Component Planet: June 2020

Tuesday, 30 June 2020

Statue campaign for black player dropped by England

Jack Leslie, who would have been England's first black player, was dropped because of his ethnicity.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53184615

GCSE choices will narrow next year, says academy chain

Harris Federation questions if it is possible to maintain a broad range of subjects after lockdown.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-53239206

Coronavirus: TM Lewin to close all UK shops

The firm will cut 600 jobs after becoming the latest retail casualty of the coronavirus crisis.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53242719

'I always remember feeling like the outsider'

Four young, black entrepreneurs explain how skin colour has affected their business journey.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53156213

Coronavirus: Snacking and family meals increase in lockdown

Young people's eating habits have meant more snacks but also more shared meals, say researchers.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-53238366

Does London have a lockdown pollution legacy?

Parents of children with respiratory illnesses fear toxic air will soon be back in the capital.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-53237119

Qualcomm Unveils Chip That Might Finally Make Wear OS Usable

Despite launching a year earlier, Google’s Wear OS platform has been unable to make even a tiny dent in the Apple Watch’s market share. Certainly, some of the blame rests squarely on Google’s proverbial shoulders as it struggles to design compelling experiences on such a small screen. However, the sluggish, power-hungry wearable chipsets in watches have been an even bigger problem. Qualcomm has announced a pair of new wearable chips that might finally fix that. The Snapdragon Wear 4100 and 4100 Plus improve on the old Wear 3100 in every way, but it’ll take more than new hardware to turn around Google’s smartwatch project.

First, a little history. The first Android-powered smartwatches ran on low-power phone processors like the Snapdragon 400. Later, Qualcomm produced the Wear 2100 with a few modifications for wearables, but the Cortex A7 CPU cores were slow even by 2016’s standards. The Wear 3100 came in 2018 with a high-efficiency co-processor to improve always-on features, but the A7 CPU cores were even more out-of-date by then. The 4100 finally revamps the entire chip, which should make future wearable devices much more capable. We hope.

The Wear 4100 and 4100 Plus share all the same core features. In place of the archaic 28nm A7 cores, the 4100s have four 12nm Cortex A53 cores clocked at 1.7GHz — Qualcomm says it’s about 85 percent faster than the 3100. Memory speed is also nearly doubled from 400MHz to 750Mhz. The GPU is about two and a half times faster, too.

The Wear 3100 debuted the QCC1110 co-processor, and it’s still around in the new generation. However, it’s only part of the 4100 Plus chip — this is what makes it the “Plus.” The “Enhanced” QCC1110 has a Cortex M0 processor core along with its own dedicated memory and display controller. It supports more colors in always-on mode, number kerning, haptics, and more. Manufacturers that choose to go with the regular 4100 won’t have the enhanced always-on functionality.

Qualcomm has started shipping chips to its partners, but there aren’t many companies still trying to make Wear OS devices. Fossil will probably get to the 4100 eventually, but Mobvoi says it’s already working on a 4100-based watch. Google itself might finally give wearables a shot with its pending acquisition of Fitbit. But after years of mediocre hardware and software, is anyone still waiting for a Google smartwatch?

Now read:

from ExtremeTechExtremeTech https://www.extremetech.com/mobile/312258-qualcomm-unveils-chip-that-might-finally-make-wear-os-usable

Shirley Oaks: Children 'drugged, tortured and sexually assaulted'

Barristers representing victims accuse Lambeth Council of knowing about the abuse, but doing nothing.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-53237121

Alexander Kareem shooting: Murder was mistaken identity, police say

Alexander Kareem's killers "ruthlessly shot down an innocent man in the street", police say.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-53242543

Mikel Arteta says margin for error 'minimal' as Arsenal chase European spot

Mikel Arteta says the “margin for error is minimal” as Arsenal look to qualify for Europe next season.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53241440

Kelly Fauvrelle: Pregnant woman 'killed by ex in cowardly attack'

Kelly Fauvrelle was stabbed 21 times. Her baby was delivered by caesarean but died four days later.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-53237765

Coronavirus: 'Why I want to prosecute Dominic Cummings'

A law student is seeking a private prosecution of the PM's top aide over his trips during lockdown.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53212434

Coronavirus: Couples react as ban on weddings lifted in England

Engaged couples react as England lifts its ban on weddings from 4 July - but with strict rules.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53232963

West Ham: David Moyes wants the chance to build 'a new history'

David Moyes says he wants the chance to build "a new history" at West Ham.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53239041

Early Apple ARM Benchmarks Leak, Show Intriguing Picture vs. x86

Ever since Apple announced the A12Z and its shift away from x86, there’ve been questions about exactly how these ARM chips will perform and what we can expect from them. The first benchmark results are starting to appear from Apple dev kits, and as long as you take them with a mountain of salt, they’re pretty interesting.

What we have to work with here is Geekbench. Geekbench tends to be a very strong test for Apple CPUs, but in this case, we’re talking about Apple CPUs running the x86 version via emulation. Even if Geekbench does favor Apple CPUs more than x86, running the application through an emulator is going to hit performance.

Also, note that the application only reports four cores. The A12Z is nominally an eight-core chip, with four big, four little. It isn’t clear if these dev systems only use the “big” cores, or if the application simply doesn’t detect them properly, or if this is an emulator limitation. Regardless, it’s very early days and these are early results.

Here’s the data as it has come in to Geekbench 5.

We see single-threaded scores of 844 and a multi-threaded score of 2958, which yields a scaling factor of 3.5x. On the x86 side of the equation, there’s the 13-inch MacBook Pro, with scores of 1218 and 4233. This also works out to a scaling factor of approximately 3.5x. Similarly, the Macbook Pro 13-inch is roughly 1.44x faster than the A12Z in both single-threaded and multi-threaded mode.

One thing to keep in mind is that emulation performance can vary drastically depending on the application. Some programs might run with relatively small penalties, while others crater and die. Rosetta 2 is specifically designed to avoid those outcomes, but historically, there’s a nasty corner case or two lurking somewhere in any emulator. Some applications are harder to emulate than others. But the upshot of this effect is that we don’t really know if that 1.44x lead the 13-inch MacBook has is the product of emulator handicapping or if it’s a pretty good look at the CPU’s performance. Data from the iPad Pro suggests it might be the former.

If we assume that the A12X in the iPad Pro is a pretty good stand-in for the A12Z, we can check ARM-native Geekbench performance, albeit in iOS, not macOS. Here, we’re looking at 1120 single-core, 4650 multi-core, with a scaling factor of 4.16x. The MacBook Pro 13-inch is only about 8 percent faster than the iPad Pro in single-thread, and 10 percent slower in multi-thread.

Frankly, that should send a frisson of fear through Intel and AMD. The implication of these results is that the gap between the 13-inch Mac and the A12Z is largely the result of emulation. That’s not a guarantee, because OS differences matter in situations like this, but it certainly looks as though most of the penalty the A12Z is carrying is related to emulating x86 code.

