Tuesday, June 8, 2010

PC Hardware Updates: AMD Llano - Hybrid CPU+GPU

Advanced Micro Devices, the world’s second largest maker of microprocessors, said that it had obtained sampled of its Fusion family of products – code-named Llano and Ontario – and that production of certain chips with integrated graphics will begin already in late 2010, which means that at least Llano chips are on-track for launch in early 2011.

Llano Samples Shipping to Customers, Ontario Samples Available Internally

“We plan to commence volume production in the back half of this year. We do now have internal samples of both of our initial Fusion designs, we are learning quite a lot, and are quite happy with what we see, and we started sampling to select customers, one of those two designs,” said Dirk Meyer, chief executive officer and president of AMD, during the quarterly conference call with financial analysts.
The two Fusion products Mr. Meyer talked about are Llano, which is aimed at various notebooks, including low-power and high-end; as well as Ontario, which is designed for various ultra low-voltage devices, such as netbooks, tablets and so on.

AMD Llano: AMD Phenom II + ATI Radeon HD 5000

Quite a lot is known about Llano processor, which is a part of Sabine platform. As reported earlier, AMD Llano accelerated processing unit (APU) will have four x86 cores based on the current micro-architecture each of which will have 9.69mm² die size (without L2 cache), a little more than 35 million transistors (without L2 cache), 2.5W – 25W power consumption, 0.8V – 1.3V voltage and target clock-speeds at over 3.0GHz clock-speed. The cores will dynamically scale their clock-speeds and voltages within the designated thermal design power in order to boost performance when a program does not require all four processing engines or trim power consumption when there is no demand for resources. According to sources familiar with the matter, different versions of Llano processor will have thermal design power varying from 20W to 59W: high-end dual-core, triple-core and quad-core chips will have TDP between 35W and 59W; mainstream chips with two of four x86 cores will fit into 30W thermal envelope and low-power dual-core Llano chips will have 20W TDP. Llano will be made using 32nm SOI process technology.
AMD Sabine platform will also include code-named Hudson input/output controllers that will support PCI Express graphics port, 16 USB ports, USB 3.0 support (Hudson M3 only), 6 Serial ATA ports with RAID support, 1Gb Ethernet, integrated video DAC, integrated clock-generator and so on. Besides, Sabine may also feature optional Vancouver-series graphics processing units.

AMD Bobcat: New Micro-Architecture + DirectX 11 Graphics

Much less is known about AMD’s code-named Ontario product, which is a part of Brazos platform. According to AMD, Bobcat chips will feature x86-64, virtualization, SSE, SSE2, SSE3 technologies and will be single-threaded with out-of-order execution. The actual Ontario microprocessor, which is a dual-core chip, will be able to offer 90% of today’s “mainstream performance” in less than half of die area. AMD claims that Bobcat-based products are sub-1W capable, hence, such chips will be able to address products in various form-factors, including slate-type PCs. AMD also says that AMD Ontario solutions are single-chip products.
“[Bobcat] is the brand new x86 micro-architecture, which first appears in the Ontario product which we talked about in the analyst conference. The Ontario product is really focused on, I’ll call it value PCs and netbooks, but the Bobcat technology and other technologies that we have in house are appropriate for lower power envelopes [and products like] pads. You’ll see Bobcat-based products show up the following year [in] these market segments,” said Mr. Meyer.


Source: X-bit Labs

Friday, June 4, 2010

PC HARDWARE REVIEW: THE AMAZING JOURNEY

Before we begin, please take a deep breath and exhale slowly and then start reading the story anytime now. 


THE JOURNEY - PREQUEL 

Friday, woke up earlier than usual...fetched my girlfriend to class, headed straight to TMpoint Pandan Indah and heck, I hate that place because it reminds me of being somewhere full of slumberous staffs. 

Before I get a move on from the college, I met some of my school mates. One goes " Hey ! I wanna go too !!" but how unfortunate he's got a class going on, then another goes " Huh !? Why not go Titiwangsa branch?" *yeah duh, on a bike, lol. Anyway, as I was on my way there going against the 7:30am strong wind and rain, I gracefully reached TMpoint.....the first one there, lol. 

A few minutes after i reached TMpoint, few uncles respawned instantly with their daughter and son to register the Shitmyx UnCoolUniPad, I told then how Un-Cool is mine and how Un-Cool theirs will be and so on and so forth. Few of them overheard my conversation with one of them and gave me a looks of doubt, which I'm not surprised to see.



