AMD (NYSE: AMD) today at its Future of Compute event announced the addition of its first high performance system-on-a-chip (SoC), codenamed "Carrizo", and a mainstream SoC codenamed "Carrizo-L" as part of the company's 2015 AMD Mobile APU family roadmap. In collaboration with hardware and software partners, these new 2015 AMD Mobile APUs are designed as complete solutions for gaming, productivity applications, and ultra high-definition 4K experiences. With support for Microsoft DirectX 12, OpenCL 2.0, AMD's Mantle API, AMD FreeSync and support for Microsoft's upcoming Windows 10 operating system, the 2015 AMD Mobile APU family enables the experiences consumers expect.

"We continue to innovate and build upon our existing IP to deliver great products for our customers," said John Byrne, senior vice president and general manager, Computing and Graphics business group, AMD. "AMD's commitment to graphics and compute performance, as expressed by our goal to improve APU energy efficiency 25x by 2020, combines with the latest industry standards and fresh innovation to drive the design of the 2015 AMD Mobile APU family. We are excited about the experiences these new APUs will bring and look forward to sharing more details in the first half of next year."

AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced that for the third straight year it was awarded research grants for development of critical technologies needed for extreme-scale computing in conjunction with projects associated with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Extreme-Scale Computing Research and Development Program, known as "FastForward 2."

The two DOE awards, totaling more than $32 million, will fund research focused on exascale applications for AMD Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) based on the open-standard Heterogeneous System Architecture (HSA), as well as future memory systems to power a generation of exascale supercomputers capable of delivering 30-60 times more performance than today's fastest supercomputers.

MSI, world leading in motherboards, launches 2 new AMD A68H series FM2+/FM2 socket based motherboards, the MSI A68HM-P33 and MSI A68HM-E33. The new MSI A68H motherboards support the latest AMD Kaveri APU (7000 series) and are backwards compatible with FM2 processors (Richland and Trinity, 6000 and 5000 series). Featuring onboard LAN, PCI Express 3.0, SATA 6Gb/s, USB 3.0 and multiple display support, the MSI AMD A68H series motherboards present a rich blend of features and technologies, offering the most stable and best cost/performance solution available.

MSI A68H series motherboards are available in microATX form factor and offer a great choice in connectivity with a Dothill RAID controller, onboard LAN, PCI Express 3.0, SATA and up to 10 USB ports. When combined with today's processors featuring advanced integrated graphics, such as the AMD 7000 series APUs, MSI A68H motherboards support AMD Eyefinity. All these features come at a very attractive price point, making MSI A68H series motherboards the most comprehensive and best cost/performance solution available.

AMD today demonstrated the first network function virtualization (NFV) solution on AMD's 64-bit ARM-based SoC and announced that it is now sampling to AMD's embedded customers. The NFV demonstration is powered by a 64-bit ARM-based AMD Embedded R-Series SoC, codenamed "Hierofalcon," supported with technology from two key ecosystem partners -- Aricent for the networking software stack and Mentor Graphics for embedded Linux and tools. NFV is an innovative solution that simplifies deployment and management for network and telecommunications service providers with a fully virtualized communications infrastructure that helps maximize performance, while working to reduce costs.

At ARM TechCon, AMD specifically showcased the capabilities of an ARM-based NFV solution, virtualizing the functionality of a packet data network gateway, serving gateway, and a mobility management entity. In addition to virtualizing hardware components, AMD showcased a live traffic migration between the ARM-based AMD Embedded R-Series SoC and the x86-based second generation AMD R-Series APU. AMD's ARM-based NFV solution will be especially valuable for telecommunications network infrastructure providers interested in a flexible software-defined networking (SDN) implementation to manage networking services with configurable hardware to help reduce complexity and cost. NFV is the abstraction of numerous network devices such as routers and gateways, to enable relocation of network functions from dedicated hardware appliances to generic servers. With NFV, much of the intelligence currently built into proprietary, specialized hardware is accomplished with software running on general purpose hardware. The resulting solution is a fully virtualized communications infrastructure -- including virtual servers, storage and networks -- that simplifies deployment and management for network and telecommunications service providers. AMD is paving the way for both new and established service providers to design and deploy either x86 or ARM-based NFV infrastructure which meets their performance, cost and complexity requirements.

AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced that AMD A-Series APUs, AMD Radeon graphics and AMD FirePro professional graphics deliver superior performance to unlock the full potential of the latest features and capabilities announced by Adobe for its flagship Adobe Creative Cloud professional video tools and workflows. New high performance AMD-powered OpenCL debayering for Phantom Cine and Canon RAW camera formats joins previously unannounced debayering of RedR3D, CinemaDNG, and Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera JPEG formats, unlocking real-time editing, effects and color grading for massive production productivity and lightning fast rendering to deliver projects on time and at high quality.

"Speed and performance are essential ingredients that ensure video producers are productive every day and successfully compete for business, engagement and client satisfaction," said Steve Belt, corporate vice president, Strategic Alliances and Platform Enablement, AMD. "Pros know that they can rely on the combination of OpenCL support in Adobe Creative Cloud and the associated AMD hardware acceleration to deliver a steady stream of advanced tools that set them apart creatively and productively."

Here are some of the first benchmarks of Intel's ambitious Core M processor, a performance-segment dual-core processor with a thermal envelope of just 4.5W, making it ideal for tablets, ultra-portables, and mainstream desktops. At IDF 2014, Intel showed off a 12.5-inch tablet running a Core M 5Y70 chip. An MCM of the CPU and PCH dies, the CPU die features two "Broadwell" 64-bit x86 cores, a large new graphics processor with 24 execution units and 192 stream engines, 4 MB of shared L3 cache, a dual-channel LPDDR3 memory controller, and a PCI-Express 3.0 root complex. The PCH die wires out the platform's various connectivity options.

The 12.5-inch Core M tablet was put through three tests, Cinebench R11.5, SunSpider 1.0.2, and 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited. With the multi-threaded CPU-intensive Cinebench R11.5, the Core M scores a respectable 17 FPS in the GL bench, with 2.48 pts CPU. That's about 60 percent the performance of a Core i7-870. Significantly higher than anything Atom, Pentium, or AMD E-Series. With SunSpider, the Core M put out a score of 142.8, under Internet Explorer 12 running under Windows 8.1. With 3DMark IceStorm Unlimited, the Core M sprung up a surprise - 50,985 points. That over double that of a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800, and faster than the IGPs AMD E-Series APUs ship with. Color us interested.

AMD today introduced the new AMD A10-7800 Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) to the component channel. This 4th generation A-Series APU with 12 Compute Cores (4CPU + 8 GPU) unlocks the APU potential with Heterogeneous System Architecture (HSA) features, and boasts powerful AMD Radeon R7 Series graphics for outstanding performance across applications. Combined with AMD's acclaimed Mantle API, the AMD A10-7800 APU can enable accelerated performance across select AMD Gaming Evolved partner titles.

"The AMD A-Series APUs bring a superior level of gaming and compute experiences to the desktop PC," said Bernd Lienhard, corporate vice president and general manager, Client Business Unit, AMD. "With support for AMD's acclaimed Mantle API that simplifies game optimizations for programmers and developers to unlock unprecedented levels of gaming performance transforming the world of game development to help bring better, faster games to the PC."

AMD unveiled a new mid-range APU to take on Intel's Core i3 "Haswell" processors, the A10-7800 (model: AD7800YBI44JA). Based on the 28 nm "Kaveri" silicon, and built in the socket FM2+ package, this part differs from the A10-7850K in lacking an unlocked CPU base clock multiplier, and a rated TDP of just 65W (compared to the former's 95W). The A10-7800 features four x86-64 cores based on the "Steamroller" micro-architecture, spread across two modules, featuring 4 MB (2x 2 MB) of L2 cache; clocked at 3.50 GHz, with a TurboCore frequency of 3.90 GHz. Also featured is Radeon R7 Series integrated GPU featuring 512 GCN2 cores, with support for AMD Mantle and DirectX 11.2. Its uncore component features a dual-channel DDR3 integrated memory controller, with support for DDR3-1866 MHz, and a PCI-Express gen 3.0 root complex. It's expected to be priced between US $140 and $150.

AMD today announced its goal to deliver a 25x improvement in the energy efficiency of its Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) by 2020.1 Details including innovations that will produce the expected efficiency gains were presented today by AMD's Chief Technology Officer Mark Papermaster during a keynote at the China International Software and Information Service Fair (CISIS) conference in Dalian, China. The "25X20" target is a substantial increase compared to the prior six years (2008 to 2014), during which time AMD improved the typical use energy efficiency of its products more than 10x.

Worldwide, three billion personal computers use more than one percent of all energy consumed annually, and 30 million computer servers use an additional 1.5 percent of all electricity consumed at an annual cost of $14 billion to $18 billion USD. Expanded use of the Internet, mobile devices, and interest in cloud-based video and audio content in general is expected to result in all of those numbers increasing in future years.

