Following the launch of the ATI FirePro V8800, the industry's most powerful professional graphics card ever created, AMD today introduced new additions to its next-generation ATI FirePro family -- ATI FirePro V7800, ATI FirePro V5800, ATI FirePro V4800, and ATI FirePro V3800 -- offering professionals in the digital content creation (DCC) and Computer Aided Design (CAD) industries advanced performance and features at every price point. AMD also announced the ATI FirePro 2460 Multi-View, a low profile, quad display graphics solution designed for financial institutions. These latest ATI FirePro solutions are expected to be available from HP, CDW, Newegg, Tiger Direct and other online retailers.

"AMD's new ATI FirePro workstation graphics cards are the world's first workstation class graphics cards to support up to four monitors on a single card -- enabling increased productivity for professional graphics users," said Janet Matsuda, senior director, Professional Graphics, AMD. "Our new ATI FirePro family delivers new value at every price point."

G.Skill International Co. Ltd., manufacturer of extreme performance memory and high performance solid-state storage, has today launched its latest Flare series high-performance DDR3 kits rated at 1800MHz, and optimized for AM3 790 & 890 platform with AMD C3 stepping processors.

G.Skill's Flare series has been specifically designed and tested for AM3 790 and the latest 890 platforms, in combination with AMDs recent C3 stepping CPUs, and has passed a strict testing regime to ensure the best performance and stability. G.Skill Flare provides AMD enthusiasts the perfect choice of high frequency memory that allows a greater attainable CPU bus clock, in order to overclock further and have best performance for productivity and gaming.

Sticking to its announcement, AMD released the ATI Catalyst 10.4a Preview driver suite. In the run up to Catalyst 10.4, the company wanted to quickly resolve an important issue pertaining to Battlefield: Bad Company 2 game load times, which made it release a series of preview drivers, starting with Catalyst 10.4 Preview which resolved the issue for ATI Radeon HD 5000 series GPUs, and now the Catalyst 10.4a Preview, which resolves it for ATI Radeon HD 4000, HD 3000, HD 2000 series GPUs. With this hotfix applied, users will experience reduced map game load times on Bad Company 2. Catalyst 10.4 WHQL will be released later this month.

DOWNLOAD: ATI Catalyst 10.4a Preview

ECS is ready with a low-cost ATX motherboard based on the upcoming AMD 880G chipset, the ECS A880GM-A2. The board uses a PCB nearly identical to that of the ECS IC890GXM-A, except for the skimpier heatsinks. The board features a simple 3+1 phase VRM which can power AM3 processors, including the Phenom II X6, with TDPs of up to 125W. Solid-state capacitors are used only for some important circuits. The 880G chipset embeds an ATI Radeon HD 4250 IGP, with 128 MB of DDR3 SidePort Memory. It supports dual-channel DDR3 memory, with speeds of up to 1600 MHz.

Expansion slots include one PCI-Express 2.0 x16, one PCI-E x16 (electrical x4), two PCI-E x1, and two PCI. The SB850 southbridge gives out six SATA 6 Gb/s ports, of which five are internal, and one eSATA. Connectivity options include 8-channel audio, gigabit Ethernet, eSATA and USB 2.0. Display connectivity includes DVI and D-Sub. It is expected to be released next week, at an affordable price.

With AMD's next generation of graphics processors, the company plans to, at one point, switch its GPU manufacturing from its present Taiwan-based foundry partners such as TSMC and UMC, to GlobalFoundaries, its erstwhile own manufacturing division. From 40 nm, graphics processors are expected to jump to 28 nm as the next manufacturing process standard. GlobalFoundries will be ready with a 28 nm High-K metal gate (HKMG) node for making AMD products which are now bulk-manufactured in Taiwan.

During a quarterly conference call with financial analysts, chief executive officer of AMD, Dirk Meyer said "The first intersection of our AMD GPUs and GlobalFoundries are on the 28nm. We haven't been public with respect to any timing there." GlobalFoundries is said to have two principal kinds of 28 nm nodes, the 28nm-HP (High Performance) node makes complex chips such as GPUs, game console chips, storage controllers, networking and media encoding, while the 28nm-SLP (Super Low Power) is used for less complex devices, particularly intended to be low-power, for portable devices, such as baseband, application processors, and other handheld functions. In 2011, AMD is expected to release its next-generation of GPUs in a series codenamed "Northern Islands".

