Free Republic

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is one of the leading causes of blindness in adults, a growing problem as the population ages. Now a team of researchers at the University of Kentucky has raised hope for early detection and preventive treatment. Dr. Jayakrishna Ambati and colleague have discovered a biological marker for AMD, a receptor known as CCR3. They say it shows strong potential as a means for doctors to lesson the impact of the much-feared condition. The findings were reported in an article published online Sunday by the journal Nature. "This is a major paradigm shift in macular degeneration research,"...

MANHASSET, N.Y. — Global Foundries has sent a formal commitment letter to New York state for the construction of the Fab 2 project at the Luther Forest Technology Campus in upstate New York. The letter initiates the construction phase of the Fab 2 project and triggers the process of issuing state bonds for reimbursements payments and incentives to the company for the development of the estimated $4.2 billion wafer fab. The purchase of 223 acres of land from the campus is set for Wednesday (June 10). Global Foundries also has completed a development agreement with two New York townships which...

Vital nutrients found in fatty fish like salmon and tuna can stave off the progression of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which affects around 200,000 people in Britain and is the leading cause of blindness in the elderly. More and more people are predicted to develop the condition, which initially involves an inability to make out fine details, as the population ages. Researchers say that the omega 3 fatty acids found in fish could offer protection against the disease. Their findings, published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology, show that progression to both the dry and wet forms of advanced disease...

A new feature in Istanbul is called HyperTransport Assist, a technology that increases memory and I/O performance by reducing the overhead of cache lockups. Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) on Monday launched its six-core server processor code-named Istanbul, saying computer makers this month would be selling high-powered products incorporating the chip. The release of AMD's latest Opteron chip followed less than a week after Intel (NSDQ: INTC) announced that it would begin production of an eight-core Nehalem-EX processor, officially called the Xeon 7400 line, this year. Systems are expected in 2010.

A few months ago I launched something we quickly titled "Bench". The idea behind AnandTech Bench is that it's a publicly accessible version of the database of benchmarks we've run internally.  You can currently compare 34 AMD CPUs and 36 Intel CPUs in the engine across 18 benchmarks.  I'm working on adding power data as well. You can access Bench at its own URL: http://www.anandtech.com/bench   Currently Bench only has CPU data in it but there are plans to expand it to storage and GPUs in the future, the former being far easier than the latter due to constantly changing drivers....

The world is returning to the 1970s on most economic policies, so why not antitrust too? Judging by events this week, antitrust enforcement in the U.S. and Europe is in for a major comeback, whether or not consumers benefit. Yesterday in Brussels, the European Commission imposed a record antitrust fine of $1.45 billion on Intel for the heinous crime of discounting computer chips in its fierce and long-running competition with AMD. Meanwhile on Monday, President Obama's new antitrust chief, Christine Varney, issued a radical revision of the Department of Justice's own antitrust enforcement standards. Ms. Varney's ambition seems to be...

In the highly demanding (and some say shrinking) world of PC gaming, only two graphics powers really count: reigning popular champ Nvidia and AMD’s ATI division. Now it looks like ATI’s Radeon may have got a bit of a lead on its arch-foe. ATI, once considered a perennial also-ran to Nvidia’s cutting-edge graphics chips, has become the first to crack what it called the 1 Gigahertz barrier on standard air-cooling. Pounding its chest, the company trumpeted on Wednesday the milestone and talked about “amazing gaming experiences” for the likes of Ubisoft’s Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. and Electronic Arts’ Battleforge. It would...

The verdict is in and it's huge. As expected, the EU is fining Intel a record €1.06 billion or $1.45 billion (Billion!) dollars due to violations of antitrust rules in Europe. The record fine surpasses that of the €497 million fine originally levied against Microsoft. The EU ruled that Intel illegally used hidden rebates to squeeze rivals out of the marketplace for CPUs. In a statement issued by European Union Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes, the EC said,

BRITISH scientists have developed the world’s first stem cell therapy to cure the most common cause of blindness. Surgeons predict it will become a routine, one-hour procedure that will be generally available in six or seven years’ time. The treatment involves replacing a layer of degenerated cells with new ones created from embryonic stem cells. It was pioneered by scientists and surgeons from the Institute of Ophthalmology at University College London and Moorfields eye hospital.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Tuesday congratulated the defense establishment on the morning's successful test of the Arrow missile. "I would like to congratulate the defense establishment on the successful test. While we are for peace, we will know how to defend ourselves," said Netanyahu. The Prime Minister was speaking at a pre-Passover chametz-selling ceremony also attended by Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yonah Metzger and Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar. He also spoke with Defense Minister Ehud Barak about the results of the test.

