Review AMD Llano A8-3850

AMD's Fusion technology has long been developed since the release of E-350 that can be said is the first trial of this APU technology. The basic concept of the APU is the integration between the CPU and GPU in a die.

After that, came Llano, which offers much better performance than Zacatte. Llano finally appear on the desktop after previously only existed in the mobile (notebook).Llano desktop version little different from its mobile variant.

Llano is a quad-core processors are unfortunately still using the old architectureK10.5 generation processors (Athlon II) when viewed its architecture design.

The difference, in Llano, AMD provides additional L2 cache thus making a total of 1 MB for each core. In addition, the production process Llano already using base 32 nm. AMD also said that Llano has a performance improvement of up to 6% when compared to its predecessor.

There is also a feature on the Llano TurboCore which was introduced in the AMDPhenom II X6. The latest version of this TurboCore more advanced and differentmainly because impementasinya at APU. Based on the measurement of workloadfactor, power and temperature, CPU speed can be changed.

For example when an application requires more CPU resources, CPU speed will go up. But when the GPU was go to work and produce specific heat (in the limit of TDP),TurboCore will not be activated. Unfortunately TurboCore feature is not available forall variants of the APU.

GPU contained in this new APU design is a modification of the GP that has been used by the Radeon HD5570. Coded name "Sumo", this GPU has the samespecification that is with 400 shader units and 128-bit memory controller.The basic design is then adjusted based on variants of its APU unit. For example inA8-3850, the GPU is therein has a full specification. As for variant A6, shaderunitnumbered only 320. Interestingly, the GPU on this APU supports CrossFire modewith VGA separate series of six specific types.

GPU architecture design modifications of the most significant is the memoryinterface. At Llano GPU memory accesses through integrated northbridge also in the APU. So on the Llano CPU and GPU share the same memory pool. By default, the GPU will automatically allocate the space of 512 MB ​​of main memory as aframe-buffer. 

This is where the APU restrictions. Despite its powerful GPU on paper, because itoccurs on the bandwidth bottleneck, performance is also affected from the mainmemory speed. But fortunately, Sumo architecture design allows the GPU to accessmemory directly without having to pass through the CPU first.

In addition, the UVD unit that existed at Sumo using version 3 which is also used on the Radeon series 6. The advantage of using this third version is already capable ofaccelerating HD content including codecs MVC (Multi-View Codec) which is usedfor 3D Video (eg Blu-Ray 3D).

Hence, the output of the Llano HDMI can deliver 3D content to be enjoyed on theHDTV supports. UVD3 also able to work more efficiently because it can work independently of the GPU (shaders on the GPU so the unit can be disabled whenplaying videos).

For now Llano is available on the market before the variant A6 and A8. But soon the lowest variant, A4, will follow. In addition to trimming the number of cores in both itsCPU and GPU, memory support, too, whittled down to only DDR3-1600. Whilequad-core brother was already supports DDR3-1866 memory usage. FeaturedTurboCore was absent in dual-core variant of this APU.

Same time with the Llano, AMD also launched a new platform called the Lynx, a combination of series A with APU chipset series A. Yes a new platform that uses a new chipset Socket FM1 and FCH (Fusion Controller Hub) functions like aSouthbridge, providing support for SATA-III and USB 3.0. There are two variants ofFCH, the A75 and A55 (which is cheaper). The difference, A55 support of SATA-IIIand USB 3.0 abolished.

Until now AMD is still not able to directly compete with Intel in performance computing.It was seen at Llano which roughly is still using the old architecture. However, the target AMD for Llano and this Fusion is presenting a processor that has a prettygood performance in almost all lines. This kind of solution is very attractive especially for AIO desktop market, so as to provide a balance of performance and better prices.

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