bit-tech has an official statement from Nvidia here. Nvidia specified an incorrect resistor value in their bill of materials, so the manufacturer did its job correctly, but had slightly incorrect instructions.
There is a big difference between using bandwidth on a network, and using all the bandwidth on a network because your Bittorrent client isn't capping its upload speeds. In the first case, the network continues to operate normally for all users. In the second case, the network becomes unusable for almost everyone. Sure it's a public network and the other users may not have a "right" to bandwidth, but you're just being an ass.
If you're having troubles with your Internet connection slowing down a bunch while using Bittorrent, you probably need to cap its upload speed. As of a long time ago, you couldn't do this with the official client (maybe you can now; I haven't checked). Try getting Bittornado which will allow you to limit the speed at which it uploads and should allow you to use it without monopolizing your bandwidth.
I thought it was 10-20% for Cells with all 8 SPEs functioning. The PS3 Cell chips will have one SPE disabled, so that one can be defective and the chip will still be usable for a PS3. This is similar to how graphics chip companies disable defective groups of pipelines in some chips and sell them as cheaper models.
It's been done before; the Xbox 360's CPU is a tri-core PowerPC. I don't know much about Intel's specific implementation, but on a general architectural level there shouldn't be anything stopping them from putting 3 cores in a chip.
You're probably right about zero response from those who actively filter spam. But many people have spam filtered by their ISP or webmail service, and aren't even really aware of it. I think they are the main targets of spam filter evasion.
"Personally I think this 'mistake' was on purpose..."
Perhaps I'm just misunderstanding you, but are you saying that the drug companies would prefer to purposefully ruin the lives of four people, instead of trying to create a drug that works, help people, and make a lot of money?
Good point. Yes, yes, and yes. Actually, so long as I don't play DDR too close to the TV, it looks nearly as bright as normal. I don't really notice the brightness difference unless I'm moving up and down. Of course, the graphics in a dance game are simpler than in most other games, so it's hard to say how it'll be in a more graphically complex game. The TV stand I have leans forward just a bit though, so when I fix that, it should be better.
Overall, I think plasma might have a better picture, although that judgement is based solely on walking around in Best Buy looking at the various displays. Others can better comment on that. But I got a really good deal on the DLP so I paid about half what I would've paid for a plasma of comparable size. Overall, I'm quite happy with it though, whether playing DDR or just sitting on the couch watching a movie.
It probably has something to do with the nature of rear projection, but it's definitely there. My DLP TV is great as horizontal viewing angle goes, but the vertical viewing angle could be a bit better. I only notice it when I stand up though, and since I don't watch TV standing up, I don't mind so much.
It does check the checksum, every time a call is incoming and maybe at other times. The majority of the code also is encrypted in the binary and decrypted at runtime.
One major reason for the move back toward CISC-like technologies is simply that as transistor technology has improved, there's been less of a tradeoff between advanced hardware functionality and the speed at which the hardware can run.
The PPE on the Cell also doesn't do out-of-order execution. All the silicon they saved in stripping that out probably helped a lot in being able to fir the 8 SPEs in there too.
He was talking about macro-optimization there, which is generally processor-independent. But he can't do it effectively with the AMD- and.NET-compatible tools that he has.
Not that I remember. I'm pretty sure the miniaturization thing was entirely an accident. But I read the book around 7 years ago, so my memory might not be entirely accurate.
A quick read of the post reveals that he's already doing that. Here's the relevant quote: "Until now, we had a Linux box in which a little cron script would just shutdown the machine after half an hour, when the kids were using it. Does someone on Slashdot have a fancier solution?"
You may be referring to Slapstick by Kurt Vonnegut, part of which described the Chinese breeding themselves over many generations to be smaller. The intent was that they could reduce their food needs, but they accidently went too far and became microscopic. Then any normal-sized person who breathed in a bunch of Chinese people would die when they clogged up his lungs.
Not yet anyway. More games will be supported post-launch as their emulators are finished, then you can download them either via Xbox Live or from Microsoft and put them on a CD to update the Xbox's emulator.
