The remarkable legacy of the AMD Phenom™ II processor and Radeon™ graphics is too lengthy to be retold here, but if you wish to start at the beginning you can recall the dawn of AMD64 technology and the mysterious appearance of the first multiplier unlocked 64-bit processors, the remarkable experiment at the introduction of the AMD Phenom II processor which created legends, and the work at this very moment by enthusiasts around the world who answer the call of pushing the latest AMD technology beyond known limits. 

There is no explanation for it. No one can crack the code. Why the AMD Phenom II processor has exhibited such remarkable capability remains a mystery. If you dare, download AMD OverDrive^TM software which works with Black Edition processors to give you unprecedented control over your processor, memory, and chipset to push the performance envelope¹. And live the legacy!

See online Reviews of the AMD Phenom II X6 processor at AnandTech, LegitReviews, HotHardware, and TechReport.

See enthusiasts around the world testing the new AMD Phenom II X6 1100T and AMD Phenom II X2 565 processors.

1. AMD’s product warranty does not cover damages caused by overclocking (even when overclocking is enabled with AMD OverDrive^TM software).

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It’s almost Cyber Monday and AMD is on the lookout for deals on AMD-based products in stores and online. If you seek Cyber Monday deals, visit our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/amd and there you will find a deal stream full of bargains on notebooks, desktops, processors, motherboards and Radeon^TM graphics cards featuring AMD technology. If you want to help us source deals and enter our contest to win a notebook PC or an AMD Phenom^TM II X6 processor, login to Twitter and post information on your deal with the hashtag #AMDdeals.

With high technology wizardry we pull the tweeted deals onto our Facebook page for all to see. With great prizes and help from some dedicated deal seekers we hope you will be able to find a notebook, processor, or DIY component at a great price. The prize matrix and contest rules are posted online and here is a guide to the deal stream.

DEAL SEEKERS

Just go to our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/AMD and click to view the deal stream. That’s it. You can also see the stream using a twitter search for #AMDdeals on notebooks, desktops, AMD Phenom^TM II processors, or Radeon graphics.

DEAL FINDERS & CONTEST ENTRY

Want to help the deal seekers and get an opportunity to win some great prizes? Follow these steps:

• The contest will run from Sunday November 28, 2010 to Monday, November 29, 2010
• Find great AMD deals at e-tailers from around the web, and submit deals on Facebook and Twitter using the hashtag, #AMDdeals
• Post and retweet as many deals as you want! Each tweet or retweet submitted will be counted as a separate entry into the contest and you can enter up to five times for each prize period listed here:
  • Sunday November 28^th from 12:00 a.m. CT – 6:00 a.m. CT
  • Sunday November 28^th from 6:00 a.m. CT – 6:00 p.m. CT
  • Sunday November 28^th from 6:00 p.m. CT – 12:00 a.m. CT
  • Monday November 29^th from 12:00 a.m. CT – 6:00 a.m. CT
  • Monday November 29^th from 6:00 a.m. CT – 6:00 p.m. CT
  • Monday November 29^th from 6:00 p.m. – 12:00 a.m. CT
• Everyone will be able to see the latest deals on the deal stream
• Eligible contestants will be entered to win a prize when they tweet or retweet a deal during each prize period.
• Prizes being given away over the course of the contest include Notebook PCs based on VISION technology from AMD and AMD Phenom^TM II X6 processors.

Click here for full contest rules and details. Thank you for your help in feeding the deal stream and good luck in the contest!

With high tech wizardry, we pull the tweeted deals onto our Facebook page for all to see. With great prizes and help from some dedicated deal seekers we hope you will be able to find a notebook, processor, or DIY component at a great price. Details on the prizes can be found below, and the contest rules are posted here.

Deal Seekers

Just go to our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/AMD and click to view the deal stream. That’s it! You can also see the stream using a Twitter search for #AMDdeals on notebooks, desktops, AMD Phenom^TM II processors, or Radeon graphics.

Deal Finders & Contest Entry

Want to help the deal seekers and get an opportunity to win some great prizes? Follow these steps:

• The contest will run from Wednesday, November 24, 2010 to Friday, November 26, 2010
• Find great AMD deals at e-tailers from around the web, and submit deals on Twitter using the hashtag, #AMDdeals
• Post and retweet as many deals as you want! Each tweet or retweet submitted will be counted as a separate entry into the contest and you can enter up to five times for each prize period listed here (all times CT):
  • Wednesday, November 24^th from 6:00 am– 4:00 pm
  • Wednesday, November 24^th from 4:00 pm – 12:00 am
  • Thursday, November 25^th every hour from 12:00 am – 6:00 am
  • Thursday, November 25^th from 6:00 am – 4:00 pm
  • Thursday, November 25^th from 4:00 pm – 12:00 am
  • Friday, November 26^th every hour from 12:00 am – 6:00 am
  • Friday, November 26^th from 6:00 am – 4:00 pm
  • Friday, November 26^th from 4:00 pm – 12:00 am
• Everyone will be able to see the latest deals on the deal stream
• Eligible contestants will be entered to win a prize when they tweet or retweet a deal during each prize period
• Prizes being given away over the course of the contest include notebook PCs based on VISION technology from AMD and AMD Phenom^TM II X6 processors

Click here for full contest rules and details.

Black Friday 101

Once you have taken a look at the deal stream, it’s off to the races for Black Friday. If it’s your first time scouring Black Friday deals or you need a refresher, here are some tips.

1. Monitor newspapers, flyers, Twitter and Facebook for coupons and deals
2. Make a list of the items you want in advance.
3. Figure out your budget ahead of time and then compare prices.
4. Look for early bird discounts and early openings and arrange your shopping schedule accordingly.
5. Map out your plan of attack and remember that traffic can be heavy on the roads, in the parking lots, and in the stores.
6. Bring water and snacks for you and the kids, you will likely be out longer than you expect.
7. Stay safe, stay friendly.
8. If you don’t find the deal you are looking for, there is always Cyber Monday!

Thank you for your help in feeding the deal stream and good luck in the contest!

Why the excitement? Well first, there is tremendous momentum around HTML5, the next major revision of the HTML standard that is supported with IE9. HTML5, along with associated technologies CSS3 and SVG, are expected to usher in the next generation of the web by enabling web developers to take their sites to new levels of visual quality and interactivity. Secondly, IE9 has designed into it huge advances in hardware acceleration driven by advancements in CPU and GPU technologies, like those provided by AMD.

Until now, the speed of Internet browsing was limited by more than just data bandwidth; it was also limited by the performance of the CPU in the PC.  And although we’ve developed some blazingly fast microprocessors, there is still untapped potential beyond the CPU.  That’s why Microsoft developed IE9 to use new APIs available in Windows 7, Direct2D and DirectWrite, to take advantage of GPU computing power as well as the CPU, enabling a faster, more immersive Internet experience.

So how does the experience change with graphics hardware acceleration? As you can see in this demo video of IE9 Platform Preview 2, the text looks better, the animations are smoother and web pages are rendered much faster. With today’s release of IE9 Platform Preview 3, Microsoft is announcing even more features and talking about how developers can begin to take advantage of hardware acceleration with IE9.

The trend toward visual computing is clearly taking hold; Microsoft’s investment in the rich graphics capability of IE9 is proof of that.  And AMD has been leading the way. With a full line of DirectX 11-enabled graphics products for both desktop and notebook PCs, AMD has been a leader in the transition to Windows 7.

While much of the innovation of IE9 has been happening on the GPU side, AMD’s powerful multi-core CPUs also play an important role in the online experience.  AMD has been delivering on the promise of a “balanced platform” for some time, enabling an outstanding computing experience for users with balanced CPU and GPU platforms capable of running demanding computing tasks faster than on the CPU or the GPU alone.

Next year, we plan to launch the AMD Fusion family of Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), combining powerful CPU and GPU technology on a single die. AMD Fusion APUs will be an ideal complement to IE9, working together to enable an excellent Internet experience on tomorrow’s PCs with balanced performance, breakthroughs in power and a wide range of form factors.

