Previewing AMD's Brazos, Part 1: More Details on Zacate/Ontario and Fusion
by Anand Lal Shimpi on November 9, 2010 1:09 AM ESTThe Chipset err...Fusion Controller Hub
The Zacate/Ontario APUs have an integrated PCIe interface sporting 8 lanes. Four of those lanes are used for AMD’s Universal Media Interface (UMI) - a bus that links the APU to the Hudson FCH. The remaining four can be used for discrete graphics or a combination of discrete graphics and other PCIe controllers. Both PCIe interfaces can run at gen 1 or gen 2 transfer rates.
Display output naturally stems off of the APU. You can drive two displays in tandem over any combination of VGA or Display Port/DVI/HDMI/LVDS.
As I mentioned earlier, the APU sports a single channel memory controller - but you can install up to two DIMMs on that channel. Speeds are down from the 1333MHz system we tested at IDF, DDR3-1066 is the max you’ll officially see on a Brazos system.
The Hudson FCH supplies up to 14 USB 2.0 ports, 6 x 6Gbps SATA ports and another 4 PCIe lanes. The FCH is based on AMD’s SB800 series of South Bridges. Despite the small size, this is a full featured platform.
From the looks of it, AMD has all of the right ingredients for some very competitive entries in the mainstream and ultraportable notebook markets. Now it’s just up to the OEMs to build something cool out of it.
Check back in about a week for the full rundown on Zacate performance.
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meksta - Tuesday, November 9, 2010 - link
So everyone besides Intel sits still? What a pointless comment.Dark_Archonis - Tuesday, November 9, 2010 - link
What a pointless reply. Mino's reply assumes that Atom will remain in-order, which it will NOT. Atom will be redesigned for out-of-order in 2012.mino - Tuesday, November 9, 2010 - link
For most of (if not all of) the Ontario market life Atom WILL remain in-order. That is a public information from Intel itself.sprockkets - Tuesday, November 9, 2010 - link
why? Intel hates atom. It kills their higher margin CPUs. They want that for phones and tablets, not full blown PCs.If anything, AMD is the only reason Atom will improve. Heck, Intel's atom is so lame that on their own Meego platform, they can't even provide decent video drivers because the video card portion is 3rd party.
Oh no! What will happen if someone like AMD or nvidia got their hands on their video tech through their open source drivers!
Dark_Archonis - Tuesday, November 9, 2010 - link
Who said we were talking about "full blown PCs"? Obviously Atom is only meant for small devices like netbooks. Ontario Bobcats are aimed at a similar market.Also I fail to see how Intel "hates" Atom. Why would they develop it in the first place? Why would Intel be pushing Atom SoCs to market so hard? Your comment makes no sense.
Intel LIKES Atom and they are trying to use Atom to take away some of ARM's marketshare.
Dark_Archonis - Tuesday, November 9, 2010 - link
Future Atoms will be mostly SoC designs, while the Bobcat platforms are not. Zacate Bobcats will compete with Celeron and Pentium models anyways, not Atom. Ontario Bobcats will compete with Atoms. While Bobcat will have a per-clock advantage over Atom, it remains to be seen how Bobcat will perform when compared to Celeron and Pentium systems.We're not just talking about a 500 Mhz clock difference here though. The Intel Z560 Atom already runs at 2.13 Ghz, although it is a single core design. The Atom D525 dual core runs at 1.8 Ghz. That is a clock difference of 600-800 Mhz compared to the Ontario Bobcats.
bigboxes - Tuesday, November 9, 2010 - link
Calm down fanboi. Your quest is to protect your damsel Intel from harm to her reputation. We get it.krumme - Tuesday, November 9, 2010 - link
Atom D525 is 13W TDP, 87mm2 and more expensive packaging than zakate. Get the facts dude, zakate is cheaper than Atom and as you say near core 2 speed. Wellcome the the new wold. As zakate is cheaper than Atom, Intel can not use core i whatever or something more expensive, because they will loose tons of money doing so.Dark_Archonis - Tuesday, November 9, 2010 - link
Facts? Nice assumptions you have there. Can you show us all *FACTUAL* proof that Zacate is cheaper than Atom? If you can't, I would stop listing your assumptions as "facts".iwodo - Wednesday, November 10, 2010 - link
He is referring to 87mm2 and 75mm2 die size. Smaller Die Size means Cheaper.