Corsair 550D Case Review
Read More ...
Indie Devs Joining Forces to Discount Games Next Week
Independent developers have decided to join forces for a massive game sale next week called Because We May. More than 40 indie games will be priced at whatever the studio sees fit starting on May 24th. The developers believe game prices should be set at whatever price the developer wants without interference from the store. This allows easier promotion of the games and enables more people to purchase the game. The indie developers will have 46 games discounted on Steam, Apple's App Store, and Google Play, so May 24th to June 1st will be the perfect time to save on Frozen Synapse, The Binding of Isaac, World of Goo, Osmos, DeathSpank, and dozens more. The prices are currently unknown, so be sure to hit up the Because We May website, Steam, or your smartphone's marketplace to check out just how far the developers discount the games.
Read More ...
No Far Cry 3 Multiplayer Beta on the PC
The other day Ubisoft announced the Far Cry 3 multiplayer beta will go live this summer for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. You may notice the PC is missing from that list and could have just been a small oversight. However, when reached for comment Ubisoft declared there will be no Far Cry 3 multiplayer beta for the PC. That is a major bummer considering the series originally started on the PC, but has been slowly drifting away from the platform once Crytek was no longer at the helm. This is just another dagger in the heart of PC gamers everywhere, as Ubisoft has no plans for a Far Cry 3 beta of any kind on the PC. It could be that Ubisoft just does not want to deal with any potential backlash if a PC beta included DRM, but at least PC gamers will get to experience Far Cry 3 when it arrives on September 4th.
Read More ...
Bringing Back the Vacuum Tube in Electronics
One of the reasons we have the technology we currently do, like MP3 players, smartphones, PCs, and a great deal more, is because semiconductor transistors were developed to replace bulky vacuum tubes. While semiconductors allowed technology to drastically shrink in size, their use does not come without some costs. High-radiation environments, such as space, can damage semiconductors, and electrons travel slower in them than in vacuum tubes. Of course we cannot go back to classic vacuum tubes, especially with some modern computers components having billions of transistors, but researchers have devised a vacuum channel transistor which combines the best of both technologies.
As reported in the American Institute of Physics' Applied Physics Letters journal, researchers at NASA's Ames Research Center, and the National Nanofab Center in Korea have designed a vacuum channel transistor that is roughly 150 nm long and can be made with current fabrication methods. At 150 nm long this is obviously a much larger device than the 22 nm and 32 nm transistors we see in current CPUs. Its current size does allow it to operate on less than 10 V though, and the researchers believe they can improve the design to operate at about 1 V, which would put it in competition with modern semiconductor transistors. Once that is achieved, it will probably start appearing in places modern semiconductors just do not survive or are not always fast enough.
Read More ...
Battlefield Premium Set to Arrive June 4th - Now a DLC Bundle
It sounds like the Battlefield Premium service is no longer a rumor, as multiple sources have told Battlefieldo it will arrive on June 4th. Previously Battlefield Premium was thought to be a subscription service, but now it is looking more like a DLC bundle containg all five pieces of Battlefield 3 DLC. Battlefield Premium will also include the camo and in-game items mentioned previously, but anyone who purchases will also gain access to future BF3 map packs. The more and more is leaked about Battlefield Premium makes it sound all the more like Call of Duty ELITE, especially with future map pack access. Once upon a time DICE did not want Battlefield 3 to become another Call of Duty with $15 map packs and even urged EA to steer clear of it. If these features of Battlefield Premium turn out to be true (and the $50 price), we could be looking at another CoD feature clone.
Read More ...
Precision Graphene Quantum Dots Made using Diamond
Two materials that may be very influential in the future of technology are graphene and quantum dots. Both of these materials have special properties that can be controlled by manipulating their size and shape. The characteristics of a sheet of pure graphene are defined by its edges and quantum dots have their optical properties defined by their size. Obviously then, there has to be a way to precisely control the creation of graphene quantum dots, which researchers at Kansas State University have achieved.
The researchers use a diamond knife to cut apart a piece of graphite into graphite nanoblocks. These nanoblocks are then exfoliated to create ultrasmall sheets of graphene of specific size and shape. This is not the first method to make graphene quantum dots, but it is more efficient than others as it can create large quantities of the dots with controlled structures.
This research could lead to many developments in electronics and optoelectronics, by making graphene quantum dots so accessible to other researchers, and eventually the consumer. Quantum dots can be used in communication systems as a laser-light source, in solar panels as the photoelectric element, and in displays as the sub-pixels, to list just a few examples.
Read More ...
38 Studios in Hot Water
38 Studios is the game developer behind Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, and was started by former Major League pitcher Curt Schilling. The game has enjoyed a reasonable amount of success, selling nearly 1 million copies. However, not everything is looking up for the company or the state of Rhode Island which provided a $75 million guaranteed loan to help lure the company to the state from Massachusetts. The deal that looked promising from the start with the star power of Schilling and the down economy of Providence hasn't panned out. The company has reportedly missed a $1.1 million interest payment due at the first of this month and claims it doesn't have enough money to pay its employees. 38 Studios is scheduled to pay $12.7 million to the state per year until 2020, but at this rate it looks like the taxpayers of Rhode Island might be on the hook for the money.
Read More ...
Metallic Glasses More Complicated Than Thought
Many materials can be described as crystals because their molecule structure is well ordered and repeats. Those materials with disorderly structures are called glasses, and they can have some interesting properties. In the case of metallic glasses, instead of sharply transitioning from a solid to a liquid when heated, the phase change may take place slowly, over a greater range of temperatures. Some metallic glasses will actually exist in a part molten part solid state.
The properties of glasses, like many other materials, are defined by their molecular structure, which researchers had thought was comprised of pentagons in metallic glasses. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin, Madison have successfully identified other shapes in the mix too. Squares and hexagon were found in the one-to-three nanometer range, which has traditionally been a hard resolution to observe.
Knowledge like this could lead to more uses of metallic glasses, which are primarily found in electrical transformer cores at the moment. These materials have a great deal of potential though as they can be molded like plastic and their manufacturing methods extend to the micro and nanoscale. We may see metallic glasses one day being used to grow forests of nanowires and even the world's smallest geared motor.
Read More ...
Torchlight II Stress Test This Weekend
If you are eager to try your hand at Runic Games' upcoming Torchlight II, you are in luck. This weekend will be the final stress test for Torchlight II before the full game launches, so now is your chance to try it out. Just head over to the Runic website, create your account (if you do not have one already), and hope you are fortunate enough to get a beta key. The stress test started a little over an hour ago and will run until Tuesday at 11:00am PDT. This should give you plenty of time to try out the new classes (like Embermage and Berserker), check out the variety of new pets, and see just how much of that sweet, sweet loot you can acquire before the stress test ends. Runic will be ending the beta soon after the stress test, since it feels getting the beta finished earlier means the sooner we can get our hands on Torchlight II in full.
Torchlight II should be out soon and you can pre-order it now for $19.99. Pre-ordering on Steam will also net you a copy of the first Torchlight, which you can give to a friend if they have not experienced it yet.
Read More ...
Graphene-Graphite Quilt Used to Cool Advanced Semiconductor
When most people think of semiconductors they think of silicon, but the family of semiconducting materials is much larger than just one compound. Gallium Nitride (GaN) is another semiconductor that has been in use since the 1990s, thanks to its high efficiency and high voltage operation. At such high voltages though, the material will put out a great deal of heat, which can greatly shorten its lifespan and limit its application. Researchers at the University of California, Riverside have given the material new life with a new cooling system that can drop temperatures by as much as 20 ºC.
This new material is based on graphene, a form of carbon that makes a sheet just one-atom thick. It is not single-layer graphene that is used though, but multiple layers to the point of the reaching graphite. In some ways graphite can be thought of as multiple layers of graphene, but it is not quite that simple as the graphene in pencil lead is not so well ordered.
Both single and multi-layered graphene conduct heat very well, which is what the researchers were hoping for. In fact the researchers were able to drop the temperature in some hot spots by 20 ºC and computer simulations suggest ways to make it even more efficient.
Read More ...
Players Uncover Diablo III Secret Level
Several crafty gamers have stumbled upon Whimsyshire - Diablo III's bubbly secret level which oozes a blindingly vivid color palette. The mystical level pits players against the cute and cuddly forces of unicorns and teddy bears, but these charming creatures are the equivalent of Act Four enemies, and they can get pretty ruthless if you let your guard down. Getting to the neon landscape of Whimsyshire involves collecting a medley of particular items spread out across the four acts, and whether you've finished the game or not, you can conveniently access the rainbow-filled hidden level at any time.
Read More ...
