AMD gives further details on upcoming Fusion processor

Fusion is AMD’s future next-generation microprocessor design that combines a GPU and CPU on a single package. Although plans to launch the chip were revealed when AMD bought ATI for $5.4 billion in 2006, details have been mostly scarce since. Today, however, the company gave some additional tidbits regarding the upcoming chip.

According to AMD, Fusion will be aimed squarely at the mobile market when it arrives in 2009. The chip will be redesigned and shrunk from the Phenom core and optimized for use in a notebook, making the chip more power-efficient while increasing graphics capabilities through the inclusion of multiple “mini-cores” to handle 3D geometry processing and other functions of today’s GPUs.

The Fusion CPU is part of Project Shrike, the next-generation platform that will be an upgrade to the company’s upcoming Puma platform. The first Fusion chips will be released in the second half of 2009 as dual-core CPUs for notebooks, followed by quad-core CPUs for notebooks at a yet-undetermined date. Fusion chips will also be released eventually for desktops, though the company declined to comment on a release date.