Wednesday, December 23, 2009

PCP+ Baby Raptor

The legendary Baby Raptor :

* AMD™ 790GX + AMD™ SB750 Chipset
* Supports AMD™ AM3/AM2+/AM2 series processors
* Supports Dual Channel DDR2/DDR3
* Integrated ATI Radeon HD 3300 GPU
* Onboard sideport memory 128MB DDR3
* Support AMD OverDrive (AOD) Technology
* Support Advanced Clock Calibration (ACC) Technology
* Supports ATI Hybrid CrossFire Technology
* Supports ATI CrossFireX Technology
* High-polymer solid electrolysis aluminum capacitors
* Integrated Serial ATA2 3 Gb/s with RAID function
* Integrated Gigabit LAN
* Integrated ALC883 HD Audio CODEC with 8-CH
* Supports Blu-ray/Full HD DVD playback
* CPU Vcore 7-Shift
* Onboard DVI Port/HDMI port/VGA port/e-SATA port
* Micro ATX Form Factor (245mm x 245mm)

Thursday, December 17, 2009

PCP+ Canibal


PCP+ just unleashed the new AMD785G series motherboard, nickname "CANIBAL". Specifications:

* AMD785G+SB710 Chipset
* Socket AM3
* Support Up to AMD Phenom II X4 965BE 140W TDP Processor
* 4x DDR3 1333 MHz (4GB per DIMM, 16GB Total)
* 100% Japanese Full Solid Capacitors
* Integrated ATI Radeon HD 4200 GPU 700 Mhz (With Directx 10.1)
* SidePort Memory 128MB GDDR3
* Support AMD OverDrive Technology
* Support Advanced Clock Calibration
* Support ATI Hybrid CrossFire Technology
* Support ATI CrossFireX Technology @8x8 PCIE 2.0
* Onboard Power, Reset, Clear CMOS & 3D Sound Button
* 4+1 Power Phase with Heatsink Cooler
* Integrated Serial ATA2 3Gb/s with RAID function
* Integrated Gigabit LAN and e-SATA
* Integrated ALC888 HD Audio CODEC with 8.0 CH
* Support Blu-ray/Full HD DVD playback
* CPU Vcore 7-Shift / DVI Port/ Debug Port/ HDMI port/ VGA port
* Ready for Windows® Vista™ & Windows® 7™
* AMD™ GAME! Ready
* Micro ATX Form Factor

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Asus Eee PC 1201T is AMD-based


So far, Asus has stuck with Intel's Celeron and Atom processors for its Eee PC line of netbooks. That could soon change, since Asus is preparing a 12.1", Eee PC-branded system based on AMD's Congo ultraportable platform.

Eee PC 1201T, has a 12.1" 1366x768 display, a 1.6GHz Athlon Neo MV-40 processor, 802.11n Wi-Fi, up to 320GB of mechanical storage, and a six-cell battery rated for up to four hours of run time. It has weight of 3.2 lbs (1.46kg) and a thickness of 1.07"-1.3".


The Congo platform brings two advantages over the Atom and GMA 950 combo found in majority of netbooks: the Athlon Neo processor has a full-featured core with out-of-order execution, and the AMD780-based chipset offers Radeon HD 3200 integrated graphics—a considerably more powerful solution than anything in Intel's portfolio.

Friday, November 27, 2009

MSI announces Neo X2-based X-Slim X430


This time, MSI has introduced a new member of its X-Slim family with an Athlon Neo X2 processor and Radeon HD 3200 integrated graphics, AMD's latest second-generation Ultrathin Platform Congo.

Equipped with 14-inch, 1366x768 display, MSI has still managed to keep it thin and light. A weight of 3.3 lbs (1.5kg) and a thickness of only 0.96" (24.5mm) at the machine's thickest point. Internally, the new X-Slim also features 2GB of DDR2 RAM, a choice of 320GB or 500GB hard drives, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Windows 7 Home Premium, and a battery with either four or eight cells.

MSI blends graceful and gentle feather-like lines into a special luminous exterior that features customizable colors around the frame. This gives the X430 a design that embraces a metro fashion sense and displays the individual taste and professional self-confidence that is representative of MSI's craftsmanship and skill. The X430, an ultra-thin, power-saving platform with AMD's latest VISION technology, provides dual-core processing performance and consumer-friendly pricing.

Read MSI News HERE. Product Catalogue HERE.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Lenovo Readies World’s First AMD-Based ThinkPad


Lenovo is getting ready to unveil the first ever ThinkPad computer with a microprocessor from Advanced Micro Devices. Neither IBM, the original creator of ThinkPad brand, nor Lenovo have ever used AMD chips inside their laptop line.

Lenovo ThinkPad X100e is based on AMD Athlon Neo MV-40 (single-core, 1.60GHz, 512KB cache, 15W, 65nm SOI) and AMD 780V core-logic with integrated ATI Radeon DirectX 10-supporting graphics core. The laptop features 11.6” display with unknown high-def resolution, media card reader, 3 USB ports, Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi, 0.3MP webcam and so on. The mobile computer may be equipped with up to 4GB DDR2 memory; up to 500GB hard drive; various connectivity options, including WWAN, 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth, GPS and so on, reports Netbooknews.de web-site.


