ASUS Matrix GTX 580 and MARS II desktop graphics cards revealed, devour PCI slots

With all the talk of ASUS's tablets recently it's easy to forget the company also dabbles in graphics cards, some large enough to blot out the sun. We've got some details on its latest contestants for your PC gaming dollar, the MARS II and Matrix GTX 580 (above), and you might have to buy a new case just squeeze these unwieldy pixel-pushers inside. The Matrix will come in two flavors -- standard and Platinum -- both with 1.5GB of RAM and an enormous dual-fan cooling solution that eats up a jaw-dropping three PCI slots. But, hey, it should afford you some serious overclocking headroom. Though we've yet to seen any pics of the MARS II, the 3GB, dual-GPU behemoth is bound to be even more massive -- we wouldn't be surprised if ASUS had to provide a breakout box for whatever cooler it strapped to those pair of GTX 580 cores. Prices and release dates are still up in the air, but we're sure all will be revealed during the official announcement at Computex. Check out the image after the break for more detailed specs.

VR-Zone, TechConnect

Cray XK6 supercomputer smashes petaflop record, humbly calls itself a 'general-purpose' machine

Sure, IBM's ten petaflop supercomputer may sound impressive, but Cray can do you five better -- the outfit just announced the Cray XK6, an upgradable, hybrid supercomputing system capable of more than 50 petaflops of computational muscle. Powered by Cray's Gemini interconnect, AMD Opteron 6200 processors, and NVIDIA Tesla 20-Series GPUs, the XK6 system blends x86 and GPU environments with the firm's own flavor of Linux. The folks at Cray won't resort to bragging, however -- they're humbly declaring the machine to be the first "general-purpose supercomputer based on GPU technology," and not, as they put it, a stunt to place high on any Top 500 lists. Suggestive, aren't they?

Cray

AMD announces new, more energy efficient Embedded G-Series APUs

AMD has just rolled out two new additions to its line of Embedded G-Series APUs, combining Fusion-based processing with reduced power consumption. Both the T40E and T40R rock the same 64-bit x86 Bobcat CPU cores and DirectX 11-capable GPUs we've already seen in previous G-Series incarnations, but AMD says the pair can operate using thirty-nine percent less power than its cousins. The single core T40R boasts a thermal design power (TDP) rating of just 5.5 watts, while the dual core T40E offers a TDP of 6.4 watts. The two applications are designed for compact fanless systems, including kiosks and mobile industrial devices, though Axiomtek is apparently planning on incorporating the new APUs in a new Pico-ITX consumer PC, as well.

AMD

NVIDIA's GTX 560 desktop GPU fills an exceedingly narrow pricing niche

With Tegra 2 hogging the spotlight, sometimes it's easy to forget that NVIDIA is still primarily in the business of making GPUs for computers. Yet, here it is with the GeForce GTX 560, another graphics chip ready to be inserted into mid-range gaming rigs. This smaller sibling of the GTX 560 Ti is designed to plug right into a small price gap in the company's lineup -- right around the $200 mark. The 336 CUDA cores inside this second-gen Fermi card, predictably, perform slightly better than the GTX 460 and fall just short of the 560 Ti, but it does eke out a victory over similarly priced competition from AMD. The only thing that kept reviewers from wholeheartedly endorsing the various (and often overclocked) flavors of the 560 was the tiny difference in price between it and its relatives -- tacking on the letters Ti and its 48 additional stream processors costs as little as $15 after a mail-in rebate. Check out the reviews below for all the benchmarks your little nerd heart can handle. And don't miss the video of a GTX 560 plowing through Duke Nukem Forever, Alice: Madness Returns, and Dungeon Siege III at the more coverage link.

Read - Tech Report
Read - AnandTech
Read - Tom's Hardware
Read - Guru 3D

SOURCE: Engadget

WebGL flaw leaves GPU exposed to hackers

Google spent a lot of time yesterday talking up WebGL, but UK security firm Context seems to think users should disable the feature because it poses a serious security threat, and the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) is encouraging people to heed that advice. According to Context, a malicious site could pass code directly to a computer's GPU and trigger a denial of service attack or simply crash the machine. Ne'er-do-wells could also use WebGL and the Canvas element to pull image data from another domain, which could then be used as part of a more elaborate attack. Khronos, the group that organizes the standard, responded by pointing out that there is an extension available to graphics card manufacturers that can detect and protect against DoS attacks, but it did little to satisfy Context -- the firm argues that inherent flaws in the design of WebGL make it very difficult to secure.

Now, we're far from experts on the intricacies of low-level hardware security but, for the moment at least, there seems to be little reason for the average user to panic. There's even a good chance that you're not vulnerable at all since WebGL won't run on many Intel and ATI graphics chips (you can check by clicking here). If you're inclined to err on the side of caution you can find instructions for disabling WebGL at the more coverage link -- but come on, living on the cutting edge wouldn't be anywhere near as fun if it didn't involve a bit of danger.

The Register Context, US CERT, Khronos

Nvidia unveils GeForce GTX 550 Ti graphics processor

A good news for people who like PC gaming as the can take advantage of Nvidia's latest graphic processor wiht enhanced performance and new price tag. Nvidia unveils GeForce GTX 550 Ti graphics processor and a new version of 3D vision wireless glasses kit for $ 149 each.

For DX11 titles this graphic processor is claimed to have the fastest performance in its own class. GeForce GTX 550 Ti is 38% faster than DX9 and DX10 generation games and 50% faster in DX11 games. GeForce GTX 550 Ti will take the PC gaming to an entire new level for the gamers.
Drew Henry, the general manager of Nvidia GPU business said "The GTX 550 Ti paired with our 3D vision technology provides gamers with an amazing low-cost platform that delivers an awesome immersive experience."