Billy Gates may have been doing some jive talkin when he mention that we’d see a new version of the OS “Sometime in the next year or so,” (“Or So” being the operative words)

Well don’t get yourself in a tizzy over crazy Bills developer speak. “As is standard with the release of a new product, we will be releasing early builds of Windows 7 prior to its general availability as a means to gain tester feedback,” a spokesman for Microsoft said, downplaying Gates statement.

Microsoft wants everyone to chill with the toned-down news that it’s got no plans to introduce Windows 7 any earlier than January 2010 (three years from the Vista launch). Lets hope the XP cutoff date is pushed out a bit.

And we thought our Stealth LittlePC products were small….

At the recent Intel Developers Forum (IDF) in Shanghai, Intel showed what it considers to be the smallest motherboard on the planet. This motherboard, or mainboard PC circuit board, will go into the company’s next-generation “Moorestown” mobile Internet device (MID) platform due in the 2009-2010 time frame.

“Our engineers have been very hard at work on Moorestown,” Anand Chandrasekher, senior vice president and general manager of Intel’s Ultra Mobility Group, said during an IDF keynote speech Wednesday. “The platform design teams have been hard at work in figuring out what is the smallest form factor that they can actually fit a complete PC motherboard into so they can deliver a great mobile Internet experience.”

“What I’m holding in my hand is what is possibly the world’s smallest PC motherboard,” Chandrasekher said. The Moorestown motherboard houses the processor, chipset (including graphics), and memory, along with silicon for 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS, he said. “This is the heart of the new machine.”

Moorestown will be Intel’s impressive system-on-a-chip, combining the processor, graphics, and memory controller on a single die. It will likely be the major launching pad for Intel into the mobile phone market.

Intel announced its ‘Moorestown’ system-on-a-chip platform for UMPCs and internet tablets back in April this year, but it kept the details quiet. Now they’ve leaked out.

Flash based hard drives are being offered on a regular basis now from the top tier notebook manufacturers. There have been lots of recent reports saying that the failure rates have been extremely high with a 20 to 30% return rate.

Stealth has been providing flash based solid state drive solutions for more than 10 years. It has been our experience that the drives we have used have had extremely low failure rates. In fact it is rare that we ever see any returns at all.

So what is happening?

Although we don’t have actual manufacturing data regarding the failures, it is our opinion that the returns are a result of performance versus costs issues. SSD options are not cheap and if your expectation is that your OS will boot up in a few seconds then you are in for a huge disappointment.

Over the years Stealth Computer has supplied many customers with solutions utilizing integrated solid state drive technology. SSD’s are always chosen based on the actual needs and demands of the application itself. Extreme shock and vibration, extended temperature ranges and the ability to operate in strong magnetic fields are ideal reasons on why a Solid State Drives should be specified and deployed. Not because they have become the latest gadget to have.

See the Stealth Computer FAQ on SSD

Microsoft releases SP1 and here are the release notes – that have been anticipated for while now.

They are mostly bug fixes and performance tweaks, but the sheer volume of them is certainly something to behold.

SP1 includes 23 security updates and 550 hotfixes resulting in a 434.5MB download (726.5MB for the 64-bit version).

SP1 is available for download now via Microsoft’s sites, with an auto-update rollout scheduled for next month

Intel says it will ship quad-core chips designed specifically for laptops later this year.

The quad-core chips, most likely for desktop replacement laptops, will be based on the Core 2 Duo architecture and will ship in the third quarter, Intel officials said.

The initial quad-core processors will strain battery life and may first make their way to the high-end gaming and workstation notebooks that require heavy processing power, said Mooly Eden, vice president and general manager, Intel Mobile Platforms Group, earlier this year.

Intel was keen on making this chip consume less battery. In fact, Intel officials had declared that users expecting quad-core mobile processors may have to wait until issues surrounding power consumption are resolved.

Science has just lost one of its greatest creative minds.

Arthur C. Clarke has died in Sri Lanka at the age of 90.

Clarke authored more than 100 science fiction books, including “2001: A Space Odyssey.” He is credited with the idea for geosynchronous communications satellites, space elevators, and predicting space travel before rockets were even test fired.

