AMD launches Sempron and Athlon 'Kabini' APUs in India

AMD has announced India availability of its new AM1 platform featuring quad-core and dual-core variants of the AMD APU codenamed 'Kabini'. The AM1 platform, branded with the AMD Athlon and AMD Sempron APU brands will deliver Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture and Jaguar CPU cores on motherboards from leading manufacturers.

The processors launched include AMD Sempron 2650/ 3850 and AMD Athlon 5150/ 5350 and that includes two SATA 6 Gbps ports, two USB 3.0 ports, eight USB 2.0 ports, PCIe 2.0 lanes for graphic card upgrades, and a trio of video outputs (DisplayPort, HDMI, and VGA).

"This is a mass market product. This is one of the cheapest processors in the market offering highest value. Users will get faster computing and graphics performance as well as faster gaming speeds," AMD Director of Marketing, Gabe Gravning said.

These processors consume lesser power than their predecessors and AMD is excited about the launch in India as this is an extremely important market, he added.

APU Model	TDP	CPU Cores	CPU Frequency	Radeon Cores	GPU Frequency	Memory Frequency	Total Cache	Price
AMD Athlon 5350	25W	4	2.05 GHz	128	600 MHz	1600 MHz	2 MB	Rs. 3,999
AMD Athlon 5150	25W	4	1.6 GHz	128	600 MHz	1600 MHz	2 MB	Rs. 3,299
AMD Sempron 3850	25W	4	1.3 GHz	128	450 MHz	1600 MHz	2 MB	Rs. 2,649
AMD Sempron 2650	25W	2	1.45 GHz	128	400 MHz	1333 MHz	1 MB	Rs. 2,299

The new processors also provide users access to quicker video streaming, steady videos and richer colours in pictures.

Talking about the Indian market, AMD India Director Component Business Chandrahas Panigrahi said the country still has low PC penetration rates.

"Its true that PC sales have been slowing down but the market is still under-penetrated. People still come back to desktops when it comes to content creation and we are bullish on the market here," he said.

Panigrahi added that the company has seen good growth in business here on the back of strong growth in gaming devices, uptick in sales of form factors like notebooks and graphics business.

"There are factors which determine price of PCs like inflation and all, the OEM has the final call. But these new processors are aimed at the mass market. With this processor, a price like Rs 10,000 for a desktop PC is possible," Panigrahi said.

According to research firm IDC, the overall India PC shipments for 2013 stood at 11.5 million units, a year-on-year growth of 4.8 per cent over 2012. It, however, anticipates the market to decline in 2014.

AMD has seen strong growth in the government and education sector in the country. Along with these, the consumer segment, especially gaming enthusiasts, has also helped the firm grow its position in the country.

India also plays an important role for AMD's research and development. Its APUs - Kaveri and - were developed by its India team.

Written with inputs from PTI