Apple May Be Digging AMD's Fusion APU
Apple may or may not be eyeballing AMD's upcoming Fusion APUs.
During the annual AMD Financial Analyst Day presentation last week, Senior VP and Chief Sales Officer Emilio Ghilardi showed a slide (#7, in fact) featuring iMacs and Mac Pros. Since then, rumors have surfaced that Apple has been named as one of many companies having signed up for AMD's Fusion Accelerated Processing Unit (APU), slated for a launch early next year.
However AMD quickly swooped in and cleared the air. "Neither Apple nor AMD have made any announcements regarding Fusion in any future Apple product," said AMD Senior PR Manager Chris Hook. He added that Apple is merely an AMD hardware partner, and is not listed as a Fusion customer.
It's still curious as to why AMD would flash an iMac / Mac Pro slide during a Fusion APU presentation unless Ghilardi was referencing Apple's use of Radeon graphics. The company said last week that some Fusion shipments have already landed into manufacturers' hands, giving way to speculation that Apple could be toying with the APUs in pre-production test units. With that said, Apple may not be an official signed partner until the company determines if the product is right for the Apple brand.
In the meantime, AMD's upcoming APU definitely looks promising. "With our upcoming AMD Fusion APUs combining our DirectX 11-capable graphics processors and next-generation microprocessors on a single chip, we are poised to lead the industry’s next computing era with richer, more vivid digital experiences," said Dirk Meyer, AMD president and CEO during the Financial Analyst Day event.
To see AMD's Fusion technology in action, check out the video below (if you haven't already).
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AMD should have been catering to software companies long ago about their stream API. a fusion processor isn't as attractive unless you have the software to support it.
not to demean the APU in the least, it's just they are way behind when it comes to software support.
Even though i HATE Apple, i like this move, it paves the way a little bit more for AMD...
Of course it's right, now Apple computer will go from overpriced to:
Super-overpriced!
Apple will put it in their workstations... $3400!!
Please don't taint AMD's success with an Apple rumor, your article is shedding a bad light on the manufacturer.
eventhou now i dont own a AMD laptop or desktop
but this APU looks promising, might try one in the future
future laptop will be more smaller i guess ~
I wonder if Apple would have the audacity to overcharge on AMD hardware.......
AMD is the only future for Apple right now. Intel has forced Apple's hand with its "I'm taking my ball and going home" lawsuit against Nvidia about Nvidia's chipset manufacturing license (i.e. Nvidia cannot make chipsets for Intel's latest processors). The reason is simple, graphics. Yes, Intel SandyBridge is including GPU-capabilities on-die, but that's not enough for mainstream and enthusiast users. Apple still needs a discrete-option, and right now, only AMD offers Chipsets + Discrete GPU solutions. Nvidia can provide GPUs, but they can't provide motherboards and chipsets for Intel. Intel can provide chipsets, but they have no discrete option.
Apple doesn't want to go to multiple vendors (that defeats the whole "it just works" philosophy). They want a single provider. AMD can offer a CPU Chipset+GPU solution at every level (on-die with Fusion to discrete with Radeon). It just makes sense with Apple's business strategy.
Still, knowing Apple, it will be overpriced.
I can only see Fusion for the Mac Books. For their work station PCs, I don't see them moving away from a high end quad core and discrete workstation grade GPU.
I can only see Fusion for the Mac Books. For their work station PCs, I don't see them moving away from a high end quad core and discrete workstation grade GPU.
But that high end quad core could very well be a bulldozer design combined with a radeon gpu when it's time for the next upgrade of the mac line in about 6-7 months time.
If there is any truth to this there may be some AMD-based hackintoshing on the horizon.
What's an AMD chip doing in a Mac? A whole lot more than it's ever-- ahh, forget it.
You can already create a hackintosh with an AMD chip. I did it with my mine. You just need the right version to support your CPU.
it would be kinda logical, Apple PCs tend to avoid higher power GPUs, keep to a smaller footprint with regards space etc, so a decent integrated solution would appeal to them. Still as yet we have no idea how the Fusion will perform as a CPU or a GPU so it's difficult to speculate.
UEFI, SSD, SATA 3, DDR3, APU. Who needs a pad or desktop? Unless you play Crysis...
If apple is a Fusion customer, at least we'll know that AMD's ad team of 2 people can take a rest now
One thing that I have found about Apple Mac users is that when they used Motorola CPU's at first,I.B.M. was the enemy and mac users talked bad about I.B.M.
Then mac users when Apple "switched" to the I.B.M. Power PC CPU talked bad about Intel.
Then mac users when Apple again "switched" to using Intel CPU's talked bad about AMD (yes,I see this recently on forums where Mac users occasionally visit.
How ironic it would be if Mac users started using AMD CPU's in some of their models.
I hope for AMD to capture the market. But as i said before, they need to push their GPGPU software support.
I dont get why AMD is not as active as nVidia when it comes to software support. They are releasing APU's and yet there is not many STREAM or OpenCL apps
"Apple may or may not be eyeballing AMD's upcoming Fusion APUs."
That was the opening statement of this artical in bold, at the time of my post.. in case it gets changed later.
I just want to say, what an incredibly pointless sentence that only clarifies that you simply don't know something.. duhh.. thanks for sharing with us what you DO NOT know...
artical? Did I say that? oh shucks.. the corrector needs correcting.. yes yes.. I know it's article.. I don't know what to say.. Mental typo? Dark forces at play teaching me humility? touché..
Good thing I haven't read this article (basically) about 5 times already. New news is good news?
I want to see a application of these little GPU's beside the CPU's.
For those who get have a discreet card, this is a 100% idle GPGPU, why not make use?
If a Macintosh receives this before Windows, then so be, as long as someone finally does it.
Quite impressive technology indeed as seen on the video.
Apple is a smart investor and AMD better pull this out.
I personally love AMD and want them to get better so i can enjoy more performance in budget.
I see why Apple would be interested in Fusion. Much more performance than some crappy Intel integrated graphics, and with NVidia not presenting much of a competition Fusion is the natural choice.
AMD will own the integrated graphics market, and as any of you know who buy computers in bulk for large companies, you generally go with the fastest integrated video because the companies are generally too cheap to buy separate video cards for each PC.