In fact, we recently began to show some demos on AMD Fusion prototypes. Check out this video of the IE9 Platform Preview running on an AMD Fusion APU-powered system.

What do you envision for the next generation of the web?

Gabe Gravning is a Sr. Product Marketing Manager at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.

Back in November, AMD’s CMO Nigel Dessau blogged about an improved viewing experience with the beta launch of Adobe Flash Player 10.1. Today, Adobe made great strides in fully launching this updated product for desktop PCs, which is sure to improve how people engage with online video and rich media every day. This is a perfect example of how AMD has identified a shift in the PC experience; a shift that includes more immersive and pervasive visual content, which needs to be powered by a balance of CPU and GPU technologies. In fact, in February of this year 174 million U.S. Internet users watched an incredible 28.1 billion online videos (read the full report here).

Looking at the nuts and bolts of Adobe Flash Player 10.1, here’s what’s important to know:

• Adobe Flash Player 10.1 can take advantage of both CPU and GPU hardware acceleration for more seamless video playback from your favorite sites like YouTube and Hulu.com
• Adobe Flash Player 10.1 is the first consistent runtime release of the Adobe Open Screen Project that enables uncompromised Web browsing of expressive applications, content and HD videos across devices.
• Leveraging graphics acceleration allows your PC to offload tasks from the CPU to help reduce resource utilization.

At AMD, we often talk about this “magic place” where hardware and software come together to bring computing experiences to life. I’d be hard pressed to think of a better example of this than Adobe Flash.

So you’re aware of what platforms offer hardware acceleration, here are the graphics requirements for your notebook or desktop:

• ATI Radeon™ HD 4000 and HD 5000 series graphics
• ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 4000 series graphics (and higher)
• ATI Radeon™ HD 3000 integrated graphics (and higher)
• ATI FirePro™ V3750, V5700, V7750, V8700 and V8750 graphics accelerators (and later)

Of course, we’re eager to hear your initial thoughts of Adobe’s latest Flash player. What do you think?

Clarice Simmons is a Product Marketing Manager at AMD. Her postings are her own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied

With Adobe Flash Player 10.1, we help users achieve outstanding experiences across a variety of platforms; be it Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux , Solaris, or Android. In our view, there’s only one web, whether it is desktop or mobile, and Flash Player 10.1 pushes our cross-platform promise further than ever before and deeper into the mobile space. Adobe Flash Player 10.1 is optimized to support a broad range of mobile devices, including smartphones, netbooks, smartbooks, tablets, televisions and other Internet-connected devices.

How do we go about developing a new product like the Flash Player 10.1? Today 75% of online video is played back through Flash Player; something we think can be attributed to our commitment to always improving our codecs, deployment options and quality of service enhancements. Ultimately though, creating a product that really works for our users is a two-way street that involves constant dialogue. Throughout the duration of the public beta of Adobe Flash Player 10.1, we received a host of suggestions and help with enhancements. So, for that, thank you!

We also can’t forget the crucial role of our partners – like AMD. We’ve said it before, but we’ll say it again: it’s impossible to deliver an excellent user experience in a vacuum.  Adobe and AMD have a long history of promoting the seamless integration of hardware and software, and with Adobe Flash Player 10.1, we’ve done it again. Adobe Flash Player 10.1 is designed to take advantage of AMD acceleration technology with both AMD CPUs and GPUs, ultimately bringing consumers a far more fulfilling multimedia experience. For vectors and images, Flash Player is going to take advantage of hardware capabilities on mobile devices whenever possible. Vector drawing will now be tessellated (divided into triangles) and sent to the GPU. Images will also be accelerated when possible, in addition to memory enhancements when dealing with loading and unloading many images. 

Some of the most exciting additions we’ve made to the Adobe Flash Player 10.1 are the introduction of new multi-touch and gesture APIs, with support on many mobile devices and through Windows 7. Multi-touch has been one of the most exciting user interface enhancements to emerge in recent years, bringing a whole new level of interactivity to the user experience (check out this FAQ on the multi-touch feature). Users can also expect smooth video playback, and Web browsing of expressive applications, content and HD videos across devices, along with new features to tackle global error handling and significantly boost the quality of media delivery. You can find out more here.

Do you use Flash to create or view multimedia content? We’d love to hear what you think of the new Flash Player version.

Alan Tam is Senior Product Marketing Manager, Adobe Flash Player. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.

What’s exciting about the work Adobe and AMD are doing together is the seamless integration of hardware and software.   Adobe is committed to working with partners like AMD to optimize the delivery of Web applications, content and video that run consistently on our runtimes across browsers, operating systems and devices.  We know we can count on AMD to deliver the CPU and GPU performance and features necessary to support the Adobe Flash Platform runtimes.   As a result of our collaboration, we’re able to optimize our platform to empower developers to deliver stunning user experiences.   Here is an example of Adobe Flash Player 10.1 beta with GPU acceleration:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTOOr2fQ4KA

But, in addition to the experiences we help enable, Adobe truly understands the need for a good partner program.  We have the Open Screen Project, which is an industry-wide initiative, led by Adobe and backed by over 70 industry leaders who all share one clear vision: Enable consumers to engage with rich Internet experiences seamlessly across any device, anywhere. We are pleased to have AMD as a member of this effort.

We applaud AMD for expanding the AMD Fusion Partner Program to the software community.  In our experience, the structure and available resources of a program like this is vital to successfully unlocking the full potential of the ecosystem.

2010 is going to be an exciting year for Adobe and the Open Screen Project as we deliver the full Flash Player and Adobe AIR to mobile devices – bringing the full Web experience to consumers across a broad range of smartphones, smartbooks, tablets, PCs and other Internet-connected devices. We look forward to continuing to work closely with AMD on future initiatives designed to bring enhanced visual computing to our customers.

Tom Barclay is Senior Product Marketing Manager, Adobe Platform Division. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.

Unofficially, while many “threw the PC beans out the window” and went to sleep, it branched into high definition entertainment, grew bandwidth toward the world-wide cloud, and intertwined with a future of gadgets and screens that we can barely imagine. If you wake up with a vision to build a PC that will defy your expectations and help you explore the future, motherboards with an AMD 890GX chipset may be the best place to start.

 The AMD 890GX chipset has integrated ATI Radeon™ HD 4290 graphics and new connectivity technology for building a sleek and quiet home theater PC. It includes a second generation Unified Video Decoder, dedicated hardware that decodes and plays back Blu-ray™ and other HD content with support for MPEG2, VC-1, and H.264 formats.^1,2 The UVD engine has high quality video scaling, able to process algorithms to enhance standard and low resolution videos and movies on your HD display. It is also able to process video on-the-fly with Dynamic Contrast which automatically adjusts video contrast and brightness. This is without a separate discrete graphics card! With motherboard USB 3.0 support, an HTPC is expected to have peak speeds almost 10x that of USB 2.0, speeding a future where high-definition video moves between your media players, portable storage, and your home theater with speed and ease. In combination with the AMD Phenom™ II X2 processor at only 65W you can start to build a sleek HTPC with a platform starting below $250.³   

The Author seeks to defy reality as he upgrades to an AMD890-GX based motherboard. The ATI Radeon™ HD 5970 graphics card is as long as the Author’s custom SFF case. Fortunately, a pair of ATI Radeon HD 5870 graphics cards fit.

For a more powerful HTPC, the combination of ATI Radeon™ HD 5400 series and higher graphics and the AMD 890GX chipset adds state-of-the-art home theater audio and video. Enthusiasts have already discovered bitstream technology, channeling advanced, high-definition 7.1 channel audio formats to home theater receivers on a range of ATI Radeon HD 5400 and higher series graphics and software including Cyberlink PowerDVD 9. This combination also supports hardware decoding for multiple High-Definition video streams, so you can have multiple videos or players open while retaining hardware-enabled playback. Add high-end gaming capability and this HTPC can be a home entertainment nexus merging gaming, high definition theater, and high-speed connectivity to web-based HD entertainment and a new age of high-speed gadgets.

