AMD talks about its 2012-2013 lineup of tablet chips
I love reading stories about tech underdogs making amazing products and rising up to the top. Unfortunately, when I think of those stories and the companies within them, AMD doesn't really come to my mind. The chip manufacturer certainly makes some compelling products, but the market is dominated by the likes of Intel and ARM.
Part of that domination comes from the fact that AMD hasn't been in the tablet space very much. But the company wants to change that starting this year. Since AMD owns CPU and GPU factories (remember ATI?), it believes it will be able to offer a better overall experience because it has the technical know-how in both processing and graphical products.
The onslaught, like I said earlier, will start this year, with AMD's Z-series. The Z-series will be going into tablet/fanless devices and will be ultra-low voltage (4.5W) chips. They will also be SoCs, so expect to see some very good graphics performance, as well; I wouldn't necessarily say that AMD will market the graphics side of the SoC with the Radeon branding, but it's certainly a possibility.
2013 will bring the next iteration of tablet chips from AMD, codenamed Tamesh. Unfortunately, we don't know much about Tamesh; what we do know is that it's going to deliver incredible battery life into fanless tablets and clamshells.
I really hope AMD can up its game in this category. In my opinion, the company has fallen way behind in the mobile space. Based on what we've learned today, I think that it has a chance to compete, although we'll have to wait until manufacturers start using these chips in production tablets to get a final outcome.
[Engadget]
