What is a fusion?

[TheinsanegamerN]

hello, world.
my friend was building a new amd computer, and raised a good question. just exactly what is a fusion? is it a new architecture? or is it a Athlon II based CPU with an integrated GPU?

 

[jaguarskx]

Yep, fusion is a combination of CPU and GPU. Llano is basically a tweaked Athlon II CPU core with a tweaked HD 6xxx GPU core. The integrated core in the Llano A8 series is probably almost as powerful as a Radeon HD 6550 graphics card.

Llano is socket FM1 and there is no upgrade path for a future APU beyond the A8-3870k. Trinity is AMD next generation APU which is based on the Bulldozer CPU core and HD 7xxx GPU core. It will be a different socket; FM2. Trinity will probably be released mid 2012.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

thanks for that. he has finished the machine (a8-3870k, 16 GB 1600 MHz 9-9-9-24 latency, ece.) and it runs pretty well. he probably wont be affected by the trinity, he only does light gaming, mostly he does low end video editing, web surfing, and the like. that machine, as he said, "will probably function well for another 10 years". good to know that the socket has no future though...
thanks