Behold! The MSI’s 8900GXM-G65 is a uATX motherboard with two PCIExpress slots supporting ATI CrossfireX™ technology. Obscure components include an external passively cooled power supply and audio breakout box.

There is no PC building experience more challenging than building a high-end gaming small-form-factor PC. For those who share this passion, Behold! A micro-ATX board with two GPU slots. The 890GX supports ATI CrossFireX™ technology for dual graphics support, so your frame rates will be limited “only by your will to dominate other gamers” and, well, physical constraints. With an upgrade on your AMD 890GX motherboard to the the acclaimed performance of ATI Radeon HD 5400 and higher series graphics, the emergence of multi-screen gaming with ATI Eyefinity technology, and the only DirectX 11 graphics cards available today you should be well prepared for a future of incredible PC gaming.

The 890GX chipset is ready for a future of continued home theater innovation and gaming entertainment with support for forward looking technologies and tremendous versatility. If you want to know more about building a PC and the new 8-series chipsets we have assembled a list of resources below. For more on building a PC check out Jay’s HTPC build guide and videos  and Simon’s step-by-step guide to building a PC from scratch.  

XtremeSystems.org Thread on Small Form Factor and HTPC Builds Based on the AMD890GX Chipset

AMD 8-Series Chipsets Product Page

ATI Radeon HD 5400 and Higher Series Graphics Product Page

AMD GAME! Web Site

AMD Underground Do-It-Yourself Web Site

Microsoft DirectX®11

ATI EyeFinity Technology

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5jyv_htkCI

How to build your own AMD Desktop PC with Dragon technology, a combination of AMD Phenom™ II processors, ATI Radeon™ HD graphics and AMD 7-Series chipsets. In this video demonstration AMDs Simon Solotko builds a wicked new AMD technology-based PC from scratch and demonstrates many of the steps in PC assembly. Be sure to take proper precautions including grounding yourself and PC to diminish the risk of static discharge and refer to the installation manuals of your components.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvJmIOdBGCc

Follow Simon Solotko on Twitter (Twitter Needs Techies…)

Simon Solotko is a Senior Advanced Marketing Manager at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.

At CES 2010 computing and mobility continued to converge, and a new class of notebook gained moment. It’s called an UltraThin notebook. An UltraThin notebook based on Vision Technology from AMD combines much of the performance and capability of a full sized notebook or desktop PC in a slim and portable notebook PC. At CES, Lenovo introduced the first ever commercial AMD-based Lenovo laptop, the ultra-thin ThinkPad X100e, featuring VISION Pro Technology. Lenovo joins the ranks of HP, Dell, Toshiba, MSI, Acer, and ASUS, in introducing ultra-thin notebooks based on AMD Vision technology.

UltraThin notebooks based on Vision Technology from AMD have multi-core processors based on our latest architecture for balanced performance and multi-tasking capability. They have surprisingly powerful and industry leading integrated graphics capabilities, great for vivid HD video playback on your HD monitor or screen, the stunning interface of Windows 7, and casual gaming. Many also include HDMI video ports for a completely digital flow from your notebook to your big-screen TV for playing HD movies, watching online video, or enjoying family photos and home video. They also may come with Windows 7 Home Premium or Enterprise, enabling you to have the full Windows 7 Experience. Take a look at some of the latest UltraThin notebooks from Hewlett Packard in this video where I discuss the features and capabilities of today’s UltraThin notebooks.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2aNhBb4iCs

AMD’s Simon Solotko Outlines the Features and Capabilities of UltraThin Notebooks

At CES mobile computing was a hot topic as AMD’s CMO Nigel Desseau joined executives from Microsoft, Lenovo, Intel, and enTourage discussing “Netbooks: Here to stay or passing fancy.” Nigel asserts that form factors should not be our focus, but rather “does it solve their problems?” The emergence of smaller, portable devices came as 2009 marked rapid growth in netbook sales and major debates on their capabilities and their limitations.

UltraThin notebooks based on Vision Technology from AMD are designed to be significantly more powerful than today’s “netbooks” and I worry that netbooks which typically provide a fraction of the capability that people expect may have a limited useful life. In Nigel Dessau’s blog he points out that according to research group NPD, 60% of consumers who purchased a netbook thought it would have the same performance as a notebook. In general, netbooks lack the performance necessary to play back high definition video.  They often lack the capability to have a fluid web browsing experience, unable to meet the demands of web technology such as Adobe Flash. In addition, netbooks which employ Windows 7 Basic have typically shown a lack of ability to multi-task in the way that  PC users have become accustomed to.

As applications become more powerful, I want more capability and potential from notebook, not less. I want a notebook that is slimmer, faster, with a great keyboard and large, bright screen. I want to enjoy the upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium or Ultimate with all of their video playback and multi-tasking features and capabilities. With an UltraThin notebook, I have those capabilities in a slim, nicely designed notebook.

The award winning DirectX 11- capable models in the ATI Radeon™ HD 5000 Series continued to turn heads at CES with the ATI Radeon HD 5870 graphics card selected as an Innovations 2010 Design and Engineering Award winner. At CES 2010 AMD brought similar state-of the art graphics capability to a broad range of notebooks. AMD kicked off a strong start to the year with the launch of the DirectX11-capable models in the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5000 series of graphics chips.  With the introduction of these first DirectX 11-capable mobile processors, notebooks can power vivid gaming and multi-media performance. ATI Stream technology will accelerate a new class of specifically-enabled multi-media tasks on notebooks utilizing a combination processor and graphics technology. With ATI Stream technology-enabled applications, you may edit video with accelerated video rendering with Cyberlink PowerDirector, speed web browsing with accelerate Adobe Flash, and accelerate stunning visuals with Microsoft DirectCompute.

AMD has a number of exciting innovations for mobile computing ahead, improving the performance of mobile solutions while increasing their usefulness and performance. As we bid farewell to CES 2010, we’re looking forward to continue building amazing, vivid mobile experiences in decade ahead.

Simon Solotko is a Senior Advanced Marketing Manager at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied

Like you, I am one of the lucky ones, carving out a couple spaces that are entirely my own. Looking to fully evolve my Man Cave to the digital age, here is my watch list for CES 2010 with links to resources and information from across AMD’s website. 

Click To View as AMD’s Leslie Sobon Discusses AMD’s Technologies For The Man Cave with CBS From The Floor of the Consumer Electronics Show 2010

Look for the PC to emerge as the ultimate source of video and gaming for the Man Cave. Multi-screen gaming with ATI Eyefinity technology is incredible for desktops and the PC is the ultimate toolkit for working with online video, home videos and photos. The PC has a role inside the Man Cave as a gaming PC, entertainment source to your TV, or nexus of information and media.

For the big screen, I dropped paid broadcast TV and switched and free digital terrestrial and a PC for internet video streaming and online games. With sources like Hulu, Facebook, BBC, Tivo, and Blu-Ray, the PC has become my primary source of video displayed on my TV. In 2010 I am continuing to integrate my DIY home theater PC with my big screen entertainment and looking forward to:

• More HD video sources online for streaming and download
• Improved video playback quality and performance using hardware acceleration like ATI Stream technology with enabled applications
• Improvements to gaming graphics through Microsoft DirectX 11 and gaming physics through OpenPhysics
• Fully integrating video recording from terrestrial sources with technology like the ATI Theater PCTV technology that make it possible to watch and record digital broadcast TV
• Easy ways to stretch my PC experience into and out of my Man Cave, like HDMI over CAT5 solutions that make it easy to use a PC in one room but connect it to a TV in another
• A proliferation of large and small devices from big-screen TV’s to personal media players that can share content with the PC and allow flexibility in managing and playing content

Notebook PC’s are emerging as digital entertainment powerhouses. There are notebooks with Vision Technology from AMD being demo’d at CES 2010 that can play back 1080p high definition video and which have an HDMI port which can easily carry entertainment from my notebook to my TV. In 2010 I am looking for:

• Notebooks ready for HD and Blu-Ray video and feature HDMI outputs – like notebooks featuring Vision Technology from AMD
• More powerful notebooks that have graphics horsepower like ATI RadeonTM HD 5000 series discrete graphics and improvements in integrated graphics
• Sleek and powerful ultra-thin notebooks featuring Windows 7 that have multi-tasking performance and HD video capability that I need (and which are conspicuously absent from the vast majority of Netbooks)
• Peripherals that can bring a big-theater experience into the smallest spaces. In 2010 I hope to see more digital surround-sound headsets and high-contrast external LCD displays

I am looking for improvements in the controls and interface in the Man Cave. Windows 7 Media Center is looking like a good step forward. I want to see more websites fully designed to be used on a big-screen. In 2010 I hope to see full-motion controllers for fantastic gameplay and easy control of those big-screen ready websites.

At CES 2010 we should see should see new ways to connect the PC world with the TV, audio system, and displays and devices connected throughout the home. The annual celebration of the CE industry is an explosion of technology, ready to be focused on the evolution of your Man Cave. Skyrocketing online video and the Superbowl, Olympics, National Championships, Stanley Cup Playoffs, World Cup, and all falling in the first half of 2010, there has never been a more opportune time to fully integrate digital entertainment and PC tech into your Man Cave.

Be sure to check out Jay Taylor’s detailed blogs on Internet TV with Windows 7, building an HTPC and remote control of an HTPC. You can check out my blogs on ATI Eyefinity technology, ATI Stream technology, and AMD’s Fusion software for digital entertainment on Windows 7. If you are interested in the future of the home PC I have written a four part series on the creation of a digtal nexus which stretches the PC experience throughout the home.

Follow Simon Solotko on Twitter (For the Good of Twitter)

Simon Solotko is a Senior Advanced Marketing Manager at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.

In 2003, the future of x86 and its future compatibility with today’s applications was at risk. The x86 ISA had a built-in limit of 4GB of addressable DRAM and manipulated data in 32-bit increments. Without an evolutionary path, x86 would become a bottleneck in future applications that demanded more memory and the ability to manipulate more complex data. It was with that knowledge that AMD designed the now industry-standard 64-bit, AMD64 instruction set which gave x86 a new life for the day when 32-bit computing wouldn’t be enough.

The future has come. We live in an era where a movie can occupy over 10GB of storage, many games perform better when you have more than 2GB of DRAM, and PCs perform medical research on their break time using four cores and 8GB of DRAM at high utilization. Today systems with 4GB and more memory are common, ready to tackle rich media, heavy multi-tasking, and amazing games.

Now is the era for which AMD designed AMD64, a path forward for a multi-core future which retained compatibility with 32-bit applications and operating systems while defining a new evolutionary path for a 64-bit future.

So here it is. The two for one deal that makes buying Windows 7 an easy choice. Microsoft Windows 7 from Home Premium through Ultimate ship with both the 64-Bit and legacy 32-bit versions in the box.

It’s like two operating systems for the price of one, allowing you to choose when you are ready for a 64-bit operating system with included 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 7 versions. The 64-bit version helps you break the 4GB DRAM barrier, and includes a native 64-bit Kernel that embraces the capabilities and native instruction set of today’s microprocessors. Windows 7’s 64-bit version warps you into the future, one that AMD has been preparing for since the beginning of the Millennium and began on April 22nd, 2003:

Major operating systems such as Windows and Linux are expected to migrate to the AMD64 platform from their x86 legacy…

The AMD64 platform benefits customers by providing investment protection while removing barriers to the next level of computing. AMD64 processors provide full application performance with native execution of 32- and 64-bit code. Customers can employ AMD64 processors in an entirely 32-bit environment, in a mixed environment such as a 64-bit operating system and a mix of 32- and 64-bit applications, or in homogeneous 64-bit environments. With the AMD64 platform, users can enjoy the technical superiority of 64-bit computing without sacrificing legacy x86 application compatibility or performance…

Applications that do not immediately benefit from a port to 64-bits do not need to be ported, and will run at full performance in AMD64 processor-driven environments. A large number of applications and usage scenarios, however, are likely to benefit from an AMD64 processor-driven environment over a legacy x86 environment.

The kind of applications most likely to benefit may include those that:

• Need large memory addressing and push total system memory requirements above 4GB, such as those with large datasets (financial and scientific modeling applications), and host-based desktop applications (to run multiple instances simultaneously without reducing performance);

• Must manage a large number of concurrent users or application threads, such as large scale thin-client solutions, large databases, and data warehouse applications for solutions in customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM), enterprise resource planning (ERP), and digital rights management (DRM) systems;

• Require real-time encryption and decryption for enhanced security, including e commerce and protection of private or classified data;

• Require mathematical precision and floating-point performance including modeling, simulation, statistics and financial analysis, imaging/video/signal processing, physics, medical research, telecommunications, encryption, and compression;

• Require large, high-power database performance including decision support, searching and indexing, document and content management, and voice recognition;

• Require the x86 compatibility or the economies of scale of x86, but the large memory addressing capabilities of 64-bit computing, including many high performance computing (HPC) cluster applications;

• Provide digital content creation capabilities such as computer aided design, manufacturing and engineering (CAD, CAM, and CAE), digital music production and video editing, and real-time media streaming solutions;

• Require maximum performance for realistic and cinematic consumer experiences including computer games, digital video, and real-time collaboration; and

• Migrate capabilities previously available on 64-bit workstations to the business, consumer, and hobbyist desktop, including 3D modeling, rendering, animation, simulation, and software development…

AMD will continue to provide customers with technology that is useful today and deliver cumulative benefits in the future. By protecting customer investments, simplifying platform migration, and removing barriers to future innovation, AMD64 processor technology clears a path for the future of computing..

From “The AMD64 Computing Platform – Your Link the Future of Computing” Published April 22, 2003. Christian Zdebel & Simon Solotko.

Just as I believed that AMD64 would prepare us for challenges many years into the future, I believe that open, parallel computing, innovations in display technology, and evolutionary computing environments are among today’s links to the future. For now, I plan on enjoying 64-Bit, computing on Windows 7, made possible by AMD64 technology.

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Simon Solotko is a Senior Advanced Marketing Manager at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.

This is the first in a three part series. Read on. –>>

Setting up Fusion Media Explorer Explorer to view photos of Facebook friends.

Wesley, we have written about Fusion Media Explorer but I understand we have some new features including integration with Facebook. How does that work? It’s simple really. Facebook provides software tools that help integrate it into other applications. We have used these tools to add a really cool new feature to Fusion Media Explorer, the ability to see and navigate the photos from your friend’s Facebook pages as well as an easy to use Facebook upload feature.

So we can see photos from all of our friends without navigating to each one? Yes, and you can do a lot more. Since you now have access to all of your friend’s pictures at once, you can do some pretty neat things. You can sort all pictures by date or name. So you can have James’ pictures show up next to John’s, or see everyone’s September’s pictures next to October’s. We also allow for searching on top of that. If you only want to see pictures from birthday parties, it can be as simple as typing that into our search box. If I know that Selena goes to Hawaii every year with my other friends Tristan, Chris, and Lisa, I can now see all of her Hawaii pictures from all her albums in total. All I have to do is use the sort drop-down and select to order by date, then type in “Selena” in the search box. Now I can see every picture in a nice timeline. Or I can see all the Hawaii pictures from all my friends, including Selena, Tristan, Chris and Lisa, by simply searching for the word “Hawaii” in the search box. I just couldn’t do that before.

I know a lot of people have been looking forward to this feature and its’ great to see it in action. In addition, the latest version of Fusion Media Explorer has a refined, 3D interface for browsing your photo, video, and music library and it looks stunning.

