Nvidia-Microsoft Kerja Sama dalam Komputasi GPU

SAN FRANCISCO - Nvidia mengumumkan kolaborasinya dengan Microsoft untuk mempromosikan Nvidia Tesla graphics processing units (GPU) untuk meningkatkan performa dalam melakukan computing pararel di sistem operasi Windows HPC Server 2008.

"Pasangan dari GPU dan CPU untuk menggambarkan kekuatan besar dan kesempatan untuk melakukan proses yang multicore. Nvidia bekerja dengan Microsoft dan platform server Windows HPC untuk menolong ilmuan dan peneliti dalam banyak aplikasi di dalam superkomputernya," rinci Corporate Vice President Extreme Computing di Microsoft Dan Reed, yang dikutip melalui Hardware Zone, Rabu (30/9/2009).

Penelitian Nvidia telah mengembangkan aplikasi untuk GPU di dalam platform HPC server 2008, seperti sebuah aplikasi yangdapat digunakan untuk membuat gambar automobil yang realistis. Kerja Nvidia dengan Microsoft agar dapat meng-install GPU computing Tesla dengan besar dan mempelajari aplikasi dengan optimal untuk GPU.

Terkait dengan ini, NVIDIA bekerja dengan Microsoft Research untuk menginstall Tesla GPU berukuran besar dan mempelajari aplikasi yang dioptimalisasi untuk GPU.

Selain itu, berbagai macam jenis aplikasi perusahaan, seperti data pertambangan, studi mesin, maupun intelijen bisnis, serta aplikasi ilmiah seperti molecular dynamics, komputasi keuangan, dan proses seismik yang menggunakan arsitektur CUDATM dapat meningkatkan performa hingga mencapai tingkat produktivitas yang lebih tinggi.

Arsitektur CUDA memungkinkan pengembang untuk menggunakan CPU dan GPU bersama-sama.

"Kombinasi dari GPU dan platform Windows telah menjadi keuntungan besar bagi VMD (Visual Molecular Dynamics) kami, membawa visualisasi molekul menjadi maju dan kemampuan analisis untuk ribuan pengguna," kata John Stone, programmer peneliti senior di University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

"Ketika kita bergerak ke arah struktur biomolekuler yang bahkan lebih besar, GPU akan menjadi semakin penting karena mereka membawa lebih banyak daya komputasi untuk menanggung persoalan komputasi yang dapat dipararelkan," tambahnya.

Produk komputasi GPU NVIDIA Tesla mendukung Windows XP dan Windows Vista dalam workstation dan Windows Server 2003 dan Windows Server 2008 di pusat data. Tesla C1060 dan produk komputasi GPU S1070 tersedia dari sebagian besar vendor, seperti Cray, Dell, HP dan Lenovo.

Baca Selengkapnya......

Driver Nvidia Terbaru Sudah Support PhysX

Nvidia kemarin baru saja merilis driver versi 177.83. Merupakan tugas Nvidia untuk selalu mengeluarkan driver versi terbaru guna merevisi versi sebelumnya. Namun versi yang satu ini agak sedikit berbeda dengan driver keluaran Nvidia lainnya.

Driver versi 177.83 ini sudah mendukung PhysX, tetapi jangan senang dulu, HANYA kartu grafis seri 8, 9 serta 200 yang didukungnya. Jadi bagi kalian yang masuk dalam daftar kartu grafis diatas, silahkan mengunduh driver serta file-file menarik lainnya melalui link berikut ini.

Nvidia juga menyediakan full game yang sudah ada dukungan PhysX, guna mencoba apakah driver telah terinstall dengan baik dan benar. Game tersebut berjudul WARMONGER yang juga tersedia di link diatas.

Selamat menikmat PhysX tanpa harus membeli hardwarenya yang cukup mahal.

Untuk mengetahui informasi lebih banyak mengenai PhysX anda bisa mengunjungi website berikut ini.

Baca Selengkapnya......

GPSLogger - a Free BlackBerry App to Track your Movement

Hopefully, you all know the story of Hansel and Gretel recorded by the Brothers Grimm. They were to be abandoned in the woods and their trail of breadcrumbs had been eaten by woodland creatures (jerks). Of course, everything had worked out in the end. If this fairy tale were to take place in the present, we may have seen a much different twist to this story. Perhaps they could have had their hands on a GPS-enabled BlackBerry device, bypass the Witch's house entirely and contacted the local authorities.

Okay, maybe not the best modern take on the tale, but there is a method to my madness! A few months back, Matthias (EMAC1.com) dropped word in the CrackBerry Forums of another ‘Donationware' app that he has concocted. An application that grants access to GPS functionalities, without having to go online. GPSLogger is a free application that essentially enables you to help you get where you are going and track where you have been. The application will also help you remember places that you have visited; perhaps a new hang out or a location of a movie set you accidently stumbled upon. Now, hopefully you don't get lost on the way to the rest of the review.

About GPSLogger

I mentioned earlier, that GPSLogger is another application created by Matthias Marquardt. You may remember his previous application I reviewed in the past; it goes by the name BBFileScout. As with BBFileScout, GPSLogger is a "Donationware" application, so make sure you show Matthias some love. For this review, we are looking at version 0.6.0 of the application, which will require 129.5KB of space. I tested the application on my Bold, but Matthias says it will work on BlackBerry Devices running OS 4.2.1 or higher, and was specifically tested on the 8100, 8310, 8800, 8820, 8900, 9000, 9500 and 9530.

The first screen you come across, which is the General Settings menu, may seem a bit confusing at first. The application sticks to pure functionality, so you won't find any focus on esthetics. The appearance can be slightly modified to suit your preferences. Options including font size, units of measurement (Metric, Imperial or Nautical) and the colour scheme for the applications NightMode. Initially, you view the data in black on a white background. NightMode saves your eyes, by switching to a black background and have the information display in either yellow, red, green or blue.

I liked the fact that GPSLogger offers a variety of ‘views' to search through, depending on the information you require. The different view modes include:

Path - a 2 dimensional view of your path so far.

Elevation - over time, this view will show your current altitude; using WGS 84 (WGS 84 is the latest revision of the World Geodetic System). This WGS is a mathematical representation of the 3D Earth.

Speed - during the tracking period, this view will display any changes in your speed.

GPS - This view will show your heading, speed as well as your longitude or latitude.

Timing - Here, you can keep track of the elapsed time and current speed.

Compass - I love this view. For those who are running OS 4.6 or higher, you can get access to a working compass.

Direction - If you have a destination entered into the application, this view will display an arrow or line that will point you in the right direction.

The header of each view screen will show you your Lat and Long, Altitude, the number of Satellites and Velocity. I kept the update interval at the default 5 seconds as I found it gave me a fairly accurate readout. GPSLogger allows you to use trackball or keyboard shortcuts to navigate through the interval positions. I was quite surprised at some of the results I found during the review. What started out as a simple family outing became a fascinating set of results. To see the elevation variation or changes in velocity or even the compass moving was amazing. You are also able to zoom in and out to get a more detailed look at the information.

Now, I don't recommend this while driving, but you can add notes as you go. If you happen to find a quaint little shop or another place of interest on your path, you can make a note in the log for future reference. Unfortunately, these notes are only recorded on your current view. I couldn't see the notes I made in the Elevation View when I switched to Path View. You can also pause the application at each location and choose to add the Location information for future use. Perhaps you want to load it as a destination for a later trip. This function is also known as the Guide Me Home function. The Location Manager has an option where you can manually enter in a location, hellllooo Geocaching! Besides positions, you can record paths taken.

GPSLogger also utilizes Waypoint files.

GPX - AKA GPS eXchange Format contains specific geocaching data (Long/Lat, Timestamp, etc)

KML - stands for Keyhole Modeling Language. Originally used for Google Earth, this format is used to display map info, movement, etc.

You are able to export your paths to GPX/KML and send via email or load the files into GoogleEarth. These file formats can also be imported into GPSLogger.

Next time your Boss/Parents/Significant Other asks "where are you?", you can copy your current location to the clipboard and then send it to them via SMS or email. Once you get a handle on the settings, the application is fairly easy to manage. GPSLogger offers a wide variety of keyboard shortcuts while you are in various view screens. If you haven't used your GPS enabled BlackBerry device to its fullest potential, GPSLogger is a great way to explore the built in functionality.

