AMD "Project Discovery" Tablet Photos Released
AMD will showcase a gaming tablet during CES 2014.
AMD revealed via Twitter that the company has won two CES 2014 Innovation Awards for what appears to be a direct competitor to the Razer Edge gaming tablet released earlier this year. The news arrives after AMD revealed its new Beema and Mullins APUs last week, the latter of which will be used in the unannounced tablet.
AMD has confirmed its existence and the device's codename: Project Discovery. "AMD's goals are to show the world what we can do in the tablet space around our next generation APU, Mullins," an AMD representative told TechRadar. This rep also confirmed that AMD doesn't plan to enter the market with a branded tablet and peripherals, meaning the company is likely taking the Tegra Note route and allowing OEMs to build units based on AMD's designs.
However, based on product images, there's no question that AMD may be competing directly with Razer's own tablet solution by offering a controller peripheral that the tablet slides into. Like the Razer Edge, the device is presumably 10.1 inches and sports Windows 8 (or in this case Windows 8.1). A shown docking station, likely supporting AMD's DockPort technology, would seemingly turn the tablet into a home console, just like Razer's solution.
AMD's Mullins APU is a low-power chip targeting fanless designs like tablets, 2-in-1 devices and ultrabooks. AMD's upcoming 28 nm chip is expected to consume as little as 2 watts of energy during use. AMD has achieved a 2x increase in performance per watt with both Mullins and Beema, the latter of which will be in the 10 to 25 watt range. They're full single-chip solution SoCs packed with two or four Puma cores, which is an iteration of the Jaguar cores. They will also continue to have Graphics Core Next graphics (GCN).
"We do have the capability with these products to support Microsoft Connected Standby now, which has a certain level of low power in deep sleep states, additional deeper sleep states. So the advantage of that, whether you implement the full Microsoft Connected Standby or not, is that we can go into deeper sleep and lower power states to extend your battery life when you're in standby," said AMD's Gabe Gravning, director of marketing for the company's client business, last week.
AMD actually hinted to the tablet last week, saying that we'll see cool docking solutions at CES, and things AMD is doing with Dockport and its new Mullins tablets. This docking tech supports up to four monitors, mouse and keyboard, external HDDs, optical drives, printers and virtually any other device or peripheral that will support the standard.
We've reached out to AMD to get more details, but for now that's all we have. That said, stay tuned and we'll add any comments received from AMD right here. Meanwhile, TechRadar has a bunch of product shots here.

Rounded corners - check
No bells and whisles, plain design - check
Rounded corners - check
No bells and whisles, plain design - check
Keyword: prototype. I'm sure the finished product will be much more appealing.
What shape were you expecting it to be?
The very point of windows RT is so the windows able to run on ARM chip natively.
Rounded corners - check
No bells and whisles, plain design - check
Colossal flop - check
Yes, your posts are always colossal flops!
The very point of windows RT is so the windows able to run on ARM chip natively.
I understand that. My post was referring to the Surface RT as a model and not as an operating system.
In other words, instead of running an ARM chip and RT, it should have been using an AMD APU and running full Windows 8.
The very point of windows RT is so the windows able to run on ARM chip natively.
I understand that. My post was referring to the Surface RT as a model and not as an operating system.
In other words, instead of running an ARM chip and RT, it should have been using an AMD APU and running full Windows 8.
The idea is good but MS have their own reason and purpose for Win RT. instead of giving the tablet user a full windows experience like they have on dekstop or laptop they want something similar to what apple been doing with their ios on ipad/iphone. With full windows user still have the same freedom like they have on pc in regard to application. With Win RT they will only allow the user to use windows store to get their software and MS intend to make profit from this.
The very point of windows RT is so the windows able to run on ARM chip natively.
I understand that. My post was referring to the Surface RT as a model and not as an operating system.
In other words, instead of running an ARM chip and RT, it should have been using an AMD APU and running full Windows 8.
The idea is good but MS have their own reason and purpose for Win RT. instead of giving the tablet user a full windows experience like they have on dekstop or laptop they want something similar to what apple been doing with their ios on ipad/iphone. With full windows user still have the same freedom like they have on pc in regard to application. With Win RT they will only allow the user to use windows store to get their software and MS intend to make profit from this.
You are exactly right my friend. Problem is, that plan didn't work out for them with the first gen RT to the tune of about $900 million. Nothing has changed with the second gen to remedy that problem.
It's obvious they want a closed ecosystem with the app store revenue that goes along with it.
AMD needs to be a force in the tablet space. I've been using some W8 tablets and have been quite pleased, but the enhanced graphics that AMD brings to the table would be a real welcome.
As for the side conversation about Windows RT, I think that is a closed debate. The market has already voted the product down. Independent manufacturers have completely cut the product. Companies like Asus and Acer are selling 100 or more W8 x86 tablets for every RT MS sells.
AMD... tablet.
*oooh!*
*reads article*
Windows 8
...
...
NOT A TABLET!
AMD... tablet.
*oooh!*
*reads article*
Windows 8
...
...
NOT A TABLET!
Well I have actually used old Windows RT (aka surface) tablet in the work and it is very nice tablet in deed! Pre installed sofware is good. the UI was snappy, so why not like Windows tablet? The win 8 and win8.1a re very good operation systems for tablet usage! They may not be great for desktop, but for phones and tablets, they are just fine!
The problem has been that RT version have had less aplications that iOS and Android tablets (but it is much better at this moment than before. We just have to get some good video editing aps, and we have everything that is needed!) The problem with Pro versions have been very high price. The AMD can have a solution for that. You can use real win8.1 and use all normal win 8.1 programs + all those tablet Metro aps allso, and make it cheap enough to be competative with Android devices!