Latest News - Page 3225

Back in the days of the X19xx series Radeon GPUs, AMD and ATI were talking about using the GPU to process in game physics. This was in contrast to anything that was being thought about over at NVIDIA and, at the time, was even denounced by NVIDIA as a bad idea.

Unfortunately, AMD and ATI did not put much effort into moving physics onto the GPU and NVIDIA did. NVIDIA even went so far as to buy Agiea, so that they would own the complete PhysX library. This left AMD out in the cold as yet another AMD idea was openly taken and implemented by another company.

Well now, a few years later, AMD is getting back to physics on the GPU. They have partnered up with Pixelux and Bullet to bring an Open Physics library to not only the Radeon GPU, but to pretty much any GPU. This move should help to bring a more standardized physics library to developers.

Hot on the heels of the new HP ION based netbook, we see VIA is launching what it is calling a "NetNote". Besides the ridiculous sounding name, this new product category is noteworthy for the fact that it is capable of playing back 1080p HD video.

This is the same high-end resolution that the NVIDIA ION platform is shooting for. Now while this is very impressive, what I did not see in the press release was any indication that the associated netbooks were able to display this on its tiny little 10.1 - 12-inch displays. If they cannot playback 1080p natively in the display, it does reduce the impact of having this feature available in the first place. They might manage 720p in a 10-incher, but I doubt 1080p is going to happen. I would think that if this was the case, we would see it bandied about in the text of the PR. Instead we only see VIA working hard to create a new category in the mobile world exactly where we do not need a new category.

VIA is getting this performance from its VX855 media processor combined with its Chrome9 HCM IGP. The company is also dropping in an HDMI port to turn your NetNote(Book) into a mobile HD media center.

AMD just pushed out a nicely priced quad-core CPU. This is the Athlon II X4 and you can get one of these for just under $100 US. Now this is all great, but there are some things going on behind this new launch that are a cause for concern.

You see, back when Hector Ruiz was planning the financial fiasco that would be the ATI acquisition, AMD and ATI were talking about a CPU with a native GPU built into a single die. This new product had the label of Fusion.

Well, AMD is now onto its third version (the last two were cancelled) while Intel in their typical fashion has its own version of this idea ready to launch by the end of the year. This is the same issue we saw with the first quad-core CPUs. AMD expounded on the virtues of having a "native" quad-core CPU, while Intel simply bolted two dual-cores together.

There is a new nVidia Vs ATi rumor out. It revolves around the latest leaks of ATi/AMD HD 5870 performance. You see those numbers have gotten to people that have seen a demonstration of nVidia's GT300 product.

If their word is to be believed then the new GPU from the Big Green Machine might still out perform AMD's latest offering.

The GT300 has been kept carefully under wraps with surprisingly few leaks about performance, design or even what is going on over at TSMC. Yes there are rumors about bad things happening at nVidia, but from what we have been able to find out those rumors might not be accurate at all.

Since the new Zune HD is out Microsoft wanted to get the software that powers it ready and out for you as well. I took the chance to grab this software and take a quick 15 minute look at it.

The first issue I ran into was in getting it downloaded. As I have been using Windows 7 x64 exclusively for some time and Zune 4.0 is supposed to be optimized for this I opened up IE 8 and started the download process.

I began getting all sorts of errors and ended up with a simple Page Unavailable. Getting a tad annoyed I tried to grab the older version of the Zune software (3.1). This also proved to be a problem when using IE so I had to move to FireFox to get it.

The Zune HD launched today. This has been one of the most anticipated media players since the iPhone 3G S. I know that sounds really odd. But it is absolutely true. You see people are actually looking for someone to compete with Apple. Even current iPod/iPhone owners.

So what does the Zune bring that the iPod does not have? Well for starters it has an nVidia Tegra 600 under the hood. This new SoC has 8 cores that can dynamically adjust power to provide the longest battery life possible. It does this by powering down unused and unneeded cores to almost zero power usage.

But the Tegra also brings Open GL ES 2.0 720P playback and a host of other features. This is combined in the Zune with HD Radio, Wireless Sync (over WiFi) an AV dock that allows connection to an HD_TV through HDMI, native gaming support (this is nVidia we are talking about) and multi-touch.

Have you ever sat back and wondered just what direction computing is going? Over the last few days I have had some time to think about it and to be honest I think we are right on the verge of something big.

Intel just pushed Lynnfield out the door, AMD just kicked out DX11 GPUs and a fully DX11 driver package. nVidia is pushing Tegra while Microsoft, Linux and Apple are working on the move to a fully 64-bit computing world.

We are seeing systems becoming more and more simple instead of complex. Lynnfield brought the PCI-e controller for graphics into the CPU cutting out much unneeded data transfer between the CPU, GPU and Northbridge. The next step in this evolution is right around the corner as Clarkdale and Arrondale get their coming out party at IDF.

I have worked with PoE (Power over Ethernet) and even wrote up both sides of this handy little feature that uses you network to provide power to remote devices. This is a great feature, but has absolutely nothing on what I saw today.

This is HDMI over Ethernet using a standard IP network. The device that makes this possible is called the Projector Connector and can send up to HDMI 1.3 Lossless over any standard IP/Ethernet network. As long as you are running Cat 5/6/7 cable you are set.

The Projector Connector can also handle up to three switches between the source and the display. This gives you up to 1,000 Feet to play with between points.

Ah the iPhone, we are regaled with commercials and other PR gimmicks that tell us that "there's an app for that" but the one thing that the iPhone or iPod Touch has yet to be able to do it to really provide any high-quality (graphics wise) games. I mean there are some good ones (Zombieville USA is a favorite) but nothing spectacular.

That is until someone managed to show Crysis being played on the iPhone. Yep, that's right Crysis has been made to work on the iPhone. Now before you get all excited about picking up Crysis in the App Store, I need to tell you that the iPhone was not doing the work. Instead it was all done by OTOY using a render farm.

The frames are then sent out to the client over the internet making a (according to OTOY) playable high-resolution and high-performance game available on just about any platform. This if it can be done at a reasonable price is an amazing step forward.

As AMD and Global Foundries talk of 32nm in 2010 Intel is already preparing for 32nm for its coming out party at IDF, which starts today. This new process falls under the general name of Westmere.

The primary CPUs that are being run on this process are the Clarkdale (Desktop) and Arrondale (Mobile). Both will feature a 32nm CPU core with a 45nm GPU bolted right next to it. This is a continuation of the Lynnfield concept which has a PCI Gen 2 controller built into the CPU.

We should start seeing the 32nm Arrondale before the end of the year. This will hurt AMD in a couple of ways, the first problem is that Intel will have taken another AMD idea and actually made it work. The second is that Intel will be ahead in terms of process for the better part of a year while AMD will be struggling to catch up to the Core i5.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery they say. Well if that is true then the new Envy from HP is very flattering to Apple. When I first saw the leaked imaged of the new Book from HP I thought it was a mockup with the Apple logo removed.

But that was only with a glance; once I looked it was obvious it was not a Mac. Still, it is close in the front image. After that first impression I started reading a little more about the Envy.

It was then that I realized that this new book is using a name from the Voodoo line without actually being a Voodoo product. This is an interesting development. Right now all of the Boutique PC makers are having a rough time as custom built PCs and system are a luxury commodity that many just simply do not see as necessary. This move could be a way for HP to convey a sense of quality and performance but at a lower price.

Remember the little Asus Eee Keyboard? You know the one that was shown off at Computex and everyone was so excited about it. Well that little device is finally going to make its US debut in October.

The tiny little self-contained device features a 4-inch touch screen and even wireless HDMI. Asus is also packing in the usual Atom 1.6GHz CPU 1GB DDR2 RAM (would be better with 2GB) and either a 16 or 32GB HDD. Just large enough for a Windows 7 install for use as a media center.

There is no work on the size of the internal battery yet though. Pricing should be about $500 which is pretty close to what Asus said when they first showed it off. It seems likely that the timing of the launch means that some flavor of Windows 7 will be offered but it is also possible that Mobiln might be preinstalled.

The Zune HD launches tomorrow to what should be a great reception. According to early previews and information on the internals for the new Microsoft Media Player the Zune HD is looking pretty formidable.

The question is; will it be able to make a dent in the iPod/iPod Touch's massive market share? Well, MS is facing two problems; the first is the most important. MS has almost no idea how to market the Zune HD. Their marketing department is terrible. When you compare them to the highly polished Apple team it is almost comical. The second problem is one that is easier to tackle.

