Last week AMD previewed its upcoming Llano Accelerated Processing Unit (APU), a member of their FUSION product line that integrates current x86 core technology and DirectX 11 graphics technology. The single 32nm process based die will be based on Silicon-On-Insulator process AMD developed in conjunction with IBM and Global Foundries. The product wasn't due until late 2011, announced as being delayed from 2H '10, but AMD announced in their financial analyst call last week that Llano will be shipping in 1H 2011. AMD had working silicon running in Los Angeles recently, smoothly running Alien Vs. Predator on a 20' projector screen with DirectX 11 features enabled. We snapped a couple of pics of a prototype test board, containing the quad-core processor and a low profile cooling solution.

FUSION

Aimed at the mainstream desktop and notebook parts markets, the Llano APU looks ready to change the OEM and prebuilt desktop market. With integrated DirectX 11 graphics that appear to offer actual usable gaming performance at 1920x1080 and real DirectCompute/OpenCL compute power, Llano may be the foundation for a computing experience revolution. AMD certainly hope so, with mainstream FUSION APUs coming to market at the same time as major developers are adopting GPU acceleration as standard, in the form of Direct2D, OpenCL and DirectCompute technologies.

AMD FUSION In Action - Llano

AMD Radeon HD 6850 & 6870 Graphics Cards

AMD also had the next generation AMD Radeon graphics cards on display, due for launch later this week. Below you can see the AMD Radeon HD 6850 and HD 6870 graphics cards, AMD's first graphics products not to carry the ATI moniker. The AMD Radeon HD 6800 series is one of two new product lines designed to replace the popular ATI Radeon HD 5800 series cards.

AMD Radeon HD 6870

The HD 6870 card features two mini-DisplayPort outputs, one HDMI, and two DVI outputs. The familiar split backplane output arrangement of the ATI Radeon HD 5870 is retained, and the cooler shroud is very similar. The additional side striping of the HD 6800 series give away its new generation origins, as does the brand new AMD Radeon logo adorning the blower style fan. Two side mounted PCI-E 6-pin power connectors indicate that the board total power is under 225W, given the PCI-E specifications of 75W mainboard slot power, and 75W per 6-pin power connector. Both cards have single CrossfireX connectors, instead of the two seen on many previous reference designs from AMD.

AMD Radeon HD 6850

The AMD Radeon HD 6850 is shorter than the AMD Radeon HD 6870 design, but styled very similarly. The PCI-E power input count is reduced to one, rear mounted, giving the board a 150W power ceiling.

Coming Soon...

Later this week we will bring you all the details, including performance comparisons, of the newest product line from AMD's graphics product group. Let us know in the forums what you're hoping for!

AMD