Lenovo S12 First to use Nvidia ION

If you remember a while ago I talked about the Nvidia ION graphics system that includes the Nvidia 9400M as well as the intel N270 Atom Processor. Versus using the standard Intel integrated graphics which don’t allow for HD playback or any sort of graphically demanding applications/games. Nvidia claims that this will greatly improve gaming performance and allow for much richer experience. Nvidia also went as far to say that will allow you to play Spore, Call of Duty 4, Portal, and World of Warcraft and play them well.

The price isn’t bad either, at $499 the S12 will come with the Ion platform, a 12” 1280 X 800 screen, and Atom N270. If you don’t feel the need for the extra graphics horsepower you can save yourself $50. However if would recommend that you just suck it up and pay the extra $50. I mean The Ion is claiming that it will improve your performance by 10x with nearly identical power usage.

The computer itself will weigh about 3.7 pounds with a six cell battery, 1GB DDR2 Ram, a 160GB Hard drive, XP home, 1.3 Megapixel Camera, and 802.11 b/g wireless, all within a 1.14” thick case.

This netbook is the first one that looks decent I hope this is glimpse of things to come. Companies need to start taking advantage of more powerful graphics solutions in order to create more efficient and powerful computers. This is especially useful in laptops.

AMD Breaks One Ghz Barrier In Graphics Processing

Sunnyvale, California-based Advanced Micro Devices Inc has announced the launch of ATI Radeon HD4890 graphics card, which it claims houses the first processor that has clocked 1Ghz.

The HD4890 card has built into it GDDR5 memory that combined with the processor delivers 1.6 teraflops of computing power. This has opened up new vistas for delivering complex and realistic simulations of real-world materials such as “cloth”. The card has 800 stream processors and 956 million transistors that, according to the company’s website, makes such brute strength possible. The amount of realism that forthcoming games can provide to their players becomes possible through anti-aliasing (AA) and anisotropic filtering. DirectX 10.1 games are seamlessly possible through the card.

The card makes use of unique air-cooling technology to keep the card cool.

The card comes with technology such as ATI CrossFireX which offers scalability, PCI Express 2.0 which handles higher bandwidth demands, UVD 2 which provides multi-tasking capability required for apps such as Blu-rays, AVT which helps convert standard and HD video into multiple formats for use on differing consumer electronic devices, and HDMI which handles 7.1 digital surround sound.

Read more about the latest breakthrough in graphics processing technology, here.

ATI Strikes back in tough times

AMD is playing the cheap route and this is smart thinking on their part. What they have created is the fastest card possible but at the lowest price and what do you get? The ATI 4770. This card provides excellent performance but under $100 USD after rebates. That is incredible! According to HotHardware exclaimed that this card “offers performance in the same range as cards that were launched at the $299 to $349 price point only a year ago.” The bottom line is It’s “one of the best buys.”

The really nice thing about this card is that even if you can afford a big shot 300 dollar card all you have to do is grab a few of these things and throw it in crossfire. ATI really hit the nail on the head this time providing some excellent performance in such a cheap package.

I really wish we could get some of this stuff coming from ATI’s biggest competitor NVIDIA. I think if they offered some better deals they could do pretty good. AMD seems like the only company that gets what people want right now and is also willing to offer it. 

First Desktop 40nm Graphics Card From AMD

Sunnyvale, California-headquartered Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Inc has announced the launch of a new desktop graphics card. Called the ATI Radeon HD 4770, this card incorporates the latest 40nm technology.

The latest addition has hardware circuitry that can handle such graphic-intensive games as Battleforge, HAWX, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and the like. The card leverages the superior technology of GDDR5 memory, which translates to higher data rates than was possible, according to the company release.

The card also has the standard features of HDMI, PiP and 7.1 surround sound which are required for cinema-quality home-entertainment.

If they have ATI CrossFireX-ready motherboard, then gamers can add this card as an add-on and make use of the CrossFireX technology to further enhance their gaming performance.

PC Assemblers can, according to the release, couple AMD’s Athlon X2 7850 processor and 7-series chipsets with the latest HD 4770 graphics card to create a desktop PC that will appeal to the lay user in general and to the gaming community and home-entertainment specifically.

Companies such as Emergent have already endorsed the new card by upgrading their gaming software to include features of the card when the software detects its presence.

Read about the latest release in the graphics domain for desktops from AMD, here.

‘Hollywood’ Graphics Processor Is AMD’s Highest Selling Game Console Chip

The “Hollywood” Graphics Processor has become the highest-selling game console chip for Sunnyvale, California-based Advanced Micro Devices Inc. The reason? This chip goes into Nintendo’s Wii game console, whose popularity has soared new heights in the past few festive seasons.

The Hollywood chip is part of the ATI series of processors. Hollywood chips have been lifted by Nintendo for the past two years, ever since Nintendo launched its Wii gaming console in 2006. The ATI chip and the PowerPC CPU from IBM are the only two processors that make up the brains of the Wii. While the IBM CPU takes care of the console’s administration, the Hollywood chip gives users the 3D-immersive gaming and interactive experience that the gaming console is popular for. AMD has custom-made this chip exclusively to be used for the Wii, so the “Hollywood” brand of chips won’t be found on any other device anywhere in the world.

The achievement is another feather in the cap for AMD, whose GPUs have made waves also in Microsoft’s Xbox 360 machines. Besides the Wii, AMD has also supplied chips for Nintendo’s GameCube consoles.

Read more about the new landmark achievement at AMD, here.

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