AMD Supports Universal Graphics Module Standard

Kontron, an embedded computer technology company, announced that AMD will support the Universal Graphics Module standard (UGM). As the provider of the ATI computer graphics processing technologies, AMD's support for the UGM standard will accelerate its rapid and widespread acceptance.

The UGM standard provides off-the-shelf embedded graphics on an industry-standard modular platform with multiple display configurations to guarantee customers the shortest time-to-market.

"With its long-life ATI product portfolio, AMD serves the particular needs of the embedded market. AMD's support of the UGM Consortium will thus accelerate the adoption of AMD's ATI advanced graphics technologies in the embedded market," said Aurelius Wosylus, Sales Manager Europe of AMD.

"With this declaration of support from AMD's Embedded Display Group that is responsible for delivering the high-end ATI product portfolio for the embedded markets, we have won the support of an industry leader in graphics processing technology in the UGM Consortium, underlining the importance of the UGM standard for the embedded marketplace," said Dirk Finstel, Vice President Global Research and Engineering at Kontron.

"The open standard strategy with multiple supporting vendors ensures that UGM is becoming as well accepted as Kontron's ETX and COM Express products. We welcome interest from other parties who would like to join the group of vendors supporting UGM," added Finstel.

The UGM open standard has been created for scalable, high-end PEG graphics with long-term availability. It represents the right standard made available at the right time to fit the requirements of many new applications in the field of embedded computing. The latest high resolution flat panels and operating systems as well as the latest CPUs and GPUs are now able to bring advanced graphics-driven technologies into embedded designs.

Kontron said the adoption of the UGM standard will change OEM solutions for many embedded industries, including medical equipment, casino gaming and arcade markets, vision control technologies for security and industry markets, and simulation technologies.

UGM offers quick and easy implementation of advanced graphics functions in custom designs for all these applications, including all the necessary drivers. The first Universal Graphics Module, the Kontron UGM-M72, uses the ATI M72 chip, which is based on AMD's flagship GPU ATI R600.

From : http://www.itnewsonline.com/

AMD Selling Some Chips, Finally, But Running On Fumes

From : http://www.clusterstock.com/
AMD shareholders have had a rough time, so they'll be pleased to hear that FBR analyst Craig Berger thinks the company's products are finally "gaining traction." Alas, Berger also thinks the company will run out of cash in six months.

Berger says that his channel checks indicate that AMD is doing better than expected on ASP, gross margin, and growth. Berger also says that AMD is gaining share in graphics chips with nVidia:

Recent checks into PC builds suggest 3Q shipments are tracking towards normal seasonal growth. For AMD, our contacts say the firm is seeing increasing yields and shipments on triple-and quad-core products, driving higher ASPs, gross margins, and better-than-aggregate market growth. AMD is clearly gaining market share in graphics chips from nVidia, a known among investors in our opinion, though we believe the magnitude of share gains may be better than generally understood. Raising our 3Q estimates slightly, increasing our 3Q revenue estimate from $1.5 billion to $1.55 billion and our EPS estimate from ($0.41) to ($0.36).

But as with all things AMD these days, the other shoe is about to drop. Unless AMD gets moving very quickly on its nebulous reorganization scheme, "Asset-Lite," Berger says that the company will be out of money in April of 2009:

Stepping back from the very near term, getting its 'Asset-Lite' deal done is of paramount importance in order to avoid raising additional capital. We think the economics and licensing issues underlying an 'Asset-Lite' deal are challenging hurdles for any counter-party to overcome, and AMD may not get this deal done in a timely fashion. Without the deal, AMD could be facing another cash crunch as it has taken on $5BN of debt and burned through a lot of cash. Management says it needs to raise capital when gross cash falls to $800 million, which we think could happen in April 2009 without an 'Asset-Lite' deal.

Comcast Says No New Traffic Management Plan Yet

Comcast
has made no final decisions on how to manage network congestion,
despite news reports Wednesday that it will slow traffic for heavy
users for up to 20 minutes during times of peak network use.

Comcast has been looking into new network management practices after
the furor caused by an Associated Press report last October that said
the cable modem service provider was quietly slowing BitTorrent P-to-P
(peer-to-peer) traffic as a tool to fight network congestion.

Net neutrality advocates called on the U.S. Federal Communications Commission
to take action against Comcast, and early this month, the FCC voted 3-2
to prohibit broadband providers from blocking or slowing specific
applications on its network.

Comcast has been conducting tests on
new network management techniques since the end of May, said Charlie
Douglas, a Comcast spokesman. Among the leading options is to slow all
Web traffic from heavy users for up to 20 minutes during times of heavy
network traffic.

When the congestion is resolved in under 20
minutes, the heavy users' traffic would be slowed for shorter times,
sometimes for only a minute or two, he said. Heavy users' traffic would
still move over the Internet, but it would "become de-prioritized"
during times of congestion, Douglas said.

This approach would be
"protocol agnostic," Douglas added. By not blocking specific
applications, Comcast likely would comply with the FCC's Aug. 1 vote.

Asked
why Comcast doesn't slow all users' traffic during times of congestion,
Douglas said it's not fair to subscribers who aren't clogging up the
pipes. "It's the heaviest of users that are directly contributing to
the degradation of the service for the other people on the network," he
said.

Representatives of Free Press and Public Knowledge, two
digital rights advocacy groups that filed a complaint against Comcast
for slowing P-to-P traffic, expressed reservations about Comcast's
apparent new direction.

"It's an interesting reflection on the
claim that there is a free market for broadband," said Art Brodsky, a
spokesman for Public Knowledge. "If there was competition, could you
slow down your best customers?"

Comcast was "dishonest" in the
past about its network management practices, added Ben Scott, Free
Press policy director. The broadband provider originally denied it was
degrading BitTorrent streams.

"We have to be skeptical and
vigilant," Scott said. "The FCC has required them to disclose all the
details so we look forward to seeing that before we can fully evaluate.
Any move that doesn't involve blocking consumers' access to the
Internet is a positive step but we won't know for sure about this
particular practice until we see the details."

On Wednesday, the
FCC released the full text of its Aug. 1 order prohibiting Comcast from
blocking legal Web applications. Public Knowledge and Free Press
praised the order, with Scott calling it "a major milestone in Internet
policy."

From : http://www.nytimes.com