SteveOH

This post provides a summary of performance tuning options for a Windows Server 2003 file server. Included is information on NTFS, lanmanserver, NIC, Disk and HBA performance tuning options. None should be used in a production environment without testing. Note that the Microsoft excerpts come from a 2008 performance tuning document, after verifying that the options are supported on 2003.

General Performance Settings

Disable 8.3 name creation

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem\NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation

Excerpt from Microsoft on this option:

The default is 0. This parameter determines whether NTFS generates a short name
in the 8.3 (MS DOS®) naming convention for long file names and for file names
that contain characters from the extended character set. If the value of this
entry is 0, files can have two names: the name that the user specifies and the
short name that NTFS generates. If the user-specified name conforms to the 8.3
naming convention, NTFS does not generate a short name.

Changing this value does not change the contents of a file, but it avoids the short-name attribute
creation for the file, also changing the way NTFS displays and manages the file.
For most file servers, the recommended setting is 1.

Note that when accessing files that go beyond the 260 MAX_PATH length, short filenames can be a very useful method of accessing these files.

Ignore Write Flush Commands from Clients

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters\TreatHostAsStableStorage
Excerpt from Microsoft on this option:

The default is 0. This parameter disables the processing of write flush commands
from clients. If the value of this entry is 1, the server performance and client
latency for power-protected servers can improve. Workloads similar to the
NetBench file server benchmark benefit from this behavior.

Network tuning

NIC Offloading

Newer NICs have offloading capabilities, allowing the Operating System to offload one or more tasks to the network adapter. For example, Broadcom BCM5708S NetXtreme II adapters have the following offload capability enabled:
• IPv4 Checksum offload – Calculation and validation of checksums on TX/RX of TCP and UDP packets
• IPv4 Large Send offload – Offload the segmentation of large packets to the hardware

TcpWindowSize

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\TcpWindowSize

Windows Server 2003 auto-tunes this setting, and benefits to manually choosing a window size are acknowledged in high-latency networks.

NumTcbTablePartitions

HKLM\system\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\NumTcbTablePartitions

Increasing this number from the default of 1 can decrease contention in the TCP/IP stack. Microsoft warns of modifying this setting without significant testing, with a recommended maximum of the number of processors in the system.

MaxFreeTcbs and MaxHashTableSize

HKLM\system\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\MaxFreeTcbs
HKLM\system\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\MaxHashTableSize

MaxFreeTcbs can be adjusted manually to set the maximum number of TCP control blocks the system creates. This number determines the simultaneous number of connections the server can handle. If MaxFreeTcbs is changed, MaxHashTableSize should also be modified, dictating the size of the hash table that stores the control blocks.

Disk Tuning

LargeSystemCache and LanManServer file system caching

The amount of memory allocated to file system caching can help to increase the disk cache hits for a file server. In Windows Server 2003 this setting is enabled by default, although a casual glance of the system working set and the lanmanserver service working set do not show a large amount of the available physical memory for cache.

Windows 2003 also has logical block caching in addition to caching at the file system level. Further information could not be found on configuring or measuring the performance of logical block level caching.

The file cache is part of the system working set, which is protected from excessive trimming when the LargesystemCache option is usedThe lanmanserver service working set must also be protect in some way, part of services.exe (use tasklist /svc).

CacheSet from sysinternals can be used to modify the system working set size

Excerpt from Microsoft TechNet:

The Memory object performance counter System Cache Resident Bytes reports the amount of real memory currently in use by the file cache. As the number of System Cache Resident Bytes increases, we normally expect that the various measures of hit ratio will also increase. Moreover, the cache size can grow simply as a function of the size of the files that are currently in use and their pattern of access.

