Intel Corporation today disclosed that the company has notified Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) that it believes AMD has breached a 2001 patent cross-license agreement with Intel. Intel believes that Global Foundries is not a subsidiary under terms of the agreement and is therefore not licensed under the 2001 patent cross-license agreement. Intel also said the structure of the deal between AMD and ATIC breaches a confidential portion of that agreement. Intel has asked AMD to make the relevant portion of the agreement public, but so far AMD has declined to do so. AMD's breach could result in the loss of licenses and rights granted to AMD by Intel under the agreement.

Apart from being a major add-in board (AIB) partner for AMD's ATI Radeon and FirePro lines of graphics products, Sapphire is also a notable motherboard manufacturer that has been using chipsets by ATI for several generations of platforms now. Its latest offering is the DDR3-supportive Pure CrossFireX 790GX AM3 motherboard. It has been spotted at a Japanese store, where it was priced at 18,980 JPY (around 192.5 USD).

Based on the AMD 790GX + SB750 chipset, the motherboard features an AM3 CPU socket. Four DDR3 DIMMs provide support for up to 16 GB of DDR3 memory. A 5+1 phase CPU power circuit is present. Heatpipe based cooling spreads heat between the northbridge and VRM heatsinks. The southbridge gets its own small heatsink. Two PCI-Express x16 slots are provided, which arrange as electrically x8, x8 when both are populated. The motherboard lacks onboard lane switching logic, and relies on a switch card that has to be installed on the second PCI-E x16, for the first one to provide all its 16 lanes to the installed graphics card. The motherboard features a Radeon HD 3300 class IGP with dedicated 128 MB of DDR3 sideport memory. Audio-routed HDMI, DVI and D-Sub connectors are provided onboard.

ATI on Friday released ATI Stream Software Development Kit (SDK) version 1.4, the fourth installment of the free toolkit, that provides a way for developers to find what ATI Stream technology is capable of. The standard toolkit delivers a full-featured software development environment that exposes the amazing computational power of AMD GPUs in an easy to use interface. Version 1.4 of the development kit brings many improvements to previous versions, the full list of which is listed below. To download the ATI Stream SDK, please click here.

AMD announced that the 50 millionth ATI 'Hollywood' graphics processor for the Wii game console from Nintendo shipped today. With 50 million units delivered, the ATI graphics processor code-named 'Hollywood' becomes the most successful AMD game console chip to date in terms of unit sales.

"Nintendo values its ongoing relationship with AMD. AMD's graphics technology expertise as displayed in the ATI 'Hollywood' chip is a great part of the momentum of Wii. Our combined efforts help deliver entertaining experiences to create many smiling faces in living rooms around the world," said Genyo Takeda, general manager of Integrated Research and Development, Nintendo Co., Ltd.

AMD is on the course of releasing a new line of high performance products based on its upcoming RV790 graphics processor. The high-end single GPU SKU, Radeon HD 4890 is expected to be competitive with NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 260 (216 SP). NVIDIA on the other end of the field, is planning a retaliation to the RV790. The GPU giant is carving out a new SKU based on the 55 nm G200b: GeForce GTX 275.

The new SKU will be placed in the US $225~275 range. While the specifications are not known at this point in time, there are two theories: G200b with 216 stream processors and a 512-bit memory interface, and the other theory suggesting 240 stream processors with the existing 448-bit memory interface on GTX 260. The latter looks inexpensive as the former would step up manufacturing costs due to the addition of two memory chips.

While AMD played smart in diverting all its engineering resources in designing only one core: the Deneb / Shanghai, and then carving out umpteen SKUs out of them based on disabling cores, and/or setting L3 cache amounts, its implementation seems to be shoddy, to the least. Weeks ago, a Korean enthusiast found an easy way to unlock the factory-disabled fourth core on some Phenom II X3 (Heka) processors. A fresh report suggests that it is possible to enable the complete L3 cache on the Phenom II X4 800 series processors.

The series is AMD's line of Deneb-based 45 nm quad-core processors with 2 MB of L3 cache disabled, leaving 4 MB that can be addressed by the processor. An enthusiast found the Phenom II X4 810 processor to be spontaneously able to address 6 MB of L3 cache, when used on an ASRock AOD790GX /128M motherboard. The most likely cause of this could be "poorly-coded" motherboard BIOS that is able to see the Deneb core "as is". The motherboard was using BIOS version 1.40, that adds Phenom II support. The additional cache was found to have a positive impact on system performance. Beyond that, the enthusiast did not provide an explanation. After clearing the CMOS of the motherboard, it was able to correctly detect the processor with its intended specifications.

Advanced Micro Devices today announced it has been named to CRO Magazine's "100 Best Corporate Citizens" list for 2009. AMD secured the #46 ranking. CRO's 100 Best Corporate Citizens List is the only list based on 100% publicly-available information and ranks Russell 1000 companies on their performance in seven key areas: Environment, Climate Change, Human Rights, Philanthropy, Employee Relations, Financial and Governance. AMD's highest scores came in the areas of environment, climate change and human rights. This is AMD's second award this year honoring the company's efforts in the area of corporate responsibility. In January, AMD was named for the third consecutive year to the 2009 Global 100 Most Sustainable Companies in the World list. The annual Global 100, unveiled each year at the World Economic Forum in Davos, is a list of role models in sustainable business practices.

During CeBIT, MSI showcased two AMD 790GX motherboards that combine support for both DDR2 and DDR3 on the same board. Although both the MSI 790GX-8D and the MSI P45-8D are designed for different platforms, the enormous RAM capacity support - both offer four DDR2 slots and four DDR3 memory slots - makes them really unique. The AM3 board 790GX-8D featuring the 790GX chipset, supports DDR2-1066 or DDR3-1333 RAM. It is also capable of supporting socket AM2+ processors with DDR2 RAM. Moreover, the 790GX-8D allows overclockers to increase the RAM frequencies at any time using an onboard control dial. Users can even erase the CMOS RAM with the touch of a Reset button or switch into power saving mode by pressing the "Green Power" button. The board offers two PCIe x16 slots, two PCIe x1 slots, and a vanilla PCI slot.
As for the P45-8D, this motherboard makes use of Intel's P45 +ICH10/ICH10R chipset and supports Intel's 45nm and 65nm Core 2 (Extreme) processors. The board has one PCIe x16 slot, one PCIe Gen2 (1x16) slot, one PCIe x1 slot, and three vanilla PCI slots. The P45-8D should be widely available already, while the MSI 790GX-8D AM3 child is still unavailable.
MSI nicknamed the boards - "Memory Lover".

AMD today introduced the ATI FirePro 2450, a low profile quad display graphics accelerator that consumes minimal power, delivering exceptional power efficiency. Designed to operate at less than 18 watts, the new graphics accelerator is another example of AMD's leadership in energy efficiency.
"The ATI FirePro 2450 offers the reliability professionals expect and the efficiency IT departments require. IT managers want a card they can test once, deploy virtually anywhere, and count on to run reliably," said Janet Matsuda, senior director, AMD Professional Graphics. "The low power consumption enables cool, energy-efficient operation, as well as superior reliability and longevity. The compact form factor can be deployed in nearly any system. This accelerator is perfect for customers who need more than two displays, such as in financial services and process control."

AMD is attempting to revive its competitiveness that took a beating with NVIDIA's introduction of 55 nm G200b-based graphics accelerators. The method AMD seems to be adopting is by giving its existing flagship GPU, the RV770, a series of design improvements that facilitate higher clock-speeds, in turn, better performance on offer.

A lot has been said about RV790 till date, with each commentator coming up with a new version of the story. It has been more or less established that the RV790 will be a improvement over the RV770, though not a revolutionary one. Fresh information gathered by PC Games Hardware places a realistic estimate on up to where RV790 is going to push the performance envelope for AMD.

Yet to be released worldwide, the Kabuto CPU cooler by Scythe made an appearance on the company's Japanese website. It is designed to be a high performance stock-cooler replacement for Intel sockets x478, LGA-775, and LGA-1366. All AMD desktop sockets since s754 are supported.

