AMD Ushers in Next Generation of Computing with AMD A-Series APUs

New AMD Fusion APUs enable brilliant graphics, supercomputer-like performance and all day battery life¹.

AMD announced the next generation in mainstream consumer computing with the availability of the new high-performance AMD Fusion A-Series Accelerated Processing Units (APUs).

Enabling truly immersive computing experiences in consumer notebooks and desktops, the AMD A-Series APUs enable brilliant HD graphics, supercomputer-like performance and over 10.5 hours of battery life².

In an increasingly digital and visually oriented world, consumers are placing ever-higher priorities on multitasking, vivid graphics, lifelike games, lag-free videos, and ultimate multimedia performance. To meet these needs, the AMD A-Series APUs combine up to four x86 CPU cores with powerful DirectX®11-capable discrete-level graphics and up to 400 Radeon™ cores along with dedicated HD video processing on a single chip. AMD A-Series APUs also allow for advanced capabilities such as gestural interfaces, multi-monitor support, 3D entertainment and real-time image stabilization³.

“The AMD A-Series APU represents an inflection point for AMD and is perhaps the industry’s biggest architectural change since the invention of the microprocessor,” said Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager, AMD Products Group. “It heralds the arrival of brilliant all-new computing experiences, and enables unprecedented graphics and video performance in notebooks and PCs. Beginning today we are bringing discrete-class graphics to the mainstream.”

The AMD A-Series APUs (previously codenamed “Llano”) are currently shipping and scheduled to appear in more than 150 notebooks and desktops⁴ from leading OEMs throughout the second quarter of 2011 and beyond. Delivering powerful serial and parallel computing capabilities for HD video, 3D rendering and data-intensive workloads in a single-die processor, the AMD A-Series APUs offer software developers unprecedented power and potential in an ever smaller package.

AMD AllDay™ Power: Battery Life that Lasts

The AMD A-Series APU delivers the power to match how consumers actually use their PCs: all day – without sacrificing performance. Delivering more than 10.5 hours of resting battery life – a more than 50 percent increase compared to the 2010 AMD Mainstream Platform – users can get their work done or watch multiple HD movies on a single charge⁵. Additionally, AMD dynamic switchable graphics optimize battery life on PCs featuring AMD dual-graphics solutions by intelligently managing power states on the APU and separate discrete AMD Radeon™ GPU.

“The battery life of the AMD A-Series APU is a huge leap forward and will surprise many consumers and commercial customers,” said Chris Cloran, Vice President and General Manager, Client Division, AMD. “And the supercomputer-like performance will give people some revolutionary capabilities, like real-time image stabilization –taking out all the shakes and jitters in those hand-held videos on the fly, while you’re watching.”

Brilliant HD: Every Pixel Matters

People are making, sharing and enjoying more digital content than ever on their PCs, and the AMD VISION Engine - cutting-edge hardware and software featured with every AMD A-Series APU that automatically helps digital content like videos, games and photos look their best. HD video is crystal clear through dedicated video playback technology and dynamic post-processing, and websites render faster with accelerated HTML5 and Direct2D performance. Editing, transferring and viewing HD content is fast and easy with support for advanced connection standards, including HDMI 1.4a, DisplayPort 1.1, and USB 3.0, along with native support for multiple monitors.

Also introduced with the AMD A-Series APU is a new feature called AMD Steady Video⁶ designed to stabilize videos during playback – making unsteady, jumpy content look steady and smooth. The AMD A-Series APU can also enables advanced capabilities like gestural interfaces, 3D gaming and 3D Blu-ray video entertainment – features that are now key to consumer PC experiences and expectations.

Every PC built with an AMD A-Series APU delivers brilliant HD by offering discrete-class DirectX® 11-capable graphics – with models available at virtually every price point. Only AMD Fusion APUs offer true AMD Dual Graphics, with up to 75 percent graphics performance boost, when paired with an AMD Radeon™ discrete graphics card⁷.  This faster, higher-quality, more vivid and lifelike delivery makes consumers feel fully present in their digital world, especially when gaming.

Personal Supercomputing: Ultimate Performance

Consumers are doing more than ever before with their PCs – from work to play – and with the AMD A-Series APU, even their laptops can keep up, delivering  next generation  parallel processing.  With up to 400 gigaflops for notebook, and up to 500 gigaflops for desktops⁸, AMD A-Series APUs ensure users have the horsepower needed to handle the most demanding applications such as video and image processing, facial recognition, gesture recognition and multitasking scenarios. For the most challenging environments, AMD Fusion A-Series APUs offer AMD Turbo Core Technology, which dynamically optimizes and boosts CPU and GPU performance to power-efficient levels depending on the applications being run.

