
The heart of a GPU
Things just got interesting. We already said that LIano will
be manufactured in 32nm process but Ontario, the cheaper version of AMD’s
Fusion, will actually be a 40nm part.
Graphics in 2009 and the better part of 2010 will be 40nm and
therefore we are not surprised that AMD plans to make a 40nm APU, but the
tricky part is that dual-core CPU that is inside will have to be either 40nm or
non native.
If it's non-native, we are talking about Arrandale and
Clarkdale a la AMD. This would mean that you just put two dies together on the
same chip, eg. CPU in 45nm and GPU in 40nm. The second theory is that this chip is native and that AMD plans
to convert its existing CPU dual-core architecture to 40nm which sounds like a
tough job and a hard task to accomplish.
Ontario is a value dual-core with an integrated GPU,
DDR3 and DDR3L 1.35V support and comes in BGA package, all part of Brazos value
platform. All in all Ontario will be interesting chip, one way or
another, but we are quite sure that it won’t hit the market before 2011.