AMD looking to outgun ION via Radeon HD 4200
3rd July, 2009

AMD is planning to release a new integrated chipset codenamed RS880 targeting low-end systems such as netbooks according to The Inquirer. This chip will come with the ATi Radeon HD4200 graphics core that is 15 percent faster than anything on the market right now.

I assume this statistic also takes into account Nvidia’s 9400M/ION GPU. After all, it is Nvidia’s ION platform that AMD is targeting here. It also supports AMD’s Stream general-purpose computing technology and, by extension, would eventually support OpenCL. A first glimpse of these new chipset should emerge in August and it is set to include DX10.1. This would mean a launch ahead of the rumoured ION 2 chipset from Nvidia by the end of the year.

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Zottac's 1792MB Geforce GTX 275 Graphics
2nd July, 2009

New Zotac GeForce GTX 275 graphics card with 1792MB memory to its GTX 275 line up. This new with 1792MB GDDR3 video memory promises faster memory communication between video memory and graphics processor. Zotac hasn't announced the price and availability of this new GTX 275 cards yet.

New Zotac GeForce GTX 275 graphics card with 1792MB DDR3 video memory continues to use 448-bit memory interface. Everything else except the video memory limit in the Nvidia GeForce GTX 275 based Zotac graphics card remains practically the same.

In April, Zotac had introduced two GeForce GTX 275 graphics cards - Zotac GeForce GTX 275 and Zotac GeForce GTX 275 AMP Edition.

Zotac also boasts of bundling copy of game Race Driver: GRID along with the 1792MB GeForce GTX 275 graphics card. Apart from that, this graphics card will support the usual set of Nvidia technologies like CUDA, PhysX and Pure Video HD.

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Illegal downloads rife in UK - Survey
22nd June, 2009

Most people in UK have never paid for their online media. In the week the UK government unveiled plans to stop illegal file sharing, a report has revealed that almost one in ten people break the law in consuming online media.

The Futuresource Consulting survey of 2,500 people in the UK, France, Germany and the US found that eight per cent admitted to illegal downloading. Moreover, two-thirds of UK respondents reported watching TV and films on their computers, whether of the legal variety or otherwise. A huge 90 per cent of people consuming online media had never paid for any of it.

While many media companies happily provide free content online, the findings have serious implications for future revenue streams.

Futuresource concluded: "This... presents a major obstacle to the development of online content services and continues to heavily impact upon revenues, despite governments' and industry authorities' renewed attempts to tighten up the system."

Although most people questioned said they would consider paying for content in future, it remains to be seen what will really happen when push comes to shove.

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AMD goes for Intel's jugular
22nd June, 2009

As AMD makes its roadmap simpler to understand, Intel is doing the exact opposite and sowing confusion, giving its competitor significant channel traction.

We've heard whisperings of late to the effect that AMD's sales with the world's largest motherboard maker, Asus, have been skyrocketing, specifically, in the EMEA channel where AMD now accounts for almost 30 percent of Asus' business.

This is in fairly barren contrast to AMD's position 18 months back when AMD was still reeling from the blows dealt by the power of Conroe. Some sources put the change down to John Byrne, who took over as Global Head of Sales for AMD back in December 2008.
Byrne, a competitive Glaswegian, has apparently been pushing his team to turn up the heat ahead of Intel's upcoming Core i5 launch. Unconfirmed reports are that slower parts, like the 7000 series Athlon X2 products will be canned beginning in Q3 (approx 10 days away) in favour of the higher-powered 500 series Athlon X2 parts, built using newer processes, technologies and cache sizes.

For comparison, Athlon 7000-series parts like the 7750 run at 2.7GHz and have a 3MB cache on 95w, whereas the Phenom II X2 545 is clocked at 3GHz with 6MB cache and runs at 80wtdp. So tipping up with a 300MHz speed advantage and double the cache, as well as being built on 45nm SOI, will significantly raise the bar that Intel has to hit with its new line up. Also, if AMD were to simply stop making the 7000 series overnight, and the market moves to AMD's new higher-powered 5xx series, then Intel PR will certainly have its work cut out for it.

Meanwhile Intel is ramping up the number of SKUs being forced into that space with Core i3 and Core i5 offerings in a twisted role reversal. It would appear that, as AMD makes its roadmap simpler to understand, Intel is doing the exact opposite and sowing confusion, giving its rival significant channel traction.

The worst case scenario for Intel would be that it could end up launching ever more SKUs into the market with ever smaller sales per SKU. Whether this will be the case or not remains to be seen, but what is already abundantly clear is the about-turn Byrne appears to have pulled out of his magic hat by kicking AMD's sales performance up a notch or two.

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Three men get solitary rating power for computer games
22nd June, 2009

Three men in Borehamwood will become solely accountable for rating computer games in the UK, after a plan sponsored by Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary, to have titles examined by the film censor was abandoned last week.

Digital Britain, the communications White Paper, concluded last week that game publishers could keep their controversial rating system, which has been criticised by some as weak and lenient when it comes to violent games.
 
Critics of the Pan European Game Information (PEGI) system used by computer games makers had called for the British Board and Film Classification (BBFC) to rate 12, 15 and 18 computer games. Last week’s decision, however, means that the film censor will lose its existing legal power to censor games that feature “gross violence” — such as Grand Theft Auto — and apply an 18 rating.

Ten examiners of BBFC who cover about 3 per cent of the games released each year in the UK. In contrast, under the PEGI system, games makers fill in a tick-box questionnaire. Their answers are checked by a body called the Video Standards Council, which is based in Borehamwood and until recently consisted of a former policeman and a music industry lawyer. A third staff member has been added recently.
 
A 2006 game based on The Sopranos television programme, The Sopranos: The Road To Respect, was rated 16+ by the games body, but rated 18 by the film censor because it involved what was described as “sadistic violence”. The German regulator banned the game.

The BBFC discovered an apparent recipe for the manufacture of the drug crystal meth at the heart of Grand Theft Auto IV, prompting crisis talks with Rockstar, the game’s maker. After checking that the recipe was inaccurate, it remained in the game. Last week’s decision to back the PEGI system represents a turnaround by ministers and other critics of the games classification system. Tanya Byron, the television doctor and Times writer — asked by Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary, to review children’s safety in games and online — had initially called for the film censor’s remit to be expanded to cover 12, 15, and 18 games.

She said that the PEGI system was poorly understood by parents and that many parents thought its 3+ to 18+ ratings referred to the game’s difficulty. This could mean that parents, who believed that their children were advanced, were at risk of buying inappropriate games.

However, Mike Rawlinson, the director-general of ELSPA, the trade body that represents the computer games industry, said that standards had been toughened up. He said that the three people in the Video Standards Council were “very skilled in their work”. ELSPA said that of 50 games rated by PEGI as 18+, the film censor downgraded 22 of them.

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