One of the biggest tech stories of the 2000s was Apple's transition from the PowerPC machine architecture to Intel x86, which brought the Mac closer to being the PC it so loathed. The transition wasn't smooth, as besides the operating system, practically every third-party software developer (eg: Adobe), had to rewrite their software for the new architecture, with new APIs, and new runtime environments. Apple could be bringing about a similar change before the turn of the decade.

Apple already builds its own application processors for iOS devices, and some of the newer chips such as the A11 Bionic and A10 Fusion have already reached the performance levels of entry-level x86 desktop processors. It's only a matter of time before Apple can build its own SoCs for Macs (that's not just iMac desktops, but also Mac Pro workstations, MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro). That timeline is expected to be around 2020. Since these chips are based on the ARM machine architecture, they will mandate a major transformation of the entire software ecosystem Apple built over the past decade and a half. Intel shares dropped by as much as 9.2 at the first reports of this move.

At Adobe Summit, Adobe and NVIDIA today announced a strategic partnership to rapidly enhance their industry-leading artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning technologies. Building on years of collaboration, the companies will work to optimize the Adobe Sensei AI and machine learning (ML) framework for NVIDIA GPUs. The collaboration will speed time to market and improve performance of new Sensei-powered services for Adobe Creative Cloud and Experience Cloud customers and developers.

The partnership advances Adobe's strategy to extend the availability of Sensei APIs and to broaden the Sensei ecosystem to a new audience of developers, data scientists and partners. "Combining NVIDIA's best-in-class AI capabilities with Adobe's leading creative and digital experience solutions, all powered by Sensei, will allow us to deliver higher-performing AI services to customers and developers more quickly," said Shantanu Narayen, president and CEO, Adobe. "We're excited to partner with NVIDIA to push the boundaries of what's possible in creativity, marketing and exciting new areas like immersive media."

ViewSonic Corp., a leading global provider of visual solution products, showcased the company's award-winning line of display products, with the new line-up of professional grade monitors from their VP series. The VP3881, VP2785-4K, and VP3268-4K provide screens with native resolutions of Wide Quad HD and 4K Ultra HD. These monitors from the VP series offer high-impact image reproduction for best-in-class performance. The VP3881, VP2785-4K, and VP3268-4K are ideal holiday gifts ideas for those who work with color-critical applications, from graphic design to video editing.

The ViewSonic VP3881 is a 37.5-inch curved screen display with stunning Wide Quad HD (3840x1600) resolution - providing the perfect combination of stunning detail and large screen size within an immersive curved ID. Featuring a unique ergonomic design, ultra-wide 21:9 aspect ratio, and integrated speakers, the VP3881 delivers a panoramic viewing experience ideal for video editing, content development, high-end entertainment, and other color-critical applications.

AMD is preparing to extend its tradition of giving away games with its hardware; to productivity apps. In a bid to boost sales of pre-built desktops and notebooks that feature AMD processors and/or graphics cards, the company is giving away Adobe Creative Cloud subscriptions, besides games by Square Enix.

The new "AMD4U" offer by the company, which is limited to certain products sold through participating retailers, gives you up to three games by Square Enix, and/or a 2-month Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, or a 3-month subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud Photography plan. The combinations of what you get is decided by what product you buy. Something like a high-end gaming notebook, which features both a Ryzen processor, and Radeon RX 500-series graphics, should give you both games and CC subscription, while value desktops should feature any one of them. Find details in the source link below.

ViewSonic Corp., a leading global provider of visual solution products, introduces the VP2785-4K, a 27-inch 4K UHD (3840x2160) monitor that delivers precise and consistent color representation and performance to ensure incredible image quality. Built to deliver unmatched color accuracy for professional color-critical applications, the ViewSonic VP2785-4K ensures vibrant and intense color reproduction, making this monitor the perfect display solution for photographers, video and content producers and editors.

The ViewSonic VP2785-4K offers 4K UHD resolution, a wide color gamut and consistent performance with 99 percent Adobe RGB and 98 percent DCI-P3 colors and factory calibration to achieve Delta E <2 across multiple color spaces. Hardware calibration capability allows users to ensure best-in-class color accuracy, while the built-in uniformity function guarantees screen consistency. With USB 3.1 Type C, HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort, Mini DisplayPort 2.1 connectivity options, the VP2785-4K can be used with a variety of external devices. The HDCP 2.2 input provides content protection for 4K content playback, streaming and gaming.

