Thursday, June 19, 2008

Intel, Nvidia face off at Hot Chips

Source: http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=208700435

Many media processors debut at Stanford confab

Rick Merritt
EE Times
(06/18/2008 1:52 PM EDT)

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Intel Corp. and Nvidia Corp. will go head-to-head with their latest graphics architectures at the 20th annual Hot Chips conference at Stanford University, August 24-26. The event will also showcase a handful of new media processors.

In an afternoon session, Intel will present a paper on its new Larrabee graphics architecture and Nvidia will describe the version of its new GTX chip that is aimed at high-end parallel computing and was announced Monday (June 16). "This will be the first time someone can see these two architectures side by side," said Kevin Krewell, an Nvidia marketing manager who is on the Hot Chips committee.

Intel is expected to make the first technical disclosures of Larrabee in a paper at Siggraph the week of August 11. It will probably also discuss the chip at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco the week of August 18.

To date Intel has only said Larrabee is based on multiple x86 cores and is aimed at graphics and technical computing. Recently Intel chief technology officer Justin Rattner suggested the chip will drive an industry transition from raster graphics to ray tracing, a shift many observers said is not in the foreseeable future.

A variety of media processors will be described at Hot Chips, including a programmable multicore video processor from Advanced Micro Devices that it calls a mediaDSP. NXP Semiconductors will present its PNX5100, a video processor aimed at H.264 playback at 120 Hz, and Toshiba will describe a new derivative of the Cell processor called the SpursEngine and aimed at media processing.

Two startups will describe mobile media devices. Telegent will present a single-chip receiver for NTSC/PAL TV that consumes 300mW and is aimed at handheld systems. Audience will detail a voice processor that imitates the way human hearing works.

In addition, a team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences will describe the Godson-3. The chip is a multicore version of the group's earlier designs with similarities to the MIPS processor.

Intel Delves Deeper into 'Nehalem'

Source: http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Infrastructure/Intel-Delves-Deeper-into-Nehalem/

Intel Delves Deeper into 'Nehalem'
By Scott Ferguson
2008-06-18

The chip maker is presenting a paper that will delve into some of the technical aspects of Nehalem, from its integrated memory controller to how the individual cores work.

Intel is offering a chance to peek under the hood of its new "Nehalem" microarchitecture and get a glimpse at some of the technologies it's using, including its approach to saving power and transferring data from one chip to another.

At the VLSI Symposia held June 17 to June 20, Intel will present a new paper June 19 called "Next Generation Intel Micro-architecture (Nehalem) Clocking Architecture," which will offer an account of some of the new technologies and innovations going into this particular microarchitecture.

The first of the Nehalem processors for servers and high-end desktops will likely debut in the fourth quarter with more chips based on the architecture entering the market by the first half of 2009. The first of the Nehalem chips will include four processing cores.

In describing Intel's research paper, Rajesh Kumar, an Intel Fellow and director of Circuit and Low Power Technologies for the company, dwelt on two aspects of Nehalem: the integrated memory controller and a feature called QuickPath, which allows the processors to connect to another component or another chip on the motherboard.

"Here, the path to memory and the path to the chip are all integrated into the CPU itself," Kumar said during a briefing before the start of conference. "The reason we are doing this is to get much lower latency to memory and much higher bandwidth to memory. The numbers we are going to achieve with Nehalem are 25GB per second for socket-to-socket communication and 32GB per second for going to main memory."

Kumar added that this means Nehalem is about three times faster than other chips in the market. In this case, Intel is referring to Advanced Micro Devices' Opteron processors, which have used integrated memory controllers and high-speed interconnects for a number of years.

For years, Intel lagged behind AMD in these types of technologies, which allowed AMD to gain market share, especially for high-end multisocket servers where higher bandwidth is a must. Although it's too early to say for certain if Intel will catch up with AMD, the chip giant is certainly moving in that direction and its customers can expect more details later in 2008.

"I would say that this paper is the beginning of a rolling thunder campaign that will last at least through the end of this year and only let up once all of Intel's Nehalem processors have been launched," said John Spooner, an analyst with Technology Business Research. "During this time, the company is going to begin building the case for Nehalem to be the highest-performing x86 chip in history, with huge benefits in performance per watt for servers in particular. Intel is betting big on Nehalem and it wants the processor family to be well received. So it's working to begin building interest in the platform."

Since the Nehalem architecture will be used across an array of product segments—servers, desktops, notebooks—Kumar said Intel engineers had to consider how they could change the structure of the chips to fit within these different segments. They made the processing cores modular so the cores could be easily switched out to meet the needs of different products.

