Editor’s note: Darren Gladstone, in addition to being a journalist, hat aficionado and lover of gadgets great and geeky, is Chief Blogger for HP’s TheNextBench.com. Here’s his take on the latest Tegra 4 powered device from HP. You can follow all his work here.

It wasn’t so long ago that I was saluting the ENVY x2 for being this awesomely-designed, nimble little machine that can do everything I need it to over the course of a whole day. Honestly, I hadn’t seen such an elegant solution before that. Now along comes it’s younger brother, the new SlateBook x2, which starts at $479.99. It’s even smaller…and it’s running Android Jellybean (4.2.2) on Nvidia’s Tegra 4 processor as I write this post (on it).

It’s funny, I never thought I’d look at the ENVY x2 and think, “Man this thing is big!” By comparison, the 10-inch screen of the SlateBook version is tight and looks sharp – and, is plenty manageable as a tablet. The way I see it, this is more of a tablet with a keyboard where I see the ENVY x2 (and the even-larger Split x2) as more of a laptop-first device that can pop off the screen.

The IPS panel looks nice, bright and rocking a 1920 by 1200 resolution. Video looks crisp as I sampled a couple Hulu shows and games (see below) and the DTS audio resonates well off the SlateBook x2’s shell. Meaning, you can crank the volume a little.

As for the keyboard portion, it keeps all the relative bits that made the ENVY x2 essential: USB, HDMI jacks in addition to that second battery that sits in the base (Yep, the trademark keyboard-tablet split with batteries in both parts remains intact for this new member of the x2 family). Since the SlateBook is smaller than the ENVY x2, it means the keys get scrunched in a little tighter. They remain floating Chiclet keys – and still work fine in close quarters. Even for a big, goony guy with sausage stumps for fingers. Ahem.

How does it perform?

I’m going to be straight with you, I haven’t had enough time to run many tests on the SlateBook x2 as of yet, but I’m going to break down a couple things after my short time with it – and, over the next few weeks, I will be giving you the skinny at The Next Bench as I play with it more. For now, though, let’s roll up the sleeves….

The system loads up to the main screen in about 30 seconds. After that, it’s all about instant-on. I should mention the verdict is out on battery life because I’ve only briefly had it in my possession…and, quite frankly, I’ve been playing with a prototype. BUT considering that you get power in the Tablet portion and backup juice in the backup battery sitting in the keyboard, I’m looking forward to seeing how long it’ll last.

Any “real” test I conduct right now would only tell half the story. (Not final drivers, disclaimerese, yatta yatta). OK, so in my subjective testing for the time being a game that relies heavily on ball physics calculations, reflections….and slick graphics on-the-fly – Zen Studios’ PinballFX HD….and, the SlateBook x2 works great. When I do have final drivers – and the product goes live – I’d love to show you how it properly performs. So hang in for that bit.

Also, here’s a quick look at the apps that came pre-installed on my unit: HP Media Player, HP Camera (panorama, photo and video recording at 720p/1080p) work exactly as advertised. One other app that I found IMMENSELY helpful was Kingsoft Office, which is a completely functional office suite that let me easily edit all the files I was currently working on – including this one.

There were trolls, night elves, assassins and soldiers. Catwomen made the scene. Handsome Jack from Borderlands II was there, too.

It’s early morning outside the glass-and-steel Cologne Koelnmesse – or exhibition center –andthousands of videogame enthusiasts are lined up to get inside. Many are dressed as their favorite videogame characters.

Games got to try out unreleased games on PCs powered by our new GeForce GTX 780 GPU.

These are our kind of people.

Gamescom, the world’s biggest gaming expo, is expected to set new attendance records  after drawing 275,000 enthusiasts last year. Hundreds of new games will be launched or demoed here for the first time.

NVIDIA has been a part of the show for years, of course. Our powerful GeForce GPUs have long been featured by our partners at the show. This year, for the first time, however, we have a booth of our own – complete with a lineup of demos, giveaways, and talks that had hundreds of attendees yelling and screaming “NVIDIA.”

Here’s what our visitors found:

Big New Games– Crowds powered through upcoming blockbusters Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag and Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Blacklist for the first time. Both feature NVIDIA technologies, such as DirectX 11 tessellation and TXAA. And Blacklist is the first game to include a new ambient occlusion technology, HBAO+ (Horizon Based Ambient Occlusion). Powering these: small form factor PCs that pack a big wallop with their powerful GeForce GTX 780 GPUs.

More than 275,000 gamers are expected at this year’s Gamescom in Cologne.

Our Powerful New Portable– You can’t get SHIELD, our new Android-powered gaming portable, in Europe right now. But that didn’t deter anyone. The SHIELD demo area was crowded, and everyone seemed to have the same question: “When can I buy this in Europe?”

Special Guests and Demos— On stage in our booth: developers, publishers, and overclockers deliver talks and game previews from upcoming blockbusters such as Watch Dogs, Assassin’s Creed IV and The Witcher 3. Special guests from Activision showcased Call of Duty: Ghosts, reps from Warner offer a guided tour of the expanded Gotham City featured in Batman: Arkham Origins and folks from 2K Games delivered a security cleared viewing of The Bureau: XCOM Declassified.

Preview image photo credit: Sergey Galyonkin / Flickr

As Microsoft gets ready to release its first major update to Windows 8, NVIDIA is preparing to provide full support for OEMs, developers, enterprise customers and end-users.

Microsoft will soon share the final version of Windows 8.1 with PC manufacturers, who will begin selling Windows 8.1 devices on Oct. 18^th. Current Windows 8 customers can update their systems for free by downloading it from the Windows Store, beginning that day.

NVIDIA will provide WHQL-certified Windows 8.1 drivers to OEMs when Microsoft releases the new operating systems to OEMs. In the coming weeks, NVIDIA will post the new drivers for Windows 8.1 on NVIDIA.com, so that GeForce customers can enjoy all of the new Windows features as soon as 8.1 is released.

Windows RT users with Tegra-based devices will also be able to take advantage of Windows RT 8.1 on Oct. 18^th. Windows RT users can update their devices through the Windows Store for free.

