AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) announced that the company achieved a number one market share position for thin clients based on its thin-client shipments. According to its unit sales to thin client customers last year, AMD has more than half of that market, with 53 percent market share.

Thin clients, with little or no local storage, often serve as intelligent front-ends for server or cloud-based applications. Thin clients using AMD Embedded G-Series have a strong value proposition for immersive graphics in single- or multi-display configurations in the enterprise. Recent design wins with HP, Fujitsu, and Samsung validate that AMD APUs provide compelling value with horsepower for data movement, encryption/decryption of central server data, and even video encode/decode for video conferencing or multimedia streaming.

"The AMD Embedded G-Series SoC couples high performance compute and graphics capability in a highly integrated low power design," said Scott Aylor, corporate vice president and general manager, AMD Enterprise Solutions. "These processors provide compelling performance per dollar per watt, strong security, sophisticated power management, and superior graphics performance. The product lineup includes an unparalleled range of pin- and software-compatible offerings, helping to address multiple needs of our customers."

AMD is readying a slew of feature-set additions to its Radeon GPUs, in 2016, targeted at display technology. To begin with, AMD is redesigning FreeSync, its adaptive-sync technology, to work over HDMI. The tech currently requires DisplayPort 1.2a. For this to work, the display should support FreeSync over HDMI on its end, as well. It's not as if every current HDMI display gets adaptive sync. AMD posted a partial list of upcoming displays that support FreeSync over HDMI. With this, AMD is pushing for a new generation of notebooks and convertibles that feature FreeSync displays.

Next up, AMD is implementing high dynamic range (HDR) display support on next-generation Radeon GPUs. Current Radeon GPUs already support 10-bit (30-bit color or 1.07 billion colors, compared to 16.7 million colors on 32-bit); on desktop, Direct3D, and OpenGL apps. HDR will make images look more life-like. AMD claims that 1080p HDR content will look better than 4K SDR (standard dynamic range) content. AMD will also work with game developers to get HDR content on upcoming games.

In this episode of TechPowerUp News, price drops across the meat of NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 900 lineup; the new upcoming AMD dual-GPU "Fiji" graphics card, and Michael Mantor's elevation in AMD.

AMD issued a response to a recent report which states that liquid cooling components maker Asetek issued a cease-and-desist to the company, to stop sales of the Radeon R9 Fury X graphics card, which implements a closed-loop liquid-cooling solution made by Cooler Master. In its response, AMD argues that the jury in the Asetek vs. CMI (Cooler Master) case did not mention the cooling solution of the Radeon R9 Fury X specifically, as infringing Asetek-held patents. The statement reads:

"We are aware that Asetek has sued Cooler Master. While we defer to Cooler Master regarding the details of the litigation, we understand that the jury in that case did not find that the Cooler Master heat sink currently used with the Radeon Fury X infringed any of Asetek's patents."

While AMD is right in pointing out that the original judgement does not name the R9 Fury X, or its cooling solution as an infringing product; there's no word on whether AMD will stop sales of the card. From the looks of it, AMD has no plans to stop sales of its flagship graphics product, and appears to have convincing legal arguments up its sleeves to continue selling the card, in the near future.

AMD has reportedly been issued a "cease-and-desist" notice by liquid cooling components major Asetek over sale of its flagship Radeon R9 Fury X graphics card. A similar C&D notice was sent to GIGABYTE, to stop sales of its GeForce GTX 980 Water Force graphics card. The two cards ship with a factory-fitted, closed-loop liquid cooling solution by Cooler Master, a company with which Asetek is locked in a patent infringement lawsuit, over its pump-block and movable fittings designs.

The Radeon R9 Fury X and GIGABYTE GTX 980 Water Force feature a derivative of Cooler Master's Seidon 120M closed-loop cooler, a product red-flagged by U.S. courts over patent infringement. Asetek has already succeeded in getting Cooler Master to withdraw similar aftermarket cooling solutions from the U.S. market, such as the Seidon, Nepton, and Glacier. The courts have ordered Cooler Master to pay 14.5 percent royalties from revenues on each infringing product sold in the market, to Asetek.

Today at Autodesk University 2015, AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) unveiled the AMD FirePro W4300 for the best Computer-Aided Design (CAD) performance that fits both small form factor (SFF) and tower workstations. The AMD FirePro W4300 card expertly integrates a powerful GPU and 4GB of GDDR5 memory within a low-profile design for installation in SFF as well as full-sized systems. Organizations can now confidently simplify their IT management by standardizing on a single, capable professional graphics solution throughout their workstation deployment.

