6th millennium

The sixth millennium of the Gregorian calendar will begin on January 1, 5001, and end on December 31, 6000. It will be the sixth millennium in the Anno Domini or Common Era.

Astronomical events

Science predictions

Science fiction

Intel HD and Iris Graphics

Intel HD Graphics is a series of Intel's integrated graphics processors (IGPs) introduced in 2010 that are manufactured on the same package or die as the central processing unit (CPU).

Intel Iris Graphics and Intel Iris Pro Graphics are the IGP series introduced in 2013 with some models of Haswell processors as the high-performance versions of HD Graphics. Iris Pro Graphics was the first in the series to incorporate embedded DRAM.

In the fourth quarter of 2013, Intel integrated graphics represented, in units, 65% of all PC graphics processor shipments. However, this percentage does not represent actual adoption as a number of these shipped units end up in systems outfitted with discrete graphics cards.

History

Before the introduction of Intel HD Graphics, Intel integrated graphics were built into the motherboard's northbridge, as part of the Intel's Hub Architecture. This included Intel Extreme Graphics and the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator. As part of the Platform Controller Hub (PCH) design, the northbridge was eliminated and graphics processing was moved to the same die with the central processing unit (CPU).

GeForce 700 series

The GeForce 700 Series is a family of graphics processing units developed by Nvidia, used in desktop and laptop PCs. It is mainly based on a refresh of the Kepler microarchitecture (GK-codenamed chips) used in the previous GeForce 600 Series, but also includes cards based on the previous Fermi (GF) and later Maxwell (GM) architectures. A number of GeForce 700 series chips were released for mobile devices in April 2013. GeForce 700 series cards were first released in May 2013, starting with the release of the GeForce GTX Titan on February 19, 2013, and the GeForce GTX 780 on May 23, 2013.

Overview

GK110 has been designed and is being marketed with computational performance in mind. It contains 7.1 billion transistors. This model also attempts to maximise energy efficiency through the execution of as many tasks as possible in parallel according to the capabilities of its streaming processors.

With GK110, increases in memory space and bandwidth for both the register file and the L2 cache over previous models, are seen. At the SMX level, GK110's register file space has increased to 256KB composed of 65K 32bit registers, as compared to Fermi's 33K 32bit registers totaling 128 KB. As for the L2 cache, GK110 L2 cache space increased by up to 1.5MB, 2x as big as GF110. Both the L2 cache and register file bandwidth have also doubled. Performance in register-starved scenarios is also improved as there are more registers available to each thread. This goes in hand with an increase of total number of registers each thread can address, moving from 63 registers per thread to 255 registers per thread with GK110.

Acer Aspire

Aspire is a series of personal computers by Acer Inc. aimed at the casual household user or for small business use. The Aspire series covers both desktop computers and laptops. Acer developed the series to range from essentials to high performance.

The Aspire series was first brought to the market in 1999 when the Aspire 1151 was introduced and featured a 200 MHz Intel Pentium. The Aspire series then replaced the AcerPower series in 2002 and became one of Acer's main series.

Switch tablets

Acer Aspire Switch is a series of two-in-one tablet computers running Windows 8, with a tablet and detachable keyboard sold together.

Switch 10

Acer Aspire Switch 10 was announced in April 2014. It is a 10.1-inch two-in-one, with a 1366×768 resolution and Intel Atom Z3745 processor. A second-generation Acer Aspire Switch 10 was then launched in October 2014. It was given a different resolution of 1280×800, and a different Intel Atom Z3735F processor.

Switch 11

Acer Aspire Switch 11 was announced in September 2014, as a larger 11.6-inch version, that was planned for release in November. There are two models of the Acer Aspire Switch 11: The Acer Aspire Switch 11 SW5-111 with an Intel Atom Z3735 processor, 2 GB RAM, and 1366×768 resolution, and the Acer Aspire Switch 11 SW5-171 with an Intel Core i3 processor, 4 GB RAM, and 1920×1080 resolution.

Dota 2

Dota 2 is a free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game developed and published by Valve Corporation. The game was released for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux in July 2013, following a Windows-only public beta testing phase that began in 2011, and is the stand-alone sequel to Defense of the Ancients (DotA), a mod for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and its expansion pack, The Frozen Throne. Dota 2 is one of the most actively played games on Steam, with maximum peaks of over a million concurrent players.

Dota 2 is played in matches between two five-player teams, each of which occupies a stronghold in a corner of the playing field. A team wins by destroying the other side's "Ancient" building, located within the opposing stronghold. Each player controls one of 111 playable "Hero" characters that feature unique powers and styles of play. During a match, the player collects gold, items, and experience points for their Hero, while combating Heroes of the opposite team.