NVIDIA nTeresting News: 28 May 2010

In this Issue:

• NVIDIA technologies and products are well represented when the "Most Innovative" awards are handed out. Laptop Magazine gets in the action this week.
• Optimus is full steam ahead with a "Most Innovative" from Laptop, and Editor's choice from Anandtech and a ton of systems right around the corner.
• 3D is trendy, and NVIDIA is well ahead of the trend with a leadership position in stereoscopic 3D. We were named a "Display Application of the Year".
• Folding@home performance took a big step forward with support for the computing power of GeForce 400 Series GPUs.
• Fastest Notebook GPU Ever. GeForce GTX 480M. -- DirectX11 is finally done right on a notebook.
• Intel has canceled its discrete GPU and are still confused about graphics.

Optimus Snowballing

This looks to be the summer of Optimus.

"When we crossed paths with NVIDIA's Rene Haas, at the Netbook Summit, he revealed that at least four more major manufacturers will be using Optimus by the end of the summer. He wouldn't share any details on brands, but he did say that there should be a total of 50 Optimus lappies on the market by the fall."

On top of being named #6 on the 25 Most Innovative Products list, Optimus helped the Asus U30jc grab an Editor's Choice Award from Anandtech.

3D Is the Next Big Thing

NVIDIA 3D Vision was recognized by the Society for Information Display 2010 as Display Application of the Year Silver Award winner.

"Powered by NVIDIA GeForce GPUs, 3D Vision is among the world's highest-quality stereoscopic 3-D consumer solution for desktop and notebooks PCs. It forms a foundation for the new consumer 3-D stereo ecosystem for gaming and digital-entertainment PCs, unlocking clear, flicker-free 3-D stereo imagery for driving new experiences in 3-D gaming, movies, photography, and Webstreaming."

Always on top of the latest technology trends, AMD also announced they support Stereoscopic 3D in their driver this week, even though it does not work with anything... and their ‘Open 3D' only works with AMD stuff...which is broken...so it really works with nothing. There are over 450 games supported with 3D Vision technology GeForce owners can play today.

Other REAL news about NVIDIA 3D Vision this week includes:

Panasonic was pushing 3D Vision at the SID 2010.

"Peter Fannon of Panasonic joined Sony in pushing for 3D, saying he thought 3D would exceed the adoption rate of HDTV and possibly any other home technology. He said 3D is only about $300 more (on a high-end set), and that combined with standards, and agreements with stuidos, distributors, and hardware makers would drive the technology. In particular, he talked about Panasonic's deal with DirectTV to offer 3 new 3D channels launching next month; and about NVIDIA's 3D gaming initiative."

Mech Warrior fans can now fight in 3D, thanks to NVIDIA and Square Enix.

"Front Mission Evolved will feature a stereoscopic 3D mode when it arrives this September.

Consumers will be able to experience intense mech battles in a whole new way through NVIDIA's 3D Vision technology."

If you want a real 3D solution, check out NVIDIA 3D Vision. The 3D Vision ecosystem is very robust and growing. 6 out of the 10 largest monitor makers are already shipping 3D displays. Asus and Clevo are already shipping notebooks. The Asus all-in-one has also been announced. Streaming web content such as YouTube and sporting events like the Masters 3D are already happening. There are 3D cameras and projectors supported, and Blu-ray 3D players from Cyberlink and Arcsoft.

Folding@Home Just Got Faster

Folding@home is a distributed computing project run by Stanford University. By running software in the background, people around the globe can combine their computing power to help scientists understand how proteins fold. This is critical to understanding diseases such as Alzheimer's, ALS, Huntington's, Parkinson's disease and many cancers.

A BETA client is available to do Folding@Home on GeForce GTX 480 GPUs.

"As well as supporting NVIDIA's Fermi architecture, Stanford's new GPU3 client also promises to improve the accuracy of models, as well as the stability of the simulations. Stanford also says the client enables "2x faster execution of the science," and points out that it's flexible enough to have new scientific capabilities added to it."

The early feedback on the performance increase has been very positive.

"Thanks to @TEAMEVGA, @NVIDIAGeForce, and @foldingathome - my P55 and 2x GTX 480s fold like champs! 30,000 points per day!!!"

"More info can be found on our blog. If you have an Nvidia GeForce GTX 470 or 480 card and want to try out the new client, then you can download it from here."

World's Fastest Notebook GPU....check

This week we introduced the GeForce GTX 480M GPU, the world's fastest notebook GPU. The GeForce GTX 480M was designed from the ground up for DirectX 11. Tessellation is the most important new feature for the DirectX 11 API, and with a dedicated tessellation engine GeForce GTX 480M GPUs deliver up to 5x more performance than any other GPU, the GeForce GTX 480M is a true tessellation monster for the notebook platform. DirectX 11 is finally done right for notebooks, no GPU does tessellation like the GeForce GTX 480M.

Intel on Real GPUs: ‘We're Out!'

A story on the Intel blog reminded us that Intel is still not doing a Larrabee discrete GPU.

"Perhaps it's Intel that needs to do a better job-a better job of delivering graphics, not just "graphics," which is what the chipmaker is offering now.

Kircoss' post confirms that Intel's discrete GPU product, codenamed Larrabee, is still dead. More importantly, it shows that Intel still doesn't understand that it has a major problem in integrated graphics."

Intel's expertise is in x86 application processors, not visual computing. Its history shows limited success outside their core area of expertise, including in graphics. When Intel ventured away from x86 processors with the Intel Itanium architecture they were not successful. Many people forget the last time Intel entered the graphics market with their i740 GPU. It wasn't successful and they abandoned the segment. Intel must first show success in visual computing before it can claim industry leadership.

Hamagundu blog summed up Intel's history of graphics nicely:

"Intel's efforts in the graphics department is pathetic at best. They also announced today that they have stopped working on the Larrabee thing, which was announced with a lot of brouhaha. Apparently, Intel doesn't even take the effort to write the graphics drivers themselves.... No wonder then, that the quality is shabby."

We believe that the most important processor for the 21st century is the GPU. Other people have similar views.

"Apple was clearly making a point when it updated the 13-inch MacBook Pro and then followed with the white MacBook update this week: NVIDIA graphics chips matter more than Intel processors."

Applications are becoming visual and that puts NVIDIA in a fantastic place. It's our area of expertise. We are the technology leader in real-time graphics and have been for over 10 years. We have accumulated over 1,000s of patents in our history and have brought on board the most renowned inventors in graphics to lead our team of engineers.