amd

LAS VEGAS--"Although the discussion currently is centered on mobility, thin and light notebooks, and all-in-ones, the traditional desktop still hasn't entirely lost its relevance."

That quote comes from Lenovo's media brief for its new IdeaCentre K430 gaming desktop. While hard-core PC gamers likely never looked up long enough from Skyrim to question the health of their hobby, this system and HP's Phoenix desktop come as a surprise amid the anticipated parade of ultrabooks.… Read more

LAS VEGAS--The netbook's not quite dead yet. The Lenovo IdeaPad S200 features a next-gen Intel Atom processor, and it should offer a significantly better experience than previous-generation 10-inch Atom netbooks.

The rise of low-cost 11-inch ultraportable laptops began last year with a wave of affordable computers powered by AMD E-350 APUs. The colorful IdeaPad S200 series does include an AMD-powered version (the S206), but it's the Atom version that bears the most interest for us.… Read more

Quanta has sued Advanced Micro Devices over a defective chip used in an NEC laptop.

Quanta Computer, the world's largest contract manufacturer of laptop computers, sued AMD for breach of contract, alleging the chipmaker sold defective products, as first reported by Bloomberg.

The suit is centered on the ATI RS600ME, an integrated graphics solution, an AMD spokesperson told CNET. Integrated graphics chips include other circuitry and also act as a chipset, which supports the main central processing unit or CPU.

"AMD and its ATI Technologies Inc. unit sold chips that didn't meet heat tolerances and were unfit … Read more

I suspected we might hear more about the Phoenix gaming desktop upon its U.K. release last year. Today, HP makes its U.S arrival official.

The system, full name HP Pavilion Elite hp9 Phoenix, arrives in the States on January 8th, for a starting price of $1,150. It will use chips from Intel's Core 2000 and Core 3000-series, as well as AMD CPUs, as well as Radeon graphics cards, SSD storage options, and up to 16GB of RAM.

A highlight of the Phoenix, aside from its stylized chassis, will be its HP-made liquid CPU cooling hardware. While … Read more

There's a lot going on with AMD's new Radeon HD 7970 graphics card.

A new graphics architecture, a new 28-nanometer chip manufacturing process, and a new emphasis on GPU computing. The most important thing is that the new card, code-named Tahiti, is the new 3D gaming king.

AMD announced the card this morning as a result of various leaks appearing around the Web over the last few weeks, but the new card won't be available for purchase until AMD makes its launch official on January 9. When you find it in stores, it will start at $550.

For the price, you will get a 3D card that is faster than Nvidia's current market-leading GeForce GTX 580, at least according to the enthusiast tech review sites who've already tested the Radeon HD 7970. Anandtech, HotHardware, PC Perspective, and others have put AMD's new card through its paces, and I encourage you to check them all out for a deep-dive into performance.… Read more

Here's one strictly for the rumor hopper: Apple was on the verge of coming out with a MacBook Air packing a processor from Advanced Micro Devices.

The reasoning put forward by chip-centric Web site Semiaccurate is that AMD offered better graphics horsepower. Today, the Air--and all the MacBooks--use Intel's Sandy Bridge processors.

"If you are wondering why the Air wasn't really revamped much this last time, it is because you are looking at plan B. Plan A was basically a low power [AMD] Llano in an Air shell, and that would have been a really tasty … Read more

A big number doesn't always win over the market, but it can help. And the number AMD is pinning its hopes on today is 16.

That's the notable number of cores in each of its Opteron 6200 "Interlagos" processors using the new "Bulldozer" architecture. Using an approach that helped Intel reclaim the initiative that the original Opteron stole years ago, the Opteron 6200 actually packages two silicon chips in a single housing and fit into the same socket as the earlier-generation Opteron 6100 models that reached up to 12 cores.

The chips are available … Read more

Advanced Micro Devices today rolled out its new Opteron 6200 and 4200 processors in a bid to regain server market share and become a more relevant player.

The announcement comes amid a bevy of high-performance computing announcements this week at the SC11 conference in Seattle. For AMD, the new chips represent a part of the company’s focus on emerging markets, mobile and cloud computing. These Opterons, which include more cores, performance and efficiency, fall into AMD’s strategy to power cloud computing server farms.

As for the processors, AMD’s new chips, which were code-named “Interlagos” and “Valencia”, promise … Read more

The University of Illinois' National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) has contracted with Cray to provide the supercomputer for the National Science Foundation's Blue Waters project. That computer will tap AMD's new 16-core processor.

Blue Waters will be composed of more than 235 Cray XE6 cabinets based on the AMD's Opteron 6200 Series processor (formerly code-named "Interlagos") and more than 30 cabinets of a future version of the recently announced Cray XK6 supercomputer with Nvidia Tesla graphics processing units (GPUs), Cray said. All of this will be combined into a single, powerful hybrid supercomputer.

The … Read more