Flight’s Speed Limit
by Overclockers Club news Feed on Jan.27, 2012, under Technology News
Flying is not often an easy thing, especially at high speed. Though the movies make it look like a fighter pilot can move in and out quickly and effortlessly of any terrain (assuming the pilot has a name and isn’t just “Fighter Pilot 1”) the level of skill required is tremendous. Getting an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to do it is even more difficult. In fact, researchers at MIT have found it can be impossible to accomplish this, but their findings may actually allow UAVs to step it up a notch.
Birds have been flying for much longer than man, and researchers have been puzzled about how they can navigate forests at high speed. In some cases the birds are flying so fast they would not be able to stop in time to avoid a crash, if an obstacle suddenly comes into view. Yet birds would not fly that fast if they were in great danger, so how do they do it? They guess. Instead of relying on just what they see before them, the birds will estimate the density of the forest and fly as fast as is safe. They may be going too fast to stop in time, but they can be confident there is a safe path to take.
The model the researchers created of the bird’s speed and the density of forests showed there is a maximum safe speed. Above this speed, there is a guarantee of a crash, but below this speed, a safe path can be expected to exist. Applying this to UAVs could dramatically increase their speed Currently, UAVs will travel no faster than their field of view allows. If a UAV can only see five meters in front of it, it will not go so fast as to need more than five meters to stop. With this research though, much more agile robots could be built.
The AMD FX (Bulldozer) Scheduling Hotfixes Tested
by Anand Lal Shimpi on Jan.27, 2012, under Technology News
The basic building block of Bulldozer is the dual-core module, pictured below. AMD wanted better performance than simple SMT (ala Hyper Threading) would allow but without resorting to full duplication of resources we get in a traditional dual core CPU. The result is a duplication of integer execution resources and L1 caches, but a sharing of the front end and FPU. AMD still refers to this module as being dual-core, although it's a departure from the more traditional definition of the word. In the early days of multi-core x86 processors, dual-core designs were simply two single core processors stuck on the same package. Today we still see simple duplication of identical cores in a single processor, but moving forward it's likely that we'll see more heterogenous multi-core systems. AMD's Bulldozer architecture may be unusual, but it challenges the conventional definition of a core in a way that we're probably going to face one way or another in the not too distant future.
A four-module, eight-core Bulldozer
The bigger issue with Bulldozer isn't one of core semantics, but rather how threads get scheduled on those cores. Ideally, threads with shared data sets would get scheduled on the same module, while threads that share no data would be scheduled on separate modules. The former allows more efficient use of a module's L2 cache, while the latter guarantees each thread has access to all of a module's resources when there's no tangible benefit to sharing.
This ideal scenario isn't how threads are scheduled on Bulldozer today. Instead of intelligent core/module scheduling based on the memory addresses touched by a thread, Windows 7 currently just schedules threads on Bulldozer in order. Starting from core 0 and going up to core 7 in an eight-core FX-8150, Windows 7 will schedule two threads on the first module, then move to the next module, etc... If the threads happen to be working on the same data, then Windows 7's scheduling approach makes sense. If the threads scheduled are working on different data sets however, Windows 7's current treatment of Bulldozer is suboptimal.
AMD and Microsoft have been working on a patch to Windows 7 that improves scheduling behavior on Bulldozer. The result are two hotfixes that should both be installed on Bulldozer systems. Read on for our take on what these hotfixes do to Bulldozer's Windows 7 performance.
The Radeon HD 7970 Reprise: PCIe Bandwidth, Overclocking, & The State Of Anti-Aliasing
by Anand Lal Shimpi on Jan.27, 2012, under Technology News
With the release of AMD’s Radeon HD 7970 it’s clear that AMD has once again regained the single-GPU performance crown. But while the 7970’s place in the current GPU hierarchy is well established, we’re still trying to better understand the ins and outs of AMD’s new Graphics Core Next Architecture. What does it perform well at and what is it weak at? How might GCN scale with future GPUs? Etc.
