The technology behind The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
With the latest title in the Elder Scrolls franchise, Skyrim, also moving away from the Gamebryo engine used by Oblivion (as well as Fallout 3), Game Informer have spoken to Bethesda Softworks to get a taste of what's in the pipeline for the in-house engine that will power their newest game.
“The big things for us were to draw a lot of stuff in the distance so we have a really sophisticated level of detail, more so than what we've had in the past for how things stream in and how detail gets added to them as they get closer to the camera,†explains Bethesda Studios creative director Todd Howard.
Draw distances are great for creating those postcard-worthy landscapes, but the players eyes aren't always fixed on the horizon. To give the immediate surrounding a more believable look and feel, Bethesda increased the emphasis on the play between light and shadow on the entire world.“Because our worlds are so big all of the lighting has to be dynamic,†Howard says. “That's something we had a little bit of in the past with shadowing, but not on everything. Now we have it on everything. It just makes the whole thing a lot more believable when you're there.â€
You can read the full article over here.Draw distances are great for creating those postcard-worthy landscapes, but the players eyes aren't always fixed on the horizon. To give the immediate surrounding a more believable look and feel, Bethesda increased the emphasis on the play between light and shadow on the entire world.“Because our worlds are so big all of the lighting has to be dynamic,†Howard says. “That's something we had a little bit of in the past with shadowing, but not on everything. Now we have it on everything. It just makes the whole thing a lot more believable when you're there.â€
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AMD's Bulldozer CPUs expected to offer 50% higher performance than Core i7 and Phenom II
With Intel's Sandy Bridge codenamed architecture now in the wild, we're going to have to wait and see what kind of response AMD can muster with their own next-generation "Bulldozer" architecture. According to some leaked document, it appears that AMD's target is a 50% performance increase over both their current high-end parts and Intel's last generation Core i7 offerings.
An AMD document obtained by Donanimhaber web-site claims that an eight-core Bulldozer microprocessor offers 50% higher performance compared to quad-core Intel Core i7-950 with HT microprocessor in games, rendering and multimedia applications. The web-sites does not specify which benchmarks were used. In fact, 50% higher performance versus a quad-core chip does not seem to be bad, especially in games that do not usually take advantage of multi-core chips.
The web-site claims that AMD compares performance of the Core i7-950 with performance of AMD Phenom II X6 1100T chip, which is considerably slower than its rival, according to performance tests conducted by X-bit labs. It is unclear whether AMD showed the model 1100T being slower or faster than the i7-950. Test settings were not revealed. Typically, AMD publishes so-called "simulated benchmark results".
X-Bit Labs have the full story.The web-site claims that AMD compares performance of the Core i7-950 with performance of AMD Phenom II X6 1100T chip, which is considerably slower than its rival, according to performance tests conducted by X-bit labs. It is unclear whether AMD showed the model 1100T being slower or faster than the i7-950. Test settings were not revealed. Typically, AMD publishes so-called "simulated benchmark results".
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Intel posts record quarterly and yearly results
It's barely news to see Intel posting big profit numbers every quarter these days as their juggernaut continues to roll on inexorably, but with both their financial year and the last quarter seeing record numbers for the company I suppose we'd best mention it.
To say Intel had a good year would be quite an understatement. Admittedly, the company's 2009 results were marred by the European Commission's $1.45-billion fine and its $1.25-billion settlement with AMD. Excluding those charges, Intel says it would have posted net income of $6.6 billion in 2009. No matter how you cut it, though, $11.7 billion is quite a leap forward.
Looking at the ongoing quarter, Intel expects revenue to fall within the rather broad range of $11.1 to $11.9 million, with gross margin to equal 62-66%. As for the ongoing calendar year, Intel is predicting its gross margin will be around 63-67%.
The Tech Report has all the numbers.Looking at the ongoing quarter, Intel expects revenue to fall within the rather broad range of $11.1 to $11.9 million, with gross margin to equal 62-66%. As for the ongoing calendar year, Intel is predicting its gross margin will be around 63-67%.
