The specific models affected are MacBook Pros with the GeForce 8600M GT manufactured between May 2007 and uh, last month. You know you've got a crappy video card if you see screwy or scrambled video, or worse, no video, even if the computer is turned on. Apple will fix any Nvidia graphics card problem for free within two years of the original purchase date. If you've had to pay to get the problem fixed before, Apple will give you a refund.

The fact that Nvidia apparently misled Apple is deeply disturbing, especially as they counter the Inquirer's continuing reports about defective chips. If you've had video problems with MBP, raise your hand please.

Here's what Nvidia says for their side:

We've worked diligently with Apple, as we have done with all of our customers and partners, to analyze notebooks and determine the cause of such problems.

Our analysis shows that a failure in an Apple MacBook Pro notebook is remote. However, Apple, like other OEMs, decides on their own how to handle their warranty and repair programs, based upon their own quality standards.

Bottom line, we stand by our products, thus the reason why we set aside such a large reserve, and we have and will continue to work closely with Apple and their customers.

[Apple via AppleInsider]

The built-in audio and video capabilities in the new Nvidia chipset is supposed to be better than Intel's offering for High Definition video decoding, with 24p mode (progressive 24 frames per second video) and LCPM (Linear Pulse Code Modulation) multi-cannel audio support. [Homemedia via Macsoda]

Of course, the reality of parallel computing is much more complex than the MythBusters are making it seem here, but as with many of the experiments on their TV show, the sheer ridiculousness of this demonstration makes its questionable veracity completely, totally, seriously excusable. Now that they've built this thing, the MythBusters have a clear and undeniable responsibility to turn it on a human and put the results on TV. Thanks in advance, guys. [TGDaily via CrunchGear]

The most irritating aspects of current twin-card configurations (well, aside from the fact that you had to buy two cards in the first place) are the high cost and disappointingly low performance gains. HYDRA, which Lucid claims could scale to up to handle four unique GPUs, could remedy both of these issues if it ever comes to market. The company says it'll be soon, but that's as specific as they're getting for now. Visual learners can check out a detailed diagram of the system below. [PcPer via Slashdot]

Even if, as Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang says, that different notebook configurations and designs affect how the flameout will rear its head, it doesn't really excuse not disclosing the exact chips affected—widely believed to be of the G84 and G86 variety—and this effective silence is largely why rumors that most of their mobile GeForce 8 series is bad are able to gain traction, despite Nvidia's protests. Some actual information would go a long way in quelling them.

In the meantime, a BIOS fix that will simply delay or reduce the chance of the onset of the problem by kicking on the cooling fans earlier is an incomplete solution. We hope Dell is "going to take care of [their] customers" as promised. Ideally, since they (presumably) have the information about which specific configurations are at the greatest risk, they would notify those customers and offer to replace the card entirely, otherwise those customers are basically waiting for their cards to die. [WSJ, Dell]

1) The issue is limited to a few notebook chips only; we have not seen and don't expect to see this issue on any NVIDIA based desktops

2) Only a very small percentage of the notebook chips that have shipped are potentially affected and the problem depends on a combination of environmental conditions, configuration and usage model

3) We continue to work closely with our partners and have taken the necessary steps to ensure that all NVIDIA chips currently in production do not exhibit the problem

[VR-Zone]

All summed up, the Inquirer is saying almost the entire run of 8 and 9-series GeForce cards are defective and "going bad in the field at high rates." More than that, they say that Nvidia will continue to cover it up because the cost of admitting the nature of the problem would be devastating, meaning we'll never know for sure. We'll just have to watch for anecdotes to pile up. We're really hoping they're wrong on this one—that's a lot of graphics cards, and if true, it could basically destroy Nvidia. [Inquirer - Thanks Jagslive!]

Namely, Intel's upcoming Nehalem chips would require them to switch right back to Intel, since no one else has the license for their QuickPath interconnect. And the pros for moving to Nvidia (PC Perspective makes a good case why it would be them) are mostly about better graphics performance, ultimately. So this seems to fall in the unlikely column, for now. [Ars]

Granted, it's not hard for Dell to roll out a BIOS update that bumps cooling fan RPMs, so it makes sense that they would cover their ass in this way. Although more fan means more noise and less battery life, so the update is not without its costs. Either way, Dell is taking the issue seriously, which makes it seem like the the problem is a little more serious than what Nvidia is saying.

