The Intel Perceptual Computing SDK 2013 Beta, announced in September at Intel Developer Forum, is now available as a free download. Developers can add perceptual computing usages to create immersive software applications that incorporate close-range hand and finger tracking, facial analysis, speech recognition and 2D/3D object tracking on 2nd and 3rd generation Intel Core processor-powered Ultrabook devices and PCs.

The SDK includes APIs to help reduce development time and testing costs. Also available for use with the SDK is the Creative* Interactive Gesture Camera Developer Kit a small, light-weight, USB-powered, depth-sensor camera tuned for close-range interactivity powered by technology from SoftKinetic. Download the SDK and order the Creative Interactive Gesture Camera Developer Kit today.

Small businesses are grappling with how to manage the dramatic growth of critical files, email and media. Meanwhile consumers are creating and purchasing vast amounts of digital content, including music, movies, photos, e-books and videos. To help them have greater control over of their data, Intel Corporation today announced its next-generation Intel Atom processor-based storage solution.

Recognizing the ongoing, real-time growth of storage demands, this solution, powered by the Intel Atom processor D2550 or the Intel Atom processor D2500, combines impressive multimedia capabilities, energy efficiency and excellent performance to deliver the personal cloud to businesses and consumers.

SoftKinetic, the leading 3D gesture recognition software and solution provider, today announced that its industry-leading technology and middleware for close-range gesture tracking will be included in the Intel Perceptual Computing Software Development Kit 2013 (SDK) Beta announced and demonstrated at the Intel Developer Forum 2012. The close-range finger tracking capabilities created by SoftKinetic including the DepthSense camera technology will enable developers using the Intel Perceptual Computing SDK 2013 Beta to create natural and interactive applications.

SoftKinetic is a pioneer and leader in the field of 3D gesture recognition who is helping us to make our vision of natural, interactive user experiences a reality," said Achin Bhowmik, director of perceptual computing at Intel. "Gesture-based interaction enables humans to interact in a natural, intuitive way with their computer systems."

Today the Heterogeneous System Architecture (HSA) Foundation announced six new members. The HSA Foundation is pleased to welcome Apical, Arteris Inc., MulticoreWare Inc., Sonics, Symbio and Vivante Corporation to the membership roster. Each company adds expertise to the HSA ecosystem by assisting with research, development, production, manufacture, use, and the sale of HSA IP and heterogeneous computing software and solutions.

These new members have joined at different levels including: supporter, contributor and associate. Working closely with the founder members of AMD, ARM, Imagination Technologies, MediaTek Inc., Samsung Electronics and Texas Instruments (TI), the new members will contribute to the growing adoption of HSA in heterogeneous computing.

Ahead of Microsoft Windows 8 general availability, Intel has updated two toolkits for application developers - Intel Media SDK 2012 R3 and Intel SDK for OpenCL Applications 2013 Beta. In addition to Windows 8, Intel Media SDK also supports DirectX 11 with optimized access to hardware accelerated video encoding, decoding and transcoding for applications on 3rd Generation Intel Core processors.

The Intel SDK for OpenCL Applications Beta now supports OpenCL 1.2 API previews on CPU and other features such as a new kernel builder and GNU project debugger, which ease the creation of parallel and visual computing apps. Both kits support the new Intel HD Graphics Driver for Windows 8 and are available now as free downloads.

Today at the AMD Fusion Developer Summit (AFDS), global technology leaders came together to announce the formation of the Heterogeneous System Architecture (HSA) Foundation. The HSA Foundation is a non-profit consortium established to define and promote an open, standards-based approach to heterogeneous computing that will provide a common hardware specification and broad support ecosystem to make it easier for software developers to deliver innovative applications that can take greater advantage of today's modern processors.

AMD, ARM, Imagination Technologies, MediaTek Inc., and Texas Instruments (TI) are the initial founding members of the HSA Foundation. The companies will work together to drive a single architecture specification and simplify the programming model to help software developers take greater advantage of the capabilities found in modern central processing units (CPUs) and graphics processing units (GPUs), and unlock the performance and power efficiency of the parallel computing engines found in heterogeneous processors.

AMD today announced continued leadership in driving OpenCL adoption with availability of the AMD APP SDK 2.7, featuring the first conformant implementation of OpenCL 1.2 and comprehensive support for C++. The new SDK expands the OpenCL application ecosystem by providing developers a powerful, cross-platform solution to unlock the performance of AMD GPUs, APUs, and multi-core CPUs with the added C++ wrapper API and AMD's C++ kernel language for greater efficiency, improved productivity and application robustness.

"AMD continues leading the OpenCL movement, as demonstrated with the release of our latest SDK featuring the industry's first fully-conformant OpenCL 1.2 implementation," said Manju Hegde, corporate vice president, Heterogeneous Applications and Developer Solutions, AMD. "Our latest development tools empower developers to more easily harness the power of heterogeneous computing to help improve the user experience by making it easy to write applications that can take greater advantage of the compute capabilities of AMD's leading CPUs, GPUs and APUs."

