AMD Reveals New Embedded G-Series APUs

Embedded systems may not be the sexiest to talk about, but they're becoming increasingly powerful (and increasingly important). AMD has just announced the immediate availability of two new AMD Embedded G-Series APUs (Accelerated Processing Units) with thermal design power (TDP) ratings of 5.5 and 6.4 watts, up to a 39 percent power savings compared to earlier versions. These new builds are ideal for compact, fanless embedded systems like digital signage, kiosks, mobile industrial devices and many of the new emerging industry-standard small form factors such as Qseven. And we get the feeling that it won't be long before embedded chips are powerful enough to be slipped into phones and tablets, at least on the low-end.

It's also a huge leap for the embedded market, as these feature x86 Bobcat CPU cores and a discreet DirectX 11-capable GPU on a single die. Buddy Broeker, director, Embedded Solutions, AMD, had this to say: "We have seen many of our embedded customers deploy fanless systems even with our 15W TDP processors in the past. Today we take the ground-breaking AMD Fusion APU well below 7W TDP and shatter the accepted traditional threshold for across-the-board fanless enablement."


Systems based on the new low power AMD Embedded G-Series platform include an industrial mobile device from Amtek, a Pico-ITX single board computer from Axiomtek, a Qseven form factor computer-on-module from datakamp, and a fanless digital signage platform from iBASE. Additional customers are expected to bring new products to market in the coming quarters, and we're hoping to get pricing details even sooner.
Tags:  AMD, GPU, CPU, Embedded, Chip