Wednesday, January 11th 2012

AMD Demonstrates Trinity APU, Its Own Thunderbolt-Alternative

AMD's next-generation accelerated processing unit (APU), codenamed "Trinity", was demonstrated at CES. Trinity will make up AMD's 2012 A-Series APU lineup, and will be designed for mainstream-thru-performance notebooks, and mainstream desktops (different standards for different form-factors). Pictured below is what its notebook-specific BGA package looks like. The package has an exposed rectangular die, with a stabilizer frame around it (like with GPUs). Notebooks' cooling assembly heat pipes make direct contact with the die. Trinity packs two Piledriver modules (an evolution of Bulldozer), and DirectX 11.1 AMD Radeon HD 7000M graphics (notebook APU) or HD 7000D (desktop APU).

Shown to the CES crowd was a mind-boggling demo. The public were first shown what appeared to be an ATX desktop connected to two monitors, one monitor running a DIRT 3 DirectX 11 game demo at high-quality settings, and another screeen revealing the APU to be running GPU-accelerated video transcoding. No discrete graphics was used, it's just the embedded HD 7000 at play/work. If that alone didn't raise a few eyebrows, the AMD representative removed the lid of the ATX desktop case to which those two monitors were connected, to reveal a 14-inch laptop inside doing all the work. And there's more - the laptop's main screen wasn't idle, it was running a high-definition video playback. Whatever synthetic benchmarks end up telling about Trinity, its real world performance does impress!

You have got to watch the video after the break!


At a discrete meeting with select journalists at a backroom, AMD also talked about its competitive technology to Intel's Thunderbolt, which it's referring to as "Lightning Bolt" (+1 for originality). This interface will use the same mini-DP port design as Thunderbolt. It will have the bandwidth to drive up to four HD displays, and multiple USB 3.0 devices, and will have a hub cost of under $40.
Source: HotHardware
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77 Comments on AMD Demonstrates Trinity APU, Its Own Thunderbolt-Alternative

#51
seronx
Estimation of the ultrabook:

17W TDP
4 Cores @ 1.4-1.5GHz
6 GPU Cores(384 SPs) @ 400MHz
(Pretty much the A8-3500M but with Piledriver and VLIW4 Cores)
Posted on Reply
#52
scoutingwraith
Wow AMD is really making a progress on integrating everything into the Mobile market. I have an Acer 522 Netbook that easily beats ION Netbooks with Atom CPU. They are making a progress so far. Now lets see how power consumption is and if they can fit in in an Ultraportable design.
Posted on Reply
#53
Zubasa
joyman@de.das.dude well if I remember correctly dolphins are intelligent mammals, perhaps slightly inferior to orcas and on par with primates. So I am guessing that they would also choose AMD's APUs :D
FYI Orcas are zoologically oceanic dolphins :p
So saying that is like saying dolphins are smarter than dolphins.
Posted on Reply
#54
joyman
theoneandonlymrkI take it from this that the new Xbox APU is coming along well too;) 4cores and dual gfx engines of that variety is what im imaginereing, not cos im a console fan mind but with a view to a dx9 less future, joy:twitch: and how the hell Is intel manageing to sell so many lapy chipsets these days , they are functionally shit in comparison(daily use)
Because people have prejudices - they had Pentium III long time ago and were happy. Because someone told them that AMD cpus die from heat 10 years ago I still hear things like "OMG AMD - it will melt wolfram and crack ceramics from the heat". Really people choose to be ignorant and they pay the price of this choice. But the bad thing is that we also suffer from it, because they deform the market.
ZubasaFYI Orcas are zoologically oceanic dolphins :p
So saying that is like saying dolphins are smarter than dolphins.
Well some might, you know - better education, better environment and social atmosphere(hydrosphere), caring and demanding parents. If they study more astrophysics, not just playing with heringas :D
Thanks for the info - didn't know that. Here in Bulgaria dolphins are becoming menace since they are endangered species but they keep breeding and no natural enemy in the Black Sea... So no more fish for us... :cry:
Posted on Reply
#55
TheoneandonlyMrK
true hopefully price and value will eventually sway peoples minds , i truley hate fixing intel laptops , their soleless little buisness engines and no more , mind you now my main has an ssd i hate fixing anyone elses pc , effin tramps takes ages doing anything:p.

imho and to be honest whenever i see a dual core single gfx chip like this being demoed i emidiately think along the lines of wheres this binned ie mid chip batch bottom or top ie if this is as i implied a 4 core dual gfx APU with half disabled , i know its an ES but their not gona make a special that special it would allways be along the lines to the finished product and surely AMD are wise enough to allow for binning of all chips and looking at lano they did this by making every one 4 core dual gfx to start with then binning them according to what dosnt work hence this APU in full fat = xbox7weva to me simps

AMD's lano and this platform provide much better value and use prophile for a couch surfer then any intel mobile shitter , and intels lapys(i do mean only the intel IGP ones) are only for word processing in my eyes , that sort it for you frick
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#56
Frick
Fishfaced Nincompoop
theoneandonlymrktrue hopefully price and value will eventually sway peoples minds , i truley hate fixing intel laptops , their soleless little buisness engines and no more ,
This makes no sense.
Posted on Reply
#57
xBruce88x
SuhiduI think I saw a flash of video player controls ...on monitor three, so I guess that's justified.

What's left is for OEMs to actually put this thing into quality notebook shells (that can in turn fit into ATX shells). I hope OEMs make great products around this.


That made me "o_O" as well. . ....
you guys do realize that the radeon hd 7000 series is capable of DX11.1, not just DX11. this is probably what he meant by 2nd gen dx 11.
Posted on Reply
#58
TRWOV
theoneandonlymrkand how the hell Is intel manageing to sell so many lapy chipsets these days , they are functionally shit in comparison(daily use)
Marketing. How many AMD commercials have you seen on TV?

People barely know what AMD is. I just sold my HD6770 and, when the guy received it, asked me what was the AMD disc for as he had an Intel CPU. He didn't even know that AMD owns the Radeon brand now.

Now that's anecdotal and doesn't count as real data but you get my point.

On the other hand, seeing how small AMD's manufacturing capacities are (compared to Intel) maybe they don't really need to advertise. Just see how often the FX CPUs go out of stock. It's very clear that, even if they wanted to, AMD just can't sell as many chips as Intel.
Posted on Reply
#59
TheoneandonlyMrK
TRWOVMarketing. How many AMD commercials have you seen on TV?

People barely know what AMD is. I just sold my HD6770 and, when the guy received it, asked me what was the AMD disc for as he had an Intel CPU. He didn't even know that AMD owns the Radeon brand now.

Now that's anecdotal and doesn't count as real data but you get my point.

On the other hand, seeing how small AMD's manufacturing capacities are (compared to Intel) maybe they don't really need to advertise. Just see how often the FX CPUs go out of stock. It's very clear that, even if they wanted to, AMD just can't sell as many chips as Intel.
:roll::roll:i shouldnt laugh but i must

looking back upon the news of recent years marketing isnt the only way intel have assisted the sale of their chips dude and earlier i did question the ernestness of intel manageing to get any ceder trail or atom crap in any netbook over what arm or amd can put in it seems a bit ""what??"" to me, all my opinions i accept

and that guy was just clueless, ive watched my mum wave a mouse round the air mate ,to control the onscreen shizzle, i left her to it for 5 mins cos i was dyein on the floor

my point is i buy what will do the best job for what i want to do, do people not have that much common sense these days they have to sheep after an intel or an nvidia or an amd for that matter , read more learn more buy less(shit):p
Posted on Reply
#60
Frick
Fishfaced Nincompoop
How is an Intel i3 or i5 shit? Yes, the IGP isn't that much but most users don't care about that anyway.
Posted on Reply
#61
Bo$$
Lab Extraordinaire
looks extremely promising!
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#62
suraswami
Impressive. Wonder what will be the price range?
Posted on Reply
#63
TheoneandonlyMrK
FrickHow is an Intel i3 or i5 shit? Yes, the IGP isn't that much but most users don't care about that anyway.
i did say that was my opinion , and what with their net only gameing abillity and drab interaction experience their fit for silver surfers and mothers oh and the business Elite lmao, again IMHO i accept not yours:)
Posted on Reply
#64
seronx
TRWOVMarketing. How many AMD commercials have you seen on TV?
AMD does marketing the viral way

