB Kingston DDR2-667 MHz2,200 Hard disk Western Digital Caviar SE - 160 GB SATA2,300 Graphics card Onboard graphics- Optical drive LiteOn Super AllWrite LightScribe - 20x DVD Writer1,850 Network card Onboard 10/100/1000 GbE- Monitor ViewSonic VA1912w - 19-inch TFT9,000 Keyboard &mouse ComboLogitech Internet Pro Desktop850 Speakers Altec Lansing ATP3 - 2.1 stereo2,850 Sound card Onboard high-definition audio- PC Case iBall i648 with 400 watts power supply1,400 Power supply unit Included with the PC Case- TOTAL27,000 Processor AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+, 2.6 GHz5,100 Motherboard Biostar TA-690G4,750 RAM 2x 1 GB Kingston DDR2-667 MHz2,200 Hard disk Western Digital Caviar SE 16 - 320 GB SATA3,400 Graphics card XFX GeForce 8600GT - 256 MB5,800 Optical drive LiteOn Super AllWrite LightScribe - 20x DVD Writer1,850 Network card Onboard 10/100/1000 GbE- Monitor Dell E248WFP - 24-inch TFT19,188 Keyboard & Mouse Logitech Cordless Desktop EX1102,100 Speakers Creative Gigaworks G50022,999 Sound card Onboard high-definition audio- PC Case Antec Fusion16,000 Power supply unit Antec HE 430 (Included with the PC Case)TV tuner card Compro VideoMate TV PVR/FM1,950 TOTAL 85,337 94 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008INFOGRAPHICS HARDWARESMS us!Story code: HPG to 5700794 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008Payment gateways are a simple, safe and secure mechanism for both online shoppers and stores. With the advent of payment gateways, online shopping websites can concentrate on their primary promise of delivering quality products on time, rather than pondering about online payment risks. Moreover, if you are not satised with the product, or you have been billed wrongly, you can stop the payment when you shop with a credit card. This is a better option available as against DDs, or cheques, where the amount is realized much before the actual delivery. With a veried credit card, your waiting period is reduced drastically. Read on to nd out how do payment gateways help you shop risk-free and tension-free!Payment GatewaysINFOGRAPHICS HARDWARESHOPOnlineWeb Shop12367Phishing is a term which is attributed to criminal and fraudulent acquisition of confidential information such as passwords, credit and debit card details, by emulation of trusted websites. Auction sites, online shopping sites and bank sites are the common targets for Phishing activities. The Phishing techniques usually urge the user either through e-mails or instant messages to enter sensitive data to a specific website. They then use these details to siphon out your account details.What is Phishing?The customer loads his order into a shopping cart and proceeds to complete his order by entering his payment details. NOTE: Depending on the website structure, the user might be redirected to the payment gateway page, or the website might serve up its own payment details page. The website would subsequently redirect the critical nancial data to the payment gateway.1INFOGRAPHICS HARDWARESecure online transactions are necessary to safeguard your financial security. With a host of credit card options to select from, the risk of money laundering is at an all-time high. Payment gateways provide the solutions. BY KAMAKSHI VENUGOPALINFOGRAPHICS HARDWARE2 222222113333444 4444444455555666666788888902 222222113333444 444444444555555566666677888889 0Payment ServerVerificaton Server45234567The website encrypts the critical information and stores the encrypted data in its web server using a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) connection.The web server then forwards the transaction details to the payment gateway. A second SSL encrypted connection redirects the data to the payment gateway server. The payment gateway determines the nature of the transaction; i.e. whether it is a debit card or credit card payment. Accordingly, the payment server forwards this information to the bank or card providers server.The verifying credit card or bank server validates details such as the 12-digit card number, secret identication code, expiry date and available balance. If all details are valid, the verifying server sends an acknowledgement back to the payment server. NOTE: If the verifying server denies the request, it sends an encrypted code back to the payment server, citing the reasons for the rejection. The entire process is completed in 2-10 seconds, depending on the number of connections and connection speed at a given point of time.The website then facilitates acquisition of the funds from the verifying bank and simultaneously noties the suppliers to dispatch the products.The products may reach you within 2-4 working days depending on the destination and shipping details provided by you to the website. With inputs from E-Billing Solutions Pvt. Ltd. [email protected], third party servers were available as an alternative to payment gateways. Although most processes were smoothly executed, one cancelled order would upset the whole process. For this very reason, MasterCard has completely dispensed this service.Payment gateways use the 12x4 encryption model, approved by MasterCard worldwide. This encryption technique keeps four consecutive digits of the card readable, while the rest remain encrypted. This reduces risks and helps prevent against frauds and hackers. Moreover, credit card purchases have proved to be a boon for online shoppers who can avail a recall on the amount paid if they can successfully prove that they did not receive the products they were promised! When using payment gateways always check: SECURITY CERTIFICATES: Verisign is the most commonly used temporary security certificate used in India. SSL SECURITY: The address of a SSL secured website would begin with an https:// instead of the standard http:// If the goods are different than what you ordered, or lower in quality or quantity than promised, you can ask your credit card company to recall the amount paid on proving your case successfully.In order to protect yourself from being a victim of phishing, Keep a check on websites which ask for secure data. Do not give out personal information to ad-hoc sites. Ensure that the web-site is secure (SSL Connection).Information BoxMARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | 95TECHNOLOGY LANDSCAPE HARDWAREMobile PhonesLooking for a budget phone with good features? Take your pick! BY ANAND TULIANIWhen selecting a cell phone, its not uncommon to be overwhelmed by the myriad available options. While multimedia and business phones are the most sought-after for their features, entry-level phones are ideal for those who want a budget phone strictly for communication. If youre on a quest for a plain vanilla phone with bare minimum functions for calling and messaging, there are plenty of models available for under Rs 2,000. Most of these phones sport a candy bar form factor and come without any frills and fancies. The feature set includes reminder, alarm clock, calculator, and calendar. For around Rs 2,000 you can get a phone with a color display, support for polyphonic ring tones, wallpapers, and even FM radio. Instead of opting for a phone having monochrome display, we strongly suggest spending a few hundred bucks extra and going in for a phone with color display. Look out for large phone memory to store ample contacts and messages, and battery life of at least 6 hours. If possible get a feel of the devices keypad and user interface. Ensure the buttons are sufciently large, well spaced, and have good tactile response.If youre looking out for something more feature-rich than an ultra-basic cell phone, take your pick from this category. These phones are priced around double as much as the ones from the previous category, but they are worth every penny. Value addition comes in form of features such as more storage space, larger screen, infrared port, data port, GPRS, MP3 playback, FM radio, and Java support. With these features you can backup and synchronize phone data, surf the Internet, listen to music, add Java games and applications, and do much more. There are plenty of options available in various combinations of features spanning the entire price band. So pick the one that meets all your requirements while tting in your budget. Phones at the end of the spectrum even feature a VGA (640x480 pixels) camera. However, we suggest you dont buy a phone solely for the camera as the results arent too clear. Finally, these phones compromise on the battery life for the additional features. Hence, ensure that the battery life is at least around 7 hours, or youll end up charging the phone everyday if you play around with the features too much.Budget multimedia phones are high-end counterparts of mid-range phones. These phones are full-edged entertainment devices equipped with all the features needed for sharing data wirelessly, listening to music, capturing images, and watching videos. For good multimedia experience dont miss out on a 1.3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth support, and memory expandability. Further, Bluetooth with A2DP and AVRCP compatibility would be a big bonusyoull be able to listen to and control audio playback with a compatible stereo Bluetooth headset. Also nd out whether the phone has a media organizer for managing music and images. Look out for shortcut / programmable buttons. Make sure the buttons arent too tiny and crammed, especially in phones with big displays. The user interface should be intuitive without too many navigation levels, or youll have a tough time locating functions. Navigational aids like joystick and 5-way buttons make browsing much quicker. And dont forget to check out the package contentsbundled earphones or memory card would make the deal sweeter. [email protected] us!Story code: HMP to 57007 96|INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008Suggested brandsBleu 251x, Sony Ericsson J120i, Nokia 1208BudgetUpto Rs 2,000Suggested modelsNokia 3110 Classic, Sony Ericsson Z550i, Samsung X530BudgetRs 4,000 to Rs 6,000Ultra-basic Budget multimediaSuggested brandsNokia 6030, Sony Ericsson K320i, Motorola Motoslvr L6BudgetRs 2,000 to Rs 4,000Mid-rangeTECHNOLOGY LANDSCAPE HARDWAREMARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP|97APPLICATIONS98 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008The parameters used for evaluating software are assigned a graphical rating out of a scale of 5. These measures include performance, features and ease of use. The overall rating shown in the reviews is based on all these factors.In addition, there is a value for money rating for each application. This rating is obtained by compiling the features and the utility of the application against its price. In case of freeware and shareware tools available for downloading from the Internet, we replace the price with the download size (and therefore, the time taken to download the application) for arriving at the value for money rating.Ratings Explained Jagdish LimbachiyaComputer security should always be on your mind. Being complacent is the surest way to get infected with viruses, spyware or trojans. While some of them play havoc with your computer and can easily be detected, others thrive because you dont realize anything is wrong with your computer. These are the types of trojans that turn your computer into a zobmie, mindlessly obeying instructions from an unknown hacker and harnessing your idle computers power to maliciously launch distributed denial of service attacks on preselected targets, for example. You need a rewall, antivirus application, spyware scanner, and various other tools. Internet security suites such as Kasperskys solution on the facing page are a step in the right direction.Our selection of free tools and utilities this month includes a superb program that can help you print documents from anywhere in the world, a lightweight yet full-featured PDF le reader, a exible desktop customization utility and a thorough system properties inspector that lets you in on every little detail of what your computer is up to at any given time.Our Software of the Month title goes to Corel Graphics Suite X4. Students and design professionals alike have been using CorelDRAW for decades now. The fourteenth version of this iconic program introduces a few cool new features, and a refreshed user interface. We put it through its paces to help you decide whether you should upgrade in the near future!Freeware reviews by Nikhil [email protected] CenterSMS us!Story code: SWS to 57007TESTEDAPPLICATIONSMARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | 99THE ROYAL GUARD Kaspersky Internet Security Suite 7.0 offers a top-notch rewall, antivirus and spyware protection. This latest version by Kaspersky adds several features such as parental controls and rootkit detection to its existing strengths. FIREWALL: Whats an Internet Security Suite without an efcient rewall? The rewall included in this suite is extremely powerfulprobably even more than ZoneAlarm. In addition to whitelisting or blacklisting programs, Kaspersky offers congurable ltering down to specic ports and data types. Asking for user permission to allow a program to connect to the Internet is turned off by default so you need to beware of that. This is a poor choice considering that predetermined whitelists could have been added here.ANTI-VIRUS: You have a top-notch performer here! Youre in safe hands with Kasperskys antivirus engine which is licensed by more than 120 companies for use in other products. Scanning the entire system for the rst time (after installation) will take hours, as Kapsersky builds a virus database. However, once this is done, your precautionary measure is well in place.ANTI-SPYWARE: On the anti-spyware front, Kaspersky performs admirably. Unlike most Internet suites, Kaspersky doesnt scan viruses and spyware separately and doesnt differentiate between the two. Any threat is a threat! ANTI-SPAM: The anti-spam lter list is not as easily accessible as we would like, nevertheless Outlook mail protection is offered. However those using alternate e-mail clients such as Thunderbird would need to congure them manually; tutorials for manual conguration are available through Kasperskys well-documented support section. Unfortunately this suite does not offer any predetermined blacklist featureonly an old-fashioned self-teaching Bayes algorithm is provided.ANTI-PHISHING: Phishing refers to the use of social engineering to trick users into revealing their personal information online. This act is now taken very seriously by security companies. The suite maintains an updated signature base blacklisting all known phishing sites. PARENTAL CONTROL: This is an unusual feature for a security suite to have, which is a welcome addition since this is billed as an Internet security solution. KIS 7 allows parents to take total control over Internet access permissions on their family PC. The suite allows you to choose between three different levels of access permission. OTHER ESSENTIAL SECURITY FEATURES: Kaspersky manages to stuff more gems in the suite, such as a Privacy Control module which intercepts attempts to transmit condential data such as local passwords, e-mail client passwords, Auto-Complete information, etc.Kaspersky also offers highly detailed reports of problems that were found, if required by the user. It is clearly made keeping in mind the security conscious user and it will be of great help to system administrators on large networks.KIS 7.0 is smart enough to allow throttling back scanning speeds whenever your CPU activity rises, preventing system slow-downs. To get full protection, you should tweak and play around with the suites settings, which are unfortunately quite confusing. Not everything is where youd expect it to be, and the explanations are not always clear either. All in all, this is one suite that you would denitely want on your side.FOR: Solid protection on all fronts, well documented online support. AGAINST: Not novice friendly, confusing interface.SECURITY SUITEKaspersky Internet Security Suite 7.0System Requirements Win 2000/ XP/ Vista, Intel Pentium 800 MHz or higher (or equivalent), 512 MB of RAM, 50 MB HDD space, Internet connection.PriceRs.2,400ContactKaspersky LabWebsitewww.kaspersky.com RATINGSEase of use Features Performance Overall Rating Value for money Find it onthis months TESTED APPLICATIONS100 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008TESTED APPLICATIONSBURNWARE BurnAware is a disc-burning application that can burn not just CDs and DVDs but also HD-DVDs and Blu-ray discs.The software has a very nice clean look; also all the functions mentioned are well explained in the main interface. This is the only free application till date that can burn both high-denition formats. The free edition is quite simple; you cant do much more than simply create and burn, i.e. choose your data source and the target location. High-def media is still extremely expensive, which makes it quite pointless to recommend this program, but a free option is still good to have. In fact this is the sole reason to recommend this free software over something better such as CD Burner XP. BurnAware is crippled to a certain extent by limiting commonplace features such as burning multi-session discs, UDF discs, bootable discs, ISO formatting, CD Text or creating ISO images. This seems to have been deliberately done to make its paid version (Rs.1300 approx) more desirable while still providing HD-DVD/Blu-ray disc support in its free version as a selling point.FOR: Clean, HD-DVD/Blu-ray support.AGAINST: Crippled with features. SYSTEM TOOLBurnAware 1.2.5 betaPriceFreeContactGloryLogic Software CompanyWebsitewww.glorylogic.com RATINGSEase of use Features Performance Overall Rating Find it onthis months System Requirements: Win 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista, 1.5 GHz, 512 MB, 50 MB disk spaceREADERS DIGEST Bloated applications have become a thorough annoyance. Something as simple as a PDF reader, namely Acrobat Reader, is not only a hefty download but is also heavy on system requirements. Well, here comes a nice free application that happily dispenses the fattening problem: eXpert PDF Reader! Its everything that Acrobat Reader isnt; its quick to open, is not a resource hog, runs well on old PCs and doesnt bother you with update messages (which are essential for security purposes).Importantly, it doesnt come with the overheads that plague Adobes Acrobat Reader. At the same time, it has respectable functionality if all that you require is reading PDFs.eXpert PDF reader also allows modication of existing documents, such as creatingdocument outlines, inserting rubber stamps, modifying annotations, and bookmarking text passages in a document. Quite unexpectedly, you can also choose from various skins (which are provided).eXpert is faster than Adobes Reader. However, it wastes space which could easily be used for reading. FOR: Fast, basic editing functionality.AGAINST: Wastes valuable reading space.MULTIMEDIAeXpert PDF Reader 2.0.50PriceFreeContactVisageSoftWebsitewww.visagesoft.com RATINGSEase of use Features Performance Overall Rating Find it onthis months System Requirements: Win 98/ME/2000/XP, 500 MHz, 256 MB, 5 MB disk spacePRINT REMOTESmall businesses will love this! Imagine you are abroad and need to send a quick print out of an urgent invoice back home but have no one around to download an e-mail and print it. In such situations, Printer Anywhere could well be your saviour.This ingenious utility smartly creates a virtual printer (after software installation) that appears in the Print command dialog box of any program capable of printing. All youve to do is select the correct printer from the drop down list and hit Release. Of course to receive the document on the other end, software needs to installed on a computer connected to the printer, so that it gets shared through the software.Before you can go on a remote printing spree, you must register an account for free for security reasons. Thankfully you dont need to sit and congure any TCP/IP settings or ddle with network settings in Windows. The software also indicates whether the user is online and the printer is connected! The utility intelligently encrypts printouts sent across the Internet. Vista users need to have UAC off for remote printing.FOR: Hassle-free printing anywhere.AGAINST: None.Find it onthis months System Requirements: Win 2000/XP/Vista, 500 MHz, 256 MB, 10 MB disk space, Internet connection.SYSTEM UTILITYPrinter Anywhere 1.0PriceFreeContactPrinter Anywhere Inc.Websitewww.printeranywhere.com RATINGSEase of use Features Performance Overall Rating TESTEDAPPLICATIONSMARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | 101TESTEDAPPLICATIONSTHE GURUWindows doesnt have the most efcient way of doing things. You cannot throw all the blame on Windows though, as it was designed with specic uses in mind and not for every need. However, a simple interface that gives a rundown of all the hardware and software installed on the computer wouldve been great. The Windows Inspection Tool Set (WiTS) shows all services running as well as the processes, associated hardware being used, drivers, network connections, printers, shares etc. The interface is simple to follow, but digging further into system internals would certainly confuse anyone no matter how good the tool is. The Inspector is thorough enough to let you view every port being accessed in Network Connections and by what application, with neat information logs too.Additionally the tool allows you to set your own hotkeys to invoke it on