AMD to churn out quad-x86 chips for tablet-notebooks

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) has recently stated that it has demonstrated working silicon of two quad-core x86 system-chips intended for ultrathin notebooks and convertible tablet notebooks. Both system-chips are speculated to have been made using a 28nm manufacturing process.

Both system chips are scheduled to ship in the first half of 2013, AMD said, but the company did not provide details of the chips' maximum clock frequencies or power consumption.

Codenamed Temash and Kabini, AMD demonstrated applications and games running on a Kabini-based ultrathin notebook and on a Temash convertible tablet-notebook at Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

AMD did say it expects Temash to be the highest-performance SoC for tablets, with 100 percent more graphics processing performance than its predecessor, called Hondo. Kabini will be shipped in two- and four-core versions, and AMD said it expects the chip to deliver an increase of more than 50 percent in performance over its earlier processor called Brazos 2.0. Both chips are expected to include GCN-based graphics. GCN – graphics core next – is the basis of AMD's SIMD-based GPUs.

Announced last February, Temash combines AMD's Jaguar x86 core, graphics processor and a south bridge in a 28nm SoC, the first integrated tablet chip created under AMD's new executive team. It competes with Intel's Atom-based Clover Trail which debuted in September with about a dozen design wins.

AMD also introduced a 32nm APU, codenamed "Richland," which it is currently shipping to OEMs. AMD said it expected to ship Richland with bundled software for gesture and facial recognition. The follow-on to Richland will be the 28nm APU, codenamed "Kaveri," which is expected to begin shipping to customers in the second half of 2013.

- Peter Clarke, with input from Rick Merritt
??EE Times