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The best memory for Sandy Bridge
If you're looking at building up a system based around Intel's new "Sandy Bridge"-based CPUs, you may find yourself pondering what memory to pair with these new processors and motherboard chipsets. bit-tech has a look into the most suitable memory for such a system.
Raw memory bandwidth jumped in large steps as we increased the frequency, although the steps were smaller when we went beyond 1,866MHz. Latency doesn't really affect bandwidth, but we saw a similar situation in the latency test - tightening the latency made a difference at the lower frequencies, but not so much at the higher frequencies.
Meanwhile, the multi-tasking test showed a noticeable benefit in faster, lower latency memory, though. This is worth noting, since these are quad-core/eight-thread thread CPUs designed to do a multitude of things at once. The difference between the 1,333MHz kit at a sluggish CL9, and the 2,133MHz kit at CL8 was over 200 points.
Read their full analysis over here.Meanwhile, the multi-tasking test showed a noticeable benefit in faster, lower latency memory, though. This is worth noting, since these are quad-core/eight-thread thread CPUs designed to do a multitude of things at once. The difference between the 1,333MHz kit at a sluggish CL9, and the 2,133MHz kit at CL8 was over 200 points.
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OCZ quits the DRAM industry
Given their success in other aspects of the PC hardware industry, the news that OCZ will be leaving the memory market isn't hugely surprising, but it is a bit of a shame nonetheless.
The news comes on the back of the component-maker's third quarter financial report. The company's SSD business reported that revenues were up a massive 325 per cent over the same quarter last year for a total of $41.5 million. This also marked a 105 per cent increase over Q2 revenues, demonstrating just how quickly the solid-state market is growing.
The memory business fared poorly though, reporting revenues of just $6.26 million - a drop of over 50 per cent compared to Q2 and 71 per cent lower than the revenue in the same quarter a year ago. Although this is partly due to the highly competitive memory market, it's also a result of the company's decision in August to discontinue all but its high-performance memory products.
HEXUS has the full story.The memory business fared poorly though, reporting revenues of just $6.26 million - a drop of over 50 per cent compared to Q2 and 71 per cent lower than the revenue in the same quarter a year ago. Although this is partly due to the highly competitive memory market, it's also a result of the company's decision in August to discontinue all but its high-performance memory products.
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Dirk Meyer resigns as CEO of AMD
I can't say this is an expected piece of news at all - although AMD seem to have been on a more even keel of late, it appears that this still wasn't enough for the company's board of directors, with a difference of opinion forcing Dirk Meyer out of the CEO's chair.
AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Senior Vice President and CFO Thomas Seifert, 47, as interim CEO following the resignation of Dirk Meyer, 49, as president, CEO and a director of the company effective immediately.
A CEO Search Committee has been formed to begin the search for a new CEO. The Committee is led by Bruce Claflin, Chairman of AMD's Board of Directors, who has been named Executive Chairman of the Board as he assumes additional oversight responsibilities during the transition period. Seifert will maintain his current responsibilities as CFO and has asked not to be considered for the permanent CEO position.
"Dirk became CEO during difficult times. He successfully stabilized AMD while simultaneously concluding strategic initiatives including the launch of GLOBALFOUNDRIES, the successful settlement of our litigation with Intel and delivering Fusion APUs to the market," said Claflin.
"However, the Board believes we have the opportunity to create increased shareholder value over time. This will require the company to have significant growth, establish market leadership and generate superior financial returns. We believe a change in leadership at this time will accelerate the company's ability to accomplish these objectives."
You can find AMD's full press release here, while Bloomberg discusses exactly what the company will be looking for from its next CEO:A CEO Search Committee has been formed to begin the search for a new CEO. The Committee is led by Bruce Claflin, Chairman of AMD's Board of Directors, who has been named Executive Chairman of the Board as he assumes additional oversight responsibilities during the transition period. Seifert will maintain his current responsibilities as CFO and has asked not to be considered for the permanent CEO position.
