Next-gen CrossFire Technology will take multi-GPU scaling to a whole new level

The speed of your GPU cores and GDDR memory have been changing all the time and the same for Catalyst improvements. So what does that leave?  We are hearing that the interface between the cards can now be improved.

Could this be true? Well AMD has always prided itself on the high speed interconnection system called HyperTransport and they have been working on motherboard chipsets longer than ATI engineers. So the question changes to Will AMD be able to create a Bulldozer system which runs graphics faster than any other combination of graphics, processor and motherboard with a similar price?

Read the full article via KitGuru

One of AMDs best decisions was to acquire ATI. Should they do the same with ARM?

If there has ever been a company that should be acquired, it is British chip designer ARM. AMD would be an amazing fit.

When AMD announced earlier this week that it would host ARM to hold a keynote at its upcoming software developer conference, I started poking around in the industry to see how close AMD and ARM really are. AMD's PR firm called the two companies "strange bedfellows" and the opportunity that both companies have in using technologies such as OpenCL would put Intel at a disadvantage. Whether that is really the case or not, I got really stuck on the "bedfellows" note. Seriously, "bedfellows"?

Read the full article via TomsHardware

Ubuntu 11.04 'Natty Narwhal' released!

It's April, the fourth month of the year, and that means it's time for a new Ubuntu release. (This also true of the tenth month of the year -- those Canonical folks like to keep busy.) Ubuntu 11.04, or Natty Narwhal as the kids are calling it, is here and packing some significant changes from earlier editions of the Linux distro. The most obvious being the arrival of the Unity desktop environment, which was previously relegated to netbooks. It's got integrated search, a combination launcher and taskbar, and app menus that have been moved to the top of the screen à la OS X -- basically it's harvested the best ideas from Apple and Microsoft and splashed a pretty coat of aubergine paint on it. The new UI is not without its detractors and reportedly has some stability issues, but you can always choose "Ubuntu Classic" to stick with Gnome. The update also makes Firefox 4 the default browser and replaces the Rhythmbox music manager with the sleeker and more functional Banshee. Hit up the source link to download the 700MB ISO -- it's free and you can try it without installing, so what's there to lose? 

via Engadget
source Ubuntu

Confirmed: Nvidia SLI on AMD 900-Series "Bulldozer FX" motherboards

Nvidia Corp. on Thursday confirmed that mainboards based on the forthcoming core-logic sets from Advanced Micro Devices will be able to support Nvidia's SLI multi-GPU Technology. The move confirms importance of the next-generation AMD FX-series processors code-named Zambezi powered by Bulldozer micro-architecture for the PC gamers market.

"We are pleased to announce that SLI has been licensed to the world’s leading motherboard companies for integration onto their upcoming motherboards featuring AMD’s 990FX, 990X and 970 chipsets. Asus, Gigabyte, ASRock, and MSI are among the first motherboard manufacturers to offer this new capability, with more coming on board shortly," said Tom Petersen, director of technical marketing at Nvidia.

Read the rest of the article via Xbit Labs

Neowin, Redmond Pie and Ars Technica Facebook Pages taken offline due to bogus complaints

Facebook Pages of several tech news sites have been taken offline by Facebook based on bogus complaints regarding copyright infringement. Ars Technica, Neowin and Redmond Pie have been affected so far.

There is nothing wrong with the content from these websites as far as we, or the respected parties are concerned, these infringement claims don't even originate from valid email addresses but nonetheless have been spreading rapidly. Redmond Pie has had their page taken down, then restored after counter claims 3 times now and as a result had their brand reputation tarnished, and Neowin's page has gone down twice so far. The complaints claim that the brand names of said sites are in trademark violation, which they are not of course but Facebook has failed to confirm the violations and even refused to look at the legal proof of trademark ownership that was sent to them before pulling the plug on the pages. CrunchGear and ZDNet have covered the issue but Facebook is yet to make an official statement. Lets hope Facebook snaps back to its senses before this malicious misunderstanding spreads any further.

ASRock details their new AM3+ Bulldozer motherboards

Motherboard maker ASRock has published a guide to AM3+ motherboards that not only lets slip a few details about AMD's new AM3+ socket, but also the CPUs that will fit in it. One key concern, according to the guide, is the fact that a Socket AM3+ CPU fitted to a Socket AM3 motherboard ‘may not be stable enough to provide reliable computing.’ It seems that while Socket AM3+ processors should be backwards compatible with any Socket AM3 motherboard that has the necessary BIOS update, the reality might not be that simple.

ASRock provides some details on the reasons for this, pointing out that the new CPUs and sockets support a 3.4MHz ‘Serial VID’ rather than the 400KHz frequency currently used. According to ASRock, this provides ‘a faster link between CPU and power controller,' so that AM3+ motherboards 'can support better power management and power saving.’

Continue reading the rest of the article via Bit Tech

The Unfused Folding Team - 10 Days Later

We launched 'The Unfused Folding Team' a week ago with a head start of about 90,000 points in total. 10 days later, that number increased to 317,813 points which is roughly 3.5 times more than what we started with. We're also expecting to hit 4,000,000 points by the end of September 2011. And because its for a good cause, we've decided to throw in a second prize! One for the folder with the highest Score, and one for the folder with the highest number of Work Units (WU)! That makes it fair for those that have lower end hardware where higher Work Units doesn't result in a higher score. The prizes will be determined in September and will come from Steam and Electronic Arts, so there's a hint for you ;)

We're making some huge strides thanks to everyone currently folding, and we're looking forward to more folders joining in the coming weeks.

