When ASUS first launched their mini-ITX sized graphics cards, limited to 17cm for mini-ITX builds, my initial reaction was ‘why has no-one thought of this before?’. The idea has since been interpreted in a variety of ways, and this past we…
Today Samsung revealed what they claim are the first flash memory chips based on the eMMC 5.1 standard which was just approved by JEDEC, the group that oversees the development of many semiconductor industry standards. eMMC is an embedded version of the MultiMediaCard standard that was once popular among digital cameras and PDAs. It allows for the NAND and controller in a device to be put into a small package on the logic board, which is a necessity when working with small mobile devices. Essentially every smartphone and tablet on the market today uses the eMMC standard as its storage solution.
As mobile devices have become more complex. there has been a need for improved NAND performance. Streaming and recording higher resolution content requires faster speeds for reading and writing, and so the evolution of the eMMC standard has been accompanied by improvements in performance at each step. When Samsung introduced their first eMMC 5.0 flash memory in 2013, their 64GB chips were rated for maximum sequential reads and writes of 250MB/s and 90MB/s respectively. Samsung’s eMMC 5.1 memory increases the maximum write performance to 125MB/s. Similarly, random read performance increases from 7,000 IOPS to 11,000 IOPS and random write performance increases from 7,000 IOPS to 13,000 IOPS.
eMMC 5.1 based memory also has new features that will enable further improved performance. The feature that Samsung is specifically making note of is command queuing. True to its name, command queuing provides an interface for queuing up commands to be executed. This has been a feature of storage solutions in the PC world for some time, but previous eMMC controller implementations would submit commands and wait for completion before sending the next command.
Today Samsung revealed what they claim are the first flash memory chips based on the eMMC 5.1 standard which was just approved by JEDEC, the group that oversees the development of many semiconductor industry standards. eMMC is an embedded version of the MultiMediaCard standard that was once popular among digital cameras and PDAs. It allows for the NAND and controller in a device to be put into a small package on the logic board, which is a necessity when working with small mobile devices. Essentially every smartphone and tablet on the market today uses the eMMC standard as its storage solution.
As mobile devices have become more complex. there has been a need for improved NAND performance. Streaming and recording higher resolution content requires faster speeds for reading and writing, and so the evolution of the eMMC standard has been accompanied by improvements in performance at each step. When Samsung introduced their first eMMC 5.0 flash memory in 2013, their 64GB chips were rated for maximum sequential reads and writes of 250MB/s and 90MB/s respectively. Samsung’s eMMC 5.1 memory increases the maximum write performance to 125MB/s. Similarly, random read performance increases from 7,000 IOPS to 11,000 IOPS and random write performance increases from 7,000 IOPS to 13,000 IOPS.
eMMC 5.1 based memory also has new features that will enable further improved performance. The feature that Samsung is specifically making note of is command queuing. True to its name, command queuing provides an interface for queuing up commands to be executed. This has been a feature of storage solutions in the PC world for some time, but previous eMMC controller implementations would submit commands and wait for completion before sending the next command.
Lots of gaming bundles exist and come and go on a regular basis, and we’ve generally held back on trying to cover them all because… well, a lot of the bundles contain “old junk”, and there’s only so many times you can mention the latest indie game making the rounds. In general, while we talk about games plenty, gaming bundles aren’t one of our primary areas of focus. However, now and then a bundle comes along that includes a bunch of high quality games that you might have missed, and the latest Humble Bundle from Square Enix is just such a gem. There’s a bit of overlap with the last Square Enix bundle, but most of the titles have not been seen on Humble before.
The base price of “pay what you want” ($1 or more for Steam codes) only gets you Hitman: Absolution and Supreme Commander 2, along with Hitman GO for Android platforms. All three of those games scored around 80% (give or take) in average rankings, so they’re certainly worth checking out if you’ve missed them, though Supreme Commander 2 at least is getting pretty old at almost five years of age now. Beat the average price (around $5.75 at present) and you’ll also unlock Murdered: Soul Suspect, Thief, and Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Director’s Cut). The first two received pretty middling reviews (60% and 70%, respectively), but Deus Ex: Human Revolution was and is an excellent game, with an average score of around 90%. It’s normally $20 on Steam, so basically you get nearly 75% off that one game and it alone is worth the price of admission. Rounding out the bundle, if you pay $15 or more, you also get the 2013 version of Tomb Raider (86%) and Sleeping Dogs (81%).
It’s worth noting is that nearly all of the current games (Hitman GO and Supreme Commander 2 being the only exceptions) are AMD Gaming Evolved titles (page currently down?), which means if you own any recent AMD GPU there’s a good chance you’ve already picked up several of these games. Still, it’s as good a time as any to “complete the set”. Of course, the bundle just launched, and as this is a two week offering there will be some additions come next Tuesday, which will automatically unlock for all qualified backers. All told, the current eight games that are available would normally cost around $168, and if you don’t already own most of the games there are several worth checking out. You can also choose to “donate” to charity, Make-A-Wish or GamesAid, or you can give money to Humble Bundle or the developers – all customizable as you see fit.
Lots of gaming bundles exist and come and go on a regular basis, and we’ve generally held back on trying to cover them all because… well, a lot of the bundles contain “old junk”, and there’s only so many times you can mention the latest indie game making the rounds. In general, while we talk about games plenty, gaming bundles aren’t one of our primary areas of focus. However, now and then a bundle comes along that includes a bunch of high quality games that you might have missed, and the latest Humble Bundle from Square Enix is just such a gem. There’s a bit of overlap with the last Square Enix bundle, but most of the titles have not been seen on Humble before.
The base price of “pay what you want” ($1 or more for Steam codes) only gets you Hitman: Absolution and Supreme Commander 2, along with Hitman GO for Android platforms. All three of those games scored around 80% (give or take) in average rankings, so they’re certainly worth checking out if you’ve missed them, though Supreme Commander 2 at least is getting pretty old at almost five years of age now. Beat the average price (around $5.75 at present) and you’ll also unlock Murdered: Soul Suspect, Thief, and Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Director’s Cut). The first two received pretty middling reviews (60% and 70%, respectively), but Deus Ex: Human Revolution was and is an excellent game, with an average score of around 90%. It’s normally $20 on Steam, so basically you get nearly 75% off that one game and it alone is worth the price of admission. Rounding out the bundle, if you pay $15 or more, you also get the 2013 version of Tomb Raider (86%) and Sleeping Dogs (81%).
It’s worth noting is that nearly all of the current games (Hitman GO and Supreme Commander 2 being the only exceptions) are AMD Gaming Evolved titles (page currently down?), which means if you own any recent AMD GPU there’s a good chance you’ve already picked up several of these games. Still, it’s as good a time as any to “complete the set”. Of course, the bundle just launched, and as this is a two week offering there will be some additions come next Tuesday, which will automatically unlock for all qualified backers. All told, the current eight games that are available would normally cost around $168, and if you don’t already own most of the games there are several worth checking out. You can also choose to “donate” to charity, Make-A-Wish or GamesAid, or you can give money to Humble Bundle or the developers – all customizable as you see fit.