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From the Consumer Electronics Show at the turn of the year, images were coming out of motherboards supporting the FS1b socket. &nbsp;This socket was a pin-grid-array, rather than a soldered on package which we had seen at Computex 2013.&nbsp; Then a couple of weeks later, we reported on a leak regarding several PGA system-on-chips with the Kabini name destined for the FS1b socket.&nbsp; Today AMD is formalizing that announcement into the AM1 platform &ndash; A Kabini APU combined with a socketed FS1b motherboard.</p>
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We have examined Kabini in the laptop and mobile space; however AMD sees a market particularly in regions with low GDP.&nbsp; Users of these markets have asked for low cost systems that remain upgradable.&nbsp; With the AM1 platform, AMD is aiming for a combined SoC and motherboard in the $60 region, remaining socketed for an upgrade path.</p>
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The Kabini processors will be similar to their laptop counterparts &ndash; up to four Jaguar based CPU cores, a single memory controller supporting up to 1600 MHz memory and 128 streaming processors from the Graphics Core Next architecture.&nbsp; Due to the SoC element of the CPU, there is no chipset on the motherboard and all the IO will be present on the CPU itself. &nbsp;This should help drive the cost of the motherboards down such that another IC does not need to be engineered in. &nbsp;The Kabini APUs will source two SATA 6 Gbps ports, two USB 3.0 ports, eight USB 2.0 ports, four PCIe 2.0 lanes and a trio of video outputs (DisplayPort, HDMI, and VGA).</p>
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At launch, on April 9^th, AMD have 15 motherboards planned from the major motherboard manufacturers.&nbsp; They will mostly be in the micro-ATX form factor, with a couple in the mini-ITX size.&nbsp; We reported on several motherboards from Computex and CES, such as this from MSI:</p>
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With the use of four PCIe 2.0 lanes, AMD is not expecting these systems to be used with anything other than a low end discrete graphics card (R5 230 or GT210) for more screens.&nbsp; The bandwidth would be limiting, and as a result anything other than low-resolution/low-quality gaming would be possible.&nbsp; Also, no dual graphics co-operation is currently planned from AMD.</p>
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The list of APUs coming to release, as far as we can tell, still comes from the leak via Chinese VR-Zone. &nbsp;Compared alongside some of the socketed Kabini:</p>
<table border="0" style="color: rgb(52, 52, 52); line-height: normal;" width="100%">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="contentwhite" colspan="5">
AMD AM1 Kabini</td>
<td class="contentwhite" colspan="2">
AMD FT3 Kabini</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tlgrey" style="text-align: center;">
&nbsp;</td>
<td class="tlgrey" style="text-align: center;">
A6-5350</td>
<td class="tlgrey" style="text-align: center;">
A4-5150</td>
<td class="tlgrey" style="text-align: center;">
E2-3850</td>
<td class="tlgrey" style="text-align: center;">
E1-2650</td>
<td class="tlgrey" style="text-align: center;">
A6-5200</td>
<td class="tlgrey" style="text-align: center;">
E1-2500</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tlgrey" style="text-align: center;">
Cores / Threads</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">
4 / 4</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">
4 / 4</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">
4 / 4</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">
2 / 2</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">
4 / 4</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">
2 / 2</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tlgrey" style="text-align: center;">
CPU Frequency</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">
2050</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">
1600</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">
1300</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">
1450</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">
2000</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">
1400</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tlgrey" style="text-align: center;">
GPU</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">
HD 8400</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">
HD 8400</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">
HD 8280</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">
HD 8240</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">
HD 8400</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">
HD 8240</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tlgrey" style="text-align: center;">
GPU SPs</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">
128</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">
128</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">
128</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">
128</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">
128</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">
128</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tlgrey" style="text-align: center;">
GPU Frequency</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">
600</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">
600</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">
450</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">
400</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">
600</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">
400</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tlgrey" style="text-align: center;">
L2 Cache</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">
2MB</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">
2MB</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">
2MB</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">
1MB</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">
2MB</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">
2MB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tlgrey" style="text-align: center;">
TDP</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">
25 W</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">
25 W</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">
25 W</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">
25 W</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">
25 W</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">
25 W</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
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At this time, AMD have not confirmed these SKUs.&nbsp; But we were able to confirm that AMD is aiming at the Kabini APU line to be 128 SPs and 25W.&nbsp; There are no plans to release lower wattage parts.&nbsp; The reasoning behind this is for desktop systems are often not restricted on power, and thus the difference between a 15W APU and a 25W APU is ultimately not that much at the end of the day, and the lower TDP part will sacrifice performance.</p>
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The big competition for AMD in this segment is desktop Bay Trail.&nbsp; AMD is keen to point out the differences between the two:</p>
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So all Kabini APUs will support Windows XP onwards, and all accept both 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems.&nbsp; Maximum memory support is 16GB at DDR3-1600 MHz.&nbsp; A couple of points AMD fail to mention on this slide are relatively important:</p>
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Kabini APUs are all single channel memory, compared to BayTrail / Silvermont CPUs that are dual channel.</li>
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Kabini APUs are 25W, whereas Silvermont CPUs are 10-15W on average.</li>
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Finding a non 64-bit BayTrail system is hard &ndash; I only found reference to BayTrail-T CPUs that might be 32-bit only, and these systems are not directly competing with Kabini APUs and the AM1 platform.</li>
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Further questioning to Adam Kozak has suggested that the AM1 systems should support memory overclocking above the verified DDR3-1600 MHz speed.&nbsp; Unfortunately these APUs will not have any Turbo Core technology however, nor will they support CPU overclocking.</p>
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I also probed further on a couple of topics:</p>
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Beema Desktop APUs replacing Kabini Desktop: Currently AMD is still discussing whether Beema will be released in a similar vein to AM1, preferably in the same socket despite the presence of the Platform Security Processor.&nbsp; There needs to be some longevity in the platform, but the focus on Beema to begin with will be in the laptop and mobile markets.</p>
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Robustness of AM1 over future updates: AMD hope to keep the FS1b socket for the AM1 platform going forward.</p>
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Scope for an 8-core Jaguar Kabini APU, or a 2-core and larger IGP: AMD will focus purely on the quad-core APU with 128 SP GCN graphics at this time.</p>
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Having briefly tested Jaguar in a desktop platform in-house, AMD is clearly making a low-end play where volumes can be high while profit-margins are low.&nbsp; Even if the motherboard and APU combined are $60, the rest of the system can easily double that, minus a monitor and an OS, which could bring the total up nearer $200 or $250.&nbsp; At this price point, the main competition is Windows (or Linux) enabled tablets, or depending on the workload, even Android enabled tablets.&nbsp; There is scope for other markets (as a cheaper compute machine) in there too.&nbsp; The single channel memory situation is a little odd when it comes to throughput, reducing peak bandwidth to 12.8 GB/s.&nbsp; The upgradable element for this market means that should faster processors come along, they would be upgradeable, however the jump to a Bulldozer-based architecture could be had for as little as $88 (AMD A4-4000 and GIGABYTE F2A55M-DS2) with more IO to play with.</p>
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Release date for Kabini APUs and motherboards: Formally the AM1 products are to be available in early April, with global availability expected on April 9<span style="font-size: 12px;">th</span>.&nbsp; Pricing and APU SKU lists have not been announced, so it is unclear if that $60 target for motherboard plus APU is on the low end or the high end.&nbsp; We have asked regarding samples for the platform and look forward to testing.</p>
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Source: AnandTech
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