Faster, longer battery life, chip-based security – innovation is alive and well in its sixth-generation Core chips, Intel claims, with the company officially launching its sixth-generation Core vPro processors on Tuesday, wrapped in a series of changes it claimed would inevitably drive sales. Two and a half times the …

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Wednesday 20th January 2016 14:49 GMT TRT

"businesses holding out on Windows XP and Windows 7 on old PCs,"

As a business user, can I just point out that I buy my new hardware with Windows 7 on it. Mainly BECAUSE it has Windows 7 on it. Actually, I may not buy the very latest... Anyway, it clears the slightly older hardware channels of stock, what are you complaining about?!

36 0 Reply
Wednesday 20th January 2016 15:02 GMT Tom Womack

Is there anywhere still on a three-year refresh for desktop computers in general? It's just about worth doing for software developers, but for general call-centre users five years ought to be fine and I imagine people are heading towards seven. Laptops wear out more quickly and the good-enough moment for laptops was more recent.

30 0 Reply
1. Wednesday 20th January 2016 15:11 GMT Preston Munchensonton
  
  That depends on the beancounters. Three-year leases are still common place, for those who don't want to hold the PC assets on their books. If customers are asking for longer leases, that will be newsworthy for the disruption to revenues of the likes of Dell, HP, Lenovo, etc.
  
  I do think this will be the trend, if it's not starting already. As you say, performance is sufficient with current hardware to warrant scaling back the level of refresh. In the end, however, it's all a matter of making the business case that some cost savings are possible.
  
  6 0 Reply
  1. Wednesday 20th January 2016 15:33 GMT chivo243
    
    Three year leases yes, but if you own the hardware you will have a hard time jettisoning 3 year old hardware, I think your bean counters might want a word?
    
    8 0 Reply
    1. Thursday 21st January 2016 02:39 GMT Frank N. Stein
      
      Maybe selling that three year old hardware to employees at a discount is a quicker way to get that hardware off the books. The company won't get nearly what they paid for that hardware new, but it is a quick way to recoup some revenue. A three year old Machine will run Windows 10 just fine.
      
      3 0 Reply
      1. Thursday 21st January 2016 10:44 GMT Doctor Syntax
        
        "run Windows 10 just fine."
        
        Odd. It looks like plain English but it doesn't make sense.
        
        14 0 Reply
  2. Wednesday 20th January 2016 17:13 GMT Anonymous Coward
    
    3 years? Wow.
    
    Someone's got some cash to splurge. It certainly isn't small businesses.
    
    My small businesses are typically doing 7-8 years, with a drive or RAM upgrade after 3-4 years (replacing with SSD and doubling RAM typically).
    
    23 0 Reply
2. Wednesday 20th January 2016 16:58 GMT Charlie Clark
  
  Yep, just been through one. It will depend upon the accounting but in some places once the hardware has been written off it costs more to keep it than replace it.
  
  1 0 Reply
  1. Wednesday 20th January 2016 21:13 GMT Anonymous Coward
    
    "once the hardware has been written off it costs more to keep it than replace it."
    
    What kind of numeracy leads to that conclusion?
    
    " It will depend upon the accounting "
    
    Ah OK.
    
    Q: What's two plus two?
    
    Standard answer: four.
    
    Accountant answer: who wants to know?
    
    11 0 Reply
3. Wednesday 20th January 2016 23:10 GMT Sgt_Oddball
  
  On the other hand, I bought an old cheap lenovo and replaced win7 with 10. Battery life went from an hour and half to around 2 hours 10. No other change of hardware and still running the original battery (a new one would half again more than what I paid for the laptop and since I don't need it unplugged too often not an issue)
  
  So the improvements in battery life might not be down purely to new chippage.
  
  2 4 Reply
  1. Friday 22nd January 2016 13:44 GMT Lorin Thwaits
    
    So you got an extra 40 minutes of run time. But that's 40 more minutes you have to deal with a tiled OS as compared with one that's easier to use.
    
    Some would argue that there's extensive profiling being performed by Microsoft as well. Not sure about that myself, but the conspiracy theories abound.
    
    1 0 Reply
4. Wednesday 20th January 2016 23:41 GMT WatAWorld
  
  As well as technical need and prestige, there is the aspect of tax laws, that vary year-to-year and country-to-country.
  
