Second Generation AMD A-Series APUs incoming

AMD has officially announced its second generation of 32nm A-Series APUs for laptops and desktops, with chief improvements including a lower power envelope and significant boosts in performance. 

The new A-Series, codenamed 'Trinity', has been specifically optimized for content creation, multimedia and gaming; particularly when it comes to ultraportable laptops. If AMD is to be believed, the new chips boast a CPU performance increase of 28-per cent and a GPU performance increase of 56-per cent when compared to the previous generation of APUs.  

According to AMD, the Trinity series is capable of delivering more than double the graphics performance of the previous generation of Llano chips. This can be increased by an additional 75 percent when using Dual Graphics mode via a discrete graphics card. 

CPU performance, meanwhile, has been boosted by "up to 29 percent" courtesy of the chip maker's Turbo Core technology, which shifts power between the CPU and GPU. This effectively increases CPU frequencies to up to 3.2 GHz, depending on the application being used. 

The Trinity series also boasts a thermal display power of 17 watts, compared to Llano's 25 watts; a reduction in power that will benefit AMD's range of Ultrathin laptops. This was achieved via several technologies, including the new power-optimised 'Piledriver' CPU core (which is a tweaked up version of the troubled Bulldozer CPU) and AMD Start Now, which quickly enters and exits low power states to maximise system responsiveness. 

Other key improvements of the new Trinity series include longer battery life (up to 12 hours, according to AMD), a combined-core computing performance of 700 gigaflops, increased video optimisation via AMD's HD Media Accelerator technology suite, AMD Eyefinity Technology support and proven compatibilty with Windows 8 OS.

“Our 2nd Generation AMD A-Series APU is a major step forward in every performance and power dimension, allowing users to enjoy a stunning experience without having to give up the things that matter to them most," said Chris Cloran, corporate vice president and General Manager, AMD Client Business Unit. "This experience doesn’t stop at mainstream notebooks. It carries over into affordable ultrathin form factors featuring the latest in AMD Radeon graphics.” 

AMD's second generation of A-Series APUs are available now in a range of laptops, Ultrathin notebooks and embedded solutions. Desktop versions are still some months away from hitting the market.

AMD A-Series APU series specification table: