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Aug 1, 2006 12:00 PM, By Dan Ochiva

Does Core 2 Duo Unseat AMD?
Introducing Digital Content Producer’s
The Briefing Room
Inbox
Skillset

Does Core 2 Duo Unseat AMD?

By Dan Ochiva

A bevy of websites concur that Intel is finally back on top with the debut of its Core 2 Duo processors. The microprocessors mark the end of Intel's long-running Pentium era, with the new chip's benchmarks leaving even its most recent dual-core Pentium D far behind.

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) faces its greatest challenge since its Athlon CPUs — typified by the top-of-the-line Athlon 64 FX-62 — beat out Intel as the most popular, high-end desktop chip line during the past two years.

In an extensive review on techreport.com, kudos sounded: “After years of wandering in the wilderness, Intel has recaptured the desktop CPU performance title in dramatic fashion. Both the Core 2 Extreme X6800 and the Core 2 Duo E6700 easily outperform the Athlon 64 FX-62 across a range of applications…”

If you plan to edit video or take on post chores, the new Intel Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Extreme push beyond anything currently available. As the folks at Hard OCP measure it, “There is no doubt that when it comes to editing video, manipulating images, or encoding music, the Intel Core 2 Duo and Extreme processors, at 2.66GHz and above, currently enjoy a healthy performance advantage over AMD's Athlon FX and Athlon 64 line of processors.”

Intel's taking the top spot is more than building more horsepower into a CPU. At the beginning of the decade, the company claimed that its processors would be running at 10GHz well before the end of the decade, but a chip with higher internal speeds turned out to be inefficient; drawing more and more power meant generating more and more heat with every added gigahertz.

These days, however, power efficiency in desktops, as well as notebooks, has become key in purchasing decisions. Acoustic noise counts, too. Lower internal heat means that the fans in edit suite workstations run much quieter. This is one area AMD usually won, and it launched a marketing counter offensive to contend the point.

AMD argues that we should measure the power consumed by the entire computer. This would seem to give AMD the lead with its claim that its Thermal Design Power (TDP) rating is based on the maximum power the CPU draws, while Intel exaggerates its power rating because it's based more on typical power consumption.

But, as George Ou points out on ZD Net's Blogs page, extensive tests on tomshardware.com revealed Intel was conservative in its ratings for its C2D Extreme X6800 processor with its stated 75W TDP. AMD claimed it would win in actual tests, but it rates its new Athlon 64 FX-62 Extreme processor at 125W.

AMD will fight back with support for faster DDR2 memory (which Intel already supports) and the launch of the 4×4 platform. This setup delivers four cores of processing power by placing two Athlon 64 X2 processors on a single motherboard connected by AMD's Direct Connect architecture. AMD plans to follow that up in 2007 as it makes more sweeping changes to its processors.

But today, the verdict is in. According to a wide range of websites, Intel's new lineup is on top by a considerable margin. For a closer review, see Slashdot, which pulls together Core 2 Duo reviews from across the Web: hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/17/0612202.

In case you don't want to jump on the latest CPU bandwagon, expect to be treated to a price war as Intel moves out its Pentium stock, even while AMD fights to keep market share.

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Introducing Digital Content Producer’s

Blackmagic's Multibridge Extreme 2K Capabilities Demo at Siggraph 2006

Blackmagic Design announced that Multibridge Extreme will be used to demonstrate 2K and realtime 10-bit HD on Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0, using 1 Beyond's new OctoFlex 8-processor professional workstation and IntelliRaid FC-XPR, in 1 Beyond's booth, #206, at Siggraph.

Beyond's OctoFlex is capable of handling uncompressed 2K and 4K film, multiple layers of uncompressed realtime effects, and high-resolution HD projects using Windows XP. 1 Beyond's IntelliRaid FC-XPR features 16 SATA2 drives with RAID 6 protection and dual 4 Gigabit Fibre, which can achieve more than 500MBps, or more than 1GBps aggregate, in a SAN configuration.

Massive Software Announces Artist Talks at Siggraph 2006

Massive Software, the leading developer of artificial life-based 3D animation systems, announced a series of artist talks for Siggraph 2006, open to Siggraph attendees at the Massive Software Booth, #1023. The line-up includes behind-the-scenes presentations that go inside the techniques used to create stunning Massive shots and scenes on a range of feature film and commercial television projects.

Digital Rapids Releases Powerful Stream 2.3 Software Update

Digital Rapids, a leading developer of scalable solutions for content ingest, encoding, transcoding, protection and delivery, has released version 2.3 of the Stream software. The Stream software provides a simple, streamlined interface for video and audio ingest, encoding, transcoding and distribution with Digital Rapids DRC-Stream, StreamZ, and StreamZHD media encoding systems. Stream 2.3 includes new video processing plug-ins, extended MPEG support, additional Closed Caption support and much more.

