14 DAY TRIAL // In 2012, AMD plans to intensify its efforts into the tablet market with the introduction of a new low-power platform, which will be known as Brazos-T and that will feature a lower TDP than the company's current tablet solutions.
According to some leaked slides presented by Donanim Haber, the Brazos-T platform will comprise the Hondo APU and the Hudson M2T FCH (Fusion controller Hub).
Both of these chips feature important power saving instructions over the company's current tablet platform, that includes the Desna APU and the Hudson M1 FCH, which enabled AMD to achieve a sub-4.5W TDP.
In order to reach this result, the Sunnyvale-based company re-architected the Ontario APU used inside Desna by removing some features that aren't required for tablet devices.
This includes the four PCI Express lanes, which were originally added for connecting a discrete graphics card, and the VGA video output, while all the other of the chips specifications were left unaltered.
The end result is that Hondo now has a TDP of less than 4.5W, compared to the 5.9W of the Desna Z-01, while retaining the same two Bobcat cores clocked at 1GHz and the 276MHz Radeon HD 6250 integrated graphics unit with Full HD playback support.
To further increase the energy efficiency of the Brazos-T platform, AMD has also modified the Hudson M1 chipset that accompanied Desna transforming it into the Hudson M2T.
Just like the APU, the changes concentrated on removing features that aren't essential in the tablet world, but the chip also received a series of new characteristics such as Always On, Always Connected (AOAC) Wi-Fi support.
All these changes, enabled the Hudson M2T chipset to reach a TDP of approximately 1W, while also using a reduced package size of just 19x19mm.
According to AMD's leaked slides, the first Hondo APUs should start sampling in December of 2011, while production will start in the second quarter of 2012.
