EVGA Forces SLI Multi-GPU Technology Operation in Latest Games with SLI Enhancement Patch.

EVGA to Force SLI Mode in Latest Games Ahead of Nvidia

In a bid to further differentiate itself from other suppliers of Nvidia GeForce-based graphics cards by providing its customers with service not available from other companies, EVGA Corp. has started to offer the so-called EVGA SLI Enhancement Patch which forces multi-GPU SLI technology activation even if the mode is not supported by Nvidia itself.

New video game titles are released pretty often, but both ATI, graphics products group of Advanced Micro Devices, and Nvidia spend quite some time verifying that the particular title works correctly while being rendered by two or more graphics processing units (GPUs). As a result, owners of multi-chip graphics cards or multi-GPU graphics sub-systems need to wait till chip developers enable their respective CrossFireX or SLI technology in order to realize benefits of their expensive graphics accelerators.

EVGA SLI Enhancement Patch overrides driver settings and enables SLI mode on the newest titles for Nvidia GeForce multi-chip setups. The patch simply forces AFR mode by making the driver to recognize an “unknown” game as a “known” one and work in accordance to appropriate profile setting. Obviously, the company does not guarantee rock-solid stability of operating, but for hardcore gamers this may not be important.

The first version of EVGA SLI Enhancement Pack supports Nvidia Forceware 182.05 drivers and enables multi-GPU mode in Burnout Paradise as well as Necrovision demo version. The company said it would update the utility in 24 hours upon the release of "a new game". How the company intends to determine titles that need to be supported is unknown.

Intel Details “Cache and Core Recovery” Scheme of Forthcoming Eight-Core Xeon Chips

Intel Corp. this week disclosed certain details regarding the company’s octa-core Intel Xeon processors code-named Beckton that are projected to be released either in very late 2009 or sometime in 2010. Apparently, modular architecture of the chip as well as so-called “cache and core recovery” technology will allow Intel to disable defective cores and caches within the new chip and still sell the product.

It is well known that the bigger the chip is, the lower is its yield, hence, potential yield of very large Intel Xeon processors with eight processing engines may be rather low. IBM once said that the initial yield of Cell processor was from 10% to 20% unless there is redundant logic put inside, which automatically boosts manufacturing costs. In order to tackle the issue, Intel has developed “cache and core recovery” scheme for its chips and will use it for the first time in Intel Xeon processors with eight cores aimed at multi-processor servers, reports Ars Technica web-site.

According to Intel’s presentation at IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC), eight-core Xeon processors will be able to operate its processing engines at different clock-speeds and voltages (from 0.85V to 1.1V) or even disable them when they are not needed, whereas the other logic’s clock-speeds and voltages will be fixed.

Moreover, the “cache and core recovery” technology will allow Intel to disable caches or cores independently in case they are defective. This will allow Intel to create processors not only with eight cores out of the Beckton dies, but also make chips with sever-core, six-core, five-core or any other amount of cores that makes sense. This means that if a Beckton silicon has one core and one cache domain malfunction, it will not be scrapped, but sold as a micro processing unit with lower amount of cores.

In fact, presently available Intel Xeon 7400-series processors have from four to six cores, which means that even now Intel has some control over the number of functioning engines within its monolithic processors.

The new enterprise Intel Xeon processor based on code-named Nehalem micro-architecture featuring 8-cores (16-threads due to HyperThreading support) has 2.3 billion transistors and is made using 45nm process technology. The chip that is known under Beckton code-name will have four point-to-point quick path interconnect links to connect to other processors as well as system I/O operating at up to 6.4GT/s. Like all Nehalem-class chips, this processor for expandable systems will feature built-in memory controller, which will have four channels. The processor will require a new platform with LGA-1567 sockets.

VisionTek Proclaims Itself Largest North American ATI Radeon Graphics Cards Channel Supplier

VisionTek Products, a leading supplier of graphics cards, PC/TV tuners and PC accessories, said on Friday that it became the No. 1 North American channel partner for ATI, graphics products group of Advanced Micro Devices, in 2008. The company said that in 2008 it managed to boost its shipments to the levels higher compared to other suppliers of ATI Radeon-based graphics boards.

