GlobalFoundries' move to leapfrog several silicon fab steps to get straight to 14 nanometer (nm) is on the verge of paying off, with the company taping out its 14 nm LPP (low-power plus) FinFET node, and claiming good yields on its test/QA chips. This takes the node one step closer to accepting orders for manufacturing of extremely complex chips, such as CPUs and GPUs.

AMD is expected to remain the company's biggest client, with plans to build its next-generation "Zen" processor on this node. The company's "Arctic Islands" graphics chips are also rumored to be built on the 14 nm node, although which foundry will handle its mass production remains unclear. A big chunk of AMD's R&D budget is allocated to getting the "Zen" architecture right, with key stages of its development being handled by Jim Keller, the brains behind some of AMD's most commercially successful CPU cores.

Arctic announces the i32/A32 semi-passive coolers. The Freezer i32/A32 is the first semi passive Arctic cooler. The smaller and lighter successor of the Freezer i30/A30 is the perfect gadget for PC enthusiasts looking for an ultra-quiet but efficient solution for the CPU cooling. It is the first ARCTIC cooler which comes with the new fan controller developed in Germany.

Arctic cooler are well-known for optimum cooling performance at a low noise level. By semi passive performance the Freezer i32/A32 provides again a special feature. A sophisticated fan controller enables that the CPU is completely passively cooled during typical Windows operation. The F12 PWM fan only start up at a higher temperature (from 40% PWM).

EK Water Blocks, Ljubljana based premium computer liquid cooling gear manufacturer, is excited to launch the true single-slot liquid cooling solution for AMD Radeon reference design R9 Nano graphics card. EK-FC R9 Nano directly cools the GPU, HBM as well as VRM (voltage regulation module) as water flows directly over these critical areas, thus allowing the graphics card and it's VRM to remain stable under high overclocks.

EK-FC R9 Nano water block features EK unique central inlet split-flow cooling engine design for best possible cooling performance. Such system also works flawlessly with the reversed water flow without adversely affecting the cooling performance. Moreover, such design offers great hydraulic performance, allowing this product to be used in liquid cooling systems using weaker water pumps. Unlike the original cooling solution with a single 90mm fan that comes with AMD Radeon R9 Nano and takes up two slots, EK-FC R9 Nano water block will transform the R9 Nano into a stunningly beautiful single-slot graphics card! EK encloses a single-slot I/O bracket which replaces the original two-slot in order to make installation of mutliple graphics cards easier.

In addition to the first liquid-cooled Radeon R9 Fury, XFX is ready with an air-cooled card designed to sell at the price AMD intended for this SKU. XFX' air-cooled Radeon R9 Fury graphics card features a triple-slot, triple-fan cooling solution that's very similar (probably identical) in design to the Tri-X cooler used by Sapphire. Underneath it, is an AMD reference-design "Fiji" PCB, seating the 3,584 SP R9 Fury ASIC. The card could offer 0 dBA (silent) idle, and stick to AMD reference clock speeds of 1000 MHz core, and 500 MHz memory. It could sell at AMD's baseline price for the R9 Fury, at $550.

Jim Keller, one of the lead architects of AMD's x86 CPU architectures, has left the company. He held the post of Chief Architect of Microprocessor Cores at AMD. With his association, AMD's launched some of its most successful CPU architectures, such as the original K7 (Athlon, Athlon XP, Duron); the very first 64-bit x86 architecture, and K8 (Athlon64). Keller then left AMD to join Apple, in its development of the A4 and A5 SoCs, before rejoining AMD in 2012 to begin work on the "Zen" architecture.

Keller's departure doesn't throw "Zen" in jeopardy. "Jim helped establish a strong leadership team that is well positioned for success as we enter the completion phase of the "Zen" core and associated system IP and SoCs," said AMD in a statement. "Zen" remains on-track for sampling in 2016, and its "first full year of revenue" in 2017, which would indicate a market launch some time in 2016. AMD CTO Mark Papermaster will take over as additional charge of Keller's position.

Results of an AMD carbon footprint analysis of its 6th Generation A-Series Accelerated Processing Unit (APU), codenamed "Carrizo," show that using the new processor can result in a 50 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to the previous generation APU. The study results are based on the widely accepted Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHGP) established by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), and were announced today during an AMD sponsored media panel on energy efficient information technology. Research shows that 60 percent of Fortune 100 companies have established public targets for reducing their greenhouse gas emissions.

