Pimp my APU
Chip-maker AMD has announced a range of enhancements to its C and E series APUs, the first of its Fusion processor generation.
Prior to their launch at the start of the year, these entry-level notebook APUs, which combine the CPU and graphics onto one piece of silicon, were referred to collectively as ‘Brazos' (‘arms' in Spanish), with Ontario (C series) running at 9W and Zacate (E series) at 18W.
While those power draws remain unchanged, AMD is claiming a four hour increase in the ‘resting battery life' of systems based on these chips - to 10.5 hours for the E series and 12 hours for the C series. This implies AMD has been working on the power-management side of things, but that the active battery life will remain roughly the same.
Other than that we have DisplayPort++ and some undefined enhanced graphics and memory. The E series has got DDR3 1333 and HDMI 1.4a support. These augmented chips are available from today.
"Today's PC users want stunning HD graphics and accelerated performance with all-day battery life and that's what AMD Fusion APUs deliver," said Chris Cloran, VP and GM of the client division at AMD. "With these new APUs, we're bringing premium features to entry-level products that let users get a richer computing experience."
