After announcing the 8000M Series GPU at this year's CES and showing off the Temash platform at Mobile World Congress, you'd think that would be it for the year. But now AMD is ready to take down Intel's fastest chips, announcing its new AMD Elite A-Series Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), codenamed “Richland." Launching some time in March, AMD's new chip has a slew of new features, but the focus remains on providing a low-cost, high-performance alternative to Intel's Core Series processors. In fact, AMD claims that the A10-5750M quad-core APU performs 50 percent better than an Intel Core i7 CPU.
High performance isn't all that AMD has up its sleeve. Consumers can expect A-Series APUs to come with software such as AMD Gesture Control, Face Login and Screen Mirror. The Face Login feature is pretty straightforward, using the webcam to log in to Windows and other password-protected sites. AMD gesture control leverages a notebook's webcam to interpret hand gestures used in conjunction with Web browsers. Mirror Shield will wirelessly share multimedia content such as photos, video, music and HD streams with DNLA-enabled devices. We got a look at some of these software-based "Elite Experiences" last month at Mobile World Congress 2013.
AMD has outfitted its A-Series APUs with a number of entertainment features designed to improve your video creation and viewing experience. There's AMD Steady Video technology for image stabilization, Quick Stream technology for improving video streaming and Perfect Picture HD technology for ensuring rich color and sharp detail.
These new chips are designed to extend your notebook's battery life. AMD claims that notebooks equipped with Elite A-Series APUs should provide 7.9 hours of battery life while Web browsing, 5.7 hours of video playback and up to 10 hours of idle time on a 55 watt/hour battery.
AMD's new A-Series APUs will be available later this year, but people curious to get a peek at the new software will be able to download it from amd.com later this month.
