Dave Altavilla
Recent posts
NVIDIA's new Pascal GPU architecture has been taking the PC graphics market by storm since its introduction in early May. The leading-edge semiconductor powerhouse, in addition to lighting up pixels, has been burning up its balance sheets as well, with strong sales of GeForce, Quadro and Tesla product lines driving...
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Last month, the partnership between Motorola and Lenovo seemed to crystalize when the combined company stepped out with its first co-branded smartphone products that will ship here in the United States. Lenovo acquired Motorola's Mobility division from Google a couple of years back, but has rightfully lead with the...
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The race to build the world's thinnest laptop hasn't always resulted in quality design innovation or utility over more full-figured machines. For example, comparatively, Apple's MacBook Air line looks a little plain-Jane versus some of the nicer thin and light laptops on the market these days, and certainly HP's Spectre line as well. HP recently...
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There's a first time for everything, as the saying goes, and the Alienware 13 OLED is a first for us without question. Though there were a couple of OLED (Organic LED) display driven laptops at CES 2016 this year, Dell's Alienware division is the first in the door here at HotHardware with a retail ready product. OLED displays offer better...
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Update: 6/25/16 - Check out our full review and deep dive of the Alienware 13 OLED right here.
Dell's Alienware 13 gaming notebook has been a favorite among gamers on the go and power users that want a little more horsepower in a light, 13-inch machine. However, over the past couple of years, the Alienware team...
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When Jeopardy game show champion Ken Jennings made light of the beating he took at the hand of IBM's Watson supercomputer, by noting "I for one welcome our new computer overlords," not many at the time took Ken's musing for much more than a light-hearted pat on the back for IBM's big data analytics and AI ambassador...
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Raja Koduri, SVP of AMD RTG Shows Off World's First 14nm GPU- Radeon RX 480
When AMD’s Radeon Technologies Group (RTG) first disclosed details of its upcoming Polaris GPU architecture, it called it a “historic leap in performance per watt for Radeon GPUs”. If you don’t follow the GPU scene closely, Polaris is AMD...
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Intel's successful line of NUC (Next Unit of Computing) mini PCs have done well for the company, for various use cases where an ultra-small form factor computer might come in handy. In areas where a PC either needs to stay out of sight, blend in with its surroundings or squeeze in places where other, larger computers...
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Boutique gaming PC system builders are a flourishing breed these days with new brands popping up on the scene regularly it seems. It's a testament to the fact that PC gaming, and the hardware the fuels it, is not only alive and well but kicking some major butt, especially with the advent of the eSports industry. Maingear has been building...
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 - Faster Than Titan X For Half The Cost, Faster Than 2x GTX 980
Tonight at an event in Austin, Texas, NVIDIA unveiled its highly anticipated next-generation, Pascal-based GeForce graphics cards, known as the GeForce GTX 1080 and GeForce GTX 1070. NVIDIA’s Pascal architecture is based on 16nm...
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Update - 10/27/16: AMD Radeon Technologies Group recently announced their new Radeon Pro series graphics cards based on the company's Polaris GPU architecture. This is the same technology in the Apple's new MacBook Pro 13 and 15-inch machines that were announced today. The following coverage here on the pages ahead is of...
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Update, 9:52PM - We have since solved this puzzle. Scroll down to the bottom for spoilers but we'd urge you to journey on for the full backstory.
It's not often a fancy, rugged, environmentally resistant Pelican case shows up on our doorstep. Usually, when it does, something valuable or fragile is inside; often...
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Update 4/26/2016: We've refreshed our battery life test suite for this review and have new, more real-world metrics to share on page 8. When Dell launched its updated XPS 13 notebook with an Infinity Edge display that squeezes a 13 inch IPS panel into essentially a 12-inch frame, it was met with universal praise for...
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Whoever the Einstein was that declared this a "post PC era" needs talk to the gamers and enthusiasts that flocked to Boston Convention And Exhibition Center this weekend for the sold-out PAX East show. And in good ol' Bean Town, the Murphys might dropkick that genius for being overly impaired and "ship him off"...
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AMD reported its first quarter financial results for 2016 earlier today, which continued to show losses and increased expenses in multiple areas. The company showed a net loss of $109 million, a loss per share of $0.14, and a non-GAAP net loss of $96 million, or $0.12 per share. Revenue was $832 million, which was...
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When it comes to high performance, over-the-top enthusiast computers, Maingear is a boutique builder that has been designing and manufacturing some of the most stand-out, highly-tuned systems on the market over the years. Hailing from good ol' Kenilworth, a borough of New Jersey, the custom PC shop likens itself to...
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Artificial Intelligence is sort of the holy grail of computing, and while we may never reproduce the human brain or it's capabilities in their entirety in electronic form, the world's brightest minds are now capable of creating rather convincing systems that are beginning to learn more sophisticated concepts and even...
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Yesterday, during his keynote address at GTC 2016, NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang made a number of interesting announcements and disclosures. We saw Apple co-founder Steve “Woz” Wozniak take a virtual tour of Mars and witnessed the official unveiling of NVIDIA’s Tesla P100, which is based on the company’s bleeding-edge...
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NVIDIA just pulled the wraps off its fastest GPU and compute engine yet: the Tesla P100. This new GPU powerhouse is based on NVIDIA’s next generation Pascal architecture, which means that it’s built on a 16nm FinFET process. But even with thoroughly modern FinFET process tech, the Tesla P100’s die size measures 600mm2...
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When it comes to technology, especially the fast-paced advancement of mobile technology, design cycles are often based on either innovation or iteration. Sometimes it's a blend of both, but often times, like Intel's tick-tock silicon design process, it makes perfect sense to innovate one design cycle and then iterate...
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Update 4/26/2016: We've updated our battery life test suite for this review and have new more real-world metrics to share on page 6. It was just about this time last year that HP first took the wraps off its chic, convertible ultrabook, the original Spectre x360. Although the Spectre name wasn’t new, HP’s approach to the ultrabook’s design...
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The immediate comparisons are inevitable. Apple and Samsung are the two most dominant smartphone manufacturers in the world right now, commanding an overwhelming combined market share that dwarfs their competitors. So, when one of these mobile juggernauts releases a new flagship device, analysts, press, and consumers...
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