SAN JOSE, Calif., Nov. 8 -- A $90 million supercomputer made for nuclear weapons simulation cannot yet be rivaled by a single PC chip for a serious video gamer. But the gap is closing quickly.
Indeed, a new breed of consumer-oriented graphics chips have roughly the brute computing processing power of the world's fastest computing system of just seven years ago. And the latest advance came Wednesday when the Nvidia Corporation introduced its next-generation processor, capable of more than three trillion mathematical operations per second.
Nvidia and its rival, ATI Technologies, which was recently acquired by the microprocessor maker Advanced Micro Devices, are engaged in a technology race that is rapidly changing the face of computing as the chips -- known as graphical processing units, or G.P.U.'s -- take on more general capabilities.
In recent years, the lead has switched quickly with each new family of chips, and for the moment the new chip, the GeForce 8800, appears to give the performance advantage to Nvidia.
On Wednesday, the company said its processors would be priced at $599 and $449, sold as add-ins for use by video game enthusiasts and for computer users with advanced graphics applications.
Yet both companies have said that the line between such chips and conventional microprocessors is beginning to blur. For example, the new Nvidia chip will handle physics computations that are performed by Sony's Cell microprocessor in the company's forthcoming PlayStation 3 console.
The new Nvidia chip will have 128 processors intended for specific functions, including displaying high-resolution video.
And the next generation of the 8800, scheduled to arrive in about a year, will have "double precision" mathematical capabilities that will make it a more direct competitor to today's supercomputers for many applications.
"I am eagerly looking forward to our next generation," said Andy Keane, general manager of Nvidia's professional products division, a business the company set up recently to aim at commercial high-performance computing applications like geosciences and gene splicing.
The chips made by Nvidia and ATI are shaking up the computing industry and causing a level of excitement among computer designers, who in recent years have complained that the industry seemed to have run out of new ideas for gaining computing speed. ATI and Advanced Micro Devices have said they are working on a chip, likely to emerge in 2008, that would combine the functions of conventional microprocessors and graphics processors.
That convergence was emphasized earlier this year when an annual competition sponsored by Microsoft's research labs to determine the fastest sorting algorithm was won this year by a team that used a G.P.U. instead of a traditional microprocessor. The result is significant, according to Microsoft researchers, because sorting is a basic element of many modern computing operations.
Moreover, while innovation in the world of conventional microprocessors has become more muted and largely confined to adding multiple processors, or "cores," to single chips, G.P.U. technology is continuing to advance rapidly.
"The G.P.U. has this incredible memory bandwidth, and it will continue to double for the foreseeable future," said Jim Gray, manager of Microsoft's eScience group.
Although the comparison has many caveats, both computer scientists and game designers said that Nvidia GeForce 8800 had in some ways moved near the realm for the computing power of the supercomputing world of the last decade.
Slashdot get yourself better please. I am late in reading this thread. I want to read about the virus. There are too many divergent discussions going on. This is too common and not a good way to read about a subject. The only time its good to read about a topic is before 50 comments are added.
A suggestion for the future is to mark funny and off topic perhaps like the following. 1. Lighter display fonts. Remember MIT's Fishwrap from a few years ago? 2. Linear display where real comments and funny and offtopic are linear needs to split the odd topics off to the side somehow. Time to be creative. Perhaps have view levels for funny and off topic. 3. I don't like the way where clicking the little box brings that to the front and top but does not seem to have an undo function.
Is this topic actually being edited? I wonder. 1. Final Fantasy games? Off topic. 2. Andromeda is off topic not insightful. 3. Black holes interesting and appropriate but a crummy title "Wonderful" How about editing the title? 4. Then when I try to click on the little boxes my thread collapses in an opaque manner.
Now please accept my apologies. No doubt I have made many of you furious and I am no longer on your Christmas list. Sorry. Perhaps its my poor intellectual vision. I can only speak from where I stand way out here in distant user land.
Now will anyone actually read this? I suspect not. Just a tree falling in the woods I guess.
I listen to NPR when I drive. Occasionally for the past decade (before satellite radio and with satellite radio), I get interference from adjacent automobiles at stop lights. The signal is garbled. Moving the auto up six inches makes the reception ok again. What goes on anyhow? Is it interference from the buried antenna for the traffic light?
