14 DAY TRIAL // AMD showcased some of its current products and technologies at a small gathering the company hosted at the London NYC Hotel. A few products developed by AMD's partners were also put on display at the event, along with demos for the products slated for release in the following months. The guys from Hot Hardware attended the event and came back with details and photos on the showcased products.
AMD demonstrated its next-generation Home Cinema Platform, codenamed "Maui". The platform features a Phenom X4 9550 processor, 780M chipset, ATI TV Wonder 650 Combo PCIe tuner card, and an integrated 5.1 surround sound amplifier capable of 100W per channel output. Also included in the system are AMD LIVE! software elements, and Maui rises above other HTPC platforms due to its integrated amplifier.
A wide series of notebooks was also put on diplay at the event, based on AMD's Puma mobile platform. It is built around AMD processors and chipsets, with third-party WiFi adapters (namely Broadcom and Atheros).
As for AMD's partners, HP brought the Pavilion tx2500 tablet, together with some of its Pavilion dv-series PCs. The aesthetic part of these machines is a great one, with the chrome finish and mirrored touchpads. AMD demoed Blu-ray playback on some of the dv-series machines, an AMD based one pitting against a Centrino 2 model with Intel graphics. While the AMD PC had a 40 percent processor utilization in the action, the Intel machine went to 95 percent.
The Puma system kept a smooth playback even when other tasks were performed, while the Intel machine dropped frames instantly. The guys from Hot Hardware say that they are not sure whether the PowerDVD version running on the machines managed to take full advantage of the Intel IGP. According to them, another witnessed demo showed far less CPU utilization than AMD's one. Another notebook model presented at the event was a HP DTR mobile PC, also playing a Blu-ray disc, which was showed on an external display, while the integrated screen showed a demo presentation.
Other AMD partners that came with Puma based notebooks were Toshiba and Fujitsu-Siemens. The Fujitsu demo system had as central interest point the ATI XGP interface. The XGP consists of an external box connected with the notebook via a proprietary PCI Express cable / connector, allowing for external discreet graphics to be added. The main idea of the XPG is to increase performance, as it comes with support for Hybrid CrossFire configurations as well.
The external XGP box has been designed for further use than the graphics area, so it also includes USB and Firewire hubs, along with eSATA connectors. This is quite an elegant solution, unlike similar devices that ended up in the dust. The XPG box is expected to greatly appeal to enthusiasts always on the go, so we should see it on shelves pretty soon. The box can also be set up at home for gaming on a big screen, while the notebook can be taken anywhere you want, anytime.