Intel also decoupled the main components, allowing the voltage and the clock frequencies of the different parts to be set independently of one another. This allows Intel to design chips off the same basic architecture that can offer energy efficiency for one product and high performance for another.

"The CPU core, for example, can be running at its own frequency and voltage while the memory system is running on its own and I/O is running on its own and each of them can be tuned for a different segment," Kumar said.

"This idea itself is not new, but the implementation is new," he added. "So far, most have tried to do this with asynchronous interfaces, which happen to be fairly slow … so the main innovation here is to do this in a synchronous fashion, which is very low latency and [offers] high performance."

Finally, Kumar said Nehalem will adjust to the type of applications a system is running and will adjust its frequency to the power it needs to run these different pieces of software.

Intel did not say what clock speeds the Nehalem chips will offer. The paper also did not detail the exact power envelope these processors will have, although Kumar noted that Nehalem gives Intel the ability to integrate a graphics core into the processor.

Intel is expected to give full details about Nehalem at its Developer Forum in August.

Intel 'Harpertown' chip rules supercomputer list

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9971576-7.html

June 18, 2008 11:30 AM PDT

Intel 'Harpertown' chip rules supercomputer list

Posted by Brooke Crothers Post a comment

Intel Xeon processors--particularly the "Harpertown" variety--dominated the top 500 supercomputer list. But IBM's Power chips made a strong showing as usual at the very top of the list. AMD's Opteron processor landed in the No. 1 and No. 4 ranked systems.

Top 10 processors in Top500 supercomputer list

(Credit: Top500.org)

The Top500 List--updated twice a year--of supercomputers was released Wednesday. Intel's Xeon, AMD's Opteron, and IBM's Power chips vied for most of the spots in the list.

The most dominant chip was the Intel Xeon E54xx series "Harpertown" processor. Appearing in 116 systems for 23.2 percent of the total. The largest for any single processor model.

The Xeon 53xx series "Clovertown" processor was next, appearing in 92 systems for 18.4 percent of the total. Following Clovertown was the Xeon 51xx series "Woodcrest" processor with 18.2 percent of the total.

Harpertown and Clovertown are quad-core processors, Woodcrest is dual-core.

In the No. 4 slot was the AMD Opteron dual-core chip (8.4 percent), followed by the X54xx series of Intel Harpertown processors (7.8 percent), then by the PowerPC 440 (4.22 percent).

(Note: Combining the Intel Harpertown E54xx series and X54xx series boosts the total for this chip model to 31 percent.)

The IBM Power processors passed the AMD Opteron family and "are now (again) the second most common processor family with 68 systems (13.6 percent), up from 61 systems (12.2 percent) six months ago," Top500.org said.

AMD's strongest showing was in the top five supercomputers. Opteron processors played a major role in the No. 1 IBM Roadrunner system, which connects 6,562 dual-core AMD Opteron chips as well as 12,240 IBM Cell chips (on IBM Model QS22 blade servers).

See: IBM's Roadrunner breaks petaflop barrier, tops supercomputer list.

The No. 4 Sun Microsystems' SunBlade system uses over 62,000 cores running inside AMD Opteron quad-core processors running at 2.0GHz.

The No. 2 and No. 3 systems were based on IBM PowerPC 450 chips.

Other Top500 processor highlights:

A total of 375 systems (75 percent) are now using Intel processors. This is up from six months ago (354 systems, 70.8 percent) and represents the largest share for Intel chips in the Top500 ever.
56 systems (11 percent) are using AMD Opteron processors, down from 78 systems (15.6 percent) six months ago.
283 systems are using quad-core processor based systems.

Originally posted at Nanotech: The Circuits Blog

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Sxipper Automatically Fills in Web Forms [Featured Firefox Extension]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/313305926/sxipper-automatically-fills-in-web-forms

Firefox only (Windows/Mac/Linux): Firefox extension Sxipper automates your web logins and form filling through a simple, attractive interface. Once installed, you can create different personas into Sxipper for quick form filling for site registrations, and Sxipper automatically works with Firefox's existing saved logins. The extension can either learn and build personas based on information you've already used in forms, or you can import other form and password data from other programs like Roboform or plain old vCards. Sxipper is free, works wherever Firefox does.

