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

AMD's upcoming chipset with integrated graphics, codenamed RS880 is said to feature a significantly faster integrated graphics processor (IGP), which is about 15 percent faster than the current RS780. While technically it is derived from the AMD RV610 core with some tweaked clock-speeds, it will get the brand name ATI Radeon HD 4200. With 1800 points in 3DMark06, this IGP is as powerful as GeForce 6800 GT a high-end graphics accelerator from the DirectX 9 generation. In today's setting the score isn't exactly spectacular, but makes it highly competitive with IGPs from rival NVIDIA. The chipset will make a formal debut this August.

Following its roadmap, AMD is continuing with new processor releases based on the Deneb core with increases in the multiplier. The Phenom II X4 965 comes with a clock speed of 3.40 GHz, and an FSB multiplier of 17.0x, giving it a 200 MHz increase over the 955 Black Edition. It is not known if 965 comes in a Black Edition branding, one which could determine its pricing. If launched as a Black Edition (version with unlocked bus multiplier), It could either be priced above the 955, or could displace it and position itself at US $249.99. Without the BE branding it could be priced slightly lower. The new chip will be based on the AM3 package, supporting DDR3 1333 MHz and DDR2 1066 MHz. It comes at a time when AMD is releasing the RS880-based AMD 785G chipset. AMD will dispatch samples of the Phenom II X4 965 starting next week.

Days after releasing its high-end Crosshair III Formula, ASUS is readying another motherboard, this time based on AMD's new 785G + SB710 chipset. This AM2+ micro-ATX board offers a fairly standard feature-set. The AM2+ socket supports nearly every AM2, AM2+, AM3 socket CPU ever made, while the four DDR2 DIMMs support up to 1200 MHz DDR2 by overclocking, while DDR2-1066 is a standard for AM2+/AM3 CPUs. The southbridge provides five SATA II ports, with a sixth one positioned as eSATA on the rear-panel. Display connectivity options include DVI, D-Sub and HDMI. The motherboard may be released during the upcoming Computed 2009 event.

The source also revealed a bit about the AMD 785G chipset, confirming our earlier assumption that it was based on the RS880 core. The chip embeds an RV620 graphics processor, which will be named as the Radeon HD 4200 IGP. It features UVD 2.0 video hardware decoder, and supports DirectX 10.1. It also supports SidePort auxiliary memory, apart from the usual UMA. AMD notes that the IGP will be slightly faster than the RS780, while being significantly faster than Intel G45 and NVIDIA's GeForce 8200 (although NVIDIA's fasted IGP for the AMD platform is GeForce 8300).

ECS is dressing up two new motherboards for a gala launch at Computex 2009. The A785GM-M and P55H-A were recently announced by the company to be heading for display and launch at the event, in its Computex booth invitation press-release. AlienBabelTech published exclusive pictures of the two.

To begin with, the A785GM-M is a micro-ATX motherboard based on the new AMD 785G chipset. The chipset features a Radeon HD 4200-class IGP. It is possibly based on the new RS880 core. The board supports AMD AM3 socket CPUs, and provides four DDR3 DIMM slots. Its display connectivity options include D-Sub, DVI, and HDMI. The rest of its connectivity includes FireWire, eSATA and one gigabit Ethernet interface.

The P55H-A on the other hand, is one of the company's first offerings that support the upcoming LGA-1156 socket processors. This is another of the motherboards we have seen so far, that lack display connectors, and hence, lack Intel Flexible Display Interface support, that connects integrated graphics processors on some CPUs to their output. It provides two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots (electrically dual x8 when both populated). Four DDR3 DIMM slots support dual-channel DDR3 memory, 8 channel audio, gigabit Ethernet, and 6 SATA II ports make for the rest of it.