Considering that this is still a ThinkPad, the X100e is equipped with high-quality spill-resistant keyboard, UltraNav trackpoint, business OS support, basic manageability functions and some other functions.

Lenovo plans to offer its ThinkPad X100e globally starting at $449 starting early January, 2010.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Hemlock Reclaiming the Speed Crown

AMD has launched their new Radeon HD 5000 series to great success. The Radeon HD 5870 might be the fastest single GPU yet, but it is not the undisputed fastest graphics card. While it is certainly a match for the GeForce GTX 295, it doesn't exactly beat it.

Deviating from the usual "X2" suffix, the new Radeon HD 5970, codenamed Hemlock, is ATI's biggest, boldest and most powerful graphics card yet. The Radeon HD 5970 essentially squeezes two Cypress chips onto a single GPU, and as such the card boasts a whopping transistor count of 4.3 billion, 3200 stream processors, 160 texture mapping units and 64 raster operator units. This makes the new Hemlock card, the most powerful graphics card in existence.


The card comes equipped with 2GB of GDDR5, which is split between the two GPUs, giving it an effective memory capacity of 1GB. The card will be selling for $600, at least so long as vendors and retailers hold the line on MSRP. AMD’s official guidance for this card is that the minimum requirements are a 650W power supply, and they recommend a 750W power supply.

For a size comparison here are all the Radeon HD 5000 series cards lined up. From top to bottom you have the Radeon HD 5970, 5870, 5850, 5770 and the 5750. You can clearly see how large the Radeon HD 5970 is compared to the other cards. It was one inch longer than the Radeon HD 5870! At 12.125" in length Radeon HD 5970 is very long and isn't going to fit in all the cases on the market today.


Reviews:
Legit Reviews
AnandTech
Hardware Zone
Tech Report
AMD at Play

Thursday, November 12, 2009

AMD and Intel Announce Settlement of All Disputes

SUNNYVALE/SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Nov. 12, 2009 – Intel Corporation and Advanced Micro Devices today announced a comprehensive agreement to end all outstanding legal disputes between the companies, including antitrust litigation and patent cross license disputes.

Under terms of the agreement, AMD and Intel obtain patent rights from a new 5-year cross license agreement, Intel and AMD will give up any claims of breach from the previous license agreement, and Intel will pay AMD $1.25 billion. Intel has also agreed to abide by a set of business practice provisions. As a result, AMD will drop all pending litigation including the case in U.S. District Court in Delaware and two cases pending in Japan. AMD will also withdraw all of its regulatory complaints worldwide. The agreement will be made public in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

AMD CEO Dirk Meyer said there are three key components to the agreement:

* First, Intel has agreed to an important set of ground rules that we hope will define the path to a free and open market in the microprocessor industry;

* Second, we have agreed to a new patent cross-license agreement that gives AMD broad rights and the freedom to operate a business utilizing multiple foundries,

* And third, GLOBALFOUNDRIES has agreed to terms that allow them the freedom to operate as an independent world-class leading-edge foundry company, going forward, without being a subsidiary of AMD.

AMD said in a conference call this morning that this agreement gives ATIC, the co-owner of GlobalFoundries, much more flexibility and could allow it to merge GlobalFoundries and Chartered Semiconductor, which ATIC acquired in September. This deal also allows AMD to produce all of its processors in third-party fabs, freeing it from the restriction of having to be GlobalFoundries' parent company.

The two companies commented in a joint statement about today's agreement, "While the relationship between the two companies has been difficult in the past, this agreement ends the legal disputes and enables the companies to focus all of our efforts on product innovation and development."

Related news:
CNN Money-Intel settlement: The power of emails
PCWorld-AMD Settlement Expected to Hit Intel's Net Profit in Q4
Fudzilla-Intel's cash will help AMD
The Washington Post-Intel settles AMD suits, but antitrust investigations by U.S., E.U. continue

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Dell Zino HD Nettop


Dell has started offering the Zino HD, a low-cost, small-form-factor, Athlon-powered PC. Measuring just 7.8" x 7.8" x 3.4" and weighing 3.53 lbs, the base Zino HD model carries a 1.6 GHz AMD Athlon 2650E processor, Radeon HD 3200 integrated graphics with HDMI output, 2GB of DDR2 memory, a 320GB 7,200-RPM hard drive, a DVD burner, 802.11n Wi-Fi, an external Serial ATA port for additional storage, and Windows 7 Home Premium x64.

Slated for pricing as low as $199, Dell's cube-shaped Zino is targeted at households wanting a handy and moveable multimedia center low on energy consumption. The device outfitted in interchangeable "lids," or tops, which will come in an assortment of colors and patterns.


We can customize the Zino HD with dual-core Athlons, discrete Radeon HD 4330 graphics, Blu-ray, up to a terabyte of storage, and up to 8GB of RAM.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

nVidia poke fun at Intel with cartoons

nVidia has put up a website with a handful of professionally drawn cartoons meant to poke fun at Intel.

