AMD is inching toward a possible post-x86 future for itself, beginning with its enterprise product stack. In a blog-post, the company outlined a landmark product bearing its enterprise Opteron branding, codenamed "Seattle," which will be designed for scalar data-centers. Based on the 64-bit ARMv8 architecture by ARM, the chip will feature either four or eight cores based on AMD's own implementation of ARMv8, and a high-bandwidth integrated memory controller with support for up to 128 GB of system memory with ECC.

Since ARM-based processors are traditionally part of heavily integrated systems on chips (SoCs), "Seattle" will be an SoC, and among other things, will integrate a 10 Gb/s Ethernet controller, with support for AMD's FreedomFabric technology. Linux kernel 3.7 and above will come with ARMv8 architecture support, and Microsoft is already developing a Windows kernel with ARMv8 support that will be implemented on both its client (Windows RT, Windows Phone) product lines, and a future version of Windows Server. That said, AMD won't give up on x86. As the only active x86 licensee apart from VIA, AMD will continue to make APUs with 64-bit x86 cores for as far as the eye can see (in other words 2015). Future of its client CPU (non-APU) lineup based on the AM3+ socket, however, appears bleak.

Xi3 Corporation today announced that its PISTON Console will be available for purchase beginning on Black Friday: November 29, 2013. Xi3 customers who pre-ordered a PISTON Console during or before the SXSW 2013 Gaming Expo will receive their PISTON Consoles on or before November 15, 2013.

"The PISTON Console is just Xi3's first step in what we believe will be a transformative technology revolution for the Living Room," said Jason A. Sullivan, Xi3's founder, president and CEO. "Unfortunately, I can't tell you what I know is coming because it's not time to tell you. But I will say this: the bar has been raised. PISTON is smaller, lighter, and will last longer, provide more gaming options and be more powerful than any other gaming console on the planet. The reason I feel confident in saying this is because we started with a clean slate, unlike competing manufacturers. And that Tabula Rasa approach is what sets PISTON apart from other gaming systems today and what will set us apart tomorrow.

AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced a new addition to its 2013 Elite Mobility processor family, expanding the options available for anyone seeking crystal-clear HD entertainment, power efficiency, and accelerated performance in small screen touch notebooks, tablets, and hybrids. The AMD Elite Quad-Core A4-1350 accelerated processor is the second quad-core accelerated processing pnit (APU) in this category, with an estimated average power at or below 3 watts for many common use cases. The new APU is expected to begin shipping to customers in October, 2013. Other AMD Elite Mobility APUs are available in systems today, including the HP Pavilion11 TouchSmart and the Acer Aspire V5.

"Following the tremendous reception from customers to the launch of our 2013 Elite Mobility APUs, we are excited to strengthen our portfolio with the addition of the A4-1350," said Bernd Lienhard, corporate vice president, AMD Client Business Unit. "With quad-core performance, AMD Radeon HD graphics and long battery life, the A4-1350 is an ideal solution for new form factors like hybrid and convertible PCs."

AMD today announced new CPU offerings for the AMD Embedded R-Series high-performance computing platform, along with the introduction of a discrete GPU promotional program to provide embedded designers more choices for meeting demanding performance requirements.

The new options include quad-core and dual-core CPUs scaling from 2.2 GHz to 3.2 GHz with Thermal Design Power (TDP) ranging from 17 to 35 watts for applications that require high performance x86 compute such as network attached storage (NAS). To address high-end visual needs for applications like digital gaming and signage that require high-performance x86 compute coupled with industry-leading discrete graphics, AMD is introducing a new discrete GPU promotional program that provides customers with both a CPU and discrete GPU for savings of up to 20 percent.

Jon Peddie Research (JPR), the industry's research and consulting firm for graphics and multimedia, announced estimated graphics chip shipments and suppliers' market share for 2013 2Q. While the news was disappointing year-to-year, the news was encouraging quarter-to-quarter. AMD overall unit shipments increased 10.9%, quarter-to-quarter, Intel increased 6.2%, and Nvidia decreased by 8%. The overall PC market declined 2.5% quarter-to-quarter while the graphics market increased 4.6%. Overall this net 7.1% increase reflects an interest on the part of consumers for double-attach-the adding of a discrete GPU to a system with integrated processor graphics, and to a lesser extent dual AIBs in performance desktop machines.