Windows RT 8.1 offers many changes and improvements to Windows RT including the addition of Outlook, third-party mobile device management and better controls for enterprise IT support. Delivering such a comprehensive update only 10 months after Windows RT launched required extremely close collaboration between NVIDIA and Microsoft programmers and engineers.

We will continue to work with Microsoft and our OEM partners to ensure that NVIDIA-based systems deliver delightful Windows experiences.

Virtualization has been around for ages. But for graphics users, it has always come with compromises – at best.

That’s changing, thanks to NVIDIA GRID, our cloud-based virtualization technology. At VMworld this week, we’re showcasing how NVIDIA GRID breaks down barriers between virtualization and a rich user experience. With it, an organization’s desktops and applications can be virtualized without those past compromises.

It’s our first year at the show, but we didn’t come alone. We’re joined by an array of market makers offering new solutions powered by NVIDIA GRID technology.

Yesterday, Dell launched updated PowerEdge 720 rack servers that deliver high-performance 3D graphics using GRID K1 and K2 GPUs. In addition, HP recently announced the first server blades that bring the power of GRID graphics to the desktops of multiple simultaneous users. Both will be on display at VMworld.

It’s fair to say that, together, we’re transforming an event once focused on the mundane topic of server virtualization into a visual showcase of virtualized desktops and applications. Ones that deliver the same rich graphics performance users have come to expect at their desk-side workstations and PCs.

Here’s a quick rundown on what our partners are showing:

Ajubeo (NVIDIA booth 2111) – Cloud infrastructure as a service provider offering “Graphics Virtual Desktops” via virtual private clouds for IT organizations that want to outsource their virtualization needs.

Atlantis Computing (booth 941) – One of two technologies (together with NVIDIA GRID) that Brian Madden touted as changing the “New Reality of VDI” in his recently published book. Atlantis will be showcasing our combined solution they call the “Ultimate Virtual Desktop.”

Cisco (booth 1005) – Demonstrating its UCS C240 M platforms, which support up to two NVIDIA GRID K1 or K2 graphics processors.

Citrix (booth 835) – Demonstrating XenDesktop 7 for application and desktop virtualization, which allows for GPU sharing without compromising the graphics experience.

Dell (booth 1219 and NVIDIA booth 2111) – Showcasing the top-selling Dell PowerEdge R720 server, which can support up to two NVIDIA GRID GPUs.

HP (booth 1405) – Showing off the HP WS460C gen 8 blade servers, mentioned above.

Lakeside (booth 803) – Their upcoming release of SysTrack 6.1 will provide detailed analysis for sizing and selecting the right amount of graphics. This means IT departments will have a comprehensive set of tools to help them determine how to properly provision a virtualized computing experience.

Supermicro (booth 2205) – Demonstrating their latest servers capable of supporting two NVIDIA GRID K1 GPUs.

VMware (booth 1229) – Will be showcasing that with VMware Horizon View everyone from knowledge workers to designers can benefit from graphics acceleration.

Check out this video for some scenes from VMworld and NVIDIA’s booth:

If you’d like to learn more about how GRID is reshaping the world of virtualized graphics, stop by our booth 2111. Also, follow us on Twitter at @NVIDIAGRID for the latest NVIDIA news and happenings from the show.

Strike hard. Strike fast. In a galaxy far, far away, Trooper CC-883 is one of the shock troops of the Galactic Empire.

In this one, he’s known as Clay Causin. And after leading a team that transformed a colleague’s Honda Fit into an enormous pink pony, there can be no doubt the former Marine is an NVIDIAN to be reckoned with.

The wiry 38-year-old has more than a few personalities. There’s the Harley-Davidson riding social media Stormtrooper, the detail-oriented senior engineer focused on multimedia cloud streaming services, and the subversive prankster.

The unifying theme: Clay’s an enthusiast.

He finds as much joy talking about the prospects for a Star Wars spinoff featuring bounty hunter Boba Fett as he does making sure SHIELD works as it should.

It’s an attitude reflected in the huge collection of gaming memorabilia that adorns his cube.

He’s got a StarCraft II box signed by all the original game developers, a badge from the first BlizzCon held in 2005, and a full-sized replica Doomhammer, among other treasures.

“I’ve always loved gaming and the videogame industry,” says Clay, who worked a series of part time jobs with NVIDIA’s demo team for years before joining full time in 2007.

Among the treasures in Clay’s cube: a StarCraft II box signed by the real-time strategy game’s developers.

Sympathy for the Stormtrooper

Like Clay, Trooper CC-883 has been around, too.

Clay sees CC-883 as a bit of a bumbler. He likes to think he’s the one who bonked his head when storming C-3PO and R2D2′s hideout on the Death Star in “Star Wars: A New Hope.”

When not rounding up rebel robots, CC-883 can be found on social media. It’s the ideal platform for the “average Joe trooper,” as CC-883 describes himself on Facebook, to humanize fellow members of the Imperial Stormtrooper Corps.

“Since when is a Stormtrooper a villain? We just work our government jobs,” CC-883 complained to his followers on Facebook after a British paper described Stormtroopers hired to patrol the streets outside one local retailer as “villains.”

Updates from the Imperial trenches.

Clay posts three to five items a day on Twitter and Facebook as CC-883 to help keep followers up on Star Wars related news.

CC-883’s take on a photo of a member of the U.S. Army sporting a Darth Vader mask under his combat helmet shared to Facebook: “The US military has upgraded Vader’s armor.”

His comment a photo of a Stormtrooper holding a sign saying ‘will kill Jedi for food’ on a freeway median: “Times are getting tough.”

And a picture of a woman in a low-cut top and a Storm Trooper helmet elicited more information about CC-883 than most followers will want to know: “This is not what I wear under my armor, I prefer going commando.”

The next step will be to take his Stormtrooper persona into the real world. Clay is saving up for a Stormtrooper outfit that doubles as protective motorcycle gear that he can wear on his daily ride to work – or to use to have fun with kids, like his own six-year old son.