VisionTek, which has been on the market with its own-brand products for about a decade now, explains its current success not only with the well-known name (which was once associated closely with Nvidia Corp.’s GeForce products, the arch-rival for ATI Radeon), but also with relatively low pricing as well as lifetime warranty.

“VisionTek is the only company to offer lifetime product warranties and US-based toll free customer support. Discerning gamers trust our brand because we stand behind our products, but ultimately they selected us because we maintain the best performance-to-price standards in the market,” said Michael K. Innes, VisionTek chief operating officer.

Unfortunately, VisionTek and ATI did not reveal how many graphics cards the company succeeded in selling in 2008 and also did not reveal based on what the vendor can be named the No. 1.

It is necessary to say that unlike some of its competitors’ products, VisionTek’s ATI Radeon graphics cards can be acquired in retail chains.

“VisionTek is a long standing retail partner at Best Buy and leads the way with customer initiatives in the PC graphics category. Best Buy has the highest standards in the consumer electronics industry and it stands to reason that our largest AMD graphics partner, VisionTek, is also AMD largest partner for North America in 2008,” said Scott Wallace, merchandise manager for Best Buy’s PC peripheral category.

Besides Best Buy, there are other well known retail and online stores carrying VisionTek’s products, including Dell.com, Fry’s Electronics, Future Shop, Micro Center, Newegg.com, Tiger.com, Wal-Mart and other.

VisionTek plans to continue building its partnership with AMD in 2009 with new product launches that will extend the brand’s dominance in the consumer market well into the next decade.

“It’s no surprise to me that VisionTek was AMD's No. 1 North American consumer graphics brand in retail for 2008. VisionTek, as an exclusive ATI Radeon partner, has always focused on putting the consumer’s needs first, year after year! We’re delighted to have them as a partner and we’ll be doing everything to continue to grow share further in 2009,” said John Byrne, AMD’s vice president of worldwide sales for channel and regional OEM.

Intel and LG Electronics Collaborate on Development of Future Mobile Devices

Mobile Internet devices (MIDs) have been around for years, but have not become any popular. In a yet another attempt to make MIDs competitive, LG Electronics and Intel Corp. today announced a collaboration around mobile MIDs based on Intel's next-generation MID hardware platform, codenamed Moorestown, and Linux-based Moblin v2.0 software platform.

Moorestown is the codename for Intel's second-generation MID platform, which consists of a system-on-chip (codenamed "Lincroft") that integrates a 45nm Intel Atom processor core, graphics, video and memory controller. The platform also includes an input/output (I/O) hub, codenamed Langwell, that includes a range of I/O blocks and supports wireless solutions.

Intel's Moorestown-based MIDs are expected to reduce idle power consumption by a factor of greater than 10 versus today's Intel Atom processor-based MIDs. Additionally, the Moorestown platform will be accompanied by a newer Moblin software version, Moblin v2.0, that is based on the Linux operating system. This software is designed specifically to deliver a great PC-like Internet experience while also supporting cell phone voice capabilities.

The "Moorestown" platform is expected to come to market by 2010. The LG device is expected to be one of the first Moorestown designs to market.

In order to offer a variety of network connections and Internet access, LG is also working with Ericsson to bring 3G network capability to its planned MID. This is an extension of the existing collaboration between the companies. LG has been supplying notebooks and netbooks with mobile broadband modules from Ericsson since the third quarter of 2008.

“The MID segment will drive growth at LG Electronics. We chose Intel's next-generation Moorestown platform and Moblin-based OS to pursue this segment because of the high performance and Internet compatibility this brings to our service provider customers. The collaboration with Intel on the MID platform has been valuable and further extends our longstanding relationship. Our efforts are well on track and we look forward to bringing the MID to market,” said Jung Jun Lee, executive vice president of LG Electronics and head of its mobile communications business division.