The update is for the following systems: Inspiron 1420, Latitude D630, Latitude D630c, Vostro Notebook 1310, Vostro Notebook 1400, Vostro Notebook 1510, Vostro Notebook 1710, XPS M1330, and XPS M1530

[Direct2Dell via Laptoping]

I really think we should work harder together on the marketing front. As you and I have talked about, even though we are competitors, we have the common goal of making our category a well positioned, respected playing field. $5 and $8 stocks are a result of no respect.

'Cause price-fixing definitely gets you more respect. It definitely gets you more money though! [Law.com via Crunchgear]

While there's no immediate way to tell if Nvidia is in fact lying (which would be a massively boneheaded move), as the Inquirer alleged, we'll know in the coming months. Reports of massive chip failures and an even larger hit to Nvidia's financials than the $150-$200 million it already took would make it super obvious. Hopefully the Inquirer was just being bombastic and British. [Ars Technica]

SANTA CLARA, CA—JULY 14, 2008—PC enthusiasts, manufacturers, and developers around the world have a lot to be excited about today with NVIDIA Corporation’s announcement that it will be bringing the power and performance of its SLI® multi-GPU technology to Intel’s upcoming line of Bloomfield CPUs. With this winning combination, consumers will have an SLI platform designed for current and future graphics-intensive games and applications; these platforms can be powered by one, two, or even three NVIDIA GeForce® GPUs, including the new, award-winning GeForce GTX 280 and GTX 260 GPUs.

New SLI motherboards will feature the NVIDIA nForce® 200 SLI processor, Intel Bloomfield CPUs, and Tylersburg (X58) chipsets. The nForce 200 SLI processor features patented SLI technology for graphics bandwidth management and multi-GPU peer-to-peer communications, both required to optimize graphics performance.

“With GeForce-based visual computing application, our customers are experiencing exciting new ways to interact with their photos and videos while also experiencing the bone-chilling realism from our latest graphics processors,” said Jeff Fisher, senior vice president of GPU business at NVIDIA. “Our SLI technology allows us to combine the power of hundreds of GeForce processing cores in multi-GPU configurations with Intel’s latest CPUs for platforms that are sure to excite our customers.”

What the Customers Are Saying:
“It’s great to see that NVIDIA opted to enable SLI on the future Intel Bloomfield platform,” said Rahul Sood, CTO Voodoo Business Unit, HP. “Make love not war I say… and NVIDIA’s enablement of Intel chipsets to support SLI will make our jobs much easier in offering a better customer experience as we continue to evolve HP’s award-winning Blackbird 002 and Voodoo Omen platforms.”

“Our clients want the best of everything, and it’s our job to package the best technologies into one complete system for them,” said Kelt Reeves, president of Falcon Northwest. “NVIDIA’s SLI configurations have produced the fastest graphics solutions on the market for years, and the ability to pair SLI with Intel’s upcoming processors will deliver a level of overall system performance no one has ever seen before. We can’t wait to equip Falcon Northwest systems with this solution!”

“NVIDIA`s SLI technology is the outstanding feature of high-end gamer PCs,” says Klaus Rüther, Desktop Product Manager at Atelco. “We are very pleased that the SLI technology will be available for the new line of Intel Bloomfield CPUs. With SLI, the gamer can experience the latest PC games as if they were real.”

“Medion is a highly regarded European OEM as an innovator in enthusiast-based PCs,” said Oliver Soellner, CMO at Medion. “By adding NVIDIA SLI with Intel’s next-generation CPU platform, we can offer the most feature rich Medion Erazer PCs with blistering graphics performance, which is sure to satisfy the most demanding users.”

“Fujitsu-Siemens is excited to see NVIDIA SLI technology associated with Intel Bloomfield CPUs. This combination addresses the innovative gaming market and will bring the best experience to gamers worldwide,” said Michael Hilpert, Senior Product manager at FSC.

“What a great, great move, the ability to have 3-way SLI, with Intel Bloomfield CPUs. The combination will break all the existing performance barriers and deliver a whole new user experience. The wait is over,” Elan Raja III Director Scan Computers.

“Over the last four years, NVIDIA has been recognized for its SLI technology innovation and leadership," said Joe Hsieh, General Manager at ASUS. "This technology is an excellent feature that customers are demanding for their new Intel platforms. We are excited about bringing the power of this platform to our Intel customers.”