That fact should send a frisson of fear down AMD and Intel’s collective spines. Apple’s year-on-year record of delivering new performance improvements is considerably better than Intel’s right now. AMD can make a much stronger argument for its own recent improvement, thanks to Ryzen, but the enormous 1.52x IPC improvement from Excavator to Ryzen tilts the comparison a bit. To put it bluntly, AMD’s improvements the last three years would be a little less impressive if Bulldozer hadn’t been such an awful chip to start with.

We’re in a weird situation at the moment. Intel has always been Apple’s chief supplier, but AMD is selling more performant mobile CPUs today, making them the more obvious point of comparison. The 4900HS appears to score a 1116 single-core and a 7013 multi-threaded score. x86 MT is, at least, in no immediate danger, in absolute terms. Keep in mind that the 4900HS also draws far more power than either the Intel or Apple chips.

What we see here isn’t proof that Apple will launch a MacBook ARM chip that rivals the best Intel and AMD can offer — but it certainly puts a floor under expected performance, barring unusual emulator quirks that Apple will spend the next few months quashing. The x86 companies may want to ask their mobile CPU designers to put an extra pot of coffee on.

Final note: These kits are not the CPUs Apple will ship to customers and do not represent final performance.

Feature image by Apple.

Now Read:

from ExtremeTechExtremeTech https://www.extremetech.com/computing/312234-apple-a12z-arm-performance-vs-x86

Rental e-scooters to be made legal on UK roads from Saturday

The government is set to say hired, but not private, e-scooters will be allowed on roads from Saturday.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53219331

'Don't call me BAME': Why some people are rejecting the term

The term BAME has been growing in prominence - but many say it does more harm than good.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53194376

Apple Might Not Include Charger, Earbuds With Next iPhone

We’re still several months away from Apple’s next iPhone release, but the rumors have already started to appear. Analysts like Ming-Chi Kuo have made an unexpected prediction about this year’s iPhones: they won’t come with charging bricks or earbuds. Apple will have a faster charger for the iPhone 12, but you’ll have to pay extra for it.

For years, Apple has bundled anemic 5-watt power adapters with the iPhone, only recently switching to an 18W adapter for select products that supports USB Power Delivery. The iPhone 11 still has the old 5W charger, but the 11 Pro has an 18W brick. Apple has also made it a point to bundle Lightning earbuds ever since it dropped the headphone jack. Kuo says the new iPhones will cost more to manufacture because of the addition of 5G. However, dropping these accessories will help keep prices steady for consumers. Analysts at Barclays contend there will still be a USB cable, which will allow you to connect the phone to a computer or use another adapter.

It might seem shortsighted to remove accessories from a high-end phone, but they’re only worth including if most people are using them. Otherwise, it’s just more e-waste. There absolutely are people who rely on the included accessories, but they’re usually the ones buying less expensive devices like the iPhone SE 2. Most people who are buying a $1,000 iPhone already have higher quality wired or wireless earbuds, so those will probably just sit in the box. Likewise, these people have multiple chargers around the house from past phone purchases. The included Lightning to USB-C cable can also plug into third-party adapters and fast-charge the phone.

Apple’s supposed 20W power adapter.

This could be a win-win. The number of people negatively impacted by this move will be small, and it helps Apple keep prices down. Kuo says that Apple will make a new 20W power adapter as an add-on purchase — photos claiming to show this accessory have already leaked. We don’t know how much this adapter will cost, but you’ll probably be able to get a cheaper third-party plug if you don’t already have a box of them at home.

You’ll also be able to buy EarPods from Apple if you don’t have headphones, but the company would probably prefer you dropped the cash on AirPods. That’s probably what some people will do when faced with the barren iPhone 12 packaging. While there’s a definite financial incentive for Apple to stop including all the extras with its phones, it will probably lean heavily on the environmental advantages to justify the move.

Now read:

from ExtremeTechExtremeTech https://www.extremetech.com/mobile/312225-apple-might-not-include-charger-earbuds-with-next-iphone

West Ham to honour Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters with statue

West Ham will honour club legends Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters with a statue at London Stadium.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53236719

Intel Shows Faint Signs of Life as AMD Dominates Retail CPU Sales

Ever since AMD launched Ryzen, we’ve kept an occasional eye on how the company’s CPUs sell at retail. While the DIY retail market is only a fraction of the total PC space (the typical measure given is ~20 percent), it’s always been AMD’s strongest battleground. New numbers from MindFactory back that up, though Intel’s Core i7-10700K shows some encouraging signs of life.

According to TechEpiphany, MindFactory data continues to show a runaway success for AMD. Keep in mind that MindFactory is one storefront in Europe, and that adoption rates of Intel versus AMD sometimes vary from country to country. Germany is a favorable market for the company, thanks to AMD’s historic presence in Dresden.

With that caveat out of the way, here’s the numbers:

CPU Retail Sales Week 26

AMD: 4355 units sold, 83.59%, ASP: 218.13
Intel: 855, 16.41%, ASP: 285.53

AMD Revenue (Euro): 949'935, 79.55%
Intel Revenue: 244130, 20.45%

AM4: 4355
1151: 510
1200: 325
2066: 20#AMD #Intel #AMDRyzen pic.twitter.com/FswxhHLTby

— TechEpiphany (@TechEpiphany) June 28, 2020

This is a huge reversal from just a few years ago. Here’s what the picture looked like back in 2017:

Compiled by reddit user ingebor, data from Mindfactory, 2017-2018.

Three years ago, AMD had roughly 45 percent of Mindfactory’s retail shipments. This was considered a major achievement for the company, given how badly Piledriver-derived sales had slumped. Intel still had an overall lead on revenue, however, due to higher ASPs.

Intel still leads on ASPs, but the only bright spot in the company’s sales matrix is the Core i7-10700K, though the Core i7-9700K also manages to move some units. Most people would focus on the top of the chart and crow about AMD’s Ryzen 5 3600 sales, but I find the bottom rather more interesting. According to this data, sales of the Ryzen 9 3950X managed to outstrip sales of the Core i3-8100.

If this data were representative of the overall DIY market (and I’m explicitly not making that assumption), it would indicate that users aren’t really building low-end or even mid-range systems with Intel chips. There’s only one budget chip from Intel in the 16-entry list. In contrast, the Ryzen 3 3200G, 3400G, and 3100 are all budget chips.

Intel isn’t going to be unhappy about having higher ASPs (average selling price) than AMD, but higher ASP’s aren’t worth much if you aren’t selling enough volume to make up the difference. Intel has repeatedly adjusted its pricing over the last three years — less with straight price cuts, and more often by introducing new chips at better pricing — but it clearly isn’t enough to counter AMD’s performance in the DIY retail space. Given that Intel still earns the lion’s share of revenue in the PC industry, this may or may not trouble anyone at company headquarters.

The last thing I’ll say about these results is that they suggest Intel’s messaging on being best-in-gaming is having an effect. I don’t think it’s an accident that the two CPUs selling the best are two of Intel’s best-positioned gaming CPUs. The 9700K wasn’t nearly as fast as some of its competitors when new, but it turned in top-notch gaming results. The gap between AMD and Intel has narrowed to virtually nothing, but for those who want every last millisecond of frame time, Intel still has an advantage in some titles.

