AMD adds 13 chips to mixed-core CPU line

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Advanced Micro Devices refreshed its line of processors that mix CPU and graphics cores with five desktop and eight notebook parts. The chips use two and four CPU cores and include two chips available for over-clocking.

Both AMD and archrival Intel are offering heterogeneous multicore PC chips that AMD calls Accelerated Processing Units (APUs). AMD says it has shipped more than a million APUs for more than 150 different desktop and notebook designs this year from Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Samsung and Toshiba.

The unlocked A8-3870K and A6-3670K desktop chips can be over-clocked to add up to 500 MHz for the CPU and 200 MHz on the GPU. They are AMD's first APUs designed to allow over-clocking and are priced at $135 for the A8-3870K and $115 for the A6-3670K.

The refreshed family includes CPU cores running at data rates from 1.6 to 3 GHz and graphics cores running at up to 600 MHz. They include from 1 to 4 Mbytes L2 cache and range in thermal power dissipation from 35 to 100W.