“Acer congratulates NVIDIA on its nForce 200 SLI technology platform and we are very interested to bring it to market,” said Brian Bogaard, Product Business Manager, Acer EMEA Desktop PC

The pairing of the NVIDIA nForce® 200 SLI MCP with Intel’s new Bloomfield CPU and Tylersburg core logic chipset will deliver NVIDIA 3-way SLI technology for an unmatched PC gaming experience, providing up to a 2.8× performance boost over traditional single graphics card platforms. When playing the most cutting-edge games, including current titles such as Crysis and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, 3-way SLI technology lets gamers ratchet up the resolution to 2500 × 1600, while turning on all of the tasty eye candy, including high-dynamic range lighting, motion blur, and realistic environmental effects.

Motherboards and PC systems featuring support for the NVIDIA nForce 200 SLI processor, NVIDIA GeForce GPUs, and NVIDIA SLI technology will be available from the world’s leading motherboard manufacturers, add-in card companies, and major system builders including: Acer, ASUS, Atelco, Coolmod, Dell, Ditech, Falcon Northwest, Founder, Fujitsu-Siemens Computer, Gigabyte, Haier, Hypersonic PC, Iqon/Commodore, K&M, Komplett, Komputronik , Legend, Maingear, Medion, MSI, Multirama, Next, Scan Computers , Sky Electronics , Tongfang, TS, Velocity Micro, Vigor Gaming, and more.

[Fareastgizmos]

The root of the problem is the substrate/bumping material, which Nvidia themselves had characterized as "weak." The G84 and G86 chipsets use the same application-specific integrated circuit, which the Inquirer has been told had no changes made to it during its life cycle—besides, Nvidia wouldn't change the assembly process or materials for a single batch, according to engineers. So Nvidia's official claim, that the weak materials were only used for a single batch, doesn't hold so much water. And as the Inquirer points out, their fix, to run the fan more to offseat the heat issue simply covers up the problem while it drains your battery.

If this is all true, Nvidia better have more than $200 million set aside for fixes. [The Inquirer

Right now, Badit is chasing the goal of porting PhysX to the Radeon HD 4800, but ATI's not giving them any hardware yet, much less developer and PR support. Not totally surprising that ATI would stall, since porting their rival's physics engine to their cards is a definite poke at them and the Havok engine they license from Intel.

And making PhysX more universal by having it run on ATI cards makes it more likely to be supported by game developers, which isn't so hot for Havok. Nvidia's definitely got the upper deck here, since in the meantime ATI looks like a bunch of meanies, but helping out Badit threatens their own wares. [TGDaily]

Supposedly, if Nvidia's IGP chipsets is allowed to support Atom, then Nvidia is donezo with Via. It'd be a major blow for relatively tiny chip company that would simultaneously bolster Atom's position in the low-cost market. I have to admit I like the idea of cheap Atom notebooks with Nvidia chips, but the setup for more Intel hegemony is unnerving, to say the least. [Digitimes]

Nvidia doesn't say which cards are affected, but it seems to be ones in the 8M series (which are now previous gen). The fix—a new driver that kicks in the cooling fans sooner, rather than later—is being distributed direct to notebook makers. So, if you've got a new Nvidia driver waiting for you from Dell or whoever made your laptop, congrats, you win! [WSJ, PC World]

A Radeon HD 3870 system jumped from an overall 3D Mark Vantage score of P3800 to P4262. Though it won't be available for ATI's latest 4800 cards for a bit, you can download the PhysX enabler this weekend at NGOHQ, which should make your Unreal experience on ATI that much sweeter. [NGOHQ via TG Daily via /.]

The performance is pretty on par with the pricepoint—it edges out the currently more expensive GTX 9800 (the revamped plus version wasn't available yet, so that'll be interesting) though it struggles against the 3870 X2 (which is two cards in one) and Nvidia's fresh-off-the-boat and doubly expensive GTX 260. If you're in the market for a mid-range ATI card, this might be it, but I'd wait for a showdown against the similarly priced 9800 GTX+ if possible. [Hot Hardware]

This is not going to be a super technical breakdown of parallel computing for the super nerdy, just a rough overview for my mom. Basically, parallel processing is what it sounds like: Multiple computations or processes or um, just "things," are carried out or done simultaneously, in parallel (at the same time!). Multi-core processors like Intel's ubiquitous Core 2 Duo have quickly become mainstream. They're really good are doing several things at once, since each processor core can crunch away on something—more cores, more simultaneous Captain Crunching, more faster. A brilliant consumer taste of this was actually Rosetta on OS X—on a dual-core system, one core would be "translating" the code from the PPC version, while the other ran the program (roughly speaking).

