The AMD lineup
Day two of Computex 2012 began with a little bit of sleeping in, since my first meeting was the AMD press event, which started at 10:30 instead of 9:30. I took a cab to the Meridien Hotel Taipei, which according to the concierge at my hotel was “ooh, the most top class hotel in Taipei, very nice.”
She wasn’t lying. The Meridien was massive, white marble and glass, and looking like a museum more than a hotel. AMD’s press event was on the third floor ballroom, and we were treated to some light snacks before being seated.
The press event was slightly awkward for the press. In speaking with some colleagues from various media, we all agreed: it felt as if this event wasn’t for us. AMD was there to essentially thank their OEM partners in Asia; Sony, MSI, Lenovo, HP, Asus, and so on. AMD’s CEO Rory Read was there, giving a rousing speech (he is a phenomenal public speaker; he could easily be in politics) to his OEM partners, and talking about APU and new form factors.
Oooh! We get to play with AMD!
It became quickly obvious that APU is truly where AMD is focusing. There was one brief mention of desktop CPUs, and it was in passing; of course, it should be noted that Trinity is incredibly impressive, and probably their only truly competitive product right now.
Trinity APUs have enabled a variety of new form factors, including the most impressive, the “hybrid” which is an ultrathin laptop on which the screen detaches, becoming a tablet. Everything is in the screen, and the keyboard is just tacked on when needed. It’s a very compelling new class of devices.
The AMD swag bag had a truly mystifying object in it: A glass jar that looks like maybe a candle jar or a mason jar, that has a ceramic square decoration suspended from the lid. At first every press person I was sitting near was staring at it, mumbling curiously about what it could be. Some thought it was maybe an APU die, but it’s not. I started showing the jar to people and snapping photos of their reaction faces. Nobody could figure it out.
WHAT THE HELL IS IN THE JAR?
After the press event, I had the chance to take a nice walk with Nicole Scott from Netbook News. Since she’s a local, she took the time to walk with me to the Taiwan World Trade Center while explaining some of the local culture and architectural notes. Taipei is an absolutely beautiful city.
Taipei is very green
Next up, I met with OCZ at the Taiwan International Conference Center. They weren’t showing anything new, really (other than a cool new modular PC Power & Cooling PSU). The still-impressive benchmarks we saw at CES were running, and the prototypes we saw at CES now had final fit-and-finish details like shrouds and brackets.
I then headed to the ECS booth on the Nangang showfloor (One thing about Computex: TICC and TWTC are next to each other, right by Taipei 101… but Nangang, the other big showfloor, is a 20-minute ride away in a shuttle bus or cab).
ECS was having their “Nonstop Technology” event. Now, I have to note again that ECS has sponsored our Computex trip, just for the sake of full disclosure.
Yeah it was pretty much like this
ECS is throwing all in to promote their new Black Series boards with Nonstop Technology. As we noted before, Nonstop is interesting because they are really focusing on using high quality components for every aspect of the board as well as overly rigorous testing of boards before they’re shipped.
ECS LASER RANGER ROBOT AND SPICY DANCING GIRLS
The event was just crazy, over-the-top, wild stuff. The MC was a gorgeous woman who enthusiastically announced the “Spicy Dancing Girls” and “Laser Ranger Robot”. It was a 20-minute show of acrobats, drumming, a dude in a robot costume with stilts, swords, fog, lasers, and some very sexy club-style dancing. The cameras were flashing enthusiastically. After the show, a representative from Intel took the stage to talk about Intel’s commitment to enthusiasts with their new “Motherboard Matters” mantra. ECS’ Nonstop Technology is something that Intel supports because they want consumers who may be first time PC builders to experience the stability that ECS is offering.
Spicy Dancing indeed
One thing I’ll say about Computex: it’s much, much more flashy than the American trade shows. Whereas CES and E3 have shied away from the booth babe mentality, that style of marketing is in full force here in Taiwan. It feels different, though. Where girls in the US seem to be objectified at E3 and CES, here they are treated with respect, and it’s hard not to see them as part of the team. It’s not so much about sex as it is about presenting the products in an attractive light. They are extremely courteous and helpful when, for example, making sure press photographers have a good shot of the products. They’ll politely and patiently turn and pose the products so that each photographer gets the shot they need.
I’m having difficulty explaining it, but it’s a cultural thing. Perhaps it has a lot to do with the fact that Taiwanese culture is extremely respectful and polite in almost all aspects of daily life; the girls are doing a job and they are very professional about it, and the company reps from top to bottom, from the VP to the booth workers, all treat them as equals.
As I was leaving, I saw a familiar face… None other than Ollie Baltuch, CEO of Futuremark. We seem to run into each other at every trade show. Since selling off FGS to Rovio, Futuremark has been hard at work with 3DMark Next; he showed me a private demo of 3DMark running on an iPad, a Transformer Prime, and a Windows 8 ultrathin. Yep… 3DMark will be available for Windows 8 x86, Windows 8 ARM, iOS, and Android, all using the same assets. It was pretty awesome to see it running side-by-side on three wildly different devices.
The day ended at the ADATA Gala night party, on the 30th floor of the Presidential Financial Tower; the grass rooftop provided a stunning view of the city, with the truly beautiful Taipei 101 framed dead-center in the background with the whole vista of Taipei laid out below. The night was clear, the music was good, the food and drinks were flowing, and I found myself standing on the roof of the city, the breeze blowing, and thinking… this is by far the best trade show I’ve ever been to.
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