TUL Corporation, a leading manufacturer of AMD graphics cards, today announced improved gaming performance for HTPC gamers. The PowerColor HD5750 Low Profile Edition is specifically designed for those with HTPC systems or limited space chassis' who desire the upgraded graphics performance without having to compromise their system size.

The PowerColor HD5750 Low Profile Edition is equipped with a dual fan design and heatsinks that fully cover GPU, memory and MOSFET. The design cools temperatures and dissipates heat for vital components within a limited space. Furthermore, by taking advantage of the low profile design, this unique solution can be used for small form factor and slim systems, maximizing the rig's performance in a limited space.

Come this Winter, and things will heat up once again in the graphics card industry, with GPU vendors battling it out for the crucial Holidays shopping season. While AMD did not introduce any new GPUs after completing its ATI Radeon HD 5000 series launch itinerary, it did manage to grab significant amount of sales from its graphics rival NVIDIA. For this Winter, AMD and its partners will be in a position to launch the ATI Radeon HD 6000 series graphics processors, according to DigiTimes, citing sources from graphics card vendors.

It is also said that the Radeon HD 6000 series, codenamed "Southern Islands" (members of which are codenamed after islands in the Mediterranean Sea), will be built on TSMC's 40 nm manufacturing process. AMD had originally planned to build Southern Islands on TSMC's 32 nm process, but with the foundry skipping 32 nm bulk for 28 nm which will start operations only by the end of the year, AMD redrew its plans and stuck to the now-mature (stable) 40 nm process. Perhaps AMD learned a thing or two from a wide range of teething problems that plagued the 40 nm production line.

AMD today announced the availability of the ATI Stream Software Development Kit (SDK) v2.2 with full OpenCL 1.1 support to provide developers with the tools they need to build incredible next-generation applications. By taking advantage of both CPU and GPU processing power in a given system, applications like 3D video, HD video chat and multi-display 3D gaming are possible.

A development platform created by AMD, the ATI Stream SDK v2.2 brings a wide range of tools to the developer community including support for OpenCL 1.1, in addition to Ubuntu 10.04 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5. This updated development platform empowers the developer community to accelerate applications on the CPU and GPU quickly and efficiently. The new version is available for download here.

SAPPHIRE Technology introduces the SAPPHIRE HD 5770 FleX, the latest graphics card in the highly successful SAPPHIRE HD 5000 series. This is the first graphics solution to support three screens in ATI Eyefinity mode, out of the box, without the need for DisplayPort monitors or active adapters. The SAPPHIRE HD 5770 FleX can also support four monitors in ATI Eyefinity mode with a single card.

The SAPPHIRE HD 5770 FleX is a SAPPHIRE original design based on the latest 40nm graphics architecture from the ATI division of AMD. It supports the advanced graphical features of DirectX 11, and delivers spectacular video clarity, speed and visual effects.

AMD has expanded its Phenom II X6 market lineup with the Phenom II X6 1075T Black Edition model (model number: HDT75ZFBGRBOX), which has started hitting stores in Europe for as low as 227.35 EUR. Although the 1075T model has stayed in leaks and BIOS support lists ever since the series first surfaced, it is only now that we get to know that it's a Black Edition part. The chip carries a clock speed of 3.00 GHz, and with its unlocked BClk multiplier, helps with overclocking the chip. AMD already has a higher-priced, higher-clocked model, the 3.20 GHz Phenom II X6 1090T, and there's no indication that 1090T will be displaced from its current price point of ~250 EUR.

Based on the 45 nm "Thuban" die, the Phenom II X6 1075T features six cores, with a nominal speed of 3.00 GHz, that can increase by up to 400 MHz with load thanks to the TurboCore feature, the cores have dedicated L2 caches of 512 KB, and share an L3 cache of 6 MB. The chip comes in the AM3 package, and is backwards compatible with AM2+ socket, it supports both DDR3-1333 MHz and DDR2-1066 memory types, with room for higher frequencies. It has a TDP rated at 125W.

AMD announced that Apple has selected the world renowned ATI Radeon graphics solutions for the new line of Apple iMac and Mac Pro tower. Now featured in Apple Stores as well as online retail, ATI Radeon graphics offer outstanding power and performance as the standard configuration for the new iMac and Mac Pro tower which will hit store shelves soon.

"Apple buyers demand the best, and AMD's award-winning ATI Radeon graphics enable exceptional visual experiences for iMac users," said Matt Skynner, corporate vice- president and general manager, GPU division, AMD. "AMD has conducted extensive testing and research to create superior graphics products for the iMac. This research is designed to dramatically enhance the Mac-user experience so that Apple users can enjoy responsive performance and play the newest games."

The 14" CR410, the newest addition to MSI's new Classic series of notebook computers, is designed and crafted with MSI's craftsmanship. It features AMD's latest Vision (Danube) platform with AMD Athlon II Dual-Core processor and DDR3 system memory with ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4270 for a smooth multimedia experience.

MSI Marketing Director Sam Chern points out that the CR410 boasts MSI's exclusive 45-degree beveled construction, power-saving, cinema-class 16:9 ratio LED display, as well as MSI's own ECO Engine power saving technology. The sophisticated exterior, superior multimedia performance, and extended battery power life make it the best choice for affordable mobile entertainment.

There seems to be a single-slot ATI Radeon HD 5700 series trend going on, with XFX designing two single-slot ATI Radeon HD 5770 graphics cards, a base model (HD-577X-ZMF3), and an Eyefinity-5 model (HD-577X-Z5F3). Both cards use PCB and cooler designed by XFX. The cooler particularly looks familiar in design to the countless single-slot GeForce graphics cards designed by the company, one of the recent ones being a GeForce 9800 GT. The cooler makes generous use of copper.

Both cards stick to the reference AMD clock speeds, 850 MHz core and 1200 MHz (4800 MHz effective) memory, and feature 1 GB of GDDR5 memory across a 128-bit wide memory interface. Power is taken in from a single 6-pin PCI-E input. While the base model has display outputs which includes two DVI and one mini-DisplayPort, the Eyefinity-5 model features five mini-DisplayPort connectors. The cards will be released around the middle of this month, and Japan prices (which tend to be higher than US/EU prices) indicate 17,500 JPY (US $202) for the base model, and 18,000 JPY ($208).

Barely a week after releasing the Catalyst 10.7 WHQL software suite, AMD rolled out the Catalyst 10.7a BETA. This new version packs all the features and fixes of Catalyst 10.7, with the added feature of letting users enable forced anti-aliasing for Starcraft II Wings of Liberty from Catalyst Control Center to improve image quality. The fix affects all ATI Radeon graphics processors from Radeon HD 2000 series to HD 5000 series, supporting all Windows client versions from Windows XP. The other added feature is improved 4-way CrossFireX performance in ATI Eyefinity setups.

DOWNLOAD: ATI Catalyst 10.7a BETA

AMD has finally surpassed NVIDIA in terms of shipments of discrete graphics (graphics cards), according to market research firm Mercury Research, in a report released on Wednesday. AMD's discrete graphics products held 51% of the discrete graphics market, with NVIDIA slipping down to 49%, in terms of discrete graphics products shipments in Q2 2010. For the same quarter last year, the two were poised at 41% for AMD and 59% for NVIDIA, indicating a significant growth, fruition of AMD's DirectX 11 push of deploying a new-generation lineup that spans all price-points in a span of four months.

For the overall GPU industry, with integrated graphics included, the picture for Q2 2010 looks like Intel holding 54.3%, AMD holding 24.5%, and NVIDIA with 19.8%. Last year, in Q2 2009, NVIDIA held 29.6% versus AMD's 18.2%. NVIDIA's deployment of a DirectX 11 compliant GPU lineup has been rather slow, with only two GPUs and four SKUs deployed so far, starting at $199. NVIDIA does not have the fastest graphics card. On Wednesday, the Santa Clara based company warned that its revenue would fall short of earlier projections (set at the time of Fermi's launch). This announcement came after Apple announced a series-wide transition of graphics chips inside its Macbooks, iMac, and Mac Pro computers to AMD's ATI Radeon from NVIDIA GeForce.

