The 780a chipset is here, and alongside it arrives a couple of new technologies which have already been anticipated: Hybrid Power (the ability to work with just the integrated graphics) and GeForce Boost (the ability to join forces with the discrete graphics card you have plugged in).

As it was expected, the AMD 780G is clearly superior when it comes to IGP rendering, so let's focus on the scenario that GeForce Boost brings about. Recall that, because of efficiency concerns, this new technology only works with the GeForce 8400 GS or the GeForce 8500 GT.

Comparing the mGPU + 8400 GS duo (basically an 8400 SLI configuration) with the AMD chipset (+ Radeon 450), nVidia loses again. At least for the moment and regarding the five games selected for the review. With a GeForce 8500 GT, results are so bad that we better leave them for the moment until drivers are a little more polished.

Link: AnandTech.

The Radeon 3850 shouldn't be considered as a novelty and the 3650 adds some credit because it represents a chance for those who want to update their PCs but not their motherboards. If you have a somewhat old computer, it's not likely you'll be willing to spend 139€ on the more expensive of the two, but now you can opt for the other one, which only costs 89€ and should be more than enough for you to feel the difference.

Finding nVidia AGP cards is difficult, to say the least, but AMD continues to offer alternatives to buying something old and paying for it as if it were new (it's perfectly possible that someone might ask of you some 30€ for a GeForce FX5500 with 256MB, for example).

Link: BeHardware.

 

Not  the first of it's kind, to be sure, but the first to be held in Taiwan. From the 1st of May, and during five days, one of these events will take place in Taipei, with the aim of decreasing the distance that the leaders in this sector hold over them (I'm talking about the Japanese and the Koreans).

Among the speakers that will take turn at the Robotics Forum, we find the Japan Robot Association, several Japanese enterprises, the Sweden-based ABB (?) and ours truly Micro-Star International (MSI).

Last year, the Taiwanese industry sold industrial robots that "only" amounted to 608 million dollars, which is the some 5.56% of the world total. From this position, the ambitious government plans want to turn Taiwan (in the not so distant future) into one of the leading players in the theatre of intelligent robotics.

Link:  DigiTimes.

More than a year after the release of Windows Vista, there's still no end in sight for Windows XP. It turns out that HP plans on continuing selling PCs with the old OS installed (taking advantage of the “downgrading” to Windows XP option their Windows Vista license grants them).

The already seven years old Windows refuses time and again to be finally shut down. Another thing is if you were thinking about just buying the software, because that won't be possible after the 30th of June. The "final date" has previously been postponed, but it looks like this time it is for real, so you should hurry and sign here if you want to do something about it. But remember, the people at InfoWorld aren't asking for another moratory, they want it to remain on the selves for as long as people demand it. Doesn't sound very likely.

Link: X-bit labs.

GeForce 8000 series and 55-nm process are news of the past (as recent as this past may seem) so both AMD and nVidia are looking forward to launch their next-generation high-end graphics processors. They have completed tape-out of the chips and they (the chips) should already be being mass produced by foundry supplier TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.).

With this early roll out, I guess we can say it's back to the six to nine months cycles we were used to see not so long ago. Thats good news for us buyers.

AMD is prepearing RV770, while nVidia works on the GT200, which consists of roughly one billion transistors and 200 unified shader processors. But no DX 10.1 just yet, sorry guys.

Link: X-bit Labs.

Well it's not out till the 29th, but already the reviews are rolling in and Grand Theft Auto IV looks set to take the game of the year title by a mile. Gorgeous graphics, incredible detail, stunning 16 player multiplayer and strippers. What more could your trigger fingers ask for. The new cover system looks to work really well with the ability to use any object for dodging bullets. Drive your car into a mob fight, jump out and use it for cover as you blast away the enemy. Pretty cool stuff.

Here's a round up of the scores:

 IGN - 10/10 Masterful

Official XBOX Magazine - 10 Perfect

CGReviews.com - 9.3

We don't even need to ask if you are buying this game - we went down to the local blockbusters to reserve a copy and they said they were completely sold out of the first truck load and to come back for the second shipment and they might have some then.  If you've already played the game fill out the comments box and make us drool.

And if you know where we can lay our hands on a copy, even better!

Hydrogen cars could very well be the future, freeing us from petroleum dependency, because it's an energy fuel that can give quite some punch without contributing to pollution. The only drawback is that... it's quite difficult to obtain when Dr. Manhattan isn't around.

At present, the main obstacle for hydrogen to get "mainstream" is the amount of energy needed to produce it. Said process is simplified when gas is used, but gas has more or less the same shortcomings that petroleum does.

In the quest for hydrogen, Thomas Wood, from the Department of Chemical Engineering at the A&M University, is pretty sure to have found a way to use a genetically modified bacteria to help making hydrogen. By "simply" removing six genes from the E.Coli bacteria, you actually get a small hydrogen factory. The big if about all this, at the moment, is that the bacteria needs sugar, as much as a man's weight (every day) to satisfy the energy needs of an average American family.

Link: TG Daily.

Sponsored Post 

Flash based games are big business on the internet and used to entertain surfers in between more serious browser sessions. Itch.com recently contacted us to have a look at their new Tower Defense Game, one of the most popular casual flash games you can find online and for good reason. They are highly addictive. This version features a great adaption of the classic game with several different maps, loads of weapons and weapon upgrades and some unusual baddies and end of level bosses.

The basic idea to the game is to stop the evil creeps (random objects) crossing from one side of the map to the other with the use of weapons that you purchase. The weapons can be upgraded and you'll certainly need to do this as the baddies get faster and tougher as the levels progress. To start with you have a limited amount of cash to spend and in order to earn more you have to kill the creeps. Saving up for bigger towers and upgrades allows you to kill the enemy quicker but if you save for too long the creeps with break through your defenses and you'll lose the game. Timing when to put a new tower down can make all the difference and if you can hang on to your cash till the end of the level a nice interest bonus will be added. 

The flash interface is simple to use with weapons accessible in the top left corner of the screen. The game loaded superfast for us - Itch.com obviously have some good servers powering their system - and worked perfectly in IE and Mozilla. You might want to make sure your popup blocker is turned off if you want to access the instructions - Mozilla didn't announce to us it was blocking this at first and it was only when we tried it in IE that we realised it was blocking the popup instructions window.

If you've yet to discover Tower Defense on your browser, Itch.com have a really nice version to play. They even provide a highscore service so you can see how good you stack up against fellow surfers.

To play this game and a whole host of other flash games, head on over to the Itch.com website.