Low power embedded CPU chipset with platform availability through 2017

June 26, 2012 // Nick Flaherty

AMD has introduced its latest Embedded G-Series processor family with the G-T16R Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) and extended support for the family for another five years.

The G-T16R is targeted at very low power, small form factor and cost-sensitive embedded designs that require a combination of x86 compatibility and graphics. The optimized design has a power consumption of just 2.3 watts on average or 4.5 watts thermal design power (TDP).
AMD is also extending the planned availability for the entire AMD Embedded G-Series processor family through 2017, resetting the five-year clock for both existing and new designs.
For users of the AMD Geode LX processor family, the G-T16R APU offers a cost-effective upgrade path, consuming about seven percent less power and three times the performance of the 2.45 watt AMD Geode LX processor, while reducing the overall chip footprint by 58 percent. Support for the latest DDR3 memory helps reduce memory costs for legacy applications while enabling higher memory speed and capacity.
Embedded product designers are taking to the industry's green challenge to design a broad range of next-generation applications for the industrial control, point-of-sale, medical appliance and transportation markets. For example, industrial customers can use the APU to help create greener factories based on more power-efficient factory hardware. Additionally, embedded designers can develop applications like point-of-sale order entry stations and tablets, medical bedside terminals and even solar-powered traffic control devices.
The new APU fits into small form factor boards by implementing a two-chip platform, the APU and its companion controller hub and supports legacy I/O card support through a a full 32-bit PCI interface and an ISA bus solution with DMA support. There is also support for a full range of display technologies, with analog VGA and LVDS support for legacy applications and DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort interfaces for the latest display technology.
There are already more than 50 standard form factor motherboards available supporting the AMD Embedded G-Series platform, ranging from the small Qseven computer-on-modules to the versatile and widely available Mini-ITX form factor. This enhanced compatibility provides original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) with a variety of board options to design into their system solutions. The platform consists of both the APU and its companion controller hub, which have a total combined footprint of just 890 mm2 - approximately the size of a square inch.
"With the AMD G-T16R APU, we were striving for that critical balance of performance, power efficiency and cost for power, and cost-sensitive embedded applications, and we've achieved it," said Arun Iyengar, corporate vice president and general manager at AMD Embedded Solutions. "This new APU helps to enable small form factor and fan-less designs with power consumption of just 2.3 watts on average."
The G-T16R supports Windows Embedded Compact 7, Green Hills INTEGRITY and Express Logic ThreadX operating systems, allowing applications that leverage these popular embedded and real-time operating systems to easily migrate to the new platform.
Along with the announcement of the new AMD G-T16R APU,
A variety of AMD customers are announcing small form factor motherboards designed around the legacy I/O and low power support of the AMD G-T16R APU, including the Advantech PCM-3356 PC/104 CPU module, Aewin PM-6161 PC/104 board, Arbor EmETX-a55E0 ETX CPU module, aValue ECM-A50M 3.5 embedded motherboard, Axiomtek CM100 COM Express module and the MEN Mikro Elektronik SC24 computer-on-module.
www.amd.com

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