14 DAY TRIAL // AMD has just announced two new low-power accelerated processing units (APUs) that are designed to be used inside embedded systems built on the G-series platform and feature one or two Bobcat x86 cores as well as on-die Radeon HD 6250 graphics.
The new chips are called the T40E and T40R and both of them have their base operating frequency set at 1GHz, but the T40E features two processing cores, while its smaller brother uses a single-core design.
However, both chips come equipped with the Radeon HD 6250 integrated graphics unit, which packs 80 stream processors clocked at 250MHz, 8 texture units and 4 ROP units and also include an on-die single channel memory that supports LVDDR3-1066 RAM.
Still, the most important feature of these chips is their low TDP, 6.4W for the T40E and 5.5W for the T40R, which enabled AMD to certify them for fanless operation.
Before these two chips were launched, AMD's most energy-efficient embedded APUs were the T40N and the T44R, both of them featuring a 9W TDP.
“We have seen many of our embedded customers deploy fanless systems even with our 15W TDP processors in the past,” said Buddy Broeker, director, Embedded Solutions, AMD.
“Today we take the ground-breaking AMD Fusion APU well below 7W TDP and shatter the accepted traditional threshold for across-the-board fanless enablement.
“System designers can now unleash their creativity without being constrained by heat or size issues,” concluded the company's rep.
AMD's newest APUs have already been used in various embedded solutions, including an industrial mobile device from Amtek, a Pico-ITX single board computer from Axiomtek, a Qseven form factor computer-on-module from datakamp, and a fanless digital signage platform from iBASE.
Other AMD customers are expected to bring new products to market in the coming quarters.