AMD has no plans for smartphone SoCs

Posted on Monday, July 01 2013 @ 19:03 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
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AMD Senior VP and General Manager Lisa Su confirmed in a recent interview that AMD has no plans to make chips for the smartphone market. Su added that AMD considers tablets and hybrids to be important, and that these form factors are as small as the company will go, at least for the foreseeable future.
Right now, AMD's lowest-power mobile chip is the Temash-powered A4-1200. It has dual Jaguar cores clocked at 1GHz, a GCN-derived Radeon GPU clocked at 255MHz, and a 3.9W TDP. The processor should be reasonably potent, but its thermal envelope is about double that of Intel's existing smartphone SoCs. Even if AMD wanted to enter the market, it's probably a ways off from having competitive silicon.

Rather than getting into smartphones, AMD is looking for new opportunities elsewhere. Su mentioned that the PC market has spawned a lot of new form factors, suggesting that all-in-ones and tiny devices like Intel's NUC might factor into AMD's plans. The firm could certainly bring a dose of additional graphics horsepower to those types of systems, and that upgrade would fit in well with AMD's desire to play up its strengths.


About the Author

Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.



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