I would like an engineer's perspective on this problem. Tell us curious people everything that is going on. How to detect misbehaving FM modulators? How to build a device to detect. I own a Weller Digital controlled soldering station so could build something.
Lets give Mr Propaganda13 the benefit of the doubt for now. I am a beginning high power rifle shooter. AR15 and Garand M1. I can see where this got started with Garands because its really important to get that particular gun going well.
Garands have this really nasty bolt you have to lock back. A common problem is 'Garand thumb' from trying to load when its not locked back and the bolt slams shut on your innocent thumb. Also once a clip is loaded into a Garand (from the top) its hot and ready to fire so the safety that is part of the trigger guard had better be on.
AR15/M16's have a reverse process generally first pull the bolt back, insert the magazine then press the bolt catch button on the left side to release the bolt and allow it to slam forward. Also folks, the bullet does not seat all the way in on these gas guns, it sticks out about 3/16 of an inch.
This is a nice thing for geeks. If you might be interested in Service Rifle go to www.odcmp.org and search for a club in your area. Newcomers are always welcome and you can borrow all the equipment to get you going.
You are correct of course. IE needs massive faith. As far as prayer. Is it a futile exercise to pray for the devil? Would it do any good? Or would that cause a "Lio Effect"? http://www.amuniversal.com/ups/features/lio/index. htm
Its Sunday after all right now, so why not pray for FireFox? This is FireFox 2.0 Beta running on my Windows XP PC.
1. Starts without maximizing itself to the full PC screen area. Always leaves space available. In contrast SeaMonkey correctly occupies the full PC screen area when starting (but SeaMonkey makes me create a new profile except for once.). FF thinks its full screen according to its maximize/window button but is mistaken.
Hi, I worked that election for my precinct in TX. As alternate election judge. NO PROBLEMS beyond the usual two or three regular people who said they lived there but were not listed on the rolls adn thus voted a challenge/provisional ballot.
But my information is inductive knowledge (applying particular to the general). So it cannot apply everywhere. Far away Ohio or Florida may have had problems.
Ah no I'm not the time cube guy. TimeCube seems a little angry. "Its difficult to get a return ticket from rage" [Melanie, the Borders Books checkout maven, Preston and Royal, Dallas TX, 09/06/2006].
Bedpans and diapers. There is something to be learned even by emptying bedpans and wiping from diapers. Life is not all sweetness and light. Drudgery too offers dimensions to grow. Depends on what you think about when your mind is.0001% occupied. Even then, you are doing a good thing for that person and thus mankind.
Then for the other 99.9999%. For math things and my mind. I create a mental ball within my mind, a virtual brain if you will, and let that intuitively come back with my answer. One of my projects is that I am going back to make really sure I understand the language of basic math through integrals and thats how the answers return this time around.
Thanks for the replies and thoughts too. They spark ideas out there in SlashdotLand (oh no, a pun on Flatland. Forgive me.).
Alas I am too old and creaky and the wrong discipline, computer science, myself to qualify for job. But what a chance! To actually live, rather than read, those books and concepts that Hawkings ponders. What a way to expand one's imagination. Then the quotidian tasks for a person of this intellectual stature would seem light.
My sincere and most envious congratulations to whomever gets this position, Jim
Then personally and selfishly thinking, I hope the Mozilla Firefox team fixes a bug on my XP SP2 PC. Firefox 1.5.06 always comes up partial screen. Then I click to full screen Firefox and work from there. However "the cat came back the very next day" as the partial screen comes back the next time I start Firefox.
If any of you/. users know of any HKEY (i.e registry setting) or Firefox setting I could tweak to fix this, that would be great.
On subsequent attempts the key slides easily into the previously bumped then regular key opened lock. I suspect that bumping somehow dings the very soft brass tumblers up where the tumbler intersects the cylinder and using the ordinary key soon smoothed them out again.
Too you should know that this lock is about eight years old and has been opened about 8760 times so far. Its at the stage of lock-life where they key works extremely smoothly but its not quite loose. I would say its at its very pickable stage. Like a cazr engine at 80,000 miles. Nor is it like a new lock that is sticky to use.
MEDCO question for all. Anyone have picture of a Medco key? Reason is many years ago, my dad ran an organization with a security need. He used a unique key; his key was a slanted rectangle shape like with two rows of various sized little conic pits along both wide sides and the smaller variable conic pits on the narrow edge of the key. I wonder if that was a Medco.
Thanks
Jim
Hi Odin, my apartment was lock bumped today by apartment management. Seems their master key does something of the bumping nature.
Upon returning I could ABSOLUTELY DETECT that the door had been unlocked and relocked. When inserting my key, the tumbler pin action felt very rough. Normally its a smooth push with my key. That 'roughness' also occured a couple of years ago when I left my key at work and a locksmith did his bumping thing.
Hang in there Guru, I fully understand your situation. A friend next door has a daughter with that. A separate reality there. I guess we have to live with people like that and somehow we grow from the experience.
I am a regular slashdot reader but apparently missed any announcement of this contest. If I had submitted something, it would have been at the bottom anyhow. BTY I know its/. but like to spell some things out.
Then will anyone ever read this comment? Other comments I have made seem to immediately fade into oblivion. Oops there I go.
I have already been fingerprinted because of being active in the Catholic church. This is for lectoring, that is reading bible verses during services. I don't work with kids either. This is the way its gone in that segment of society.
I think a DNA + fingerprint + detailed iris scan database is the only way to insure I am me. And store it on NCR's TeraData.
At JavaOne once I looked up my name during registration and there were already nine of me there.
Obviously I am not a member of the ACLU, sorry. Jim
Good comment. I will set up my PC to synch using NTP. It will be easy to verify with all the atomic clocks around my place. I was not thinking of "daytime" protocol, I simply was not thinking.
For my computer I am testing an old Heath Most Accurate Clock II* with its RS232 attachment that goes to the serial port on my HP Pavilion. The only problem is the brick sized power transformer gets very hot because its supplying two amp heavy circuits. Use ThinkGeek's KillAWatt to measure power consumption. AWK the transformer is hungry. I guess for real use eventually I will peek at time once a day or so.
*Heath Most Accurate Clock II, synchronizes with WWV at 10 meters.
I think that the network, with all its erratic latency, is not really the best source to use as a timing transport.
Some people have occasionally picked up old cesium clocks from ebay to set the PC's time. Most are from labs and after purchase, probably gather dust in the garage. http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/cesium.html
For my wrist, myself and lots of us geeks, use a Casio G-Shock (GW-700a) that updates its time from WWV three times a night. Its more accurate than the clocks at our local public DART train station. They are always four seconds slow.
I also have a great little Nixie clock kit that gets its info, not from WWV via radio, but from satellite GPS time. Its the dinky one at the bottom of the page. Looks fantastic though. http://www.amug.org/~jthomas/clockpage.html
What differentates Indian thunderstorms from those in Tibet? For example how high are the tops of Indian vs Tibetan thunderstorms? The article lacks this information. What other places on earth that have similar thunderstorm stratosphere pumping mechanisms? It is improbable that all the water vapor in the stratosphere originates from Tibet.
Its also called "The Tipping Point" by Malcom Gladwell.
Tipping point applies for disease outbreaks as well as ideas, products, messages, etc. It much less than 100 percent of individuals to be protected from mumps to curtail its spread.
Good high level comment on Schwartz. He has some challenges but challenges are fun for people with minds like Schwartz.
I hope and pray that Sparc desktops quit being priced at 3k and drop to something you and I can more easily afford.
Price Elasticity. The driving concept that would make this work that Sun does not understand is a statistical term called 'price elasticity'. I wrote a system for a major retailer that let sellers juggle price vs quantity vs dollars made.
Slashdot Mirror
Excellent news! Below is the link, registration required, for the New York Times. I will try to paste the article.
Second. Anyone out there working on books that have examples? Please reply with any good 'how to' sources.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/09/technology/09chi p.html?ref=technology
SAN JOSE, Calif., Nov. 8 -- A $90 million supercomputer made for nuclear weapons simulation cannot yet be rivaled by a single PC chip for a serious video gamer. But the gap is closing quickly.
Indeed, a new breed of consumer-oriented graphics chips have roughly the brute computing processing power of the world's fastest computing system of just seven years ago. And the latest advance came Wednesday when the Nvidia Corporation introduced its next-generation processor, capable of more than three trillion mathematical operations per second.
