AMD Fusion

Amd has begun the introduction of these processors ar the low end.


Processors aimed at the mainstream laptops are scheduled for 2011. None of these initial releases are based on new processor technology. The processor cores are minor upgrades to the AMD processor technology that has been around for the last five years.

Processors using new technology are scheduled to be released in 2012, but AMD has let a lot of these scheduled release dates slip in recent times.

AMD has shrunk the dies these chips are fabricated on to the same as Intel is currently using, but the new Intel chips are announced to be smaller still and I don't know when AMD will change again.

The graphics technology included with these chips is up to date though and that is what is primarily responsible for their improved performance.

The AMD laptop processors which have been announced are to be a combination of multi-core processors and graphics processor. AMD does not need to add the memory controller that Intel added to what Intel says is the best processor for laptop computers,the new second generation core i or "Sandy Bridge" processors. This is because AMD processors were as competitive as they were in part because this was already integrated on the main chip.

AMD owns ATI, the maker of Radeon Mobility graphics chips. 2011 series Radeon graphics cards use the AMD name. These are the graphics that the new AMD chips will have.

The newest AMD processors from 2010 eliminated most of the gap between AMD and the then current Intel mobile processors. Many of those new AMD chips were faster than the slower core i (or core 2010) processors from Intel. When we compare the performance of even integrated ATI graphics cards to the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator incorporated with those core i (2010) chips, we should expect the performance gap to become even smaller.

Intel is a moving target, though. It is hard to compare what has been announced for 2011. There are seven low powered Fusion processors currently available.

It is difficult to see this set of chips as aimed at anything other than the net book segment. The AMD Fusion chips should put AMD back in the lead for these though. From what I've seen the fastest outperforms dual core Intel Atom processors even with the Nvidia Ion platform.

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