With the release of Windows Vista, DirectX10 almost seems like old news now. XNA techs are acting like it as well. At CeBIT, they discussed their plans for DirectX10.1 and DirectX11. I'll keep it simple for everyone.

• DirectX10.1 will work on fixing various coding issues, will force compatible hardware to be capable of a certain level of AntiAliasing (4x?), and will accelerate various methods of texture rendering.
• DirectX11 takes all the issues Microsoft noticed as DirectX10 started making it's way to market, and addresses them. DirectX11's main goal is to change the way textures are rendered, to help bring the cost of developing games down. Microsoft also plans on implementing a feature I think will become very significant for gamers who can't run their games at one specific setting, erm, setting. Basically, DirectX11 will detect when a game goes below a certain framerate, and then turns down settings to help compensate.

Editors note:
I'd like to remind everyone that these are merely plans for future versions of DirectX, which will come out in either several months, or a few years. Don't expect this to be something you'll see hosted on Microsoft's download site say, tomorrow night.

Everyone who could attend the HIS press dinner yesterday in the evening was surely disappointed afterwards. HIS had to inform the invited journalists that they won't see the R600 at HIS' booth - not even behind closed doors! - I guess GeCube won't show the chip neither, though they promised to do so! - ATI/AMD then let the press people know they will set up a special Tech-Day until the 31st of March and disclosed some new information. The R600 will be produced in 65nm by TSMC and not using the 80nm process because of difficulties (low yield and high leakage current). Daniel Wenzel from the German K-Hardware adds rumours have it AMD/ATI still got issues with the 512 bit memory subsystem. I nearly forgot to add the newly planned release date: Six weeks from now which reads begin of May.

We already have some technical information about the R600 mid and low range up a bit down in our news-section. Today we are bringing you the first pictures. The mysterious German guy 'w0mbat' recently posted them at the VR-Zone forums. He is the same guy who pictured the first Opteron 1220 Engineering Sample a while ago and is responsible for the latest information chart regarding the K10.

Update: I found the real source (wasn't too hard) of these pictures. There are 15 of them alltogether over here: PC Games Hardware.

The CeBIT hasn't even started but news websites around the world won't get tired posting about things you will actually see there. This time the Heise Newsticker reports about the world's biggest LCD-TV made by Sharp. 108 inch (2,74 meters) is what you have to beat nowadays and to set you back right away, there is no price tag on it which doesn't mean it's for free.
If you still want to connect your game console to a big display I would advise you to look at the more affordable HD1E- and XL1E Series. You can choose between 52" and 46" and all four devices have a native solution of 1920x1080. The HD1E screens come with four tuners (DVB-S, DVB-C, DVB-T, analog) whereas the XL1Es only support DVB-T and analog TV.

Ray Maguire, the managing director of Sony Computer Entertainment UK, confirmed that the current PlayStation Portable will appear in a smaller and lighter version. The overall design will stay the same Hartware.de was told and the price could be lower very likely.
The release date is unknown, a smaller PSP will surely fit nicely in everyone's bags but I hope the display won't get smaller as well.

Update:
Gamesindustry.biz has more details of the story, they say Sony will not change the size of the screen.

Everyone is talking about Barcelona - not the city, the server processor version of AMD's K10 architecture. As Fuad from Fudzilla.com is pointing out, only a fraction of us will invest money in that type of CPUs. So let's talk about the desktop version:
Starting from the Barcelona it sounds very logical that there will be two quad-core desktop versions. The Athlon 64 X4 (2MB shared L3-Cache, codename 'Agena') and the Athlon 64 FX (2MB shared L3, codename 'Agena FX'). There will be a dual-core Athlon 64 X2 ('Kuma'), it's unknown how much cache this will have implemented and last but not least there might be a single-core Athlon 64 ('Rana').
Some of the improvements of the K10 architecture are a faster HyperTransport solution (HT 3.0 up to 4GHz) and improved power saving modes (you don't need a driver anymore for it to work). Both will be supported by the new AM2+ platform. It remains to be seen if the new CPUs will be drop in compatible to existing sockets (losing the HT3 speeds and new Cool'n'Quiet features of course).
Btw.: Fuad is talking about 'Budapest' as well which is a 1xxx Opteron supporting a single socket only.