The Cache Resident Bytes counter reports the amount of real memory the file cache is currently occupying. The Cache Bytes counter, which sounds like it might tell you the size of the cache, actually reports the full system working
set, which includes Cache Resident Bytes and several other real memory areas. In a Windows 2000 file server (remembering Windows 2000′s heritage as the follow-on to the joint IBM/ Microsoft-developed OS2 LAN Manager), the file cache so dominates the system working set that internal documentation frequently refers to the entire system working set as the cache. This usage carries over to tools like Task Manager, which labels the system working set as the System Cache in the Performance tab, illustrated in Figure 7-2. The Windows NT version of Task Manager called this field File Cache, which is probably just as misleading. Curiously, the number of bytes in the System Cache reported by Task Manager does
not correspond exactly to the Cache Bytes counter in the System Monitor.

Disk Alignment

Using disk alignment to realign partitions can occasionally decrease the number of disk I/O operations. This occurs because the MBR is on the first 63 sectors of a disk, and the first partition starts on the 64th sector instead of the 65th sector – the beginning of the next boundary. This is vendor and disk specific, and does not apply to every disk.

Excerpt from Microsoft TechNet:

Microsoft Windows 2000 Server has an internal structure known as the master boot
record (MBR) that limits the maximum number of hidden sectors to 63. This
characteristic of the MBR causes the default starting sector for disks that
report more than 63 sectors per track to be the 64th sector. Therefore, when
programs transfer data to or from disks that have more than 63 sectors per
track, misalignment can occur at the track level, with allocations starting at a
sector other than the starting sector. This misalignment can defeat system
optimizations of I/O operations that are designed to avoid crossing track
boundaries.

Diskpar.exe is a command-line tool from the Windows 2000
Server Resource Kit that can explicitly set the starting offset in the MBR. By
doing this, the track is aligned with the physical disk partition, which results
in an improvement in disk performance. Exchange writes four kilobytes to the
database and up to 32 kilobytes for the streaming data. Therefore, make sure
that you set the starting offset to be a multiple of four kilobytes.

Write-caching option on each disk

Excerpt from Microsoft on this option:

Enabling write caching allows writes to be completed immediately after being
cached in the storage subsystem. Note that with this action a period of time
passes during which a power failure or other catastrophic event could result in
a loss of the data. However, this period is typically fairly short because write
caches in the storage subsystem are usually flushed during any period of idle
activity. Alternately, you can use time-outs at the cache level to force dirty
data out of the cache even if other active requests exist.

This option is enabled by default on all SAN-attached storage

‘Advanced Performance’ option on each disk.

Excerpt from Microsoft on this option:

The advanced performance option strips all write-through flags from disk
requests and also removes all flush-cache commands. The assumption is that if
you have power protection on your I/O path you don’t need to worry about those
two pieces of functionality; by definition, any written data is safe and
“in-order” after it is copied into power-protected storage subsystem hardware,
just as if it had been written to the physical disk media.

This option is disabled by default on all SAN-attached storage.

Emulex Lightpulse scatter/gather list elements

“HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\lp6nds35″

Add (if not already present) the following Keys under lpxnds

Parameters->Device (Parameters apply to ALL LPxxx adapters)
or
->Devicen (Parameters apply to LPxxx adapter number ‘n’ 0-99)

Under Device or Devicen add a value of “MaximumSGList” Type REG_DWORD,
with a value of from 13 to 255 (decimal). Microsoft specifies to use
this value sparingly, as these request entries come from Non-Page-Pool.

Emulex Lightpulse asynchronous requests

“HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\lp6nds35″

Add (if not already present) the following Keys under lpxnds

Parameters->Device (Parameters apply to ALL LPxxx adapters)
or
->Devicen (Parameters apply to LPxxx adapter number ‘n’ 0-99)

Under Device or Devicen add a value of “NumberOfRequests” Type REG_DWORD,
with a value of from 16 to 256 (decimal). Microsoft specifies to use
this value sparingly, as these request entries come from Non-Page-Pool
(this is especially true with the ALPHA systems).

