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AMD To Power Samsung’s Digital Media
AMD’s Embedded R-Series accelerated processing unit, previously codenamed “Bald Eagle,” is powering Samsung’s latest set-back-box digital media players.
Bald Eagle was designed for high performance at low power with broad connectivity but mostly for digital signage.
It seems that new Samsung SBB-B64DV4 is intended for demanding signage applications that transform Samsung SMART Signage Displays into digital tools for a wide range of business needs.
The chipmaker claimed that by using its Embedded R-Series APUs, Samsung SBB media players for digital signage can manage HD graphics performance and support multivideo stream capabilities up to two displays, in a power efficient and ultra-compact form factor.
Scott Aylor, corporate vice president and general manager, AMD Embedded Solutions said that digital signage is a key vertical for the AMD Embedded business.
“The AMD Embedded R-Series APU enables leading digital signage providers to harness high levels of compute and graphics performance within a low-power design envelope. AMD Embedded Solutions help designers at Samsung achieve aggressive form factor goals and drive down system costs while providing the rich multimedia their digital signage customers’ demand,” he said.
The AMD Embedded RX-425BB APU combines an x86 CPU with an integrated, discrete-class AMD Radeon R6 graphics processing unit in a low-power configuration to minimize heat dissipation constraints and meet energy efficiency requirements.
The processor uses AMD’s latest Graphics Core Next architecture, created for advanced graphics applications and parallel processing capabilities.
Will AMD’s Kaveri Launch As Godavari?
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The new desktop refresh according to SweClockers is going to end up with A10-8850K branding. The new processor will get a 100MHz faster turbo clock and is based on the same 28nm manufacturing process. The base CPU clock for the A10-8850K is 3.7GHz, the same speed as the AMD A10-7850K, but the Turbo clock will jump to 4.1GHz with the new one. The A10-7850K has 4.0 GHz top turbo clock and 720 MHz GPU speed for its GCN Sea Island GPU.
The new A10-8850K will get the GPU to 856MHz. The memory speed supported stays at 2133MHz and the socket of choice remains FM2+. The TDP stays at 95W.
As you can see this is a small evolution and you can expect some cool parts for AMD on the desktop side in the latter part of 2016, some eighteen months from now, in 14nm.
AMD Changes Kaveri
Since AMD officially launched its 4th generation A-Series Kaveri APUs and lifted the NDA veil from all press materials, we noticed that it has started to use a new term to define the structure of its new Kaveri APUs. As we reported last week, AMD is now talking about Compute Cores, which practically puts CPU and GPU cores on an equal footing, suggesting that there should not be any difference between them and that some tasks, previously limited to the CPU, can be done by the GPU as well.
If you take a look at the official AMD slide below which details the three new Kaveri APUs, the A10-7850K, A10-7700K and the A8-7600, you will notice that AMD lists the flagship as the APU with 12 Compute Cores or simply four CPU and eight GPU cores. Since the Kaveri APU is actually the first APU with HSA (Heterogeneous System Architecture) support, with hUMA, or equal memory access by both CPU and the GPU, heterogeneous queuing, which allows the GPU and CPU to have equal flexibility to create/dispatch work and an ability to talk about APU GFLOPS, or combined compute power of the entire APU, it makes sense for AMD to also talk about Compute Cores.
Of course, there are still some application specific tasks where the CPU or the GPU are much better, but, according to AMD, Kaveri is the first true APU, where the GPU is not just for gaming, it can actually do much more.
AMD Senior Manager Sasa Marinkovic, Technology lead for the Client Business Unit, said: “At AMD, we recognize that our customers often think of processors (CPUs) and graphics cards (GPUs) in terms of the number of cores that each product has. We have established a definition of the term “Compute Core” so that we are taking a consistent and transparent approach to describing the number of cores in our HSA-enabled APUs. A Compute Core can be either a CPU core or GPU core i.e. Kaveri can have up to 12 Compute Cores (4 CPU and 8 GPU).”
Although it does sound like a marketing gimmick, but actually is not due to HSA, it will definitely mark a new way for AMD to market/sell its APUs and it will definitely simplify the shopping experience for many casual buyers, more Compute Cores, more performance.
AMD’s Richland Coming In June
Richland is set to replace AMD’s Virgo platform, powered by Trinity processors, and this change will happen in June 2013, most likely coinciding with Computex 2013.
AMD has just launched the first batch of Richland mobile APUs and we still have to see some notebook designs hitting the market. We wrote about mobile Richland APUs.
As of late last year Desktop Richland was always set to launch in June 2013 and the fastest of them is the A10 6800K, clocked at 4.1GHz and 4.4 with Turbo. It also features Radeon HD 8670D graphics that run at 844 MHz. This is the fastest Richland part and it comes unlocked, ready to replace the current AMD A10 5800K. In Europe, the A10 5800K currently sells for 112, while in US the same CPU sells for $129.00 (boxed).
The alpha dog A10 6800K is followed by A10 6700, A8 6600K (Unlocked) and A8 6500. AMD has a mix of 100W and 65W quad-core Richland desktop SKUs. There will be a single A6 6400K (Unlocked) SKU and the A4 6300, both dual-cores with 65W TDP.
Production ready samples were churned out in late January, while volume production is scheduled for late March 2013. The announcement was always scheduled for June 2013 and Richland last through most of 2013, until Kaveri with 28nm Steamroller comes on line.
AMD Goes Richland
There have been more than enough leaks dealing with Richland, AMD’s successor to the Trinity powered Virgo platform, and we even had a chance to see some leaks regarding its successor, codenamed Kaveri. As you may already know, Richland is planned to last through 2013 and it is clear that this is very important chip for AMD.
Based on the Piledriver architecture and built using 32nm technology, Richland will feature an integrated GPU that will be upgraded to Radeon HD 8000 series, a generation ahead of Trinity. As you know, there has been a lot of leaks regarding the Richland parts and the quad-core A10-6800K with Radeon HD 8670D graphics is expected to pack quite a punch. Best of all, Richland will still use the same FM2 socket.
According to our sources, the NDA will be lifted on 12th of March, 8am EST, and we are sure that we will see at least a couple of reviews as well as some additional info regarding the price and the availability date.