facebook rss twitter

AMD desktop Llano APU chip pictured... in the HEXUS labs

by Tarinder Sandhu on 8 June 2011, 11:34

Tags: AMD (NYSE:AMD)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qa6bj

Add to My Vault: x

Chip-maker AMD is putting considerable store in the qualities of its upcoming Llano Accelerated Processing Unit (APU). In case you've been living under a large rock, Llano is the codename for AMD's mainstream notebook and desktop chips for the second half of 2011. Llano processors are important because they bring together (up-to) a quad-core CPU and a DX11 Radeon graphics core on to one piece of 32nn-transistor silicon.

It's no secret that AMD is launching a range of mobile chips first, to go up against Intel's second-generation Core processors, and we'll doubtless see Llano laptops invading the retail market in the next two months.

But little is being talked about the desktop variant. Piecing together what we know from rumour and snatched conversations at the industry trade show COMPUTEX, desktop Llano will feature significantly higher speeds than its mobile counterpart, though the underlying architecture is said to be identical.

Motherboard manufacturers have already starting wheeling out desktop Llano motherboards, showing us the brand-new FM1 socket. Word on the street is that these desktop chips, to be productised as AMD A4, A6, and A8, won't be available, in good quantity, until the middle of July - and even that availability prognostication seems bullish.

Yet it's amazing what you can turn up if you look hard enough. Our recent visit to COMPUTEX yielded numerous stories but none more exciting than the appropriation of an engineering-sample A8-3800 (Llano) chip. We've brought it back with us, naturally, and have free rein to publish pictures.

Desktop Llano

Protecting the provenance of the chip - and, therefore, a clue as to how it was sampled - the finer details are removed.

CPU

The chip appears to have a 95W TDP, going by early benchmarks, and performance is, well, interesting when compared to Intel's Sandy Bridge processors. Stay tuned for the full reveal in the very near future.



HEXUS Forums :: 16 Comments

Login with Forum Account

Don't have an account? Register today!
Llano… hope it's Bulldozer.
I wouldn't hold out too much because… well it isnt bulldozer :p

The bulldozer based APU for mobile and lower power desktops will appear next year and is codenamed trinity.
“interseting” eh? Aww come on that's just cruel. ;)
What a tease!

Can you reveal when the NDA will be lifted?
yea whens the NDA lifted? :P Wanna know if my 2500k was a bad premature buy :P