"Creating low-power, energy efficient products is a key element of our business strategy, and in turn, we are working alongside our customers to reduce the environmental footprint of technology while relentlessly improving performance," said Mark Papermaster, senior vice president and chief technology officer, AMD. "The results from the carbon footprint study for the latest AMD APU demonstrate our commitment to continued energy efficiency gains, sustainability, and lower operating costs for consumers and enterprises."

NVIDIA's next-generation GPUs, based on the company's "Pascal" architecture, will be reportedly built on the 16 nanometer FinFET node at TSMC, and not the previously reported 14 nm FinFET node at Samsung. Talks of foundry partnership between NVIDIA and Samsung didn't succeed, and the GPU maker decided to revert to TSMC. The "Pascal" family of GPUs will see NVIDIA adopt HBM2 (high-bandwidth memory 2), with stacked DRAM chips sitting alongside the GPU die, on a multi-chip module, similar to AMD's pioneering "Fiji" GPU. Rival AMD, on the other hand, could build its next-generation GCNxt GPUs on 14 nm FinFET process being refined by GlobalFoundries.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is poised to be among the first AAA game releases to take advantage of DirectX 12 out of the box, according to AMD. The game will get a few AMD-exclusive features, including TressFX 3.0 Hair (realistic hair and foliage rendering). The game will include a benchmark tool, letting enthusiasts and hardware reviewers integrate it into their benches. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided will be one of the big AAA game releases in 2016.

AMD today announced that Arka Mediaworks used AMD FirePro W8100 GPUs, AMD FirePro W9100 GPUs and other AMD technologies to bring the motion picture Baahubali: The Beginning to life. Directed by acclaimed film maker S.S. Rajamouli, Baahubali: The Beginning tells the tale of two brothers who find themselves at odds over a kingdom passed down from their father. The first of a two-part dramatic tale, the film features a series of visually exciting adventures brought to life by the power of AMD FirePro professional graphics, enabling artists to create real-time, seamless visual effects.

The highest grossing film ever released by an Indian filmmaker, Baahubali: The Beginning appeared this past summer on 200 screens across the US and more than 4000 screens globally, and the international version is set to debut in a number of global markets and film festivals. Tomorrow, director S.S. Rajamouli, Raja Koduri of AMD and Pete Draper of MakutaFX will host a panel discussion on the making of Baahubali: The Beginning, which will be broadcast live from Los Angeles at 9:50 p.m. PDT. Viewers can watch the broadcast here.

QNAP Systems, Inc. today announced the new business-class AMD-powered quad-core TS-x63U series NAS; available in 4, 8 and 12-bay models with single and redundant power supply options. The TS-x63U series provides 10GbE network connectivity with its single-port SFP+ network adapter, and supports bridging 1GbE devices to a 10GbE network with its four built-in GbE interfaces. Coupled with an AES-NI hardware-accelerated encryption engine, SSD cache support, and flexible scalability; the TS-x63U series is ideal for SMBs looking for backup, restoration, virtualization storage, private cloud, and to future-proof their IT infrastructure for 10GbE networks.

The TS-x63U series is powered by an advanced 64-bit AMD Embedded G-Series quad-core 2.0GHz SoC processor with 4GB DDR3L RAM (upgradable to 16GB) and features four 1GbE LAN ports, delivering high speeds of up to 1,090 MB/s sequential read throughput with10GbE configuration for multi-tasking business applications. The AES-NI hardware encryption engine allows unmatched sequential read performance exceeding 780 MB/s with AES 256-bit full NAS volume encryption, with the new shared folder encryption supported, accelerating system performance and security while ensuring the safety of sensitive data.

AMD is readying a new SKU to take advantage of the vast pricing gap between the GeForce GTX 960 and GTX 970, and to bolster its sub-$300 lineup, with the Radeon R9 380X. This SKU will be based on the 28 nm "Tonga" silicon, which implements the latest Graphics CoreNext 1.2 architecture. The R9 380X could max out the specifications of the "Tonga" silicon, offering 2,048 stream processors spread across 32 compute units, 128 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and a 384-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding either 3 GB or 6 GB of memory.

Another equally plausible theory pins the R9 380X as a chip with 2,048 stream processors, but the same 256-bit GDDR5 memory interface of the R9 380, with 4 GB of memory, letting AMD keep the costs low. XFX appears to be ready with a "Double Dissipation" card based on the R9 380X. The card's new-generation Double Dissipation cooler features an aluminium fin-stack heatsink with four 8 mm thick nickel-plated copper heat pipes, and a pair of 100 mm spinners, which are easily detachable, letting you clean the heatsink underneath. Mass-production of the R9 380X is reportedly underway, so a launch is to be expected rather soon.

