AMD FM2 socket Athlon II X4 processors

Although the exact details on AMD's upcoming generation of 32 nm A-series 'Trinity' APUs are unclear, several plans regarding budget models for the FM2 platform have already been unveiled. At least three Athlon chips will be released, which can be combined with the A85X chipset.

All three models will be based on the Piledriver architecture and are quad-core models with 4 MB of L2 cache. The reference clock frequency ranges from 2.8 Ghz to 3.4 GHz, although it's likely that a Turbo mode will also be available. The Athlon II X4 730 and 740 have TDPs of 65 watts, while the unlocked 750K chip has a TPD of 100 W.

For now, it's not clear whether the integrated GPU will be enabled or not. It's likely that this is not the case, as the 'Llano' Athlon chips for the FM1 socket also had their video chips disabled. Given the lack of an integrated graphics card on the A85X chipset, if that were the case, the cheap 'Piledriver' Athlon chips would always have to be combined with a relatively expensive discrete graphics card.

Processor	Cores	Clock frequency	L2-cache	TDP
Athlon II X4 730	4	2,8 GHz	4 MB	65 watts
Athlon II X4 740	4	3,2 GHz	4 MB	65 watts
Athlon II X4 750K	4	3,4 GHz	4 MB	100 watts

Source: Hardware.info

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AMD Trinity In Samsung Series 5 Notebooks

Good news for the AMD faithful who are attracted to Samsung's Series 5 thin and light notebooks. It appears Samsung has decided to play both sides of the processor ball field, including not only Intel Ivy Bridge configurations, but also a couple of models that boast AMD's Trinity-based accelerated processing units (APUs) inside.

The Samsung Series 5 535 13.3-inch (1366x768 resolution) laptop sports an AMD quad-core A6-4455M APU clocked at 2.1GHz, Radeon HD 7500G graphics, 4GB of DDR3-1333 memory (supports up to 8GB), 500GB 5400 RPM hard drive, 1.3MP webcam, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, GbE LAN, HDMI output, a pair of USB 2.0 ports, a single USB 3.0 port, 4-in-1 memory card reader, and Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. As configured, pricing starts at $700.

For those who need something a bit bigger, the Samsung Series 5 535 14-inch model features a similar configuration, but comes with an A10-4655M APU, 750GB hard drive, and an optical drive. Pricing starts at $850.

Source: Hothardware

Tags: AMD, AMD Trinity, Processor, Notebook, Laptop

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AMD's Trinity Processor vs Intel's Ivy Bridge, Ivy Bridge Tops Trinity

The "risk-off" trade, combined with what seems to be broader acceptance that we are unlikely to see a sharp semiconductor cyclical revenue snapback, will likely continue to weigh on the group despite gradually improving fundamentals.

We are in no rush to catch a falling knife, and we would ideally like to see wider recognition that semis are closer to our model of U.S. GDP plus 100 basis-points growth, but with the PHLX Semiconductor Sector (SOX) already 17% off its recent peak and valuations appearing to be more reasonable than they were even a month ago (pure cyclicals in our coverage now under 15 times our below-consensus 2013 earnings-per-share estimates), improving visibility into even a seasonal third quarter/fourth quarter (which would put second-half 202 up 10% year-over-year and drive full-year 2012 flattish over 2011) would make us more constructive on the group as a whole.

A relatively quiet week from a fundamental perspective -- management commentary from a large competitor conference remains comparatively optimistic, with several mentions of a potential inventory cycle despite macro concerns. Our own field work suggests that, while de-stocking is complete, there is no impetus from customers to build inventory, leaving semis at the mercy of end demand.

Offset reporter Analog Devices (ticker: ADI) (Tuesday) will help gauge broad-based semi trends -- our model is essentially in line with consensus for both the April and July quarters, though below for October and fiscal 2013. Results from Dell (DELL) (Tuesday) and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) (Wednesday) will be important for the PC chain, and BBY (Tuesday) should provide a read-through into demand for consumer electronics. A variety of semi names will present at a competitor conference in New York, and, hot on the heels of its recent April quarter results, Nvidia (NVDA) will hold its analyst day Thursday.

Advance Micro Devices' (AMD) Trinity seems unlikely to gain share, and will likely compete on price rather than performance against Intel's (INTC) Ivy Bridge. Earlier this week, AMD announced the rollout of its long-awaited Trinity APU (next generation advanced processing unit, which combines a 32nm Piledriver CPU and Northern Islands GPU on a single die).

Bulls have focused on the potential for Trinity to gain market share in PC client -- our view, based on field work, an analysis of available performance data, and a collection of product reviews, is that Trinity will compete primarily on price rather than performance. Launch timing has also been disappointing to many, with Ivy Bridge generally available ahead of comparable Trinity products.

This disappointment, combined with AMD's lagging position in high-average selling price (ASP)/high-margin server CPU -- our due diligence suggests that AMD is essentially not part of the discussion when it comes to data-center builds -- suggests that many remain overly optimistic on AMD's earnings potential for 2012-2013.

Source: Onlinebarrons

Tags: Intel, Ivy Bridge, AMD, AMD Trinity, Processor

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Intel Ivy Bridge's New Rival Is AMD Trinity

AMD challenges Intel's upcoming Ivy Bridge processors, with an eye to powerful graphics and long battery life for ultrabook-like machines and laptops.


AMD released its Trinity chips Tuesday, its second generation A-series APU (accelerated processing units.) These low-power chips are intended for ultrabook-like laptops, traditional laptops, and some all-in-one desktops. Trinity offers better performance and lower power utilization than the previous AMD Llano family of chips. 


The new chip designs call for about 10% more transistors on a slightly larger die, using the same 32 nm manufacturing process as the previous family of chips known as Llano. However the new chip uses AMD's latest CPU core design, called Piledriver, which succeeds Bulldozer.


The chip also offers more and better graphics power (using AMD's Radeon technology.) In other words, Trinity is designed for speed and tuned for very high resolution displays. The added transistors and higher performance all on the same process might lead you to believe the chip will be power hungry, but AMD says it has tuned power management so that a 17 watt version of Trinity will outperform the 17 watt version of Llano by a 2:1 factor. AMD also showed charts showing that Trinity chips offer about the same or superior battery life versus Intel's existing i5 chips, which have been shipping since first quarter 2011.


Using various popular applications, AMD shows itself neck and neck with Intel in battery efficiency; however the comparison is with Intel Sandy Bridge chips rather than Intel's upcoming Ivy Bridge chips for ultrabooks, which are said by Intel to be a good bit more power efficient than Sandy Bridge. Whichever company's chip you choose, battery life is likely to be in the six to nine hour range for most laptop designs, which is a healthy improvement over what most of us are used to now. Much of what's new with Trinity has to do with better graphics support. While the gamers and movie watchers will have an obvious attraction to the better video, there are business applications too, including high definition video chats, and some applications for traders where multiscreen support and high-speed rendering are important. AMD says its new video technologies are already supported by IE, Firefox, Chrome, and Windows media player among others.


If you're a gamer, AMD says you'll notice 20 to 50% improvement over Intel's Ivy Bridge chips in performance, depending on the game and the resolution and quality.


The higher you have the game's video quality settings cranked up, the better AMD will perform, AMD says. (AMD is citing third party results for Ivy Bridge performance, so the tests are not precisely apples to apples.)


Along with improvements in video and core CPU, AMD's big add is to support ultrathin device form factors.


Can a mobile device be an Ultrabook if it doesn't have an Intel chip? Probably not, but it can sure look like one.


Source: informationweek

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