SuzukiSavage.com - 2020 -- new Intel failures & successes

Welcome, Guest. Please Login or Register :: View Members

SuzukiSavage.com › General Category › The Cafe › 2020 -- new Intel failures & successes

(Moderators: verslagen1, Dave, Serowbot)

‹ Previous topic | Next topic ›

Pages: 1 ... 12 13 14 15 16 ... 31

2020 -- new Intel failures & successes (Read 12299 times)

Oldfeller--FSO

Serious Thumper
ModSquad

Offline

Hobby is now
"concentrated
neuropany"

Posts: 12637
Fayetteville, NC
Gender: male

Re: 2019 -- new Intel failures & successes
Reply #195 - 02/15/19 at 14:59:40

https://www.techradar.com/news/microsofts-lite-os-could-be-seriously-stripped...

Microsoft’s Lite OS could be seriously stripped-down to run on almost any device

More alleged details on the ‘Lite’ operating system – Microsoft’s rumored lightweight spin on Windows – have emerged, shedding further light on what kind of machines the OS will run on, and just how far it has been stripped-back and simplified.

You may, or may not, recall that journalist Brad Sams, a prolific source of info relating to Microsoft, spilled the beans on Lite at the tail-end of last year, revealing an apparently lightweight OS which can run on any processor, including low-end hardware to rival the likes of super-cheap Chromebooks.

The latest nuggets from Sams insist that Microsoft is working on Lite for two different types of devices categorized as Centaurus and Pegasus.

Now, Centaurus probably rings a bell, because it’s the dual-screen 2-in-1 device Microsoft is reportedly working on. Pegasus, on the other hand, simply refers to other different styles of laptops which will run the OS at the lower-end of the market.

Lite contains a major Software shift
Lite OS may even go as far as to eschew support for traditional Windows apps and instead make its software lifeblood applications from the Microsoft Store and PWAs (progressive web apps).

We’ve already heard how Microsoft is pushing PWAs, and driving hard to get more of them, as part of plans to beef-up its app ecosystem ahead of the launch of rumored dual-screen devices (not just Centaurus, but a possible smaller mobile Surface device, previously referred to as a ‘pocketable’ computer).

Everything seems to be tying together, then, with Microsoft’s future seemingly built around Lite OS, PWAs, and these purported dual-screen devices and low-end laptops to rival Chromebooks.

Previous buzz from the rumor mill has pointed to a 2019 launch for both Lite and Centaurus, so fingers crossed that whatever is happening, it happens this year and we’ll know about it soon enough.

Mickey recognises their last Chromebook Buster was a total flop, a complete bust as it came out of the gate.

This upcoming time around it is suspected that what Mickey has actually stripped out will be the vast majority of their own historical MS written x86 OS functionality and what is left will be made up from Clear Linux is simplified Linux/Chrome functionality that has been mildly worked over for appearance sake.

All of Clear Linux code and associated derived items must be FOSS code posted as part of the FOSS system. Look to see the new "better parts of Mickey's improvements" to be incorporated into more standard Linux Distros ASAP as their own code gets "re-tuned and selectively modernized" as part of Linus Torvalds sponsored Linux 2019 clean up wave.

Also, the reasoning behind Google Fuschia becomes clearer and clearer to everybody as time goes on. MS is quietly adopting the core code basis for Chrome OS and Google simply does not wish to support the weight of Mickey and all its world of bloat sitting up on their shoulders from now on ..... nor do they want the MS Windows Store taking any market share away from the Android/Chrome developers in the Google Play Store.

===================================================

Read this and see if you can predict where MS is going with all of their new stuff ........

https://liliputing.com/2019/02/windows-subsystem-for-linux-update-will-let-yo...

« Last Edit: 02/19/19 at 14:29:54 by Oldfeller--FSO »

Former Savage Owner

IP Logged

Oldfeller--FSO

Serious Thumper
ModSquad

Offline

Hobby is now
"concentrated
neuropany"

Posts: 12637
Fayetteville, NC
Gender: male

Re: 2019 -- new Intel failures & successes
Reply #196 - 02/16/19 at 14:41:33

2019 seems to be a year of transformational change

You got Rossi, kicking off the Fusion Age of Man. You got the Big 3 car makers started going electric. You got Harley going broke by slow drips and drabs while failing at going electric. You got Intel getting force transformed by competition pressure into something it has no skills to be successful at doing.

You got Microsoft busily trying again to roll over to more of a Chrome/Linux basis simply because their old x86 code base sucks and it cannot be kept up even with the nightly tweeking & fiddling constant updates.

You got smaller very agile players (Rockchip, Amlogic, Mediatek) putting together AI backed ARM A73 bigs and A53 littles into ARM based low end laptop grade chipsets that all use the new Midgard G series Mali graphics sets. These lesser players are making up quite acceptable "low end performance" little bitty machines for casual home use at a shipped price of <$100. At the same time MS can't seem to do anything for a Chome Killer for less than $350 dollars .....

https://forum.odroid.com/viewtopic.php?t=33781
Yes, this is an Ubuntu desktop unit from Odroid --- cost is $69 for a simple unit with the case costing $4 extra.

You got AMD putting together various sorts of chiplets and showing everybody else that you CAN build whole entire wafers of the same little chiplets at very high yields very very cheaply and then you can build up major chipset products out of mixing and matching these different chiplets on a never changing processor die -- this is a construction method that allows you to change up and IMPROVE your products very easily on a half year basis -- with no additional strain on your vended chiplet based production system either.

You got large corporations (AMAZON and Google right now) building up their own custom processors and making up their own server hardware by the hundreds. Ditto for fast growing governments like China. They are designing and building exactly what meets their needs.

Intel isn't selling in their big ticket generic server stuff in huge quantities like they used to any more ..... nobody wants it.

You got Google approaching the release point of the first of the Fuchsia OS based products. You have a struggling MS desperately try try trying trying again to build the mythical Chrome Buster, a low end ARM Windows 10 machine (and MS is outing plans to junk Win 10 as an OS class very soon if they have to just in order to get relevant any way they can) --- MS knows they either succeed at their move into low end ARM space or else they will fail to exist as a major market force within about 5 years.

You got the RISC-V consortium beginning to pull in royalty free combined processors made out of their myriad small FOSS bits and pieces. The rate of market growth in these FOSS RISC-V combo processors is jest astronomical at this particular point in time -- it is amazing to watch the new products pop up like little mushrooms all over the place.

Ubuntu Linux has quietly become the defacto desktop "alternative OS standard" to Windows. Ubuntu and Android are the OS standards that all the new little oriental Linux PC boxes are being built to. Free FOSS stuff counts for a LOT in this troubled worldwide marketplace as the RISC-V people can attest to. MS is not present in the low end market at all right now, and as such is getting left behind the change wave yet again ......

Google has collapsed Android & Linux & Chrome OS all together and is now putting all that goodness into Fuchsia with the ability to run all those forms of software on the up and coming Fuchsia machines.