Measuring 124 mm (l) x 133 mm (w) x 132 mm (h), the cooler seems like a complex work of metal: A CPU contact block doubles up as a small heatsink. From it, arise six copper heatpipes. The heatpipes, in groups of two, convey heat to three independent aluminum fin stacks. A 120 mm PWM-controlled fan, operating at speeds of around 1300 rpm blows air onto the three fin stacks. At those speeds, its noise levels remain around 26.5dBA. The cooler tips the scales at 730 g (around 1.6 lbs). It remains to be seen when Scythe announces this cooler worldwide.

AMD's graphics product group, the core division that handles the company's ATI graphics and AMD chipset product lines, is said to be engaging in a reshuffling of its add-in board partners (AIBs). These are companies that manufacture and/or sell ATI Radeon-based graphics cards. With the recent success of the Radeon HD 4000 series graphics processors, the company added two more popular AIBs: Pine Group (XFX Graphics) and Gainward, a subsidiary of Palit.

Inter-AIB competition meant that a few weaker, non-performing AIBs have come to light, which AMD is reportedly contemplating breaking partnership with. GeCube is the first brand. GeCube is the channel-vendor brand for InfoTek Corp, a manufacturing partner for AMD GPG. Speculation is rife about hardware giant ASUS also being in the league. The most plausible explanation is poor sales figures.

On the other hand, a Chinese company that is relatively unknown to the Western markets yet not new to selling graphics cards, Colorful is joining AMD's league as an AIB.

GLOBALFOUNDRIES, a new leading-edge semiconductor foundry formed by a joint venture between AMD and Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC), today announced key additions to its management team that bring extensive semiconductor experience to the table. Joining GLOBALFOUNDRIES Chief Executive Officer Doug Grose and Chairman of the Board Hector Ruiz are:

• Jim Doran as senior vice president and general manager of Fab 1, the company's current primary manufacturing facility in Dresden, Germany
• Bruce McDougall as chief financial officer
• Alexie Lee as vice president and general counsel

GLOBALFOUNDRIES, a new leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing company formed by a joint venture between AMD and the Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC), today announced its official launch and outlined plans to drive profound change and expand opportunities in the semiconductor industry. GLOBALFOUNDRIES is led by an experienced semiconductor management team, including CEO Doug Grose, formerly senior vice president of manufacturing operations at AMD, and Chairman of the Board Hector Ruiz, formerly executive chairman and chairman of the board at AMD. The Company is the only U.S. based global semiconductor foundry and commences operations with approximately 3,000 employees worldwide with headquarters in Silicon Valley.

ATI's CrossFire multi-GPU technology started off on the Intel platform with ATI's own brand of chipset before AMD acquired the company. AMD/ATI then allowed CrossFire and the succeeding CrossFireX standards to be supported by Intel chipsets. The only current chipset platform that doesn't support CrossFire is the NVIDIA nForce series, which as ASRock demonstrated during the ongoing CeBIT event, breaks the dogma.

ASRock devised a BIOS for its nForce 740i based N7AD-SLI motherboard that enables support for CrossFire. AMD's Catalyst drivers were able to detect the motherboard as a qualified platform and enable CrossFire between two installed ATI Radeon accelerators. The setup was able to show performance increments during a 3DMark06 session. ASRock is reportedly working out similar BIOS firmware for several other motherboards made by it, and wants to enable CrossFire, CrossFireX for all its nForce motherboards.

Following the big announcement AMD made today, the company has appointed Bruce Claflin as Chairman of its Board of Directors. Mr. Claflin replaces Hector Ruiz, who retired from AMD's Board in conjunction with assuming the position of Chairman of the Board of "The Foundry Company". Mr. Claflin has been a member of AMD's Board of Directors since August, 2003. The AMD Board also appointed Waleed Al Mokarrab to the Board. Mr. Al Mokarrab is chief operating officer of Mubadala Development Company. Dirk Meyer continues in his role as president and chief executive officer (CEO) of the AMD Board of Directors.
"Bruce Claflin brings a wealth of business experience that applies directly to the challenges and opportunities relevant to our company," said Meyer. "We are also honored to welcome Waleed Al Mokarrab to the Board. His experience in business development across a broad range of industries will be an invaluable asset to AMD."