Now Read:

from ExtremeTechExtremeTech https://www.extremetech.com/computing/312231-intel-shows-faint-signs-of-life-as-amd-dominates-retail-cpu-sales

Millwall v Swansea City

Live coverage of Tuesday's Championship game between Millwall and Swansea City.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/51884002

Cardiff City v Charlton Athletic

Live coverage of Tuesday's Championship game between Cardiff City and Charlton Athletic.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/51883996

Reading v Brentford

Live coverage of Tuesday's Championship game between Reading and Brentford.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/51883995

Queens Park Rangers v Fulham

Live coverage of Tuesday's Championship game between Queens Park Rangers and Fulham.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/51883998

England's museums and galleries to reopen after 4 July

Most English galleries and museums won't reopen on Saturday despite being given the go-ahead.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-53220894

Dillian Whyte could face Tyson Fury before Anthony Joshua does, says Eddie Hearn

Dillian Whyte could end up facing Tyson Fury before Anthony Joshua does, says promoter Eddie Hearn.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/53232165

Queenie author Candice Carty-Williams wins British Book Award

Candice Carty-Williams becomes the first black writer to win the book of the year prize.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-53218235

Monday, 29 June 2020

Joseph McCann: Serial rapist freed by 'unstable' probation staff

A report finds Joseph McCann was "managed by an unstable team", lacking experienced staff.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-53221983

'My struggle with racism in the Metropolitan police'

Former senior police officer Shabnam Chaudhri says she was unfairly treated, because of her ethnicity.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-53224394

If You Don’t Know Elementor Or WooCommerce, You Don’t Really Know WordPress. Now, You Can.

WordPress is the undisputed king of the internet, the content management engine powering about 35 percent of all sites on the web. The company rose to that lofty perch by being about as simple to use as a site-builder could be, allowing users to get a website of almost any type up and running quickly and easily.

Of course, you don’t stay top dog by being complacent. Since WordPress is an open-source environment, innovations to the platform have come fast and furious over the years in the form of plugins that make creating and curating a website even easier with more customization features to get the most out of your site.

Despite those advancements, it still never hurts to get the lay of the land from someone who’s been down that road before. The WordPress ft. Elementor and WooCommerce Master Class Bundle is just that helpful guide, offering important behind-the-scenes knowledge of WordPress and its most powerful plugins to build your website your way without all the hassle. Right now, you can get all this WordPress goodness for only $29.99, an over 90 percent savings off the regular price.

Over seven courses, best-selling instructor Alexander Oni leads students through using WordPress and two of its most popular plugins, the site-building helper Elementor and digital business focused aide WooCommerce.

When Elementor debuted in 2016, it almost immediately became the most powerful front-end, drag-and-drop page builder, on the WordPress platform. In Elementor Master Class 2020, students get the complete 411 on how this versatile plugin can create just the web experience you want to build with absolutely no coding knowledge needed. Elementor knows not everyone is up on HTML and CSS, so this course explains all the features it brings to your new site without getting bogged down in programming jargon.

Since everyone has their own vision for the type of site they want to build, a handful of courses take more in-depth looks at some of the most popular, including Build a Full One Page Event Website with WordPress using popular WordPress plugin SiteOrigin; and Build a Photo Gallery with WordPress for crafting a multi-gallery image site that can match just the vibe you’re trying to create.

And since we know every new business needs a website, the Build a Complete Business Website with WordPress course is the next logical step, allowing students to learn all the right moves as they actually create a site from scratch. Meanwhile, WooCommerce has become the most popular WordPress plugin for handling the basics of eCommerce, so The Complete WooCommerce Master Class 2020 explains how to set up a site with its own retail shopping carts, multiple payment options and everything else it takes to do business online in 2020.

An almost $1,400 value, The WordPress ft. Elementor and WooCommerce Master Class Bundle is available now for just $29.99.

Note: Terms and conditions apply. See the relevant retail sites for more information. For more great deals, go to our partners at TechBargains.com.

Now read:

from ExtremeTechExtremeTech https://www.extremetech.com/deals/312210-if-you-dont-know-elementor-or-woocommerce-you-dont-really-know-wordpress-now-you-can

MIT Designs Robot That Eliminates Coronavirus With UV Light

The United States is currently experiencing a surge in COVID-19 cases as states begin dropping restrictions and allowing businesses to open once again. With people venturing outside and returning to offices, it’s more important than ever to neutralize coronavirus particles on surfaces before they can add to the infection rate. MIT has developed a robot that navigates around spaces to blast the virus with UV light. The team has even tested the system at a Boston-area food bank with encouraging results.

The most significant source of coronavirus particles is an infected person, but such people can leave behind viruses on surfaces and drifting through the air that can be infectious for several days. The UV robot comes from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) as a way to clear these unwanted visitors from public spaces using the power of ultraviolet radiation.

You’ve probably heard about the dangers of UV-A and UV-B light from doctors and the occasional sunscreen bottle. UV-C is a higher energy form of ultraviolet radiation with a wavelength between 280 and 100 nanometers. UV-A is as high as 400nm, and X-rays start around 10nm. So, UV-C is much more damaging to living organisms than UV-A and UV-B. Luckily, UV-C from the sun is absorbed by the atmosphere before reaching us. You can, however, use artificial UV-C radiation to effectively sterilize objects.

The robotic base of the CSAIL project comes from Ava Robotics, which makes telepresence machines. The team replaced the screen that usually sits on top of the robot with a custom ultraviolet lighting rig. MIT decided to test the system in the Greater Boston Food Bank (GBFB). Since UV-C is dangerous for all living organisms, it can only run when there’s no one around. Being a telepresence robot, it’s simple for a remote operator to guide it around the GBFB facility by placing waypoints. Later, the robot can simply follow those waypoints autonomously.

As the robot makes its way down the aisles at 0.22 miles per hour, the UV-C sweeps over every surface. It takes just half an hour to cover a 4,000 square foot area, delivering enough UV-C energy to neutralize about 90 percent of coronaviruses (and other organisms) on surfaces. Currently, the team’s focus is on improving the algorithms running the GBFB system, but that may lead to more robotic UV scrubbers. CSAIL hopes to use the data gathered at GBFB to design automated UV cleaning systems for dorms, schools, airplanes, and grocery stores.

Now read:

from ExtremeTechExtremeTech https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/312198-mit-designs-robot-that-eliminates-coronavirus-with-uv-light

Aleksandar Mitrovic: Fulham striker banned for three games for elbowing Leeds' Ben White

Fulham striker Aleksandar Mitrovic is banned for three games for elbowing Ben White in Saturday's 3-0 loss to Leeds United.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53177769

Bright Akinleye death: Two jailed for manager's murder

Bright Akinleye was stabbed to death in a "targeted hit" following a long-running dispute.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-53222280

County cricket: 1 August start as delayed season given green light

The delayed 2020 county season will begin on 1 August, the England and Wales Cricket Board confirms.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/53219502

Viktoria Schnaderbeck: Arsenal defender signs new deal with Women's Super League club

Arsenal defender Viktoria Schnaderbeck signs a new deal to commit her future to the Women's Super League club.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53224134

Leak Suggests Second, Weaker Xbox Series X Console

Last year, before Microsoft unveiled the Xbox Series X, there were rumors of two consoles: Anaconda and Lockhart. When the console finally debuted, however, only one system was discussed. There’ve been rumors about Lockhart since, but not much more.

