Llano now shipping to manufacturers

AMD is now shipping the Llano processors to manufacturers which means we should see them in retail systems in a couple of months or so. This is a very interesting release because it will be the first time since the release of the Core 2 architecture that AMD has offered a competitive alternative for "mainstream" laptops (Brazos was mostly for netbooks and thin-and-lights).

We know almost for certain that the CPU will be significantly worse than Sandy Bridge and the GPU will be significantly better. The really interesting questions are battery life and heat -- these are immediately obvious to a regular consumer without any benchmarks and in the recent past, AMD has been consistently worse than Intel at the first and not better at the second. If they can break that pattern, Llano will go a long ways towards changing their market share.

 

i would love to see what AMD came up with! Great Info mate!
ANY INFO ON WHICH MANUFACTURERS WILL HAVE LLANO BASED SYSTEMS?

 

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I bet box makers will screw the pooch on this. Get ready for horrendous looking seashell cases for this brilliant APU. Maybe Apple will put them in the Airs and show everyone how it's done?

 

And show how "hot" literally their devices are by putting them in good-looking but poorly ventilated cases.

 

I just hope someone does interesting things with Llano such as using it for an AW M11x competitor, and/or putting hybrid crossfire in a sub-15" notebook.

 

I just hope AMD will finally have a cool running piece of hardware... preformance looks actually quite good, wold like to see some actual CPU benchmarks before I rule on this.

 

I hope AMD has a winner. I'll still be in the market for a capable commuting laptop to supplement my Toshiba Qosmio DTR [desktop replacement].

If the Llano is real to its expectations, it could be a cheaper alternative to the popular Intel i-cores. I'll start saving up some funds, can't wait!!!

 

I would be more worried about battery life. AMD has not had any heat problems, at least not more than Intel, since late 2009 and the 45nm shrink with Tigris. Danube actually runs cooler than most Intel notebooks.

 

AMD processors are usually in low end frames however which means the cooling is usually less than optimal. Hopefully that'll change with Llano.

 

You have a DM1Z in your sig? Shouldn't you be well qualified to talk about how cool the Zacate runs?

 

Well, yes... Zacate runs very cool even with limited fan (by default the HP software is quite aggressive with the fan). But Zacate is a different beast altogether. It isn't based on K10.5 like Danube was and Llano is.

 

Regardless of derivative architecture, doesn't the shared fusion format contribute significantly to lower temps, lower watts and increased efficiency?

I mean you're right in that we don't know 100% that Llano will be just as good, but we have a pretty good guess at this point.

 

No. Combining a GPU with a 10.5K CPU is not going to change the characteristics of the 10.5K CPU. Brazos and Sandy Bridge are power efficient because these are new architectures designed from the ground up with this attribute in mind, not because they have a GPU on the same die as the CPU. Llano might be power efficient because AMD will have no doubt tweaked 10.5K and of course has shrunk it down to 32nm, but we won't know that until we see the actual laptops.

 

Being based on K10.5 should really only have an effect on Llano's processing, as the circuitry to put that arch on the more efficient HKMG silicon has changed and that has a much more noticeable effect on power and heat.

Llano's got a smaller die, efficient silicon, improved power gating, and a new grid lay-out to reduce leakage....which ain't like Danube.

 

Very true, but it most likely isn't as effective as if they had a new micro-architecture designed from the ground up.

Hope for the best, expect the worst. You know?

 

A new ground up architecture carries a lot more risk and it's own new problems. Obviously when we look back at the delays Llano experienced after they already happened, and how things went smoother for Bobcat and Bulldozer, we'd think AMD should've done things different, but the truth is using existing arch for Llano was the much safer bet than jumping in naked with something completely new for Fusion.