I'd imagine that the answer to the question is "both." Personally, I don't have a problem with this sort of optimization, since the user will probably get the same benefit when actually playing the game, and that's what really matters.
I'd be unhappy if there were optimizations that only turned on when running a game in demo mode or when FRAPS was loaded (or whatever is being used for FPS measurements nowadays). I haven't heard about anything like that yet though.
That's just another reason that reviewers are using real games as benchmarks more and more. It also helps that they give a much better impression of the card's capabilities in real-life situations.
Off the top of my head, I'm not sure, but I suspect that the people working on this have thought of all that and have developed adequate methods for dealing with it. (At least I hope so!)
The event was the Fall Processor Forum, which just occurred. A Microsoft employee supposedly made this claim. Herb Sutter was the only Microsoft employee to give an official speech (it was the keynote), so it might have been him if it's true.
His speech was about multi-threading and things that he's been working on to create more transparent and easy-to-use multithreading. I'm not sure where you get can get the PDF of his presentation, but it was passed around where I work, and it was interesting stuff, involving parallelization even of things like individual loops, activated using nothing more than a bit of special compiler syntax.
Anyway, Herb is doing a lot of neat work on multi-threading, but he isn't in the Xbox division. So it's not as if he really would have first-hand knowledge of everything going on Xbox-related. Furthermore, statements like this have a tendency to be misheard. I wasn't there, but maybe he said that most of the first Xbox 360 games will be single-threaded, and that's probably true. But it's pretty easy for that "most" to change to an "all" as it passes from person to person and on to the Internet.
The Power Glove actually did have 3D position tracking (and roll too IIRC) when used in its raw data mode, but there was only a single game that used it. This game, Super Glove Ball, was closer to a fancy tech demo than a full-fledged game. So even the potential that the Power Glove had was barely exploited at all. I'm sure they'll do a better job with the Revolution; at least, I hope so.
Incidentally, the Power Glove did gain some popularity in homebrew VR applications due to its low price (compared to about $10,000 for professional VR data gloves at the time).
Slashdot Mirror
bit-tech has an official statement from Nvidia here. Nvidia specified an incorrect resistor value in their bill of materials, so the manufacturer did its job correctly, but had slightly incorrect instructions.
There is a big difference between using bandwidth on a network, and using all the bandwidth on a network because your Bittorrent client isn't capping its upload speeds. In the first case, the network continues to operate normally for all users. In the second case, the network becomes unusable for almost everyone. Sure it's a public network and the other users may not have a "right" to bandwidth, but you're just being an ass.
If you're having troubles with your Internet connection slowing down a bunch while using Bittorrent, you probably need to cap its upload speed. As of a long time ago, you couldn't do this with the official client (maybe you can now; I haven't checked). Try getting Bittornado which will allow you to limit the speed at which it uploads and should allow you to use it without monopolizing your bandwidth.
I thought it was 10-20% for Cells with all 8 SPEs functioning. The PS3 Cell chips will have one SPE disabled, so that one can be defective and the chip will still be usable for a PS3. This is similar to how graphics chip companies disable defective groups of pipelines in some chips and sell them as cheaper models.
It's been done before; the Xbox 360's CPU is a tri-core PowerPC. I don't know much about Intel's specific implementation, but on a general architectural level there shouldn't be anything stopping them from putting 3 cores in a chip.
You're probably right about zero response from those who actively filter spam. But many people have spam filtered by their ISP or webmail service, and aren't even really aware of it. I think they are the main targets of spam filter evasion.
"Personally I think this 'mistake' was on purpose..."
Perhaps I'm just misunderstanding you, but are you saying that the drug companies would prefer to purposefully ruin the lives of four people, instead of trying to create a drug that works, help people, and make a lot of money?
I think the difference there is that you're not distributing your edited copy to the public.
Good point. Yes, yes, and yes. Actually, so long as I don't play DDR too close to the TV, it looks nearly as bright as normal. I don't really notice the brightness difference unless I'm moving up and down. Of course, the graphics in a dance game are simpler than in most other games, so it's hard to say how it'll be in a more graphically complex game. The TV stand I have leans forward just a bit though, so when I fix that, it should be better.
