The Khronos Group released the final WebGL 1.0 specification to enable hardware-accelerated 3D graphics in HTML5 Web browsers without the need for plug-ins. WebGL defines a JavaScript binding to OpenGL ES 2.0 to allow rich 3D graphics within a browser on any platform supporting the industry-standard OpenGL or OpenGL ES graphics APIs. WebGL has the support of major silicon and browser vendors including Apple, Google, Mozilla and Opera with multiple browsers already shipping with WebGL implementations including the beta releases for Mozilla Firefox 4.0, all channels of Google Chrome 9.0, an Opera preview build, and Apple Mac OS Safari nightly builds.

WebGL leverages the pervasive availability of OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics on almost all browser-capable desktop, mobile and embedded platforms and the recent developments in Web technology including the massive increases in JavaScript performance. The ability for Web developers to directly access OpenGL-class graphics directly from JavaScript, and freely mix 3D with other HTML content, will enable a new wave of innovation in Web gaming, educational and training applications and graphically rich user interfaces to make the Web more enjoyable, productive and intuitive.

AMD today announced the introduction of the OpenCL University Kit, a set of materials that can be leveraged by any university to assist them in teaching a semester course in OpenCL programming. This effort underscores AMD's commitment to the educational community, which currently includes a number of strategic research initiatives, to enable the next generation of software developers and programmers with the knowledge needed to lead the era of heterogeneous computing. OpenCL, the only non-proprietary industry standard available today for true heterogeneous computing, helps developers to harness the full compute power of both the CPU and GPU to create innovative applications for vivid computing experiences.

"As a former professor at Washington University in St. Louis, I firmly believe that the university setting is a vital environment to cultivate the best and brightest minds and set them on a path to succeed," said Manju Hegde, corporate vice president, AMD Fusion Experience Program. "By ensuring that an industry standard like OpenCL is a central element of the education process, we are helping to put the PC application ecosystem in good hands to take full advantage of a heterogeneous computing future."

AMD today announced availability of the updated AMD Accelerated Parallel Processing (APP) Software Development Kit (SDK) v2.3 with full support for the first AMD Fusion Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), OpenCL 1.1 and AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series graphics. AMD APP technology enables AMD GPUs and CPUs to work together to run many demanding computing tasks faster than possible with just the CPU alone.

AMD Accelerated Parallel Processing SDK v2.3, previously known as the ATI Stream SDK, empowers software developers to write new applications that can take full advantage of the parallel processing power of heterogeneous computing platforms, such as those based on new AMD E-Series and C-Series APUs that combine a multi-core CPU and DirectX 11-capable GPU on a single die.

AMD today announced immediate availability of the new AMD Embedded G-Series processor, the world's first and only Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) for embedded systems. The AMD Embedded G-Series, based on AMD Fusion technology, delivers a complete, full-featured embedded platform and incorporates the new low-power, x86 CPU based on the "Bobcat" core with a world-class DirectX 11-capable GPU and parallel processing engine on a single piece of silicon.

"AMD's commitment is to ensure the game-changing technologies we develop for consumers and the enterprise are also available for the vast and growing embedded market," said Patrick Patla, corporate vice president and general manager, Server and Embedded Division, AMD. "Today, we have a record number of embedded launch partners. They are using the unique advancements of the AMD Embedded G-Series APU to develop a brand new generation of highly differentiated, energy-efficient, small form-factor embedded systems that can deliver the vivid visual experience expected in our always-connected world."

TechPowerUp today introduced version 0.5.0 of GPU-Z, our popular graphics subsystem diagnostic utility that provides you with detailed tech-specs of your installed graphics processors, and lets you monitor clock speeds, voltages, temperatures and fan speeds. Version 0.50 adds full-support for Radeon HD 6950 and Radeon HD 6970. It fixes several stability and reliability issues, including fillrate roundoff errors, improved voltage monitoring support for GeForce GTX 570, some crashes and freezes.DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 0.5.0

A complete list of changes follows.

AMD today introduced the next generation of PC gaming, the AMD Radeon HD 6800 series, designed to be "perfect graphics cards" for gamers by delivering unprecedented game performance starting at $179 SEP. The new AMD Radeon HD 6800 series graphics cards provide more than 30 percent greater game performance than competing products, harnessing AMD's second-generation Microsoft DirectX 11-capable architecture, best-in-class energy efficiency, and an unmatched feature set, including AMD Eyefinity multi-display technology. The AMD Radeon HD 6800 series is available immediately from etailers worldwide.

"AMD is the market share leader by a landslide in DirectX 11 graphics," said Matt Skynner, corporate vice president and general manager, GPU Division, AMD. "Through our sweet spot strategy and our open, industry standards approach, we've worked to deliver the best possible experience for gamers. Today, our laser focus on gamers continues with the introduction of what we think is far and away the best graphics card series today, the AMD Radeon HD 6800 series. With exceptional game performance, an unrivaled feature set including breathtaking DirectX 11 gaming, AMD Eyefinity multi-display technology, AMD Accelerated Parallel Processing, and more, the AMD Radeon HD 6800 series will have all gamers wanting to get Radeon in their systems."

NVIDIA announced today the expansion of its award-winning line of NVIDIA Quadro professional graphics solutions based on the NVIDIA Fermi architecture. The mid-range Quadro 2000 with 192 NVIDIA CUDA processing cores and the entry-level Quadro 600 with 96 CUDA processor cores now bring the computational and visualization benefits of the breakthrough Fermi architecture to all segments of the market.

The Quadro 2000 delivers 1.5 times the geometry performance of the previous Quadro graphics processing unit (GPU) mid-range solution and utilizes the new NVIDIA Scalable Geometry Engine technology to deliver dramatically higher performance across leading CAD and DCC applications such as SolidWorks and Autodesk 3ds Max.

AMD released the FirePro V9800 professional graphics card. This is the company's top professional offering, based on the 40 nm Evergreen architecture. The GPU features 1600 stream processors, 256-bit GDDR5 memory interface connecting to 4 GB of memory, and display outputs that include six mini-DisplayPort connectors. The card supports the latest industry-standard 3D APIs including Microsoft DirectX 11, OpenGL 4, and includes support for OpenCL GPU-compute API. The card is meant for mission-critical environments such as oil and gas exploration, 3D medical imaging, design and engineering, and 3D content production. Apart from supporting the ATI Eyefinity6 technology, it also packs support for stereoscopic 3D technologies. The card will be sold directly under the AMD brand by board partners, it is priced at US $3,500.

AMD's answer to a lot of Intel's processors in the low-power category, be it the Core i3/i5 "Clarkdale", Core CULV, or even the Atom, seems to have finally taken shape with "Bobcat". This processor is a major design overhaul, as it integrates a number of key components, including a GPU. Since the GPU component is so complex and integrated with the rest of the processor at such a level, AMD decided to name the processor an "Accelerated Processing Unit" or APU. Beyond just driving video and 3D graphics, the GPU component of Bobcat is designed to lend a hand to the CPU cores whenever needed.

The GPU doubles up as a raw SIMD engine array that works with applications over OpenCL and ATI Stream technologies to step up performance. The "Bobcat" Fusion APU integrates x86 processor cores with a high-performance switch that doubles up as a memory controller, which connects to a SIMD engine, a UVD display controller, and platform interfaces that include connection to the southbridge chipset and display I/O.

NVIDIA today launched the era of the 'computational visualization workstation' for designers, engineers, researchers and animators by introducing its Quadro graphics processing units (GPUs) based on NVIDIA Fermi architecture, and by also introducing the new NVIDIA 3D Vision Pro solution. The new Quadro GPUs deliver performance that is up to five times faster for 3D applications and up to eight times faster for computational simulation, shattering previous benchmarks.

The NVIDIA Quadro Plex 7000 array, and Quadro 6000, Quadro 5000 and Quadro 4000 GPUs feature the new NVIDIA Scalable Geometry Engines and leverage NVIDIA Application Acceleration Engines (AXE) to enable the world's fastest performance across a broad range of CAD, DCC and visualization applications. Rated at an unheard of 1.3 billion triangles per second in raw performance, the Quadro 6000 enables users to interactively work with models and scenes that are five times more complex than ever before.