D2 Software Invites Artists to Explore Nuke with Free Downloadable Version

At Siggraph 2006, D2 Software, a subsidiary of Digital Domain, is announcing that it will make a free non-commercial version of its Nuke compositing software available for download on Aug. 31, 2006 from www.d2software.com. The new version is designed to enable artists, students, and graphics professionals to learn and experiment with the high-end Nuke toolset used by 40 visual effects companies on films such as Titanic, I, Robot, My Super Ex-Girlfriend, The Ant Bully, King Kong, The Wild, and many other film, commercial, and animation projects.

With the new trial version, artists can explore the high-end creative toolset found in the current commercial version of Nuke, including the 3D workspace with .OBJ support and 3D camera projection, image-based keying, 64 channels of EXR image data, and many more features developed by artists specifically to address the challenges of high-end compositing.

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Inbox

Other software-based streaming media solutions

Mr. McAuliffe, thanks for your excellent review of Live Channel 2.2. I've been looking into that kind of software myself, and thorough, unbiased reviews of the kind you delivered are in short supply.

You alluded to other solutions. Do you know of any other software-based programs that perform essentially the same functions as Live Channel? Particularly ones that run on Windows-based computers?
Blair Golson

Tom Patrick McAuliffe responds: Thanks for writing. Like you, we are working digital media creators and we put the products we review through real-world tests. Glad you found the review on Live Channel 2.2 helpful.

Yes, there are some good software-based streaming media solutions for Windows. One is from Optibase called MPEG ComMotion Pro, which encodes and transmits up to 16 live and pre-recorded video or TV feeds (up to six of them in realtime). However, it runs on the older Windows 95/98/NT operating systems. Check it out at optibase.com. There's also the VideoLAN.org open-source Windows software — and that's free.

Multicam article missed good tools

While I agree with the results in Multicam Roundup: Part 1 (digitalcontentproducer.com/workflow/multicam_roundup_part), and I also agree that the Vasst multicam tool is a good tool (I'm assuming that Infinit-Cam was the tool used), there are other multicam tools also available for Sony Vegas. For example, Vasst also has two additional tools: Quad-Cam, which is in Ultimate S and can handle up to four cameras, and Duo-Cam, which is free, but can only handle up to two cameras.

However, there is also another product available for multicam in Vegas: Excalibur. Excalibur has presets for up to 25 cameras (and could handle more, but, realistically, how many shoots would use more than 25 cameras?). It also has all the features you mentioned about the Vasst tool and includes some features not found in any other multicam solution. One specific example is the ability to specify that a dissolve will be centered on the marker, happen after the marker, or finish at the marker. Excalibur was also the first multicam tool available for Vegas more than three years ago, when the other NLEs were only dreaming of gaining multicam abilities.

For more information, take a look at jetdv.com/excalibur and its multicam sample video. Excalibur was the only multicam tool that worked in Vegas 4, and the current version works in Vegas 5 and 6 — including live switching in Vegas 6.
Edward Troxel
Developer of Excalibur

Articles discussed in Inbox can be found at:

• digitalcontentproducer.com/dcc/revfeat/video_channel_storm_live
• digitalcontentproducer.com/workflow/multicam_roundup_part

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Skillset

DV Camera and Lighting Bootcamp
Aug. 19-20
San Francisco
$295
www.dvworkshops.com

Designed for beginners or those who wish to improve their basic DV skills, DV Camera and Lighting Bootcamp invites students to shoot on location and conduct hands-on lighting exercises. Instructed by award-winning documentary DC filmmaker Aron Ranen, participants will learn the five elements of documentary, DV camera use, white balance and color temperature, camera menu functions, the best microphones for each documentary situation, and basic documentary preproduction.

Avid DS Level I
Sept. 18-20
Los Angeles
$1,295
www.moviola.com/edu

This three-day introductory course will familiarize students with the Avid DS SD and HD workflow in editing, audio, and media management, as well as effects and animation. Topics include storyboarding, editing with dialogue, multicam techniques, color correction, and audio effects.

Avid DS Level II
Sept. 21-22
Los Angeles
$895
www.moviola.com/edu

Building from the level one fundamentals, this two-day course introduces more advanced graphics, effects, and animation techniques. Topics include using the effects tree, scratch removal, luma keyer, and advanced titling.

Apple Final Cut Pro 5 Level 101
Sept. 22-24
Los Angeles
$850
www.weynand.com

Designed for beginners in Apple Final Cut Pro 5, this course will teach students how to use the program's feature set in an editing environment. Covering topics such as basic setup, capturing video and audio, and multicam editing, the course comes complete with the Apple Pro Training Series, Final Cut Pro 5 including a DVD of all the video material used in the course. Perfect for either Final Cut Express or Final Cut Pro users, this class uses world-class documentary footage to get you closer to becoming an Apple Certified user (test available for those who would like to take it).

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