Now, leaked documents have confirmed Microsoft is reportedly planning to release a Lockhart console, targeting either 1080p or 1440p gaming. Rumored specs on the device are 7.5GB of useable RAM, a “slightly underclocked” CPU speed, and around 4TFLOPS of GPU performance, according to The Verge,. That’s substantially less than the Xbox Series X, which has 13.5GB of useable RAM and promises ~12 TFLOPS of performance.

Source: https://t.co/xaf432dsV9 https://t.co/e9xcLoyeVE

— TitleOS (@XB1_HexDecimal) June 26, 2020

On paper, this would put the Xbox Lockhart below the Xbox One X, which offers 6 TFLOPS of performance and 9GB of RAM useable by games. This is a good example of how TFLOPS can be a tricky way to measure performance. Compared with the Xbox One X, the Xbox Lockhart should have two advantages we can count on, even if we don’t know anything else about the system: It uses a Ryzen CPU core (with a bit less clock), and it uses an RDNA2 GPU. We know RDNA2 should offer 1.5x more performance per watt than RDNA, according to AMD, and we know that RDNA was a significant uplift over GCN, with ~1.3x more performance per clock.

AMD claims RDNA2 delivers an additional 1.5x perf/watt, which is relevant when considering Lockhart versus Xbox One X.

But TFLOPS, as a metric, doesn’t capture improvements to a GPU’s performance per clock, because TFLOPS is a theoretical measurement intended to illustrate the GPU’s maximum performance potential. The fact that Microsoft is apparently keeping close to the same CPU in both systems suggests that it’ll be GPU performance that splits the two machines more so than CPU, which makes sense — the vast majority of games are GPU-limited far more than CPU-limited. 4TFLOPS is roughly in the ballpark of AMD’s RX 5500. Consoles tend to overperform their listed specs relative to PCs because developers are able to spend more time optimizing the underlying hardware.

But while we don’t know the exact speeds on the Xbox Lockhart, we can assume it’ll be slower than the Xbox One X, for one reason: Microsoft is targeting 1080p and 1440p playback for the platform, not the 4K targets it set for the Xbox One X. It’s not clear exactly where this leaves the Xbox One X, and those who purchased the console could wind up a bit unhappy if there’s an entry-level Xbox Lockhart slower than their own platform, yet they’re still unable to buy new Series X games.

The Xbox Series X and the Xbox Lockhart seem as though they’re intended to bracket the PlayStation 5 with a platform above and below its price and performance targets. Microsoft and Sony have never released precise breakdowns on which customers bought a lower-end as opposed to a refreshed console. It’s entirely possible that Microsoft has decided it has two tiers of customers: Those willing to pay $300 – $400 for an Xbox, and those willing to shuck out $500+.

This would explain how Microsoft plans to bring the Xbox Series X to market at something approaching a reasonable price. On its own, the console is clearly a high-end platform, potentially positioned against a significantly less expensive PlayStation 5. With two platforms, Microsoft could be trying to use the Xbox Lockhart to win customers who are put off by the rumored higher price of the PlayStation 5, while the Xbox Series X is intended to woo console gamers who want more horsepower than that system can offer.

The leaked documents indicate there’s a special Lockhart mode built into the Xbox Series X development kits that developers can use to target 1080p / 1440p development. This could explain why Microsoft was a bit cagey about the 60fps claim. It doesn’t want to promise the Xbox Lockhart will also hit the performance targets set for the Xbox Series X, though this is purely conjecture.

Now Read:

from ExtremeTechExtremeTech https://www.extremetech.com/gaming/312185-leak-suggests-second-weaker-xbox-series-x-console

Brixton street party: Man denies violent disorder charge

Twenty-seven police officers are said to have been hurt at the "unlicensed music event" in Brixton.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-53223856

Shane Ferguson: Northern Ireland international extends Millwall contract

Northern Ireland winger Shane Ferguson agrees a contract extension and Aiden O'Brien will stay to the end of the season.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53171431

Shirley Oaks: 'Hundreds of children racially and sexually abused'

The opening of an inquiry into the abuse of children at a London care home hears of a catalogue of abuse.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-53221981

Streatham stranger attack: Man repeatedly stabbed mother

Mark Brazant, who denies attempted murder, stabbed the woman in the face in a "horrific" attack.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-53222275

Ex-Intel Engineer: Skylake QA Problems Drove Apple Away

Now that Apple and x86 have made their impending breakup official, attention has turned to when the company made that decision and why. According to an ex-Intel engineer, Apple pulled the trigger as far back as 2015, after it saw how buggy the Skylake CPU and platform were.

Francois Piednoël relayed the story while playing Xplane and streaming on YouTube. According to him, Skylake’s wretched quality assurance (QA) process caused Apple to turn away from Intel and explore its own options.

The quality assurance of Skylake was more than a problem. It was abnormally bad. We were getting way too much citing for little things inside Skylake.

Basically our buddies at Apple became the number one filer of problems in the architecture. And that went really, really bad. When your customer starts finding almost as much bugs as you found yourself, you’re not leading into the right place.

There’s some circumstantial evidence that backs up Piednoël’s point. Paul Thurrott has written that Microsoft ran into massive problems with the Surface Book partly because they were inexperienced and had no idea how difficult the platform would be to debug. That’s all believable, especially given how Consumer Reports later pulled its Surface hardware recommendations on systems produced during this time period.

If you look at Intel’s processor errata sheets for the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th processor generations, there are far more entries for Skylake than its successors. This isn’t a perfect method of comparison, for multiple reasons, including the fact that Intel doesn’t always order the bugs the same way and provides so little data, it’s often impossible to judge severity in any meaningful way. Bug 133, for example, is described as: “Executing Some Instructions May Cause Unpredictable Behavior.”

The mind boggles at such a commitment to transparency.

Even with these limitations, the numbers imply Skylake was worse than what followed. The 6th Gen document lists 190 errata, compared with 145 for the Kaby Lake docs and 137 for Coffee Lake. At least a few of these bugs were combined, but spot checks suggest others have been resolved.

In Piednoël’s mind, it was this quality control issue above all else that drove Apple to build its own chips. He says:

So, for me, this is the inflection point. This is where the Apple guys that were always contemplating to switch, they went and look at it and said ‘Well we’ve probably got to do it.’… The bad quality assurance of Skylake is responsible for them forcing themselves to actually go and go away from the [Intel] platform. If they didn’t have this reason that they were actually doubtful that this could be delivered, they would probably not have gone.