Next week we’ll be taking a look at CrossFire performance and the performance of AMD’s first driver update. But in the meantime we wanted to examine a few other facets of the 7970: the impact of PCIe bandwidth on performance, overclocking our reference 7970 (and the performance impact thereof), and what AMD is doing for anti-aliasing with the surprise addition of SSAA for DX10+ along with an interesting technical demo implementing MSAA and complex lighting side-by-side. So let’s get started.
Hardware Roundup: Friday Edition
by Overclockers Club news Feed on Jan.27, 2012, under Technology News
MSI has a mid-tower case, the Raptor, under review today and may be worth examining if you're in need of a budget case for your next build. We also have an unboxing video of the Thermaltake Overseer RX-I full-tower case. Keeping it cool is the job of the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO CPU cooler and we have another look at the cooler in today's roundup. We also have a couple of opinion pieces on ultrabooks and whether the PC is in decline. In video, we get another opportunity to examine the Galaxy GeForce GT 520 MDT for anyone looking to add up to four displays at a minimal cost.
Cases
MSI Raptor @ LanOC Reviews
Unboxing the Thermaltake Overseer RX-I Full Tower Case @ ThinkComputers
Cooling
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO CPU Cooler @ Tweaknews
Input Devices
Thermaltake Meka G Unit @ LanOC Reviews
Notebooks
Ultrabooks: Intel Knows What's Good For You @ PC Perspective
Power Supplies
NZXT HALE82 750-watt Power Supply @ TweakTown
Video
Galaxy MDT GeForce GT 520 Review: Quad-Display Budget Card @ TechSpot
Miscellany
Podcast #186 @ PC Perspective
PCs in decline? Not for enthusiasts @ Tech Report
Samsung Exynos 5250 Begins Sampling – Mass Production in Q2 2012
by Anand Lal Shimpi on Jan.27, 2012, under Technology News
Back in November, Samsung announced its next generation Exynos 5250 SoC based on ARM’s Cortex-A15 architecture. Samsung confirmed today during its earnings call that the Exynos 5250 has begun sampling and should hit mass production in Q2 2012
Just to recap, the Exynos 5250 is a 32nm dual-core Cortex-A15 SoC running at 2.0 Ghz. Memory bandwidth is a staggering 12.8 GB/s and allows it to drive up to WQXGA (2560x1600) resolution displays. As we reported back in November, compute performance should easily be twice that of the 1.5Ghz dual-core Cortex-A9-based Exynos 4210 and graphics performance is expected to be a four-fold improvement.
However, not much is known about the GPU at this moment; but if the Exynos 4210 was anything to go by, we could see ARM's Mali T-604 based on their new Midgard architecture handling the pixel pushing duties. The Exynos 4210 packed a Mali-400 MP4 GPU, while its predescessor, Hummingbird, used a PowerVR SGX540 GPU. Samsung does have licenses to other GPU designs from ARM and Imagination Technologies, so at this point, the GPU in the Exynos 5250 could be anybody's guess.
The next generation SoC race is definitely heating up with silicon from major players such as Qualcomm (Snapdragon S4 "Krait") and Texas Instruments (OMAP 5) all expected to ramp up production soon, with devices expected in Q3/Q4 2012. Of course, what Apple could be doing with its A6 chip is entirely another story.
Source: GSMArena
Insomniac Games Leaving Resistance Series Behind, Focuses on New IPs
by Overclockers Club news Feed on Jan.27, 2012, under Technology News
PlayStation gamers know Insomniac Games as being behind the stellar Resistance series on the PS3 (and PSP), plus the Spyro the Dragon games on the original PlayStation. Resistance 3 shipped last year, and Resistance: Burning Skies will launch on the Vita this year, but that sounds like the last Resistance title we will get from the studio. Insomniac Games announced today it is moving on from the Resistance series, and will instead work on some new intellectual properties. June of last year saw the studio announce Overstrike, its first multiplatform game, but has not revealed a whole lot about it since. We do know it will be a cooperative shooter, but anything beyond that has not been discussed by Insomniac. Now without the Resistance titles dominating the studio's workload, we should be hearing plenty more about Overstrike and any other new games Insomniac has up its sleeve. Resistance could move on to another Sony studio, but the fate of that is up in the air once Burning Skies launches.
