Trends & Market Research

Keyshot at SWW19

Revisiting KeyShot, a dedicated rendering tool for CAD users Is always a revelation. Sold as a standalone or plug program, Keyshot is a professional tool with an emphasis on ease of use. It’s well entrenched in the SolidWorks customer base, but there’s plenty of competition from within. SolidWorks, which has its own rendering module, Visualize, which is based on GPU … Read more

Nvidia’s Q4 FY19 results

Nvidia reported revenue from most platforms—Gaming, Datacenter, Professional Visualization, and Automotive saw a decline.  The company’s GPU business revenue was $1.98 billion, down 19.5% from a year earlier and down 28.6% sequentially.  Revenue was down 24% year over year and down 31% sequentially, driven primarily by a decline in Gaming. Full-year revenue was up 21%, reflecting growth in each of … Read more

AMD at SolidWorks World

Rendering and VR are strong messages for graphics vendors at SolidWorks World 2019 and AMD was riding high on those bandwagons. In addition, AMD is highlighting new GPU accelerated features in SolidWorks 2019. The company also highlighted new workstation options. In short, AMD had a pretty good story to tell at the show. The Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer telescope is a … Read more

Nvidia showcases VR, AR, and rendering at SolidWorks World 2019

At SolidWorks World 2019, Nvidia was selling the merits of its Turing RTX 4000 graphics board to workstation users. At the conference, Nvidia highlighted the advantages to be gained by Nvidia’s dedicated cores for rendering and also enough onboard memory to handle large models and assemblies. VR and AI also got their share of the spotlight.  Nvidia demonstrated its support … Read more

SolidWorks shakes up the status quo at SWW19

Dassault is reeling its SolidWorks community in a little closer. At SolidWorks World, the company unveiled new products for SolidWorks based on the 3DExperience Platform, Dassault’s environment for its enterprise products. This is an ongoing goal for Dassault, which hopes to build a stronger company by integrating all of its many moving parts.  At the end of 2018, Dassault acquired … Read more

AMD Q4 2018 results

AMD reported its quarterly results for calendar Q4 2018, revenues and operating income were up year-over-year as well as its graphics and compute groups revenue and profits.   “We delivered our second straight year of significant revenue growth, market share gains, expanded gross margin and improved profitability based on our high-performance products. Importantly, we more than doubled our EPYC processor shipments … Read more

Intel Q4 2018 results — announces CEO appointment

Intel has reported its results for calendar Q4 2018. Revenues were up 9.3% year-over-year showing strength across the businesses. The company is expressing optimism even as it searches for a new CEO and was forced to present a low-key keynote for CES this year.   “A number of geopolitical dynamics are going to weigh on ultimate consumers and enterprise desires to … Read more

Big year for graphics in the Academy’s Science and Technical Awards

The Academy Awards have been announced and now the jockeying for position has begun, but all the deciding has been done for Academy’s Science and Technical Awards and the usual suspects welcome a new entrant to the ranks. Maxon’s Cinema 4D has been recognized for the first time by the Academy. Per-Anders will be awarded an Academy of Motion Picture … Read more

CES 2019, a gap year

The gadget show of the year showcased new tech in all categories: from health care to TVs, cars, and robots. The darlings of the past, like 3D printing and VR, didn’t get quite the same play but cars and their entertainment systems are always there as are new TVs and PCs.  The CES Innovation awards are a little like third-grade … Read more

Imagination: Back in Black

Imagination Technologies is on its fourth CEO in three years, is in the process of losing its major customer, and is still dealing with the aftermath of the disastrous acquisition and subsequent fire-sale disposal of MIPS.  A job like that seems nearer the nightmare than the dream job end of the spectrum so I took advantage of the whole world … Read more