This started out as a rumor today, but Intel has since more-or-less confirmed that licensing discussions between Intel and Nvidia for Intel's next-generation processors are not going well and the resulting conflict could have implications for high-end gaming PCs.
Chip design
The story is that Intel and Nvidia are currently negotiating technology licenses for Nehalem, Intel's next-generation desktop CPU due out at the end of this year. As we were told from multiple desktop vendors who wish to remain nameless, Intel wants to license SLI from Nvidia for its Nehalem chipsets, and if Nvidia won't, Intel will withhold the license that would enable Nvidia to support Nehalem's memory controller, and thus Nehalem, on its own chipsets.
We have no official confirmation from Nvidia on this, and Intel's statement from PR manager Dan Snyder is vague, but it lends credence to the story:
"There is a disagreement between Intel and Nvidia as to the scope of Nvidia's license from Intel to make chipsets compatible with Intel microprocessors. Intel is trying to resolve the disagreement privately with Nvidia and therefore we will not provide additional details. It is our hope that this dispute will be resolved amicably and that it will not impact other areas of our companies' working relationship."
Intel has been after SLI support for its chipsets for years, but has thus far only been able to build it into its ultra high-end Skulltrail motherboards, seemingly a one-off. With SLI available across all of its chipset lines, Intel would be able to sell motherboards that support both AMD's and Nvidia's multigraphics card technologies. Right now Intel boards (with the exception of Skulltrail) only support AMD's CrossFire.
Nvidia, on the other hand, has kept SLI close, often citing compatibility and certification concerns as the reason why no other chipset vendor has been able to offer SLI-capability. But if Nvidia loses out on Nehalem for its next-generation chipsets, the high-end desktop market will become more fragmented than it's been in years. Nvidia has been able to offer SLI-supporting chipsets for both AMD and Intel processors, but if this split happens, on one side we'll have Nehalem and CrossFire-based systems, the other will offer SLI (and possibly CrossFire, if hacks used in the past continue to work) and AMD CPUs.
In light of this rumor, Nvidia's recent marketing push encouraging upgraders to pick a graphics card before a quad-core CPU takes on new significance. If Nvidia knows high-end PC gamers will have to make a choice later this year, better to plant the seeds in its favor early. Intel probably has less to worry about, because gamers who demand SLI with a fast Intel processor can still use Nvidia's NForce 790i chipset, which supports the current generation of Intel Core 2 Extreme chips.
UPDATE 5:48pm PT - Intel released an additional statement after this blog was posted. "We are not seeking any SLI concession from Nvidia in exchange for granting any Nehalem license rights to Nvidia," the company said.
Staff writer Tom Krazit contributed to this report.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Great Plains Installation and Customization on Vista workstation
Microsoft Dynamics GP workstation is compatible with Vista, including Vista 64 bit. However if you try to install it on Vista as it is, you will be getting error message: “An error occurred while using the BCP utility -- data was not correctly copied to the server.” Actually all you need to do it to turn off User Account Control in control panel User Accounts. Then just launch GP installation and follow the wizard. We will be assuming here that you are installing GP version 10.0, which is the latest one at the time of writing this news " May 2008. Let’s review installation and modification in relation to Vista and 64 bit Windows server and SQL Server 2005: 1. eConnect runtime. At this time COM+ side of eConnect is not compatible with 64 bit platform. So, if you are planning to install the tool, where eConnect is utilized: Integration Manager for example, please be sure that COM+ or local objects of eConnect will reside on 32 bit computer
2. Dexterity custom logic and add-ons. They should be compatible with Vista, assuming that Dex doesn’t call COM objects, but being honest " this is very unusual for Dexterity to do something like that. Such popular Dex add-ons as Posting Server should work out of the box
3. FRx. When you are planning to deploy FRx, please know that 6.7 version SYSDATA folder must be resided on 32 bit Windows server. Please, understand that FRx 6.7 was introduced in 2005 at the time when Vista was only in inception stage and AMD was just releasing its first Athlon 64 processors
4. MS Visual Studio C# or VB programming add-ons. Here you are typically deploy either ADO.Net or directly eConnect (which is definitely preferred over ADO, but requires learning curve)
