AMD Bakes New Interface Capabilities Into Richland APUs

Advanced Micro Devices on Tuesday announced that it is now shipping its new Elite A-Series accelerated processing units (APUs). These laptop and mobile device chips, formerly code named Richland, are designed for cutting-edge PC interfaces like facial and gesture recognition.

AMD’s new Elite A-Series chips combine central processing and graphics processing on a single chip, offering improved performance in both areas over the company’s previous-generation APUs, AMD said.

“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,” Bernd Lienhard, corporate vice president and general manager of AMD’s Client Business Unit, said in a statement.

“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,” he said.

AMD said four new Richland-class APUs are now shipping to OEMs and should appear in performance and mainstream laptops starting in March. The new APUs all feature AMD’s Radeon HD 8000 Series graphics. Here are the speeds and feeds, including base and boosted clock speeds for both the CPU and GPU in these chips:

AMD described new technologies baked into its Elite A-Series APUs as follows:

• 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 Web pages 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: AMD Steady Video technology gives users push-button control over shaky home video and helps stabilize the images for better viewing; AMD Quick Stream technology enables smooth video streaming and a virtually interruption-free streaming experience; and AMD Perfect Picture HD, which creates rich and lifelike color on video entertainment

The APUs also improve upon the previous generation in areas like power management, boot times, and frequency boosting via AMD’s Turbo CORE technology, the chip maker said. As with earlier products, the Elite A-Series APUs support AMD’s Eyefinity multi-monitor technology, as well as dual graphics configurations and DirectX 11.

By Damon Poeter, PCMag