AMD yesterday had some pleasant news to share with investors and customers: the first shipment of 32nm A-Series APUs just went out to OEM partners, with the first systems carrying them expected to arrive in mid-2011 as promised. The company's interim CEO, Thomas Seifert, made the announcement during a conference call to discuss the recent change in its supply agreement with its manufacturing partner and spinoff GlobalFoundries.
AMD is already shipping C-Series (codenamed Ontario) and E-Series (codenamed Zacate) APUs as part of the new Fusion lineup, which brings multiple x86 cores and discrete-level DirectX 11 graphics onto the same piece of silicon. But these two are low-power parts designed for smaller netbooks, budget laptops and entry-level ultrathin notebooks.
The A-Series (codenamed Llano) on the other hand is targeted at mainstream laptops and desktops, and will be the first from AMD made using a 32-nanometer manufacturing process. It's not clear which products began shipping out specifically but if roadmap leaks and past demos are any indication we expect AMD to tackle the mobile segment first.
The desktop version of Llano could ship in the third and fourth quarters of 2011, with July 20 mentioned in the most recent leaked roadmaps as the release date for the first five chips. Later on the FX-Series (codenamed Zambezi) will come into play with four, six, and eight core variants aimed at Intel's fastest Core i5 and i7 processors.