AMD showcases lower power Fusion APU for Tablets

Earlier this month AMD finally introduced their Fusion APU’s i.e. the new Ontario units that combine regular processing capabilities with an onboard GPU capable of 3D acceleration. And while the Ontario architecture manages to bring down power consumption, the 9W used is still too much for a regular tablet.

In search of a solution, AMD analyzed the hardware requirements of tablets and other low power consumption devices and removed many features that were unnecessary in a tablet environment. As a result the new APU’s will use just 5W of power, enough to be used in tablets and other devices.  The new APU’s were showcased at a press event in Singapore earlier this week.

The Tablet Fusion APU’s will still have the same dual cores and clock speed (1GHz), however, their memory controller has been notched down and peripheral ports are now limited to one of each type (only allows for 1 HDMI, 1 USB Port, etc…).

The 5W Ontario is already being used in Acer’s 10.1” Windows 7 Tablet (still not released), and should be featured in many more tablets and devices soon.

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