Report: AMD Quad-core Llano APUs Coming in Q3
Llano by this summer?
Are you waiting impatiently for more of AMD's Fusion CPUs? If you buy into AMD's line that the Future is Fusion, then the future can't be here soon enough. According to online reports, however, you'll have to wait until Q3 of this year before we'll be seeing some Llano product.
X-bit labs reports that AMD will be introducing in July five A-series models with 65W or 100W TDP. These APUs will either have quad CPU cores with Radeon HD 6000-class "BeaverCreek" (320 or 400 stream processors) graphics, or dual CPU cores with "WinterPark" (160 stream processors) graphics.
X-bit labs created the following table showing off all the A-series Llano APU's that AMD supposedly has planned for this year. Mind you, this is all unofficial and unconfirmed, but it's fun to see what's in the future.
And here's this video that AMD is all too proud to show off of Llano compared to Sandy Bridge:

Strange how I just realized Sandy is a sexy name, while Bulldozer is rough as guts.
HA.
This is awesome for low power things, but I don't really care about those.
A Llano APU, though using more power, will provide more performance....which will allow you to use it for other tasks. An A8-3550 provides 400 Stream Processors and 4 physical cores while would allow for better multi-tasking....like running a media server and HTPC simultaneously, which Zacate would struggle with. Also, the extra 320 Stream Processors would improve encoding performance.
Regardless, good to see AMD with a strong release schedule planned, and at 32nm finally as well.
Here's a link for Radeon releases: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_AMD_graphics_processing_units
They were all released Nov 2010!!! If anybody does not believe that AMD Llano will eliminate the mid price point mass market for discrete gpu's then they really need to have a hard look at the facts.
AMD is releasing Radeon 6990 without quantity restrictions. Nvidia is releasing less than 1000 GeForce 590's. The 590 is a cherry picked dual gpu board. It may perform equal to or actually outperform Radeon 6990. But what good is it if you can't buy it? Or is the market for bleeding edge bragging rights also just not there?
The mass market supports new gpu core development. Without the sales of millions of discrete gpu's for legacy upgrades, the next generation doesn't get designed or if it does without the prospect of any mass sales volume then it becomes a very expensive piece of silicon.
A good example is the ATI FirePro and Nvidia Quadro brands. They simply do not have the mass volume sales to allow for a lower purchase price point of $2000-$3000.00, the demand is simply not there. Product refreshes are also not as frequent as the mass market again due to demand.
If AMD is using this year’s top discrete gpu design for next years Fusion APU then the discrete gpu market is most certainly dead. Will there be a reason to upgrade a one year old Llano box with the latest discrete GPU? For what gain other than bragging rights? And what would be the discrete GPU demand looking forward?
The real question becomes is that AMD’s plan? And if so how does Nvidia plan to keep the discrete market open? Does Nvidia license core designs to Intel?
The other question is just what does AMD plan to do with Bulldozer? It seems that Bulldozer will be the server, workstation or high performance desktop and gamers cpu. This is certainly not a mass market cpu. As a server obviously graphics are not needed beyond a motherboard integrated gpu. So there will be some demand for discrete gpu boards with Bulldozer.
The next question becomes. When does AMD release Bulldozer with an on die graphics core? Because Bulldozer will be the only market left open for discrete gpu’s.
Of course just how Intel intends to answer AMD will determine the future of Nvidia graphics. Arguably Intel cannot compete with the AMD/ATI library. Every few months AMD releases new graphics silicon, they are continually evolving that product to meet present market demand. Intel is not a graphic’s design house. But now they have to be to keep their CPU business competitive. That means they are designing graphics gpu’s to penetrate a market that is owned 100% by AMD and Nvidia.
AMD is now designing discrete GPU’s with the intention of integrating that design on-die for an APU release ONE YEAR LATER! That has to be an optimized model and as such just how can Nvidia compete with AMD if they don’t have that insight into Intel future release Architectures? Nvidia’s only market will be on an Intel Inside box.
Right now AMD is directing the future of CPU design. They have the edge over Intel with ownership of arguably the world’s best graphics design portfolio and gpu design team. And they have the cost edge over Nvidia as they simply sell a one year old core design on die to millions of consumers as an APU. For Intel to remain competitive they are forced into the same model and this model shuts out Invidia.
1)A6s will have 3 cores + 1 locked and 1MB of cache will be locked.
2)E2s will have 1 core + 1 locked and 1MB of cache will be locked.
3)6370 can become a 6410, because the number of SPs is the same, and the only thing that differs is the clock speed
4)P comes from Power, and will be the equivalent of "Black Edition", and will have unlocked multipliers, while the others will not.
This would imply that Bulldozer is going to have Radeon on board!
The comparison was a mobile Intel chip versus a mobile AMD chip both with the integrated GPU within the CPU. But how was this surprising at all? Intel has lacked in the graphics department for ages, and now that AMD releases an APU and you're skeptical that it's outperforming an intel couterpart? errr... what?