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Nvidia CEO: We Are Working On Next Generation Surface

UnknowingFool writes "CEO Jen-Hsun Huang has told CNET that Nvidia is working with Microsoft on the next generation of Surface tablets. While sales of the first generation have been poor, Huang believes the second generation will be more successful with the inclusion of Outlook."

18 of 200 comments (clear)

  1. From the summary: by Art3x · · Score: 5, Funny

    Huang believes the second generation will be more successful with the inclusion of Outlook

    Yay, Outlook

    1. Re:From the summary: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yay, Outlook
      I think Nvidia should be thinking
      ayy LookOut

    2. Re:From the summary: by niftydude · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yay, Outlook

      Hang on, the surface can't do e-mail properly? Just how bad was the built in mail app if they think Outlook is going to contribute massively to sales?

      I guess all those commercials with people playing badly choreographed percussion games with their surface's makes more sense now: it's the only thing you can do with the damn brick.

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    3. Re:From the summary: by bloodhawk · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Is the ipad Mail app seriously THAT bad? I haven't used it, used the surface RT mail app when it came out that it was the thing that stopped me buying a surface RT, if the Ipad one is similar that is just sad. Outlook on the RT would have made it viable for me at the time I was considering it.

    4. Re:From the summary: by symbolset · · Score: 5, Funny

      Background: I've got an AMC Pacer - picked it up about a week ago at auction.

      The weird way the stickshift works doesn't both me - it's not like I could compare it to anything.

      The big killer for me though (and why I got it to replace my Pinto) is the humungous doors. Yeah, most people don't like doors that tilt the car when they open, but I think it's cool.

      Fitting stuff in the back is nice too. It's ugly as hell, but I can get my stuff in it.

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  2. Haswell? by Pinhedd · · Score: 4, Funny

    Hopefully it'll include a more power efficient Haswell chip. The Surface Pro was promising but lacked sufficient battery life.

    1. Re:Haswell? by symbolset · · Score: 4, Funny

      I'm not sure why you think nVidia would be involved with making a Haswell Surface. Are you lost?

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    2. Re:Haswell? by Pinhedd · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Right, because the NVidia Tegra based Surface sold so damn well. No one wanted an ARM version of Windows and Microsoft's recent financial results showed that. I see no reason for that to change given that the tablet market has only become more saturated in the past year.

      They could go with an 86 based processor and couple it with a low power NVidia GPU through some sort of Optimus technology. It doesn't make as much sense as a full blown SoC, but it makes a hell of a lot more sense than redoubling their efforts on a venture that resulted in a 900 million dollar writedown.

      Another Tegra based Surface is a disaster waiting to happen.

      Saying that "it didn't have outlook" is nothing more than a scapegoat.

    3. Re:Haswell? by symbolset · · Score: 4, Informative

      No, because Intel's Haswell has an integrated GPU that obviates nVidia's participation as a GPU provider. There is no point in bringing Haswell into an nVidia discussion, nor bringing nVidia into a Haswell, except for comparison. They are mutually exclusive for everything except comparison purposes. They are not going to be combined together into a product.

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    4. Re:Haswell? by symbolset · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Microsoft's problem with ARM is that their software is proprietary. ARM systems integrators with Linux get to try out various configurations in a simulator before the silicon even gets wet. All of the various peripheral vendors have Linux drivers that work in the simulator - they make these drivers in parallel with device development because the open nature of the OS lets them test their device in private, and then submit any changes to the OS they need before they make the device public. But most especially having drivers that work in the simulator allows them to be considered in devices with a quick time to market. Proprietary software just doesn't work that way. You have to have NDA's, and meetings, full disclosure about your plans, bilateral patents agreement in place. It's a big legal tangle with lawyers and business people who play golf and have to schedule things months in advance, not engineers who don't play ever and want to see their creations exist NOW. It takes years and years.

      Microsoft's problem with Surface is that we don't do things like they do things any more. They still live in the bad old days when progress was slow. They have to buy their development platforms at retail, and by the time they've got their software fit to publish on it that's legacy hardware and we've moved on. They can't keep up because they aren't even in the game. That's without considering that they have to put in some special hardware to make sure you can't make the device useful with good software one they blow it.

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    5. Re:Haswell? by I'm+New+Around+Here · · Score: 4, Funny

      The summary's pretty accurate (for once).

      The scary thing about reading the article is the comments section. It's like YouTube users talking about computers. Makes Slashdot look like a fucking academic symposium.

      No, Slashdot will never look like an academic symposium about fucking.

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  3. Outlook? by Sorny · · Score: 5, Funny

    Magic 8-ball says "Outlook not so good".

    Just sayin'...