Update:
After writing this post it came to my attention that there are several more websites knowing something about the K10. In a German forum called Effizienzgurus you will find some more news regarding the whole lineup of processors.

Yeah, you could see a Mac Pro with whopping 8 CPU cores at the British Apple Store this morning. After they realized the mistake (or did it happen intentionally?) they took the wrong offering down.



The story behind that is quite simple. When the current Apple Mac Pro was introduced in August last year it was quite a performer around the Macs. Featuring two Dual Core Xeons (Xeon 5100 aka Woodcrest, up to 3GHz, 4 MByte shared L2-Cache), support for up to four PCI-E graphics cards (no SLI or Crossfire though) and a solid storage/network base it was very competitive compared to the PC workstations as well. But soon afterwards (in mid November) Intel revealed the Quad-Core-Xeons ('Clovertown').
Now it's finally time for Apple to unveil something new - obviously a Dual Quad-Core workstation, this time hopefully with full SLI or Crossfire support.
To add another theory, Apple will reveal a Quad-Core desktop Mac at the same time. At the moment the iMacs are based on Core 2 Duos (Merom) and that's it. I think there is plenty of room for a Kentsfield Mac...

While making my way through all the different press releases from companies like Corsair, Gigabyte, Sapphire and so on which are related to their CeBIT appearance I came across the one from GeCube this morning. But unlike Slobodan Simic from Fudzilla.com I simply missed the best part in GeCube's message to the world where it reads:

*Exclusive GECUBE Product with the ATI World's most powerful Chipset
GECUBE will be unveiling at CeBIT its secret weapon (NDA) for the second quarter of 2007. Using the latest ATI core with support for the new generation DX10 technology, don't miss this chance to witness its jaw-dropping performance for yourself at CeBIT!

So the chances are very high that AMD/ATI will lift the NDA at the CeBIT already and one can see many R600 based graphics cards to be showcased.

More R610 and R630 Details

techPowerUp! has already reported on some of the basic details of the R610 and R630, ATI/AMD's mainstream and value cards, but now there is a bit more information. The most important things to note are that cards will obviously be DirectX 10 compatible, and both support shader model 4.0. Rather than going into detail about the other specs, I'll let you read the information found in the attached image. Unfortunately there are still only bits and pieces of data, but it gives you a rough idea of what's on offer:

The men behind Fudzilla.com got hold of the release date of NVIDIA's next generation chip called G100. Their sources don't have much to offer but say the rival of AMD/ATI's forthcoming R700 will be due someday in the first quarter of 2008. That is a very tight schedule if you ask me...

Intels current mobile platform Napa get's a successor named Santa Rosa at the beginning of May. It comes in two versions, the PM65 and the GM965 featuring an integrated graphics core (DirectX 9.0c, up to 256MB shared memory).
The Santa Rosa platform will come with the new pin-grid array based 'Socket P' which is keyed differently than the current Socket M. Together with the Santa Rosa Intel will introduce Socket P CPUs. These special Meroms get a higher FSB (800MHz) than their Socket M counterpart but will come with frequencies as high as 2.8GHz. Sadly this Core 2 Extreme X7900 will be released somewhat later in the second half of this year.

If you look around at the notebook market today you will possibly find a solution which features a so called Mobility Radeon X2300 graphics chip. If you think about it this is something odd, the whole R600 aka X2K series is still be announced. Though the XbitLabs reported about one of these (the Asus A8Jr laptop) this January already. Today TheInquirer sheds some light onto the situation. It seems like AMD/ATI are mixing up the brand names of different chip generations. This former mentioned X2300 Mobility chip is in fact a rebranded X1300 chip, so nothing really fast and nowhere near sporting enough to be named in line with the R600 stuff.