The Khronos Group today announced the immediate release of the OpenGL 4.1 specification, bringing the very latest graphics functionality to the most advanced and widely adopted cross-platform 2D and 3D graphics API (application programming interface). OpenGL 4.1 is the sixth update to OpenGL specification in two years, continuing the rapid evolution of this royalty-free specification. This new version continues to maintain full backwards compatibility to enable developers to begin using new features whenever they choose, while portably accessing state-of-the-art GPU functionality across diverse operating systems and platforms.

The OpenGL 4.1 specification has been defined by the OpenGL ARB (Architecture Review Board) working group at Khronos, and includes the GLSL 4.10 update to the OpenGL Shading language and is accompanied by a number of extensions introducing cutting-edge functionality to the OpenGL standard. The full specification is available for immediate download here.

Following the launch of the ATI FirePro V8800, the industry's most powerful professional graphics card ever created, AMD today introduced new additions to its next-generation ATI FirePro family -- ATI FirePro V7800, ATI FirePro V5800, ATI FirePro V4800, and ATI FirePro V3800 -- offering professionals in the digital content creation (DCC) and Computer Aided Design (CAD) industries advanced performance and features at every price point. AMD also announced the ATI FirePro 2460 Multi-View, a low profile, quad display graphics solution designed for financial institutions. These latest ATI FirePro solutions are expected to be available from HP, CDW, Newegg, Tiger Direct and other online retailers.

"AMD's new ATI FirePro workstation graphics cards are the world's first workstation class graphics cards to support up to four monitors on a single card -- enabling increased productivity for professional graphics users," said Janet Matsuda, senior director, Professional Graphics, AMD. "Our new ATI FirePro family delivers new value at every price point."

NVIDIA's CUDA GPU compute API could be making its way to practically every PC, with an NVIDIA GPU in place, or not. A chinese freelance developer has coded a means to get CUDA work as a middleware on OpenCL. This move lets CUDA work on ATI Radeon GPUs that support OpenCL, as well as x86 CPUs, since OpenCL specs allow the API to run on CPUs for development purposes. The implications of these are many:

• Letting CUDA-accelerated software such as Badaboom make use of ATI GPUs
• Letting PhysX run on ATI GPUs as PhysX middleware uses CUDA for GPU acceleration
• Possibly better scaling of PhysX on multi-core CPUs (over OpenCL), as the regular PhysX CPU acceleration is infamous for bad multi-core scaling in performance

The software works as a translation layer, exchanging calls between CUDA and OpenCL or the CPU if OpenCL is not available. It comes in the form of a loader application that injects itself into the executing process. To get PhysX to run, one needs to install older versions of PhysX System Software (version 8.09.04 WHQL being the latest) from its standalone installer (installs PhysX libraries without looking for NVIDIA GPUs).

DOWNLOAD: CUDA Emulator Loader

AMD today announced that, along with partners Pixelux Entertainment and Bullet Physics, it has added significant support to the Open Physics ecosystem by providing game developers with access to the newest version of the Pixelux Digital Molecular Matter (DMM), a breakthrough in physics simulation. In addition, to enabling a superior development experience and helping to reduce time to market, Pixelux has tightly integrated its technology, DMM, with Bullet Physics, allowing developers to integrate physics simulation into game titles that run on both OpenCL- and DirectCompute-capable platforms. And both DMM and Bullet work with Trinigy's Vision Engine to create and visualize physics offerings in-game.

"Establishing an open and affordable physics development environment is an important accomplishment for both game developers and gamers, signaling a move away from exclusionary or proprietary approaches," said Eric Demers, chief technology officer, AMD Graphics Division. "Not only does the integration of Bullet Physics into partner middleware help drive broader adoption of physics in games, it ensures that when those games are released, all gamers, regardless of the hardware in their PC, can benefit from the more realistic experience enabled by those effects."

