CPU/Mobo AMD Fusion Discussion Thread

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With Sandy Bridge out , AMD is feeling the threat, the current gen processor offers only price/performance advantage however they lag behind Intel on clock to clock. The over hyped "fusion" from AMD is finally seeing the daylight as AMD has launch first iteration of the Fusion chips at CES 2011. Aimed at ultra low power ultra portables these chips will fight against Intel Atom and ULV series of processor.

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The first two Bobcat-based designs are accelerated processing units, or APUs for short—essentially microprocessors sharing die space with graphics processing components. AMD code-names those two APUs Zacate and Ontario, having tailored the former for an 18W thermal envelope and the latter for a 9W TDP.

Despite the different code names, both parts are actually based on the exact same silicon. They occupy 75 mm² of die area and fit onto 19 x 19-mm, 413-ball BGA packages just like the one pictured above. Both are manufactured using TSMC's 40-nm fab process.
AMD expects leading manufacturers Acer, Asus, Dell, Fujitsu, HP, Lenovo, MSI, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba to announce plans to deliver AMD Fusion APU-based systems at very compelling value and mainstream price points.

“We believe that AMD Fusion processors are, quite simply, the greatest advancement in processing since the introduction of the x86 architecture more than forty years ago,†said Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager, AMD Products Group. “In one major step, we enable users to experience HD everywhere as well as personal supercomputing capabilities in notebooks that can deliver all-day battery life.i It’s a new category, a new approach, and opens up exciting new experiences for consumers.â€
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HD 2.0 Everywhere High definition (HD) content is ubiquitous today. From YouTube videos to DirectX 11 games to Blu-ray, the world is tapping into various ways to enjoy this content with the computer serving as the hub. And thanks to the VISION Engine from AMD, a set of capabilities unique to all AMD Fusion APU-powered PCs, the visual side of computing never looked more vivid and realistic. The VISION Engine is an unmatched combination of:
  • DirectX 11-capable graphics
  • Massive parallel processing to speed application performance
  • The UVD3 video acceleration block found in the new AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series GPUs
  • Unique graphics driver capabilities updated on a monthly basis to continuously improve visual performance

Selecting a PC equipped with the VISION Engine and software from AMD partners means Internet browsing is a faster, application-like experience; 1080p HD video playback is gorgeous, smooth and quiet; standard definition video looks high-definition; 2D content can be converted into stereoscopic 3D; even the most graphics-intensive websites load quickly; manipulating HD content is fast and easy; and 3D gaming at HD resolutions is fast and life-like.iv

Personal Supercomputing: Much of a computing experience is linked to software and, until now, software developers have been held back by the independent nature in which CPUs and GPUs process information. However, AMD Fusion APUs remove this obstacle and allow developers to take full advantage of the parallel processing power of a GPU – more than 500 GFLOPs for the upcoming A-Series “Llano†APUv – thus bringing supercomputer-like performance to every day computing tasks. More applications can run simultaneously and they can do so faster than previous designs in the same class.

AMD AllDay Power Additionally, AMD Fusion technology enables all-day battery life – 10 hours or more.i The new power-saving features present in the single-chip design greatly extend the time between plug-ins, even when enjoying HD content.

Out power and Outperform: E-Series, C-Series and A-Series APUs
The 2011 low power platform (formerly codenamed “Brazosâ€) enhances the everyday computing experience and is available beginning today in two APU variations: E-Series and C-Series. These APUs feature the new x86 CPU core codenamed “Bobcatâ€. “Bobcat†is AMD’s first new x86 core since 2003 and was designed from the ground up to deliver stellar mobile performance.

The 2011 mainstream platform is primarily intended for performance and mainstream notebooks and mainstream desktops. It will feature the 32nm die A-Series “Llano†APU, which includes up to four x86 cores and a DirectX 11-capable discrete-level GPU, and is scheduled to ship in the first half of 2011 and appear in products mid-year.

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In response to this APU release many hardware vendors have revealed their offering based on these low profile/power APU's.

Hp : HP announces 11.6-inch Pavilion DM1 powered by AMD Fusion (update: hands on video) |
Netbooknews - Netbooks, Netbook Reviews, Smartbooks and more

Acer : AMD Fusion powered Acer Aspire One 522 leaked (Update: Price, more specs)
Netbooknews - Netbooks, Netbook Reviews, Smartbooks and more

Toshiba : Toshiba Ready with AMD Fusion ''Brazos'' NB550D 10.1-inch Netbook | techPowerUp

Lenovo : Lenovo debuts IdeaCentre A320, B520, B320 plus C205 all-in-ones -- Engadget
Lenovo busts out S Series netbooks just in time for CES -- Engadget
Lenovo - New Product Showcase

Zotac : Zotac ZBox AD03 Blu-ray nettop gets AMD Fusion update | Netbooknews - Netbooks, Netbook Reviews, Smartbooks and more

Mini ITX Offerings as of now : -

Asus : Asus E35MI-I Deluxe mini-ITX Preview | bit-tech.net

MSI : MSI E350-E45 mini-ITX preview | bit-tech.net

Gigabyte : HEXUS.net - News :: Gigabyte serves up AMD Fusion in a mini-ITX motherboard : Page - 1/1
AMD Zacate mini-ITX Motherboards Preview | bit-tech.net


AMD Release Details : AMD Fusion APU Era Begins

Fusion Home Page : The AMD Fusion
Product Page : Notebook APUs
Some interesting read ; CES: Sony, Lenovo look to move beyond Netbooks - CES 2011 CNET Blogs[

With AMD Fusion Brazos launched today, development at AMD hasn't stopped. They have already started testing the next gen platform which will replace the currently launched Brazos platform. According to Digitimes, AMD is expected to start testing its next generation Fusion platform in Q1 2011.

The new platform, codenamed Deccan, is a sequel to Brazos and it will be based on the Krishna APU and Yuba FCH. Brazos on the other hand uses the Ontario APU and Hudson FCH.

It is expected that the Deccan platform should sample sometime in mid-2011 and mass production is expected towards the end of the year.

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Login to DIGITIMES archive & research

Next up is the launch of Bulldozer CPU's and then A series APU i.e. LIano.
 
Intel vs. AMD - FIGHT !!! :D

Aren't AMD doing some sort of marketing/cheating by not providing full CPUs per core, just partial "units" like (Integer/Decode etc) and calling them as "cores" (if I remember earlier reviews/previews from AnandTech perhaps) - the new "megahertz" race so to speak?

With all this emphasis on "performance per watt" (for enterprise/datacenter IT people), I hope some of the reviewers focus on "performance per dollar" too, like some of tomshardware recent articles.

All this technical mumbo jumbo is fine, just hoping for stuff like more hyper realistic games and stuff (visuals/physics etc) to actually work all this new hardware!
 
Vishal, your argument is bang on. Its no longer important on what is fast, but what is fast at what price point and a thermal envelope. I dont advertise hardware sites, but do go through Techreport articles, they explore those two options in details. They have a nifty section which explores on the work done/energy consumed ratios, and more often then not the systems that top the chart are what is the best VFM..

But its an irony, ever since the acquisition of ATI, AMD has been harping on Fusion but 5 years down the line, its Intel that has released the first GPU-CPU package...
 
I Would love to see a few 14" - 15" ones and the laptops will be basically for popcorn and browsing in a larger screen... These machines can be used for almost all the entertainment needs (Well i am not calling Gaming).
 
^^Not to mention proper drivers are still not out yet plus there is stills some refinements that vendors can do with their system.
 
vishalrao said:
Intel vs. AMD - FIGHT !!! :D

Aren't AMD doing some sort of marketing/cheating by not providing full CPUs per core, just partial "units" like (Integer/Decode etc) and calling them as "cores" (if I remember earlier reviews/previews from AnandTech perhaps) - the new "megahertz" race so to speak?
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err, how is that cheating? It is just a new approach to counter Hyperthreading. Agreed they are not like "full fledged cores" which we are seeing today, but the whole point behind their approach is fitting in more "cores" in a limited die space for better multithreaded performance.

In easier words, one Bulldozer module are 1.5 core which will be treated as two full-fledged cores by the Operating System. One module handles two strong threads, and consists of two cores which share common Floating Point scheduler saving die space.

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Aces170 said:
But its an irony, ever since the acquisition of ATI, AMD has been harping on Fusion but 5 years down the line, its Intel that has released the first GPU-CPU package...
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There is a big big difference. :)

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In Fusion, the CPU and GPU are truly integrated at the die level.
 
^ I believe Aces was talking about Sandy Bridge and not Westmere, the difference being that Westmere was On-Package solution while Sandy Bridge is proper On-Die solution.

While I understand that many people hate Intel (due to the questionable tactics to maintain monopoly), what I don't understand is questioning Intel's technical achievements. We all have read about bashing Intel for creating "packaged" quad cores as against "true" quad cores by AMD, but the fact remains that despite the "true" and "packaged" arguments Intel managed to deliver quad core first in the market and it was as good as (in fact better) AMD's "true" quad core, when they delivered. Sometime people are not ready to believe that Netburst days are way behind for Intel. Intel used the same "packaged" method for first GPU in CPU product (westmere) and now they've delivered true GPU+CPU in form of Sandy Bridge... ahead of AMD's schedule.

