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AMD's Trinity processor might be bigger then Intel's mainstreamCPUs, but AMD claims to outperform them - and cost much less. CanAMD cut Intel off at the knees? Struggling chipmaker AMD has formally announced its second-generation A-series APUs for notebook and desktop computers. Codenamed Trinity, theseprocessors look to take on Intel's latest Ivy Bridgeprocessors head to head, offering high performance computing,top-flight integrated graphics, and low-power designs that makethen suitable for essentially every class of mainstream computer,from ultraportables and notebooks to all-in-ones, small-form-factorPCs, and traditional desktops. And here's the kicker: AMD isoffering these chips at prices substantially lower thanIntel's current offerings, meaning computers packing Trinitychips can, in theory, outperform systems build around Intelprocessors and come with a lower price tag. However, the price-to-performance proposition has always beenAMD's defining characteristic and yet Intel processors arestill in 80 percent of the world's PCs. As consumersincreasingly turn to tablets (well, the iPad, anyway) instead ofnotebooks, will AMD fall victim to declining PC sales? Or can AMDleverage the situation and make Intel the big loser? So what does Trinity pack? Like every other major CPU release, AMD's Trinity chipsaren't just a single processor: they're a whole line ofprocessors with different price points and specs, targetingdifferent kinds of computers. AMD is now shipping five flavors ofits Trinity chips: the A10-4600M, A8-4500M, and A6-4400M are aimedat traditional notebook computers, while the A10-4655M and A6-4455Mtarget sleek, ultrathin notebooks that can compete with the MacBookAir and Intel-powered Ultrabooks. AMD also plans versions of theTrinity processor for desktop computers, but those haven'tbeen formally announced yet. For now, Trinity is notebook-only. Like AMD's original A-series APUS and Intel's SandyBridge and Ivy Bridge chips the Trinity processors pack bothtraditional processing cores and graphics processors into a singledie. This makes things easier for computer makers because they getboth computing and graphics on a single chip, and don't haveto design motherboards and other components to account for separategraphics hardware. (On-chip graphics also have a performance edge,because they have more-direct access to the processors and its datapaths.) One critical difference between Trinity and Intel's SandyBridge and Ivy Bridge processors is that AMD also makes Radeongraphics processors, technology it acquired with ATI back in 2006.Although AMD had to repeatedly write down the value of that $5.4billion deal, it does give AMD in-house graphics expertise thatIntel lacks and AMD has packed the Trinity APUs with Radeon HD7000-series graphics. AMD claims Trinity's graphicsperformance is 56 percent better than its first-generation A-seriesAPUs and those, in turn, substantially outperformedIntel's offerings. Although there haven't yet beenthird-party benchmarks, industry estimates so far placeTrinity's graphics performance at about 20 percent fasterthan Intel's current integrated graphics. The Trinity APUs also mark the debut of AMD's new Piledriverprocessor core. In addition to adding 125 million more transistors,the Piledriver design can transition very quickly from low-powerstates. AMD says the technology enables AMD-based notebooks to wakefrom sleep mode in as little as two seconds, and boot to thedesktop in as little as ten seconds. We're used to chips getting smaller and less power-hungrywith each generation, but here's an interesting note aboutTrinity: it's actually bigger than it's predecessor. AMD's first-generation"Llano" APUs had a die size of 228mm ; adding those125 million additional transistors pushed Trinity out to 246mm .That's because AMD is manufacturing Trinity on the same 32nmprocess that it used for Llano. With Ivy Bridge, Intel has shrunk their manufacturing process downto 22 nm making for smaller chips that consume less power. ButAMD has nonetheless wrung power savings in Trinity while stickingwith the 32nm process. AMD says Trinity consumes half the power ofits Llano predecessor a claim that's borne out with thedual-core A6-4455M: it consumes 17 watts, compared to 35 watts ofits predecessor. AMD says some Trinity-based notebooks should beable to get up to 12 hours of batter life, and that A6-4455Mmatches the nominal power consumption figures for the leastpower-hungry of Intel's Ivy Bridge line. Furthermore, theTrinity chips released so far top out at 35 watts; Ivy Bridge topsout at much hungrier 55 watts. Performance and, yes, gaming AMD makes some pretty significant performance claims about Trinity,saying it offers up to 29 percent higher processor speeds. Theimprovements come from the new Piledriver processing core and AMDTurbo Core technology that chips power between processing cores andthe graphics processor, depending on what applications need. That17 watt A6-4455M mentioned above runs at a default 2.1GHz, but canboost to 2.6GHz, while the A10-4655M quad-core processors (whichalso targets ultrathin notebooks) runs at a default 2.0GHz, but cansprint up to 2.8GHz when pressed. And Trinity supports OpenCL , which lets applications leverage Trinity's onboard graphicsprocessor for computing tasks. Graphics processors excel at vectormathematics the sorts of things are are used in 3D