The chip maker is preparing three new APUs with faster clock speeds

Sep 23, 2011 06:39 GMT  ·  By

In the first quarter of 2012, AMD plans to refresh its A-Series APU lineup to include three new chips based on the Llano architecture that will slightly improve on the specifications of their predecessors.

The new APUs will be call the A8-3820, A6-3620 and the A4-3420, and the first two feature a quad-core deign while the latter is a dual-core part.

Making our way from top to bottom, the first chip that we encounter is the A8-3820 which is set to replace the similar A8-3800.

AMD has kept the modifications brought to this SKU to a minimum as it settled for increasing its operating frequency from 2.4GHz to 2.5GHz, while the maximum Turbo speed was also increased to reach 2.8GHz.

The graphics core also remained unchanged as it features the same 400 shader units run at 600MHz.

The other quad-core part to be released by AMD in Q1 2011, the A6-3620 also won't bring any major features when compared to the A6-3600 is meant to replace, but it will receive a slight speed bump, enabling it to reach a 2.2GHz base clock with 2.5GHz Turbo.

Finally, the last APU that AMD plans to introduce, the A4-3420 will be clocked at 2.8GHz and integrates the HD 6530D graphics core.

While the GPU wasn't changed from the one used in the A4-3400, this new APU is 100MHz faster than its predecessor.

All three parts detailed will have the same 65W TDP, but no information regarding their pricing is available at this point in time.

In related news, the A6-3670K unlocked Llano APU that we detailed yesterday will also arrive in Q1 2012, and not in 2011 as we previously reported. Its older brother, however, the A8-3870K, is still scheduled for a Q4 2011 release. (via Fudzilla)