Just as Intel’s (NASDAQ: INTC) CEO Brian Krzanich opens the regular staff meetings before a dramatically reduced IDF2015 Shenzhen conference, it is a good time to review how government and enterprises don’t see eye to eye when it comes to strategic business.

China’s Tianhe-2 supercomputer is world’s fastest supercomputer, at 33 PFLOPS demonstrated and 55 PFLOPS theoretical performance.

Remember the Tianhe-2 machine at Guangzhou Supercomputer Center, the current World’s number one according to Top 500 Supercomputer list? Unlike some other China supercomputers – Tianhe-2 is fully Intel based machine,  the world’s largest assembly of Intel Xeon CPUs and Xeon Phi accelerators.

Even after Intel ‘opened the kimono’ and gave a nearly 70%  discount on its processors and accelerators, it has given Intel, and therefore US technology sector a major foothold in China and Asian region as such. Over the course of past two years, we were involved in a lot of discussions with Intel staff who were not privy to see the financial impact of the deal — and even argued our undoubtedly solid information. We’re not here to report how things should be, or are in marketing and investor presentations to its numerous staff, but how things really are.

During 2015, the Tianhe-2 supercomputer was supposed to be doubled in its size, up to 110 PFLOPs peak, again using the very same Intel processors and accelerators. Since now these are mature products with lower real manufacturing cost for Intel, they could finally make some real money.

Well, it was not to be: our tweety bird from the window chirped to us that Uncle Sam has put this supercomputer centre, together with National University of Defense Technology in Changsha, the system’s creators, and Tianjin centre, among others, on so a so-called “Denial List”, which prevents any high technology from the USA to be sold to these sites. Our sources used even harsher words.

Knowing that these several sites alone are expected to order some 250+ PFLOPS of compute in the next few years (around 500,000 top-end Broadwell-EP Xeon E5v4 processors, or  approximately $1 billion high margin list price) and they were THE Intel friendly ones, this is quite a loss to Intel, thanks to Uncle Sam.

But, what’s worse strategic loss in time is that, based on this decision as an excuse, indigenous China high end processor architectures can now push the government to gradually remove any dependence on US. This means just one thing: an AMD or Intel x86 processor technology is increasingly becoming errata non grata. Should the Chinese government react in force, it will give the Chinese vendors the blank check support to go all the way a developing their Alpha, POWER and MIPS processors for both the government and the mainstream commercial use.

You may think they are not up to the mark, but remember how fast British ARM architecture became the dominant processing architecture in the world. And this group doesn’t need to worry about the antiquated x86 ISA, worry about satisfying the dumbed down shareholder masses, or overpaying their marketing and sales staff, as well as the fat check, golden parachute-protected CxOs.

They have taken the best that the USA has developed (some of key Alpha, GPGPU and MIPS architects left US over the course of past four years, a lot of them due to non-renewed visas) and discarded due to corporate shenanigans, and the continued developing it much farther than anyone expected both on hardware and software side.

Five years ago, ShenWei showed a CPU that performed faster than the fastest GPUs of the time. Now, fifth generation is approaching, slotting between Tesla and FirePro GPGPUs and next-gen Xeon Phi accelerators. However, this is not an accelerator or a GPGPU – this is a CPU.

So, thanks to Uncle Sam, China might not have a 110 PFLOPS Intel based supercomputer but it definitely will launch a 100 PFLOPS system based on upcoming 64-core, TFLOPS-class ShenWei Alpha, with true blue CPUs possibly faster per socket then even the next generation Xeon Phi or Volta/Pascal-based Teslas.  Next, of course 100 PFLOPS Chinese POWER8 or 9 — (thank you IBM) and then possibly even Loongson MIPS – -it may come back into the high end field with renewed government support because of this Uncle Sam move. All are clean, elegant, scalable high end RISC architectures.

So who are the winners and losers from this?

NUDT and Tianhe may be the losers for now, but only short term. They will simply speed up their HPC ARM plan.

Intel comes out the big loser from this and a lot: who will want to do a phased deployment large x86 machine in China now, and worry about future phases? Then comes Uncle Sam himself: they lost even that little bit of influence on the high end China HPC. How is that for “cutting your nose to spite your face?”.

VR WORLD’s  Analysis: US government moves accelerate the Chinese CPU roadmap while curtailing juiciest sales for Intel and other US vendors.

The post Uncle Sam Shocks Intel With a Ban on Xeon Supercomputers in China appeared first on VR World.

The newest  iPhone has been one of Apple’s (NASDAQ: APPL) best-selling smartphones yet. We didn’t have to wait long for fully customized Apple iPhone 6 models to come out. This one, coming from Vorsteiner features a pure gold outer skin created by Gold & CO London. The fully functional mobile device now features a highly luxurious exterior added, allowing the owners in the higher income ranges to even further adhere to their personal choices and requests.

Working with several prominent luxury companies, the London based customizer has created some rather stunning showcases of their work (remember the modified BMW F82 M4 we wrote about a few weeks earlier). This, done for a high-performance and high-quality aftermarket aero parts company Vorsteiner, features the same level of expertise and allure as their other work. Gold & Co. London’s 2014 iPhone 6 range is available for order in multiple finishes ranging from 24kt Gold, rose gold, black gold, Platinum and carbon fiber.

The iPhone does look remarkable with the golden exterior, but some may find it over-the-top in certain ways. Regardless of personal opinions, the phone seen here is a clear-cut example of where the world of luxury hand-held devices is going and we’ll be there to report these to you right away. Check out the media gallery showcasing this device right below.

The post Vorsteiner Launches Gold Plated Apple iPhone 6 appeared first on VR World.

To many people, the floating point–universal number debate is something extraneous: an academic issue that involves computer scientists, engineers, and hardware manufacturers.

But as John Gustafson said during his keynote at the Supercomputing Frontiers 2015 conference on Tuesday, the inaccuracies of floating point estimates have real world implications. They can be deadly both in the real sense  — with missile defense batteries mis-calculating intercept times — or as Gustafson explained they can also lose battles in a virtual sense.

During intense battles in multiplayer games, floating point estimates would give different answers for different players. The calculation of if a players’ shot would be a lethal headshot — or a frustrating miss — would have slightly different answers on different platforms. In order to get reliable, reproducible results in the event of discrepancy the software would need to switch back to integers.

In order to have a better understanding of the benefits of unums, and the challenges of implementing them into hardware, the VR World team spoke with Gustafson on the sidelines of the Supercomputing Frontiers 2015 conference in Singapore to learn more.

The VR World team interviews Dr. Gustafson

VR World: You mentioned in your keynote that the implementation of Unum is challenging — in the words of one unnamed Intel executive ‘you can’t boil the ocean’. Why is this?

John Gustafson: What he’s saying is that you can’t change the world. All you have is IEEE floats. That’s the standard. ‘You can’t add a new number type, that’s not going to happen’ is what he said.

VRW: How would you categorize the feedback you’ve gotten from CPU vendors about implementing unums?

JG: People at AMD also didn’t get it. That was a kind of different opposition. They just didn’t see that I could save them so much power, electricity and bandwidth. Maybe it just looked too ambitious to them.

I’m not worried about what the hardware people think. I know they are going to hate it. They’ll have to build it, re-design circuits and all of that. I’m  more interested in everyone else.

VRW: What’s the cost of keeping the existing floating point system, versus implementing Unums? What’s the cost of transitioning hardware to support this, versus the cost of errors in everyday life?

JG: Remember: everything you can do with floats you can do with Unums. They are a subset. It’s a choice between one or the other; if it were I think it would never get off the ground. But if you can do everything you can do now if you have Unums, and you can also do other things, you can then incrementally work your way into them.

The other thing is right now we have to deal with at least two, or three, different precisions. Half precision is now out there. Nvidia has got the half precision out there in hardware as a native type, and single precision as well as double precision are everywhere. Quad precision is not supported by anyone’s hardware… I keep watching to see if it’s going to pop up.

But we already have to manage two, or three, different sizes.

I say replace it with one. And the hardware will let that slide continuously from all different sizes. It will simplify things so it may be cheaper and smaller on chip to do it that way then to have a bunch of single precision units and double precision units. That’s the way they do it now. They have to build separate hardware. Which is very wasteful.

The post Error-Free Computing: Unums Save Both Real and Virtual Battles appeared first on VR World.

Hello, how are you?

Yes, it is me, the guy who decided to get out of all the CPU or GPU tests and reviews almost a decade ago. And do I feel regret? Can’t I wait to jump right back into it like Michael Schumacher, God bless him, when he returned to F1 with rather mixed results? Trust me, and please believe me I don’t mean to offend anyone, but the days of motherboard reviews and sleepless nights spent trying and testing the latest and greatest PC components are gone for good.

Funny as it is, time has not stood still in the last eight years, since I finally turned my back on Tom’s Hardware, oh yes, with money in my pocket, yet that wasn’t and couldn’t have been the reason why I was oh-so tired of it all. True enough, there are still those who care about a new chipset, new motherboards, new graphics cards, even overclocking, but the numbers have dwindled and why? Because the PC is dying, along with it the notebook, go figure!

We are running out of excuses for building or buying a new PC system, a new motherboard, a juicier power supply and even a new graphics card. What is so power hungry that would justify the pain, the expense and the time spent on such a project? The latest computer game? Yes, for years that was the one last stand for the power users, but let’s be honest, how many really good games have been released in recent years? Do we really want to sink tons of money into the hottest new components, just to be bored to tears by yet another first person shooter with yet even greater graphics, but a thin or even idiotic story, or a totally dissatisfying end?

So what are we looking at today? Oh yes, there would be this company named Apple. It came out with the greatest gift to man, the first ever true smart phone. Boy did that revolutionise the world, hasn’t it? Today, years later, we are at the nth reiteration of the iPhone, we acknowledge the iPad, we look at all the Android devices, but do we still feel the excitement we experienced when 3dfx, long gone but not forgotten, released Voodoo2? Do you remember that time? Oh how pathetic it looks today, but weren’t we blown away back then? Are we shaking in excitement the same way over the iWatch, or Nvidia’s latest addition to the world or 3D-graphics? Not really, right?

Much has happened in my life in the last eight years. Today, I am the husband to a beautiful wife and the father of an amazing 6-month old boy. Family life has got me in its grip, and I would not want to have it any other way.  You know what upsets my little son the most? It’s mommy or daddy reaching for and staring into their smartphone, instead of giving him the attention he wants as well as deserves. Oh yes, I am a smartphone addict like the next man, but little Ciarán’s disdain for this device made me realise that this cannot possibly the future of mankind.

It makes us antisocial assholes – thank you so much Apple – and if we should believe that our future might go along the lines of the Terminator movies, then becoming antisocial would have to be the first step of humanity losing what it takes to differentiate itself from and be better than ‘the machines’. I am not gonna be a daddy who hands his child an iPad once he turns one and a half years old. I made that oath, and believe me, I am still as technology savvy and hungry as you remember me, but not at any price!

People asked me to talk about how the PC and other technology business evolved to what we are looking at today, but I better be careful, feeling a little bit of an outsider who hasn’t been invited to the hush-hush back rooms, the trade shows or intimate dinners with vendors for a long time. What I can see is Samsung going to produce everything, and the kitchen sink soon, focusing along with other Asian producers on creating yet the best copy of something invented by somebody else. I see Intel apparently busy digging its own grave, Microsoft also somewhat out of wits, the Taiwanese producers, Asus et al., concentrating on squeezing the last little bit of margin, so they can continue selling their stuff just that little bit cheaper once again, and Apple predominantly concentrating on making money, rather than creating something the world is really waiting for.

My dear friend Anthony, fellow dedicated daddy as well as technology editor, suggested I should write about VR and I would love to. When it comes to gaming, it seems to be the next big thing. However, I haven’t played with it yet, so who am I to comment? I’ll get my hands on one of those funky devices as soon as possible though, and I can’t wait sharing Anthony’s genuine excitement about this technology, … or not.

I have the request to give my view of what things will be like in 2030, and what to tell your child now in preparation for our glorious future. I used to be asked that kind of question a lot in bygone times, and my answer was always the same – I ain’t no oracle! I was just about to go there and embarrass myself, but the word count of my article made me reconsider, so why not wrap things up by speaking about the current state of computer journalism? Has it evolved, improved, withered? Well the landscape has changed, hasn’t it?

It feels very much as if all the good guys are gone, while the bad ones still remain. It has become more and more popular rewording press releases rather than doing research, hard work and arriving at one’s own point of view. I wish I could say why. If you allow me taking a wild guess, I would say it has plenty to do with balls versus greed. If it is money that you are after in this business, you cannot possibly say you’re searching for ‘the truth’ or ‘justice’ or – modestly – ‘the best interest of your reader’, can you? What it takes is drive, ambition, a certain level of fearlessness and inspiration. You have that and the money will come by itself. Just watch it arrive, nod if you have to and continue with your mission.

I have joined a team of people with ambition, balls and the determination to provide quality. I would not be writing this, would I not firmly believe in it. I never wanted to return to publishing, because it is a rather ugly business. However, things are going to change, and I have my own little idea how the publishing of old will be turned into something brand new and very exciting.

I have enjoyed writing this, certainly not exactly ground breaking or overly meaningful little piece and I can’t wait getting back into the scene and mixing things up my way. Give me a chance to assimilate all that I might have missed before I can give any kind of fundamental guidance. I’ll be there.

Tom’s back, for better or worse.

The post Thomas Pabst: Is the Computing Business Getting Boring? appeared first on VR World.

More than two telecom operators, foreign and domestic, are interested in becoming the majority shareholder and the actual operator for the telecom company Taiwan Star, as the scandal-plagued food conglomerate Ting Hsin Group has been trying to sell its stakes.

Taiwan Star Chairman Wei Ying-chiao (魏應交), who also heads the Ting Hsin Group, confirmed on Feb. 2 that Ting Hsin will withdraw from Taiwan Star by selling its 52% stake in the telecom company.

Chunghwa Telecom (TPE: 2412) and Far EasTone Telecommunications (TPE: 4904) are the two potential buyers who have been confirmed for their contacting Ting Hsin for potential acquisition of its 52% stake of Taiwan Star. Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (TPE: 2317) is also a potential buyer although the long-term supplier for Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) has already owned the Asia Pacific Telecom (TPE: 3682). In addition, Ting Hsin also confirmed that Japan-based telecom operator KDDI (TYO: 9433) has been discussing the potential deal with them during the past few months.

When approached for responses, Taiwan Star declined to elaborate or reveal more details.

“It was inappropriate for my company to comment on a possible buyout o the stake owned by Ting Hsin at this moment,” said Cliff Lai (賴弦五) ,president for Taiwan Star.

In addition to Ting Hsin, Taiwan Star’s other shareholders are Cathay Financial Holding Co (TPE: 2882), which holds a 20% stake, Cheng Uei Precision Industry Co (TPE: 2392) and the Kingpo Group, which both have 10% stakes, and the CTBC Group (TPE: 2891), which has an 8% stake.

When approached, Cathay Financial Holdings President Lee Chang-ken (李長庚) said that the Taiwan Star stake it owns is part of its financial strategy and the company has no plan to make any change of it as of now.

Why is Ting Hsin selling its stake?

Ting Hsin was impacted by an edible oil scandal that was made front page stories last October, when its subsidiaries were discovered to be selling cooking oils containing ingredients unfit for human consumption. The scandal sparked outrage among local consumers, who launched a nationwide boycott of Ting Hsin’s products and services, including Taiwan Star.

The increasing condemnation of the conglomerate’s business practices have made it more difficult for the group to survive in Taiwan, while its cash flow was seriously affected at the same time. Ting Hsin then began to sell its shares of Taiwan Star, Taipei 101 and its flagship food unit Wei Chuan Foods Corp (TPE: 1201) because of its negative public image.

Wei Ying-chung (魏應充), Wei Ying-chiao’s brother and former chairman of Ting Hsin Oil and Fat Industrial Co, has been detained for the cooking oil scandal since last October but was released on US$3.22 million bail on Jan. 28. Changhua District Court decided to maintain its decision to grant bail to Wei and declined the appeal by prosecutors. The ruling came after the Taiwan High Court ordered the lower court to reconsider its decision to allow Wei to be released on the US$3.22 million. On Feb. 3, Changhua District Court again granted Wei’s bail but increased the amount to US$9.66 million.

