Thursday, April 30, 2009

AMD Marks its 40th Year as a Technology Innovator


May 1, 2009 will mark the official 40-year anniversary of AMD’s founding by Jerry Sanders and seven co-founders in 1969. As part of the year-long anniversary celebration, the company is holding a series of contests in the U.S. and Canada as a gesture of thanks to the dedicated customers who have been, and continue to be, key to AMD’s critical presence in the processor industry.

As a central hub for the contests and information about AMD’s history, the company also launched a site dedicated to the 40th anniversary, with a complete timeline of AMD milestones and full details about the upcoming contests. In coming weeks the site is also expected to feature employee and customer-generated anniversary content.

“Forty years in any industry is a major achievement, but doing so in the rapidly changing, competitive semiconductor business is an enduring testament to the dedication and talent of AMD employees and alumni,” said Dirk Meyer, AMD president and CEO. “As the world and technology markets have changed through the years, AMD has remained focused on enabling the next wave of applications that we expect to drive the industry. We mark our 40th year as a much different company; a company intensely focused on designing and developing new products and platforms that combine our unique graphics and microprocessor technologies to create compelling user experiences.”

During the past 40 years, AMD transformed itself from a second-source supplier that worked within the confines of other companies’ designs to a widely recognized innovation leader that has driven the market and kept competition alive in one of the world’s most important technology sectors. AMD takes great pride in the role of igniting next-generation technology solutions, as well as the ability to see where customer and end-user needs are headed next and then collaborate with the industry accordingly.

Unique “Fusion” Business Philosophy

AMD’s unique “Fusion” business philosophy is a key part of what sets us apart from competitors. Fusion is the competitive differentiator that enables AMD to consistently deliver relevant, breakthrough innovation … time and time again. Fusion marries innovation with collaboration. Far more than just the convergence of microprocessor and graphics technologies, Fusion is the process by which AMD and its technology partners can ignite next-generation solutions that change the way people work, live and play through an adaptive combination of technology integration, customer intimacy and industry impact. Fusion is the process where customer needs and desires can bond with AMD’s own engineering passion and unique capabilities. To learn more about innovation and the next generation of breakthroughs, visit http://fusion.amd.com/.

Giving Back

In the past 40 years, users and enthusiasts the world over have been integral in the development and marketplace adoption of AMD products. To thank AMD users and celebrate the anniversary, beginning today, AMD is launching a series of contests in the coming months to give back to its dedicated fans. In total, the contests will give away 80 prizes, and the lucky winners will take home some of the most innovative AMD products on the market today.
The first contest, beginning today, is aimed at the AMD enthusiast community who rely on AMD products for their graphics and processing needs. For this contest, participants who submit brief, creative videos wishing AMD a happy birthday can be entered for a chance to win one of AMD’s award-winning graphics cards that have received numerous positive reviews from top-notch enthusiast outlets such as Hot Hardware and HardOCP. The qualified entrants who submit the three best videos will be eligible to receive an ATI Radeon™ HD 4890 graphic card and 40 additional runners up will be eligible to receive an ATI Radeon HD 4650 Radeon graphics card.

Alternatively, fans can show off their AMD pride by submitting photos showing off how much they love AMD products. The top five submissions from eligible participants will win AMD’s fastest quad-core processor ever, the AMD Phenom™ II X4 955 Black Edition processor, which helps users unleash the maximum potential of their PCs by providing superior performance and efficiency at a price that’s hard to beat (AMD SSBP is $245). In addition, eight other qualified participants will be eligible to receive an AMD Athlon™ 7850 processor, which gives users the performance they need to help maximize productivity and enhance their digital entertainment experience.

AMD will kick off two additional contests later this year, which are planned to give fans the opportunity to win AMD-powered notebook computers as well as popular gaming consoles like the ATI graphics-equipped Nintendo Wii and Xbox 360.

Please visit the AMD 40th anniversary website for full contest rules and details: www.amd.com/40years

Monday, April 27, 2009

AMD Launches the ATI Radeon™ HD 4770


AMD today launched the ATI Radeon™ HD 4770 graphics processor, a groundbreaking product that harnesses the state-of-the-art 40 nanometer manufacturing process for the desktop PC market, delivering best-in-class performance and energy efficiency at anticipated launch prices as low as $99.

