Sign up for our Technology Newsletter 
Radeon 8000 HD Expected In Q2
Since we only have one month left in 2012 and due the fact that graphics companies rarely announce something big in December, it is obvious that Radeon HD 8000 slipped to 2013.
Our well informed industry sources are confirming that the next generation, based on Sea Islands, architecture is coming in 2013 and some of them dare to say that it will be Q2 2013 rather than Q1 2013. Some people were expecting to see the cards in Q1 2013 but even according to AMD’s own roadmap Sea Islands, the new GPU architecture with HAS features was scheduled (or should we say delayed. Ed) for 2013.
AMD has already communicated this schedule loud and clear in its February 2012 roadmap update, and even then it killed hopes that Sea Islands or HD 8000 cards are coming in very late Q3 or Q4 2012, as was previously expected.
We won’t get into any specific details like the 8000 branding, or die sizes as we simply don’t know this at the time being. It’s safe to say that these cards will end up faster than 7000 series and at similar TDPs to the previous generation, all manufactured in 28nm.
nVidia Soars
Nvidia has published its third quarter earnings and the results are impressive to say the least. With record revenue of $1.2 billion, Nvidia’s net income in Q3 was $209.1 million (GAAP).
Quarterly revenue is up 12.9 percent year-over-year and represents a 15.3 percent sequential bump, beating analyst expectations. However, Nvidia expects its revenue to dip to between $1.02 and $1.17 billion in the fourth quarter.
The company blames the projected slump on a declining PC market. It seems Nvidia does not expect Windows 8 will have a very positive impact on the PC market.
AMD’s Roadmap Leaked
According to the latest AMD desktop roadmap, published by DonanimHaber, the Steamroller architecture could be delayed, which means Piledriver cores will power AMD’s third-generation APUs.
So what does this mean for consumers? Well, Richland APUs might not be quite as good as expected. AMD could optimize the x86 cores and go for more powerful graphics, but it’s hard to get excited about the next generation.
Vishera parts will also stick to Piledriver cores, backed by discreet Radeon 7xxx and 8xxx series graphics. However, we will see a new architecture in the low end. Kabini is apparently on track to launch next year, with Jaguar cores, refreshed graphics and an all new system-on-chip version, with an integrated on-chip Fusion controller hub (FCH).
What’s more, AMD will also offer quad-core Kabini parts, and who could say no to a dirt cheap E-series APU with four cores, good graphics and a ridiculous TDP?
AMD Makes More Cuts
There have been some rumors that AMD plans to drop prices on its older generation APUs as well as some AM3 Athlon II CPUs and as of yesterday, the new price list confirmed those cuts. Unfortunately the price cuts are not that impressive on the FM1 side but some AM3 Athlon II CPUs have seen a price reduction of over 30 percent.
The full list includes a total of six A-Series APUs and twelve AM3 Athlon II CPUs. The most impressive price cut in the A-Series was on the A4-3300 APU for 21.7 percent, or from US $46 down to US $36. The flagship A8-3870K got cut down by 9.9 percent while A6-3670K was cut down by far less impressive 3.7 percent.
The most impressive price cuts on the AM3 Athlon II side is on the Athlon II X4 640 and the Athlon II X2 265. The Athlon II X4 640 got cut down from US $98 to US $67, or 31.6 percent, while Athlon II X2 265 got cut down from US $69 to US $48, or 30.4 percent.
Two Athlon II CPUs, the X3 445 and the X4 638, were removed from the price list as they were most likely discontinued.
You can check out the full list and price cuts over at CPU-World.com.
Is Windows 8 In High Demand?
Microsoft Corp Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said on Monday demand for the company’s new Windows 8 operating system, that went on sale last Friday, was running at a higher rate than its last release, Windows 7.
“We’re seeing preliminary demand well above where we were with Windows 7, which is gratifying,” Ballmer said at an event launching new Windows phones.
Windows 7 is the best-selling version of Windows so far, selling more than 670 million licenses in three years since release in 2009.
“Over the weekend we saw an incredible response around the globe to Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface,” said Ballmer, referring to Microsoft’s first own-brand tablet, designed to challenge Apple Inc’s iPad. He did not give out any sales figures.
On Friday, there were moderate lines at Microsoft’s 60 or so stores across the United States for the Surface.
Ballmer was in San Francisco speaking at an event showcasing phones running its new Windows Phone 8 software, which go on sale this weekend.
Microsoft has struggled to make headway in the smartphone market, holding just 3.5 percent of the worldwide market, compared to 68 percent for Google Inc’s Android devices and 17 percent for Apple’s iPhone, according to tech research firm IDC.
The company highlighted how the new phones make use of Microsoft’s SkyDrive cloud service, enabling users to sync and transfer music, documents and photos between PCs, tablets and the Xbox game console. Microsoft added that it now has 120,000 apps in its online store for phones, still far fewer than the number available for iPhone and Android users.
AMD Goes Piledriver
AMD has released its Piledriver desktop
processors codenamed Vishera.
AMD showed off Vishera at IDF last month, an overclocked chip running at 5GHz. Now the company has taken the wraps off its eight-core Vishera chip, a processor that it hopes will finally bury memories of its disappointing Bulldozer Zambezi chip.
AMD’s Vishera processors will continue to use Socket AM3+, meaning it is a drop-in upgrade for those customers lumbered with Zambezi processors.
The firm announcing four models all branded with the FX moniker. The low-end Vishera chip is the quad-core FX-4300 clocked at 3.8GHz boosted up to 4.0GHz, with 4MB of Level 3 cache.
The firm has kept feature parity throughout its Vishera FX range aside from core count and total Level 3 cache. Therefore AMD’s six-core FX-6300 still sports the same 1MB of Level 2 cache per core but has a total Level 3 cache of 8MB and is clocked at 3.5GHz that can be boosted up to 4.1GHz.
AMD’s top two Vishera parts, the FX-8320 and FX-8350 sport eight cores and have 8MB of Level 3 cache. The difference between the two chips is their clock frequencies, with the FX-8320 running at 3.5GHz and boosted to 4.0GHz while the FX-8350 is clocked at 4.0GHz and is boosted to 4.2GHz.
The firm’s decision to clock its FX-8320 and FX-8350 so closely is largely academic, as all Vishera chips feature an unlocked multiplier. AMD even plays up the overclockability of Vishera and touts 5GHz as being reachable with water cooling. Insiders have even said it can reach 5GHz with strong air cooling.
As for AMD’s Piledriver architecture, the firm claims it offers improved branch prediction and improvements to Level 2 cache efficiency and scheduling. Overall the company is sticking to its longstanding line that Vishera is a 15 percent performance increase over Bulldozer, and while that might well be true, Bulldozer was so far behind its competition in single-threaded performance that a 15 percent gain is needed simply to achieve parity, let alone a lead.
AMD Adds On For GPU
AMD is offering a new games bundle with HD 7000 series cards and oddly enough, the games on offer are pretty good.
Anyone who goes for an HD 7900 series card is looking at Farcry 3, Hitman: Absolution and Sleeping Dogs. Buyers of two HD 7800 cards or a dual-headed HD7770 GHz edition can expect Farcry and Hitman, while those less fortunate, who end up with a single HD 7800 or HD 7770 series card will get just Farcry.
Still, this is pretty good value for money and the choice of titles is just as good. Bundled games tend to be somewhat older, less popular titles, so AMD’s new Never Settle bundle seems like a welcome breath of fresh air.
AMD Makes Cuts
AMD has cut its third quarter revenue and gross margin forecasts citing weak demand.
AMD’s lacklustre Bulldozer processor line has left the firm desperately trying to compete with Intel in the desktop market while its more impressive accelerated processor unit (APU) range has been rebuffed by Intel’s multi-million dollar ultrabook marketing push. Now AMD has revised down its estimate of third quarter revenues, which it says will be around 10 percent lower than the previous quarter.
Even more worrying for AMD is its lower forecast for gross margin, the difference between selling an item and the cost to make it, down from 44 percent to 31 percent. Effectively AMD said its cost of doing business has risen considerably higher, although it laid most of the blame on an $100m inventory writedown.
AMD couldn’t avoid admitting the blindingly obvious and said that its writedown of inventory was due to “lower anticipated future demand for certain products”. The firm has suffered through a disappointing 2012, and earlier this year it announced a $580m loss back in April.
AMD And Oracle Join Forces
AMD is taking part in the OpenJDK project “Sumatra” in collaboration with Oracle.
The project aims to bring heterogeneous computing capabilities to Java for servers and clouds. It will look at how the Java virtual machine, language and APIs, can be spruced up to allow applications to take advantage of GPU acceleration, either in discrete graphics cards or in high-performance graphics processor cores such as those found in AMD APUs.
Manju Hegde, corporate vice president heterogeneous applications and developer solutions at AMD said that the OpenJDK Project represents the next step towards bringing heterogeneous computing to millions of Java developers. AMD has an established track record of collaboration with open-software development communities from OpenCL to the heterogeneous system architecture (HSA) foundation, and with this initiative we will help further the development of graphics acceleration within the Java community, he said.
AMD And BlueStacks Join Forces
AMD has joined forces with BlueStacks in an effort to bring Android apps to Windows tablets. BlueStacks is the outfit behind Android App Player, a Windows app that enables users to run Android apps on tablets.
Since AMD is not in the ARM game, it could obviously benefit from bringing some popular Android apps to Windows, allowing users to play a few levels of Bad Piggies on Hondo tablets.
However, apps have to be vetted before users can take end up on the AMD AppZone, but it is also possible to install other applications.
The BlueStacks Android Player will also run on Windows 7 and Windows 8 PCs, and it even supports Windows XP.
In the long run, the possibility of running Android apps could be very interesting for consumers thinking about getting a Windows 8 tablet, as it will combine Microsoft’s unmatched enterprise solutions with fun and popular Android apps. Provided the whole thing works as advertised, of course.