New AMD G-Series Embedded System-on-Chip Platform

AMD’s new G-series platform of system on chip has been announced and this is what AMD plans to offer with the new line.

“a single-chip solution based on the AMD next-generation “Jaguar” CPU architecture and AMD Radeon™ 8000 Series graphics. The new AMD Embedded G-Series SOC platform further signifies a strategic push to focus on high-growth markets outside the PC industry, with an emphasis on embedded systems.”

“Embedded systems are increasingly driving intelligence into new areas of our lives, from smart TVs and set-top boxes to interactive digital signage and informational kiosks. This supports greater productivity and connectivity and is expected to be a strong driver for Surround Computing, an area of substantial growth in the computing industry. Among the forces that are enabling this next-generation computing era are single-chip, SOC solutions that offer smaller size, higher performance and more energy-efficient processors.

The AMD Embedded G-Series SOC platform sets the new bar for SOC design, offering up to 113 percent improved CPU performance compared to the prior generation AMD Embedded G-Series APU, and up to a 125 percent advantage compared to the Intel Atom when running multiple industry-standard compute intensive benchmarks¹. For embedded applications, the new platform also includes support for DirectX® 11.1, OpenGL 4.2x and OpenCL™ 1.2² that enables parallel processing and high-performance graphics processing, yielding up to a 20 percent graphics improvement over the previous AMD Embedded G-Series APU and greater than 5x advantage over Intel Atom when running multiple industry-standard graphics-intensive benchmarks”

Product Features:

Developers working with the AMD Embedded G-Series SOC can implement remote management, virtualization and security capabilities to help reduce deployment costs and increase security and reliability of their AMD Embedded G-Series SOC-based platform through:

• AMD DAS 1.0 featuring DASH 1.1;
• AMD Virtualization™ technology;
• Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 1.2 support.

Next-generation CPU core

• Next-generation “Jaguar” core with innovative, new shared L2 Cache
• Enterprise-class feature of ECC and fast memory support

Excellent AMD Radeon graphics performance-per-watt

• Enhanced Universal Video Decode (UVD) 3 hardware acceleration (H.264, VC-1, MPEG2, etc.) and new video encode capability not available in previous AMD Embedded G-Series APU
• Power efficiency enhancement with clock gating to contribute to overall lower power consumption

Advanced GPU enables parallel processing and high-performance graphics

• Heterogeneous computing for industrial control and automation, communications and other processor heavy applications. OpenCL enables CPU and GPU parallel processing, which benefits applications development in these areas
• Graphics (DirectX 11, OpenGL) and dual independent display; high-resolution support for a superb visual experience
• Expanded software development options and extended application lifetime with advanced graphics APIs

Ideal platform for low-power and high-performance designs

• For Industrial Control and Automation: low-power and heterogeneous computing advantage enabled by the integrated GPU deliver more than 150 GFLOPS of compute performance over and above the compute capability of the x86 CPU cores⁶
• For Digital Signage: eye-catching, high-definition multimedia content delivery connected through a variety of display technologies (DP, HDMI™, VGA, LVDS)
• For Electronic Gaming Machines: dedicated hardware acceleration engines for video decode (UVD) and encode (VCE) as well as digital content management (SAMU)
• For SMB storage: high-performance SOC in a small form factor with a myriad of integrated USB and SATA I/O enables a fanless design, reducing system cost

Models and pricing

Models available at launch include:

• GX-420CA SOC with AMD Radeon™ HD 8400E Graphics
  • Quad-core, 25W TDP, CPU freq. 2.0GHz, GPU freq. 600MHz
• GX-415GA SOC with AMD Radeon™ HD 8330E Graphics
  • Quad-core, 15W TDP, CPU freq. 1.50GHz, GPU freq. 500MHz
• GX-217GA SOC with AMD Radeon™ HD 8280E Graphics
  • Dual-core, 15W TDP, CPU freq. 1.65GHz, GPU freq. 450MHz
• GX-210HA SOC with AMD Radeon™ HD 8210E Graphics
  • Dual-core, 9W TDP, CPU freq. 1.0GHz, GPU freq. 300MHz
• GX-416RA SOC
  • Quad-Core, 15W, CPU Freq. 1.6GHz, No GPU

Pricing ranges from $49 – $72 for the SKUs.

From all this information it looks like AMD is taking the next leap into competing with its next architecture “Jaguar” and 8000 series GPUs. Trying to push into other markets outside of just desktop PCs it looks like AMD G-series of SOCs could be a huge win for them along with recent contracts for the new Xbox and Playstation 4.

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