AMD Launches its 2nd Generation of G-Series Embedded APUs

Bringing Beema into the fight…

AMD g-sereis banner

Yesterday AMD launched a new generation of G-series embedded SoCs. All of these new products are based on AMD’s Beema SoC which is an updated and optimized version of last year’s Kabini SoC. These new G-series parts have between two and four cores as well as clock-speeds ranging from one to two gigahertz. L2 cache sizes also range from one to two megabytes and there are actually two types of chips being launched as the G-series. We have Steppe Eagle which has a GCN GPU and Crowned Eagle which doesn’t have any GPU at all. Despite that major difference the TDP range for both chips remain the same at 5 to 25 Watts.

AMD embedded roadmap

This launch fills out the middle of AMD’s 2014 embedded products stack and follows up on the launch of the Bald Eagle APU back in May. We have yet to see heads or tails of AMD’s Hierofalcon CPU which is an embedded version of AMD’s first ARM chip. That said as of this time everything points to it being still on track for sometime in the later half of this year.

AMD g-series usecases

One of the killer applications for this chip that AMD is envisioning is data center switching. In this scenario one of these G-series chips would be used to control the follow of information on the network inside of a modern data center. AMD is also hoping that the G-series will be used to do security processing and high volume encryption thanks to its AES hardware acceleration capabilities.

AMD g-series markets

Of course both of these use cases come in addition to the standard use cases of embedded processors like signage, industrial equipment, and casino gaming applications.

AMD G-series SKUs

In total AMD is launching fourteen new SKUs today which is quite a few considering that only nine SKUs were launched yesterday as part of AMD’s 2014 Mainstream Mobile APU lineup. Given the sheer number of SKUs there should be something for everyone in AMD’s G-series product stack.

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AMD’s latest G-series APUs and CPUs are exactly what we expected but that’s not a bad thing. Given how competitive Beema was in laptops and tablets it’s easy to surmise that AMD has a strong product portfolio in the embedded space which will only be amplified when Hierofalcon enters the market. It’s clear that AMD takes the embedded market seriously, and that it’s using almost every chip at its disposal to win new business here. No longer is AMD vision of the embedded market as a high growth area for the company a dream. With the launch of these new APUs and CPUs capturing growth in the embedded market is a tangible opportunity for AMD.S|A

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Thomas Ryan is a freelance technology writer and photographer from Seattle, living in Austin. You can also find his work on SemiAccurate and PCWorld. He has a BA in Geography from the University of Washington with a minor in Urban Design and Planning and specializes in geospatial data science. If you have a hardware performance question or an interesting data set Thomas has you covered.