MSI is ready with yet another motherboard for the AMD platform. This time, the company used NVIDIA's creme de la creme nForce 980a SLI chipset in its first socket AM3 implementation. The MSI NF980-G65 brings 3-way SLI to the socket AM3 crowd. The release trails ASUS by months, which introduced a AM2+ (DDR2) motherboard based on the chipset. While the actual picture is too small and blurry, the layout drawing is legible.

The NF980-G65 supports the entire range of socket AM3 processors, including future chips with 140W TDP. DDR3-2133 MHz memory is supported by overclocking. The layout uses 7 expansion slots, including three PCI-E 2.0 x16 slots (that arrange as x16, x16, NC, or x16, x8, x8) depending on the population of PCI-E x16 graphics cards. Between these are two PCI-E x1, and two PCI slots. nForce 980a SLI packs a GeForce 8300 class IGP, which supports GeForce Boost with supported low-end discrete graphics cards. Its display output is handled by DVI-D, D-Sub, and HDMI connectors on board. All the chipset's six SATA II ports are provided internally. Audio is care of a high-grade Realtek ALC889 CODEC, gigabit Ethernet, and FireWire make for the rest of the connectivity. Pricing and availability are not known at this point, though we expect this one to sell for under US $200.

Sapphire announced its first Radeon HD 4000 series accelerator designed for the legacy AGP-8X interface. Available in 512 MB and 1 GB variants, the Sapphire HD 4650 AGP uses the RV730 GPU clocked at 600 MHz, with the 128-bit DDR2 memory at 800 MHz. It uses a single-slot design, with a simple fan-heatsink for the GPU. A peculiar part about the PCB design is its 6-pin PCI-E power input. Hopefully a Molex cable tides over this. Outputs are care of two DVI-D and a composite connector. The cards have started being listed on online stores, priced at 72 Euro. This card isn't the first of its kind, with PowerColor having recently announced a similar accelerator.

TUL Corporation, a leading manufacturer of AMD graphics cards, announces an upgrade to the HD4770 series, the custom cooled PCS HD4770. Manufactured with a cutting-edge 40nm process and using the latest GDDR5 memory, the PowerColor PCS HD4770 represents an industry milestone in the advancement of gaming performance.

The PowerColor PCS HD4770 clocks in with a 750MHz core speed and 800MHz of memory speed. Added to the HD4770 is our Professional Cooling Solution (PCS) made by ARCTIC COOLING. The specially designed 92mm cooling fan dissipates the heat from the GPU and memory more efficiently than a standard fan, providing a cool operating environment.

MSI expanded its portfolio of motherboards based on AMD's new 785G chipset by adding two socket AM2+ models that support DDR2 memory standard. The company had recently announced three socket AM3 motherboards based on the chipset to launch the lineup. Among the two new products are the 785GT-E63 ATX and 785GTM-E45 micro-ATX. Both motherboards support the complete range of AM2, AM2+ and AM3 socket processors, with DDR2 memory running at up to 1066 MHz speeds depending on the processor.

The 785GT-E63 powers its processor with a 4+1 phase VRM. Four DDR2 DIMM slots are provided. Out of the five expansion slots available on this ATX motherboard, there's one each of PCI-Express 2.0 x16, PCI-Express x1, and three PCI slots. The 785G northbridge packs an ATI Radeon HD 4200 class IGP. In both motherboards, SidePort memory is absent. The IGP connects to its displays using DVI-D, D-Sub, and HDMI. The 8-channel audio CODEC also provides optical SPDIF output. One of the six SATA II ports the southbridge provides is assigned as eSATA. The 785GTM-E45 has a skimpier layout, with just two DDR2 DIMM slots to go with it. No eSATA here, with all ports internal. The 785GTM-E45 is priced at 69 Euro, with the 785GTM-E45 at a mere 6 Euro less, at 63 Euro.

ATI partner HIS, popular for the IceQ series graphics cards, seems to have something up its sleeves for the Radeon HD 4890, although it's not an IceQ product. The HIS Radeon HD 4890 iCooler X4 is touted to be the company's non-reference offering that boasts of superior cooling performance. The cooler consists of a central fan that pushes air onto aluminum fin heatsinks on either sides. From what we can see, two 8 mm heatpipes convey heat to these. The card holds 1 GB of GDDR5 memory, and reference AMD clock speeds of 850/975 MHz (core/memory). The bundle includes the company's recently announced Bumptop 3D desktop environment software. Expect this to be priced on par with most other Radeon HD 4890 accelerators.