command and has a separate command line interface. The most important commands are explained in the Help screens. It also works as a portable app, if you copy the le wits.exe to another computer.FOR: Digs into system internals.AGAINST: None.SYSTEM TOOLThe Windows Inspection Tool SetPriceFreeContactAshok P. NadkarniWebsitehttp: //wits.magicsplat.com RATINGSEase of use Features Performance Overall Rating DREAMS UNLIMITED Dreamscapes leverages the DreamScene Ultimate Extra available free to all users of Windows Vista Ultimate. This technology enables high-resolution videos to be applied as wallpapers which is natively supported by Windows Vista Ultimate. The videos arent limited to your personal collectionStardock offers an ever-growing library of DreamScenes where you can nd many mesmerizing dreamscenes such as Desktop Earth! DreamScapes supports Microsofts DreamScene .Dream format which uses WMV or MPEG clips. DreamScape adds on additional stuff such as dynamic content, new functions and author info. It can build customized wallpaper animations and automatically change your wallpaper according to what your machine is doing!With this, expect a broad 5-20 percent overall hit on your processor cycles as well as RAM utilization. The current version works only on Vista Ultimate, but a new version should be out soon, and promises to work on all versions. XP users can nd a DreamScene version still under beta at http://dreamscenexp.zonesoft.netFOR: Truly dreamlike, fun.AGAINST: For Vista Ultimate only.System Requirements: Win 2000/XP/, 500 MHz, 256 MB, 1 MB disk spaceDESKTOP ACCESSORYDeskScapes 1.02PriceFreeContactStardockWebsitehttp: //www.stardock.com/ products/deskscapes/ RATINGSEase of use Features Performance Overall Rating System Requirements: Win dows Vista Ultimate only, 2 GHz, 1 GB, 100 MB disk spaceVIRTUAL PC With MojoPac you can selectively pack Windows and its applications onto a simple 256 MB USB stick/external HDD or an iPod. By plugging the device into a USB 2.0 port, MojoPac acts like a virtual PC right off the device. One pre-requisite is that its software needs to be installed on the host PC.With MojoPac, you can get an OS that you have congured just the way you like. In addition, you get an added layer of security through virtualizationyou can surf the Internet etc, without the fear of the host PC getting affected by malicious programs. The virtual PC itself takes about 128 MB plus additional space for any other programs youd want to include. Applications that install in the Windows Kernel will not work with this, such as antivirus programs. For that, special portable versions would be required (www.portableapps.com). Some of its quirks include the fact that MojoPac doesnt support USB 1.1 as its too slow. iPod users will lose their iPod-specic features due to MojoPac interfacing with the host PC; data can only be exchanged to a host PC with MojoPac Data Copy.FOR: Extra security and convenience. AGAINST: Non-bootable, no Vista support.SYSTEM UTILITYMojoPac FreedomPriceFreeContactRingCube Technologies, IncWebsitewww.mojopac.com RATINGSEase of use Features Performance Overall Rating System Requirements: Win XP/Media Center/Tablet PC, 1GHz, 512MB, 1MB disk spaceFind it onthis months Find it onthis months Find it onthis months REFRESHED DESIGNSIndian graphics designers, desktop publishers, illustrators and students alike will all be familiar with the name Corel. CorelDRAW, the companys agship product, is often one of the rst advanced software packages any aspiring designer picks up. Its a highly exible and powerful program, but has lost some of its shine in recent years due to from a general perception that it isnt as powerful as Adobe Illustrator. Illustrator and CorelDRAW are highly mature, sophisticated products, and so both are bound to have their groups of loyal fans. Were here to take a look at the entire package of programs contained in CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4.X4 incorporates a number of enhancements in terms of both features and usability. One of the rst things youll notice is the slightly refreshed interface. All the buttons and toolbars have been given a makeover to t in with Windows Vista, with subtle colors and gradient effects everywhere. Flyout menus on the toolbox now have text next to the icons by default, though this might not sit well with longtime users. Theres a new book-shaped welcome screen, with tabs that ip over to reveal little tips such as new features, tutorials, and sample images from the online CorelDRAW.com community. A Whats new entry on the Help menu lets you choose which version youre upgrading from, and then activate a yellow highlight around every button, tool, and menu item thats new or improved since that version.Cool ToolsThe File | New from Template command brings up a gallery of templates sorted by categories such as Brochures, Flyers, and Advertisements. You can preview the templates at different zoom levels and check out their properties (such as physical dimensions and the number of pages and folds). But the most interesting part is the Designer Notes pane, which lets template designers share their thoughts about visual identity and style, along with suggestions for colors, fonts, the overall message trying to be conveyed, and recommended usage situations.While on the topic of opening and creating new documents, CorelDRAW X4 can now import a bunch of new le formats, including documents saved by Ofce 2007 applications, Adobe CS3 applications, Painter X and AutoCAD. Youll also notice the Open dialog box integrates with Vistas integrated instant search, and uses large, high-quality image thumbnails. A redesigned Preview pane allows you to scroll through multi-page documents in the dialog box itself. However, these improvements are only available on Windows Vista. XP users wont notice the slightest difference.One fantastic addition is the ability to create different sets and groups of layers on each page of your image. This is a great way to reduce clutter and avoid editing parts of your image that you dont want to. If you need a layer to span each page, you can simply create it in the Master Page section of the Object Manager docker.New also are live previews of formatting changes. Unfortunately, text tended to deselect itself while running through lists of fonts and sizes; an apparent bug we hope is rectied with an update soon.Minor tweaks include live previews of formatting changes to selected text. SOFTWARE OF THE MONTH102 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008VECTOR GRAPHICS SUITECorelDRAWGraphics Suite X4System Requirements Windows XP SP2/ Vista, Pentium III or AthlonXP 800 MHz CPU, 512 MB RAM, 430 MB free disk spacePriceRs 16,400(Rs 8,900 upgrade)ContactSathish [email protected] RATINGSEase of use Features Performance Overall Rating TESTEDAPPLICATIONSOne of the most substantially upgraded features is PowerTRACE, the bitmap-to-vector conversion engine. CorelDRAW can now trace bitmaps using outlines or center lines, control the colors your vector will include, and tweak output settings in much ner detail than before.On the tableBut the headlining new feature is undoubtedly the brand new Table tool. Theres an all-new button in the toolbox, although you might miss it since it looks very similar to the Graph Paper tool of previous versions. In fact, you use it in almost exactly the same way. Simply select the tool and then drag from corner to corner to create an evenly spaced grid. However youll notice a massive difference in the property bar: instead of just the number of rows and columns, you have many options. You can dene a background color or use different colors and ll effects as well as dene the border thickness and stroke color for each cell. You can merge and split cells for exible layouts, and even restore previously merged cells. You can convert text to tables and vice versa using commas, tabs, paragraphs or user-dened characters as delimiters. Tables copied from a word processor are also reproduced.Also, as opposed to the Graph Paper tool, each cell becomes an individual text box as soon as you create a table. All you have to do is click inside a cell and you have the full power and scope of the Text tool at your disposal. Fonts, sizes, colors, etc can all be set for individual cells. Last but not least, placed bitmap images can be dropped into cells by right-clicking and dragging. Its a great way to make neat collages and posters.A MS Word-style gallery of table templates or easy ways to format header rows and columns would have been brilliant additions. Theres sure to be a market for document templates with color-coordinated tables built in.All about the webThere are also two neat web-enabled features new to CorelDRAW X4. The rst is a truly unique ideaintegration with www.myfonts.com to use their What The Font service. If youve scanned or traced a graphic containing text but cant identify the fonts used, you can just upload a clipping and it will do the work for you. Integration means all you have to do is click Text | What The Font and then draw a marquee around the font sample, rather than export the image, crop it, and then upload it from a browser. Identication was fairly accurate, but the sites database isnt exhaustive.The second web feature is Corels own ConceptShare. Its exactly what it sounds likea web service that lets you share your design concepts with invited friends, colleagues or clients, who can pan, zoom, leave text comments and also draw on top of the design to highlight a point. ConceptShare seems like a nice idea, and it should be interesting to see a community of helpful commentators develop around it.The other componentsCorelDRAW is undoubtedly the king of the Graphics Suite, but it includes a few more standalone applications. Corel Photo Paint, a basic bitmap editor, has been a longtime companion to DRAW. Its nowhere near Photoshop in terms of power and features, but this version is a step in the right direction with all-new RAW image format support, non-destructive image adjustments, and a tool to x images scanned at odd angles. Youll mainly use this program to prepare images for tracing, or save them for use on the web.Corel Capture is another standalone application that can capture not only screenshots, but also animations, individual windows and menus, or user-dened areas of the screen.BitStream Font Navigator is a neat font cataloguing and previewing application. And rounding out the suite is the Service Bureau Proler, a wizard-style application for packaging and preparing your designs for a printing press.Overall, theres much less of a dramatic improvement in X4 than there was in X3. Users of X3 are unlikely to nd a reason to upgrade, unless they really need the Table tool. But if youre still using version 12 or below, you should give X4 a serious thought. [email protected] 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | 103TESTEDAPPLICATIONSPowerTRACE now includes many new functions, the most important being the Centerline trace method.Table cells can have any kind of border and fill. You can use images, text, imported files, fountain fills, pattern fills and solid colors.Pirate SlayersEfforts to curb music piracy in India havent been very aggressive so far, but European pirates are running scared. CHIP followed a group of investigators in Germany to see what the future holds. BY ANDREAS HENTSCHEL, SHAXEB S. AND JAMSHED AVARISMS us!Story code: APS to 57007104 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008FEATURE APPLICATIONSA moose-like gure draped in a Christmas outt greets guests at the front door of a single-family home near Osnabrck, in the north-west of Germany. Someone has obviously forgotten to put away the decoration; the holidays got over a few weeks ago. It is likely that a music pirate lives behind the doorone who has uploaded 980 MP3s for download on the BearShare peer-to-peer network. Violation of the Copyright Act in 980 cases is written on the search warrant. This warrant is carried by the two Kripo (criminal police) ofcers who have just driven up. They are here to nd the PC that has the pirated goods, the tool of the crime. The ofcers ring the bell to investigate further.The police have brought with them the highly able Frank Lungen. Lungen knows every le sharing network inside and out. This is not because he uses them, but because he ghts against them. He does this job with an almost obsessive passion. Last year, Lngen participated in 138 house searches, traveled 80,000 kilometers through Germany in his car, and had to sleep in a hotel every fourth night. His experience even tells him what a computer that has been used for illegal le sharing looks like. This is something that the police are not too aware of, and is where they lack in experience. Computers are not their cup of tea and theyre overworked. They give me a call and then it goes faster. says Lngen.A man in his mid fties opens the door. He greets the police with a friendly hello. He knows one of the Kripo ofcers from his local shing associationthat is how it is in rural areas. His son must be responsible for these charges, assumes the confused father, when he is told why the police are at his door. He calls his wife who is a lawyer. The 16-year-old accused is in school at this time. The father asks the son to call him, and he does so from his cell phone in two minutes. The accused reveals his password and allows the expert to quickly search through his PC. Other than that, the boy does not say anythingits better for Frank Lngen (right) gathers evidence against online music pirates, while his partner, advocate Clemens Rasch (left) prosecutes them in court.MARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | 105FEATURE APPLICATIONShim if he doesnt. His mother will take care of that later, being a legal expert.Lngen actually nds a few music les on the PC which to his surprise are bought legally. He doesnt nd any le sharing tools. The accused seems to be completely clean. Lngen enquires whether there is another computer in the house. The daughters notebook is full of musicwith the top 100 titles sorted folder-wise. These are typical of suspicious shared les. However, le sharing software is missing even on the laptop. No BearShare, no LimeWire, no eMule, no BitTorrent client. The father adds that his son often arranges LAN parties. Maybe one of his friends has a le sharing network running? Thats probable, but assumptions do not help Lngen, who needs solid proof. The PCs stay with their owners and Lngen leaves empty handed. Doesnt matter, you should be able to lose sometimes. Lngen is not used to losing anyway. He conscated three computers the previous day, and one more the same morning. A man had uploaded more than 1,000 MP3s on LimeWire. When the police stood in his living room, he got weak in the knees. He of course knew that he had done something illegal but what astonished him even more was how the police traced him down. Suspicious cluesLngen is a head investigator with proMedia, an agency which was formed four years ago by the anti-piracy department of the German organization that represents the interests of the phonographic industry. On behalf of many German music companies, proMedia tracks le-sharing network users. When Lngen listens to the ofce answering machine in the morning, he nds many threats left by people he has incriminated. Lngen, Ill screw you. And Ill screw Rasch as well. Clemens Rasch is a lawyer, and Lngens partner. Together, they form Germanys most successful pirate hunters, or at least the most active. Ten years ago, they were ghting against the original le sharing network Napster and its German imitators. They took down the servers from the network but for each server that was shut down, two new ones emerged.For three years, Rasch and Lngen have been suing le sharing network users directly. They recorded the rst 68 cases on 25,000 sheets of paper which they themselves took to the law enforcement ofcials. Initially they nabbed a trainee from Cottbus. The second was a teacher from Baden-Wrttemberg, who didnt just use MP3s from le sharing networks but even burnt CDs in large numbers. Everyone knows someone, who knows someone, who is smitten by the le sharing bug, Lngen rattles off time and again. This sentence is often heard even in conversations with Rasch. The lawyer, who studied music along with law, plays the organ. He laments the lack of respect for intellectual property but often also wonders about the naivety of Around the world, anti-piracy efforts have come into focus in recent years. Associations formed by record labels, movie studios and even individual artistes are suing individuals faster than ever before. Under threat of million-dollar fines and imprisonment, the majority of people on the receiving end of such lawsuits choose to settle out of court for undisclosed amounts of money.It seems that more than people who download, its the people who upload large amounts of data who are actively pursued. Pirate groups who release high-quality DVD screener rips of movies even before their theatrical releases are high up on the list, as are those who leak entire music albums. Several file-sharing networks have been shut down by legal pressure over the years. KaZaa, WinMX, Morpheus and even Napster, the one that started it all, have succumbed. It was easy to identify individual file sharers and shut down the centralized servers that some of these networks used. Specialized agencies exist that flood such networks with damaged copies of these files to frustrate pirates.Now, the main thrust is on BitTorrent trackers, although legally it isnt as easy since the trackers dont host the actual files that are shared.Piracy and punishment around the worldAgents at proMedia monitor file-sharing networks such as LimeWire, BearShare and eMule, and identify high-volume pirates.This forensic system costs 10,000. It makes copies of suspects hard disks, so that investigators can study the data stored on them.106 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008FEATURE APPLICATIONSmost le sharing network users. Very few people steal in shops because they are scared of being caught by a detective. But on the Internet, most of the criminals think they are invisible.The three-shift systemIn 2007 alone, Lngen and Rasch recorded incidences of le sharing by 25,000 unique users. They made a demand for prosecution in each of these cases. Public prosecutors in the whole of Germany had and are still having headaches over them. Approximately 12,000 cases resulted in either a conviction or the accused agreeing to an out-of-court settlement with Rasch. With or without the court, whoever receives mail from Rasch is bound to pay at least a few hundred Euros, possibly even a few thousand, depending on how many MP3s were uploaded and his or her income. The probability that a large-scale music pirate will be nabbed is almost a hundred percent. This is possible because such people share entire folders full of music, i.e., they allow other users to download music from their hard disks. From eight in the morning to late at night, employees of proMedia scan all popular le sharing networks for such les. Lngen has place for up to 34 investigators. At present, there are about ten persons per shift. Proper evidence for 10,000The investigators process lists together with executives under contract with big German record labels, and search for le sharing network users who upload titles of certain copyrighted artists. They might overlook computers with a few copyrighted songs, but no one from Lngens team will reveal the actual numbers. If a user exceeds this limit, then the investigators record every little detailwhat music is uploaded to which peer-to-peer network, when, and how much. They take screenshots of the entire music list when there are 10,000 songs. The IP address is recorded because that is the only way the users can be identied. The investigators control user hashes digital ngerprints created from the P2P client and MAC addresses of the PCswhich identify the users as old acquaintances, even when they upload their music with a different IP address.The proMedia employees download two titles as a trial, which they have to listen to completely irrespective of whether it is teeny-pop by Tokio Hotel or classical hits by Andrea Bocelli.In the process, a capture tool records the sender and receiver of every single data packet. This is necessary to prove that the le is an original version of the song and the download originated from the relevant suspect or proMedia will not be able to appear in court with insufcient proof. Lngen is of great help as a consultant on the Internet and otherwise. When he searches through computers on behalf of public prosecutors, he uses a copy of the hard disk. He generates it with a forensic system worth 10,000 which does not change even a single bit. Otherwise it would mean that I could be passing off pirated copies to someone. Despite the expense, investigators nab 120 to 150 le sharers every day, and these are not even in their databases yet. Their data is played on a hard disk twice daily and then brought into Clemens Raschs chamber. This way he sets the mills of justice in relentless motion.However, the efforts seem to be paying off. Lngen believes that he can see a decrease in le sharing activity. One year ago, BearShare had 1.2 million active users. Today there are 400,000. And I am convinced that this is because of our efforts. It does not matter to Lngen that many move to other systems and use direct downloading techniques such as RapidShare. At the moment