 Browsing music and video with many useful views with Fusion Media Explorer

If you want to download Fusion Media Explorer with Facebook integration, you can get it here.  Another tool is Fusion Utility for Mobility which is designed to extend your laptop’s battery life. Wesley, how can Fusion Utility for Mobility save battery life? Computers are really smart, but they can’t read our minds. We use our laptops in many different environments and with different applications. It is more of a Swiss Army Knife than a Samurai sword. Fusion Utility for Mobility makes it easier to turn off the stuff you don’t need for the task at hand. If you are on an airplane and you want to watch a movie, you probably don’t need Windows Update trying to find an internet connection. It’s the same with a Power Point presentation. Do you really need to defragment your hard drive at the same time? These are simple choices that are obvious to you and me but aren’t to your PC. This tool from AMD helps take some of that control and puts it back in your hands.

With Fusion Utility for Mobility, you can help maximize your battery life just by using the tool to shut down functionality you don’t need at the time. It’s easy to use and you can download it here. Extending these capabilities, we also provide Fusion Utility for Desktop which allows you to increase performance and save energy.

Tell me how Fusion Utility for Desktops is different from the Mobile utility? Fusion Utility for Desktops is geared for performance and power savings. With supported hardware we can really boost the muscle of a machine. We can improve the performance of your processor and graphics card on top of shutting down what you’re not using to create a lean, mean workhorse. This enables games to run faster. Songs can rip quicker. Video can encode in less time. When you’re done, it is just as easy to bring your system back to a normal state. It saves time, power, wear and tear.

How do profiles work with Fusion Utility for Desktops? Profiles are either task oriented, like surf the web; or mode-specific, like max performance. Included with the application you will find some of the most popular tasks and mode profiles. If they don’t suit your need you can always create your own. Profiles are simple to create and use. Just check what you want to turn on or off, and you’re done.

Usage Profile Configuration with AMD Fusion Utility for Desktops.

Thanks Wesley. You can download the Fusion Utility for Desktop here. I am using Fusion Utility for Desktops to control my settings for gaming and general use and I think it’s very useful!

If you haven’t thought of it already, you can also go and download the brand new ATI Catalyst 9.10 display drivers for Windows 7. The ATI Catalyst drivers are designed to help you get the most from ATI Radeon graphics, and there is a great blog on the new ATI Catalyst 9.10 drivers here.

And if you are reading all of this and thinking you need a new PC running Windows 7, I suggest you visit a retail shop and check out the new notebooks touting Vision technology from AMD, and AMD-based desktops at retail or online. Or if you need a holiday do-it-yourself project, you may want to build a custom desktop or a home theater PC, and we have great videos that can help you through the process.

This is the second in a three part series.

<<– Read Part 1 of the series So You’ve Got Windows 7, Now What?

* These utilities may disable security/antivirus software, or adversely affect your system. Review accompanying documentation carefully before installing.

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Simon Solotko is a Senior Advanced Marketing Manager at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied

The fundamental language or instruction set of an x86 central processor evolves slowly, balancing new features and compatibility. Today, applications are generally written and compiled directly for the CPUs low level instructions.

ATI Stream technology from AMD is a set of AMD technologies that allow the hundreds of parallel Stream cores to accelerate general purpose applications. It embraces open, standards-based approaches to accelerated, highly parallel processing on ATI Radeon^TM HD general purpose GPUs. This technology is well suited to operations performed on massive data sets undergoing rapid and consistent processing. The applications have the potential to transform how we use computers.

Unlike an x86 processor, a GPU employs a software interface allowing it to evolve rapidly while retaining compatibility. Improvements in performance can be delivered by software drivers that take better advantage of the underlying hardware, and allow applications to have a predictable interface to such hardware. With the addition of standards-based interfaces, a GPU is now able to serve the dual purpose of specialized graphics processing and accelerated computation.

AMD is developing general purpose GPUs and the software technology that translates these standardized interfaces into fast, efficient, parallel code. Innovation in the underlying silicon and low level instruction sets can continue while maintaining code stability through an abstraction layer. AMD supports both Microsoft’s DirectX 11 featuring DirectCompute and now OpenCL.

Developed in an open standards committee with representatives from major industry vendors, OpenCL gives users what they have been demanding: a cross-vendor, non-proprietary solution for accelerating their applications on their CPU and GPU cores.

ATI Stream technology can excel in applications where the underlying data is a representation of physical reality. An abundance of visual information. The interaction of forces of nature. Physical representations in space and time. With ATI Stream, OpenCL, and DirectCompute we now have new tools to face the ultimate challenge, the one that useful and “intelligent” machines must learn to face – how to deal with reality.

For more on the introduction of the ATI Stream SDK 2.0 with OpenCL support check out Nigel Dessau’s new blog.

If you are interested in learning how OpenCL works, read on for Part 2, where Ben Sander and I discuss the power of ATI Stream technology and the elegant, standards-based interface now available with OpenCL for GPU. We explore the relationship between, OpenCL, AMD’s traditional support for industry standards, and the new ATI Stream SDK v 2.0.

Read On -> Dealing With Reality | The Introduction | ATI Stream Technology and OpenCL | Part 2

Be sure to check out Simon’s ongoing series on The Digital Nexus.

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Simon Solotko is a Senior Advanced Marketing Manager at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.

From the Ancient Egyptian Poem The Thunder | Perfect Mind

ATI Eyefinity is a new technology from AMD that transforms the relationship of the PC and the display. It opens the door to entirely new avenues for home computing and simplifies the deployment of many commercial solutions. In the existing home computing paradigm, one user employs one PC with one workspace spanning one or two monitors. In the age of ATI Eyefinity, the paradigm evolves.

A computer of the future with a combination of entertainment, video productivity, and internet applications spanning multiple monitors.

There are at least three new use models availed or expanded by ATI Eyefinity. They modify the single-session | single person | single screen paradigm of old. The first I call Immersive, Panoramic Computing. Many displays for one person. The second and third I call Crowd Computing. Many displays for many people.

Immersive, Panoramic Personal Computing

The first model is single-session | single-person | multi-screen. One user surrounded with many displays creating an immersive reality or information environment. One user can enjoy information or visual simulations or real-time experiences, which were previously possible only with high-end workstations or simulators. Commercial or technical applications include simulation, design and analysis; equities trading, graphic design, intelligence analysis, and more. Consumer applications include gaming, advanced productivity, and impressing your friends.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzGtxlaPQqY

In this video technology demonstration, ATI Eyefinity multi-monitor technology is driving an immersive, panoramic gaming experience. AMD’s Lauren Larose is playing Tom Clancy’s Hawks at an amazing 5760x2400 resolution spanning six monitors employing the Display Port 1.1 interface.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHHxY8l00io

This video from the launch showces ATI Eyefinity with a combination of 3,6,and a whopping 24 display wall. You can see how multiple displays can bring people together and encourage collaboration and shared entertainment, which brings us to the next model.

Crowd Computing

The second model is single-session | multi-person | multi-screen. Many users enjoying the experience provided by a single computer with the added benefit of multiple-displays. For example, one user enjoying dual monitor productivity, and a second user or group of users enjoying a movie or game on a third or fourth screen. The central premise of this model is that it is a single session, one person is “driving” the visual environment -- one keyboard, one mouse -- kind of like a PC experience DJ who can launch applications for many to see. Adding the ability of each screen to have its own I/O and support for a separate user session, you arrive at the third model…

A computer of the future with panoramic 3D gaming, multiple video playback, and access to “cloud-based” resources on the internet on multiple displays.

In prior entries I have employed the term “digital nexus” or “central home computer” to describe the multi-session | multi-person | multi-screen  model. This model requires a multi-session operating system, one aware of multiple inputs and multiple users, which can map a separate set of inputs (keyboard, mice, remotes, game controllers) to each user and each screen. Imagine the possibilities of a fully configurable I/O environment where a computer can support many keyboards, mice, and free-motion controllers. Dad can be in the den playing Tom Clancy’s Hawks (against his son) while his daughter is doing homework in her room and mom is managing finances in the office, all on the same, centrally managed PC. You can think of this model as multiple, simultaneous instances of single-session | single-person | single screen.  The central computer would be capable of juggling multiple user sessions, multiple screens, and multiple input / output peripherals throughout the home.