The site, entitled "Intel's Insides," bears an nVidia logo at the bottom right as well as the mention, "This website is not provided, sponsored or endorsed by Intel Corporation." A whois lookup shows the "intelsinsides.com" domain is tied to an address in Portugal, but it uses the same DNS servers as nVidia's website.





Saturday, October 31, 2009

Kohjinsha 10.1 Dual Screen Netbook with Neo MV-40


This unique machine looked cool enough. The hinge mechanism is much smoother and slicker than expected. The screens slide in a method similar to the keyboard slides out of a mobile phone.

The specs of the machine with an AMD Athlon Neo MV-40 CPU running at 1.6GHz, a maximum of 4GB of RAM, 160GB of storage and the little netbook runs Windows 7. Expected to debut in 2010 at a price said to be under 100,000 yen.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Windows 7 Launch!


There is a lot to be excited about with this new operating system and AMD technology has been designed specifically to help PC users benefit from the visual experience and features that it brings.


The Windows 7 release is important to AMD for a few reasons:

OEM systems powered by AMD VISION Technology will ship with Windows 7, so on October 22 consumers can walk into retail stores and purchase a new PC with VISION Technology from AMD.

With Windows 7 comes DirectX 11, a key feature supported by award winning ATI Radeon HD 5000 Series graphics products. DirectX 11 will bring new levels of performance, realism and computing power to the PC.

For business customers, Windows 7 has a lot going for it including a new feature called Windows XP Mode that leverages the AMD-V virtualization technology in our CPUs to run older Windows XP software applications in a virtual copy of Windows XP on top of Windows 7.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Athlon II X3 "Rana" Introduced

AMD today announced several new AMD Athlon™ II processors that offer outstanding performance and low power consumption, while enabling sleek desktop PC designs and attractive price points. In addition to the standard power processors, the full AMD Athlon II processor family now delivers high-performance, low-power dual-, triple- and quad-core processors to meet a range of computing needs.

The highlight today is the new triple-core 45 nm CPUs are priced starting at $76! The Athlon II X3 435 is a triple core Athlon II processor clocked at 2.9GHz. As with all the Athlon II processors there is no L3 cache, it's built using a 45nm process, features 64K of L1 cache per core and 512KB of L2 cache. It's derivative of the Phenom II architecture but isn't built using die harvesting from Phenom II CPUs.

News & Reviews:
AMD Press Release
Tech Report
X-bit Labs
AMDZone

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Radeon HD 5770 and 5750 "Juniper" Jump In


The technology built into the Radeon HD 5870 is propagating to a second GPU in record time. AMD has just introduced a pair of graphics cards based on a new mid-range graphics processor code-named Juniper. Official name is the Radeon HD 5700 series.

Juniper turns out to be quite similar to the RV770 GPU that powers the prior-gen high-end Radeon HD 4800 series. Both Juniper and RV770 have 800 SPs, 10 texture units, four render back-ends, and a single rasterizer. But Juniper is a smaller chip intended for less expensive graphics cards, so it has only two 64-bit memory controllers or an aggregate 128-bit memory interface. Both Cypress and RV770 have 256-bit memory interfaces. Still, the use of higher-clocked GDDR5 memory in the Radeon HD 5700 series will at least help bridge the deficit versus the RV770.

Juniper varies from the RV770 in many other respects. The chip's hardware supports many capabilities exposed in new software APIs like DirectX 11, DirectCompute, and OpenCL 1.0. Don't forget it's manufactured by 40nm fabrication process.


Radeon HD 5770 comes with 10 SIMD engines, cranks away at 850MHz in the 5770, paired with a gig of memory clocked at 1.2GHz. That memory clock translates into a 4.8 GT/s data rate, since this is GDDR5 memory. Happily, Juniper has inherited Cypress's ability to conserve power at idle by dropping its GDDR5 memory into a low-power state. As a result, AMD rates the 5770's idle power at only 18W. Even under load, the 5770 is relatively tame, with a 108W max power rating.

Radeon HD 5750, the 5770's little brother has had one of its SIMD cores clipped, along with the corresponding texture unit. Clock speeds are de-tuned, too, with the GPU at 700MHz and memory at 1150MHz. Thanks to the changes, the 5750 tops out at 86W of power draw and is rated for just 16W at idle.

Another limitation of the 5700 series will be the number of cards supported in CrossFire multi-GPU configurations. Although the cards have dual CrossFire connectors up top, AMD plans to limit them to dual-GPU configs only. Going beyond that will mean moving up to the 5800 series.

The initial suggested e-tail price for the Radeon HD 5770 is $159. The Radeon HD 4870 1GB can be had right now for a prevailing price of about $150 at online retailers. That decision puts the Radeon HD 5770 in more or less direct competition with the GeForce GTX 260, too. Prevailing prices online for the GTX 260 are about $165.

Meanwhile, the 1GB variant of the 5750 will list for $129, where it will have to contend with the Radeon HD 4850 1GB (~$120 prevailing price) and the GeForce GTS 250 1GB (~$140, with some rebates available). Over time, Radeon board makers should begin shipping a 512MB version of the 5750, as well, for around $109.

