“PC games not dead yet” – Nvidia

Sharper monitors and special versions of games will reinvigorate PC gaming, according to Nvidia representatives. These days it seems that millions of gamers have switched to playing games on their game consoles, but Roy Taylor, Nvidia’s Vice President of Content Relations, recently told us that PC games aren’t dead by a “longshot”.

Taylor predicts that the next big jump in computer monitor resolutions will be screens with 3800 by 2400 pixel or approximately nine megapixels. “They’ll need to be at most 30-inches wide with a finer dot pitch,” he said, adding that larger monitors would probably break an average desk.

Of course those monitors will be expensive at first and the refresh rate probably won’t be that great, but just like all technology they will get faster and cheaper. Manufacturing LCD screens is similar economically to making DRAM because the columns of pixels in a monitor screen resemble the rows of memory cells in your typical DRAM chip.

According to Taylor, economies of scale and efficiency take over and large computer monitors should become affordable – something that we’ve seen in memory capacities and prices.

It’s obvious that without better games, sharper monitors and more powerful graphics cards would be useless. Taylor told us that he would like game developers to make director’s cut versions – with more scenes, levels and better graphics – of popular games. He adds that every bit of eye candy would be added, even if it was impossible to render smoothly on a regular machine.

Developers often want to make the best possible game, but business realities mean that games must often be scaled-down graphically to work on many machines. “I would like a version of the game that doesn’t pander to the businessmen. Something with the very very best in graphics,” Taylor said, adding that if it takes a $20,000 PC to run the game, “then so be it”.

Taylor told us that he’s already talked to several developers who have been receptive to the director’s cut idea.

MIT scientists create “robofin” for future submarines

MIT scientists are taking a cue from nature and are developing a robotic fin that could be used on future submarines. The fin is made of thin, flexible polymer that curls up when electric current is applied. The scientists say the fin could one day replace traditional submarine propellers and make underwater craft more energy efficient.

The research is being spearheaded by MIT professor Ian Hunter and post-doctoral student James Tangorra in the Bioinstrumentation Lab. These scientists chose to copy the movements of the bluegill sunfish because it has constant forward thrust without any backward drag. They broke the motion down to 19 critical elements include sweeping and curling of various parts of the fin.

So far the scientists can copy all the motions, but the tricky part is getting all the motions in sequence. Of course you just can’t attach a robotic fin to the back of a rigid body submarine because regular fish move their entire bodies, along with their side fins. Tangorra said his team will examine the sunfish’s entire motion and to figure out how to “best adapt nature’s principles to designing robotic vehicles.”

Q2 a disaster for most DRAM makers

The second quarter of the year is a slow season and great things aren’t generally expected to happen here in terms of financials and product shipments. However, it appears that DRAM manufacturers had an especially rough quarter with overall revenues declining by 24% sequentially, according to iSuppli.

“How bad were conditions in the DRAM market in the second quarter?” writes the market research firm in its press release. Read a few lines further and you get the impression that was about as bad as it can get.

While unit shipments gained 23% from Q1 of this year, global revenues dropped by 24%. Among the ten largest DRAM makers, especially Nanya, Powerchip and Promos suffered steep revenue declines of up to 43%. Etron, ranked #9 on the list, was the only company that was able to grow its revenue sequentially; on an annual basis, Hynix (#2, +29%), Elpida (#4, +16%),Etron (#9, +65%) and Winbond (#10, +6%) increased their revenues.

Samsung continues to lead the ranking and expand its market presence. The company increased its revenue share to 28% and unit share to 24%. iSuppli estimates that Samsung shipped the equivalent of 619 million 512 Mb chips, more than twice as many chips as in Q2 2006 (302 million). Revenues, however, were 3% year over year.

Hynix took the position as second largest DRAM supplier from Qimonda, increased its DRAM shipments from 217 million to 575 million 512 Mb chips and revenues from $1.17 billion to $1.52 billion. Qimonda’s shipment climbed from 217 million to 336 million units, while revenues fell from $1.2 billion to $990 million in the same time frame.