| Researchers get CPUs and GPUs talking, boost PC performance by 20 percent Feb 8th 2012, 18:58 How do you fancy a 20 percent boost to your processor's performance? Research from the North Carolina State University claims to offer just that. Despite the emergence of fused architechture SoCs, the CPU and GPU cores typically still work independently. The University hoped that by assigning tasks based on each processor's abilities, performance efficiency would be increased. As the CPU and GPU can fetch data at comparable speeds, the researchers set the GPUs to execute the computational functions, while the CPUs did the prefetching. With that data ready in advance, the graphics processor unit has more resources free, yielding an average performance boost of 21.4 percent though it's unclear what metrics the researchers were using. Incidentally, the research was funded by AMD, so no prizes for guessing which chips we might see using the technique first. Researchers get CPUs and GPUs talking, boost PC performance by 20 percent originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink |  NCSU | Email this | Comments | | Two US startups break solar efficiency records, aim to light up your life Feb 8th 2012, 18:35 Two US startups are breaking solar efficiency records in their quest to bring clean, cost-effective, eco-friendly energy to a power grid near you. Alta Devices, based in Santa Clara, CA, has achieved a 23.5 percent efficiency rating with its standard solar panel, while Semprius, a Durham, NC company, has achieved a rating of 33.9 percent with its concentrated photovoltaic offering -- besting the previous records of 22.9 percent and 33 percent, respectively. Interestingly enough, both outfits chose to utilize a new material to construct their sun-sopping cells: gallium arsenide. The material, while more expensive, is better suited for absorbing the sun's energy, especially when compared to silicon, the cheaper element typically used. Alta and Semprius are looking to proliferate solar power by further refining the technology, making its price per kilowatt equivalent to that of fossil fuels without the use of government subsides. Here comes the sun... Two US startups break solar efficiency records, aim to light up your life originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | PhysOrg | Email this | Comments | | Could LG's Fantasy be an outright Miracle? Feb 8th 2012, 17:09 If you ask us, miracles are pretty hard to come by, and it would take a great amount of gusto for a smartphone manufacturer to bestow such a weighty name upon a rather middling handset. The crew at Pocketnow claim that's exactly what LG's done with its latest Windows Phone, however, which was previously known as the Fantasy. That's right, folks, you're looking at a purported Miracle -- weren't you expecting more? The phone is said to contain a 1GHz (naturally single-core) Snapdragon SoC, a 4-inch NOVA display (that we can safely assume to be WVGA), 8GB of storage and a five megapixel primary cam that shoots video at 720p, along with a run-of-the-mill VGA front-facer. As connectivity goes, we're told to expect a 14.4Mbps HSPA radio and 2.4GHz / 5GHz WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0 and -- get this -- NFC. Whether this Miracle comes to fruition is anybody's guess; perhaps it was just a Fantasy all along. [Thanks, Mark] Could LG's Fantasy be an outright Miracle? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Pocketnow | Email this | Comments | |
