Jon Peddie Back Pages - It's all about the pixels
The Stabilized World – there are aftershocks to come
Posted by Jon Peddie on October 24th 2003 | Discuss
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The tectonic plates of CPU Land and Pixel World are grinding against each other in a battle for dominance. Caught in between CPU World and Pixel Town is the place known as, The Chipset Zone…. Right now we have a fairly stable Industry with most if not all of the consolidation have taken place. The players have sorted themselves out in CPU World with Intel the giant king of the hill, AMD mounting charge after charge, and Transmeta and Via picking up the stuff the two big guys either overlooked or just can’t get to—yet. In Pixel-Town Nvidia has moved into…
E3 comes and goes
Posted by Jon Peddie on October 24th 2003 | Discuss
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There's not much that's real in Hollywood, so the signs celebrating the arrival of Matrix on Sunset Boulevard simply repeat the obvious. However, as we made our way into the L.A. Convention Center we found the feeling of unreality persisted. Much of the business of E3 is done long before the show ever opens. This year, Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo staked out territory with Sony making the biggest splash for its PSP, a device Sony president Ken Kutaragi called the Walkman of the future. Microsoft is building on the Internet talk capabilities of the Xbox, allowing players to "trash talk" as a…
Microsoft in the living room
Posted by Jon Peddie on October 24th 2003 | Discuss
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Microsoft has studied the TV/ PC/Communications convergence space for several (four plus?) years. The company understands the magnitude of the issues. But, at the same time, they're still trying to improvise their end-to-end solution to the market. So far, Microsoft has learned a little humility about the inadequacy of their off-the-shelf stuff for the home, and they realize they are going to have to engage with a lot of partners in wide range of fields. Starting from this point, can a company that seems to be universally feared and disliked reposition itself as the guiding light, the developer and deliverer of…
Enormous changes at the last minute
Posted by Jon Peddie on August 23rd 2003 | Discuss
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Nvidia buys MediaQ and boards the fast train to handheld devices Nvidia is buying MediaQ? Now that's a good use for all that dough Nvidia has had lying around. MediaQ has a line of controllers for handhelds with a range of features for every class of handheld including low-cost parts that enable video and MP3 playback. In addition, the company has just introduced the MQ9000 line, codenamed Katana, an SOC that combines ARM processor, graphics processing, video, and Java processing to take on mighty Intel, TI, and ST. Even more impressive, the company has delivered on their promises time after time.…
Welcome to Siggraph ... Maybe
Posted by Jon Peddie on August 11th 2003 | Discuss
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Siggraph returns to the West Coast and cuts costs on everything from food, to panels, to signs Hey! Where are we? In order to recover from the fiasco that was Siggraph 2002 in San Antonio, the Siggraph Conference group cut back on a day of the conference, workers, and signage. Also, longtime stalwarts like SGI and Sun failed to have a booth on the floor. However, the conference felt pretty lively with new exhibitors, papers, and a crowd still in love with graphics. Some of the notable events we'll be covering are the dramatic changes coming as a result of programmable…
Where would I be, without my TV?
Posted by Jon Peddie on June 9th 2003 | Discuss
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In 1999, when we finished our landmark Digital Entertainment Box (DEB) study, I came to the conclusion that television is the center of the universe. Ever since then, like King Arthur's knights, I've searched for an alternate truth and found none. The Holy Grail is TV; we love it, hate it, can't live without it; it has been the most transforming thing in the world; it has brought the world to the world. The second or third most transforming thing (ignoring WOMDs) was and is the PC. This is where people spend most of their time. And, contrary to the desires…
Jon Peddie’s Cebit Awards
Posted by Jon Peddie on April 17th 2003 | Discuss
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Going to Cebit wouldn't be half the fun if it weren't for the astonishing and strange things one gets to see there. Space simply does not permit showing all the wacky, wonderful, and weird things that people display at this mega conference. Here then, with that apology, are a few of my favorites. Best Nvidia FX 5800 heat-sink design: Leadtek Air is drawn by the rear, slightly cantered fan, passed over the copper fins, and then drawn out and blown into the system (the back side of the case is ribbed aluminum and thermally bonded to the back-side memory chips). Exposed,…
Cebit 2003
Posted by Jon Peddie on March 15th 2003 | Discuss
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The working press in the Halles of Cebit. The messages for Cebit this year are pretty much the same. The big issues are Wireless Networking for fun and profit, Recordable DVD for fun and profit, phones for all, and cameras everywhere. Security, of course, was a major theme, and if we weren't all already scared to death, companies peddling security were out there telling people that the viruses and worms we've been battling are nothing compared to the mothers of all worms that are on their way—unless, of course, we pony up the bucks for their software. In a word, yipes!…
Looking ahead by looking backwards
Posted by Jon Peddie on October 24th 2002 | Discuss
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It seems like a good time to reflect on the year past. If you look at the stock trends for the year and project them forward, the JPR graphics index goes to zero February 7, 2003, and the Dow Jones Industrial Index goes to zero some time in 2005, which of course is ridiculous and merely exemplifies the absurdity of using history to predict the future—you can’t drive a car forward by looking in the rear-view mirror. But, you can, hopefully, learn a few lessons about what to avoid in the future—who hasn’t said, “If only I could do it over?”…
I came for the ride
Posted by Jon Peddie on June 10th 2002 | Discuss
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Taipei is an amazing place, full of contradictions and surprises. The place is haven for taxi users. There are more taxis in Taipei than all of China, Korea and Alaska combined. Well, probably not, but who knows how many taxis are in China? No one, right? Well, no one knows how many are in Taipei, either. No, of course someone knows: the person who issues licenses, but he doesn’t speak English, so I couldn’t find out. But let me tell you, there’s a lot, I mean a really whole lot. In fact it’s a joke in Taipei: Can you look down…
