graphics subsystem

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The key to Windows success? It's all about the drivers

The greatest advantage of the Windows ecosystem is that there are so many choices. The biggest problem with the Windows ecosystem is that there are so many choices. Ironic, isn't it? The sheer number of choices means you can almost certainly...

Tags: Problem, Driver, OEM, Graphics Subsystem, Vista/Server 2008/Win7 Ecosystem, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Notebooks, Software, Hardware, Notebooks & Tablets, Ed Bott

Blog posts 2008-05-13

Additional Resources

First Nvidia Ion netbook now available: HP Mini 311

Bad design and late to marketThe Ion chipset is essentially wasted on this. You have the Ion LE, which is a DirectX 9-only variant of the DX10-packin' Ion, on a netbook running Windows XP. There's no DX Compute shader option on Windows XP and there won't be in...

Tags: Netbooks, nettops & MIDs, Chipsets, NVidia Corp., ASUS Eee PC, WTH, netbook, NVIDIA ION, Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows, Hewlett-Packard Co.

Discussion threads 2009-09-25

Snow Leopard geared for multicore future

You do realize that...You do realize that GCD is just a combination of 2 technologies that already existed previously on other platforms, right?a) Apple finally added "closures", aka "anonymous methods" or "lambda expressions" to Objective-C. Other languages have had this for many many years, and it is what you need...

Tags: Apple Inc., multi-core

Discussion threads 2009-08-31

When (and why) do you buy a new PC?

When and why do you buy a new PC?Just before a new release of Windows ...... providing OEM's offer a 'free' upgrade to the next version of the OS. That way you get a copy of XP and an upgrade to Vista/ copy of Vista and upgrade to Windows7 (which...

Tags: Notebooks, Games, dell laptop, new-PC, laptop computer, game, PC

Discussion threads 2009-05-20

AMD pushes Phenom II X4 to 3.2GHz

AMD pushes Phenom II X4 to 3.2GHzYeh well, I guess I am going to have to upgrade my IBM PC/XT.Whatever happened with the DOS 640K limit--did they fix that yet?I was waiting on that.Hiding a weak CPU behind the graphics subsystemThe smoke and mirrors is getting stale. The CPU...

Tags: Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Phenom II X4, CPU

Discussion threads 2009-04-23

Core i5 details leaked

Core i5 details leakedYes, certainly expensive for a crippled i7 derivativeIt makes the 920 seem like a bargain at $290.RE: Core i5 details leakedMost people use there computers for basic office applications, email and facebook. This is why netbooks are becoming so popular. ...

Tags: Corporate governance, Chipsets, Semiconductors, Processors, Core i7, Core i5

Discussion threads 2009-04-20

Apple to sell $899 20-inch aluminum iMac to schools

Apple quietly announced plans this week to begin selling an aluminum 20-inch iMac configuration to qualified educational institutions for $899, putting the final nail in the coffin of the white 17-inch legacy model that the new model replaces. The previous white 17-inch iMac...

Tags: Apple iMac, Apple Inc., Desktops, Hardware, Andrew Nusca

Blog posts 2009-04-14

How vulnerable are the iPhone and BlackBerry juggernauts? Very.

How vulnerable are the iPhone and BlackBerry juggernauts? Very.My question is about the Palm PreI've heard that you can't access the Graphics subsystem through the SDK. Does this mean that there'll be no games at all, or will all of the games be flash based?bad analysis"Commodity market. And commodity markets...

Tags: Handhelds, Digital media, Digital music, Apple iPhone, RIM BlackBerry, BlackBerry juggernaut

Discussion threads 2009-04-02

Apple addresses MBP17 vertical lines with firmware update

Apple today posted MacBook Pro Graphics Firmware Update 1.0 (770kb) which addresses the appearance of vertical lines or distorted graphics on the notebook display. According to the about page there are two parts to this process: Installing the firmware update application onto your...

Tags: Firmware Update, Apple Inc., Firmware, Graphics, Jason D. O'Grady

Blog posts 2009-03-25

PPoPP 2009 Day 2: Are most programmers stupid?

PPoPP 2009 Day 2: Are most programmers stupid?Yale Patt is being foolish.You cannot ignore the factors of time and money. In the real non-ideal world, their are many practical considerations that cannot be avoided.Most programmers are average, which may not be good enough for "Yale Patt" but it is...

Tags: Development tools, programmer, PPoPP 2009 Day 2, Yale Patt

Discussion threads 2009-02-20

Windows 7 build 6956 vs. Windows XP SP3

Windows 7 build 6956 vs. Windows XP SP3RTM vs SP1Hi:I can only comment on the boot time and Passmark tests. The boot time differences aren't significant to me. But, how do you get any of the builds to boot so fast? I'm pretty good at getting fast boots on a...

Tags: Microsoft Windows Vista (Longhorn), Operating systems, Video Conversion, Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Windows 7, PassMark, SP1, SP3

Discussion threads 2008-12-11

iPhone vs. Android development: Day 4

It's day 4 of a 5-day course on iPhone programming. As before I'll be sharing my observations from the classroom on how development on the iPhone compares to Android development. The class is presented by Joe Conway from Big Nerd Ranch. [Read: Day 1, Day 2, Day...

Tags: Apple iPhone, Animation, Camera, View, View Transitions, Core Graphics, Android API, Ed Burnette

Blog posts 2008-11-20

Microsoft to discourage hybrid graphics systems for Windows 7

Microsoft to discourage hybrid graphics systems for Windows 7Why should we use hybrid graphics?IMO the graphic card manufactures should do something like what the CPUs manufactures do, dynamic adjustment. When in a lower power battery setting the GPU could adjust to a lower clock speed and or voltage, etc.That is...

Tags: Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows, Hybrid Graphics, graphics, GPU, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Windows Vista, graphics system, Apple Inc.

Discussion threads 2008-11-06

MinWin: Is it or isn't it part of Windows 7?

Confusion over exactly what MinWin is -- Is it a concept? a new operating system kernel? a floor wax? a dessert topping?) -- and how/whether it will be part of Windows 7 is still rampant, a week after Microsoft "communicated" about Windows 7 via a Q&A with News.com. ...

Tags: Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Corp., Kernel, MinWin, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Mary Jo Foley

Blog posts 2008-06-02

Vista screams past XP in gaming tests!

Sorry for the exclamation point in the headline, but my inner media critic, who is taking over for the second half of this post, insisted on it. It's there for a reason, which I'll get to shortly, I promise. [Update: My inner media critic is laughing out loud at the people who completely missed this...

Tags: Game, Page, Performance, Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Windows Vista (Longhorn), Microsoft Windows XP, Operating Systems, Microsoft Windows, Software, Ed Bott

Blog posts 2008-05-27

Benchmarks: Psystar v. Mac mini (and all three MacBooks)

Benchmarks: Psystar v. Mac mini and all three MacBooksThe tests Adrian refused to runI guess he was going to find that his Mac Mini was not a good purchase anyway.RE: Benchmarks: Psystar v. Mac mini and all three MacBooksWell what do the numbers indicate ??? Larger numbers better or worse...

Tags: PRODUCTIVITY, Desktops, Psystar, Apple Intel Mac Mini, Apple Macintosh, Apple Inc., Apple MacBook, computer, Tiny Computers

Discussion threads 2008-05-14

Fixing Windows Vista, Part 2: Taming UAC

The User Account Control feature in Windows Vista has been known to drive normally level-headed people over the edge with frustration. If you find it annoying, you might be tempted to turn it off. According to Microsoft research, somewhere between 12 and 16 percent of all Windows Vista users do...

Tags: Program, Account, Microsoft Windows Vista, UAC, Dialog Box, OK, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Windows Vista (Longhorn), Operating Systems, Software, Ed Bott

Blog posts 2008-04-29

Fixing Windows Vista, one machine at a time

If the "Vista sucks" movement has a public face, it's the Sony Vaio. No one knows that better than my new friend Jeremy Toeman. In May 2007, this 15-year Windows veteran replaced his old, beloved, XP-powered Vaio with a newer Vaio that came with Windows Vista Business installed. Practically overnight,...

Tags: Sony Corp., Sony Vaio, Clean Install, Installation, Driver, Microsoft Windows Vista, Machine, Recovery Partition, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Windows Vista (Longhorn), Operating Systems, Software, Ed Bott

Blog posts 2008-04-21

Is Hyper-V ready for the Windows desktop?

A few days ago, my ZDNet blogging colleague Jason Perlow offered some suggestions on how he would design Windows 7 for maximum backward compatibility. One of his key proposals involved using virtualization to solve application compatibility problems: What if Microsoft were to build a “Personal” Hyper-V...

Tags: Desktop, Virtualization, Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows Server, Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Corp., Hyper-V, VM, Linux Integration Component, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Operating Systems, Software, Ed Bott

Blog posts 2008-04-17

Is MinWin really the new Windows 7 kernel?

In my post about Windows 7 back in January ("Windows 7 = Vista Release 2"), I ended with a statement that deserves some follow-up: Those who are predicting that Windows 7 will include some radically stripped-down kernel (the so-called MinWin project) or a new file system are missing the...

Tags: Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows Vista, Kernel, MinWin, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Ed Bott

Blog posts 2008-03-31