In the meantime, the court also upheld its previous decision to release three other defendants in the case, including former Ting Hsin Oil and Fat President Chang Mei-fang (常梅峰), the company’s former acting chairman Chen Mao-chia (陳茂嘉), and Yang Chen-yi (楊振益), who owns the Vietnamese trading company Dai Hanh Phuc Co — on US$161,290 bail.

In November 2013, Wei Ying-chung was indicted on charges of fraud as part of an investigation into the 2013 Taiwan food scandal. In October 2014, prosecutors launched a separate investigation into the 2014 Taiwan food scandal, that alleged a unit of Ting Hsin International Group over sale of tainted cooking oil.

Investigators discovered that Cheng-I Food Co, a subsidiary company of Ting Hsin, was alleged for mixing animal feed oil with cooking oil and then selling it to the public.

Regarding Ting Hsin’s attempts to sell its 33.17% stakes of Taipei 101, no further decision or agreement was made as of press time, now that Ting Hsin has been trying to close the deal with Malaysia’s IOI Properties Group Bhd since last November, especially the case has been declined by the Taiwanese government, due to a policy that the major shareholder of the building should not be a foreign investment.

The real price of the deal was never confirmed but Taiwan’s Ministry of Finance estimated that Ting Hsin could have made profits of at least US$636 million but the group will only have to pay a tax amount of approximately US$33 million.

The Ting Hsin International Group, headquartered in Taipei and Tianjin, was established by Wei Ing-chou (魏應州), Wei Ying-jiao, Wei Ying-chung and Wei Ying-xin (魏應行) in 1958. As natives from Yungching Township, Changhua County, the Weis also own Wei Chuan, FamilyMart, and Master Kong instant noodles as subsidiary brand names under Ting Hsin.

Ting Hsin purchased 33.17% of Taipei 101’s shares and became the major shareholder for the building since 2009.

The post Local Telco Taiwan Star is Up For Grabs appeared first on VR World.

During the Windows 10 showcase, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) today revealed its very own contender in VR hardware: Project HoloLens.

Project HoloLens is a headset that ultimately aims to merge projected holographic overlays with VR, with a host of practical applications.

Using the device, users can interact with projected 3D images that are “blended with your real world” and can “integrate with your physical places, spaces, and things”.

Essentially the goggle-laden headset can project semi-transparent holograms onto real-world objects, and users can create, shape and share their personalized images on a whim. This means that any environment could be a potential digital canvas for a wide variety of activities.

HoloLens opens up a veritable galaxy of possibilities, and the technology is rife with potential.

Gaming, for one, could be completely revolutionized with this technology. Imagine being able to project your favorite game via a portable screen on any surface–breaking gaming outside of the screen itself.

The new technology is powered by Windows 10, and Microsoft affirms that HoloLens is completely wireless with intuitive voice and gesture controls. Along with the holographic display, spatial sound will immerse users into their own creations for a genuine VR experience.

Project HoloLens’ images are entirely made up of specifically manipulated light particles rendered by the device’s “light engine”.

As Wired puts it in their hands-on preview, “light particles bounce around millions of times in the so-called ‘light-engine’, then the photons enter the goggles’ two lenses, where they ricochet between layers of blue, green and red glass before they reach the back of your eye.”

Exact details on Project HoloLens are scare at this point, and development on the technology is still in its early stages. VR in itself is still an early frontier, as the pioneering Oculus Rift headset is still being refined and tweaked, and it might be years before HoloLens is ready for consumer use.

We’ll likely hear more about HoloLens’ other practical applications–like gaming–during the Games Developer Conference (GDC 2015) in March.

The post Microsoft’s HoloLens Merges Holograms With VR appeared first on VR World.

Global smartphone shipments continued to grow in 2014 while more and more Chinese brand names have shared a large portion of occupation in the global market.

A latest research report by TrendForce said that global smartphone shipments for 2014 totaled 1.167 billion units, a year-on-year increase of 25.9%, while 453.4 million units of them belonged to Chinese brands.

“ The year of 2014 was definitely an impressive year for Chinese brands as they gained more share of the global market,” said Avril Wu (吳雅婷), global smartphone analyst for TrendForce.

TrendForce’s research stated that Chinese vendors managed to encompass almost 40% of the global shipments and represent six of the top ten smartphone brands worldwide. The pooled shipments of numerous Chinese brands, however, still could not threatened global brand leaders – Samsung (KRX: 005930) and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL). TrendForce said that the total shipments for Samsung and Apple accounted for 518 million units.

“This shows that the fierce competition among the brands relatively and severely narrowed their profit margins,” Wu said.

Although its being listed as the top smartphone brand name with the most shipments, Samsung, however, has been through a difficult year in 2014 as its market share dropped to 28%, compared with 32.5% of the previous year. Wu said that Samsung’s large-size and high-end Galaxy Note series faced stiff challenges from Apple’s iPhone 6 Plus, while its midlevel and low-end smartphone shipments were undercut by inexpensive Chinese brands. Samsung’s overall shipment target had undergone downward revisions since the beginning of 2014, with annual growth in shipments only at 8.4%, which was about 326.4 million units.

In 2014, Apple maintained its high annual growth rate of 24.5%, which was about 191.3 million units shipped worldwide. With 16.4% market share, Apple was a solid number two in the worldwide smartphone rankings. Apple’s position was attributed to the success of its first large-size smartphone model, the iPhone 6 Plus. This new category addressed Apple’s lack of smartphones with above five-inch screens and thus significantly raised the fourth quarter shipping ratio.

For LG (KRX: 066570), TrendForce said that its strategy of “promoting high quality products at low prices” paid off with strong market reception to its flagship smartphone models, ranging from G2/G2 Pro to the newest G3.

“Right now G3 is the first smartphone outfitted with a 2K screen that gives users better viewing experience,” Wu said. “This showed LG’s advantage of having a display panel manufacturer as under its wings.”

For that reason, LG was the dark horse of 2014 with its ranking jumped up to number four and annual shipment growth at 75.4%, which was about 70 million units.

While Lenovo (HKG: 0992) officially completed its acquisition of Motorola from Google in the fourth quarter of 2014, the acquisition and reorganization process took almost a year since Lenovo’s announcement. Lenovo’s total shipments in 2014 exceeded 90 million units and its annual growth surpassed 100%. It ranked first place among Chinese smartphone vendors and third worldwide with its 7.9% global market share.

With the introduction of the Honor 6 model in 2014, Huawei (SHE: 002502) changed its strategy of using smartphone chips from Qualcomm and MediaTek for its high-end products. The Honor 6 is packed with Kirin 920, a 4G chipset developed by Huawei’s subsidiary HiSilicon. With approximately 70 million units shipped and an annual growth around 70%, Huawei was ranked number five in the 2014 worldwide smartphone shipments.

Xiaomi, meanwhile, was recognized as the “best cost-performance products.” Its flagship models cost between US$ 300 and US$ 350. Since Xiaomi was launched in China during the latter half of 2011, the “China’s Apple” has been able to more than double its growth each year, that its 2014 annual shipment growth exceeded 200% with 60 million units shipped, and at one point managed to edge out the leading vendors in China such as Samsung, Huawei, and Lenovo.

Xiaomi was ranked as the sixth on the same chart for 2014.

The post Chinese Smartphones Occupy Bigger Marketshare appeared first on VR World.

Cathay Financial Holding’s (TPE: 2882) plan to acquire a 40% stake in Indonesia’s PT Bank Mayapada International Tbk for US$272 million through Cathay Life Insurance, one of its subsidiary companies, reflected the government’s encouragement for Taiwanese financial institutions’ expansion in Asia.

In addition to Cathay, some domestic competitors, however, have left the issue cold while they decided to focus on their own core business.

Cathay Financial made the announcement of the acquisition on Jan. 5. It was the third acquisition the company announced within the past two months.

Last November, Cathay Financial announced the acquisition of U.S.-based investment management services provider Conning Holdings Corp and all of its subsidiaries for US$240 million, followed by the acquisition of a 20% stake in the Philippines’ Rizal Commercial Banking Corp for US$390 million last December.

