According to a report from Expreview, Futuremark is “hard at work” developing a benchmark designed to stress DirectX 11 hardware.

Further details as to the tests or release date of the new 3DMark are in question as Futuremark President Oliver Baltuch said he was unable to comment on unannounced projects.

In the mean time, users looking to run the numbers on their new Radeons should sidle up to the “Heaven” benchmark. Based on the DirectX 11 Unigine engine, the benchmark demonstrates rad technologies like hardware tessellation,  depth of field via Direct Compute, and tessellated displacement maps.

AMD has recently released two DirectX 11 technical demos that are designed to run on the firm’s lineup of Radeon HD 5000-series GPUs. The new demos highlight features made possible by the advent of DirectX 11.

Ladybug demo

The Ladybug demo shows how DirectX 11’s Direct Compute architecture, which standardizes and facilitates GPU processing, can be used to simulate lens-accurate depth of field. Depth of field is a cinematography technique used to draw the draw the viewer’s eye, or to enhance emotion, by unfocusing unimportant scene elements. The specific technique used in this demo is called “lens-accurate” because it perfectly imitates the dynamics of a traditional camera lens.

Notice that blur increases as a function of distance from the virtual lens.

If you decide to try either of the two demos, Ladybug is certainly the more impressive of the two. We’ve had some time to play with and observe the demo on a large display, and trust us when we say it looks outstanding.
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Despite last week’s grim news, my lapel mic is not actually dead. In fact, it makes a triumphant return this week, as I suffer through the terribly low temperatures of Elkhart, IN!

In this week’s edition of Mind of UPSLynx, I address a burning question: Did I actually chuck a PC off the balcony? More seriously, we learned that if you are a fugitive on the run, do not post messages and pictures on Facebook. Speaking of idiots, how about Pepsi and their new iPhone app?

Want the lowdown on workstation GPUs? Icrontic has you covered with a look at the ATI FirePro V8750. Lastly, the DirectX 11 gaming roadmap has emerged, and it looks like massive amounts of win.

One day ahead of schedule, the industry’s timeline for DirectX 11 games and engines has leaked.

While two MMOs overhauling their engines to support DX11 is impressive, the skeptic in us doesn’t find the list terribly earth-shattering. Some of these titles were already announced with the Radeon HD 5870, while the remainder belong to franchises which have received little notoriety compared to other titles in their genre.

5 titles before March, 1 title in 2010, and 5 engines in 2010.

The CryEngine 3 engine (the followup to what’s used in Crysis), will be joined by four other completed DirectX 11 engines throughout 2010. This more or less indicates that 2011 will be the year when the trickle turns to a flood.

NVIDIA has just revealed the first details of their next-generation video card during the keynote address delivered by NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang.

They call it “Fermi,” and it’s NVIDIA’s newest and most radical GPU architecture. Huang implied that the card is the symbol of the company’s efforts to embrace the GPGPU, or a video card which can handle CPU-like tasks.

An x-ray of the Fermi GPU die.

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Advanced Micro Devices has begun an initiative to create an open source and cross-platform solution for GPU physics.

Dubbed “Bullet Physics,” AMD has partnered with Pixelux Entertainment to end the clash between proprietary physics solutions like AMD’s Havok and NVIDIA’s PhysX. The new engine is written in OpenCL, a vendor-neutral platform which simplifies the process of coding for today’s processor-like GPUs. The duo is also working to develop Bullet Physics for DirectCompute, or the DirectX 11 standard for GPU offloading.

AMD’s CTO of Graphics Eric Demers said that an open physics engine will end the petty war between incompatible physics engines.

“Proprietary physics solutions divide consumers and ISVs, while stifling true innovation; our competitors even develop code that they themselves admit will not work on hardware other than theirs,” he said. “By working with Pixelux and others to enable open support of physics on OpenCL and DirectX 11 capable devices we are taking the exact opposite approach.”

The move is an obvious slap at rival firm NVIDIA which moved in June to disable PhysX offloading if a GeForce is not the primary renderer. While that change and its motivations are only just now coming to light, AMD seems to have short-circuited the brewing conflict with an engine that will run on GeForces and Radeons alike.

“Pixelux wants ensure that our technology can take advantage of the computing resources that any particular hardware platform offers without locking in our users to any single platform,” said Mitchell Bunnell, CEO of Pixelux. “By working with AMD to run our software in OpenCL we stay true to that goal.”

