Monday, March 15, 2010

AMD Plans Fusion Chip for Netbooks, Ultraportables

AMD is planning to bring new Ontario processor from Fusion CPU-GPU chips hybrid family for the ever-growing segment of netbooks and ultraportables. Just like the current Intel Pineview N450 processor, AMD's Ontario chip will have CPU and Integrated graphics on the same die. Apparently, AMD will introduced Ontario only next year as per the previously shared roadmap.





AMD currently has the Yukon platform featuring Athlon Neo processor for the ultra-thin notebooks. The upcoming Ontario APU (accelerated processing unit) would be manufactured using 32nm fabrication process and will be slotted under the CPU-GPU hybrid family brand - Fusion. The Ontario APU will also incorporate support for DDR3 memory and DirectX 11 APIs. Speaking plainly, all the current PC games would be playable on the netbook with Ontario APU.

However, the Ontario Fusion chip with DDR3 memory and DirectX 11 support will raise two major concerns - battery consumption and thermal profile. Since AMD's processors have been known for heating issues, we hope that appropriate cooling solutions are implemented by netbook makers when these chips are used.

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