AMD Newsroom 

At its annual Financial Analyst Day, AMD (NYSE: AMD) detailed a new “ambidextrous” strategy that builds on the company’s long history of x86 and graphics innovation while embracing other technologies and intellectual property to deliver differentiated products.

AMD is adopting an SoC-centric roadmap designed to speed time-to-market, drive sustained execution, and enable the development of more tailored customer solutions. SoC design methodology is advantageous because it is a modular approach to processor design, leveraging best practice tools and microprocessor design flows with the ability to easily re-use IP and design blocks across a range of products.

“AMD’s strategy capitalizes on the convergence of technologies and devices that will define the next era of the industry,” said Rory Read, president and CEO, AMD. “The trends around consumerization, the Cloud and convergence will only grow stronger in the coming years. AMD has a unique opportunity to take advantage of this key industry inflection point.  We remain focused on continuing the work we began last year to re-position AMD.  Our new strategy will help AMD embrace the shifts occurring in the industry, marrying market needs with innovative technologies and become a consistent growth engine.”

Roadmap Updates Focus on Customer Needs

Additionally, AMD today announced updates to its product roadmaps for AMD Central Processing Unit (CPU) and Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) products it plans to introduce in 2012 and 2013. The roadmap modifications address key customer priorities across form factors including ultrathin notebooks, tablets, all-in-ones, desktops and servers with a clear focus on low power, emerging markets and the Cloud.

AMD’s updated product roadmap features second generation  mainstream (“Trinity”) and low-power (“Brazos 2.0”) APUs for notebooks and desktops; “Hondo,” an APU specifically designed for tablets; new CPU cores in 2012 and 2013 with “Piledriver” and its successor “Steamroller,” as well as “Jaguar,” which is the successor to AMD’s popular “Bobcat” core. In 2012, AMD plans to introduce four new AMD Opteron™ processors. For a more in-depth look at AMD’s updated product roadmap, please visit http://blogs.amd.com.

Next-generation Architecture Standardizes and Facilitates Software Development

AMD also provided further details on its Heterogeneous System Architecture (HSA), which enables software developers to easily program APUs by combining scalar processing on the CPU with parallel processing on the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), all while providing high bandwidth access to memory at low power. AMD is proactively working to make HSA an open industry standard for the developer community. The company plans to hold its 2^nd annual AMD Fusion Developer Summit in June, 2012.

New Company Structure Strengthens Execution

In conjunction with announcing its restructuring plan in November 2011, AMD has strengthened its leadership team with the additions of Mark Papermaster as senior vice president and chief technology officer, Rajan Naik as senior vice president and chief strategy officer, and Lisa Su as senior vice president and general manager, Global Business Units. These executives will help ensure that sustainable, dependable execution becomes a hallmark of AMD.

Supporting Resources

• Visit the AMD Financial Analyst Day website for webcast replay, presentations, updated roadmap, and more
• Visit AMD Blogs for more details on AMD’s product roadmap changes
• Follow AMD on Twitter at @AMD_Unprocessed
• Like AMD on Facebook

About AMD

AMD (NYSE: AMD) is a semiconductor design innovator leading the next era of vivid digital experiences with its groundbreaking AMD Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) that power a wide range of computing devices. AMD’s server computing products are focused on driving industry-leading cloud computing and virtualization environments. AMD’s superior graphics technologies are found in a variety of solutions ranging from game consoles, PCs to supercomputers. For more information, visit http://www.amd.com.

AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced worldwide availability of the AMD Radeon™ HD 7950 graphics card for desktop computers. This launch brings to market the second graphics card based on the cutting-edge 28nm process technology first introduced with the AMD Radeon™ HD 7970 graphics card – recognized for its excellence in performance with over 150 awards from technology media the world over. Delivering over 2.8 TFLOPs of compute power and up to 2x the performance¹ when two AMD Radeon HD 7950s are combined with AMD CrossFire™ technology², AMD Radeon™ HD 7900 series graphics cards are intended for gamers who never settle. AMD Radeon™ HD 7950 graphics cards are available from retailers worldwide, with select models starting at USD$449 SEP.

“With the arrival of the AMD Radeon™ HD 7950, AMD has set the bar exceedingly high for 28nm graphics technology and performance,” said Matt Skynner, corporate vice president and general manager, GPU Division, AMD. “From the wraparound immersion made possible by AMD Eyefinity multi-display technology and the AMD HD3D technology stereo 3D experience to the incredible realism of today’s DirectX® 11 capable games, we’re delivering an unrivaled experience for gamers. The AMD Radeon™ HD 7900 series products are in a class of their own.”

Equipped with AMD Graphics Core Next Architecture and the latest AMD PowerTune and AMD ZeroCore Power technologies, the AMD Radeon™ HD 7950 GPU further extends the groundbreaking engineering AMD debuted in December 2011 with the AMD Radeon HD 7970 GPU. What’s more, it delivers on the promise of DirectX® 11 gaming with superior visuals and outrageous performance, as well as featuring PCI Express 3.0, AMD CrossFire™ technology and the AMD HD3D technology ecosystem.