References:

Windows Server 2008 performance tuning
http://download.microsoft.com/download/9/c/5/9c5b2167-8017-4bae-9fde-d599bac8184a/Perf-tun-srv.docx

How To Improve Windows 2003 File Server Performance
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555041

CacheSet
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-au/sysinternals/bb897561.aspx

How to Configure the Storage Subsystem
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb643100.aspx

Examining and Tuning Disk Performance
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/Windows2000Pro/reskit/part6/proch30.mspx?mfr=true

Aligning Disk Partitions by Using Diskpar.exe
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb643097.aspx

PagedPoolSize
http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/en/library/b1bda681-28b0-4339-a4ea-feb0fd9ff0c01033.mspx?mfr=true

Optimizing Your Memory Configuration
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/reskit/core/fnec_evl_fhcj.mspx?mfr=true

About Cache Manager in Windows Server 2003
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/837331

MaxPagedMemoryUsage for the server sevice
http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/Library/357c7af1-7a0b-47a5-8af1-ff44756c498a1033.mspx

MaxPagedMemoryUsage for the server sevice
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/reskit/regentry/58636.mspx?mfr=true

LargeSystemCache
http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/library/efa621bd-a031-4461-9e72-59197a7507b61033.mspx

Optimizing Your Memory Configuration
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/reskit/core/fnec_evl_fhcj.mspx?mfr=true

File Cache Performance and Tuning
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb742613.aspx

Cluster resource command-line operation
http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/en/library/f6b35982-b355-4b55-8d7f-33127ded5d371033.mspx

File Cache Performance and Tuning
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb742613.aspx

About Cache Manager in Windows Server 2003
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/837331

How to Configure the Storage Subsystem
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb643100.aspx

Why should you use Diskpar
http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2005/08/10/408950.aspx

Emulex Lightpulse HBA device settings
http://contents.driverguide.com/content.php?id=106500&path=README.TXT

I have been an IT consultant for the past 5 years and in the industry for almost 10. My experience is vast and covers both hardware and software aspects of corporate and personal IT needs (click here for professional experience). My company, The Tech Guy, offers an extensive list of services, ranging from Web Development and Design, to emergency Data Recovery, network and system support, etc.

Below is concise list of the services we currently offer. If there’s something you need that is not on the list, please contact me (contact me anyway!) so that we can talk about it. Our services are affordable (cheap but of high quality) and we make a huge effort to fit in any budget.

Services:

• Web Development
• Application Programming
• Application Support
• Application updates and upgrading (Web and System level software)
• Software Installations
• Web Design
• Web Layouts
• Web Design: FLASH
• Web Design: Dynamic and static sites
• eCommerce – Shopping cart front and back-ends
• Club and Organization websites
• Affordable Non-Profit websites
• Network Support
• Network Installation
• Network Upgrade
• Network Device Installation and Support
• Computer Maintenance
• Computer Upgrade
• Computer Installation
• Computer Repair
• Data Recovery
• Hard Drive Failure: File and Data Recovery
• Hard Drive Format: File and Data Recovery
• Emergency Computer and Network Services
• Remote Support (anywhere in the world!)
• Virus Removal
• Spyware Removal
• Adware Removal
• Trojan and other Malware Removal
• Software Sales
• Hardware Sales
• New and Used equipment sales and installation
• Repair and Maintenance plans
• Full IT Outsourcing (We can be your IT department at less than 25% of the cost!)
• Blog Website Installations
• Joomla Websites
• Joomla Design
• Joomla Custom Applications
• Website Hosting
• Website Maintenance and Updating
• Image and Multimedia Editing
• Image Manipulation
• Digital Archiving
• Flyer Design
• Event Poster Design and Printing
• Flyer Printing
• Business Cards (Affordable!) Design
• Business Card Printing
• Pamphlet and Booklet Design and Printing
• Car Magnet Printing and Design
• Photography Services
• Business Services
• Marketing Services
• Full marketing campaign management
• Google Ads
• Yahoo Ads
• Microsoft Live Ads
• Search Engine Ads
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for new and existing sites
• Reporting and progress reports

All services provided by The Tech Guy, Changing the way you see IT, and are offered to Individuals and Business alike.

I’ve recently been struck by HORRENDOUS service by Comcast Cable here in South Florida.  I no longer wished to have the cable television service, because quite frankly, I don’t watch TV between work and school and extracurriculars. Anyway, I called Comcast and asked to have my cable disconnected but wanted to maintain my internet service (that I do use, I remote into my home network at least 10 hours a day while I’m not home).

