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Hardware More AMD "RS690" Details Revealed
Anh Tuan Huynh (Blog) - December 11, 2006 2:35 PM
Print 21 comment(s) - last by marvdmartian.. on Dec 12 at 10:35 AM

Diagram courtesy of Chilihardware
...featuring ATI Radeon Xpress 1250 graphics

HKEPC has revealed further details on the upcoming AMD RS690 chipset. The new chipset has been named AMD 690G and falls in line with AMD’s new chipset naming scheme. RS690 was previously expected to be named Radeon Xpress 1200 before AMD and ATI merged. It appears the AMD 690G is nearly finished with the latest stepping being A12. Manufacturing of the AMD 690G will be done by TSMC on an 80nm fabrication process.

The upcoming AMD 690G is expected to feature a Radeon X700 derived graphics core that’s been renamed ATI Radeon X1250. Features of the integrated ATI Radeon X1250 include full support for DirectX9, shader model 2.0 support and AVIVO. The AVIVO video engine of the Radeon X1250 supports hardware accelerated H.264 and VC1 video processing for Blu-ray and HD DVD playback.

In addition to the standard RS690 there are four other variants including the RS690C, RS690T, RS690M and RS690MC.The RS690C will be the base chipset and lacks an integrated TMDS transmitter while the RS690T is the high-end variant with support for external video memory which is referred to as Sideport Memory. The RS690M and RS690MC will be targeted towards AMD Turion powered notebooks.

Other notable features of the AMD 690G include support for one PCIe x16 and four PCIe x1. The AMD 690G is expected to pair up with AMD’s SB600 south bridge for SATA 3.0Gbps and high definition audio support. According to the article, the AMD 690G will be pin compatible with the previous Radeon Xpress 1100 and may possibly be able to use the same PCB.

Expect AMD 690G based motherboards to arrive in early 2007 with varied pricing depending on which RS690 variant is employed.

Chilehardware has a block diagram of the RS690 and RS690M.

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Product naming...
By TechLuster on 12/11/2006 4:05:36 PM , Rating: 4
Product code-naming, official-naming, and re-naming by AMD/ATI and Intel has gotten completely out of control. These companies each need to choose one simple, logical scheme for each of their product lines and stick with it for years at a time.

Sometimes I think the reason marketers make up and change these names so often is so that they can justify their jobs' existence.




RE: Product naming...
By Ratwar on 12/11/2006 4:11:55 PM , Rating: 2
Nah, they do it to confuse consumers into buying cards that are actually weaker than the card's product name would suggest...


RE: Product naming...
By darkpaw on 12/11/2006 5:54:46 PM , Rating: 1
Yes, one side of both graphics companies thats always been downright dirty imo. While people that do their research will know, the average Joe assumes higher number = better card.



RE: Product naming...
By Ringold on 12/11/2006 9:51:31 PM , Rating: 3
You forgot Microsoft. 'Longhorn' scores twice the 'cool' points with me as 'Vista'. I think of Vista and I think of some big, girly, emotional landscape with butterflies. Why would I buy an OS with butterflies? Why companies insist on using the cool names on in-house secret code names and then market the final product with girly names, I do not know. I somehow doubt the kind of girl that'd be looking in to purchasing a copy of an OS would care if it sounded feminine or not, just as I doubt a girl shopping for a discrete video card would care if it was a "Softertouch 600" or a "Rockripper XXX 50-GTX". Meanwhile, such names probably would have an impact on impressionable, image-sensitive teens, even if the Softertouch600 was twice as fast as a Rockripper..

But I do economics, not marketing, so, who knows.


RE: Product naming...
By Metaphis on 12/12/2006 12:04:38 AM , Rating: 2
Same reason why Revolution was renamed to wii, so it would appeal to a broader audience.


RE: Product naming...
By Assimilator87 on 12/12/2006 1:03:43 AM , Rating: 2
The worst thing these companies do is rename older products with the newer nomenclature. The most recent examples are:
1. GeForce 6200 TC (NV44) rebranded to GF 7100 GS
**At least with this release nVidia changed drivers to allow Transparency AA on GF 6 based cards

2. I think ATi is renaming something to X1550 or X1050

3. Radeon X700 (Integrated) renamed to Radeon X1250
**This change is a really misleading one since the X700 doesn't support any of the features present in the X1xxx series


RE: Product naming...
By rtrski on 12/12/2006 9:23:44 AM , Rating: 2
The X700 external doesn't support H.264 and Avivo, but didn't the article just say the in-chipset version will?



RE: Product naming...
By Anh Huynh on 12/12/2006 10:12:36 AM , Rating: 2
The graphics core is derived from the X700, not a complete slap the X700 into the north bridge. ATI is free to add hardware decoding and other new features into it as its a new GPU based upon an existing one.