To celebrate the introduction of its new 2014 AMD Performance Mobile APUs designed for ultrathin and high-performance mobile PCs, AMD yesterday launched its all-new enthusiast-class Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) for notebooks (formerly codenamed "Kaveri") to the edge of space, symbolically expanding the physical environment of mobile computing in parallel to how AMD expanded the performance envelope of mobile computing through its new APU design.

The new mobile APUs mark the debut of Heterogeneous System Architecture (HSA) features and Mantle gaming support for mobile devices, establishing these APUs as AMD's most advanced mobile computing technology to-date.

AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced its new AMD PRO A-Series APUs, delivering rich computing experiences to commercial PCs. The innovative processor technology from AMD will enable a new class of powerful, sleek and sophisticated commercial Windows PCs that integrate seamlessly into an existing IT environment. With impressive performance, the latest AMD PRO A-Series APUs with HSA features unlock true business computing performance and deliver outstanding reliability and manageability. The AMD PRO A-Series APU is one of the processors being offered in new HP Elite 700-Series notebooks.

"With the new AMD PRO A-Series APUs, AMD is looking to revolutionize commercial computing. Built around a solid offering of increased performance over our consumer products, increased product longevity and software image stability, AMD PRO processors give customers choice and affordability to meet their specific business needs," said Bernd Lienhard, corporate vice president and general manager, Client Products. "And since every AMD PRO processor packs the latest Radeon Graphics, we are raising the bar for visual performance in business PCs."

AMD (NYSE: AMD) today introduced its new 2014 Performance Mobile APUs designed for ultrathin and high-performance mobile PCs, bringing the features and capabilities of the popular and powerful AMD A-Series APU family (codenamed "Kaveri") to power-efficient notebooks for both personal and professional use. The new mobile APUs mark the debut of Heterogeneous System Architecture (HSA) features and Graphics Core Next (GCN) Architecture for mobile devices, establishing them as AMD's most advanced mobile APUs to-date. Notebook and desktop systems powered by AMD's entire 2014 APU lineup, including systems from Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, Toshiba and others also debuted at COMPUTEX TAIPEI 2014.

"AMD takes a major step forward today on our journey to transform and enhance the computing experience with the launch of the 2014 Performance Mobile APU family," said Bernd Lienhard, corporate vice president and general manager, Client Business Unit, AMD. "With a combination of superior total compute performance, stunning graphics and efficient power use alongside industry-first technologies, these new APUs set a new bar for cutting-edge consumer and commercial PCs."
The announcement of the 2014 Performance Mobile APU family features AMD's first FX-branded enthusiast-class APU for notebooks, and follows the recent introduction of AMD's 2014 Low-Power and Mainstream APUs.

AMD today announced the 2nd generation AMD Embedded R-series accelerated processing unit (APU) and CPU family (previously codenamed "Bald Eagle") for embedded applications. The new solutions are targeted at gaming machines, medical imaging, digital signage, industrial control and automation (IC&A), communications and networking infrastructure that require industry-leading compute and graphics processing technology.

"When it comes to compute performance, graphics performance and performance-per-watt, the 2nd generation AMD Embedded R-series family is unique in the embedded market," said Scott Aylor, corporate vice president and general manager, AMD Embedded Solutions. "The addition of HSA, GCN and power management features enables our customers to create a new world of intelligent, interactive and immersive embedded devices."

AMD today announced a roadmap of near- and mid-term computing solutions that harness the best characteristics of both the x86 and ARM ecosystems, called "ambidextrous computing." The cornerstone of this roadmap is the announcement of AMD's 64-bit ARM architecture license for the development of custom high-performance cores for high-growth markets. Today's announcement also provides a forward-looking glimpse into AMD's development plans to deliver truly unmatched ambidextrous computing and graphics performance using a shared, flexible infrastructure to enable its customers to blaze new paths of innovation for the embedded, server and client markets as well as semi-custom solutions.

"Before today, AMD was the only company in the world to deliver high performance and low-power x86 with leadership graphics. AMD now takes a bold step forward and has become the only company that can provide high-performance 64-bit ARM and x86 CPU cores paired with world-class graphics," said Rory Read, AMD president and CEO. "Our innovative ambidextrous design capability, combined with our portfolio of IP and expertise with high-performance SoCs, means that AMD is set to deliver ambidextrous solutions that enable our customers to change the world in more efficient and powerful ways."

Designed to enable the best user experience on today's most popular and innovative PCs, AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced its 3rd-generation Mainstream and Low-Power Mobile Accelerated Processing Units (APUs). Combining category-leading compute performance with unique features and rich user interactions, the 2014 AMD Mainstream and Low-Power Mobile APUs (formerly codenamed "Beema" and "Mullins," respectively) are the ideal choice for consumer and commercial client devices alike.

