ViewSonic has launched its first 24" 3D-LED monitor, the V3D241wm-LED, giving people the opportunity to watch 3D content in full HD. The monitor has been certified by AMD for use with its Radeon range of graphics cards, ensuring maximum compatibility and ease of use. The monitor includes a set of wired active shutter glasses, allowing users with a compatible computer to get started right out of the box.

Using the included 3D glasses, the V3D241wm-LED can display 3D games and movies without any loss of quality by taking advantage of the monitor's 120Hz frame rate and ultra-fast 2ms response time. The ultra-responsive LED screen has a brightness level of 300 nits and a contrast ratio of 20,000,000:1, providing a high level of detail and colour reproduction.

AMD is undertaking its product development cycle at a breakneck pace, NVIDIA trailed it in the DirectX 11 and performance leadership race by months. This November, AMD will release the "Cayman" GPU, its newest high end GPU, the expectations are that it will outperform the NVIDIA GF100, that is a serious cause for concern, for the green team. It's back to its old tactics of talking about GPUs that haven't even taken shape, to try and water down AMD's launch. Enter, the GF110, NVIDIA's new high-end GPU under design, on which is based the GeForce GTX 580.

The new GPU is speculated to have 512 CUDA cores, 128 TMUs, and a 512-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface holding 2 GB of memory, with a TDP of close to that of the GeForce GTX 480. In the immediate future, there are prospects of a more realistic-sounding GF100b, which is basically GF100 with all its 512 CUDA cores enabled, while retaining its 384-bit GDDR5 memory interface, 64 TMUs, and slightly higher TDP than that of the GTX 480.

AMD today announced revenue for the third quarter of 2010 of $1.62 billion, a net loss of $118 million, or $0.17 per share, and operating income of $128 million. The company reported non-GAAP net income of $108 million, or $0.15 per share, and non-GAAP operating income of $144 million.

"AMD's third quarter performance was highlighted by solid gross margin and a continued focus on profitability, despite weaker than expected consumer demand," said Dirk Meyer, AMD president and CEO. "Our strategy to deliver platforms with superior visual experiences continues to resonate. We look forward to building on this momentum when we begin shipping our first AMD Fusion Accelerated Processor Units later this quarter."

The fine folks at IT168 revealed the first pictures of the Radeon HD 6870 PCB with its cooler completely off, and in its production livery (black). Also let out is the first [clear] picture of the GPU itself. The PCB was first pictured in its nascent qualification sample form, with a development GPU cooler on. The final version of the PCB sticks to its qualification sample for the most part, it has VRM components positioned forwards, trailed by the GPU and its memory. The card makes use of a 4+1+1 phase VRM. All eight memory chips are on the obverse side, each with its own 32-bit wide path, since there's a 256-bit memory interface.

The GPU package is of the same dimensions as the Cypress package, albeit a smaller die. We're getting to hear that Barts is pin-compatible with Cypress (meaning that a Barts GPU can be placed onto a Cypress PCB, given the appropriate BIOS, and it will work), however, no AIB is likely to reuse Cypress PCBs other than for Eyefinity6 designs, because while Barts can make do with a 6-layer PCB, close to every existing Cypress PCB is an 8-layer one, and that Cypress PCBs lack the second mini-DP connector. The die is placed diagonally on the package (à la Cypress and R600), it is rectangular, while the Cypress die is more or less square. ChipHell.com contributor musicinlove did a nice size measurement and comparison. Finally, the AMD "arrow" logo is etched onto the die, it's curtains down for ATI.

AMD's latest graphics processors is just around the corner, and one of the first of them is the Radeon HD 6800 series. The value version of it is the Radeon HD 6850, its most probable specifications have surfaced. To begin with, HD 6850 is based on AMD's new Barts GPU, built on the 40 nm process. The source mentions that the SKU will have 800 stream cores enabled, from earlier reports we're lead to believe that these stream cores are individually more complex than AMD's traditional 5D (4 simple + 1 complex) approach to unified shaders. There is a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface holding 1 GB of memory, the card uses 5 GT/s memory chips, so the memory should be clocked around 1200 MHz (or 4800 MHz effective), if not more. The core is clocked at 775 MHz. Its FOB (freight on board) price is expected to be US $175. Power is drawn from a single 6-pin PCI-E power connector, the draw is expected to be less than 150W. Partners have the option of using a premium blower-type cooler, or a cost-effective heatsink-type cooler. The latter had been pictured a while back, posted below for reference.

AMD is close to unveiling its next-generation "Northern Islands" GPU family, which will be branded under the AMD Radeon HD 6000 series. These include two new performance-thru-extreme GPUs, namely Barts and Cayman. There's also a dual-Cayman implementation codenamed Antilles. While specifications are anyone's guess besides the little details we know about Barts and Cayman, the feature-set of the Northern Island family was communicated to AIB parts in a presentation which was leaked by the Chinese press.

To begin with, the key feature additions in Northern Islands includes a much more evolved display logic that can drive five displays simultaneously over physical outputs that include two dual-link DVI-I, one HDMI 1.4 (full-size), and two mini DisplayPort 1.2 connectors. The logic also provides you to install up to six monitors over the two DisplayPort connectors by daisy-chaining them, making use of the MultiStream feature of DP 1.2, which supports two times the data-rate of DP 1.1, and can provide very high-resolution display, or HD display with stereoscopic 3D (120 Hz). HDMI 1.4 lets you make use of Blu-ray 3D. A new video processing engine, UVD 3.0, provides GPU acceleration for MPEG-2, DivX, MVC (multi video coding), for Blu-ray 3D.

Now that AMD seems to have given the 40 nm Juniper GPU (on which are based the Radeon HD 5700 series models) a new lease of life, manufacturers can continue to get innovative with the Radeon HD 5770 GPU. One such board partner, Yeston, designed a Radeon HD 5770 X2 graphics card, which simply put, is a dual-GPU graphics accelerator that makes use of two Radeon HD 5770 GPUs, each with its own 1 GB of GDDR5 memory, that share the PCI-Express interface using a PLX-made bridge chip (perhaps the same one used on the Radeon HD 5970).

The PCB holds both GPUs on the obverse side, the PCI-Express bridge chip on the reverse side, and memory chips on both sides. A 4+1 phase VRM is used, additional power is drawn in from just one 6-pin PCI-E power connector. Both GPUs work in tandem via an internal CrossFire interface, it can pair with another Juniper-based graphics card for 3-GPU or 4-GPU CrossFireX. The duo are cooled by a large heatsink, air is circulated by two 90 mm fans. AMD reference clock speeds (for the Radeon HD 5770) of 850 MHz core, and 1200 MHz (4800 MHz GDDR5 effective) memory are used. Display connectivity includes two DVI, one HDMI, and a DisplayPort. Knowing Yeston's reach, it's not very likely that this card will be sold in the US more towards the Asian market.

Earlier today, we were treated to the first picture of the Radeon HD 6870, a new and upcoming performance graphics card from AMD. It was also learned that the HD 6870 is based on a new GPU codenamed "Barts", which is intended to be a successor to the previous-generation "Juniper" GPU, which was at the center of the Radeon HD 5700 desktop and Mobility HD 5800 series. That left some uncertainty as to what GPU was going to drive the sub-$199 HD 6700 series. AMD may have found an answer, rebranding.

AMD seems to have been on the crossroads of which naming scheme to adopt. The first scheme based on conventional logic tells users that Barts-based SKUs should sit in the HD 6700 series, and Cayman-based single-GPU SKUs in the HD 6800; while the second scheme promotes Barts to the HD 6800 series, and Cayman to the HD 6900 series, pushing the low-volume, high-end Antilles (dual-Cayman) graphics card to the HD 6990 SKU. Evidently, AMD chose the newer, second scheme. The only rationale that makes sense is that the x800 series seems to be very popular, and if Barts, with its radically redesigned SIMD components can perform on par or better than the HD 5800 series SKUs, that's enough to justify its upwards push.