AMD Readies High-End Update of ATI Radeon Lineup in April – Rumours

In a bid to offer higher-performance in the segment of expensive graphics cards, ATI, graphics products group of Advanced Micro Devices, reportedly plans to add a yet another member to the ATI Radeon HD 4800 family of products. The new code-named RV790 chip will emerge already in April.

According to various media sources, including VR-Zone web-site, the ATI Radeon HD 4890 graphics board will offer higher performance compared to existing Radeon HD 4870 solutions because of higher clock-speeds, 850MHz for the chip and 3900MHz for GDDR5 memory. However, there are also reports that the RV790 is a brand new processor with 960 stream processors and 48 texture units.

ATI is known for working on different speed-bins of various processors, for instance, its ATI R300, R350 and R360 were essentially the same chip, but could function at completely different clock-speeds. Potentially, ATI may now choose the same option since it does not immediately need a brand-new GPU as its arch-rival Nvidia has not introduced considerably faster solutions so far.

The recent history of graphics processing units does not know examples when a company introduced a brand-new GPU with new internal design that would only be 20% - 30% faster compared to predecessor in the same price-range. Therefore, the information about increased number of stream processors inside RV790 seems to be doubtful.

Intel unveils Tukwila Itanium processor.

Intel is set to unveil a range of new technologies, including a new two-billion transistor, quad-core Itanium microprocessor codenamed Tukwila, at the International Solid State Circuits Conference this week.


The first version of Tukwila is expected to arrive in the second half of this year, and will replace Intel's previous dual-core server chip, the 9100 series codenamed Montvale. The Montvale was based on Intel's 90nm process, while the Tukwila is based on a 65nm process.

Justin Rattner, Intel's chief technology officer, described the new Itanium processor commenting on the advantages of moving to the quad-core system.

"By so doing we double the performance [compared to the 9100 Montvale] when measured on an enterprise standard benchmarks ... but with only a 25 percent increase in power."

The Tukwila Itanium processor is expected to run at 2GHz with a power consumption of 130W.

The Tukwila processor is also expected to have 30MB of cache, along with Reliability, Availability, Serviceability (RAS) features including a circuit design that has been hardened to resist soft errors -- which reduces the probability of a system crash.

Although the chip has had no instruction-level changes since Montvale, Tukwila will also include dual integrated memory controllers and QuickPath interconnect, Intel's future competitor to AMD's HyperTransport technology.

Like its predecessor, the new Tukwila Itanium processor will be aimed at the enterprise and server space.

Intel's successor from the Tukwila, the Poulson is expected sometime between 2010 and 2011.

Other technologies will be unveiled along with the Itanium processor including a low power process for mobile devices codenamed Silverthorne, and a new type of multi-level phase change memory.

NEHALEM MICROARCHITECTURE

After Penryn and the 45nm Hi-k silicon technology introduction comes Intel’s next-generation microarchitecture (Nehalem) slated for initial production in 2008. By continuing to innovate at this rapid cadence, Intel will deliver enormous performance and energy efficiency gains in years to come, adding more performance features and capabilities for new and improved applications. Here are some new initial disclosures around our Nehalem microarchitecture:

• Dynamically scalable for leadership performance on demand with energy efficiency

o Dynamically managed cores, threads, cache, interfaces and power

o Leverages leading 4 instruction issue Intel® Core microarchitecture technology

o Simultaneous multi-threading (similar to Intel® Hyper-threading technology) returns to enhance performance and energy efficiency.

o Innovative new Intel® SSE4 and ATA instruction set architecture additions.

o Superior multi-level shared cache leverages Intel® Smart Cache technology.

o Leadership system and memory bandwidth.

o Performance enhanced dynamic power management.

• Design scalable for optimal price/performance/energy efficiency in each market segment.

o New system architecture for next-generation Intel processors and platforms.

o Scalable performance: 1 to 16+ threads, 1 to 8+ cores, scalable cache sizes.

o Scalable and configurable system interconnects and integrated memory controllers.

o High performance integrated graphics engine for client.

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