Sxipper [Firefox Add-ons via Nethackz]

XB Browser Provides Anonymous Web Browsing [Featured Windows Download]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/313366173/xb-browser-provides-anonymous-web-browsing

Windows only: Freeware application xB Browser is a portable web browser that provides anonymous web surfing at startup. xB Browser anonymizes traffic either through the free Tor network or through its distributor XeroBank's networks (the second comes with a price). Born from the ashes of previously mentioned and abandoned TorPark, xB Browser is really just Firefox with anonymous browsing baked in from the get-go. xB Browser is free, Windows only, though Mac and Linux versions are planned for August 08.

xB Browser [XeroBank via Download Squad]

Set Firefox 3 to Launch Gmail for mailto Links

Add Gmail as application handler
In today's earlier list of five extensions you won't need in Firefox 3, we said you won't need any special toolbars, third-party apps, Greasemonkey scripts, or extensions to get Firefox to use webapps to open certain types of links. This means that when you click on an email address that uses the standard mailto: email protocol, Firefox 3 itself can launch Gmail instead of a desktop app. By default, the Firefox RC 1 only comes with Yahoo Mail as a possible mailto: link handler, which leaves Gmail users out in the cold—unless you know how to set it up by hand. Here's how to configure Firefox 3 to use Gmail as your default mailto: application handler.

Ready to set up Gmail? Roll up those sleeves.

Open Gmail in Firefox.
In the tab where Gmail is loaded, copy and paste the following snippet of JavaScript into your address bar:
javascript:window.navigator.registerProtocolHandler("mailto","https://mail.google.com/mail/?extsrc=mailto&url=%s","GMail")

If you are a Google Apps user, use this code instead, but replace example.com with your domain name:
javascript:window.navigator.registerProtocolHandler("mailto","https://mail.google.com/a/example.com/mail/?extsrc=mailto&url=%s","GMail")
Firefox 3 will ask permission to add Gmail as default mailto handler. Click the Add Application button, as shown.

Update, 6/18/08: Thanks to a great tip from a reader Andrew, the instructions above have been shortened considerably. Thanks, Andrew!

Now, if you click a mailto: link—try the tips link on Lifehacker's sidebar—Firefox 3 will ask which application you want to use. Choose Gmail, and select "Remember my choice for mailto links" to set the preference permanently.

**Updated 5/21** If this trick doesn't work for you, go into about:config and make sure that network.protocol-handler.external.mailto is set to its default value true.

***Updated 5/21*** To remove the Gmail handler, in Firefox's Tools menu, choose Options. (Mac users, go to the Preferences dialog.) In the Applications tab, search for mailto. From the drop-down of mailto handlers, choose Applications Details, as shown. Here you can select a webapp handler and Remove it using the button.

Firefox 3's new ability to register webapps as link handlers has lots of potential usage, for everything from fax and telephone numbers to IM buddy name links. Setting up your mailto handler is just the beginning. Read more about Firefox 3 web protocol handler possibilities. Thanks, readme!

Dumpr Applies Photo Effects Online [Image Editing]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/314686028/dumpr-applies-photo-effects-online

Web-based photo editor Dumpr adds quick effects to photos like the Lifehacker Rubik's Cube included here, created in under 10 seconds. Upload photos to Dumpr from your computer, or grab them from Flickr or any photo URL. The real timesaver Dumpr provides is the quick link panel beside each picture it renders, which lets you quickly inject your edited photos into Facebook, Blogger, Wordpress, and more. If you're looking for a more robust online editor to crop, resize, and apply filters, check out previously posted Wiredness.

Dumpr [via Chris Brogan]

Video Makes Skype 4.0 Grow Bigger, Wider

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OmMalik/~3/314157977/

Updated: Skype, the peer-to-peer VoIP provider and a division of eBay, wants to grow up – both as a company and as a communications utility. To that end, it is launching the beta version of its latest Skype client software.

Josh Silverman, the company’s new CEO, acknowledged that from a usability standpoint, things hadn’t changed much, even as Skype kept adding more features such as embedding third-party plug-ins. Skype needed a better, easier and cleaner client — and Skype 4.0 beta, likely to be available for download tomorrow, is a start.

The new client is going to cause an uproar amongst many Skype loyalists used to the IM-like nature of the current software. With this version, the software takes up the entire PC desktop screen, mostly to accommodate a growing number of features. (Skype Journal’s Jim Courtney & JKontherun tell me that you can change the screen size, though it isn’t that obvious or easy.) I found it hugely annoying as it forced me to constantly toggle between the client and the desktop; merely doubling or tripling the size of the client seems like it would have sufficed.

