14 DAY TRIAL // Advanced Micro Devices may seek to recoup the loss it incurred with the Bulldozer by having its next APU series shine and, whether that happens or not, some clarity should come when the FM2 chipsets launch.
Apparently, one of the future chipsets that Advanced Micro Devices is working on has been exposed to the Internet.
Then again, exposed might not be the correct term here, since only the name was provided and nothing else.
According to USB-IF, the chipset is called A85X and, obviously, will have native support for USB 3.0.
As a reminder, USB 3.0, otherwise called SuperSpeed, is the latest and fastest iteration of the Universal Serial Bus standard.
It can work at 5 Gbps, about ten times faster than what USB 2.0 can accomplish, though few, if any, HDDs, SSDs or flash drives can actually make the best of the bandwidth (for now).
Unfortunately, whatever other features the chipset possesses is not something that was disclosed.
Also, it is unclear when more information can be expected, although it is assumed that Trinity APUs (and, thus, this chipset, and others) will show up early next year (2012).
It remains to be seen if Advanced Micro Devices is able to resolve its APU shortage issue by the time that happens.
By the looks of it, A85X will replace the x90X series used for motherboards with AMD AM2 and AM3 sockets.
What remains is to wait and see if the company is able to gain back some face after the disappointing performance of the 8-core Bulldozer.
One analyst even said that AMD is in danger of drifting into irrelevancy because of how the 8-core chip lagged behind other chips in benchmarks.
Obviously, the Sunnyvale, California-based company has no intention of letting that happen, so the next move is its own. Hopefully it won't get delayed.
