intel posts

Windows 7 is now set for release on October 22 and with that release come DirectX11, the next version of Microsoft's 3D graphics API. So it's not a shock to learn that AMD (via their ATI brand) and Nvidia are prepping to launch their next major PC graphics cards this fall that will support DirectX11 features.

VentureBeat reports that AMD's director of software developer relations Neal Robison stated that AMD will be ready this fall with DirectX11 supported graphics chips. However, rumors that Nvidia's team are behind in their next-gen graphics tech are dismissed by anaylst Jon Peddie who believes the company will also have DirectX11 chips ready by this fall. Nvidia itself won't comment on their future plans. Intel is also developing their own high end graphics chips under the code name Larabee but it's now expected that it won't be ready for launch until next year.

It's been a while since we have heard anything from Saber Interactive. The game developer has been pretty quiet since the 2007 release of their temporal-themed sci-fi shooter Timeshift (shown above) for the now defunct Vivendi Games. However it appears that the company is still around thanks to a new press release today.

Intel-owned game physics software maker Havok have announced that Saber Interactive plans to use their software for a future game. Specifically, the unanounced games will use the Havok Destruction tool which will be used "to punch holes in walls, buckle scaffolding, shatter windows, and even bend metal to create a truly dynamic and evolving cityscape." No other details on the game were announced.

Ardent fans of this column will doubtless have noticed that BI has been a little, shall we say, thin on the ground of late. There are two main reasons for this -- one, BI's biennial sojourn to the other side of the country for a week of testosterone poisoning, and, two, a multi-week stint with a rather demanding guest around the house.

The guest in question, however, wasn't an unemployed former college buddy, a surprise visit from the in-laws, or a couch-surfing second cousin. It was, rather, a sixty pound, gloss-black obelisk -- Alienware's top-of-the-line gaming system, the Area-51 X58, tricked out by them with damn near every bell, whistle, and go-fast toy in their arsenal. And BI had their blessing to, and we quote this with great relish, "Send it back as a smoking pile of slag. But, seriously, watch Iron Man on the Blu-Ray drive first."

We were skeptical. Surely, entrusting someone of BI's questionable restraint with a valuable piece of equipment would carry more stringent usage guidelines than, "Give it back when we ask for it." They were adamant -- this was the third such system released to the wild, and they wanted it to be abused.

Fortunately, the conference call ended before our mad laughter began.

It's been a long time since there's been any word on what's been going on with Project Offset. The fantasy themed action game from Offset Software was acquired, development team and all, by PC processor maker Intel just over a year ago. Now the game's official web site has gotten a revamp with a little more info and content for the game.

The content comes in the form of two Flash-based videos. One shows off the game's editing features but the other is a fairly impressive graphics film as a Asian-style temple is destroyed by some kind of mystical meteor storm. The web site also has a message from Offset Software founder Sam McGrath who states that we will see the fruits of their labors "in the coming months." While McGrath still doesn't mention why Intel has bought a game developer some have speculated that Intel will use Project Offset (still just a code name) to show off the graphical power of their upcoming Larabee chip.

Last month we reported that PC processor make Intel had filed a lawsuit against graphics chip company Nvidia. At the time Intel claimed that the two companies' current four-year-old chipset license agreement does not extend to Intel's upcoming CPUs with "integrated" memory controllers.

At the time, Nvidia stated they were not happy with Intel's actions and today Nvidia followed through as it issued a countersuit against Intel. In a press release Nvidia said it would try "to terminate Intel's license to NVIDIA's valuable patent portfolio." The company's CEO Jen-Hsun Huang said in a statement, " . . . we must defend ourselves and the rights we negotiated for when we provided Intel access to our valuable patents. Intel's actions are intended to block us from making use of the very license rights that they agreed to provide." How this might affect future PC gaming rigs is currently unknown.

The world of real time strategy games increased by one today with the announcement of R.U.S.E., the latest such WWII themed game from Eugen Systems. The France-based company's last product was the near-future RTS title Act of War: Direct Action for publisher Atari. Their new title is for Ubisoft and is scheduled for release sometime before the end of Ubisoft's next fiscal year (which ends March 31, 2010).

GameSpot has a first look preview of the game which is basically a kind of Battleship for the next generation. There are two big features that make the game different than other RTS titles. One is that there is no "fog of war"; you can see the entire map and see all of the units on the map; both yours and your enemies. The other major feature relates to the title of the game. While you can see all the units some of them could be dummies designed to throw an opponent off. It makes the game more like a poker match with bluffs and deceptions than a normal RTS title.

Ubisoft's press release announces that while the game will be coming out for consoles it's being designed to lead for the PC and will be optimized to run on Intel's Core i7 processors. It will be shown live at Intel's booth at GDC beginning tomorrow.

It's been a while since a PC graphics company has made a big challenge to the big Three (Intel, Nvidia, ATI) in terms of supporting games. The last such company was 3dfx who championed the 3D acceleration movement in the late 1990s but couldn't keep up the pace and was sold to Nvidia.

Today a new company called Caustic Graphics has officially announced its presence with claims that their PC graphics product will be able to out perform current solutions by up to 20 times. It also claims that their second-generation product, due out in early 2010, will have 200 times (and that's not a typo) the performance of current solutions. Caustic Graphics will base their graphics product on raytracing, a graphics technique that allows for highly realistic looking 3D graphics. Raytracing has also proven to have issues with performance in the past but Caustic claims their technology "enables highly parallel CPUs and GPUs to massively-accelerate raytracing, putting it on par with rasterization and resulting in cinema-quality 3D delivered interactively on low-cost PCs."

The San Fransisco-based Caustic plans to reveal more info about their first product in April 2009. At the moment they are targeting high end computing needs but we suspect that PC gaming is also in their plans.

Two of the biggest names in PC hardware are now at odds with one another in court. According to an Nvidia press release, Intel filed a lawsuit against Nvidia late on Monday, alleging that the two companies' current four-year-old chipset license agreement does not extend to Intel's upcoming CPUs with "integrated" memory controllers.

While Intel has yet to officially announce the lawsuit on their end, Nvidia is wasting no time slamming Intel for their actions. Nvidia's president and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang states, "We are confident that our license, as negotiated, applies. At the heart of this issue is that the CPU has run its course and the soul of the PC is shifting quickly to the GPU. This is clearly an attempt to stifle innovation to protect a decaying CPU business." Nvidia says it has been trying to talk with Intel about this issue for a year before Intel decided on their current actions.

Brought on by yet another product refresh by the Big Green Eyeball Gang, BI wants to take a moment to crawl under the hood to discuss what this sort of evolution means in practical terms. Specifically, the architectural changes that occur at the manufacturing level for the chips themselves -- using smaller and smaller integrated circuit etchings, and making minor tweaks to the layout of the circuitry itself. The former is typically called the "manufacturing process," which refers to the photolithography that etches the actual circuitry onto the silicon wafers -- the creation of the chip itself. The latter, where minor tweaks are made to the circuit layout from batch to batch, is referred to as the "chip stepping," and is most commonly discussed when referring to CPUs within a single generation.

The easiest way to think about the signals traveling on the circuits inside of any chip is as though they're commuters. They have to do the speed limit (okay, so they're obviously not from New Jersey; unlike what the NHTSA dictates, 186,000 miles per second; it's not just a good idea, it's The Law); anything that improves how they get from point A to point B results in improved performance. Shortening the commute or offering a more efficient route to travel both serve this greater purpose.

So, it's two thousand and nine. Sure, our digital minions are faster and more capable than ever before, but do you ever feel like you're missing out on the whole Gernsback experience? Where the hell is my flying car? This was supposed to be the future, but it's just.... now. We're still using magnetic media, transistors, and keyboards -- no fancy bubble chips, rod logic, or tactical neural implants (to quote Montgomery Scott, "The keyboard; how quaint").

So, what does 2009 have in store for us?

For one thing, Small Iron, and lots of it. Manufacturers and hardware vendors throughout the industry spectrum are anticipating a boom in the so-called "netbook" segment. Everyone from AMD and Intel to Acer and Asustek are gearing up in expectation of soaring demand for the ultra-portable/mini-notebook niches that were more or less defined by the introduction of Apple's Macbook Air and the subsequent introduction of the Atom and Eee PC. These certainly aren't desktop-replacement level equipment, but for folks who are frequently on the go and need something more robust than an iPhone or Blackberry, there's every expectation in the industry that these are the New BigSmall Thing.