Acer is expanding its Aspire One line of netbooks with an interesting new addition that features a yet to be announced AMD processor with an incredibly low TDP by AMD's standards. The Aspire One 521 features an AMD V105 "Geneva" single-core processor with a TDP of 9W, which operates at 1.2 GHz, which is expected to be based on the AMD K10 architecture. The 10.1 inch netbook has DDR3 memory, integrated ATI Radeon HD 4225 graphics, and connectivity which includes Bluetooth 3.0, WiFi, and gigabit Ethernet. Its battery can power the machine for 7 hours. More information is expected soon.

AMD's upcoming series of Phenom II X4 900T series that supports AMD Turbo Core technology, and which are based on the "Zosma" die, have been confirmed to be able to unlock both its manufacturer-disabled cores to work as a six-core processor. Zosma is a "cut-down" version of AMD's Thuban six-core die, where two of its cores are disabled. With the remaining four cores, two can function with increased clock-speeds in boost-state as Turbo cores (3/6 could on the X6 chip).

The core unlocking is said to have been done on an AMD 890GX chipset based motherboard, in the same way disabled cores on Phenom II X3 and X2 chips are unlocked. One of the first models based on Zosma are the Phenom II X4 960T and X4 940T, which operate at 3.30 GHz and 3.00 GHz, respectively. Their Turbo Core speeds are up to 500 MHz over clock speeds, depending on the model. The X4 T-series could form AMD's mainstream processor in the sub-$200 range.

AMD (NYSE:AMD) announced revenue for the first quarter of 2010 of $1.57 billion, net income of $257 million, or $0.35 per share, and operating income of $182 million. The company reported non-GAAP net income of $63 million, or $0.09 per share, and non-GAAP operating income of $130 million.

"Strong product offerings and solid operating performance resulted in record first quarter revenue," said Dirk Meyer, AMD President and CEO. "We continue to strengthen our product offerings. We launched our latest generation of server platforms, expanded our family of DirectX 11-compatible graphics offerings, and commenced shipments of our next-generation notebook platforms to customers."

TUL Corporation, a leading manufacturer of AMD graphics cards, announces the ultimate factory overclocked HD5870: PCS++ HD5870. For the first time, PowerColor's PCS++ series equips the HD5870 with additional factory overclocking, presenting performance unlike any other out-of-the-box experience from a HD 5870.

Equipped with a 92mm cooling fan and 4 pure core heat pipes, the PCS cooling system can easily dissipate heat from cooper base at a lower fan speed, efficiently cooling down the temperature by up to 15°C, when compared to reference board designs and in a low-noise setting, under 30dB.

In an overclocking feat by XtremeSystems community members Elmor and Kinc, an ASUS EAH5870 MATRIX Radeon HD 5870 graphics card was able to achieve a mind-boggling core speed of 1525 MHz (core) from its default speed of 894 MHz, and AMD reference speed of 850 MHz. This translates into 70% over default speeds, and 79% over reference speeds. The not-so-relevant memory overclock was 1300 MHz (5.2 GHz effective), an 8.3% overclock. The card was cooled using liquid-nitrogen evaporators.

This wasn't a "hit-and-run" feat, either. The stability of the GPU at 1500 MHz was proven with a run of 3DMark Vantage, where it scored P29342 points at the performance preset. The rest of the bench comprised of an Intel Core i7 980X Extreme Edition six-core processor running at 4492.9 MHz, at 1.52V, also cooled by liquid nitrogen, ASUS Rampage III Extreme motherboard, 6 GB of Corsair Dominator GTX DDR3 memory, and Antec 1200W power supply. The validation for the 3DMark Vantage run where it scored P30542 can be found here.

Here they are, boxes that carry AMD's first desktop six-core processors, the Phenom II X6. This line of "true six core design" processors from AMD target performance/price sweet-spots in the sub-$300 segment, targeting higher-end Intel Core i5, and even Core i7 series processors from Intel. The Phenom II X6 is based on the 45 nm "Thuban" core, and comes in the socket AM3 package. The processor is said to be backwards-compatible with socket AM2+ on motherboards with a BIOS update. Expreview sourced pictures of three Phenom II X6 processor-in-box (PIB) units, of model 1055T.