Ironically, MS can't seem to write an OS that works right any more while Google seems to be able to lead FOSS teams that can pop them off effortlessly -- and the Google FOSS stuff works really really well too. Ain't no blue screens of death in Google led FOSS products ...... and the Google updates always go off seamlessly year on year on year.

Change, she comes ......

« Last Edit: 02/25/19 at 02:00:01 by Oldfeller--FSO »

Former Savage Owner

IP Logged

Oldfeller--FSO

Serious Thumper
ModSquad

Offline

Hobby is now
"concentrated
neuropany"

Posts: 12637
Fayetteville, NC
Gender: male

Re: 2019 -- new Intel failures & successes
Reply #197 - 02/17/19 at 17:51:49

https://wccftech.com/amd-ryzen-3000-cpus-x570-motherboards-and-radeon-navi-gp...

Computex 2019 looks to be the best platform for AMD to announce their new mainstream lineups

Last year at Computex, AMD announced their 2nd Generation Ryzen Threadripper processors that became available in August 2018, almost two months later. For the upcoming 7nm products, AMD will give their distribution a month or so to put any old stocks on sale and move them before actual availability of the new processors commences (if this rumor is accurate, anyway).

AMD X570 Motherboard Chipset – A New House For AMD’s Next-Gen Ryzen 3000 Series CPUs
As we saw with X470, there were a few features for the Ryzen 2000 series processors which were only supported by new motherboards such as Precision Boost Overdrive and XFR 2.0. There’s no doubt that AMD’s Zen 2 based Ryzen mainstream processor family would come with new features but the main highlight would be support for PCIe Gen4. The X570 platform would be all PCIe Gen4 solution which means this would most probably be the first consumer platform to feature support for the new PCIe standard.

That, however, doesn’t mean that AMD Ryzen 3000 series would only be compatible on X570 boards since just like last time, the new CPUs will still be backward compatible with X470 & X370 boards too. They certainly won’t display the same feature set that will be available on the newly launched X570 lineup but will feature fully stable functionality for users who just want to drop in a new CPU and continue using their PCs without the hassle of upgrading the motherboard and everything from scratch.

Motherboard manufacturers are said to be expecting 12 and 16 core processor (7nm and 5nm lithography) AMD parts to be prevalent during the use lifetime of these new boards. They would design in the appropriate data width, memory speeds and throughput capacity into their upcoming motherboards around this future critical information and reference the 7nm processor samples that are being provided by AMD so we can expect to see some better power delivery and more stable throughput operations for these higher core count AMD chips. The OEMs, however, have not released any tuned motherboard samples for testing as of yet as those are expected to be available around April-May of this year, right before Mattise 7nm CPUs mass production commences.

So, the Fat Lady has been officially invited to come sing for Intel at Computex 2019 during the last weekend in May of this year.

As with every Ryzen launch, the actual prices at roll out will play a huge factor in determining their popularity. The 1st and 2nd Generation Ryzen chips were fantastic when it came to their value proposition. Not only did they feature higher core counts than their counterparts but they also managed to run cooler and consumed lower power. This would obviously get better with the Ryzen 3000 series it looks like AMD will offer much better prices for each of their respective core count mode.

The 8 core models can sell for around $199-$299 while the 12 core parts can go for $399 and finally, the 16 core parts can end up around $499. The reason we will be looking at such good prices is that unlike Threadripper CPUs which use a bigger PCB and four dies (based on EPYC layout), the Ryzen CPUs will only be featuring 2 dies and that saves up space and design costs. Also, the 6 core and 4 core parts may end up under the $150-$200 US bracket which would make them an ideal choice for budget users.

===================================================

There is a Ryzen 4 generation that follows this one in coming off in 2021-2022. Using these new improved X570 motherboards that are coming out late this year allows the following generations to use the much higher proposed throughput buses, faster memory speeds and the extra PCIe 4 bandwidth to do even more impressive things between the CPU & GPU & AI chiplet blocks.

But that will require a better generation of 5nm chiplets, which is what Ryzen gen 4 is apparently going to be all about in 2020-2022. Also, the Epyc server and Threadripper roadmap charts mention that Epyc server core counts could go up from 32 to 64 cores -- that alone screams that 5nm chiplets will be in full production in 2020-2022 (and that also aligns with TSMC's published production process lithography roadmap as well).

Remember, 5nm chiplets will come into play ASAP, seriously just as early as possible simply because AMD gets literally twice as many chiplets off a wafer of 5nm compared to the current lithography processes ..... this cuts costs to AMD greatly and Cost is King starting this year, remember.

Look to see Intel attempt to fire off their largest PR vapor cannons in some very massive distraction barrages immediately before and after Computex 2019 because some HEAVY DOPE SMOKE COVER is going to be needed immediately so Chipzilla can stage them a strategic PR "advance to the rear".

There is a theory that this is always done in certain news outlets that are commonly indexed by the most viewed stock market watch sites, so that the avid Intel investor will only see the masses of Intel propaganda repeatedly pop up on their screens .....

Remember, all this AMD stuff is happening and becoming REAL AT 7nm RIGHT NOW and that AMD will likely be shipping real 5nm products before Intel even supposedly finishes their new buildings that their yet to be ordered 7nm production lines are supposed to be installed inside.

Intel, can you say "Overcome by Events" four times real real fast ????

===================================================

Speaking of "nobody wants it" --- Global Foundries process production lines are up for sale again. The Arabs that now own it now consider 14 and 12nm a "depreciated investment" with no long term future and wish to unload it, ASAP.

No takers, so far.

AMD would be happy if Global Foundries finally died, as they would not be forced by their old contracts to buy any of Global's moldy old lithography any longer.

Remember, Global and Intel have roughly the same level of lithography except Intel is slightly worse on most of their lines.

WHAT SHOULD INTEL DO ??? Intel should leapfrog 7nm and go directly to 5nm on the chiplet style CPU processors just as soon as ASML has something to sell. Failing to do this, Intel should face reality and simply plan to phase out of the CPU building business, gracefully.

Intel's existing 7nm thing isn't really a plan for two years from now, it is an overcome by events "built to fail" scenario since everybody else is already at 7nm right now doing it better than Intel will be able to do a year or two from now.

« Last Edit: 03/08/19 at 07:47:14 by Oldfeller--FSO »

Former Savage Owner

IP Logged

Oldfeller--FSO

Serious Thumper
ModSquad

Offline

Hobby is now
"concentrated
neuropany"

Posts: 12637
Fayetteville, NC
Gender: male

Re: 2019 -- new Intel failures & successes
Reply #198 - 02/22/19 at 05:38:34

https://liliputing.com/2019/02/google-may-introduce-game-streaming-hardware-a...

Google may introduce game streaming hardware at March 19th event

Google is delivering a keynote at this year’s Game Developer Conference on March 19th ..... and according to a report from 9to5Google, it’s possible that Google will use the event to launch a game console… sort of.

Google’s been working on game streaming technology for a while. Last February The Information reported that Google was developing a game streaming platform code-named “Yeti.” And last October, Google launched a public beta of its “Project Stream” technology that allowed testers to stream Assassin’s Creed Odyssey using a Chrome web browser.

