Intel has announced details of a new generation of chips designed to handle increasingly complex and diverse requirements.
The “multi-core” processor technology, codenamed “Larrabee” will be showcased at an upcoming industry conference in Los Angeles.
By dividing tasks between cores, these multi-core chips will be able to cut energy use and heat while speeding performance, using a type of parallel processing.
Intel and AMD currently sell chips with two or four “cores,” but the new Intel chips (pencilled for release in 2009 or 2010) will have 16 to 48 cores and will be tailored for handling computer game graphics. The chips will also accomomodate the increasingly complex, ‘multi-tasking’ type approach that see users running many desktop apps at once.
Intel say that the major task for software developers now will be to make full use of the available processing power and multi-threading capabilities. Predicted research breakthroughs include voice recognition software so accurate it could be used to record witness testimony in courtroom proceedings.
Intel expects Larrabee “to kick start an industry-wide effort to create and optimise software for the dozens, hundreds and thousands of cores expected to power future computers.”
Larrabee’s initial foray into the multi-billion dollar computer graphics market will put it in an arena dominated by Nvidia and AMD, which both reportedly plan to market chips with hundreds of cores.
See more at:
http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/20080804fact.htm?iid=pr1_releasepri_20080804fact
Teens constantly getting fragged by opponents with faster reflexes and better tactics can now sign up for a summer camp to improve their skills at Unreal Tournament 3.
The two-week ‘Camp Fatal1ty’ course is open to students aged 13-17 and costs US$3,499, with US$300 extra for optional weekend stays.
It will be held at Stanford University, UCLA and Villanova University and has been set up in collaboration with professional gamer Johnathan ‘Fatal1ty’ Wendel and the iD Gaming Academy.
As well as testing out new skills in tournament play against fellow classmates, the teens will learn to create machinima and build highlight video reels of their best in-game moves and shots.
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Grand Theft Auto IV (GTA IV) has already been leaked online before the official release later this week.
Pirate copies of the game have spread on file-sharing network BitTorrent after the first file was uploaded last week, according to gaming blog Kotaku.
The original 6.32GB file is accompanied by a document claiming that the contents are the PAL version of the game for Microsoft’s Xbox 360.
Only modified consoles in Australia, New Zealand and parts of Europe would be able to run the file.
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Epic Games, Inc., the award-winning developer of multimillion-selling games and the world’s leading game engine, Unreal Engine 3, today announced plans to follow up the original “$1 Million Make Something Unreal Contest” with an all new competition to include esteemed sponsor, Intel Corporation. Winnings exceed $1 million in value, and consist of one coveted Unreal Engine 3 license as a grand prize and other cash awards and prizes, including Intel® Software Development Products and Velocity Micro PCs based on the Intel® Dual Socket Extreme Desktop Platform with two Intel® Coreâ„¢2 Extreme quad-core processors. The 2008 “$1 Million Intel Make Something Unreal Contest” will be judged in four preliminary phases and a grand final. Judging will begin in June 2008 and will conclude, with the grand final prizes being awarded, in fall 2009.
To participate, aspiring game developers create modifications (“mods”) for the PC version of Unreal Tournament 3 in a wide range of categories including environments, characters, weapons, gameplay, tools, vehicles and more.
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