AMD reckon they've cracked it
AMD reckon they have the answer to the digital home with AMD Live, an integrated digital home solution.
At the heart of the AMD Live concept is the ethos of making it work with existing technology as much as possible, meaning very little extra outlay for new kit to hook up to the system. So it’s very much a case of AMD Live integrating with and enhancing what you already have rather than a whole new system throughout the house.
Click for larger imageCentral to AMD Live is the media box, running an Athlon 64 X2 CPU. This custom built box, with a case by Chenbro and the cooler we’ve already featured by Noise Limit does all the hard work so those weedy processors in things like your freeview box or PVR don’t have to.
Click for larger imageThe media box does all the work, throwing out the content on demand to whatever device is calling for it. It does the decoding, encoding or whatever is needed for the destination where the content will be viewed, listened to or whatever. So, for example, you could record a show on your PVR, then send it up to the PC to stream it back later. But rather than the PVR doing all the decoding, the PC will do that before it streams it to your PVR for viewing.
Click for larger imageSimilarly, you could plug your MP3 player into a set of speakers and then stream music that was in an entirely different format from your PC through the MP3 player and out of the speakers. At the same times as doing that upstairs, little Johnny could be using the media box as a normal PC and surfing the net, while Mum is browsing the holiday snaps and Dad is streaming the golf he recorded earlier.
Click for larger imageThe AMD Live media box is built around a standard PC mainboard, and so it has the expansion capabilities of a normal PC. The box on display hasn’t yet been tested with a high end graphics card, but it’s perfectly possible that a decent graphics card, coupled with that dual core chip will make the media box a respectable gaming PC too.
Keep a close eye out as we’ll be a taking the media box for a spin very soon.
