It’s a dilemma we face practically every day, which is why we decided some time ago that those decisions would be guided by a basic principle: our goal is to support moving the industry forward as a whole, and that we’re proud to take a leadership position to help achieve that goal.

 The latest example of that philosophy is our work with dynamic refresh rates, currently codenamed "Project FreeSync”. Screen tearing is a persistent nuisance for gamers, and vertical synchronization (v-sync) is an imperfect fix. There are a few ways the problem can be solved, but there are very specific reasons why we’re pursuing the route of using industry standards.

 The most obvious reason is ease of implementation, both for us from a corporate perspective and also for gamers who face the cost of upgrading their hardware. But the more important reason is that it’s consistent with our philosophy of making sure that the gaming industry keeps marching forward at a steady pace that benefits everyone.

 It sometimes takes longer to do things that way — lots of stakeholders need to coordinate their efforts — but we know it’s ultimately the best way forward. This strategy enables technologies to proliferate faster and cost less, and that’s good for everyone.

 The same philosophy explains why we’re revealing technology that’s still in the development stage. Now’s our chance to get feedback from industry, media and users, to make sure we develop the right features for the market.  That’s what it takes to develop a technology that actually delivers on consumers’ expectations.

 And Project FreeSync isn’t the only example of this philosophy and its payoffs. We worked across the industry to first bring GDDR5 memory to graphics cards— an innovation with industry-wide benefits. And when game developers came to us demanding a low-level API, we listened to them and developed Mantle. It’s an innovation that we hope will speed the evolution of industry-standard APIs in the future.

 We’re passionate about gaming, and we know that the biggest advancements come when all industry players collaborate. There’s no room for proprietary technologies when you have a mission to accomplish. That’s why we do the work we do, and if we can help move the industry forward we’re proud to do it for everyone.

 Jay Lebo is a Product Marketing Manager at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.

 It is all too easy to get bogged down in platform debates—the old Windows versus iOS versus Android story. That conversation misses the point. The real "best" solution is the one that gives users the experience they want. What most people care about is their ability to work, play and communicate across all their devices with the tools they prefer.
When it comes to strengthening the role of our PCs, it is incumbent that manufacturers and vendors ask: what do consumers prefer?

• When it comes to mobile, Android is at the top owning 52.2% of the U.S. market  and more than 80% of global mobile phone marketshare.
• On the desktop side of the equation, Windows operating systems dominate the landscape with more than 80% marketshare.

 So what to do in a world where more everyday consumers rely on multiple platforms: a Windows PC at home, a second on their desk in the office or one in the laptop bag on their shoulder as they board a plane; an Android phone on the go and maybe a similar Android-based tablet as they sit on the couch.

 One obvious solution is to eliminate the gap between Windows and Android—give the people their favorite game app on their desktop right next to Microsoft Office! Not surprisingly, several options that do just that are emerging as PC manufacturers work to extend the Android experience to the PC.

 AMD is supporting that effort through its collaboration with BlueStacks, who started by creating a very popular Android app player for Windows. Now, through this collaboration with AMD, they are poised to deliver a completely virtualized Android environment that runs all of the most popular Android entertainment, content consumption and productivity apps right within the Windows desktop.
See below screenshot showing the AMD-Bluestacks solution for AMD-based PCs. Get the full native Android user interface experience - without ever leaving Windows!Let’s take a moment to understand what this means. The AMD-BlueStacks approach is fundamentally different from the old school techie approach of booting two entire operating systems on a device. So-called “dual-booting” is nothing new, but it’s never really become mainstream. There is good reason for that. Dual-booting can be messy and inconvenient. It is resource intensive and requires a whole separate validation process for OEMS who must develop and support two entirely different system infrastructures and must license 2 operating systems instead of one. If you want to dual-boot Android on an x86 system, you need both Windows as well as Android drivers for graphics, media, power management, security and much more. You’ll also be constantly exiting one OS, booting into the other, and back again. And, while the two OS live on the same device, they don’t really share the device. That “My Pictures” folder on your Windows desktop with pictures of Grandma? It may as well be on the other side of the world as far as your Android OS Instagram is concerned.

