A PC that recognizes your face to log in, supports two-way HD video chat over limited bandwidth, or sorts your photo library for a particular face. These are some of the features possible in the “visual computing future” that Advanced Micro Devices expects for devices using its new Fusion processors.
AMD has been touting its Fusion technology for some time as a hook for integrated processors that are “fused” with on-board graphics. Instead of a central processing unit (CPU) and a separate graphics-processing unit (GPU), the company is calling its new combined chips Accelerated Processing Units (APU). Its Fusion technology is shipping to OEMs and is expected to show up in devices by early 2011.
‘Breakthroughs in Visual Computing’
The company said on its web site that Fusion is a “new approach to processor design,” combining CPU and GPU capabilities as well as high-performance series- and parallel-processing cores with special-purpose hardware accelerators. The results, it said, are “breakthroughs in visual computing, security, performance per watt, and device form factor.”
Other possible enhancements include computing devices that enhance video for color, focus and image stability; locate a web page devoted to an actor simply by the user pointing to the actor in a movie; or correct low-quality content so it looks great on a HD display. Not to mention immersive, multi-monitor 3-D gaming experiences or the ability to add stereo 3-D to 2-D content.
Mobile devices — and Intel’s Atom technology — are the key target. A dual-core, E-Series APU called Zacate has a DX11-capable graphics core and four models are planned. A lower-powered, C-Series APU is called Ontario. Both feature the low-power Bobcat CPU core, and the mobile platform on which these speed demons will live is dubbed Brazos.
Up to 500 GigaFLOPS
Brazos, the company said, is designed as a low-power, low-cost platform…