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Far Cry 3 And The Stranger In A Strange Land In an attempt to convince high schoolrs that math and science are cool (hey guys, they’re not beating down the door to history classes, either), IBM is launching a new, free to play MMO called PowerUp that will challenge players to solve problems involving solar, wind, and hydropower before the environment of a fictional planet is destroyed by mounting crises. Of course, there’s more:
From 90mm to 65mm to 45mm – IBM has announced details on a smaller, more efficient version of the Cell BE processor, which of course is the brains inside every shiny new PlayStation 3. IBM will soon migrate from the 65nm process currently used to manufacture the chips to their next generation 45nm high-k process, which results in a Cell that requires 40 percent less power, reducing cooling costs while a smaller die means higher yields and a lower overall cost. This gives Sony a choice – reduce the price of the system to increase their install base or just ride the cheaper process for awhile to work up a little profit. Also interesting to note is that once again the shrink comes with no performance tweaks, with IBM citing the need to maintain gaming software operation. In other words, IBM’s Cell division is Sony’s little bitch.
IBM shrinks Cell to 45nm. Cheaper PS3s will follow [Ars Technica]
IBM and The Mayo Clinic have teamed up to open a research facility, which they hope will bring about advances in the field of medical imaging, and in particular to things like CT scans. At present, it can take a doctor hours to look over a set of scans, which in some cases can endanger a patient’s life. It’s hoped that by using the PS3′s Cell chip they can not only create 3D images of a patient’s brain much faster, they can also then compare those to earlier 3D images in only minutes, a feat which once took hours. Pretty neat, considering the Cell was built to, you know. Play games. The Mayo Clinic’s chairman Bradley Erickson says this is not the first time games tech has been used to aid medical science. In addition to their current research using the Cell chip, Erickson says that “other games technology”, including high-end graphics cards, are often used in medicine, particularly in the field of imaging. IBM, Mayo Clinic team up to improve medical imaging [Computerworld, via io9]
IBM made a major announcement today that they will be offering 32nm chips to their partners in the second half of 2009. This would mean that, yes, the Xbox 360 could get even smaller chips than the 65nm “Falcon” CPUs..or the rumoured 45nm upgrade. We’re talking power savings of 45% and speed boosts of 30% over IBM’s last generation of hardware…it’s flat-out better technology that will reduce the propensity of overheating drastically, and maybe even make way for a smaller console.
So it will be interesting to see if Microsoft opts to go with 45nm chips (available next year) and then 32nm chips, or ends up skipping one of these technologies. Most of us probably won’t know the difference—actually, most of us will know the difference—but only because we’re obsessing about it here. IBM, partners in 32nm device surge [via tvg]
Of all companies who develop software, we didn’t wake up this morning expecting to hear about a new “serious game” from IBM. Called Innov8 (see what they did with the clever phonetics?), universities around the world have access to download the title to better educate students. So what exactly is the game? We can’t quite tell. It looks like The Sims meets some theoretical Office Tycoon. But the goal is to “develop a combination of business and information technology (IT) skills.” While it’s sure to be at least a small plug for IBM technological solutions and we generally prefer watching our Sims peeing themselves over developing networking solutions, it might beat reading textbooks. Was anyone out there part of 30 university beta?
IBM announces new video games to teach business skills [gamingnexus]
Avatars are important, but confining. One avatar in one game won’t necessary be usable in another. IBM and Second Life developer Linden Labs have joined forces to figure out a way to make avatars interoperable. An open avatar would allow individuals to keep their same basic appearance and data. Says IBM vice president of digital convergence, Colin Parris:
It is going to happen anyway. If you think you are walled and secure, somebody will create something that’s open and then people will drain themselves away as fast as possible.
Hrm. Not sure how this will work with consoles — the very essence of which are being “walled”. Hey, it could happen! It would be great if Fahey could take his SL avatar (above) and play Wii Sports. I am skeptical at the moment, however.
IBM, Linden Join Up [Reuters]
Computer accessibility has come a long way since the early screen readers for MS-DOS, and it still has a long way to go – but IBM has decided that being blind should be no hindrance to enjoying virtual worlds, and have introduced a project called Accessibility in Virtual Worlds, aimed at researching at developing methods to make places like Second Life (the researchers actually used Active Worlds, which they described as more flexible for their needs) “more hospitable” to the visually impaired. It sounds like an audible version of old-school text-based adventures:
“When the user comes into the world, the items are described as well as their positions,” explained Colm O’Brien, one of the team of four researchers who worked on the project.
“There is also sound attached – for example, if there’s a tree nearby you will hear a rustling of leaves,” said Mr O’Brien.
The work also developed tools which uses text to speech software that reads out any chat from fellow avatars in the virtual world that appears in a text box.
Characters in the virtual world can have a “sonar” attached to them so that the user gets audible cues to alert them to when they are approaching, from which direction and how near they are.
While the initial research was conducted in Ireland by students brought together for 12 weeks to work on problems posed by more senior researchers, IBM promises that the concepts “will be passed on to IBM’s Human Ability and Accessibility Centre in Texas for further development”.
Virtual worlds open up to blind [BBC News via Worlds In Motion]
Shhhhhhhh! Second Life might be getting a bit of a backlash, but don’t tell IBM. The computer co. is enamoured with SL. It’s the future they say! IBM opened its virtual SL Business Center earlier this spring in order to provide sales and support services. According to IBM director of Global Web Strategy & Innovation Maggie Blayney: The real reason why we’re doing this is because we do feel the beginning of a major transformation on how people are going to interact on the Web — going from a flat to an immersive experience… It’s not going to replace the two-dimensional Web but it’s going to integrate and complement it.
Welcome to last year. IBM in Second Life [Reuters]
A prototype chip based on the PS3 Cell processor has been developed and will be shown next week in San Diego. The prototype is for computer boards (not the PS3), and it shouldn’t come as a surprise as applications for the Cell have been mentioned for some time now. The original chip was developed by Sony, Sony Computer Entertainment, IBM and Toshiba. Called the “Cell Computing Board,” this new prototype is the Cell Broadband Engine microprocessor married with the RSX graphics processor, which, according to Sony, goes beyond the Cell chip’s power. That’s right, a super computer. Fingers crossed for 4D output! New Cell Prototype [PC Advisor]
