Nvidia Offering 5 Million USD To Upstart GPU Ventures

NVIDIA today announced the launch of the GPU Ventures Program, a new global initiative whose aim is to identify, support and invest in early stage companies leveraging the GPU for visual and other computing applications. NVIDIA is also launching the GPU Venture Zone website, a portal to publicly showcase the innovative GPU applications being developed by its ecosystem partners.

"The GPU Ventures Program represents a huge opportunity for young ambitious companies basing their businesses around the GPU. These companies are the innovators that will fuel the continued growth of the GPU platform," said Jeff Herbst, vice president of business development at NVIDIA. "Through this program we will provide financial, marketing and other support to help start-up companies realize their full potential and we strongly encourage interested entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and others to reach out to us with their ideas."

Through the GPU Ventures Program, NVIDIA intends to evaluate companies that leverage the GPU for both consumer and professional applications in all areas such as video and image enhancement, scientific discovery, financial analysis and 3D interfaces. Investments are expected to range from $500K to $5Million, and strategic partnerships are expected to span joint marketing, joint development, product distribution and beyond.

"NVIDIA's support, through investment, strategic partnership and joint marketing, has helped us to raise additional capital and gain customer visibility much more quickly," said Sam Blackman, CEO of Elemental Technologies. "We share NVIDIA's passion for using the GPU as a parallel processor, for more than just graphics, and we actively encourage other companies interested in this exciting market to join the visual computing ecosystem."

In addition to Elemental Technologies, NVIDIA has also invested in successful start ups including Acceleware, Keyhole Corporation (acquired by Google for Google Earth), Mental Images (acquired by NVIDIA), MotionDSP and Right Hemisphere. These companies were among 60 other start-ups that met with key figures in the investment and technical community at NVIDIA's 2008 Emerging Companies Summit, due to take place again in the Fall of 2009.

"NVIDIA's first annual Emerging Companies Summit was a world class event , perhaps the best and most informative private company showcase in 2008" said Drew Lanza, general partner at Morgenthaler Ventures. "We view parallel computing on the GPU as an exciting and disruptive growth opportunity for our existing and future portfolio companies, and we applaud NVIDIA's efforts to support this ecosystem through its new GPU Ventures Program and other related initiatives."

Intel N Nvidia Sue Each Other lol

Intel and Nvidia have taken place in the agreements, which allows the development of Nvidia chipsets that support Intel processors, and Intel that allows Nvidia to use technology in their motherboards.

Everything went well until Intel filed a lawsuit against Nvidia, alleging that such agreements do not allow the construction of Nvidia chipsets for Intel processors with integrated memory controllers, ie the Nehalem CPU.

"Intel has filed a lawsuit against NVIDIA seek a declaratory of rights associated with agreements between the two companies," said the official statement from Intel. "The lawsuit seeks a court declaration that NVIDIA is not licensed to produce chipsets that are compatible with any Intel processor has integrated memory controller functionality, such as microprocessors and NVIDIA Nehalem Intel has violated the agreement Intel, claiming falsely that it is licensed. Intel has been in talks with NVIDIA for over a year trying to resolve the issue but unfortunately we lost. As a result, Intel is asking the court to resolve this dispute. "

Nvidia claims that this lawsuit does not affect the NVIDIA chipsets being shipped.

"We are confident that our license agreement, as negotiated, it applies," said Jen-Hsun Huang, president and CEO of NVIDIA. "At the heart of this problem is that the CPU has its course and soul of the PC is moving quickly to the GPU. This is clearly an attempt to stifle innovation in order to protect the CPU business in decline."

Huang said that, given the widespread and growing adoption of innovations from NVIDIA platform, it is not surprising that Intel is now launching a dispute over a contract signed four years ago. Innovations such as ION, SLI, hybrid power, and threaten CuDa Intel's ability to control the PC platform.

Your Hard Drive

The hard drive is one of the most important components of the computer as it stores all the information and without it the computer cannot function. Without hard drives, there would be no World Wide Web, email or operating systems because they all reside on it.