Game Developers Share Their Thoughts on DirectX 11:


Check out this YouTube video from DiRT 2 showing some of the features that Codemasters incorporated from DirectX 11, creating an incredibly realistic gaming experience:



In this video showcase some of the amazing game-enhancing features that DirectX 11 will bring to the PC version of DiRT 2. The DirectX 11 effects featured in this video are Cloth Tessellation, Hardware Instanced Tessellated Crowd, Tessellated Water with Dynamic Displacement Mapping, Enhanced Lighting and Post Processing. Together these effects make DiRT 2 for Games for Windows Live the most intense, visceral racing game you will have experienced.

More readings here:
Tech Report
AMDZone Review on Sapphire Radeon HD 5770 & 5750
AnandTech
PC Perspective

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Intel's cheat on 3DMark Vantage scores

Futuremark's popular 3DMark benchmark has been the target of several questionable optimizations over the years. Given that history, it's not surprising that the company has strict guidelines for the graphics drivers it approves for use with 3DMark Vantage. These guidelines, which can be viewed here (PDF), explicitly forbid optimizations that specifically target the 3DMark Vantage executable. Here's an excerpt:

With the exception of configuring the correct rendering mode on multi-GPU systems, it is prohibited for the driver to detect the launch of 3DMark Vantage executable and to alter, replace or override any quality parameters or parts of the benchmark workload based on the detection. Optimizations in the driver that utilize empirical data of 3DMark Vantage workloads are prohibited.

In this case, Intel is not playing fair. Recently, AMD has notified Futuremark that Intel's 15.15.4.1872 Graphics Media Accelerator drivers for Windows 7 incorporate performance optimizations that specifically target the benchmark.

Tech Report decided to investigate. They tested 3DMark Vantage 1.0.1 with these drivers on a G41 Express-based Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2H motherboard running the Windows 7 x64 release-to-manufacturing build, a Core 2 Duo E6300, 4GB of DDR2-800 memory, and a Raptor WD1500ADFD hard drive. They first ran the benchmark normally. Then, they renamed the 3DMark executable from "3DMarkVantage.exe" to "3DMarkVintage.exe". And—SURPRISE!—there was a substantial performance difference between the two.


System's overall score climbs by 37% when the graphics driver knows it's running Vantage. Meanwhile, the GPU score jumps 46% thanks to Intel's apparent Vantage optimization. At the same time, the CPU score falls by nearly 10%.


In the GPU tests, the system's CPU utilization is much higher with the default executable than with the "3DMarkVintage" executable. Intel appears to be offloading some of the work associated with the GPU tests onto the CPU in order to improve 3DMark scores.

Intel is definitely detecting 3DMark Vantage and changing the behavior of its drivers in order to improve performance, which would appear to be a direct contravention of Futuremark's guidelines. Intel's 15.15.4.1872 graphics drivers don't appear on Futuremark's approved driver list for 3DMark Vantage. Indeed, NONE of the company's Windows 7 drivers do so far.

Violating Futuremark's driver optimization guidelines is one thing, but Intel also claims it's offloading vertex processing to enhance performance in games. Indeed, the very same INF file that singles out 3DMarkVantage.exe also names other executables.

One of the games on the list for detection, Crysis Warhead. Tech Report also tested it with the executable under its original name and then renamed to Crisis.exe, using FRAPS to collect real-world frame rate data with the game running at 800x600 and minimum detail levels.


Intel's software-based vertex processing scheme improves in-game frame rates by nearly 50% when Crysis.exe is detected, at least in the first level of the game we used for testing. However, even 15 FPS is a long way from what we'd consider a playable frame rate. The game doesn't exactly look like Crysis Warhead when running at such low detail levels, either.

Read more here : Tech Report

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Vic Zhou refuses to be a slave to money

Wednesday, 30 September, 2009 Taiwan
Source : Ming Pao
Translated by : Karened @ http://asianfanatics.net/

F4 shot to fame with 'Meteor Garden' and Vic Zhou ('Zai Zai'), who acted as Hanazawa Rui, said that to be that popular meant that he didn't have to accept jobs for the sake of money. Instead, he could choose the direction he wanted to go and work hard for his dreams.

Although the members of F4 have already split and gone their own ways, and did not share particularly good relationships with each other, Zai Zai was still thankful to the other three members for teaching him many things and making him who he is today. In his heart, he has not forgotten these battlemates and hopes that everyone could become a megastar with their abilities.

Starting to like acting

Although Zai Zai rose to fame after acting as Hanazawa Rui in 'Meteor Garden', he was always critisized that he cannot act and only attracts people because of his looks. However, his acting has matured a lot now and is nominated for this year's Golden Bell Award for his role in the idol drama 'Black & White'.

