AMD Quad FX Platform with Dual Socket Direct Connect Architecture Redefines High-End Computing for Megatasking Enthusiasts

Charting another industry first for computing enthusiasts, AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced the AMD Quad FX Platform with Dual Socket Direct Connect (DSDC) Architecture, the first dual-socket, multi-core desktop PC platform designed to take advantage of the latest enhancements in Windows^® Vistaâ„¢ Ultimate. As the supreme AMD platform for megatasking enthusiasts, the AMD Quad FX Platform is designed to redefine performance on the latest generation of multi-threaded applications.

The AMD Quad FX Platform is powered by pairs of the AMD Athlonâ„¢ 64 FX-70 series dual-core processors, the newest additions to the award-winning AMD Athlon 64 FX processor family. The new platform takes enthusiasts on a megatasking thrill ride, allowing them to make the most of their overall computing experience while gaming, editing audio/video and streaming high-definition content.

As consumers look forward to enhanced PC experiences made possible by Microsoft^® Windows Vista, and the software industry moves to a multi-threading environment, the AMD Quad FX Platform is poised to meet the needs of enthusiasts who “megatask” - running multiple, demanding applications and multi-threaded games. With the introduction of Dual Socket Direct Connect Architecture, consumers can count on a platform that scales with their compute-intensive applications today and tomorrow given that the platform is designed for a seamless upgrade path to a total of eight processing cores with planned AMD native quad-core processors in 2007.

“The emergence of a dual-socket consumer platform is critical for enthusiasts who demand systems that offer the sheer power and system headroom to let the enthusiast configure this system to his or her heart's content, and launch a fleet of entertainment and productivity applications at once,” said Bob Brewer, corporate vice president, Desktop Division, AMD. “AMD is redefining performance by enabling our customers to take advantage of the amazing megatasking capability of two AMD Athlon 64 FX-70 series processors in the AMD Quad FX Platform.”

With AMD64 technology and Dual Socket Direct Connect Architecture, the new AMD Quad FX Platform offers scaleable performance enhancements on a personal workstation powered by AMD Athlon 64 FX processors. In addition, this consumer powerhouse platform is designed with next-generation platform innovations such as high-performance, low-latency unbuffered DDR2 memory and for Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA) support with compatible operating systems.

“Windows Vista Ultimate is designed to take advantage of next-generation technology like AMD's Quad FX Platform to provide amazing experiences for computer enthusiasts,” said Mike Sievert, corporate vice president, Windows, Microsoft. “With support for multi-core platforms growing in the industry, customers can look forward to more innovation from Microsoft and technology partners like AMD—innovation that provides truly immersive experiences in gaming and other high-performance applications.”

“Alienware and AMD have worked together for years to ensure the enthusiast community receives the best possible products and we were excited to showcase AMD's megatasking powerhouse, the AMD Quad FX Platform at DigitalLife in New York last October,” said Mark Vena, Alienware's Vice President of Marketing. “Alienware believes that the AMD Quad FX Platform is going to enable new levels of digital content and immersive entertainment applications with consumers and business professionals while our long-time relationship with AMD signifies exciting things to come in the future.”

NVIDIA, the chipset and multi-GPU launch partner for the AMD Quad FX platform, is excited about the potential of an enthusiast AMD dual-socket platform.

“NVIDIA is pleased to be the launch partner for the launch of the new AMD Quad FX multi-GPU Platforms," said Drew Henry, general manager of MCP business at NVIDIA. "Our GeForce^® 8 series of graphics processing units and the NVIDIA nForce^® 680a media and communications processor deliver an ideal solution for megatasking enthusiasts who look to AMD and NVIDIA to provide the best products for multi-threaded games and applications.”

“VoodooPC shares AMD's commitment to drive cool technologies that deliver more exciting, immersive and personalized entertainment experiences to our customers,” said Rahul Sood, chief technologist, Global Gaming business unit, HP. “The AMD Quad FX Platform could very well open a new world of significant possibilities to address the insane demands of enthusiasts.”

With the flexibility of the AMD Quad FX Platform, systems can be configured to support a variety of enthusiast needs, including those of aspiring audio/video content creators.

Dan Gregoire is a digital artist who counts many of the world's top movie and advertising studios among his satisfied customers. As an innovator of the digital 3-D story-boarding technique called “pre-visualization” that is sweeping the film industry, he clearly understands the need for speed, performance and the all important upgrade path offered by AMD multi-core technology.

“We've been able to consistently increase the value we deliver to our customers simply by following AMD's roadmap -- 64-bit addressability, adding more cores,” said Dan Gregoire, CEO of Halon Entertainment. “AMD's technology helps us create amazing cinematic effects, but even more exciting to me is that it is available to everyone.”