There are various things that may cause a hard drive to crash. One reason is because of corrupt registry files, system files, and viruses. A virus come in different forms as emails, especially spam, spy ware, and downloads from the web and many other places. This is why it is recommended that one of the important things to do after acquiring a new PC is to install anti-virus software to prevent viral attacks and reduce chances of hard disk crashing.

A hard drive may also crash due to problems with the hardware. The hard drive contains sensitive internal components such as a magnetic disk, an actuator arm, the read/ write head and other components. For example, the read/write head hovers very close to but not touching the disk. If the actuator arm happens to break and the read/ write head touches the disk. The hard disk will be destroyed and thus, a hard disk crash has occurred. Another cause of damage could be overheating where the drive may overheat, causing various components to expand and touch other component. This may be physically experienced as sounds coming from the hard drive when the disk is spinning.

So your hard disk has failed and you cannot access your information. What next?
It all depends with the kind of damage. If the damage is software-based, then data recovery software can be used to try and retrieve your information. There are some simple do-it-yourself data recovery software that can be used to retrieve your data. But if the damage is mechanical, it advisable to send the hard drive to a reputable data recovery company so that a proper diagnosis is done to try and retrieve as much information as possible. Seeking the professional advice of a data specialist could save you a lot, both financially and with regard to time.

The best rating hard drives at this time are Western Digital because of their life span and durability.

The Dell Computers - Who Are the Inventors?

Dell has grown a big company but it seems that many people who bought their products are pretty mad with them and want to buy others. Personally I bought a dell laptop and I am not satisfied and i want to through it out the window but I just gave it to my brother :D.

The invention and the history of the Dell computer is quite interesting. First of all, it was in 1984 when Michael Dell, a student at the University of Texas at Austin, created the company PC's Limited. He only had a starting capital of $1,000. So what he did was he started working out of his dorm room to build personal computers made from stock components. These computers were to be IBM compatible because that was the standard at that time. If a computer were to function with various pieces of hardware, it needed to be IMB compatible since hardware and software programs were being designed to be IBM compatible.

It is when Michael Dell figured that selling computers directly to customers to determine customer need that he dropped out of college. His family then extended him the $300,000 in expansion capital that he needed to make his business take off.

A success

It was in 1985 that the Turbo PC was developed and it sold for less than $800. It contained an Intel 8088 processor that ran at 8 MHz, which is considerably slower than the computers that we use today. Computers today are running in gigahertz, which are hundreds and even thousands of times faster than the 8 MHz processor that Michael Dell was installing in his computers at the time. But the truth is that this was the best that could be done in 1985. The technology was developing.

But there was an aspect of PC's Limited that was unique from the rest and continues to be this way today. It is the fact that customers could custom order their computers rather than buy a computer that was already assembled. This allowed individuals to receive computers at lower prices than what they could get with their competitors. This definitely worked because PC's Limited grossed $73 million in its first year of trading.

The beginning of Dell

It was in 1988 that PC's Limited became Dell. Prior to that, the company already had 11 international operations occurring, so the company was quite large. There were on site services set up to compensate for the lack of businesses acting as service centers for Dell computers. It was in 1990 that Dell attempted to sell through club houses, but had very little success with this. So it is then that Dell went right back to its direct to customer sales.

In 1996, Dell started selling computers on its website. An individual could go onto the website and custom design their computer so that it would be built to their specifications. From there, it would be shipped to the customer's home. Financing was made available so that individuals would be able to acquire their computers easily.

In 1999, Dell became the largest personal computer seller when they took over Compaq computers. Their revenue topped $25 billion in 2002. Also in 2002, Dell started selling televisions and other electronic items. They now have Dell brand printers, LCD TVs, and much more. Because of the expansion beyond computers, Dell was changed to Dell Inc. in 2003.

It is amazing that this billion dollar company started in a dorm room with $1000 in starting capital. And Michael Dell has always stood by the principles of letting individuals have the capability to design their own machine. Although there are Dell computers now sold in various retail outlets, a person can still go to the website and design the machine of their dreams. And Dell also offers a lot of assistance for individuals needing help with their computers. They offer on-site services and so much more for the computer user so that they can have the best experience possible.