News & Analysis
Comment
Sanborn84
The llano APU is a terrific product and has quickly become the (my) lower power ...
fdunn
AMD rolls Series-9 chipset, shows next APU
Dylan McGrath
6/1/2011 9:48 AM EDT
About face on tablets
In an about face, AMD (Sunnyvale, Calif.) also unveiled a high-definition tablet platform, based on the AMD Z-Series APU, for Microsoft Windows-based tablets. These new AMD products are designed to enable more immersive digital experiences for the PC and tablet markets, according to the company.
AMD was widely criticized last year when then-CEO Dirk Meyer said the company wouldn't have a solution to compete in the tablet space until 2012, when it plans to field its Wichita chip as a follow on to its 9W Ontario chip for small notebooks and netbooks. Some speculated that this stance contributed to Meyer's forced resignation in January.
On Wednesday, Chris Cloran, AMD's corporate vice president and general manager of the company's client products division, acknowledged that the company changed its tablet plans based on the success of its Fusion low-power platform, codenamed Brazos.
"We have done something we didn't foresee going into the beginning of this year," Cloran said. "Brazos really does make a nice tablet experience for the Windows market."
AMD said the 9-Series chipsets are the first to support the AMD AM3+ socket processors, while incorporating AM3 socket backwards compatibility. These boards enable fast performance with support for AMD CrossFireX technology, which allows up to four AMD Radeon GPUs to co-process for incredible graphics uplift, MAD said.
The chipsets also support clock rate management through AMD OverDrive software, AMD said. The 9-Series chipset line-up also features up to six SATA 3.0 6-Gbps hard drive interface ports, Gigabit Ethernet, HyperTransport 3.0 technology, and PCI Express Generation 2.0, AMD said.
The 9-Series line of chipsets will be available from a variety of device manufacturers, including ASRock, Asus, Biostar, ECS, Foxconn Technology, Gigabyte Technology, Jetway and MSI, according to AMD.
Bergman said the Series-9 chipsets were currently shipping. "Next month, you will see motherboards from our key partners being sold into the world," Bergman said.
AMD said it would continue to expand its APU options, providing discrete-level graphics on die for tablet computers and other mobile form factors.
In an about face, AMD (Sunnyvale, Calif.) also unveiled a high-definition tablet platform, based on the AMD Z-Series APU, for Microsoft Windows-based tablets. These new AMD products are designed to enable more immersive digital experiences for the PC and tablet markets, according to the company.
AMD was widely criticized last year when then-CEO Dirk Meyer said the company wouldn't have a solution to compete in the tablet space until 2012, when it plans to field its Wichita chip as a follow on to its 9W Ontario chip for small notebooks and netbooks. Some speculated that this stance contributed to Meyer's forced resignation in January.
On Wednesday, Chris Cloran, AMD's corporate vice president and general manager of the company's client products division, acknowledged that the company changed its tablet plans based on the success of its Fusion low-power platform, codenamed Brazos.
"We have done something we didn't foresee going into the beginning of this year," Cloran said. "Brazos really does make a nice tablet experience for the Windows market."
AMD said the 9-Series chipsets are the first to support the AMD AM3+ socket processors, while incorporating AM3 socket backwards compatibility. These boards enable fast performance with support for AMD CrossFireX technology, which allows up to four AMD Radeon GPUs to co-process for incredible graphics uplift, MAD said.
The chipsets also support clock rate management through AMD OverDrive software, AMD said. The 9-Series chipset line-up also features up to six SATA 3.0 6-Gbps hard drive interface ports, Gigabit Ethernet, HyperTransport 3.0 technology, and PCI Express Generation 2.0, AMD said.
The 9-Series line of chipsets will be available from a variety of device manufacturers, including ASRock, Asus, Biostar, ECS, Foxconn Technology, Gigabyte Technology, Jetway and MSI, according to AMD.
Bergman said the Series-9 chipsets were currently shipping. "Next month, you will see motherboards from our key partners being sold into the world," Bergman said.
AMD said it would continue to expand its APU options, providing discrete-level graphics on die for tablet computers and other mobile form factors.
|
|
|
|
|
Navigate to related information
Warren
6/1/2011 6:18 PM EDT
AMD stock trading sideways (through optimistic eyes) so doesn't look like the street is real excited. Bergman seems real excited however. Almost a little too excited about the future: "don't look too awfully close at what I have here in my hand, look out there to 2012... oh, and 2013 too!"
Sign in to Reply
fdunn
6/1/2011 8:28 PM EDT
Warren,
I think Maybe you're looking at the product line today. The new Bulldozer architecture is a very high throughput design and Intel does not have anything to compare to it.
In tests to date the highest clocked Bulldozer on a 9xx chipset board handily beat the Core i7 extreme on an X58 chipset motherboard with no overclocking.
As far as their APUs, I guess you're right because it always seems that they are just out of grasp of the market when they announce them so I'm assuming that was just a progress report to validate AMDs APU futures compared to when Dirk Meyer was in the Tech Lead at AMD.
Sign in to Reply
Sanborn84
6/3/2011 2:52 PM EDT
The llano APU is a terrific product and has quickly become the (my) lower power & medium performance king when compared to the Intel ION product line.
My entire HTPC is 25W UNDER FULL LOAD because of llano, the thought of having that equivalent product with a bulldozer core sounds incredible. And yes, it does play HD video.
Sign in to Reply