they are safe. But we will get them soon. proMedia has a gateway to RapidShare and manually deletes directories with musicwithout any consequences for the uploading party. In the future, Rasch and Lngen want to demand log data of the uploader from the operators of RapidShare. Lngen says, Thanks to data retention, there is more time to investigate the owner of each le uploaded. Lawyer Rasch also is pleased with this trend. He says, It is not that bad if the cases dont become tricky again. The effort for every success is increasing, but when you bust something, you are sure to nd a big sh. Even if it sounds strange; I would like to meet real pirates sometime. [email protected] who share copyrighted music, movies and software might have to deal with an unexpected visit from the police!Computers with stolen music can be confiscated by the police, for eventual investigation by experts like Lngen.MARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | 107FEATURE APPLICATIONSBIOS tweaks in WindowsYou can fiddle with the BIOS of your PC even without all those confusing blue menus. These Windows tools can improve performance by almost 25 percent.BY THOMAS LITTSCHWAGER AND JAMSHED AVARI.SMS us!Story code: ABT to 57007Inexplicable blue BIOS menus with cryptic settings that even professionals cannot explain completelythe PCs BIOS (Basic Input Output System) is not a very good example of a computers user-friendliness. But, if you know all the ins and outs of those mysterious settings, you can really make squeeze a lot of juice out of your computer. Thankfully, you dont need to be a professional computer technician to do this. There are numerous system tools that can manipulate most of the BIOS settings from Windows itself without the incomprehensible options and guessing games.In an extensive series of benchmarks across ve test systems, CHIP found the tools that can really squeeze the best out of a PC. We pushed all our test systems to their performance limits with the new benchmark suite PCMark Vantage, and the graphics benchmark 3D Mark 06 (available for download at www.futuremark.com/download)and came up with performance gains of up to 25 percent. Youll have to identify the brand of motherboard or type of chipset your computer uses and download the software applicable to the components you own. Before we start, the usual warnings. As in the case of all tuning measures, you should rst back up all your important data. As you make changes to the BIOS settings, also make sure to pull back at the rst sign of instability. And now, we can start tuning the BIOS with only a few clicks of the mouse!ASUS AI Suite (9 percent faster)TESTED VERSION: 1.03.15. CONFIGURATION: Intel Core 2 Duo E6700, Asus Maximus (Intel X38), 2 GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTSPCMARK VANTAGE: 4,030 points (earlier: 3,697)AI Suite combines multiple tuning programs that can overclock the CPU or the entire system, and can even control the fans. It comes with all the latest Asus motherboards and can also be downloaded from www.asus.com.tw. Pramod Jadhav108 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008FEATURE APPLICATIONSThe biggest strength of AI Suite is its easy operation. You can access the tools AI Gear 3, AI Booster, CPU Level Up and Q-Fan using the group of buttons on the left side of the main program interface. AI Gear 3 is especially useful. Here, the system can be switched between the power-saving Pedestrian mode (which uses 10 percent less power) and the fast Rocket mode (which uses 5 percent more power) using a virtual on-screen gear shift. Apparently, an airplane is the standard mode of transport in Taiwan, since the default settings of the system (neither underclocked nor overclocked) are called Airplane mode. The Magic Wand setting is better than manual switching: Here, the system changes the mode automatically depending on CPU load. The 5 percent increase in power consumption in Rocket mode reveals what AI Gear 3 really does: dynamically adapting the CPU speed.On the other hand, CPU Level Up can unleash some real power: Here, you can select the speeds of the processor you want to use from a menu the system independently adjusts all settings of your actual CPU to match. In our case, we could choose to run our Core 2 Duo E6700 at the speed of a Core 2 Extreme X6800 or a Core 2 Duo E6850! After restarting, the system ran stably at the 3.0 GHz speed of the E6850 this brought PCMark Vantage from 3.697 to 4.030 points: An improvement of 9 percent. However, avoid the Crazy option. Our test system did not even boot after applying this, since the CPU parameters were set too high. Last of all, if the PC is running fast and stable, activate Q Fan, so that the fan does not constantly drone at its full rotating speed.Abit Guru (12 percent faster)TESTED VERSION: 3.1.0.6. CONFIGURATION: Intel Core 2 Duo E6700, Abit IX38 QuadGT (Intel X38), 2 GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTSPCMARK VANTAGE: 4,019 points (earlier 3,583)The simple interface of the Abit Guru (www. abit.nl) tool that accompanies all Abit motherboards is not particularly good-looking; nonetheless the program provides full access to all important system settings. You can ddle with clock frequencies as well as fan control and voltages. Here, Abit lives up to its reputation as a manufacturer of extremely tweakable motherboards. However, spend a little time and effort to make sure the tool works optimally: Under the Settings button in Abit EQ, activate the monitoring of all temperatures, voltages and fan speedsto keep yourself informed. Switch on the automatic fan control under Fan EQ and youll hear the noise level suddenly drop. You get the best results after clicking the Optimize button. All fans are adjusted to their optimum settings. Ready-made overclocking proles are available in Abit Guru. With the Turbo setting, our test PC could deliver a good twelve percent more in PCMark Vantage, an increase of over 400 points. The system did not allow us to set even higher parametersthose who know their PCs inside out can however even dene their own proles under OC Guru. Gigabyte EasyTune 5 Pro (12 percent faster)TESTED VERSION: B7.1101.1. CONFIGURATION: Intel Core 2 Duo E6700, Gigabyte P35T-DQ6 (Intel P35), 2 GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTSPCMARK VANTAGE: 4,056 points (earlier 3,332)Unlike its competitors, Gigabytes tuning program EasyTune 5 Pro that is designed to look like a Formula 1 steering wheel has all its important settings right on the main interface. Gigabyte motherboards only come with the simple EasyTune software; the Pro version is available for download from their website www.gigabyte.com. EasyTune can regulate all clock frequencies individuallyi.e. the front side bus, PCI, PCIe and AGP buses as well as all voltages. But be careful, our tests have revealed that while the system does switch off in case of extremely high settings, the CPU clock is also automatically adjusted downward in order to prevent damageunlike with other tools, your PC can suddenly become considerably slower than usual.Therefore, the best choice is the creatively named CIA (CPU Intelligent Accelerator) that is located on the right side of the steering wheel. The system clocks and voltages are optimized automatically depending on the current load. We managed to obtain 12 percent more performance in the Full Thrust setting. We got results even with the incremental overclocking options in Easy modeeven if the regulator promises more by setting it to 20 percent, PCMark Vantage wont score more than 10 percent higher than at stock settings.If the overclocking features have been tuned optimally, the last step is to adjust the fan speed using Smart Fan. You can keep the speed low to reduce noise, as long as the CPU temperate remains below 65 degrees Celsius.You can get amazing results with EasyTune 5 Pro simply by turning the regulator.Apart from information, AI Suite offers many tuning tools for overclocking and fan control.Abits Guru offers only information on its main screenthe power is hidden in the setup menu.MARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | 109FEATURE APPLICATIONS Nvidia nTune (25 percent faster)TESTED VERSION: 5.05. CONFIGURATION: Intel Core 2 Duo E6700, Asus Striker (Nvidia nForce 680i), 2 GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS3DMARK06: 12,190 points (earlier 9,794)If you have a fairly recent motherboard with an nForce chipset, i.e. from the nForce 5 series onwards, you can opt for the Nvidia tool nTune (available for download from www. nvidia.com). This way, you arent restricted by the tuning software of the motherboard manufacturer. The major strength of nTune is that the software slowly inches its way towards the maximum possible parameters of any system using the options available under Power | Optimize system. You get to choose between Rough tuning which checks your PC for approx 20 minutes, and Fine tuning which uses ner increments and can last for several hours. Our tests showed that rough tuning is quite sufcient. The system did not achieve better results even after several hours of ne tuning than it did with rough tuning. What is especially noteworthy is that a system crash during the tuning process does not disturb nTune at all: After restarting, the software continues to run, avoids parameters that were aggressive enough to cause the crash, and continues tuning another parameter. Another special bonus: If you have an Nvidia graphics card in the PC, this too is detected and optimized by nTune. In 3DMark 06, this helped us achieve a sensational 25 percent increase in performance. AMD OverDrive (14 percent faster)TESTED VERSION: 2.10. CONFIGURATION: AMD Athlon FX 62, MSI K9A2 Platinum (AMD 790), 2 GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS PCMARK VANTAGE: 3,791 points (earlier 3,332)For motherboards with a 7-series AMD chipset and AMD processor, there is a powerful tool: AMD OverDrive (available at www.amd.com). OverDrive independently adjusts the required settings under the Auto Clock menu item; but it achieves really impressive results when you use the professional settings. The Advanced Mode has every possible regulator and switch. After manually tweaking these, our system went from 2.8 GHz to 3.2 GHza good 14 percent increase in performance with 450 more PCMark points. The tool allows for versatile overclocking: if you are using a new Phenom processor, the clock speed of each of the four CPU cores can be adjusted independently. [email protected] a stress test, nTune uses a 3D animation that is extremely heavy on the processor. AMDs OverDrive tool allows tuning all CPU and memory settings.TESTED VERSION: 3.7. CONFIGURATION: Intel Core 2 Duo E6700, Asus Striker (Nvidia nForce 680i), 2 GByte RAM, Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS3DMARK06: 9.836 points (earlier 8.760 points)Motherboards are not the only devices with BIOS chips. Even graphics cards have a BIOS on which all GPU settings are saved. But you cannot access the BIOS of a graphics card using a shortcut or plugging in a jumper. You require special programs to access them: For Nvidia graphics cards, theres now a tool called NiBiTor, currently at version 3.7 (available for download from www.mvktech.net). Using this program, you can not only read and change your own graphics card BIOS, but also swap it completelyBIOS variants tuned for many GPUs are available for download in the MVKTech.net forums. Be careful in case of extremely high settings. This is a very risky process.You can read the settings of your own BIOS from Tools | Read BIOS. You should export this file to your hard disk before playing around with the clock rates. However, you have to be very careful when making any changesyou could easily end up selecting clock or voltage values that can damage the card. You can achieve up to ten percent better performance if you increase the parameters carefully: Our 8800 GTS ran stably even with a core clock rate of 570 MHz instead of 515 MHz. To permanently apply the new BIOS profile, boot up with a floppy disk and use the tool Nvflash.exe to load your new BIOS profile. From now on, the PC will always boot with the new clock rates and you will permanently have ten percent more performance in games and 3D applications. To reverse the process, simply use the same process to load the BIOS profile you exported before you began your overclocking adventure.Only for pros: Tuning a graphics cards BIOS (10 percent faster)NiBiTor 3.7 can increase the performance of an Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS by 10 percent or more.Pure in BinaryFilmmakers are gradually embracing digital formats. CHIP takes you behind the scene to one such end-to-end digital movie solution company, and projects the future of cinema right in your face. BY SHAXEB S.SMS us!Story code: APB to 57007110 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008FEATURE APPLICATIONSBid adieu to the beautifully impure theatre experience. Say goodbye to the rst day grains, and the end-of-the-week dust and scratches. The randomness of analog cinema reels daubed with imperfections is giving way to its digital successor; well, just like everything else did. The evolution of cinematic formats began with the tin box holding the precious rst-day-rst-show lm reel being replaced with a hard disk. But the hard disk wasnt good enough an idea for some. Why replace one physical object with another? Why not digitize it and upload it to a server. The central server which is connected to a thousand others in different distant places with the A - Z of weather conditions. The individual servers connected to the highest-end digital projectors displaying cinema at its visual peakno dust and scratches, no grains, just perfectly balanced colors which are saturated to perfectly please the human eye. This is the beginning of an era and its bound to affect and impact each one of us with its sheer quality. UFO Digital CinemaCHIP met the Indian pioneers of digital cinema who are not just providing digital cinema infrastructure to 1000 theatres across India but also accelerating the development of this technology by riding on the MPEG-4 platform. Simply put, the alternative MPEG-2 compression platform which is used to digitize movies requires 10 times the storage space as compared to MPEG-4. This means that it is not close to feasible to upload the MPEG-2 compressed le of a movie on to a server which would then be downloaded by the individual theatres. Which is why, the MPEG-2 compressed les are transported on a hard disk to theatres but an MPEG-4 le can be easily uploaded. This complete platform of uploading/downloading movies instead of physical transportation has a lot of benets in terms of nancial feasibility and more importantly, on the security front. We will dive into a little more detail of how this extremely complicated technology with the simplest interface works. Pramod JadhavMARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | 111FEATURE APPLICATIONSReel to Screen The responsibilities of a company like UFO Digital Cinema is dependent on the requirements of the movie producer. In any case, they have the entire infrastructure to provide an end-to-end digital cinema solution. Lets understand the chronology of processes after the nal edit of the movie is complete. D5 TAPE OR .DPX FILES?: A movie is usually shot on a lm camera, or in recent cases, a digital camera which supports resolutions as large as 2K. Film is converted into a digital format with a process called telecine. Telecine output is digital which is electronically recorded on a D5 tape. This is one output option which the digital distributor (for instance, UFO Digital Cinema) receives. This tape is then recorded on to their system using a D5 tape player. The system converts the recording into a set of frames and from this point the le compressing begins. In some cases, production houses carry out a telecine process, apply color correction and then make a print which is called DI (Digital Intermediate). Because of this digitization process, the output les are in a digital format named .DPX (Digital Picture Exchange). So, the D5 tape or the .DPX les are the two options of formats that the digital distributor receives. THE CAPTURE ROOM: The digital distributor records the D5 tape data by playing it on a D5 player and grabbing it with a high-end capture card. In case of .DPX les, there are dedicated machines in their capture rooms to process this format. These high-end machines usually use an Autodesk software called Smoke. COLOR CORRECTION: This process is mandatory irrespective of the incoming format. Even though, the DI processwhich may have happened before coming to the digital distributortakes care of the movies color correction, the in-house process of correcting colors is specically to is to target it for the nal digital display medium. UFO uses Smoke in their color correction lab. The raw content comes in D5 or .DPX formats, which is then processed shot by shot, or frame by frame according to the visual data. As different lms (Kodak, Fuji etc) vary from each other, colorists refer to a lms LUT (Lookup Table) to linearize the lm lea projected le needs to be linearized or attened. A lm le is logarithmic which means that the colors between 0 and 255 appear in a logarithmic fashionthis needs to be linearized by referring to a LUT. Color corrections are in the form of layers which are applied and merged by rendering as one output le. After the color correction procedure is complete, the producer and his crew usually sign off the nal print after watching it at the preview theatreENCODING AND ENCRYPTION: The color correction procedure gives awless quality to the movie le, and the next process in the digitization chain brings in watertight security. The output after color correction is encoded (compressed) using MPEG-4 at approximately 15-20 megabits. MPEG-4 helps keep the le size light and maintains top-notch quality (see box). Frame by frame encryption is carried out after the encoding is complete. The encryption keys are then stored in a database making the whole pack extremely secure. These stored keys are used to create licenses later. These licenses are basically containers of the encrypted keys which is then itself encrypted in 24-bit.SATELLITE UPLINK: The secure movie le is uploaded using a bre optic direct link to UFOs satellite partners. The servers located in theatres download the encrypted movie le and record them. A lot of the next steps between this stage and nal exhibition happens outside the theatrethe business deals between producers and regional distributors, and between distributors and theatre exhibitors. Usually, the digital distributors upload the movie by Wednesday or Thursday on to the central server which is then downloaded to the theatres but the downloaded le is still encrypted. The distributor informs the digital distributors to issue licenses which is also in the form electronic messages. These posted messages then come in and tell the database to produce licenses from the encrypted keys. This makes it a secure transaction again because there is no human intervention. The encryption keys are then transmitted through the satellite or through a back channel (which is connected to each and every system in the eld), which is connected back to the center through CDMA phones or other modes. The back channel is important because it allows us to extract playback logs which tells us how many shows were played and where. The playback logs can be reconciled with the release orders by the distributors. This gives the distributor, theatre owners detailed information about shows consolidating the Some of you must be left wondering about the extraordinary qualities of the MPEG-4 format. How can it compress a movie file and make its file size so much smaller (as compared to MPEG-2) and still not lose out on quality? An MPEG-2 movie file requires nothing less than a good 80-90 GB of space which is why it needs to be shipped on a hard disk. As opposed to this, a MPEG-4 movie file is light enough to be uploaded to a central server and then downloaded to other servers inside a day. MPEG-4 has smaller file sizes as it works on a much better algorithm. MPEG 4 uses a frame protection technique which leaves out the data which is unchanged in the frame. It compresses the data in such a way that only the active and moving elements on screen are compressed. It makes one version of the background and uses it throughout resulting in a small file size. The MPEG-4 MagicA D5 tape records extremely high resolution data electronically. It has 94 minutes of recording time.112 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008FEATURE APPLICATIONSbusiness transaction end. Along with all the technical work, UFO also becomes the network operation center. At the moment, UFO has acquired close to 1000 cinemas all across the country to whom they have also distributed the infrastructure. From their central server location, they can do much more than mentioned earlier. In case, if any problem arises in any of their theatres, they can remotely diagnose the problem and repair it almost instantaneously. This way, a digital distributor like UFO becomes the hub between the producer, distributor and exhibitor and the whole service is provided as a package. There are also other benets like invisible watermarks which help trace down a pirate from a pirated copy down to the show, date, and location details. Complex Infrastructure with a Simple FaceThere were a lot of other struggles which stood in the way but were conquered and today this technology and protocols have become an existing benchmark in India. To exemplify: a majority of the 1000 theatres which UFO manages in the country are distributed across extremely different regions. Some theatres have completely computer illiterate employees who are operating the projectors convenientlythe same person who may have never touched a mouse in his life is now downloading via satellite, taking licenses, browsing the content, scheduling the shows! This has been made possible because of the absolutely humble stop/play/rewind interface of the technology at the users end. Even the advertising and trailer models in this business have been embedded in the technology by ways of parking pre-show content on the server and sending a playlist to the theatre. The server looks for any pre-show information and simply plays that before the movie! There is also a system in place to maintain a synch (using a constant pulse) between the central server and each of the other servers which are communicating on a minute-by-minute basis and at any time, if the synch is lost the central server reconciles the time on the remote server immediately. Even, the servers have been tested in extreme conditions to simulate the possible scenarios in some theatres and they have successfully endured an extreme range of 0 - 55 degree Celsius range! [email protected]: These hardware encoders compress the final content into the MPEG-4 format at 15 -20 megabits. This process makes the file light and easy to upload. SERVER: The compressed and encrypted content is further compiled into playable entities incorporating advertisements and trailers as called out by various contracts controlled by marketing and then uplinked to the satellite using a Fibre optic direct link. Here, we present an inside view of the backend of the future of theatrical broadcast. With this, things are bound to change for the better and even out the role of distributors and producers. SMOKE MACHINES: These machines run Smoke and the .DPX files are corrected here. Even the D5 outputs are color corrected using these insanely powerful machines. STORAGE AREA: You can only imagine the capacity of storage this level of hard disks have. Approximately 15 Terabytes of data storage is possible in this space. D5 PLAYER: The D5 tape is played using this player and the content is recorded using a high-end capture card. The D5 tape is recorded electronically after the telecine process. The UFO Digital Cinema Capture Room 114 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008 Sachin PanditFEATURE APPLICATIONSThe short-term future of mobile phones seems to be quite interesting. We are bound to see mobile phones evolve into indispensable multi-utility devices. Your cell phones functionality will soon go beyond the PDA, digital camera or music player roles that it serves today. In the future, it will also become your wallet, credit card, car key, home doorway key, or a personal remote control for multiple appliances. It could well be your personal identity as well.However, the long-term future of mobile phones is even more interesting. Eventually, there will be no mobile phones. Allow me to explain with this story.Saturation PointWith the current silicon-based manufacturing technology for microprocessors, manufacturers seem to have reached a saturation point in terms of pure clock speed. Take Intel for examplethey had promised to deliver the 4 GHz Pentium 4. But after having developed a 3.8 GHz one, they could neither stuff more transistors into the available space nor increase the transistors switch-cycles to attain 4 GHz, because of heating issues. To achieve better performance, they decided to put two cores on a single die, and thus the onslaught of dual-core processors began. A time will come when it will not be feasible to put more cores on a single die. By then, the current silicon-based manufacturing technology will have reached its limits. Replacement technologyResearch is already underway for using lasers to transmit data within a processor, instead of silicon circuits. Of greater interest is research in the eld of quantum computing; here the spin of an electron (a sub-atomic particle) is used to store binary information. Presently binary information is represented by switching a transistor on or off (or a ip-op for a processor) to denote the binary numbers 1 or 0. With quantum computing, unbelievably large reserves of information can be stored in very small spaces.Another research area is biological computing. Scientists in Japan have already succeeded in encoding 100 bits of information onto a bacterium. All this clearly means that we are constantly moving towards more efcient forms of technology. CyberneticsLeaving these aside for a minute, let us look at another area of research in todays scenario which is undoubtedly regarded as the most dangerous game mankind is playing with itself: Cybernetics. A cyborg, or cybernetic organism, is a living being whose perception and interaction with its surroundings has been signicantly changed (read improved) due to some implant(s) in his/her body. Bizarre as it may appear to ones wildest In the future, you probably wont need a mobile phone. Our bodies will carry out the function of a mobile phone because of chips embedded in our skin.The Next CommunicatorSMS us!Story code: ANC to 57007AVIJEET TOMERFEATURE APPLICATIONSimagination, the future will inevitably be a world inhabited with cyborgs. If you Google information on Kevin Warwick, youll know. Youll also discover, in case you still didnt know, that cyborgs are not just found in science ction.. Theyre an existing realityliving and enjoying it; excited about the future. Professor Kevin Warwick, the worlds rst cyborg, has controlled a robotic arm on another continent by moving his own, because of a chip implanted in his arm.With the advent of Cybernetics, it might be possible that in the future, everybody will be a cyborg. Like millions of computers connected to the Internet today, people will then be interconnected through a worldwide network. They will be computers themselves! Implants in your body will identify you on this network with your personal details and help you recognize yourself as the citizen of a country. Your birth certicate will only exist in soft form within you; no hard copy document. You will be able to carry out mathematical operations like a computer. You could download information to yourself from the web and upload your experiences onto in. You could save what you physically see and hear as video les. Your bodily implants will protect you from the harsh elements of nature. Your eyes will be able to zoom into faraway objects. You will be able to hear the sounds out of the normal human hearing range. There will be no need to physically move your hands, or to shut your ears to cut out an irritating noise, just mentally switch off your sense of hearing. Your cars door will open automatically when you approach it. You could operate appliances without getting up from your chair. When you shake hands with someone, introductions will automatically be exchanged. In fact, one will not have to use ones mouth at all to communicate; more efcient alternatives will be the obvious choice. This will be benecial not only because communication will be at the speed of thought (instead of having to verbally speak out long sentences to communicate a small message) but also because you could make others see precisely what you imagine! And of course, if you were good at unethical hacking, you could download and install someone elses skills in some activity in your own body and become as good as him!This is enough to declare that there will not be any mobile phones in the distant future. Whatever you will be able to do with a mobile phone even two decades from now, you will be able to do yourself in the long-term future as a cyborg. You may argue that the very set of implants in your body that will help you communicate can be considered your personal mobile phone; even if there is no physical handset and that the ten-digit numbers might be replaced by names or some unique IP addresses. But I shall now counter-argue that too.Programmable bodiesArtists create ugly-looking pictures of cyborgs with cables and wires hangingall around their heads and bodies; oneeye replaced by a weird-looking camera,a ear replaced with a weird-looking aerial, a whole arm replaced by a robotic onethat houses all kinds of screwdrivers and drill-machines. In fact, the whole person looks like the rear panel of an average desktop cabinet.It is here that the imagination of our present-day seers goes wrong. Recall the replacement technologies discussed earlier in this article. By the time cybernetics and cyborgs are expected to become common, research in quantum and biological computing will have evolved to a stage where companies will start using electrons and biological cells for storing information. This means people might not necessarily have to be implanted with ugly electronic and mechanical devices after all; they might just need to be programmed! Yes, you read that right. The human body has large amounts of both quantum and biological storage and there is a sufciently powerful electrical eld within it. So theoretically the human body can be 'programmed into utilizing it, or processing data with it.Havent computers become more appealing and more physically optimized than they were earlier? The thought of ugly machine-like cyborgs is in sharp contrast to the human body itself. Programming will gradually become so sophisticated that maintaining records of people will be a very easy task for the government. An already-programmed pregnant mother will deliver a biologically pre-programmed baby whose birth details will be automatically recorded into the governments database upon being born; through the worldwide network of human beings.This does not mean that there will not be any physical implants at all. Implants can help one withstand extreme temperatures, for instance. After all, no matter how powerful laptops become, we can never get rid of desktops. Neither can desktops replace huge supercomputers. Each has its own applications. So in the future, cyborgs will never replace computers. But the point here is that in the cyborg-inhabited future, one will not need any physical implants just to be able to communicate or identify oneself or to compute numbers like a calculator. Simple biological programming would be sufcient. There will be alternative advancements to avoid physical implants. So no physical cellular device would be required.Strange and unbelievable as it may seem, the ultimate future of mobile phones is indeed that they will not exist in the long-term future. [email protected] views expressed in this article are entirely those of the writer.HANDS ON116 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008[Q] Hello Dr. CHIP. I am a regular reader of your magazine. My system configuration is as follows384 MB RAM, Mercury 845GL Motherboard, Windows XP SP2 and an Intel Pentium 4 processor. Recently, I installed Foxpro 2.6 for Windows. Whenever I try to run it, a message is displayed: System error: divide by zero or overflow error and then it quits. How can I solve this problem? I also face another problem frequently. Whenever I try to cut or copy any files or folders on my hard disk, Windows Explorer gives a message Windows Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close.We are sorry for the inconvenience.the same message appears for Dr Watsons postmortem debugger. I have never installed this software. It creates a big nuisance for me.Please help! Alok AcharyaHello Alok. There is a bug-x from Microsoft related to this issue with FoxproW which you can download from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/240982. I am sure this should x your problem.Secondly, Dr Watson is an in-built problem detection utility in Microsoft Windows. This problem occurs due to a lot of reasons. Maybe your computer needs cleaning. Try cleaning the motherboard slots, the memory modules etc. Also check if all the cables in your computer are rmly attached. Finally, check and ensure that your hard drive is not developing bad sectors. Run Scandisk on your hard drive to conrm that the drive is in good condition. Also, check for viruses.[Q] Hello Dr. CHIP. I wan to install Windows Vista and Office 2007. Can you please tell me the specifications required for these? I have a Pentium 4 Computer. Fenu Chopra Hello Fenu. If you want to know whether your machine can support and run Windows Vista, then hit this linkhttp://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/buyorupgrade/upgradeadvisor.mspx and download the Sachin PanditHANDS ONDr CHIPSMS us!Story code: DCP to 57007Use Upgrade Advisor to check if your computers hardware/software are enough to upgrade to Vista.Explorer problems can be due to faulty or dusty hardware or viruses. Got a computer problem?Write to Dr. Chip at [email protected] 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | 117DR CHIP HANDS ONadvisor. Run the application and it will analyze the complete system and inform you if your computer is compatible with Windows Vista on both the hardware and software fronts. It will also give you an incompatible hardware and software list that you may need to upgrade in case you need to install Windows Vista[Q] Hi Dr. CHIP. I am Himanshu Sharma. I have a problem with my PCwhenever I shut it down, the Task Manager sends a program WMS IDLE which slows down my shutdown process and my computer speed. Also whenever I start my PC, it checks the hard disk as if the computer wasnt shut down properly. Please help me out with a solution The configuration of my PC is 1 GB RAM, Windows XP SP2, graphics card memory 256 MB and CPU frequency is Pentium 4 1.6 GHz. Thank you. Himanshu SharmaHello Himanshu. This problem is more common with software such as Nero Essentials, Outlook, and some other similar ones. Please check the following site: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/921113 or try the following: Click on Start | Run, typemscong and press Enter. Then go to the Startup tab and disable nmindexingservice and nmbgmonitor from the list. Restart your computer and see if the error occurs again. Good luck.[Q] Respected Dr. CHIP, a virus named Win32:Hidrag infected my PC and my Windows photo viewing tool got automatically deleted. I scanned the computer with Avast free edition. Now, I cannot view any picture nor can I set wallpapers. Also my PC has 128 MB graphics memory but it uses only 64 MB of it. So when I play games, they either dont work or run very slowly. I also want to know whether I can connect any graphics card to my PC (laptop) or not, if yes, please tell me how? My PC configuration is Pentium Dual Core 1.7, 120 GB SATA hard disk, 512 MB 533 MHz RAM. It is a Compaq V3239 TU running Windows Vista. What are AGP and IGP and for what are they are used? Please tell me where I can download a picture viewing tool for Windows. Regards. NrupenHello Nrupen. If possible, reinstall Vista all over again after backing up your les. Secondly, you can use IrfanView to view your images and pictures. It is a very capable software and it is free. You cannot add a graphics card to your laptop, but you can reduce the amount of memory your display card shares from the main memory. Enter the BIOS setup program of the laptop and change the display memory from 256 MB to 64 MB or 128 MB. IGP means Integrated Graphics Port, which means that the display card is built into the motherboard and shares the needed memory from the systems main memory. AGP stands for Accelerated Graphics Port, where you can insert an AGP graphics card which has its own video memory and does not use the systems memory. An AGP port is now outdated and PCI Express ports are currently used for PCIe cards which are faster than AGP. Adding a discrete graphics card enhances the performance of the computer by almost 3040 percent because the main memory is used for the system completely and not shared with the video card, like in case of an IGP motherboard. I would suggest you increase the RAM of your laptop from 512 MB to 1 GB or 2 GB if possible, to get better performance in Windows Vista.[Q] Hello sir. I am unable to install Nero 8 since the time it has been launched. However, I am able to install the micro version. It has been giving me error messages whenever I try to install it. I am using Windows XP SP2 Home OEM with an up-to-date AutoPatcher applied. Please do help me for this situation. I hope to receive some positive reply from you. Regards. Chandan Kumar MahatoHello Chandan, This issue could be caused by a compatibility problem between Nero and the Windows service Automatic Updates. Enable this service when installing Nero 8. Please follow the steps below: Click on the Start button. Click the Run command. Type Services.msc in the Open text eld and click the OK button. The Services window will open. Double click the automatic updates entry. The Automatic Updates Properties window will open. In the drop down menu under startup type, you have to select the Automatic option. Conrm this change by clicking on Apply and then OK. Start the installation of Nero 8 again.[Q] Hello Dr. CHIP. The SMPS of my PC makes a lot of noise. I have a Pentium Msconfig shows unwanted programs that start up automatically. Uncheck what you dont need.IrfanViewis the best and light software to view your pictures. It is free of cost.Turn on the automatic update feature of Windows so that Nero can install successfully.118 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008DR CHIP HANDS ONDual Core with 512 MB RAM. What should I do to reduce this noise? Jayesh KothariHello Jayesh. If you know how to open the power supply and clean or replace the fan, then go ahead and do that. The fan seems to be old and wobbly and hence makes noise. You need to clean the fan thoroughly and apply a drop of machine oil or grease inside the fan (do this very carefully). If possible, I would recommend that you change the fan. Replacing the fan will hardly cost you muchjust around Rs 100.[Q] Hello, Dr. CHIP. I have strange problem with my Linksys WRT54G [firmware version 7] router and my Acer Aspire 5572 AWXMI Wi-Fi enabled laptop. I have been using a router to connect to my laptop from the past three months. For the first two months it worked out fine. But since the past one month, I have been experiencing various problems. My laptop stopped connecting to the router from a room from where it used to connect previously. Also of late it doesnt connect to the router from any room at all. It doesnt even connect in the room which is closest to the router. Inthe Acer Enet management software on my laptop it shows the network strength is between 80-96 percent in different rooms but doesnt connect. Also when I keep it almost next to the router, it still doesnt connect. I have tried disabling the security and also enabling different security modes like WEP, WPA, etc but to no avail. Right now I cant figure out what is faulty, the router or the laptop. Can you please suggest something to help me solve this problem? Flemingo ToscanoHello Flemingo. Please reset your router to its default settings (factory defaultby pressing the reset button)Also, if possible, upgrade the rmware to the latest version from the manufacturers website. Also you need to ensure that you do not have too many electrical appliances interfering in the path of the router (or even close to the router for that matter). Secondly, if there is anyone else using a router in your neighborhood, this problem can exist. Try changing the channel of the router from the default channel 6 to anything between channel 1 and channel 11. Do the same with the Wi-Fi adaptor on the laptop and see the results.[Q] Hello, I have an Acer Aspire 1640 laptop (Intel Centrino mobile processor 1.6 GHz - 400 MHz FSB, 256 MB DDR 2 RAM, 60 GB hard disk, OS: Windows XP Service Pack 2). The problem is that the integrated keyboard and touchpad stop functioning once Windows boots. But they work well in the BIOS setup. I tried reinstalling Windows but that did not solve the problem. Also usually the Task Manager shows more than 90 percent CPU usage. Now, the USB ports have also stopped functioning. Things work well when I run Windows in safe mode (as the integrated keyboard and touchpad work before Windows boots). I have also tried reinstalling the drivers, but that didnt work either. I have scanned my system for viruses using Avast Home Edition & AVG antivirus, but no threats were found. I cannot format the whole system as I have some important data that I cannot afford to lose. Is this a problem caused by some virus that these antivirus software cant detect or is it something else? Please reply soon and help me out. Thank you. Vikas GauravHello Vikas. Try using Knoppix or Ubuntu (Linux) live distributions. Just boot from the DVD and check if your keyboard and mouse work ne in Linux. If yes, then your Windows operating system needs to be reinstalled. You need not format your computer to reload Windows XP. Just enter Safe Mode and copy all documents to a separate folder or removable disk. Then you can delete the Windows, Program Files folders (if you want a comlpetely clean reinstall) from the Linux live CD and nally reinstall Windows all over again. Also try connecting an external keyboard and mouse and see if it functions properly.