Vic Computer Medan

AMD Demonstrated 17W Trinity

2012-01-12T07:38:00.000+07:00

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

2012-01-04T21:54:00.001+07:00

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

2011-12-20T07:22:00.004+07:00

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

2011-12-16T09:56:00.003+07:00

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

2011-12-07T20:32:00.005+07:00

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

2011-12-06T08:26:00.002+07:00

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

2011-11-28T17:08:00.009+07:00

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

2011-11-26T11:50:00.005+07:00

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

2011-11-19T10:05:00.002+07:00

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

2011-11-14T20:54:00.004+07:00

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

2011-11-09T21:38:00.004+07:00

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

2011-11-05T09:12:00.004+07:00

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?

2011-10-16T10:25:00.003+07:00

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

2011-10-12T21:42:00.007+07:00

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

2011-09-26T15:50:00.003+07:00

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

2011-09-20T12:24:00.004+07:00

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

2011-09-13T20:55:00.003+07:00

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

2011-08-26T09:52:00.002+07:00

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

2011-08-19T10:57:00.003+07:00

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

2011-08-18T21:53:00.002+07:00

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.

AMD Radeon Memory for Systems

2011-08-08T20:56:00.003+07:00

No, this is not a joke, AMD has quietly started selling DDR3 system memory under its Radeon brand. AMD's website confirms the product's existence.

AMD says Radeon DDR3 memory is "ideally suited" to the company's CPU and APU, tested to the highest industry standards on AMD platforms to guarantee reliability and performance. Right now, the product line includes 2GB Entertainment modules (rated for operation at 1333MHz with 9-9-9 timings) and 2GB UltraPro Gaming modules (which can hit 1600MHz at 11-11-11). The company is also preparing Enterprise modules. All three modules are apparently designed to operate at their rated speeds with a 1.5V voltage setting—the JEDEC-specified standard for DDR3.

Llano Chipsets and Socket

2011-07-04T20:31:00.003+07:00

Llano processor is not the only component of the Lynx platform. It also uses chipsets. Since the APU already contains the memory and PCI Express bus controllers, the chipsets consist of only one chip – the South Bridge also known as FCH (Fusion Controller Hub).

AMD currently offers two FCH variants: A55 and A75. The A75 model has native support for all contemporary interfaces, including USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gbps. The lower-end model A55 supports only old SATA 3 Gbps and USB 2.0 interfaces.

Mainboards for desktop Llano processors based on the above described chipsets come with a special Socket FM1 which is incompatible with AM3. Socket FM1 has significantly different number of pins – 905. All these pins are necessary to ensure that the CPU is connected not only with the chipset and the memory sub-system, but also with the PCI Express x16 graphics bus and monitors.

For the cooling systems, AMD tried to maintain compatibility with the existing infrastructure, so the old Socket AM3 coolers will work just fine with the new processors.

Desktop Llano Lineup

2011-07-03T21:57:00.005+07:00

The first batch of desktop Llano processors includes four APU models with four x86 cores inside. Just like the mobile Llano APUs, they don’t have a marketing name and are assigned A8 and A6 series numbers. A8 series includes higher-end APU models with a "Sumo" graphics core featuring 400 stream processors, while the A6 series includes slower modifications with lower clock frequencies and “lighter” graphics core with only 320 stream processors.

Here is the complete list of currently available Llano processors for the desktop Lynx platform:

There are significant differences in the specs not only between the two different APU series. Two models within each series are, in fact, two totally different products with dramatically diverse heat dissipation levels. The highest-performing models have 100 W TDP, but at the same time there are models with 65 W TDP and Turbo Core support. The clock frequency of the energy-efficient processors has been reduced by about 20-25% below that of their 100 W counterparts, but the features and frequency of their graphics cores remain the same.

Llano’s clock speeds are lower than the frequencies reached by the latest Athlon II and Phenom II processors. And it means that Llano are slower processors, which major advantage will be not the performance of x86 cores, but the performance of their graphics core. So, it makes sense to upgrade from a Socket AM3 to a Socket FM1 platform only for the sake of achieving better energy-efficiency and not in an attempt to boost the performance.

In the desktop segment, AMD’s pricing strategy is to make the A8 Llano processors an alternative to junior Core i3 Sandy Bridge models. The A8-3850's main competition will be the US$134 Core i3-2105. This is a fairly new part which has the same CPU clock as the i3-2100 but a fully enabled HD Graphics 3000.

Thermaltake Commander MS-I

2011-07-02T21:03:00.003+07:00

Thermaltake's new Commander MS-I is the latest eSPORTS chassis for enthusiasts with a pretty affordable price (just $49.99).

It features a side window, a bottom-mounted PSU area, a black-tinted motherboard tray with cut-outs for cable management and behind the CPU socket, support for graphics cards as long as 12.5", a 120-mm silent LED fan at the back, and a multitude of tool-less drive bays. Three 5.25" bays and one 3.5" bay face the outside of the case, while an additional five 3.5" bays and one 2.5" bay can play host to your hard drives and SSDs. Built-in latest USB3.0 SuperSpeed connector (for VN400A1W2N only).

Zosma Appeared at Japan

2011-06-23T17:49:00.002+07:00

Still remember codename Zosma? It is a new Phenom II quad-core processor line based on the same six-core Thuban silicon, but with two cores disabled. Beside the two "potentially" unlockable cores, Zosma also brought the AMD's Turbo Core technology, which previously only found on Six Core Phenom II.

Phenom II X4 960T Black Edition "Zosma" recently spotted at Japan market. This quad-core chip with unlocked multipler comes with the part number HD96ZTWFK4DGR, and is sold in PIB (processor in a box) packages. The chip was tested to allow unlocking of the disabled fifth and sixth cores, proving it's based on the Zosma silicon. It comes with a stock clock speed of 3.00 GHz (15 x 200 MHz), but can bump clock speeds up to 3.40 GHz (17 x 200 MHz). The chip features 512 KB of L2 cache per core, and 6 MB of shared L3 cache.

Mobile A-series Llano finally launches

2011-06-14T20:51:00.008+07:00

AMD has launched seven mobile parts of A-series "Llano" Fusion APU today, and the desktop models have yet to make an official appearance soon.

AMD is making some bold claims, in terms of battery life where the company is promising up to 10.5h of usable battery life. In fact, AMD claims that its A8-3510MX APU has 3.5h better battery life than a similar notebook with Intel's Core i5-2410M processor.

When it comes to graphics performance, AMD has always had a huge lead here over Intel, but AMD has thrown in a few new features that should further boost the appeal of its APUs. First up AMD has added what the company called Perfect Picture HD which is a post-processing option for cleaning up 1080p video, a feature that might prove popular with people shooting their own HD home videos. The second feature, called Steady Video is rather quite impressive, it actually pre and post processes the video to reduce camera shake and it even works with online videos.

As always, AMD is being very competitive on price and the company is expect notebook with its new APU's to start at US$499 with an A4 APU, whereas with an A6 we're looking at around US$599 and finally A8 models will come in at around US$699. Of course these are best case scenarios and we'd expect a lot more expensive machine to be available as well, depending on configuration. For those looking for a boost to the graphics performance beyond the APU's integrated solution, AMD supports CrossFire on the platform and claim up to a 75 percent performance boost for its discrete mobile GPUs when pairing them up with an APU.

AMD Confirms Delay of Bulldozer

2011-06-02T17:06:00.006+07:00

During the company's press conference dedicated to the launch of AMD 9-series core-logic sets, AMD announced that its long-awaited FX-series microprocessors will be available within the next 60 to 90 days from now, which points to August or September. Mainboards based on the new AMD 9-series chipsets with AM3+ socket will support both existing high-performance multi-core Phenom II microprocessors as well as AMD FX-series chips with up to eight cores.

Below is official rendered image of AMD 8-Core FX Processor Black Edition box (PIB):

Bulldozer Maybe Delayed and Need More Tuning

2011-05-31T20:24:00.003+07:00

Advanced Micro Devices may further delay release of its highly-anticipated FX-series microprocessors code-named Zambezi that are based on the Bulldozer micro-architecture, according to leaked slides published by a Chinese web-site.

The slides also point to new model numbers for the chips: FX-8150, FX-8100, FX-6100 and FX-4100, which may indicate that the company intends to alter previously set specifications of the chips.

Earlier it was believed that AMD would launch its FX-series of chips in June, 2011. It was also reported that the highest-performing eight-core offering would cost $320, which is in line with the top-of-the-range Core i-series "Sandy Bridge" CPU.

The long-awaited CPUs are now fully-functional and work without flaws, according to a person who wished to remain anonymous. The problem with the delay of the AMD FX family of chips is that they currently cannot operate at truly high-speeds and thus cannot achieve performance levels that AMD wanted them to. As result, AMD will need to design a new stepping of the processor and therefore delay the commercial launch to September.

The currently available B0 and B1 stepping Zambezi/Bulldozer processors can function at around 2.50GHz/3.50GHz (nominal/turbo) clock-speeds and at such frequency they cannot deliver performance AMD considers competitive, a person with knowledge of the situation said on Monday. As a consequence, AMD needs to tune the design of the processor and create B2 stepping of the chip with better clock-speed potential amid similar thermal design power (TDP), which will take several months to complete.

This will slowdown revenue growth of the chip-maker and will also hit its reputation, as this is by far not the first or second delay of Bulldozer in general and Zambezi in particular.

Llano Competitive Positioning

2011-05-29T20:58:00.003+07:00

According to some new leaked slides, systems based on AMD's top-of-the-line, A8-series Llano APUs will in fact compete against those based on higher-end Core i5 and lower-end Core i7 processors, with prices of $699 and upward. A6-series Llano chips look set to go against higher-end Core i3s and lower-end Core i5s, while the A4 series will seemingly tackle the lower end of the Core i3 family.

More shocking still, the slide suggests that PCs based on AMD's next-generation E-series processors—Zacate's successor—will compete dollar-for-dollar with systems based on Intel's Pentium processors. However, the slides are dated May 17, which predates the introduction of Intel's new Sandy Bridge-based Pentiums.

AMD's Llano APUs Expected to be Affordable

2011-05-27T21:24:00.002+07:00

Desktop versions of Fusion - Llano accelerated processing units (APUs) by Advanced Micro Devices are likely to be rather inexpensive, which may make them popular among PC builders as well as end-users. According to media reports, the new desktop chips will cost starting from $70.

