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Tag: APU

  • Here’s What AMD Has In Store For 2014

    Here’s What AMD Has In Store For 2014

    For the past several years, AMD has always played second fiddle to Intel when it came to CPUs. Recently, the company has been moving away from the CPU market to APUs – CPUs that have a GPU on the same die. At CES 2014, AMD remained committed to its new strategy.

    Gavin Gear from the Extreme Windows blog got a chance to check out all the AMD technology coming to PCs in 2014. While the company will likely never announce a successor its FX series of CPUs, its brand new APUs should be a worthy replacement for those looking for compute and graphics performance on a single chip.

    The new APUs – codenamed Kaveri – combine a Steamroller CPU with AMD’s new R7 graphics technology onto a single die. The company showed off a small form factor PC with one of the new APUs running Sid Meier’s Civilization V.

    The company also showed off some new graphics technology in the form of its new R290X discrete graphics cards. Using its new Mantle API, it’s able to run Battlefield 4 at 4K resolutions or multiple 1080p displays.

    Finally, AMD showed off a new Nano-PC concept that it’s working on. It runs off of a low power APU in a slim design that still packs a punch. It was able to run FIFA 14 in 1080p, and should be more than sufficient for those looking for an entertainment center PC.

    Image via Extreme Windows Blog

  • Xi3 Piston Brings PC Gaming To The Living Room On November 29

    Last week, Valve revealed its plan to take over the living room with a three pronged attack – SteamOS, Steam Machines and the Steam controller. SteamOS will be out this year, but Steam Machines will not. The original Steam box that was shown at CES this year will though.

    Xi3 announced today that its Piston Micro PC will launch on November 29. The $999 PC will arrive on November 15 for those who preordered one during the SXSW 2013 Gaming Expo.

    “The Piston Console is just Xi3’s first step in what we believe will be a transformative
    technology revolution for the Living Room,” said Jason A. Sullivan, Xi3’s founder, president and CEO. “Unfortunately, I can’t tell you what I know is coming because it’s not time to tell you. But I will say this: the bar has been raised. Piston is smaller, lighter, and will last longer, provide more gaming options and be more powerful than any other gaming console on the planet. The reason I feel confident in saying this is because we started with a clean slate, unlike competing manufacturers. And that Tabula Rasa approach is what sets Piston apart from other gaming systems today and what will set us apart tomorrow.”

    Despite unintentionally name dropping one of the biggest gaming flops of the last decade in its press release, the Xi3 Piston packs a little more punch than Richard Garriott’s MMO. For $999, you get a tiny PC with an 128GB SSD, an ethernet controller that prioritizes gaming traffic, a 3.2 GHz AMD Trinity APU with Radeon 7000 series GPU, and 8GB of RAM. It should be noted that the SSD can be expanded to include two 512GB mSATA SSDs for over 1TB of storage.

    Xi3 claims that this set up will allow the Piston to display out to three monitors or a single 4K monitor. Such a claim is technically true, but it looks like the Piston will be using the AMD A8-5600K complete with Radeon HD 7560D. In a comparison test on Tom’s Hardware, the A8-5600K could only manage about 22 FPS at 1080p with Skyrim set to medium.

    For those looking for a gaming PC for your living room, you could do much worse than the Xi3 Piston. At its $999 asking price, however, it’s a little steep. You could buy the components it uses and build a comparable living room PC for half the price. Hell, you could go with a better CPU, add on a more powerful discrete AMD GPU and still come in under $1,000.

    In short, the Xi3 is a decent first attempt at bringing PC gaming to the living room. The specs will be more than enough to play any PC game released before 2010, but anything after that becomes dubious. If you want a living room machine to play sophisticated games on, you’re much better off buying a PS4 or an Xbox One. Either of those consoles will provide much better looking games at half the price. If you’re adamant about sticking with a PC, you can either build your own or wait for whatever Valve has in store with its Steam Machines in 2014.

    [Image: Xi3]

  • CES 2013: Vizio’s First Windows 8 Tablet Is Powered By AMD

    Let’s be honest with ourselves: Windows 8 tablets, including Microsoft’s own Surface, aren’t doing that well. The biggest offender is the overall price of these tablets with the anticipated Surface Pro, priced at $899, not helping. So, what happens when the king of cheap televisions takes a crack at it?

    Vizio, known more for its cheap televisions than computers, announced at CES 2013 that it’s bringing a 11.6-inch Windows 8 tablet to market later this year. Much like the Surface, Vizio is selling this a tablet that doubles a premium PC. What sets it apart is that it uses AMD’s latest APU for a presumably cheaper price point.

    The new tablet features a full HD 1080p display, 64GB SSD, and an AMD Z-60 APU with on-board Radeon HD graphics. The processor was built with Windows 8 tablets in mind, and as such, features a low-power dual-core 1.0 GHz CPU. The on-board GPU is clocked at 275 MHz, but supports DirectX 11. It’s not going to be a gaming machine, but no Windows 8 tablet has yet proven to be one either.

    “We built a tablet PC with Windows 8 that truly allows consumers to accomplish any task while being mobile,” said Matt McRae, Chief Technology Officer, VIZIO. “We are excited to work together with AMD to bring consumers a Tablet PC with the Windows experience that also delivers exceptional visuals using AMD’s expertise in superior graphics processing.”

    There’s no mention of pricing or availability yet, but it should be cheap. Vizio has a good track record of keeping prices down, and the use of an AMD processor should help keep the price down even more. With that being said, the use of an AMD processor may turn some people away who prefer more powerful Intel processors in their tablets, but that’s what the $899 Surface Pro is for.

  • Walmart To Offer Online Degrees For Its Workers

    Walmart is partnering with American Public University, an online, for profit school, to offer its employees college degrees.

    Walmart and Sam’s Club employees in the U.S. will be able to earn a college degree at a discounted price through a combination of academic credit earned for Walmart job learning and experience, and online course work via APU.

    Dr-Wallace-E-Boston-APU.jpg "We share Walmart’s commitment to enhance America’s competitiveness by helping to increase the number of working Americans with college degrees," said Dr. Wallace E. Boston, Jr., APUS president and CEO.

    "We are honored to be selected by a world-leading organization to promote to their associates the qualities and attributes that are central to our mission."

    Walmart says it surveyed 32,000 of its employees and 72 percent said they preferred an online university over other options. The company says the range of 70 undergraduate degrees that APU offers in an online format makes it a convenient option for its workers.

    Employees will be able to earn job-learning credit in current degree offerings in programs such as management, transportation and logistics, and security management. APU plans to offer new concentrations in related management and other related fields.