Bulldozer Infused Trinity APU Specifications Confirmed

Subject: Processors | September 3, 2011 - 12:07 AM | Tim Verry
Tagged: trinity, llano, bulldozer, APU, amd

AMD has not only started announcing quite a few future processors, but has also gone a bit crazy with all of the code names for said products. Admittedly, when the news broke that Trinity APU specifications were revealed, I had to do a bit of digging to figure out just what the Trinity APU was (exactly). In the end, the APU (accelerated processing unit) is similar in composition to Llano except with a bulldozer based CPU core and upgraded GPU. The bulldozer core aspect is what threw me for a bit of a loop in that I had a difficult time figuring out how the CPU core could be based on bulldozer when bulldozer hasn’t even been released ;).  Hopefully that long introduction helps somewhat in clearing up what Trinity is.

Specifically, the new Trinity APU will debut with AMD’s new “Piledriver” (more code names!) architecture, and include a Radeon HD 7000 series GPU and Bulldozer based CPU core. Futher, the Trinity APU will come in both notebook and desktop flavors titled “Comal” and “Virgo” respectively. AMD notes that the improvements in the CPU and GPU cores will result in up to a 50% performance increase over the current Llano A Series APUs. While the 50% number is measuring pure gigaflop performance, even if the real world speed increase is not as noticeable in everyday usage, it is still a nice bump in performance.

On the availability front, AMD has slated the processor for release in 2012; however, Semi Accurate believes that the APU may well debut much sooner than expected. The site further quoted sources who stated that “CES is a distinct possibility for a soft launch, and maybe more.” More tidbits of information can be had here.

AMD's sequel; we hope Trinity does better at the box office than Neo did

Subject: General Tech | August 31, 2011 - 11:34 AM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: amd, comal, virgo, trinity, piledriver, bulldozer, orochi, southern islands, dragon

AMD is showing off their stuff down in Texas right now and there are reports of what is being shown off slowly appearing.  First to the plate is SemiAccurate with a slide detailing the next generation of Bulldozer as well as a new variant called Piledriver.  The new Orochi Bulldozers are said to offer a 35% increase in the performance of server tasks and many techs will be glad to hear it is a drop in upgrade, no hours of reconfiguration needed.

The enthusiast will be more interested in Piledriver which is a renovated Bulldozer core, finessing the existing architecture to squeeze half again as many gigaflops out of Comal and Virgo when compared to Llano.  They've also included the HD7000 family, aka the Southern Islands family of GPUs into the announcement as well.  We know that the new generation of APUs are well ahead of schedule and we can hope that the GPU side has also at least kept up with expectations if the scarcity of the HD6950 and HD6970 mean what we hope it means.  Drop by for the specs on the GPUs and more at SemiAccurate.

"It looks like Trinity, aka the next generation big APU, is going to be everything the rumors suggest. At Global Foundries GTC conference today, they foundry confirmed many of the rumors that are floating."

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Tech Talk

• Global Foundries and Samsung split 28nm processes @ SemiAccurate
• Sony’s HMZ-T1 Is an Amazing OLED 3DTV. That You Wear On Your Head @ Gizmodo
• Top 10 Things To Do With Your HP Touchpad @ TechwareLabs
• Cooler Master Silencio, GX 550 and Sentinal Giveaway @ XSReviews
• OC3D @ i43 Part 2

AMD will be snubbing the smartphone

Subject: General Tech | August 9, 2011 - 03:30 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: amd, tablet, smartphones, trinity

In a revent interview, AMD's SVP and GM, Rick Bergman restated that AMD has no current plans in the works to jump to the handheld market.  They will continue to focus on their current product lines and that the only ultramobile development currently underway is for tablets.  That could help them get a leg up on Intel's Atom, as Intel is definitely making a move for the hand held market.  Focusing on tablets gives them a less strict power limitation and may just give them a boost as they push to the 28nm process with only one ultra low power Trinity APU product line to design.  Check out The Inquirer for more.

"CHIP DESIGNER AMD has ruled out making a move in the smartphone market, preferring to concentrate on tablets.

Rick Bergman, SVP and GM of AMD's products group told a conference that the chip designer has no plans to get into the smartphone market, saying that its expertise in graphics does not suit that market. Instead it will be up to AMD's Z-series embedded chip to push X86 into the tablet market."

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Tech Talk

• Beware of Macs in enterprise, security consultants say @ The Register
• Mass WordPress hijack poisons Google Image well @ The Register
• Sale of Samsung Galaxy Tab Blocked in the EU @ Slashdot
• 10-year old hacker finds flaw in mobile games @ The Register
• Magellan RoadMate 5175T-LM Review @ TechReviewSource
• Jabra Freeway Bluetooth Car Kit Review @ t-break
• Real World Labs And Thermalright Joint Contest

AFDS11: Upcoming Trinity APU will use VLIW4 / Cayman Architecture

Subject: Graphics Cards, Processors, Shows and Expos | June 14, 2011 - 08:06 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: vliw, trinity, llano, fusion, evergreen, cayman, amd, AFDS

Well that was an interesting twist...  During a talk on the next generation of GPU technology at the AMD Fusion Developer Summit, one of the engineers was asked about Trinity, the next APU to be released in 2012 (and shown running today for the very first time).  It was offered that Trinity in fact used a VLIW4 architecture rather than the VLIW5 design found in the just released Llano A-series APU. 

A shader unit from the VLIW4-based Cayman architecture

That means that Trinity APUs will ship with Cayman-based GPU technology (6900 series) rather than the Evergreen (5000 series).  While that doesn't tell us much in terms of performance simply because we have so many variables including shader counts and clocks, it does put to rest the rumor that Trinity was going to keep basically the same class of GPU technology that Llano had. 

Trinity notebook shown for the first time today at AFDS.  Inside is an APU with Cayman-class graphics.

AMD is definitely pushing the capabilities of APUs forward and if they can stay on schedule with Trinity, Intel might find the GPU portion of its Ivy Bridge architecture well behind again.

AFDS11: AMD Demonstrates Trinity Powered Notebook

Subject: Processors, Mobile, Shows and Expos | June 14, 2011 - 12:08 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: trinity, fusion, APU, AFDS

On stage during the opening keynote at the AMD Fusion Developer Summit 2011, Rick Bergman showed off a notebook that was being powered not by the recently released AMD Llano A-series APUs, but rather the Trinity core due in 2012.

Trinity is the desktop APU for next year that will combine Bulldozer-based x86 CPU cores with an updated DX11 GPU architecture built on the current 32nm process.  Not much else is known about the chip yet but hopefully we'll get some more details this week at the show.