TUL Corporation, a leading and innovative manufacturer of AMD graphic cards since 1997, has proudly announced a new graphics card that is powered by the world's most advanced and innovative GPU. The PowerColor R9 Nano 4GB HBM delivers revolutionary innovation, power efficiency, performance, and enables a new paradigm for small form factor PCs. The PowerColor R9 Nano 4GB HBM is the first GPU with on-chip High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) delivering extreme 4K gaming performance in an incredibly innovative 6-inch length graphics card.

Even though the size of PowerColor R9 Nano graphics card is only just 6 inches in length, it gives a radical leap forward in enthusiast class performance that features to an inventive design no equal for the Mini-ITX PC. No graphics card has ever packed so much performance and power into such a small form factor. The PowerColor R9 Nano is armed with the first-ever GPU with High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM) integrated on-chip that delivers more than 4 times the bandwidth per watt over GDDR5. Add that along with a 4096-bit memory interface for incredible new advances in power and efficiency which makes the most innovative total solution GPU available today.

AMD's Radeon R9 Nano graphics card, started selling on Amazon. The listing confirms the card's US $649.99 pricing. The card being sold is XFX branded, but as AMD's "co-flagship" product, there likely won't be any custom-design adaptations of this chip. The USP of the R9 Nano is to offer the highest possible performance for SFF gaming desktops. It has a nearly identical specifications sheet to that of the Radeon R9 Fury X, but with slightly lower clocks, and a far more conservative power-management system, which reduces its typical board power rating compared to the R9 Fury X by 100W, down to 175W. The first orders on Amazon should begin shipping after the 13th of September.

Edit: Sapphire's R9 Nano is also listed, at $649, too.

AMD this Wednesday, announced a major internal re-organization, with the merger of its various visual computing divisions as a monolithic entity, called Radeon Technologies Group. It will be led by Raja Koduri as Senior Vice President. Koduri served as VP of the company's visual computing division. He will now report directly to CEO Lisa Su, and the various other graphics-related divisions (eg: professional graphics business, led by Sean Burke), will report to him. AMD's lucrative semi-custom business - the one responsible for SoCs that drive popular game consoles such as the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 - will also come under the unified Radeon Technologies Group.

"We are entering an age of immersive computing where we will be surrounded by billions of brilliant pixels that enhance our daily lives in ways we have yet to fully comprehend," said Lisa Su. "AMD is one of the few companies with the engineering talent and IP to make emerging immersive computing opportunities a reality," said Koduri, adding "Now, with the Radeon Technologies Group, we have a dedicated team focused on growing our business as we create a unique environment for the best and brightest minds in graphics to be a part of the team re-defining the industry."Many Thanks to Dorsetknob for the tip.

AMD is planning to expand its socket FM2+ chip lineup with three new parts, the A10-7890K and A8-7690K APUs, and the Athlon X4 880K CPU. The three parts surfaced on the compatibility list of socket FM2+ motherboards by BIOSTAR. The architecture mentioned is "Kaveri," but the silicon could very well be "Godavari," (Kaveri refresh).

The refreshed lineup will be led by the A10-7890K, which features CPU clock speeds of 4.10 GHz out of the box, with an unknown TurboCore frequency (the current series leader A10-7870K offers 3.90 GHz with 4.10 GHz TurboCore). The A8-7690K offers CPU clocks of 3.70 GHz, and an unknown TurboCore frequency. There's no word on the iGPU clock speeds of the two chips. The third and most intriguing part is the Athlon X4 880K, with 4.00 GHz CPU clocks. The Athlon X4 FM2+ series lack integrated graphics, and make for good buys for people planning to build machines with discrete GPUs, on the FM2+ platform. All three chips offer unlocked base-clock multipliers, enabling CPU overclocking.

There won't be a Radeon R9 Nano review on TechPowerUp. AMD says that it has too few review samples for the press. When AMD first held up the Radeon R9 Nano at its "Fiji" GPU unveil, to us it came across as the most promising product based on the chip, even more than the R9 Fury series, its dual-GPU variant, and the food-processor-shaped SFF gaming desktop thing. The prospect of "faster than R9 290X at 175W" is what excited us the most, as that would disrupt NVIDIA's GM204 based products. Unfortunately, the most exciting product by AMD also has the least amount of excitement by AMD itself.

