| NVIDIA nTeresting - 13 November 2009 |
| Written by NVIDIA - Brian Burke | ||
| Friday, 13 November 2009 | ||
NVIDIA nTeresting - 13 November 2009In this Issue:
$500 Home Theatre PC Needs ION, CUDAPopular Mechanics has a "how to" guide on putting together a $500 HTPC. They have some good advice. "NVIDIA's new ION graphics processor is powerful for integrated graphics. Think of it as a supercharger for the PC's visual performance. It excels at handling full 1080p video with 7.1 surround sound and transcodes video up to 10 times faster than an Atom CPU alone. ION can even handle a few games without choking." They also know that CUDA is important because the GPU is great for video processing. "An HTPC needs a movie converter. TMPGEnc 4.0 Xpress (with NVIDIA's CUDA) is fast and straightforward. Just pick a source file, a codec format and then encode." With its large numbers of processor cores, the GPU is the ideal processor for the massively parallel nature of video processing. Intel Funny BusinessCourt documents in the New York antitrust case against Intel surfaced last week, and it did not look so good: "The document filed with the court contains examples gleaned from internal e-mails showing those companies felt pressure from their own high-volume customers, such as large financial services companies, to introduce AMD-based servers. Those computers provide network services in essential applications. Yet they didn't, because, as an IBM executive wrote in a 2005 e-mail, "I understand the point about the accounts wanting a full AMD portfolio. The question is, can we afford to accept the wrath of Intel ...? It is a very hard question to deal with." In a Nov. 10, 2005, e-mail also cited in the court document, Michael Dell, founder and chief executive officer of Dell Inc., wrote Intel's Paul Otellini, "We have lost the performance leadership and it's seriously impacting our business in several areas," referring to his company's inability to offer AMD-based computers because of agreements with Intel, which at the time offered no chips with comparable features as AMD's then-new Opteron line. Otellini replied, "There is nothing new here. Our product roadmap is what it is. It is improving rapidly daily. ... Additionally, we are transferring over $1B (billion) per year to Dell for meet comp (sic) efforts. This was judged by your team to be more than sufficient to compensate for the competitive issues." But On Wednesday Intel continued to defend their brand of funny business, in regards to the New York antitrust case: "First and foremost, Intel simply disagrees with the New York Attorney General's assertions. The Attorney General's decision to file suit against Intel is just plain wrong," MacKenzie stated in e-mail correspondence." Finally, in what had to have been an "Emily Litella Moment" for Mr. MacKenzie, on Thursday Intel decided to shell out Dr. Evil money to rival AMD to settle their legal battles. "Intel Corp. will pay rival Advanced Micro Devices $1.25 billion after the chip makers on Thursday agreed to end all outstanding legal disputes, closing a long-running battle between the companies." NVIDIA has some funny business of their own, in the form of cartoons: "A satirical website has sprung up that has run a series of cartoons lampooning the behavior of the world's largest chip maker - Intel Corp." The site is intended to be a parody of events occurring within the semiconductor sector, with particular focus on its largest and most-commented-upon competitor. NVIDIA ION-Based Samsung N510 is GoodSamsung was one of the first ION-based systems on the market. Folks in Europe love it. "The ION concept works on this from the graphics side, and this is ideal. Netbooks were able to manage internet and office applications anyway. So far they had a problem with acting as a multimedia player. That's over and it really is fun. Due to the 11.6 inch monitor and a fit graphic processor a netbook is no longer a compromise." NVIDIA ION has redefined the netbook category by removing their limitations. "It (NVIDIA ION) will shift the netbook from web surfing and email machine to a movie and gaming portable." By combining an NVIDIA ION GPU with an Atom processor, NVIDIA is able to deliver premium PC performance and features in low-cost, small form factor PCs. The netbook Samsung N510 with ION was tested and won the award Top Technology from Germany's PC Games Hardware Magazine in the December 2009 issue. Jen-Hsun is a Mac DaddyWhile showing off his tablet PC prototype in Dubai, NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang sang praises of Apple. Mr Huang said that in his home they're "all Apple." According to him "Apple uses the best technology for their [computers]. Apple says to their customers: if you buy a computer from us you can be sure we have selected the best technology inside for you. That is their promise to consumers. Their promise to consumers isn't we've selected the best technology for you with the exception of what Intel allows us to use. That's not their promise. And that's why Apple uses the best technology where they want whenever they want. And that's why I'm all Apple! At home it's just Macs everywhere. It's NVIDIA's technology in all of them, but I use Macs." Apple makes good stuff. NVIDIA's New Reality (Server) ShowThe NVIDIA RealityServer platform is a powerful combination of NVIDIA Tesla GPUs and 3D web services software that delivers interactive, photorealistic applications over the web, enabling product designers, architects and consumers to easily visualize 3D scenes with remarkable realism. Extremetech has the scoop on the new Reality Server from NVIDIA in the form of a demo video. NVIDIA <3 PhysX, DirectCompute and OpenCLPhysX is the most widely used physics API with support across all platforms; console, PC and even the iPhone. Our Developer Relations team is working with game developers to add GPU-accelerated PhysX effects into some of the hottest PC games--so, GeForce gamers are going to be in for a real treat.
"PhysX is a simplified way to do physics in the game engines. OpenCL and even Direct Compute are very complicated languages that work mostly on a driver programming level. PhysX is a programming layer that works independent of driver based technologies and allows the game developer to work through the complicated new language with an easy to use interface. We support open standards, plus standards that allow NVIDIA to innovate in a timely fashion, the way CUDA C and PhysX does. We want great features to come to games and GPUs as fast as possible. Benchmark Reviews offers several related GeForce articles in our Featured Reviews: Video Cards section.
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