Clay’s military background will give him all the experience he needs to pull off that act. Clay spent eight years in the U.S. Marine Corps after high school, so he knows how to assume a military bearing, even if his sense of humor wasn’t always appreciated while an active duty soldier.

“I have a smart mouth,” Clay says. ”I was really good at speaking the lingo and being correct, but when you say everything right and it still makes your officer break out laughing during an inspection… it’s still your fault.”

A Rebel Alliance

That subversive sense of humor has served Clay well at NVIDIA, however, in his role as a leading candidate for prankster in chief.

Most recently, Clay led a group that worked to bring balance back to the force in NVIDIA’s ongoing prank wars after Chris Holmes – a veteran NVIDIA prankster – told the corporate blog that his many targets weren’t “brave enough,” to strike back.

A ragtag alliance swung into action to prove that wrong, and Clay’s project management and military skills quickly came to the fore. First came a series of skirmishes – posters bearing Chris’ likeness and mysterious excerpts from NVIDIA’s corporate blog began appearing around campus.

It’s a Trap!

Revenge is a dish best served pink.

Then, when Holmes left his keys on his desk, Clay struck. The keys were snagged, Chris’s Honda Fit rolled into the parking lot, and a team equipped with pink paper, pink balloons, and a cardboard pony head transformed the car into Pinkie Pie.

Holmes had been got. Clay, however, isn’t going to brag. In part, that’s because he knows his memorabilia packed cube makes him vulnerable. He also knows CC-883 would not approve of his hijinks.

“I’d like to think that Stormtroopers are smarter than that,” Clay says. “Pranks like that are the kind of thing only the rebels would pull off.”

Or a bunch of NVIDIANs.

It was a little bit of history in the making.

For the first time ever at VMware’s packed annual user conference – called VMworld – a top show prize was handed out to a product that hadn’t already been nominated for one.

The surprise winner: NVIDIA GRID– a new offering that promises to change the way users experience virtual desktops and applications.

Some 200 products had been nominated for prizes in the nine regular Best of VMworld Awards categories. The special Judge’s Choice award, handed out by tech pundit Brian Madden, of BrianMadden.com, went to GRID for its ability to make 3D applications in a virtual environment “behave exactly as the end users would expect.”

GRID clearly caught the eye of many others as well. Sometimes, it felt like most of the 22,000+ attendees at this week’s show were angling to enter our booth, drawn in by eye-catching demos of the latest 3D, 2D and graphics-rich applications.

Our technical team got hands on, hitting the white boards to walk attendees through how graphics acceleration fits into their existing VDI deployments. And explaining how it provides benefits for everyone from knowledge workers to designers and engineers.

Our presentation on “Graphics and Users in VDI” was one of the most popular sessions at the show. It was moved to a large capacity room, and was later added as a repeat session. 

Check out the video and photo gallery below to see more from the conference.

To learn more about how GRID is reshaping the world of virtualized graphics, visit the NVIDIA GRID YouTube channel. Follow us on Twitter at @NVIDIAGRID for the latest news and happenings.

Trim, black-clad Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun has become one of the mobile mad world’s biggest taste makers in a hurry. Maybe because Xiaomi — which means “little rice” in Mandarin — offers a case study in the power of speed. The company focuses on just a few cutting-edge models at a time. And it sells these handsets fast. The last model Lei introduced sold 100,000 units in 90 seconds.

Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun and NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang.

The result: the company is getting a lot of attention in a hurry. Xiaomi’s last handset quickly became the top selling smartphone in China, and thousands of press and enthusiasts jostled for the chance to hear Lei unveil Xiaomi’s latest model, the Mi3, in Beijing Thursday.

It’s a phone NVIDIA played a big role helping Xiaomi engineer, and NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang was invited on stage to help introduce it, leading the crowd of more than 3,000 through cheers of “wei wu,” or “powerful.”

More than 3,000 ‘MiFans’ as they are known, crammed into a hall with room built for 2,100, spilling into the aisles and clambering over one another at the back of the room for a better look. More than 450 reporters from Chinese and international outlets were there too. No one wanted to miss this story.

Jen Hsun signs autographs for Xiaomi’s fans.

Founded just three years ago, the Beijing-based private company is now estimated to be worth $10 billion. Xiaomi has already pushed into Taiwan and Hong Kong. Fans are buzzing about the prospects for more, and Lei has built a team that can go there, picking up top technology talent from around the globe.

The Mi3 combines a mainstream price — less than US $327.00 for an unlocked phone — with premium specs and features. Powered by NVIDIA’s Tegra 4 processor, the Mi3 includes a 5-inch 1080p IPS LCD display, 2 GB of RAM, up to 64 GB of storage, and a 13 megapixel rear-facing camera in a slick metal case featuring an aluminum-magnesium alloy metal inner frame.

Xiaomi’s new flagship is the product of a year-long collaboration between NVIDIA and Xiaomi’s growing team of engineers. The Mi3 takes full advantage of Tegra 4′s quad-core Cortex-A15 CPU and fifth battery saver core, 72 GeForce GPU cores and the unique experience all that raw power unlocks.

Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun talks up Tegra 4.

That means best-in-class gaming, fast web browsing, full HD video playback with 4k video support, and crisp photos in a broad range of lighting conditions.

The result: a smartphone that stunned the press with its power and performance, and made an instant impression on Xiaomi’s legions of fans.

Crowded house: thousands of fans gathered to see Xiaomi launch its latest super phone.

You b@$^@#&$. You blew it up.

A team of explosives experts got their hands on NVIDIA SHIELD. Then they decided to drill holes in it, stuff it with explosives, and shoot the mayhem with a slow-motion camera.

Excuse me, I think I’m going to be sick.

We must admit, however, there is some logic at work here, however twisted. That’s because we packed so much advanced technology into our handheld gaming portable – and screwed the thing together so tightly – that tearing SHIELD apart takes a serious investment of time, and patience.

Or explosives.

