AMD has announced the launch of its second-generation AMD A-series accelerated processing units (APUs) for mainstream and ultra-thin notebooks, all-in-one PCs and traditional desktops, home theater PCs and embedded designs.
The second-generation A-series APU, codenamed Trinity, is a grounds-up improved design over the previous generation, enabling a best-in-class PC mobility, entertainment, and gaming experience, AMD said. New features of the product design include:
Double the performance per watt of the previous generation; the AMD HD Media Accelerator with a unique set of technologies designed to optimize video quality available with premium and Internet video content, and accelerate video file conversion; an increase in CPU performance of up to 29% with higher processor speeds thanks to the next-generation AMD Piledriver CPU core with third-generation AMD Turbo Core technology, where power is dynamically shifted between the CPU and GPU depending on application needs, effectively providing a more responsive experience that can boost CPU frequencies to up to 3.2GHz; and AMD Radeon HD 7000 series graphics for an increase of graphics performance up to 56% over the previous generation.
Meanwhile, combined, the CPU and GPU cores deliver more than 700 gigaflops of computing performance – several times more than the fastest x86 CPUs – to boost performance of hundreds of applications as well as up to 12 hours of battery life through CPU and GPU power enhancements, with clear battery life leadership in notebook form factors.
The developer ecosystem continues to gravitate to the unmatched level of compute and unique processing capabilities of the APU as more than 100 applications and games are now accelerated by AMD APUs. The second-generation AMD A-series APU gives users superior web-based video experience thanks to plug-ins for Google Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer 9 that make it easy for consumers to turn on AMD Steady Video technology.
Recent applications that have been optimized for use on AMD A-series APUs include Adobe Photoshop CS6, WinZip 16.5 and VLC Media Player. AMD A-series APUs are also well-positioned to take advantage of the upcoming transition to the Windows 8 operating system.
These gains can be attributed to the new power-optimized Piledriver CPU core, as well as to AMD Start Now technology, which is designed to maximize system responsiveness by quickly entering and exiting low power states. With AMD Start Now, the computer resumes from sleep mode in as few as two seconds and boots to the desktop in as few as 10 seconds.
In ultra-thin form factors, AMD enables an uncompromised visual experience thanks to a power-efficient and premium AMD Radeon graphics engine. Consumers can expect to see ultra-thin notebooks based on dual-core 17-watt and quad-core 25-watt AMD A-Series APUs. These products will be easily identifiable by aluminum-styled VISION Technology stickers at a range of competitive price points. AMD has a record number of design wins with companies like Acer, Asustek Computer, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Lenovo, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba based on the second-generation AMD A-series APUs and Vision Technology from AMD, with mainstream and ultra-thin notebooks as well as embedded solutions, available beginning today.
Article translated by Joseph Tsai