AMD today is announcing the latest update to their Radeon Pro Hardware and Software, which brings with it enhanced features designed to fully take advantage of the company's new high-performance Vega graphics micro-architecture. Namely, AMD has announced the Radeon Pro WX 9100, the Radeon Pro SSG, and Radeon Vega Frontier Edition (already launched) along with new Radeon Pro Software for the same.

As per AMD, the Radeon Pro WX 9100 workstation graphics card is designed to excel in the most demanding media and entertainment, and design and manufacturing workloads. Delivering up to 12.3 TFLOPS of peak single precision compute performance, the Radeon Pro WX 9100 graphics card represents a new era of professional graphics capabilities fueled by powerful Next-Gen Compute Units3 with Rapid Packed Math and an Enhanced Geometry Pipeline which improves processing efficiencies. Compared to the AMD FirePro W9100, the Radeon Pro WX 9100 runs models more than twice as fast, delivering over 2.6X the peak throughput-per-clock.

BenQ, internationally renowned provider of digital lifestyle devices, introduced today SW271, a 4K UHD 27" monitor offering industry-standard HDR10 support and advanced color performance for photographers. Covering 99% of Adobe RGB, and 100% of both sRGB and Rec. 709, SW271 delivers the ultimate color accuracy of Delta E≦2 performance with its 10-bit IPS panel and advanced 14-bit 3D lookup table (LUT). "We are proud to present SW271, which joins our full line of professional monitors purpose-engineered for photographers," said Conway Lee, President of BenQ Corporation. "SW271 brings photo enthusiasts professional-grade performance, specialized tools, and advanced calibration for color-critical applications."

To display each color across its broad color gamut with perfect accuracy, SW271 utilizes an advanced 14-bit 3D LUT to achieve Delta E values of two or better. Technicolor Color Certified to meet strict color accuracy standards used in Hollywood and entertainment media, SW271's 10-bit 27" IPS panel delivers authentic colors as envisioned by content creators. Producing intense photographic realism and color depth by expanding the dynamic range between true darkness and high brightness, SW271 clearly displays high-resolution images from sophisticated DSLRs and other HDR source devices.

Drones are creating more content than ever before, and with the announcement of the Seagate DJI Fly Drive, managing that surge of data is about to get easier. The first data solution to come from Seagate and DJI's strategic partnership, Fly Drive will allow drone pilots to efficiently back up their photo and video content on location, thanks to its large storage capacity, integrated MicroSD card slot, quick transfer speeds and durable build. It also comes with a complimentary two-month subscription to Adobe Premiere Pro CC, part of Adobe Creative Cloud-placing the keys to creativity in the hands of drone enthusiasts everywhere.

Today at NAB, HP Inc. announced a true Cinema 4K display, arming color professionals with new features, like color-critical accuracy and automatic calibration, to produce the films and animations of tomorrow. Designed in collaboration with top visual effects and animation studios, the new HP DreamColor Z31x Studio and HP DreamColor Z24x G2 displays are enabling artists, photographers and filmmakers to do what they do best -- create -- without having to worry about lackluster display performance.

"From the purest black to the most vivid rainbow of colors, our new DreamColor display for Cinema sets the gold standard for color accuracy and ease-of-use at a disruptive price point to outshine the competition," said Josh Peterson, vice president of product management for Z Workstations. "The new DreamColor Z Displays will be a gamechanger for studios and digital creatives who rely on color-critical accuracy and extreme performance."
An early pioneer in the color-critical display market, HP DreamColor Displays, for PCs and Mac computers, have been an integral technology for major movie production and visual effects studios around the world. Since 2011, 80 percent of Academy Award Nominees for Visual Effects have used HP DreamColor displays. In 2015, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honored the HP DreamColor Display and its developers with the Scientific and Engineering Award.

At CES 2017, Dell has unveiled yet another addition to their monitor product line, and this one is drool worthy: an 8K, 32" UltraSharp monitor, with an insanely high resolution of 7,680 x 4,320 at 60Hz. Labeled as the world's first 32-inch 8K resolution display with Dell PremierColor, the UP3218K offers 1.07 billion colors and packs in more than 33 million pixels - four times as many as a 4K display and 16 times more than Full HD. That means it offers a PPI rating of 280 - which translates into "very high" settings for a desktop screen.

