NVIDIA Responds to Linus Torvalds’ Rant
Subject: General Tech | June 21, 2012 - 01:35 PM | Tim Verry
Tagged: rant, optimus, open source, nvidia, linux, linus, drivers
Last week, the founder of Linux – Linus Torvalds – gave a speech at the Aalto Center for Entrepreneurship. The aspect that most people picked up on was a certain disparaging statement towards NVIDIA. Since then, the video has spread rapidly around the Internet with critics for and against the statement. Linus does not believe that NVIDIA is easy to work with regarding Linux support, in short. NVIDIA PR recently responded to his statement in stating that the company is in fact heavily involved with Linux development, albeit mobile kernels.
NVIDIA stated in its PR release that supporting Linux is important to the company and they understand how important a positive Linux experience using NVIDIA hardware is. I don’t think anyone is surprised by that statement, but that was not all they said. The company stated that they are big supporters of the ARM Linux kernel with a claimed second most total lines changed and fourth highest number of changesets in the kernel.
The company uses proprietary drivers, but it does support GeForce, Quadro, and Tesla graphics cards under the Linux operating system. By using a common, proprietary driver, NVIDIA claims same-day support for new graphics cards and OpenGL versions for both Windows and Linux operating systems.
Linus’ rant started when an audience member asked about Optimus support under Linux. On that front, NVIDIA did not have a direct answer – only that when it launched laptops with Optimus, it was only supported on Windows 7. Allegedly, the company is working to make interaction between its drivers and the Bumblebee Open Source Project. The Bumblebee project is working to make Optimus-powered laptops work with Linux operating systems.
What do you think of the two statements by Linus and NVIDIA? Should NVIDIA be held accountable for Optimus support under Linux? Is the company doing enough to support the OS? Or is Linus wrong? Let us know in the comments below!
Personally, as much as I like Linux, I don’t think NVIDIA should have to go out of its way to support Optimus on Linux. At least, not until the Linux OS is the operating system that comes pre-installed on an Optimus notebook. At that point, it would be on NVIDIA to provide support. Until then, they don’t have to support it on aftermarket / third part operating systems. With that said, better Linux support couldn't hurt PR-wise. As far as Linux and NVIDIA working together in a more general sense, I think that the company could certainly do more for Linux on the desktop, especially being a Linux Foundation member, but I don't think they will until it is more financially viable to do so.
The full PR statement is available after the break.
NVIDIA Shows New ASUS Zenbook Prime UX32VD with GT 620M GPU
Subject: Mobile | May 25, 2012 - 06:16 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: zenbook, ux32vd, ultrabook, optimus, gt 620m, asus
The lucky dogs at The Verge got their hands on a sexy new Ultrabook coming from ASUS very soon while attending the NVIDIA investors day this week. The Zenbook Prime UX32VD will feature a 13-in 1920x1080 resolution IPS display in addition to the discrete NVIDIA GeForce GT 620M Kepler-based GPU. Optimus Technology will obviously be included in order to allow the GPU to completely power off when you aren't gaming or taking advantage of it for the best battery life the platform can muster.
The word is that it will ship with a Core i5 ULV Ivy Bridge processor and be priced somewhere around $1299. The shape of the UX32VD is just slightly different than that of the current wave of Zenbooks, with a "bit of a chin" according to The Verge's Sean Hollister. ASUS' upcoming machine will include three USB 3.0 ports, a memory card reader, HDMI, mini-DisplayPort and an audio jack for a fairly complete connectivity suite.
You can see many more photos of the Zenbook Prime UX32VD at The Verge's gallery.
With discrete GPUs being heavily pushed by NVIDIA, even on Ultrabook designs, we are very eager to see what all the major notebook vendors are able to come up with for Computex next month.
Introduction and Design
Ultrabooks are now on store shelves, but that doesn’t mean the more traditional ultraportables are dead - not by a long shot. Thin may be cool, but the high price premium attached to ultrabooks means that they will, at least for now, be a niche product. Meanwhile, the workhorse 13.3” ultraportable will remain popular.
One of the most accomplished manufacturers of this type of laptop is ASUS, which has been building U-Series ultraportables for several years now. We’ve generally given them high marks here, but now there is a new model to check out, the updated U36. Unlike the stylish U33 Bamboo, this model is a tough, simple laptop that seems to take ques from Lenovo’s ThinkPads. Has this compromised the series? Let’s find out.
Continue reading our review of the ASUS U36SD-XA1 Ultraportable notebook!!
CyberPower's sub-$1000 gaming laptop
Subject: Mobile | November 17, 2011 - 03:27 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: Cyberpower, X6 9200, gaming laptop, optimus
The name is a bit confusing, as the CyberPower X6 9200 doesn't include a Phenom II X6 1090T, it is powered by the 2.2GHz Core-i7 2670QM and NVIDIA's GT540M 2GB GPU with Optimus support. The 15.6" monitor is quite impressive, supporting full 1080p resolutions as well as the more common 1366x768 resolution for laptops, at this price one should assume it is a TN panel. Externally you can send signal via HDMI or VGA if you find the screen too small for your preferences. They've fully populated the memory capacity of the system with a pair of 4GB DDR3-1333 DIMMs and storage is a 500GB HDD. Bjorn3D had no issues with this $900 gaming laptop, but they do prefer a matte finish to the piano-style fingerprint magnet that CyberPower chose.
"Today we look at the budget friendly Cyberpower gaming notebook. A feature rich offering at a lower mid level price range, check out how well this gaming notebook does."
Here are some more Mobile articles from around the web:
- Toshiba Portege Z835: A New Ultrabook Appears @ AnandTech
- MSI GE620 Gaming Laptop Review @ HardwareLOOK
- The Asus Zenbook: a steely marvel with an appalling trackpad @ Ars Technica
- Dell Inspiron One 2320: Stuck in the Middle With You @ AnandTech
- Hands On With the HP Folio 13 @ TechReviewSource
- Asus G53SX Review @ TechReviewSource
- Sandberg PowerBank 8000 Portable Battery Review @ Real World Labs
- Samsung Solid Immerse Review @ Tech-Reviews
- ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime Tablet Sneak Peak @ Legit Reviews
- ASUS Tegra 3 Powered Eee Pad Transformer Prime Detailed @ Tweaktown
- Motorola Droid RAZR hands-on impressions @ TechSpot
- PowerSkin for iPhone 4 Review @ ThinkComputers
- Luxa2 H4 iPad Holder Review @ eTeknix
- Nokia Lumia 800 Review: Best Windows Phone Yet @ Techspot
- Adding Vellamo to our Mobile Benchmark Suite - Six Android Phones Tested @ AnandTech
- Amazon Kindle Fire Review @ TechReviewSource
Optimus for Linux Problem May Be Solved!
Subject: Graphics Cards | May 9, 2011 - 10:30 AM | John Davis
Tagged: optimus, linux
It looks like we have an answer for Optimus, even though it is unofficial support. Linux users have been wondering for almost a year now wether or not we would get Optimus. Now it looks like we have an unofficial answer to these questions in for form of bumblebee.With this feature, even though experimental, we could potentially see an increase of cpu offloading in Linux, such as Firefox web acceleration potentially.
NVIDIA Synergy will offer discrete and integrated GPU support on Sandy Bridge
Subject: Graphics Cards, Motherboards | April 26, 2011 - 02:19 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: virtu, synergy, optimus, nvidia, lucid, gpu
Remember when we previewed a piece of software from Lucid called Virtu that promised the capability to combine processor graphics features of the Intel Sandy Bridge lineup with the performance and DX11 support of discrete graphics cards from NVIDIA and AMD? The ideas was pretty simple but it addressed one of our major complaints about the initial Sandy Bridge processor launch: the IGP features like fast video transcode acceleration and ultra-low-power video acceleration were unavailable to users that chose to also use a discrete graphics solution.
Lucid's Virtu software running in our previous testing
Lucid's solution was to "virtualize" the GPUs and use a software layer that would decide which applications to run on the discrete GPU and which to run on the integrated processor graphics on the Intel CPU. There were some limitations including the need to have the displays connected to the IGP outputs rather than the discrete card and that the software worked on a rather clunky white-list implementation. Also, discrete graphics control panels were a bit of a headache and only worked with NVIDIA cards and not in all cases even then.
Virtu was to be distributed through motherboard vendors starting with the release of the Z68 chipset (as it was the first mainstream chipset to support overclocking AND display outputs) but now it appears that NVIDIA itself is diving into the same realm with a new piece of software called "Synergy".
Check out more after the break!
MSI’s Newly Designed C Series Notebooks Arrive in North America
Subject: Mobile | April 19, 2011 - 01:43 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: optimus, msi, laptop, core i3
CITY OF INDUSTRY, Calif. – April 18, 2011 – MSI Computer Corp., a leading manufacturer of computer hardware products and solutions, today announced that it has begun shipping its mainstream CX640 and CR640 notebooks to online retailers in North America. These two 15.6” notebook units combine the Intel Core i3-2310M Processor with the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520M with Optimus technology (the silver CX640-071US, MSRP $679.99) or the Intel HD 3000 Graphics (the black CR640-035US, MSRP $629.99) to deliver the power and performance you need for school or for work.
To address the needs of mainstream notebook users, MSI offers 4GB system memory and 500GB hard drives in both models. Additionally, the elegantly designed PCs include a number of features, including:
- Worry free one-touch back-up and restore with MSI’s Time Stamp technology. With just a touch of the Time Stamp button, your concerns about crashes, viruses, and data loss will become a thing of the past
- Butterfingers rejoice! MSI designers integrated extra hard drive protection by changing the position of the C Series hard drive to the middle of the chassis and surrounding it in a unique housing that helps protect your data from the occasional drop or shock.
- In a hurry? The MSI CR640 and CX640 Fast Boot technology helps the unit power up approximately two times faster than standard notebooks.
- Speed up your file transfers with USB 3.0. The new C Series laptops comes equipped with two USB 3.0 ports that lets you transfer files up to ten times faster than USB 2.0
- Automatic backlight adjustment tailors screen brightness by considering the lighting in your current surroundings, which helps manage power consumption and battery life.
“We listen very carefully to our customers, and we know that anticipating and addressing their needs is critical to success in the PC industry,” noted Andy Tung, vice president of sales for MSI US. “The CX640 and CR640 models deliver the standard elements people look for in a PC– performance, price, features and design – however we also go a step further. These units incorporate features that respond to people’s real-life concerns: data backup, hard drive protection, etc. And we believe consumers will respond to this consideration.”
Specs for the CR640 and CX640 notebooks can be found here
The units are available for purchase at B&H and J&R. For more information, please visit http://www.msimobile.com/.
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