The AMD FirePro W4300 professional graphics card is optimized for the latest CAD applications including Autodesk AutoCAD, Inventor as well as Revit, Dassault Systèmes SOLIDWORKS and CATIA, PTC Creo, Siemens NX, and many more. Engineering professionals can efficiently work with large geometry-intense models and apply GPU-accelerated features in their projects, such as the new Order Independent Transparency (OIT) mode supported in SOLIDWORKS. Users can help increase productivity by visualizing their workflows across up to six displays, and up to 4K and 5K resolution.

In this week's edition of TechPowerUp News, our first impressions of AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition, AMD retiring active support for Radeon HD 6000 and HD 5000 series; HDMI 2.0 support on some of the newer Radeon GPUs, and an interesting new multi-system power splitter by Phanteks.

AMD today released Radeon Software Crimson Edition 15.11.1 Update. A follow up to last week's major release, version 15.11.1 addresses a major issue with driver-level VGA fan speed control, which saw the driver either crank fan-speeds up to 100%, or lock them down to 30%, causing GPUs to overheat. In addition, the driver addresses several game-specific bugs related to Just Cause 3, Fallout 4, Star Wars: Battlefront, and Call of Duty Black Ops III.DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition 15.11.1 for Windows 10/8.1/7 32-bit | Windows 10/8.1/7 64-bitImage Courtesy: PCAuthority.com.au

AMD could launch its next-generation dual-GPU graphics card based on the "Fiji" silicon, some time in December. Codenamed "Fury-Gemini," the card features a pair of "Fiji" GPUs in an internal multi-GPU setup; and is cooled by an AIO liquid-cooling solution, much like the R9 Fury X. Prototype boards of this card were shown by AMD top-brass at some of the chip's earliest reveals. It's expected that the PCB (pictured below), will be mated with a liquid-cooling solution; and unless NVIDIA releases its dual-GPU GM200 graphics card any sooner, is on course to becoming the fastest graphics card you can buy. It remains to be seen if AMD can cash in on the Holiday shopping season.

AMD's ambitious Radeon Sofware Crimson Edition drivers are seeing its first user experience issue in the form of a fan-speed bug. The driver, in some cases, spins graphics card fans up to 100%, and in others, the fan-speed is locked at 30% regardless of load. Over the past weekend, AMD acknowledged the issue and is tasked with a hotfix driver scheduled for release later today.

A ominously named app claims to boost certain apps performance on AMD processors. Called "Intel Compiler Patcher," this app scans your machine for apps developed using Intel C++ compilers, and patches them to work better on non-Intel CPU platforms (namely AMD). The idea (suspicion rather), is that apps developed with Intel C++ compilers give modern AMD CPUs a performance disadvantage. The following is how the developer describes the app works:

The compiler or library can make multiple versions of a piece of code, each optimized for a certain processor and instruction set, for example SSE2, SSE3, etc. The system includes a function that detects which type of CPU it is running on and chooses the optimal code path for that CPU. This is called a CPU dispatcher. However, the Intel CPU dispatcher does not only check which instruction set is supported by the CPU, it also checks the vendor ID string. If the vendor string says "GenuineIntel" then it uses the optimal code path. If the CPU is not from Intel then, in most cases, it will run the slowest possible version of the code, even if the CPU is fully compatible with a better version.

We don't have an AMD machine at hand to put our benches ourselves, and so we invite AMD CPU users from our community to post their results by using this "patcher" at their own risk.DOWNLOAD: Intel Compiler Patcher

With AMD announcing software support for HDMI 2.0 and DisplayPort 1.2 to HDMI 2.0 active adapters with its Radeon Software Crimson Edition, various AMD AIB partners could jump in with such adapters. Club 3D, which has been making dongles, converters, and adapters, besides AMD Radeon graphics cards, announced its entry. The company announced two active adapters - standard DisplayPort 1.2 to HDMI 2.0, and mini-DisplayPort 1.2 to HDMI 2.0. Both support 4K Ultra HD (3840 x 2160 pixels), with 60 Hz refresh rate display mode. The company didn't announce pricing.