5. SRS versus Crystal Reports. In essence, if you are ready to launch reports as stand alone application, we don’t see any revolutionary advantage of one reports design tool over another. SRS or Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services is web application, maybe this fact gives you some advantage, as SRS could be deployed on your web server and so exposed to your worldwide users
6. eCommerce. Here we encourage you to review Posting Server, allowing you to post GP batches in Sales Order Processing and other modules automatically
2. Dexterity custom logic and add-ons. They should be compatible with Vista, assuming that Dex doesn’t call COM objects, but being honest " this is very unusual for Dexterity to do something like that. Such popular Dex add-ons as Posting Server should work out of the box
3. FRx. When you are planning to deploy FRx, please know that 6.7 version SYSDATA folder must be resided on 32 bit Windows server. Please, understand that FRx 6.7 was introduced in 2005 at the time when Vista was only in inception stage and AMD was just releasing its first Athlon 64 processors
4. MS Visual Studio C# or VB programming add-ons. Here you are typically deploy either ADO.Net or directly eConnect (which is definitely preferred over ADO, but requires learning curve)
5. SRS versus Crystal Reports. In essence, if you are ready to launch reports as stand alone application, we don’t see any revolutionary advantage of one reports design tool over another. SRS or Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services is web application, maybe this fact gives you some advantage, as SRS could be deployed on your web server and so exposed to your worldwide users
6. eCommerce. Here we encourage you to review Posting Server, allowing you to post GP batches in Sales Order Processing and other modules automatically
By: Andrew Karasev
Thursday, May 22, 2008
IT overhaul fights organised crime
The Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) has completed the first phase of a five-year IT overhaul to help in the battle against organised crime.
But the agency has admitted that it faced challenges in training staff to a level where the improvement will have a material effect on tackling criminals.
Soca’s annual reports says the “challenges involved in increasing knowledge to a level that would facilitate a transformation of the impact on organised crime still remained significant”.
So far the programme has given overseas staff secure access to IT systems, improved the internal management of information and upgraded software to improve the collection of Suspicious Activity Reports a mechanism allowing the public to electronically report financial crime.
In theory, the system will give staff better access to intelligence material, according to Soca chairman Stephen Lander.
“Soca needs to be able to work seamlessly in local communities and at the same time internationally if it is to be effective, and we saw this year that it has both the skills and systems to do so.”
As part of the project Soca consolidated some of its legacy systems.
“Subject to the availability of sufficient capital funding, these strategies will see Soca move from an inherited estate with much expensive, poorly sited and inconvenient accommodation and a large number of legacy IT systems to fully fit for purpose arrangements over a three to five-year period,” says the report.
Soca would not comment on how much of its annual £440m budget would be required to complete these projects.
In November 2007 it said £10m was needed just to overhaul the IT behind the Suspicious Activity Reports system.
Further reading:
* E-crime unit funding revealed
* E-crime takes political stage
* Soca to rethink e-crime fight
* Security experts doubt UK can tackle e-crime
* IT security experts call for national e-crime unit
* Serious crime agency needs more IT funding
Source: http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2217190/overhaul-fights-organised-crime-4016601
Please spend time to visit this related blog: http://cpu-2tech.blogspot.com
The Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) has completed the first phase of a five-year IT overhaul to help in the battle against organised crime.
But the agency has admitted that it faced challenges in training staff to a level where the improvement will have a material effect on tackling criminals.
Soca’s annual reports says the “challenges involved in increasing knowledge to a level that would facilitate a transformation of the impact on organised crime still remained significant”.
So far the programme has given overseas staff secure access to IT systems, improved the internal management of information and upgraded software to improve the collection of Suspicious Activity Reports a mechanism allowing the public to electronically report financial crime.
In theory, the system will give staff better access to intelligence material, according to Soca chairman Stephen Lander.
“Soca needs to be able to work seamlessly in local communities and at the same time internationally if it is to be effective, and we saw this year that it has both the skills and systems to do so.”
As part of the project Soca consolidated some of its legacy systems.