  If your country changes the minimum depreciation period for hardware it affects what the beancounters will suggest for replacements.
  
  0 0 Reply
5. Tuesday 23rd February 2016 14:02 GMT MyffyW
  
  Anyone still on three year refresh?
  
  If you're leasing, it doesn't make much sense after three years, you might as well buy (similar outlay, even accounting for the time value of money).
  
  If you're buying, it does make sense to sweat them past three years, but maintenance can become a kerfuffle. A well known food company that I had a long-term dalliance with caused all sorts of work for the poor desktop support teams when it kept the PCs for 4+ years but the maintenance at only 3 years.
  
  0 0 Reply
Wednesday 20th January 2016 15:02 GMT Anonymous Coward

Nonsense

Most business PCs spend most of their time idle, because even though the meatbag in front of it is typing away like billy-oh, the PC is so fast that the avergae users needs are met with but a fraction of its power.

The vast majority of the features in office software are unusued by the majority of users, never mind teh features in the OS beneath that. The fact is, that PC's and operating systems got to the point where they can comfotably handle most business needs years ago, at which point further innovation became, for a lot of people, counter-productive. New UI's that require retraining on the part of users, extra features that can,be too easily acidentally turned on and are too difficult to easily turnoff, processoirs that spend 99% of their time idle replaced by processors that spend 99.9% of their time idle... - these are all things that most businesses coudl well do without. Better security, now THAT's always welcome. Ditto customisability of the UI to allow people to amend their desktop to what works best for them.

But forking out hundreds of quid every few years just to line Intels and MS's pockets? Especially when both of them seem to be doing their darndest to make things less secure in a world increasingly network-connected?

No. hardware and software 'innovation' isn't what;s wanted here. It's an innovation in the minds of twits who think that businesses exist to support MS and Intels bad habits that's wanted. IMHO.

79 0 Reply
1. Wednesday 20th January 2016 16:23 GMT Palpy
  
  Re: Nonsense
  
  Agree! The biggest user of resources on my work PC is not me, it's some Russian called Kaspersky.
  
  33 0 Reply
2. Thursday 21st January 2016 01:10 GMT a_yank_lurker
  
  Re: Nonsense
  
  @Esme - Upvote and fully agree. The basic problem for Slurp and Chipzilla is the PC market is now a mature market with most sales replacing retiring kit. Personally, I can not remember a most-have new feature for any common application or OS in years maybe over a decade. Also, most hardware is sufficiently fast for most users that new hardware will not improve productivity or user experience to any great extent.
  
  6 0 Reply
  1. Friday 22nd January 2016 01:26 GMT rtb61
    
    Re: Nonsense
    
    The innovation people are waiting for voice and nothing more. Bit slow for skilled users but quite simply hugely better for unskilled users. What business wants an OS that pries into the activity of it's employees. Consider those activities are often high value proprietary secrets, that can be readily sold to competitors. The whole idea is sheer insanity, M$ is pushing one thing after another to try to force Windows anal probe 10 on people who simply do not want.
    
    They are going to force an upgrade cycle, not the one they want but an industry wide cross grade. Windows 8 dickish enough, they had to got one step further and it will cost them dearly. There response, fuck you customers, you do not choose, M$ chooses and they seem intent to break system that do not update on purpose to force a hugely perverted privacy invasive update and insider trading nightmare for businesses.
    
    5 0 Reply
3. Friday 22nd January 2016 06:57 GMT wsm
  
  Re: Nonsense
  
  "No. hardware and software 'innovation' isn't what;s wanted here. It's an innovation in the minds of twits who think that businesses exist to support MS and Intels bad habits that's wanted. IMHO."
  
  Speaking of which: MS Office 2013 and 2016 have removed vital features that my office use for the reason we exist. The alternative processes have to do with running everything in Excel, which still can't handle large data sources and is as slow as Nadella's wit.
  
  MS is getting to be less and less useful to business users. Without the desktop market they have had for years, they've got nowhere to go but down and out. Soon, they'll be just like the IBM of the 90's--sinking fast and wondering what happened.
  
  6 0 Reply
Wednesday 20th January 2016 15:04 GMT Warm Braw

"More secure"

Interesting choice of words

I'm not sure, "give us your information and we'll keep it safe for you" represents a great leap forward for my security.

