Leaked AMD roadmap reveals Desna APU, bona fide tablet strategy

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/27/leaked-amd-roadmap-reveals-desna-apu-bona-fide-tablet-strategy/

What's a chip maker to do after successfully hawking five million of its Fusion APUs? Why, expand the line, of course! A leaked slide deck from within the lairs of AMD is showing off quite a bit of the company's upcoming roadmap, and while a good deal of it has already been made public in one way or another, there's one term that's causing all sorts of buzz -- and for good reason. Desna is the name to know, a Z-Series APU that's aimed squarely at the tablet form factor. To date, only a handful of chips have managed to slide into slates, and while we always reckoned that a version of Fusion could really give those ARM-based alternatives a run for their money, it wasn't clear if AMD actually had one that would handle the power and heat requirements. Based on these sheets -- dated this month, for what it's worth -- the Z-Series chip will offer Flash compatibility, DirectX 11 support and IE9 / HTML5 acceleration, and that's just for starters. Head on down to the links below for the full skinny, but make sure you grab a cup of joe and unplug the line first. You'll need a few, to say the least.

Leaked AMD roadmap reveals Desna APU, bona fide tablet strategy originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 May 2011 19:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ASUS Eee Pad Slider going on sale 'soon,' price is still anyone's guess

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/27/asus-eee-pad-slider-going-on-sale-soon-price-is-still-anyone/

ASUS' Eee Pad Transformer might still be difficult to track down, but at least all systems are go for the company's other Honeycomb tablet, the Eee Pad Slider. The company confirmed today that the 10.1-inch tablet, originally slated for May, is "coming soon" -- no word, of course, on whether it will ditch Tegra 2 for an Atom Z670 CPU, as rumored. Next up, ASUS, give us a price, capiche? Last time we checked, the company was estimating it would cost between $500 and $800, so your guess is as good as ours as to how sweet a value this will be. Hopefully, we'll get to see this elusive tab again at Computex next week, but in the meantime, hit the source links for some tightly cropped teaser shots of it running Honeycomb.

ASUS Eee Pad Slider going on sale 'soon,' price is still anyone's guess originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 May 2011 21:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple testing A5-packing MacBook Air?

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/28/apple-testing-a5-packing-macbook-air/

We've seen it put its processing power behind the iPad 2 and heard rumors of its presence in the upcoming fifth-gen iPhone, but could Apple really be considering putting its mobile-minded A5 processor in a MacBook Air? According to Japanese website, Macotakara, a trial of the ARM chip is already underway. Apple's reportedly been experimenting with a Thunderbolt-equipped MacBook Air with the A5 on board, and "according to someone who has seen a model running with [Apple's] A5 processor, the performance is better than had been thought." Two weeks ago, we reported on rumors that the upcoming MacBook Air refresh could be on its way as early as next month, featuring Intel's Sandy Bridge 17W mobile processors -- a claim we'd say could hold water. Of course, this information has trickled a ways down the grapevine, and the presence of an A5-packing test vehicle doesn't mean much anyway, but you can consider our interest piqued, regardless.

Apple testing A5-packing MacBook Air? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 May 2011 19:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AMD ships five million Fusion chips, says it's sold out

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/28/amd-ships-five-million-fusion-chips-says-its-sold-out/

Sounds like Notbooks are making a dent: AMD says it's shipped five million Fusion processors since the architecture's debut, according to a report at CNET. In January, the company said the hybrid CPU / GPU chips had momentum, and as of last month it was quoting 3.9 million APUs out in the wild, but this week AMD says that demand has overtaken supply and it's completely sold out of the Atom alternative. Sounds like Intel's more than justified in seeking out hybrid solutions of its own, no matter where it might have to look to get a leg up in the integrated graphics market. Here's hoping AMD's other Fusion chips show just as much pep per penny (and milliampere-hour) as the original processor.

AMD ships five million Fusion chips, says it's sold out originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 May 2011 20:21:00 EDT. Please see our ter! ms for u se of feeds.

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This is the ASUS PadFone

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/29/this-is-the-asus-padfone/

Wow, so our theory and mockup turned out to be pretty much spot on: indeed, the oddly named ASUS PadFone does tuck itself into a shielded docking bay on the back of its companion tablet, and the latter's hinged cover appears to pop up upon releasing the latch. You can also just about make out the two ports inside which are likely to be HDMI and micro-USB -- one for driving the larger display, and the other for taking care of touch input while possibly sipping juice from an extra battery somewhere. Now, what we really like to know is which version of Android will be shipped (if ever) with this split-personality phone -- our money's on Ice Cream Sandwich, given that this flavor will happily cater both phone and tablet form factors later this year. That said, given the uniqueness of this product, ASUS could probably still get away with taking a step back and launch this as a Gingerbread tablet. Well, we shall dig up more answers for y'all tomorrow, and stay tuned for some sweet hands-on time.

Continue reading This is the ASUS PadFone

This is the ASUS PadFone originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 29 May 2011 14:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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