Sounds gravy right? Well, as Steve alluded in his explanation of Snow Leopard, parallel programs ain't easy to write—they're harder than sequential ones for sure, 'cause it requires the kind of math that can be broken up into little parts you can solve independently and then put back together again. Artificial intelligence, for instance, is not cakey for this. On the other hand, something like tomography—a technique for creating 3D images—totally is, because it's highly vectorizable. Or video stuff (cause you can easily divvy up the chores), videogame graphics and physics, generally.

No surprise that modern graphics cards are actually really good at parallel processing, 'cause of the way they're architected and because they usually have a buttload of cores—Nvidia's latest high-end GeForce card, the GTX 280, has 240. (It's why they're suitable for cheap supercomputers.) Nvidia, for instance, showed me some of the insane physics jujitsu the GTX 280 can pull off, it and ATI both have crazy new graphics cards (FireStream 9250 and Tesla 10P) built for "general purpose" supercomputing. Sony's Cell is sorta like this with multiple cores, but none of these are very good general processors the way stuff is designed now. (You don't see any computers running on an ATI Radeon CPU, or Cell handling the main workload on Toshiba's new laptops, do you?)

You'll note that part of Snow Leopard's feature list is OpenCL, an easy way for developers to tap the parallel processing power of graphics cards, in addition to being optimized for multiple cores courtesy of its "Grand Central" tech set. So Snow Leopard is pretty much all about parallel processing. (Microsoft hasn't been overly vocal about Windows and parallel computing.)

From what Apple has said—and the whole "Grand Central" deal (it "takes full advantage by making all of Mac OS X multicore aware and optimizing it for allocating tasks across multiple cores and processors")—it's clear that Apple is totally re-architecting Snow Leopard around parallel processing, with Grand Central acting much like the real one, organizing, assigning and scheduling a whole bunch of tasks/trains along a bunch of different paths/tracks. It's a major undertaking—Intel and Microsoft are throwing a ton of money at parallel computing themselves—and we're pretty curious about Apple is going to make parallel programming easier for programmers in a way supposedly no one's done before.

Something we missed, or you still wanna know? Send any questions about processors, prostates, Bananas or anything else to tips@gizmodo.com, with "Giz Explains" in the subject line.

Of course, there is a cost to being maybe the best performing GPU on the planet: besides running $650 and $399, respectively (making three-way SLI nearly two grand with the GTX 280), they both require two PCI-E power connections to run and a massive power supply (like 1000w) if you're even thinking about SLI. Yet somehow it actually draws less idle power than the last gen of their ultra high-performance cards. To show you how adept they are at parallel processing here's one more benchmark shot, this time comparing its Foldering@Home performance. Yep, they've got a client coming soon. We should see mid-range cards in the line before too long, for those looking for more affordable next-gen goodness.

Update: Tom's Hardware has a massive novella of a review going over everything in complete, insane detail, but here are the highlights. It never hands down beats the 9800 GX2 in game performance (which is really two cards in one), and in fact, loses more than once, though that might be 'cause the drivers are less optimized. ATI's Radeon HD 3870 X2 gets in its licks too, like on World in Conflict. In the all-important (or maybe overblown) Crysis test, the 9800 GX2 prevails, with the 8800 Ultra not too far behind the GTX 260: Still, the overall raw processing power has doubled from the last gen and is way more efficient than the two-in-one cards. If you're going on price-to-performance, the GTX 260 is the better bet, with only an 18 percent performance lag, despite being nearly 40 percent cheaper. [Nvidia, Tom's Hardware]

1.

The way the processor industry is going is to add more and more cores, but nobody knows how to program those things. I mean, two, yeah; four, not really; eight, forget it.

Jobs claims that Apple's made a "breakthrough" in parallel-programming called Grand Central, which he alluded to in his keynote yesterday. He didn't, however, go into details about how it works and why it's going to revolutionize dividing up tasks into multiple processors in ways that other operating systems haven't yet.

What's also interesting is the ability to bring the GPU (your graphics card) into the processing role to help out your CPU. Apple's calling this newly proposed standard OpenCL (Open Compute Library).

