AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition CPU and Radeon E6760 GPU get official

You can't accuse AMD of playing favorites this week: there's something new for both its power-users and more mainstream, mundane purposes too. The AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition processor takes care of the former, a new flagship quadcore which comes unlocked for easier overclocking. Meanwhile, the AMD Radeon E6760 GPU is the company's new embedded video chip, nonetheless capable of driving six independent displays.

The Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition runs at 3.7GHz and is paired with with 6MB of L3 cache. It has a TDP of 125W. However, AMD is also expecting system builders to tinker with the clock speeds and other settings – hence this being a Black Edition model – in the hunt for extra speed. No word on pricing at this stage, though AMD reckons that for all its capacity, it'll still be "affordable."

As for the E6760, that supports DisplayPort and HDMI connections, along with AMD's Eyefinity multi-desktop technology. It has OpenCL support and will play nicely with the AMD Fusion APUs.

Press Release:

AMD Introduces Its Fastest Quad-Core Desktop Processor

─ New AMD Phenom™ II Desktop Processor Enables Powerful, High Definition Entertainment Experience ─

SUNNYVALE, Calif. – May 3, 2011

What: AMD (NYSE:AMD) today added its fastest quad-core processor to the AMD Phenom II desktop processor family, the AMD Phenom™ II X4 980 Black Edition processor. When combined with AMD's 8-series chipset and AMD Radeon™ HD 6000 series graphics cards, the AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition processor enables an immersive computing experience that provides advanced high definition entertainment and multitasking capabilities. The AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition processor is unlocked, which enables gamers and PC enthusiasts to overclock and optimize total system performance.1 This quad-core processor operates at a stunning 3.7GHz with 6MB of L3 cache and a TDP of 125W.

Why: With VISION Black Technology from AMD, customers get AMD's best computing experience for intense 3D gaming and immersive, high definition entertainment. The AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition processor is unlocked for performance tuning by enthusiasts.

Who: The AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition processor is designed for PC gamers and enthusiasts looking to upgrade their PC experience with exceptional multi-core performance, high definition video, and 3D graphics – all at an affordable price.

Press Release:

AMD Delivers First Embedded GPU Offering Support for OpenCL and Six Independent Displays

May 02, 2011 — AMD Radeon™ E6760 GPU brings the latest desktop graphics performance and features to the medical, casino gaming, defense and aerospace markets

Today at Embedded Systems Conference Silicon Valley 2011, AMD (NYSE: AMD) introduced the AMD Radeon™ E6760 embedded discrete graphics processor. Available now, the AMD Radeon E6760 GPU is the first of its kind to offer embedded system designers the combination of OpenCL™ support1 along with support for six independent displays.

"The AMD Radeon E6760 GPU provides customers with superior business economics through long lifecycle management and product stability," said Richard Jaenicke, director of Embedded Client Business for AMD. "Embedded system designers faced with power and density constraints now have a solution that delivers the advanced 3D graphics and multimedia features they require in this performance-driven market."

"The AMD Radeon E6760 GPU secures AMD's position as a provider of the highest performance graphics processors available today for embedded devices2," said Dan Joncas, vice president of Sales, ALT Software. "With remarkable graphics performance and video support, power management functions for resource constrained devices, and OpenCL support to unlock the GPU's parallel processing capabilities, the AMD Radeon E6760 GPU allows OEMs to differentiate their products from competitors by bringing new levels of performance and functionality to their embedded devices."

"AMD Fusion APUs and the AMD Radeon E6760 GPU provide significant advantages for our new line of intelligent industrial cameras," said Kristian Glode Madsen, managing director, Qtechnology A/S. "We are now able to provide a high-speed, real-time imaging system in the same form factor as a standard industrial camera with the flexibility and rich environment of Linux and OpenCL, normally only available on a PC."

"Tech Source has been successful in the embedded market with our Condor XMC product line that uses AMD's high performance graphics chips," said Selwyn L. Henriques, president, Tech Source Inc. "AMD technology has allowed us to really keep ahead of the curve in terms of both functionality and performance. Our tests have proven that the new AMD Radeon E6760 chip will significantly enhance our OpenCL/GPGPU solutions."

The AMD Radeon E6760 GPU enables an immersive experience with desktop-level 3D graphics and multimedia features:

An advanced 3D graphics engine and programmable shader architecture supports Microsoft DirectX® 11 technology for superior graphics rendering.

With an integrated frame buffer, high reliability and small footprint thermal solution, the AMD Radeon E6760 GPU enables designers of casino gaming, arcade and medical imaging systems to quickly deliver products with a compelling competitive edge.

Support for OpenCL provides an industry standard interface to access the exceptional compute performance per Watt for general purpose graphics processing unit (GPGPU) applications such as ultrasound, radar and video surveillance.

Featuring multi-display support with AMD Eyefinity technology, the AMD Radeon E6760 GPU supports up to six independent output displays3, HDMI 1.4 stereoscopic video and DisplayPort 1.2 for higher link speeds and simplified display connectivity.

The AMD Radeon E6760 GPU comes with five years of planned supply availability. Technical support is provided by a dedicated team of application engineering experts.

The AMD Radeon E6760 GPU can be paired with AMD's upcoming high-performance A-Series Accelerated Processing Units (APU) codenamed "Llano" to offer additional graphics capability and additional parallel computing power.

AMD's full portfolio of Embedded Products, including the AMD Embedded G-Series platform, will be on display in booth 1432 at the Embedded Systems Conference Silicon Valley in San Jose, California.