I don’t feel like the situation boils down quite that simply. Even if Apple started looking at building its own solution due to the problems it had with Skylake, reports have indicated it didn’t commit completely to the idea until 2018. Clearly, the company was waiting and watching to see what would happen.

Whatever seed of doubt Skylake planted was watered by 10nm delay after 10nm delay. Intel originally expected to ship 10nm in 2015. Then, it slipped to 2018. Then, it slipped to “holidays, 2020.” From a consumer perspective, the impact of these shifts was relatively small, especially prior to 2018. 8th Gen CPUs were well-regarded, on both mobile and desktop. But in other ways, the impact was seismic.

In 2015, Intel had already dominated the CPU industry for two full decades. Its fabs were regarded as the best in the business and they were running a full node ahead of the competition. I have no problem believing that Skylake got the ball rolling, but it was scarcely the only factor.

Intel has never missed on a node as it missed on 10nm, ever. There have to be at least a few people at Apple who remember what happened to the firm when it allowed itself to be chained to a CPU manufacturer that couldn’t deliver the goods. It damn near killed the company.

The third piece of the puzzle is the rapid improvements to the Apple A-series CPU family. Remember, CPUs are finished and taped out a year or more before they actually ship. Even as Apple was evaluating its own ability to match or beat Intel’s performance and power efficiency, it was also watching its own ability to deliver successful CPU designs, one generation after the other.

The most exciting thing about Apple’s plan to transition to its own ARM CPUs is that we’re going to see whether x86 or ARM is faster, after a decade or more of speculation. For decades, certain CPU enthusiasts have groused bitterly that Intel never launched anything better than the x86 architecture. (Intel, for the record, tried).

Now we’ll get to find out what the tradeoffs are when a high-performance ARM microprocessor debuts against the x86 CPUs we’re all familiar with. There are only a handful of companies that could even attempt to take on Intel and AMD in the x86 market. After decades, somebody finally stepped up to try.

I suspect this would have happened, no matter what. In order to assume it wouldn’t have, we have to assume a world in which Intel didn’t just deliver 10nm on time — it delivered 10nm and went on to outpace Apple’s A-series to such a degree that the Cupertino company would never feel it had a chance of catching up.

It’s not clear that would have happened. Post Sandy Bridge, we watched Intel shift to 22nm and 14nm before it hit 10nm roadblocks. SNB was the last major uplift for Intel until Coffee Lake started adding cores in 2017. The company hadn’t shown any interest in increasing CPU core counts until AMD forced it to. It’s completely possible we’d still be looking at the same 2C/4T, 4C/4T, 4C/8T configurations that typified 2011 – 2017 in 2020 if Ryzen hadn’t been as good as it was.

There’s no sign Intel was on some kind of tear before it was derailed by 10nm troubles. Ultimately, I think even stronger year-on-year improvements from Intel might only have postponed the inevitable. It’s not just a question of Skylake’s quality control. It’s everything else that’s happened to Intel over the past five years.

Now Read:

from ExtremeTechExtremeTech https://www.extremetech.com/computing/312181-ex-intel-engineer-claims-skylake-qa-problems-drove-apple-away

The New OnePlus Nord Might Have 2 Selfie Cameras

OnePlus is about to offer relief to fans who have been increasingly dismayed each time the company launches a phone at a higher price. CEO Pete Lau confirmed recently that the company would release a less expensive phone, and now we know a bit more about it. A new report claims the budget OnePlus will sport two selfie cameras, both occupying a cutout in the display.

The latest leaks seem to agree on the name of this phone: OnePlus Nord. It’s not official, so the company could end up giving it a different moniker before release — other supposed names include and OnePlus 8 Lite. Whatever they call it, it may bring a new feature to OnePlus phones with its dual selfie cameras.

The Nord will sport a 32MP paired with an 8MP module, according to Android Central. The higher-resolution camera should have a standard wide-angle lens, and the 8MP shooter will allegedly be ultra-wide. This is similar to the camera setup on the Google Pixel 3 and 3 XL. Google included both standard and wide-angle selfie cameras on those phones, but they had just one camera on the back. With a pair of cameras, the Nord will be able to take selfie images of larger groups than most phones can.

The OnePlus Nord will have a camera setup similar to this but on the opposite side.

The source for this information says the phone’s camera setup is now final, and that both selfie cameras will be inside the same cutout. So, it should look a bit like the Galaxy S10+, but with the cameras in the top left corner instead of the top right. It’s unclear if this will be a trend for OnePlus or other phones, but most manufacturers so far have decided the advantage of having multiple front-facing cameras isn’t worth taking a bigger bite out of the screen. Samsung moved from dual (and even triple, in the case of the S10 5G) selfie sensors to a single camera on all its 2020 devices.

OnePlus has an event scheduled for about two weeks from now in India, and that is almost certainly when we’ll see the OnePlus Nord in all its glory. The device will likely cost a bit over $300 (in local currency), a sharp decrease from the $800-900 starting price for OP’s latest flagship phones. OnePlus has stated that the phone will come to India and Europe first, and any launches after that are still under consideration.

Now read:

from ExtremeTechExtremeTech https://www.extremetech.com/mobile/312174-the-new-oneplus-nord-might-have-2-selfie-cameras

Brad Barritt: Saracens captain to leave club at the end of the 2019-20 campaign

Saracens captain Brad Barritt agrees a contract extension to the end of the season when he will leave the club.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/53219506

Leyton stabbing: Jealous boyfriend jailed for killing flatmate

Carlos Velez stabbed his flatmate because he thought he had kissed his girlfriend, a court heard.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-53193130

Brixton street party: Four charged after clashes with police

Violence broke out and 27 police officers were injured at an "unlicensed music event" in Brixton.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-53215142

Coronavirus: Survivors 'at risk of PTSD'

Leading doctors call for regular check ups of those who have been treated in hospital.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-53214482

'Talking to my white friend about race - for the first time'

The Black Lives Matter protests that followed George Floyd's killing led one of Patrick George's white friends to ask him a question.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-53208273

Coronavirus: Can you really do these jobs from home?

Coronavirus has forced people to get creative with the way they work, with some surprising jobs going online.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53058368

Wimbledon: British tennis 'financially stable' despite cancellation - Richard Lewis

The finances of British tennis "won’t be severely impacted" by the cancellation of Wimbledon, says chief executive Richard Lewis.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/53186140

Man Utd face Chelsea, Arsenal v Man City in FA Cup semi-finals

Manchester United will face Chelsea and Arsenal will play holders Manchester City in the semi-finals of the FA Cup.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53214835

Wimbledon: Things we’ll miss about All England Club tournament this year

The tournament would have started today. Here are some of the very British things we'll miss.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/53197549

Sunday, 28 June 2020

Coronavirus: Huge increase in lockdown speeding drivers

Met Police figures show a rise of 71% in those breaking the limit on London's roads in April.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-53215121

Crystal Palace v Burnley

Preview followed by live coverage of Monday's Premier League game between Crystal Palace and Burnley.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52072986

Coronavirus: Will pop-up bike lanes keep new cyclists on the road?