2.

Basically it lets you use graphics processors to do computation. It’s way beyond what Nvidia or anyone else has, and it’s really simple.

It's vaguely similar to the way that Photoshop CS 4 will use your graphics card to help process image manipulation and help out in rendering 3D models as well.

Will there be more features like Time Machine? Not according to Jobs.
3.

“We’ve added over a thousand features to Mac OS X in the last five years,” he said Monday in an interview after his presentation. “We’re going to hit the pause button on new features.”

Seems to us that Snow Leopard won't be heavy on the features, but it will increase processing speeds for people who are heavy on the processing in their daily computing and have more than just a few cores—a place we're all heading to in the next few years. [NYT]

Intel
Like it or not, Intel's the biggest player in the game, so they've got essentially two major entries for mobile. First up is Montevina, soon to be known to your mother as Centrino 2. It was supposed to launch this month, but was delayed until August for a full rollout. It's a "platform" for notebooks, so it's got a few different components, like a Penryn Core 2 Duo processor and a wireless module (two options, one flavor has WiMax). It's basically nimbler all around than the preceding Santa Rosa platform—speedier front-side bus, faster RAM, better integrated graphics—but solid emphasis on battery life too. It'll basically be in any of the full-sized notebooks worth buying after this summer, and probably in the next MacBook/MacBook Pro release.

The ballyhooed Atom chips actually cover two classes of devices: so called "mobile internet devices"' (a vague category between a smartphone and a tiny laptop) and budget, smaller notebooks ("netbooks," "mini-notebooks," whatever you like), including the Eee PC 901 and MSI's Wind, with chips running from 800MHz to 1.86GHz, and an average power use of 160 to 220mW. As Jon at Ars sums up in his nitty gritty coverage, it's not quite "there" yet, but it's just a foot in the door for Intel.

AMD
I've been feeling so bad for AMD lately. Hopefully, its just-launched mobile platform, Puma, will help start turning things around. Its CPU soul is a Turion X2 Ultra, which has the nifty feature of adjusting power levels on the fly for each core. Another winning aspect is the integrated Radeon 3000 graphics, which AMD believes totally pwns Intel's, with three times the 3D performance and five times the HD quality (maybe something useful came out of the AMD/ATI merger after all?) Also, it can flip between using integrated and discrete graphics to save juice or ramp up performance. Tom's Hardware isn't too hot on it, though.

Nvidia
Nvidia is a relative noob in the mobile platform space, with Tegra being its first real charge. It's a system on a chip, with memory, a graphics processor, a CPU (from ARM) and more on a single chip. While they reference Intel's Atom a whole bunch, it's not really a competitor—these are just for more of those mobile internet devices. No hard products use it yet, either, but here are some videos depicting what Nvidia's got in mind. Neat, but I'm not sure who's gonna buy 'em. Also, new 9M notebook graphics cards—faster than the 8M series that's in decent notebooks now, we mayyyy see 'em in new MacBook Pros in August (crosses fingers).

Via
Via's Nano processor follows up the C7 used in stuff like the OQO UMPC and Cloudbook. It's mo' powerful, but it also uses more juice than the C7 or Intel's Atom. So, as Ars points out, it doesn't quite compete with Atom, just cause of the power differential. That's cool though, since Via's planning on using the Nano to break into powering bigger, badder notebooks that'll do HD video, and the C7 isn't going anywhere. You might see it replace the C7 in some stuff though, like HP's Mini-note, since physically it'll fit anywhere the C7 did.

That should bring ya up to speed.

Something we missed, or you still wanna know? Send any questions about chips, Pringles or anything else to tips@gizmodo.com, with "Giz Explains" in the subject line. [Giz Explains]

[Nvidia]

NVIDIA Optimizes Notebook PCs
With New Lineup Of GPUs

NVIDIA Addresses Global Demand for Better Visual Experiences on the Notebook PC

COMPUTEX 2008, TAIPEI—JUNE 3, 2008—As the global demand for better visual experiences makes its way into the notebook market, NVIDIA Corporation continues to address that demand with the introduction of a new line-up of notebook GPUs, the NVIDIA® GeForce® 9M Series of graphics processors, and a new graphics innovation, NVIDIA Hybrid SLI® technology. These new technologies enable customers to optimize their notebooks to power today’s visual applications, such as: the latest operating systems, photo editing, mapping software, games, and HD movies. Considered one of the most important processors inside the notebook PC, and perhaps the most important, an NVIDIA GPU enables a completely flexible, scalable, and high-definition entertainment platform.