Windws XP SP2 introduces a few new twists to TCP/IP in order to babysit users and “reduce the threat” of worms spreading fast without control. In one such attempt, the devs seem to have limited the number of possible TCP connection attempts per second to 10 (from unlimited in SP1). This argumentative feature can possibly affect server and P2P programs that need to open many outbound connections at the same time.Rant: The forward thinking of Microsoft developers here is that you can only infect 10 new systems per second via TCP/IP ?!?… If you also consider that each of those infected computers will infect 10 others at the same rate:
second 1:  1+10 computers
second 2: 10+10*10 computers (110 new ones)
second 3: 10+100*10 computers ( 1110 new ones)
second 4: 10+1000*10 computers (11110 new ones)
….
all the way to 10*60 + 10^60 computers in a single minute (that’s a number with 60 digits, or it would far exceed Earth’s population). Even if we consider that 90% of those computers are unreachable/protected, one would still reach ALL of them within a minute.

In other words, even though it is not going to stop worm spreading, it’s going to delay it a few seconds, limit possible network congestion a bit, and limit the use of your PC to 10 connection attempts per second in the process ! I have no problem with the new default setting limiting outbound connection attempts. Still, users should have the option to easily disable or change this setting. I might be going out on a limb here, but ever since the introduction of Windows XP I can’t help thinking that I dislike all the bult-in Windows “wisardry” in a sense that the system also limits user access. That irritating trend to ease the mental load on end users is somewhat insulting, considering that Windows is to make the more “intelligent” choice instead of the end user, as well as limit their access to tuning such settings…
End of rant.

With the new implementation, if a P2P or some other network program attempts to connect to 100 sites at once, it would only be able to connect to 10 per second, so it would take it 10 seconds to reach all 100. In addition, even though the setting was registry editable in XP SP1, it is now only possible to edit by changing it directly in the system file tcpip.sys. To make matters worse, that file is in use, so you also need to be in Safe mode in order to edit it.

You only need to worry about the number of connection attempts per second if you have noticed a slowdown in network programs requiring a number of connections opened at once. You can check if you’re hitting this limit from the Event Viewer, under System – look for TCP/IP Warnings saying: “TCP/IP has reached the security limit imposed on the number of concurrent TCP connect attempts”. Keep in mind this is a cap only on incomplete outbound connect attempts per second, not total connections. Still, running servers and P2P programs can definitely be affected by this new limitation. Use the fix as you see fit.

To change or remove the limit, you can use the following program:

Event ID 4226 Patcher – Windows XP SP2 – A patching program for removing or changing the limit imposed on connection attempts in SP2. The patcher has the ability to restore tcpip.sys back to the original… Still, you might want to back up tcpip.sys, use it at your own risk. The author of this patch can be reached @ http://www.lvllord.de/

Monday, April 07, 2008

The Internet could soon be made obsolete. The scientists who pioneered it have now built a lightning-fast replacement capable of downloading entire feature films within seconds.

At speeds about 10,000 times faster than a typical broadband connection, “the grid” will be able to send the entire Rolling Stones back catalogue from Britain to Japan in less than two seconds.

The latest spin-off from Cern, the particle physics centre that created the web, the grid could also provide the kind of power needed to transmit holographic images; allow instant online gaming with hundreds of thousands of players; and offer high-definition video telephony for the price of a local call.

David Britton, professor of physics at Glasgow University and a leading figure in the grid project, believes grid technologies could “revolutionise” society. “With this kind of computing power, future generations will have the ability to collaborate and communicate in ways older people like me cannot even imagine,” he said.

The power of the grid will become apparent this summer after what scientists at Cern have termed their “red button” day – the switching-on of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the new particle accelerator built to probe the origin of the universe. The grid will be activated at the same time to capture the data it generates.

Cern, based near Geneva, started the grid computing project seven years ago when researchers realised the LHC would generate annual data equivalent to 56m CDs – enough to make a stack 40 miles high.

This meant that scientists at Cern – where Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the web in 1989 – would no longer be able to use his creation for fear of causing a global collapse.

