AMD Demonstrated 17W Trinity

At CES 2012, AMD demonstrated notebooks running Trinity - with heavy workloads - and high-end HD 7000M graphics featuring next-gen 28nm GPU. Performance improvements expected for mobile Trinity are upto 25% for the CPU and 50% for the GPU over equivalent mobile Llano A-Series APUs it will succeed.

The massive 50% uplift in GPU performance is in 3D Mark Vantage benchmark, while actual games may not scale as much. Trinity will also bring notable performance improvements to the desktop, though of lesser magnitude than the mobile variants - roughly 15% for the CPU, 30% for the GPU.

Trinity introduces Turbo Core 3.0 and new video capabilities - possibly including VCE (Video Compression Engine) to take on Intel QuickSync. Trinity will be available in 17W variants - directly competing with Intel's ULV products. Trinity 17W APUs will find themselves in "ultrathins" - AMD's answer to Intel's "ultrabooks". However, the key difference is lower pricing, as AMD seeks to drive ultrathins into mainstream markets. While Intel ULV parts are restricted to dual-core, AMD is bringing all four cores to 17W.

AMD's neat Trinity demonstration can be viewed at Youtube (courtesy HotHardware):



AMD is actually showing off Trinity running Dirt 3 live in DirectX 11 and converting videos using Arcsoft MediaConverter on two different monitors. While impressive as it is, AMD later reveals these two monitors are actually driven by a notebook, which itself is running a video. So that's three displays driven with three different workloads, off a single 17W APU.

Trinity features upto 2 Piledriver modules, or 4 cores, combined with a Radeon GPU rumoured to be based on the VLIW-4 architecture. Trinity is set to release in mid-2012, and will directly compete with Intel's Ivy Bridge. While Intel will continue to maintain a dominant lead in raw CPU performance, Trinity is expected maintain AMD's leadership on the GPU front.

ASUS N45J, The Second Jay Chou Edition

ASUS to launch the second Jay Chou edition laptop N45J...

Unlike the first model with a piano black finish, the new laptop N45J will be white with similar artistic designs printed at the back of the display. The new design is said to be related to Jay's upcoming album. The ASUS N45J will feature a 1600x800 resolution screen, second generation Intel Core i7/i5/i3 processor, 8GB memory, Nvidia GT555M graphics with choice of either 1GB or 2GB VRAM, SSD or hard disk storage options and Bang & Olufsen ICEpower

ASUS N45J Jay Chou edition laptop is scheduled to launch in mid January this month. No details on the pricing yet.

Seagate Cuts Warranty Even Further

Seagate had just sent a letter to authorized distributors where they've said:

Effective December 31, 2011, Seagate will be changing its warranty policy from a 5 year to a 3 year warranty period for Nearline drives, 5 years to 1 year for certain Desktop and Notebook Bare Drives, 5 years to 3 years on Barracuda XT and Momentus XT, and from as much as 5 years to 2 years on Consumer Electronics.

The details on the new warranty periods are as follows:

Constellation 2 and ES.2 drives: 3 years
Barracuda and Barracuda Green 3.5-inch drives: 1 year
Barracuda XT: 3 years
Momentus 2.5-inch (5400 and 7200rpm): 1 year
Momentus XT: 3 years
SV35 Series - Video Surveillance: 2 years
Pipeline HD Mini, Pipeline HD: 2 years

Seagate stated that they are standardizing warranty "to be more consistent with those commonly applied throughout the consumer electronics and technology industries. By aligning to current industry standards Seagate can continue to focus its investments on technology innovation and unique product features that drive value for our customers rather than holding long-term reserves for warranty returns".

Western Digital Cuts Warranty

Western Digital sent out a letter to its channel partners informing them that Caviar Blue, Caviar Green, and Scorpio Blue drives will have their warranties slashed from three years to two years. Caviar Black and Scorpio Black will remain unaffected.

Channel partners have received a letter from SelectWD about this:

This new warranty policy will be effective for drives shipped from January 2nd, 2012. It is important that you take a moment to update your website(s) and collateral to reflect this change for effected drives shipped after January 1st, 2012.

