An anonymous tipster left an interesting picture on our doorsteps. It shows a pair of Radeon HD 7990 "Malta" reference-design graphics cards chugging along inside an enthusiast PC. AMD surprised us late last month, when it showed off a reference-design Radeon HD 7990 dual-GPU graphics card, at the Game Developers' Conference (GDC) event. The cards in this new picture appear to be identical to the one AMD showed. The "Radeon" embossing appears pretty clear on both cards, so one can't mistake them for FirePro S10000.

Bearing a new internal codename "Malta," compared to last year's various dual-HD 7970 contraptions that were codenamed "New Zealand," the new Radeon HD 7990 is being designed to be far more energy efficient, and quiet. While the various "New Zealand" cards often featured three 8-pin PCIe power connectors and triple-slot cooling solutions, "Malta" makes do with just two 8-pin power connectors, and a dual-slot cooler. We've been talking to a lot of reliable sources in the industry, and nobody has any clue about a tentative launch date.

EK Water Blocks, Ljubljana based premium water cooling gear manufacturer, is proud to introduce world's first water cooling solution for both AMD FirePro W9000 and S10000 graphics cards. EK Water Blocks' versatible and fully flexible solution allows for virtually any configuration to be used and expanded when necassery. Both solutions provide a single-slot design thus doubling the computing power per unit compared to factory heatsink fan (HSF) cooling solution. Same footprint - twice the power!

EK-FCS10000 is a high performance full-cover water block for AMD FirePro S10000 series dual-processor professional/server graphics cards. This water block directly cools both GPUs, RAM as well as both VRMs (voltage regulation module) as water flows directly over these critical areas thus allowing the graphics card and it's VRM to remain 100% stable under any given workload. EK-FCS10000 water block also features a high flow design therefore it can be easily used in liquid cooling systems using weaker water pumps.

TechPowerUp announced version 0.6.8 of GPU-Z, the popular graphics subsystem information, monitoring, and diagnostic utility, which gives you detailed information about the installed graphics hardware, and lets you monitor key specifications in real-time, such as clock speeds, temperatures, voltages, and video memory usage. Version 0.6.8 introduces support for new GPUs, namely NVIDIA's GeForce GTX Titan, GeForce 505 (GT216), GT 640M, GTX 675MX, Quadro K2000, and K3000; AMD's Radeon HD 7480D, FirePro W8000, V8700, fake HD 6850 (based on HD 6450). GPU load monitoring method on AMD GPUs is improved, and should be more accurate. Several minor bugs were patched.DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 0.6.8, TechPowerUp GPU-Z 0.6.8 ASUS ROG Themed

The change-log follows.

TYAN, an industry-leading server platform design manufacturer and subsidiary of MiTAC International Corp, launched the TYAN TA77-B7061, its latest and flexible 2U GPU supported platform; the S7042, entry-level dual socket motherboard; GT62A-B5512 and the GT20A-B7040, the cost-effective 1U server during the CeBIT. TYAN welcomes customers to visit the TYAN website for more detail product information during CeBIT or experience the latest products at ISS EMEA in Dublin, Ireland from April, 10-12.

TYAN TA77-B7061 is the ideal platform designed for users who are looking for accelerated data-processing and efficient computing performance. Supporting up to four GPUs in a 2U server chassis, it is a high performance option that also offers outstanding computing density, saving both time and server/rack space in conjunction with industry-leading companies' GPU products such as Intel Xeon Phi processors, NVIDIA Tesla K20 Series and ATI FirePro. The non-compromised TA77-B7061 will be displayed at TYAN booth at ISS EMEA (Intel Solution Summit) in Dublin, Ireland from April, 10-12. TYAN TA77-B7061 supports (2) Intel Xeon E5-2600 Series Processors, (8+8) DDR-III R/U/LR-DIMM, (4) PCI-E x16 G3 slots, (1) PCI-E x8 G3 slots, (2) GbE ports and (8) 2.5" HDDs. Customers could enjoy more flexible and upgradeable computing performance to tailor to their own computing environment with TYAN's TA77-B7061 server platform.

AMD today announced the arrival of the AMD FirePro R5000 remote graphics card, a flexible, manageable solution designed and engineered to power remote 3D-graphics workflows and full computing experiences over IP networks. The energy-, space- and cost-efficient AMD FirePro R5000 is the ideal solution for IT managers operating in data center environments where limited space, power budgets and cooling costs pose a constant challenge.

