AMD's 2010 - 2011 Roadmaps: ~1B Transistor Llano APU, Bobcat and Bulldozer
by Anand Lal Shimpi on November 11, 2009 12:50 PM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
It’s got roughly one billion 32nm transistors, fabbed at Globalfoundries. Four CPU cores and a single graphics core. It’s what AMD calls an Accelerated Processing Unit (APU). And we’ll see it in 2011.
Unfortunately that’s a bit late. The APU, codenamed Llano, was originally scheduled for 2010 but got pushed back. In 2009/2010 Intel will be the first to deliver on-chip graphics with Clarkdale/Arrandale, and in late 2010 Sandy Bridge will have on-die graphics.
The first die shot of AMD's 32nm Llano APU based on 32nm Phenom II cores
Above is what I believe to be a die shot of AMD’s first APU. The CPU doesn’t use AMD’s next-generation microarchitecture, that’s only for the server and high end in 2011. The first APU will use the existing Phenom II architecture on the same die as DX11 graphics, but at 32nm. Sandy Bridge will use a brand new microprocessor architecture on 32nm but with updated Intel integrated graphics. It looks like Sandy Bridge will have the CPU advantage while Llano might have the GPU advantage, assuming Intel can't get their GPU act together by then. Llano is on schedule to debut in 2011 with OEM sampling happening before the end of the year.
Also on schedule is AMD’s next-generation microarchitecture, codenamed Bulldozer. AMD listed its client PC goals for 2010 at this year’s Financial Analyst Day, one of them is to start sampling its next-generation microprocessor next year - in 2010. If the chip is ready for OEMs by the end of 2010, that means it’ll go on sale as early as 1H 2011.
Unfortunately AMD isn’t talking much about Bulldozer architecture, I suspect we won’t see that disclosure until mid to late 2010. It’s not to keep things secret, we already have many estimates of what Bulldozer’s architecture is going to look like. And if the public already knows, then Intel is also well aware of what AMD has coming in 2011. Updated: AMD has given a high level overview of its Bulldozer and Bobcat architectures here
A major focus is going to be improving on one of AMD’s biggest weaknesses today: heavily threaded performance. Intel addresses it with Hyper Threading, AMD is throwing a bit more hardware at the problem. The dual integer clusters you may have heard of are the route AMD is taking...
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gost80 - Thursday, November 12, 2009 - link
There is no way they are going to have no L3 cache. With a CPU this small anyway, not having L3 is a disaster. L3 will be small area anyway due to it being denser. I agree, no need for it to be 6M. So I would put the cache range 4-8M. 0M? no way.Either ways, expect very budget GPU for the time.
gruffi - Monday, April 19, 2010 - link
Here is a die shot of Llano, http://chip-architect.com/news/Llano_comp2.jpg. A 32 nm design with improved Shanghai cores + RV830 class GPU. No L3 cache.grimpr - Wednesday, November 11, 2009 - link
What our dear Anand clearly seems to forget mentioning is that the Llano APU is a 1st gen FUSION product, Deneb CPU Cores + ATI GPU Cores and not the crap IGP on die that Sandy Bridge delivers. Do the math and speculation Anand...2nd GEN Fusion is Bulldozer Core + Next Gen ATI MIMD GPU Core in 22nm, 2012.
Take care, Anand.
jav6454 - Wednesday, November 11, 2009 - link
AMD keeps throwing tech that is good at thus point, but for me it feels more like catch game to intel. The GPU side seems more advanced but only time will tell.AMD should really stop trying to play catch-up and deliver already.
notposting - Wednesday, November 11, 2009 - link
Don't suppose they'll get off their chipset designing rears and fix their horrendous SB SATA/AHCI implementations? Or stay true to form and just keep rolling the same broken design forward?T2k - Wednesday, November 11, 2009 - link
...seriously: when you are obviously so lousy that you open your AMD-titled article with an Intel picture and then follow up with re-wording of the slides then why bother at all...?You had nothing to say but you screwed up royally with this crap - just post those fuckin' slides someone emailed you and just stay away from your keyboard, we all will be better off.
strikeback03 - Wednesday, November 11, 2009 - link
What I wonder is why does the comments section of an article that presents useful information have to be filled with craptastic comments such as all the ones you have posted?AnandThenMan - Wednesday, November 11, 2009 - link
Article is crap, get over it. People are going to call out the author when he writes pure drivel like this.You think that posting an Intel slide FIRST is really the best way to write an AMD based article? You know who does stuff like that? Biased fanboys with an agenda. We expect more, and expect sites to be professional. The article is not, it's a joke.
Deal with it.
geok1ng - Wednesday, November 11, 2009 - link
AMD lost the entire HTPC/Netbook wave. There was a time when AMD had the best IGP on the market by almost 2 gens gap, but that IGP didnt come with a low power CPU for pairing. When atom and netbooks arrived AMP could put a low power CPU for battle and still won the benchs thanks to the amazing IGP and chipset of the platform, but there never was something like an AMD Netbook...Lets face the truth: we have too much CPU performance already on mobile devices- the last great challenge was BluRay playback, an issue that was solved by better IGPs, not by faster CPUs. But if i go shopping at sub 12 inches Notebooks i cant find anything that gives me the graphics performance of 3 years ago for the price i payed at the time: certainly i have dual-core 45nm CPUs to choose from, but the IGPs are a joke.
The great issue with mobile CPUs are drivers , not raw power requirements: most 45nm C2Ds can do sub 1.0v but the deep C state management of windows are crap, thanks to poor CPU driver investments
yyrkoon - Wednesday, November 11, 2009 - link
( Picture of Tomshardware logo )Anandtechs position as a leading tech /enthusiast review site took a nose dive today when they plastered an Intel Slide right at the top of the AMD roadmap "article". Several Tomshardware readers were shocked as they finally felt right at home on this once highly respected site . .