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Changes Being Made

The last couple of years have been interesting. Covid has taught us all to live more frugal. In the creative software industry there have been many changes. Those changes have caused me to consider the costs and the time involved in being creative.

In October 2014 Serif software released Affinity Designer. The software has continued to get better, and they added Affinity Photo in 2015. In 2019 Serif added a full desktop publishing app called Affinity Publisher. Serif’s newest feature is Studio Link. It allows Affinity Publisher to work with Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer. This means that the Affinity suite is a very capable alternative to Adobe’s core apps. It’s also viable alternative for professionals seeking to break away from Creative Cloud.

This leads to the first big change. What I do is publications, web, and graphics design. The Affinity software suite is more than capable for my professional needs. That means that as of January 12, 2022 I will be canceling my Adobe CC subscription. I will also be moving my website from Adobe Portfolio to some other service. I will likely be changing web address as well. I will know more in January 2022.  I will be keeping a copy of Adobe Creative Suite 4 for those IDML files that Affinity Publisher cannot open.

The next change will be in time management. There are a lot of things I want to write about, but I don’t always have time. The rigidity of trying to schedule writing around work and artwork isn’t working. So I will be creating a new blog, somewhere other than Tumblr where new articles and artwork will live. That new blog will be part of my new website.

Over the next few months I will write a couple reviews on the new software I am using. I will also be posting guides to help people prep content for printers, and designers. 

Please check back for further updates.

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Steam Deck Q and A I have some thoughts

On July 15th 2021 Valve announced the Steam Deck. A new mobile game system designed for PC gamers to take their favorite games on the go. Ever since then I have been watching Nintendo Switch fanboys pop a blood vessel over the new device. I have also been receiving questions from readers, friends, and family about it.

So here we go:

Q: What is the point of the Steam Deck?

A: The Steam Desk is a handheld gaming computer designed by Valve and Quanta Computers. It has a great price point that places it within reach of many gamers. The device is not locked, you can swap Steam OS for Windows, and you can run games from other game stores. Here are the specs:

It has a custom AMD APU with 4 Zen 2 cores and 8 RDNA-2 graphics compute units.

16 GB RAM

64 GB eMMC, 256 GB NVME SSD, 512 GB NVME SSD drives. The drives are M.2 2230 drives. The drives are upgradeable.

Micro SDXC removable storage

7 inch 1280 X 800 IPS LCD display

Stereo Speakers

Controls

2 × analog sticks with capacitive touch,

2 × trackpads,

2 × shoulder buttons (L1, R1),

2 × analog triggers (L2, R2),

4 × grip buttons (L4, R4, L5, R5),

D-pad,

A/B/X/Y buttons,

View/Menu buttons,

Steam button,

Quick access button,

Volume +/− buttons,

Power button

Ambient Light Sensor

USB-C port (A dock with audio and video output is available)

WiFi 5

Bluetooth 5

40Wh Lithium Ion battery

Steam OS 3

Q: Should I buy a Steam Deck?

A: If you are a PC gamer looking for a portable gaming option at a reasonable price, then yes you should. Otherwise The Nintendo Switch or the Ambernic handhelds are perfectly fine gaming options.

Q: What about those other guys?

A: There are many great alternatives to the Steam Deck. The Aya Neo, the GPD Win 3, and the One X Player are great devices. They provide reasonable performance, but they are more expensive.

Q: What are the specs for each model?

A: All models have the same key specs (see above). The only differences are the storage and screen. The 64 GB model uses eMMC instead of an NVME SSD so it is slower than the larger storage options. The 256 and 512 GB options use much faster NVME storage. The 512 GB option also has a special micro-etched glass that provides anti-glare.

Q: What is the impact of the slowest model?

A: The 64GB eMMC model runs at around 400 MB per second. That is slower than the speed of a Serial ATA SSD. The NVME drives are between 4 and 6 times faster. 

Q: Did you reserve a Steam Deck? If so, which one?

A: Yes, I reserved the 256GB model. It currently seems easier to reserve the Steam Deck than order the Aya Neo.

Q: Did they create it to compete with the Nintendo Switch?

A: No, In my opinion, Valve created it as a stepping stone project. I think it's something they created to gain expertise for another device or project. They claim to have designed it to push the handheld portable gaming PC from the niche to the mainstream. This should benefit the Aya Neo, GPD Win 3, and One X Player because they all use the same form factor. It may nudge big manufacturers like Asus, and Dell into making similar products.

Q: Is the Steam Deck too expensive?

A: At only $50 more expensive than the Nintendo Switch OLED the answer is NO. No, the base model Steam Deck is not too expensive. The base model is $600-ish cheaper than the crowd-funded price on the GPD Win 3. It is $500-ish cheaper than the crowdfunded price of the Aya Neo. Much like the Aya Neo and the GPD Win 3 the Steam Deck is a full portable PC with reasonable specs at a great price..

Q: Is the Steam Deck too cheap, and what are the trade-offs?

A: Maybe, Gabe Newell has stated that the steam deck has tight margins. The Steam Deck is well engineered for usability, thermals, and build quality. It is better engineered than some of its competitors. It has better graphics than it's competitors with RDNA 2 graphics instead of VEGA graphics. So, yeah the Steam Deck may be too cheap.

The price point may also be a product of Valve testing what they would need to do to build their own computer. I suspect it may lead to a system to make the Valve Index standalone, or a new Steam Machine set-top console.  It was also designed to push the handheld portable gaming PC from the niche to the mainstream.

The only real trade-offs seem to be a lack of USB ports, and the use of Steam OS instead of Windows 10. Though you can install Windows 10 on the machine.

Q: A lot of people are saying that the Steam Deck will fail. Do you think it will?

A: The Valve Steam Deck is already successful. There have been well over 100,000 reservations of the various models. Valve also has great support for their devices. It is already a success.

