NASA’s ongoing Kepler mission to find Earth-like planets fit for human colonization has discovered a total of 461 new candidates, the agency announced today. The discoveries have collectively increased the Kepler catalog of planets by 20 percent since this time last year.

Kepler is a space observatory. Its telescope searches for Earth-like planet candidates by measuring the change in brightness of more than 150,000 stars. Brightness fluctuations often indicate a planet orbiting around the star in question. Once Kepler logs three such transits, the potential planet is identified and added to the catalog for further investigation.

In Feburary 2012, Kepler mission scientists had confirmed 33 of these candidates as bona fide planets. With the past year’s research, 105 planets have been identified and confirmed.

“The analysis of increasingly longer time periods of Kepler data uncovers smaller planets in longer period orbits– orbital periods similar to Earth’s,” said Steve Howell, Kepler mission project scientist at Ames,” in a statement on the news.

“It is no longer a question of will we find a true Earth analogue, but a question of when.”

Interestingly, all the Kepler data is available to the public as an archive of exoplanets. The archive containts interactive tables, published light curves, images, spectra and parameters, and time-series data from surveys.

The Kepler mission has been active since March 2009. It was originally conceived as 3.5-year mission; however, the unique challenges of “big data” processing have collectively contributed to the mission’s extension into 2016.

Image credits: NASA Ames Research Center/W. Stenzel, Image credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech

When Nvidia introduces a new graphics chip architecture like Kepler, it can launch a bunch of chips based on it. It does so by varying the amount of memory, pipelines, subprocessors, and pricing. So it’s no surprise that the world’s biggest stand-alone graphics chip maker is launching two new graphics processing units (GPUs) based on Kepler.

The GeForce GTX 660 is a midrange chip targeted at $229 graphics cards, while the low-end GeForce GTX 650 is targeted at $109 cards. At those price points, Santa Clara, Calif.-based Nvidia is quadrupling the performance compared to its prior offerings. For gamers, this means that games will look better on hardware that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.

The cards are aimed at games that exploit Microsoft’s DirectX 11 graphics standard, including titles like Call of Duty: Black Ops, Assassin’s Creed III, and World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria. The GTX 660 is four times faster than the previous GeForce 9800 GT chip it replaces. The GTX 650 is eight times faster than the 9500 GTii.

The GTX 660 and GTX 650 are available from graphics card makers ASL, ASUS, Colorful, ECS, EVGA, Gainward, Galaxy, Gigabyte, Innovision 3D, Jetway, Leadtek, MSI, Palit, Point of View, PNY, Sparkle, and Zotac. Kenilworth, N.J.-based Maingear is announcing today that it will have a whole line of desktops that take advantage of the two chips, which are in the “sweet spot” for gamers in terms of performance, power efficiency, and affordability. That kind of broad industry support means that Kepler will likely make it into the mainstream PC in a big way.

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In gamer talk, Nvidia says it is unveiling a new weapon of choice for gamers today. In English, that means a new graphics chip. Starting at $299, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti GPU (graphics processing unit) is a new midlevel graphics chip that can keep up with the latest high-end PC games.

The new chip, pictured within the add-on graphics card above, is based on the powerful Nvidia Kepler architecture that the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company introduced in March with its high-end chip, the GeForce GTX 680.This new chip is the kind of gadget that will help the PC take back the throne of top gaming machine from the video game consoles.

When Nvidia launched that chip, it reclaimed the throne as the world’s fastest graphics chip, something only gamers or scientists at NASA could appreciate. The new chip will make its way to more of the mass-market, price-conscious gaming enthusiasts. As such, Nvidia says it will bring blazing-fast game graphics to a much wider market.

The chip is a sequel to the GTX 560 Ti (based on the previous-generation Fermi architecture) from 2011. The 660 Ti is 41 percent faster than the 560 Ti, and it is 58 percent faster than the GTX 470 chip from 2010. The 660 Ti falls below the GTX 670, GTX 680, and dual-GPU GTX 690 in the graphics hierarchy. As such, it is Nvidia’s most affordable high-end chip.

