Much of the tech press regularly overlooks PCs for
wearables, smart homes, and IoT-related topics but, in the real world and to
many people, PCs still matter a lot. So, this week’s news out of Redmond and
Taipei (where the annual Computex Trade show is being held) are actually really
important.
To wit, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) finally unveiled
the official release date for Windows 10 (July 29) and Intel Corporation
(NASDAQ:INTC) released more details about its next generation CPUs and
chipsets, which are expected in PCs shipping in August. The combination of all
these technologies will lead to not only the best performing PCs we’ve seen,
but also the most capable, most flexible, and most expandable as well.
Windows 10 brings back the Start Menu and melds it together
with elements of Windows 8 that really were useful once you got used to them
(such as Tiles), while adding fascinating new extras like Cortana, Windows
Hello for biometric authentication (e.g., log-in with your fingerprint, face or
eventually, eye), and better integration with other Microsoft services
(OneDrive, Xbox, Skype, etc.) The net result is a genuinely better OS both
Windows 7 and Windows 8 users should be quite happy with.
Intel’s Skylake CPUs are expected to bring better battery
life for notebooks and 2-in-1s, greatly improved graphics performance, and
support for faster DDR-4 memory. More importantly, the companion chipsets
launching with Skylake are also going to enable several key new system-level
capabilities including wireless charging (although, initially, with a hit to
notebook thin-ness) and the introduction of Thunderbolt 3.
Now admittedly, most people lost interest in PC connectivity
standards a long time ago, but Thunderbolt 3.0 looks to be a big change because
it brings together the new USB type C connector along with significantly
expanded capability and throughput. Specifically, the 40 Gbps data transfer
rate of Thunderbolt 3.0 will support up to two daisy-chained 4K displays (as
well as external storage) and up to 100 W of electrical power over a single
cable.
In fact, Thunderbolt 3 also supports both USB 3.1 (and
earlier standards) as well as PCI-Express and DisplayPort, all over that same
reversible USB Type C connector. At long last, we have the one connector to
rule them all. What that means is we’ll start to see PCs with several USB type
C connectors, and we’ll eventually be able to connect them to just about any PC
peripheral imaginable (and a few we haven’t been able to imagine). In the
interim, yes, we’ll have to likely deal with dongles, but a better choice will
be docks that have a Thunderbolt 3.0-enabled connection to a PC on one side, and
just about every other PC connector available on the other.
One of the new capabilities this new connector enables is
the ability to add an external graphics card to a notebook or small desktop PC.
The speed of the connector, support for PCI Express, and new drivers from AMD
that can enable hot plugging or unplugging all work together to bring this new
capability to life.
Of course, to get all these new capabilities—particularly
biometric authentication and Thunderbolt 3.0 support—will require new hardware,
in addition to Windows 10. However, starting this fall, I think we’re going to
have some of the most interesting new PCs and some of the most compelling
reasons to upgrade we’ve seen in a very long time. And, for a lot of people,
that really does matter.
Source From:- http://www.smarteranalyst.com/
0 comments:
Post a Comment