ASRock is ready with its premium motherboard based on the AMD 870 + SB850 chipset, the ASRock 870 Extreme3. Either the company seems to have jumped the specifications of the 870 by adding external PCI-Express lane switching that gives it proper CrossFire capability, or that the 870 will indeed support 2-way CrossFire with its lone PCI-Express 2.0 x16 link split into two x8 links between the two cards, leaving no room for a "890X" chipset. The 870 Extreme3 supports socket AM3 processors with a 4+1 phase VRM that can take 140W TDP processors. It will support upcoming Phenom II X6 and Phenom II X4 T series processors. It integrates ASRock's proprietary UCC chip that unlocks disabled cores on certain processors.

The board is advertised to support DDR3-1800 MHz memory by overclocking. Expansion slots include two each of PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (electrical x8, when both are populated), PCI-E x1, and PCI. The SB850 southbridge gives out five internal SATA 6 Gb/s ports, with one eSATA. Other connectivity features include 8 channel HD audio, a 2-port USB 3.0 controller, a number of USB 2.0 ports, FireWire, and gigabit Ethernet. Diagnostic LED display and onboard power and reset switches make for the rest of it. The ASRock 870 Extreme3 will retail a little later this month.

BIOSTAR, a professional manufacturer of motherboards today reveals its new AMD 870X chipset motherboards; both models "TA870+" and "TA870" are from the T-Series family representing high quality components and excellent overclocking capability. "TA870+" supports existing and upcoming socket AM3 processors, including Phenom II X6 core processor. "TA870+" is ATX form factor, powered by a 5 phase PWM supporting 140W processors; 100% X.D.C. solid capacitor, with two PCI-Express 2.0 slots and five SATA 6 Gb/s ports; on-board 8 channel audio with Blu-Ray support.

BIOSTAR's AMD 8xx series chipset family motherboards have adopted 3 unique features to differentiate with others; they are "GTO 6³", "BIO-unlocKING" and "BIO-Remote". "GTO 6³", it allows 60%+ overclocking capability on CPU frequency; it also supports true SATA 6 Gb/s for fast data transfer rate; and fully compatible with AMD Phenom II X6 six-core processors.

BIOSTAR MICROTECH INT'L CORP., a professional manufacturer of motherboards today talks about new AMD 880G chipset market position and introduces BIOSTAR 880G based motherboard line up, including two T-Series "TA880G HD", "TA880GB HD" and "A880G HD" motherboards.

At first, we all know that AMD 880G chipset is used to replace 785G. We've known that 890GX will replace 790GX become the most high-end integrated chipset, while mainstream product 785G will be replaced by 880G. This product will become AMDs main force of chipset in this year.

AMD announced today the launch of the first of a new family of ATI FirePro professional graphics solutions with ATI Eyefinity technology, delivering clear performance advances and productivity leadership. The ATI FirePro V8800-the industry's most powerful professional graphics card ever created and the only professional graphics solution in the world supporting ATI Eyefinity multi-display technology and Microsoft DirectX 11 technology-is available for order today from AMD and its technology partners.

"AMD is the undisputed consumer graphics leader and today we're bringing many of the same cutting edge innovations from our ATI Radeon HD 5000 series to the professional graphics market for the first time. The ATI FirePro V8800 with ATI Eyefinity multi-display technology effectively dissolves visual limitations for professionals," said Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager, AMD Products Group. "Our ecosystem has never been stronger as we're actively working with leading ISVs and OEMs on a global scale to offer unprecedented choice and advanced performance for handling today's modern workloads. We're confident the latest family of ATI FirePro professional graphics brings new value to the workstation graphics market."

ASUS is readying one of its first motherboards based on the AMD 880G chipset, the M4A88TD-V EVO / USB3. This model comes in two variants, with or without USB 3.0 support, designated with the -USB3 suffix in the model name. It is a socket AM3 motherboard, supporting the upcoming line of Phenom II X6 and Phenom II X4 T series processors. The CPU socket is powered by a 10-phase VRM, it is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots for dual-channel memory. Even as ATI CrossFire is not part of the 880G's feature-set since it won't support an external PCI-Express lane switch like the 890GX, ASUS found a way around and provided a second PCI-Express x16 slot, only that this one is electrical PCI-Express 1.1 x4, wired to the SB800 southbridge chip.

The 880G embeds an ATI Radeon HD 4250 IGP with 128 MB of DDR3 sideport memory. It connects to its display with DVI, D-Sub, and HDMI. The board supports ASUS' Core Unlocker feature that attempts to unlock disabled cores on some processors. Other expansion slots include one PCI-E x1, and three PCI. The southbridge gives out six SATA 6 Gb/s ports, five of which are internal, and one eSATA. An additional VIA-made controller drives an IDE connector. Other connectivity options include a number of USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports on the USB3 variant, 8-channel HD audio, FireWire, and gigabit Ethernet. The new boards will be released in a few weeks' time, probably targeting the sub-$150 price points.

