6th Gen AMD A-Series Processor Brings 2x HD Streaming, Gaming, and Computing Performance

AMD has announced its 6th Generation A-Series Processor, the world’s first high-performance Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) in a System-on-Chip (SoC) design. Previously codenamed “Carrizo”, the 6th Generation AMD A-Series Processor takes advantage of extensive AMD processor and graphics IP enabling exceptional computing experiences not possible before. The 6th Generation AMD A-Series Processor is the most versatile notebook processor ever produced, built to excel at today’s and tomorrow’s consumer and business applications, delivering premium streaming entertainment, unmatched smooth online gaming, and innovative computing experiences, with all day unplugged performance.

The world’s first high-performance Accelerated Processing Unit in a SoC design marks a number of technology firsts: the world’s first High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) hardware decode support for notebooks, the first Heterogeneous Systems Architecture (HSA) 1.0-compliant design, and the first ARM TrustZone-capable high-performance APU. The new processor harnesses up to 12 Compute Cores – 4 CPU + 8 GPU – leveraging AMD “Excavator” cores and the third generation of AMD’s award-winning Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture. The result is a groundbreaking processor that boasts more than twice the battery life of its predecessor, up to 2x faster gaming performance than competitive processors, innovative computing experiences enabled through HSA, and a premium Microsoft Windows 10 experience with support for DirectX 12, adding up to an extraordinary experience for consumers.

“The notebook remains the ideal, versatile, connected hub in people’s lives – the one device that does it all and does it well, and today’s consumer shouldn’t have to pay a premium to enjoy high quality streaming video, superior online gaming, and powerful content management as mainstays of today’s computing experience,” said Matt Skynner, corporate VP and general manager, Products at AMD. “That changes today with the 6th Generation AMD A-Series Processor, designed to deliver exceptional experiences never before seen in a mainstream notebook, truly making innovation available to everyone. Our partners have plans to introduce our 6th-generation APU in many of today’s most innovative notebook platforms, demonstrating the full potential of the APU’s capabilities.”

“AMD and Microsoft continue to innovate in personal computing with advancements in Windows 10 and DirectX 12 and the introduction today of AMD 6th Generation A-Series processors,” said Roanne Sones, general manager, Operating Systems Group, Microsoft Corp. “Consumers will enjoy the most compelling features of Windows 10, enabling a great notebook experience.”

Superior Streaming Entertainment

·  6th Generation AMD A-Series Processors bring HEVC/H.265 to the notebook for the first time, enabling consumers to benefit from higher quality, lower bandwidth streaming video playback versus traditional H.264 videos.

·  Enjoy superb visual quality for entertainment including support for Ultra HD resolution videos using AMD Perfect Picture with Steady Video technology.

·  Benefit from energy-efficient playback that allows for almost 2x more viewing on a single battery charge than its predecessor.

·  Power through media conversion faster with up to 5x accelerated encoding performance compared to CPU-only processing.

Smooth Online Gaming

·  6th Generation AMD A-Series Processors come with discrete-class graphics built in, harnessing AMD Radeon Graphics Core Next (GCN) Architecture to deliver up to 2x the gaming performance of competitive processors.

·  Enjoy true, playable HD notebook gaming with the most popular online titles includingDoTA 2, League of Legends, and Counter Strike: Global Offensive, among others.

·  Play for hours unplugged on the latest eSports titles, almost twice the duration of its predecessor.Benefit from AMD Dual Graphics combining 6th Generation AMD Notebook Processors with select AMD Radeon R7 Mobile graphics to boost frame rates in games by up to 42 percent.

·  Enjoy smooth, stutter- and tear-free gaming with AMD FreeSync technology.

·  Be ready for the future with support for multi-threaded APIs including DirectX 12, Vulkan and AMD’s Mantle that enable the most advanced gaming technologies designed to improve performance and visual fidelity.

Innovative Computing Experiences

·  6th Generation AMD A-Series Processors punch above their weight, harnessing up to 12 Compute Cores (4 CPU + 8 GPU) to realize up to twice the performance of competitive solutions in compute-heavy workloads.

·  AMD Gesture Control is available on mainstream notebooks, allowing users to navigate and control their notebook with a simple wave of the hand without added costs.¹¹

·  For the most complete Microsoft Windows® 10 experience, 6th Generation AMD A-Series Processors accelerate video playback on the forthcoming operating system with native HEVC decode supported, and enable the latest Windows 10 features with Secure boot and resume, Trusted Platform Module (TPM 2.0), and Drive Key Encryption using the first AMD Secure Processor for performance APUs.