software, butalso video, audio, and media software. AMD has offered some benchmarks for Trinity showing the ship farahead of Intel competition in raw GFLOPS (a measure of computingcapacity), 3D benchmarks, and video encoding. (Trinity was a bitbehind the Intel chip in PC Mark 7 benchmarks.) These figures come with some caveats: AMD tested itsquad-core A10-4600M mobile chip against an Intel Sandy Bridge Corei5-2520M (that's not Intel's latest Core i5 processor),and the figures haven't yet been confirmed by independentthird parties. AMD also makes broad claims about Trinity's gaming prowess,claiming it blows away Intel's Ivy Bridge Core i7-3770Knative graphics at near-HD resolution in a variety of mainstream,high-performance games AMD says Trinity's performance atStarCraft 2 is about 150 percent better than Intel's IvyBridge. However, these benchmarks haven't been confirmed, andthey represent a desktop version of Trinity the A10-5800K running at 3.8GHz andapparently consuming about 100 watts. Real-time performance onlower-power systems will, of course, be lower and that appliesto both Intel and AMD. Pricing So, if AMD's Trinity chips are competitive with Intel'sIvy Bridge and seemingly exceeding them at some tasks howmuch will they cost? Although AMD doesn't control what OEMsdo with its chips, it looks like ultrathin and lightweight systemsthat can compete with Intel-based Ultrabooks will have price tagsstarting at $699 or even lower. Overall, the lower cost of AMDTrinity processors should make systems built around Trinity APUsabout $100 cheaper than equivalent systems running Intelprocessors. The first out the door will be a Trinity-powered version of the HP Sleekbook and it makes the price comparison very apparent: It'llpack 4GB of RAM, a 15.6-inch 1,366 x 768 display, a 320GB harddrive, USB 3.0, SD card reader, 802.11n Wi-Fi, and HP's Beatsaudio for a starting price of $599. A loosely-comparable systembased on Intel's Ivy Bridge processor (larger hard drive,smaller screen with the same resolution) will run about $799,although customers will be able to skip back a generation toIntel's Sandy Bridge processors for $699. AMD's Trinity gambit AMD's bet with Trinity is that everyday consumers don'tcare so much about processor specs, manufacturing process,gigahertz, or the number of cores inside as how well a computerdoes what they want. Does it play video smoothly? Does it offer asmooth Internet experience? Does its battery last a long time? Doesit have a high-quality display? Is it comfortable to carry around? AMD doesn't control many of these things: It can'tdictate what displays computer makers put on their computers,whether their keyboards are comfortable, or whether acomputer's industrial design makes any sense. Instead,AMD's focus is on "accelerating what consumers careabout" application performance, multi-tasking, powerconsumption, and (of course) video playback, including a bunch ofproprietary technologies designed to improve video look andperformance. (AMD is quite proud that a number of majorapplications have announced support for AMD's video technologies .) Intel, of course, will say it cares deeply about the same things.After all, it's a chipmaker. However, Intel seems bent ondistinguishing Intel-based products with high-end premium featuresand designs. Take Ultrabooks: Intel has invested some $300 million to help computer makers figure out how to make Ultrabooks, andexpects they will account for about 40 percent of computer sales bythe end of 2012. There are two fundamental challenges to Intel's approach withUltrabooks. The first is that consumers are increasingly opting fortablets (well, so far, the iPad) instead of a traditional notebook.Intel is angling for Ultrabooks that combine elements of tabletsand a traditional laptop (including convertible designs andtouchscreens), but these devices are going to carry premium pricetags don't be surprised to see them start at $999 andhigher. The second challenge to Ultrabooks is that Apple pretty much ownsthe market for computers (desktop and notebook) priced at $1,000 ormore and has for years. Some market watchers have consistently claimed Apple will have tointroduce lower-cost versions of its MacBook Pro and MacBook Airlines to compete with Ultrabooks. Of course, predicting Apple is anotoriously difficult business, but those arguments seem to forgetApple is already undercutting the price of Ultrabooks with theiPad. While traditional PC makers are seeing sales slump as low-endnotebooks were cannibalized by tablets (remember the netbook craze?Is anyone still making netbooks?), Apple has actually seen its Mac sales increase. Apple is happy with Macintosh sales. AMD's gamble with Trinity is that there is sweet spot in thePC notebook market between tablets like the Kindle Fire and theApple iPad and Intel's preferred premium-featured Ultrabookplatform. Given Apple's dominance of the high-end computermarket, AMD may be right but the company may have a tough jobconvincing OEMs to put Trinity processors in well-designed systems,rather than afterthought notebooks solely targeting the low end ofthe market. Otherwise, Trinity notebooks could just wind up beingthe next netbooks. We are high quality suppliers, our products such as China Floral Print Tights , Knitted Leg Warmer Manufacturer for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits Childrens Footless Tights.
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