AMD announced today that Broadcom has agreed to purchase AMD’s digital TV (DTV) business for a sum of $192.8 million dollars. According to AMD, “the acquisition of AMD’s DTV business is expected to enable Broadcom to immediately scale its DTV business, and, in conjunction with its existing products, to offer a complete product line that covers all segments of the DTV market ranging from low-end value and mid-range quality to high-end interactive platforms and panel processors. “

AMD’s DTV staff of around 530 people are also invited to join Broadcom as part of this deal. The deal should close during the fourth quarter of this year.

According to Dirk Meyer, President and CEO of AMD, the company is “executing a strategic plan to transform the company, becoming leaner and more focused while seeking to create a business model to deliver sustainable profitability.

[Check it out via NYTimes]

Technorati Tags: AMD, Broadcom, Digital TV

The other major AMD related news release today was the introduction of the new ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 graphics card which AMD/ATI calls the “world’s fastest graphics card.” Unlike NVIDIA which opted to create larger and faster GPUs, AMD opted to go the multi-processor route by building smaller GPUs and then combining them for graphics processing performance. According to AMD, the new Radeon HD 4870 X2 delivers 2.4 teraFLOPS of processing power on a single card thanks to 2GB of GDDR5 memory and two RV770 GPUs on the card clocked in at 750 MHz for a total of 1600 stream processors.

So that’s nice and dandy but is this all marketing fluff or is there something to what ATI is saying when it comes to multi-processor graphics cards? Luckily, there are a number of first hand reviews on the net so let’s see what they’re saying online.

First off, we have the folks at ExtremeTech:

ATI takes the performance crown by a good margin with the 4870 X2, but we expect future products to solve the common multi-GPU problems.

Over at Guru3D:

Money aside, what a true pleasure it has been testing the 4870 X2 cards. Personally I play my games at 2560×1600, I’m one of those lucky bastards to own a 30″ Dell screen, and playing games like Call of duty 4 or Mass Effect with framerates over 80 FPS in that resolution with the highest Image Quality settings available .. that’s just amazingly impressive .. well even that might be a slight understatement. Astounding is likely the right word for this product.

At the TechReport:

However, if you want the absolute ultimate graphics subsystem, you’ll find it in a pair of Radeon HD 4870 X2 cards, which unspooled a fluid ribbon of track in front of us in GRID at over 100 FPS at 2560×1600 resolution.

HotHardware has this to say:

In the end though, the Radeon HD 4870 X2 simply rocks.

Good ol Anandtech says:

The Radeon HD 4870 X2 is good, it continues to be the world’s fastest single card solution, provided that you’re running a game with CrossFire support.

Yes, those are certainly good reviews for the new Radeon.. but if you read the reviews yourself, you’ll notice a common theme - these cards are expensive! Heck - they’re more expensive than some low end PCs out on the market. Now if money is no object, then it appears the HD 4870 X2 is certainly the fastest card out there - also assuming you run the right games.

However, if money is something of a concern, you might be interested in the other new ATI product announced today - the ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 graphics card. The 4850 will be priced under $400 dollars (which is still darn expensive in my eyes) and offer 2GB of DDR3 memory and two GPUs clocked at 625MHz.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: ATI, AMD, Radeon HD 4870 X2, Radeon HD 4850 X2

It certainly helps being a sponsor sometimes. AMD is the exclusive graphics sponsor for Blizzard’s upcoming BlizzCon 2008 in Anaheim, CA, and now, AMD has the rights to bundle Blizzard games across all ATI Radeon graphics products. Now the real question is - what Blizzard games will come with these Radeon cards? It better not be the original Warcraft!! ha .. though that would be kinda funny and ironic!

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Blizzard, AMD, ATI Radeon

Sorry AMD but future animations developed by DreamWorks Animation will be rendered using large rendering farms consisting of Intel processors instead of AMD ones. DreamWorks decided to drop AMD processors in favor of Intel ones citing better performance as well as a more “promising roadmap.” The animation studio cited the upcoming Intel Nehalem processor and Larabee graphics chip as reasons why the studio was proceeding with the ol’ switcheroo.

But wait, there’s more! In addition to adopting Intel processors, DreamWorks will be receiving software help from Intel. The chip giant will re-architect and optimize DreamWork’s proprietary animation tools to better operate on Intel multi-core processors. Yup - typical Intel Developer Relations strategy. Lend a helping hand in software development in return for some Intel processor adoption. There’s nothing better for Intel than to have a company say their software runs best on the Intel platform.