There have reportedly been rumors of a 'Googlephone' that would respond to Apple's iPhone. And until now, they have been just that....rumors. However, The Inquirer recently found some patents that suggest the contrary. The Inquirer derives, based on the patents, that the phone will be dual-mode (will work with WiFi and Cellular connections). The phone should come in two versions, one that will support cdmaOne, and one that will support GSM. However, the most interesting thing about the 'Googlephone' would be a possible attempt by Google to do something like T9.

Recent roadmaps from Intel have suggested that the company intends to mass produce phase change memory by the end of 2007, allowing consumers to sample this new form of storge. Phase change memory, or PCM, is expected to succeed flash memory as the major non-volatile memory, being both faster and smaller. PCM is also more reliable - flash memory can degrade after as few as 10,000 writes, whilst PCM can last for over 100 million write cycles. Intel licensed the technology from Ovonyx in 2000, with IBM, Macronix and Qimonda announcing strong developments in the technology towards the end of last year. Intel hasn't set any firm dates yet, but phase change memory could be just around the corner.

w0mbat, from the VR-Zone forums, has found the following information in the latest Forceware drivers for Vista :

NVIDIA_G80.DEV_0191.1 = "NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX"
NVIDIA_G80.DEV_0193.1 = "NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS"
NVIDIA_G80.DEV_0194.1 = "NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra"
NVIDIA_G80.DEV_019E.1 = "NVIDIA Quadro FX 4600"
NVIDIA_G84.DEV_0400.1 = "NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS"
NVIDIA_G84.DEV_0402.1 = "NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT"
NVIDIA_G86.DEV_0421.1 = "NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT"
NVIDIA_G86.DEV_0422.1 = "NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS"
NVIDIA_G86.DEV_0423.1 = "NVIDIA GeForce 8300 GS"

It seems that NVIDIA is planning for a higher clocked GeForce 8800 Ultra and a cheaper GeForce 8400GS card. Will this be enough to compete against the R600? Or will we have to wait until the 8900 series?

The other day, techPowerUp! reported on a keygen for Windows Vista which supposedly allowed users to (illegally) generate activation codes for use with Vista which could fool the activation. However, the creator of this brute force keygen, known simply as "Computer User" on the KezNews forums, is himself admitting that the keygen was a joke and he's never gotten it to work, saying "everyone who said they got a key a probably lying or mistaken!" There have been some reports of success, and although there is a slight chance the keygen could work, the chances of actually generating a working code are slim - it would probably take days if you got one at all. So it looks like he's either worried about action from Microsoft and pretending it doesn't work, or it genuinely is a fake.Via: Slashdot

Interesting news from AMD: It plans to sort of launch it's upcoming K10 CPU on this coming monday if one can trust an interview of two AMD spokesmen at the french website Syndrom-OC.net. In this interview Giuseppe Amato (Technical Director, Sales and Marketing EMEA) and Philip G. Eisler (Senior Vice President, Chipset Division) are talking about the transition of the K8 to it's 65nm version, the K8L (L = Low Power). Furthermore they are explaining the new features AMD implemented into the Barcelona core and prove the rumor that it will come with 2.6 GHz only at the release.

Head on to Syndrom-OC.net to get the whole story.

Microsoft has yet another problem on it's hands regarding Windows Vista. Windows Vista, despite all the effort Microsoft put into securing it with various forms of Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) software, now has key generators (keygens) that can give a pirate a valid key. This is in no way perfect, and is quite time consuming. It simply makes a random string of 25 characters, which the pirate would then subject to Windows activation. If this were to ever catch on as a major fad among pirates, serious problems would arise. The most serious problem to Microsoft would not be the unpaid copy of Windows. Instead, it would be the possibility of a key matching a legal key that hasn't been bought yet.

