Universe’s Tech Blog

Anyone want to donate one?

Test Post from Google Docs and Spreadsheets…

nVidia partners have commented on yesterday’s news that the graphics manufacturer has had to recall GF 8800 GTX cards, days before their scheduled launch, due to a manufacturing error and their responses are surprisingly calm.

Yesterday it was revealed that some GF 8800 GTX boards had a problem with a single resistor which could cause a system crash after some hours of use. It was revealed that nVidia had reacted quickly in order to avoid any launch delay. It now appears that the company’s biggest partners are aware of the issue and are fairly confident that no launch delay will take place.

BFGTech, eVGA and XFX have all commented on the issue and stated that they have had enough time to address the issue and will now be able to meet their shipment dates. All boards that have been repaired will carry a special mark which will let consumers know that the issue has been addressed.

So if we are to believe nVidia and partners, yesterday’s panic was more of a PR problem for nVidia rather than a practical issue. nVidia expects to meet its November 8 launch date.

nVidia’s release of the G80 GPU has been surprising as the company has kept the PR babble down to a minimum and has, instead, focused on the rave reviews the hardware has received. The real surprise however, is that the graphics giant has pulled off a major change in architecture smoothly and with minimal problems.

The flagship GeForce 8800 GTX, you know the one with the 575MHz core clock and the 768 MB of GDDR3 at 900MHz, has been outperforming rival after rival and in some tests run s even faster than two ATI boards in a Crossfire setup. All that even though the drivers are far from mature for such a new design and with the lack of Vista drivers and therefore DX10 benchmarking.

The real difference offered by the G80 design is, of course, the unified shader model, a design which ATI utilised first in the X360 Xenos GPU but one which has not been available to PC gamers until now. With the addition of the Vista driver, expected next week, the GF 8800 GTX will become the true performance king, although folks at ATI (or is it AMD?) are hard at work on their own DX10 board that will attempt to challenge nVidia.

Disney has shown its strong support to Nintendo by introducing a studio which will create content exclusively for Nintendo’s DS and Wii systems.
Buena Vista Games, the interactive entertainment affiliate of The Walt Disney Company, announced the formation of a new video game development studio based in Salt Lake City, Fall Line Studio’s focus is to develop games based on Disney’s characters, television shows and entertainment franchises as well as creating new intellectual property for the Nintendo DS and Wii game systems.

Built around a core of industry veterans, the studio will focus on small-team, creative projects that leverage the Disney brand in new and innovative ways. Fall Line Studio will operate as a sister studio to Buena Vista Games’ award-winning Avalanche Software studio, also in Salt Lake City, giving the company an advantage in reaching the strong pool of creative talent in the region.

Industry veteran Scott Novis will serve as vice president and general manager for Fall Line Studio. Prior to this position, Novis served as general manager of Rainbow Studios where he grew the staff from 30 to more than 200 employees. His experience in the video game business and knowledge of the industry will allow Fall Line Studio to capitalize on the power of the Disney brand and deliver innovative games for the mass market.

BVG has a strong reputation for creating games for Nintendo platforms and is the No. 3 publisher of Game Boy Advance titles in North America. The strength of the company’s famous characters, Disney Channel properties and entertainment intellectual properties provide Buena Vista Games with a deep catalog of content.

Sony’s Playstation 3 console has made its highly anticipated debut in its homeland of Japan where fans have quickly eliminated the 100,000 units Sony had spared for the occasion.

Japanese consumers had formed long lines long before the console’s release in an attempt to secure possession of the PS3. Crowds were disappointed at the short supplies and some complaints were heard over Sony’s choice of price but most of those queuing were just happy to get their hands on the console.

All retailers in Japan have refused to comment on the number of units they received from Sony so it is hard to establish how impressive the fact that stores sold out in a few hours really is.

Analysts expect Sony to lose some of its dominance of the console market during the next-generation race, mainly due to the risk of introducing a brand new architecture and the battle of the DVD formats. Developers have also been facing a few problems familiarizing themselves with the needs of the PS3.

Sony will be making a loss on every console sold during these early stages of the PS3’s introduction while analysts expect the company to begin showing profits by 2008. Sony expects its gaming division to lose USD 1.7 billion in the fiscal year through March 2007.

Sony is facing a delicate balance as its pricing policy on its new console has been severely criticized. As a result the company took the unprecedented step of cutting the Japanese PS3 price prior to its launch to approximately USD 420 for the cheaper model (a drop of about 20 per cent). The more expensive 60 GB model retails in Japan for about USD 510.

