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AMD announces first Fusion chips: 10+ hour battery life with DirectX11 graphics
Is this real? Is this happening? It's been over four years since AMD and ATI completed their $5.4 billion merger with the promise of Fusion hybrid CPU / GPU chips, and after what's seemed like nearly endless delays, the company's delivering here at CES 2011. And it's delivering in a big way -- the first Fusion chips are a direct assault on Intel's Atom and the netbook market, offering what AMD says is better CPU performance, vastly better GPU performance with DirectX11 support, dedicated 1080p HD video processing and HDMI out, and "all day" battery life that can hit 10 or more hours. There are four total chips in two families built around the new "Bobcat" CPU core to start: the "Zacate" E-Series for mainstream laptops, AIOs and small desktops will have an 18W TDP and come in the 1.6GHz dual-core E-350 and the 1.5GHz single-core E-240, while the "Ontario" C-Series for HD netbooks and "other emerging form factors" will clock in at 9W TDP and come in the dual-core 1.0GHz C-50 and the single core 1.2GHz C-30. The "Llano" A-Series designed for mainstream laptops will offer up to four cores and arrive later this year. We're expecting to see a number of systems based around the E-Series -- the Lenovo X120e and HP Pavilion dm1 have already been announced -- and we're anticipating quite a flood in the days ahead, which we're more than eager to test out. AMD's making some serious claims -- it says "Fusion processors are, quite simply, the greatest advancement in processing since the introduction of the x86 architecture more than forty years ago" -- and if can deliver on its performance promises, it'll pretty much turn the entire netbook market upside down. What's more, the company says tablets and other embedded devices are coming in the first half of 2011, so things could get seriously interesting. PR after the break.
Toshiba NB550D netbook spills specs, including 1GHz AMD Ontario APU and Harman Kardon sound
Looks like the AMD Fusion netbook strategy may be to supplant Intel's Atom wholesale in the leadup to CES, as Toshiba has just become the second manufacturer to swap out an Atom chip for a 1GHz AMD C-50 Ontario APU while leaving the rest of the design practically untouched. Notebook Italia just spotted this 10-inch Toshiba NB550D having a grand old time on the company's German website, leisurely flexing its Harman Kardon speakers and newfound HDMI port, all the while dreaming about ways to upgrade its scant 1GB of DDR3 memory and 250GB of magnetic storage. Interestingly, Toshiba's actually forecasting only 9.5 hours of battery life for the AMD version (compared to 10 hours with Intel's 1.5GHz Atom N550 CPU), but we suppose that's the price you pay to have Radeon HD 6250M graphics on board. We'll try to get pricing and availability when we inevitably spot it at CES next week.
Acer Aspire One 522 falls from the clouds, sporting dual-core 1GHz Ontario APU?
AMD Fusion's taken its sweet, sweet time getting here, but we're hearing you'll be able to get your hands on some Atom-beating netbook chips soon -- for instance, in this Acer Aspire One 522, which will reportedly drive its oh-so-glossy 10.1-inch, 720p screen with a 1GHz AMD C-50 Ontario APU. In case you need a brief refresher, Ontario's the chip rated at just nine watts, meaning we should expect some fairly decent battery life here, though possibly not the heroic performance of its 1.6GHz Zacate cousin. Aside from those specs, the Acer's mostly your standard netbook -- three USB ports, VGA-out, a webcam and 802.11 b/g/n WiFi -- though it does have HDMI out, something you won't find on the otherwise similar Aspire One D255. It's hard to say what it'll cost stateside, but a Thai e-tailer's ringing up a version right now with 2GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive for 12,829 baht (about $425). Wonder if it runs Android?
Acer's 10.1-inch tablet reportedly uses AMD C-50 APU
Acer's already confirmed that its forthcoming 10.1-inch Windows 7 tablet will be AMD-powered, but it unfortunately didn't get any more specific on the matter than that. If a new DigiTimes report is to be believed, however, it looks like the tablet will use AMD's dual-core C-50 Ontario APU (or accelerated processing unit), which itself consumes just 9W of power and packs a built-in Radeon HD 6250 graphics chip. What's more, DigiTimes is also reporting that Acer's 10.1-inch Android slate rocks Tegra 2 and will, in fact, support WiFi and 3G. Wait and see.
Canadian thieves steal $1 million in Sony PlayStation goods, couldn't wait any longer for GT5
Crime doesn't pay, folks, but sometimes you have to be at least somewhat amused by the shenanigans of those who operate beneath the law. Workers at a shipping facility in Brampton, Ontario discovered on Monday that a trailer containing $500,000 worth of Sony goods was stolen. Apparently whatever measures they took to prevent a recurrence were insufficient, because the very next day a second trailer went missing containing even more PS3 and PSP games and hardware. The first truck looks something like the above, with Nebraska plates, while the second is an XTRA Lease model with Ontario tags. If you see either don't tarry -- call Kevin Butler immediately.