34 0 Reply
1. Wednesday 20th January 2016 20:28 GMT Anonymous Coward
  
  Re: "More secure"
  
  ...but why should security matters have anything but an inversely proportional relationship to your security?
  
  Move along...
  
  1 0 Reply
Wednesday 20th January 2016 15:07 GMT Anonymous Coward

Let me get this straight...?

If my phone (running Windows 10 naturally) strays outside of BT range from the PC the PC (running Windows 10 naturally) goes into lock mode.

Is this some cunning plan by Wintel to get people onto the Windows 10 platform? I see Phones powered by Intel Silicon (W10 only) not that far away.

So for those of us in the vast majority who run Android or IOS devices this 'feature' won't be available?

Is BT that secure?

Then there is this hidden OS on the new chips. All I see is part of a plan to take these devices out of out control.

Thanks Intel but not for me.

16 2 Reply
1. Wednesday 20th January 2016 15:27 GMT Paul IT
  
  Re: Let me get this straight...?
  
  Interestingly if your phone is lifted from your coat and walked away - you are locked out of your computer to report a theft... Needs some further thinking
  
  29 0 Reply
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  2. Wednesday 20th January 2016 16:12 GMT annodomini2
    
    Re: Let me get this straight...?
    
    BOFH - Bluetooth jammer.
    
    10 0 Reply
2. Wednesday 20th January 2016 16:16 GMT The Real Tony Smith
  
  Re: Let me get this straight...?
  
  Windows 10 has nothing to do with it, this has been available for years in software (Kubuntu 8.10, no idea about Windows)
  
  This just extends it to hardware, always more secure than software.
  
  1 2 Reply
  1. Wednesday 20th January 2016 16:59 GMT Roo
    
    Re: Let me get this straight...?
    
    "This just extends it to hardware, always more secure than software."
    
    But it's not hardware.
    
    It's just more unauditable software (written by Intel) running at a privilege level that your OS has no control of or access to, oh and that same software talks to network hardware. You may as well run a webserver in the kernel while you're at it. Not Intel's finest hour IMO, YMMV.
    
    21 1 Reply
    1. Wednesday 20th January 2016 17:31 GMT Palpy
      
      Re: "Might as well run a webserver in the kernel..."
      
      Ah, but mais oui. Intel's existing Management Engine boots before the kernel, actually, and it has "robust networking abilities". If you run a modern machine, then you've already got Intel's OS installed (or AMD, they have similar chipset managers).
      
      See http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/12/31/rutkowska_talks_on_intel_x86_security_issues/
      
      4 1 Reply
    2. Wednesday 20th January 2016 20:12 GMT Robert Helpmann??
      
      Re: Let me get this straight...?
      
      "This just extends it to hardware, always more secure than software."
      
      But it's not hardware.
      
      Let's pretend that we are in fact talking about security that is entirely chip-based. How does it get updated when it inevitably is popped? It can be flashed? Won't that introduce an attack vector? Chip-based security may help protect a device, but it amounts to another layer of security, nothing more than that. In this case, the strength of this link in the security chain is based at least in part on security by obscurity as I don't anticipate Intel open-sourcing their wares.
      
      3 0 Reply
      1. Wednesday 20th January 2016 23:51 GMT WatAWorld
        
        Re: Let me get this straight...?
        
        "Let's pretend that we are in fact talking about security that is entirely chip-based. How does it get updated when it inevitably is popped? "
        
        You're wondering if this hardware feature will help hardware companies sell hardware?
        
        It probably will. (It will certainly sell more hardware than hoping some software company will sell it for them.)
        
        Other person's question: Will it be hacker-proof?
        
        No, but it will automatically secure your desktop when you walk away from it at your office. It sounds like it will secure at least as effectively as manually locking the screen or signing off. Similar with laptops.
        
        It also won't protect against nuclear attack.
        
        It is just an extra layer of security to automatically lock or shutdown your computer when you wander away from it.
        
        Of course it can be hacked. Any non-trivial software and hardware can be hacked. I think it is silly when people in our industry and the tech press keep expecting otherwise when they've already been provided with so much 'proof it is thus' by so many vendors and so many open source projects.
        
        0 5 Reply
    3. Wednesday 20th January 2016 20:33 GMT Anonymous Coward
      
      Re: Let me get this straight...?
      
      "(written by Intel)"
      
      Are you absolutely certain of that?
      