AMD's timely update to its high-end desktop processor lineup is on course for August 13. The Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition (PIB model: HDZ965FBGIBOX or HDZ965FBK4DGI) is a quad-core socket AM3 processor that comes with a clock speed of 3.40 GHz, and an unlocked bus multiplier like other Black Edition series models. It is reported by Brightside of News that the NDA over the chip will be lifted on August 13, letting reviewers publish reviews. Retail availability can be expected shortly afterwards.

According to Expreview.com, the chip was listed on Technologic, an online store, for 178.97 GBP. It gives us a glimpse of what the pricing could look like. Like its predecessors 955 BE and 940 BE, the 965 BE could start off at around US $270 or $250. At 3.40 GHz, the 965 BE will be AMD's fastest processor in terms of default clock speed. Phenom II X4 955 BE and Athlon64 X2 6400+ BE hold the 3.20 GHz spot currently.

Increasing the momentum and industry support for its 3D professional graphics accelerators, AMD today announced its newest solution for content creators and computer-aided designers (CAD) who demand mobility: the ATI FirePro M7740 graphics accelerator, set to power Dell Precision M6400 Mobile Workstations. Designed with digital content creators, CAD, and engineers in mind, the Dell Precision M6400 brings swift real-time graphical rendering and brilliant color representation to the forefront of large model design work, all while giving professionals excellent performance capabilities for multitasking and multi-threaded applications. The new offering provides design professionals with the high performance and reliability that is synonymous with the ATI FirePro family of graphics accelerators.

AMD's 790X chipset was featured as one of the first in 7-series chipset family. Based on the RX780 chip, this chipset is essentially identical to the AMD 770, except for that it supports the ATI CrossFireX technology. With the introduction of the 790GX, the 790X was less opted for. The chipset made its comeback with motherboards from Gigabyte and MSI that support AM3 processors and DDR3 memory. ASUS is ready with its competitive motherboard based on the AMD 790X + SB750 chipset. The ASUS M4A79XTD-EVO offers some of ASUS' latest innovations.

To begin with, this socket AM3 motherboard supports DDR3 memory. The CPU is powered by an 8+2 phase power circuit, that is controlled by the ASUS EPU active phase switching controller. The brown PCB uses a 2 oz copper to reduce EMI and enhance electrical stability, a technology found in Gigabyte's UltraDurable 3 motherboards. The 790X northbridge connects to two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots (electrical dual x8, when both are populated). Two each of PCI-E x1 and PCI make for the rest of the expansion. The SB750 southbridge supports AMD Overdrive and Advanced Clock Calibration (ACC). Apart from the six SATA II ports it provides, an additional controller gives out one internal port, and an eSATA port. Overclocking is aided by the TurboV feature. VIA VT1708S onboard 8 channel audio, Realtek Gigabit Ethernet make for the rest of the package. ASUS will have this board up in the next few weeks.

When it first surfaced that some triple-core and dual-core AMD Phenom series processors could make their disabled cores available under special circumstances thanks to shoddy BIOS-coding associated with the Advanced Clock Calibration (ACC), the anomaly quickly transformed into a potential selling-point for AMD processors, that with the right motherboard, a cheaper AMD processor could be unlocked into a significantly powerful processor for the price. Although AMD made noise calling motherboard vendors to quickly isolate and fix the issue, months on, it hasn't been fixed even with AMD's newest desktop platform based on the AMD 785G+SB710 chipset. An almost deliberate precedent, one we can't have problem with.

Chinese website Coolaler.com has learned that MSI's newest AMD 785G motherboard, the 785GM-E65, can not only unlock the two disabled cores on the Phenom II X2 550, but also provide reasonable overclocking stability for the processor. Coolaler used a retail Phenom II X2 550 on the new motherboard, and simply set the ACC feature in the BIOS setup to "auto" (which enables it from the BIOS end). The system booted with all physical cores on the processor enabled, and allowed overclocking it to 3.609 GHz (18 x 200 MHz, 1.344 V). The chip was subjected to full-load using two instances of Orthos to test its stability, to which it emerged fairly stable.

