Austin is among the places that people are flocking to in the recession, according to BusinessWeek. Other magazines have given Austin (and all of Texas) similar praise, mostly because it’s so darn cheap to live here. But I don’t want to lie to y’all — Austin may not be the best place to build […]
Tweet This

Click here to read more from AMD

Next week Dell plans to announce a server based on the Nano chip from VIA Technologies, the Taiwanese x86 vendor known for its low-power chips for netbooks and other portable computers, according to the New York Times. Putting VIA chips in servers reduces both the cost and power consumption of servers — something important for […]

Click here to read more from AMD

Intel this week announced a $12 million investment into a visual computing research program focused on using three-dimensional imaging for entertainment, data analysis, medical imaging and scientific research. The Intel Visual Computing Institute is located at Saarland University in Saarbrücken, Germany, and will receive the $12 million over the next five years. The investment is […]

Click here to read more from AMD

Nvidia today unveiled a system for high-performance computing that uses four graphics processors to provide 1 teraflop of computing power, and multiple units can be easily combined to form a GPU-based computing cluster. The system competes with CPU-based clusters that employ Intel or AMD chips, but offers faster performance on some tasks while using less […]

Click here to read more from AMD

Intel today unveiled its latest and greatest Nehalem chip for servers (now known as the Xeon 5500 series), setting off a round of announcements and articles comparing technical specifications across server vendors. And at 2.93 GHz (with certain tweaks it can get up to 3.33 Ghz), indeed, the chip is screamingly fast. Which is all […]

Click here to read more from AMD

We’re no rating agency here at GigaOM, but Om and I got together this week to figure out our coverage priorities for the coming months — let’s call it a spring cleaning — and decided there are five companies that we’re just not going to spend a lot of time on anymore. Nortel , AMD, […]

Click here to read more from AMD

Advanced Micro Devices said in a securities filing today that Intel has threatened its ability to make x86 chips, which includes AMD’s PC and server CPUs but not its ATI graphics chips. AMD licenses the right to the x86 architecture from Intel under a cross licensing agreement, that is a well kept secret.
When AMD announced […]

Click here to read more from AMD

The way we use computers is changing, as device makers and users emphasize mobility and incredible graphics. I’ve argued that these trends signal the end of x86 computing, but what I’ve ignored is Intel’s drive to bring its brand of x86 computing to these markets, which are traditionally based on other instruction sets. If it […]

Click here to read more from AMD

The shift to mobile computing emphasizes the split between two distinct markets for the processor vendors that make the brains of computers. There’s the consumer-facing devices, which include everything from smartphone to laptops, and the server side, which offers content to consumer devices through the cloud.
That split is a reaction to how people use their […]

Click here to read more from AMD

Behind popular web services such as Facebook, Google and Amazon’s AWS are racks and racks of computers serving up millions of pages or providing raw computing power. The use of thousands of servers to deliver one application or act as a pool of computing resources has changed the way that chipmakers and computer vendors are […]

Click here to read more from AMD

Today Intel detailed its plans to stop focusing on horsepower and think about the whole car. The chipmaker has decided to stop pushing Gigahertz (basically, how fast your computer can think), and start integrating radios in one package, or on a single chip — a form factor known as a System on a Chip (SoC).
The […]

Click here to read more from AMD

The desktop computer is in decline, hurt by netbooks and a grim economy. But as demand for desktops and even notebooks falls, so do Nvidia’s revenues. To keep growing sales, Nvidia is counting on scientific computing, mobility and visual computing. It’s proven it can grow sales on the scientific side (revenue for that division grew […]

Click here to read more from AMD

The drop-off in demand for personal computers is hitting the graphics chip market hard. Jon Peddie Research has issued a report showing that total GPU shipments fell to 72.4 million in the fourth quarter — down 2 percent year-over-year and 35 percent from the third to the fourth quarter. This is the first time fourth-quarter […]

Click here to read more from AMD

The impact of declining desktop and laptop demand on the PC industry became that much clearer this morning, as Microsoft reported lower-then-expected second-quarter earnings driven, in part, by a deterioration of its client PC business (sever software sales are flat) and said it would cut 5,000 jobs. The crappy economy is kicking the desktop PC industry […]

