It is most likely that I will buy a Revolution towards the end of next year.
I don't have a HDTV currently, but I will probably buy one within 2 years. It'd be a shame if I couldn't play, e.g., Mario Kart Revolution, in high resolution on the TV with other people. I assume that it'd still be capable of 480p however, so it is some kind of improvement over 480i currently.
Is the graphics hardware really so weak that it can't handle 1280x720p? Hell, how about 640x720p? Or is it merely the console's outputs?
Of course, for the average/family/, maybe the console will be in another room on another display that is unlikely to be HD for a long time. But what about the 25-35 market of men and their expensive toys? I'm sure a reasonable amount of them would have considered a Revolution for the fun games it'll have, but if they will look like blocky turd on their >35" HDTV...
I don't know if they are selling these DRM encrusted music discs in the UK, but if they are, each and every one of them will be breaching the 1990 Computer Misuse Act, and in a way that the act does cover - namely it alters the system without your approval or knowledge. What is doubly sad is that the software was written by a British company. Still, makes it easier to sue them.
Secondly, does this rootkit install even if you are logged in as a normal Windows user, not Administrator? That suggests a security hole in Windows. However I suspect the issue is Windows making users Administrator by default, which is a really dumb system, security wise.
But Sony will be manufacturing most of the components themselves. That cuts out the middle man for many of the components. I don't think that Sony will be taking anywhere near a $500 loss on the PS3 when it comes out, if it costs $299 upon release.
Dual Layer BluRay drive may cost quite a bit in March next year, yes. Come the US release 6 months later the cost will probably be half, maybe a quarter of the early drive costs.
The XBox360 looks acceptable* for the living room in my opinion. Much better than the original XBox, which is why I don't own one. I only got a PS2 because it was second hand and cheap - I wouldn't have paid full price for that design! I don't have any hopes for the PS3 however, Sony are quite design limited. Gamecube was the best design of the last generation. This generation - between XBox360 and Revolution.
* I don't mind admitting that appearance is a large contributing factor to whether I buy something or not, regardless of specifications.
Namely slice and dice the moon up between all the people (and their descendants of course) who have risked their life to go into space or to the moon. Do it for the next hundred years too, or the next 10,000 people to go to the moon (whichever is first). Maybe in a few hundred years the technology will exist for the descendants of these people (who will own around 1 square kilometer of the moon by that time, as it is divided up in wills, etc) to build something on it.
It is kinda like how land was given to lords and barons and all that in the middle ages by the king.
Mostly it'd be a gesture of thanks and whatnot, worthless for now, but legal.
At some point in the next 200 years the issue of land ownership on the moon will become an issue, and I think the above is a reasonable way to solve it. Hopefully they won't put the moomins in lunar reservations!
Ah, the natural bright green glow of the deep jungle.
What next? A piston driven pugil stick attached under your desk, so that whenever you get shot it rams you in the gut? Let's not mention the amBX enabled chair with built-in knives to make those fighting games more realistic. Playing Soul Calibre could leave you in hospital, and let's not mention Mortal Kombat!
Oh, I thought he was talking about the dead smashed up deer being unsightly.
Or the nicotine addicted deer being unsightly. I suppose that's fair, because there's nothing like a cigarette to make an otherwise attractive lass look like a chavvy dog.
So people will drive an extra 10 miles in their 5mpg SUV to save a couple of dollars over going to the nearer Walmart store?
Or is this 'in-store' Google, on your mobile phone? If so, people will check the price of an item, see it is cheaper elsewhere, actively leave the store, get into their 5mpg SUV, drive to the other store, and save $1 or less on an item?
At some point you just have to say 'sod it, I'm here now, and my time is worth more than nothing, nevermind the stress, nor the cost of accessing such a service, nor the cost of fuel'.
So H.265 will be great at 250:1 in 5-10 years time. We'll have 100GB discs in the form of 4-layer BluRay, and they'll have been popular for 5 years and we'll be talking about 500GB VioRay and 10TB 'next-year' holographic discs, whilst you can get BluRay recorders for $99 in Best Buy. Slashdot will still be posting dupes.
