Siu Lun

This is not news to those of us who’ve been keeping track of the next CPU that can play our favourite games in the highest possible resolution.

AMD will be coming out with an APU in 2011, a CPU+GPU hybrid processing unit and I have put my theory in my mouth and speculate that AMD will see a revival of their business to squarely compete with Intel very soon.

I believe the APU AMD is working on will in fact be revolutionary, and may in the future render standalone GPUs obsolete. Hence Nvidia, who’s core business model relies on the GPUs will most likely see a lot more of their market share simply disappearing into a new area.

Intel would be scared of this advancement as back in the days of the Athlon FX, AMD beat Intel’s processors by miles in terms of gaming performance and propelled AMD into the limelight for a while until Intel’s come back with the Core CPU.

Intel itself is also working on a CPU+GPU, but the problem Intel has, is that it doesn’t really have a GPU that is powerful enough to compete with AMD ATI’s offerings. Hence why, I believe, should AMD pull it off in 2011, Nvidia and Intel would be the perfect match to tackle AMD ATI.

This all boils down to whether AMD can successfully pull it off of course, but have faith, as I believe, APU will actually not only be beneficial for space and power, but also performance. This requires a little more explanation, but essentially, when CPU+GPU can interact within the same processor unit, the communication latency would be dramatically reduced as the lines from the GPU does not need to travel the same amount of distance to get to the CPU, hence increasing performance.

How would ordinary users be able to install an APU powered PC, we still have not much idea today, but it’s a good bet that whatever the case, AMD is on the right track.

Did I also mention AMD ATI’s graphics cards would be used in all Mac computer range soon?

Disclosure: I own AMD shares.

UPDATE: 31/07/2010. APU performance numbers for Ontario leaked: http://is.gd/dU8Ms Can’t wait for Orochi.

Saw a facebook update today from Belle Liu of Beansbox that mentioned about “Rework” book from 37Signals.

I don’t usually read, what I do read is usually the PHP.net manual, AS3 language reference, API documentations etc… I did read some entrepreneurial books before I started my own company though.

The classical “The E Myth Revisited”.

But anyway, I read the excerpt at the Rework website, I’m interested since it’s from a fairly successful web-services company in the US. I wanted to know what they’ve been through.

Having a look at the excerpt, there are certainly things that I agree with, and have strengthened my believe in, such as the “Workaholic” section about how workaholics are no good because they make other feel inadequate, it reminded me of a former-colleague, where she excels in is she stays for long hours and works hard, but she complains about people who leaves on-time to their face and makes them feel inadequate. Very true.

Other points in the excerpt however I found to be mostly obvious, probably only because I’ve been through the same, there is one thing however that I don’t agree with.

“Underdo your competition”. Unfortunately, I found basecamp’s features to be lacking a little to be of ‘real’ benefits. The only reason why that would work is that you have a simpler interface that is easier to grasp, which appears more user-friendly, at the beginning.

“leaving the complex stuff to your competition” is not a good idea. I mean, let’s switch a bit on the industry, if this applied to Intel, AMD would’ve ruled the world today. CPUs are complex.

Let’s switch it more closely related to the web. Apple. If Apple’s iPhone 4 lagged behind in features, functionality, speed, lost that all important technological advancement. They would be losing market share.

However I recognise that, that is a business characteristics 37Signal approaches, and since they’re not doing badly, it must’ve been a good point; not necessarily.

Anyway, thanks to Belle . I’m actually interested in reading the rest of that book, but I don’t think from what I’ve seen so far, it’s worth paying for it.

Later.

Thanks for all the job offers recently, however I’m officially going to announce today that I’ve taken the decision to resign from all jobs and agency work permanently.

My recent experience in one of the top 4As agency in Hong Kong will be the last. I would like to clarify somethings though as to why I’ve taken this decision.

Since I moved from the UK to HK to start my own business, I’ve actually already decided not to work in an agency. I was in a digital agency in UK – a very good one I might add.

I just realise during my time in the UK that doing websites for clients is not a sustainable industry. Actually I realised that in my 2nd year of university, when I came up with a business plan to which I’ll execute once I leave my current position. There is so much more potential even now in web development than agency work it is much more satisfactory and rewarding to do so. The only reason I joined an agency in the UK was to further my development skillset as it allows me to work for many different clients with different requirements, and I succeed, together with the agency I was with.

In my previous post, I took on the opportunity in HK’s 4As agency to try and do something significant. Changing the web development landscape in Hong Kong, well little did I know the core crux of the matter of today’s web development landscape is not only because of cheap clients, but also the quality of people as well as people’s attitudes, this is also made worst in the 4As environment, to which is a different topic entirely.

I gave up. Yes I gave up, it was not worth perusing the path any longer, particularly when they installed somebody higher up that is supposed to be the head of digital with no technical or digital agency background or knowledge. There was no way to win this game the way I see it, that is not to say he may not be able to achieve the goal for the agency, but certainly will not be how I envisioned it to be.

Hence, from now on, I won’t take on anymore jobs and agency type work, nor would I work for any ordinary Hong Kong companies. That’s not to say I’ve given up on Hong Kong’s web development scene, it’s just that rather than use what HK has, I’m starting from scratch, building it the way I see it working. Be a real digital producer.

During my journey up till now, I’ve met many many similar minded people, and it comforts me to think that I’m not alone in my thinking, my actions. To all those that truly cares about the web development scene of Hong Kong. I sincerely hope that we’ll be able to work together towards a brighter future for us. Different in fields we may be, our way of work, mentality and thoughts are similar. I wish you all good luck in the future. Thanks for all the support various people have given me throughout my journey. All the best.