AMD Collaborates with Aviary to Bring APU-Optimized Photo Editing Application to Windows 8

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SUNNYVALE, Calif. – Mar. 18, 2013 – AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced a collaboration with Aviary to bring an optimized version of its popular photo editing tool to Windows® 8 PCs and tablets powered by AMD accelerated processing units (APUs). Backed by an investment through AMD Ventures, Aviary has optimized its new software development kit (SDK) for Windows 8 to take advantage of unique AMD APU architectural advantages. Aviary also has released its first Windows 8 app through the Windows Store to showcase the features and functionality of the Aviary SDK for Windows 8.

The new Aviary SDK offers software developers a library of photo editing effects and filters for the easy incorporation of the photo editor into applications. The SDK brings the simple yet powerful photo editing capabilities of Aviary to millions of new consumers, adding to the more than 35 million monthly[1] Aviary users across over 3500 partners. By implementing filters and effects in Windows 8 through the new heterogeneous compute language C++ AMP, computations are performed on the highly-parallel graphics processing unit (GPU) cores inside the AMD APU instead of the more serial central processing unit (CPU) cores, resulting in an average 11X performance improvement[2].

“Aviary is becoming the standard in mobile and online photo editing with over 3 billion photos edited thus far,” said Manju Hegde, corporate vice president, Heterogeneous Applications and Developer Solutions, AMD. “By bringing Aviary to Windows 8, it enables the next billion photos across an even broader range of devices. AMD is committed to supporting the future of industry-changing innovators like Aviary through investment by AMD Ventures and by enhancing user experiences on our award-winning APU platforms.”

Aviary’s new Photo Editor for Windows 8, now available in the Windows Store, demonstrates the peak of Aviary’s capabilities. Optimized for AMD APUs, the app can now process the complete range of filters and effects instantaneously[3] – on average 16X faster than comparable processors[4].

„At Aviary, we’ve built the best SDK for photo editing, sharing and monetization. Having the direct support of AMD has allowed us to push even further ahead and expand to Windows 8,“ said Tobias Peggs, CEO, Aviary. „AMD’s APUs allow us to enable the most processor-intensive photo effects we have ever been able to offer. They’ve helped to push our technology forward and, in turn, end users can push the limits of their creativity even further.“

[1] All numbers are exclusive of any Twitter data.
[2] Test performed by AMD labs using a test script to measure the time to process the 19 filters from the Aviary SDK for Windows 8 on a .6 MP (953×648) thumbnail image. An AMD „Larne“ reference platform system with upcoming AMD Elite Mobility Dual-Core A4-1200 Accelerated Processor with AMD Radeon™ HD 8180 Graphics, 2x2GB of DDR3-1600MHz RAM, video driver 12.102.0.0 – 02/18/2013, Microsoft Windows 8 Professional (x64), build 9200 averaged 17.3 ms per filter with GPU acceleration turned on through the Microsoft DirectX 11 API and C++ AMP programming model versus 210.1 ms per filter in CPU-only mode. TEM-23
[3] Test performed by AMD labs using a test script to measure the time to process the 19 filters from the Aviary SDK for Windows 8 on a 0.6 MP (953×648) thumbnail image. An AMD „Larne“ reference platform system with upcoming AMD Elite Mobility Dual-Core A4-1200 Accelerated Processor with AMD Radeon™ HD 8180 Graphics, 2x2GB of DDR3-1600MHz RAM, video driver 12.102.0.0 – 02/18/2013, Microsoft Windows 8 Professional (x64), build 9200 achieved times ranging from 4 to 59 ms to process each filter with GPU acceleration turned on through the Microsoft DirectX 11 API and C++ AMP programming model. Any processing time <100 ms is considered to be "instantaneous." The 0.6 MP test image is representative to what an end user will observe immediately on thumbnail pictures within an application that makes use of the Aviary SDK. TEM-22
[4] Test performed by AMD labs using a test script to measure the time to process the 19 filters from the Aviary SDK for Windows 8 on a 0.6 MP (953×648) thumbnail image. An AMD „Larne“ reference platform system with upcoming AMD Elite Mobility Dual-Core A4-1200 Accelerated Processor with AMD Radeon™ HD 8180 Graphics, 2x2GB of DDR3-1600MHz RAM, video driver 12.102.0.0 – 02/18/2013 averaged 17.3 ms per filter with GPU acceleration turned on through the Microsoft DirectX 11 API and C++ AMP programming model. A Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2, Model – 31P367923U with Intel® Atom™ Z2760 with Intel Graphics Media Accelerator graphics, 2GB of DDR3-1333 MHz RAM, video driver 9.14.3.1087 – 10/3/2012 averaged 304.3 ms per filter in CPU-only mode. The Intel device does not support DirectX 11, so must run the test in CPU-only mode. Both systems used Microsoft Windows 8 Professional (x64), build 9200. TEM-21