Q:  Steam Deck uses a Linux distro, will I be able to play all my PC games?

A: Hmmm ... it is hard to give a definitive answer. Many games will work on the Proton layer of Steam OS 3. Steam is working with developers of games and anti-cheat systems to ensure compatibility. You can check the Proton database to see if your game will work. Please note that Valve is working to achieve a 100% compatibility rate for games on the steam store. It is also unlocked so you can run any Windows game compatible with Proton. You can install Windows 10 if you want better compatibility with games that are not from the Steam Store. If you would like to verify that your game works you can check the Proton DB (available here).

Q: What do you think of the hype?

A: Most of the hype is from Valve, and most of the PC magazines and Tech Tubers that seem to like the Steam Deck. Not only was the hype train all about the technology but why Valve created the Steam Deck. What sold me on the Steam Deck are the interviews with Gabe Newell as he discussed the engineering involved in the device.

Q: What do you think of the Anti-hype?

A: I am  interested in the anti-hype. There are a lot of portable gaming console users upset by the release of the Steam Deck. Most of them are fans of the Nintendo Switch. Some of them look like they had an aneurysm with the release of the  Steam Deck. I am sure they thought they were emulating Scott Wozniak. Instead they looked bombastic and stupid. In all honesty they need to think of this as something different than the Nintendo Switch. They also need to switch to decaffeinated coffee and caffeine free soda.

Here are my thoughts

The Valve Steam Deck is the portable handheld gaming system that PC gamers have been waiting for. The pricing is competitive in comparison to the OLED Nintendo Switch. The Steam Deck uses modern Zen 2 CPU cores, and state of the art RDNA2 graphics cores from AMD. The Steam Deck starts at $400, and is a steal at that price. The Steam Deck will spur competition and increase manufacturing of this form factor. It will create more competition and lower the price of the competing systems. It is exactly what the PC gaming industry needs to make PC gaming truly portable.

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Happy Halloween

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Windows 11

Think back 4 years ago in the tech industry. Microsoft’s head of Windows development said that Windows 10 would be the last. Windows 10 was a service, and there would be incremental updates to it. Then Intel, the largest manufacturer of PC microprocessors, got some bad news. Intel microprocessors are threatened by two very nasty vulnerabilities. Specter and Meltdown were all over the news and the Internet. Microsoft and Intel were at odds as to how to handle the problem. Microsoft was going to patch it in software, Intel was going to handle it with micro-code on the CPU. There was a little bit of fighting between the two, and it really was never resolved. Fast forward to today. Specter and Meltdown are still a looming threat, and Windows 11 has premiered. I think Windows 11 is Microsoft’s solution to Specter and Meltdown. It is likely the solution to other security threats as well.

As a technician I get a lot of questions, and the one I hear a lot of lately is “Is my computer capable of running Windows 11?” It’s a complex question. Microsoft left a lot of people scratching their collective heads over this one.

Requirements

The Windows 11 page lists the system requirements as:

Processor - 1 GHz dual core or better 64-bit microprocessor or System on a Chip (SoC).

Memory - 4 GB RAM

Storage - 64 GB or larger storage device

System firmware - UEFI, Secure Boot capable

TPM - Trusted Platform Module (TPM) version 2.0

Graphics card - DirectX 12 compatible graphics / WDDM 2.x

Display - 9” or larger display with HD Resolution (720p)

Internet connection - Microsoft account and internet connectivity required for setup for Windows 11 Home.

Most of these specs are not a problem. If you are using a recent computer (2016 or newer with components from 2016) with Windows 10,  you have met these requirements. The problem is item #4 and #5, the TPM Module and Secure Boot. For Windows 11 to work you need a TPM and secure boot.

TPM stands for Trusted Platform Module. It is a security chip found in computers. It is used as an encryption system that can boost a computer’s security.

Secure Boot is a technology that ensures the right software loads on your PC.  It ensures Windows or Linux are booted on a computer and not some malware. Malware as you can guess is bad. If it is loaded with the OS it can leave the system open to a plethora of attacks.

In theory this set of security measures should help protect the computer. It should also protect the speculative execution stack set from specter and meltdown.

So in all reality the Windows 11 requirements are all about security.

Microsoft is trying to protect your computer from hardware and software exploits. Its their way of avoiding the unpleasantness of 4 years ago.

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After The Hype - The Samsung Galaxy Tab S7

In September 2020 I purchased an Apple iPad 8th generation. The main reason was because at the time the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 was $649. In May my old iPad Air 2 (my artwork reference tablet) started getting errors that it didn't have enough RAM. So in June I had to buy a new tablet. I was going to buy another iPad. I decided the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 was a compelling alternative since it was on sale for $500. This is a review of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7.

Design

The Galaxy Tab S7 follows the design language of Samsung's other Tab S tablets starting with the Tab S4. The bezels keep getting thinner and thinner. The device also keeps getting thinner and thinner. The Tab S7 in portrait measures 6.51" Wide by 9.99" Tall, and .25" Thick. It weighs a bit over 1 pound. In portrait perspective the power / sleep and the volume controls are on the right hand side. The fingerprint sensor is in the power / sleep button. At the top and bottom of the tablet are 4 AKG tuned speakers producing clear stereo audio. In the front of the tablet is the 11" TLPS TFT display (more on that in the specs section). The webcam is also on the right hand side of the display so it can be better used for video chat in landscape.  Finally on the back is a dual camera setup, and the resting / charging pad for the S-Pen.

