14 DAY TRIAL // Integrated graphics, particularly those on the same die as the CPU, haven't been available on the market for overly long, but the actual concept is quite old. In fact, Advanced Micro Devices has been working on its own CPUs with integrated graphics circuits, called APUs (accelerated processing units), as part of its Fusion technology, and plans to release the first line of products based on it by next year. These parts will take on the existing Intel Core chips and the upcoming Sandy Bridge processors, which should come out around the same time.
The Llano APU will be part of the Sabine platform, will be constructed using the 32nm manufacturing process technology and will boast four x86 cores with speeds of over 3.0GHz and power consumption of 2.5W to 25W. High-end dual-core variations will have thermal design powers (TDPs) between 35W and 59W in total, whereas mainstream versions will stay at 30W. Also, like the Thuban six-core chips, the Llano APUs will be able to dynamically scale their clocks and voltages, as allowed by the TDP, when not all cores are being utilized. As for the actual graphics processor, it will be something equivalent to the company's HD 5000 series, which means that the Fusion chips will support DirectX 11.
The other major family of Fusion-based processors is known as Ontario and is based on the bobcat architecture. Also, according to the Sunnyvale, California-based company, they will be single-threaded with out-of-order execution and will consume even as little as under 1W. Ontario processors will supposedly feature 90% the performance of current mainstream solutions and be half as large.
“[Bobcat] is the brand new x86 micro-architecture, which first appears in the Ontario product which we talked about in the analyst conference. The Ontario product is really focused on, I’ll call it value PCs and netbooks, but the Bobcat technology and other technologies that we have in house are appropriate for lower power envelopes [and products like] pads. You’ll see Bobcat-based products show up the following year [in] these market segments,” said Dirk Meyer, chief executive officer and president of AMD, during the quarterly conference call with financial analysts, X-bit Labs reports..
The Sabine platform, thanks to the Hudson I/O controller, will have support for 16 USB ports, USB 3.0 (through the Hudson M3), PCI Express graphics, six SATA ports (with RAID), 1Gb Ethernet etc. Llano chips will be aimed at notebooks, both high-end and low-power, whereas Ontario APUS will be used in ultra low-voltage devices, like tablets, netbooks etc. Both are already available internally and the Llano has even started sampling to select customers.
“We plan to commence volume production in the back half of this year. We do now have internal samples of both of our initial Fusion designs, we are learning quite a lot, and are quite happy with what we see, and we started sampling to select customers, one of those two designs,” said Mr. Meyer.