“Beginning this summer, GeForce 9M GPUs and Hybrid SLI, paired with AMD and Intel CPUs, will enable a new breed of notebooks,” said Jeff Fisher, senior vice president of the GPU business at NVIDIA. “These new notebooks will be optimized to deliver a visual experience and raw computing performance that traditional cookie-cutter notebooks with integrated graphics simply can’t touch.”

With the launch of the GeForce 9M Series of notebook GPUs, NVIDIA has once again engineered the world’s fastest notebook GPUs, designed for running today’s graphically intensive games, 3D applications and HD movies at extreme resolutions. In addition, this new GPU features a multi-core architecture which will not only speed up entertainment applications, but will also speed up today’s lifestyle applications, like video encoding from a PC to a small personal media device, where the speed up in the video conversion is up to 5x faster with the GeForce 9M family GPUs.”

In addition, the new GeForce 9M notebook GPUs enable the world’s first notebooks with Hybrid SLI technology. The new technology enables two NVIDIA GPUs, one low-power and one high-performance, to work cooperatively in the same PC to deliver two features—GeForce Boost and HybridPower™. These features deliver more performance from both GPUs for visual computing when needed, or save power by switching to the low-power GPU when not. Hybrid SLI gives users the quality and performance benefits of a high-performance GPU without sacrificing battery life.

The NVIDIA GeForce 9M family of GPUs also feature:

+ New graphics engine that delivers up to 40% faster performance than the previous generation of GeForce notebook GPUs and up to 10x faster than generic integrated graphics solutions
+ New PureVideo® HD video processing for improved color and contrast
+ Full support for the latest Blu-ray Profile 2.0 features and Blu-ray Live
+ Extensive multi-display connectivity with support for all the latest display standards including DVI, HDMI 1.3, Display Port 1.1, and VGA
+ Support for the new MXM version 3.0 graphics module specification

“With the recent addition of advanced features to Blu-ray Live and complexity of DirectX 10 games like Crysis, PC users need more graphics processing performance than today’s generic integrated graphics can deliver,” said Rene Haas, general manager of the notebook business at NVIDIA. “The new GeForce 9M series meets this need while also delivering processing muscle beyond gaming and graphics.”

The new GeForce 9M GPUs will power the visual computing experience in over a hundred notebook models beginning this summer. For more information, please visit www.nvidia.com.

[Nvidia]

NVIDIA TEGRA: THE HEART OF THE WORLD’S SMALLEST VISUAL COMPUTERS
SANTA CLARA, CA—JUNE 2, 2008—Today, NVIDIA brings visual computing to mobile internet devices (MID) with the launch of NVIDIA® Tegra™, a family of highly integrated computers on a chip. In addition to MIDs, the NVIDIA Tegra 650 and 600 processors will be used in a wide range of innovative platforms such as embedded PCs, web tablets and more. The NVIDIA Tegra 650 processor is the world’s first computer on a chip for mobile visual computers. NVIDIA Tegra features a GPU, media processor, system memory, peripherals and a CPU all in one ultra-low power chip, smaller than a US dime (10-cent piece).

The NVIDIA Tegra 650 processor is the second product in the Tegra line, the first being the NVIDIA Tegra APX 2500 processor, which is enabling the next generation of Windows Mobile smartphones. “With the growing market demand for mobile Internet access, NVIDIA launched the APX 2500 computer-on-a-chip targeted at smartphones and handsets earlier this year. Recognizing that mobile Internet access usages will occur not just on smartphones and handsets but on compute devices as well, NVIDIA announced today their Tegra product line. Representing the first products to be targeted at the MID and portable device space, it is anticipated to bring integrated capabilities similar to the APX 2500 with NVIDIA’s graphics expertise, an ARM core, HD video,and advanced power management,” said Ian Lao, senior analyst at In-Stat.

This new processor features an optimized combination of an ultra-low power GeForce® GPU and an 800 MHz embedded ARM CPU, Due to their highly integrated design, NVIDIA Tegra processors achieve up to 10 times the power efficiency of existing products in battery-operated computer systems running compelling visual computing applications.

