benchmark

Testing tool helps evaluate high-end displays

A couple months back I attempted to test two 30-inch displays--the Samsung SyncMaster 305T and the Gateway XHD3000 Extreme HD-- at the same time using CNET Labs' current distribution amplifier (DA), the Extron Electronics D2 DA4 DVI D2 DA4 DVI. This device allows up to four displays to simultaneously view the same video signal from one system. For years we've used this device to not only speed up testing, but to do accurate direct comparisons as well. Unfortunately the native resolution for the aforementioned 30-inchers is 2,560x1,600, and the maximum resolution the Extron supports is only 1,920x1,200. So, without a means to test them simultaneously at their native resolutions I was stuck in a bind. I could have tested them one at a time, but since our testing--which includes DisplayMate--has a high level of subjectivity to it, it's always best to do direct simultaneous comparisons, instead of testing one display today and then waiting a couple days to test the next. Testing them simultaneously allows you to see the exact differences between the displays.

So I delayed the testing and the review for a few weeks. In the meantime I got in touch with a colleague at DisplayMate, Ray Soneira. He put me in contact with a company called Kramer. Kramer manufactures a number of distribution amplifiers including the Kramer VM-2DVI. This particular DA is Dual Link compatible and supports each 30-inch display's 2560x1600 resolution. So now I could test both 30-inch displays simultaneously at their native resolutions in DisplayMate and in our current games test, World of Warcraft. However whenever I attempted to run either our Kill Bill Vol. 1 DVD or our Swordfish BD on both displays at the same time, the DRM gods reared their ugly heads and denied me salvation. So when testing how each display handles disc-based movies, I was forced to evaluate each display one at a time. The Kramer VM-2DVI is not advanced enough to circumvent DRM tomfoolery, unfortunately. That said, we're still very pleased that the VM-2DVI allowed us to do the bulk of our testing as fairly and accurately as possible.

The issue of not being able to view certain disc-based movies simultaneously on two or more displays may not be an issue for long, as CNET Labs is considering moving away from using movies--and even games-- to evaluate the quality of a display. The reason being that video images generally move too quickly to do a picture quality comparison, whereas static images such as high-quality photos can be studied as long as necessary in order to examine their quality. No decision has been made as yet, though, but look for more on this in a future Inside CNET Labs post.… Read more

Kickfire's MySQL appliance blows the doors (and price tags) off proprietary databases

For those proprietary database vendors who have been hoping and praying that their myths about MySQL would persist ("For low-end applications, "Not high performance," etc.) , Kickfire just announced a MySQL-based database appliance that should wipe the smirks off Oracle and IBM.

If you get nothing else from this post, remember this: Big performance. Little price.

Kickfire, Inc. today announced the first MySQL database appliance that brings the high-performance capabilities of large commercial database systems to the MySQL market. The company...has built its appliance by developing an ultra-modern database kernel and a revolutionary SQL chip that packs the power of 10s of high-end CPUs. The result is a small form-factor MySQL appliance that delivers the high performance of large systems but with dramatically lower hardware, power, and cooling costs. Separately today, Kickfire and Sun Microsystems announced record-breaking TPC-H price/performance benchmark results that demonstrate the performance efficiency and price/performance leadership of Kickfire's design.

How high of performance?… Read more

First Atom benchmarks appear online

Atom, Intel's new processor family for small devices, has barely been announced, and yet already one German tech site has posted some benchmark results. ComputerBase is reporting that its 1.6GHz Atom chip fell slightly behind a 900MHz Celeron M chip on the Super PI benchmark.

That may not be enough to run an actual laptop (the 900MHz Celeron is best known as the chip inside the stripped-down Eee PC) but it should be enough for the mobile Internet devices that are destined to incorporate the new platform. Besides, energy efficiency, not performance, is the Atom's main selling … Read more

Personal finance site nabs $12 million from Benchmark

Mint, a personal finance site akin to Quicken, said Wednesday that it raised $12 million in a series "B" round of financing led by Benchmark Capital, the venerable VC behind eBay and Amazon.com.

Other participating investors include Shasta Ventures, First Round Capital and Felicis Ventures--which were all original backers of Mint.

