AMD Officially Launches Z-60 Chip for Windows Tablets

[JMcEntegart]

AMD is entering the tablet space with the launch of its new Z-60 chip. Aimed at performance tablets as thin as 10mm and SFF machines, the Z-60 is touted as AMD's lowest power APU and features support for Windows 8 as well as compatibility with Windows 7.

AMD Officially Launches Z-60 Chip for Windows Tablets : Read more

 

[tpi2007]

This is a power-optimized, especially binned version of the Z-01, which was released last year, which was itself a power optimized, especially binned version of the C-50. The only news here is the new 4.5w TDP of the Z-60 instead of the 5.9w of the Z-01.

Technically speaking, this is still the same 40nm Bobcat APU, with 2 x86 cores at 1 Ghz and a Radeon HD 6250, VLIW 5, 80 core GPU, clocked at 276 / 275 Mhz.

In other words, this has the same performance as the C-50 (or C-60 if you disable Turbo). The difference I think is that both the Z-01 and the Z-60 support DDR3L in addition to the regular DDR3.

Given that it's still manufactured with 40nm technology, and comparing the 4.5w TDP to the original 9w TDP of the C-50, it will be interesting to see how many of these Z-60's AMD will be able to make.

 

[greghome]

Why hasn't AMD released the magical Krishna 28nm Brazo successor I have been waiting for since the beginning of the year......

 

[Cazalan]

Very odd to have a low power CPU and 40nm process.

 

[chomlee]

I really hope AMD will get thier SH## together with the tablet market. 2 years ago, it was very evident that tablets where more than a fad (although some people still think they are a fad). Unfortunately AMD failed to get into the market and as a result of the recent turndown of desktop/laptop purchases (all as a result of the mobile industry), sales of CPU went down as did AMD's stock price. I never did understand how thier low end systems with the A series chips didn't do that well. They really were a perfect solution for anyone wanting a cheap computer with some gaming capability. Great for college kids.

If they were able to come up with a viable mobile chip that really shook things up, their stock would be a good buy right now. On the other hand, they could fail to see the true market and end up filing for bankrupsy in the comming years.

 

[jdwii]

Why are they releasing this on 40nm when Intel will be coming out with their new low power chips soon they should've released this on 32nm die at least and they could of did 28nm die as well hopefully they update this soon before they become dead in the tablet market in the future.

A 28nm updated Brazo is what we want Amd do this with a low TDP of 3.5 watts or less to compete with Arm as well.

 

[falchard]

Because Global Foundries had issues, so they had to release this on a half node.

 

[juanc]

They called it Z-60 because it's beaten by a Z80...

 

[ojas]

Hmmm...i wonder how this will fit in to a market segment where IPC is hugely important?

 

[Guest]

1080p, HDMI, USB3.0 AND DX11 on a tablet, dayum

 

[yannigr]

It's all about price. If it can give the customers the chance to have a X86 tablet at $100 less than Intel tablets, then it will sell. If it not much cheaper then it will be a failure.
I think AMD is doing the right thing giving something that it is already there, that they don't have to produce from scratch. Because we don't know if Windows tablets are going to sell. With prices over $500 could end up being a big failure in the beginning.

 

[Wisecracker]

[citation][nom]greghome[/nom]Why hasn't AMD released the magical Krishna 28nm Brazo successor I have been waiting for since the beginning of the year......[/citation]

I believe it was canceled, and the *new* Temesh Kabini with Jaguar cores is taking its place.


[citation][nom]falchard[/nom]Because Global Foundries had issues, so they had to release this on a half node.[/citation]

That would be incorrect.

Brazos I/II are TSMC bulk 40nm.

 

[freggo]

[citation][nom]hydac7[/nom]That is epic man ) - although i don't think many reading this were even born when Z80 was in the spotlight[/citation]

I wrote games for Z80s... darn, I am getting old

 

[silverblue]

Come back Zilog, all is forgiven.