I am fully aware that above statement is going to make me look like an Intel fanboy in many people's eyes... but trust me, I would defend AMD in the same manner where & when it's due. It's the senseless brand-bashing that I find wrong and quite frankly, very irritating. Fortunately, nobody has done it so far in this thread so I thought I would take it out of the way before it happens. :)

Back on fusion... I see one place where it fits just perfectly, at least from my POV, that is HTPC market. AMD needs to make some quick and good deals for placing these in consumer market for off-the-shelves HTPC boxes. Acer and Zotac already have couple of such products based on Atom+ION combo and Brazos/Zacate make perfect candidate for taking on these. However, more than Sandy Bridge or Atom... AMD will have to watch out for nVidia, if they know what "Project Denver" means.
 
iGo said:
^ I believe Aces was talking about Sandy Bridge and not Westmere, the difference being that Westmere was On-Package solution while Sandy Bridge is proper On-Die solution.
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well, that is very much true then. :) But both have arrived at the same time anyways. ;)

Infact for me AMD didn't deliver a decent product till Phenom II after their acquisition of ATi and string of losses.
 
^^Well it was out on the first day of the fusion launch :p Engadget is probably late for covering it :p

I did mentioned the Zotac link above in the OP.
 
^^They had the Fusion driver on the work around NOV 10, IINM on the Open Source radeonhd/mesa stack. As far as full support is concerned that should be out from the next catalyst release ;)

Will be eyeing on the HP DM1 :p
 
Probably the first comprehensive review of AMD APU based ultra portable HP Pavilion dm1 Reviewed Review - A Review of the HP Pavilion dm1 Reviewed

Now that the HP Pavilion dm1 has arrived, the budget notebook space has become a lot more competitive. With AMD's new Fusion processor, HP has created a laptop that, for $479, provides a better balance of performance and endurance than the Nvidia Ion-powered Asus Eee PC 1215N. It also gives you more graphics oomph than Intel ULV notebooks and earlier AMD budget ultraportables. While you'll squeeze out a few more frames in some games on Ion, the more powerful dual-core AMD processor in the dm1 lets you accomplish more than an Atom chip ever could. Not only that, but you get 6.5 hours of battery life in a very stylish package.

Bottom line: The HP Pavilion dm1 is a remarkable value.
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Edit : Acer tablet featuring AMD Fusion http://www.tcmagazine.com/tcm/news/hardware/34442/acer-shows-amd-brazos-based-iconia-tablet-ces
 
Hp DM1Z reviewed by Engadget : HP Pavilion dm1z (with AMD Fusion) review -- Engadget

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Is this really happening? After years of waiting has AMD finally done it? Provided a netbook / ultraportable platform that melds really solid performance and graphics with solid battery life? Something that can kick Intel's Atom to the curb, but doesn't require a recharge every two and a half hours? The Pavilion dm1z certainly has all signs pointing to yes – the 11.6-inch system runs for over five hours on a charge while providing full HD playback and great multitasking prowess. Of course, the rest of the market hasn't sat still for systems like the Fusion-powered dm1z, and there are plenty of other good affordable ultraportables out there -- including the $550 Intel ULV-powered ThinkPad Edge 11 and $500 Ion 2-powered ASUS Eee PC 1215N -- but at $450 the dm1z provides the best balance of performance, graphics, and battery life for the price, and to that end, AMD can finally pat itself on the back... even if it did take five years to get here.
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Plus AMD is redying some multiGPU technology for LIano i.e. A Series APU.

After a well-received launch of the Fusion "Zacate" accelerated processing unit (APU) for nettops and entry-level PCs, AMD's higher-performance APU, codenamed "Llano", is just around the corner. Llano is intended for use on mainstream desktops, business PCs, and all-in-one PCs, it is better geared for higher-resolution, visually-intensive computing. Its competitors include Intel's Core i3 and Core i5 dual-core processors. AMD is backing up this launch with a new multi-GPU technology which is both similar and different from Hybrid CrossFireX. The similar part is that the GPU embedded in the Fusion chip will work in tandem with a discrete AMD Radeon graphics card, the difference is that it can work with any HD 6000 series graphics card, and multiply the available display connectivity.
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Source : AMD Readies New Multi-GPU Technology for Fusion Llano APUs | techPowerUp
 
Looks like this will make a excellent HTPC reviewed in the link is with a MSI E350IA-E45 mobo,consumes lesser power then ION.

The Brazos Review: AMD's E-350 Supplants ION for mini-ITX - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

The Radeon HD 6310 proves to be a good match for the Bobcat cores in the E-350. There's not much value in adding a faster GPU via the on-board PCIe x4 slot as most games will be at least somewhat CPU bound. The resulting CPU/GPU combination is something that's typically as good as, if not better than Intel's Core i5 661 in games.
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