Page 1 of 2
AMD used the Computex Taipei event in Taiwan Tuesday as a stage for unveiling its next-generation Brazos 2.0 E-Series APUs, optimized for entry-level notebook and desktop PCs.
Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD said the new E-Series offers several improvements compared to earlier E-Series APUs, including a 35 percent boost in battery life that can arm PCs with up to an 11-hour charge. The new Brazos-based APUs, which AMD has dubbed the E2-1800 and E1-1200, are also said to deliver up to 10 times faster data transfer rates than prior generations.
The E2-1800 and E1-1200 have a thermal design power of 18 watts and can reach clock speeds up to 1.7GHz and 1.4GHz, respectively.
[Related: AMD Joins Facebook’s Open Compute Project, Launches 'Roadrunner' Motherboard Specs]
Delivering an enhanced multimedia experience was one of AMD’s top aims with the new E-Series platform, which it's referring to as its "most successful" to date. The new processors come equipped with integrated AMD Radeon HD 7000 Series graphics and DirectX 11, an application programming interface (API) developers can use to accelerate games, Web browsing, video editing and other multimedia experiences.
"The PC is continuing to be the entertainment lifestyle hub and this trend isn't changing year over year," said Chris Sutphen, product marketing manager for ultra low power at AMD. "And as AMD looks to bring to market new products to deliver on this promise, we want to be able to continue on the momentum of the Brazos APU to deliver just that."
AMD Quick Stream technology, which is said to enable a "stutter-free," uninterrupted browsing and video streaming experience, is also included in the new E2-1800 and E1-1200 APUs.
Many of these multimedia and graphics perks will be applied directly to the new Metro user interface delivered with Microsoft's upcoming Windows 8 OS. AMD said it worked side-by-side the software giant to specifically optimize the new E-Series APUs for Metro-based apps and HTML5, one of the primary coding languages used to build content for the new release.
