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
The Notebook Roadmap
For mainstream notebooks today AMD doesn’t really offer anything sexy. We have the Tigris platform based on the Caspian CPU (45nm Athlon II X2 derivative) and RS880M chipset with integrated Radeon HD 4300 series graphics (DX10.1).
Next year we get the Danube platform, complete with Champlain CPU (Athlon II X2 or X4 derivative) and relatively similar graphics to what we have now.
Like the desktop roadmap, things don’t get interesting until 2011; that’s when we meet Sabine.
Sabine comes with a Llano APU, just like the desktop, and four 32nm Phenom II-like cores. There isn’t a dual-core mainstream offering for mobile on the roadmap. Llano of course comes with a DX11 GPU on die, which AMD is calling GigaFLOPS-class. I guess we won’t have 4870 level performance on die at 32nm.
AMD doesn’t have a high performance CPU for ultrathin notebooks today. The only options are Consesus and Huron, both first generation K8 derivatives. They’re also fabbed at 65nm so they’re not exactly as small or power efficient as they could be.
Next year this starts to change with the Nile platform. It comes with a Geneva CPU, a lower power Athlon II derivative. That should help fix the performance issues. At 45nm we’ll hopefully see good battery life from the platform.
Come 2011, AMD has another CPU core for us; it’s called Bobcat. I first talked about Bobcat over two years ago, and we won’t see it for nearly another two years, incredible. It’s an ultra low power microprocessor architecture specifically designed for mobile. Assuming AMD didn’t exaggerate its claims, this should be the first real mobile competitor Intel has seen.
Bobcat will appear in the Ontario APU as a part of the Brazos platform. Hooray for more codenames.
If you look at AMD’s roadmap there are a couple of subtle hints to pay attention to. Note that Brazos extends top to bottom from Ultrathin down to Netbook, whereas no other AMD platform has ever completely gone down to the bottom of the Netbook segment. Could this be an indication of AMD’s ability to hit ultra low, Atom-like, pricepoints with Bobcat?
Secondly - the Brazos platform isn’t colored yellow, green or red for 65nm, 45nm or 32nm. I'm guessing that means Ontario will be built on a bulk 28nm process to save cost.
When I spoke to Globalfoundries earlier this year they indicated that fabbing on half nodes could be one option exploited by CPU companies looking to compete with Intel.
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SlyNine - Thursday, November 12, 2009 - link
Just like speed is relative, So is how "good" technology is. We cannot really comprehend or gauge where AMD will be at, unless we look at what else is out there.So I think Anand is right on the money by including it. Oh and I'm a AMD fan. Otho I have a Q6600 right now.
Finally - Wednesday, November 11, 2009 - link
On AnandTech, this is part of the tradition.Check the past... you will find many more samples of this kind of behaviour: Title reads "The new Phenom II", the first page shows us the prices and performance of Intel's CPUs - a jorb well done!
whatthehey - Wednesday, November 11, 2009 - link
Bitch and moan all you want, but the slide illustrates an important point. AMD is making a big show of announcing the integration of their GPU and CPU, but Intel is already doing that a full year ahead of AMD. The article says as much: " And we'll see it in 2011. Unfortunately that's a bit late." More to the point, there isn't a lot of interest happening from AMD for most of 2010. Sorry I don't have my headup my assin the sand, but complaining that Anand is telling the truth is childish at best. Take off your AMD fanboi hats and RTFA!T2k - Wednesday, November 11, 2009 - link
Just STFU already - since you are obviously unable to grasp even the basics of writing any *ARTICLE* (e.g. slides does not illustrate shit here contrary to your lame beliefs), just stop talking about shutting up and remain silent yourself, would'ya?Maroon - Wednesday, November 11, 2009 - link
I'm pretty sure no AMD slides made it into the last few Intel roadmap/new tech articles. Pretty crappy to do that.dia - Wednesday, November 11, 2009 - link
Intel are AMD's major competition (apart from AMD themselves). The AMD roadmap once again shows AMD being late in comparison to Intel. This is relevant because it will affect uptake of AMD tech. How does this show bias? It's the freaking truth. If brand loyalty alone were enough to generate sales, AMD would not have been introuble in the first place. The fact is that most consumers will go with what comes first and also look for slight performance advantages, even if the advantage is small.Your whinging about the mention of upcoming Intel tech in this article shows desperation.
T2k - Wednesday, November 11, 2009 - link
"Your whinging about the mention of upcoming Intel tech in this article shows desperation"QUite obviously it's you who's head is so far up in the @ss of Anand/Intel that you are unable to understand the very basics of even this kind of fake techno journalism...
...but hey, clowns are clowns, nothing to see here.
formulav8 - Wednesday, November 11, 2009 - link
I can think of no logical reason to post a Intel propaganda slide on the first page and at the top of the page before showing any AMD propaganda slides which is what this article is entirely based on.I don't see bios as the reason, but it was definitely a poor decision in my opinion (And obviously others as well).
piesquared - Wednesday, November 11, 2009 - link
lol are you serious? Do you think people are that naive to not see this is clearly a propoganda stunt on behave of intel? It's also pretty obvious why you prefer ATi over NV. ;)