AMD's Partners Say ''Whoa'' to Llano Fusion Chips
The hybrid is coming.
AMD's dropping of the ATI brand was a sign that the company is moving towards a future where the lines between CPU and GPU are blurred.
We know about the Bobcat and Bulldozer cores en route, but what about Llano – the first mainstream Fusion product from AMD?
AMD's Leslie Sobon, Vice President Worldwide Product Marketing, shared in an interview with InsideHW a rough ballpark date of when we'll be seeing Fusion chips in our computers.
"We are shipping Ontario and Zacate in Q4 this year, and products should hit the shelves early next year," said Sobon. "Llano will start shipping in the first half or 2011, and products should be available in summer 2011.
"While Ontario is oriented towards the netbook market, Llano is for the bulk of the market, in terms of mainstream and high-end notebooks and mainstream desktops. As we move from Zacate and Ontario platforms to Brazos, you will get more features, more functionality."
Sobon added that it's difficult to nail a hard date for products, particularly notebooks, because it takes 12 to 18 months for notebook designs to become products on the market. Whenever it does, though, she thinks it'll be a hit.
"And let me tell you one thing about Llano, the reaction of all our partners after seeing the demo was, in one word, 'whoa'."

Now I'm left wondering if the partners sounded like Keanu Reeves in nearly every movie he has been in, or was it more like Joey Lawrence type of whoa?
Now I'm left wondering if the partners sounded like Keanu Reeves in nearly every movie he has been in, or was it more like Joey Lawrence type of whoa?
I love this idea from AMD, my only fear is that Intel will have already gotten too far ahead of them by the time this tech comes out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBhlQgvHmQ0
Honestly, when I saw "woah" I actually took it as.
"Woah, serious ***'s happening."
i share your concern, except what does intel have up their sleeve, sandy bridge.....
if i recall Lynx uses a llano core too, so maybe we might see lynx first half 2011 too
1 this is a cpu+gpu in one chip. assuming that, aren't cpus suppose to be cooler than gpus? wouldn't this be a complete pain to cool?
2 @superblahman123 more cores are better, however that is physical cores, logical are hit and miss.
also intel was trying to make a gpu, and had to abandon it, kind of. apparently they made it as powerful as a nvidia 280, but nothing realy came of it yet, and so far, at lest netbook wise, less power is better, and 1 chip instead of 2 would be far better and possibly leave more room for something else, amd has the potential to completely own this market for the next 2 years, unless intel or nvidia do something amassing.
and with notebooks, same thing, if they make a portable phenom 955 and hd5770 equivalent, than they own the notebook market, but they wouldn't own the desktop replacement by the time he notebook version hits.
Intel will lose its reign for a long time; the acquisition of ATI is about to pay off! Intel could be in trouble here, not only do they not have a decent GPU they also don't have a decent GPU on the same die as their CPU.
I’m considering buying AMD stocks right now! lol. The future is promising.