The maturity of the engine and a list of supporting developers were not immediately available. We have also contacted NVIDIA for a statement regarding their perspective on the new initiative.

In case you missed it, Icrontic relayed a report detailing an exchange between an unspecified NVIDIA source and TweakTown’s Shane Baxtor regarding the Radeon HD 5870.

In the piece, Baxtor claims that NVIDIA PR emailed TweakTown to snoop on whether or not they had received review samples for the Radeon 5870 graphics card from rival AMD. Baxtor went on to say that NVIDIA had a few bullet points that they felt the journalist should hit when reviewing the rival company’s card. Baxtor felt he would be best serving his readers by forwarding the inquiries to AMD PR for rebuttal–frankly a maneuver to be commended. AMD subsequently responded, and made for some interesting reading as a result.

It all appears to be the typical game of Silicon Valley ping pong, but then, something curious happens. Yesterday morning, TweakTown posted an update:

“UPDATE - NVIDIA’s PR company for Asia Pacific in Singapore, CIZA Concept, has contacted us and claimed that the source of the questions was from them as “our observations, as industry watchers” and not NVIDIA. We always get these types of questions and they seem to read like they are from NVIDIA, so we are unsure. We were asked to state this in this news post, which has been done here.

We were also contacted by phone about this by NVIDIA and we have offered them the chance to do a follow-up. We are in the process of preparing questions and will have them answered early next week in a new news post.”

The plot thickens! Today NVIDIA’s Senior PR Manager Brian Burke engaged me on Twitter. His response more or less directly contradicted the TechTown piece, stating that DirectX 11 was in fact a good thing for gamers. Intrigued, I asked Mr. Burke for an official statement. I also asked him if he was aware of the source of the original comments.

Did NVIDIA or its Asian PR firm ask TweakTown to consider their points for TweakTown’s Radeon 5870 review? Did Burke actually think AMD’s moving forward with DirectX 11 was somehow punishing gamers? Here is his reply:

We checked with our Asia PR team and they assured us that they did not send out these questions.

Pushing technology forward is one of our core beliefs, which is why we push to innovate even when no standards are available yet. We want people to have the best experience possible with their games.  This is why we focus on adding things like PhysX and 3D Vision to PC games. We also support DX 11 and all industry standards.

DX11 is a very good thing. Anything that makes the PC gaming experience better is great. Our next generation GeForce will support DX11, PhysX and 3D Vision so gamers don’t have to compromise.

In essence, NVIDIA says that they do not know who TweakTown’s source is, and TweakTown more or less admits that they don’t have a clear understanding where the communication came from as well.

As we look deeper to uncover the truth of this finger-pointing, I have contacted TweakTown’s Shane Baxtor who has advised simply to “stay tuned.”

Ahoy landlubbers! This week we be ready ta throw Austrailia overboard as they be bannin’ Left 4 Dead 2 from their salty shores! But good news is afoot, our mateys from Telltale Games is givin’ away a pirate game of their own this day! Yarrr, fresh new graphics cards are in the works from those scurvy devils at ATI and Nvidia, what do we know about the new haarrrrrrrrrdware? Finally, I took a bit o’ time to talk with 1st mate Thrax about DirrrrrectX 11 and what the new tech means. So whadya watin’ for? Watch the show, or off to Davy Jones locker with ye!

It’s Monday! That means you’re once again chained to your desk, blearily contemplating the most creative ways to dodge the work that should be done at said desk. It also means you’re ready to reconnect to the internet for a dose of what you missed while you were being a responsible-get-projects-and-chores-done-on-the-weekend person (RIGHT?)! And, hey, if you need a dose, we have just what the doctor ordered.

NVIDIA to finally offer retail 40nm?

Coming in at numero uno is NVIDIA, with word that the firm might eventually push select 40nm parts into the retail channel. The firm’s shift to 40nm has been a painful affair plagued with poor yields and epic delays, but a few GPUs on the 40nm node have been available to OEMs for a while. According to the Chinese Digitimes publication, that OEM exclusivity may soon end.

The Digitimes report says that the DirectX 10.1-capable GeForce 210 and 220 products could hit retail as early as October. Even though GeForce 210 and 220 parts are far from benchmark-busters, the move indicates that NVIDIA’s 40nm process is (finally) maturing to support retail sales. If this is indeed the case, we are at last moving closer to the GT300.