Free-Standing 3D Invisibility Cloak Made
by Overclockers Club news Feed on Jan.27, 2012, under Technology News
Researchers have successfully cloaked a three dimensional object, specifically a cylindrical tube, according to the Institute of Physics. Invisibility cloaks and other items have been described in myth and legend for thousands of years, but only recently with metamaterials has this seemed possible. Metamaterials are man-made materials with properties not found in nature, such as a negative index of refraction. The first invisibility cloak used these to hide an area from microwaves, and this new creation also operates on microwaves, but uses a different approach.
Normally an object is visible because light hits it and is scattered, or reflected, back to our eye which perceives the signal. The traditional metamaterial hid an area by bending light around it, like a highway going around a city instead of through it. This new cloak though uses plasmonic metamaterials which do not redirect the light around the object. Instead the light which reflects off the object and the cloak cancel each other out.
This is a major step towards real 3D invisibility cloaks, but for now is more a proof-of-concept for the regular person. As stated earlier, this only will hide an object from microwaves, specifically those around 3.1 GHz. Fortunately the use of plasmonic metamaterials gives the cloak a moderately broad bandwidth, which is not the case with regular metamaterials. Also, the effect is not limited to the specific shape of a cylinder but should also work on asymmetric and other oddly shaped objects. The size of the cloak though is limited by the wavelength of the light it operates on. An invisibility cloak using this technology that works on visible light would only be micrometers in size. This could still be useful for hiding microscope tips, like those used in biomedicine, but won’t hide a house or person.
Square Enix Now on Good Old Games
by Overclockers Club news Feed on Jan.27, 2012, under Technology News
Over the last week or so, Good Old Games was teasing its newest publisher with a series of cryptic messages. Today, the veil has been lifted as Square Enix is now on Good Old Games, with two classics available today. Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition and Hitman: Codename 47 are the first two Square Enix games available on GOG.com, with the website saying more will follow. Both games, like everything available on GOG.com, do not have any form of DRM, so you can buy the games once and then install on as many of your computers that you want. Deus Ex and Hitman are both classics that launched franchises, and if you have not played either one, head on over to GOG.com to see what you have been missing.
Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition is available for $9.99, while Hitman: Codename 47 is at $5.99.
MLG Announces Dates for 2012 Season
by Overclockers Club news Feed on Jan.27, 2012, under Technology News
After a successful 2011 season, Major League Gaming has been slowly releasing information about the upcoming StarCraft 2 events for 2012. The format will be very different this year, with the year broken into four seasons. As of now, little is known about all seasons except for the Winter season. Online qualifiers for the Winter Championship will be held during the first two weeks of February. The Winter Arena event will be held February 24-26 in New York City. MLG returns to Columbus, OH for the Winter Championship from March 23-25. The Winter Championship will have $76,000 in total prize money, with first place receiving $25,000 and the top 16 finishers all receiving prize money. Dates for the other seasonal championships were also announced. The Spring Championship will be held from June 8-10, Summer from August 24-26, and Fall from November 2-4. MLG isn't ready to release the locations for the other championships just yet, but ESFI World has confirmed the Spring event will be held at the Anaheim Convention Center.
MegaUpload Users Unhappy About Lost Files, Plan to Sue FBI
by Overclockers Club news Feed on Jan.27, 2012, under Technology News
One week ago today, the file sharing site MegaUpload was shut down and several high ranking employees were arrested. It was taken down due to accusations of copyright infringement, but there were plenty of users that used the service for perfectly legal and legitimate purposes. These users seem to have gotten the short end of the stick in this, and they aren't happy about it. Pirate Parties around the world have begun to assemble lists of people who have had access to their data taken away from them by the FBI, and they then plan to sue. The groups involved hope that this action will help out those that have used the service for legitimate purposes as the takedown of the site may have helped copyright holders. “This initiative is a starting point for legitimate internet users to help defend themselves from the legal abuses promoted by those wishing to aggressively lock away cultural materials for their own financial gain.” Anyone interested in joining the movement can do so here.
