AMD has today launched their new range of 6th generation 'Pro' APUs, which are based on the company's mobile consumer Carrizo APUs announced earlier this year. While the Pro line is similar to the consumer line from an architecture perspective, these APUs are specifically designed for commercial and business applications.
The main advantages to purchasing one of these new mobile Pro APUs over a standard Carrizo APU are AMD's security features and reliability assurance. Each 6th-gen Pro APU features an AMD Secure Processor and includes TrustZone technology, which isolates security applications such as anti-virus and digital wallets into a "secure world" that's outside the APU's computational cores.
As for assurance, all AMD Pro APUs come with up to a 36 month extended OEM warranty, 18-month image stability, and a 24-month product longevity commitment. AMD also provides a Pro Control Center utility with their 6th-gen Pro APUs that provide "intuitive system configuration" and management solutions that are ideal for small businesses.
The hardware itself is essentially identical to AMD's Carrizo line for consumers, with (for example) the top-end model, the PRO A12-8800B featuring the same specifications as the FX-8800P that launched earlier this year. This means that all Carrizo products are built using a 28nm manufacturing process, and feature Excavator x86 CPU cores alongside Radeon GCN GPU cores.
| Model | CPU Cores | Max CPU Frequency (GHz) |
GPU Cores | Max GPU Frequency (MHz) |
L2 Cache | Memory | TDP |
| PRO A12-8800B | 4 | 3.4 | 8 | 800 | 2MB | DDR3-2133 | 12-35W |
| PRO A10-8700B | 4 | 3.2 | 6 | 800 | 2MB | DDR3-2133 | 12-35W |
| PRO A8-8600B | 4 | 3.0 | 6 | 720 | 2MB | DDR3-2133 | 12-35W |
| PRO A6-8500B | 2 | 3.0 | 4 | 800 | 1MB | DDR3-1600 | 12-15W |
AMD has also announced that Pro APUs will be available in some laptops alongside Qualcomm's X5 LTE modem, which will provide Category 4 speeds (up to 150 Mbps down) in a single SKU for Europe and North America. One of these laptops will be from HP, but it's not completely clear when it will hit the market, or what other OEMs will release systems with these new APUs inside.