Harley Quinn Gets Her Revenge in Latest Batman: Arkham City DLC
Joker's crazed lover takes matters in her own maniacal hands in the upcoming Batman: Arkham City - Harley Quinn's Revenge DLC. The gripping addition to last year's phenomenal Batman: Arkham City finds Harley in a darker mood, and apparently she's gotten crafty enough to take down the Dark Knight. The hooded Robin gets to lend a helping hand here when Batman goes missing, and the Boy Wonder wastes no time in showing how nimble he is with that hardy staff. Harley's raging quest for revenge against Joker's reported demise marks the final chapter in Batman: Arkham City, and the story-based DLC comes out on May 29th. A simultaneous release for Batman: Arkham City Game of the Year Edition also includes Harley Quinn's Revenge along with other neat extras designed for a thorough Arkham City experience.
Read More ...
First Details of Unreal Engine 4 Revealed
Back in March, Epic Games was showing off Unreal Engine 4 behind closed doors and an NDA. Today the studio is opening up a little bit more about the new engine and that we can expect a lot more information at E3 next month. The team over at Wired conducted an interview with Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney about Unreal Engine 4 and just what we can expect from it, and I have to say, it is well worth the read. For starters, Epic has assembled a two and a half minute demo reel that shows off everything UE4 can do for developers. The demo reel has a demon knight in his volcano fortress with a ton of effects (lens flare, bokeh distortion, dynamic lighting, lava flow, environmental destruction, lava, and more) going around, and according to Wired, "it's breathtakingly photo-realistic." While the clip is not yet available, we do have a plethora of screenshots for you to peruse and gawk over. I imagine the clip will be shown during E3, so it looks like we have a few weeks left before seeing it.
As for Unreal Engine 4, Epic Games says it features tools that will allow developers to cut production times in half. This will mean more games can be produced each year if Epic's claims are accurate. The screenshots from the demo reel look amazing, but then that begs the question of just what kind of hardware will be necessary to get all games looking this good. I suppose we will find out in a few weeks.
Read More ...
Inexact Computer Chips Offer Improved Efficiency
Finding exact solutions to some problems can be a long and arduous process for humans. Computers can find these answers much faster, but it can require extra power and circuitry. An idea many computer scientists have been thinking about is the use of inexact hardware. Researchers at Rice University, Singapore's Nanyang Technological University, Switzerland's Center for Electronics and Microtechnology, and the University of California, Berkeley have created an inexact computer chip that is many times more efficient than modern exact processors, while still being smaller and using less power.
To ensure data is processed correctly, higher voltages are used in transistors. This puts a bigger gap between a 0 and 1, so it is easier to tell them apart. Additional circuitry is also used for error correction, or dedicated to specific functions that the other circuitry can do, but potentially with errors. By pruning out the extra circuits, inexact chips can be made smaller, which means they need less power, and with confined voltage scaling, even less power is needed.
Of course you do not want too much error, because there is a point at which error makes data useless. However the researchers found that allowing a deviation of just 0.25% could cut a chips energy demands by a factor of 3.5. The die shrink and increase in speed, which the voltage change allows, increase this to a factor of 7.5. This is doubled to a factor of 15 by allowing for an 8% deviation.
Inexact computer chips may not be the thing you or I want in our computers, even with that much performance gain, but there are still places they would be welcome. The researchers are working on tablet computers for use in India schools where there is little electricity and few teachers. By pruning both the CPU and GPU the researchers expect to have the tablets require half the power they normally would, which will allow them to be powered by solar power strips similar to those on some handheld calculators.
Read More ...
Blizzard Apologizes for Diablo III Server Issues - Postpones Real Money Auction House
The server issues that have been troubling Diablo III since launch are well known, which has prompted Blizzard to issue an apology on the subject. Blizzard posted the apology on the Battle.net forums, where it says launch preparations "did not go far enough." The studio has been optimizing and fine tuning the servers since May 15th, and everything should be running smoothly now. There will be some maintenance periods to ensure all regions can connect without issue and Blizzard will continue to monitor server activity. Blizzard wants to make sure everything is running properly and there are no more widespread server problems, so it will be delaying the launch of the real money auction house beyond the expected May 22nd start date. The studio will provide a future update when it is ready to go ahead with the real money auction house. Blizzard is sorry the server issues prevented some people from enjoying Diablo III, and thanks everyone for their patience.
Read More ...
Available Tags:Server ,
No comments:
Post a Comment