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[#] Thu Dec 02 2021 15:12:57 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

Subject: Re: BeagleV Not dead afterall

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Not from Beagle, but the board may still come out.  That is a good
thing.  Proliferation of cheap boards in the RPI/ARM marketspace
should help with future mainstream adoption of RISC-V, outside of
IoT.  

Mainstream adoption is good, especially if it eventually results in a fully open computer. Maybe someday Sam Falvo will resurrect the Kestrel project under another name.

[#] Fri Dec 03 2021 17:23:18 UTC from Nurb432

Subject: NVIDIA and ARM

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Welp, that is the end of that.  Too bad. I suspect in the long run it would have been a good thing, due to the money NVIDIA has behind it.  Hard to say of course, as it could have ended bad for ARM IP holders, but wont ever know now now it was going to end for everyone.

I wonder if NVIDIA will switch to RISC-V instead, and create an proprietary IP set extension as F-U to regulators on both sides of the pond.  Then we all lose.

 

https://www.eetimes.com/ftc-tosses-monkey-wrench-into-nvidia-arm-deal/



[#] Fri Dec 03 2021 21:57:24 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

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Looks like RISC-V is making a bit of a resurgence. Here's a cheap chinesium SBC whose manufacturer is declaring it the successor to the BeagleBoard:

[ https://www.techradar.com/news/a-risc-v-raspberry-pi-rival-is-about-to-hit-the-market ]

Although I'm not sure what good it does to have a fully open architecture if the board and chip are both made in communist china. Almost guaranteed to be pre-compromised.

[#] Fri Dec 03 2021 23:04:07 UTC from Nurb432

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Should be the same board as i was mentioning above :) 

Anything you buy is pre-compromised. Be it china, UK, USA.. 

Fri Dec 03 2021 04:57:24 PM EST from IGnatius T Foobar
Looks like RISC-V is making a bit of a resurgence. Here's a cheap chinesium SBC whose manufacturer is declaring it the successor to the BeagleBoard:

[ https://www.techradar.com/news/a-risc-v-raspberry-pi-rival-is-about-to-hit-the-market ]

Although I'm not sure what good it does to have a fully open architecture if the board and chip are both made in communist china. Almost guaranteed to be pre-compromised.

 



[#] Sun Dec 05 2021 23:01:24 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

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It's the same board. I was conflating it with the Phytium computer mentioned in between. :(

As for the Nvidia/Arm deal, the FTC blocking it simply means that the correct people have not been bribed yet. The US government operates exactly the same way the Chinese and Russian governments operate; the only difference is that we pretend it doesn't.

I'd *like* for Arm to remain independent of any individual manufacturer, or at least be stuck in a situation like x64 where multiple vendors have to license each others' technology (the failure of Itanium was a blessing for us all). RAND sounds good in theory but in practice it's still just a single vendor who can do whatever they want.

I like to think that all technology eventually trends towards being open, but that trend has to outpace innovation for it to be worthwhile.

[#] Wed Dec 08 2021 19:28:48 UTC from LoanShark

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very impressed with Intel's Alder Lake chips. The Golden Cove cores are about what you would expect - big and power-hungry and an incremental improvement over everything else for single-thread performance.

But those Gracemont cores really shine, they're 1/4 the size and yet competitive with recent other chips on performance. That small size is really exceptional and AMD doesn't have anything that can compete apples-to-apples.

I want a server chip with like 256 Gracemont's. That'd be the real deal.

[#] Fri Dec 31 2021 01:27:09 UTC from Nurb432

Subject: Mini RISC-V

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Still on the low end, but seems like its complete enough for it to function.  Would be in older RPI territory i imagine.

https://liliputing.com/2021/12/this-5-dock-turns-the-17-sipeed-lichee-rv-into-a-fully-functional-risc-v-computer.html

Ordered 2 of them. 



[#] Sat Jan 01 2022 19:28:53 UTC from Nurb432

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Finally got around to replacing that i5 with a xeon in that spare lenovo tiny that i pulled out of my farm as a guinea pig.

A good 2x the speed, for ~ 100 bucks.  Its now faster than the i7 i have been using.  Enough it 'feels' faster and not just 'stats'.



