14 DAY TRIAL // It appears the Hudson chipset is not the only Fusion product that has a surprise in store for the consumer base. In fact, the entire Fusion portfolio that Advanced Micro Devices is lining up might be more than just a little capable of causing waves. Apparently, the APUs themselves will carry on AMD's habit of optimizing power efficiency. To be more specific, the multi-core chips will each boast a good balance between performance and power consumption. Or, at the very least, this is what recent rumors imply.
The Hudson turned some heads recently because rumors started saying it would support the SuperSpeed USB 3.0 standard. Now, Fudzilla again claims to have stumbled upon another small bit of information concerning one of these upcoming and highly anticipated products. In this case, it is the quad-core version of the accelerated processing unit that is the subject of discussion. Apparently, its TDP will be quite low, especially when compared to that of the dual-core versions.
For instance, the Llano dual-core series will have thermal design power between 20W and even 40W, depending on the might of the cores themselves and the level of the DirectX 11 graphics circuitry built inside. The quad-core, surprisingly, will consume only 55W. For a 2011 next-generation CPU, especially one based on the 32nm process, this may look slightly steep, but the APU actually integrates not just the aforementioned graphics and CPU cores, but also most of the responsibilities of the chipset.
The upcoming composite processing solution will support DDR3 memory but will show its face only after the Brazos-ready dual-core and Llano make their own debuts. Unfortunately, the report could not give any specific date as to when this will happen, saying only that it will be sometime during 2011.