The Unfused Folding Team as of 27 April 2011

My Personal Milestones:

10 000 Points - Done

25 000 Points - Done

50 000 Points - Done

100 000Points - Pending

You should set your own goals, inspire yourself :)

Sincerely Yours,

Andreas Gunkel

AMD and ARM looking to join forces?

AMD will be holding its first software developers conference, the AMD Fusion Developer Summit, from June 13 to 16.

Consider it to be AMD's version of a software IDF, even if AMD says that the conference will be all about content and won't have the marketing slant of IDF and there will not be any celebrity appearances, which would mean that AMD will not be competing with Intel over Will.i.am. The purpose of the event is, we were told, to educate developers how to take advantage of AMD's hardware, which would be primarily its APUs. However, AMD also said that it would be releasing some information about its next-gen GPUs and how they can interact with software. The really interesting part of this conference is the fact that AMD sends out announcements highlight one of the big keynote speakers, ARM's Jem Davies. The press release as well as press calls make sure that the fact that ARM will be at this event does not go unnoticed.

Read the rest of the article via Toms Hardware

What is the best graphics card for folding in 2011?

A lot has happened since last year's Folding-focused graphics card round up. We've seen new generations of graphics cards from both Nvidia and AMD, and there are some great gaming cards from both manufacturers among them. However, Folding can move the goal posts when it comes to lust-worthy graphics hardware.

Of course, you might be reading this and thinking we've gone slightly mad. So if you're currently thinking we're in the habit of performing origami with the latest silicon, then read on to discover the purpose of Folding, and why you should join our World-class Folding team.

Read the full review via Bit-Tech 

TUJ says: Show us what your graphics card can do by folding for The Unfused Folding Team ;)

Razer Hydra brings motion-sensing to the PC

Razer, the world’s leading high-end precision gaming brand announces the Razer Hydra, the world’s first gaming-grade motion sensing controllers powered by Sixense, built to draw you deeper into your PC games. Razer worked closely with Valve and Sixense to create exclusive Portal 2 content to showcase the power of the Razer Hydra in enhancing game immersion. Portal 2 is the highly anticipated sequel to 2007's game of the year. The full version of the game plus the exclusive Portal 2 content will be available in a special edition bundle with the Razer Hydra.

“The Razer Hydra is a significant step forward for the PC gaming industry because it not only affords an almost-physical experience for gamers, but also presents developers an opportunity to innovate and significantly push the boundaries on new forms of gameplay and entertainment,” said Gabe Newell, co-founder and president of Valve.

via TechPowerUp

Nvidia Optimus technology for desktops coming soon?

NVIDIA plans to launch their Desktop Optimus a.k.a Synergy at COMPUTEX Taipei this coming June and the best thing is that it is available freely and no license agreement is needed. This technology works pretty much similar to LucidLogix's Virtu where it allows dynamic swapping between iGPU and dGPU based on the application's nature and also uses Intel Sandy Bridge Quick Sync technology while doing video transcoding jobs.

Desktop Optimus a.k.a Synergy seems to work with any NVIDIA discrete graphics cards on H67 / H61 and Z68 boards with updated BIOSes and graphics drivers. It is not known who's implementation is actually better but NVIDIA's solution is available for free while LucidLogix's solution requires a licensing fee.

via VR-Zone

ARM says its new Cortex-A15 based CPUs will be able to compete against x86

A high-ranking executive with ARM Holdings said in an interview that while the company’s latest Cortex-A15 central processor technology can rival the x86 micro-architecture in terms of capabilities and performance, he admitted that the chips based on the A15 will hardly be able to truly beat the x86-based offerings.

"With our upcoming Cortex-A15 processor, we are definitely moving closer to the day when your smartphone or tablet can act as a primary computing device. You can simply hook the smartphone or tablet up to an external monitor to watch a movie and presentation, while linking a mouse and keyboard via Bluetooth to work on an Office doc,” said James Bruce, a mobile marketing spokesperson at ARM, in an interview with TG Daily web-site.

Read the rest of the article via Xbit Labs

PowerColor is Working on Single Slot HD 6850

Powercolor, the name which stands for many things. Some associate it with special designed Graphics cards and once again PowerColor does a great job:

After releasing a passive cooled Radeon HD 6850, they did another strange, but good thing with the Barts Core: A Single slot, Quad Crossfire ready HD 6850. That reminds me of the days back when the HD 4850 and HD 4870 were out and AMD announced great 4 Way crossfire. PowerColor will be the only company which offers you this piece of hardware, maybe some other companies will follow, we don't know.

This upcoming HD 6850 features high quality components and also a high quality cooling. For those who like single slot designs haven't got a real good performance deal, this is the issue PowerColor is solving. So just wait a little and you will get insane performance where space is limited. The only hope is: Please let the fan be silent and not annoying.

Read the press release here

TUJ Notes: A 4 way CrossFire X system with those babes will surely boost your Folding@Home within our Team ;)

AMD recently reported their financial income - No losses again

AMD 's Future is indeed Fusion. Their older company slogan turns really true looking at their Q1-2011 Financial Report:

-  Revenue $1.61 billion

- That is a little more compared to last year, but they didn't make any loss.

