Intel Ships New Tools that Boost Game Performance

Intel® Graphics Performance Analyzers Suite Launches as Part of Visual Adrenaline Program to Advance Visual Computing Software
GAME DEVELOPERS CONFERENCE, San Francisco, March 23, 2009 – Intel Corporation today announced the release of Intel® Graphics Performance Analyzers (GPA), a suite of software tools created in support of the Visual Adrenaline developer program.
Offered worldwide, GPA enables PC game developers to analyze and optimize game performance on Intel® Integrated Graphics. The Visual Adrenaline program, launched at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco in August 2008, provides tools, resources and information for game developers, artists and animators.
GPA provides in-depth application analysis and customization so developers can pinpoint performance bottlenecks and optimize games for Intel-based desktop PCs and laptops that use Intel's chipsets. GPA consists of three components: System Analyzer, Frame Analyzer and the Software Development Kit (SDK). System Analyzer delivers high-level views of overall software performance, Frame Analyzer offers in-depth frame-by-frame performance analysis and the SDK enables developers to customize the suite according to their needs. Developers have the choice to run the tools locally or remotely through a network connection.
"Game developers need simple, yet powerful tools which enable them to create games that look real, act real and feel real," said Elliot Garbus, vice president and general manager of Intel's Visual Computing Software Division. "The Intel Graphics Performance Analyzers suite is the only software development toolkit that provides a holistic view of system performance for games running on Intel Integrated Graphics. Solving performance bottlenecks with GPA ensures developers are delivering the best gaming experience."
"Gas Powered Games is thrilled with the resources available to us as members of the Visual Adrenaline Developer Program," said Chris Taylor, CEO and founder of Gas Powered Games. "The competitive landscape requires tools that evolve with the industry and deliver rapid turn-around for graphics solutions. The Intel Graphics Performance Analyzers helped us unlock a higher level of optimization, making our games look even better and run on a broader spectrum of hardware configurations."
GPA offers the ability to analyze graphics performance on current Intel integrated graphics chipsets and processors, including the Intel® Core™ i7 Processor. In the future, GPA will also support upcoming Intel graphics and many-core related products. GPA is available free of charge to Visual Adrenaline members and can be purchased by non-members for $299 through the Intel® Business Exchange. To learn more, visit www.intel.com/software/gpa.
Visual Adrenaline is Intel's worldwide program for game and graphics developers. It is a one-stop shop for Intel offerings that help maximize visual computing software for better performance and faster time to market. To date, more than 800 independent software vendor members have joined, including Activision, SEGA and Ubisoft. To learn more about Visual Adrenaline, visit www.intel.com/software/visualadrenaline.
Intel software provides the resources, technologies, products and services developers need to create innovative products and industry-leading software solutions designed to run best on Intel platforms. Additional information is available at www.intel.com/go/software.

Solid-State Disks Invading Storage World

All the major storage companies are jumping into the enterprise and consumer solid-state disk waters in 2009. The latest news: Western Digital, the world's second-largest HDD maker behind Seagate Technology, announced on March 30 that it had acquired SiliconSystems for $65 million in cash. That will help put WD back in the SSD world market race. SiliconSystems is a major supplier of embedded SSDs to the network-communications, industrial, embedded computing, medical, military and aerospace markets. On March 25, Dell launched its second generation of EqualLogic storage arrays, including optional SSDs. EMC was the first of the large systems companies to start using optional SSDs in its Symmetrix arrays in early 2008; now SSDs are available in all three of the company's product lines: Symmetrix, Clariion and Celerra. Seagate and Iomega are expected to be marketing SSDs products later in 2009. Fusion-io, SanDisk and Kingston Technology with Migo Software also have interesting new products coming out. eWEEK has gathered the latest information on solid state drives to give you a better understanding of what's out there right now.

