14 DAY TRIAL // Just a few days ago, rumors started to circulate on the Internet that the Ontario processor from Advanced Micro Devices will have a TDP (thermal design power) of 18W or 25W, and while this power draw may not necessarily be seen as high, it seems to be much higher than the one AMD intends to reach. At least, that's what a recent report published by X-bit labs appears to suggest. Apparently, the Bobcat architecture is very power-efficient and, thus, the Ontario will work on a much lower wattage.
The source did not disclose the actual power consumption details concerning the First Fusion processors, but there are claims that the dual-core Llano APUs (Accelerated Processing Units) will stick to the 20W envelope, even though they are high-end x86 chips with powerful integrated graphics cores. This will be accomplished by means of a myriad of so-called power consumption trimming techniques. Knowing this, it makes sense that the Ontario would use up even less energy.
"Categorizing AMD Ontario as 18W or 24W is not reasonable and well outside the margin of error," a source close to AMD said on Wednesday, according to the report.
The Bobcat is an out-of-order execution processing core and has been in development at AMD for years. Ontario will have one or two x86 cores, merged with a graphics core capable of DirectX 11 rendering. It was even implied, previously, that the Bobcat itself is sub-1W-capable, and this, in itself, makes the claims of 18W and 25W TDPs somewhat outlandish.
Indeed, such a low power draw even makes it usable in mobile electronics. Nevertheless, the products are a way off still and there is no way of knowing just how power-hungry, if at all, the final products will be. As it is, Llano and Ontario are unlikely to have similar TDP ranges. Predictably, Advanced Micro Devices did not comment on the story.