“Audio loves more cores. More cores and AMD's balanced architecture means I never have to make artistic compromises due to technology limitations,” said Elliot Scheiner, Grammy and Emmy-winning audio producer/engineer who puts his trust in AMD to help deliver pristine sonic quality to please his professional clientele.

Unprecedented Capabilities with the AMD Quad FX Platform

The AMD Quad FX Platform offers enthusiasts absolute performance, flexibility, and customization by including outrageous features like twelve SATA controllers designed to enable up to nine (9) terabytes of storage using currently available drive technologies (for over 450 high-definition movies), and increased spacing between PCI-E slots to accommodate up to four high-performance graphics cards.

The AMD Quad FX Platform is designed to enable infinite options for demanding enthusiasts to tweak their custom systems, including the ability to drive four or even eight monitors at the same time when using up to four PCI-E graphics cards.

Dual Socket Direct Connect Architecture

Dual Socket Direct Connect (DSDC) Architecture enables high-bandwidth communication between matched pairs of AMD Athlonâ„¢ 64 FX-70, AMD Athlonâ„¢ 64 FX-72, and AMD Athlonâ„¢ 64 FX-74 dual-core processors. DSDC Architecture is designed for the multi-core, multi-threaded future with planned platform upgradeability to eight cores.

Enthusiasts can benefit from having twice the number of processor cores due to a dual-socket configuration.

Availability and Pricing

Pricing for pairs of the new AMD Athlon 64 FX-70, FX-72 and FX-74 dual-core processors is $599, $799 and $999, respectively for PIB. For pricing details, please visit: www.amd.com/pricing.

AMD Athlon 64 FX-70 series dual-core processors are expected to be available from NewEgg throughout North America on November 30. Worldwide product availability is expected by early 2007. AMD Quad FX Platform systems are expected to be available from Vigor, Cyber Power and IBUYPOWER and other major system builders are expected to offer systems in the near future.

About AMD

Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) is a leading global provider of innovative processing solutions in the computing, graphics and consumer electronics markets. AMD is dedicated to driving open innovation, choice and industry growth by delivering superior customer-centric solutions that empower consumers and businesses worldwide. For more information, visit www.amd.com.

AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, AMD Athlon, and combinations thereof are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Vista is a trademark and Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other names are for informational purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.

AMD Quad FX Platform Customer and Technology Partner Support Addendum

“We are excited to be working with AMD to introduce a powerful new platform that offers amazing megatasking performance capabilities for our common customers," said Raymond Chen, Vice President of Marketing for ASUS Computer International. "AMD's culture of path-breaking innovation makes it possible for users to enjoy a superb gaming experience and we share their mission of pushing the limits of performance computing."

“As we continue to raise the performance bar on next generation memory capabilities, we are proud to have our new high-frequency DOMINATOR memory solution turbo-charge AMD's Quad FX Platform,” said John Beekley, VP of Applications Engineering of Corsair. “With AMD's processors, our market-leading memory modules are able to attain outstanding speed and latency performance, and our common customers, computer hardware enthusiasts and gamers, greatly benefit from these advances in memory performance.”

“Users can get the most out of their systems by loading up AMD's Quad FX Platform with high-quality Crucial memory," said Mike Sanor, Crucial technical support manager. “Whether they're using standard or high-performance Ballistixâ„¢ memory, enthusiasts continue to push their systems to the limit by combining Crucial memory with AMD's cutting-edge processors.”

“AMD's products have consistently exceeded our expectations as well as those of our customers, and our expectation for the AMD Quad FX Platform is that enthusiasts will benefit tremendously from the platform's performance enhancements and enjoy an immersive computing experience,” said Eric Cheung, CEO, CyberPower PC. “Gamers are always looking for the most cinematic computing experience and we applaud AMD for responding to these growing demands by pushing the boundaries of innovation with the AMD Quad FX Platform.”

"Based on the dual-socket Direct Connect Architecture, AMD Quad FX platform is an epoch-making innovation and ultimate platform in the personal computing area, delivering super megatasking performance and extreme computing experience to enthusiasts," said Ms. Bai Xiangchun, General Manager of Product Center, Founder Technology. "As a leading Chinese PC provider, Founder Technology has successfully launched a broad range of AMD processor-based PCs, the launch of AMD Quad FX platform is expected to set off a wave of new computing applications in the industry."

“Multi-core applications and high-performance, high-capacity hard drives are the future of performance gaming. Through our work with AMD to ensure product compatibility, we remain at the forefront of this computing innovation,” said Marcia Bencala, vice president, Corporate Strategy and Product Planning, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. “AMD's Quad FX Enthusiast platform combined with Hitachi's Deskstar hard drives bring the capacity and performance required for a superior gaming experience.”

“The new AMD Quad FX platform will undoubtedly be a win with performance-hungry enthusiasts and iBUYPOWER is proud to offer our customers this superior computing experience,” said Darren Su, Executive Vice President, iBUYPOWER. “Enthusiasts demand the highest possible processor performance for a truly turbo-charged computing experience - a demand that the AMD has fulfilled with its latest platform innovation.”

