AMD’s Neo to hit nettops, all-in-one PCs soon

AMD’s Neo ultra-portable platform was seen as something that just might rival Intel’s mighty Atom in the oversaturated netbook space when it debuted back in January, but up until now, the system has remained largely in the background. Indeed, it has only found its way into a select few machines, none of which have managed to gain any sort of traction beside the sea of Atom-based alternatives. Now, however, it seems as if the chips — which were originally engineered for ultraslim, thin-and-light laptops — may find themselves shoved into an array of nettops and all-in-one PCs. Here lately, a slew of underpowered SFF-type desktops and PC-in-a-monitor type units have found favor with bargain hunters, and Bob Grim, the outfit’s director of client marketing, isn’t looking to miss a golden opportunity. To quote:

“We’ve known all along that this type of technology would really work well in multiple platforms and multiple types of form factors. These CPUs perform better than the Atom processor, and the graphics are superior. These things… can play Blu-rays, they can play games.”

There’s still no word on who exactly plans on equipping their future machines with this here platform, but considering just how tired we are of Intel’s sluggish N270 and N280, we’ll take all the competition we can get.

Filed under: ,

AMD’s Neo to hit nettops, all-in-one PCs soon originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 19 Jul 2009 06:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

AMD Phenom II TWKR Black Edition CPU up for auction, sure to fetch a bundle

Remember that AMD Phenom II X4 TWKR processor that we saw overclocked and reviewed just over a fortnight ago? Don’t you recall reading and wondering why you were even wasting your time given the scarcity of said chip? It took awhile, but it seems the justification you’ve been searching for has finally arrived. AMD only manufactured a smattering of these chips in order for select media outlets to showcase the company’s potential, and somehow one has found its way onto eBay. Best of all, 100 percent of the proceeds will benefit a charity (Family Eldercare), so you can feel good about spending way, way too much on a slab of silicon. Tap the read link if you care to drive the price up even further (and you know you do).

[Thanks, Alex]

Filed under:

AMD Phenom II TWKR Black Edition CPU up for auction, sure to fetch a bundle originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

AMD six-core Opterons get new ‘Highly Efficient’ and ‘Special Edition’ siblings

We can beat about the bush or we can just admit that Intel has AMD beat on pretty much all fronts right now. Cognizant of this, AMD sprung the Istanbul server chips months ahead of schedule, and is now seeking to maintain momentum by adding meat to the bone. Three new chips are being added to the server-focused HE (Highly Efficient) Opteron line — all clocked between 2GHz and 2.1GHz and dissipating 55 watts of heat — while pure performance considerations are addressed with the SE 2439 and SE 8439, both running at 2.8GHz with 6MB of L3 cache. If we were paranoid, we might think today’s leak of Intel’s mobile CPU schedule was a coordinated attempt by the market leader to steal some of the limelight from this announcement by Advanced Micro Devices. Those of you who actually need to buy processors in batches of 1,000 or more should hit the read link for a full price breakdown.

[Via Daily Tech]

Filed under:

AMD six-core Opterons get new ‘Highly Efficient’ and ‘Special Edition’ siblings originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

ASUS U50VG announced, naming scheme remains impenetrable

Coming in today with no fewer than five new laptops — the U50VG, K50AB, K70AB, K50IJ and F52Q — the king of market segmentation is clearly still in good form. Announced in Italy today, the main attraction for Intel fans is the U50VG, which sports a 2.1GHz Core 2 Duo T6500 chip alongside 4GB of memory, 250GB storage, and a Geforce G 105M for a price of €943 or $1,320. A backlit chiclet keyboard, WiFi and a 16:9 display stretching to 15.6-inches fill out the spec sheet. The AMD-based AB variants are 15.6 (€793 / $1,107) and 17.3-inches (€868 / $1,212) respectively — their main attraction being an ATI Mobility Radeon HD4570 purring inside — whereas the latter two models are targeted at the budget-conscious crowd. Click through for exhaustive specs and info on each model.

[Via Slashgear]

Filed under:

ASUS U50VG announced, naming scheme remains impenetrable originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Jul 2009 10:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Medion rolls out AMD-based Akoya Mini E1312 netbook

The AMD-based netbook train may have been a little slow to get out of the station, but it looks like it’s finally starting to pick up a bit of steam, with Medion the latest to roll out an offering of its own. That comes in the form of the company’s new Akoya Mini E1312, which opts for a low-power AMD Sempron 210U processor and ATI Radeon Xpress 1250 graphics instead of the usual Intel combo. Otherwise, you can expect to get a 16:9 11.6-inch display, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, HDMI out, and a six-cell or nine-cell battery. No word on a release ’round here just yet, but folks in the UK will apparently be able to pick this one up exclusively at Aldi stores starting July 12th for £339.99 (or just under $550).