The beta ran for about three months and the program has concluded. But it could pave the way for Google to launch a full-scale service that lets users stream multiple games over the internet. It’s unclear if you’d buy games outright, rent them, or subscribe to a Netflix-for-games type service for access to a library of games.

One thing that does seem clear is that while some folks would be happy playing games using a Chrome web browser on laptop or desktop computers, others prefer a more console-like experience that allows you to play on a big screen TV. And that’s what 9to5Google says Google will introduce at its March 19th event, along with the game streaming service itself.

While rumor has it that Google was originally planning to let stream games by plugging a Chromecast (or a similar device) into your TV, the latest rumors suggest it’ll be more of a game console-style box that comes with a Google-designed game controller.

« Last Edit: 02/24/19 at 00:34:22 by Oldfeller--FSO »

Former Savage Owner

IP Logged

Oldfeller--FSO

Serious Thumper
ModSquad

Offline

Hobby is now
"concentrated
neuropany"

Posts: 12637
Fayetteville, NC
Gender: male

Re: 2019 -- new Intel failures & successes
Reply #199 - 02/23/19 at 22:40:44

https://www.techspot.com/news/78706-update-tsmc-transition-7nm-euv-mass-produ...

An update on TSMC's transition to 7nm++ Direct Burn EUV mass production and TSMC's future plans

Following TSMC's completion of 7nm++ EUV there is already a clear path laid out going forward to 5nm, and then down to 3nm.

Beginning in March, TSMC will be ready to begin mass production of 7nm wafers using direct burn extreme ultraviolet lithography. ASML, a producer of lithography machinery has already allocated 18 of the 30 systems it is building in 2019 for TSMC.

Once the next six weeks pass and TSMC has its 7nm++ EUV production running at full scale, the company's 5nm process will be moved to risk production status. EUV will remain in use for 5nm and is expected to be viable down to 3nm. By the end of 2019, TSMC will be taping out chip designs on 5nm nodes, with volume production slated for early 2020.

Even though 7nm processes have been in large scale production since April 2018, the switch to EUV allows for fewer defects and fewer steps required during the production process. The addition of new manufacturing capabilities will allow TSMC to gain additional business from high performance computing and automotive businesses.

Last year, 7nm EUV accounted for just nine percent of TSMC's wafer sales. This year, the company is on track to make the newer process bring in a quarter of its total sales.

The latest updates on TSMC match up with previous predictions and plans to build new facilities. New factories will open in 2020 for 5nm, with additional plants being built with a target of 2022 for 3nm wafers. Despite a number of issues with malware, bad chemicals, and the sheer difficulty of producing tiny transistors, TSMC remains the leader of wafer manufacturing.

So, a dose of reality comes to visit the rest of the 5nm roll out process which will be taking place starting later on this year. 7nm++ is real now, 5nm is past the early tape out stages and 5nm is already in the "at risk" PRODUCTION stages for both memory, AMD processors and for mobile processors.

EUV lines just shipped to TSMC obviously have this ability (actually shown in the picture at top of post) to lay down combined memory and CPU and GPU on the same chiplet segment, so AMD's chiplet system gets yet another boost in what it can do while still staying on the AM-4 processor die and socket hardware that AMD likes to use.

As an aside, this article is only one of four articles from different sources that cover this particular news -- and 3 of them mention that Intel is not getting any of these ASML EUV computer controlled direct burn process lines during 2019-2020.

This lends credence to my theory that Intel is going to have to leap frog the 7nm lithography stage completely and MAY make some sort of a move at 5nm or 3nm. This is more in line with Intel's plans to build new buildings with a 2022 completion date.

The equipment that ASML is selling and shipping this year can do 5nm and potentially do 3nm with some upgrades and tuning.

What is new (to me anyway and is seen in the picture above) is just exactly what a programmable "mix and match" direct burn lithography system might actually mean for the make up of the actual chiplets that are able to be made by this very fine line direct burn ASML EUV process ....... memory mixed with AI mixed with graphics mixed with CPU ...... It becomes more clear now how AMD can be making these large improvements in their products on a six month cycle as the improvements are all done in software and then are downloaded to the ASML lines themselves to be burned on silicon.

Somebody at next week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Spain will be likely be talking about their 5nm roadmap, you can bet yer your lunch money on it ......

===================================================

https://liliputing.com/2019/02/lenovo-unveils-budget-windows-and-chrome-os-la...

Lenovo unveils matching budget Windows and Chrome OS laptops for education and business

Lenovo’s 2019 laptop lineup includes two new low-cost models with 14 inch displays that are aimed at the education and enterprise markets. The Lenovo 14e Chromebook and Lenovo 14w Windows laptop both have starting prices below $300 and both are available with up to 8GB of RAM and up to a 1080p touchscreen display.

They’re also both powered by AMD processors… and interestingly Lenovo opted for the new low-power chips that AMD launched for Chromebooks in January.

The Lenovo 14e Chromebook features a 6 watt AMD A4-9120C CPU, and the Lenovo 14w is the first Windows computer I’m aware of to sport an AMD A6-9220C processor.

Both the Windows and Chrome OS models measure 12.9″ x 8.9″ x 0.7″, but there are a very few slight differences in the two laptops (other than the operating system used). The Windows 10 version has to use a 14 watt AMD laptop APU instead of the Chromebook's 6 watt laptop APU and the Windows 10 unit loses one USB port and gains a single HDMI video output port. Windows 10 is always twice as power hungry compared to ChromeOS, and that is always been a consistent truth between Windows and Chromebooks all along.

Early reviewers are saying that these new AMD Chromebook processors are run of the mill for that mid-range Chromebook market niche at best with nothing extraordinary that has been seen performance-wise other than the improved graphics and if anything they suck a little extra power to run those built in improved GPU graphics compared to Intel's less capable built in GPUs.

The biggest reveal seen so far from MWC 2019 is the foldable phone displays that normal people will not want or be able to afford. Pricey stuff, very pricy.

« Last Edit: 02/26/19 at 00:32:35 by Oldfeller--FSO »

Former Savage Owner

IP Logged

Oldfeller--FSO

Serious Thumper
ModSquad

Offline

Hobby is now
"concentrated
neuropany"

Posts: 12637
Fayetteville, NC
Gender: male

Re: 2019 -- new Intel failures & successes
Reply #200 - 02/25/19 at 07:43:57

https://liliputing.com/2019/02/microsd-cards-get-bigger-faster-1tb-and-985-mb...

MicroSD cards get bigger, faster (1TB and 985 MB/s cards on the way)

A little over a year after the first 512GB microSDXC card was unveiled, SanDisk has introduced the first 1TB card. Micron has one too.

The SanDisk Extreme microSDXC UHS-I card should be available in April for $450 and it supports read speeds up to 160MB/s and write speeds up to 90MB/s.