In 10 years this resolution of television will be completely viable, even with what we know will be out techology-wise in the next 5 years. We might need 8 10GHz Cell processors to decode it all though!:)
Then Sony has stated its plan for the generation after called 'Super HD' which will start in 2008. TV sets and PC will reach a resolution of 2160p (4Kx2K), 240 fps of frame.
Arrrgh, let me buy a 1080p TV this decade and use it for a decent amount of time before changing the format, okay? I'm perfectly happy with 1920x1080 for a home television/movie system. I might be amenable to getting 60P and 120P signals however at that resolution.
Maybe you Americans with 4000sqft houses want to buy 120" TVs and thus need that resolution... then again you seemed happy with giant 60" standard definition 4:3 TVs not 5 years ago!
I think you'll find that it takes between 2 and 3 years of running 8 hours a day to recoup the costs of running the more power consuming Intel processor. Or under a year for running 24/7. Maybe longer for you because your power is cheap.
If you are a 'leave PC on' person, and you use the PC 8 hours a day, then that is 8 hours * 80W+ power difference, and 16 hours * 40W+ power difference (idle). That averages out to around 54W continuously.
$72 / $0.06/kW is 1200 kW of power extra to be consumed. That'll take 22,222 hours, or 2.5 years for you.
"The system based on the X2 3800+ draws less power at idle and under load than anything here but the single-core A64 3800+. Under load, the Pentium D 840-based rig draws 292W at the wall socket, while the X2 3800+ system draws 166W. And the X2 3800+ outperforms the Pentium D 840 more often than not. The performance-per-watt picture on the X2 3800+ is impressive indeed."
Load: 166W vs 251W (85W difference) Idle: 117W vs 160W (43W difference)
The issue is that the second link is to the TDP of the X2 3800+, not the actual power consumption which will be lower than 89W, more likely 70W.
What matters is system power consumption however. CPU + Chipset + Everything Else. Of course you can test with Everything Else being the same, so it comes down to the CPU + Chipset. AMD have an on-die memory controller, so that is a couple of Watts saved over the Intel chipset, however Intel's chipsets are traditionally quite efficient (although whether or not the chipset for dual-core processors is I don't know). Best bet is to measure at the socket.
By my calculations, the power difference between the Intel and AMD will make up the difference in the chip prices in about a month of continuous operation, at lease for Seattle electric rates (~$0.06/kWh)...
You pay SIX cents per kWh? Lucky bastard!
Anyway, 24/7 operation, ~$70 difference in price, 1 month to price parity means the Intel system uses 1.5kW more power at the outlet than the AMD system according to your post.
As with all these things, it isn't the game itself but the actual release I think. The cardboard sleeve version with the 4 postcards seems to be worth a lot because it was the original release. The postcards are quite cool too. I'll be hanging onto my copy.
Intel's XScale (the followup to StrongARM) series is one of Intel's good products in my opinion.
Not that other ARM licencees are doing badly in comparison, and ARM themeselves have been shifting the focus up into performance as well, especially with the ARM11 and some multi-core stuff they're doing (IIRC they had a 1500MIPS multi-core sample at 300MHz).
The Cortex-M3 family is another interesting product, being a Thumb code only core. Presumably this is to attack the market that not even ARM7 extends down to.
Why? Because they're trying something different, it might really help gameplay in ways that haven't been thought of.
However I do want to know the specifications, because I'm curious. I know it isn't relevant for a closed-box system, but that doesn't sate my curiosity!
Anyway, wasn't the PS3's PPE redesigned (resulting in a larger PPE) recently? Does the XBox360 utilise three PPEs from the earlier design? Will the Revolution use v1 or v2 PPEs? Or WayFaster(tm) 750 variants like the GameCube's Gecko processor?
There were adverts for mobile phone wallpapers called "Torch". As far as I could tell, this was a purely white image, like you could get by loading MS Paint and saving without doing/anything/, and the "Torch" came from the phone backlight.
Certainly I don't know why ringtones are popular, not when phones can play MP3s and utilise them as ringtones. I suppose it is just taking advantage of the criminally retarded masses.
What's worse is "Message Tones"... i.e., sound effects. The average computer is probably LOADED with MP3 sound effects from various games, software packages, etc. If not, a tenner will probably buy you several thousand sound effects on a CD. So why are people paying £1.50 or whatever for a 5 second sound effect (up to one effect per friend, so they know who was texted them)?
The latest craze is "Video Tones" - i.e., when you get a phone call, whilst it is ringing (in your pocket/purse) it will play a video. You can have one per address book contact. WHAT IS THE FUCKING POINT? It is yet another mechanism to part THICK people from their money, to prevent them becoming rich and dangerous.
Slashdot Mirror
It is most likely that I will buy a Revolution towards the end of next year.
/family/, maybe the console will be in another room on another display that is unlikely to be HD for a long time. But what about the 25-35 market of men and their expensive toys? I'm sure a reasonable amount of them would have considered a Revolution for the fun games it'll have, but if they will look like blocky turd on their >35" HDTV ...
I don't have a HDTV currently, but I will probably buy one within 2 years. It'd be a shame if I couldn't play, e.g., Mario Kart Revolution, in high resolution on the TV with other people. I assume that it'd still be capable of 480p however, so it is some kind of improvement over 480i currently.
Is the graphics hardware really so weak that it can't handle 1280x720p? Hell, how about 640x720p? Or is it merely the console's outputs?
Of course, for the average
I don't know if they are selling these DRM encrusted music discs in the UK, but if they are, each and every one of them will be breaching the 1990 Computer Misuse Act, and in a way that the act does cover - namely it alters the system without your approval or knowledge. What is doubly sad is that the software was written by a British company. Still, makes it easier to sue them.
Secondly, does this rootkit install even if you are logged in as a normal Windows user, not Administrator? That suggests a security hole in Windows. However I suspect the issue is Windows making users Administrator by default, which is a really dumb system, security wise.
But Sony will be manufacturing most of the components themselves. That cuts out the middle man for many of the components. I don't think that Sony will be taking anywhere near a $500 loss on the PS3 when it comes out, if it costs $299 upon release.
Dual Layer BluRay drive may cost quite a bit in March next year, yes. Come the US release 6 months later the cost will probably be half, maybe a quarter of the early drive costs.
The XBox360 looks acceptable* for the living room in my opinion. Much better than the original XBox, which is why I don't own one. I only got a PS2 because it was second hand and cheap - I wouldn't have paid full price for that design! I don't have any hopes for the PS3 however, Sony are quite design limited. Gamecube was the best design of the last generation. This generation - between XBox360 and Revolution.
* I don't mind admitting that appearance is a large contributing factor to whether I buy something or not, regardless of specifications.
Namely slice and dice the moon up between all the people (and their descendants of course) who have risked their life to go into space or to the moon. Do it for the next hundred years too, or the next 10,000 people to go to the moon (whichever is first). Maybe in a few hundred years the technology will exist for the descendants of these people (who will own around 1 square kilometer of the moon by that time, as it is divided up in wills, etc) to build something on it.
It is kinda like how land was given to lords and barons and all that in the middle ages by the king.
Mostly it'd be a gesture of thanks and whatnot, worthless for now, but legal.
At some point in the next 200 years the issue of land ownership on the moon will become an issue, and I think the above is a reasonable way to solve it. Hopefully they won't put the moomins in lunar reservations!
Pretty decent review here I read earlier:
nVidia 6800GS
I get to have salty water splashed in my face, and on my keyboard and mouse, and in my computer
:)
How does this differ from your current nightly computer experience then?
(yeah, I know you were fishing for this type of response)
Ah, the natural bright green glow of the deep jungle.