The initial family of AMD A-series "Llano" APUs will include five chips and beside that, AMD will also offer a low-end E2-series solution featuring Llano design. The most affordable solution in FM1 form-factor will cost $70 (E2-3250), whereas the most powerful A-series chip will be priced at $170 (A8-3550P).

AMD A-series desktop APUs will have either four K10.5+/Husky x86 cores as well as Radeon HD 6000-class "BeaverCreek" (320 or 400 stream processors) graphics core or two x86 cores and "WinterPark" (160 stream processors) integrated graphics engine. The chips will support dual-channel DDR3 memory controllers, up to 4MB of cache, select processors may also feature AMD Turbo Core dynamic acceleration technology as well as a special multi-GPU graphics support.

AMD A8- and A6-series APUs set to compete against Intel Core i3-2100-series microprocessors, whereas the A4- and E2-series chips will rival Pentium and Celeron solutions.

MSI WindPad 110W

2011-05-26T10:06:00.002+07:00

MSI's WindPad 110W slate has appeared at ExcaliberPC online store, where it's listed with a June 1st arrival date and a $599 price tag. This new 10.1-inch device runs Windows 7 Home Premium and is based on AMD's Brazos platform.

The WindPad 110W has an 1280 x 800 touchscreen, an E-350 APU (two x86 core @ 1.6 GHz, Radeon HD 6310 DX11 graphics), 2GB of RAM, a 32GB SSD, an SD card slot, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0, a webcam, USB 2.0 and mini HDMI ports, and a 4200 mAh battery.

ASUS X42DE the Colorful Triple Core

2011-04-18T13:36:00.002+07:00

Want to be more powerful and stylish than A42N-VX091D? ASUS X42DE - Available in four fun colors with a scratch-resistant IMR design to bring out your personal style. Bigger RAM (2 GB DDR3) and discrete GPU (Radeon HD 5470 512MB)

AMD Phenom II X3 N830 (Triple Core, 2.1 Ghz)
RAM 2 GB DDR3
HDD 320 GB
VGA AMD RADEON HD 5470 with dedicated 512MB
Screen 14” LED (1366 x 768)
DVDRW Super Multi
WebCam, CardReader, HDMI, WiFi, LAN
SRS Surround Sound with Altec Lansing Speaker
6-cell Li-Ion 4400mAh Battery
DOS (Support Windows 7)

Acer Iconia Tab W500

2011-04-17T20:22:00.004+07:00

Acer Iconia Tab W500, the AMD Fusion powered 10-inch tablet PC has already begun to ship in the US with a keyboard docking station is priced at 549 USD but for Japan Acer will charge 60,000 Yen which is about 720 USD.

Right now Acer appears to be offering two different body colors for the W500 as wells as options for the keyboard dock to come with or without the tablet PC. For the US the W500 models spotted have had a light Silver look to them but the models spotted for the UK are darker in color.

The new launch dates displayed on the Amazon.co.uk listings for the tablets show them coming May 1st, 2011.

The Acer Iconia Tab W500 technical specifications below:

Processor AMD C-50 (1 MB L2 cache, 1 GHz, DDR3 1066 MHz, 9 W)
Chipset A50M Fusion Controller Hub
Operating System Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium (32-bit)
HD CrystalBrite LED-backlit TFT LCD with multi-touch screen
Resolution 1280 x 800
Brightness 350 cd/m²
Screen Size (Diagonal) 10.1" (25.7 cm)
Memory 2GB DDR3 onboard
Storage 32 GB SSD, with mini-SATA (mSATA) interface connector
Graphics AMD Radeon HD 6250 Graphics with 256 MB of dedicated system memory
Supports: Unified Video Decoder 3 (UVD3), OpenCL 1.1, OpenGL 3.1, OpenEXR High Dynamic-Range (HDR) technology, Shader Model 5.0, Microsoft DirectX 11
Interface HDMI port with HDCP, RJ-45 LAN
Dual USB 2.0 ports
Acer InviLink Nplify 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi Certified
10/100 Mbps Fast Ethernet
Bluetooth
Card Slot 2-in-1
WebCam Dual Acer Crystal Eye webcams with 1280 x 1024 resolution
Docking Connector Bottom US Keyboard Dock
Battery Lithium-ion battery 3-cells
Battery Life Up to 6 hrs (depending on configuration and usage)
Dimensions (WxHxD) 10.8 x 0.6 x 7.6? (27.4 x 1.5 x 19.3 cm)
Weight 2.14 lb (0.97 kg)

More info and gallery HERE

ASUS A42N-VX091D with Triple Core

2011-04-06T21:59:00.006+07:00

Why choose Dual Core if we can have TRIPLE CORE at Rp. 3.xxx.xxx ?

ASUS A42N-VX091D

AMD Phenom II X3 N830 (Triple Core, 2.1 Ghz)
RAM 1 GB DDR3
HDD 320 GB
VGA AMD RADEON HD 4250
Screen 14” LED (1366 x 768)
DVDRW Super Multi
WebCam, CardReader, HDMI, WiFi, LAN
SRS Surround Sound with Altec Lansing Speaker
6-cell Li-Ion 4400mAh Battery
DOS (Support Windows 7)
Color : Full Glossy Black Metalic

AMD to Fight i7 Sandy Bridge with Bulldozer

2011-03-15T14:06:00.005+07:00

Advanced Micro Devices at present is not able to compete in terms of pure performance against Intel Corp.’s Core i7-series “Sandy Bridge” microprocessors, according to benchmark results, but with its next-generation Bulldozer-based chips the company fully aims to fight.

A leaked document from AMD seen by us here claims that AMD FX-series central processing unit (CPUs) powered by the Bulldozer micro-architecture will be fully able to rival Core i7 2600-series chips. Below is the art-work for FX processor box:

AMD plans to introduce AMD 900-series chipsets compatible with Zambezi processors in Q2 2011. The Bulldozer processors, Radeon HD 6000 "Northern Islands" discrete graphics cards and AMD 900-series core-logic sets will power AMD's next-generation enthusiast-class platform code-named Scorpius.

The initial family of AMD's FX-series microprocessors based on Bulldozer micro-architecture will include four models with eight, six or four cores and 95W or 125W thermal design power (TDP).

The first breed of AMD FX8000, FX6000 and FX4000 currently known under Zambezi code-name will completely support all the advantages that the Bulldozer micro-architecture is supposed to bring, including new Flex FP floating point processing unit. The new chips in maximum eight-core configurations are projected - by AMD's internal documents - to offer roughly 50% performance improvement over Phenom II-series microprocessors in multimedia applications.

The primary family of AMD FX-series central processing units (CPUs) will feature two eight-core models, one six-core flavour as well as a quad-core version. The chips will support dual-channel DDR3 1866MHz memory, will support Turbo Core dynamic acceleration technology and will come in AM3+ form-factor and will have 125W and 95W TDP. The second "wave" of Bulldozer chips will also include four microprocessors and will improve performance of the initial breed of CPUs.

Gigabyte GA-E350N-USB3 AMD Fusion mobo

2011-03-04T10:22:00.003+07:00

This little mini-ITX motherboard comes with one of the first AMD Fusion APU’s (Accelerated Processing Unit): the Zacate Dual-Core E-350 (1.6 GHz, 18W TDP) with a Radeon HD6310 (clock 500 MHz) graphics core. It also comes with 4 SATA 6Gbps ports and 2 USB3.0 ports, making it a very attractive little motherboard for users who value a power efficient system that still has teeth enough to show 1080p video and play the occasional lighter game.

This is an Ultra Durable 3 Classic motherboard. This means that GIGABYTE has used 2 ounces of copper for both the power and ground layers of the motherboard. It also has Japanese Solid Capacitors and GIGABYTE's DualBIOS technology. As mentioned earlier, this is a mini-ITX motherboard, meaning it measures just 17x17cm (6.7x6.7 inches). GIGABYTE still managed to put a x16 PCI-E-slot and space for 2 DDR3-memory sticks on the motherboard.

The main feature on the motherboard is the big heatsink/fan. This cooler keeps both the APU and the AMD Hudson-M1 FCH (Fusion Controller Hub) cool. The FCH is responsible for 8 USB2.0 ports (4 on the back panels and 4 via the internal USB headers) and the 4 SATA 6 Gbps connectors.

On the back panel we find:
• 1 x PS/2 keyboard/ mouse port
• 1 x VGA port
• 1 x DVI-D port
• 1 x HDMI port
• 1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector
• 4 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
• 2 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports
• 1 x RJ-45 port
• 6 x audio jacks (Center/Subwoofer Speaker Out/Rear Speaker Out/Side Speaker Out/Line In/Line Out/Microphone)

The motherboard also comes with features like HDMI 1.3, Dolby Home Theather Support, and On/Off Charge, which allows users to quickly charge an iPad/iPod/iPhone -- and other USB-charged devices -- even if the computer is sleeping or off.

AC Ryan Playon!HD Essential

2011-02-21T20:20:00.007+07:00

The AC Ryan Playon!HD Essential allows you to store and enjoy all of your precious movies, music and photos in the comfort of your own living room. Free your media content from the limitations of your PC and let the Essential bring them to life in Full HD quality on your TV.

The Playon!HD Essential is designed for users who prefer an easy to use media player without the fuss of networking. Setting a new standard of performance in the class of media players with no network, this inexpensive, user friendly, no-network media player supports the most file formats including Blu-ray and DVD ISO. With exceptional quality and ease, the Playon!HD Essential, plays your media files from external drives (USB drives, USB hard disks, and media cards such as SD Cards). The pre-installed eco friendly, low noise, low power consumption HDD up to 2TB allows you to conveniently store all your media files in one central location.

The Playon!HD Essential makes entertainment simple and enjoyable for you, your family and friends. Simply transfer, store and play your media content with the Essential and enjoy High Definition entertainment, the way it should be.

* More format support than any other no network media player.
* Superior video quality High Definition 1080p.
* Plays BD-ISO files including BD basic navigation.
* Plays DVD IFO/ISO with full DVD menu and navigation support.
* Supports more character sets (for non-English subtitles).
* Completely unique, newly designed user interface (Playon!GUI2.0).
* Smart content management (auto file indexing).

The Essential has similar styling to previous A.C. Ryan devices and has the front panel has a reflective finish with company logo in the centre. Beneath the logo is the on/off button which lights red when in standby and blue when on. The Essential sized 185x150x55mm and weighs approximately 610g.

On the right side of the device we find the input connectors. On the left is a media card slot which supports SD, SDHCm MMC, MS and MSPro. Then there are two USB 2.0 inputs and a USB 2.0 slave port.

