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New AMD Trinity APU Lineup:
Finally would come to that segment of our technology preview where we take a look at the new product offering lineup. In the case of the new Trinity APU, AMD will initially release three standard APU’s with a 35W TDP and to low-voltage (LV) and ultralow voltage (ULV) APU’s with 25W and 17W ratings. This of course does not represent the full line of AMD APU’s being developed, as we saw in slide 21 AMD has planned to take the series at least as far as the 5800 K for which the specifications we do not have at this time.
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Mobile Lineup
As we mentioned earlier the new AMD Trinity APU includes the Northern Islands graphics which is the Radeon 7000 series graphics and for the Trinity APU will use DDR3 for its frame buffer. a large benefit of the AMD Trinity APU is its ability to use Dual Graphics. This concept first introduced with the AMD Llano APU works very similar to crossfire in that it allows the system to use both onboard and discreet graphics at the same time. The this of course results in a performance boost in certain applications and depending upon the graphics combination employed. It should be noted that this capability does not currently exist for Intel systems and thus represents a definite advantage for AMD and for consumers buying AMD Trinity equipped systems.
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As we mentioned earlier AMD has given OEMs creative freedom which extends to the combination of graphics and processor as such the configurations shown above may not represent what OEMs choose to deploy in their products.
Benefits of the Brazos 2.0 Platform:
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With the move to Brazos 2.0 AMD brings many upgrades to consumers. and key among these is the migration to the 7000 series GPU, the addition of USB 3.0, and support for SATA 6Gb/s drives. This is of course not a full listing of the benefits that Brazos 2.0 brings but it is some of the highlights and adds to those key benefits we listed earlier.
What is truly impressive is AMD’s accomplishments in terms of power and performance. AMD has managed integrate a higher end GPU, increase frequencies in both CPU and graphics, while simultaneously lowering the FCH idle power as well as overall system power consumption. One of the technologies that was allowed them to do this is their use of High–K metal gate’s (also known as HKMG) in their APU construction as seen below.
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How can you say you don’t know if Trinity is a winner when it brings significantly better CPU/GPU performance over Llano which was very adequate for most mainstream consumers? SB is just barely faster in CPU performance and isn’t in the same iniverse as Trinity. Pretty much every reviewer has confirmed that Trinity is a winner on all fronts including battery life and price in addition to CPU/GPU performance.
BTW consumers do not want Ultrabooks and that is why even with lots of Intel bribe money sales are very poor. Ultrathins are a sure success for AMD especially when priced hundreds less that a shiny under-powered Ultrabook.
Jorge,
Trinity is still not proven a success for AMD. As a Processor it is certainly a step forward in the right direction, and it will be a great consumer option. The problem lies in AMD overcoming years of shortcomings int he mobile market. Consumers by and far prefer Intel in their laptops. In that regard Trinity has a lot of hard work ahead. No product just steps out of the shadow of years of history to become an overnight success.
So is Trinity a winner for AMD. . . not yet. I cannot declare a product a winner for which I have not even tested. And even had I the product in hand, consumers have the overall sway of the market. If they adopt then it is so.
I still hold firm to my statement, Trinity holds great potential for AMD. Now all they have to do is get the word out there and convince consumers. The first step in doing so would be to get us a system.