asic
Latest
Samsung made a special chip for mining cryptocurrency
Samsung has a chip designed specifically for mining cryptocurrency. Rather than repurpose a GPU to do the dirty work, Samsung made an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), which is a specialized processor that is more efficient at mining than, say, an NVIDIA 1080 card. The company has entered into a distribution agreement with an as-of-now anonymous Chinese partner for distribution. As TechCrunch notes, this is significant for at least one reason: This gives the Korean company a way into the Chinese ASIC market, where local firms dominate. It's too early to tell what sort of impact (if any) this could have on Samsung's bottom line, or how it could affect cryptocurrency and China's local players.
RED Scarlet 2/3 priced, detailed, and wanted
If you've been waiting for RED to release a product within reach of the prosumer class of shooters then this is it: the Scarlet 2/3. While the price is up from the original $3,750 lens and brain kit announced back in December 2008, an additional ASIC and four additional boards bring plenty of new features to help justify the price bump on this professional-grade camera. Scarlet starts with a 2/3-inch sensor in the $4,750 Scarlet 8X Fixed package (including "brain" and fixed 8x zoom lens, side CF module, REDmote, 2.8-inch touchscreen with "touch focus tracking," REDVOLT battery, and travel charger) or $2,750 for the Scarlet Interchangeable which includes the brain-only with adapters available for electronic RED, Canon, and Nikon glass. The resulting cam shoots 3k REDCODE RAW video at 120fps (150fps burst mode) and scaled 720p or 1080p recording at 60fps. Expect both models to ship in May or June assuming nothing goes wrong with the ASIC or firmware. Until then you can check the gallery for plenty of shots includes a glimpse of RED's mini primes and the 8x side-by-side with the 2/3 interchangeable.
eASIC eDV9200 H.264 codec promises HD for all devices
We've already got HD in places that the cast of Step by Step would've sworn was never possible way back when, but eASIC is far from satisfied. To that end, it's introducing a new H.264 codec aimed to bring high-def capabilities to all manners of devices, including (but certainly not limited to) toys, baby monitors, public transportation, wireless video surveillance and wireless webcams. The highly integrated eDV9200 is said to "dramatically lower the cost of entry into the high-definition video market, enabling a new class of low-cost applications to fully leverage the benefits offered by HD technology." Best of all, these guys aren't just blowing smoke, as the chip -- which captures streaming data directly from a CMOS sensor, compresses it, and transfers it to a host system or to a variety of storage devices -- is priced at just $4.99 each in volume. HD oven timers, here we come!
Vandeverre says: WSE not real. Not an investment. [updated]
The Metaverse Journal has an unedited interview with LukeConnell Vandeverre, owner of the - as he puts it - fictional World Stock Exchange. In it, Vandeverre asserts repeatedly and firmly that the WSE is a game, and nothing more, and that no real profit is available through the WSE. "[I]t is not real, holds no real value and it is not an investment and does not provide investment opportunities." - Vandeverre. The interview is full of contradictions. Vandeverre appears to claim that the 'fictional' currencies have value in the real world, albeit indirectly, and then reverses course and appears to claim that they don't.
How legal are virtual banks and stock exchanges?
A recurring question, amid the forest of what might be legitimate failures and mismanaged enterprises or might just be scams, is just how legal are the banks and stock exchanges that operate alongside and inside various MMOs and Virtual Worlds such as Second Life. As seems to be usual with legal matters, a simple question doesn't yield a simple answer.