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  4. To use a deli analogy by paiute · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The public did not like our original turd sandwich, but they will like our new turd sandwich. It is on rye bread.

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  5. Re:let it run win 32 apps ccompiled for ARM by Chas · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Metro apps are how Microsoft is going to let go of their Win32 legacy.

    So we can revert to the multitasking equivalent of 1980's offerings.

    How about "NO"?

    How about "HELL NO"?

    How about "HELL FUCKING NO"?

    Metro apps are a colossal, leap (with rocket assist) BACKWARD in interface technology.

    You can cry all you want about "old code" and "spaghetti code". But simply being newer, possibly cleaner, code doesn't make it better.

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  6. It's getting sad by jomama717 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I was at a mall this evening and though it was funny that the little kiosk that used to demo the Surface Pro/RT was gone...until my wife pointed out that it's because they just opened a "Microsoft Store". I had to see it, and sure enough it was an incredibly thorough facsimile of an apple store, except the "geniuses" (I wonder what they call them...) had purple shirts, and of course there was microsoft crap on all of the extremely well-lit Ikea-esque tables instead of apple crap.

    I'm kind of a bystander in the MS/Apple flamewar (for work and personal use I have a suped-up macbook pro that runs a Windows7 VM) but the sight of this down to the wood-grain copy of an Apple store just made me feel pity for Microsoft. I mean, jesus, it was already clear that their business model since the Zune has been "do what apple does, seems to work", but this place takes it to a new level.

    I like Windows7, I loved my xbox (until I had a kid and gave it to a cousin after 2 years of non-use), they can do some shit right and should accentuate that instead of this across the board pathetic strategy of Apple emulation. After all, the sincerest form of flattery is imitation, as they say. I just don't get it.

    Microsoft are becoming the gobots to Apple's transformers.

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  7. Re:let it run win 32 apps ccompiled for ARM by G3ckoG33k · · Score: 5, Funny

    My friend used to be a fan, a CPU fan to be precise. His wife was a GPU fan since her chips often got a bit overheated. Sadly, my friend couldn't monitor or control her so she got burnt out and died. Eventually, after a few weeks of liquid cooling he died too. It is tough to be fan.

  8. Re:let it run win 32 apps ccompiled for ARM by symbolset · · Score: 4, Funny

    Gah. You guys don't quit.

    That's OK. It's fun to torment you. Do you remember this phrase?: "We are going mobile and Microsoft isn't coming with us."

    Do you know why Microsoft isn't coming with us? It isn't because they don't know how to make good software (though they don't) It's because they are the obnoxious person we move the party to get away from, and then don't tell them where we went.

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  9. Re:Clinging to the boat anchor by hairyfeet · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm sorry but in less than 3 years ARM is gonna be toast so anybody who invests in ARM is a fool. Look up the numbers, when it comes to IPC an ARM quad gets curbstomped by a Prescott P4 in all but the JavaScript bench which was tuned for ARM, its only selling point has been crazy low battery usage and its about to lose that advantage.

    You look at what AMD and Intel have cooking and you can see where the wind is blowing, AMD already has a fanless APU that maxes at 6w with all sectors of the chip maxed out, IRL it uses less than 3w under typical loads and that gives you a dual core APU with a Radeon chip capable of running 1080P over HDMI, and Intel has Haswell and the new Atom is supposedly down to a couple of watts under load and less than 1w in "functional standby" where it can still receive messages and calls.

    The simple fact is ARM just doesn't scale well and no matter how many millions Samsung and Nvidia sink into it they just can't fix this fundamental flaw. So far the only real luck either company has had is by throwing more cores (and thus using more power) at the problem, with Nvidia up to 5 cores and Samsung up to 6 and even with all those cores it'll still get curbstomped by a 3 year old AMD Bobcat or Intel Atom dual, the current chips just widen the gap. As more and more people do more and more with their phones and tablets they are gonna want that higher performance without compromising on weight and like it or not X86 has the IPC crown by a pretty damned large margin.

    I personally feel sorry for Nvidia, they are gonna be the ones left out in the cold as frankly Intel and AMD just don't need them anymore, although how Intel was able to destroy the Nvidia chipset business without getting slammed by antitrust I'll never know. Nvidia really should have partnered or bought out Via a few years back, the Via Nano is a pretty damned solid chip, decent performance with power drain that sits right in the middle of the curve, not to mention its built in crypto support would have made it a solid entry for ULV servers but now its too late. While I wish Nvidia luck as I believe in competition I just don't see a new Surface finding a niche, not with dual core Android tablets looking to be in the $100 range by Xmas, Android has the apps, the network effect that MSFT enjoyed on desktops, its gonna be damned hard for MSFT to get a toehold in there and with Nvidia locked out of the next gen consoles things don't look too good for big green.

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