Advanced Micro Devices on Tuesday announced the first availability of the AMD Elite A-series accelerated processing units (APUs), code-named “Richland”. The new AMD A-series APUs will not offer dramatic performance advantages over predecessors, but will improve user experience thanks to technologies – such as facial recognition and gesture recognition – that will be exclusively supported by PCs powered by the new chips.

AMD A-series Fusion “Richland” APUs feature up to four Piledriver x86 cores as well as AMD Radeon HD graphics with VLIW4 architecture (in general, Richland is something like Trinity 2.0). Thanks to improved clock-speeds without any gains in power consumption, the new A-series APUs should be noticeably faster than the predecessors in all kinds of applications. The new chips are drop-in compatible with existing platforms, therefore AMD’s partners among PC makers should quickly ramp up systems based on A-series Fusion “Richland” APUs.

Notebooks based on AMD A-series “Richland” accelerated processing unit will support a number of technologies powered by AMD’s proprietary software, such as:

• AMD Face Login – Uses facial recognition technology and a webcam to allow for quick log-in to Windows and web-sites that require a log-in, such as social networking sites and email services;
• AMD Gesture Control – Tracks a user’s hand gestures and converts them into commands for basic functions on media players, browsers, e-readers and other popular applications leveraging a webcam, advanced image processing and machine-vision algorithms. Currently AMD Gesture Control only supports Windows Media Player, Windows Photo Viewer, Microsoft PowerPoint, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Microsoft Photos, Microsoft Music, Microsoft Reader and Kindle;
• AMD Screen Mirror – Wirelessly shares content like photos, videos, HD media streams and webpages from a PC or tablet based on a 2013 AMD A-series APU with any supported TV or display with a DLNA receiver, or with other PCs. Available only on select AMD-based devices;

“The high performance AMD A-Series APU continues to impress with its ability to deliver stunning graphics and immersive experiences with even more battery life. Our engineers have done a superb job of increasing processor performance while decreasing power consumption. With the capabilities built into our 2013 AMD Elite A-Series APUs, including new software for gesture control, facial recognition, rich entertainment and more lifelike gaming, we are delivering an ever richer experience to end users and our customers,” said Bernd Lienhard, corporate vice president and general manager of AMD’s client business unit.

According to AMD, notebooks based on AMD Elite A-series platform with 55wH battery are enabled to 7.9 hours of web browsing, 5.7 hours of HD video playback and up to 10 hours of resting battery life.

Performance and traditional notebooks based on these 2013 AMD Elite A-Series APUs are shipping now with availability beginning this month in select regions.

Tags: AMD, Richland, Trinity, Fusion, 32nm, Radeon, ATI