What Hardware Do I Have?

Often you may not necessarily know what kind of hardware you have—you may have a no-name box from a smaller company or a used machine. This month, I present the tools you can use to find out what you have installed.

First up is lshw. This utility LiSts HardWare (lshw). If you run it as a regular user, it actually warns you to run it as root. So go ahead and run sudo lshw. You should see screens of information for your system. The first section will be general information and should look something like this:

jbernard-eeepc           

    description: Notebook

    product: 700

    vendor: ASUSTeK Computer INC.

    version: 0129

    serial: EeePC-1234567890

    width: 32 bits

    capabilities: smbios-2.5 dmi-2.5 smp-1.4 smp

    configuration: boot=normal chassis=notebook

    ↪cpus=1 uuid=XXXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX

This is what I get when I run it on my little ASUS EeePC. Right away you can find the manufacturer of this little beast (ASUSTeK), the BIOS version (0129), and the fact that it's a 32-bit machine with one CPU. More information is broken down into the following categories:

core

   firmware - motherboard and BIOS information

   cpu - CPU information

      cache - cache information

   memory - memory information

      bank - specific bank memory information

   pci - PCI bus information

      display - PCI display adapter

      multimedia - PCI audio adapter

      pci - other PCI devices

      network - PCI network adapter

   usb - USB devices

   ide - IDE information

      disk - individual disks

         volume - volumes on this disk

For an idea on how much information is available, the main memory section shows this about my EeePC:

*-memory

     description: System Memory

     physical id: 1f

     slot: System board or motherboard

     size: 512MiB

   *-bank

        description: DIMM DDR2 Synchronous 400 MHz (2.5 ns)

        product: PartNum0

        vendor: Manufacturer0

        physical id: 0

        serial: SerNum0

        slot: DIMM0

        size: 512MiB

        width: 64 bits

        clock: 400MHz (2.5ns)

This utility is basically an all-in-one tool that spits out everything on your system in one go. But, what if you want information only about specific subsystems in your machine? An entire suite of utilities exists for this, and they might be more useful when you need some specific piece of information or want to do some system querying in a script.

You may want to look at the CPU. The lscpu utility provides output similar to the following:

Architecture: i686

CPU op-mode(s): 32-bit

CPU(s): 1

Thread(s) per core: 1

Core(s) per socket: 1

CPU socket(s): 1

Vendor ID: GenuineIntel

CPU family: 6

Model: 13

Stepping: 8

CPU MHz: 571.427

From this, you can see the manufacturer, whether it's 32-bit or 64-bit, the exact version and model, as well as the current CPU frequency.

If you want to know whether your video card is supported by X11, or whether you need to find a third-party driver, you can use lspci. This utility gives a list of all the devices plugged in to your PCI bus. The output looks something like this:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation

 ↪Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller (rev 04)

00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation

 ↪Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller (rev 04)

This information shows that the video controller in my EeePC is an Intel controller. So, if you wanted, you now could search Google with this information to learn about your video card and how best to configure it. If you want to see what USB devices are on your system, use lsusb. On my EeePC, I have an SD card installed, and it shows up as this:

Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0951:1606 Kingston Technology

If you're interested in the disk subsystem, you can find out what your system has with the blkid utility. This utility prints out all the available filesystems, with the following output format:

/dev/sda1: UUID="XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX" TYPE="ext2"

/dev/sda2: UUID="XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX" TYPE="swap"

/dev/sda3: UUID="XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX" TYPE="ext2"

/dev/sdb1: UUID="XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX" TYPE="ext2"

With this utility, you can learn what devices are available and what filesystems are being used on them. The associated UUIDs also are available if you want to use them in the entries in /etc/fstab.

Now that you know what kind of hardware you have on your system, the last thing to check is to see whether your kernel actually is using the available hardware. On most modern distributions, the kernel is compiled to use modules. You can check to see which modules are loaded by using the lsmod command. You will get a list that looks like this:

agpgart                31788  2 drm,intel_agp

lp                          7028  0

video                   17375  1 i915

output                 1871  1 video

You can see that the agpgart module has a size of 31788 bytes and is used by the drm and intel_agp modules.

Now, hopefully, you can configure and optimize your hardware so that you get the most out of it. If you find other utilities not covered here, I would love to hear about them.

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BenQ Will Launch A New R100 Tablet PC in 2011

 
BenQ plans to launch its first Tablet PC in China and Taiwan during the first quarter of 2011, a company representative confirmed Wednesday.

R100 tablet features a 10.1 inch touch screen with 1024 x 600 and runs Google’s Android mobile OS. It also has an ARM processor, Samsung Electronics, which runs at 833MHz, according to information from BenQ.