Baca Selengkapnya......

Alienware Area-51 m15x and m17x - Maybe The Most Powerful Laptops

Finally Alienware company has officially released two new models of its laptops - Area-51 m15x and m17x, calling them “the most powerful laptops from all that have ever existed”.

The figure in the title of the models corresponds to the display’s diagonals (15.4″ and 17″), and most of the technical specifications are similar.
Both laptops will be equipped with the processor Core 2 Duo Extreme, graphics card NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTX, 667 MHz DDR2, writing Blu-ray drive (in the model m17x) or typewriter DVD-drive (in m15x). One of the significant differences in the 15-inch model will be two hard drives, but m17x model - three (optional).

Their keyboards LED backlight is very beautiful, the colors of which can be installed on request. The prices on the novelties are still unknown. And unfortunately we don’t know about the time of their appearance on the market.

Baca Selengkapnya......

Pre E3 – SONY vs MICROSOFT

Will Sony Throw the Fight?

At E3 we are about to see what, to console gaming, is the battle of the decade. I find it amazing because I was around in the 80s when gaming first took off and had anyone told me that Sony and Microsoft were going to be the two dominant gaming companies in 20 years I would have thought them on drugs. Back then Atari was predominant and unbeatable. In the 90’s Nintendo grew up and seemed unstoppable easily rolling over a number of upstarts headed by Sega what was a US industry was being fought over by Japanese vendors. Then Sony rose up and schooled Nintendo and, with the exception of hand held game systems, Nintendo started to follow the Atari game platform into the history books. Not to leave well enough alone Sony recently brought out their award winning PSP hand held game system and Nintendo’s last bastion began to crumble.

But, coming up behind Sony, was Microsoft as US Company which had shown an incredible ability to take on much larger companies and win by understanding how the game was played better then their competitors.



Growing much faster than either Sony or Nintendo and passing both in sales numbers (though Sony remains ahead in installed base) Microsoft’s Xbox, using off the shelf PC components and a better developer’s tool set became a real contender.

Xbox Strategy

Part of what made the Xbox special was its ability to look beyond gaming and apply the power of networking before the others could do so effectively. First embracing community, then voice the Xbox became a way to game differently and most felt playing against real people was vastly more entertaining then playing against a machine.

Expanding on this some games allowed the rudimentary ability to play against virtual people. In a racing game, for instance, you could play against a recording of someone not on line by racing against their virtual image. You could also race against your own virtual image learning from your mistakes to improve your overall score. While this has yet to translate into more complex game types it continues to point the way to in interesting future where players can play against each other asynchronously.

Microsoft envisioned a system that could also move beyond gaming by becoming a link back to their PC based Media Center Edition computer. By loading a disk and using a remote an Xbox with this accessory set could display pictures, video, play digital music, or time shift TV programs making it vastly more useful then just a game system. In fact, given that Media Extenders, which only did these things, were more expensive the Xbox was actually a better value. However, it was also kind of a kludge in that you constantly had to plug in components to transform the unit between functions, something consumers didn’t particularly find attractive.

Sony’s Stumble

Sony had the advantage going into this race. They had a massive lead, much like Nintendo and Atari did, they had a good product and they had an extensive game library. In addition many think Sony is the best Consumer Electronics Company in the world. What Sony isn’t is a company that plays well with others or even plays well with itself.

Early on it became clear that the Play Station was different. It didn’t look like other Sony products it didn’t work with other Sony products and while there was an opportunity to link it with its PC products the two Sony divisions clearly hated each other making such a link nearly impossible. Sony didn’t seem to have developer tools as a competence and didn’t partner well to create market leading tools making their games difficult, time consuming, and very expensive to create (something Microsoft leveraged heavily).

The PSP is a perfect example of what is an almost winner. It plays games incredibly well, and is clearly better then the Nintendo Game Boy, but had they emulated Apple with Music, pictures and Movies it could have schooled Apple as well and they clearly missed that opportunity. This leaves the door open for Microsoft, or some other vendor, to eventually take this market from them if they don’t fix this oversight quickly. They have a new CEO, but the head of the Play Station unit has been anything but tractable so, as amazing as it may seem, Sony is a long shot to holding even the hand held market as a result.

