AMD Offers First Embedded Chip Set

Advanced Micro Devices is increasing its embedded offerings with the launch of a new chip set, which includes technology from ATI.

At the Embedded Systems Conference in San Jose, Calif. on April 2, AMD is planning to introduce the M690T chip set, which the company said will offer better graphics, video performance and display options.

AMD, which acquired ATI Technologies in October, launched its first chip sets with ATI graphics technology on Feb. 28. Those two new chip sets – the 690G and the 690V – have started shipping to motherboard makers and the company expects the chip sets to begin appearing in PCs by later this month.

Since the beginning of the year, AMD has been working to expand its embedded offerings. The Sunnyvale, Calif., chip maker now includes dual-core Opteron and Athlon processors in the lineup, as well as new Geode processors for the lower end of the embedded market place and three additional reference design kits.

Jeff Chu, a division marketing manager for AMD's Embedded Systems, said the company believes the combination of new processors, chip sets and other tools will allow for a much broader development of hardware, such as thin clients, point-of-sale machines, gaming and single-board PCs.

"I think we are filling a need in the embedded market right now," Chu said. "We see this as an opportunity to provide a set of new features and we see a lot of opportunity to grow in this space."

As with the other ATI chip sets, the M690T offers an integrated Radeon x1250 graphics processors, which eliminates the need for a separate graphics card. The embedded chip set also works with dual-core Athlon processors as well as single-core Turion and Sempron chips, and can support Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system.

In addition to the new chip set, AMD has launched the Socket S1, which will connect the chip set to the motherboard, and a new chip set development board. The board includes PCI and PCI Express expansion slots, USB 2.0 ports, and support for cathode ray tube displays, DVI (digital video interface) and LVDS (low-voltage differential signaling).

At this time, AMD has not set a price for the new chip set, Chu said. The company has started to distribute some of these chip sets, sockets and boards to select customers. AMD plans on making the new chip set generally available in May.

Copyright 2007 by Ziff Davis Media, Distributed by United Press International