We told you everything you needed to know on AMD’s Brazos platform some time ago. Although the first models to appear on the market were in the form of motherboards, we were actually eagerly awaiting for the appearance of netbooks based on this technology. ASUS’ K-series models have already shown that the E-350 chipset can very well cope with large displays, so it shouldn’t come across as too strange that so many manufacturers have opted to make available 15” models based on the Brazos APU. As much as all of this sounds attractive, however, small and powerful machines with a display diagonal of up to 13” are what AMD was focused on during development - and these models are what we’re making a roundup of today.
Small-diagonal portable PCs have so far been divided into two clear categories: netbooks and ultraportable notebooks. The basic difference is in that netbooks are much weaker and performance-limited, whereas ultraportable PCs have ridiculously good hardware packed into an incredibly small enclosure with a just as incredible price. Another important difference is the display resolution, which is lacking in netbooks, limiting usability and functionality.
With the Fusion (Brazos) platform, AMD has managed to create a new category, one that places itself into the sweet spot between netbooks and expensive small ultraportable notebooks. We have four models as representatives of the up-and-coming wave, two of which carry the already well-known E-350 (Zacate), and two equipped with the weaker C-50 (Ontario) chipset.
The thing that separates AMD’s Fusion platform from any current competition is the capability to play full HD (1080p) video, owing to separate UVD units controlled by the Bobcat core, the base of all APUs. We’ve been able to confirm this allegation on the hardware we’ve met thus far (E-350 and C-50). The latter are both dual-core APUs, but we believe that the single-core E-240 and C-30 won’t have trouble coping with this either, as their graphics cores are identical to those in dual-core models.
As a reminder, the Brazos platform has two APU subcategories - Zacate, which is somewhat stronger, with a consumption of 18 W, and Ontario, the weaker one, consuming up to 9 W. Zacate comes in a dual-core version E-350, working at 1.6 GHz, and the single-core E-240, running at 1.5 GHz (we’ve also seen E-450 at this year’s Computex), with the integrated Radeon HD 6310 graphics identical in both models, having 80 unified shaders and a clock of 500 MHz. The more consumption-aware Ontario APUs sets the parameters a bit differently. The stronger, dual-core C-50 works at 1 GHz, while the single-core C-30 sets the clock at 1.2 GHz. The integrated Radeon HD 6250 in these APUs is identically configured, but has a clock of 280 MHz, much lower than what Zacate can offer.
Once everything is sifted through, it remains clear that AMD’s ultra-saving Ontario family is targeting Atoms directly, whereas Zacate is more apt for comparison against Intel’s ULV (Ultra Low Voltage) and stronger CPUs. Let’s start off with weaker models, i.e. those based on the C-50 chipset, which is probably the most interesting one for the masses anyway.