AMD publishes CPU roadmaps through 2012, runs a quad-core Bulldozer through the laptop realm
Heard of Trinity, Krishna, Wichita and Komodo? You have now -- they're the codenames of brand-new processors that AMD plans to ship in 2012. AMD dropped preliminary details on the basic platform lineup earlier this week, and it looks like there are some sweeping changes in store -- like the fact that every single chip will have a DirectX 11 capable GPU on board in true Fusion style. Also, if you thought Bulldozer was a desktop processor and Bobcat limited to laptops, you'll be interested to know that's not at all how it's going to work -- powerhouse notebooks and mid-range towers can get the same four high-end cores in the form of a 32nm Trinity APU, while Krishna and Wichita mop up the low-end and hopefully address low power consumption scenarios with 28nm silicon. Of course, there's a little something extra for the desktop enthusiast, and that's where the octa-core Komodo will come in (picture after the break). AMD's also enacted one other very important change, and that's to provide the handy-dandy AMD Codename Decoder™ for telling all these platforms apart. You'll find it at our more coverage link. We kid you not.
AMD teases Bobcat Fusion APUs again, delivers Atom-busting performance (video)
A quick refresher: Bobcat is AMD's low-power Accelerated Processing Unit that can handle both computational and graphical duties, Ontario and Zacate are the chips built upon that core, and Brazos is the overall platform that they'll be doing their work on. Clear enough? We hope so. AMD has finally allowed a few tech pubs to get their hands on Brazos-based systems and, along with feedback about their experience, the guys have come back with some added spec notes. There'll be two initial Zacate options, the dual-core E-350 running at 1.6GHz or the single-core E-240 clocked at 1.5GHz, while Ontario will offer 1GHz dual-core and 1.2GHz single-core variants. Let's not forget that both are intended for netbooks and lithe desktop computers before writing them off as too slow -- which would be a mistake anyway as the sites that got a chance to play with the E-350 reported very respectable performance. HardOCP dared to try out Crysis and managed to get it chugging along at a resolution around 720p, whereas Hot Hardware witnessed a 1080p video clip being played back perfectly smoothly alongside an instance of Hyper Pi maxing out the CPU load. Benchmark results will have to wait for another day, but feel free to peruse the links below for a more detailed breakdown of the new architecture.
AMD throws down gauntlet, pits Zacate netbook chip against Intel's Core i5 in City of Heroes duel (video)
We knew AMD planned to upstage Intel in San Francisco this week, but we didn't realize just how far Chipzilla's rival would go -- the company's demonstrating the power of its new Zacate APU by having it trounce an Intel Core i5-520M in a graphical superhero showdown. Though we've never really thought much of Intel's integrated graphics anyhow (though we're giving Sandy Bridge's technique the benefit of the doubt), watching a netbook part beat a 2.4GHz Core i5 at anything is truly something else. While AMD won't speak to the clockspeed or price of its new dual-core chips, it says the 18W Zacate and 9W Ontario should appear in devices with over 8 and 10 hours of battery life respectively when they likely ship to consumers early next year. Video after the break. %Gallery-102207%
Newest Canadian Apple Store draws hundreds
Here's a local report from Newmarket, Ontario in Canada, where Apple opened up a brand new store at the Upper Canada Mall over the weekend. Apparently hundreds of people were in line for the opening on Saturday morning, trying to get the iPhone 4 as well as all of the new iPod devices. Everybody involved sounds pretty happy, from the people who got in line starting at 4:30am, to the manager of the new store and the landlord in the mall itself. Then again, maybe that's their Canadian friendliness coming through. Good for Newmarket -- Toronto was one of the closest stores to the town, but now the folks up there will have to travel 60 fewer kilometers to get their Apple fix. Congrats on the new store, eh?
AMD names second Bobcat APU Zacate, shows off Ontario die size
AMD might still have no actual Fusion product to sell us, but it's added a fresh new codename to the stable of future CPU/GPU hybrids. The Zacate Accelerated Processing Unit is a Bobcat derivative, much like the Ontario, but it operates at a higher TDP of 18W and is intended for ultrathin and mainstream laptops along with power-sipping desktops and all-in-ones. Both it and the Ontario APU will offer two Bobcat cores allied to Radeon graphics capable of performing DirectX 11 instructions, though the Ontario dips all the way down to 9W with the stated aim of punching up netbook and small form factor pc performance. Just for reference, that'll have to compete against Intel's own dual-core solution, the 1.5GHz Atom N550, which scrapes by on just an 8.5W TDP... though, of course, it doesn't integrate the same graphics processing prowess that Ontario promises. The two chips, Ontario and Zacate, will ride AMD's Brazos platform when they finally debut early next year. Until then, enjoy the technicolor die shot after the break.