      5 0 Reply
      1. Wednesday 20th January 2016 23:12 GMT Roo
        
        Re: Let me get this straight...?
        
        "Are you absolutely certain of that?"
        
        Well, now that you mention it, no. :)
        
        I'll get my coat, it's the one with Security For Dummies in the pocket.
        
        2 0 Reply
    4. Thursday 21st January 2016 10:49 GMT Doctor Syntax
      
      Re: Let me get this straight...?
      
      "You may as well run a webserver in the kernel while you're at it"
      
      Or in your init.
      
      2 0 Reply
    5. Thursday 21st January 2016 15:15 GMT Anonymous Coward
      
      Re: Let me get this straight...?
      
      uneditable software IS hardware, wether you IT blokes like it or not.
      
      2 0 Reply
      1. Monday 25th January 2016 10:45 GMT Roo
        
        Re: Let me get this straight...?
        
        "uneditable software IS hardware, wether you IT blokes like it or not."
        
        Wrong.
        
        0 0 Reply
  2. Wednesday 20th January 2016 19:26 GMT Kernel
    
    Re: Let me get this straight...?
    
    "Windows 10 has nothing to do with it, this has been available for years in software (Kubuntu 8.10, no idea about Windows)"
    
    Even older than that - I had an app for this on my Palm PDA many years ago. I removed it in the end because of all the practical day-to-day issues you will all think of eg., don't always have the phone on me, etc.
    
    2 0 Reply
3. Thursday 21st January 2016 14:05 GMT dajames
  
  Re: Let me get this straight...?
  
  So for those of us in the vast majority who run Android or IOS devices this 'feature' won't be available?
  
  Far from it: For IOS and Android that facility is available now from a number of third-party vendors -- $SEARCH_ENGINE_OF_CHOICE will find them for you -- there's nothing new or innovative in locking a PC when a physical token is removed, be it a smartcard or a dongle or a bluetooth device.
  
  3 0 Reply
4. Friday 22nd January 2016 10:42 GMT Anonymous Coward
  
  OS on an chip...EUFI?
  
  The direction that MS and Chipzilla are moving I would not be the least surprised that EUFI is used as OS lock out for most (all) OSs based on Linux and BSD distros. It'll be the big players only. No more hand rolled distros allowed.
  
  1 0 Reply
  1. Friday 22nd January 2016 22:09 GMT Richard Plinston
    
    Re: OS on an chip...EUFI?
    
    > No more hand rolled distros allowed.
    
    Maybe not on Intel, but there are many other chip makers. There are many other architectures too. Maybe this is the year of ARM on the desktop.
    
    4 0 Reply
Wednesday 20th January 2016 15:08 GMT Phil O'Sophical

Microsoft will now cut off security updates for Windows 7 running on PCs that employ new chipsets from January 2020

So, for the new PC I'm about to buy, I have a good reason not to get the latest chipset?

22 0 Reply
1. Wednesday 20th January 2016 16:51 GMT Anonymous Coward
  
  Weren't they going to cut off security updates from 2020 anyway? No matter what chipset you were running.
  
  Unless you were paying the big bucks for the special service from Microsoft.
  
  5 0 Reply
2. Thursday 21st January 2016 17:06 GMT HamsterNet
  
  Havent tried it then?
  
  Windows 10 is an updated Win 7 done right but with some data collection added. Since FB, Google, Apple, GCHQ already know ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING about you already there not much hassle with another player getting some data on you is there :)
  
  Personally Windows 10 runs quicker, uses less resources and plays games better, thus myself and everybody on steam is using it. However it really doesnt need new hardware to run at all. This is one version of Windows that takes up less than the last two versions did.
  
  0 11 Reply
  1. Thursday 21st January 2016 17:53 GMT Richard Plinston
    
    Re: Havent tried it then?
    
    > Since FB, Google, Apple, GCHQ already know ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING about you already
    
    If those companies know everything about _you_, then you are a fool.
    
    They certainly know very little about me: I do not have a Facebook account, I have no Apple pips, I use Adblock, NoScript, Ghostery, RequestPolicy, and others. If you are providing your information to those then it is on a voluntary basis.
    
    With Windows 10, though, it seems these circumventions won't work and others seem to only be partially effective, or are so only until the next update.
    
