Seattle, WA - Part 2

Note:  You can see Part 1 of the posts on Seattle here

As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm in Seattle on business.  The big event last night was the launch of AMD's A-Series chips.  While that may not mean much to you, it's a big moment for our company, and a big change in the type of computer chips that will show up in notebooks/laptops for years to come.

We held the event in downtown Seattle at the Music Experience Program (EMP) - a museum dedicated to music and pop culture.  It's located right next to the Seattle Space Needle.

In the same building, you can find the Science Fiction Museum.  This environment was very attractive to the largest number of computer press reporters (young geeky males), so it was a perfect fit.  We spent most of the day preparing a portion of the EMP for our press conference/launch event.  Here's a little clip of what things looked like right before the press showed up:

The event went really well.  One of our senior marketing people led the event.  He's brilliant as a host and this is what the room looked like with actual people inside:

We had a special guest join us, to talk about how powerful computers can be used to make theatrical films.  His name is Robert Rodriguez and he's made such films as Spy Kids, Predators, Sin City and Desperado:

After the formal presentations, we allowed the media to play with all of the software demos that show off our new chips.  This is where I come in - my organization works with all the software developers to take advantage of the latest computing power.  The demo software was the result of my team's hard work:

Once that was finished, we let the reporters loose in the museum.   I accompanied several to the exhibit on the film Avatar:

And, believe it or not, they dragged me (willingly) back to the Battlestar Galactica exhibit:

Cylon Centurian

Mark VII Colonial Viper

No Battlestar Galactica exhibit would be complete w/out No. 6's dress...

I'm relieved that the event is over.  Now, it's back to the AMD Fusion Developer Summit (AFDS) for two more days.  The keynote presentations take place in this amazing room.  The screen you see below is actually three separate monitors merged together - something our PC graphics cards do well.  I makes for an impressive stage to speak on:

Outside of the keynote presentations, we had numerous breakout sessions, focused on various topics.  One that I attended was fascinating - at least to me.  The presentation focused on graphics processing that the military does on video.  Particularly from all the surveillance aircraft they have around the world.  To give you an idea, in 2009, the Air Force produced 17 years worth of video content in Afghanistan ; )

That's it for now.  Thanks for taking the time to actually read this.  Tonight I will host the press at a special reception.  I might post some pictures tomorrow ; )