

  (Source: Jason Mick/DailyTech)











[Image Source: AMD]



II. Bulldozer, Radeon 7000 Series Design Elements Creep Into Fusion




BGA packaging


Trinity in the wild
Picture top to bottom: BrazosTrinity (middle),


Trinity in the wild



Intel faking us out





Laptop surprise







IV. AMD Not Worried About ARM






Comments     Threshold


RE: Bobcat successor
By JasonMick (blog) on 1/15/2012 7:49:08 PM , Rating: 2
Anyone else think that pushing back bobcat related development so far back is an incredibly stupid move? The one area where AMD does everything better than the competition, they decide to neglect...

Meh Atom is pretty competitive with Bobcat on the bottom end, other than in GPU. I think it's the middle (e.g. higher powered than Atom, but lesser powered CPU-wise than Sandy Bridge) that AMD does really well, as Intel doesn't really have a legitimate competitor in this slot.

I think AMD's ultrathin strategy is sound as the price point will move stock. Now it just has to produce...

RE: Bobcat successor
By HurleyBird on 1/16/2012 3:01:00 AM , Rating: 2
Half agree. Atom isn't very competitive in:

Single Threaded Performance
Perf/Transistor and mm2

It is pretty competitive in

Multithreaded performance
non-graphics perf/watt

CPU performance of brazos is even more impressive when you look at it's die shot and realize just how small the CPU portion of the chip is compared to graphics.

A simple die shrunk bobcat with two more cores, and 50% more SPs would fill a niche that nobody else can hope to compete with. As you said, Atom is "competitive with Bobcat on the bottom end, other than in GPU." 28nm Bobcat designs would change that.

What exactly is Trinity going to change? AMD already has faster graphics and slower processing cores than the competition in Llano. Same will be true for Trinity. And I know for a fact that you also have the same doubt in the back of your mind -- based on Bulldozer's pathetic showing and the modest increase in IPC AMD is projecting with Piledriver -- that Trinity could very well end up with a slower CPU section than Llano.

So is it better to focus on a product that is almost definitely going to be unrivaled in it's space, or one that doesn't significantly alter your position against the competition?

RE: Bobcat successor
By someguy123 on 1/16/2012 3:51:13 AM , Rating: 2
Sure they can compete in that sector, but that sector makes very little profit. It also uses too much power to compete with ARM/powervr. They'd basically be wasting resources that could be used stamping out more llano/trinity chips. For your average tasks on a netbook it would likely dominate, but it's like being the best of the worst. It's a wooden crown not really worth having.

RE: Bobcat successor
By Mint on 1/16/2012 12:01:39 PM , Rating: 2
What does Trinity change?

It gives us discrete-class graphics in a 17W processor! That's pretty damn sweet.

My current notebook is a 3820TG, which weighs less than 4 lbs and packs a 5650M for graphics. I got it because it's thinner, lighter, faster, and has a bigger screen than than the M11x. Llano achieves almost the same performance in a single chip (and single heatsink/fan, unlike my notebook) and at a lower pricepoint, which is nice, but AFAIK there aren't any light Llano notebooks out there.

Trinity will change that. It redefines portable PC gaming.

