GDC 2009: OpenCL Havok wins the debate
By Charlie Demerjian, 6 April 2009
AT GDC A few days ago, AMD dropped a bomb on the GPGPU world by announcing a GPU-accelerated Havok implementation. It is technically nothing new, Nvidia teamed up with Havok years ago, but the 'how' side of the question means AMD just won the argument. The big thing that AMD did was code the Havok implementation in OpenCL. This means that it is a standard, and any other OpenCL supporting GPU, Nvidia, S3 or Intel can use it on their GPUs as well. As long as you have OpenCL drivers, you will have Havok GPU-accelerated physics. The part that is spectacular is that it was all done in a handful of weeks. A quarter ago, this didn't exist, and now you have a full Havok implementation on the GPU, written in a standards-compliant way. It wasn't all that fast, yet, but it did work seamlessly. Don't underestimate how big a deal this is, however. As soon as it is optimised correctly, you can parse the physics load between the CPU and GPU.
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Monday, April 6, 2009
Are You Infected? A Smart and Simple Test.
By Erik Larkin Apr 6, 2009
A common tactic used by malware is to block the infected computer from connecting to the Web sites of antivirus and security companies. Such blocks are meant to prevent you and your antivirus program from getting help in removing the infection. The Conficker worm and many other types of malware take this step, and one good thing that came out of all the hype and drama surrounding last week's April 1 doomsday for Conficker was this little gem from the Conficker Working Group, an industry coalition formed to fight the worm. The group's "Conficker Eye Chart" pulls images from three sites that Conficker is known to block and displays them in a box. Below the box is a guide to interpreting how you see the images - if they all show up you're in good shape, but if one or more doesn't display it could indicate a Conficker (or other malware) infection.
Read more here -->Link
A common tactic used by malware is to block the infected computer from connecting to the Web sites of antivirus and security companies. Such blocks are meant to prevent you and your antivirus program from getting help in removing the infection. The Conficker worm and many other types of malware take this step, and one good thing that came out of all the hype and drama surrounding last week's April 1 doomsday for Conficker was this little gem from the Conficker Working Group, an industry coalition formed to fight the worm. The group's "Conficker Eye Chart" pulls images from three sites that Conficker is known to block and displays them in a box. Below the box is a guide to interpreting how you see the images - if they all show up you're in good shape, but if one or more doesn't display it could indicate a Conficker (or other malware) infection.
Read more here -->Link
Albatron Drops Nvidia Exclusivity, Unveils First ATI Graphics Card.
Albatron Launches ATI Radeon HD 4890 Graphics Accelerator
by Anton Shilov 04/03/2009 repost here 4/06/09
Albatron, a long-time Nvidia-exclusive supplier of graphics cards, on Friday formally launched its first graphics board based on ATI Radeon graphics processing unit and further demonstrated the success of ATI, graphics products group of Advanced Micro Devices, that it faces after the release of the ATI Radeon HD 4000 line. “To bring consumers various choices, professional motherboard and graphics card manufactures, Albatron Technology announces Albatron Radeon HD 4890-1G. Full line of ATI products will be available soon to the market,” a statement by Albatron reads. The first ATI-based graphics card from Albatron – Albatron Radeon HD 4890-1G – is a reference designed Radeon model 4890 with 1GB of GDDR5 memory that was launched by AMD’s graphics products group on Thursday. Clock-speeds of the new graphics board are standard: 850MHz for the chip and 3900MHz for memory.
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by Anton Shilov 04/03/2009 repost here 4/06/09
Albatron, a long-time Nvidia-exclusive supplier of graphics cards, on Friday formally launched its first graphics board based on ATI Radeon graphics processing unit and further demonstrated the success of ATI, graphics products group of Advanced Micro Devices, that it faces after the release of the ATI Radeon HD 4000 line. “To bring consumers various choices, professional motherboard and graphics card manufactures, Albatron Technology announces Albatron Radeon HD 4890-1G. Full line of ATI products will be available soon to the market,” a statement by Albatron reads. The first ATI-based graphics card from Albatron – Albatron Radeon HD 4890-1G – is a reference designed Radeon model 4890 with 1GB of GDDR5 memory that was launched by AMD’s graphics products group on Thursday. Clock-speeds of the new graphics board are standard: 850MHz for the chip and 3900MHz for memory.
Read more here -->Link
Intel is now after Nvidia's MCP79
But admits Nvidia is better for games
by Fuad Abazovic, 06 April 2009
Intel has one new presentation where it tries to bash Nvidia chipsets and this time they are after MCP79. Intel’s biggest argument is that the battery life is much better on GM45 Intel chipset based notebook then on Nvidia’s MCP79. There is a big chance that Nvidia's MCP79 does eat more battery than Intel's GM45. Intel also claims it can score 120 on Hollywood Quality Video (HQV) test, out of a possible 130, while MPC79MVL scores some 90+ points and we wonder if Intel is completely honest about this one. We really doubt that Intel’s GM45 is that good with DVD video playback as Intel was always last in these tests where ATI and Nvidia were winning. Intel at least admits that in 3Dmark 06 and 3Dmark vantage that “Some Nvidia MCP79M SKUs offer 2-3x times better gaming performance as measured by 3Dmark, however volume MCP79MVL SKU is slightly below GM45 in DirectX 9 gaming.” Intel fails to mention that in 3Dmark Vantage the same Nvidia’s SKU scores almost 50 percent better.
Read more here -->Link
by Fuad Abazovic, 06 April 2009
Intel has one new presentation where it tries to bash Nvidia chipsets and this time they are after MCP79. Intel’s biggest argument is that the battery life is much better on GM45 Intel chipset based notebook then on Nvidia’s MCP79. There is a big chance that Nvidia's MCP79 does eat more battery than Intel's GM45. Intel also claims it can score 120 on Hollywood Quality Video (HQV) test, out of a possible 130, while MPC79MVL scores some 90+ points and we wonder if Intel is completely honest about this one. We really doubt that Intel’s GM45 is that good with DVD video playback as Intel was always last in these tests where ATI and Nvidia were winning. Intel at least admits that in 3Dmark 06 and 3Dmark vantage that “Some Nvidia MCP79M SKUs offer 2-3x times better gaming performance as measured by 3Dmark, however volume MCP79MVL SKU is slightly below GM45 in DirectX 9 gaming.” Intel fails to mention that in 3Dmark Vantage the same Nvidia’s SKU scores almost 50 percent better.
Read more here -->Link
Next-gen iPod touch, iPhone to support low-power 802.11n
By Prince McLean 4/06/09
Wireless radio component specifications contained within beta distributions of iPhone 3.0 firmware reveal support for a new chip enabling low power 802.11n that's bound for Apple's third-generation iPod touch. It's therefore also likely to be included with new iPhone models. The version of the existing Broadcom chip that supplies WiFi and Bluetooth on existing models jumps from BCM4325 to BCM4329, according to resource files reserved for a third-generation iPod touch. The component upgrade adds new support for 802.11n features, including the ability to find and join 5GHz networks.
Read more here -->Link
Wireless radio component specifications contained within beta distributions of iPhone 3.0 firmware reveal support for a new chip enabling low power 802.11n that's bound for Apple's third-generation iPod touch. It's therefore also likely to be included with new iPhone models. The version of the existing Broadcom chip that supplies WiFi and Bluetooth on existing models jumps from BCM4325 to BCM4329, according to resource files reserved for a third-generation iPod touch. The component upgrade adds new support for 802.11n features, including the ability to find and join 5GHz networks.
Read more here -->Link
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