[#] Tue Jan 04 2022 23:08:42 UTC from LoanShark

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I upgraded my dad's PC from a Haswell to an i5-11600 sevea few months ago. I was quite surprised at how much faster it is in single-threaded work: about 3X faster in loading his big Excel file that used to take 15 minutes. Now takes 5.

[#] Tue Jan 04 2022 23:46:54 UTC from Nurb432

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After using it for a full day, not so sure its an improvement from my i7 in 'real world' use.  I can 'tell' its faster but nothing real tangible. 

Now, moving from the original i5 it had, ya, definite impact.



[#] Sat Jan 08 2022 15:40:29 UTC from Nurb432

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Figures, my little RiscV board i was mentioning above will be here in a couple of days.  Then this is announced:

https://shop.allnetchina.cn/collections/starfive/products/starfive-visionfive-ai-single-board-computer



[#] Sun Jan 09 2022 19:33:22 UTC from Nurb432

Subject: 99 dollar chrome book

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[#] Mon Jan 17 2022 23:17:24 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

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Is this a different RISC-V computer than the one previously mentioned?

[ https://www.tomshardware.com/news/raspberry-pi-alternative-mango-pi-risc-v-sbc ]

The "
"mango pi" is RISC-V based and appears to be positioned in the same space as the Raspberry Pi Zero.

It has an "Allwinner D1" SoC so I have to assume that the system is fully integrated with Red China, so it's not something you'd put in a privacy-focused homebrew computer. Apparently, however, RISC-V support in Linux is moving into the mainline kernel, so that's good news.

[#] Mon Jan 17 2022 23:22:42 UTC from Nurb432

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i saw that today too, and its the same chip + peripherals so basically the same thing bit a bit more $ than the one i got ( that i have yet had time to make boot. Stupid U-Boot )

I honestly dont worry about the 'made in china' risk.  Its no more or less risky than getting Intel or AMD here in the states, who we know have had stuff embedded for decades. ( vpro ). To me its a wash, as anything other than FPGA is compromised at some level.  And, CCP dont really care about me.. NSA, might.

Besides, if one is really paranoid, just watch traffic. Block it. 

Mon Jan 17 2022 06:17:24 PM EST from IGnatius T Foobar

Is this a different RISC-V computer than the one previously mentioned?

[ https://www.tomshardware.com/news/raspberry-pi-alternative-mango-pi-risc-v-sbc ]

The "
"mango pi" is RISC-V based and appears to be positioned in the same space as the Raspberry Pi Zero.

It has an "Allwinner D1" SoC so I have to assume that the system is fully integrated with Red China, so it's not something you'd put in a privacy-focused homebrew computer. Apparently, however, RISC-V support in Linux is moving into the mainline kernel, so that's good news.

 



[#] Wed Jan 26 2022 20:25:01 UTC from zooer

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Some of you like mechanical keyboards:  New Logitech mechanical keyboards are conservative in looks and price

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/01/logitech-debuts-simple-sub-100-mechanical-keyboards/



[#] Wed Jan 26 2022 23:15:23 UTC from Nurb432

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Doesn't everyone love the feel of a real cherry switch under their fingers?



[#] Wed Jan 26 2022 23:53:54 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

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Hmm, that logitech keyboard zooer posted looks pretty good for the price, though. It looks like they're going for the "mechanical keyboard but not high end gamer gear" space. The switches aren't Cherry but I'd definitely consider it, especially if I had to sneak it into a purchase. It's even my favorite form factor (tenkeyless).

Obviously, real Cherry switches are still the gold standard, but you pay for that. The one I am on now has Reds, which are the clicky ones.

[#] Thu Jan 27 2022 00:18:51 UTC from Nurb432

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Mine are blue, technically a gaming keyboard but no stupid back light..  Took one to work and everyone bitched about it. 

I have 2 M100 IBM keyboards in the garage that i think about converting to usb every so often..   never do start that project.



[#] Wed Feb 16 2022 05:23:17 UTC from ParanoidDelusions

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You need a VR/3D/CGI room. 

I'm pretty sure that VR is going to be the singularity... maybe the combination of VR and sentient AI - which I just saw speculation that AI might already be sentient. I didn't read the article... but the premise I saw seemed plausible. 


Anyhow... 

I've been playing with CGI for a while now - but the driving sims are what convinced me that in the right use model - VR *is* a game changer. It isn't just a gimmick like 3D TV and movies were. 