All drives shipped to distributors prior to Jan. 2nd 2012 will retain the current warranty terms. Because of existing inventory in the distribution channel there will be a short period of time when some drives with a 3-year warranty will be sold at the same time as drives with a 2-year warranty.

If you have any doubt about the warranty of a drive you purchased, you can go to support.wdc.com, select Warranty and RMA Services and proceed to the Warranty Check page.

The letter goes on to say "In the near future we will be unveiling an extended warranty offering with special pricing." At this time, there's no explanation why WD is reducing its warranty term.

AMD and nVidia Refresh Mainstream Mobile GPUs

AMD and nVidia have both introduced their next-generation mobility GPUs, the Radeon HD 7000M and GeForce 600M, but initially only for mainstream.

AMD refreshes include Radeon HD 7600M, 7500M and 7400M. The HD 7400M series is based on the same Seymour XT chip powering HD 6400M. The same applies for HD 7600M, based on Whistler, which powered HD 6600M/6700M. However, in both cases, the HD 7000M parts should end up faster due to higher clocks. HD 7600M should end up performing more like HD 6700M. HD 7500M is now based on 480SP Whistler, over 400SP Capilano for the HD 6500M, and also introducing GDDR5 memory with a 64-bit memory bus. However, some SKUs in the HD 7500M series will continue to utilize DDR3.

nVidia's new products include GeForce GT 635M, GT 630M and 610M. There are no changes whatsoever and are direct rebrands of GeForce 500M GPUs. The GT 635M replaces all the variants of GT 555M, GT 540M is rebranded as GT 630M and GeForce 520MX is now GeForce 610M.

Those new GPUs are still manufactured with TSMC 40nm fab process. The true next-gen with 28nm will most likely find its way as HD 7700M, 7800M and 7900M, as well as GT 635M to GTX 690M, in 2012.

AMD Apologize for Incorrect Bulldozer Transistor Count

The company initially told everyone in the press, that Bulldozer/Zambezi chips were made up of two billion transistors. It turns out that the transistor count number AMD supplied to the press was incorrect. Today AMD made following statements:

We always strive to be proactive and open. Last week, AMD confirmed the transistor count in the AMD FX CPU line-up at 1.2 billion, a correction from the earlier count of 2 billion. The earlier figure of 2 billion transistors was unfortunately shared in error. This correction is not the result of a new revision to the Bulldozer design. The correct count of 1.2 billion applies to all recently introduced 8-core AMD processors that are based on the new Bulldozer core – AMD FX family of desktop CPUs and AMD Opteron™ family of server and HPC processors. We apologize for the confusion.

AMD Memory Goes Worldwide

In August, AMD introduced Radeon-branded memory modules and is running a test in Japan market. Looks like the results of that test were successful, since the company is coming with the whole product line globally.


AMD partnered with Patriot Memory to bring this type of products to the global market, while VisionTek is selected to be the North American retail partner. AMD will offer three lines of system memory, all in 2GB, 4GB and 8GB capacities: "Entertainment Edition", "Performance Edition" and "Radeon Edition". The line is fairly standard - DDR3-1333, DDR3-1600 and DDR3-1866.


DDR3L is making an appearance inside the "Performance Edition" with modules operating at 1.35V, while "Radeon Edition" operates at 1.5-1.65V at 1866MHz and supports overclocking via AMD Overdrive software.

Long DIMM RAM is not the only thing AMD silently launched. The company also launched its own brand of graphics memory, and we should see some vendors of graphic card use an NVIDIA GPU with AMD GDDR3 or GDDR5 memory :-P

40-years of Microprocessor

The timeline of the most significant PC microprocessor developments that have shaped our information technology landscape over the last four decades:



Download the full-size version

Sixth Anniversary of Vic Computer Medan

Today is the 6th Anniversary of Vic Computer Medan :-)

On November 19, 2005, we officially started to use the name Vic Computer for our business and below is the first and our updated logo :-D

Nabi - Tablet for Kids

Toys R Us has released their latest toy, a tablet for kids. The toy manufacturer hired Chinese/American Web 2.0 properties and app developer FUHU to create the "Nabi" tablet aimed at educating with fun for children. From first impressions, a very smart choice of reinforcing the corners of the tablet with seemingly soft material implies it can take some hard hitting from playful or careless children.


