AMD's E-Series and A-Series APUs, Along With Their Bundles
So, let's have a look at the individual SKUs that AMD is announcing. Note that there are some new Richland-based ULV APUs on the list, too.
That's a diverse range of APUs from 3.9 to 25 W. The quad-core Temash-based A6-1450 is particularly interesting at 8 W, and we'd like to see how that solution might fare in a tablet (Ed.: though that thermal ceiling is pretty high for a tablet).
AMD Elite Experience Program
As a minimalist, I'm no fan of most value-added software. Often, those apps are included free for a good reason. With that said, AMD is both creating and licensing a lot of software it plans to use as a means of creating baseline experiences on devices powered by its hardware. It's not uncommon to find mobile devices loaded up with software able to expose the products differentiating capabilities. And the idea here appears to be similar.
AMD's bundle is tiered according to APU hierarchy. The E2 and A4 families reside at the bottom of the stack, and include Steady Video (an application for smoothing out sudden movements in shaky video clips; this is already available in the Catalyst driver package), Perfect Picture HD (image quality enhancements for video playback, also available in the Catalyst driver already), and Quick Stream technology (an Internet QoS app, again, already value-added by AMD).
Stepping up to an A6-class APU adds Screen Mirror (powered by ArcSoft) to the bundle, allowing you to broadcast your system's display output across your home network. An A8 APU piles Face Login on top of the other features, delivering facial recognition capabilities that take the place of typing in a password by using a webcam. Gesture Control is also included, yielding Microsoft Kinect-like control over certain applications.
Systems with A10 APUs get a "regionally-assorted game bundle." Given fairly modest graphics engines, we're still unsure of what this really means. Surely you can't expect the pricey bundles shipping with AMD's discrete cards.