The first signs of that are, AMD making it prohibitively expensive at $650, and not putting it in the hands of the press, for a launch-day review. We're not getting one, and nor do some of our friends on either sides of the Atlantic. AMD is making some of its tallest claims with this product, and it's important (for AMD) that some of those claims are put to the test. A validated product could maybe even convince some to reach for their wallets, to pull out $650.

TUL Corporation, a leading and innovative manufacturer of AMD graphic cards since 1997, has proudly announced a new and most powerful graphics card in the world among AMD Radeon R9 390 series. The PowerColor Devil 13 Dual Core R9 390 is packed with dual GRENADA core, designed to tackle the most demanding high end gaming titles on the market. It utilizes 16 GB of GDDR5 memory with a core clock speed at 1000 MHz, and 1350 MHz for memory clock speed which is connected via a new high speed 1024-bit (512-bit x2) memory interface.

PowerColor Devil 13 Dual Core R9 390 is built with carefully-designed Platinum Power Kit and ultra-efficient thermal design. It consists of massive 15-phase power delivery, PowerIRstage, Super Cap and Ferrite Core Choke that provides the stability and reliability for such high-end graphics solution. To support maximum performance and to qualify for the Devil 13 cooling system, 3 Double Blades Fans are attached on top of the enormous surface of aluminum fins heatsink connected with total of 10 pieces of heat pipes and 2 pieces of large die-cast panels. This superb cooling solution achieves a perfect balance between thermal solution and noise reduction. The PowerColor Devil 13 Dual Core R9 390 has the LED backlighting that glows a bright red color, pulsating slowly on the Devil 13 logo.

Lenovo today announced the company's trio of new premium PCs and accessories designed exclusively for gamers: the Lenovo ideacentre Y900 and Y700 desktops and ideapad Y700 laptop with Windows 10. Crafted for the growing population of working gamers who now demand a powerful and stylish machine that can move with them through their life from day to play, the family of new Y series devices and accessories have been built from the ground up to serve mature gaming enthusiasts' professional and social life.

The new ideacentre Y900 and Y700 desktops look as distinct as their performance - an edgy design with internal and external red LEDs turns heads while inside the box includes extreme gaming performance and ample room for future upgrades. For mobile users, the new ideapad Y700 provides the mobility of a laptop with plenty of horsepower to swap between spreadsheets and graphics-heavy game time.

AMD today at VMworld 2015 demonstrated the world's first hardware-based GPU virtualization solution, the AMD Multiuser GPU. This new solution from AMD enables a virtualized workstation-class experience with full ISV certifications and local desktop-like performance. With the AMD Multiuser GPU, IT pros can easily configure these solutions to allow up to 15 users on a single AMD GPU. Demonstrations of AMD virtualization solutions can be found at VMworld 2015 booth 447.

"The AMD graphics cards are uniquely equipped with AMD Multiuser GPU technology embedded into the GPU delivering consistent and predictable performance," said Sean Burke, AMD corporate vice president and general manager, Professional Graphics. "When these AMD GPUs are appropriately configured to the needs of an organization, end users get the same access to the GPU no matter their workload. Each user is provided with the virtualized performance to design, create and execute their workflows without any one user tying up the entire GPU."

Built around industry standard SR-IOV (Single Root I/O Virtualization) technology, the AMD Multiuser GPU continues AMD's embracement of non-proprietary open standards. SR-IOV is a specification developed by the PCI SIG, and provides a standardized way for devices to expose hardware virtualization. The AMD Multiuser GPU is designed to preserve and support graphics- and compute-accelerated features for design and manufacturing or media and entertainment applications. The AMD Multiuser GPU addresses limitations of current virtualized GPU solutions that may not provide predictable performance for CAD/CAE, Media and Entertainment, and general enterprise GPU needs.

Lenovo today announced its latest portfolio of laptops and desktops specifically designed for the small and medium business. Loaded with the latest technology and stylish designs, the portfolio includes the ThinkPad E Series, the updated Lenovo M, B and E line of laptops and S series desktops including elegant all-in-ones. Small and medium businesses are looking for PC solutions to reduce IT headaches and increase efficiency and collaboration between employees in the office and on the road. They need to keep business data safe and ensure critical data protection as they look towards expanding their business information and services to the cloud.

