Tuesday, March 12th 2013

AMD Announces Next-Generation "Richland" A-Series Mobile APUs

AMD today announced the first availability of the AMD Elite A-Series Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), codenamed "Richland." The new AMD Elite A-Series APUs deliver innovative user experiences like facial log-in and gesture recognition, improved graphics1 and compute performance over the previous generation, and enhanced power management capabilities on a single chip.

"The high performance AMD A-Series APU continues to impress with its ability to deliver stunning graphics and immersive experiences with even more battery life. Our engineers have done a superb job of increasing processor performance while decreasing power consumption," said Bernd Lienhard, corporate vice president and general manager of AMD's Client Business Unit. "With the capabilities built into our 2013 AMD Elite A-Series APUs, including new software for gesture control, facial recognition, rich entertainment and more lifelike gaming, we are delivering an ever richer experience to end users and our customers."
With faster performance and improved power management in the same platform architecture as its predecessor, coupled with AMD Radeon HD 8000 Series graphics, the 2013 AMD Elite A-Series APUs build on the award-winning history of AMD's original APU line-up to help users get the most out of their notebooks, whether at work, at home or on-the-go.

Differentiated User Experiences
The new AMD Elite A-Series APUs leverage the power of the combined compute and graphics cores to accelerate a suite of available software experiences that can dramatically expand and enhance the user experience:
  • AMD Face Login - Uses facial recognition technology and a webcam to allow for quick log-in to Windows and other browser-based websites that require a log-in, like social networking sites and email services;
  • AMD Gesture Control - Tracks a user's hand gestures and converts them into commands for basic functions on media players, browsers, e-readers and other popular applications leveraging a webcam, advanced image processing and machine-vision algorithms;
  • AMD Screen Mirror - Wirelessly shares content like photos, videos, HD media streams and webpages from a PC or tablet based on a 2013 AMD A-Series APU with any supported TV or display with a DLNA receiver, or with other PCs. Available only on select AMD-based devices;
  • AMD Video Entertainment Features - Make your content look its very best: AMD Steady Video technology gives users push-button control over shaky home video and helps stabilize the images for better viewing; AMD Quick Stream technology7 enables smooth video streaming and a virtually interruption free streaming experience; and AMD Perfect Picture HD8, creates rich and lifelike color on video entertainment.
This optimized-for-AMD software will come pre-loaded on select AMD Elite A-Series APU-based notebooks later this year and will be downloadable from AMD website next month.

Next Level Performance
Through engineering optimizations on the previous generation of the AMD A-Series APU platform architecture (formerly codenamed "Trinity") and updated graphics, the 2013 AMD Elite A-Series APUs feature significant performance increases, along with support for high-end technologies:
  • Visual and compute performance increases over the previous generation of AMD A-Series APUs;
  • AMD Start Now Technology for tablet-like responsiveness;
    Improved AMD Turbo CORE technology with higher boost frequencies than the previous generation, for more performance when you need it and energy conservation when you don't;
  • Support for AMD Eyefinity technology10, AMD Radeon Dual Graphics, and DirectX 11.
Enhanced Power Management
AMD continues a power/performance leadership through the latest generation of power management technologies. These boosting and throttling technologies enable more intelligent, higher compute and graphics core performance to help enhance PC responsiveness and extend battery life. Building on the idea of AMD AllDay Power, the 2013 AMD Elite A-Series Platform enables up to 7.9 hours of web browsing, 5.7 hours of HD video playback and up to 10 hours of resting battery life on a 55 watt/hour battery.

Availability and Technical Details
Performance and traditional notebooks based on these 2013 AMD Elite A-Series APUs are shipping now with availability beginning this month in select regions. Model numbers and technical details for each are as follows:
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35 Comments on AMD Announces Next-Generation "Richland" A-Series Mobile APUs

#26
r9
I would bet that is version of PS3 APU with modifications that would allow them to make it and not get sued by Sony. The cores are very similar to E300/E1200 which are uber crap. Powerful GPU inside 78XX class though.
Posted on Reply
#27
NeoXF
r9I would bet that is version of PS3 APU with modifications that would allow them to make it and not get sued by Sony. The cores are very similar to E300/E1200 which are uber crap. Powerful GPU inside 78XX class though.
What the heck are you talking about!?
Posted on Reply
#28
Aquinus
Resident Wat-man
r9I would bet that is version of PS3 APU with modifications that would allow them to make it and not get sued by Sony. The cores are very similar to E300/E1200 which are uber crap. Powerful GPU inside 78XX class though.
NeoXFWhat the heck are you talking about!?
+1: First time I read it, I was pretty confused.

I think I get it though:
A: AMD owns the rights, I doubt Sony has many grounds to sue AMD for any use of their own technology.
B: You say that these Jaguar cores are going to be "uber crap," how do you figure? Games are getting developed for this platform specifically, so why is there a need for high clocks? It will increase power consumption and heat generation for something that most likely isn't needed.

I suspect 8 (full, discrete) cores at 1.6Ghz is more than up to the task if a game is properly multi-threaded and considering every PS34 has 8 cores I'm willing to bet game developers are going to take advantage of that.
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#29
NeoXF
Aquinus+1: First time I read it, I was pretty confused.

I think I get it though:
A: AMD owns the rights, I doubt Sony has many grounds to sue AMD for any use of their own technology.
B: You say that these Jaguar cores are going to be "uber crap," how do you figure? Games are getting developed for this platform specifically, so why is there a need for high clocks? It will increase power consumption and heat generation for something that most likely isn't needed.

