Accelerated Processing Unit
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| Release date | 2011 |
|---|---|
| Codename |
Fusion Desna Ontario Zacate Llano Hondo Trinity Weatherford Richland Kaveri Godavari Kabini Temash Carrizo Raven Ridge IGP Wrestler WinterPark BeaverCreek |
| Architecture | AMD64 |
| Models | Desktop E2 Series |
| Cores | 2 to 4 |
| Fabrication process and transistors | 32 nm 1.178b (Llano)
|
| API support | |
| Direct3D | Direct3D 12 |
| OpenCL | 1.2 |
| OpenGL | 4.1+ |
The AMD Accelerated Processing Unit (APU), formerly known as Fusion, is the marketing term for a series of 64-bit microprocessors from AMD designed to act as a CPU and graphics accelerator (GPU) on a single chip.
AMD announced the first generation APUs, Llano for high-performance and Brazos for low-power devices in January 2011. The second-generation Trinity for high-performance and Brazos-2 for low-power devices were announced in June 2012. The third-generation Kaveri for high performance devices was launched in January 2014, while Kabini and Temash for low-power devices were announced in summer 2013.
The Sony PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Xbox One eighth generation video game consoles both use semi-custom third-generation low-power APUs.
Although it does not use the name "APU", Intel's CPUs with integrated HD Graphics are architecturally very similar.
The AMD Fusion project started in 2006 with the aim of developing a system on a chip that combined a CPU with a GPU on a single die. AMD took a key step toward realising such a vision when it acquired the graphics chipset manufacturer ATI in 2006. The project reportedly required three internal iterations of the Fusion concept to create a product deemed worthy of release. Reasons contributing to the delay of the project include the technical difficulties of combining a CPU and GPU on the same die at a 45 nm process, and conflicting views on what the role of the CPU and GPU should be within the project.
The first generation desktop and laptop APU, codenamed Llano, was announced on January 4, 2011 at the 2011 CES show in Las Vegas and released shortly after. It featured K10 CPU cores and a Radeon HD 6000-series GPU on the same die on the FM1 socket. An APU for low-power devices was announced as the Brazos platform, based on the Bobcat microarchitecture and a Radeon HD 6000-series GPU on the same die.
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