The 1TB Micron c200 microSD card, meanwhile, should be available in the second quarter of 2019 and supports read speeds up to 100MB/s and read speeds up to 95 MB/s.

These tiny storage cards have four times as much storage as my laptop… but it’s a lot slower than the PCIe NVMe SSD in my laptop. But the SD Association’s got us covered there as well. The group has just introduced a new MicroSD Express standard that will enable microSD cards to hit speeds as high as 985 MB per second.

This is obviously a long promised technology that is getting ready to "get real" on us. Spinning platter hard drives are just about gone, except for rather slow access to really large amounts of data.

Once this gets real for real (later on this year) the Micro SD Express standard will begin to move out through all devices and the prices will begin to drop drastically so that in a couple of years MicroSD Express will be the way we all do it in laptops, phones, desktops, cameras --- you name it .....

Spinning platter drives did good by me for a lot of years, but they are SLOW compared to everything they are making these days.

« Last Edit: 02/26/19 at 00:30:47 by Oldfeller--FSO »

Former Savage Owner

IP Logged

Oldfeller--FSO

Serious Thumper
ModSquad

Offline

Hobby is now
"concentrated
neuropany"

Posts: 12637
Fayetteville, NC
Gender: male

Re: 2019 -- new Intel failures & successes
Reply #201 - 02/26/19 at 10:54:56

https://liliputing.com/2019/02/report-microsofts-windows-lite-is-coming-this-...

Report: Microsoft’s “Windows Lite” is coming this year

Microsoft’s Windows continues to dominate the desktop operating system space, but in recent years Chrome OS has taken away a significant chunk of market share, particularly in entry-level laptops and computers designed for students and classrooms. Meanwhile Android and iOS dominate the smartphone and tablet space.

Over the past few years Microsoft has made several attempts to offer a stripped-down version of Windows that would be more competitive on entry-level hardware with limited success. Windows RT is dead. Windows 10 S is… basically a crippled version of Windows.

So what’s next? Windows Lite, apparently. This is what it looks like -- right now anyway.

Looks a lot like Fuchsia, doesn't it ........

Rumors have been making the rounds for a while that Microsoft was building a new operating system that would be capable of running on entry-level hardware while offering a simpler, quicker, less aggravating user experience.

Now Petri’s Brad Sams reports that the so-called “Lite OS” is under active development, and that Microsoft plans to expand its testing by this summer. The company could officially introduce Windows Lite during its Build developer conference in May.

Sams also created a mockup image that gives us an idea of what Windows 10 Lite looks like. There’s a simplified taskbar with app icons in the center and a clock on the right. And there’s an app launcher that looks a bit like the ones you’d find in Android or Chrome OS, with a search bar at the top, suggested apps below it, and a section for pinned apps below that. There’s also a Documents tab, suggesting you’d be able to browse and search for apps and docs from the same launcher.

According to Sams, the operating system does include some legacy features such as File Explorer and support for running apps in windows that can be resized and moved. But Microsoft is reportedly working to make Windows Lite easier to use and to maintain than other versions of Windows.

Right now there’s apparently no built-in support for running Win32 desktop applications. You can only use Universal Windows Platform apps (like those available from the Microsoft Store) or Progressive Web apps. But Microsoft is investigating the possibility of adding support for Win32 apps, possibly by sticking them into containers and limiting their interaction with the operating system (similar to the way Chrome OS handles third-party apps), which would theoretically tighten security and prevent installed apps from slowing down a computer’s boot process or other functions.

Microsoft hasn’t confirmed any of this yet and even if everything in the report is accurate there’s a chance that Microsoft could change their plans sometimes before Windows Lite is released (or even officially announced).

Fuchsia is putting the screws to 'ol Mickey, you can tell ....... "If you can't beat them, join them"

« Last Edit: 02/28/19 at 07:40:09 by Oldfeller--FSO »

Former Savage Owner

IP Logged

Oldfeller--FSO

Serious Thumper
ModSquad

Offline

Hobby is now
"concentrated
neuropany"

Posts: 12637
Fayetteville, NC
Gender: male

Re: 2019 -- new Intel failures & successes
Reply #202 - 02/28/19 at 07:15:26

https://mspoweruser.com/microsoft-adds-more-edge-features-to-chromium/

Microsoft is getting ready to start testing of their Chromium-based Edge browser for Windows 10, and behind the scenes are working hard to bring their native Edge features to Google’s browser engine.

Based on commits by Microsoft’s engineers, they are currently petitioning to add two new features to Chromium.

One is support for Windows 10’s system styling for captions displayed in a video. The Chromium post is titled ‘Add support for Windows system styling for captions’ and proposes:

Add 4 new properties to CaptionStyle.
Adds a WindowsCaptionStyle class that extends CaptionStyle and adds Windows support for webvtt caption styling.
Adds command line flag ‘–enable-windows-caption-style’ which is needed to run platform specific code.
Microsoft is also working to add background opacity, window opacity, and window colour.

The other big feature Microsoft is trying to add is support for Chromium as a drag and drop target for Outlook.exe attachments. Microsoft writes:

“Users should be able to drag email messages or email attachments out of Outlook.exe and drop them on a file hosting service website such as OneDrive or Google Drive, just as if dragging files from File Explorer.”

This feature is already supported in Edge for Windows 10.

As mentioned earlier, Microsoft has leaked a screenshot of the installer for Chromium Edge, showing that the browser is already being tested. Hopefully, public testing will commence shortly also.

Issue for Google is that if they allow MS engineers to functionally take over the control of Chromium Browser's development then they have simply FOSSed themselves to death in that arena ......

Microsoft will then proceed to junk up Chromium until it is no better functionally than Edge or any of the other Microsoft bloatwares.

More and more the rational for the completely Google software based Fuchsia OS becomes clearer and clearer .....

« Last Edit: 03/01/19 at 04:50:48 by Oldfeller--FSO »

Former Savage Owner

IP Logged

Oldfeller--FSO

Serious Thumper
ModSquad

Offline

Hobby is now
"concentrated
neuropany"

Posts: 12637
Fayetteville, NC
Gender: male

Re: 2019 -- new Intel failures & successes
Reply #203 - 02/28/19 at 15:07:02

https://liliputing.com/2019/02/sonys-new-memory-cards-offer-crazy-fast-read-w...

Sony’s new memory cards offer crazy fast read/write speeds (for cameras only)

You know how the SD Association just introduced a new MicroSD Express standard that would make it possible for next-gen microSD cards to offer speeds as high as 985 MB per second?

The CompactFlash Association just went a step further by unveiling a new CFexpress 2.0 specification with theoretical top speeds as high high as 4,000 MB/s.

I’m not aware of any cards quite that fast yet, but Sony’s new CFExpress Type-B cards can hit top read speeds of 1,700 MB/s and write speeds as high as 1,480 MB/s.

The only catch is that these cards aren’t going to end up in phones anytime soon — CompactFlash cards are larger than SD or microSD cards and are more commonly used in high-end cameras.

In fact, Engadget notes that a few new high-end cameras can already support Sony’s new cards.

Sony says its new card is more than three times as fast as its fastest CFast memory card, which tops out at 530MB/s.

Of course, you don’t actually need a card that fast for more consumer-friendly cameras. But if you want to shoot higher-resolution, higher-bitrate video, the extra speed could come in handy.

Sony says the first CFexpress Type B card to ship will be a 128GB version, but 256GB and 512GB cards are also in the works.

While Sony’s cards are clearly aimed at professional cameras, the CompactFlash Association says other applications for new cards based on the CFexpress 2.0 standard include use for storing media, software, and files for servers and routers or as low-latency external, removable SSDs.

Type-B cards like the ones Sony is introducing are faster than many consumer SSDs, but not yet as fast as a PCIe NVMe solid state drive. But the CFExpress 2.0 Type-C standard supports a 4-lane PCIe Gen 3 interface and NVMe 1.3 stack for theoretical speeds as high as 4,000 MB/s, which is faster than most consumer SSDs.

In other words, maybe you’ll eventually be able to buy a computer that essentially has an SSD that you can pop out like any other memory card, allowing you to store important files, programs, or even the full operating system on swappable cards.

For now I suspect that’s something only enterprise customers are likely to be looking for. But it’s a neat idea that I wouldn’t mind seeing make its way to the consumer space. Instead of setting up multiple user profiles in the operating system running on your computer, you could just give each member of your household their own CF card that would store their entire operating system. Insert it into a laptop, tablet, or desktop and you boot into your environment. Remove it and nobody else can access your files.

Type A Type B Type C
Dimension 20mm x 28mm x 2.8mm 38.5mm x 29.8mm x 3.8mm 54mm x 74mm x 4.8mm
PCIe® Interface Gen3, 1 lane Gen3, 2 lanes Gen3, 4 lanes
Stack NVMe™ 1.3 NVMe™ 1.3 NVMe™ 1.3
Max Performance 1000MB/s 2000MB/s 4000MB/s

Hyperfast flash and ssd and such are getting real very quickly ....... give it a year and you can actually buy something that has the proper slot connector in the product that allows you to slot one of these speedy little marvels in there.

You can get a device with a 512 megabyte single solder on chip of super fast memory --- yes, soldered directly to the motherboard right now and you can get a SD-Express slot that does 1,000 megabytes per second right now too.

Roll Eyes

(if your pockets are deep enough, that is)

« Last Edit: 03/01/19 at 04:43:53 by Oldfeller--FSO »

Former Savage Owner

IP Logged

Oldfeller--FSO

Serious Thumper
ModSquad

Offline

Hobby is now
"concentrated
neuropany"

Posts: 12637
Fayetteville, NC
Gender: male

Re: 2019 -- new Intel failures & successes
Reply #204 - 03/06/19 at 05:50:06

This is the new face of an Intel that is faced with large, tough problems

Would you buy a used car from this man ??? Would you buy a house that he was selling ????

Are you being stupid to buy his stock based just on his say so ???

Intel processors are vulnerable to a brand new class of attack, nicknamed Spoiler, to which AMD processors are immune according to researchers at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute and the University of Lübeck. Intel will not be able to spin this as an industry-wide problem as they did last January when two other vulnerabilities, Spectre and Meltdown, were revealed. This bodes well for AMD and ARM shareholders.

What is scary about Spoiler is that it can victimize you through a JavaScript on a malicious website which then enables access to your passwords, your encryption keys, and other data stored in memory. It can invade you through casual web browsing, in other words.

In January 2018, when Spectre and Meltdown were revealed, Intel said it was an industry-wide problem implying that Intel processors were not at a disadvantage to AMD. This time around the researchers tested AMD processors and found them to be immune. Consequently, Spoiler will give AMD an advantage over Intel.

The question now is whether AMD's advantage will be big enough and last long enough for them to gain AMD some significant market share.

Size Of AMD's Advantage

Intel initially addressed Spectre and Meltdown by releasing performance sapping software patches to the microcode in their processors.

Last January, early estimates of the performance penalty for the Spectre and Meltdown patches ranged from 5% to 25%. Since then datacenter system admins have told me that the patches have gotten more efficient and the performance penalty has decreased.

However, recently Intel changed the licensing agreement for their software patches to prevent machine level developers from publishing any benchmark results on Intel's various issues. This acts to muzzle all data driven productivity complaints against Intel for creating this mess in the first place and greatly hampers the resulting class action lawsuits.

In the near-term, I expect Intel will come out with a software patch for Spoiler. However, researchers say Spoiler, “is not something you can patch easily with microcode without losing tremendous performance”. The degree of the performance penalty exacted by these patches is a good measure of the size of AMD's advantage. Intel can prevent developers from publishing their benchmark results, but they can't stop them from talking to each other. This information will get out. Investors will have to look for it on more technical websites frequented by developers.

Length Of AMD's Advantage

The researchers are of the opinion that Spoiler cannot be fully fixed with a software patch. They believe changes to Intel's chip architecture will be required. This is extremely destructive to Intel's already weak roadmap plans over the next 5 years.

Intel's is already years behind schedule in moving from 14 nm production lines to 10 nm. In contrast, AMD will soon be making its processors on a 7 nm production line.

If Intel now also needs to redesign their processors to address Spoiler I cannot see how this can be accomplished in less than 5 years. That's enough time for AMD to take significant market share, permanently, as it totally roadblocks Intel's future roadmaps until REAL solutions are identified and implemented.

« Last Edit: 03/08/19 at 07:54:17 by Oldfeller--FSO »

Former Savage Owner

IP Logged

Oldfeller--FSO

Serious Thumper
ModSquad

Offline

Hobby is now
"concentrated
neuropany"

Posts: 12637
Fayetteville, NC
Gender: male

Re: 2019 -- new Intel failures & successes
Reply #205 - 03/06/19 at 06:27:32

https://appleinsider.com/articles/19/03/05/new-spoiler-vulnerability-in-all-i...

New 'Spoiler' vulnerability in all Intel Core processors exposed by researchers

A function of Intel's processors dealing with speculative execution has another vulnerability that affects all Intel-based computers including Apple's Mac, researchers have revealed, with "Spoiler" potentially allowing an attacker the ability to view the layout of memory, and in turn potentially access sensitive data stored in those locations.

The speculative execution function of Intel's processors, used to increase the performance of a CPU by predicting paths an instruction will go through before the branch is completed, is a useful function but one that has caused Intel issues in the past. A new report from security researchers from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and the University of Lubeck published on March 1 indicates there's another issue that needs to be fixed.

Dubbed "Spoiler," the technique is able to determine how virtual and physical memory is related to each other, by measuring the timing of speculative load and store operations performed by the processor, reports The Register. By spotting discrepancies in the timing, it is possible for an attacker to determine the memory layout, and in turn know areas to attack.

"The root cause of the issue is that the memory operations execute speculatively and the processor resolves the dependency when the full physical address bits are available," researcher Daniel Moghimi advised to the report. "Physical address bits are security sensitive information and if they are available to user space, it elevates the user to perform other micro architectural attacks."