Here are a few of the things these hooligans found when they blew their SHIELD up:

• Tegra 4: The world’s fastest mobile processor can do many things. It has great battery life. It tears through web pages at record speeds. Its 72 GeForce GPU cores deliver an incredible gaming experience. It is not, however, bombproof.
• Big, beautiful touchscreen– SHIELD’s 5-inch retinal touchscreen delivers stunning visuals, whether you’re playing games, watching movies, or trying not to sob as you watch a clip of three dudes destroying their SHIELD. We found that a soft, lint-free cloth will wipe the tears right off.
• Console grade controls: Blow up SHIELD, and you’ll wind up with a pretty big pile of gaming gear. Our carefully engineered triggers, delightfully clickable shoulder bumpers, flickable analog control sticks, and perfectly mashable buttons were all but vaporized into a veritable cloud of gaming goodness.
• MiMo WiFi– Our 802.11n 2X2 Mimo WiFi is built to move fast – but it’s not built to move like this. One question: Why? Why did you people do this?
• Tag– SHIELD’s magnetic customizable faceplate popped right off in the explosion. Next time, a gentle tug will do.
• A world-class speaker system– Games, movies, music. You’ll love what you hear when you turn up the volume on SHIELD’s custom-tuned, bass reflex audio system. It’s been engineered to blow you away. Just not like this.

Please don’t try this at home. You could hurt yourself. You’ll definitely void your warranty. And you’ll miss out on a great gaming experience.

Attention, Deadheads: if you’ve ever wanted to crawl inside your favorite drummer’s skull, now’s your chance.

Former Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart and his band are performing live at the Fillmore in San Francisco this week as part of the band’s Superorganism tour.

As concert goers sway with the music, they’ll also hear – and see – something, well, trippy. A computer will generate images and sounds representing Hart’s brain activity, as it’s captured by an electrode cap attached to his skull.

Founding members of the Grateful Dead Bob Weir, left, and Mickey Hart, right, performing.

Feed Your Head

While the imagery and sound will combine with the band’s percussion-rich primal music to create a sensory, dreamy experience, there’s something beyond entertainment happening here.

In an unlikely pairing, Hart is working with Adam Gazzaley, a neuroscientist at UC San Francisco, to establish the Rhythm and the Brain project.

“We want to understand how we can influence brain rhythms through activities like listening to music and playing video games,” says Gazzaley.

Ultimately, the goal is to learn how to improve cognition and moods.

“When I played a drum for my grandmother, who had Alzheimer’s, she spoke my name,” says Hart. “She hadn’t spoken in a year. That was power. Where did it come? How did it do this?”

For the most part, scientists study brain data after they’ve collected it, Gazzaley says. Now, Gazzaley and Hart are working with NVIDIA to use the power of GPUs to analyze the huge amounts of data the brain generates, in real time.

Touch of Grey Matter

While the dramatic demonstration during the concerts is more of an artistic effort than a scientific one, teams of developers from UCSF, Stanford, UC San Diego and interactive-entertainment studio Eye Vapor are working together to advance brain research.

To get a better idea of what is happening “under the hood,” the team uses NVIDIA Tesla K20 GPU accelerators for calculations, NVIDIA Quadro 5000 graphics cards for visualization, CUDA 5.0 and NVIDIA Nsight tools to optimize code performance.

Gazzaley and his team are working to CUDA-accelerate EEG (electroencephalogram) processing to increase the fidelity of the real-time brain activity recordings. The goal, he says, is to better represent brain sources and neural networks, as well as to perform real-time artifact correction and mental state decoding.

“Not only will this improve the visualization, but more importantly, it will move EEG closer to being a real-time scientific tool,” Gazzaley says. “Then we can use it for a host of new studies in our lab, including neurofeedback and closed-loop brain stimulation.”

In the meantime, more fans will be swaying to the beat of Mickey Hart’s brain, as the Superorganism tour continues through the end of September.

Further reading: learn more about Mickey Hart and Adam Gazzaley’s collaboration in this piece from NPR’s Steve Henn, and don’t miss this article from Nature detailing Adam Gazzaley’s work showing how games can improve multi-tasking skills.

Image credit:David King, via Flickr

It has four wheels, a steering wheel, and cup holders. But just about everything else in BMW’s first mass-produced electric vehicle (EV) is revolutionary. The BMW i3 is more than just an electric car – it’s an engineering feat that looks like it rolled right out of a science fiction movie.

The science-fictioney features include a passenger cell made from carbon-fiber for a roomy interior, BMW eDrive technology for zero-emission driving and the power to go 0-60 miles-per-hour in roughly 7 seconds and driving assistance systems that provide collision alerts to keep you safe.

There are plenty of advanced electronics on board, including Park Distance control with two rear mounted sensors, a BMW iRemote app to connect cars with cell phones, Park Assist for full automatic parallel parking, and – a great feature for driving in slow moving traffic – active cruise control outfitted with unassisted stop and go.

One of the car’s most dramatic features: a clean, uncluttered dashboard that replaces switches and knobs with a sleek digital display. The i3’s center display renders special electric car functionality such as a dynamic range map of BMW’s ConnectedDrive system, turn-by-turn directions and entertainment options.

Crack open the opposing “coach” doors and you’ll see seating for four, and rear seats that fold completely flat. Weighing just 2,364 pounds, including the 495 pound traction battery, the BMW i3 offers a range of approximately 80 to 100 miles in everyday driving or up to about 180 miles if buyers select a two-cylinder range extender combustion engine. The rechargeable electric motor develops output of 125 kW/170 hp using power supplied by a lithium-ion battery pack mounted in a low, central position in the car’s underbody.

Six exterior color choices and four interior style options will let drivers personalize their e-ride.

Why not try it out yourself? BMW is offering test drives of the i3 on a 300-meter figure-eight track in their booth at the IAA 65^th International Motor Show in Frankfurt Sept 12 – 22. BMW aims to clock as many as 6000 miles during the duration of the show. Go ahead – give one a spin around the track. If you can’t make it to Germany for the show, you’ll be able to test drive one next year when the i3 goes on sale in the US.

