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Shin Megami Tensei IV summons $10 discount
Purchase Shin Megami Tensei IV by October 14, and the game will set you back $40 - a $10 discount over its standard $50 price point. As publisher Atlus points out, this is the first official discount the 3DS roleplaying game has gotten since its debut on July 16. This price cut applies to both digital download and physical retail incarnations of the game. If you're on the fence about picking this game up, have a look at our review of Shin Megami Tensei IV in which we award it 4/5 stars. "If you've ever wondered what all the Shin Megami Tensei fuss was about, Shin Megami Tensei 4 is a great entry point," our Susan Arendt wrote. "It eases you into the gameplay without babying you, giving you the tools you need to succeed and enjoy your adventure while still providing a hefty challenge." "It's not the prettiest thing you'll ever pop into your 3DS, and the story isn't the series' strongest, but SMT4 will demand your full attention every step of the way."
IBM and NCSA end their Blue Waters affair, go back to just being supercomputing friends
It seems that IBM and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois have hit a snag in their once fruitful relationship. After nearly four years of partnering for the Blue Waters petascale supercomputer, the NCSA's recently released a joint statement explaining that IBM's "terminated" its involvement with the project. If you'll recall, IBM was supplying its latest Power7 rigs to get all that data flowing, but the company's now decided that Ol' Blue will require more resources than initially anticipated. Apparently, there were talks to try and keep the spark alive, but since those fell through both have decided to return each others CDs and hoodies assets involved with the project (per contract terms): IBM gives back the money, while the NCSA returns any hardware supplied. The two plan on remaining in touch for future endeavours, and the NCSA doesn't appear to be too down either as it'll be consulting with the National Science Foundation to keep Blue Waters afloat. You'll find the official statement in the source link below, but we've included a video rendition of how we'd like to imagine it past the break. [Photo credit: kosheahan]
Scientists figure out how to see through walls, sort of
We all know that light can't exactly pass through solid objects -- unless of course, you're using a laser or something. Yes, X-rays allow us to look into suitcases at the airport and broken bones in our bodies, but there's a new kid on the block that claims to have done the impossible in a novel fashion. Jochen Aulbach and his colleagues of the FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics out in Amsterdam have developed a technology that allows scrambled light to remain focused as it passes through ultra-thin layers of paint. You see, when light is sent through opaque material, it becomes muddled and lost in the space-time continuum. Aulbach and his crew used a spatial light modulator, or SMT, to control a 64-femtosecond long laser pulse that's passed through a thin layer of paint. The SMT emits pulses that last long enough for only a machine to see and the data is sent to a computer for calibration. NewScientist claims that with this technology, it might be possible to hone in on cancerous cells and blast them to oblivion without damaging the healthy tissue surrounding them.
NCSA prepares for Blue Waters petascale supercomputer, and we've got the video to prove it
How often do you get to see an unboxing of this magnitude? Our buddy Bill at the NCSA (National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois) has been kind enough to hit us up with a video that shows the arrival and installation of the facility's new IBM 780 hardware at the National Petascale Computing Facility. This hardware will allow scientists to prep code in anticipation of the Blue Waters -- which, as previously reported, will be the largest publicly accessible supercomputer in the world when it goes online in 2011, thanks to its over 16,000 Power7 nodes. Video after the break.
IBM developing 10 petaflop supercomputer, Power7 to ship next year
The last we heard, IBM was hard at work on its Power7 processor. Now the company's announcing that the thirty-two core chip -- and copious amounts of eDRAM -- are at the heart of its newest supercomputing project. To be housed at the University of Illinois, IBM's Blue Waters will be the largest publicly accessible supercomputer in the world when it goes online in 2011, theoretically capable of achieving 16 petaflop speeds by connecting up to 16,384 Power7 nodes, although IBM said that initially the theoretical peak performance will likely be closer to 10 petaflops -- with more realistic sustained real-world performance near one petaflop. To keep things from overheating, a system was devised that includes water-cooling for the whole rack, including the processor itself. But why should government agencies and large corporations have all the fun? According to CNET, IBM plans to ship Power7 processors with commercial server products sometime next year.
