The company reportedly demonstrated an upcoming version of Opera 12 with hardware acceleration, which will be supported on Windows, Mac and Linux platforms.

Opera has promised hardware acceleration since version 11, but decided to delay the introduction so far with the argument that it intends to offer the full acceleration feature on all platforms, including Windows XP. The first alpha version of the browser is expected to be unveiled this Thursday. There was no information how the browser’s performance compares to the hardware acceleration feature in rival browsers.

Additional new features include direct support for webcams, a new page navigation feature that replaces scrolling with touch or mouse swiping, as well as new themes features, which enables an easier creation of browser themes.

We should also mention that Opera keep working on its JavaScript engine and claims that both JavaScript processing as well as HTML rendering has been accelerated. Stay tuned here Thursday to find out how Opera 12 compares to its competition.

Tuesday Nvidia said that Oak Ridge National Laboratory has chosen Tesla GPUs to power a new Cray XK6 supercomputer called “Titan” for the U.S. Department of Energy’s open science computing facility located in Tennessee.

Titan will integrate 299,088 AMD Opteron processing cores (18,688 16-core CPUs) as well as 7000 to 18,000 Nvidia Kepler GPUs. The system, which is scheduled to completed in late 2012, will also integrate 600 TB of memory. ORNL said that Titan will be ready for users sometime in 2013.

Nvidia said that the new computing beast has the potential to deliver over 20 petaflops of peak performance, more than two times faster and three times more energy efficient than today’s fastest supercomputer, the K computer located in Japan. Steve Scott, the CTO of Nvidia’s Tesla business unit, added that Titan will be ten times more powerful than the current Jaguar machine. 85-percent of the computing power will come from the Tegra chips while the other 15-percent will be handled by conventional AMD CPUs.

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Four of the UK’s major ISPs (Internet Service Providers) are working on a plan that would see customers opt-in if they want to be able to view pornographic content online. The Guardian reports that the new policy is expected to be unveiled today by Prime Minister David Cameron as part of a No. 10 meeting with the Mothers’ Union and is aimed at protecting children from the vast amount of pornography and adult material online.

While there has been some confusion over how the system will work, ISPs that spoke to the Guardian newspaper said that only customers signing a completely new contract will be asked to choose between a connection with these new parental controls, or one without. Current customers, as well as those who change tiers but stay within the same service will not be asked to choose. TalkTalk described it as more of an active-choice rather than opt-in. How each ISP will implement the new measures differs, too. While BT and Sky offer McAfee software that’s downloaded to your machine, Wired UK reports that TalkTalk and Virgin’s blocks are both network-based.

Though it may seem like an extreme solution, it’s also important to note that the blocking and/or filtering features to be provided by BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin are nothing new. These products were added to each of the ISPs portfolios a while ago. However, now, your ISP will be asking you whether you want it when you sign up.

“The ISPs have committed to improve the way they communicate to customers, enabling parents to make simple and well-informed choices about installing and activating parental controls and other measures to protect children online,” the four companies said in a statement. “The four ISPs are working with parents’ groups and children’s charities on this important initiative and will continue to do so.”

There will also be a website called ‘ParentPort’ where parents can go to complain about inappropriate content such as TV shows, advertisements or services. Read more on the Guardian.

Elpida recently said that it successfully produced prototypes of 4Gb SDRAM memory chips in 25 nm. The company previously announced 2Gb chips that began shipping in limited quantities in July. According to Elpida, the new 4 Gb chips will succeed the company’s current 4 Gb, 30 nm DDR3 product line and deliver 45 percent greater production efficiency and run at 25 to 30 percent reduced operating current or 30 to 50 percent less standby current.

The manufacturer did not say when the memory will be entering mass production, but noted that sample shipments should be available by the end of the year. Elpida said that the new technologies cater to the “explosive” growth in demand for DRAM memory in devices that enable “instantaneous processing of music, pictures, video and other high-density data.” These smaller memory chips will initially target especially ultra-compact products such as tablets and tablets.

As reported on Monday, FarmVille developer Zynga held an “Unleashed” press event at its San Francisco headquarters on Tuesday to reveal what was originally thought to be new games. And while the studio did offer up new titles, the big news was the announcement of its own independent social networking game platform (playground) called Zynga Direct, or Project Z. This platform will allow fans to play Zynga games without having to load up Facebook first, but will still require users to login using Facebook Connect.

According to reports, Zynga Direct is part of the developer’s “direct to consumer” strategy to build out a platform for both mobile and Web-based use supporting this personal relationship over the next two years. The first component launched on Tuesday, allowing gamers to reserve their gamertag, or “zTag.” Other reports indicate that the sign-on aspect will launch later this year.

“We are going to build a whole sandbox around the games and not just in the games,” Zynga founder and CEO Mark Pincus said. Players will be able to chat, share and form instant communities worldwide. They’ll even be able to start a game on Zynga Direct and then continue on Facebook and vice versa.

“We really want to build a platform for play,” Pincus added. “We haven’t changed our vision since starting. We want to be the biggest macro bet on social gaming. We believe in social gaming. We believe that everyone around the world will embrace play, so everything we are doing is an attempt to bring that to life. There’s going to be a World of Warcraft feeling, but something you can understand in five minutes.”

As for new Zynga games, the developer announced four for Facebook including Hidden Chronicles, Mafia Wars 2, Zynga Casino’s Zynga Bingo and CastleVille, and the three HTML5-based games revealed yesterday: Words With Friends, Zynga Poker Mobile Web and FarmVille Express — these three will go live on Wednesday. A fourth HTML5 game, Mafia Shakedown, will be arriving soon as well as a fifth game called DreamZoo (Twitter).

To read the full live blog from Zynga’s press event, head here.

Tuesday BlueStacks launched an alpha version of its BlueStacks App Player. This software allows Windows 7-based PCs and tablets to run Android apps within the Windows environment without having to install the Android SDK or modify the original software. The App Player also allows PCs and tablets to install apps synced from an Android device thanks to the company’s Android-based Cloud Connect technology. Users simply need to download and install the free App Player to the PC, and the free Cloud Connect app to an Android device.

After downloading the 117 MB file, the BlueStacks App Player had trouble installing in its first attempt (seems common), but placed a gadget on the desktop after its second successful attempt. Clicking on the Android/Windows logo combo brings up a square window playing host to an assortment of free Android apps including Words Free, Aporkalypse, Talking Tom 2 Free, Bubble Buster and seven others (seen below). There’s also an icon that takes users to a BlueStacks Channels page which offers an additional 31 free Android apps to install (subscribe) once they log in via a Facebook account.

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It’s been delayed time and time again, and is said to be comparable with Intel’s lower end Core i7 and higher end Core i5 processors, but at a more-valuable market price. We’ve waited for so long, and this is supposed to be the hype from AMD last year, but anyway, the Bulldozer has finally landed. So, the all-important question: Will it Bulldoze Intel’s mainstream processors?

There are a total of 7 AMD FX CPUs that AMD is announcing today, although only four are slated for near-term availability. The FX-8150, 8120, 6100 and 4100 are what’s launching today. The first digit in AMD’s FX model numbers indicates the number of cores with the 8150 and 8120 boasting eight, while the 6100 only has six active integer cores (three Bulldozer modules). The FX-4100 features four integer cores. L2 cache scales with core count (2MB per module), while the L3 cache size remains fixed at 8MB regardless of SKU.

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