Posted on Reply
#65
jpierce55
^Somehow Intel suddenly seems less evil :O
Posted on Reply
#66
seronx
jpierce55^Somehow Intel suddenly seems less evil :O
Ya, I know here is the revised Viral Marketing Ad:

[yt]Mus6-oEpZKs[/yt]

I wouldn't say it is better but at least it isn't trying to seduce me
Posted on Reply
#67
Liquid Cool
jpierce...I think you have a serious point.

I'd be firing my advertiser's ASAP. Touch my bottom?

What the...:laugh:.

I like my Llano notebook...but not that much.

I read this thread through...frankly, I'm hoping that either AMD or Intel come out with an APU/CPU w/IGP that can handle my two 24" monitors with good speed where I don't need a discrete graphics card.

The business units I use in the office..I'd like to shrink them down to the Wesena ITX2 size. I'll be watching Ivy Bridge/Trinity with great enthusiasm. We obviously don't game on these, but do need some graphical power for charting. Right now we're primarily using NVS 295's and NVS 600's with great success, so maybe one of these new cpu's might just do it? If not this round, perhaps next, but I'm looking at these APU's pretty darn hard after owning a Llano notebook.

LC

P.S. Have a buddy with an i7, discrete graphics and a hard drive in a Dell, they can run hot as hell. I told him to at least get an SSD, my palms/fingers we're on the edge of getting burnt when checking his notebook out. The Llano with an SSD in an HP runs cool as ice.
Posted on Reply
#68
Casecutter
Very interesting wonder what part Pilediver improvements play, as I thought they kind of showed the same multi-tasking type scenario when they first released. I wonder if there's a way to compare the work loads to see how much they bump it this time around.
Posted on Reply
#69
R_1
Actually a lot of silicon in BD is dedicated to server and HPC, so without that burden new arch can shine in consumer products like Trinity.
Posted on Reply
#70
mastrdrver
Given the Intel "demo" disaster yesterday, AMD is just rubbing salt in the wound with this demo at CES.

Just watching the video again, the airflow in the case has got to be horrible (a side fan can't be helping too much since it's blowing on the keyboard) and has to make you wonder how much they got the heat issue of BD under control?
Posted on Reply
#71
seronx
mastrdrverJust watching the video again, the airflow in the case has got to be horrible (a side fan can't be helping too much since it's blowing on the keyboard) and has to make you wonder how much they got the heat issue of BD under control?
If it is heat leakage then that is more GlobalFoundries fault

32nm SOI HKMG w/eSiGe overal has better gate leakage and better channel leakage than 45nm SOI

But, Channel leakage is relatively bad...

Other than that the problem with Bulldozer isn't heat but power consumption

Performance would be great if power consumption wasn't 2x that of the i7 3820 and i7 2600/2700K

Heat scales with power consumption though

17.5W TDP would be about 12W-23W power consumption

I forgot what way Power Consumption and TDP Works but x86-64 usually on average have 30% discrepancy between TDP and power consumption
Posted on Reply
#72
de.das.dude
Pro Indian Modder
i wanna vision powered ultrabook.
Posted on Reply
#73
costinul_ala
Wow

out of this world .... tablets to replace notebooks ? eat this!
Posted on Reply
#74
Ev1LrYu
something tells me the guy doing the interview isn't much of a tech enthusiast.

"Running an HD game, transcoding, playing HD video"

"ok"

facepalm


On topic though, this looks hella good! Gone are the days when playing on an IGP instantly turns you to a laughing stock
Posted on Reply
#75
xBruce88x
I'd just like to point out that the trans-coding was already done... however I did find a video of the same demo with the trans-coding actually in progress... for those with a keen eye that want to spot any FPS differences with the game running. still looks pretty impressive to me. he also goes into more detail about a couple versions of the APU packages.

youtu.be/U6vH9OXHUJs
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