Taipei-based analysts Bruce Warden and Todd Dunivant from HSBC said in their research report that Cathay Financial is acquiring complementary businesses outside of Taiwan in order to break out of the growth and profitability constraints of the Taiwan market. Expanding non-life insurance businesses to offset the very poor underlying profitability of Taiwan’s life insurance sector might be the other major goal of these acquisitions run by the financial holding companies. Financial holding company’s acquisitions in the Philippines and Indonesia were aimed at capturing higher economic and credit growth, in addition to better banking profitability available in Southeast Asia.

However, the research report said, various market analysts view these acquisitions as relatively small for Cathay Financial in the short term, with the combined deals accounting for just 7% of the company’s net book value.

Last November, Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) Chairman William Tseng (曾銘宗) urged the nation’s major financial institutions to accelerate their expansion in the rest of Asia, for which the commission has been expressing strong encouragement since late 2013. FSC encouraged 16 listed financial holding companies in Taiwan to report their expansion plans for the next three to five years, so the government would decide eight financial holding firms as “national delegations,” helping them develop in Asia during next few years to become potential regional players.

In addition to Cathay Financial, Yuanta Financial Holding (TPE: 2885), E. Sun Financial Holding (TPE: 2884) and CTBC Financial Holding (TPE: 2891) have also stepped forward through acquisitions of smaller peers in Indonesia, Cambodia and Japan since last year.

“Some domestic financial holding companies have been proactive in development in Asia, but some others remained stony,” Tseng said.

Despite Tseng’s encouragement, some of the nation’s major financial holding companies did not strike any move in response. Fubon Financial Holding (TPE: 2881), for example, has yet revealed any significant plans for Asian development as of press time.

“If some financial holding companies remain passive, the government will not help them in the ‘Asian League’ initiative, as the nation would pick up only three to four delegations and give them full support,” Tseng said.

Instead of planning any acquisition in any Southeast Asian nations, Fubon, meanwhile, is currently focusing on its China market, now that it just launched its debit card business in China, which was also the first debit card in China that was issued by a Taiwanese bank. Also, Fubon is planning to launch another five to seven new branches in China before the end of this year.

Fubon, however, may carefully reconsider its future development roadmap in China, now that the cross-strait service trade pact with China remains stalled at the legislature, and cross-strait cooperation, deregulation and relaxation in the financial services industry might not make any real progress in the near future.

The post Cathay Financial Holding Takes the Lead for Government’s Policy to Expand in Asia appeared first on VR World.

Electronics manufacturing is a very labor-intensive process, employing a combination of robotic and chemical processes and treatments, manual labor but above all – it is a very dislocated process.

Over the course of past 15 years, we managed to witness the manufacturing changed in its scale, employing tens of millions of people and massively reducing time to market. Still, the process takes a lot of time, and not all can be done as efficiently as possible.

There are two base components of any piece of electronic equipment on the market: chip and PCB (Printed Circuit Board) and revolution is coming to both: IBM / GlobalFoundries is working on bringing flexible wafers from the domain of concept to a mass produced parts (still, we’re 5-6 years out), while Voxel8 just launched a 3D printer that can print PCBs.

Both innovations come from the East Coast: IBM/GlobalFoundries and the University of Albany, while Voxel8 is a hardware startup founded by Dr. Jennifer Lewis, Wyss Professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University.

During CES 2015, the company introduced its first publicly available multi-material printer that among others, can lay the conductive silver ink. Yes, a 3D printed multi-layer PCB is becoming a reality. Do not expect your next graphics card or mobile phone to be 3D printed, as precision needed is on the very leading edge (some might say over the leading edge) of what industry can make.

However, this $8,999 3D printer should enable numerous 3D printed products from the world of Internet of Things (Machine-2-Machine, embedded electronics or IoT in marketing speak).

You can see more about the product in a video below:

The post 3D Printing Electronics is a Reality Now: Meet Voxel8 appeared first on VR World.

The next big battle for consumers is transportation. Forget about living room, your own pocket, your bedroom, the house in general – it’s cars, planes, shopping malls and the way how to interact with the world.

Thus, it is of no surprise that CES 2015 featured an interesting announcement, almost hidden behind the limelight of all the TVs, mobile phones etc. The announcement was that LG Electronics (KRX:066570) will become the default supplier of 4G LTE connectivity systems for General Motors (NYSE: GM). If you ever owned a GM car, you’re well aware of its ‘OnStar’ service.

OnStar Service to get 4G LTE connectivity

After multiple providers, very well known in the consumer space, it looks like LG Electronics won a global contract, to supply as much as 10 million cars (factor in at least 5-10% overhead for spare parts) annually. It is not known who is the chipset provider, but there’s no doubt LGE’s silicon unit will push for as much of their own chips as possible.

LG Electronics is a known automotive supplier, but this is as good as it gets – OnStar 4G LTE is coming to all the cars in General Motors gamma, regardless of are we talking about Cadillacs, Vauxhall/Opel etc. Expanding OnStar globally requires the use of 4G LTE technology, and the way how we will use cars as hotspots only goes to show that Tesla Motors started something big, and incumbents are working hard on catching up.

OnStar used to be a simple telematics service, but now is rapidly expanding its capabilities, bringing a whole new layer of connectivity usage. OnStar will now push key stats from the car, spare parts life, recommended service intervals and many more to consumers, while in case of product recalls etc. the service could notify all the owners of affected vehicles, reducing time to service.

The service originally started in North America, and recently started to expand in Europe. Over the course of next two years, GM will expand OnStar almost globally with focus on Europe and China.

According to Tim Nixon, Chief Technology Officer for OnStar, the company plans to put OnStar in no less than 50 cars across its brands by the end of the year (expect major announcements in Detroit, Geneva, Beijing and Frankfurt).

First vehicle to launch using this new improved service is the brand new 2016 Chevrolet Volt (leaked images courtesy of Motorauthority.com), to be officially introduced at the Detroit Motor Show. The car will also debut as 2^nd Generation Opel Ampera in Europe.

The post LG Electronics Enters Automotive with a General Motors Global Win appeared first on VR World.

Regardless of what you might think about the origins on The Pirate Party, there’s no denial that the movement resulted in a substantial number of votes across Europe. While it’s almost a given that the Pirate Party would have no success in U.S. (we doubt the well-lobbied legal system would refuse the registration of such political option) and many other ‘advanced’ parts of the globe – in Europe the situation is different.

The Pirate Party managed to enter European Parliament and several parliaments across Europe, and immediately begun with its campaigns to modify copyright laws. In a recent post on TorrentFreak, Rick Falkvinge, the founder of Pirate Party highlighted perhaps a key highlight in a short, not-even-decade old political initiative.

As noticed by Falkvinge, it is strange that the mainstream media failed to report that Julia Reda, representative of German Pirate Party is currently working on revising the copyright law in the European Union:

“The collateral damage to liberties has been immense, and has spilled far outside the net. In the US, people are complaining that copyright monopoly law is now unintentionally preventing them to modify items they legally own, such as cars or games consoles. They’re absolutely wrong: that was the exact intention with the most recent round of revisions to copyright monopoly law – to limit property rights and to lock people out of their own possessions. (The copyright monopoly is, and has always been, a limitation on property rights.)”

One such example of how EUCD and DMCA legislations were used was Neste Oil’s attack on Greenpeace by threatening the internet provider of Greenpeace. Then again, Europe always had different approach to copyright when it compares to the U.S. In 2005, European Commission refused to accept software patents which are at the core of many lawsuits in the U.S. and in front of the WTO.

If we forego the political boasting of the post, Falkvinge revealed that a Pirate Party member of the European and German parliament is working on the “European Union’s official evaluation of the copyright monopoly, and listing the set of necessary changes.”

What those changes might be remains unknown at this point in time, but if European Union adopts the report on April 16, 2015 (it needs a majority vote to pass), we just might see a very interesting change in dynamic in negotiations between MPAA / RIAA-led U.S. negotiators and the European Union. As a reminder, right now the members of U.S. is trying to create not just Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), but to create a single market between U.S. and the E.U.

Even if they fail in this attempt, there’s no denying that Pirate Party is creating an impact of copyright legislature. Time will tell how hard MPAA / RIAA-backed lobbyists can reply.

The post Pirate Party to Contribute Writing Copyright Laws in Europe appeared first on VR World.

