CONFIRMED: AMD Acquires ATI

[Jerry Jones]

Here's the story:

http://tinyurl.com/z6qu5

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Jerry Jones]

More:

http://tinyurl.com/qnjop

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Jerry Jones]

FASCINATING:

http://tinyurl.com/gaals

"The deal, announced today, goes back some time."

"Last year, at Computex in Taipei, it was apparent that ATI and AMD were falling in love with the idea of using the powerful graphics processor to run computer programs, not just for animating video."

"At that show, software developers were invited to the launch of the new dual-core AMD processors, with prototype applications that ran, not on the x86 central processor, but on the graphics chip."

"Examples included video editors which could handle the output stream live, in real time."

INCREDIBLE!

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Dr Mordrid]

Jerry;

You have to get out of DV once in a while;

http://forums.murc.ws/showthread.php?t=57845

Note my comments at the bottom. IF AMD/ATI succeeds in creating an open GPGPU platform we're looking at a whole new level of performance in media software even without multiple CPU's.

I've been using the Avivo Transoder on one of my systems that has an ATI X1000 series card. Fast as hell due to GPGPU plus it can do MPEG-1/2, DivX and H.264. Once this tech is put into video editors for fx processing IMO hardware assisted realtime is all but kaput.

Dr. Mordrid

[Jerry Jones]

If they succeed, this new approach could "smoke" Intel's new Core 2 Duo chips.

Amazing.

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Jerry Jones]

Here's an article about that AVIVO transcoder:

http://tinyurl.com/k25qo

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Jerry Jones]

More about the AMD/ATI deal:

http://tinyurl.com/kjt98

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Jerry Jones]

Official AVIVO page on the ATI Web site:

http://tinyurl.com/qk94z

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Jerry Jones]

By the way, this is HUGE news for people who use programs like Ulead Cool 3D Production Studio.

One of the mistakes novices make is to always select the highest quality output setting, which is intended for digital films or high definition and usually provides far more resolution than is required for a standard definition DVD movie.

For standard definition DVDs, the "better" setting is usually adequate.

Moreover, many people don't know that you can speed up rendering in a couple of ways.

1. Select 16-bit color for rendering (it speeds rendering due to decreased memory bandwidth).

2. Render output as FRAME-BASED.

If you select the FIELD A or FIELD B options, you will force Ulead Cool 3D Production Studio to create DOUBLE the number of frames otherwise required for FRAME-BASED output, which would be perfectly fine to use in a typical MiniDV FIELD A project. (Use the flicker-reduction option in Ulead MediaStudio Pro.)

Display cards (and programs) that support DirectX "vertex shader" and "pixel shader" in hardware use the GPU for rendering, which explains why some DirectX 8/9 display cards render 3D graphics at the same speed no matter how fast the CPU might be.

But the bus interface of the display card also makes a huge difference.

If you render using a "best" or "optimal" setting (for digital films or high definition), then Ulead Cool 3D Production Studio will move each frame from the video memory to the system memory for the application of global effects or anti-aliasing, which makes the bus speed a critical factor.

This new AMD/ATI partnership could lead to a much faster bus speeds.

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net