Specs

The Galaxy Tab S7 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865+. This is the flagship mobile microprocessor of 2020. It has 6 GB of RAM which is plenty of memory to run any application. It is available with up to 512 GB of ultra fast UFS 3.0 storage with a Micro SD card slot. My Tab S7 has 128 GB of storage. It has WiFi 6 with Bluetooth 5 for all your non-cellular wireless communication needs. The front facing camera is 8 MP with a wide angle lense which is great for group selfies and video conferencing. The twin camera setup on the back consists of a 13 MP wide angle camera and a 5 MP ultra-wide camera. There are dual mics to capture audio. Below the camera module is the magnetic recharge pad for the S-Pen. The 11 inch display is the star of the show. It is a Quad HD+ LTPS TFT display with a resolution of 2560 X 1600 running at 120 Hz. The display has HDR10+ and  Samsung's variable refresh technology. The S-Pen is the co-star of the show utilizing Wacom EMR technology. It is a low latency pen which provides for fast and accurate pen input.

User Experience

Everything about the Tab S7 is a treat to use. The OneUI 3 treatment of Android solves most of my complaints about Android on tablets. Sure some apps are blown-up phone apps. Unlike iPhone only apps that run on iPad in letterbox mode. Everything is fast and responsive. Gaming is fantastic. Genshin Impact runs well at medium quality. I have had problems with Sonic CD and Dimension Wars 3 running too fast due to the 120Hz refresh rate. Turning off Variable Refresh solves the problem.  Consuming content is great. The display is beautiful, and the quad speaker setup immerses you in your media. Artwork and design production with the Tab S7 is great. The S-Pen is responsive and capable, and it is a joy to work with in Clip Studio Paint, and Autodesk Sketchbook. Working in Microsoft OneNote, and marking up edits in Acrobat is also a great experience. There are some gaps in the various app stores, but the lack of those apps isn't a deal breaker. The images from the rear cameras are fine. I wouldn't carry this tablet as a camera, but they work fine in a pinch. The front camera is great for video meetings via Zoom and Microsoft Teams. Voice pickup by the mics are more than adequate, ensuring that you will be heard loud and clear.

Galaxy Tab S7 Vs. 8th Gen iPad

At $649 the Tab S7 is considered way more expensive than the $329 Apple iPad. I, however, am not convinced. At the $649 price point the Tab S7 is competitively priced.

The base model Tab S7 has  128 GB of storage. To get an iPad with 128 GB the price would need to increase to $429. The Tab S7 has the S-Pen included. The Apple Pencil costs an extra $100. This brings the 8th Gen iPad with 128 GB of storage and an Apple Pencil to the price of $529. That is a $120 price difference. On top of that the Tab S7 is often on sale for around $500.

On paper the iPad 8th generation seems like a great device. In use it even seems perfect. The user experience is refined, leaving no doubt as to how to operate it. The app store is the best around. It even has access to Photoshop and Illustrator. Regretfully,  it's also a walled garden. You can only purchase apps from the Apple App Store.

The Tab S7 can have apps from several app stores like Google Play and Amazon. You can even install apps from a web browser, the cloud, or a USB drive. You can also develop and install your own apps. Something you can't do on any iPad without a developer account and a $99 fee.

The tab S7's Qualcomm 865+ (973 Single, 3117 Multi) is faster than Apple's A12 (1109 Single, 2065 Multi) in multi-core.  The Tab S7 has more memory with 6 GB RAM versus the iPad's 3 GB of RAM. The Galaxy Tab S7 has expandable storage through a Micro SD card slot. The iPad only has integrated storage. The Tab S7 has a larger, better display with a higher resolution, HDR10, and variable refresh up to 120 Hz. The Tab S7 also has the ability to connect USB-C devices like input devices, printers, and USB-C drives. Even pointing out the lackluster app stores on Android, the other features dwarf the iPad.

The Tab S7 is also competitive when comparing it to the faster more expensive current iPad Air. It may be faster, but with an Apple Pencil the 64 GB model is $729. With 256 GB of storage the price rises to $780. The iPad Air does have a USB-C port. It's still lacking Micro SD card expansion, and a 120Hz HDR10 display though. There are a lot of complaints about Apple's Files app to transfer files between the iPad and devices. In this case the Tab S7 wins on price because though it is slower, it still has a better feature set.

I am not going to talk about the Apple Pencil. With Apple's pencil, and Wacom's EMR  it's all about the user's personal experiences. In my case my familiarity with Wacom's EMR has been great. With AES based pens like Microsoft's N-Trig, and the Apple's pencil I find them lacking.

Conclusion

It's actually kind of odd. Even though I am not an Apple Fan Boy anymore, I am an iPad fan. The reality is that the Tab S7 is better than the 8th Gen iPad, and just enough better than the Apple iPad Air in my opinion. Apple lost this round. Wow, It was a little hard to say that. It will be interesting to see what the 9th gen iPad, 5th Gen iPad Air, and Samsung's Tab S8 have in store for us. It should be an interesting 2nd half of 2021

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Device History

This is a list of devices I've had over the years. It's here for reference. There isn't much here that I haven't talked about before. I will reference this list in other articles, and I will keep it updated.

Desktop Computers

Apple II

Apple IIC

Apple IIGS - This is the apex of the Apple II series. It could have been much better if Apple would have allowed the microprocessor to work at it's base clock. It was a great system that was upgradeable. Our IIGS had an 80 Megabyte hard drive, 4 Megabytes of RAM, a graphics card upgrade, a 3.5 diskette, and 5.25 floppy disk drive.

Macintosh SE30

Performa 410 - The Family's Mac.

Macintosh Quadra 605 - My private machine.

PowerMac 8500 A/V This is the computer that hurdled me into media and graphics production.

PowerComputing PowerTower Pro 180 - The family PowerMac. While the PowerMac 8500 A/V was my private system, the  PowerTower Pro  was the family machine. It died a gruesome death when my sister's fiance decided to clean the carpets, and didn't put the tower up on the desk.

Dell Optiplex Pentium II - The family computer given to us by my uncle.

