Quixant designs and manufactures specialised computer platforms for the global slot machine industry. In recent years the industry has migrated to the PC architecture. As can be imagined, high quality graphics is a key requirement, but the market also demands stable, long-term supply over many years. In this respect gaming is very different from the general PC market and requires special component selection. Key amongst these are the CPU, chipset and graphic components such as those provided by AMD’s embedded division.

Anyone taking a look at Quixant’s product line-up will notice that our products are all based on AMD platforms. This is not an accident, or due to some exclusivity deal with AMD. It is due to the fact that presently, and for the last few years, we believe AMD has the best platform product offering for the global gaming and slot machine industry.

In the gaming industry it is not just the qualities of the CPU that are important. The overall package is crucial. When AMD purchased ATI it secured its position in gaming by bringing under one roof leading CPU, chipset and graphics technologies, together with the golden requirement of the gaming industry – a long-term supply commitment. This advantage has recently been strengthened even further by the merger of the embedded divisions of the CPU and chipset groups with that of the graphics division to form AMD Embedded Solutions (AES).

What Quixant likes about AES is the integrated range of solutions across CPU, chipset, integrated graphics and discrete GPU components. This has allowed Quixant to deliver a scalable range of solutions that meets a wide range of customer requirements, all with a common architecture and supported by the same global team.

At the low end we are able to deliver excellent performance and value in our QXi-100 product. The QXi-100 demonstrates excellent thermal characteristics in a compact package thanks to AMD’s ASB1 platforms with the AMD Sempron™ and AMD Athlon™ X2 processors. These processors deliver incredible CPU-intensive performance on gaming related applications, such as Adobe® Flash® player.  The QXi-100 also provides excellent dual-screen graphics capabilities thanks to the superior RS780E chipset, which integrates high performance ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics.

At the mid- to high-end, Quixant offers the QX-30 . This platform harnesses the power of both AM2-and AM3-based processors to give a broad range of CPU options, from single-core through quad-core. The high performance RS780E chipset is again utilised for its excellent graphics capabilities. However, the QX-30 also has an on-board ATI Radeon™ E2400 discrete GPU. This enables the QX-30 to drive up to four independent DVI monitors, utilising a single unified video driver and simple common display settings. Quixant is seeing high levels of interest from its customers in this capability, which allows exciting new enhancements and reduced costs in the gaming environment. This multi-screen capability is unique to AMD in the embedded field, and of course delivers excellent graphics performance at the same time.

It is this broad range of capabilities, suiting a wide variety of budgets, based on a common architecture and delivered on an embedded program that is unique to AMD. It is this strength that enables Quixant to easily and efficiently deliver a variety of solutions to suit differing customer needs without having to re-invent the wheel each time.

Quixant has seen a consistent stream of new products entering AMD’s embedded line-up. The release of the new ASB2 and AM3 embedded platforms is the most recent example, providing even greater levels of performance, but with the same low-power characteristics.

Looking forward further, we anticipate that we will be entering an extremely exciting period with the launch of the new family of AMD Fusion™ products. We expect AMD Fusion to take the world of gaming to a different level, with new CPU architectures and even greater levels of graphics performance and multi-screen capabilities. Quixant is extremely excited by the future that AMD is mapping out for its embedded program and looks forward to being able to leverage the strengths of these devices in exciting new products to power the global market for slot machines.

Nick Jarmany is Managing Director of Quixant Ltd. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such links sites and no endorsement is implied.