While boasting a fraction of DirectX usage in the gaming market, OpenGL hasn't been sitting around while Microsoft eats its lunch. Long favored as a foundation for cross platform games like World of Warcraft, and historically used by id Software to famous effect, the API just hit the 3.0 in a major reworking of the library. NVIDIA has had a hand in the API, and has wasted no time in releasing graphics drivers for the newly minted standard. The beta code supports GeForce 8000 series cards or higher on the desktop and laptop sides, and implements all of OpenGL 3.0 and the GLSL 1.30 shading language with just a few exceptions. Naturally, users won't be getting much out of this right off the bat, the beta drivers are mainly meant for developers looking to build software that takes advantage of 3.0, but it's nice to see a GPU builder hand-in-hand with a next gen graphics API and supporting it out of the gate on existing cards. And would you look at those screenshots!

While Intel's Larrabee might not be a household name for consumers just yet, it's certainly at the table where Nvidia and AMD/ATI eat. The many-core (8 to 48, at least, according to that Intel graphic) x86 chip runs all your existing apps while tossing in support for OpenGL and DirectX thus eliminating the need for a discrete graphics chip. At least that's the plan. While the exact number of cores remains a secret as does the performance of each core compared to current GPUs, given the importance Intel places on Larrabee, it's reasonable to assume that an 8-core chip will launch in 2009 or 2010 with comparable performance to GPUs on the market at that time. Intel does say that Larrabee cores will scale "almost linearly" (read: within 10%) in games; that means that a 16-core chip will offer nearly twice the performance of an 8-core chip, 32-cores twice that of 16, and so on. Apparently this has already been proven in-house with Intel name-dropping Larrabee-coded titles such as Gears of War, FEAR, and Half-Life 2, Episode 2. It's no coincidence then to hear that Intel's first Larrabee product will target PC gamers. Click through if you're just dying to read about Larrabee's 1024 bits-wide bi-directional ring network and other bits of technical wonderment sure to create at least the hint of a silicon malaise.

[Via CNET and Washington Post, Thanks Dan R.]

A few months ago, AMD promised Xbox 360 graphics on handhelds, and as of today it's delivered on the concept. AMD announced it has achieved Open GL ES 2.0 mobile graphics technology compliance with hardware that cranks out the same AMD Unified Shader Architecture as the Microsoft gaming console. The new graphics standard will no doubt butt heads with NVIDIA's Tegra platform, which also promises serious mobile graphics. Meanwhile, AMD's comparison of their new certification to the Xbox 360 may just be a way to wow us, but we gotta wonder if this could bring some hope to a mobile Xbox 360, whether Microsoft says they're into it or not. Good times.

No, this isn't another rampant portable Xbox 360 rumor, but the somewhat indirect linkage is indeed notable. Reportedly, AMD is planning to bring "Xbox 360 quality graphics to handheld devices" by utilizing the company's next-generation mobile graphics technologies. Although no real specifics were handed out, AMD is purportedly "working with content developers now in preparation for the arrival of phones" powered by the forthcoming set, and should be made available to handset manufacturers through "discrete media processors as well as through IP licensing agreements with semiconductor suppliers." Already released is a developers toolkit that includes support for both the OpenVG 1.0 and OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics standards, and it will incorporate the same Unified Shader Architecture that's behind the scenes in your Xbox 360. Sadly, we've absolutely no idea which companies (if any) are already on board with this promising technology, but we just have to wonder if Dell won't reconsider its handheld gaming system considering the already amicable relationship with AMD.

[Via TGDaily, thanks smash_linux]

Texas Instruments demonstrated its first processor to enable high definition (720p) playback on mobile phones yesterday at 3GSM World Congress. The OMAP3430, first announced last year, is the first in TI's series of OMAP 3 processors and also first to include support for the OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics standard for 3D acceleration. The 3430 gets the muscle to move your HD files and 3D gaming from its embedded ARM Cortex-A8 processor, but from the specs it seems that the video portion is only currently supporting up to 1024 x 768 (XGA) output via composite or S-video connections. Still, with this power available, sometime in the future your common cellphone will be playing back HD on the go or outputting video to a big screen HDTV. We previously expected to see handsets based on the technology this year, but while TI is shipping samples of the processors now, don't expect your HD-capable cell to hit stores until early 2008.