AMD is developing the Z-Series for its Fusion portfolio that is aimed squarely at the burgeoning tablet market, according to reports.
Advanced
Micro Devices reportedly is developing a chip for its Fusion portfolio that is
aimed specifically at the growing tablet market.
According
to a leaked company slide show posted on the
Android
Community Website, AMD's Z-Series "Desna" APU (accelerated processing unit)
is being designed to offer high performance and long battery life while driving
down power consumption.
The
Z-Series chips are being aimed at both the consumer market-where low power
consumption is critical in devices such as tablets-as well as the commercial
space, with high productivity and security capabilities, according to the
slides. The chips reportedly will offer increased battery life of up to 10.5
hours and the performance capabilities to handle such compute-intensive
workloads as high-definition video.
AMD has
been aggressive in driving up the energy efficiency of its APUs. Since January,
the company has released a number of Fusion chip lines, including its C-Series
"Ontario" and E-Series "Zacate" chips. Both based on the "Bobcat" core design,
the APUs offer low-power designs that are aimed at such devices as ultra-mobile
notebooks. However, AMD officials have said they can be used in tablets, and
Acer earlier this year unveiled a 10.1-inch Windows tablet-the
Iconia
Tab W500-that is powered by an AMD C-50 dual-core processor.
In the
AMD presentation, the company lists both the C-Series and Z-Series as designs
for ultra-mobile notebooks and tablets.
AMD
doesn't go into much depth on the Z-Series in the presentation, but it's clear
that company officials see
tablets
as an opportunity to expand their business. Both AMD and rival Intel are
looking to grow beyond their core PC and server bases. Intel in April rolled
out its Atom Z670 "Oak Trail" chips, which are specifically targeting tablets.
Intel officials have said they expect as many as 35 system designs powered by
Oak Trail to reach the market this year, and on May 31 at the Computex 2011
show in Taiwan, they put more than 10 of these devices on display.
At the
event, Intel officials also talked about the company's next-generation Atom
chip, dubbed "Cedar Trail," which will offer higher performance and better
energy efficiency than Oak Trail.
Intel has
been pushing in the tablet direction for at least a year, and CEO Paul Otellini
said in September 2010 that the company will be a
major
player in the space, which market research firm Gartner expects to grow
from 70 million units this year to 294 million units in 2015.
Currently,
chips designed by ARM Holdings and made by the likes of Samsung, Qualcomm and
Texas Instruments dominate the space, but Intel officials say they are
confident that their Atom and Core processors will gain traction over the next
few years.
AMD has
been less aggressive in the tablet market until this year. Former CEO Dirk Meyer
said his plan was to continue to grow the company's Fusion offerings-APUs offer
both the CPU and graphics capabilities on the same piece of silicon-while
waiting for the tablet space to mature.
However,
that plan appeared to run counter to what the company's board of directors was
pushing for, and in January, Meyer resigned. A month later, interim CEO Thomas
Seifert told the Wall Street Journal that the tablet space held opportunity for
AMD, and that the demands of the tablet market-in particular, high performance,
high-end video and multimedia capabilities, and low power consumption-dovetail
with AMD Fusion efforts.
At the
time, he acknowledged Acer's decision to use AMD's C-50 chip in its new tablet,
but said AMD's real opportunity will come in 2012, with its second-generation
APUs.
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