Nvidia and its rival, ATI Technologies, which was recently acquired by the microprocessor maker Advanced Micro Devices, are engaged in a technology race that is rapidly changing the face of computing as the chips -- known as graphical processing units, or G.P.U.'s -- take on more general capabilities.
In recent years, the lead has switched quickly with each new family of chips, and for the moment the new chip, the GeForce 8800, appears to give the performance advantage to Nvidia.
On Wednesday, the company said its processors would be priced at $599 and $449, sold as add-ins for use by video game enthusiasts and for computer users with advanced graphics applications.
Yet both companies have said that the line between such chips and conventional microprocessors is beginning to blur. For example, the new Nvidia chip will handle physics computations that are performed by Sony's Cell microprocessor in the company's forthcoming PlayStation 3 console.
The new Nvidia chip will have 128 processors intended for specific functions, including displaying high-resolution video.
And the next generation of the 8800, scheduled to arrive in about a year, will have "double precision" mathematical capabilities that will make it a more direct competitor to today's supercomputers for many applications.
"I am eagerly looking forward to our next generation," said Andy Keane, general manager of Nvidia's professional products division, a business the company set up recently to aim at commercial high-performance computing applications like geosciences and gene splicing.
The chips made by Nvidia and ATI are shaking up the computing industry and causing a level of excitement among computer designers, who in recent years have complained that the industry seemed to have run out of new ideas for gaining computing speed. ATI and Advanced Micro Devices have said they are working on a chip, likely to emerge in 2008, that would combine the functions of conventional microprocessors and graphics processors.
That convergence was emphasized earlier this year when an annual competition sponsored by Microsoft's research labs to determine the fastest sorting algorithm was won this year by a team that used a G.P.U. instead of a traditional microprocessor. The result is significant, according to Microsoft researchers, because sorting is a basic element of many modern computing operations.
Moreover, while innovation in the world of conventional microprocessors has become more muted and largely confined to adding multiple processors, or "cores," to single chips, G.P.U. technology is continuing to advance rapidly.
"The G.P.U. has this incredible memory bandwidth, and it will continue to double for the foreseeable future," said Jim Gray, manager of Microsoft's eScience group.
Although the comparison has many caveats, both computer scientists and game designers said that Nvidia GeForce 8800 had in some ways moved near the realm for the computing power of the supercomputing world of the last decade.
The fastest of thes
Slashdot get yourself better please. I am late in reading this thread. I want to read about the virus. There are too many divergent discussions going on. This is too common and not a good way to read about a subject. The only time its good to read about a topic is before 50 comments are added.
A suggestion for the future is to mark funny and off topic perhaps like the following.
1. Lighter display fonts. Remember MIT's Fishwrap from a few years ago?
2. Linear display where real comments and funny and offtopic are linear needs to split the odd topics off to the side somehow. Time to be creative. Perhaps have view levels for funny and off topic.
3. I don't like the way where clicking the little box brings that to the front and top but does not seem to have an undo function.
Is this topic actually being edited? I wonder.
1. Final Fantasy games? Off topic.
2. Andromeda is off topic not insightful.
3. Black holes interesting and appropriate but a crummy title "Wonderful" How about editing the title?
4. Then when I try to click on the little boxes my thread collapses in an opaque manner.
Now please accept my apologies. No doubt I have made many of you furious and I am no longer on your Christmas list. Sorry. Perhaps its my poor intellectual vision. I can only speak from where I stand way out here in distant user land.
Now will anyone actually read this? I suspect not. Just a tree falling in the woods I guess.
I listen to NPR when I drive. Occasionally for the past decade (before satellite radio and with satellite radio), I get interference from adjacent automobiles at stop lights. The signal is garbled. Moving the auto up six inches makes the reception ok again. What goes on anyhow? Is it interference from the buried antenna for the traffic light?
I would like an engineer's perspective on this problem. Tell us curious people everything that is going on. How to detect misbehaving FM modulators? How to build a device to detect. I own a Weller Digital controlled soldering station so could build something.
Thanks,
Jim Burke
Lets give Mr Propaganda13 the benefit of the doubt for now. I am a beginning high power rifle shooter. AR15 and Garand M1. I can see where this got started with Garands because its really important to get that particular gun going well.