- The income resulted from the change of contract they had with GlobalFoundries

- GloFos had to pay back about $492M, thus the overall win was $510M so AMD is on a good track of recovery.

According to the current interim CEO, the key reason of success was the new Fusion APUs, and next quarters 2nd gen versions, for notebooks and select netbooks.

Read the full AMD Financial Report here

Will Intel include a liquid cooling kit with its Extreme Edition Sandy Bridge processors?

Realistically speaking, there are only two companies who could land a contract of this magnitude: Asetek and CoolIT Systems. The picture in the slide shows Corsair's liquid cooling system designed and manufactured by Asetek, while CoolIT Systems recently announced cooperation with Corsair on future solutions. Regardless of who might get a design win (somebody from Far East?), companies involved cannot save a dime on the build quality of these parts - Intel bundling liquid cooling in their retail packaging could be a turning point for the liquid cooling industry as such, moving from high-end enthusiasts and people in the know to performance-oriented mainstream audience, a major sized market.

Read the full article by following the source link below.

via BSN

The Alienware M14x has arrived. Invades Malaysia first.

Well, it looks like those eager to get their hands on Dell's much-leaked Alienware M14x laptop now finally have at least one option, although it might not be the most convenient one. The gaming laptop has just turned up on Dell Malaysia's website, where it's now already available to order starting at RM 4,799, or roughly $1,600. Of course, this is an Alienware laptop, so there's also quite a few higher-end options available for some extra cash, including up to a Core i7 2820QM processor, 8GB of RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M graphics with 3GB of DDR3 memory (and Optimus technology), and your choice of either a 1,366 x 768 or 1,600 x 900 resolution on the 14-inch display. As for a broader release, Pocket-lint is reporting that both the M14x and M18x will be officially announced (if not released) on April 19th which, last we checked, is tomorrow.

via Engadget

AMDs Fusion Ontario (C-Series) APUs to get TurboCore?

AMD is giving its C-series Fusion APUs for netbooks and embedded systems a feature update with its upcoming model, the C-60. The AMD C-60 will have the same default clock speed as the C-50, at 1.00 GHz, but features the AMD TurboCore technology, which can up clock speed to 1.3 GHz when the two cores are loaded. The embedded Radeon GPU also features GPU TurboCore, which boosts engine speed from 276 MHz to 400 MHz. The new dual-core C-60 does all this, while limiting itself to the 9W TDP. AMD will release the new C-60 APU in Q3, 2011.

via TechPowerUp
source Macles

What makes me addicted to The Unfused Journal Team

Dear Facebook & twitter community,

As the title suggests, we are launching our own Folding@Home Team. The really good thing here is that we are allready having above 95 000 points to start along, so we dont have to start from zero. Why do I want you to contribute to our 'The Unfused Folding Team' ?
Indeed it is a very personal reason. I have come to Folding three years ago when I have found out that it is also working on a genetic dis- and misorder named Cystic Fibrosis. I have Cystic Fibrosis and three years ago it was not so bad as it is now. The nasty disease sits mostly directly in your lungs, to percise it cause the normal natural mucus in the lungs to be more dry and so more sticky.



->What exactly makes the mucus being dry?
Within the DNA of a person with C.F. (Cystic Fibrosis) it mostly lacks 3 bases at a part of the DNA which stores the information for an important part of the cells: A Tunnel which is in charge of the watering of the cells (Very simple so you understand all better, we are educated but all no real scientist :-)) will not be built because it reads the wrong information because of missing 3 bases. The bases are deleted while Folding the DNA.

->What makes the Situation even worse?

The Unfused Journal launches its Folding@Home initiative

The Unfused Journal (previously AMD Unfused) has been around for almost a year now, and we figured that it's the right time, nice and early to do something that's truly worth our efforts. Our fellow coworker and friend Andreas has decided to revitalize his old folding team and assign it to TUJ, so lucky for us, we're off to a head start.

So we're inviting you to join our folding team, and because its for a good cause, we're going to offer a real nice prize to the highest folder at the end of September 2011! Don't get us wrong, its going to be a prize that you will enjoy for a pretty long time so don't hold back.

MSI puts its Z68 overclocking motherboard on display at MOA 2011

It’s the MSI MOA overclocking event in Istanbul this weekend and the company has been using the event to give us an early look at a board based on Intel’s new Z68 chipset.


The new chipset, which is widely rumoured to be dropping on 8 May is set to offer a best-of-both-worlds option for those looking to buy an LGA1155 system.

This is because the chipset is known to offer both CPU overclocking and the ability to overclock the on-board GPU, two features that are currently not available in a single LGA1155 chipset. Z68 also looks set to bring support for the performance enhancing RST SSD Caching technology that caches frequently used data from a hard disk to an SSD to increase application boot times and responsiveness.