Dell boards the Windows 7 train

If you’re saddled with a box from the boys at Dell and have been itching to try Windows 7, fortunes just may have turned in your favor. The big ol’ OEM took the weekend to announce a full roster of Windows 7-ready drivers for a wide variety of systems past and present. If you’ve been cautious about taking the leap to 7 to avoid driver issues, maybe it’s time to jump.

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UPDATE: 27 July, 2009 @ 11:57 AM

Ex-Inq journo and long-time Valley rabble-rouser Charlie Demerjian has recently offered new insight on the wild world of ATI’s DirectX 11 codenames in a brutal piece on plagiarism in the world of tech journalism. Here’s the breakdown:

Hemlock: Highest-end desktop part, probably dual Cypress GPUs a la the rumored Radeon 5870 X2.
Cypress: High-end single-GPU part. Similar to the Radeon HD 4870 when it launched.
Juniper: Mid-range desktop part. Similar to the Radeon HD 4850 when it launched.
Cedar & Redwood: Low-end desktop parts. Similar to the Radeon HD 4650 and 4670.

The confusion in the codenames contained in the original story is most likely owed to a simple transcription error on behalf of The Inquirer. It happens, especially when (as Chuck D points out) you’re being blitzed with PR, buzzwords and codenames. Anyone who’s been to a trade show or a press event understands.

Original story follows:

Today’s semiconductor news from the likes of AMD and Intel aren’t quite headline material, but they’re better than the proverbial page bury. Times like these call for a roundup, but our taskmaster editor doesn’t like them. Good thing he’s sleeping off a lake party and isn’t around to stop us.

AMD’s DirectX 11 codenames

DirectX 11 is just around the corner, and NVIDIA’s struggles to get its shit together at 40nm has left AMD the sole heir to the estate this winter.

While considerable speculation remains over just how AMD plans to get into the spirit of the season, we do have codename confirmations to tide you over.

The family of 40nm DirectX 11 GPUs is collectively known as the Evergreen. The Evergreen architecture will launch with five parts that will span the price spectrum:

• Cypress (Desktop: For those with more money than sense)
• Redwood (Desktop: An enthusiast part like the Radeon 4890)
• Juniper & Cedar (Desktop: Mainstream parts like the Radeon 4670 and 4650)
• Hemlock (Desktop: Poisonous parts for the cheapskates amongst us)

Word has it that AMD has already received functioning Evergreen silicon back from the fab. If that’s true, we are indeed looking at a DX11 launch timed to coincide with Windows 7. It’s like the Radeon 9800 coup all over again!
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Yesterday GPU firm ATI demonstrated functioning DirectX 11 hardware in a presentation to press and execs at Computex in Taipei, Taiwan.

Big red tapped a demo that showcased hardware tessellation, a headlining feature of DirectX 11 that allows for lower GPU overhead when rendering complex 3D objects. Tessellation technology, present on ATI GPUs since the Radeon HD 2000-series, reduces the complexity of rendering an object’s details as it moves about a scene. DirectX 11 tessellation technology, if harnessed, could lead to significantly increased object detail in 3D scenes with a minimal performance impact.

ATI also demonstrated a technology in DirectX 11 known as “compute shader” which uses the GPU to process workloads traditionally allocated to the CPU. ATI’s preview of the technology used the GPU to process the AI of small characters taking the path of least resistance as they marched across rugged terrain.

Compute shader is essentially the formalization of the Stream Processing and CUDA initiatives from ATI and NVIDIA which use the GPU for massively-parallel general purpose applications. Standardizing a GPGPU model may make for more prevalent and consistent physics engines, AI, and other tasks the CPU was once responsible for.

It is strongly suspected that the GPU used to display this content was none other than the RV8xx core rumored to be at the heart of the ATI Radeon HD 5800-series coming this fall to coincide with the Windows 7 launch.

A slide displayed by AMD at CEATEC confirmed that the company is fixing to produce a DX11-ready GPU by the end of 2009. The firm also boasted that it is ready to switch to a 40nm fabrication technique which will permit significant additional horsepower to be packed into the same GPU space. Giant, hot and noisy GPUs are dead! Long live giant, hot and noisy GPUs!