“Consumer pressure in this economic downturn is shifting demand to lower prices and the price band around $100 has the highest demand and highest volume,” said Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager, Graphics Products Group, AMD. “AMD has responded with the launch of the ATI Radeon HD 4770, targeting this market with cutting-edge technologies like 40 nm processors, support for DirectX 10.1 gaming and GDDR5 memory."

The card performs better than Geforce 9800GT and it's slightly slower than the Radeon HD 4850, but at the same time, it runs cooler than the HD 4850. It is a dual slot graphics card and it has an external power connector, but the best attribute will definitely be the performance you get for the price.

Reviews:
AMDZone
X-Bit Labs

Supporting Resources:
· Video: ATI Radeon HD 4770 product features
· Video: What gamers are saying about the ATI Radeon HD 4770

Thursday, April 23, 2009

AMD releases new Phenom II X4 945 and 955 BE


AMD will now refresh the lineup with two new processors: the Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition and Phenom II X4 945. Both processors are modestly priced, with the Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition at $245, and the Phenom II X4 945 at $225.

The 955 Black Edition and the 945 are clocked at 3.2GHz and 3.0GHz, respectively. Black Edition processors have unlocked multipliers to make overclocking easier for PC enthusiasts. The processors differ only in clock speed, and have identical specifications otherwise. The Phenom II X4 processors will come with 64K of L1 instruction and 64K of L1 data cache per core (512KB total L1 per processor), 512KB of L2 data cache per core (2MB total L2 per processor), and will also have a shared 6MB L3 cache.

The two new processors are based on AMD's AM3 socket but will also work in most AM2+ motherboards. Because they support both sockets, the processors also support both DDR2 and DDR3 memory, respectively found in AM2+ and AM3 socket based motherboards. Using DDR2 the processors will have 17.1GB/s of memory bandwidth, and using DDR3 the bandwidth jumps up to 21.1GB/s. Older Phenom II X4 processors, like the 940 Black Edition and the 920, use AMD's AM2+ socket.

The Web site Ripping.org notes that hobbyists with early access to the X4 955 BE chip have been able to clock it at up to 6.7 GHz.

Below are the reviews we found on web:
AMDZone
PC Perspective
Firing Squad
Tech Report
AnandTech

Thursday, April 2, 2009

ATI Radeon HD 4890

AMD today introduced the ATI Radeon™ HD 4890 graphics card, driven by the world’s most powerful graphics processor . The newest addition to the award-winning ATI Radeon™ HD 4000 series boasts a whopping 1.36 TeraFLOPs of compute power, superior GDDR5 memory, and super-high engine clock speeds capable of nearly 1GHz. The advanced design of the ATI Radeon HD 4890 delivers the best game experience in its class, including the latest ground-breaking DirectX® 10.1 titles. In addition, with the introduction of the ATI Radeon HD 4890, AMD continues to enhance its “Dragon” desktop platform technology, designed to provide exceptional value to OEMs, channel partners, and do-it-yourself (DIY) consumers.



The ATI Radeon HD 4890 graphics card continues AMD’s proud tradition of technology leadership with support for the latest DirectX 10.1 games, including Ubisoft’s Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X.™, Electronic Art’s BattleForge™ and SEGA’s Stormrise™ released last month, as well as GSC Gameworld’s S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Clear
Sky. When compared to DirectX 10 game play, DirectX 10.1 games have proven to deliver higher game performance and an improved visual experience.

The ATI Radeon HD 4890 graphics card is supported by a dozen add-in-board companies offering a variety of custom board and cooling solutions. Partners include ASUS, Club 3D, Diamond Multimedia, Force3D, GECUBE, GIGABYTE, HIS (Hightech Information Systems), Jetway, MSI, Palit Multimedia, PowerColor, SAPPHIRE Technology, VisionTek and XFX. It is available immediately for $249 MSRP (USD), and priced at select etailers as low as $229 (USD) after mail-in rebate.

For more information, visit www.amd.com/radeon4890/presskit

Check out the supporting videos for the new ATI Radeon HD 4890:
DirectX 10.1: What the Experts Say
Experience The DirectX 10.1 Difference
Dr. Jon Peddie’s Thoughts On The Future of Discrete Graphics and the Video Game Market
The Making of an ATI Graphics Card