I believe that we are on an inevitable path toward Crowd Computing. Many people, computing together, using many screens in many rooms with uniform and easy access to their user-settings, information, applications and powerful compute resources. The multi-monitor capability provided by ATI Eyefinity is an important piece of the puzzle, a powerful display adapter which can extend the computer to multiple separate displays in multiple positions or nearby locations.

In the meantime, the immersive, panoramic views offered by ATI Eyefinity will impress with panaramic, immersive, multi-screen 3D graphics, video and information. I believe ATI Eyefinity has a bright future. It’s the kind of innovation that encourages re-thinking the potential of a single computer. If you are looking for new directions for the PC, I would keep watch on ATI Eyefinity.

This is the fourth in a multi-part series.

<<-- Click Here For Prior Entry

More information on ATI Eyefinity is available on the ATI Eyefinity technology page.

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Simon Solotko is a Senior Advanced Marketing Manager at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.

The first is to take on more complex tasks enabling a new kind of user experience.

The second is to serve many persons at once. Combined with the first, we now have persons who are sitting, standing and moving while working, interacting, and enjoying.

The first and second could consume many years of exponential improvements in computing capacity while serving humankind in new and compelling ways.

The third is for machines to idly dream of the day when they will divine their own purpose…

- “Inez Drew”

Q: Could you define the hypothetical home central computer?

A: A multi-user computer which supports several users at once, employing a single pool of computational resources and applications, from multiple locations. Applications may be installed once and used by each user. Settings may be set once and used in each location. User profiles can be customized and each user enjoys their own, separate usage session. The full computing experience is available in multiple locations and computing resources are shared by the group.

Q: What are the envisioned characteristics of a central computer versus a personal computer?

A: The personal computer is personal, being for one user at a time, on a single desktop, in one personal session, in one room. The central computer is designed for several users, each on their own screen, running multiple concurrent, but private sessions, anywhere in the home or beyond. Each user would own a session which encapsulates executing applications, each session mapped to a screen, each screen mapped to its input devices such as a pointer or video camera. Common resources including processing capability, software, data, and media and rich interaction would be available to each user.

Q: From a hardware perspective, how would a central computer differ from a personal computer?

A: A central computer requires additional general purpose computation to support multiple users, high peak-usage behavior to support demanding multimedia tasks while supporting multiple users, capability to accelerate and deliver 3D graphics and video to multiple screens, and multi I/O connectivity to support multiple screens and surfaces in multiple locations throughout the home and beyond.

Q: How might a central computer impact today’s digital home?

A: In today’s digital home a network binds together heterogeneous devices, which in turn are connected to screens, using common protocols such as TCP/IP, HTML, UPnP, and many media formats. In the central computing home, a single computer could be connected to many screens with local input devices. The central computer could be configured to see network devices, peripherals, or the web in a way that provides a personalized experience and uniform access on multiple screens. The benefits of centralized management are as described in prior entries in this series.

Q: How would the operating system of a central computer differ from that of a personal computer?

A: A central computer would require an OS with support for multiple concurrent user sessions on multiple screens, and able to manage personal and shared devices and storage. The OS could allow multiple instances of the same application to run in accordance with the license rights of each application. Concurrent user sessions might be fully virtualized for additional robustness. User settings, device connectivity, and web access could be centrally configured and customized for each user. Access could be restricted protecting private data or blocking unwanted or inappropriate content on a user by user basis.

Q: How would the applications of a central computer differ from those of a personal computer?

A: Applications could support environments from the living room to the desktop to the handheld. Imagine applications which provide a different interface depending on the screen size and its associated usage. We could manage our movie rental services while sitting at our desk, then browse and enjoy them while sitting in front of the big screen with an appropriate interface for each. We could install a game once and use it on each screen, in the living room, bedroom, or office. We could configure our and social media software at our desk and enjoy updates and shared photos and video in our living room. The central computer could benefit from standardized living-room appropriate input devices to provide a better interface to big-screen applications.

Q: How is the central computer concept different from a home file or media server?

A: A home server stores, serves and streams files to heterogeneous devices using standard protocols. It does little computing. A central computer could provide all of the compute capability and connectivity required to deliver a complete and powerful experience on each screen without those heterogeneous devices required to play back content on the remote screen. A central computer in this example is not a media server, it is a complete media and productivity experience delivered to each connected screen. Home storage could still benefit from a media server which intelligently and securely stores, archives and shares with the central computer and remote, web-based users.

Q: What are your assumptions about media access and digital rights management?

A: Two models: Local content and web-based content. I personally believe that services which provide online, web based viewing will supplant broadcast models, save for remote locations which lack broadband. Web content may be streamed, rented, or downloaded. Digital terrestrial and Satellite content could provide a good and adequate baseline of broadcast content. The central computer could provide full access to complex and evolving web-based content and be well prepared to support evolving media standards because, like today’s PC’s, it employs the flexibility of software to accomplish these tasks.

Q: Tell us about “uniform access” to content? Why is it important?

Today’s set -top media players and media-enabled game consoles have their own interfaces, their own ways of organizing content, and their own content support limitations. With a central computer, content access could be uniform. If you like a particular media environment, you could run it consistently on each screen in your home. Media compatibility might be limited only by the capabilities of the broad offering of media playback software available. Local content could be stored wherever, on network attached devices for example, but the central PC could provide uniform access and recognize that storage in a uniform fashion.

Q: How does a central computer change the gaming experience?

A: A central computer will be ready to play games and share them throughout the home, unlike today’s consoles and PCs which are bound to a single location. My sense is that gaming is moving quickly to digital content distribution – no need to buy duplicate hardware to run a game on each screen when we can purchase it once and run it on every screen. Also, with a central computer we might have ready access to games rendered remotely, on the web, providing a state of the art gaming experience without state-of-the art gaming hardware. PC games need no longer be bound the desktop – they could be available on every screen, big or small, sitting or standing.

Q: What is the relationship between central computing and cloud computing?

A: A central computer could provide uniform access to the cloud from many rooms in our home. It could provide the ability to ingest and interact with rich content from the web expanding the possibilities for the richness of the experience we enjoy from the cloud. Essentially, powerful web-browsers, media players, and plug-ins could be configured once and extended throughout the home, providing a powerful interface to the web and the resources in the cloud.

Yet, by having a powerful local resource, I could create my own local outpost for “the cloud” – a “home cloud.” I could serve games to my friends far away and play against them simultaneously in more than one room. Receive, store and manipulate information from the cloud from any room knowing that the data is in the same physical location, but easily accessed wherever I am. If I am away from home, I might easily access my information or even applications on my central computer which has been configured once for the task. My data could either be in the cloud or on my central computer. It could always be available.

Q: When do you believe we will see the first central computers? Why?

A: I think we are closer than we think. I believe there are a combination of likely events that will bring us to the verge, and some software and solution development which will then push us over the edge. I believe that the date range for these innovations and solutions is 2010-2015. This will be the subject of future entries. Much of the proof of concept already exists in the homes of today’s enthusiasts who endeavor to bring the worlds of computing, electronics, and entertainment closer together.

This is the third in a multi-part series.

<<– Click Here For Prior Entry  Click Here For Following Entry–>>

Simon Solotko is a Senior Advanced Marketing Manager at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.

The fate of the second is tenuous and at risk. It is the centralized group assistant. It resides in our homes and offices, unifying the interfaces and screens therein. It is a repository of everything shared and will offer high intelligence, connectivity, and interactivity without the strict size, power, and ergonomic constraints of our smaller decentralized assistant. It is the “central computer” asserted by Futurists of the 20th century and it is at risk of a priori [before the fact] extinction. A fascination with aggressive, small and highly impendent devices is depleting the intellectual effort needed to advance powerful, shared, stationary ones. The fate of the central computer is in your hands.

