NOT SATISFIED WITH showing off a Llano wafer, AMD showed off the next generation part, Orochi, at the GloFo GTC summit today. While there was no silicon to pass around, pictures are much better than test.
With the bowl of punch nearly gone, miscellaneous party favors littering the floor, and S|A writers stumbling about in various states of sobriety, it is time to settle down and discuss the results of Nvidia's recently concluded Q2, FY 2011 earnings conference call. Much of the information we already knew or surmised after the lowered revenue guidance bombshell they dropped on us in late July, but half the fun of these kinds of calls are the molehills-turned-mountain that companies create to keep investor's wallets open. Let's start hiking.
MOLES IN SANTA CLARA tell SemiAccurate that Nvidia's latest wonderchip, Tegra 3, has taped out. Expect the PR announcement storm to kick up soon, but don't look for product this year.
IS NVIDIA UP to it's old renaming games, or is it about to launch the second hottest GPU in the world? In any case, the Nvidia GT 425M GPU is turning up all over the place.
NVIDIA HAS A curious take on the causes of their latest financial meltdown, one that doesn't seem to mirror what is happening in the rest of the industry. The almost 20% drop in expected revenue announced at the last minute seems to be a largely self-inflicted wound.
AS WE PREDICTED last summer, it looks like Apple has kicked Nvidia to the curb. The new line of iMacs is out, and they all have, wait for it, ATI graphics.
WHEN WE SAID that Nvidia's Fermi architecture was wrong, most people didn't understand what we meant, they focused on the chips. With the release of the GTX460, one look at the die size puts the problem clearly into focus, and it is quite ugly for Nvidia.
THE MUCH ANTICIPIATED pricing for Microsoft's "casual gamer" accessory – Kinect – for the Xbox 360 has been announced today and, as predicted, the motion controller will retail for $149.99 on its own. However, that's only half of today's news as Microsoft also announced the new slim Xbox 360 Arcade which was leaked by Amazon.de a few days ago.
THE ANNUAL RUNNING of the moles in Santa Clara yesterday had some surprising results, not just in the record number of IC engineers gored, but also the information leaked by those trying save their backsides. One of them even leaked some details about the upcoming PSP2's CPU, but it didn't save him.
What a difference a "4" makes. The NDA on Nvidia's new midrange GTX 460 (GF104) cards was lifted last night to a general reception of "right performance at the right price". No doubt, after reading over many different reviews this card appears to be the real deal at the $200 price point (for now). Despite the glowing reviews however one nagging question remained; considering that GF104 has an estimated die size of 320mm2 (which is nearly 96% of AMD's high end Cypress part at 334mm2), can Nvidia actually make money on this part, or is it simply designed to put pressure on the market share laceration that's been bleeding out lately.
AFTER WEEKS OF hunting down obscure sources harboring even more obscure technical knowledge, we can say that Nvidia massively screwed up the GF100 based cards, they have reverted to using some of the Bumpgate bad materials again. Nvidia is once again unwilling to talk about it, and their customers probably will be kept in the dark too.
Editors Note:From time to time, SemiAccurate will be republishing some older articles by its authors, some with additional commentary, updates and information. We are mainly reprinting some of the oft referenced articles that originally appeared on the Inquirer. Some will have added content, but all will be re-edited from the originals as per contractual obligations. You may see some slight differences between the two versions.
This article has had some of the original links removed, and was published on Monday, August 25, 2008 at 5:15PM.
Editors Note:From time to time, SemiAccurate will be republishing some older articles by its authors, some with additional commentary, updates and information. We are mainly reprinting some of the oft referenced articles that originally appeared on the Inquirer. Some will have added content, but all will be re-edited from the originals as per contractual obligations. You may see some slight differences between the two versions.
This article has had some of the original links removed, and was published on Monday, September 1, 2008 at 8:00PM.
Editors Note:From time to time, SemiAccurate will be republishing some older articles by its authors, some with additional commentary, updates and information. We are mainly reprinting some of the oft referenced articles that originally appeared on the Inquirer. Some will have added content, but all will be re-edited from the originals as per contractual obligations. You may see some slight differences between the two versions.
This article has had some of the original links removed, and was published on Monday, September 1, 2008 at 9:46PM.
Editors Note:From time to time, SemiAccurate will be republishing some older articles by its authors, some with additional commentary, updates and information. We are mainly reprinting some of the oft referenced articles that originally appeared on the Inquirer. Some will have added content, but all will be re-edited from the originals as per contractual obligations. You may see some slight differences between the two versions.
This article has had some of the original links removed, and was published on Tuesday, September 2, 2008 at 10:03AM.
NVIDIA JUST HAD one of their most sleazy marketing tactics exposed, that PhysX is faster on a GPU than a CPU. As David Kanter at Real World Tech proves, the only reason that PhysX is faster on a GPU is because Nvidia purposely hobbles it on the CPU. If they didn't, PhysX would run faster on a modern CPU.
3D GLASSES AND 3D TVs have proven to be something of a problem when it comes to interoperability, but now it appears that a solution is on the horizon thanks to Monster Cable. Its new Monster Vision Max 3D glasses are mean to be a universal solution that works with any and all 3D TVs that rely on LCD shutter glasses, but is it really that simple?
Tim Sweeney vs Andrew Richards on graphics and programmability
THE SECOND TO last part of the Epic debate/casual conversation between Tim Sweeney and Andrew Richards gets a bit testy at times, to the point of making the camera man nervously pan to the provided weapons. The two also talk about tech as well, and in the end, no one dies, that has to wait for Part 6.
NOT SATISFIED WITH showing off a Llano wafer, AMD showed off the next generation part, Orochi, at the GloFo GTC summit today. While there was no silicon to pass around, pictures are much better than test.
With the bowl of punch nearly gone, miscellaneous party favors littering the floor, and S|A writers stumbling about in various states of sobriety, it is time to settle down and discuss the results of Nvidia's recently concluded Q2, FY 2011 earnings conference call. Much of the information we already knew or surmised after the lowered revenue guidance bombshell they dropped on us in late July, but half the fun of these kinds of calls are the molehills-turned-mountain that companies create to keep investor's wallets open. Let's start hiking.
THE MUCH ANTICIPIATED pricing for Microsoft's "casual gamer" accessory – Kinect – for the Xbox 360 has been announced today and, as predicted, the motion controller will retail for $149.99 on its own. However, that's only half of today's news as Microsoft also announced the new slim Xbox 360 Arcade which was leaked by Amazon.de a few days ago.
THE ANNUAL RUNNING of the moles in Santa Clara yesterday had some surprising results, not just in the record number of IC engineers gored, but also the information leaked by those trying save their backsides. One of them even leaked some details about the upcoming PSP2's CPU, but it didn't save him.
3D GLASSES AND 3D TVs have proven to be something of a problem when it comes to interoperability, but now it appears that a solution is on the horizon thanks to Monster Cable. Its new Monster Vision Max 3D glasses are mean to be a universal solution that works with any and all 3D TVs that rely on LCD shutter glasses, but is it really that simple?
THE SECOND TO last part of the Epic debate/casual conversation between Tim Sweeney and Andrew Richards gets a bit testy at times, to the point of making the camera man nervously pan to the provided weapons. The two also talk about tech as well, and in the end, no one dies, that has to wait for Part 6.