ZTE T98
It seems that in recent years the vast empire of traditional PCs has been gradually losing its territory to the legions of late-coming but vibrant tablet devices, a sector in which California-based tech giant Apple Inc has for the first time gained the crown of the world's top PC vendor (as long as iPads are included in the tally). In the fourth quarter of last year.
Apple sold 15 million iPads and 5 million notebooks, accounting for 17 percent of the global PC market and dethroning Hewlett Packard, UK-based research and consultancy firm Canalys said in its research report released Monday.
This should be clear proof of the growing clout of the tablet device segment, however, tablets, if considered as PCs, are hardly on par with their traditional PC peers in terms of performance, and core processors in particular. While the latest quad-core tablets were showcased at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas early January, the PC world is already welcoming a flood of quad-core notebooks as well as the newest PCs based on six-core processors.
There will be growing market penetration of quad-core notebooks following wide adoption of quad-core desktops, and notebooks powered by six-core processor will also emerge in the market, according to US-based market-research agency IHS iSuppli. By 2015, shipments of quad-core notebooks are expected to reach 160 million units worldwide, accounting for 49 percent of global notebook shipments, IHS iSuppli predicted. This compares to 21.2 million units in 2011 and a mere 9 percent share of the total notebook market.
By 2015, six-core notebooks will hit 58.9 million units, representing 18 percent of the global notebook market, the research agency estimated.
This week's special TECH edition introduces you into some of the latest PCs and tablet devices that are powered by the newest processors.
Dell Alienware Aurora R4
Texas-based PC giant Dell Inc's Alienware line has long been regarded as one of the world's top-performing gaming PC collections. The Alienware Aurora R4, an update to the Aurora ALX, again lives up to this reputation.
While deviating little from its predecessors in terms of design and outlook, the newest member to join the Alienware family is way meatier in terms of performance. Equipped with Intel's newest second-generation Core i7 Six Core Extreme processors, the Aurora R4 is the most advanced desktop yet from the Alienware lineup. The base version of the gaming desktop is powered by a six-core Intel Core i7-3930K processor overclocked to 3.9 gigahertz, with 8 gigabytes of random access memory (RAM) and an AMD Radeon HD 6870 GPU with 1 gigabyte of video random access memory (VRAM). The high-performance version delivers even more intimidating specs, with an Intel Core i7-3960X Extreme overclocked to 4.2 gigahertz - claimed to be the fastest consumer CPU in the world - 16 gigabytes of RAM and a dual AMD Radeon HD 6950 GPU with a 2 gigabytes of VRAM.
The desktop computer's system is also Dell's first consumer system to pack the Intel X79 Express chipset, which sports a bunch of advanced features and is capable of supporting up to six monitors at once with AMD Eyefinity. The Aurora R4 has already been made available in many markets, including the Chinese mainland, selling for a starting price tag of $2,199, according to the company.
