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[Video] AMD Previews “Sexy” Notebooks In Fall Lineup

July 21, 2010

AMD's Notebook Line Up for the Back to School season looks sexyer than ever!

In a private event in San Francisco, Calif., yesterday, AMD showcased the Fall fashion lineup of notebooks and desktops based on its VISION technology; mostly dual-core machines with an integrated ATI graphics chips.

AMD designed the VISION programme to simplify the PC buying experience by making it easier for consumers to choose the right computer for them based on what they want to do with the product.

“It wasn’t so long ago that if you wanted to find notebook computer with an AMD processor they were all uniformally very plain – I would hesitate to say ugly but they were plain. But now, the system OEMs (like HP, Dell, Sony, Toshiba, Acer…) have put much effort into designing really pretty boxes that have AMD processors as much as they have moved to have attractive designs around the Intel-based processors… It’s clear now that AMD is now equipped to compete non only the basis of their technology but also on the base of their OEMs design,” explains Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst at Insight64.

AMD’s Vision strategy found useful in retail PC shopping

“I think it [Vision] has worked. It’s made it easier for people to go into a store and figure out what kind of computer they want. And to calibrate their own needs with the system capabilities,” adds Brookwood who finds AMD Vision most successful in retail. “The salespeople don’t get a lot of training… and the Vision programme guides people into making smart choices and not under buying or over buying… and from that standpoint I think it [Vision] had simplified the purchasing process and taken some of the mystery about multi-core and discrete GPU out of the equation. And that’s basically good.”

1 Comment | chips, computers, Interviews, news | Tagged: Acer, AMD, ati, brookwood, Dell, hp, Sony, toshiba | Permalink
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Analyst: AMD 12-Cores vs. Intel 6-Cores Server Chips

April 1, 2010

This week, AMD and Intel launched their latest generation of high-end server chips.

The AMD Opteron 6000 (Magny-Cours) is a set of 8- and 12-core processors for dual- and quad-CPU servers. Not to be outdone, Intel has introduced the 8-core processor Xeon 7500 (Westmere), that could be deployed in mammoth 256-processor configurations.

To help us understand the differences between these 2 competing family of chips, we asked Insight64 analyst, Nathan Brookwod to share his views on these latest chips.

In 2-socket configurations, AMD delivers better performance despite Intel’s faster cores

AMD Magny-Cours (now the Opteron 6100) for both two socket and four socket configurations.

In the two-socket world, AMD faces Westmere-EP (Xeon 5600), which has six cores and twelve threads. Westmere’s cores are faster than Magny-Cours’ cores. Westmere wins some single-threaded contests, but AMD can overwhelm them if it gets to fire up all its cores, or if memory bandwidth or capacity is an issue.

In 4-socket configurations, AMD wins in price but Intel can scale to 64-sockets!

In the four-socket world, AMD faces Nehalem-EX, aka Becton, which has eight cores and sixteen threads. Becton’s cores are faster than Magny-Cours’ cores, and Intel has more on-chip cache (24MB to AMD’s 12MB) but AMD has 12 cores to Intel’s 8, and AMD charges the same price for the chips in 2P and 4P systems, while Intel charges almost 2x the price (per chip) for Becton, compared with Westmere-EP. Magny-Cours will win some benchmarks against Becton, and lose some, but it will always be less expensive. Some customers will value Intel’s greater expandability (to 8, 16 and 64-socket arrangements) and others will be attracted to AMD’s lower price.

Can Itanium survive to latest performance onslaught?

Brookwood’s law (“It’s easier to measure price than performance”) will give AMD an advantage in the two-way and four-way segments, but Becton will have almost no competition (other than Itanium and Power 7) for the higher-end niche of the server market. It’s hard to see how Itanium can survive for long against this Xeon onslaught.

1 Comment | chips, news | Tagged: AMD, becton, brookwood, Intel, magny-cours, nehalem, opteron, Westmere, xeon | Permalink
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Analysis: AMD/Intel $1.25B Settlement Is Cheap!

November 12, 2009

For analyst Jack Gold, the AMD/Intel legal settlement announced today is a win-win for both companies. It will give badly needed cash to AMD, while it will help Intel remain a dominant player in all aspects of the computer chip marketplace in both current and future devices.

Viewed in this way, the $1.25B payment to AMD from Intel looks cheap!

AMD Beats Intel, Nvidia At Supporting Windows 7 High-End Graphics

September 2, 2009

On the heels of yesterday’s Intel briefing, AMD is touring Silicon Valley this week to talk about its own strategy and vision ahead of the Windows 7 launch, due on Oct. 22.