[Q] Hello Dr. CHIP. I have a Pentium III 850 MHz, 128 SD RAM, and Windows XP Professional SP2. My Folder options from the explorer file menu is no longer displayed or it has been deleted. I checked for it in the Control Panelit is not there either. I checked my PC for viruses with Avast antivirus and the results were negative (no viruses). How can I get that option back? Noisy power supplies mean bad or dusty fans. Clean them thoroughly and use some machine oil.Press the reset button on the rear of the router and then power it on to restore factory defaults.Live operating systems such as Knoppix can help find solutions to hardware problems.MARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | 119DR CHIP HANDS ONFor better understanding I am sending a screenshot in which the menu is missing. Thanks and regards. Naresh Agrawal.Hello Naresh. Have you checked your computer for viruses properly? Please do so using a good antivirus and anti-spyware program. I would suggest AVG (as it is free and quite powerful). You can download it from http://free.grisoft.com. After attempting this if it still doesnt come back, try the following steps. Click on Start | Run Type gpedit.msc and press [Enter] Scroll down to User Conguration | Administrative Templates | Windows Components | Windows Explorer on the left pane. Search for Removes the Folder Options menu from the Tools menu and double click on it. Change the option to Enabled and save the settings. Restart your computer and check it out. Let us know if this solution has helped you.[Q] Dear Dr. CHIP, I own a Dell Inspiron 8000S. I bought it from a local reseller. It works great but because I do not have the original owner information, Dell wont provide customer assistance. What can one do about this? The RAM is only 256 MB which (according to my friends) makes my computer really slow. Is it possible to upgrade the RAM in this model?I am going to transfer all data from the present 20 GB hard disk to another 80 GB external one. Will this speed up the processes of my computer? I am truly a layman and hence would appreciate a reply from that perspective. Also if you can suggest some good and safe place to upgrade the RAM, it will make things easier for me. Warm regards. Sandeep PorwalHello Sandeep. Your laptop is pretty old and upgrading the RAM may be possible if it is available in the market. If the new RAM module is compatible with your computer, it would be great. I would suggest you to rst write to the company to check out the type, compatibility and availability of the RAM and hard drive for your laptop model. Increasing the RAM and the hard disk capacity will surely improve the performance of your laptop to a certain extent, but be ready for possible disappointments.[Q] Hello, Dr. CHIP. I am a regular reader of your magazine. I have a Pentium III computer. Recently my brother wanted to download some software and he went to the Microsoft website and tried to download the software. The next time I restarted the computer I encountered a message window saying This copy of Windows didnt pass the Genuine Windows Validation and you have not yet resolved the problem and two tabs saying Resolve now and Resolve later have appeared. I scanned my computer with Norton antivirus which has proved to be useless. Also my computer has slowed down drastically. Please help me solve this problem. Ravi ChandraHello Ravi. Your brother seems to have a pirated copy of Windows installed on his computer or maybe he is a victim of counterfeit software. Please check with the computer dealer from where he purchased the copy of Windows. This problem is not a virus infection, but is a validity test from Microsoft to check if the copy of Windows being updated is genuine or not. Please ensure that you use a legal copy of Microsoft Windows to avail updates and support from Microsoft.[Q] Hello Team CHIP. For the past few months whenever I close my Internet browser, and right after, when I try opening any file I get a message The instruction at 0x6600accc referenced memory at 0x6600accc. The memory could not be read. Click on OK to terminate the program.Kindly inform me how to solve this problem. Sanjeev GuptaHi Sanjeev. If you are running Internet Explorer 7, try running it with the add-ons disabled and check if the problem persists after that. Click on Start | Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Internet Explorer (No Add-Ons)Try checking for the problem again. If it doesnt appear again, one of your add-ons is causing the problem. To disable add-ons (applies for IE6 too), start Internet Explorer normally, click on Tools | Manage Add-ons | Enable or Disable Add-ons. Disable all the add-ons and enable them one by one till the problem appears and you nd the culprit. Disable the interfering add-on and your problem will be solved.Send in your queries to Francis DSa at [email protected] Group Policy Editor can help block unwanted users from changing certain settings.A laptop memory module is physically smaller. We recommend upgrading from the manufacturer. Memory modules for desktop computers are longer and can be easily replaced by users.120 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008WORKSHOP HANDS ONFreaky Photography! The deeper you wish to explore micro subjects with photography, the more expensive it gets. CHIP shows you how to set up a macro photography kit at home with a lens and a LED light panel! BY FRANCIS DSA, ANAND TULIANI AND SHAXEB S.Necessity is the mother of invention. We at CHIP are always looking for such necessities which can lead to innovative solutions in technology. This may not really be a necessity at the core for the audience of this workshop but then which photography enthusiast would not like to have the option of using or at least trying macro photography the way it should be. On the cameras macro mode, you can still shoot minute things such as ower buds, sea shells, grains of rice etc but imagine going deeper into their details and seeing much more with the naked eye. And then going a step further and actually capturing that minute moment clearly and denitively on a consumer digicam. Most digital camera models available today have the Macro mode feature. This workshop will help advance the utility of this feature and help you go much deeper into the details of your subject. For instance, you will clearly be able to see (of course, only if you manage to acquire and put these below the lens) the proboscis of a mosquito, the deadly fangs of a red ant, the nely netted texture of fabric, and even the single dot of a printed i character on paper. Below is the apparatus you need to gather to make a macro lens at home and put up a lighting suite to capture your subjects in great detail. This workshop is not completely inexpensive but needs to be carried out at your own risk. You need to unscrew one of the eyepieces of a binocular or telescopenot those crazy expensive ones, nor the ones which are too cheap. The one we used in this workshop was an entry-level telescope eyepiece (25 mm and 12 mm). The telescope eyepiece is easily detachable so you dont need to worry about breaking it. SMS us!Story code: HSB to 57007Mounting the lens on your digital camera Pramod JadhavCarefully place the telescope/binocular lens upon your cameras lens. Use normal transparent adhesive tape to stick the two lenses together. Ensure that the sticking is done properly and it does not jam the camera lens while zooming. MARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | 121WORKSHOP HANDS ONLIGHTING PANEL: You need to a buy a bread board, align and solder white light LEDs on it to make a lighting panel and use it as the light source beneath or around the subject. Divide the lighting panel and the subject using a white imsy plactic card or an ordinary white paper which basically functions as a light diffuser. Creating the lighting panel can be tedious for some and we suggest, you can try using other lighting techniques or sources. You can try using a white bulb or LED torch and nd an optimum distance between the diffuser by trial and error.ATTACHING THE LENS: After you have removed the lens from the telescope, the next step is to mount it to your cameras lens. Use a normal clear adhesive tape (which you can buy at a stationary shop) to stick the eyepiece on the cameras lens. But you need to be very careful while you do so to ensure that the lining of the tape is neatly aligned with the lens. This will ensure that when your camera draws back its lens, the tape does not damage, block or jam the path of the lens entry. Look at the images on the previous page to get a glimpse of how we carefully mounted the lens on our camera (Canon PowerShot A720 IS). Now, that your camera is ready for use with the attached lens with required lighting, all you need is a tripod (as you need immense stability for this type of photography) and a few subjects! In our case, we went on a wild hunt to nd subjects still in the primary enthusiasm of setting up the project. PHOTOGRAPHIC SUBJECTS: We got all sorts and varieties of samples to test our kit and its macro potential. We got back to the lab, a mosquito, a spider, a piece of sponge, an ant. Besides these, we shot other things like the surface of paper, the edge of a ripped business card, a handkerchief and almost everything that t on our card-sized diffuser. We also got an image of a cellphone TFT screen which clearly shows you the RGB pixels. We must warn you that this is very addictive and in the rst few days, you will nd yourself making a subject of just about everything around you. This is also very good exercise of understanding anatomy of tiny subjects.PROCEDURE: The procedure is fairly simple once you have set up your kit properly. Mount your camera on a tripod and have it perpendicular to the LED panel placed on a table with a white diffuser sheet on it. Switch your camera to Macro mode and set the aperture to the least. In our case, we used an aperture of 3.2. Do not worry, if your camera is almost touching the subjectthe optimum distance between the subject and the lens should be a few millimeters. The camera should automatically focus on the subject. If it does not, then the following could be the troublesome areas: The subject is moving (it needs to be dead or inanimate!) The camera is not set according to the light. The ash should be turned off. Do not zoom in or the camera will not be able to focus on the subject. So, there you go! Have all the fun with your new obsession and do send us what you clicked! [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] worry if your camera is way too close to the subjectits meant to be like that. The results are absolutely mind-blowing as you see here. You just need to get the right subjects!Observe the clarity with which you can see the body of a red ant in this picture.This is a shot we took of a normal handkerchief placed on the LED panel! This is how a LED panel assembled on a bread board looks (on and off respectively). A macro shot of a cellphone screen which are made up of red, green and blue pixels. 122 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008WORKSHOP HANDS ONData backup for Sony EricssonDo you fear losing precious data from your Sony Ericsson mobile phone in cases of theft, damage or virus attacks? This is how you can backup your entire Sony Ericsson mobile phone data. BY FRANCIS DSAThere may have been (or can be) instances in your life when your mobile phone was stolen, lost or even attacked by viruses. You may not mind losing the handset so much, but the data inside the phone, be it your SMSs, phone numbers or even your personal videos and pictures, may have had integral and primary importance to you.CHIP brings you a short workshop on how you can back up the entire contents of your Sony Ericsson mobile phone. Store the data from your phone onto your computer to later restore it on your new phone, or just for safety purposes. All you need to do this is a free utility called MyPhoneBackup which you can download from the Internet, your mobile phone and a cable or Bluetooth to connect it to your computer. This freeware can also help you do loads of other things such as making calls or sending SMS directly. We simply connected a Sony Ericsson mobile phone using a standard Bluetooth dongle in this workshop. Follow these simple steps and keep your data safe. Jagdish LimbachiyaSMS us!Story code: HSB to 57007Set up and use MyPhoneExplorer1. Download and install MyPhoneExplorer from http://www.softpedia.com/get/Mobile-Phone-Tools/Sony-Ericsson/MyPhoneExplorer.shtml. You may also avail of this 3 MB le from the CHIP DVD. Install this freeware using the regular installation method and run the application. Now, the software is ready for use.2. Plug in the Bluetooth dongle and install the drivers. Start the Bluetooth service on both the computer and the mobile phone. Search for the mobile from the computer and add/pair them together using the necessary pass codes. Once the devices are paired, it will show up in the window. Your mobile is now ready for use.3. You will need to add a COM port for your mobile phone service. Double click on the Bluetooth icon in the system tray, then choose COM Ports | Add | Outgoing connection. This is necessaryyour computer needs to access the mobile phone using a COM port because MyPhoneExplorer needs this port. 1 2 3MARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | 123WORKSHOP HANDS ON4. Start MyPhoneExplorer and click File | Options and under Connections choose Search For Device. You rmobile phone will be automatically scanned and set. Click OK5. After the phone is found, click F1 or File | Connect and after the phone is connected, specify a name for your phones prole.6. The moment your phone is connected, MyPhoneExplorer will then sync and download all information from your phone to the computer.7. Click on Extras | Create backup to start the backup procedure of your phones contents to the computer. 8. Check the Files options and choose the necessary contents of your mobile phone, apart from the contacts, events and tasks, for backup.9. After you have chosen what you need to backup from your phone, click on Create Backup and your phones contents will be backed up to the computer. Give a name to the backup le or just leave it to the default le name which indicates the date and time the backup was done.Additional functions1. Edit and use the Calender functions of the phone. Set Appointments, Reminders and Alarms and make Notes too.2. Send SMS directly from your computer via the mobile phone.3. Transfer pictures taken from your camera. Copy ringtones, movies, applications and themes directly by simply using the drag and drop feature.4. Add or edit the phone book entries on the SIM or phone memory and synchronize it to your phone later.5. Check the memory status of your entire phone in one screen. Keep a check on your phone with a live feed on details like the phone and battery temperatures, battery voltage, phone signal strength, phone model and EMEI number, and rmware version. 6. If thats not enough, check this one out. Control the keypad (indirectly, control the mobile phone) and play songs, send SMS and even make a call without touching your mobile phone physically. [email protected] 56 78 910 1112 13124 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008WORKSHOP HANDS ONCleaning Inkjet CartridgesBlocked nozzles because of dried inkjet cartridges? The most probable reason for this can be a printer left idle for a prolonged period. CHIP shows you how to revive your printers dried cartridges with blocked nozzles. BY FRANCIS DSAUsing inkjet printers is becoming a costly issue and hence most people avoid using these printers if they have other choices. However, to keep your printers cartridges in working condition, you have to keep printing copies both in color and black at least once in a week. Prolonged idle state of inkjet printers causes the ink inside the nozzles of the print head to dry up, especially in the summer seasons. Consequently, the printing gets adversely affected in different ways. We show you some simple and basic steps to help clear the clogs in these nozzles. What you will need for this workshop: some warm water, a Petri dish or a saucer, some ear buds, a lint free cotton cloth, some isopropyl alcohol (readily available at a chemist for around Rs 40 for a 500 ml bottle). We recommend that you read each method mentioned below very carefully before trying it. NOTE: This workshop is only applicable for those print cartridges which have the print head and ink tank as one single unit. For example: HP print heads and some bubble-jet print heads. Canon and Epson use a separate head unit and ink tank altogether. If the print head of these types of printers are having the same problem, you may try this workshop in a similar fashion with the print heads. The methods given below can possibly damage the cartridge too, but its risk worth taking as anyway the cartridge is almost half dead. Try the workshop completely at your own risk.Method 1Switch on the printer and remove the cartridge (to be serviced) safely from the head unit. Turn over the cartridge upside down and you may notice a smudge or a lump of dirt and ink accumulated on the nozzles. Clean this part carefully using a standard ear bud (ensure that is dry) to get the lump of residue off the nozzles. Then use another ear bud dipped in warm water (just dampen the ear bud, dont wet it completely) or isopropyl alcohol and clean the nozzles again thoroughly. Make sure you dont apply too much pressure to the nozzles. At this stage you can check whether the cartridge is working by inserting it back into the printer and taking a test print. If it does not work, then try Method 2.Method 2Dip the part of the cartridge which has the nozzles (not the whole cartridge) in a Petri dish or a saucer containing warm water for an hour or two, or more, if needed. Make sure you do not dip the whole cartridge or else this may damage the circuitry and the cartridge may be rendered useless. This method should dampen the dried ink settled on and inside the nozzles to a certain extent. You may nd the area of water around the nozzles getting colored due to bleeding from the cartridge nozzlesthis is a good sign. After some SMS us! Story code: HCI to 57007Requirement: Isopropyl alcohol, saucer, warm water, lint-free ear buds, absorbent cotton cloth. Pramod JadhavMARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | 125WORKSHOP HANDS ONtime of leaving the cartridge soaked in the water, remove the cartridge from the water and wipe dry the excess water from the cartridge carefully. Check the cartridge again or try Method 3.Method 3Place the cartridges nozzles on a dry or damp, lint free cotton cloth and slightly press the nozzles to the cloth using the gentle force of your ngers. You should notice some ink smudging on the cloth. This is an indication that the ink is owing and the cloth is trying to absorb as much ink as possible. Continue this for around 5 - 10 minutes to allow some quantity of ink to ow out. Again try to test the cartridge and if it doesnt work, you can attempt the nest method of cleaning. Method 4This method can possibly damage your cartridge (try it at your own risk). Place the cartridge under running warm water for around 15 to 20 minutes. Ensure that you do not ow too much water over the cartridge. Just release a thin stream of warm water from the tap and place the cartridge under it in such a way that the water ows only on the nozzles and not on the circuit strip. This method ensures that the heat from the warm water and the owing stream loosens the dried ink and some of it also enters the cartridge. Once you are satised with the water ow over the nozzles, wipe off the excess water using the cotton cloth and insert it into the printer back again. Try printing to check if it works or else try Method 5. At this stage, if the printer releases smudged or faded prints, then try a number of more prints till the prints are satisfactory. The reason for smudged prints may be the water inside the nozzle pathway which may have mixed with the ink, making the ink thin and diluted.Method 5Take a Petri dish or any at saucer, keep the cartridge nozzle facing down in it, and ll it with isopropyl alcohol to an extent that it does not raise above the level of the nozzles to the circuit board. Isopropyl alcohol is a cleaning agent and is widely used in cleaning electronic circuit boards to get rid of grease and stubborn dust. It is a volatile liquid and does not leave back any stain or residue. You can buy this alcohol at any computer hardware store or a chemist for around Rs 40 per 500 ml. Beware of the duplicates sold in the market which may be mixed or diluted with waterto test it, take a drop of it on your ngers and rub it gently, it should disappear in seconds and your nger should feel completely drynot damp, moist or sticky. Follow the same procedure as Method 2. Similarly you may try using Method 3 where the cloth is dampened with isopropyl alcohol and pressed on the cartridges nozzles. Finally when you are done, insert it back into the printer and test it again.The final resortIf any of the above procedures manage to rescue your cartridge, you can save a few hundred rupees before buying a new cartridge. Additional to the above methods, you can also clean the contact points of both the cartridge and the printer (where the cartridge is installed in the printer) with a cloth dampened with isopropyl alcohol to siphon out any corrosion or dirt residing on the contacts. You may also have to try the cartridge cleaning function (in addition to the manual cleaning) which can be performed using the printers function buttons