These new mobile APUs feature up to four newly-designed x86 CPU cores with updated, industry-leading AMD Radeon graphics and a hardware-level data security solution based on the ARM Cortex-A5, all on a single, power-sipping system-on-chip (SoC). Products based on these new APUs are already announced by Lenovo and Samsung, with many more expected on-shelf in time for the 2014 back-to-school shopping season.

Red Hat Summit 2014 -- AMD today announced another major milestone in the development of its enterprise software ecosystem with the first public demonstration of its second-generation AMD Opteron X-Series APU, codenamed "Berlin," running a Linux environment based on the Fedora Project. The Fedora Project is a Red Hat-sponsored, community-driven Linux distribution, providing a familiar, enterprise class operating environment to developers and IT administrators worldwide. This is important to companies looking to transition to x86 APU servers but who are reluctant to introduce new tools and software platforms to their IT environments. This demonstration also represents a significant step forward in expanding the footprint of x86 APU accelerated performance within the data center.

AMD's premiere demonstration of "Berlin" will showcase the world's first Heterogeneous System Architecture (HSA) featured server APU ahead of its official launch later this year. The demonstration features advancements incorporated in "Project Sumatra" that enable Java applications to take advantage of graphics processing units (GPUs) within AMD server APUs. The combination of Linux and Java on AMD APU platforms provides an ideal platform for server-based multimedia workloads and general purpose GPU compute that will help drive new levels of workload efficiency in the data center. AMD also will demonstrate software-based on OpenCL and OpenGL on "Berlin."

Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth, a turn-based strategy game based in the interstellar age, in which you travel to and colonize habitable planets by realpolitik, was announced last weekend, with support for AMD's Mantle API, besides DirectX 11. Mantle should make the game increasingly playable on AMD "Kaveri" APUs with eye-candy cranked up, and at reasonable mainstream resolutions such as 1080p. Mantle reduces the CPU's role in graphics processing, and should benefit APUs. Developer Firaxis announced the game for three PC platforms, Windows, OS X, and Linux (over Steam). Don't add it to your summer bucket-list just yet. It's slated for this fall.A trailer video follows.

AMD today announced global availability of its new AM1 platform featuring quad-core and dual-core variants of the AMD APU codenamed "Kabini" into the component channel for system builders. The AM1 platform, branded with the AMD Athlon and AMD Sempron APU brands, will deliver award-winning Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture and "Jaguar" CPU cores on motherboards from the leading manufacturers. AMD Athlon 5150/5350 and AMD Sempron 2650/3850 APUs provide consumers a balanced computing experience on a socketed upgradable platform.

"AMD consistently builds on its industry leading technology by continuing to offer a diversified product stack which is proven today with the availability of the AM1 platform with 'socketed' AMD Sempron and AMD Athlon APUs designed for the mainstream market," said Bernd Lienhard, corporate vice president and general manager, Client Business Unit, AMD. "With quad-core performance and AMD Radeon graphics the AM1 platform is an affordable solution that provides great flexibility due to an infrastructure built to deliver a multitude of options to our end users and system builders."

ECS unveiled its first socket FM2+ motherboard based on AMD's new A58 FCH entry-level chipset, the A58F2P-M4. This narrow micro-ATX motherboard draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 4-pin CPU connectors, and uses a 3+1 phase VRM to condition power for the APU, which is wired to two DDR3 DIMM slots, and a PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slot. The only other expansion slot is a PCIe 3.0 x1. Connectivity is fairly basic, with four SATA 3 Gb/s ports, D-Sub and HDMI display outputs, 6-channel HD audio, and gigabit Ethernet. Expect this to go under $50.

AMD today announced its ongoing collaboration with Adobe has yielded numerous performance optimizations for new creative functions and workflow enhancements that will be available soon to video professionals using Adobe Creative Cloud. This latest wave of features includes high performance debayering for RED camera R3D media files, enhanced performance for new masking features, a new time-saving master clip capability and other tools.

Today's announcement builds on the already impressive additions the companies have made available in recent months, which began with OpenCL support through the Adobe Mercury Playback Engine to speed up Adobe Premiere Pro CC workflows. AMD App Acceleration via the open standard OpenCL API brings the massive parallel compute power of AMD A-Series APUs, AMD Radeon graphics, and AMD FirePro professional graphics to bear on the sophisticated capabilities within Adobe Premiere Pro CC, Adobe SpeedGrade CC, and Adobe Media Encoder CC. That performance also scales with AMD dual-GPU configurations, including dual AMD FirePro GPUs for the latest generation Apple Mac Pro systems.