The GTX 660 Ti has support for DirectX 11 tessellation, TXAA, and PhysX technologies. That means it will play games faster, with smoother imagery and more realism. Using tessellation means that a character such as Max Payne from Max Payne 3 will have ears that look real, rather than blocky or jagged (as pictured). It can drive three displays from a single graphics card. James Wang, product manager, said in an interview with GamesBeat that the 660 Ti can keep up with rival cards that cost $50 more while consuming 25 percent less power.

Nvidia said that the 660 Ti will run Max Payne 3 at 44 frames per second, compared to a barely acceptable 29 frames per second on the GTX 470. The new Secret World game will run at 61 frames per second on the 660 Ti, compared to 31 frames per second on the GTX 470. The TXAA anti-aliasing technology means that buildings won’t shimmer when you move down a street in a realistic shooter game.

When you put two GTX 660 Ti cards paired together in a single machine, the performance beats rival Advanced Micro Devices’ chip by 21 percent. Those who buy a new GPU from a participating retailer or web site will get a voucher for a free copy of Gearbox Software’s Borderlands 2, which launches next month. Borderlands 2 runs at 78 frames per second on a 660 Ti, compared to 45 frames per second on a GTX 470. Nvidia says the 660 Ti is 20 percent to 30 percent faster at running games than the AMD Radeon HD 7870.

The 660 Ti is based on a 28-nanometer Kepler architecture (a nanometer is a billionth of a meter). It has 1,344 CUDA cores and consumes 150 watts of power.

Suppliers shipping cards with the new 660 Ti include ASL, ASUS, Colorful, ECS, EVGA, Gainward, Galaxy, Gigabyte, Innovision 3D, Jetway, Leadtek, MSI, Palit, Point of View, PNY, Sparkle, and Zotac.

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Enthusiast gamer PC maker Maingear is launching a series of desktop computers that won’t bust a gamer’s budget. They’re still high-end machines, but they take advantage of the high-end 3D graphics of Nvidia’s new GeForce GTX 660 Ti graphics chip that debuted today. Nvidia’s chip goes into a $299 graphics card that are far cheaper than the company’s high-end $999 GeForce GTX 690 dual-card options.

Kenilworth, N.J.-based Maingear is a boutique maker of gaming rigs, including desktops, notebooks, and workstations. The company says the Kepler-based Nvidia chips hit the sweet spot for gamers in terms of performance, power efficiency, and affordability.

The 660 Ti will be in all Maingear custom desktops, and the company is also launching two limited-edition F131 and Potenza class systems with the 660 Ti.

“Nvidia’s Kepler architecture is more than robust,” says Wallace Santos, the chief executive and founder of Maingear. “It’s the creation of a standard. With the debut of TXAA — which smooths out jagged lines — across the Kepler family, gamers will find a noticeable improvement in graphics for the latest games. I feel that our customers should be able to experience that without breaking the bank.”

Several other rival computer makers will launch Nvidia-based computers today as well. But it won’t hurt to be in the front of the pack.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Nvidia announced today that it has created unique features in its Kepler-based graphics chips that could make cloud-based gaming much more practical. The company has also formed partnerships with companies such as Gaikai to make cloud games much cheaper and more appealing to gamers and maybe even eliminate the need to create a new generation of consoles.

That latter possibility may be a remote one for now, but the fact that it is possible suggests the potential disruption that could occur if Nvidia executes its vision for cloud gaming: Multi-brained graphics chips in data centers will be able to handle computing tasks for home players.

Jen-Hsun Huang, chief executive of graphics chip maker Nvidia, made the announcement today in his keynote speech today at the GPU Technology conference in San Jose, Calif. The cloud graphics announcement was one of several that Huang made today.

In an interview with GamesBeat, Nvidia senior vice president Dan Vivoli said Kepler-based graphics chips will be able to handle four times as many server-based games at the same time while using half the power and running at half the cost.

“The beauty of this approach is that GPUs will continue to improve all of the time,” said Vivoli. “Your hardware stays the same, but the data center hardware can be upgraded to handle better games.”

Game streaming companies such as OnLive, Gaikai, and Otoy have introduced cloud infrastructures in the past few years that enable users to play high-end games on low-end hardware. The serious computing is handled in the data center, and video is streamed to the user’s computer, where only a display is needed to view the game. Servers in the data centers can use high-end graphics cards to handle high-end games, but it usually takes one expensive graphics card to process one game being played by one user.

But with improved multitasking on Nvidia’s Kepler-based graphics chips, each data center server can handle multiple users at a lower cost. That makes cloud gaming more economical, Vivoli said.