Benchmark's endorsement is sizeable given that Mint launched less than six months ago. In that time, Mint has signed up more than 160,000 customers for its free personal finance services, according to the company. Mountain View, Calif.-based Mint helps people manage their credit … Read more

Benchmark deepens its open-source portfolio with $12 million Pentaho investment

If there was an open question as to which venture capital firm is the king of open source, Benchmark just settled that question with its most recent investment in Pentaho, a leading open-source Business Intelligence company. Not surprisingly, Peter Fenton is behind the deal.

Pentaho competes with other open-source BI companies like JasperSoft and Actuate (and I suppose Greenplum, too, in a way), but the more interesting competition is the big proprietary vendors (Business Objects, Cognos, etc.) and the net new opportunities bringing BI to the masses.

It will be intriguing to see how this investment pans out for Benchmark. … Read more

Benchmark adds open-source savvy Entrepreneurs in Residence

If you're looking for a seasoned, open-source savvy executive team, you might look to MySQL or another leading open-source company. But if you want that team to come with investment dollars attached, you'd do far better to look to Benchmark Capital. In addition to Kevin Harvey (MySQL, Red Hat, etc.) and Peter Fenton (JBoss, Hyperic, SpringSource, etc.), Benchmark just added four new EIRs (Entrepreneurs in Residence), two of which will focus on open-source investment opportunities.

Benchmarks's Bob Kagle notes the importance of EIRs:

By bringing seasoned executives into the firm to found new businesses or work with our portfolio companies, everyone benefits. They understand the challenges of running a start-up, and demonstrate by example what it takes to build, manage and lead fast-growth technology companies.

This is particularly true in open source, given the relative dearth of understanding of how to build a successful open-source business. Anyone who needs a hand in doing so will almost certainly want to tap into one of Benchmark's new EIRs: Rob Bearden.… Read more

Benchmark Capital: The open-source kingmaker

There are a range of venture capitalists that I like and would work with in a venture. At Alfresco I've been fortunate to work with Robin Vasan (Mayfield) and Kevin Comolli (Accel). I'd happily work with either again. They are entrepreneurial and empathetic. They're also helpful in cracking into a wide range of companies.

One firm with whom I've never formally worked but would engage in a heartbeat is Benchmark Capital. Matt Aslett of The 451 Group gets it exactly right in calling out Benchmark as the secret sauce behind a majority of the industry's successful open-source ventures...and exits:… Read more

What Benchmark's investment in Ruby on Rails support should tell us

Last week, Benchmark announced a $3.5 million investment in Engine Yard, which provides commercial support for Ruby on Rails applications. Engine Yard is doing $3 million in business and growing. It's also profitable. It didn't need the investment.

The investment, however, is very telling. When one of the top venture capital firms on the planet puts hard dollars behind a support model, it's significant. It becomes doubly so when the firm (or its investors) in question previously invested in JBoss, MySQL, SpringSource (Interface21), and other support-based open-source companies.

It may mean that Benchmark knows something that the rest of the industry seems determined to ignore: services-based businesses may well be the future of the software industry.… Read more

Flickr hits 2 billion shots

Today Yahoo-owned photo service Flickr hit 2 billion user-uploaded photos. The lucky uploader of photo number 2 billion isn't getting a free Flickr pro membership, but Yukesmook's picture of an Australian gum tree has already garnered more than 5,000 views and a slew of happy comments from Flickr users. Rival service Photobucket used to keep a live tracker of how many photos were being uploaded to the service before removing it shortly after the introduction of video hosting, however it was already well past the 2 billion mark in mid-February. In comparison, the latest published stats for … Read more

Intel G965 Driver Update: Performance Boost or Bust?

Back in mid-August, Intel's Nick Knupffer made a promise to casual 3D gamers by suggesting that a new driver update would give systems that use the Intel G965 integrated graphics chipset a much-needed performance boost. I was highly skeptical of this claim, but wanted to put Intel's claims to the test.

To test Intel's claims, I chose an Acer TravelMate 4720-6727 laptop, which uses a 2GHz Core 2 Duo T7300 CPU, 1GB of RAM, an integrated 965GM Express graphic chipset with 384MB memory allocated, and running Windows XP Professional SP2. While this hardware combination is not the … Read more