AMD'z new Z-60 processor is a low-power chip designed for Windows tablets. It's a 1 GHz dual core processor with a TDP of 4.5 watts, which will let tablet makers build systems that are just 10mm (0.4 inches) thick while using fanless designs.
In other words, the Z-60 chip is sort of AMD's answer to Intel's Z2760 Clover Trail processor. But AMD's chip includes a Radeon HD 6250 graphics core which should offer better support for 3D graphics and HD video acceleration than Intel's chip.
What's it for?
The AMD Z-60 is code-named "Hondo," and the company is positioning the chip as a low-cost alternative to other x86 processors. Much the way that laptops with AMD C and E series chips tend to carry lower price tags than similar models with more powerful processors, AMD expects tablets with Z-60 chips to offer a balance between price and performance, with an emphasis on price.
Unfortunately AMD isn't providing any specific details about pricing. It will be up to device makers to tell us how much their tablets will actually cost — and while AMD expects some of the first Z-60 powered tablets to hit the market this year, the company doesn't have a lot of design wins under its belt at the moment.
At this point it isn't clear whether Hondo tablets will cost more or less than similar models with Intel Clover Trail processors or ARM-based chips.
As an x86 processor, the AMD Z-60 will work in computers running Windows 7 or Windows 8, unlike ARM-based chips such as the NVIDIA Tegra 3 or Qualcomm Snapdragon S4.
That means that you'll be able to run full-blown desktop applications on a Hondo tablet, much the way you can on a Windows 8 tablet with an Intel Clover Trail CPU. That includes the full desktop version of Microsoft Office as well as programs designed for Windows and earlier. ARM-based tablets, on the other hand, will be limited to the Windows RT operating system and apps that are optimized for ARM.
Power consumption
The AMD Z-01 processor had a TDP of 5.9 watts. The company has cut that to 4.5 watts for the new chip.
AMD says that you should be able to get up to 10 hours of battery life with a Hondo tablet when using it for basic tasks, up to 8 hours of web browsing time, or 6 hours of video playback.
In S3 sleep mode, it'd take 2 weeks to run down the battery.
Performance
The CPU itself should offer about the same performance we've come to expect from the AMD C-60 processor for netbooks and low-power laptops.
In other words, it's not exactly a speed demon, but it should be fast enough for basic tasks including editing documents or surfing the web.
But AMD has also tweaked the chip to work with Windows 8 to speed up some operations For instance, a Z-60 system should be able to boot in as little as 25 seconds, resume from sleep in just 2, and connect to the internet in about 1.5 seconds.
What really makes the Z-60 stand out though, is its Radeon HD graphics. AMD says the chip has 80 Radeon cores for HD video and hardware-accelerated graphics. It also supports DirectX 11. Clover Trail is stuck at DirectX 9.
The processor supports screen resolutions up to 1920 x 1200 pixels.
While AMD's integrated Radeon graphics tend to be much more powerful than the PowerVR graphics you get with the latest Intel Atom processors, not all software takes advantage of the hardware.
For instance, the Netflix website uses Microsof Silverlight to stream video — and anyone that's used a notebook withRadeon HD 6200 or Radeon HD 6300 series graphics in the past knows that Netflix HD video looks choppy on a computer with those graphics cards. That's because Netflix and Silverlight don't take advantage of hardware video acceleration.
But that shouldn't be as much of a problem if you pick up a Windows 8 tablet with a Hondo chip. Netflix is working on a new Netflix app for Windows 8. Like the company's apps for Android and iOS, the Netflix app for Windows 8 doesn't rely on Silverlight, and it does take advantage of hardware video acceleration capabilities of AMD's Radeon chips, which means that you should be able to stream Netflix HD video smoothly on a system with a Z-60 chip.
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