Quote
Perhaps, as some wit remarked, the best proof that there is Intelligent Life in Outer Space is the fact it hasn’t come here. Well, it can’t hide forever – one day we will overhear it.
Arthur C. Clarke

For more information on Sir Arthur

The Arthur C Clarke Foundation

Arthur C Clarke Wikipedia

GE has unveiled a successful demonstration of the world’s first roll-to-roll manufactured organic light-emitting diode (OLED) lighting devices.

In layman’s terms, the OLED is similar to how a newspaper is printed. This technique should help substantially drive down the cost of OLEDs which is currently reserved for 14″ or smaller television screens costing thousands of dollars.

“Researchers have long dreamed of making OLEDs using a newspaper-printing like roll-to-roll process,” said Anil Duggal, manager of GE’s Advanced Technology Program in Organic Electronics. “Now we’ve shown that it is possible. Commercial applications in lighting require low manufacturing costs, and this demonstration is a major milestone on our way to developing low cost OLED lighting devices.”

Press Release

A little off topic but we enjoyed a few chuckles.

A recent report suggests, human beings are becoming so amazingly stupid that they require cushioned street lamp pole so that when they run into them they don’t mess up their goofy faces.

Apparently, a study in the UK found that 1 in 10 actually managed to injure themselves by walking into a pole while peering down at their mobile phones. The mishaps, called “walking and texting” injuries have spurred the launch of the padded-post-pilot scheme in parts of London. I’m glad these people don’t drive .. or do they?

It is always nice to get noticed in the media. With our recent launch of our latest Little PC, the LPC-450PCI, we received literally hundreds of blog entries and news stories on the product from all around the world.

Here is a recent article published by ConnectIT

Stealth launches mini PC with built-in PCI capability

3 March, 2008
By Chris Talbot

Stealth Computer Corp. has released a new small form factor mini PC with built-in PCI expansion slot capability.

With an aluminum chassis measuring just over two inches tall, the Stealth LPC-450PCI Little PC was designed with a footprint the approximate size of a hardcover novel (10 inches by 5.8 inches by 2.8 inches) and a weight of 10 lbs. (4.5 kgs). Built with Intel’s Core 2 Duo processor, one of the key features of the Little PC, according to Stealth, is the open and available PCI slot.

“Stealth’s small form factor, Little PC products typically fill an application specific requirement,” said Ed Boutilier, president and CEO of Stealth Computer Corp. “A very wide range of product configurations and designs are available that include fanless (noise free) designs, multi-LAN interfaces, expansions slot capable, low-powered, DC input and the degree of ruggedness, etc. The Stealth mini PCs are built to order providing configuration flexibility that can be adapted to the exact application.”

The LPC-450PCI features a multitude of I/O connectivity built into its small design, including LAN, two serial ports, three USB ports, a FireWire port, video, audio, and PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports. It has a built-in 2.5-inch high-shock hard drive with up to 160GB of storage space for archived data. It’s equipped with a DVD/CD-RW optical drive, with optional DVD burner.

“Customers can simply add specialized I/O, video, data acquisition and communications cards, something that cannot be achieved without resorting to larger clunky desk top computers,” Boutilier said.

Additionally, for applications that require extra high-shock, vibration and temperature ranges, Stealth also offers optional solid state drives.

“Stealth’s Little PC products have been used in a myriad of applications where a desktop or notebook PC would not fit. The small form factor has been beneficial where space is limited,” Boutilier said.

He added that some of the applications the LPC-450PCI Little PC has been designed for include interactive kiosks, board room and trade show presentations, embedded machine control, point of sale, digital sign and narrow casting, and various mobile applications. The Little PC model has special mounting brackets so it can be mounted under desks or tables, or on walls, machinery and cabinets.

For channel resellers, Boutilier said there are opportunities for those that serve niche and vertical markets “that cannot be accommodated with the off-the-shelf white box approach.”

“There is a growing demand for applications that require smaller machines that cannot be served with clunky desktops or notebook PCs due to their size and performance limitations,” Boutilier said.

