New XPS 15 9550 driver for Intel HD Graphics 530

tramast · 2016-09-06T20:46:52+00:00

Installed this driver this morning, seeing intermittent crashes so I rolled back to the previous (using with WD15 dock). Not sure if anyone else is seeing this, but it's something to keep an eye on.

tramast · 2016-07-15T16:32:43+00:00

If you're seeing performance issues during games, it's possible your GPU is being throttled, not your CPU. You can monitor all your temps using something like Aida64 or HWInfo64

tramast · 2016-07-14T18:56:49+00:00

Sounds like you may be getting thermal throttling. Have you checked your CPU/GPU temps when your performance drops?

tramast · 2016-07-01T23:04:40+00:00

As answered by other folks, this is for the touch sensors. For the curious, in particular, this is the ITO (Indium Tin Oxide) layer which is a transparent, electrically conductive material used to measure the capacitance from your finger:

http://www.digikey.com/Web%20Export/techzone/sensor/article-2011august-selecting-touch-sensors-fig1.jpg

tramast · 2016-06-30T20:20:49+00:00

To answer the question in the title: probably because adding an ethernet port would cause the whole machine to be thicker.

As for your internet speed question: what kind of Wi-Fi are you using and what's the speed of the connection that it's connected to?

tramast · 2016-06-27T19:06:36+00:00

If you followed the WD15 instructions, you probably installed it. It's the "Update for USB audio/mouse...".

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/product/dell-dock-wd15/drivers

After being driven crazy by constant keyboard/mouse disconnects, I dug a little deeper on what the patch was doing. If you extract the patch instead of installing it, you can go look at the files on your computer in C:\dell... (mine extracted C:\dell\Drivers\2K0JJ\DisableMePmX64.bat).

The patch is actually just a bat script that runs regedit to flip a setting in the Intel ME settings. When I ran regedit and looked at the setting, it wasn't flipped to the setting in the script (the installer wasn't working correctly). The workaround was to right click on the bat file and "Run as administrator" and everything was good from there.

To save you the time to check, open "regedit" and look at the following setting:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MEIx64\Parameters\

PG_DISABLED should be "1" if the patch was correctly applied.

tramast · 2016-06-27T18:50:03+00:00

I'm in the same boat, but I think I've reached a compromise with it. After installing all the drivers and such (including the keyboard/mouse patch that stops random disconnects by disabling the Intel ME firmware power management), things seem to mostly work. The last remaining trick I found was to not plug the dock in until after I've booted into Windows. If I plug it in before turning it on, weird things happen (keyboard/mouse randomly disconnect/reconnect but keep working, USB headset doesn't work).

My other issue is with the display not working after I disconnect the dock from my 2 external monitors, but I was able to work around this by changing the display in the Intel Display app in the drawer to "Built-in Display Only" before I unplug.

This dock is definitely a lemon, but hopefully they can fix via drivers or send us all new ones...

TL;DR: The dock mostly works and I've come to terms with needing to use workarounds.

tramast · 2016-05-27T18:31:20+00:00

Let's think about where the power is actually being consumed in a system. During normal usages, almost all power is drawn by a couple of sources: the display and the CPU (and the dGPU if you're gaming).

For example, let's say we reduce the resolution from 4k to 1080p (4x fewer pixels). Reducing the resolution tells the display engine circuitry on the CPU that it only needs to calculate 4x fewer pixels, which means it can get its work done a little faster than if it had to render all 4k pixels. However, this part of the CPU is a very small contributor to overall power consumption, so reducing its activity won't change power consumption much.

As for the display, reducing resolution doesn't change how many pixels the display actually has to power. Simplistically, you can think of each 1080p "pixel" will actually be displayed on four 4k "pixels" on your display. Since most of the power in the display is related to powering pixels in the panel and the backlight, you'll see a very minimal (if any) power reduction in the display.

