Month: March 2020

Enlarge / If re-envisioning Tux as the most lovable kaiju doesn't improve your day, I don't know what will. (credit: Biman Shreshtha / Larry Ewing / Aurich Lawson)

Back in December, Linux users were starting to notice that Ice Lake-equipped laptops were getting better framerates in powersave mode than in performance mode. This Tuesday, Intel developer Francisco Jerez released a patchset to address the conundrum. Jerez begins by noting the fact that if your system bottleneck is I/O, boosting CPU performance won't help—the CPU can't process more data if the I/O subsystem isn't providing it fast enough.

"In IO-bound scenarios (by definition) the throughput of the system doesn't improve with increasing CPU frequency beyond the threshold value at which the IO device becomes the bottleneck."

Jerez goes on to note that pointlessly boosting the CPU into turbo frequencies when there's no additional data for it to process doesn't just hurt power efficiency. In the case of laptop designs, there's typically no room for desktop- or server-style "overengineering"—you've got limited space as well as limited power. This means, among other things, that there's only so much cooling to go around.

"With the current governors [...] the CPU frequency tends to oscillate with the load, often with an amplitude far into the turbo range, leading to severely reduced energy efficiency."

This is particularly likely to become a problem in games, where the GPU portions of the processor get a much bigger workout than the x86 CPU itself. If you unnecessarily boost CPU frequency, you waste your TDP budget dealing with unnecessary waste heat from the CPU—which may in turn require throttling the GPU, since you've already eaten through your thermal overhead.

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  The current model U-2S aircraft features an all-glass digital cockpit, improved sensors, and propulsion systems. But its pilots still wear backup GPS/GLONASS-enabled watches, just in case. [credit: USAF ]

Earlier this month, US Air Force General James M. "Mike" Holmes acknowledged what many in the defense community and defense media already knew. Pilots of the venerable and iconic Lockheed U-2 Dragon Lady high altitude reconnaissance jet wear GPS-enabled Garmin smartwatches for navigation backup. General Holmes, who leads the Air Force's Air Combat Command (ACC), was responding to a question about military communications system vulnerabilities at a conference in Washington, DC. And he opined that the Air Force should be able to use the wide variety of commercial communications paths available.

"My U-2 guys fly with a watch now that ties into GPS but also BeiDou and the Russian system and European system... so if someone jams GPS they still get the others," Holmes said.

Indeed, U-2 pilots from the 99^th Reconnaissance Squadron at Beale Air Force Base in Northern California have been flying with Garmin's D2 Charlie smartwatches since late 2017, when the squadron acquired 100 of the watches, according to Garmin spokesperson Jessica Koss.

Enlarge / Apple's header graphic for this year's WWDC event. (credit: Apple)

After weeks of speculation that Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) would be canceled this year because of social distancing efforts in the United States meant to stop the spread of COVID-19, Apple announced today that WWDC 2020 will proceed. However, it will have a new, online-only format.

As usual, the event promises early access to “the future of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS." In the past, that meant talks by Apple engineers and partners on the inner workings of new features in Apple's various software platforms and its developers' toolkit, plus a live keynote for top-level announcements. Apple's press release on WWDC 2020 says there will be "content for consumers, press, and developers" in this 31st annual conference.

“Additional program information will be shared between now and June by email, in the Apple Developer app, and on the Apple Developer website," Apple says. Apple has in the past offered the in-person sessions at WWDC as video streams or downloads in any case, so for the majority of Apple developers—who don't travel physically to WWDC—it looks like things may not look all that different in practice.

Enlarge / The Pentagon in its natural habitat—Arlington, Virginia—in 2018. (credit: Michael Brochstein | SOPA Images | LightRocket | Getty Images)

Amazon has notched up another minor victory in its lawsuit against the Department of Defense over a massive contract the federal government awarded to Microsoft late last year.

The DoD said Thursday that it will re-evaluate part of its decision to award the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure contract (JEDI, because of course) to Microsoft, CNN Business was first to report. In a court filing, the agency specified that it "wishes to reconsider its award decision in response to the other technical challenges presented by" Amazon Web Services.

JEDI, an agreement to build a cloud computing and storage platform for use by the entire DoD, is valued around $10 billion over the next several years. Multiple enterprise computing companies were on the initial shortlist of potential vendors, including Oracle and IBM. By April, the DoD dropped the list of finalist candidates to two: Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure. Industry-watchers by and large thought Amazon would win out and were surprised when Microsoft emerged the victor in October.

Enlarge / Please practice social distancing by staying at least 6 feet away from this Abra.

With widespread cancellations of public gatherings and health officials urging social distancing programs in response to the spread of COVID-19, it seems like an ill-advised time to play a game like Pokémon Go, which requires walking around outside and often congregating in the real world with other players. But developer Niantic is taking steps to reduce the need for that kind of public interaction with updates announced this week.

For instance, players are now able to purchase in-game incense items at a more than 99 percent discount, letting them attract nearby Pokémon to their current location without the need to leave the house. Pokémon will also appear more frequently and in more locations to limit the need for extended travel while playing the game.

In addition, Pokémon eggs now also hatch twice as quickly, reducing the need to walk around outside, and Pokéstops will drop more frequent gifts, reducing the need to travel to lots of them in order to share crucial items with friends. And Niantic has postponed Abra Community Day, a planned in-game event encouraging players to get out to catch high numbers of one specific Pokémon.