"Dirk became CEO during difficult times. He successfully stabilized AMD while simultaneously concluding strategic initiatives including the launch of GLOBALFOUNDRIES, the successful settlement of our litigation with Intel and delivering Fusion APUs to the market," said Claflin.
"However, the Board believes we have the opportunity to create increased shareholder value over time. This will require the company to have significant growth, establish market leadership and generate superior financial returns. We believe a change in leadership at this time will accelerate the company's ability to accomplish these objectives."
Under Meyer, directors were frustrated with AMD’s lack of progress in gaining market share and entering the tablet- computer industry, according to people familiar with the board’s deliberations. The company announced yesterday that Meyer has resigned and that it’s formed a committee to find successor.
“They need a visionary,†said Hans Mosesmann, an analyst at Raymond James & Associates in St. Petersburg, Florida. He has a “market perform†rating on AMD stock. “They need someone who has the passion to disrupt the market.â€
The next CEO will continue a 40-year struggle to escape from the shadow of Intel, the world’s largest chipmaker. AMD has less than 20 percent of the global personal-computer processor market, compared with Intel’s 80 percent, and its revenue in 2009 of $5.4 billion was a seventh of Intel’s.
“They need a visionary,†said Hans Mosesmann, an analyst at Raymond James & Associates in St. Petersburg, Florida. He has a “market perform†rating on AMD stock. “They need someone who has the passion to disrupt the market.â€
The next CEO will continue a 40-year struggle to escape from the shadow of Intel, the world’s largest chipmaker. AMD has less than 20 percent of the global personal-computer processor market, compared with Intel’s 80 percent, and its revenue in 2009 of $5.4 billion was a seventh of Intel’s.
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Intel to pay NVIDIA technology licensing fees of $1.5 billion
The sound that you hear is Jen-Hsun Huang's eyes rolling around to display dollar signs...
SANTA CLARA, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 01/10/2011 -- NVIDIA announced today that it has signed a new six-year cross-licensing agreement with Intel.
For the future use of NVIDIA's technology, Intel will pay NVIDIA an aggregate of $1.5 billion in licensing fees payable in five annual installments, beginning Jan. 18, 2011.
NVIDIA and Intel have also agreed to drop all outstanding legal disputes between them.
"This agreement signals a new era for NVIDIA," said Jen-Hsun Huang, NVIDIA's president and chief executive officer. "Our cross license with Intel reflects the substantial value of our visual and parallel computing technologies. It also underscores the importance of our inventions to the future of personal computing, as well as the expanding markets for mobile and cloud computing."
Under the new agreement, Intel will have continued access to NVIDIA's full range of patents. In return, NVIDIA will receive an aggregate of $1.5 billion in licensing fees, to be paid in annual installments, and retain use of Intel's patents, consistent with its existing six-year agreement with Intel. This excludes Intel's proprietary processors, flash memory and certain chipsets for the Intel platform.
Interestingly, it looks as though this deal has still locked NVIDIA out of developing motherboard chipsets for at least some Intel products - regardless, you can read the full press release on the NVIDIA web site.For the future use of NVIDIA's technology, Intel will pay NVIDIA an aggregate of $1.5 billion in licensing fees payable in five annual installments, beginning Jan. 18, 2011.
NVIDIA and Intel have also agreed to drop all outstanding legal disputes between them.
"This agreement signals a new era for NVIDIA," said Jen-Hsun Huang, NVIDIA's president and chief executive officer. "Our cross license with Intel reflects the substantial value of our visual and parallel computing technologies. It also underscores the importance of our inventions to the future of personal computing, as well as the expanding markets for mobile and cloud computing."
Under the new agreement, Intel will have continued access to NVIDIA's full range of patents. In return, NVIDIA will receive an aggregate of $1.5 billion in licensing fees, to be paid in annual installments, and retain use of Intel's patents, consistent with its existing six-year agreement with Intel. This excludes Intel's proprietary processors, flash memory and certain chipsets for the Intel platform.
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