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Richland
AMD's elite performance mobile platform will be formed by Richland APUs, a follow-on from Trinity. Built for performance ultrathin notebooks and targeting Intel's Core i3 and i5 mobile chips, Richland APUs will be available in dual- and quad- core varieties.
AMD claims an overall performance improvement of up to 19% for its Richland parts. The quoted battery life of up to 13 hours could be an important feature for many consumers. Gamers will also be interested by the “39-72% better gaming performance than the competition”, according to AMD. Certain Richland chips have 71% better GPU performance than the Core i5, according to AMD.
With 4MB of L2 cache and HD 8500 and 8600 graphics processors for the high-end quad core parts, it is clear that AMD is targeting mobile users who desire all-round power and console-quality gaming performance.
Lower power parts, such as the A6-5345M and A4-5145M could be strong contenders in the ‘ultrabook' form factor market with their 17W TDPs.
The Richland APU platform's key features include; Temperature-smart AMD Turbo Core, a configurable TDP, and media-orientated power optimisation. Broader motherboard flexibility for OEMs could be a key point from which AMD may obtain additional success.
Richland parts will be used in high-end gaming laptops as well as mid-range all-round notebooks.
Finally, AMD has got it almost right in their product lines. Hitting the mid to low ends of the market is where the volume is (it is declining now due to lack of products in this space). Getting a range of products from cheaper ultrabooks at the $400-$600 price range is important. The current $650 and up prices are way to high for the cash strapped market to bear. On the low end side, a good Win8 tablet around $350 mark will make a reasonable student computer/laptop hybrid.
While Intel keep pushing the high end, the mid and low ends were suffering and AMD could not really address them before. Now a complete range of chips exist to fulfill that market. With aggressive pricing from AMD, they might be able to jazz that market back to the volumes prior to Windows 8.