Glad you enjoyed it, and I also agree, Aussie timezones do have their uses:-)
Can't say I entirely agree with your opinion of the movie, however. While I'm glad I saw it on the big screen first (and I will doubtless be buying the DVD - I have the first two, and it's certainly better than them), I thought the acting was completely unconvincing, particularly Anakin, the dialog was as cheesy as ever, and there were more than a few WTF? plot moments which completely severed the suspension of my disbelief.
Christopher Lee was cool though, if brief, and I was glad to see he didn't get cut from the beginning of this final chapter as well:-)
Nah, video games developed for the earlier generation does not mean video games redeveloped for the newer generation, I think that's pretty clear. It'll run your original Xbox discs.
Obviously a version of MS's newly-acquired VirtualPC will be used to handle the CPU emulation, and the DirectX layer will cope with redirecting most of the the gfx calls smoothly enough. The tricky part is the patented nVidia shader code used in Xbox games.
The only answer that make sense is that the emulator will intercept the nVidia shader code, match it against a database & replace it with a prewritten equivalent DXSL shader (as gfx drivers often do today, for better performance).
Nicely sidesteps the patent issues, it's efficient, relatively easy, and can be upgraded via Live updates too, for further compatibility down the road.
Intel hasn't lost until Dell sells AMD and The other thing is volume.
That's not the "other" thing, that's the same thing. Dell have said more than once, it's not the money from Intel, it's simply that AMD does not have even close to the fab capacity to keep Dell supplied.
Dell will not sell AMD until AMD is a bigger player. Catch-22.
As for your assertion that low volume enables AMD to create superior processors, the same logic would have VIA & Transmeta far outstripping anything those two big clunky dinosaurs could manage. Hey, I have zero volume, bet I could create an infinitely fast CPU!
As others here have said already, Opteron is a NUMA design - each CPU has its own bank of memory, and other CPUs have to ask that CPU to retrieve data on their behalf.
This means that on a dual mobo, half the RAM slots are wired directly to the second CPU socket, and with no second CPU installed, that half of the RAM is simply inaccessable to the first CPU. You need that extra CPU - or a single-CPU mobo with a lot of RAM slots.
People are always impressed that Moore's Law has held so consistently, for so long. This, on the face of it, is unlikely, don't you think? That the surging tides of human ingenuity & progress just happen to average out this way?
Occam's Razor suggests a simpler explanation: external regulation.
Clearly, someone (probably the NSA) is holding back the development of technology (to preserve their edge). In order for this to not look suspicious, they're allowing *some* development - and using Moore's Law as a guideline.
As proof, I offer to you the Earth Simulator; the first supercomputer to get a serious jump on the curve - and the first supercomputer outside the NSA's jurisdiction. Coincidence?
Well, Christians believe that. Other religions may well find those beliefs as entertaining as the others you mention, while still feeling that their faith is unassailable. And, frankly, so do scientists.
The difference (to you and me) is that Science has demonstrated its validity by means of experimental testing. Infinite Knowledge is the god of the scientist, Hypothesis and Experiment its worship, and Reason its ethos. But it's still a belief system, in the sense that it attempts to explain the nature of our existance.
It's hard to declare Reason as any more (or less) valid than Faith - it's more practical in the short term, I grant you, but religions often take a longer view, citing the Afterlife as the goal of human existance.
I would add that I see Reason and Faith as both separate from Stupidity and Callousness - examples of the latter can be found in any belief system, including Science, and are not inherent to religion. Oh, and for a benign example of a spiritual and secular leader, try the Dalai Lama as head of state.
Only some of the theatres mentioned in the article were associated with a museum. For those, I would of course expect to see films with a scientific viewpoint - and for such theatres to decline science-viewpoint films is indeed concerning. For the others, all comers should be welcome.
Don't forget that to many people in the world, science and scientific theories are still just another belief system - more immediately practical than most religions, perhaps, but no more valid than their own ideas. They're all equally "ineffable" to the lay public anyway.
The problem lies not in a person's belief system, but in the attacking/supressing of alternative beliefs, insisting that one invalidates the other. Science has yet to prove or disprove the existance of a Creator/Supreme Being (and is unlikely to), so why should it care about religion? Many (but not all) religions are known for their intolerance of alternative beliefs, but there are not many recorded instances of God coming down from on high and stating unequivocably that "All Muslims should be put to the sword," or that "Darwin is the Devil Incarnate". Therefore, any statements along those lines are no more than a loaded interpretation of the texts, i.e. bigotry.
Why not indeed? At least to the relative proportion of the population. Seems only fair.
