AMD: A-Series APUs (Trinity/Llano)
AMD's Fusion initiative sought to combine host processing and graphics resources in the same chip, ideally circumventing the need for separate CPUs and graphics cards in mainstream PCs. In many ways, this is similar to what Intel does with its Sandy and Ivy Bridge architectures, though Intel more heavily emphasizes x86 performance, while AMD's strength is its GPUs.
A disagreement with another vendor led AMD to move away from its Fusion brand and adopt Heterogeneous Systems Architecture, or HSA. The SoCs belonging to both efforts are referred to as APUs (accelerated processing units).
The first desktop APUs emerged under the code name Llano in 2011, and were manufactured using a 32 nm process. They combined AMD's Stars architecture without L3 cache and its Evergreen graphics design. Second-generation Trinity-based APUs employ the company's most modern Piledriver CPU architecture and its VLIW4 graphics configuration (the same shader arrangement found on Radeon HD 6900-series cards).
More information:
- Gaming At 1920x1080: AMD's Trinity Takes On Intel HD Graphics
- AMD Desktop Trinity Update: Now With Core i3 And A8-3870K
- AMD Trinity On The Desktop: A10, A8, And A6 Get Benchmarked!
- Better With Time? The A8-3870 And Pentium G630, One Year Later
- Professional Help: Getting The Best Overclock From AMD's A8-3870K
- AMD A8-3850 Review: Llano Rocks Entry-Level Desktops
Benchmarked AMD Fusion-Based APUs:
A-Series | Code Name | Rev. | CPU Socket | Number of Cores | Clock Frequency | L2 Cache | iGPU | Memory Controller | TDP |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
A6-3650 | Llano | B0 | FM1 | 4 | 2.6 GHz | 4 x 1024 KB | HD 6530D444 MHz | integrated up to DDR3-1866 | 100 W |
A6-3670K | Llano | B0 | FM1 | 4 | 2.7 GHz | 4 x 1024 KB | HD 6530D444 MHz | integrated up to DDR3-1866 | 100 W |
A8-3850 | Llano | B0 | FM1 | 4 | 2.9 GHz | 4 x 1024 KB | HD 6550D600MHz | integrated up to DDR3-1866 | 100 W |
A8-3870K | Llano | B0 | FM1 | 4 | 3.0 GHz | 4 x 1024 KB | HD 6550D600MHz | integrated up to DDR3-1866 | 100 W |
A10-5800K | Trinity | A1 | FM2 | 4 | 3.8 GHz | 2 x 2048 KB | HD 7660D800 MHz | integrated up to DDR3-1866 | 100 W |