Most American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei’s (AmCham) members are planning to hire more talents and expand their business in Taiwan, with a hope that there can be fewer bumps which are related to political and legal turnmoils, AmCham Chairman Thomas Fann (范炘) said on Jan. 8.

“Most of our members are optimistic with their business for 2015. Most of them believe that Taiwan is a nice place to live and work,” Fann said.

Fann, who is also the president for Ford Lio Ho Motor Co, said that Taiwan is renowned for the environment of security, convenience and well-organized mechanisms such as the nation’s world-class health insurance system.

AmCham Chairman Thomas Fann (范炘) quotes the latest statistics and says that most American companies will expand their business in Taiwan. (Photo/Jimmy Chuang)

“Our health system is impressive for many other foreign countries that they would send people to learn from us. Taiwan is a good place that needs to be introduced. The problem is how we could do that to make it more attractive to more foreign talents?” Fann said.

Fann made his remarks during a press conference in Taipei on Jan. 8, which was a press conference when AmCham made public its annual business climate survey from its members.

Established in 1951, AmCham currently has more than 1,000 members from more than 500 companies and 27 committees of various industry interests, and the numbers continue to grow. The survey was conducted last November and a total of 245 members participated in the survey.

The result of the survey highlighted that more than 50% of the survey participants said that they expanded their labor force last year, and half of them said that they will expect an increase in employment and investment in 2015. Also, as high as 83% of them strongly support Taiwanese government’s intention to join the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement (TPP), as they believe that it will enhance Taiwan’s growth prospects and avoid economic marginalization and Taiwan is capable to meet high standards of the pact.

Participants of the survey said that they would believe that the best way for the nation to sign free trade agreements with foreign allies is to attract more foreign investments and boost trade by liberalizing its market, while international standards are implemented.

“The pace will need to be accelerated to enhance Taiwan’s chances for eventual inclusion in the TPP,” Fann said. “But whether or not TPP membership materializes, liberalization would improve Taiwan’s ability to compete effectively in global markets.”

Quoting the statistics from the survey, Fann said that most AmCham members would care about the potential turnmoils of regulations, politics and the quality of human resources, including recruiting qualified talents and their capability of innovation.

“A regulation, for example, could be explained differently by the central government and a local government. It will be regarded as one of the ‘risks’ when a company is making its annual plan,” Fann said. “But we recognize the government’s efforts to make things right as fast as possible.”

For recognizing the government’s efforts, Fann also mentioned that the nation has done remarkable efforts in fields of maintaining currency rates, protecting intellectual properties, increasing U.S.-Taiwan ties and Taiwan-China ties, and continuing to develop more infrastructure projects.

Lack of human resources, he said, is also a difficulty that many AmCham members encountered as they have been hiring more talents and expanding their business in Taiwan.

“English capability is the major problem,” he said. “I must say, that most Taiwanese talents’ English is ‘not very good.’”

While the language problem for Taiwanese talents was first mentioned by former AmCham chairman Bill Wiseman in 2011, AmCham’s President Andrea Wu (吳王小珍), Marketing and Distribution Committee head Gordon Stewart and Fann all agreed that things are getting better when they were asked whether the situation is going up or down.

AmCham Marketing and Distribution Committee head Gordon Stewart (left), President Andrea Wu (吳王小珍)(center) and Chairman Thomas Fann (范炘)(right) say that English capability is a major problem for most Taiwanese talents but the situation is getting better during the past four years. (Photo/Jimmy Chuang)

For recruiting talents, Fann said, engineering, marketing, and finance industries have suffered from the most difficulties, now that many Taiwanese talents in these fields were recruited to Hong Kong and Singapore.

“It is my understanding that many companies in Taiwan decide to use English as the ‘company language.’ I think it is a good thing to elevate the capability but the total amount of these companies is not good enough,” Fann said.

The post Most American Companies Are Planning to Expand Business in Taiwan: AmCham appeared first on VR World.

Asus’s Rampage Extreme line has long been considered by many as some of the top overclocking boards that have been on the market, and the Rampage V Extreme is in the same boat.

When the board first came out there was a lot of talk about the inclusion of a non-standard OC-Socket, an aftermarket LGA 2011-v3 socket that has additional contact pins.  These pins help feed additional voltage to the CPU and result in what we have found to be very impressive and stable overclocking from the board.

But is this just a gimmick or is it really something that will make a difference?  The answer we find is that this is no joke and that the board by far surpasses every other X99 motherboard that is currently available when it comes to cache/uncore overclocking.  This leads to massive performance gains that other boards will not be able to achieve and quite frankly they are left in the Rampage V Extreme’s dust.  Once again Asus continues the legend of the Rampage Extreme line with this shining example of engineering and hardware dominance.

Asus Rampage V Extreme Specifications:

• CPU Socket Type: LGA 2011-v3
• Supported CPU Technologies: Turbo Boost Technology 2.0
• Chipset: Intel X99Onboard Video: None
• Onboard Video: None
• Audio Chipset: ROG SupremeFX 2014
• Audio Channels: 8 Channels
• LAN Chipset: Intel I218-V
• Max LAN Speed: 10/100/1000MbpsWireless LAN: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac 3T3R supports frequency band 2.4/5 GHz
• Wireless LAN: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac 3T3R supports frequency band 2.4/5 GHz
• Bluetooth: Bluetooth v4.0

Memory:

• Number of Memory Slots: 8×288pin
• Memory Standard: DDR4 3300(O.C.) / 3000(O.C.) / 2800(O.C.) / 2666(O.C.) / 2400(O.C.) / 2133
• Maximum Memory Supported: 64GB
• Channel Supported: Quad Channel

Expansion Slots:

• PCI Express 3.0 x16: 4 (40-lane CPU @ x16, x16/x16, x16/x8/x8 or x16/x8/x8/x8; 28-lane CPU @ x16, x16/x8, x8/x8/x8)
• PCI Express 2.0 x16: 1 (Max. at x4 mode)
• PCI Express x1: 1
• Quad-GPU NVIDIA 4-Way SLI and AMD 4-way/Quad-GPU CrossFireX Technology (support up to 3-Way with 28-lane CPU)

 Storage Devices:

• SATA 6Gb/s: 8 x SATA 6Gb/s
• SATA Express: Intel X99 – 1 x SATA Express port, red, compatible with 2 x SATA 6.0 Gb/s ports , ASMedia SATA Express controller – 1 x SATA Express port, red, compatible with 2 x SATA 6.0 Gb/s ports
• M.2: 1 x M.2 Socket 3 with M Key, support type 2260/2280/22110 storage devices
• SATA RAID: 0/1/5/10

Rear Panel Ports:

• PS/2: 1
• RJ45: 1 x RJ45
• USB 3.0: 10 x USB 3.0
• USB 1.1/2.0: 2 x USB 2.0
• S/PDIF Out: 1 x Optical
• Audio Ports: 5 Ports

Internal I/O Connectors:

• Onboard USB
• 4 x USB 3.0
• 4 x USB 2.0

The post Asus Rampage V Extreme: An Overclocking Monster appeared first on VR World.

Ting Hsin International Group, one of the major shareholders of the parent company of Taipei 101, which has been involved in the nation’s food safety crisis since this Fall, is in something of a predicament. Its plan to sell its shares of the skyscraper to Malaysia’s IOI Properties Group Bhd was declined by the Taiwanese government, due to a policy that the major shareholder of the building should not be a foreign investment.

Ruentex (TPE: 2597) Group Chairman Samuel Yin (尹衍樑), who was a close friends to the Wei family who owns Ting Hsin and was commissioned for speaking on behalf of Ting Hsin since the crisis, said earlier that Ting Hsin is planning to establish a “food safety fund” of US$100 million when the check of the deal is deposited, but Yin’s remarks became questionable as of now.

Ting Hsin’s wishful thinking to withdraw from Taipei 101 was declined by Taiwan’s government heads and lawmakers, not because of its selling shares to foreign investments but a concern that the authority of the landscape will fall in a foreign hand.

The Ministry of Finance estimated that Ting Hsin could have made profits of at least US$636 million but the group will only have to pay a tax amount of approximately US$33 million.   Regarding a public concern that Ting Hsin may have carried out the deal in a foreign country to avoid necessary taxes to Taiwanese government, the ministry, however, assured that Ting Hsin will definitely have to pay necessary taxes no matter where the deal is completed.

