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Computer chipmaker AMD took the opportunity at its yearly Financial Analyst Day to show off upcoming products for 2012 and 2013. They include CPUs and APUs (combined CPU and graphics) for ultrathin notebooks, tablets, all-in-ones, desktops, and servers, with most focusing on lower power use. Some are also designed with the developing world in mind and accessing the cloud.
Leaked AMD mobile platform roadmaps from German forum board 3D Center reveal that the Llano chip replacement, Trinity, is due to begin shipping in the winter of 2012, among other tidbits. There will be four specific models of the chip offered, though no specifics are available yet. A Bulldozer-based Piledriver core will be the basis, which will also underpin the company's upcoming AMD FX-series of processors.
Toshiba has announced its new Satellite series laptops. Entry-level Satellite C600 series, Satellite L700 series, and premium Satellite P700 Series laptops will begin shipping later this month. The Satellite L700 and P700 series offer the choice of Intel Core processors or AMD's new A-series mobile APUs. The Satellite C600 series uses AMD's Bobcat processors exclusively.
Acer’s forthcoming Windows 7 tablet announced earlier this week is believed to be based on AMD’s Bobcat platform. In this application, Digitimes sources believe that it’s AMD’s C-50 Ontario 1.0GHz dual-core variant, which also features integrated Radeon HD 6250 graphics. AMD claims that their processors have a speed, graphics and power advantage over Intel’s Atom platform.
AMD as part of the same preview that showed the first shipping Fusion chips also provided the codenames for some of its longer term processor launches. Khrishna and Wichita will use a more power-efficient 28 nanometer design with two and four cores respectively. Both will cover virtually the entire range and scale from as small as a tablet to notebooks and some desktops.
At a recent event to which it invited HardOCP, AMD has revealed more specs on its upcoming Brazos architecture chips, including the Bobcat. The chips are further divided into Ontario and Zacate codenames, both of which are ultra low power units meant for notebooks and desktops priced at under $500. The chips are from the Fusion family, meaning they have both a CPU and a GPU on the same die.
AMD in the wrap-up of the IFA show detailed a new processor based on its Fusion hybrid CPU and graphics combos that would be targeted at a larger class of system than the netbook-oriented Ontario. Zacate will consume twice as much energy at 18W, likely due to a higher clock speed, but will be fast enough to drive ultraportable and budget notebooks as well as all-in-one and small desktops. It will have twin cores based on the Bobcat architecture and should be paired with graphics in the chip that can support DirectX 11 (OpenGL 4) 3D effects, hardware 1080p decoding and OpenCL.
AMD on Monday confirmed that it will drop the ATI label from its graphics chips. Starting with future devices, all video will be characterized as AMD Radeon or AMD FirePro parts. A briefing for HotHardware explained that the arrival of Fusion CPU/graphics hybrid chips like the Bobcat could be confusing, since both technologies will be on the same core.
AMD at the Hot Chips conference today provided insight into the details of its Bulldozer and Bobcat processor platforms. Bulldozer is aimed at performance users and focuses on a new design with distinct but very modular processor cores. As the cores are separate from shared resources, adding more cores takes up relatively little space and allows scalability; AMD promises that the first server-class Opterons using Bulldozer will have 16 cores.
AMD during the call discussing its latest results revealed that the company's Ontario ultraportable chip will arrive early. The processor had originally been slated for the first half of 2011 but is now due to arrive in the fall, "ahead of schedule," according to CEO Dirk Meyer. What prompted the accelerated launch wasn't mentioned.
AMD senior VP Rick Bergman today said at Computex that his company wouldn't get into tablets in the near future. As the market is so far limited to one company, Apple, no pressure exists for AMD to get into an ecosystem that doesn't really exist. The semiconductor company is still gauging the market and is waiting for demand to show up before becoming involved.
AMD in its annual analyst event provided details of some of its future processors and platforms. The highlight for the semiconductor firm is "Bulldozer," a major revision for both desktops and notebooks that should be much more efficient at multithreaded codethan existing designs. It will be particularly optimized for pairing with graphics chipsets and will be supplemented by "Bobcat," a variant of Bulldozer tailored to ultraportables.
AMD could introduce new proprietary mobile processors as soon as tomorrow, reports indicate. In July, CEO Dirk Meyer announced that a response to Intel's Atom processors -- aimed at netbooks and mobile Internet devices -- would be mentioned in a Q4 analysts conference, which is scheduled for Thursday. One possibility is the announcement of Bobcat, which was first hinted at 18 months ago and is rumored to have a 1GHz 64-bit core, an 800MHz HyperTransport link and a DDR2 memory controller, together consuming 8W of power or less.
