|
|
 |
|
|
|
The other part of the NVIDIA presentation was given over to Ion, a brand that now englobes all successful products based on GeForce 9300 and 9400 chipsets as well as those built around the Atom. NVIDIA highlighted the success of Ion with Lenovo basing a netbook on this chipset. NVIDIA hopes this first product is symbolic and the beginning of a long series, in spite of the obstacles from Intel who are fighting to keep control of the segmentation of the CPU market.
 According to NVIDIA an Atom + Ion platform is better balanced than a CULV platform, which is true is certain cases but not in others. Everything depends on how it is used because although the Intel integrated graphics core is up to date technically, the software side is still lacking. The advantage over the 100% Intel Atom is clear however because of the difference in terms of the age of the chipsets. Several mini-PCs based on Ion were on show.  Note that Ion is an IGP or integrated chipset. NVIDIA is trying to use wordplay to differenciate Ion from competing solutions from Intel. In this version Ion would be considered a GPU (= good) while the Intel chipsets IGPs (= not good). In reality, both solutions are identical and are IGPs. NVIDIA’s does however give better performance, although very much lower than graphics cards, and has full and better quality drivers. |
| |
|
The GPU manufacturer held a first conference before the official opening of Computex, concentrating on GPU Computing.
NVIDIA announced the arrival of a server at SuperMicro equipped with an Intel platform and Tesla accelerators in a single 1U rack-mount server. NVIDIA’s own solutions are also in a single 1U but without the GPUs and must therefore be linked to a overarching server. The SuperMicro server then presents something new, though we don’t yet have the exact spec. All we can deduce from the 2 teraflops is that it will be equipped with 2 GT200b GPUs.
Jen-Hsun Huang, President & CEO, Nvidia.In terms of the general consumer, NVIDIA talked up the growing number of apps that can use the GPU as a parallel coprocessor, at the same time saying that this is just the start as the arrival of DirectX 11 and Windows 7 should accelerate the trend. DirectX 11 means standardised use of GPUs (including current versions!) via Compute Shaders. Windows 7, as well as integrating DirectX 11, will include a transcoder that can use GPUs, via Compute Shaders, to accelerate video conversion. 
Microsoft and Nvidia are highlighting native GPU support in Windows 7 for acceleration of video transcoding.Thanks to CUDA, NVIDIA has a clear lead on the competition when it comes to GPU Computing because it has long been prepared for it on the software side. Although in the future all components should be supported, right now the software headstart will benefit the GeForces in terms of acceleration in certain video processing apps. The same goes for PhysX that benefits GeForces in terms of physics effects support. NVIDIA is nevertheless grossly exagerating its vision and communication on what is an interesting subject is becoming something of a charicature. To convince the press that the GPU as coprocessor is the future of PCs for example, Jen-Hsun Huang, NVIDIA CEO, is saying that everyone is saying the same thing. Read, “you the press should write the same thing so as not to seem out of the loop”. Another example: when NVIDIA demonstrated a game with physics effects accelerated by the GPU, the sound volume was cut by half when these effects were disactivated, to accentuate the sensation! What is most annoying however is the way that what is in fact a vector processing unit is presented as a core. This simplification is all the more annoying as GPUs and CPUs start to compete. If NVIDIA’s rhetoric is accepted then a quadcore CPU should be seen as composed of at least 16 cores if you take into account its vector units. Everyone would shout out how ridiculous this was and with good reason. NVIDIA has now put itself in a corner however as it has used this in its marketing and it would be difficult to backtrack. How could they say that the GT200 is in fact made up of 10 or even 30 cores and not 240? |
| |
|
Computex 2009, the largest IT components show has begun. It’s taking place in Taipei in Taiwan, the base for many of the main players in the PC components industry, in all almost 80% of world production according to the locals.
Walter Yeh, Executive Vice President, TAITRAOrganised jointly with TAITRA (Taiwan External Trade Development Council) and TCA (Taipei Computer Association), there are 1712 exhibitors at Computex spread over 4500 stands. Similar figures to last year. Has Computex been affected by the downturn? Not really, with TIATRA’s president setting the tone by announcing that this year would be difficult for Computex in the current economic climate, at the same time as expressing total confidence in the Taiwanese computer industry’s capacities in terms of facing up to the crisis. The organisors are then, “only” expecting 100,000 visitors as against 135,000 last year. Numbers are also down because of the flu virus (H1N1) that has disuaded some people from travelling. Nevertheless, attendance remains impressive for an exhibition that is not open to the general public and only reserved for professionals. In the meantime we have observed two trends. The first is Microsoft’s strong representation at the show and throughout the town. A huge operation from the software giant to woo us all and move on from the relative failure of Vista to Windows 7. 
Windows… without VistaThe second thing we’ve noticed is the appearance of a new and useless gadget that everyone seems to be very keen on to load up journalists bags: digital photo frames.  |
| |
|
|
Copyright © 1997- Hardware.fr SARL. All rights reserved.
Read our privacy guidelines.
|
|
