Intel: GPUs are "ONLY" 2.5~14 times faster than CPUs

[cbn]

I think Chrome needs a new platform in which to succeed in, or IT departments to get behind it. The Chrome OS is all about cloud computing, something that I have absolutely *no* interest in seeing become popular. That said, I know many IT departments are already migrating in that direction, with the significantly reduced cost that is possible with such a setup it may be something that they do end up getting behind. In terms of Chrome being a viable desktop replacement I don't see it happening anytime soon. As a platform for low power tablets as a counter to Android, that could be something the market would be interested in. Chrome is no threat to desktop Windows, but as another avenue that portable devices could use or other consumer electronics(TVs, DVRs, BRDs etc) it could be an interesting option.

Yeah, I wouldn't mind seeing another competitive OS take off. However, being limited to Web based applications only doesn't sound too enjoyable.

Maybe we will see decent sized hard drives on some builds?

As far as their Business model goes I have looked much into that. In the Chrome OS Wikipedia article, it states that as of April 2010 Google doesn't plan on subsidizing the hardware.

 

[cbn]

As of right now, AMD looks to be in an absolutely terrible long term position. They have nothing to compete in the low end segment, they have nothing to compete in the high end market(HPC- Tesla/Larrabee) and they don't have any compelling parts in the pipeline that could change their outlooks in either segment. Their purchasing ATi and devoting too much effort to parts like 'Fusion' instead of pushing hard into GPU and the portable space may end up costing them dearly. That isn't to say nV won't have any competition, PowerVR has actually positioned themselves rather well. I would think at this point AMD would be analyzing their long term strategy a bit closer, the problem for them is they don't have the resources of Intel and they likely need to focus on a particular angle and push as hard as they can in that direction. Right now it looks like they are pushing in the direction of Fusion which would appear to be the market segment that is in the most danger of getting killed altogether(how many ultra low cost PCs are going to stand up to tablets three years from now?).

I have long since liked the idea of Fusion as a low end consumer, but at this time I think you are right. Focusing on competing with CUDA at the HPC space would have probably increased their yields.

That being said maybe they still have the chance to beat CUDA at the mobile productivity/multitasking level? JHH has publicly said he feels this area mostly deals with "content consumption." Lets hope they are putting that new Fusion fund to good work looking at innovative start-ups thinking outside the box.

 

[itsmevader]

aah, that is why all graphical units so are so expensive.

 

[BenSkywalker]

Yeah, I wouldn't mind seeing another competitive OS take off. However, being limited to Web based applications only doesn't sound too enjoyable.

I think Ubuntu at this point is smoothed out enough to satisfy the overwhelming majority of typical consumers, the only real problem is the lack of decent support for gaming(Wine DX is still slow and buggy). Chrome seems aimed more at a specific type of user which in reality is likely a better approach then trying to be a better alternative to Windows- that hasn't worked well for anyone.

Maybe we will see decent sized hard drives on some builds?

I know of at least one that will be in excess of a TB, mine I'll play around with it and see how it fairs for typical consumer useage, see if it passes the kids/wife test(do they use it without having fits- Ubuntu passes outside of glitchy games)- but I'm not expecting much honestly. I am very much a detractor from cloud computing replacing traditional desktop PCs for many different reasons.

That being said maybe they still have the chance to beat CUDA at the mobile productivity/multitasking level?

The problem is that even if they put their top engineers on it six months ago, that still puts them years behind nV. Not only that, but what do you take those engineers off of to put them on it? They aren't Intel, it isn't like they can decide on a whim to drop $1Billion on a new project that may not generate any revenue at all or won't for several years. They need to pick battles that they can reasonably compete in and stick to them, spreading talent to thin could end up with them getting killed everywhere instead of being highly competitive in one segment(GPU) and reasonably competitive in another(CPUs). This is one of the reasons why I didn't think the loss of nV's chipset business was that big of a deal for them, they already had the GPU, Tegra and Tesla markets to worry about, focusing on those made more long term sense to me then the chipset business which was always going to have a relatively speaking low potential peak market(HPC does in volume, but huge on profit).

Lets hope they are putting that new Fusion fund to good work looking at innovative start-ups thinking outside the box.

AMD sold off their ultra portable division to Qualcomm. Qualcomm used that to create Snapdragon(which I'm sure you are familar with). I really do hope the best for AMD, but watching their business decission sometimes surpasses painful