Intel Adds Laptop Processors, Updates Xeon Pricing

Intel released pricing information for its new line of Xeon processors that are now based on the updated Nehalem architecture, as well as several new processors for laptops and servers. At the same time, Intel and Nvidia are still struggling in court over who has rights to create chip sets for Nehalem.
Intel has updated its processor pricing list to include new chip models for laptops. In addition to the “Nehalem EP” Xeon processors for two-socket systems that Intel officially rolled out on March 30, the chip giant has introduced several other chips, including ultra low-volt and low-volt models for notebooks. Pricing lists released March 29, included four new chips for laptops: an Intel Core 2 Duo SP9600 (2.53 GHz) for $316; an ultra low-volt Intel Core 2 Duo SL9600 (2.13 GHz), also for $316; an ultra low-volt Intel Core 2 Solo processor SU3550 (1.4 GHz) for $262; and a Celeron 900 processor (2.20 GHz) for $70. The new crop of Nehalem-based Xeon processors — 12 in all — for servers and workstations vary from the 3.20GHz Xeon W5580 for $1,600, down to the 2.13GHz L5506 for $423. Finally, Intel also rolled out three additional Xeon processors for server systems that include a Xeon W3570 (3.20 GHz) for $999; a W3540 (2.93 GHz) for $562; and a W3520 (2.66 GHz) for $284. All the Intel processors are calculated in 1,000-unit shipments. The popular Xeon processors — which are in the new Dell Precision workstations as well as the updated Apple iMac — are behind lawsuits Intel and Nvidia have filed against one another. Intel claims Nvidia doesn’t have the right to develop and manufacture chip sets for processors based on the Nehalem microarchitecture. Whereas Nvidia believes the 2004 agreement signed by the two entitles it to create chip sets for future generations of CPUs. Among the processors in Intel’s new pricing lineup, none saw a pricing reduction.

Intel Core 2 Duo Threatened: AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition CPU Review

AMD have started to use new 45nm core for their unique triple-core CPUs. As a result, there appeared a very attractive solution for the mainstream segment. And taking into consideration remarkable potential of the Phenom II X3 CPUs, we have every reason to conclude that it is going to be a new sales hit.
Table of Contents
· Closer Look at Phenom II X3
· Testbed and Methods
· Performance
o General Performance
o 3D Gaming
o Video Encoding
o Rendering
o Other Applications
· Power Consumption
· Overclocking and Fourth Core Activation
· Phenom II X3 720 vs. Core 2 Duo E7500 during Overclocking
· Conclusion
Real-time Pricing and Availability:
Amd Phenom II X3 720 2.8 Ghz Socket Am3 95w - AMD - HDZ720WFGIBOX (0730143268011) Products
· AlishaTech - $153.63
· PCNation - $164.92
· MacMall - $163.99
· Amazon - $163.62
· TigerDirect.com - $154.99
· J&R Music and Computer World - $161.99
· ClubMac - $163.99
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The launch of the new Phenom II processors that are built using the latest 45nm process became an important milestone not only for AMD Company, but also for the entire computer industry. The architectural improvements introduced in Phenom II, their increased clock frequencies and larger L3 cache raised the performance of AMD solutions to a completely new level. As a result, when we tested the first representatives of the quad-core Phenom II X4 family, we could even declare a new round of competition between AMD and Intel in some segments. However, there are not that many segments yet, where they can compete. So far, there has only been fair competition only in the budget quad-core processors market. Phenom II X4 processors from the 800 and 900 lineups seem to be a pretty acceptable alternative to the junior Intel Core 2 Quad solutions, which is a significant step forward for AMD.
Of course, the new 45nm Phenom II processor core will allow AMD to stand out in some other market segments. We have already discussed the company’s plans concerning the adoption of 45nm manufacturing technology in CPUs from different market price segments that feature different number of cores, frequencies and L3 cache size. So far these plans have been partially put into life. Namely, Phenom II family already includes not only quad-core models. Besides Phenom II X4 900 and 800 series, AMD is serving the users their “signature” dish – triple-core processors aka Phenom II X3. These CPUs allow AMD to put partially defective quad-core dies to good use offering the customers a very attractive transitional solution. It is, in fact, extremely acute now that the multi-threaded calculations concept is setting in relatively slowly.
From the multi-threaded calculations standpoint, these triple-core processors can barely be regarded as an alternative to any of the Intel offerings. But judging by their prices, Phenom II X3 may be of interest to those users who aim at mainstream computer systems. In other words, it may make perfect sense to compare new-generation triple-core AMD processors against dual-core Intel Core 2 Duo, and the table below illustrates that nicely:
AMD didn’t feel comfortable positioning their Phenom II X3 processors as competitors to top dual-core solutions from Intel, but they considered it absolutely justified to compare them against the junior Intel Core 2 Duo E8000 or top solutions in the E7000 series. Taking into account this situation, we decided to carry out another test session devoted solely to triple-core Phenom II processors. So, our today’s article will discuss the performance and other consumer features of triple-core AMD processors manufactured with 45nm process. Right now they are represented by two Socket AM3 solutions: Phenom II X3 720 and Phenom II X3 710.