To be able to fight for the position of Best Actor, Zai Zai feels that this is proof that his hard work in improving his acting skills did not go to waste. He said, "I was only 19 when I entered showbiz and was only a kid who didn't know what he wanted to do. When I acted in 'Meteor Garden', I only knew how to act using the acting styles of Jerry Yan, Ken Zhu and Vanness Wu. I only knew how to follow what they did and never had a mind of my own. Initially, I didn't see that as a problem. Whatever the company told me to do, I would do, such as releasing an album. However, I slowly realised that I had more interest in acting than singing. Everytime I took up a role, I would work hard at interpreting it. In order to act out a particular emotion, I would brainstorm on how I could do it better."

Walking out of a period of confusion

Zai Zai raised an example of an old granny he saw once during driving. She picks up litter from the streets of Taipei early every morning. She lived like this and seeing such situations allowed him to use his inner feelings when he had to act out certain expressions during filming. He continued, "I acted in various different genre of films in recent years. Previously, people thought that I was only adept in melancholic characters but now, they realised that I can act different types of roles, for example cheerful ones. I realised that there is a lot of space in acting and so I really like acting. As for awards, I dare not think about them."

Some people pointed out that he is now much happier than before. Zai Zai laughed, "Is that so? Actually I'm not melancholy. Neither was I playing cool. But when I first came to Hong Kong, I didn't know what to say when I had interviews together with F4. Hence, I spoke little and let the rest do the speaking. Now that I've grown up, I know what I want to do and am not confused like how I was when I first entered showbiz."

Looking forward to F4's display of abilities

Vic Zhou described F4 as 'only having popularity and no true abilities' when they first debuted. Now that the four of them have changed completely, it's time for them to show their true abilities.

Due to the idol drama 'Meteor Garden', Zai Zai's name became well-known in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. He even enjoys popularity in Japan. It seems that 'F4' has really brought him a lot of money. Zai Zai said, " I am the youngest in F4 and hence was easily influenced. Sometimes, I wondered why I had to do something, and how ridiculous it was. But in the past 9 years, I really earned a lot of money. As for how much exactly, I won't say. But now I feel that money isn't my only target. I just want to work hard and do my job well."

Not to be an empty shell without a soul

Zai Zai expressed that even if he had a job that could bring him a lot of money, but if the job made him unhappy, he would choose to drop it. "I now have the ability to choose. Throughout the years, I had saved up some money that would allow me to do things that make me happy." Zai Zai does not have high expectations for money and had never thought of sucking up to people for the sake of money. Then what other dreams does he have? Zai Zai said, "F4 let me become popular. I hope that we can show people the results of our hard work and not be like the F4 we were when we debut 9 years ago. Back then we only had popularity and no true abilities. I feel that after so many years, we should bring out our abilities and let those who once said we had none know that we are always seeking improvements."

Actually, Zai Zai had already wanted to quit when he was 20. However, he started enjoy his job and so planned to quit at the year of 30. He said, "I now realise that there are a lot of things I want to challenge myself with. It's alright even if I failed. There are still a lot of things I want to learn in this entertainment circle."

Zai Zai said that he has never thought of entering Hollywood. He said, "My English is not very proficient and to me, it is too distant. I just want to reach a good position in Taiwan and then move on to the China market. As long as the China audience recognizes my acting, the whole world will naturally know. Just like Jacky Chan - even the Hollywood people knows that he acts well."

Growing up through love

Although Vic Zhou does not want to talk about his ex-girlfriend Barbie Hsu, he still wishes her happiness.

There had been rumours of Zai Zai and several other actresses and he also went public about his relationship. He said, "Everyone needs romance. If I am really in a relationship, of course I can tell others about it. I used to not know how to interact with other but when I'm in a relationship, I can learn how to interact with people when the other party wants something frokm me. I can also learn how to face the opposite sex. To me, this is very important. When girlfriend tells me whether my thinking is correct, and points out areas I can correct and improve, the love can make me grow up."

When asked if previous love Barbie Hsu (Da S) is a very important person in his life, Zai Zai said, "She is a very good woman and I just want to wish her happiness. It's not convenient to talk about other stuff."

Rebuilding the souls of Sichuan earthquake child survivors

The UNICEF held funds raising events to help the Sichuan earthquake child survivors rebuild their homes. At the same time, it is very important to rebuild their souls. As the ambassador of the Hong Kong arms of the fund, Vic Zhou described this as a long-term job. The first phase of recovering from the aftermath of the earthquake will last till 2011. He will also attend the activities in Hong Kong frequently. When asked if he had ever thought of establishing a fund himself, he said, "Faye Wong, Kelly Chen and many other had established funds to help other. But to do so requires a lot of manpower and funding. For me, being able to participate as part of the UNICEF is just as meaningful."

After-thoughts

Vic Zhou has really grown up! When he came to Hong Kong to promote the F4 concert 9 years ago, he only knew how to smile and did not answer interview questions, making him seem flippant. Perhaps this was because he did not understand Cantonese, or maybe like what he said, he was only 19 and did not know how handle showbiz. This time round, he answered every question posed. He was unlike some Taiwanese stars, who give the 'especially polite' attitude that makes one feel uncomfortable. Instead, Zai Zai was full of smiles throughout the interview, making me feel like I had been too harsh on him.