Motorbikes, alchemy, and demon friend quests now in Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine
Demon Busters in Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine Online are now enjoying a fresh content update, which includes motorbikes courtesy of the Shinjuku Babel mechanics. This new mode of transportation in the game allows players to travel between zones quickly and in first person perspective. Atlus has also introduced alchemy, a crafting system where players can create new objects with unusual properties. Runes that boost abilities for your demons or potions that augment your own abilities are a few possibilities with the new item mixing system. They've also released more PvE content in the form of demon friend quests, provided your friendships with the infernal powers-that-be are at the appropriate levels. Perhaps the biggest content addition to Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine Online is the Team Battle system. The title's publisher Aeria Games writes: "Gather your allies and friends to crush your enemies in fast-paced, high intenseity group versus group combat for glory and god-like gear. Choose to fight solo in sided matches against other solo players, or combine your strength with others to demolish the competition in team versus team battle."
IBM brings the ruckus -- and new Power7 processor
IBM likes its servers and supercomputers. A lot. After giving the Power6 plenty of self-congratulatory publicity, Big Blue is ready to move on to the 7th generation of Power, which is set to be announced at the Hot Chips conference this evening. With eight cores and up to four SMT4 threads running on each, the 45nm Power7 can perform 32 simultaneous tasks per chip. The designers have slapped in a whopping 32MB of eDRAM in each chip for improved latency, dual DDR3 memory controllers for a sustained 100GB per second bandwidth, and even error correcting code and memory mirroring for redundancy. Sounds like a major boon for research into the brains of mice and the history of dirty words, but we don't expect to hear much about this proc outside the server farm.
Demons ready for summoning, Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine goes open beta
Do you wish there was an MMO that allowed you to summon demonic minions under your control in order to restore a post-apocalyptic Tokyo? Well thankfully for you, Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine has entered open beta! Now all your world-saving via demonic pet needs can be addressed thanks to Aeria Games' and their hard work.For anyone whose played Persona 3 or the more recently released Persona 4, an MMO set in the world of SMT is a very interesting proposition. The game has all the demon fusing and combat from the other games (beyond even the Persona series) but it's all done in real-time instead of through turn-based combat. We're curious to see how this handles, as our guess is that it's likely more of a quasi-real-time ala standard MMO design in games like World of Warcraft.
Intel's 6-core Dunnington CPU coming this year, Nehalem gets official
Quad-core shmod-core Intel, we need 6 cores or more to keep our uh, web browsers snappy. While you're at it, how about tossing in some Simultaneous Multithreading (SMT) so that each core can process two threads at a time -- 16 simultaneous threads per 8-core processor or 32 for dual-processor, 8-core rigs. If that sounds good then you're in luck; Intel just went official with its near-term architecture plans which include the 2008 launch of a 6-core Dunnington-class server CPU platform based on Intel's 45-nm Penryn "tick" architecture. On deck is Intel's second generation Nehalem "tock" architecture with SMT and scalable from 2- to 8-cores. We're talking "dramatic" performance and energy improvements, according to Intel, from a microarchitecture bent on delivering an 8 MB level-3 cache, DDR3-800 memory support, 25.6GB per second Quickpath interconnects (so long Front Side Bus!), an integrated memory controller and optional integrated graphics to high-end servers and eventually laptops. Hear that AMD? Tick, tock goes the clock. P.S. That's Nehalem pictured. What, can't you tell?[Via BetaNews, thanks Mike O.]
See before you buy: Japan edition
We were happy when Nintendo of America finally put up some preview videos so people could at least get a look at Virtual Console games before throwing their Wii Points into a hole. Now, Nintendo of Japan has done the same! You'll be able to preview new Virtual Console games long before they come to the US. In many cases, you can just uselessly torture yourself by watching videos of games like Shin Megami Tensei and Mario's Super Picross that will never be released over here! And if there's anything we enjoy, it's uselessly torturing ourselves.[Thanks, creamsugar!]