 

[dalethepcman]

I have a C-50, and while its a great chip, it isn't fast enough for 1080p/30 video playback. This needed to have a 20% higher clock, or 20% higher ipc. I am all in favor of supporting AMD, but this chip will flop. :-(

 

[luciferano]

[citation][nom]ojas[/nom]Hmmm...i wonder how this will fit in to a market segment where IPC is hugely important?[/citation]

Brazos beats Atom and most if not all ARM SoCs in performance per Hz on the CPU. If this is Brazos, then it is probably pretty decent. AMD's Hondo will probably be much better.

 

[luciferano]

[citation][nom]jdwii[/nom]Why are they releasing this on 40nm when Intel will be coming out with their new low power chips soon they should've released this on 32nm die at least and they could of did 28nm die as well hopefully they update this soon before they become dead in the tablet market in the future. A 28nm updated Brazo is what we want Amd do this with a low TDP of 3.5 watts or less to compete with Arm as well.[/citation]

This seems to be some old chips being re-used, hence the older process node. Don't worry about successors, AMD has been working on a good one.

 

[luciferano]

[citation][nom]Wisecracker[/nom]I believe it was canceled, and the *new* Temesh Kabini with Jaguar cores is taking its place.That would be incorrect.Brazos I/II are TSMC bulk 40nm.[/citation]

To be fair, that doesn't really disprove falchard's post. If GF wasn't doing good enough, then moving to a half-node with TSMC would have been a reasonable compromise. I think that falchard is wrong about it too, but his/her explanation doesn't seem too unlikely if it is true.

 

[Old_Fogie_Late_Bloomer]

[citation][nom]juanc[/nom]They called it Z-60 because it's beaten by a Z80...[/citation]
I can't downrank you, even though you deserve it...

 

[axehand13]

Where is Piledriver at?

 

[BulkZerker]

[citation][nom]axehand13[/nom]Where is Piledriver at?[/citation]

In an aCtual review elsewhere on the site

 

[dalethepcman]

[citation][nom]luciferano[/nom]Brazos beats Atom and most if not all ARM SoCs in performance per Hz on the CPU. If this is Brazos, then it is probably pretty decent. AMD's Hondo will probably be much better.[/citation]

You are correct in that mhz to mhz the AMD chips rule. I am in no way an atom supporter, I think they are an atrocity but the current generation of Atom chips (n2800) have more than twice the performance of the Z-60 in terms of CPU (2/2x 1ghz Vs. 2/4 x 1.86Ghz), and sadly not everything is optimized for GPU rendering.

http://www.sonexpc.com/benchmark/netbook
http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Z-01-Notebook-Processor.54787.0.html

Also I Lol at all the people voting my previous post down. Go buy a C-50/Z-01 product, and play back 1080p video on it. I still love my little tablet, but the CPU is just too weak at its stock clocks. Fortunately you can flash an unlocked bios and get the extra 20% CPU needed on the version I purchased, but this is not possible on all Brazos systems.

Ignorance is bliss?

 

[luciferano]

[citation][nom]dalethepcman[/nom]You are correct in that mhz to mhz the AMD chips rule. I am in no way an atom supporter, I think they are an atrocity but the current generation of Atom chips (n2800) have more than twice the performance of the Z-60 in terms of CPU (2/2x 1ghz Vs. 2/4 x 1.86Ghz), and sadly not everything is optimized for GPU rendering.http://www.sonexpc.com/benchmark/netbookhttp://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Z [...] 787.0.htmlAlso I Lol at all the people voting my previous post down. Go buy a C-50/Z-01 product, and play back 1080p video on it. I still love my little tablet, but the CPU is just too weak at its stock clocks. Fortunately you can flash an unlocked bios and get the extra 20% CPU needed on the version I purchased, but this is not possible on all Brazos systems.Ignorance is bliss?[/citation]

Chances are that it'd be given some video playback hardware acceleration if it is insufficient for that without it, but given that it will be using much lighter OSes than Windows, it might not need such hardware to perform well on tablets.

 

[luciferano]

Also, your link shows that the N2800 is only 56% faster than the C-50, not anywhere near more than twice as fast.

 

[jakantana]

Response to "They called it Z-60 because it's beaten by a Z80..."

Nice I guess i7 is then much slower than i286 / i386 !