Bangalore: Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has unveiled its AMD Fusion Family of Accelerated Processing Units (APU) in India. The system on chip (SoC) combines both the processor and GPU on one small chip. The APU comes with the multi-core CPU (x86) technology and has DirectX 11 graphics support. The APU comes in two versions as of now: the E series (codenamed Zacate) and the C series (codenamed Ontario). The more powerful A series (codenamed Llano) will launch in mid 2011.
The E series is an 18 watt TDP APU that is targeted toward notebooks, desktops and all-in-ones. The C series is a 9 watt APU is meant for netbooks and other small form factor devices.
AMD has partnered with several Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) in India for launching over 11 AMD Fusion-based devices that will hit the market in course of next six months. In a press conference here, AMD had displayed some of the devices by Sony, Toshiba and Lenovo, powered by the APU Fusion processor.
AMD claims the APU is capable of giving an all day battery life. Among its applications, it allows for accelerated internet browsing, smooth online streaming of HD content, enhanced video playback and gaming capability.
AMD's R&D team in Hyderabad played a significant role in the design and development of the Fusion microprocessors. AMD has its Indian R&D facilities in Bangalore and Hyderabad with over 1,000 employees. Michael Goddard, VP and Chief Engineer, AMD revealed that for the upcoming A series APU, the Indian team is responsible for its delivery.
The A series APU is claimed to be very powerful by the company. Manju Hegde, Corporate Vice President, Products Group, AMD, in his presentation described that the A series APU has 260 times processing power of a supercomputer in the mid 80s and 13,800 times that of the iPhone.
AMD is eyeing to enter other form factors like tablets. When asked if AMD plans to enter the smartphone segment, Hegde declined to comment in the affirmative but added that they do have plans in the smartphone area which he can't reveal at the moment.
