By Jason Cross Sep 30, 2009
A press release from AMD today announces the development of an Open Physics Initiative, together with Pixelux Entertainment. Pixelux is the developer of the Digital Molecular Matter (DMM) physics system used first in LucasArts' Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. The period of exclusivity with LucasArts is over, and now Pixelux will license its technology to others. As part of this agreement, Pixelux will integrate its proprietary technology with Bullet, a free and open-source physics engine (used in recent games like Trials HD and Free Realms) According to the press release, AMD is actively persuing the development of the Bullet phsysics library on OpenCL and DirectX 11's DirectCompute. On top of this, Pixelux is persuing development of its finite element physics simulation software on OpenCL and integrating it with Bullet. Note that this doesn't mean that Pixelux's software will be free or open-source as Bullet is, but that it will allow licenses to use a the free and open-source Bullet library for a base level of physics and then to license and layer Pixelux's DMM engine on top of that - and all of it accelerated on any GPU with an OpenCL driver.
Read more here -->Link
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Windows 7 Compatible...No, Really This Time
By Tony Bradley, September 30, 2009
Microsoft unveiled the details of the Windows 7 logo program today. The requirements for earning the Windows 7 compatibility label are stricter this time around--partially to boost support and acceptance of 64-bit systems, and partially to avoid the pitfalls Microsoft encountered with the Vista logo program. The Windows 7 logo program beefs up the testing requirements, while reducing the red tape and expense it takes for partners and vendors to certify their products as compatible. Products that achieve the Windows 7 logo certification should perform optimally and experience minimal crashes, reboots or other issues. There is a key change from past Windows compatibility programs. According to this Windows 7 blog post, "To be granted the Logo, products are tested to work with all versions of Windows 7 including 64-bit. This is an important change since 64 bit systems are becoming more mainstream."
Read more here -->Link
Microsoft unveiled the details of the Windows 7 logo program today. The requirements for earning the Windows 7 compatibility label are stricter this time around--partially to boost support and acceptance of 64-bit systems, and partially to avoid the pitfalls Microsoft encountered with the Vista logo program. The Windows 7 logo program beefs up the testing requirements, while reducing the red tape and expense it takes for partners and vendors to certify their products as compatible. Products that achieve the Windows 7 logo certification should perform optimally and experience minimal crashes, reboots or other issues. There is a key change from past Windows compatibility programs. According to this Windows 7 blog post, "To be granted the Logo, products are tested to work with all versions of Windows 7 including 64-bit. This is an important change since 64 bit systems are becoming more mainstream."
Read more here -->Link
Nvidia Launches Next GPU Computing Architecture
by Mark Hachman 09.30.09
Nvidia launched its second-generation GPU computing architecture on Wednesday, code-named "Fermi". Oak Ridge National Laboratory will design a supercomputer based on the Fermi, an executive said. The "Fermi" announcement kicked off Nvidia's GPU Technology Conference, which will run the remainder of this week in Silicon Valley. Fermi will serve as next generation of CUDA, a programming architecture Nvidia developed in 2006 in conjunction with the GeForce GeForce 8800 architecture, which included a unified compute processor that could either perform graphics-specific tasks or could be programmed in C to be used for general-purpose computing. Because they do specialized tasks – computing graphics – extremely quickly and efficiently, scientific applications that do a number of tasks over and over again could take advantage of the DSP-like graphics-chip architecture. The GT200, announced in 2008, added dual-precision floating point technology, which the GeForce 8800 lacked, according to Nathan Brookwood, an analyst with Insight64.
Read more here -->Link
Nvidia launched its second-generation GPU computing architecture on Wednesday, code-named "Fermi". Oak Ridge National Laboratory will design a supercomputer based on the Fermi, an executive said. The "Fermi" announcement kicked off Nvidia's GPU Technology Conference, which will run the remainder of this week in Silicon Valley. Fermi will serve as next generation of CUDA, a programming architecture Nvidia developed in 2006 in conjunction with the GeForce GeForce 8800 architecture, which included a unified compute processor that could either perform graphics-specific tasks or could be programmed in C to be used for general-purpose computing. Because they do specialized tasks – computing graphics – extremely quickly and efficiently, scientific applications that do a number of tasks over and over again could take advantage of the DSP-like graphics-chip architecture. The GT200, announced in 2008, added dual-precision floating point technology, which the GeForce 8800 lacked, according to Nathan Brookwood, an analyst with Insight64.
Read more here -->Link
Microsoft Gets $388 Million Break, For Now
By Paul McDougall September 30, 2009
Microsoft won a significant court victory Tuesday when a judge overturned a jury's finding that the company was liable for $388 million in damages for patent infringement. But the ruling could be reversed on appeal. Uniloc, of Singapore, sued Microsoft in federal court in Rhode Island in 2003, claiming its products were being used illegally in the Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office productivity suite. A jury ruled in favor of Uniloc and earlier this year imposed a penalty that is a record amount for a patent case. Uniloc can take the case to a higher court to attempt to have the jury's decision reinstated. A spokesperson said the company plans to do just that. "Uniloc will continue to protect its intellectual property and appeal the Judge's decision to override the jury's verdict to the US Court of Appeals," the spokesperson said. "We are confident that Uniloc will ultimately prevail," the spokesperson added. A Microsoft spokesman said, via e-mail late Tuesday, that the company is "pleased that the court has vacated the jury verdict and entered the judgment in favor of Microsoft."
Read more here -->Link
Microsoft won a significant court victory Tuesday when a judge overturned a jury's finding that the company was liable for $388 million in damages for patent infringement. But the ruling could be reversed on appeal. Uniloc, of Singapore, sued Microsoft in federal court in Rhode Island in 2003, claiming its products were being used illegally in the Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office productivity suite. A jury ruled in favor of Uniloc and earlier this year imposed a penalty that is a record amount for a patent case. Uniloc can take the case to a higher court to attempt to have the jury's decision reinstated. A spokesperson said the company plans to do just that. "Uniloc will continue to protect its intellectual property and appeal the Judge's decision to override the jury's verdict to the US Court of Appeals," the spokesperson said. "We are confident that Uniloc will ultimately prevail," the spokesperson added. A Microsoft spokesman said, via e-mail late Tuesday, that the company is "pleased that the court has vacated the jury verdict and entered the judgment in favor of Microsoft."
Read more here -->Link
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)