performance

Benchmarking performance in a virtualized world

The central concept behind benchmarks was historically pretty simple. What's the horsepower of some vendor's "Big Iron"? After all, most systems--the important ones, anyway--were the big boxes sitting in a data center someplace doing important stuff like booking orders or counting money.

They cost a lot. They were based on proprietary architectures that made low-level technical comparisons between vendors difficult. And they were a core part of an enterprise's business.

This was largely the environment that spawned the benchmark business. Ideally, buyers would run their own tests, using their own applications, but this was difficult … Read more

GM offers Corvette owners chance to help make engines

Anyone who orders a new Corvette Z06 or a Corvette ZR1 has the option to help a master technician build the engine from the block up. The one-day experience will cost an additional $5,800 to hand-assemble at GM's Performance Build Center in Wixom, Mich. All engines built will be covered by Chevrolet's five-year/100,000-mile power-train warranty. However, customers cannot add additional parts to up the horsepower and have it covered under the warranty.

For an additional $490, customers can take delivery of their Corvettes at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Ky. Museum schedulers notify … Read more

Performance test: The HPE1000 Twin Turbo Camaro

Hennessey Performance just released a video of the HPE1000 427LSX Twin Turbo Camaro performance test. The HPE1000 boasts 1,000 hp with 1,000 lb-ft TQ.

Upgrades include a 427 cid LSX block, forged-aluminum pistons, and forged-steel connecting rods. The list of upgrades also includes a custom HPE1000 camshaft with high-flow cylinder heads and a 3-inch stainless-steel exhaust.

Additional body and performance options for the HPE1000 also include exterior graphics package, lightweight wheels, full Coliover suspension kit, Hennessey CarbonAero Body Kit, and custom leather interior.

DxO tests dig deep into camera lens performance

For photography gearheads who want detailed tests of lens performance, a significant new option is joining the likes of SLRgear.com, Photozone.de, and Digital Photography Review.

The new kid in town is from an established player in camera measurements: DxO Labs. The company, which performs detailed tests of cameras and sells software for editing raw photos, is revamping its DxOMark site to offer lens tests as well as the earlier image sensor tests.

It's got some significant differences over established reviews sites. First, it adds a parameter the others lack, transmission, which measures how much light actually makes it through the lens. For example, Canon's EF 50mm f/1.8 II lens actually has an effective maximum aperture more like f2.1, DxO's tests show.

Second--and this is the bigger difference--the tests show how each lens works on a wide range of camera bodies; existing lens sites typically run tests just on one or two bodies. Seeing how a lens works differently on different bodies can help inform prospective buyers whether a high-end lens is worth its premium on a lower-end camera, or how well an existing lens collection will work on a new camera body. … Read more

Performance issues in Safari could be related to third-party add-ons

Safari may experience performance issues, including quitting unexpectedly, running slowly, an inability to download files properly, and other unexpected problems. If you are experiencing any of these symptoms when running Safari, follow these simple steps to help restore Safari's full capabilities.… Read more

How to improve OS X app performance

Over time, you can expect a system to start running a little slower than it did when the operating system was fresh. This can be from having more programs installed and running at once, to filling and using more hard drive space, and various settings that may take time to load and interact with each other. For instance, with use the files on the hard drive will get moved around and blocks of data will be less contiguous than they were with a fresh OS installation, leading to slightly increased file access times. While the small performance hits caused by usage over time will not be enough to affect most users, in some situations, you might want to keep the computer running at its optimum speed. Here are some tips for optimizing the system performance in various areas that can affect the speed of the system.… Read more

Opera pokes fun at Chrome speed-test video

Opera, ever scrappy in its effort to promote its browser over larger rivals, is poking fun at Google's recent video boasting about the speed of its Chrome browser.

"The Opera browser is much faster than a potato," concludes Opera's low-budget video, which features herring-obsessed caricatured Scandinavians rolling the tubers into a pot of water at the same time Opera loads a Web page.

The video is a not-so-subtle dig at Google, which promoted Chrome's speed using elaborately staged stunts recorded with high-speed videography. The first example: involved shooting a potato through a grid to make … Read more

Microsoft puts more oomph into technical computing

Microsoft on Monday launched an expanded push into technical computing that it says is needed to solve ever more complex scientific challenges.

"Recent world events clearly demonstrated our inability to process vast amounts of information and variables that would have helped to more accurately predict the behavior of global financial markets or the occurrence and impact of a volcano eruption in Iceland," Bob Muglia, president of Microsoft's Server and Tools unit, said in a statement.

The software maker said a new team will focus on a number of key technical computing challenges such as shifting high-end computing … Read more

Metal fabrication on the 1937 BMW 328 Roadster

In yesterday's post we learned that part of the historic significance of the legendary 1937 BMW 328 Roadster was that the car's engineers (who had previously worked on post WWI airplane technology) had designed the would-be touring vehicle with unforeseen lightweight chassis that reportedly weighed roughly 800 kilograms. This statistic, which allowed for maximum performance on less petrol, helped the 328 become one of the hottest race vehicles of its time period.

And for today's video clip, I found a very recent clip (from just two days ago!) of what the 328 Roadster's body shell looks … Read more

WD Raptor hard drive gets double capacity

If you have ever custom-built a computer, you probably know that the fastest consumer-grade hard drive on the market has always been the Raptor from Western Digital. It's the most popular desktop hard drive that spins at 10,000rpm (as opposed to the 7,200rpm that mainstream hard drives spin). The only drawback of this drive is its limited capacity. However, that changed Tuesday when the company released its fifth generation of the drive, the WD VelociRaptor.

The new drive comes in two capacities, 450GB and 600GB, which is double the storage amount offered by the previous generation. Western Digital claims that the new drive also offers a 15 percent performance increase. Like the previous version, the new VelociRaptor also comes in the standard SATA interface, however, it now supports the latest SATA 6GBps, as apposed to the SATA 3GBps of the previous model. The spinning speed remains at 10,000rpm and it has 32MB of cache memory.

Despite the high performance and increase in storage space, the new VelociRaptor comes in the 2.5-inch enterprise chassis, which means it can fit in most servers and rack mounts. The drive is available in the IcePack enclosure, a 3.5-inch mounting frame with a built-in heat sink, making it suitable for most desktop computers. … Read more