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AMD fusion to be released this year?!

Soldato
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If it comes out this year, things are going to get interesting- crazy even!
 
Soldato
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Oooh, this could indeed be good news! I've heard mixed things on the integrated GPU capabilities though, everything from it being comparable to a HD 2900 series card to a 5770...
 
Soldato
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I would be seriously impressed if it matched a 2900XT.

Its way more likely to barely be better than the 5450, making the extreme low end obsolete.

With all the hype I think it would be a shame if it weren't that much better than current on board graphics, considering how much more of the chip AMD are dedicating to graphics than Intel on the i3 it should perform fairly well.
 
Associate
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It definitely means good things for office and htpc use, perhaps even extremely SFF computing, but as a full blown gamer with towers and dedicated GPUs I'm more interested in its potential abilities to complement an existing GPU and/or add to the CPU processing power.


- Ordokai
 
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Associate
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It would be ideal if they could be used as physics co-processors, giving the fusion CPUs both grant and flexibility without damaging main rendering performance of the dedicated GPU.
 
Associate
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How are these related to the bulldozer 8-cores? My impression from other articles has been that the bulldozer chips will be released as both fusion and non-fusion versions.

I am guessing that fusion versions will not work on current AM3 motherboards.

Anyone else confirm that?
 
Soldato
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http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/radeon-fusion-gpu-chimera-phenom,news-33486.html
AMD's initial product based on its Fusion initiative, codenamed Llano, is now sampling with vendors. This first iteration will combine the GPU and CPU on the same die, which will drive down power requirements and costs.

While Llano will be based off of Phenom II technology and will be paired with ATI Radeon GPU design, AMD says that its next-generation Fusion will blur the line between CPU and GPU. That next big change is planned for 2015, Leslie Sobon, vice president of marketing at AMD, told IDG.

The next Fusion will have the philosophy of full integration of both GPU and CPU, aiming to take full advantage of new standards like OpenCL.

"The second iteration [in] 2015 ... you're not going to be able to tell the difference. It's all going away," Sobon said.

While some computations will still be best for the traditional CPU architecture, software that would run more efficient on a GPU-like design is where Fusion should thrive.

"The GPU is perfect for antivirus. It's a perfect parallel-processed application. In the Fusion-based time frame that's where it needs to go," Sobon said.

Still, that's five years away. Right now Fusion is sampling to potential customers, and Dell and Apple are in the rumored bunch.

In related news, Digitimes cites sources saying that AMD will be enlisting the help of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) to fabricate its Fusion chips on the 40nm process.

Seems the next gen fusion is also something to look foward to as well! :D
 
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