Industry sources claim advanced info on AMD Fusion. Image: AMD.
The next-generation Fusion microprocessor was widely considered to be one of the mainstay points of attraction for chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) when it acquired graphics powerhouse ATI in 2006. However, since then, details regarding the development of the ambitious Fusion platform have been few and far between -- until now.
More pointedly, online tech magazine Digitimes is this week claiming to have scooped some tantalising Fusion-related information from one of those oh-so-reliable unnamed industry sources that are keen to maintain a tight grip on anonymity while flapping their lips to anyone who’ll listen.
According to Digitimes’ conduit into all things AMD, company engineers from Dresden, Germany; Markham, Ontario (former HQ of ATI), and Sunnyvale, California have been spending a great deal of time with Hsinchu-based contract manufacturer Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), which is expected to be mass producing the Fusion processor.
The unnamed sources have outlined that AMD and TSMC are currently immersed in mapping production scenarios for Fusion, which will apparently launch as “a half-node chip” (between 45nm and 32nm) notable for being AMD’s very first hardware entrant carrying both a central processing unit (CPU) and a graphics processing unit (GPU) on a single platform.
In terms of emergent product portfolio, the first Fusion processor is reportedly being developed under the codename of “Shrike” and will include a dual-core Phenom CPU and an ATI RV800 GPU. The RV800 graphics unit will be compatible with DirectX 10.1 and, according to Digitimes, will deliver “a bit more than just a 55nm-40nm die shrink.”
Although the “Shrike” Fusion chip will make its industry bow as a 40nm processing unit, it is believed the chip will swiftly shift down to the 32nm manufacturing process -- with the first quarter of 2010 being banded about as the most likely time -- so that AMD can stay in close contact with rival Intel’s upcoming 32nm technology.
Looking beyond Fusion, even though it hasn’t even arrived yet, AMD’s next platform is expected to arrive under the codename of “Bulldozer” and its first-release processor is currently labelled as “Falcon” and will be produced through TSMC’s 32nm silicon on insulator (SOI) process.
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