In my last post I talked about how my job duties have changed over the years. The job has changed, but the focus has not wavered at all. In fact it seems as though the whole company has aligned on the vision of a customer centered philosophy. The AMD LIVE!™ program was centered around making a computer easier to use as an entertainment hub. We gathered some of the best tools and utilities to accomplish this goal. Now with the AMD Fusion initiative we have brought more of the development in house so we have more control over the program.

Last year AMD launched AMD Fusion company-wide. To me AMD Fusion is the endeavor to do the right thing for the industry and our customers as a whole. AMD Fusion is being a pioneer and taking chances and doing things the right way, which is not necessarily the easy way. A solution is more than the sum of its parts. With the combination of CPU, GPU, and all the other chips that make up a computer there is a secret sauce of software and cooperation that truly makes it stand out from the rest.

The first software product released under the AMD Fusion moniker was the AMD Fusion for Gaming utility.* The goal of the utility was to fix a glaring problem that some people didn’t even know they had. Performance tuners knew how to squeeze out the most performance from their operating system, video card and processor. This trial and error approach for a consumer to tweak a system could take hours, days or even weeks depending on the extent of the fine tuning. AMD already had a few tools to do this but they were disjointed. What my team did was to take all of these utilities, package them up under one umbrella and make it more accessible to everyone. In the next few months, we plan to improve this utility for more platforms and with additional configuration options. Our first release was well received and we hope to build on that success.

To me, the power of AMD Fusion is being able to harness the full potential of a platform to make it a full featured solution. With the new company wide initiative it allows our group to push the boundaries of the status quo and to take chances to enhance the user experience. This is what AMD Fusion means to me.

* 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.

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.