Here it is, the AMD Radeon HD 6870, all dressed up to go to work. There has been quite some speculation surrounding the naming scheme AMD is going to adopt with the HD 6000 series, but fresh information suggestively lays some of that to rest. Firstly, Radeon HD 6800 series is built around the "Barts" GPU, not "Cayman". Barts is a new performance GPU, though isn't the highest-end single GPU from AMD (which is reserved for Cayman). Barts "XT" is Radeon HD 6870, and Barts "Pro" is HD 6850. Pictured below is the HD 6870. At a purely subjective glance, the HD 6870 reference design card seems to be as long as the HD 5850 reference.

The new Radeon logo has been Photoshopped on to the fan, so the products in market will definitely do away with the older ATI logo. The rear panel resembles that of the Radeon HD 5800 series, except that the exhaust grille seems slightly wider, there are two DVI-I connectors, one standard HDMI, and two mini DisplayPort connectors for a change. The connector output sharing scheme isn't known right now, it could be 3 or 4 head Eyefinity, or all-out 5 head Eyefinity, a yet to be detailed "Eyespeed" feature is mentioned. We will definitely know more about this card in the weeks to come.

Today at the Canalys Channels Forum in Barcelona, AMD is marking the one-year anniversary of the AMD Fusion Partner Program with the introduction of the AMD Fusion Partner Program distributor track. The expanded program will provide distributor partners access to all of the benefits within the AMD Fusion Partner Program to help accelerate sales of AMD-based solutions. AMD is also unveiling the AMD Rewards Program, which creates added sales-based incentives for partners to drive channel sales growth.

"It's amazing to see how far we've come in such a short amount of time," said David Kenyon, corporate vice president, Worldwide Channel Marketing, AMD. "By extending the AMD Fusion Partner Program to all of our valued distribution partners, AMD is proud to now offer them vital information, motivation, support and incentives to help them to be successful in today's marketplace."

Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) introduces AMD 890GX based motherboard - ECS Black Series A890GXM-A2 supports the latest six-core CPU to bring users an impressive visual experience with its tough features. By "One-step Unlocking" function in "ECS M.I.B. III" overclocking interface, users are able to unlock the hidden cores of CPU easily, and it reaches over 238% CPU performance boosted than default setting by unlocking cores with overclocking; moreover, it is also easy to reach 146% gaming performance boosted by overclocking GPU - ATI Radeon HD 4290 graphics processor's core clock and SidePort memory speed; ECS A890GXM-A2 fully supports the latest AMD Turbo Core technology which is essential for power-desired users to get extra performance automatically.

Thermaltake, leading DIY chassis brand, is launching the world's first SideClick EasySwap HDD docking mid-tower with integrated USB 3.0 SuperSpeed connector particularly designed for AMD Leo gaming PCs, the ARMOR A60 AMD Leo Edition. Thermaltake lined up with AMD to design a computer chassis particularly catering to the latest AMD Leo gaming platform. It shows the typical bullet-proof armory contours of this series while the front panel has gotten an even fiercer AMD-red color ornamentation, with the left side panel sporting an AMD Leo tattoo.

The otherwise entirely black design with metal mesh elements lend the ARMOR series an extremely stylish and powerful appearance that attracts gamers and enthusiasts alike. The top and front red LED-fans enhance the overall combat ambience, resembling the typical MMORPG ambience but also providing ideal cooling characteristics for the AMD Leo platform. A special lock mechanism for your mouse and keyboard ensures that you'll always stay in arms.