Click here to read more from AMD

Qualcomm said today it has purchased AMD’s handheld graphics unit (acquired during AMD’s $5.4 billion acquisition of graphics chipmaker ATI Technologies) for $65 million. The deal shows that AMD is betting big on full-performance machines, from servers to laptops — rejecting its rival Intel’s  move into the netbook and smartphone world. It also bolsters the […]

Click here to read more from AMD

Today, graphics chipmaker Nvidia said it expects its fourth-quarter sales to come in 40-50 percent lower than the $897.7 million it posted in the third quarter. That puts its revenue estimate between $448.9 million and $538.6 million — a huge drop from last year’s record-setting fourth-quarter sales of $1.2 billion. In its apparent desire to […]

Click here to read more from AMD

On Friday I wrote about the rise of specialty computing clouds and AMD’s efforts to build a supercomputer that will essentially be a graphics rendering cloud. Today, insideHPC points me to a post from Josh Simons over at Sun Microsystems about his  trip to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (home of the Jaguar supercomputer) and the […]

Click here to read more from AMD

Yesterday AMD announced that it was building a specialty supercomputer to deliver gaming through a computing cloud. Aside from the coolness of being able to play your video games on an iPhone, pause them, and pick them up at home, the news bolsters the cloud business model — taking it beyond storage and run-of-the mill […]

Click here to read more from AMD

Freescale said Monday it would offer an ARM-based chip that could lead to a $200 Linux-based netbook, offering about twice the amount of usage on a single battery charge as Intel’s Atom processor allows. Freescale’s efforts are nothing new (only AMD has so far stayed above the netbook fray), but it did get me thinking […]

Click here to read more from AMD

There’s been a lot of talk lately about programming language OpenCL, as the new version of Apple’s OS X operating system, which uses it, is due to be unveiled soon. But what exactly is OpenCL and why should you care? It all boils down to increasing system performance, and bowing to the realities of […]

Click here to read more from AMD

AMD ditched its fabs to stay alive, but apparently that isn’t doing the trick. Today the chipmaker announced that its revenues from continuing operations for the fourth quarter ending Dec. 27, 2008 will be approximately 25 percent lower than third-quarter revenue of $1.585 billion. The company blamed weak demand across all markets. Indeed, PCs didn’t […]

Click here to read more from AMD

For the first time ever, a supercomputer using Nvidia chips has achieved a spot on the Top 500 list of the world’s fastest supercomputers. The Nvidia-containing machine is ranked No. 29 on the list that was released late Friday; it’s a cluster built by NEC and Sun Microsystems that uses chips from Nvidia, Intel and AMD. As Nvidia and AMD, which bought graphics chipmaker ATI in 2005, push graphics processors for scientific computing, this is a big milestone. The rest of the list was pretty anticlimactic, with IBM’s Roadrunner computer narrowly beating Cray’s Jaguar computer to stay on top of the twice-annual Top 500 list. Both machines are petaflop computers, meaning they can achieve a quadrillion floating point operations a second — a record that was broken by Roadrunner back in June.

Click here to read more from AMD

IBM today said it will offer a new foundry service that could enable a startup to compete on the same level as Intel. IBM says it will make 45-nanometer, silicon-on-insulator chips designed by other other semiconductor companies as a contract manufacturer. This means everyone from startups to Texas Instruments can now design high-performance chips that can consume less power — ushering in new designs for consumer electronics, cell phones and maybe even servers.

As it becomes ever more expensive for semiconductor companies to build manufacturing plants to make their own chips, there are plenty of foundry services out there. However, IBM has combined two important manufacturing technologies to make this offering unique. One is the process node, which affects how many chips can be crammed onto a wafer. Smaller process nodes, such as 45 nanometer, offer better power efficiency (or performance) and better economies of scale. The other technology is silicon-on-insulator (SOI), which is more expensive than the traditional CMOS process. Foundries offering SOI technology typically do so at larger nodes, such as at 90 nanometers, where it’s hard to justify the higher cost of SOI when a chipmaker may be able to get the same cost efficiencies or performance and power gains by going to a smaller process node with CMOS chips.