PowerMac G3 Desktop - Replaced my PowerMac 8500, and got the A/V card from my 8500 as well.

iMac (2nd Gen) - The family's Mac.

Dell Optiplex Pentium 4 - My private PC.

PowerMac G4 - Replaced the PowerMac G3 Desktop.

2006 MacPro (First Gen) 2.66 4-core - This was the Mac I used through my Masters Degree.

2009 21.5" iMac - Replaced my 2006 Mac Pro. Got dropped by a technician during repair.

2011 21.5" iMac - Replaced the 2009 iMac. I passed that along to a friend when I was finished with it.

PowerMac G5 - Given to me by a friend. Still in use for projects that need a legacy Mac system that can run Mac OS 9.

2011 27" iMac - My second design system. I sold it around the same time I passed the 21.5" iMac to a friend. I used the money to build my PC computer.

Custom Built Intel Xeon Workstation I did a ton of articles about this build on this BLOG. I am not going to reference them though.

Custom Built AMD Ryzen 9 3900X workstation - My current workstation.

Laptops

Toshiba Satellite Pro - The first laptop I used during my college career.

PowerBook 3400 / G3 Kanga - It started out as a PowerMac 3400, and I used it for a couple of years. I then paid $800 to upgrade it to a PowerBook G3 Kanga. I passed this computer on to my sister when she started college.

PowerBook G3 (Lombard) - Replaced the PowerBook G3 Kanga. It got passed on to a friend.

iBook G3 (Ice White) - This was the iBook G3 with technical issues which caused the GPU to become un-soldered. It was replaced by Apple with an iBook G4.

iBook G4 - This was a great laptop ... It was stolen from the computer lab I worked in.\

17" MacBook Pro (1st Gen) - Replaced my iBook G4.

2009 MacBook Pro

2012 MacBook Pro - This laptop is still in use for Mac only projects.

Wacom Cintiq Companion 2 - Recently retired. The pen digitizer became too glitch-y.

2017 HP Spectre X360 - My current laptop.

Game Consoles

Atari 2600 - Is there an American family from the 80's that didn't have one of these.

Nintendo Entertainment System - We purchased this and a box of games from a yard sale ... It was supposed to be broken, but the seller told me she thought it needed a new RF adapter. We already had a couple from the Atari 2600.

Nintendo GameBoy / Pocket / Micro / Color - My favorite handheld game console to this day. I had several devices and over 100 games. My favorite GameBoy in particular is the original GameBoy DMG.

Sega Genesis / Sega CD / Sega 32X - My favorite game console, excluding the 32X. I only have about two dozen games. That was because our Video rental store specialized in Sega Rentals. Well at least until the Sony PlayStation was released.

Sega GameGear - It was a good game system with a decent library. It had several problems though. Poor battery life, expensive peripherals, and many of the games were overpriced.

Panasonic 3DO - A very short-lived game system. I only had 10 games. My favorite 3DO game was SNKs Samurai Shodown. It was way overpriced.

Sony PlayStation - It made sense since the local video rental place had a ton of games to rent.

Sega Dreamcast - By this time our video rental place stopped renting games for newer systems. The DreamCast was an awesome gaming system. I purchased mine from a used electronics store.

GameBoy Advance - Everything I loved about the GameBoy only with better graphics.

Nintendo GameCube - This one is simple. Metroid Prime (GameCube) + Metroid Fusion (GameBoy Advance). Other than the Metroid Prime Series I had about a dozen other games.

PlayStation 3 - Got it and a bag of games from a friend.

XBOX One S - I only have a few games for this system. I really purchased this as a replacement for an Apple TV.

SmartPhones

Nokia N80 ie - My favorite Symbian phone.

Apple iPhone

Apple iPhone 3GS - One of my favorite iPhones.

Nokia 700

Samsung Galaxy Nexus - My first Android phone.

Samsung Focus - The phone that made me hate Samsung.

Apple iPhone 5C - The phone that changed my mind about the Apple ecosystem.

Sony Xperia 5C - My favorite Android phone so far.

Sony Xperia  XZ1

OnePlus 7T - My current phone.

Tablets / PDA

Oregon Scientific AM888FL organizer

Cybiko - All of the kids in the house had one. Too bad it was obsolete before my parents purchased them at Big Lots.

Apple iPad

Apple iPad 2

Apple iPad Mini Retina - My favorite Apple iPad of all time.

Apple iPad Air 2

Wacom Cintiq Companion 2 - Recently retired. The pen digitizer became too glitch-y. Yes, this was also in the laptop list.

Asus MemoPad 7CX -  My first Android tablet, and an excellent tablet as well.

Nvidia Shield Tablet K1 - Highly regarded as one of the best Android Gaming tablets of it's time

Apple iPad (8th Generation) - the 128 GB model. You can read the review my review here.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 - My current favorite tablet of all time.

Maker Boards

Raspberry Pi 2B

Raspberry Pi 3B - Used for several learning projects. I also used it as a test board for kiosks I was designing for companies

Asus Tinkerboard (first gen) I used this for my PiHole ad blocker. It has a gigabit ethernet port where the Raspberry Pi 3B had megabit ethernet. I passed it on to a friend when the 4th gen Raspberry Pi released.

Raspberry Pi Zero W - This will be at the heart of my RetroFlag GPi case.

Raspberry Pi 4B - I have a few of these. One is a testing board for Internet projects. One is running a PiHole, and one is currently the mainboard of a retro gaming machine.

Raspberry Pi CM4 - The upgrade for my RetroFlag GPi case.

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Project Summer Fun Overview

It's been a long year, and now I feel the need to have a little fun. I was going to upgrade a small computer to use as a home entertainment PC, but the PCs BIOS blocked adding PCIe GPU. So I have moved on to an alternate plan. I am going to build two retro gaming devices. The one retro gaming console will be a set-top box of some form. The other device will be a portable handheld gaming device. The gaming systems will use Raspberry Pi based computers.