Turning round to the back of the Essential we find an exhaust vent for the 40mm cooling fan, power socket and the systems outputs. Starting from the left we have an optical output, HDMI 1.3, Composite audio/video and coaxial audio. There are no network connectors on the back panel of the device as it is designed for those who want a stand-alone player. A.C. Ryan will however offer a Wireless-N dongle for the player.

This is the bundled components consist of a manual, composite video cables, remote, batteries, PSU and replacement feet.

PCP+ AB5S - 880G

2011-02-17T20:38:00.000+07:00

* Chipset : AMD™ 880G Chipset + AMD™SB710 Chipset
* Onboard ATI Radeon HD 4250
* Memory :
- Dual Channel DDR3 memory technology
- 4 x 240-pin DDR3 DIMM slots
- Supports DDR3 1600/1333 MHz non-ECC ,un-buffered memory
- DDR3 Max.8GB
* Expansion Slots :
- 1 x 32-bit PCI slot
- 2 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots by 8-LANE
- 1 x PCI Express x1 slot
* Storage :
- 6 x Serial ATA2 3Gb/s connectors
- Supports HDDs with RAID 0, 1,10 functions
- 1 x Ultra DMA 133 / 100 / 66 IDE connector
* Audio : Realtek ALC883 HD Audio CODEC with 8-Channel
* LAN : Realtek RTL8111DL PCI Express Gigabit LAN
* Rear Panel I / O :
- 4 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
- 1 x PS/2 mouse port
- 1 x PS/2 keyboard port
- 1 x VGA port & 1 x DVI port & 1 x HDMI port
- 1 x RJ-45 port
- 1 x Audio I / O ports
- 1 x SPDIF_OUT port (Coaxial)

Sony, Fujitsu and Toshiba launch Brazos netbooks

2011-01-15T20:23:00.006+07:00

Fujitsu and Sony has joined the growing group of notebook makers with Brazos powered machines, as both companies have announced 11.6-inch models in Japan.

Fujitsu’s model is called the LifeBook PH50/C and will be available in red, blue and black. The APU of choice is the E-350 and the standard configuration will include 2GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive. We’re sure some kind of Wi-Fi option will also be included and judging by the picture there’s at least two USB 2.0 ports and an Ethernet port, but we’d expect there to be an HDMI port and a D-sub connector somewhere as well. The PH50/C is said to be weighing in at about 1.5kg (3.3lbs) and have a battery life of about 7.3 hours.

Sony’s new model is the VAIO YB which will be available in ever jollier colors, namely silver, pink and green. Sony has gone for the same base hardware as Fujitsu, in other words and E-350 APU and 2GB of memory but fit a smaller 320GB hard drive as standard. The VAIO YB sports three USB 2.0 ports, an HDMI port, a D-sub connector, and twin memory card readers, Gigabit Ethernet and a pair of audio jacks. You’ll also find a 1.3 Megapixel webcam, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR as part of the spec.

The VAIO YB weighs in at 1.46kg (3.22lbs) with the standard battery which is said to be good for up to 6h of usage, although Sony offers two high capacity models which gives you either 7.5 or 11h worth of battery life, although at a currently unknown extra weight addition. No word on pricing as yet, but we’d expect the VAIO YB to be a lot more affordable than the Lifebook PH50/C.

Meanwhile, Toshiba’s NB550D went on sale in Taiwan today and it’s yet another consumer coloured notebook which comes in four different choices of randomly picked colours which includes gold (looks kind of brown to us), green, orange and a blue, although there appears to be a black version as well that is currently not available. This is a smaller 10.1-inch system which shares the same design as Toshiba’s NB520 netbook, but of course with different bits inside.

Feature wise we have an AMD C-50 dual core APU at 1GHz, 1GB of RAM and a 250GB hard drive. Toshiba has fitted three USB 2.0 ports, an HDMI port, a D-sub connector, a card reader, an Ethernet port and a pair of audio jacks. You also get 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, surprisingly Bluetooth 3.0, a webcam and a pair of very large Harman Kardon branded speakers for this size machine. Sadly the screen resolution is that of a netbook at 1024x600, but the NB550D weighs in at a light 1.32kg (2.9lbs) with a 6-cell 48Whr battery pack although we don’t have any details in terms of how long it’s meant to last. The NB550D retail for NT$13,900 in Taiwan, or $479, which is about $100 cheaper than the Atom N550 powered NB520 netbook.

What is an APU

2011-01-07T06:41:00.002+07:00

Check out this video which gives a visual representation of the APU (Accelerated Processing Unit) design model.

AMD officially introduced its Zacate and Ontario Accelerated Processing Units, saying notebooks and netbooks based on them are "now available." AMD says it expects PC vendors including Acer, Asus, Dell, Fujitsu, HP, Lenovo, MSI, Samsung, Sony, and Toshiba to "announce plans to deliver AMD Fusion APU- based systems at very compelling value and mainstream price points." Even tablets based on the new silicon are on the way, although those aren't due out until later this quarter.

Zacate and Ontario combine AMD's brand-new Bobcat microarchitecture, DirectX 11-class integrated graphics, and the new UVD3 video decoding block in a single piece of silicon manufactured using TSMC's 40-nm fab process. Both Zacate and Ontario are available in dual- and single-core flavors, with the former having an 18W thermal envelope and the latter fitting into a 9W TDP. Benchmarks showed that the quickest, dual-core Zacate model can keep up with Intel's entry-level CULV processors and deliver far better graphics performance.

MSI shows off its first Brazos systems

2010-12-29T20:25:00.003+07:00

MSI was showing off a pair of Brazos solutions earlier today at an event in Taipei, Taiwan. On display was a 12-inch notebook as well as a 20-inch all-in-one desktop, both featuring an AMD E-350 CPU.

The all-in-one Wind Top AE2050 have a 20-inch 16:9 screen. MSI will offer models with a multi-touch enabled screen, but this doesn't appear to be a standard feature. Besides the 1.6GHz dual core E-350 CPU with built in Radeon HD 6310 graphics, MSI has added USB 3.0 support and the two ports are located on the left hand side of the system.

Other features include four USB 2.0 ports, a pair of audio jacks, built in Ethernet of some form, an HDMI port, a multi-format memory card reader and an optical drive. It also sports a pair of SRS certified speakers and a top mounted web cam. It might not be the most exciting system ever, but should prove to be an interesting alternative to an Atom/ION all-in-one system.

MSI Wind U270 which is MSI's first Brazos notebook and it's a 12-inch model that features a fairly basic, but not unattractive design. The display has a resolution of 1366x768 which is a step up from the Acer Aspire One 522. Again it sports the 1.6GHz dual core E-350 Zacate APU with Radeon HD 6310 graphics. MSI has fitted the U270 with a D-sub connector, an HDMI port, a single USB 3.0 port, two USB 2.0 ports, a pair of audio jacks, an Ethernet port and a multi-format memory card reader. There's of course also a built in webcam & WIFI, space for a standard 2.5-inch hard drive and support for up to 4GB of DDR3 memory.

Acer Aspire One 522 on Fusion APU

2010-12-26T07:35:00.002+07:00

A leak info (not from Wikileaks :-P) that Acer is preparing a brand new Aspire One netbook based on AMD Ontario (FUSION) APU. This new Aspire One powered by a 1 GHz Dual Core Fusion APU (Accelerated Processing Unit) CPU & GPU Combo with max TDP only 9 watt. The on-die GPU said to be a Radeon HD 6250 class that is fully capable for mainstream games and Full HD playback.

Aspire One 522 is using 10.1 inch LCD screen but with max resolution of 1280x720. If not satisfied by that, we can used external LCD via HDMI port. Price tag expected to be around US$ 425.

More detail specifications:
AMD Fusion Dual core 1GHz AMD C-50 Ontario APU
Memory DDR3 2GB
Hard disk 500GB
Graphics ATI Radeon HD 6250 + HDMI Port
Layar 10.1″ 1280 x 720
OS Windows 7 Starter
HD webcam
WiFi 802.11b/g/n + Bluetooth+EDR
6-cell battery

AMD's Cayman Unleashed

2010-12-16T16:47:00.005+07:00

AMD today introduced AMD Radeon™ HD 6900 series graphics (Cayman), its most advanced enthusiast GPU representing the intelligent choice for enthusiast gamers. The AMD Radeon™ HD 6900 series of graphics cards provides gamers with an enhanced second-generation, Microsoft DirectX® 11-capable architecture for breakthrough performance, advanced image quality features for the best looking games, and innovative AMD PowerTune power management technology that dynamically adjusts power draw on the fly.

Unlike Barts, Cayman is based on a fundamentally new GPU architecture, with improvements extending from its graphics front end through its shader core and into its render back-ends. The highlights include higher geometry throughput, more efficient shader execution, and smarter edge antialiasing.

Reviews:
TechReport
X-Bit Labs

AMD ships 3 new processors with speed bumps

2010-12-08T21:22:00.003+07:00

AMD continues to expand their current desktop CPU line, just in time for holiday shoppers. The first of these processors being released today is the AMD Athlon II X3 455 (HDZ565WFK2DGM). The new Athlon II X3 455 is the triple core processor which replaces the Athlon II X3 450. The Athlon II X3 455 features three cores running at 3.3GHz. The second processor today is the Phenom II X2 565 Black Edition. The Phenom II X2 565 is a dual core processor that runs at 3.4GHz. The Phenom II X2 series has become a favorite for the potential of unlocking the unused cores on the processor. This presents an opportunity to purchase a quad core processor at a lower cost, though there is no guarantees that the third and fourth cores will work properly, so you need to keep that in mind if that is your goal for the Phenom II X2 series.

The third and final processor being release today, is the flagship processor from AMD, the Phenom II X6 1100T processor (HDE00ZFBK6DGR). The 6-core THUBAN 1100T takes over the top spot in AMD's CPU line from the 1090T, and does it at a suggested retail price of only $265.00. The clock speed improvements over the 1090T are minimal: both the standard and Turbo Core speeds increase only 100MHz, to 3.3GHz and 3.7GHz, respectively.

Paired with AMD's new 800 series chipsets, which offer extra PCI-E lanes for CrossfireX, SATA 6G and USB 3.0 without needing expensive add-ons like the NVIDIA NF-200, AMD's Thuban processors offer the enthusiast a way to build an affordable, yet very powerful and versatile 6-core production or gaming system.

