AMD Releases First Llano-based Fusion Desktop APUs

If it seems like AMD’s Llano desktop processors have taken forever to get here, it might be because… they have – or at least it feels that way. When I first heard of Llano and what AMD planned on doing with it, I couldn’t wait to see a release. After all, with it, it means that both Intel and AMD now have true hybrid processor designs, combining both a traditional CPU together with an IGP. But if there’s one thing of importance that Intel doesn’t have that AMD does, it’s Radeon graphics.

The APU, as AMD’s marketing team calls it, is built on a 32nm process and measures at 228mm², with the graphics taking up about 35~40% of the entire chip. Though the CPU architecture is based on Phenom, the L3 cache has been dropped for the sake of efficiency, while the L2 cache has been boosted to 1MB per core. The IGP doesn’t have its own dedicated on-die memory banks, so it has the ability to share the L2. Like other IGP designs, Llano’s IGP will help itself to 512MB of your DDR3 memory.

One of the biggest selling-points of Llano processors is that they have a Radeon chip built-in. But don’t expect extreme performance even with that fact, however. With the IGP currently only capable of supporting up to 400 cores, it’s from a technical standpoint about 20% less capable than the $70 Radeon HD 6570. At the same time, it stands to be far more powerful than competitor IGPs, namely Intel.

In addition, compared to Intel’s offerings, AMD has been able to tout a highly level of image quality for some time, so all in all, its Llano APU and Radeon IGP look to be the best pairing for a media center PC. While AMD is also pushing the fact that Llano supports DirectX 11, it doesn’t much matter for gaming, since DX11 graphics tend to be a major performance hog. But gaming aside, DirectX 11 support does give AMD the potential lead with DirectCompute performance.

I’m a little behind on things, so our article won’t be posted today, but rather Monday. I wanted to get more testing in before posting anything, and with other things in life coming up recently I’ve had less time to focus on this. So let’s for the time-being take a look at other important Lynx-related factors. First, the platform diagram:

On the APU itself, there is support for DisplayPort, HDMI and DVI as you’d expect. The DDR3 memory controller is also built-in, as are some PCI Express lanes. In the FCH, or ‘Fusion Controller Hub’, most of the motherboard’s functionality will be accessed, such as USB, VGA (when will these things die?), HD Audio, an integrated clock generator for the bus, robust fan control support and more.

While Intel has been slow to adopt native USB 3.0 support, AMD has upped the ante by including four with the A75 chipset and a big fat zero with the A55. Another feature removed is FIS-based SATA switching, improving the overall efficiency of flowing bandwidth.

As a refresher, AMD will be launching four Llano desktop CPUs today, and all of them are based on the FM1 form-factor. The chips have 905 pins and are set using PGA technology. Vendors are going to be offering motherboards of all stripes here, but given that the highest-end launch CPU retails for $150, you are going to be hard-pressed to find A75 motherboards higher than that.

For what’s a major CPU architecture launch, four models seems rather paltry, and that becomes even more clear when you realize the differences between all of them are minimal. The A8-3850 and A6-3650 are both 100W parts, clocked for ultimate performance, while the A8-3800 and A6-3600 are 65W parts. Those include Turbo Core boostable cores, however, while the higher-end of the bunch do not.

The A8-3800 APUs feature an IGP with 400 cores at 600MHz, while the A6s are knocked down a peg to 320 cores at 443MHz. All of the launch APUs support DDR3 up to speeds of 1866MHz, have 4 cores and also include 4MB of L2 cache. There’s also dual-graphics support where the IGP can be paired up with a low-end Radeon discrete card, but, its design is so clunky that I’m not sure it’s even going to be relevant.

We’ll cover more in our full review next week, but what I can say right now is that Lynx is pretty interesting, and even without a review it’s easy to surmise. Its performance is similar to Phenom, its IGP is faster than Intel’s by a fair margin (and is probably more stable, too), its image quality top-rate, and the platform as a whole very stable. Plus, given you can use any AM2 or AM3 CPU cooler with FM1, you may not even have to buy a new one of those. How cool is that?