AMD has been showing off its new hybrid graphics-microprocessor chips. In a press release AMD said it is on schedule to show working chips later this year and launch the Accelerated Processing Units.

AMD said that the Fusion design represents a significant shift in the architecture of personal computers, combining the microprocessor, which is great at processing big tasks one after another, with the graphics chip, which can process lots of small and similar tasks all at the same time.

Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager of the AMD Products Group, showed off the APU technology in Taipei saying that hundreds of millions of us now create, interact with, and share intensely visual digital content.

“This explosion in multimedia requires new applications and new ways to manage and manipulate data.”

The first APUs are expected to ship in the first half of 2011, but AMD is describing the designs now so that it can get software developers working on making code to run on Fusion. Microsoft is providing DirectX multimedia software that works with Fusion.