To compete at all the Zune HD must, hands down, outperform the iPod Touch. I am not talking about simple video playback; I am talking about in all respects. So far the Zune has probably the most powerful SoC out, the nVidia Tegra. This gives the Zune HD an advantage over the touch in terms of RAW CPU and GPU power. But having a great CPU/GPU is not enough.

I think it is time for another award around here. This one goes to Steve Jobs. That is right, the master mind behind Apple. Apple is arguably one of the most successful marketing companies on the face of the planet. They could hype a pair of old shoe laces into something revolutionary and spectacular. They know the market they are playing to and know how to cater to their frenzy.

So when Steve made the comment "Originally, we weren't exactly sure how to market the Touch." many people thought he was joking or simply covering something up. I do not think ANYTHING at Apple is ever even considered without knowing how market it and exactly who it is marketed to. The comment came in response to questions about why a camera was not included with the iPod Touch. Apple chose to shove a low end camera into the iPod Nano instead.

Jobs said in the same comment "What happened was, what customers told us was, they started to see it as a game machine." I am not sure how this is true when the iPhone was not see that way until the 3G S. Granted the touch has all of that now.

GIGABYTE is gearing up for a new contest. This one is all about GPU overclocking and ties in with their new Super Overclock Series of GPUs.

The contest will start on October 1st and will be names the "Beat me if you Dare" and will feature a $9,000 prize plus some pretty great hardware.

The competition will run a full three rounds and finish up on December 31st. Each round will be themed to make things interesting. Entrants will compete for the highest 3DMark Vantage Performance score as well as the highest frames per second mark in Resident Evil 5. As an added bonus a high score will be set by the GIGABYTE in house overclocking team, any contestant beats this preset score will be able to double their prize.

Remember the Dual Screen Laptop we told you about? Well there is some additional information out about it now.

It is looking like the specifications are firming up (although they could change). The first models out should be either 16 or 17 -inches. They will have a 2.8 or 2.53GHZ Core 2 Duo (T9600 or T8700, up to 4GB of DDR2 800 RAM, an Intel P45M chipset and an nVidia 9800M with 512MB dedicated memory.

These specifications are interesting. I would have thougt they would be planning for a mobile quad core and a better GPU but as they say all of the specifications are subject to change.

So what is better than dual monitor gaming? How about putting six or more of them in a nice mount and gaming from there? Sounds nice huh? Well this is what AMD's Eyefinity is aiming to give you.

This technology approaches the resolution of the human eye and according to AMD is 12 times the resolution of 1080p. To do this AMD is enabling their latest DX11 cards to push the signal out to multiple monitors and to allow them to become part of the whole (just like a monitor wall).

AMD and Samsung are working on this together and in fact Samsung has just announced a six monitor setup.

Looks like the broadband service in South Africa is not as fast as a single laden swallow. So it is certainly not faster than an un-laden swallow, or two swallows holding something between them. Now a European swallow...

Alright I will stop with the Monty Python bit. However it is funny that someone in South Africa discovered that it was faster to attach a USB Flash Drive to a carrier pigeon than it was to try and send the file by the local broadband carrier.

The data in question was a 4GB Flash drive that was attached to a young carrier pigeon. The bird named Winston then had to fly 60 miles to deliver his data. At the same time the file was being uploaded across an ADSL line.

So, everyone loves taking a stab at nVidia for its rebranding and why not, it is fun and very easy to do. Plus re-branding is pretty dishonest.

So I wonder what the reaction will be with AMD's new "Vision" labeling system. To me is seems like a re-hash of their older "AMD Game" labeling.

The labels are meant to take the place of the usual stickers that list out the actual CPU and GPU names. They come in three flavors (just like AMD Game) and are; AMD Vision, AMD Vision Premium, and AMD Vision Ultimate.

Well well well, AMD is getting back into the thin and light game. After a few years of claiming the netbook was a fad and not really anything that AMD was interested in we see that AMD is preparing to release their platform for Ultra-Thin notebooks.

As is now typical with AMD this is a market they talked about and even demoed last year. However they were late to the ball game as Intel managed to get their CULVs into most thin and lights first.

So why would you be interested in AMD's version? Well there are a few reasons. The first is not as big of a deal as it sounds; this is 1080P playback for video. Now I love my HD TV and Projector, I even love the Blu Ray player on my notebook, but I my notebook is a 20-inch book so I can actually see the impact from 1080p Blu-Ray.