CHIP OFF A NEW BLOCK

With AMD and Intel announcing their Fusion and the SandyBridge chips respectively, computer processors enter a new era. The central processing unit (CPU) is the brain of any computing device. It is the processor that determines the reflex action of each set of commands we give to our machine. The faster the processor, the better the performance. What further enhances the performance and capabilities of the machine is the graphics processing unit (GPU). So far the CPU and GPU existed separately in our computing devices. With their coming together on the same as an accelerated processing unit (APU), computers are poised to enter the turbo lane. While AMD has come up with the Fusion, Intel has launched the second generation of its Core-i processors and called it SandyBridge. What does this mean for computing and do the two new product compare?

AMD FUSION: WHAT’S THIS?

Redefining the way we used to look at processors, AMD brought the computer’s two separate entities—CPU and the GPU—together. Integrating them together has resulted in lower power consumption and faster performance.

The Fusion family of APUs will have three series codenamed Llano, Zacate and Ontario. Zacate and Ontario products would be hitting the markets first. The Llano products will be launched by the end of this year. The Zacate (the E-series) would be running at 18W and will be seen in mainstream notebooks and desktops and will deliver better gaming performance at lower power levels. The Ontario (the C-series) bundles the Bobcat CPU core with the AMD Radeon HD 6000M series graphics card and will power netbooks. They will give netbooks the following new capabilities: DirectX 11 capability, 3D graphics acceleration and 1080p HD video playback. With so much power at hand, the Ontario will be pitted against the Intel Atom cores that have powered netbooks so far.

FUN FACTS

An A-Series APU is akin to combining the computing power of 13,800 iPhones and is approximately 263 times more powerful than the Cray-2 supercomputer used for nuclear weapons research in the mid-1980s.

There are close to one billion transistors inside a 2nd generation Intel Core processor. If a car were to have one billion parts – compared to the 30,000 they currently have– it would take the most productive car manufacturer 114 years to assemble this car.

An E-series APU consumes less power than a compact fluorescent light bulb.

If a processor were a country and its transistor count was a country’s population, a 2nd generation Intel Core processor would be the third-most populous country in the world (995 million+) behind China and India.

A 32 nm transistor used in the new chips can switch on and off more than 300 billion times in one second. It would take you 4,000 years to flick a light switch on and off constantly to log such a number.