AMD Roadmap Updates, Cont.
AMD Roadup Updates Cont.
Discrete and Integrated Graphics Market
AMD claims that its APU market is bigger than Intel's EPG market. Both the EPG and the APU will likely stem the growth of the discrete graphics cards somewhat as mainstream consumers become sated with a single-chip solution.
Platforms
It is as we reported on the 9th: there will be dual-, triple-, and quad-core Llano APUs out in 2011. Unfortunately, from what we understand, there is a delay in the fab process, which may push the time line back into 2H 2011. At first, AMD was optimistically calling out 1H for some Llano parts, and that doesn't seem to be the case anymore. While we have only looked at the SB750 (Hudson-M1) southbridge, the existence of M2 and M3 parts suggests that native USB 3.0 support isn't out of the question for mainstream platforms.
We now have another round of code names to cope with as we start looking past 2011 and into the APUs expected in 2012.
On the desktop and mobile side...
Komodo is the code name for the CPU design that replaces Zambezi in the performance desktop space. Given what we know about how AMD is planing to roll out CPUs in its cadence philosophy, Komodo is to be the "enhanced" version of Bulldozer with DirectX 11-class graphics (remember, Zambezi won't include graphics).
Trinity is the next evolution of the mainstream APU, displacing Llano in 2012. The most significant change will be a shift from the Stars processing cores used today to a Bulldozer-based CPU architecture. Trinity will continue shipping in dual-, triple-, and quad-core variants, though.
Krishna is will take over for Zacate, while Wichita will effectively replace Ontario. These two parts are interesting as well, since AMD plans to double max core count, while maintaining the same power specs from the previous Zacate and Ontario generation of Bobcat powered APUs.