It features a 7-inch 800 x 480 capacitive touchscreen, 4GB of storage, and a 533Mhz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9, all packaged with the requisite Wi-Fi and a 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera.


The most interesting here is the software. A custom UI skin provides large tappable homescreen targets, a custom browser offers "kiddified" web surfing, and lots of children's software is pre-loaded, including Fooz Kids University which teaches mathematics, design and art oriented apps that allow for creative exploration, and not forgetting support for popular games. 30 children's ebooks to encourage reading are also included, and a special Nabi App Store will carry over 500 additional software titles aimed at children.

The tablet also features a “Mommy mode” which unleashes the full Android experience without any kind of restriction. The Nabi will satisfy both mother and child as it ships on December 1st. Pre-orders can be made at Toy R Us for US$199.99.

Asus Transformer Prime

Asus has officially unveiled the next-generation Transformer Prime. This slimmed-down successor measures just 1/3" thick, almost exactly matching the slender profile of the iPad 2. At 1.29lbs, the Prime is actually a little bit lighter than Apple's latest.


The Transformer Prime powered by an Nvidia Tegra 3 system-on-chip. Otherwise known as Kal El, this quad-core chip doubles the number of CPU cores in the Tegra 2 SoC found inside the original Transformer. The Tegra 3 also has an additional companion core designed to extend battery life when the system isn't being taxed. Asus calls the chip's graphics component a "12-core GeForce GPU."

Transformer Prime features a 10.1" IPS panel with a 1280x800 display resolution. The Prime also boasts a "Super IPS+" mode that's claimed to deliver a brightness level of about 600 nits. Asus says this mode offers better color reproduction and should make the screen easier to read in outdoor environments. The panel's scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass has been skinned with a "hydro-oleophobic" coating that's said to resist smudging. The same coating has been applied to the Prime's textured metal exterior.


The dock is thinner now, but it still packs a touchpad in addition to the chiclet keyboard. There's also an auxiliary battery in the dock that purportedly extends the Prime's 12-hour run time to an impressive 18 hours.

The dock host a full-sized USB port and an SD card slot, while the tablet has a Micro HDMI port, a Micro SD slot, and a 3.5-mm audio jack. Amazingly, the built-in speakers are actually slightly larger than the ones in the original Transformer—and Asus says they sound better, too. The cameras have also been upgraded to 8MP rear and 1.2MP front units, which can record 1080p videos.

The Prime will start at $500. Asus is going to keep selling both models (Transformer original & Prime), so it makes sense to price the Prime at a premium. Besides, it's still a better deal than the iPad 2. The base iPad model only gives you 16GB of built-in memory for $500, while the Prime offers 32GB. A 64GB model will be available at $600, the same price as the 32GB iPad 2.

Asus Transformer Prime is slated to launch in December. It will arrive with Android 3.2, a.k.a. Honeycomb, and receive an over-the-air upgrade to Android 4.0, otherwise known as Ice Cream Sandwich, when the new OS code has been "optimized, tested and approved."

HDD Prices SkyRocketing

Worst flooding at Thailand in over 50 years made the HDD prices skyrocketing wildly. PC makers face the very real possibility of running out of hard drives, and they're reportedly turning to the gray market to secure supply.

Here's how the Newegg pricing of a handful of popular desktop drives has changed since the beginning of October:


Some drives have been impacted more than others, the overall trend is clear. We're looking at price increases in the 80-190% range, with the uptick beginning around the middle of last month.

Those results only cover 3.5" desktop drives, but 2.5" mobile models are similarly afflicted. In fact, they may be in an even more precarious position as notebook makers scramble to ensure they have enough drives to put into systems.

The Reuters news agency reports that Asus only has enough mechanical hard drives in its inventory to last through this month.

The supply problems are expected to persist through the current quarter, which means we could see prices climb even higher in the coming months.

Bulldozer Lack of Fine Tuning?

Why performance of the long-awaited Bulldozer was below expectations is not only because it was late, but because AMD had adopted design techniques that did not allow it to tweak performance. At least that is according to Cliff A. Maier, an AMD engineer who left the company several years ago.