“We have yet received any application forms from Ting Hsin regarding this deal as of now. By law, we will complete necessary reviews within two weeks once we receive the application,” said Emile Chang (張銘斌), executive secretary for the Investment Commission.

Minister of Finance Cheng Sheng-ford (張盛和) said that the government is more than willing to become the major shareholder for the building but the major obstacles for the plan will be whether Ting Hsin would sell its shares to the government and how much the shares will be sold. Chang said that Ting Hsin has never contact with any government bodies regarding potential deals so far.

Meanwhile, Central Bank Governor Perng Fai-nan (彭淮南) said that “it is better for Taiwanese people to be the boss for the building.”

“We should stop it by following related laws. If there is no law for this, we can see what we can do to stop it,” Perng said.

Financial Supervisory Commission Chairman William Tseng (曾銘宗) said that in addition to Ting Hsin, Cathay Financial Holding Co (TPE: 2882), CTBC Financial Holding Co (TPE: 2891) and Shin Kong Financial Holding Co (TPE: 2888) are all shareholders for Taipei 101, but by law, there is a cap for the amount of shares to be possessed by these companies.

Tseng, however, would not confirm the information that Cathay is considering to sell its 7.73% shares to the government.

An anonymous high ranking person from Cathay said that the company “will support the government’s policy on the issue.” He also implied that Cathay will not sell its shares at a relatively cheaper price if the deal is done because “Cathay also needs to take care of the company’s shareholders’ benefits, profits and interests.”

For CTBC, its vice chairman Jeffrey Koo Jr. (辜仲諒) said that he never learned any information of any possibility for the company to sell its shares of Taipei 101 to the government.

The government currently possesses a total of 44.35% shares of Taipei 101 and is seeking chances to purchase another 7% to become the major shareholder. In addition to Ting Hsin’s 33.17% and the government’s 44.35%, Cathay has 7.73%, CTBC has 6.12%, Shin Kong has 3.25% and Taichun owns another 1.12%.

In response, Ting Hsin said that selling its shares to IOI does not mean the authority of Taipei 101 will fall to a foreign investment at the same time. On the contrary, Ting Hsin said, it will help elevate Taipei 101’s brand name.

Ting Hsin said that the government will remain the major shareholder after the company sells its shares to IOI. Also, business was not the only concern for Ting Hsin to carry out the deal with IOI, because IOI is an experienced international property-managing firm and will help elevate Taipei 101’s brand name.

Regarding a public concern that Ting Hsin may carry out the deal in a foreign country to avoid potential taxes, Ting Hsin said that the company will follow necessary laws and pay necessary taxes. The company admit that selling its Taipei 101 shares was one of the moves to resolve the financial predicament the company is experiencing but the deal also reflected the fact that Taipei 101’s value is highlighted.

IOI also issued a statement and said that the company will follow Taiwan’s laws if the deal is done and the company becomes the shareholder of Taipei 101, while the company has no intention to go for the tug of war for the authority. It is also IOI’s hope to help the building become Asia’s and the world’s landscape. IOI said that the deal was merely business because the company is confident at Taiwan’s future economic development. IOI, meanwhile, is a listed company in Malaysia so there is no way for the company to deal with any illegal business, foreign or domestic.

“Our intention to invest Taipei 101 has nothing to do with politics, needless to mention any potential harm against Taiwanese people. On the contrary, we hope to become a friendly investor for Taiwan with all our hearts,” IOI said.

The Ting Hsin International Group, headquartered in Taipei and Tianjin, was established by Wei Ing-chou (魏應州), Wei Ying-jiao (魏應交), Wei Ying-chung (魏應充) and Wei Ying-xin (魏應行) in 1958. As natives from Yungching Township, Changhua County, the Weis also own Wei Chuan, FamilyMart, and Master Kong instant noodles as subsidiary brand names under Ting Hsin.

Ting Hsin purchased 33.17% of Taipei 101’s shares and became the major shareholder for the building since 2009.

In November 2013, Wei Ying-chung was indicted on charges of fraud as part of an investigation into the 2013 Taiwan food scandal. In October 2014, prosecutors launched a separate investigation into the 2014 Taiwan food scandal, that alleged a unit of Ting Hsin International Group over sale of tainted cooking oil.

Investigators discovered that Cheng-I Food Co, a subsidiary company of Ting Hsin, was alleged for mixing animal feed oil with cooking oil and then selling it to the public.

The post Taiwan’s Ting Hsin Group Faces a Predicament appeared first on VR World.

Developer: Sledgehammer Games
Publisher: Activision
Release Date: November 4, 2014
Platform: PS4 (Reviewed), Xbox One, PC, Xbox 360, PS3
Genre: Shooter, Action
MSRP: $59.99

With Call of Duty Advanced Warfare, the mantle of gaming’s FPS juggernaut was passed on to Sledgehammer Games. For three years the developers crafted their shooter, filling it with exosuits, futuristic high-tech weaponry, and a tailor-made campaign centered around an engaging techno-industrial war plot.

To prepare their multi-platform hit, the team built a new in-house graphics engine from the ground up, secured Academy Award winning actor Kevin Spacey for a lead role, and positioned Advanced Warfare as one of the year’s most attractive shooters with its high-octane action-packed content.

But like most dev teams who take on massive high-profile projects, Sledgehammer’s efforts fell short.

Instead of a revolution for the series, Advanced Warfare feels like a pretty big step back in terms of its campaign. This could be attributed to the studio’s inexperience–the team hasn’t worked on a game outside of a co-developer role alongside Infinity Ward for Modern Warfare 3–and the pressure to create a fresh new mega-hit with innovative features.

Whatever the reason, this new entry feels hollow and ultimately fails to live up to its potential. This is a trend we’ve seen all too often in the industry as of late, and it’s even more obvious with Activision’s newest annual shooter.

Campaign: Devolving the FPS formula

In an attempt to reinvent the formula, Sledgehammer actually pulls out key pieces of the FPS dynamic. This makes an awkward and ungraceful shooter experience, breaking down hallmarks of any truly memorable experience.

Advanced Warfare has the air of a brief blockbuster action flick with all of the explosions and he-man bravado of a Michael Bay film.

Much like an action film, the game considerably lacks substance. The plot is a thin veil for blind shoot-em-up madness wherein players are walking Terminators that annihilate all on-screen baddies. As empowering as this sounds, the experience is actually jading and provides a rather serious case of disillusionment for players, who are led to believe they are nigh-invincible future soldiers.

Gameplay takes players on a different war; a war that pits you against the game’s badly designed mechanics.

This war is tedious and needlessly frustrating to gamers. It’s composed of many smaller-scaled battles, and every single mission or multiplayer map presents its own unique challenges that take skill to navigate. But you’re not just fighting teeming hordes of gun-toting baddies, you’re fighting the game’s maddening controls, lack of on-screen indicators, abysmal HUD and truly terrible vehicle controls.

One of the most prominent annoyances that Advanced Warfare presents is the lack of an on-screen HUD. Instead players are met with an extremely minimal holographic display that shows your tactical grenades, offensive grenades, and one of the most asinine indicators of your exosuit class I’ve ever seen.

And there’s no radar. Yes, Sledgehammer has somehow gotten away with breaking one of the most holy rules of any shooter, making for large-scale firefights things of confusion, annoyance and tedium.

What happened to good old-fashioned futuristic HUD’s? Halo‘s classic heads-up-display comes to mind as the quintessential future soldier setup. But instead players are met with anything that feels futuristic. The game takes place halfway through the 21st Century, and you’d think by now there’d be some creative mix of Killzone‘s enemy scans and the classic mo-tracker.

Instead of a radar, Sledgehammer arms players with threat grenades. These effectively do what Killzone: Shadow Fall’s scanner does, but there’s one problem: they only last a brief amount of time, and you have a limited supply of them.

AND enemies don’t stay marked once you scan them.

But it gets even worse: threat grenades are only one of the three subtypes of tactical grenade, and all of them are limited. Other types include EMP and Flashbang. Switching through grenade types is also something that is needlessly tedious–instead of just being able to easily cycle through with a button press, you have to hold L1 and press Square to select what type you want.

This is an incredibly bad design, and only adds to the awkward setup.

