AMD’s 4.5W Hondo processor nearly ready

With the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) event about to kick off soon, processors are again the talk of the industry. The “Hondo” codenamed processor is on AMD’s official roadmap but hasn’t been seen since an official AMD presentation took place way back in February.

What makes Hondo so impressive is the fact it will offer up two cores and integrated Radeon graphics with a Thermal Design Power (TDP) of just 4.5W maximum and 2W average. It is reported that Hondo is perfectly capable of running Windows 8 and the idea is that it will provide a low power and low cost competition alternative other Windows RT devices and low power Intel systems.

Hondo is the first generation of ultra-low power APU based on the 40nm construction process expected to launch in Q4 this year. Its anticipated that when the Hondo replacement comes, it will utilise the 28nm process and offer much more performance within the same or a smaller thermal design power envelope. Tamesh is the codename of Hondo’s replacement and it is expected next year, probably towards the end.

I hope that AMD’s Hondo processor will be available to consumers too as it’d make the great basis for a home downloads server or media PC that doesn’t hit the electricity bills hard. At 4.5W of peak power consumption Hondo is more eco-friendly than most light bulbs.

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