AMD Releases New PRO Mobile APUs: Carrizo up to A12-8800B
by Ian Cutress on October 2, 2015 7:25 PM EST
We touched upon this very briefly in our recent HP Elitebook news, but at the end of September AMD officially launched four new professional mobile APUs under the AMD PRO line. The PRO line is similar to the commercial line of APUs that end up in the hands of casual users, except they are mostly sold in machines aimed at the professional market, and might have some slightly different arrangements in configuration to ensure a long-tail support program. This typically means that features such as TrustZone (using ARM IP) embedded in the processors go through ISV (independent software vendor) certification to ensure a fully functioning product.
The four AMD PRO processors being released today all use AMD’s latest microarchitecture codenamed Carrizo, which fits comprises of one or two ‘Excavator’ class modules and Radeon Rx graphics. In a change from regular AMD A-Series nomenclature, the top processor of the stack is now an ‘A12’ class design which reaches greater parity with previous microarchitecture designs on the desktop. This means a dual module design paired with eight graphics compute units giving what AMD calls 12 compute cores in total with ‘R7’ graphics.
AMD’s Carrizo platform was built focused on the 15W TDP window, although AMD will allow its partners to boost the designs with a configurable TDP up to 35W on the A12, A10 and A8. AMD is also promising an enterprise package with partners to ensure a 36-month extended OEM warranty, 24-month product longevity, 18-month image stability and a ‘richer configuration’ package. That last point is promoted through the use of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X5 LTE modem (Cat4) in certain HP branded professional notebook designs.
Carrizo’s raison d’être was to bring use cases that required high end laptop configurations down into the mainstream (>$800 into $500-$700), which could be considered important if a business is considering deployment of several hundred devices at once along with a support package to go along with it. The PRO APUs will also support DASH for remote desktop management as well as AMD PRO Control Center for SMBs.
AMD expects a number of partners to release information over the next few months. We are working towards obtaining a suitable Carrizo unit for testing as well.
Source: AMD
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silverblue - Saturday, October 3, 2015 - link
The TrustZone core. The vPro-esque features. The long support period.Also, having four cores instead of two potentially faster cores can make sense when you're doing productivity (and I don't mean compressing an MP3).
futurepastnow - Saturday, October 3, 2015 - link
I wonder why they didn't trot out the Opteron and FirePro brand names for this?Samus - Sunday, October 4, 2015 - link
SERIOUSLY.Flunk - Monday, October 5, 2015 - link
Because these chips are junk and they don't want to poison the well.silverblue - Saturday, October 3, 2015 - link
Maybe they don't want another Llano mess on their hands. Moreover, the apparent lack of design wins certainly suggests a lack of demand.AMD really, really need more HSA-enabled software to show what their products can do, but it's just not there. Security or no security, the performance still needs to validate the purchase.
nunya112 - Saturday, October 3, 2015 - link
AMD will announce a 28% drop in revenue for Q3 alone!that is game over numbers! Broadwell has overtaken all AMD APU's and basically what you have seen is the same as the GFX market. market share flatlining as companies and consumers were waiting for Fury/ 980TI. and in the CPU sector was Carizo and Broadwell. And broadwell hit it out of the park. and so did 980TI
AMd saw their GFX share go from 30% in Q1 down to 18% in Q2 and now we will see the GFX sector numbers. but they wont be good at all. AMD can not make any HBM memory. which is the reason for the shortage. I dont know why. Hynix must not be getting paid I dont think.
CPU side. AMD did have wins in the APU side as the GPU was really good. but Q1 saw a flatline and Q2 was dwindling share as Broadwell was released. Q3 has been really bad in the APU sector as well.
Compound that AMD has announced Q1 2017 for volume sales of Zen. which is a disaster.
Again money has to be the factor here. as they have taped out. Global foundries says they are at target yeilds. so what is the holdup. ...... its money.
Amd announces another 5% cut of the workforce. this week. And will also issue a warning on earnings as I said earlier.
If we can I am going to find out if we crowd funded AMD. if we could get Zen sooner. Maybe that is something to look into. As AMD will not make it to 2017.
silverblue - Saturday, October 3, 2015 - link
I've been hearing about AMD being doomed for about ten years. Nothing of what you've said will make any difference. Zen's release was always about servers first, which were due 2H 2016, with client to follow. There doesn't appear to be an official word on when Zen is coming, however it was prioritised over K12 which would have initially meant it was brought forward, not pushed back. If there's a delay, it's far more likely to be GF's fault. Historically, it certainly fits the bill.Something you might want to read as to why AMD isn't about to die: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-restructuring...
Besides, if you really think a $280+ Intel APU beating a $140 last generation AMD APU is news...
Michael Bay - Saturday, October 3, 2015 - link
Oh, AMD would sell it for far more if only it could.Lolimaster - Friday, October 2, 2015 - link
They still insist with the OEM when they should release their product under AMD's own brand (use Fury for starters).Until that happens it will be AMD PR about "this desing will get OEM support and blablabla" meanwhile you can find a shiny Pokemon faster than an proper AMD notebook.
Vesperan - Friday, October 2, 2015 - link
I was surprised a few months ago to find a Carrizo laptop in a general purpose homeware/electrical store. It was the stereotypical bricklike 15" inch HP with average screen - but still.. I just didn't expect to see one, especially in New Zealand.