Corsair, a worldwide leader in high-performance computer and flash memory products, today announced the new Dominator GT line of ultra-high performance DDR3 memory modules, designed specifically for AMD Phenom II processor-based platforms using Socket AM3 motherboards.

The new 4GB (2 x 2GB) Dominator GT memory kit has been precision engineered to operate at a frequency of 1600MHz with ultra low-latency timings of 6-6-6-18 and a Command Rate of 1T. These settings are a perfect match for the latest, high-performance Socket AM3 AMD Phenom II processors, which feature an advanced, low-latency, integrated DDR3 memory controller.

AMD released the industry's first 40 nm desktop GPU. The RV740 went on to make only one SKU, the Radeon HD 4770. The company filled its Radeon HD 4700 series almost overnight with two more SKUs positioned on either sides of the HD 4770, based on the 55 nm RV770/RV790 GPUs instead, due to stock shortages. These also impacted on the inventories of the HD 4770, which forced AMD to reposition the Radeon HD 4850 in the sub-$110 segment, creating a bit of a void between it and the roughly $150 HD 4870. If anyone of you is up for yet another ATI Radeon SKU, here's one coming your way: Radeon HD 4860.

The Radeon HD 4860 seems to have been already taped out, sampled, and pictured by sections of the Chinese media. At the heart of it is the RV790 GPU in a different configuration codenamed RV790GT. It has 640 stream processors instead of 800 on the HD 4850, except that it uses a 256-bit GDDR5 memory interface, and effectively higher clock speeds. The core is clocked at 700 MHz, and the memory at 750 MHz (3000 MHz effective). The PCB pictured shows the card to powered by a single 6-pin power connector. It is expected to be positioned in at the $130 price point, and in theory, competitive with NVIDIA's GeForce GTS 250.

To meet the extreme productivity needs of today's CAD, Digital Content Creation (DCC) and oil and gas professionals, AMD announces that the ATI FirePro V8750 3D workstation graphics accelerator is joining the AMD line of ultra high-end professional graphics hardware.

ATI FirePro V8750 3D workstation graphics accelerator brings the highest number of shader engines (800) with the highest memory bandwidth (115.2 GB/s) in the entire 3D professional graphics offerings today1 which enables professionals to render incredibly complex models and photo-realistic images in real-time.

PowerColor is readying a new custom-designed Radeon HD 4890 accelerator that breaks-away from the reference design, and its lavish components. The new AX4890-1GBD5 seems to concentrate on a simpler, value-oriented design. The accelerator sticks to AMD's reference clock speeds of 850 MHz for the core, and 975 MHz for the memory. It loads 1 GB of GDDR5 memory across a 256-bit wide memory interface. Other features are fairly standard for the SKU. This product follows PowerColor's HD 4890 PCS+, PCS++ series, apart from the common reference design. It is expected to be positioned around the US $200 mark.

Dell introduced its first AMD-based mainstream PC lineup in over 18 months. The company had stopped announcing AMD-based products as its CPU lineup were losing in competitiveness. The Inspiron 546, as American-Statesman's Kirk Ladendorf notes, "could signal a shift in the ongoing relationship between Dell and AMD, which has gone through warm and cold spells in recent years." Inspiron 546 represents one of Dell's most important desktop PC SKUs, that is extensively promoted online.

Priced in the US $270~$710 range, Inspiron 546 models come in four main configurations, featuring Sempron, Athlon X2, Phenom X3, and Phenom X4 processors, with ATI Radeon HD 3200 series graphics. The chassis comes with 8 colour bezel types to choose from. It can further be customised with a variety of Dell monitors, HDD capacities, and memory amounts.

AMD recently announced its 40th Anniversary celebrations. Coincidence has it that the company reached another milestone at around the same time. It celebrates shipping its 500 millionth x86 processor, what the company specializes in. As the company, like most other companies is facing turbulent economic weather, the celebrations are largely low-profile. To reward its loyal customers, the company announced a contest that involves following AMD on Twitter, answering the question(s), and standing a chance to win one of four HP Pavilion dV2z ultrathin notebooks powered by AMD's Athlon Neo processors. Details of the contest can be read here.

