AMD - Piledriver chitchat

[DanceswithUnix]

Anandtech looking back at Bulldozer with some speculation on Trinity core improvements. Nice article for those of us that like gritty cpu core details

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5057/t...ng-even-deeper

[Terbinator]

Anandtech looking back at Bulldozer with some speculation on Trinity core improvements. Nice article for those of us that like gritty cpu core details

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5057/t...ng-even-deeper

An immense read and quite accessible IMO.

Left me feeling slightly hyped over what it can actually produce with a few tweaks, can't wait for part two!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

This is interesting:

http://www.hotchips.org/

Look at the 27th. There seems to a presentation involving AMD and die stacking.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

It seems desktop Trinity has appeared on the AMD website:

http://www.amd.com/us/products/deskt...nstream.aspx#7

The leaked specifications are correct.

This looks interesting:

http://www.slashgear.com/amd-trinity...s-on-06232464/

http://www.slashgear.com/acers-trini...s-on-06232483/

Edit!!

It uses an A6:

http://news.softpedia.com/news/AMD-T...d-273973.shtml

Hands on video:

http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/06/a...-computex-201/

[badass]

It looks like Ivy bridge based platforms still have terrible idle power compared to Llano and even ancient 785g ones.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5850/g...and-microatx/4
It's a shame they use 2 7970's for the idle power, though I believe they use about 12 Watts at idle.
According to the Anandtech article, the lowest idle power of the micro ATX motherboards with an Ivy bridge CPU uses 69 Watts. If the 7970's use 12W each, that's still 46W at idle. My old mATX based 785g system with an Athlon II 220 uses less than 30W idle at the wall with an old HDD. Even taking into account the overspecced PSU not being at its most efficient that's still much worse.
I had originally decided that I couldn't be bothered to wait for Trinity after the delays but I then decided I can;t be bothered to rebuild my system twice in one year, once for the new hardware and once for Windows 8 (I never, ever do in place upgrades)

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

It seems the Trinity thin and light notebook is called the Samsung 535U:

http://www.overclock.net/t/1266990/v...ty-laptop-news

The A8 version will be around £600 it seems:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=NP5...ed=0CEcQ_AUoBQ

The A6 version will be around £500:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=NP5...ed=0CEcQ_AUoBQ

Edit!!

Here are some more pictures:

http://www.imazons.com/blog/amd-ultr...ultrathin.html

It uses a magnesium alloy and glass fibre body.

[Terbinator]

So the A10 version will be ~£700?

I was hoping to pick up a top-range A10 model come September for a similar price as the A8's go for on Lenovo's shop.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

So the A10 version will be ~£700?

I was hoping to pick up a top-range A10 model come September for a similar price as the A8's go for on Lenovo's shop.

The issue is that those A8 laptops don't weigh 1.5KG though and have magnesium alloy and glass fibre body.

Actually I just looked at the Samsung website.

The code for the A8 based system is NP535U4C-A02UK.

It seems the A01 version has the A10:

http://www.samsung.com/us/computer/l...4C-A01US-specs

It is $849.99 in the US excluding taxes,which is around £550,so probably it will be under £700 here.

[Terbinator]

I should have mentioned the Ultra/Sleek book isn't a massive draw for me.

But having a good capable APU and decent battery life is.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

That A8 SKU mentioned does not seem to have any official specifications.

However,here is a specifications list of the embedded R series which is based on Trinity:

http://www.amd.com/us/Documents/RSer...oductBrief.pdf

The R460L is analogous to the low TDP A10 and the R260H is analogous to the low voltage A6.

However,there is the R452L which has a 19W TDP and an HD7600G IGP instead of the HD7620G IGP found in the 25W TDP A10.

I suspect the A8-4555M might be the R452L. That is not bad for 4 thread part although it probably has a 256 shader IGP.

I should have mentioned the Ultra/Sleek book isn't a massive draw for me.

But having a good capable APU and decent battery life is.

The 35W TDP parts probably will be more value orientated IMHO. The 25W TDP and lower parts are more for thin and light laptops.

[DanceswithUnix]

AMD told Charlie that desktop Trinity will be in OEM machines this week:

http://semiaccurate.com/2012/06/01/a...y-one-quarter/

So just retail that is delayed?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

It seems the A10-4655M based Samsung thin and light laptop is $749.99 on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Series...9403385&sr=1-1

With 20% VAT that works out as around £580. Hopefully,this means it will be not more than £650 in the UK.

Here is a preview of the A6-4455M based version:

http://translate.google.com/translat...6/2811382.html

[scaryjim]

So just retail that is delayed?

I'm pretty sure one of the other stories re: delays said the same thing (i.e. OEM now, retail later). Putting on my rose-tinted glasses, if they have plenty of mobile and desktop design wins with major OEMs, it could just be that they've decided to fulfill OEM orders first.

Taking off the rose goggles, OEMs tend to go for lower specification chips in their high-volume boxes anyway, so it could be (despite Charlie's comments about yields being OK) that they're not yet yielding enough chips that meet the top bin so they're pushing out volume chips to OEMs from the lower bins, but pushing back desktop retail release until they've got top bin yields high enough to give a good enthusiast experience. Or they could just not be producing a sufficient volume to meet OEM demand *and* make a retail launch viable...

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

This article has a comparison of the 35W TDP Trinity A10,Llano A8 and Ivy Bridge Core i5 CPUs:

http://translate.googleusercontent.c...747Au2YN0L1LDQ

Power consumption is pretty decent when compared to the IB Core i5 CPUs!!

[DanceswithUnix]

So much for Intel's 3D FinFets

Mind you, AMD didn't need them this round thanks to SOI. If they are moving to bulk in their next designs, then that will be interesting. I presume they have something up their sleeve.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

It seems the A10 5800K was demoed recently:

http://techreport.com/discussions.x/23093

It still looks like desktop parts are a few months away.

It also seems Trinity based Opterons are inbound too:

http://www.brightsideofnews.com/news...n-q4-2012.aspx