This morning, AMD raised the bid in a high-stakes game of poker with Intel, and it's looking more and more like both sides are playing according to big plans.Yesterday in an interview with Betanews, Intel corporate spokesperson Chuck Mulloy requested that AMD lift its veil of secrecy regarding the redacted portion of a cross-licensing agreement between the two companies. The unseen portion, we're told and Mulloy believes, includes the list of technologies that AMD is currently licensing to Intel -- Mulloy himself has not seen that list. It's the list of technologies whose licenses AMD is threatening to cancel if...

CeBIT 2009: An entirely new chip We learned some bits and pieces on ATI's upcoming RV790 chip and we can now happily confirm that his is yet another 55nm chip from ATI. The company didn’t want to postpone the introduction of the new card in performance segment and therefore did it in 55nm, while RV740 remains the first 40nm. RV740 just launched as a mobile chip, and we’ve seen it up and running, while the desktop part should arrive in the next month or two. The new chip is a new architecture, but with some basic concepts taken from the...

Beginning next month with the Catalyst 9.4 release, support for the R300/400/500 generations of graphics processors will be dropped from AMD's mainline ATI driver. In a move they hope will allow them to focus their efforts on newer and upcoming graphics processors, the mainline Catalyst driver on both Linux and Windows will stop supporting cards older than the Radeon HD 2000 series. Linux customers affected will be encouraged to use their open-source driver stack (xf86-video-ati or xf86-video-radeonhd and Mesa) or stay with the Catalyst 9.3 driver. Catalyst 9.3 is due out later this month and it will be the last...

A combination of vitamin B-6, vitamin B-12 and folic acid might protect women against age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in the elderly, a new study finds. Women taking this trio of vitamins in amounts well beyond the recommended daily doses were one-third less likely to develop macular degeneration than were people taking placebos, researchers report in the Feb. 23 Archives of Internal Medicine. Cigarette smoking is known to increase a person’s likelihood of developing macular degeneration. Other than not smoking, there is little a person can do to limit risk, says study coauthor William Christen, an epidemiologist...

Last month, AMD launched the Phenom II X4 processor line-up, and with it ushered in the first desktop processors built using the company's 45nm process node. While the first two Phenom II processors to arrive, the 3.0GHz X4 940 and 2.8GHz 920, were clearly superior to previous Phenoms in terms of performance and power efficiency, and they remain the two most powerful processors in AMD's product stack today, they did not exploit all of the capabilities offered by their newly tweaked, and redesigned cores. You see, the AMD Phenom II X4 940 and X4 920 were designed for the socket...

...the Santa Clara, Calif., company is hoping for another coup like the one it staged at Apple, where Nvidia bumped Intel silicon out of the Apple MacBook because of underperforming graphics. The goal this time is to replace the Intel silicon that supports the Atom processor. Currently, Netbooks from companies such as Acer, Asus, Hewlett-Packard, and Dell use the Atom and accompanying Intel silicon called a chipset. Nvidia has always stayed well ahead of Intel on the graphics performance curve... said Jon Peddie of Jon Peddie Research, a firm that tracks the graphics chip market. "First, because Nvidia is in...

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. shareholders will gather in Austin, Texas on Feb. 10 to authorize an investment by the Emirate of Abu Dhabi that could top $9 billion. The transaction, which includes the spin-off of AMD's manufacturing operations in Germany into a joint venture called The Foundry Co., will fund construction of a $4.6 billion chip fab at the Luther Forest Technology Campus in Malta... After the deal with Abu Dhabi closes -- a transaction that should take place within 48 hours of a successful shareholder vote -- the 222 acres needed for the plant are expected to be purchased...

Albert P. Carey, President and CEO Frito-Lay North America 7701 Legacy Drive Plano, Texas 75024 Dear Mr. Carey, I would like to make a proposal for Frito Lay to consider. Please bear with me as I 'Lays' the ground work. If your not aware, New York State is offering 1.2 Billion dollar subsidy for a chip fabrication plant to be located in Saratoga New York. We the citizens of New York, are led to believe this is an effort to bring new jobs to the State –roughly 1,400 jobs. The State has been in lengthy discussions with Advanced Micro Devices...

Last quarter AMD introduced their "Shanghai" Opteron processors that join the ranks of Intel's Harpertown Xeon CPUs that are 45nm quad-core server/workstation parts. Initial reviews of these new AMD Opteron processors have been very positive, but how do these chips perform with Linux? In this article we have our hands on a few of the fastest Shanghais, the AMD Opteron 2384 clocked at 2.7GHz, as we see how well they compare to the older "Barcelona" Opteron processors.

US missile shield gains favour in Poland: poll 07-05-2008, 10h08 WARSAW (AFP) Polish opposition to hosting part of a US missile defence shield in the former communist country is weakening, according to the latest poll published on Saturday. Back at the end of February a survey suggested that 52 percent of Poles opposed the plans, however this new study -- a little over three months later -- found that only 46 percent disapproved. The project, which would see 10 interceptor missiles based in Poland and a radar facility in the neighboring Czech Republic, was supported by 42 percent of people...