AMD's Bobcat and Bulldozer, 2011 flagship CPU cores, detailed today
One of these days AMD is gonna have to stop talking about its Atom-killing Bobcat and Xeon-ending Bulldozer cores and finally release them. But, until that happy moment arrives in 2011 (fingers crossed), we'll have to content ourselves with more presentation slides. First up, the Bobcat core is AMD's long overdue play for the netbook/ultrathin market. Pitched as having 90 percent of the performance of current-gen, K8-based mainstream chips, AMD's new mobility core will require "less than half the area and a fraction of the power" of its predecessors. That sounds like just the recipe to make the company relevant in laptop purchasing decisions again, while a touted ability for the core to run on less than one watt of power (by lowering operating frequencies and voltages, and therefore performance) could see it appear in even smaller form factors, such as MIDs. The Bobcat's now all set to become the centerpiece of the Ontario APU -- AMD's first Fusion chip, ahead of Llano -- which will be ramping up production late this year, in time for an early 2011 arrival. The Bulldozer also has a future in the Fusion line, but it's earliest role will be as a standalone CPU product for servers and high-end consumer markets. The crafty thing about its architecture is that every one Bulldozer module will be counted as two cores. This is because AMD has split its internal processing pipelines into two (while sharing as many internal components as possible), resulting in a sort of multicore-within-the-core arrangement. The way the company puts it, it's multithreading done right. Interlagos is the codename of the first Opteron chips to sport this new core, showing up at some point next year in a 16-core arrangement (that's 8 Bulldozers, if you're keeping score at home) and promising 50 percent better performance than the current Magny-Cours flagship. Big words, AMD. Now let's see you stick to a schedule for once.%Gallery-100088%
Silicon Knights gets $4 million from Canadian government
Silicon Knights has been shoving the beggar's cup in the face of the Canadian government for some time now and The Welland Tribune reports that a grant has been approved. This means Silicon Knights has been awarded $4 million (pretty big cup, eh?), which it will use to recruit 65 new workers for the Ontario-based studio to help create its next game -- the rumored Siren in the Maelstrom. President Denis Dyack is obviously stoked about the influx of cash, but offered little on the studio's next game. "We can only say it's a next generation title and a high production value game," he offered. "That's all we can say." Hey, that's all well and good, but we don't want to hear jack about a siren and some maelstrom or whatever. Give us an Eternal Darkness sequel, please. Please? [Via GI.biz]
AMD to finally take on netbook space with new Fusion chip... next year
We've always said AMD should go after the gaping hole between netbooks and thin-and-lights by releasing a low-power platform with solid graphics abilities, and it looks like the company's finally coming around -- AMD's John Taylor just told us that the chipmaker will be releasing a netbook-class Fusion CPU / GPU hybrid codenamed "Ontario" with integrated DX11 graphics sometime next year. If Ontario sounds familiar, it's because we've seen it leaked in the past -- it's a part of the "Brazos" platform built around the low-power Bobcat core. Of course, AMD has been promising Fusion chips of all stripes for years now without a single shipping part, so saying that a Fusion chip will get it into the netbook game in 2011 is mildly amusing -- while AMD's definitely turned things around, it's still incredibly late to the low-end party, and Intel's solidly beaten it to the hybrid CPU / GPU punch with the Core 2010 and Pine Trail Atom chips. Add in the fact that NVIDIA's Optimus-based Ion 2 chipset seemingly offers the extended battery life of Atom with the performance of a discrete GPU, and we'd say the market niche Ontario is designed to fill may not actually be so niche when it finally arrives. We'll see what happens -- a year is a long, long time. [Image via OCWorkbench]
Next-gen AMD Scorpius and Lynx desktop platforms leak out, Fusion still coming in 2011
AMD had a little show and tell with Asian press to go along with those new Phenom II and Athlon II chips it just launched, and it revealed some of its next-gen plans along the way. In the short term, it looks like the plan is to launch the 45nm Leo platform we've heard about later this year to better compete with Intel's 32nm Clarkdale parts, and then to push forward to 32nm in 2011 with the Scorpius platform, which will feature a Bulldozer CPU called Zambezi with up to 8 cores and a "next-generation discrete graphics solution." Midrange desktops will get some "next-generation integrated graphics" of their own this year on the Dorado platform, while 2011 will see the Lynx platform launch with the long-delayed Fusion chip. (We were first supposed to see Fusion chips in late 2008, remember?) Fusion is also still on vapor-y track for laptops with scheduled 2011 launch of the previously-leaked Sabine platform, but AMD also tipped the new Brazos Fusion-based platform powered by the Ontario APU, which is "optimized for new form factors" -- potentially MID-sized, but we don't know for sure. Phew, that's a lot of codenames -- we'd say we can't wait, but we're clearly going to have to learn how.