The AMD Radeon™ HD 7950 GPU is available worldwide from add-in-board partners including Sapphire, TUL, HIS, XFX, ASUS, Gigabyte, and MSI, and available via retailers and e-tailers worldwide.

Supporting Resources

• Product page: Learn more about the AMD Radeon™ HD 7950 GPU
• Where to Purchase: Amazon, Cyberpower PC, iBuypower, Newegg, and NCIX.
• Twitter: Follow AMD graphics news on Twitter at @AMDRadeon
• Learn more about GCN Architecture
• Learn more about AMD PowerTune technology
• Facebook: Become a fan of AMD technology on Facebook

About AMD

AMD (NYSE: AMD) is a semiconductor design innovator leading the next era of vivid digital experiences with its groundbreaking AMD Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) that power a wide range of computing devices. AMD’s server computing products are focused on driving industry-leading cloud computing and virtualization environments. AMD’s superior graphics technologies are found in a variety of solutions ranging from game consoles, PCs to supercomputers. For more information, visit http://www.amd.com.

AMD (NYSE:AMD) today announced revenue for the fourth quarter of 2011 of $1.69 billion, net loss of $177 million, or $0.24 per share, and operating income of $71 million.  The company reported non-GAAP net income of $138 million, or $0.19 per share, and non-GAAP operating income of $172 million.  Fourth quarter non-GAAP net income excludes an impairment of AMD’s investment in GLOBALFOUNDRIES of $209 million, restructuring charges of $98 million, the loss from discontinued operations of $4 million, the amortization of acquired intangible assets of $3 million and a loss on debt repurchase of $1 million.

For the year ended December 31, 2011, AMD reported revenue of $6.57 billion, net income of $491 million, or $0.66 per share, and operating income of $368 million.  Full year non-GAAP net income was $374 million, or $0.50 per share, and non-GAAP operating income was $524 million.

“AMD shipped more than 30 million APU’s in 2011, resulting in record annual notebook revenue,” said Rory Read, AMD president and CEO.  “The unmatched combination of computing and graphics capabilities in our low-power ‘Brazos’  platform has made it our fastest ramping platform ever, paving the way for continued growth in key segments and geographies.  Our server business has re-gained momentum, delivering two consecutive quarters of strong sequential growth. 

We continued optimizing our financial model in 2011, consistently delivering operating income and creating the foundation for sustained success.  We begin 2012 clear on our priorities and opportunities.  We are building an AMD that consistently delivers on its commitments.”

Quarterly Summary

• Gross margin was 46 percent, a sequential increase of one percent.
• Cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities balance, including long-term marketable securities, was $1.91 billion at the end of the quarter.
• Computing Solutions segment revenue increased two percent sequentially and seven percent year-over-year. The sequential increase was driven by double digit growth in Server and Chipset revenue.  The year-over-year increase was driven by higher mobile processor and Chipset revenue.
  • Operating income was $165 million, compared with $149 million in Q3 11 and $91 million in Q4 10.
  • Microprocessor ASP increased sequentially and was flat year-over-year.
  • AMD launched its “Bulldozer”-based AMD Opteron™ 6200 Series and AMD Opteron™ 4200 Series processors, delivering industry-leading performance⁽⁹⁾ for business, increased scalability for virtualization and more efficient economics for the cloud.
    • HP introduced five new ProLiant systems, including the industry’s fastest dual-socket database server.
    • Dell introduced four new PowerEdge systems, including the world’s most power-efficient blade server. The AMD-powered PowerEdge R715 was awarded Technology of the Year from InfoWorld magazine based on its outstanding virtualization performance.
    • The AMD Opteron 6200 Series Processors were honored with the Analysts’ Choice Award for Best Server Processor by the Linley Group and “Technology of the Year” from InfoWorld.
    • AMD Opteron processor adoption in the HPC market continued, as the National Science Foundation announced a new supercomputer at the University of Illinois’ National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) will be powered by approximately 50,000 AMD Opteron 6200 series processors.
  • Worldwide demand for AMD APUs continued to increase throughout the fourth quarter. AMD shipped more than 30 million APUs in 2011, including a record number of mobile processors found in notebooks from Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, MSI Samsung, Sony and Toshiba.
  • AMD introduced new A-Series notebook and desktop APUs that offer improved performance and enhanced features. We expect that systems based on the refreshed A-Series APU will be offered from the world’s largest PC companies in early 2012.
• Graphics segment revenue decreased five percent sequentially and 10 percent year-over-year.  The sequential decrease was driven primarily by a decline in mobile graphics processor unit (GPU) shipments, partially offset by a seasonal increase in game console revenue.  The year-over-year decrease was primarily driven by decreased desktop and Add-in Board (AIB) graphics revenue.
  • Operating income was $27 million, compared with $12 million in Q3 11 and $68 million in Q4 10.
  • GPU ASP increased sequentially and year-over-year.
  • In December, AMD launched the world’s fastest single-GPU graphics card⁽¹⁰⁾ and the first member of its AMD Radeon™ HD 7000 Series graphics family, the AMD Radeon HD 7970.  The HD 7970 delivers up to 150% performance improvement per square millimeter compared to our previous generation GPU, and is the industry’s first 28nm GPU⁽¹¹⁾.
  • AMD launched the AMD Radeon HD 7000M series mobile graphics processors for smaller form factor notebooks. Both HP and Lenovo announced new notebooks powered by the new GPU.
  • AMD is the industry leader in leading-edge graphics technology, having shipped more than 100 million DirectX® 11graphics engines across its GPUs and APUs that enable superior visual experiences.
• Corporate
  • The Company announced a restructuring plan and implementation of operational efficiency initiatives designed to strengthen the Company's competitive positioning.  The Company plans to reinvest a significant portion of the anticipated savings to fund initiatives designed to accelerate AMD's strategies for lower power, emerging markets, and the cloud.
  • AMD strengthened its leadership team with the additions of Mark Papermaster as senior vice president and chief technology officer, Rajan Naik as senior vice president and chief strategy officer, and Dr. Lisa Su as senior vice president and general manager, global business units.

Current Outlook

AMD’s outlook statements are based on current expectations.  The following statements are forward-looking, and actual results could differ materially depending on market conditions and the factors set forth under “Cautionary Statement” below.

AMD expects revenue to decrease eight percent, plus or minus three percent, sequentially for the first quarter of 2012.

For additional detail regarding AMD’s results and outlook please see the CFO commentary posted at quarterlyearnings.amd.com.

AMD Teleconference

AMD will hold a conference call for the financial community at 2:00 p.m. PT (5:00 p.m. ET) today to discuss its fourth quarter financial results.  AMD will provide a real-time audio broadcast of the teleconference on the Investor Relations page of its Web site at AMD.  The webcast will be available for 10 days after the conference call.

About AMD

AMD (NYSE: AMD) is a semiconductor design innovator leading the next era of vivid digital experiences with its groundbreaking AMD Fusion Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) that power a wide range of computing devices. AMD’s server computing products are focused on driving industry-leading cloud computing and virtualization environments. AMD’s superior graphics technologies are found in a variety of solutions ranging from game consoles, PCs to supercomputers. For more information, visit http://www.amd.com.

Cautionary Statement

This release contains forward-looking statements concerning AMD, its first quarter 2012 revenue, its future growth in key segments and geographies, the momentum of its server business, its ability to deliver sustained success, the timing of future products that incorporate the company’s products, and the company’s restructuring plan implemented in the fourth quarter of 2011, the anticipated operational savings resulting from the restructuring and the company’s plans for reinvesting these savings, which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are commonly identified by words such as "would," "may," "expects," "believes," "plans," "intends," "projects," and other terms with similar meaning. Investors are cautioned that the forward-looking statements in this release are based on current beliefs, assumptions and expectations, speak only as of the date of this release and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations. Risks include the possibility that Intel Corporation's pricing, marketing and rebating programs, product bundling, standard setting, new product introductions or other activities targeting the company's business will prevent attainment of the company's current plans; the company will be unable to develop, launch and ramp new products and technologies in the volumes and mix required by the market and at mature yields on a timely basis; GLOBALFOUNDRIES will be unable to manufacture the company’s products on a timely basis in sufficient quantities and using competitive technologies; the company will be unable to obtain sufficient manufacturing capacity or components to meet demand for its products or will under-utilize its commitment with respect to GLOBALFOUNDRIES' microprocessor manufacturing facilities; the company will be unable to transition its products to advanced manufacturing process technologies in a timely and effective way; global business and economic conditions will not continue to improve or will worsen resulting in lower than currently expected demand; demand for computers and consumer electronics products and, in turn, demand for the company's products will be lower than currently expected; customers stop buying the company's products or materially reduce their demand for its products; the company will require additional funding and may not be able to raise funds on favorable terms or at all; there will be unexpected variations in market growth and demand for the company's products and technologies in light of the product mix that it may have available at any particular time or a decline in demand; and the company will be unable to maintain the level of investment in research and development that is required to remain competitive. Investors are urged to review in detail the risks and uncertainties in the company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including but not limited to the Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended October 1, 2011.

AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced that its AMD Opteron 6200 Series processor family, based on the new "Bulldozer" architecture, was chosen as the winner of The Linley Group's first annual Analysts' Choice Awards. The awards recognize the top processor products of 2011 in several major categories including embedded, mobile, PC, server, design IP and related technology. To choose each winner, the Linley Group's team of technology analysts focused on merits of the leading products that began shipping between January 1, 2011 and December 31, 2011.

"Our analysts are deeply familiar with processor products and technology, having conducted extensive research in order to deliver the firm's popular publications and reports," said Linley Gwennap, founder and principal analyst at The Linley Group. "We chose the winners on the basis of their performance, power, features and cost as appropriate for their target applications."

This latest award for the AMD Opteron processor comes on the heels of the recent Technology of the Year honors from InfoWorld.  AMD Opteron 6200 Series processors along with the Dell PowerEdge R715, which is based on the latest AMD Opteron processors, have both received 2012 Technology of Year awards from the publication. 

"The AMD Opteron 6200 Series processor rose to the top of our list of nominees due to its leading performance for high-volume, dual-socket servers," said Bob Wheeler, senior analyst at The Linley Group. "Reported SPEC_rate2006 baseline scores show the AMD Opteron processor Model 6282 SE delivers about 20 percent greater integer performance¹ and nearly 40 percent greater floating-point performance² than comparable processors from the competition and costs about 40 percent less.³"

"We are honored to receive this prestigious award from The Linley Group," said Pat Patla, corporate vice president for AMD's Server Business. "Since we launched the new AMD Opteron processor a little more than 2 months ago, the industry has rallied around the combination of innovation and price-performance advantage AMD is delivering to Cloud, HPC and enterprise customers. It is clear the new AMD Opteron processor with our "Bulldozer" technology is a winner."

Other recent Awards and Top Performance ratings for the AMD Opteron 6200 Series processor-based servers include:

• IT PRO Editor's Choice for the Dell PowerEdge R815
• Top TPC-C 2-Socket score on the HP ProLiant DL385 G7 ⁴
• Top 2-node blade VMmark 2.1 on the HP ProLiant BL685c G7; largest ever published result on a blade server⁵

About AMD

AMD (NYSE: AMD) is a semiconductor design innovator leading the next era of vivid digital experiences with its groundbreaking AMD Fusion Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) that power a wide range of computing devices. AMD's server computing products are focused on driving industry-leading cloud computing and virtualization environments. AMD's superior graphics technologies are found in a variety of solutions ranging from game consoles, PCs to supercomputers. For more information, visit http://www.amd.com.

Cautionary Statement

AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, AMD Opteron and combinations thereof, are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Other names are for informational purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.

AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced the first AMD Fusion Center of Innovation at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,  to focus on the innovative developer environment and software performance advancements enabled by heterogeneous computing. The center will fund, mentor and promote new commercial enterprises emerging from the vast intellectual property and research expertise in the University of Illinois community. The University has been a hotbed of new start-ups since the creation of the first widespread web browser – Mosaic – developed by Marc Andreessen in 1992. Through access to AMD Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) technology and platforms, the AMD Fusion Center of Innovation will help bridge access to new AMD heterogeneous computing technology with the innovative spirit stimulated and nurtured on campus.  

To kick-off the AMD Fusion Center of Innovation, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is offering a course aimed at kindling the spirit of entrepreneurship by bringing a mix of expert speakers to cover the specifics of AMD heterogeneous computing technology, while also providing invaluable, how-to background on entrepreneurship, commercialization and start-up creation. This course will be offered by the university’s College of Engineering, Technology Entrepreneur Center (TEC), as “ENG/TE 360/460: Lectures in Engineering Entrepreneurship AMD section.”

At the completion of the course, students will submit projects, which will be evaluated for potential funding opportunities through the AMD Fusion Fund and IllinoisVENTURES. Computer science and engineering students are encouraged to share their best ideas for new software or web-based start-up companies.

“Through their involvement with the Technology Entrepreneur Center, companies like AMD are helping to further develop the Illinois entrepreneurship ecosystem here in the Midwest,” said Andrew Singer, Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Director, Technology Entrepreneur Center, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “Offering the latest, innovative computing hardware and software technologies and bringing them into the classroom, where students can apply their ideas and form new ventures will be a great advantage for the generation of new innovative ideas that can be commercialized through the AMD Fusion Center of Innovation.”

Rob Schultz, senior director of IllinoisVENTURES and a partner of the Illinois Emerging Technologies Fund said, “We are encouraging the university community to think big about what’s possible through software and web services by focusing on the creative aspects. The AMD Fusion Center of Innovation will provide a spark for new software and web ideas as students receive hands-on access to AMD APU technology and learn how-to enable richer, user experiences using heterogeneous computing.”

AMD APU technology combines a multi-core CPU and discrete-level GPU and other hardware accelerators on a single power-efficient chip enabling user interface innovation, vivid HD entertainment and content creation, blazing-fast Internet browsing and accelerated media applications. Consumers can enjoy rich, smooth performance, skip-free HD playback and discover impressive speed and performance in everyday applications on their PC when using AMD APU technology.

“The AMD Fusion Center of Innovation at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign provides the perfect environment of academia and software development,” said Manju Hegde, corporate vice president, AMD Fusion Experience Program. “We believe heterogeneous computing will be the enabler for innovative user interfaces and immersive computing experiences, which will ultimately be driven by aspiring and audacious students. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will serve as a model for future AMD Fusion Centers of Innovation around the world.”

Resources

• For more details about the Technology Entrepreneur Center (TEC) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Obtain information on funding opportunities with the AMD Fusion Fund and IllinoisVENTURES
• To learn more about AMD APU technology
• Follow news from the AMD team on Twitter at @AMD_Unprocessed or @AMDSoftware

About AMD

AMD (NYSE: AMD) is a semiconductor design innovator leading the next era of vivid digital experiences with its groundbreaking AMD Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) that power a wide range of computing devices. AMD’s server computing products are focused on driving industry-leading cloud computing and virtualization environments. AMD’s superior graphics technologies are found in a variety of solutions ranging from game consoles, PCs to supercomputers. For more information, visit http://www.amd.com.

AMD (NYSE: AMD) released new versions of the AMD APP SDK and AMD Catalyst™ developer drivers which include many new features, including several capabilities of the recently published OpenCL™ 1.2 specification. The new features provide developers with significant coding productivity enhancements, making it much easier to write OpenCL using C++. In addition, the new features deliver run-time performance enhancements. For more details on the AMD APP SDK 2.6 and AMD Catalyst developer drivers see the related AMD Developer blog post.

“AMD is focusing on OpenCL to enable developers to more easily harness the power of heterogeneous computing,” said Manju Hegde, corporate vice president, AMD Fusion Experience Program. “The latest SDK and developer drivers release enhances developer productivity by introducing new features like the C++ wrapper API and Static C++ kernel language support.”

AMD is driving industry support for OpenCL with developers and technology companies around the world, contributing to the establishment of OpenCL as a top tool for developers. For consumers, they will continue to see more software applications coming to market that are optimized on OpenCL. The new applications will leverage the full processing capabilities of the CPU and GPU, which enables faster run-times, longer battery life and smoother playback in their favorite software applications when running in a broad range of notebook, desktop and all-in-one PCs based on VISION Technology from AMD.

Key features supported in SDK 2.6 and AMD Catalyst 11.12 driver:

• Inclusion of the Khronos C++ Wrapper API 
• OpenCL runtime integration into Linux in addition to Windows® Catalyst drivers.
• Multi GPU support on Linux platforms
• Support for AVX extensions for CPUs that support this extension
• Support for FMA4 extensions in OpenCL built-in function libraries for CPUs that support this extension

Additional preview capabilities provided with the Developer Driver:

• Static C++ kernel language
• OpenCL™ 1.2 preview capabilities:
  • Host access flags for memory objects enables more efficient buffer handling
  • Pattern based GPU buffer and image initialization eliminates need for certain buffer/image transfers
  • Memory objects migration supports transfer of buffer prior to need
  • New generalized image creation API
  • Enhanced image/buffer map operations

Resources

• Download the latest AMD APP SDK and AMD Catalyst Developer Drivers
• View AMD APP Showcase
• Visit AMD Developer Central
• Follow news from the AMD team on Twitter at @AMD_Unprocessed or @AMDSoftware

About AMD

AMD (NYSE: AMD) is a semiconductor design innovator leading the next era of vivid digital experiences with its groundbreaking AMD Fusion Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) that power a wide range of computing devices. AMD’s server computing products are focused on driving industry-leading cloud computing and virtualization environments. AMD’s superior graphics technologies are found in a variety of solutions ranging from game consoles, PCs to supercomputers. For more information, visit http://www.amd.com.

AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced channel-wide availability of the world’s fastest single-GPU graphics card, the AMD Radeon™ HD 7970 for desktop PCs. Also available starting this week are notebooks featuring new AMD Radeon™ HD 7000M mobile graphics, enabling incredibly immersive visuals and industry-leading image quality.

AMD Radeon HD 7970 Graphics

The AMD Radeon HD 7970 is the first GPU based on 28nm production technology and its arrival ushers in a new era in graphics technology. Winner of numerous awards internationally, AMD Radeon HD 7970 graphics cards are available from retailers worldwide, with select models starting at USD$549 MSRP.

“With the arrival of the AMD Radeon HD 7970, AMD has ushered in a new era for graphics performance by delivering the first 28nm GPU,” said Matt Skynner, corporate vice president and general manager, AMD Graphics. “I can’t think of a better way to start 2012 than by making our cutting-edge technology available worldwide today.”

AMD Radeon™ HD 7970 graphics cards are intended for gamers who never settle. Equipped with AMD Graphics Core Next Architecture and the latest in power management technology - AMD PowerTune and AMD ZeroCore Power technologies - this card takes a no-compromise approach to gaming. The AMD Radeon HD 7970 also features PCI Express 3.0, AMD CrossFire™ technology, and is ready for DirectX® 11.1 when it arrives later this year.

“Microsoft DirectX 11.1 brings API support for enhanced high-fidelity visuals – and we’re excited to be working with AMD to unlock new levels of performance, detail and richness in games, applications, and web browsing,” said Aidan Marcuss, senior director of Windows Core Marketing & Ecosystem, Microsoft Corp. "The combination of AMD’s hardware and Microsoft Direct X 11.1 will light up Windows 8 graphics.”

The AMD Radeon HD 7970 is currently available from add-in-board partners ASUS, HIS, Powercolor, Sapphire and XFX and via retailers and e-tailers like Amazon, Cyberpower PC, iBuypower, Newegg, and NCIX.

AMD Radeon HD 7000M Notebook Graphics

Based on existing 40nm technology, the AMD Radeon HD 7000M series of mobile GPUs includes AMD dynamic switchable graphics technology, AMD Vari-Bright™ technology and AMD PowerPlay™ technology. Some variants will feature higher clocks, added support for GDDR5 and new package designs. 

The AMD Radeon HD 7000M mobile GPUs are available in various laptops from HP and Lenovo.

Supporting Resources

• Product page: Learn more about the AMD Radeon HD 7970
• Blog: Matt Skynner’s blog on the AMD Radeon HD 7970
• AMD Radeon HD 7970 technology videos
• Product page: Learn more about the AMD Radeon HD 7000M
• Twitter: Follow AMD graphics news on Twitter at @AMDRadeon
• Facebook: Become a fan of AMD technology on Facebook

About AMD

AMD (NYSE: AMD) is a semiconductor design innovator leading the next era of vivid digital experiences with its groundbreaking AMD Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) that power a wide range of computing devices. AMD’s server computing products are focused on driving industry-leading cloud computing and virtualization environments. AMD’s superior graphics technologies are found in a variety of solutions ranging from game consoles, PCs to supercomputers. For more information, visit http://www.amd.com.

AMD (NYSE: AMD) announced today that Rajan Naik, 40, has joined the company as senior vice president and chief strategy officer. He will report to president and chief executive officer Rory Read. Naik, who was most recently a Partner in McKinsey & Company’s Technology practice will be responsible for AMD’s short-and long-term strategy development, including market opportunities, strategic partnerships and investment strategies.

“Rajan Naik possesses a strong track record of execution in strategic planning, product and market strategy, and operational performance,” Read said. “He will help ensure strategic and operational alignment across our business to take advantage of growth opportunities in lower power, emerging markets and cloud computing.” 

Mr. Naik spent 11 years at McKinsey & Company, where he provided counsel to various companies in the technology and telecom industries. Prior to his tenure at McKinsey, Mr. Naik worked as a senior engineer at Intel Corporation. Prior to Intel, he was a member of the technical staff at Lucent Technologies.

Mr. Naik joins AMD following the appointment of Dr. Lisa Su as senior vice president and general manager, global business units, as well as the appointment of Mark Papermaster as senior vice president and chief technology officer.

Mr. Naik has a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Cornell University and a PhD in engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He will be primarily based in Austin, Texas.

Resources

• Bio and photo for Rajan Naik

About AMD

AMD (NYSE: AMD) is a semiconductor design innovator leading the next era of vivid digital experiences with its groundbreaking AMD Fusion Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) that power a wide range of computing devices. AMD’s server computing products are focused on driving industry-leading cloud computing and virtualization environments. AMD’s superior graphics technologies are found in a variety of solutions ranging from game consoles, PCs to supercomputers. For more information, visit http://www.amd.com.

AMD (NYSE: AMD) today launched the AMD Radeon™ HD 7970 graphics card for desktop PCs, introducing the world’s fastest single GPU graphics card and the only GPU based on 28nm production technology.¹  With the arrival of the AMD Radeon HD 7970, AMD has unleashed its revolutionary new Graphics Core Next Architecture that enables new levels of gaming and compute capabilities – realizing an improvement of over 150% in performance/sq mm over the prior generation.² Engineered with support for PCI Express 3.0 and AMD CrossFire™ technology, the AMD Radeon HD 7970 graphics card arrives prepared for the next level of gaming.³

“True to the maxim, ‘never settle’, AMD is once again aggressively advancing the state of the graphics industry – this time with the arrival of the world’s fastest single GPU graphics card, the AMD Radeon HD 7970,” said Matt Skynner, corporate vice president and general manager, GPU Division, AMD. “This graphics card represents a revolution in the graphics industry. To put it bluntly, the AMD Radeon™ HD 7970 changes everything!”

AMD further extends its GPU leadership with the AMD Radeon HD 7970 through AMD App Acceleration, which enables exquisite high-definition video images and exceptional performance improvements for everyday applications. Ground-breaking advancements with AMD Eyefinity technology enable gamers and desktop enthusiasts to connect up to six displays to one graphics card, delivering immersive stereoscopic 3D experiences and astonishing 16k x 16k display resolutions.⁴ It’s also armed with the latest PCI Express 3.0 standard to enable uncompromised image quality, and is additionally equipped with GDDR5 memory, enabling accelerated GPU performance. Through its intelligent AMD PowerTune and AMD ZeroCore Power technologies, the AMD Radeon HD 7970 enables higher performance levels while maximizing power efficiencies.⁵

“The AMD Radeon HD 7970 is an awesome tool in any gamer’s arsenal,” said Johan Andersson, Rendering Architect at DICE. “We have worked closely with AMD during the development of the Frostbite 2 game engine to take full advantage of AMD Eyefinity multi-display technology and DirectX® 11 for a more realistic, entertaining and visceral gaming experience in Battlefield 3.”

Efficient Architecture for Leading DirectX® 11 Performance

• New architecture for greater performance: AMD has further enhanced its GPU design efficiency through the introduction of the 28nm process technology and Graphics Core Next Architecture, realizing an improvement of over 150% in performance/sq mm over the prior generation. 
• Refined AMD PowerTune technology: Designed with the most advanced power management features, the AMD Radeon HD 7970 is equipped with the intelligence to convert unused power headroom into extra performance by dynamically controlling clock speeds, allowing gamers advanced performance inside of the power envelope they specify. 
• AMD ZeroCore Power Technology: Gamers asked, AMD delivered – the AMD ZeroCore Power technology found in the AMD Radeon HD 7970 ensures that no power is wasted when the graphics card is not in use, enabling lower idle power than any other currently available graphics card. With support for AMD CrossFire technology, AMD ZeroCore Power eliminates wasted power, as well as additional heat and noise from extra cards when you are not using them.
• PCI Express 3.0: The AMD Radeon HD 7970 comes natively equipped with support for PCI Express 3.0. With world-class performance scaling, enthusiasts’ GPU experience is maximized when paired with the latest platforms.
• Discrete Digital Multi-Point (DDM) Audio: DDM Audio provides multiple independent audio streams for audio-capable displays via DisplayPort or HDMI signals. DDM Audio delivers unique experiences in cases where multi-display video conferencing, directional audio or multi-room entertainment hubs are being used.
• Enhanced Multi-GPU Capabilities: AMD CrossFire technology is the ultimate multi-GPU performance gaming platform. Unlocking game-dominating power, AMD CrossFire technology, coupled with PCI Express 3.0, will allow for unprecedented bandwidth in TriFire and QuadFire configurations.

The Ultimate Immersive Gaming Experience and Innovative AMD Eyefinity 2.0 Technology

• Next Generation AMD Eyefinity technology: AMD Eyefinity 2.0 features all-new support for stereo 3D, universal bezel compensation, brand new display configurations and an expanded and more immersive field of view. This allows users with 2560x1600 monitors in an AMD Eyefinity 5x1 landscape configuration to achieve a horizontal resolution of 12,800 pixels, driving more than 20 million pixels of screen real estate. More than 70 game titles have been AMD Eyefinity-validated, while many are AMD Eyefinity-ready, and hundreds more are AMD Eyefinity-compatible.
• DisplayPort 1.2 and HDMI 1.4a: With full support for 3GHz HDMI 1.4a and DisplayPort 1.2 HBR2, the AMD Radeon HD 7970 is set to drive next generation displays at up to 4K resolution.
• 3D entertainment choices with AMD HD3D technology: With the arrival of the latest in stereo 3D technology, AMD continues to deliver an enhanced visual experience on stereo 3D-capable desktops and notebooks powered by AMD Radeon graphics. The AMD Radeon HD 7970 is backed by AMD’s open 3D initiative for stereo 3D gaming and Blu-ray 3D movies.

Better Performance through AMD App Acceleration

• AMD App Acceleration lets you do more, faster: Enthusiasts will enjoy improved GPGPU performance and new features in many top media, entertainment and everyday productivity applications with AMD App Acceleration.
• Extensive support of industry standards: AMD Radeon HD 7970 fully supports DirectCompute® and OpenCL™ technologies, enabling broad application support today and tomorrow.

The AMD Radeon HD 7970 is available January 9, 2012 from retailers worldwide, with select models starting at $549 US SEP.

Supporting Resources

• Product page: Learn more about the AMD Radeon  HD 7970
• Twitter: Follow AMD graphics news on Twitter at @AMDRadeon
• Facebook: Become a fan of AMD technology on Facebook
• Blog: Matt Skynner’s Blog On The AMD Radeon HD 7970

About AMD

AMD (NYSE: AMD) is a semiconductor design innovator leading the next era of vivid digital experiences with its groundbreaking AMD Fusion Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) that power a wide range of computing devices. AMD’s server computing products are focused on driving industry-leading cloud computing and virtualization environments. AMD’s superior graphics technologies are found in a variety of solutions ranging from game consoles, PCs to supercomputers. For more information, visit http://www.amd.com.