Skype 4.0 Beta for Windows - Briefing
by SkypeConversations

The real reason for the redesign, however, is Skype Video, which desperately needed a new layout because it requires an ease-of-use that eludes the current client. As I pointed out a few weeks ago, video communication (which accounts for about 28 percent of total Skype calls) has been one of the fastest-growing features on Skype, thanks to the easy availability of built-in cameras, especially in devices used by mobile workers.

I often use Skype to conduct calls with my friends around the planet, and occasionally for work as well. As the bandwidth on our broadband connections grows, I think the idea of quick video conversations with friends, family and co-workers will catch on. In this era of rising oil prices and unfriendly skies, it makes sense to simply call someone and see them on computer screen.

But back to the software and my initial impressions (their PR team only sent me the beta download link this morning.) I think after people get over the initial shock related to the bigger size, they will quickly learn to love version 4.0.

I found the improved ability to conduct conversations by consolidating the tabs, which allows you to easily switch between various conversations, especially useful. And initiating a video call is dead simple, almost as simple as Apple's iChat client.

Skype 4.0 is a much more complete communicator, even despite its beta status. With it, using Skype for instant messaging, making video and voice calls, sending files and sending SMS messages are all easier. I think it’s well worth the download (Available for download tomorrow.) But it’s a shame they don't have a Mac client — the 4.0 version will initially only be available for Windows-based computers — since Mac is my everyday machine.

The company is also working on introducing features such as auto-redial, call transfer, and most importantly, the ability to send money. I guess they figured out how to integrate eBay's PayPal with Skype. Now wasn't that worth spending billions of dollars on?

Vermont OKs the Creation of Virtual Corporations

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OmMalik/~3/314025520/

Ah Vermont, that lovely New England state known for its maple syrup, Ben & Jerry’s ice cream…and now, limited liability corporations that only exist online.

On June 6th, Gov. Jim Douglas signed an inauspicious-sounding bill entitled “H.0888, Miscellaneous Tax Documents” that could revolutionize the way startup companies are formed and run. As New York Law School professor David Johnson explained to me, up until now, U.S. law required LLCs to have physical headquarters, in-person board meetings and other regulations that have little relevance in the digital age.

No longer. Under the new law, for example, a board meeting may be conducted “in person or through the use of [an] electronic or telecommunications medium.” A “‘virtual company’ will be, as a legal matter, a Vermont limited liability company,” said Johnson. And other states are required to recognize the corporation as a legitimate LLC. So while in the past many companies registered in Delaware to take advantage of that state’s business-friendly policies, with this law, Internet-driven startups may find Vermont even more ideal.

Johnson was instrumental to crafting the bill’s language; he, along with his NYLS students and a couple of professors at Vermont Law School, spent the last two years putting it together. He foresees virtual companies launched for countless reasons, such as the production of software or publications written by people across the country, even for corporations that exist only in Second Life.

As you may have guessed, this isn’t just an academic exercise for Johnson; he’s also developing software to manage virtual corporations through NYLS’ DoTank project. Since word of the Vermont bill’s passing got out, he said, “I've had two people beg me to be the first to get on the list" to start filing virtual incorporation papers. Indeed, it’s easy to see this becoming standard practice in coming years, with traditional office buildings being abandoned for dynamic companies that exist wherever its employees happen to crack open their computers.

Image credit: Vermont.gov

Is LinkedIn Worth $1 Billion?

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OmMalik/~3/314376977/

LinkedIn Worth $1 billion?

I think so
It is seriously overvalued
I don't care either way.

The big news tonight is business social network LinkedIn raised $53 million in Series D funding at a valuation of $1 billion. The new round is led by Bain Capital (the same genius investors who also funded Vonage) brings the total money raised by the company to about $80 million. I wasn’t going to write about this, given everyone had already jumped on the story.

Anyway the valuation of $1 billion -not as insane as the valuation placed by Microsoft on Facebook - was jaw dropping. Sure, LinkedIn has more value than plain vanilla me-too social networks but is it really worth a billion dollars? I ended up doing some back-of-the-envelope calculations while watching Boston Celtics celebrate their 17th NBA Championships.

The question of over-valuation had first popped up when I read about this round in May 2008 on Venturebeat . Techcrunch then reported that Allen & Co, the New York bank was helping Reid Hoffman’s company raise fresh capital at the $1 billion valuation.

So I decided to do a back-of-the-envelope comparison with XING with some of the publicly available data on XING, a European Social Network that is publicly traded in Frankfurt. It is a pretty good proxy for a business-focused social network, such as LinkedIn.

