AMD Launches Embedded G-Series Processors, Partner Program Track
At Embedded World in Nuremberg, Germany, AMD said its new track offers those partners personalized incentives and tools, as well as training and technical resources tailored to their particular business, in order to bring AMD embedded technology to market more quickly.
“Success in today’s embedded market relies on more than just quality products and solutions. It takes an entire ecosystem comprised of design support, software development, and sales and marketing partnerships to truly succeed,” David Kenyon, corporate vice president of Worldwide Channel Marketing at AMD, said in a statement. “Today marks a major turning point for AMD’s Embedded Solutions business, and our embedded solutions partners. By extending the AMD Fusion Partner Program to our embedded partners, we’re offering the tools, training and technical resources to help them succeed in today’s competitive marketplace.”
AMD's new embedded G-series CPUs leverage the Bobcat core offering out-of-order execution, high-performance floating point units, and 64-bit capability for power bands ranging from 5 to 18 watts. According to AMD, the new G-series products for embedded systems will include multi-core low-power processors as well. AMD said it is addressing a need for stand-alone Bobcat-based CPUs with its low-power embedded G series processors, despite the broader industry trend toward high-performance graphics capability built-into embedded devices which AMD's current embedded G-series chips target.
In addition, AMD says it has launched a Reference Design Kit (RDK) to enable the development of servers in the embedded market, specifically the SMB and home office segment. The SDK includes fully-tested schematics, layout source files, and support for Microsoft's upcoming Windows Small Business Server 2011, as well as the Linux server platform. It runs on AMD's Turion II Neo and Athlon II Neo processors based on the AMD SR5650 chipset, with up to four SATA drives, ECC memory and RAID, according to AMD.
Finally, AMD is offering source code for the open-source coreboot BIOS option to embedded software developers, especially those running proprietary or non-traditional operating systems. In November, AMD unveiled its G-series embed platforms , as part of its Fusion APU strategy, in order to augment its 64-bit embedded CPU/chipset business.
AMD in January at the Taiwan Embedded Forum rolled out its first APUs for embedded systems which launched on Tuesday, bringing integrated Direct X11 graphics processing and X86 technology to embedded systems such as digital signage, military systems, gaming machines, thin clients, point-of-sale systems, and medical imaging.