Dec 30, 2010

Wii2 Mk 2: Nintendo's 8G Console Hits the Gym

Since the last time I wrote about Nintendo's eighth-generation console development efforts, some major strides have been made that specifically address the top-five complains of the currently-shipping seventh-gen Nintendo console, the much-beloved Wii. (Those top-five complaints, for those who don't know, are: graphics, graphics, graphics, lack of a DVD player, and graphics.)

The Wii2 will have a much more muscular set-up than its predecessor. Much like the original Wii's competition, the Wii2 will have a core processor for running the operating system, game AI, and system IO but most of the game will be rendered by a combination graphics/number-crunching engine. But while this strategy resembles the beefy 7G powerhouses, the hardware will a touch of finesse that the competition doesn't seem interested in.

Dec 27, 2010

From Floppy to Flash: The New QNX Flash Demo

Long ago and far away, a little company called QNX Software Systems (QSS) had a tiny operating system. It was so tiny it ran on things like wristwatches, hospital machinery, and remote-controlled cars. So small was QNX that QSS decided to show off with a one-of-a-kind floppy disk demo.

About a dozen years later, QNX is doing it again. Thank to some new features in its newly-released QNX 6.5, QSS is distributing 256 MB flash drives with a full, working install of QNX 6.5 with multi-core support. But let's look back at the forerunner to this project.

QNX 6.5: Forgettable Upgrade

I can't let any year pass without reviewing QNX, especially not for a major upgrade. Despite being passed from Harman Kardon to Research In Motion like a dirty old dollar bill, QNX Software Systems released QNX 6.5.

My new 3.33 GHz Core i7 980X system with 24 GB RAM was screaming for a challenge, having eaten through Windows 7 and Ubuntu 10.10 in the last few months without complaint. Would QNX live up to its own hype?