Has AMD Finally Topped Nvidia in Triple-GPU Scaling?

When building your own PC or even just upgrading the one you already have, you have a tendency to always go bigger. A lot of the time people do serious upgrades when they upgrade their GPU. A lot of people upgrade to the next higher model, but some double up and get two GPUs. But then there are the others who put their money down on the question of whether or not three GPUs is all that much better than two?

Nvidia has been the undeniable leader when it comes to multi-card scaling with AMD always trailing behind. However, there are a new array of GPUs from AMD that may just push them ahead of Nvidia in the multi-card scaling race. The geniuses over at Tom's Hardware loaded up a super fast computer with single, dual and triple -GPU configurations to find out the truth.

In the GPU market, everything is pretty much a waiting game. About every six months or so, either AMD or Nvidia releases a product and the other company waits to see what is going on hoping to bounce that one back by tweaking the clocks, power and configuration of their own device. Both companies do this in order to build anticipation with their followers.

Despite the hysteria in the GPU world, the past few launches have barely raised the bar at all. Anybody out there that wants to play their games at a high resolution without giving up all the juicy goodness of the game will probably have to use a multi-GPU setup.

So the big question here is not necessarily which card is better but rather which works better in pairs and trios. Buyers and enthusiasts can save a lot of money by purchasing AMD's 1 GB card. However, the newest 2 GB AMD Radeon HD 6950 is the least expensive three-way CrossFire option.

The closest competitor to this is Nvidia's GeForce GTX 5570 1280 MB GPU which also represents the cheapest current three-way SLI configuration from Nvidia. Tom's Hardware has already reported on great scaling from three-way SLI so what is probably the biggest question is whether or not AMD's scaling has improved to the point where it can surpass Nvidia. Two-way figures point to the positive and it seems that Radeon devices work together much better than in the past.

Overall, CrossFire's value-oriented win in the two-way area and the performance win in the three-way configuration setup was enough to make Radeon the clear cut winner according to Tom's Hardware. However, if that isn't convincing enough for you, then the low power consumption of the Radeon HD 6950 should be. If you want the full rundown and specifications of the tests and all the juicy details, head on over to Tom's Hardware now and check it out.

Source: Tom's Hardware - Triple-GPU Scaling: AMD CrossFire Vs. Nvidia SLI

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Hitachi GTS Acquired by Western Digital for $4.3 Billion

Every now and then in the computer world we actually do hear about things that do not involve Apple or anything Apple related. It is rare, yes, but it does happen. One such instance is that Western Digital, a company known for their hard drives, has officially bought out Hitachi GST for a pretty $4.3 billion.

That's right, on Monday Western Digital told media outlets that they were buying Hitachi Global Storage Technologies for the equivalent of $4.3 billion. There were different things that comprised the entire deal which included a combination of $3.5 billion in cash with the addition of shares in the total amount of $50 million. Full terms of the deal included Western Digital's name remaining the same for the company and Hitachi GST CEO Steve Milligan joining Western Digital as President.

CEO of Western Digital John Coyne argued to media sources that the move was primarily for scale. Western Digital and Hitachi Global Storage Technologies would form a larger competitor company and would also have the advantage of better research as well as a wider range of products as Hitachi has focused primarily on fields like drivers for set-top boxes and a greater focus on mobile hard drives.

This move is an attempt by Western Digital to hedge their position and compete against a market that gets increasingly tougher each day. Hitachi has suffered with reduced influence whereas Western Digital has been battling it out with fellow American rival company Seagate. Western Digital's acquisition of Hitachi GST gives the company a improved position in the competition.

Source: Electronista - Western Digital to snap up Hitachi GTS for $4.3 billion

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Microsoft Launches Campaign to Kill Internet Explorer 6 for Good

Are you one of those people out there who only uses Internet Explorer for your web browser? If so, then you may also be a part of the large group of people that still uses Internet Explorer 6. Well, if you are one of these people, you have some bad news coming your way. Microsoft has officially launched a new web site that is aimed at increasing its campaign to move internet users off of Internet Explorer 6 forever.

This new site, known as the Internet Explorer 6 Countdown, went live today and is "dedicated to watching Internet Explorer 6 usage drop to less than 1% worldwide, so more websites can choose to drop support for Internet Explorer 6, saving hours of work for web developers," according to the site.

A lot of computers, mainly in the business world, continue to use Internet Explorer 6 due to internal-facing apps that are dependent on the 10-year-old, non-standards compliant browser from Microsoft. Thankfully, the web page has links to tools for businesses just like this that are stuck with Internet Explorer 6. Gartner analysts have complained in the past that Microsoft's current tools for moving business users off of Internet Explorer 6 have been far too pricey.