"Kingston has collaborated with AMD in the gaming market since the initial launch of the AMD Athlon 64 FX-51 and applauds AMD's advancements in gaming CPU technology," said Mark Tekunoff, Senior Technology Manager, Kingston. "With Quad FX and Kingston's HyperX DDR2 memory products, our mutual customers can receive the best gaming experience available," continued Tekunoff.

“We are excited about Maingear's upcoming products based on the AMD Quad FX Platform,” said Wallace Santos, President of Maingear. “AMD understands the needs and desires of Maingear's customers and by delivering products to the market that are capable of supporting games that are becoming more and more demanding, AMD and Maingear will revolutionize the way enthusiasts use their PCs.”

“Mushkin applauds the exceptional performance that AMD's Quad FX Enthusiast Platform will offer to even the most demanding PC enthusiast and we are proud to support this next-generation technology with our performance-enhanced memory modules,” said Brian Flood, Product Development Manager, Mushkin. “The introduction of multi-core processors has revolutionized PC gaming and AMD has been at the forefront of this technology revolution with their next-generation platform innovations that combine the best in processors and performance memory.”

“We are proud to be supporting the release of AMD's Quad FX Platform in our capacity as a premier online retailer of leading edge technology products and are excited to play a part in making this technology available for gamers and enthusiasts seeking ultimate megatasking performance,” said Chad Chen, V.P. of Marketing, Newegg.com. “As a customer-focused company, which ships 98% of all customer orders within 1 business day, we remain committed to offering the most innovative technology today.”

“OCZ is excited to work closely with AMD on the AMD Quad FX Platform, an innovative platform that ensures the ultimate level of stability, performance and scalability to give gamers that extra edge,” said Alex Mei, VP of Marketing, OCZ Technology. “With AMD's multi-core processors, users are able to run multimedia applications with enhanced performance results backed by OCZ's memory capabilities, which fully support this optimum PC experience at every level.”

“Thermaltake's main business model has always been to deliver the most compelling and technologically advanced product to our customers,” said Joseph Lin, Director of Global Strategic Marketing Group at Thermaltake. “With Armor Extreme Edition chassis, we've re-engineered the world's best-selling gaming chassis specifically for the AMD Quad FX platform. The AMD Quad FX platform along with Thermaltake Armor Extreme Edition is able to take advantage of the latest enhancements in the upcoming Windows Vistaâ„¢ Ultimate and for megatasking PC enthusiasts and power-users who run the most demanding tasks simultaneously.”

“Our Prime Series PCs will be able to exceed today's limits by utilizing platforms like the AMD Quad FX Platform," said Mr. Takayuki Miyazaki, manager, planning dev., Third Wave Corporation. “We will be able to provide our customers not just high performance, but a platform with planned upgradeability to 8 cores. We believe that this ultimate platform will meet the needs of the enthusiasts with multi-threaded Operating Systems and applications.”

“Customers who buy products at TigerDirect expect a great experience from their purchases,” said Carl Fiorentino, president, TigerDirect. “The AMD Quad FX Platform will present customers with an ultimate megatasking PC and offer them personal workstation-type performance.”

"We are happy with AMD's continuous innovations in the multi-core computing area. Based on Dual-Socket Direct Connect Architecture, the AMD Quad FX platform is an epoch-making multi-core computing solution designed for enthusiasts who crave super megatasking performance and an extreme computing experience," said Mr. Xing Maowei, General Manager of Desktop Product Division, Tongfang Computer System Business Group. "It is an ultimate personal computing platform. It will definitely stage a new round of platform revolution in the processor industry, facilitating the competition for new technologies in multi-core computing. Based on AMD's ongoing leadership in multi-core computing technologies, the AMD Quad FX platform is expected to bring a brand-new computing experience to enthusiasts."

“At Vigor, our aim is to provide the ultimate experience to our customers and AMD's Quad FX Platform will help our customers realize yet another significant performance gain in megatasking,” said Aaron Chen, Chief Executive Officer at Vigor. “By building products that deliver the kind of performance that enthusiasts crave, AMD has been a valuable partner in our ongoing endeavor to combine innovation and artistry, helping us stay true to our mission of linking cutting-edge technologies with ultimate customer expectations.”

“As a market leader in high performance hard drives, Western Digital knows that customers operating graphically intense games and applications with enhanced performance capabilities require high performance systems such as AMD's Quad FX Platform to realize the potential of those applications,” said Tom McDorman, vice president and general manager of Enterprise Storage for Western Digital. “Much like the WD Raptor X, which combines amazing performance and reliability from a 10,000 RPM enterprise-class platform, AMD's new platform represents the latest innovation in next-generation gaming platforms.”