14 DAY TRIAL // There's no doubt about the fact that the PC market has evolved significantly over the last years, with notebooks selling better than desktops and computer processors boasting new, more energy-efficient microarchitectures. The world's leading chip makers, Intel and AMD, are expected to update their CPU portfolio with the introduction of new models that would provide users with a GPU+CPU architecture, designed to deliver performance and energy efficiency into a smaller, more compact design. We already know that Intel is getting ready to launch such products by the end of this year, but AMD's first CPUs with integrated graphics won't be available until sometime in 2011.
On that note, the fellows over at Fudzilla claim to have gotten their hands on a couple of details on the said CPUs, codenamed Llano, which are part of AMD's 2011 product roadmap. According to them, the Llano products will be featured with up to four cores, with the possibility of two and four core-based models to be made available at the same time. Unlike Intel's architecture, AMD's Llano chip is said to boast a native-integrated GPU, meaning that the same processor die will integrate both the CPU and GPU cores.
In addition, the platform is expected to use the DDR3 and DDR3L (1.35V) memory with a 128-bit floating point. As mentioned in previous articles, the new processor should be built using the new 32nm manufacturing technology and is expected to boast a TPD of between 20W to 55W, depending on the platform. Given that they will be launched that far into the future, the Llano processors are expected to come with support for Microsoft's DirectX 11 API, which the chip maker will initially integrate on the upcoming Radeon 5 series of desktop GPUs.
AMD's Llano chip is due out in mid-2011, according to the company's November 2008 roadmap, by which time Intel will have gained some experience with the CPU+GPU architecture.