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Computex 2013. AMD. Devices with the new APUs and interview with Michelle Wells

 

The new AMD APUs were officially presented a few weeks ago, and offer various consumption and performance depending on the sector they are focused on, in this way, we have three well-differentiated ranges or families. On the one hand, there are the Temash APUs, designed for inexpensive tablets and Ultrathins, with a very low consumption but with some power and performance, with a CPU supported at all times by an integrated graphics of the Radeon HD 8000 series.

Going up a bit in the performance ladder we have Kabini, some chips that slightly increase consumption but maintaining contained figures, however their performance increases, both CPU and GPU. Finally, the Richland APUs are more focused on offering performance without taking into account both the consumption, for high-performance laptops or even desktops and all in one.

In the computex 2013 AMD has shown us several devices that update their APUS to the new batch of chips such as the Acer Aspire V5-552, an Ultrathin that features a APU A8-557M with a Integrated Radeon HD 8550G and a dedicated Radeon HD 8750M to offer more graphics power. The ASUS U38 that we were able to test in its previous version, it is also updated with the new APUs, specifically with a AMD A10-5745 con su GPU integrada Radeon HD 8610G.

We could also see the new Richland APU running on a desktop computer, able to move with the integrated graphics and without problems the new SimCity. In the all-in-one sector we were able to test the HP Pavilion 20 TouchSmart, an all-in-one computer with a multi-touch screen and Windows 8 that makes use of a APU Cabin E2-3000 low consumption with GPU Radeon HD8280

Computex 2013. AMD. Devices with the new APUs and interview with Michelle Wells, Image 2

Then we leave you with the interview that we were able to carry out with Michelle Wells,Ā Senior Product Marketing ManagerĀ de AMD, who has told us about the company’s intentions and plans regarding the tablet and Ultrathins market, as well as its new APUs and future Kavery chips with HSA (Heterogeneous System Architecture).

Computex 2013. AMD. Devices with the new APUs and interview with Michelle Wells, Image 3

 

Question: This year the Temash platform has won the ā€œBest Choice Awardā€, which makes it obvious that AMD is betting heavily on the format of tablet and convertible tablets, are there plans in the future to enter the market for chips for smartphones?

Answer: AMD is aware of the importance of this market but for the moment we are focused on the market for products based on the Temash platform such as tablets and next generation convertible hybrids.

Question: We can see how ultrathin laptops are becoming very economical and are becoming a great option due to their excellent performance / price ratio. If we look back at what happened to netbooks, we saw them take off and now they have practically disappeared. Why is this not going to happen with ultrathins devices and tablets?

Answer: If we look at the netbook market the problem was that despite being small and thin and was what many people were looking for, it happened before the arrival of tablets. They really weren’t performing enough, it was really frustrating as you couldn’t get Windows to work properly and you couldn’t use your favorite applications. When we look at the performance of ultrathins, they are able to run Windows fully and comfortably and at the same time be economical. The consumer can finally buy a nice little laptop with great performance and be economical at the same time. Anyone can go to a store and buy one. We are not looking to focus on 1200 or 1400 euro devices, it is a market that is declining. We want to make sure we focus on affordable, high-performance, high-volume devices that are affordable for everyone. We can say that the main difference is that netbooks sacrificed performance to be economical and ultrathin despite being economical provide great performance.

Question: It is clear that the new mobility computing concepts are changing the entire panorama, especially within the PC world, towards precisely a model of less consumption and more efficiency. This is also influencing desktop PCs with an increasingly important addition to the market for All in One solutions. Do you think AMD’s current and upcoming solutions are ready for this trend? And if so, what benefits do you think differentiate your products from the competition?

Answer: All in Ones are especially important to me because they are the only devices on the desktop market that are really gaining market share. When we see an All in One and we see the designs that there are, we see that they are thinner, much more beautiful, almost the same thing that is happening with laptops. If we take a look at our products, we always focus on performance, but also architecture efficiency. We have brought quad core processors to a price range of 400 euros, there has never been a quad core there. What’s also great about Kabini is the efficiency of the architecture. That is why we are going to start seeing Kabinis in All in Ones that are going to be very very fine. We will also see Richland in All in Ones for its architecture. We want to make sure that All in Ones follow those nice designs, innovation just like ultrathins are happening.

Question: Upcoming consoles use your HSA technology, which is a great achievement for AMD. Do game developers need to make changes to the way they develop video games?

Answer: We have been gaming on dedicated graphics for many many years, now we are bringing gaming experiences to ultrabooks and all in ones, and finally to consoles. The interesting thing is that all these gaming experiences will work on AMD technologies. When we play all these great games it will be on AMD devices. Therefore it does not matter if you are in the United States where the community of console gamers is huge or if you are in Europe where it is played more on PC. You will always get the best possible experience thanks to AMD technology. This means that with respect to developers, by using the same architecture, it will make everything easier and cheaper for them.

Question: Do you think the fact that the HSA is coming to consoles is going to make you bet on it too?

Answer: It is interesting because in PC gaming environments, we have made a great effort on the development platforms to take into account the raw power but also the energy savings. I think it’s a bit premature to guess how the HSA architecture is going to fit into the world of PC gaming. The PC user will still want to have dedicated graphics to play with. Making it possible to play under an HSA architecture on PC is a possibility that we are going to bring to the market. Games is one of the interesting experiences that an HSA architecture user will be able to obtain. Ultimately it will depend on the game. We will be able to see games that will continue to provide great experiences with impressive graphics and we will also begin to see more and more games that will be able to be played on the APU for their graphical capabilities.

Question: The HSA architecture in Kavery will also be very useful for GPGPU applications. Are the big developers of this type of application prepared to take advantage of this new architecture?

Answer: For Kavery we have not talked much about how we are working with developers in general but taking into account that in the past we have had a very good relationship with them and we see what we have obtained with Trinity, not only in games but also in applications from developers of the such as Cyberlink, Corel, Adobe, etc., I am sure there will be no problem. I would say that in the last 4 years we have made a great effort to increase the community of developers who support our technologies and develop using our architectures with graphics. Right now we have a great relationship with thousands of software development companies so we can expect to see applications that take advantage of the HSA architecture as we get closer to launch.

Question: Are there plans to launch HSA for ultrathin devices?

Answer: As we approach the end of the year we will begin to see Kavery-based systems, it would be expected that in the next cycle renewal we will see HSA-based laptops.

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