Gaming Console Parts List

Raspberry Pi 4

Retroflag NESPI4 Case

64 GB Micro SD Card

Batocera Linux

8BitDo SF30 Gamepad

8BitDo Pro 2 Gamepad

In a later upgrade I will install a 500GB SATA SSD drive.

Handheld Gaming Console

Raspberry Pi Zero W

Retroflag GPi Case

64 GB Micro SD Card

Batocera Linux

In a later upgrade I will upgrade the Raspberry Pi to a Compute Module 4 using a Retro Game Restore GPiMate Plus for CM4 Lite, and a 256 GB Micro SD Card.

My next article as part of Project Summer Fun is a review of the Retroflag NESPi 4 case. My next Up To Date article is on RISC.

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Up To Date - RISC

What is the RISC microarchitecture?

RISC stands for Reduced Instruction Set Computer. The modern concepts of RISC date back to the late 70's, though concepts and features of RISC date back to the 1960's.

IBM began the design process of the 801 in 1975, and completed it in 1980. The 801 is officially the first RISC based microprocessor. It was designed for telephone switches. Risc allows for fast calculations providing fast switching speeds. The 801 had the ability to process 300 switch operations per second. Above 1 million switching operations per hour.

That is what RISC architecture is designed for. It's capable of processing incredible amounts of information. That is as long as the calculations performed are low complexity.

Through the early 90's RISC processors were used in industrial and communications equipment. They were also used in some supercomputing equipment. The only desktop computer manufacturer using RISC based CPUs was Acorn in the UK. I talked about Acorn in a previous article that can be found here.

In the 90's RISC made its way to desktop computers and workstations in the US. Apple released the PowerMac computer line powered by the Motorola Power PC 601. The PowerPC processor series were a collaboration between Apple, IBM, and Motorola. It powered Macs from 1994 through 2006. Apple wasn't the only company to jump on the RISC bandwagon though. IBM, Cray, and Sun microsystems made RISC based supercomputers, servers and workstations. In 2006 Apple switched to the CISC based Intel X86 / X64 microprocessors. Apple recently switched back to the arm based Apple M1 RISC based microprocessors.

Risc microprocessors are in heavy use today in everyday life. They are at the heart of your phone or tablet, and at the heart of many of the servers that deliver the Internet.

RISC versus CISC

CISC stands for Complex Instruction Set Computer. CISC microprocessors are better at processing more complex calculations. RISC microprocessors have to break down complex calculations into simpler operations. CISC based microprocessors can process them much faster without breaking them down. It comes down to RISC = simple math processes, CISC = complex math processes. The perfect microprocessor would consist of both RISC and CISC cores.

Conclusion

This is a brief overview of the RISC architecture. It is here to define the RISC architecture in common terms. The next article is a brief build guide for a Raspberry Pi based retro game console. In an upcoming article I will outline the computers and devices I have owned over the years. In a future article I will review the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7. Please check back for more articles.

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Up To Date - The Acorn RISC Microprocessor - The History of arm Semiconductor

Introduction

Most of us keep a small computer in our pocket or at arms reach every minute of the day. Your cell phone, tablet, smart watch and smart TV or set-top-box all use an arm microprocessor. The current incarnation of arm microprocessors owes its technology to its predecessor ARM. This is the history of Acorn computers, and the birth of arm.

The Brief History of Acorn

Acorn Computers is sometimes referred to as the British Apple. They were established in Cambridge, England in 1978. They produced many popular computers like the Acorn Electron and Archimedes. In the 1980's Acorn and the British Broadcasting Company produced the BBC Micro. The collaborative computer dominated the educational market in the UK. It also dominated the home computer markets.

Acorn was in competition with Sinclair (Timex Sinclair for the US), Commodore, Apple, and the PC. Sinclair and Commodore were in control of the low-end 8-bit computer market. The Sinclair spectrum series of computers were a mainstay European homes. The Commodore 64 is one of the best selling personal computers of all time. Apple Computers controlled the education market in the US and was threatening Acorn in the UK. In the 80's the PC was the leading business computer available due to the popularity of DOS.

To hone their competitive edge, they decided to move away from the 6502 chip. Their hardware architecture designers were 1nspired by the Berkeley RISC project. VLSI was chosen as the manufacturing partner for the new microprocessor. In 1984 the ARM microprocessor was born.

In 1985 Acorn was bleeding debt. The news emerged that Acorn owed over 3.1 million pounds (8.3 million pounds in 2021) to various creditors. Acorn signed an agreement with Olivetti computers (an Italian computer manufacturer). Olivetti continued to buy up stock in the company. The Acorn RISC Microprocessor project was a secret from Olivetti until negotiations were completed. With the sale completed to Oliovetti, Acorn had the resources to complete their new RISC chip. The first generation ARM microprocessor was completed on April 26 1985.

From 1986 through the late 90's Acorn continued to make computers for the BBC. They released the BBC Micro Master series of computers. This included X86 compatible versions of the BBC Master. In 1987 Acorn released the Archimedes A300 using ARM microprocessors and the new RISC OS. They continued to release faster Archimedes systems through the A7000 in 1994. Their next computer came in the form of the RISC PC which used the StrongARM microprocessor and RISC OS 2. In the early 90's they released a laptop, a custom Psion Series 3 PDA, the NewsPad, and several set-top boxes. Acorn and their silicon partner VLSI spun it's microprocessor business into ARM semiconductor. Acorn, Apple and VLSI were the major investment partners in ARM. VLSI was the primary licensor of the technology.