Garands have this really nasty bolt you have to lock back. A common problem is 'Garand thumb' from trying to load when its not locked back and the bolt slams shut on your innocent thumb. Also once a clip is loaded into a Garand (from the top) its hot and ready to fire so the safety that is part of the trigger guard had better be on.
AR15/M16's have a reverse process generally first pull the bolt back, insert the magazine then press the bolt catch button on the left side to release the bolt and allow it to slam forward. Also folks, the bullet does not seat all the way in on these gas guns, it sticks out about 3/16 of an inch.
This is a nice thing for geeks. If you might be interested in Service Rifle go to www.odcmp.org and search for a club in your area. Newcomers are always welcome and you can borrow all the equipment to get you going.
Thanks,
Jim Burke
Thanks thewils,
. htm
You are correct of course. IE needs massive faith. As far as prayer. Is it a futile exercise to pray for the devil? Would it do any good? Or would that cause a "Lio Effect"?
http://www.amuniversal.com/ups/features/lio/index
Thanks,
Jim
Its Sunday after all right now, so why not pray for FireFox? This is FireFox 2.0 Beta running on my Windows XP PC.
1. Starts without maximizing itself to the full PC screen area. Always leaves space available. In contrast SeaMonkey correctly occupies the full PC screen area when starting (but SeaMonkey makes me create a new profile except for once.). FF thinks its full screen according to its maximize/window button but is mistaken.
2. FF fails CSS rendering because it uses an antique CSS engine.
http://www.webstandards.org/action/acid2/
Those are my FF issues. What are yours?
Thanks,
Jim Burke
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story Id=6160709
You can say goodbye to USB powered devices. An example would be the canned drink cooler.
Thanks,
Jim
Hi, I worked that election for my precinct in TX. As alternate election judge. NO PROBLEMS beyond the usual two or three regular people who said they lived there but were not listed on the rolls adn thus voted a challenge/provisional ballot.
But my information is inductive knowledge (applying particular to the general). So it cannot apply everywhere. Far away Ohio or Florida may have had problems.
Ah no I'm not the time cube guy. TimeCube seems a little angry. "Its difficult to get a return ticket from rage" [Melanie, the Borders Books checkout maven, Preston and Royal, Dallas TX, 09/06/2006].
Bedpans and diapers. There is something to be learned even by emptying bedpans and wiping from diapers. Life is not all sweetness and light. Drudgery too offers dimensions to grow. Depends on what you think about when your mind is .0001% occupied. Even then, you are doing a good thing for that person and thus mankind.
Then for the other 99.9999%. For math things and my mind. I create a mental ball within my mind, a virtual brain if you will, and let that intuitively come back with my answer. One of my projects is that I am going back to make really sure I understand the language of basic math through integrals and thats how the answers return this time around.
Thanks for the replies and thoughts too. They spark ideas out there in SlashdotLand (oh no, a pun on Flatland. Forgive me.).
back to reading,
Jim
Alas I am too old and creaky and the wrong discipline, computer science, myself to qualify for job. But what a chance! To actually live, rather than read, those books and concepts that Hawkings ponders. What a way to expand one's imagination. Then the quotidian tasks for a person of this intellectual stature would seem light.
My sincere and most envious congratulations to whomever gets this position,
Jim
This is wonderful news for Mozilla.
/. users know of any HKEY (i.e registry setting) or Firefox setting I could tweak to fix this, that would be great.
Then personally and selfishly thinking, I hope the Mozilla Firefox team fixes a bug on my XP SP2 PC. Firefox 1.5.06 always comes up partial screen. Then I click to full screen Firefox and work from there. However "the cat came back the very next day" as the partial screen comes back the next time I start Firefox.