Toshiba Computer Systems, a division of Toshiba Europe GmbH, today announced the Satellite C660. The new laptop is ideal for users looking for a machine with adequate computing performance to handle their everyday computing needs - e.g. e-mailing, web-browsing, standard office applications and basic multimedia entertainment - in a really affordable package. Toshiba also unveiled the new Satellite Pro C660 that is targeted at professional users. Both, the Satellite C660 and the Satellite Pro C660 will be available early in the fourth quarter of 2010 throughout Europe, Middle East and Africa.

AMD today announced additional infrastructure and channel support for its AMD Opteron 6000 Series platform, the world's first 8- and 12-core x86 processor, addressing the needs of server customers worldwide with its unprecedented price/performance/watt. Since introducing the AMD Opteron 6000 Series platform earlier this year, the continued expansion of channel support and product lineups has helped drive a broad portfolio of highly customized solutions, available for small and medium businesses, enterprises and HPC environments.

Adding to the growing list of AMD Opteron 6100 Series-based channel products deployed in high-performance computing (HPC) environments, a major institution of higher education in Europe recently selected 2U, GPU-optimized Twin servers from AMD channel partner Supermicro for its flagship supercomputer. Furthermore, a nationally ranked research university in the United States recently deployed a 324-node/100 Teraflops system from AMD channel partner Appro to help solve critical research science using AMD Opteron 6100 Series processors.

AMD has reportedly delayed the launch of its much talked about Radeon HD 6000 series graphics processors from its expected date of October 12, to November, 2010. Whatever be the company's motive behind this delay, it creates room for NVIDIA to release new lower-mainstream and entry-level products. Perhaps AMD wants to make sure media-attention isn't split between HD 6000 series launch, and those of NVIDIA's GeForce 400 series spread throughout October.

These include the GeForce GT 430. Apart from new GPUs, NVIDIA is also said to be lowering the prices of some of its key SKUs, including the GeForce GTX 460 768 MB, and previous-generation GeForce GT 220. Meanwhile, it is increasingly looking like the first Radeon HD 6000 series SKUs will be based on the "Barts" die, these SKUs will succeed the Radeon HD 5700 series, and restore competitiveness against key NVIDIA SKUs.

Lenovo today announced the new ThinkPad Edge 11-inch laptop, the smallest and lightest member of the ThinkPad Edge family. Created for small-to-medium businesses (SMB), the laptop packs ultraportable-like performance and features into a small form factor PC at an affordable price.

"Just like large businesses, small business customers want laptops that perform without skimping on features that at the same time, fit their unique style and come at the right price," said Dilip Bhatia, vice president, ThinkPad Marketing, Lenovo. "That's why we've created the ThinkPad Edge 11-inch laptop with the latest processors for multitasking, 3G and WiMax for anywhere connectivity and included extra business-focused features like a standard low light sensitive webcamera."

Acer is aiming to top holiday wish lists with the expansion of its sleek and stylish all-in-one desktop line. Its newest model, the Acer Aspire Z3100 features a 21.5-inch HD display and contemporary aesthetics. Acer has also pumped up the performance on its stylish, state-of-the-art Aspire AZ5700 with an intuitive 23-inch HD multi-touch display.

The new all-in-one desktops flaunt a refined design and the speed needed for efficient multitasking, social networking and high-def entertainment, including the enjoyment of HD movies and immersive audio. Both models are designed for users who appreciate clean aesthetics and want a PC that will eliminate clutter and maximize limited desktop real estate.

Here is the slide we've been waiting for, the specs sheet of AMD's next-generation Radeon HD 6700 series GPUs, based on a new, radically redesigned core, codenamed "Barts". The XT variant denotes Radeon HD 6770, and Pro denotes HD 6750. AMD claims that the HD 6700 series will pack "Twice the Horsepower", over previous generation HD 5700 series. Compared to the "Juniper" die that went into making the Radeon HD 5700 series, Barts features twice the memory bandwidth thanks to its 256-bit wide high-speed memory interface, key components such as the SIMD arrays split into two blocks (like on Cypress), and we're now getting to learn that it uses a more efficient 4-D stream processor design. There are 1280 stream processors available to the HD 6770 (Barts XT), and 1120 stream processors to the HD 6750 (Barts Pro). Both SKUs use the full 256-bit memory bus width.

