Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Thursday, April 10, 2008

IBM rolls out systems based on "fastest chip on Earth"

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/267963862/

Filed under: Desktops

It's not the first time IBM has tossed around "world's fastest" language when discussing its Power6 processors, but the company's now found reason to boast again, with it recently announcing that it's released some new supercomputers based on its new "world's most powerful microprocessor." Getting that distinction is IBM's latest Power 575 "Hydro-Cluster" supercomputer which, thanks to some nifty in-rack water-cooling measures, is able to accommodate the company's speedy new 5GHz Power6 processor. According to IBM, that processor should deliver "two-to-three times the performance per core of comparable HP or Sun processors," while still requiring only about the same amount of energy as previous Power5 processors. For its part, Sun is a bit skeptical IBM's focus on speed, with a company spokesperson telling the San Francisco Chronicle that "it's an easier marketing message to deliver to say that faster gigahertz means a faster processor," adding that Sun instead focuses on multithreading to make its processors more efficient.

Read - IBM press release
Read - SFGate, "IBM chip is fastest on Earth"

[Via Slashdot]

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CE-Oh no he didn't! Part LV: NVIDIA boss says "We're going to open a can of whoop-ass" on Intel

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/268062360/

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Looks like Intel's plans to enter the graphics space in a big way with its Nehalem and Larrabee lines strike NVIDIA CEO Jen Hsun-Huang as being rather foolish -- in a conference call with analysts today, Huang said Intel's integrated graphics offerings were "a joke," and that even a tenfold increase in performance would put them behind NVIDIA's current products. Huang didn't stop there, saying that NVIDIA was "going to open a can of whoop-ass," and that while Intel's graphics chips were fine for running Office, they would never cut it for gamers and other demanding users. Huang kept going, responding to questions about all those driver-related Vista crashes by saying that NVIDIA had to support new games weekly while Intel's chips aren't ever put to the test. Actually, that's toning it down a bit -- what Huang actually said was "You already have the right machine to run Excel. You bought it four years ago... How much faster can you render the blue screen of death?" Yeah, them's fightin' words -- you going to sit there and take it, Intel?

[Thanks, Mike A.]

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Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Toyota Goes on a Diet

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/yankodesign/~3/266873112/

Toyota is getting seriously body conscious with its latest fuel efficient concept the 1/X. Taking everything they learned from their highly successful hybrid Prius, Toyota is looking for more ways to squeeze every inch from a gallon of gas possible. This 1/X concept design was built from the ground up with light weight materials, with which they hope to double the Prius’ already impressive mileage ranking. Some interesting choices can be found overhead. The roof is transparent, heat and noise insulating, and made from a bio-plastic derived from kenaf and ramie plants. The wheels are thinner than normal cars due to its extreme light weight.This design, combined with the lightness of the car means that it can travel for over 600 miles on a four-gallon tank of fuel. Pretty impressive effort from Toyota, one of the only companies successfully marketing hybrids today.

Designer: Toyota [ Via: Inhabitat ]

Toyota

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

iPhone and iPod Touch Actually Support 720x526 Video Resolution [IPhone]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/266025701/iphone-and-ipod-touch-actually-support-720x526-video-resolution

Officially, the iPhone and iPod touch support 640 by 480-pixel video running at up to 30 frames per second. But Ars Technica is reporting that it'll actually take 720x576-resy video churning at 25fps, which is the same resolution and frame rate that PAL (mostly Euro) DVDs run at. Obviously not all that useful if you're just catching flicks on your iPhone, but if you watch them on your computer too (like a rental), the higher res means less squinting on your big boy monitor. [Ars Technica]

Pogue Reviews Casio's 1,200FPS EXIFILM Pro EX-F1 (Verdict: Built for Pure Speed) [Casio EXIFILM PRO EX-F1]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/266079162/pogue-reviews-casios-1200fps-exifilm-pro-ex+f1-verdict-built-for-pure-speed

We pretty much flipped over the Casio EXIFILM PRO EX-F1's insane rapid fire mode when we get our hands on it: 60fps still shooting, and up to a retardiculous 1200fps video for super slo-mo. David Pogue gives the full review, and spends a page lauding how freakin' fast this camera is. Besides loving the sheer rate of fire, he really digs the pre-record mode, which constantly shoots while you're just halfway pressing the shutter, so even if you're too slow to hit just the right moment, the camera's already got it. But! "Unfortunately, this highly unusual, almost experimental piece of equipment includes nearly as many downsides as breakthroughs."

The low light performance sucks, courtesy of a tiny light sensor, which is half the size of a beginner's DSLR. So you need brilliant lighting to avoid dim or blurry shots. And Casio's solution of "one of the brightest and fastest flashes ever on a consumer camera" ain't much of one, unless you're into harshly lit photos.

Topping that bit of suck off, the digital (not optical) eyepiece is crummy, and both start-up and focusing are sloooow. No zooming, during HD video capture either. And high-speed videos offer no sound or any setting changes mid-filming. But overall, Pogue says that those sniggles are "like complaining that your 7-year-old violin virtuoso is lousy at sports" and that "Casio deserves congratulations for innovating in so many big, bold, industry-defying ways." Buy it for speed, not the other stuff. [NYT]