RE: Product naming...
By marvdmartian on 12/12/2006 10:35:59 AM , Rating: 2
Well, that, and the fact that the two oriental guys in the commercials that knock on the door and say, "Wii would like to play", probably work cheaper than the pro football players or pro wrestlers you would've had to hire for the commercials if they'd named it Revolution! ;)


Less isnt More
By Pops on 12/11/2006 3:12:30 PM , Rating: 2
I miss the days when I could see a headline about AMD or ATI releasing a product with some obscure name and know what it was before I read it.

Now it can be a video card, chipset, CPU or something else.




RE: Less isnt More
By Goty on 12/11/2006 4:06:43 PM , Rating: 2
It's really not all that bad. RS# and RX# are chipsets and R# are GPUs for DAAMIT while C# are chipsets and NV# are GPUs for NVIDIA.


RE: Less isnt More
By Thmstec on 12/11/2006 4:18:12 PM , Rating: 2
well you just proved him right, nvidia doesn't use NV anymore(G# now), what about RD# and RV# for ATi? See, even you are confused. But what makes it confusing for me is how they have the marketing names and these codenames. (G80 = 8800GTX or GTS)


RE: Less isnt More
By Goty on 12/11/2006 8:05:07 PM , Rating: 2
OK, NVIDIA just changed in the last generation (7x00), but ATIs GPUS have always just been R and then a number while the chipsets have always been R, another letter, and then the number.


RE: Less isnt More
By NullSubroutine on 12/12/2006 8:55:32 AM , Rating: 2
read the Inq eh?


RE: Less isnt More
By Goty on 12/12/2006 10:29:57 AM , Rating: 2
Not usually, no.


Yeesh, what in the holy's name is taking so LONG???
By chucky2 on 12/11/2006 5:00:56 PM , Rating: 2
I have this guy feeling that someone over at AMD decided to fast track the 4x4 over this...which ought to be like a firable decision.

I know I'm going crazy waiting for this thing, but still, even when I step back and rationally look at which chipset AMD should be prioritizing on, I cannot imagine getting 4x4 out the door would trump what will be the best integrated video board on the market once it hits.

Think about it: One of these boards, connected to a 1080p LCD, with a 65W X2 and a nice quiet FSP power supply...low budget, basically silent, fast, long life HTPC...how can they go wrong in releasing this????

Chuck




By chucky2 on 12/11/2006 5:01:27 PM , Rating: 2
Yeesh, obviously I didn't proof read near well enough:

guy = gut


By MonkeyPaw on 12/11/2006 7:25:00 PM , Rating: 2
Well, it's a bit early to blame AMD for production issues. Corporate level issues are one thing (loss of Intel sales), but AMD is probably still analyzing what it can do to improve ATI. Any hardcore changes this early might be serious mistake. It seems to me that ATI has often been behind the curve when it comes to decent and timely chipset launches. I think it's a bit more critical to get it right, since those early USB issues with their SBs didn't help much. That IGP version with X700 graphics looks quite promising, and it should have no trouble smoking nVidia's current offerings. We've yet to hear of a better NV IGP platform, so ATI stands to benefit from a better solution for the booming base-desktop and notebook market. The X300 is losing out to the 6100 and 6150 pretty bad right now.


By Goty on 12/11/2006 8:07:08 PM , Rating: 2
There's also the slight issue of the fact that AMD is now producing a chipset for its largest competitor. I'm sure that slowed things down a bit in the logistics.


By chucky2 on 12/12/2006 12:43:26 AM , Rating: 2
Yeah, but basically the Radeon® Xpress 1250 for Intel Notebooks is the same chipset this is, just for Intel instead of AMD.

If RS690 is really pin compatible with RS48x (already AM2 boards out on this chipset), and ATI already has had Radeon® Xpress 1250 for Intel Notebooks out in production systems (which they do), then really how hard could it have been to put out RS690???

Don't get me wrong, I'm really happy the info is starting to flow on the major sites, as I'm taking that to mean I can finally buy about 4 of these things to complete some builds (one of which is my own), but Man, one's got to start wondering just what the heck the ATI folks were thinking on delaying this SO LONG?!?!?

Looking at all the 61x0 series PC's in the store this holiday season, that's a whole heck of a lot of lost sales there......too bad they couldn't have been RS690 systems... :(

Chuck


By chucky2 on 12/12/2006 12:45:49 AM , Rating: 2
Sorry, here's the link to the spec page for the Intel version of this:

http://ati.amd.com/products/Radeonxpress1250mob/sp...


"Paying an extra $500 for a computer in this environment -- same piece of hardware -- paying $500 more to get a logo on it? I think that's a more challenging proposition for the average person than it used to be." -- Steve Ballmer

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