AMD (Advanced Micro Systems) has announced its next generation of consumer processors - the AMD Fusion A-Series APUs (Accelerated Processing Units), which were formerly codenamed LIano.
The new processors will compete with Intel's Sandy Bridge platform and offer many new features. To start with, the processors will intelligently shut down their cores to enhance battery life. AMD claims this will deliver more than 10.5 hours of resting battery life, which will be over a 50 per cent increase in comparison to their 2010 platform. All this will be achieved through the new Turbo Core technology, which will optimise performance in accordance to the situational needs of the user.
Interestingly the company has also announced that the Fusion A-series APUs will have the capability to pair up with dedicated AMD Radeon graphical chips in parallel in the process providing massive performance gains to users.
To meet these needs, the AMD A-Series APUs will combine up to four x86 CPU cores with powerful DirectX 11-capable discrete-level graphics and up to 400 Radeon cores along with dedicated HD video processing on a single chip. AMD A-Series APUs will also allow for advanced capabilities such as gestural interfaces, multi- monitor support, 3D entertainment and real-time image stabilization.
Previously, the company launched their Fusion series of APUs in January but those APUs were aimed at lower-end computing products. While performance wise these processors may not compete with Intel's second-generation Sandy Bridge processors they, should definitely have a leg up on Intel in the graphics department thanks to the parallel processing capabilities of the Fusion A-series.
At present, pricing information is unavailable, but notebooks based on AMD Fusion A-series APUs should be priced competitively in comparison to Intel's second-generation Sandy Bridge processors.