Sony will have 400,000 units of the PS3 available for its U.S. launch, November 17 and analysts expect a similar pattern of quick sold-out announcements from most North American retailers. The Japanese consumer electronics giant plans to ship 6 million PS3 units by March 2007, in a forecast which many analysts consider unrealistic, especially as the European launch of the console has been delayed to spring 2007.

Sony’s main rival in Japan, Nintendo, will introduce its new gaming console on November 19 2006 and it is expected that there will be adequate supplies for the launch. Together with Microsoft’s XBox 360, Nintendo’s Wii will be the main rivals to the PS3 and are expected to begin digging into Sony’s market share.

Despite all the negative press Sony has received, most analysts agree that the PS3 will begin making money at some point in the future and that is the main measure which determines whether a console was successful.

Internode is the first third-party ISP to announce its ‘draft pricing’ for 8Mbit/s broadband in areas it doesn’t already have ADSL2+, based on Telstra’s new wholesale network

It has not confirmed the pricing because it is awaiting final contracts from Telstra. The draft pricing is based on verbal assurances from Telstra.

Internode has dropped pricing by $10 for existing 1.5Mbit/s plans, and any customer can trade-up to 8Mbit/s for $10 more than they would have paid before for a 1.5Mbit/s plan.

The upshot is that 8Mbit/s broadband — roughly equivalent to the speed of OptusNet Cable and BigPond Cable standard — is available across Australia with plans that are considerably better value than BigPond’s.

Internode’s new pricing is as follows:
HOME-Fast-Value $79.95 Min: 1500k/256k
Max: 8000k/384k 20 GB Shaped
HOME-Fast-Pro $99.95 Min: 1500k/256k
Max: 8000k/384k 40 GB Shaped
HOME-Fast-Elite $139.95 Min: 1500k/256k
Max: 8000k/384k 80 GB Shaped

In comparison, BigPond charges $89.95 for a plan with 12GB an unlimited usage at dial-up speeds after that; $119.95 for 25GB and $149.95 for 60GB.

BigPond Chief Justin Milne admitted at the launch of BigPond’s ADSL2+ service that his pricing was at a premium compared to other ISPs, but he believes that the additional free content made available to BigPond customers would compensate.

Telstra does offer one cheaper plan than Internode: $59.95 for 600MB. However, apart from the speed, it represents poor value compared to other ISPs.

Unlike iiNet and Optus Broadband, Internode does not require its customers to pay for an additional telephony service like VoIP or basic line rental if they want to get the fastest broadband available.

Many companies are jumping aboard the bandwagon that aims to merge the two archrival next-gen optical disc standards, Blu-ray and HD-DVD. A hybrid seems to be the closest thing we’ll get to a unified HD standard, so its a valiant goal.

Broadcom is the latest to heave its weight on the wagon, proclaiming it’s the first to unleash upon the industry a “… complete system-on-a-chip (SoC) solution that combines both Blu-ray™ and HD DVD optical disc formats into a highly integrated, single-chip design.”

Among those who are already on the bandwagon, Ricoh has whipped up a single laser that can read both discs, a group of inventors has filed a patent for a DVD/Blu-ray/HD-DVD single disc monstrosity, and NEC has told the world it’s mashed up a single chip that can handle both next-gen HD standards.

Yes, NEC has been there, done that, and is outta gum — that would mean Broadcom isn’t the first. Don’t tell or its head might implode with all manner of exotic concepts, like facts.

Also supporting DVD and CD media, the chip can decode many standards including H.264/AVC, VC-1, MPEG-2, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Tru-HD, and DTS-HD.

Unlike NEC, Broadcom made no specific mention of a digital copy protection system. The included support for a network interface, however, makes it possible that the chip uses AACS, which is a next-gen form of digital rights management.

The most stringent of the current AACS specifications (PDF) demand an online transaction in order to verify that your media is legitimate before you can use or watch what’s on it.

A dual-standard capable player with such a processor under the hood has potential to pave a way for inexpensive consumer access to both HD-DVD and Blu-ray standards.

In an ideal world, this would indeed be the case. But the waging optical war is just starting to heat up and this chip is unlikely to dampen its presence.

One of the spanners in the gears as to why there are exactly naught manufacturers using hybrid chips is cost. Although it may be cheaper to use one hybrid chip as opposed to two separate chips in different players, the overall cost of creating such a hybrid machine could end up more expensive.

This is exactly the reason why certain unnamed Taiwan manufacturers are saying they won’t be launching hybrid players any time soon.

Thus, there’s seemingly no end to this crazy standards war. In the words of an idealist Slashdot reader, “Buy neither. Technology designed by lawyers should not be rewarded.”