Campaigners say routes need to be made safer to keep new cyclists on the roads as lockdown is eased.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53105020

Saturday, 27 June 2020

Two illegal street parties in London closed down by police

Dispersal zones were put in place during another night of unlawful gatherings in London.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-53208632

Veterans walk London Pride route to celebrate 50th anniversary

Original members of the Gay Liberation Front gathered to mark the anniversary of its formation.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-53205320

Shukri Abdi: Rallies mark refugee girl's death anniversary

More than a million people signed a petition about the case of 12-year-old Shukri Yahye-Abdi.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-53205689

Timo Werner: Chelsea-bound striker becomes RB Leipzig record scorer in final game for club

Chelsea-bound striker Tim Werner scored twice in his final game for RB Leipzig to ensure he leaves the German club as their all-time top scorer.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53207063

Black Trans Lives Matter protest: 'Why we're marching'

Following the Black Lives Matter movement, organisers expect thousands at a march for trans people in London.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-53192703

Met Police 'building relationships' over illegal street parties

It comes as police officers broke up another illegal street party held in London.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-53203832

Leeds United v Fulham

Live coverage of Saturday's Championship game between Leeds United and Fulham.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/51828946

Barnsley v Millwall

Live coverage of Saturday's Championship game between Barnsley and Millwall.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/51811760

Charlton Athletic v Queens Park Rangers

Live coverage of Saturday's Championship game between Charlton Athletic and Queens Park Rangers.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/51811758

Friday, 26 June 2020

Microsoft Is Closing Its Retail Stores Permanently Due to COVID-19

Microsoft has announced it will close all of its physical store locations. Officially, this is due to COVID-19. The memo announcing the change is long on PR-speak, short on actual information. We are told, for example, that “As we look forward, we start a new chapter for Microsoft Store,” and “As part of our business plan, we announced a strategic change in our retail operations,” — a strategic change, you say? How delightful! — “including closing Microsoft Store physical locations.”

This seems less like a strategic change and more like “quitting the retail business.” Ah well. What can you expect from a company statement released primarily on LinkedIn?

Microsoft is closing all 82 of its retail locations, though four Microsoft Experience centers will stay open and not sell anything. As someone who lived near a Microsoft Store for several years and visited on multiple occasions, I’ve got mixed feelings on this.

Seeing a laptop before you purchase it is always nice, particularly when it’s a system as expensive as the Microsoft Surface. Machines like the Surface Laptop 3 are gorgeous and fully capable of standing up against other luxury hardware, like the MacBook Pro. But while Microsoft has built Surface into a profitable business with $2B in sales, the company hasn’t built the same brand cachet as Apple or won an equivalently-sized fan base. (That’s in comparison with ~$5B-$8B for Apple Mac.) Seeing the hardware always helps, when you’re trying to gain market share against an entrenched, known competitor.

So while I genuinely valued being able to visit a Microsoft Store to see Surface hardware, the company’s decision to kill its phone business and pivot towards the cloud probably played a part in why the Microsoft Store retail idea never caught on. Apple stores carry a wider variety of accessories and products, and they give people more of a reason to stop by even if they aren’t planning on test-driving a laptop. Even when products like the Xbox One had major demo space in my local store, it didn’t feel like Microsoft was all that excited about selling it out of that location, or as if the company had plans to integrate more Xbox products into the overall store lineup.

Image from Wikipedia, 2014. I have never seen this many people in a Microsoft Store.

Microsoft’s decision to pivot away from retail probably makes sense given store traffic and the fact that the company’s business is more corporate than consumer-focused, but it’s unfortunate that Microsoft couldn’t find a model that gave PC owners something closer to an Apple-like experience. The reason Apple Stores generate strong foot traffic is that people like and want to walk into them. Microsoft has often struggled to generate the same interest. In this brave new world of ours, it’s no longer interested in trying.

Microsoft’s decision to close 82 stores isn’t going to be the straw that breaks the economy’s back, but I wish the company had delayed the decision by a year or two. Microsoft, as a giant tech company, is one of the handful of tech employers that provides community retail jobs. Given that tens of thousands of businesses have already closed, permanently, communities are going to need every single job they can get. I won’t pretend the move would make much financial sense, but unprecedented times call for unprecedented measures.

The company has said that its retail employees will be transitioned to other support roles, but I’d be surprised if this extends to all employees. Phone support is a different game from working in a retail store. Microsoft claims “We will make our digital storefronts the best place to learn, buy, and receive support across software and hardware.”

I’d like to think we’ll all be walking past the (digital) Microsoft Store to check out the cool new apps and features in a few months’ time, but I’m not optimistic about it actually happening. As for how this could impact the Xbox Series X launch, I’m not sure it will. If retail stores are open, customers will likely buy from Best Buy, Wal-Mart, GameStop, and the like. If retail stores aren’t open, Microsoft will probably look rather smart for deciding to shut down early as opposed to dragging this out another 4-6 months and then killing them regardless.

Feature image by Collins via Wikipedia, image is CC BY-SA 3.0

Now Read:

from ExtremeTechExtremeTech https://www.extremetech.com/computing/312151-microsoft-is-closing-its-retail-stores-permanently-due-to-covid-19

Wembley park murders: PCs 'took selfies next to sisters' dead bodies'

The mother of two sisters murdered in a London park says the images "dehumanised" her children.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-53198702

St Paul's bomb plot: IS supporter Safiyya Shaikh 'got cold feet'

Safiyya Shaikh said she wanted to carry out a mass atrocity before becoming a martyr.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-53199146

Astronomers Find Two Super-Earths Orbiting Nearby Red Dwarf

The hard work of astronomers around the world using instruments like the Kepler Space Telescope has shown there’s no shortage of planets in the cosmos. Most of those exoplanets are far away, but a handful are right next door (on an astronomical scale). The “RedDots” team from the University of Göttingen has reported the discovery of two new exoplanets just a few stars away orbiting Gliese 887, and they’re of the potentially habitable variety.

Astronomers have devised two ways to reliably detect exoplanets with our current technology. Most exoplanets are discovered by monitoring stars for a small dip in luminance caused by planets passing in front of them. However, this only works with star systems on the same approximate plane as ours. The other method involves measuring tiny countermovements in stars caused by orbiting planets — the radial velocity or “Doppler wobble.” The University of Göttingen team used the latter to identify Gliese 887b and Gliese 887c.

The RedDots project focuses on nearby red dwarf stars like Gliese 887, which is 11 light-years away. These stars are smaller and cooler than the sun, but scientists have had great success finding exoplanets around these objects, and we can learn more from the study of exoplanets closer to Earth. Using the HARPS spectrograph at the European Southern Observatory in Chile, the team has confirmed Gliese 887b and Gliese 887c are in very close orbits around the star. Based on their apparent masses, they’re most like rocky planets somewhat larger than Earth, known as super-Earths.

The radial velocity method to detect exoplanet.

