AMD Archive

Eighteen months after shipping, AMD's Personal Internet Communicator, aimed at lowering the cost of computing so half the world could enjoy Internet access by 2015, apparently still doesn't run Linux. It now appears the design may actually be rigged to block the use of Linux.

"The thing I find most interesting in battle of silicon supremacy is just how unbelievably thick (or perhaps slow) AMD has been lately. For the entire life cycle of the Pentium 4 family, AMD was far ahead. The company made the best processors in terms of performance with cost efficiency in mind. However, it had a nice 1-1.5 years of time span where it could've evolved or innovated enough, but it didn't. Granted that AMD is still leading the desktop and server markets in terms of performance, it's not the point. The point is the lack of evolution and innovation from AMD."

Advanced Micro Devices is working to ensure that no platform change will be required to move from its next-generation dual-core processors to quad-core processors. When AMD rolls out dual-core processors with built-in virtualization hooks midyear, the company also aims to show that quad-core processors can also run on the same socket on that platform, said Marty Seyer, senior vice president of AMD's Commercial Business and Performance Computing, Microprocessor Solutions Sector unit.

Dell's Chief Executive Kevin Rollins said on Thursday that he is open to selling computers that run on AMD chips. Dell, the world's biggest manufacturer of personal computers, currently only uses Intel chips, and is Intel's biggest customer. Rollins said that Dell was always open to change: "We want the very best technology for our customers."

If Grand Funk Railroad is on your shopping list, Advanced Micro Devices has the computer for you. The processor maker will unveil its 'Live' brand at the Consumer Electronics Show, which takes place this week in Las Vegas. The brand - whose logo will be printed on a sticker on the chassis of a desktop or notebook - will indicate that the computer in question is tuned for home entertainment. Live PCs will come with 7.1 surround sound capabilities, for instance, said Hal Speed, a marketing architect for AMD.

"AMD’s drive to 64-bit processors surprised everyone with its speed, even as detractors commented that there would be little or no performance gain on the desktop without a 64-bit OS and 64-bit applications. Whatever the doubts within the industry, Intel lost little time in offering its own version of AMD64, in the form of the EM64T extensions. Traditionally perceived as the under-dog in the cutthroat world of microprocessors, AMD managed to take the design initiative at exactly that moment Intel was fixated on power consumption and the move to dual cores. DigiTimes recently had an opportunity to discuss AMD’s approach to microprocessor design with Dr. Raghuram Tupuri, Design Engineering, AMD."

AMD is celebrating the one-year anniversary of its 64-bit Opteron processor this week, but executives are looking forward to what may be a more crucial time for the upstart processor.

While Intel's Extreme Edition is coming out soon but with crazy prices, AMD on Thursday sketched out its strategy for the PC and cell phone markets for the next two years at its annual analysts' meeting and disclosed its plans for another multibillion-dollar chip fabrication facility, or fab.

AMD's upcoming Athlon 64 low-end variants, codenamed 'Paris' and 'Victoria', will not be offered as 64-bit processors but as 32-bit upgrades to the current Athlon XP line. So claims Xbit Labs, having glanced at the chip maker's latest roadmaps.

The Inquirer features a long article on AMD Opteron and its potential.

AMD released the Athlon XP 3200+ for desktops, the last scheduled member of a chip family that helped turn the company's fortunes around. Benchmarks here ("it should have been called a 2800+").

TomsHardware has an extensive benchmark of the AMD Opteron system, Extremetech has a long analysis of the CPU itself, while NewsForge reviews SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8.0 on AMD Opteron hardware. Read more for the Mandrake press release about their 64-bit version of Linux for the Opteron.

Dirk Meyer helped rescue Advanced Micro Devices from a tight spot once before. Now the company is hoping he can do the trick again. In his interview to ZDNet, he talks about the Opteron version of Windows, the Linux support for it, Athlon64 and more.

The Inquirer reports that SuSE is ready to release its full X86-64 version of Linux, version 8.2, quite a time before the official launch, for the AMD Opteron architecture. Additionally, MandrakeSoft released their Mandrake Linux 9.0 version for Opteron recently. However, Microsoft has yet to set a date for Opteron 64-bit support, while it will roll out specifically for Itanium two high-end versions of its Windows Server 2003 operating system, its first major server OS update in three years.