The Growing AMD Fusion Ecosystem

AMD has seen great momentum in the software developer community since the launch of AMD Fusion APUs in January 2011, with more than 50 leading applications now accelerated by the family of AMD Fusion APUs and advanced browsers like Internet Explorer 9 delivering even more immersive, next generation web experiences when running on an AMD Fusion APU-powered PC. And, the inaugural AMD Fusion Developer Summit, running now through June 16 in Seattle, Washington, is providing a forum for developers, academics and innovators to collaborate around parallel programming and industry standards, like OpenCL™, helping the software ecosystem build on the promise of the latest computing methodologies.

Supporting Resources

• Read about recent AMD Fusion news at http://blogs.amd.com/fusion/
• Visit the AMD Fusion website for more information about AMD Fusion APUs 
• See the VISION Technology website for updates on branding program
• Check out demos of AMD Fusion APUs on the AMD Unprocessed YouTube Channel 
• Follow all news from the AMD on Twitter at @AMD_Unprocessed 
• Watch Keynotes from the AMD Fusion Developer Summit
• View the webcast from the AMD A-Series Launch Event

Related news about AMD products

• AMD Reintroduces FX Brand for High-End Processors and Platforms at E3
• AMD Paves the Way for the Next Generation of Supercharged Desktop PCs with 9-series Chipsets
• AMD Fusion Accelerated Processing Units Win 2011 Best Choice of COMPUTEX TAIPEI Award
• Ready. Willing. And Stable. Get AMD Now.

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1. ^{AMD defines “All Day” Battery life as 8+ hours as measured with Windows Idle.}
2. ^{Testing conducted by AMD performance labs using a 2011 Sabine Reference Design “Torpedo” showed 628 minutes (10:28 hrs) using Windows Idle as a “Resting" metric. “Active” battery life using FutureMark® 3DMark™06 as workload test showed 218 minutes (2:58 hrs). Battery life calculations are based on using a 6 cell Li-Ion 62.16Whr battery pack at 98% utilization.  AMD defines “all-day” battery life as a score of 8+ hours. SNB-I1}
3. ^{Additional hardware (e.g. Blu-ray drive, HD or 10-bit monitor, TV tuner, Wireless HDMI connection) and/or software (e.g. multimedia applications)  are required for the full enablement of some features.  HD video requires an HD video source.  Not all features may be supported on all components or systems - check with your component or system manufacturer for specific model capabilities and supported technologies. CP-05}
4. ^{AMD internal estimates.}
5. ^{Testing conducted by AMD performance labs on the 2011 AMD mainstream Notebook Platform show power consumption during Blu-Ray playback capable of up to 200 minutes on a single battery charge or enough for 2, 100 minute movies.  Testing  was conducted using CyberLink PowerDVD 10 with a Hollywood movie at29Mbps with AVC encoding. The 2011 VISION A4-based PC consisted of the reference platform “Torpedo” with the AMD Dual-Core A4-3300M APU, with AMD Radeon™ HD 6480G graphics, 2GB (1x2GB) DDR-1333Mhz system memory, and Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit with a 62.16Whr battery pack.}
6. ^{AMD Steady Video is a technology designed to eliminate shakes and jitters during the playback of home video.  Users may turn on this technology via the AMD Catalyst Control Center™ or the VISION Engine Control Center application. AMD Steady Video will work with content that can run on Adobe® Flash® Player 10.2 (and later versions) or on any player which has been programmed to use Microsoft’s DXVA (DirectX Video Acceleration) API. AMD Steady Video is not designed to (a) isolate overlays, logos or captions, or (b) improve the playback of letter boxed, premium/commercial, or interlaced content.  AMD Steady Video is only recommended for use with videos that contain unwanted shakes and jitters.}
7. ^{Testing done in AMD Performance Labs using 3DMark Vantage – Performance Benchmark as a metric for visual performance, in the best of 3 runs. The AMD A8 APU-based system scored 4038 marks while the AMD A8 APU-based Dual Graphics system scored 9021 marks. All scores rounded to the nearest whole number.}
8. ^{Theoretical peak performance of the AMD A-Series “Llano” APU.}