| NVIDIA nTeresting 28 December 2009 |
| Written by NVIDIA - Brian Burke | ||
| Monday, 28 December 2009 | ||
NVIDIA nTeresting 28 December 2009In this Issue:
Jimmy Fallon + ‘That nerdy guy'= NVIDIA Tegra Plug Josh Toplotsky, Engadget's editor in chief, went on the Jimmy Fallon show to talk tech. He decided to show off the Tegra-powered ICD Ultra tablet with Android 2.0 and a 7" touchscreen. He touches on the fact that the tablet is powered by the "super-fast mobile processor Tegra chip" and stresses the fast web browsing and full screen, 1080p HD video capability in this clip. Video here. Most.Powerful.Netbook.Ever. Asus launched a new NVIDIA ION-based netbook this week, the Asus 1201N. Press are calling the new ASUS 1201N the fastest netbook on the market. "the most powerful netbook on the planet" - LAPTOP But is it ‘overkill'? "The 1201N is a new type of netbook -- although we aren't even sure it should be called a netbook, since it's more like a full-fledged laptop. Regardless of what you call it, at $499 the Eee PC 1201N quelled our netbook frustrations by delivering a more comfortable computing experience and far superior multimedia performance than its 10-inch brethren. It offers neither the stamina of a netbook nor the performance of a $600 ULV laptop, but it's a solid compromise between the two, and we're extremely happy with it." "If you need a netbook now, there's no better one on the market today in our opinion. The Eee PC 1201N strikes the perfect balance of speed, battery life and size, and the stylish Seashell design doesn't hurt matters either." Your netbook does not have to disappoint and not do the things you expect it to do. Consumers looking for a premium, media-rich experience on a netbook should choose an ION Netbook like the HP Mini 311 or ASUS 1201N. Another Graphics Lead Balloon for Intel: Pine Trail Intel launched its new Pine Trail platform recently, which for the first time puts a graphics core on its Atom CPU. Problem is, the graphics core is mediocre and Pine Trial does not deliver what Intel said it would. Intel is only force-feeding their new processor technology, not delivering consumer benefit. Improved graphics performance has been a key promised feature of PineTrial and press have been conditioning consumers with this message by repeating the Intel message of more graphics performance for months. "But the poor little processor is a little underpowered and is actually holding netbooks back. Intel has big plans to change all that with the upcoming overhaul of the Atom processor, and many manufacturers are already planning netbooks around this new chip. Netbooks have always sacrificed computing power for cheap processors that use less energy (to make battery life longer). The Atom fit the bill, and Intel plans to keep those benefits in the new "Pine Trail" Atom processor while adding in a new bonus: graphic acceleration. This is from the Intel press release:
"Improved processor and graphics performance So a subhead, in bold letters, in a news release, should be followed by support for that statement, just sayin'. The big day came on Monday. Did Intel deliver on graphics promises this months? Is Pine Trail an ION killer? Did Intel do what they told the press they would? Will Pine Trail graphics performance live up to the expectations they have messaged, repeatedly to consumers? "...unfortunately we didn't experience any performance improvements over the familiar N270 and N280." Maybe the video performance got better? "If you were expecting improved HD video playback or a significantly faster processor, you're not going to find it here." Intel calls ION "overkill" because their graphics can't compete. But the fact that the HP Mini 311 has been the #1 most popular review on Laptop Magazine's website for the last several months shows that consumers WANT better netbook capabilities. Intel says this: "To run multimedia you don't need a huge graphics chip. And that's what those third-party decoder solutions will show in the marketplace. There are much more innovative ways to get multimedia capabilities that will continue to provide lower power and longer battery life. In terms of usages, netbooks are not meant for gaming. You can run Internet games fine today with the existing solutions. We believe (Ion) adds unnecessary additional cost and the other trade-offs make it less desirable. Our customers have the option to design netbooks how they want to but ultimately the market is going to decide." Odd that a company spending a fortune only to fail at creating a GPU would pigeon hole GPUs as only for gaming. Intel does not get the optimized PC concept or the consumer experience. But they get one thing right-- in a fair market, "the market will decide". And it is deciding to get ION. "If you want to watch flash content at full screen, get a netbook equipped with either an NVIDIA ION graphics chip (like the HP Mini 311..." People are not buying what Intel is selling on netbooks, and it is getting embarrassing: "It is almost as if Intel is saying, "How dare people use a netbook like it's an actual computer, for multimedia, music, word processing, video games, and other purposes? We will not have it!" Is this is the right course of action?" "But it's pretty clear that Intel wants you to buy a more expensive computer with a pricier chipset to perform those tasks." Educated consumers agree, reader comments say it all: "Ah come on, ION is the best thing that can happened to a netbook. Intel are a bunch of idiots, 40$ more and I have an Ion and play Call of Duty 4, watch HD movies, and export from HDMI overpriced my ass......." Intel focuses on processing technology, not the consumer experience. NVIDIA's focus is on the consumer experience and delivering compelling solutions people want. That is why ION redefined the netbook category. Current-generation ION-based netbooks will continue to deliver a markedly better experience than Intel's next-generation Pine Trail architecture in terms of video, rich media performance and games -- all with the long battery life that consumers expect. Pinetrail is simply not up to the task. Blu-Ray Specs and NVIDIA, Both Active Shutter While competitors try to push inferior passive polarized solutions, NVIDIA's active shutter technology has proved to be the right technology. The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) recently announced the finalization and release of the Blu-ray 3D specification. The specification, which represents the work of the leading Hollywood studios and consumer electronic and computer manufacturers, will enable the home entertainment industry to bring the 3D experience into consumers' living rooms on Blu-ray Disc. Supporting this announcement was a recent story in which Andrew Parsons, the Chairman of the U.S. Promotions Committee of the Blu-ray Disc Association "Active glasses are the only way to get 1080p (resolution) per eye," Parsons said. "Passive (polarized) glasses are not as good. Most demonstrations with Blu-ray 3-D have been with active glasses." NVIDIA has two key technologies to enable a rich, high quality 1080p Blu-ray 3D experience for desktop and laptop PCs:
NVIDIA CUDA Makes Online Shopping Better Incogna's online shopping web site, https://www.shopachu.com/, uses visual search to make it easier to find whatever you are looking for. Behind its simple interface are complex computer-vision algorithms that take advantage of NVIDIA's CUDA architecture for massively parallel processing using GPUs. "Navigation starts by analyzing the patterns, shapes, texture and color in images to help cluster and associate similar-looking images. This process is complex and computationally intensive, with many variables that have to be taken into account, such as lighting, camera angle, background noise and photo quality. In fact, this sort of computer vision problem is still an intensively researched topic today, and Shopachu is one of the few commercial deployments to have scaled the algorithms successfully. Shopachu's success with computer vision is due to the massively parallel architecture of NVIDIA's GPUs, dubbed CUDA."
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