 This is where the strength and elegance of the AMD-BlueStacks virtualized approach becomes obvious. As native software running under Windows on the PC, BlueStacks takes full advantage of AMD APUs, beginning with the 4th generation AMD APU codename “Kaveri”  power savings options, OpenGL driver, and every other advantage  the AMD APU-based system can offer. There are no extra development challenges in terms of drivers--Bluestacks is built and optimized to run within Windows on AMD APUs.*

 For the user, the workflow advantages are enormous. BlueStacks provides a full Android User Interface (UI). The customization, settings and personalization capabilities you expect from your Android phone or tablet are right there in the virtual Android environment.

 And that Android UI? It is a fully functional window on your Windows desktop. So, you can have Photoshop open on one side of your desktop and your favorite Android app on the other.  About to unlock a Booster? Blow your Android window up to full screen and fill your desktop. BlueStacks takes full advantage of the AMD platform.
See below for demo of BlueStack's virtualized Android, with full native Android user interface experience, to be available and optimized exclusively for AMD: Games aside, this solution is about more than just sharing desktop real estate. BlueStack’s virtualized Android sees your Windows file system. Remember that picture of Grandma I mentioned before? Under this solution, that photo in your Windows gallery is a click away from Instagram on Android.

 Of course this is not the first time someone has virtualized an OS. The difference is that we are taking an incredibly popular environment, Android, that was designed to make use of the capacity of older architectures and instead giving it a direct pipeline to high performance AMD APUs with powerful AMD Radeon™ graphics built-in.
It means that for the PC provider it is business as usual. Spec and build your AMD-based PC as usual. Continue to support Windows as usual. Bluestacks is effectively just another piece of software running on the system. Optimized for AMD APUs, the brilliant BlueStacks architecture bridges the divide between Android and the x86 architecture with the full Android UI experience for AMD-based systems, and requires no additional driver or extension support.

 Bluestacks on AMD APUs is an exciting opportunity. You can choose to add complexity to your PC in order to bring Android fun and Windows productivity together. Or we get out of the consumer’s way and empower them to choose the best app or application for their particular need.

 Supporting Resources

• Read about AMD at CES
• AMD-BlueStacks Collaboration Press Release
• Follow AMD updates on Twitter at @AMDHSA and #AMDCES
• Follow BlueStacks on Twitter at @bluestacksinc
• Demo video of BlueStacks at AMD APU13

 
Clarice Simmons is a Senior Marketing Manager at AMD. Her postings are her own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites, and references to third party trademarks, are provided for convenience and illustrative purposes only. Unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such links, and no third party endorsement of AMD or any of its products is implied.

 *The new BlueStacks App Player version exclusively available for AMD which provides an “Android on Windows” experience with the unique full Android User Interface and is optimized to leverage AMD 4th Generation APUs

Login name……let me think, first initial last name? Oh no, that’s right, I think it’s my email address, let’s try that.

Password, that’s my old standby ‘judy123’. Drats, didn’t work. Oh wait, I think this website made me put in a capital letter, ok let’s try ‘Judy123’. Double drat. Ok, that’s right, I think I had to put in a special character too, let’s try ‘Judy123&’. Triple drat!

Ok, let me find my post it note with all my login names and passwords - oh, there we go. That was easy…
Actually, the better question is not “has this happened to you,” but “how many times a day does this happen to you?”
As we put an increasing amount of personal data online, privacy and security are necessarily on everyone’s mind. Yet with no standard rules regarding login names and passwords, we are confronted with a dizzying array of authentication schemes and login routines that we need to recall. That leads to bad habits (securing your banking info, Netflix account and Facebook with your pet’s name) and the repeated frustration I described above.
Why don’t our own computers recognize us?
Some steps have been taken in that direction. Some business-oriented laptops have fingerprint readers-- a good idea, but can be costly.
It would make more sense if the rest of us could take advantage of the hardware we already have, but gain the benefits and convenience of being recognized by our computers.