- ”Inez Drew”

Inez suggests that we may have a choice, an opportunity to fulfill the promise of a powerful, shared computer that brings into harmony the people, screens, surfaces, and interfaces of our home. The evolution of today’s “desktop PC” into the “central computer” of the future is a high charge. But if it does not occur soon, the desktop PC risks losing its relevance in Darwin’s race to smaller and more nimble devices.

I offer a metaphor for the evolution of the PC. It was invented to make the power of computing useful to the individual. It succeeded. But individuals move around, so it shrank so that it could fit into our pocket or backpack. It developed a powerful wired network. Later, it learned how to speak over the airways so that as we moved from place to place it could retain access to the shared knowledge and social structures of humankind. These portable devices evolved along several paths each filling specific needs – the media player, the smart phone, the laptop – but they are converging and ultimately will converge to a single device, if we are to believe Inez.

The challenge is to undo the digital knot, an ease-of-use chasm created by computing devices which do not share common services, configurations, interfaces, capabilities, or network status. Inez suggests a centralized group assistant which is able to provide a uniform and powerful experience which can be shared within and outside the home. I suggest that the PC is poised to take on this role of the central computer, sooner than we may think. This evolutionary path is not without challenges and dangers, yet I have come to believe, after much thought, that this idea is a catalyst of change.

Will the PC still tethered, sitting watching the evolutionary progress of its portable offspring, have a second successful evolutionary path? That, Inez states, is in our hands. Her hypothesis is that in a future state, a central computer will bind our home together, joining together the technology deployed throughout and the occupants living therein. It will be secure, reliable, connected, powerful, able to rescue the information of our decentralized clients lost in a cafe in Bali. It will be our local outpost for the “cloud” and serve as a powerful but secure shared computing resource cataloging and interconnecting our shared digital memories from the present to the distant past.

Without such a change, I fear the digital home will stagnate while the desktop PC becomes a candidate for the endangered species list. I believe that the evolved PC must evolve into a digital nexus, a centralized group assistant instrumental in simplifying ease of use for our entire home computing and entertainment experience. The data is a flashing red light – the smaller devices are rapidly out-competing the desktop for share of wallet and share of mind. I suggest that a shared objective, a future state which directs our thought, our design and engineering will help speed the transformation before it is too late.

This is the second in a multi-part series.

<< –Click Here For Prior Entry || Click Here For Next Entry–>>

Simon Solotko is a Senior Advanced Marketing Manager at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.

-”Inez Drew”

Has the muse told us no more, and no less than exactly what we needed to hear? Seeking out a catalyst of change, let us put aside today’s reality and ask how the ideal digital home should be experienced by ourselves, our families and friends?

In a departure from the “anytime, anywhere” vision of the internet, I suggest we focus on “experienced by anyone with ease”. While I wish to access stored knowledge and entertainment whenever and wherever, I want a daily experience that is simple and fluid, not diluted with the navigation of different technologies, interfaces, and navigational paths. When I enter my home, all applications and information are available on every screen, available to everyone in my home. Our experience – the consistent way in which we interact with stored knowledge, entertainment, social spaces, and applications – is configured once, in one place, accessed and enjoyed in every place. I want a singular compute resource able to power my experience wherever we are, with a consistent connection and navigational path to personal, shared, and web resources. I want to customize my experience so it is different from others, and create capabilities that can be shared with family and friends, broadcast to wherever we are. I wish to maintain privacy while blocking unwanted content and threats, creating an environment that is secure and safe regardless of which room, screen, or interface employed.

Information and Services are Secure and Available

Configuration is Uniform and Ubiquitous

My Experience is Personalized and Portable

A Shared Experience Creates Community Knowledge and Entertainment

Here are concrete examples of the experience that I seek. Any video can be played on any screen. Any application I own needs to be installed only once, configured once, and available to my entire family. We can navigate to information and applications by the same path no matter where we are, independent of device or physical location. If we have a new peripheral such as a printer or drive, I can install it and we can access it, in the same manner, from anywhere. When my child walks up to any screen, they have access only to the subset of data, applications, and the web that we have designated. When I walk into the home, my portable devices and my home devices act as one, fully synchronized. We can play all of our games on every screen, big or small.

Now that we have the technical means to solve usage problems individually, we can focus on how to make them work together in daily life. Easier to setup, share, and extend. Customizing our experiences and extending that experience wherever we are. Yet, the proliferation of devices, software, and web applications has moved in the opposite direction, each device with its own user interface, settings, capabilities – its own experience.

To turn the tide in the digital home may require a breakthrough innovation, or a novel evolutionary turn which tends toward the unification rather than the fragmentation of our everyday experience. Where is our sword? Our catalyst of change? Are they close at hand and close to home, or far from reach?

This is the first in a multi-part series. The second has now been published and you can continue by clicking here –>>

Simon Solotko is a Senior Advanced Marketing Manager at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.

-        Inez Drew

I don’t think that we will need to consciously think about converting video in the far future. I expect that PCs and media players will dynamically recognize, convert, shuttle, and play our media with fantastic, automated ease. Today, however, the process does not have the same fully automated ease but thanks to the ATI Video Converter, it’s getting simpler. The tool is a free part of the ATI Catalyst^TM 9.5 driver designed for PC’s with ATI Radeon^TM HD graphics. To see how to use the tool in media workflow, read on. You can also check out my “how-to” video for the ATI Video Converter.

Most people start with video from a few sources and play it back on just a few devices. We start with something and convert (which I have notated with “→”) to something else compatible with our target use. My most frequent conversions are listed below.

Digital Camcorder → DVD | Portable Media Player |  HDTV

Original 720P HD Video → DVD | Portable Media Player | Digital Media Adapter for HDTV

Windows PC Video → Portable Media Player

And here again, this time with the native formats for each:

Digital Camcorder [Standard definition MPEG2] → DVD [MPEG2] | Portable Media Player [DIVX & H.264]|  Home Theater PC for HDTV [720P or 1080P H.264 or MPEG2]

Original 720P HD [MPEG2 and H.264] → DVD [Standard definition MPEG 2] | Portable Media Player [DIVX & H.264] | Digital Media Adapter for HDTV [720P H.264]

Windows PC Video [Windows Media 9] → Portable Media Player [DIVX & H.264]

With the free ATI Video Converter, I can complete all of these conversions by simply stepping through the tool.*  The ATI Video Converter supports my major conversion tasks and more, supporting these and many other format conversions. Customized settings for portable media players such as the PSP and iPod can be selected directly as an output format.  This list is not comprehensive but shows how the capability of the tool maps to my video conversion tasks:

MPEG2 → 720P H.264, 1080P H.264, DIVX and others

720P MPEG2 → DVD Sized MPEG2, DIVX, 720P H.264, 1080P H.264 and others

Windows Media 9 → DIVX,  DVD Sized MPEG2, DIVX, 720P H.264, 1080P H.264 and others

The tool works quickly and in my own tests on an AMD Phenom^TM II X3 or AMD Phenom^TM II X4 based PC kept more than half of the systems resources free for other tasks. On my PC with AMD Phenom^TM II X4 940 with ATI Radeon^TM HD 4870 graphics I was able to convert a 720P MPEG2 video to iPod H.264 format in about half the full length of the video, and I then converted the content to  H.264 video in about the same time as the length of the video, all in the background while my PC had plenty of resources for other tasks.

AMD is working with independent software makers like Cyberlink to implement ATI Stream technology in their tools. ATI Stream technology is the underlying software technology in the ATI Video Converter which helps to balance the video conversion tasks across the central processor and graphics processor to speed performance and keep more system resources free for multitasking. More on ATI Stream technology and these applications in a future entry.

The ATI Video Converter is included in the new ATI Catalyst drivers version 9.5 which can be downloaded at www.amd.com. Also, be sure to check out Nigel’s new blog on ATI Stream technology. If you are interested in more great software from AMD you can read about Fusion Media Explorer here.

