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On Gear Live: Black Friday 2009: Walmart ad leaked: $78 Blu-ray player!

Bleeding Edge TV 272: Computex 2008 - AMD Live! Home Theatre hardware

Posted by Nate True Categories: Gizmatic, HDTV, Home Entertainment, Household, PC / Laptop, Videocasts, Videos


AMD shows us how the home theatre PC arena is getting exciting again. Thanks to AMD Live!, manufacturers are finally creating affordable high-quality and high-performance components for the home theatre PC. Inexpensive platforms supporting full-resolution 1080p HD and 7.1 channel surround sound are being manufactured and will be out for sale real soon.

We love the intiative AMD has taken on this one! We talk with Jay Taylor of AMD Live! and have a look at the new components.


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Bleeding Edge TV 269: Computex 2008 - A Talk with AMD’s Pat Moorhead about Turion X2

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Gizmatic, PC / Laptop, Videocasts, Videos


We caught up with Pat Moorhead of and had a chat with him about the new Turion X2 chipsets and the new Hybrid Graphics technology, which allows dynamic switching between integrated and discrete graphics cards, with no restart required.  The technology promises better battery life and enhanced rendering performance (although, unfortunately, not necessarily at the same time).

Stay tuned for more news from Computex 2008.


CES 2008 Video: AMD PUMA demonstrations

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Gizmatic, Short Bytes, CES, CES 2008, Features, PC / Laptop, Podcasts, Videocasts


In this segment, we look at two similarly equipped Dell notebooks to examine the benefits provided by ‘s integrated graphics option versus the competition’s, and take a first-hand look at a Half-Life 2 demo run on a Puma-based reference system, in hybrid mode, utilizing both the system’s discreet and integrated graphics chips over Crossfire.


CES 2008 Video: Tour the AMD Smart House

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Full Episodes, Gizmatic, CES, CES 2008, Features, Handhelds, Home Entertainment, Household, PC / Laptop, Podcasts, Portable Audio / Video, Video Games, Videocasts


While at , we got the opportunity to check out the Smart House. The Smart House is a demonstration by AMD of all the different ways that their processors can help enhance day-to-day life of every day consumers. The Mother/Father/Daughter/Sun schtick is a bit thick at times, but the potential of the smart home of the future shines through nonetheless.


CES 2008 Video: A Hands-On look at the AMD Puma Notebook platform

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Full Episodes, Gizmatic, CES, CES 2008, Corporate News, Features, PC / Laptop, Podcasts, Videocasts


We take a close look at ‘s recently announced “Puma” notebook platform. Puma is a tightly-knit system for notebook suppliers comprising of the chipset, CPU, GPU and wireless chipset. Similar in some ways to their Spider desktop platform, Puma takes it to the next level by allowing for a hybrid integrated and discreet graphics solution. While Intel has something similar, AMD is apparently the first to offer a dynamically switchable system, allowing your notebook to automatically switch to integrated graphics when it detects you’ve gone on battery, or to allow you to switch manually. I asked if they plan on making it automatic, based on load, which they seemed to think was a pretty great idea and relatively easy to achieve as well. What’s more, despite the fact that the integrated and discreet GPUs are chips of differing abilities and specs, they’re still able to operate in Crossfire/hybrid mode, providing an extra boost in power and achieving some very impressive framerates.

AMD shows us their reference bench system and two other identically-configured systems, the only difference between them an Intel versus AMD integrated graphics chipset. (And CPU, naturally.) With a price difference of around $25 to AMD’s favor, the AMD integrated chip actually performs considerably better in their demo, grain of salt included. The reference system shows off their hybrid processing and lets us see what framerates we might be able to hit on an entry- to mid-level hybrid Puma system.

Puma also brings about something that’s been announced with Intel as well—the ability to deactivate CPU cores and speeds, instead of just stepping down speed. This, coupled with an intelligent HD decoder will bring about several hours of additional battery life.


CES 2008 Video: AMD Spider platform, Dual-Chip Radeon R870

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Full Episodes, Gizmatic, CES, CES 2008, Corporate News, Features, PC / Laptop, Peripherals, Podcasts, Video Games, Videocasts


We take a few moments with ‘s Rick Bergman, General Manager of the Graphics Processing Group, about their new Spider platform—a three-tiered computing system that helps tie together and ensure compatibility between the chipset, CPU and GPU. We talk about what sort of benefits this means to the enthusiast-class consumer. We also dive into the nitty-gritty with the new , currently codenamed the R870—a dual chip design that has two separate GPU units with an internal Crossfire link and Alternate-Frame Rendering to tie them together. I also ask about some of the design challenges realized in smashing two cards together and getting an efficient, workable result. The design is impressive and the ability to link two of these cards together will come to mean a great deal of graphics processing power in the near future.

The card will be available late January and can be powered in a typical system by a 500 watt power supply; has cut their power requirements for similarly powered cards in half, without sacrificing any performance.


CES 2008 Video: Pat Moorhead on AMD Smart House and CPU Roadmap

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Full Episodes, Gizmatic, Cell Phones, CES, CES 2008, Corporate News, Features, HDTV, Home Entertainment, PC / Laptop, Podcasts, Videocasts


We talk to ‘s Marketing VP, Pat Moorhead about the Smart House “portal” they had set up at . In contrast to our last post, they were much more open this time and let me ask just about any questions I asked, including questions about their roadmap and some very cool details about their new “Black” edition, incredibly overclocker-friendly CPU. We also learn more about their mobile device chipset and hear that we’ll be able to output HD content from cell phones and other mobile devices running on ATI chips within the next year or so, straight to an . Cool stuff.


CES 2008 Video: A look at AMD’s Demographic Reach

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Full Episodes, Gizmatic, CES, CES 2008, Corporate News, Features, PC / Laptop, Podcasts, Videocasts


We talk about the demographic reach of AMD and how AMD has its technology in hundreds of non-PC products.


CES 2008 Video: Pat Moorhead on AMD graphics roadmap and ATI Radeon

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Full Episodes, Gizmatic, CES, CES 2008, Corporate News, Features, PC / Laptop, Podcasts, Videocasts


We chat with ‘s Pat Moorhead, this time talking from their Smart House about their involvement in gaming systems like the and , and their new quad-Crossfire capable Radeon offerings.


CES 2008 Video: AMD on Accelerated Computing

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Full Episodes, Gizmatic, CES, CES 2008, Features, PC / Laptop, Podcasts, Software, Videocasts


At 2008, ‘s Phil Hester gave us a look at what “accelerated computing” means. AMD is in a unique position with their acquisition of ATi that allows them to fuse the CPU and GPU into one chip, which could potentially provide for an unparalleled computing experience, especially when it comes to gaming.


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