“As more consumers begin to access the mobile Internet with devices like smartphones and MIDs, device manufacturers will be challenged to create the same high-quality user experience on mobile devices that consumers currently enjoy on their desktop PCs,” said Warren East, CEO, ARM. “Using advanced ARM technology and providing a ground-breaking mix of performance, power consumption and form factor, the NVIDIA Tegra mobile computer-on-a-chip addresses
this challenge more effectively than any other solution yet on the market, thereby taking a major step toward the oncoming mobile Internet revolution.”

NVIDIA Tegra 650 also features:
• All-day media processing, for 130 hours audio, 30 hours HD video playback
• HD image processing for advanced digital still camera and HD camcorder functions
• Optimized hardware support for Web 2.0 applications for a true desktop-class internet
experience
• Display support for 1080p HDMI, WSXGA+ LCD and CRT, and NTSC/PAL TV-Out
• Direct support for WiFi, disk drives, keyboard, mouse, and other peripherals
• A complete Board Support Package (BSP) to enable fast times to market for Windows
Mobile-based designs

"With NVIDIA’s Tegra processor line, we will continue to see impressive mobile innovations in Windows Mobile products," said Todd Warren, corporate vice president of Microsoft's mobile communication business. “Microsoft is dedicated to providing people best-in-class mobile experiences, so that people can carry a single device for work and play."

For more information on NVIDIA’s processors, please visit www.nvidia.com

[Nvidia]

This kind of setup works really well for tomography because the number-crunching can be done in parallel and is highly vectorized—the same kind of stuff the medical community and Air Force were eye-balling the PS3 for, since the Cell uses a similar kind of architecture.

On the other hand, it wouldn't be so great for more general computing stuffs that can't be crunched in parallel (multiple processors working at once). Either way, watch the video, gigaflops to terabytes, it's the nerdiest thing you'll see this week. [FASTRA, Thanks Toji]

Part of the reason they're calling it the OpenBook is that part of the design is customizable, with CAD files of the external shell available for download so manufacturers who pick it up can be creative with it. Unfortunately, that doesn't drill down to the keyboard, which was noticeably cramped compared to an HP 2133 Mini-note, despite being of a very similar 8.9-inch form factor. The resolution's also lower, 1024x600 (same as the Eee 900) to the 2133's 1280 x 768.

It is light, though, a hair more than two pounds. And on its unimpressive 4-Cell, 2600mA battery, you get (supposedly) an impressive three hours (consider that the Eee 900's is twice as fat).

While not a giant leap ahead in UMPC design, it is a shimmy forward, bringing in some of the connectivity missed in some of the earlier notebooks in this category. More broadly, the simple fact that it's relatively low burden for a third party to pick up and hawk their own branded OpenBook could make this class of subnotebook even more mainstream. They haven't signed an agreement with a US manufacturer yet, but they do have a bunch of international makers onboard, and we should start seeing product in July or August.

Further down the road is the Isaiah chip, which will deliver 4x the performance of the C7 with the same power envelope. It's a complete redesign (though pin-to-pin same as C7 so backwards compatible with older mobos), which Via hopes will help them break into powering more mainstream 12- to 13-inch (and even 15-inch) notebooks. We'll hear more about that, as well as their "close" partnership with Nvidia at Computex in a couple weeks.

VIA Unveils VIA OpenBook Mini-Note Reference Design VIA offers case design and unique 3G and WiMAX wireless customization as well as new ultra mobile processor platform to bring new looks, global connectivity and better performance to the mini-note market Taipei, Taiwan, 27 May 2008 - VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, today introduced the new VIA OpenBook™ mini-note reference design targeted at the rapidly growing global market for ultra-portable notebooks. The VIA OpenBook mini-note reference design introduces a host of new innovations, including the next generation of VIA Ultra Mobile Platform, based on the VIA C7®-M ULV processor and the new all-in-one VIA VX800 digital media IGP chipset. Together, this ultra compact, power efficient platform delivers richer computing and multimedia features, including a stunning 8.9" screen and greater video playback support, in a compact and stylish clamshell form factor that weighs just 1kg. The VIA OpenBook features a flexible internal interface for high-speed broadband wireless connectivity that provides customers with the ability to select from a choice of WiMAX™, HSDPA and EV-DO/W-CDMA modules appropriate to their market. In addition, under a unique collaborative approach, the CAD files of the external panels of the reference design are offered for download under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 3.0 license to give customers such as OEMs, system integrators, and broadband service providers greater freedom in tailoring the look and feel of their device to meet the diverse needs of their target markets. "The VIA OpenBook builds on the great success of the VIA NanoBook reference design launched last year, which has been widely adopted by numerous customers around the world," commented Richard Brown, Vice President of Corporate Marketing, VIA Technologies, Inc. "Our unique open approach to case design customization and wireless connectivity flexibility, coupled with the higher levels of performance, further extends VIA's leadership in the global mini-note market." "VIA is a forward thinking company that has realized that sharing enables a healthy ecosystem which helps them provide an innovative product which supports their core business," commented Jon Phillips, Business and Community Manager for Creative Commons. "Making the actual raw CAD files available under a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 license is a brilliant first step that clearly and legally allows others to emergently build upon VIA's open innovation."

