Chromebook not in the cards for new AMD chips, focus on Windows 10

AMD’s new Carrizo chip might skip Chromebooks, at least for the moment, and be part of the first wave of Windows 10 laptops within the $400-$800 range, according to AMD marketing manager Adam Kozak.

Carrizo is planned to ship with July’s wave of new Windows 8 laptops from Asus, Hewlett-Packard, Acer, Lenovo and Toshiba. These laptops will all be eligible to upgrade to Windows 10 for free, as soon as it becomes commercially available.

AMD’s A8 and A10 processors chip features quad-core architecture, and include up to six GPU cores, and faster FX chips, with up to eight GPU cores. Computex trade show attendees in Taipei this week were able to see a number of laptops powered by the new chips this week.

According to AMD, these new chips are specifically built to deliver top performance on Windows 10 machines, providing longer battery power, and are at least 56% faster than last year’s AMD Kaveri chips. The choice of investing in higher-end laptops, rather than Chromebooks is not completely unexpected. AMD is looking to strengthen its relationship with Microsoft, hoping in a boost in PC sales following Windows 10 commercial release. Last April, AMD’s CEO Lisa Su appeared to have had intel regarding Windows 10 ‘s official shipping date, which she accidentally released during an earning call, April 17th.

Expected improvements include longer battery life during video playback and intensive graphic tasks, such as full-screen gaming. By the same token, the new chips are expected to take full advantage of Windows 10’s DirectX 12 framework for enhanced graphics performance, whcih explains the focus on Windows laptops rather than Chromebooks. At 29% of the size of previous chips, Carrizo is expected to fit in smaller, thinner devices as well.

By the third quarter of 2015, AMD is also expected to make an official announcement in regard to the Carrizo Pro chips, planned to ship towards the end of this year.