Archive for August, 2008

Graphics from the early 1980’s

Sunday, August 31st, 2008

Here we have a video of computer rendered graphics, i was quite intrigued by the short clip. The reflections on the real life objects were impressive! I wouldn’t say ray tracing but it was a good start :P The polygon structured shapes must of had 8 sides? compare than now to the polycount of a direct 9/10 model which has thousands! You can easily see the first signs of modeling and how it has progressed over the years.

Take a look at the video bellow! Enjoy!

Nvidia Realistic head!

Sunday, August 31st, 2008

Now that I have shown you the basic graphics demonstration from the 80’s its now time to see what graphics are really like. Ok the shapes which were rendered had 10 sides not 8! 10 polygons w00 h00. Now consider this demonstration which actually renders the whole face model.

The previous video showed nice reflections on a egg shell, I doubt this was actually rendered but the reflection/ shine effect was obviously added to the demo. What I’m basically getting at is the graphics today, models of all shapes and sizes, building landscapes and models all of which are rendered with computer hardware.

I may investigate what the average polycount for a model was back in the 80’s compared to the present date what would you expect the result to be? tens against millions is my guess! For the demo check out the video below.

IBM unveils new 1 Tera Byte tape drive

Friday, August 29th, 2008

IBM has unveiled a 1 terabyte tape drive capable of achieving a data transfer rate of 160 Megabytes per second. The drive supports data encryption and features a magneto-resistive head design that significantly reduces read errors for server enterprise environments.

According to IBM, tapes offer the “most green and cost-effective form of storage and will enable clients to address their growing needs for affordable and robust data solutions”.

The TS1130 will be available in September at a starting price of $39,050. µ Affordable how? who knows but i think i will go the SSD route thank you!

Life Is greener with LG

Friday, August 29th, 2008

NTELLIGENT SENSOR TECHNOLOGY significantly reduces energy consumption within LG TV products according to independent testing results announced today.

TLG LCD TVs sensor technology dramatically reduce the of power consumed 70% less than their previous models.The technology works by analysing the amount of ambient light in a room and adjusting the TV’s settings accordingly in order to gain picture perfection. (Philips TV anyone?)

The marketing manager for digital display at LG explains that, “The intelligent sensor is one of the best results of our ongoing efforts to create eco-friendly products that offer the same or even better quality than conventional TV products.”

Find out more on their official website!

Nvidia Desktop Drivers

Friday, August 29th, 2008

Driver heaven has release some useful tool for the majority of Nvidia driven laptop owners. The software produced by driver heaven allows nvidia notebooks graphics processor owners to mod and utilise the up-to-date desktop drivers released bu Nvidia to run on their machines.
Drivers for their laptops can take time to filter from similar and other supported hardware parts used in desktop graphics cards.

AMD to push on DirectX 10.1

Friday, August 29th, 2008

AMD have reportedly joining with developers to create a new generation of DirectX 10.1 game titles for the ATI Radeon 3000 and 4000 series. Partners involved include Electronic Arts, Sega and NHN Games, not small players by any means.

Sega have said, by creating the directX 10.1 platform the return would be a new stanards for gaming development.  They also  stated that the move will create faster games and prove the looks and eye candy.

EA on the other hand are pushing boundaries of the real time strategy genre including social and community technologies. It will be good to see the outcome of ATI’s development within the directX community.

S3 What happened?

Friday, August 29th, 2008

The S3 Chrome, S3 are claiming their Chrome 430 GT will out perform the current Nvidia and ATi counter parts. The board is priced at around $59 which seems to me as a bargin if current Nvidia and ATi cards are priced around $350. The card is directx 10.1 supported and includes third party features such as ChromotionHD which is S3’s video architecture for HD.

Ok with this said I have no updates for the vendor! I was hoping to hear something positive but with the months flying by Nvidia and ATi still lead the market. So as a update I dont see S3 as a threat to the main competition and I cant really see their products denting the market in any way. Lets keep an eye out on the ATI 4870 X2 and what benchmarks are out there!

Nvision 2008

Friday, August 29th, 2008

After the awards ceremony at Nvision 2008 after a number of medals and cheques were handed out the two guys from Myth Busters came to the stage. The Myth Busters gave a demonstration to illustrate a CPU and GPU with a Myth Buster twist.

First up was a small robot called Leonardo which was the “CPU” shot single paintballs out onto a canvas to create a simple smily face! :). The Big leo which was the GPU was in a different league all together. The CPU robot created an impressive BANG which shot numerous paintballs to make a pixelated version of the Mona Lisa, how artistic!

You can see the irony behind the hope show but you cant knock Nvidia for trying. The you tube video is bellow.

Nvidia SLI enabled on Intel x58 Chipset Motherboards

Friday, August 29th, 2008

x5 Now nvidias move to the Intel chipset has allowed the multi GPU support.

AMD can already run their version of SLI called Crossfire on competitors boards. Now Nvidia have joint suite Intel mainboards offer the best of both worlds. In my opinion allowing this multi GPU support by the two top graphics company’s is a brilliant move for compatability, futurproofing and allowing the end user to use Intel Chipsets but still have access to Nvidia, AMD based GPU.

Remember the x58 isn’t just another 755 socket its actually the Nehalem based Motherboard so it would be interesting to see some benchmarks on both sli, crossfire systems in the last quarter of 2008.

AMD Dual Core Kuma Specifications

Thursday, August 28th, 2008

Right So AMD are releaseing a set of new dual core processors? I’m not quite sure why this is the case but I thought I would look into it!

AMD will scrap their existing offerings to bring out new dual core k10 parts. AMD have already decided to leak the product to its partners, for testing? or just early release?

The German Tech website Hardware-infos which I have commented on before, im sure. Their website showed AMD’s primary line up of processors codenamed ‘Kuma’ with related prices.

The specifications

AMD Phenom x2 GE- 6600: 2.30GHZ, 1MB L2 Cache (2x 512 KB), 2MB L3 Cache 65nm process
AMD Phenom x2 GE- 6500: 2.10GHZ, 1MB L2 Cache (2x 512 KB), 2MB L3 Cache 65nm process
AMD Phenom x2 GE- 6400: 1.9GHZ, 1MB L2 Cache (2x 512 KB), 2MB L3 Cache 65nm process

Nothing really special here then. But these details should be take with a pinch of salt.