Month: October 2005

changing clocks

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there’s a twice a year ritual called changing the clocks to either prepare for the return of standard time or anticipating daylight saving time. sometime in 2007 all these rules will alternate again, and the long established time calendar changes.

i find it impressive on how many clocks require adjustment. fortunately, desktop and notebook machine usually have a network time server to work, so their clocks are updated automatically. it’s the DV camcorders, televisions, digital photo cameras, automobile clocks, watches, phones, thermostats, microwaves, wall clocks, cuckoo clocks, and other time pieces requiring modification. every year, another device comes on the marketplace, like an ipod or portable DVD player that also needs adjustment. good luck finding all those devices before 2 AM sunday morning.

mac zealot and PCIe

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i unapologetically am a mac evangelist. in the industries of entertainment, architecture, visualization, publishing, and other creative endeavors the mac platform is the only solution. the tools work and excel on mac OS X and the power mac machines. just listing the applications is a who’s who in the software pantheon: final cut pro, DVD studio pro, photoshop, illustrator, dreamweaver, shake, pro tools, indesign, and maya define entire industries.

last week apple announced three new power mac systems, all with dual-core CPU and access to the fastest GPU’s available from NVIDIA. expect the fastest ATI GPU’s in a future announcement. all machine also inherit faster RAM, and a new PCI-express (PCIe) architecture, a change from the AGP and PCI-X motherboards of previous generations. the old PCI standard was a parallel strategy whereas PCIe is serial, much like the move from IDE/ATA drives to SATA drives.

the user community welcomes the new systems, especially the power mac G5 quad, a sight to behold when it comes out next month. some users are balking that their investments have come to a crash, as PCIe systems will not allow the use of PCI-X or PCI conventional cards at all. PCIe is an entirely new architecture, not just a faster revision of the PCI workhorse cards. this is not a driver issue, but the cards don’t fit, much less work. maybe in the future a riser may come along that bridges from PCI conventional/PCI-X to PCIe, but not today.

in some professional industries the PCI investment may exceed 2 or 3 times the investment in the system, with VBR MPEG-2 boards, SDI boards, audio boards, and connectivity boards easily surpassing $1000 and up. the one consolation to these folks is the CPU rating stayed the same in the 2.0 GHz and 2.3 GHz dual G5, and while they last in the marketplace, the PCI-X machines, along with PC3200 RAM, are still available. get them while you still can, because in a few weeks the only thing out there will be PCIe and PC2-4200 RAM.

powerPC goes out fighting

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apple does not disappoint when it comes to product announcements. independent of any major mac event, apple has sprung several very significant products in the last several weeks. first we got the new imac G5 and video ipod. today the second shoe falls on the powermac G5 quad, a behemoth of a system. you get four processors, and i’m sure several more virtual processors for a great price.

finally the partnership with NVIDIA and apple pays off with the availability of professional graphics cards. we say a farewell to the geforce line and welcome the quadro PCIe chipsets to the mac. now i believe 3D software will work on par with wintel systems and linux systems.

november 2005 cannot come soon enough to get my hands on one of these fantastic products. the intel product line is a long ways away. i predict sometime during macworld SF 2007 with the intel chipsets inside the powermac. portable systems will get intel inside by june 2006.

video ipod revolution

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apple delivers a knock out blow to VC-1 and other proprietary standards. AVC, or advanced video codec, also known as H.264 by the ITU and MPEG-4 Part 10 by ISO/IEC is an open standard developed my many patent holders. VC-1, the public face of microsoft window media 9, along with flash video 8, or on2 video are both welded shut boxes of technology with one patent holder to take the reins.

multiple companies including apple, IBM, Barco, Dolby Laboratories, Fraunhofer Institute, HP, Motorola, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung Electronics, TANDBERG television, and Texas Instruments have all joined forces to give consumers product choice and unlimited possibilities. the fruits of that partnership were the first successful H.264 or AVC product, the sony playstation portable device, and now the second mass consumer product, the apple ipod.

north american disney TV shows are only the start of what is possible in AVC. the codec can scale from mobile phones at 128 pixels all the way to 1080 pixels high definitions images. all media is going to AVC for content delivery for quality, compression efficiency, and broad support through the consumer electronics industry, information technology industry, and broadcast industry.

mac joins GPU future

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when apple moved to an open standard operating system, BSD UNIX, most developers and users saw the potential of using GNU license open source software on the mac. slowly, the same transition is happening on the hardware side, as apple will be moving the entire mac line, including powermac, imac, powerbook, and ibook to intel chipsets.

today, apple announced the latest imac, and aside from the wonderful home technology hub, the most significant move in my mind is the retirement of the accelerated graphics port( AGP graphics). most high end graphics subsystems require not AGP 4X or 8X, but higher end PCI-express (PCIe), and now the fall 2005 imac includes a radeon PCIe for access to next generation GPU’s.

sometimes apple surprises the mac community by launching newer technology into the imac in advance of the workstations like the powermac or servers like the xserve. i hope PCIe makes it to xserve and powermac lines very soon, so anyone can access highest ATI or NVIDIA technology.

end of mac 3D?

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to my amazement, autodesk has made a definitive agreement to acquire Alias. autodesk acquired discreet some years ago and acquired 3ds Max. Now maya and motion builder may die since they directly compete with autodesk products. only the future will know the actual outcome, but this is not good for competition.

maya and motion builder were also the power players on mac OS X, so maybe 3ds Max may move to OS X too, but maybe they’ll drop support on my platform of choice.

resfest LA 2005 volunteer

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over the last week, i was a resfest 2005 volunteer at the los angeles egyptian theatre. for a few days and a few hours, i got to see inside a film festival, wander the various theaters, and get a feel for the management of the sales, will-call, and preparation for this unique electronic visual jaunt. the res media group personal are on to chicago for the final leg of the north american tour.

since the festival is digital, all a city really needs is a digital theatre and a input device, be it a tape, hard drive array, or satellite receiving station. the majority of images were HD, but some where at SD resolution. the star of the show was the new technology exhibits from panasonic and canon. resfest not only exhibited the latest in motion capture, motion graphics, animation, avant-garde cinema, and documentary, but previewed for the first time affordable high quality 720p and 1080p motion video capture. what used to cost $125,000 yesterday will be under $10,000 tomorrow. stay tuned.