AMD Delays Roll-Out of "Llano" Processor

[Picard]

Due to issues with 32nm silicon-on-insulator process technology, Advanced Micro Devices had to delay the launch of the highly-anticipated code-named Llano processor that combines high-performance x86 central processing unit with graphics processing unit on the same die. The company said that the postponement may be two months long.

"Llano - our Fusion APU offering aimed at the higher end of the client market - is generating positive customer response. However, in reaction to Ontario’s market opportunities and a slower than anticipated progress of 32 nm yield curve, we are switching the timing of the Ontario and Llano production ramps. Llano production shipments are still expected to occur in the first half of next year," said Dirk Meyer, chief executive officer of AMD, during a conversation with financial analysts.

Earlier it was expected that AMD will start to ship its Llano accelerated processing units (APUs) for revenue already in Q4 2010 with official product launch taking place sometime very early in 2011. It is not clear whether AMD has problems wedding the Llano design to the 32nm SOI fabrication process, there are issues with the process itself or the design of the Llano has certain flaws. In any case, the start of commercial shipments slipped by two months, according to AMD.

"We have seen the rate of yield leaning below our plans on 32nm. [...] We take a bit more time to work on the 32nm yields up the curve. So, the effective change [...] to our internal plans on Llano amounts to a couple of months," said Mr. Meyer.

As reported earlier, AMD Llano accelerated processing unit (APU) will have four x86 cores based on the current micro-architecture each of which will have 9.69mm² die size (without L2 cache), a little more than 35 million transistors (without L2 cache), 2.5W – 25W power consumption, 0.8V – 1.3V voltage and target clock-speeds at over 3.0GHz clock-speed. The cores will dynamically scale their clock-speeds and voltages within the designated thermal design power in order to boost performance when a program does not require all four processing engines or trim power consumption when there is no demand for resources. According to sources familiar with the matter, different versions of Llano processor will have thermal design power varying from 20W to 59W: high-end dual-core, triple-core and quad-core chips will have TDP between 35W and 59W; mainstream chips with two of four x86 cores will fit into 30W thermal envelope and low-power dual-core Llano chips will have 20W TDP. Llano will be made using 32nm SOI process technology.

AMD Sabine platform will also include code-named Hudson input/output controllers that will support PCI Express graphics port, 16 USB ports, USB 3.0 support (Hudson M3 only), 6 Serial ATA ports with RAID support, 1Gb Ethernet, integrated video DAC, integrated clock-generator and so on. Besides, Sabine may also feature optional Vancouver-series graphics processing units.

AMD's arch-rival Intel Corp. plans to start revenue shipments of its Sandy Bridge processors with built-in next-gen graphics core in Q4 2010.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/dis...ch_Issues.html

[Obtainer]

Associates reported with the reference to fresh AMD roadmap that in the fourth quarter this year will be presented the hybrid processors zacate with one and two core, which contain the integrated graphic system with directX 11 support. They will obtain the design concept BGA, TDP level for the single core version will be equal to 18 W, for dual core - 25 W.

The processors zacate will be coupled with the chipset Hudson D1 with TDP level not more 7 W. It will ensure the support of four lines PCI express x1, sixteen ports USB ( 14 of them will correspond to USB 2.0 specifications, remaining two are only USB 1.1), and also six ports SATA-300 and built-in frequency generator. zacate processors will become a base for some economical desktop platform, but they will relate to ontario series. They will be presented during December present year.

For the third quarter, this year is planned the announcement of the following desktop AMD processors:

Phenom II X6 1045T - > six core, 2.7 GHz, 6 mb cache L3, TDP = 95 W;
Phenom II X2 560 - > two core, 3.3 GHz, 6 mb cache L3, TDP = 80 W;
Athlon II X4 645 - > four core, 3.1 GHz, 2 mb cache L2, TDP = 95 W;
Athlon II X4 615e - > four core, 2.5 GHz, 2 mb cache L2, TDP = 45 W;
Athlon II X3 450 - > three core, 3.2 GHz, 1.5 mb cache L2, TDP = 95 W;
Athlon II X3 420e - > three core, 2.6 GHz, 1.5 mb cache L2, TDP = 45 W;
Athlon II X2 265 - > two core, 3.3 GHz, 2 mb cache L2, TDP = 65 W;
Athlon II X2 250e - > two core, 3.0 GHz, 2 mb cache L2, TDP = 45 W;
Athlon II X2 270u - > two core, 2.0 GHz, 2 mb cache L2, TDP = 25 W.
For the fourth quarter the announcement of following models is planned:

Athlon II X4 650 - > four core, 3.2 GHz, 2 mb cache L2, TDP = 95 W;
Athlon II X3 455 - > three core, 3.3 GHz, 1.5 mb cache L2, TDP = 95 W;
Athlon II X2 270 - > two core, 3.4 GHz, 2 mb cache L2, TDP = 65 W;
Sempron 150 - > one core, 2.9 GHz, 1 mb cache L2, TDP = 45 W.
Associates also expect the release in the fourth quarter of processor phenom II X4 840T (2.9 GHz), which will be made from the six-core crystals. Thus this model is orientsed only for OEM- market.

http://xtreview.com/addcomment-id-13...MD-zacate.html