AMD Fuels the GhostRider Robot -- the World's First Autonomous Motorcycle; Engineering Group from UC Berkeley Uses AMD64 Technology to Design and Construct Independently Guided Vehicle

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--March 11, 2004--AMD today announced it has provided industry-leading AMD64 computing technology to the Blue Team, led by researchers from the University of California at Berkeley's industrial engineering program. The Blue Team is one of 20 final participant teams that will be competing for a $1 million prize in the Grand Challenge, a 250-mile off-road race of fully self-navigating vehicles, sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration (DARPA) and designed to further the development of autonomous vehicle technology for the Department of Defense.

Recognizing the need for superior computing power, the Blue Team selected AMD64 technology as the basis for their work on a fully self-navigating, robot-like motorcycle. Dubbed "GhostRider," the vehicle was designed and virtually tested, using modeling and simulation, on AMD Opteron(TM) processor-based servers. The bike employs an AMD Athlon(TM) 64 processor as the on-board brain, which is responsible for managing the collection and analysis of simultaneous data input from radar, global positioning, vision and dynamic balancing systems, and for carrying out the navigation decisions independent of human control.

"We are putting all of our energy into creating the best possible technology solution for DARPA's challenge," said Anthony Levandowski, lead engineer for the Blue Team. "To accomplish that, we had to have the best possible technology solution to design our robot and control it. The incredible computing performance of the AMD Opteron and AMD Athlon 64 processors has proven to be critical to our success in designing a uniquely capable vehicle."

"The Blue Team embodies the AMD spirit -- striving to design products that meet customers' needs and help them exceed their goals," said Marty Seyer, vice president and general manager of the Microprocessor Business Unit at AMD. "You have to admire the creativity and dedication this team has put toward their challenge. The successful modeling, testing and construction of the GhostRider using both AMD Opteron and AMD Athlon 64 processor-based systems is a great testament to the power of innovative ideas and the cross-platform ease of AMD64 technology."

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