AMD: The Fusion APU Era Has Begun

AMD says that big experiences, sleek designs, all-day battery life and notebooks that stay cool all day are now possible with the new Fusion APU.

AMD says that big experiences, sleek designs, all-day battery life and notebooks that stay cool all day are now possible with the new Fusion APU.

Tuesday AMD officially launched its Fusion family of Accelerated Processing Units. These new APUs combine multi-core CPU (x86) technology, DirectX 11-capable discrete-level graphics, a parallel processing engine, a dedicated high-definition video acceleration block (UVD3), and a high-speed bus all in one simple little die design.

"We believe that AMD Fusion processors are, quite simply, the greatest advancement in processing since the introduction of the x86 architecture more than forty years ago," said Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager, AMD Products Group. "In one major step, we enable users to experience HD everywhere as well as personal supercomputing capabilities in notebooks that can deliver all-day battery life. It's a new category, a new approach, and opens up exciting new experiences for consumers."

AMD's Fusion APU will be broken down into three classes: the A-series "Llano" APUs, the C-Series "Ontario" APUs, and E-Series "Zacate" APUs. The A-Series is designed for personal supercomputing featuring up to four x86 cores and a discrete DirectX 11-capable GPU. The C-Series is designed for HD netbooks and other emerging form factors whereas the E-Series is meant for mainstream notebooks, All-In-Ones, and small form factor desktops.

AMD said that its 2011 low power platform will consist of the C-Series or E-Series whereas the 2011 mainstream platform will feature the A-Series. The latter platform is expected to ship in the first half of 2011 with products hitting the market around mid-2011.

Tablets and embedded designs based on AMD Fusion APUs are expected to be available later in Q1 2011. Currently various leading manufacturers are expected to announce their Fusion APU-based products soon including, Acer, Asus, Dell, Fujitsu, HP and five others.

All Fusion APU-based systems are expected to offer "very compelling value and mainstream price points."