AMD E-300 socket: Socket FT1

What the E-300 is

AMD E-300 is a dual core Zacate APU that AMD released in August 2011 for netbooks with soldered boards. It uses the Bobcat core design on a 40 nm process, running at 1.3 GHz with no turbo. The cache is 1 MB of L2 with 512 KB per core. Power is 18 W. Graphics come from AMD Radeon HD 6310 with 80 shaders at 488 MHz, rounded to 500 MHz in some listings.

Two Bobcat cores cover browsing, office and video playback while staying inside a netbook power budget. The single die integrates cores, graphics and the single channel DDR3 controller. Threads equal cores at 2.

Netbooks pair it with 2 GB of DDR3 and small drives for a quiet feel. Fixed clocks keep behavior predictable for fleets. The How to find your CPU socket type guide shows how to confirm the package.

Socket and motherboard compatibility

The E-300 solders to Socket FT1 with 413 balls and cannot be moved to another board. Netbook makers qualify each model with a specific board and BIOS, so another Zacate part is not a field swap.

The BIOS must list the exact E-300 string. The Socket vs chipset: what decides whether a CPU works guide covers AMD pairing basics.

Memory, PCIe and cooling

Memory support is DDR3-1066, single channel. The single channel feeds cores and graphics together, so 2 GB smooths multitasking. Soldered options lock size.

PCI Express lanes come from the APU for Wi-Fi and storage. No graphics slot exists on netbook boards.

Cooling uses a small heatsink sized for 18 W. Cleaning keeps fan noise down.

Upgrade paths

There is no CPU upgrade path on soldered Socket FT1. The E-300 cannot be removed, so a faster netbook means a new board or a new device. A faster dual core comparison on the same package is the E-350 class.

A platform move means a new small laptop on a current BGA package. Recycle the old netbook after wiping the drive.