Acorn also designed other computing devices like set-top boxes and DVRs. They licensed a palm-top computer from Psion Systems. It was based on the Psion Series 3 with rebranded software for Acorn. They also designed and manufactured a laptop computer. At the time the set-top boxes were ahead of their time. The palm-top computer failed to meet sales expectations. The laptop couldn't compete with the Apple PowerBook, and PC laptops available at the time. With the failure of these products Acorn's debt was rising.

In 1998 Acorn had losses of 9 Million Pounds. They started spinning off and selling parts of the company. Acorn's OS division was spun off into RISC OS Ltd. They licensed the distribution rights to the currently available computers to Castle Technologies. Pace Micro Technologies purchased Acorn's set-top box division. In 1999 the remaining assets in Acorn Computers were renamed to Element 14. In 2000 the ARM semiconductor division was spun-off into arm Ltd.

Fast forward to 2021. Arm is the licensor for the microprocessor architecture in most mobile devices. That includes microprocessors from Qualcomm, Huawei, MediaTek and Broadcom.

Conclusion

Acorn revolutionized the computers industry. It helped to miniaturize the computer to a device that can fit in your pocket. Arm RISC microprocessors power many new power efficient laptop and desktop computers. With the immense promise of RISC-V it proves that there is more to come from the RISC architecture. The future of computing sure is bright.

Coming Up

Project Summer Fun is here. The first article is an overview of this year's Project Summer Fun. My next Up To Date article is about RISC microprocessors. There are product reviews and build guides on the way. As usual there will be more artwork posted to my art BLOG, and musings in my personal blog and Deviant Art pages.

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My Thoughts on the XP-Pen Artist 24 Pro

I have been a Wacom user for years. I started out using a small Intuos 2, got a larger Intuos 3, several Bamboo tablets, and 3 Cintiqs. My last Cintiq was the Cintiq Companion 2. I had a love-hate relationship with it. The touch features were hit and miss, and the pen digitizer would on occasion stop working. It recently died.

So, I went shopping to get a new tablet. The tablet I settled on is the XP-Pen Artist 24 Pro. This is not a review ...

The Specs

This is a 24" pen tablet measuring 24.8" X 14.56" X 1.76". Coming from a 13" Cintiq this new pen tablet is a beast. It has a 23.8" Quad HD display (2560 X 1440 resolution), that is a pixel density of 122 pixels per inch. It is a non-laminated display. That means that there is a thin air-gap between the panel and the glass, though it is un-noticeable. The tablet has a pre-installed matte screen protector. It has a display capable USB-C port allowing for video and USB to be transmitted through one cable. For those computers without a USB-C connection the tablet comes with an HDMI port and cable. You will still use the USB-C port for data using the included USB-A to USB-C cable. Finally there is a 2-port USB-3 hub. It has a pre-attached stand that is well designed and capable. The pen has 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity.

My Impressions

This tablet is built like a tank. It weighs over 15 lbs. The panel is bright and vibrant, and the pen is accurate. All 5 illustrations I have drawn have been a joy. The stylus is accurate, the pen strokes are clean. The parallax offset is so minor that it rarely (if ever) creeps in. The only thing I still need to get used to is the fact that the pen does not have an eraser nib.

My Gripes and More Thoughts

I do not have any complaints. This tablet is a $900 rock star. The closest thing that Wacom offers to this is the 16" ($650) or 22" ($1200) Wacom Cintiq with a resolution of 1920 X 1080. Both tablets offer slightly better pen performance but with lower quality displays. Huion offers their Kamvas Pro 24 for around $900 with similar specs to the XP-Pen Artist 24 Pro (sans the USB-C port). The new design of the stand and tablet chassis, and the more vibrant display pushed the XP-Pen ahead of Huion.

Conclusion

No it doesn't have touch (thank the heavens, Wacom's palm rejection was horrible), a 4K display, or an eraser nib. The lacking eraser nib is a bummer, but that seems to be a Wacom thing. Everything else is top notch. I would even go as far as to say that it is an improvement from my Cintiq Companion 2. The larger screen size is a treat to work with providing a larger canvas for more detailed artwork. With the competition from Xp-Pen, and Huion there are a lot of great products that can compete with Wacom. This is especially true in mid-range pen displays. XP-Pen and Huion's tablets come close to Wacom's Cintiq Pro line. All at a much more reasonable price than Wacom's Pro offerings (less than half the price). It is a good time to be a digital artist.

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Changing Plans

Things have been rather precarious. The last two weeks of February, and the first week of March I was stuck in bed with an infection in my foot.

Upon getting out of bed, and getting back to work I began working on Project Commuter. The only problem is that Gateway E-2100 slim-line PC thaT I am using for the project has a locked BIOS. I upgraded the RAM to 8GB, but I cannot install a GPU (I borrowed a friend's Yeston slim-line AMD RX 540). The computer does not register that the GPU is even installed. So I came to the conclusion that even though there is a PCIe slot I cannot install the card.

So, moving on. Early next year I was planning several retro gaming projects with a couple Raspberry Pi. The parts will start arriving any day now. I will be waiting until July for the single board computers though as they are on backorder. I will not be able to write any reviews or project builds until I get the parts.

I will have an article about my new drawing display (XP-Pen Artist Pro 24) by the end of April. Please look forward to it.

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Product Review - Auray BAI-2N

A friend of mine has been grumbling about the quality of my microphone. As I was discussing what I needed I created a list to buy next year (2021). Fast forward to the beginning of 2021 and I got a late Christmas / early birthday gift from said friend. It arrived in a box from my favorite electronics store. Inside was a desktop mic arm. This is the review of the Auray BAI-2N.

It took me almost 2 months to write this review. A good chunk of that time was finding the Mic. The troubles caused by covid, scalpers, tariffs ...etc.

Package Contents

Inside the box is the desk clamp, permanent mounting hardware, the boom pole extension, and the mic arm.