    3 0 Reply
Wednesday 20th January 2016 15:35 GMT Anonymous Coward

3 years? Pah!

Ive got clients still rocking Core 2 machines. Q6600s mainly.

Dell Precision T3400s I think.

An SSD and reinstall is enough to improve them in most cases.

I still use a T3500 with a Xeon X5690 in it.

Cheap as chips and fast as f...even for gaming.

I got CPU upgrade fatigue donkies years ago. It stopped mattering to me circa 2011...the real world performance gain is usually underwhelming.

The biggest jump ive seen in recent years is SSDs. Which is unsuprising since thats where the bottleneck has been for over a decade.

Id love to see the same power as a Xeon in a small form factor at a price less than £500.

Id also like to see improvements elsewhere. Like better and smaller PSUs.

The race for speed is done...get on with size, efficiency and price please.

...and ffs...lets get out of the 60hz 1080P (or eve 1366 x 768!!) screen era please. It was old fashioned and shit to begin with...I had a CRT that could reach 250hz at 2048 x 1536 x 24bpp over VGA. Why the god damn effing f**k have we not managed to do that with LCDs? I know I know theres "gaming" screens...but they have tradeoffs.

Dont give me no "but icons...tiny...why?" rubbish either...

Scaling!

24 0 Reply
1. Wednesday 20th January 2016 16:41 GMT Anonymous Coward
  
  Re: 3 years? Pah!
  
  ...and ffs...lets get out of the 60hz 1080P (or eve 1366 x 768!!) screen era please. It was old fashioned and shit to begin with...I had a CRT that could reach 250hz at 2048 x 1536 x 24bpp over VGA. Why the god damn effing f**k have we not managed to do that with LCDs?
  
  And there is part of the way forward, the other part is to get SSDs down to a price similar to spinning rust.
  
  2 0 Reply
  1. Thursday 21st January 2016 03:02 GMT Anonymous Coward
    
    Re: 3 years? Pah!
    
    Whenever I scope out a machine that has "the slows", invariably the user is using less than 1/4th the hard drive capacity so the economics still work out well even without price parity. My most popular upgrade, period.
    
    1 0 Reply
2. Wednesday 20th January 2016 16:46 GMT Ol' Grumpy
  
  Re: 3 years? Pah!
  
  "An SSD and reinstall is enough to improve them in most cases"
  
  Can't agree with this enough!
  
  4 0 Reply
3. Wednesday 20th January 2016 17:10 GMT Paul Crawford
  
  Re: "old fashioned and shit to begin"
  
  Exactly, a better screen would be an obvious and on-going benefit to every end user in a way that a few seconds boot time saving would not!
  
  In particular of the software monkeys could properly fix display scaling so older folk and/or those with eyesight problems could easily adjust display size to suit.
  
  10 0 Reply
  1. Wednesday 20th January 2016 20:30 GMT Anonymous Coward
    
    Re: "old fashioned and shit to begin"
    
    In particular of the software monkeys could properly fix display scaling so older folk and/or those with eyesight problems could easily adjust display size to suit.
    
    The only OS I run (or ran) I couldn't scale up the display - ha bleedin' ha - is Windows 10 ! Every other Windows version or Linux distro I've run for years now I've been able to do so very satisfactorily, but on Windows 10, no matter the build, no matter new display drivers and monitor drivers, anything above default looks absolute shite!
    
    Not that I care. I'll never run it again anyway.
    
    11 1 Reply
    1. Wednesday 20th January 2016 23:01 GMT Anonymous Coward
      
      Re: "old fashioned and shit to begin"
      
      Wotcha then, downvoter! Coochie coo! Who's a clever boy then? Yes you are! Yes you are!
      
      Same time tomorrow?
      
      5 1 Reply
4. Wednesday 20th January 2016 17:12 GMT Anonymous Coward
  
  Re: 3 years? Pah!
  
  "Ive got clients still rocking Core 2 machines. Q6600s mainly. An SSD and reinstall is enough to improve them in most cases."
  
  I have 2 128GB Samsung 850 pro SSDs sitting under my desk waiting for me to do exactly this. But, I'm running Linux, so it's fast enough that I haven't bothered with the upgrade. Windows is the cause of your slowness, a bloated registry and all the other accumulated shite.
  
  Down votes welcome. Just because you know it's true, don't let that stop you.
  
  16 3 Reply