The most interesting specification here is the shader compute power. Barts XT churns out 2.3 TFLOP/s with 1280 stream processors, GPU clocked at 900 MHz, while the Radeon HD 5870 manages 2.72 TFLOP/s with 1600 stream processors, 850 MHz. So indeed the redesigned SIMD core is working its magic. Z/Stencil performance also shot up more than 100% over the Radeon HD 5700 series. Both the HD 6770 and HD 6750 will be equipped with 5 GT/s memory chips, at least on the reference-design cards, which are technically capable of running at 1250 MHz (5 GHz effective), though are clocked at 1050 MHz (4.20 GHz effective) on HD 6770, and 1000 MHz (4 GHz effective) on HD 6750. Although these design changes will inevitably result in a larger die compared to Juniper, it could still be smaller than Cypress, and hence, more energy-efficient.

Oracle corporation is on a big buying spree after this year's acquisition of Sun Microsystems, a prominent server builder. Oracle wants to strengthen its enterprise IT business with the acquisition of a major chip-maker, right now AMD, IBM (its processor division), and NVIDIA are being named by prominent analysts. "You're going to see us buying chip companies," Ellison, 66, said yesterday at Oracle's annual meeting in San Francisco. Currently its subsidiary, Sun Microsystems has its own processor architecture, the SPARC. Gleacher & Co. analyst Doug Freedman predicts Oracle is chasing AMD, IBM (chip division) and NVIDIA. "You've got to think it's focused on enterprise hardware, on the server," he said. "AMD jumps off the screen."

Documents related to the "Orochi" 8-core processor by AMD based on its next-generation Bulldozer architecture reveal its cache hierarchy that comes as a bit of a surprise. Earlier this month, at a GlobalFoundries hosted conference, AMD displayed the first die-shot of the Orochi die, which legibly showed key features including the four Bulldozer modules which hold two cores each, and large L2 caches. In coarse visual inspection, the L2 cache of each module seems to cover 35% of its area. L3 cache is located along the center of the die. The documents seen by X-bit Labs reveal that each Bulldozer module has its own 2 MB L2 cache shared between two cores, and an L3 cache shared between all four modules (8 cores) of 8 MB.

This takes the total cache count of Orochi all the way up to 16 MB. This hierarchy suggests that AMD wants to give individual cores access to a large amount of faster cache (that's a whopping 2048 KB compared to 512 KB per core on Phenom, and 256 KB per core on Core i7), which facilitates faster inter-core, intra-module communication. Inter-module communication is enhanced by the 8 MB L3 cache. Compared to the current "Istanbul" six-core K10-based die, that's a 77% increase in cache amount for a 33% core count increase, 300% increase in L2 cache per core. Orochi is built on a 32 nm GlobalFoundries process, it is sure to have a very high transistor count.

After AMD's recent mass-release of Athlon II and Phenom II series processors that included the Phenom II X6 1070T Black Edition priced at around $250, AMD is working on a new flagship processor that's even faster than the Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition (the current flagship), given the model number Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition (surprise!), and as always, it's yet another speed-bump. This chip is based on the 45 nm Thuban die, and is clocked a whole 100 MHz faster, at 3.30 GHz, with a Turbo Core frequency of 3.70 GHz. Surprisingly, it retains its TDP rating of 125W. As with every other chip based on this die, it features six cores with 128 KB L1, 512 KB L2 dedicated caches, and 6 MB L3 shared cache, it comes in the AM3 package and is backwards compatible with AM2+, supporting dual-channel DDR3-1333 and DDR2-1066 memory standards.