And soon you’ll be able to learn about the relationship between NVIDIA and the BMW i3.

Six months after SolidWorks joined us on stage at the GPU Technology Conference to announce our collaboration on NVIDIA GRID GPU virtualization, we’ve reached a watershed for the design industry.

Specifically, SolidWorks has certified the NVIDIA GRID Visual Computing Appliance (VCA) — our turnkey GPU virtualization offering for small and midsize businesses — for their upcoming release of SolidWorks 2014.

GRID VCA combines our GRID GPUs and software to allow workgroups on a LAN to remotely run GPU-accelerated Windows applications on any Mac, Linux or Windows computer.

NVIDIA GRID VCA remotely delivers SolidWorks 2014 with workstation performance.

Here are five reasons why SolidWorks 2014 on GRID VCA is a game-changer for designers and the firms that employ them:

1) In an age of bringing your own devices to work, GRID VCA allows businesses to standardize the use of SolidWorks 2014 across users. It doesn’t matter if they have a PC or Mac, if the computer is aging or if it’s a low-end machine — because they’re all receiving the same high performance SolidWorks 2014, virtually.

2) GRID VCA combines the unparalleled performance and capabilities of Quadro-class professional graphics with the flexibility of network delivery to give SolidWorks 2014 users a serious productivity boost. Whether employees or contractors, people can quickly access SolidWorks 2014.

3) Using SolidWorks 2014 on GRID VCA eliminates performance trade-offs thanks to Quadro-class graphics. Every user can now interact with complex 3D CAD models that include the highest quality designs and images, such as FSAA, interactive rendering and advanced shadows.

4) Businesses can better manage costs while increasing access to SolidWorks. Companies deploying GRID VCA can maintain a single appliance instead of multiple workstations and reduce their spending on CAD workstation support, including deployment, service packs and upgrades. Simultaneously, casual users who previously might not have had a sufficiently powerful system can now gain full, high-performance access to SolidWorks 2014. And they can work from wherever they have a connection.

5) Intellectual property can be critical to a business’s success. Using SolidWorks on GRID VCA increases security by protecting IP across the machines of employees and contractors. BYOD isn’t a problem because the designs and data remain in the data center.

GRID VCA represents a new approach to delivering high-performance, GPU-accelerated applications over the network, and the excitement for it is rippling through the design and engineering communities.

Authorized resellers specializing in VCA for SolidWorks in North America are CADDEdge, CADimensions, Fisher/Unitek, GoEngineer, HawkRidge Systems and MLC CAD Systems.  For more information about a reseller near you, go to http://www.nvidia.com/object/visual-computing-appliance-wtb.html.

Find out more about NVIDIA GRID VCA at http://www.nvidia.com/object/visual-computing-solidworks.html, and follow us on Twitter at @NVIDIAGRID.

From the seismic interpreter looking for oil deposits in the remote Athabasca Tar Sands, to the design engineer making final edits on his widget while on vacation at the beach, to the event videographer shooting HD for the evening news, mobile workstations are being used by more professionals than ever.

The new HP ZBook  17 Mobile Workstation with the NVIDIA Quadro K5100M GPU, with GPUDirect for Video, is the ultimate mobile tool for digital film and video professionals – providing features and capabilities once only available on desk-bound workstations.

Desktop power, now in concentrated form: the NVIDIA Quadro K5100M GPU

Perfect for 4K and beyond post-processing workflows, the 1,536 CUDA parallel processor cores of the K5100M deliver visualization rendering and compute performance previously unheard of in a mobile platform. The massive 8GB of dedicated graphics memory quickly processes the most complex shots, including those with more and larger frames, compositing layers, visual effects and graphics models – all present simultaneously.

When it’s time to view the final rendered shots, the 1920×1080, 10-bit-per-component DreamColor display provides the ultimate image quality in a mobile form factor. If this resolution is not quite high enough to see every last detail, the platform can also drive an external 4K display through an onboard DisplayPort 1.2 connector.

The feature that puts the K5100M-based HP ZBook 17 over the top as the ultimate digital film and video mobile production system is its onboard Thunderbolt port. No longer does a digital film or video professional need to be tied to a workstation in an edit suite. The port allows for direct high-speed access to material from digital cinema cameras or compact RAID storage.

This new platform is perfect for on-location editing for feature film and TV pre-production. It’s also great for creating graphics overlays and titling for sports and weather broadcast footage so a breaking story can be quickly sent live to air with full studio quality. The result: breaking news can be put on air fast.

HP offers all the latest NVIDIA Kepler architecture-based Quadro Mobile Workstation graphics cards. The Quadro K5100M, K4100M, K3100M and K610M are available options in the ZBook 17, and the Quadro K2100M, K1100M and K610M in the ZBook 15. You can choose the best platform combination to make your mobile dreams a reality.

Share where and how you use your new mobile workstation to realize your dreams.

Strike hard. Strike fast. In a galaxy far, far away, Trooper CC-883 is one of the shock troops of the Galactic Empire.

In this one, he’s known as Clay Causin. And after leading a team that transformed a colleague’s Honda Fit into an enormous pink pony, there can be no doubt the former Marine is an NVIDIAN to be reckoned with.

The wiry 38-year-old has more than a few personalities. There’s the Harley-Davidson riding social media Stormtrooper, the detail-oriented senior engineer focused on multimedia cloud streaming services, and the subversive prankster.

The unifying theme: Clay’s an enthusiast.

He finds as much joy talking about the prospects for a Star Wars spinoff featuring bounty hunter Boba Fett as he does making sure SHIELD works as it should.

It’s an attitude reflected in the huge collection of gaming memorabilia that adorns his cube.

He’s got a StarCraft II box signed by all the original game developers, a badge from the first BlizzCon held in 2005, and a full-sized replica Doomhammer, among other treasures.

“I’ve always loved gaming and the videogame industry,” says Clay, who worked a series of part time jobs with NVIDIA’s demo team for years before joining full time in 2007.

Among the treasures in Clay’s cube: a StarCraft II box signed by the real-time strategy game’s developers.