ZOTAC International, the world's largest channel manufacturer, today redefines the mini-PC experience with a new generation of eco friendly small form factor platform powered by next-generation NVIDIA ION technology - the new ZOTAC ZBOX HD-ID11 mini-PC. The new ZOTAC ZBOX HD-ID11 mini-PC supercharges the eco friendly computing experience with premium graphics processing, complete high definition playback capabilities and a premium Windows 7 experience with Aero user interface.

Premium graphics processing power forms the heart of the ZOTAC ZBOX HD-ID11 mini-PC with a new Next-Generation NVIDIA ION graphics processor with 16 unified shaders and 512MB of DDR3 graphics memory complete with NVIDIA CUDA and NVIDIA PureVideo HD technologies for a superior eco friendly computing experience that goes well beyond simple web browsing.

Club 3D B.V. today introduces the Radeon HD 5830 graphics cards as the most affordable addition to award winning Radeon HD 5800 series. The Club 3D Radeon HD 5830 fills the gap between HD 5850 and HD 5770 graphics cards to fulfill the demand for HD 5800 series features at a lower price point.

Club 3D Radeon HD 5830 graphics card features DVI, HDMI and Display Port output to support ATI Eyefinity Technology for an incredibly immersive HD gaming and computing experience and a maximized field of view with up to three displays. Perform tasks on your PC faster with ATI Stream technology and accelerated everyday applications. Step now into the world of DirectX 11 gaming and play the first available games, with unrivalled visual quality, astonishing realism and ultra-fast frame rates to dominate the competition.

AMD today announced availability of the production release of its second-generation ATI Stream SDK, its second-generation ATI Stream SDK, the first production SDK for both AMD GPUs and x86 CPUs. This release of ATI Stream SDK v2.0 supports a wide range of ATI graphics processors, including the new ATI Radeon HD 5970, the world's fastest graphics card generating five teraflops of compute power. Enabling compute intensive codes to leverage all of the system's resources, the ATI Stream SDK v2.0 helps developers deliver a better application experience.

This release of AMD's ATI Stream SDK v2.0 provides developers, ISVs and OEMs with a production development environment that allows them to more easily accelerate applications. By enabling developers to utilize combined CPU and GPU computing power, ATI Stream technology helps developers to leverage heterogeneous architectures to improve the computing experience.

Just over a day after releasing it in the beta form, NVIDIA released the WHQL-signed version of its GeForce 195.62 driver package. The package provides drivers and related software for GeForce GPUs and the ION chipset. Usually, a WHQL-signed driver that trails a beta release has a different version number and includes some minor changes. With this release however, there are no changes whatsoever, except of course the WHQL certification. As a quick recap, this is what is new with GeForce 195.62:

• Added GPU-acceleration for smoother online HD videos with the new Adobe Flash 10.1 beta.
• Added support for OpenCL 1.0 (Open Computing Language) for all GeForce 8-series and later GPUs.
• Added support for CUDA Toolkit 3.0 features and performance enhancements
• Added SLI and multi-GPU support for many top new gaming titles including Borderlands, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, FIFA Soccer 10, and more
• Includes numerous bug fixes

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 195.62 WHQL Windows 7/Vista 64-bit | Windows 7/Vista 32-bit | Windows XP 64-bit | Windows XP 32-bit

AMD today announced the flagship installment in the award-winning line of graphics cards, the ATI Radeon HD 5970, the fastest card ever created. The new ultra high-end model joins a growing list of the world's first and only graphics cards to fully support Microsoft DirectX 11 technology and ATI Eyefinity multi-display technology.

Designed to support the most demanding PC games at ultra-high resolutions and image quality settings, the ATI Radeon HD 5970 has unlocked overclocking potential, granting access to every bit of power the card has to offer through ATI Overdrive technology. Now shipping from retailers and available in the channel, the ATI Radeon HD 5970 also launches today in new Alienware Area-51, Area-51 ALX and Aurora desktop PCs.

EVGA announced the EVGA GT 240 series. Upgrade today to the EVGA GT 240 and experience picture-perfect photos, vibrant videos and great games like Borderlands, WoW, Sims 3 and Darkest of Days. GPU Accelerated Flash means flawless HD videos on websites like YouTube and Hulu with the new GPU-accelerated Adobe Flash 10.1, and of course crystal-clear BluRay in 1080p with True-Fidelity 7.1 Surround Sound are 100% supported.