Apple, Asustek and Lenovo Make Most Reliable Personal Computers – Service Company.

A U.S.-based computer service company said in a recently published report that computers from Asustek Computers, Apple and Lenovo/IBM cause the least amount of hardware and software problems to their users and need least technical support from a third-party service provider.
Based on the Computer Reliability Report from Rescuecom company, which compares the share among 15 000 of calls to its service centers against market share of certain PC supplier, Asustek Computers’ systems are by far the most reliable on the market of the United States. However, the results should be taken cautiously since Asustek’s notebooks shipments in the country got significant only in the second half of 2008 and the vast majority of customers getting Asus-branded devices hardly known about service companies, but more often turn to official tech support, especially given the fact that their systems are covered with a warranty.
“The results are in, and although Asus is the leader this quarter with a reliability score of 972, Asus’ reliability score should be taken with a grain of salt, even though it was more than 600 points ahead of IBM/Lenovo. We look forward to seeing if Asus is able to maintain the same demand and reliability over the coming quarters,” said David A. Milman, the founder and chief executive officer of Rescuecom.

“We are delighted with, but are not surprised by, this result. We have invested enormous resources in ensuring that our products are of the highest quality, and that our customers get the best after-sales service possible. We are very pleased to see our efforts reaping dividends in the form of a smooth customer experience,” said Lillian Lin, director of marketing at Asustek Computer.
Other “most reliable” vendors based on the report from Rescuecom remained unchanged for years now: owners of Apple and Lenovo/IBM personal computers turn to Rescuecom rather rarely. The service company specifically noted that sales of Asus Eee PCs started to skyrocket in late 2008.
What should be noted about the Q1 2009 report by Rescuecom (and a report before that) is that in previous years the reports calculated the “reliability score” for each PC vendor based on the calculated difference between overall U.S. market share, over a three-year period, and the percentage of calls requesting service received by Rescuecom call center over one specified quarter or one year. However, starting from 2008 the service company started to compare the amount of calls over a specified period with the approximate market share in that period (or take market shares from a couple of previous quarters).
This new methodolody substantially alters the outcome as complaints regarding older systems are compared to current market shares. As a result, if a company owned 10% market share three years ago and now has 5% of the market, it will get lower reliability score since it is natural that older systems need more attention from tech personnel. The same is effective in other direction: a company with 10% market share now that used to command 5% of the shipments will get higher score since proportionally to current shipments the amount of complaints will be low.

Intel: Fabless Semiconductor Developers Will Not Be Able to License Atom Cores for System-on-Chip Products.

Intel Corp., the world’s largest producer of central processing units, on Tuesday clarified a situation whether third-party fabless semiconductor developers, such as Nvidia Corp., could license Intel Atom core to build their system-on-chips (SoCs) after Intel signed pact with TSMC. Apparently, only developers of actual devices may license Atom cores for their products.
Earlier this month Intel signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) port its Atom processor CPU cores to the TSMC technology platform including processes, IP, libraries, and design flows. The collaboration is intended to expand Intel’s Atom SoCs availability for Intel customers for a wider range of applications through integration with TSMC’s diverse IP infrastructure.
“Intel customers will have access to certain Atom cores. Intel will own all relationships with customers. Intel customers will have access to both Intel’s and TSMC's technology platforms for the design and manufacturing of Atom-based SoCs. Customers interested in the TSMC technology platform will also work through Intel, but will still continue to leverage TSMC’s infrastructure they are familiar with, e.g., design tools, simulation, etc,” said Megan Langer, an Intel spokesperson.
But not everyone will be able to create Intel Atom-based SoC. For example, if a company is a fabless developer of chips that it sells to third parties for their devices, such a company will not be able to make an Atom-powered SoC. Hence, for example, Nvidia Corp. will not be able to develop x86 SoC with Atom inside, but a firm producing its own devices could well benefit from the pact between TSMC and Intel.
“OEM consumer electronics manufacturers, embedded devices manufacturers will [be able to] come to Intel. Nvidia and other semi manufacturers are not customers [for this case], this is not intended to enable 3rd parties [to build Atom SoCs that might compete against Intel – X-bit labs] and will not do so,” Ms. Langer added.

