AMD's recently announced Z-Series chips for tablets are getting a vote of confidence form Acer, according to DigiTimes. The Taiwanese computer maker has reportedly placed orders for 80,000 Z-01 APUs to put inside Windows 7 tablets targeted at the enterprise market, and apparently several other vendors are considering taking the same route.
Not many details were shared at the recent Computex launch but apparently the Z-01 is a power-optimized version of AMD's existing C-50 APU for netbooks. It features a pair of Bobcat CPU cores running at 1GHz, built-in Radeon HD 6250 graphics, and a 5.9W TDP. MSI is expected to sell the Windpad 110W this year using AMD's Z-Series chip.
Microsoft has promised to make the next major version of Windows compatible with ARM-based systems in an effort to break into the burgeoning tablet market, while Intel on the other hand is working to port Android to the x86 architecture for exactly the same reasons. Both endeavors are still some time away, and as ARM + Android/iOS dominate the market, Windows 7 and x86 chips are pitched as an alternative for business users wit more complex needs.
We've yet to see one such product stand out, however, mainly because Windows 7 is not optimized for touch input and x86 processors from Intel or AMD are not (yet) as power efficient as those based on ARM architectures.
https://www.techspot.com/news/44168-windows-7-tablet-from-acer-to-use-amds-z-series-apu.html