With the notebook and sub-notebook segments, AMD faces an even taller cliff to climb as far as earning market-share goes. Having tasted much-needed success with the Dragon platform, AMD plans to deliver the same technologies to the mobile segment, with the Tigris platform. The platform consists of a 45 nm AMD dual-core "Caspian" processor, coupled with AMD RS880M chipset, and optionally, an ATI Mobility Radeon 55 nm or 40 nm M9X mGPU setup. The company plans to showcase this at the upcoming Computex 2009 event held in Taiwan. The platform is targeted at the 14-inch (and above) mainstream notebook segment, while the company continues to push Yukon and Congo platforms for 13-inch (and below) sub-notebooks. The source also revealed that AMD could detail its next-generation mobile platform for 2010, that uses 45 nm quad-core processors, RS800M series chipset, with support for DDR3 memory and USB 3.0.

As the market receives AMD's homegrown chipsets well since its successful 7-series, the company is preparing a new breed of platform core-logic technologies that will serve present and upcoming generations of the company's processors. From what we know so far, the company has designed the RD8xx and RS880, and has reportedly prepared prototype motherboards based on the chipsets. Several motherboard vendors have already prepared their upcoming SKUs based on the RS880 (AMD 880G), though all of these feature current SB710/SB750 series southbridge chips.

The successor, SB850, has been known to bring in an expanded feature set, and more importantly, an update with its storage controller. The southbridge will be one of the first ones to feature the third-generation SATA interface, that offers a maximum bandwidth of 6 Gbps between the system and the storage device, in comparison to 3 Gbps SATA II offers. In RAID mode, the controller will provide RAID 0, 1, JBOD, and RAID 5 modes. Six SATA channels will be supported in all. Other known features include support for 14 USB ports, albeit USB 2.0. AMD won't be embracing USB 3.0 just yet. The new southbridge will be released in Q4 2009 according to a portion of a roadmap slide by the company.

During the ongoing CeBIT event, Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) showcased the first motherboard seen based on AMD's upcoming 8-series chipset. The ECS A880GM-M is based on the RS880-derived AMD 880G chipset. The chipset succeeds the existing AMD 780G, in providing a high performance mainstream chipset with a strong integrated graphics processor. The RS880 chipset is known to feature an RV620 class IGP with an expanded feature-set. Learn more about the RS880 here.

The ECS A880GM-M targets the next-generation mainstream AMD motherboard segment that features support for DDR3 memory. AMD as we know, is releasing an entire range of quad-core, triple-core and dual-core CPU lineup that is based on the DDR3-supportive AM3 socket package. By mid-2010 one can expect DDR3 supportive AMD processors that are backwards compatible with DDR2-supportive AM2+/AM2 motherboards, in any given value thru mainstream price-point. A880GM-M is based on the micro-ATX form factor. Its release will be in-sync with AMD's release of the chipset, which as older reports suggest, is sometime in H2 2009.

AMD processors finally get to address DDR3 memory on the new AM3 socket. Compatible processors under the Phenom II and Athlon X3, X4 banners that come in AM3 socket packages, will run initially on updated AMD 7-series chipset variants, and later be succeeded by the the company's RD890 and RS880 chipset cores. HKEPC compiled some information on the RS880 core logic. The "RS" prefix for AMD GPG chipsets mark the presence of integrated graphics. Based on the performance efficiency of the RSx80 dice, they're branded into the mainstream RSx80 product (eg: RS780 for AMD 780G), RSx80C for a value product (eg: RS780C for AMD 740G) and a high-end RSx80D (eg: in AMD 790GX).

The RS880 will use feature-set refresh, though will embed a rather dated RV620-class graphics processor. The IGP will have DirectX 10.1 API compliance. Specifications-wise it is identical to the RS780, both sport 40 stream processors, 8 texture address and 4 texture filtering units, though the core speed on the RS880 is expected to be significantly higher. The feature-set refresh, as stated earlier, includes support for Universal Video Decoder 2 (UVD-2), in addition to 100% hardware acceleration for VC-1, H.264 and MPEG-2 bitstream decoding. Also provided is video dynamic-contrast. The IGP supports HDMI with audio routing, and DisplayPort. The chipset will be released in Q3 2009. Like the current RS780, the RS880 will be manufactured on the 55nm node of TSMC. It will be used on motherboards with companion SB710 or SB800 southbridge chips.