This is because the Internet has evolved by linking together a hotchpotch of cables and routing equipment, much of which was originally designed for telephone calls and therefore lacks the capacity for high-speed data transmission.

By contrast, the grid has been built with dedicated fibre optic cables and modern routing centres, meaning there are no outdated components to slow the deluge of data. The 55,000 servers already installed are expected to rise to 200,000 within the next two years.

Professor Tony Doyle, technical director of the grid project, said: “We need so much processing power, there would even be an issue about getting enough electricity to run the computers if they were all at Cern. The only answer was a new network powerful enough to send the data instantly to research centres in other countries.”

That network, in effect a parallel Internet, is now built, using fibre optic cables that run from Cern to 11 centres in the United States, Canada, the Far East, Europe and around the world.

One terminates at the Rutherford Appleton laboratory at Harwell in Oxfordshire.

From each centre, further connections radiate out to a host of other research institutions using existing high-speed academic networks.

It means Britain alone has 8,000 servers on the grid system – so that any student or academic will theoretically be able to hook up to the grid rather than the internet from this autumn.

Ian Bird, project leader for Cern’s high-speed computing project, said grid technology could make the internet so fast that people would stop using desktop computers to store information and entrust it all to the internet.

“It will lead to what’s known as cloud computing, where people keep all their information online and access it from anywhere,” he said.

Computers on the grid can also transmit data at lightning speed. This will allow researchers facing heavy processing tasks to call on the assistance of thousands of other computers around the world. The aim is to eliminate the dreaded “frozen screen” experienced by internet users who ask their machine to handle too much information.

The real goal of the grid is, however, to work with the LHC in tracking down nature’s most elusive particle, the Higgs boson. Predicted in theory but never yet found, the Higgs is supposed to be what gives matter mass.

The LHC has been designed to hunt out this particle – but even at optimum performance it will generate only a few thousand of the particles a year. Analysing the mountain of data will be such a large task that it will keep even the grid’s huge capacity busy for years to come.

Although the grid itself is unlikely to be directly available to domestic internet users, many telecoms providers and businesses are already introducing its pioneering technologies. One of the most potent is so-called dynamic switching, which creates a dedicated channel for internet users trying to download large volumes of data such as films. In theory this would give a standard desktop computer the ability to download a movie in five seconds rather than the current three hours or so.

Additionally, the grid is being made available to dozens of other academic researchers including astronomers and molecular biologists.

It has already been used to help design new drugs against malaria, the mosquito-borne disease that kills 1m people worldwide each year. Researchers used the grid to analyse 140m compounds – a task that would have taken a standard internet-linked PC 420 years.

“Projects like the grid will bring huge changes in business and society as well as science,” Doyle said.

“Holographic video conferencing is not that far away. Online gaming could evolve to include many thousands of people, and social networking could become the main way we communicate.

“The history of the internet shows you cannot predict its real impacts but we know they will be huge.”

______

 Incredible!  For more information on the LCG, click here.

If you regularly work with files stored in shared folders on a Windows XP network, chances are that you’ve used Windows’ Map Network Drive command to map a drive letter to that folder. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could map a drive letter to a nested folder on your hard disk? Then, you could access nested subfolders just as easily as you can access shared folders on the network.

Fortunately, you can do just that. Unbeknownst to most Windows users, there’s an old DOS command called Subst that’s designed to associate a drive letter with any local folder—and it’s still a viable tool in Windows XP. Here’s how to use the Subst command:

1. Open a Command Prompt window.
2. Type the following command and press [Enter]:

subst x: C:\{pathname}\foldername}

In the command, x: is any available drive letter and {pathname}\foldername} is the complete path to your selected folder. For example:

Subst K: C:\Downloads\Windows\Drivers

Now, instead of typing the full path, you can reach the Drivers folder by accessing drive K: in Windows Explorer.

If you purchase a Cisco PIX 501 firewall, you will probably find that in factory-default mode, it will not allow machines on the internal network to ping machines on the internet.

