AMD launches "Spider" PC platform with 2.3-ghz Phenom

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Merely two days after getting cash infusion of $608 million from the Abu Dhabi government’s investment arm Mubadala Development Co., Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), the designer, manufacturer and marketer of industry-standard digital integrated circuits (ICs), unveiled on Monday its latest its newest platform codenamed "Spider", with immediate availability.

AMD’s newest “Spider Platform” includes the newly released Phenom quad-core processor, the desktop version of the "Barcelona" Opteron server chip, ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series graphics processors (launched last week) with Microsoft DirectX 10.1 support, AMD 7-Series chipsets with CrossFireX and AMD OverDrive software.

Targeted at multimedia and gaming- enthusiasts, the 'Spider' platform is capable of providing a highly-advanced feature-rich computing experience by integrating the company's next-generation quad-core processors, graphics cards and chipsets in one platform. In addition, it will deliver better graphics, performance-per-watt and improved high-definition video.

“AMD is the only company committed to delivering The Ultimate Visual Experience across all the screens of your life,” said Dirk Meyer, president and COO, AMD. “The AMD Spider platform embodies our approach to platform-level innovation and delivers a highly-advanced, feature-rich enthusiast computing experience. Our commitment to energy-efficient design and manufacturing excellence drives an unprecedented performance-per-watt at an amazing price point, putting enthusiast-class platforms in reach for more users than ever before.”

Sunnyvale, California based chip maker hopes this platform would likely help company make a hot holiday season with PCs for gaming and entertainment, delivering HD, multimedia content in a more quiet, energy efficient and less costly system than the typical ultra-gamer boxes. “People want to bridge the gap between gaming and the PC with HD,” said Patrick Moorhead, AMD vice president of marketing said.

AMD’s Spider platform supports enhanced HDMI connectivity with integrated HDCP and audio for HDMI video. According to Rick Bergman, general manager of AMD’s graphics group, Spider delivers a sophisticated multi-GPU enthusiast platform with ATI CrossFireX technology as well as OverDrive, a utility for tuning the frequency, voltage, and other attributes.

The CrossFireX technology allows up to four graphic cards to work together on a single system, thus enhancing graphics performance in a system and saving users from investing in graphics chips in the future.

AMD on Monday (Nov. 19) launched its long-awaited two "Phenom" processors, the Phenom 9600 and 9500, which run at 2.3 GHz and 2.2 GHz, respectively. AMD will make the 2.2GHz Phenom 9500 and 2.3GHz 9600 processors available for $251 and $283 respectively, for purchases of 1,000 units.

On Nov. 15, the chip making company rolled out the ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series of graphics processing units (GPU). It is the world’s first series of graphics processors to deliver Microsoft’s DirectX 10.1 support, 55nm process technology and tri and quad multi-GPU support with ATI CrossFireX, according to AMD.

The ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series is introduced in two variants at launch. The ATI Radeon HD 3850 with 256MB of GDDR3 memory begins at US$179 and the ATI Radeon HD 3870 with 512MB GDDR4 memory from US$219.

The launch of the products comes at a time when the US chip-maker is making strenuous efforts to simmer down costs while concentrating attention on its research and development efforts. AMD has faced a cash shortage since it bought top graphics chip maker ATI Technologies Inc. AMD had acquired ATI last year in July for $ 5.4 billion in cash and stock to expand its product mix and grow market share as it battles Intel Corp.

The two companies are working on a chip code-named “Fusion" that integrates a CPU and GPU on a single die, and is planned for release sometime in the end of 2008 or early 2009.

AMD and Intel have been in this constant attempt to out run each other and grab the monster share of the processor market.