"Advanced Micro Devices said that making special-purpose GPU-based accelerators compatible with CPU sockets makes no sense. The approach proposed by AMD is vastly different from the one that is allegedly offered by its arch-rival, Intel Corp., which recently demonstrated its Knights Corner accelerator in an LGA form-factor that is used for microprocessors.

"When AMD first introduced its Brazos platform at the end of last year it promised annual updates to the platform. Today we get the first official update to the platform. Although not a major architectural or process change, the Brazos refresh is significant nonetheless. At the top we've got the AMD E-450, a part we previewed at Computex. The E-450 replaces the E-350 and brings with it higher clock speeds. The two CPU cores see a mild increase from 1.6GHz to 1.65GHz, while the 80-core Radeon HD 6320 GPU creeps up from 492MHz to 508MHz.

"IDC has slashed its processor shipment forecast for 2011 due to slow demand in the US and Europe. Global processor sales are expected to grow by 9.3 percent, down from 10.3 percent originally forecasted this year. CPU shipments dropped sequentially by 2.9 percent, while sales were down 4 percent compared to Q1.Year-on-year shipments were a tad stronger, with 0.6 percent growth..."

"According to the details in the slide, Komodo CPU will feature up to ten Piledriver cores (most likely updated Bulldozer design), will feature Turbo Core 3.0 tech, support for DDR3 memory and will be based on FM2 infrastructure. As far as the Hudson D4 FCH is concerned, this one comes with support for four USB 3.0 ports and eight SATA 6.0Gbps ports. The Corona platform will be rounded up with next gen. AMD discrete graphics.."

"AMD is telling the world+dog that Microsoft’s next generation console will pack speedy graphics capable of delivering movie-like quality. AMD exec Neal Robinson says the new Xbox 720 will feature graphics on a par with James Cameron’s blockbuster Avatar, all powered by AMD."

"CPU-Z 1.58 is (at last) released. This version includes the following additions :

"Fusion is either going to carry AMD through to the victory parade, or drag it through the streets for a pelting in the village stocks. The whole future of AMD's CPU division rests on GPGPU computing being catapulted into the mainstream. If this happens, the company's APUs can theoretically obliterate Intel's CPUs in GPU-accelerated apps, and thump Core i7 like AMD64 thumped Pentium 4. If it doesn't, however, then AMD's CPU future is going to look pretty bleak.

In this update AMD has resolved a number of compatibility issues and performance in some games is faster. Note that there is an update to this update though, Catalyst 11.5a hotfix: grab it here

AMD Catalyst™ Driver 11.5a Hotfix Feature: