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AMD Now Shipping Quad-core Llano APU to OEMs

By - Source: Tom's Hardware US | B 52 comments
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AMD APU to OEMs.

We already have a taste of AMD's Fusion with the current entry-level, but very capable APUs on the market. The integrated graphics solutions give netbooks a new sort of power at a price that wasn't before possible.

Now AMD hopes to apply the same kind of practice to high performance applications. Today the company confirmed that it has commenced shipments of Llano, a 32nm quad-core A-Series APU with built-in graphics that can hang with some of the discrete options available today.

Just because the chips are shipping today doesn't mean that you'll get them tomorrow. They're being sent out to OEMs right now so they can be packed in systems.

"When we say we are shipping production units of any part for the first time, the next question I inevitably get asked is how does AMD define 'production'?" wrote Phil Hughes, Senior PR Manager at AMD. "When we talk about production here at AMD, it refers to the units that will ultimately be in the systems that our OEM partners will ship to retailers or end-customers."

Hughes continued in the blog post, "Now of course, I can’t speak for exactly when each of our OEM partners will ship systems, that’s a question for them, but as our Chief Financial Officer and Interim CEO Thomas Seifert mentioned on his Webcast today, 'Customers are very excited about Llano coming to market and we will look forward to seeing our “Llano”-based systems in the market this quarter — the second quarter.'"

AMD once again highlighted its comparison with Sandy Bridge with the video below. Of course, the real test starts once we get one of these into our review team's testing lab.

AMD Releases Llano / Sandy Bridge Comparison Video

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  • 4 Hide
    agnickolov , April 6, 2011 7:36 AM
    And we the readers are anxiously waiting for the reviews too!
  • 1 Hide
    joytech22 , April 6, 2011 7:45 AM
    I know that these are just Phenom II's with a GPU on-die but they really should have paired BD with the GPU instead.
  • 1 Hide
    bluekoala , April 6, 2011 7:51 AM
    Sounds very exciting. I might upgrade this phenom 9500 to something like this if it favors much better performance at lower power consumption and heat out put.
    • Display all 52 comments.
  • 2 Hide
    aznshinobi , April 6, 2011 7:59 AM
    Being 32nm and all, how are the overclocks? Granted the ones we'll see are the OEM models. But MSI did announce their 8xx boards to have AM3+ support, Tom's you should take the chip out and stick it in an MSI 8xx board and give us a review w/ overclocks and all.
  • 1 Hide
    Sihastru , April 6, 2011 8:17 AM
    There's something fishy about the Intel driver in the comparison, it's 8.15.10.2276, that is a 32bit driver on a 64bit OS (?). Also the driver is VERY old, the latest Intel driver for windows 7 x64 is 15.​21.​12.​64.​2321.

    This looks more and more like last year's comparison between the Zecate APU and the mobile Intel i5 platform. AMD was destroying Intel in those tests, but when it came out, Zecate could barely compare to the Atom D510/D525.
  • 0 Hide
    Destroysall , April 6, 2011 8:53 AM
    So is this going to have a socket all on its own? Or can it be used on an AM3 socket board?
  • 0 Hide
    THEfog101 , April 6, 2011 8:54 AM
    SihastruThere's something fishy about the Intel driver in the comparison, it's 8.15.10.2276, that is a 32bit driver on a 64bit OS (?). Also the driver is VERY old, the latest Intel driver for windows 7 x64 is 15.​21.​12.​64.​2321.This looks more and more like last year's comparison between the Zecate APU and the mobile Intel i5 platform. AMD was destroying Intel in those tests, but when it came out, Zecate could barely compare to the Atom D510/D525.


    I'm pretty sure that Driver version (8.15.10.2276) is dating back to the era of GMA950/965's.
  • 1 Hide
    ThisIsMe , April 6, 2011 8:59 AM
    Wow some interesting comments so far. So just to help clear things up a bit here...

    These chips are for mobile devices. They will maybe be found in laptops, netbooks, or tablets. These are not intended for a desktop. As a matter of fact, you will probably not even be able to find these for purchase on their own, but will instead have to purchase them pre-installed in a device (or system) of your choosing.
  • -1 Hide
    enewmen , April 6, 2011 9:27 AM
    joytech22I know that these are just Phenom II's with a GPU on-die but they really should have paired BD with the GPU instead.

    That's in the next generation Llano if you can wait a year.
    THG doesn't seem very impressed since the Sandy Bridge is already a very fast CPU. But, what's exciting for me is getting desktop size descrete GPU performance in an integrated GPU size package. This means I can do real work and play modern 3D games on a netbook/smal notebook. Try doing that on a Atom or Sandy Bridge with integrated graphics.
    There will be desktop Llanos also, but I don't care as much about those.
  • 0 Hide
    memadmax , April 6, 2011 10:14 AM
    Count me out for now.
  • 0 Hide
    gruntlord6 , April 6, 2011 10:18 AM
    joytech22I know that these are just Phenom II's with a GPU on-die but they really should have paired BD with the GPU instead.

    not even close, its a new architecture, just like comparing I7 to core2quad.
  • 1 Hide
    vaughn2k , April 6, 2011 10:47 AM
    Hope its never too late...
    Since the time they've announced Fusion, Intel got on their feet and viola! Here is Sandy Bridge...
    AMD is late, but hope not toooooo late...
  • 0 Hide
    silverblue , April 6, 2011 10:52 AM
    If Llano is only just going out to OEMs and will still make a Q2 release, Bulldozer should easily come out in Q2 as it's already been sent out.

    thefog101I'm pretty sure that Driver version (8.15.10.2276) is dating back to the era of GMA950/965's.

    Intel's site has this as the latest, dated 10th March 2011:

    Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator Driver for Windows 7*, Windows Vista* (exe)

    Installs graphics driver version 15.21.12.2321 (8.15.10.2321) for Intel® integrated graphics.

    The 64-bit version is as follows, same date:

    Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator Driver for Windows 7* 64, Windows Vista* 64 (exe)

    Installs graphics driver version 15.21.12.64.2321 (8.15.10.2321) for Intel® integrated graphics.

    The 8.15.10.2xxx doesn't make it ancient; version 2291 came out on 2nd February. AMD may not have been using the latest driver, however it would still have been pretty current, and it's unlikely to have been the 32-bit version.

    Llano has a revised memory controller which should give it a performance boost over Phenom II, or at least, make up for the lack of L3 cache.
  • 1 Hide
    kartu , April 6, 2011 11:15 AM
    SihastruThis looks more and more like last year's comparison between the Zecate APU and the mobile Intel i5 platform. AMD was destroying Intel in those tests, but when it came out, Zecate could barely compare to the Atom D510/D525.

    I wonder, where you get your facts from. Zacate absolutely destroyed Atom and was very good in in 3D heavy apps vs core 5i.
  • 0 Hide
    Wish I Was Wealthy , April 6, 2011 11:48 AM
    Since AMD usually has cheaper cpu's than their rival Intel,I would expect these new cpu's to make future laptops a lot more cheaper hopefully & not just mildly cheaper...
  • 1 Hide
    Wish I Was Wealthy , April 6, 2011 11:52 AM
    Although these future laptops (notebooks)should be cheaper with these AMD cpu's,I doubt whether they will be as good as Intels stock...
  • 1 Hide
    silverblue , April 6, 2011 12:06 PM
    Llano is the final chapter of K7 derivatives (K10 is just an enhanced K8 which is an enhanced K7). Once, we were heaping praise on AMD for the K7 being so ahead of its time, but AMD's inability to move to a new architecture over the past 12 years has sorely damaged them. Bulldozer can't really arrive quickly enough.
  • 0 Hide
    Anonymous , April 6, 2011 12:07 PM
    whatever test they do between the two competing brands, it will be obvious that the amd llano will be a much better choice than the intel's sandy bridge because of amd's much superior graphics capabilities that leaves a the sandy bridge graphics to shame. in laptops, graphics rules.
  • 0 Hide
    pelov , April 6, 2011 12:19 PM
    ^^ and price. Intel graphics stink and now with more flash dependent browsing and computing the GPU era of acceleration it's a smarter choice to buy a slightly underclocked processor and a better GPU for lappies and most desktops. With the APU, at least this APU, AMD has achieved that. These will make great chips for all purpose desktops and laptops. In the end you'll save money and gain performance buying an APU rather than a discrete or integrated CPU/GPU.

    The trinity line of chips will feature bulldozer cores in an APU fashion. Coming early 2012 i believe. Bear in mind that these llano chips aren't really for the enthusiast. we'll have to wait for bulldozer for that
  • 0 Hide
    thomaseron , April 6, 2011 12:44 PM
    joytech22I know that these are just Phenom II's with a GPU on-die but they really should have paired BD with the GPU instead.


    Next-gen. :)  I think the end of this year, or beginning of next year, if memory serves me right. :) 
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