Continue reading the rest of the article by following the source link below.


via Bit-Tech

Performance estimates of upcoming Radeon graphics cards leak

Slated for Tuesday, 19th April, AMD new mainstream DirectX 11 compliant graphics cards, the Radeon HD 6670, and HD 6570, have been drawing some attention as two of the last products to launch in the HD 6000 series. It will probably only be with the HD 7000 series slated for who knows when, that AMD will release new GPUs. DonanimHaber put a HD 6670 and two HD 6570 graphics cards, along with a GeForce GT 440 (NVIDIA's fastest card in the segment), through 3DMark Vantage and 3DMark 11, in performance and extreme presets. The Radeons emerged faster overall. The HD 6670 and HD 6570 are designed for price points below $100. 

via TechPowerUp

Intel Ivy Bridge features detailed

Some time in the first half of 2012, Intel will release its next generation of desktop processors for the LGA1155 socket, based on the new Ivy Bridge silicon. Ivy Bridge is a 22 nanometer die-shrink of Sandy Bridge, with a few features added/improved. Ivy Bridge's smaller die size will allow for increased clock speeds and reduced production costs. A presentation was leaked to the press, which reveals quite a bit about the new chips. To begin with, Ivy Bridge processors are seamlessly compatible with existing LGA1155 platforms, and "Cougar Point" P67, H67, H61, Z68, chipsets, although it will come with its own 7-series chipset. 

Follow the source link below to read about the rest of the Ivy Bridge feature set.

via TechPowerUp

Point of View and TGT release new water-cooled 'BEAST' GTX 590

Point of View and its trusty enthusiast brand partner TGT group, are ready with their fastest graphics card to date, the PoV-TGT GeForce GTX 590 BEAST. The BEAST Edition features factory overclocked speeds, and is ready for (requires) water-cooling. The dual-GPU graphics card features out of the box clock speeds of 691 MHz core, and 1382 MHz CUDA cores; against reference speeds of 607/1215 MHz, respectively. The memory is clocked at 927.5 MHz (3710 MHz effective) against 853.5/3414 MHz reference.

The next big part of the card is its full-coverage water block made by Aqua Computer. The block cools all heat-producing components on the obverse side of the PCB, including the two GPUs, memory, bridge chip, and the notoriously feisty VRM. The block uses exposed copper as its primary material, with brushed metal top. Already seeing listings in Europe, the card is priced between €777.97, and €849.08.

via TechPowerUp

AMDs Radeon HD 6670, 6570 and 6450 due for an April 19 launch

AMD is set launch three new graphics card under its Radeon HD 6000 series - 6670, 6570 and 6450 on April 19, targeting the entry-level and mid-range markets, according to sources from graphics card makers.

The sources pointed out that AMD's recently launched Radeon HD 6790 graphics card currently has a better market impression than Nvidia's GTX 550 Ti mainly because of its friendly price; therefore, AMD is set to launch more graphics cards with low price to gain market share.

Although AMD has already released the OEM version of the three new graphics cards, the new version will adopt GDDR5 memory, instead of DDR3 memory, which is used in the OEM versions.

With its Radeon HD 6000 series product lines fully filled, AMD is already in preparation for the next generation Radeon HD 7000 series (Southern Islands) GPUs and is set to mass produce the GPU in May this year.

via DigiTimes

Sapphire blows new life into the Radeon 5830 and 5850 with new Xtreme Editions

Hailed as the most exciting development in graphics for several generations, the original SAPPHIRE HD 5800 series not only included the fastest single GPU available, but was also the first family of video cards in the world to support the advanced graphical features of Microsoft DirectX 11 and multi-monitor displays in Eyefinity mode. Now it's back - with the exciting new SAPPHIRE HD 5800 series Xtreme Editions!

 Two models will be available from April 2011 - the SAPPHIRE HD 5850 Xtreme and the SAPPHIRE HD 5830 Xtreme. Both will represent spectacular value for money - and support all the latest games and applications.

With a 150GB/s memory interface to 1GB of the latest GDDR5 memory, and a GPU architecture with a total of 1440 stream processors and 72 texture units, the new SAPPHIRE HD 5850 Xtreme speeds through older DirectX10.1, DirectX 10 and DirectX 9.0 games and applications - as well as delivering stunning levels of performance, detail, transparency and lighting effects in the latest DX11 games and applications. 

Read more by following the source link below.

via TweakTown

AMD will be the first to certify a USB 3.0 supported chipset

Two forthcoming core-logic sets from Advanced Micro Devices this week received SuperSpeed USB certification from the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF). The A70 and A75 Fusion Controller Hubs (FCHs) are the first chipsets in the industry to receive such a certification and allow computer makers to cost-efficiently integrate USB 3.0 into their products.

Formerly code-named Hudson, the new A7-series core-logic sets PCI Express graphics port, up to 4 USB 3.0, up to 10 USB 2.0 and up to two USB 1.1 ports, 6 Serial ATA-600 ports with RAID support, integrated clock-generator, built-in video DAC, integrated SD card controller, up to 3 PCI slots and so on. The A7-series FCH are compatible with A-series accelerated processing units code-named Llano.

Read the rest of the article by following the source link below.

via Xbit Labs

PowerColor preparing to launch the Radeon HD 6990 LCS Edition graphics card

PowerColor is readying a new high-end Radeon HD 6990 based graphics card that's prepped for water-cooling, the PowerColor LCS HD 6990. Sticking to its LCS tradition, the new HD 6990 from PowerColor comes with a full-coverage water block made by EKWB, the EK-FC6990 pre-installed. The card sticks to AMD reference design PCB, and even uses the reference back-plate to cool memory chips on the reverse side of the PCB. The EK-FC6990 cools all heat-producing components on the obverse side, including the two Cayman GPUs, memory chips, VRM, and bridge chip. PowerColor's LCS HD 6990 is expected to come with out of the box overclocked speeds, and one can expect a hefty price-premium, taking the price closer or beyond the US $800~850 mark, or beyond. 

via TechPowerUp

AMD refreshes the VISION brand (and stickers) to accomodate Fusion

In a bid to attract more attention to its new Fusion accelerated processing units (APUs) that will power mainstream desktops and notebooks due in mid-2011, Advanced Micro Devices plans to change the outlook of its "AMD Vision" stickers as well as slightly change the brand itself.