Time can really make someone change. The melancholic Hanazawa Rui back then is unforgetable but the cheerful Zai Zai is very cool and manly. It's no wonder that loyal fans followed him for 9 years, never giving up.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series, The First DirectX 11 Compliant GPU


AMD today launched the most powerful graphic processor ever created, found in its next-generation ATI Radeon™ HD 5800 series graphics cards, the world’s first and only to fully support Microsoft DirectX® 11, the new gaming and compute standard shipping shortly with Microsoft Windows® 7 operating system.

Boasting up to 2.72 TeraFLOPS of compute power, the ATI Radeon™ HD 5800 series effectively doubles the value consumers can expect of their graphics purchases, delivering twice the performance-per-dollar of previous generations of graphics products.

AMD will initially release two cards: the ATI Radeon HD 5870 and the ATI Radeon HD 5850, each with 1GB GDDR5 memory. With the ATI Radeon™ HD 5800 series of graphics cards, PC users can expand their computing experience with ATI Eyefinity multi-display technology, accelerate their computing experience with ATI Stream technology, and dominate the competition with superior gaming performance and full support of Microsoft DirectX® 11, making it a “must-have” consumer purchase just in time for Microsoft Windows® 7 operating system.


ATI Radeon HD 5800 series is up to twice as fast as the closest competing product in its class, allowing gamers to enjoy incredible new DirectX 11 games – including the forthcoming DiRT™ 2 from Codemasters, and Aliens vs. Predator™ from Rebellion, and updated version of The Lord of the Rings Online™ and Dungeons and Dragons Online® Eberron Unlimited™ from Turbine – all in stunning detail with incredible frame rates.

FYI, RV870 became known as "Cypress". The official name now is the Radeon HD 5870. Cypress is one member of an entire Evergreen family of products in development at AMD, all of which will share a common technology base. Initially, two cards, the Radeon HD 5870 and 5850, will be based on Cypress. Another code name, Hemlock, denotes the multi-GPU card based on dual Cypress chips that will likely be known as the Radeon HD 5870 X2. Juniper is a separate, smaller chip aimed at the range between $100 and $200. AMD would slot Juniper-based cards into the Radeon HD 5700 series. All of these products are scheduled to be introduced between now and the end of the year, some in rapid succession.


The rest of the Evergreens will fall after Christmas, in the first quarter of 2010. Redwood is slated to serve the mainstream market (i.e., really cheap graphics cards) and Cedar the value segment (really even cheaper, like $60 cards). When all is said and done, AMD should have a top-to-bottom family of 40-nm, DirectX 11-capable graphics card offerings.

Reviews:
Tech Report
X-Bit Labs
PC Perspective

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Acer's new Ferrari One - VROOM!


Acer's new, Ferrari One netbook will be among the first wave of low-cost portables to be based on AMD's new Vision platform. The new system downplays technical specifications, instead dividing AMD-based machines into three simple performance tiers, dubbed “Vision”, “Vision Premium” or “Vision Ultimate”.

Accordingly, the three tiers are characterised as “See”, “Share” and “Create”. Basic Vision laptops offer basic capabilities for playing music and videos, while the more powerful Vision Premium adds ATI Stream support for transcoding video (plus DirectX 10.1 support for gaming) and Vision Ultimate adds extra power for video editing.

The Acer Ferrari One netbook will feature the new low-power, mobile processor from AMD – the Athlon Neo X2 Dual-Core L310 – which boasts twin cores, a clock speed of 1.2GHz, 1MB of L2 cache and support for 800MHz DDR2 RAM, plus ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics.

The Ferrari One will launch on 22 October, to coincide with the official launch of Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system. It will ship with either a 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium or 64-bit Windows Starter Edition.

There's still no optical drive, but the Ferrari One is well-appointed, at least in netbook terms. It comes equipped with a luxurious 11.6in screen with bright LED backlighting and a crisp resolution of 1,366 x 768. Other specifications include draft-n wireless, Gigabit Ethernet, optional 3G and Bluetooth, 2GB of RAM and a 160GB hard disk, with more expensive models offering up to 4GB and more capacious hard drives.

The new netbook also sees the re-emergence of the ATI XGP interface. This odd-looking socket sits alongside the One's standard D-SUB video output, and allows the connection of an optional docking station, equippined with HDMI port, and six more USB sockets to supplement the three that are arranged around the One's standard three.

Where Acer's new netbook could struggle, however, is longevity away from the mains. Although it ships with a seemingly impressive 5,600mAh, six-cell unit as standard, Acer's press material stated a rather conservative battery life of around five hours.


Let's see the video:

Also read the review here:
What Laptop
Hardware Zone

Radeon HD 5870 spotted

Details about the ATI Radeon HD 5870 GPU is spotted on the net. This upcoming product will be launched on 23rd September 2009. It features DirectX 11 and ATI Eyefinity Technology. It accelerates PC with 3 teraFLOPS of computing power. AMD doubled the number of SIMD units from 10 to 20, that means 1600 stream processors and 80 TMUs.


