Saturday, June 28, 2008

Missed the Boat

The loudest complainers about PC Gaming seem to have one thing in common - a failed strategy in this market.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Attempted rapprochement

Rumor has it there was an attempt at rapprochement. Long annoyed with The Inquirer’s loose cannon Charlie Demerjian, Nvidia has been shunning him and took him off the invitee list of most events. Water to a duck in the case of Charlie, he has so many sources the only reason he goes to any event is to score food and babes – he does better on the food as not many babes go to those things either.

So Derek Perez, Nvidia’s boss of PR and infamous for having a knife fight with a former competitor and now employee Brian Burke, thought if I can live with Burke, I can live with anyone. Perez sent out a friendly “Hey, how about coffee, or breakfast,” email.

Charlie, not one to turn down a donut, and bored to tears in Taipei, said why not, and met Perez at the hotel restaurant.

If you’ve ever met Charlie, you know he doesn’t suffer fools, is quick to make decision, and not the most tactful person on the planet. Oh, and did I mention, opinionated. The annoying thing about him is he’s often right.

The coffee part went OK, but when the serious talk got started and Perez started laying down some ground rules, Charlie said, no, no, hell, no, what the F**’s wrong with you, you deaf – no.

Body builder and short fused Perez had had just about enough and before anyone could blink, karate trained Perez had ninjaed his dish of eggs right into Charlie’s face.

Swift acting guards quickly defused the situation as Demerjian was in the process of loading his quart bottle of Coke with Mentos – the carnage was avoided but it was a tense few moments. Both men were escorted out of the restaurant, through separate doors and the police took over after that.

Charlie was next seen at the Intel event, and then at the ATI event. Perez hasn’t been seen and isn’t answering email, but then the 9800 GTX+ may have been keeping him busy.

Disclaimer: This is a joke. It did not really happen. Though Derek did invite Charlie for coffee.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

This is a rant about spin - Intel extends command in fast-computers tally

The annual supercomputer conference was just held in Dresden Germany. At it they show off the top 500 supercomputers. Usually there are two or three new ones at the top and the rest shift downward till they fall off.

Look at how the AP reported this event:

Intel extends command in fast-computers tally
Associated Press 06.18.08, 9:14 AM ET

Microprocessors from Intel Corp. run more of the world's fastest computers than ever, according to a report released Wednesday that tracks progress in the computing industry.

The latest list of the world's 500 most powerful computers, published twice a year by academic researchers, shows that 75 percent of the machines are powered by Intel (nasdaq: INTC - news - people ) chips, up from 71 percent in November. Chips from Intel's main rival, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (nyse: AMD - news - people ), showed up in 11 percent of the top 500, down from 16 percent on the last list.

The fastest computer on the list is the $100 million "Roadrunner" machine built by IBM Corp. (nyse: IBM - news - people ) for the Department of Energy's nuclear lab in Los Alamos, N.M. Roadrunner is the first computer in the world to surpass a petaflop - 1,000 trillion calculations per second. It's more than twice as fast as the IBM machine that ranks No. 2 on the list.

IBM made an industry-leading 42 percent of the supercomputers on the list, but its overall count diminished slightly. Hewlett-Packard Co. (nyse: HPQ - news - people ) gained ground, with 37 percent of the fastest machines in the latest report.

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

Now look at the reality of it – Intel is in the bottom fourth of the top ten, and AMD is in the top half. So why does Intel get the headline? Why not AMD or IBM, or even Cray? Because Intel has 75 machines, each one of them slower than a new AIB from ATI or Nvidia?

Are the AP folks in love with Intel or just stupid?