It has a market capitalization of about $300 million. It has has 5.71 million subscribers. XING had revenues of around $11.6 million at the end of first quarter 2008; about 70 cents per month per subscriber. That works out to about $52.30 per subscriber. For sake of comparison, Facebook’s reported $15 billion valuation works out to $125 per subscriber.

If you use those numbers, then LinkedIn’s rumored 20 million users are worth $1.04 billion. The company is adding about 1.3 million new subscribers a month, so by those estimates it should end the year at around 29 million subscribers. USA Today reported that LinkedIn was on target to do between $75-to-$100 million in revenues this year. Lets be generous and assume that they indeed do $100 million that works out to about 29 cents per month per subscriber (assuming that the number of subscribers at the end of the year is about 29 million.)

My back-of-the-envelope calculations show that if your user the value per subscriber of then LinkedIn’s $1 billion got a market valuation. On per-subscriber revenue basis, LinkedIn seems a tad overvalued, especially considering that their traffic is range bound, and the number of active uniques is showing a slight slump.

What do you guys think?

Update: Connie Loizos of PE Hub is spot on in saying that this video of LinkedIn VCs self-congratulating themselves made her cringe. Me to Connie.

Optoma To Launch "World's First" Pico Projector in 2008 [Pico]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/314617808/optoma-to-launch-worlds-first-pico-projector-in-2008

Optoma is winning the race to build the world's first pico-projector, the near-mythical mini projector that can throw up a display much larger than the source device's—think iPods, digital cameras and smartphones—screen. Optoma's pico will use the DLP chipset, support composite video quality and run on Li-ion batteries. The projector will make it to market later this year in Europe and Asia, before coming stateside in 2009. No word on pricing, press release after the jump. [Optoma]

Optoma Introduces World's First Pico Handheld Projector
Based on Texas Instruments' DLP Pico® Chipset, Features Sleek Design and Extreme Portability

LAS VEGAS, NV (June 18, 2008) – Optoma, a leading manufacturer of award-winning digital projection and display devices, introduces the first Pico projector based on the DLP Pico chipset. Smaller than most smart phones, this new micro-portable projector fits in your palm and is the ideal companion to ultra-portable media devices such as iPods®, PDA's, smart phones and digital cameras.

When connected to an ultra-mobile device, the four-ounce Optoma Pico Projector allows users to share photos and videos, and enjoy a far better visual experience with an image that is up to 100 times larger than the small screen of the source device.

"The Pico Projector is the next step in sharing visual media for today's ultra-mobile consumers. Fitting in your shirt pocket, the Pico Projector can display pictures, videos or any content from a mobile media player or smart phone" says Jon Grodem, director of Product Management for Optoma. "Optoma's Pico breaks free from the limitations of the 2 or 3 inch displays found on today's mobile devices. This category defining projector creates a ne! w benchm ark for sharing content-on-the-go."

Optoma's Pico Projector utilizes the latest LED technology resulting in a colorful and vivid image. The small and powerful unit is based upon DLP technology assuring the highest possible contrast.

"The handheld Pico projector represents the latest advancement in the mobile device display industry. We view the Pico projector as a completely new and exciting market – one which dramatically expands the reach and potential of projection products into new end user applications," says Dr. William Coggshall, founder and president of Pacific Media Associates.

The product will be first shown at Texas Instrument's InfoComm 2008 booth C909 and will be available in limited distribution in Europe and Asia in late 2008, with a worldwide launch in 2009.

Verizon Plans to Expand FiOS to the Boonies By Using Less Fiber (Â¡Que!) [Verizon Fios]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/314699856/verizon-plans-to-expand-fios-to-the-boonies-by-using-less-fiber-que

PC Mag is reporting that Verizon is looking at a couple different ways to spread the good word of FiOS beyond the projected 18 million homes it'll reach in 2010, maybe by using less, um, fiber after that, according to tech chief Mark Wegleitner.

Right now, Verizon's FiOS network is built fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP), which means it's fiber all the way to your door, a fact it mercilessly (and rightly) lords over cable and AT&T's U-Verse. U-Verse is built as fiber to the node, where it's fiber to a box you share with your neighbors and connect to via copper or coax. It's slower than FiOS. But, FTTP buildout is really, really expensive—Verizon's spent $20 billion already, way more than AT&T.

And spending even more to build fiber out to sparely populated areas doesn't make much economic sense, even if it is cheaper than expected. (As much as we all want our own personal fiber line.) So, they're leaking for a cheaper alternative, "another approach to FTTP," in Wegleitner's words. That's all well and good, as long as it's still fiber to my door. (Soon, please?) [PC Mag]