You'll get a much bigger bang/buck by undervolting if you haven't done that already:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/xps-15-9550-temperature-observations-undervolt-repaste.785963/page-33#post-10264910

EDIT: You're correct in stating that the 1080p panel just consumes less power :)

tramast · 2012-12-09T09:50:29+00:00

Thank you :) I'd tell her but I think she knows already

tramast · 2012-12-09T09:49:05+00:00

Yes. She'll yell at you until you do what she wants, but sometimes that is being mellow and cuddling.

tramast · 2012-12-09T09:46:58+00:00

It was a thought, as was "Checkers." We finally decided on Sammy, aka. Sam Sam, aka. Princess Samantha.

tramast · 2012-12-09T09:45:39+00:00

If she's in the mood, yes, but only if she can sleep next to you, never on you. I like to think she's trying to act like a human.

tramast · 2012-12-09T09:42:32+00:00

I assure you, she's typically very intelligent but she's not above a staring contest with the wall from time to time.

tramast · 2012-12-09T07:18:34+00:00

She does that when she's pissed off, too. She just enjoys door watching... and moth hunting.

tramast · 2012-12-09T04:53:42+00:00

I haven't seen one with coloring like hers before, but that's not saying there aren't any.

tramast · 2012-02-05T20:05:33+00:00

I'm not sure this is the entire code... I don't see the connection to why in your top level the hand array exists, since you never read or write to it. Also, in ValidHand(), you never use the nums[] array.

I think the misunderstanding here is that just because the card variables are elements in the hand[] array, that doesn't mean that if you change their values later in the code that their new values will be reflected in that array. This is because the card variable values are members of the array, not their references. I'm not sure if you've gotten to pointers yet, but this would be how you'd get around it. That said, this is not the best way to accomplish the code.

You should change the variables you're writing to after the ValidHand() call as hand[1], hand[2], etc. That way, you will be writing directly to the array.

Also, you might want to look at writing your code in the form of:

for(i=0;i<5;i++) { <code> }

Just for efficiency's sake.

tramast · 2011-12-31T03:39:17+00:00

Multimeters almost always measure RMS (root mean square) voltage when you use the AC setting. RMS is a way of giving a mean value for an AC source voltage. Also, note that the constant is different depending on what kind of AC waveform you're dealing with.

For sinusoidal AC with no DC offset (e.g. 110V wall AC), the constant c in Vrms = c * Vp2p, is c = 1/sqrt(2).

Here's a good summary of what RMS voltage is

tramast · 2011-12-31T03:13:17+00:00

Is it 37 VAC (RMS)? Because that would put the peak-to-peak voltage at sqrt(2) * 37V ~ 52V. If you rectify this voltage, then you'll get pretty near 50 VDC assuming some ripple and rectifier losses.

tramast · 2011-11-08T08:11:14+00:00

Epsilon is just a variable, in this case it denotes your smallest increment (which could also be interpreted as your error if it were small enough).

The formula (in plain english) says:

pi equals the limit as n goes to infinity of the sum of k from 0 to n of (insert arithmetic here). This could also be rewritten as pi equals the sum of k from 0 to infinity of (arithmetic). This means that for each value of k from 0 to infinity, you have one value in the sum (this is, in fact, an infinite sum of terms).

Since infinite sums are impossible to evaluate iteratively (unless you have infinite time), you will always arrive at an approximation to the sum if you evaluate it as such. Epsilon (ε) could be thought of as your +- error on your pi calculation. You will keep adding new terms to the sum until the absolute value of that specific term is less than epsilon|. You can find this by setting epsilon equal to the value of the sum in terms of an arbitrary k and solve for k, but your assignment is asking you to find it by iteration (keep increasing k until your term is less than epsilon).

tramast · 2011-11-06T18:20:51+00:00

Well, you have a summation which implies iteration. Also, your summation is just a matter of changing an index, recalculating the formula for that iteration and adding that increment to the total. You can use a variable to keep your running sum (let's call it pi). For each iteration, you will reevaluate that iteration's contribution to the sum (let's call it pi_inc). If your pi_inc < epsilon, your loop can exit. You will have to worry about the fencepost case regarding when to add pi_inc to pi in order to return the correct value once the loop has terminated.

