I’m not too sure launching the HD3780X2 and G92X2 cards was an inspired move on AMD/ATI’s and NVIDIA’s behalf. I mean the next-gen R700 and G100 GPUs will be released some time in the second half of 2008 and all the GPU makers can think of is how to get people buy relatively expensive stuff in shorter and shorter periods of time.

It’s clear that AMD/ATI is going for the dual or even multi-GPU platform and NVIDIA will certainly adopt something similar for their G100 GPUs. But sometimes, some GPU integrator like Asus comes along and shatters the balance between performance and price. Asus might be on AMD/ATI’s side when we take a look at their latest video card – the tri-GPU EAH3850 Trinity.

If NVIDIA has its Tri-SLI concept, why not help AMD/ATI counter that with a tri-GPU card, just for the sake of equality? CrossFireX would bring new multi-GPU setups and NVIDIA will go even further with G92X2 in Tri-SLI mode, but I did not expect anyone to actually use more than two cores with a single card.

Maybe ASUS wants to prove its ingenuity, demonstrating that it can go beyondAMD/ATI’s concepts. So here we have the EAH3850 Trinity - a three RV670 core video card monstrosity cooled by a heatpipe construction and a water block. The card is still just a concept and it hasn't been decided when or if it's going to be released, but Asus claims it works big time. A guess benchmarks will soon emerge and reveal the true potential of this setup.

The design of the card is quite unique, ASUS choosing to use a kind of modular design where two cores are located on the back and one on the front, each on their own daughter card. The cores are directly cooled by heatsinks and heatpipes that transfers the heat away from the cores to the heatsink located in the rear of the card, which in turn is cooled by a water block.

You also get a totoal of four DVI ports which can be used with up to four monitors, when CrossFire is deactivated. The big water cooling unit fits into two empty 5.25" slots. Really looking forward to learn about the actual retail price of this monster.

CPUs are way behind GPUs. It was nothing like this when dedicated GPUs appeared in the mid 1990s but now its more than a fact. That’s why ATI and Nvidia are aiming at general purpose GPUs (GPGPUs) with their next-gen series. And that’s why Intel is preparing its Larabee CPU-derived GPU that it’s supposed to leave ATI and NVIDIA with a fat lip. ATI also prepares the Fusion array of products which will combine CPUs and GPUs in a single chip. OK, I digress, but for a solid reason: CPUs are not fast enough as they’re supposed to. It’s because the CPU manufacturers still use some old technologies.

Nowadays, the CPU components are interconnected with nano-scale wires or pipelines and this is one of the obsolete technologies I was talking about earlier. Just think about simulating the Big Bang or create artificial intelligence for instance. With present day technology, you need a cluster of parallel-supercomputers to initiate large-scale simulations and AI computations. That’s beyond energy efficiency. The idea is simple: replace the nano-scale wires with something that would transport information faster. Replace them with lasers.

In this sense, Sun Microsystems has just received a $44 million contract from the Pentagon to play around with lasers. They're to work on a way of connecting silicon chips via lasers, which, if successful, will increase chips speeds by a factor of thousands.

If all works according to pla, it would be possible to create more-compact machines that are a thousand times faster than today's computers. Each chip would be interconnected directly with every other chip in the array via a beam of laser light that could carry tens of billions of bits of data a second. However, Sun claims that they are only expecting a 50% success rate, so we might not see any commercial implementation until they figure out how to up the success rate.

22’’ monitors can’t really display true 1080p content. OK, we’ll go for a 27” monitor, or a 30”… 37”? An HDTV would be nice. Whatever size you choose, keep in mind that if you want to be using the display as a PC monitor and a TV at the same time, you might be bumping into some problems. I use my 37” HDTV as a monitor and Vista won’t recognize it as a 1080p monitor unless I play with some drivers. I tell you, it gets pretty annoying when you reinstall Vista that often. I could use a video card that enables 1080p resolutions with plug&play capabilities and that’s exactly what Asus prepares for people like me.

The upcoming Asus Splendid HD1 video card is said to increase picture quality for HD content, as well as bringing true HDMI with audio and HDCP. 1080p content won’t be a problem anymore, thanks to the implementation of Asus' proprietary Splendid technology. Another interesting capability is the enhancement of color and dynamic contrast for photos. The included "Game Mode" will provide a better experience for FPS gamers.

In addition, the card can be set to run in “Demo mode” so users can compare the results and the experience of this card on different platforms. However, this card is only available in combination with Asus' discrete graphics card range, as an add-on. No word on pricing and availability for now.