The AMD FirePro R5000 combines AMD's Graphics Core Next (GCN) Architecture with Teradici's PCoIP technology, and delivers a 3D experience with low latency transmission -- ideal for mid-range multimonitor endpoints such as those used by CAD, medical imaging and financial services professionals. The AMD FirePro R5000 also complements IT security protocols by safeguarding corporate IP, since critical information never leaves the data center.

GIGABYTE is proud to announce two new models of workstation motherboards and one new model dedicated to mission critical server applications. All of them being based on the Intel Xeon processors E5-2600 product family, these new models are designed to answer demanding needs for computing resources across various usage models, form factors and scales. While these products have been naturally thought for scenarios requiring heavy computing power through GPUs or GPGPU / co-processors cards, from CAD/CAE to rendering, simulation and modeling, their most notable advantage relies in their unique memory performance capability. GIGABYTE motherboards support DDR3-1600 MHz speeds with 16 GB 1.35V RDIMMs.

Achieved through GIGABYTE's capabilities in design, PCB layout and BIOS fine-tuning, this feature will be most appreciated in the many workstation applications where improvements in memory frequency result in speeding up the user's productivity and in all the industries relying on server applications where each incremental improvement in memory performance results in significant benefits, such as in finance.

AMD has collaborated with the University of Frankfurt's Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS) to deliver a new standard in power-efficient supercomputing with the SANAM supercomputer, securing the number two ranking on the latest Green500 List. The supercomputer will aid FIAS in quantum chromodynamics research.

Powered by 420 AMD FirePro S10000 dual-GPU server graphics cards based on AMD Graphics Core Next Architecture, the SANAM supercomputer redefines supercomputing with its incredible power efficiency.

AMD today launched the AMD FirePro S10000, the industry's most powerful server graphics card, designed for high-performance computing (HPC) workloads and graphics intensive applications.

The AMD FirePro S10000 is the first professional-grade card to exceed one teraFLOPS (TFLOPS) of double-precision floating-point performance, helping to ensure optimal efficiency for HPC calculations. It is also the first ultra high-end card that brings an unprecedented 5.91 TFLOPS of peak single-precision and 1.48 TFLOPS of double-precision floating-point calculations. This performance ensures the fastest possible data processing speeds for professionals working with large amounts of information. In addition to HPC, the FirePro S10000 is also ideal for virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and workstation graphics deployments.

AMD's FirePro APUs built on the "Trinity" silicon, with the GPU feature-set of AMD's FirePro professional GPUs and durability of Opteron enterprise CPUs; and compatible motherboards made by PC Partner (Sapphire) have started selling in Japan. Among the new products on sale are the FirePro A300 (3.40 GHz CPU core, 4.00 GHz CPU TurboCore, 760 MHz GPU, quad-core, 65W), and FirePro A320 (3.80 GHz CPU core, 4.20 GHz CPU TurboCore, 800 MHz GPU, quad-core, 100W), and the AMD reference design micro-ATX motherboard, manufactured by PC Partner.

The motherboard features socket FM2, powered by an 8-phase digital PWM power supply to the APU socket, four DDR3 DIMM slots supporting 64 GB of dual-channel DDR3-1866 MHz memory, expansion slots that include PCI-Express 2.0 x16, PCI-Express 2.0 x4, x1, and legacy PCI; eight SATA 6 Gb/s ports, display outputs that include dual-link DVI, dual-link DisplayPort, and D-Sub. HD audio and gigabit Ethernet make for the rest of it.Source: Hermitage Akihabara

AMD today announced that a cluster of HP ProLiant BL465c Gen8 servers utilizing AMD Opteron 6200 Series processors has achieved the highest VMmark 2.1 score ever posted, representing a 40 percent increase over the next best score. VMmark is VMware's popular multi-server benchmarking tool that measures platform performance and scalability of virtualized environments. The record score of 59.99 at 62 tiles displaced a score of 42.79 at 36 tiles -- a 40 percent increase in performance and a 72 percent increase in the number of virtual machines (VMs).

For the benchmark, HP used 16 HP ProLiant BL465c Gen8 blades, the highest volume selling blade in the world, each running two 16-core AMD Opteron 6278 processors yielding a total of 496 VMs with an average of 31 VMs per blade at a cost of $371 per virtual machine. HP BladeSystem, the industry's only Converged Infrastructure architected for any workload from client to cloud, offers the performance and scalability needed to support an ideal virtualization platform for IT professionals who are moving to dense virtualization environments as a foundation for building both public and private clouds.

