ATI brand to die off. Say hello to "FireStream"

[Keysplayr]

FireStream.

I guess AMD is pimping the streaming capabilites of the X1900series. 375GFLOPS is pretty impressive. Anyway, this looks pretty weird having an AMD logo on a graphics board.

 

[Pocatello]

Firestream eh? Very hot, I like.

 

[LittleNemoNES]

I'm not clear about whether that's a firegl type or a vanilla x1900 card...(?)

 

[apoppin]

here's the ORIGINAL article

http://www.gpureview.com/ati-firestream-sighted-article-404.html

it doesn't look ANYTHING like theInq's speculation

Posted By: Steve McBarnes - 05:59:34 Thu, September 07, 2006

I happened upon a retail boxed 1GB ATi FireStream today and I decided to take a few pictures. The existence of this card was first noticed in the Linux drivers for a FireGL 7350 over at Beyond3D about a week ago and from what I've seen, their assessment was pretty accurate.

The card is indeed based on R580 with a board layout nearly identical to the FireGL 7350 including the 1GB of ram. The box I saw contained only this card and a driver cd which had been burnt and was labeled as being a beta. Also, I found the label on the CD interesting: "FireSTREAM Enterprise Stream Processor".

Judging from the similarities to the FireGL 7350, I don't think the card has any special hardware under the hood (with the exception of the fact that it uses R580 vs R520). However, the beta nature of the drivers suggests some very special software implementation at work here. My take on it: this is a revamped FireGL with new drivers geared towards making GPGPU (general purpose GPU) usage more efficient and/or easier to work with for developers.

I have to wonder if this new FireStream brand will replace the FireGL, or if ATi plans to divide their professional cards into two camps.

as to the ATi brand name ... who really cares?

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: gersson
I'm not clear about whether that's a firegl type or a vanilla x1900 card...(?)

agreed... it isn't really clear what this board is for.

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: nitromullet

Originally posted by: gersson
I'm not clear about whether that's a firegl type or a vanilla x1900 card...(?)

agreed... it isn't really clear what this board is for.

I would guess it is for workstation purposes.

 

[Gstanfor]

Very interesting. Note the "Enterprise" (corporate in other words) part and the fact ATi already have a Fire brand - their professional line. If their rumored R600 specs have any truth at all to them (1 and 2 gig frame buffer sizes) it should be patently obvious what market segment discrete AMD video cards are being aimed at -- and what market segment they ARE NOT being aimed at...

 

[Wreckage]

Does it burn when you pee? FIRESTREAM! LOL! I think the Inq is writing ATI's obituary a bit soon.

The ATI brand name is synonymous with video cards. Some people might just avoid an AMD branded video card because they would not consider AMD to be a video card name.

 

[GundamSonicZeroX]

I like the name.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: Wreckage
Does it burn when you pee? FIRESTREAM! LOL! I think the Inq is writing ATI's obituary a bit soon.

The ATI brand name is synonymous with video cards. Some people might just avoid an AMD branded video card because they would not consider AMD to be a video card name.

but not for Enterprise/workstation solutions

this is a revamped FireGL with new drivers geared towards making GPGPU (general purpose GPU) usage more efficient and/or easier to work with for developers

i think we will see the ATi name for at least a couple of years more ....

but then who really cares as long as DAAMiT continues to compete with nvidia in the high end?

 

[Munky]

If AMD pursues this market, then this basically assures that they will continue to produce high end video cards, since a high end gpu goes hand in hand with massive parallel computing ability. At least until they integrate something equivalent into the cpu socket...

I really dont care if they sell the video cards under the Ati or the AMD brand name, as long as they continue to produce high end video cards.

 

[beggerking]

well,, in the long run this might help AMD branding.. I say its a good move by AMD.

but they really need to redesign the logo.. AMD logo doesn't look good with white background.

 

[WT]

Soooo, if they would include a physics chip onboard a future card we would be calling that the ... P-Stream ???
*bada-bing*

 

[enz660hp]

im really confused? Instead of calling cards "ati" it will be "firestream" or what? If thats the case....its a bit corny

 

[Warren21]

To enz and everyone else confused here: AMD is merely taking one of ATi's workstation products and rebadging it under their name. Even ATi called it the FireStream, it isn't the new name of the radeon or anything similar.

I'm guessing that the workstation portion or ATi graphics will be branded AMD because they already have the whole co-processor/HTX slot/enterprise/server thing going for them... ATi + Radeon will continue to be the name of the gaming cards...

 

[SunnyD]

Originally posted by: Gstanfor
Very interesting. Note the "Enterprise" (corporate in other words) part and the fact ATi already have a Fire brand - their professional line. If their rumored R600 specs have any truth at all to them (1 and 2 gig frame buffer sizes) it should be patently obvious what market segment discrete AMD video cards are being aimed at -- and what market segment they ARE NOT being aimed at...

Just like it's patently obvious that nvidia designed all of their GPU's with the intention of hedging the consumer market, right? Oh wait, that's right - the Quadro line uses the exact same GPU's as the GeForce line with a different in BIOS ID strings. That must mean that nvidia is only interested in ONE market segment too... :disgust:

The OP needs to rename this thread - the "FireGL" name is going to die off, not the ATI name.

 

[Golgatha]

Originally posted by: beggerking
well,, in the long run this might help AMD branding.. I say its a good move by AMD.

but they really need to redesign the logo.. AMD logo doesn't look good with white background.

They should use a Black PCB with an AMD green HSF. Now that would be slick.

 

[Vinnybcfc]

I didnt even think this card was designed for GPU use like a Radeon or FireGL? Thought it was just a accelerator for floating point calculations?

I dont think the name is changed for the Radeon or ati; people keep assuming or listen to fud from the inquirer.

How about we wait until AMD say something?