Noctua today announced the availability of the new NM-A90 Upgrade-Kit for NH-U12P SE2 and NH-U9B SE2 users. The upgrade makes it possible to install the heatsink turned by 90° on AMD motherboards. NH-U12P SE2 and NH-U9B SE2 users can order the NM-A90 kit free of charge on Noctua's website.

"We've received excellent customer feedback on our new SE2 coolers", says Mag. Roland Mossig, Noctua CEO, "but some AMD users expressed the wish to have the possibility to change the alignment of the coolers on AMD motherboards. We've always been convinced that premium quality products and premium quality service should go hand in hand, so we're responding to this demand by offering the new NM-A90 kit as a free upgrade."

SAPPHIRE Technology has just announced an exciting new version of the highly acclaimed HD 5870 PC graphics accelerator featuring six outputs allowing six monitors to be used simultaneously - and supporting a variety of SLS configurations with ATI Eyefinity. The new SAPPHIRE HD 5870 Eyefinity6 edition is a 3D graphics accelerator with a single GPU and six mini Displayport outputs on the bracket. Any or all of these outputs can be connected to Displayport compatible monitors to give a choice of Eyefinity configurations to maximise gaming experience, enlarge work area for increased productivity or configure display areas for information or multimedia systems. The Eyefinity6 Edition is the first and only card in its class to support six monitors from a single graphics processor and delivers a stunning visual experience.

All of the SAPPHIRE HD 5870 series cards are based on the latest graphics architecture from the ATI division of AMD, the second generation of GPU to be built in its 40nm process. The first two Displayport outputs on the HD 5870 Eyefinity6 Edition can also be used with passive Displayport to DVI or Displayport to HDMI adapters (supplied) to connect alternative displays, including full support for audio over HDMI. The additional four ports can be connected to other displays using active adapters as an alternative to being connected directly to Displayport monitors.

TUL Corporation, a leading manufacturer of AMD graphics cards, today announces the first graphics solution which can support up to 6 monitors: the HD5870 Eyefinity 6. The HD5870 Eyefinity 6 features multi-display Eyefinity technology, enables up to six monitors to be operated from one card through its six mini displayport onboard design. This unique feature allows gamers to expand real estate and delivers incredible HD gaming.

The HD5870 Eyefinity 6 has an unparalleled 1600 stream processors and equipped with 2GB onboard memory, clocks in at 850MHz core speed and 1200MHz of memory speed, easily boosting PC's with nearly 3 teraFLOPs of computing power. It delivers the intense gaming performance and unrivaled image quality with lifelike 3D visual effects.

Harnessing the world's most powerful graphics processor, AMD today introduced the ATI Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 Edition graphics card. Equipped with 2GB of GDDR5 memory, the ATI Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 is the first graphics card capable of rendering in excess of 1 billion pixels per second in today's titles, unleashing PC game environments of unprecedented size and resolution. Enthusiast gamers now have access to a seamless, stunning perspective across six displays, enabling up to 12 times more resolution than 1080p HD.

"The ATI Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 Edition graphics card opens the door to a new era in personal computing," said Matt Skynner, vice president and general manager, AMD Graphics Division. "With the ATI Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 Edition, PC users get the ultimate panoramic computing experience in one powerful card. By bridging the innovation in ATI Eyefinity technology with broad ecosystem support, AMD is revolutionizing the PC visual experience."

Gigabyte is looking to share some of its latest innovations in motherboard design with its AMD platform lineup, with a new enthusiast-grade motherboard in the works that rivals up with some of the company's highest-end products from its Intel platform lineup. The GA-890FXA-UD7 is the newest in the league. The model stays above the recently revealed GA-890FXA-UD5. It is a socket AM3 motherboard geared up for AMD's newest six-core processors, based on AMD 890FX + SB850 chipset. It has six PCI-Express slots (electrical: x16/x8, x4, x8, x4, x16/x8, x8), and supports 4-way ATI CrossFireX. The CPU is powered by a 10-phase VRM, with 2-phase memory VRM.

