Just recently I got a brand new AMD HD6850 graphics card. My old Nvidia 8800 GTS started showing its age, so a replacement was in order. AMD’s HD68xx series presented an excellent price/performance ratio, so I got me one. I was sailing into the unknown seas here, it has been a while since I had ATI/AMD graphics card. I heard that fglrx drives got better and that support is decent. Oh boy, I was wrong …

Warning: This article is now obsolete. Catalyst 11.4 drivers that are now available, and also shipped with Ubuntu 11.04, support 68xx series out of the box.

Upgrade procedure (in steps!)

• Turn off your computer
• Remove the old graphics card
• Install new graphics card
• Turn the computer back on

When I play games I play them in the other OS and there the performance was actually an issue. That is why I booted Windows 7 first. Low resoluton login screen, but not much trouble. Then I went to the AMD website to search for the drivers. They surprised me with this here little message:

Note! AMD Catalyst™ 10.11 does not provide support for the AMD Radeon™ HD 68xx series of graphics cards. Full support for these graphics cards is targeted to be available in the AMD Catalyst 10.12 driver release.

In the meantime, the AMD Catalyst 10.10e Hotfix driver can be obtained here: http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/gpu88-catalyst-10-10e-hotfix.aspx

Excuse me? Are you actually selling hardware that does not have a proper driver? Seriously? I was already sorry that I didn’t spend more money on NVidia.

Hotfix driver was around 120MB download. I was shocked, I always am when I am downloading drivers. You must know that I am so old that I remember drivers as .COM TSR programs that were only a few kilobytes long. After the installation graphics card was working just fine.

Note that just yesterday (Dec 13th, 2010) a new driver, 10.12, was released.

How about Linux?

If you’re running Linux you will have a bit more trouble. You can download Linux driver from here. I will update the post with the official download link when I find one.

The best way to install would be to switch to the text mode with CTRL-ALT-F1. Then remove all the fglrx stuff from your computer, locate all the files in question with

$ sudo -sH
# locate fglrx
# rm ..... all of the above .....

This worked for me. Your mileage may vary and don’t come back crying if you deleted something you shouldn’t have. ;) If you had Nvidia driver before, make sure you remove all the Nvidia drivers and kernel modules. If you end up with a black screen instead of login window, a good chance is that you forgot to remove nvidia drm module for xorg.

Now you can safely run the driver installation (note that 32bit driver will have a different name) from the folder where you downloaded it:

$ sudo ./ati-driver-installer-10-12-x86.x86_64.run

When installation is complete you are ready to reboot. Here are the things that do not work or they work only partially:

• You will get an “Unsupported hardware” watermark on your screen in the lower right corner.
• Multi display desktop is only available when you have two monitors (or more) with the same resolution.
• Switching to “Single display desktop (multi desktop)” and turning on Xinerama helps. But if you try to run amdcccle (Catalyst Control Center) Xorg will crash and die a horrible death.
• Documentation? We don’t need no stinky documentation! Seriously, AMD? If your documentation is incomplete and it looks like someone was dragged away from the keyboard while they were still writing it, please, don’t include it in your package. Writing your own xorg.conf file from scratch is close to impossible if you have a bit more complicated monitor setup. And yes, two screens with different resolutions (1680×1050 and 1600×1200 in my case) in a seamless one-big-desktop configuration is considered complicated.

Documentation excerpt from /usr/share/doc/fglrx/user-manual/index.html:

<h2>Configuration</h2>
A
<h2>Supported Features</h2>

Well, other than those issues you’ll be fine. ;) To get rid of the ugly unsupported hardware watermark, use the script below. I found it on phoronix forums.

#!/bin/sh
DRIVER=/usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/fglrx_drv.so

for x in $(objdump -d $DRIVER|awk '/call/&&/EnableLogo/{print "\\x"$2"\\x"$3"\\x"$4"\\x"$5"\\x"$6}'); do
 sed -i "s/$x/\x90\x90\x90\x90\x90/g" $DRIVER
done

Here’s the generated xorg config file that I use. Again, my configuration is: two monitors, different resolutions, dual head display with xinerama turned on to support one big desktop.