The updated AMD Vision logotype of the new product family will look much less strict from visual point of view and may even somewhat resemble visual effects at discotheques back in the eighties when on the paper, according to a document seen by X-bit labs. But in reality it should rather grab attention thanks to the holographic substrate, red colour, brighter gradients, added motion and modern fonts.

Continue reading the rest of the article by following the source link below, see more brand images after the break.

via Xbit Labs

Nvidia releases the entry-level GeForce GT 520

Even as AMD's Radeon HD HD 6450 ebbs and flows between paper-launch and market-launch, NVIDIA is ready with its competitor, launched by its AIC partners: the GeForce GT 520. The new GPU marks NVIDIA's current-generation entry to the very basic low-end discrete graphics card segment, which are intended to be integrated graphics replacement products. NVIDIA's GeForce GT 520 is based on the new 40 nm GF118 silicon, it packs 48 CUDA cores, and a 64-bit wide GDDR3 memory interface, while being compact enough to fit on low-profile single slot board designs, if it's backed by an active (fan) heatsink. It is possible that passive heatsinks take up two slots.

The core is clocked at 810 MHz, and CUDA cores at 1620 MHz. The memory is clocked at 900 MHz (actual, 1.8 GHz effective), churning out memory bandwidth of 14.4 GB/s. The card is designed to have three kinds of outputs which will be available on most partner designs: DVI, D-Sub (usually detachable), and full-size HDMI 1.4a, with HDMI audio. The card relies entirely on slot power. Its maximum power draw is rated at 29W. The GT 520 should take up entry-level price points around the US $50 mark.

via TechPowerUp

Intel desktop platform roadmap leaks

What's that? You can't get enough of Intel? Well, it's your lucky day, because we just got our hands on the chip maker's roadmap for 2011 and 2012. According to the leaked slides, we can expect to see the Sandy Bridge E-series in Q4 of 2011. Alternately, the 22nm Ivy Bridge is slated for a somewhat less specific release in the first half of 2012. We're also likely to see the new Pentium and Celeron-based Sandy Bridge models in Q3 this year, and the Atom-equipped Cedarview in Q4. The roadmap's also giving us a rather vague look at pricing for the chipsets, and from what we gather, we can expect the E-series to sport a hefty price tag and Cedarview to bring the value. If that's not enough to sate that animal appetite for Intel news, you can hit the source link for more roadmap goodness. 

via Engadget

AMD France confirms: Bulldozer will come for current AM3 sockets

Good News for AM3 Motherboard owners:

AMD France confirms what most of us already thought but still were not sure about:

« Il n'y a pas d'impossibilité physique. Nous ne le recommandons pas, mais oui, c'est possible d'installer un Bulldozer sur une carte mère AM3 »
My French is not that good but its good enough to not use an online translator. It says:

It is not a physical problem (This means Bulldozer will have the exact amount of pins that AM3 has, to make sure that you do not try to put this silicon into an AM2(+) boards). We do not recommend the use of AM3 for our chips, but it is possibile that you may install a Bulldozer CPU on an AM3 motherboard.

AMD Fusion socket FM1 pictured

 Here are some of the first pictures of AMD's new socket FM1. FM1 will be the platform for AMD's upcoming "Llano" A-Series accelerated processing units (APUs), in the desktop and notebook platforms. With it, AMD will compete with Intels LGA1155/LGA1156 processors in consumer and business desktop markets that simply rely on the processor's embedded graphics. The Llano APU integrates a quad-core x86-64 processor with a DirectX 11 compliant AMD Radeon HD 6000 series graphics core (with 400+ stream processors, last we heard); a dual-channel DDR3 memory controller, and a PCI-Express 2.0 hub. FM1 is a pin-grid array, but its exact pin count isn't known. Purely by the looks of it, FM1 package looks smaller than AM3+. Clearly the version of CPU-Z used in the screenshot doesn't fully support the APU, but it does reveal some information. It's reading the quad-core chip as four single core processors with 1 MB L2 cache each. The processor is clocked at 2.4 GHz. Llano APUs are expected to make landfall in May/June.

See more images after the break.


via TechPowerUp

Intel releases the new Atom! Find Oak Trail in tablets starting May

Corporation today announced that the Intel Atom platform, formerly codenamed "Oak Trail," is now available and will be in devices starting in May and throughout 2011. Over 35 innovative tablet and hybrid designs from companies including Evolve III, Fujitsu Limited, Lenovo, Motion Computing, Razer, and Viliv are based on "Oak Trail" and running a variety of operating systems.

In addition, at the Intel Developer Forum in Beijing, the company will give a sneak peak of its next-generation, 32nm Intel Atom platform, currently codenamed "Cedar Trail." This solution will help to enable a new wave of fanless, cool and quiet, sleek and innovative netbooks, entry-level desktops and all-in-one designs.

Find out more about the release by following the source link below.

via TechPowerUp

AMD to Goliath: Bring it on!

AMD has shrugged off the threat of Intel's latest Sandy Bridge architecture, saying that it's still excited about competing with Intel.

The company's VP of worldwide channel marketing, David Kenyon, referred to AMD's arch rival as 'Goliath' in a light-hearted blog. According to Kenyon, the battle between the two companies, which has lasted for decades, has always benefited consumers the most.

In fact, Kenyon argues that AMD has forced Intel to pick up the pace in a number of areas. 'Without AMD, how fast would Intel have gone on to introduce new products?' he asks. 'Where would prices be? I realized something important: I’m excited about competing with Goliath. I’ve been doing it for so long – in different industries and markets – it’s something I’ve come to truly enjoy.'

Continue reading the rest of the article by following the source link below.

via Bit-Tech

Has Gigabyte let slip the AMD Bulldozer launch date?

Even though it is well known that Advanced Micro Devices has strong intentions to start commercial shipments of its FX-series code-named "Zambezi" microprocessors based on Bulldozer micro-architecture, the intrigue remains when exactly the company formally introduces new chips and reveal its levels of performance.

According to a slide, which presumably comes from a presentation by Gigabyte Technology, a major maker of mainboards, AMD will officially launch FX-series central processing unit (CPU) on June 7, 2011, at Computex trade-show in Taipei, Taiwan. The slide was published by ATI-Forum.de web-site.

While it is not completely clear what kind of peculiarities of next-generation graphics processors will be revealed at the summit, it is highly likely that going forward both AMD and its arch-rival Nvidia will attempt to make GPUs more programmable and better suitable not only for graphics processing, but also for complex computing.

Read the full article by following the source link below.

via Xbit Labs

AMD to reveal details of next-gen Radeons at the AMD Fusion Development Summit

Advanced Micro Devices on Tuesday said that it would reveal some of the details about the company's next-generation graphics processing units (GPUs) at its AMD Fusion Development Summit (AFDS) that takes place in mid-June. In addition, AMD will reveal trends about future directions of accelerated processing units (APUs) and software development.

During his keynote at the AFDS, Eric Demers, Eric Demers, AMD corporate vice president and chief technology officer at graphics division of the company, will recap the evolution of GPUs in the recent years, including the latest VLIW5 and VLIW4 core architectures and instruction sets. But more importantly Mr. Demers will present an overview of the next generation of AMD cores under development, which will propel forward new capabilities and continue the GPU evolution.

Continue reading the rest of the article by following the source link below.

via Xbit Labs

AMD Bulldozer AM3+ motherboards hit the virtual market

Not too long ago Gigabyte Introduced the AM3+ Black Socket. We have seen motherboards from AsRock at CeBit and CES, now you can even get them! Starting from €73 (excl. shipping) for a Gigabyte 870/850 based board ending at 138€ for an AsRock 890FX board.

Looking at Newegg for our US readers, AM3+ is only available by AsRock but its based on the 880G chipset and will costs you $99.99.

The Revision 3.1 Gigabyte boards are not available at the moment, so you might have to wait a little longer for them.

However, it might be the best time for AM2+ board users with AM3 CPUs to make 'The Switch' before the DDR3 memory prices skyrocket.

source
Europe AM3+ Boards (Fudzilla Price Check)
Newegg's only AM3+ Board

AMD Fusion and Android to work together in perfect harmony? Computex '11 will tell.

Computex 2011 will be here before you know it and along with the show will come a herd of new tablets and other gadgets for us to check out. DigiTimes reports that at the show Lenovo, Fujitsu and Samsung will be showing off new Intel Oak Trail tablets. MSI is also said to be getting a new tablet ready that will run the AMD Brazos APU.

MSI is noting to DigiTimes that AMD’s APU has increased its presence in the tablet market. Perhaps the more interesting bit to come out of that news about AMD and MSI doing well in the tablet market together is that AMD is reportedly on the lookout for some new Android talent.

AMD is specifically searching for new blood that will work on Android driver software. This indicates that AMD might be looking to offer chipsets for notebooks, tablets, and netbooks that can run Android. That opens the interesting possibility of Fusion for Android.

via SlashGear
source Android Community

Alienware M11x Revision 3 imminent. Leaked spec sheet confirms new processor options and better graphics

(Image courtesy of Engadget)

If the previous Alienware M11x R3 spec leak got you all giddy, then we have some good news for you: according to a manual dug up by one of our eagle-eyed readers, it appears that this year's M11x refresh will indeed be coming with second-gen Core i5 ULV and Core i7 ULV options, along with a faster DDR3 bus (1333MHz instead of 800MHz), a higher-res webcam (2MP instead of 1.3MP), an HD TrueLife LCD, and optional 3G / 4G mobile broadband. But of course, the real meat on this laptop is its graphics card, which turns out to be an NVIDIA GeForce GT540M with either 1Gb or 2GB of dedicated memory -- not bad for a laptop of this size. Unsurprisingly, no dates or prices are mentioned here, but given the early start of inventory clearance, it shouldn't be long before Round Rock reveals all.

via Engadget

Miscommunication between AMD and its AIBs results in more ROPs enabled on the Radeon 6790 than intended

A possible miscommunication between AMD and its foundry or board partners saw some, if not all partners ship AMD Radeon HD 6790 graphics cards with more ROPs enabled than specified. The HD 6790 SKU is originally specified to have 16 of the 32 ROPs on the 40 nm Barts GPU enabled, however, batches of GPUs shipped have 24 out of 32 ROPs enabled. While not a bad thing for the user at all (since the GPU ends up with more geometry crunching power at its disposal), it has AMD red faced, as it disturbs the product lineup.