Filed under:

Medion rolls out AMD-based Akoya Mini E1312 netbook originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Packard Bell imedia lineup gets an Acer-inspired refresh

Packard Bell recently overhauled its logo in an effort to keep up with the times, but are its offerings up to the same task? The new imedia lineup immediately recalls the recently announced M-series desktops from Acer, and that’s no accident. The innards are remarkably similar too, with the top models sporting Core 2 Quad or AMD Phenom II X4 processors, a 1.5GB GeForce GT230, HDMI out, Blu-Ray combo drive and a maximum of 8GB DDR3 memory and 1TB of storage. While none of the specs are on the blistering edge of innovation, there’s plenty of power there and keen pricing could make them an attractive proposition. The entry-level Celeron-based units start at £299 ($490) in the UK.

Filed under:

Packard Bell imedia lineup gets an Acer-inspired refresh originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

AMD’s RS880 integrated graphics chip could make netbooks usable

Tired of hearing that your next favorite netbook / nettop is hamstrung with one of those woefully underpowered GMA950 graphics chipsets? Eager to see what all AMD is going to do about it? If The Inquirer is to be believed, an up and coming integrated chipset should elevate the multimedia prowess of low-end machines, as the RS880 would actually be based around the new Radeon HD 4200 core. In theory, at least, this chip would be around 15 percent faster than similar alternatives out there now, giving future netbooks just enough power to churn through 720p video without st, st, stuttering. Needless to say, the suits are refusing to comment on the matter, but we’re definitely holding out hope for this one.

Filed under:

AMD’s RS880 integrated graphics chip could make netbooks usable originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Jul 2009 08:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

eMachines intros ET1300-02, ET1810-01 and ET1810-03 desktop PCs

Just a few short weeks after eMachines outed its EL1300 line of SFF PCs, the company is hitting us up again with a new trio of full-size desktops. The ET1300-02, ET1810-01 and ET1810-03 are all encased within a luminous white mini-tower and ship with a matching LCD monitor, speakers and a keyboard. As for specs, the $449.99 ET1300-02 checks in with an AMD Athlon X2 4850e (2.5GHz) CPU, Vista Home Premium, NVIDIA’s GeForce G100 (512MB), 3GB of DDR2 memory, a 160GB hard drive, 18x SuperMulti DVD burner, multicard reader, HDMI / DVI / VGA outputs and an 18-inch E182H display. The $369.99 ET1810-03 steps to a 2.2GHz Pentium E2210 CPU, GeForce 7500 integrated graphics and just a single VGA port, while the $299.99 ET1810-01 cranks it down to a 1.6GHz Celeron 420 and 2GB of DDR2 RAM. The trio should be filtering out to respected retailers as we speak.

Filed under:

eMachines intros ET1300-02, ET1810-01 and ET1810-03 desktop PCs originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

AMD Rethinks Congo Code Name after Violence

“Congo” is the name of AMD’s next “ultrathin” platform, but it’s also the name of one of the African regions torn by violence and poverty. For this reason, AMD is considering using the name “2UT” as a replacement code name for the platform, chief markting officer Nigel Dessau tweeted on June 22.

In a followup blog, Dessau explained that he had heard a presentation at the D7 conference describing the conflict.

Gateway’s AMD-packing LT3100 netbook unleashed

Last time we saw Gateway’s 11.6-inch LT3100 it was buried in a heap of other Acer / eMachines netbook reveals, including the Timeline. Now it’s gone official, and the big surprise here is that the self-proclaimed netbook is sporting a processor from AMD — you know, the company who has largely shunned netbooks while later looking to differentiate with the “ultra-portable” Athlon Neo processor. The 1.2GHz Athlon 64 L110 is what’s packed in here, in addition to integrated ATI Radeon X1270 graphics, WXGA resolution, up to 2GB RAM and 250GB HDD, card reader, 802.11b/g, webcam, three USB 2.0 port, and a 6-cell Li-ion battery. Not sure if it’s because they shied away from Atom or not, but instead of XP we’ve got Windows Vista Basic for the OS. Available in NightSky Black and Cherry Red, it should be out soon-ish with prices starting at $400.

Update: Now with even more officialness.

Filed under:

Gateway’s AMD-packing LT3100 netbook unleashed originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Jun 2009 01:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments