It's been a long time coming, but AMD has today used the CES springboard to launch its long-awaited Fusion APUs.
A product of the merger between AMD and ATI in 2006, the Fusion Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) combines the CPU and GPU onto a single chip design to create what AMD calls "a new class of accelerated processor that combines more compute capabilities than any processor in the history of computing".
Arriving a day later than Intel's similarly-intertwined 2nd Generation Core processors, AMD's APU incorporates a multi-core x86 processor based on the new Bobcat core, a DirectX 11-capable graphics processor, a dedicated hardware video acceleration block and a high-speed bus.
At launch, the Fusion design is to be available in two unique product lines; E-Series APUs, formerly codenamed Zacate, and C-Series APUS, once known as Ontario. The former will target mainstream notebooks, all-in-ones, and small form factor desktops, whilst the latter will set its sights on HD netbooks and "other emerging form factors". Tablets equipped with Fusion APUs are expected to appear later this quarter, and AMD states that Acer, Asus, Dell, Fujitsu, HP, Lenovo, MSI, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba are all gearing up to announce Fusion APU-based systems at "mainstream price points".
Hoping to meet the requirements of mainstream computing, AMD claims the Fusion range will facilitate "big experiences", "sleek designs", and "all-day battery life". Support for DirectX 11, 1080p HD video and HDMI output will help deliver the required experience, and AMD is hoping to make big strides in longevity. The manufacturer claims the current range-topping AMD E-350 APU will provide over 10 hours of idle battery life or over four hours of 3D use. The netbook-orientated C-50 APU, meanwhile, is said to have managed over 12 hours when idle and a noteworthy 6.18 hours when using 3DMark '06 as an active metric.
Commenting on the launch, AMD senior vice president Rick Bergman had this to say: "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."
"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. It's a new category, a new approach, and opens up exciting new experiences for consumers."
The first four Fusion APUs are detailed in the below tables. A third Fusion product range - the 32nm A-Series, codenamed "Llano" - will includes up to four x86 cores and is scheduled to ship in the first half of 2011.
| AMD E-Series Accelerated Processors (codename "Zacate") | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Model | Clock Speed | Cores | Process | TDP | L2 Cache | GPU Shaders | GPU Clock Speed | DirectX | UVD | Memory Speed |
| E-350 | 1.6 GHz | 2 cores | 40nm | 18W | 1MB | 80 | 500 MHz | 11 | UVD 3 | DDR3-1333 |
| E-240 | 1.5 GHz | 1 cores | 40nm | 18W | 512KB | 80 | 500 MHz | 11 | UVD 3 | DDR3-1333 |
| AMD C-Series Accelerated Processors (codename "Ontario") | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Model | Clock Speed | Cores | Process | TDP | L2 Cache | GPU Shaders | GPU Clock Speed | DirectX | UVD | Memory Speed |
| C-50 | 1.0 GHz | 2 cores | 40nm | 9W | 1MB | 80 | 280 MHz | 11 | UVD 3 | DDR3-1066 |
| C-30 | 1.2 GHz | 1 cores | 40nm | 9W | 512KB | 80 | 280 MHz | 11 | UVD 3 | DDR3-1066 |