Sympathy for the Stormtrooper

Like Clay, Trooper CC-883 has been around, too.

Clay sees CC-883 as a bit of a bumbler. He likes to think he’s the one who bonked his head when storming C-3PO and R2D2′s hideout on the Death Star in “Star Wars: A New Hope.”

When not rounding up rebel robots, CC-883 can be found on social media. It’s the ideal platform for the “average Joe trooper,” as CC-883 describes himself on Facebook, to humanize fellow members of the Imperial Stormtrooper Corps.

“Since when is a Stormtrooper a villain? We just work our government jobs,” CC-883 complained to his followers on Facebook after a British paper described Stormtroopers hired to patrol the streets outside one local retailer as “villains.”

Updates from the Imperial trenches.

Clay posts three to five items a day on Twitter and Facebook as CC-883 to help keep followers up on Star Wars related news.

CC-883’s take on a photo of a member of the U.S. Army sporting a Darth Vader mask under his combat helmet shared to Facebook: “The US military has upgraded Vader’s armor.”

His comment on a photo of a Stormtrooper holding a sign saying ‘will kill Jedi for food’ on a freeway median: “Times are getting tough.”

And a picture of a woman in a low-cut top and a Storm Trooper helmet elicited more information about CC-883 than most followers will want to know: “This is not what I wear under my armor, I prefer going commando.”

The next step will be to take his Stormtrooper persona into the real world. Clay is saving up for a Stormtrooper outfit that doubles as protective motorcycle gear that he can wear on his daily ride to work – or to use to have fun with kids, like his own six-year old son.

Clay’s military background will give him all the experience he needs to pull off that act. Clay spent eight years in the U.S. Marine Corps after high school, so he knows how to assume a military bearing, even if his sense of humor wasn’t always appreciated while an active duty soldier.

“I have a smart mouth,” Clay says. ”I was really good at speaking the lingo and being correct, but when you say everything right and it still makes your officer break out laughing during an inspection… it’s still your fault.”

A Rebel Alliance

That subversive sense of humor has served Clay well at NVIDIA, however, in his role as a leading candidate for prankster in chief.

Most recently, Clay led a group that worked to bring balance back to the force in NVIDIA’s ongoing prank wars after Chris Holmes – a veteran NVIDIA prankster – told the corporate blog that his many targets weren’t “brave enough,” to strike back.

A ragtag alliance swung into action to prove that wrong, and Clay’s project management and military skills quickly came to the fore. First came a series of skirmishes – posters bearing Chris’ likeness and mysterious excerpts from NVIDIA’s corporate blog began appearing around campus.

It’s a Trap!

Revenge is a dish best served pink.

Then, when Holmes left his keys on his desk, Clay struck. The keys were snagged, Chris’s Honda Fit rolled into the parking lot, and a team equipped with pink paper, pink balloons, and a cardboard pony head transformed the car into Pinkie Pie.

Holmes had been got. Clay, however, isn’t going to brag. In part, that’s because he knows his memorabilia packed cube makes him vulnerable. He also knows CC-883 would not approve of his hijinks.

“I’d like to think that Stormtroopers are smarter than that,” Clay says. “Pranks like that are the kind of thing only the rebels would pull off.”

Or a bunch of NVIDIANs.

You’ve heard the slogan “the way it’s meant to be played,” but this is ridiculous.

When the America’s Cup finals kick off this Saturday, the umpires will see the race with new eyes. Eyes supplied by the America’s Cup Event Authority and enhanced by NVIDIA GPUs.

Servers equipped with NVIDIA Quadro K5000 GPUs will generate a real-time representation of the action that gives judges the position of each boat to within a fraction of an inch, and each boat’s heading to within a tenth of a degree.

Even the curvature of the earth — which tilts the course by one centimeter from one end to another — is taken into account.

Everything you need, nothing you don’t: a stripped down interface shows judges what they need to know.

While the world will watch NVIDIA-powered television feeds that layer immersive 3D graphics over shots of AC-72 catamarans the size of 13-story office buildings skimming over the waters of the San Francisco Bay at more than 45 miles per hour, the race’s umpires huddle around monitors displaying a stripped down version of the action that looks — at first glance — more like a 1980s arcade game than a minor marvel of 21st century technology.

In this case, simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication.

“This is about how much important information we can get to them, and how much unimportant information we can keep away,” says Tim Heidmann, one of a team of a dozen technologists who have helped reinvent the way the America’s Cup is run.

It’s an interface that gives judges unprecedented precision. At an event like the America’s Cup, that’s a revolution. That’s because sailing, at this level, is a sport like no other.

Boats are tracked to within a fraction of an inch.

Imagine a football game played on a field that is constantly moving, using players who rely on the motion of the playing field itself to propel themselves forward. Now imagine trying to officiate a sport where the goal lines and boundary markers are constantly in flux. The push and pull of wind and wave have made officiating sailing into something of a black art, and the results of high stakes races incredibly contentious.

Until now.

That’s thanks to a stream of real-time data from GPS units and inertial sensors attached to the boats themselves, a trio of camera-equipped helicopters, and an elaborate GPU-powered simulation of the effect of the bay’s unpredictable tides.

Now judges can do more than just enforce the rules. They can impose penalties with near impossible precision. A boat can be penalized precisely two boat lengths — a feat that would have been simply impossible in the past, Heidmann explains.

It’s a system that’s been fine- tuned in nearly a dozen races held around the world in preparation for the Cup, with nary a flaw.

There’s a lot of buzz about 4K and ultra-high-definition television at this week’s International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) in Amsterdam. The media and entertainment industry is moving from HDTV to higher resolutions, just as it earlier moved from standard definition to HD.

This is great news for consumers, who will soon be able to watch movies and television with breathtaking clarity.

For the professionals who create, manage or distribute digital content, the transition means they will have to process four times more data. To do that, they’ll need to change the tools they use and the way they work.

Prepare for takeoff: Digital content pros at IBC examine the NVIDIA tech that will take them to 4K and beyond.