To allow this in it’s most basic of forms, connect to the PIX and type the following commands:

access-list allow_ping permit icmp any any echo-reply
access-list allow_ping permit icmp any any source-quench
access-list allow_ping permit icmp any any unreachable
access-list allow_ping permit icmp any any time-exceeded
access-group allow_ping in interface outside
write memory

To check the ACL, and to see the hit count on each rule, type the following command:

sh access-list

And now for some random notes…

The command is of the following format:

access-list [name] permit icmp [src] [dst] [protocol]

where the following is true:

[name] = The name of the ACL group. This can be anything you like, as long as it’s not already used.
[src] = The source of the ping packets. “any” indicates any machine on the inside interface.
[dst] = The destination of the ping packets. “any” indicates any host on the outside interface (the Internet).
[protocol] = The protocol to allow back in. For pings, we require “echo-reply”, “source-quench”, “unreachable” and “time-exceeded”.

Also note that in both [src] and [dst], “any” can be replaced with one of the following options:

host 10.0.0.1          (an individual host)

http://www.linuxhomenetworking.com/cisco-hn/dsl-pix.htm

A little while ago I posted the specs of the new tablet I had purchased off eBay. I got it at a steal of about $300. It was used (a little more used than I would have preferred) but they were just cosmetic imperfections that I could certainly live with. Gotta love eBay.

But I wanted to give some time of use with the tablet before I made a decision of whether it was a good buy, my thoughts on its functionality and usability, and overall feeling of the unit.

Well, for starters I have to say that the RAM is lacking. Mine actually had 512 MB and it’s still a bit sluggish with applications running (Adobe Acrobat Pro 8.0 and OneNote 2007). With both of these apps running, my system has only ~40MB of RAM free, but the processor is at around 10% usage, so the memory is the bottleneck with respect to running applications and responsiveness. However, the CPU will of course spike to 100% when writing in OneNote. This is expected, since the system must compute your movements, pen pressure and fluidity on the fly.

Other than that, I really can’t complain. I upgraded the Hard Drive to a 60GB 7200RPM drive, which runs nice and has plenty of space. Additionally, I plan on (of course) purhcasing a gig of RAM for it, at which point I’m sure she’ll run just lovely.

The usability of the tablet is awesome. I’m a student and a professional, so lugging around my 7 lbs Dell E1505 with 17″ screen is a hassle. Although it blows the specs out of the water, it’s mobility, down and dirty features for convenience (the function buttons on the screen, etc), and light weight (under 2 or 3 lbs I believe) are excellent.

Lastly, I purchased this tablet for the following purposes:

1. Light weight system to read eBooks and other electronic format books
2. System to work on school work as well as troubleshoot network / system issues

I had initially purchased a Sony PRS-500 eBook reader for ~$200. It’s a great little unit (although there’s plenty of room for improvement), but found that it was horrible for reading PDF files. And when I say horrible, I mean it. If you wanted to actually be able to read them, you would have to spend about 2 hours of format conversions, etc etc to get it to a point where it’s actually readable. 2 hours, yea right. I immediately started looking for something else. So I came across a tablet (I have a co-worker who’s always said tablets were awesome) and found this great deal on eBay. I sold my PRS-500 for and purchased the Tablet, putting the difference in cash (about $100). The tablet did everything the PRS-500 can do, and more. It’s not as light, and not as small. However, the Lifebook was made to be outside viewable (a shortcoming of LCD screens) so it’s very bright. Additionally, I can view ANY format I want, since there are free viewers out there for every format you can put a document into. PDF’s look great, and reading them off a 12″ screen (as opposed to a 6″ screen) is ideal. Additionally, I can use it at work and at remote locations, as well as take it to class. Which leads me to my third reason.

Textbooks cost hundreds of dollars a semester. This current semester my books were going to come to $300. That’s for 1 course! I had a great idea though… since I have this reader, why don’t I just download / buy the eBook versions, which are usually at a discount?! So that’s what I did. It’s awesome!

Additionally, I can use it to take notes. I don’t know about you, but I’m a geek. If I could have everything digitally and on a computer, I would. So, I take notes in class using the unit, and it’s superb. Great responsiveness, I can use colors, I can copy and paste images into them, etc etc. I can print them out if I need to (printing quality is also quite nice), and I don’t have to lug around a note book, books, and a laptop. Everything’s in the one unit!