Today, AMD announced it has entered into a strategic licensing agreement with RealD Inc., which will pair AMD FirePro professional graphics with RealD's patented BlueLine technology to address the rapid adoption of 3D-capable displays and digital light processing (DLP) projectors in corporate boardrooms, educational institutions and the media and entertainment industry. This technology partnership provides industry-leading stereo 3D support in an all-in-one solution that enables control over each aspect of the 3D experience -- the DLP projector, 3D software, and graphics card -- from a single software control panel. AMD is the first and only professional graphics maker to provide this unique RealD support and will immediately extend BlueLine technology to the AMD FirePro V5900, with deployment to the latest AMD FirePro graphics cards based on Graphics Core Next (GCN) Architecture scheduled to occur over the coming months.

"AMD and RealD are responding to the expanding stereo 3D market, which has grown exponentially over the past several years," said David Cummings, senior director and general manager, Professional Graphics, AMD. "Whether you're working through computer-aided design (CAD) workflows, building CGI effects in movie studios or simply taking in a movie at the local theater, viewers will now experience improved stereo 3D video powered by AMD FirePro graphics and RealD. Together, we will deliver a more enjoyable and realistic 3D experience, while providing IT managers with an unmatched, turnkey stereo 3D solution."

AMD announced today that the visionary behind Gustafson's Law, John Gustafson, has joined the company as senior fellow and chief product architect, Graphics Business Unit. In this role, Gustafson will set the technical vision for the AMD graphics business unit, driving the technology roadmap and platform for the AMD Radeon and AMD FirePro product lines as well as new technology planning and execution of business objectives. Gustafson will be based in Sunnyvale and will help evangelize AMD graphics leadership internally and externally.

"Our industry-leading graphics technology predicates that we consistently deliver the most differentiated and superior graphics processor unit (GPU) architectures and products -- without compromise," said Matt Skynner, corporate vice president and general manager, AMD Graphics. "With the growing importance of parallel compute in defining the computing experience, John brings the full package of industry experience and knowledge needed to help us expand and execute our AMD Radeon and AMD FirePro graphics technology programs, and will help forge an aggressive long-term roadmap that allows AMD to continue to lead and win with our gaming and virtualization technologies."

AMD today launched the AMD FirePro S9000 and S7000, the industry's most powerful dual- and single-slot server graphics cards for compute, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and workstation graphics deployments in data centers. Equipped with next-generation Graphics Core Next architecture and intelligent AMD PowerTune and ZeroCore Power technologies, the AMD FirePro S9000 and S7000 reduce power consumption by up to 95% at idle, meaning greater savings and reduced operating costs in the data center.

By using the AMD FirePro S9000 and S7000 server graphics, information technology (IT) managers can now effectively address a number of daily data center challenges, while empowering IT professionals to manage intense workloads securely from virtually anywhere in the world at virtually any time. By having the flexibility to set up multiple virtual desktops, scientists, engineers and graphics professionals can have access to accelerated productivity suites including computer aided design (CAD), and media and entertainment (M&E) applications, offering them workstation-class performance in a scalable network environment.

Today AMD launched the AMD FirePro A300 Series Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) for entry-level and mainstream desktop workstations. Featuring AMD Eyefinity multi-display technology, the new AMD FirePro A300 Series APUs are designed for users who demand a high-performance computing platform to power their computer-aided design, and media and entertainment (M&E) workflows. The new AMD FirePro A300 Series APUs combine industry-certified performance and reliability for professional applications with world-class 24-hour customer support, delivering highly-tuned performance and robust feature support across a range of professional applications and tools.

Today, AMD launched its latest line of workstation graphics, leading with the AMD FirePro W9000 Graphics Processing Unit -- the most powerful workstation graphics card ever created. The AMD FirePro W9000 GPU features incredible compute, increased memory bandwidth and greater multi-display support performance than the competing solution. Following closely are the AMD FirePro W8000, W7000 and W5000 workstation graphics cards, all built on the AMD Graphics Core Next Architecture, and designed to balance compute and 3D workloads efficiently for computer-aided design and engineering, and for media and entertainment (M&E) professionals.