With the R100, this gadget joins the ranks of other companies around the world putting out tablet PCs to compete with Apple’s iPad. BenQ hopes to sell the R100 offers content, a pair of optical reader, such as books or magazines and newspaper subscriptions.

The company said the R100 battery can operate up to 12 hours when the device is used for reading. You can also use to take notes because users can write on the touch screen with a pencil, in English or Chinese, both simplified and traditional characters.

R100 comes in 8 GB of internal memory and SD card slot can handle up to 16GB SD cards. BenQ has added a mini-USB and mini-HDMI device and 3.5 mm jack for headphones.

Works with Wi-Fi 802.11 b / g / n and Bluetooth protocol for data transfer.

R100 is 15mm thick and 191 mm are 244 mm in size. It weighs 720 grams.

BenQ has not yet set a price of R100 and a company representative said the images will be available when the device is officially launched.

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Intel Core i7-2600K Processor and DP67BG Motherboard Review

Intel has launched a new Central Processor Unit family every year for the last few years with Tick/Tock regularity. Each Tick is a new architecture with the Pentium, Pentium Pro, Pentium MMX, Pentium II, Pentium III, Pentium IV, Prescott, Core, Core 2, Dual Core, Core i7 and so forth. The last major launch was the Nehalem family with the Core i7 launch in 2008.

Intel launched the Clarkdale family of processors which was the “Tock” of the Nehalem family. This added graphics onto the processor die as a separate chip. The issue with that is there are still two separate chips on the processor meaning that a separate memory controller for the graphics chip was required. Today marks the launch of a new family of processors, called Sandy Bridge. This is the first Intel processor to have the graphics chip integrated into the CPU core meaning that caches and memory will be shared by the same chip rather than a separate chip on the same die. This is the start of a new paradigm of processors where every processor sold will have integrated graphics on the same chip as the processor and the graphics performance will be leaps and bounds above the previous generation.

That is what Sandy Bridge is all about and today we have a new processor on the review bench, the Core i7-2600K. It should be an interesting review as it is a major change to the architecture for Intel and a new direction for processors that will be joined by AMD in upcoming months. To coincide with the new processor launch, Intel is also launching a new motherboard chipset family, the 6 series family of motherboards. This is the latest chipset integrating support for the new LGA-1155 Sandy Bridge CPUs and support for SATA 6 Gb/second devices. As the new CPUs are not compatible with the older P55/Q57 chipset, this is a recurring theme with new processor family launches. Intel generally releases a new motherboard chipset to support new processor transitions. On the one hand this helps bring the latest technologies into the chipset, like support for SATA 6 Gb/second. On the other hand, this method of upgrade paths means you can’t just drop in a new CPU into an older motherboard as you could with the AMD processors. In any event, this is about the new CPU/motherboard combination and not on the upgrade path for the different platforms (Intel/AMD).

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Android New Virus Circulating in China

A new virus has now been discovered by NetQin Mobile as one of the largest Internet security services provider in China. The company claims to have discovered a virus they called ‘MSO.PJApps’.

Similar to the workings Geinimi, ‘MSO.PJApps’ also has the ability to communicate with the server and can automatically download, then mengistall applications without the knowledge of mobile phone owners.

In addition, this virus is also designed to automatically send an sms containing personal data such as, mobile IMEI number, and other data from the server depending on demand virus.

Virus ‘MSO.PJApps’ also known mendompleng one of the leading applications in China. Unfortunately, through information received detikINET, Monday (01/03/2011), NetQin Mobile did not disclose the name of the application.

Both Geinimi or MSO.PJApps equally troublesome. To avoid both these malicious programs required the user to be more vigilant when mendunduh application for example, only download from reputable vendors, and more rigorous gives access to the application.

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ASUS P8P67 (Sandy Bridge) Deluxe Motherboard Review

The P8P67 Deluxe is based upon Intel’s new P67 Express chipset to support the new Intel Sandy Bridge processors. This chipset supports all Core i7, i5 and i3 processors on the LGA-1155 interface. Unfortunately with every new CPU family launch Intel tends to change the interface for the new CPUs and this is the case with Sandy Bridge.

The new interface has 1155 pins compared to the 1156 on the LGA-1156 Socket. Unlike the AMD counterpart, the LGA-1156 processors will not work on the LGA-1155 interface. Enter Sandy Bridge. Intel is launching a wide array of Sandy Bridge CPUs to work with the LGA-1155 interface on the P67 chipset. While the processors will not work, the CPU coolers will as the footprint for the coolers is the same.

The P67 Express Platform Controller Hub is the newest chipset from Intel. This features native support for up to 2 SATA 6Gb/second controllers, and four SATA 3Gb/second controllers. The P67 chipset offers discrete graphics options only, with no support for the GMA 3000 graphics on the Sandy Bridge CPUs (that is provided by the H67 Express chipset.) The memory controller is on the CPU as well as the PCI Express controller, meaning that the need for a Southbridge chipset is alleviated.

• P67 Express Platform Controller Hub
• Dual Channel DDR3 Support
• DDR3 2200 (OC) SUPPORT
• Integrated Memory Controller
• Intel Turbo Boost 2.0
• Dual Intelligent Processors 2 with DIGI+ VRM
• EPU
• TPU
• Auto Tuning
• OC Tuner
• ASUS BT GO!
• EFI BIOS featuring EZ Mode
• Dual Front and Rear true USB 3.0 support
• Quad SATA 6Gb/second with dual RAID support
• AI Suite II
• HyperDuo support
• Q-Fan
• Fan Xpert

The Sandy Bridge CPU has 16 PCI Express lanes available to it. When used in conjunction with the P67 Express chipset, this can be split into two x8 lanes for SLI or Crossfire, both of which are supported by this platform. The P8P67 Deluxe has three PCI Express x16 slots for this purpose. Two of the PCI Express x16 slots operate in either x16 or x8 mode, depending on whether one or two cards are installed, and the third operates at x4 mode. I’ll discuss this more in the layout section of the review.

ASUS has moved to a Digital VRM+ with Dual Intelligent processors with their P8 series of motherboards. As you know they have been using the EPU to control the energy saving functions of their motherboards. They have also used a TPU (Turbo EVO Processing Unit) to control overclocking. These are separate chips which don’t use CPU resources. So let’s take a look at each processor independently, as they form key components of the overclocking capability and energy saving of the new boards.

DIGI+ VRM is a programmable micro-processor that can accurately match multiple PWM signals without any power transfer loss and thus lower total power dissipation rather than a conventional analog VRM. It offers high system stability, increase OC possibility, most precise adjustment, high power efficiency, and active cooling micro-processor. The result is more consistent power to the system and higher overclocking ability.

The EPU is connected directly to the CPU to detect the exact CPU loading and control active power phase, voltage and multiplier in real time. It is also connected to the chipset and DRAM power circuit to make direct control of the active phase of these two circuits to optimize the power efficiency. The EPU Technology delivers power saving across the CPU, VGA, Chipsets, DRAM, Fan and HDD. The EPU can manage the voltage of the CPU, VGA, Chipset and fan according to the load. The number of active power phases in each power circuit is also intelligently managed with the EPU.

ASUS has improved the EPU with the P8 series of motherboards. Previously, you had to install the AiSuite II to switch between the different modes of the EPU. With the P8 series, ASUS allows the user to change modes with a physical switch or in the BIOS, giving the user much more flexibility with the Sandy Bridge processors. The new EPU control panel allows for one click changes to happen from High Performance to Max Power saving. ASUS has a 16+2 Phase Power system on their P8P67 Deluxe board.

The TPU is the second processor of the DIP (Dual Intelligent Processors) group on the P8P67 Deluxe. This processor provides support for MemOK! Auto Tuning, OC Tuner, Precision Tweaker 2 and the TurboV EVO interface. MemOK! is a memory compatibility tool that allows the user to set the memory settings to a default setting when it has memory issues on this board. Auto Tuning will automatically tune the system either in Fast Tuning mode or an Extreme Tuning mode. Fast Tuning will tune the system to a high performance but stable state. Extreme Tuning will set the system to the highest level stable during a stress test. 

OC Tuner will overclock the system automatically by simply clicking OK in the BIOS configuration to automatically auto Tune the system after a few resets. The TPU Switch will overclock the system with the flick of a switch when it is off. Simply power on the computer and the TPU will automatically overclock the system. For those wanting more advanced features, Precision Tweaker 2 will give the TPU the ability to tweak the voltages, the frequencies manually giving the user the ultimate control over overclocking.

BT GO! Is ASUS’s term for their software package to support their Bluetooth 2.1 receiver on the P8P67 Deluxe board. BT to NET will allow the motherboard to connect the portable device to the Internet via Bluetooth

The iPhone App Store has an app called BT Turbo Remote which allows you to use your iPhone as an overclock tool. HyperDuo is a new feature that speeds up SSD+HDD interaction by putting the most frequently used files on the SSD drive on a SSD+HDD combination. The Marvell SATA controller when combined with Marvell MSU 4.1.0.1905 or later allows HyperDuo to share the files. The supported drives at the moment include the Crucial C300, the Kingston SNV425-S2BD, the SNV425-S2, the OCZ OCZSSD2-1VTXLE100G, the OCZSSD2-1VTX60G, the OCZSSD2-1VTX30G the Intel X25-M, and the Patriot PE64GS25SSDR, and the P160GS25SSDR drives.

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