On a year-to-year basis we found that total graphics shipments during Q2'13 dropped 6.8% while PC shipments which declined by at a faster rate of 11.2% overall. GPUs are traditionally a leading indicator of the market, since a GPU goes into every system before it is shipped and most of the PC vendors are guiding down to flat for Q3'13. The popularity of tablets and the persistent economic slowness are the most often mentioned reasons for the decline in the PC market and the CAGR for PC graphics from 2012 to 2016 is -1.4%; we expect the total shipments of graphics chips in 2016 to be 319 million units.

AMD today announced a new low-power Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) in the award-winning AMD G-Series SOC family with the GX-210JA, further reducing x86 power requirements for embedded designs. The new GX-210JA APU, a full System-on-Chip (SoC) design, uses one third less energy than the previous low-power Embedded G-Series SOC product while providing industry-leading graphics capabilities.

At only 6 watts maximum thermal design power (TDP), and approximately 3 watts expected average power, this new member of the G-Series SOC family will enable additional fanless designs for a variety of applications ranging from industrial controls and automation, digital gaming, communications infrastructure and visual embedded products including thin client, digital signage and medical imaging.

Even though AMD's next-generation Kaveri APU, based on the Steamroller x86 CPU, GCN (Graphics Core Next) GPU, and HUMA memory architecture might not arrive until late in 1H of 2014, its successor is already named and being worked on by AMD. Carizo, successor to Kaveri, will arrive sometime in 2015, we are betting before the end of 1H 2015, and will feature further improvements in AMD's big APU push.

While nothing is confirmed, Carizo most probably packs AMD's next-in-line Excavator CPU core and perhaps an improved GCN based GPU core. Memory architecture will undoubtedly feature further improvements, in line with AMD's big push for heterogeneous computing and unified memory.

Acer America today announced that it has expanded its line of Acer C7 Chromebook models for its commercial customers, including schools and businesses that need reliable, fast and affordable technology for their students and work forces. The two new models both have a fast 16GB Solid State Drives (SSDs), which enhance boot times and access to apps, as well as a 6-cell battery that delivers up to 6-hour battery life for all-day learning and productivity. Customers have the choice of two new models -- the Acer C710-2826 with 2GB of DDR3 RAM, and the Acer C710-2815 with 4GB DDR3 RAM.

Our new Acer C7 Chromebooks deliver exactly what the K-12 education market and so many businesses require -- solid performance at an affordable price with up to 6-hours of battery life," said Gregg Prendergast, vice president, U.S. Commercial Sales, Acer America. "Acer C7 Chromebooks will help our customers at schools -- students, teachers and administrators -- as well as our business customers, get to work and be productive right away for longer."

Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced it is shipping server memory solutions for microservers, a new and growing segment of the server market. Kingston has both 1.35v low-voltage ECC SO-DIMMs and unregistered DIMMs in 1600MHz and 1333MHz frequencies to support both x86 or ARM-based processors and system-on -chip (SoC) designs.

Microservers are quickly gaining in popularity as companies seek powerful, yet more energy- and physical-space efficient solutions that serve specific data center needs or cloud applications. Examples include web and cloud hosting, and big data where terabytes or petabytes of information sets are analyzed per second. Kingston's low-voltage, high-performing microserver memory modules are the perfect match to help accomplish these tasks.

SanDisk Corporation, a global leader in flash memory storage solutions, today announced a significant upgrade to its enterprise software portfolio with a new version of its FlashSoft software for Windows Server and Linux operating systems. FlashSoft 3.2 server-side solid state caching software complements and enhances the performance of existing applications, and server and storage systems.

"Solid state storage strategies are changing the economics of data management. The challenge, however, is adding enterprise flash technology without major disruptions to ongoing IT operations," said Jeff Boles, senior analyst and director of Lab Validation Services, The Taneja Group. "SanDisk's FlashSoft software efficiently integrates solid state cache into servers without changing where data is stored or the features and capabilities of a consolidated storage approach. This 'disruptionless' approach dramatically simplifies the introduction of solid state, and allows SanDisk customers to immediately address performance challenges without changing existing storage strategies."

AMD today publicly disclosed its strategy and roadmap to recapture market share in enterprise and data center servers by unveiling innovative products that address key technologies and meet the requirements of the fastest-growing data center and cloud computing workloads.