/etc/X11/xorg.conf:

Section "ServerLayout"
	Identifier     "amdcccle Layout"
	Screen      0  "amdcccle-Screen[1]-0" 0 0
	Screen         "amdcccle-Screen[1]-1" 1680 0
EndSection
 
Section "Module"
	Load  "GLcore"
	Load  "glx"
	Load  "dri"
EndSection
 
Section "ServerFlags"
	Option	    "Xinerama" "on"
EndSection
 
Section "Monitor"
	Identifier   "0-DFP3"
	Option	    "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
	Option	    "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
	Option	    "DPMS" "true"
	Option	    "PreferredMode" "1680x1050"
	Option	    "TargetRefresh" "60"
	Option	    "Position" "0 0"
	Option	    "Rotate" "normal"
	Option	    "Disable" "false"
EndSection
 
Section "Monitor"
	Identifier   "0-DFP4"
	Option	    "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
	Option	    "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
	Option	    "DPMS" "true"
	Option	    "PreferredMode" "1600x1200"
	Option	    "TargetRefresh" "60"
	Option	    "Position" "0 0"
	Option	    "Rotate" "normal"
	Option	    "Disable" "false"
EndSection
 
Section "Device"
	Identifier  "amdcccle-Device[1]-0"
	Driver      "fglrx"
	Option	    "Monitor-DFP3" "0-DFP3"
	BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection
 
Section "Device"
	Identifier  "amdcccle-Device[1]-1"
	Driver      "fglrx"
	Option	    "Monitor-DFP4" "0-DFP4"
	BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
	Screen      1
EndSection
 
Section "Screen"
	Identifier "amdcccle-Screen[1]-0"
	Device     "amdcccle-Device[1]-0"
	DefaultDepth     24
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     24
	EndSubSection
EndSection
 
Section "Screen"
	Identifier "amdcccle-Screen[1]-1"
	Device     "amdcccle-Device[1]-1"
	DefaultDepth     24
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     24
	EndSubSection
EndSection<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;"><span style="line-height: 19px; white-space: normal;"><strong>
</strong></span></span>

Come on AMD!

Start working more openly with the community. We’re almost begging for more support. Release the documentation, let us help. AMD HD6850 is a nice piece of hardware, but Linux community will ignore it if we don’t get more support.

Sony continues with surprises. I will fire up my PS3 and update to the latest and the greatest system update. User agreement v1.4 – nothing new about that, accepting and checking turn off the system auto-magically after the update, and waiting … Must say that Sony could do a little more for us technical geeks. For example while we wait for download to complete we could browse through a list of new features, bug-fixes, possible new bugs, commercial about how movie downloading is the same as stealing.

Anyway since Sony doesn’t have this information available for us, Eric has a job that requires from him to pass some of this information to us. You know the tech geeks. And this is what Eric reported:

“Hi everyone, in our continued effort to provide the best, most comprehensive entertainment experience possible, we’ll be adding a few new features to PlayStation 3 (PS3) via the latest system software update, which is a mandatory update and will be available shortly.

Most notably, you’ll see some new sorting options within Trophies that make it easier to claim bragging rights among your friends on PlayStation Network.

• Trophy enhancements – Now you can more easily sort trophies in the [Trophy Collection] and [Comparing Trophy] sections. Sorting can be done with [Trophy Collection] in the [Game Category] and also when comparing trophies with your friends in the [Friend Category]

• Trophy Folder (Title List) can be sorted by game name/ by title according to the date in which you earned your last trophy (ascending/descending)

• Add-on list (Group list) can be sorted by original/the date in which you earned your last trophy (ascending/descending)

• Trophy list can be sorted by original/trophy name/grade/date of obtaining the trophy (ascending/descending)

In addition, this update preps the PS3 system for some upcoming new features, including 3D stereoscopic gaming, which is coming soon to PS3, in time for the launch of Sony’s 3D BRAVIA TVs.”

Update and you will have the capability to sort your trophies. I will never understand why is sorting called a mandatory feature.

After almost a year of rumors and guessing, on the 7th January, 2010, Sony announced that it is dedicated to bring the 3D experience  to consumer homes. Announcement was made at Consumer Electronics Show (CES). As seen from announcement 3D will be integrated into most aspects of Sony’s product line meaning consumer electronic devices, TV and movie content and game devices.

The latest information is really interesting because it means that PS3 will be able to play stereoscopic games. The update which will enable stereoscopic game play will be available through PS3 update which will be available sometime in the summer 2010. Playback of “Blue-ray” discs with 3D content will also be able on PS3 with later updates.

Read more for additional information about first experience with 3D stereoscopic games.

Now that the wait is over and we know the plan and release dates I asked my self: Was there any actual gamer experience at CES with 3D stereoscopic game play? As it happens some of the games that were played on the PS3 in 3D stereoscopic mode were MotorStorm: Pacific Rift, WipEout HD, Gran Turismo 5: Prologue, Super Star Dust HD and Dark Void. Online gaming magazines and gaming sites are full of reviews so I am sure you will not have trouble finding them, but if you don’t the overall score from Kotaku is that Super Star Dust rocks, Gran Turismo is playable but could be better and Dark Void is not really what was expected. Kotaku explains that Dark Void developers were pushed onto 3D stereoscopic train and it looks that they got more negative press than expected. Overall testers were pleasantly surprised. At this time it is still unknown if stereoscopic effect is transperently added to the games by PS3 or do the games need additional updates of game engines.