Gliese 887b reportedly has an orbital period of just 9.3 Earth days, and Gliese 887c completes a “year” every 21.8 Earth days. Despite being so close to the star, scientists believe they are in the habitable zone of the cooler red dwarf — measurements of Gliese 887c suggest a surface temperature of 158 degrees Fahrenheit (70 degrees Celsius). That’s not exactly cozy, but it’s within the range necessary for liquid water. These exoplanets are particularly interesting because Gliese 887 is one of the calmer nearby red dwarfs. Planets tend to orbit these stars so closely, putting them in range of intense solar flares and radiation. Gliese 887 might not have heat-blasted these exoplanets, making them even more interesting objects for study.

The ream believes the nearness and potential habitability of these planets will make them an ideal target for future observations. The upcoming (and frequently delayed) James Webb Space Telescope might be able to determine if Gliese 887b and Gliese 887c have atmospheres, and if so, what it’s like on the surface.

Now read:

from ExtremeTechExtremeTech https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/312146-astronomers-find-two-super-earths-orbiting-nearby-red-dwarf

Man guilty of Orpington bus driver death crash

Dorjan Cera, of Hillingdon, will be sentenced at the Old Bailey on 6 August.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-53195828

Clapham stabbing: Two jailed for fatal 15-second attack

Gavin Garraway was attacked through the window of his car as he drove through Clapham Common.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-53195485

London Mayor warns of police, fire and transport cuts

The Mayor of London sets out proposals detailing where cuts need to be made due to Covid-19.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-53195825

Cox Claims It Can Reduce Your Gaming Lag, but Only If You Pony Up the Cash

After over a year in beta testing, Cox is rolling out its Elite Gamer add-on for new customers. The ISP claims it can improve your latency by up to 32 percent if you subscribe to the service, though some caveats apply.

Cox’s Elite Gamer service costs $7 per month if you have your own router and $11 per month if you rent its “Panoramic Wi-Fi Gateway.” What Cox is offering is a GPN — Gamers Private Network. If you’ve heard of WTFast, reports a year ago stated Cox was implementing its own version of the technology. Because Cox Elite Gamer is used to optimize public network traffic, this kind of service would have been explicitly legal, even under the old, now-defunct net neutrality rules.

GPNs are conceptually similar to VPNs, in that they create a connection between you and a target server, but they aren’t designed to facilitate encrypted communication. Instead, they improve latency (again, in theory) by ensuring that your packets take the most direct route possible between your PC and the game server.

But therein lies the rub (or the “up to” 32 percent, if you prefer). If you have a great connection and low latency already, this kind of service won’t help you. The degree to which it can improve performance is going to depend on just how bad your ping times are to start with, and whether more direct routing can help you in the first place. I wouldn’t expect a GPN to be able to do much if you’re trying to game from a satellite connection, or if you’ve got a last-mile problem causing your service to slow down.

Also, Elite Gamer really ought to carry an asterisk, because the service apparently requires Cox to perform game-by-game optimization. Right now, there’s a solid set of popular titles — League, FF XIV, Valorant, WoW, CS: Go, Fortnite, PUBG, and Overwatch are all supported, for example. Other games, like No Man’s Sky, Sea of Thieves, Red Dead Online, and Starcraft 2 aren’t listed.

WTFast, in contrast, offers support for over a thousand titles and has an option for you to create a profile for a title that isn’t already listed. Both services are PC-only unless you own a specific Asus router that’s capable of using WTFast when connected to a console.

WTFast supports more games, but Anthem as first-listed under “Most Popular?” Really? And no, I didn’t click “Least Popular” by mistake.

Compared with Cox’s $11 modem rental fee, WTFast is more expensive at $12.49 per month if you buy a year at a time and $15 per month if you pay every four weeks. But it also supports every PC game and isn’t tied to your ISP.

One thing the two services have in common is that they are single-license, per-computer seats. WTFast states that you can install the service on multiple computers, but only one person can be logged in at a time. Cox appears to have copied this trend. Elite Gamer comes with one license, and you can purchase up to three others from the company, for an undisclosed fee. I’m assuming the fee is roughly equivalent to the price of WTFast or the Cox service fee if you already own your router.

Would I try it? Personally, no. Cox sucker-punched its customers recently when it declared it would throttle entire neighborhoods if it decided one person was using too much bandwidth. There is no option to appeal and no way for other affected customers to even determine what happened to their internet service. The idea of paying the company $7-$15 more per month, per account when Cox literally just declared it has no obligation to provide the internet service people are actually paying for is… unappealing.

But, then, I’m not stuck on potentially poor Cox internet, with no choice to use anything else. Given how terrible competition is in the US ISP market, that’s probably the situation at least some gamers are in. And with the pandemic still encouraging people to stick close to home, a lot of folks are putting their home networks through a workout. If you’re stuck on Cox service, you’ve had your lines checked, and you can’t seem to get a decent ping time, a service like this might improve it. Just read the fine print carefully and understand that it might not work.

Now Read:

from ExtremeTechExtremeTech https://www.extremetech.com/computing/312131-cox-claims-it-can-reduce-your-gaming-lag

Geoff Cameron: QPR midfielder signs one-year contract

QPR midfielder Geoff Cameron has signed a new one-year contract with the Championship club.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53194716

Richard Wigglesworth: Saracens scrum-half signs deal to end season with relegated club

Saracens scrum-half Richard Wigglesworth extends his contract to see out the 2019-20 season with the club.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/53193661

NASA Will Name Its Headquarters After ‘Hidden Figure’ Mary W. Jackson

Credit: NASA

NASA executive Jim Bridenstine announced this week that the organization would be naming its headquarters after Mary W. Jackson, one of the women whose historic contributions to NASA were explored in the 2016 film Hidden Figures. Jackson was portrayed by actress and musician Janelle Monae in the film.

Bridenstine said:

Mary W. Jackson was part of a group of very important women who helped NASA succeed in getting American astronauts into space. Mary never accepted the status quo, she helped break barriers and open opportunities for African Americans and women in the field of engineering and technology. Today, we proudly announce the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building. It appropriately sits on ‘Hidden Figures Way,’ a reminder that Mary is one of many incredible and talented professionals in NASA’s history who contributed to this agency’s success. Hidden no more, we will continue to recognize the contributions of women, African Americans, and people of all backgrounds who have made NASA’s successful history of exploration possible.

Mary Jackson working. Credit: NASA

In 1958 she became NASA’s first Black engineer, after first obtaining special permission to attend engineering classes at a segregated, all-white school. After working as an engineer at NASA for nearly two decades, she led the Federal Women’s Program and the NASA Office of Equal Opportunity before retiring in 1985. She died in 2005 and was posthumously awarded the Hidden Figures Congressional Gold Medal Act in 2019. Her contributions to science were largely ignored for decades, along with the work done by Katherine Johnson and Dorothy Vaughan.

Space and space exploration were huge areas of interest for me growing up. The first encyclopedia entry I ever read was in the “S” volume. “S” — for “Sun.” When I had to write a story in fourth grade, I wrote it about NASA. I still have my battered, ancient copy of We Came in Peace: The Story of Man in Space. My first memory of a national event was seeing the Challenger explosion on live TV. The Right Stuff is one of my all-time favorite movies. I even liked the movie SpaceCamp. Don’t @ me. I like space.

You know who I never heard about, in all the deserved paeans to men with last names like Aldrin, Armstrong, and Collins? I never heard about Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, or any other African-American. Nobody ever told me that African-Americans — much less African-American women — were a critical part of the Apollo moonshot. I daresay none of the people in my life who would have been happy to convey that information knew it themselves. I’m certain they would have told me. Giving me new information and turning me loose on the card catalog was one of the only ways to shut me up.

When the Mercury Seven visit the workshop where their capsule — excuse me, spacecraft — is being constructed in The Right Stuff, there’s not an African-American in sight. I’m not claiming anyone went out of their way to make that happen. It happened, most likely, because nobody thought it mattered in the first place. Either that, or the film’s producers were unaware there were African-Americans who contributed to the science of spaceflight, which is part of the problem.

I’m not literally arguing there should have been African-Americans in this specific scene. I’m using the scene because it’s one of a relative handful of times in the film when you see the astronauts engaging with a group of scientists. If you wanted to show that African-Americans played a role in the engineering and testing of the Mercury spacecraft, you’d have probably done it here.

It’s not uncommon to see people question the need for diverse representation in media or the value of changing a name. The value of these actions is that they create a more accurate picture of who contributed to the successes and achievements of America, and more broadly, the entire human race. It matters that the NASA Headquarters will be known as the Mary W. Jackson building. People look at buildings. Sometimes, they even Google their names to learn about the people they are named for.

When we honor the names and achievements of the formerly hidden, we push back at a historical myth — namely, that the Apollo Program and NASA’s pioneering work in aeronautics in the mid-1960s was entirely the work of white men. Women like Jackson, Johnson, Vaughan, and the other “hidden figures” deserve to be recognized in enduring ways. The phrase, after all, isn’t “We came in peace.” It’s “We came in peace for all mankind.”

Now Read:

from ExtremeTechExtremeTech https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/312135-nasa-will-name-its-headquarters-after-hidden-figure-mary-w-jackson

AMD Surpasses Its Own 25×20 Goal, Boosts Ryzen Power Efficiency By 31x

Back in 2014, AMD announced that it would improve the power efficiency of its laptops by 25x by 2020. At the time, this seemed like an incredibly aggressive target, especially given the state of AMD’s Kaveri APU in 2014. Today, AMD announced that it broke its own target goal for energy efficiency. Compared with Kaveri, modern 7nm Ryzen Mobile CPUs are 31.7x more energy efficient by AMD’s estimation.

How’d the company do it? Let’s take a look. AMD’s methodology for calculating power efficiency starts with a 50/50 workload split between Cinebench R15 for CPU cores and 3DMark 11.

First, raw performance. In 2014, a 35W Kaveri FX-7600P scored 232 in Cinebench R15 (single-thread, multi-thread). Today, a Ryzen 4800H running at 35W TDP (aka, a 4800HS) turns in scores of 1727. In 3DMark 11, the 7600P scored 2142, while the 4800HS scores 5546. That’s an increase of 7.44x in Cinebench and 2.59x in 3DMark 11 while remaining within the same TDP factor. AMD claims a 5x performance improvement overall, which is what you get if you average the two individual improvements together.

According to AMD, it stuck with a 35W comparison target because that’s what it had used in 2014 when it had no 15W laptops.

The performance side is straightforward. The power efficiency gains have come from a wider range of places.

First of all, let’s acknowledge the elephant in the room. The largest share of AMD’s improvement comes from shifting to Carrizo from Kaveri. AMD did not disclose all the details of how it measured power efficiency, though this is fairly typical in the industry and the 25×20 initiative as a whole has been more transparent than we typically get.

AMD has said it is factoring in improvements like time-to-idle and that its overall efficiency metrics are weighted towards idle, which makes some sense, but that appears to be where the enormous 1.0 to 0.35 shift is coming from. From 2015 to 2019, AMD improved power efficiency in a modest stepwise fashion until 7nm allowed them to unleash much larger gains. Overall, the company is claiming to have improved its CPU power efficiency by 31.7x. That gain comes from multiplying the total gain in performance (measured in CB15 and 3DMark 11) against the improvement to power efficiency, which has improved by roughly 6x.

Energy Efficiency Doesn’t Necessarily Equate to Battery Life

One question this claim raises is why we haven’t seen a huge improvement in AMD’s battery life. If you don’t read laptop reviews on a regular basis, let me assure you, AMD laptops do not currently offer 12.5 days of battery life.

The Asus ROG Zephyrus has shown that AMD is capable of building a high-powered CPU with a Max-Q Nvidia RTX 2060, while still delivering 10-12 hours of battery life. That’s far better than any result AMD has ever turned in before, particularly when paired with high-end components. It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if median AMD battery life has at least doubled from Carrizo to Renoir.

The fact that AMD’s metrics are weighted towards idle and start with Kaveri is part of why the total efficiency gain is so high. If AMD had started counting with Carrizo, the gain would be a little more than 2x. Carrizo introduced some significant power efficiency improvements over Kaveri. As these Anandtech results show, in some cases, idle Carrizo power consumption is literally half of Kaveri’s idle power consumption. The gap isn’t always that large, but AMD’s claim of a threefold improvement from Kaveri to Carrizo doesn’t seem crazy. Neither do the further estimated gains from Carrizo through Renoir.

Another factor to keep in mind is that the CPU isn’t the only device drawing power in the system. The Wi-Fi card, display, RAM, and integrated storage all draw power, as does the onboard cooling solution. According to AMD, power consumption on Ryzen Mobile CPUs is now low enough that the CPU is not a majority of the total system power consumption. Which components a manufacturer chooses, however, still has a major impact on battery life. So does battery size — and manufacturers have been known to reduce battery capacity when more efficient CPUs become available, in order to use the space for other things.

AMD’s improvements to performance and power efficiency actually work against it in a specific way: Building faster APUs encourages OEMs to pair them with high-end components, including high-DPI displays, NVMe-attached storage, and larger RAM loadouts. All of these components have the capacity to draw far more power than the low-end components AMD systems shipped with a few years back.

In 2015, an AMD laptop might have 4-8GB of RAM in a single-channel DDR3L-1600 configuration, dual-channel if you were lucky. DDR4 was designed to use less power than DDR3L, but it also runs at higher RAM clocks. Between capacity improvements and clock increases, RAM might account for a larger amount of absolute power draw.

Making these kinds of improvements is what allows AMD to budget more power for these component upgrades in the first place, but it also means some of the additional battery life we’d get is effectively absorbed. Despite this, AMD battery life and its entire mobile position have improved dramatically in a short period of time.

Overall, well done AMD. The company’s 7nm processors have given it a commanding performance lead across a number of markets and price points, and the huge energy efficiency gains delivered over the past five years helped make that possible.

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from ExtremeTechExtremeTech https://www.extremetech.com/computing/312117-amd-surpasses-its-own-25x20-goal-boosts-ryzen-power-efficiency-by-31x