AMD Delivers A Mix Of High-Performance And Low-Power Processors

Aug. 5, 2013
AMD has been busy churning out a 5 GHz multicore powerhouse as well as low power SoCs for fanless systems.

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.

Figure 1. The PL-60830 from WIN Enterprises utilizes an AMD G-Series SoC in a low-profile, fanless system that can be utilized in applications from digital signage to automotive applications.

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.

Figure 2. The GX-210JA G-Series SoC has a 6W TDP but typical operating power is 3W.

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.

About the Author

William G. Wong | Senior Content Director - Electronic Design and Microwaves & RF

I am Editor of Electronic Design focusing on embedded, software, and systems. As Senior Content Director, I also manage Microwaves & RF and I work with a great team of editors to provide engineers, programmers, developers and technical managers with interesting and useful articles and videos on a regular basis. Check out our free newsletters to see the latest content.

You can send press releases for new products for possible coverage on the website. I am also interested in receiving contributed articles for publishing on our website. Use our template and send to me along with a signed release form. 

Check out my blog, AltEmbedded on Electronic Design, as well as his latest articles on this site that are listed below. 

You can visit my social media via these links:

I earned a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Masters in Computer Science from Rutgers University. I still do a bit of programming using everything from C and C++ to Rust and Ada/SPARK. I do a bit of PHP programming for Drupal websites. I have posted a few Drupal modules.  

I still get a hand on software and electronic hardware. Some of this can be found on our Kit Close-Up video series. You can also see me on many of our TechXchange Talk videos. I am interested in a range of projects from robotics to artificial intelligence. 

Sponsored Recommendations

Comments

To join the conversation, and become an exclusive member of Electronic Design, create an account today!