While most consumers can’t yet view 4K content on their TVs or mobile devices, many cinema cameras are capable of not only 4K, but even higher resolutions. Many movies shot at these higher resolutions are already being produced.

The result: a spate of announcements by our partners at IBC, including 15 that will be demonstrating new solutions on our new Quadro K6000 GPU that can help content creators handle the challenge of 4K and Ultra HD content.

Grant Petty, CEO of Blackmagic Design, makers of the DaVinci Resolve color-correction application used for many blockbuster films, says the Quadro K6000, with its 12GB of GPU memory, is “ideal for Ultra HD and 4K color grading” and that it “proved even faster than [their] expectations.”

And just today, RED Digital Cinema announced our collaboration on a CUDA-accelerated version of their REDCINE-X product, which allows users to process up to 6K resolution files at 24fps with NVIDIA GPUs. And that’s just the beginning — multi-GPU support is coming as well, so performance will get even better.

NVIDIA GRID technology lets customers put their GPU horsepower to work where it’s needed most.

While some of our customers are reaching for the highest-performance solutions, others are focused on flexibility. NVIDIA GRID technology lets customers put their GPU horsepower where it’s needed most, allowing them to run professional content creation applications on almost any device.

To demonstrate this, we’ll be showing a GPU-accelerated version of Autodesk 3ds Max, which is a Windows-only application, running on a MacBook Air with OS X. NVIDIA GRID runs the app remotely — with full Quadro K5000 power — giving the MacBook Air power and performance far beyond what’s built into its lightweight chassis.

It’s an exciting time for the media and entertainment industry, and for NVIDIA. For a full list of the news from NVIDIA and all our partners at IBC, check out our Media & Entertainment Newsletter.

There are concept cars, electric cars, hybrids, cars powered by natural gas, even self-driving cars. The 65^th Frankfurt auto show opens to the public this weekend, and NVIDIA’s technology is everywhere.

Aston Martin, Audi, Bentley, BMW, Lamborghini, Rolls Royce, Skoda, Tesla, and VW all had new models on display, powered by NVIDIA.

Lamborghini Aventador J

You’ll find vehicles with customizable digital instrument clusters, sophisticated in-vehicle infotainment systems and multiscreen rear seat entertainment systems driven by NVIDIA processors.

Audi A4 powered by NVIDIA

On the road, our automotive visual computing module (known as VCM) puts high-performance, energy-efficient computing inside a wide range of amazing cars.

Before any of these cars hit the streets, however, auto makers rely on high-performance NVIDIA Quadro workstations to design and style new cars, as artists create futuristic concept cars and then generate photorealistic renderings.

Audi Quattro concept car

The result: production and concept cars seen at this weekend’s show — many featuring NVIDIA processors — will move into production more quickly than ever. Not a bad way to roll.

America’s Cup, a sport once reserved for blue bloods and billionaires, is finally within reach of the rest of us.

Just head to San Francisco’s Pier 23 — home base for this month’s America’s Cup finals — where you can step up and grab the enormous, manhole-sized steering wheel and try it out for yourself.

The race is virtual, of course. The building-sized AC-72 catamarans used in this year’s race are too expensive ($8 million-plus) — and too quick (more than 40 knots) — to trust to amateurs.

But Virtual Eye founder Ian Taylor — and a team equipped with NVIDIA technology — are at the core of efforts to reinvent sports for a digital age.

Taylor’s team already has more than two decades worth of experience turning real-time data into interactive feeds that can be watched on the web, or on mobile devices. More than 100,000 users have downloaded an app that will let them follow the progress of the America’s Cup.

With his latest efforts, he’s making those experiences more tangible. The same data that allows Virtual Eye to simulate the wind and water of a race in a hyper-realistic digital copy of the San Francisco Bay powers a simulator that lets users take part in a virtual race themselves.

In between watching races, spectators at San Francisco’s Pier 23 can grab one of two life-sized wheels attached to force-feedback systems and race against one another. Information about each boat is shown to each captain on a 22-inch touchscreen. Up top, the action is displayed on an enormous 72-inch display so the crowd can watch along.

If you’re watching the America’s Cup in San Francisco, you can get a little hands-on time with a virtual boat.

The displays turn the vast amount of real-time data used by Virtual Eye to stream each race into an interactive game, sponsored by New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, with participants in the race getting a chance to win a trip to either New Zealand or the United Arab Emirates.

Not bad, and maybe the only way to top the virtual trip that players have just taken.

Photos: John Ison

By now many of you may have heard of NVIDIA Tegra Note, but are still wondering what it is.

Back in June at Computex, we briefly demoed an early version of the device, when it was better known as Tegra Tab. One of the many innovations it introduced was NVIDIA DirectStylus technology, which significantly improves passive stylus performance.

So what’s Tegra Note?

It’s a complete tablet platform, designed by NVIDIA and brought to market by our partners.

It embodies the NVIDIA brand — from our hardware and software (right down to OTA updates), to our industrial design, accessories and network of partners in game development.

It elevates the abilities of our partners, so they can provide tablets packed with innovation and features at prices they may not have been able to deliver on their own. In turn, NVIDIA gains access to their deep sales and distribution expertise in regions worldwide.

And it starts at a suggested retail price of $199. That will help many more people experience the new technologies going into Tegra Note, including its 100 percent Android OS.

Tegra Note — a complete tablet platform, powered by Tegra 4.

This isn’t a first for us. About a year ago, we announced Project KAI — a Tegra 3 reference design intended as a recipe to build low-cost, high-quality Tegra 3 tablets. Google’s Nexus 7 was one. Tegra Note takes this to the next level by delivering a complete platform, not just the hardware.

In the next few months, our partners will be bringing Tegra Note to market worldwide with features that speak to local consumers, among them are EVGA and PNY Technologies in North America; EVGA, Oysters and ZOTAC in Europe; Colorful, Shenzhen Homecare Technology and ZOTAC in Asia-Pacific; and XOLO in India. They join other partners, including HP, ASUS, Toshiba, Kobo and Xiaomi, that have already announced Tegra 4-based products.