Waited for another few minutes, the fort barricade finally opens and the Zerglings (Uncles) rushed in like there is no tomorrow and I patiently went in after them. The Zerglings (Uncles) quickly and undoubtedly smacked (pressed) on the buttons for a number which most of them had actually no idea what is what until the receptionist explained what the numbers are for and for which Pylon (counter) they must Attack (que) in.

I went in there and kept my cool as my pants is full of wetness from the rain, which looks sexy by the way....lol. Talked a few lines, asked some technical questions, get to hear something I expect to hear and expected what they can only do for the day (Friggin inefficient pylons!!). 

After the first objective of the day has been settled, a new master objective appeared !!!

THE JOURNEY - PART ONE - The Dream

Once I have come out of the TMpoint vault, I set aside everything to search for something and that something is not to be found easily, without clues exactly where its last known location is. 

The search went on by giving a few turns and skids and some sudden brakes, I'm near to giving up on seaching the object which is hunted by many enthusiast. 

As I finally succumb to confusion, I'm somewhere near giving up on searching the godly object that is desired by many. Suddenly, a call from nowhere informed me that "he" (Ah Ken, lol), is looking for the same thing and would want me to help him, which automatically became my "Side Quest" of the day. 
Before I actually gone "giving up" the main quest, I told myself I have to find it no matter what ! I quickly went into a "Tavern" (Cyber Cafe), and found The "Oracle" (PCs) and asked away the last known location of the godly object. The Oracle, gave me alot of strange numbers that I cannot comprehend but I still scribble it down into my journal (Mobile Phone) and hope to find it soon. 


http://www.nomadicmatt.com/images/internetcafe.jpg

After getting a lead from The Oracle, I continue my search on the last known location of the godly object. Again, in confusion and I stopped to look around and decided to ask a magician who is fixing his magic machine (Air-Conditioner mechanic). I asked him " Excuse me dear sir, where can I find thou godly object?" and he ignored my words....instead his apprentice pointed me a direction, towards north (upstairs). I quickly approached that location with a thumping heart...hoping to find what I am able to find.

When I reached the last known location of the object, a young man stood at the side of the stair looking at me for a moment and told me I will not find what I am looking for, I was told it was no longer here nearby. 

I took a deep breath, and walked on with hope to find what I am looking for.....I journeyed deep back into my own kingdom hoping for further news.

THE JOURNEY - PART TWO - The Awakening

When I reached back to my kingdom (home, lol), I immediately send out messengers (private messages) to the other Kingdoms (Shops) who knows any news on the object. 

With not much faith left, I went into rest and hoping for a good news. As I roll around my bed again and again and again sleepless, I woke up by the news on the godly object. 

I am rejoiced by the news and made a deal with the Kingdom that have news on the godly object or possibly.........even the object itself.


THE JOURNEY - PART TWO - The Search

Once prepared, I am accompanied by my queen and my brother's trusty stallion to search for the object. 
Accodring the map, the location of the kingdom is no where to be seen by a normal person, a hunter, adventurer or a magician might know the location but not the exact. 

After 30 minutes of travelling into the wilderness, I find myself lost in the woods of concrete roads leading to everywhere! I had to stop to feed my brother's stallion and continue my journey. 

After an hour of  searching the object and so many hills and bumpy roads passed, we finally reaching close to the location. Unfortunately, before we can easily reach the kingdom, I had to slay three gargantuan roundabout that blocks the path of my main objective. 

After some big fights, I have finally reached the kingdom.....

THE JOURNEY - PART THREE - The End

When I have reached home, I quickly grabbed my laptop and snapped few picts of the godly object I mentioned, I will be very impressed if some of you guys actually read my whole nonsense story. (but hey ! At least its a story ! lol.....booooo to those who didn't read, lololol just kidding guys.)



From Pandan Indah to Lowyat Plaza to....to Subang Jaya ! I finally found the LAST UNIT of the week  or probably the month (except C-Zone isn't willing to sell seperately, damn !) !! 
Amazingly the dudes at CEX Computer Exchange gave me a good deal because I'm so supportive, lol.

Stay tune for some bechmarks soon !

Visit Link for more news and updates ! http://www.sonoftrinity.blogspot.com