For consumers to fully experience the stereoscopic 3D you will naturally need active shutter glasses which will have to synchronize with television display. Television displays will have to be able to produce frame sequential HD resolution image. For more friendly consumer orientation check the following video and start a separate saving account.

Disclaimer: twm-kd.com is not responsible for any damage to your hardware if you decide to repeat the unboxing. We are doing this knowing that warranty will be void after the procedure.

He stated that the update will include the following features and improvements:

• Social networking integration by linking your PlayStation Network account to Facebook. PS3 will; upon users confirmation, publish trophy and PSN store activity. Although we applaud that users will have a choice weather to publish their personal information on their Facebook wall, we are not convinced that this will work through XMB menu system.
• The Photo category on the XMB has been revamped to make it easier to see more of your photos stored on your PS3
• The PSN Friends List has been modified based on feedback we received after update 3.00. Additionally, you can now choose a color for your PSN ID on the XMB.

Additional features list will follow upon 3.10 release. When? Soon.

Edit: Sources at 1UP.com state that PlayStation 3 firmware update 3.10 will be available later today on the November 18 2009.

Image via Wikipedia

A while ago I decided that as a geek I need to equip myself with binary clock or a digital clock made with Nixie tubes. Until now the idea was brewing. It was almost 15 years since I designed a circuit board by myself and it was a little less time ago when I was soldering something. I had to find an already made kit that didn’t require designing the circuitry from scratch. Pretty soon I ruled out the binary clock since they can be easily obtained in any geek store. Nixie tube clock is a completely different story altogether. Tubes are nowadays relatively rare and much harder to get. After some digging and my distrust to purchase a bunch of easily shattering glass tubes on e-bay, I found tubehobby.com which offered various nixies and complete clock kits. For a relatively low price of $99 I ordered complete nixie clock kit. Kit included all the electronic parts and the Nixie tubes. There was no power supply and casing. Power supplies are easy to get and you’ll be able to find one in your local radioshack store.

Kit from tubehobby.com had basic online instructions on how to assemble it, what kind of power source is required to drive the clock and few tips about setting up everything.

Assembly was fun and memory reviving experience. I do recommend that you use sockets for integrated circuits since they are more delicate and harder to replace if you damage them with too much heat at soldering. When you buy chip sockets make sure you double check what you’re buying or you’ll end up like me. With one wrong socket and a decision about waiting one more day with the assembly. Instructions were clear and easily understandable, but you’ll need a background in electronics and circuit design if you want to make this to work. If you never held a soldering iron in your hands I recommend that you get someone to help you.

Two things that gave me a little headache during the assembly. Setting the firing voltage for tubes – there is a small potentiometer on the board and a capacitor where you need to measure the output voltage of the driver. A slight, tiny move of the potentiometer changed the value by 10V or even more, so finding that 160V was quite a task. Second problem was more of a dexterity issue. See, the tubes have 13 long and bendable pins that need to go through 13 tiny holes that are very close together. It took me about 5 minutes to insert each tube. :)

Apart from one broken separator bulb, kit from tubehobby.com was perfect. I am not sure if separator bulb was broken during transport or if I fried it when I connected the clock for the first time. Separator bulbs can be set in three different modes. They can blink once per second, then can be used as an AM/PM indicator if you use 12h clock format, they can be constantly lit or you can switch them off. Only one bulb was working for me and I found the blinking highly annoying. I turned it off and I’ll probably remove both bulbs from the circuit board sometime in the future.

Of course, you need to see the video of nixie clock in action.

As expected with every major update the stability of an operating system can become quite an issue. Sony‘s 3.00 firmware update about which you were informed previously is not an exception. Many issues plague this newly released monstrosity.

Among them some crashes of the best PS3 game called Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. There are also reports of bugs in friend list, dual shock 3 controllers losing signal, louder fans, poor wi-fi signal.

Since I am a PS3 user I can understand the rage of the other like me who updated to firmware to 3.00. Specially with the hardware quirks that presented themselves with the update. But for Sony the real problem is money. Games not running or crashing means loss of profit and bad publicity. Therefore Sony stepped up and announced a minor update called 3.01 which is available from the September, 14th via System update.

3.01 fixes some of the more pressing issues. Games will continue to run. So Sony says.

Recently BigWhale reported that PS3 prices will plunger. Subsequently old PS3 versions will lose its value due to the new, slimmed down PS3 version. Now there is some hope even for us mere mortals who own the original version of PS3.

