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AMD Nvidia Flash Benchmarks

chris.tom@amdzone.com (Chris Tom) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:55:22 +0000

Anandtech has tested todays Flash 10.1 beta with GPU acceration on AMD and Nvidia graphics cards. Adobe Flash is horrible. I hate Flash. I have hated Flash for years. Flash is the worst excuse for video playback one can imagine, so I can only hope that these results get a crap load better, and don't make me want to gouge my eyes out any more when I see anything flash load up.

With the updated Catalyst 9.11 drivers, our results were a lot better than before. Previously, using Flash 10.0 we were unable to view either of the Hulu videos (720p or 480p) in full screen mode without severe stuttering. YouTube HD on the other hand worked fine with 0 dropped frames. Moving to Flash 10.1 with DXVA GPU acceleration, we now see smooth frame rates on all Hulu content and lower CPU usage for both Hulu and YouTube videos. YouTube CPU usage on the Prince of Persia trailer drops 31%, Hulu's Legend of the Seeker drops CPU use 20% while nearly doubling the frame rate (i.e. from dropping half the frames to showing everything), and 480p Hulu drops CPU usage 10% with frame rates almost tripling (from ~13 FPS to over 30 FPS for what appears to be 30 FPS video content).

XFX, Sapphire, Powercolor Radeon HD 5970

chris.tom@amdzone.com (Chris Tom) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:23:21 +0000

Fudo reports on overclocked Radeon HD 5970 cards from XFX and Sapphire coming down the pipe.

In addition to reference clocked versions, Sapphire and XFX are apparently first AIB partners that are going to do factory overclocked HD 5970 cards. We already told you that HD 5970 might be an overclocking beast and there might be a lot of room for additional overclocking. It looks like the chip can take it easily and AMD could have dropped it in order to maintain the 294W TDP.

Also from them is news on Powercolor announcing a 5970.

Powercolor is one of many AMD AIB partners that will launch its HD 5970 graphics cards, and as you might have guessed, every card is pretty much the same and there is no word on factory overclocks or non-reference coolers, at least not yet.

If you want one, sorry, Fudo also says they sold out in a day.

ATI partners have told Fudzilla that they received decent quantities of dual-chip Radeon HD 5970 cards, but due to heavy pre-orders and huge interest, they sold out all they had in matter of hours.

AMD's x86 Is Royalty Free

chris.tom@amdzone.com (Chris Tom) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:53:35 +0000

Fudo reports that the deal between AMD and Intel makes AMD's x86 royalty free.

Since this is a two way street, AMD will also give some patents to Intel and make the competition less exciting. Nehalem looks much like AMD’s Barcelona and AMD will concentrate on catching up with Intel and bringing innovations that should help the company in 2011 to introduce some cool products such as Fusion as well as its Bulldozer savior core.

AMD Commences Tender Offer for its 5.75% Convertible Senior Notes due 2012

chris.tom@amdzone.com (Chris Tom) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:35:09 +0000

SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Nov. 18, 2009 — AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced that it commenced a cash tender offer for up to $1,000,000,000 in aggregate principal amount of its outstanding 5.75% Convertible Senior Notes due 2012 (the “notes”). AMD intends to finance the purchase of the notes tendered in the tender offer with the net proceeds from the closing of AMD’s private offering of $500,000,000 aggregate principal amount of senior notes due 2017 (the “New Notes Offering”), which was separately announced by AMD today, and from the receipt of the $1.25 billion cash payment (the “Settlement Payment”) from Intel Corporation pursuant to the Company’s recently announced settlement agreement with Intel.

The tender offer will expire at 12:00 midnight, New York City time, on Wednesday, December 16, 2009, unless extended (such date and time, as it may be extended, the “Expiration Date”) or earlier terminated by AMD. Holders who validly tender, and do not validly withdraw, their notes on or prior to the Expiration Date will be entitled to receive $990 for each $1,000 principal amount of notes purchased in the tender offer, plus accrued and unpaid interest to, but not including, the date of payment for the notes accepted for payment. Tenders of notes must be made on or prior to the Expiration Date, and notes may be withdrawn at any time on or prior to the Expiration Date.

To the extent that acceptances of all validly tendered notes would require AMD to purchase more than $1,000,000,000 in aggregate principal amount of notes in connection with the tender offer, AMD will allocate acceptances on a pro rata basis among the tendering Holders. 3

The tender offer is contingent upon the satisfaction of certain conditions, including the closing of New Notes Offering, which will be subject to customary closing conditions, and the receipt of the Settlement Payment.

Full details of the terms and conditions of the tender offer are included in the Offer to Purchase, dated November 18, 2009, and AMD’s Schedule TO which have been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

AMD has retained J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. and Citadel Securities LLC to act as Dealer Managers for the tender offer. Questions regarding the tender offer may be directed to J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. at (800) 261-5767 (toll-free) or Citadel Securities LLC at (877) 660-1735 (toll-free). Requests for the Offer to Purchase and other documents relating to the tender offer may be directed to MacKenzie Partners, Inc., the Information Agent in connection with the tender offer, at (212) 929-5500 (collect) or (800) 322-2885 (toll-free).

Neither AMD, nor any member of its Board of Directors, nor the dealer managers nor the information agent is making any recommendation to Holders as to whether to tender or refrain from tendering their notes into the tender offer. Holders must decide whether they will tender in the offer and, if so, how many notes they will tender.