Speculative execution typically works by using a memory order buffer to track its operations, by copying data from a CPU register to main memory in the order it appears in code. Data can then be copied from the main memory to a register out of order, which potentially speeds up the overall speed of the operation if the speculative elements are right.

If they are wrong, the speculative elements are discarded and a normal non-speculative load of data is performed, allowing the instruction to be carried out, but without the performance boost.

The paper advises the main issue with Spoiler is Intel's performance of memory disambiguation, which tries to prevent computation on data loaded by an incorrect speculation attempt, with its timing behavior being the actual vulnerability.

By filling the store buffer with addresses using similar offsets but different virtual pages, then issuing a memory load with the same offset on a different memory page, the team measures the time of the load. After performing multiple loads across numerous virtual pages, the timing differences provide clues about the memory locations.

It is believed by the researchers the technique could make existing cache and "Rowhammer" attacks easier to perform, while at the same time enabling attacks using JavaScript to take seconds to complete, rather than weeks.

"There is no software mitigation that can completely erase this problem," according to the researchers. While the chip architecture could be fixed, it would considerably cut into the chip's performance.

Intel was advised about the vulnerability on December 1, 2018, and was disclosed to the public after a typical 90-day grace period. So far, Intel has not issued a CVE number for the problem, with Moghimi speculating the issue is not easily patchable with microcode in an efficient enough manner, and that a patch for the attack vector may take years to produce.

As it is an issue that affects all Intel Core processors from the first generation onwards to the most recent releases, regardless of operating system, it is almost certain that all Macs are susceptible to attacks that take advantage of the vulnerability. It is unclear if Apple has specifically responded to the issue due to it potentially affecting its macOS-running products.

The researchers note that ARM and AMD processor cores do not exhibit the same behavior, which means iPhones and iPads are safe from such attacks.

So much of Intel's "progress" in the last 5 years has been Marketing BS, fluff, and Intel's playing misleading games with the major benchmarks that a real and serious and specific item like Spoiler might actually roll Intel's real performance back to the Win 7 era while leaving ARM and AMD's progress unaffected.

A 25-30% performance hit between the camps might be a reasonable performance differential due to this Spoiler issue --- look to see Intel rabidly deny there is a problem because to say it is real means that Intel is pretty much done as a company and Intel knows this.

Look to see this play out pretty clearly before CES this year when AMD uncorks their 7nm Matisse completely and actually starts shipping their "actual and for real" that much faster 16 core chipsets to home users for less money than Intel currently charges for their 14nm limping stuff.

Also look to see Apple finalize and announce their Apple plans to roll over to their own domestic ARM chip production in all Apple products ASAP as Apple cannot afford a large performance hit right now due to Intel's historically poor structural choices.

« Last Edit: 03/08/19 at 07:56:23 by Oldfeller--FSO »

Former Savage Owner

IP Logged

Oldfeller--FSO

Serious Thumper
ModSquad

Offline

Hobby is now
"concentrated
neuropany"

Posts: 12637
Fayetteville, NC
Gender: male

Re: 2019 -- new Intel failures & successes
Reply #206 - 03/10/19 at 10:08:03

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-not-needed-Ryzen-Zen-and-Nvidia-GTX-1660-...

Intel is not needed — Ryzen Zen+ and Nvidia GTX 1660 Turing gaming laptops are a real possible replacement

First Zen+ gaming laptop: the ASUS TUF FX505DYFirst Zen+ gaming laptop: the ASUS TUF FX505DY

The Ryzen 5 3550H and Ryzen 7 3750H are comparable to the Intel Core i5-8300H. It's up to laptop makers now to pair these Zen+ processors with Nvidia GPUs for potentially cheaper prices than the usual Intel-Nvidia offering.

When the Ryzen U-series launched for laptops, the processors proved to be neck-to-neck with Intel Kaby Lake-R and even Whiskey Lake-U in terms of CPU performance. Users finally had a handful of respectable AMD Ultrabooks to choose from like the Honor MagicBook, HP Envy x360 15, or Acer Swift 3 instead of the usual costlier Intel models. Now that the Ryzen Zen+ H-series is available to directly tackle the Intel Coffee Lake-H series, there is absolutely no reason why we shouldn't be seeing gaming laptops coming soon with Zen+ processors paired with Nvidia Pascal or Turing graphics.

Such a move would make the most sense from the perspective of AMD. Its first Zen+ gaming laptop launched just last week which pairs the brand new quad-core Ryzen 5 3550H CPU with a Radeon RX 560X GPU. The only problem, however, is that this aging GPU will be two generations old once Navi hits the market later in the year. Since AMD has no immediate mobile Vega or Navi solution, laptop makers would have to turn to Nvidia GPUs instead.

Some of the biggest AMD partners at the moment are Asus, Lenovo, HP, and Dell. Should these OEMs decide to launch budget-mainstream gaming laptops equipped with Ryzen Zen+ CPUs and mid-range GeForce GTX GPUs, then these models would seriously undercut Intel's dominance in the gaming laptop space when it comes to cost and performance-per-Watt. It would make for more exciting comparisons as well instead of the routine head-to-head battles between similarly equipped laptops.

Notebook Check is just pointing out (with some excitement) that a mid-line AMD offering is getting ready to price value lap the best of the Intel upper mid-range offerings -- offering more power for less money all the way around.

« Last Edit: 03/12/19 at 05:46:28 by Oldfeller--FSO »

Former Savage Owner

IP Logged

Oldfeller--FSO

Serious Thumper
ModSquad

Offline

Hobby is now
"concentrated
neuropany"

Posts: 12637
Fayetteville, NC
Gender: male

Re: 2019 -- new Intel failures & successes
Reply #207 - 03/14/19 at 08:31:20

https://liliputing.com/2019/03/kodlix-gn41-gemini-lake-mini-pc-is-available-w...

Intel intends to attempt one more time to compete with the low end AMD chipsets. This is their Intel current offering, and it really isn't that shabby either compared to what Intel had put forth in the past.

Amazon is selling an Ubuntu model of this for $215 or a Windows version for $15 more.

There’s also a higher-priced model with a Core i3-5005U “Broadwell” processor and 128GB of storage, as well as cheaper models with Atom x5-Z8350 processors. But only the Celeron N4100 version is available with Ubuntu.

The system is powered by Intel’s 6-watt, quad-core processor and if the built-in storage isn’t enough for you, there’s also room for a 2.5 inch hard drive or SSD, as well as an SD card reader.

Other features include:

802.11ac WiFi
Bluetooth 4.2
Gigabit Ethernet
HDMI 2.0 (4K/60Hz)
VGA port
1 USB Type-C port
2 USB 3.0 ports
2 USB 2.0 ports
Headset jack

The system measures about 6.9″ x 5.3″ x 1.4″ and weighs about 1.3 pounds.

Give it 6 months and you will be able to buy a six core mainstream AMD unit for the same money, one that you can game off of easily.