The AMD FirePro W9000, W8000, W7000 and W5000 GPUs are optimized and certified for leading software applications enabling users to unleash their creativity by ensuring ultra-high geometry performance. The latest AMD FirePro workstation graphics cards can enable smooth handling of complex models and feature dynamic power management that enables great performance and efficient power usage. Using AMD Eyefinity technology, the AMD FirePro W9000, W8000, and W7000 GPUs can drive up to six, 30" independent displays via Multi-Stream Transport (MST) hubs for maximum workspace utilization at ultra-high 4096x2160 resolutions.

AMD (NYSE:AMD) today announced revenue for the second quarter of 2012 of $1.41 billion, net income of $37 million, or $0.05 per share, and operating income of $77 million. The company reported non-GAAP net income of $46 million, or $0.06 per share, and non-GAAP operating income of $86 million.

“Overall weakness in the global economy, softer consumer spending and lower channel demand for our desktop processors in China and Europe made the closing weeks of the quarter challenging,” said Rory Read, AMD president and CEO. “We are taking definitive steps to improve our performance and correct the issues within our control as we expect headwinds will continue in the third quarter as the industry sets a new baseline. We remain optimistic about our core businesses as well as future opportunities with our competitively differentiated next-generation Accelerated Processor Units (APUs). Our recently launched Trinity APU continues to gain traction with customers. We are committed to driving profitable growth.”

AMD today announced its continued leadership in high performance computing (HPC) with 24 of the top 100 supercomputers in the 39th TOP500 list, announced today, while making significant strides in maturing its HPC ecosystem through the addition of several key components that enable end users to continue to benefit from best-in-class price/performance for today's demanding applications.

AMD has continued to work closely with its technology partners to significantly mature its HPC ecosystem, resulting in several new developments including LS-DYNA simulation software optimized for the AMD Opteron 6200 Series processors from Livermore Software Technology Corporation (LSTC), the addition of programming options for AMD graphics processor unit (GPU) technology from CAPS, and the announcement by Mellanox Technologies of its Connect-IB products that will deliver FDR 56 Gb/s InfiniBand speeds to AMD's solution portfolios.

At the AMD Fusion Developer Summit (AFDS) 2012, the host unveiled its next flagship professional graphics card, the FirePro W9000. What makes the card particularly interesting is that it is dual-GPU, packing two Tahiti-derived GPUs, the same chips that go into making Radeon HD 7900 series. The FirePro W9000, is what many believe to be a professional variant of the Radeon HD 7990 "New Zealand" dual-GPU graphics card, which is facing delays for reasons unknown (actually, here's a possible reason).

The W9000 packs a total of 6 GB of GDDR5 memory, up to 264.8 million pixels/s; 4 TFLOPs single-precision and 1 TFLOPs double-precision floating-point performance. The card design does away with lateral-flow cooler, and uses a triple-fan heatsink assembly that packs three 90 mm low-speed (low-noise) fans. A surprise here, is that the card draws power from [just] two 8-pin PCIe power connectors (it's probably using two low-voltage Tahiti chips). It's an established fact that FirePro products are merely variations of Radeon products with possibly higher build quality, and an expanded software feature-set.

Source: 4Gamer.net

AMD today announced immediate availability of the AMD FirePro W600 professional graphics card, the company’s first professional graphics card to leverage AMD’s Graphics Core Next architecture and 28nm production technology, for use in high-resolution, content-rich, multi-screen display wall environments. With this launch, AMD is addressing a growing need for large, dynamic screens that are easily updated with new content.

“Whether we are checking flight times at the airport or watching the latest ads on massive screens in city squares, digital signage has quickly become an important and ubiquitous part of our lives,” said Matt Skynner, corporate vice president and general manager of AMD Graphics. “To enable these displays, the digital signage industry demands technology that can be regularly refreshed with new, feature-rich content. With the launch of the AMD FirePro W600 professional graphics card, AMD is helping advance the digital display wall industry by providing suppliers and developers with impressive display density, performance and exceptional value.”

AMD is proud to announce that it has received Windows Hardware Certification (WHC) for an AMD Catalyst graphics driver (with full support for the new WDDM 1.2 driver model) on Windows 8. This landmark moment reflects both our commitment to AMD Radeon graphics customers, and our vision of providing quality hardware/software solutions for Microsoft Windows products.