The Kepler-based chips have also been designed to reduce the latency, or time it takes for an interaction between computers, for cloud gaming. That means that there won’t be a perceptible delay in playing cloud games.

“You might play a game in the cloud and have a better response time than the console,” Vivoli said. “Our architecture is so fast we can hide the latency of the network.”

Nvidia is partnering with Gaikai, which has 24 data centers in the U.S., to help reduce network latency. Nvidia is building a grid-based computing platform, dubbed Nvidia GeForce Grid, for Kepler-based machines to access. Together with cloud graphics software, the Nvidia GeForce Grid will be enable cloud-gaming companies to operate with lower operating costs, said Phil Eisler, general manager of cloud graphics at Nvidia.

At the conference, Nvidia and Gaikai demonstrated a virtual game console, consisting of an LG Cinema 3D Smart TV running a Gaikai application connected to a GeForce Grid GPU in a server 10 miles away. The demo showed it was possible to create instant, lag-free play on a highly complex PC game, with only an Ethernet cable and wireless universal serial bus game pad connected to the TV. The partners said they could stream a game to a user in less than 10 milliseconds. That means a user wouldn’t notice delays.

Time Sweeney, chief executive of Epic Games and a well-known graphics expert, said, “Cloud has the potential to deliver an even more powerful experience in the future by enabling ultra-high-end GPUs like the GeForce GTX 680 to stream ultra-high-quality graphics such as those made possible by Unreal Engine 4 to a huge range of devices, well beyond console capabilities. The result will be that more people can enjoy Epic’s games on more devices at higher quality.”

Cloud-based games have other benefits. Users can log into a game on one computer and continue playing on another.

“You will have the access to the latest and greatest GPUs (graphics processing units),” Vivoli said. “The question is what consoles will be in a few years. It becomes a lot easier to deal with piracy with cloud gaming.”

Vivoli said that the cloud-based graphics will create more disruption in the game industry, and they could enable new business models for game companies and console makers. You could, for instance, play high-end games on a TV that has no console hardware. Or you could play high-end games on an iPad that might not ordinarily be able to run them. Vivoli said this is the biggest change in graphics chips since Nvidia introduced the GeForce 256 graphics chip a decade ago and since the 2006 introduction of CUDA, which enabled graphics chips to perform general-purpose computing tasks.

Nvidia’s partners in the effort include Gaikai, OnLive, G-Cluster, Ubitus, and Playcast. Among server makers, Nvidia’s partners include HP, IBM, Amazon, Dell, Cisco, and Supermicro.

In addition to cloud graphics, Nvidia is announcing some other changes that will get more performance out of each GPU. With Hyper Q technology, Kepler-based GPUs will be able to handle 32 tasks at a time, compared to one task for the previous generation of Fermi graphics chips. Now it will be much easier to keep a GPU’s different cores busy.

Nvidia will also launch a feature called dynamic parallelism, which divides processing tasks into bite-sized chores that improve the efficiency of the processing. It enables better utilization of the GPU.

Nvidia will also release two new Tesla graphics cards (the K10 and K20) for high-end workstations. One of those, the K20, will go into the Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Nvidia-based supercomputer.

The makers of virtualization software have been able to modify their software to virtualize graphics technology. Now, using Nvidia’s enterprise-focused Nvidia VGX platform, enterprise servers can use high-end graphics processing and allow enterprise clients to tap into that graphics power. Using virtualization software such as Citrix or Xen, the user can now access high-end graphics software using a low-end client. That enables a new kind of remote computing, where an engineer could access complex engineering drawings using an iPad.

“We’re now able to create enterprise level graphics or virtual graphics,” Vivoli said. “You can access enterprise software with your iMac at home, and it will run as if your machine was a Tesla workstation.”

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Maingear is announcing today that it is shipping a new gamer PC with the world’s fastest graphics processing unit (GPU), the Nvidia GeForce GTX 690.

Kenilworth, N.J.-based Maingear said that the new computer will have versions featuring up to quad-card Scalable Link Interface (SLI), where four of the cards link together to produce a single output in the machine. The gamer PC boasts 75 percent faster performance compared to systems using the older GeForce GTX 680 chips. And the new machine will also run quieter since the GTX 690 can run on just 300 watts of power, or half the level of previous PCs.

Nvidia launched the GTX 690 card, which has two graphics chips based on the Kepler architecture, last week. The GTX 690 has 3,072 Nvidia CUDA cores, which can handle both graphics and non-graphics processing tasks. The card delivers close to double the frame rates of the Nvidia GTX 680, which has a single Kepler-based chip. The single-card 690 is more power efficient and quieter than a system with two GTX 680 cards running in SLI configuration. Nvidia introduced the 680 last month.

A version of the PC with a GTX 690 GPU can run graphics with a screen resolution of 2560 x 1600.

“The New GeForce GTX 690 is quite simply a work of art,” said Wallace Santos, chief executive and founder of Maingear. “It reminds us of when Nvidia introduced the very first GeForce 256, a market-dominating product that set the standard time after time. Everything about this card just screams power, performance, and perfection.”

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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With the debut of  its code-named Kepler project, Nvidia is retaking the crown today as the creator of the world’s fastest graphics chip. Most people may not care about that, but hardcore gamers who play the latest games will be happy.

The new chips will take PC technology a leap forward as the chips make their way into new gamer desktops and other high-end machines. Nvidia paid a lot of attention to balancing the system’s power efficiency, so new computers based on the machine will not only be fast, they’ll be more power efficient, will fit in a smaller space, and will operate more quietly.

The next-generation chip is called the GeForce GTX 680 and is the result of 1.8 million man-hours of work over five years. With this chip, Nvidia reclaims the fastest-graphics-chip title from Advanced Micro Devices’ code-named Tahiti chip, formally known as the AMD Radeon HD 7970, analysts say. The 680 is just one of several new models of chips based on the Kepler architecture. Already, new laptops are being introduced with Kepler-based notebook graphics chips, dubbed GeForce GT 640M.

As an example, a single graphics card with the new chip can run Epic Games’ high-end game demo, Samaritan, without any visible flaws, Nvidia’s Justin Walker, senior GeForce product manager, told VentureBeat that. And it can do so using a power supply that consumes 195 watts. Last year, it took three Fermi-based GeForce GTX 580 graphics cards running on a power supply with 730 watts to run the same demo.

“This is the fastest and most efficient GPU (graphics processing unit) ever built,” Walker said. “It’s a game changer for us.”

The combination of performance and power efficiency means that Nvidia will likely score a lot of wins in Ultrabooks, the Intel-based laptops that are thin like the MacBook Air but affordable and fast. Nvidia’s new GeForce 600M series of Kepler-based graphics chips will be used in the notebook computers. Both the desktop chips and the laptop chips are available now. And the days of loud fans or exotic power supplies may be numbered. The 600M series will likely be used in Ultrabooks with Intel’s upcoming Ivy Bridge processor.

Rene Haas, general manager of Nvidia’s notebook graphics division, said that, contrary to popular belief, laptops with standalone graphics chips are not disappearing despite the introduction of combo microprocessor-graphics chips from Intel and AMD. In 2011, computer makers shipped 75 million laptops with standalone graphics, Haas said. Nvidia has four mobile chips in the 600M family: the GeForce 640M, the 620M, the 660M, and the 675M. Laptops with those chips will be able to play all of the top 30 PC games, Haas said.

Patrick Moorhead, analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy, said that up until this point it was tough to get discrete graphics chips into Ultrabooks because of the power constraints. ”Kepler decreased power by half at the same performance point and also enables sophisticated power sharing between CPU (central processing unit) and GPU,” he said.

The previous GeForce GTX 580 had a total of 512 cores, with 32 streaming multiprocessors in each core. The 680 has 192 streaming multiprocessors in each core and eight cores altogether, for a total of 1,536 cores. Full told, the 680 has more than 3.5 billion transistors, the basic components of electronics, compared to 3 billion in Fermi.

Kepler can run three high-definition monitors in stereoscopic 3D, whereas it took two Fermi boards to do the same thing. AMD’s graphics chip can run six screens at the same time, but Nvidia’s Walker said the only time six screens is useful is at a trade show. Gamers don’t want to play with six screens because the bezels between the screens are too disruptive, he said.