To whet your appetite, here’s a rundown on some of the Tegra Note’s unique features:

• Ultra-fast performance — Powered by Tegra 4 with a 72-core GeForce GPU and quad-core Cortex-A15 CPU with a fifth battery-saver core, making Tegra Note the world’s fastest 7-inch tablet.
• Superb stylus — NVIDIA DirectStylus technology transforms a normal stylus into an incredibly responsive experience with finer point and broader stroke control. It also comes bundled with apps for convenient, stroke-based note taking.
• Exceptional sound — NVIDIA PureAudio technology offers rich, deep audio — including the widest frequency range in a tablet — through front-facing stereo speakers with a bass-reflex port.
• Groundbreaking camera — The camera uses Tegra 4’s processing power and Chimera computational photography architecture to deliver stunning new features. Tegra Note also brings SmugMug’s Camera Awesome app — one of the top camera apps on iOS — to Android. Camera Awesome delivers exclusive Tegra 4 features like tap-to-track and 100 fps video with slow-motion playback.
• TegraZone gaming — Delivering unmatched gaming, NVIDIA TegraZone provides easy access to Tegra-optimized games with visual effects that aren’t available on other tablets. Tegra Note also supports a variety of game controllers for console-class gaming.
• Great battery life — 10-plus hours of HD video playback.
• Accessories galore — An intelligent slide cover flips and bends to support and cover the tablet. It also lets the tablet be set up in three distinct positions using built-in magnets for added flexibility. The DirectStylus Pro Pack enables a variety of writing styles with interchangeable tips. And Bluetooth capabilities turn the tablet into a game controller.

On top of that, users get over-the-air (OTA) software updates provided directly by NVIDIA. This will help ensure customers have current software, offering the richest experience with their devices.

Here’s a full set of the specs for quick reference:

The latest in a steady stream of Tegra 4-powered devices launched today, as HP and NVIDIA rolled out further evidence of our leadership in Android computing.

Fresh out this morning, the HP Slate⁸ Pro and HP Slate⁷ Extreme provide great performance and outstanding battery life, thanks to their NVIDIA Tegra 4 processor. They follow hard on the heels of HP’s news this summer of its first two other Tegra 4 devices — the HP SlateBook x2 hybrid that features a 10.1-inch 1080p full HD screen, and the HP Slate²¹ All-In-One with a 1920 by 1080p display.

Together, these announcements demonstrate our partnership and product collaboration — based on the common goal of delivering a wide range of Android devices at different sizes, prices and configurations.

The HP Slate8 Pro offers the highest resolution available on a tablet of its size.

Tegra 4’s a perfect base to build on. With it, you can expect lightning-fast web browsing. And extreme gaming, the kind you’d find on a console — plus access to NVIDIA TegraZone, which is loaded with games optimized for the Tegra 4. And an incredibly responsive experience using a stylus, based on our DirectStylus technology.

The new HP tablets also offer up advanced camera features. Among these: groundbreaking high-dynamic range capabilities, which let you snap balanced pics, even in areas of sharp contrast between light and dark.

What conjures up all this magic is the Tegra 4 processor, which bristles with a 72-core NVIDIA GeForce GPU and quad-core ARM Cortex-A15 CPU.

Tegra 4 is also outfitted with a fifth battery-saver CPU core, a clever bit of architecture that shines at everyday functions like email, social updates, watching movies and playing music, while sipping little power. Meanwhile, the four main CPU cores progressively power on only as needed for demanding tasks, like gaming.

HP Slate7 Extreme includes 7-inch HD screen, 16GB of storage, NVIDIA DirectStylus technology and rich, deep audio.

Featuring a brilliant 8-inch HD display, 4:3 aspect ratio and vibrant color and sparkling picture quality, the HP Slate⁸ Pro delivers the highest resolution available on a tablet of its size. It also includes Kingsoft Office, HP File Manager, HP ePrint and HP Connected Photo for producing and managing content.

The HP Slate⁷ Extreme has a 7-inch HD screen; 16GB of storage; integrated, precision-built NVIDIA DirectStylus technology for handwritten notes; and rich, deep audio from front-facing stereo speakers with a bass reflex port.

For more details on the HP Slate⁷ Extreme and the HP Slate⁸ Pro, check out HP’s TheNextBench.com.

GPU acceleration is coming to Java.

So said IBM’s Chief Technology Officer of Java, John Duimovich, in a keynote address at the JavaOne conference today.

Duimovich noted that GPU accelerators pack incredible compute power, and leveraging their 10x speedups for Java workloads can accelerate complex computations that process lots of data.

Java and GPUs open up a world of new opportunities for GPU accelerators and Java programmers alike.

Millions of developers rely on the Java programming language for web 2.0, big data analytics and scientific computing. It’s widely used in large-scale distributed frameworks, like Apache Hadoop, due to its ease of programmability, modularity and multiplatform support.

Duimovich showed an example of GPU acceleration of sorting using standard NVIDIA CUDA libraries that are already available:

The speedups are phenomenal — ranging from 2x to 48x faster! And these benefits are possible in Java JDK 8 by taking advantage of existing CUDA libraries to accelerate the Java libraries for parallel operations.

According to Duimovich, IBM will enable IBM runtimes for server-based GPU accelerators and explore acceleration in ordinary workloads under existing APIs.

This will allow millions of Java developers to accelerate a broad range of applications using GPU accelerators — and achieve speedups that will dramatically improve the capabilities of the applications. Plus, the acceleration will fuel a new generation of Java-based enterprise applications that wouldn’t have been possible without GPUs.

The use cases for GPU-accelerated Java applications are near endless: from high-performance distributed fraud detection and financial analysis, to high-throughput video and image analytics and modern scientific applications.

Duimovich also referenced OpenPOWER, which is a new ecosystem around the POWER architecture driving innovation to the platform by leveraging the power of open markets and partners like NVIDIA. The Java on GPU development is one in a series of impacts of the OpenPOWER announcement.

Stay tuned to the IBM Java website and the NVIDIA CUDA website for updates.