AMD has unveiled Trinity, the chip manufacturer's flagship processor that will be integrated into its new line of ultra-thin notebooks, in competition to rival Intel's ultrabooks.
Derek Johnson, AMD product manager for client notebooks, has been working on the Trinity project for two years.
He explains that Trinity has leveraged AMD's second generation of A-series accelerated processing units (APUs), which are intended for ultra-thin notebooks and all-in-one desktops.
“Trinity offers better performance and lower power utilisation - more than 50% less than previous AMD chips - with its 17-watt APU,” notes Johnson, who adds that Trinity's graphics processing unit is also based on Radeon 7000 graphics.
According to Johnson, Trinity aims to provide a rich visual experience as an entertainment platform as well as create a high-performance gaming experience on ultra-thin notebooks, while being energy-efficient and operating on a 12-hour-capable battery.
Johnson explains that AMD is working closely with channel partners and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to roll out Trinity notebooks. HP recently unveiled its Sleekbooks at the Global Influencer's Summit this month, in China, which featured AMD Trinity chips.
Johnson says: “Our strategy to ultra-thin is quite different from our competitors. The approach we want to take is to have uncompromised visual experience. We also want our OEMs to be able to build these systems and compete in a way that allows them to deliver products at competitive price points.
“Across the OEMs, we're going to start to see some very interesting differentiated designs and experiences offered with Trinity.”
AMD HD Media Accelerator was integrated into the technology to improve video playback with colour adjustments, noise reduction and image stabilisation.
AMD also decided to add hard-accelerated features for Adobe Photoshop and to support high-definition video. According to the company, AMD Turbo Core technology shifts power between the CPU and the graphics processing unit (GPU), depending on application needs, and can boost CPU frequencies to up to 3.2GHz.
Johnson points out that more casual gamers are playing online games via their Web browsers, and Trinity's GPU was created to take advantage of this trend by improving the quality of rich Web content.
He adds: “I think it will be very competitive in the market, as more than 100 applications take advantage of GPU acceleration in some shape or form. Whether it's WinZip, Corel, Adobe Photoshop, a lot of these applications are going towards GPU acceleration, including the open source community such as VLP Player and Open GL.”
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