AMD today announced it has closed its Asset Smart strategic transaction with the Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC) and Mubadala Development Company of Abu Dhabi, setting the stage for the formal launch of the world's only U.S.-headquartered semiconductor foundry, temporarily called "The Foundry Company." The Foundry Company is expected to formally launch and disclose its new name and visual identity later this week.
AMD received $700 million from ATIC for a portion of its ownership interests in The Foundry Company, The Foundry Company assumed responsibility for the repayment of approximately $1.1 billion of associated AMD debt, and Mubadala paid AMD approximately $125 million1 for 58 million newly issued AMD shares and warrants for 35 million additional shares.

AMD and Seagate are set to demonstrate the new 6 Gbps SATA storage device interface. The companies will hold the demo today, in New Orleans, USA. Although not a player in the enterprise storage controller market, AMD is using this demo to exhibit the kind of technology that will go into its future chipset. The company already has plans to build chipset for its own current-generation Opteron processors.

Seagate, on the other hand, is a large player in the hard drive industry, enterprise storage included. The company notes that SATA 6 Gbps will benefit solid-state drives before they can significantly help conventional hard-drives. "Flash will take advantage [of the new interface], in applicable markets, sooner than you think," said Marc Noblitt, senior marketing I/O development manager for Seagate. "Six-gig is a perfect interface. OEMs tell us that they want to have the same SATA interface for flash as for a 1.8-inch rotating drive, so they can swap in a drive for flash, or vice versa." he added.

After spinning off its manufacturing division to The Foundry Co., AMD is left with all the engineering resources it needs to make processors. Contradicting older roadmap slides by the company predicting it would start selling 32 nm processors in 2011, Dirk Meyer, CEO of AMD in an interview with Information Week said that the company is on-track to ship smaller, more powerful processors built on the 32 nm manufacturing process by 2010.

The new manufacturing process would allow the chip maker to step up transistor counts to add more features and computational power. Tomorrow, on March 2, the AMD is expected to close the deal with Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC) of Abu Dhabi to form The Foundry Company (TFC). This would render AMD fabless. The company will then, like other fabless market heavyweights such as NVIDIA and VIA, will focus on designing processors, while TFC, its largest foundry partner will manufacture the processors. Currently AMD is tied up with foundry companies such as TSMC and UMC for manufacturing products of its Graphics Products Group, products such as GPUs and chipset.

AMD will be an year behind larger market rival Intel in selling processors built on the 32 nm technology. Intel plans to roll out 32 nm processors by Q4 2009. AMD's designs will be ready by mid-2010, following which volume production of its 32 nm chips will commence by Q4 2010.

AMD updated today its AMD OverDrive utility to version 2.1.6. This little program specially designed for AMD platforms, enables easy overclocking from Windows, can monitor the temps of your system, and finally can serve as torture test if you want to check your system for stability. Download it, if you need it.

DOWNLOAD: AMD OverDrive 2.1.6

Earlier this week, an article by a Korean computer enthusiast made waves across the internet. The enthusiast found a simple way to unlock the rudimentary core on Phenom II X3 processors, thanks to what AMD now refers to as "buggy BIOS". The article was followed up extensively by global media confirming the procedure. The result: sales of Phenom II X3 processors are seeing an upsurge.

Who wouldn't want to spend $150~170 on a triple-core processor that can be converted to a $200+ worth quad-core chip with decent levels of performance and overclocking headroom? AMD now has a tricky situation at hand. It can cash in on the demand and let the sales stay, but unfortunately, its planning went south looking for Greenland. The company has reporedly asked motherboard vendors to fix the "buggy BIOS". Ironically, in the wake of the DigiTimes report about upsurge in demand, AMD gave another statement, saying that the value Phenom II X3 processors offer speaks for itself.