ConnectIT article available here

A few months back the people at Google interviewed Stealths CEO, Ed Boutilier about the benefits of using search capabilities on the Stealth Computer web portals. Stealths website features Googles latest search technology – coined Custom Search Business Edition (CSBE)

Last week the kind people at Google sent us a cool Lego Man Award along with some nice swag. GoogoLego Man now resides comfortably in our front lobby awards cabinet.

Its certainly great to get recognized by an industry leader.

Thanks Google!

Stealths latest small form PC, the LPC-450PCI is now officially released. This diminutive sized machine utilizing Intel’s latest Core 2 Duo processor technology delivering generous processing power in a small sized computer system.

Of course the key benefit of this version of Small PC is the available expansion slot which will allow users to easily install an add-in PCI type card. The option of adding in specialized I/O, Video, and communications cards is a very valuable option for some customers. Having the expansion capability within a small sized, full featured PC is ideal for applications that cannot accommodate clunky desktops or rack style PCs.

Stealth is a leader in the manufacturer of small form computers with a diverse line-up of specialized models that include Fanless, Multi-LAN, Low Powered, Wireless and Mobile designs.

Stealth products are ideal for demanding applications within the Industrial, Commercial, Scientific Research, Military, Public Safety, Utility, Transportation, mining and Telecommunications markets. For unsurpassed performance and reliability contact Stealth today to discuss your application requirements or for immediate on-line pricing please visit our Little PC Instant Quote Builder Page.

Official Press Releases

Responding to reports of endlessly rebooting PCs from support groups last week, Microsoft said on Tuesday it has pulled the recent updates for the coming Windows Vista SP1

The update is actually a pair of prerequisite files that modify Vista’s install components. This has been temporarily pulled from Windows update and Microsoft has not yet produced a fix for users whose machines either won’t boot or reboot constantly.

“Immediately after receiving reports of this error, we made the decision to temporarily suspend automatic distribution of the update to avoid further customer impact while we investigate possible causes,” said Nick White, a Vista program manager, in a post to the company’s blog Tuesday afternoon.

According to Microsoft’s White: “This problem only affects a small number of customers in unique circumstances.”

Here’s an interesting application using our Stealth Rackmount computers.

The Ontario Science Centre, a science based museum in Toronto, Canada opened a new facility aimed at getting youth and young adults interested in science and technology. Over 50 different multi-media experiences were designed to inspire visitors to take on and find practical solutions to current world problems; merge art with science; and work with a variety of materials. Visitors are challenged to think differently about themselves and the world.

A quantity of 77 Stealth 2U rackmount computer systems were deployed in rack cabinets conserving space without jeopardizing processing power or system reliability. Stealth built custom rack servers that were only 3.5″ in height (2U) and featured internal hot swappable thermal cooling fans for easy maintenance and reduced downtime.

The IT staff involved in implementing the project has commented “The Stealth hardware has been Rock Solid”. Since the opening there has been many thousands of children and young adults who have experienced technology like never before.

Stealth received a nomination from Microsoft’s Impact Awards for this inspiring application.

The Ontario Science Centre is also a leading developer of interactive exhibitions for science centers around the world.

About a year after its release, Microsoft Windows Vista will receive its first service pack update in March. Microsoft says the service pack (SP1) will offer better compatibility with third-party hardware, increased reliability, tighter security, and better performance.

Overall the SP1 release is largely a code update, lacking of any new eye candy, and very light on “must-have” features for basic home users. Most of the features publicized by Microsoft are for the Business, Enterprise, or Ultimate Vista editions of the operating system.

The good: Windows Vista SP1 improves the overall upgrade process, fixes hundreds of small problems, and makes it easier for third-party vendors to write stable code for the o/s.

The bad: Vista SP1 lacks any real convincing “must haves,” and, in most cases, doesn’t significantly improve overall performance.

The ugly: It seems many businesses are sticking with Windows XP for as long as possible. And it’s possible some may bypass Vista altogether and wait for Windows 7, a Vista successor that’s due out in 2010 with rumors of an even earlier release.

The bottom line: It is always good to install the latest code for any operating system however installing the Vista SP1 update may require an investment in time with little visible improvements to your systems.