AMD announced three new SKUs in its embedded solutions G-Series product line up that will use either Jaguar+ or Excavator CPU cores.
On the low-end of the product stack is the AMD G-Series LX SoC. It is designed using two Jaguar+ cores and a single AMD Radeon GCN compute unit. The LX SoC will replace AMD’s G-Series eKabini SoC, which uses the less efficient Jaguar core architecture, as the lowest performance and most energy efficient product offered by AMD as an embedded solution. The LX SoC’s power consumption scales between 6 and 15 W and is intended for use for a minimum of 10 years.
The LX SoC will be available in the FT3 package and is pin-compatible with AMD’s existing eKabini and Steppe Eagle SoCs in order to help accelerate production of devices using the LX SoC.
| New AMD G-Series Embedded Product Offerings | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Product Name | LX | J-Family | I-Family |
| CPU | 2 “Jaguar” x86 Cores | Up to 2 “Excavator” x86 Cores | Up to 2 “Excavator” x86 Cores |
| GPU | 1 x AMD Compute Unit (64 Shaders, 4 TMUs, 1 ROP) | 2 x AMD Compute Units (128 Shaders, 8 TMUs, 2 ROPs) | 4 x AMD Compute Units (256 Shaders, 8 TMUs, 4 ROPs) |
| Decode Support | Multi-Format Encode/Decode | 4K x 2K H.265 10-bit Decode & Multi-Format Encode/Decode | 4K x 2K H.265 10-bit Decode & Multi-Format Encode/Decode |
| Display Connection Support | HDMI 2.0, DP 1.2, eDP 1.4 | HDMI 2.0, DP 1.2, eDP 1.4 | HDMI 2.0, DP 1.2, eDP 1.4 |
| TDP | 6-15 W | 6-10 W | 12-15 W |
| Memory Support | Single-Channel DDR3 | Up To Two Channels DDR4/DDR3 | Up To Two Channels DDR4/DDR3 |
| Integrated AMD Secure Processor | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Planned Longevity | 10-Years | 10-Years | 10-Years |
AMD also announced the I-Family and J-Family of SoCs, targeting end users that need less performance than its top of the line R-Series SoCs but more performance than other G-Series products offer. The I-Family and J-Family use the more modern FP4 package already used by the R-Series products. This should make it easy for OEMs to expedite product development with the I-Family and J-Family of SKUs using system boards originally designed for the R-Series products.
The J-Family is the more efficient of the two groups, offering two Excavator cores, two GCN compute units, and power consumption between 6 and 10 W. The I-Family also features two Excavator cores but doubles the number of GCN compute units to four. Because of the additional hardware, the I-Family products also carry a higher TDP, 12 and 15 W.
An advantage inherent in its I-Family and J-Family products is the ability to decode 10-bit H.265 content using GPU acceleration. AMD claimed that these are the first products on the market in an embedded profile that offer 10-bit H.265 decode. Both families also support DDR4 and DDR3 RAM and feature HDMI 2.0, DP 1.2 and eDP 1.4, enabling 4K video output at 60 Hz.
The initial batch of AMD G-Series J-Family and I-Family SoCs are available now, with additional product releases scheduled for the first and second quarter of this year. The G-Series LX products, however, won’t be available until March. There is no word on pricing at this time.
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