AMD's Financial Analyst Day 2010

2010-11-09T17:06:00.005+07:00

At its annual Financial Analyst Day, AMD demonstrated how its unique combination of CPU and GPU computing technologies on a single die will enable breakthrough capabilities in an innovative processor design with planned OEM system availability in early 2011. AMD executives detailed how this new class of processor, AMD Fusion Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), is poised to create a sustained position of advantage by powering demanding PC workloads in sleek form factors with long battery life, pacing future AMD growth. AMD Fusion APUs are built from DirectX® 11-capable GPU technology and either low-power or high-performance multi-core x86 CPU technology. These APUs are designed to vastly improve today's Internet, video processing and playback, and gaming (client and online) experiences. For the first time, AMD also demonstrated its new high-performance x86 multi-core CPU architecture codenamed "Bulldozer" and provided additional information around the "Bulldozer" launch schedule.

AMD also announced several notable updates to its 2011-2012 roadmaps including:

Server - All “Bulldozer”, all the time

By the end of 2012, every new server CPU AMD bring to market will be based on the new “Bulldozer” architecture. “Bulldozer” will power multiple platforms designed to give server buyers what they keep asking for: more threads, more memory and the best performance-per-watt, per-dollar available. The “Terramar” CPU, planned for release in 2012, will indeed scale to 20 cores in our mainstream, 2- and 4-processor server platforms. The cloud’s new best friend will be “Sepang,” planned for release in 2012. “Sepang” is planned to scale up to 10 cores and is targeted at low-cost, low-power 1- and 2-way platforms.

Client Roadmap - Velocity goal: the best APUs every year

Velocity is the term Rick Bergman introduced last year to signal the new AMD Fusion APU design methodology and product introduction cadence. AMD Velocity builds on AMD’s already established annual GPU design cycle to achieve a faster pace of innovation than AMD previously achieved with a CPU-only development focus.

"Krishna" and "Wichita" are two and four-core 28nm APUs based on the next-generation sub-one watt "Bobcat" CPU cores and a DirectX 11-capable GPU, designed for the tablets, notebooks, HD netbooks, and desktop form-factors. "Trinity" is a 32nm APU based on AMD's next-generation "Bulldozer" CPU cores and a DirectX 11-capable GPU, designed for mainstream and high-performance desktops and notebooks. "Komodo" is a 32nm CPU featuring up to 10 AMD "Bulldozer" CPU cores designed for high-performance and enthusiast desktops.

AMD introduce Barts-based Radeon HD 6800 series

2010-10-22T18:22:00.007+07:00

The company has released the first official photos of the Radeon HD 6870 and HD 6850. Barts PRO and XT parts feature a 255mm2 die size. This is quite good as Radeon HD 5850 and 5870 had 334mm2 size. The chip is almost 30 percent smaller and the new one consumes up to 151W in the XT version, which is less than the Radeon HD 5850 series. Radeon HD 5850 had 2.15 billion transistors while the Radeon HD 6850 and 6870 have 1.8 billion.

Thanks to generally refined DirectX 11 architecture, 256-bit GDDR5 memory controller, increased clock-speed (despite of decreased amount of stream processors and texture units) as well as improvements like better tessellation module amid smaller die size hence lower price, the new Radeon HD 6870 seems to be generally more competitive than the previous-generation Radeon HD 5850. It is especially notable that now both models 6850 and 6870 support up to six monitors, not a mainstream feature that will be sported by $179 and $239 graphics cards.

In the new generation Northern Islands processor - when it comes to the Radeon HD 6800 - several improvements to the tessellation unit was made. In particular, the company improved thread management for domain shaders and re-sized some queues and buffers to achieve significantly higher peak throughput, particularly at lower tessellation levels. Even though the changes had negligible impact on transistor count or power consumption, two times higher the tessellation rate in synthetic tests is declared by AMD.

The AMD Radeon HD 6800 series graphics cards are the first in the industry to offer support for both DisplayPort 1.2 and HDMI 1.4a, providing PC users with expanded options for multi-monitor configurations, display selection, and new DisplayPort audio features. Thanks to new drivers, the new graphics boards also feature better support for third-party stereo-3D (S3D) middleware.

Reviews:
Legit Reviews-AMD Radeon HD 6850 and 6870 CrossFire Video Card Review
Hot Hardware-AMD Radeon HD 6870 & 6850 Graphics Cards Debut
Tom's Hardware-AMD Radeon HD 6870 And 6850: Is Barts A Step Forward?
Anandtech-AMD’s Radeon HD 6870 & 6850: Renewing Competition in the Mid-Range Market

Intel Selling Upgrade Card to Unlock

2010-09-20T20:34:00.005+07:00

Intel is asking customers to pay extra if they want the full power of their store-bought silicon. An eagle-eyed Engadget reader was surfing the Best Buy shelves when he noticed this $50 card --

and sure enough, Intel websites confirm -- that lets you download software to unlock extra threads and cache on the new Pentium G6951 processor. The chip actually have a full 1MB of L3 cache that's enabled plus HyperThreading support.

This 'new' idea is similar to online games idea that let you "BUY" extra weapons and features with voucher cards. Still, it's an intriguing business model, and before you unleash your rage in comments, you should know that Intel's just testing it out on this low-end processor in a few select markets for now (United States, Canada, the Netherlands, and Spain).

In fact, this is the very first time in history, when a hardware maker enables a software upgrade. Interestingly, how much time will it take hackers to enable the application to all owners of Pentium-based systems? Or maybe that was indeed the plan to slowdown sales of CPUs by Advanced Micro Devices?

AMD Zacate Demo Video

2010-09-14T16:56:00.001+07:00

Demonstration of AMD's upcoming Fusion architecture Accelerated Processing Unit code named "Zacate." In the video Simon Solotko demonstrates accelerated web applications, flash video, 3D gaming, and HD video playback on the 18W TDP dual core APU "Zacate."

Zacate has two x86 cores fused together with a DirectX 11 graphics engine. AMD continues to claim that this architecture will work very well in ultra mobile form factors and that it will also be affordable.

Here are some pics of a running AMD Bobcat platform, specifically a Zacate APU running City of Heroes: Going Rogue.

The Zacates compared with a coin:

AMD's new stickers

2010-09-08T07:49:00.002+07:00

AMD is working on new stickers that manufacturers put on their computers - the stickers, which have been around a while let the consumer know what type of products are inside.

We're used to see the Intel Inside, Centrino, AMD's Better by Design stickers, AMD's Vision or nVidia's sticker and of course the one for Windows, but now things may be getting out of hand when some machines are labeled "Skype Ready".

What's worse is that these stickers are often hard to remove, and can either tear or leave a residue that requires a cleaning job. The reasoning behind the stickers is that companies pay the manufacturer for the 'ad space' of placing a sticker right on the palm rest of a laptop.

AMD knows that computer logo stickers are getting out of hand, and for that reason has consolidated many of its logos into the Vision branding program. Right now, in fact, AMD's logo stickers are optional and vendors that choose not to use the sticker are not penalized in terms of marketing dollars.

AMD is designing case badge stickers to be less sticky. The new stickers will be able to be peeled off more easily, and with little to no residue left behind. This clearly shows that they are taking it a step further and siding with the end users who take them off anyway. If only Microsoft would follow this advice. AMD's new stickers should be out sometime next year.

Toshiba's Nile-powered Satellite T235D

2010-09-01T09:30:00.003+07:00

For someone who still considers 13" notebooks to offer the best blend of portability and functionality, we saw a lot to like in the Toshiba Satellite T235D. Weighing less than four pounds and measuring only 0.7" at its thinnest point, the larger form factor gets you not just a bigger LCD panel, but also a larger keyboard and touchpad.

Processor AMD Turion II Neo K625 1.5GHz
Memory 4GB DDR3-800 (2 DIMMs)
Chipset AMD M880G
Graphics Mobility Radeon HD 4225 integrated graphics
Display 13.3" TFT with WXGA (1366x768) resolution and LED backlight
Storage Toshiba MK3265GSX 320GB 2.5" 5,400 RPM hard drive
Audio Stereo HD audio via Realtek codec
Ports 2 USB 2.0,1 eSATA/USB 2.0 combo port,1 HDMI
1 VGA, 1 RJ45 10/100 Ethernet via Realtek controller
1 analog headphone output,1 analog microphone input
Expansion slots 1 MMC/SDHC
Communications 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi via Atheros AR9285
Input devices Chiclet keyboard
Synaptics capacitive touchpad
Internal microphone
Camera 0.3-megapixel webcam
Dimensions 12.7" x 8.8" x 0.7-1.03" (323 x 224 x 18-26 mm)
Weight 3.9 lbs (1.8 kg)
Battery 6-cell Li-Ion (61 Wh)

This particular variant of the T235D-S1345 sells for $599.99 at Newegg. The cheapest 13" laptops with Intel CULV processors, like Acer's Aspire AS3810TZ or Toshiba's own T235-S1310, are priced almost identically at around $590-600.

ATI Radeon branding will be changed to AMD Radeon

2010-08-30T20:53:00.007+07:00

The rumors are true! AMD intend to phased out the ATI logo on future branding of graphics processors, which are developed by engineers of ATI Technologies, which AMD acquired back in 2006.

A major motivator is the fact that AMD plans to introduce a range of new products incorporating both AMD microprocessor technology and a Radeon graphics tech on the same chip. The first fruits of the CPU-GPU "Fusion" initiative are slated to arrive soon. "Ontario," which will combine two copies of the low-power "Bobcat" CPU core with Radeon graphics, is slated to ship before the end of the year. The more powerful "Llano" APU, which mates quad Phenom II-class CPU cores with presumably a more capable GPU, is scheduled for the first half of 2011. Obviously, the combination of the firm's CPU and GPU technologies into single-chip products could create some consumer confusion, if folks were to continue to think of AMD and ATI as separate entities—especially if the ensuing marketing messages emphasize the benefits of CPU-GPU integration.

Furthermore, AMD tells us it feels confident in making this change right now because its graphics business is "on good track," having surpassed rival Nvidia in discrete graphics shipments last quarter, according to analyst estimates, and having secured high-profile design wins with the likes of Apple. Also, the chastening of Intel via its settlement with the FTC gave AMD some extra assurance that the expansion of its brand into graphics wouldn't hurt its relationships with major PC makers.

According to AMD's own survey results, consumers savvy enough to know something about discrete graphics cards tend to know the Radeon name, they tend to like AMD, and they don't mind seeing the AMD name on graphics cards once they realize AMD merged with ATI. The folks at AMD read those results as "permission" to jettison the ATI brand name.