What next? A piston driven pugil stick attached under your desk, so that whenever you get shot it rams you in the gut? Let's not mention the amBX enabled chair with built-in knives to make those fighting games more realistic. Playing Soul Calibre could leave you in hospital, and let's not mention Mortal Kombat!
Oh, I thought he was talking about the dead smashed up deer being unsightly.
Or the nicotine addicted deer being unsightly. I suppose that's fair, because there's nothing like a cigarette to make an otherwise attractive lass look like a chavvy dog.
So people will drive an extra 10 miles in their 5mpg SUV to save a couple of dollars over going to the nearer Walmart store?
Or is this 'in-store' Google, on your mobile phone? If so, people will check the price of an item, see it is cheaper elsewhere, actively leave the store, get into their 5mpg SUV, drive to the other store, and save $1 or less on an item?
At some point you just have to say 'sod it, I'm here now, and my time is worth more than nothing, nevermind the stress, nor the cost of accessing such a service, nor the cost of fuel'.
res = 7680 x 4320
that's (7680*4320)/2^20 = 31.64 megabyte per frame
at the specified bitrate of 24gbps, that's ~100fps
Um, 8-bit per pixel images?
I'm sure they'd have used at least 24-bit imagery, possibly 32-bit (10R/12G/10B).
7680 * 4320 * 4 / 2^20 = 126.7 MB/frame
(but it does make it 25fps)
So you'll possibly want to check over the rest of your calculations.
Ok, I suck at math and all, but I can't be the first one who picked this up.
1920 x 16 = 30720 != 7680
1080 x 16 = 17280 != 4320
Q1. What is 4 x 4?
A: 16!
Q2. What is 1920 x 4?
A: 7680!
Q3. What is 1080 x 4?
A: 4320!
This tech is a mere two generations away, assuming someone does a 3840x2160 format in 3-5 years time.
So H.265 will be great at 250:1 in 5-10 years time. We'll have 100GB discs in the form of 4-layer BluRay, and they'll have been popular for 5 years and we'll be talking about 500GB VioRay and 10TB 'next-year' holographic discs, whilst you can get BluRay recorders for $99 in Best Buy. Slashdot will still be posting dupes.
:)
In 10 years this resolution of television will be completely viable, even with what we know will be out techology-wise in the next 5 years. We might need 8 10GHz Cell processors to decode it all though!
Then Sony has stated its plan for the generation after called 'Super HD' which will start in 2008. TV sets and PC will reach a resolution of 2160p (4Kx2K), 240 fps of frame.
... then again you seemed happy with giant 60" standard definition 4:3 TVs not 5 years ago!
Arrrgh, let me buy a 1080p TV this decade and use it for a decent amount of time before changing the format, okay? I'm perfectly happy with 1920x1080 for a home television/movie system. I might be amenable to getting 60P and 120P signals however at that resolution.
Maybe you Americans with 4000sqft houses want to buy 120" TVs and thus need that resolution
I think you'll find that it takes between 2 and 3 years of running 8 hours a day to recoup the costs of running the more power consuming Intel processor. Or under a year for running 24/7. Maybe longer for you because your power is cheap.
If you are a 'leave PC on' person, and you use the PC 8 hours a day, then that is 8 hours * 80W+ power difference, and 16 hours * 40W+ power difference (idle). That averages out to around 54W continuously.
$72 / $0.06/kW is 1200 kW of power extra to be consumed. That'll take 22,222 hours, or 2.5 years for you.
Certainly not a 'closet server' processor!
And 3800+ vs 820:
3 800/index.x?pg=13
http://techreport.com/reviews/2005q3/athlon64-x2-
"The system based on the X2 3800+ draws less power at idle and under load than anything here but the single-core A64 3800+. Under load, the Pentium D 840-based rig draws 292W at the wall socket, while the X2 3800+ system draws 166W. And the X2 3800+ outperforms the Pentium D 840 more often than not. The performance-per-watt picture on the X2 3800+ is impressive indeed."