AMD quietly decked up shelves with a new processor, this time, a low TDP variant of the Phenom II X4 945 quad-core processor. Carrying the model identifier "HDX945WFK4DGI", the Phenom II X4 945 95W comes with a significantly lower TDP rating compared to its 125W predecessor. It first surfaced on a CPU-support list by MSI, that leaked details of some unreleased processors. Based on the 45 nm Deneb core, in the AM3 package, the Phenom II X4 945 has an operating frequency of 3.00 GHz, 3.6 GT/s HyperTransport 3.0 system interface, 512 KB L2 cache per core, and a 6 MB shared L3 cache. It supports DDR2 and DDR3 memory standards. It has a bus multiplier of 15.0x which is upwards-locked since this is not a Black Edition SKU. It will have the same suggested retail price as its 125W version, at US $225.

AMD today sneaked in the latest version of its ATI Catalyst driver suite that provides support to several AMD/ATI components such as ATI Radeon series GPUs, AMD desktop chipsets, AMD FireStream GPGPU, and ATI Theater multimedia products. As revealed by the release notes document, AMD introduced several performance and feature-set changes, along with timely bug-fixes. Highlights include:

• Crysis performance at very high quality preset increases by up to 8% on Radeon HD 4800 series
• Lost Planet Colonies - performance increases by 7-11% when 8x Anti-Aliasing is used on the HD 4800 series products
• Introduces support for the ATI Video converter under Windows 7 32-bit and Windows 7 64-bit
• A newly designed Desktops & Displays Manager
• Added support for new OpenGL extensions: EXT_provoking_vertex and EXT_vertex_array_bgra

DOWNLOAD: ATI Catalyst 9.7 Driver Suite for Windows 7/Vista 64-bit | Windows 7/Vista 32-bit | Windows XP 64-bit | Windows XP 32-bit

Club 3D global market leader for graphics cards, today announced the release of its new HD4890 graphics card designed specifically for gamers and HD video enthusiasts. The new Club 3D HD4890 delivers High-end performance to users at excellent value. The custom cooling design stays quiet in low demanding operations and cool in heavy 3D applications to ensure safe operating during all your tasks.

Additionally, adopters of the new HD4890 graphics card will find a wide range of adapters bundled inside the retail package to ensure a trouble free integration with HDMI, VGA and DVI displays. Make use of the bundled CrossFireX Bridge by setting up a CrossFireX system to max out your games in any situation and resolution. By maintaining the high quality and reliability standards of existing Club 3D products, the new HD 4890 graphics card rewards users with a high performance product.

Nearly six weeks into the introduction of the Athlon II X2 250, AMD added two new models in the series to choose from the Athlon II X2 240 and 245 are clocked at 2.80 GHz and 2.90 GHz respectively, and occupy two lower places in the series. The 240 has a bus multiplier of 14.0x 200 MHz, while 245 is a notch higher, at 14.5x 200 MHz. The chips are based on AMD's 45 nm Regor core, which is a monolithic dual-core, with two physical cores on a die, and no L3 cache. The L2 cache per core instead, has been increased to 1 MB, which makes it 2 MB of total external cache for the chip. It uses a lavish 4.0 GT/s HyperTransport 3.0 system interface, and comes in the AM3 socket package that supports DDR2 and DDR3 memory standards. The two will be out soon and will be priced around the US $65 mark.

AMD's Phenom II X4 TWKR 42 processor is indeed a desirable piece. For even twice the price of commercial Phenom II X4 chips, it has the potential to create demand, given the market segment it would be catering to, but picture this: one of these chips went under the hammer for a whopping US $11,600! That's right, enough money to buy a gold bar over twice its size and weight, a decent sedan, or pretty much anything you can do with 11 grand. Xbit Labs notes that this is probably the highest price ever paid for a commercially-available microprocessor. The Phenom II X4 TWKR 42 is an enthusiast-oriented part. Only 100 of these are made till date, out of which, only two went on sale.