Kepler chips are based on the 28-nanometer process at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. That compares to 40-nanometer technology used in the previous generation Fermi chips, which debuted in March 2010. Nvidia said that the 680 is 300 percent faster in DirectX 11 tessellation performance and 43 percent faster than AMD’s Radeon HD 7970 in cutting-edge games such as Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Many games run about 20 percent faster.

Walker said the 680 has twice the performance per watt of the GeForce GTX 580. The 680 also has some new technologies, including a “streaming multiprocessor block,” known as SMX, that is more power efficient. The new FXAA and TXAA antialiasing technologies help get rid of the jaggies, or jagged diagonal lines in games. And they do so without slowing the overall speed of the graphics chip as much as in the past. The 680 can also now run 3D Vision, Nvidia’s stereoscopic 3D solution, in a single graphics card.

Kelt Reeves, president of Falcon Northwest, a maker of high-end gaming systems, said,“The GTX 680 lays down what should be whiplash-inducing speed at the sound of a whisper. Even at full throttle, it doesn’t heat up. In the immortal words of Obi-Wan describing a lightsaber, it’s ‘an elegant weapon for a more civilized age.’”

Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games, said he used a GTX 680 to demo a preview of the Unreal Engine 4 for select developers at the recent Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Manufacturers making graphics cards with the 680 include ASL, Asus, Coloful, ECS, EVGA, Gainward, Galaxy, Gigabyte, Innovision 3D, Jetway, Leadtek, MSI, Palit, Point of View, PNY, Sparkle, and Zotac. The cards will sell for $499. Computer makers shipping laptops with the new chips include Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, LG, Samsung, Sony, and Toshiba.

An Acer Timeline Ultra M3 laptop uses the GTX 640M graphics chip, and it weighs 5 pounds, is 20 millimeters thick, and has an eight-hour battery life. By comparison, in March 2010, you could buy an Alienware laptop with a GeForce GTX 285 that weighed nine pounds, was 50 millimeters thick, and had three hours of battery life.

Nathan Brookwood, analyst at Insight 64, said, “No doubt about it, Nvidia has reclaimed the single-chip performance crown. The high-end is a small niche with big bragging rights. The challenge will be to move the new technology to mainstream price points.”

Jon Peddie, analyst at Jon Peddie Research, said the bragging rights for having the fastest graphics chip are always fleeting. But he is impressed with how much faster Kepler is than the older Fermi chips.

Jen-Hsun Huang, chief executive of the Santa Clara, Calif.-based graphics chip maker, said at the company’s GPU Technology conference today that Nvidia will introduce new graphics chips in 2011 and 2013, the first code-named Kepler, the second Maxwell.

The Kepler chip, slated for 2011, will be three to four times more power efficient that the company’s mainstay Fermi chip, which was introduced in March of this year. Maxwell, which arrives in 2013, will be 16 times more efficient than Fermi. In a press conference after his keynote speech, Huang said that Nvidia would shift to introducing big families of new chips every two years, instead of doing that once every year as it had done in past years. Huang said the reason for that is that Nvidia has to rely on manufacturing upgrades for chip factories that come along every couple of years. [Nvidia points out that it has consistently introduced major architectural changes every couple of years, with some exceptions when it runs into delays].

But Huang said that Nvidia will still redesign its chips and introduce new ones just about every year. These “mid-life” kickers will be redesigns of chips that use a current manufacturing process. Nvidia designs graphics chips and then hands them over to contract manufacturer Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which fabricates them. Nvidia then sells the chips to computer makers and add-on board makers. TSMC upgrades its chip factories to a new manufacturing process technology every couple of years.

Huang noted that Nvidia doesn’t talk about its roadmap. Rivals will note that the chips talked about today are “vaporware.” In fact, in October of last year, Huang stood up at the company’s conference holding up a Fermi-based graphics card. But Nvidia didn’t introduce Fermi-based chips until March. But Huang said there are hundreds of engineers working on the Kepler and the Maxwell chips.

Nvidia didn’t reveal anything new about its Tegra chips for cell phones and tablet computers. In the press event, Huang said the Tegra business is a year behind his goals, but he noted the adoption of Tegra 2 (which is a microprocessor with graphics that uses an ARM-based processor) is “phenomenal.” He said that Tegra 2 chips will be used in a class of cell phones known as “superphones,” the topic of VentureBeat’s MobileBeat conference in July.

“These superphones are going to be really important to us, and the tablets too,” Huang said.