Despite grenades and the lack of a HUD, players can’t always make out what exosuit they have equipped. There’s two main variants in the campaign–Specialist and Assault, both of which have specific goodies like a grapple hook (think Link’s hookshot), mag-gloves for scaling up skyscrapers, stim packs to temporarily boost life, double boost jumps, and a handy riot shield.

Before any mission the game tells you what exo class you have equipped. Lest you should forget, you’d think the game would remind you so that you can adequately facilitate what actions you can take in a firefight, right? Wrong.

Pausing the game doesn’t show you anything, and of course there’s no HUD, so there’s no way of telling what suit you have on without just knowing beforehand.

How hard would it have been to have an on-screen indicator reminding you what class you are? This is quite important as it basically determines what you can and can’t do.

It’s also worth mentioning that the game takes out and throws in random exo class abilities on a whim, as certain missions call for certain gear, and at no time lets players choose what kind of role they’d like to take in battle.

This is a big mistake.

I can’t be alone in wanting to be able to choose my own customized exo-suit loadout, making it a sort of role-playing adventure within the campaign. Sledgehammer failed in this regard, and in so many others, and I have to wonder why it took three years to build this game when it feels so minimalistic in terms of mechanics.

The lack of a HUD doesn’t just hamper combat, but it serves as a massive roadblock to progression itself. What little on-screen indicators the game has are not obvious at all, and the objectives are vague and unclear. Often you’ll find yourself lost in a sea of enemies amid a beautifully rendered city, wandering around and blasting Atlas foes at whim.

This is disorienting and isn’t something that any shooter should ever have to contend with. You should always know where to go and be on-point, and the game should always keep you in the know and arm you with the information to make informed decisions.

Sledgehammer takes all the strategy out of any given segment simply because you have no idea where to go, and often don’t know how many baddies are out there–or where they are–until you get shot to hell and back.

Apart from the annoying factors, Advanced Warfare does have some innovative features.

The exosuit’s pneumatic jumps are quite handy in campaign and multiplayer, even if they are a bit clunky and awkward. You can juke and dash in all directions by pressing L3–a poor button map for this function if there ever was one–which is immensely useful after double jumps.

But even this has its downfalls. The novelty can wear off fast, and it lacks the fluid grace that Destiny‘s boost-jumps bring. All in all it’s hard to compare Advanced Warfare to a refined breed of shooter like Destiny or Halo simply because it neglects so many of the important aspects.

A good shooter doesn’t start players off at a disadvantage due to its awkward control scheme, nor does it rob them of important mechanics right out of the gates.

The post Call of Duty Advanced Warfare Review: Flawed Future appeared first on VR World.

MSI (TPE:2377) announced today the new MSI X99S Gaming 9 ACK, a version that has been updated with the latest Killer DoubleShot Pro.  This will compliment the Killer E2205 Gigabit LAN that the board already has.

The new X99S Gaming 9 ACK from MSI is its latest motherboard release and the upgrade is one that should be an improvement for gamers.  The addition of the new Killer 1525 802.11 ac Wi-Fi module is the upgrade that makes this board the “ACK” variant.  The new module can help gain 2.9x faster data throughput compared to traditional wireless-N solutions.  MSI claims that the Killer Wi-Fi also has up to 3.5x lower latency than similar wireless solutions.  The coupling of the Killer LAN and Killer Wireless-AC module is being called “Doubleshot Pro”, which has been in the most recent MSI gaming notebooks.  If the reviews from the users of the new notebooks are anything to go by the solution should work very well.  The nicest thing about Doubleshot Pro is that it has Smart Teaming, which gives more usable bandwidth by using both the LAN and wireless to support up to 1.866Gbps of bandwidth.

The board will be the exact same as the current X99S Gaming 9 AC but the only difference will be the wireless module.  Some users are not fans of the Killer Network app that prioritizes traffic, so it is good to note that it is not required to be running when using the hardware.  The Smart Teaming feature may be a good choice with the Gaming 9 since the streaming could get a boost from the extra bandwidth.  Other network intensive multitasking will also get a boost if the Smart Teaming feature is utilized.

There will also be a Z97 Gaming 9 ACK that is being released that implements the Killer DoubleShot Pro as well, the same board design will also stay in that model.

The post MSI Releases the X99S Gaming 9 ACK appeared first on VR World.

Soft Machines is a startup that today is coming out of their stealthmode status into the public at the Linley Processor Conference.

Soft Machines is a company that has been around since 2006 and employs 250 people on three different continents, all with the expressed goal of working together to deliver their new VISC CPU architecture. The company’s CEO, Mahesh Lingareddy, comes from Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) as did its co-founder Mohammad Abdallah, which would explain the company’s focus on single threaded performance. Soft Machines has raised over $125 million from various funding sources including multiple angel investors, multiple sovereign wealth funds and semiconductor companies, including AMD (NYSE: AMD).

The core of this technology is essentially the virtualization of multiple CPU cores into a single virtual core that enables much higher single threaded performance. That is why they call this technology a VISC CPU architecture as opposed to the RISC and CISC architectures that exist today. As you can see from the image above, there is a very specific way that they achieve this virtualized CPU architecture who’s goal is not only to abstract the cores but to also abstract the ISA, as they claim to be able to run virtually any ISA on their cores if needed, which is how they are able to demonstrate that they are running Android ICS (not Kit Kat) on their demonstration machine today at Linley.

With this architecture, they are able to essentially abstract whatever ISA is being run and then virtualize it so that they can run it on their virtual cores, which will then decide how many threads are needed and how many virtual cores need to be allocated. So, you can have a dual core or a quad core (physical) processor, but then you may only have one or two virtual cores depending on the workload being put on the processor. One metric we haven’t seen or know about is memory bandwidth, we still don’t know what kind of bandwidth they’re able to get with their cache or what frequency their DDR3 is capable of running at.

They are currently running a test setup at the Linley CPU Conference, and we’ve found out that their target performance is currently low power mobile SoCs, but that they are also capable of scaling all the way up to high performance CPUs. They are showing a mobile SoC that is designed to illustrate their power efficiency and the SoC is being used as a test vehicle and they are also fabbing with TSMC at their 28nm process. This SoC, according to them, has 1 billion transistors with less than 20% of the SoC’s transistors being attributed to their own core IP. So, they’ve essentially already shown that their cores not only work, but can be integrated into an SoC and work. here are some of the performance figures.

According to the performance figures provided, using SPEC 2006 IPC, they are running much faster than almost all of their competition in single threaded performance. Do keep in mind that the demonstration that they are currently showing is a dual core implementation running as one virtual core. In this prototype VISC implementation, they are able to get a score of 2.1 versus all other single core implementations. Obviously, these numbers are going to be designed to make them look as good as possible, but there’s no denying the promise that they have. In fact, they are already working with multiple customers to integrate their core IP into SoCs and should have customer silicon out next year. Below, you can see their test setup at Linley.

Test Setup

Their focus is not only single threaded IPC, but also to ensure that power utilization is also much lower, in their SPEC/Watt comparison you can see that they are showing fairly significant gains for their dual core processor at the same wattage or lower wattage. The real question will be whether or not their architecture gains enough traction among CPU and SoC vendors that they actually become relevant. After all, MIPS is having a very hard time competing with ARM and Intel as it is already and they’re the ‘third’ architecture out there right now. If we have a fourth, are SoC vendors really going to want to have their resources spread across so many different architectures?

VISC Single Thread SPEC per Watt

As you can see, they already have working silicon, which is a huge step forward for any new architecture hoping to present itself as a viable alternative to existing architectures. The fact that they aren’t trying to build their own CPUs and sell those directly is very likely a smart idea, as both ARM and Imagination Technologies (MIPS) are licensing their cores out to SoC vendors willing to work with their IP. What will be important to see is how Soft Machines will support its customers with software and development and ensure that the end consumer has no idea what SoC is running under the hood and that the SoC vendor is happy with the performance and battery life of their devices. Increasingly these days, software is becoming a more and more important part of whether or not your hardware will gain adoption, so if the guys at Soft Machines have a solid software team and strategy, they may have a chance. Because there’s no denying that virtually everyone is going to be skeptical about a new CPU architecture gaining any traction.

Soft Machines also has tons of patents already filed and granted around its VISC architecture that you can look into yourself if you’re skeptical or want to know more details about the new architecture.

