Motion graphics can be an invisible art. The animated graphical elements that are used to tell a story can do such a good job that the audience accepts them and the art disappears into the content so no one thinks about the signs in the sky, or the interface in their game, or the hero’s computer screen. On the other hand, … Read more
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 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
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
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
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 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
After reading and reporting on the financial results of AMD and Intel, and reading Nvidia’s cautionary letter to its shareholders, I have been struck by the resiliency and dynamism of these companies. AMD and Intel are in their fifties, and Nvidia is 25. That may not be as old as say General Electric, Konica, or Bayer but those staid … Read more
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
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
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
Lisa Su made her mark this year at CES. If you listen to the Hollywood chattering classes, you might think that there is no group of people as sexist as movie executives so it’s worth recalling that last year’s CES keynote lineup attracted the same sort of criticism. This was leveled at CTIA management for failing to find a single … Read more