Overall, I think plasma might have a better picture, although that judgement is based solely on walking around in Best Buy looking at the various displays. Others can better comment on that. But I got a really good deal on the DLP so I paid about half what I would've paid for a plasma of comparable size. Overall, I'm quite happy with it though, whether playing DDR or just sitting on the couch watching a movie.
It probably has something to do with the nature of rear projection, but it's definitely there. My DLP TV is great as horizontal viewing angle goes, but the vertical viewing angle could be a bit better. I only notice it when I stand up though, and since I don't watch TV standing up, I don't mind so much.
It does check the checksum, every time a call is incoming and maybe at other times. The majority of the code also is encrypted in the binary and decrypted at runtime.
One major reason for the move back toward CISC-like technologies is simply that as transistor technology has improved, there's been less of a tradeoff between advanced hardware functionality and the speed at which the hardware can run.
The PPE on the Cell also doesn't do out-of-order execution. All the silicon they saved in stripping that out probably helped a lot in being able to fir the 8 SPEs in there too.
He was talking about macro-optimization there, which is generally processor-independent. But he can't do it effectively with the AMD- and .NET-compatible tools that he has.
Not that I remember. I'm pretty sure the miniaturization thing was entirely an accident. But I read the book around 7 years ago, so my memory might not be entirely accurate.
A quick read of the post reveals that he's already doing that. Here's the relevant quote:
"Until now, we had a Linux box in which a little cron script would just shutdown the machine after half an hour, when the kids were using it. Does someone on Slashdot have a fancier solution?"
You may be referring to Slapstick by Kurt Vonnegut, part of which described the Chinese breeding themselves over many generations to be smaller. The intent was that they could reduce their food needs, but they accidently went too far and became microscopic. Then any normal-sized person who breathed in a bunch of Chinese people would die when they clogged up his lungs.
Not yet anyway. More games will be supported post-launch as their emulators are finished, then you can download them either via Xbox Live or from Microsoft and put them on a CD to update the Xbox's emulator.
I'd imagine that the answer to the question is "both." Personally, I don't have a problem with this sort of optimization, since the user will probably get the same benefit when actually playing the game, and that's what really matters.
I'd be unhappy if there were optimizations that only turned on when running a game in demo mode or when FRAPS was loaded (or whatever is being used for FPS measurements nowadays). I haven't heard about anything like that yet though.
That's just another reason that reviewers are using real games as benchmarks more and more. It also helps that they give a much better impression of the card's capabilities in real-life situations.
Off the top of my head, I'm not sure, but I suspect that the people working on this have thought of all that and have developed adequate methods for dealing with it. (At least I hope so!)
The event was the Fall Processor Forum, which just occurred. A Microsoft employee supposedly made this claim. Herb Sutter was the only Microsoft employee to give an official speech (it was the keynote), so it might have been him if it's true.
His speech was about multi-threading and things that he's been working on to create more transparent and easy-to-use multithreading. I'm not sure where you get can get the PDF of his presentation, but it was passed around where I work, and it was interesting stuff, involving parallelization even of things like individual loops, activated using nothing more than a bit of special compiler syntax.
Anyway, Herb is doing a lot of neat work on multi-threading, but he isn't in the Xbox division. So it's not as if he really would have first-hand knowledge of everything going on Xbox-related. Furthermore, statements like this have a tendency to be misheard. I wasn't there, but maybe he said that most of the first Xbox 360 games will be single-threaded, and that's probably true. But it's pretty easy for that "most" to change to an "all" as it passes from person to person and on to the Internet.
The Power Glove actually did have 3D position tracking (and roll too IIRC) when used in its raw data mode, but there was only a single game that used it. This game, Super Glove Ball, was closer to a fancy tech demo than a full-fledged game. So even the potential that the Power Glove had was barely exploited at all. I'm sure they'll do a better job with the Revolution; at least, I hope so. Incidentally, the Power Glove did gain some popularity in homebrew VR applications due to its low price (compared to about $10,000 for professional VR data gloves at the time).
I just hope it wasn't the first three miles.
Yeah, electrolysis is just the most well-known since everyone sees it in high school Chemistry.