World's first high-performance accelerated processing unit in a SoC design

AMD has announced its 6th-generation A-Series processor - the world's first high-performance Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) in a System-on-Chip (SoC) design. Previously codenamed 'Carrizo', the new processor takes advantage of extensive AMD processor and graphics IP enabling exceptional computing experiences not possible before. It is the most versatile notebook processor ever produced, built to excel at today's and tomorrow's consumer and business applications, delivering premium streaming entertainment, unmatched smooth online gaming, and innovative computing experiences, with all day unplugged performance, says the company. The world's first high-performance Accelerated Processing Unit in a SoC design marks a number of technology firsts: the world's first High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) hardware decode support for notebooks, the first Heterogeneous Systems Architecture (HSA) 1.0-compliant design, and the first ARM TrustZone-capable high-performance APU. The new processor harnesses up to 12 Compute Cores - 4 CPU + 8 GPU - leveraging AMD 'Excavator' cores and the third generation of AMD's award-winning Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture. The result is a ground-breaking processor that boasts more than twice the battery life of its predecessor, up to 2x faster gaming performance than competitive processors, innovative computing experiences enabled through HSA, and a premium Microsoft Windows 10 experience with support for DirectX 12, adding up to an extraordinary experience for consumers. "The notebook remains the ideal, versatile, connected hub in people's lives - the one device that does it all and does it well, and today's consumer shouldn't have to pay a premium to enjoy high quality streaming video, superior online gaming, and powerful content management as mainstays of today's computing experience," said Matt Skynner, corporate VP and product general manager, AMD. "That changes today with the 6th Generation AMD A-Series Processor, designed to deliver exceptional experiences never before seen in a mainstream notebook, truly making innovation available to everyone. Our partners have plans to introduce our 6th-generation APU in many of today's most innovative notebook platforms, demonstrating the full potential of the APU's capabilities."