“Subject to the availability of sufficient capital funding, these strategies will see Soca move from an inherited estate with much expensive, poorly sited and inconvenient accommodation and a large number of legacy IT systems to fully fit for purpose arrangements over a three to five-year period,” says the report.
Soca would not comment on how much of its annual £440m budget would be required to complete these projects.
In November 2007 it said £10m was needed just to overhaul the IT behind the Suspicious Activity Reports system.
Further reading:
* E-crime unit funding revealed
* E-crime takes political stage
* Soca to rethink e-crime fight
* Security experts doubt UK can tackle e-crime
* IT security experts call for national e-crime unit
* Serious crime agency needs more IT funding
Source: http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2217190/overhaul-fights-organised-crime-4016601
Please spend time to visit this related blog: http://cpu-2tech.blogspot.com
New Technology - Microfilm To Digital Data
Microfilm was the format of choice for the document management industry for several decades prior to the emergence of electronic document management and the CD-ROM in the early 1990s.
It follows, therefore, that there is a huge backlog of microfilm of many different formats in the system, all requiring specialized (and expensive) equipment for viewing and printing back to hard copy. As they stand, they cannot be integrated into an EDM system, even though they may contain mainstream information which is frequently required.
The technology for digitizing microfilm is readily available: the decision to be made is how to employ it to best effect.
A digitizing reader printer incorporating its own printer can be used as a stand-alone device in much the same way as the old microfilm reader printer, but making use of scanning technology rather that the old Xerox process. A picture file is produced which outputs to A4 using the machine's own laser printer, the downside being that originals larger than A4 will be produced at much reduced size. The solution to the scaling problem is to install the reader printer as a network drive, allowing the scanned image to be sent to a network plotter. If the original microfilm incorporated a scale, then an accurate full-size print can be produced: if not, the printer software can be set to print at one of the standard paper sizes, A0 to A4.
This set up serves a requirement for low volume on-demand access, where the microfilms are going to be retained in their original form.
On the other hand, high volume conversion can best be served by specialist machines that will scan roll microfilm, microfiche or 35mm aperture cards automatically and at high speed. The high capital cost of these devices means that they are not cost effective unless large backfile conversions are being contemplated. Alternatively, the use of a specialist scanning company will achieve most of the cost benefits without a large capital investment.
There are specialist organizations which provide a range of scanning services, including all microfilm formats. The scanned images can be converted to hard copy, to exact scale if required, or assembled into a searchable database which can be interfaced with an EDM or workflow system.
By: Arthor Pens
Please spend time to visit this related blog: http://cpu-2tech.blogspot.com
It follows, therefore, that there is a huge backlog of microfilm of many different formats in the system, all requiring specialized (and expensive) equipment for viewing and printing back to hard copy. As they stand, they cannot be integrated into an EDM system, even though they may contain mainstream information which is frequently required.
The technology for digitizing microfilm is readily available: the decision to be made is how to employ it to best effect.
A digitizing reader printer incorporating its own printer can be used as a stand-alone device in much the same way as the old microfilm reader printer, but making use of scanning technology rather that the old Xerox process. A picture file is produced which outputs to A4 using the machine's own laser printer, the downside being that originals larger than A4 will be produced at much reduced size. The solution to the scaling problem is to install the reader printer as a network drive, allowing the scanned image to be sent to a network plotter. If the original microfilm incorporated a scale, then an accurate full-size print can be produced: if not, the printer software can be set to print at one of the standard paper sizes, A0 to A4.
This set up serves a requirement for low volume on-demand access, where the microfilms are going to be retained in their original form.
On the other hand, high volume conversion can best be served by specialist machines that will scan roll microfilm, microfiche or 35mm aperture cards automatically and at high speed. The high capital cost of these devices means that they are not cost effective unless large backfile conversions are being contemplated. Alternatively, the use of a specialist scanning company will achieve most of the cost benefits without a large capital investment.
There are specialist organizations which provide a range of scanning services, including all microfilm formats. The scanned images can be converted to hard copy, to exact scale if required, or assembled into a searchable database which can be interfaced with an EDM or workflow system.
By: Arthor Pens
Please spend time to visit this related blog: http://cpu-2tech.blogspot.com
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