HP today introduced technology advancements designed to help artists, creatives and developers more quickly and efficiently bring designs and products to life. "As the leader in the workstation industry, we continue to develop customer inspired innovative solutions that solve real-world business needs," said Jeff Wood, vice president of product management, Workstation & Thin Client Business, HP. "Solving the storage bottleneck, delivering a light full-performance mobile workstation and allowing creative professional advanced visual solutions will bolster customer design workflows."

Dell plans to launch the first consumer 5K monitor some time in December 2014, priced at just under $2,000 a pop. This comes in the wake of Apple launching the first consumer product with a 5K display, its latest iMac Retina all-in-one desktop. Dell's UltraSharp UP2715K is a 27-inch display with 5K (5120 x 2880 pixels) native resolution, which lends it a staggering 218 ppi of pixel density. Compare that to the 157 ppi of 28-inch Ultra HD monitors. 5K is four times as many pixels as WQHD.

The UltraSharp UP2715K features a 10-bit IPS panel, with 99 percent Adobe RGB and 100 percent sRGB palette coverage, and a 12-bit LUT. It offers viewing angles of 178°/178°, 8 ms response time, 350 cd/m² maximum brightness, and 1000:1 static contrast-ratio, with dynamic mega-contrast. The display needs two DisplayPort connections for sufficient bandwidth, to beam those many pixels at 60 Hz. There's also a mini-DisplayPort, but using that would either cap resolution at 3840 x 2160 @ 60 Hz, or drop refresh-rate at the native resolution.

Japanese display maker Iiyama rolled out the ProLite XB3070WQS, a 30-inch LED-backlit LCD monitor, for graphics professionals. The display features an AH-IPS panel, with 2560 x 1600 pixels native resolution (16:10 aspect ratio), and offers 99 percent coverage of Adobe RGB palette, and 146 percent of sRGB. Other vital specs include 5 ms response time, 350 cd/m² maximum brightness, and 1,000:1 contrast-ratio, with dynamic mega-contrast. The LED brightness is controlled by rheostat instead of PWM, and so it doesn't flicker at lower brightness settings. Display inputs include dual-link DVI, D-Sub, DisplayPort 1.2, and HDMI 1.4 (runs the display at lower refresh rates). The stand offers basic tilt and swivel functions. The displays started selling in Japan.

AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced that AMD A-Series APUs, AMD Radeon graphics and AMD FirePro professional graphics deliver superior performance to unlock the full potential of the latest features and capabilities announced by Adobe for its flagship Adobe Creative Cloud professional video tools and workflows. New high performance AMD-powered OpenCL debayering for Phantom Cine and Canon RAW camera formats joins previously unannounced debayering of RedR3D, CinemaDNG, and Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera JPEG formats, unlocking real-time editing, effects and color grading for massive production productivity and lightning fast rendering to deliver projects on time and at high quality.

"Speed and performance are essential ingredients that ensure video producers are productive every day and successfully compete for business, engagement and client satisfaction," said Steve Belt, corporate vice president, Strategic Alliances and Platform Enablement, AMD. "Pros know that they can rely on the combination of OpenCL support in Adobe Creative Cloud and the associated AMD hardware acceleration to deliver a steady stream of advanced tools that set them apart creatively and productively."

AMD today announced that its APUs and GPUs enable accelerated performance for powerful new creative workflow features available for Adobe Creative Cloud members. The latest additions to Adobe Photoshop CC will take advantage of AMD acceleration to provide valuable creativity and productivity tools. Some of these tools include motion blur effects for the next generation of Blur Gallery, a focus selection feature that enables users to quickly select in-focus areas of an image and an enhanced image resample option that preserves fine details when upscaling images.

"The collaboration of AMD and Adobe assures creative professionals access to the performance they need to make the most of incredible new features as they become available across Adobe Creative Cloud," said Steve Belt, corporate vice president, Strategic Alliances & Platform Enablement, AMD. "AMD acceleration connects the fantastic creative and productivity enhancements in Adobe Photoshop CC to the compute performance required for an effortless user experience."

