May 8 - 7:30pm EDT   NVIDIA has released version 2.2 of the CUDA toolkit and SDK. The new version of CUDA profiles C coded applications to use the computers GPU in addition to the CPU. This can enhance the computer's overall processing speed. The update also includes the ability to zero-copy, or to read and write directly from pinned system memory rather than send it through the graphics memory system. Using the technique requires either a GeForce 9300/9400 (or 9400M) integrated graphics core or else a GeForce GT 200 series board. [full story]

April 20 - 10:10am EDT   NVIDIA this morning remedied the absence of a pro video card for the new Mac Pro by launching the Quadro FX 4800 for Mac. Very similar to the Windows version, the Apple-friendly model has 192 graphics cores and a large 1.5GB of onboard memory that helps it antialias 3D visuals even with high detail or at high resolution. Unique to the Mac version is native support both for the expected Mac side as well as Windows when in Boot Camp. [full story]

April 15 - 4:30pm EDT   CyberPower on Wednesday released its high-spec graphics processing workstation, the Power Mega 1000. The headline specs of the PC include Intel's new 2.66GHz Core i7 processor set on an X58 Chipset SLI/CrossFireX-capable mainboard and NVIDIA's Quadro NVS 420 x16 PCIe graphics card, which is capable of driving up to four 30-inch displays. This can be achieved by connections on the card that are comprised of a dual DisplayPort/dual-link DVI port. [full story]

March 30 - 5:50pm EDT   HP on Monday announced the upcoming release of three new Z-series workstation PCs. The flagship Z800, mid-range Z600 and entry-level Z400 are powered by Intel's Nehalem-era Xeon processors and require no tools to access and service all of their components, including their power supplies and motherboards. The modular interior design is cable-less, while the exteriors are designed by BMW Group Designworks USA and thought to add extra appeal to normally plain pro systems. The flagship Z800 Workstation is meant for highly-advanced applications such as 3D animation, broadcast video or medical imaging. [full story]

March 10 - 7:20am EDT   Dell this morning put the finishing touch on its newer-wave pro notebooks by launching the Latitude E6400 XFR. The significant overhaul improves on the already rugged design of the earlier XFR system by switching to a newer material known as PR-481. By giving the notebook the material as its main shell, the company says the E6400 can take drops from up to four feet while turned off (three feet while on) and last longer in extreme cold or heat. A special sealing approach also gives it a IP-65 rating against dust and water. [full story]

January 29 - 3:40pm EST   Maingear is following a different tack on high-end PCs Thursday by releasing the Remix, a mid-tower PC built specifically as a creative workstation. The system is tailored most towards visual editors and can come with a Quadro CX video card to accelerate filters, H.264 video encoding, and other features in Adobe's CS4 suite as well as other apps that recognize NVIDIA's CUDA acceleration language. Musicians are also catered to with sound insulation to cut down on fan noise and a built-in M-Audio PCI interface for recording instruments. [full story]

January 21 - 10:35am EST   NVIDIA on Tuesday announced the upcoming release of the Quadro NVS 420 graphics card, the first low-profile professional graphics card that fits into small form-factor desktops. Meant for use in business applications, the card can support up to four 30-inch external displays with resolutions as high as 2560x1600 but has a maximum 40W power consumption friendly to compact systems, while a variable-speed fansink manages heat and noise levels accordingly. [full story]

December 18 - 11:20am EST   Flash and memory card maker PNY on Thursday announced the release of two new ultra high-performance graphics cards with the NVIDIA Quadro FX 5800 and Quadro FX 4800, which offer 4GB and 1.5GB of DDR3 RAM, respectively. The FX 5800 is the first GPU in the industry with 4GB of memory, and both are based on the second-generation NVIDIA architecture, improving performance and capacity by roughly two and three times compared to previous platforms, the company claims. [full story]

December 2 - 2:55pm EST   NVIDIA on Tuesday switched focus to its highest-end workstation cards with the unveiling of the Quadro FX 4800. The chipset is based on the same architecture as the GeForce GTX 260 and carries 192 programmable shader cores but is tuned for 3D modeling and other pro apps: it carries a full 1.5GB of memory for higher-detailed models and textures, supports 30-bit color output and allows 32X full-scene antialiasing. The 4800 is roughly twice as fast as previous cards, the company claims. [full story]

November 10 - 8:30am EST   NVIDIA on Monday established a new flagship video card for its workstation line. The Quadro FX 5800 is a major improvement over the earlier 5600 that brings 240 visual effects cores, or nearly double the old model's 128, but stands out as the first-ever video card with 4GB of onboard memory. The capacity allows for extremely large textures and geometry and also enables apps with CUDA general-purpose computing support to feed very large data sets: 4D modeling that factors in time is now more realistic. [full story]

November 7 - 1:00pm EST   NVIDIA on Thursday announced the release of two new entry-level graphics processing solutions for workstations with its first Quadro FX 470 integrated mainboard GPU and the Quadro FX 370 Low Profile standalone PCIe card meant for use in small form factor desktop PCs. Either GPU is certified for CAD and digital media apps by software makers that include Autodesk and Adobe. Both new NVIDIA products feature 128-bit precision graphics processing and 32-bit floating point precision, filtering and blending, along with advanced color compression and early z-culling. They have full-scene antialiasing capabilities as well and support OpenGL 2.1 and DirectX 10 for 3D work. [full story]

October 9 - 3:20pm EDT   Toshiba Canada recently bolstered its notebook lineup with four new products, including an all-new Tecra R10 premium notebook meant for business users, which the company is touting as the fastest and most secure Toshiba notebook to date, a Wednesday report reveals. The remaining three include updated ultra portable Portégé-series notebooks with the A600 and an update to the R600, while a new M750 Tablet PC was also introduced. [full story]

September 24 - 8:10am EDT   Dell on Wednesday acted on its early tease and launched the Precision M6400, the company's new flagship notebook for professionals. The 17-inch notebook is Dell's fastest ever by using both the Centrino 2 platform and the size to its advantage: the system is Dell's first to use Intel's quad-core 2.53GHz Core 2 Extreme processor and carries four DDR3 memory slots that can each support 4GB of memory, pushing the system up to a desktop-like 16GB in the most extreme configurations. [full story]

August 22 - 12:50pm EDT   NVIDIA today formally released the finished version of CUDA 2.0. The second generation of the company's general-purpose programming language for its video chipsets supports 64-bit versions of Mac OS X and Windows Vista and adds support for instructions that can help offload more specific tasks from the main processor to the video card, such as 3D textures and hardware-accelerated interpolation of information. [full story]

August 14 - 3:50pm EDT   NVIDIA this afternoon was quick to announced that it was supporting the new OpenGL 3.0 standard for graphics and has already launched a software driver beta. The update is currently available only for Windows PCs but lets all GeForce 8-, 9-, and GTX-series cards plus equivalent Quadro models run most of the newer features, including the 32-bit, floating point color and textures as well as other improvements to the way it handles geometry and vertex data. [full story]