The post Soft Machines Unveils VISC CPU Architecture at Linley appeared first on VR World.

Our sources are confirming to us that AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) will undergo another major restructuring of the company. This restructuring follows the recent reorganization of the company’s overall organization headed by Dr. Lisa Su and John Byrne. The latest restructuring was announced around the time of Computex and based upon a split of the company into two separate divisions. This restructuring seemed like one merely on paper, shifting over some responsibilities from one person to the other but keeping all divisions and staff intact.

Those two divisions are the Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom Business Group and Computing and Graphics Business Group. As stated before, John Byrne will be responsible for the Computing and Graphics Business Group while Lisa Su will head up the Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom Business Group. Now, the restructuring that is being discussed now (and supposedly already being set in motion) is supposed to be an extension of June’s reorganization/restructuring. This will very likely result in some people changing their roles within the company as well as some people being laid off, as generally seem to happen with major reorganizations. While there are no definite figures of how many people will be let go, it did not sound like those numbers were massive like the culling of 2009 through 2012.

Unfortunately, there aren’t that many details about exactly how many people could be laid off, but this sounds like a long term plan execution rather than a reactionary cut due to poor earnings. However, there were some indications that this next restructuring would very likely come after AMD’s 3Q 2014 earnings which is on the 16th. It remains to be seen how investors will react to this news, but if AMD has poor earnings for 3Q 2014, it may be seen as a reactionary restructuring rather than a planned one which is how it was interpreted by our sources. We are labeling this as a rumor because it isn’t an official announcement, however this is essentially already a done deal.

The post AMD to Enter Another Round of Restructuring This Month appeared first on VR World.

Miluawakee, WI – KOSS recently unveiled its new BT540i NFC-ready Bluetooth headphones, indicating what lies ahead for this iconic American audio brand.

Bright Side of News* has an exclusive interview with Michael J. Koss, President and CEO of KOSS Corporation (NASDAQ: KOSS), about what went into the design of the BT540i, and how the company brand will stay fresh in the minds of music lovers in the years ahead.

Bright Side of News*: I’m really digging the BT540i, and noticed that the design is based on a similar framework as your PRODJ200 model. Was there reason behind this?

Michael J Koss: It’s already a robust design that gives us a really good working platform. These phones will experience more movement and flexing than a pair you would stay at home with. Ergonomically, the cups lend themselves to proper button placement. And we also have room within the body to lay out the Bluetooth, battery, amp and other circuitry, without having to sacrifice diaphragm size.

BSN*: Speaking of diaphragm, Koss is really pushing the PLX40 driver elements. Were these made here in the US?

MJK: We still design 100% of our transducers in-house, and manufacturer them here in Milwaukee or with other contracted manufacturers. We never source third-party hardware.

BSN*: Koss isn’t new to the Bluetooth world, what does this offer?

MJK: Right, things have changed considerably over the past years. With our earlier Cobalt model, introduced in the early 2000’s, the problem was there wasn’t a big enough installed base of transmitters. We sold it with both a USB-dongle transmitter for your computer, and headphone-jack version for plugging into mobile players – and that was back in the day of “plug & pray”.

Because you had those extra parts, overall it affected convenience. So while [Cobalt] had success, it was nowhere near where it should’ve been. Now with NFC, Bluetooth can be taken to a whole new level.

BSN*: Speaking of Bluetooth, the BT540i utilizes Bluetooth 3.0. Did your team look into Bluetooth 4.0 during the development process?

MJK: Yes, but we decided to go with 3.0 and aptX codec. The major benefits to 4.0, as it stands today, are for devices that need continuous monitoring capabilities, like heart monitors. We weren’t going to gain anything from that platform for audio performance.

It’s important everybody realizes that we could have the greatest wireless technology and best codec in the world, but if the source material (music) isn’t [high quality] as well … You can always have great point-to-point transmission, but if the source material has lousy compression or distortion, all the AMP/DAC’s in  the world aren’t going to help.

We’ve known this since our first IR-transmitter products in the mid-1970’s.

BSN*: Let’s move onto design. Other than the STRIVA, the BT540i seems to just follow the rest of your black & grey over-ear stereophone line. There are many black headphones on the market today, why is Koss sticking to this color scheme?

MJK: Well, “black is the new black!” (Laughs)

BSN*: “True, it’s like, how much more black can this be? None, none more black.”

MJK: We may do color at some point, but black has always looked very elegant, a style nobody is going to object to. Some of these brands out today have gotten away with brighter colors for very expensive models, which is interesting because we’ve been in this business for long enough to have gone through all the fashion fads.

Typically, color variants would gravitate towards lower price points, because people wouldn’t take them seriously. I think when you look at the design elements: the ear cushions and cups, headband covers, and accents, it doesn’t it look fake or phony because it feels like a nice pair of gloves or a quality handbag.

BSN*: Regarding Koss Corp. as a whole, its current challenges of loss reports & downgrades on Wall Street, and the consumer market being flooded with tons of brands both domestic and from overseas… With so much of the “company story” or mission statement that reminisces about the past, what steps is Koss taking to ensure it stays a recognizable name for the years ahead?

MJK: The fact that we have a history, that lends itself to authenticity of our product line – that’s very important to us. That’s the reason why we wound up featured on ‘Mad Men’ recently. It was a period piece, but when my son [Michael Koss Jr.] visited the film set, it was pretty evident that the producers were complimenting how Koss has always stuck to what it did, in a very authentic way.

So when we talk about being the “original American stereophone company”, we really mean that. Our products have been so successful over the years, and there aren’t many brands that can maintain that type of presence in your mind. Just like a Leica camera, you can see how that family has always stuck to its knitting.

With our products, sound is the most important thing we believe in, while making them as comfortable as possible, so you can enjoy it for long periods. But we look at sound character as being the most unique feature first, and we haven’t strayed too much from that.

Fads fade – so we’ve focused on what we do best, and we’ve developed a very solid following of those who love buying our products.

BSN*: What about the next generation of consumers?

MJK: Products like our BT540i are a good indication of what lies ahead. You may have seen our new portable Bluetooth speakers, the upcoming Studiophone, and two new D-style cup models that have a throwback ergonomic design, at the CES show this year.

These are really signals to where we are headed in the future. At some point we also look towards refreshing our popular PortaPros too, because there is no other model that can match its size, design, comfort, and features at its price point in the market today.

BSN*: Any final comments?

MJK: Everyone we’ve sent these phones to have commented with good experiences. There are many Bluetooth headphones out that just don’t cut it when it comes to audio quality, amplification, and power efficiency. We’re very happy about the performance and the people seem to be happy about it too.

BSN*: Thanks for your time.

~

BSN has been testing a pair of BT540i headphones this week. Stay tuned for an in-depth review of this product, and how it tips its hat to the company’s past, while aiming its sights for the future.

The post KOSS Corp: 'Sticking to What We Do Best' appeared first on VR World.

While combing through Nvidia’s (NASDAQ: NVDA) legal documents posted on the company’s website, Bright Side of News*’ sources pointed to a very interesting sentence that many may have overlooked or simply never seen.

The legal document in question is  Nvidia’s own claim with the ITC claiming that Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) and Samsung (KRX:005935) are infringing upon its GPU technology patents. The document in question, which obviously had to go through Nvidia legal before becoming public is essentially a corporate confirmation of the previous Nexus 9 and HTC (TPE: 2498) rumors.

Nvidia’s document specifically states, “the HTC Nexus 9, expected in the third quarter of 2014, is also expected to use the Tegra K1.” So, based on what’s known that there will without a doubt be a Nexus 9 made by HTC with Nvidia’s Tegra K1, but we also know that it should be expected in the third quarter of this year. All of this essentially confirms all of the rumors we’ve and gives an expected time frame which hasn’t been confirmed by anyone else.

All that’s left now regarding the Nexus 9 will be the exact price and whether or not Google’s leaked documents of an unidentified tablet are indeed the Nexus 9. A Tegra K1 powered tablet will without a doubt be pretty awesome as the Tegra K1 is a very powerful chip, but could run into stiff competition from Samsung and LG. But even so, a new Nexus tablet is a welcome addition to Google’s Nexus line of devices as the search giant has never refreshed the Nexus 10 since its launch and the Nexus 7 has already been refreshed once last year.

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