Intel is doomed in the short term, really. But the big lizard is going down fighting and that makes up some progress for everybody, I guess.

===================================================

Speaking of the big lizard attempting to compete with AMD (using vapor talk only) Intel has perhaps invented a new Comet Lake chipset class (arrival date unknown) with supposedly 10 cores (at 14nm) that can supposedly compete with 12 and 16 core 7nm AMD Ryzen processors that are in real production for an introduction that is scheduled in only 2-3 months from now.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/antonyleather/2018/11/27/intel-10-core-processor...

The Intel rumor comes from a Taiwanese forum picked up by Wccftech, and points at a 10-core, 20-thread CPU under the code name Comet Lake that is still based on the company's 14nm manufacturing process. The site in question is an Intel fanboy site that is pushing some "unknown rumors" in order to bolster their published opinion that Intel at 14nm can "still dominate" numerically higher core counts with faster running and more efficient 7nm AMD cores.

Intel's Core i9-9900K holds the current performance crown for mainstream desktop CPUs, but AMD's Zen 2 microarchitecture could well give it some stiff competition in 2019.

This year has been a blur of CPU launches with Intel finally offering 8-core models for its mainstream platform, such as the beast that is the Core i9-9900K plus it also refreshed its line-up of high-end desktop CPUs while bringing back solder as the thermal interface material to both ranges to please enthusiasts and overclockers. AMD has had a good year with 2nd generation Ryzen and Threadripper CPUs being received well too and 2019 looks set to be even more interesting thanks to the company's 7nm Zen 2 microarchitecture landing early next year.

So what could a 10-core Intel mainstream CPU do to the market? Well, the Core i9-9900K has already dominated here, out-performing every other CPU in this segment and sometimes by big margins. In fact, it even matches some more expensive high-end desktop CPUs on performance in games and in multi-threaded content creation. AMD would likely need to add another two cores to catch up in multi-threaded workloads, meaning that it would probably need a 12 or 14-core CPU to match a 10-core Intel mainstream model if it has similar boosting frequencies to the Core i9-9900K. 12 cores from AMD are here now, 16 cores will be here by this fall --- this is just Intel being "post event reactive" again throwing out some very expensive cobbled together stuff just to stay in the game a little bit longer.

The new Threadripper 2920X already outperforms the Core i9-7900X - one of Intel's current 10-core models for its high-end X299 platform - in multi-threaded workloads. However, the latter only boosts to 4GHz across all cores at stock speed whereas the Core i9-9900K is a massive 700MHz faster here, reaching 4.7GHz across all cores at stock speed. The impact is clear - the Core i9-9900K outperforms the Core i9-9900X despite a 2-core deficit and is only a couple of hundred points short of matching the Threadripper 2920X, despite a 4-core deficit.

Surprise boys and girls, Intel cannot seriously compete against AMD's higher core counts that come out with the new higher throughput chiplets, especially when they COST LESS MONEY to purchase and in some cases don't even require a motherboard replacement .....

Grin

..... Intel really can't compete, especially not when just using some 3rd party Taiwanese vapor poots.

« Last Edit: 03/17/19 at 09:30:32 by Oldfeller--FSO »

Former Savage Owner

IP Logged

Oldfeller--FSO

Serious Thumper
ModSquad

Offline

Hobby is now
"concentrated
neuropany"

Posts: 12637
Fayetteville, NC
Gender: male

Re: 2019 -- new Intel failures & successes
Reply #208 - 03/20/19 at 07:46:25

https://liliputing.com/2019/03/google-stadia-is-a-game-streaming-service-for-...

Background (a little bit of background anyway)

Intel has been bending PC benchmarks all over the place to remain the"King of Gaming" as if local PC gaming is the proper expression of the "ultimate in computer performance". Intel has also just spent a mort of money to try to upgrade their built in Intel video systems to get somewhere closer to Nvidia and AMD's top end graphics card output levels (not yet done, not yet tested, certainly not shipping yet).

Folks have been waiting for a series of Fat Ladies to come sing for Intel as they are doomed by their lack of technological progress, doomed to fall from their lofty top market position ---- and the fall for Intel is a very steep very deep one if it takes place at this point in Intel's history.

Google had already dumped Intel servers off their data farms for Tensor Processors, a Google invention that puts more speed and computing power on a single rack card than used to run on an entire room sized Intel based Supercomputer.

https://www.extremetech.com/computing/263751-googles-ai-cloud-tensor-processi...

This stuff PER CARD is more powerful than 2005's original Blue Gene complex at the US Federal Research Facility Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory That is per card, mind you. One (1) Tensor Quad Stack card > original Blue Gene Complex in gigaflops/second.

At 180 gigaflops of super fast compute power per card, what in the world was Google planning to do to exercise all that computing power that would reside in the very first rack wall in the very first Google Tensor Farm? Google needed something to do with all that excess compute power ......

Answer, sell the computing services that normal people want at a much reduced cost. Google has a HUGE surplus in computing power compared to the world's total computing workload right now, so what are they going to do with it to make it useful to humanity?

START WITH GAMES AND GAMING, Google is going to run Crysis for you (and any other game you want to run) on any device that will hook up at 60 frames per second full speed to a 4G or 5G cellular network (or to just about any fiber optic LAN Wifi system).

Have some modern high speed Wifi in your house and now you can go buy a new Google Wifi game controller (it attaches DIRECTLY to the web at your router and again directly to your Chromecast dongle equipped TV and again simultaneously to Google's server farms through the internet, it does not go through your pokey PC or phone hardware --- nothing goes through your old slow equipment except to simply display the video graphics stream that is going to be sent to your device in response to your controller movements).

Pay the monthly bill and you can game ANYTHING until your fingers fall off. Anywhere there is good enough Wifi to attach to Google and that will support the 1080p 60 frames per second minimum data stream. No super strong home computer is required any more. Sit in the park, use your relatively new cell phone, Google doesn't care.

Game on .... Game on .... Take a break and watch a movie for a bit, it is all the same data feed stream as far as Google sees or cares.

Google, AMD, Gabe at Steam are all kicking in on the details to make up a workable system, one that removes the need for Intel super duper expensive Core i7and i9 processors completely.

AMD is the preferred silicon processor vendor, because they make modern lithography combined APU chipsets with appropriate fast memory and state of the art graphics and AMD is well accustomed to the gaming environment. Plus, Gabe likes them because of the open source video driver sets and WIDE support thereof. Gabe sees AMD as a kindred soul.

Intel is NOT part of this open source based consortium and Intel really cannot compete against it from here forward ......

The Fat Lady has started singing the very first full aria in the Intel Swan Song.
Intel may be the current King of PC Gaming, but of what real value is that after today ???

Roll Eyes

==================================================

Addendum

The Chromebook folks have asked their question and gotten their answer ---- ANY Chromebook that is still getting updates is going to get this ability in 3-4 weeks to use Stadia Game Streaming.

Chromecast dongles, Chromebooks, Chromeboxes and standard Android devices will also be able to hook Stadia up to your TV. There is an attached movie service, too.

