AMD Announces New Z-Series Hondo APU for Windows 8 Tablets
AMD Announces New Z-Series Hondo APU for Windows 8 Tablets
AMD has officially launched its new Z-Series APU for Windows 8 tablets. Its flagship Z-60 APU is a low-powered dual-core chip and it is also targeted at small form factor PCs. The Z-60 features two 'Bobcat' cores and is based on the same chip architecture that is also found in the current E-Series Brazos 2.0 APUs.
The AMD Z-60 has a rated TDP of 4.5W and AMD claims that tablets based on this new APU will deliver up to eight hours of web browsing experience as well as a standby time of up to three weeks. According to Engadget, the APU's on-board AMD Radeon HD 6250 will "...support resolutions of up to 1920 x 1200 over HDMI and run titles like Orcs Must Die and even Modern Warfare 2 at medium settings and 1024 x 768 resolution.".
According to the press release by AMD, its Radeon core engine supports 1080p full HD videos; however, the AMD spokesperson whom Engadget spoke to cryptically remarked that for watching HD content, it would be better to scale to 720p as opposed to full 1080p. We have also reported earlier that the new APU has no current support for Linux and Android operating systems.
Just last week, Intel officially launched its new generation of Atom processors with a slew of Windows 8 tablets and hybrids. For the new AMD Z-Series APU, it is currently shipping to manufacturers and Windows 8 devices based on the AMD Z-60 APU is expected to be launched at the end of the year.