AMD's Plan to Take Back Laptops: The Llano "APU" [Processors]

If you want a laptop with graphics performance that isn't totally embarrassing, you're pretty much stuck with some combination of Intel and Nvidia gear. Now, finally, the AMD Llano, a CPU/GPU combo, or 'APU', could give us a serious alternative.
AMD running with the 'Application Processor Unit' name isn't as gimmicky as it sounds, because the Llano is genuinely unique: It's four processing cores and a DX11-capable GPU on a single processor die. In simpler terms, this means that AMD has created a tidy little system on a chip, aimed at a few portable markets. In the simplest terms, they've shrunk laptop graphics and processing into a single chip, which saves power and space.

So! Not much is known about the Llano right now, but we can pick out some broad themes. The chip's power regulation is novel, monitoring specific chip functions to gauge power draw rather than sensors. The graphics capabilities, though still generally a mystery, wouldn't have to be very good at all to trump Intel's lame integrated graphics. In other words, as Ars notes, this could be the first real baby of the still torrid AMD/ATI marriage, and the start of an ATI comeback, at least in laptops.

Or, given that we're not expected to see these processors in products until 2011, when everything could be completely different, it could be none of these things.
[Gizmodo via Ars Technica]

Nvidia Fermi Next-Gen Graphics Architecture Has 512 Cores for Radioactively Melting Faces [Graphics Cards]

Fermi is Nvidia's new GPU architecture that's going to be the basis for all of its upcoming graphics cards. With 512 cores and 3 billion transistors, it will nuke Crysis.
The architecture really is a huge leap forward, according to people who've gone through it in-depth. Interestingly, the huge focus for Fermi is GPU computing. The first actual goods coming out using Fermi should be the GT300 series cards, which, besides the 512 cores sorted into 16 streaming processors with 32 cores each, uses a brand new GDDR5 memory setup.
PC Perspective has an epic write-up breaking down Fermi in detail that's worth a whirl, and of course Nvidia's got lots of fluff themselves all about Fermi. Strangely, they don't explain the name, which sounds like a sad little poodle. [Gizmodo via Nvidia, PC Perspective, Anandtech]

GPU-Accelerated Flash Player Provides Smooth HD Video, Arrives Next Month [Flash]

At last, here's a GPU-accelerated Flash player. That means two things: One, my laptop won't melt every time I run freaking Hulu. Two, since almost every Nvidia GPU is supported, even smartphones will be able to play HD Flash video.
Nvidia has been demonstrating builds of the GPU-accelerated Flash player around, and it's making an announcement on October 5. According to those who have seen it, it provides ultra-smooth high definition video playback, even on portable Tegra platforms.
About time. [Gizmodo via Notebookjournal.de via Hexus]

Video: Amazing 18-Foot Wide Super-HD Multi-User Multitouch Display [Multitouch]

It is probably the highest resolution interactive display outside of the military: Obscura Digital's newest, longest multitouch wall, revealed this weekend at the Hard Rock in Vegas, uses three projectors to handle 100 hi-res images and videos simultaneously in realtime.
This isn't the first Obscura Digital creation to catch our eye. We've seen 3D multitouch holograms, crazy building projections and an 8-by-4-foot Missile Command-playing multitouch wall.

The new 18-foot long wall scales across GPUs seamlessly, and automatically splits the workspace for up to 6 users to flick through Hard Rock photo and video memorabilia, with image resolution upwards of 12 megapixels.
Complementing the video tech, an audio system creates a pinpointed local audio experience, so that each user can interact with content without interfering with others.
Man, Microsoft Surface, eat your heart out. [Obscura Digital Blog]