Besides talking technical aspects and new circuits from AMD, it it also discussed notebooks. AMD says that its Trinity is doing better than expecte and is already shipping to partners, and the focus is on notebooks and slim formats.
During Analyst Day AMD talked about how the notebook market is growing and that AMD needs a big share of this market. Trinity that will replace Llano is in better condition than expected at this stage, and AMD has already started shipping Trinity and the Comal platform to partners that will build computers around it.
NordicHardware discussed Trinity with AMD at CES 2012
As we have reported in the past Trinity will be more efficient than Llano, more precise twice as efficient. That is if AMD’s information is correct, which means Trinity will deliver the same performance at 17W TDP as Llano at 35W. This has resulted in more design wins at launch, even more than it had with Llano.
It has tested Trinity in 3DMark against Intel’s 17W processor, and the performance it estimates to see with Ivy Bridge. We have also included AMD A6-3400M, which we have in the lab. It comes with four cores at 1.4 GHz, Turbo mode up to 1.9 GHz and 320 Radeon cores at 400 MHz with 35W TDP, which should be an interesting comparison.
| Processor | Core i5-2537M | Ivy Bridge* | AMD Trinity A6 | AMD Trinity A10 | AMD A6-3400M |
| TDP | 17W | 17W | 17W | 25W | 35W |
| 3DMark Vantage | 1 158 | 1505* | 2355 | 3600 | 2612 |
*Performance evaluations of Ivy bridge by AMD
Even if the raw processor performance of Trinity is expected to be lower than Intel’s offering, at least the graphics looks to be very sharp. Trinity at 17W is slightly behind our reference, A6-3400M, which in turn is beaten by Trinity at 25W.
AMD challenge Intel’s Ultrabook
AMD will make a bet on ultrathin computers with Trinity, or “Ultrathins” as AMD calls them. During Analyst Day AMD was clear to point out that thin units are not special, but a natural part of development – a blow to Intel’s Ultrabook? The reference design above is developed by AMD, together with ODM partner Compal and measures 18mm and is a proof-of-concept from AMD.
AMD says it can offer four cores an better graphics than competing solutions from Intel at 17W. AMD will offer moels at both 17W and 25W for ultrathin computers. It will not set any harware requirements unlike Intel, but will offer more space for partners to test the limits of what is possible – for better and for worse.
AMD’s Ultrathins are expected to arrive around the same time as Trinity, which should be toward the end of Q2. The price of these will of course depend on the moel, but AMD is focusing on the 600 – 800 dollar segment.