Load: 166W vs 251W (85W difference)
Idle: 117W vs 160W (43W difference)
The issue is that the second link is to the TDP of the X2 3800+, not the actual power consumption which will be lower than 89W, more likely 70W.
i ndex.x?pg=15
What matters is system power consumption however. CPU + Chipset + Everything Else. Of course you can test with Everything Else being the same, so it comes down to the CPU + Chipset. AMD have an on-die memory controller, so that is a couple of Watts saved over the Intel chipset, however Intel's chipsets are traditionally quite efficient (although whether or not the chipset for dual-core processors is I don't know). Best bet is to measure at the socket.
http://techreport.com/reviews/2005q2/athlon64-x2/
Under load:
Pentium D 840 uses 292W at the socket.
Athlon 64 X2 4200+ uses 178W at the socket.
Difference is 114W. Plug that into your calculator!
You pay SIX cents per kWh? Lucky bastard!
Anyway, 24/7 operation, ~$70 difference in price, 1 month to price parity means the Intel system uses 1.5kW more power at the outlet than the AMD system according to your post.
I think you made an error somewhere!
I think the interesting fact is that we have an x.0 STABLE.
IIRC 4.0 and 5.0 weren't STABLE until several revisions in. The early RELEASEs were snapshots of CURRENT which hadn't changed to STABLE.
Feel free to correct me, the webpage isn't very useful tbh.
As with all these things, it isn't the game itself but the actual release I think. The cardboard sleeve version with the 4 postcards seems to be worth a lot because it was the original release. The postcards are quite cool too. I'll be hanging onto my copy.
I've seen original Ico games (with the postcards) go for £40 - £50 on eBay, you might want to sell you copy before the PS2 gets too old!
As for me, I liked Ico for not being overcomplex in terms of gameplay.
Intel's XScale (the followup to StrongARM) series is one of Intel's good products in my opinion.
Not that other ARM licencees are doing badly in comparison, and ARM themeselves have been shifting the focus up into performance as well, especially with the ARM11 and some multi-core stuff they're doing (IIRC they had a 1500MIPS multi-core sample at 300MHz).
The Cortex-M3 family is another interesting product, being a Thumb code only core. Presumably this is to attack the market that not even ARM7 extends down to.
Why? Because they're trying something different, it might really help gameplay in ways that haven't been thought of.
However I do want to know the specifications, because I'm curious. I know it isn't relevant for a closed-box system, but that doesn't sate my curiosity!
Anyway, wasn't the PS3's PPE redesigned (resulting in a larger PPE) recently? Does the XBox360 utilise three PPEs from the earlier design? Will the Revolution use v1 or v2 PPEs? Or WayFaster(tm) 750 variants like the GameCube's Gecko processor?
There were adverts for mobile phone wallpapers called "Torch". As far as I could tell, this was a purely white image, like you could get by loading MS Paint and saving without doing /anything/, and the "Torch" came from the phone backlight.
... i.e., sound effects. The average computer is probably LOADED with MP3 sound effects from various games, software packages, etc. If not, a tenner will probably buy you several thousand sound effects on a CD. So why are people paying £1.50 or whatever for a 5 second sound effect (up to one effect per friend, so they know who was texted them)?
Certainly I don't know why ringtones are popular, not when phones can play MP3s and utilise them as ringtones. I suppose it is just taking advantage of the criminally retarded masses.
What's worse is "Message Tones"
The latest craze is "Video Tones" - i.e., when you get a phone call, whilst it is ringing (in your pocket/purse) it will play a video. You can have one per address book contact. WHAT IS THE FUCKING POINT? It is yet another mechanism to part THICK people from their money, to prevent them becoming rich and dangerous.
Yeah, Ikaruga did the same on the Dreamcast and Gamecube.
I'll have to check out Gradius V when I find a copy for sale. I love this type of game for instant gratification shoot-em-up action.
it's at the bottom of one of the Options tabs, I forget which one. Ah, the Security one. (!?)
Actually, it only speeds up the progress bar part of loading. I don't think it is as much of a benefit as people have made it out to be.