When AMD released its new line of Fusion Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) the first week of January, the company touted the smaller chips as being ideal for low-cost notebooks, desktops, and even all-in-ones. But today AMD has announced that it is expanding the Fusion line in the next logical direction: toward embedded systems.
There are two chips in the Embedded G-Series platform, both 64-bit and based on AMD's "Bobcat" core: one is single-core and one is dual-core, with clock speeds ranging up to 1.6GHz, memory controllers supporting two modules of DDR3-800 and DDR3-1066 RAM, and the third generation of AMD's Unified Video Decoder (UVD3). Both chips have 1MB of L2 cache and a graphics core that supports DirectX 11. The single-core chip has a thermal design power (TDP) of 9 watts; the dual-core chip has a TDP of 18 watts.
The new Embedded G-Series platform will be intended for use in casino games, digital signing, Internet-ready TV set-top boxes, kiosks, medical imaging, point-of-sale systems, thin clients (both mobile and desktop), and other similar applications, where low power usage and the combination of the CPU and a discrete GPU on the same processing die make sense.
The Embedded G-Series open-development ecosystem includes multiple BIOS options, support for a number of operating systems (Windows and Linux, as well as real-time), source-level debug tools, and the integrated OpenCLTM programming environment. Among available online resources are an embedded developer portal, AMD embedded product selection guide, and customer-submitted details on available boards and complete systems.
In a statement, Patrick Patla, corporate vice president and general manager of AMD's Server and Embedded Division, said, "AMD's commitment is to ensure the game-changing technologies we develop for consumers and the enterprise are also available for the vast and growing embedded market. Today, we have a record number of embedded launch partners. They are using the unique advancements of the AMD Embedded G-Series APU to develop a brand new generation of highly differentiated, energy-efficient, small form-factor embedded systems that can deliver the vivid visual experience expected in our always-connected world."
According to an AMD press release, embedded systems based on AMD Embedded G-Series chips are either available today, or slated to arrive within the next few weeks, from companies including Advansus, Compulab, Congatec, Fujitsu, Haier, iEi, Kontron, Mitec, Quixant, Sintrones, Starnet, WebDT, and Wyse.