Additionally, AMD revealed details of its 2014 server portfolio including best-in-class Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), two- and four-socket CPUs, and details on what it expects to be the industry's premier ARM server processor. This is on the heels of announcing the general availability of the AMD Opteron X-Series processor, code named "Kyoto," which dominates the small-core server market on every performance benchmark. These forthcoming AMD Opteron processors bring important innovations to the rapidly changing compute market, including integrated CPU and GPU compute (APU); high core-count ARM servers for high-density compute in the data center; and substantial improvements in compute per-watt per-dollar and total cost of ownership.

AMD unveiled the first batch of Athlon X4 CPUs in the socket FM2 package, based on its latest Richland silicon. These chips stop short of being labeled APUs, for they lack integrated graphics. You need a discrete graphics card. Unlike its previous generation "Trinity" silicon-based Athlon X4 CPUs, AMD unveiled a few parts with high clock speeds, some even with unlocked base-clock multipliers, targeting consumers who want to build socket FM2-based gaming PCs, but don't intend to use the integrated graphics.

At the top of the stack is the Athlon X4 760K Black Edition (AD760KWOHLBOX). This chip offers 3.80 GHz of clock speed, and 4.10 GHz maximum Turbo Core frequency. Despite its lack of the graphics core, its TDP is rated on par with the A10-6800K, at 100W. In its consumer-friendly PIB (processor-in-box) package, the X4-760K Black Edition is priced around US $135. A variant of this exact chip, which lacks unlocked BClk multiplier, is named just Athlon X4 760K (the "K" here can be misleading), and is priced around $100. AMD has other quad-core and dual-core Athlon parts based on the "Richland" silicon planned for later.

AMD today announced exclusive collaboration with Square Enix to optimize "THIEF" for the Graphics Core Next architecture in select AMD Radeon graphics processors, as well as the x86 and graphics architectures featured in AMD A-Series APUs. Developed in conjunction with the AMD Gaming Evolved program, "THIEF" will extensively leverage the advanced capabilities of AMD Radeon graphics processors, including AMD Eyefinity multi-display technology for panoramic gaming, AMD CrossFire multi-GPU technology for supreme performance, and state-of-the-art DirectX 11 rendering for pristine image quality.

"The 'THIEF' franchise has a storied history that we are proud to join in this latest installment," said Matt Skynner, corporate vice president and general manager, Graphics Business Unit, AMD. "We are even more pleased to work so closely with their development team to realize the vision for these games with the incredible gaming performance of a PC powered by AMD Radeon graphics. And as the exclusive hardware partner for 'THIEF,' we continue to demonstrate that the best experience for gamers and developers lives at AMD with the Gaming Evolved program."

AMD today unveiled its most powerful member of the legendary AMD FX family of CPUs, the world's first commercially available 5 GHz CPU processor, the AMD FX-9590. These 8-core CPUs deliver new levels of gaming and multimedia performance for desktop enthusiasts. AMD FX-9000 Series CPUs will be available initially in PCs through system integrators.

"At E3 this week, AMD demonstrated why it is at the core of gaming," said Bernd Lienhard, corporate vice president and general manager, Client Products Division at AMD. "The new FX 5 GHz processor is an emphatic performance statement to the most demanding gamers seeking ultra-high resolution experiences including AMD Eyefinity technology. This is another proud innovation for AMD in delivering the world's first commercially available 5 GHz processor."

Intel announced its much anticipated 4th generation Core processor family, codenamed "Haswell." The company launched as many as eight desktop retail processor models, all of which are quad-core, and spread across the Core i7 and Core i5 families. Leading the pack is the Core i7-4770K, which fully utilizes the 1.4 billion-transistor silicon, including four x86-64 cores with HyperThreading enabling eight logical CPUs, a new-generation HD Graphics 4600 core with 20 execution units, 8 MB of L3 cache, a dual-channel integrated memory controller supporting up to 32 GB of high-frequency DDR3 memory, and a 20-lane PCI-Express gen 3.0 root complex. The chip features unlocked base-clock multiplier, three BClk ratios, and iVR (integrated VRM).

The i7-4770K features 3.50 GHz clocks, and 3.90 GHz Turbo Boost. It is priced around US $350 in most stores. A variant without the unlocked base-clock multiplier and 3.40 GHz clocks, the Core i7-4770, is being sold around $320. An energy-efficient version of this chip, the Core i7-4770S, is priced around $310, it lacks unlocked BClk multiplier, and is clocked at 3.10 GHz, with the same 3.90 GHz Turbo Boost. While the other two feature 84W TDP, the i7-4770S features 65W.

AMD today unveiled a new family of low power server processors: the AMD Opteron X-Series optimized for scale-out server architectures. The first AMD Opteron X-Series processors, formerly known as "Kyoto," are the highest density, most power-efficient small core x86 processors ever built. The new X1150 and X2150 processors beat the top performing Intel Atom processor on key performance benchmarks, including single thread and throughput performance with superior power-efficiency, twice the cores and L2 cache with a more advanced pipeline architecture, higher integration and support for up to 32 gigabytes of DRAM -- 4x more than the Intel Atom processor.

The AMD Opteron X-Series processors come in two variants. The AMD Opteron X2150, which consumes as little as 11 watts, is the first server APU system-on-a-chip integrating CPU and GPU engines with a high-speed bus on a single die. This enables customers to take advantage of leading-edge AMD Radeon HD 8000 graphics technology for multimedia-oriented server workloads. The AMD Opteron X1150, which consumes as little as 9 watts, is a CPU-only version optimized for general scale-out workloads.

After bagging chip supply deals for all three new-generation consoles -- Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Wii U, things are looking up for AMD. While Wii U uses older-generation hardware technologies, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 use the very latest AMD has to offer -- "Jaguar" 64-bit x86 CPU micro-architecture, and Graphics CoreNext GPU architecture. Chips that run the two consoles have a lot in common, but also a few less-than-subtle differences.

PlayStation 4 chip, which came to light this February, is truly an engineer's fantasy. It combines eight "Jaguar" 64-bit x86 cores clocked at 1.60 GHz, with a fairly well spec'd Radeon GPU, which features 1,156 stream processors, 32 ROPs; and a 256-bit wide unified GDDR5 memory interface, clocked at 5.50 GHz. At these speeds, the system gets a memory bandwidth of 176 GB/s. Memory isn't handled like UMA (unified memory architecture), there's no partition between system- and graphics-memory. The two are treated as items on the same 8 GB of memory, and either can use up a majority of it.

AMD today launched three new additions to its 2013 A-Series and E-Series Mobile Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) lineup -- delivering solutions ideally positioned to address today's evolving PC market with dramatically increased performance and power efficiency, as well as a portfolio of unique user experiences, and superior gaming and graphics:

• The 2013 AMD Elite Mobility APU (formerly codenamed "Temash") -- the world's first 28nm, quad-core x86 system-on-a-chip (SoC) APU designed for touch small form-factor notebooks, tablets, and hybrids 13-inches and below;
• The 2013 AMD Mainstream APU (formerly codenamed "Kabini") -- the first and only quad-core x86 SoC solution for entry-level and small-form factor touch notebooks;
• New, low power versions of the 2013 AMD Elite Performance APU (formerly codenamed "Richland") -- offer the best graphics and compute in a performance APU for premium ultrathin notebooks.

Innodisk, a designer and manufacturer of SSDs for commercial and industrial applications, announces a release of the industrial-embedded industry's first SATA device in accordance to SATA µSSD standards - nanoSSD.

Through the integration of a control chip, flash memory and peripheral power components into a single ball grid array (BGA) package, Innodisk has managed to reduce the size of the nanoSSD to approximately 1% the size of a 2.5" SSD. With dimensions of only 16 x 20 x 2 mm (WxLxH), a weight of only 1.5g, SATA III support, capacities ranging from 4 to 64 GB and both x86 and ARM compatibility, nanoSSD can be incorporated into a wide variety of applications where a small form-factor and high transfer rates are important, including industrial mobile devices, embedded systems, tablets, high-end smart phones and Ultrabooks.

Desktop variants of AMD "Richland" APUs in the socket FM2 package, will arrive this June. Three of the first models to be released to the market, the A10-6800K, the A10-6700, and the A4-4400, could already be in stock with certain retailers, and were pictured. The A10-6800K (AD680KWOA44HL) features four x86-64 cores based on the "Piledriver" micro-architecture, 4.10 GHz core clock speed, 4.40 GHz maximum Turbo Core frequency, and Radeon HD 8670D graphics, clocked at 844 MHz. It features an unlocked base-clock multiplier.

The A10-6700 (AD6700OKA44HL) features the same graphics core as the A10-6800K, but features 3.70 GHz CPU clock speed, 4.30 GHz maximum Turbo Core frequency, and an upwards locked base-clock multiplier. The A4-4400 (AD4400OKA23HL), on the other hand, is an entry-level dual-core chip with 3.70 GHz core, 3.90 GHz Turbo Core, and Radeon HD 8370D graphics.