The issue surfaced when GPU-Z started reading ROP count of our samples as 24, even as AMD press deck and subsequently the product page on AMD website mentioned HD 6790 ROP count as 16. We initially dismissed it as a GPU-Z bug, but as it turns out, HD 6790 indeed has 24 ROPs enabled, if GPU-Z reads so. An ROP (raster operations processor) handles a key part of the GPU's geometry rendering. ROPs process final shader output pixels and put them into memory. 24 ROPs theoretically gives these few HD 6790 cards 50% higher geometry processing power. This isn't the first time AMD fumbled with specifications. Some of the first AMD Radeon HD 4830 graphics cards shipped with 80 stream processors less than specification; more recently, some initial Radeon HD 6850 samples had all 1120 stream processors of Barts enabled. They're supposed to have 960. AMD said that it is investigating into the matter, and could make an official statement soon.

via TechPowerUp

Intel introduces new 10-Core next-gen Xeon processors

Someone deep down in Intel's development dungeons must be laughing a haughty laugh of disdain at us mere mortals getting excited about dual-cores in smartphones. The old Chipzilla has just turned out its 10-core Xeon E7 processor family, which can work on 20 simultaneous computational threads courtesy of the company's Hyper-Threading knowhow. Needless to say, there aren't that many casual workloads that will ever properly harness such extremely parallelized prowess, but then Intel isn't really gunning for the Facebook crowd here anyhow. The new E7s are for those dealing with truly data-intensive tasks, meaning that Facebook itself would be a good candidate to buy up a few, provided it's tempted by such things as 40 percent performance improvements over the Xeon 7500 tied to dynamic power adjustment for increased energy efficiency. Pricing for the Xeon E7s starts at $774 and climbs up to $4,616 per 32nm chip, with the usual proviso that Intel won't sell them in batches of less than 1,000.

via Engadget

Quad-Core AMD Fusion Llano APUs have started shipping to OEMs

Whoa, Nelly! AMD, a company that has struggled to nail its ship dates in years past, has just pulled the ultimate 180. If you'll recall, we heard last month that its quad-core Llano APU was on track for a Q3 2011 release, but now, we've word straight from the equine's mouth that the action will be going down far sooner. In fact, AMD's Singapore plant just celebrated the first shipment of the company's 32nm Llano A-series APUs, complete with discrete-level graphics and a promise to change the way we think about netbook / nettop / ultraportable performance. Of course, just because these chips are headed out to OEM partners doesn't mean that they'll be gracing the pages of your favorite PC maker tomorrow; Chief Financial Officer and Interim CEO Thomas Seifert notes that AMD is looking forward to seeing Llano-based machines during this quarter, but given that Q2 just got going, we may be waiting awhile still. Nothing like a little Zacate to tide you over in the meantime, right?

via Engadget

Intel Atom "Oak Trail" tablets ship in May?

Intel Corp. on Monday said that tablets powered by its Atom-based system-on-chip (SoC) code-named Oak Trail would become available next month. The slates powered by Atom Z670 chip will come from different manufacturers and will run Microsoft Windows 7 operating system.

"Oak Trail tablets are expected to start hitting shelves in May and throughout 2011," said an Intel spokeswoman in an interview with PC Advisor web-site without revealing any additional details.

A number of companies, including Lenovo, Fujitsu, Samsung and Motion Computing, have already shown off Oak Trail tablets running Windows 7. However, it is not known which manufacturer will be first to release a slate powered by Intel Atom Z670.

Read the rest of the article by following the source link below.

via Xbit Labs

A review of Need For Speed: Shift 2 Unleashed

Shift 2 doesn’t care about how you feel. Spun out on the last corner? Not cornering quite right? Smashed into the car in front? You lose, friend. If you can’t keep up and adapt with the race then it will chew you up, spit you out, and laugh as you curl into the foetal position clutching a copy of Mario Kart, while sobbing quietly.

This is a long way from the old Need for Speed games. The original arcade style is long gone, the neon lights and spoilers of Underground are put to one side - Shift 2 is a continuation of the not-super-serious racing sim (more GRID than iRacing). Authenticity is key, with a keen eye on track discipline and a combination of the art and science of driving cars very fast around a track.

To read the full review, follow the source link below.

via Bit-Tech

Today is AMD Radeon HD 6790 day!

