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AMD demos Fusion-based Llano 'APU' at press event

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On October 19, 2010, 3:34 AM EST Breaking News

AMD has showed off some of the first fully functional samples of its upcoming “Llano” APU (Accelerated Processing Unit) at a couple of recent press events in Los Angeles and Taiwan. The company wasn’t ready to share much in terms of specific clock frequencies or model numbers, but offered a quick demo of the chip’s multitasking capabilities by playing a high-definition video while running a DirectCompute-enabled celestial body simulation and a four-way instance of HyperPi.

Video playback went without a hitch despite the fact that both the GPU and CPU portions of Llano were under heavy use simultaneously. AMD also showed off a demo scene from Alien vs. Predator running rather smoothly with DirectX 11 settings enabled at a modest screen resolution of 1024x768. Legit Reviews has some pictures of the AMD development board used for the demo. And while they weren’t allowed to show the Llano chip itself or any real up close pictures, they did note that it was running cool compared other processors.

For those unfamiliar with Llano, it is a 32nm “Fusion” product that consolidates a DX11 graphics processor, four Phenom II-derived CPU cores and Northbridge functions on a single die. The first Llano chips are expected to make its way into mainstream notebooks and desktops by mid-2011, while AMD's first Fusion offering, the Bobcat-based Brazos APU is reportedly still on track to break into the netbook world in the "first part of 2011."

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User Comments (6)

Post a comment
whiteandnerdy
on October 19, 2010
8:10 AM

wow!!!! that's is insane.

Reply

PaulWuzHere
on October 19, 2010
8:30 AM

Oh yeah, AMD lookin shaweet

Reply

Vrmithrax
on October 19, 2010
8:54 AM

Yep, looks like my next HTPC project will be coming up next year... The more of the little teases we get about these Fusion APUs, the more I hope they take the industry by storm.

Reply

Guest
on October 19, 2010
9:24 AM

Jos, APU stands for "Accelerated Processing Unit".

See:

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Accelerated_P
ocessing_Unit

Reply

Lokalaskurar
on October 19, 2010
10:28 AM

Truly a radical piece of technology. APU's might have a bright future in videogaming!

Reply

Guest
on October 19, 2010
11:01 PM

I beg to differ, APU will have big roll to play in all devices other than hard core gaming and video editing. CHIP on a die is the final step of APU and will be a boon to mobile devices and the PC in a box for the family to put in the Kitchen.

This also opens the market for Intel and AMD to get into all the household devices and even cars.

all programmers writing different types of code for same family of chips since they can do almost all the things and if mass produced will cost as cheap as a specially manifactured chep chip that would have gone in ur new Car or fridge (with touch screen for all controls)

Natural evoluation to capture every bit of the market

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