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AMD used the Computex 2011 show in Taipei to finally climb aboard the tablet market with the announcement of the firm’s Z series of Fusion APUs.
The Z-01 is the first in the family of devices known as ‘Desna’ and with the firm confirming that shipments had already begun to AMD partners. Desna was confirmed as containing two 1GHz Bobcat cores while only consuming 5.9W of power.
While the Z series of APUs may indeed be tablet friendly, it’s still expected to feature on devices running the full version of Windows. Seemingly acknowledging the lukewarm reception to Windows tablets, Bergman said: "I’m sure many of you are skeptical about Windows on tablets," before suggesting that a partner presentation from BlueStacks would convince the assembled journalists otherwise.
BlueStacks specialises in creating an Android runtime environment which runs under Windows 7, thus enabling instant switching between Windows and Android without rebooting.
The same software is used by Viewsonic with the Intel Oak Trail-powered ViewPad 10 Pro however Engadget panned the feature as a ‘gimmick’, calling it ‘laggy’ and lamenting the lack of Android Marketplace support.
AMD product group manager Rick Bergman also revealed that the firm’s had just begun testing of next year’s APU codenamed Trinity, based on the chipmaker’s new ‘Bulldozer’ core. "It looks fantastic," he said.
