3D DVDs, New Video Array Technology, Wireless FireWire
Good morning gang, JeffB stopping by with your morning news update. While Marco is fighting off a bug, or possibly an overdose of pollen, I have a dilemma of a different kind. I took a ride to Top Sail Island off the coast of NC yesterday and didn't bring the sunblock. After walking along the beach for several hours without protection, I am now very well done. Needless to say, there are no quick movements in my future nor any sun going to hit me for a few days. I'm about as red as a tomatoe when I am usually pasty white. Ouch!
Want to watch DVDs on your PC in 3D? DDD Group PLC just released a WinDVD add-on component that turns any DVD into a 3D DVD. It's not for everyone, but it may be someday:
"DDD Group PLC has released the TriDef DVD Player, with software that purports to turn any DVD into a 3D movie. (DDD stands for Dynamic Digital Depth). This WinDVD add-on will convert conventional, two-dimensional video into 3D on the fly. DDD won't sell the software itself, but hopes to license it to manufacturers of 3D notebooks - specifically 3D notebooks that don't require special glasses."
Designtechnica reports Alienware unveiled new Video Array and X2 technology at the Electronic Entertainment Expo. The goal is to enhance the performance of games, professional applications and real time rendering:
"Video Array is an accelerated graphics processing subsystem that will allow users to add multiple, off-the-shelf video cards to their Alienware computer systems and have both cards process graphic commands in parallel. Understanding the wide-ranging wants and needs of its customers, Alienware designed its solution so that it is not tied to any one specific video card. This design will allow users to take full advantage of the fastest video card on the market for a significant performance increase."
Over at Techweb we saw a post on a new standard enabling wireless IEEE1394:
"The new Protocol Adaptation Layer (PAL) for IEEE 1394 over IEEE 802.15.3 was approved Monday. In a statement, the trade association said: The PAL is designed as a standard convergence layer between the 802.15.3 MAC and applications developed for wired 1394. It builds upon the 1394 infrastructure--for example, data formats, connection-management schemes, and time synchronization procedures--and takes advantage of the excellent quality of service available in 802.15.3.
"After surviving what was a fairly dismal end run for their Athlon XP and Pentium 4 based products in 2003, VIA has come back in 2004 and is doing a great job at gaining back the trust they lost with the enthusiast market. Much of this renewed success can be attributed to VIA's K8T800 series of chipsets for AMD's Athlon64, Athlon64 FX, and Opteron processors. With so few chipsets on the market for AMD's new processors, and rival nVidia largely mis-firing with their nForce3 150-series chipset, VIA has been able to pick up the slack and become the premiere chipset designer for AMD's fastest Athlon64 processors."
OK folks, that's it for me. Time to get some Aloe Vera on this burn!