Another feature of the Countdown page includes a world map that highlights countries around the world who still have the most Internet Explorer 6 installations. Right now China holds the number one spot. In addition to focusing on the developer side of the Anti-Internet Explorer 6 campaign, Microsoft officials are also emphasizing the improved security Internet Explorer 6 users can receive from switching to Internet Explorer 7 or Internet Explorer 8. Internet Explorer 9 is currently in the release candidate stage and is not mentioned on the page as a comparison point.

Source: ZDNet - Microsoft: Friends don't let friends use Internet Explorer

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Intel's Light Peak to Debut Thursday

The technology world loves rumors, in fact, I think that they live, breath, eat and sleep rumors. I feel that if there were no internet rumors, then we would have a lot of depressed computer people out there with nothing to do to fill their free time. It's quite sad really. But, alas, we have another rumor floating around the internet that all the little techies are drooling over and that is the rumor that Intel will officially launch its Light Peak high-speed connection technology this Thursday.

This great speculation comes from Intel telling the media that it will "host a press briefing to discuss a new technology that is about to appear on the market." CNET apparently has "an industry source familiar with details of the event" and says that it will indeed be Light Peak. Other speculation surrounding this news is concerning whether or not this launch will have anything to do with the new MacBook Pros also set to be launched on Thursday.

Rumors have been circulating since late 2010 about Apple possibly incorporating Light Peak into its 2011 MacBook Pro models. Since then, there have been leaked spec sheets floating around as well as product photos of a 13-inch MacBook Pro which would back up this rumor if it is true. If this is true, then Apple plans on renaming it "Thunderbolt". However, it is unclear whether or not Intel will adopt this nomenclature as well.

Whether you decide to call it Thunderbolt or Light Peak is up to you, but know that it is a single interface designed to replace the SCSI, SATA, USB, FireWire and PCI Express ports on a computer. The technology, which is copper-based, supposedly delivers 10Gbps bi-directional data transfers and is the main reason some people have speculated Intel has been so slow to adopt native USB 3.0 support on its motherboards, something Intel has not surprisingly refuted.

Source: Maximum PC - Intel to Debut Light Peak on Thursday, Apple Calls it "Thunderbolt"

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New Fab 42 from Intel

On Friday, February 18, Intel announced that they will be constructing a brand new $5 billion fab in Arizona. The fab will be used for the manufacturing of chips using a 14-nm manufacturing process and leading edge 300-mm wafers.

In the statement that Intel released on Friday, it was said that the new fab would be called Fab 42. Construction of the facility will begin sometime in the middle of 2011. Intel is saying that Fab 42 will be "the most advanced, high-volume manufacturing facility in the world." It should be finished in 2013.

The announcement about Intel’s latest investment was made on the same day that President Obama toured an Intel facility in Hillsboro, Oregon. While at the facility, Obama decided to go ahead and name Intel’s chief executive Paul Otellini as a member of the Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. Going along with this, it is definitely not coincidental that the new fab that Intel is constructing will create "thousands of construction and permanent manufacturing jobs" that go right along with Otellini’s new position.

One of the biggest advantages that Intel has had in the past has been its strong manufacturing line. They have constructed several different fabs around the world. These fabs have really helped to keep Intel in competition with their rival AMD, who has been trying to undermine Intel by designing more efficient chips.

The new 14-nm fab that is being constructed by Intel will be considered one of the most advanced semiconductor fabs compared to any in its category. According to PCmag, the fabs will be “putting out chips that will incorporate linewidths that are twice as fine as Intel's current ‘Sandy Bridge’ processors, which use a 32-nm process.” As of right now, a comparison cannot be made between the chips that Intel is putting out currently and those that will be made with the new process, but we can say that the new chips will most likely use less power or run much faster than the versions that Intel is currently releasing.

"The investment positions our manufacturing network for future growth," said Brian Krzanich, senior vice president and general manager for Intel's manufacturing and supply chain operations, in a statement. "This fab will begin operations on a process that will allow us to create transistors with a minimum feature size of 14 nanometers. For Intel, manufacturing serves as the underpinning for our business and allows us to provide customers and consumers with leading-edge products in high volume. The unmatched scope and scale of our investments in manufacturing help Intel maintain industry leadership and drives innovation."

In the past few weeks, Intel has been dealing with a small roadblock that the company discovered concerning a support chip that is associated with the Sandy Bridge chip processor.

At the end of January, Intel found what is now being called the “Cougar Point” flaw and were forced to recall the chip. Shipping resumed about a week after the problem was discovered, but it was under the condition that Intel and OED could both assure one hundred percent that the flaw would not manifest.

Due to the temporary roadblock that Intel was forced to deal with, its rival AMD went ahead and launched an ad campaign on Friday in an attempt to pull in customers. We’ll have to see if Intel can jump right back into the race.