The plan is to replace "ATI Radeon" and "ATI FirePro" with "Radeon" and "FirePro", along with a sprinkling of AMD corporate identity. The badges you see above will be used for systems with discrete Radeon and FirePro graphics cards. The lower row omits the AMD logo, so PC makers shipping Intel-based systems will be able to avoid the oil-and-water combo of Intel and AMD branding, if they wish.

However, end-users are likely to miss the ATI logotype since in general people associate the brand with high quality, performance, experience and so on. Besides, 25-years old trademarks like ATI are generally recognizable.

Some analysts said the re-branding of ATI Radeon into plain Radeon may become the worst branding decision ever made by AMD due to the fact that ATI has a larger scope on the market of discrete graphics chips than AMD does on the market of CPUs.

Official statement from John Volkmann : Evolving the AMD Brand Portfolio

AMD Reveals Peculiarities of Bobcat Design

2010-08-28T20:55:00.002+07:00

Bobcat micro-architecture will power AMD's next-generation central processing units (CPUs) for netbooks and other innovative form-factors that require very low power chips. The Bobcat seems to be by far more progressive than Intel Atom, but it will consume more power and its performance is likely to be considerably better.

When AMD started to design Bobcat back in 2005 - 2006, it already knew that its K7/K8/K9 chips were too power hungry for mobile computers, whereas the preceding generations were too inefficient in modern workloads. As a result, the company decided to design the chip from scratch rather than to "borrow" designs from previous-generation products. However, AMD decided not to sacrifice performance in order to absolutely minimize power consumption. As a result, Bobcat seems to be almost completely contemporary chips with numerous design trade-offs to reduce power consumption. According to AMD, the micro-architecture minimizes data movement and unnecessary reads from cache or memory.

The Bobcat core sports out-of-order execution, advanced branch predictor, dual x86 instruction decoder, 64-bit integer unit with two ALUs, floating point unit with two 64-bit pipes, 32KB instruction cache, 32KB data cache, 512KB L2 cache (working at half speed to trim power consumption) and so on. Bobcat fully supports modern SIMD extensions like SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4A, but no 3DNow, AVX and so on. AMD Bobcat features an extensive set of means to reduce power consumption, including such capabilities as fine grain clock gating, integrated core power gating and so on.

The first implementation of Bobcat will be Ontario chip that features one or two x86 processing cores as well as DirectX 11 graphics processing unit from ATI. The chip will be made using 40nm process technology at TSMC and will be released commercially in Q1 2011.

First Details about Bulldozer

2010-08-27T21:02:00.003+07:00

Advanced Micro Devices revealed numerous details about the Bulldozer micro-architecture, which will power the company's next-generation central processing units (CPUs) for desktops, servers and workstations. Apparently, the main goal of AMD's designers when it came to Bulldozer was to ensure maximum sharing of resources within multi-core microprocessors to get high performance amid moderate low power and die sizes.

Traditional approach to creation of multi-core microprocessor is very straightforward: each core acts independently and shares only the most obvious resources with other: L3 cache, memory controller, processor bus, etc. In Bulldozer designs, cores will be able to dynamically share fetch and decode blocks, caches and other units. At least in initial designs, multi-core chips will consist of several major blocks, each of which will have two independent integer cores (that will share fetch, decode and L2 functionality) with dedicated schedulers and two 128-bit FMAC pipes with one FP scheduler. This means that each major block (Bulldozer Module) is, according to AMD, essentially a tightly-linked dual-core microprocessor with shared fetch, decode and floating point units.

Such "dual-core" major block will not be as efficient as two traditional cores, but will consume less power and will use less die space, which in effect means that more of major building blocks can be installed without increasing thermal design power or die size to unacceptable levels. Moreover, AMD reasonably claims that the approach is more efficient than simultaneous multi-threading or chip-level multi-threading. In fact, according to AMD, each major block can provide 80% performance of a dual-core microprocessor.

AMD also implied that Bulldozer will feature a new predication-directed instruction preset mechanism to overlap instruction miss requests to cache or memory and thus improve efficiency of execution. In particular, this will help AMD to maximize utilization of the "dual-core" major blocks of Bulldozer microprocessors.

Given the fact that AMD's Bulldozer architecture seems to be very modular, we can expect AMD to tailor designs in accordance with performance and/or power requirements.

The first Bulldozer processors will be made using 32nm SOI fabrication process in 2011 and that with 33% increase of the number of cores, up to 50% of additional performance may be received in server applications, at least, based on AMD's internal simulations.

More info : TechReport - AMD's Bulldozer architecture revealed

AMD reduces CPU prices to keep market share

2010-08-20T10:38:00.001+07:00

AMD recently reduced prices for about 20 of its desktop processors. According to sources from motherboard players, the price cuts are aimed at defending against competition from Intel.

AMD's quad-core Athlon II X4 640 CPU has seen its price drop from US$122 to US$99, while the dual-core Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition CPU dropped from US$105 to US$93, and the quad-core Phenom II X4 955 and 965 Black Edition both dropped US$26. Most of the company's other processors have seen drops up to US$10.

The above prices only apply to "direct" AMD customers buying CPUs in trays of 1000, but the savings should start trickling down to street prices. So stay tuned!

Upcoming AMD CPU & GPU Update

2010-08-13T21:04:00.004+07:00

New Phenom II and Athlon II are scheduled for launching on September 21. Leading the new batch will be the Phenom II X6 1075T. With a $230-240 price tag and a 3GHz clock speed (or 3.5GHz with Turbo Core), that part should bridge the gap between the $199 1055T and the $295 1090T.

At the same time, the 3.5GHz Phenom II X4 970 should become AMD's new quad-core flagship. There will be two types of AMD Phenom II X4 970 BE CPUs: boxed versions aimed at retail market will be based on the well known code-named Deneb design that has four cores in total; tray flavours of the chips designed for system integrators and OEMs will be based on Zosma design, which is basically six-core Thuban chip with two disabled cores that can be unlocked on certain mainboards.

Also coming : a couple of CPUs priced at around $100: the Phenom II X2 560 and Athlon II X4 645. The new parts will indeed be 100MHz quicker than the existing Phenom II X2 555 and Athlon II X4 640, or 3.3GHz and 3.1GHz.

Meanwhile, AMD is preparing to introduce the Radeon HD 6000-series (Southern Islands) formally in October with retail availability to follow in November. DigiTimes claims that changes in foundry firm TSMC's roadmap led AMD to scrap plans for 32-nm GPUs (code-named Northern Islands) and build Southern Islands products using the same 40-nm process as today's Evergreen chips. Build on the same 40nm, savvy pricing and architectural improvements should be the only weapons at the new Radeons' disposal.

DigiTimes adds that AMD will cut prices across the Radeon HD 5000 series "in the near future".

KaraokeSys 1.1 Released

2010-08-09T20:57:00.009+07:00

KaraokeSys is a Karaoke Management Software that simply needs a Windows based computer with dual monitor (or a projector) and sound enabled. No need to worry about damaged VCD discs anymore. Your favorite MPEG videos were stored on your PC and easily launched via this multifunction software.

Highlighted features:

Multiple monitor support to view live video at secondary screen while still doing anything else in the primary screen (including searching and selecting songs)
Manage songs (add, edit, delete, and multiple edits of song properties)
Drag & drop files to upload songs
Search anything (any displayable text within title, artist, genre, and even tag)
Manage playlist (add and delete songs for future use)
Play, pause, stop, next song, previous song (this is very obvious)
Switch to left, right, or stereo audio channel for vocal + music or music only
Pitch control (transpose –12 to +12) [NEW]
Tempo control [NEW]
Volume control
Preview song in mute volume

Screenshots:

Apple’s New iMac & Mac Pro Powered by ATI Radeon

2010-08-06T07:01:00.000+07:00

Apple has selected the world renowned ATI Radeon™ graphics solutions for the new line of Apple® iMac® and Mac Pro® tower. Now featured in Apple Stores as well as online retail, ATI Radeon graphics offer outstanding power and performance as the standard configuration for the new iMac and Mac Pro tower which will hit store shelves soon.

“Apple buyers demand the best, and AMD’s award-winning ATI Radeon graphics enable exceptional visual experiences for iMac users,” said Matt Skynner, corporate vice- president and general manager, GPU division, AMD. “AMD has conducted extensive testing and research to create superior graphics products for the iMac. This research is designed to dramatically enhance the Mac-user experience so that Apple users can enjoy responsive performance and play the newest games.”

The high-performance ATI Radeon™ HD 5770 graphics card features 1GB of GDDR5 memory from AMD and enables blistering fast Mac Pro graphics technology. Ideal for motion graphics, 3D modeling, rendering, or animation, the card comes standard; for more demanding tasks purchasers can upgrade to ATI Radeon™ HD 5870 graphics.

ATI Radeon™ HD 5750 graphics are available in the new 27” iMac. The ATI Radeon™ HD 5650 graphics are available in the new 22” and 27” iMac. Last but not least, ATI Radeon™ HD 4670 graphics are available in the new 22” iMac .

StarCraft II only takes advantage of dual cores

2010-07-30T22:38:00.002+07:00

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty has now been available via digital distribution servers. StarCraft II marks the return of the three races from the original game: Protoss, Terran, and Zerg. This first installment only features the Terran campaign, with two planned expansion packs “Heart of the Swarm” and “Legacy of the Void” which will allow gamers to play the Zerg and Protoss campaigns.

The bad news is StarCraft II only takes advantage of dual cores, but still processing power plays a major role in this game. For example, the Core i3 540 processor only has half the L3 cache of the Core i5 750 and this makes the latter 27% faster when comparing the clock for clock data at 3.70GHz.

The extra threads of the Core i7 920 processor are no advantage when compared to the Core i5 750 in this game, but the additional memory capacity and bandwidth is. The Core i7 920 was 11% faster when comparing the clock for clock data at 3.70GHz which is quite significant.

An older processor like the Core 2 Quad Q6600 suffers compared to the other CPUs tested, serving as a bottleneck to a high-end GPU such as the GeForce GTX 480. The Phenom II processors delivered average performance and we saw no real difference between the Phenom II X2 (dual-core) and Phenom II X4 (quad-core processors).

It is a shame that StarCraft II can only utilize two cores, as this really hurts older quad-core processors such as the Core 2 Quad Q6600. Furthermore this will also mean that those with budget quad-core processors, such as the Athlon II X4, will also suffer.

