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Lenovo announces laptops using new mobile Xeon processors

arstechnica.com

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Re: Lenovo announces laptops using new mobile Xeon processors

#31

Post by kawsper »

creshal wrote: post #18
bitL wrote: post #13

If only they had a non-chiclet keyboard... I guess I have to wait till retro ThinkPad :-(

That's very likely still going to have a chiclet keyboard – they didn't ask for user preferences on it –, but it will at least have a proper seven-row layout. Personally, I don't mind the chiclets – the mechanic is the same as in the old keyboards – as long as the layout gets fixed…

Do you know if they are going to change the touchpad? I tried all the touchpads on the current Thinkpad generation in a store, and I was so disappointed that we chose to buy something else.

Re: Lenovo announces laptops using new mobile Xeon processors

#32

Post by creshal »

kawsper wrote: post #31
creshal wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's very likely still going to have a chiclet keyboard – they didn't ask for user preferences on it –, but it will at least have a proper seven-row layout. Personally, I don't mind the chiclets – the mechanic is the same as in the old keyboards – as long as the layout gets fixed…

Do you know if they are going to change the touchpad? I tried all the touchpads on the current Thinkpad generation in a store, and I was so disappointed that we chose to buy something else.

No idea. Half my Thinkpads don't have touchpads, the other half have it disabled via BIOS, so I wouldn't care either way…

Re: Lenovo announces laptops using new mobile Xeon processors

#34

Post by stefantalpalaru »

digitalzombie wrote: post #25
jmnicolas wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you do on a laptop that requires more than 64 GB of RAM ?

OP probably run lots of virtualization instances or is running a huge set of big data that uses RAM as a cache. I have 16 GB and I ran a cluster of 3-4 of Cassandra that are virtualized via Vagrant and it was pretty solid. Wouldn't mind 32 GB though. As for the big data comment, an example is the programming language R runs in memory... And yeah running big data in memory require lots of memory.

Aren't those workloads better fit for a desktop?

Re: Lenovo announces laptops using new mobile Xeon processors

#35

Post by ilurk »

chuckup wrote: post #10

Lenovo is now using rootkit-like techniques to install their software on CLEAN Windows installs, by having the BIOS overwrite windows system files on bootup. Someone detailed this here: http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=29497693&sid=dd... I had this happen to me a few weeks ago, on a new Lenovo laptop, doing a clean install with a new SSD, Win 8 DVD + wifi turned off. I couldn't understand how a Lenovo ser…

This is getting increasingly disturbing with each new generation of hardware.

You no longer have the right to own the hardware you buy. Now it has become a service subject to their terms.

That Windows Platform Binary Table sounds disturbing and is ripe for being exploited.

Interesting info found [1]:

> Lenovo Service Engine (LSE) is a utility in the BIOS for certain Lenovo desktop systems. It automatically sends non-personally identifiable system data to a Lenovo server one time when the system is first connected to the internet and then does not send any additional data.

> The system data that LSE collected includes machine type and model, system UUID, region and date. No personally identifiable information is collected.

> Once this data is sent, the service is disabled automatically.

> LSE uses the Microsoft Windows Platform Binary Table (WPBT) capability. Microsoft has recently released updated security guidelines on how to best implement this feature. Lenovo’s use of LSE is not consistent with these guidelines and so Lenovo has stopped shipping desktop models with this utility and recommends customers with this utility enabled run a “clean up” utility that removes the LSE files from the desktop. Instructions on how to download and run this program are below.

> The LSE functionality has been removed from newly manufactured systems.

When some people insist on having a Libreboot/Coreboot supported laptop, they call them crazy and idealistic. Now this is what happens.

It's just a shame that with Intel ME the Libreboot/Coreboot devs have given up on Intel machines. I'm very interested in the Purism Librem laptop but I have low hopes. Maybe the future will be ARM.

[1] https://support.lenovo.com/nz/en/product_security/lse_bios_d...

