Friday, September 3rd 2010

AMD's Fusion ''Ontario'' APU Chip Pictured

At the ongoing IFA event in Berlin, AMD displayed one of the first derivatives of its Bobcat low-power x86 processor architecture, codenamed "Ontario". This Fusion APU (accelerated processing unit), which is a combination of an x86 CPU and a DirectX 11 compliant GPU is built for low-power devices such as netbooks, handhelds, and tablets. AMD also showed off the chip package itself, which is roughly the size of a 1 Euro coin. The package, like AMD's mobile Athlon/Phenom processors, has no integrated heatspreader (IHS), but like the Intel Atom, uses a ball-grid array (BGA) to permanently fix itself to the system board.

AMD claims that the chip offers "mainstream performance" at less than half the die area (in this case, below 100 mm²), and a fraction of the power. Speaking of which, the "Ontario" Fusion APU has a TDP of 9W, while a higher-performance APU codenamed "Zacate", which is probably competitive with Intel's CULV processors, and is built for ultra-thin notebooks, nettops and slim all-in-one PCs, has a TDP of 18W. AMD claims that the two will ship (to OEMs, because these are not end-user products) in Q4 2010. For the desktop, AMD is developing the "Llano" Fusion APUs that are of a different form-factor and package altogether.
Source: Computerbase.de
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38 Comments on AMD's Fusion ''Ontario'' APU Chip Pictured

#26
TheLaughingMan
iPhone 5 powered by AMD's Bobcat??

Steve selling will be like, "...this new iPhone will boast more graphical power than any phone or portable device this size. Full 1080p output to an TV via a simple HDMI cable. *Unneeded applause for something several others have already done*. This chip is a revolution in technology. A true innovation. *Que Apple logo on screen to take credit with "brought to you by" tag so AMD doesn't get pissed*. Let me just show you why you should want a new iPhone 5. *live demo of 1080p out of some Disney/Pixar film through iTunes....which is only 720p, but Steve doesn't give a shit*......"
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#27
wolf
Better Than Native
TheLaughingManiPhone 5 powered by AMD's Bobcat??
do you really think they'd ever use anything but their own chips in an iphone? I mean here's hoping but I wouldn't hope too hard.
Posted on Reply
#28
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
wolfdo you really think they'd ever use anything but their own chips in an iphone? I mean here's hoping but I wouldn't hope too hard.
do they use their own chips at all?

apple doesnt make hardware, they buy it, slap their own shell and software around it and sell it off.
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#29
pr0n Inspector
Musselsdo they use their own chips at all?

apple doesnt make hardware, they buy it, slap their own shell and software around it and sell it off.
They bought the company that designed A4(custom Cortex A8+ PowerVR SGX 535) in collaboration with Samsung, so yes technically they do use their own chip. It's believed to be very similar or identical to Samsung's Hummingbird which has a better GPU:SGX 540. Either way they are more powerful than hugely over-hyped Qualcomm Snapdragon, especially in the GPU department.
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#30
Imsochobo
AsphyxiAexactly what I was thinking. More for the AMD (cough::ATI::cough) GPU built in.
snapdragon fights off any X86 in smartphones.
X86 isnt suitable for small handsets, but certanly arm arch by amd is possible, they just need to licence and build!
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#31
mastrdrver
Musselsdo they use their own chips at all?

apple doesnt make hardware, they buy it, slap their own shell and software around it and sell it off.
Apple makes hardware you just have to define what the work "makes" means. :laugh:
Posted on Reply
#32
inferKNOX
looks like AMD has really lined up some winners.
Good too, cause they couldn't afford to have another dud, not after so long without a new architecture.

@Imsochobo: your english is eye-wateringly hard to try and understand, but your internet speeds make me just wanna cry!
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#33
TheLaughingMan
wolfdo you really think they'd ever use anything but their own chips in an iphone? I mean here's hoping but I wouldn't hope too hard.
It was just a joke, thus the question marks and satire comments afterwards. Apple does still have some holdings that produce their mobos, chips, and a few other things for them including most of Apple's iPhone hardware. I merely wanted to point out that when they did start using Nvidia and Intel, they had a strange habit of "coloring" their press releases to almost take credit for their work. It always sounded like, "Yes Intel and Nvidia are awesome, but we are more awesome because we brought them together in a Mac for you. Thank us, not them."
Posted on Reply
#34
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
TheLaughingManIt was just a joke, thus the question marks and satire comments afterwards. Apple does still have some holdings that produce their mobos, chips, and a few other things for them including most of Apple's iPhone hardware. I merely wanted to point out that when they did start using Nvidia and Intel, they had a strange habit of "coloring" their press releases to almost take credit for their work. It always sounded like, "Yes Intel and Nvidia are awesome, but we are more awesome because we brought them together in a Mac for you. Thank us, not them."
i thought apple motherboards + general hardware were made by foxconn? they were last time i looked.
Posted on Reply
#35
ToTTenTranz
HalfAHertzOMG it's so tiny! Any guesses on the GPU power? Must be in the ballpark of a hd4200 with that miniscule size.
People are claiming it's the 80sp Cedar GPU.
However, the die sizes don't really match up, since the Ontario APU is reported as having the same size as Cedar and they're both built using TSMC's 40nm.


What I think as a possibility is that the Ontario's GPU is based around the rumoured shader model for the 6000 series, which uses 4-way shaders instead of 5 and decreases the shader count by 25% while offering 98% of older model's performance.

Therefore, Ontario could actually sport a 64-shader IGP (therefore, making it an integrated Caicos - HD6350) with roughly the same performance as a discrete HD5450, clock-for-clock.

Clock it decently and it could even stand up to ION 2 systems in gaming performance.
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#36
TheLaughingMan
Musselsi thought apple motherboards + general hardware were made by foxconn? they were last time i looked.
You would be correct. I guess I should double check what they still make for themselves before I post.

Edit: Done. They don't make hardware no more. I thought when they said "holdings" it would be companies they at least partially owned. Instead I find that they are all licensed out sourcing. While some of these companies dedicate entire factories and/or departments to producing Apple parts, and Apple has a large say in final product, they do not have real control over the companies.
Posted on Reply
#37
meran
What I think as a possibility is that the Ontario's GPU is based around the rumoured shader model for the 6000 series, which uses 4-way shaders instead of 5 and decreases the shader count by 25% while offering 98% of older model's performance.

Therefore, Ontario could actually sport a 64-shader IGP (therefore, making it an integrated Caicos - HD6350) with roughly the same performance as a discrete HD5450, clock-for-clock.

interesting so if what u say is correct then they could have a 1280shadder gpu match a 5870:rolleyes:
and a 1600 one with 25% perfomance lead at the same clock:D interesting really:toast:;)
Posted on Reply
#38
ToTTenTranz
meraninteresting so if what u say is correct then they could have a 1280shadder gpu match a 5870:rolleyes:
and a 1600 one with 25% perfomance lead at the same clock:D interesting really:toast:;)
The wikipedia's entry for AMD gpus had, until yesterday, the HD6870 listed as a 1280 shader part.

All that AMD has to do is increase core clocks do ~950MHz, increase memory bandwidth, add more tesselator units and they'll have a card that surpasses GTX480 in every possible gaming situation.
They don't need to add more shaders, we can see that in the HD5850->HD5870 clock-for-clock comparison.
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