Notebooks featuring the 6th Generation AMD A-Series Processor will be available from top OEMs starting in June 2015.

Developers' Queue at Microsoft's Build 2015

Microsoft Build 2015 was held at The Leela Palace in Bangalore on June 10, 2015. The conference is mainly focused on developer community. The conference covered all Microsoft Platforms – Windows, Azure, Office 365 and more. The city with large developer’s community received deep understanding, allowing them to take advantage of the platforms, including Windows 10, and providing access to over 1.5 billion devices. 

Windows 10 was the star attraction as it will be an exciting release for developers, with support for Universal Windows apps that run across all Windows 10 devices. The company has worked on enabling developers turn their existing Android, iOS, Web and even .NET and Web32 code to the Windows Store ready apps. It boils down to a new added ability to reuse various existing application code and repurpose it as a Windows universal application.

Microsoft announced that developers will be able to more easily bring their Android applications to Windows devices. The company said developers will be able to “reuse nearly all the Java and C++ code from an Android phone app to create apps for phones running Windows 10.” Developers will also be able to recycle their Objective-C apps for iOS using new tools in Visual Studio.

King, for example, used these tools to bring Candy Crush Saga to Windows Phone. 

Data Security Council of India (DSCI) to Host 7th Edition of Best Practices Meet

Data Security Council of India (DSCI) has announced the 7^thedition of Best Practices Meet 2015, scheduled to be held in Bengaluru, from July 9-10.

With the unleashing of the Digital Technologies Globally and in India BPM 2015, has “Architecting Security for Digital Transformation” as the theme. The two-day deliberations, will reflect on policy, endeavors at national and industry levels, proposed industry steps, market response, best practices, industry standards and technology designs and see how they play their roles in architecting of information systems and enterprise security within organizations.

As country is witnessing a great push for transforming the economy to a digital economy, significant steps have been taken by the government and public sector, which promise to alter the nature and fabric of services delivered to the citizens by them. Furthermore, the Digital India initiative not only tends to re-structure the entire delivery of these services, but also unleash the potential of private sector leading to a technology makeover. This transformation is led by digitization of data, experimentations with technology enabled channels, adoption of mobile technologies, choice of using diverse devices and technology enabled transaction processing. Digital technologies create immense possibilities and unveil many ways to solve a specific business or governance problem. However, in the process they may expand the threat landscape, introduce vulnerabilities, weaken the security composition and give rise to many new possibilities of security vulnerabilities.  Security hence becomes integral component of Digital transformation.

On the day of announcement Rama Vedashree, VP NASSCOM and Interim CEO, DSCI said “Digital transformation calls for in-depth, 360⁰ analysis of security. Architecting a security solution should factor the complex threat landscape. This year’s DSCI Best Practices Meet promises to take a deep dive into the policy, technology and the practices that would help design and organize the security structure and make processes more resilient”

Highlights of the agenda include  workshops on ‘Cyber Insurance’ and ‘Management of Legal Risks in IT-enabled businesses’, breakfast session on day two, discussing ‘The Wearables: Relevance to Enterprise’, track sessions and policy updates, besides plenary sessions. Focused on ‘Architecting Security’, BPM 2015 would deliberate on how architectural views, approaches, frameworks, processes and practices work for security and what benefits they yield to the enterprise and the consumer.

Gaming Company Xerces Tech Acquired By JetSynthesys

JetSynthesys Pvt. Ltd., a part of the Navani family owned JetLine Group of Companies, today announced the acquisition of Pune-based gaming company Xerces Technologies. Having achieved success in the application development market, the 10 year old company, Xerces Technologies, developed India’s no. 1 game with over 9 million downloads way back in 2008. Having a series of successes in the online gaming market the company has developed most downloaded games across various app stores such as Cricket Unlimited, StickMan fighter, Bull Fighter, Mad Car Racing and the movie based game Bang Bang.

“JetSynthesys & Xerces are both believers and understand that there is a wide opportunity available for the growth of mobile gaming in India” said, Rajan Navani, Vice Chairman, Managing Director and CEO, JetSynthesys. “Through this acquisition, JetSynthesys will strengthen our already robust digital gaming portfolio, PlayIzzOn, to become a larger player in the gaming space focused on building gaming experiences for the global market including celebrity games and enabling games to monetize effectively in India.  Xerces brings to JetSynthesys a strong team that understands the complexities of delivering world class commercially successful products.