Re: Lenovo announces laptops using new mobile Xeon processors

#36

Post by bitL »

odiroot wrote: post #28
bitL wrote: post #13

If only they had a non-chiclet keyboard... I guess I have to wait till retro ThinkPad :-(

Why? For me and any others chiclet keyboard (especially ThinkPad style) is a lot nicer than older "touching" sloped keys.

Yes, for you. For me, definitely not. I am getting close to RSI when using any chiclet keyboard besides MBP that somehow made it fairly acceptable but still inferior to original ThinkPad. The rest, like newer ThinkPads, ASUS, Dell, Toshiba etc. are just plain awful, I feel pain in my wrists after ~20 minutes of using them. And a lot of touch typists complain about chiclet keyboards as well. Flatness everywhere is getting absurd recently. Yes, chiclet keyboards look often better (well, it's the opposite with ThinkPad actually, they IMO look much worse than their original keyboard) but I prefer ergonomy to aesthetics when creating algorithms - the last thing I want is to feel pain in my wrists during a creative phase of coding when I need to write, delete, rewrite and refactor a lot of code, seriously.

Also, as a pianist I can notice subtle differences in the quality of keyboards. There is also one rule when playing on a piano - once you feel pain, you stop, you do something wrong or the instrument is not suitable for you and you'll injure yourself unless something is changed.

Re: Lenovo announces laptops using new mobile Xeon processors

#37

Post by stefantalpalaru »

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #4

Being a bit of a bit-head, I love reading those specs. Something caught my eye, though: "Screen options are 1920×1080 with optional touch screen or a 3840×2160 non-touch screen" Is there a reason for this? Is anybody doing quad-HD touch screens? I never see them.

> Is there a reason for this?

People caring about DPI are less likely to want to smudge the screen by touching it.

Re: Lenovo announces laptops using new mobile Xeon processors

#38

Post by gambiting »

jcr wrote: post #3
ChuckMcM wrote: post #2

Ok, call me skeptical but I did not think Intel would get these out for Q4 of 2015. That 15" laptop is probably way over kill but it has some really nice specs. I think what I really want though is one of these bad boys in the NUC form factor.

I love seriously over-powered "luggables" and these machines might have impressive specs, but there's a big problem; a lot of open source folks won't buy NVIDIA gear due to the need for non-free binary-blob drivers. NVIDIA makes some impressive products, but they seldom play well with others, and they seem to have a real vendetta against supporting open source efforts by simply providing the necessary documentation.…

If you love over-powered mobile solutions, have you by chance heard of Eurocom? They make a portable server called Panther, and you can configure it with 12-core/24-thread Xeon, 32GB of ram, 4x1TB SSD in RAID 5 config and dual Quattro cards. In that config you have to use two(!!!) 300W power supplies though.

http://www.eurocom.com/ec/configure(1,234,0)ec

Re: Lenovo announces laptops using new mobile Xeon processors

#39

Post by gambiting »

jmnicolas wrote: post #20
4ad wrote: post #11

Finally ECC memory in a laptop, I've wanted this for years! However, I am seriously unimpressed by the maximum memory specifications. 64GB?! I had 32GB in my ThinkPad W510, which was released over five years ago. I've also had 16GB in my seven year old T400. 16GB was enough for me back then, 64GB now is barely enough for me, it will certainly not be enough in a few years, although by then maybe we'd get larger memory…

What do you do on a laptop that requires more than 64 GB of RAM ?

I work for a games development studio and for our demo booth at recent E3 we ran all servers off a super powerful laptop - in fact, the servers very barely fit in 32GB of ram. I have 64GB ram in my desktop PC and I do hit swap occasionally.

Re: Lenovo announces laptops using new mobile Xeon processors

#40

Post by arm »

chuckup wrote: post #10

Lenovo is now using rootkit-like techniques to install their software on CLEAN Windows installs, by having the BIOS overwrite windows system files on bootup. Someone detailed this here: http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=29497693&sid=dd... I had this happen to me a few weeks ago, on a new Lenovo laptop, doing a clean install with a new SSD, Win 8 DVD + wifi turned off. I couldn't understand how a Lenovo ser…

Wow… first Superfish and now this? My next computer certainly won’t be a Lenovo. Thanks for the heads-up.
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