The management decided to abandon practice of hand-crafting various performance-critical parts of its chips and rely completely on automatic tools. While usage of tools that automatically implement certain technologies into silicon speeds up the design process, they cannot ensure maximum performance and efficiency.

Apparently, automatically-generated designs are 20% bigger and 20% slower than hand-crafted designs, which results in increased transistor count, die space, cost and power efficiency.

"I had been in charge of our design flow in the years before I left, and I had tested these tools by asking the companies who sold them to design blocks (adders, multipliers, etc.) using their tools. I let them take as long as they wanted. They always came back to me with designs that were 20% bigger, and 20% slower than our hand-crafted designs, and which suffered from electro-migration and other problems," the former AMD engineer said.

AMD publicly said that each Bulldozer dual-core CPU module with 2MB unified L2 cache contains 213 million transistors and is 30.9mm2 large. By contrast, die size of one processing engine of Llano processor (11-layer 32nm SOI, K10.5+ micro-architecture) is 9.69mm2 (without L2 cache).

As a result, all four CPU modules with L2 cache within Zambezi/Orochi processor consist of 852 million of transistors and take 123.6mm2 of die space. Assuming that 8MB of L3 cache (6 bits per cell) consist of 405 million of transistors, it leaves around whopping 800 million of transistors to various input/output interfaces, dual-channel DDR3 memory controller as well as various logic and routing inside the chip.

800 million of transistors - which take up a lot of die space - is an incredibly high number for various I/O, memory, logic, etc. For example, Intel's Core i-series "Sandy Bridge" quad-core chip with integrated graphics consists of 995 million.

As a consequence of inefficient design and relatively low performance, AMD has to sell its eight-core FX series processors (315mm2 die size) for up to $245 in 1000-unit quantities. By contrast, Intel sells hand-crafted Core i-series "Sandy Bridge" quad-core chips (216mm2 die size) for up to $317 in 1000-unit quantities. Given the fact that both microprocessors are made using 32nm process technology [and thus have comparable per-transistor/per square mm die cost], the Intel one carries much better profit margin than AMD's microprocessor.

For more information, read here:
Insideris : AMD Spreads Propaganda, Ex-Employee Speaks Out
Mr. Maier posting on MacRumor Forum

Bulldozer for Desktop is Finally Out

Zambezi is the fourth-longest river in Africa (the one with the beautiful Victoria Falls), and also the codename for the new FX series of "Bulldozer" desktop enthusiast CPUs from AMD. After months of speculation and spin about the launch date and performance numbers, the new processors have finally hit the online shops. Yes, we saw the launch today, and the long awaited Bulldozer is finally out.


That new AMD processors based on Bulldozer microarchitecture are one of the most highly anticipated products not only of the year, but at least of the last five years. There are several reasons for that as well as for the fact that AMD products have so many fans. Remember the times when AMD processors were better than Intel ones in all aspects? Some users like AMD products for the balanced combination of price and performance that they have to offer. And some may have been carried away by the passion, with which they talked about the advantages of the new microarchitecture they have been working on. All this combined with the years of waiting for the new Bulldozer processor generation produced high interest and excitement.

Here we bring you some reviews of the top of the line FX-8150:
Tech Report
X-Bit Labs
Guru3D
Bit-Tech
AnandTech

Trinity & AMD Mobile Roadmap 2012

According to the latest AMD Mobile Roadmap, Trinity scheduled to arrive in 2012, initially will co-exist with Llano. Trinity will be based on AMD's new Pilderiver core which is derived from Bulldozer, the same core which we'll see in the soon to launch AMD FX series of CPUs.


The platform will be known as Comal and will continue to use the same chipsets A70M and A60M, and as far as we can tell, the same socket FM1. We'll also be seeing improved graphics, currently codenamed London. The TDP will remain the same as for the current APUs.


The roadmap also contains some of what AMD is planning for 2013. Kaveri which is Trinity's replacement will feature Steamroller CPU cores and a yet unknown graphics core. Below that we have Kabini which will feature Jaguar cores, a feature it shares with the tablet friendly Samara APU. Kaveri will be teamed up with the Bolton FCH, while Kabini gets the integrated Yangtze FCH and finally Samara will feature the integrated Salton FCH.