AMD released the Catalyst 15.8 Beta driver. In addition to an updated display driver, with likely support for newly launched GPUs, the Radeon R9 Nano and R9 370X, the drivers offer DirectX 12 performance optimizations for "Ashes of the Singularity," and optimizations with stability updates for "Batman: Arkham Knight." More importantly, the driver integrates Oculus 0.7 SDK, and fixes a number of game-specific bugs.DOWNLOAD: AMD Catalyst 15.8 Beta for Windows 10/8.1/7 64-bit | 32-bit

In addition to the Radeon R9 Nano, AMD quietly launched the Radeon R9 370X, a new SKU to combat the GeForce GTX 950 and GTX 960, in the sub-$200 market. The R9 370X. Based on the 28 nm "Trinidad XT" silicon, this chip offers 1,280 stream processors, 80 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding either 2 GB or 4 GB of memory.

Sapphire is the first to be out with an R9 370X product, based on its Vapor-X cooling solution, and available in both 2 GB and 4 GB variants. Sapphire's cards offer close to 1200 MHz core clock speeds, with 5.60 GHz (GDDR5 effective) memory, at which clocks, the memory bandwidth on tap is 179 GB/s. The card draws power from a pair of 6-pin PCIe power connectors, display outputs include two DVI, and one each of HDMI and DisplayPort.

AMD continues to push the boundaries of graphics card design, today announcing its category-creating AMD Radeon R9 Nano, the fastest Mini ITX graphics card ever to enable 4K gaming in the living room through ultra-quiet, ultra-compact PC designs. First previewed to gamers around the world during the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles in June 2015, the AMD Radeon R9 Nano graphics card is based on the graphics chip codenamed "Fiji," and is the third "Fiji"-based product to launch this summer alongside the AMD Radeon R9 Fury and R9 Fury X graphics cards. The AMD Radeon R9 Fury graphics family, based on the "Fiji" chip, marks a turning point in PC gaming with the implementation of High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM) to deliver extreme energy efficiency and performance for ultra-high resolutions, unparalleled VR experiences, smoother gameplay, with the Radeon R9 Nano revolutionizing form-factors for enthusiasts everywhere.

With 30 percent more performance and 30 percent lower power than the previous generation AMD Radeon R9 290X card, the 175W AMD Radeon R9 Nano is the world's most power efficient Mini ITX enthusiast graphics card. The six-inch long, air-cooled board represents a new class of graphics card, enabling gamers, PC modders, and system integrators to build compact, unique, ultra-small form factors that have never before been possible, opening the door to new, sleek PC designs that are no bigger than a home DVR or videogame console, and look every bit in place beside them.

AMD's upcoming super-compact graphics card, the Radeon R9 Nano, will be faster than NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 980, and a whopping 30% faster than the GTX 970, according to the company. At its size, it will offer the fastest pixel-crunching solution for compact ITX/SFF gaming PC builders, and that is something AMD want to capitalize on. If what we're hearing is true, then not only will the R9 Nano have the same core-config as the R9 Fury X, but also its price - US $649.99. At this price, the R9 Nano definitely isn't going to affect sales of the GTX 970 or GTX 980, which are currently going for as low as $299 and $465, respectively; but serve as a "halo product," targeted at SFF gaming PC builders.

AMD's upcoming mini-ITX friendly graphics card, the Radeon R9 Nano, which boasts of a typical board power of just 175W, is not a heavily stripped-down R9 Fury X, as was expected. The card will feature the full complement of GCN compute units physically present on the "Fiji" silicon, and in terms of specifications, is better loaded than even the R9 Fury. Specifications sheet of the R9 Nano leaked to the web, revealing that the card will feature all 4,096 stream processors physically present on the chip, along with 256 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. It will feature 4 GB of memory across the chip's 4096-bit HBM interface.

In terms of clock speeds, the R9 Nano isn't too far behind the R9 Fury X on paper - its core is clocked up to 1000 MHz, with its memory ticking at 500 MHz (512 GB/s). So how does it get down to 175W typical board power, from the 275W of the R9 Fury X? It's theorized that AMD could be using an aggressive power/temperature based clock-speed throttle. The resulting performance is 5-10% higher than the Radeon R9 290X, while never breaching a power target. Korean tech blog DGLee posted pictures of an R9 Nano taken apart. Its PCB is smaller than even that of the R9 Fury X, and makes do with a slimmer 4+2 phase VRM, than the 6+2 phase VRM found on the R9 Fury X.