Forget CPUs and GPUs, Windows 7 DX11 Will Play Nice with AMD APUs

Windows 7 and DirectX 11 will support an upcoming technology developed by AMD, which is planned for release in 2011. Brandon LeBlanc, Windows communications manager on the Windows Client Communications Team, revealed that the company’s latest Windows client and underlying graphics technology would play nice with AMD Fusion. Unveiled at Computex, AMD Fusion explores a new concept in processing units, the Accelerated Processing Unit. Essentially, APU is designed to combine both the Central Processing Unit (CPU) and the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) on the same chip.

“AMD is offering the first-ever public demonstration of AMD Fusion technology. AMD Fusion represents AMD’s effort to combine the CPU and GPU onto a single die – called an Accelerated Processing Unit (APU). The idea is that a single die or chip could efficiently deliver popular (and demanding) consumer experiences like playing a DirectX 11 game to HD video playback. AMD Fusion represents what AMD believes to be a major shift in processor architecture and capabilities,” LeBlanc stated.

Steven Guggenheimer, corporate vice president of the OEM Division here at Microsoft, was also present at Computex and indicated that the Redmond company supported AMD in its new endeavor. AMD demoed the new technology on stage, and part was focused on the new experiences that APUs would be able to deliver and how it would manage to enhance Microsoft products.

Guggenheimer highlighted “our belief that AMD Fusion APUs combined with Windows 7 and DirectX 11 (and DirectCompute) can enable developers to create some incredible consumer experiences with their applications,” LeBlanc added.

Customers will need to exercise a bit of patience when it comes down to getting their hands on the first APUs. According to AMD, commercial availability for the Fusion family of APUs is planned for the first half of 2011.