AMD's new mobile APUs to take on Intel's Pentium and Celeron line

While the whole world was occupied with Microsoft’s Xbox One announcement, AMD launched three new mobile APUs, codenamed Temash, Kabini and Richland. The new APUs will be part of the company’s 2013 A-Series and E-Series APU line-up, and come with AMD’s proprietary wireless display technology, AMD Wireless Display; improved I/O options; and lower TDPs as compared to the previous generation.

The Temash APUs will be available as AMD A-Series APUs, and are x86-based quad-core SoCs intended for low-power devices such as tablets, netbooks and hybrid notebooks. They come in both dual-core A4 and quad-core A6 configurations with “Jaguar x86 cores and AMD Radeon HD 8000 graphics. These chips will support dual displays with resolutions of up to 2560 x 1600 pixels.

Will it beat its rivals?

The Kabini chips are officially called 2013 AMD Mainstream APUs, and are meant for entry-level, low-end notebooks. They will be available in both A-Series and E-Series lines; they come in quad-core A4 and A6 configurations as well as dual-core E1 and E2 models.

The Richland APUs seem to be the most powerful of the lot. These chips will come in A8 and A10 quad-core configurations and are intended for higher-end notebooks.

The Temash and Kabini chips are meant to compete against Intel’s Atom, Pentium and Celeron CPUs for low-power devices. The Richland APUs will enter the space occupied by Intel’s Core i3 and Core i5 processors.

AMD says the new chips promise a significant increase in performance and battery life over the previous generation, but it remains to be seen how much they help the company regain its lost market share. Haswell and Ivy Bridge may continue to dominate performance charts, but we think AMD is focusing on improving its offerings for the mobile space. For now, MSI has announced that its new GX series of gaming laptops—the GX70 and GX60—employ the Richland A10-5750M APU.