AMD (NYSE:AMD) today announced revenue for the first quarter of 2013 of $1.09 billion, an operating loss of $98 million and a net loss of $146 million, or $0.19 per share. The company reported a non-GAAP operating loss of $46 million and a non-GAAP net loss of $94 million, or $0.13 per share.

"Our first quarter results reflect our disciplined operational execution in a difficult market environment," said Rory Read, AMD president and CEO. "We have largely completed our restructuring and are now focused on delivering a powerful set of new products that will accelerate our business in 2013. We will continue to diversify our portfolio and attack high-growth markets like dense server, ultra low-power client, embedded and semi-custom solutions to create the foundation for sustainable financial returns."

Thecus releases an all new 2-bay N2520 and 4-bay N4520 NAS server to lead the competition. The latest 2 and 4 bay NAS are designed to offer a revolutionary experience to the NAS industry. It utilizes the latest Intel Atom processor with 1GB RAM (N2520) and 2GB RAM (N4520). In addition, superspeed USB 3.0 fosters quick transfers, HDMI output is convenient for multimedia playback and McAfee Antivirus protection is to keep your NAS operating smoothly. The past proves merit; innovative technologies have been utilized to develop the new N2520/N4520 NAS to serve one single purpose: improve user experience and satisfaction.

"The integration of the new Intel Atom processor CE5315 and Thecus award-winning NAS is truly a revolution. We are proud to be the initial storage manufacture to embed Intel's first SoC storage dedicated chip, said Florence Shih, General Manager of Thecus. This pairing is phenomenal because it offers a new energy efficient, multimedia powerhouse and performance driven NAS solution to the storage industry."

Ahead of its unveiling last week, it was expected that Sony's PlayStation 4 console would be driven by little more than an AMD A-Series "Trinity" APU. It ended up being a lot more than that. The custom-design SoC that drives the next-generation console is a joint effort between AMD and Sony, which integrates an 8-core x86-64 CPU based on the company's new "Jaguar" micro-architecture; a GPU based on its Graphics CoreNext technology; a GDDR5 integrated memory controller, and certain enhancements by Sony. In an interview with The Inquirer, the company hinted that it's interested in porting the SoC over to the PC platform, minus Sony's share of the development.

AMD hedged its low-power CPU bets on the "Bobcat" micro-architecture for the past two years now. Intel's Atom line of low-power chips caught up in power-efficiency, CPU performance, to an extant iGPU performance, and recent models even feature out-of-order execution. AMD unveiled its next-generation "Jaguar" low-power CPU micro-architecture for APUs in the 5W - 25W TDP range, targeting everything from tablets to entry-level notebooks, and nettops.

At its presentation at the 60th ISSC 2013 conference, AMD detailed "Jaguar," revealing a few killer features that could restore the company's competitiveness in the low-power CPU segment. To begin with, APUs with CPU cores based on this micro-architecture will be built on TSMC's 28-nanometer HKMG process. Jaguar allows for up to four x86-64 cores. The four cores, unlike Bulldozer modules, are completely independent, and only share a 2 MB L2 cache.

Gigabyte rolled out a new mini-ITX motherboard based on the AMD E350 "Zacate" APU, for entry-level PC and home-server builds, the E350N-WIN8. As the name might suggest, the board is designed to run Windows 8 with its entire feature set, including Fast Boot. It does that by replacing legacy AwardBIOS on older variants, with modern AMI UEFI, backed by Gigabyte's Dual-UEFI redundant BIOS technology that protects against failed BIOS updates. The E350N WIN8 uses a fairly big (SFF-safe) fan-heatsink to cool the APU, while a tiny heatsink cools its companion A45 FCH chipset.

The AMD E350 packs two x86-64 cores clocked at 1.60 GHz, with a maximum memory support of 16 GB, and AMD Radeon HD 6310D DirectX 11 graphics that rides on 80 stream processors. The APU is wired to two standard-size 240-pin DIMM slots. The lone expansion slot, sadly, is a legacy PCI. The board draws power from a combination of 24-pin and 4-pin ATX connectors. Connectivity includes four SATA 3 Gb/s ports, eight USB 2.0/1.1 ports (four on the rear panel, four by headers), serial RS232 (COM) and parallel (LPT) ports, PS/2 mouse and keyboard connectors, and display outputs that include D-Sub (VGA) and HDMI (with 7.1-channel digital HD audio). Expect a sub-$100 price point.