AMD Shows Off New APU Powered Devices and Kaveri System With Oculus Rift Attached

Although IDF13 is a decidedly Intel-centric event each year (obviously), it doesn’t stop numerous companies from camping out at nearby venues to steal away travelling tech journalists for a few moments of face time. Traditionally, AMD is one of those companies, and as you have probably guessed by now, we stopped in to see what AMD had on display.

As expected, AMD’s numerous demos all featured various APUs, which powered a number of notebooks, 2-in-1 devices, tablets, and AIO systems. Most of the rigs had been previously released, but we did catch a glimpse at an upcoming, touch-enabled MSI notebook and an MSI-built tablet as well that should be hitting the market soon.

Amongst the demos, we also got to see an HP A8 APU powered notebook attached to a Dock Port hub (formerly known at Lighting Port). The Dock Port funnels USB 3.0 and DisplayPort 1.2 out through a single cable and the hub expands the IO capabilities of the notebook and allows for multiple monitor connections. In the demo, only a single additional screen was attached, but it was good to see Dock Port in action nonetheless.

Perhaps the most interesting demo in AMD’s suite was a Kaveri-powered system connected to an Oculus Rift VR helmet. Rumors had been swirling recently, which claimed Kaveri—AMD’s next-gen, Steamroller-based APU--had been delayed until 2014. Today, however, reps from AMD said Kaveri would still ship this year, though no other details were given.

The system was running a Unigine graphics demo at a relatively low resolution (we believe it was 800x600), but just seeing Kaveri up and running and powering the Rift was interesting to say the least.