AMD will launch its first Fusion APU processors next year. The energy efficient processors will mainly be used in notebooks, but as you perhaps know also desktop solutions will be available. It has now been revealed that both motherboard and graphics card makers are planning solutiosn for the AMD Brazos platform.
AMD have released information that reveal that not only the three leading retail motherboard makers are working on boards built around the new E and C series of Fusion APUs, but also Sapphire has advanced plans for using the energy efficient processors on motherboards.
AMD E series was developed under the name Zacate and si a dual-core processor clocked at up to 1.66GHz and with built-in DirectX 11 GPU it consumes at most 18 watt. Zacate is expected to be the more interesting circuit for AMD’s Brazos platform, but also little brother Ontario and the AMD C series is included in the plans – a circuits that gets similar functions but lower performance and power consumption, only 9 watt.
| APU | CPU cores | CPU clock. | GPU | GPU cores | GPU clockf. | TDP |
| AMD E-350 | 2 | 1.6GHz | Radeon HD 6310 | 80 | 500MHz | 18W |
| AMD E-240 | 1 | 1.5GHz | Radeon HD 6310 | 80 | 500MHz | 18W |
| AMD C-50 | 2 | 1.0GHz | Radeon HD 6250 | 80 | 280MHz | 9W |
| AMD C-30 | 1 | 1.2GHz | Radeon HD 6250 | 80 | 280MHz | 9W |
Common for the platforms is that most companies will use the small size and lower power consumption to their advantage. We have already seen Gigabyte working on a Mini ITX motherboard – Gigabyte GA-E350V-USB3 – with integrated AMD E-350 APU and overclocking functions, but also MSI and other partnersare working on Mini ITX platforms with AMD’s new circuits. This sounds very promising for HTPC enthusiasts and users looking for an energy efficient system with decent performance.
“MSI has developed several new Mini-ITX and uATX motherboards designed to unleash the power of AMD’s E-Series APU for superior multimedia performance,” säger Scott Yang, vice VD för moderkortsförsäljning och marknadsföring på MSI. “Our latest motherboards featuring the AMD E-Series APU are designed for long-term use in small, quiet PCs ranging from silent Mini-ITX desktops to home digital media.”
The companies adds that not only is AMD’s Brazos platform cheap to maintain, but also cheap to make. We can therefore hope for competitive prices when the platforms reach the shelves. AMD Brazos is expected to be found in systems competing with Intel’s Atom platform, which can today be found almost anywhere.
Gigabyte GA-E350V-USB3 will be one of many Brazos motherboards
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