Intel created Moblin is an open-source operating system for notebooks and, in particular, the kind of people who make use of them.
On a mechanical level Moblin is developed for the Atom x86 chips found in many notebooks, while on a realistic level Moblin is an Internet and multimedia focused operating system. Moblin is not as much of about making worksheets on the go and more about watching movies on the go, updating your Face book account, and twittering.
Basically, Moblin is just one more circulation of Linux though it’s one that gains from some exceptional fine-tunes and a fundamental user interface. Although, conventional applications take a rear seat, and a few you might be expecting are missing e.g. OpenOffice.org. Moblin is based on the well-known GNOME/GTK desktop, like Ubuntu, but this is for the most part undetectable because of the User Interface improvements.
Moblin is an open source, and free of cost, so you can download and try it by yourself. Similar to the majority of Intel’s conventional processors, the Atom is basically an x86 chip, so you should be able to run Moblin on almost every computer, or in a virtualized setting. However, it needs 3D graphics drivers and is also optimized for low resolution widescreen displays. In addition, its hardware support is intentionally restricted to what is generally found in notebook computers.
The first beta of Moblin v2.0 has just been released. Let us look at the Moblin and its features.
Getting Started
There are brutal bugs in the beta release. It does not support many hardware from different vendors. Its browser does not allow clicking in text fields and thus not allowing using services requiring logins.
By the way, and perhaps amazingly, Moblin seems not to know that Google exists. You can setup G Talk for conversation, but its browser proposes searching Yahoo! by default.
It seems a little like that Moblin developer has sponsored the mistaken horse here. They could perhaps have tie-ins with the Gmail and Google.
Moblin comprises of a real email client, apparently based on Evolution, and is astonishing. But perhaps let’s discuss with the explanation of Moblin’s looks and feels.
In one sentence, Moblin looks and feels great. It is having Apple like intensity of pleasant appearance.
Crossways the top of the display is a variety of icons representing various tricks you can do. This is in actual fact a hovering toolbar, as it vanishes when you don’t require it. When the mouse rolls over the toolbar, its icons shake in a neat way. This gives everyone an enjoyable experience. Moblin is meant for things you want to do, not the things you have to do.
The hovering toolbar at the top had a tendency of popping down when you go to click the close button on an application window, such as the browser.
The beta condition of this release is particularly obvious and this release feels more like an alpha release. A beta version should at least be purposeful, if with bugs. This release is simply not viable for its proposed purpose. It’s not even near to prepared for the real-world.

In the height of global warming and energy efficiency debates, supercomputer maker IBM is heeding to the call of the time. In 2010, IBM is scheduled to launch a water-cooled supercomputer that is 40 percent more energy efficient compared to today’s air-cooled supercomputers. Not only that, they are also looking at the possibility of farming the excess processor-generated heat to heat up some parts of the building where it’s housed.

To give you a ballpark idea of what the green supercomputer buzz is all about, existing supercomputers processing 500+ teraflops per second consumes about 257 KW. Imagine the energy savings if future breed of supercomputers runs 40 percent more energy efficient using water-cooling instead of air-cooling system. The energy saving is more than enough to make Al Gore happy.

The first ever water-cooled supercomputer to be launch by IBM in 2010 in Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, called Aquasar, is capable of processing 10 teraflops per second. You don’t think it comes close to the 500+ teraflops in other supercomputers? Well, just imagine then that your Core 2 Duo processor is capable of only 20 gigaflops per second – a mere 1/500 of Aquasar’s speed. This massive processing power generates massive heat that needs to dissipate efficiently to maintain the life and the processing capability of these multi-million machines. In Zurich where heat is a resource, IBM is breaking grounds to farm this otherwise useless heat to heat up the building.

IBM’s Bruno Michel, manager at IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, said that “If we can capture and transport the waste heat from the active components in a computer system as efficiently as possible, we can reuse it as a resource.” This is one bold and noble project of the leading supercomputer manufacturer. IBM recognized that the battle over who manufactures the most efficient supercomputer is no longer won through processing speed and performance alone. Energy efficiency is in the game.

Dimos Poulikados, lead investigator of the Aquasar project, is quoted saying “Energy is arguably the number one challenge humanity will be facing in the 21st century. We cannot afford anymore to design computer systems based on the criterion of computational speed and performance alone.”

IBM designed Aquasar to achieve chip level water cooling. The chips are cooled through a system of capillaries and micro-channel coolers that are positioned against the back of the processors itself. IBM’s imaginative invention is unparalleled as they are the only one who managed to place a micro-channel cooler closest to a processor without affecting its performance. A pump ensures proper circulation pumping 7.9 gallons per minute of water in the system. The next challenge is to farm the heated water to go to the building’s heating system to become another source of heat.

With IBM’s dedication to energy efficiency and design innovation, supercomputers can finally join the environmental movement to save the planet. No longer will they be a mere energy-gobbling super machine, but the green seal can finally be attached to them also.