While this might not seem like much of a setback for AMD, it does indicate that DreamWorks is 1) interested in more processing power and 2) interested in increasing overall efficiencies. If the studio utilizes roughly 5,000 cores for its rendering farms, then one can deduce that they have somewhere between 1250 to 2500 servers depending on whether they are using dual core or quad core systems (or older dual or quad processor setups). Since we know Intel is focusing on packing more cores on a single die, it’s reasonable to deduce that DreamWorks is looking to pack more power per server as well as save on power consumption by either reducing the number of server boxes or maintaining the same number with more cores.

Hey - if this makes Shrek look even more realistic, then cool!

[Check it out]

[Check out the press release]

Technorati Tags: DreamWorks Animation, AMD, Intel

Thinking about going for a PC upgrade? Curious to know about how these new AMD Phenom X3 triple core CPUs perform? I sure was thus I was interested to see this ExtremeTech review of the AMD Phenom 8750 triple core CPU. It’s essentially a quad core CPU with one of the cores disabled (it’s a way for AMD to still sell quad core processors that don’t quite make the grade by disabling one of the cores).

So why the interest? Well these new Phenoms are in the same price range as an Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 processor and thus make for an interesting case - are three cores better than two cores? Of course if you’re familiar with computing, the answer is “usually yes.. ,but it depends.” As with all multi-processor systems, the more processors or cores you have, the smoother your OS performance will be. Does it translate to faster performance for applications? Within an application - not always - it all depends on how the application is designed. However, if you’re a person who runs lots of applications simultaneously, then you’ll definitely appreciate more cores.

So with that said, here’s the verdict:

AMD has a midrange gaming powerhouse in this Triple-Core Phenom. Perhaps AMD is on to something with the odd core count.

Triple cores are better than two cores - but of course. Are four cores better than three cores? Yeah.. that’ll be the case too if you’re a person who runs in a multi-application, heavily multi-threaded environment.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: AMD Phenom 8750 Triple Core CPU, ExtremeTech Review

If there’s one problem with today’s notebook systems, it’s the generally under-whelming performance of their graphics subsystems. Graphics vendors usually strike a balance between performance and power consumption - with power consumption often winning due to the sheer fact that you’ve got yourself a mobile device. Well, AMD is looking to change all of that with the introduction of the new ATI XGP Technology. XGP stands for eXternal Graphics Platform and that pretty much says it all. The ATI XGP is designed to be an external graphics solution that connects to your notebook system using an external PCI Express 2.0 connector. The initial launch of the ATI XGP features the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3800 Series Graphics solution and delivers features such as:

• ATI Avivo HD technology for smooth HD playback via full hardware acceleration
• Integrated Digital Outputs enable viewing standard and high definition content
• Support for ATI CrossFireX technology multi-GPU capabilities
• Independently powered and cooled external graphics solution
• Enthusiast class graphics performance for notebooks
• ATI XGP with a single ATI Radeon graphics processor and a notebook PC can drive up to 4 displays
• Dedicated USB 2.0 connector enables attachments of TV tuners, Blu-ray devices, etc

So how does this all work exactly? Well when you’re home or in the office, just connect the ATI XGP to your specially designed notebook with PCI Express 2.0 connector and experience high end graphics performance great for multimedia playback and high end gaming. When you need to go on the road, disconnect the XGP from your notebook and work with the integrated graphics on the notebook - allowing you to perform basic activities as well as efficient power management.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: ATI XGP, PCI Express 2.0

AMD has announced the availability of their next generation notebook platform which features a new notebook processor in the form of the AMD Turion X2 Ultra Dual-Core Mobile processor, and a new chipset in the form of the AMD 7-series chipset, AMD M780G, and AMD SB700 (which features an integrated ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics). The integrated graphics supposedly delivers three times the 3D graphics performance of competitors and features ATI Avivo HD technology for HD video playback.

The new Turion X2 Ulta Dual-Core Mobile processor features enhancements such as AMD’s Independent Dynamic Core Technology, a new mobile-optimized memory controller, and power-optimized HyperTransport 3.0.

If you want discrete graphics, you can also pair the new processor/chipset with an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3000 Series GPU. The series includes the previously announced Mobility Radeon 3400 and 3600 Series as well as the new ATI Mobility Radeon 3800 Series graphics. The 3800 features:

• Support for PCI Express 2.0
• DirectX 10.1
• Integrated digital output support for HDMI, DVI, and DisplayPort
• Native support for up to 4 monitors

New notebook designs featuring the new processor/chipset from AMD will be coming out from the likes of Acer, ASUS, Clevo, Fujitsu, HP, MSI, NEC, and Toshiba.

