AMD targets notebooks with quad-x86 processors

LONDON – Advanced Micro Devices Inc. said Tuesday (Jan. 8) it has demonstrated working silicon of two quad-core x86 system-chips intended for ultrathin notebooks and convertible tablet-notebooks. Both chips are believed to have been implemented using a 28-nm manufacturing process.

Codenamed Temash and Kabini, AMD demonstrated applications and games running on a Kabini-based ultrathin notebook and on a Temash convertible tablet-notebook at Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Both system chips are scheduled to ship in the first half of 2013, AMD said, but the company did not provide details of the chips' maximum clock frequencies or power consumption.

AMD said it expects Temash to be the highest-performance SoC for tablets, with 100 percent more graphics processing performance than its predecessor, called Hondo. Kabini will be shipped in two- and four-core versions, and AMD said it expects the chip to deliver an increase of more than 50 percent in performance over its earlier processor called Brazos 2.0. Both chips are expected to include GCN-based graphics. GCN – graphics core next – is the basis of AMD's SIMD-based GPUs.

Announced last February, Temash combines AMD’s Jaguar x86 core, graphics processor and a south bridge in a 28-nm SoC, the first integrated tablet chip created under AMD’s new executive team. It competes with Intel’s Atom-based Clover Trail which debuted in September with about a dozen design wins.

AMD also introduced a 32-nm APU, codenamed "Richland," which it is currently shipping to OEMs. AMD said it expected to ship Richland with bundled software for gesture and facial recognition. The follow-on to Richland will be the 28-nm APU, codenamed "Kaveri," which is expected to begin shipping to customers in the second half of 2013.

--Rick Merritt contributed to this report from San Jose.


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