DisplayLink, the leading provider of technology for virtual graphics and USB-connected computing, and Listeq, a developer of interactive learning systems, today announced the DisplayLink SDK for Windows .NET that enables simple plug and display connectivity of a virtually unlimited number of DisplayLink-powered monitors.

DisplayLink has taken the technical challenge and complications out of connecting multiple monitors by allowing software developers to utilize an optimized approach to create systems that require large numbers of connected displays, such as:

A blogger with Microsoft's Driver Developer Blog, none other than Chuck Chan, Corporate Vice President of the Windows Development team, jumped the gun in revealing the availability of Windows 8 Release Preview. The now-redacted blog post was screen-grabbed by Neowin.net, and pins the availability of the latest iteration of Microsoft's next-generation operating system to later today (May 31).

Entitled "Windows Hardware and Driver Developer Blog," the blog post by Chan focused on areas of driver and system software development ahead of the operating system's market launch. Windows 8 Release Preview would serve as a fairly reliable platform for developers to test their system software on. A transcript of the blog post is quoted below. Download links to Windows 8 Release Preview, Windows 8 Driver Kit, and Visual Studio 2012 Professional can be found after the break.

Iomega, an EMC company and a global leader in data protection, today announced the new Iomega StorCenter px12-450r Network Storage Array, multi-protocol networked data storage for small and medium business, remote office/branch office installations and distributed enterprises. The StorCenter px12-450r features the new Intel Xeon Processor E3-1200 v2 Product Family, 8GB RAM, improved user supportability and is ready for 4TB* hard disk drives (HDD) and 10 gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) networks. Additionally, the StorCenter px12-450r utilizes the latest version the EMC LifeLine software, an advanced operating system that makes EMC's enterprise class expertise and cloud capabilities available to a broad range of users.

Intel released Intel Media SDK 2012 R2, now supporting Blu-ray MVC, stereoscopic (two-view) video. The new SDK also includes an Open CL sample, allowing developers to make the most of resources available on Intel platforms by supporting the newly released Intel SDK for OpenCL Applications 2012 on both Intel processors and Intel HD Graphics.

Providing developers with a simple API to create media applications using Intel Quick Sync Video, the SDK can enable hardware acceleration to significantly speed up media conversion on 3rd generation Intel Core processors. Developers can download a free copy of Intel Media SDK 2012 R2 here.

Fusion-io announced the first software development kit (SDK) to provide software developers with native access to the ioMemory flash platform. By integrating applications directly with this new persistent memory tier, developers will be able to optimize enterprise, web, and big data applications through direct programmatic access to the ioMemory computing layer for the first time.

"Our January demonstration of one billion IOPS running on Auto Commit Memory, and Atomic Writes demonstrated the potential power of running applications natively on ioMemory. With our SDK, we are now making these tools available to software developers," said David Flynn, Fusion-io CEO and Chairman. "The ioMemory SDK and APIs reduce application complexity and speed development while accelerating time to market with fewer engineering requirements. When you get rid of that complexity, the resulting application is much more reliable and can leverage the full potential of ioMemory to run much faster."

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) today announced that the open beta of Developer Program for PlayStation Suite (PS Suite) is available to the public starting today. The PS Suite initiative delivers the world of PlayStation to open operating system based portable devices.

With the aim of offering a more streamlined development environment for creating content for portable devices, Developer Program for PS Suite provides developers with an early version of PlayStation Suite SDK (PS Suite SDK) before the official launch later this year. Developers are also able to receive technical support from SCE through the developers forum where developers can exchange useful information.

Singapore-based company Artivision Technologies has announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary ArtiMedia Pte signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with chip titan Intel Corp. This MOU will allow Artimedia's front-end in-video advertising platform and back-end advertisement serving technology to be incorporated into Intel's Software Development Kit (SDK) that has Intel's "Wi-Fi Direct" technology (Wi-Fi Direct enables mobile and other devices to connect directly with each other and to transfer and share content like images, pictures and videos).

A definitive agreement between Intel and Artimedia is expected to be inked once "the first working SDK with Artimedia's front-end and back-end technology is deployed on a demo mobile device." The final agreement will cover the license fee per installation in each Intel platform, an equally-split revenue sharing model and a non-competition commitment. Moreover, Intel Capital will be given the first opportunity to invest in Artimedia.

Microsoft today launched Kinect for Windows, a unique gesture-recognizing input device it launched for the Xbox 360. Kinect for Windows enables a whole new kind of interaction with the software that's three dimensional and spatial, compared to the two dimensional input of mice, tablets, and trackballs.

Along with it, version 1.0 of the Kinect for Windows SDK (stable) was launched, enabling organized software developers to start working on applications right away. The new SDK also features several feature additions and improvements over previous beta versions. The general pricing of Kinect for Windows device is US $249, but it is also available at US $149 for qualified educational users.

Remember PowerVR GPUs which last saw light when GeForce 3 and Radeon 8500 were around? The company behind it, Imagination Technologies, is working on a discrete PCI-Express GPGPU card for workstations targeting the media industry, which provides real-time ray-tracing acceleration. After its exile from PC graphics, Imagination Technologies worked on and achieved prevalence in embedded GPUs, GPUs embedded into ARM System-on-chips (SoCs), found in smartphones and tablets. This kept its GPU IP and R&D more than afloat.