If any of you
Thanks and go Firefox go,
Jim
On subsequent attempts the key slides easily into the previously bumped then regular key opened lock. I suspect that bumping somehow dings the very soft brass tumblers up where the tumbler intersects the cylinder and using the ordinary key soon smoothed them out again. Too you should know that this lock is about eight years old and has been opened about 8760 times so far. Its at the stage of lock-life where they key works extremely smoothly but its not quite loose. I would say its at its very pickable stage. Like a cazr engine at 80,000 miles. Nor is it like a new lock that is sticky to use. MEDCO question for all. Anyone have picture of a Medco key? Reason is many years ago, my dad ran an organization with a security need. He used a unique key; his key was a slanted rectangle shape like with two rows of various sized little conic pits along both wide sides and the smaller variable conic pits on the narrow edge of the key. I wonder if that was a Medco. Thanks Jim
Hi Odin, my apartment was lock bumped today by apartment management. Seems their master key does something of the bumping nature.
Upon returning I could ABSOLUTELY DETECT that the door had been unlocked and relocked. When inserting my key, the tumbler pin action felt very rough. Normally its a smooth push with my key. That 'roughness' also occured a couple of years ago when I left my key at work and a locksmith did his bumping thing.
Thanks,
Jim
Hang in there Guru, I fully understand your situation. A friend next door has a daughter with that. A separate reality there. I guess we have to live with people like that and somehow we grow from the experience.
Jim
I am a regular slashdot reader but apparently missed any announcement of this contest. If I had submitted something, it would have been at the bottom anyhow. BTY I know its /. but like to spell some things out.
Then will anyone ever read this comment? Other comments I have made seem to immediately fade into oblivion. Oops there I go.
J
I have already been fingerprinted because of being active in the Catholic church. This is for lectoring, that is reading bible verses during services. I don't work with kids either. This is the way its gone in that segment of society.
I think a DNA + fingerprint + detailed iris scan database is the only way to insure I am me. And store it on NCR's TeraData.
At JavaOne once I looked up my name during registration and there were already nine of me there.
Obviously I am not a member of the ACLU, sorry.
Jim
I think Solaris is better. Also that Java and C are better than C# in a previous post here.
That said, go ahead with the different OS versions. We have to appreciate differences.
Peacefully,
Jim
Thanks typical,
Good comment. I will set up my PC to synch using NTP. It will be easy to verify with all the atomic clocks around my place. I was not thinking of "daytime" protocol, I simply was not thinking.
Jim
For my computer I am testing an old Heath Most Accurate Clock II* with its RS232 attachment that goes to the serial port on my HP Pavilion. The only problem is the brick sized power transformer gets very hot because its supplying two amp heavy circuits. Use ThinkGeek's KillAWatt to measure power consumption. AWK the transformer is hungry. I guess for real use eventually I will peek at time once a day or so.
*Heath Most Accurate Clock II, synchronizes with WWV at 10 meters.
I think that the network, with all its erratic latency, is not really the best source to use as a timing transport.
Some people have occasionally picked up old cesium clocks from ebay to set the PC's time. Most are from labs and after purchase, probably gather dust in the garage.
http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/cesium.html
For my wrist, myself and lots of us geeks, use a Casio G-Shock (GW-700a) that updates its time from WWV three times a night. Its more accurate than the clocks at our local public DART train station. They are always four seconds slow.
I also have a great little Nixie clock kit that gets its info, not from WWV via radio, but from satellite GPS time. Its the dinky one at the bottom of the page. Looks fantastic though.
http://www.amug.org/~jthomas/clockpage.html
What differentates Indian thunderstorms from those in Tibet? For example how high are the tops of Indian vs Tibetan thunderstorms? The article lacks this information. What other places on earth that have similar thunderstorm stratosphere pumping mechanisms? It is improbable that all the water vapor in the stratosphere originates from Tibet.
Its also called "The Tipping Point" by Malcom Gladwell.
Tipping point applies for disease outbreaks as well as ideas, products, messages, etc. It much less than 100 percent of individuals to be protected from mumps to curtail its spread.
Good high level comment on Schwartz. He has some challenges but challenges are fun for people with minds like Schwartz.
I hope and pray that Sparc desktops quit being priced at 3k and drop to something you and I can more easily afford.
Price Elasticity. The driving concept that would make this work that Sun does not understand is a statistical term called 'price elasticity'. I wrote a system for a major retailer that let sellers juggle price vs quantity vs dollars made.
Thanks,
Jim
Delicious looks yummy. However does this do library numbering systems like Dewey or Library of Congress?
Also wish code would be ported to other operating systeme, perhaps Solaris or Linux. Any plans you know of?
Thanks,
Jim Burke