Although most of the information is still under wraps until AMD’s own Sept. 10 event, we caught up with worldwide marketing vice-president Leslie Sobon at AMD’s headquarters in Sunnyvale where she was keen to point out some of the work the chip designer did to optimise its upcoming notebook and desktop platforms to support Windows 7 high-end graphics capabilities aka DirectX 11.

“We’ll have the first DirectX 11 games enabled on our graphics cards. You’re not going to see that from Intel… or nVidia either… It’s all about the compute shader… The first pieces of what comes out for DirectX 11 is in the gaming side but it actually translates even into entertainment and video visual quality,” explains Sobon.

Consumers don’t care about the processor

During our conversation, Sobon also commented on the complexity consumers are facing when choosing a new computer.

“Mainstream consumers don’t care about the processor in their system. They care about whether or not they can watch Hulu HD or if the Flip camera video actually runs on their PC. They don’t care if it’s a Turion, or an Athlon or a Core i5… they didn’t care for many many years,” explained Sobon.

AMD will support GPU overclocking

On overclocking – which is a way to increase the speed/frequency/clock of individual PC components like the CPU or the memory -, the AMD executive confirmed the chip designer’s commitment to continue offering a wide range of options for PC enthusiasts to boost or “overclock” every part of their computers, including soon the graphics processor (GPU)!

“What aren’t we doing to help overclockers. We’ve got the chipset that enables it, AMD overdrive that lets you optimise at your heart’s content on the platform side, as well as on the CPU side… We have the overclocking record,” adds Sobon.

For more on AMD plans, we’ll have to wait Sept. 10th!

2 Comments | chips, computers, hardware, Interviews, news | Tagged: AMD, cpu, gpu, Intel, overclock, sobon | Permalink
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ATI Faces More Executive Exodus Ahead Of Major Product Launch

August 18, 2009

ATI's former mobile graphics chip boss Phil Eisler is now Nvidias general manager of the 3D Vision business unit

Can ATI stop the talent exodus?

After ATI’s former CEO David Orton, CTO Bob Drebin and other executives and engineers defecting the Canadian outfit, the chipmaker recently lost its senior vice-president and general manager of the chipset and notebook business unit Phil Eisler who was just named last night Nvidia’s general manager of its emerging 3D Vision business unit.

“3D Vision has created immense buzz since its’ launch. The team has brought a very high quality interactive solution to market, at a very affordable price. Gaming, movies and digital photography are all being pushed to a new level with 3D Vision. Phil will be responsible for driving NVIDIA 3D Vision onto a global scale and building it into a key differentiator of GeForce based desktops and notebooks,” said senior vice-president of Nvidia’s GeForce business unit Jeff Fisher in an internal memo.

At AMD/ATI, Esler was responsible for the mobile and integrated product lines, including mobility Radeon graphics processors. He had been at ATI for nearly 15 years.

The funny part is that despite leaving some months ago, when AMD decided to relocate some ATI staff to its Austin, Texas, headquarters, Esler’s bio is still up on ATI’s website. Nostalgia maybe?

ATI will officially launch its next generation graphics chip dubbed “Evergreen” – previously shown at Computex and QuakeCon – on September 10th at the U.S.S. Hornet in Alameda, Calif.

1 Comment | chips, hardware, news | Tagged: AMD, ati, eisler, evergreen, nvidia | Permalink
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AMD “Evergreen” Graphics Chips: You Won’t Believe Your Eyes… Nvidia!

August 12, 2009

Can AMD change the game in graphics with its upcoming Evergreen GPUs? We'll know on September 10th!

[Update 1] We’ve got confirmation from AMD that the Evergreen cards are being shown this weekend, at the QuakeCon video game convention in Dallas, Texas.

[Update 2] AMD will host its Evergreen’s official launch on aircraft carrier U.S.S. Hornet moored in Alameda, Calif.

The word is finally out. AMD will launch it’s much anticipated next generation graphics processors code name “Evergreen” on September 10th; ahead of Windows 7′s launch in late October..

For AMD, these 40-nm, Microsoft DX11-compliant GPUs will fundamentally change the graphics industry and give it a clear advantage over Nvidia, again!

The prior generation of ATI cards was such high performance and so cheap that they forced Nvidia to hastily put together competitive video cards.

Sadly, AMD’s Santa Clara, Calif., rival hasn’t shown much of its DX-11 chips yet. However, Nvidia might choose to show off its wares at its own GPU Technology conference at the end of September in San Jose.

The GPU market is finally kicking some tires, just in time for the holiday season!

36 Comments | chips, hardware, news | Tagged: AMD, ati, Cedar, Cypress, evergreen, Hemlock, Juniper, Larrabee, nvidia, quakecon, Redwood | Permalink
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Why Buy A Netbook When Full-Size Notebooks Cost $300

July 1, 2009

Fry's bargain du jour was this eMachines full size notebook for $299

Although, it’s common now to find most electronics retail stores stocked with Intel Atom-based netbooks selling below $300 and sometimes below $200, it’s definitely unusual to see a full size notebook like the eMachines eMD625 for a mere $300.

So when Fry’s Electronics advertised it yesterday for $299 (plus tax and CA recycling fee) – a $70 off from its regular price – I rushed to its Sunnyvale, CA store location to pick up the bargain “du jour” to try it out!

The laptop – built by Taiwanese-maker Acer - specifications look quite good for the price:

15.6″ WXGA LCD screen, Wi-Fi, USB, 5-in-1 memory card reader but no webcam
AMD Athlon 64 TF-20 1.6GHz (single core), 2GB Ram Memory, ATI Radeon Xpress 1200 Graphics
250GB SATA hard disk
DVD player
a full-size keyboard plus numerical pad
and Windows Vista Home Basic

After taxes and the CA recycling fee, I end up paying $343 for the $299 laptop

Yet more powerful, larger (and heavier!) than the HP mini-note or Acer Aspire One that were placed next to it on Fry’s shelves, the eMachines eMD625 laptop is certainly not a powerhouse despite ATI’s integrated graphics chip: 2 videos running simultaneously (YouTube, ESPN360, Hulu, DVD) are un-watchable. Of course, you could question the need for that too. Although I haven’t tried watching an HD movie on it but my guess is that it won’t work well either.

But some of the overall slow performance could be caused by Windows Vista, which should be a thing of the past as soon as I install Xandros’ Presto on it and Windows 7 (keep fingers crossed).

All in all, the eMachines eMD625 is a decent full-size laptop for the price, good for office, Web and light multimedia (video, imaging, music/iTunes).

Of course, not everybody looking for a thin and light netbook will be happy with this 6 pounds notebook. But I’m sure my Mom wouldn’t mind swapping her old PC with this laptop

6 Comments | computers, hardware, Price Watch, review | Tagged: AMD, ati, emachines, emd625, espn360, hulu, presto, radeon, vista, windows, Xandros, Xpress 1200, youtube | Permalink
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Facebook Slams Latest Chips From Intel And AMD

June 25, 2009

Intel and Advanced Micro Devices are good at rolling out new generations of computer chips each billed to outdo the performance and efficiency of the last.

The performance gains they are touting in the press we're not seeing, says Facebook's Jonathan Heiliger

But the gains of the latest round of multi-core chips may more marketing pitch than actual improvement.

“The performance gains they are touting in the press we’re not seeing,” Facebook Vice President Jonathan Heiliger said Thursday.

Heiliger, who runs Facebook’s giant data center with its massive computer farm of servers, said the company has been surprised by its observations.

The performance gains have been less than anticipated, he said at the Structure 09 conference in San Francisco.

He went on to say server vendors need to design servers with greater power efficiency from wall plug to central processor.

“I’m not sure why the hardware vendors have failed us,” he said.

The one company that has done a tremendous job creating energy-efficient servers is Google, he said.

Leave a Comment » | news | Tagged: AMD, chips, Facebook, Intel | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet

Intel Loses Market Share To AMD

June 10, 2009

It is a surprise seeing Intel lose microprocessor market share to Advanced Micro Devices.

After a year of market share loses, AMD treads on Intel

But that is exactly what happened in the first quarter, according to iSuppli. Intel’s share slipped a substantive 2.5 points to 79.1 percent from 81.6 in the fourth quarter while AMD gained about as much to hold a 12.8 percent share.

ISuppli says AMD had a strong performance in desktop, server and particularly in notebook. But it is hard to believe the company’s competitive position has been strengthened that much in the past several months.

More probably, the PC market paused to digest the gains Intel has made since coming out with an improved lineup of chips more than a year ago.

With better products in the market, Intel gained share in each of the previous four quarters, its market dominance rising from a 78 percent share to the fourth quarter’s 81.6 percent, iSuppli data show.
This is in part due to the release of the Atom processor, which became the computer brains in a first generation of netbooks. But it also is linked to the Core 2 Duos Intel has been fielding with better power management and performance.

