AMD updates embedded chip ranges

Chip giant increases core count and lowers energy consumption

AMD's new embedded platforms are designed to be highly energy efficient

Chip designer AMD has announced two sets of processors aimed at embedded systems.

The ASB2 platform features Athlon II and Turion II Neo dual-core processors. According to the firm, these 64-bit processors, when coupled to the 785E chipset, offer greater energy efficiency over the previous generation ASB1 combination.

For those looking for higher performance, AMD announced its second generation AM3-based embedded platform featuring the firm's Athlon II XLT.

The 785E chipset sports ATI's Radeon 4200 graphics core, which supports Microsoft's Direct X 10.1 standard and hardware decoding of VC-1 and H.264 high-definition video formats. This makes the combination particularly suitable for media players looking to offload processor-intensive tasks such as Blu-Ray decoding onto the graphics processor.

All the designs support dual channel DDR3 memory and come with HyperTransport 3, the firm's interconnect bus.

As these designs are intended for the embedded market, AMD kept tight control over energy consumption.

Processor and chipset combined thermal design power (TDP) ranges from 8W to 65W, with the highest only attained by the quad core Phenom II processor.

These processors are expected to appear in small business machines, thin clients and storage devices.