Although USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gb/s served as features central to new motherboard models by manufacturers for an entire year, their adoption by chipset vendors has been rather slow. While AMD has integrated SATA 6 Gb/s into its SB850 southbridge, which features a 6-port SATA 6 Gb/s RAID controller, neither Intel nor AMD have USB 3.0 integrated, with no real indication Intel doing so in the foreseeable future. Sources in the motherboard industry, however, reveal that AMD is designing a new southbridge that integrates a USB 3.0 controller, just like present chipsets have USB 2.0.

AMD's move follows a recent announcement of collaboration with Renesas, the company behind the popular NEC uPD720200 controller, to promote USB 3.0 as an industry standard, and a new universal UASP driver model for USB 3.0 controllers. The new southbridge is codenamed "Hudson D1", which will release along with AMD's 40 nm Ontario Fusion APUs in Q4-2010. The company also plans to release the Llano Fusion APU in 2011.

Dell released a netbook based on the AMD-platform this time around, the Inspiron M101z. This one sports a 11.6 inch screen with 1366 x 768 pixel display, driven by ATI Radeon integrated graphics, and comes with bezel colors that include Clear Black, Peacock Blue, Tomato Red and Lotus Pink. Under the hood is an AMD Athlon II Neo processor, 4 GB of memory, up to 320 GB of storage, and connectivity features that include 10/100 Ethernet, and optional Bluetooth 3.0, 3-in-1 card reader, 1.3 MP webcam, and a 6-cell battery. It comes with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit pre-installed, and sells for £379 in the UK.

The Khronos Group today announced the immediate release of the OpenGL 4.1 specification, bringing the very latest graphics functionality to the most advanced and widely adopted cross-platform 2D and 3D graphics API (application programming interface). OpenGL 4.1 is the sixth update to OpenGL specification in two years, continuing the rapid evolution of this royalty-free specification. This new version continues to maintain full backwards compatibility to enable developers to begin using new features whenever they choose, while portably accessing state-of-the-art GPU functionality across diverse operating systems and platforms.

The OpenGL 4.1 specification has been defined by the OpenGL ARB (Architecture Review Board) working group at Khronos, and includes the GLSL 4.10 update to the OpenGL Shading language and is accompanied by a number of extensions introducing cutting-edge functionality to the OpenGL standard. The full specification is available for immediate download here.

JEDEC Solid State Technology Association, the global leader in standards development for the microelectronics industry, today announced the publication of JEDEC DDR3L, a widely anticipated addendum to its JESD79-3 DDR3 Memory Device Standard. Continuing the evolution of DDR3 as the dominant DRAM standard today, DDR3L will enable a significant reduction in power consumption for a broad range of products that utilize memory; including laptops, desktops, servers, networking systems and a wide array of consumer electronics products. The updated version of JESD79-3, including the DDR3L addendum, is available for free download here.

Called DDR3L for DDR3 Low Voltage, devices adhering to the new standard will operate from a single 1.35V power supply voltage compared to 1.5V in existing devices. Under the new standard, DDR3L memory devices will be functionally compatible to DDR3 memory devices, but not all devices will be interoperable at both voltage ranges.

AMD rolled out its latest ATI Catalyst Software Suite today, as expected. The latest release is Catalyst 10.7 WHQL. The Catalyst Software Suite provides drivers for ATI Radeon graphics processors, AMD 7-series chipsets, and ATI multimedia products. Version 10.7 WHQL ironed out an important issue with VLC Media Player, which enabled DXVA2 hardware h.264 video acceleration (with VLC 1.1.1 or later installed), which results in smooth video playback and reduced system resource usage. Important enhancements to the HydraVision technology were also added, such as taking into account bezel compensation when maximizing windows across displays. The new pull-down detection algorithm improves visual quality of certain types of videos. And finally, ATI CrossFireX now supports rotated displays, which was particularly longed for by users of ATI Eyefinity setups that make use of rotated physical displays. A list of performance improvements are also included, pertaining to Borderlands in single and multi GPU modes, with and without AA.

DOWNLOAD: ATI Catalyst 10.7 WHQL for Windows 7/Vista 64-bit, Windows 7/Vista 32-bit, Windows XP 32-bit, Windows XP 64-bit

A list of changes follows.

TUL Corporation, a leading manufacturer of AMD graphics cards, introduced an innovative cooling technology into the PCS+ HD5770 series: the PCS+ HD5770 Vortex Edition. This special edition offers the flexibility for users to manually adjust the fan and its physical attributes, providing better air flow to effectively cool down the temperature up to 15°C when compare to reference design.

The PCS+ HD5770 Vortex Edition also features factory overclocking with core and memory
clocks at 900 MHz and 1225 MHz respectively. With the cooling ability seen in the Vortex
Edition, it allows more headroom for overclocking that maximizes performance releasing
more potential for gaming power.

Call it one of the immediate repercussions of NVIDIA's Monday launch of the GeForce GTX 460, AMD has responded covertly with noticeable price-cuts for the ATI Radeon HD 5830 graphics card, from across various AIB partners. Leading partners such as Sapphire, HIS, and Gigabyte positioned their models that have AMD-reference clock speeds at US $199.99, and factory-overclocked models starting at $229.99. Incidentally these are two price-points NVIDIA is targeting with the GeForce GTX 460, with the 768 MB variant positioned at $199.99, which NVIDIA refers to as the gamers' sweet-spot, and the 1 GB variant at $229.99.

Reviews from across the web show that while GeForce GTX 460 768MB gets close to the Radeon HD 5830 in terms of performance, it only takes the 1 GB variant to perform on par. With AMD positioning the HD 5830 at $199, and factory-overclocked HD 5830 starting at $229.99, things could get heated up in this market segment. Based on the 40 nm Cypress GPU, the Radeon HD 5830 is DirectX 11 compatible, packs 1120 stream processors, and 1 GB of GDDR5 memory.

MSI, a well-known personal computer system and components designer and manufacturer, today released its new AMD Opteron 4000 Series processor-based server motherboards: MS-91F7 and MS-96D7.

MSI lines up with AMD's strategy and has developed 2P and 1P AMD Opteron 4000 Series platform (formerly code-named: "San Marino") server board in CEB and ATX form factors respectively, and plans to bring the server motherboards to market soon. MSI's 2P volume AMD Opteron-based server board, MS-91F7, can be configured with 3 options: desired PCIe lanes between SR5650 and SR5670, MUX selector of one x16 PCIe Gen2 slot or two x8 PCIe Gen2 slots, and dual layout of Aspeed BMC controller of AST1100 or AST2050.

At the GigaOm Structure Cloud Computing and Internet Infrastructure conference, AMD today announced availability of the new AMD Opteron 4000 Series platform. This is the first server platform designed from the beginning to meet the specific requirements of cloud, hyperscale data center, and SMB customers needing highly flexible, reliable, and power-efficient 1 and 2P systems. This platform is also available for high-end embedded systems such as telecom servers, storage, and digital signage, through AMD Embedded Solutions. Systems from Acer Group, Dell, HP, SGI, Supermicro, ZT Systems, and numerous other channel partners are expected beginning today and in the coming months.

The 14" CX410, the newest addition to MSI's new Classic series of notebook computers, is designed and crafted with MSI's craftsmanship. It features AMD's latest Vision (Danube) platform with AMD Athlon II Dual-Core processor and DDR3 system memory with ATI Mobility Radeon HD 545v (512MB GDDR3 display memory) for a smooth multimedia experience.

MSI Marketing Director Sam Chern points out that the CX410 boasts MSI's exclusive 45-degree beveled construction, power-saving, cinema-class 16:9 ratio LED display, as well as MSI's own ECO Engine power saving technology. The sophisticated exterior, superior multimedia performance, and extended battery power life make it the best choice for affordable mobile entertainment.

Fujitsu Japan developed an AMD-powered variant of its LifeBook PH520, marked with /1A in the model name. The 11.6-inch notebook features an LED-backlit display with 1366x768 pixels resolution, weighing 1.4 kg, and powered with 6.2 hours of juice on a full charge. Under the hood is where all the changes lie, with an AMD Athlon II Neo K125 1.70 GHz dual-core processor, and ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4225 graphics. The system is aided by 2 GB of DDR3 memory, 320 GB storage, and includes connectivity and utilities that include 1.3 MP webcam, 801.11 b/g/n wireless network, Bluetooth, and gigabit Ethernet. Windows 7 Home Premium comes pre-installed. The LifeBook PH520/1A will be priced at US $870 in Japan.