Powered by the VIA C7-M ULV processor and the VIA VX800 digital media IGP chipset, the VIA OpenBook mini-note reference design is a small, 1kg, 8.9" mini-notebook form factor design that supports screen resolutions of up to 1024x600 and high performance VIA Chrome9™ DirectX™ 9.0 3D graphics. Advanced video acceleration for MPEG-2, MPEG-4, WMV9, VC1 and DiVX video formats, a VMR capable HD video processor and 8-channel HD audio make it a highly media rich mini-notebook platform.

The VIA OpenBook mini-note reference design offers unrivaled broadband connectivity options VIA OpenBook Reference Design (camera)though two internal modules, with the first one featuring WiFi, Bluetooth, and optional AGPS connections and the second one offering a choice of WiMAX, HSDPA, or EV-DO/W-CDMA options. In addition, the VIA OpenBook also comes with three USB 2.0 ports, a VGA port, and audio-in/audio-out jacks as well as a 4-in-1 card reader (SD/SDIO/MMC/MS) and a 2 mega-pixel dual-headed web camera.

The VIA OpenBook supports a wide range of operating system environments, including Microsoft Windows Vista Basic, Microsoft Windows XP, and various Linux distributions. The device features up to 2GB DDR2 DRAM and can be equipped with a choice of hard disk drive and solid state storage options.

Featuring a 4-cell 2600mA lithium-ion battery, the VIA OpenBook delivers up to three hours of battery life and measures just 240mm(W)x175mm (D) x36.2mm (H).

For more information, file downloads, video and images of the VIA OpenBook mini-note reference design please visit the VIA OpenBook website here:
www.viaopenbook.com

Enabling Global Broadband Wireless Coverage
The VIA OpenBook reference design has a unique internal interface for the addition of a choice of extended connectivity modules, enabling customers to offer HSDPA, EV-DO/W-CDMA, and WiMAX connectivity options to the their device that are appropriate for their target markets, and to forge deeper relationships with local carriers and service providers, creating new business models for the mini-note segment.

Making Customization More Accessible
The CAD files for the external panels of the VIA OpenBook mini-note reference design are being released under the Creative Commons Share Alike Attribution license, giving customers the flexibility to bring their own innovative style and brand value propositions to the mini-note market segment. Through this flexible approach, customers can reduce product development costs and speed time-to-market. The CAD files can be downloaded from the www.viaopenbook.com website.

About the VIA Ultra Mobile Platform
The VIA Ultra Mobile Platform is centered around the VIA C7-M ULV processor, an ultra power efficient mobile processor available in speeds of 1.0-1.6GHz with a maximum power draw (TDP max) of only 3.5 watts, and idle power as low as 0.1 watt, helping to ensure longer battery life. The number one choice for ultra mobile devices with over 30 global design wins, the most on the market today, the VIA C7-M ULV processor's low profile nanoBGA2 package measures just 21mm x 21mm, enabling device designs with drastically reduced weight, size, and thickness.

The latest generation of VIA Ultra Mobile Platform pairs the VIA C7-M ULV processor with the VIA VX800 digital media IGP chipset, which integrates all the cutting-edge features of a modern chipset's North and South bridges into a single chip package measuring just 33mm x 33mm, for a silicon real estate saving of more than 42% over traditional twin-chip core logic implementations. The VIA Chrome9™ HC integrated graphics processor with DirectX® 9.0 3D graphics provides support for brilliant 3D graphics, while the VIA Chromotion™ CE video display engine offers a stunning v