This TWKR part went for auction on Ebay at a starting price of $1. What soon followed was that 37 bidders placed 80 bids, sky-rocketing its price to $11,600 before being sold. The auction was conducted by members of AMD's facility in Austin USA, which had a charity angle to it. 100% of its sale amount would be donated to Family Eldercare, an organisation that provides essential services for elders, adults with disabilities and those who care for them. Phenom II X4 TWKR is derived from binning of AMD's high-performance Phenom II X4 processor, which facilitates record-setting overclocking. There's another chip open for bidding on Ebay, at the time of posting this article, it was poised at $1,050.

Last month, Muskin announced a comeback lineup of graphics cards under the UltimateFX series. The lineup began with a number of high-end graphics cards based on the single-GPU GeForce GTX 200 series, and later topped up with the dual-GPU GeForce GTX 295 model. By then the company had made it clear that it will be selling graphics cards based on ATI Radeon GPUs very soon. One of its first works surfaced in the form of the UltimateFX Radeon HD 4850.

The card uses a fairly standard design with a red PCB with reference cooler markings, with the GPU cooled by 92 mm fan-heatsink made by Arctic Cooling, memory cooled passively under its air-flow, and a heatsink over the VRM area. The card provides output using DVI, D-Sub, and 7.1 channel audio-routed HDMI connectors. It will be available in two variants, one that uses the AMD reference clock speeds of 625/993 MHz (core/memory), and an OC variant with 700/1100 MHz (core/memory). Both feature 512 MB of GDDR3 memory. The cards are sold in the company's seemingly popular WoodBox packaging. Its availability is not known, though we expect a fairly competitive pricing structure for these cards, given the uphill task Mushkin has competing with established players.

AMD is preparing its first set of Sempron processors based on the DDR3 supportive AM3 package. The first one, codenamed "Sargas" is a single-core chip that comes across as a single-core variant of the Athlon II X2 "Regor". It features a broad 3.6 GT/s HyperTransport 3.0 system interface, 128 KB of L1 and 1 MB of L2 cache, a dual-channel DDR2/DDR3 memory interface, an up-to-date AMD feature and instruction-set including AMD64, SSE4A, and AMD-V.

Sargas is built on Global Foundries' 45 nm SOI process, and has an operating voltage range of 0.85 ~ 1.35 V. The first SKU based on this core is the Sempron X1 140 (model: SDX140HBGQBOX). It has a clock speed of 2.70 GHz, and a bus multiplier of 13.5x. At that speed, its TDP is rated at 45W. It will be available towards the end of this week, priced around 35 Euro.

MSI today announced the R4890 Cyclone graphics card. This Radeon HD 4890 card uses the same basic design as its R4870 Cyclone, and a lite version of AMD's reference PCB. The card first surfaced in May, during the run-up for the Computex event. The card's star attraction is the cooler, consisting of a GPU heatsink with radially-projecting aluminum fins, from this heatsink about four 8 mm heat-pipes arise, conveying heat to two suspended, curved aluminum fin blocks on either sides of the heatsink. The cooler is nucleated with a 10 cm PWM-controlled fan. The memory and VRM areas are care of this cooler's air-flow.

MSI used a few innovations of its own on the PCB which it calls "military class", including flat-bed high-c capacitors that can be found on server and workstation components, a solid-state choke that has lower core energy loss compared to traditional chokes, and an all-solid-state-capacitor design, which is a standard-issue for graphics cards in its class. The R4890 Cyclone comes in three variants based on clock speeds - R4890 Cyclone, R4890 Cyclone OC, and R4890 Cyclone SOC. These cards come with clock speeds of 850/3900 MHz, 880/3900 MHz, and 1000/4000 MHz, respectively (core/memory). Expect availability in a few weeks. The press-release follows.

In its effort to meet the ever-increasing demands of consumer technology, the semiconductor industry has long been preoccupied with smaller transistors and larger silicon wafers. While these are important tactics, opportunities for increasing efficiency, becoming more agile, and minimizing waste are often overlooked in manufacturing processes, according to Thomas Sonderman, vice president of manufacturing systems and technology at GLOBALFOUNDRIES.

At SEMICON West 2009, Sonderman is calling for a renewed focus on operational agility in the semiconductor manufacturing industry, particularly in light of increased pressure to move to processes based on 450 millimeter (mm) wafers.

AMD today announced the immediate availability of three new members of the Six-Core AMD Opteron processor family that specifically address rising demand for balanced systems with increased performance yet greater power-efficiency for cloud computing and web serving environments.