or the printer driver software from your computer. If all works well, then you have successfully revived your dried cartridge, or else it is time you buy yourself a new one. We hope this works for you! [email protected] 451 2126 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008MINI WORKSHOP HANDS ONPosterize, King-size! Imagine what your room could look like if your dull walls were decorated with giant versions of your favorite images? CHIP shows you how to make huge posters the do-it-yourself way. BY FRANCIS DSASMS us!Story code: HPK to 57007145 623Using a basic free application called Posteriza, you can convert your favorite photos into posters to stick on your walls or even make wallpaper for your room. Download the software from http://www.download3000.com/download-Posteriza-count-reg-9314.html or nd it on the CHIP DVD and just run it (no installation needed). Some printers can do the same things Posteriza does, but what if you have a printer that cannot print one image in multiple tiles? All you need is a good borderless color printer for excellent results.STEP 1: Download the program to your computer and run it. On the rst page (Text), enter text if you want your poster to have personalized text or uncheck it if you dont need text at all. Click Apply and then click on Photo.STEP 2: Click on Open Image to choose the picture you want as a poster. Click on More if you need to crop a particular part of the image for the poster. Click on Apply and then on Border. STEP 3: If you need a border for your poster, then click the With border option and choose the border lines of your choice. Check the Show header and Show cut lines options if you need each page printed with cut lines and page numbers. Click on Apply and then on Size.STEP 4: Choose the width and depth of the poster to be printed. This is the section where you choose how large your poster should be. Then choose the paper size, center the poster, congure the printer for printing and click Apply. Finally, print your poster or save the le for printing later or at another location if you do not have a borderless color printer.STEP 5: After printing, assemble all the pages, cut them along the cut lines, and paste them together. Use sticky tape to secure the pages permanently if needed or simply paste the entire poster onto a large cardboard sheet. Your poster is now ready to be mounted on your wall or door.Now that you know how to make a poster from your pictures, there are some points that you need to remember before printing your pictures. Make sure the photos that you use are in JPEG format, and are of high resolution and dpi. You might need help while pasting the prints together if you are printing large posters. NOTE: Printing posters in this manner might be quite expensive. There are other programs available on the Internet that can carry out the same functions, but might not be free to use. [email protected] & TRICKS HANDS ON128 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008128 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008WINDOWS1291.Windows XPAccessing the administrator account1.Windows Vista UltimateConguring the system without annoying queries2.Windows XPDisplaying the thumbnail preview in the Taskbar3.Windows 2000, XP, VistaRe-correcting the desktop scaling to suit the PC game4.Windows VistaStarting Internet Explorer from the desktop5.Windows Media Player 11Displaying the usual menu bar permanently6.Windows XP, VistaDeleting les without annoying queries7.Windows 2000, XP, VistaDeleting les blocked by a program8.Windows Media Player 11Preventing the player from hanging when it plays9.Windows XPFormatting memory cards even as a restricted user10.Windows XPFilling the tool tip in Explorer with detailed informationAPPLICATIONS13211.Microsoft Ofce XP, 2003, 2007Hiding the annoying Ofce clipboard permanently12.Microsoft Word XP, 2003, 2007Customizing automatic capitalization13.Microsoft Outlook XP, 2003, 2007Finding e-mails faster with linked search queries14.AudacityCreating songs for a karaoke party15.Internet Explorer 7Opening several favorite sites automatically16.Mozilla Firefox 2.xAdding your own bookmarks to the auto-complete function17.HTMLControlling the line break in the HTML code sensibly18.Microsoft Outlook 2007Automatically categorize e-mails using colorsTipsTricksMARCH 2008Windows XPSynchronize your computers clock with an Internet time server Does your computer have the right time? If your computer is not part of a domain, you can synchronize your computers clock time with an Internet time server. To do this, double-click the time on your task bar. Click the Internet time tab. Select the time server you want to use and make sure to select the automatically synchronize with an Internet time server check box. Make sure that you have set the correct date before you attempt to synchronize your clock, because the Internet time server won't update the time if the date is wrong. If you have a personal or network firewall installed on your computer, you may have to tweak or change the settings to unblock the time synchronization. Now whenever you start your computer, the time will be automatically synchronized with the Internet time server, provided you have an active Internet connection at the specified time.Tip of the monthSoftwareShare your tips. Write to: [email protected] Umesh DahiwalkarSMS us!Story code: HDC to 57007TIPS & TRICKS HANDS ONMARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | 129WINDOWS1Windows Vista Ultimate Configuring the system without annoying queriesVista installs the special user 'Administrator' for extreme system configurations. The advantage of the admin account is that the many annoying confirmation requests that appear when performing changes in the configuration are absent. The account can be configured without much ado. If you have been getting a lot of conrmation requests while performing any system conguration changes, the 'Administrator' user account must be deactivated. This is the default setting in Windows Vista which can be changed very easily. To activate the administrator account, simply follow these steps: Register an account with administrator rights and open 'Start | Control Panel'. Then click 'System and maintenance', 'Administrative tools', start the 'Computer Management' and conrm with 'Next'. Now open 'Computer management (local) | System | Local User and Groups | Users' on the left hand side pane. You will see the 'Administrator' entry among others on the right. Double-click on it and uncheck the box in front of 'Account is disabled'.The administrator icon appears on the welcome screen after you click 'OK', and restart the computer. Click on it and enter a password under 'User Accounts' in the control panel. Logon using the Administrator account.DISPLAYING THE ICON: If the admin icon is not visible immediately, youll need to make some adjustments in the registry. In this case, register an account again with computer admin rights and start the registry editor with 'Start | All Programs | Accessories | Run' and 'regedit.exe'. Now navigate your way to the 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFT WAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrent VersionWinlogonSpecialAccounts' key. Create the key if it does not exist. You can create a new key by going to 'Edit | New | Key'. Another key called 'UserList' should exist under 'SpecialAccounts'create it in the same way if otherwise. Then select it and create another entry with 'Edit | New | DWORD value (32-Bit)'. Overwrite the name which is suggested by Windows with 'Administrator'. Double-click on the value thus created and enter '1' in the 'Edit DWORD value (32-Bit)' dialog under 'Value'. Now close the registry editor with 'File | Exit' and you are done. 2Windows XPDisplaying the thumbnail preview in the TaskbarXP's successor Vista displays a thumbnail preview of programs that are open when the mouse is pointed to a minimized program in the Taskbar. Can this be done in XP? This can easily be done in Windows XP too. All you need is the Visual Tooltip freeware. It creates thumbnails for the Taskbar which can be positioned as you like. The tool also replaces the Taskbar if needed. It is available for free download on www.chrisnsoft.com/wp-content/ uploads/visualtooltip22.zip. INSTALLATION: Unzip the archive in a folder of your choice and start the 'VisualToolTip.exe' le. Select 'English' in the rst dialog box and click 'OK'. The tool appears in the system tray after you start it. Right-click it and select 'Options'. CONFIGURATION: You can set the image size, background color and transparency in the 'Thumbnails' tab. Now switch to the 'Display' tab. Activate 'Start with Windows'. By default, there is a slight delay before the animated view appears. It opens faster when you reduce the value '700' in the 'Delay in showing thumbnail' eld or set it to '0'. If you want this to happen even faster, set both the combination elds 'Thumbnail display animation' and 'Thumbnail close animation' to 'none'. You can also pull a thumbnail at any place on the screen by dragging and dropping it. It then remains in the foreground and is updated regularly. A lengthy video conversion can be monitored with this. When you are done with using the window, you can hold the mouse pointer over it and click the pin symbol in the title.REPLACING THE TASKBAR: Visual Tooltip can replace the Taskbar with a three-dimensional barsimilar to the dock on Mac computers. You can set this in the 'Dock' tab. At least activate the 'Put automatically all thumbnails in the dock' and 'Put tray icon on dock' options. Set the rotation and transparency and test the alternative bar. If you prefer it that way, you can even turn off the Windows Taskbar by activating the ' option in the 'Taskbar' tab. NOTE: If you start the tool with Windows and hide the Taskbar before the new bar is congured correctly, you will not be able to access your programs anymore. If this happens, open the Windows Explorer with [Windows] + [E], navigate to 'VisualToolTip.exe' and restart it. The Taskbar will be displayed with Options.3Windows 2000, XP, VistaRe-correcting the desktop scaling to suit the PC gameThe game ends; Windows is ruined: the font in the title line is too bigjust as the symbols for reducing and closing the window are; and the desktop shows black squares instead of symbols.Visual Tool Tip allows you to customize a lot of changes in the UI of Windows XP.2Uncheck the box besides 'Account is disabled' to avoid annoying confirmation requests.1TIPS & TRICKS HANDS ON130 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008 It is possible that the game has changed both the resolution and the DPI setting. This setting determines the size of objects displayed on screen.First check the font size setting for the display by double-clicking 'Display' in the Control Panel and activate the 'Appearance' tab. Check the 'Font size' combination eldit should be set to 'normal'. Conrm with 'Apply' and 'OK'. 2000, XP: To correct the DPI setting, double-click 'Display' and switch to the 'Settings' tab. Open 'Advanced' and activate the 'General' tab in the 'Plug and Play Monitor' dialog. Change the value to 'Normal size (96 DPI)' in the 'DPI setting' combination eld. Conrm with 'Apply' and 'OK' and restart the PC. VISTA: Right-click an empty space on the desktop and select 'Personalize'. Follow the 'Adjust font size (DPI)' link. Set 'Default scale (96 DPI)' in the 'DPI Scaling' dialog. Restart the computer. To get rid of the black squares, rst change the DPI setting to 'Larger scale (120 DPI)' as described, restart the system and then change the value again to 96 DPI.4Windows VistaStarting Internet Explorer from the desktopIn Windows XP, there is a permanent icon on the desktop which is not just a link to start Internet Explorer. This icon is absent in the Vista desktop. And creating it is not even an easy task. It is possible to create a normal link that takes you to the program le of the browser. But the useful commands that are otherwise present are missing in the context menu that appears after right-clicking the linkdirect access to Internet options, with 'Settings' for instance. But a registry entry helps you position the internal link to the Internet Explorer on the desktop. Start the registry editor, navigate your way to the 'HKEY_CURRENT_USERSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows CurrentVersionExplorerHideDesktopIconsNew Start Panel' key. Open 'Edit | New | DWORD value (32 bit)'. Then type the class ID with the brackets and press Enter. Double-click the new entry and make sure that the 'Value' is set to '0'. If you want the modication to be valid for all users, use the specied DWORD value in the same sub-key under 'HKEY_LOCAL_MA CHINE'. Close the registry, click on a free space on the desktop and press [F5]Windows updates the appearance. If the icon isn't displayed, activate the access to Internet Explorer by double-clicking 'Default Programs' in the Control Panel. Follow the 'Set program access and computer defaults' link. If you work with the 'Custom' conguration, open it and activate the 'Enable access to this program' option to the right of Explorer. 5Windows Media Player 11Displaying the usual menu bar permanentlyThe latest version of Windows Media Player shows no menu bar by default and thus moves sway from the usual Windows default settings. Press the [Alt] key or right-click the title bar of Media Player. A context menu appears. You can call up all context commands with it. A click on 'Show classic menus' permanently shows the old and familiar command bar. If you want to deactivate it at a later date, right-click in the lower part of the Media Player and uncheck the box in front of the assigned command in the context menu. The context menu cannot be accessed with [Alt] in this case.6Windows XP, VistaDeleting files without annoying queriesEvery time you delete a file, Vista makes sure that you actually want to remove the selected file and move all its contents to the Recycle Bin. This query, which seems to be useful in the beginning, gets quite annoying for experienced users after some time. Right-click the desktop icon 'Recycle Bin' and open the 'Properties' context command to cure this. Deactivate the 'Display delete conrmation dialog' option in the 'Global' or 'General' tab. Conrm the change with 'OK'. And there, you have done away with the nuisance.Select the 'Apply the new display setting without restarting' option. 3Start the registry editor and navigate your way to the New StartPanel key.4Use the [Alt] key, or right-click the title bar of Media Player.5Deactivate the 'Display delete confirmation dialog' option in 'Global' or 'General' tab.6TIPS & TRICKS HANDS ONMARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | 1317Windows 2000, XP, VistaDeleting files blocked by a programWindows can, at times, point-blank refuse to delete a file that is supposedly in use. But you very well know that you have not opened the file in any program nor is it being used by any program. This relentless problem needs to be solved to stop you from pulling your hair out. The 'Process Explorer' helps you locate the blocking application and end the responsible process without much harassment. Yes, it sounds similar to your Task Manager. This free tool is available for download on http://download.sysinternals.com/Files/ProcessExplorer.zip. Unpack the zip archive and start the 'procexp.exe' program without further installation. Open 'Find | Find Handle or DLL' to nd the annoying application. Enter the le name displayed in the Windows error message and click 'Search'. You will now see the program which accesses this le in the 'Process' column. Select it and close the search dialogthe process is now selected in the main window too. Right-click on it and open the 'Kill process' context command. This should lift the blockade on the le so that you can now select and delete it in the Windows Explorer as usual. Process Explorer also has a performance monitor which is superior to that of Windows own Task Manager (which has similar functions) in many ways. A small version of the performance monitor is visible in the Toolbar. Double click on it and a more detailed version will open for you to see. 8 Windows Media Player 11Preventing the player from hanging when it playsMedia Player 11 occasionally hangs for no apparent reason when playing. This is annoying. It is possible that you have used the 'neroburnplugin.dll' plug-in of the Nero burning software before upgrading the Media Player to version 11. This plug-in is not compatible with the new player. Since it continues to get installed after an update, it can even disturb the program. Microsoft provides a hotx for solving this rather usual problem. You can nd it at: http://download.microsoft.com/down load/f/7/a/f7a72f9f-9b69-439e856bdd593658a61a/windowsmedia11-kb935957-x86-intl.exe. Unfortunately, it is available only through this direct link. Start the installation after the download and follow the steps suggested by the wizard. The modication is effective even without restarting the PC. For security purposes, the operating system automatically creates a restore point. Solution without a hotx: The hotx that has been mentioned only deletes some registry entriesyou too can do this. Start the registry editor and go to the 'HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTCLS ID' key. Here, delete the entire sub-key '{896E73F0-3851-11D3-AA54-00C04FD22F8C}'. Navigate your way to the 'HKEY_LOCAL_ MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftMediaPlayerUIPlugins' key. Here too, delete the entire sub-key '{292AE934-4F49-40bb-9E7E-6F6398 ED9C31}'. This removes the annoying references to the plug-in. Now close the registry.Finally, you can check whether these steps have been executed successfully in 'Tools | Plug-Ins' in the Media Player. The Nero entry should not be visible any more and your player should not hang.9Windows XPFormatting memory cards even as a restricted userIt is not possible to format memory cards if you have an account with restricted rights. This is irritating, since you do not always want to work on the system as administrator due to security reasons.EXPLORER: Open 'Edit' and place the cursor on 'Undo'. The status bar displays the last completed action. VISTA: Type 'slmgr.vbs-dli' in the search field of the start menu to check the activation status of Vista. MEDIA PLAYER 11: Attach the '/ Task NowPlaying' parameter to the link of the player to directly start in the 'Now Playing' mode.SYSTEM: Keep the [Shift] key press when calling up a program from the start menu it then remains open for further tasks. DESKTOP: If the cursor jumps to the default button in dialog fields, activate it with 'Control panel | Mouse / Pointer options'.SYSTEM: With the 'defrag.exe c:' command, you can defragment drives directly from the command line instead of using properties.Quick TipsProcess Explorer's performance monitor is in many ways better than Task Manager. 