The ability of AMD's Phenom II X3 processors dole out an additional core thanks to flaws in BIOS programming, has been one of the most interesting events in the computer enthusiast industry this month. A simple toggle of an option would unlock the disabled core, appreciating the value of the processor. It was earlier known that only chips belonging to 0904 (fourth week of 2009) batch of the processors would be able to respond to the mod successfully, but now, a fresh finding by German website Hartware.net suggests that even chips made in the 51st week of 2008 batch responded to the mod, and the fourth core could be enabled. Hartware.net used Biostar's TA790GX A2+ motherboard for the feat.

Meanwhile, the only entity that stands to lose due to this rather bizarre "phenomenon" has stepped in. AMD has reportedly requested motherboard manufacturers to not to release motherboards with the "buggy" BIOS, and to devise a fix for the issue immediately. Manufacturers are requested to release fixed BIOS updates. Evidently Phenom II X3 could cannibalize higher quad-core chips by the firm. The company is yet to release an DDR3-supportive quad-core chip based on the Deneb core with the entire 6 MB cache enabled.

After showing us working samples of the first six-core "Istanbul" server chips, AMD today hosted some information on its blog regarding the work process on the chips. "The silicon is healthy and we're targeting a launch in 2H09," AMD spokesperson Jake Whitman said Tuesday. "The new 6-core version of the AMD Opteron processor is scheduled to be available in the second half of this year, and it is everything we had hoped for - and more." added John Fruehe from AMD, on his blog.
With the release of "Istanbul" server chips, AMD will try to catch up with Intel and its six-core "Dunnington" processor for servers. The Socket 1207 Istanbul chips will offer an easy upgrade from current 45nm quad-core Shanghai Opterons, while still maintaining the same thermal envelope with even more cores per processor. To watch videos of "Istanbul" in action left click here.

An unexpected visitor to Guru3D.com's offices was a pre-release sample of a yet to be released 40 nm RV740-based Radeon HD 4750 graphics accelerator. Not bound by any NDAs with AMD, the website went ahead with a little (p)review of the card. The HD 4750 is the RV740XT model, and features GDDR5 memory. The name contradicts an earlier report suggesting HD 4770 to be the shelf-name for the RV740XT, and HD 4750 for the GDDR3-based RV740Pro. It features 640 stream processors, core clock speeds between 650~700 MHz and GDDR5 memory clocked at 800 MHz (3.20 GHz effective), across a 128-bit wide memory bus. The RV740XT comes with a rated shader compute power of 900 GFLOPs, as against 740 GFLOPs the RV770LE-based HD 4830 is rated at, while having similar specifications. It comes with 32 TMUs and 16 ROPs.

The findings of the preview show it to be somewhere between the performance levels of the Radeon HD 4830 and HD 4850. Interestingly, Guru3D omitted GeForce 8800 GT/9800 GT from the comparison, though GeForce 9600 GT was left to face the onslaught from stronger ATI GPUs. The Radeon HD 4750 is expected to be priced below the $100 mark and is expected to outperform most competitive accelerators in its price-range. To read the review, head over to Guru3D here.

Known to be an innovative lot when it comes to designing graphics cards, Palit has quitely slipped in a new variant to its Radeon HD 4850 series: the Palit Radeon HD 4850 Sonic Special Edition. What makes this card special, or rather different from the HD 4850 Sonic, are its memory and connectivity options. This is perhaps the first and only Radeon HD 4850 accelerator with GDDR5 memory. The card features 512 MB of GDDR5 memory across a 256-bit wide bus.

It uses an identical dual-slot cooler design to that of the HD 4850 Sonic. If the faster memory wasn't incentive enough, Palit has also expanded the connectivity options. The card provides a DVI, D-Sub (analog), HDMI and DisplayPort connectors all on the card. Owing to the Sonic branding, the card definitely sports higher clock-speeds than what AMD specifies. Further blurring the line between this card and a Radeon HD 4870, is its requirement of two 6-pin PCI-E power inputs. We are in the process of finding out its exact clock speeds, price and a larger picture.