Ontario and Samsung seal $6.7 billion renewable energy deal
Need to know how much it would cost you and your town to generate 2,500 megawatts of pure green energy? Your wind and solar farm infrastructure costs will come to 7 billion CAD (just under 6.7 billion in US currency), which includes a 437 million CAD "sweetener" to get Samsung on board. Plenty of curmudgeons have emerged from the woodwork to trash the deal as costing above market prices, but this appears to be the largest venture of its kind, so we're not entirely sure "market prices" exist yet. For its part, Samsung will create 16,000 jobs in the area, 4,000 of them permanent, as it builds toward the stated goal of providing enough energy to fully power 4 percent of Ontario's population. [Thanks, Dan]
Dyack dismayed by layoffs, anticipates growth in Ontario
Following yet another report of company restructuring resulting in job losses, outspoken industry veteran Denis Dyack called industry-wide layoffs within the last year and a half "staggering." However, the Silicon Knights boss does see a brighter future for development over the next five years, at least in the Canadian province of Ontario. "Before, Ontario was a little isolated, there wasn't a lot of videogame companies here. But that's going to change. With all the positive steps that the government's done," Dyack told GamesIndustry.biz. Dyack's hopeful outlook for Ontario comes, in part, from Ubisoft's July announcement to open a new studio in Toronto -- a move Ubisoft hopes will bring 800 new jobs to the region over the next decade. According to Dyack, new business in Ontario means the province will be able to combat recruiters who remove developer and designer graduates from the area. "It's really depressing going to [University of] Waterloo to recruit and we see that Microsoft was there before us and took all the best people. The tax payer paid for that education," he lamented. With development expanding in Ontario, Silicon Knights can finally start combing schools for talent to help produce the (Sweet Lord, make it happen) sequel to Eternal Darkness.
Talent, not just tax breaks, drawing devs to Canada
Tax breaks are a great way to get developers interested in Canada, according to minister of economic development and trade for Ontario Sandra Pupatello, but they may not be the best way to keep them there. Pupatello worries that while trying to entice devs, competing provinces could drive tax breaks to an untenable position. She says that nuturing a talent pool should be the bigger focus, an approach that has worked in Ontario. "We knew that Ubisoft establishing a significant footprint in Ontario would in itself would help tell the story of what's available," Pupatello told Develop. "Why would Ubisoft come unless they knew that they were going to get absolutely the best talent?" Uh, free health care and the staggering availability of Tim Hortons?
High Fidelity HDTV channel suite hits Rogers in Ontario
Ready or not, High Fidelity HDTV is now vying for your attention on Rogers Digital Cable in Ontario, Canada. The so-called HD Nature & Adventure Package will bring along Oasis HD, Treasure HD, Equator HD and Rush HD, all four of which are currently in "free preview" mode for customers with an HD set-top-box. Conveniently, there's no mention of what happens after the three month window of free viewing closes, but you can phone up Rogers to find out how much it'll cost you to keep looking.
Two Canadian Apple Stores set to open
Rejoice, Apple-loving Canadians. Apple will open two new retail stores this weekend. One in Calgary, Alberta and the other in Toronto, Ontario. Apple Store Market Mall will be the 2nd store in Alberta when it opens at 9:30 AM on Saturday, 27th. It's located between 32nd Avenue NW and 40th Avenue NW on the West side of Shaganappi Trail NW. You can find full travel directions here. At the same time, Apple Store Fairview will open in Toronto at 1800 Sheppard Avenue East. Here are your travel directions. These will be the 8th and 9th stores to open in Canada. If you visit either location, please share your stories and photos. Have fun!Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
WoW TCG March of the Legion event dates and locations announced
As you may recall, Upper Deck recently announced the March of the Legion tour, a series of tournaments against their own legionnaires for fabulous prizes. They've updated the tour page today with information on the first leg of the tour, including the identities of the legionnaires and the places they'll be visiting, including Northern California, Wisconsin, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Philadelphia, Florida, Michigan, and Ontario (Canada). The events last through June, so there's sure to be more locations and dates added later. The legionnaires are no slouches, though. We're talking lead developers and high class judges for the TCG here, so it sounds like you'll have your work cut out for you if you want to win yourself a Varimathras extended art card and a Leeroy Jenkins T-shirt by defeating them. Of course, as mentioned, just showing up gets you that Weeble extended art card, and it sounds like the event should be fun. Let us know how it goes if you show up to one!
