AMD develop new chipset for Brazos 2.0 APUs

The Brazos 2.0 platform is AMDs value minded APU series. The 2.0 represents an evolution of the same architecture of the first Brazos, except yielding better results due to process maturity. The older Brazos platform was plagued by a lack of USB 3.0 and SATA III support, meaning once SATA III controllers and USB 3.0 controllers via third party chips were added the platform wasn’t as value minded as first intended. AMD is now looking to correct that with the introduction of the A68 chipset.

AMD’s A68 chipset updates Brazos 2.0 to the latest interfaces, giving USB 3.0 and SATA III support. However, the new chipset provides less overall storage interfaces than the A38 chipset that Brazos previously used. A38 provided six SATA II ports and 14 USB 2.0 ports whilst the A68 provides three SATA III ports, two USB 3.0 ports and 8 USB 2.0 ports. Still a fairly good mix of connectivity especially considering these Brazos 2.0 platforms are aimed at low performance media PC, HTPC or home server type uses.

An interesting piece of information to take from AMD’s new A68 release is that whilst the mobile equivalent, A68M, supports RAID configurations the desktop version will not support RAID. Which could be disappointing for anyone looking to link up some drives for a media server. But the inclusion of USB 3.0 and SATA III is a nice touch from AMD, without the need for external controllers it should bring down the overall cost of the Brazos 2.0 platform.

The flagship of the Brazos 2.0 platform is due in Q4 this year. Its not going to get much faster than the current flagship, the E450, which sits at 1.66GHz across its two cores. The new E2 2000 will clock at 1.75GHz across two cores with a 18W TDP. We won’t see the current 40nm Brazos architecture overhauled until Kabini 28nm dual or quad-core parts arrive at some point in 2013.

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