14 DAY TRIAL // Regardless of what analysts and marketing experts say or think, AMD is quite convinced that the Fusion architecture, which lies at the basis of its APUs, will play a prominent role in the company's future performance.
APU stands for accelerated processing unit and defines an AMD chip that has both the CPU and the graphics built on the same die.
One of the main so-called branches of the Fusion architecture will be known as the Brazos platform and will consist of Ontario and Zacate chips and the Hudson D1 Fusion controller hub.
These Zacate and Ontario chips will feature two Bobcat cores and the ATI Radeon HD 5400-series graphics engine.
They will be mostly aimed at low-power, low-end devices, such as netbooks or low-cost notebooks, where they are expected to score design wins thanks to their high level of integration.
One of the main assets of the chips are that they can let small form factor systems get even more compact.
Another is that, since software evolution will continue to exploit integrated graphics cores, the chips may turn out to be more productive than Intel's own solutions.
"As AMD heads into 2011, it really is starting to feel like some historic battles between irresistible forces and unmovable objects are coming to a head,” said Gary Silcott is senior manager of product PR at AMD.
“For thousands of people inside the company, you can sense us rising from our seats to see what AMD Fusion is going to deliver, and we all know it is going to be unlike anything we’ve seen before," he went on to saying.
"All the calls made in the last few years to stick to a unique plan of action in order to deliver the user experience consumers and customers want to get from a company like AMD, are about to pay off. I hope you’ll stick with us for this game [as] the season may end, but the love of the sort goes on forever," Mr. Silcott added.
Of course, the Zacate and Ontario may have their work cut out for them as they may run into trouble if they actually have power consumption of 18W and if software makers take too long to make use of the multi-threaded capabilities of the graphics.