I suspect 8 (full, discrete) cores at 1.6Ghz is more than up to the task if a game is properly multi-threaded and considering every PS3 has 8 cores I'm willing to bet game developers are going to take advantage of that.
Well, that clears some stuff up, but with the mention that: 1. It's PS4 not 3; 2. Jaguar cores have next to nothing in common with E3xx Bobcats; 3. This is about Richland, AMD's workhorse-level APU, not the LV/ULV nonsense (well, at least untill they launch the 17/19/25W parts later on).


I'm waiting for some reviews... hopefully some with A10-5750M with 1866MHz RAM, should get around 1500 3DMarks in Vantage Performance, and that's pretty sweet... almost double of what Intel's highest end HD4000 can. Also, some overview/tests on AMD's "new" dual-graphics (like HD 8650G + HD 8730M that some slides showed... same compute units count, but VLIW4 + GCN @ similar clocks and bandwidths).
Posted on Reply
#30
Aquinus
Resident Wat-man
NeoXF1. It's PS4 not 3
My bad, person I was quoting got it wrong too.
NeoXF2. Jaguar cores have next to nothing in common with E3xx Bobcats
Not true. Jaguar has a very similar pipeline to Bobcat, just one extra stage. Jaguar is to be the next line of low-power CPU cores.
NeoXF3. This is about Richland, AMD's workhorse-level APU, not the LV/ULV nonsense (well, at least untill they launch the 17/19/25W parts later on).
It's not nonsense because there are plenty of applications for low power computing. Also I was replying to the post and I agree that it is slightly off topic.
NeoXFI'm waiting for some reviews... hopefully some with A10-5750M with 1866MHz RAM, should get around 1500 3DMarks in Vantage Performance, and that's pretty sweet... almost double of what Intel's highest end HD4000 can. Also, some overview/tests on AMD's "new" dual-graphics (like HD 8650G HD 8730M that some slides showed... same compute units count, but VLIW4 GCN @ similar clocks and bandwidths).
Yeah. I'm really curious to see what Intel churns out with the GT3 on Haswell though. I suspect that AMD will hold a reasonable lead with iGPU performance despite Intel's improvements. We shall see. :D
Posted on Reply
#31
NeoXF
AquinusIt's not nonsense because there are plenty of applications for low power computing. Also I was replying to the post and I agree that it is slightly off topic.
Ah well, I was speaking metaphorically anyway, I know low-power computing is big, it's just that APUs will be of more interest to most of us on this forum in the standard power brackets for mobile/desktop, especially if they actually turn out as the successors to the "classical" CPUs.


I'm really digging the mobile A10, might skip desktop for the time being, with the Haswell bug (and lackluster performance), no mainstream 6-core Intels and the boring desktop Richlands. And keep an eye out for Broadwell, Steamroller, Kaveri, DDR4 and GDDR5 for system memory.
Posted on Reply
#32
btarunr
Editor & Senior Moderator
r9I would bet that is version of PS3 APU with modifications that would allow them to make it and not get sued by Sony. The cores are very similar to E300/E1200 which are uber crap. Powerful GPU inside 78XX class though.
PS4 APU uses "Jaguar" cores, these use "Richland" ones.
Posted on Reply
#33
xorbe
Still patiently waiting 5 weeks later! I gave up waiting for FM2 parts and built an A8-5500 mini-itx setup last week, but for the laptop I am waiting for Richland.
Posted on Reply
#34
NeoXF
xorbeStill patiently waiting 5 weeks later! I gave up waiting for FM2 parts and built an A8-5500 mini-itx setup last week, but for the laptop I am waiting for Richland.
It's weird you say that because desktop versions are supposed to be launching later than the mobile ones anyway.

Anyway, I'd expect the A10-5750M (with DDR3-1866 RAM) to be about as fast as the desktop A10-5800K.
Speaking of which, A10-6700 apparently is about 25% faster in 3DMark 2013 than A10-5800K according to some leaked benches...

3DMark 11 Fire Strike (DirectX 11):
AMD A10-6700 - 1131 Points / GPU score 1212
AMD A10-5800K – 919 Points / GPU score 987
Intel Core i5-3570K - 630 Points / GPU score 656

3DMark 11 Cloud Gate (DirectX 10):
AMD A10-6700 - 6450 Points / GPU score 8933
AMD A10-5800K - 5645 Points / GPU score 7418
Intel Core i5-3570K - 5348 Points / GPU score 5545

3DMark 11 Ice Storm (DirectX 9):
AMD A10-6700 – 86027 GPU Points
AMD A10-5800K - 65657 GPU Points
Posted on Reply
#35
xorbe
NeoXFIt's weird you say that because desktop versions are supposed to be launching later than the mobile ones anyway.
Er, yeah my post is confusing. The laptop is for my brother, and it's been 5 weeks since the Richland mobile chip news. We might just grab an i7/660M instead. I've also been planning a separate mini-itx setup for a linux audio project for a long time, but yeah the new fm2 chips aren't until June according to the rumors (and then plus a month delay like this?), but my coding has reached a place where virtualbox falls over latency-wise, so now I have a 5500 already. Yeah, the 6700 was my pick, but the 5500 is overkill already it turns out. Trying to make a DIY guide, and keep the costs minimal ...
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