First high-performance Accelerated Processing Unit in a System-on-Chip design redefines the notebook processor, delivering up to 2x the battery life than before and 2x the gaming performance of competing platforms
Yesterday, AMD announced its 6th Generation A-Series Processor – the world’s first high-performance Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) in a System-on-Chip (SoC) design.
Previously codenamed “Carrizo”, the 6th Generation AMD A-Series Processor takes advantage of extensive AMD processor and graphics IP enabling exceptional computing experiences not possible before. The 6th Generation AMD A-Series Processor is a versatile notebook processor, built to excel at consumer and business applications, delivering premium streaming entertainment, smooth online gaming, and innovative computing experiences, with all day unplugged performance.
The world’s first high-performance Accelerated Processing Unit in a SoC design marks a number of technology firsts: the world’s first High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) hardware decode support for notebooks, the first Heterogeneous Systems Architecture (HSA) 1.0-compliant design, and the first ARM® TrustZone®-capable high-performance APU. The new processor harnesses up to 12 Compute Cores – 4 CPU + 8 GPU – leveraging AMD “Excavator” cores and the third generation of AMD’s award-winning Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture. The result is a groundbreaking processor that boasts more than twice the battery life of its predecessor, up to 2x faster gaming performance than competitive processors, innovative computing experiences enabled through HSA, and a premium Microsoft® Windows® 10 experience with support for DirectX® 12, adding up to an extraordinary experience for consumers.
“The notebook remains the ideal, versatile, connected hub in people’s lives – the one device that does it all and does it well, and today’s consumer shouldn’t have to pay a premium to enjoy high quality streaming video, superior online gaming, and powerful content management as mainstays of today’s computing experience,” said Matt Skynner, corporate VP and general manager, Products at AMD. “That changes today with the 6th Generation AMD A-Series Processor, designed to deliver exceptional experiences never before seen in a mainstream notebook, truly making innovation available to everyone. Our partners have plans to introduce our 6th-generation APU in many of today’s most innovative notebook platforms, demonstrating the full potential of the APU’s capabilities.”
“AMD and Microsoft continue to make personal computing with advancements in Windows® 10 and DirectX® 12 and the introduction today of AMD 6th Generation A-Series processors,” said Roanne Sones, general manager, Operating Systems Group, Microsoft Corp. “Consumers will enjoy the most compelling features of Windows® 10, enabling a great notebook experience.”
Streaming Entertainment Capabilities
- 6th Generation AMD A-Series Processors bring HEVC/H.265 to the notebook for the first time, enabling consumers to benefit from higher quality, lower bandwidth streaming video playback versus traditional H.264 videos.
- Superb visual quality for entertainment including support for Ultra HD resolution videos using AMD Perfect Picture with Steady Video technology.
- Benefit from energy-efficient playback that allows for almost 2x more viewing on a single battery charge than its predecessor.
- Power through media conversion faster with up to 5x accelerated encoding performance compared to CPU-only processing.
Smooth Online Gaming
- 6th Generation AMD A-Series Processors come with discrete-class graphics built in, harnessing AMD Radeon™ Graphics Core Next (GCN) Architecture to deliver up to 2x the gaming performance of competitive processors.
- Enjoy true, playable HD notebook gaming with the most popular online titles including DoTA 2, League of Legends, and Counter Strike: Global Offensive, among others.
- Play for hours unplugged on the latest eSports titles, almost twice the duration of its predecessor.7
- AMD Dual Graphics combining 6th Generation AMD Notebook Processors with select AMD Radeon™ R7 Mobile graphics to boost frame rates in games by up to 42 percent.8
- Smooth, stutter- and tear-free gaming with AMD FreeSync™ technology.9
- Be ready for the future with support for multi-threaded APIs including DirectX™ 12, Vulkan™ and AMD’s Mantle that enable the most advanced gaming technologies designed to improve performance and visual fidelity.
Innovative Computing Experiences
- 6th Generation AMD A-Series Processors punch above their weight, harnessing up to 12 Compute Cores (4 CPU + 8 GPU) to realize up to twice the performance of competitive solutions in compute-heavy workloads.10
- AMD Gesture Control is available on mainstream notebooks, allowing users to navigate and control their notebook with a simple wave of the hand without added costs.11
- For the most complete Microsoft Windows® 10 experience, 6th Generation AMD A-Series Processors accelerate video playback on the forthcoming operating system with native HEVC decode supported, and enable the latest Windows® 10 features with Secure boot and resume, Trusted Platform Module (TPM 2.0), and Drive Key Encryption using the first AMD Secure Processor for performance APUs.
Notebooks featuring the 6th Generation AMD A-Series Processor will be available from top OEMs starting in June.