What:     AMD (NYSE: AMD) today updated its A-Series line-up of desktop and notebook Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), further improving its top-performing family of dual- and quad-core APUs. Along with speed and performance improvements, AMD Steady Video update make this unique feature more compelling than ever.¹ For desktop users, AMD extends its overclocking pedigree to the APU; for the first time users can tune both x86 and graphics settings in a single processor for boosted performance.²

The updated AMD A-Series APUs combine up to four x86 CPU cores with up to 400 Radeon™ cores, delivering powerful DirectX^®11-capable, discrete-level graphics and dedicated HD video processing on a single chip. These new APUs increase performance and deliver a richer feature set than existing AMD A-series APUs. Plus, only AMD APUs offer AMD Dual Graphics for an up to 144 percent visual performance boost when a select APU is paired with a select AMD Radeon™ HD 6500 Series graphics card.³

The AMD A-Series family of APUs also features AMD Steady Video, designed to stabilize videos during playback – making unsteady, jumpy content look steady and smooth as you watch. On select systems using AMD A-Series APUs, Internet Explorer 9 will include an AMD Steady Video plugin, unlocking one-click control to simplify access to the premium AMD Steady Video feature for video stabilization.

All AMD A-Series processors are powered by AMD VISION Engine Software, a suite of software that provides end-users with regular updates designed to improve system performance and stability, and can add new software enhancements.

• AMD A-Series Desktop APUs
  • A8-3870K: Four CPU cores, 3.0 GHz CPU base (unlocked), 100W TDP, 400 Radeon cores, 600 MHz GPU base (unlocked), 4 MB L2 cache
  • A8-3820: Four CPU cores, 2.5 GHz CPU base (2.8 GHz Turbo Core), 65W TDP, 400 Radeon cores, 4 MB L2 cache
  • A6-3670K: Four CPU cores, 2.7 GHz CPU base (unlocked), 100W TDP, 320 Radeon cores, 600 MHz GPU base (unlocked), 4 MB L2 cache
  • A6-3620: Four CPU cores, 2.2 GHz CPU base (2.5 GHz Turbo Core), 65W TDP, 320 Radeon cores, 4 MB L2 cache
  • A4-3420: Two CPU cores, 2.8 GHz CPU base, 65W TDP, 160 Radeon cores, 1 MB L2 cache

• AMD A-Series Notebook APUs
  • A8-3550MX: Four CPU cores, 2.0 GHz CPU base (2.7 GHz Turbo Core), 45W TDP, 400 Radeon Cores, 4 MB L2 cache
  • A8-3520M: Four CPU cores, 1.6 GHz CPU base (2.5 GHz Turbo Core), 35W TDP, 400 Radeon Cores, 4 MB L2 cache
  • A6-3430MX: Four CPU cores, 1.7 GHz CPU base (2.4 GHz Turbo Core), 45W TDP, 320 Radeon Cores, 4 MB L2 cache
  • A6-3420M: Four CPU cores, 1.5 GHz CPU base (2.4 GHz Turbo Core), 35W TDP, 320 Radeon Cores, 4 MB L2 cache
  • A4-3330MX: Two CPU cores, 2.2 GHz CPU base (2.6 GHz Turbo Core), 45W TDP, 240 Radeon Cores, 2 MB L2 cache
  • A4-3320M:Two CPU cores, 2.0 GHz CPU base (2.6 GHz Turbo Core), 35W TDP, 240 Radeon Cores, 2 MB L2 cache
  • A4-3305M:Two CPU cores, 1.9 GHz CPU base (2.5 GHz Turbo Core), 35W TDP, 160 Radeon Cores, 1 MB L2 cache
  • E2-3000M: Two CPU cores, 1.8 GHz CPU base (2.4 GHz Turbo Core), 35W TDP, 160 Radeon Cores, 1 MB L2 Cache

Why:     The new AMD A-Series family of APUs improves the first generation of highly successful and revolutionary desktop and notebook processors, providing an outstanding experience for consumers seeking more responsive multitasking, long battery-life, vivid graphics, lifelike games, lag-free videos and the ultimate multimedia performance.

When:     Desktop APUs in the component channel as well as systems based on the new AMD A-Series APUs will hit the retail market over the next several weeks.

Who:     The new AMD A-Series family of APUs is for mainstream users and performance enthusiasts seeking an outstanding experience on their desktop or notebook PC.

Supporting Resources

• Get the latest info on AMD APU-based systems and components at http://shop.amd.com/
• Follow all the news from AMD on Twitter at @AMD_Unprocessed
• Like AMD on Facebook

About AMD

AMD (NYSE: AMD) is a semiconductor design innovator leading the next era of vivid digital experiences with its groundbreaking AMD Fusion Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) that power a wide range of computing devices. AMD’s server computing products are focused on driving industry-leading cloud computing and virtualization environments. AMD’s superior graphics technologies are found in a variety of solutions ranging from game consoles, PCs to supercomputers. For more information, visit http://www.amd.com.