ATI demonstrates hybrid-chip CrossFire graphics tech

from Engadget by Nilay Patel

We've already seen laptops like Sony's Vaio SZ include integrated graphics alongside much more powerful (and power-hungry) dedicated chips, but AMD's looking to make such setups all the more commonplace with new chips capable of hybrid CrossFire. AMD recently demoed the tech to PC Perspective, showing off a 2.2GHz Phenom machine with both unreleased RS780 integrated graphics and a RV620-based card labeled HD Radeon 3450. Running games like Call of Duty 4 and Unreal Tournament 3, frame rates jumped from 30-35fps to around 55fps when hybrid mode was enabled. That's pretty respectable, although the system is limited to speedups of the slowest chip times two, so bigger gains are probably not in the offing. However, there can still be benefits to using chips of drastically different horsepower: the integrated chips can power down the heavy hitter to save power when not needed, and totally switch over when required. That's a pretty solid compromise, we think -- and with AMD aiming for the initial batch of hybrid CrossFire-capable cards to be priced around $50, it looks like we'll be seeing these setups a lot when AMD starts shipping these early next year.

 

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Homer's iViewer: the wireless TV transmitter

from Engadget by Darren Murph

Homer Technology's iViewer is based on a fairly simple concept, and while we're still curious as to what wireless protocol it's utilizing to handle its duties, it can reportedly beam content from just about anything to your TV sans cabling. More formally known as the HTM 9000, this thing features four separate channels / status LEDs, a trio of composite video inputs and an embedded antenna, which is apparently utilized to pass along video / images from your PMP / camcorder / etc. to the family room TV. Granted, we're always a bit skeptical when the nitty-gritty technical details are casually omitted from any easily retrievable documentation, but if this thing does what it promises at just $42.99, we'd say it's pretty worthwhile.

[Via ChipChick]

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ITRI showcases a 10.4-inch flexible color LCD

from Engadget by Nilay Patel

Hot on the heels of that flexible color e-ink display we saw a couple days back, here comes a flexible 10.4-inch LCD display that's less then 10mm thick. The display is being developed by Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), and features two plastic substrate elements instead of a traditional glass one. ITRI says the display can reproduce 57 percent of the NTSC color gamut, but there's no word on when we might ever see these in production.

[Via TG Daily]

 

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NVIDIA 3-Way SLI review roundup

from Engadget by Paul Miller

No use kidding around: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 3-Way SLI kicks benchmark ass. Reviewers across the board found the setup to be far and away the best money can buy when it comes to graphics, but the price is certainly steep. Not only are the cards super pricey -- you're limited to the 8800 GTX and 8800 Ultra -- but you'll need a 1000+ watt power supply, and pretty much a fresh system from the ground up unless you're already running the nForce 680i SLI motherboard. PC Perspective crunched the numbers, and you're looking at about $2828 in costs before you even get to the case, hard drive, DVD drive and all that other superfluous stuff. That said, the third card really makes a big difference, since performance scales surprisingly well with the addition. You probably don't need this kind of power if you're not trying to game at full-res on a 30-incher, but if you don't mind dropping $3k on a system purely designed to play Crysis at Very High, then you just might have some 3-way SLI in your future. Read - bit-tech.net Read - HotHardware Read - PC Perspective

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Polymer Vision announces rollable displays are in production

from Engadget by Paul Miller

We've been look at wacky prototypes of rollable displays for so long that it's hard to believe they could ever get real. Polymer Vision, a Philips spin out, has just announced that it has its production facilities up and running and its first rollable displays have made it off the assembly line. And they're not leaving it at that. Polymer Vision's first product, the 3G-enabled Readius, is supposed to be available before the end of the year. That doesn't give them much time to slap the rest of the parts together, but hopefully the Readius can be giving Kindle some competition before we get too terribly accustomed to its DRM-ed ways.

 

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