AMD considering its own USB 3.0 implementation

2010-07-29T22:25:00.001+07:00

AMD is getting ready to sign a deal with Renesas that will give AMD access to Renesas USB 3.0 implementation. This would allow AMD to quickly implement a stable USB 3.0 solution into its chipsets without having to spend time and money on developing its own solution and more importantly, software stack.

We’re hearing reports of Renesas competitors having problems with their software stacks and this is why we’re still waiting for all but Fresco Logic to get their products approved by the USBIF. If this rumour proves to be true, then it means that AMD has had enough of Intel’s silly game and decided to move forward without the blessing of Intel’s xHCI spec.

Digitimes claim that the first chipset from AMD to incorporate USB 3.0 support should be the Hudson D1 southbridge which is meant to go with AMD’s upcoming Ontario APUs which are set to launch sometime in the fourth quarter. This also means that we’ll see USB 3.0 from AMD on its notebook platform first, rather than its desktop platform which is usually the case for new technologies like this.

We’re starting to wonder how much Intel’s xHCI spec really matters, especially as Intel is in no hurry to launch its own USB 3.0 supporting chipset. NEC must also be kicking itself for selling off the NEC Electronics division to Renesas, as from what we’ve been told, NEC only expected USB 3.0 to be profitable for about six months or so before it got integrated into chipsets. Now it looks like this time period might well extend over two years or longer when it comes to Intel chipsets, as we have yet to hear or see anything that suggests that Intel will add USB 3.0 support to its chipsets over the next twelve months.

AMD Technology Helps Bring “Predators” To Life on the Big Screen

2010-07-15T09:55:00.004+07:00

Troublemaker Studios utilized Six-Core AMD Opteron™ processors and ATI FirePro™ graphics accelerators to create animations and special effects for the new film “Predators”, now in theaters. Produced and executive directed by acclaimed film maker, Robert Rodriquez, Predators stars Academy Award winning actor Adrien Brody in a tale about a group of elite warriors who come to realize they’ve been brought together on an alien planet…as prey.

With a long history in the movie making industry, Troublemaker Studios is using AMD technology to push the envelope of digital movie making and special effects in several blockbuster films.

In addition to “Predators”, Rodriguez has looked to AMD technology to create six of his movies, including “Shorts”, “Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams”, “Spy Kids 3D: Game Over”, “Planet Terror”, and “Sin City”.

Rodriguez’s next film, “Machete”, is currently in production employing AMD technology as the movie’s digital hardware backbone, and is expected to be released on September 3, 2010.

The creative team at Rodriguez’s Troublemaker Studios use workstations based upon AMD’s superior ATI FirePro V8800 graphics solutions and Six-Core AMD Opteron processors which enable the digital artist to create and iterate at the speed of thought.”

“With the AMD platforms, my creative team has the freedom to quickly design and animate all the required concepts and designs,” said Robert Rodriguez, Troublemaker Studios. “AMD’s complete platform solution helps turn our visions into reality – we can easily and quickly manipulate images or scenes without the wait process previously associated with computer technology.”

Fujitsu Announces AMD Powered 11.6” LifeBook PH520

2010-06-12T14:17:00.003+07:00

Fujitsu Japan has announced a new 11.6" notebook powered by one of AMD's new mobile 2010 processors.

Fujitsu LifeBook PH520 :
11.6" 1366 x 768 display
Athlon Neo K125 processor (1.7GHz, single core)
AMD M880G chipset
ATI Radeon HD 4225 graphics
2GB RAM
320GB HDD
USB 2.0 x 3, Ethernet, HDMI, VGA, card reader, audio jacks
Wi-Fi b/g/n
Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
1.3MP Webcam
Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit
6-cell battery (6.2 hours)
1.4 kg

Acer Liquid E Ferrari smartphone

2010-06-06T11:06:00.003+07:00

Acer has teamed up with Ferrari to manufacture the Liquid E Ferrari special edition smartphone. The device comes loaded with Ferrari-themed content, like videos, photos and ringtones of Ferrari engines, in addition to the obvious external themed Ferrari red color and emblem.

Acer has opted for Android 2.1 OS on the Ferrari phone, but not so surprising since they are dealing with Ferrari; speed is key. Running a 768MHz Snapdragon processor, 5 megapixel camera, MicroSD slot with support for 32GB chips, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, all connected to your 3G HSDPA network. Added bonus is a bright red Ferrari Bluetooth headset.

Asus introduces Eee PC 1015T AMD-powered netbook

2010-06-04T20:25:00.004+07:00

Asus is showing off the 10 inch netbook at its Computex booth this week. At the first glance, it looks like all of the other 10 inch netbooks Asus has introduced this year, but the Eee PC 1015T is powered by a 1.2GHz AMD V105 single core processor and ATI Radeon HD 4200 graphics. Unlike most current netbooks, this model also supports up to 4GB of DDR3 memory.

The rest of the specs are pretty standard, including a 10.1 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display, 1GB of DDR3 memory, up to 320GB of hard drive space, and a 6 cells battery. The laptop runs Windows 7 Starter Edition and also includes the Asus Express Gate quick boot environment. The netbook comes with 802.11b/g/n WiFi and optional Bluetooth 3.0.

Dell Announces Nile & Danube Notebooks

2010-05-18T20:32:00.004+07:00

A new ultrathin notebook from Dell, the Inspiron M301z offering users the choice of an AMD "Nile" Dual-Core Athlon II Neo K325 (1.3GHz) or a Turion II Neo K625 (1.5GHz).

The 13.3" widescreen laptop comes with an HD display panel (1366x768), an AMD RS880M chipset with SB820 south bridge, integrated ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4225 graphics,, up to 4GB of DDR3 memory, Windows 7 Home Premium or Home Basic (64-bit), built-in speakers, a standard 320GB hard drive (7200RPM), 6-cell battery, 1.3MP webcam, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth v2.1 and a Kensington lock slot. There's also HDMI-out a 7-in-1 card reader, audio jacks, two USB 2.0 ports, Ethernet, a mini-DisplayPort output and a starting weight of just 3.89 lbs.

Beside that, Dell also announced the Inspiron M501R, a 15.6-inch laptop based on the latest 2010 AMD Mainstream Platform for Notebooks nicknamed "Danube".

The Dell Inspiron M501R features mobile AMD Phenom II X4 quad-core processor (codename Champlain), ATI Radeon HD 4250 integrated graphics or optional ATI Radeon HD550v 1GB GPU, up to 8GB of DDR3 memory, up to 640GB of hard disk capacity, a DVD writer or Blue-ray combo drive, and a 720p LED-backlight display.

Dell’s new laptop also includes an integrated 1,3MP web camera, two speakers, 802.11n WiFi, optional Bluetooth, Ethernet LAN, three USB ports, an eSATA/USB port, optional 7-in-1 media card reader, VGA and HDMI outputs, and a full-size keyboard with numeric pad. The laptop weighs 5.83 pounds with its standard 6-cell battery, integrated graphics and optical drive.

Acer shows its new Aspire notebooks based on AMD's Nile

2010-05-13T21:06:00.001+07:00

Following AMD announcement, Acer has officially announced three new notebooks based on AMD's 2010 Ultrathin platform, the Aspire One 521, Aspire One 721 and Aspire 1551.

The Aspire One 521 features AMD's single-core AMD V-series V105 processor clocked at 1.2 GHz paired up with ATI Radeon HD 4225 GPU. The rest of the features include 1 GB of memory, a 160 GB HDD, three USB 2.0 ports, HDMI and D-Sub outputs, and an ability to easily run 1080p HD videos.

The bigger 11.6-inch Aspire One 721 features AMD's Athlon II Neo K325 paired up with the same Radeon HD 4225 GPU. As far as the ports and specs are concerned, this one is pretty much the same as the Aspire One 521 except for the obvious change in screen size and CPU.

The last but not least is the Aspire 1551 featuring the same 11.6-inch 1366x768 display but will be available with either AMD Turion II Neo K625 dual core processor, up to 4 GB of memory, 640 GB of HDD space, and the same Radeon HD 4225 integrated graphics. It also comes with HDMI output and is capable of playing 1080p content.

Some photos & videos posted at Netbooknews.de

AMD Cannes film about VISION Technology

2010-05-12T10:07:00.002+07:00

AMD has a short film on Youtube about their Vision technology. Miki Manojlovic, a Serbian actor is featured in it.

Quote : VISION technology from AMD provides such an immersive experience that you will be hard pressed to tell the difference between the virtual world and reality. A stunning level of detail, life-like gaming and amazing photos that turn into a vibrant video with a click of a button are just some reasons that will make every user feel like a film star.

Over 100 Laptops with AMD's Upcoming Danube & Nile Platform

2010-05-07T22:02:00.006+07:00

Reuters reported that Advanced Micro Devices may make some of its largest inroads into the fast-growing laptop computer market thanks to a new generation of power-efficient chips to be unveiled next week. The company's latest microprocessors are expected to be included in 109 laptop models in the coming months, the company's best showing during the crucial back-to-school sales season. Last year, AMD's chips were available in 40 laptop models.

"Danube" is the new platform for mainstream notebooks replacing "Tigris". On Ultrathin segment, we will see "Nile" platform to replace "Congo" or the second generation AMD's Ultrathin.

Here are the 2010 Mainstream Notebook Platform CPU

Here are the 2010 Ultrathin Notebook Platform CPU

Notebooks featuring the new silicon will start showing up "as early as June" from the well-known vendors : HP, Acer, Dell, and Lenovo.

Early signs that the new range of chips to be unveiled next week are getting positive responses from top PC makers due to AMD's attempts to simplify its numerous offerings under its new "Vision" brand, as well as improved battery life and performance across the line. In the first quarter of 2010, AMD represented 12.1 percent of worldwide mobile chip sales, according to IDC.

AMD "Leo" & Six Core Phenom II Arrive

2010-04-26T15:16:00.003+07:00

The long awaited AMD Phenom II X6 processors have finally arrived and AMD officially has 6-core desktop processors on the market! AMD today released their new flagship desktop processors that feature six processor cores, but that is not all! The have also rolled out a new frequency boosting technology called AMD Turbo CORE that is available on these new 'Thuban' processors, a brand new chipset that goes by the name of 890 FX for high-end motherboards.

The new AMD Phenom II X6 processors, AMD 8-series chipsets, and ATI Radeon HD 5800 series cards make up what is called the 'Leo' platform and is said to be the ultimate AMD platform for power users.