7You have to delete the sub-key named {896E73F0-3851-11D3-AA54-00C04FD22F8C} .8Select 'Administrators and Interactive Users' to let restricted users format memory cards.9TIPS & TRICKS HANDS ON132 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008 You can activate the formatting function for restricted user accounts in both Windows XP versions Home and Professional, by adjusting a security policy or by simply making an appropriate entry in the registry. In Windows XP Professional, all you need to do is right-click 'Administrative tools' in the control panel and then on 'Local Security Policy'. Then open 'Local Policies' and 'Security Options'. Double-click 'Allowed to format and eject removable media'. Change the setting to 'Administrators and interactive users' and conrm with 'Apply' and 'OK'. In XP Home, you can adjust the setting using the registry editor. Open the 'HKEY_ LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWARE MicrosoftWindowsNTCurrentVersion Winlogon' key. Double-click the 'allocatedasd' character string on the right side of the dialog. Set the 'Value' in the following dialog to '2' and conrm the change with 'OK' before closing the registry. The new policy immediately becomes effective.10Windows XPFilling the tool tip in Explorer with detailed informationIf the mouse is pointed at an item in Explorer, a tool tip with additional information such as file size or date modified appears. You also want to see the file attributes here and hide redundant information. The additional information shown by Windows as tool tip for an item is stored at different places in the registry. You can access these and edit the entries to your convenience. GENERAL TOOL TIP DEFINITION: Start the registry editor and navigate to the 'HKEY_CLASSES_ ROOT | * ' key. Double-click 'InfoTip' on the right side of the window. The value of this character string must always start with 'prop:', followed by the individual parameters separated by a semicolon. The table below gives an overview of the possible entries. Delete the redundant information from the string and insert other information, e.g., the le attributes with the identication 'Attributes'. The string used here also determines the sequence of the display. CUSTOMIZING THE TOOL TIP: Windows uses general tool tip parameters as long as separate display instructions for a particular object or le type have not been dened. This is applicable to DLL and EXE les, links ('Internet Shortcut') and le folders ('Directory'). You can even provide specialized tool tips to le types such as Word documents. THIS IS HOW YOU DO IT: First open the key for the desired le extension, '.doc' in the example. You will see a value, for example, 'Word.Document.8' in the right window after the 'Default' character string. Navigate to the key with the same name under 'HKEY_ CLASSES_ROOT'. You will now nd the 'InfoTip' entry you were looking for. You can now customize this info tip with parameters of your choice as described above. If it does not exist, you can simply create it with 'Edit | New | Character string'.TOOL TIP FOR MEDIA FILE FORMATS: The settings for media les are present in the 'HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTSys temFileAssociationsaudio', '...image' or '...video' keys. You can congure the display with the 'InfoTip' character string even for these les. However, all parameters do not cooperate with media les. But there are additional options at your disposal. MAKE THE FOLLOWING SETTINGS: 'Artist', 'Album', 'Year', 'Track', 'Duration', 'Type', 'Bitrate', 'Protected' and 'Size' for audio les, 'Type', 'DocTitle', 'Episode Name', 'Program Description', 'Duration', 'Bitrate', 'Dimensions', 'Protected' and 'Size' for video les and 'Dimensions', 'WhenTaken', 'DocTitle', 'DocComments', 'CameraModel', 'Type' and 'Size' for the image les. NOTE: For Windows to show the tool tips, the suitable setting in Windows Explorer should be activated. Open 'Tools | Folder options' and switch to the 'View' tab. Here, activate 'Show pop-up description for folder and desktop items'.APPLICATIONS11MICROSOFT OFFICE XP, 2003, 2007Hiding the annoying Office clipboard permanentlyThe Office clipboard automatically opens at the border of the program while you are copying data from one Office application to another. You do not use it at allso you want to get rid of it entirely. Start any program of your choice from the Microsoft Ofce Suite. If this application functions with the new Ofce 2007 multi-function bar, click on the small arrow in the title bar of the 'Clipboard' in the 'Start' tab. In all the older Ofce applications and Outlook 2007, you can open the menu command by navigating 'Edit | Ofce Clipboard'. In both cases, the data container starts at the left or right border of the application. Now click on 'Options' appearing at the bottom of the panel which has opened up. Uncheck the box in front of the 'Show Ofce Clipboard Automatically' option and close the temporary memory with the small cross in the top right corner. Now Ofce opens the clipboard only when you explicitly open it through the multi-function bar or the menu.You can customize the Windows Tool Tip to display the information you want.10Check the option 'Show Office Clipboard When Ctrl + C Pressed Twice '11TIPS & TRICKS HANDS ONMARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | 13312Microsoft Word XP, 2003, 2007Customizing automatic capitalizationThe word processor corrects words written in the lower case and starts them with capitals. While this is appropriate and useful most of the times, it creates unwanted results in case of abbreviations. You can customize and adjust this correction function to suit your requirements so that Word uses the lower case only after a full stop.Open the AutoCorrect dialog in the program with 'Tools | AutoCorrect Options'. In the 2007 version, you need to click on the Ofce button, select 'Word Options', select 'Proong' and then open 'AutoCorrect options'. The 'Capitalize rst letter of sentences' option on the 'AutoCorrect' tab will only result in the usual behavior. Unchecking the checkbox in front of that can completely deactivate this useful functionthis becomes inconvenient. Instead, you can let the function remain activated and dene exceptions for abbreviations or terms for which Word does not correct the following word. To do this, click 'Exceptions', enter the abbreviation or term for which you want to dene exceptions under the 'First letter' tab in 'Dont capitalize after' in the 'AutoCorrect Exceptions' dialog. Accept the setting by clicking on 'Add'. You can also delete already dened exceptions in the same dialog. To do this, click the entry in the list and then click 'Delete'. Close all open windows by clicking on 'OK'. Now, you will be able to enjoy the convenience of everyday writing and won't have to correct individual words. 13Microsoft Outlook XP, 2003, 2007Finding e-mails faster with linked search queriesThe Outlook search function offers many optionsbut an OR operator for several conditions is absent. You have to often follow several flow paths till you find a missing mail. Starting with version 98, Outlook recognizes another variant of the nd function, which also supports the desired logical OR operator for conditions. This function, however, is hidden and must rst be activated through the registry. ACTIVATING QUERYBUILDER: First close Outlook and start the registry editor. Open the 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER SoftwareMicrosoftOfce' key. Now toggle between the '8.0' and '12.0' sub-keys for Outlook 98 to Outlook 2007 depending on the program version used. Open the 'Outlook' key and create the 'QueryBuilder' entry with 'Edit | New | Key'. You need not dene any values. Now close the registry and restart Outlook.CALLING UP THE SEARCH: Depending on the version, open 'Tools | Find | Advanced Find' or 'Tools | Advanced Find' menu command. Go to the newly displayed 'QueryBuilder' tab. The operation is like the 'Advanced' register. The new tab also offers OR and miscellaneous operators.CONDUCTING A LINKED SEARCH: An example will show how to nd all mails that have requested a read receipt and that have been sent by Meier or the sender of which uses a GMX account. First, dene the necessary criteria at the bottom of the dialog. For this, click 'Field' and select 'All Mail elds | Receipt requested'. Set the 'Condition' eld to 'exists' and then click 'Add to Lost'. Select the 'Address elds | From' entry under 'Field' and set the condition to 'contains'. Enter 'gmx' to the right. Click 'Add to List' again. Repeat the last step for 'Meier'. To activate the logic, select the rst condition 'Receipt requested exists' and click 'Up'. This creates a sub-level in the logic structure. Now click 'AND' which is displayed below. Set the 'Logical Group' combination eld which is activated now to 'OR'. Start the query with 'Start search'.14AudacityCreating songs for a karaoke partyWhere can one find songs that are only instrumental to use in karaoke parties? You can do it yourself! You dont need to have a recording studio since the Audacity freeware does the job. Using this freeware, you can remove the vocal piece from the centre of the stereo panorama. You can download the program from http://audacity.sourceforge.net/. REMOVING THE VOICE TRACK: On executing the software, load the desired audio le in Audacity. Open the context menu in the editor on the left by clicking the arrow next to the le name. Separate both channels with 'Split stereo sound track'. Then select the right track by clicking on EXCEL: Press [F6] for automatic recalculation of a table and for updating the cell link reliably at the same time. OUTLOOK 2007: Make more space in the navigation area by pulling the crossbeam as low as possible and thereby reducing the size of the buttons.MICROSOFT WORD: Several selected objects can be positioned at an equal distance from the margin by navigating to 'Print layout | Align'. EXCEL: You can activate and deactivate the special table view with formulae shown in the cells with [Ctrl] + [#]. PAINT SHOP PRO: With 'File | Settings | File links', you can determine which file types are linked to Paint Shop. FIREFOX: To move a paragraph, place the cursor in it, keep [Alt] + [Tab] pressed and use the arrow keys.Quick TipsKeep the automatically add words to the list checked on to add abbreviations. 12Click on the right track and then select 'Effect | Invert'14TIPS & TRICKS HANDS ON134 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008a free space in the gray region and open 'Effect | Invert'. Now click the menu arrow for each track one after the other and select the 'Mono' command. This deletes the parts of the track that are at the exact center. This often reduces the vocal part of the track considerably. Unfortunately, even other parts of the track are lost, especially those from the bass. However, you can try to balance this out with 'Effect | Equalizer'. If the voice is not heard exactly in the middle of stereo panorama, you can try and increase the level in the weaker channel with 'Effect | Amplication' before converting the stereo les into mono les. OPTIMIZING THE FADE-OUT: The 'Voicetrap' plug-in is very useful and can be found on www.cloneensemble.com/vt_main.htm. Look for 'Download' on the website and click on the 'VST (Windows)' link. Unzip the archive and copy the contents in the 'Plug-ins' folder in the Audacity program directory. Prerequisite for the use of Voicetrap in Audacity is the 'VST-Enabler' auxiliary program. Download this tool from http://audacityteam.org/vst/ and install it. When you start the program next, the Audacity menu will contain the 'VoicetrapV20' effect. The freeware version of the plug-in achieves good results with its default settings. The registered shareware variant for 25 dollars offers more options for detailed conguration. The advantage of Voicetrap is that there is comparatively less interference with the sound of the music piece and stereo signals and the depths are preserved. NOTE: How well one succeeds in fading out the vocal piece depends largely on the selected music piece. Invariably, even expensive programs cannot completely remove voices without any loss of sound. Erasures on live recordings can be difcult.15Internet Explorer 7Opening several favorite sites automaticallyThis is how your day begins: you usually surf your favorite sites with a cup of early-morning coffeeto read the news or check the status of eBay bids. You want that the browser automatically calls up these sites. From the seventh version onwards, IE not only supports tab browsing, but it can also deal with multiple homepages for the tabs. Open 'Tools | Internet options' command and click the 'General' tab to integrate the sites. You can now enter all the desired homepages one after the other by the line in the homepage entry eld. The browser then automatically opens these sites in a separate tab. Conrm the setting with 'Apply' and 'OK'.16Mozilla Firefox 2.xAdding your own bookmarks to the auto-complete functionAs soon as you type in the Firefox address bar, it offers selection options for quick completion of the entry. The program uses all visited websites from the chronicle for this. You want to use this function for saved bookmarks too. The auto-complete list has a distinct short term memory: it preserves visited website addresses only for nine days. You can help the gray cells of the browser with the free extension 'Autocomplete Manager' and determine the behavior of the function yourself. Download the tool from http://addons.mozilla.org/refox/addon/2300. Install the tool and restart the browser. From now on, you can congure the settings of the extension with the new menu command 'Tools | Auto complete Manager'. First click the 'Options' symbol in the dialog and activate the 'Active Component' tab in the successive window. Then select the 'Enhanced' setting and switch to the corresponding 'Enhanced Component Options' tab for further settings. Activate the desired option 'Include bookmarks' so that the extension does not ignore your bookmarks. You can control whether the function should also record the website name or parts of the address with further options. In 'Sorting criterion', change the order of the view this comes in handy if you want to see the most frequently visited sites rst. You should activate the 'Fill best match inline' setting under 'Suggestion popup' so that the tool automatically offers the best hits when you type in the address bar. Some more options help you customize the displayed selection list. All hits from the bookmarks are shown in cursive. If you want to go back to the default behavior, set the 'Active Component' to 'Default' in the 'Options' of this extension.NOTE: The behavior of the list also changes when this extension is installed. This list can be viewed with the arrow symbol on the address eld. This now shows all visited websites and does not allow any editing here. You can either directly edit the chronicle or edit it through the extension under 'History Manager' if you want to delete any of the entries.17HTMLControlling the line break in the HTML code sensiblyThe line breaks for flowing texts on the homepage depend on the browser and the selected window size and font size. Occasionally, minus signs or value units get deleted or long terms get separated incorrectly. Heres a way to ensure that the text remains orthographically correct and legible in all cases.Enlist your favorite sites in the General tab so that they open together.16The Autocomplete Manager is available on the Mozilla website. 17TIPS & TRICKS HANDS ONMARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | 135 Since each unique user has different settings for screen resolution, window size and font size; the line breaks in the browser are dynamic. Instead of a xed allocation, you want to make sure that related items such as values and units of measurement are not separated. Hence, you should insert 'Pre-determined breaks' for the browser. Since browsers do not always adhere to the HTML standards, and use the line break in various ways, it is you who must decide whether an HTML that adheres to rules or a representation which is correct in most situations is more important or not. An unwanted line break can be avoided with the ' code for a protected empty space. This works well in all browsers except Internet Explorer. It encounters problems that cannot be solved with this trick alone. Except after the hyphen (minus sign), Internet Explorer inserts breaks even after percent and degree signs and brackets and inverted commas. Even the ' code does not help here. Use the special tag ' so that the browser does not separate the temperature value such as '-5 C' after the minus or the degree sign. Then, simply type the temperature value as -5C.It is even more difcult to allow the desired line break at the right place. As per the HTML standard, a browser should treat the hyphen as normal sign and not separate it. A exible separator '' is provided for the identication of a possible separation. However, in reality, Internet Explorer does not separate after a normal hyphen, whereas Mozilla Firefox adheres to the standard. On the other hand, the Opensource browser simply ignores ''. A frequently used solution is to insert another empty space after the hyphen to enable the separation in all browsers. In a running text however when there is no separationthis is incorrect from the orthographic point of view. A tag not included in lhe HTL slandard helps even in this case. The best place to insert it is after the hyphen. Even this tag is accepted and converted by all browsers as a separating option.18MICROSOFT OUTLOOK 2007Automatically categorize e-mails using colorsIt is getting more and more difficult to manage the ever increasing flood of e-mails in your inbox. This is an option which you can use to automatically identify and categorize selected mails using colors. Outlook 2007 can allocate mails to anyeven self-denedcategories as soon as they arrive, and mark them with a color in the inbox. One glance at the inbox sufces to know whether there are any important mails. Now, you will never miss important mails unlike in case of rule-based moving of e-mails in folders.INTEGRATING CATEGORIES IN THE INBOX: First of all, make sure that the 'Categories' column is displayed in the inbox. For this, right-click the line with the column titles and open the 'Field selection' context command. Select 'All email elds' in the combination eld and pull the 'Categories' entry in the column titles of the inbox. Now close the 'Field selection' dialog. Right-click a mail in the 'Categories' column. The context menu lists the dened columns and colors. Link these with the e-mail with a click. If the mail already belongs to this category, this action deletes the allocation. You can allocate different categories to one mail.NOTE: You can assign an expressive name to the colored column during the rst allocation. With 'View | Sort by | Categories', the inbox is displayed as grouped in the categories that you have dened. The 'View | Sort by | Date' command takes you back to the original default view. AUTOMATICALLY ALLOCATING E-MAILS: The automatic allocation of mails landing in the inbox to dened sub-groups is extremely useful. To activate this function, open 'Tools | Rules and Alerts'. Here, click 'New Rule'. Select the 'Check messages when they arrive' entry under 'Step 1: Select a template' and select 'Next'. On the following page, you can determine the conditions an e-mail must fulll for a particular category. Here, activate the 'with specic words in the sender address' option and click on the 'specic words' link in the lower part of the dialog. In the next dialog, enter the sender address '[email protected]', click 'Add' and then conrm with 'OK'. Click on 'Next' and select the 'assign this to category' option. Then click the 'Category' link in the lower part of the dialog and check the checkbox in front of the desired category 'eBay' in the 'Color Categories' dialog. Conrm with 'OK' and click 'Next' in the rule wizard. On the following page, you can dene exceptions. If you do not want to categorize command conformations, or if you want to categorize them differently, activate 'except with specic words in the reference'. Click again on 'specic words' in the lower part of the window. Enter 'Command conrmed' in the following dialog, click 'Add' and 'OK'. Then select 'Next' and enter a name for this rule, 'Categorize eBay' for instance, in '1st step: enter rule names'. Before closing the wizard with 'Finish', make sure that the checkbox for 'Activate this rule' option is checked. In order that the automatic allocation functions well, set the default Outlook rule 'Delete category of emails (recommended)' before all other rules. Otherwise, it would again delete a category allocated later. Select the appropriate entry in the 'Rules and Alerts' dialog and click the up arrow till the default rule is at the top of the list. Conrm with 'Apply' and 'OK'. There, you are welcome to a more convenient and colorful inbox! Compiled by Francis D'sa [email protected] Arrange By from the View menu and click Categories.18REVIEW UNWIND REV REV RE REVV EVVVV E IE IEW EEWWWW EW IIIEW EW I UNW UNW UNW UNW UNW WWW UU WWW NWIND IND IND IND D IND IND ND ND IND ND136|INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008What is it?Deadspace is a survival horror game set 500 years in the future on USG Ishimura, a massive planet cracker class ship of the Concordance Extraction Corporation (CEC). The organization is one of the many who commission space exploration for planets that can be harvested for minerals and ores. The planet crackers of the CEC go about mining distant planets to literally chew out natural resources from them.Ishimura is the largest ship on the companys eet and is almost like a city oating about in space, eating up planets that come in its path. The ship stops sending communications during one of these extraction crusades. Being a routine problem with space exploration, the company sends out the player Issac Clarke, along with Lt. Zach Hammond, a security ofcer, and Kendra Daniels, a local tech specialist, to investigate the problem. Upon arriving, the investigating party realizes that this one is certainly not a routine investigation exercise. Issac discovers an alien slug that pours white puss into the mouth of a screaming soldier who melts and transforms into a mutilated zombie and runs to attack Issac.What to expect?Issac is just a mining engineer who carries his trusty plasma cutter as the tool for most jobs. In Dead Space, hell be mostly chopping aliens and zombies in the game. However the enemies in Deadspace dont just die with a simple hit on the head. Most of the time enemies will lose a limb or body part when hit with the plasma cutter. A lot of them will just get up and try to lunge at Issac with whatever is left of them. Different types of enemies will react differently to losing a limb or part. A headless zombie might just go berserk and grow another mouth from its heart, or a pregnant alien might just release space leeches when you hit it in the belly. So as you progress through the game, you will have to plan specic strategies of getting rid of each type of enemy, for example, cutting the legs off a fast moving alien to make it easier to hit.The plasma cutter is the primary and the most useful weapon in the game and is basically a mining tool. It can be used for chopping up enemies and disabling them piece by piece until they are no longer a threat to anyone. However due to Issacs engineering skillsthis basic weapon can be modied and repurposed for other uses also. One of the modications is stasis, which allows targeted objects to be slowed down; this can prove to be very useful for slowing down really fast enemies or for puzzles which require control over fast moving objects. The plasma cutter can also be modied for Kinesis which will enable Issac to pick up things and throw them around the environment. This could also be used when the player is low on ammo as the fallen limbs of enemies can also be picked up to attack them