AMD Exceeds Goal to Deliver Improvement in Mobile Processor Energy Efficiency

AMD has exceeded its moonshot 25x20 goal set in 2014 to improve the energy efficiency of its mobile processors 25 times by 2020, the company says. The new AMD Ryzen 7 4800H mobile processor improves on the energy efficiency of the 2014 baseline measurement by 31.7 times, and offers performance and efficiency for laptop PCs. Greater energy efficiency leads to  improved battery life, better performance, lower energy costs and reduced environmental impact from computing, the company says.

Click here for a link to the 25x20 initiative.

“We have always focused on energy efficiency in our processors, but in 2014 we decided to put even greater emphasis on this capability,” says Mark Papermaster, chief technology officer and executive vice president, Technology and Engineering at AMD. “Our engineering team rallied around the challenge and charted a path to reach our stretch goal of 25 times greater energy efficiency by 2020. We were able to far surpass our objective, achieving 31.7 times improvement leading to gaming and ultrathin laptops with unmatched performance, graphics and long battery life. I could not be prouder of our engineering and business teams.” 

To achieve the 25x20 goal, AMD focused improvements on developing a highly integrated and efficient system-on-chip (SoC) architecture; improved, real-time power management features; and silicon-level power optimizations. AMD reduced average compute time for a given task by 80% from 2014 to 2020, while also achieving an 84% reduction in energy use. That means an enterprise that upgrades 50,000 AMD laptops from 2014 models to 2020 models would achieve five times more computing performance and reduce associated laptop energy consumption by 84%, which over a three-year service life amounts to saving approximately 1.4 million kilowatt hours of electricity and 971,000 kg of carbon emissions, equal to 16,000 trees grown for 10 years.4

“Stewardship of our planet can go hand-in-hand with developing powerful technology and helping our customers achieve their aims,” says Susan Moore, corporate vice president for corporate responsibility and international government affairs at AMD. “The power efficiency improvements we have made within our laptop processors make a difference in the world around us. Reporting publicly each year on progress and ultimately achieving, and surpassing, the 25x20 energy efficiency goal reflects AMD’s commitment to sustainable technology.” 

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.