Fusion, finally
In its Q2 earnings investor conference call, AMD spent a fair bit of time talking about its future APU chips. In case you need reminding, these are the ‘fusion' processors that were the main point of the ATI acquisition four years ago.
Yes, four years ago. But anyway, having written off much of the value of that acquisition and undergone a massive corporate transformation, we're finally close to seeing one of these combined CPU and GPU chips coming to market, albeit a year after Intel has already moved in that direction.
Most of the APU talk has been about Llano - a 32nm chip aimed at the mainstream PC market - but now it looks like the first one will be Ontario. AMD announced on the call that Ontario will begin shipping to OEMs in Q4 of this year, while Llano will be internally delayed for a couple of months. Ontario is manufactured on a 40nm bulk process by TSMC, while Llano is made on a 32nm Low Power process by GlobalFoundries, which does also offer a 40nm LP process.
"Ontario offers the ideal solution to meet demand for low power, small form factor computers that deliver a visual computing experience previously available only on high-end PCs," said AMD CEO Dirk Meyer in the call. "We're excited about the opportunities Ontario offers. It's a game-changer that significantly expands our addressable market.
"Based on strong customer demand and and accelerated engineering cycle, we now expect Ontario to be the first fusion APU we bring to market. We plan to ship Ontario APUs in the 4th quarter of this year - ahead of schedule. Customer systems based on Ontario are planned to be available early next year.
"Llano, our Fusion APU offering, aimed at the higher end of the client market is also generating positive customer response. However, in reaction to Ontario's market opportunities and a slower than anticipated progress up to 32 nanometer yield curve, we are switching the timing of the Ontario and Llano production ramps. Llano production shipments are still expected to occur in the first half of next year."
We asked GlobalFoundries for a comment on this and got this statement: "We can't comment on any specifics involving AMD's product schedules. The 32nm process continues to make progress and we're confident in our abilities to support AMD as they bring this technology to the market in 1H11."
Ontario's market positioning was further clarified in the Q&A session. It looks like it's aimed squarely at Intel's Atom, but promises much better graphics with a DX11 GPU. In that sense it may also find itself in entry-level notebooks. It's currently not targeted at tablets.