Your oldest moldiest PC using appropriate modern fast connect Wifi speeds and a decent video system will be able to do the same, as shown by the months long Stadia demo that Google did late last year.

https://youtu.be/4SOS-a4ks7s This is the official Stadia pre-launch presentation in 10 minutes or less.

Folks, this may be kinda large, really. Barrons is running it as breaking financial news that is pro AMD and pro Google and signals a stock price jump for both companies.

The sound of the Fat Lady singing Intel's Swan Song is getting louder and louder day by day by day.

« Last Edit: 03/20/19 at 21:40:52 by Oldfeller--FSO »

Former Savage Owner

IP Logged

Oldfeller--FSO

Serious Thumper
ModSquad

Offline

Hobby is now
"concentrated
neuropany"

Posts: 12637
Fayetteville, NC
Gender: male

Re: 2019 -- new Intel failures & successes
Reply #209 - 03/20/19 at 20:55:09

https://gizmodo.com/google-made-chromecast-cool-again-1833415006

https://gizmodo.com/chromecast-is-bumming-me-out-1829688812

At the top are the two url's in question, showing that Gizmodo really did miss the fact that Google was outing a brand new gaming and video transmission standard back when they put it out in Chromecasts that have been being sold in for the last half a year. Surprise !!! Google sold in the new gaming standard ALMOST A YEAR AGO !!!! Sneaky, huh ......

At Gizmodo, there are few things more rewarding than eating your own words. So here I am. It’s been six months since I reviewed the apparently boring new Google Chromecast, a gadget I said “falls short” and called “a bummer.” Now Google has effectively turned the Chromecast into the video game console of the future. This is me eating my own words.

Eating one’s words does not exactly mean the same thing as saying you’re wrong. When I argued that Google’s latest $35 Chromecast disappointed some folks by failing to deliver full-fledged set-top box solution, I was right about that. Now that Google has linked Chromecast to Stadia, the company’s broader mission to create a cloud-based video game empire, I realize that my eye was on the wrong ball. The new Chromecast is still boring for TV watchers, but it’s suddenly fascinating for gamers. The future it invites is hardly a bummer.

In case you haven’t followed the news, Stadia is Google’s new attempt at creating a streaming video game platform. The basic idea is that any device that works with Chromecast—this includes everything from a Mac running the Chrome browser to a TV with a new Chromecast plugged in—will be able to access video games through Google’s existing data center network. The games won’t actually run on the devices. They’ll be streamed from these data centers in 4K resolution at 60 frames per second.

This is where the new dongle’s specs come into play. It seemed underwhelming late last year when Google released the latest iteration of the standard $35 Chromecast, and the main spec bump included the ability to support 1080p video at 60 fps. My reaction at the time was pretty blunt: Who cares? The latest $70 Chromecast Ultra has been able to cast 4K HDR video at 60fps for years, although I’ve read some complaints that the device can get glitchy when doing so. Furthermore, that 60fps detail for both Chromecast models is something that typically only gamers care about, and the idea of casting video games onto a Chromecast-enable device seemed almost quaint six months ago. At the very least, getting a Chromecast to handle massive quantities of streaming data required for the very best video games likely requires the right connection speeds and the right router.

With the launch of Stadia, this scenario seems very different. If what Google seems to be promising is true, we’ll soon have a streaming platform from Google that rivals the gaming experience you might get on a PlayStation 4 or an Xbox One today. Google makes it seem like Stadia will be better, faster, and more powerful—not to mention more convenient. The company’s keynote at the Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco showed how you could go from playing a game on a PC to a Chromecast-enabled TV with a new Google Stadia controller in a half second. Of course, that cheap Chromecast hardware wouldn’t be nearly as capable if it didn’t support the gaming standard of 60fps, which the new Chromecast now does.

The cheaper dongle is still stuck at 1080p, though. All the buzz around Stadia centered around a 4K gaming experience and not all existing Chromecast device can support this. But Google will probably release a new Chromecast model with beefier new specs in the near future—our guess would be before the service launches sometime later this year. Google said it hopes to support 8K video at 120fps on its new platform, so maybe this year’s (hypothetical) Chromecast update will be truly mind-blowing.

So I’m pleased to confess that Chromecast is not a full bummer any more. The dongle still needs an update, and while a lot of people would love to see Google release a full-fledged set-top box that runs Android TV, the fact that Chromecast is now a gaming machine is pretty cool. Now we just have to wait on answers to the laundry list of questions raised by the announcement of Stadia. We don’t know when it will launch, what it will cost, and how it will work. We do know that it will work with Chromecast, though.

Dave, I mentioned you might want to pay attention this year to your quandary about needing to upgrade your movie viewing technology?

This new Google gaming / movie viewing stuff that is going to play out against the existing streaming industry per se and we will see the Amazon's and the Netflix's respond to it in kind, either competing or buying into it fairly quickly. I think both Roku and Netflix and Steam will adopt it and offer games to stream over their services and Amazon will be all stubborn and will compete against it as Jeff Bezos is so prone to do.

But the blow it strikes against the traditional cable TV services is likely to be a killing blow when taken in the long term, considering the reactions it will provoke from Netflix, Amazon, etc. etc.

60 frames per second at 1080p is suddenly an existing very firm video standard to work to. Not expensive, not radical, simply quite inexpensive and very doable over the existing internet cable hardware and very doable at 4G and 5G from your local cell tower as well.

Your existing cell phone AND your existing Wifi router can handle it, and a $35 Chromecast dongle is all the hardware your require to hook up your TV.

I went and checked, my older Roku box ($69 bought way back when) only supports 1080p at 30 frames a second which is the older TV standard resolution and speed. Looks like my wife's Roku is due for an upgrade ---- or a replacement with a Chromecast dongle that costs about half as much.

===================================================

Dave, here's the very first potentially good enough cheap enough home cellular broadband offering that has just appeared out of the T-Mobile Sprint merger.

https://liliputing.com/2019/03/t-mobile-launches-home-broadband-trial-50-mbps-fo
r-50-per-month.html

US wireless carrier T-Mobile is getting into the in-home internet space, but the company is starting small.

T-Mobile is launching an invitation-only pilot program that will let up to 50-thousand households in “rural and underserved areas of the country” use the company’s 4G LTE network in their homes by the end of the year.

Those who sign up will get speeds of “around 50 Mbps” for $50 per month when they sign up for automatic payments. And there are no data caps.

But odds are T-Mobile will have plenty of competition by 2024.

Right now the company is able to compare its $50/month for 50 Mbps service to cable, fiber and other services which regularly cost substantially more. But as competitors including Verizon and T-Mobile begin to deploy 5G technology, it’s likely that folks shopping for in-home internet service will start to see more choices.

Roll Eyes

Interesting times, faster, better and cheaper ........

« Last Edit: 03/21/19 at 15:44:46 by Oldfeller--FSO »

Former Savage Owner

IP Logged

Pages: 1 ... 12 13 14 15 16 ... 31

‹ Previous topic | Next topic ›

« Home