[check it out]

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ExtremeTech has published an article comparing the recently released AMD Phenom X4 9850 quad core processor against Intel’s latest Core 2 Quad Q9300 processor here on their website. I was curious how this new quad core processor offering from AMD would stack up against Intel and well.. not surprisingly, the Intel part was still faster than the AMD Phenom. Results from ExtremeTech were as follows:

For now, however, Intel continues to dominate in CPU performance in both high end and mainstream CPUs.

Now there is a silver lining for AMD in this.. the AMD Phenom processor is approximately 60 dollars cheaper than the comparable Intel part. Those of you looking to save a nickel and dime here and there will appreciate the lower processor cost.. but the truth is - it’s really not that much of a difference. At roughly $299, the Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 isn’t exactly a wallet buster either.

All this bodes well for the consumer of course. Just like dual core processors are standard nowadays on many modern day desktop systems, one should expect quad core systems in the near future as standard system specs.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: AMD Phenom X4 9850, Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300, ExtremeTech, Review, Benchmarks

Could this be the year that AMD becomes important again in the processor world? After a horrendous year in 2007, the company appears to have righted its sail and is launching seven new Phenom processors for the desktop PC market. The new processors include new quad core processors, a new low power quad core processor, and new triple-core processors known as the X3 series .

Four of the seven new processors belong to the 50-series CPUs which fixes the Translation Lookaside Buffer (TLB) erratum found in the original batch of AMD Phenom processors. The 50-series quad core processors include:

• Phenom X4 9500 running at 2.2 GHz
• Phenom X4 9550 running at 2.2 GHz. ($195 per unit in lots of 1000)
• Phenom X4 9750 running at 2.4 GHz ($215 per unit in lots of 1000)
• Phenom X4 9850 Black Edition which is unlocked at clocked at 2.5GHz ($235 per unit)

The new low power quad core Phenom is the X4 9100 which is clocked at 1.8GHz and consumes only 65 watts in active mode. No word on pricing as of yet.

The two other new processors make up the new triple core Phenom lineup which are designated as “X3″ processors.

• X3 8300 running at 2.1GHz
• X3 8600 running at 2.3GHz

The new Phenom processors launched today belong to the AMD “Cartwheel” platform which pairs a Phenom processor with a 780G chipset and a graphics card from ATI.  Prices for a desktop Cartwheel platform PC will be between $600 to $800 depending on configurations. The new Phenom X4 processors will also fit in current AM2 and AM2+ processor sockets which means a nice processor upgrade is a possibility for current motherboard owners.

So what does the computing world think of these new processors?

Anandtech finds:

Now this is more like the AMD we’re used to seeing. It’s not quite the performance dominating AMD of years past, but it’s a competitive AMD.

The Tech Report had this to say:

The best thing I can say about the Phenom X4 9750 and 9850 is this: AMD is back in the game. The banishment of the TLB erratum to the history books is, of course, a welcome development, and the higher clock frequencies now available are a small but important step in the right direction.

HotHardware found:

Although the Phenom X4 9850 doesn’t propel AMD to the head of the pack in terms of performance, it is a significant step forward for the company.  AMD can now put the TLB issue behind them and focus on ramping clock speeds and their impending transition to a 45nm manufacturing process

Legit Reviews had this to say:

AMD fixes the Phenom X4 processor with the release of the 50-series, but launches the Phenom X3 processor series with B2 steppings that have the same issuses as the old Phenoms. Strange huh?

Finally, we have X-bit Labs:

… we can’t help stressing the fact that AMD is moving in the right direction trying to improve their Phenom X4 family at any rate. Namely, they have really rapidly fixed the notorious TLB bus that harmed the image of all processors on K10 micro-architecture a lot. Moreover, they have also increased the processors clock speeds, which is a definite advantage.

Technorati Tags: AMD, Phenom, X3, X4

AMD introduced their all-new ATI Radeon E2400 graphics processing unit -  bringing the latest graphics technology to embedded systems. The Radeon E2400 delivers the latest in 2D, 3D, and multimedia capabilities in a small footprint design. The E2400 discrete GPU package measures 31 x 31 mm and comes with 128 MB of on-package GDDR3 memory. According to AMD, the new E2400 is backed by a planned five year availability and long term support. Features of the ATI Radeon E2400 include:

• 65 nm process technology
• Unified Shader Architecture
• Support for Microsoft DirectX 10
• 128MB of on-chip GDDR3 memory

AMD is also offering the ATI Radeon E2400 MXM-II module based solution for systems that are space constrained. The E2400 MXM-II follows the open standard MXM-II specifications and comes with 256MB of GDDR3 memory.

AMD states that the new ATI Radeon E2400 is scheduled to ship this month in production quantities.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: AMD, ATI Radeon E2400, Embedded Systems