This release is for information purposes only and is neither an offer to purchase nor a solicitation of an offer to sell the notes or any other securities. The tender offer is only being made pursuant to the tender offer documents, including the Offer to Purchase and the related letter of transmittal that AMD is distributing to Holders. The tender offer is not being made to Holders in any jurisdiction in which the making or acceptance thereof would not be in compliance with the securities, blue sky or other laws of such jurisdiction.

AMD Announces Redemption of 7.75% Senior Notes Due 2012

chris.tom@amdzone.com (Chris Tom) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:33:39 +0000

SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Nov. 18, 2009 — AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced that it will redeem all outstanding principal amount of its 7.75% Senior Notes due 2012 (the “Notes”) on December 18, 2009. The notice of redemption will be mailed to the holders of the Notes on November 18, 2009. Questions regarding the redemption should be directed to Wells Fargo Bank, National Association, the trustee under the indenture governing the Notes, at Wells Fargo Bank, National Association, Corporate Trust Services, 707 Wilshire Boulevard, 17th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90017.

AMD Announces Private Offering of $500 Million

chris.tom@amdzone.com (Chris Tom) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:54:47 +0000

SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Nov. 18, 2009 — Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NYSE: AMD) today announced that it intends to commence an offering, subject to market and other conditions, of $500 million aggregate principal amount of senior notes in a private offering. AMD intends to use the proceeds, along with existing cash, to purchase its 5.75% Convertible Senior Notes due 2012 validly tendered pursuant to the company’s tender offer for such notes, which was also announced today. Net proceeds not used in the tender offer, if any, will be used for general corporate purposes.

The new senior notes have not been registered under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or applicable state securities laws, and will be offered only to qualified institutional buyers in reliance on Rule 144A and in offshore transactions pursuant to Regulation S under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. Unless so registered, the new senior notes may not be offered or sold in the United States except pursuant to an exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act and applicable state securities laws. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy these securities, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state.

Radeon 5970 Reviews

chris.tom@amdzone.com (Chris Tom) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:55:45 +0000

Hardwarezone
Legit Reviews
Hot Hardware
Anandtech

AMD Form 8-K Filing RE Patent Cross License Details

chris.tom@amdzone.com (Chris Tom) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:53:21 +0000

We received the following statement from AMD regarding a patent cross license agreement wtih Intel just minutes ago.

On November 17, 2009 AMD made a Form 8-K filing with the SEC regarding the Company’s settlement and patent cross-license agreements with Intel. A redacted version of AMD and Intel’s patent cross-license agreement is now publicly available as part of the attached Form 8-K filing. GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Intel also reached a patent agreement. The specific terms of that agreement are confidential.

The key takeaways from the new AMD, Intel patent cross-license agreement are as follows:

* AMD and Intel obtain patent rights from a new patent cross-license, with a capture period that has been extended five years.
* The licenses are now royalty free for both parties.
* AMD has broad have made rights including for x86 devices.

AMD Appoints Nicholas Donofrio to Company’s Board of Directors

chris.tom@amdzone.com (Chris Tom) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:51:30 +0000

* 44-year IBM veteran led the company’s innovation and technology −

SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Nov. 17, 2009 — AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced that Nicholas M. Donofrio, 64, has been appointed to the company’s board of directors. Donofrio spent 44 years at IBM, starting as a logic and memory chip designer and rising to lead the company’s technology strategy and innovation.
“Nick is a highly-respected technology and business leader who has driven some of the industry’s most successful and important technology initiatives during the past four decades,” said Bruce Claflin, chairman, AMD Board of Directors. “He will be a great addition to our board.”
Prior to his retirement from IBM in 2008, Donofrio was an IBM fellow and executive vice president of innovation and technology. His focus on innovation contributed to IBM being awarded the highest number of patents of any company for 13 consecutive years. During his career, Donofrio held a variety of leadership roles in IBM’s server, advanced workstations, personal computing, manufacturing and semiconductor development divisions.
Donofrio also serves as a board member for The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation and Liberty Mutual. He is on the board of trustees for the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and is co-chair of the New York Hall of Science Board of Trustees.

Donofrio holds a bachelor’s degree from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a master’s degree from Syracuse University.

Catalyst 9.11 Drivers Released!

chris.tom@amdzone.com (Chris Tom) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:48:05 +0000

We have just released ATI Catalyst™ 9.11 for Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Linux platforms on http://www.amd.com

Highlights of the ATI Catalyst™ 9.11 Windows release include:

New Features

GPU Acceleration of H.264 video content using Adobe Flash Player 10.1 Beta
 This release of ATI Catalyst™ supports the new Hardware Acceleration features of Adobe Flash Player 10.1 Beta for video encoded in the H.264 format. Adobe Flash Player 10.1 Beta introduces hardware-based H.264 video decoding to deliver smooth video playback, reduce system resource utilization, and preserve battery life. Adobe Flash Player 10.1 Beta is expected to be available for download from Adobe Labs (labs.adobe.com) before the end of the year. This feature is supported on the ATI Radeon HD 5800, ATI Radeon HD 5700 and ATI Radeon HD 4000 Series of products.

High Quality downscaling for video transcoding MSE
 This release of ATI Catalyst™ includes an enhancement for the ATI Video converter for users transcoding high quality interlaced content (1920x1080i @60i videos) down to small resolution progressive content (320x240 @30p - iPod videos as an example), by maintaining high visual quality when down-scaling by a significant amount and converting interlaced video content to progressive.

Highlights of the Linux ATI Catalyst™ 9.11 release include:

New Features

Support for new Linux operating systems
• This release of ATI Catalyst™ Linux introduces support for the following new operating systems:
o RHEL 5.4 support
o openSUSE 11.2 early look support