Hardware
AMD's Ontario APU to consume much less than 18W
Just a few days ago, leaked AMD documents offered some additional details about what appeared to be the first Ontario-based products. The alleged roadmap showed a single-core chip with a TDP of 18W and a dual-core chip with a 25W TDP, both scheduled for release before the end of the year. But while AMD had already confirmed this launch window, the quoted power consumption figures conflicted with the company's intentions to initially target the netbook market.
Today a source familiar with AMD product planning has come forward to deny such rumors by calling the 18W and 25W TDPs for Ontario "not reasonable and well outside the margin of error". Although the source did not disclose any actual power consumption details regarding the first Fusion chips, X-bit labs claims to have seen documents describing their higher-end siblings (Llano) as Phenom II-class x86 chips with high-end graphics cores that are meant to fit into a 20W thermal envelope. Thus, having them overlap in terms of performance or power consumption wouldn't make sense.
Ontario-based products are expected to feature one or two Bobcat x86 cores merged with a graphics core capable of DirectX 11 rendering. Although AMD hasn't shared much beyond that, it is has previously been implied that Bobcat itself is sub-1W-capable and will be a direct competitor for Intel's Atom.
Today a source familiar with AMD product planning has come forward to deny such rumors by calling the 18W and 25W TDPs for Ontario "not reasonable and well outside the margin of error". Although the source did not disclose any actual power consumption details regarding the first Fusion chips, X-bit labs claims to have seen documents describing their higher-end siblings (Llano) as Phenom II-class x86 chips with high-end graphics cores that are meant to fit into a 20W thermal envelope. Thus, having them overlap in terms of performance or power consumption wouldn't make sense.
Ontario-based products are expected to feature one or two Bobcat x86 cores merged with a graphics core capable of DirectX 11 rendering. Although AMD hasn't shared much beyond that, it is has previously been implied that Bobcat itself is sub-1W-capable and will be a direct competitor for Intel's Atom.
User Comments (4)
Post a comment| Kibaruk on July 29, 2010 2:11 PM | Sounds better and better! |
| ---agissi--- on July 29, 2010 2:28 PM | It does but will it come too late? Time benchmarks and Intel's firepower will tell. The atom seems to be moving along at a slow rate but a rate non the less. |
| Vrmithrax on July 29, 2010 2:28 PM | I agree with Kibaruk. It was encouraging to hear they were ahead of schedule, but those initial TDP numbers that were reported put it well into the upper end netbook realm at the best. If they can keep the power sipping way down, this could definitely be a true competitor to the Atom. |
| pmshah on August 25, 2010 11:50 PM | I have recently purchased a dual core Atom 330 + nVidia ION motherboard running with a 500 gb Seagate 2.5" drive. This has total max consumption of 30 watts at the wall socket. I believe AMD still has ways to go! |
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