In a move that could affect scores of users of the still DirectX 11-compatible Radeon HD 6000 and HD 5000 series graphics cards; the company has reportedly decided to change their driver support model to legacy. This would entail "no additional driver releases" for these GPUs as they've "reached peak performance optimization as on November 24, 2015."

The last WHQL-signed driver that users of HD 6000 and HD 5000 series can use is Catalyst 15.7.1 WHQL; and those looking for a whiff of the new Radeon Software Crimson Edition, will be able to use a Radeon Software Crimson Edition Beta designed with legacy GPU support. The links to both drivers can be found in this page. With this AMD indicated that it will focus its driver development solely toward GPUs based on its Graphics CoreNext architecture (Radeon HD 7000 series and above).

AMD today released its completely reimagined graphics software suite, Radeon Software Crimson Edition, giving users an exceptional new user experience, 12 new or enhanced features, up to 20 percent more graphics performance, adjustability that can nearly double generational energy efficiency2, and rock-solid stability across the full spectrum of AMD graphics products. The release is the first from the Radeon Technologies Group, which recently announced a renewed focus on software placing it on par with hardware initiatives.

"As the primary way that people interact with our products, our software deserves to be viewed as a top priority, and going forward that's exactly what we're doing, delivering easy-to-use software that is packed with real user benefits, starting with Radeon Software Crimson Edition," said Raja Koduri, senior vice president and chief architect, Radeon Technologies Group. "Radeon Technologies Group is laser-focused on the vertical integration of all things graphics, propelling the industry forward by driving performance per watt, creating innovative technologies and ensuring that the software supporting our GPUs is world class."DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition for Windows 10 64-bit | Windows 10 32-bit | Windows 8.1 64-bit | Windows 8.1 32-bit | Windows 7 64-bit | Windows 7 32-bit

AMD announced the Radeon R9 380X graphics card. Positioned between the Radeon R9 380 and the R9 390, this card starts at US $229, and takes advantage of a huge gap in NVIDIA's lineup, between the GeForce GTX 960 ($190) and the GTX 970 ($319). Based on the 28 nm "Antigua" ("Tonga") silicon, this SKU features the full complement of the chip's 32 Graphics CoreNext (GCN) compute units, amounting to 2,048 stream processors. It also features 128 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 4 GB of memory. The core is clocked at 970 MHz, and the memory at 5.70 GHz (GDDR5-effective), amounting to a memory bandwidth of 182 GB/s.

Sapphire announced its latest version of the TriXX overclocking utility, which it bundles with its graphics cards. Version 5.2.1 is one of the first pieces of software to support voltage control on AMD "Fiji" GPU graphics cards (R9 Fury, R9 Fury X, and R9 Nano), and HBM overclocking. The utility comes with a new "dashboard" themed user interface that gives you an analog readout of your card's main sensors - clocks, voltage, and temperatures; and a simpler layout. In addition, it also supports voltage control on other Radeon R9 300 series GPUs.DOWNLOAD: Sapphire TriXX 5.2.1

AMD has a knack of pulling off some of the season's biggest game bundles, with its Never Settle Bundle legacy. The company is preparing to give away one of the season's biggest games, Star Wars Battlefront, with its Radeon R9 Fury graphics cards. Given away by participating retailers, purchases of the three cards will come with a voucher that can be redeemed on AMD website for an Origin key to the game. R9 Fury X and Nano are not included in this promotion.

AMD released its latest Catalyst 15.11.1 Beta drivers in the run up to its major Radeon Software Crimson Edition launch. One of the last drivers to bear the name "Catalyst," these drivers come with performance optimization for all of the season's biggest releases - Star Wars Battlefront, Call of Duty: Black Ops III, Fallout 4, and Assassins Creed: Syndicate. These optimizations could include CrossFire profiles on games that support it. Grab them from the links below.DOWNLOAD: AMD Catalyst 15.11.1 Beta 32-bit | AMD Catalyst 15.11.1 Beta 64-bit

Building on its strategic investments in heterogeneous system architecture (HSA), AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) announced a suite of tools designed to ease development of high-performance, energy efficient heterogeneous computing systems. The "Boltzmann Initiative" leverages HSA's ability to harness both central processing units (CPU) and AMD FirePro graphics processing units (GPU) for maximum compute efficiency through software. The first results of the initiative are featured this week at SC15 and include the Heterogeneous Compute Compiler (HCC); a headless Linux driver and HSA runtime infrastructure for cluster-class, High Performance Computing (HPC); and the Heterogeneous-compute Interface for Portability (HIP) tool for porting CUDA-based applications to a common C++ programming model. The tools are designed to drive application performance across markets ranging from machine learning to molecular dynamics, and from oil and gas to visual effects and computer-generated imaging.

"AMD's Heterogeneous-compute Interface for Portability enables performance portability for the HPC community. The ability to take code that was written for one architecture and transfer it to another architecture without a negative impact on performance is extremely powerful," said Jim Belak, co-lead of the U.S. Department of Energy's Exascale Co-design Center in Extreme Materials and senior computational materials scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. "The work AMD is doing to produce a high-performance compiler that sits below high-level programming models enables researchers to concentrate on solving problems and publishing groundbreaking research rather than worrying about hardware-specific optimizations."

In this episode of TechPowerUp News, AMD's upcoming Radeon R9 380X graphics card, which could heat things up under the $300-mark; the major performance boost Windows 10 gets with its new build-10586; Steam Hardware finally hitting the shelves; and NVIDIA's new Jetson TX1 computing module for robots and drones, which leverage deep-learning.

AMD's upcoming generations of GPUs will get a massive design focus on energy-efficiency and increases in performance-per-Watt, according to a WCCFTech report. The first of these chips, codenamed "Arctic Islands," will leverage cutting edge 10 nm-class FinFET silicon fab technology, coupled with bare-metal and software optimization to step up performance-per-Watt in a big way. The last time AMD achieved an energy efficiency leap was with the Radeon HD 5000 series (helped in part by abysmal energy efficiency of the rivaling GeForce GTX 400 series).

In this episode of TechPowerUp News, we talk a little bit about the big week it's been for AMD - with its massive Radeon Software Crimson Edition announcement, someone taking issue with the way AMD counts its cores, and GlobalFoundries announcing it's ready with its 14 nm node for Zen. Then there's the epic fail of the week - Batman Arkham Knight for PC, with its second misfire.

Although the first Radeon R9 380X graphics cards began appearing in the press way back as mid-September, it's only in mid-November, the 15th to be precise, that AMD plans to formally launch this new performance-segment SKU. Priced at US $249, the R9 380X will be positioned between the $300+ R9 390/GTX 970; and the $200-ish R9 380, capitalizing on a gaping hole in NVIDIA's product stack, between the GTX 960 and the GTX 970.

The R9 380X will be based on the same exact silicon as the R9 380, and the same exact compact package, with pins for 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface; and not the 384-bit interface that the "Tonga" aka "Antigua" silicon physically supports. All 32 Graphics CoreNext compute units (CUs) will be enabled, yielding 2,048 stream processors. The chip will also feature 128 TMUs and 32 ROPs. The core could be clocked as high as 1100 MHz, and memory at 6.00 GHz (GDDR5-effective). 4 GB will be the standard memory amount. There won't be a reference design, and AMD AIB partners will be ready with custom-design products from day-one.

AMD posted what could be its final release of Catalyst, before the company switches drivers over to the new Radeon Software Crimson Edition, with a slick new configuration utility. Dubbed Catalyst 15.11 Beta, these drivers come with optimization for Call of Duty: Black Ops III, besides game-specific bug fixes for Star Wars: Battlefront, and Ashes of the Singularity.DOWNLOAD: AMD Catalyst 15.11 Beta for Windows 10/8.1/7 64-bit | Windows 10/8.1/7 32-bit

GLOBALFOUNDRIES today announced it has demonstrated silicon success on the first AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) products using GLOBALFOUNDRIES' most advanced 14nm FinFET process technology. As a result of this milestone, GLOBALFOUNDRIES' silicon-proven technology is planned to be integrated into multiple AMD products that address the growing need for high-performance, power-efficient compute and graphics technologies across a broad set of applications, from personal computers to data centers to immersive computing devices.

AMD has taped out multiple products using GLOBALFOUNDRIES' 14nm Low Power Plus (14LPP) process technology and is currently conducting validation work on 14LPP production samples. Today's announcement represents another significant milestone towards reaching full production readiness of GLOBALFOUNDRIES' 14LPP process technology, which will reach high-volume production in 2016. The 14LPP platform taps the benefits of three-dimensional, fully-depleted FinFET transistors to enable customers like AMD to deliver more processing power in a smaller footprint for applications that demand the ultimate in performance.