The company has been manufacturing with 45-nm technology and the nano-sized circuits give it a cost advantage.

Anyway, the winning streak came to an end during the first three months of 2009 as the microprocessor market declined 20.6 percent to $6.9 billion in size. Don’t expect it to continue.

(Oh, by the way, do expect the market declines to continue. ISuppi expects full year microprocessor revenue to be down 15.8 percent to $28.6 billion.)

Leave a Comment » | news | Tagged: AMD, Intel, isuppli | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet

[360° View] Nehalem EX: Intel’s First Worthy Competitor To AMD Opteron’s Dominance Of High-End Server Market

May 26, 2009

Intel Nehalem EX servers will not ship until earlier next year. For early adopters, it'll be a forklift upgrade.

Earlier today, Intel gave a preview of its upcoming high-end server chip dubbed “Nehalem EX” to a small group of journalists and analysts in San Francisco.

The 8-cores Nehalem-EX chip will be in production later this year and for sale in systems in early next year.

In launching the Nehalem EX, Intel will finally have a worthy competitor to AMD’s Opteron chip for the high-end server market (4 processors/sockets or more); Intel is currently shipping an appalling 6-cores server chip (Xeon 7400) that is no match, even for Opteron’s quad-core Shanghai processor.

“With Nehalem EX, Intel has aggressively attack the constraint on performance of the previous chips, including the amount of memory bandwith, memory capacity, cache, QPI links… This is going to be a really powerful chip when it comes out. There’s no doubt in my mind that AMD’s dominance of the 4P and above space will be seriously challenged by the Nehalem EX,” explains Insight64 analyst Nathan Brookwood.

But until early next year, AMD has the upper-hand on the high-end server market and knows it.

“The equivalent to their Nehalem EX and Dunnington processors are our Opteron 8000 series processors in 2009 and in 2010, it will be our 6000 series (Magny-Cours) processors.

The thing you need to remember is that we offer processors for 4-socket servers and higher that have direct connect architecture today. Intel customers are still forced to leverage their Dunnington processors for 4-socket and higher that uses a front-side bus to access memory which tends to be more inefficient in multi-socket servers.

When we launch our six-core Istanbul processors next month, they will be available in 2P, 4P and 8P configurations. If you want Direct Connect Architecture with an Intel solution in 4P and higher, you are forced to wait until their Nehalem EX part is available [next year!],” said Phil Hughes, an AMD spokesman.

Intel’s Nehalem EX is a “forklift” upgrade

With Nehalem EX, Intel is partially moving away from using buffered memory – which consumes more power and costs more than standard memory – by adopting DDR3 memory and integrating the “buffers” on the motherboard; still making it a more complex solution, which could potentially affect memory performance.

“The devil will be in the details and how Intel is implementing this,” added Brookwood who thinks Intel will have a hard time to convince customers to do a “forklift” upgrade to Nehalem EX from their current Xeon systems.

Here’s a video excerpt of our conversation with Boyd Davis, the general manager of Intel’s server platforms group marketing who conducted this morning briefing, and where he talks about Intel’s VT Flex Migration feaure which lets customers run virtual machines on Xeon servers (Core2 and Nehalem), despite their architecture differences.

IBM on the power of Intel’s Nehalem EX

And for Alex Yost, IBM’s vice president for System x (IBM’s x86 servers) and BladeCenter, Nehalem EX servers will be the most powerful X86 servers, bar none.

Finally, here’s Yost’s presentation at the Nehalem EX briefing:

1 Comment | analysis, chips, computers, hardware, Interviews, news | Tagged: AMD, boyd, brookwood, insight64, Intel, nehalem, qpi, xeon, yost | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360

TechPulse 360

[Video] AMD Previews “Sexy” Notebooks In Fall Lineup

Analyst: AMD 12-Cores vs. Intel 6-Cores Server Chips

Analysis: AMD/Intel $1.25B Settlement Is Cheap!

AMD Beats Intel, Nvidia At Supporting Windows 7 High-End Graphics

ATI Faces More Executive Exodus Ahead Of Major Product Launch

AMD “Evergreen” Graphics Chips: You Won’t Believe Your Eyes… Nvidia!

Why Buy A Netbook When Full-Size Notebooks Cost $300

Facebook Slams Latest Chips From Intel And AMD

Intel Loses Market Share To AMD

[360° View] Nehalem EX: Intel’s First Worthy Competitor To AMD Opteron’s Dominance Of High-End Server Market

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