Here are the specifications:
Computing power 2.72 TFLOPS
Core Clock Speed 850MHz
Stream processors 1600
Frame buffer 1GB, 4.8Gbps
Max/idle power 188W/27W
Max resolution 3 x 2560x1600
Two 6-pin PCIe power connectors



Demo at Japan AMD/ATI product presentation of a "DX11 future video cards" driving six monitors (@7680x3200) while running a racing game (Colin McRae:DiRT 2).

Monday, September 14, 2009

ATI Eyefinity Introduced

According to AMD, they have produced a truly panoramic visual experience. With AMD's new Radeon 5800 family of GPUs, users can experience a much larger field of view than what was previously available.


ATI Eyefinity is a new technology from AMD that transforms the relationship of the PC and the display. It opens the door to entirely new avenues for home computing and simplifies the deployment of many commercial solutions. In the existing home computing paradigm, one user employs one PC with one workspace spanning one or two monitors.

There are at least three new use models availed or expanded by ATI Eyefinity.

The first model is single-session single-person multi-screen. One user surrounded with many displays creating an immersive reality or information environment. One user can enjoy information or visual simulations or real-time experiences, which were previously possible only with high-end workstations or simulators. Commercial or technical applications include simulation, design and analysis; equities trading, graphic design, intelligence analysis, and more. Consumer applications include gaming, advanced productivity, and impressing your friends.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzGtxlaPQqY

In this video technology demonstration, ATI Eyefinity multi-monitor technology is driving an immersive, panoramic gaming experience. AMD’s Lauren Larose is playing Tom Clancy’s Hawks at an amazing 5760x2400 resolution spanning six monitors employing the Display Port 1.1 interface.

The second model is single-session multi-person multi-screen. Many users enjoying the experience provided by a single computer with the added benefit of multiple-displays. For example, one user enjoying dual monitor productivity, and a second user or group of users enjoying a movie or game on a third or fourth screen. The central premise of this model is that it is a single session, one person is “driving” the visual environment - one keyboard, one mouse - kind of like a PC experience DJ who can launch applications for many to see.

Adding the ability of each screen to have its own I/O and support for a separate user session, you arrive at the third model…

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

AMD's Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition processor


As we all know, Phenom II is a great match for Penryn when it comes to price and performance and especially bundled with ATI branded video cards and motherboards. That said AMD is still far from reaching the performance of Core i7 but they continue to ramp things up with the Phenom II architecture. Today AMD is releasing the newest and fastest retail desktop processor from them, the Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition.

There have been some Phenom II 965 Black Edition reviews today and we will post some of them here:

AMDZone
AnandTech
Legit Reviews
Neoseeker
The Tech Report
TechSpot

Sunday, July 5, 2009

AMD TWKR Video

Here is the link to the latest AMD overclocking video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tR--2ivkFSQ



This is a high quality video that makes a great addition to any outreach on TWKR processors.

Are you a TWKR? You’ve undoubtedly heard the buzz about AMD’s TWKR parts, and it’s time for us to reveal the details:


• The AMD Phenom II X4 42 Black Edition TWKR processor is a limited-edition chip created to provide extreme overclockers with a powerful tool to initiate serious performance.
• Designed to reach the utmost performance barriers under extreme cooling, this part demonstrates AMD’s superior engineering design quality.
• The TWKR parts can handle more voltage, scale higher, and run faster than other processors on the market.
• As the same processor that AMD used to demonstrate the record-breaking overclocking potential of AMD Phenom II CPUs earlier this year, the TWKR processor is unmatched in yielding high frequencies at extreme cold temperatures, like in this video here.
• With less than 100 processors worldwide, these TWKR processors will not be for sale.
• AMD is instead giving these parts to select members of the extreme overclocking community as a tribute for their support and to encourage them to push the limits of overclocking.
• AMD understands that overclocking is not for everyone. For mainstream users that don’t push their desktop PCs to the absolute limits, the same engineering that goes into the extreme performance of “TWKR” processors can be found in every AMD Phenom II processor available today.

Digital Content/More Information:
- Check out additional TWKR photos here
- Check out the new TWKR overclocking video on Tuesday morning
- Follow the @AMDDesktop Twitter handle for updates on upcoming TWKR contests and details

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

BenQ JoyBook Lite T131 Ultra-portable Netbook


BenQ has announced a new "ultra-portable netbook" that features a low-power AMD processor and Mobility Radeon graphics (AMD Yukon platform).

The Joybook Lite T131 comes with a 13.3" 1280x800 display, 802.11n Wi-Fi, 250-320GB of storage, a six-cell battery rated for six hours of longevity, and a choice of Windows Vista Home Basic, Windows Vista Home Premium, and Linux operating systems.

BenQ has chosen the Sempron U200, which runs at 1GHz with 256KB of L2 cache and an 8W power envelope. That CPU using an M690E chipset, which includes Mobility Radeon X1270 graphics, and an SB600 south bridge. It weighs 3.97 lbs (1.8 kg) and measures 12.6" x 9.45" x 1.1" (320 x 240 x 28 mm).


Available in a choice of opulent midnight blue or snowy white, the Joybook Lite T131 netbook will be available June in China.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

AMD Samples Phenom II Black Edition TWKR


AMD just dropped off some fresh TWKR Black Edition Phenom II chips over at MainGear (Custom PC Builder). AMDs didn’t tell them much about the new mysterious CPU other than it should overclock really well and are essentially hand picked.