The addition of the 890FX chipset and even the software updates (AMD Fusion Utility 2.0 for basic performance tuning and easy profile selection and the new AMD OverDrive 3.2.1 Utility) have made AMD a more well-rounded platform.

The AMD890FX chipset is basically superior to the AMD890GX chipset in the sense that it has been stripped of the integrated graphics (IGP) and has two full x16 PCI Express lanes for better performance for those that have multi-GPU CRossFire graphics configurations. Both the 890GX and 890FX chipsets have the primary PCIe graphics card location as a x16 slot when one video card is used, but when two video cards are used the 890GX chipset reduces the number of lanes down to just eight on the slot.

Today they have officially announced the Phenom II X6 1090T (HDT90ZFBK6DGR) for $ 285 and the Phenom II X6 1055T(HDT55TFBK6DGR) for $ 199. These new six core processors help you improve productivity and can be a drop-in replacement for those with existing socket AM2+ and AM3 motherboard. According to AMD at the time of launch, they expect there to be over 160 AM2+ and AM3 motherboards with BIOS updates available (where required) to enable support for the Phenom II X6 processors! This is great news as those with older platforms can spend $199 on a processor like the AMD Phenom II X6 1055T and have a 45nm 6-core processor as a drop-in replacement.

Reviews & News :
AMDZone
Legit Reviews
BSN
Tweaktown
Hot Hardware-AMD Phenom II X6 1090T 6-Core Processor Review
PC Pro-AMD Phenom II X6 1090T
Hardware Secrets-Phenom II X6 1090T CPU Review

Acer Aspire One 521 to feature AMD's Nile Platform

2010-04-20T21:45:00.008+07:00

Say Farewell to Congo (2nd Generation Ultrathin), and Welcome to Nile platform. AMD's Nile is the new platform for Ultrathin notebook that will be using DDR3 memory.

Acer is reportedly preparing to launch a new 10.1 inch Aspire One netbook that switch from the Intel Atom chip for an AMD chip. The Aspire One 521 is powered by an AMD V105 processor. This is the slowest single core "Geneva" processor of the "Nile" platform, clocked at 1.2GHz, with 512KB L2 cache, DDR3 support and 9W TDP. Performance and further details remain unknown until AMD announces it in May. It is paired with an AMD M880G chipset with integrated ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4225 graphics core and 384MB dedicated video memory. The 4225 is not announced yet either and probably has a few minor architectural improvements over the 4200, hence the increased model number, but is likely slower due to ~25% lower clock speed. It supports UVD2 (should be capable of HD video playback) and Acer didn't forget to add an HDMI port.

Eye-catching noticeable is the huge chrome plated logo. This chrome accentuation continues with the power button, which is transparent but has a chrome element.

The netbook will have optional Bluetooth 3 support and a compact charger with changeable plus. The battery is supposed to be good for up to 7 hours. No word on a launch date or price yet. So stay tuned...

AMD Turbo Core Technology

2010-04-08T20:49:00.003+07:00

Today AMD is disclosing some basic details about the upcoming Phenom II X6. With the Thuban cores AMD is introducing its version of Intel’s Turbo Boost technology called Turbo Core. AMD has yet to implement power gating on its processors, so Turbo Core works a little differently than Intel’s Turbo.

Turbo Core activates when 3 or more cores (on a 6-core part) are idle. When this happens, the frequency of those three cores is reduced to 800MHz, the voltage to the entire chip is increased, and the remaining three cores are turboed up by as much as 500MHz. In any other situation the CPU runs at its normal clocks.

The CPU handles all monitoring and does the clock/voltage management itself. The switch to turbo up cores apparently happens fast enough to deal with Windows moving threads around from core to core.

Turbo Core is triggered by a deterministic system that is based on load demand and current operating conditions (not temperature). Cool’n’Quiet is active throughout the turbo process. What actually happens is that when CnQ looks to see if a set of cores should be downclocked, it also has the ability to increase the frequency of other cores.

Turbo Core will work only on AMD's new Phenom II X6 CPUs and forthcoming quad-core CPUs based on the new Zosma core design when they launch later this year. AMD also says that Turbo Core won't require new motherboards, and that current Socket AM3 and AM2+ boards that can support Thuban/Zosma will only need a BIOS update to support it.

The Versatile AMD890GX Chipset

2010-03-02T20:55:00.005+07:00

AMD and its motherboard partners today unleashed ATI Radeon™ HD 4290 Graphics with the AMD 890GX Chipset, a versatile, affordable and exceptionally energy efficient solution for an incredible, high definition visual computing experience.

The AMD 890GX chipset redefines the way you play with versatile graphics configurations, including DirectX® 10.1 graphics on the motherboard and support for up to two high-performance ATI Radeon™ Premium Graphics cards with ATI CrossFireX™ technology. The same AMD 890GX motherboard which can be used to build an efficient and slim home theater PC using the integrated ATI Radeon HD 4290 Graphics, can be augmented with ATI Radeon™ HD 5450 Graphics for a dual-graphics performance preview, or upgraded to a gaming powerhouse with ATI Radeon™ HD 5870 Graphics and the visual realism of DirectX® 11.

The AMD 890GX chipset supports the SATA 3.0 6Gbps hard drive interface to help speed application performance, decrease boot times, and provide faster access to information, HD video, photos and more.2 SATA 3.0 technology on the AMD 890GX Chipset can help speed application performance and Windows 7 data access speeds with high-bandwidth SATA 3.0 solid state drives and in multi-drive RAID configurations.

Many AMD 890GX-based motherboards feature SuperSpeed USB 3.0, quickly synchronizing and transferring digital media files on the new generation of USB 3.0 devices. With USB 3.0 and SATA 3.0 support, these platforms are designed to be ready for a new generation of high-speed hard drives and high resolution digital camcorders and media players. The AMD 890GX chipset also includes support for Gigabit Ethernet, HyperTransport™ 3.0 technology, and PCI Express® Generation 2.0 to create a system designed to provide fast data flow resulting in speedier transfers of work, games, and entertainment files.

The first of the AMD 8-series chipsets, these technologies serve as the foundation for 2010 VISION technology for AMD desktop platforms that are scheduled to be announced in the second quarter of 2010 and are designed to be compatible with the upcoming AMD Phenom™ II X6 six-core processor.

A series of tests to check out the 3D performance of the new chipset and compared the AMD 890GX, AMD 785G and Intel HD Graphics:

Resources:
AMD 8-Series Chipsets Product Page
Tweaktown-Asus M4A89GTD Pro/USB3
Overclockers Club-Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H
Guru3D-MSI 890GXM G65
Hardwarezone-MSI and Gigabyte
Neoseeker-Asus and Gigabyte
X-Bit Labs-AMD 890GX in Action

ATI Radeon HD 5830 Brings Huge Performance, More Choice for DirectX 11 Gaming‏

2010-02-25T21:06:00.003+07:00

ATI Radeon HD 5830 graphics card is based on the cut-down version of the code-named Cypress (RV870) graphics processor and features 1120 stream processors, 56 texture units, 16 render back ends, 256-bit GDDR5 memory controller and is clocked at 800MHz. ATI recommends its partners to install 1GB of 4.0GHz memory on the 5830 models graphics boards.

Its recommended price is so far specified vaguely as below $250. Considering the prices of Radeon HD 5850 and HD 5770, we expect the Radeon HD 5830 to cost $200-210.

Product page: ATI Radeon™ HD 5830 graphics product information

Articles :
X-Bit Labs

More AMD-based Lenovo laptops & AIO Desktop to come

2010-02-16T21:54:00.002+07:00

Lenovo has announced two more mainstream laptops and an all-in-one desktop all built around AMD CPUs and graphics hardware.

Lenovo will aim the new G455 and G555 laptops at "mainstream customers," and it will outfit the systems with AMD Athlon or Turion processors and unspecified DirectX 10-class ATI graphics. These notebooks will also feature 16:9 wide screen displays, some Lenovo power management software, a "one-touch backup, repair and recovery tool," and cameras with facial recognition support.

The Lenovo G455 and G555 notebooks start at $449 and will be available in the U.S. beginning in March.

Meanwhile, the C315 all-in-one desktop will have a 20" touch-screen display with a 16:9 aspect ratio, and Lenovo will build it with a dual-core Athlon processor, 4GB of RAM, and Mobility Radeon graphics. Pricing will start at $649 when the C315 reaches U.S. in April.

Radeon HD 5570 launches at $79-85

2010-02-09T20:52:00.003+07:00

AMD has now added a third sub-$100 graphics card to its DirectX 11 lineup. The new Radeon HD 5570 fits squarely between HD 5670 and HD 5450 with a $79-85 suggested price range.

AMD based the Radeon HD 5570 on the same 40-nm Redwood graphics processor that powers the 5670. Users will still get 400 stream processors, five texture units (for 20 texels/clock fill rate), two ROP units (for a total eight pixels per clock), and a 128-bit memory interface. However, the core clock speed has fallen from 775MHz to 650MHz, and instead of speedy 4Gbps GDDR5, AMD has limited the 5570's memory selection to 1.8Gbps DDR3.

As a result, floating-point number crunching power has fallen from 620 gigaFLOPS on the Radeon HD 5670 to 520 gigaFLOPS on the Radeon HD 5570, and memory bandwidth has dropped similarly from 64GB/s to just 28.8GB/s. These changes appear to have helped the 5570's power efficiency—AMD quotes a "typical" 38W at load, down from 61W. In turn, the reduced power consumption enables a half-height form factor and a smaller cooler. AMD tells us we could actually end up seeing passively cooled 5570s from
some card vendors.

Reviews:
AnandTech
Tom's Hardware
Legit Reviews

“Thuban” to Get Dynamic Speed Boost Technology

2010-02-07T10:47:00.002+07:00

Advanced Micro Devices plans to implement a dynamic performance boost technology into its six-core processors known as Phenom II X6 “Thuban”.

The software is seriously behind the hardware and many applications still cannot take advantage of additional cores, but fully depend on clock-speeds. In order to provide maximum possible performance in such programs, developers of CPUs implement special dynamic performance boosting technologies that disable certain cores and overclock the rest.

When single-thread performance is needed most, Thuban processors will automatically disable idle cores and overclock the remaining engines to the maximum possible level that is determined by general thermal design power. The technology will be completely hardware-based, hence, will work in any operating system that supports six-core chips. The technology is presently called “C-state performance boost”, however, it is more than likely that AMD will introduce a better sounding marketing name when it launches six-core chips in the second quarter of the year.