The 1100T Black Edition isn't the only new Phenom II series member down the line, there's the Phenom II X6 1065T (2.90 GHz, non-BE, 3.40 GHz Turbo); the slower Phenom II X6 1045T (2.50 GHz, non-BE, 3.20 GHz Turbo), and the company's next fastest quad-core chip, the Phenom II X4 975 (3.60 GHz, Deneb). It's not known whether the X4-975 is a Black Edition SKU.

At least two new Fusion APU models based on the "Zacate" silicon are slated for Q1 2011. The Fusion "Zacate" processors are meant for ultra-portables, nettops, and SFF PCs, with a small TDP of 18W, an even lower-power version codenamed "Ontario" is being worked on, with a TDP of 9W. The first two Zacate chips include Fusion E240 single-core, and Fusion E350 dual-core. These chips are based on the Bobcat architecture, and pack DirectX 11 compliant IGPs with UVD 3.0, a single-channel DDR3 memory controller. The platform release will include the supportive Hudson D1 chipset.

iBUYPOWER, a leading innovator in gaming PCs, is excited to announce the new limited edition Dragon Chassis, designed in conjunction with AMD. The uniquely wrapped NZXT Lexa enclosure features the metallic AMD Dragon with its piercing red eyes, wings spread and jaws open poised to strike. The AMD Dragon Special Edition Chassis is designed to add an element of lethality to gamers' lifestyles.

"The AMD Dragon platform delivers the superior performance and stunning visuals gamers demand," said Darren Su, Vice President of iBUYPOWER. "We are proud to have one of our systems branded with an industry leader like AMD and a striking design any gamer would be proud to take into battle."

Introducing a more personal, intuitive and entertaining computing experience for consumers, HP today unveiled the sleekly appealing HP TouchSmart310 PC, which features the most advanced version of the company's exclusive TouchSmart software to date. The company also announced the HP TouchSmart Apps Center for one-touch access to free and subscription-based applications, as well as the HP Omni100, which offers the performance users demand from a tower and monitor in an all-in- one design.

HP also is helping businesses make touch an integral part of the customer experience through relationships with American Airlines, ESPN and the National Football League's San Francisco 49ers. "Each generation of TouchSmart is a reflection of what HP has learned from its customers, complemented by the latest technologies," said James Mouton, senior vice president, Desktop Organization, Personal Systems Group, HP. "The TouchSmart PC's unique interface lets users do more than just basic computing - it acts as the anchor of one's digital lifestyle, encouraging creativity, organization and a truly immersive experience."

When we first saw the ASUS ROG Crosshair IV Extreme back in March, it seemed like just a beefier version of the Crosshair IV Formula with four well spaced out PCI-E x16 expansion slots, a stronger VRM, and a few more ASUS-exclusive goodies thrown in. Later in May, we learned that the Crosshair IV Extreme is different from its smaller, more popular sibling, in featuring the LucidLogix Hydra Engine chip that lets the users pair graphics cards across the lineups and GPU vendors, whichever way they want to upscale performance or add features. After quite some wait which led some of us to fear that ASUS shelved the product as Crosshair IV Formula seems to have been well received, the company surprised us by finally releasing the beast to the market.

The Crosshair IV Extreme that we see today is slightly different from the older iterations in featuring a different heatsink assembly design. It features bulkier, more groovy-looking heatsinks over the north-west cluster that houses the CPU VRM and AMD 890FX IOMMU, while the south-east cluster has a sleeker heatsink that cools the Lucid Hydra chip and the AMD SB850 southbridge. Most other features remain the same: expansion slots that include five PCI-E x16, one PCI; support for dual-channel DDR3-2000 MHz memory; a six-port SATA 6 Gb/s RAID controller, 2 SATA 3 Gb/s ports, two eSATA 3 Gb/s; connectivity that includes gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth, 8-channel SupremeFX X-Fi audio, USB 3.0; and a boat-load of OC-friendly features including ROG Connect, redundant BIOS, on-board voltage-measure, PCI-E gating and OC controls, etc. It is priced around 300 EUR.