The GPGPU revolution is well underway, and the next stop seems to be the lucrative server arena. From an information point of view, a vast majority of servers are the ideal applications for GPGPU acceleration, as they are often required to perform repetitive processing. There is no doubt GPGPUs can accelerate specific server processes several times over CPUs.

However, so far, the only drawback has been the form factor of server systems. Servers are clearly designed for CPU usage, with no real space to fit in graphics cards. It is possible to replace the form to fit in PCI-e GPUs. This is not an option many server data centers are likely to opt for, however. Instead, the two year timeline given by AMD might simply allude to the availability of Fusion APUs.

More next page.

While Nvidia's GTX 480 branding came as a surprise, there are no surprises from AMD's CPU division. Upcoming six-core desktop CPU, codenamed Thuban, has been branded as AMD Phenom II X6. This brand name was revealed in Biostar's recent press release regarding the Leo platform.

Also revealed is AMD's next gen chipset, to be branded as 890GX and a direct successor to 790GX - again, no surprises.

More next page.

Fudzilla reports that AMD is preparing a refreshed Phenom II quad core as part of the Leo platform headlined by Thuban six core CPUs. The codename is Zosma, and the brand names being thrown around is AMD Phenom II X4 960T.

Zosma is rumoured to be Thuban with two cores disabled, and this makes sense, to some extent. The clock speeds aren't known yet, but according to current nomenclature, we can expect the X4 960T to be clocked at either 3.3 or 3.4 GHz. The good news, however, is that the TDP is 95W compared to the current 965BE's 125W for C3 stepping.

More next page.

TSMC's Senior VP of Operations, Mark Liu, has mentioned that TSMC's troubled 40nm process is now of the same quality as the mature 65nm process. The chamber mismatch issue which dropped the yields of the HD 5800 series to a reported 40% have now been resolved, and yields are recently rumoured to be between 60% and 80%.

Mr. Liu did not delve into further details. Yield rates are a win-win-win situation for everyone involved. ATI will be able to ship more GPUs at lower manufacturing costs, customers will get widespread availability and lower prices.

More next page.

ATI's next release, the Radeon HD 5830, previously rumoured for late January has now reportedly been pushed back to February 5th - around the same time as the release of the HD 5400/5500 series.

A substantial gap in price and performance has existed between the HD 5770 and the HD 5850 since November. With the HD 5850's availability issues, the price gap has increased even further. Today, the HD 5770 1GB retails at an average of $169, with the HD 5850 all the way up to $299.

More next page.

Next up on AMD GPG's relentless release schedule is Cedar - the entry level GPU that will cover ATI Radeon HD 5400 and 5500 series. The card is expected to feature 200 shaders, which is an impressive boost from the 80 shaders featured in the Radeon HD 4300/4500 series.

Arab Hardware have pictured a low profile card that is powered by a Cedar GPU. Do note that this is an engineering sample from way back in October 2009, and the final heatsink and appearance are likely to change.


More next page.

"7" might not be the most oft-used number for naming products this side of the globe, but Gigabyte has chosen to use the "UD7" moniker on it's upcoming feature-packed mainboard. Today we landed our hands on a pre-production sample, so here we are with the photos.

After a brief break, ATI's relentless release schedule of Radeon HD 5000 series cards is unfolding again. As expected, it is the affordable ATI Radeon HD 5670 releasing today. As far as releases go, this may be the most expected and unsurprising in a long time. For consumers, this means world's first sub-$100 DX11 GPU is here.

Surely, ATI's initial HD 5000 series plans would have suggested a lower MSRP, considering the initial SRP on the Radeon HD 5750 512MB was $109. However, due to very little competition and TSMC manufacturing problems, the prices of all graphics cards have gone north - with the HD 5750 retailing at a minimum of $129, with most 1GB variants around the $150 range. Furthermore, Nvidia's woefully overpriced Geforce GT 240 is priced at $99, which is what ATI is positioning today's new HD 5670 against.

More next page.