At least, there's no reason I can think of to actively decline to show such films, if there's a market.
Seems to me that's the part that's missing. The Christians are just annoyed that their viewpoint is under-represented. If the theatres gave equal billing to both angles, there's not much left to complain about.
There's plenty of good movie material in the Bible. I suppose the problem is there just aren't enough Christian directors.
A superior mind, or ~1,500,000,000 years of random combinations of chemicals might also eventually result in something self-organising (simpler than a cell). Hard to disprove either theory.
My problem with the superior mind hypothesis is, how did the superior mind originate? Did it just "appear" one day itself?
It seems I stand corrected - I assumed that the G5's Altivec could do double-precision like SSE2 could, but apparently it can't, as you say. Also, it appears that Cell's SPEs can do DP after all, albeit 10x slower (which is still pretty good).
XServe Cells are looking better, since they're primarily used for specific, high-performance apps, but if Sony can fit a (perhaps reduced) Cell into PS3, pricewise & heatwise, even a specialised form of Mac Mini HTPC might be a possibility.
you're able to tolerate more defects because you're planning on shipping broken (and disabled) cores.
So which will you buy, PS3 or PS3 LE, the one with only 4 or 5 operational SPEs?
PS3 ships with economies of scale on Day 1. XBox didn't.
If the Cell makes it into anything else by Day 1, which is doubtful. Probably not for some time afterwards.
MS made a point of using as many off-the-shelf components as possible precisely to get those economies of scale. Standard CPU, RAM, HD, DVD drive, USB interface etc. Even the custom nVidia chips shared most of their design with the successful nForce series. Scale would have worked more for them than for Sony & the PS2, despite the PS2's much stronger sales.
OK, the CPU & DVD were slightly tweaked, but only slightly.
Cell is only, what, 2x the clock speed of current G5s? A dual G5 may well be faster. Clock speed does help of course, though there is far more than that involved in final performance (execution units, pipeline depth, decode cycles etc). However if, as someone else suggested, most Altivec code goes through Apple's libraries, and Apple can successfully port those to include the SPEs, then performance probably won't be the biggest issue.
More of a problem is that the VMX implementation seems incomplete, at least compared to the G5. For example, Cell does not support double-precision SIMD operations. If a dual G5 is faster for VMX apps AND supports double-precision, it might be the better choice for many things. Could even be cheaper, given the huge difference in die sizes...
Those are points, and if Apple can actually hide enough of the differences, the Cell may be an attractive option to the content creation market.
Still, it's going to cost a fair bit more, no getting around that. As long as the die size remains nearly 3.5x that of the G5, Apple aren't going to get huge sales from it, and Sony really have their work cut out for them squeezing it into a console.
In a couple of years, things will no doubt be different.
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Well, the simulator proved it could anyway, as Bitboys Oy hadn't quite finished the hardware yet.
'Cept of course it was never finished - and it couldn't have anyway.
Can't say I entirely agree with your opinion of the movie, however. While I'm glad I saw it on the big screen first (and I will doubtless be buying the DVD - I have the first two, and it's certainly better than them), I thought the acting was completely unconvincing, particularly Anakin, the dialog was as cheesy as ever, and there were more than a few WTF? plot moments which completely severed the suspension of my disbelief.
Christopher Lee was cool though, if brief, and I was glad to see he didn't get cut from the beginning of this final chapter as well :-)
Obviously a version of MS's newly-acquired VirtualPC will be used to handle the CPU emulation, and the DirectX layer will cope with redirecting most of the the gfx calls smoothly enough. The tricky part is the patented nVidia shader code used in Xbox games.
The only answer that make sense is that the emulator will intercept the nVidia shader code, match it against a database & replace it with a prewritten equivalent DXSL shader (as gfx drivers often do today, for better performance).
Nicely sidesteps the patent issues, it's efficient, relatively easy, and can be upgraded via Live updates too, for further compatibility down the road.
And if they don't, you can bet the moddded XBMC360 will include USB2 PVR support.
So... who has the future *DVD* rights? Fox has what's out there, but do they have a lock on anything series-related in other mediums?
What's to stop Joss/Universal/whoever getting Nathan & the crew back for a couple more "seasons" released direct to DVD?
Says it all, for me.
"What most people with Asperger's Syndrome find difficult is casual chatting - they can't do small talk."
So, that includes most geeks, but not those who hang about posting on /., yes?
Sadly, IBM, who is manufacturing the chips for Sony is having problems fabbing an eight-SPU version of the chip for the console.
That's not the "other" thing, that's the same thing. Dell have said more than once, it's not the money from Intel, it's simply that AMD does not have even close to the fab capacity to keep Dell supplied.
Dell will not sell AMD until AMD is a bigger player. Catch-22.
As for your assertion that low volume enables AMD to create superior processors, the same logic would have VIA & Transmeta far outstripping anything those two big clunky dinosaurs could manage. Hey, I have zero volume, bet I could create an infinitely fast CPU!
The original will be posted tomorrow.
So, which 64-bit OS will you be running on that MB then? Or perhaps you have a particular Linux app in mind that can take advantage of 32 GB via PAE?
This means that on a dual mobo, half the RAM slots are wired directly to the second CPU socket, and with no second CPU installed, that half of the RAM is simply inaccessable to the first CPU. You need that extra CPU - or a single-CPU mobo with a lot of RAM slots.
Occam's Razor suggests a simpler explanation: external regulation.
Clearly, someone (probably the NSA) is holding back the development of technology (to preserve their edge). In order for this to not look suspicious, they're allowing *some* development - and using Moore's Law as a guideline.
As proof, I offer to you the Earth Simulator; the first supercomputer to get a serious jump on the curve - and the first supercomputer outside the NSA's jurisdiction. Coincidence?
Hang on, I think I hear a knock at the door...
... are probably more useful here :-)
a total linear computational speed of 60 trillian operations per second
BlueGene/L is highly parallel, yes? What speed can just one of its processors do?
The difference (to you and me) is that Science has demonstrated its validity by means of experimental testing. Infinite Knowledge is the god of the scientist, Hypothesis and Experiment its worship, and Reason its ethos. But it's still a belief system, in the sense that it attempts to explain the nature of our existance.
It's hard to declare Reason as any more (or less) valid than Faith - it's more practical in the short term, I grant you, but religions often take a longer view, citing the Afterlife as the goal of human existance.
I would add that I see Reason and Faith as both separate from Stupidity and Callousness - examples of the latter can be found in any belief system, including Science, and are not inherent to religion. Oh, and for a benign example of a spiritual and secular leader, try the Dalai Lama as head of state.
That's a good point. Museums are entitled to show the purely scientific viewpoint, just as churches are devoted to God.
Don't forget that to many people in the world, science and scientific theories are still just another belief system - more immediately practical than most religions, perhaps, but no more valid than their own ideas. They're all equally "ineffable" to the lay public anyway.
The problem lies not in a person's belief system, but in the attacking/supressing of alternative beliefs, insisting that one invalidates the other. Science has yet to prove or disprove the existance of a Creator/Supreme Being (and is unlikely to), so why should it care about religion? Many (but not all) religions are known for their intolerance of alternative beliefs, but there are not many recorded instances of God coming down from on high and stating unequivocably that "All Muslims should be put to the sword," or that "Darwin is the Devil Incarnate". Therefore, any statements along those lines are no more than a loaded interpretation of the texts, i.e. bigotry.
Why not indeed? At least to the relative proportion of the population. Seems only fair. At least, there's no reason I can think of to actively decline to show such films, if there's a market.
There's plenty of good movie material in the Bible. I suppose the problem is there just aren't enough Christian directors.
My problem with the superior mind hypothesis is, how did the superior mind originate? Did it just "appear" one day itself?
XServe Cells are looking better, since they're primarily used for specific, high-performance apps, but if Sony can fit a (perhaps reduced) Cell into PS3, pricewise & heatwise, even a specialised form of Mac Mini HTPC might be a possibility.
So which will you buy, PS3 or PS3 LE, the one with only 4 or 5 operational SPEs?
PS3 ships with economies of scale on Day 1. XBox didn't.
If the Cell makes it into anything else by Day 1, which is doubtful. Probably not for some time afterwards.
MS made a point of using as many off-the-shelf components as possible precisely to get those economies of scale. Standard CPU, RAM, HD, DVD drive, USB interface etc. Even the custom nVidia chips shared most of their design with the successful nForce series. Scale would have worked more for them than for Sony & the PS2, despite the PS2's much stronger sales.
OK, the CPU & DVD were slightly tweaked, but only slightly.
More of a problem is that the VMX implementation seems incomplete, at least compared to the G5. For example, Cell does not support double-precision SIMD operations. If a dual G5 is faster for VMX apps AND supports double-precision, it might be the better choice for many things. Could even be cheaper, given the huge difference in die sizes...
Still, it's going to cost a fair bit more, no getting around that. As long as the die size remains nearly 3.5x that of the G5, Apple aren't going to get huge sales from it, and Sony really have their work cut out for them squeezing it into a console.
In a couple of years, things will no doubt be different.