ATI Radeon HD 5450 "Cedar"

2010-02-04T21:28:00.002+07:00

Four chips in 6 months reaches its end today, with the launch of the final chip in AMD’s Evergreen stack: "Cedar". Cedar, the baby of the family, will be powering AMD’s bottom-tier cards. Today we’re seeing the the first of what we expect will be a couple of Cedar cards with the launch of the Radeon HD 5450. The ATI Radeon HD 5450 graphics card delivers a state-of-the-art HD multimedia and game experience at a value price. You can expect to find listed soon for $49-59.

The Radeon HD 5450 has 292 million transistors, 80 stream processors, two texture units (each capable of filtering four texels per clock cycle), and a single ROP that can push out four pixels per clock. Radeon HD 5450 graphics cards will have a 650MHz core clock speed, up to 1GB of DDR2 or DDR3 memory with a 1.8Gbps top data rate, and 64-bit memory interfaces. (The $49 part will only have 512MB of RAM, however.)

AMD has a product page for their new Radeon 5450. Radeon HD 5450 Reviews:
AnandTech
Hot Hardware

Zosma is the new AMD 45nm Quad Core

2010-02-01T22:14:00.002+07:00

Delta Leonis is a star in the constellation of Leo and natives calls it "Zosma". Some even calls it Zozma or Duhr. AMD’s next generation 45nm quad core is codenamed Zosma.

Expected to be released as early as Q2 2010, it is set to launch together with three new Hexa cores Phenom II X6 "Thuban". Some suspected that Phenom II X4 960T 95W TDP quad-core is a six-core with two cores disabled.

We don’t know any clock speeds but it is a 45nm SOI part, supports DDR3 1333 and fits in AM3 motherboards.

AMD's Refresh : Phenom II X4 910e, X2 555 BE; Athlon II X4 635, X3 440, X2 255

2010-01-25T14:35:00.007+07:00

AMD has released 5 new CPUs for the New Year. Thanks to continued improvements in Global Foundries' 45nm process, AMD is delivering slight clock bumps for its dual, triple and quad-core processors while dropping prices of others.

The new line-up of processors AMD is introducing today consists of the following products...
Phenom II X2 555 - $99
Athlon II X4 635 - $119
Athlon II X3 440 - $84
Athlon II X2 255 - $74
Phenom II X4 910e - $169

The Phenom II X2 555 BE - AMD's Fastest Dual-Core

Remember the Phenom II X2 550 BE? That was a quad-core Phenom II with two cores disabled, but a full 6MB L3 cache. It was a beast of a dual-core CPU but AMD quietly pulled it off its price list months ago. You could still find the chips in retail and priced quite effectivley at $99, but the Core i3 530 manages to offer better performance at nearly the same price.

AMD's response? The Phenom II X2 555 BE. Still an unlocked Black Edition part, the 555 pushes its clock speed up to 3.2GHz. The extra 100MHz won't do much for performance but the price remains at $99. This chip now supports hardware C1E, like the first Athlon IIs. The hardware C1E means lower idle power consumption and it's courtesy of the new C3 Phenom II stepping.

Reviews :
AnandTech
Hot Hardware

Anandtech has unlocked the Phenom II X2 555 and managed to get it to a quad core at 3.2GHz. They used Gigabyte's GA-MA790FXT-UD5P motherboard. In its BIOS there's an option for Advanced Clock Calibration. All you need to do is set EC Firmware Selection to Hybrid, and ACC to Auto:

Overclocking is affected. With only two cores active the Phenom II X2 555 BE could run at 3.8GHz without any additional voltage. With four cores active, that number drops down to 3.6GHz.

Radeon HD 5670 "Redwood"

2010-01-14T21:15:00.005+07:00

AMD's DirectX 11 Evergreen family is now proceeding to mainstream arena. We're getting to see the Radeon HD 5670, which should start for about $99. Nicknamed "Redwood", it contains half the execution resources of Juniper, the GPU in Radeon HD 5700-series cards, with the same 128-bit memory interface.

According to AMD, the 5670 will draw just 14W at idle and 61W under a typical load. That means no PCI Express power connectors and hopefully low noise levels, despite the spartan-looking single-slot cooler. The core of the new card runs at 775MHz with 400 stream processors for the core and 1GHz with either 512 MB of 1GB of GDDR5 memory.

AMD advertises Eyefinity support, too, but the maximum number of supported displays is limited to four, and the reference card will only connect up to three displays.

Reviews:
Tech Report
AMDZone
AnandTech

AMD's prized primate, Louie, shows just how easy it is to upgrade your PC with a new ATI graphics card, letting you play the latest games. Want to learn more? Check out http://links.amd.com/SoEasy

World’s First Mobile Graphics with DirectX 11 Support

2010-01-08T12:24:00.004+07:00

AMD today introduced its lineup of next-generation DirectX 11-capable ATI Mobility Radeon™ Premium graphics. AMD has based the Mobility Radeon HD 5800 series on the same 40-nm Juniper silicon as the desktop Radeon HD 5700 series. The Mobility 5700 and 5600 series are both based on Redwood, while the 5400 series is based on Cedar.

There's no Cypress here. That chip specifically for desktop cards like the Radeon HD 5870, and it's basically too big and too hot for laptops.

Speaking of power efficiency, the new Mobility 5000 lineup features "improved engine and memory clock scaling and clock gating," which helps lower power consumption at idle. AMD allows real-time switching between integrated and discrete graphics processors, too, so users can disable their discrete Radeons in order to get longer battery life. The switching technology supports both Intel and AMD platforms.

Other features include Eyefinity hexa-display capability, which you'll find on Mobility 5800-, 5700-, and 5600-series GPUs. Those who opt for Mobility 5400-series parts will be limited to quad-display setups. All of these GPUs also support up to 1GB of GDDR5 RAM, although you may see some of the lower-end parts with smaller amounts of DDR3 or DDR2 RAM. The choice will likely be up to laptop makers.

Lenovo ThinkPad Edge

2010-01-07T21:08:00.001+07:00

AMD today celebrated an expansion of its business relationship with leading computer manufacturer Lenovo, which is introducing new AMD platform-based laptops. The innovative PC manufacturer this week introduced the first commercial ThinkPad laptops based on VISION Pro Technology from AMD, a new extension of VISION Technology from AMD, that are designed to appeal to key enterprise, SMB and government segments: the ThinkPad X100e, an entry ultraportable starting under $449, and the ThinkPad Edge Series laptops designed for the SMB, starting from $579.

Priced right and engineered for small business, ThinkPad Edge is truly mobile and reliable, with features:
* Powerful AMD dual-core processors
* Windows® 7 operating system
* Gigabit LAN, WWAN with GPS, 802.11bgn WiFi, Bluetooth and WiMAX options
* Thin and light with a 13.3" widescreen
* Spill-resistant keyboard
* Up to 7.8 hours of battery life
* Worry-free ThinkVantage® Technologies
* Enhanced multimedia and HD audio
* Low-light-sensitive Web camera
* Three USB ports (1 powered), 5-in-1 media card reader and HDMI
* Various services and warranty options

The ThinkPad® Edge 13" model features a progressive new design, with clean lines and bold color and finish choices. For more, visit HERE.

Lenovo also plans this quarter to introduce a new IdeaPad based on the 2009 AMD Mainstream Notebook Platform, targeted at the consumer mainstream volume market.

Vision Pro Technology

2010-01-05T20:42:00.003+07:00

On January 5th, AMD announced VISION Pro Technology, a new commercial PC platform brand that delivers a superior visual computing experience, and can help businesses increase productivity and gain competitive advantage by enabling visually stunning communications, marketing and sales materials.

Graphics matter more than ever in business communication and innovative companies are leveraging balanced PC platform technology to generate and view rich visual presentations including videos and 3D graphics to communicate winning ideas.

Commercial PCs based on VISION Pro Technology from AMD offer out-of-the-box support for multiple monitors, seamless viewing of videos, use of video conferencing software, and the performance necessary to create and view rich presentations with embedded video and 3D graphics.

Additional industry support comes from HP which offers VISION Pro Technology from AMD on select models of its HP ProBook line of business notebooks. The HP ProBook 4415s, ProBook 6445b, and ProBook 6545b are powered by VISION Pro Technology from AMD, enabling these notebooks to deliver compelling PC-based visual support for all forms of business communications including sales presentations, webcasts, and videoconferences.

Security features supported by VISION Pro Technology include the Trusted Platform Module (TPM), AMD’s Enhanced Virus Protection (EVP), and key Windows® 7 Professional features3. AMD client virtualization technology [AMD Virtualization™ (AMD-V™) technology] provides the full, chip-level optimization needed to support legacy applications under Windows XP Mode3.

Find out more about Lenovo and their new ThinkPad Edge and ThinkPad X100e notebooks featuring VISION Pro technology from AMD.

PCP+ Baby Raptor

2009-12-23T11:58:00.005+07:00

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)

PCP+ Canibal

2009-12-17T10:37:00.003+07:00

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

Asus Eee PC 1201T is AMD-based

2009-12-01T21:19:00.004+07:00

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.

MSI announces Neo X2-based X-Slim X430

2009-11-27T14:16:00.003+07:00

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.

Lenovo Readies World’s First AMD-Based ThinkPad

2009-11-21T16:45:00.008+07:00

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.

Hemlock Reclaiming the Speed Crown

2009-11-18T21:13:00.008+07:00

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

AMD and Intel Announce Settlement of All Disputes

2009-11-12T20:38:00.008+07:00

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

Dell Zino HD Nettop

2009-11-11T20:55:00.005+07:00

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.

nVidia poke fun at Intel with cartoons

2009-11-08T11:09:00.004+07:00

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.

Kohjinsha 10.1 Dual Screen Netbook with Neo MV-40

2009-10-31T14:33:00.003+07:00

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.

Windows 7 Launch!

2009-10-22T20:16:00.003+07:00

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.

Athlon II X3 "Rana" Introduced

2009-10-20T10:54:00.001+07:00

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

Radeon HD 5770 and 5750 "Juniper" Jump In

2009-10-17T11:39:00.007+07:00

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

Intel's cheat on 3DMark Vantage scores

2009-10-14T20:29:00.002+07:00

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

Vic Zhou refuses to be a slave to money

2009-10-04T10:35:00.005+07:00

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.

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

2009-09-23T20:15:00.008+07:00

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

Acer's new Ferrari One - VROOM!

2009-09-15T10:36:00.010+07:00

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

2009-09-15T09:54:00.005+07:00

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).