Xerxes Mullan, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Xerces Technologies said, “We are elated to become a part of JetSynthesys as this will accelerate our joint efforts to become an extremely valuable gaming company in the world. JetSynthesys’ technological capabilities in the analytics and digital marketing space are at par with the best in the world and that should help further enhance our value proposition to the end consumer.”

Gemalto provides SMS ticketing to Milan public transport

Gemalto, the world leader in digital security, has deployed a Netsize SMS ticketing solution together with Milan's public transport company, ATM (Milan), enabling commuters to purchase and use their tickets via their mobile phone. ATM carries around 700 million passengers a year, and now benefits from a highly efficient sales channel that is available 24/7 via any type of mobile phone. This service is available to subscribers of the four major Italian mobile network operators.

The Direct Operator Billing solution from Gemalto sets new standards for convenience on Milan's public transport network. Instead of fumbling for notes and coins, travelers in Italy's second largest city can simply send a text to a standard short code number, with the Netsize system charging the fare directly to the customer's regular mobile phone bill. They receive an SMS in return with a code which they show to the bus controller on request or enter into the vending machine in exchange for printed metro ticket.

The introduction of SMS ticketing comes ahead of the World Expo that is being staged in Milan this summer. ATM expects around 20 million people to visit the city over a five month period. The use of SMS tickets will ensure an effortless traveling experience to and from the event.

"Customers love the ease and accessibility of SMS ticketing, which does away with the struggle to find the right change," said Roberto Andreoli, CIO for ATM. "This new service for ATM marks the third phase of mobile ticketing in Milan and, with the introduction of QR codes, it's also possible to directly access underground lines, after buying a ticket via SMS ticketing."

"SMS ticketing delivers an easier ride for travelers and outstanding efficiency benefits for transport providers," added Benoit Bole, Senior Vice President of Netsize at Gemalto. "Gemalto offers unrivaled expertise and experience, with 18 public transport companies in Italy already using their SMS ticketing solution."

HP & Bang & Olufsen Bring Superior Sound Technology to New Laptops

HP has unveiled new laptops, primarily aimed at gaming and general entertainment consumption. The company has teamed up with Bang & Olufsen to bring the best in sound technology to HP’s new range of laptops. HP brings out Omen, a 15.6-inch gaming equipped with the GeForce GTX 960M graphics card and an Intel Core i7 quad-core processor. The new HP Pavilion laptops are equipped with similar hardware as the Omen, but without the high-end laptop graphics card. They are equipped with Intel’s new fifth-generation Core processors.

HP Omen Gaming Notebook comes with Bang & Olufsen audio experience, designed specifically for hardcore gamers. The Omen boasts a 15.6-inch full HD display with a resolution capability of 1,920x1,080 pixels and constructed out of premium aluminium finish.

Omen comes packed with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M 4GB gaming graphics and an Intel Core i7 Quad Core processor. It also features a customisable back-lit keyboard with six programmable function keys, weighing just 2.12kg and is only 19.9mm thick.

On the other hand, Pavilion 15 Notebook comes with a refined Uni-body design with premium metal-like finish on the outside and superior gradient dual tone finish inside. These notebooks are also equipped with full HD screen (1,920X1,080 pixels) and packs the latest fifth generation Intel Core processors.

On the launch, HP and Bang & Olufsen has announced a collaboration that brings the globally recognised sound of Bang & Olufsen and B&O PLAY to HP's new devices.

"By introducing new range of notebooks with Bang and Olufsen, HP is looking to blend high end technology seamlessly into the lifestyle of the new age consumer enabling the consumers enjoy rich and immersive audio experience," said Ketan Patel, director personal systems, Printing and Personal Systems, HP India. "We are thrilled to work with Bang & Olufsen to create exceptional sound experiences for customers through HP Notebooks."

The notebooks also feature an audio island that isolates the sensitive audio circuits from other signals on the motherboard. The headphone jack limits the amount of metal parts to reduce ground noise to help further perfect the audio experience on the devices.

HP Omen is available in India at a price of ₹1,59,990, while the HP Pavilion 15 Notebook is priced at ₹44,490.