AMD talks Bulldozer, Hemlock and Fusion

11.11.2009
If chip makers competed on the basis of code names rather than products then Advanced Micro Devices might have beaten Intel a long time ago.

At its financial analyst day Wednesday, AMD laid out its plans for a dizzying array of upcoming PC chips with names like Bulldog, Bulldozer, Danube, Brazos and Ontario.

The onslaught starts with a high-end graphics chip code-named Hemlock that will go on sale next week, priced at about US$400 to $500. It comprises two GPUs and delivers five teraflops of graphics computing power, according to Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager of AMD's products group.

Four new PC processors will follow in the first half of next year, including a quad-core notebook chip that aims to give seven hours of battery life, and a six-core chip for high-end desktops that includes AMD's Eyefinity multi-display technology for gamers, Bergman said.

AMD also described plans to bring its new Fusion chips to desktop and laptop PCs in the first half of 2011, starting with a product code-named Llano.

Fusion, which AMD has been talking up for several years, will combine a graphics chip and a general-purpose CPU on the same piece of silicon, which AMD says will lead to faster performance and lower power consumption.