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Google Searches Drop while Bing Searches Rise

In the great search engine war, two competitors reign supreme above all others, Google and Bing. While there are a lot of search engines out there, none get the attention or press like these two. Google has its name everywhere and you can hardly flip through the channels without seeing a commercial for Bing. But exactly how close are these two competitors when it comes to number of users? Closer than you might think, actually.

Even though Google is still the leader of the U.S. search engines, it did see a drop in market share slightly in January whereas Bing continued to pick up more steam. For the first month of 2011, Google's portion of all searches dropped by 1 percentage point to 65.6%. While this was happening to Google, Bing's portion of searches jumped up 1.1 percentage point to 13.1%. This left the other search engine Yahoo flat with a 16.1% cut of all searches in January.

These numbers are right in line with a pattern that for the past several months has plagued Google in which the company sheds a little bit of their shares while Bing edges up slightly. The good thing for Google is that these drops have usually only been fractions of a percentage point as opposed to the full point the company saw in January.

The number of core searches tallied rose from 16.4 billion to 16.9 billion from December to January, a 3% increase. Google hit the number one spot with a total of 11.1 billion searches. Yahoo came in second with 2.7 billion, followed by Bing who tallied only 2.2 billion. These numbers represent a 1% increase in January for Google, a 4% increase for Yahoo and a 13% increase for Bing.

These figures are derived from explicit core searches. This just means search terms manually entered into the search bar. This data also takes into account all of a company's search sites. So, in Google's case, these results included searches on Google's main page and the ones on YouTube, Google News, Google Images, and other proprietaries.

These numbers also include "powered by" searches. In January Google's number of "powered by" searches on its own sites and on AOL and Ask.com was 62.8%, whereas Bing searches on Microsoft and Yahoo reached 25.6%. This showed yet another loss pattern for Google as the company lost a small percentage of their "powered by" searches as well.

While Google does remain in a commanding lead, Bing could slowly creep up and surpass Google as the leader of the search engine world. However, you do have to take into account the recent battle between Google and Bing where Bing was accused by Google of stealing search results. If proven guilty, this could have a serious effect on Bing and their search engine.

Source: cnet News - Bing continues to grab more searches

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'Jeopardy!' Contestants Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter Face Off Against Watson, the Super Computer from IBM

It will be a battle fit for the record books, one that will go down in history alongside Gettysburg and World War II. Only this one will not be fought with swords, guns or armies, but with little clickers and incredible knowledge. That's right, I am talking about the epic showdown set to take place on Jeopardy! this coming Monday which pits two of the show's biggest all-time winners, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, against Watson, a computer designed by IBM.

If you are not familiar with the popular game show that tests contestants' knowledge in a wide range of categories, then you will not know who Ken Jennings or Brad Rutter are. To put it simply, Jennings won a grand total of $3,022,700 on the show coming in second only to Brad Rutter who took home a total of $3,255,102. Needless to say, these gentlemen are extremely smart and ready to test their wits against the ultimate competitor, technology.

According to Stephen Baker, author of Final Jeopardy: Man vs. Machine and the Quest to Know Everything, "The computer is fast on the buzzer, and if it's given certain specialties - it's good on facts about facts it can find and nail down - it could win. But humans are better with complex English, puns, nuances, so..."

This challenge was initiated by IBM after its scientists worked on Watson for four years. The outcome has already been determined as the show does not air live, but it is a secret. The episodes were taped on January 14th, 2011 and are set to air on Monday, February 14th, 2011 and conclude on Wednesday, February 16th, 2011. Alex Trebek, the host of Jeopardy! since 1984, isn't budging on giving away the result either.

"I think the guys have a slight edge on knowledge because their memories are good," says Trebek. "In terms of speed, it's no contest. Watson has the edge there. But it'll all come down to luck." Trebek also added that Watson could not see or hear him "so it was pointless to comment in his direction!"

Executive Producer of Jeopardy! Harry Friedman noted that putting the show together was definitely a challenge. Nobody has every done this before and the closest thing to be done like this was when chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov took on an IBM computer known as Deep Blue. He lost. According to Friedman, "Producing for people and with people is one thing, but dealing with a computer was another."

Friedman sees the competition as a "fascinating exhibition of technology" and not a tournament or a competition. "It is to be judged for what technology can do," he says. However, don't tell that to Jennings or Rutter. Jennings stated that he was spooked by the setting, which took place inside the labs of IBM. "No one was cheering for me. It was at their (IBM's) home arena. It was an away game for humanity."

Rutter, who has won the highest accumulative amount on Jeopardy! ever, says that he does not think humans are becoming outdated and that he enjoyed being a "guinea pig" playing against a computer. According to Rutter, "People watch the show to see the contestants and how they react. Watson will never jump up and down when he gets it right."

The contest is going to air this coming Monday, Feruary 14th, 2011. Check your local listings so you can tune in and see who is smarter, man or machine.

Source: USA Today - 'Jeopardy!' champs compete against computer

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