ASUS' Eee PC series of netbooks is finally going to get an AMD-based model, the 1015T. This 10.1 inch netbook has a 1024 x 600 pixel screen, and is driven by an AMD V105 single-core processor based on the K8 architecture. The V105 is a 45 nm based processor with 1.20 GHz clock speed, HyperTransport 2 GT/s system interface, 128 KB of L1 and 512 KB of L2 cache, and a TDP of 9W. The processor is accompanied by RS880 chipset, with integrated ATI Radeon HD 4200 graphics. The 1015T packs 512 MB of memory, 250 or 320 GB HDD with 500 GB of web-based storage, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0 (optional), and a battery with up to 6 hours of operation on a full-charge. There is no word on its pricing.

AMD demonstrated its first Fusion APU (accelerated processing unit), which is a "fusion" between a processor and a graphics processor. The first such processor in the works is based on the 32 nm silicon fabrication technology, codenamed Llano, and fuses a quad-core processor with a DirectX 11 compliant GPU. AMD's Rick Bergman showed off a wafer of the Llano APUs, but it didn't stop there. Rick surprised the press when he went on to claim that the APU can power Aliens vs. Predator in DirectX 11 mode, with a reasonable level of detail, which was demonstrated. Find a video of the same at the source.

While AMD has no new GPU product launches slated for this year's Computex event, its partners are letting their imagination go places. PowerColor is doing just that, with as many as five new products and technologies. To begin with, the company is working on the PowerColor HD 5770 Sniper Edition. This graphics card packs a Bigfoot Killer NIC on-board, so graphics and network processing is packaged into a single addon card. From what we can tell, the card is designed using a PCI-Express bridge which is connected to the PCI-Express x16 interface, which gives the Radeon HD 5770 GPU an x16 link and the Killer SoC an x1 link. The Killer network processor has its own dedicated memory and ROM, with which the SoC can offload network processing from Windows, in a bid to reduce latencies, even if improving performance is inconsequential with today's systems with powerful processors.

Next up, is the PowerColor HD 5770 Evolution. Again, another novelty graphics card based on the Radeon HD 5770. This one packs a Lucid Hydra Engine chip on-board, which allows it work in tandem with any other graphics card, ATI or NVIDIA, with 2-way or 3-way multi-GPU support. Third card is probably what will interest a lot more buyers, PowerColor HD 5770 Single Slot Edition. As the name suggests, the card will occupy only one expansion slot. The next card is an even more practical product in the making, a series of low-profile Radeon HD 5770 and HD 5750 cards. Lastly, PowerColor will demonstrate what it calls the Vortex Cooling technology, a unique video card cooler which allows users to adjust the fan's height from the heatsink, and vector its air-flow. Not wanting to reveal too much, PowerColor left us with tiny images, some of which are outlines of the actual images.

AMD today announced the appointment of Manju Hegde as corporate vice president, Fusion Experience Program. A renowned parallel and visual computing innovator, Hegde previously served as vice president of CUDA Technical Marketing at NVIDIA before joining AMD to lead the AMD Fusion Experience Program, an initiative focused on identifying innovative computing solutions and applications poised to take full advantage of the forthcoming AMD Fusion family of Accelerated Processing Units (APU). Hegde reports to Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager, AMD Products Group.

"We are thrilled to be able to attract an experienced industry leader like Manju Hegde to the AMD team, a sign of the quality of talent we are able to attract to AMD on the strength of our Fusion roadmap," said Bergman. "Manju brings prized expertise in developing the ecosystem for enabling breakthrough and heightened experiences on new architectures to AMD. As Manju and his team work with the ecosystem to usher in a new era of visual computing, we expect a wide range of industry leaders to embrace the future of accelerated computing through the combination of the GPU and CPU -- a combination only AMD can deliver with its AMD Fusion technology."