DC Universe Online will be free starting October

Developed by Sony Online Entertainment, DC Universe Online is a massive multiplayer (MMO) game where players get to choose to be virtual heroes or villains, as well as a mentor for their character - from Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman for heroes, and Lex Luthor and The Joker for villains. DC Universe Online was released in January as a monthly subscription-based game (US$15 a month), but it looks like the company has decided to make it free-to-play, starting October 2011.


The market for MMO games is extremely competitive and it is tough for traditional MMO to compete with free-to-play social games including Mafia Wars and Maple Story that profit from selling virtual items and power-ups. Sony said it will offer three tiers of service for DC Universe Online — free, premium and legendary. The free tier comes with limits on how many characters and items players can hold in their inventory; premium access gives players slightly more capacity. And the legendary, those who continue to pay US$15 a month will get maximum features.

AMD FX Sets a Guinness World Record

On August 31, an AMD FX processor achieved a frequency of 8.429GHz, a stunning result for a modern, multi-core processor. The record was achieved with several days of preparation and an amazing and inspired run in front of world renowned technology press in Austin, Texas. This frequency bests the prior record of 8.309GHz, and completely blows away any modern desktop processor.

The result was achieved in a technology grand prix that must be seen to be believed. The refinement of techniques employed by the world’s finest overclockers creates a stunning scene that looks as if we are about to bring the machine to life. It was recorded by a fantastic video team and validated with a most useful tool called CPU-Z, the de facto standard for overclockers looking to capture a moment of stability under extreme conditions, or more practically under conservative tuning. The video has now launched and you will enjoy the spectacle of extreme overclocking and the record-breaking capabilities of upcoming AMD FX processors.

Rory Read as AMD New CEO

AMD announced that its board of directors has appointed Rory P. Read, 49, President and Chief Executive Officer of AMD. Mr. Read joins AMD from Lenovo Group, where he was most recently President and Chief Operating Officer.

“I’m very pleased to be joining AMD at this important time in its history. AMD is a true innovator and is uniquely positioned to lead the industry forward, delivering the next big thing both within the PC ecosystem and beyond. AMD has strong momentum and the opportunity to continue profitably gaining share based on its highly differentiated products, solid financial foundation, and passionate and committed employees. I’m excited to be joining AMD’s employees as we write the next chapter not just for the company, but for the industry and consumers around the world," said Mr. Read.

While managing Lenovo’s Americas group, Read drove double-digit revenue growth and market share gains, reversing operating losses and delivering consistent profitability. He was promoted to president and COO in 2009, helping to transform Lenovo into the world’s fastest growing major PC manufacturer and achieving its largest worldwide market share ever.

Prior to Lenovo, Read spent 23 years at IBM where he held a broad range of management positions. While at IBM, Read consistently grew revenues while significantly improving the operating profitability for the groups under his management, including IBM’s business consulting services division, global business transformation of IBM global services and business consulting services/Asia Pacific.

Read's arrival means that Thomas Seifert, who served as interim CEO after Dirk Meyer's resignation, has returned to his role as as AMD's Chief Financial Officer. Bruce Clafin has also dropped the "Executive" from his title and is now, once again, AMD's Chairman.

Seagate Cutting Warranty

Seagate has decided to shorten the warranty period for most of its consumer-based hard drives in order to cut costs. The warranty affects only the channel drives that are sold through distributors, which is usually in bulk. Here is the list:

A6-3500 Triple Core Imminent

News circulating about imminent availability of a new model of desktop APU based on Llano silicon, the A6-3500. Like the four other desktop variants of Llano, this processor will drop into a Socket FM1 motherboard and provide both CPU and graphics processing power to the system.

The specs for the A6-3500 almost exactly like the specs for the next model up, the A6-3600. Both run their CPU cores at 2.1GHz and can raise them to 2.4GHz via Turbo Core, both have 444MHz Radeon IGPs with 320 shader ALUs, and both will fit into a 65W TDP envelope. The difference? The A6-3500 has only three cores and 3MB of L2 cache, versus the A6-3600's quad cores and 4MB of L2.

The A6-3500 is priced at $95, about $40 below the fastest desktop Llano, the A8-3850.