So, I have concluded that I will never purchase another laptop.  Since a tablet (not a slate) can be both a tablet and a laptop, what’s the point of buying one that can only do one function?  Additionally, a system with dual cores should run just lovely, since one processor can concentrate on the text translation while the other runs the OS, or both at the same time to make things a lot quicker.  Dell just came out with a tablet that’s quite thin and has great specs.  The only downside I can see from the tablet is it’s cost.  Since it’s new, cool, small and light, and can be as powerful as some other systems out there, it costs more.

If you’re not a student, write a lot, or a professional who can use a light and mobile system to get work done, take notes at meetings, etc etc, then a tablet wouldn’t be for you.  Tablets are great for me though .

Specifications

Manufacturer:

Fujitsu

Part number:

FPCM10241

General

Platform Technology

Intel Centrino

System Type

Tablet PC

Built-in Devices

Wireless LAN antenna, SmartCard reader/writer

Width

11.5 in

Depth

9.3 in

Height

1.4 in

Weight

4.2 lbs

Processor

Processor

Intel Pentium M 1.4 GHz

Data bus speed

400 MHz

Processor features

Enhanced SpeedStep technology

Chipset type

Intel 855GM

Cache Memory

Type

L2 cache

Cache size

1 MB

RAM

Installed Size

256 MB / 2 GB(max)

Technology

DDR SDRAM – 266 MHz

Memory specification compliance

DDR266/PC2100

Storage Controller

Storage controller type

IDE

Storage

Floppy Drive

None

Hard Drive

40 GB

Storage Removable

None

Optical Storage (2nd)

2nd optical storage type

None

Display

Display Type

12.1 in TFT active matrix

Max Resolution

1024 x 768

Color support

24-bit (16.7 million colors)

Video

Graphics Processor / Vendor

Intel 855GM – AGP

Video Memory

Shared video memory (UMA)

Audio

Audio output type

Sound card

Audio output compliant standards

AC ’97

Input Device(s)

Input device type

Keyboard, Touchpad, Digitizer, Digital pen, Scroll button

Telecom

Modem

Fax / modem

Max transfer rate

56 Kbps

Protocols & Specifications

ITU V.90

Networking

Networking

Network adapter

Networking / Wireless LAN Supported

Yes

Data link protocol

Ethernet, IEEE 802.11b, Fast Ethernet

Networking standards

IEEE 802.11b

Expansion / Connectivity

Expansion Bays

None

Expansion Slots Total (Free)

2 ( 1 ) x Memory, 1 ( 1 ) x CardBus – Type III (2 x type I / II)

Interfaces

2 x Hi-Speed USB – 4 pin USB Type A, 1 x Modem – Phone line – RJ-11, 1 x Network – Ethernet 10Base-T/100Base-TX – RJ-45, 1 x Display / video – VGA – 15 pin HD D-Sub (HD-15), 1 x Infrared – IrDA, 1 x Headphones – Output – Mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm, 1 x Microphone – Input – Mini-phone 3.5 mm, 1 x Docking / port replicator

Miscellaneous

Features

Security lock slot (cable lock sold separately)

Compliant Standards

CUL, TUV, EN55022, EN55024, EN 60950, ICES-003, UL 60950, CISPR 22 Class B, FCC Class B certified, FCC Class C certified

Power

Power device form factor

External

Voltage Required

AC 120/230 V ( 50/60 Hz)

Battery

Technology

Lithium ion

Installed Qty

1

Mfr estimated battery life

4.5 hour(s)

Operating System / Software

OS Provided

Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition

Software type

Zinio Reader, Microsoft Reader, NewsStand Reader, Drivers & Utilities, Fujitsu HotKey Utility, Microsoft Internet Explorer, FranklinCovey TabletPlanner (Trial), PowerQuest Drive Image Special Edition

Manufacturer Warranty

Service & support type

1 year warranty

Service & Support Details

Limited warranty – 1 year