AMD has announced availability of its new “Llano” range of processors.
AMD's first mainstream “APUs”, or accelerated processing units, combine an x86 CPU with a Radeon-branded GPU on one silicon die.
The new range is known as the “A-Series” of APUs, and subdivides into the budget A4 series, mainstream A6 series and high-end A8 series processors.
The seven chips announced today are all mobile models, so we can expect to see the first Llano-based notebooks in the next few weeks.
AMD sees the new range as a competitor to Intel’s Core i3 and i5 mobile processors, selling at a similar price but with greatly superior graphical capabilities.
The CPU portion of Llano is based on the familiar Phenom II design, so the new chips aren’t expected to break new ground in terms of computing power. However, the design has been shrunk to a 32nm process, reducing price and power consumption.
Llano also features an improved version of AMD’s Turbo Core technology, which automatically adjusts core speed according to the workload.
Unlike previous Turbo Core implementations, Llano cores can be adjusted individually, rather than in groups, and the GPU clock can also be tweaked.
At the launch event in Abu Dhabi, marketing director John Taylor noted that the AMD platform offers several advantages over Sandy Bridge, including DirectX 11.0 (Intel’s processors support only DirectX 10.1), native chipset support for USB 3 and video processing features previously restricted to discrete GPUs.
It’s expected that desktop Llano APUs will be unveiled shortly, with AMD’s next-generation "Zambezi" processors – based on AMD’s new "Bulldozer" architecture – expected to follow later this year.
This article originally appeared at pcpro.co.uk