Formerly known as the Windows Logo Program, WHC is a rigorous mark of compatibility and reliability for products intended for use with Microsoft Windows. It also allows AMD to serve as an official partner in the upcoming Windows 8 release, use the “Windows 8 Compatible” logo, and offer the drivers on Windows Update.

AMD today announced its collaboration with PTC, a leading provider of product development software solutions and services, to enable 900% faster performance in 3D transparency in PTC Creo Parametric 2.0 and shaded 3D frame rates and interactivity by over 4X on AMD FirePro professional graphics cards. In addition, the AMD Catalyst Pro driver supports optimizations to ensure AMD FirePro professional graphics cards enable winning performance, reliability and workflow innovation for Creo users at virtually every AMD FirePro professional graphics card price point.

"The latest AMD FirePro professional graphics cards and drivers have been specifically engineered to enhance the productivity of PTC Creo Parametric 2.0 users," said Antoine Reymond, senior strategic alliance manager, Workstation Graphics, AMD. "Technical designers rely on software and hardware tools to optimize their workflow and enable them to effectively design without performance bottlenecks. Our collaboration with PTC helps ensure design professionals using AMD FirePro professional graphics cards will experience a significant boost in performance, resulting in superior productivity and design intuition."

The workstation market proceeded ahead in the fourth quarter of 2011, completing a long climb back from the 2009 depths of the global economic recession that had slashed its shipments by over 40 percent. But that fourth quarter advance was more a case of "steady as she goes" than "full speed ahead", reports Jon Peddie Research senior analyst Alex Herrera.

The leading market research firm has completed its data collection and analysis of results from the quarter, and finds Q4 followed the same basic storyline Herrera had been laying out over the previous few quarters. The market has not only fully recovered from the recession, it's showing continued stability and some undeniable signs of strength. But at the same time, there remain scattered pockets of concern, as the market has yet to resume the pace of growth it sustained back in the years 2005 through 2008.

AMD today launched the AMD FirePro V3900, which enables best-in-class workstation experiences at an entry-level price point. By leveraging AMD's latest graphics features, including AMD Eyefinity technology, the AMD FirePro V3900 provides up to 95% better application performance than the competition. The AMD FirePro V3900 will be available in select workstation systems today and will be sold for USD$119 MSRP at select online resellers.

"The AMD FirePro V3900 is the most powerful entry-level professional graphics card on the market today," says Sandeep Gupte, general manager of Professional Graphics, AMD. "Armed with advanced multi-display capability of AMD Eyefinity technology, extensive certifications for professional applications and blazing fast performance, it offers best-in-class value for our technical and business customers."

While its processor-integrated graphics solutions may not be a match for those from NVIDIA and AMD in terms of client applications such as gaming, Intel thinks it has a shot at the entry-level workstation graphics segment, dominated by the likes of NVIDIA Quadro FX 580 and AMD FirePro V3800 series. Workstation GPUs differ from consumer ones as they are accompanied by more API features, are certified by professional 3D modelling software, and are designed to minimize rendering errors since these renders go on to take shape as millions of dollars worth skyscrapers, for example.

Intel thinks that after the performance success of SNA, it has achieved an acceptable level of performance with its integrated graphics design to take it professional. It is doing so by creating workstation-variants of the "Sandy Bridge" and future "Ivy Bridge" silicons in the Xeon E3-1200 series, and giving their integrated graphics increased functionality. The result is a variant of Intel's HD graphics 3000 series, called Intel HD Graphics P3000 series (P denoting professional). Intel is applying for certification by 3D modeling software developers (it's important, because engineers look for these certifications before picking their hardware). The status of its certification with various vendors is detailed in the first slide below.

TechPowerUp released a new version of GPU-Z, version 0.5.6. GPU-Z is our popular graphics card information and diagnostic utility that gives you technical details of the graphics hardware installed in your PC, and lets you monitor fine details such as clock speeds, temperatures, and voltages. The new version adds preliminary support for some of NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce Kepler family GPUs. It also adds support for NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 CUDA cores, which will be launched this 29th. Support is also added for AMD Radeon HD 6320, FirePro V9800, FirePro V4900, GeForce GTX 460 V2 (GTX 460 based on GF114), Quadro NVS 420, Quadro NVS 450, and Quadro FX 380 LP. A small bug related to incorrect shader reading on "Blackcomb" is fixed.DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 0.5.6 | GPU-Z 0.5.6 ASUS ROG Edition