Experience NVIDIA PhysX technology on Batman: Arkham Asylum, Darkest of Days, and other GPU PhysX titles with speeds 2x faster than the competition. Enjoy 40% faster HD gaming on other popular titles like Borderlands and Darkest of Days. Leverage 96 processor cores to run the latest GPU-accelerated applications like MotionDSP vReveal, Cyberlink MediaShow with Face tagging, and many more at speeds up to 50% faster than prior generation.

S3 Graphics　announced the latest addition to its power-efficient embedded graphics processor family, with the unveiling of the OpenCL 1.0 capable Chrome 5400E GPGPU processor. The S3 Graphics 5400E will be unveiled at the Electronic Manufacturer Exposition (eMEX), October 22nd - 25th, in Suzhou, China at the Suzhou International Expo Center, Hall 4A, Booth No. 4K08.

OpenCL is an open, cross-platform standard used to harness the power of a GPUs internal shaders to accelerate parallel computations in applications ranging from scientific, medical, and other high performance computing (HPC) markets. The native OpenCL engine in the 5400E GPU enables our partners to go beyond graphics and video, and penetrate these diverse HPC markets.

AMD released its fourth beta of the ATI Stream SDK version 2.0, that provides the first complete OpenCL development platform. The release is certified to be fully compliant with OpenCL 1.0 by, the Khronos Group. A wide range of AMD GPUs as well as any x86 multi-core CPU supporting SSE3 instruction set are supported. For more information on this release, and to download, visit this page.

An interesting discovery by TechConnect Magazine shows that in these OpenCL drivers, are identifiers for a yet to be announced "Radeon HD 5900 Series", with the device IDs 689C and 689D, both marked under "Evergreen", like other members of the Evergreen family, such as Radeon HD 5700 and Radeon HD 5800 series. The most plausible explanation for "Radeon HD 5900 Series" could be that it is the name of the graphics cards based on the Hemlock GPU architecture, which pairs two Cypress GPUs onto one board. The driver also gives away device IDs, if not product names of GPUs based on the upcoming entry-level Redwood and Cedar GPUs.

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 world's first computational graphics processing units (GPUs), delivering breakthroughs in both graphics and GPU computing.

"NVIDIA and the Fermi team have taken a giant step towards making GPUs attractive for a broader class of programs," said Dave Patterson, director Parallel Computing Research Laboratory, U.C. Berkeley and co-author of Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach. "I believe history will record Fermi as a significant milestone."

AMD and Pixelux Entertainment announced a joint development agreement that is part of the AMD effort to greatly expand the use of real-time physics with graphics through the open source Bullet Physics engine. By encouraging development of physics middleware built around OpenCL and Bullet Physics, AMD and Pixelux offer a route toward physics simulation that spans game consoles, PCs and other hardware platforms. The latest graphics technologies, like the ATI Radeon HD 5800 series of GPUs, offer incredible visual fidelity and high performance physics simulation by taking the next step in realistically animating how rendered game objects move, deform and break.

"Proprietary physics solutions divide consumers and ISVs, while stifling true innovation; our competitors even develop code that they themselves admit will not work on hardware other than theirs," said Eric Demers, chief technology officer for graphics at AMD. "By working with Pixelux and others to enable open support of physics on OpenCL and DirectX 11 capable devices we are taking the exact opposite approach."

In the tussle between its own CUDA GPGPU standard and the OpenCL, NVIDIA is making the right moves by offering its first drivers for OpenCL GPGPU acceleration. The drivers are available for Windows, Linux, and Mac. Any CUDA-capable NVIDIA GPU will be able to use these. The drivers can be downloaded from here, which provide compliance with OpenCL 1.0.

NVIDIA has also released the OpenCL Visual Profiler software that helps developers improve their code by recognizing possible bottlenecks and room for improvements. At a higher level, it profiles actual hardware signals, kernel efficiency, and instruction issue rate; memory latencies; auto-analysis to point of serialization problems, among other things. More information on this can be found here.