If it’s an apples-to-apples comparison at 45 nanometers, it can be worth it to pay more for SOI, because a processor gains more performance, with certain types of power advantages provided by SOI that help make devices smarter and more energy efficient. ARM — the design and intellectual property firm behind many of the chips that act as the brains for cell phones, including the iPhone– has signed a partnership with IBM to offer some of its IP libraries as part of this foundry offering.

This foundry service will provide a compelling service for companies building cell phone applications processors, embedded chips for networking equipment and gaming chips, but it may not be the only offering out there for long. AMD also has the ability to make 45-nanometer SOI chips, which means as it spins out its fabs, the newly formed Foundry Co. may also sell such capacity to all comers. An AMD spokesman said he didn’t know when I asked.

This also heightens the divide in the semiconductor world between Intel and everyone else. Intel had resisted SOI technology for years — although it appears to be coming around for later generations of chips. However, by offering such cutting-edge foundry services, IBM and its partners are making it possible for other firms to keep up with Intel without worrying about manufacturing R&D. This means Intel is running two races — one in manufacturing and the other with its design. How long it can keep this up is anyone’s guess.

Click here to read more from AMD

As we consume more media online, and the web becomes more central to our lives, it’s only natural to want to bring that content into our living rooms. But while I and a few others will watch movies and shows on a laptop, most people want to watch their media on their TV. And if […]

Click here to read more from AMD

I visited the relatively new AMD campus here in Austin today, where the chipmaker employs about 2,600 people, for an overview of the products and computing trends that the company is keeping its eye on. Below is a quick video I shot of Pat Moorhead, V-P of advanced marketing, talking about AMD’s absence from the […]

Click here to read more from AMD

Two almost contradictory pieces of news came out today that prove that the next wave of computing is visual. Good graphics were once a mainstay of heavy industry for 3-D or seismic modeling, but in today’s world of digital everything and the coming 3-D web, rich graphics are becoming a need-to-have capability on every machine.
That […]

Click here to read more from AMD

IBM sometime over the next few weeks will unveil details of a partnership program with several VCs active in the semiconductor space aimed at reducing the costs associated with chip manufacturing — and subsequently changing the financial risk associated with backing such deals.

Click here to read more from AMD

Let the buyers beware!

You might notice a few extra gamers hanging around your local Best Buy — Dell has announced it will sell the Alienware Aurora exclusively through 200 Besy Buy locations as well as the store’s website.

People are defining themselves by the products they choose and the groups they associate with — Alienware Aurora lovers are saying “I am a serious gamer and user who demands the best in personal computing.”

Designed for the serious gaming crowd, the Aurora has an AMD Phenom X4 9550 quad-core CPU, dual ATI Radeon HD 4850 GPUs, a 500GB3 7,200RPM hard drive and 4GB of DDR2 memory.

Other features include a multiformat DVD±RW/CD-RW drive, Alien Ice 3.0 cooling and Windows Vista Home Premium.

Price: $1,699.99 (without monitor, mouse and keyboard).

More at Electronic House.

Tags: alienware, amd, ati radeon, aurora, best buy, dell, windows vista home premium

Related Entries
• Dell Buys Alienware: Am I Seeing Correctly? -
  Mar 27, 2006
• Dell Goes More Seriously after Gamers -
  May 13, 2008
• HP Using Voodoo (No, Not in the Leak Probe) -
  Sep 29, 2006
• Much Ado About Dell -
  May 19, 2006
• HP Says Touch Me Now! -
  Oct 16, 2008
• Best Buy Grabs MSI Wind -
  Oct 08, 2008
• Best Buy Selling Musical Instruments — Making Real Guitar Heroes! -
  Oct 03, 2008
• Netbooks Yes or Netbooks No? -
  Sep 25, 2008
• Do We Need Another Format? Try slotMusic — Soon -
  Sep 22, 2008
• SightSpeed Now Available on Linux and Dell Netbooks -
  Sep 16, 2008

TrackBacks
| Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadgets Blog Home | Permalink: Alienware Comes to Best Buy

Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog

Click here to read more from AMD

It’s been a long time coming, but AMD said this morning that it has entered into a transaction with the Advanced Technology Investment Company of Abu Dhabi to create an independent semiconductor manufacturing foundry called The Foundry Company. As part of the spin out of AMD’s fabrication plants into this separate entity, AMD raised $1 […]

Click here to read more from AMD

A study out today from research firm iSuppli shows that operating margins in the chip industry have declined from the upper teens to the single digits, making the industry more cutthroat than ever. The numbers paint a grim picture for AMD, Freescale and NXP, all of whom are still struggling to get out of the […]

Click here to read more from AMD

AMD sells digital TV chip division to Broadcom for $193 million in cash. It is part of companies desire to be an asset-lite company.

Click here to read more from AMD

Despite reporting a second-quarter loss last night, due in part to costs associated with the faulty packaging on some of its chips placed in thousands of laptops, Nvidia still has a plan for semiconductor domination through the GPU. But if it wants to execute, it needs to accept the realities that come with stepping into […]

Click here to read more from AMD

Last week, Intel offered up a sneak peak of its Larrabee graphics processor, due out in 2009 or 2010 and guaranteed to raise the competitive pressure on graphics chip makers Nvidia and AMD. Unlike its existing integrated graphics chips, Larrabee will be a standalone processor, but don’t expect that it will be a success.
As […]

Click here to read more from AMD

I have to hand it to Intel. The company that brought us the brilliant marketing of Intel Inside (remember the stuffed guy in a bunny suit?) says Facebook has chosen its Xeon chips to power the social network. But because Intel is aware that server chips are commodities, the chip maker is also working directly […]

Click here to read more from AMD

AMD isn’t going after the mobile Internet device market that Intel and other chip vendors are eying. AMD’s senior VP and chief marketing officer, Nigel Dessau, told eWeek, “What we are saying is that we are a smaller company and we have to focus on what we do well at this point. We are […]

Click here to read more from AMD

Confession: Back when AMD was pitching its Opteron chipset, I convinced my husband to buy shares in the company on the belief that its plans to build a backwards compatible 64-bit processor was so obviously better than Intel’s efforts with Itanium that the market would eventually see it. The market did, and AMD shares went […]

Click here to read more from AMD

For a while there, covering the chip industry was like covering a race run by a rabbit and a cheetah. AMD was the rabbit, while Intel — with its much larger market cap and greater profits — was the cheetah. Evey now and then the rabbit would fool you into thinking he was going to […]

Click here to read more from AMD

OK, so AMD refuses to comment on rumors that it plans to introduce a low-power chip aimed at the mobile Internet device market, where it would compete with Intel’s Atom chipset and offerings from several other rivals. And it refuses to claim a block diagram floated by eeepcnews.de as its plans for such a chip.
I […]

Click here to read more from AMD

Parallel processing isn’t just for supercomputers or GPUs anymore. Computer makers are throwing multiple cores at everything from servers to your printer. But the focus on horsepower misses a crucial problem associated with adding more processors. To really take advantage of them, you have to rewrite your code.
As anyone who’s ever hosted a demolition party […]

Click here to read more from AMD

The Top 500 organization has put out its twice-annual list of the fastest supercomputers, and there are few surprises. Roadrunner, IBM’s mammoth supercomputer that broke the petaflop record, holds the top spot. Big Blue is also the source of the lion’s share of the computers on the list, at 210, or 42 percent of the […]

Click here to read more from AMD

Supercomputers these days are compute monsters. IBM’s latest, the Roadrunner, packs the power of 100,000 laptops stacked 1.5 miles high, embraces a unique mix of IBM’s Cell processor and ubiquitous x86 chips from AMD, and has the ability to calculate 1,000 trillion operations every second. Of course, trends in supercomputing generally trickle downstream to the rest of the computer-using population eventually. Continue Reading.

Click here to read more from AMD

Nvidia and AMD today each launched two graphics chips for the PC market — but the two companies are pursuing divergent strategies. Both share a recent focus on high-end graphics, which underlines how important visual computing has become; but the different approaches taken by each firm may cost Nvidia market share if its monolithic […]

Click here to read more from AMD