Why your next CPU could be a GPU

How GPUs could bring supercomputing to the desktop

Everybody's talking about supercomputing on the desktop – and in particular, whether it will be GPUs that achieve that goal. We think that general-purpose computation on GPUs (an idea known as the GPGPU) might be the most important computing trend over the next 10 years.
As claims go, it's a biggie. But if you want proof of the industry's faith in the new concept, just take a look at the companies that want a slice of the GPGPU pie: Nvidia, AMD, Intel, Microsoft, IBM, Apple and Toshiba all want in. And it's not just speculation that's leading to such big interest: GPGPU systems are already outperforming CPU-only clusters in fields as diverse as molecular dynamics, ray tracing, medical imaging and sequence matching.
The combination of parallel CPU and GPU processing used to achieve these results is often dubbed 'heterogeneous computing'. The GPGPU concept enables the GPU to moonlight as a versatile co-processor. As Nvidia's David Luebke has suggested, computers are no longer getting faster; the move to multicore processors means that they're actually getting wider.
That's the idea that GPGPU computing cashes in on. By intelligently offloading data intensive tasks from the CPU to other processor cores (such as those in a graphics card), developers achieve improved application performance through parallelism.
The GPGPU is hardly a new idea, however. According to website www.gpgpu.org, GPU technology has been used for number crunching since 1978, when Ikonas developed a programmable raster display system for cockpit instrumentation.
From GPU to GPGPU
Modern GPUs make ideal co-processors. Not only are they cheap, they're also blisteringly fast, thanks to the presence of multiple processor cores. Most importantly, these multiple cores are programmable. While CPUs are designed to process threads sequentially, GPUs are designed to burn through data in parallel.
The Nvidia GeForce GTX 280, for example, is built for speed. As a gaming component, it's capable of delivering smooth high-definition visuals with complex lighting effects, textures and realtime physics. Just take a look at Far Cry 2 in 1,920 x 1,200 pixels. With 1.4 billion transistors, the GeForce GTX 280 commands 240 programmable shader cores that can provide 993 gigalops of processing power.
AMD's graphics technology is equally potent. Its 4800 Series Radeon HD cards feature 800 programmable cores and GDDR5 memory to deliver 1.2 teralops of processing power. "Strict pipelining of GPU programs enables efficient access to data," says Shankar Krishnan at AT&T's Research Labs. "This obviates the need for the extensive cache architectures needed on traditional CPUs and allows for a much higher density of computational units."
Of course, if you're not playing Far Cry 2 or Fallout 3 then all this processing potential is just sitting about twiddling its thumbs. GPGPUs will allow us to see what will happen if other applications are able to make use of the processors in a graphics card.
Stream processing
This is why Nvidia and AMD are keen to harness the GPGPU potential of their graphics hardware. Nvidia's Tesla Personal Supercomputer, for example, combines a traditional quad-core workstation CPU with three or four Tesla C1060 processors.
A C1060 is effectively a GeForce GTX 280 with 4GB of GDDR3 memory and no video-out. Each C1060 is capable of 933 gigalops of single-precision floating point performance, so Nvidia's top-of-the range four-GPU S1070 system packs up to 4.14 teralops of processing power in each rack. The Tokyo Institute of Technology recently bought 170 of them to give its Tsubame supercomputer some extra kick.