AMD Z series of APUs rolls out for tablets

AMD has officially launched the latest addition to the Fusion family. It is the extra efficient Desna circuit that launches as the AMD Z series. With a power consumption of only 5.9 watt AMD takes aim for the growing tablet industry and lures with dual x86 CPU cores and DirectX 11 graphics.

AMD Z-01 is the first addition to the tablet series of APUs. Despite the low energy consumption AMD has maintained the two Bobcat CPU cores and Radeon HD 6250 graphics with its 80 stream processors and DirectX 11 support. What makes AMD Z-01 different from AMD C series and AMD E series is beside the energy consumption also clock frequencies and connectivity. AMD has not confirmed the exact frequencies, but previous information points to somewhere around 1.0 GHz while the GPU operates at 276 MHz, which is on par with AMD C-50 that consumes a lot more; 9 watt vs. 5.9W.

AMD Z-01 is a very efficient circuit for a x86 based processor, but compared to ARM processors we find in other devices the APUs consume a lot more power. At the same time the performance of the Fusion Z series should be better than e.g. Tegra 2, Exynos 4210 and similar system processors.

The fact that there isn’t a compatible Android version for x86 means AMD Z-01 will not be a direct competitor to the ARM based units. MSI has shown the Windows 7 WinPad 110W with an AMD Z-01 APU. The tablet has a 10″ screen and with the Windows operating system inside the focus is more on classic Windows applications and DirectX 11 games. It mentions Xbox 360 Media Extender, 1080p playback over HDMI and Microsoft Office.

Video walkthrough of WindPad 110W at Engadget