It seems AnandTech has got another world's first - this time AMD's Barcelona core was examined. Anand Lal Shimpi reveals all the details you will need regarding the overall chipdesign, it's memory controller, pipeline and the other major and minor of it's features.
Have a good read but don't expect any benchmark figures... ;-)

Many people were disappointed by the recent R600 delay, which saw the release date for ATI's first DirectX 10 card pushed back to the next quarter at the earliest, but ATI has remained in the dark a little bit as to the true cause of the delays. However, I've received information from a reliable source that the delays were linked to problems with the GDDR4 which the top-end R600 cards will use. As of yet there is no more information on the specifics, so sorry for the brief story and lack of technical details, but at least that sheds some light on the matter.

Please note that this information is still unverified and may be wrong

In the past, we have seen several graphics novels become great video games, as well as movies. However, it's much rarer for a great video game/movie to become a comic book. Which is why the hardcover Halo graphic novel was so surprising. It sold extremely well, and because of this, Marvel has announced they will begin making a Halo comic series. While this in itself is good news for Halo fans everywhere, there's an amazing twist: the comics will be done by Marvel legends Brian Bendis and Alex Maleev. For those of you not into the comic book world, Bendis is behind such titles as Ultimate Spider-Man, New Avengers, as well as Mighty Avengers. And when Maleev hopped onboard the Daredevil project between issues 26 and 81, sales of the Daredevil series soared. There was no word as to when we can expect to start seeing these comics.

With Microsoft's Windows Vista released and being integrated into today's PCs at full speed, Apple can't be expected to just sit around and watch Windows get PC sales. We could possibly see a refresh of everything from the Mac Mini to the Xserve. Apple workers have confirmed one important thing though- a black iMac. The 20" and 24" versions will have a nice black paintjob, similar to the black Macbook and the black iPod Nano. Mac Pro's could get upgraded to eight-core models, and we may see a low-priced 15" Macbook. There are also rumors of new iCinema displays with HDMI ports that support HDCP content.

A sketchup of what the new iMac might look like:

Or at least, that's the current rumor. While we debate the current R600 rumors, The Inquirer is claiming that their "senior industry sources" have let loose the first G90 details rumors. The G90 will undertake the monumental task of putting the G80 through a die shrink. If all goes well, this will allow for very high clocks, much lower power consumption, and a lower production cost. NVIDIA also hopes to get hold of some GDDR4 for the G90, and will put it on a 512-bit bus.

I just got off the phone with ATI who informed me that the Editor's Day which was scheduled around March 11 (flights and hotels were already booked) has been postponed to the second quarter of 2007.
The reason is that their R600 Series is not where they want it to be yet, so they decided to move the launch to be able to deliver a competitive product. Also I am hearing that at the Q2 launch we will see more than just GPU related stuff, so I would guess Physics or GPGPU computing.

"To better align our strategy with current market opportunities, we've changed the launch plan for R600. We are going to deliver a competitive configuration to market with an extremely attractive combination of performance, features and pricing, targeting a broader market segment in Q2. With the revised strategy, AMD will be better able to capitalize on the broad appeal of 3D graphics and DirectX 10, being driven in part by the growing popularity of Windows Vista ."

"This was a tough decision to make for us, but a necessary one that will ultimately result in bringing a better product to market."

Looks like CeBIT won't be so interesting at all.

The Inquirer reports that ATI/AMD's R600 will win the "WHQL race" - both the hardware, as well as the necessary "WHQL certified" driver is due on CeBIT's eve - that is March 14th, to be exact. The drivers will support single as well as CrossFire setups for all ATI cards including the R600 generation, for both Windows XP and Vista. It is not certain if DX10 drivers for 64-bit operating systems will be out at the same time, but AMD has done its best so that the driver support will be second to none. AMD now has a levy over Nvidia measured in weeks - WHQL SLI driver for DirectX 10 or 64-bit Vista isn't expected until April - which is pretty sad. Nvidia has been shipping G80, or GeForce 8800 for almost six months now, and AMD will in the end ship more Vista WHQL certified dual-GPU systems than a six-month shipping product from their competitor. It is also important to note that the driver not only includes support for the Radeon X2900 series, but also low-end and mainstream parts under code-names RV610 and RV630, or Radeon X2200 and X2400.