In 2011, the company acquired Caustic Graphics, a smaller and much newer startup, which was working on dedicated ray-tracing accelerators, and had come up with a working FCPGA chip. Together the company is in the final stages of preparing a product that will bring Imagination Technologies back to the PC, only this time as a GPGPU (such as NVIDIA Tesla and AMD FireStream), and not a display-GPU. The product will be backed by OpenRL Brazil 3.0 SDK. This product will launch some time in 2012.

Ideum has announced the release of its new MT65 Presenter multitouch wall display. The MT65 Presenter is a huge 65" interactive display with a 3D LCD, robust multitouch sensor, ultra‐clear tempered glass, a powerful integrated computer, built‐in audio, and webcam housed inside a hardened aluminum case.

The MT65 Presenter features a 65" 3D LCD display with full 1920x1080 HD resolution and flicker‐free FPR 3D imaging that uses an LED backlight rated for 50,000 hours. The integrated touch sensor supports up to 32 simultaneous touch points. The 4" thin Presenter is protected by hardened 3mm tempered glass and a vandal‐proof metal housing.

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 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.

NVIDIA announced today it has released version 2.2 of the CUDA Toolkit and SDK for GPU Computing. This latest release supports several significant new features that deliver a major leap forward in getting the most performance out of NVIDIA's massively parallel CUDA-enabled GPUs. In addition, version 2.2 of the CUDA Toolkit includes support for Windows 7, the upcoming OS from Microsoft that embraces GPU Computing.
Developers can download the latest CUDA Toolkit, SDK, and drivers now from here.

NVIDIA Corporation, the inventor of the GPU, today announced the release of its OpenCL driver and software development kit (SDK) to developers participating in its OpenCL Early Access Program. NVIDIA is providing this release to solicit early feedback in advance of a beta release which will be made available to all GPU Computing Registered Developers in the coming months.

"The OpenCL standard was developed on NVIDIA GPUs and NVIDIA was the first company to demonstrate OpenCL code running on a GPU," said Tony Tamasi, senior vice president of technology and content at NVIDIA. "Being the first to release an OpenCL driver to developers cements NVIDIA's leadership in GPU Computing and is another key milestone in our ongoing strategy to make the GPU the soul of the modern PC."

NVIDIA Corporation today announced NVIDIA APEX, a dramatic new capability to its PhysX technology development software development kit (SDK), that provides artists, level designers, and game developers with a set of easy-to-use tools that streamline the process of implementing scalable physics across multiple platforms for next-generation titles.
With NVIDIA PhysX technology, game developers can design worlds that literally come to life: walls can be torn down, glass can be shattered, trees bend in the wind, and water flows with body and force. Designed as a modular framework that works in concert with existing PhysX SDKs, NVIDIA APEX makes it easy for developers to add detailed physics effects to their games and helps them optimize the gaming experience across multiple platforms with a simple "author once" cross platform content creation feature. This enables APEX to not only help developers accelerate the time it takes to author new games, but will also help them reduce overall development costs in the process. The APEX toolset will be available free of charge for licensed NVIDIA PhysX developers and is already being integrated into some of the world's most popular development libraries and game engines, including Emergent Game Technologies' Gamebryo LightSpeed.

Intel Corporation today announced the release of Intel Graphics Performance Analyzers (GPA), a suite of software tools created in support of the Visual Adrenaline developer program.
Offered worldwide, GPA enables PC game developers to analyze and optimize game performance on Intel Integrated Graphics. The Visual Adrenaline program, launched at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco in August 2008, provides tools, resources and information for game developers, artists and animators.

NVIDIA Corporation today announced that it has been approved as a third party tools solution provider for the Wii console. As a result, the NVIDIA PhysX technology SDK is now available to registered Wii developers.
"Nintendo has reshaped the home entertainment and video game market with the success of the Wii console. Adding a PhysX SDK for Wii is key to our cross-platform strategy and integral to the business model for our licensed game developers and publishers," said Tony Tamasi, senior vice president of content and technology at NVIDIA. "With NVIDIA PhysX technology, developers can easily author more realistic game environments for the evolving demands of a broad class of Wii gamers."

NVIDIA Corporation today announced that it has signed a tools and middleware license agreement for PLAYSTATION 3 (PS3) with Sony Computer Entertainment Inc (SCEI). As a result, the binary version of the NVIDIA PhysX technology software development kit (SDK) is now available to registered PS3 developers for free download and use on the SCEI Developer Network.

The NVIDIA PhysX technology software development kit SDK consists of a full-featured API and robust physics engine, designed to give developers, animators, level designers, and artists unprecedented creative control over character and object physical interactions by allowing them to author and preview physics effects in real time. The continued adoption of NVIDIA PhysX technology by the world's leading content developers is resulting in games that not only look as realistic as possible, but also provides gaming experiences where the world's literally come to life: environments become highly interactive with effects such as persistent debris, including shattered glass and weapons ammunition, trees that bend in the wind, and water that flows with body and force.