from a distance. We have heard about a dangerous-looking buzz saw that will also feature in the game. This will be red and retracted along an invisible axis. There is also some reliable news about more traditional weapons being used such as pulse ries and rivet guns but none have actually been conrmed by the developers yet. Pramod JadhavYou cant kill a zombie, you can only slow it down. It is a pretty common mistake most horror games make, the basic science fiction fact that Zombies dont die hasnt been utilized well in games. Well that is about to change.BY ABHINAY KHOPARZISMS us! Story code: UBP to 57007UNWINDEstimated Release Date:October, 2008 Publisher: Electronic Arts Platforms: PS3, Xbox 360, PC Developer: EA Redwood Shores Genre: Science Fiction, TPSMARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP|137PREVIEW UNWINDThe developers are still keeping mum about the other tools of destruction in the game but there is hope of getting a lot more cutting and blasting tools. The main focus will be on developing makeshift weapons out of the unlikeliest objects.The story of the game will have a healthy amount of twists and turns and will be based on the philosophies and inuence from the genre of writers like Asimov and Clarke. It will be told in a manner similar to games like Half Life and Bio Shock where the players view is never broken by cut scenes and everything just happens by scripted elements in the game. We have been told that the makers made such a huge story for the game that now they have to put it out as a comic book. The comic book is scheduled for a release at the end of March this year but we are sure that it will be insanely hard to nd in India.The game will have third person over-the-shoulder sort of view, without any heads up display to obliterate the immersion of the player in the game. Elements like health and ammo will be visible on a lit spine on the characters backpack. Other visual cues and instructions will appear on displays integrated in the environment of the gameyou got to nd it!. We have a lot of high hopes for this game and we will be following it rather closely. It will be a multiplatform title with a release planned for Sonys PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360 and even for PC. The current schedule of Deadspace mentions a tentative release date by the closure of October this year. [email protected] EA Redwood Inc. are leaving no stone unturned in attempting to dish out an all-round balance of a good storyline, great graphics and some relentless action with Deadspace. REVIEW UNWIND REV V REV VVVVVVV REV VVVVV REV VVV REV VVVVVVVVVVVVVVV RREV VVV RR V R V RRR IEWW IE EW IEW IE IEW IEW W IEW EW UNW UUNW UNW W UNW UNW UUN UNW UNW UNW UNWIND IN NNNNDDDDDDDDDDDD IND ND NDDDDDDDD IND IN IND IND D IND ND138|INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008When Burnout rst released, racing fans were confused on what to do with those crazy cars and those extreme stunts that they used to perform. However, as soon as they gured it out, the Burnout series became an instant hit. Burnout Paradise has taken yet another acute bend and has now added the all important free roam mode.When you start the game, there is a typical intro movie followed by an intro screen with a press to start button. The game starts out with a short tutorial and a visit to a junkyard where you pick up a car. This junkyard is your source of getting all the cars that you have access to. When you take your car out for a spin, you are immediately told to get your car repaired at the nearest auto garage. For most part of the game, there are no menus or anything to go by. If you do want to get a bit under the hood, there are a few options in the pause menu. These can be accessed by pressing the L1 or R1 keys; however there is not much that you can customize in the game other than the gimmicky six axis steering and options for Mugshots for the Play Station 3 Eyetoy.This free roam deal may seem a little weird to old Burnout acionados as it used to be an arcade game where you could just quickly setup a game through simple menus and begin bashing up cars. The new city model has been designed to give a similar level of vent to destructive cravings and has been given great thought to make it as fun as possible. Races can be started by just going to any intersection and pressing the L2 and R2 buttons together. Alternatively you could just go stand in the center of a busy intersection, bridge or highway and start performing Showtime moves on cars passing by. This Showtime mode can be accessed anywhere and anytimeit basically comes up as a replacement of the Pramod JadhavDo you love bashing em cars into one another? Have you fanatically followed devastating racing franchisees? We give you a taste of the latest version of the popular metal grinding game. BY ABHINAY KHOPARZISMS us! Story code: UBP to 57007MARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP|139REVIEW UNWINDCrash mode from the previous games, where you had to crash your car and then control it to go about falling on other cars to leave a massive trail of destruction. Scoring for this mode is seamlessly put under the hood and enables another layer of competitive scoring for online play.The free roam mode does come with its own set of problems, for example, restarting eventsafter failed attempts is really painful as you have to drive all the way back to the starting location. Also after you have played the game for a long time, most races that you encounter may have already been completed, and then you have to go about hunting for new events. This gives a lot of opportunity for dedicated players to spend time exploring the game, but crash happy drivers may nd it a bit annoying.There is a mini map provided on the HUD at all times, but the problem is that it does not have a rotation mode. If you are the type who has grown up on games like GTA or any of the free roam Need for Speed games, you will surely nd its navigation to be a problem. There are no markers that can be placed to get directions for specic points in the map, so youll have to keep referring to the main map in the pause menu to chart out routes. This can get especially irritating during races, as this time around races are not based on closed circuits of the previous games. There are multiple routes to nish each event and you are free to chose a shorter route than the one provided by the game, however this can become difcult in the heat of a destruction derby.Other than the normal race events there are different stunts programmed all over the city. There are straight ramps for normal jumps, split ramps for barrel rolls, bill boards to smash through and other oddities placed everywhere. These stunt props come in a lot of use while doing stunt runs, where you have to churn out as many stunts and combos that you can, in a limited amount of time.The game has around 75 different cars in three classes, namely Speed, Stunt, and Aggression. Each of these has their specic characteristics and utility, and can be picked up from the Junkyard as soon as they become available. The Speed cars get their boost by going at insane speeds and get the Burnout multipliers that have made this franchise famous. The Stunt cars are lighter and have tighter handling that is used for doing stunts, which recharges their boost meter; however they are the easiest cars to take down. The Aggression class cars are built to take out other cars and basically gain their boost by leaving a path of destruction behind them.A side event called Shutdown is also present in the game to get access to better cars. These are basically track and hunt events in which you have a choice to track and hunt a specic type of car as you go by roaming around the city. These cars are pretty easy to spot even in trafc as they start racing ahead of you, and go berserk as soon as you come anywhere nearthem. When you shutdown a car, you get to drive it by going to a junkyard and picking it up.In all, the game seems to be another evolution in the ever popular franchise and will surely feed the cravings of a lot of crash heads. If you have the required hardware, do head to Paradise City Where the grass is green and metal grinds are pretty. [email protected]: Immense destruction possibilities, lots of crashes. Against: Free roam mode shows its usual pacing problems.RATINGS 8/10Price: Rs. 2,499 Publisher: Electronic Arts Developer: Criterion Games Distributor: Milestone Interactive Phone: 91-022-28203319 E-mail: [email protected] Requirements: PS3 consoleREVIEW UNWIND REV RE REV REV V EV EV VVVVVVVVVVVVVIIEW EW IEW IEW IEW IE IIE IEEE UNW UNW UNW UNW UNW WIND IND ND IND IN IN IN140|INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008The love affair between video games and World Wars is no doubt a very quixotic relationship. Till date the gaming industry continues to be attracted to World Wars and derive inspiration from the two that unfortunately happened. Battleeld 1942, Call of Duty, and of course the Wolfenstein series are famous titles which immediately come to mind while talking about gaming and World War 2.But, is the industry heading towards an overkill? Lets think about it. We are in the year 2008 now and we have been bombarded with countless World War 2 based titles. Gamers now are beginning to get fed up of the same old theme being reused and abused in every which way possible. This is where Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts comes in.Opposing Fronts (OF) is the standalone expansion to 2005s original Company of Heroes (CoH). While CoH was based entirely on the American point of view, OF lets players decide between two factions in both single player and multiplayerThe Allied British Army or the German Panzer Elite. Each of these factions has their own pros and cons, and is perfectly balanced out. This makes OF a pleasure to play.The Allied British ArmyThe British Army is the more cautious one, focusing on safety and defensive tactics. Their infantry prefers defensive stances, which hinder their speed. The Brits also heavily depend on repower from the Cromwell Tanks and Royal Artillery. The Barrage and Creeping Barrage attacks are the most effective and need to be used extensively in order to mellow down the German defenses. The British also tend to rely on mobile headquarter vans to keep supplying them with reinforcements, and Sappers or engineers who are infantrymen who can also repair damaged vehicles.Another inuential regiment in the British force is the Royal Commandos regiment. This regiment can deploy commandos whose only objective is harassing the enemy infantry. The light Tetarch tank can also be deployed by this regiment, through the means of a glider plane.The German Panzer EliteTrue to Hitlers Blitzkreig strategy, the Panzer Elite focus mainly on speedy attacks with the aid of numerous vehicles. Unlike the British, they cannot build entrenchments for defense, but can use halftracks to hold territory. The Germans also have the special ability to re grenades, mounted weapons and heavy weaponry from inside these vehicles.The Scorched Earth tactic is the most conniving of all Elite tactics. Using this tactic, players can booby trap buildings and strategic points, or even better, disable strategic points altogether. This little trick comes in handy when you are Pramod JadhavThe Allied British or the German Panzer Elite. Which one is your Company? BY AMOGH RANADIVESMS us! Story code: UCH to 57007MARCH 2008 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP|141REVIEW UNWINDplaying multiplayer, as it can be used to disable victory points as well. Since both factions are brilliantly balanced out, its quite a challenge to play with either in both modes. The single player campaigns revolve around the Battle of Normandy for the German perspective, and the Liberation of Caen for the British perspective.Multiplayer gaming has always been a strong point of Company of Heroes, and Opposing Fronts is no different. OF being a standalone expansion, gamers were pretty skeptical about the compatibility issues between CoH and CoH: OF players. However, Relic has put all these doubts to rest as CoH players can play with OF players and vice versa.ConclusionCompany of Heroes: Opposing Fronts is a brilliant gaming experience for both multiplayer and single player. The single player campaigns are detailed to perfection and have immense entertainment value. The battles depicted in the game are epic and truly bring in the authentic WWII feeling. Multiplayer mode is kickass as usual especially with the interplayability factor. OF also has a dynamic weather system, which means you have to ght battles in night time, as well as daytime and even in rainfall. However, this little gimmick has no effect on the overall gameplay. The game looks gorgeous as well; it managed to run smoothly on our rig which had a dual-core processor, 2 GB RAM and an 8800 GTS 320MB video card. Watching buildings explode and collapse while debris ies all around was fun while the game ran in all its glory. The only aw that we could nd if it can even be called a aw, is the recurring World War 2 theme, which we mentioned earlier. Sure, we have had World in Conict, which is a strategy game set in the present/near future, but to have Company of Heroeswith all its superb multiplayer and single player elementsset in the present world would be simply fantastic. What say? [email protected] Allies and Germans obviously have different weapons, vehicles and weapons at their disposal. Its how you use them that matters.Yup, theres not much variation in the World War II theme, even though it looks better and better as graphics technology advances.For: Epic battle sequences, kickass multiplayer, looks gorgeous.Against: Same old WWII inspired setting.RATINGS 8.5/10Price: Rs 699Publisher: THQ Developer: Relic Entertainment Distributor: Express Interactive Ltd Phone: 91-022-29661017 E-mail: [email protected] Requirements: Windows XP/Vista, dual-core processor 2.4 GHz, 256 MB video card, 1 GB RAM142|INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008TOWNSQUAREHello everyone!We meet again. It has really been a hectic month at the CHIP Labs. Last month we promised changes to our website and I am really happy to say that changes are indeed happening!You all must have noticed the content on the website has been updated, yet gradual changes are round the cornerboth cosmetic and content-wise. We will also be putting up pictures and slideshows of interesting events or things related with technology on the website.We are looking for some really talented people to work with CHIP. What better place to look for other than our own forums which is full of computer wizards? Check out the details on the CHIP website and forums. Coming back, to the online forums, as always, it has been a very interesting month with lots of hot topics, discussions, problems, doubts and of course, solutions too. Golden chipper leshy has posted a cool thread with tips and software links to a freeware that enables .rar video les to be played directly without extracting them. It even claims to play password protected .rars!Most of you may recall the Linux support thread which I mentioned in Townsquare in CHIP January 2008, which was started by Expert Chipper a.k.a. The Trojan. Today, it feels great to notice that the thread is still alive and kicking with problems and solutions covering all kinds of Linux Distros. Penguin lovers, head over to the Open Source section.There are also plenty of threads regarding prices, performance and introduction of cool new hardware on the forums this month. Those buying new PCs or upgrading should denitely check these out before taking the plunge.CHIP Whizkid Vishal Gupta has yet again posted another useful post that everyone can use to make Windows Vista run faster with a few registry modications. He has also posted a link to a list of Vista tweaking software. Everyone using Windows Vista should head over to the software section of our forums to check these out.Chip Whizkid Sanjeed posted a thread about the announcement made by Toshiba that they were discontinuing the manufacture and support of HD DVD media and drives which basically means Sonys Blu-ray format has become the standard in HD now. Now you can purchase Blu-ray drives without the fear of incompatible media! Well, cost of course is the deciding factor. But denitely prices of Blu-ray drives and media will fall down now in the coming months.Our moderator xubz made us aware of the release of the beta 3 version of the worlds most loved browser, Mozilla Firefox.On the PC and Console gaming section, newbie chipper chadmin has posted a thread that discussed the impending release of one of the most anticipated gaming titles ever, Grand Theft Auto 4. At rst only the Xbox360 and Playstation 3 versions will be released, but you can expect the PC version to follow soon. At least thats what Rockstar told us. Our Mumbai moderator Saggygenuis posted a thread on the Hardware section discussing the price and performance of the most awaited mainstream graphics card, nVidias GeForce 9600GT. This is supposed to be the competition of ATIs 3850 graphics card.And it so happens that we have got a pre-release sample of the 9600GT card sent to us by nVidia. It is really an awesome piece of nVidias engineering prowess and the price of Rs 10,000 makes it a really hot deal. Well, I cant really reveal much more about this card here but we have tested it to its limits and you can read all about it in this months issue. Finally, this month, everybody at CHIP wishes a very happy birthday to our dear chipper Sid aka arjunmk1.Well, now, its time to say goodbye again. Until we meet again next month! Logging off, Maheswar Zephyr. Keep chipping! [email protected] MONTH ON chip-india.comHomeReviewsForumsKnow HowBuying GuideSearchFAQSubscribeFeedbackProle Logout [ Maheshwar ]new topic post reply CHIP-INDIA Forum Index >> Site Admin TalkAuthor MessageMaheswar Singh Site AdminJoined: 15 Oct 2007Posts: 1 Posted: February 25, 2008 12:30 pm quote edit del ipprofile e-mail pm148|INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | MARCH 2008LAST WORDA need for tech... BY BRIAN PEREIRA AND SHAZEB SHAIKHThe CHIP team picnic was a perfect getaway for us after a grueling issue closure. After working really hard, we decided to party harder over two days, at aseaside resort. For a (welcome) change, the towering workload was replaced by swaying palm trees, hammocks, swings, cool breeze, and plenty of beer. We thought we could get away from it allno computers, ringing cell phones, and other gadgets. The hum of PCs and ofce air-conditioning gave way to the almost-silent murmur of the ocean, and the test center boys were out picking shells on the beach. This was a perfect au contraire situation to lay out in verse. Our business head Vijay Adhikari arrived late in his car and everyone wondered why. Seems he had trouble navigating his way to our seaside resort. Vijay forgot to carry his portable GPS device that day. Had he done so, he would have arrived sooner!Dushyant and Anand arrived earlier. Since there was not much to do they decided to test the humble park swings, see-saws, and turnabouts (just the usual benchmarks). Dushyant went against the laws of gravity with his injury-defying near-360 degree swings. Best Performance award for that swing? Then theres Shaxeb, our copy editor. Since there was no copy to edit, Shaxeb just couldnt let go of paper and pencil. There he was, seated under a tree, with a pad and a pen simultaneously weaving patterns of poetry and drawing ambigrams. Unfortunately, he missed out on the evening beach excursion because he was so engrossed with his verses. When the sun set and the stars came out, our senior reviewer Francis, whipped out his telescope and camera. There were no prizes for guessing what he was up to, as he coupled the camera lens to the telescope eyepiece. We thought he was reaching for the stars, but actually Francis was asking for the moon. He was attempting to shoot craters on the moon. Since Francis didnt quite succeed, he aimed his telescope at more down-to-earth objects. Later that night everyone huddled into one room (though we had booked three). Dushyants ghost stories (with Francis adding effect) made everyone shiver (no it was not the chilly weather). Even our illustrator Sachin, could not muster the courage to visit the attached toilet.Next day Anand did not have any standalone products to shoot, so he went about clicking every inanimate and animate thing in sight. Later he showed us his arty photos of disposed bottles, dogs, and just about everything youd expect to nd on a beach.In between long cell phone chats, quick checks for e-mail (someone brought a laptop with a cellular modem along), and iPod music, everyone had their fun playing games (though not of the video kind). We played cricket, football, badminton and volleyball. My Brand Manager Kedar and I, (both aviation enthusiasts), tested the aerodynamics of a plastic frisbee.Two days later, we were back at work and everyone gathered around Anands PC to see the picnic photos. As we browsed through the photos and smiled in amusement, one particular photo caught everyone by surprise. It was a photo of a ferry boat with a satellite TV dish antenna mounted near the mast. Anand explained that this was a ferry now converted into a oating home. And the tech-savvy owner couldnt do without satellite TV! Where there is a need for technology, there will always be a way! [email protected] Sachin Pandit
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