*  Use of the ATI Video Converter requires a system containing an ATI Radeon^TM HD 4600 series or ATI Radeon^TM HD 4800 series graphics card

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Simon Solotko is a Senior Advanced Marketing Manager at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.

- “Inez Drew”

There are two things to know about me. First, I have a muse, who I call Inez. Second, Inez has seen the future.

I have been enjoying the new beta of the AMD Fusion Media Explorer and thinking about a future where we can explore the digital memories of our distant past. Imagine the digital record potentially available to our descendants, browsing photos a thousand years old, connecting their knowledge of the past and the present to all of human kind. Imagine if we had a window to our past, a camera on thousands of ancestors from our distant past? A living history that showed a personal connection to the people and history of the last thousand years?

With the AMD Fusion Media Explorer I cannot synthesize images of my distant past, but I can enjoy digital memories and browse them in a way which makes me feel like a citizen of the future. The ribbon invokes a “fabric of time” and with it I can view my entire history or probe just a piece of it. I can quickly browse images and preview videos using a thoroughly modern interface that complements the functionality of Windows. I can search for family members or places. Even recall a specific week or a specific day. My friends can share photos on Facebook and I can see them at once without navigating online to each friend and each album, seeing them as an integral part of my own history.

The technology of Fusion Media Explorer is a glimpse into the future. The interface is rendered in 3D using the graphics engine of an ATI graphics processor. This allows images to bend on the ribbon, the use of reflections on the black mirrored surface beneath, and accelerates playback while improving the quality of high definition video. For search of local media, the AMD Fusion Media Explorer integrates the powerful file indexing engine of Windows Vista.

With AMD Fusion Media Explorer I have been able to retrieve memories lost on my hard drive and to better organize them by putting them in a proper place. It gathers my photos and videos and feels like a natural extension of my visual memory, reminiscent of the future proposed by Inez.

Here are images of AMD Fusion Media Explorer navigating my recent past…

Be sure to check out Casey’s introduction to Fusion Media Explorer and the free download. And you can also see my prior blog “Virtual Purgatory on the Path to the Cloud”

Simon Solotko is a Senior Advanced Marketing Manager at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.

There are two things to know about me. First, I have a muse, who I call Inez. Second, Inez has seen the future.

I understand the utility of ubiquitous data access, a user-friendly, fully synchronized online and offline existence. It may be too much to ask.

Some of today’s most popular applications, including enterprise email applications and web browsers, threaten to condemn users to “virtual Purgatory.” These applications attempt to synchronize increasingly large amounts of media rich data. The result is complex synchronization that is slowing clients to a crawl. Complex archive solutions are constantly struggling to encrypt, compress, archive, synchronize and recall data. The ensuing data smashup robs client PCs of free cycles, rendering them momentarily unresponsive, leaving me and thousands like me with millions of useless, small, utterly idle moments. With the rush toward multi-client data ubiquity, it looks like we are being condemned to Purgatory.

An entire generation of applications that attempt to host content simultaneously online/offline is coming. Software Titans are deploying browsers and client-compiled applications that speed the deployment of online/offline applications. Software architectures designed to provide data and application integrity while having to live in many places at once may drive our clients into virtual self destruction.

A leap to a complete and fully integrated Cloud may avoid virtual Purgatory.

The Cloud can more easily extend functionality to a very broad set of clients. Today’s clients are heterogeneous development environments with an abundance of client-specific code and widely varied capabilities. Try to find a phone that that can play a flash video? Or a television that can surf the web? Or a game that can be played on any client? Or a stereo that can play FLAC? Now imagine a singular client that can enable all of these usages on all of these platforms! That is the potential of the Cloud – application portability yielding rich application experiences on almost any form factor.

A Render Cloud is a layer of capability which helps complete the vision.  Render Clouds employ server technologies to render complex scenes in direct response to user input allowing the entirety of the application to reside in the Cloud. By rendering a scene remotely, the client is simplified, needing only to “play” the rendered scene, analogous to playing back video. Smaller, lower bandwidth clients receive scenes rendered at their resolution, while better connected  clients on faster connections with large screens receive high resolution experiences.

Rendering in the Cloud can solve the bandwidth problem by capping the bandwidth problem. All I need to do is refresh a screen with data at a particular resolution appropriate to the client’s screen and available bandwidth. No additional bandwidth needed between the client and the server, ever -  only three variables, screen size, interface visual integrity, and upstream user input. Peak bandwidth requirements become fixed and predictable.

The vision of rendering in the Cloud brings new meaning to What You See is What You Get (WYSIWYG). If I just typed the letter Q, and I see the letter Q, then the letter Q is in my document somewhere far away on a well managed server in the Cloud. We can finally edit critical documents like spreadsheets online because we have visual confirmation that our critical keystrokes were received, not just sent.

The fully integrated Cloud can solve the multi-client problem. If the client can assemble the pixels and provide input, it can be as powerful as the most powerful super-computer. And once again, no complex client side applications and synchronization, with the added benefit of a cap on the bandwidth problem. Cell phones become supercomputers, capable of running the same applications I can run on any client, regulated by ergonomics and screen size.

The online Titans will work to deploy from the web down to the client, as the client software Titans move in the opposite direction. By deploying in the Cloud, both can avoid the painful intermediate step of trying to deploy complex online/offline applications. Both can avoid punishing users.

Inez suggests a more radical vision; partitioning the Cloud and the Client, suggesting that our data portability and privacy problem is an artifact that will soon disappear as we come to possess a powerful and omni-present client. Our Client will have strict rules for exchanging data with the Cloud, maintaining data integrity for both the Cloud and the Client. A topic for another day.

Learn more about Cloud Computing from AMD on our Virtualization blog.

Simon Solotko is a futurist and strategist who has lived in service of the extreme user community for his six year tenure at Advanced Micro Devices. Simon has been a creative force behind AMD64 technology and commercial, value, and extreme desktop processors and platforms. Simon previously spent 5 years in Strategic Planing for Raytheon’s Intelligence Information Systems Division focused on High Performance Computing systems integration. Simon’s interests include The Future and The Distant Past. Simon has attended Kent State University, Harvard University, the University of Chicago, and The University of Texas studying Computer Science, Finance, Mathematics, Social Science, and Marketing.

Simon Solotko is a Senior Brand Marketing Manager at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.

In my personal life I consume media in many ways. My primary tool is my AMD LIVE! Media Center PC with Microsoft Vista Home Premium. It is in my bedroom and very integrated into my routine, and I use it heavily. In the morning I watch The Today Show while I get ready for work. When I get home from work I catch up on shows I missed that are pre-recorded. At night my wife and I watch Family Guy as we wind down and head to bed. When we go to parties and take pictures, the first thing I do when we get home is stick the camera’s SD card into the Media Center and copy the photos to the hard drive.

There are several areas that still need improvement. It is still a computer, so a wireless keyboard and mouse is a must. While the integration needs a lot of work, I do love being able to stream video from Hulu, Netflix, and YouTube onto a large screen TV.

Being able to use all the online streaming services without special support is great. Upgradability is also a plus. With all the HD content I’ve been recording, I had to upgrade the hard drive twice. There are still several more ways I plan on using my Media Center. In the near future I want to get either a Pica extender or a Microsoft Xbox 360 to view my content outside of the bedroom. I also want to get a SideShow device to have a more interactive experience with my computer.

I feel like I live two years in the future, because I am not a typical user. But I’m sure in two years everyone will have a computer hooked up to their TV. It might not be in the same form and I’m hopeful the setup will be more polished. I know I didn’t include Blu-ray in my setup, but once again that ties back to the great upgradability of a PC platform. PCs are the best kept secret in home entertainment.

1. THIS UTILITY MAY DISABLE SECURITY / ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE, OR ADVERSELY AFFECT YOUR SYSTEM. REVIEW ACCOMPANYING DOCUMENTATION CAREFULLY BEFORE INSTALLING.

Wesley Faulkner

Wesley Faulkner is a Product Development Engineer at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.