So, to that end, I've been checking out the early VR offerings - and they tie into things like Poser and Daz3d... CGI 3D rendering and animation... but really - Blender seems to be the most versatile of these kind of programs. 

Unfortunately - it also has a Photoshop level learning curve - maybe worse. I bought several courses, but was struggling with all of them and getting started... and I finally found a course - for free, on Youtube - that is getting me the fundamentals. So far I've made a simple animation of a sword with glowing runes in a stone inside a snowy cave with Godrays shining down on the blade. 

Programmers are going to be important - so, if you're a dev - you should learn the Unity game engine and scripting in it... but VR is so visual, and the quality of the visual items is so important - modeling is going to be a huge part of it. NFTs are going to be big at some point too. I think at some point people will realize that they can limit what will WORK in VR by requiring NFT tokens to authenticate any object as *real*. A copy simply won't work. That will make virtual objects *tangible* and create an industry of minting NFT tokened objects that can't be pirated. It isn't the same as DRM - because owners will still OWN the object - not simply be *licensed* to use it. They'll be able to move it around, repurpose it, sell it - and NFT based virtual objects will be able to be assembled into larger objects... modular based construction assembled into NFT tokenized items. Sim Racing might be one of the first places you see this... because right now you can put a skin that looks like a bathtub on the code that says it will handle like a Ferrari or F1. Sim-racing is getting *serious* - with actual real world drivers competing in sim events - and they'll need to have governing bodies verifying the vehicles at some point - and to have the vehicles tied to the drivers/teams - not the event. In order to achieve that - you'll need a virtual car that has an NFT token that proves authenticity - and I think it is logical that this VR car with be built on approved components that are ALSO NFT verified - much like a real race car today has to have approved parts by approved vendors built to approved specifications. 

Sim-racing is likely to be the first thing to really drive this kind of development. The buzz right now is about virtual real estate, virtual art, and virtual porn... and those are certainly going to be important... but virtual sports feel to me like the killer app for VR adoption. One thing that VR will do - is allow disabled athletes to compete as fully abled participants in sporting events. This will keep athletes that end up disabled due to injuries in the game - and will also enable people with pre-existing disabilities to take part in sporting events they couldn't, previously. 

Events - also, will increasingly become replaceable and more convenient and safe in VR... and VR events will be limited by the venue they're held in - so the exclusivity of "being there" will increasingly become a thing. We're on the verge of them being very convincing simulations of actually being there. The same technologies that Nurb was talking about reaching scale for porn - will have residual use in making experiencing VR in total more immersive and convincing. 


Several VR artists/creators have Patreons that are bringing in like, $2500 - $16,000 a month - just supporting OTHER programs/platforms in the VR space. Not huge companies. Small artists. 

Over the next 10 years, I think it is going to be kind of like the first 20 years of the Internet - with people trying to figure out what to do with it and it not being quite powerful enough to be super useful. 


But there is going to be that "What is this stupid Amazon shit... who wants to buy online... it is just mail order... and I can't try it... and it is a hassle to return," moment... where everyone is going to be missing the forest for the trees and a few startups are going to get it right and change the world... again - I think it is coming at us way faster than we realize. 

Anyhow... bringing this back to hardware - I've been learning on my 5th gen Surface Pro i7 and it has been doing remarkably well with the Intel built in HD graphics... but I was starting to hit a wall. 

I've got an old i5 with a GTX 750 card in it... and just moved Blender over there... and it is a lot faster with renders - which is what I was hoping. DAZ3D is very Nvidia IRAY oriented - Blender is less GPU specific - but having a decent gaming GPU does make a difference. I have a couple of graphic workstations too with modern RTX cards (a GTX 1080 and a RTX 2080 in one, and a RTX 3080 in the other)... but I use those for gaming and graphic arts... and I'd rather keep Blender on something else until I am sure it is going to become part of my toolkit. But at this point, I'm pretty sure it will. 

But - I do wonder what Blender runs like on something like the Pi 400+... or a Mac M1... 


Blender being so cross platform - if I'm right about VR - could actually make Linux far more viable for a lot more users/creators/developers. 

 




 



[#] Wed Feb 16 2022 21:52:01 UTC from Nurb432

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For the 3 of us? :)

Wed Feb 16 2022 12:23:17 AM EST from ParanoidDelusions

You need a VR/3D/CGI room. 


 



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