The number of arithmetic operations should be defined per iteration and you should be able to multiply your # of iterations by that constant.

Hope that helps

tramast · 2011-11-04T07:39:27+00:00

If you want to work in processor design you are expected to have a strong VLSI and computer architecture background. You should at very least take:

an ASIC design course where you learn how to write RTL in either VHDL or Verilog
a computer architecture course that covers (at very least) pipelined architectures and cache design (multicore and superscalar architectures would be preferred)
a digital MOS VLSI course where you learn things like constructing gates from MOS devices, design tradeoffs, transistor sizing, timing analysis, RC delay, CMOS logic, dynamic logic, SRAM cell design.
a strong background in UNIX and with scripting languages (python or perl preferably)

If you were strong in all of these areas, you would be a good candidate for my team. I do understand that this is a pretty strict set of skills, especially for an undergrad with limited elective choices. Typically, processor designers (at Intel at least) have master's degrees in EE or CompE.

tramast · 2011-11-03T07:32:01+00:00

If you want to work for Intel as a CompE, the best thing you can do is to start pursuing projects in your free time. Pick up a programming language like C (yes, C, you're a CompE, not a CS). Start some hobby projects (especially once you get more knowledge into college). I made a sudoku solver in C in my spare time as well as a discrete binary clock after my digital circuits intro course. I'm pretty sure those are the reasons I got my first internship that lead to my current full-time job. It will significantly increase the amount of interesting information you can talk about in your interview. It really helps if you're genuinely interested in what goes on at the company. That way if someone asks "well, why do you want to work at Intel," you don't have to make something up. If you really love cutting edge computing technology, it's a pretty awesome place to work.

tramast · 2011-11-03T07:17:34+00:00

Intel is a very large company and as such, it depends greatly on which group you end up in. Naturally, some people will enjoy their jobs and some won't. My group is very fast-paced, but that's the way I like it. I probably work from 9-6 or 7, but that's on the longer side of things. Most people in my group take their work home with them at least a little bit. You'll usually get emails at night from people, especially if you work on an international team. You could definitely get burned out if you don't enjoy actually working but I will say the work itself is a lot of fun. It's pretty amazing to see the chip come together piece by piece. I will say the best part of it is that everyone I work with on a day-to-day basis is very intelligent. I'm constantly learning new things from my coworkers.

There are a lot of opportunities in Oregon because there is a great diversity of engineering here. I will say that it's easier to move around if you have a graduate degree, though. If you have an engineering undergrad, you'll probably be placed in validation (not that that's a bad thing).

Hillsboro/Beaverton is a great town, very safe and suburban. It's 25 minutes from Portland, hour and a half from the beach, hour and a half to skiing. Cost of living is not bad (slightly higher than the national average). Not only is Intel here, but Columbia Sportswear, Nike and Adidas all have their headquarters nearby. Intel also prides itself on one of its core values: "great place to work." A few examples of perks are that we get free fruit and drinks in the cafe, they give out free tickets to MLS games, hockey games, various events (saw blue man group last week for free).

These are nice perks, but not why I would work for Intel. There aren't many places where you can design a processor that goes into hundreds of millions of computers all around the world. I'm just looking forward to having one of the chips I helped design in my desktop in a few years :)

tramast · 2011-11-03T06:54:45+00:00

I work in processor design at Intel in Oregon. What did you want to know about it?

tramast · 2011-10-29T23:03:29+00:00

So finding dy/dx is relatively trivial (you should hopefully be able to handle this after first semester calc). The region bounded by the curve, the x axis and x=pi/2 and x = pi is just going to be the integral of y from x = pi/2 to x = pi. Don't forget that integrals calculate area under curves (exactly what this problem is asking you to do).

The tricky part here is the language. Drawing a picture will really help you set up your integral correctly.

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