3D – OSnews - Page 10

Kyro On The Block; ST Pulls Out Of Graphics

Eugenia Loli 2002-02-09 3D 16 Comments

"ST Microelectronics Inc. has decided to put its graphics operations up for sale, placing the future of the Kyro graphics accelerator in limbo. The announcement comes after the troubled graphics accelerator, designed by PowerVR Technologies, itself a division of the U.K.'s Imagination Technoogies PLC, missed several major milestones that company executives outlined in an exclusive interview last June." Read the rest of the report at ExtremeTech. Our Take: With 3Dfx long gone, Matrox & 3DLabs already out of the 3D gaming market and SiS, VIA, Intel and Trident not been able to produce fast 3D chipsets, the ball is now only between the duopoly of ATi and (mainly) nVidia. I wish good luck to ATi, as I just can't handle yet another monopoly in the tech world. I want choice, I need diversity.

nVidia Introduces GeForce 4

Eugenia Loli 2002-02-06 3D 16 Comments

Today nVidia launches two new graphics chips and 3 new cards for each, making it six new products. While the GeForce4 Ti series of cards will be using the new high-end chip with the code name 'NV25', the GeForce4 MX value series (the chip used in the new PowerMacs) will be based on nVidia's new low-cost (and comperatively much slower) solution 'NV17'. Get the rest of the scoop & benchmarks at Tom's Hardware. On Monday both ATi and nVidia launched new versions of the ATi Radeon 8500 and the GeForce3 Ti-200 respectively, with 128 MB of RAM. Benchmarks showed that more RAM did not bring more speed and that such a purchase is not justifiable until the new games have such requirements. Update: Anandtech has some interesting benchmarks.

nVidia Introduces nForce 415-D Platform

Eugenia Loli 2002-01-09 3D 8 Comments

From Andrenaline Vault: nVidia introduced today the nForce 415-D processor set. The nForce 415-D combines the nForce’s Media and Communications Processor with a new System Platform Processor. The nForce SPP features TwinBank, a 128-bit memory controller architecture providing up to 4.2GB per second of system memory bandwidth; a dynamic adaptive speculative pre-processor for boosting CPU performance; a singlestep memory arbiter for memory efficiency; and a 4X accelerated graphics port for external GPU expansion. The nForce MCP also integrates an audio processing unit with a Dolby Digital 5.1 real-time encoder; StreamThru, enhanced data streaming technology, and a communications suite including support for HomePNA 2.0, 10/100 Ethernet and USB.

nVidia GeForce4 to be Announced February 5th

Eugenia Loli 2002-01-04 3D 21 Comments

"nVidia Corp. will announce its next-generation desktop graphics chip, which may be known as the GeForce4, in early February. Several reports on the capabilities of the NV25 have already been published, most believing the chip will feature six pixel processing pipelines versus the four used by the GeForce3. The reports also suggest that the NV25 will feature significantly higher clock rates, faster memory interfaces, and improved antialiasing capabilities. The Nvidia spokesman declined to comment on any of the features of the new chip." Read the whole story at ExtremeTech.

Allegro 4.0 Released

Eugenia Loli 2001-12-12 3D 9 Comments

Exactly four years after the release of Allegro 3.0 for DOS, the team announced the release of a new major version, Allegro 4.0. This release is a very important step in Allegro's development; 4.0 officially brings multi-platform support and it is now very stable. Allegro is a game library distributed freely, supporting the following platforms: DOS, Unix (Linux, FreeBSD, Irix, Solaris), Windows, and BeOS (MacOS and QNX ports are in alpha stage).

OpenGL 2.0 White Papers

Eugenia Loli 2001-11-21 3D 2 Comments

Slashdot reported that "3DLabs has posted a series of white papers on OpenGL 2.0 covering topics such as improving parallelism, timing control, minimizing data movement programmable pixel pack and unpack and (most notably) a proposal for a hardware independent shading language."

DirectX 8.1 Released

Eugenia Loli 2001-11-16 3D No Comments

DirectX is the multimedia system foundation for Windows operating systems. This latest version of DirectX (released very recently) offers updated graphics, faster frame rates, and support for massive multiplayer games. It also offers more immersive audio when running and displaying programs rich in multimedia elements, such as full-color graphics, video, 3D animation, and surround sound. The Windows2000 binary is 7.6 MB while for Windows98/98SE/ME, the download weighs 11.5 MB. Users of Windows XP do not need to install DirectX 8.1 as it is already included, while Windows95 is not supported at all anymore.

nVidia, ATi Release New Mobile Graphics Chips

Eugenia Loli 2001-11-13 3D 2 Comments

"ATi and nVidia both launched mobile graphics chips yesterday, the first aimed at retaining ATi's leadership of this market segment, while the nVidia part is designed to wrest the crown away from it. ATi's part is the Mobility FireGL 7800, a high-end mobile workstation-oriented chip (hence the FireGL branding) that supports up to 64MB of 128-bit DDR SDRAM. The chip is clocked at 270MHz. nVidia's NV17M is the successor to the GeForce2Go. The new part clocks in at 250MHz and supports up to 64MB of frame buffer memory." Read the rest of the news report at TheRegister.

Mesa 4.0 and Crystal Space 0.90 Released

Eugenia Loli 2001-10-24 3D 2 Comments

Great day today for the open source gaming. Mesa 4 was just released with new features such as the implementation of OpenGL 1.3 standard. In the meantime, Crystal Space 0.90 was released for a large number of platforms. Crystal Space is an open source 3D engine with advanced capabilities.

New Detonator XP Drivers Released

Eugenia Loli 2001-10-11 3D No Comments

Avault.com reports: Owners of NVIDIA 3D graphics accelerators now have new drivers available to download. TNT, TNT2, GeForce, GeForce2, GeForce 3, Quadro, and Quadro2 owners who have Windows 95, 98, and ME can download Detonator XP version 21.83 drivers here. Windows 2000 users with the same cards can download their version 21.83 drivers here , while this page hosts new version 22.20 drivers for Windows XP 64-bit users.

ATi Radeon Graphics Board Gets Speed Boost, Price Cut

Eugenia Loli 2001-10-10 3D 5 Comments

ZDNews reports that ATI Technology has slashed the price and increased the core clock speed just before it releases the high-end Radeon 8500 graphics board. When ATI introduced the board in mid-August, it announced the price as $399 and the core clock speed as 250MHz. But this week, the company dropped the price to $299 and increased the speed to 275MHz. The graphics board, which will be released Oct. 25, is used to enhance visual effects and 3D images, particularly for video games. The graphics board is also optimized to take advantage of WindowsXP. The card competes head to head with the new nVidia GeForce3 model, Ti 500.

Beta Test DirectX 9.0

Eugenia Loli 2001-10-05 3D No Comments

Applications are being accepted by Microsoft for beta testers for version 9.0 of the widespread multimedia API for the Windows line of OSes. Two separate applications are accessible: one for gamers and another for developers.

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