AMD today announced a multi-year agreement with Mentor Graphics Corporation to expand availability of open-source embedded Linux development for heterogeneous and multi-core processors from AMD. Dedicated to providing embedded developers with a more manageable and focused open source framework, the agreement will provide embedded developers with more supported processor options, robust development tools, and greater speed in open platform development.

As a Yocto Project compatible product, Mentor Embedded Linux will now bring standardized features and tools, and ensure quick access to the latest Board Support Packages (BSPs) for AMD 64-bit x86 architecture beginning with the upcoming AMD Embedded G-Series system-on-a-chip (SoC) (codenamed: "Steppe Eagle") and AMD Embedded R-Series APU/CPU (codenamed: "Bald Eagle").

ECS unveiled the A78F2-TI, an interesting thin mini-ITX motherboard. Don't be fooled into thinking it's a socket AM1 board. It's socket FM2+, with the cooler mount hole design of Intel LGA115x. That's right, this is arguably the first AMD platform board with square, spaced out cooler mount holes. Don't get your hopes up just yet. Between an FM2 socket, and the APU's chunky IHS, there's more thickness than an Intel socket with a CPU installed. So it may not support all heatsinks. The board draws power from an external 2-pin power brick. It uses a 3+1 phase VRM to condition power for the FM2+ socket.

The A78F2-TI runs AMD A78 FCH chipset. The APU is wired out to two DDR3 SO-DIMM slots, and mPCIe slots. Storage connectivity includes two SATA 6 Gb/s ports. Display outputs include two HDMI ports, a DisplayPort, and an LVDS. Two USB 3.0, six USB 2.0/1.1 ports, gigabit Ethernet, and 6-channel HD audio make for the rest of it. The A78F2-TI is built not just for SFF builds, but also (and especially) all-in-one desktops.

Splashtop Inc., the worldwide leader in cross-device computing, announced optimization of Splashtop Streamer on select AMD discrete GPUs and APUs. Users can now enjoy remote HD video streaming, 3D professional graphics, and gaming experience, with super low latency.

"Splashtop turns every PC with AMD APU or GPU into fully interactive, remote gaming engine, streaming 3D games to any mobile device," said Mark Lee, CEO and co-founder of Splashtop, "Businesses, designers, doctors, or financial analysts can now get remote access to professional 3D apps and data, anytime, anywhere."

ZOTAC International, a global innovator and manufacturer of graphics cards, mainboards and mini-PCs, today starts CeBIT 2014 with a pair of new ZBOX E-series gaming mini-PCs and the palm-size ZBOX nano AQ02 series. The new ZOTAC ZBOX E-series gaming mini-PCs incorporate Intel Iris Pro 5200 graphics to deliver an excellent gaming experience in a small form factor while the ZBOX nano AQ02 series takes advantage of an AMD A8 series APU for a perfect combination of performance and energy-efficiency.

"We've always wanted to create a ZBOX that delivers a good gaming experience but couldn't strike the right balance between size, performance, heat dissipation and energy consumption. Intel's latest Haswell architecture with quad-cores and Iris Pro 5200 graphics hits that sweet spot we need to fit in a ZBOX chassis," said Carsten Berger, senior director, ZOTAC International. "The new ZBOX E-series will deliver a smooth medium quality gaming experience and be perfect for LAN party-goers and gamers that want a compact gaming system."

ASRock announced a trio of socket AM1 motherboards for AMD's "Kabini" series APUs, Athlon and Sempron-branded CPUs, in the FS1b (AM1) package. The lineup includes the AM1B-M, a compact micro-ATX model; and two mini-ITX ones, the AM1H-ITX, and the AM1B-ITX. The AM1B-M draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 4-pin ATX connectors, and uses a 3-phase VRM to power the APU. A PCI-Express 2.0 x16, and a PCIe 2.0 x1 make for its expansion slots. Connectivity includes two SATA 6 Gb/s ports, two USB 3.0 ports (rear), D-Sub display output, gigabit Ethernet, and 6-channel HD audio.

The AM1H-ITX, and the AM1B-ITX appear to be based on a common PCB design, but differ with connectivity. The former is gear towards modern connectivity options. It draws power from either a 24-pin ATX, or a 2-pin external DC input. The board is loaded with features, including HDMI and DVI display outputs, four SATA 6 Gb/s ports, four USB 3.0 ports, PCI-Express 2.0 x16 and mPCIe slots, and 8-channel HD audio. The latter is geared more towards essential/legacy connectivity. It features the same display outputs, but chucks out 2-pin power input, and 8-channel HD audio to make room for a parallel LPT port.