AMD announces graphics chip

AMD will be demonstrating the "extreme" processor FireStream 9170 specifically for scientific researchers at the SC07 supercomputing show next week.

FireStream 9170 is designed to allow high-performance computing applications to take advantage of the excellent parallel processing capabilities of the integrated graphics chip.

The design trend of FireStream 9170 also follows the "parallel" principle adopted by chip manufacturers recently. Instead of transmitting all data through a single line, people split into multiple lines so that data can be transmitted faster. This allows the chip to run at slower and cooler speeds.

Graphics chips (GPUs) are now also designed in the same manner, typical of which are products of Nvidia and ATI (AMD). Special graphics chips used in laboratories or research institutions are designed to operate in parallel, but they are programmed in specific ways.

AMD is trying to bridge the gap between a PC chip (easy to program) and a graphics chip (which brings high performance) to integrate into FireStream 9170. This is considered the strongest graphics chip of ATI with 2GB of memory while most ATI high-end graphics chips have only 512MB of memory.

According to AMD, FireStream 9170 will not be available before the first quarter of next year. The price of this product is $ 1,999, which is mainly used for high-performance server and workstation systems.

In AMD's plan, the company will integrate the graphics chip directly into the PC or server processor, but the specific time has yet to be announced.

Van Han