In short, Sony the company can stand against Microsoft, the Play Station unit, by itself, can’t. It is interesting to note that Sony seems to own the outcome and whether it is the curse of the gaming market, or just the curse of competing with Microsoft, for now the outcome seems preordained.

Playstation 3 vs. Xbox 360

It is too early to talk about the details of either product but to hold Sony will have to showcase a system that showcases the power of Sony. It will need to work with other Sony gear and dovetail in some clear way with their PSP hand held gaming system where Microsoft currently doesn’t challenge. We already know that Sony has not matched Microsoft with development tools but as long as the product remains in contention for the lead developers won’t really have any choice but develop for both, if Sony slips however the rules change and developers will abandon, at an ever increasing rate, the platform. Given that, like the iPod does for Apple, Playstation is carrying much of Sony, this may be a life or death fight for them.

This clearly is not a life or death fight for Microsoft. They will have to take it to the next level, embedding the features that were add-ons to the old Xbox and advancing them significantly. Design will be important; this device must look good in the living room and be forward looking so it continued to look current throughout its life, something the Playstation 2 did and the original Xbox didn’t. It should also leverage more standards so it could easily be extended over its life, something that was difficult to do with the original product due to its unique USB socket. Finally it needs to take the collaborative gaming experience to the next level because this was one of the Xbox key advantages and one they can’t give back to Sony.

Predicting the Winner

Unless Nintendo makes an unprecedented recovery they are out of the race but, of the three vendors, they have the most to lose and don’t want to become another Sega. Sometimes people do their best work when their back is against the wall so don’t count them out entirely. Still, this fight now appears to be between Sony and Microsoft. Microsoft has a history of focusing on the goal and rolling over any competitor in its way, Sony has a history of coming up with great products hamstrung by hard to use Sony proprietary technology and internal squabbles. It really isn’t that hard to pick the most likely winner.

Baca Selengkapnya......

Microsoft Opens Office 14 Kimono, Slightly

Microsoft has yet to say much about the next version of Office, but the company is starting to let a few details fly, and more information about the release schedule and features should be available soon.

While Microsoft is still keeping a lid on the full scope of Office 14, Chris Capossela, senior VP of the company's information worker group, laid out the suite in broad strokes in an interview Monday. The executive noted that with this release, Microsoft would be lending particular focus to collaboration, new developer scenarios, and evolving Office's role in Microsoft's "software plus services" strategy via new Web applications and improved mobile access.

Microsoft has begun testing Office 14 with select customers, and Capossela is already running a test version of Office 14 on his work computer. "The vast majority of the team is working hard on Office 14," he said.

However, it's still unclear when Microsoft will release Office 14. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said last week that it wouldn't be released until 2010, meaning that it will likely come after the release of Windows 7.

Office Web Applications, lightweight browser-based versions of the full client versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote that will include the ability to edit, view, and collaborate on documents, will be a key new element of Office 14. Microsoft demonstrated Office Web Applications at its Professional Developers Conference last October but left out many of the details.

According to Capossela, one important feature of Office Web Applications will be that files created in Office or Office Web Applications will maintain full fidelity as they are passed back and forth between the Web and client versions of Office. "Unlike Google and Zoho, we won't crush stuff the Word user created in the first place," Capossela said.

Office Web Applications will also support REST APIs, meaning that developers will be able to pull data created, for example, in Excel's Web app version, into their own Web applications. "We have a big focus on developers," Capossela said, pointing beyond Office Web Applications to the whole Office 14 suite. "Part of that focus is around new APIs, part of that is around interoperability documentation, so people can make their solutions work with Office more easily than they did in the past."

Silverlight, Microsoft's rich Web application plug-in, will play a significant role to help power the Office Web Applications' user interfaces, but only if the customer has downloaded the Silverlight browser plug-in. Otherwise, customers will be able to use a non-Silverlight version of Office Web Applications.

Baca Selengkapnya......