Setup

The basic setup is simple. Figure out where you want to place the clamp for the mic arm, and attach the clamp to the side of the desk. Attach the boom extension (optional). Install the Mic Arm. Finally attach the Mic and run the cables to connect to your sound board, amp, or computer.

Do you need the Boom Extension?

It all depends on how you want to set up your Mic. I found that the boom pole extension helped get the mic over my displays. It also keeps the mic out of my face while I am playing games. It is the best feature of the mic arm.

Thoughts

From what I can find on Amazon Auray is the only company that makes this type of mic arm. There are a couple other mic arms that offer similar functionality though.

The build quality of the BAI-2N is great. It can hold up to 5 pounds with no stability issues. The joints seem to be a bit stiff, but that is due to the hidden coil compression springs built into the arm. When moving the arm around it feels solid and sturdy. When setting up your audio it is a good idea to figure out where you want your mic. Then, when you are not using your mic you can swing it out of the way.

Conclusion

At first I was a little skeptical about the need for a better audio solution for game chat. But after using this mic arm in conjunction with my new mic I have to agree that this is a better setup. I do not think it would have worked out as well without this particular mic arm. As for my new mic, the HyperX Quadcast S, I will have a review for it in a couple of months.

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Up To Date - Everything You Need to Know about Nokia

Nokia is a Finnish company started by Fredrik Idestam, Leo Mechelin, and Eduard Polón. The company was founded in 1865 in Tampere, Grand Duchy of Finland in 1865. The company produced consumer paper products.

In the late 1800s Nokia moved into electricity generation. In the 20's Nokia and Finnish Rubber Works entered into a partnership with the Cable Factory. The goal of this partnership was to manufacture electrical cables.

In the 1960's Nokia AB, Finnish Rubber Works, and the Cable Factory merged to create Nokia Inc. They began manufacturing communication radios, military equipment, respirators, gas masks, chemicals, telephone switches etc ... Nokia became a major trade asset with the Soviet Union due to Finland's trade agreement with the USSR.

In 1970's under the leadership of Kari Kairamo Nokia transformed itself. Nokia purchased technology companies like Salora and Luxor. This added television and computer and computer development and manufacturing to Nokia's repertoire. This made Nokia the third largest television manufacturer in Europe.

In the 80's Nokia began purchasing telecommunication assets like Germany's Standard Elektrik Lorenz SEL included brands that were part of the US conglomerate International Telephone & Telegraph. In 1988 Nokia acquired Ericcson's Information Systems. Nokia also began working on the GSM standard with Siemens.

Nokia 8810 advertisement

On to the 90's to what most people in the US know about Nokia. Nokia began building telecommunications technology for cellular networks. They also began manufacturing cellular radios for phones. In 1991 the first GSM cellular phone call used Nokia's equipment. The first Nokia GSM phone was released in 1992 called the 1011. It had a base price of 234 GBP2 ($686 in 2021 US currency). In the US the big Nokia phone releases were the Nokia 3110 series (1997), 3210 series (1999), the 8110 Matrix phone (1996 ... also known as the banana phone), 5110 (1998). All these phones had a high price tag when they released, but dropped in price fast. In 1998 Nokia and Psion co-founded Symbian. It was started with the goal of creating pocket computing devices.

Nokia N95 advertisement

In the 2000's Nokia continued to release standard phones like the ones that they released in the 90's. They also created unique mobile phones designed more for style rather than function. A few examples are the Nokia 3650, and the  Nokia 7280. Nokia also released smartphones based on the Symbian OS. These phones were the media focused N series, the business E series, and the XpressMusic series. Nokia also released several phones in the 6000 series that were Symbian based phones. Some of the most popular symbian of the early 2000's were the Nokia N73, N80ie, N85, N95, E90 5320 XpressMusic, and the 6720. Nokia also developed several tablets using Maemo, a Linux based OS. The Nokia 770, N800, N810, and the N900 development model all used Maemo. Maemo got rolled into the MeeGo Linux OS. It ran on the Nokia N900 (the N900, N950, and N9 are the only Nokia devices running MeeGo).

In 2007 Apple released the Apple iPhone, and this put pressure on Nokia, Sony, HTC and Samsung. Nokia and Sony's smartphones used on Symbian. Sony and HTC's smartphones used Windows mobile and Linux. In 2008 Google's Android debuted on the HTC Dream (T-Mobile G1). This added more pressure to the Symbian and Windows Mobile phone makers. HTC, who already released the Dream Android phone, Sony and Samsung changed to Android. Nokia had the opportunity to switch from Symbian to Android. They decided to double down on Maemo. This pulled resources from the Symbian OS development team. Nokia released the Nokia X series and C series Symbian based phones.

Nokia N8 advertisement

In 2010 Nokia released the Nokia N8, and the E7 communicator. These phones use the Symbian^3 operating system. This was Nokia's answer to the iPhone and Android phones. In early 2011 Nokia released the Nokia 600, 700, and 701. In February 2011 Nokia entered into a partnership with Microsoft. Nokia was looking for a replacement for Symbian, and Microsoft needed a manufacturer. Nokia also announced the discontinuation of the Symbian OS to focus on MeeGo. The Nokia N9 released later in June 2011. It was discontinued in September 2011.

Nokia N9 advertisement

In 2012 Nokia began releasing Lumia mobile phones for Microsoft. The first Lumia phones were the Nokia 710, 800 and 900. The 800 and 900 used the polycarbonate design from the Nokia N9. Nokia produced 35 phones between mid-2011 and the end of 2014. Nokia sold their mobile phone division to Microsoft in 2014.

