Category Archives: Hardware news

The DreamBlaster S2P: General MIDI from a parallel port

Posted on March 9, 2019 by

In the interest of catching up, here is the second blog that is long overdue. I want to talk about the DreamBlaster S2P from Serdaco. I received mine over a year ago, and it actually was an early prototype. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Hardware news, Oldskool/retro programming, Software development | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Intel tries its hand at a discrete GPU again?

Posted on April 30, 2018 by

As you may have heard a few months ago, Intel has employed Raja Koduri, former GPU-designer at AMD’s Radeon division. Back then the statement already read: In this position, Koduri will expand Intel’s leading position in integrated graphics for the … Continue reading →

Posted in Hardware news | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments

The Covox years

Posted on November 28, 2017 by

I have covered various early sound solutions from the DOS/8088 era recently, including AdLib, Sound Blaster, PCjr/Tandy’s SN76489 chip, and the trusty old PC speaker itself. One device that has yet to be mentioned however, is the Covox Speech Thing. … Continue reading →

Posted in Hardware news, Oldskool/retro programming | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

nVidia makes good on their promise: DX12 support for Fermi

Posted on October 26, 2017 by

You might remember that in the months leading up to Mantle, DX12 and Vulkan, I mentioned that all of nVidia’s cards from Fermi and up would support DX12. This was also officially confirmed by nVidia on this page, and also … Continue reading →

Posted in Direct3D, Hardware news, Software development, Software news | Tagged , , , , , , | 18 Comments

AMD Zen: a bit of a deja-vu?

Posted on August 20, 2016 by

AMD has released the first proper information on their new Zen architecture. Anandtech seems to have done some of the most in-depth coverage, as usual. My first impression is that of a deja-vu… in more than one way. Firstly, it reminds … Continue reading →

Posted in Hardware news | Tagged , , , , , , , | 26 Comments

DirectX 12 and Vulkan: what it is, and what it isn’t

Posted on August 10, 2016 by

I often read comments in the vein of: “… but vendor A’s hardware is designed more for DX12/Vulkan than vendor B’s”. It’s a bit more complicated than that, because it is somewhat of a chicken-and-egg problem. So I thought I’d … Continue reading →

Posted in Direct3D, Hardware news, OpenGL, Software development, Software news, Vulkan | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

FutureMark’s Time Spy: some people still don’t get it

Posted on August 4, 2016 by

Today I read a review of AMD’s new Radeon RX470 on Tweakers.net, by Jelle Stuip. He used Time Spy as a benchmark, and added the following description: About 3DMark Time Spy has recently been some controversy, because it is found … Continue reading →

Posted in Direct3D, Hardware news, Software development, Software news, Vulkan | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments