Three things are very important when you enter the virtual battlefield; the ability to hear your enemy's foot steps, the ability to communicate with your fellow combatants, and protection from a flying energy drink can when you frag the guy two rows away from you. Read on to see if the Gameskulls GS-1 Tactical Gaming Helmet can help you both of those areas.

NVIDIA Corp. today introduced its next generation CUDA GPU architecture, codenamed Fermi. An entirely new ground-up design, the Fermi architecture is the foundation for the worlds first computational graphics processing units (GPUs), delivering breakthroughs in both graphics and GPU computing.

It is completely clear that GPUs are now general purpose parallel computing processors with amazing graphics, and not just graphics chips anymore, said Jen-Hsun Huang, co-founder and CEO of NVIDIA. The Fermi architecture, the integrated tools, libraries and engines are the direct results of the insights we have gained from working with thousands of CUDA developers around the world. We will look back in the coming years and see that Fermi started the new GPU industry.

Theo over at Bright Side of News published some updated information on the upcoming NVIDIA GT300 GPU this morning that is well worth a look. Theo claims that with the GT300 you can expect to see configurations with 1.5 GB, 3.0 GB and 6.0 GB of GDDR5 memory!

Beside the regular NV70 and GT300 codenames [codename for the GPU], nVidia's insiders called the GPU architecture – Fermi. Enrico Fermi was an Italian physicist who is credited with the invention of nuclear reactor. That brings us to one of codenames we heard for one of the GT300 board itself – “reactor”.
When it comes to boards themselves, you can expect to see configurations with 1.5, 3.0 GB and 6GB of GDDR5 memory.

• 3.0 billion transistors
• 40nm TSMC
• 384-bit memory interface
• 512 shader cores [renamed into CUDA Cores]
• 32 CUDA cores per Shader Cluster
• 1MB L1 cache memory [divided into 16KB Cache – Shared Memory]
• 768KB L2 unified cache memory
• Up to 6GB GDDR5 memory
• Half Speed IEEE 754 Double Precision

TerreStar just announced a new partnership with AT&T Mobility which will bring a hybrid cellular/satellite phone to the U.S. next year.  The handset, the TerreStar Genus, will run the Windows Mobile operating system.

The Genus Windows Phone will:

“combine AT&T’s [3G] wireless connectivity with the ability to use an all-IP satellite network as back up throughout the United States. Using one phone number and one device, users will be able to access voice and data services in the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and offshore coastal waters over either the AT&T cellular network or the TerreStar satellite network.”

Features of the Genus include a 2.6-inch touchscreen, a front-facing QWERTY keyboard (Messenger style), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS.  The design is similar to the HP iPAQ 910 Business Messenger.  While the press release does not state the OS version outright, its release in Q1 of 2010 means Windows Mobile 6.5 will almost certainly be onboard at launch.

Obviously, such a phone will not appeal to a wide range of users.  The TerreStar press release states that the handset will be aimed at “government, emergency responders, enterprises and rural communities.”

No word yet on the price of the handset or how much service for the device will cost.

Pioneer is leading the way again with the first available 12x Blu-Ray burner with their BDR-205 model. Savvy techies will know that not all media brands will support these speeds, especially with no other drives currently capable of these speeds.

Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. today announces its new BDR-205 Blu-ray Disc Computer Writer, the industrys first and fastest model to feature up to 12x write speed for single and dual-layer Blu-ray Disc (BD) media. Ideal for authoring providers and system builders, the Pioneer BD/DVD/CD Writer provides accurate, rapid performance for demanding professional applications. The BDR-205 drive represents our ongoing efforts to combine Pioneers engineering expertise with advanced technologies, and our next generation Blu-ray Disc writer is a great example of our no-compromise approach to optical disc product development, said Steve Cohn, director of optical disc sales for Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. We are bringing to market the fastest Blu-ray Disc writer to date, and it is just one of the many firsts that have come to define Pioneers 30-year heritage in optical disc innovation and leadership.

NVIDIA today introduced its next generation CUDA GPU architecture, codenamed “Fermi” at the GPU Technology Conference in San Jose, California. Fermi is an entirely new from the ground-up design architecture and is said to be the foundation for the world’s first computational graphics processing units (GPUs)! Read on to see actual pictures of one of these cards!

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is expected to see revenues for the fourth quarter remain flat or increase by low single-digits sequentially, according to market watchers. TSMC customers AMD, Broadcom and Marvell have reportedly maintained their pace of orders.

TSMC has estimated third-quarter revenues to be between NT$88 billion and NT$90 billion, up 18-21% sequentially. The pure-play foundry enjoyed a sequential revenue jump of 91.7% in the second quarter.

Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced it is adding 8GB dual-channel HyperX memory kits in support of Intels new LGA1156 Core i5 and Core i7 systems. The DDR3 XMP-ready kits are available in 1600 and 1333MHz frequencies and run at a low 1.65 volts.

The 8GB memory kits help increase overall system performance in 64-bit operating systems including Windows Vista and the upcoming Windows 7. System builders and ultra-enthusiasts who deploy 8GB of Kingston dual-channel memory will find performance increases in such tasks as running virtual machines, video encoding and graphics-oriented applications.

The 8GB kits are the latest additions to the entire family of Kingstons Core i5 and i7 memory solutions. Since late August, Kingston has been shipping 4GB kits in 2133-, 2000-, 1600- and 1333MHz frequencies.

Spb Mobile Shell is a very popular Today Screen UI replacement for Windows Mobile Professional (touchscreen) smartphones.  This week, Spb Software released version 3.5 of the software.

Mobile Shell 3.5 includes new widgets for Facebook and Twitter, a new email and SMS viewer, accelerometer support for the 3D carousel, updated weather functionality and more.

Other features of Mobile Shell include multi-page home screen, Facebook contacts integration, navigation gestures, photo speed dial, an app launcher, Internet tools and more.

Download Mobile Shell 3.5 Trial

=========================================================

The crew inside of NVIDIA's Developer Relations Department released a statement dealing with the allegations AMD made about how NVIDIA interfered with anti-aliasing (AA) support for Batman: Arkham Asylum on AMD cards. Always good to see the PR departments inside AMD and NVIDIA trading blows!

A representative of AMD recently claimed that NVIDIA interfered with anti-aliasing (AA) support for Batman: Arkham Asylum on AMD cards. They also claimed that NVIDIAs The Way Its Meant to be Played Program prevents AMD from working with developers for those games. Both of these claims are NOT true. Batman is based on Unreal Engine 3, which does not natively support anti-aliasing. We worked closely with Eidos to add AA and QA the feature on GeForce. Nothing prevented AMD from doing the same thing. Games in The Way Its Meant to be Played are not exclusive to NVIDIA. AMD can also contact developers and work with them. We are proud of the work we do in The Way Its Meant to be Played. We work hard to deliver kickass, game-changing features in PC games like PhysX, AA, and 3D Vision for games like Batman. If AMD wants to deliver innovation for PC games then we encourage them to roll up their sleeves and do the same.