On September, 1st you might have been surprised to find out that Sony launched its 3.00 version of PS3 firmware. Let’s look what goodies they prepared for us.

Here is a list of changes that Sony included in 3.00 update:

• New XMB™ (XrossMediaBar) screen design

• Information panel

• Folder levels

• Copying text

• The annoying – What’s New

• Audio Multi-Output

• HDD Content Audio Language and HDD Content Subtitle Language

• Using the wireless controller for fast forward and fast reverse operations

• Printing a Web page

• Saving a Web page as an image

• Viewing messages in the profile screen

If you are interested in details you can read them at the official update page .

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We’ve been reading about new batteries on a monthly basis and if all those predictions come true and all those announcements turn into workable products then in the next five years our notebooks will need to recharge once a week and we’ll never have to worry about power management again.

A quick recap of some battery news so far.

• With winter coming to an end MIT announced reduced recharge time for batteries.
• Some other smarties at MIT surprised us with batteries based on liquid metal only a week later.
• Then, two weeks later it was Toshiba with more juice in their batteries.
• Cheap Scotsmen came up with the idea of St. Andrews Air battery. Five to ten fold increase in capacity! Approximately one month behind Toshiba.

Are we done? Not yet.

• Again a month later there were Canadians at the University of Waterloo. They merely tripled the capacity of their batteries.
• Basically at the same day IBM apparently invested in batteries that will last ten times more than batteries last today.

Now we just have to sit and wait and hope for the mixed solution from Scotsmen and IBMers!

Due to slow booting times users tend to keep their computers plugged in and powered up  24/7. This increases their total power usage. So, how can we help prevent higher power usage of PC‘s?

We all agree that consumers of power in computer system are components that are attached to the computers main power supply. Main power supply supplies power from the power grid. Additional devices with independent power supplies can be included with computer. I am thinking of monitor, speakers, printer and cable modem. With one word we will call all this devices “a system”. To calculate an average power usage of the system we will check an average computer system and try to calculate how much power does it use while working, while idle and while in suspended mode. Now if we could only get the characteristics data for our power supply.

To understand how much power the power supply in your system requires we need to understand the power supply. Intended usage of power supply is to change the higher outlet voltage to desired lower system voltage. There is no need to keep money in the bank while choosing power supply for your system.  If power supply does not properly convert higher voltage to lower voltage, irregular power signals are transmitted into the system which can result in damage or higher power usage. Check the maximum wattage rating of power supply. This rating needs to be higher than your required power usage of the system. When looking at the power supply combined wattage, have in mind that there are three main rails in the power supply: a 3,3V rail, a 5V rail and 12V rail. Each of them can have its own amperage and by summing all of the wattage’s we get combined wattage of power supply. Calculation should be done with this formula:

wattage of PC = 3.3V*(amperage at 3.3V) + 5V*(amperage at 5V) + 12V*(amperage at 12V)

Do not confuse maximum wattage with peak wattage. Peak wattage is absolute maximum of wattage a power supply can produce. This is done for a short time only and then the power supply or the system components can be damaged. To calculate the wattage of the whole system we use the following formula:

wattage of system = wattage of PC + wattage of monitor + (wattage of other devices if they exist)

The calculated number does not mean the constant usage of the system power. Rather it means maximal possible power usage (and bear in mind we are not talking the peak usage).

Try to calculate the power consumption of your system using formulas above, while we will find the data on the net. Average system in idle should use somewhere around 220W of energy. Now this would mean: idle CPU, monitor turned on and other components turned on. When system uses the CPU – so computer is not idle, let say the computer will use 350W of energy. In the stand-by mode the same computer will use around 30W of energy.

Based on this average power consumption and the time table that we use computer about 2 hours per day, have it turned on about 6 hours per day and in standby the other time we can calculate that daily power consumption of our system is around 2.15kW of energy daily. On a yearly basis 784kW of energy – of that 197kW was used while computer was in stand-by mode. You can calculate your own computer power usage based on this example.

What about those instant-on OS machines.  Our assumption was that we have computer turned on 24/7 due to slow boot time of the OS’s? Instant-on OS sure give us faster boot time. But it also gives us limited number of applications that we can use. But surely they are used on the same hardware with the same power consumption that your system will use. Or are they?

It is possible that some of the instant-os manufacturers use specific hardware and have written specific drivers for their OS. Some of them are stored in specific chips which don’t require hard drive access, but are limited by RAM usage. Those systems could have smaller power consumption.

I don’t think that instant-os will save the planet. We will have to do our part. But power supply manufacturers could do theirs. For instance create a power supply that uses less energy or maybe – god forbid – 0W of energy while system is in stand-by mode and is comercially available to the public.

I can dream can’t I?

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