AMD unloads Trinity into the multi nationals faces

We all have a friend that looks like they have just moved in. You know that they have been in that house/flat for many years, but they still look like they are in the process of arriving. We get this feeling with AMD and have done for some time. It's like the chip giant is trying to find its spot in the world. With the launch of Trinity, which pill will AMD be swallowing?  KitGuru has a look at just how deep the tunnel might go.

While the channel might still be puzzling Fusion/APU, the multi national corporations (MNC) understand the offer perfectly and have been integrating it with glee.  If you run purchasing for Acer, HP or Dell, then the last thing you need is Intel with a 100% market share. In fact, if you work in Intel's legal team – the last thing you need is Intel with a 100% market share.

Monopoly might be cool for Parker games, but less so for commissions set out to investigate such things – and certainly not for buyers looking to trade suppliers off against each other. Samsung, Dell, Acer and HP all need to have 2 price lists – and nowhere more than in the portable PC market.

Cue the next generation APU processor, Trinity.

So what are the key differences?  Here's a nice-n-easy run down, so you know what's what:-

• HyperTransport gets the boot in favour of PCI-Express, and the memory controller now runs both the main system memory and the graphics RAM
• BGA (Ball Grid Array) options will be made available – so no more pins etc for ultra thin designs – the APU will come hard wired onto the mainboard
• While Trinity provides a solution at just 17 watts, it's also a step on the path to a 3w solution for 2013
• While Trinity is armed with almost 11% more transistors than the last generation of APU, it's packing density remains the same – so it looks like AMD is aiming for a simpler manufacturing process and, presumably, better yields
• Ramp up on production seems to have been much better, with over 1 million chips already produced and shipped to HP and co
• Updated Piledriver cores (your choice of dual or quad) deliver more performance for mainstream applications – faster by up to 25%
• Improved graphics mean a 50% boost on performance for games etc – chugging along from 424MHz to 800MHz

It's good to see this product finally/formally be launched. When KitGuru first got hands on with the specs, back at the start of the year, Trinity looked promising. Now the A10 et al promise, is becoming a reality.

KitGuru says: It's unfortunate that normal folks won't see any of these new chips until the start of Q4, but AMD is looking after shareholders by aiming to increase revenue through a 100% MNC targeting policy for the launch of trinity. We can see a future where Intel makes the top end processors, ARM takes care of phones etc and AMD aims at portable solutions that need high-graphics performance.

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