For the first time on the AMD platform, Gigabyte uses its Hybrid Silent-Pipe cooler. The cooler connects the CPU VRM, 890FX northbridge, and SB850 southbridge using a heatpipe, and the heatsink over the northbridge has provision for a water-block (included), or a large and complex aluminum heatsink that fits into the top expansion slot. The SB850 natively supports six SATA 6 Gb/s ports complete with RAID 0,1,5,10 support. An additional GSATA2 controller gives out two SATA 3 Gb/s ports and the IDE connector. Connectivity includes 8+2 channel HD audio with optical and coaxial SPDIF connectors, two gigabit Ethernet controllers, two USB 3.0 ports, a number of USB 2.0 ports, and FireWire. It is expected to be out in a month.

XFX is getting cozier with AMD by the day, which is an eyesore for NVIDIA. Amidst the launch of GeForce GTX 400 series, XFX did what could have been unimaginable a few months ago: abandon NVIDIA's high-end GPU launch. That's right, XFX has decided against making and selling GeForce GTX 480 and GeForce GTX 470 graphics cards, saying that it favours high-end GPUs from AMD, instead. This comes even as XFX seemed to have been ready with its own product art. Apart from making new non-reference design SKUs for pretty-much every Radeon HD 5000 series GPU, the company is working on even more premium graphics cards targeted at NVIDIA's high-end GPUs.

The rift between XFX and NVIDIA became quite apparent when XFX outright bashed NVIDIA's high-end lineup in a recent press communication about a new high-end Radeon-based graphics card it's designing. "XFX have always developed the most powerful, versatile Gaming weapons in the world - and have just stepped up to the gaming plate and launched something spectacular that may well literally blow the current NVIDIA offerings clean away," adding "GTX480 and GTX470 are upon us, but perhaps the time has come to Ferm up who really has the big Guns." The move may come to the disappointment of some potential buyers of GTX 400 series, as XFX's popular Double Lifetime Warranty scheme would be missed. XFX however, maintains that it may choose to work on lower-end Fermi-derivatives.

AMD announces availability of a new server platform featuring the world's first 8- and 12-core x86 processor for the high-volume 2P and value 4P server market. The AMD Opteron 6000 Series platform addresses the unmistakable needs of server customers today - workload-specific performance, power efficiency, and overall value - while delivering more cores and more memory for less money. Leading OEMs including HP, Dell, Acer Group, Cray, and SGI are introducing new systems based on this highly scalable and reliable platform.

"As AMD has done before, we are again redefining the server market based on current customer requirements," said Patrick Patla, vice president and general manager, Server and Embedded Divisions, AMD. "The AMD Opteron 6000 Series platform signals a new era of server value, significantly disrupts today's server economics and provides the performance-per-watt, value and consistency customers demand for their real-world data center workloads."

ASUS today announced a full range of motherboards that are ready to support the upcoming six-core AMD Phenom II X6 processors to herald a new era in ultra-powerful personal computing. The AMD six-core processor-ready ASUS M4 Series motherboards deliver maximum performance on a mainstream platform. Joe Hsieh, General Manager of ASUS Motherboard Business, said, "Besides being ready to support six-core processors, the ASUS M4 Series gives users of every level the best performance and value with its Core Unlocker feature. This has received notable recognition from many of the world's top media organizations for delivering a phenomenal boost in performance." M4 Series motherboards with the exclusive Core Unlocker technology have also garnered global media accolades for being the best motherboard for AMD processors.

ASUS' M4 Series motherboard is ready for the AMD Phenom II X6 processors. To enable six-core CPU and achieve maximum performance, users simply need to update the BIOS of their existing M4 Series.

Shortly after the Khronos group announced the OpenGL 4.0, the newest version of the multi-platform graphics API, AMD is out with a preview graphics driver for its ATI Radeon, FireGL, FirePro, and Mobility Radeon graphics accelerators, which includes the OpenGL 4.0 ICD (installable client driver). The driver is available for Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Linux. OpenGL 4.0 is comparable and up to times with Microsoft's DirectX 11 API, it makes use of hardware features such as tessellation on the GPU, per-sample fragment shaders and programmable fragment shader input positions, 64-bit double precision floating point shader operations, etc., and has no restrictions on which later version of Windows it can run on. With OpenGL 4.0 for example, one can expect 3D graphics with the complexity comparable to DirectX 11 on Windows XP.

DOWNLOAD: ATI Catalyst OpenGL 4.0 Preview Driver for Windows 7/Vista, Windows XP, and Linux.