Discovering AMD Fusion

The AMD Fusion platform combines Bobcat cores together with GPU cores to create Accelerated Processing Units (APUs). The Bobcat cores are a significant step ahead of Atom as they are out-of-society 64-bit cores.

In computer engineering science, out-of-order execution (OoOE or OOE) is a standard used in most high-performance microprocessors to make use of education cycles that would otherwise be wasted by a certain type of costly filibuster. With this standard, the processor executes instructions in an social club assigned by the availability of input data rather than by their original order in a program.

It'south not just the Bobcat cores that are superior to Atom, then is the GPU. AMD has implemented an on-dice DirectX 11 GPU, the Radeon Hard disk drive 6310. Codenamed "Wrestler", the 40nm graphics core operates at 500MHz and is part of the E-350 (dual-core) and E-240 (unmarried-cadre) processors. There is too a 280MHz version called the Radeon HD 6250 which is featured in the "Ontario" C-thirty and C-50 processors.

It'due south interesting to note that the Radeon HD 6310 and HD 6250 both have the same configuration as the Radeon Hard disk drive 5450 as well as the much older Hd 4350 and Hd 4550. The core consists of 80 SPUs, 8 TAUs (Texture Accost Units) and 4 ROPs (Rasterization Operator Units). When compared to the Radeon Hard disk drive 4290 of the electric current flagship 890GX desktop chipset, that's not bad. The Radeon HD 4290 boasts only xl SPUs, 4 TAUs and 4 ROPs.

AMD has decided not to brand their first APUs, rather they are just featured under the Fusion imprint. This means the East-series and C-series processors volition be known as the AMD E-350, for instance.

Whereas the Cantlet "Pineview" is paired with the NM10 Platform Controller Hub (PCH), the new AMD APUs besides needed an boosted fleck to handle connectivity. Known equally the Hudson Fusion Controller Hub (FCH), this 28mm2, 65nm flake provides support for features such as SATA, USB, Ethernet and audio.

There are several versions of the FCH (Fusion Controller Hub) designed for notebook, desktop and embedded platforms. The Asus E35M1-M Pro that we have hither today features the Hudson-M1 controller. This version features just a single PCI Limited x4 i.0 (2.5 GT/southward) lane, six SATA 6Gb/s (AHCI one.ii) ports and fourteen USB 2.0 ports.