As sure as snow in winter or sun in summer, AMD has yet another refresh to its graphics card portfolio this spring. The Radeon HD 6790 is only a couple of misplaced digits away from the far more illustrious HD 6970, but you should be able to tell the two apart by another, altogether more significant spec: the new mid-tier card retails at $149. Predictably, its performance offers no threat to AMD's single-GPU flagship, but the 6790's 840MHz graphics and shader clock speeds plus 1GB of GDDR5 running at an effective 4.2GHz data rate don't seem like anything to sniff at either. Reviewers agreed that it's AMD's slightly delayed answer to NVIDIA's GTX 460, and with the latter card exiting retail availability to make room for the (oddly enough) less powerful GTX 550 Ti, AMD's new solution looks set to be the better choice at the shared $149 price point. Alas, being limited to 800 Stream processors and 16 ROPs does expose the HD 6790 to being cannibalized by AMD's own Radeon HD 6850 (which can be had for sub-$150 if you're tolerant of rebates) and that turns out to be exactly what happens. A solid card, then, but one that would require an even lower price dip to make economic sense.

See a review roundup after the break.

via Engadget

Gigabyte introduces their new AM3+ "black socket" Bulldozer motherboards

Gigabyte Technology, one of the largest makers of mainboards in the world, on Monday unveiled a lineup of mainboards with AM3+ socket designed for AMD FX-series microprocessors code-named Zambezi and powered by AMD's next-generation Bulldozer micro-architecture.

Gigabyte AM3+ "Black Socket" mainboards are powered by AMD's current-generation core-logic sets, including AMD 7-series and AMD 8-series. The new motherboards - which feature a black CPU socket - fully support AMD's next-generation FX-series microprocessors with up to eight cores and made using 32nm process technology. the platforms also support existing AMD Athlon II and AMD Phenom II chips in AM3 form-factor with dual-channel DDR3 memory controllers.

Continue reading the rest of the article by following the source link below.

via Xbit Labs

Intels last LGA1366 processor, the Core i7-955X Extreme Edition beast

 

Intel is preparing its next high-end/enthusiast desktop platform for release in Q4 2011. That platform will be driven by a new socket, the LGA2011, and the new Intel X79 Express chipset. Before that, Intel will give its 2-year old current enthusiast platform, the LGA1366 and X58 Express, a fitting farewell with a new high-end processor model, the Core i7-995X Extreme Edition. The i7-995X is a six-core processor based on the 32 nm "Gulftown" silicon. It features a default clock speed of 3.60 GHz (27 x 133 MHz), 3.86 GHz max Turbo, though the BClk multiplier is unlocked to help with overclocking.

The six x86-64 cores are aided by Intel HyperThreading technology to give the OS a total of 12 logical CPUs (threads) to deal with. The processor features a triple-channel (192-bit wide) DDR3 memory controller, and connects to the X58 chipset over a 6.4 GT/s QuickPath Interconnect link. Intel will launch its new chip some time in Q3 2011, i7-995X is expected to be priced at $999 (in 1000-unit tray quantities), displacing the current SKU at this price, the Core i7-990X Extreme Edition. For now, a lucky few (read: "industry partners") have access to engineering samples.

via TechPowerUp

Next-generation Intel Ivy Bridge processors to support PCIe 3.0

Intel Corp.'s next-generation microprocessor code-named Ivy Bridge will, among other things, support the next-generation PCI Express 3.0 interconnection, according to slides published by a web-site. Potentially, such support may catalyze designers of graphics processing units (GPUs) to introduce graphics chips with PCIe 3.0 support.

Even though Ivy Bridge will be a successor of the Sandy Bridge and will generally inherit its micro-architecture, it will sport a rather significant number of improvements. Firstly, it will have certain improvements that will boost its performance in general applications by around 20% compared to Core i "Sandy Bridge" chips. Secondly, the forthcoming chip will have a new graphics core with DirectX 11 and OpenCL 1.1 support as well as 30% higher performance compared to the predecessor. Thirdly, Ivy Bridge will feature PCI Express 3.0 x16 interconnection as well as PCIe 2.0 x4 controller, according to a slide published by SemiAccurate web-site.

Continue reading the rest of the article by following the source link below.

via Xbit Labs
 

Review: Thermaltake Level 10 GT full tower chassis

Thermaltake released one of the most stunning looking products in 2009, the spectacular Level 10 Chassis. Co-Designed with car manufacturer BMW it was a unique concept idea which caused many people to sit up and take notice. Sadly, the £500+ price point meant it was strictly for a small hard core audience of enthusiast user. Fast forward a couple of years and Thermaltake have revisited the design, dropping the price point while maintaining a similar compartmentalised design.

While the Level 10 was undoubtedly an eye dropping design it was rather huge, and it weighed a ton, often over 40kg with a full system build inside it. The Level 10 GT is smaller, lighter and most importantly, less than half the price. Is it any good however?

Follow the source link below to read the in-depth review.

via KitGuru

X79: Intels next-gen, high-end consumer chipset

Intel’s much expected consumer version of its Patsburg chipset appears to have been christened and rather than going with the logical move of calling it X68, Intel decided to call its new baby X79. This somehow seems to make sense considering we’ve got the upcoming Z68 chipset coming and presumably in a move to reduce the confusion to a degree, Intel decided to come up with something different that didn’t follow its current nomenclature.

The X79 chipset is still en route for a Q4 launch alongside Intel’s new LGA-2011 Sandy Bridge-E processors where the E stands for Enthusiast according to the leaked roadmap slides that appeared on it.com.cn. The slides look legit, although to be frank, we’re quite surprised at some of the features Intel decided to add to its enthusiast consumer platform. One thing is clear if these are the final specs, the X79 chipset is going to be the most expensive consumer chipset to date from Intel.

Continue reading the rest of the article by following the source link below.

via SemiAccurate