Nokia Lumia 920 advertisement

In 2016 rumors abound about the return of Nokia. As the year continued HMD global announced that they licensed the Nokia name. In 2017 the Nokia name returned to the mobile phone market. Now making Android phones they have cranked out great phones across in each of the major markets. Budget phones like the 1, 2, and 3 series, mid-range phones like 5 and 6 series, and the high end 7, 8, and 9series. They have also released some nostalgic classic phones like the Nokia 8110 and the 3310. Some of the most notable releases from the new Nokia are the 9 PureView, 8 Sirocco, 7 Plus, and the 8.1.

Nokia 8 Sirocco advertisement

Nokia is still involved in industrial manufacturing, cable manufacturing, and telephone equipment manufacturing. They are a major provider of 5G cellular transceivers. They are also still making phones through their license with HMD Global. Nokia will likely continue to manufacture telecom and industrial goods well into the future. As for HMD Global’s release of Nokia phones only time will tell. The phones are reasonably popular and as long as that continues the HMD will have no problems continuing the Nokia line.

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The Paper Chase - Upcoming Reviews

The paper chase usually means that a person is trapped in the red tape process. In my case it is the process of finding a new printer and scanner.

Both my multi-function printer (MFC) and my Super B3 (also known as Tabloid +) printer died. The MFC was also my main scanner.

The closest scanner to the one on my Canon Pixma MF 8120 is the Canon 8800F which no longer works with Windows 10. So I am searching for a comparable scanner to the one on the MFC, and a couple good printers.

The problem is that professional scanners cost more than $1,000. Most sub $200 scanners are designed for occasional use. My usage case sits between occasional use and professional use.

It's the same with printers. Home / office printers are not enough, and Office printers are too feature rich and expensive. On top of that Photo printers have become way too expensive.

It is becoming a long drawn out process to find the best equipment for my needs.

Here is a list of upcoming articles:

Using a CanoScan 8800F in 2021

XP-Pen Artist Pro 24

A graphics card review (either an RTX 3080, RTX 3080 Super, or RTX 3080ti ... Not sure which)

A Generation Zero Upgrade

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Merry Christmas.

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A Rough Couple of Weeks

About 2 weeks ago my financial information was leaked, and money was stolen from my account. My bank did their job, and called me, canceled the card, and started the process to get my money back. I commend my bank for all of their hard work. Now I am presented with another problem. A friend who works in digital security covering Digital Identity Theft sent me a report. It identifies how bad my digital security is. So over the last week I have begun the process of changing my security practices. That is a future article topic.

For the last couple of weeks I have been changing passwords and setting up a new e-mail address. It’s going to take another week or two.

I do have some upcoming articles for Mac Switch, and I will likely have some new artwork to post as well so stay tuned.

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The Apple iPad 8th Generation - My new Tablet, What Apple Does Right

In the hunt for a tablet I came to the conclusion that the best mid-range tablet, regretfully, is an iPad. Yeah, I know. I said that I would never buy a new iPad, and here I am with a new unit. Before I get an email box full of complaints about my new iPad, there is a reason for this choice.

Apple's 8th Gen iPad

Apple's 8th Gen iPad looks just like the 7th gen iPad. Same exact design, chassis materials, screen, home button, size, weight. It's where Apple saves money. A design that is ages old, tested and true, and will not bend.

The 8th Gen iPad has an Apple A12 mobile processor. This is a big upgrade over the 7th generation's A10. It provides faster processing and graphics processing. The 8thgen iPad has the same 3GB of RAM as the 7th Gen iPad. It also has the same 32 or 128 Gigabytes of storage.

Pros

Zippy A12 microprocessor (GeekBench 5 scores - 1112 Single, 2403 Multi-core)

Classic Design (I know everyone else is calling it dated)

Great Price (32 Gig model is $329, 128 Gig model is $429)

Apple Pencil support

One free year of Apple TV plus

Great Selection in Apple's App Store

Cons

Apple's own accessories are expensive ($159 for the smart keyboard, $89 for the Apple Pencil)

Tied to the Apple ecosystem

Stuck with Apple's App Store (i.e. no side loading of apps)

The Closest Android Competition at the Price

The closest Android competitor is the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite ($349 64-Gig, $429 128-Gig). The S6 like pack's the Exynos 9611 (GeekBench 5 scores - 347 Single, 1229 Multi-core). It is a fast enough processor, but it is half the performance of the A12. There are features that the Tab S6 Lite got right. It has a more modern design that will not bend (unlike the iPad Pro). It's most important differentiators are a, SD card slot and a Wacom EMR digitizer (pen included).

What Apple Does Right and Where the Android Chip Makers Fail

Apple only manufactures a few chips at the same time. Currently they are manufacturing the A12, A12Z (more CPU and GPU cores), A13, and the A14. The A12 and A13 are used in Apple's entry-level devices. The A12Z is currently used in Apple's iPad Pro line, though that will change in the next couple of months. The A14 is used in the 4th Gen iPad Air, and the iPhone 12 series. Next year the 9th Gen iPad will likely inherit the A13. Using older generation CPS helps keep base model cost down. It also provides entry-level devices with good performance.

Qualcomm, Samsung, Mediatek ... all design,  engineer and manufacture many CPUs every year. From flagship mobile CPUs to low end CPUs for budget phones and tablets. Qualcomm could have lowered the price of their Snapdragon 855 CPU for mid-range use. They instead created new mid-range CPUs in the 600 and 700 series. If the Galaxy Tab S6 Lite was equipped with a Snapdragon 855 It would be more comparable to the A12 powered iPad.

Conclusion

Apple's use of years old design, and 2-year-old CPU allow them to create good tablets at a great price. It's part of the reason that they have managed to maintain control of the tablet market. It's why, with all the shopping I did, I ended up buying an iPad over the Galaxy Tab S6 Lite.

In 2 weeks I will be writing about Nokia's history, and how it shaped the smart phone industry today.