The Cisco Company has demonstrated a new huge all-in-one PC, called Spark Board.



This device has got a 55-inch 4K UHD touch screen, though, an optional 70” version is forthcoming. Key Spark Board specifications also include a camera, supporting 4K video, speakers, several microphones, wireless interface adapters, HDMI, Gigabit Ethernet and two USB 3.0 ports. The Cisco AIO is driven by the NVIDIA's Jetson TX1 supercomputer with 1 TFLOPS Tegra SoC.

The platform under consideration was chosen to implement benefits of Cisco Spark Board OS functions.


Mostly the novelty is intended for meetings and simultaneously operates as a screen for presentations, an interactive board for collaboration and a conferencing device.


Spark Board weighs 39.8 kg and is 814 х 1283 х 49 mm in size. It is available at the cost of $5000 plus one should pay extra $200 per month for the software.

The elaboration of completely new APUs, codenamed Kaveri, compelled AMD work up one more suitable CPU socket – FM2+. Once after its launch, the leading manufacturers of motherboards have reacted on-the-fly, releasing proprietary models for a new platform. Asus, as usual, was among the first to introduce fresh solutions. Motherboard A88X-Pro is remarkable by the support of upcoming APUs, though it will be still possible to incorporate hybrid processors of the current generation for Socket FM2. For sure, this is not a mere advantage of the board. Let’s have a look at some other specs.



Key Peculiarities


Asus A88X-Pro is developed on AMD A88X chipset and houses an onboard Radeon HD 7000/8000 series graphics. The PCB allots 4 DIMM slots for DDR3 SDRAM modules. An overall capacity of modules set might achieve 64 GB, whereas an ultimate supported clock frequency makes up 2400 MHz. Expansion section is not as bright as a demanding customer would desire; nonetheless, it …

Intel launched much talked-about CPU series of Broadwell-E generation, entitled Core i7. The items are based on 14-nm microarchitecture, targeting Socket LGA2011-v3 platforms. In order to integrate them within current lineup of mainboards on Intel X99 chipset, it’s vital to update BIOS.



The series includes 4 processors: a pair of 6-core, one 8-core, and one 10-core units. All of them support Hyper-Threading technology and feature 140 W TDP. Besides, the new-comers employ DDR4 controller that supports DDR4-2400 MHz memory modules.


CPU Intel Core i7-6800K houses 28 PCI Express rails. Thus, it does not support the creation of such graphics configurations as Nvidia SLI or AMD CrossFireX (x16+x16). The unit consists of 6 cores & 12 channels, running at 3.4/3.6 GHz clock frequency. It also accommodates 15 MB of L3 cache. Thus, the price tag makes up $434.


Intel Core i7-6850K features 6 cores, 12 streams & 15 MB cache. It operates at 3.6/3.8 GHz frequency. The price tag …