AMD Phenom II X42 TWKR Black Edition is not a CPU that will see the light of the day as a retail part (for now). TWKR processors are speed binned Phenoms that AMD will use to get feedback from system integrators and respectable overclockers. AMD states that these CPUs should be used with phase change or LN2 cooling only, as they are "the best of breed".

Depending on the number of speed binned processors, this might lead to real return of AMD FX series, the best CPUs that AMD makes.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

HP offers dual-core Athlon Neo in new Pavilion dv2z

After the Pavilion dv2, say hello to the Pavilion dv2z. HP has released a new version of its low-cost ultraportable, which starts at a lower price and can be customized with new dual-core Athlon Neo X2 and Turion Neo X2 processors from AMD.

In its base configuration, the Pavilion dv2z costs $599.99 and features a 1.6GHz Athlon Neo MV-40, Radeon X1250 integrated graphics, a gig of RAM, a 250GB mechanical hard drive, 802.11g Wi-Fi, a six-cell battery, and Windows Vista Home Basic x86. It also has the same 12.1" 1280x800 display and chassis design as the dv2.

You can step up to the Athlon Neo X2 L335 for an extra $25 and to the Turion Neo X2 L625 for $75 more. Both of these processors have dual 1.6GHz cores, but the Turion apparently has twice as much L2 cache (1MB instead of 512KB). HP also lets you pay $80 extra for an upgrade to Radeon HD 3410 discrete graphics and Windows Vista Home Premium.

HP offers both "Espresso Black" and "Moonlight White" versions of the dv2z. For some inexplicable reason, however, the white paint job induces a $25 price premium.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Callisto and Regor launched during COMPUTEX 2009

COMPUTEX 2009 (TAIPEI, Taiwan) — June 2, 2009 — AMD today announced two new dual-core desktop processors. Building on 10 years of AMD Athlon™ processor innovation, the new 45nm AMD Athlon™ II X2 250 processor gives mainstream consumers exceptional performance, efficiency and value. For enthusiasts and overclockers, AMD also announces the AMD Phenom™ II X2 550 Black Edition processor, the first ever dual-core AMD Phenom II CPU. With this latest addition to the AMD Phenom II processor family, users can now experience the power of AMD platform technology, codenamed “Dragon,” with dual-, triple- and quad-core configurations.



The new Phenom II X2 500 inherit all the major features from their elder brothers due to the fact that they are based on the same semiconductor die. The primary ones are compatibility with Socket AM3 mainboards and support of fast DDR3 SDRAM. Of course, the new dual-core processors can also be installed into the Socket AM2/AM2+ mainboards, just like all other Phenom II CPUs. In other words, new dual-core Phenom II X2 can be used in the new systems and as an upgrade for the existing ones.

Besides a 6MB L3 cache (the same size cache as that of Phenom II X4 900 processors), these solutions have pretty high clock speeds. The top Phenom II X2 550 processor works at 3.1GHz frequency, which is only 100MHz lower than that of the flagship Phenom II solution – Phenom II X4 955. Moreover, the calculated heat dissipation of the Phenom II X2 500 series processors is lower than that of all triple- and quad-core Phenom II CPUs due to fewer active cores (the only exception are the energy-efficient models). It equals only 80W.


AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition (CALLISTO) Details

AMD Black Edition processors, like the AMD Phenom™ II X2 550, help users to take control and unleash the maximum potential of Dragon platform technology’s unprecedented performance tuning capabilities. The same massive headroom that set world records in recent months is at users’ finger tips, offering impressive performance at a price the competition can’t beat.

Users can also maximize their overclocking experience by utilizing the new features and capabilities of AMD OverDrive™ 3.0, designed to enable quick and effective tuning of their PC experience for optimal performance.

With dual-, triple- or quad-core processors, AMD provides platform level solutions at multiple price points, each of which exceeds expectations for virtually any user.

AMD Athlon II X2 250 (REGOR) Details

The AMD Athlon II X2 250 performs exceptionally well when combined with AMD chipsets and integrated graphics solutions to create an all-AMD platform. Platforms featuring all-AMD technology can deliver up to twice the graphics performance of those with Intel integrated graphics.

Windows® 7 is optimized for multi-core processors like AMD Athlon™ II processors to give consumers an amazingly fast, simple and engaging PC experience. For example, Windows 7 is tuned to make the most of these new processors’ power management features, such as AMD PowerNow!™ 3.0 technology. AMD power management technologies, in combination with Windows 7, can help OEMs and partners to build exceptionally green, cool and quiet PCs.

Based on AMD’s acclaimed 45nm process technology, the AMD Athlon II dual-core processor has a TDP of 65W and can slash power consumption by up to 50 percent when doing basic tasks, up to 40 percent when running heavy workloads and up to 50 percent when at idle.

Press looking for more information on AMD Athlon II X2 250 and AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition, click here.

Reviews:
X-Bit Labs
AMDZone

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