AMD and its partners have been busy. At the high end, AMD released the 5-GHz FX-9590. This eight-core processor is not overclocked. It runs at 5 GHz out of the box. It also utilizes AMD’s Piledriver architecture, which is designed for high-performance applications such as gaming. And, it incorporates AMD’s Turbo Core 3.0 support, which optimizes speed and power management across all cores. The FX-9370 is a 4.7-GHz version.
At the other end of the spectrum are AMD’s G-series chips (see “AMD G-Series Powered Gaming SBC Offers Onboard 3D Graphics”). WIN Enterprises uses the Embedded G-Series in its PL-60830 system, which represents a typical use of the Embedded G-Series. It is low power, compact, and fanless. (Fig. 1). The fanless system uses the MB-60830 motherboard inside a rugged, low-profile case.
The motherboard has HDMI and VGA dual-display capability. It comes with up to 4 Gbytes of DDR3 1600 DRAM. Storage options include support for a 2.5-in. SATA drive and a half-size mSATA drive. Communication interfaces include Gigabit Ethernet, three COM ports, and USB 3.0. Expansion includes a pair of Mini-PCIe sockets. There also is audio support. The system can handle input voltages from 8 V to 32 V dc as well.
Designers also can take advantage of AMD’s latest G-Series (Fig. 2) offering for even lower-power applications. The dual-core GX-210JA APU (application processing unit) has a thermal design power (TDP) of only 6 W. This is the lowest-power G-Series part. Typical power requirements are on the order of only 3 W compared to 25 W for the top-end G-Series quad-core processors.
The new 1-GHz chips sport enterprise-class error-correction code (ECC) memory support as well as industrial temperature ranges from –40°C to 85°C. Like the other APUs in the family, it includes an AMD Radeon GPU and integrated I/O controller.