HP today announced two new HP DreamColor Displays, once again disrupting the color-critical display market by achieving new levels of affordability and color accuracy. The HP Z27x and Z24x displays for PCs and Macs feature HP's second-generation DreamColor Engine and provide up to 1.07 billion on-screen colors, achieving color error so small that it is not discernable to the human eye. Compared to the previous-generation product, the new displays include up to 60 percent more pixels, contain up to a 4,000 percent increase in the internal color palette and are up to 57 percent thinner.

NVIDIA today announced its GPUs are powering the upcoming releases and new GPU-accelerated features of Adobe Creative Cloud video applications, such as Adobe Premiere Pro CC, Adobe After Effects CC, SpeedGrade CC, Adobe Media Encoder (AME), and Adobe Anywhere. The upcoming releases were revealed by Adobe at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show.

NVIDIA's GPUs are a "must-have" tool for Adobe video professionals -- enabling the fastest performance across the widest range of Creative Cloud applications, whether working in HD or 4K, desktop or mobile, workstation or cloud. NVIDIA and Adobe have engaged in a long-standing effort to develop unmatched GPU-accelerated features designed for professional Video Editors, VFX artists and Colorists.

AMD today announced its ongoing collaboration with Adobe has yielded numerous performance optimizations for new creative functions and workflow enhancements that will be available soon to video professionals using Adobe Creative Cloud. This latest wave of features includes high performance debayering for RED camera R3D media files, enhanced performance for new masking features, a new time-saving master clip capability and other tools.

Today's announcement builds on the already impressive additions the companies have made available in recent months, which began with OpenCL support through the Adobe Mercury Playback Engine to speed up Adobe Premiere Pro CC workflows. AMD App Acceleration via the open standard OpenCL API brings the massive parallel compute power of AMD A-Series APUs, AMD Radeon graphics, and AMD FirePro professional graphics to bear on the sophisticated capabilities within Adobe Premiere Pro CC, Adobe SpeedGrade CC, and Adobe Media Encoder CC. That performance also scales with AMD dual-GPU configurations, including dual AMD FirePro GPUs for the latest generation Apple Mac Pro systems.

At this year's IBC (International Broadcasting Convention), AMD is collaborating with outstanding industry leaders -- Adobe, Autodesk, Blackmagic Design, Dell, Fusion-io, and Supermicro -- to showcase video production workflows with a variety of 4K sources using AMD FirePro professional graphics. These demonstrations feature compute- and graphics-intensive animation, display, and content creation supported by a host of creative hardware and software collaborations.

AMD is pleased to showcase ground breaking demonstrations at IBC 2013 powered by AMD FirePro graphics:

• First public showing of real-time 4K color correction with Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve 10 and Supermicro with multiple GPU support;
• First implementation of edge blending, image warping, and color correction with Scalable Display solution based on AMD FirePro DOPP (Display Output Post-Processing) feature;
• New Direct Graphics-Memory Access features for low-latency SDI input or output directly from AMD FirePro W-series graphics;
• New Dell mobile workstation lineup with AMD FirePro graphics;
• 4K color calibration, 2D / 3D video effects and post production using OpenCL in Adobe Premiere Pro CC;
• Integrated stereo camera within Autodesk 3ds Max with support for Active Stereo;
• OpenCL-accelerated Bullet Physics extension for Autodesk Maya 2014.

AMD today announced that its collaboration with Adobe has reached a new milestone in the drive to deliver faster and more sophisticated professional video workflows. The two companies' leadership in OpenCL acceleration means that video and film professionals, as well as enthusiasts, can take full advantage of the massively parallel compute power of AMD APUs, Radeon graphics, and AMD FirePro professional graphics in their everyday and more compute-intense workloads.

New breakthrough features and efficient workflows announced by Adobe for Adobe Premiere Pro CC, Adobe SpeedGrade CC, and Adobe Media Encoder CC exploit AMD App Acceleration via OpenCL and deliver streamlined, leading edge support for Blackmagic Design and Vision Research Phantom cameras.

AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced the AMD FirePro M4100 professional graphics, on mobile workstations such as the HP ZBook 14 giving outstanding OpenCL performance powered by award-winning AMD Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture. The new thin and light mobile workstation with an optional touch screen interface is ideal for product development, mechanical computer-aided design (CAD) and engineering, as well as for artists, video editors, photographers and designers -- a wide set of users of professional applications who require true mobility.

"Together, AMD and HP offer workstation users industry-leading technologies in a portable design that deliver users next-generation, powerful mobile graphics processors for exceptional workstation performance," said David Cummings, senior director and general manager, Professional Graphics at AMD. "Designed for the enhancements of Windows 8, the new HP mobile workstation combines with AMD FirePro M4100 to deliver superb workstation functionality on the go."

Samsung is going into IFA 2013 with a gargantuan lineup of displays and consumer electronics, two of which are bound to grab eyeballs by the bunch. The first of the two is a 31.5-inch ultra HD (3840 x 2160 pixels native resolution) PC monitor. Given its only other known specification, it will be geared more toward graphics professionals, than gamers. The display is said to offer 99 percent coverage of Adobe RGB colorspace. The other big (literally) display product on Samsung's booth will be a huge 98-inch video-wall, which is also ultra HD-capable. Video walls make for good commercial boards.

HP today announced the first professional monitors of the new Z Display family as well as new entry-level Z Workstations that offer reliable and flexible workstation performance at PC-like prices. HP is continuing to drive innovation across an evolving workplace with the introduction of the HP Z22i, Z23i and Z24i IPS Displays. Offering outstanding image accuracy and mission-critical reliability, the HP Z Displays are optimized for use with HP Z Workstations. HP Z Displays are ideal for engineers, architects, designers and photographers who require image accuracy at an affordable price.

Building upon HP's award-winning Z series of workstations, the new HP Z230 Workstation, available in a tower or small form factor (SFF), is built for demanding application workloads. The HP Z230 is a great choice for knowledge workers and specialists, design engineers and creative designers who require rock-solid reliability at an affordable price. Designers using applications like Autodesk AutoCAD and photographers using Adobe Photoshop will benefit from the new functionality of the HP Z230.
"Our customers want products that are designed and engineered to meet the most demanding computing and visualization needs, and HP's Z moniker has become synonymous with meeting that challenge," said Jeff Wood, vice president, Worldwide Product Management, Commercial Solutions Business Unit, HP. "The new HP Z230 Workstations and Z Displays meet these workload demands at an affordable price, and demonstrate HP's leadership in providing solutions for professional solutions at all levels."

After a successful collaboration with AMD over the past two years to leverage open standards to drive amazing quality, scalability, and performance for our customers - Adobe has just released Adobe Photoshop CC and Adobe Premiere Pro CC. Now users can get the production releases of these flagship products which have been optimized to the massive compute power of AMD APUs, AMD Radeon HD graphics and AMD FirePro professional graphics to enable GPU-accelerated performance across a broad range of form factors through the OpenGL and OpenCL open standards. As highlighted in recent blogs, these optimizations are significant because, not only do they result in faster final render times, but more importantly, they enable users to apply effects and preview their edits in real-time, enabling greater productivity. This is great news for end-users everywhere, who now have unprecedented choice in using the hardware that best suits their needs. AMD-based systems coupled with Adobe's shift to the affordable and innovative Adobe Creative Cloud model for managing licenses and software updates can now put these latest Adobe creative tools in the hands of more users than ever.

NVIDIA today announced that it is unleashing the full graphics potential of enterprise desktop virtualization with the availability of NVIDIA GRID vGPU integrated into Citrix XenDesktop 7. NVIDIA GRID vGPU technology addresses a challenge that has grown in recent years with the rise of employees using their own notebooks and portable devices for work. These workers have increasingly relied on desktop virtualization technologies for anytime access to computing resources, but until now this was generally used for the more standard enterprise applications. Performance and compatibility constraints had made it difficult for applications such as building information management (BIM), product-lifecycle management (PLM) and video-photo editing.

Two decades ago hardware-based graphics replaced software emulation. Desktop virtualization solutions stood alone as the only modern computing form without dedicated graphics hardware. As a result, an already busy virtualized CPU limited performance and software emulation hampered application compatibility. The situation began to improve a year ago with the introduction of the non-virtualized GPU in Citrix XenServer. But efficiency gains were limited because each user still required a dedicated GPU.